PMI, Private Mortgage Insurance, is required on all new conventional home loans when buyers pay less than 20% down payment. The new Homeowner's Insurance Protection Act, effective July 1999, requires lenders to cancel PMI insurance premiums when loan balances reach 78% of the original appraised value of the home, with a few exceptions. Considering normal loan amortization, this event would not occur for ten years or more. However, this new law does prevent PMI companies from charging the premiums throughout the life of the loan to uninformed homeowners. Provisions in most conventional deeds of trust have always provided for the immediate termination of PMI premiums whenever specified loan-to-value ratios are reached, usually 80%, as determined by a current certified appraisal. Call your lender and ask, "If I can provide a certified appraisal that indicates a 20% equity position in my home, will you terminate my PMI premiums immediately and credit me with my PMI escrow balance?" Then call the PMI Terminator to reduce your next months mortgage payment. Use our online order form and select "PMI Appraisal" as the purpose of the appraisal!

A little bit about PMI Appraisals...