I’m going to have a painting on exhibit at Bumbershoot!

August 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

You may or may not know that I started painting earlier this year for a new hobby. Most of my paintings have been on black velvet. I was thrilled when I was asked by Marlow Harris if I would contribute an Elvis painting to the Elvistravaganza! exhibit at Seattle Center. 

My painting of Elvis getting ready to enjoy a peanut butter, bacon, banana sandwich is not quite finished yet. I just thought I’d share where I’m at with him right now. I’ll post an update when I’m finished with him.

This event takes place during Bumbershoot, Labor Day weekend, at the Seattle Center. Elvistravaganza celebrates the 50th anniversary of when Elvis filmed “It Happened at the Worlds Fair”.

Come check out the exhibit during Bumbershoot. You’ll find a whole lot of Elvis at the Seattle Center Pavilion. 

Filed Under: Events, Just for Fun, Seattle Tagged With: ,

Freddie Mac HARP 2.0 refis to get a little easier

August 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Last week, Freddie Mac issued a press release stating they plan on improving the guidelines for Freddie Mac’s HARP 2.0 program – Refi Relief and Open Access (more commonly known as HARP 2.0).  Freddie Mac HARP refi’s have proven to be more challenging to successfully process and close than Fannie Mae’s HARP 2.0 refi program.

At Mortgage Master Service Corporation, we are closing both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac HARP 2.0 refinances. We have fewer lenders who offer Freddie Mac’s program due to their current program guidelines. This announcement from Freddie Mac is a big relief!

From Paul Mullings, Senior Vice President and Interim Head of Single Family at Freddie Mac:

“Once implemented the changes will give lenders a new measure of certainty and ease when they help borrowers with Freddie Mac owned- or guaranteed- mortgages take advantage of today’s historically low mortgage rates. This will help us build on the success of the HARP 2.0 and Relief Refinance Mortgage programs of helping more than 1.3 million Freddie Mac borrowers…”

This means that if you have been previously turned down for a Freddie Mac HARP 2.0 refinance, you may have another shot in a couple months.

Watch for an announcement around mid-September with more details to follow.  To stay informed, subscribe to my blog!

UPDATE September 18, 2012: Click here to check out  the improvements to HARP 2.0.

Filed Under: HARP - Home Affordable Refi Tagged With: ,

National Mortgage Originator Magazine’s Top 25 Most Connected Mortgage Professionals

August 10, 2012 by 2 Comments

I’m honored to be included as one of National  Mortgage Originator’s 2012 Most Connected Mortgage Professionals. This list includes mortgage originators from across the country to use social media in their mortgage practice.  My mug somehow made it on the cover!

Social media has been a very important part of my career. It allows me to share information about mortgages ranging from basic information that consumers should now before obtaining a mortgage to current underwriting trends and ever-changing program guidelines.

Thanks again to my readers! I don’t write “The Mortgage Porter” for recognition or awards, I do this to help share information with consumers. Thanks again for reading, subscribing and sharing the content of my blog.

Filed Under: Weblogs Tagged With:

Tis the Season for Vacations

August 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Many families are squeezing in a vacation during the remaining days of summer. I can’t blame them, I’m just back from one myself! If you are in the mortgage process, it’s critical that your let your mortgage originator know of any vacation (or business travel) plans. 

If you’re going to be in a spot where you can receive important documents and respond to emails, it may not be a huge issue. If you’re going off the grid, it may impact your rate lock commitment if your loan is currently locked. Your mortgage originator will need to price out a long enough lock period for your loan (if you’re locking) or you may opt to float and not lock in the current rates available.  And of course, if you run out of time with your lock, the rate lock commitment may be extended. 

Another factor is signing your final loan documents. Escrow companies can email (I do not recommend sending final docs via email) or send your loan documents via something like FedEx or UPS. This can be a bit risky as well as if a signature is missed or something is not notarized properly, your transaction may be delayed.

The more notice you can provide your mortgage originator about vacation or business travel, the more time they will have to prepare your options for the mortgage process.

Filed Under: Mortgage Tagged With: , , , ,

King County Home Prices are up 7% from last year

August 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The Seattle Times reports that home prices for King County have jumped up 7.2% from July last year. This pencils out to $25,250 with the median sales price of $375,250. The article also notes that closings are up 26% YOY which is great news for the housing industry. It doesn’t matter how low mortgage rates or home prices are unless transactions can actually close.With less inventory, many buyers are finding themselves in bidding wars or having a property in contract before they can get their offer together. From the article:

“Another recurring theme is the dramatic drop in the number of homes for sale. Home listings have been sliding for a full year; in July the number of home listed for sale was down 38 percent year-over-year…

…distressed home listings — bank-owned properties and short sales — are down 60 percent from last year. This also contributes to the small number of listings and brings up home prices.”

Part of the reason for the low inventory, per Seattle real estate economist Matthew Gardner, is that many people are not able to sell because they are underwater with their mortgages and don’t want to go through a short sale.

If you’re considering selling and your property is non-distressed (you have enough equity to sell), this could be a great time with more buyers than sellers.

If you’re underwater with your home and would like to sell once you have equity, you might consider a HARP 2.0 refinance (if your last conforming mortgage closed prior to June 2009) or an FHA streamlined refi (if your existing mortgage is FHA). While you wait for home values to continue to trend higher, why not save on your monthly mortgage payments?

If you’re a home buyer, I cannot stress enough how important it is to be fully preapproved BEFORE you start shopping for a home. If you’re considering buying or refinancing a home in Seattle, King County or anywhere in Washington state, I’m happy to help you!

Filed Under: Economy, Residential Purchase, Seattle Tagged With: , ,

Major Lender Increases Cost to Extend Rate Lock Commitments

August 7, 2012 by 3 Comments

Yesterday we received a memo from one of the big 3 banks notifying us of an increase to extension fees on all conforming mortgages on locks effective August 9, 2012 by 0.125%.  An extension fee is an additional cost associated with extending the rate lock period of your mortgage loan. For example, if your loan is locked for 30 days, and it takes more than 30 days to close the loan, there will more than likely be a fee to extend the rate lock commitment long enough to close the transaction. Just like a rate lock, the longer the time period that is needed, the higher the cost is. It is typically more cost effective to have a longer lock period than to pay for an extension.

Each lender we work with has their own rate lock and extension policies.  Here is what it cost to extend with this lender:

It’s important to note that this is NOT Mortgage Master Service Corporations general extension fees. We work with several lenders and what ever their fees are to extend are passed on to the transaction. One lender that we work with currently offers extensions on a daily basis (instead of blocks of time) so at a cost of 0.025% per day. If we only need 5 days for an extension, the cost would be 0.125%.

Everyone likes to keep cost down and avoid extension fees. This is why it’s critical to provide your mortgage professional with requested documentation promptly, especially once your loan is locked.

Filed Under: Interest Rates Tagged With: ,

Vacations over…I’m back to work!

August 6, 2012 by 1 Comment

I’m back to work after my vacation in Hawaii with my son. We had a great time exploring Oahu’s beautiful beaches. The last time I was in Hawaii was probably about 12 years ago when my husband was a county manager for a title insurance company. And we brought home beautiful weather to Seattle – wasn’t this weekend gorgeous?

Okay… back to work. This week we don’t have a lot on deck as far as scheduled economic indicators. 

Wednesday, August 8: Productivity

Thursday, August 9: Initial Jobless Claims

Watch for the results of the bond auctions starting Tuesday and ending Thursday when the Treasury will be selling $72B in notes and bonds.

Last Friday’s Jobs Report came in stronger than expected which has caused mortgage rates to trend higher.  With that said, mortgage rates are still extremely low.

As of 7:40 am this morning (8/6/2012), I’m quoting 3.500% (apr 3.579) for a 30 year fixed rate based on a sales price of $500,000 with a $400,000 loan amount (20% down) and low-mid credit scores of 740 closing in 30 days for a purchase in greater Seattle.

If you’re interested in a mortgage rate quote or getting preapproved for a purchase or refinance for a home located anywhere in Washington state, please contact me.

Filed Under: Economy Tagged With: , ,

Charge Offs: All is Not Forgiven

August 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Part of what I do as a mortgage originator is review credit reports. I’m often surprised how many consumers think that a debt that has been charged off means that it has been removed from their credit history or “forgiven”. Basically, a charge off is when the creditor is writing the debt off their books for tax purposes, it is not terminating the debt owed by the borrower. Often times, the charge off may turn into a collection or be sold or assigned to a collection agency and therefore, mortgage lenders will view a charge off on a credit report as a collection.

I while ago, “Betty Bellevue” called me to see if she could help her mom obtain a mortgage. A couple years prior, her mom had a car that she “gave back” to the bank. She thought she would only have a “repo” reflected on her credit report and that enough time had passed to where she might qualify for a mortgage. What she didn’t realize is that even though the bank had the car back, she had a “charge off” for the balance of the car loan on her credit and that for purposes of a mortgage, we would treat it as a collection (it would need to be paid off and removed from the credit report).

Distressed home owners with second mortgages may be surprised to find charge offs on their credit report following a short sale. Borrowers are often caught completely off guard by this remaining damaging debt being reflected on their credit report. Depending on how the lender reports the short sale to the credit bureaus, it may be just as detrimental as a foreclosure. If you are considering a short sale or foreclosure, I strongly recommend you find an attorney who specializes in dealing with this type of situation.  Linda Ferrarri has great information on her credit blog about foreclosures and short sales which I highly recommend if you find yourself facing this situation.

A charge off also dramatically impacts credit scores. Once a charge off, or collection is paid, credit scores will initially drop as the credit scoring modules view it as a “new activity” on the borrowers credit. Eventually scores should recover and improve. If you are considering a mortgage and have charge offs or collections, it’s important to discuss how and when you’re going to pay them off (some can be paid at closing which will prevent your scores from tanking during the mortgage process).  

You can obtain a free copy of your credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com.

Washington State’s DFI (Department of Financial Institutions) guide for home owners who are considering a short sale and Foreclosure Help.

Filed Under: Credit Scores and Reporting Tagged With: , , , , ,
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