WBZ/Channel 4 News (Boston) - New Rules Make Home Sales, Refinancing More Costly (video)

Mortgage rates below 5-percent have people scrambling to refinance.

They have also helped breathe new life into the troubled real estate market.

But a new rule has many people shocked to discover their financing is near collapse just days before closing...

ForeclosuresMass.com - Conventional Financing For Less Than Stellar Credit

You don't have to be going through a foreclosure to know the Massachusetts real estate market has drastically changed within the last six months. Thanks to the sub-prime meltdown, lenders such as New Century have filed for bankruptcy, Countrywide had to modify $16 billion in loans, and foreclosures continue to rise across the state as adjustable rate mortgages reset.

It's definitely a buyers market, but for real estate investors seeking financing, the days of easy money are long gone. However, you can still get solid financing, and great deals, even if you have less than stellar credit. What follows is basic information about how the lending process has changed and how you can use a combination of conventional and seller monies to finance that next deal...

The Niche Report - PMI - Back to Basics...or Not?

Four score and seven years ago . . . buying a house meant coming up with some serious coin. If you had any shot of buying a house, you had to show the bank that you had a minimum of 20% down before they would even talk with you.

Then, just like the economy, things changed. Lenders, with the approval of the powerful Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, loosened their historically rigid lending guidelines and aimed to boost the national homeownership rate. Was the change good? Absolutely. Although the last several years has seen many consumers benefit from programs such as 85%, 90%, 95% and even 100% financing, a small percentage who were qualified shouldn't have been...

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ForeclosuresMass.com - Choose Your ARM Program Wisely

As reported by ForeclosuresMass, foreclosures are at an all time high in Massachusetts. Part of the reason is due to homebuyers taking on more than they can handle through adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs). One of the riskier programs is the Option ARM.

The Option ARM allows people to purchase a property despite less-than-ideal circumstances, such as slow credit or self-employment. A self-employed person, for example, can get a no-doc Option ARM with a 1% teaser rate, which allows him to get into the property and make lower monthly payments for a set period of time...

ForeclosuresMass.com - Financing for Investors: Change Is Good in the Financial Markets

To say today's real estate market has changed is clearly an understatement. More and more national lenders are tightening their financial belts, restructuring their once loose program guidelines and watching a once red-hot industry quickly revert to days of old.

However, that doesn't mean business as we once knew it is dead. Absolutely not. In fact, when the industry changes, so do its players - and particularly the way they do business. Believe me . . . change is good...