1% Origination Fee and 1% Point: Know the Difference

There are several types of closing costs involved when financing or refinancing a home. Some are lender fees while still more are non-lender fees. We’re talking about processing fees, document preparation, title insurance and others. Yet two of these fees alone are expressed as a percentage of the loan amount. Those fees are a 1% […]

Loan Processing: What Does it Really Mean?

Getting a home loan is indeed a process and a simple application will go through various stages before it finally funds. In the early stages, even before you’ve submitted your application, you speak primarily with your loan officer. Your loan officer will provide various loan options based upon your current situation and your goals. Your […]

How to Dispute a Property Appraisal (Let Your Loan Officer Help)

You’ve finally decided to move forward and refinance your existing mortgage and at the same time pull out some extra cash to make a couple of home improvements and take some time off for a well-deserved vacation. You speak with your loan officer to get an update on rates and monthly payments and to confirm […]

Why Wholesale Lending is So Important

If you’re not familiar with the term “wholesale lending” in the mortgage industry, you’re not alone. If you have heard the term, it’s easy to misinterpret its meaning. “Wholesale” might imply universal or overall but that’s not the definition. Wholesale lending plays a crucial part in the mortgage business and I’ll explain why. What is […]

How Private Lending Works

Private lending is a necessary and legitimate function in the world of real estate. Without it, many successful projects would have never gotten off the ground. Unfortunately, not too many consumers are aware of private funds with the result being too many opportunities being left behind. In this article, I’ll explain how private lending works, […]

What’s a Two-Step Mortgage?

Here’s another loan program you might not have heard of before but could be an attractive option for you. It’s referred to by lenders as a “two-step” mortgage. It’s so called because the interest rate on the mortgage changes once at a predetermined point in the future. There’s the initial rate, or the first step, […]

Minimum Credit Standards for FHA Loans

The Federal Housing Administration’s housing finance programs, most commonly referred to as FHA home loans, provides lenders guidance regarding how to evaluate and approve an FHA loan application. FHA loans are one of three government-backed programs that carry some degree of lender compensation should a guaranteed loan ever go into default. With FHA programs, the […]

How to Finance an Out-of-State Property

The time-tested mantra of “real estate is local” simply means that while homes are bought and sold every day, one market may be seeing higher valuations while in other areas, home values might be doing the opposite, for the very same type of properties. A four-bedroom 2 ½ bath in one neighborhood might be going […]

Credit Scores: Know The Best Things That Can Happen

Credit scores for mortgage loan approvals were first introduced years ago, then refined by a company now know simply as The FICO Company. FICO is the acronym for the Fair, Isaac Corporation which developed the algorithm used by credit scoring engines today. For those who are constantly in the mode of increasing their scores to […]

Why Do Lenders Sell Loans?

It can be somewhat surprising, especially for those who have just purchased their very first home, to discover the mortgage they recently got has been sold by their lender to someone else. The mortgage industry refers to this as a “goodbye letter” which, required by regulation, informs the borrowers their loan was sold and when […]