Mortgage Information

Moving into a new home may signify a new milestone or a fresh start for many, but this can be a stressful thing to go through, especially if you know little to nothing about home loans and mortgages. Let us help you let off some of the burdens by walking you through some types of home loans and how to get one.    5 Types of Home Loans   Finding the correct type of home loan for you is...

Your First Step Toward Buying a Home When preparing to buy a home, the first thing many homebuyers do is look at the real estate ads in newspapers, magazines, and listings on the internet. Some potential buyers read how-to articles like this one. Before you call on an ad, before you talk to a REALTOR® and before you shop for interest rates, the first thing you should do is start looking at your...

How would you like a mortgage loan where you don't have to make the whole payment if you don't want to? How about a loan with an interest rate about 1% below a thirty-year fixed rate mortgage and pay zero points? Or a loan where you don't have to document your income, savings history, or source of down payment? How would you like a mortgage payment of only 1.95%? You can have all that with the 11th...

In the old days, when someone wanted a home loan, they walked downtown to the neighborhood bank or savings & loan. If the bank had extra funds lying around and considered you a good credit risk, they would lend you the money from their own funds. It doesn’t generally work like that anymore. Most of the money for home loans comes from three major institutions: Fannie Mae (FNMA - Federal...

What is a FICO® Score? FICO® stands for Fair Isaac & Company and is the name for the most well-known credit scoring system used by Experian. The credit bureau’s computer evaluates a complete credit profile and assigns a score, which is used to estimate creditworthiness. Each of the three bureaus (Experian, Trans Union, Equifax) employs its own scoring system, so a given person will usually have 3...

Mortgage Bankers Mortgage Bankers are large enough to originate loans and create pools of loans, which are then sold directly to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, jumbo loan investors others. Any company that does this is considered to be a mortgage banker. Some companies don’t sell directly to those major investors but sell their loans to the mortgage bankers. They often refer to themselves as...

There really is no such thing as a no-cost mortgage loan. There are always costs, such as appraisal fees, escrow fees, title insurance fees, document fees, processing fees, flood certification fees, recording fees, notary fees, tax service fees, wire fees, and so on, depending on whether the loan is a purchase or a refinance. The term “no-cost” actually means that your lender is paying the costs of the...

Have you received an advertisement offering to save you thousands of dollars on your thirty-year mortgage and cut years off your payments? With email spam becoming more pervasive as everyone tries to get rich quick on the Internet, these ads pop up with troublesome regularity. The ads promote a Biweekly Mortgage and, for the most part, do not come from a mortgage lender. Exclamation points punctuate...

What kind of lender is best? If you ask a loan officer, “What kind of lender is best?” the answer will be whatever kind of company he works for, and he will give you a list of reasons why. If you meet the same loan officer years later and work for a different kind of lender, he will give you a list of reasons why that type of lender is better. REALTORS® will also have differing opinions, and those...

An alternative to a non-conforming loan is using a land contract, which is allowed in some states. A land contract is an agreement between a buyer and a seller, where the buyer agrees to make periodic payments to the seller. The property's title only transfers to the land contract buyer on fulfillment of the land contract obligations. A land contract can be helpful for those who need time to establish...