Well for those few who read this, It has been some time since I last addressed the world. I am busy with teaching a class at the University of Utah where I have been an adjunct faculty member for the better part of 23 years. Wow! How the world of mortgage finance has changed in that time.

I am sending this out to remind you that this is a great time to buy a home. home prices are down and interest rates are very low. Today you could lock a 35 day lock at 4.5% on a 30 year fixed and a 5 year Interest only ARM at 3.875% Those are great rates and make for lower payments that would help a person qualify for a larger loan on the same income or to qualify with less income. What a great time to be in the market, particularly if you do not have to sell a home to buy. It is a great time for parents to help their children get into a home by helping with the down payment or closing costs.

We are now doing some loan modifications. If you or someone you love is having a hard time meeting their home loan obligations, even if they are still current on their payments, we can help. To obtain a loan modification, it is better if FNMA owns your loan. You can go to a FNMA site and find out if they own your loan. If they own it, the modification process is facilitated through the FNMA home affordable program. What is required is pretty much all the documentation of income, debts, assets, and credit scores that would be included in a new loan. They do require tax returns even for the not self employed. The key to successfully modifying your home loan is to have endured a hardship in the recent past. Some thing like lost job, under employment, unexpected demands on your resources or what ever is causing you to feel in danger of not being able to cope with your current home loan or loans. Our expertise is to help you describe your hardship, we do not create or manufacture hardships.

It is not guaranteed that the lender will accept your story even if it is well documented, however, if they do, they will lower your terms of the loan to what you can reasonably afford based on your current income and debt situation. Our fee is not too heavy and a portion of it is refundable in the event we are not successful. Our pricing is less than the folks that advertise on the radio since we do not have to build that expense into our price. That also means that we need word of mouth, person to person, referrals from you, my friends and contacts to generate business. So we are good at it, less expensive than our competitors, have a guarantee, and need your help to locate clients.

Back to the topic of new loans, this is good time to refinance as well. If you have a rate over 5.5% or an ARM or a second mortgage with a variable rate, you should consider consolidating your loans into your home loan to lower your rate and payment. While rates are generally very low, your specific rate depends on a number of factors. First factor is your credit score. if youa re in the 740 or above range, you qualify for the best rate. If your score is lower, your rate will be higher depending on how much lower it is. The next item is property type. The best rates are for owner occupied single family detached homes. Other types of housing carry some premium to the rate. The next factop is the loan to value ratio, that is the loan size divided by the appraised value. The lower the loan to value ratio, the better the rate and the higher the loan to value ratio the less attractive the rate. Finally, the purpose of the loan has an impact on the rate. If you are seeking more than your first mortgage balance plus closing costs it is called a "cash-out" refinance and depending on the loan to value and your credit score, the rate may be higher. Any second mortgage or HELOC that was not part of the original purchase financing is considered "cash out" and will put you into this category. None the less, depending on the current rate and terms of your existing debt, it may still be a net benefit for you to refinance.

Since the loan to value is such an important factor, the appraisal that determines the Loan to value is critical to the deal. On most purchase transactions, the appraisal is not an issue. However, on a refinance, the appraisal can be a huge issue. I have had a number of clients who have asked for a refinance only to discover that the appraised value is too low to make it work. We do our best to try ti find out what the value is before we order an appraisal since you have to pay up-front for it and if it kills the deal you own an apprasial.

There is hope for those who's loan is owned by FNMA. They have a program they call REFI plus which is designed to allow you to refi your loan in a falling market as long as the loan to value is less than 105%. They will also not require mortgage insurance on the new loan even if it is above 80% loan to value, if you can show that the original loan did not have mortgage insurance. So you can go to the FNMA site http://loanlookup.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/ to see if FNMA owns your loan. BE certian to have the address the same as the address on your mortgage billing statement. If they own your home loan, you may qualify for the REFI plus or for a Home Affordable loan modification. You can copy this email address to your browser and determine if FNMA owns your loan in 2 minutes.

WE hope that you do not miss out on these great programs for purchase, refinance, or loan modification simply becasue you are not aware of them. That is the purpose of this Blog, to enlighten and educate you to things that you want to know.

Thanks for being a reader, pass this site along to anyone who would be interested in this type of information.