Skidmore Associates LLC can help you remove your Private Mortgage InsuranceWhen buying a house, a 20% down payment is typically the standard. Because the risk for the lender is usually only the difference between the home value and the sum remaining on the loan, the 20% adds a nice cushion against the costs of foreclosure, reselling the home, and natural value variationsin the event a purchaser doesn't pay. During the recent mortgage boom of the mid 2000s, it became widespread to see lenders taking down payments of 10, 5 or often 0 percent. How does a lender manage the added risk of the small down payment? The answer is Private Mortgage Insurance or PMI. PMI covers the lender in the event a borrower doesn't pay on the loan and the market price of the property is lower than the balance of the loan. PMI can be costly to a borrower because the $40-$50 a month per $100,000 borrowed is lumped into the mortgage monthly payment and often isn't even tax deductible. Unlike a piggyback loan where the lender consumes all the deficits, PMI is lucrative for the lender because they acquire the money, and they get the money if the borrower is unable to pay. 
Does your monthly mortgage payment include PMI? Contact us, you may be able to save money by removing your PMI. How can home owners avoid bearing the cost of PMI?With the employment of The Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, on most loans lenders are required to automatically cancel the PMI when the principal balance of the loan equals 78 percent of the beginning loan amount. The law states that, at the request of the homeowner, the PMI must be dropped when the principal amount reaches only 80 percent. So, savvy home owners can get off the hook ahead of time. Since it can take countless years to get to the point where the principal is only 20% of the initial amount borrowed, it's important to know how your home has grown in value. After all, any appreciation you've accomplished over the years counts towards removing PMI. So why pay it after your loan balance has fallen below the 80% threshold? Despite the fact that nationwide trends signify plunging home values, realize that real estate is local. Your neighborhood might not be following the national trends and/or your home could have secured equity before things settled down. A certified, licensed real estate appraiser can help home owners understand just when their home's equity goes over the 20% point, as it's a difficult thing to know. It's an appraiser's job to keep up with the market dynamics of their area. At Skidmore Associates LLC, we're experts at pinpointing value trends in Tucker, Dekalb County and surrounding areas, and we know when property values have risen or declined. Faced with data from an appraiser, the mortgage company will generally cancel the PMI with little trouble. At that time, the home owner can delight in the savings from that point on.
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