If you are planning to do home improvement on your home, you may want to consider accessing the most ideal type of funds to do this. If the equity in your present mortgage is up to about 20% then you should consider going for refinancing. This means you are going to apply for new loan to replace the existing mortgage debt. This would change the existing terms and conditions so you can get loans with more favorable terms.
Home Affordable Refinance Program or HARP is one type of refinancing program that the Obama's administration introduced so that eligible home owners obtain refinance for their homes. Here are some quick details about the program you should know.
Lower mortgage rates
The Home Affordable Refinance Program or HARP encourages homeowners that have mortgage obligations to pay to government lenders like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to get refinance so that they would be able to benefits from the lower mortgage rates sweeping the economy. In other words, this option can encourage the borrower to get mortgage of a more stable rate.
Higher appraised value
With the Home Affordable Refinance Program, you can now qualify for refinance of up to 105% of the amount or value worked out from appraising your home. This is now a better option than the traditional government FHA loan program that possible allows only up to 97% of the appraised value to refinance. In addition, your equity and credit scores for qualification should be less than 20% and less than 700 respectively.
Easy eligibility requirements
The eligibility requirements for the Home Affordable Refinance Program include:
· The loans should be provided by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or any federal government approved financial lenders.
· You need to be the owner occupier of the unit of housing which you is seeking to refinance the loans for improvement.
· You should be very current on your payments and must not be less than one month in your debt delinquency in the last 12 months.
So, with the above highlights you should consider the Obama's administration's Home Affordable Refinance Program to make improvements on your home.
