CATHY'S TIPS
Tip #6 FBI – First Be Informed!
Know something about who you're dealing with - don't just go through knothead mortgage.com. "Know that what you're being quoted" makes sense and will work for you. If you have an equity loan where you've taken equity out of your home - rates are different. Don't just...
Tip #5 Hold off on that shopping!
From the time you decide to buy or refinance until your loan closes and funds, don't buy anything you don't have to have. It used to be that your credit report would be run again the day before you close. Now it's run between closing and funding. On a refinance in...
TIP #4 Self Employed Beware!
One recent change that will affect many folks who are looking to buy or refinance their homes: If you are self-employed or a contract worker, beware of write offs on your tax returns. There are no longer any stated income loans - you tell us you make $100,000 per year...
TIP #3 Good Faith Estimates and Fees Worksheets
Three things you need to know about good faith estimates. As far as the interest rate, you're always working with a moving target. If you've got one or several from a week ago you're comparing, it's old news. Unless you've specifically agreed with the loan officer who...
Tip: What’s better than a paid for house?
TIP OF THE DAY: A home with a comfortable payment and plenty of savings, in case of an emergency. It’s great to have a home that’s paid for, but only if you’ll still have substantial savings in the bank after paying off the house. Too many people think paying off the house is the best thing they can do, but at the end of the day, you can’t eat the house. We talk to far too many people who have a paid for house but no real savings to fall b…ack on. The most recent disaster that occurred with hurricane Harvey has hurt many people in our area, and we have received many calls from people with damaged homes that don’t have a mortgage on them. Unfortunately, in most cases, these people are lacking the resources to repair their home, that they would have had, had they not used their savings to pay off the house. Bottom line, if you want to pay your home off early, do it in stages, like an extra $500 or $1000 at a time, and as you still have money coming in, so that you don’t totally deplete your savings by paying off your home. None of us know what’s coming around the corner.
TIP OF THE DAY:
Interest rates change every day, just like the stock. The rate you can determined by WHEN you are closing, and what’s happening in the market in the 30-45 day prior to that. If you were closing on something in the next 30 days, you’d be looking at 4.125%, at PAR. That means NOT paying anything to buy down the rate. The cost of loans is in two forms, one buying the interest rate, the other being the COST to get that interest rate. As we know, nothing is free. So when I’m saying 4.125% PAR, the answer to “can I get it lower” is always going to be less BUT you’re going to pay something to get the lower rate. Rates and cost balance like a seesaw, and it can always get tipped in on direction or the other, depending on what you’re wanting to see. That’s why the interest rate, although obviously it’s important, is NOT all that will tell you whether or not you’re looking at a good deal. Make Sense?
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