Guide to Refinance, Mortgage,
& Home Equity Loans in
Hammond, Indiana (IN)

With plenty of lakes, rivers, schools (both K-12 and universities) and jobs, why wouldn’t someone want to spend their entire life in Hammond, Indiana?

Hammond is home to Cargill, Commonwealth Edison, Dietrich Industries, the Horseshoe Casino, the Lear Corporation and Unilever. So, finding a job in Hammond is relatively easy. Calumet College of Saint Joseph and Kaplan College (both privately owned) and Purdue University Calumet (state-owned) make it easy for everyone to get an advanced degree. Now you just need a place to live. So here’s a very basic look at what types of mortgages are available to you.

Pre-Approved Loans

If you want to take your time and really research what’s available to you, a pre-approved loan is literally money in the bank. Pre-approval is popular for two reasons:

1. Pre-approval lets you know from the beginning what you can afford. Pre-approval also allows you to feel more comfortable when talking to a potential seller. Your negotiating power is stronger because you know up front what you are capable of paying.
2. Pre-approval also lets everyone in the homebuying process know that you’re a very real candidate. Since you’ve taken the extra step of contacting the bank, the chances are better that there will be fewer problems with the sales contract.

The Mortgage

Now that you’ve decided to get pre-approved, it’s time to decide what kinds of mortgages are available to you. There are actually several types of mortgages (you can ask your lender for the specifics on all of your options). For the purposes of getting a basic understanding mortgages and how they work, you only need to be familiar with two of them:

• Fixed rate mortgages are the more popular of the two because of the stability inherent in this type of loan. Your monthly house payment is the same from the first payment until the last because you are locked into one interest rate for the entire term of the loan. Since you know what your monthly house payment is, it’s easier to determine what you can afford in other areas of your budget.
• The adjustable rate mortgage is just that…adjustable. After the loan reaches the first adjustment period, your payment could go up or it could go down, depending on several factors, including, but not limited to: your lender’s index, the local housing market and even the overall local economy. The main benefit of this type of loan is that the payment in the early part of the life of the loan is relatively low. This makes this type of loan popular with people just starting out in life. Their income will likely rise in the coming years, so they would likely be able afford a higher payment.

The Refinance

You may already live in Hammond, and are just looking for a better interest rate. In that case, your best option is to refinance. After all, everyone wants a lower monthly house payment. A mortgage refinance loan is simply another loan designed to pay off your existing mortgage. This gets you new, more favorable interest rates and thus, a lower monthly payment. When choosing this option, you will have to start the mortgage process all over again. Collect your recent pay stubs, a listing of all your assets your income tax records for the last two years and start shopping. As long as you have made your previous payments on time, you can usually get a better term and a better interest rate on your new loan.

Home Equity Loan

Or maybe you simply need some extra money to pay off the credit cards, the medical bills or anything else that’s eating up your income. You’ve already got equity built into your house because you’ve been making house payments for years. Use that as collateral and get those other bills paid off.

Whether you’re looking for a Hammond mortgage, refinance, or home equity loan, we can help. Take a moment to fill out the form below, and a qualified lender will contact you right away.

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Last Updated: Tuesday, May 22nd 2012