Georgia Mortgage FHA

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LET ME BEGIN BY SAYING: I am on your side. It’s not your fault and I will do everything in my ability and scope of power to help you. But let me also, in this blog posting, be the devil’s advocate and see if anyone who reads this may get a little reality check …

I once heard a preacher say, “You went farther than you wanted to go and you paid more than you wanted to pay.”

Not too many years ago if you did not have a middle credit score (not FICO — MIDDLE) of 620 or higher, a debt-to-income ratio of 43% or lower and at least 10% down payment you had only slim chances of qualifying for a loan to purchase a home. Read the rest of this entry »

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452

(PUBLISHED IN 2006) Okay – here come some “industry secrets”. They really are not secrets at all but the average loan officer, real estate agent and even real estate investor do not know these key things that can sting you. Also keep in mind that these are general rules and guidelines and some or all of these may not exist on every investment opportunity and financing scenario. HOWEVER I can tell you that the vast majority of investors who purchase with no money down will face one or all of these in short order:

(1) You only count 75% of your gross rental income as net income for your next mortgage. So if you receive $1000 in rent each month you can only count $750 as income for the purpose of applying for subsequent loans. Read the rest of this entry »

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452

Part diatribe, part expose and all fact:

Many mortgage brokerages do their own advertising and have their own referral base. My Novation Mortgage has a huge client base and spends heartily for on air, print and web advertising. Our phone rings off the hook. No joke. Our average originator turns roughly 50 applications per month. Of those 50 approximately 25 are new callers who have not yet found a home. Of the 25 who have not yet located a property approximately 10 have not yet engaged the services of a real estate professional.

Now let me tell you a story about a not new agent to whom I sent a referral several months ago. We will call her “Faye”. Faye was so excited and pleased to have this opportunity to work with me and just knew she could find the buyer the exact home they were looking for. Read the rest of this entry »

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452

One of the more frequently asked questions from new investors and real estate agents is, “What is hard money?” The answer is much less mysterious than when and why to use hard money. Hard simply means it is tied to a “hard” asset such as real estate, gold, silver, etc. For our purposes it will be tied to … real estate.

Hard money, since it is tied to real estate and not so much the borrower, is generally loaned at a lower LTV (Loan To Value) than conventional funding but does not place as much weight on the borrower’s strengths. It is not generally true, however, that “just anyone” can get a hard money loan. Read the rest of this entry »

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452

Do not start looking for acronyms 1 through 11 here on ActiveRain just yet. This is acronym #11 from my staff sales meetings in 2006. It just ocurred to me today that a wider audience may also benefit from or add to the power of acronyms and power phrases we use regularly around my office. So please do so! I love hearing from you fellow Rainers.

What makes acronyms so powerful is that, when they are accurate and not just cute, they help you remember a process or a pattern which has led others or yourself to previous success. Power phrases we find are more for getting yourself excited or getting your prospects on board where the acronyms we use are generally for remembering processes. Read the rest of this entry »

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452

It’s in the high 60′s here in north Georgia today. The sun is bright and the sky is blue. Better than that most homes are clean and decorated for the Holidays. What a great sales opportunity it would be today. But the Ice Man Cometh.

My beautiful wife, Myra, is from Alaska. When we first met she was living in Tampa, Florida. Before we married and she knew she would be living in Georgia she asked, “Does it ever get cold there?” Read the rest of this entry »

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452

Often my writings include inverted viewpoints and inverse thinking to prove the positive side of the same issue. Normally motivational speakers and authors present facts from the positive side. In doing so repetitively and with great frequency some readers may have become numb to the power phrases heard regularly. So here is a bit of inverted thinking from the opposite side of sales motivation. While I am a lover of “do’s” I am also guilty of “do not’s”. Read the rest of this entry »

— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. Please to put a penny in the old man’s hat.

Or put another lead in your pipeline. I know I will!

I wish someone had shared this information with me back in the 70′s. Instead, I learned it on my own in the 90′s. Now it’s my gift to you if you don’t already know … Read the rest of this entry »

— admin

It is illegal.

It still happens – sort of.

Oh, I don’t have any actual proof but I do know that there are lenders who ask for the impossible documentation and qualifications on applications for loans in certain zip codes.

In Atlanta it is 30310.

"Red-lining" means the practice by which a financial
      institution may designate certain areas as unsuitable for the making
      of mortgage loans and reject applications for mortgage loans or vary Read the rest of this entry »

— admin

So the offer has been accepted and the closing date is 27 days away. Seems like amptle time, right?

Depends

If you want that file to close on time there are FIVE KEYS to drill into the borrower that will help regardless of the lender. You see without the FIVE KEYS there is no lender who can be guaranteed to close the best loan on time.

The mortgage broker in most cases will take care of ordering title, ordering insurance, ordering the appraisal, and scheduling the closing but there are certain things a buyer or real estate agent can do to expidite and if they do these things, regardless of who’s responsibility it is, the loan can almost be guaranteed to close on time.

1) Get the borrower’s RESPA documents and any other required initial documents back to the lender the day after receiving the package. In today’s climate most packages are sent to the borrower overnight. My company includes an overnight envelope with our UPS label already affixed so there is no excuse. If the borrower has questions they should FIRST review the package with the LOAN OFFICER. Sorry, as good as the real estate agent may be there will be dozens of answers the borrower can get only from their LOAN OFFICER. This does not mean the agent cannot review the loan with the borrower but just like we don’t want loan officers writing offcer letters and buy/sell agreements the agent really does not need to be making changes or comments about the loan documentation. Don’t be offended – there is no way you can possibly know all the answers.

2) Do not put the appraiser off. In fact, if the appraiser has not contacted the borrower within twenty-four hours call the lender and see if you can call the appraiser directly. Most appriasers will call immediately to schedule the appraisal so this generally isn’t an issue but keep in mind it may be.

3) Gather documents the lender may not have asked for even if you applied for a loan which does not require them. If you are with a manual underwriting lender they may come up with some crazy stuff days or hours before closing. Get copies of all of your income and assets documentation. Find your most current statement from all of your credit cards and loans. Keep ready the last two years of income tax documentation and all pages of the last 12 months of your bank account(s). You may not need these but you should always keep them together and ready anyway.

4) If you have had any judgments or collections against you including a divorce or a deceased spouse which may come into play make sure you have all of your legal documentation at hand should the need arise the morning of the closing. Bankruptcy discharges and all the documentation that go along with what was supposed to have been included in the bankruptcy are very crucial.

5) No matter how hungry you are or how long it has been since you sold a home do not drive the loan officer or processor nuts with phone calls. A once a day conversation is all that should be required to get the information you need. If you are working with a lender like Novation Mortgage you’ll probably have a website you can login to for instant updates about the status of the loan.? Everytime a loan officer or processor receives a call and they have to answer a question that means they have to stop working on their current task (which may have been yours and someone else called), get back into the mindset of the loan you are calling about and probably do some research to answer your questions. That means your five minute phone call could cost twenty minutes of work time for the processor or loan officer. Multiply that times about 10 calls per day and that’s how phone calls clog up the system.

Is this a guarantee that your loan will close on time? Hardly. There are title issues, insurance delays, lender workload (especially near the end of the month or the end of the year), appraisal issues, and even attorney issues. The keys are to remove the five possible delays.

Generally the top causes of loans being delayed in closing are:

1) Borrower not being expedient in returning documents
2) Seller slow (HUD especially) in returning executed agreements/addendums
3) Insurance agents/companies returning incomplete or incorrect insurance policies (you have NO idea how often this happens)
4) Borrower not being able to provide the necessary documentation and thus losing their qualification for the original loan program
5) Appraised value coming in lower than the contract value
6) Changes in borrower’s status: marital, employment, income, credit (somebody is GOING to buy a new truck or quit their job or leave their spouse)
7) Government contracted closing agents (argh) who don’t (a) care about your closing and (b) have a clue about what they are doing because they worked at Timmy’s Ribs and Burgers last week.

I hope this gets your mind thinking about how to get it to the table smoothly and if we all communicate and work together without acting like evil step-sisters we can do it!

— admin