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Archive for the ‘Refinance’ Category

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

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.

Rates today improved and home owners in Charlotte NC could benefit from refinancing their Charlotte home! Many of our customers are saving a ton of money each month by refinancing and consolidating debts into one low fixed rate mortgage!

Under current FHA mortgage guidelines, you could do a cash out mortgage refinance in Charlotte and not be charged a higher rate just because you did a cash out refinance. Most Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans actually charge a higher interest rate for your mortgage refinance when you get cash out to pay off debt. SO this makes the FHA mortgage loan a much more attractive option.

Take a look at this example:

What could you do with another $552 a month?!?

Apply now for your Charlotte Mortgage Refinance Loan.

A Credit Tip Concerning FHA Mortgages

Important Notice! You may be hurting your chances to get approved for an FHA mortgage loan!

Any accounts in dispute on your credit report will automatically make your mortgage application with FHA a manual underwrite! This means that even if the FHA automated approval system says yes, your mortgage application will be downgraded to a no and it will be up to an underwriter to determine if you should get the mortgage. Manually underwritten mortgage loans face tougher scrutiny and can take longer to close.

The reason I tell you this is that too many people still believe that disputing a bad account on your credit will somehow either make it go away or make it not count. This is not true. Without proper documentation, removing an account that is correctly reported will not happen. In other words, if you did not pay them, you can’t simply dispute it to make it go away.

Under this FHA guideline, disputing the account can take you from an automated Yes to a manual No. In many cases, the account in question may not have made a difference either way.

So before you begin going around just disputing items on your credit, be sure to talk to a qualified mortgage consultant. Knowing how the FHA system works can make the difference between an approval and a long drawn out denial.

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Mortgage Loans Got Tougher

Throughout this mortgage “crisis” we have had one investor that was not requiring any particular credit score. They would underwrite any loan and did a lot of manual underwritten business. (A manual underwrite is a loan decision made by a real person rather than a computer and is a tough approval to get.)

With the tightening of money and credit lines available to lenders, this investor has just made some major changes. Not only have they imposed a minimum credit score of 620, they now will no longer accept any manual underwritten loans! The result: mortgage applicants with soiled credit have one less option for mortgage financing.

The way things are headed, home buyers and mortgage applicants are going to need solid credit in order to qualify. There are still a few options out there for dinged credit, but those that just won’t pay their bills are running out of options.

If you have had some credit issues and are on the fence about buying a home, now is the time to act! While there are still lenders willing to look at less than perfect credit and accept minimal down payments, you need to act now! Forget what the media is selling. The real estate and mortgage market in Charlotte is still attractive and strong! But if you wait until all the “smoke clears” you may be left sitting out in the cold!

Mortgage Rates for Charlotte mortgages get better

Today we actually saw an improvement in mortgage rates for the Charlotte mortgage market. For the past few weeks we have consistently seen mortgage rates in Charlotte erode. However, today there was some improvement which was a welcome change.

If you are in the market to buy a home in Charlotte, or need to refinance your Charlotte home loan, now is the time to make your move. Mortgage rates are expected to continue to worsen as the summer continues, so waiting can cost you a lot of money.

I urge all Charlotte Realtors and agents to act now and get your home buyers qualified now. With the great number of homes for sale in Charlotte, this is the best opportunity to buy a home we have seen in a long time. This is especially true for First Time Home Buyers in the Charlotte NC market! With no home to sell, and only rent to walk away from, first time buyers should be jumping at the opportunities in front of them!

Act now and take advantage of the low mortgage rates available for the Charlotte area.
Apply for a Charlotte mortgage loan now and get started!

Charlotte Refinance Mortgage Loans

Attention Charlotte Home Owners: If you are considering a potential mortgage refinance in the Charlotte NC area, you should act now! Charlotte refinance mortgage rates are still very low!

Charlotte home owners are refinancing their mortgages in large numbers! With so many people deciding to stay in their homes, Charlotte refinancing is hot. By refinancing your mortgage today, you can lock in a lower mortgage rate, obtain a lower mortgage payment or even consolidate your bills.

With gas prices on the rise and the cost of living getting tougher, now would be the best time to refinance your mortgage in Charlotte and get a better mortgage program. Get cash out to pay off other debt or improve your home. Lower your monthly mortgage payment and give your budget a break

No More Pick a Payment for Wachovia

It appears that Charlotte NC based Wachovia could no longer handle the negative press. They have officially dropped the Pick A Payment product from their mortgage portfolio. After spending all the time and money in buying (and defending the purchase of) Golden West Financial, they are now stuck with nothing more than a less than stellar return on the investment.

Wachovia has taken a beating on this product. While the “option arm” mortgage product is not a bad product when sold correctly to the right borrower, the way this was sold and the pressure Wachovia put on its loan officers to push this product really gave it a bad image. This image was one that Wachovia could not overcome, mainly because they never changed how they sold it!

So for now, Wachovia has dropped the Pick a Payment mortgage loan. In my opinion, this is actually good for consumers. While a good mortgage option for a select few, too many potential borrowers were being pushed to look at this loan even if it didn’t make sense for them. Now, with it no longer offered, Wachovia can push their borrowers towards less risky loans. But expect that they will still push. Their loan officers are paid on the types of products they sell and if they hit their quotas for each product. So while a 30 year fixed may be your best bet, your Wachovia loan officer may well still push you towards a 5 year adjustable because they need to sell 3 more of those this month.

When considering mortgage options, you really should look to a licensed mortgage professional that focuses on what best fits your needs, not the bank’s needs. The Carolina Mortgage Connection does not have any quotas to hit, and we only focus on the right solution to match with your needs and goals.

Charlotte Home Loan Dies over $25

“But it was only $25.00. Surely that can’t matter that much!” Unfortunately, it did.

Recently a client of mine went from being approved to buy a home in Charlotte to being denied for a Charlotte mortgage loan. It was over a $25 credit card payment. Unfortunately, the payment on one of their credit cards was not paid on time and the late payment was reported to the credit bureau. This late payment caused their credit scores to drop significantly, enough to disqualify them from the mortgage they had applied for.

The amount of your monthly payments has no bearing on the significance of the payment history. It does not matter if the monthly payment is $1,000, $100 or $1. If there is a payment due and it is not paid on time, it is reported as late. A recent late payment will hurt your credit rating and your score will suffer because of it. Most mortgage companies in Charlotte and across the country are looking very hard at credit. It is more important than ever.

If you are considering buying a home in Charlotte, make sure that every obligation you have is paid on time. If you think it is insignificant, pay it anyway. The last thing you want to experience is what this client did… it can be very heartbreaking. And delivering the news isn’t fun on my end either!

Do a search online for “mortage underwriter” and many of the images you will find are of sharp looking, well dressed individuals that seemingly do not have a care in the world. For example, here is one right off the internet:

However, this is such a false pretense! Today’s mortgage underwriters, while professional and sharp, aren’t just sitting around with nothing to do! They are busy, very busy! Most of them are stressed, with dozens of files sitting on their desks that need to be looked at TODAY! In addition to the files they have to get to TODAY, they are also dealing with processors and loan officers calling and emailing them all day long.

Imagine if you will, you have 45 loan packages sitting on your desk. Each file has forms and papers just thrown in them in no particular order and you have to sort them out and make sense of them. Now, for each of those loans, consider that during that day you will get 2 phone calls and probably 3 emails regarding EACH ONE. That means that besides having to review 45 loans (and all the forms and papers that are included in each one) you will have roughly 225 interruptions. Each one is “urgent” and will give you the impression that you must stop everything you are doing to look at this file.

Sure there are occasional files that do need immediate attention, but for the most part they don’t. But if people would just leave you alone for a few hours you might be able to know a big dent in that stack!

Now.. here is what today’s mortgage underwriter looks like: Read the rest of this entry »