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Posts Tagged ‘mortgage’

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

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How close an estimate are you given?

When you apply for a mortgage loan, lenders are required to offer a form known as the “Good Faith Estimate.” This form is supposed to provide the borrower with a realistic estimate of the costs involved in obtaining a mortgage loan. This should provide the borrower with the knowledge up front to know if they can afford to obatin the mortgage. However, some argue that these should be used to compare and shop lenders. But could this be just a “fantasy” notion which can backfire on the borrower? Let’s consider this…

The Good Faith Estimate (commonly referred to as the GFE) is designed to be a disclosure of what to expect. But becuase so many “experts” and “talking heads” have preached and continue to instruct borrowers to compare GFE’s between lenders, many lenders have begun to go “skinny” on their estimates. As a result, many do not provide a real estimate to the consumer in ‘good faith.’ Since these lenders are afraid of the consumer using it to shop them against other lenders, many will play a kind of ”bait and switch” game just to look the best and get the application.

The problem is that when a good faith estimate does not provide realistic numbers, borrowers get hurt. Let’s say for example that you are looking to buy a home and obtain a good faith estimate from “Big Bank USA”.  On this GFE, the money you need to have ready to close on your loan is roughly $2,500. You evaluate your money and feel confident you can handle this. So you begin the home buying process and find a home. After inspections and appraisals (which you ususally pay upfront out of your pocket) you are finally about ready to close. But when you get to the attorney’s office you find out that your closing costs are actually $4,000 and you need $1,500 more to close on your loan, or lose your home! Yikes!

What happened? Well, the loan officer at “Big Bank USA” was afraid that you might shop his GFE against other lenders. So he did a “skinny” verison of an estimate. He “miscalculated” the amount of money needed to establish your escrow account. Although he knew the closing would be mid-month, he only figured 1 day of pre-paid interest instead of 15. The estimate for home owner’s insurance and taxes were “low balled.” The attorney, title insurance and other fees related to the closing were “slightly off”. All of which adds up! (Of course, he won’t actually be at the closing, but over the phone he will “confess” that these items were all “outside of his control.”)

So I wonder if using a Good Faith Estimate for “shopping” is what it should be used for? Regardless, I would suggest that you should definetly review the estimate and see if it is something you can afford. And be sure to ask some questions…

• Is this accurate?
• What on here might change?
• Which are actual lender fees and which are “outside of your control?”

Listen to the responses and you will quickly see if the one you are talking to has provided you something you can be confident in. After all, its not what someone “promises” when you apply… it’s what they deliver when you close.

Acceptable types of Alternative Credit for FHA Mortgages

According to the HUD Mortgagee Letter 2008-11, HUD has created two groups of references that can be used as alternative credit for FHA mortgage loans. These are used when the borrower’s credit file does not have enough information to create a credit score, or when the credit file produces a score with very limited credit. HUD stressed that these are not to be considered as an alternative to “poor credit.”

Basic Guidelines for FHA Alternative Credit

There must be at least 3 references that can show a solid bill payment history. All of these should cover the payment history of the most recent 12 months. At least one of these should be from the “Preferred” Group with the focus of references being mainly in the “Preferred” group. Once all options have been exhuasted with the “Preferred” group, then references from the “Secondary” group can be considered.

The “Preferred Group”

rental housing payments (subject to independent verification if the borrower is a renter), utility company reference (if not included in the rental housing payment), including gas, electricity, water, land-line home telephone service, cable TV. If the borrower is renting from a family member, request independent documents to prove regularity of payments, such as cancelled checks.

The “Secondary Group”

insurance coverage, i.e., medical, auto, life, renter’s insurance (not payroll deducted); payment to child care providers – made to a business providing such services; school tuition; retail stores – department, furniture, appliance stores, specialty stores; rent to own – i.e., furniture, appliances; payment of that part of medical bills not covered by insurance; Internet/cell phone services; a documented 12 month history of saving by regular deposits (at least quarterly/non-payroll deducted/no NSF checks reflected), resulting in an increasing balance to the account; automobile leases, or a personal loan from an individual with repayment terms in writing and supported by cancelled checks to document the payments.

These alternative credit references must be verifiable. HUD’s preference is that they are verified by a credit reporting agency and that they create a “nontraditional mortgage credit report.” This report would be used by the lender just like a standard credit report would be used.

If a nontraditional mortgage credit report is not possible, HUD further requires that each reference be independantly verified and should be backed up by cancelled checks covering the last 12 months’ payment history.

In my next posting I will address what can be done if no references can be found, or if there no “Preferred” group references available.

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