Furr Appraisal Service can help you remove your Private Mortgage Insurance

A 20% down payment is usually the standard when buying a house. Considering the risk for the lender is often only the difference between the home value and the sum due on the loan, the 20% provides a nice buffer against the costs of foreclosure, selling the home again, and natural value variationsin the event a borrower is unable to pay.

The market was working with down payments as low as 10, 5 and often 0 percent during the mortgage boom of the last decade. How does a lender endure the additional risk of the small down payment? The answer is Private Mortgage Insurance or PMI. PMI protects the lender in case a borrower doesn't pay on the loan and the market price of the home is lower than what the borrower still owes on the loan.

PMI can be expensive to a borrower because the $40-$50 a month per $100,000 borrowed is lumped into the mortgage payment and generally isn't even tax deductible. It's lucrative for the lender because they collect the money, and they receive payment if the borrower defaults, separate from a piggyback loan where the lender consumes 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 homeowner refrain from bearing the cost of PMI?

With the implementation of The Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, on nearly all loans lenders are required to automatically cancel the PMI when the principal balance of the loan reaches 78 percent of the primary loan amount. The law stipulates that, upon request of the homeowner, the PMI must be released when the principal amount reaches only 80 percent. So, acute home owners can get off the hook a little early.

Since it can take many years to arrive at the point where the principal is just 20% of the initial amount borrowed, it's essential to know how your home has grown in value. After all, any appreciation you've obtained over time counts towards abolishing PMI. So why pay it after your loan balance has fallen below the 80% mark? Your neighborhood might not be adopting the national trends and/or your home may have secured equity before things simmered down, so even when nationwide trends hint at plummeting home values, you should realize that real estate is local.

The difficult thing for almost all homeowners to understand is just when their home's equity goes over the 20% point. An accredited, licensed real estate appraiser can surely help. It is an appraiser's job to know the market dynamics of their area. At Furr Appraisal Service, we're experts at determining value trends in Camden, Benton County and surrounding areas, and we know when property values have risen or declined. Faced with information from an appraiser, the mortgage company will usually cancel the PMI with little trouble. At that time, the homeowner can delight in the savings from that point on.

Want to learn more about PMI and the Homeowners Protection Act? Click this link:
Cancellation of Private Mortgage Insurance: Federal Law May Save You Hundreds of Dollars Each Year

profile picture