News

Home survey: more homeowners prepare to sell

Reluctant sellers may enter the market

If a recent home survey from the National Association of Realtors is any sign, the days of strapped housing inventory may be coming to a close.

According to NAR’s recent Housing Opportunities and Market Experience Survey, 80 percent of current homeowners think it’s a good time to sell.

Verify Your Mortgage Rate (Oct 11, 2017)

Invisible inventory

The market has been tight on inventory for months. And while slow housing starts are part of the problem, hesitant-to-sell homeowners are quickly becoming factor No. 1.

As demand drives up housing prices, owners simply aren’t willing to list their properties and risk entering the competitive marketplace.

In fact, according to NAR, existing home sales have declined in four out of the last five months. As NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun puts it, “The housing market has been in a funk since early spring because of the ongoing scarcity of new and existing homes for sale.”

The organization’s HOME survey indicates that trend may be on its way out though. About eight out of 10 homeowners say now is a good time to sell their home. That’s a survey high and a major jump from just one year ago when only 67 percent of owners shared the sentiment.

From renters to buyers

NAR’s survey also revealed another positive note: more renters are optimistic about buying. According to the survey, 62 percent of today’s renters think it’s a good time to buy a home. This marks a jump from 52 percent last quarter and 60 percent in 2016.

As more than half of renters think they’ll end up paying more in rent next year, the findings aren’t too surprising. In fact, about 15 percent say if their rent does increase, they’ll consider buying a home as a result.

What are today’s mortgage rates?

With mortgage rates low and more homes poised to hit the market, now’s a prime time to buy a home. Check out today’s mortgage rates and see what you qualify for now.

Verify Your Mortgage Rate (Oct 11, 2017)

News

6 Steps of the Mortgage Loan Process: From Pre-Approval to Closing

Mortgage Loan Process

There are six distinct phases of the mortgage loan process: pre-approval, house shopping; mortgage application; loan processing; underwriting and closing. Here’s what you need to know about each step.

1. Mortgage Pre-Approval Process

Mortgage Pre-Approval

A loan pre-approval sets you up for a smooth home buying experience.

A few things have changed since the real estate meltdown a few years ago. For purchase transactions, real estate agents will first want to know if you can get a loan. In the old days, financial institutions were doling out money to anyone with a heartbeat. Unfortunately, soft lending standards helped fuel an eventual rash of foreclosures. Suffice it to say, conditions on the ground have changed since then. Today, the best way to approach a real estate agent is with a lender pre-approval in hand. It shows that you’re ready and able to buy.

Pre-approvals don’t take much time. They involve pulling a three-bureau credit report (called a tri-merge) that shows your credit score and credit history as reported by third-party, respected institutions. Within the credit report, a lender can see your payment history (to see if payment obligations have been on-time and in-full) and your lines of credit (past and present).

You lender will be able to pinpoint a loan amount for which you qualify. This pre-approval will save you a lot of time since you will be able to focus exclusively on houses in your price range.

Mortgage pre-approvals also signal to the seller that you’re a serious buyer. Being prepared is particularly useful when making an offer on a house. If you intend to negotiate the deal (and why wouldn’t you?), a pre-approval gives your offer a little extra gravity. Being ready to go can also help in a hot market where it’s not uncommon for sellers to entertain multiple, simultaneous offers. Sellers tend to focus on the path of least resistance: the buyer who is pre-approved.

Mortgage Pre-Qualification

As you do your online research, you may read the term mortgage pre-qualification. It is not the same as pre-approval, and it’s important to know the difference.

A pre-qualification is a less meaningful measure of a person’s actual ability to get a loan. It’s a very lightweight “at a glance” look at a borrower’s credit and capacity to repay a mortgage. It’s usually determined by a loan officer asking a potential borrower a few basic questions like, “How is your credit?” There’s no third-party verification of the borrower’s answers. While the conversation with a loan officer can be helpful for other reasons, there’s no tangible result that proves anything to anyone (like to your real estate agent or a seller).

Getting Organized

During the pre-approval phase, one of the best things to do is to gather up documents needed for mortgage pre-approval. Anything you can do, to prepare in advance, will reduce the stress when you find the right home and make an offer. At that stage, you’ll be able to hand over all your paperwork to your loan officer at once. Being ready is a solid move! You can even download a pre-approval document checklist.

2. House Shopping

You may have already started shopping online via real estate portals like Zillow, Trulia or Redfin. At this stage, it’s a good idea to start working with a real estate agent and viewing homes.

Search Online

Shopping for houses online is convenient, easy and fun. There are a few things you’ll want to know in advance.

First, none of the online resources are 100% accurate. In fact, Zillow’s home price estimates, called Zestimates, are off nationally by about 8%. And that’s at a very broad, national level. The accuracy can drop even more as shoppers drill down to specific towns and neighborhoods. Zestimate inaccuracy isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just something a smart shopper should know. There’re still a lot of reasons to use a real estate shopping and comparison.

There’s a strategy that can help you deal with Zestimates. The 8% inaccuracy cited above can swing in either direction. Zestimates can be high or low. Here’s what that means to you. If you are pre-approved for a $400,000 loan, that means you could include searches on homes up to $432,000 (8% greater than the $400,000 baseline approval). You real estate agent can help you fine tune your choices. An experienced realtor, with a good understanding of the local market, will have a sense about which homes may be negotiated down to a price you can afford.

zillow search camas
Zillow’s map-based search makes it easy to find homes for sale by location.

The second thing you’ll want to know is that listings on big real estate portals are not always up-to-date. Multiple Listing Services (MLS), used by real estate agents, reflect the most up-to-date inventory.

Lastly, for whatever technical reason, portals don’t show 100% of the available inventory. Furthermore, agents may know about homes that are coming on the market before the listings are made public. It’s good to have a professional with his or her ear on the ground in the market where you want to buy.

Real estate shopping engines are great for:

  • Searching by location using map-based queries
  • Getting ideas about neighborhoods that fall in your price range
  • Putting together a list of properties you want to see in person

They are not as good at:

  • Predicting a precise and final sales price
  • Showing all listings in the market
  • Revealing listings that will hit the market soon

Make an Offer

When you’ve visited properties with your agent and picked out the home you want, it’s time to make an offer. Your real estate agent will know the ins-and-outs of how to structure it. It will include contingencies (or conditions) that must be satisfied before the deal is complete. Here are a few common ones:

  • Appraisal must come in close to the loan amount, not lower
  • Home inspection does not find issues with property
  • Borrower is approved for loan

In fact, HUD mandates a VA Escape Clause on every purchase offer.

It is expressly agreed that, notwithstanding any other provisions of this contract, the purchaser shall not incur any penalty by forfeiture of earnest money or otherwise or be obligated to complete the purchase of the property described herein, if the contract purchase price or cost exceeds the reasonable value of the property established by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Contingencies protect you and your earnest money, a deposit that tells the seller you’re a committed buyer. Typical earnest money deposits are 1% to 2% of the sale price. The funds are released from escrow and applied to your down payment at closing.

With terms of the deal approved by both parties, the purchase agreement (a binding offer) is signed by the seller and buyer. At this point, you can move forward to finalize the loan.

3. Mortgage Loan Application Process

Applying for a Mortgage

A few documents are needed to get a loan file through underwriting. Some of the information will be gathered online or over the phone. A lot of it will already be stated on some documents you’ll provide, like employer address which can be found on a pay stub. While the list looks long, it won’t take much effort to round them up. The lists below will help you keep track. Your loan officer will also indicate which items will not be needed and also help you prioritize which items to send in first.

Employment

  • Name of current employer, phone and street address
  • Length of time at current employer
  • Position/title
  • Salary including overtime, bonuses or commissions

Income

  • Two years of W-2s
  • Profit & Loss statement if self-employed
  • Pensions, Social Security
  • Public assistance
  • Child support
  • Alimony

Assets

  • Bank accounts (savings, checking, brokerage accounts)
  • Real property
  • Investments (stocks, bonds, retirement accounts)
  • Proceeds from sale of current home
  • Gifted funds from relatives (e.g. down payment gift for FHA loan)

Debts

  • Current mortgage
  • Liens
  • Alimony
  • Child support
  • Car loans
  • Credit cards
  • Real property

Property Information

Your real estate agent will be able to grab some of the harder-to-find items such as property taxes.

  • Street address
  • Expected sales price
  • Type of home (single family residence, condo, etc.)
  • Size of property
  • Real estate taxes (annual)
  • Homeowner’s association dues (HOA)
  • Estimated closing date

Financial Blemishes

Be prepared to explain any missteps in your financial background. It’s good to have dates, amounts and causes for any of the following:

  • Bankruptcies
  • Collections
  • Foreclosures
  • Delinquencies

Type of Mortgage

  • Fixed or adjustable
  • Forward or reverse
  • Conventional
  • Government insured: VA, FHA, USDA
  • Jumbo

VA Certificate of Eligibility (COE)

If you are applying for a VA loan you will need proof of your military service. The VA can provide a Certificate of Eligibility (COE). Your lender will be able to pull it for you. If you want to get it yourself, you can do so via the eBenefits website.

Loan Estimate

All the documentation from above is pulled together to produce the Loan Estimate. The Loan Estimate describes the terms and predicts the costs associated with your loan. By law, you must receive it within three days of your application.

The Loan Estimate includes closing costs, the interest rate and monthly payments (principal, interest, taxes and insurance). A notification is included if interest rates can change in the future, as would be the case with Adjustable Rate Loans (ARMs). It also includes information about any special features such as pre-payment penalties or if the loan balance can ever increase in spite of you paying on time (called negative amortization).

At this stage, you’re not yet approved nor denied a loan. A loan estimate is simply a statement of the terms and estimated fees in plain English. It’s like getting an estimate for car repairs; no one has picked up a wrench yet, you’re just getting a sense of the work that will be done and how much it’ll cost.

Quick note: Most types of loans — but not all — use the Loan Estimate at the application stage. Some loan products, like reverse mortgages, still use two older forms – the Good Faith Estimate (GFE) and Truth-in-Lending (TIL) disclosure.

You can get a sneak peek of what Loan Estimates look like plus an even more detailed explanation of each section of it on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) website.

4. Mortgage Loan Processing

Opening the File

Loan processors gather documentation about the borrower and property, review all information in the loan file and assemble an orderly and complete package for the underwriter. They’ll open the file and get the following wheels in motion:

  • Order credit report (if not already pulled for a pre-approval)
  • Start verifying employment (VOE) and bank deposits (VOD)
  • Order property inspection if required
  • Order property appraisal
  • Order title search

5. Mortgage Loan Underwriting

The underwriter is the key decision-maker. They closely evaluate all the documentation prepared by the loan processor in the loan package. They cross check to see if the borrower and property match the eligibility requirements of the loan product for which the borrower applied. For example, for a VA loan, the underwriter will verify the borrower’s military service.

Underwriters review at the borrower’s credit history and their capacity to repay the loan. The collateral (the property) is also weighed into the decision. They verify information and double check for accuracy. They’ll sniff out any red flags that indicate potential fraud.

Underwriting Decision

With everything reviewed, the underwriter approves or rejects the loan. Sometimes underwriters approve the loan with conditions. For example, they might ask for a written explanation of borrower’s credit history, such as late payments or collections.

Lock Interest Rate

At some point after initial approval and before closing, the interest rate for your loan is locked. Interest rates trade up and down every day that bond markets are open for business. You and your loan officer will choose the time to make the commitment.

Pre-Closing

Title insurance is ordered before the closing meeting so that you can walk away with the keys to your new home, ready to move in. This is also the time to make sure that all the offercontingencies have been satisfied. Once any conditions are satisfied, the closing is scheduled.

6. Mortgage Closing Process

Documents (everyone in the mortgage industry calls them loan docs) are drawn, meaning they are printed out and sent to the title company (or attorney’s office) where the closing meeting takes place. You can expect a big stack of papers.

One of the documents worth calling attention to is the Closing Disclosure. It should look somewhat familiar. Think of it as the companion to one the first documents you received in the mortgage loan process, the Loan Estimate. The Loan Estimate gave you the expected costs. The Closing Disclosure confirms those costs. In fact, the two should match pretty closely. Laws prevent them from differing too much.

Three-Day Review Period

You have the right to review the Closing Disclosure three days prior to the closing meeting. This quite period gives you a chance to review all of the terms of the loan. In most cases, you’ll compare the Loan Estimate to the Closing Disclosure but in some cases, you’ll compare the GFE to the HUD-1 Settlement Statement.

At this stage, you’re like a space ship on the launching pad. The countdown has begun. Most of the time, everything goes as planned. Small things in the loan docs are allowed to change, like typos. However, bigger changes reset the three-day review period. Continuing with the space launch metaphor, the “countdown” would start over if:

  • The APR on the loan changes by more than 1/8th of a percent (most fixed loans) or 1/4th of a percent (most adjustable rate loans).
  • A prepayment penalty is added to the mortgage.
  • There’s a change of loan products (e.g. change from a fixed rate loan to an adjustable rate loan).

Final Walk-Through

You have the right to a final walk-through of property 24 hours before your closing meeting. You can make sure the seller has vacated property. You can make sure any contractually stipulated repairs are complete.

Closing Meeting

The closing is the moment for which you’ve been waiting. It’s time to sign a bunch of documents and complete your purchase or refinance. Some docs seal the deal between you and the lender. Other docs seal the deal between you and the seller (if it’s a purchase transaction).

Please bring two official forms of identification such as a driver’s license and passport to the closing.

If closing costs are not rolled into the loan amount, talk to your loan officer about how you will transfer funds either electronically or via cashier’s check. Closing costs include settlement fees(the cost of doing the loan) plus any prepaid expenses (put in an escrow account) for homeowner’s insurance, mortgage insurance and taxes.

A checkbook will come in handy for any small differences in the estimated balance owed and the final amount.

The closing meeting will take a couple hours, and there’s a lot of paperwork. Your hand will be tired when it’s all over.

Key Closing Documents

  • Closing Disclosure (or HUD-1 and TIL in some cases) – a summary of loan terms, monthly payments and closing costs.
  • Promissory Note – as it sounds, it’s the promise that you’ll repay the loan. It shows the loan amount and terms of the loan and the lender’s recourse if you fail to make payments.
  • Deed of Trust – secures the note above and gives the lender a claim against the home if you fail to live up to the terms.
  • Certificate of Occupancy – if the house is newly constructed, this is the legal document you’ll need to move in.

TIP: Be sure to read all documents. And ask questions! Lastly, don’t sign any forms with blank lines or space.

When everything is signed, your participation in the closing meeting is done. Congrats! The very last closing items happen in the background; the title company will complete the recording and funding.

Right of Rescission

Federal law provides an opt-out or cancellation of some types of mortgage transactions called a Right of Rescission. You have until midnight of the third business day after signing the closing docs to rescind (cancel) the following:

  • A refinance transaction on an owner-occupied home
  • Reverse mortgages

Purchase transactions do not have this feature.

SUMMARY:

There you have it, the six distinct phases of the mortgage loan process! Hopefully, you feel a little more educated about each step and feel more comfortable about what to expect along the way.

News

Learn more about how mortgages work

 

For the vast majority of people, it’s impossible to buy a home without a mortgage.

Getting hundreds of thousands of dollars together to put down as one lump sum is a privilege reserved for very few.

As it stands, it’s as much as most homebuyers can do to scrape together a deposit. The rest has to be borrowed from a bank or building society.  Fortunately, there are hundreds of lenders offering a whole range of different types of mortgages.  Whether you are buying your first home, remortgaging or moving up the property ladder, there should be a home loan suitable for you.

Most mortgages are now only offered on a repayment basis which means you repay part of the capital and the interest every month. At the end of the term, which is usually between 25 and 30 years, your mortgage debt will have been totally repaid.

Some lenders allow you to take out an interest-only mortgage which means that your monthly payments only cover the interest. You therefore need to have a plan in place so that you can afford to repay the amount you initially borrowed in full, at the end of the term.

Many major lenders have withdrawn from the interest-only market, while others have tightened their criteria making them harder to get because of concerns that thousands of people have interest-only mortgages with no means of repaying them.

Opting for interest-only might seem attractive because your monthly repayments will be lower than with a repayment mortgage, but unless you have a solid plan to pay back the capital it’s best to go for a repayment loan.

 

Advantages of a mortgage

A mortgage makes home ownership affordable:

Buying a home is likely to be the biggest purchase you’ll ever make and a mortgage will be your largest debt. Because you can spread the repayments on your home loan over so many years, the amount you’ll pay back every month is more manageable, and affordable!

Traditionally, when people take out their first mortgage, they’ve tended to opt for a 25 year term. However, there are no rules about this and as we are living longer and the retirement age is going up, 30-year mortgages are becoming more common. This can help bring your monthly payments down, but on the flip side you’ll be saddled with the debt for longer.

It’s worth going for the shortest term you can afford – not only will you be mortgage-free sooner but you’ll also save yourself thousands of dollars in interest. And don’t forget, when you remortgage and switch to a new product, you shouldn’t opt for another 25 or 30 year term.

For example, say you take a five-year fixed rate deal as your first mortgage and borrow the money over a 25-year term. When you come to remortgage five-years later, you should aim to take that mortgage out over 20 years.

A mortgage is a cost-effective way of borrowing:

Interest rates on mortgages tend to be lower than any other form of borrowing because the loan is secured against your property.  This means the bank or building society has the security that if it all goes wrong and you can’t repay it there is still something valuable – your property – to sell to pay back some, if not all, of the mortgage.

Interest rates on mortgages are constantly changing – over the years they’ve been higher than 15% and lower than 2%.  Fixed rate and tracker mortgages tend to be the most popular, but there are also discount and offset mortgages, plus products aimed at first time buyers and landlords. Our guide on different types of mortgages explains these in more depth.

There are a number of government schemes available to help people buy their first home such as Help to Buy, Funding for Lending and New Buy.  Some shared-ownership schemes where you only buy part of the property and rent on the proportion you don’t own yet are run by the local council or housing trusts.

Disadvantages of a mortgage

You’ll pay back A LOT MORE than you originally borrowed:

The most obvious disadvantage is that you are carrying an enormous debt over a long time.  The other major drawback is that since the mortgage is secured on your property, you have to be able to keep up with your mortgage repayments or you could lose your home.

During the credit crunch, lenders worked hard at keeping even those struggling with the mortgage in their home.  But if homeowners really can’t make the repayments, their home will be repossessed.  The bank or building society will then sell it to recover their money.

Although the monthly amount you’re paying may seem reasonable, the total amount you pay back over the years is huge.  For example, someone who borrowed $160,000 over a 25-year term would repay $280,600 in total once interest is added on! (This assumes the rate of interest averages 5% over the term.)

Watch out for fees:

It’s not only the cost of interest that mounts up when you have a mortgage. Fees can also be hefty. There will be set up costs each time you take out a new mortgage and these vary significantly but some are as high as $2,000. You’ll also incur conveyancing costs (conveyancing is the legal work required when you take out a mortgage); and there are penalty fees to watch out for if you need to get out of your mortgage deal early.

Our guide on mortgage charges looks explains these fees in more detail.

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