All Forum Posts by: Paul Defngin

It's worth noting that occasionally, lenders may request a nominal fee, such as this one, to offset credit report expenses or to secure a commitment from borrowers for their efforts.

Notably, credit report fees have increased, with joint applicants sometimes encountering charges as high as $125. The rising costs for lenders are a contributing factor.

Determining the advisability of such requests requires a personalized assessment, as individual circumstances vary. It's essential to recognize that everyone's situation is unique, and making informed decisions in financial matters is crucial.

A handful of questions:

• Is this an owner-occupied property or investment?

• Where are you buying?

• Where do you stand as far as credit scores?

• What is the price of the property?

• What is the net income from the other properties that you own?

• Are you retirement age?

• How much other liquid assets do you have besides the funds that you plan to use for this transaction?

Depending on your answers to these questions, there may be other options to qualify for a conventional loan, such as asset depletion or setting up a trust distribution to qualify.

Of course, you can always go for the bank statement loan option. It’s best that you connect with an experienced loan officer that can help guide you to explore all your options. Experience matters.

You can absolutely get a co-signor. At $250,000 and if you are first time home buyer, you can either put down 3% and use a conventional loan or 3.50% down and use an FHA financing.

My recommendation is to speak to a few reputable local lenders. 

As far I know NACA is for home purchase only. And in almost cases; they are very conservative on what a home buyer can qualify given that they offer below market interest rates, no down payment, no MI, and no closing costs. This program is sponsored by Bank of America, Citi, and maybe a few other lenders. It's a non-profit organization.

It also takes a long time based on what other clients of mine had gone through only to give up and come back and buy their home the regular way. 

Hmmm. Personally, I would recommend that you opt for HELOC (variable tied to Prime Rate plus some type of margin) versus a fixed rate home equity loan or HELOAN.

The reason is that HELOAN are forward mortgage meaning that as soon as you take out that loan and you get the funds, the bank will start charging you interests on it and your first payment usually starts like 30-45 days after loan funds. Plus, interest rates on HELOANS in this environment and depending on how much equity you are pulling out of your home is most likely going to be in the double digits. 

Personally, I would recommend the HELOC. While this is variable rate and tied to Prime Rate plus a Margin, sometimes; you only pay based on what you used and when you used it.

Prime rate currently is 8.50% and even if the Fed Reserve raise rates again next month, I still would recommend the HELOC over the fixed rate HELOAN. Who knows, maybe, next year or the year after, the Fed Reserve starts to cut rates and that will directly reduce your HELOC rate.

Good deal.  

Yup that is odd. Maybe there is more to the story but any good Loan Officer should have known upfront exactly what you needed.

Moving closing 3 times is not necessarily the underwriter’s fault and could be that your MLO is not communicating with you properly. 

Hopefully you get it all sorted out. 

 Best quote ever, yet, so many people only look at the now and not the long-term. 

 Agreed.