Veterans get a Tax Credit Extension, what about the rest of us??

On October 11, 2009 the Congress agreed to extend the $8000 Tax Credit for First Time Homebuyers for any Veteran who served at least 3 months of “Qualified Overseas Duty” in 2009 for another 12 months!

FHA 203K Loans in NC

FHA 203K loans are perfect for those of us who fall in love with a great house that has this Gosh Awful Shag Carpet!  This carpet would give you a headache!  How can you buy the house if you don’t have an extra $5000 to update that 1970’s carpet, green countertops, and linoleum?  If the property is [...]

FHA PMI update

This is an update to an earlier post reagarding FHA’s version of Mortgage Insurance (which is sometimes referred to as PMI).
As we mentioned, FHA mortgages have a one-time mortgage insurance premium, known as upfront mortgage insurance. The cost of this insurance has bounced around alot this year – and is NOW 1.75% of the loan.
This [...]

Special FHA Loan to Purchase Foreclosed Property

FHA has an “old” program that’s being used in a “new” way!
The FHA 203K program is designed to help folks purchase homes that need a few repairs… and frankly, many properties that are purchased after a foreclosure, are perfect for this program.
Folks who lose their home in foreclosure generally did not have extra money to [...]

Fannie Freddie Change and FHA/VA Loans

The Paulson announced takeover of Government Sponsored Mortgage Giants Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FHLMC) created a welcome stability and confidence in both the mortgage market and the money markets as a whole.   The key need was for foreign governments and hedge funds to begin purchasing mortgages again – something that had all but stopped in recent [...]

Documents You Need 4 A Loan

A customer who is quickly becoming a friend of mine asked me recently what she needed to gather for a loan application – she’s moving to a new area (the company is relocating them) and before she packed everything up and moved into corporate housing (“Hey,” she said, “Maid Service and it’s free! Are you kidding? I’m taking every day we get in Corporate Housing!”)! Here’s my advice to her:

FHA Compensating Factors

FHA (and all government underwriting for that matter) is somewhat different from other, more automated systems of loan approval. On an FHA loan you can actually have a real person look at the loan and apply the golden rule – not just a bunch of meaningless stipulations. This is often the difference in making the dream of homeownership a reality… because not everybody has a perfect credit history, with a 20 year job, and 2.3 kids!

New HUD Secretary Named

President Bush announced the new Secretary of HUD yesterday as Mr. Jackson left office.  Former SBA Administrator Steve Preston will be the new “general” with MUCH to be done!
According to Kansas City.com…
If confirmed by the Senate, Preston would replace Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, who announced his resignation last month amid a criminal [...]

How To Shop For An FHA Loan

Ask your lender how long they have been doing FHA loans. Many broker shops stopped offering FHA loans during the “subprime” days because it was more expensive to be certified to do them! (An annual audit can cost over $10,000!) Don’t be a TEST case for the lender! (that’s literally a term used by FHA – they make “new” lenders submit cases directly to FHA for review. This will add a minimum of 30 days to your approval!)

HUD Secretary Resigns

As has been reported by many – Alphonso Jackson resigned as Secretary of HUD today.  The question at hand is not what he did – and if he was a GREAT HUD Secretary (because in my humble opinion he was NOT a great Secretary – no matter what pictures he put up about himself!) but [...]

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