I’m going to explore with you some ideas on how to structure a contract for deed when buying a home so that when it comes times to ditch the CFD and refinance into a regular mortgage you can choose your path. First thing you should consider is an attorney to assist in writing up the [...]
Read moreMortgages for Saint Paul, Minnesota Community Land Trusts (CLT) Housing
Community land trusts are created to preserve long-term affordable housing by purchasing homes in their communities, then leasing the land using a long-term ground lease to low-income and moderate-income families at affordable monthly ground rents. Community Land Trusts (CLT) have had a foothold in the Twin Cities for decades. More broadly, the leasehold form of [...]
Read moreBuying a Home on a Lease with Option to Purchase – Rent to Own
Since the housing crash and great recession, there have been swelling ranks of people that have had credit damaged but have increased their savings and reduced their consumer debt. Many of these people, in a reasonable timeframe will qualify for conventional, VA, FHA, or Rural Development loans but at this time, do not. For those [...]
Read moreHOME BUYERS: GET A REALTOR, PLEEEEZ! A Loan Officer Rant
The MN Mortgage Mom is on a rant. I’m a little crazy right now. ATTENTION BUYERS! Long gone are the days of easy real estate, no doc financing and everything in between. Let me direct your attention to “today’s world”: Short sales, foreclosures, banks and asset managers…are you really equipped to deal with these realities? [...]
Read moreDo’s and Don’ts with Credit During the Home Buying Process
When buying your next home, changes to your credit (additional accounts, closing accounts, fluctuating credit card balances) can result in the lowering of your credit score. If your credit score changes, that can affect your interest rate and even the loan approval itself. Therefore, it is imperative that there are no major changes to your [...]
Read moreThe Importance of an Updated Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) to Your Pre-Approval
When one is selling their home and subsequently buying another, it doesn’t necessarily come quickly to mind that it takes more than online home value calculators to provide an estimate of what you’ll make on the sale of your home. Even the online seller’s net sheet calculators can only provide an estimate of what your [...]
Read moreDoes Your Loan Officer Wear Lime Green Polka Dotted Underwear?
Okay, perhaps that’s a little TOO much information! Perhaps you really don’t need to know what splash of color your loan officer is bestowing on his or her bloomers on any given day. But what you SHOULD know is who your loan officer IS. Let’s see….scum bucket, slime ball, scammer, fraud frog…any of these ring [...]
Read moreI Want to Prequalify Myself
There are plenty of times that a home buyer just wants the basics, how much of a loan can they afford. They know quite well enough that it isn’t a firm set of numbers not is it any kind of assurance of financing but it serves well enough as an aid in the home searching [...]
Read moreWanna Be a Good Mortgage Applicant? . . Then it’s Time to Get Naked!
Qualifying for a Mortgage, we went from one extreme to the next! 3 years ago, if you had a social security number, stated your income and ordered an appraisal (with practically a stated value), you were good to go. Today, when The Mortgage Lady meets with a potential client, one of the opening statements is [...]
Read moreSo You Want to Search Homes Without a Realtor Contract?
You’re smart enough to get pre-approved early and you know you need to know the market well in advance of buying your home. But perhaps, you don’t want to waste a Realtors time when you’re not ready to commit to using them just yet. Don’t get me wrong, you’d be a fool not to buy [...]
Read moreWho Is Going To Write These Loans?
The mortgage industry has seen much blood shed in the last 2 years, particularly in the last year. After reading a very interesting magazine article, I began to think about the future…the eminent future and a big question arose, “Who the heck is going to write these loans”? What is the MN Mortgage Mom rambling [...]
Read moreConventional Loan Pricing Scheduled to Hike Rates in Late Spring
As a follow up to Fannie Mae’s recent guideline changes, they will now be taking steps to make conventional loans more expensive across the board. A few years back, Fannie Mae instituted an aggressive round of Loan Level Pricing Adjustments (LLPA’s) and an Adverse Market Delivery Charge (AMDC) to add market risk into their loan pricing. AMDC’s [...]
Read moreForeclosure Homes Account for 25 Percent of all Q3 2010 Residential Sales
via RealtyTrac - Foreclosure Homes Account for 25 Percent of all Q3 2010 Residential Sales. IRVINE, Calif. – Dec. 2, 2010 — RealtyTrac® (realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its Q3 2010 U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report™, which shows that foreclosure homes accounted for 25 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the [...]
Read moreFannie Mae Guideline Changes – Gifts, 97% Financing and Mortgage Insurance
There has been some recent excitement about Fannie Mae (FNMA) changing her guidelines on down payments and allowing gift funds as an acceptable form of down payment in lieu of a borrower’s own funds. Before we all get excited about FNMA getting a little FHA in her with respect to gift funds, we need to [...]
Read moreBank LO’s vs SAFE Brokers and Lenders… oh my!
Alright, alright, alright… MOST everyone in Mortgage and Real Estae has heard about the S.A.F.E Act right? The Secure And Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act was passed into law a while back but in last stages of being implemented RIGHT NOW. There’s a bit of a rush going on right now as its supposed to be [...]
Read moreWaiting Periods on Bankruptcy, Foreclosure and Short Sales
Since late 2007 and the MORTGAGE MELTDOWN started we’ve had many “inquiries” from prospective MN & WI buyers who’ve wanted to get into a new home or BACK into home ownership. The last couple years have been hard on many people even though the Federal Government says that the recession is behind us. People have [...]
Read moreHEY… remember that $8000 tax credit??
I just closed a purchase transaction last week that was a SHORT SALE that was accepted WAY BACK in March. They buyer was hanging there partly because he wanted to get his $8000 tax credit and of course he REALLY liked the house. Amazing how much red tape we had to get through to get [...]
Read moreIt’s High Noon on Shadow Inventory as Banks Halt Foreclosures
So Ally’s GMAC, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase are halting foreclosures in 23 states. More importantly, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have stepped in to outline correct foreclosure processes and are demanding lenders adhere to them. What’s more, many more lenders are sure to follow the big 3’s changes. That’s great but what does it mean for us?
Read moreReady To Sell That Flip? Not So Fast, Big Guy…
Flipping a home…how to successfully sell your home to the FHA buyer.
Read moreMinneapolis & Saint Paul Housing Show Signs of Improvement
With all the bad news coming in from Wall Street and repetitive dreary national news, it’s been easy to miss the housing recovery in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
Read moreHome Values…You Got It, Your Home Is NOT Worth What You Thought.
I’m certainly not an appraiser or an expert on home values, but being in the biz as long as I have, I do have a fairly good understanding of appraised home values and the ever restrictive lending requirements behind it. For many who have had an appraisal done in the past year or so, may be able [...]
Read moreMortgage Technology – E-Docs Prove Key as Regulations Pile Up
via Mortgage Technology – E-Docs Prove Key as Regulations Pile Up. By Bonnie Sinnock Regulatory changes continue to largely drive automation for those on the production side, especially when it comes to documents, according to executives at DocMagic Inc., Carson, Calif., which does business as Document Systems Inc. Don Iannitti, president of DSI, told MT reg [...]
Read moreFHA Mortgage Insurance and Seller Concession Changes – Ramifications
HUD has regrettably increased the annual mortgage insurance premium and soon will have succeeded in reducing the allowable seller concessions. It’s easy to know that this will have a big impact but it will actually change the lending landscape.
Read moreBuying a Home after a Short Sale – Don’t Believe the Naysayers
I’ve written on this subject before but I want to be more thorough this time. There have been too many articles put out lately that discourage people from contemplating a home purchase after doing a short sale. These articles express cynicism about home sellers’ financial habits and Realtors alike. Most Realtors doing short sales know [...]
Read moreUpside Down on Your Home? – Here’s Your Playbook
In my home state of Minnesota, Minneapolis and Saint Paul have nearly 39 percent of homeowners under water. I’ve had the question, “I’m upside down on my home, what are my options?” so many times that I wanted to prepare a menu of options for people to reference. This article briefly outlines 9 potential solutions [...]
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March 15, 2011




