These days, many adults are taking classes to expand their skills or learn about new industries. With a little research and a little effort, returning to school may be a whole lot easier...and a whole lot cheaper...than you think!

Here are some great tips for getting that education for free.

Scholarships...
Many scholarships don't have age limits, which means everyone is eligible. Check out www.Fastweb.com and www.SuperCollege.com to search for available scholarships.

Professional and Trade Organizations...
Local and national professional and trade organizations often offer grants and scholarships. Begin by doing an Internet search for your particular locale and specialty. You can also contact your local Chamber of Commerce to see if they have any information on local grants and scholarships.

Colleges and Universities...
Many schools offer scholarships created especially for adults who are returning to school. Check a school's individual Web site or contact the admissions office for details.

The Government...
Individual states may provide grants to help people attend the re-training programs they sponsor. Information and links can be found at www.careeronestop.org. In addition, the Obama administration launched www.opportunity.gov to help unemployed adults return to college. The site includes information on a variety of federal student aid programs.

Employers...
A large number of employers still offer tuition assistance, especially if you can show how the educational program will help your job performance. For adults who want to return to school while they are still working, this is another avenue to consider.

Whether or not you're interested in going back to school, share these tips with your friends, family members, and clients. And if you know of any other great resources for returning to school, let me know about them. I'd love to add them to my list.

Tips to put cash in your pocket

4.09% rate on 30-year mortgage

Fixed mortgage rates fell to the lowest level in six decades for the second straight week.

Freddie Mac says the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 4.09 percent this week.  That's the lowest rate seen since 1951.

The average rate on the 15-year mortgage, a popular refinancing option, fell to 3.30 percent, also a new low.  Economists say it is likely the lowest rate on the 15-year ever.

Mortgage rates tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note.  Worries over Europe's debt crisis are pushing investors to shift money into safe Treasurys, forcing the yield lower.

This article was published in the Chicago Post Tribune on September 16, 2011.

For refinancing information please contact Van Ristovski at 800-905-9223 or visit us at www.LoanUsMoney.com.

LoanUsMoney.com will work with you and help get you refinanced!  Are you affected by a nightmare!  Let us review your file for no charge!  Call Van Ristovski at 800-905-905-9223.

3 Home Mortgage Refinancing Nightmares

by Erik Folgate
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

provided by
U.S. News

Just a few months ago, my wife and I talked about how much money we were going to save by refinancing our 6 percent fixed-rate mortgage down to 4.25 percent interest. A few years earlier, we would have been crazy to think that we could refinance our mortgage loan from 6 percent to an even lower rate. But the chance to find a better mortgage rate was one of a few bright spots in the U.S. real estate market's dreary past three years. Lenders were forced to offer refinancing deals with 50-year-low interest rates in order to stay in business, and we wanted our piece of the savings that many other Americans were getting.

We didn't know at the time, but the process of trying to refinance our mortgage would prove to be a tiring and frustrating experience. It sounded so easy in the beginning: just fill out the typical paperwork, get another appraisal, pay some closing costs and mortgage fees, and we'd save around $250 a month on our monthly mortgage payment. As expected, the paperwork wasn't a big deal.

But the next seemingly simple step became a surprisingly difficult challenge: another appraisal. Like so many other people, we believed that our home must be worth more than we owed after two years of payments and a significant upfront down payment, especially considering that we bought the house for $70,000 less than the list price. It turned out that we were way off. The appraisal came in at a value of $30,000 less than what we owed. We fought the comparison set that the appraiser used -- and then we fought some more -- but we got nowhere and realized that getting our mortgage refinanced wasn't going to happen.

Unfortunately, this experience has been an all-too-common one that many Americans have faced during the housing market debacle, something I learned when I recently decided to seek out more refinancing horror stories from everyday people like me. Sure enough, I quickly found that I wasn't alone in my frustration. Interestingly, I found three common themes in people's refinancing nightmares:

1. Low Appraisals

Tracy from Central Mississippi, whose experience was closest to mine, describes the difficult obstacle she faced: "My husband and I tried to refinance over a year ago. He's self-employed, and we'd never had a late payment. We weren't struggling to pay our current loan, but we wanted to lower the number of years left and take the opportunity to lower our interest rate. We contacted Quicken Loans, paid a $500 appraisal fee, and they sent an appraiser out. After he returned with a low appraisal, we were turned down."

On the initial assessment, the appraiser did not like an added structure on the property -- not yet converted into a mother-in-law suite -- and Tracy believes the home's appraised value suffered because of the structure. Tracy begged and pleaded Quicken Loans to return for another appraisal where she could also help allay some of the concerns about the home. Not only did the appraiser decline to re-evaluate the property, but Quicken Loans also refused to return the $500 appraisal fee. Fortunately, while Tracy and her husband couldn't avoid the stressful ordeal of a cripplingly low appraisal, eventually a local bank refinanced their mortgage in December 2010.

2. Irregular Income

Even if you don't face appraisal aggravation, your road to refinancing can have plenty of other obstacles now that banks have tightened their underwriting guidelines. Todd from Orange County, California explains: "When we first applied for a mortgage refinance with Wells [Fargo], the agent suggested using an outside approval service for our application under the Home Affordable Modification Program. This was because I am self-employed, so I couldn't provide pay stubs."

An insulting, but common, start to the refinancing nightmare is finding out that even though you may be making steady money, your lack of proper income records means you may not be approved. Moreover, even if you are successfully self-employed or operate a small business and have adequate bookkeeping records, if you don't have at least two years of documented income history, lenders won't deem your income "steady" enough. As a result, successful freelancers and small business owners can face extreme trials and tribulations in attempts to refinance or obtain new loans. Overall, it can be very difficult to get a mortgage when you're self-employed.

3. Ineligible Income

Continuing on with this theme of "unacceptable income," Melanie from Philadelphia described to me one of the most unbelievable refinancing nightmares I've ever heard. She collects a steady income from a long-term severance package and has over two million dollars in retirement assets. She explains her story: "While I'm currently looking for work, thinking about starting a small business, and expecting to be re-employed in some capacity in the very near future, the new refinancing rules don't allow lenders to count my current severance income (full salary until next summer) or my retirement assets (just shy of two million dollars) in their calculations as income."

As you can see, even people with extremely high net worths are struggling to refinance their mortgages! There's no greater refinancing shock than knowing you have money, having a regular check come in, and supposedly still not having enough valid earned income to qualify for a mortgage refinance or new loan.

Final Word

If Melanie's assets couldn't justify approval for refinancing, it had to be nearly hopeless for people just starting out like us. At least in my situation, I stopped fighting the appraiser once I knew that reconsideration was out of the question. I could have obtained a second opinion, but it would have cost an additional $400 or $500 for another appraisal. It just wasn't worth it to me. I didn't want to dig myself into a deeper hole.

Refinancing is still a feasible option for many homeowners, but as rates keep inching higher, taking on the ordeal is less desirable than it was four or five months ago, when even people like me with a 6 percent fixed rate wanted to refinance. Be sure to carefully weigh the pros and cons before entering the challenging world of refinancing.

Do you have any refinancing nightmare stories? Did refinancing work out for you? Share them in the comments, and let us know how you were able to overcome the obstacles--or if you were forced to give up.

Erik Folgate, a homeowner who lives in Florida with his wife and baby son, is a contributor to the Money Crashers personal finance blog, where he discusses topics such as government and economic policy, and provides tips for getting out of debt and improving your financial fitness.

/ *Article found on Yahoo.com /

10 Major Mortgage Mistakes to Avoid - article found by LoanUsMoney.com

This entry is marked as draft, & was posted by Van Ristovski on Feb 9th, 2011 at 9:05 am

10 Major Mortgage Mistakes to Avoid

by Colin Robertson
Wednesday, February 9, 2011

provided by

Getting a mortgage is no simple task: It's a complex and time-consuming process, and perhaps one of the most significant events of our lives, at least in financial terms. Here are ten potential pitfalls to avoid:

1. Not checking your credit: Long before you begin searching for a mortgage, you should know where you stand in the credit score department. After all, a bad credit score can bump up your mortgage interest rate several percentage points or leave you with no approval at all. Be sure you check your credit early on (several months in advance) in case any changes need to be made to get it back up to snuff.

2. Applying for new credit alongside the mortgage: In this same vein, be sure to avoid applying for any other type of credit before and during the mortgage application process. Whenever you apply for new credit, you're seen as a greater credit risk, at least initially. If you happen to apply for a credit card or auto loan around the same time you apply for a mortgage, your credit score might get dinged enough to kill your eligibility or bump up your interest rate.

3. Failing to look at the total housing payment: A mortgage payment consists of principal, interest, taxes, and insurance (PITI). A common mistake made by prospective home buyers is not factoring in their property taxes and insurance premium into their overall mortgage budget. The debt-to-income ratio (DTI ratio), used to determine if a borrower will qualify for a certain mortgage payment, is calculated by dividing the proposed cost of PITI by gross monthly income. A $1,200 homeowner's insurance policy would add $100 per month to an escrowed mortgage payment.

4. Not seasoning your assets: The bank or lender will want to see that you can actually pay your mortgage each month. But without seasoned assets, those that have been in your own account for at least a couple months, you could be out of luck entirely. Some borrowers seem to think they can transfer funds from a relative's account days before applying, but this simply won't fly once the underwriter uncovers the paper trail.

5. Job hopping: Another key to mortgage approval is steady employment and income. An underwriter will want to know that the income you bring in every month is consistent and expected to continue into the foreseeable future. So don't jump from job to job too much before applying for a mortgage. If it's in the same field, it shouldn't be a deal killer, but a career change will lead to problems. If you're thinking about jumping ship, wait until you've closed your mortgage first.

6. Not getting pre-approved: Good preparation is the key to a good mortgage. Before shopping for a home, make sure you can actually qualify for financing by getting a pre-approval. A mortgage pre-approval is more robust than a simple pre-qualification because the bank pulls your credit and looks at your income, assets, and employment. Your DTI ratio will also come into play to ensure you know exactly how much you can afford. With this pre-approval, you will also get a written commitment from the lender that will show home sellers you're serious about the purchase.

7. Not shopping around: But just because you're pre-approved with one bank doesn't mean you need to obtain financing from them. Be sure to shop around with multiple banks and lenders and even consider a mortgage broker. A broker can shop your rate with a number of banks concurrently and find you the lowest rate with the best terms. Don't be one of the many consumers who obtains a single mortgage rate prior to applying. Comparison shop as you would for anything else you buy. And don't forget to factor in closing costs!

8. Chasing exotic loan programs: Shop around for the lowest rate and closing costs, but not at the expense of your mortgage. Anything that sounds too good to be true most likely is. If the payment seems too low, you might be paying interest-only or even negatively amortizing, meaning your mortgage balance is growing each month. It's best to keep it simple and go with a loan program you can get your head around, like a fixed-rate mortgage.

9. Forgetting to lock your rate: Keep in mind that a mortgage rate means very little if it's not locked-in. If you're happy with your rate, lock it. Mortgage rates change daily and sometimes several times daily. All those mortgage quotes you obtain are just quotes until you actually tell the bank, lender, or broker to "lock it in." Once locked, your rate is guaranteed for a certain period of time, be it 7 days, 15 days, or a month. But never assume your rate is locked until you get it in writing!

10. Not reading your loan documents: Finally, it's your responsibility to read and accept the terms of your new mortgage. Sure, it might be a pain to go through all the loan documents at signing, but it's a bigger pain to sign up for something you don't want or agree with. Take the time at closing to ensure you understand everything you're signing, and thereby agreeing to. And don't be afraid to ask questions! Otherwise, you could wind up with a mortgage with predatory terms and no place to turn.

Colin Robertson is the author of several finance websites aimed at helping consumers save money, including The Truth About Mortgage and The Truth About Credit Cards, which includes his popular credit score range.

___

* article from Yahoo.com

Whatever your mortgage needs may be feel free to call Van Ristovski at 219-313-5168 or 800-905-9223.  You can also visit us at www.LoanUsMoney.com.  You can apply on-line or in person.  We have a VA Loans, FHA Loans, and Conventional Loans.  We also are able to do Rural Loans for 100% of the Purchase Price.  That means NO DOWN PAYMENT!!!  Our rates and closing cost are the lowest around.  Our service is guaranteed at 150% A+!!!  We will close your loan whether your credit is good or bad.  If you have Bad credit we will work to get you where you need to be.  Feel free to call Van Ristovski at 219-313-5168 or 800-905-9223.  You can also visit us at www.LoanUsMoney.com.  We will teach you how to shop us to make sure you are getting the best deal!