Mortgage

Mortgage ratios are a very important part of the approval process. However, most people make mistakes in calculating them. There is a difference between the ratio you use to get approved and your own budget.
Back in the old days, there were ratios limits you could not exceed. If you went [...]

A mortgage appraisal is full of misperceptions and it is frustrating when something goes wrong. We are addressing the most common appraisal complaints and what you can do about them.
First let’s define a mortgage appraisal. A licensed appraiser researches other properties to find homes that have sold in the last 6 months that [...]

I was out searching on mortgage tips again. These big websites must have a mortgage tips handbook (and not a very good one) where they just slap up the same information.
For example, on the federalreserve.gov site it says no cost mortgages “usually involve higher rates”. They do not usually involve higher [...]

The Federal Housing Administration created a streamlined version of the standard FHA 203k rehabilitation mortgage program. Real estate investors have used the standard rehab loan program for years to bring dilapidated houses back to life.
Now home buyers have the same opportunity with the streamline FHA 203K program, but with a few caveats.
FHA [...]

Debt consolidation mortgage sellers love to entice borrowers into sacrificing their future for more disposable income today. This is the biggest selling point and the pitfall of debt consolidation advertising.
The Debt Consolidation Mortgage Pitch
It goes like this,
“How Would Like To Cut Your Monthly Bills In Half!”
You maybe thinking, “What’s wrong with that…sounds good to [...]

Companies who constantly peddled the interest only mortgage are now a being revealed as contributing to the mortgage crisis and the rise in foreclosures. Quicken Loans offered their version of the interest only mortgage stressing the “savings” over fully amortized options calling it a “Smart Loan”.
Ha!
Interest Only Mortgage – Are They Smart Loans?
Hardly! [...]

Subprime mortgage defaults, the underlying cause of the real estate, mortgage, and financial market implosion and the drag on our economy, will soon be finished. Subprime mortgages are ARMs which adjust and it’s this adjustment to a higher payment that triggers default and eventually foreclosure.
Subprime ARM Resets
There is some debate about whether payment hikes [...]

The Federal Housing and Finance Agency, a new regulatory body combining the old OFHEO, the Federal Housing Finance Board, and the Federal Home Loan Bank regulator which will continue to regulate the GSEs, is now official.
In a press release, the FHFA announced the “Notice of Establishment” sent to the Federal Register which formally registers the [...]

Mortgage applications for the week ending September 3, 2008 on a seasonally adjusted based are up 7.5 percent according the Mortgage Bankers Association putting the weekly index number at 453.1.
Mortgage Applications Weekly Data
As expected the weekly mortgage applications data is skewed heavily in favor of more purchase mortgages than refinance mortgages. Refinance activity was [...]

FHA Connection is the online information interface mortgage professionals use to obtain FHA case numbers, check approved vendors, assign or reassign appraisers, and track all important upfront mortgage insurance payments. It is the clearinghouse function of the FHA Connection system for mortgage denials I’ll discuss now.
More and more subprime borrowers are attempting to refinance [...]

The Fico score used by Experian along with the other two credit scores created by other bureaus, is a more powerful influence in mortgage approval than ever before. Fico scores are now not only used to approve the loan but better scores get better rates.
FICO Score Only One of Three
Three bureaus have created 3 [...]

Down payment assistance programs like The American Dream Down Payment Assistance are all but outlawed for use with any government insured loan programs.
It’s about damn time!
I can hear you now, “What’s wrong with charities helping home buyers by giving down payment assistance?”
In a word, it’s a scam…that’s why!
In more than a word, [...]

Mortgage approvals are getting harder and harder to come by…even for the previous “good” borrower.
Lenders and the automated approval systems they use to approve borrowers underwent a major overhaul this month. On first blush one might think this was a knee-jerk reaction to the credit crunch, but there is more on deeper inspection. [...]

ResMAE, a large stated income lender, announced a year ago the discontinuation of all their stated income loan programs used for self-employed borrowers. Since then virtually all sources of loans for the self-employed are all gone.
This isn’t surprising considering that most stated income loans in practice are simply fraudulent. The industry dubbed them [...]

The Mortgage Scam Checklist is 37 tip-offs you’re being lied to, scammed, or conned. Each tactic or statement is a mortgage scam designed to separate you from your money.
I’ve often been asked the question, “How can I tell a mortgage scam when I hear one?”
To answer that question, I put together the “The [...]

Bad credit mortgage loans are for borrowers who have credit issues and do not fit traditional mortgage credit standards. Bad credit mortgage programs are also known as B paper or subprime loans.
Bad credit mortgage lenders create loan programs with their own riskier underwriting standards combined with higher rate structures and then pool them for [...]

The 100 percent mortgage programs are really popular right now. This mortgage is a loan program which requires no down payment. Therefore, trouble may be brewing.
Now on the surface a 100 percent mortgage this seems like a great idea. Since most surveys show the number one reason for not buying a [...]

The best mortgage is never found by collecting a handful of Good Faith Estimates or by calling around getting mortgage rate quotes. Yet this is THE shopping method for most.
If you define the best mortgage as the loan having the best mortgage rate, the lowest costs, and the one that fits your financial [...]

FHA home mortgage programs are currently under threat of extinction. The FHA home mortgage could die a needless death if reforms don’t pass Congress quickly and correctly.
Due to a number of reasons, the long-standing govenment FHA home mortgage programs are quickly becoming irrelevant. So much so, on the floor of the US Congress a [...]

The stated income mortgage is getting harder to find these days. Stated income mortgage lenders are going under in droves and the ones remaining are curtailing the program effectively trapping borrowers who now can’t refinance away from rising payments.
Rob and I have been preaching to people for years about the dangers of the stated [...]

The 40 year mortgage is sold to folks who want or need a lower payment. Many home owners are seeking a monthly payment even lower those provided on standard 30 year fixed loans. A 40 year mortgage is less in monthly payment because the loan is amortized over 40 years instead of 30…at [...]

Divorce mortgage mistakes can ruin your ability to get another mortgage after your divorce. When I originated and processed mortgages, I worked with many divorcing people. Most have the same concern. What do you do with the current home mortgage and how do you buy another home as a separate person.
First, it [...]

As the name implies the payments on a reverse mortgage flow in reverse…not from the borrower to the lender but from the lender to the borrower. A reverse mortgage affords older homeowners (62+) that are “house rich” and “cash poor” to receive their equity a little each month.
Many older home owners in this [...]

No cost mortgage advertisers pound the air waves spewing this mortgage lie. The no cost mortgage is a scam requiring great salesmanship, some misdirection, and an unsophisticated client.
So I’ve been railing against the no cost or no fee mortgage advertisers for years now…both on my blog and formerly on our radio show. Calling these phony [...]

Pick-a-Payment mortgages, also called Option ARMs, are without a doubt the most responsible mortgage structure to come down the pike in a long time and are directly responsible for the linger foreclosure crisis in States like California, Arizona, and Nevada.
Pick-a-Payment Mortgage History
I remember back in the 1995 -1996 hearing about the Pick a Payment mortgage [...]

The dumbest mortgage in America today or ever, for that matter, is the Option ARM or “Pick a Payment” mortgage that has been created by California lenders like World Savings to shoe-horn borrowers who can’t really qualify into the McMansions they build in those States.
This ridiculous and dangerous mortgage product is also being [...]