Charleston SC Real Estate Blog

New Fannie Mae Loan Fees Target Condo Buyers, Among Others

When conforming mortgages started defaulting en masse in late-2007, mortgage guarantor Fannie Mae created a loss-offsetting, fee-generating scheme dubbed "loan-level pricing adjustments".

The concept was basic: For mortgage applicants with high-risk profiles, collect up-front payments to offset potential long-term losses. 

Similar to the auto insurance model in which younger drivers pay higher premiums, the riskier the applicant, the higher the fee.

At the inception of the program, Fannie Mae defined "risk" as a combination of borrower credit score and home equity percentage.  In general, lower FICOs and higher LTVs paid mo...

 
WILL MY CREDIT SCORE GO DOWN IF YOU PULL MY CREDIT?? 

The short answer to that question is -not much. Depending on which score version is used by Equifax, Experian or Trans Union you have 14 to 45 days to comparatively shop for a mortgage or auto. All mortgage and auto inquiries within a rolling 14 day to 45 day window only count as 1 inquiry. Even then the "ding" to your score will be very slight and will be recouped over the next 30 day cycle when you once again make all your payments on time.

For a more detailed explanation please visit www.myfico.com

Courtesy of

Melissa "The Mortgage Maven" Breeland

Residential Mortgage of SC

902 Savannah Hwy

Charleston, SC 29407

Best Phone: (843)...

Creditors voluntarily report information about you to Credit Bureaus. A credit bureau is a clearinghouse for credit history information. The bureau may also be referred to as a Credit Repository. Credit grantors provide the bureau with factual information on how their credit customers pay their bills. Each bureau assembles that information, along with public record information obtained from courthouses, into a file on each consumer. There are three major credit bureaus:

Equifax - (800) 685-1111, www.equifax.com
Experian - (888) 397-3742 , www.experian.com
Trans Union - (800) 916-8800 , www.transunion.com 

These national agencies maintain centralized databases containing the credit records...

Short Sales

We are hearing a lot about short sales these days - buyers are asking about shorts sale- sellers are asking if its possible to short sell their home.

By Definition - In a short sale, the net proceeds from the sale are insufficient to cover the mortgage debt and all other costs of selling.

What does that actually mean?

If the seller can't make up the shortfall out of their reserve capital, savings and or credit card they may need to negotiate for reduced lien with the lien holders ( lenders) in an attempt to reach a solution in which the seller can proceed with a sale and avoid foreclosure. this solution may be the lender writing off a potion of the loan or asking the seller to...

203(K) Rehabilitation Program 

aA important FHA financing program that's been closed since the late 1990s  may be re-opened to investors -- provided HUD agrees to a proposal submitted recently by the National Association of Realtors.

  NAR president Charles McMillan asked the HUD Secretary Steve Preston and the department to rethink its decision to bar investors from the 203(K) rehabilitation program, under which FHA insures a combined home purchase and renovation mortgage based on the after-repairs valuation of the property.

McMillan said reopening 203(K) to investors could play a key role in disposing of large numbers of vacant foreclosed houses that have been damaged by vandals or prior...

Reprinted with permission of the Charleston Regional Business Journal

Profiles in Business 2007 A Special Supplement to the Charleston Regional Business Journal www.charlestonbusiness.com

REAL ESTATE

MarshallWalker.com, Inc.

MarshallWalker.com, Inc., a typical day can involve anything from selling homes to running meetings to...mowing lawns?

"It's important to take care of details, even the ones that you don't normally see real estate agents taking care of," Walker says. "One Sunday, a client pulled up to his new home in a moving van and found me mowing the lawn! I just wanted the new owner to be happy."

Walker began serving people long before he entered the real estate business. He was...