Back to Blogging!

September 26, 2011

Well, I took quite a hiatus in my blogging, didn’t I?  I have a Facebook business page (https://www.facebook.com/LoansByIrene), and my last posts there all had to do with how the market has been improving and how I was renegotiating interest rates for all my current loans in the pipeline.  The downward trend in decreasing interest [...]

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Reminder! Temporary High Balance Loan Limits are Expiring Soon!

July 6, 2011

Temporary high balance loan limits are set to revert back to their permanent levels on September 3oth.  This means that your loan must be funded and  closed prior to 9/30.  In addition, lenders will start establishing deadlines for locks and submissions.  I was shocked to read an email this morning that one of my biggest [...]

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To Impound or Not to Impound

June 16, 2011

Most of my clients choose not to have an impound account for a number of reasons.  See my blog post about the advantages and disadvantages of an impound account here.  The #1 reason is usually because they like to have control in making their own payments, but secondary to that is the number of months [...]

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Calculating the Income of a Self-Employed Individual

June 2, 2011

Lenders underwrite income on salaried borrowers versus self-employed borrowers differently. If you are salaried, the lender will use your current gross base income as your qualifying income.  They do want to see a 2-year history of employment without any gaps, and stable or rising income over the most recent 2 years.  If there is a [...]

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High Balance Temporary Loan Limits Set to Expire 9/30/11

May 11, 2011

Fannie Mae’s current temporary limits for high-balance loan amounts are set to expire on September 30th.  On October 1st of this year, they will revert back to the permanent high-balance limits.  The limits are dependent on the county you live in, but for many counties in California, they are: Temporary limit until 9/30/11: $729,750 Permanent [...]

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A New Program to Help California Homeowners in Trouble on their Mortgage

April 26, 2011

Every once in a while, I am contacted by homeowners that want and need to refinance, but are unable to on account of high qualifying ratios, being underwater on their home, or because they lost their job.  Unfortunately, I cannot help people directly when it comes to certain situations, especially in terms of not being [...]

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Fannie Mae Offers 3.5% Closing Cost Assistance

April 12, 2011

This 3.5% assistance applies to Homepath properties, but it is available only during a small window of time.  Homepath is an excellent financing program available for Fannie Mae-owned homes.  Check out the features of Homepath in my previous blog, but as a quick highlight: it allows as little as 3% down(previously was 5%) no appraisal [...]

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Delay to the Loan Originator Compensation Law (Updated)

April 1, 2011

Updated 4/6/11: As expected, the stay has been lifted and the appeal got denied. We are proceeding with the new compensation law.  See my previous post regarding its details. The National Association of Mortgage Brokers won an appeal to the Loan Originator Compensation Law that was set to be in full force today, April 1st.  [...]

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New Compensation Law for Loan Originators: What it Means to You

March 25, 2011

A new law is going into effect on April 1st that regulates how much loan originators* will get compensated on each loan.  Yes, this will affect me and everyone else in my profession, but it will also affect you too.  The law has many complexities, but my goal here is to provide you with the [...]

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How Your Credit Score Impacts the Cost of a Loan

March 21, 2011

On Conventional loans, your credit score can have a significant impact on the interest rate for which you qualify and/or how much more the loan is going to cost you.  You can generally accept a higher interest rate so that you do not have to pay out of pocket for the “hit”, but it’s still [...]

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