Helping Washington State homeowners learn more about their mortgage options.
If you live in the greater Seattle area, you may be receiving a notice from your mortgage servicer stating that they need to adjust your mortgage payment because of an “escrow shortage”. We actually just received such notice from our mortgage servicer. [Read more…]
I just received a newsletter from a local real estate agent which had an article about whether buyers should opt for a conventional or FHA loan. I’m pretty certain the real estate agent didn’t write the article, however the author, whoever they are, got a lot of things wrong regarding these two mortgage programs. Many of the items that were wrong are what I think are fairly common misconceptions with these two popular mortgage programs. So I thought this was a grand opportunity to write a post to correct them…I’ll skip the fine hairs 😉 [Read more…]
There has been rampant wire fraud taking place in the real estate industry. This morning, I received an email appearing to contain a purchase and sales agreement for a new transaction with a link to download the contract.
Wells Fargo has been in the media quite a bit recently for terrible things the bank has done to their consumer clients and employees. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out…this is another example of how a powerful large bank has taken total advantage of consumers. [Read more…]
If you are buying, selling or refinancing a home right now, you might be quite surprised to learn about the current state of appraisals. It ain’t pretty…far from it. [Read more…]
There is no shortage of junk mail. If you have just bought a home or refinanced a home, you’re a very popular person with folks trying to sell you something. Some of the offers in the mail, like discounts to stores, are kind of nice…however other offers are just plain junk, if not worse.
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If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know one of my pet peeves is misleading junk mail that mortgage companies will blast out to attempt to generate business.
I did a little experiment on Tuesday. One of my Seattle home buyers asked why there’s a difference between the rates I’ve provided and those you can find posted online. I explained to him that the rates posted online are often not available and typically those sites are used for “lead generation” purposes. When consumers enter their email addresses and phone numbers, they may start to feel very popular by being inundated with phone calls and emails by mortgage lenders. When someone fills out a form requesting mortgage information or a rate quote online, they are considered a “hot lead” and their contact info is worth money and may be sold and re-sold.
Rhonda Porter is a Licensed Mortgage Originator MLO121324 living in the greater Seattle area. Rhonda began her career in 1986 in the title and escrow industry and began her mortgage career in 2000. She enjoys helping people understand the mortgage process and started writing The Mortgage Porter in late 2006. Read More…
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