The answer to that question has quickly become a resounding ‘Yes.’ Today, most auto insurance companies use your credit score as a factor in determining your premium rates. But it shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise to you. After all, credit is a factor for everything from renting an apartment to purchasing a new cell phone. In a sense, auto insurance companies are extending a line of credit, of sorts, to those they insure. It is in their best interest to make sure they insure those who will file the least amount of claims, or that they charge significantly more for those who will.

Why Credit Matters

While there are a few insurance companies that don’t look at credit scores in determining premium rates, most do. In fact, it is estimated that around 92 percent of insurance companies do look at your credit. They do this because, just as in other situations, your credit is seen as a sign of just how risky of a driver you may be. If you have a low score insurers may feel that you are someone who takes more risks, doesn’t keep up on their financial responsibilities and will be more likely to file claims, thus costing them more money.

Having poor credit may impact your insurance rates but, as you know, a credit score doesn’t tell someone’s whole story. Because of this, it’s not the only piece of information they use. They also look at your driving record, age, where you live, vehicle being insured, and other factors. You may be able to help offset poor credit somewhat by having a great driving record and by avoiding having a vehicle that is considered risky, such as a sports car.

What You Can Do

The good news is that, if you have good credit, you are likely to save money on your insurance premiums. So this is yet another reason to try to improve your credit. But just how do you go about doing this? Start by getting a copy of your credit report and reviewing it. Locate anything that is not correct and file a claim with the agency to inform them that it is inaccurate.

Beyond that, work at fixing any credit problems you have and improve it overall. You can do this by paying bills on time, lowering your debt to income ratio, and not opening up new credit accounts. Then, be sure to get new auto insurance rates periodically. If you get your insurance policy with a credit score of 525 and you raise it after a year to 620, you will want to either inform your current carrier or get quotes from others to go elsewhere. Improving your rating should translate to a lower premium, either with your current insurer or by obtaining a new one.

Refinancing your Upside Down Mortgage isn’t easy.

There are so many rule and tricks that you need to follow that most people get overwhelmed with all the data and information they obtain that they can even focus on what they really need to be doing.  Not to mention all the bad information that flies around and just flat out confuses people.  The most important thing is that every individual person is different and one experience may be similar to another but they are NEVER the same.

I haven’t posted anything in a while so I am going to take some time and go over everything that I have been up to so everyone gets their moment and I get as much “Good” information to you as possible.  I have been up to quite a bit in these past few months so I will share with you everything I can.

1. Upside Down Mortgage Help – There is a Local Sacramento Attorney who sat down with me and we developed a program to help homeowners understand their situation by offering Upside Down Mortgage Help! – There are a couple videos there that will go into detail how to handle your use FNMA’s new Upside Down mortgage refinance program DU Plus.  This program allows those who have two mortgages to refinance the first mortgage as long as that loan is a FNMA mortgage.  The details to that program can be found at http://www.brentlane.net – QUICK NOTE: to get to all the videos please insert your email and select “No Thanks, take me to the videos” on the second video page.  This will quickly give you direction and tell you which option is most suitable for you and your family.

2. FHA Streamline Refinance in CA – Have you checked your mailbox lately?  By now you should have heard about this Streamline FHA Refinance CA but if not this mortgage refinance can save you a couple hundred dollars a month.  There are several people who for whatever reason haven’t see the true value of this streamline FHA refinance because $100-$150 a month just isn’t worth it to them but the reality is that if you plan on staying in your home for more than 4-5 years this is an easy way to lower your payment.  This loan is a savior to many.  It is free from income and appraised value checks so if you lost your job or know that your houses value is down it doesn’t matter here.  The only rule is that you have a FHA currently to qualify.

3. Real Estate Taxes on Mortgage Refinances CA – I am not a expert on anything tax related but I wanted to share with you a couple common pitfalls regarding taxes and escrow or impound accounts.  In almost every Mortgage Refinance CA transaction I have had this year I have had an issue with escrow or impounds and the related tax bills.  Funny part, every one of my clients had been underpaying their monthly taxes!  When we go through the refinance process we verify that the taxes are accurate and that they are paid and that the escrow/impound numbers are accurate.  Now most people would know that house values in CA have been on the decline for the past few years.  Since the clients took their purchase Mortgage on the property their taxes have been reflecting poorly.

Traditionally when you buy a house the new tax bill is close to the old value on the property but as a rule of thumb property taxes are are 1.10%-1.25% or the properties purchase price.  Now if that purchase price is considerably less then the current value the tax collector has placed on the property then the amount that needs to be paid to the tax collector is going to be substantially less as a result.  In other words, my clients weren’t paying enough to their impound or escrow accounts and therefore when we went to do the streamline FHA Refinance CA we would have a shortage in the escrow account and that had to be built into the new loan or made part of the total payoff of the current mortgage.  To make matters worse,  the tax bill increased from the current number sometimes wiping out the entire savings the FHA Streamline Refinance CA provided.

Needless to say this made it difficult for most of my clients to understand and left quite a bit up to the tax collector moving forward.  The easiest explanation for this situation was that if we did nothing the current escrow payment will go up forcing you to catch up and then add back in a higher payment until the property taxes are correctly reporting potentially raising the payment by a couple hundred dollars.  Now in the streamline FHA refinance CA process there is no savings reflected in the monthly payment so a lengthy explanation was always needed to get the transaction closed but in the end everyone of the people I assisted in this process was happy except one! ( I am not perfect )

4. On The Money Radio Show – Recently I was offered an opportunity to work on the radio talking about one of my passion projects, Mentoring Youth through Coaching Football, Character Based Coaching.  The Playmakers Radio Show was born and together with my radio co-host, Greg Roeszler, I made my radio debut.  The show is on 950AM KAHI or http://www.kahi.com and airs on Sunday’s around the Raiders Games.  We discuss youth and prep sports in the local and national area.

That all led to being on a different program related to my actual day job and On The Money Mortgage Show was born.  My co-host for this show is Shellie Hatfield and we have been discussing some great mortgage news and recent updates.  This show also airs on Sundays at 9am on 950AM or http://www.kahi.com.  Shellie has really done her homework and introduced me to all sorts of other mortgage related issues.

We have discussed HVCC and AMC which are appraisal related issues and how they are negatively impacting the real estate market by making things more expensive.  Shellie introduced a great example on how an AMC (Appraisal Management Company) cost her client $900 in appraisal fees versus the traditional $450 (up from $350 thanks to the AMC’s).  AMC’s use appraisers that are NOT familiar with the areas where appraisals need to be ordered and this causes many problems for those people in the real estate transaction.  We are working hard to remove AMC’s as a policy as it hurts the consumer while making some agency or government monitored company wealthy.

You can listen into the On The Money Radio Show 950AM show below!

5. Local Affiliate Marketing - Since writing online for several years now I have learned quite a bit.  During that time I have been lucky enough to have the search engines deem my websites worthy of being on the first page of their results.  As a result I have been averaging quite a bit of web traffic to my site and have been able to send traffic to other sources as a result.  This has raised some eyebrows as you can imagine and as a result I have been asked several times to assist others in duplicating the process for their businesses.  As a result I have taken a couple people and walked them through how I managed to put rank my website so high in search engines.

This has spawned a new business for me and I have been able to help several other people and businesses with their online marketing and introduced the concept of Local Affiliate Marketing.  Check out the site for details on how I can help you and your website or online business or contact me directly.

6. Playmakers Organization and High School Football – Now if that wasn’t enough I donate quite a bit of my time to a non-profit organization called Playmakers.  The organization takes care of homeless kids and mentors youth using coaching as a tool.  Playmakers also offers free youth and high school football camps in Sacramento.  In 2009 we coached around 700 kids between all the different football camps we did all across the country.  I am proud to be a part of the organization as it grows into something even greater.  Here is a little bit about this program:

That should about do it for this giant post but if you need anything please feel free to contact me, I am sure you can find my email on here somewhere!

Brent [at] brentlane.net

Short Sale Help – A Case Study by Real Estate Attorney Steve Beede

Finally!

Fannie Mae has stepped in to help!

Refinancing Upside Down Mortgage has a new face and Fannie Mae is leading the charge.

They are now allowing homeowners the ability to refinance their Upside Down Home Loan  with relative ease.

I have put together some educational videos that will walk you through the steps to help you through the process of  refinancing an upside down mortgage.

Click the LINK below and I will tell you how to start the refinancing upside down mortgage process.

upsidedownmortgagehelp

I appreciate you stopping by my site.

I know that the mortgage industry has take on a bad name and it can be difficult to find the right person to help you.  If you are looking for help with buying a new home, refinancing upside down mortgage or any type of mortgage issue please feel free to contact me at brent[at]brentlane.net.  I take personal pride in being a trustworthy Roseville CA mortgage broker and I will do everything in my power to deliver what I promised you in the beginning.

So much is going on the mortgage market that it’s hard to keep up.  Take a minute and learn all you can and then find an expert to give you that upside down mortgage relief your are looking for.  I can help you with upside down mortgage refinances to purchasing a home in Auburn, CA or Placer county CA.

I look foward to talking with you.

Brent Lane

brent[at]brentlane.net

In my search for the best advice on

Upside Down Mortgages I have found many duds and scams!

Every once in a while you find an absolute GEM!

I met Steve Beede, a Real Estate Attorney in Sacramento, in late 2008.  He is a very smart man and is easy to get along with which makes it comfortable to sit down and share ideas with one another.  He had been exploring the local market and sharing his philosophy on how to properly Cope with an Upside Down Mortgage.

Since that first visit Steve Beede and I have work together to produce a bunch of information about the “right way” to handle an Upside Down Mortgage.  There are so many different scenarios and ways to go about taking care of this issue that people will become overwhelmed and even give up entirely.
I find it interesting, more times than not I will hear that “my bank just told me “NO”‘” and then the homeowner just gives up and fully understand themortgage qualifications for an upside down mortgage.

You know how many times I have been told “NO” by a bank?  THOUSANDS OF TIMES!

There is no easy solution!

There is no one size fits all answer to how to handle an Upside Down Mortgage.

The best advice I can give is to learn the basics and do most of the work yourself and don’t rely on someone else to fix your problem.  This goes for loan modification companies and any other high priced solution you will find out there.

All that said, you may still need advice or help so find someone you can trust and keep it simple!  I mean take the direction or guidance and apply it yourself.

There isn’t one person in the world outside of you who cares about your home more so you should act upon that and do the loan modification yourself.  That said, find a mentor to help you through the process.

I have put together a package with my attorney friend to help those who help themselves.

In this package you will get:

• Rules to the new Obama Mortgage Plan

• an outline of the basics on how to handle an upside down mortgage

• some in depth action steps or a plan of attack

• an overall “how to” manual for handling your own loan modification

• forums for additional support

• access to me for one-on-one help with your mortgage

• a manual to help you write your hardship letter

This isn’t going to cost you thousand or even hundreds of dollars!

I kept it simple at $97

Learn more about my Upside Down Mortgage Refinance Program here

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Check out our new BLOG on

Coping with an Upside Down Mortgage:

A Legal Perspective

Mortgage Deliquencies up for the 8th Straigh Quarter

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090303/ap_on_bi_ge/transunion_mortgage_delinquencies_1

CHICAGO – The number of people who were late making their mortgage payments shot up 53 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 from the same period in 2007, according to data provided by TransUnion LLC.

The credit reporting agency said its database shows delinquencies — or the percentage of mortgage holders at least 60 days behind on payments, considered a precursor to foreclosure — jumped to 4.58 percent nationally, from 2.99 percent for the 2007 fourth quarter.

That was 16 percent above the 3.96 percent rate seen in the third quarter, TransUnion said, and marked the eighth straight quarter that deliquency rates rose.

“It’s about what we were expecting,” said Keith Carson, senior consultant in TransUnion’s financial services group. But while not unexpected, the huge jump from last year was still “alarming,” Carson said.

TransUnion, best known for its consumer credit rating data, projects delinquency rates could reach as high as 8 percent by the end of the year. The company isn’t predicting that the climate will improve until the middle of 2010.

The states that have shown the highest delinquency and foreclosure rates remain the same. Florida is on top, with a 9.52 percent rate for the fourth quarter, while Nevada is second with 9.01 percent. Arizona came in at 6.93 percent and California right behind at 6.88 percent. Carson said there is a glut of homes in those states, which is combining with increasing economic woes and declining home values to keep the rates high.

North Dakota, at 1.21 percent, remains the state with the lowest delinquency rate.

The figures are culled from TransUnion Trend Data, which consists of 27 million consumer records randomly sampled each month from the credit reporting agency’s national consumer credit database.

While the government has launched efforts to stem foreclosures, those moves are not yet reflected in data, Carson said. Banks are also trying to work with consumers to reduce problematic mortgages, but falling home prices are feeding the problem, he said. “We do know from everything we’ve found out in the last year is that the primary driver on mortgage defaults is negative equity,” he said. When homeowners owe more on their mortgages than the houses are worth, data show a higher likelihood that consumers will simply walk away, he said.

California is the state with the highest average mortgage debt per borrower, at $356,421. West Virginia has the lowest, at $96,243.

Lenders are trying to address some negative equity issues with refinancing, but Carson said data shows the rate of redefault on modified mortgages “has been very high, primarily because of negative equity.”

Find Secrets to Refinancing your Upside Down Mortgage ……

“This article has been out for several months now and this are constantly changing. Find More information at my new home page Refinance an Upside Down Mortgage”

“This article has been out for several months now and this are constantly changing. Find More information at my new home page Upside Down Mortgage Refinance”

Get Upside Down Mortgage Help

The Obama Camp is launching the “Making Home Affordable” program designed to help homeowners who are Upside Down on their mortgage.

The details of the program are not all available but they do lay out the required paperwork and a few guidelines.

“It’s not intended to prevent every foreclosure or to help every homeowner,” a senior Treasury Department official told reporters. “It’s really targeted at responsible homeowners.”

I guess the hidden good news is that if you have an Upside Down Mortgage and you are paying you payments on time this is the plan you have been waiting for.  No more sneaking around or trying to force something down the throats of the lenders.

“I’ve just seen so many of the programs not work,” said Pava Leyrer, president of Heritage National Mortgage in Randville, Mich. “It gets borrowers hopes up. They call and call for these programs and we can’t get anybody to do them.”

Read More about “Making Home Affordable Program“…….

“This article has been out for several months now and this are constantly changing. Find More information at my new home page Refinance an Upside Down Mortgage”

“Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan stressed that homeowners don’t need to be delinquent in order to get help.” – This comment has to be the best news for many homeowners out there who need the help but also want to keep their great credit!”

This quote about says it all to most people.  It came from a recent article released by the Associated Press (AP).

This answers the most common question I get when “how to handle an upside down mortgage” and “solutions to an upside down mortgage”.

The rest of the article can be found here at Upside Down Mortgage Solutions.

Listen in on a Interview I did on Loan Modifications and the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Streamline Loan Modification Program

“This article has been out for several months now and this are constantly changing. Find More information at my new home page Refinance an Upside Down Mortgage”

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, recently announced a new Streamlined Modification Program that is designed to help struggling borrowers avoid foreclosure by having Fannie Mae work with mortgage servicers to do a loan modification into more affordable terms.

You may qualify for a loan modification if all of the following are true:

• Your mortgage loan is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
• Your mortgage loan is 90 or more days past due.
• You occupy the property as your primary residence and must be a one-unit property.
• You are not in bankruptcy.
• Loan originated prior to January 1, 2008
• Your Debt-to-Income Ratio needs to be at 38% using current paystub (another obstacle). See Mortgage Debt-to-income Ratio Information
• You will need to write a hardship letter so go to Sample Hardship Letter here.

To achieve a more affordable mortgage payment through a loan modification, your loan servicer may:

• extend the term of your loan to as much as 40 years
• reduce your mortgage interest rate for a period of time
• defer payment of part of your principal, or
• or offer a combination of all three.
• Principal write-downs and principal forgiveness are prohibited. (This is HUGE)

Modification Options

Through the SMP, servicers may change the terms of a loan to reduce a borrower’s first lien monthly mortgage payment, including taxes, insurance and homeowners association payments, to an amount equal to 38 percent of gross monthly income. The changes in terms may include one or more of the following:

• Adding the accrued interest, escrow advances and costs to the principal balance of the loan, if allowed by state law;
• Extending the length of the mortgage loan as appropriate;
• Reducing the mortgage loan interest rate in increments of 0.125 percent to an interest rate that is not less than 3 percent. If the new rate is set below the market interest rate, after five years it will step up in annual increments to either the original loan interest rate or the market interest rate at the time of the modification, whichever is lower;
• Forbearing on a portion of the principal, which will require the borrower to make a balloon payment when the loan matures, is paid off, or is refinanced.

What You Can Do Today
If you are about to fall behind, or have fallen behind on your mortgage payments, or if your loan has been referred to an attorney, the most important step you can take is to get help early from your mortgage lender, servicer, or housing counselor.

Learn more about Refinancing an Upside Down Mortgage- Get Your Free Report Here

News came out today that may help many homeowners who are facing problems with their mortgage.  Letting your house go because the home is upside down and you need help start with my free report and if that only wets the appetite then move on to my free video series on Refinancing an Upside Down Mortgage

Democratic lawmakers reached an agreement with Citigroup Inc. on a plan to let bankruptcy judges alter loans in an effort to prevent homes from going into foreclosure. Other lenders are expected to follow suit.

Known as “cramdown,” the rewrite would let bankruptcy court judges erase some mortgage debt to help bankrupt homeowners better handle their payments, subject to strict conditions.

The legal reform would help “millions of families save their homes,” said senators Richard Durbin of Illinois, Charles Schumer of New York and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut.

Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers has introduced the mortgage bankruptcy measure in the House of Representatives.

Under the terms of the reform as agreed, only mortgages entered into prior to the date of enactment of the bill would be eligible for the treatment, the senators said.

Homeowners would have to certify that they have tried to contact their lender before filing for bankruptcy, they said.

Only major violations of the “Truth in Lending Act” would invalidate creditor claims on bankruptcy, they said.

Schumer said his office has contacted top bankers nationwide and some said they would be supportive.

Officials at other top banks — including Wells Fargo (WFC.N), Bank of America (BAC.N), SunTrust (STI.N) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) — were contacted by Reuters but had no comment.

This latest adjustment to Bankruptcy law will help homeowners avoid any possible foreclosure and allow for someone other than the bank to make adjustments to the toxic mortgages that have plagued homeowners facing foreclosure.

Learn more about Refinancing an Upside Down Mortgage- Get Your Free Report Here