Renting a Home vs. Buying a Home...things that make you go, HUH

Here’s a quick note to let you know how I can help you or anyone you feel comfortable introducing me to, in making the decision whether they should stop renting and buy now, or stay where they are at.

If you are like me, you know at least one or two people who are renting an apartment and you have probably wondered, "why do they not own, I know they both or he/she has a decent job." Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for renting, and sometimes people can buy and either don't know they can, or just have put it off for so long, they need a friend or family member to help them bring it back to their consciousness...but most of the time when people find out that in today’s economy they can buy a home for 30 percent less than they could a year or two ago – they get excited!

The next time you’re in a conversation with a friend, family member or neighbor and they mention that they’d love to take advantage of this buyers’ market and buy a home that’s selling for 30 percent less than it may have been selling for a year or two ago, would you stop, take out your cell phone, look up my number (469-450-2723) and call me immediately? I’ll send you our free report, How to Stop Spending Money on Rent and Own a Home Instead, because it will give them all the answers they need now to make a smart decision about what to do next.

Leave the Middle for Your Mortgage Planner and the End for you, Mr. Bottom Line Thinker

This message is for those bottom line type buying a home or refinancing for the 2ND, 3rd, 4Th, and 5Th time. You only know enough to endanger the possibility of having correct expectations. In mortgage, it's not the loan consultants job to meet your expectations, but it is his job to set your expectations and then try to exceed them. It doesn't matter how many loans you have been involved in, you have no business setting your own expectations except of course for what you pay and the obvious...the middle is best set by your mortgage planner.
Many of those ultra macho, "I'm a spunky business thinker" type when it comes to knowing about getting a loan, think they are the "Bo knows" of mortgage because they have a history of closing loans. Quote me if you like, in the mortgage industry right now, June 2009, there are NO EASY loans...only a little exaggeration there, but "Mr thinker" reading this should not think that he knows mortgage and because he makes a million dollars a year and is only buying a $200k home, he is the exception, and "this should be easy". STOP it. Just for a minute TAKE ADVICE and turn your "I'm getting sold radar" off and not just hear, but listen and realize that you might not know it all.
For the bottom line thinkers, John Maxwell says, you have the "ability to focus on results and maximize return to reap the full potential of your thinking". Mr bottom line thinker, relieve yourself from thinking you might have a clue in how the transaction process might go for your transaction so you can not just hear but listen to your mortgage planner tell you what the transaction process is going to look like, so your expectations are 100% advised expectations and not 50/50 expectations...50 being your own and 50 being your advised. Remember, you aren't a transaction or process thinker when you are outside your strong suit. You are a bottom line thinker and if you want to be happy at the end of the transaction where your bottom line gratification happens, then let the middle be led by your advisor.

Mortgage Planner Small Print Disclosure: Notice there are no explanations of why you should be sure and set your goal to have 100% advised expectations right now rather than 50/50. If the mortgage planner your talking to exudes a character that you can't trust for that 100% and let go of your 50%, then it's time to switch. If I tried to explain why the transaction process in mortgage is shifty and why, I wouldn't know to whether to start at number 1 reason, or number 50 and if I started anywhere in between, it would not end up being a good example for one of the reasons your loan has turbulence within the middle of your transaction.
Love, Listen, and Learn from your Mortgage Planner for Life and if you can't do all three, maybe it's time to change.

$8,000 Tax Credit Towards FHA Downpayment

HUD Secretary Donovan appeared at a NAR yesterday, and this is an exact excerpt of his remarks:

"We all want to enable FHA consumers to access the tax credit funds when they close on their home loans so that the cash can be used as a downpayment. So FHA will permit trusted FHA-approved lenders and HUD-approved nonprofits, as well as state and local governmental entities to "monetize" the tax credit through short-term bridge loans. We think the policy is a real win for everyone, ensuring that borrowers can tap into the numerous organizations that are already part of the FHA network to receive this additional benefit. FHA will be publishing the details shortly."

Okay - so what does that MEAN? It means that they are about to "officially" put their stamp on approving the process (and authority) on who/where/why/when a first-time homebuyer can get a LOAN for the $8000 tax credit - to be used as part of the required down payment!

THIS IS HUGE! As soon as the "official" announcement is out, we will get it to you. For now, if you are inside the transaction process of buying a home, all you can do is cross your fingers that this happens soon enough that you can take advatage of this if you choose. If you are considering on buying a house, know that this may drag on a month or two...be prepared to wait if you must.

Unbelievably Super Low Rates Today, but What About The Rest of the Week

Ultimately, yesterdays economic news was GREAT for today's rates, but there was some major volatile "others" that gave us a mid day worsening. In the end, we saw better rates today still, thanks to Bond gains like I haven't seen in a long time.
This morning the bond market was currently up 45/32, and usually we see it up on average of around 15/32 or so, so you can imagine how well it started today.
Tomorrow morning brings us the release of weekly unemployment figures from the Labor Department.
Moving.com, my favorite mortgage rate commentary site said the following. This data is not usually of much importance to the markets because it tracks only a week's worth of new claims. However, the second report of the day is only moderately important so if this data varies greatly from forecasts it could influence bonds enough to affect mortgage pricing. It is expected to show that 55 the week's last piece of economic news will be posted tomorrow morning with the release of the Conference Board's Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) for the month of November. This 10:00 AM release attempts to measure economic activity over the next three to six months. It is expected to show a sizable decline in activity, meaning that it predicts slower economic activity over the next several months. This probably will not have much of an impact on bond prices or affect mortgage rates unless it exceeds current forecasts of a 0.5% decline from October's reading. If it shows a larger decline, the bond market may move slightly higher, improving mortgage rates slightly.
8,000 new claims for benefits were filed last week.
In the end, this just means that they don't expect rates to sit this low for long, but there may be economic news in the coming weeks that return it to this rate low again soon.
My advice on your lock decision, DON'T BE GREEDY. Lock your loan now.

Refinance Boom Becoming More Real w/ Rates Below 5% Today

Short and sweet! Junk mail has been hitting my inbox for about a week now talking about an expected "refi boom". Well, that looks more and more likely.
Today, the 30 year fixed rate has officially dropped below 5% and made itself available at 4.75% at Service First Mortgage.Speculations are that expectations for the short term, 2-3 months, rates will be moving up above what we have seen in the recent 10 years. If you are looking to refinance your ARM, or even a 6.5% or higher fixed rate, don't get caught on your heels. The experts were right when they said we'd see rates below 5% in the coming months, as today's rates prove their hypothesis correctly.

What Are Mortgage Rates Going to do In the Short Term

In a report yesterday, mortgage guru at Mortgagerate.com wrote the following.
The recent bond rally has driven bond prices higher and mortgage rates lower, however, I am concerned that we may see an increase in rates before they fall much further. The rally creates a situation where bond traders may sell holdings to capture profits from it. If there is a concern in the market whether bonds can improve much more, that move may happen sooner than later and can lead to a spike in mortgage rates. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you maintain contact with your mortgage professional if still floating an interest rate because rate usually move higher much quicker than they improve.

If I were considering financing/refinancing a home, I would....
Lock if my closing were taking place within 7 days...
Lock if my closing were taking place between 8 and 20 days...
Lock if my closing were taking place between 21 and 60 days...
Float if my closing were taking place over 60 days from now...
This is only my opinion of what I would do if I was financing a home. It is only an opinion and cannot be guaranteed to be in the best interest of all/any other borrowers.