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Mortgage Insurance Defined

Monday, November 1st, 2010

A mortgage insurance is a financial guarantee to ensures the lender against loss in case the borrower fails to pay his or her mortgage. This means that if you are buying a house with less than twenty percent down payment or you are refinancing up to more than eighty percent the value of your home, you are required to pay for the mortgage insurance.

This type of insurance is also beneficial to a homebuyer since it allows them to become homeowners soon and significantly increases their purchasing ability. If a buyer does not have the guarantee of mortgage insurance, lenders usually require a borrower to make a twenty percent down payment of the purchase price for a house, which means years of saving for some people. The large down payment ensures the mortgage lender that the borrower is committed to his or her investment and will try to meet the monthly mortgage obligation to protect the home investment. With mortgage insurance, the lender will accept as least five or ten percent down payment form a borrower since the mortgage insurance fills the gap between the regular twenty-percent down requirement.

The borrower generally pays for this insurance. An initial premium will be collected during the closing and depending on the selected premium plan; a monthly payment may be included in the payment of the house made to the mortgage lender. The mortgage lender then remits the payment to the mortgage insurance. This insurance is sometimes referred as a private mortgage insurance or PMI. Its cost varies depending on the size of the down payment of the home loan. Nevertheless, it usually amounts to around one-half of one percent of the loan.

This kind of insurance plays an important role in home ownership. Without a mortgage insurance, people will not be able to get a loan to acquire a home. While it is somewhat costly, it is a means of securing a mortgage and getting you closer to the home of your dreams. Keep in mind that this type of insurance does not remain with your forever. There are also financing options that will keep you from paying for it when looking for home financing.

Furthermore, it covers your mortgage payments as the borrower in case you are unable to pay for your monthly mortgage due to illness, injury or long-term unemployment. If these things have happened to you before, then it is more important to get an insurance of this kind. This insurance provides you with a percentage of income in case of loss of earnings. There are some income protection plans that even cover mortgage payments in the policies. Lenders can feel more secure in their ability to offer loans to people. Without this insurance, lending money on homes will be riskier for most banks and for mortgage companies this means higher rates. Make sure to weigh your options well when it comes to finding financing for your home purchase.

Introduction to Mortgage Insurance

Friday, September 24th, 2010

Mortgage insurance is a type of insurance paid to a lender of a mortgage or to an independent private third party as a security on the affordability to pay a mortgage loan. This has both benefits for the lender and the borrower and can help even help to reduce the cost of the loan.

If someone has taken out insurance for mortgage and then finds themselves unable to repay the loan instalments, then the mortgage insurance will pay out that amount. In other cases the mortgage insurance company will cover damages for the lenders after foreclosure and resale of the mortgaged property.

This insurance for mortgage then provides a very important backup for both lender and borrower. For the lender it means that they won’t be left without getting their payments back, which would put them out of pocket. For the borrower meanwhile it means that they won’t be placed in increasing debt if they are unable to pay the mortgage. The problem here is that most people who can’t pay their mortgage repayments will be difficult financially, meaning that the last thing they’ll need is for the debt to continue to hang over them. At the same time this will mean that they are not required to put anything else up against the loan as collateral. If a borrower owned another property for example, they might otherwise have used this as their guarantee and risked losing two homes. Finally, mortgage insurance will mean that the lenders are able to borrow the money with confidently and know for certain that they are going to get their investment returned. This in turn means that the cost of the loan can be decreased.

On average loan insurance is around $55 a month, $100,000 finances or up to $1,500 a year. It’s important for borrowers to shop around for good insurance then to ensure that they get a good price. At the same time it’s also important to compare the policies, and to see what precisely what you are covered for. This is very important to many business loan insurance will not cover for things such as existing conditions, meaning that a lot of people can get caught out for not reading the small print.

Many lenders will include an insurance in their loan. This is called ‘loan repayment insurance’ and is essentially the same thing as mortgage insurance (but more generalised). However it is important that you don’t just accept the insurance given with your loan, as often this has a very high APR as well as a far from comprehensive cover meaning you can almost always get a better deal going privately. Many lenders will add their loan repayment insurance onto the cost of the loan itself which of course means that you end up paying interest on your insurance too. Much controversy surrounds this area, as many lenders have been considered including insurance on their loans with fully informing the customers. As such when you take out a mortgage you should always ask about loan repayment insurance even if you don’t think you’re paying for it. If you are, then cancel it and take out a insurance for your mortgage.