Lenders review a loan applicant's Fair Isaac & Co. (FICO) credit score when determining eligibility for certain mortgage products. These scores range from 300 to 850.
Borrowers with scores above...
The Pay Option ARM's (Adjustable Rate Mortgages) have become very popular because they allow borrowers to obtain the largest loan amounts with the lowest minimum monthly payments.
"Pay Option"...
Homeowners who want to refinance typically choose loans with the lowest interest rate. New home buyers are mostly interested in low monthly payments. To investors with rental properties, "positive...
Many consumers have only marginal knowledge about today's mortgage products, procedures and underwriting guidelines. Some borrowers just want to sign loan documents and be done with it, but no loan...
Mortgages with the lowest rates and best terms usually require the borrowers to fully document their income with pay-stubs and/or tax returns. But what happens when you are self-employed, a real estate...
In past articles, we have discussed concerns raised by the government in connection with some aggressive loan products developed by the mortgage industry.
The concern is that these mortgages may be...
When a borrower obtains a new mortgage, the signing of the loan documents usually takes place in one of three locations: The office of the lender; at the home of the borrower; or, most commonly, at...
A very common technique used today to protect real estate assets is to put them into family trusts. An issue arises, however, when a borrower wants to either purchase a property in the name of a trust...
When borrowers sign their loan documents and review the costs associated with their new mortgage, two items routinely cause confusion - pre-paid interest (purchases and refinances) and accrued interest...
Seller carryback financing; loans from parents, relatives, or friends; and loans from private investors are all called "private" mortgages when real estate is used as the collateral.
In California,...
There is a lot of activity in this area for families that want to build and finance their dream home. For many, this is a once in a lifetime experience and is very exciting.
Building your custom home...
For many years the FICO credit scoring system has been the one used for mortgage loans. FICO is an acronym for Minneapolis-based Fair Isaac Corp., the developer of the program. Numerous articles have...
As the value of luxury homes has skyrocketed over the last several years, the size of jumbo mortgage loans has also increased dramatically. Many lenders now make loans between $2 million and $3 million....
Frequently, clients will see an ad in the paper for a loan program from a lender and be enticed by the low interest rate. However, when they call the lender they are quoted a much higher price. The...
One of the biggest misconceptions among loan applicants is that paying bills on time is all that matters. The FICO credit scoring system was designed to predict the probability that someone will default...
