Hammerhead Sharks

Expert, localized Los Angeles answers provided by Heather Roy

Hammerhead Sharks
	Dear Edith: We have gradually bought five properties.Three are on fixed-rate mortgages.Our primary residence is on an adjustable mortgage with five options (of course we pay the minimum).The three-family is also on the same type of adjustable. The question is: How to get out of these adjustable knowing they eat like sharks into your equity! It takes hard work to maintain four rental properties with many tenants, and at the end we do not want to see a Hammerhead Shark walk away with the profits of our hard labor!

	Why not simply refinance to fixed-rate mortgages?Rates are still a bargain these days and you can lock them in permanently. I worry, by the way, about borrowers on optional-payment loans who pay as little as possible.They’re often storing up trouble for themselves in the future, because they do indeed eat into their equity.
	Edith Originally published on October 6, 2006

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