Have equity in your home? Want a lower payment? An appraisal from The Welter Appraisal Group can help you get rid of your PMI.When buying a house, a 20% down payment is usually the standard. Because the liability for the lender is generally only the remainder between the home value and the sum remaining on the loan, the 20% provides a nice buffer against the charges of foreclosure, selling the home again, and natural value changesin the event a purchaser doesn't pay. During the recent mortgage upturn of the mid 2000s, it was common to see lenders taking down payments of 10, 5 or sometimes 0 percent. A lender is able to handle the additional risk of the low down payment with Private Mortgage Insurance or PMI. PMI guards the lender in the event a borrower defaults on the loan and the market price of the house is lower than what the borrower still owes on the loan. Since the $40-$50 a month per $100,000 borrowed is lumped into the mortgage monthly payment and oftentimes isn't even tax deductible, PMI can be expensive to a borrower. It's advantageous for the lender because they acquire the money, and they receive payment if the borrower doesn't pay, opposite from a piggyback loan where the lender takes in all the deficits. 
Does your monthly mortgage payment include PMI? Contact us, you may be able to save money by removing your PMI. How can a home owner avoid bearing the expense of PMI?With the implementation of The Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, on most loans lenders are obligated to automatically eliminate the PMI when the principal balance of the loan reaches 78 percent of the initial loan amount. The law stipulates that, upon request of the homeowner, the PMI must be dropped when the principal amount equals just 80 percent. So, savvy homeowners can get off the hook ahead of time. It can take countless years to get to the point where the principal is just 20% of the original amount borrowed, so it's essential to know how your home has increased in value. After all, every bit of appreciation you've gained over the years counts towards abolishing PMI. So why should you pay it after your loan balance has dropped below the 80% threshold? Your neighborhood might not be adhering to the national trends and/or your home could have gained equity before things simmered down, so even when nationwide trends forecast plunging home values, you should realize that real estate is local. The difficult thing for almost all home owners to understand is just when their home's equity rises above the 20% point. A certified, licensed real estate appraiser can definitely help. It's an appraiser's job to keep up with the market dynamics of their area. At The Welter Appraisal Group, we're masters at analyzing value trends in Oakhurst, Monmouth County and surrounding areas, and we know when property values have risen or declined. When faced with data from an appraiser, the mortgage company will most often do away with the PMI with little trouble. At that time, the homeowner can delight in the savings from that point on.
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