Brad Lynch You Tube Mortgage Clip Introduction

Who is Brad Lynch, and at what angles does he go about business as he works with First Time Home buyers, Move Up buyers, VA prospects, and FHA prospects in Frisco, Plano, McKinney, and North Dallas to best help families buy or refinance their home?

It's a first time "go round", and the video and audio didn't match up when I uploaded it to You Tube.

Extend Home Buyer Tax Credit of $8,000 for Frisco Home Buyers

The question I see as a mortgage person in Frisco Texas a lot this year is, "Do I think that the first time Home Buyer Tax Credit will be extended to 2010." My response is, "I sure should be", because it seems like it has given a lot of folks the extra steam they needed to get going in a job market and home market that isn't necessarily one that prods you toward buying a home right now.
In search of statistics to see who is doing their homework to show the government that this Tax Credit is the one stimulus that should be more permanent than any other, it seems like it's an overwhelming YES from the masses to extend it.
In a Weichart poll of around 1,000 Realtors, 71% revealed that the tax credit had the largest positive response in their business in 2009. Of that poll, 92% thought that the market would decline after November if the Tax Credit wasn't reinstated and 97% were in favor of reinstating it.
If you get the chance, vote to reinstate...it's good for the home market and what's good for the home market is good for you. Reason being, the Chief Economist of Stewart Title, the leader in the title industry in the United States, made note in a an economic forecast I attend earlier this year that every single recession that our nation has seen in it's history was turned around first by the housing market. If history defines the present as it normally does, we need to first stimulate our housing market before we expect to see any permanent positive changes in our nations overall economy, including consumer spending, decrease in unemployment, and increase in jobs, obviously.

First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

The First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Basics
This is a dollar for dollar credit you get on your taxes at the end of the tax season the year you buy your first home. Dollar for dollar means, there is no formula of deduction where you hear some nice big pretty number of $8,000 and then you get a small percentage of that in cash with your tax refund. If you qualify for all $8,000, that will be the amount directly added on to your end of the year tax refund. If you get $2,500 at the end of the year and qualify for say, $2500 in First Time Buyer Tax Credit, then you'll get $5,000.
Please see my previous Blog called "Housing and Economic Act and Tax Credit..."about this tax credit from it's original inception, and then read on below here to see how it has evolved to a great opportunity for First Time Buyers in the year of 2009.
Here are the details of the Tax Credit. There are listed below the "Original Version" and "Updated Version". There were changes made that made this credit a lot more opportunistic for Americans, and that is the "Updated Version" to each of the guidelines I've listed below.

Amount of Credit
Original Calculation: Lesser of 10 percent of cost of home or $7500
Updated Version: Maximum credit amount increased to $8000

All principal residences eligible.

Refundable
Yes. Reduces (or can eliminate) income tax liability for the year of purchase. Any unused amount of tax credit refunded to purchaser.
No change

Purchasers will continue to receive refund for unused amount when tax return is filed.

Income Limit
Yes. Full amount of credit available for individuals with adjusted gross income of no more than $75,000 ($150,000 on a joint return). Phases out above those caps ($95,000 and $170,000).
No change

First-time Home buyer Only
Yes. Purchaser (and purchaser’s spouse) may not have owned a principal residence in 3 years previous to purchase.
No change. Still available for first-time purchasers only. Three-year rule continues to apply.

Repayment
Original: Yes. Portion (6.67% of credit or $500) to be repaid each year for 15 years, starting with 2010 tax filing.
Updated Version: No repayment for purchases on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009

Recapture- (means that if you do the below...sell the home, there could be within the guidelines stated here, a requirement for you to pay back the tax credit.)
Original: If home sold before 15-year repayment period ends, then outstanding balance of repayment amount recaptured on sale.
Updated Version: If home is sold within three years of purchase, entire amount of credit is recaptured on sale. Applies only to homes purchased in 2009.

Feel free to call me for more specifics. Brad Lynch 469-450-2723

Builders In House Mortgage Relationships Soon To Be Changed

Builders have been a big problem over the years with dangling incentives for potential buyers to use their affiliated mortgage company. Nothing was more aggervating than to lose a loan after I have been working with a buyer for months, because some builder claims to be giving some sort of incentive to use thier affilated mortgage company. We all know what was going on behind the scenes within the mortgage industry. I have been saying for years that builders need more regulation. Looks like it finally happened.


Ken Harney made note of some changes to come, and said the following.

One of the less-discussed provisions of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's controversial rule on mortgage fees and disclosures is expected to profoundly change lenders' relationships with builders next year.
The rule, which HUD finalized last month after years of revisions, stops, and starts, will overhaul how the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act is enforced.
Most of the debate about the 86-page rule has focused on the standardized good-faith estimate lenders will have to start providing mortgage applicants in 2010. The industry is expected to spend millions next year preparing for that part of the rule.
Several other provisions will take effect Jan. 16. What many observers called the most significant one would bar builders from offering homebuyers discounts that require them to use an affiliated mortgage, title, or settlement company. The ban will remove a competitive advantage for the joint ventures many builders have with lenders like Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Countrywide Financial Corp., now a unit of Bank of America Corp. Some observers said the rule could spell the end of such partnerships.
Also on Jan. 16, lenders will be allowed to charge borrowers the average fee for certain types of settlement services purchased on their behalf, rather than the actual fee the lender paid the service provider. Some consumer advocates said this provision could help lenders skirt other consumer protection laws.
One thing that is clear: a good deal of compliance work lies ahead. "The industry has been digesting this huge, complicated, massive rule, and we're only now coming to the stage of implementation," said Sue Johnson, the president of the Real Estate Services Providers Council Inc.
Mitchel Kider, a managing member at Weiner Brodsky Sidman Kider PC, said builder-affiliated mortgage entities "worked off the synergy that exists" because discounts and incentives are available. "What this rule does is make it difficult from a business perspective to run your operation. It changes the business model of affiliations."
Brian Levy, a senior vice president and general counsel at the $1.5 billion-asset Guaranty Bank in Milwaukee, whose Shelter Mortgage Co. LLC has partnerships with builders, said, "We're going to see less production from that source and lower revenue."
It will be hard to gauge how much of the drop will come from the rule and how much will come from the recession and housing slump, Mr. Levy said. (In October, the most recent month for which data is available, sales of new homes dropped 5.3% from September and 40% from a year earlier, to an annual rate of 433,000, according to the Census Bureau.)
After mid-January, Mr. Levy said, lenders will monitor capture rates - how much of a builder's business their joint ventures get - to measure the rule's effect.
Gina Harris, the president of Builder's Affiliated Mortgage Services, a Tampa correspondent lender, said she expects to gain more business after being shut out from competing for the business of home builders that had ventures with mortgage companies.
"The joint ventures with builders may not be as profitable anymore, and they may decide that they don't want to have them," she said. "And that's probably going to be a decision that the large mortgage companies doing the joint ventures are going to have to make."
Lenders that have mortgage officers working at builders' offices may continue to work with the builders but probably will bring their loan officers in-house as part of their retail staff, Ms. Harris said.
David Stevens, a former executive at Wells and Freddie Mac and now the president and chief operating officer of the Chantilly, Va., real estate brokerage Long & Foster Cos., said the real estate law does not prohibit companies from offering "a bona fide discount," but it must be one that any competitor could match. The problem is when "the only way you get the discount to the home is to use the affiliated business."
At the peak of the housing market, builders typically told customers that they could get $10,000 of upgrades or a bigger lot if they used a mortgage or title company affiliated with the builder, he said. "They basically cross-subsidized it" with revenue from the affiliate.
William Renner, the director of single-family finance at the National Association of Home Builders, said some builder-affiliated mortgage companies may still maintain "fairly high capture rates" next year, because not all builders offered incentives in exchange for using a certain service. But he conceded that the builders with affiliated mortgage companies "would in many cases have to change their marketing agreements."
Debora Blume, a spokeswoman for Wells' home mortgage unit, said many of the builders that have ventures with the lender "do not offer financing incentives, which have actually been a recent phenomenon."
Builders form such ventures because they "want to feel confident their customers are connected with a strong, stable mortgage provider able to make sure deals close on time and meet customers' expectations," Ms. Blume said. "And customers want the convenience of one-stop shopping with mortgage, title, and insurance services under one roof."
The right to charge an average fee at closing for things like credit reports, appraisals, and recordings is meant to make it easier for lenders to adhere to the three-page good-faith estimate they will have to provide beginning in 2010. Under the rule, actual charges at the closing table will not be allowed to exceed 10% of the estimate.
(Lenders currently must provide some sort of good-faith estimate to applicants, but there is no standard form for doing so. Many lenders use a one-page document. Charges at closing can vary widely from the estimate, creating the potential for unpleasant surprises for consumers and making it harder for them to compare loan offers.)
Rebecca Borne, a policy counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending, said settlement fees "are used to calculate the finance charge under the Truth-in-Lending Act and to determine if a loan has 'high-cost' loan status, which often subjects it to more protective standards under federal and many state laws."
Allowing lenders to charge average fees creates the danger that the triggers under those laws will be hit less frequently, Ms. Borne said.
The rule forbids the use of average charges for fees that are based on the loan amount or property value, such as transfer taxes, daily interest, reserves, escrow, and insurance.
Though full Respa reform implementation is more than a year off, some lenders are anticipating the impact of the expanded good-faith estimate, which will include details about whether the interest rate can change, the existence of prepayment penalties, and total closing costs.
The new disclosures "are all going to require extensive systems work, and you have to completely reprogram your settlement systems and up-front disclosure systems, which will affect lenders, third-party service providers, and settlement companies," Mr. Stevens said. "There are definitely costs involved."
Mr. Levy said wholesale lenders are concerned about shouldering the liability of a binding good-faith estimate submitted by mortgage brokers.
Often a borrower will change the details of a loan "as they're headed towards closing" - switching from a fixed rate to an adjustable one, for example, he said.
Whether lenders will be held to their original estimate in such cases is unclear, Mr. Levy said. "Almost every loan on average has a change where it needs to be locked in a second time, and that's normal for a loan to be changed, so would you run the risk that your original GFE is wrong? Will regulators be looking at GFEs and hold ... [lenders] accountable on a compliance issue?"

Prime Rate vs 30 Year Mortgage...Charted For Easy Tracking

As a mortgage consultant, we try to answer that ever expected question when the Fed moves prime, "...so, how is my rate affected by the rate change in prime?", but don't always have right on hand a chart. [Please see previous post at LINK for additional details regarding this subject].

When buying Real Estate, it would be easy to conclude from the information below, although the 30 year fixed rate will also drop after the Fed drops Prime, it would be rare that you had the time to wait if you are already in a contract and Prime was dropped. The 30 year rate takes a little a while to react after Prime has been changed. In the same fashion, Prime is increased and you are under contract, you can probably stand to still float a lock for 15-30 days w/out too much concern in losing ground on your rate.

Below is a chart of the past 30 + years tracking the Prime Rate and the 30 year fixed mortgage. In case it doesn't show up too clear, the blue is Prime and the orange is the 30 year mortgage. It is tracked on September of every year starting in 1971 and ending at Sept 2008.

By saving this chart on your desktop or My Documents, you can forward this chart along with your version of the explanation when they ask, "what's up with my rate now since Fed changed Prime"?


Best of luck in your home buying goals!

Hope Is Alive In Dallas Texas, Frisco, and the Surrounding Cities Real Estate Market

Over the weekend Kenneth Harney gave a very detailed outline of what foundation has been set to secure the Real Estate Market, and it should make for high hopes to Dallas and the surrounding cities, especially in the once top ranked booming Real Estate market in Frisco Texas. The question is asked over and over today, "Can you still get a home loan with less than 20 percent or 30 percent down? Or with a credit score below 720"? Harney answered the question like this:
"Absolutely. It would be a big stretch to label housing the sunny side of the market at the moment, but there's a lot more light there than in most other financial sectors."
The Real Estate market for home buyers is not dead or stagnant. There is plenty of money made available with many small down payment options, and there are even still some 100% financing options in specific areas...and the income eligibility is not as picky as many would think.
Harney noted that 90% of loans in America today are made through FHA. The interest rates are still low, and the underwriting isn't necessarily all that tough• Despite the global financial system's quakes, mortgage rates remain low by historical standards. Home prices, pushed by foreclosures and short sales, have rolled back to 2003 and 2004 levels or lower in many of the former boom markets. As a result, growing numbers of buyers are coming off the sidelines, making offers and writing contracts.
David G. Kittle, president and chief executive of Principle Wholesale Lending and incoming chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said "the mortgage market has never shut down" despite the global financial crisis.Matt Vernon, a national retail mortgage sales executive for Bank of America, said, "we've got more than enough liquidity" to handle mortgage demand. "We are open for business." Most of the bank's production is now funded through the FHA, Fannie and Freddie.
If you are looking to buy, don't put it off for the simple fact that you assume you can't get a loan. Decent credit scores, typically 600 or better, means that you have plenty of loan opportunity. Don't give up on your dream of home ownership just yet.
Make an appointment with your mortgage guy to meet at Starbucks and talk about your options. See you there.

Texas, and Frisco Home Buyers, Motivational Strategies and Thoughts for a Better Life

For the past 6 years working as a self motivated Mortgage Consultant in Frisco Texas, and targeting a goal where 90% or more of my business comes by referral, I have had to search and find what "gets me going in the morning" to meet that goal. In doing this, I started a Word Document titled, "Motivational Strategies and Thoughts for a Better Life".

In this document I collect motivational phrases, words and phrases that help express myself in a unique way, and strategies that a leader can use to self motivate and maximize potential. Transferring information to longer term and permanent memory works best for me by writing them down. So, I've written today in my word document and writing it here to share and double up on my writing it down for permanent memory. Here was today's record. I hope that it can help any one person reading it today as well.

"Try not to become a man of success, rather, a man of value." Albert Einstein

• Try to understand before you are understood

• Be impressed before you become impressive

• Be interested before you become interesting

• Listen before you are listened to

Can You Approve at First Blush To Buy a Home In Frisco Texas

First a disclaimer. This is a simple and easy way to know. Yes, there are other options and this and that, but this is a quick "how to tell" if you are talking to a good buyer.

If you have 700 or better credit scores and have 5% down payment and money for closing costs, your a stud buyer. Yes, loans still allow for seller contribution for closing, but lets work that out when we have to.

If you have under 700 and even more specifically, under 680, you'll need FHA financing if you are looking for low down payment financing...you are going to need 10% down payment with those scores probably outside of FHA, and VA. Yes, there are a couple places you can find conventional financing with 5% down if you have under 680, but it's time for "THAT" buyer to save for 10% down payment and have a better loan availability to choose from.

If you have 610 or higher and only have 3.5% down payment, it's likely you can get FHA financing, but you need to submit all your income and assets to the lender up front and give up your whole story so they can run it through their system or get an underwriter to look at it first.
I don't know if any of you readers have seen the cartoon movie, Cars, but this is where it stops. "Welp, G'NITE" as all the Cars drive off and leave Towmator in the night alone...he's afraid of the ghost light. Yeah, that's it. It's easy and simple these days isn't it?

Presley's Promise: Calling On Frisco, Plano, and McKinney Mortgage and Real Estate Professionals

We need help to make it possible for needy families to continue to get World Class help for their Children at Scottish Rite Hospital. One of my dear friends in the Title Business in McKinney TX had a daughter born a couple years ago that has had operations and other services by Scottish Rite and he wants to help raise money for the next needy families. He has had some last minute players that can't make it, and sponsors that fell through. Any help you can provide would be great. Don't hesitate to call me or email me if contacting him directly from the flyer picture below doesn't work. My number is 469-450-2723 and my email is bl@fmillc.com

My friend Brian Hazlewood and his wife Brandi need help for their daughter Presley who was born with Arthrogryposis (a muscle, joint and tendon disorder) that also caused her to have severe bilateral clubfoot, curvature of her left wrist and bilateral hip dysplasia. She has attended Texas Scottish Rite Hospital (TSRH) for Children since she was two weeks old. From the age of two weeks to twelve weeks she went to a clinic weekly for manipulation of her feet and to change her casts that went from toe to upper thigh and at one point she had a heel lengthening procedure done as well. At the age of twelve weeks, it was determined that the casting was not working as well as we would have hoped, and we switched to the Ponseti Method, which is manipulation through therapy, taping and splinting of the feet. They first attended appointments everyday and then they started to spread out to further appointments. During this process, in February of 2006 she had her first surgery at TSRH to try and fix her hips. For three months following the surgery she was in a half body cast from her chest to her toes, also known as a spica cast. After the cast was removed, she went back to therapy in the "baby room" for her feet. Then in October of 2007 she had her second surgery with TSRH which was her foot surgery. Following this surgery she wore full leg casts with pins in place through her heels for six weeks, then had a cast change to smaller casts in which she wore for four weeks, and then moved to orthotic splints that she continues to wear today to keep her feet in place. She started walking with the help of a reverse walker at the age of 18 months, and continued to use this until she took her first steps in January of 2008. She now walks on her own and is also in a gymnastics class for special needs kids.

Presley's Promise: Is a charity golf tournament that Brandi and Brian are putting together for their daughter to give back to Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas. She has been going regularly since birth and will continue going most all of her life as a child. Scottish Rite is a great organization and we feel we would not be where we are today without their help. It's truly a gift for us to be a part of such a great place. **************************************************************** Update***** We are looking for 72 golfers and as of today I have 56. We are also wanting to get 18 hole sponsorships and I'm sitting at 14 right now. All the other sponsorships are now full thanks to our boy Scotty Hoyes on the Beverage Cart! That a boy Hoyes! PRIZES***** 1. Best Dressed Golfer............I'm going with Tony A. on this one. 2. First Place 3. Last Place................Probably me. 4. Hole In One/Closes To Pin 5. Longest Drive 6. $5 Raffle tickets to be sold before and after golf for the drawing after lunch. We have some very nice donations to be given away. The more tickets you buy, the better chance you'll have to win AND it's more money for Texas Scottish Rite Hospital!

Checks payable & mailed to: Presley Hazelwood @ 802 Cedar Street. McKinney TX 75069. OR Call Brian

at 214-402-2281.

Frisco Home Buyers Dependant On Election: Vote? McCain or Obama

Politics has never kept much of my attention until this year, and mainly because of the terrible fix I see the Frisco Texas families in on a day to day basis as I work within the mortgage industry here. When I ask my dad, because that's just what I do in such situations, "dad, who are you voting for?", he replied "I'm just not going to vote". Of course, I needed to to know why, and when I asked he told me that he has seen all the U Tube videos, and the forwarded emails of Barrack not putting his hand over his chest in front of the flag, and heard the chopped up speeches that contradict the Christian religion, but on the other hand does not really agree with the resolutions of McCain. Inside as he was explaining this, I had a little being inside me screaming, "me too man, me too". "Since I can't decide to vote FOR Barrack, because I'm not 100% sure yet of his stance on my religious values, and I completely do not see the leadership and facts w/in McCain's plan, I just don't have the facts to commit to a vote myself. Although I will make a decision and vote.




Being in the mortgage business during such a time of economic turmoil, I have been pulled into the media and politics a lot more than the past, and I've enjoyed it...it makes me feel more responsible as a citizen of the good ole U. S. of A. I have a hard core interest in what is going on now. Even after my attention has elevated and I'm hearing both sides and all, I am just as "in the dark" now as I was in my college days when I only knew what I saw on a billboard or as I tripped over the front page Headlines of the newspaper as I thumbed quickly to the sports page. Politics is a frustrating thing. Palin talked about the $5,000 credit McCain has planned for Americans if he becomes President, and Biden replied about the "bridge that goes nowhere". That hits home to me more than any other thing, as far as intentions that McCain has. Is that just an effort to "buy" votes? Giving America a $5,000 tax credit appears to me as just a "feel good", or a band aid, but it has no real long term resolution. I REALLY liked Joe Biden's point last night following that comment and many others about Barracks approach, I like Barrack's leadership, I like his facts also. On the other hand, what means more to me than anything else, I am not sure of where he stands with his maker, Jesus Christ.

Why doesn't Palin and McCain's "camp" bring up in their ads and commercials about Barrack not putting his hand over his heart during the National Anthem? Why don't they bring up the religious controversy we see in email and U Tube all the time?
I have to pray about this, and pray, and pray, and then I have to make a decision. Right now, I'm only voting Against Obama for spiritual reasons, and not necessarily FOR McCain, and I'd like my vote to be FOR someone rather than a settlement vote.

Am I the only person hoping that all the trash we see on Barrack is falsified information meant to mislead me, so that I can comfortably vote for the person who has the facts straight?
As a disclaimer, I'm NOT a political preacher of sort. I am an open mind trying to figure out what is best for me, my family, the families I represent in the Real Estate and lending world here in Frisco, and my country. This message is not meant to influence anyone's vote in anyway. Understanding how to best commit to my own vote is what I'm looking for.