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Archive for the ‘Mortgages’ Category

Today's Mortgage rates in N. Carolina (1)

Today it appears that mortgage rates are hovering round the 5% mark for conventional 30 year fixed mortgages. This assumes good credit scores and 20% equity in the property.

According to our sources(2), the average mortgage rate for North Carolina today is a super low 4.94% mortgage rate.

Now is one of the best times to get your North Carolina mortgage reviewed, and if possible refinance you current home loan into something better.

Sources: 1. Money, by twcollins @ Flickr 2. Zillow.com

236/365 doing the sums: courtesy obo-bobolina @ flickr

North Carolina Mortgage Loan Transfers

Mortgage lenders typically sell the servicing of mortgage loans shortly after closing a loan. The mortgage loan can still be sold at any time to another lender to allow the mortgage loan company to free up capital. In North Carolina, the mortgage lender is required to provide you with at least 15 days notice of the sale of your mortgage loan to another lender. This is supposed to provide adequate opportunity to ensure your mortgage payment is mailed to the right lender.

Charlotte Mortgage Double Paid

Here in the Charlotte, NC area, this procedure did not work as intended.  According to Channel 9 News (Charlotte, NC), a local Charlotte man was paying two mortgage companies for the same home loan! It seems that the mortgage was sold by GMAC Mortgage to another lender, but GMAC was still collecting payments that were being drafted from his bank account. Even after complaining to GMAC, they claimed they could not find any records of taking more than $2300 in mortgage payments. Finally, Channel 9’s “Action 9″ team got involved and got his money back.

NC Law and You

This highlights a couple things. Although North Carolina requires notice of the sale of a mortgage loan to another lender, this does not guarantee that the original lender will have their ducks in a row and follow through as they should. So one should keep an eye on the transition between lenders. NC mortgage law could not stop the problem from happening, so it is up to you to make sure they don’t run away with your money. Additionally, the Charlotte man paid his mortgage by bank draft, which allowed this to happen. If you are paying your mortgage (or any other bills) using a direct debit bank draft from your checking account, you are giving total control over to the party that you agree to pay. Errors happen, and even the best of money trails can get lost. With the age of online banking, one should consider paying their mortgage using online banking rather than bank draft. Then you are in total control over who gets that mortgage payment!

Article ID: cmc963

Beazer Mortgage Corp, the home financing arm of Beazer Homes USA, Inc, has agreed to refund more than 1,500 North Carolina borrowers, including borrowers in Charlotte, NC. The grand total of the agreement is $2.5 million in refunds.

Back last year, Beazer Mortgage Corp was involved in a local scandal with alleged mortgage fraud that ended with Beazer surrendering their North Carolina mortgage license and leaving the state. This also caused a major black eye on the company and impacted other Charlotte home builders.

Mortgage fraud is nothing new, and the news media has taken every opportunity they can to use the term. While today the term “mortgage fraud” is used to practically describe any mortgage that isn’t a conventional mortgage from the 1960’s, the fact is that there are serious cases of mortgage fraud out there.

At least in this case, some home buyers in the Charlotte area will get some help. Although, I doubt it will make a major impact on the economy, local housing market, or for those facing a foreclosure.

Wow! Have you checked on mortgage rates lately? Mortgage rates in Charlotte are very low. As a matter of fact, these are some of the lowest Charlotte home mortgage rates we have ever seen!

How low? Well, lets just say you may be very surprised! I have made a practice to NOT publish mortgage interest rates here on the website, only because mortgage rates tend to change daily and in many cases multiple times a day. To keep up with that would require me to sit at the computer and monitor the info 24/7. And beyond that, advertising the lowest possible rate with the perfect scenario to qualify always seems to come across as a bit bogus to me… lol.

However, you need to find out what the low mortgage rates look like for the Charlotte market. With these low mortgage rates, now is the best time EVER to buy a home or refinance your current Charlotte home mortgage loan.

Use our secure mortgage application to find out where you qualify. There is no obligation but the information can literally change your life (and I am not exaggerating here!)

Apply Now for a Charlotte Home Loan

Whether you have an FHA mortgage currently or a standard conventional mortgage, you have the option to refinance into a great FHA mortgage loan in Charlotte and save a ton of money!

One of the advantages of an FHA mortgage is the higher loan to value allowed. With an FHA mortgage, you can borrower up to 95% of the property’s value. For example, a home in Charlotte worth $200,000 could borrow $190,000 using a Charlotte FHA mortgage! With conventional mortgages, loan to value limits of 90% with no cash out and 75% with cash out can severely limit your options. An FHA mortgage in Charlotte allows much more flexibility in the amount you can borrow.

The other great news is in regards to interest rates for FHA mortgage loans. Charlotte is seeing tremendous rates and this even applies to FHA. Your new FHA mortgage rate could be much lower than your current mortgage saving you a ton of money!

So if you are considering refinancing your home in the Charlotte area, you should consider an FHA mortgage loan. Charlotte still qualifies for FHA mortgage limits of $271,050.00, so this means a lot of Charlotte homeowners could take advantage of this. Ask for more information today!

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What a year 2008 was! We in Charlotte didn’t get hit as hard, but we have felt the effects. While there has been a tremendous amount of bad news, one very good bit of news has come from all of this… now is the absolute best time to refinance your mortgage in Charlotte!

Charlotte mortgage rates are among the lowest we have ever seen! In many cases, refinancing your mortgage today could save you not only hundreds of dollars a month, but also thousands of dollars over the life of the mortgage! So refinance your Charlotte home mortgage today and start saving!

One of the concerns in refinancing a mortgage in the Charlotte area is property values. Since the amount you can borrow is based on the value of the property, this is a valid concern. And while property values across the nation have seen sharp declines, we are fortunate here. Property values here have seen minimal declines, meaning refinancing your home loan in Charlotte can be much easier that elsewhere!

If you have questions about refinancing your home loan, or would like to find out what mortgage rates in Charlotte look like today, please feel free to request more information. A Charlotte home loan specialist will contact you with the information you need.

Although my main focus has been on the Charlotte mortgage loan business over the years, it may surprise many folks to know that I have helped people find mortgage loans in Winston Salem NC as well as many areas of the Carolinas. You see, the mortgage license I have is for all of North Carolina, so whether its a home mortgage loan in Winston Salem, an FHA home loan in Greensboro or even a mortgage refinance loan in Raleigh, I can help North Carolina families get the home mortgage loan they need.

One of my favorite clients was in Winston Salem. She was a single mom that needed to get a few bills off her back. After we found the right mortgage loan to refinance her current Winston Salem mortgage, she was able to save hundreds of dollars a month and even got caught up on a few bills. The difference it made in her life was just awesome.

I enjoy searching for Winston Salem home loans for clients in the area. Having lived in Lexington, NC for well over a decade, I became very familiar with Winston. I enjoy the area and the people. So anyone in need of a home mortgage loan in Winston Salem, NC please feel free to say hi!

Today I received an email from an account representative that the lender was dropping all stated income mortgage loans from their loan offerings. This is a further decline in the faith lenders have in stated income mortgage loans.

Sometimes referred to as the “liar’s loan”, stated mortgage loans have gotten a bit of a bad rep in my opinion. When stated income mortgages first came out, there was some major common sense involved in approving the loan. Usually the borrower would need to have very good credit and a solid history of making all their payments on time. Initially, stated income was designed to service the self employed borrower that would have difficulty in proving all their income. The challenge that faced self employed individuals was that the tax code allows a lot of opportunities to lower their taxable income, and most lenders use the taxable income to base thier decision on. So if a self employed borrower’s tax return reported a net taxable income of $18,000 yet they grossed $150,000 for the year, common sense would indicate they actually used more than $18,000 to live on.

However, since lenders went so far the other way and offered stated income mortgage loans to people with salaries and even fixed incomes, many people were using the stated income programs to buy more home than they could ever afford. They would bank on the home appreciating quickly and either refinancing or selling the home. Then when the bottom fell out, they were left holding a home that they could not afford and could not dump.

Stated income was such a small part of the mortgage and real estate boom, but since it was so easy to single out as a problem, lenders have run quickly from even the good stated income borrowers!

I hope stated income loans come back soon. The people that need this mortgage loan product currently are left underserved and there is certainly a viable market for the product. But until the media stops the gloom and doom, lenders will continue to shy away from all appearance of risk.

THERE IS NO MONEY TO LOAN!

THE SKY IS FALLING!

THE ECONOMY IS DEAD!

*cough* *cough*

Hold on a second.. I am trying to swallow this….

Folks, there is more than enough money for mortgage loans out there! The reason more mortgage loans are not being written right now is not because the money is gone… it’s because the buyers are gone! Applications for mortgages are way down, mostly due to fear!

And why are we full of fear? We should thank the news media for that! The panic headlines even have the White House panicing and now there is a $700 Billion “bailout” plan up for a second vote! Listening to the different talking heads, I hear about the reasons for this plan, but also am aware of all the other “stuff” being slipped into this bill! For example, Nancy Pelosi today brags that this new legislature has some great new features that will help energy and global warming, both which failed to pass last year. What in the world does that have to do with the bad mortgage debt on Wall Street? NOTHING!

True, property values across the country have fallen. Even the Charlotte area has seen a decrease in property values, although not by much! But right now is the absolutely BEST TIME TO BUY A HOME IN CHARLOTTE! Property values are lower and should rebound shortly while mortgage rates are still VERY LOW! And unless you just have the worst credit in the world, you can still get a mortgage!

Granted lenders have tightened up a bit on requirements. You will need better credit than over the past few years and you may need a little bit of money down. But that is not all bad. Lenders have gotten back to common sense.

So please, ignore the media’s claims that everything is failing and that you can’t find a mortgage. We have seen a gas shortage in Charlotte, but there is no shortage of mortgage funds available… just a shortage of buyers. Take advantage of the market and buy a home now!

A few days ago I asked how the Alaska Home Loan market was doing. How funny that my website that is focused on Charlotte Home Loans would rank on the first page of Google when searching Alaska Home Loans!

I have not yet heard from any mortgage loan officers that offer Alaska home loans, but hope to soon. I did hear from a Realtor that lives in the north west area of the US that happened to be visiting Alaska when coming across my post. I did think that was a bit ironic.

Anyway, I still would love to hear from those that offer Alaska home loans. How’s your market doing?