“Remember To Record Your Real Estate Documents” 12-28-13
Questions for Ron Cohen to answer:
- 1. What if a family member gives you a deed to a property— what is the next step to take?
2 What if you are deeded a property by a third party and later discover that the property is occupied. Ron discusses “constructive notice” of ownership
- 3. Discussions with Lynn and Troy McDonald of Allstate Insurance about the differences between condos and regular single family homes on the closings and on the financing.
Questions for Jo Garner to answer
- 1. Discussions with caller about the new FHA Back-to-Work program which allows people who have had bankruptcies, foreclosures and short sales to close after only one year of reestablished credit.
2 Discussions about “continuity of obligation” and how this affects homeowners trying to refinance rental property concerning seasoning requirements
- 2. Economic forecasts for 2014
- 3. Discussions with caller about rules and tips concerning “lease purchase agreements.”
REAL ESTATE TIP OF THE WEEK (RON AND JENETT)
Good morning Memphis. Good morning IHEART listeners around the country. You’re on the Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe program and I’m your host, Jo Garner , mortgage professional with Evolve Bank and Trust. We want to talk with you about whatever real estate or financing topic you want to discuss so give us a call on the air at 901 535-WREC. Our general topic is “Remember to Record Your Real Estate Documents” and we have the perfect co-host to tell us why–
Our co-host is Attorney Ron Cohen, co-owner of Premium Title Group here in Memphis. Talk to us, Ron.
Our featured guest today is Jenett Rochester, closer for Premium Title Group in Memphis and Mississippi. Jenett has been in the real estate closing business for over 25 years and knows how to make the closing a smooth one.
(Jo) We plan on keeping you guys busy this year closing loans. The economic forecast for 2014 is for home sales to rise, home price appreciation will slow, home purchases will dominate and the amount of money being pumped into buying mortgage backed securities by the Federal Reserve will taper. Mortgage interest rates have moved up about 1% over the year 2013. We are currently at about 4.625% on a 30 year fixed rate with no points to pay, FHA and VA loans the rates are a little lower. The 15 year fixed rate is about 3.5% with no points. The real race is to beat the stricter lending guidelines coming up in January.
My assistant Susan Belew and I are still closing loans for our customers wanting to refinance or purchase a home. Our goal in each case is to lower the interest costs for them and keep the closing cost as low as possible. Ron, you and Jenett help keep the cost down for my customers when we close with you guys.
(Jo) talks about times when customers are really trying to reduce their closing costs.
-use premium title group for the closing agent saves about $400 or so off costs
-lender credits can help and arranging the timing on closings to save customer almost 2 months of payments instead of only skipping one.
<Ron and Jenett can talk about ways they can save money for customer when they can get a reissue rate on the title insurance if the existing policy on the same property is only a few years old>
Jo tells story about a couple trying to save on costs. We timed the closing en d of the month and they got to skip 30 days before having to make payment. Also the realtor had negotiated for all of our buyer’s closing costs to be paid by the seller. They locked in the terms for their loan while the rates were really low. I was able to put the rate just a hair higher and give the customer an extra lender credit of over $1,000., getting their cost down close to zero. If you want to do this too call me directly off the air at 901 482 0354. My very experienced assistant, Susan Belew and I would like to work some magic on your reducing your interest rates and costs too.
The customers who have saved the most money are the ones who refinanced their homes shortening the term . They saved tens of thousands of dollars over the term of the loan.
Some of our customers saved the hundreds of dollars per month just simply lowering the rate.
People buying houses saved because of the lower rates, bargain prices for real estate
If you are refinancing, in most cases, you can roll the costs into the loan and keep the very lowest rate. Rolling costs into a refinance loan is usually cheaper than raising the rate a little because when you roll into the loan any costs, you enjoy the lower rate on the entire loan for the entire term and still do not have to come out of pocket with funds to close.
On loans where my client is purchasing a home, down payment assistance programs help minimize the amount of money needed at closing. Most of the down payment assistance programs are for people who have not owned a house in the last three years.
Ron, our general topic is “Remember To Record Your Real Estate Documents” What documents need to be recorded? Why do they need to be recorded? < Ron launches his topic>
Questions for Ron Cohen to answer:
- 2. What if a family member gives you a deed to a property— what is the next step to take?
2 What if you are deeded a property by a third party and later discover that the property is occupied. Ron discusses “constructive notice” of ownership
- 4. Discussions with Lynn and Troy McDonald of Allstate Insurance about the differences between condos and regular single family homes on the closings and on the financing.
Questions for Jo Garner to answer
- 4. Discussions with caller about the new FHA Back-to-Work program which allows people who have had bankruptcies, foreclosures and short sales to close after only one year of reestablished credit.
2 Discussions about “continuity of obligation” and how this affects homeowners trying to refinance rental property concerning seasoning requirements
- 5. Economic forecasts for 2014
- 6. Discussions with caller about rules and tips concerning “lease purchase agreements.”
REAL ESTATE TIP OF THE WEEK (RON AND JENETT)
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 is also the host of the Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe program on News Radio AM 600 WREC Saturdays 9A-10A CST and on IHEART radio http://www.iheart.com/#/live/2145/?autoplay=true
Attorney Ron Cohen, co-owner of Premium Title Group
Ron A. Cohen Of Counsel: Kusper & Raucci, Chartered
33 N. Dearborn Street Suite 1530
Chicago, Illinois 60602
312-332-5000
312-346-1145 (direct)
312-332-4663 (facsimile)
Jenett Rochester, manager of Premium Title Group Memphis office (901) 752 1587 option 2
Troy and Lynn McDonald, Allstate Insurance (901) 372 3500 (901) 849 7101
Kevin McDonell, Renaissance Associates (property management) kamcdonell@gmail.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.
Real Estate Finance Projections for 2014: A Roundup
Home sales will rise, home price appreciation will slow, purchases will dominate, government-related securitizations will drop, and commercial ones will grow, according to these forecasts. (Image: Fotolia.)
Gross Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae MBS issuance will total more than $1 trillion in 2014, down over $500 billion from 2013, MBS strategists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch are forecasting.
“That forecast is aligned with our forecast for total originations of about $1.2 trillion,” Mortgage Bankers Association chief economist Mike Fratantoni told NMN.
The interest rate on the 10-year Treasury note rose above 3% on Thursday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury could reach 3.75% by yearend 2014 as the Federal Reserve proceeds with tapering and purchases fewer and fewer U.S. Treasury and agency mortgage-backed securities, accord to the MBS strategists.
“Assuming a linear taper for the Fed, its net MBS purchases in 2014 could total $240 billion,” down from $480 billion in 2013, according to a Dec. 20 BAML “Securitization Weekly” report.
Homebuilders are optimistic about the outlook for 2014. But the MBS strategists are concerned about tight credit and recent declines in mortgage purchase applications. “As a result, we continue to think that, due to persistence of a tight mortgage credit regime, mortgage purchase volume is more likely to surprise on the downside in 2014.”
December is generally a slow time of year for buying a home. Yet purchase mortgage applications are “continuing to run more than 10% below last year’s pace,” Fratantoni said.
As a reminder, the FHA has issued new manual underwriting requirements. On December 11, 2013, HUD published in the Federal Register its final notice. The manual underwriting requirements are applicable for purchase transactions and all credit qualifying FHA refinance transactions. HUD has made five amendments to the proposed manual underwriting requirements: (1) they address the issue of borrowers who exceed the 31% housing-to-income ratio, (2) address the relationship between compensating factors and ”stretch ratios” that permit borrowers to exceed the housing payment and total debt-to-income ratios under certain FHA mortgage insurance programs, (3) the rule establishes additional compensating factors that can be used to qualify borrowers who exceed FHA’s standard housing payment and debt to income ratios, (4) HUD has reduced the credit score (from 620 to 580) below which compensating factors may not be cited and the standard ratio guidelines may not be exceeded, and lastly (5) HUD has extended the applicability of these underwriting policies to FHA-to-FHA rate and term refinance transactions (no cash-out) and credit-qualifying FHA streamline refinance transactions. The full release can be found in the Federal Register.
“The slight drop of new home sales in November from the month prior is no cause for alarm as the market remains near a five-year high in sales. Homebuyers took a momentary pause when interest rates increased earlier this year and as rates fell thru October they are returning to take advantage of the market.” Durable Orders, always volatile depending on things like aircraft or washing machine orders, also exceeded expectations.
Let’s put this into perspective: the US Federal Reserve’s current balance sheet exceeds the GDP of Germany, which is the fourth largest economy in the world.
Mortgage rates recovered modestly in most cases, falling just below the highest levels in more than 3 months. As has been the case for the entire week, the bond markets that underlie mortgage rate movement were exceptionally quiet. There haven’t been any significant developments for them to react to, and market participation is too low to muster much of a reaction anyway.
As such, we’ve simply been drifting in the direction of the last hard push back in early November. Unfortunately that “push” was in a moderately higher direction. The pace has been fairly gentle compared to what we endured this summer, but even though the interest rates being quoted aren’t rising as quickly, the closing costs associated with those rates have been drifting higher and higher.
In this way, 4.625% can remain as today’s most prevalently quoted rate for ideal, conforming 30yr Fixed loans (best-execution), but with higher closing costs than last week. 4.75% is not far from taking over.
Loan Originator Perspectives
“More stagnation today as borrowers, lenders, and bond traders continue their holidays. Once again the 10 year treasury yield (which indirectly influences mortgage rates) touched 3%. Doubtful there will be any meaningful improvement in rates until economic data slows or US fiscal/world drama reappears.” –Ted Rood, Senior Originator, Wintrust Mortgage
Today’s Best-Execution Rates
- 30YR FIXED – 4.625%
- FHA/VA – 4.25%
- 15 YEAR FIXED – 3.5%
- 5 YEAR ARMS – 3.0-3.50% depending on the lender