Interest!  That’s such a bad word.  However, it’s what makes our economy go round.  Your lender will loan you thousands of dollars to give you the ability to own a home for right to charge you interest on the loan.
Here’s how it works.  Take the interest rate for your loan, multiply it by the balance [...]

This is the first of 5 post where I will explain each component of a mortgage payment. Principal is the portion of the payment that goes towards paying down what a borrower owes on a house. Unfortunately, the Principal portion of a payment is very small when a borrower first starts paying mortgage [...]

Here is a question that I get all of the time, “What is my monthly mortgage payment going to be?” That is a tough question to answer without knowing what all goes into a mortgage payment. Let’s breakdown a payment into pieces to simplify things.
Principal – This is the portion of your payment [...]

A VA loan is a type of loan that is given to active military members or inactive veterans. Let me give you the top 5 reasons why I love VA loans.
5) Home buyers get most of their closing cost paid for by the seller which greatly increases the loan amounts that these buyers are [...]

FHA loans have been around forever and like many trends, FHA loans are the trendy loan program of choice for first time home buyers.   These loans offer relaxed credit standards and low required down payments to purchase a home.
However, there are some fine print rules that investors, agents, and home owners should know about before [...]

We live in Florida.  And for those of you that live here as well, you know that hot whether and lots of rain can spell all kinds of trouble for Wood Structures in homes.  So what does WDO mean?  Wood Destroying Organisms.  This can include anything from termites to fungus growing on the outside of your [...]

Effective March 1, 2009 Fannie Mae will allow investors to own up to ten (10) financed properties based upon borrower eligibility requirements. This is a much anticipated and welcome change to regulations that temporarily sidelined seasoned investors who owned more than four (4) financed properties. Fannie Mae returned to the ten (10) property [...]

Thursday February 19, 2009, 11:27 am EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Interest rates on standard U.S. 30-year mortgages dropped in the latest week to levels just shy of record lows as concerns of a deepening recession boosted the appeal of fixed-rate investments, Freddie Mac said on Thursday.
The average fixed 30-year mortgage rate declined to 5.04 percent [...]

Can I get a collective WHOHOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fannie Mae has reported that they are going to change their guidelines from 4 homes financed on an individuals credit to 10 homes. This is a huge victory for serious investors looking to acquire a large number of homes as inventory.
Things to ask your lender about:

Seasoning requirements [...]

More news about appraisals… If you buy a home for a deeply discounted price and then put a large amount of money into the house to repair it, you will find yourself having to do TWO separate appraisal’s to justify the increase in value. This adds time and cost to the closing process. [...]