We are looking at refinancing this week. We have about $250,000 equity in our home on a 30-year mortgage at 6.2 percent. We are three years into the mortgage. We are in our mid-50s. We know we will stay in this home for at least seven more years. We have just come into a very nice inheritance. Should we go for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage and put cash in to lower our payments, or should we just refinance with a new 30-year loan at 4.6 percent and invest the inheritance elsewhere.

Go for the 15-year refinance, but don’t put any cash in. Leave a little of the inheritance on the side so you have plenty of emergency cash and invest the rest. The idea is that the payments might be higher, but the lower interest rate on the 15-year loan (around 4 to 4.25 percent) will help offset that.

For example, on a $250,000 loan for 30 years at 6.2 percent, your monthly payment would be about $1,531. On a 15-year loan at 4.25 percent, your monthly payment would be $1,874. That’s about $350 extra per month, or $4,200 more per year. If that would be a stretch for you, you can just shell out $350 per month from your inheritance cash to make up the difference.

If you are going to stay in the property for seven more years, you’ll wind up spending just shy of $30,000 on the principal payments. But in seven years, your mortgage balance will have fallen to about $152,000. In other words, you’ll spend $30,000 but you’ll cut your loan by $100,000.

My husband has owned a home for 35 years. We married in April 2009, and I have not owned a home in six years. We just built a new home together. Would we qualify for the homebuyer tax credit? We are thinking of amending our 2009 return and filing separately if necessary. We really think we deserve this homebuyer tax credit.

If you bought your new home before you were married, then you might have qualified for a first-time homebuyer tax credit. But I don’t think you qualify now. And, you’re not alone. This has been a real bone of contention for many taxpayers.

Meanwhile, you and your husband may qualify for a long-term homeowner tax credit of $6,500. But it depends on when you closed on your new home and whether you were married at the time. This tax credit was available only for homeowners who met all the qualifications and closed after Nov. 6. If you still haven’t closed on the home, you have until Sept. 30 to get the deal done.

Don’t forget, you’ll have to attach Form 5405 and a copy of your settlement statement.

We just bought a home in April. I found out yesterday from one of the neighbors that the previous owner’s husband committed suicide in the house, right in the bedroom I sleep in. Had I known this, I would not have purchased the house. Are they legally obligated to disclose that to us prior to purchase?

Seller disclosure laws in most states don’t usually cover matters that could have been discovered in the public record. Some states would not require a seller to tell you about a new shopping center that might be built nearby but would require the seller to tell you whether the basement had water problems.

To answer your specific question, I’m not sure whether a suicide would qualify.

People die in homes all the time. Buyers frequently never know those circumstances, and it does not change the value of the home and probably does not need to be disclosed. In situations in which mass murders or horrific events have occurred in a location, those circumstances may rise to a level in which a seller would be obligated to tell you.

In your situation, it’s likely that the value of the home was not affected by the suicide. But talk to a real estate lawyer in your area with experience in seller disclosure issues.

By Ilyce R. Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin

Tags: financial, foreclosures, homebuyers, housing market, interest rates, loans, mortgage, mortgage market, mortgage payments, mortgages, real estate, subprime mortgages, tax credit, US Economy

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 18th, 2010 at 12:36 am and is filed under US Economy, US Finance, borrowers, hard money, home buyers, mortgage, real estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.