Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 105
For as much as I try to write educational articles, this one is self-serving. Actually, it could be of service to you, too, if you do your homework. That online lender, the one none of us can get away from? The one that spams you with emails, or calls you relentlessly, if you have ever inquired with them? The one that thinks that getting a home loan is not rocket science? Well, getting a home loan IS rocket science these days. Getting a home loan that best suits your family's finances, that...
If you have a VA loan, I bet your phone is ringing off the hook with offers to "save you money." Or at least, you are receiving multiple postcards by mail, encouraging you to "Refinance NOW!" As a prudent consumer, you already know that anyone who is calling to sell you something is doing just that: Selling you something. If you have not initiated the contact, beware. VA loans are big business, and these offers are not always in the best interest of the Veteran. Here's what contributors to the R...
Nearly eight out of 10 adults are vowing to put a new focus on their financial wellness in 2019, according to a new survey by the National Endowment for Financial Education. It's a great goal, but what does that actually look like in practice? Many "financial experts" recommend having an emergency fund of anywhere from $1,000 to three months salary as a starting point. If you are drowning in a sea of debt, that might seem like an impossible thing. Here are a few suggestions about where to start...
For nearly three decades, I have helped clients all over California buy and refinance their homes. It's familiar to be the voice of reason and guidance for other people's dreams and problems, and it's so satisfying to provide financing to further families' real estate ambitions. So it came as a huge reminder recently, when I was out of my professional element, what exactly it means to ask for help. There's a nasty virus going around town, and although I consider myself a healthy person, I...
All of a sudden everyone is excited about Home Equity Lines of Credit again. Offers are coming at us in print, on TV and electronically. "Use your home's equity!" they scream. Do you remember what trouble we got into the last time we all took HELOCs? Let me remind you. When you have great terms on your first mortgage, it might be tempting to take out equity as a second mortgage, and leave the first alone. Often this is done as a HELOC. You usually get a low interest "teaser" rate for a few...
In comparing today's mortgage rates to exactly one year ago today, we are up almost exactly 1%. That's water under the bridge and can't be changed, but let's take a quick look to see what future rate increases means in real money. If you are borrowing $250,000 over 30 years, each 0.25% change in interest rate means about a $38 per month difference in payment. For a loan of $325,000, 0.25% change in rate means about $50 per month difference in payment. And at loan amount $400,000, 0.25% change in...
If you're working with a local lender, you may already know about the USDA's Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program. It works when buying in our zip code and allows for no down payment. The catch? There are income limits involved. That is, for a 4-person household you'd need to make less than $82,700 per year, in total. For larger families, the limit is $109,150 per year. These figures are an increase of about $5,000 over last year's income limits. What it means in practical terms is...
Family A bought a big house last year to accommodate a family member who needed to live with them. Over the course of several months, it became clear the arrangement was not ideal, and the extra family member moved out. Now the house is too big, and Family A wants to buy a smaller house. This is a real-life scenario, and Family A qualifies to get a new loan. The hitch is, in order to "buy down" right now, their next house will be classified as an investment property – so they need to put 20 p...
Kern County's Treasurer-Tax Collector website says this month is the deadline to pay your current property taxes and penalties prior to defaulting. In October we'll all get a new tax bill for 2018. Why does it matter? Most homeowners don't really pay attention to property tax stuff because we pay it monthly, with our mortgage payment. But a handful of folks have called in recent weeks looking to refinance because their mortgage company keeps raising their payments. And a reverse client rang to...
Interest rates are up. Want to know what that means in real terms? I pulled rate sheets from June 1, 2017 and am comparing to today's rate sheet. Here are some rough ideas about what is real in today's market. If you had financed a 30-year conventional loan last year for $424,000, you might have qualified at a 4.375% rate, making monthly principal and interest payments $2,116.97. Today that same scenario costs 5.25% at $2,341.34. Your monthly cost is up by $224. On VA loans, a $2,005.83...
This is an open letter to the many folks who have sat across the desk from me in the past month. Together we spent hours poring over scenarios, and figures, and life questions. I want to honor you for knowing that there is so much more to "mortgage" than just finance. We are talking about life changes and the best use of your money and leverage. Some of you chose me to arrange your financing after our visit, and some did not, and some chose to take no action at this time. So much about the real...
We know we have a topic when the same subject comes up repeatedly. In the past week three families have asked me, "What is the more strategic house to buy? Which one will be easiest to sell for a profit?" None of these transactions is a first-time home purchase, so these clients know what it's like to see home values rise and fall. What they're trying to get at is a plan to have the best return on the eventual sale of this next home. "Equity" is what we call the difference between any...
The first caller just heard that her husband wanted a divorce. She rang me in a panic, having no idea what to do when he offered that she buy the house from him. The next was a widow of three weeks, who wondered if a reverse mortgage would be her solution. The third was confused about why her house payment went up yet again. The last needed to plan for her upcoming marital separation. Certainly there are men that I haven't heard from who are unaware of their family's finances, but this recent...
Buyers! Sellers! Realtors! Lend me your ears! Unless it's a cash transaction, the success of your home buying or selling rests quite firmly on the lender. If the loan doesn't fund, nobody moves, and nobody gets paid. How can a Buyer be sure they are working with an experienced lender? How does the Seller know the pre-approval letter from their Buyer is worth the paper it's written on? You have the means to know lots about your lender in just a few keystrokes. The Nationwide Mortgage Licensing...
Haven't I told you to shop around? Just this weekend a past client contacted me about a mortgage transaction. They are moving out of state and the paperwork didn't look right. They had told the online lender they wanted a loan with no points and low fees. The Loan Estimate I was shown not only had over $3,000 in points, but also had five line items of junk fees that add to over $1,200. It looks to me like the "Lender Beginning with the 17th Letter of the Alphabet" was trying to pull a fast one....
The caller wanted to learn how to get ready to buy his first house. "I just paid cash for my business, and I have no credit." Nice, a clean slate to work with! After the mortgage meltdown, Congress was really interested in making sure folks have the means to repay the money they borrow. For traditional financing these days, you'd need to file two years federal income tax returns before we can count the income from your new business. As before, we're looking at the "net" income you claim. Even...
This article is taken in its entirety from www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/09/equifax-data-breach-what-do. If you have a credit report, there's a good chance that you're one of the 143 million American consumers whose sensitive personal information was exposed in a data breach at Equifax, one of the nation's three major credit reporting agencies. Here are the facts, according to Equifax. The breach lasted from mid-May through July. The hackers accessed people's names, Social Security numbers, bir...
We're short and sweet this week, since something big is happening in the world of reverse mortgage. On Aug. 29, 2017 the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced changes to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. This speaks to all federally-insured reverse mortgages, and is important because right now there is no other kind of reverse. Borrowers will see higher mortgage insurance premiums, and reduced reverse benefits, with case numbers issued on or after Oct. 2, 2017....
Did you know that in a real estate transaction, the seller usually pays for the Realtors? A buyer asked about this last week, so let’s spend a few minutes discussing it. When a property is for sale, the seller signs a listing agreement with a real estate broker. Most often it spells out the total amount, as a percentage of the sale price, the seller will pay to sell the house. The listing broker usually splits the amount with the Realtor who brings the final buyer. In our area, the common compen...
Of course there will be things wrong with your dream house! The home inspection is designed to tell you that upfront so you can be an informed consumer. What do you do with those findings? Your Realtor is your main advocate when it comes to negotiating for repairs. You’ll review the home inspection report together and make a list of things you’d like the seller to fix. I’m here to beg you to keep your loan officer in the loop. (Heehee! That would be “me” – your loan officer in The Loop!) Your...
We’re short and sweet this week: Here is an article posted in the National Mortgage Professional magazine. While the majority of prospective homebuyers do their research on home loans online, they prefer to handle their applications in the presence of a loan officer. According to a new survey of nearly 2,000 adults conducted on behalf of the American Bankers Association, 60 percent of Americans stated that, while they use the Internet to research their home loans, they would rather apply for a...
The Tehachapi Area Association of Realtors is holding a Community Wide Open House on July 22. Agents in the know tell me that if you want to have much of a choice in our current market, you’ll want to be looking at houses costing around $300,000. What does that mean money-wise? A survey of low-down-payment loan programs suggests that no matter how you slice it, you’d need to be able to afford around $1900 per month for those homes. Of course VA financing wins as the lowest payment and low...
Don’t fall for the hype – Reverse mortgage isn’t for everyone. When you have a seasoned professional help you with the analysis about what these loans accomplish or not, you can see for yourself if they benefit in your situation. Of the past several reverse consults I’ve done, three resulted in “you could do this but it doesn’t get you where you want to be, so don’t do it.” Two current clients illustrate the “shoulds”. Here are their stories. Mrs. A inherited her home from her parents, who ha...
Really, he was trying to help. Knowing that he needed a clean paper trail for the money they’d use to buy a house, he opened a new account. Since the bank puts holds on checks for the first month, he cashed his paychecks at the old bank to put cash in the new account. Then he met me and the fun began. These days when you’re buying a house, we get super nosy about where your down payment is coming from. When your bank statement shows deposits that aren’t payroll, we want to know where those...
It’s pretty great that parents watch out for their kids’ finances. A 2015 first-time buyer was in touch because their parents told them to refinance right now, while rates are low. But is that a smart thing to do? The purchase loan we did two years ago used the USDA program, which allows for no down payment under certain conditions. The family closed at a 3.625% interest rate with a few dollars of mortgage insurance, so their payment before taxes and insurance is something like $835 per mon...
