Helpful Hints - Mortgage Lending - Buying, Building, Refinancing

Rates are Moving!

2008-10-15T10:02:01Z

While you are searching the world for the place you want to call home, you will find it a matter of some interest, just what the interest rates are doing.

It would be ENCOURAGING and EXCITING to learn that rates were DROPPING, or at least holding steady.

If the rates are moving on up, that might SPUR a buyer to find that home as soon as possible.

Of what can you be sure? That interest rates will be moving - until you find the place you will be calling "home", and, with an agreement with the seller as to when you want to close the deal, you can "LOCK IN" your interest rate.

Bob Gilbert - your home loan consultant for life

800-635-7128 x1064

bobg@homeloancu.com

Outrageously Happy!

2008-10-15T09:49:18Z

We are working with you to bring you to your goal. How will you and I measure our success? MY goal is to make you outrageously happy.

Every transaction has two parts – the product, and the process.

Think of a favorite restaurant . . . Do they have good food? How is the service? The food, of course, is the product; the service is the process. Does a really good restaurant advertise much? They probably do not need to, because good food and good service are usually advertised by word-of-mouth.

I will be successful, if I make you so outrageously happy that you want people you know and care about to be served by me.

You could tell them about me, as you would tell them about your favorite restaurant.

You can give them my contact information, and invite them to call me. Or you might do that and tell me about them, so that I might contact them, when they are expecting me to call, because you told them.

If you were helped by our initial conversation, during which I helped you understand the financial details of your transaction, and how it might make sense, then you might think of someone you know and care about who would also be helped by such a conversation – and put us in touch.

You may realize that we are doing a good job at bringing you to your goal at other times during the process, and if you do, then at such times you might think of someone you know and care about, and put us in touch.

After the closing, you might be pleased with how well it all went, and realize that you have another opportunity to think about your friends and family, associates and acquaintances for whom you care, and put us in touch.

You will receive an email from us a few days after the closing of your loan, inviting you to complete a survey of your satisfaction with us. Take a few minutes to complete the simple email survey, and send it back to us. ON THAT SURVEY you will find an area where you can give the name and contact information of folks you would like us to help as we helped you.

Maybe I am able to solve problems for you, but I don’t deliver beyond your expectations. You’ll be satisfied with the product and the process, but not thrilled. You may even do business with me again – but you probably won’t refer others to me.

My goal is to score at the highest level – to make you outrageously happy. When I exceed your expectations with the process, and you are delighted with the product, you’ll be an advocate for me. When I deliver at that level, I find that clients are eager to refer others, because world-class service can be hard to find, these days.

Great Time to Buy!

2008-10-15T09:42:33Z

It is a GREAT time to buy!

There are some signs that get my attention when I go about my business: I like “Sale”, but then, everything is always on sale; I like more, “Clearance Sale” – but in some industries (like furniture stores, it seems), they have annual (maybe even semi-annual) “clearance sales” – where “everything must go – and then the store is still there, maybe with a new name, after the sale.

But I really like: “STOREWIDE CLEARANCE – 30% OFF EVERYTHING IN THE STORE,” and, maybe a week later, they cross off the 30% and make it 40% off . . . and so on.

You have to be alert to such sales. To get the best discount, before all the “GOOD STUFF” is gone. (It is great when it is a hardware store going away this way…)

Real estate is NOT “going out of business” – but we are in the midst of a great “discount” market.

What a great time to be a buyer!

Bob Gilbert

Your personal home loan consultant for life!

3773 Commonwealth Blvd Tallahassee FL 32303

800-635-7128 x1064 • 850-558-1064 • FAX 850-575-0158 bobg@homeloancu.com

~Send them to someone you trust.~

One Thing Every Homeowner Should Know

2008-07-03T07:37:04Z

WE know it. But it is not common knowledge, "out there".

It is a monkey wrench that too often undoes the plans ordinary people make.

It happens like this:

"I think we should try to sell our home..."
"Well, we've listed it, but this market just isn't that good, and we are not getting the offers we hoped for."
"Well, the listing is expired - that didn't work - why don't we just refinance, and take some cash out, and make our home nicer, for now."
"Mr. Mortgage Lender, may i refinance my home, and take some cash out?"

AND THEN "Mr. Mortgage Lender" becomes the bearer of the bad news, that lenders will not allow a homeowner to refinance, and take out equity, until 12 months have passed after the expiration of a listing for sale.

From the Lender's side, this is because it takes a while for new loans to become profitable - lenders do not want new loans to quickly be paid off. They want long-term relationships with borrowers.

And listing a home for sale gives a lender a hint that the homeowner is certainly thinking about NOT staying in the home.

Homeowners ought to know - and our community ought to tell them - LISTING a home for sale has consequences, EVEN if it does not sell.

FHA "Kiddie Condo" - is it gone?

2008-07-02T09:39:28Z

We used it to get kids into a home when they had no way to qualify on their own - no income, no assets, no credit history - and they had a family member who would go with them as a "non-occupying co-borrower".

(Ironically, since it was an FHA program, more often than not it could NOT be a condo)

Recently, FHA changed the rules - and people who have no traditional credit have to have "non-traditional" credit developed by lenders, and ALSO must have income and assets to qualify, EVEN if they have a family member willing to be a "non-occupying co-borrower.

Initially, this announcement made some think that "the kiddie condo is a thing of the past".

HOWEVER - the change only affects folks who have no traditional credit. As long as the occupying borrower has acceptable credit, the FHA still allows them to get into a home purchase entirely on the strength of a non-occupying family member's income, and assets.

The "Kiddie Condo" lives!

(Footnote - this is my first attempt at posting on Active Rain.)