1. Compare options like mortgage refinancing and other loan options to determine if a second mortgage is the best choice.

2. Make sure you can tell lender what the purpose of the loan is. Your answer will help determine whether or not you are approved.

3. Check your credit report for errors and get your FICO scores (myfico.com/12) because lenders will review your FICO score to determine your loan rates. Check “How to Improve Your Credit Score” for more information on cleaning up your credit.

4. Compare several home equity loan options. Discuss the loan programs with your broker or lender and find the best loan for your situation. Getting a good interest rates isn’t a bad idea either.

5. When applying for a loan, you will get a mortgage checklist from your lender containing the list of paperwork you need to close the loan, including:
Copy of deed to property.
Recent tax appraisal.
Last two years’ W-2′s, tax returns and current pay stub, or two years’ tax returns if self-employed. Be sure to include all schedules.
Proof of income from alimony, child support, disability payments, lawsuit settlement, inheritance or other income source.
Copies of your last 3-6 bank statements.
List of all open credit accounts (account numbers, payment amounts, and balances).
Your current mortgage statement.
Homeowners insurance information (name, account number and phone number of agent).

6. Faxing documentation from the checklist will expedite the loan process more than mailing it.

7. Fill out your loan application thoroughly, or it may delay approval and loan closing.

8. Beware of bad loans. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns that you may be signing into trouble if the lender encourages you to falsify your application to get the loan, urges you to borrow more than you need, pushes you into unrealistic payment terms, shows up at closing with a different loan product than you agreed to, asks you to sign blank forms, or denies you copies of documents you signed.

9. Has your mortgage application been rejected by a lender? Ask why it was rejected to find out what you need to do to secure mortgage loan approval in the future. Sometimes paying down some credit cards can increase your credit score just enough to qualify.

How high are the fees to refinance?

Taking out a home equity loan usually costs less in fees than a refinance. Refinancing your home can cost you quite a bit when you consider higher loan fees and the possibility of points. If you already have a good interest rate on your loan, refinancing so that you can get a cash out option, might mean paying a higher interest rate on a new loan. In that situation, you might want to consider taking out a home equity loan instead of a cash out refinance mortgage loan.

How fast do you need the money?

When you take out a home equity loan, it takes less time to see your money. Often, it only takes 5 days to close. Cash out refinance mortgage loans can take a lot longer, so if you need the money immediately, it probably isnt the best option.

Protect yourself from scam artists.

There are lenders that practice something called loan flipping. They convince you to refinance your house, taking out a bit of equity for a project or two. A few months later they approach you to refinance again, convincing you to take out more cash from the equity in your house. Their scheme is to keep having you refinance, tacking on large fees and possibly increasing your interest rate until you are so far in debt that you end up losing your house. This particular scam has been played against many elderly homeowners with devastating results.

Taking cash against the equity in your house can be a wise move, but always compare taking a cash out refinance mortgage loan against the option of taking out a home equity loan and choose the plan that is best for you.

No Down Payment: I know what you’re thinking, “I would never offer such a thing!” You don’t have to. As a real estate investor rich in tools to find motivated sellers, you could get your next home using this lease option technique with no money down. You don’t have to tell the seller that an option fee may be customary!

Principle Pay Down: If an option is accompanied by a lease the possibilities are greater for increased equity build up. By applying a portion of the monthly lease payment amount to the purchase price of the property one has the opportunity to widen the gap between the market value and the loan amount. Depending on whether the monthly rent amount is inline with market rates…this is free money! A 30-year amortized, $100,000 loan at 7% begins at approximately $82 per month of principle payments. A $100 per month rent credit beats that, dollar for dollar, every month for almost 3 years!

No New Loan: Possibly the most noteworthy advantage of using a lease option in the residential market is that when the optionee begins the purchase process no “new loan” is required. The prerequisite for this may be working with the right and informed mortgage broker but is usually easily accomplished through a refinance. This can mean no additional out-of-pocket money for closing.

Appreciation: One of the typical advantages of controlling a property using an option is that the buyer retains the right to capture some, if not all, appreciation during the term. The longer the term, the greater the appreciation can be. In the single-family arena, where terms are usually 12-24 months, even moderate amounts of property appreciation can add up. For the buyer, especially, every percentage point of appreciation counts. And, if you’re nice enough to offer (or get) a 24-month term in a market increasing at 3% annually, $6,000 on a $100,000 property is significant.

It is better to use your own strategy against you, if you are in the market for new home.

Still, with all the advantages of estate planning, many people make a great many mistakes in the process. The most common mistake when it comes to estate planning is not getting around to doing it at all. Make sure that you take the time to plan at least the financial portion of your estate so that you leave your loved ones behind with some amount of security. The following seven mistakes often put families into great difficulty after a loved ones passing.

1. Dont fall into the trap of thinking that estate planning is just for the rich. This is completely false as planning your estate is essential for anyone who has any amount of assets to leave behind. Many people dont realize that their estate is as large as it really is, especially when they fail to take into account the assets from their home.

2. Remember to update your will and to review it at least once every two years. Factors that can change information about your beneficiaries include deaths, divorce, birth, and adoption. As your family structure changes so does the change in your assets and who you want to leave them to.

3. Dont assume that taxes paid on your assets are set in stone. Talk to your financial planner about ways that your beneficiaries can avoid paying taxes on your assets. There are several strategies for tax planning so that you can minimize taxes or avoid them altogether.

4. All of your financial papers should be in order so that its easy for someone to find them. Make sure that one of your loved ones has information on where to find the papers necessary for planning after your death.

5. Dont leave everything to your partner. When you leave all of your assets to your spouse you are in reality sacrificing their portion of the benefit. Youll get an estate tax credit but will forfeit part of this if your spouse is your only beneficiary.

6. Ensure that your children are well planned for. Many people take a lot of time deciding what to do with their assets and forget that they need to appoint guardianship for their children. There are many details to take into consideration when it comes to guardianship.

7. If you dont have a financial advisor, get one. Financial Planners and Advisors are trained intimately in these matters and can provide asset protection well above whatever fees they may charge. If you need help selecting the right financial advisor, get the Financial Advisor Report.

The above mistakes are common when people are planning their estate. Take the time to plan for your death even though you think that you have years before it becomes an issue. The key to successful estate planning is being prepared.

Almost every aspect of this situation could cost you dearly. Insurance laws may vary widely from state to state, different kinds of property require specialized coverage, and collections of art, antique cars, and other unique items may be difficult to protect fully. Meanwhile, serving on a nonprofit’s board could subject you to additional personal liability.

Safeguarding yourself and your family may mean buying additional coverage, but more insurance isnt necessarily the solution. Rather, its important to review all of your needs, consider specialized policies or policy options, and coordinate your coverage with other aspects of your financial situation. Here are 6 different shortcomings that could prove costly.

1. Leaving gaps in homeowners coverage. Any homeowner needs to review coverage regularly to keep up with rising replacement costs. But insuring different kinds of homes in different locales poses extra challenges. If you buy insurance from more than one carrier, you may face contrasting rules, limitations, and policy renewal dates. For example, the liability limit on the policy for a second home might fall below the minimum on an excess liability policy designed to complement the insurance on your primary home. You could wind up responsible for the difference.

2. Ignoring properties unique characteristics. One perk of affluence is the means to own exceptional homes; one drawback is that they may be difficult to insure adequately. Standard homeowners coverage wont pay for the materials and craftsmanship needed to rebuild that 19th century showplace youve painstakingly restored. Coastal homes may face hurricane damage, while a place in the California mountains could be subject to earthquakes or wildfires. Meanwhile, city co-ops or condos may need policies tailored to their buildings or associations coverage.

3. Under insuring art and collectibles. Standard homeowners policies limit coverage for the losses of antiques, furs, and other valuables. And while you could schedule additional coverage, insuring the real value of a collection of contemporary art or vintage muscle cars likely will require a specialized policy addressing several critical issues. How is the value of the collection determined? (Youll need a professional appraisal when the policy is designed, with frequent updates as items appreciate.) Will a damaged or destroyed item be paid for with cash, or will you be required to have it replaced or restored? Will additions to your collection automatically be covered?

4. Forgetting to insure household employees. When someone works for you or your family, as a nanny, landscaper, personal assistant, or in another role, you could be liable for medical expenses and lost wages if the worker is hurt on the job. Several states require household employers to pay into a workers compensation fund, while in other states its optional, but providing such insurance may be mandatory for ensuring your financial well being. If an employee drives your car, also make sure he or she is included on your policy.

5. Neglecting your liability as a board member. Excess liability coverage could help protect you if youre sued as a director of a nonprofit’s board. Or for more comprehensive protection, you may want to consider special directors and officers liability insurance.

6. Failing to get frequent policy reviews and updates. Your financial life isnt static, and neither are your insurance needs. The value of a collection may increase; extensive home renovations could mean a sharp rise in the value of your property; and the re titling of assets as part of your estate planor because of divorce, a death in the family, or the birth of a childcould necessitate policy changes. Even lacking major events, you probably need a comprehensive review of all your insurance coverage at least every two years.

Here are three time-tested projects to raise some fast cash:

1 – Car Wash
2 – Yard Cleanup
3 – Community Cleanup

Car Wash Fundraiser
Car washes have proven to be great fundraisers in virtually every community. All you need are willing volunteers, a high-traffic location with good visibility, and some attention getting signs. You can put your car wash fundraiser together on short notice.

Heres what you need to do:

1 – Line up a location with good main road frontage
2 – Ensure it has water access
3 – Assemble supplies list hoses, buckets, wash towels, dry towels, squeegees
4 – Assign each volunteer an item from the supplies list
5 – Make 8-10 poster board signs in high-contrast colors
6 – Arrange your volunteers in 2-hour shifts
7 – Wash cars for six hours (Saturday preferred)
8 – Have dual lines so you can wash two at once

Your car wash fundraisers success will of course depend on the weather. If you can wash 12 cars an hour (one every 10 minutes in each line), you can easily raise more than $500 in one day.

Remember to put together a quick flyer that includes the reason why youre raising funds and clearly states the price. You can even offer some extra services such as Armor-All tire treatment or interior vacuuming for an additional fee.

Alternatively, you can advertise a free car wash and just ask for donations for your cause. Often, this can raise more cash than stating a specific price, because people will see a group of volunteers working hard and having a good time, and may pay more than you would hav asked.

Keeping safety in mind, be sure to get volunteers to hold and wave signs toward passing traffic, not just volunteers to wash cars. If you have time, advertise your car wash event in the local newspaper, and post signs a day or two in advance.

Yard Cleanup
A yard cleanup fundraiser is extremely fast and easy to put together. Simply create a set of instructions for your group detailing what to offer, what to say, and how much to charge.

Like most fundraisers, the target market is family, friends, and neighbors. Depending on the age of your participants, your offerings can range from simple lawn care all the way up to mulching flower beds or pruning tree limbs. In many climates, autumn is a great time to do this fundraiser, because leaf clearing is always a needed service during those months.

Create a flyer describing your fundraiser and clearly list your prices for the various cleanup options. Assign a fundraising quota to each participant.

Offer some individual and group performance bonuses. Theres nothing like a team pizza party or movie passes to motivate a youth sports group.

Community Cleanup
A community cleanup, also known as a trash bag fundraiser, performs a valuable community service while also providing a significant revenue opportunity. Organizing a community cleanup project is a way to raise funds and send a positive message about your group at the same time.

This type of one day or weekend fundraising event is very similar to the Athlet-A-Thon or Fun-A-Thon concept. Here your group’s participants solicit pledges from the usual suspects – family, friends, and neighbors. Have local businesses donate trash bags and recruit parents and relatives with trucks to haul what you collect.

Pledges are tied to a specific attainment goal such as the number of pounds of trash collected or the number of road miles cleaned of debris. You’ll need to create a one-page overview of your cleanup program and a pledge signup sheet.

It works best if your overview specifies a suggested range for donations, say anywhere from a penny to a dime a pound for a large project. An amazing amount of garbage can be collected from a local stream or illegal dumping area, so it’s not a bad idea to also put a maximum limit on pledge amounts of $20.

Have local businesses donate trash bags. Recruit parents and relatives with trucks to haul what you collect.

Do the math. You’ll be surprised at how much money you can generate. Assuming 50 participants, each of whom has five pledges of a penny a pound, if you collect a ton of garbage, your group will raise $100 per participant or $5,000.

That’s not bad money for a free fundraiser! Youd be surprised at how easy it is to collect a ton of garbage.

Each of these fundraisers is fast, easy to put together, and a reliable revenue generator for your group. As with any youth group event, an adult should be in attendance at all times for safety purposes. Get started on your free easy fundraisers today!

Keep in mind that hiring a debt settlement company is no different than hiring any business to perform a service for you so make sure you find the one that fits your needs the best. Not all debt settlement companies are the same. Like with any industry, there are good ones, and there are the rest.

Unfortunately, when it comes to settling credit card debts, you often hear more stories about people who complain than those who receive good service (and there are many).

How do you determine which settlement company will offer you the best service?

1) Shop around
When hiring a settlement company, you should contact at least 2-3 different businesses and compare the services and terms they offer. Not only will you find the best company to represent you, but you will learn a lot about how debt settlement works, and how it can help you.

2) Check with the BBB
While not everyone with a complaint contacts the Better Business Bureau (so a clean record may be misleading) if there are several unresolved complaints, that is a red flag to find out why there are unhappy customers. If the complaints have been resolved, that is a good sign that the debt settlement company offers good customer service. You can search for company records online at www.BBB.org.

3) Check references
While debt settlement is a confidential process, and therefore you may not find many companies willing to give out names of happy customers, it is worth asking. Talking to a former customer will tell you more about a company than any brochure or website.

4) Get all the details in writing first
This is an absolute MUST you should never agree to anything, sign any paperwork, or send in any money until you get all the terms and conditions in writing. A written contract will help you understand what service you should receive, how much it will cost you, and protect you if an issue comes up.

5) Ask lots of questions
If you have any questions (and the more settlement companies you talk to, the more questions you will have) make sure to ask them and get the answers you want. If a company is not willing to take the time to answer your questions now, how will they respond to you once you become a client and your money is at stake?

Bottom line, it is your responsibility to do your homework and research the best company to help you settle your debts.

If you take the time and effort to find the company that will fit your needs the best just like you would when hiring any professional you will greatly reduce the chances of a major problem occurring.

Settling your credit card debt is a big decision for anyone to make, so dont make the decision lightly!

It is the reality that it is almost impossible to carry out online forex trading without the help of an automated forex trading platform. With unlimited number of transactions taking place so rapidly in forex exchange market, traders have to make their forex trading decisions quickly and accurately. Having a reliable forex trading platform is indeed necessary for the forex trader so that he can make clear cut forex trading decisions. If you are among those traders who are constantly facing time issues in their trading then it is absolutely definite for you to buy an automated forex trading system.

The forex trading system or forex robots are normally categorized into two types. One type of forex trading system are good in providing best forex signals to their users and the other type of trading platforms are capable to perform all type of work. Traders can check out their trading needs and can easily get the one that matches to their forex trading style. For instance, if you dont like to run a forex robot 24 hours a day then you should buy a forex robot that only generate forexsignals for you. Check out the working of the trading robot on your live forex account in order to judge whether it can actually monitors the forex exchange market for live forex signals or not.

But, if you feel that you dont have sufficient knowledge about forex trading or if you are UN experienced trader then you can allow your automated forex trading system to arrange the entire forex trading for you. You just have to configure your automated forex trading system properly and you have to set the settings of the robot so that your software can automatically buy or sell forex currency from the forex exchange market.

If you have money but dont have time for trading at Forex and Forex training is just not what you are planning, Forex asset management is for you. Its easy for you, because you just confide your assets to specialists and dont feel nervous about your profit. But the risk to fall into the trap of the cheats is increasing and you must display vigilance, while choosing a person who will be your an asset manager. You have to find as much data concerning the asset management company as possible, including the place of registration andincomings of the previous periods, what is the companys mechanism of saving your money and how its going to pay off the losses if they occur. Find out whether the company supports a loss limit. If you are not sure in the reliability of the asset manager and, hence, in the safety of your money, you have to monitor Forex rates and market situation changes, as well as fulfil other work of a trader on your own.

As you become an investor, while partnering with the asset management company, you increase your money funds. In return, the asset manager receives a part of income for the rendered services. Being the investor, you can create personal account, as well as collective one. There are no restraints for permissible time periods and sums of money on such accounts. But you have to agree on the conditions of the contracting (for example, payment account service) with the asset manager before signing the contract.

If the asset management company doesnt trade on an automatic system of trading, you shouldnt contract with it. The matter is that this company uses such trading system, which doesnt allow describing the principles of work with the programming language. Of course, if there not precise trading rules, your assets are exposed to unnecessary risks.

If you can find a way to relieve yourself from some of the debt stress that is occurring, then you should most definitely give it a good honest shot. Debt relief can really turn your life around and alleviate that painful stress that you have been having to deal with now for entirely too long. It is a very good idea, if you ever do get a chance, to talk with some sort of financial advisor, or someone that can give you some wonderful ideas on improving your current financial standing.

One thing that has become very beneficial to many families is debt consolidation. By consolidating all of your debts, or most of them, and only having that one payment monthly, you would be quite surprised how much less stressful things will be for you. Debt consolidators can help you to get your life back on track and begin taking care of some of those debts, instead of ignoring them, as many people end up doing.

By choosing debt consolidation you also no longer have to worry about those terrible late fees and high taxes, which is a huge relief for people trying to help themselves get out of old debts that have been causing them tremendous stress. There is nothing wrong with anyone asking for some type of help, when it comes to debt solutions. There is something wrong with putting creditors off and ignoring their phone calls.

You might find that by speaking with them, they could offer you some solutions to your debt issues. Too many people are afraid and tend to not want to deal with them but what all of you should know is that, that is always a serious mistake, a mistake that could definitely cost you big time. Do not be ashamed of having too many debts, because you are not the only one in that shape.

Most families, at some point throughout life, find themselves bogged down by tremendous debts or debt that makes them feel almost in constant panic and it is just so sad. Finding solutions to your debt problem can give you the stress free life that you truly deserve, or atleast less stressful life. Talk with a financial advisor or debt consolidator today.

Help really is right around the corner, but that help will not just come knocking on your door. It is up to you to get the help that you need to finally find the relief that you deserve. Debt can be a serious issue for many individuals but if you can consolidate those debts and make things easier on yourself, you can start enjoying life more than ever before.