Dora Griffin's Blog

NO PRIVATE MORTGAGE INSURANCE (PMI) LOANSI'm sitting here in my office listening to a radio ad play multiple times regarding "no private mortgage insurance loans".   Homebuyers have learned to hate PMI insurance.  When a lender is offering NO PMI insurance, it gets their attention. Typically when...

HUD ANNOUNCES REDUCED MONTHLY MORTGAGE INSURANCE HUD announces reduced monthly mortgage insurance for FHA loans. It's been expected for a while there would be a change in either the monthly or up front mortgage insurance on FHA loans and now it's here.Monthly mortgage insurance is going down by 3...

Cash Out Refinances Are More ExpensiveIn 2022 Fannie/Freddie increased LLPAs (loan level price adjustments) for cash out refinances, making it more costly to pull cash out.Freddie Mac announced for 2023 a seasoning period of 12 months before cash can be pulled out of a property (note date to note...

Temporary Rate BuydownWhat is a temporary rate buydown and how does it work?  Sometimes we are in an unusual market and some tools are better than others for home buyers and sellers alike.  A temporary rate buydown is such a tool I encourage buyers to consider in today's market. Briefly a 2-1 buy...

Feds Funds Rate, Mortgage Rates and Inflation - Buckle UP!Waking up to pricing for long term mortgage rates this morning is like waking up with the worst hangover.  Yesterday we saw the Feds again raise their Fund Rate by .75%. They toyed with a full point increase, but settled on 3/4 point. The ...

Interest Rate Buydowns  Interest rate buydowns for home loans are coming back into focus.  What are the benefits of an interest rate buydown and who is the best candidate?In general the best candidate for an interest rate buydown would be someone who is expecting to have a greater income in a cou...

Federal Reserve Interest Rate and Long Term Mortgage Rates Yesterday the Federal Reserve increased their interest rate by .75% (3/4). Often this is confused with long term interest rates (fixed rate mortgages) going up by a similar amount.The Federal Reserve increases or decreases their key funds...

Pre approved for a loan?  You want to be sure to heed these three warnings. When you pay off some debt the line of credit is often closed which  may result in a drop in scores. Applying for new credit can drop your score, especially if you open the new line of credit. New credit can also reduce y...

SAME DAY HOME LOAN APPROVALS Same day home loan approvals do happen. I have them happen quite often, and yesterday it was less than thirty minutes after I submitted a file.   The key to a quick turn around in underwriting a home loan is the quality of the submission. The quality of the submission...

                                        IS NOW A GOOD TIME TO REFINANCE? Is now a good time to refinance is an age old question we don't hear as much these days because rates have been at lows not imagined until now. However, it is a question a home owner should always ask themselves. Generally i...