Blog Category: mortgage loans

June 17th, 2013
June 17th, 2013

Pool Tables, Patio Furniture and Chandeliers Have No Value?

Often times when a buyer and seller are negotiating over the sale of a home, the buyer indicates they would like to have certain personal property from the home. There are times when the seller is OK with that, either due to not wanting those items, or wanting the buyer to have them to help facilitate the sale.

However, there is a problem with this. The problem with including personal items like furniture, rugs, chandeliers, a pool table, and these sorts of personal items is that once they are written into the contract they inherently have value. Yet, the document being used to buy and sell real estate is a real estate contract, also used to contractually bind parties in a real estate transaction; it is not supposed to be a pool table contract! Read More

Categories: Loan Process, Underwriting Rules , , , , , ,

September 7th, 2009
September 7th, 2009

Declining Markets Policy

Have you heard a mortgage lender or Realtor talk about a “declining markets policy” lately? A declining markets policy is a policy by a bank or private mortgage insurance (PMI) company, which says that in a real estate market with declining values, you cannot get maximum loan-to-value (LTV) financing on a Conventional loan. Most banks and PMI companies have defined all of DC, different parts of MD and most of Northern Virginia as declining markets.

The mechanics of this means you have to put an extra 5% down payment down in some situations, on a Conventional loan.

On Conventional loans up to $417,000 (called Conventional Conforming loans) you used to be able to borrow up to 95% LTV and put 5% down payment down. In a declining market, you now have to put 10% down payment down.

On Conventional loans up from $417,001 to $729,250 (called Jumbo Conforming loans or Conforming Extended loans) you used to be able to borrow up to 90% LTV and put 10% down payment down. In a declining market, you now have to put 15% down payment down.

One answer to avoiding these increased down payments on Conventional loans is to instead get an FHA loan. However, FHA loans come with much higher PMI costs. However, if you want to avoid having to come up with a larger down payment, FHA is the answer. See below for an example: Read More

Categories: Declining Markets policy, Underwriting Rules