Of
course the legal side of all this is well put by Consumer Action:
"Federal law requires you be given more information and special protections
if your loan is a 'high rate, high fee loan'— a refinancing loan secured
by your home or a second mortgage with an interest rate that is at least
10 percentage points higher than the rates on Treasury securities of the
same maturity.
For
instance, if the rate on a 30-year Treasury security is 6.27%, any second
mortgage or refinancing with a rate of 16.27% or higher will trigger the
requirement. If the lender violates the law, you may have up to three
years to cancel the loan and you may sue the lender for violating the
law.
On high rate, high fee loans, in addition to written notice of your three-day
right of recission, you must be given a warning notice that you could
lose your home and any equity built up in your home. "
Also
banned by law for this type loan are balloon payments, higher interest
charges because of late payment, negative amortization, and a few other
things.
But
a key issue is, don't trust contractors who knock on your door telling
you about needed home repairs especially if they recommend a lender to
finance the work. Sometimes dishonest lenders work with building contractors
to deceive home owners.
Contact
the appropriate licensing agency and ask if there are any complaints or
disciplinary actions against a contractor you are thinking of working
with. Only 36 states require contractors to be licensed. If you live in
a state with no license requirement, call your district attorney, consumer
protection office and the Better Business Bureau to see if they have received
any complaints.
Home
Equity Loan Fraud and Bad Choices
Per
Consumer Action, "In most cases, it is legal for someone who lends you
money secured by your home to seize your home if you do not make all the
payments on time. Because of this, dishonest individuals have found ways
to rip off home owners with high rate, high fee home loans that are impossible
to repay."
BankRate.com
says,
"...
we need to remind consumers that they are dealing with their home equity.
The price of default is the loss of their home. With any second mortgage,
they (the consumer) should realize what they are getting into. The basic
qualification is whether you can afford the payments."
The
key to making a sound decision on a home equity is a matter of knowing
your own self discipline. If the loan is to pay off high interest debt
and then you continue to accumulate more debt, you are taking a major
chance of losing your home. If you do not have the self discipline to
tear up your credt cards and vow to operate on a cash basis only, my recommendation
is never consider a home equity loan. Find another way. Even if it is
an emergency, find another way! Either find another way or accept the
fact that the time left in your home is now limited because you will be
losing it to your lack of self-discipline.
Negative
Equity
One
of the worst financial tools I have seen is Negative Equity. Lenders at
times will let you borrow up to 125% of your home value. For example,
if your home is valued at $150,000 and you borrow your equity based upon
125% of the value of your home, you are facing a mortgage balance of $187,500
... $37,500 more that the house is worth. What if you have to move due
to job relocation, or health issues, or scores of other reasons that force
thousands to move annually. You certainly won't be selling the house for
$187,500 especially after Real Estate commission, closing costs, fix up,
etc.
In my own article Negative Equity and Reverse Mortgage, I stated that,
"this major financial shift potentially alters the property owners degree
of fiscal responsibility since it alters the previous traditional 10-20%
stake in the property. Additionally, this market is so huge that appraisals
are accomplished not formally as previously required, but by drive-by
rough gauge of market value. Driving this recklessness is a projected
$7 billion earning from negative equity loans in 1997 alone."
Circumstances
have not changed since.