No one likes to be saddled with a long-term debt such as a 30-year mortgage. Because of this many ways have been thought up where people can pay off their mortgages well ahead of schedule.

These methods sometimes promise you’ll be paid off in 7 years, some 10 years, 15 years and some incredibly promise you will pay off your mortgage 26 years ahead of schedule. I’m sorry, but now I must hit you with sobering thought number 2: there are only two ways to pay off your mortgage early!

By the end of this article you will find out what these two ways are, but first let’s talk about some of the not so real ways.

Accelerator mortgage

With an accelerator mortgage, you pay every cent you make into a mortgage account and at the end of the month your mortgage payment is taken out of the account. Proponents of the accelerator mortgage say it works because this account you pay into pays interest and that compounding interest negates the interest you are paying on the mortgage.

However, when the agent sets up your accelerator account, he/she asks you how much you want to leave in your savings each month to be paid toward the mortgage. You will even be egged on. They will ask, “$250, $500, $1,000?” $1,000! Heck, if you paid that much toward your mortgage each month, you would pay off any mortgage way ahead of schedule!

If you were to say, “well, nothing. I don’t have anything left after groceries and other expenses.” They won’t want to give you the mortgage because the compounding interest in this mortgage account means very, very little. The heart of the accelerator plan is you pay extra principal in the way of savings left in your account each month.

Biweekly, Bimonthly and Weekly Plans

With the biweekly plan you are led to believe making two payments a month, which together equal the same amount you have been, paying monthly, will take 7 years off the time it takes to pay off the mortgage.

In reality, with a biweekly plan you make 26 half payments or 13 monthly payments each year instead of 12 so, of course, you will pay off your mortgage a lot sooner. The backbone of this plan is you are led to believe you will not be paying more money each month, but the fact there is more than 4 weeks in a month is the real reason it works. Oh, and by the way, for getting fooled like this you get the pleasure of paying about $1,000 upfront in fees to convert to the biweekly plan!

There is no such thing as a bimonthly plan. It is just a Biweekly plan improperly titled. Weekly plans are the same as biweekly plans cut up into smaller payments, but the same arithmetic applies.

The only two ways

The conclusion is there are only two ways to pay off a mortgage ahead of time. One is to pay more principal each month. For instance, the payment on a 30-year mortgage for $200,000 at 6.25% is $1,231. However, if you pay an extra $270 each month, you will pay off the mortgage in full, 11 years ahead of schedule and you will save over $100,000!

The only other option you may be able to get that will help you pay your mortgage earlier is to get a lower interest rate and continue to make the same monthly payment. In the example above, if you were able to refinance at 5.50% but you continued to pay $1,231 monthly, you would have that mortgage paid in full in 25 years, instead of 30 years.

Still, paying $1,231 monthly is the same as making additional payments toward principal because the scheduled monthly payment for $200,000 at 5.50% is $1,135. So, here is the final conclusion; you can try to fool math, but it is just as futile as trying to fool Mother Nature. You can’t do it! To get your mortgage paid ahead of time, you have to make principal payments ahead of time one way or another. That is all there is to it!

Ed Lathrop is a successful real estate investor. He has developed EzCalculator, a mortgage calculator that shows you how to save $100,000 on your mortgage. Come visit this free site at free financial calculator . Also, find out how to get and use your amortization table to make big money at amortization schedules free. These sites are not owned by any lender, so no one will harass you for visiting!

Balloon mortgages are quite popular amongst many home buyers. It has a shorter time period, having a term of five to seven years, but with the payment is based on a term of 30 years. The interest rate in a balloon mortgage is lower than the usual mortgage, and it has been found that, it is easier to avail compared to the traditional 30 year fixed mortgage. However, there is a disadvantage in this type of mortgage, where you would need to fully pay off the balance outstanding at the end of the mortgage term. This condition may put you in a situation where you would need to go for re-financing against the real estate property that you have purchased, sell your home, or convert the existing balloon mortgage into the traditional one at the prevailing rate of interest. Balloon mortgage may not suit all. It is ideal for those people who have need for loans for a short period of time. There are several loan schemes that are available, which would need a balloon payment at a specified period of time.

If you avail balloon mortgage, you will need to pay a fixed amount for a defined period of time, may be three to seven years. After that period is over, you would need to pay the full outstanding in one go. The payments that you make against this type of mortgage are less than necessary for amortizing, and this puts you in the advantage in making lower than normal payments. This type of mortgage becomes attractive to people, because of its lower payment, and this lower payment is availed by people who could be looking for a larger house, for which they do not have enough money.

The balloon mortgage is available for a definite term, after which you are required to pay back the balance in a lump sum. The condition is that, the outstanding has to be paid off fully after the term is over. Since there is no other way, you have three options with you. You may like to go in for re-financing and a conversion of the balloon mortgage into the traditional mortgage that we know. This option is taken by most of the people. The second option is to sell your house before the balloon mortgage term gets over. In taking up the third option, you would be paying larger sum as installments each month, being more than what has been stipulated in the terms of payment. In this way you would be paying off the complete mortgage dues at the end of the period, or you will have an affordable outstanding when the balloon mortgage term gets over.

J Amalorpava Mary is the owner of MortgageCentreDirect.Com, to find out more on Mortgage Loan, Mortgage Rate and much more mortgage information visit her site.

Unfortunately, there is a lot more involved in a monthly house payment than principle and interest. It is these extras that can make the difference between making mortgage payments with ease, and foreclosure.

In this article you will find out how to calculate a mortgage payment the right way, in its entirety. By doing this, you will borrow an amount of money you will be able to pay back without stress. This will make it easier to budget your money without fear of getting behind on your payments.

Principal and Interest are the Starting Point

$100,000 financed for 30 years at 7% requires a mortgage payment of $665.30. Knowing this in today’s market gives you a heads up when you need to quickly estimate a mortgage payment. Of course, the mortgage payment you will be estimating will be the interest and principle only. This is the starting ground from which your monthly house payment will be calculated.

For simplicity’s sake, we will say you are thinking of buying a home where you will need a mortgage of $200,000 and the going interest rate is 7% and, like almost everyone else, you will be financing for 30 years. This means your principle and interest payment will be 2 times $665.30 or, $1,330.60 a month. Now, what else will be added to this amount each month?

Taxes and Insurance

Most lenders make sure you have homeowner’s insurance. They will also see to it you pay your property taxes. They do this, not so much because they are nice guys, but because they don’t want somebody else to take your property away from them. How could this happen?

If someone got hurt on your property and successfully sewed you, they could take everything you had, including your house. This would give your lender a legal burden they wouldn’t want or need. To prevent this from happening, the lender usually collects money from you each month to pay for your homeowner’s policy. This way you and they will be protected against this kind of suit.

Another entity that could fight your lender for ownership of your house is the local government and this is exactly what they will do if you default on your property taxes. For this reason, the lender will collect money from you every month to be used to pay your property taxes.

You can figure your yearly property tax will cost you at least, 1 to 2% of the worth of your home. So, on a $240,000 property, you can guess you will be paying $2,400 to $4,800 a year. This calculates to $200 to $400 a month.

This amount will depend upon where you live. You should be familiar with a town’s mill rate before you buy a home there. Your homeowner’s policy will cost about $700 to $1,000 a year, so you can figure around $75 a month for this expense.

Water and Sewer

Another pair of monthly housing expenses are water and sewer. If you live in the city, this is a classic case where they get you coming and going. City water will easily cost you $50 a month and the sewer, which is just another word for tax, will cost you, in some cities, about $1,000 a year, which figures out to $85 a month.

If you live out of the city, your water and sewer charges become the cost of the upkeep of your well and septic system. However, after all is said and done, one problem with either one of these things will cost you an amount that will be close to what the cost is for city water and sewer.

These costs will come at much larger intervals than a monthly expense but they will be much greater amounts. In other words, it all evens up in the long run. Or should I say it all comes out in the wash?

Your Payment is Bigger Than the Calculator Told You

The end of the story is, to pay this $200,000 mortgage; you will need to pay $1,330 a month for interest and principal. Plus, you will be paying, let’s say, $300 a month property taxes and $85 a month for homeowner’s insurance. So far, this amounts to $1,710 monthly. Then add $50 for water and $85 for sewer and you will come up with $1,850 a month for your real mortgage payment.

Of course, there are more expenses required to live, but taxes and insurance, along with water and sewer are things that people who rent don’t ordinarily pay. It is knowing about these expenses in advance that is the key to realizing you could be overextending yourself financially thus, risking foreclosure. So, be sure to calculate your complete monthly mortgage payment before you say, “I’ll take it!”

Ed Lathrop is a successful Real Estate investor. He has developed EzCalculator, a Mortgage Calculator that shows you how to save $100,000 on your mortgage. Come visit this free site at Free Financial Calculator. Also, find out how to get your amortization schedule and use it to save big money at: Amortization Schedules Free. These sites are not owned by any lender, so no one will harass you for visiting!

When things get bad, it’s tempting to stick our heads in the sand and pretend our problems will all just go away if we ignore them long enough. Of course, this kind of attitude never solves anything, so face the issue head on. If you know you are behind on your property tax obligations, or have missed mortgage payments, waiting will only make you situation worsen.

In the case of house payments, contact the lender right away. It is to your lender’s advantage that you remain in your home and work out a way to keep making payments; if you act in good faith and don’t procrastinate the inevitable, a lender will be much more willing to help you find a way to stay put. Don’t throw away any kind of mail from your mortgage company! It may contain their suggestions for how they might be able to negotiate your keeping your home.

You do not have to accept everything your lender tells you at face value. It is your responsibility to know your rights under the law, and under the terms of your loan. Take out your loan documents and go over them carefully. This will greatly help you during any negotiation process, because you will already know the ins and out of your mortgage.

Every state has different laws concerning the time parameters of a foreclosure action, so check with your state’s Government Housing Office for more information about how much time you have to act.

Not all foreclosure scenarios involve missing mortgage payments: people who own their homes outright may still face losing them if they are delinquent in paying the property tax on them. If this is your dilemma, paying off that tax debt should become a top priority. There are reputable companies that can offer property owners relief through providing property tax loans. County governments demand all missing monies upfront, whereas a lender can negotiate a way to repay the debt through payments over time.

Whether you cannot pay mortgage obligations or are one or more years behind in paying property taxes, there are solutions out there for enterprising people who have their eyes open and are willing to look for them. The important thing is to never delay: face your problems intelligently and in a timely manner, and you may never have to face your own foreclosure nightmare.

If you are in a bind, and need questions answered concerning Texas property tax loans, contact the professionals at Texas Property Tax Loans (texaspropertytaxloans.com/). Art Gib is a freelance writer.

Although there are three types of reverse mortgages there are only two that are usually referred to. The most common reverse mortgage is formally called a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM). This type is backed by the federal government’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The other type is called a proprietary reverse mortgage and is backed by private companies and not federally insured.

A reverse mortgage is simply a high cost loan, but no one seems to tell us that. The upfront costs can be very high. This makes it even more expensive if you stay in your home for a short period of time. This type of reverse mortgage is easy to get if you qualify by age and have sufficient equity. To put it simply – the older you or you and your spouse or partner are, the more likely there will be more equity making it more valuable so you would be able to borrow more money. You’re borrowing against your own equity.

As a former real estate broker I know a lot about reverse mortgages. They’ve been around for many years. But recent television commercials have made people much more aware of them.

There is so much television advertising for reverse mortgages right now and they make it all sound so good and the way to go but they don’t tell you about the high fees that go along with these loans. The federal government’s Consumer Law Center reports that a $250,000 loan could cost you $25,000 in fees. Because these fees are so high, a lot of money can be made so telemarketers are calling non-stop and pestering some homeowners and senior homeowners right and left.

There are many scams out there and scrupulous mortgage brokers. So even if you decided you want to pay the high fees and get a reverse mortgage it would be difficult to know who to go with.

Another problem that has been reported is that people, who have taken out reverse mortgages, were not able to get the monthly amounts they could draw on.

For a HECM you can choose a fixed monthly cash advance for a specific time for as long as you live in your home. The other option is getting a line of credit, so you can draw on the loan amount at any time or you can get a combination of the two.

So if you decide you want a reverse mortgage these are some of the things you want to know. Make sure the mortgage broker is reputable – check with your local better business bureau. Make sure you know exactly how much the loan is going to cost you in fees and find out ALL the limitations, there are many.

This is basically how a reverse mortgage works. Just remember that you’re taking out a high cost loan, that’s what it boils down to. Think other options. Explore home equity loans first especially when the interest rates are down and see if you can do better. You may want to consider selling your home and downsizing and tap your equity that way.

It may not be an easy decision depending on your needs. But there are lots of creative ways to tap the equity in your home. Seek them out before you risk getting a reverse mortgage.

For more tips and secrets about reverse mortgages or finding the best home loan or home mortgage go to Real-Estate-Financing-Tips.com for real estate financing tips, trade secrets, help, quotes and resources including refinancing, creative financing and bad credit real estate financing