Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 105
A repeat client phoned me and she was hoppin’ mad. “We got a VA buyer offer on our house and they want us to pay $11000 in closing costs!” That made me mad, too. Here’s why. The VA home loan program is pretty special. It allows qualified Veterans to buy a home with no down payment. Usually no down payment would mean having a monthly mortgage insurance premium in the payment, but not here. There is a one-time “funding fee” that goes towards the VA insurance fund, to cover lenders in case of you...
Kenneth Harney is a nationally-syndicated columnist on real estate for the Washington Post Writers Group. Here’s his March 29 post about credit scores. When is your “credit score” irrelevant in buying a house or refinancing a home loan? A new federal legal settlement with a major credit bureau has the answer: The only score that matters is the one your lender uses to evaluate you, not some random score you got on a website. All the others you might buy or see — there are dozens of them hawked...
Is there a conspiracy surrounding the appraisal report for your home purchase or refinance? Recently a buyer was upset about an appraisal value matching the purchase price, so let’s review the process. There are layers of consumer protections surrounding the mortgage process. Within three days of application we have to give you a detailed list of fees associated with the loan. You get a chance to review this document, and must sign that you’ve seen it. You will be asked to formally “co...
Gotta love the media. They scream at us that interest rates are worse, and that interest rates are better. All they’re doing is reading from a teleprompter – so what’s true? It’s all about context. The Federal Open Market Committee did indeed raise the Federal Funds Rate at their March 15 meeting. So, “rates are up”, right? Not in our market. Mortgage rates actually liked it and are slightly better since the hike. The stock market has been on a tear since November. So, “rates are down”, right?...
There’s a new survey out by ClosingCorp telling us that last year more than 50% of lender’s loan estimates to borrowers had to be revised before the close of escrow. Buyers complained that closing costs and fees were adjusted due to something about them or the loan. Hold the phone: That shouldn’t happen. We aren’t giving you a Loan Estimate until we’ve taken your loan application. You’ve told us everything we need to know so we can place your loan. There’s no reason for a surprise after that. U...
It’s pretty easy to go on-line and get figures about your next home loan. Does what you see on the screen actually end up being what you get? It’s not always a matter of bait and switch; it’s a matter of the intricacies of loan pricing. Here’s what to consider when you are comparing loan offers. Right off the bat, I can think of at least 19 factors that affect your home loan interest rate. For a more complete discussion, see the article on my web site. Point being, if all 19 things are not bro...
Twice this week my local quote was beat an online/mail lender. Once was for a reverse mortgage, and once for a plain refinance. Be sure you are talking to a local mortgage advisor before you latch on to a solicitation for your home loan business. In both cases mentioned, the structure offered was of much greater benefit to the bank than it was to my clients. For the reverse mortgage, the mailed plan offer was at a low up-front cost and a full draw of the available benefit. It looked great if...
Um, no, you can’t. But this was said by someone holding themselves out as a lender, to a friend of mine. He heard, “If you put 20% down, you can have any loan you want!” First, a check of the NMLS Consumer web site shows the lending experience of the speaker. The Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System will tell you if a person is fully licensed in lending, or is just registered, how long they have worked in lending, and who they have worked for. In this case, the speaker is registered as a lende...
We got a great surprise from FHA this week: They’re lowering mortgage insurance premiums! Good news for buyers and refinancers alike. Since interest rates have moved over the last quarter, it’s time for the briefest look at what affordability feels like right now in the 93561. These figures are rough estimates for the “most perfect” of buyers, and lots of things can affect who qualifies for similar terms and who doesn’t. At the very least, it gives us the flavor of what’s happening now. The re...
Happy New Year. Have you been getting a bunch of mailers about refinancing your current home loan? Me, too. Is it really a good time to refinance? Only “maybe.” Many factors come in to play when evaluating a mortgage financing offer. Rate is only one of them, but in recent months it’s become a biggie. Let’s have a quick look back to see what has happened since Fall. The Freddie Mac weekly interest rate survey is flawed in that it only considers a perfect borrower with 20% equity and no other l...
“I’ve never worked with someone like you before when buying houses … it makes me wonder how many times I’ve been swindled or made bad decisions – thank you for walking us through everything!” This note came from a repeat home buyer who works as an engineer. Buyer A spent a lot of time with me analyzing their family finances to choose the best financing structure for their move out of the area. They spent over $30,000 less than they originally might have spent due to our strategic planning ar...
If you’re behind on your mortgage payments, or worried about how you’ll make the next one, join the more than 1.5 million families who have been helped so far. Fannie Mae has a great resource at KnowYourOptions.com. This web site teaches consumers about their options if making a house payment becomes a struggle. The program most people know about is the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP. HAMP is designed to lower your monthly mortgage payments, making them more affordable and sus...
After you’ve done a new home loan, your mailbox gets stuffed with all kinds of mail. Anything you receive from your lender would be important, of course, as would anything from the local county tax assessor or recorder. But what about all the other stuff? It sure looks official, with pictures of seals and barcodes. Here is just one example of mail that looks like it needs attention, but is really best shredded. “Recorded Deed Notice”! “First Documents recommends that all CA homeowners obtain...
It’s important to have a monthly housing budget in mind when you shop for a new home. The on-line calculators you see on web sites are interesting, but don’t account for everything that might be included in your monthly payment. We’re finding surprises these days in the property tax portion of new house payments. Municipalities often have “extra” taxes for any given area, in the form of bond measures for hospitals, schools, or sanitation. Generally, you can guess that your new annual property...
Several weeks back my phone rang and a California City caller wanted to know if it was real that home loan appraisals were taking over a month. For her rural area, it was true. What’s that about?! You heard my story about the out-of-town lender who wanted to charge a Tehachapi buyer $1000 to do an appraisal. After some creative suggestions, we were able to find someone to take the job for a more normal fee … But that report still took over three weeks to be completed. (As the seller on that dea...
Now that I’ve been on the other side of the desk, let me share a few personal notes about being the seller in a real estate transaction. It’s really fun to hear your Realtor call to say there’s an offer coming in on your house. What isn’t very fun is seeing that the offer is dramatically below the list price. This is especially so when pains were taken up front to review current market activity as to set a listing price that was at the low end of the range. We’re also in a competitive market at...
Out of curiosity, I looked at online mortgage rates today. The findings are astonishing, and suggest that before you click away, you really should shop any online mortgage offer you’re entertaining. Three huge internet lenders are posting refinance rates for credit scores 760 with 20% equity on a $250,000 loan balance. Lender L quotes 3.5% with 1.375 points and $1,595 in fees. Lender Q posts 3.75% with 2.0 points and $3,900 in fees. Lender A quotes 3.875% at zero points and $1,250 in fees. P...
The Center for California Real Estate has released a report about “Roadblocks to The American Dream.” In it, they cite current challenges facing home buyers. Here are their findings: 29% have trouble saving for a down payment. 27% can’t find a home in their desired neighborhood due to limited inventory. 22% can’t get access to credit and funding. 19% hold too much personal debt. 3% are too shy to tell us exactly what their roadblocks are. We’ve got solutions! For those having trouble saving fo...
If you have been party to any home financing recently, you’ve probably said the same thing: “This should not be anything of concern, as I have very strong credit.” Welcome to my world. Once upon a time, the mortgage process was easy. All you needed was a good credit score and a working pen – we were closing loans within a week. That all ended almost ten years ago. I used to keep track at ML-Implode. com, the site that kept a list of which lenders folded each day. They still list 388 mortgag...
She was very surprised when I told her the monthly payment would be $1127 per month. “But my Realtor told me the payment would be only $925!” The Realtor was using a mortgage calculator to estimate the payment based on the price, but the answer you get is only as good as the data you put in. It’s pretty easy to find a loan payment using a web calculator. Most loans are fully amortizing, so if you have 30 equal payments at 4.0% on $193,751, the only correct answer is $925 in monthly princ...
It’s less prevalent than it was before, but sometimes you still see listings where the seller has an established relationship with their own title and escrow company. Oftentimes this would be a bank or an investor who might do lots of deals so they like to use “their own team”. Usually these companies are outside of Kern County. Here’s why you should care. Sellers aren’t allowed to force you to use their chosen companies, so there is always disclaimer language somewhere. It might say something a...
This fall, the USDA home loan program is reducing its mortgage insurance premiums, which will make its loan program more affordable than ever. In context, it means that using USDA financing to buy a $200,000 house in October will cost about $25 per month less than it does today. Hooray for USDA! We had a moment last time to talk about mortgage fees, and a real-life scenario came up since then. A buyer had shopped their long-time credit union for a mortgage quote, then they called me. The credit...
Consumers, we want your business! Advertising is designed to make you pick up the phone, or visit a web site, and it’s funny the way things are presented to compel you to do so. There are ads that say, “Fees Waived on Your Loan Type”. Ooh, that sounds great! Then the ads go on to list the kinds of loan fees that are waived: Processing Fee, Underwriting Fee, Origination Fee, Tax Service Fee, and Flood Cert Fee. The reality is that those fees have not been charged on mortgages for years. After...
When you bought your first car, mom or dad was probably there to help you qualify for the car loan by being your co-signer. That made them jointly obligated for repayment of the loan, since you likely had no credit history on file at that time. Their established credit stood in to “prop up” your lack of loan experience. Does it work the same way when you are buying a home? It depends on which loan you choose, and how many of the applicants will be living in the new home after close of esc...
Who doesn’t love a good list? Here’s a resource for anyone thinking about buying a home or refinancing. Use it to educate yourself now about what you’ll be asked to document for your mortgage application process. Do - Provide your Earnest Money Deposit from your own personal bank account. Have a sufficient balance available so your check doesn’t bounce! Know that your relatives will have to show their bank statement when they give you a gift. Do - Provide all documentation for large deposit...
