If you own a Florida home, you're probably trying to figure out how you can save money. One of the best ways to add a bit of cash back into your pocket is create a budget, and work on paying off your mortgage early. With a little research and a lot of focus, you can be mortgage free.

1. Make Additional Monthly Payments
One of the easiest ways to pay off your home mortgage is to simply make extra payments towards your principal balance. This helps decrease interest over the years, which helps you pay off your mortgage loan at a faster rate. You could pay as little as $100 extra a month and make a huge difference in the amount of interest you'll pay over the life of your loan. Use a mortgage calculator to check out figures and help you get an idea of how much you could save over the years.

When you make principal only payments, be sure to write a separate check and write "Principal Pre-payment Only" and your account number in the memo area of the check. Also enclose a letter instructing the mortgage company to apply this to pay down your principal balance. If you don't do this, the bank may apply it to your next mortgage payment instead of just to your principal.

2. Pay Bi-Weekly
Another way to pay off your Florida home mortgage early is to pay twice a month, or bi-weekly. Paying bi-weekly could potentially subtract up to nine years off your loan. You simply make two smaller payments, instead of one big one. Therefore, you save a significant amount of money in interest charges.

However, if your loan company requires that you pay a fee to pay bi-weekly, or if they require that you switch plans whereby you are required to make a bi-monthly payment, don't do it.

Instead, stick with your current monthly payment schedule and simply pay more on your principal each month as described above. This way you'll still save a significant amount of interest, but you won't be locked in to making bi-weekly payments. If you run into a rough patch, you can go back to paying your normal monthly amount. This keeps your options open, rather than being locked in if you converted to the bi-weekly payment plan.

3. Refinance Your Loan
When you refinance, the goal is usually to get a lower mortgage payment. But if you want to pay off your mortgage early, you could refinance, get a lower interest rate, but continue to make the same payments you were initially paying on your previous loan. This would allow you to pay more on your interest charges, and ultimately shorten the life of your loan.

When trying to pay off your Florida home mortgage early, you have several options. Just make sure to thoroughly research all the available plans of action until you find the one that's right for you.

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I hate to say I told you so, but on May 1st and again on June 1st, I told you about the potential negative ramifications of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct. Today the Realtors confirmed what I had been hearing all across the mortgage industry.

“In the past month, we have suddenly been bombarded with many stories of, at the last moment, transactions falling apart because appraisals are coming in unrealistically low,” said National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “As a result it opens up a new round of negotiations between a buyer and a seller or in many cases the buyer just steps away.”  complete story

Source: CNBC .com - Diana Olick

You’ve probably never heard of it; I know I hadn’t until I read a New York Times article about it a few months ago, but think of it like that enormous warehouse you see at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", where important artifacts and documents go to die.

Then think of your home mortgage as the lost ark. It’s called MERS, short for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, and it is the keeper of your loan. Nope, not your bank, lender, broker, investor, but Virginia-based MERS.

In order to save tons of cash on all the legal mumbo jumbo involved in documenting your loan and how it gets bought and sold and traded, lenders hire MERS, which is a private database, emphasize private. It is currently used by about 3,000 financial services firms.

Since MERS is the final resting place for loans, it is also the name on the foreclosure documents. As the foreclosure crisis deepens, savvy lawyers are helping borrowers avoid foreclosure by demanding to know who owns the loan in question. Judges want to know as well, but MERS wouldn’t or couldn’t say…until now.  complete story

Source: CNBC.com - Diana Olick