Lucky for you, you’ve come to the right place today to get your questions answered about debt laws in the beautiful State of Ohio.

How Ohio Collects Debt

Ohio, like sixteen other states, follows a collection of rules called the “Fair Debt Collection Practices Act,” which is shortened to FDCPA. The FDCPA prevents abusive actions that debt collectors have been known to do in the past. The FDCPA specifically prohibits the following behaviors.

When a debt collector contacts you, they cannot:

• ask for your employment information
• ask about the amount of debt you owe
• ask a question twice to try and acquire extra information
• communicate with you via post card
• when communicating via mail, they cannot indicate they are a debt collector on the envelope
• communicate with anyone other than your attorney, if you’ve appointed one

When trying to communicate with you, debt collectors cannot:

• call before 8AM or after 9PM in the time zone in which you are in
• call your employer for any reason

There are a number of other things the FDCPA enforces as well, such as extra fee or interest collection on top of what you already owe, and the FDCPA also requires a few things of debt collectors, such as indicating who they are and what they do in initial contact with a debtor, and that you can request anything of the company and they have to send it to you.

Statute of Limitations

The statute of limitations basically tells the creditor how long they have to come after you for the amount of money you owe them. If they miss that period of time, they have to forfeit everything you owe and count it as a loss. They are as follow:

• Oral Agreements: 6 years
• Written Contracts: 15 years
• Promissory Notes: 15 years
• Credit Cards: 4 years

So according to Ohio’s Statute of Limitations, if you have a credit card, stop paying it, and the creditors don’t collect on their debt in four years, they have to count it as a loss – but remember that they’re powerful and have pretty organized records, and just because the calls stop doesn’t mean they aren’t planning the next assault against you for their money.

Bankruptcy Exemptions

If enough is enough and there’s just no way you’re digging your way out of the hole, maybe bankruptcy has crossed your mind. Exemptions mean that when you’re filing for bankruptcy, these are the things you get to keep to give you a ‘fresh start’ without having to get right back into debt to support yourself.

Here’s what you get to keep:

Personal property you occupy up to $5,000
Motor vehicle up to $1,000
$400 worth of any property (this may include a game system or TV)
Pets & other animals
Household goods and furnishings (this includes things like appliances, musical instruments, hunting equipment, a single piece of jewelry)
Beds and bedding
All cash that’s in your pocket or due within the next three months
Life insurance and disability benefits
Public Assistance and unemployment compensation
and all pensions and the money within them

As you can see, filing bankruptcy is not the end all of end alls, and you can recover with some planning and patience, and Ohio’s laws in specific are usually very good at making sure you can live off of what you’re left with.

All in all, knowing the debt laws of Ohio is  important, and if you’re thinking about bankruptcy or you’re defaulting on debt, then finding out all the information you possibly can is of the essence. Debt isn’t the end-all of life, but make sure you settle with your companies and start the road to a debt free lifestyle as soon as you can.

Author Bio:

Elizabeth Roque is an in-house writer for FranklinDebtRelief.com. She presents information about debt relief services, credit card debt relief and getting out of debt on a variety of financial sites online.

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When you feel stressed out, and want to unburden yourself from the torment of debt, you can also avail the option of borrowing personal loan, and clear the debt with it. Personal loan is an unsecured loan which can be used for a variety of purposes like paying tax bills, covering school tuition or making car repairs.

How does a personal loan work?

This type of loan is often touted as a useful tool for consolidating debt, especially when people are into multiple debts, and are unable to manage them. By acquiring a personal loan, people can consolidate their insurmountable amount of debt into one monthly payment, and can also achieve a lower rate of interest, which is a distinct benefit.

This is also to be noted that paying off the debt with personal loan is more feasible than  paying off the debt with credit card or score card. This is because the annual percentage rate of personal loan is about 8% lower than the credit card. And if you compare personal loan with the store card you will find that the former is 22% lesser than the latter.

Eligibility criteria for a personal loan

You can borrow a personal loan provided you are a salaried individual, self-employed individual or self-employed professional. Other factors that the banks or other lenders take into account are your income, age, residence, work experience, repayment capacity, past obligations and place of work. Many banks also review your credit history before granting the payday loan.

How to get an affordable personal loan?

In order to get an affordable personal loan you have to follow a few simple steps. Those are as follows:

• When you borrow a hefty amount of personal loan, you tend to acquire a cheap loan easily.
• Before you borrow a personal loan, shop around several different banks or any other financial institutions, and find out the one who offers the lowest interest rate.
• You must also do a comparative study on the range of deals so that you get the best terms and condition.
• Make sure that credit history is not damaged as that might affect the loan rate.

However, this is to be concluded that the personal loan is the best option to be considered  to eliminate the debt, and to relief yourself from all the financial obligations.

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VA homes are foreclosed properties that were originally funded by home mortgages secured by VA.

Anybody can by a VA home. The good news is that VA offer special types of Columbus Loans call Vendee loans that offer owner occupant buyers superb financing terms. Here are some of the benefits of Vendee Loans:

• Zero down financing for owner occupants
• Up to 6% of the sales price can be used for buyer closing costs and related expenses.

Read this document for more details on Vendee Loans:
VA Vendee Loans

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Zillow.com studied 25,000 online home mortgage applications and found that prospective home buyers with credit scores lower than 620 could not get Columbus loans approved, even when they were able to make a down payment of 25% of the purchase price.

Only 47% of Americans have a credit score higher than 720 – which is considered good credit and would qualify you for the lowest interest rates on Columbus loans.

Another interesting finding by this study indicates that for every 20 points drop in your credit score your interest rate goes up by 0.12 %. Over the life of a 30 year mortgage this could cost you tens of thousands of dollars.

So what options do you have to get Columbus loans, if you credit score is below 620?

1. Try to get an FHA Loan: they still don’t rely exclusively on credit scores and may use alternative “credit” to approve your loan. FHA loans require a much lower down payment and may be your only option, if your credit score is below 620.
2. Get Seller Financing: this may be the only option for many home buyers that can’t get loans through a bank. Many sellers are very motivated, as they can’t sell their homes as quickly as the want and will consider seller financing. You may get away with a relatively low down payment of 5% or 10% of the purchase price, but you have to be ready to pay full price for the house.

If you are ready to buy a house and can’t get regular bank financing, give us a call. We have a limited number of seller financed properties available and we work with one of the best FHA lenders in Central Ohio.

You can reach Columbus real estate agent Susanne Novak at (614) 975-9650.

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This is the claim made by Representative Alan Grayson of Florida. He says that foreclosure fraud factories purposefully put home owners on the street with falsified documents and foreclosure filings.

Do we have the same problem in Columbus. Are Columbus mortgages being targeted by fraud factories?

Watch this video and decide for yourself!

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Fannie Mae is one of the biggest sellers of REOs (bank owned homes) in the country.

In order to reduce their inventory of 283 homes for sale in Franklin County OH alone, they offer new incentives, which make Columbus loans on Fannie Mae home purchases even better than FHA loans.

You can find details on the new Fannie Mae incentives in this article:

Fannie Mae Announces New Buyer and Seller Incentives for REOs

Here are 5 advantages of buying a Fannie Mae home:

1. Columbus loans on Fannie Mae homes require a low down payment (as little as 3%)
2. Fannie Mae does not charge mortgage insurance on these Columbus loans
3. Fannie Mae homes are generally in good condition
4. Owner occupants have a 15 day exclusive period to bid, before investors are allowed to make offers.
5. They also offer the option of  rehab loans

Some of these incentives are only good till the end of this year. This means that you would have to close before December 31, 2010.

We all know how long it takes to get Columbus loans approved these days. So you need to be in contract no later than November 15, 2010, to make sure that you can meet this deadline.

If you need help finding excellent Columbus OH homes for sale you can simply call Susanne Novak at 614-975-9650. She is an excellent Columbus real estate agent who has many years experience selling bank owned and HUD properties.

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Will this new rule help home owners whose Columbus loans are in default?

Click on the image or the link below to read what they propose:

House Bill Would Force Lenders to Decide on Short Sales in 45 Days

The National Association of Realtors is  certainly in favor of this rule. If new Columbus loans get approved sooner and defaulted home mortgages get off the books, this will certainly help sell more homes.

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There is heavy lobbying in the halls of Congress to extend or even expand the tax credit to all home buyers. But at this time you have to assume that it won’t be available in December 2009.

Although this deadline is 6 weeks away, you are probably out of time, when it comes to making an offer on a home and get a home loan underwritten by a bank or mortgage lender. It typically takes 4 week for Columbus loans to close, however, most lenders will be very busy in November, and then there’s Thanksgiving weekend.

What Can You Do? Here are 3 last minute strategies that will allow you to claim the tax credit – but don’t just take my word. Talk to your accountant and lawyer before you make a financial or home purchase decision.

Strategy 1: Become A Cash Buyers

Cash buyers can get a home purchase completed in 1 or 2 weeks, dependent on the number of inspections you want to perform and how long you need to negotiate the deal with the seller.  Most of the time sellers agree to accept less from a cash buyer, just because they can close quickly.

If you don’t have enough cash in the bank you can try to borrow the money from family members or friends and let them act as the lender. Just like with a conventional loan you become the home owner. You sign a promissory note for your lender and record a mortgage, giving them a first lien on the house. I suggest you pay them a little higher interest rate to make it worth their while.

The money you borrow can even come from a self directed IRA retirement account. You  may be able to find a private lender, a wealthy individual who’s fed up with the volatility of the stock market and would prefer to get a fixed interest rate paid every month.

Strategy 2: Short Term Seller Financing and Refinance

If you have good credit and are approved for a loan, but you don’t have enough time to close before the beginning of December, the seller may agree to finance the sale for a short period of time.

Here is how it works: You go to the title company and close on the house. The title is transfered and recorded with the county. On the closing statement, the seller becomes the “bank” and a mortgage is recorded for the benefit of the seller. Now you agree to pay the seller a monthly payment, maybe interest only, and begin with the refinance of the property. As long as your new home appraises for the purchase price any lender will refinance the seller’s mortgage a few months after closing.

Consult your lender to make sure that they will refinance your purchase in the amount you need to completely pay off the seller.

Strategy 3: Land Contract

This last strategy works for buyers that have lower credit scores and may not be able to get bank financing immediately. These home buyers can purchase the property on a land contract, also called an installment sale. A land contract gives you ownership of the property. It is recorded at the county courthouse and can be refinanced by a bank.

Again, the seller becomes the bank and agrees to accept installment payments for 1 or 2 years, until the buyer can get bank financing. As there is more risk involved for the seller, they will require a higher downpayment as well as a higher interest rate. The downpayment can be in the form of your tax credit. The seller may accept the anticipated tax credit as a down payment, as long as you sign a paper saying the seller gets the money when the IRS pays the refund.

These are my 3 strategies for claiming the tax credit before it expires at the end of November. Please consult an attorney before you proceed with any of these strategies. I am not giving you any legal advice! These are strategies that I saw work and will qualify you for the tax credit.

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At the end of last week we received an email from our favorite loan officer. She told us that FHA changed guidelines for minimum credit scores required to ensure loans. Until now it was still possible to get Columbus loans with credit scores as low as 580. Fifth Third Bank was one of the few Columbus mortgage lenders that approved applications with scores below 620.

Now that has changed. If you have any application in, you can still close with a lower credit score before the end of October, 2009. All new applications fall under the new rule and need to show a 620 FICO score.

What does this mean for you as a prospective home buyer?

If your score falls between 580 and 620, and you planned to buy a house to take advantage of the first time home buyers tax credit as well as the low interest rates, you are out of luck. You won’t have enough time to improve your credit by 20, 30 or 40 points to qualify for a loan before the closing deadline expires. You may have a chance to buy a home with seller financing and still claim the tax credit – I will talk more about this option in another post.

For those of you with solid credit scores, now is the time to make an offer on one of the listed Columbus houses. You should be able to get FHA financing, if you meet the following criteria:

• You buy a personal residence as an owner occupant (up to 4 units)
• Your mortgage amount is below the FHA limit set for your county ($341,250 for Franklin County OH)
• You can come up with the required down payment of 3.5% of the purchase price (if you buy a HUD home you can get away with only $100 downpayment)
• You meet the minimum income requirements and can show 2 years of job history or tax returns, if self employed.
• Your credit score is above 620 and you didn’t have a bankruptcy for 2 years.
• Your new home appraises for or above the purchase price.

There a number of obstacles in the FHA loan approval process. However, an experienced loan officer can get it done in 30 days. Your property has to be in good condition. If it needs repairs you may be able to establish a repair escrow to cover these expenses – this is commonplace with HUD homes.

A good credit score is the key for getting Columbus loans approved by your lender. Take care of your credit score and the harsh lending environment will not effect your ability to get a Columbus home mortgage.

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Most HUD listings are in contract very quickly.  You really need to move quickly, if you are in the market for a new home. Make sure you evaluated different Columbus loans options and you are ready to submit an offer!

Here are the incentives offered by HUD:

$100 Down Payment Finance Option (Columbus home mortgage with FHA financing only)

The $100 down payment financing is available on most HUD homes through FHA approved lenders. Please note that the $100 down offer applies only if the purchase price is less than or equal to the appraised value of the property. If the purchase price is greater than the appraised value, the buyer must pay for another appraisal to justify the higher value. This may be tough, considering that most banks do not approve Columbus loans easily these days.

Please call us for a list of HUD approved FHA lenders who can work with the $100 down payment program!

$2,500 Sales Incentive (for properties with a purchase price $25,000 or greater)

Since October 1st, 2008 owner occupants have received a contribution of $2,500 from HUD (if the purchase price was $25,000 or more.)

This $2,500 sales incentive can pay for any of these items:
• Closing Costs
• Tax Pro-rations
• Repairs to the home, or to
• Pay down the principal balance of an FHA Columbus home mortgage

If you want to use this incentive for repairs, it will be deposited in a repair escrow account. You will get reimbursed when the repairs are completed and inspected.

$500 Broker bonus

This is an incentive for your realtor to promote HUD Homes over other listings. It’s not related to Columbus loans for financing the purchase.

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