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.

Mortgage originators tell you your mortgage lock is in force when it is NOT. Lying about your mortgage lock status is a common practice to increase loan revenue or cover loan officer mistakes.

Loan officers are always trying to make the most yield spread revenue on every mortgage. Telling you the mortgage lock is placed but then not actually locking the rate with the wholesale mortgage company allows them to “play the market” with your money.

The Fed makes a rate cut and current mortgage interest rates rise. The current mortgage interest rate on 30 year fixed loan routinely inches up compared to rates before the cut.

Consumers are expecting the opposite to happen and yet it rarely does. This opposite market reaction is pretty consistently over the last few cuts.

A mortgage broker is the home loan consumer’s best choice. A mortgage broker locates and procures the funds. This means the mortgage broker must have multiple relationships with money sources.

Mortgage brokers can originate your loan but rely on wholesale lenders to provide the money to fund your loan. They go through a screening process to become an approved mortgage broker with the wholesale lender. Some mortgage lenders are very picky when selecting mortgage brokers and some let just about anyone in.

The idea of “staging” a home to make it look alluring to buyers has become a necessity. The goal of home staging is to create an increased demand for your home selling it faster and for more.

Home staging is a must if you are to sell your home in this current tough market.

I’ve compiled a few resources on average mortgage rate data and yield spread premium starting with Congressional testimony from experts and ending with average mortgage rate resources online.

Be sure to read the Harvard Professor Jackson’s testimony if nothing else….

Mr. Olson’s Senate Testimony

HUD’s RESPA FAQ Site

Harvard Professor’s Conclusions on YSP

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?”

Eliminating yield spread premium starts by avoiding banks like the plague. Bank mortgage rates will always include their version of YPS since they have no legal duty to disclose it.

(In the banking world YSP is call service release premium. This “different” classification was the legal technicality or loophole the industry used to legally avoid consumer disclosure altogether.)

Mortgage yield spread premium is responsible for up to two thirds of the revenue earned on every mortgage. Yet most Americans have no knowledge of mortgage yield spread premium or how to avoid it.

Locating the yield spread premium rip-off is virtually impossible except at closing on the settlement statement known as the HUD1 Settlement Statement. Of course, by then it’s too late!

Other non settlement statement mortgage disclosures specifically the Good Faith Estimate (the mortgage application disclosure) are useless for discovering yield spread premium overcharging since most brokers either never disclose or obfuscate the disclosure as you’ll see below.