Category: Mortgage Companies

How Much Mortgage Can You Afford?

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Know-How Much Of A Mortgage You Can Afford

Are you unsure about how much mortgage you can afford to pay on a home? If so, then you’re not ready to take the next step until you figure out a few things.

By being sure about how much of a payment you can handle without struggling, you can be confident about going to the next step… Finding a home that meets your budget.

Owning a home should make you feel secure and safe not stressed and worried. You should calculate what you can realistically afford and safely fit into your budget.

Buying a home is usually a very emotional decision and that emotion can sometimes get you into trouble. There’s nothing worse than buying a home because you fell in love with it and then realizing that you really can’t afford it and end up falling behind on payments. This will take years off your life and can easily be avoided by knowing what your budget is.

 Think Ahead.

Lenders and mortgage brokers don’t know and don’t really care about future plans that you may have for your personal life. Only you know what’s coming down the road.

Are you planning to have more children, kids are expensive!

Do you have a teenager that will be heading off to college soon?

Are you thinking about returning back to school yourself?

How secure is the job that you currently have?

All of these things and a million more can have a drastic effect on your income which is why you need to look out a bit further on the horizon when considering homeownership. In addition to factoring in your lifestyle and what you want to accomplish, here are some guidelines that will help you to determine a budget you can afford.

 1- Figure Out Your Budget- Write down every monthly expense that you have on a piece of paper and be sure to not leave anything out no matter how insignificant you might think it is. Make sure to also include future trips and vacations that you plan on taking that year.

See how much is left over to pay the costs associated with owning a home like a mortgage, insurance, property taxes, utilities, homeowners association dues, yard maintenance, pool maintenance, etc.

Just by doing this exercise alone, you’ll have a much clearer picture of what your budget for owning a home will be. Most people are usually very surprised to see how much they spend in a month and not in a good way. The number is always much higher than people expect it to be.

 2- What’s Your Down payment? The more you put down on a house, the lower your monthly payment will be. However, the lower your down payment is the bigger your loan amount will be and your monthly payment will also be higher.

Another thing to consider is that loans that require less than a 20% down payment will usually require that you pay private mortgage insurance or “PMI”. This insurance protects the lender against default and can easily add on another 2 or 3 hundred dollars to your payment.

3- Use A Mortgage Broker. Getting a loan without using a mortgage broker is like buying or selling a house without hiring a realtor. And just like when you’re looking for a good realtor, you should research the mortgage broker to see what his track record is and see if they have any online reviews, etc.

Once you find a good mortgage broker, he or she can be instrumental in getting you a mortgage that meets your needs. They should also be able to help you to figure out your monthly budget in addition to helping you navigate through the mortgage shopping process.

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How Will A Short Sale Affect Your Credit?

Posted on by Jenny Zamora
short sale realtor orlando

How Will A Short Sale affect Your Credit?

Over the years I’ve gotten this question more time than I can remember. “How will a short sale will affect my credit?”

A short sale can have a lot less of an effect on your credit score than a foreclosure. But, it must be done correctly.

Short sales can happen if a lender agrees to accept less than the amount owed against the home because there is not enough equity in it to pay all costs of the sale.

It’s important to note that not all lenders will agree to a short sale.

If your request is approved, your agent should ask your lender to report the short sale as “paid in full,” as part of the negotiation.

There have been reports that a short sale has about the same impact on your credit score as a foreclosure. However, from experience with our own clients, that’s never been the case.

Most of the time, sellers that have completed a short sale report that their credit score only dropped by 100 points or so, which can be easily fixed by any decent credit repair company.

The biggest advantage of a short sale, as opposed to a foreclosure, is that you will be able to qualify to buy another home within two years as opposed to five to seven years after a foreclosure.

I hope this video was helpful, If you still have questions, feel free to contact us at 407-902-7750 or visit us at https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/short-sales/

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Fannie Mae Short Sales Just Got Shorter

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Fannie Mae

I believe that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac as well as most all other lending institutions finally acknowledge the importance of the realtor’s role in the short sale process.

It seems like yesterday [back in 2004] when we started doing short sales. Orlando realtors like myself that specialized in doing only short sales dealt with frustration everyday.

Short sales were rare and many lenders weren’t equipped to properly handle the short sale process. And when you did complete a short sale, getting your hard earned commission from the lender at the closing was like pulling teeth. Thankfully, we’ve come a long way since then and most lenders are very aware of how to handle a short sale efficiently.

In 2008 shortly after the bubble burst in 2007, the US Department of Treasury introduced the Making Home Affordable Program aka “HAMP”.  The intention was to reach out to struggling homeowners that wanted to try and keep their homes as opposed to selling them via short sale or losing them to foreclosure. The program was extremely successful at what it was supposed to do which was help homeowners modify their mortgage so that they could keep their home.

By this time, “short sale” was a pretty common term for anyone who owned a house or anyone who watched the local news for that matter. Lenders were also getting used to processing short sales and even started offering several different “Cash for Keys” programs as an incentive to homeowners who agreed to short sale their home. Even though, overall, short sales are still complicated and time consuming many lenders have seen the light and have taken leaps and bounds in streamlining the the short sale process.

Fannie Mae [Federal National Mortgage Association] announced recently that they will attempt to assist listing agents that want to pursue a Fannie Mae short sale. In order to understand Fannie Mae’s new and improved process, you have to understand how short sales work.

 

What Changes Were Made With Fannie Mae Short Sales?

Fannie Mae just introduced a new website www home path for short sales .com. At the time of the listing, Fannie Mae will now provide list price guidelines. In addition, the agency will work directly with the listing agent or seller to get the 1st lien approval. The next step for Fannie Mae is to allow realtors to negotiate an offer directly through them saving us even more time.

 

Jennifer Zamora Orlando Realtor

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Orlando Mortgage Brokers Speak Out

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Orlando Mortgage Brokers Spill Their Guts

Recently, top mortgage brokers in Central Florida were asked what their biggest challenges were in their industry. A few of them had this to say…

Some claim that the mortgage market still has ways to go before it fully recovers and that home sales are still below normal levels when you compare them to last year. Brokers feel that inventory levels still haven’t quite caught up with the demand. They went on to say that many people are still reluctant to buy because of the overall lack of confidence in the job market.  All of these factors have a tremendous impact on home purchases in Orlando. Some believe that there is a building demand from new families as well as baby boomers that want to move into a smaller space to begin their retirement.

A mortgage broker’s role is to help their clients understand the entire process involved with a mortgage and how to make sense of it so that they can become homeowners or refinance their existing mortgage. As an Orlando Realtor, I depend heavily on my relationship with a few select mortgage brokers that have proven what they can do through past transactions. It works the same way for them. I get a steady stream of short-sale clients from the mortgage brokers that I work with because they know that I’m an Orlando short sale expert and they can count on me to get the job done.            

  

Customer Service Is King …                                                                                                                                                                              Mortgage brokers would also be wise to really focus on making their customer’s experience a good one. I can’t tell you how many times mortgage brokers get blamed when something goes wrong at the closing table. Turn around time is key when you do mortgages and the most successful mortgage brokers are the ones that get the job done and get it done fast. Even though mortgage brokers take a lot of heat when something goes wrong at the closing table, People should understand that many times it’s completely out of the mortgage broker’s hands.

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Banks Can Take Your Assets After Foreclosure!

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Stop Foreclosure Before It Starts

Are you behind on your mortgage and worried that the lender might go after your other assets if your home gets foreclosed on?

Unfortunately, it can happen if you live in Florida. This scenario can occur in an instance where if the bank is unable to recoup the full amount of the loan especially if it’s a large loan.

With such a large number of Orlando foreclosures still looming many homeowners are wondering if their lender can garnish their salary or personal bank accounts.

The problems that can crop up from a typical foreclosure sale don’t usually occur until after the sale has taken place and the bank ends up with the short end of the stick.

Here in Florida lenders can go to the court for a “deficiency judgment” in order to try and collect the rest of the money that is owed after the foreclosure. With a deficiency judgment in their possession, banks can go after your personal assets like a car or a boat. However, if the asset isn’t yet paid off, then the lender will have to settle for the second position after the lender for the car or boat, etc.

Florida lenders don’t usually go after a person’s assets following a foreclosure sale especially if they don’t see much to tap into.The truth is that collecting judgments is extremely time-consuming and can be quite costly to the bank.

Banks will pay more attention to homeowners with homes that are worth millions of dollars because the larger the loan the bigger the loss. In these cases, the lenders will check the borrower’s bank accounts especially if the accounts are with the same bank. Depending on the situation, banks can move to freeze or garnish these accounts. Banks will also go after businesses that default on large commercial properties.

Just When You Thought It Was Over

There’s another risk that exists for smaller borrowers that may occur down the line. Many times, banks end up selling off these types of judgments to investors or collection agencies for pennies on the dollar. These agencies hire people that are dedicated to hound people any way they can for a settlement. Since judgments are valid for up to twenty years, it gives them more than enough time to come after the borrower for the balance due.

Avoiding A Deficiency Judgment

The best way to avoid a deficiency judgment is for people to deal with their mortgage problems head-on. take action! If a borrower has the chance to pursue a short sale with their lender then they should do it. Not dealing with the problem is the absolute worst thing that someone can do to themselves. It’s like having a financial ticking time bomb on their hands. Borrowers are soo much better off working with the bank as opposed to avoiding them.

Hire A Short Sale Expert

It’s extremely important that the short sale payoff be recorded as a “full payoff”. To ensure that things are done correctly, enlist the help of a short sale expert. Find a short-sale realtor in your area that has a high closing ratio. Avoid realtors that aren’t experienced in the short sale arena or that have only done a few. Selling a home is one of the most, if not the most important transaction of a person’s life so it’s crucial that they find the best-qualified realtor for the job.

 

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