All Forum Posts by: Elias Halvorson

I think it’s a great career to get into, unfortunately that BS barrier to entry keeps most folks out. Appraisers aren’t keen to train their future competition - they gain nothing out of it. 

Not sure if you can extend the contract at all and try to get a cashout or a hard money loan on one of your investment properties you currently own? That would be my recommendation.

Im from Seattle as well and the main company is from San Fran so I had to plug my nose and still do business with a company based in that garbage town... Go Hawks! 

Hey Keegan, 

Have you considered a personal loan? Very low fees and probably equal or better rate - I have gotten 80K personal loans from SOFI. I can DM you a link if you'd like. Rates probably around 10-13%, you can stretch it to 72 months, low origination fees (like 300-500 total in fees) 

Hi Kiley, 

the first thing you need to do is ensure you are paying taxes on your rental income - you’ll need 2 years if you want a conventional loan. For ease and simplicity, I would recommend having one of your friends/stable renters to rent the whole house. You can collect income from the renters separately, but just make sure you deposit the same amount (whatever your rental contract says) at the same time, on a monthly basis. Does that make sense?

You could be overlooking some knuckleheads doing damage to the place - I've thought about doing the same thing for my daughter in a few years. She's picking pretty expensive places to live though so not as appealing as your deal! 

Sorry, realize I wrote "lender should have a list of real estate agents" when I meant they "should have a list of insurance agents". 

Not necessarily a bridge loan, I am mainly talking about any sort of non-conforming loan which works for your buyer. I am a mortgage broker (not licensed in CT), but here in Hawaii we have a few national mortgage banks/financial institutions we work with which will provide financing on condos where the master policy is less than 100% replacement cost. Two of the companies we work with which due this are Acra Lending and Champions Funding. 

@Lynn McGeein, what is the thought process behind using a specified lender? That seems to really restrict the buyer's options and avenues for closing. It neither helps the seller or buyer being pigeonholed into one lender. 

Malick, 

Sorry to hear this. This is a major problem throughout the country. While I am not familiar with the CT market, the lender should have a list of real estate agents which provide gap coverage. Unfortunately, that won't matter as  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSE’s) that set the guidelines for conventional loans, which most lenders follow for other types of loans, too, require that a condo building’s master hurricane insurance policy provide 100% coverage of the replacement value for the building. 

So, with that your buyer will likely have to go with a different route than a conventional loan which will likely require a higher down payment and have a higher interest rate. 

If it is a VA loan the buyer is doing it shouldn't be an issue and the lender can switch to Freedom Mortgage or another military-focused mortgage bank.

You're not bound at all, anytime. During the refi boom I had people cancel on their lender and switch with me after they had signed closing documents(this was during the 3 day right of rescission for the VA loan) you may incur costs such as the appraisal, but other than that you shouldn't owe anything to the lender. You can still keep the title company and switch to another lender. Normally I would agree with the above comments with regards to responsiveness, but on refinances time is not as critical and I would recommend going with the best rate. ALWAYS. I'd recommend going with a broker as they usually have better interest rates, and paying attention to rates (mortgagenewdaily.com) to see if they've fallen since you locked your rate and you could potentially float down to a better interest rate