Thursday, October 15, 2009

Reinvest Your Home

By Adrian Phang

Many people are unaware that they have the option of switching their loan to other investor; others are simply uninterested. They simply become firm with their first lender but they don't know that it could nring higher interest rates. Due to the amount of housing loans and the term that the loan is amortized over, the interest can ranges from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The following factors may help you consider reinvesting your home.

Current Interest Rate

If your latest interest rate is higher than other housing loan packages, consider reinvesting. Go back to your current bank or financial institution and ask them to reprice your loan package. Most likely, your lender will give you an offer, which is better than your current one. Make a comparison between this offer and with offers from other lenders to see whether you should switch or stay put.

Lock-in and Clawback Periods

Lock-in period is when your lender give you a penalty if you want to fully repay your loan. Most of housing loans have a clawback period wherein the lender will claim back "giveaways", such as legal subsidies, that they "gave" you when you take up your housing loan. Lock-in period is different from clawback period. Thus, it is not advisable for you to reinvest due to these extra costs.

Loan Quantum

If the amount of your loan is larger, the savings for the same decrease in interest rates will also be also larger. However, fixed cost to reinvesting, which comprises mainly of legal fees, does not vary much with loan quantum. The difference between your latest and reinvesting interest rates has to be larger for a relatively lower loan as fixed cost takes into a more significant portion of your interest rate savings.

Distinguish Interest Rate Movements

Analyze how interest rates flow. Try a floating rate package as an alternative to fixed rate package if the interest rates are decreasing. Conversely, if you are on floating rates and believe interest rates are increasing, switching to fixed rates may be a good choice.

Own Financial Evaluation

Give some thought to take fixed rate package. Think of increasing your loan quantum. When your monthly income increased and you want to decrease interest payments, try to reduce your loan tenure. - 29904

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