The World of Mortgage Blog - According to Kimberly and Cathy

New FHA Loan Limits & Realtor $1000 Bonus on Freddie Mac Prop

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our team is working this holiday so call on the 24 hour access line 206.774.7594 if you need help.

Couple of items to share:

• Freddie Mac is offering a realtor bonus of $1000 for any home sold where Freddie Mac is the seller.  This is for sales between Nov 15 and March 15, 2012.
• FHA/HUD is in the process of raising their loan limits above the $506,000 current balance.  For the King/Snohomish areas it’s likely to be raised back to the $567,500 limit.  Once this has finalized, we’ll send you written confirmation of the actual loan limits.

Solutions for Recent "Tightening" in Conventional Loan Underwriting Systems

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.  Our entire team appreciates the opportunity we have each day to support you in helping people with their home purchases.   

Quick update on a trend we’re seeing… (and some options to keeping the transaction together)

Within the last month Fannie Mae’s underwriting system (DU) has tightened up on their underwriting guidelines.  This is affecting conventional loans with 5% - 10% down payment with high debt-to-income (DTI) ratios.  While you guys aren’t the lender and don’t necessarily know the nitty-gritty details of the loan, you may want to know some of the ‘fixes’ to this issue so if your transaction is affected you can keep things rolling forward.

 Switch to FHA – Rates are a slight bit lower, they allow higher DTIs and the loan has a provision for  ‘assumability’ for the future buyer (a nice bonus in a rising rate environment)

1. Change-up from your standard mortgage insurance options.  Evergreen has partnered with a couple of PMI companies that have some really creative mortgage insurance options that can lower a borrowers overall monthly mortgage payment.  This gets them back in the game!

 

Let us know if there is something we can help you with.  We’re a creative bunch…!

 

Speaking of which…we added our first two “Mortgage Minute” videos to our blog yesterday.  They are about “Should you Pay Points to Buy down your rate?” and “Three ways to Lower your Closing Costs”. 

Reducing Closing Costs Options

Seattle Mortgage Minute: 

Here are some tips to help you reduce your buyer closing costs:  Check out this video:   

How to Reduce Your Buyer Closing Costs Options:

Ask the seller to participate in paying a portion of your loan fees.  Gift funds from a blood relative are always allowed and lastly, don't forget to check out State Bond Down Payment Funds.

 

Should you pay points to lower interest rate?

Seattle Mortgage Minute.  Are you refinancing or purchasing a home and wondered if it makes sense to pay extra fees to lower the interest rate?  Check out our one minute video on "Should you pay points to lower interest rate?"