Owning your own business has many benefits, not the least of which is the ability to write off business expenses to keep your tax liability low. The downside to this happens when you go to get a mortgage. As a self-employed borrower you must document your income with your tax returns. If your reported net...
LLPAs: They Just Increased the Fees You Never Knew You Paid
LLPAs, or Loan-Level Price Adjusters, are fees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac* charge to account for the risk of a pool of mortgages. The less risky the loan, the lower the fees, and vice-versa. * Fannie and Freddie are The Agencies who purchase most of the mortgages written in the U.S. and who therefore...
2023 Conforming Loan Limit – You Can Now Borrow More
The Federal Housing Finance Agency – the folks who oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the agencies) – announced today that the nationwide 2023 conforming loan limit would be raised to $726,200. This means that the maximum loan amount on mortgages which are made and underwritten in such a way that they can be sold...
You Can Buy a Home with a Reverse Mortgage
Is a reverse mortgage right for everybody? No, certainly not. But often it’s not for the reasons you think. A persistent myths about them is whether or not you can buy a home with a reverse mortgage. In short, you can. But the devil is in the details; let’s take a closer look. What is...
Can You Refinance After Forbearance?
Numerous clients have recently contacted me to ask if they could refinance. Why wait until now? Their concern was that had been in forbearance with their current loan. Their lender had allowed them to defer payments while they were impacted by a COVID-related event. The good news? Yes, you can refinance after forbearance. There are...
Rising Interest Rates – When Will it Stop?
But look what happened in the last year. Margins have steadily declined as lenders expanded their operations to try to take advantage of the surge in business, but then business levelled off.
Conforming Loan Limit 2022 – They Just Lowered Rates Again
Conforming Loan Limits 2022 Conforming loan limits are the maximum mortgage loan that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the agencies) will purchase. Why is this important? When lenders make loans that they can sell to the agencies, the investors in those loans know that their investment is guaranteed by the U.S. Government. Because of this,...
Annual Financial Review Time? Include Your Mortgage
Even if you think you are on track to achieve your goals, an annual financial review helps you confirm that you’re on track, make course corrections if there is any doubt, or change strategy if there is a change in plans.
Refinance Craze FOMO?
Refinance activity is at historic highs. And why not? Rates are close to historic lows. But not everyone has taken advantage of this yet Why not? Most homeowners that haven’t refinanced haven’t done so because they can’t quite qualify for the refinance. Imagine how frustrating that is. Common reasons are that they don’t earn enough,...
Reverse Mortgage – What Is It, and Is It Right for Me?
2/4/2020 | Casey Fleming | The reverse mortgage is the most heavily advertised mortgage product today, but all that promotion unfortunately includes very few facts. It is a complex financial product that is not right for everyone, but is a miracle for some and an elegant financial management tool for others. Let’s take a look...