The best advice I can give is to own your credit report. And, make sure it’s accurate before it gets pulled by a lender. There are several websites available to help you check your credit. For example, Equifax.com allows you to see your report. You don’t get to see your credit score, but you can make sure the report is accurate. If you see any errors, talk with your home loan officer to get them fixed before buying a house.
And, remember that any changes or corrections you make to your credit report need to take place well before buying a house. You should not make any changes up to 60 days before buying because you can actually do more harm than good at this point. But, if you correct errors in advance, it can really help when it comes time to…
What credit score do you need to buy a home? The credit score you need largely depends on which home loan you choose. For example, with FHA loans, no credit score is even required.
There is a magic myth that rates change everyday. Actually the only thing that changes is what it costs to get that rate you want. This cost is called discount points, and sometimes it is referred to just as “points.” When a lender reviews applications and assigns a rate for a loan, he or she has to take into account what the buyer’s FICO score is.
As of December 17, 2007, Fannie Mae (which is the bulk of loans written) introduced new changes to how that’s done. If your FICO score is less than 620, it’s going to cost 2 discount points (or 2% of your loan)…
There has been a lot of talk recently that the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates. This is not for mortgage rates, though – it’s for short term lending rates. In our business of home mortgages, it affects home equity lines of credit. Typically when the Federal Reserve cuts the rate, mortgage rates actually go up. Not by much, but they do go up. The last time the Fed met, we saw that mortgage rates went down, which is not what usually happens. The only way to explain this is that there is nothing traditional about this economy.
So, why does this matter? When the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates, people with short-term loans (credit cards, car notes, etc.) get better rates than previously. These people spend less for their short-term loans,…
Since many of our buyers want to live on a golf course in Charleston, we’ve put together a list of options for buying golf real estate in the area. We’ve included the general areas and (where appropriate) the specific Charleston communities that have a golf course.
Town of Mt. Pleasant
A lot of buyers hear that you can’t get 100% financing anymore. However, it is still possible to get 100% financing, which in short means no down payment. There are three options available to buyers for 100% financing:
1) FHA loans (one of the more popular types of loans)
2) My community (a specific Fannie Mae product)
3) Du Flex (a Traditional Fannie Mae loan)
I still do 100% financing loans on a very regular basis, and these are the main 3 options I can use. Not everyone can get approved for 100% financing. But, with it being such a good time to buy right now, these options are definitely worth considering!
Want to see if you qualify for 100% financing? Call Leah Odom with Carolina One Mortgage! You can call her cell phone at (843)…
“Indeed, as we go forward, there seems to be a lot of room for consensus and common ground for minimizing the impact of the correction on homeowners, communities, and the economy.
The notion seems pretty fundamental in this country that a prosperous, sustainable society is built on stable communities where the right to own property gives citizens a stake in the place where they live. And so it is in our shared interest to work to stabilize the communities where that stake is in jeopardy. If families have the means to own a home, it should be possible to help them stay there. If not, we should be able to find rental housing. In most cases, we should focus on affording consumers the time and flexibility to work through this crisis.
Moreover, on…
“So, looking back, we know what led up to the housing correction – risky lending chasing rising home prices fueling more risky lending – until the bubble burst. Looking at the situation now, there are some short-term remedies to minimize the pain as the correction plays out. Looking ahead, there are some longer-term remedies that would help protect borrowers and sustain a healthy demand for homes.
But stepping back from the particular problems and solutions, what are the greater lessons we can learn from this experience, to ensure – as best we can – it never happens again?
Lessons tend to get better and clearer over time, but already, at least four seem clear.
Lesson one: When they say the old rules don’t apply, apply the old
“Long-term, I believe the focus should be two-fold. First, we need to make balanced reforms to the lending system. Second, we need to restore the fundamental healthy demand for housing, based on people who want and can afford to buy a home…
There are five key areas that are ripe for reform:
First, mortgage brokers should be licensed. A House-passed bill, supported by the brokers themselves, would create a national registry of loan originators regardless of where they work in the industry. It also establishes strict national standards for loan originators that include criminal background checks, fingerprinting, continuing education and testing.
Second, predatory lending laws should be strengthened. Clearly we need to tighten
“Let me sketch some immediate actions that I believe would make the slowdown shorter and shallower…
Here are five short-term remedies:
First, the Treasury Hope Now initiative is an important step. By helping a set of subprime borrowers to freeze their payments at the initial ARM rates, we can avoid creating a whole new class of distressed borrowers.
Second, lenders and policymakers should pursue the most generous means possible to refinance ARM borrowers facing resets into long term, fixed-rate mortgages. This will require innovative high quality products that replace the sloppy credit that has been – appropriately – withdrawn from the market. There is now, for example, a 40-year mortgage designed to keep payments lower but
“Let me review briefly how we got here.
As the decade started, incomes were rising and interest rates were low and stable. Demand for homes outpaced supply, driving a sustained boom in home prices. Affordability plummeted.
Nevertheless, first-time homebuyers scrambled to get in, spending more and more of their income to purchase homes. The mortgage market, being efficient and responsive, offered new loan products with features that lowered initial monthly payments – teaser-rates, interest-only, negative amortization, and the like.
These products shifted more risk to consumers. But demand continued to spiral prices upward. Credit underwriters kept underwriting, and all bets were covered by the upward march of home values. Homeowners took…
