Points

Categories: Mortgage

See: Mortgage.

Yes, those kinds of points. Interest points. That is, you can pay interest in advance up front to then lower your monthly mortgage payment. Like, if you're borrowing $300,000, you can pay, say, 2 points up front, or 2% of that $300,000, or $6,000.

So...why on Earth would you want to do this? You're paying just the interest to the bank; you get no credit for paying down your mortgage. You're just pre-paying interest you'll owe down the line. Why? Why do this?

Rhymes with shmax-deductible. Yeah. You pay that 2 points up front, and then not only do you get to deduct all of it against this year's taxes, but you get to have a lower monthly payment. Like...your $1,973 goes down to $1,924, or something like that. Over time, that 60 bucks a month adds up. And if you had a lot of taxable income this year, that $6k up front probably saved you a grand or three in taxes to boot.

Good discipline if you're in the target zone.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is PMI insurance?0 Views

00:00

and finance Allah shmoop What is PM I insurance All

00:07

right people There's your car insurance your health insurance What's

00:10

that you say you're buying a house with less than

00:11

20% of the home's value is a down payment Well

00:15

guess what that means more insurance for you Yes private

00:19

mortgage insurance PM I accept the PM I isn't insurance

00:23

for you No it's insurance for your bank The interest

00:27

you pay on your mortgage is like interest you pay

00:29

on any other loan which is paying the lender for

00:31

the service of getting money sooner rather than later you

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know via alone But since mortgages are so big while

00:38

they're essentially big gambles for banks if you pay a

00:40

down payment of 20% or more on your house well

00:43

the bank's trust that they'll get all their money back

00:46

because he already paid 20% of the value of the

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house up front and the odds that the home goes

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down more than 20% in value and all that stuff

00:53

in any kind of short term is pretty low right

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So But if you don't put down 20% like you

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know if your down payments 10% or 5% or something

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like that Well then the banks will still let you

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have your mortgage but only if you pay for private

01:07

mortgage insurance to cover the banks for taking on a

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whole lot of risk on you Write so well go

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through an example If someone pays 200 grand for a

01:15

home and they put 20% down well they've paid $40,000

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up front to the bank Then the bank creates alone

01:20

for the remaining 160 grand which the borrower pays off

01:23

over a 15 or maybe 30 years If all else

01:25

goes smoothly since the buyer put 20% down they can

01:28

skip the monthly PM I payments which is kind of

01:31

a big deal right PM I can cost between 1/2

01:33

a percent or 1% of the loan every year maybe

01:36

more depending on you know how bad your credit is

01:38

For instance if that same someone put 10% down instead

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of 20% on that same 200 grand home So that

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means they put $20,000 down took out a mortgage of

01:46

180 grand well since their down payment is less than

01:50

20% of the house price They'll be stuck paying PM

01:52

I which will cost him somewhere around a grand or

01:54

two a year plus taxes and yes PM My payments

01:57

are not act deductible Unlike mortgage it's kind of ironic

02:01

but having less money often cost you more money Yes

02:04

welcome to the real world people because well less money

02:06

means more risk for the bank Well should something go

02:08

awry and you can't make payments anymore well the bank

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has to then sell the house to try to regain

02:13

the money from your defaulted loan And yes it's a

02:16

bummer for you but well it's a bummer for your

02:19

bank to they hate this Truth be told the bank

02:21

would rather not sell your house since that whole affair

02:24

is a whole lot of trouble and cost them money

02:26

and grief and bad press The commission and lawyer costs

02:29

and eviction Sheriff bumper cars you know families being evicted

02:34

all those expenses Yeah they add up This is where

02:36

pm I comes in Private mortgage insurance is insurance for

02:39

your lenders In case you end up getting your house

02:42

foreclosed upon the PM I money You've been paying for

02:45

Your lender goes towards an insurance policy that helps your

02:47

lender recuperate the money they lend you especially if the

02:50

house sells for less than what you originally borrowed Like

02:54

you paid 200004th But you overpaid It really should've sold

02:57

for 1 85 and then the market went down And

02:59

then he had to pay a 6% commission to the

03:01

Realtor And he's only paid two grand of your mortgage

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down And somehow after all the expenses the bank only

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got 146 grand in there $10,000 in the hole And

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that's a big problem right So how do you avoid

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paying PM I You know money that's just going down

03:15

the tubes down the drain and into an insurance policy

03:17

to help your bank your lender a sleep better at

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night Well you put 20% down That's how but we'll

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say you can't afford to put 20% down or it's

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too little too late You already put 10 or 15%

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down on you in that home You're stuck paying PM

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My number's right Well the good news is you can

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stop paying PM I eventually That is you Khun Stopping

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PM I once you've paid off 20% of your home

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or the value of your home is gone up enough

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such that the bank believes that you actually have 20%

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equity in the home as long as 20% of your

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house has yet to be paid for in cold hard

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cash while your bank will consider you in the danger

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zone requiring PM I payments once you have 20% equity

03:54

in your house out right Well whether your initial down

03:56

payment or not while you don't have to pay PM

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eye anymore you know so long as you tell your

04:01

lender right legally they have to stop charging UPM my

04:04

payments Once you tap them on the shoulder and officially

04:06

say Hey guys I have 20% equity in my house

04:09

now So can you like not do it with the

04:11

PM I charges anymore If you forget step them on

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the shoulder When you have that 20% inequity Well don't

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worry They legally have to stop charging you for PM

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I Once you get to 22% equity in your home

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if you put 10% down on that $200,000 house or

04:25

20 grand and made monthly mortgage NPM my payments with

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some extra mortgage payments thrown in until you paid down

04:30

another 20 grand Well now notionally At least you have

04:33

$40,000 in equity or 20% equity in your home Time

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to call the bank and say science art of those

04:39

PM I payments But if you don't if you don't

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tell him if you don't give him a legal notice

04:42

well then you'll keep paying PM I along with your

04:44

monthly mortgage payments you know kind of forever ish That

04:47

is until you have 22% equity in the home which

04:49

is when you've paid 24 grand incrementally in mortgage payments

04:53

down right If you want to save money well better

04:55

to tell your lender to get rid of that PM

04:57

I soon as you can If you put less than

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20% down in your house it's a race to reach

05:01

that 20% equity so that you can stop making these

05:03

pesky PM I payments And besides just paying mohr than

05:06

you have to on your mortgage while for instance making

05:08

a full extra mortgage payment every year which can save

05:10

you a surprising amount of the mortgage interest in the

05:13

long run Just saying there are some other options too

05:16

If the housing market is hot in the value of

05:18

your house has gone up well you can get your

05:20

house reappraised to show they have 20% equity in your

05:23

home just based on the down payment they already made

05:25

and head back to your lender with that good news

05:27

right So in this case if a homeowner put 20

05:30

grand down and took a loan for 180 grand on

05:32

a $200,000 home purchase price and in five years they

05:35

paid down the 180,000 they owed to being well just

05:38

170 now and in that time period the home's value

05:41

one from 200 grand to a new Zillow estimated market

05:44

value of 250 grand then the easy math would let

05:47

the home longer subtract $170,000 in mortgage from the $250,000

05:52

Zillow price showing equity they had in their home of

05:55

$80,000 Well 80 over 250 Yeah that's 32% of the

05:59

homes new value well over the 20% needed for PM

06:02

My insurance If the market's doing that well it's probably

06:05

in the homeowners best interest to refinance at at that

06:07

point in anyway because you probably get cheaper interest rates

06:10

Another thing homeowners can do Besides you know praying to

06:12

the housing gods for a favorable market is to take

06:14

their home into their own hands Literally renovated bathrooms and

06:18

kitchens are too big ese that add significant value to

06:20

a house especially if they were you know outdated When

06:22

he about the house Ah homeowner can get toe work

06:24

sprucing up their home then get it re appraise for

06:27

a higher amount which will have the same effect as

06:29

if the housing market gods were favorable at the time

06:31

And the risk here of course is that if you

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live in a state where it's taxes are based on

06:36

the appraised value of your home when you re appraise

06:38

it at a higher value you risk the tax man

06:41

coming by and raising your taxes So yeah have you

06:44

got in for people Homeowners can do all three of

06:47

these things make extra mortgage payments created the housing market

06:49

gods for favorable market and replace that godawful sink in

06:52

the kitchen that has a questionable permanent stain The sooner

06:56

you get 20% equity while the sooner homeowners will free 00:06:58.868 --> [endTime] themselves of the shackles of PM I payments gloriously

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