Have equity in your home? Want a lower payment? An appraisal from Appraisals Plus can help you get rid of your PMI.A 20% down payment is usually accepted when buying a house. Because the liability for the lender is oftentimes only the difference between the home value and the amount remaining on the loan, the 20% adds a nice buffer against the charges of foreclosure, selling the home again, and regular value variationson the chance that a borrower doesn't pay. The market was working with down payments as low as 10, 5 and often 0 percent during the mortgage boom of the last decade. How does a lender handle the added risk of the small down payment? The solution is Private Mortgage Insurance or PMI. This added policy covers the lender in case a borrower doesn't pay on the loan and the market price of the home is lower than what the borrower still owes on the loan. Because the $40-$50 a month per $100,000 borrowed is bundled into the mortgage monthly payment and often isn't even tax deductible, PMI can be expensive to a borrower. It's profitable for the lender because they secure the money, and they get paid if the borrower doesn't pay, different from a piggyback loan where the lender absorbs all the costs. 
Does your monthly mortgage payment include PMI? Contact us, you may be able to save money by removing your PMI. How home buyers can refrain from paying PMIWith the utilization of The Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, on nearly all loans lenders are forced to automatically terminate the PMI when the principal balance of the loan reaches 78 percent of the original loan amount. Acute home owners can get off the hook sooner than expected. The law states that, at the request of the home owner, the PMI must be dropped when the principal amount equals only 80 percent. Considering it can take many years to get to the point where the principal is just 20% of the original loan amount, it's crucial to know how your home has grown in value. After all, every bit of appreciation you've accomplished over the years counts towards dismissing PMI. So why pay it after the balance of your loan has dropped below the 80% threshold? Despite the fact that nationwide trends hint at plunging home values, understand 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. An accredited, licensed real estate appraiser can help homeowners understand just when their home's equity goes over the 20% point, as it's a tough thing to know. It's an appraiser's job to know the market dynamics of their area. At Appraisals Plus, we're experts at analyzing value trends in Philadelphia, Philadelphia County and surrounding areas, and we know when property values have risen or declined. When faced with information from an appraiser, the mortgage company will usually eliminate the PMI with little anxiety. At which time, the home owner can relish the savings from that point on.
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