first time home buyer – owner loan

June 30, 2010

The Days of the Mortgage Broker

Molly Wider asked:




Home ownership has generally been heralded as the ultimate financial achievement and, if all goes well, a solid way to create a foundation of wealth. The perception is that homeowners are not throwing their money away on rent. Instead, the thought process is that the new homeowner is putting their money toward an asset that can only appreciate in value. Agreed, home prices have, for the most part, been a good financial investment over the past few decades. The last two generations have had these concepts instilled in their thinking when it comes to real estate. They’ve been taught to save for a down payment to buy a house then work hard to pay off their mortgage. They’ve also been encouraged to ‘get in soon’…and that’s exactly what they’ve been doing.

According to the Canadian Association of accredited Mortgage Professionals, the combination of inevitable bank rate increases with the new rules for qualifying first-time home buyers is causing a surge in the demand for mortgage brokers as potential homeowners are having to look harder for their first mortgage.

Many borrowers will not understand what the changes mean and how they will impact them as a consumer. The new April 19 rule requires all potential homebuyers to qualify for the standard five-year, fixed rate mortgage, even if they plan on a lower-rate variable mortgage. Also, rental property income will no longer be given the same consideration as before when qualifying for a mortgage. CMHC reported their 2009 survey showed that approximately 25% of all mortgages were conduced through mortgage brokers instead of with a bank. 42% of these first-time purchasers were between the ages of 25 and 34. This number is expected to rise with tighter qualifying rules for the first-time buyers who are looking for the best deals. Some also think the trend of the mortgage broker is rising due to the current generation of home buyers growing up in a different era.

Although mortgage brokers can offer market expertise, they generally cannot offer any more guidance than the banks. However, brokers have access to a menu of options a bank may not have. One of the benefits of an independent mortgage broker is that they have access to all banks and can sometimes use the lower interest rates of one bank as leverage against another. Brokers do not work for any one bank, which means they can shop around to provide their clients with the best deal. While one bank may decline a borrower, another lender may approve them.

If you are like many others who have bad credit are hoping to get into the market but are concerned about how the new rules are going to affect you, you may want to think about a private loan. There are many private financial lending institutions that specialize in bad credit loans that you can put towards the house of your dreams.

Susan

March 17, 2009

It’s a Real Estate Boom for First Time Home Buyers

Roy Landers asked:


The subprime mortgage real estate fiasco has created a glut of residential real estate in the real estate market. Foreclosures are on the rise and it doesn’t look like the end is in sight for at least another year. Thousands of home owners are losing their homes because adjustable mortgage rates have adjusted upward and caused increases of monthly mortgage payments so high that the affected home owners just can’t make the payments. It is inevitable, under these circumstances that many homes go into foreclosure and banks have to take them back.

While it is unfortunate that many home owners are losing their homes, the opposite and upside effect is that the real estate market is now a boom for the first time home buyer.

Mortgage interest rates are still low and banks and real estate lending institutions have 30-40 year fixed loans for home buyers. With home values in many areas around the country, such as California, plummeting anywhere from 30-50 percent of what they were a year ago, the market is wide open for buyers who have never owed a home and would like to do so now.

Lending institutions and sellers are very motivated now and are readily lending their ears to home buyers saying “lets make a deal” and deal they will. Here are some of the innovative and sensible ways home buyers can now acquire a home of their own when they are armed with some real estate homebuyer education.

1. Use government grants and loans for down payment assistance.

The federal government in 2003 established the American Dream Down Payment Act. This federal law has allocated $200 Million a year since 2003 to assist with arranging down payments for first time home buyers. This is a good indication of just how serious the government is about helping Americans make the American dream of home ownership come true.

Fannie Mae, one of the many federally supported programs for home buyers has programs such as the MyCommunity Fixed Rate Mortgage. This unique program is ideally suited for the first time home buyer. It provides for low down payment, high loan to value with broad flexibility, including nontraditional credit considerations allowing for the buyer to qualify for the loan. It also has special financial options to serve public servant professions such as teachers, police officers, firefighters and health care workers, and people with disabilities.100% financing is available with 30-40 year fixed rates. Check out the details at http://www.efannie.com.

These funds, in addition to other government funding sources, are made available through federal, state and local government agencies that provide down payment assistance to their citizens on a case by case basis.

Every major city and county has one of these programs. One need only exercise a little initiative and these funds can be acquired. Contact your local housing authority, city managers office or county administration department to find out about them and how to apply.

2. Use non-profit agency down payment assistance

Another little known, but long existing opportunity for first time home buyers to acquire help with down payment assistance is the numerous numbers of non-profit agencies around the country that provide free down payment assistance to home buyers. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, enacted by Congress in 1977 and revised in 1995, requires banks located within identified communities to make loans and reinvest the depositors’ deposits within that community.

For decades now and continuing into the future banks have been making huge amounts of funds available to invest in targeted communities. However, the availability of the funds was not publicized in a significant way and many people did not and still do not know about these funds. Many non-profit agencies became aware that they could help in the community revitalization effort by creating a means whereby the banks could channel the funds through various home assistance programs that non-profits created. The non-profits that specialize in this type of program have grown over the years. Some are very large and are nation wide such as the Nehemiah Corporation – www.nehemiahcorp.org.

They get funding from the banks via the Community Reinvestment Act and other funding sources and then provide for down payment assistance and other housing assistance to persons desiring to own a home.

One of the high points of these programs is that the funding is often times not limited to first time home buyers and certainly is not limited to only low income home buyers. This creates yet another source of down payment assistance for the prospective home buyer. Given the numerous avenues of funding to assist in buying a home and the present market swing in favor of home buyers, buyers are now firmly in the driver’s seat.



Kim

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