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Buyer Tips
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As
with everything else, there are good points and bad points. Bad
points are the ones you pay; good points are the ones someone else
pays. They are charged by lending institutions as extra upfront,
one-time lump-sum interest, when a new loan is placed.
Each point is 1 percent of a new loan being placed. If you buy a house
for $150,000 and borrow $120,000, one point would equal $1,200 (not
$1,500). Two points would be $2,400. The term is sometimes used
interchangeably with per cent, as in You'll have a two-point cap,
which means that you'd have a 2-percent cap.
Points are usually paid at final settlement when the loan is actually
made or, occasionally, at the time of mortgage application (in which
case, find out whether they are refundable if the loan does not go
through).
Sometimes you can pay extra points in return for special favors - a
lock-in guarantees that you'll receive the rate in effect when you
apply for the loan, no matter what has happened to rates in the
meantime (but what if rates go down before your closing?) Or you may
be charged extra for an extension if you don't close within a given
period after the bank commits to making the loan.
When rates are fluctuating rapidly, some borrowers have been known to
make mortgage application at two different lenders: one with rate
locked in, and one without. For whichever loan isn't eventually
chosen, the wheeler-dealer will forfeit an application fee, usually
several hundred dollars to cover at least an appraisal and credit
report. If wide-spread, the practice would pose a great nuisance to
lenders, but it could give the applicant a chance to choose the more
favorable loan at the last minute.
Points may be paid by either buyer or seller, depending on their
agreement. Points paid by you as the buyer of your own residence are
income tax deductible as interest, in the year they are paid. Points
you pay to purchase income property must be amortized (deducted bit by
bit over the years) along with the other costs of placing an
investor's loan.
Points paid by the seller are one of the expenses of selling, and
reduce the seller's capital gain on the sale. The buyer, however, is
allowed to take points paid by either party as an income tax deduction
for interest expense for that year.
This Homebuyers Tip was excerpted from:
The Home Buyer's Kit, Third Edition , by Edith Lank, Dearborn
Financial Publishing , Inc., 1994.
ISBN# 0793111145
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