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

by Irene Moustakas | Apr 26, 2011 | Featured, Industry News

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...

Fannie Mae Offers 3.5% Closing Cost Assistance

by Irene Moustakas | Apr 12, 2011 | 1st Time Homebuyers, Featured, Loan Programs and Products

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...

Delay to the Loan Originator Compensation Law (Updated)

by Irene Moustakas | Apr 1, 2011 | Featured, Industry News

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...

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

by Irene Moustakas | Mar 25, 2011 | Featured, Industry News

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...

How Your Credit Score Impacts the Cost of a Loan

by Irene Moustakas | Mar 21, 2011 | Featured, Rates

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...

Jumbo Loan Rates, 3/7/11

by Irene Moustakas | Mar 7, 2011 | Featured, Loan Programs and Products, Rates

A Jumbo loan is any loan amount that exceeds the high-balance loan limit set per county. High-balance loan limits for your city in California can be found here: California City High-Balance Loan Limits with a current absolute maximum of $729,750.00. If you exceed this...