Tag Archives: Mortgage and Lending

Our New Responsible Mortgage Lending law

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Just when you thought you had seen the most stupid law from our legislature regarding real estate omitting common sense, here comes another! House Bill 2770 aims to make what was a federal offense a state class-B felony. While it is aimed at mortgage brokers, it has wide sweeping implications to real estate agents, buyers, sellers, home inspectors, contractors, and just about anyone else who has even a limited financial interest in a real estate transaction involving a mortgage.

cross my fingersThis law provides that a residential mortgage loan may not be made unless a disclosure summary of all material terms is placed on a separate sheet of paper and has been provided by a financial institution to the borrower and that a financial institution may not make or facilitate the origination of a residential mortgage loan that includes a prepayment penalty or that imposes negative amortization under certain circumstances. And here’s the catch-all clincher: The law says that certain acts and omissions by any person in connection with making, brokering, or obtaining a residential mortgage loan are unlawful.

While part of the law attacks important issues like negative amortization and pre-payment penalties, it’s the broad definition regarding the disclosure of material facts relating to a property that causes me the greatest concern.

Example: Buyer purchases a home “subject to inspection

Financing an Investment Property

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EDITORS NOTE:  Rates on this post are from 2008!  Mortgage rates for investment properties are much lower now! Contact your local licensed mortgage originator for a current rate quote.

Obtaining a mortgage for a non-owner occupied propery is much different than buying one you will reside in.  For starters, qualifying is tougher and mortgage interest rates are higher as it’s a riskier transaction for the lender.   Here are some quick tips to help get you started if you’re considering buying an investment property.

Plan on using at least 20% for your down payment plus closing costs.   With a 25 or 30% down payment, you will receive a slightly better interest rate.   Just to give you an idea, here is a sample of some current rates based on a single family dwelling with a sales price of $450,000 for a 30 year fixed mortgage and a minimum 720 credit score:

Owner Occupied with minimum 20% down:  5.75% priced with 1% origination/discount point (APR 5.904%)

Non-Owner Occupied (NOO) with 20% down: 6.375% with 1% point (APR 6.537%)

NOO with 25% down: 6.250% with 1% point (APR 6.413%)

NOO with 30% down: 6.125% with 1% point (APR 6.289%)

Of course, you can always pay more in points to have a lower rate.   This is just to provide you with an apples to apples comparison.

There are two camps for qualifying for an investment property:  those who are proven at managing rentals and those who are buying a rental for the first time or who have less than 2 years history.  If you have less than a 2 year history, then it’s likely that you will not be able to use rent credit from the proposed purchase.  Lenders allow 75%  of the rent to be used for qualifying purposes.   Proving you’re a financially successful landlord to the underwriter will take your last two year’s complete tax returns including the Schedule E’s.   If you can qualify for the full PITI payment on the investment property along with your current PITI payment on your residence, then the underwriter may only require a regular appraisal.  Otherwise, count on the appraisal costing almost twice as much as a typical appraisal for conventional financing.   Fannie and Freddie also require a minimum of 6 months reserves (cash assets after closing) for NOO borrowers.

Odds and Ends

  • FHA can be a great way for first time buyers to get into the investor market when they’re buying a 2-4 unit home.  The buyer must occupy in one of the units and the mortgage will be treated as an “owner occupied” transaction.   You will have upfront and monthly mortgage insurance and can buy with as little as 3% down payment.
  • Second homes are sometimes treated as investment properties.  This is really up to the underwriter.  Typically if the home is located within 50 miles of the borrowers residence or if it does not make sense as a second or vacation home, the underwriter may determine that it’s an investment which means tougher underwriting and the NOO rate.
  • Fannie Mae programs exist that help family members buy properties that don’t meet the second home requirements without treating it as an investment purchase (Family Opportunity Mortgage).

As always, I highly recommend that you meet with your local Mortgage Professional as soon as possible if you’re even just considering obtain a mortgage for any reason (investment property, residencial purchase or refi, vacation home, etc.).

 

Will St. Patty's Day Bring Us Luck with Conforming Loan Limits?

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By mid-March, HUD is required to publish what they determine to be median home prices which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be using for what the temporary loan limits will be (125% of the median home price). I’m hopeful that Fannie, Freddie and banks are working dilingently NOW on what the guidelines and pricing will be for this new bracket of loans priced from $417,001 to the new temporary limit and that we’re not waiting after the loan limits are announced for lenders to figure out how they’re going to deal with the new loans.

I’m currently working with a couple who are looking at homes priced around $600,000. They could be perfect candidates for the new conforming loan limit. With 20% down, they will have a loan amount of $480,000. Here are a few scenarios I shared with them:

Structuring the mortgage as a jumbo compared to with a conforming first and second mortgage (heloc):

10yr30

I am really favoring the 10 year ARM right now. Ten years is a heck of long time. Picture you and your life 10 years ago…and rhondawitt 1try to imagine your life 10 years from now. Mortgage planning is about selecting the right product that suits your long and short term financial pictures. If you select a 30 year fixed mortgage, yet you keep the home for less than 10 years, you may be losing hundreds of dollars every month. With that said, you cannot put a value on “peace of mind”. If you are going to lose sleep at night because you have an adjustable rate mortgage (that is fixed for ten years) then don’t do it. Go for the long term mortgage. Personally, I would lose sleep over not having the long term savings. It is a choice…YOUR choice. BTW…the photo of me might be closer to 13-14 years ago! 😉

Of course this couple could wait and see what the new loan limits may be…this plan has potential to backfire however. I’m hearing that the add to rate may be anywhere from 0.25% to 1.000% to rate for loans over $417,000. Worse case, the new conforming loan limit would still have rates where our jumbo rates currently are. Plus, we still don’t know what the new limits are. It’s highly speculated that our area will see the limit just shy of $500,000 (speculated being the key word). However if the add to rate is significant enough, then the new limit will make little difference to our current “jumbo” rates.

With the Fed meeting on March 18, 2008 and an anticipated 0.50% rate cut in the works, mortgage rates may very well be higher by that time . The Fed cutting rates typically causes mortgage bonds to react for the worse as it is an inflationary sign. It’s great for your HELOC, not so for your unlocked mortgage rate.

My advise is for my clients to proceed with an approval now. If the new conforming rate proves to be a better scenario for them while we’re in transaction, it’s easy for us to change plans (as long as we’re more than a week from closing).

Extensions: When Your Time is Up With Your Lock

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When you lock in a mortgage interest rate, it is for a specific period of time, such as 30, 45 or 60 days. Your mortgage professional should make sure it is for an adequate amount of time to close the transaction. If it’s a purchase, the lock may be for a few days after the transaction and if it’s for a refinance, 30-45 days should be plenty of time in a “normal” market for the lock period. Purchases, depending on the type of transaction can be closed from two weeks or more (or more is preferred, less can happen too).

If you run out of time on your lock, it needs to be extended or the rate is no longer available (if rates have increased). Extensions, like locks, vary in price based on how long thebuytime extension period is. Sometimes, if rates have improved or are the same, the lender may offer a “no cost” extension-that always makes me happy. 🙂 When rates have worsened, you can count on a cost for your extension. Every lender has different costs. As a Correspondent Lender, we work with many lenders and they all have different costs and policies for extensions. Some will allow us to extend for a specific amount of days; for example if we only need 3, we can have a 3 day lock at a prorated cost. Others bracket the days and so if we need 3 days, and they bracket extensions 1-10 days, we’ve paid for 10 days.

Here’s a few examples of extensions offered by a few of the lenders I work with. The cost referenced are in fee as a percentage to the loan amount. If your mortgage is $400,000 and we are working with Lender A below, your extension rate would be 400,000 x 0.015% = $60.00 per day.

Lender A offers a daily extension at a rate of 0.015% per day. They allow me to re-extend if I did not extend long enough the first time (most lenders do not allow this…you go directly to worse case pricing).  

With Lender A, the difference between a 30 day and 45 day (original) lock period today is 0.165%; extending for 15 additional days (if you locked 30 days and needed up to 45) is an additional 0.225%.

Lender B offers extensions in brackets:

1-5 days = 0.063%

6-10 days = 0.125%

11-15 days = 0.188%

16-20 days = 0.25% up to 26-30 days = 0.375%

With Lender B, the difference between a 30 day and 45 day lock today is around 0.298%. Extending for 15 days with a 30 day lock is 0.188% based on locking today.

Lender C offers various options:

If your extension is within 10 days of your lock expiring and short term pricing has improved, they offer a 15 day lock at no cost.

If current pricing is worse than the locked rate, then you have the option of fee based pricing based on the expiration date:

5 days = 0.125%

10 days = 0.25%

15 days = 0.375%

30 days = 0.500% (purchase)

30 days = 0.500% (refi)

Lender C also offers market based pricing based on extending the lock from that date (instead of the expiration date of the lock) factoring in the current market.

When you extend on Lender C’s site, a LO has a couple of options they can select from based on how much time is needed and what is the lowest cost.

The difference between a 30 day and 45 day lock (currently) is 0.096% vs. having to extend after 30 days for 0.375% unless the market (rates) have improved.

Here are some possible reasons why a lock may require an extension:

~ Loan Originator did a short lock (less than 30 days or less than what was indicated for closing on the purchase and sale agreement).
~ Mortgage company did not perform in a timely manner.
~ Borrower did not provide documentation in a timely manner or caused delay in transaction.
~ Seller caused a delay in the transaction.

My personal opinion is that who ever caused the extension to be paid should be the party responsible for paying it. Often times, the delay may be unintentional but it happens. It’s crucial for borrowers to understand that once a loan is locked, a clock is counting down the days left for closing the new loan. On the occassion that I need to extend a loan, I review the transaction to determine why we ran out of time.

When I lock in a loan, I would rather have a few extra days than go short on the lock period. The cost of the next longer lock period is often less than what an extension may cost. The key is to make sure the loan is locked for the correct time frame to start with. Your Mortgage Professional should provide you with a Lock Confirmation that will disclose when your lock will expire. It’s important to confirm that your lender has allowed enough time for the transaction with the lock and to address the “what ifs” in the event the transaction does not close in time. With an extension, you are simply buying time.

A D-I-Y Don't: Divorce

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Legal disclosure:  I am not an attorney, nor do I play one on TV.  Please do seek legal council if you are considering a divorce and before DIY legal documents relating to your marriage or mortgage or real estate.  🙂

I recently met with newlyweds who wanted to start developing a plan to purchase a home together.   The bride was previously married and terminated that union with a do-it-yourself divorce decree and saved money (or thought she did) by not utilizing an attorney.  When they did this several years ago, it made sense to them.  They were amicable and agreed to how they would divvy up their debts and what assets they had acquired at that time.   He would keep the house and the mortgage.   She would sign and record a quit claim deed.    This is where the trouble begins.

A quit claim deed does not remove borrowers from the mortgage and a divorce decree does not remove one’s liability from a mortgage (or other joint debts).

In my clients case, she is now liable for a mortgage on a property she has no interest in except for the debt. 

You would think a borrower could contact the lender and ask to have the mortgage modified by removing one of the ex’s assuming the person retaining the property qualifies for the debt on their own.    This is just not the case.

My client’s ex-husband decided to no longer pay the mortgage.   Foreclosure proceedings are scheduled to begin next month.   Her credit score has plummeted and the mortgage company couldn’t care less about her situation.   She is being sucked into the foreclosure on a property she has not lived in for years.    And she will not be able to qualify for a mortgage at this time.  It is emotionally and financially devastating.

Unfortunately, the only way to safely remove someone’s responsibility to the mortgage is by paying it off.   This can by accomplished by:

  1. Cash (paying off the mortgage)
  2. Selling the property
  3. Refinancing the mortgage

In addition, an ex’s debts from a divorce are factored into the debt-to-income ratio unless the ex has made the payments on time for the past 12 months and the debts are clearly listed in the divorce decree.   If the ex has been late once on an account over the past 12 months, that monthly payment is factored into the debt to income ratios of other ex trying to qualify for a new home.    This isn’t limited to mortgages; it can be joint credit cards, car payments…any joint debts. 

If you own mortgaged property with someone (married or not) and are considering dissolving your relationship, please do not “do it yourself

The Mortgage Witch Hunt

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Just in time for Halloween, officials from various levels of government are gathering together over the [photopress:salemexamof.jpg,thumb,alignright]frightful happenings going on in the mortgage industry. Home values were going down, mortgage payments were on the rise and consumers did not contact their mortgage professional for advice. Some were provided opportunities to own homes by using “non-traditional

Zero Down Loan? You Better Have a 620 Credit Score or Higher

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Update 11/11/2008:  This is post is more of a reflection of the times.  Zero down loans are not available with convetional financing at this time.  Private or hard money may have zero down loans available.   FHA with a loan from family members is the closest to 100% financing that I’m aware of.   As with any posts about mortgage guidelines, be mindful of when they were written as guidelines have (and will continue to) change.

I’ve been working on a zero down rate quote for Jillayne, since she requested that two weeks ago when I did my posted my first Friday rate’s on RCG.   She was curious how 100% loan to value mortgages compare based on different credit scores.   At the company I work for, we have around 80 (woops…make that 78 now) lenders we work with.   A majority of our business is handled in our credit line (Mortgage Master is a Correspondent Lender) and some business is “brokered”.  Typically this is subprime or unique loans with added risk.   As a Loan Originator, you wind up selecting 3-5 of your favorite “a money” sources, a few “alt a” lenders and of course, and I like to have around 3-5 sub-prime lenders.   These are the lenders and representatives you rely on, get to know their products and trust their underwriting.   

Back to Jillayne’s request, last night I called my three preferred subprime resources for my rate quotes…what’s the lowest credit score they will lend to at 100% ltv and is the rate and program?  Thanks to RCG’s Tim, I’ve just learned that one of those resources I’ve relied on, New Century…and the only one that I work with who did quote yesterday an 80/20 with a 600 mid-score is facing troubling times to say the least.

“New Century Financial Corp. said it’s the subject of a criminal probe and Fremont General Corp. agreed to a cease-and-desist order with bank regulators in the biggest regulatory actions to emerge from the subprime mortgage meltdown.”   To read the entire article on Bloomberg, click here.

Every day I’m receiving memos from various subprime lenders with details of (much needed) tightening guidelines.  If you currently have clients shopping for a new home and they are using subprime financing (you might know this if they’ve told you their credit is not great, if the mortgage is a 80/20 with a prepayment penalty, etc.) you just might want to contact the Loan Originator to make sure the preapproval is still valid.  If that client has a credit score below 620, they may (1) not be approved any longer or (2) be approved for an entirely different rate (much higher). 

Subprime lenders are either eliminating their zero down products all together or are raising the credit score requirements.  Previously, a 580 – 600 mid-credit score was no problem for 100% financing.   They were beating down our doors to do these loans!  Now, the new standards for mid-score (with the lenders I work with) seems to be 620.  This is a significant jump that will delay some rentsers from buying homes until they improve their credit.   Which again, I think this is good.

I’ve mentioned this before, but this is so important.  If you have clients who have used subprime financing who have purchased homes in the past 1-2 years, this could be a good reason to pick up the phone and call them.   Hopefully they received good counseling from their Mortgage Planner AND they took the advice to heart…working on cleaning up their credit usage, managing their spending, etc.  With the subprime market tightening, if those subprime borrowers have credit scores below 620 when their prepayement penalty is up and their fixed payment is adjusting towards the sky, they may be are in a very tough situation.

Jillayne, this post is all ready a bit long… I promise I’ll have your zero down rates posted soon!

Children, Can You Say "Suitability"

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If Congressman Barney Frank has his way, all mortgage originators will have to utter those words in the back of their minds when considering loan options for their clients.   Frank is not just any member of Congress, he happens to be the new chairman of the House of Financial Services Committee and his top priority is to create national laws to protect consumers from predatory mortgage practices.

Recently, on The Perennial Borrower post, I was asked by RCG readers how do I determine what loans are right for clients with all the options that are available in today’s mortgage marketplace.  It takes a great deal of determining what the available financing options are, what their financial plans are and then what mortgage makes the most sense, or is the most “suitable”.   This doesn’t happen automatically for every borrower with every loan originator.   Which is why states like Washington are now licensing Mortgage Brokers and Congress is looking into the same on a nationwide basis.  Currently, when we have subprime lenders calling on our office, they promote “how low they can go” in the borrower pool.   55% debt to income ratios are common–heck, you hardly have to be re-established out of your bankruptcy if you don’t mind the interest rate.  Can’t document your income, assets…don’t have a job but your credit is good–fantastic, we have a loan for you!  It’s true, there are a lot of mortgages that seem crazy and while they may not make sense for some, they do for other clients.  Suitability.

According to Kenneth R. Harvey’s article last Saturday, “…a new national standard might require loan officers to determine an applicant’s suitability for a particular loan program based on:

• Employment status, income level, assets and likelihood that income or employment could change;

• Other recurring expenses and the effect they could have on the borrower’s capacity to repay;

• The potential for higher future monthly payments based on the structure of the loan.

A suitability standard might also ban brokers and others from steering less-sophisticated borrowers to higher-cost mortgages than they qualify for, such as pushing them into complicated higher-rate subprime loans when they could qualify for prime rates and simpler programs.”

This sounds great…however; there is always another side to the story.  NAMB is concerned this could “lead to accusations of discrimination.”  I agree, I mean, are loan originators to provide IQ test to borrowers before determining if they truly understand a more sophisticated loan?  Who are we to judge?   Many times, this surprises me, I may not physically meet my client.  The entire transaction may take place over the phone or internet.  You do get a “feel” for whether or not a person understands the mortgage product by the questions they ask, but how do you really know?   If you’re a borrower who wants an option ARM and a lender (deciding you are less-sophisticated) insists on giving you a 30 year fixed, have you been discriminated against?

2007 should be a very interesting year in the mortgage industry.

Inman’s Innovation Awards!

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Congrats goes out to all the contributors on Rain City Guide! We were nominated as a finalist for the “Most Innovative Blog Award” by Inman News. In my world, contributors are not only the people with their photo up on the sidepanel, but also those of you who return to give your comments on a regular basis. This site thrives off of your continued involvement!

The winners in each category will be announced in SF at the Inman Connect Conference. I’m definitely going to be there (I’m speaking on a panel on lead conversion)… Additionally, I would really enjoy organizing a meet-up of bloggers one evening. If you’re interested in joining us, then leave a comment below and I’ll send details as things get closer!

[photopress:Luther_engineering.jpg,thumb,alignright]In the meantime, I’m not proud to say that I didn’t know many of the non-blog nominations so I spent some time this evening on google researching the other companies nominated. Here are some notes (or at least links) I took while scanning the other nominees.

Most Innovative Brokerage

I wish Inman provided some more context so that I could know why they picked these particular real estate brokers. If anyone can let me know what sets these firms apart, please share!

Most Innovative Web Service

[photopress:Luther_engineering_2.jpg,thumb,alignright]Most Innovative New Business Model

Most Innovative Real Estate Blog

Most Innovative Real Estate Data Site

[photopress:Luther_engineering_3.jpg,thumb,alignright]Most Innovative Technology

Most Innovative Mortgage Company or Service

Most Innovative Media Site

Most Innovative Rental/ New Home Online Service