Is filing too many claims always a death knell for your insurance? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Aug 18, 2009 - 6 answers

Why hasn't private mortgage insurance (PMI) softened the blow of the real estate implosion? [more inside]
posted by GatorFan2000 on Apr 6, 2009 - 14 answers

My girlfriend received a letter from a Dr. Gordon Boggs in Carrollton, GA, stating that she was due a refund of overpaid mortgage insurance. In exchange for a promise to pay 10% of the overpayment after receiving a signed form from us agreeing to a "handshake deal" (basically promising to send him 10% of the refund), he would send us a case number and contact information to begin processing this overpayment due to my girlfriend. Is this legit? How can we find out more about this without kicking back anything to the person? Thanks.
posted by irie1972 on Dec 6, 2008 - 23 answers

I'm about to buy my first house and I'm shopping around for a mortgage. The best deal so far is a mortgage where the lender pays for the mortgage insurance. I'm aware of using 80/XX loans to avoid paying PMI but I've never come across Lender Paid PMI. What exactly is it and what's the catch? [more inside]
posted by schwa on Feb 21, 2006 - 7 answers

I currently have a monthly mortgage payment of $850/month. About $150 of that is mortgage insurance + property taxes.

If I get one of those fancy split 80/20 mortgages, in which the variable-rate 20% portion is used to satisfy the downpayment requirement and remove the mortgage insurance, am I going to get hosed at some point? Finding decent advice about this has been difficult.
posted by mecran01 on Dec 17, 2004 - 13 answers