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, […]
Realtors and Borrowers
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, […]
Mortgage Insurance: A Comprehensive Look At the Options
Some people don’t like mortgage insurance because the borrower pays it and the lender gets the benefit. What these people don’t understand is that this isn’t entirely true. In actuality, lenders wouldn’t loan over 80% of the purchase price (ie. 80% loan-to-value) if mortgage insurance didn’t exist to protect the lender from default. Even with […]
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, […]
Why I’m Not a Fan of 15-year Mortgages
There are those whose goal it is to pay off their mortgage…as quickly as possible. Some people’s approach to this is to get a 30-year mortgage and pay extra every month while others just get a 15-year mortgage and pay it off that way. Then there are those who get a 15-year mortgage AND make […]
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 […]