Washington State Mortgages, Made Clear
Rhonda Porter, Mortgage Advisor
Your mortgage approval doesn’t start with a rate — it starts with your credit profile and financial structure.
In this section, you’ll find educational articles on:
Understanding how lenders evaluate credit and income allows you to prepare strategically rather than reactively.
My goal is to help you improve your financial scenario — whether that means preparing to buy, restructuring debt, or planning your next move.
This is a question I get more often than you’d think, and the answer surprises most people: a bankruptcy doesn’t permanently disqualify you from getting a mortgage and depending on the type of bankruptcy you filed and which loan program you use, you may be eligible sooner than you’d expect — in some cases, before your bankruptcy is even fully discharged.
The two things that determine your timeline are which chapter you filed and which loan program you use. Let’s break both down. [Read more…]
If you weren’t buying or refinancing a home in the mid-2000s, “subprime” might just be a word you’ve heard in passing — usually attached to the phrase “mortgage crisis.” If you were around back then, you probably remember it very differently: as a borrower who got a loan you probably shouldn’t have, as a homeowner watching your neighborhood fill with for-sale signs, or — in my case — as a loan officer watching an entire segment of the industry implode in real time. [Read more…]
A Common Scenario I SeeA Washington homeowner comes to me carrying a significant amount of high-interest credit card debt. Their credit score is below 600. On paper, it doesn’t look promising. With credit card interest rates averaging over 20% APR — and often higher for borrowers with lower credit scores — it’s easy to see how balances grow faster than payments can keep up. Minimum payments barely cover the interest, let alone reduce the principal. But they have something working in their favor: substantial equity built up in their home over time. [Read more…]
Most loan officers do the same thing the moment you reach out: they ask for your income, pull your credit, and hand you a rate quote. Sometimes they skip even that and just send you an application link.
I do something different first — and after 25 years in the mortgage business, I believe it makes all the difference. [Read more…]
If you’re 5 to 10 years from retirement and you haven’t taken a hard look at your mortgage lately, now is the time. Not because anything is wrong — but because the decisions you make in this window can significantly change what your financial picture looks like when you stop working.
Most people review their investment accounts regularly. Far fewer give the same attention to their mortgage and home equity, even though for many homeowners in Washington State, equity is the largest single asset they own.
Here’s what I look at when a client comes to me in this season of life.
