Title Details

1. AFFORDABLE DEPENDS ON YOU—NOT THE LENDER.

Secret #1. Affordability Depends on You.

Secret #2. How You Choose Your Property and Arrange Financing Will Add (or subtract) Tens (or even hundreds) of Thousands of Dollars to (from) Your Net Worth.

Secret #3. Separate the Emotional from the Financial.

Secret #4. Align Your Self-Talk with Your Priorities.

Secret #5. Don't Focus on the Kind of Home You Want Now, Focus on the Kind of Home You want 5, 10, or 15 Years From Now.

2. INCREASE YOUR BORROWING POWER.

Secret #6. 10,000 Lenders Set Their Own Standards.

Secret #7. You Can Make Your Qualifying Ratios Look Better.

Secret #8. You Can Lift Your Qualifying Income.

Secret #9. Reduce Your Disqualifying Debt.

Secret #10. Use Compensating Factors to Justify Higher Qualifying Ratios.

Secret #11. Never Fib to a Lender.

Secret #12. Can't Qualify on Your Own? Enlist the Help of a Cosigner, Co-Borrower, or Co-Owner.

Secret #13. Let Tenants pay Your Mortgage.

Secret #14. Don't Change Your Loan Status.

3. SLASH YOUR COST OF INTEREST.

Secret #15. Most Borrowers Who Want a Long-Term Fixed-Rate Loan Should Choose 15 years, not 30.

Secret #16. Lower Interest Rate Means Big Savings.

Secret #17. Lower rates Magnify Borrowing Power.

Secret #18. ARMs Can Offer Greater Borrowing Power, Lower Costs, with Manageable risk.

Secret #19. State and Local Housing finance Agencies Offer Low-Interest Mortgage Bond Loans.

Secret #20. Assume a Low Interest Rate Mortgage.

Secret #21. "Assume" a Nonassumable Mortgage.

Secret #22. Save $1000s with a Mortgage Credit Certificate (MCC).

Secret #23. Seek Employer Assistance (or seek an employer who give assistance).

Secret #24. Trade Off Points for a Lower Interest Rate.

Secret #25. Negotiate a Temporary Buydown with the Sellers.

Secret #26. New Home Builders Offer Mortgage Incentives.

Secret #27. How to Borrow Jumbo Amounts Without Paying Jumbo Rates.

Secret #28. Your After-Tax, Cost of Borrowing May not be as Low as You've Been Told.

4. THE RISKS AND REWARDS OF ARMs.

Secret #29. ARMs do not Necessarily Present More Risk Than Fixed-Rate Loans.

Secret #30. ARMs for the Short-Term Don't Always Prove Best.

Secret #31. ARMs for the Long-Run: How to Lower Costs and Alleviate "Risk".

Secret #32. You Can (sort of) Forecast Interest Rates.

Secret #33. Watch Out for Low Teaser Rates.

Secret #34. Your Start (teaser) Rate Isn't Your Contract Rate.

Secret #35. No One Best Index.

Secret #36. Don't Ignore the Margin.

Secret #37. All Caps Aren't Created Equally.

Secret #38. That Flashy Convertible Could Prove to be a Clunker.

Secret #39. APRs tell You Nothing About ARMs (and very little about fixed-rates).

5. PERFECT YOUR CREDIT PROFILE.

Secret #40. Emphasize all 5 Cs of Credit Approval.

Secret #41. Credit Scores can Shape Your Destiny.

Secret #42. Your Credit "Score" Doesn't Necessary Represent Your Credit Strength.

Secret #43. You Can Discover Your Credit Scores.

Secret #44. You Can Improve Your Credit Score(s).

Secret #45. Garbage in, Garbage Out (GIGO).

Secret #46.Credit Repair Firms Can't Fix Your Credit or Boost Your Credit Scores.

Secret #47. Credit Counselor Can Scam You, Too.

Secret #48. Credit Counselors and Debt Management Firms Do Not Improve Your Credit Record or Boost Your Credit Score.

Secret #49. Bankruptcy (Chapter 7) Doesn't Ruin Your Credit.

Secret #50. Your Ex-Spouse can Ruin Your Credit (and other tales of double counting).

6. THE LOWDOWN ON LOW DOWNS.

Secret #51. You Can Buy with Little or Nothing Down.

Secret #52. No Matter How Much You earn, FHA May Hold the Key to Your Home Financing.

Secret #53. Discover FHA's Best Kept Secret: The 203 (k) Program.

Secret #54. Too Many Vets Pass up VA Loans.

Secret #55. The USDA Offers a Prime Choice for Low- to Moderate Income Homebuyers.

Secret #56. Community Lending Goes Mainstream.

Secret #57. Not-for-Profit Housing Groups Help People in Need to Buy and Finance Homes.

Secret #58. Local Governments Assist with Down Payments.

Secret #59. Even Fannie and Freddie Accept Little- or Nothing-Down Loans.

Secret #60. Cut the Cost of PMI by Learning Where Rates Break.

Secret #61. Before You Obtain a PMI Little- or Nothing-Down Loan, Understand the High Cost You'll be Paying.

Secret #62. Reduce the High Cost of Low Down Payments with a Second Mortgage.

Secret #63. Use Pledged Collateral to Eliminate PMI.

Secret #64. Search for Sellers with Low-Equity Assumables.

Secret $65. You Can Avoid PMI with a Higher Interest Rate Mortgage.

7. WIN BIG SAVINGS WITH SELLER FINANCING, FORECLOSURES, AND REOS.

Secret #66. Sellers can Nearly Always Beat the Banks at Their Own Game, But You Must Do More Than Ask.

Secret #67. Ask the Seller and Lender to Cooperate with a Refi Blend.

Secret #68. Bridge the Assumable Gap with a Seller Second.

Secret #69. Avoid the Bang of a Bursting Balloon.

Secret #70. Buy on the Installment Plan.

Secret #71. Try it Before You Buy It.

Secret #72. Buy and Lease Simultaneously.

Secret #73. Beat High Interest Rates with Wraparound Financing.

Secret #74. Don't Dilly-Dally with Due Deligence.

Secret #75. Negotiate a Pre-Foreclosure Workout.

Secret #76. Buy (carefully) at the Foreclosure Sale.

Secret #77. Locate a foreclosure Pro.

Secret #78. HUD May Hold the Keys to Your Home or Investment Property.

Secret #79. VA Offers Deals to Both Veterans and Non-Veterans.

Secret #80. Let Fannie or Freddie Treat You to Below-market Financing.

Secret #81. Buy and Finance Directly with a Lender.

8. BEWARE: FINE PRINT "GOTCHAS" AT WORK.

Secret #82. It's a Jungle Out There.

Secret #83. Tell Your Loan Rep to Take Out the Garbage.

Secret #84. Don't Place Much Faith in the Good Faith Estimate.

Secret #85. What's the Real Cost of a No Cost Mortgage?

Secret #86. Does Your Loan Permit Unlimited Prepayment?

Secret #87. An Assumable Loan May Offer Much Less Than You've Assumed.

Secret #88. Appraised Value Doesn't Necessary Equal Market Value.

Secret #89. On Occasion, Lenders Want Appraisers to Lowball Their Appraisals.

Secret #90. Appraisals Don't Forecast the Future.

9. ACHIEVE YOUR LOWEST RATE.

Secret #91. Refuse to Yield to the Yield-Spread Premium.

Secret #92. Red and Yellow, Black and White, Lenders Treat Them All Alike.

Secret #93. Rate Quotes: Fact or Fiction?

Secret #94. What Rate Will You Get at Closing?

Secret #95. Achieve Your Best Rate.

Secret #96. Industry Pros and Government Agencies Need Your Help.

Secret #97. How to (almost) Vanquish Tricks of the Trade.

10. MANAGE YOUR HOME AND HOME FINANCING FOR MAXIMUM RETURN.

Secret #98. Treat Your Home and Your Home Financing as an Investment.

Secret #99. Stay Alert for Opportunities to Refinance.

Secret 100. Use Refinancing to Create Other Benefits.

Secret #101. Refinance and Safely Invest the Proceeds.

Secret #102. Never Buy Bi-Weekly Baloney.

Secret #103. Cancel Your PMI. Get a Refund from FHA.

Secret #104. Negotiate Out of Escrow.

Secret #105. Just Say No to Home Equity Loans.

Secret #106. Trouble, Trouble, What to Do?

Conclusion: You Can Live on the House.

Index.