Should You Wait to Buy A Home?

June 29, 2023 by Leave a Comment

If you’ve been considering buying a home or if you’re a real estate agent who is working with clients who are on the fence about buying; please check out my latest resource page: Should You Wait to Buy a Home (mortgageporter.loans)

I have prepared various scenarios that compare renting to buying a home as well as a report on the cost of waiting.

Of course, I’m more than happy to prepare scenarios to help you decide if you should wait to buy a home now or rent. Please reach out to me if I can be of any assistance!

Filed Under: First Time Home Buyer, Video Tagged With: , ,

Are You a Co-Signer on a Student Loan?

June 26, 2023 by Leave a Comment

When Congress resolved the latest debt ceiling with the passing of The Financial Responsibility Act of 2023, both parties agreed to stop the forbearance on student loans payments. Federally backed student loan payments have been paused for the past three years due to the pandemic. Payments on student loans are set to resume following this September and many are not going to be prepared for this. [Read more…]

Filed Under: cash out refi, Credit Scores and Reporting, Debt Restructuring, Financial Planning, Politics, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Tired of “Trigger Leads”? Take ACTION NOW!

June 20, 2023 by Leave a Comment

If you’ve applied for a mortgage, you are probably painfully aware of what it’s like to be a “trigger lead”. When your credit is pulled, the consumer reporting agencies resell your information to lenders. These unfamiliar lenders relentlessly harass consumers via phone calls and even text messages. This is very different than consumers who sign up to receive calls from various lenders when the consumer visits and enters their contact info into “lead generating” websites in search of rate quotes. A person having their credit pulled by a lender they have selected should not involuntarily be subject to having strange lenders contact them. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Legislation, Politics Tagged With: , ,

It’s Fed Day! Will they Pause or ? [Live Post]

June 14, 2023 by Leave a Comment

10:15 am: As I begin this post, we are about 45 minutes from knowing if the Fed is going to “pause” on hiking the fed funds rate, or if the hikes will continue.

Typically, mortgage rates would be improved right now already factoring in the pause, which would indicate that inflation is taming. Inflation retreating is good news for mortgage interest rates since mortgage rates are based on bonds (mortgage-backed securities). Right now (10:17 PST), MBS for 30 year 5% are down about 10bps. [Read more…]

Filed Under: The Fed - FOMC Tagged With: ,

Trouble making your monthly payments? Please don’t wait to refi.

June 6, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I have been writing about how high credit card interest rates have climbed with the Fed raising the funds rate. If you’re not paying off your entire credit card bill each month, you are probably owing a bit more due to the high credit card rate. Credit card debt can be an uphill battle. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Debt Restructuring, Financial Planning Tagged With: , , , , ,

How to Buy This West Seattle Home? Let Me Count the Ways!

May 22, 2023 by Leave a Comment

UPDATE 5/26/2023: It’s no surprise to me…this home went immediately pending. If you are considering buying a home, it is so important to be fully approved and perhaps better yet, consider using a program that allows you to present an extra competitive cash offer. PS: I can help you with that!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cash Buyer Program, Refinance, Residential Purchase, Seattle Tagged With: , , ,

Sunday Drive to historic Port Townsend

May 21, 2023 by Leave a Comment

This past weekend, we stayed at a vacation rental with our neighbors in Port Townsend. Port Townsend is a charming seaside town located on the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula and is about 60 miles away (by car) from Seattle. On this visit, we opted to take the Fauntleroy ferry (located in West Seattle) to Southworth driving north to Port Townsend. If you’ve never been to PT, I highly recommend that you plan a visit. We booked a vacation rental with our friends that was on the northeast end of the Olympic Peninsula.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Sunday Drive - Neighborhood Tours Tagged With: , ,

BREAKING NEWS: FHFA Rescinds the DTI Price Hit (LLPA)

May 10, 2023 by Leave a Comment

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced earlier today that it is rescinding the debt-to-income (DTI) loan level price hit adjustment (LLPA) that was announced in January of this year. Previously, people with a debt-to-income ratio higher than 40% with a loan-to-value greater than 60% would have an additional price hit to their interest rate. This price hit makes it even more challenging for someone who is pushing the DTI limit to remain under the 40% number to avoid having either a higher rate or paying more for the same rate because of the LLPA. The additional price hit for DTI ranged from 0.25%-0.375% depending on the loan to value/how much equity is in the transaction. On a $400,000 loan, this would be an additional cost of $1,000 to $1,500 if paid as “points” instead of having it priced into the interest rate. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Fannie, Freddie and FHFA, Interest Rates Tagged With: , , , ,
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