With a shortage of inventory, sellers are in the driver’s seat when it comes to selling their home. Assuming the house is priced anywhere in the right ball-park, they don’t have to worry about negotiating a lower price with buyer, paying any of the buyer’s closing costs, paying for a home warranty in many cases, […]
Home Buyer
Don’t Believe the Billboard…or Other Similar Advertising
During my 25+ year career as a loan officer, I’ve had to compete against many loan officers who advertise unusually low rates. While some people can technically get the rates that some of these loan officers advertise, it’s usually a very rare situation. Factors That Determine Rates On an Individual Loan: I’m not a fan […]
Low Rates and Low Inventory – Not a Good Combination
Everyone loves low rates, especially if you are looking to buy a home. It’s also a great thing that our economy is doing so well that the unemployment rate is really low – 3.6%; With so many people having a job and interest rates as low as they are, that means there are more people […]
Utah First-time Home-buyers: Do You Need Down Payment Assistance?
Buying your first home is hard. I mean it’s not easy saving up a 3.5% down payment on any home especially when starter homes are in the $250K – $350K range in the Salt Lake valley with few exceptions. That means that many first-time home-buyers will need between $8,750 and $12,250 just for their down […]
Get Pre-approved Now, Even If You don’t Plan to Buy for a Year
Over my 25 years as a loan officer, I have worked with a number of clients who were confident that they were ready to buy a home but ended up being surprised when I brought up issues either with their income, assets, or credit history. Sometimes these issues were relatively easy to fix and other […]
Interest Rate, APR, and When to Buy the Rate Down
I get asked a lot of questions about interest rates – why wouldn’t I? I’m a loan officer. The problem is that interest rates don’t tell the whole story, neither does APR. I’ll attempt to sort out the issues and – BONUS – help you understand when it’s good to buy the rate down or, […]
A Bigger Mortgage and A Higher Rate? How Can That Be Better?
The Issue A few weeks ago I had a past client call me about refinancing her loan. She only owes $144,000 and has a great rate at 3.75% BUT most all of her credit cards are maxed out or close to it and they have two car loans so even though they make good money, […]
Things to Consider OTHER Than the Interest Rate When Getting a Mortgage
With a title like this, some readers may think I am trying to justify higher interest rates than my competitors. The fact is, I have very competitive interest rates, I just think that if that’s all you focus on when getting a mortgage, you miss a lot of other things. For instance, the timing of […]
What is the Return on Investment on the Equity in Your Home?
What is the Return on Investment on the Equity in Your Home? Some people think it’s the rate of appreciation on real estate in their local area. Other’s aren’t quite sure what to say because it seems like the answer should be obvious but if it is, why do I ask the question? Because the […]
The Top 6 Things That Can Delay the Closing of Your Loan
I read and article written by a Realtor about the top 10 reasons for delays in the mortgage process. I thought about six or seven were valid and the others either had little to nothing to do with the mortgage side of things or were fluffed up to get the number to 10. That said, […]