Here is a nice little primer article on improving your credit score for house hunters who want to maximize their score and secure the best rate possible.
- James
There’s more to the story you referenced, “FICO points revealed.” The drop in your score you’d see if you made one of the missteps that the FICO score [...]
Not to be a skeptical, glass half-empty agent, but this number can’t be very high. Who doesn’t know someone frustrated in their dealings with their mortgage servicer or bank? Roughly only one in four surveyed has any trust or belief in the American financial system.
The Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Trust Index reports just 26% currently [...]
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The Obama administration will issue a proposal later this week recommending the gradual elimination of government-sponsored mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a White House official said Wednesday.
The highly-anticipated “white paper,” which is expected to be released Friday, will include three different options for reducing the role government plays in [...]
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Sometime, somehow, the foreclosure crisis will ease. But probably not anytime soon.
Home prices dropped 2.6% nationwide during the last three months of 2010, pushing more borrowers underwater, according to a quarterly real estate market survey from Zillow.com
Now 27% of homeowners with mortgages owe more than their homes are worth. That’s up [...]
BORROWERS have some weapons for keeping closing costs down, the result of recent guidelines requiring lenders to disclose certain fees, but perhaps the most underutilized consumer tool simply involves old-fashioned haggling.
Good-faith estimate rules, part of a tougher Truth in Lending Act that emerged from the mortgage crisis, mean that lenders must provide a clear picture [...]
Although this article mentions top tier mortgage rates are extended to those home buyers with credit scores over 740, don’t let that detour you. If you talk to most mortgage brokers, they will tell you that there are very attractive programs for clients with a credit score over 640. We have had several clients get [...]
HOME buyers with sketchy credit who are unable to qualify for conventional mortgages may now find it more costly and difficult to obtain loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
New rules that went into effect this month adjust the two types of mortgage insurance paid by consumers for loans insured by the F.H.A., which is [...]
What is PMI or Private Mortgage Insurance and is it Necessary?
Private Mortgage Insurance, or PMI, is a type of insurance that insures the lender in case the buyer defaults on the loan. The lender, or bank, requires PMI when the buyer has a down payment less than 20% of the asking price of the home. [...]
By Marcie Geffner • Bankrate.com
Homebuyers and Homeowners who want to refinance are understandably eager to get the lowest possible mortgage rate they can.
That’s not always easy, in part because the best mortgage rate offered to one borrower might not be the same as the best mortgage rate offered to another borrower.
So, what factors will lenders [...]
And How Can I Save Money on My Settlement Costs?
A Good Faith Estimate is an estimate of the fees that you are responsible for when you close on your home loan. The estimate is required by the Federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act published in Novemeber of 2008, and taking effect January 1, 2010. Your Good [...]
