Qualify for Investment Property based on Cash Flow

If you are looking at adding to your real estate investment portfolio, I may have some good news for you! We have a new program that allows investors to qualify for a mortgage based on the property’s cash flow. [Read more…]

Mortgage Home Loans for Non-Citizen Borrowers

Recently Fannie Mae added clarity to their guidelines regarding non-citizen borrowers being eligible to qualify for a conventional mortgage. According to Fannie Mae, this is not a change to existing policy, it is just (much needed) clarification for lenders.

In order to be eligible, a borrower must be “legally present” in the United States. This means the borrower must have: [Read more…]

The REAL Income Needed to Buy Median-Priced Home in Seattle

Seattle income

KOMO News is reporting that it takes an income of $105K to buy a median-priced home in the Seattle area. This is based off a report from HSH.com.  When you dig deeper into the report, here’s how HSH.com came up with their numbers: [Read more…]

2019 Property Taxes for King County

King County will unveil how much your property taxes are for 2019 on February 15, the day after Valentines Day. <3

If you recall last year, many were stunned to see just how much their property taxes jumped. Our property taxes increased roughly 27% just last year alone!

If you are in the process of buying or refinancing a home, you need to be aware of changes to the property taxes if the transaction is closing around February 15, 2018 as this could potentially impact qualifying for the mortgage since it will most likely mean an increase to the total mortgage payment. This is especially true if your debt-to-income (DTI) ratios are anywhere near the limits for qualifying. [Read more…]

Amazon Raises and How Changes to Pay Structure Impacts Qualifying for a Mortgage

Amazon recently announced that it’s increasing it’s minimum wage to $15 for all employees, including part-time, seasonal employees and temps effective November 1, 2018. Amazon states this will benefit more than 250,000 employees and over 100,000 people who will be hired for the upcoming holiday season. Even Operations and Customer Service employees who are already making $15 per hour will receive an increase to their hourly wage. [Read more…]

Qualifying for a mortgage when you pay alimony

Recently Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac updated their guidelines to treat alimony payments the same way that FHA has.

With conforming mortgages (Fannie/Freddie) where there is more than 10 months remaining for alimony payments, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will allow the alimony to be deducted from gross income instead of being treated as a monthly debt. This often dramatically improves debt-to-income ratios. [Read more…]

Got Bonus? Part 2: Stocks

On Part 1 of Got Bonus, I covered how lump sum cash or increases to salary are treated when it comes to qualifying for a home mortgage loan. In this post, I’ll address how bonuses that are in the form of company stock are treated by lenders. [Read more…]

Got Bonus?

The Seattle Times announced yesterday that Boeing employees will be receiving a record $600 million in bonuses starting next week. From the Seattle Times:

“Boeing’s nearly 66,000 current employees in the state will be eligible for the bonuses. More than 6,000 more who worked at least part of last year before leaving the company will get a partial bonus, prorated according to how long they worked last year.” [Read more…]