There's a rise in the United States of multigenerational living - that is, 2 (or more) generations living under one roof. As homes grow in size more people are taking advantage of in-law suites, multi units, and other property alterations to comfortably accomodate more people under one roof (or sometimes more realistically, on one parcel). As people grow older and housing grows more expensive, multi generational living is a solution for many.
An alternative that fewer people know about is a provision within conventional guidelines that allows for family members to … (16 comments)
Fannie Mae has announced some changes to their conventional lending guidelines, effective immediately. This is a welcome announcement as the changes make underwriting guidelines more clear, and in some cases more lenient. They also improve pricing for certain borrowers. Have you had buyers turned down over the past 6-12 months because of these guidelines? If so, it's time to pick up the phone and see if they can qualify for a new home loan.
Keep in mind, these are Fannie Mae changes, and not lender-specific changes. That means if your lender is not Agency-direct, you may … (22 comments)
The inspiration for this post comes from an online professional forum where industry pro's go with complaints, rants, questions, and more. Today, someone expressed bewilderment because their loan file was declined by a lender because of recent derogatory credit information (the culprit: 2 30-day lates on student loans in the past 12 months).
This loan officer ran desktop underwriter (automated underwriting that issues approvals for conventional & government loans) and got every loan officer's favorite results - approve/eligible (meaning it's approved as the system likes the loan's attributes, and 'eligible' meaning … (29 comments)
In the past, I've blogged extensively about the benefits of agency-direct mortgage products (loans sold direct to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae). These products are a must-have for lenders that work with real estate agents to ensure less than perfect borrowers still had a straightforward loan process with no snares of investor overlays. Overlays have been a bane to the mortgage business, and often loan officers don't even know the overlays of the investors their employer sells loans to -this causes those last minute "oops" that can at best delay a settlement, or … (20 comments)
Attention! Attention! This one goes out to the "Getting a loan is nearly impossible these days" crowd. Fannie Mae has recently taken a huge step to making things easier, helping to reduce barriers in home buying, and allowing us lenders to treat people less like criminals trying to scam us and more like what most people really are - good, hard working folks trying to achieve the American dream.
Fannie Mae often tweaks their program guidelines, and despite having a reputation of tough underwriting standards, does a pretty good job of keeping their product offerings … (19 comments)
One of the loan products I love being able to offer is our agency-direct product. We sell these loans directly to Fannie Mae and/or Freddie Mac, and because of this, there are NO investor overlays. There are many, many benefits to a lender having this ability, and in the past I wrote a blog about some of the things we can do with our Fannie Direct program that many other lenders cannot.
Though I do a pretty good job of keeping up on my loan products and knowing everything … (8 comments)
Buying a Home for a Parent (or child)
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