Found 6 blog entries tagged as loans.

 Chances are good your buyers are not approved at all…they’ve only been pre-qualified

Shocking headline, isn’t it?  Hard to hear the truth sometimes, but I am going to tell you that in my experience, the bulk of Pre-Approval letters being given to Real Estate agents by Loan Originators are just plain worthless.  They are being written to get the buyers a house, but the protection/reassurance the seller is looking for that tells them the buyers really are qualified does not exist.  Welcome to Fantasy Island.

My intention in writing this is two-fold: first, to let you know about this situation, and second, to give you some suggestions for getting a comfort letter that is worth the paper it is printed on.

Frequently a Realtor will refer me one of…

8962 Views, 0 Comments


Written by Robert H. Ruth

 

Second home season is officially here!  While buying a primary residence is a substantial commitment financially, with long ranging impacts, purchasing a second / vacation home is an even larger commitment, so careful deliberate planning is paramount if you are in the market to purchase a second home this year.   Here are five important issues to consider when contemplating a second home purchase:

 

How familiar are you with the area?

  • Buying a home as an annual vacation destination or to use on weekends or Holidays is a very serious commitment. You better make sure you like the area you are purchasing in because you’ll be spending a huge amount of your free time there. Many buyers I work with have…

1333 Views, 0 Comments

Written by Robert H. Ruth

Every year since 2013 the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has published a report looking at trends among buyers and sellers in the Real Estate Industry from the previous year. I’ve always eagerly anticipated this report because it provides excellent insights into the composition of the Real Estate marketplace. This year I thought I’d share some of the more significant findings that are pertinent to home buyers since that is the focus of my blog posts here. If you want to see the report for yourself, I have provided a link for you to download a pdf version here: CLICK HERE

The introduction of the report has much useful information about the composition of buyers in the Real Estate marketplace .  Here are what I…

1273 Views, 0 Comments

Written by Robert H. Ruth

This is a topic I discuss with borrowers most every day, so I thought you’d like to know the components of your credit score.  According to Fair Issac Corporation (FICO), “the score is calculated from many different pieces of data in your credit report, and the data is grouped into the 5 categories below.” Here they are with the approximate weighting assigned to each category:

 

  • Payment History : 35%
  • Amounts Owed :  30%
  • Length of Credit History:15%
  • New accounts Opened :10%
  • Mix of Credit :10%
  • Total: 100%

Let’s see what each category represents:

Payment history: 35%

This tells whether you have paid your credit card accounts on time in the past.  If you make all your payments on time each…

816 Views, 0 Comments

Written by Robert H. Ruth

What is a concession?

A concession is some benefit usually offered from the seller to the buyer that helps in the negotiation to buy a home.  The concession is typically financial in nature, and is in essence, a type of deal sweetener for the buyer. In the real estate finance industry, concessions are also known as Interested Party Contributions (IPC’s).  For this article, I wanted to explain the 2 most common types of IPC’s: financing concessions, and sales concessions.

 Financing Concessions

These IPC’s are paid on the borrower’s behalf by the seller to help facilitate the transaction. Financing Concessions typically cover closing costs for the buyer who is financing the purchase with a mortgage. They are…

7385 Views, 0 Comments

Written by Robert H. Ruth

According to two recent studies, one published by the National Association of Realtors, the other by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing, single women represent 17% of homebuyers throughout the US. That is a very significant number… it shows that single women are the second biggest demographic segment of the purchase market after married couples. By comparison, single men only account for 7% of homebuyers.

Here are a few significant findings from the studies:

  • More than one in five home buyers is a single woman
  • There are twice as many unmarried women buying homes than single men
  • Single women buyers equal more than 33% of the growth in home ownership since 1994

These statistics are even more…

805 Views, 0 Comments