My home is not paid off. I owe less than $10,000.00. I would like to get a consolidation loan for some unsecured loans, borrowing against my home for collateral, if I can. It's not a fantastic house, but I know it is worth more than what I still owe on it. Is this a possibility, or should I just keep plugging away at my debt with monthly payments? Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful.
2007-08-01 04:25:53 · 4 answers · asked by Libby 3 in Business & Finance ➔ Personal Finance
If you want to get an idea of what your house might be worth you can do a couple of things:
1) ask a real estate agent to do a comparative market analysis. They should do one for free.
2) Go to a site like www.zillow.com and see if they can give you an estimate of your house. This is free, but can sometimes be quite a bit off.
3) Look at your property tax bill. Depending on where you live, it might have an estimated market value of your house.
4) Ask your mortgage company. They are a good place to start if you want to get a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) or refinance your house.
2007-08-01 04:47:53 · answer #1 · answered by Michael K 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Very, very bad idea to throw unsecured debt into your mortgage. Where are you going to live if you can't pay that second mortgage or equity loan payment on top of your first mortgage payment?
When you string out payment on that unsecured debt, the overall interest is shocking. Not to mention all the fees for processing the loan. And if you will probably have to deal with subprime lenders which means higher fees and interest.
You are much better off to just keep plugging away at your debts. Pay as much as you can squeeze out of your budget on the highest interest rate credit card while paying the minimum on the rest. Once the highest rate card is paid off, move to the next till they are all paid in full.
2007-08-01 04:41:52 · answer #2 · answered by bdancer222 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Two ways....
1) Look in the paper or those monthly catalogs of homes for sale around your neighborhood. Look for ones that are similar to your own home, and at their selling prices. That will give you a feel for your home's worth.
2) Look up a professional appraiser, and they can determine your homes worth (for a small fee, of course).
I'd go with #1.
As for a loan, it's up to you, but you are so close to paying off your mortgage, I'd keep going along with that and pay as much on your credit debt as possible. When you get through with the mortgage in a couple of years, if you still have debt, you can apply your mortgage payment amount to that.
2007-08-01 04:37:58 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can start by going to a website called zillow.com.
Just found out about it, looked my home and neighborhood, and it's pretty accurate.
It'll give ya a nice ballpark of what houses are going for around you.
2007-08-01 04:44:54 · answer #4 · answered by NotAgain 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋