Georgia Mortgage FHA

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With the number of short sales, properties being sold for much less than payoff, the question becomes more and more popular and, unfortunately, more and more necessary.

“How long after a short sale can we qualify again?” It is a question often asked and until now the answer, with the exception of lender enhancements to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines, has been much unchanged.

With the release of FNMA’s DU 8.1 comes some huge game changers.

“DU will be updated to incorporate the policy changes specified in Announcement SEL-2010-05, Underwriting Borrowers with a Prior Preforeclosure Sale or Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure, regarding prior deed-in-lieu of foreclosure actions. If a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure is reported within two years of the credit report date, the loan casefile will receive a Refer with Caution/IV recommendation.”

Translated into common language that means regardless of the amount of down-payment, debt-to-income ratio or credit scores the loan application will not receive the all cherished “Approve/Eligible” from the Fannie Mae automated Desktop Underwriter. Instead these files will all be subjected to manual underwriting and will result in longer underwriting times and closer examination. Read the rest of this entry »

Community Outreach Leader and Licensed Loan Officer NMLS ID 208452 - office address 2300 Windy Ridge, Atlanta GA, 30339

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452

Making it more obvious every time regulatory changes are made at high level that those who make the changes are more in favor of big banking than the individual HUD and the GSEs have struck again. Beginning in January you will have a new Good Faith form and HUD settlement statement. The objective is to make it easier for the customer to comprehend and shop for mortgages. The result is it is easier to find the numbers but no easier to shop for mortgages. Read the rest of this entry »

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452

Just when you thought the changes were slowing here come some of the most sweeping changes in the mortgage industry in decades. Brokers are all but gone – down to numbers less than 20% of less than two years ago. In Georgia alone the number of licensed mortgage brokers has dropped from 8700 to only 1800 in less than 24 months. Brokers may very well soon be all but dinosaurs.

Get ready for the opportunity to participate, and present, to hundreds of real estate and mortgage people across the nation about how to beat the changes and still provide services for your clients. Bankers, lenders, real estate agents, appraisers, and others will be invited to join.

Stay tuned! Ken Cook 678-439-8683

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452

What is the purpose of this program?

To provide mortgage insurance for a person to purchase or refinance a principal residence. The mortgage loan is funded by a lending institution, such as a mortgage company, bank, savings and loan association and the mortgage is insured by HUD.

What are the eligibility requirements?

• The borrower must meet standard FHA credit qualifications.
• The borrower is eligible for 96.5% financing. The borrower is able to finance the upfront mortgage insurance premium into the mortgage. The borrower will also be responsible for paying an annual premium.
• Eligible properties are one-to-four unit structures.
• To learn more about the mortgage limits in your area, go?here

For More Information

Call Ken Cook at 678-439-8683 I am a Senior Mortgage Lender with AmericaHomeKey in Marietta, Georgia residential mortgage licensee 23191.

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452

Earlier in 2009 HUD put a nail in the coffin of one of the only stimulas packages that had ever been successful without spending your tax dollars and that was Down Payment Assistance offered by companies like Nehemiah. The way it was worded was to say that homes purchased using independent, not-for-profit down payment assistance on FHA home loans, in Georgia and around the nation, somehow magically had a higher foreclosure rate than homes purchased using taxpayer funded down payment assistance. It was not true but I digress. Read the rest of this entry »

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452

The Georgia Dream down payment assistance plan has been extended to higher loan amounts and higher income amounts in the Fall and Winter of 2009. Call me on my cell phone for specific examples of the augmentation to this program – that’s 678-439-8683.

Here is some information directly from Georgia DCA about the Georgia Dream Down Payment Assistance Plan.

Higher Income Limits!
Higher Purchase Price Limits!
No First Time Home-buyer Requirement!

In the 21 counties designated as Federal Disaster Areas.

The 21 Georgia counties are:

Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee,
Cobb,Crawford, Dawson, DeKalb, Dooly, Douglas, Fulton, Gwinnett, Heard, Houston, Newton, Paulding, Peach, Rockdale, Stephens, Taylor and Walker.

For a limited time ANY HOME BUYER in these counties may qualify for Georgia Dream products with the following special guidelines:

You DO NOT have to be a First Time Home Buyer (For a Georiga Dream? First Mortgage Loan combined with NSP or “PLUS” down payment assistance)

Higher purchase price limits
Catoosa, Chattooga, Crawford, Dooly, Houston, Peach, Stephens, Taylor and Walker – $250,000

Carroll, Cherokee, Cobb, Dawson, Dekalb, Douglas, Fulton, Gwinnett, Heard, Newton, Paulding and Rockdale – $300,000

Higher Household Income limits
Catoosa, Chattooga, Crawford, Dooly, Houston, Peach, Stephens, Taylor and Walker
1 or 2 persons $73,000
3 or more persons $85,000

Carroll, Cherokee, Cobb, Dawson, Dekalb, Douglas, Fulton, Gwinnett, Heard, Newton, Paulding and Rockdale

1 or 2 persons $86,000
3 or more persons $100,000

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452

Before I get too deep into this post let me say that I respect what real estate agents do. I know and understand what they do because I have a very close relationship to a brokerage run by my sister and owned by my wife. Also let me add that I believe applicants should be required to have something to lose if their loan application contains misrepresentations or if they change status of job, income or credit during the loan process.
Read the rest of this entry »

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452

Back in 2001 we changed directions. Originally we had been known as “Home of the American Dream“. We enjoyed our reign as champion of purchases for homebuyers who could not find an affordable loan for which they could qualify. Following the challenge by President Bush to put 10,000,000 new families in homes by the end of the decade through providing lower closing cost, lower interest rate loans with down payment assistance our advertisement had our phone rang “off the hook”.

Then came the “Georgia Fair Lending Act” designed to protect the ignorant borrower from the unethical lender. We were forced to end the American Dream program because “the act” (a) limited our number of resources from which we could obtain financing for lower end borrowers because many lenders ceased operating in Georgia and (b) made it impractical to do so much work for such a limited amount of income potential. We never wanted to make more than a bare operating cost on any deal but the GaFLA, as it is called, made it so that if the loan wasn’t at least $125,000 or more you couldn’t make just the bare minimum needed to survive and operate as a business which is now required to pay minimum wage to every employee whether commissioned or not (Fair Wage and Labor? Ha!), provide advertising to the public so the public could hear about our programs and our employees could close more loans, provide health benefits for our employees (VERY pricey), and provide FREE educational opportunities to our clients and prospects.

So we pretty much quit doing what we considered our mission work. We do not advertise this service any longer and have not for nearly 4 years. If you are “poor” (less than $50,000 annual household income) and you want to buy a home in Georgia for under about $125,000 – you can still call us but we will not be as anxious and pleased to help you as we would have in 2002. Your past governer, a litigating finance attorney by the name of Roy Barnes (http://www.barneslawgroup.com/) and a college history professor by the name of Vincent Fort , have made you an undesirable. Where we were once very happy and anxious to help you we no longer are able to freely do so because of something called the Georgia Fair Lending Act. Why did Roy Barnes want the act? I just told you – he is a litigating finance attorney.

It is not that we wish to charge excessively for our services to those in dire need. In fact, quite the contrary. In a time when some banks and lenders were charging 2 and 3 percent origination fees and making 5 to 10 percent yield spread or service release premiums we were charging maybe 1 origination point and making 1.5 in YSP. On an $80,000 loan that translates into 1,600 to 2,000 total for doing MORE work than we would on many $500,000 loans where the borrower has perfect credit, detailed book-keeping records and plenty of assets and income where we may make $5000 or more for more liability but less work.

We in the lending industry are painfully aware that the general population is clueless about the hours of stressful effort we burn and the amount of liability we carry to get every loan to closing. That does not, however, provide an excuse not to try and comprehend that it takes more effort to “do a loan” for someone who has poor credit, no bookkeeping or record keeping skills, patchy employment, bad payment history, etc. It is harder and more exhaustive of resources to fund little loans for risky borrowers than big loans for stable borrowers.

So, in the end, instead of government regulations helping “the little guys” what happens is the little guys just no longer get to play. Virtually every time “the government” gets involved in business you can bet the effect is going to be a net negative. So if your state is thinking of instituting a “fair” lending act you had better fight it tooth and nail.

Additionally it may behoove you to note that in North Carolina you can not refinance your home just because you want to or just because you need some cash out. Nope. You have to please the state before you can refinance your property. YOUR property. YOUR loan. YOUR wealth or asset management plan. You must have the North Carolina Government’s “stamp of approval”. Perhaps the most liberal (instead of providing you with the most conservative to prove my point) report which still proves the point by raw data, not necessarily commentary, is located at http://www.fanniemaefoundation.org/programs/hpd/pdf/hpd_1503_Quercia.pdf

“Those hundreds of honest brokers are precisely why it

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452