Mortgage minefields and savvy salesmen

Last Saturday, homeowners and future homebuyers who brought themselves over to Jubilee Christian Church on Blue Hill Avenue got the straight dope about mortgages.

The program, organized by one of Jubilee's pastors, real estate agent Randy Wilburn, and by the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Association (MAHA), a nonprofit that finances mortgages for working people, was strictly educational -- no sales pitches.

Here are do's and don'ts that the 150-plus attendees learned:

If you roll a loan for an $18,000 car into a mortgage refinancing, the car -- after paying interest on it for 30 years -- will cost you more than $47,000.

MAHA's Hilda Fernandez also noted that you'll still be paying for that car long after it goes to the junk yard. "It's probably not even a Mercedes!" she said.

Fernandez listed only three good reasons for refinancing a mortgage: to shorten the length of time you'll pay; to reduce the interest rate; to convert an adjustable-rate loan into one with a fixed rate.

Bad reasons: car, vacation, credit card bills, because a loan salesman contacted you.

Percy Stallworth, a former mortgage loan officer, revealed the industry secrets to his audience. He now works for ESAC, a Boston non-profit agency that helps people with housing issues.

Stallworth's advice for dealing with aggressive mortgage salesmen was, "Nobody's going to take care of you like you take care of you. Loan officers are not your friend." Loan brokers, he said, "want to get paid. They get paid at your expense in a lot of instances."

The lesson: Make sure you know what you're getting. Ask questions. If a deal, even at closing, smells funny, don't sign on the dotted line, he said.

"If someone said you can refinance in six to 12 months, be skeptical," he said, adding, "Lenders have no obligation to refinance your loan."