When you are in a jam, there are always people willing to exploit your plight, but the so-called helpers aren’t always honest.  You may need help, but you don’t want to make things worse by hooking up with a company that either can’t deliver or has no intention of delivering once it has your money.

If you are in a position where you want to sell your home quickly, Express Homebuyers is an honest company with both reputation and resource.  We will buy it from you for cash and complete your deal within a couple weeks. There is no charge for our services. And, we are Better Business Bureau accredited.

Who uses Express Homebuyers?  Many different kinds of people!

• People who have trouble selling because they do not have equity in their home.
  • Those who have experienced the death of a loved one or the need to settle an estate.
  • People who are tired of being a landlord.
  • Those who need to sell because of a divorce.
  • People who are behind on payments or facing foreclosure.
  • Anyone who bought a new home, but can’t sell the old one.
  • People who own vacant houses or houses that need repairs.
  • Those with liens or title problems.
  • People working with a real estate agent who hasn’t come through as promised.
  • Anyone facing a job transfer or relocation.

People from all walks of life who share the need or desire to sell their homes, regardless of repairs needed, can sell for cash, close quickly, and sell to a reliable company accredited by the Better Business Bureau – Express Homebuyers. Contact us today at 877-804-5252 or visit our website to get the process started.  We can wrap up your deal in a couple weeks and even offer you a $2,500 cash advance to help you plan your move.

Reduce your personal DOM today!

An industry that “earned” 70% from interest, 20% from merchant fees, and 10% from fees – $15-20 billion in 2009 for fees alone,  – is not likely to take this loss of potential income lying down. In the months before the changes took effect, banks lowered limits and canceled cards, while imposing new fees; the future holds even more of this.  Banks can still increase interest rates on new balances with 45 days’ notice, as well as institute new annual fees and other fees for services – or even for not using your card.  Meanwhile, new credit lines for those with bad credit will be harder to come by.

Jean Ann Fox, financial services director of the Consumer Federation of America, notes that banks could make changes to the way they post withdrawals to your account, so that deposits are posted last – causing costly overdraft fees.  They are also likely to promote costly cash advance services.

Some ways the banks compensate will be costly to consumers, but there are some other good changes:

• Banks can’t set up shop on college campuses and sign up penniless students for cards they can’t afford.
• Banks must mail your statement 21 days before the due date.
• If you are current on your account, the bank cannot raise your rates because you are behind on another account.
• Banks must provide 45 days notice of new fees and interest rate hike on new purchases.
• You can opt out of fee changes and pay off existing balances over five years.
• Banks can’t raise your rate during the first month.
• If you are offered a card with fees to start it up, the fees cannot exceed 25% of the available credit.

The very laws intended to make credit laws fairer for consumers may encourage a whole new era of bank sneakiness. Adam Levin, chairman of Credit.com, said some banks have been experimenting with envelopes containing legally compliant notices of interest rate and fee hikes that look more like the type of junk mail customers are likely to pitch.

Looking to sell your home?  Express Homebuyers can complete your transaction within two weeks.  Contact us today for all the details.

As a result of an FTC ruling in 2004, consumers are entitled to a free report from each from the three major credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and Transunion – each year.  Since that time, numerous companies have emerged to supposedly offer the report.  FreeCreditReport.com which pulls in customers with amusing commercials, as well as others companies, offers a report but requires you to sign up for a service that may cost $15 or more per month.  This includes credit monitoring, potentially a good thing – as long you know what you are getting into.  This and other similar sites offer a small window for ordering your report and then being able to cancel without charge.  Though FreeCreditReport.com appears to be a reputable company, others may be scam sites that only want your personal information.

The site that offers the truly free reports is AnnualCreditReport.com.  Consumers can check all three bureaus at once or stagger the requests over the course of the year to see progress.  There is usually some variation among the three bureaus, so ordering from all three each year might be wise.  The only report guaranteed to be free with no strings attached is the official AnnualCreditReport.com site.

Once you go to AnnualCreditReport.com, you must choose which bureau you want the report from.  You are then sent to one of the three credit bureau site.  After entering some information, you have your report within minutes.  The free annual service includes the report only, not the score.  You can order your score for around $8 or sign up for the credit monitoring service.  The lack of a free credit score is an annoying shortcoming of the official site, but, nonetheless, obtaining the basic information without charge is valuable.

As of September 2010, so-called free sites must disclose that they are not offering the free service guaranteed by the FTC.

Questions?  Check out the FAQ’s at AnnualCreditReport.com.

Express Homebuyers buys homes for cash.  A simple call could yield you a $2,500 advance and a way out of housing debt in about two weeks.  Contact us today for all the details.

Times are tough, and some homeowners feel defeated by impending foreclosure.  Some try to work out a solution with their bank.  Others try to do a short sale.  Terry Hoskins of Moscow, OH, tried another approach.  After years of arguing with the River Hills Bank of New Richmond, OH, as well as the IRS, Hoskins bulldozed his house rather than let the bank take it away.

He had paid over $200,000 on his $350,000 home, as well as numerous attorney fees and thought the threats from the bank and IRS were unfair.  Rather than being victimized, he powered up the dozer.   Hoskins, also in trouble with his commercial property that he built from the ground up, threatens to leave the land in the same barren condition he found it.

Fearing foreclosure?  Don’t take drastic action!  Help is available in DC. The Department of Housing and Community Development or the District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency can provide assistance if you face these drastic circumstances.

Express Homebuyers buys homes from homeowners.  A simple call could yield you a $2,500 advance and a way out of your housing debt in about two weeks.  Contact us today for all the details.

As anyone who has watched silly commercials about people with poor credit being doomed to drive hoopties or make their living in costume at a Renaissance fair knows, a bad credit score costs you! You may be denied the card you want, a gas card, a job, or an apartment plus embarrassment, with or without costume.

If your credit score is low and you want to buy a home, how much will those credit-card funded dinners and shoes of the past cost you?  The results are amazing.

According to Credit Technologies, who spoke at a recent National Association of Mortgage Brokers seminar, the difference between having a credit score over 720 vs. 620 is an interest rate of 5% versus one of 8.75%. As the chart shows, a differing interest rate on a 30 year mortgage can have a big impact on the payments for a $125,000 mortgage, including taxes.

If your household income is about $35,000 a year, a house with $125,000 mortgage might put your monthly cost for a house at about 25%, so a payment of $853.32 might be just about right.  If your credit rating is over 760, the payment would be right there.  The lower your credit score is, the higher your payment will be.  If your score is only 620, your payment would be $200 higher.  If is it 580, your payment will be nearly $300 higher.

Needless to say, the total amount paid for mortgages also increases with the combination of a low credit score and higher interest rates.  Most people do not think about that in our mobile society where people move about every seven years, but the $127,000 difference from the highest to the lowest rating is staggering.

The most obvious thing about these numbers is that a lower credit score can put an “affordable” home based on income, out of the range of affordability.  To keep the payment around $850 dollars per month if you have a 620 score, you could only afford a mortgage of $105,000.  If your rating was under 550, you could only afford a mortgage of $87,500.

Why is this?  Banks maintain that the chance of delinquency increases as the credit score decreases.  According to BCS Alliance, a person with a 780 score has 576 to 1 odds of becoming delinquent by 90 days; a 700 score has a 288 to one chance.  At 630, the odds are 17:1; after that the likelihood increases rapidly: 616 score, 9:1 odds, 600 score 4:1 odds, and 585 score 2:1 odds.

If your card score is low, you may have the best intentions in the world, but it will be a hard sell to find a reasonable mortgage rate.  This is why it is important to start getting your credit report in order before you start looking for a home.  If you have one that is costing you too much in interest and payments, this could be a good time to sell your home and get your credit straight before taking on home ownership again.

Express Homebuyers can help you by emptying your plate of a big portion of debt within two weeks.  We buy houses fast.  Contact us today for all the details.

This is encouraging some homeowners to strategically default on their loan before they are even delinquent. Knowing that delinquency might affect their ability to apply for a new loan or even to get a decent rental, they are getting their next step in place before they make a move.  Even if they can pay the loan, the decision to strategically default may be based on the math of it all.  They determine that over the life of the loan, they will pay 10’s of thousands of dollars more for their property than it is worth.  They know their credit score will take a hit, but they anticipate that by the time their credit rebounds they will have saved a bundle.

This is a new variation on what some homeowners do out of frustration: walk away from a house they are delinquent on and mail the keys back to the bank.  Banks hate this “jingle mail.”  While it may seemingly solve a problem for someone already deep in debt, they may well receive a double whammy: they now have bad credit AND a bank may be coming after them.  The bank may come after the first group too, but the strategic defaulters are betting this won’t happen.

According to a new study by credit bureau Experian and Oliver Wyman Consulting, twice the number of people who did this in 2007 did so in 2008.  Based on their evaluation of 24 million credit files, strategic defaults are heavily concentrated in negative-equity markets where home values zoomed during the boom and nosedived since 2006.  The study found a 68% increase in strategic defaults in California, compared to a 9% increase elsewhere.

Not surprisingly, banks are less enthusiastic about strategic defaulters than regular walkways.  The major credit bureaus are developing tools to identify strategic defaulters and refuse loan modifications to this group, as they are likely to strategically default even after the modification.

All of this lends some background to what can be a more personal problem: the need to sell your house, fast. If that is the case, contact us at Express Homebuyers. We buy houses, no matter what the condition. We’ll give you a fair shake and you can sell your house for cash, fast. Check out our website for some useful secrets to selling your home fast, then give us a call at 1-877-804-5252.

Specifically, the researchers found that if a payment is lowered by 25% because the interest rate was cut, the homeowner is 11% less likely to default.  If the 25% deduction is due to reducing the principle while cutting the interest a little, the homeowner is 27% less likely to default within one year.  Reducing the principle doubles the potential rate of success.

Lenders and the investors who bought the loans are reluctant to lower the principle, even though the dollars and cents of foreclosure are clear: it costs more to foreclose and then maintain a bank-owned home until sold than to cut their losses by making a deal with the home owner.

Homeowners are acutely aware that the value of their home has dropped in comparison to the loan value.  Nationwide, at least 23% of homeowners had negative equity in their homes by the third quarter of 2009.  The Fed Study found that the more “underwater” a borrower is, the more likely he is to default.  When their loan–to-value (LTV) is 115%, homeowners owe 15% more than the home is worth and are 51% more likely to default on a modified loan.  When they have positive equity, they are more likely to keep the terms of the modification.

It comes down to incentive.  If people are paying on a deeply underwater home, they have less financial stake in paying on the loan than those who would lose their own money if they defaulted.  No one wants a foreclosure, but those with positive LTV would lose their equity along with the home in case of default and ultimate foreclosure.

Some analysts think the study could result in a rethinking of federal housing rescue plans.  Currently, the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) stresses lowering interest and lengthening the mortgage but does not push for principle reduction.  If lessening the principle to get the home more in line with current market values is the key to successful mortgage modification, existing programs are doomed to failure or at least will have minimal long term effectiveness.  The program must encourage people to make the choice to pay rather than default.  Hopefully, future modifications of HAMP will tackle the thorny issue of underwater mortgage head on.

Facing the potential of having to sell your home? Express Homebuyers will buy your home for cash and have your deal wrapped up in two weeks .  Check our website for some useful secrets on selling your house fast. Then give us a call at 1-877-804-5252. We buy houses as a business. We pay cash, and you can sell your house fast to avoid the hassle of loan modification.