Larger Payment, Shorter Term, Bigger Savings

Some people consider a house payment as basic as monthly utilities but with a plan and some discipline, you can be mortgage free.

Consider a person borrowed $300,000 at 3% for 30 years, the principal and interest payment would be $1,264.81 and at the end of 12 years, the unpaid balance on the mortgage would be $210,900.

If that same person had financed the home on a 15-year term at 2.5%, the payments would have been $2,000 but the unpaid balance at the end of 12 years would be $69,310. The homeowner will have a larger equity but they have also had to make higher payments.

15-year mortgages usually have a lower interest rate than the 30-year loans and at the time this article was written, the difference in a 30-year loan was about 0.5%. A 15-year loan gives the lender their money back in half the time. If rates go up during the interim, they will be able to loan it at the higher rate sooner. For that reason, they are usually willing to offer a slightly lower rate on the shorter term.

Having a lower rate means paying less interest but another remarkable thing happens, lower interest rate loans amortize faster than higher rate loans.

	30-year	15-year
$300,000 mortgage for 30 years	3%	2.5%
Monthly payment	$1,264.81	$2,000
Unpaid balance at end of 12 years	$210,900	$69,310
Increased equity		$141,590
Additional monthly payment		$735.56
Additional total payments for 12 years		$105,920
Savings		$35,670

This recognized wealth building technique with higher payments, saves interest and retires the mortgage sooner. The shorter-term mortgage requires a commitment to make the higher payments each month rather than giving the borrower flexibility to spend or invest the difference each month for as long as the loan is in place.

To make you own calculations, go to the 30yr vs. 15yr Comparison.

Uncle IRRRL wants to refinance your VA loan

You don’t have to have an Uncle IRRRL but you must be a veteran with a current VA-backed home loan. IRRRL is an acronym for Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan. To refinance with this program, also called the VA Streamline, the loan must provide a net tangible benefit (NTB) which would be in the financial interest of the Veteran.

Obtaining a lower interest rate is usually the reason behind refinancing but there needs to be enough difference in the current and the new mortgage to justify the expenses incurred. Significantly lower payments or a shorter term are examples of acceptable benefit.

The Veteran must currently have a VA-backed home loan to refinance using this program. The Veteran does not have to currently live in the home as long as it can be certified that he or she did at one time.

In most cases, an appraisal is not necessary and less verifications are required. A minimum 640 credit score is needed, and borrower must be current on their payments with no 30-day late payments in the previous 12-months. A two-year employment history is required.

There are expenses associated with the IRRRL but they can be rolled into the loan balance. The VA funding fee, required on new VA loans for purchases or refinances is lower on the IRRRL at 0.5%. Disabled Veterans and qualifying surviving spouses refinancing under this program are exempt from the VA funding fee.

This program is not available for a cash-out refinance. There is a $6,000 exception for additional funds to pay energy improvements completed 90-days prior to closing. Your lender can provide more information for you.

If you are a Veteran and considering a refinance, ask your mortgage professional about this program. If you need a recommendation of a trusted mortgage professional who is experienced in VA loans, give me a call at or Diana.

Removing or Adding a Person to a Loan

In divorce situations, it is common, for the spouse who keeps the home to refinance to remove the other spouse from the loan. Equally as common, first-time buyers who don’t have enough income to qualify may ask a parent to co-sign and must add their name to the mortgage.

Another situation that requires removing or adding a person to a loan could be to qualify for a better interest rate. The difference in a minimally acceptable credit score and something that might be considered “good” could be as much as a 0.5% higher rate for the term of the mortgage.

Consider that a couple is buying a home on a conventional loan, and they have individual credit scores of 760 and 670. The underwriters will price the loan based on the lower of the two scores. A half percent interest on a $400,000 30-year mortgage could have close to $110 a month difference.

A possible solution to this dilemma could be available, assuming the borrower with the higher credit score had enough income to qualify for the mortgage separately. If so, that person would be eligible for the lower rate.

The property could still be titled in both names and if so, that person would be liable for the mortgage should the named borrower default on the loan.

Another scenario that may arise is that a couple has enough income to qualify for a mortgage but because one of the parties has a lower credit score, it will be priced higher. Having a parent or relative added to the mortgage as a non-occupying borrower to help with the credit score. Interest rates are determined on the lowest middle of three scores for the borrowers applying for the loan.

Assuming the parent’s score was higher than the lower score of the couple, it could improve the rate applied to the mortgage loan.

The value of a trusted mortgage professional is very important. They can offer alternatives to situations that could be worth tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the mortgage and in some cases, can make the difference in being approved at all.

Your real estate professional would be more than willing to make a recommendation and can support the need to assemble a strong team to help with your transaction.

Cash-Out Refinance

With the rapid appreciation that homes have had in the last two years, most homeowners have equity. A common way to release part of the equity is to cash-out refinance but some homeowners may not be eligible currently.

This type of loan replaces the current mortgage by paying it off and an additional amount of cash for the owner. Generally, lenders will consider a new mortgage up to a total of 80% of the current value.

Typically, the rate on a cash-out refinance will be slightly higher than a traditional purchase money mortgage. As is in any lending situation, the rate depends on the borrower’s credit and income. The best interest rates are available to borrowers with higher credit scores, usually over 740.

Loan-to-value can affect the rate a borrower pays also. A 70% loan-to-value mortgage could be expected to have a lower interest rate than an 80% LTV because there is a larger amount of equity remaining in the property and therefore, less risk for the lender.

There are no restrictions on how the owner can use the money. It can be used for home improvements, consolidating debt, other consumer needs or for investment.

Eligibility Requirements as found in FNMA Selling Guide B2-1.3-03 Cash-Out Refinance Transactions

“Cash-out refinance transactions must meet the following requirements:

• The transaction must be used to pay off existing mortgages by obtaining a new first mortgage secured by the same property or be a new mortgage on a property that does not have a mortgage lien against it.
• Properties that were listed for sale must have been taken off the market on or before the disbursement date of the new mortgage loan.
• The property must have been purchased (or acquired) by the borrower at least six months prior to the disbursement date of the new mortgage loan except for the following:
  • There is no waiting period if the lender documents that the borrower acquired the property through an inheritance or was legally awarded the property (divorce, separation, or dissolution of a domestic partnership).
  • The delayed financing requirements are met. See Delayed Financing Exception below.
  • If the property was owned prior to closing by a limited liability corporation (LLC) that is majority-owned or controlled by the borrower(s), the time it was held by the LLC may be counted towards meeting the borrower’s six-month ownership requirement. (In order to close the refinance transaction, ownership must be transferred out of the LLC and into the name of the individual borrower(s). See B 2-2-01, General Borrower Eligibility Requirements (07/28/2015) for additional details.)
  • If the property was owned prior to closing by an inter-vivos revocable trust, the time held by the trust may be counted towards meeting the borrower’s six-month ownership requirement if the borrower is the primary beneficiary of the trust.
• For DU loan case files, if the DTI ratio exceeds 45%, six months reserves is required.”

Homeowners Need to Know

In the Boy Scouts, a certification, called a Totin’ Chip, is required for scouts to carry, and use woods tools like a knife, axe and a saw. They must read and understand the use and safety rules from the scout handbooks and demonstrate the proper handling, care, and use of each.

No such certification is required for homeowners but there are a lot of good reasons why it should be self-imposed. Making minor repairs is part of the responsibility of owning a home that will save both time and money.

A homeowner will certainly appreciate the need for such training the first time a call is made to a service company to fix their air conditioner that suddenly quit cooling. When the repairman arrives, he has a checklist which includes verifying the unit is getting electricity. If not, they go to the electrical panel to see if a breaker has been thrown.

It can be very humbling and expensive to have to pay a service fee to have a repairman flip a breaker to get your air conditioning working again.

The basic items every homeowner should be able to do the following:

• Turn off the water in case of an emergency.
• Reset a circuit breaker.
• Change the HVAC filters and clean the outside coils.
• Clean a dryer vent.
• Reset a garbage disposer and dislodge a jam by spinning the flywheel
• Unclog a sink or drain.
• How to plunge a toilet and when to use an auger.
• Re-caulk a bathtub or sink
• Light a pilot light on a water heater or furnace
• Change the batteries on a smoke alarm

Service Providers or just <a href="mailto:Diana.

A Lesson from a Pro

A well-known professional home stager, recently, decided to sell the 4,000+ square foot home which she lived in with her husband. It was certainly well maintained and by most standards, could have gone on the market immediately. However, she still went through a full staging effort before she listed the home.

The work included painting inside and out especially, changing the kitchen cabinets from gray to white. The carpet was replaced along with a few dated light fixtures. They stained the fence and added minor landscaping to make it look fresh and inviting. They removed personal items from the home that might be distracting and replaced some furniture that was too large and might have limited a buyer’s imagination.

The home looked, smelled, and was clean. It had great drive-up appeal. Each room looked like it belonged in a magazine and the professional photos let potential buyers see the home before they visited it in person. When the home did come on the market, it sold in five days, above list price, with multiple offers, and for a considerably higher sales price than previous comparable sales had indicated it would.

The lesson to be learned is that even if a home is in good condition, taking the time to go through the steps to make it look its best will generate the kind of results that every seller hopes for when selling their home: the highest possible price, in the shortest time with the least amount of inconvenience.

Rising Rents – Music to Your Ears?

Rents going up may not be pleasant to hear for tenants, but it could be music to your ears if you are an investor.

The recent CoreLogic Single-Family Rent Index, April 2021, showed a 5.3% increase in national rent year over year which doubled the increase experienced in April 2020. This is the largest annual rent price increase in nearly 15 years.

Interestingly, detached rentals are experiencing an even higher growth rate of 7.9% year over year compared to the 2.2% annual rate for attached rentals. This is supported by the CoreLogic report that half of millennials and 2/3 of baby boomers “strongly prefer to live in a single, stand-alone home.”

From an investor’s point of view, single-family rentals offer large loan-to-value mortgages at fixed interest rated for long terms on appreciating assets with definite tax advantages and reasonable control.

Rentals are considered to be the IDEAL investment because if offers income to offset the carrying cost of the investment; depreciation contributing to annual cash flows with a non-cash deduction; equity build-up because a portion of each payment is applied to principal reduction; appreciation with increases in value; and, leverage that increases the overall yield through the use of borrowed funds.

Most homeowners are very aware of the housing inventory shortage that has caused homes to rise over 12% in the past year. The increased demand for homes coupled with the shortage of supply has contributed to the rapid appreciation. The trend is expected to continue for years.

While appreciation is a large component to the rate of return, cash flows are bolstered by the increasing rents. This combination makes investments in single-family rentals very attractive.

An added appeal is the familiarity and understanding of this type of investment because it requires the same aspects as homeownership. The same service providers a person uses for their home can be used for the rentals. For the investors who don’t want to manage the property themselves, professional management is available for placing and qualifying a tenant only or the entire process including collecting the rent and maintenance.

For more information, download the Rental Income Properties. Contact me if you’d like to have a more in-depth conversation and address any personal questions you might have.

Mortgage Forbearance

Some homeowners who could not afford to make their mortgage payments this past year have been relieved to find out that their mortgage servicer or lender allowed them to pause or possibly, reduce their payments for a limited period. While it does relieve the financial pressure, it is a temporary remedy.

About 2/3 of the people who entered forbearance during the pandemic have exited the program. There are only a little over two million homeowners remaining in forbearance.

It is important for owners who find that they cannot make the payments on their mortgage to contact their lender and request a forbearance. If you stop making mortgage payments without a forbearance agreement, the servicer will report this information to the credit reporting companies, and it can have a lasting negative impact on your credit history. Without going through that process, the lender assumes you are delinquent, and protections afforded under forbearance may not apply.

Forbearance does not forgive the money that is owed. The borrower must repay any missed or reduced payments in the future. If forbearance was issued under the CARES Act, the lender cannot require payment in full at the end of the forbearance. Additionally, Fannie Mae has declared “following forbearance, you are not required to repay missed payments all at once, but you have that option.”

The forbearance agreement issued by the lender allows a borrower to avoid foreclosure for a period until, hopefully, the borrower’s financial situation improves. If at the end of the stated period, the borrower’s hardship still exists, the lender may be able to extend the time frame.

The provisions of the forbearance vary based on the type of mortgage. The lender can tell you the specific provisions and options.

Loans made by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require lenders to suspend reports to credit bureaus of past due payments for borrowers in a forbearance plan and no penalties or late fees will be assessed. Furthermore, the lender is mandated to “work with the borrower on a permanent plan to help maintain or reduce monthly payment amounts as necessary, including a loan modification.”

At the end of the forbearance, there can be several options available to repay the suspended or paused amounts. You can resume your normal payment and repayment plan can be established. If you can start making the payment but can’t afford additional payments, the missed payments could be added to the end of the loan or possibly, a secondary lien that is due and payable when you refinance, sell or terminate your mortgage.

In cases where the borrower can’t afford to make the regular payments, a loan modification may be available with lower payments, but the term would be extended. While the CARES Act does not require borrowers at the end of the forbearance period to repay skipped payments in a lump sum, if a borrower is able, they may do so.

The purpose of this is to re-establish a payment plan that the borrower can repay the money owed. To be eligible for a loan modification, borrowers must show they cannot make the current mortgage payments because of financial hardship while demonstrating they can meet their obligations with the proposed restructured terms.

Under the CARES Act, borrowers with a GSE-backed mortgage are entitled to an additional 180-day extension which would be a total of 360 days. It is necessary to contact the servicer/lender for the extension.

There can be both legal and tax issues concerning in forbearance and professional advice is recommended. A list of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved Counseling agencies are available.

A Sad Story Relived Over and Over

Ask any real estate agent and they will tell you a similar sad story. The seller, whose home just hit the market, received an offer which was less than the list price, but felt secure their home would sell quickly and countered for more. For whatever reason, the buyer did not continue to negotiate and moved on.

After a week or two and no other offers, the seller instructed the listing agent to contact the buyer’s agent and say that the seller had reconsidered and would now accept their original offer. However, the initial enthusiasm the buyer had was gone and they were looking elsewhere.

This is a story that frequently happens across America, in all price ranges. The lesson to be learned is that sometimes, the first offer is the best. Consider the rationale, a home is fresh on the market and buyers, especially the ones who have lost bids on other homes, act quickly to hopefully avoid some of the competition.

When an offer is not accepted, it voids the original offer and, in this case, the seller makes the buyer a counteroffer; the buyer can accept it, make a counteroffer, or walk away. Even if afterwards, the seller reconsiders and says that he will accept the terms of the original offer, the buyer is under no obligation to accept it.

Alternatively, if the seller accepts the buyer’s original offer, a contract has been agreed upon based on the terms within. The house is sold and closed once any contingencies such as financing and/or inspections have been satisfied.

Think of an example where a seller countered for an additional $5,000. If he had accepted the original offer, the home would have been sold. In essence, he bought the home back from himself in hopes of making an extra $5,000.

To put it in perspective, on a $350,000 home, the additional $5,000 would have been 1.4% of the value. As an investor, the risk involved in having to continue to own the property may not be justified by such a low rate of return. Having the property sold may actually provide peace of mind and convenience that far exceeds the $5,000.

When a seller receives an offer, they are faced with three options.

1. They can accept the offer and the house is sold considering the contingencies can be met.
2. The seller can reject the buyer’s offer outright and wait for an acceptable offer.
3. The seller can counteroffer the buyer with terms that are agreeable to the seller.

Many agents feel that if the offer is not acceptable, the counteroffer alternative presents a greater likelihood of negotiating to an acceptable agreement between the parties. Every situation is unique, but compromise has brought buyers and sellers to agreement in many situations.

One of the valuable advantages sellers have is their agent’s experience and lack of emotional connection to the property. Your agent can provide objectivity and alternatives for you to consider in making you decisions.

Doing Nothing is Costing Something

It has been said that more money has been lost due to indecisions than ever was due to making the wrong decisions. Many times, the larger the decision, the more likely procrastination comes into play and doing nothing will cost something.

Buying a home is certainly one of the biggest decisions people make. Careful consideration and planning are necessary steps leading to a prudent decision. Considering today’s market that includes a global pandemic, financial volatility, and rapidly rising home prices, it is understandable that many people thinking about a home purchase are in a wait and see posture.

However, there is a cost connected to waiting and it may be a lot more than you think. The recent Home Price Expectation Survey 2021 Quarter two estimated appreciation rates will average just under 5% annual for the next five years. It expects prices to increase by 8% in the next one year.

Being a renter or even putting off moving to a larger home, could keep you from enjoying the benefit of that appreciation. If your down payment is in the bank, your expected earning will be less than 2%. In a home, the owner has the benefit of leverage when a mortgage is used to finance the home.

Buyers are borrowing a large portion of the purchase price at around 3% interest but the entire value of the home is appreciating at a higher rate and the profit builds equity for the homeowner.

Another major component for the owner is that the amortizing mortgage is being reduced with each payment that is made. As the home goes up in value due to appreciation, the unpaid balance goes down with principal reduction creating equity from two directions.

If you waited one year to buy a $350,000 home today, the price could easily be $378,000. A 5% down payment on this home at today’s price is $17,500. If you could earn 2% on a certificate of deposit, it would be worth $17,850 in one year. If it used as a down payment on a $350,000 home that appreciates at 8%, the equity in one year would be $52,442. Use the Your Best Investment calculator to make your own projection.

Mortgage experts anticipate rates to rise by 0.75% in the next year which means that you’ll pay more interest on a larger mortgage by waiting. The monthly payment could easily be $200 more by waiting a year. Based on how long you intend to be in the home, it could make the overall housing cost much more.

To run some examples of projections based on your own expectations and at the price you are considering, go to Cost of Waiting to Buy and Rent vs. Own.

If you have some specific concerns that is keeping you from deciding today, let’s get together on the phone, an online meeting or somewhere face-to-face so that you can get the facts about what it takes to buy a home now.