Northern Illinois Mortgage Pros » Mortgage Tips

Government Tax credits for 1st time home buyers and move up buyers.

Admin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:13:49 +0000

www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/

Buying a short sale!

Admin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:20:46 +0000

Buying a short sale can be a great thing. For those who are willing to wait. If you are a First Time Home Buyer and want to close by December 1st 2009 that time has probably past for you to put in a short sale offer and close by that date to earn your IRS $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit.

A short sale can take longer due to the fact that Banks are the ones you are working with to figure out how much of a loss they are willing to take on a home “THEY OWN.” The homeowner is already not getting any money at the closing table so they don’t care how much the home sells for but the bank which stands to lose is the one that does care.

When buying a short just be ready to wait and then wait some more and things can really work out.

FHA Fico Score on the rise know your score!

Admin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:57:06 +0000

If you were looking at buying a house and using FHA you better know your credit score. Banks have been on the war path raising middle fico score requirements on FHA from 580 to 620 and now most are going to 640 middle.

There are a ton of ways to find your score but as a first time home buyer that is where you have to start these days. Call a mortgage company or www.fico.com and get your score.

If you need help understanding your score check our website under credit score.

Matt

Seller paying closing costs!

Admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:12:34 +0000

It is very common these days to have the seller paying for all closing costs and in Lake County, IL they would include some of the following. This is an estimate of those fees some might be more and some might be less.

Attorney—400

Title fees—$1,600

Mortgage Company –$1,350

A good Realtor will figure these numbers into your contract prior to the seller seeing your offer.

The Perfect storm for First Time Home Buyers

Admin — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:12:57 +0000

My freind Dave from Denver called it right the other day when he said the housing market is a “Perfect Storm” right now for first time home buyers.

Being a fan of the book “The Perfect Storm” and now the show Swords is on TV every Tuesday which I can’t wait for it got me thinking. When I got out of college 13 short years ago and interest rates came down to like 7% if I remember correct people where going crazy because of how cheap you could finance for. Now I look at the market and people still don’t buy for various reasons but let me explain the “Perfect Housing Market Storm’ as I see it.

“Interest rates”

Lowest I have every seen them and they are staying low. Financing a 30 year fixed mortgage in the low 5″s is like paying $1 a gallon for gas for the rest of your life.

“Housing Prices”

Depending on who you talk to, who you watch and where you are looking at buying housing prices are probably down about 30%-40% from the 2006 highs and in some places around Lake County IL even more.

$8,000 first time home buyer credit

The cherry on top as I see it, if you buy a home as a first time home buyer and yes even if you sold another house 3 years ago you still qualify then you will receive a $8,000 tax credit on your 2009 tax return. You have to buy by December 1st 2009 and it has to be a owner occupied house, our website has more information on this.

3 things that make up this perfect storm for buying your 1st home right now and with FHA rates and FHA down payments still low I will bet that 1st time home buyers will never again see this opprotunity again in their lifetimes.

Matt

Affording more home!

Admin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:32:26 +0000

Doing first time home buyer loans for the past 13 years the number one question I run into is “how do I afford more home?” My response is always the same “the question you should be asking is how do I afford more home with staying within my confort zone?”

Our Fairway 210 program is just the solution to that problem. Schedule a consultation face to face of over the internet and learn how!

Why are home loans harder today?

Admin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:54:59 +0000

People believe that banks give you a mortgage and put that mortgage in there vault, that just isn’t true. Most of the time let’s just say Bank of Somewhere gives you a mortgage and then they sell it to Freddie mac or Fannie Mae and Bank of Somewhere just becomes your servicer which collects payments and pays taxes and insurance.

Now you see Fannie reporting something like a 18 Billion loss last quarter so what that means is people are not paying back their mortgage and Fannie loses money on a bad bundle of loans. So, Fannie does some research and finds the bad bundle of loans are made up of loans that were done with below 620 credit scores and Fannie says ok no more loans will be done with 620 fico scores and all the banks have to follow suit because they have no one to sell the loan to.

If banks can’t sell the loan to someone they will not do it.

Fannie bundles these loans and sells them on the open market and if nobody wants to buy them well then Fannie doesn’t want to do them either and the snowball starts. No buyers=no mortgages and that is a big reason why the Jumbo market is so slow right now, very few buyers of those loans.

Until Fannie and Freddie ease up on the credit standards for a mortgage look for more of the same to clean up the mortgage market so people will start buying again.

$8,000 is no big deal?

Admin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:09:36 +0000

I heard today on a conference call that 47% of Americans don’t even know that they will get $8,000 in tax credits next year if they buy their first home now. Another 27% don’t beleive that $8,000 is a big deal. So let me get this straight people will start working out of college for $30,000 a year after they just spent $125,000 on college but they don’t think that 27% of their income in the form of a tax credit is a big deal. This country has lost it’s mind.

Pre-qaulified vs. Approved

Matt Brua — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:27:14 +0000

One of the most common questions we get from a first time home buyer is asking to be pre-qaulified. Really what they should be asking for is to be pre-appoved.

Being pre-qaulified is as simple as asking 10 questions over the phone with no proof of anything. The problem with this is the lender never verifies income, assets or credit.

With a pre-approval we have our clients verify assets with 2 complete bank statement, verify income with 2 pay stubs, 2 years tax returns with w-2’s and we pull a tri-merge credit report verifing all credit history. We also cover any bankrupcy or divorce history during this approval as well.

With a pre-approval we want your loan to go through underwriting up front to take away the possiblity of any potential problems.

Doing the approval up front will save time, money and make your loan stress free when buying your first home.

So do yourself a favor and ask for a pre-approval not a pre-qaulification.

Pre-qaulified in this market

Matt Brua — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:57:29 +0000

Why are so many Real Estate deals falling apart? Because the buyers are not pre-approved by a loan professinal prior to making an offer! Plain and simple.

Getting pre-approved in this market is more important then ever and below are some of the reasons why.

1. You go to the front of the pack with multiple offers.

2. The seller feels comfortable because they hear the horror stories of deals falling apart and are more willing to work with you.

3. Your Realtor has a positive attitude with writing multiple offers for you knowing you are serious and you want them to be positive.

4. You take away your own questions about if you will get the house after you put in an offer.

5. As your first house you will have a better experience.

Our “First time home buyer up front consultation” is great for buyers who want to be proactive. During this time we review payments, cash to close, monthly cash flow, tax advantages and your credit report to name a few.

Now get out there before December 1st and qaulify for the $8,000 first time home buyer credit.

Matt