PRIVATE MORTGAGE INSURANCE?

Here's three things you ought to know about PMI:

1)Private mortgage insurance, known as PMI, can cost hundreds of dollars a month.
You can avoid having to buy private mortgage insurance (which protects the lender, not you) by putting down at least 20% on your home.

2)You could also take out what's known as a piggyback loan. Your primary loan would cover the first 80% of the value of your house. A piggyback loan is a second mortgage that would cover the remainder, usually at a much higher interest rate.

3)If you have to buy private mortgage insurance, ask to have it canceled when you've reduced your loan balance to 80% of your home's appraised value. Once you've reduced your loan balance to 78%, the lender must cancel your PMI unless you're considered a credit risk.

Win - Win - Win!

Headline: Forestall foreclosure by selling your home one room at a time

Help-U-Subdivide has proposed an innovative way for homeowners to turn a crisis into a revenue opportunity: selling your home one room at a time to offset rising mortgage payments. Some local officials have praised the strategy as an innovative way to create much needed affordable housing. One local mortgage broker called it a "win-win-win."

(All tongue-in-cheek, of course)