Great News! The Military Exchange has expanded to allow more Veterans to take advantage of the benefits. As a Military Home Loan Specialist I help Veterans and their families with the loans for their homes. We help with both refinancing, streamline, and purchase loans. Because of that, I’m always on the lookout for cool new benefits for our amazing Veterans. If you, or a family member, served in the Military you’re probably familiar with something call the Military Exchange (BX / PX AAFES). These are places where you can buy products tax free, and often at a discount. However to take advantage you had to be Active-duty, retired personnel, National Guard members, Medal of Honor recipients, honorably discharged veterans who have been rated as 100 percent disabled, or authorized family members and any military member of foreign nations. Here’s the good news! Starting on Nov 11th 2017 all honorably discharged veterans can now apply to use the Online Military Exchanges. Also cool? They ship for free! Here’s what you need to do – goto VetVerify.org to register and let the savings begin! They’re going to ask you for some personal info in order to verify your service. So if you’re not comfortable with that, you may want to do a little more research on this first. If your records are older, it’s possible the automated registration won’t work. In that case there
Scariest Situations for Home Buyers & Sellers – Part 4 So, where are we? We have an accepted offer, the home inspection went well, we successfully negotiated a Request for Repairs, the appraisal supported the purchase price, the buyer has removed all contingencies and now it is an unconditional offer. The finish line is in sight. But, there are still a few more “scary” steps ahead of you. For one, the lender needs to get the final loan documents to the escrow company so the buyer can meet with a Notary to sign everything. Now that part can be a little intimidating and nerve-racking for a buyer. That is why it is very important for the loan officer to review the Estimated Settlement Statement or Loan Estimate with the buyer(s) BEFORE they sit down with the Notary. This ensures a less-stressful, and less-scary, loan signing. Next is for the buyers to conduct the Final Walkthrough of the home, contractually this is to be done 5 days before the close of escrow. This is important to confirm that the home is in relatively the same condition as when the offer was accepted and no damage was done when the seller moved out. Now the seller is also supposed to remove all personal items from the home, but often some things are left behind, like yard products (fertilizers, bug sprays, etc.) And while the seller is required
Learn How to be a Millionaire! The Millennial Millionaire Maker Please contact me at: Craig@GreenMeansGrow.com Cell: 619-857-
The Skinny on Pre Qualification Getting pre-qualified is the initial step in the mortgage process, and it’s generally fairly simple. You supply a bank or lender with your overall financial picture, including your debt, income and assets. After evaluating this information, a lender can give you an idea of the mortgage amount for which you qualify. Pre-qualification can be done over the phone or on the internet, and there is usually no cost involved. Loan pre-qualification does not include an analysis of your credit report or an in-depth look at your ability to purchase a home. The Skinny on Pre Approval Getting pre-approved is the next step, and it tends to be much more involved. You’ll complete an official mortgage application, then supply the lender with the necessary documentation to perform an extensive check on your financial background and current credit rating. (Typically at this stage, you will not have found a house yet, so any reference to “property” on the application will be left blank). From this, the lender can tell you the specific mortgage amount for which you are approved. You’ll also have a better idea of the interest rate you will be charged on the loan. With pre-approval, you will receive a conditional commitment in writing for an exact loan amount, allowing you to look for a home at or below that price level. Obviously, this puts you at an advantage when dealing with a
Much time has passed, and many people don’t really know how the whole Subprime Mortgage Meltdown happened. People who have seen the recent movie, “The Big Short” have a much better idea, but for those who have not, take a look at this quick video and you will have a better understanding of just what happened. It is pretty funny, but has a few “bad” words in the text near the end, so for the easily offended…harden yourselves! Trust me, you will come out enlightened…..or something else. Cheers, Craig Sutliff Mortgage & Real Estate Consultant The GreenHouse Group. Cell: 619-857-4954 Email: Craig@GreenMeansGrow.com
Brexit for Breakfast, yum! So what does England withdrawing from the European Union mean for the mortgage and real estate market? Well, as I’m sure you’re already aware, we have had a massive sell-off in the stock market. The money that used to be invested in stocks, is now running to the safety of bonds. With the increased demand for bonds the price of bonds increases which, consequently, pushes the interest rate, or yield, of those bonds down. In turn, this translates into lower mortgage interest rates. So if you are buying a home or refinancing your current mortgage right now, your timing could be no better. Lower interest rates means lower payments and increased savings, something everyone loves! Additionally on the real estate side, these lower interest rates will increase your purchasing power and will allow you afford a higher-priced home without an increase in your monthly payment! The old adage that it only makes sense to refinance if you drop your interest rate by 1% made sense in the “old” days when most mortgage loans were around $100,000. But, most people have mortgage loans ranging from $300,000 to $600,000 and even .500% drop in interest rates could save you tens of thousands of dollars. So, for a free mortgage loan consultation to see if refinancing might make sense for you, or how much more purchasing power a lower rate will provide you, give me a call or shoot me an
VA Loans – What Most Realtors Don’t Know are the tricks we get to use with VA loans. The loan environment is constantly changing. Because of that, sometimes Lenders don’t know the newest Real Estate stuff, and RE Agents aren’t up to date with loan stuff. So it’s not surprising that I sometimes hear agents being worried that VA loans are somehow a disadvantage in the buying process. I have 5 reason that a VA loan is superior to nearly every other loan out there. But I’ll just highlight one of my favorites here. LTV Flexibility What the heck does that mean? Well, when an appraisal is made on a property, the lower of the appraised value and the sales price becomes the 100% value mark for the lender. For example, if the purchase price is 400k, but the appraisal only comes in at 375k – what happens? 4 things can happen 1- The seller sells it for 375k 2- The buyer buys it for 400k 3- They split the difference – $387,500 4- Everyone walks away For #s 2 & 3 – there is a loan implication. With a regular loan, if you planned n coming in with 10% down, then your loan amount was originally $360k. But now your max lona amount with 10% down (based on $375k) is $337,500. The buyer needs to bring in the rest
I find that a lot of what I do in my initial consultation with a new client is correct things that they’ve “heard from a friend” or read online. Sometimes this is more of an issue of the changing lending environment than it is the source being wrong. But what I find more concerning is that even Real Estate Agents and other Financial Professionals get this stuff wrong too. This is especially true when it comes to VA products and uses. There are some major Misunderstandings about VA Loans out there. These misunderstandings can mean that you or someone you care about could be leaving hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the table. For example, did you know that: *You can refinance out of a conventional loan into a VA loan, to save a ton of $ *VA loans can go well above the other loan limits – into and above 1 Million dollars *VA loans are no harder or slower to get than any other loan These are just a few of the misunderstandings I come across every week. Folks tell me that just what I know about VA loans has saved them thousands of dollars. So, if you’d like to learn more about some creative tricks for using VA loans to your advantage click here to send me an email. Or you can click my name below to
No Appraisal On A Refi?! No Problem There are a couple great loan programs out there that allow you to pursue a refinance without some of the traditional caveats that normally accompany a home loan. For example, these loans can be done with no income verification, and no appraisal on the home. What’s the catch you say? Well you already have to be in a specific type of loan to qualify for one of these refinances. The good news is, these loans are very prominent. So, if your in the market for a refinance, and are wondering if you qualify for a no appraisal no income documentation loan, reach out and drop me a line at Scott@GreenMeansGow.com
Borrowers who have steady income and good credit, but not much money in the bank, will find that it recently became easier to buy a home. By Mark Fahey @CNNMoney Down payment requirements, which rose after the subprime mortgage crisis, are easing again as lenders and mortgage backers try to draw in new buyers. “It’s one of the things that’s inhibiting first-time homebuyers,” said Rob Chrane, president of Down Payment Resource. “There are a lot more people who can qualify for a home that don’t realize that they can.” FHA cuts insurance costs The Federal Housing Administration has long backed loans for borrowers with lower credit scores and with down payments as low as 3.5%, but until this year it also required hefty insurance payments. FHA monthly insurance premiums dropped dramatically at the beginning of 2015. The change, from 1.35% to only 0.85%, will make FHA loans a better choice for some borrowers after years of prohibitively high premiums, said Anthony Hsieh, chief executive officer of loanDepot, one of the largest FHA lenders in the country. “We’re starting to get back to what’s reasonable,” said Hsieh. “The crisis has shaken the market so much that there is no doubt there was an overreaction.” Fannie and Freddie Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee more than half the country’s mortgages. At the end of 2014, the two government-backed companies announced plans to
The GreenHouse Group INC is a full service Real Estate & Mortgage Planning Firm located @ 3111 Camino Del Rio North, Suite 400, San Diego, CA 92108. We'd love for you to drop by and say "hello" to us here at our beautiful offices in Mission Valley. Or, if you'd prefer to drop us a line you can call us anytime @ (858) 863-0261. We look forward to meeting you!
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