Streamwood is part of the Tri Village area of the Chicago suburbs. A solid, family-oriented Mid-Western community, Streamwood is also one of Chicago’s fastest-growing neighborhoods. It is a community of beautiful homes where life revolves around school and family activities. It is mostly made up of two-parent families with children.
If you are moving to the Chicago area and are looking for a place to live and raise a family, you will not find a better neighborhood than Streamwood. You may have to commute to the city for work, but it is not a bad commute. Housing is very affordable in Streamwood and it is a beautiful area.
Getting a Home Loan
Before you start looking for a house, it is a good idea to get pre-approved for a mortgage. Sellers are twice as likely to work with a buyer who is pre-approved, and you will know which homes you can get financing for.
When you apply for pre-approval, the lender is going to do a credit check and ask you for enough documentation to prove that you can and will pay the loan back. You might as well prepare a folder with the following documents in it, because you will almost certainly need them:
It is also a good idea to get a copy of your credit report, to make sure it is accurate.
Refinancing versus Home Equity
If you already own your Dream Home, you are probably looking for a refinance or home equity loan. Both are mortgages, but that is where the similarity ends. They are different kinds of loan, and they serve different purposes.
Refinancing serves two purposes: it saves you money and/or it liquidates your equity. Here is an example:
Say you bought a home 15 years ago and paid $75,000 for it. You have a fixed rate loan at 10.25% interest and your payments are $672.08. You have made some improvements and home values have increased, and now your home is worth $150,000, and you owe about $62,000. You have the opportunity to refinance today at 7.5% interest. Here are some scenarios:
This is a very simplified example. Just like with any other mortgage, there are quite a few options for refinance loans.
Home Equity Loans: Also called a second mortgage, a home equity loan is a loan against your share of your home. A home equity loan will not affect your original mortgage in any way, but it is one way to get cash for your equity. Here are some situations when you might choose a home equity loan instead of a cash-out refinance:
Before you can get a mortgage, refinance or home equity loan, however, you have to find a lender. You can do that by completing the form at the bottom of this page.
