Land Loans VS Mortgage Loans

If you are a property developer, or in the construction business, you may be searching for a land loan in order to purchase the land you intend to develop.

You may not be ready to build at the moment, but the property might be in a location that is hot and rapidly selling out.  The most common type of land loans are for builders and developers who want to lock up that piece of property for future development, yet aren’t ready to begin construction at the moment.  They are not hard to find and land loan rates are often negotiable based on your company’s history and credit worthiness.

Often private individuals spot a piece of property where they would like to have a home built either now, or at some point in the future.  If there are currently no developments on the property, then a land loan would be the way to borrow money in order to purchase that property to be developed at a later date.  Land loans are available if the property is undeveloped.  If there is construction on the property you wouldn’t be looking at land loans, rather you would need to apply for a conventional mortgage loan.

There are times when communities grow at such a fast rate that developers plan shopping plazas or malls in order to grab a rapidly growing market area.  If the developer is not quite ready to build yet, but wants to snag that location, he would probably apply for one of many available commercial land loans.  At some future point when he is ready to build, he can then borrow money through construction loans to be used for the actual development of the property.

Land loans are an integral part of the development of any housing developments.  Builders begin with a land loan.  Once the land has been graded and readied to be built on he then acquires construction loans.  The land loan and the construction loan are then paid back in full upon sale of the property.  Land loans and construction loans are often short term loans.  They may come due at six or twelve month periods.  If the property hasn’t sold, land loans and construction loans are often renewable.

Sometimes several developers and construction companies develop a neighborhood.  If a builder only wants to develop a portion of the land in the development he usually applies for a type of land loan known as lot loans.  Because he is only going to build on a lot or perhaps a few lots in the development they are referred to as lot loans.

The basic difference between a mortgage loan and a land loan then is whether or not there is any construction on the land.  Mortgage loans are for properties that have been developed while land loans provide funds to purchase the land for future development.

House On Land

Mortgage loan modification enables you to make regular payments for your mortgage. More and more lenders are acknowledging the benefits of loan modification. When you opt for loan modification, you are requesting your lender to change the existing terms of your mortgage. Loan modification can bail you out if you are unable to make payments on time.

There are 3 ways your lender can help you out if you happen to qualify for mortgage loan modification. Your lender either reduces the existing interest rate or reduces the principal balance of your mortgage loan. He can also increase the duration of the loan.

How does mortgage loan modification work?

The first thing you do is contact the loss mitigation department of your lending institution. You apply for loan modification. You are also required to furnish few documents relevant to the loan modification process.

Documents required for mortgage loan modification

You will be requiring the following documents while applying for mortgage loan modification.

* Documentary evidence of your financial hardship
* Bank statements
* Documents for income verification that may include your pay stubs
* Tax returns
* Document showing the current value of your property
* Homeowner insurance documents

Qualifying for the mortgage loan modification process is very crucial. And you need to keep in mind the following aspects-

* If you are the primary loan holder, you should not have filed bankruptcy earlier
* Your home has to be your primary residence
* You must have fallen behind on payments for at least 3 months
* You availed mortgage loan not after January 1st 2008.

President Obama introduced the Make Home Affordable Plan to bailout homeowners and land loan holders in order to prevent their property from foreclosure. The plan aimed at helping approximately 4 million to 5 million homeowners. However, not all homeowners qualified for the program. And this bailout program helped homeowners with first mortgage. It didn’t benefit homeowners with second mortgages. There was another drawback of the mortgage bailout plan. It failed to address the needs of homeowners who had negative equity in their property.

Raw and Unimproved Land Loans

First things first – land loans have higher interest rates than most of the other traditional loans and there is a good reason for it. If you get a loan in order to buy a house, then you will in turn use that same house as collateral. But can you do the same with a piece of land? No. The most difficult land to get a loan for is raw land, which has no plans on being used to build anything. These types of loans are even more expensive to the borrower, such as farm loans. Again, think of it in terms of collateral. If the lender is left with an unpaid farm loan, and in return, only gets some acres of unimproved farm land, you can safely assume that he won’t have much to make up for his loss. As a general rule, all lenders want to have something to lean back on just in case the borrower bails out on them.

Thus, it goes without saying, that when choosing a land loan, there are many factors one should look at to ensure they are picking the best possible loan. The type of loan you need really comes down to the type of property and what you will be doing with the property. Many lenders may require up to a 50 percent down payment, but if you do your research, you might be able to find kinder ones that will settle for a 20-25 percent down payment. Obviously, you will be able to get better land loan rates when borrowing from someone based in your area that will already have a general idea of the potential development growth of your land.

Getting land purchase loans, especially for unimproved land, is not easy – you can go as far as to compare it to having a bad driving record and trying to get auto insurance. Then again, if you have plans to develop the land, land loan lenders will probably give you a loan with less hesitation because they know that they will most likely be paid back sooner.

It should be obvious by now, that there are a number of different land loans that one can apply for. Even though the economy is not at its greatest, many people are still using these times to thrive above others. It is never recommended to take a loan though, and that is a known fact – because you are borrowing. In other words, you are using money that is not readily available to you and might never be. But obviously, most people do not have the money to go out and buy acres of land. Most people need a loan, and that’s ok, as long as you have a stable plan to pay back the lender. In that case, browse through the various land loan lenders and make your pick!

Choose Carefully!

There are many different types of land loans available to investors and this article is going to examine each one individually to facilitate your decision on which one to pursue.
First there are vacant land loans. These are designed specifically for the need of purchasing land that is currently undeveloped.  In this case, even though the property is undeveloped, plans for development can be made since utility lines should be fairly easy to establish.

Secondly there are improved land loans. These are loans designed for land that has been partially improved and is in some kind of construction process. Improved property loans are sure to be much more preferable to lenders than any other type since they can be much more confident that development will take place in this land so their risk of not recouping the loan plus the accrued interest rate is much lower. Such improvements can include already established access to lines of utility, finished or even partially constructed structures or connection to a road network.

The next type of loans we will consider is raw land loans. These are loans designed specifically for land that has no trace of improvements at all. This means for example that there are no present utility lines like water or electricity, or furthermore that access to them is difficult. This type of loan is much harder to secure than the rest as the purchaser has a much lower stake than in other cases as the land is completely undeveloped. This on the other hand increases the risk for the lender which in turn means that he will probably require a higher down-payment and request much more information about plans for development such as access to utilities or building plans.

Even though it is not a type of land loan, it would be wise to include construction loans in this article. This is due to the fact that it will be in most cases associated with the above types of loans if the land is destined for any kind of development. This type of loan may not make sense for someone who has bought land with no plans for commercial development or for personal use but it most certainly does make sense if someone intends for example to build a lot of residential structures on his land. The way to secure such a loan is to provide adequate information about the type of construction you are planning to do.  Every type of loan above can be used in order to acquire property for residential or any other kind of commercial development. If that’s the case, then a construction loan is the way to go but always bear in mind that adequate information about your plans must be presented in order to secure one.