Mortgage rates climbed in the week ending July 17, yet the demand for loans still managed to increase during the week, according to a weekly industry survey.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said average rates for a 30-year mortgage rebounded from 5.05% to 5.31% last week, erasing the improvement seen in the prior week when rates fell 29 basis points. The jump in rates didn’t put a halt to refinancing or home purchases, however, as both indexes continued moving up from the seven-month low seen three weeks ago.
The Market Composite Index ― which tracks the volume of mortgage applications ― increased 2.8% in the week, moderating the 4-week average to -1.0%.
Refinance-related loans moved up 4.0% in the week and accounted for 55.5% of all loans. In the prior week refinancing jumped 17%. The Purchase Index edged up 1.3% in the week, though on a 4-week average purchases are 1.7% lower.
“It’s been stuck in this low-five range for a number of weeks,” commented chief economist Donald Rissmiller from Strategas Research Partners last week. With the Federal Reserve continuing with its accommodative policy for the medium-term future, rates are likely to continue in that range.
Mortgage rates vary across the country but the state average is below 6% ― an historically low rate ― in all 50 states. According to a report from Zillow.com published yesterday, lenders in Alabama offer the lowest mortgage rate at 5.06%, while rates in Maine are currently the highest at 5.94%.
Source
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Mortgage lending, refinancing starting to rise
Local bankers and real-estate agents say the uptick in the housing market has been modest, attributing increases to the first-time homebuyer tax credit being offered through November, the depressing effect foreclosures have had on prices and refinancing of existing loans into lower rates.
Nationally, home sales are growing at their fastest rate in more than eight years after stalling out in the middle of 2008. New-home sales for June were up 11 percent from May.
"It's not coming back as fast as we would like, but it's been a modest increase," Zanesville-area Realtor Jay Butler said. "The phone ringing is better than not having it ringing."
Buyers are starting to take advantage of a federal tax credit that covers 10 percent of the home price or up to $8,000 for first-time buyers. Home sales must be completed before Dec. 1 for buyers to take advantage.
Jeff McLendon, of McLendon Mortgage in Zanesville, said the availability of the tax credit has been a good thing and about 60 percent of the loans his firm has done have been eligible for the credit.
"When that came out, our phones were ringing off the hook. The first thing people were asking is, 'Do I qualify for this?'" McLendon said. "Then they want to know if they can close before the tax credit is up. It's the busiest we've been in four years."
Carl Raines, vice president and local branch manager with Peoples Bank in Zanesville, said one-year comparisons between spring 2008 and the same time period this year show that mortgage financing has doubled in the area.
But a lot of the growth he sees is in residential home refinances, he said.
"We're up in the region, in southeast Ohio. We're losing adjustable rates to people refinancing into fixed rates," Raines said. "But we exceeded our loan goals in February, March, April and May."
He said construction home loans are picking up, which has increased the sales of construction materials.
Raines attributes some of that to the tax credit for first-time homebuyers.
The rate of home repossessions through foreclosures remains high in Muskingum and surrounding counties, but that's also had a positive effect on housing prices for the consumer.
"It's lowered prices significantly, I would say 15 to 20 percent," Butler said. "We have people who are ready and qualified to buy a home, but banks were tight for a good stretch there. The first-time money has helped some. But you've got to have a credit score of 620 or better for a lender to look at you. It comes down to lending ability."
Tom Lyall, president and CEO of Century National Bank in Zanesville, said Century had record lending volume through the first half of 2009, mainly via refinancing.
"But the last couple of months, we've seen a pretty nice increase in home purchases," Lyall said. "Overall volume has been terrific, and the tax credit has taken the strain off of budgets for some people."
But some would like to see more help.
"If the purchaser could get their hands on that credit at the time of sale, it would be so much better," McLendon said. "That money could be used for the down payment or to fix up the home, whatever. If you get the credit after you buy the home, how did that help you buy your home?"
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Banks slow to modify mortgages, Treasury reports
Despite the continuing foreclosure crisis, banks have made little progress toward modifying the loans of stressed-out homeowners, drawing fire from advocacy groups who say both financial institutions and the federal government should do more.
In its first report on the Obama administration's efforts to prod lenders to help as many as 4 million homeowners by reducing their mortgage payments, the Treasury Department said just 9% of eligible loans had been changed.
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Loans were modified even less often by the two mega-banks that dominate the mortgage market: Wells Fargo & Co. reduced payments for only 6% of its eligible home loans under the government's program, and Bank of America Corp. modified just 4%.
The administration, under tremendous pressure to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, has said that despite the low percentage of loans that had been modified under its plan, the program "has made rapid progress in a few short months" and was on track to help 3 million to 4 million eligible borrowers.
But critics say the effort is way behind.
"Congress and the administration need to end their 'pretty please' approach to the banks and instead finally force lenders to work to keep people in their homes," said Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition.
Some of the major lenders whose efforts were documented in the report released Tuesday had better success, such as GMAC and JPMorgan Chase & Co., which racked up 20% modification rates. Others, including Wells Fargo and BofA, said the report didn't reflect their efforts to modify loans outside Obama's Making Home Affordable program. They also said the workings of the 5-month-old program were not clarified until last month, forcing lenders to wait until just a couple of weeks ago to adopt it.
"We did 240,000 loan modifications in the first seven months of the year, of which just over 20,000 are [Obama plan] mods," said Mike Heid, co-president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.
BofA modified 150,000 loans during the first half of the year without going through the Obama program, plus 28,000 using the government's plan, Barbara Desoer, president of Bank of America home loans, said in a statement.
The government has pledged to provide $75 billion in incentive payments to participating borrowers and mortgage companies.
Under the Obama plan, more than 400,000 modification offers have been extended and more than 230,000 trial modifications have begun, the Treasury Department reported.
But the number of homeowners in distress is huge. Nearly 2 million foreclosure filings were made during the first six months of this year, ranging from default notices to completed foreclosure sales, according to foreclosure data firm RealtyTrac. There were 3.2 million such filings in all of 2008 and 2.2 million in 2007.
Dozens of homeowners have contacted The Times in recent months, complaining about lenders' sluggishness or outright refusals to modify loans. Some homeowners were behind in their payments; others were keeping up by going through their savings, but facing a looming bankruptcy.
Domingo Delgadillo of Antioch, Calif., started out well able to afford the pay-option Wachovia bank loan on his 3,000-square-foot home. But when his real estate business collapsed in 2007, he started making only the minimum payments, causing his loan balance to balloon as the value of his house dropped. He's paying 60% of his gross earnings for the house now and has asked for a modification -- to no avail.
"When I called Wachovia in July to request a loan modification, I was told that they still had not implemented their program," he said. "I do not understand how it is possible."
Reached Tuesday afternoon, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, which agreed to buy Wachovia last year as it teetered near collapse, said she couldn't comment on individual customers or access Delgadillo's records so late in the day. She said that in some cases, loans sold to other parties could be modified only if they were in "imminent default." Delgadillo said he had been told his loan was sold to Bank of New York.
The Obama plan is modeled on a program the FDIC developed to modify mortgages at failed IndyMac Federal Bank in Pasadena. Using incentive payments to lenders and borrowers who agree to loan modifications, it reduces mortgage interest rates and extends the duration of the loans to 40 years. The idea is to try to reduce first mortgage payments, taxes and insurance to 31% of a borrower's gross income.
Participants must fully document their earnings and assets, and the first three months of modification is a trial period. If borrowers make three straight payments on time, showing their willingness and ability to pay, the modification becomes permanent.
Critics say the plan needs to be toughened, calling anew for change in federal law to allow bankruptcy judges to order lenders to reduce the principal owed on home mortgages.
These so-called cramdowns had been supported by President Obama and top officials including Lawrence H. Summers, director of the White House's National Economic Council. But the idea has been repeatedly shot down in Congress, in part because the banking industry vehemently opposes it.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has said he would push for cramdowns if lenders did not show they were modifying more mortgages.
But UC Berkeley economist Kenneth Rosen, who supports voluntary but not court-ordered efforts to lower principal amounts for homeowners, said the federal efforts to prevent foreclosure might show improvement down the line.
"These are early days," Rosen said. "The numbers could be quite different six months from now."
Source
In its first report on the Obama administration's efforts to prod lenders to help as many as 4 million homeowners by reducing their mortgage payments, the Treasury Department said just 9% of eligible loans had been changed.
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Loans were modified even less often by the two mega-banks that dominate the mortgage market: Wells Fargo & Co. reduced payments for only 6% of its eligible home loans under the government's program, and Bank of America Corp. modified just 4%.
The administration, under tremendous pressure to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, has said that despite the low percentage of loans that had been modified under its plan, the program "has made rapid progress in a few short months" and was on track to help 3 million to 4 million eligible borrowers.
But critics say the effort is way behind.
"Congress and the administration need to end their 'pretty please' approach to the banks and instead finally force lenders to work to keep people in their homes," said Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition.
Some of the major lenders whose efforts were documented in the report released Tuesday had better success, such as GMAC and JPMorgan Chase & Co., which racked up 20% modification rates. Others, including Wells Fargo and BofA, said the report didn't reflect their efforts to modify loans outside Obama's Making Home Affordable program. They also said the workings of the 5-month-old program were not clarified until last month, forcing lenders to wait until just a couple of weeks ago to adopt it.
"We did 240,000 loan modifications in the first seven months of the year, of which just over 20,000 are [Obama plan] mods," said Mike Heid, co-president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.
BofA modified 150,000 loans during the first half of the year without going through the Obama program, plus 28,000 using the government's plan, Barbara Desoer, president of Bank of America home loans, said in a statement.
The government has pledged to provide $75 billion in incentive payments to participating borrowers and mortgage companies.
Under the Obama plan, more than 400,000 modification offers have been extended and more than 230,000 trial modifications have begun, the Treasury Department reported.
But the number of homeowners in distress is huge. Nearly 2 million foreclosure filings were made during the first six months of this year, ranging from default notices to completed foreclosure sales, according to foreclosure data firm RealtyTrac. There were 3.2 million such filings in all of 2008 and 2.2 million in 2007.
Dozens of homeowners have contacted The Times in recent months, complaining about lenders' sluggishness or outright refusals to modify loans. Some homeowners were behind in their payments; others were keeping up by going through their savings, but facing a looming bankruptcy.
Domingo Delgadillo of Antioch, Calif., started out well able to afford the pay-option Wachovia bank loan on his 3,000-square-foot home. But when his real estate business collapsed in 2007, he started making only the minimum payments, causing his loan balance to balloon as the value of his house dropped. He's paying 60% of his gross earnings for the house now and has asked for a modification -- to no avail.
"When I called Wachovia in July to request a loan modification, I was told that they still had not implemented their program," he said. "I do not understand how it is possible."
Reached Tuesday afternoon, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, which agreed to buy Wachovia last year as it teetered near collapse, said she couldn't comment on individual customers or access Delgadillo's records so late in the day. She said that in some cases, loans sold to other parties could be modified only if they were in "imminent default." Delgadillo said he had been told his loan was sold to Bank of New York.
The Obama plan is modeled on a program the FDIC developed to modify mortgages at failed IndyMac Federal Bank in Pasadena. Using incentive payments to lenders and borrowers who agree to loan modifications, it reduces mortgage interest rates and extends the duration of the loans to 40 years. The idea is to try to reduce first mortgage payments, taxes and insurance to 31% of a borrower's gross income.
Participants must fully document their earnings and assets, and the first three months of modification is a trial period. If borrowers make three straight payments on time, showing their willingness and ability to pay, the modification becomes permanent.
Critics say the plan needs to be toughened, calling anew for change in federal law to allow bankruptcy judges to order lenders to reduce the principal owed on home mortgages.
These so-called cramdowns had been supported by President Obama and top officials including Lawrence H. Summers, director of the White House's National Economic Council. But the idea has been repeatedly shot down in Congress, in part because the banking industry vehemently opposes it.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has said he would push for cramdowns if lenders did not show they were modifying more mortgages.
But UC Berkeley economist Kenneth Rosen, who supports voluntary but not court-ordered efforts to lower principal amounts for homeowners, said the federal efforts to prevent foreclosure might show improvement down the line.
"These are early days," Rosen said. "The numbers could be quite different six months from now."
Source
Monday, September 28, 2009
Lowe's Home Improvement "Should Improve its Overtime Policy"
Denton, TX: When George was hired as a designer/sales "specialist" with Lowe's Home Improvement store, he agreed on making only $12 per hour to start. They neglected to tell George that he would be working 50-hour weeks, like most other "specialists" in the store. "According to Lowe's world, specialists don't qualify for overtime," says George, "but I later found out they are violating federal overtime laws."
So what is "special" about a specialist? According to Lowe's it is an exempt position, thus allowing the retail giant to schedule employees such as George 50-plus hours per week with no overtime pay. But George was paid an hourly rate and his job was identical to other "floor" employees who are not classified as specialists and are paid hourly.
George quit his job in 2004, and since then he has done some research online. "I found out that specialists are hourly workers," says George, "and when I was hired, I was paid an hourly wage. The manager at Lowe's told me they could only afford $12 per hour to start, but I figure they can afford a lot more than that with all the overtime they don't have to pay…
"After working at one location for several months I relocated to Las Vegas and they gave me a $2 per hour raise, but I was still getting an hourly rate. The bottom line is that I was led to believe I was hired as an hourly employee. They never said I would be paid so much per year, a salary.
We did get a lunch break and one 15-minute break during the day but I never discussed overtime with my co-workers, partly because I was isolated from everyone else—I just designed and sold kitchens in the kitchen department and only had passing contact with my co-workers. But the main reason had to do with their intimidation factor. Corporations have a way of intimidating their employees. They have the power, they know it and they use it. And I was worried about getting fired.
I never considered asking for overtime because when I talked to anyone, they said the specialist was separate from the regular workers so I just thought this was their corporate setup. But in my previous job as a union carpenter in Chicago, I always got paid time and a half. At that job I had the union backing me up so I knew that I would always get paid overtime—and you could never be intimidated.
I had no idea how many more hours a week I would work over and above the regular 40 hours until I saw the schedule. Throughout my entire employment I worked six days a week, including some Sundays. After working in Vegas for 6 months I quit so I worked at Lowe's for just over a year in total.
I was frustrated because I couldn't stand up to them—that was the bottom line. About half the store comprises specialists and we were all required to work 50 hours per week. I knew about the overtime law—that you are entitled to time and a half over 40 hours per week— but just took it for granted that because I was classified as a specialist I didn't qualify for overtime. I just thought Lowe's corporate interpretation was correct. But that isn't the case."
Source
So what is "special" about a specialist? According to Lowe's it is an exempt position, thus allowing the retail giant to schedule employees such as George 50-plus hours per week with no overtime pay. But George was paid an hourly rate and his job was identical to other "floor" employees who are not classified as specialists and are paid hourly.
George quit his job in 2004, and since then he has done some research online. "I found out that specialists are hourly workers," says George, "and when I was hired, I was paid an hourly wage. The manager at Lowe's told me they could only afford $12 per hour to start, but I figure they can afford a lot more than that with all the overtime they don't have to pay…
"After working at one location for several months I relocated to Las Vegas and they gave me a $2 per hour raise, but I was still getting an hourly rate. The bottom line is that I was led to believe I was hired as an hourly employee. They never said I would be paid so much per year, a salary.
We did get a lunch break and one 15-minute break during the day but I never discussed overtime with my co-workers, partly because I was isolated from everyone else—I just designed and sold kitchens in the kitchen department and only had passing contact with my co-workers. But the main reason had to do with their intimidation factor. Corporations have a way of intimidating their employees. They have the power, they know it and they use it. And I was worried about getting fired.
I never considered asking for overtime because when I talked to anyone, they said the specialist was separate from the regular workers so I just thought this was their corporate setup. But in my previous job as a union carpenter in Chicago, I always got paid time and a half. At that job I had the union backing me up so I knew that I would always get paid overtime—and you could never be intimidated.
I had no idea how many more hours a week I would work over and above the regular 40 hours until I saw the schedule. Throughout my entire employment I worked six days a week, including some Sundays. After working in Vegas for 6 months I quit so I worked at Lowe's for just over a year in total.
I was frustrated because I couldn't stand up to them—that was the bottom line. About half the store comprises specialists and we were all required to work 50 hours per week. I knew about the overtime law—that you are entitled to time and a half over 40 hours per week— but just took it for granted that because I was classified as a specialist I didn't qualify for overtime. I just thought Lowe's corporate interpretation was correct. But that isn't the case."
Source
Monday, September 14, 2009
Home improvement materials ignite S.E. home
It was a nice evening for shooting hoops, in the driveway of his family’s home on S.E. Lincoln Street, east of S.E 60th Avenue, on July 15. But Jacob Duilio said his basketball practice was interrupted by wisps of smoke coming from behind a neighbor’s house.
“Right away, there was more thick, black smoke than I’ve ever seen,” Duilio told THE BEE. “It looked like the whole house was catching on fire. While I ran around to the front of the house [on S.E. 60th Avenue], I called 9-1-1. The fire trucks were here in a couple of minutes.”
According to official records, Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) crews were dispatched at 6:16 pm and arrived at the home, in the 2300 block of SE 60th Avenue, at 6:18 pm.
PF&R Engine Company 19, the first of three stations to respond, radioed back to the fire dispatcher, “There’s heavy fire coming from the back of the house.”
“Our neighbor across the street came over and woke us up,” recalled Mike Hupp, whose home is directly north of the burned house. “They told us to get out of our house.”
Hupp said he got his garden hose and sprayed water on the roof and side of his home in an effort to keep it, too, from catching on fire. “I did the best I could, but the fire was just too intense. I drove our motor home out of the driveway; I think it’s OK.”
“My neighbor watched as the vinyl siding on his house melted and ran down the wall facing the inferno,” Hupp added. “I think the Styrofoam insulation kept our house from catching on fire. The fire next door was everywhere — the whole back area. Fire was coming out of the roof, back, and sides — the flames were burning higher than the trees.”
Although the front of the home looked relatively unaffected, the back and north side of the house burned fiercely.
The Battalion Chief on-scene, PF&R Deputy Chief Ed Fitzgerald, gathered information from neighbors, as firefighters cut vent and water holes in the roof, and attacked the fire from behind the house for more about 40 minutes, before completely dousing the flames.
Source
“Right away, there was more thick, black smoke than I’ve ever seen,” Duilio told THE BEE. “It looked like the whole house was catching on fire. While I ran around to the front of the house [on S.E. 60th Avenue], I called 9-1-1. The fire trucks were here in a couple of minutes.”
According to official records, Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) crews were dispatched at 6:16 pm and arrived at the home, in the 2300 block of SE 60th Avenue, at 6:18 pm.
PF&R Engine Company 19, the first of three stations to respond, radioed back to the fire dispatcher, “There’s heavy fire coming from the back of the house.”
“Our neighbor across the street came over and woke us up,” recalled Mike Hupp, whose home is directly north of the burned house. “They told us to get out of our house.”
Hupp said he got his garden hose and sprayed water on the roof and side of his home in an effort to keep it, too, from catching on fire. “I did the best I could, but the fire was just too intense. I drove our motor home out of the driveway; I think it’s OK.”
“My neighbor watched as the vinyl siding on his house melted and ran down the wall facing the inferno,” Hupp added. “I think the Styrofoam insulation kept our house from catching on fire. The fire next door was everywhere — the whole back area. Fire was coming out of the roof, back, and sides — the flames were burning higher than the trees.”
Although the front of the home looked relatively unaffected, the back and north side of the house burned fiercely.
The Battalion Chief on-scene, PF&R Deputy Chief Ed Fitzgerald, gathered information from neighbors, as firefighters cut vent and water holes in the roof, and attacked the fire from behind the house for more about 40 minutes, before completely dousing the flames.
Source
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Findlay suburb rejects Home depot warehouse, 300 jobs
FINDLAY — Home Depot Inc. "is evaluating its options" to build a warehouse facility in Hancock County after Allen Township trustees Tuesday night rejected a request for an 85 percent tax abatement on the project.
Rejection of the abatement could kill the $39 million project which the home improvement retailer said would create up to 300 jobs. The firm planned to build a 650,000-square-foot warehouse just west of I-75 and north of State Rt. 613.
Trustees of the Findlay suburb voted 2-1 to reject the tax incentive package, which had previously been approved by the Van Buren Schools board of education and the county commissioners. The Ohio Department of Development also had offered the retailer more than $600,000 in tax incentives and infrastructure improvements to move the project forward.
Home Depot originally considered both Michigan and Indiana for the project, before choosing Ohio, state development officials said. Findlay was one of several Ohio cities under consideration.
The distribution center was expected to serve 120 stores throughout the Midwest, with jobs there paying an average of $10.88 per hour, plus benefits, the company said.
"We’re still interested in bringing this center and the jobs to Findlay," Home Depot spokesman Jen King said yesterday. The company was "diappointed with the [trustees’] decision," she said.
Lowe’s home improvement operates a similar distribution center in suburban Findlay.
Source
Rejection of the abatement could kill the $39 million project which the home improvement retailer said would create up to 300 jobs. The firm planned to build a 650,000-square-foot warehouse just west of I-75 and north of State Rt. 613.
Trustees of the Findlay suburb voted 2-1 to reject the tax incentive package, which had previously been approved by the Van Buren Schools board of education and the county commissioners. The Ohio Department of Development also had offered the retailer more than $600,000 in tax incentives and infrastructure improvements to move the project forward.
Home Depot originally considered both Michigan and Indiana for the project, before choosing Ohio, state development officials said. Findlay was one of several Ohio cities under consideration.
The distribution center was expected to serve 120 stores throughout the Midwest, with jobs there paying an average of $10.88 per hour, plus benefits, the company said.
"We’re still interested in bringing this center and the jobs to Findlay," Home Depot spokesman Jen King said yesterday. The company was "diappointed with the [trustees’] decision," she said.
Lowe’s home improvement operates a similar distribution center in suburban Findlay.
Source
Monday, August 10, 2009
How To Get The Best Home Improvement Loan Rate
A home improvement loan is a loan whose purpose is to to make repairs, expansions, or improvements to your house or real estate. Simply put, the best home improvement loan rate is the one that produces payments that are low enough that you can meet them with no problem. If you’re looking for low rate home equity loans, it makes sense that you shop around for a while. After all, how do you know you’ve secured THE best home improvement loan rate unless you’ve consulted several lenders and have a reasonable amount of offers to choose from?
You can only get that elusive good rate when you finally meet a lender who’s willing to work with you when it comes to interest rates, repayment terms, repayment options, and so on. And the primary factor for finding that kind of accommodating lender is your credit and whether it’s good or not. This is something that you can easily check, since there are a number of companies that can offer you a free credit report (no trial) so you can assess your credit situation.
Of course, every lender you approach will claim that they’re offering you the best home improvement loan rate for your particular situation. In many occasions, people apply for, and get, home improvement loans but they fail to secure the best possible rate because they didn’t bother doing their homework before applying (getting their credit report) and they didn’t do research after applying (doing some comparison shopping to find the best deal).
One are of concern for people shopping for the best home improvement loan rate is that they fear that doing some comparison shopping with several different lenders will impact their credit score negatively. While this was a concern a couple years ago, the credit reporting industry has adapted and now if you make all your inquiries within a set period of time (15 days, according to many sources), they all count as one inquiry.
Being a savvy shopper can help you secure the best interest rate considering your personal factors. Here’s what you should be doing.
The best home improvement loan rate (as in, the lowest one) in not necessarily the best deal though. It won’t do you a lot of good to get the best interest rate if you’re expected to pay sky-high fees for late payments, or if your repayment terms are unrealistic, or if you have to pay a hefty penalty for paying off the loan in a shorter amount of time. What you’re loking for is the most flexible terms, along with low interest and low fees, with as little penalties as possible.
Source
You can only get that elusive good rate when you finally meet a lender who’s willing to work with you when it comes to interest rates, repayment terms, repayment options, and so on. And the primary factor for finding that kind of accommodating lender is your credit and whether it’s good or not. This is something that you can easily check, since there are a number of companies that can offer you a free credit report (no trial) so you can assess your credit situation.
Of course, every lender you approach will claim that they’re offering you the best home improvement loan rate for your particular situation. In many occasions, people apply for, and get, home improvement loans but they fail to secure the best possible rate because they didn’t bother doing their homework before applying (getting their credit report) and they didn’t do research after applying (doing some comparison shopping to find the best deal).
One are of concern for people shopping for the best home improvement loan rate is that they fear that doing some comparison shopping with several different lenders will impact their credit score negatively. While this was a concern a couple years ago, the credit reporting industry has adapted and now if you make all your inquiries within a set period of time (15 days, according to many sources), they all count as one inquiry.
Being a savvy shopper can help you secure the best interest rate considering your personal factors. Here’s what you should be doing.
- Order your credit reports so you can analyze your credit history. If you spot mistakes, take the necessary steps to have them corrected
- Get your credit scores. If you opt to get the free credit reports that you’re entitled to each year, they will not include your credit scores. For a complete picture, you should get your credit scores too
- Start your research by selecting banks and financial institutions that offer home improvement loans among their financial products
- Consult with those financial institutions, give them an estimate of your credit score, and hear what they have to say. If you’re told that your credit score is too low to secure a good home improvement loan rate, ask for advice on how to improve your credit score
- Make visits to the lenders’ offices and ask to to talk to a loan officer. Ask about how to get pre-qualified for a home improvement loan
- Don’t make any commitments to any particular lender until you’ve gotten at least half a dozen separate quotes, just state that you’re comparison-shopping so you can get the best home improvement loan interest rate and terms that you’re currently eligible for.
- Do an Internet search to see what the competition has to offer, you’ll find that plenty of additional options are only a few clicks away. Compare to what you get through in-person visits
- Study the different interest rates and other repayment terms offered by all the competitors
- Work your budget and thoroughly review it to make sure that you’ll be able to meet the monthly payments from each offer
- Once you’ve decided on one that suits you best, pay another visit to that loan officer and see if you can sweeten the deal
The best home improvement loan rate (as in, the lowest one) in not necessarily the best deal though. It won’t do you a lot of good to get the best interest rate if you’re expected to pay sky-high fees for late payments, or if your repayment terms are unrealistic, or if you have to pay a hefty penalty for paying off the loan in a shorter amount of time. What you’re loking for is the most flexible terms, along with low interest and low fees, with as little penalties as possible.
Source
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