Have equity in your home? Want a lower payment? An appraisal from Clearfork Appraisals can help you get rid of your PMI.When purchasing a home, a 20% down payment is usually the standard. Considering the risk for the lender is generally only the difference between the home value and the sum remaining on the loan, the 20% supplies a nice buffer against the charges of foreclosure, selling the home again, and regular value variationsin the event a purchaser is unable to pay. During the recent mortgage boom of the last decade, it became widespread to see lenders taking down payments of 10, 5 or often 0 percent. How does a lender handle the increased risk of the small down payment? The answer is Private Mortgage Insurance or PMI. This additional plan protects the lender in the event a borrower doesn't pay on the loan and the value of the house is lower than the balance of the loan. Since the $40-$50 a month per $100,000 borrowed is rolled into the mortgage payment and generally isn't even tax deductible, PMI can be expensive to a borrower. It's profitable for the lender because they collect the money, and they receive payment if the borrower is unable to pay, different from a piggyback loan where the lender takes in all the costs. 
Does your monthly mortgage payment include PMI? Contact us, you may be able to save money by removing your PMI. How can homebuyers avoid bearing the cost of PMI?With the employment of The Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, on most loans lenders are required to automatically stop the PMI when the principal balance of the loan reaches 78 percent of the original loan amount. The law promises that, upon request of the homeowner, the PMI must be abandoned when the principal amount equals just 80 percent. So, acute home owners can get off the hook ahead of time. It can take countless years to get to the point where the principal is only 20% of the original loan amount, so it's crucial to know how your home has appreciated in value. After all, every bit of appreciation you've acquired over the years counts towards dismissing PMI. So what's the reason for paying it after the balance of your loan has dropped below the 80% mark? Even when nationwide trends predict plunging home values, realize that real estate is local. Your neighborhood might not be heeding the national trends and/or your home may have acquired equity before things simmered down. The difficult thing for many homeowners to know is just when their home's equity rises above 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 Clearfork Appraisals, we're experts at recognizing value trends in Fort Worth, Tarrant County and surrounding areas, and we know when property values have risen or declined. When faced with information from an appraiser, the mortgage company will generally remove the PMI with little trouble. At that time, the homeowner can relish the savings from that point on.
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