Basking Ridge Homes For Sale

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We’ve all seen them, lurking around the corner, maybe in the next neighborhood: houses with unaccountably strange paint jobs. As entertaining as they are to look at, odd ducks like these might deter future buyers and tend to lower property values of nearby homes. Check out these extreme exteriors to learn how your home’s fresh coat can look good and preserve the worth of your home and neighborhood.

Blend Into the Neighborhood

The exterior of your house says a lot about you. But even if you have the most exuberant personality on your block, you still have an obligation to fit in with your neighbors. This is especially true if your property is part of a home owners association — an HOA. Most HOAs have strict rules about the style of your house, your choice of paint colors, and other criteria that help preserve the property values of nearby homes.

Wake Up and Smell the Daisies

Choosing great exterior colors means selecting body, trim, and accent colors that complement each other. If chartreuse and salmon are your idea of a cool combo, you’d be wise to check out an app like ColorSnap from Sherwin-Williams. Take a photo of your property, and ColorSnap suggests harmonious color combinations for your house. The free app is available for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.

A Solid Foundation for Your Color Scheme

Painting foundation walls neutral colors emphasizes the body color of your siding — hopefully that’s a good thing. Rough-textured concrete block and poured concrete foundation walls are tricky to paint, and finishing them is a time-consuming project. Use an exterior paint formulated for concrete and masonry.

From Out of the Blue

Artist Peter Kaschnig certainly was in his blue period when he painted this entire house in Klagenfort, Austria, a royal azure. While Kaschnig managed to cover every nook and cranny with blue paint — including roofing and windows — he spilled nary a drop on the surrounding lawn, thanks to proper use of tools and drop cloths.

Going Green, Literally

If you want to green up your exterior paint job, selecting bright green paint isn’t exactly what we had in mind. Get with environmentally friendly techniques by selecting low-VOC paints and recycling your used paints and stains.

Over-Exuberance

If you lived here, you wouldn’t have much trouble finding your house, day or night. Keep your polka dots bright with regular maintenance that includes cleaning your siding, repairing cracks and damage promptly, and refinishing with high-quality exterior paints and stains.

An Un-a-Peeling Exterior

Whatever the color, the abandoned, horror movie look is never inviting. But before you start sanding and scraping, test for the presence of lead paint. If your test is positive, read up on lead paint laws that describe how to deal with the problem safely.

Keeping it Simple

Multiple colors are eye-catching but spell trouble when it comes time to repaint. To reduce ongoing maintenance, choose a base color and one or two trim colors that simplify repainting. Top-quality exterior paints may cost more initially but will pay for themselves in reduced upkeep costs over the years.

Strut Your Stuff

With its dark red door, black shutters, and crisp white trim, this Colonial house has a classic color scheme — unless you factor in that dash of marketing bling on the siding. No matter what color or message says “pride of ownership” to you, you’ll get the best results using the right painting tools, brushes, and rollers.

If I can help you with any additional information regarding this article, or with any of your home buying or selling needs or if you know someone who would like some assistance, please feel free to visit my website to learn more about me www.AdrienneFrancis.com or text or call me at (201) 259-4449 .

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Real estate agents use comparable sales or “comps” (properties recently sold in the area) to see what the market bears for a listing price or value range marketing.

But what makes a home a good comp? A few things must line up in order for the agent to utilize the comp to justify your listing price. The same neighborhood, school district, similar street and, of course, similar housing features and size. If these things align, then a comp can be used to provide a current estimated value of your home.

Ideally, using a comp from a home that is the same model in the same subdivision is key. Even better is if a sold comp closed escrow very recently. Taking comps from many weeks or months before can weaken the comp.

The expertise of a highly knowledgeable real estate agent can save you many hours of research and headaches. Most people don’t really know how to compare real estate properties, which is why they hire an agent. Good agents take the work out of selling your home and give you solid reason to understand why the agent is pricing the home at a particular price.

Location, upgrades, amenities, sale date, extras, foreclosures, short sales, and unique nuances of the home all affect the listing price and how your home is compared to a comp.

Taking a closer look at each of these shows exactly what people in your area might be looking for when it comes to buying a home. For instance, a higher price on a home that has a pool can indicate that this is a family neighborhood and buyers put an increased value on amenities that create family/social fun. Your home may not have a pool but it might have another type of amenity: tennis courts, gym, or putting green.

Agents look at both what is similar and what makes your home stand out. They search for the best characteristics to showcase and, when comparing your home to others that have sold, they look to see how yours stacks up from a buyer’s perspective.

Agents can add value to a home that might not have, say, for instance, the pool. Instead, your home might have an extra bedroom or den complete with floor-to-ceiling, high-quality bookcases.

Reviewing the comps can provide a lot of insight about sales in your neighborhood. Physically viewing the properties can be even more eye-opening. Agents who routinely work in the neighborhood may have an excellent grasp of which homes will sell fastest. It’s not a lucky guess.

They’ve been inside these homes and have seen the notable upgrades or the tragic flaws of a home. They also know which homes were foreclosures or short sales. Generally, a foreclosed home is in poor condition. However, a short sale can be in much better condition. Both of these sales are at discounted rates. So, if a comp is used from one of these types of sales, your agent will take careful consideration to evaluate the distinct differences that may increase the value and, ultimately, the listing price on your home.

If I can help you with any additional information regarding this article, or with any of your home buying or selling needs or if you know someone who would like some assistance, please feel free to visit my website to learn more about me www.AdrienneFrancis.com or text or call me at (201) 259-4449 .

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1. Time it right
Wait a few more weeks to put that “for sale” sign in front of your home. Few houses sell until after Super Bowl Sunday. If your house has been on the market for more than four months, take it off the market and re-list it in two months as “new.”

2. Price it at exactly what it’s worth
The most influential factor in selling a home is always price. Don’t build “wiggle room” into the asking price. There’s a price war out there and you have to win it from the get-go. Shop the competition to see what similar homes are selling for and price your home 10 to 15 percent lower so it’s the first house shown. Or you can get price estimates from three good brokers and go with the lowest. If you’ve overpriced your home, then make one big reduction. The worst thing you can do is make a series of small price reductions along the way — it’s the equivalent of chasing the tide as it rolls out.

3. Get your home inspected before you list
Don’t wait for the would-be buyer to discover the problems you could have fixed before selling. When they’re discovered, buyers will just move to the next house or rack up reasons to expect price cuts.

4. Offer financial incentives up front
Don’t wait for the negotiations to throw in extra price incentives — offer them up front. Offer to pre-pay the first year of property taxes, pay closing costs, include free cleaning, lawn care or snow-removal services for a year. If you’re moving and have no place to put your money, the best incentive out there today is “seller financing.” Make sure to put your incentives front and forward in the listing information.

5. Wage war online
A whopping 89 percent of buyers start their home search online. How your house looks online is the modern equivalent of “curb appeal.” Rent a wide-angle lens and good lighting, get rid of your clutter and post at least eight great photos to win the beauty contest.

Don’t just rely on your broker to post the listing in all the high-trafficked websites. The most visited home sale websites today are:

• Yahoo! real estate
• Realtor.com
• Zillow
• Trulia.com
• Zip realty

6. Use the best broker
The top 10 percent of sales agents generate 90 percent of the sales and they’re the ones most likely to sell your home. To find a smart broker, go to a reputable firm and ask the sales manager for a broker in the top 10 percent.

7. Spend money on the three key spaces:

• The front of the house
  Buyers decide in the first eight seconds of seeing a home if they’re interested in buying it. Get out of your car, walk in their shoes and see what they see within the first eight seconds. Edge your lawn, mulch your flower beds, trim your bushes, steam clean your driveway and paint your door and trim.
• The living room
  Get rid of ALL your clutter, including a third of your furniture. Paint the walls a neutral white and add touches of color. If you can afford to stage one room, this is it.
• The kitchen
  Invest in cheap expenses like changing the cabinet fronts, new lights and fixtures, new knobs and drawer pulls, installing a chic new backsplash, resurfacing the floors and getting one new, fancy-looking appliance.

8. Lighten your house
After location, light is the second-most cited reason buyers choose a particular house. Paint the inside walls white, clean the windows, trim back shrubs and trees, replace heavy drapery with sheer curtains or shades, put sheer white shades on your lamps and higher-wattage bulbs.

9. Stage your home
The typical cost of staging a house is $1,500. If you can’t spend the money, visit more expensive model homes in your area and try to mimic the look. It’s what today’s buyers want.

If I can help you with any additional information regarding this article, or with any of your home buying or selling needs or if you know someone who would like some assistance, please feel free to visit my website to learn more about me www.AdrienneFrancis.com or text or call me at ( 201) 259-4449 .

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It’s important to note that repairing bad credit is a bit like losing weight: It takes time and there is no quick way to fix a credit score. In fact, out of all of the ways to improve a credit score, quick-fix efforts are the most likely to backfire, so beware of any advice that claims to improve your credit score fast. The best advice for rebuilding credit is to manage it responsibly over time. If you haven’t done that, then you need to repair your credit history before you see credit score improvement. The tips below will help you do that. They are divided up into categories based on the data used to calculate your credit score.

3 Important Things You Can Do Right Now

1. Check Your Credit Report – Credit score repair begins with your credit report. If you haven’t already, request a free copy of your credit report and check it for errors. Your credit report contains the data used to calculate your score and it may contain errors. In particular, check to make sure that there are no late payments incorrectly listed for any of your accounts and that the amounts owed for each of your open accounts is correct. If you find errors on any of your reports, dispute them with the credit bureau and reporting agency.Read more about Disputing Errors on Your Credit Report
2. Setup Payment Reminders – Making your credit payments on time is one of the biggest contributing factors to your credit score. Some banks offer payment reminders through their online banking portals that can send you an email or text message reminding you when a payment is due. You could also consider enrolling in automatic payments through your credit card and loan providers to have payments automatically debited from your bank account, but this only makes the minimum payment on your credit cards and does not help instill a sense of money management.
3. Reduce the Amount of Debt You Owe – This is easier said than done, but reducing the amount that you owe is going to be a far more satisfying achievement than improving your credit score. The first thing you need to do is stop using your credit cards. Use your credit report to make a list of all of your accounts and then go online or check recent statements to determine how much you owe on each account and what interest rate they are charging you. Come up with a payment plan that puts most of your available budget for debt payments towards the highest interest cards first, while maintaining minimum payments on your other accounts.

More Tips on How to Fix a Credit Score & Maintain Good Credit

Payment History Tips

Contributing 35% to your score calculation, this category has the greatest effect on improving your score, but past problems like missed or late payments are not easily fixed.

• Pay your bills on time.
  Delinquent payments, even if only a few days late, and collections can have a major negative impact on your FICO score.
• If you have missed payments, get current and stay current.
  The longer you pay your bills on time after being late, the more your FICO score should increase. Older credit problems count for less, so poor credit performance won’t haunt you forever. The impact of past credit problems on your FICO score fades as time passes and as recent good payment patterns show up on your credit report. And good FICO scores weigh any credit problems against the positive information that says you’re managing your credit well.
• Be aware that paying off a collection account will not remove it from your credit report.
  It will stay on your report for seven years.
• If you are having trouble making ends meet, contact your creditors or see a legitimate credit counselor.
  This won’t rebuild your credit score immediately, but if you can begin to manage your credit and pay on time, your score should increase over time. And seeking assistance from a credit counseling service will not hurt your FICO score.

Amounts Owed Tips

This category contributes 30% to your score’s calculation and can be easier to clean up than payment history, but that requires financial discipline and understanding the tips below.

• Keep balances low on credit cards and other “revolving credit”.
  High outstanding debt can affect a credit score.
• Pay off debt rather than moving it around.
  The most effective way to improve your credit score in this area is by paying down your revolving (credit cards) debt. In fact, owing the same amount but having fewer open accounts may lower your score.
• Don’t close unused credit cards as a short-term strategy to raise your score.
• Don’t open a number of new credit cards that you don’t need, just to increase your available credit.
  This approach could backfire and actually lower your credit score.

Length of Credit History Tips

• If you have been managing credit for a short time, don’t open a lot of new accounts too rapidly.
  New accounts will lower your average account age, which will have a larger effect on your score if you don’t have a lot of other credit information. Also, rapid account buildup can look risky if you are a new credit user.

New Credit Tips

• Do your rate shopping for a given loan within a focused period of time.
  FICO scores distinguish between a search for a single loan and a search for many new credit lines, in part by the length of time over which inquiries occur.
• Re-establish your credit history if you have had problems.
  Opening new accounts responsibly and paying them off on time will raise your credit score in the long term.
• Note that it’s OK to request and check your own credit report.
  This won’t affect your score, as long as you order your credit report directly from the credit reporting agency or through an organization authorized to provide credit reports to consumers.

Types of Credit Use Tips

• Apply for and open new credit accounts only as needed.
  Don’t open accounts just to have a better credit mix – it probably won’t raise your credit score.
• Have credit cards – but manage them responsibly.
  In general, having credit cards and installment loans (and paying timely payments) will rebuild your credit score. Someone with no credit cards, for example, tends to be higher risk than someone who has managed credit cards responsibly.
• Note that closing an account doesn’t make it go away.
  A closed account will still show up on your credit report, and may be considered by the score.

To summarize, “fixing” a credit score is more about fixing errors in your credit history (if they exist) and then following the guidelines above to maintain consistent, good credit history. Raising your score after a poor mark on your report or building credit for the first time will take patience and discipline.

If I can help you with any additional information regarding this article, or with any of your home buying or selling needs or if you know someone who would like some assistance, please feel free to visit my website to learn more about me www.AdrienneFrancis.com or text or call me at  (201) 259-4449  .

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After living in a home for years, most homeowners have put off taking care of various home maintenance items. Because there’s usually no urgency, they procrastinate. It takes an emergency, such as a roof leak in the heavy rainy season, to motivate owners to get the problem fixed.

However, when you decide to sell your home, deferred home maintenance can suddenly become an issue. Most buyers want a home they can move right into without having to make a lot of repairs. And so, sellers have to decide whether to make the deferred repairs before they put their home on the market, or to leave the work for the buyers to fix.

If sellers have the time, money and the inclination, they’ll come out way ahead by fixing any problems before listing their house for sale. If your house is in move-in condition it will appeal to a wider group of prospective home buyers. For example, first-time home buyers, and buyers with busy lifestyles, often won’t even consider buying a home that needs a lot of work. That’s because they don’t have the time or the experience to deal with the problems.

Listings that command the most attention are those that are in the best condition. If a home looks sharp and is priced right, more than one buyer may make an offer. When multiple offers occur, the price may get bid up. Even if there aren’t multiple offers, experience has shown that a house in good condition will sell more quickly than one that needs work. A quick sale often means that the sales price is very close to the list price.

Today’s prospective home buyers are very particular, and few are willing to buy “fixer-uppers.” If sellers don’t make repairs before putting their home on the market there’ll be less interest in the property, and it may take a long time to sell. Usually the longer a listing sits on the market unsold, the lower the ultimate selling price.

Remember that every home buyer has a professional inspection done to determine the condition of the property. So, when selling a home that needs a lot of repairs, the closing could be delayed if the buyer requests repairs or the lender requires the work to be completed prior to funding the loan. Skilled workers are very busy today and it may be difficult to schedule major repairs to close on time.

MORE HINTS:  Sellers may not be able to fix everything that’s wrong with their home before listing it for sale. But, it’s really important to spend your money on those repairs that will have the most impact on prospective buyers. An experienced real estate agent should be able to walk through your home with you and prepare a written list of all the improvements to be completed before listing. He can guide you as to which items are the most important. Ask how much difference it will make in the selling price if you complete none, some or all of the recommended repairs. See Neal Hribar’s home staging program for more information on preparing your home for sale.

If I can help you with any additional information regarding this article, or with any of your home buying or selling needs or if you know someone who would like some assistance, please feel free to visit my website to learn more about me www.AdrienneFrancis.com or text or call me at (201) 259-4449 .

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Q. It’s time for your yearly performance review. You aren’t expecting any big surprises, but you still feel a little nervous. How should you prepare for this meeting?

A. Start by making a list of your responsibilities at work and writing your own performance review in each of those areas, says Shawn Kent Hayashi, the founder of the Professional Development Group and the author of “Conversations for Creating Star Performers.” “Thinking through how you’ve done,” she says, “will prevent you from overreacting to feedback because you know what to expect.”

Annual reviews give you the chance to discuss and formulate goals for the next year. Before the meeting, write down the goals you envision for yourself. These can be very specific, like reaching a certain sales target or mastering particular software, or something more general, like increasing professional development activities, says Stephen R. Balzac, president of 7 Steps Ahead, a management consulting firm in Stow, Mass., and a professor of organizational psychology at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.

As you think about your work over the last year, try to anticipate anything negative that may come up in the review. Prepare for it by looking over old notes and e-mails to remember specific situations and your actions and behavior at the time, Mr. Balzac says. Good preparation will reduce anxiety.

Q. At the review, you get some very positive feedback. Can you use it as a springboard to ask for something you want?

A. Build on those positive feelings by saying you want to go further in 2012. “Talk about your strengths, how you want to use those to help the organization and where you see growth opportunities for yourself at the company,” says Kimberley Bohr, senior vice president for client development at Fierce, a leadership development firm in Seattle. If you have something specific in mind, like a role on a particular project, this is the time to bring it up, she says.

If you work for a very small company where the owners make decisions about pay raises, your review could be an appropriate time to ask for one, as long as you are a high performer, Ms. Hayashi says. Bigger companies, however, have a formal budget process and your boss will probably have to get approval from higher-ups to give you an increase. That can take a few months, she says, so bring up the issue to your boss at least two months before your review.

“There should never be surprises during your performance review, because it’s a summary of all the conversations you’ve had prior to it,” Ms. Hayashi says. “And that includes one about compensation.”

Q. What if the feedback is unexpectedly negative?

A. Even though your manager should have given you some advance warning of the criticism, take a deep breath before you speak, and don’t be defensive. “You never want your performance review to be confrontational, so start by thanking your manager for the valuable feedback,” says Ms. Hayashi, whose firm is based in Center Valley, Pa.

It’s important to be clear about the specific behavior your manager is criticizing, so ask for examples to help you better understand the problem. If your boss says you are too aggressive in meetings, for example, ask for instances of that behavior.

“Then ask your manager what she would recommend to help you improve in that area,” Ms. Hayashi says. “Would she be willing to guide your development to turn that around over the next 30 to 90 days? Suggest checking in each week about it.”

Q. Performance reviews offer a chance for you to plan your career development — and you don’t want to squander that. What should you talk about?

A. Broadly, the discussion should center on your future at the company and your professional aspirations. Show that you are optimistic and excited about both, says Patrick Sweeney, president of the management consulting firm Caliper in Princeton, N.J., and co-author of “Succeed on Your Own Terms.”

“Be as specific as you can about what you want moving forward, such as: ‘In three years I’d love to be leading projects. How can I move in that direction this year?’ ” he says.

It’s also important to take some control of your manager’s perception of you.

“So many companies have gone through cutbacks in personnel that those left are doing more than their own jobs,” Mr. Sweeney says. “Your boss knows more is getting done, but here is your chance to let him know exactly what you have been doing and why you can handle other opportunities within the company.”

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If I can help you with any additional information regarding this article, or with any of your home buying or selling needs or if you know someone who would like some assistance, please feel free to visit my website to learn more about me www.AdrienneFrancis.com or text or call me at (201)259-4449 .

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If your New Year’s resolutions include buying a house or refinancing, the Federal Reserve has you covered. It has committed to keep long-term interest rates low through next year, so a 30-year mortgage will be pegged about where it is now — 4.32 percent in New York — at least through spring, said Frank E. Nothaft, the chief economist at Freddie Mac.

“Rates are very much at the bottom,” Mr. Nothaft said. But, he added, they may start inching up in the second half of the year. “If you’re planning to refinance, do it sooner rather than later.”

In order to cash in fully on some of the lowest interest rates ever recorded, buyers and owners need to start taking steps now, experts say. Rather than look for a house you really want, they suggest first finding out how much money you can afford to borrow, and what you can do in the next three to six months to improve your creditworthiness.

“Sometimes it takes a few extra months to get your ducks in a row,” particularly if there are mistakes or blemishes on your credit report, said Gene Tricozzi, the president of Northern Funding Corporation, a mortgage brokerage in Clifton Park, N.Y. If your score is below 700, your mortgage interest rate could be a quarter to a half percentage point higher than for those with stronger scores, experts say.

Start by ordering copies of your credit reports and reviewing them for inaccuracies or disputes. Tracy Becker, the president of North Shore Advisory Inc., a credit restoration company in Tarrytown, N.Y., suggests doing this a year in advance, if possible, to give yourself ample time to fix any issues, like an inadvertently missed payment or an address error.

Do not close any credit accounts now; doing so can reduce your score by as much as 60 points, she said, adding that banks like to see two to four accounts in the applicant’s name.

Once your credit score is established, identify two or three mortgage bankers or brokers whom you may want to work with. Ask friends, people in your religious or social circles, or your accountant for recommendations. Then do the due diligence on each candidate and meet with them to see who is the best fit.

Determine what your down payment and other out-of-pocket costs will be as you figure out what you can afford to buy. Use a mortgage calculator, or ask the mortgage officers to give you a range that would be comfortable.

Closing costs may be more difficult to estimate because they usually include prepaid real estate taxes and various fees for title insurance, mortgage taxes and more. Total closing costs in 2010 on a $200,000 mortgage were $3,843 in Connecticut and $6,183 in New York state, according to research by Bankrate.com in June.

Those figures exclude association fees, prepaid items and state taxes, which in New York City and a few other places can run 1.9 percent of the loan value for the mortgage recording tax.

It is a good idea to discuss your plan to buy a home with a financial planner or accountant. Your tax adviser may be able to guide you on tax deductions and decisions for your 2011 return. Some mortgages, including those offered by the Federal Housing Administration and those made to self-employed individuals, require two years of tax returns.

In those cases, taxpayers may want to be “a little less aggressive” with deductions so the income figure looks stronger, said Matt Hackett, the underwriting manager of Equity Now, a direct mortgage lender based in New York..

Finally, keep an eye on those interest rates. Mr. Nothaft expects the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to end the year “well below 5 percent” — which could still mean a 0.75-point increase a year from now.

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If I can help you with any additional information regarding this article, or with any of your home buying or selling needs or if you know someone who would like some assistance, please feel free to visit my website to learn more about me www.AdrienneFrancis.com or text or call me at (201) 259-4449.

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WITH interest rates at historic lows, the expansion of a federal refinancing program could help more homeowners who owe more than their property is worth move out of higher-rate or adjustable loans into something more affordable and stable.

The biggest change to the plan, called the Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP, raises the debt limit at which such borrowers can obtain a new mortgage. Those who owe more than 125 percent of their home’s value are now eligible; the previous limit for many government programs was 97 percent to 125 percent. The percentage ratio is known as loan-to-value, or LTV. The government also reduced some fees.

While homeowners moving into fixed-rate mortgages will have no ceiling on their loan-to-value ratio, those who are sticking with an adjustable-rate mortgage will have a limit of 105 percent, said Jack Guttentag, a retired finance professor who now writes and runs a Web site called the Mortgage Professor. (ARMs are allowed if the initial rate is fixed for at least five years.)

The expansion could more than double the number of people who have refinanced under the Home Affordable Refinance Program, which in the first two years has helped 900,000 borrowers, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. This could mean one million refinancings in 2012, and a similar number in 2013.

The expanded program, dubbed HARP 2, could be “a potential lifeline for people who are underwater,” said Michael Bizenov, an executive vice president of Sterling National Bank, which has branches throughout New York and Long Island. But Mr. Bizenov and others say the program is getting a slow rollout.

You must meet three basic criteria to qualify for a HARP 2 refinancing:

• Your mortgage must be owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and must have originated on or before May 31, 2009. (Each has a Web site page that will check your address for eligibility.)

• You must have been current on your mortgage for at least six straight months and have had at most one late payment in the last 12 months. If you are uncertain, check with your servicer or look on your statements for any late charges.

• Your loan-to-value ratio must be above 80 percent, and you cannot have previously refinanced under HARP.

The next step is to visit your current lender’s Web site or office to start the discussion. “They’re the first ones who could help you if you’re eligible,” said Erin Lantz, the director of the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, which has a tool that lets owners see if they qualify.

Some lenders started offering HARP 2 loans this month, while others will not begin until January. John Forlines, the vice president and chief credit officer for single-family product at Fannie Mae, said it would be fully rolled out by most lenders by mid-March.

Bank of America, one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders, has already instituted the lower pricing and fees on HARP 2 mortgages and will begin making the higher loan-to-value refinancing in January, said Terry Francisco, a senior vice president. Wells Fargo, another big lender, said it would be “some time” before it started the expanded program.Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will waive many closing fees for owners refinancing into a 15- or 20-year HARP mortgage. This could save borrowers charges ranging from a quarter of a percentage point to two percentage points of the loan amount, though banks are free to set their own fees.But going to a 15- or 20-year mortgage from, say, a 30-year mortgage or an interest-only one in an effort to build equity faster could set off a closer review of your finances if your monthly payment increased by 20 percent or more, Mr. Forlines said.

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If I can help you with any additional information regarding this article, or with any of your home buying or selling needs or if you know someone who would like some assistance, please feel free to visit my website to learn more about me www.AdrienneFrancis.com or text or call me at (201) 259-4449 .

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If I can help you with any of your home buying or selling needs, please visit my website www.AdrienneFrancis.com or contact me at 201 259-4449. I look forward to helping you.