Feb 21
If you’re getting ready to apply for your first home loan, you’re going to need to understand the home loan basics.
Home Loan Basics
When you go to apply for a home loan, you need to understand the terminology. Let’s start with the most basic of terms.
1. Principal – The principal is simply the amount you borrow to move into the home of your desires. If you apply for a loan of $250,000, the amount the bank actually gives you is the principal amount.
2. Interest – Every home loan comes with an interest rate. The interest rate is the amount a lender is charging you to borrow the principal. Interest rates are typically the key to a loan as there are a wide variety of loans that have flexible interest rates that change every year, ever few years or simply remain set over time. In general, you want to minimize the interest rate as much as possible.
3. Term – The term of the loan is simply the number of months you have to repay the money you’ve borrowed from the lender. For instance, a 30-year fixed rate mortgage is indicative of a term of 360 monthly payments to be made over 30 years. Don’t worry, there are loans of much shorter periods of time.
Amortization
Amortization is not only a mouthful, it is the one term that may confuse you during the loan process. First time home buyers often mistakenly assume the same amount of interest and principal will be reduced in each loan payment. Unfortunately, lending institutions are not willing to go about it this way, which leads us to amortization.
With amortization, lenders typically apply many of the initial payments on your mortgage almost entirely to the interest owed on the loan. If your loan calls for monthly payments of $1,000, the first payment may have $900 applied to interest and only $100 applied to the principal. As the months pass, the amount paid on the principal will increase. Yes, it is maddening.
Feb 18
These days when there is so much of hue and cry amongst private loan agencies, each trying to downplay the merits and work of the other, the loans offered by government remain immaculate and selflessly benefiting the public.
Government loans are a cut above the rest in quite a few ways. Firstly every private agency offering loan does it with the purpose of making profits but in contrast to this government loans are meant only for the welfare of public. Since government is a body meant for the people, it does not seek any personal gains. Unlike the private banks and other such loan agencies, government also offers loans to those downtrodden people who can hardly pay it back. Government loans not just a great help to the destitute but also a big contribution in the smooth functioning of the economy of the country.
Government loans are primarily of three kinds- Business Loans, Loans for Home Buyers and Loans for Higher Education.
Since small businesses are quite important for the US economy, in order to promote them and enhance their development, government of America offers business loans to its citizens. All those individuals who desire to kick-start their careers by venturing into some business can materialize their dreams with the help of government business loans. What more can be added to the glory of government loans but that the present day eminent brands such as Nike, Apple Computer, Compaq Computer etc. had commenced with the aid of government loans only.
Government loans are immensely beneficial for those seeking a shelter. Government gives home loans for legal purchase of any big or small house. The rate of interest on these home loans is deliberately less in comparison to loans taken from private organizations.
Since government of America seeks to have overall development of the country, it provides financial assistance not only to elderly people but also to children or students. Government enables students to have a bright future by virtue of education loans. These loans are a great help particularly to students who do not come from affluent families. These loans provide a wonderful opportunity to students to go for higher education even in popular universities. The readily available government loans for higher education not just help a student by sponsoring his studies but are a boon for his family too. This is because the parents are then released from the burden of hefty fees for their child’s higher studies. A student can pay back the loan after completing his studies and acquiring a decent job.
The drawbacks of government loans are that these loans are provided only to law-abiding citizens and for legal purposes. Also a great deal of paper work is required to procure a government loan. The government loans are not service at your doorstep. So lot of physical labor is required to get a government loan. Moreover government loans are not that readily available as loans by private agencies. So it takes quite a few days in applying for a government loan and actually getting it.
Yet the shortcomings of government loans can never dominate their merits. At the end of the day it is the choice of the customer to decide, which way to go.
