Archive for June, 2008

What do you mean by reverse mortgage?

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

A reverse mortgage (known as lifetime mortgage in the United Kingdom) is a loan available to seniors (62 and older in the United States), and is used to release the home equity in the property as one lump sum or multiple payments. The homeowner’s obligation to repay the loan is deferred until the owner dies, the home is sold, or the owner leaves (e.g., into aged care).

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What is a Down Payment

Friday, June 20th, 2008

Down payment (or downpayment) is a term used in the context of the purchase of expensive items such as a car and a house, whereby the payment is the initial upfront portion of the total amount due and it is usually given in cash at the time of finalizing the transaction. A loan is then required to make the full payment.

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What is a Title

Friday, June 20th, 2008

Title is a legal term for a bundle of rights in a piece of property in which a party may own either a legal interest or an equitable interest. The rights in the bundle may be separated and held by different parties. It may also refer to a formal document that serves as evidence of ownership. Conveyance of the document may be required in order to transfer ownership in the property to another person. Title is distinct from possession, a right that often accompanies ownership but is not necessarily sufficient to prove it. In many cases, both possession and title may be transferred independently of each other.

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Who is a Creditor

Friday, June 20th, 2008

A creditor is a party (e.g. person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim to the services of a second party. The first party, in general, has provided some property or service to the second party under the assumption (usually enforced by contract) that the second party will return an equivalent property or service. The second party is frequently called a debtor or borrower.

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What is meant by Home Ownership

Friday, June 20th, 2008

Home Ownership means the act of owning and occupying a house and the person who owns the house is called the owner-occupier. An owner-occupier is a person who lives in a house that he or she owns. Homes also include condominums, apartments, and housing cooperatives. The immovable property, including the home and the land it sits upon, is known as real estate.

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What is Real Estate

Friday, June 20th, 2008

Real estate is a legal term (in some jurisdictions, notably in the USA, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia) that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings, specifically property that is stationary, or fixed in location.

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What is a foreclosure

Friday, June 20th, 2008

Foreclosure is the legal proceeding in which a mortgagee, usually a lender, obtains a court ordered termination of a mortgagor’s equitable right of redemption. Usually a lender obtains a security interest from a borrower who mortgages or pledges an asset like a house to secure the loan. If the borrower defaults and the lender tries to repossess the property, courts of equity can grant the owner the right of redemption if the borrower repays the debt. When this equitable right exists, the lender cannot be sure that it can successfully repossess the property, thus the lender seeks to foreclose the equitable right of redemption.

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What do you mean by a non-recourse debt or non-recourse loan

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

A nonrecourse debt or non-recourse debt or nonrecourse loan is a secured loan (debt) that is secured by a pledge of collateral, typically real property, but for which the borrower is not personally liable. If the borrower defaults, the lender/issuer can seize the collateral, but the lender’s recovery is limited to the collateral. If the property is insufficient to cover the outstanding loan balance (for example, if real estate prices have dropped), the lender is simply out the difference. (more…)

What is a Collateral

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

In lending agreements, collateral is a borrower’s asset that is forfeited to the lender if the borrower is insolvent — that is, unable to pay back the principal and interest on the loan. When insolvent, the borrower is said to default on the loan, in which case the lender becomes the owner of the collateral. In a mortgage, for instance, the real estate being acquired with the help of the loan serves as collateral. Should the buyer fail to pay mortgage interest, the ownership of the real estate is transferred to the bank in the process known as foreclosure.

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What is Real Property

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

In the common law, real property (or realty) refers to one of the two main classes of property, the other class being personal property (personalty). Real property generally encompasses land, land improvements resulting from human effort including buildings and machinery sited on land, and various property rights over the preceding.

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