PLAY TO WIN—GETTING TO THE APPROVAL ON YOUR MORTGAGE AND THE APPRAISAL

 

 

HIGHLIGHTS FROM TODAY’S PODCAST:

 

MARKET NEWS

 

TRIVIA CONTEST

 

Questions answered by Tom King:

1. 1.      What are some of the minimum standards for FHA appraisals?  Conventional appraisals?

 

1. 2.     What are the basic differences between the conventional appraisal rules and standards and the FHA standards and rules?

 

1. 3.      Under what circumstances would you do an appraisal for someone outside the mortgage company’s appraisal?

 

1. 4.      What repairs do you define as structural and what type of repairs do you consider as cosmetic?

 

1. 5.      If you are selling your home, what repairs or renovations can a homeowner do that would bring the most added value to the home per dollar invested?

 

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Questions answered by Jo Garner :

1. 1.     As a mortgage officer, what solutions do you offer your clients when there are structural repairs are needed on a property according to the appraisal?

 

1. 2.      How do you divorce the mortgage when you are going through a divorce with your spouse?  

 

1. 3.      What if you’ve been through a divorce and the house had to go through foreclosure?

 

1. 4.     Talk about going up on price to get the sellers to pay stuff for you (if the house will appraise)

 

 

1. 5.      What are some of the most common barriers to getting your mortgage approved?

 

REAL ESTATE TIP OF THE WEEK

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

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Good morning, Memphis!  Good morning across the country on IHEART radio. You’re on the Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe program. I’m your host, Jo Garner, Mortgage Professional with Evolve Bank and Trust.  Today it’s the Underwriting Power Hour— PLAY TO WIN—GETTING TO THE APPROVAL ON YOUR MORTGAGE AND THE APPRAISAL.   We’ll talk with you about WHATEVER real estate topic you want to discuss though. Sitting here at the coffee table again is our appraisal expert Tom King of Bill King Co.  Tom, its great having you on the show today…

 

<Tom introduces himself and talks about what he does at Bill King Co>

After Tom does his 60 sec or more intro, he invites our listeners to call us on the air at (901) 535-WREC  (901) 535-9732

 

(Jo)  Nothing exciting happened this week as far as geopolitical news or economic reporting.   The Federal Reserve declared this past week that they did NOT intend to raise the overnight rate for awhile.  And there’s a lot of people who mistakenly think that the Fed rate is directly tied to what happens to mortgage rates.  The Fed Rate does NOT directly affect the mortgage rates at all.  Mortgage rates react closer to the 10-yr bond yield  and NOT the Fed’s overnight rate. So if you were thinking that you have more time to wait before getting your mortgage rate locked in, don’t procrastinate!  IF THE DEAL WORKS FOR YOU TODAY, DO IT TODAY.  30YR FIXED – 4.25  FHA/VA – 3.75-4.0% 15 YEAR FIXED –  3.375-3.5  5 YEAR ARMS –  3.0-3.50% depending on the lender

Even with the rates at a 4 month high, they’re still low enough to make a good long term investment—they’re still low enough to solve some cash flow problems or even make it possible to make prepayments often enough to get the mortgage paid completely off sooner rather than later:

 

 

(Jo)  Some days working as a mortgage officer seem a bit daunting because you have to eat mortgages breakfast, lunch and dinner every day in order to keep up with the regulation changes and new products coming on the market.  The best part of being in the mortgage business is getting to be part of the SOLUTION for a customer.    Thursday I went to a closing with a very happy couple who just a few years ago, due to the housing market collapse had lost their business, lost their savings AND lost their home. After filing bankruptcy, which would have seemed inconceivable to them before the crash in 2008, it

 

 

 

seemed like they would never recover—never have the life they enjoyed with their children prior to the financial train wreck that hit so many people back then.  But they didn’t give up and kept working to get their credit back.  Gradually, one step at a time, they built back their business and their bank account and Thursday closed on a home that would bring them back to the lifestyle they enjoyed so many years before but with a VERY affordable payment! We were all celebrating when the agent handed them the keys to their new home right there at the closing table .

 

If you’re thinking about buying a house or refinancing one, let’s talk.  My very experienced assistant, Susan Belew and I would like to explore some financing scenarios that can give you some room to breathe on your budget or even help you structure a plan that will allow you to pay your mortgage off early.  If you’re paying rent, right now in Memphis and some other cities around the country, you can probably buy a bigger house with more amenities for a payment much less than what you’re paying in rent—especially if you look at the tax advantages.  Let’s make the numbers work for you. You can reach me right now on the air at (901 535-9732 or you can call me directly off the air at (901) 482 0354.  That direct number again is (901) 482-0354 or catch us on our blog www.MortgageLoansBlog.com

 

<Tom makes comments and shares his observations >

 

Today our topic is “PLAY TO WIN—GETTING TO THE APPROVAL ON YOUR MORTGAGE AND THE APPRAISAL.”  Here’s some Do’s and Don’t’s  if you want to win the game and get your mortgage approved:

1.  Don’t go pay off a bunch of debt right before you go see your loan officer.   Having liquid funds in the bank is more important than having a lower income-to-debt ratio.  Underwriters are okay if your income-to-debt ratios are a little bit high as long as they can see some cash reserves in the bank you could use to pay it down debt in an emergency.  During the loan process don’t add to your debt or open new accounts either.
2. Do make sure you can document a paper trail on any large deposits in your bank account other than payroll.  Loan regulations today require you show the source of large deposits.  And don’t move money around from one account to another while the loan is in process.  If you tell the loan officer you have a certain amount in the bank at the time of  loan application, make sure you have that amount still there when its time to underwrite the file
3. Don’t change your income or how you are paid during the loan process. And please don’t quit your job before closing either .

 

Tom, what tips can you give our listeners about winning on an appraisal?

<Tom launches his topic>

 

 

 

 

^2nd segment after 9:15 break—It’s time for the Look Back Memphis Trivia Contest brought to you by notable Memphis historian Jimmy Ogle.  Jimmy Ogle gives free walking tours in Downtown Memphis during the Spring and Autumn. Go to jimmyogle.com for the 2014 Spring season schedule and locations. Our Look Back Memphis Trivia Contest SPONSOR is Marlene Foster of ADT Security Services—the number one security system.   Give Marlene a call at 901 232-6277.  She will take good care of you  Marlene is giving away a $25 gift card to the first person who calls with the correct answer to our Trivia Contest.   If you know the answer, call us on the air at (901) 535 WREC.  (901) 535 9732.

Here’s our trivia question : Who am I?  (go to hints)

Garner # 28  09/17/14

Magevney House

Question:                                                                       

Hint:  My builder was the first school teacher in Memphis.

Hint:  The school was in Court Square.

Hint:  During my life, there were 19 Presidents in the USA with a tree for each one planted on my grounds!

Final Hint:  I am the oldest residence remaining in Memphis today.

Answer:  Magevney House.  Located at 198 Adams Avenue near many historic properties in Downtown Memphis – St. Peter Catholic Church, Calvary Episcopal Church, Shelby County Courthouse and the Fire Museum of Memphis.v Magevney House is operated by the Memphis Museums Inc.  It is open on the first Saturday of each month from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.   Admission is FREE!    523-1484.

This small, white clapboard cottage was built in the 1830’s and was home to Irish immigrant, Eugene Magevney. Typical of pre-Civil War, middle-class homes, it is furnished as it might have been in 1850 and features several personal possessions of the Magevney family, including a desk bureau and other antiquities. A kitchen garden and grape arbor are found behind the house.

 

 

Questions answered by Tom King:

1. 6.      What are some of the minimum standards for FHA appraisals?  Conventional appraisals?

 

1. 7.     What are the basic differences between the conventional appraisal rules and standards and the FHA standards and rules?

 

1. 8.      Under what circumstances would you do an appraisal for someone outside the mortgage company’s appraisal?

 

1. 9.      What repairs do you define as structural and what type of repairs do you consider as cosmetic?

 

1. 10.   If you are selling your home, what repairs or renovations can a homeowner do that would bring the most added value to the home per dollar invested?

 

6

 

 

Questions answered by Jo Garner :

1. 6.     As a mortgage officer, what solutions do you offer your clients when there are structural repairs are needed on a property according to the appraisal?

-Escrow for repairs on bank owned property for both structural and cosmetic depending on the dollar amount

-Escrow for repairs for cosmetic on non-owned bank owned property

-best advice is to review the property with a licensed inspector before even getting an appraisal. If there are obvious structural repairs needed, negotiate the sellers to pay for them and adjust the price of the house to allow the seller to do this.

-Either an FHA 203K or Conventional Homestyle renovation and repair loan when the dollar amount for repairs are over $5K.  (Give example)

 

 

1. 7.      How do you divorce the mortgage when you are going through a divorce with your spouse?   

With a couple of divorce attorneys and a lot of attorney fees, you can make the marriage commitment disappear, but not the mortgage obligation.  If both of your names are on the mortgage, then in the eyes of the mortgage company, you are both still obligated to make the mortgage payments on time, no matter WHAT a divorce court says.

If you want to keep your credit sterling and workable for your next life as a single person, you need to take care of the mortgage.  You can opt to pay the mortgage yourself (because you can’t always depend on an ex-spouse to make the payment on time) or you can sell the house or refinance the house and get your name off the mortgage altogether if you don’t want to have to make the payments.  If you are upside down on the house –owing more than it is worth, then you may have to remain in the house and make the payments. Or move out and rent it to tenants who can pay more than your monthly mortgage and home expenses.  If you don’t want to rent it and can’t pay the mortgage down enough on an upside down home, than you could ask the mortgage lender if they would allow you to sell it on a shortsale.  If you sell on a short sale and the mortgage company takes less than what is owed on the mortgage to allow the home to sell, this will still negatively affect your credit for the next few years.—same with a foreclosure.   If you want to talk about the possibilities of REFINANCING your home and getting your spouse’s name off the deed and off the mortgage, Susan and I would like to help you.  Call us at 901 482 0354 or catch me on my blog www.MortgageLoansBlog.com

 

 

1. 8.      What if you’ve been through a divorce and the house had to go through foreclosure?

I was talking to a listener yesterday who has experienced this exact situation.  She had had perfect credit up until her divorce.  The child custody battle cost this person over $100 thousand dollars in legal fees, a few years of her life and caused her to not be able to afford to keep the house which went into foreclosure less than a year ago.  Her goal was to come up with a plan that would prepare her quicker to own her own home again sooner rather than later.   At the end of our conversation, she planned to visit at the next Memphis Investor Group meeting coming up and talk with some real estate investors to see if she could feasibly buy one of their houses that did not have a mortgage on it.  She was going to ask if she could put some money down and just make payments to the investor  owning the property until she could later get traditional financing or until she could pay the house off completely so it would finally be totally hers.

 

1. 9.     Talk about going up on price to get the sellers to pay stuff for you (if the house will appraise)

 

 

1. 10.   What are some of the most common barriers to getting your mortgage approved?

 

• First, clients will tell me they don’t have any money to put down.   My assistant and I are very good treasure hunters and we can find money from people in places they never thought to go digging!  Particularly for clients who have not owned a home in 3 years or more, there are a multitude of down payment assistance programs available.  With help from special programs and with a seller willing to pay some of the costs, buyer can  get in for zero down or very little.
• Even if you are not a first time homebuyer, we have the 100% VA loans and the 100% USDA loans.    We have used a separate loan secured on a different type asset to give you the funds you need to close with very little money down on the house you really want. Gifts from family are nice too.
• The second barrier is showing enough income to qualify for the loan you need to buy or refinance a home.   If you have only been on your job a few months, we can only count your guaranteed base income and not the commissions that you hope to average over the course of the next several months.
• Watch out for expense write offs on your taxes though, like unreimbursed employee expenses or losses declared on tax returns from a side business. These losses get deducted from your regular income when you are trying to qualify for a loan.
• If you are self-employed and you have a lot of income that you control but, after write-offs, you only show very little, let Susan and I review ALL PAGES of your last 2 years tax returns and business returns.   We have found tens of thousands of dollars worth of income in the BACK PAGES of the tax returns.  If there is a way, we can find it to help our clients get qualified for what they want to accomplish.
• The third barrier that we can overcome is credit issues.   My assistant and I have trained on the Credit Simulators (like flight simulators).   By using the Credit Simulation tools we can look at your credit report and suggest ways you may be able to raise your credit scores by 20 or 30 points over a course of a few weeks with the least amount of investment on your part.

The fourth barrier is problems with the house needing repaired or a title issue.  This is where an experienced realtor or closing attorney. 

In some cases you can put the money for the repairs in an escrow account at closing and do the repairs later.  In some cases you need to already have an arrangement to do the repairs BEFORE closing or have the seller do them.    If repairs will have to be done BEFORE closing, its better to have that worked out in the contract when the initial contract is being written.

 

 

 

 

            4^th Segment 9:45AM  REAL ESTATE TIP OF THE WEEK (Tomand/or Jo offers a money-saving or time-saving tip to listeners regarding getting their loans approved)

Jo’s announcements:

1. 1.     Talk Shoppe offers free networking and education to anyone interested in real estate or business.  This Wednesday August 13, 2014 9AM to 10AM  come prepared to share and receive business ideas, resources and referrals with other business people in a small group setting. It’s called Mastermind and Talk Shoppe follows Napoleon Hill’s method from his book Think and Grow Rich.  Talk Shoppe offers these free events to the public at the YMCA Corporate office 6373 Quail Hollow Rd 2^nd floor in Memphis at the corner of Massey Rd and Quail Hollow. 

For more information about Talk Shoppe go to www.TalkShoppe.BIZ

 

1. 2.      Join us every Saturday on the Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe program. For today’s podcast and others, go to www.MortgageLoansBlog.com  We want to hear from you on how we can make our show better.  If you have suggestions, call me directly at (901) 482 0354. 
2. 3. Mark your calendars for the YMCA’s Golf Tournament coming up Oct 3 at Colonial Country Club. Proceeds benefit youth serving programs at YMCA’s across the Mid-South.  For more information they can call our office at 901.766.7677

 

Transitional Music: ‘I’m Winning”  by Steve Winwood;  “I Might Be Cheap, But I’m Not Broke”  Rik Roberts; “Gonna Fly Now”  Bill Conti

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Tom King,  Appraiser with Bill King Co.   (901) 487-6989

 

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Jo Garner’s Bio

www.MortgageLoansBlog.com  www.MoneyShoppe.NET  (901) 482 0354  jogarner@mindspring.com

Jo Garner is a mortgage officer with extensive knowledge in tailoring mortgages to her customers who are refinancing or purchasing homes all over the country.  She offers conventional, FHA, VA or other loan programs for refinancing and purchases.

 

Jo can help you look at rent vs buy, when it makes sense to refinance, how to get the best deal on your home  purchase financing.

 

Jo Garner  has been in the real estate/financing business for over 20 years.  She got her start in Portland, Maine where she first began her real estate career. She received her real estate education from the University of Southern Maine  and was personally mentored in San Diego, California  by Robert G. Allen, author of Nothing Down, Creating Wealth and The Challenge.

 

On moving back to West Tennessee in 1987, she went into business buying and selling discounted owner-financed notes secured on real estate.  In 1990 Jo went to work for a residential mortgage company and has been a mortgage loan officer for over 20 years.  Her goal is to offer excellent, affordable service to her customers,  tailoring the loan programs to the specific needs of her clients.

In addition to her work in the mortgage field, Jo Garner  is the primary sponsor and founder of Talk Shoppe in Memphis. www.TalkShoppe.BIZ  She was also the editor of Power Shoppe, a free weekly ezine designed for real estate professionals and others indirectly connected to the real estate industry and currently publishes on her blog www.MortgageLoansBlog.com   .

 

For real estate financing solutions, plug into the Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe program.  You can find mortgage rates, FHA Streamline refinance with no out-of-pocket costs, refinancing options, home purchase loan programs, answers and  real estate, money-saving tips and more.