Through the benefit of tax deductibility of mortgage interest and property taxes the amount you pay to own a home ends up being a lot less. Savings can be approximately $200 on a $180,000 loan.  You can also start the savings earlier than the end of the year. (continue)

There are Six items that you must know on your journey to homeownership. To help in realizing the dream of owning your own home you should schedule a "Pre-Approval" Consultation with Jeremiah Wean at Lakewood Lending Group, LLC. I will answer all your questions and concerns about: 1. Credit.... (continue)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers a guaranteed home loan program that helps people who want to buy homes in rural communities find lenders. The USDA will work with all qualified borrowers looking for homes in rural communities – not just first time homebuyers. The program requires NO money down. While the U.S. Department of Agriculture assists home buyers obtain a loan through easier qualifications and financing options than the traditional mortgage, they do not actually fund the loan. In all states, the USDA has partnered with a few lenders who provide the mortgages because of the repayment guaranty from the USDA. The guaranty means if the mortgage defaults, USDA pays it – which gives lenders more confidence to provide home loans to candidates they may not otherwise lend to, but who still meet the USDA underwriting guidelines and qualifications. For individuals and families looking for rural property within the state of Indiana – there is only one county in the entire state that does not qualify for USDA guaranteed home loans!

U.S. Department of Agriculture Home Loan Benefits

There are a number of benefits of using a USDA guaranteed loan to purchase your rural home, including:

· Borrowers can finance up to 100% of the appraised home value, and are not required to put a down payment on the home. The USDA guaranteed mortgage program is one of the few 100% financing options for home loans available.

· Borrowers can receive gifts or grants and use it toward closing costs.

· The US government guaranty's the loans which means lenders can offer lower interest rates on 30 year fixed home loans.

· Flexible guidelines that allows individuals with imperfect credit to qualify for home loans.

· No expensive mortgage insurance premiums (PMI – Private Mortgage Insurance) such as those required by the FHA guaranteed home mortgage programs.

· If purchasing a handyman special or homes that need repairs, you may qualify to include the cost of those repairs in the home loan mortgage.

· No maximum purchase price for home mortgages – the amount you can borrow will be based on your ability to repay.

Who is Eligible for an Indiana USDA Guaranteed Loan?

Any individual or couple looking to buy and live in a home that is located in a USDA eligible rural area can qualify for a USDA Rural Development mortgage, if income verification is sufficient. While you don't need to have a spotless credit history, you will need to show you have the ability and willingness to make your mortgage payments, yet be considered to have insufficient financial resources to qualify for a traditional home loan.

If you have previous foreclosures or bankruptcies on your record, they need to be at least 12 months old to qualify for a USDA mortgage.

In addition to the borrower meeting certain criteria for eligibility, the property itself must also be eligible for a USDA loan. Generally, to be considered a rural property, it will be located in open country and in a town with a population of less than 10,000 people.

You can determine if the property or location you are considering is considered USDA eligible by visiting http://eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov/eligibility/welcomeAction.do and reading under Property Eligibility for the type of property you hope to purchase.

How to Apply for a USDA Guaranteed Mortgage in Indiana

If you are interested in purchasing a home in a rural area, you will want to contact an approved lender. Visit www.lakewoodlendinggroup.com/usda to start the process of getting qualified for a USDA loan.

 

It's Time to Get OFF the Fence!

Picture by: Dan Barak

    Two very big considerations that would lead me to say it is time to buy right now.

First Time Home Buyer Credit - Lesser of $8,000 or 10% of purchase price - this amount reduces after a Modified AGI of $75,000 for a Single Return and $150,000 for Joint Returns, and is completely eliminated at $95,000 for Single Return or $170,000 for a Joint Return.  Modified AGI - just add some foreign income back to the AGI. This credit is set to Expire December 01, 2009. So, you need to move quickly to ensure you don't miss out on this free money by purchasing now.

 

The Federal Reserve is set to stop buying Mortgage Backed Securities on December 31, 2009. This is in a large part what has kept interest rates artificially low to this point. After the Federal Reserve stops buying the rates could head back up to the mid 6's very quickly. With typical supply and demand, as demand rises so does prices.  Bonds have both a price and a yield.  A bonds price and yield (rate) move in opposite directions.  As the price goes up, the yield (rate) goes down.  So, the Fed purchasing Mortgage Backed Securities has increased demand, thus increasing the price and because of the relationship between price and yield decreased the yield (rate).

 

Example of Your Purchasing Power with a 1% increase in Rates: Rate are presently at 5.375% so let's say that you can presently qualify a house that costs $180,000, if interest rates are to jump just 1% when the Fed stops buying Mortgage Backed Securities (which is very likely) at that point with a 6.375% rate you would only be able to qualify to purchase a house that costs $161,565. If you wait the home you qualify to purchase may be smaller with an increase in rates.

 

   
 

 

Below are the easily repeatable steps on how to create a hyperlink for your blog that will allow someone else to share your blog on Twitter with your personal description.

You need to ensure that your entire message is within 140 characters.  The easiest way to do this is by typing it in on Twitter, but don't hit submit. 

You'll need a URL shortner or sweetener, my favorite is bit.ly found at:  www.bit.ly.  You'll need to sign up for it, but it's free.  Bit.ly gives you some tracking and reporting ability, there are many other Shortner's out there.  One user pointed out that if you have google apps on your website you can have your own shortner.

You'll want to shorten the URL to your blog post, since you only get 140 characters.

After writing your retweet you'll need to make it compatible as a URL.  URL's don't seem to like spaces. :-)  You can do this manually by typing, "%20" without the parenthesis everywhere you typed a space making sure there are no spaces.  For example:  The Quick Brown Fox;  would change to:  The%20Quick%20Brown%20Fox

or a much easier way is to copy the information you typed into Twitter, and convert using a URL encoding converter at:  http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/html/topics/urlencoding.htm  The converter is at the very bottom of the page.

 

After you have converted your text that you want in your retweet you'll put the following in front of the URL acceptable  info, http://twitter.com/home?status=

You can get a free icon's to use to let people know to share your blog on twitter at: 

http://www.webdesign.fm/free-twitter-icons-happy-birds/

 

The steps:

1.  Create your blog posting

2. Post in Edit format to Active|Rain or your favorite blog hosting format.

3.  Copy the URL for your posted blog

4.  Sweeten the URL to your blog using bit.ly or your favorite sweetener

5.  Go to twitter, write a brief description of your post and add the sweetened URL from Step 3.  Make sure the total is under 140 characters.  After you get the information down to 140 characters copy the entire information.

6.  Convert your typed message from step 5 into a compatible URL.  Using http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/html/topics/urlencoding.htm  Copy the resulting output.

7.  Go back to your original blog post, and put in a hyperlink starting with, http://twitter.com/home?status=  "followed by the copied information from Step 6.

8.  Post your new easy tweetable blog.

Here is a screen shot of what someone else would see when they click on my Share on Twitter:

 

Try mine out below.  Just click on the Share on Twitter bird.

 

Let me know how it works out for you.

 

After writing this I found what may be an even simpler approach in www.tweetsmarter.com

 

Learn why now is the perfect time to buy!

 

 

Don't miss out on this excellent opportunity to get your questions answered.  Hurry the $8,000 tax credit ends December 01, 2009; and the Federal Reserve is scheduled to stop buying Mortgage Backed Securities December 31, 2009 (which could lead to rates in the mid 6's).

 

The National Association of Mortgage Brokers recently sent out a call to action in attempt to get the industries voice heard.    I want to make the mortgage brokers that are not in the association know, as well as appraisers, Real Estate Brokers, Consumers, and Title Agents know what they can do to have help the situation.               

 

NAMB has set up a HVCC Resource Center, which can be found at: NAMB HVCC Resource Center

 

NAMB also wants to receive emails detailing specific issues that have been created by HVCC (delays in closings, cost to consumer, lost rate lock, etc.).  This information can be sent to NAMB at the specific email address:  hvcc@namb.org

If you believe HVCC has caused issues in your business then please let let your voice be heard.  Whom to contact from NAMB release:

" Who will you be contacting?

NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's Office: (212) 416-8000, Internet Complaint
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA): (866) 796-5595, director@fhfa.gov
Fannie Mae: (202) 752-7000, headquarters@fanniemae.com
Freddie Mac: (703) 903-2000, Internet Complaint
Senators, Representatives and Governors: Click here for contact information. "

 

The problems I've seen so far:

• Each lender is requiring their own Vendor Management company
• It is taking 2 - 3 times longer to get an appraisal
• After the appraisal is ordered through one lenders "preferred" Appraisal Management Company, you cannot take the appraisal to another lender.
• Quality appraisers with years of experience and industry knowledge are leaving, because these unregulated Appraisal Management Companies are taking 20 - 30% of the appraisal fee.

 

Articles Illustrating the Effects of the HVCC from NAMB email

    A.  The Appraisal Bubble - The Center for Public Integrity
    B.   The Cure is Worse than the Disease - Appraisal Press
    C.   Appraisals Roil Real Estate Deals - The Wall Street Journal

 

Don't forget to sign the petition for a Reconsideration of HVCC

 

Rhonda Porter at "The Mortgage Porter" wrote an excellent post on "HVCC:  Why Should YOU Care?"  Go check it out.

Effective July 01, 2009 - HEA 1374 - requires that money for a purchase or refinance be "Good Funds."

 

Among the requirements:

• Closing Agents must deposit all funds received in connection with a real estate transaction into an escrow account unless all the parties involved agree to another arrangement.


• All funds in the amount of $10,000 or more, in the aggregate, received from any party to a real estate transaction must be wired, irrevocably credited to the closing agent's escrow account.  Checks for $10,000 ore more are prohibited.  This is to guarantee that funds are immediately available.


• Funds less than $10,000 in aggregate, received from any party to the transaction, must be in the form of "good funds" defined in the act.


• Closing agents are permitted to advance up to $500 from an escrow account to pay incidental fees

 

Good funds for those amounts under $10,000 - in lieu of wiring, keep in mind if the amount is over $10,000 IT MUST be wired:

• Currency


• Certified or cashiers check drawn on an existing bank account


• A check drawn on the trust account of a real estate broker


• A personal check not to exceed $500


• A check drawn on the escrow account of another closing agent


• A check issued by a farm credit service

 

You can read the entire Act HERE.

I have just a few quick pieces of advice that will help ensure excellent listing photos:

 

1.  Make sure the mini van is not in the foyer

2.  Remove the Police Danger "Red Tape"

 

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand questions.

1. Did they put up the available sign after the Mini van was in the foyer?

2.  Where are the tire tracks?

3.  When did the person realize this wasn't their garage?

4. If the sign was up how did they avoid it and avoid actually parking in the garage.

5.  What kind of decorating allowance can you get for having the engine of a van in your living room?

6.  Is this the new "drive-by" appraisal called a "Drive-In"?

Rural Housing is still doing 100% financing.  With the added incentive of no Private Mortgage Insurance.

Contrary to some opinion Rural Housing loans are available even if the home you are looking at is in a subdivision.  The loans are Census based, and are typically offered in areas with 25,000 or less residents.

We offer the Loan Guarantee Program which does not have a recapture, if you refinance or sell your house.

For more information on how you can get into your new home for zero down call me at:  317-348-4268, or Toll-Free at:  866-566-1951.

You can also apply now to get pre-qualified.  Click Here to start the quick process of finding out exactly how much home you can own.

 

Jeremiah M. Wean Partner Lakewood Lending Group, LLC Phone: 317-348-4268 Fax: 317-436-0126 jwean@lakewoodlenders.com http://www.lakewoodlenders.com