Have equity in your home? Want a lower payment? An appraisal from AK Appraisals can help you get rid of your PMI.A 20% down payment is typically accepted when buying a house. Since the risk for the lender is oftentimes only the difference between the home value and the sum remaining on the loan, the 20% supplies a nice cushion against the charges of foreclosure, reselling the home, and regular value fluctuationson the chance that a borrower doesn't pay. During the recent mortgage upturn of the last decade, it became customary to see lenders taking down payments of 10, 5 or often 0 percent. A lender is able to handle the additional risk of the low down payment with Private Mortgage Insurance or PMI. This supplemental plan covers the lender if a borrower is unable to pay on the loan and the worth of the property is less than what is owed on the loan. PMI can be pricey to a borrower because the $40-$50 a month per $100,000 borrowed is lumped into the mortgage payment and generally isn't even tax deductible. It's money-making for the lender because they collect the money, and they get the money if the borrower is unable to pay, contradictory to a piggyback loan where the lender takes in all the damages. 
Does your monthly mortgage payment include PMI? Contact us, you may be able to save money by removing your PMI. How can home owners prevent paying PMI?With the implementation of The Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, on nearly all loans lenders are obligated to automatically terminate the PMI when the principal balance of the loan reaches 78 percent of the primary loan amount. The law pledges that, at the request of the homeowner, the PMI must be released when the principal amount equals only 80 percent. So, savvy home owners can get off the hook ahead of time. It can take countless years to reach the point where the principal is only 20% of the original loan amount, so it's necessary to know how your home has grown in value. After all, any appreciation you've acquired over the years counts towards abolishing PMI. So what's the reason for paying it after the balance of your loan has fallen below the 80% mark? Despite the fact that nationwide trends signify falling home values, realize that real estate is local. Your neighborhood may not be heeding the national trends and/or your home could have gained equity before things simmered down. The hardest thing for many homeowners to understand is just when their home's equity goes over the 20% point. An accredited, licensed real estate appraiser can definitely help. As appraisers, it's our job to understand the market dynamics of our area. At AK Appraisals, we're experts at identifying value trends in Anchorage, Anchorage County and surrounding areas, and we know when property values have risen or declined. Faced with figures from an appraiser, the mortgage company will most often drop the PMI with little anxiety. At which time, the homeowner can delight in the savings from that point on.
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