Tag Archives: mortgage

Tips on selecting the “right” mortgage lender

Posted on June 4, 2013 | Leave a comment

Whether you are a first-time buyer or seasoned veteran, obtaining a home loan today is more difficult than ever.

The level of lender scrutiny and the maze of loan programs has never been more complex or illogical. The key to navigating this “Kafkaesque” process is selecting the right mortgage loan officer. But before you open up your personal information vault, do your own due diligence.

Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your appraisal questions.

There is one Web site that makes the loan officer investigative process relatively easy. The National Mortgage Licensing System & Registry (NMLS) maintains a site providing consumer access to the administrative and license information for state regulated mortgage lenders in all 50 states and the District. The NMLS Consumer Access site can be searched free of charge at www.nmls
consumeraccess.org .

With a few mouse clicks you can obtain a treasure trove of information about your proposed mortgage lender. Before revealing any personal financial data, you should confirm that your loan originator is licensed. In fact, in the Washington area, Keller Shinholser, senior loan officer for Apex Home Loans in Rockville, advises that you work with a loan officer that is licensed in all three local jurisdictions. “If you start working with a loan officer only licensed in the District, and you later decide to buy a home in Virginia, you may have to start the loan approval process all over again,” she said.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

Important Rule for Homebuyers to Consider

Posted on May 24, 2013 | Leave a comment

Linda Lee, president of the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors, is the author of this guest post.

Shopping for a house can be exciting, but there is one factor above all others that deserves early consideration.

Be careful about where you set your sights. I have worked in real estate during all kinds of market conditions, and one of the biggest recurring mistakes I see is people who buy more home than they can afford.

Too many people end up suffering through the frustration and humiliation of losing their dream home because, in the end, they simply couldn’t afford it. For most buyers, the rule of thumb is to set your price range at around 1½ times your annual income.

With interest rates at historic lows, you may have a window of opportunity to obtain your dream home. Monthly payments are lower on any given loan than they have been in years, and most rates are fixed for 15 years or 30 years so you can predict your housing costs into the future.

Pre-approval for a mortgage, not prequalification, is an absolute must. Prequalification is simply a lender’s estimate of how much you could be eligible to borrow and does not mean you will get a loan. Pre-approval means providing your lender with a fully completed loan application and all supporting documents proving your income, assets, credit and liabilities before you start house hunting. With this done, you can be confident about the price range you are considering and more importantly ready to act when you find that perfect home.

Next, do anything you can to come up with a 20 percent down payment. This can greatly reduce the interest rate you will have to pay on your loan and eliminates the need for costly mortgage insurance on top of your monthly mortgage payment.

Stay in your price range and your prudent judgment may put you in a larger and more expensive home sooner than you think.

Home Lenders Loosening Up – ?

Posted on May 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

What was so unusual about Phillip Ratliff’s experience in getting approval for his first mortgage was that it wasn’t difficult at all — even though he could afford a down payment of only 5 percent.

In the years after the housing bubble burst, borrowers had to practically promise their firstborn child to secure a mortgage.

Need to know LTV ratios? Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your value questions.

And while the requirements are still pretty rigorous, particularly for those with less than perfect credit, there are signs that at least some regional lenders and mortgage insurers are beginning to ease up. Some regional banks and credit unions are even offering products that vaguely resemble the more aggressive financing that became all too common during the boom days and eventually got many borrowers into trouble.

The piggyback loan, for instance, is back, mortgage lenders and brokers said. That is when borrowers take out two mortgages simultaneously (or a mortgage and a line of credit) so they can avoid the private mortgage insurance required on traditional mortgages for more than 80 percent of the home’s value.

And some credit unions, including Navy Federal and NASA Federal Credit Union, are offering 100 percent financing, at least in markets where home values have stabilized and appear to be on the upswing. U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo said they still allowed use of piggyback loans.

The big difference this time, lenders and mortgage brokers say, is that the loans are not being made to just anyone but to borrowers who can afford to pay them back (at least for now).