In today’s market, many clients simply do not show enough income or assets to qualify for a home loan by themselves.
One way to still be able to purchase a home or refinance your existing mortgage is to find a co-signer. Read the rest of this entry »
Anytime there is a buyer’s market in real-estate, the numbers of “Lookie-Loo’s” and “fake” buyers increases dramatically.
Mortgage processing centers around the country have been slammed with pre-qualification files for clients who may not be serious about ever purchasing a piece of property. This, in turn, slows down processing times for serious buyers.
To help filter out the serious buyers from the applicants who aren’t serious, several banks such as Chase and B of A are now charging a $200 – $300 in pre-approval fee.
This fee, as of today, is a seperate fee from additional application fees associated with the real deal application that begins once a property is identified and a purchase contract signed.
When the new HOEPA / HERA laws go into affect on July 30th, 2009… these banks may have to suspend the collection of up front fees. However, for the time being, clients may be facing hundreds of dollars in up front fees just to see if they are qualified buyers.
As of now, your trusted lender is not requiring an application fee for pre-approvals. By processing much of the loan file internally, I can continue to process pre-approvals in good faith and without an up front fee.
Working with well qualified, serious buyers, is the key to keeping this fee out of my normal work process.
The attached story shows that we are moving in the right direction as an industry. Even though out-lying areas of Los Angeles like the High Desert and Inland Empire continue to drag down the over-all price of real-estate in LA County, large numbers of buyers are putting prices in desirable areas on the rebound.
Read the rest of this entry »
I receive a lot of questions regarding the timing of rate locks. Various banks and lending institutions handle rate locks differently, here is my method… Read the rest of this entry »
With the launch of consumer driven applications made for the Iphone and Blackberry, there are some exciting ways for house-hunters to figure out their total monthly payment while attending an open house.
“Apps” like ‘Mini-Mortgage’, ‘Mortgage-Calculator’, and ‘Loan-Lite’, allow clients of mine to input their sales price, down payment, and the average interest rate in order to calculate payment.
On most of these programs, clients can even put in their estimated insurance premium and taxes. Check with your lender for the average tax rates and insurance premiums in your area.
If you have so-called smart-phone, and are looking for a home… I highly recommend you download one of these applications.
Union Bank of California, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase are all starting to come back to the table with better jumbo loan products, package discounts on first and 2nd mortgages, and are starting to explore more competitive pricing for loans between the $1 million and $1.5 million dollar mark.
Although this won’t cure all the problems in the Southern California Real-estate market; it is definitely a step in the right direction.
With 10 banks currently authorized to refund TARP money to the government, several banks increasing their liquidity to acceptable amounts, and the banking system doing a better job of underwriting and self regulating… it looks like the programs put in place at the end of 2008 by Bush and furthered early this year by Obama may have dones just enough to save the banks.
I’m personally still very worried about the overall economy, current and future plans to expand government spending, and our low national savings rate… however, for now the bank looks to be OK.
As always, if you need information on starting a new loan for the purchase or refinance of your home, contact me at TrustYourLender@gmail.com
There is a lot of doom and gloom in the media regarding home prices and people losing their homes.
The silver lining is that the declining market, in conjunction with low interest rates, have created the highest “Housing Affordability Rates” in 18 years. Read the rest of this entry »
Although many of our clients here in Los Angeles are small business owners, work in the entertainment industry, or have other forms of non-traditional employment; several of my clients still have ‘traditional’ employment, rental income, or retirement income.
Now that 99% of loans are being underwritten as full documentation or ‘verified’ loans, here is a list of the minimum information you will need to provide to your lender to prove your income. Read the rest of this entry »
In order to start the pre-approval process, your lender will need several documents.
Attached is a list of documents which will be a good jumping off point. From these documents, several additional questions and request for documents will arise. For example, if your tax returns have a schedule ‘E’ showing rental property; lenders may require updated lease agreements, tax bills, and insurance bills for these properties.
Below is a basic list of needed documentation: Read the rest of this entry »
I get a lot of questions about the seasoning of down payment funds for the purchase of a home.
Generally speaking, the rule of thumb is that personal funds that aren’t a gift must be in your account / possession for 60 days.
However, due to underwriters wanting to “source” large deposits; I reccomend you revise the 60 day requirement to even longer. Here is why. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m constantly getting questions about the $8,000 first time home buyers credit which is available through 2009.
Although many changes to this program have been proposed, the original out-line from February of 2009 still holds true.
Money.com (hosted by CNN), did the best job of outlining to whom this program would be available to. Read the rest of this entry »
Many agents have been asking me about a recently announced FHA program that would have allowed the First Time Home-Buyers credit of $8,000 to act as a source of down payment funds.
With FHA loans allowing clients to get into properties with as little as 3.50% down, and get up to 6.00% in closing cost credits from the seller, this could have created a scenario where buyers could get into a $250,000 property for free.
The attached story explains why this isn’t going to happen. Read the rest of this entry »
Private Mortgage Insurance, commonly referred to as PMI, is an insurance premium that is charged to clients putting down less than 20% on the purchase of their home.
Contrary to popular belief, PMI does nothing to protect the borrower. The insurance is in place to protect the bank who is taking the risk of lending to a borrower who has less than 20% down. Read the rest of this entry »
