Archive for the ‘Real Estate’ Category

VA Loan Refresher and Tax Return Issue

June 27th 2010

You may have heard that since the tax credit went away, home sales nationwide have dropped by quite a bit. Not really a surprise because any time you artificially stimulate a market, there has to be a vacuum left after the stimulus is over. If you are thinking if buying a home, you need to keep all of your options open and one of those options is knowing the benefits of VA loans. VA loans are a benefit for the Veterans of our armed forces as well as for those currently serving (with restrictions of course) The cool thing about VA loans is that they offer 100% financing without any monthly Mortgage Insurance. The rates are as good as any other program out there right now and there are certain loan fees that the VA buyer is not allowed to pay. So that keeps their costs down. There are a few minor drawbacks of the VA loan. There is a fairly significant Up Front Funding Fee which is usually equal to 2.15% of the loan, although that fee can be added on to the loan. Another issue is that VA appraisers are allowed 10 days to get the appraisal back to the lender. Even with these few drawbacks, the VA loan is a great loan product, especially when you consider the extended tax credit for military personnel. If you are a veteran, please be aware of how beneficial the loan is. Just remember to ask the sellers to pay those VA non-allowable fees I mentioned above.

One more thing to be aware of right now is an issue that is creating some problems during the loan processing as it pertains to a buyers tax returns. All of the investors we sell our loans to are requiring a fully executed 4506T form before they will buy the loan. This means that if the buyer filed their taxes on time and they are all processed through the IRS system then we can get their tax transcripts right away and move on. In addition, if the buyer filed an extension, all we need is a copy of the extension and proof that any estimated taxes that are owed to Uncle Sam have been paid at the time of the extension. The real problem comes in when a buyer has not filed taxes but has also not filed an extension. You can’t file an extension after April 15th so the only thing a buyer can do is file their taxes. However, it can take 3-4+ weeks to get a tax filing through the system and we can’t do anything until we use the 4506T form to verify all of that. Obviously this can cause a huge delay. I now ask all of my potential clients if they have either filed their taxes or filed an extension and you should too. If they just filed their taxes after an extension, then that starts the clock ticking and we have to wait until their taxes are all the way through the system before we can do a loan.
I hope this helps. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.


 

 

 

 

Posted by Mark Afman under Home & Mortgage & Mortgage Blog & Real Estate | No Comments »

203K Loan Refresher

May 2nd 2010

My wife was watching TLC this weekend and she asked if construction loans were really that tough to do. It turns out that there was one of those shows on that feature first time buyers and their trails and tribulations on finding a home. This particular episode featured a young couple that wanted to buy a home that was in the middle of a renovation but it had not been completed by the previous owner before they lost it to foreclosure. They were asking the Loan Officer about construction loans and the teaser segment said that construction loans were impossible to get. Continue Reading »

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HVCC, Good Idea or Bad Idea?

April 15th 2010

HVCC is the Home Valuation Code of Conduct. This was put into place by the Attorney General of the State of New York and adopted by Fanie Mae and Freddie Mac and then eventually by the entire lending industry. It’s not really a government law bu it is binding to the lending industry. HVCC is a rule that is intended to bring about separation between Appraisers and the Lenders. The idea was that part of the reason that the “mortgage meltdown” happened was that there was too much influence on the appraiser by the loan officer (LO) in a transaction. Continue Reading »

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Learn about Mortgage loans on the radio and Realtor Rally

April 9th 2010

I would like to invite you, to listen to the radio this Saturday, April 10 at 10am. I have been asked to be a guest on the Real Estate talk show called Fix Up With Steven and Matina. Steven and Matina are with Ridgemoor Homebuyers and host a weekly radio show devoted to the topic of Real Estate in Denver and specifically the fix up of homes.

This Saturday, however, the half hour show will cover all things related to mortgages. Continue Reading »

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Platt Park

March 30th 2010

If you keep your nose to the Real Estate grindstone you have heard of the neighborhood called Platt Park. This is roughly bound by Broadway to Downing and I-25 to Evans. It’s called that because of a very nice park on Logan between Iowa and Florida here in South Denver called, well what else, Platt Park. This is a neighborhood that has become somewhat chic and in demand. There is a great shopping area on the 1400 and 1500 block of south Pearl St with several great restaurants. Continue Reading »

Posted by Mark Afman under Miscellaneous & Real Estate | No Comments »

CHFA corrections

March 22nd 2010

I try to send out good information in these posts  but hey, I’m human and make mistakes once in a while. Last week I posted an entry entitled CHFA Refresher. Well the good folks at CHFA read it and sent me a nice email that corrected a few small things so I thought I should pass this along.

1) With regards to the 90 day Flip rule waiver, they said Continue Reading »

Posted by Mark Afman under Home & Mortgage & Mortgage Blog & Mortgage Information & Real Estate | 1 Comment »

Rates: Going Up? Going Down?

March 20th 2010

The mortgage industry has had a great run of rates on 30 year fixed loans in the 5% range for a long time. This is partly due to the Fed buying up mortgage bonds to (what some would say “artificially”) keep mortgage rates low. Rates are tied, somewhat directly, to Mortgage Backed Securities. These bonds are bought and sold just like stocks. The ups and downs of rates are normally tied to the buying and selling of these bonds by the private marketplace. Continue Reading »

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CHFA Refresher

March 17th 2010

At this time when the tax credit is going to be gone soon it is important that you be aware of how CHFA works. CHFA is a Colorado program that helps first time buyers with little down payment get into homes. The program uses an FHA loan that is run through CHFA for the first mortgage and then CHFA provides a small second loan for the down payment assistance. The buyer has to contribute a minimum of $1,000 to the transaction and take a free first time buyers class, which is available online. Continue Reading »

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FHA to lower seller consessions

March 14th 2010

FHA is planning on implementing a policy that is designed to lower their risk. They will be lowering the amount that sellers are allowed to contribute to a buyers closing costs from 6% to 3%. They have studied defaulted loans and, by a large margin, when the seller concessions are up around 6%, the default rates are higher. This may be a good thing for risk but there is something that buyers of lower end properties need to be aware of. Continue Reading »

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FHA Up Front Mortgage Insurance going up…going down?

March 12th 2010

OK, so you may have heard that the FHA up front mortgage insurance premium (UFMIP) is raised from 1.75% to 2.25%. This is true as of April 5th. BUT, we just heard from our FHA source is Washington that FHA is actually going to consider changing that up again real soon. Now they are considering a drop in the UFMIP to 1% but then raising the Annual (read monthly) MIP to .98%. It is currently at .55%. FHA’s congressionally mandated reserves are lower then congress has mandated so they are trying to find ways of raising some funds to get those reserves back in place. I will keep you posted once we hear more. It’s an interesting time in the mortgage business.

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