Read all your loan documents when purchasing any real estate to ensure that all charges and terms are correct , and that you loan is what is supposed to be. For example, if it is to be fixed rate loan, make sure it says the loan is a fixed rate before signing.
Review all Loan documents before purchasing in advance. You may request a HUD1 Statement 24 hrs before closing on any real estate sale. It will itemize and outline each charge on your loan.
After purchasing make sure that the credit bureaus are reporting your payments correctly. For example: If you switched loan companies shortly after your purchase, the new lender or servicer may not report you late in the 1st 60 days after the loan has switched companies.
Always look for unwarranted charges on your mortgage statement and send a dispute in writing to your lender , and they have up to 60 days to respond to any valid written disputes. In that period, this may not reflect negatively on your credit bureau; this would be a violation of RESPA.
Pre-pay your mortgage whenever you can if there are not restrictions in our mortgage contract for doing so. This will save you a tremendous amount of money over the life of the loan. In some extreme cases your can cut your mortgage from a 30yr loan down to a 15 yr loan. See http://www.mortgagecrisistips.com/MortgageSecrets.html for more information on paying of your mortgage quickly.
If you have a mortgage and you are trying to lower your mortgage payments with a loan modification yourself, make sure you follow up on the progress regularly; weekly for update. This can be very time consuming.
If you are in Foreclosure and have a valid dispute, your property can not go to a foreclosure sale; because any valid dispute has to be addressed 1st, or else it is a violation of RESPA. So if you are in foreclosure and have a dispute make it be know in writing to prevent the progress of a foreclosure sale.
If there are outstanding charges on your account, especially late charges; Usually if you make payments to bring your loan current the fee can be negotiated and brought way down. When making your payment that is the best time to leverage your negotiating powers to minimize some of your outstanding fees.
Lenders and servicers want to keep you in your house no matter what you may think. No one wins in a foreclosure, everyone looses. Therefore, if you have a problem with paying your mortgage try to talk to mortgage company about getting help.
Be careful when hiring an attorney, broker, or modification company whenever they say the can guarantee you a loan modification. No one can guarantee a loan modification, no matter what they say. They might have a much better chance of getting you a loan modification through experience, skills, knowledge, and/or persistence. However, the mortgage company decides if it worth while to modify your loan in the end, they have the final say. Just remember that.
Bonus Tip:
If you are behind on your mortgage payments, and are at risk of going into foreclosure and have limited funds. Always try to pay on your 1st loan or larger loan 1st, if your have a 80/20 mortgage. The 1st loan is usually the deciding factor for making your loan go into foreclosure. The 2nd or smaller loan rarely causes your loan to go into foreclosure. If the smaller loan becomes the loan that causes you to go into foreclosure, that will usually get little or nothing out of the foreclosure sale, unless your have decent equity in the property.
