Have equity in your home? Want a lower payment? An appraisal from B & B Valuations, LLC can help you get rid of your PMI.When getting a mortgage, a 20% down payment is usually the standard. Because the risk for the lender is generally only the difference between the home value and the amount due on the loan, the 20% adds a nice buffer against the costs of foreclosure, reselling the home, and typical value variationsin the event a purchaser doesn't pay. During the recent mortgage upturn of the mid 2000s, it was widespread to see lenders taking down payments of 10, 5 or even 0 percent. A lender is able to endure the increased risk of the low down payment with Private Mortgage Insurance or PMI. This supplementary policy protects the lender in case a borrower defaults on the loan and the value of the home is less than what is owed on the loan. PMI can be expensive to a borrower because the $40-$50 a month per $100,000 borrowed is lumped into the mortgage monthly payment and many times isn't even tax deductible. Different from a piggyback loan where the lender consumes all the costs, PMI is lucrative for the lender because they collect the money, and they get paid if the borrower doesn't pay. 
Does your monthly mortgage payment include PMI? Contact us, you may be able to save money by removing your PMI. How home owners can keep from bearing the expense of PMIWith the utilization of The Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, on most loans lenders are forced to automatically cancel the PMI when the principal balance of the loan equals 78 percent of the initial loan amount. The law states that, at the request of the home owner, the PMI must be abandoned when the principal amount reaches just 80 percent. So, smart homeowners can get off the hook a little early. It can take many years to arrive at the point where the principal is only 20% of the original amount of the loan, so it's important to know how your home has appreciated in value. After all, all of the appreciation you've accomplished over time counts towards removing PMI. So why should you pay it after the balance of your loan has dropped below the 80% threshold? Your neighborhood may not be heeding the national trends and/or your home may have gained equity before things calmed down, so even when nationwide trends signify declining home values, you should understand that real estate is local. The difficult thing for most home owners to know is just when their home's equity rises above the 20% point. An accredited, licensed real estate appraiser can surely help. It's an appraiser's job to keep up with the market dynamics of their area. At B & B Valuations, LLC, we know when property values have risen or declined. We're masters at analyzing value trends in Katy, Fort Bend County and surrounding areas. When faced with data from an appraiser, the mortgage company will most often eliminate the PMI with little anxiety. At which time, the homeowner can relish the savings from that point on.
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