Mortgage Referrals
Advice on where to go to get a mortgage. A borrower can always select a loan provider by throwing a dart at the Yellow Pages. A referral is of value if it raises the probability of a good outcome above that from throwing the dart. The four major sources of referrals are real estate sales agents, other borrowers, Internet referral sites, and builders. Real Estate Sales Agents: Home purchasers accept more referrals from real estate sales agents than from all other sources combined. Sales agent referrals generally are to individual loan officers or brokers, as opposed to firms. An agent with great confidence in a loan officer will continue to refer clients even when the loan officer switches firms. Sales agents have the same interest as buyers in completing transactions. Hence, they refer clients to loan providers who can generally be depended upon to close on time. This is the agent's major concern, and it is a concern of borrowers as well. Sales agents have no comparable interest in the mortgage price or whether the borrower is placed in the right kind of mortgage. However, the agent doesn't want the price to be so far out of line or the service provided so abysmal that the borrower throws a fit and blames the agent. Other Borrowers: Referrals from other borrowers are usually based on a single transaction. Internet Referral Sites: These Web sites provide price information for a large number of lenders and mortgage brokers, usually listed by state. They also provide quick entree to the Web sites of each loan provider listed. Builder Referrals: Builder referrals are usually to a lender with whom the builder has a financial arrangement. Hence, they are suspect. In some cases, preferred lenders price loans above the market and kick back some of the excess to the builder. Self-Referrals: Responding to self-referrals (solicitations) usually is a bad idea. Not all lenders who solicit are predators, but all predators solicit.
Popular Mortgage Terms
A non-citizen with a green card employed in the U.S. Non-permanent resident aliens are subject to somewhat more restrictive qualification requirements than U.S. citizens. Permanent ...
A condominium project with features that lenders view as favorable in terms of their risk exposure on loans secured by individual condo units. The requirements of warrantability include ...
Inserting provisions into a loan contract that severely disadvantage the borrower, without the borrowers knowledge, and sometimes despite oral assurances to the contrary. Prepayment ...
Mortgages typically amortize over time through fixed value installment payments. However, there's a type of mortgage that doesn't: the Balloon Mortgage. It's called this way because, with ...
Acceleration Clause is a contractual provision inserted in a mortgage, a bond, a deed of trust or other credit vehicles, that gives the lender the right to demand repayment of the ...
The interest rate adjusted for intra-year compounding. Because interest on a mortgage is calculated monthly, a 6% mortgage actually has a rate of .5% per month. If there were no principal ...
Wondering who is this Fannie Mae person that your real estate agent always mentions when the subject about mortgage is brought up? Fannie Mae is not a person, nor a Woody Allen female ...
Standards imposed by lenders as conditions for granting loans, including maximum ratios of housing expense and total expense to income, maximum loan amounts, maximum loan-to-value ...
An agreement between a mortgage borrower in distress and the lender that allows the borrower to sell the house and remit the proceeds to the lender. A short sale is an alternative to ...

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