A contractor for Bank of America went into the home of a borrower which was not vacant nor in default with the mortgage. While Angela Iannelli was away, under instructions from Bank of America, the contractor cut off utilities, padlocked the door and confiscated her pet parrot, Luke. Maybe the contractor was thinking the woman [...]
I wrote earlier that we should not walk away from your house if you are upside down on your mortgage. I’ve changed my mind. If you lost your job or had a great reduction in income for whatever reason, the banks don’t seem to care. I’ve read and seen were they’ll stall until you have [...]
You would think that putting more money down when buying a home would entitle you to a lower interest rate. Not so according to an article in the New York Times.
Take, for instance, borrowers who want to buy a $400,000 home, and who have a credit score of 720, which is considered very good.
In late [...]
The White House has asked mortgage executives to come up with the manpower to stop precarious loans from becoming foreclosures, but a New York Times story says finance experts say a lack of bodies isn’t the problem. It’s greed.
Mortgage companies collect fees for appraisals, insurance, legal services and other administrative busywork when homes go into [...]
Thinking of walking away from your home because your property values have dropped to below what your mortgage is? You might consider that if you do walk away, what are you going to do? You’ll have to rent, your credit score will be ruined for seven years and you will have lost the [...]
Since the days of the Wild West in doing home mortgages, more and more tightening of appraising and mortgage lending is occurring. I think the changes are for the good, since you can blame the banks, wall street and some large mortgage companies who are no longer in business for the meltdown we had in [...]
Robert Dietz, tax economist, of the National Association of Home Builders gives detailed answers to questions home buyers might have about the Federal tax credit. (The $10,000 California tax credit for home buyers has been used up)
Some of the questions answered are:
• Who’s eligible to claim the credit?
• How does it help you?
• What kind of [...]
Bank of America has created a new website called Bank of America Home Loans for borrowers that includes a calculator that determines not just what size loan people can qualify for, but how much they can spend without being stretched too thin. “We wanted to change the conversation to ‘How much house can I comfortably [...]
There is a new “Home Value Code of Conduct” that went into effect on May 1, 2009. All Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages have major changes in ordering and processing home appraisals.
Under the new rules, mortgage brokers will no longer be able to order appraisals directly for loans sold to Freddie and Fannie. This [...]
The lender wants to make sure that when they loan money to a you, that they are lending the money to someone who will pay them back. So when you apply for a loan, the number one thing they look at is your credit score. I know, that’s a twist from the roaring 2005-2007 years. [...]
