If someone told you that the first level of your home was an unfinished basement, and did not count towards the livable square footage of your home, would you be upset? It would be as if someone arbitrarily erased part of your home, and made it smaller than it really was! This is a really important story Read the rest of this entry »
Contrary to popular belief, having a mortgage lender, mortgage broker, bank or credit union pull your credit report does NOT hurt your credit score. I would like to catch the person that started this myth, to give him a piece of my mind. If I had one dollar for every person that said,“ please tell me what I can qualify for but do not pull my credit because I know it hurts my credit score”, I would Read the rest of this entry »
Having an existing home equity or 2nd trust line can cause a problem when refinancing your mortgage. Unless you are closing the equity line/2nd trust and paying it off by wrapping it into the new loan amount, keeping your equity line/2nd trust could cause a problem in several ways. Read the rest of this entry »
When buying a home the appraisal contingency addendum in a sales contract says the home buyer has a certain number of days (the date is negotiable) to get an appraisal that is equal to or greater than the sales price in the sales contract. If the appraisal is less than the sales price the buyer can Read the rest of this entry »
Last week the House of Representatives passed a bill giving HUD the OK to increase the monthly mortgage insurance on FHA loans to 1.55% from the current .55%. Huh? This is really extreme, and to me is akin to FHA taking itself out of the market! Read the rest of this entry »
Many people are not aware of a rule that has altered, made more expensive, or stopped people's refinance attempts. This rule states that on a Conforming Loan (loans up to $417,000) or Conforming-Jumbo loans (loans from $417,001 to $729,750) if you are refinancing and paying off any 2nd trust (HELOC: Home Equity Line of Credit, or HELOAN: Home Equity Loan) that the transaction must be deemed a 'cash out refinance' as opposed to a 'no cash out refinance'. This is important for several reasons. Read the rest of this entry »
Does anyone know how Realtors really get paid? I know people love to complain about Realtors and how they "get 6%" of the sales price, but that is not the whole story. It's barely any of the story. I love to beat up on any industry with grossly overpaid and inefficient workers as much as the next person, but only if it is merited. Read the rest of this entry »
Fannie Mae has some new guidelines going into effect as of June 1st 2010 in regards to credit reports. Fannie Mae wants to make sure that borrowers' overall credit situations have not changed between the time of application and settlement, and to make sure that there are no new undisclosed debts. So, be aware that lenders are going to start Read the rest of this entry »
Those “no cost” refinance deals, while real, are a bit misleading. They are usually advertised on cable TV or radio, and are short on details. What they don’t tell you is that they charge a higher rate for a "no closing cost" refi. So the costs are essentially built into the rate. If Read the rest of this entry »