Skip to main content

Auto Pay Your Mortgage Payment

In the time that it takes to write one check, you can set it up with your bank and never have to do it again.  You won't have to write checks, envelopes or buy stamps anymore.  You'll save time, money and benefit in other ways too.

  1. Never be late ... avoid late fees and protect your credit
  2. Schedule additional principal contributions monthly to save interest, build equity and shorten the mortgage term.
    An extra $200 a month applied to the principal on a $200,000 mortgage at 4.5% for 30 years will result in shortening the loan by 8.5 years.  If the loan was paid to term, it would save $52,977 in interest.  Use the Equity Accelerator to see how much you can save.
  3. It's convenient ... by doing it online with your bank, you'll have a centralized history of the payments.
  4. Protect your credit ... your payment history is the single biggest component of your credit score and accounts for over 1/3 of your credit score.

Establishing the practice of auto bill pay could run the risk of overdrawing an account and incurring overdraft charges.  Monitor your bank account to be sure that you have enough cash to cover your automatic payments.

Schedule the Auto Pay to allow for processing and the time it takes to reach the lender so that you don't incur late fees.

And even though, you set up the Auto Pay, it is still your responsibility to monitor your bank account to see that they are executing it properly.  If you are making additional principal contributions, you must see that the extra amount was indeed applied to principal reduction and not somewhere else like in the escrow account.

Some banks offer email or text reminders to let you know when checks are about to be written or if your balance is low.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Make Your Home Offer the Most Appealing

Sales in February 2023 were up 14.5% month over month and still down 22.6% year over year according to the NAR Housing Snapshot.   The median sales price dipped 0.2% to $363,000 and there are 2.6 months supply of homes on the market compared to 1.7 months a year ago. "Inventory levels are still at historic lows, and consequently, multiple offers are returning on a good number of properties." According to Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of REALTORS�. It is still important to have a strategy for potentially competing with other buyers on the house you want to buy.   The plan should include several available provisions and options, so that at the time of drafting the sales offer, you can consider exactly what to include based on the situation. Unless a person is paying cash, you need to be pre-approved by a trusted mortgage professional long before you start looking at homes.   Include the written pre-approval letter along with the offer

Rethinking Backup Offers

Like with any professional, there are tools and techniques available to help with particular situations.   They might be more popular at certain times and might even be put aside or forgotten at others. For real estate professionals, one of those is the backup offer.   In a situation where there are multiple offers, the seller can accept any offer for whatever reasons are important to them, leaving the makers of the other offers disappointed.   There is always some uncertainty that the buyers on a contract will close accordingly.   To hedge on that possibility, the seller may choose to make a counteroffer to one or more of the other offers to be a backup should the primary contract not close. From a buyer's perspective, the purpose of a backup offer is to be next in line to have the chance to purchase the property should the first contract fall through. The benefit is that you'll be next in line to purchase the home without having to submit another offer and possi

Getting Comfortable with the New Normal Mortgage Rates

The biggest shock to homebuyers is the soaring mortgage rates of 2022 that doubled in one year resulting in approximately 15 million mortgage ready buyers displaced from the market due to affordability issues. As of February 23, 2023, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage was at 6.5%.   While that is twice as high as it was on January 6, 2022, it is still lower than the 7.75% average rate since April 2, 1971, according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey. When rates increase at a rapid pace like this, it takes time for the public to adjust and begin to accept it as the new normal. Prior to the housing bust that led to the Great Recession, the normal for mortgage rates was in the 6% range and existing home sales were over 6.5 million for three years.   From 2007 to 2014, home sales were closer to 5 million with 2008-2011 at just above 4 million annually. From January 17, 2008 to March 5, 2020, mortgage rates averaged 4.32%.   In this 12-year period, buyers exper