Based on a $240,000 loan with 20% down or 20% equity on rate and term refinance. Middle credit score of 680 or higher on a Georgia primary residence single family detached home. Borrower must meet standard conforming (FNMA/FHLMC) loan guidelines. This is not a commitment to lend and rates are subject to change without notice. NOTE THERE ARE NO DISCOUNT POINTS ON THESE LOANS. 15 day lock, fully documented income and assets. Total settlement costs less than 3%. Does not include pre-paid items such as appraisal, taxes, insurance or government related fees. * PMI of 35% is required (ask about the Flex97/3 with only 18% MI) † Loan amount of $1,000,000
Novation Mortgage, 2501 E Piedmont Road, Suite 201, Marietta, GA 30062 Georgia Residential Mortgage Licensee 20014. Florida Mortgage Broker Business MBB 0703760 FHA Lender - Equal Housing Lender
Ken Cook - Georgia - FHA, USDA, VA and Conventional Home Loans (678) 439-8683
Let's start out by once more addressing the difference between BankRate.com rates and real rates. BankRate.com is not a lender or broker - they are a financial media website. The information posted to their website is not guaranteed accurate and there is no specific lender to stand behind it. Basically, in the industry, those rates are pretty much a joke. Their own advertisements indicate "Rates may include points." You can almost but your rump they do.
The rates I report are wholesale mortgage rates. I compare them to real lenders in my real market area. The idea that anyone is going to realistically beat any of these rates without charging higher points and fees is crazy. I compare to Suntrust, Bank of America, Countrywide, and most of the dot com lenders. We always beat them on at least two of the major categories.
Folks, you're doing yourself a dis-service by not contacting Novation Mortgage if you are in Georgia or Florida or another local LENDER if you are in another market area. These big mega-behemoth banks are not as good as you think they are just because you hear their name all the time.
Finding the liar on rate advertisement isn't that difficult. Just pick the one that is 1/2 point lower than the others and that's your liar: BankRate for Georgia Fixed30's
Rates provided by Novation Mortgage, a Georgia Residential Mortgage Licensee Number 20014. Headquartered at 2501 E Piedmont Road, Suite 201, Marietta, GA 30062. A Direct Mortgage Lender and Equal Housing Lender. Based on a $240,000 loan with 20% down or 20% equity on rate and term refinance. Middle credit score of 680 or higher on a Georgia primary residence single family detached home. Borrower must meet standard conforming (FNMA/FHLMC) loan guidelines. This is not a commitment to lend and rates are subject to change without notice. NOTE THERE ARE NO DISCOUNT POINTS ON THESE LOANS. 15 day lock, fully documented income and assets. Total settlement costs less than 3%. Does not include pre-paid items such as appraisal, taxes, insurance or government related fees. * On FLEX100 PMI of 35% is required (ask about the Flex97/3 with only 18% MI) † Jumbo Loan amount of $1,000,000
Ken Cook - Georgia - FHA, USDA, VA and Conventional Home Loans (678) 439-8683
You have finally made it to another weekend! Sales will be either better, flat or worse this weekend and I can predict that with100% accuracy. What you know tomorrow that you didn't know yesterday will be of great value to you as you speak with clients! One major word about the rates I have been publishing is this: These aren't some pie-in-the-sky 1-800-BIGBANK-DOTCOM television advertised rates that one in a thousand, if that, can qualify for. These are the real deal every day rates for normal people with 20% down, 680 credit scores, full time jobs, etc.
With the failure of many secured investment vehicles we have once again returned to keeping our eyes on the bond market. If you see the bond market strengthen then in the next 12 business hours or so you should see rates flatten or decline. Conversely if you see the bond market declining you should see interest rates raise. Of course there are mortgage rates tied to other indexes such as the ever popular London Interbank Offered Rate or LIBOR. To predict the movement of the rate for the LIBOR index loans you simply need to watch the LIBOR. If the LIBOR numbers go up so does the interest rate for the mortgage based on the LIBOR index.
The above paragraph, of course, is greatly simplified. It doesn't take into consideration a "shifting" bond market when the dollar is also changing in value and what we really look at most closely is the ten year treasury constant maturity. I'm not going to explain that here ;)
Can we give a better rate? Of course! The borrower can pay points just like they have to on The Liar's Club website that you see echoed across the great digital universe. These rates are for $240,000 loans against $300,000 homes (except the jumbo) with average closing costs for loans in the state of Georgia. I used the figure of $5000 in total settlement costs (not including pre-paid taxes, pre-paid insurance and government fees).
Today I have added the P&I payment for each loan amount based on the figures for a $240,000 or $1,000,000 loan for the jumbo.
Today's Mortgage Interest Rates for GEORGIA HOME LOANS
Effective 11:15 AM EST February 22 IMPROVED ▼
LOAN
RATE
APR
Monthly P&I
Fixed 30
5.750 un
5.965
($1,400.57)
Fixed 15
5.250 ▼
5.360
($1,929.31)
7/1 ARM
5.500 ▼
5.920
($1,362.69)
Flex100*
6.125 ▼
6.214
($1,458.27)
Jumbo†
7.000 ▼
7.062
($6,653.02)
Rates provided by Novation Mortgage, a Georgia Residential Mortgage Licensee Number 20014. Headquartered at 2501 E Piedmont Road, Suite 201, Marietta, GA 30062. A Direct Mortgage Lender and Equal Housing Lender. Based on a $240,000 loan with 20% down or 20% equity on rate and term refinance. Middle credit score of 680 or higher on a Georgia primary residence single family detached home. Borrower must meet standard conforming (FNMA/FHLMC) loan guidelines. This is not a commitment to lend and rates are subject to change without notice. NOTE THERE ARE NO DISCOUNT POINTS ON THESE LOANS. 15 day lock, fully documented income and assets. Total settlement costs less than 3%. Does not include pre-paid items such as appraisal, taxes, insurance or government related fees. * PMI of 35% is required (ask about the Flex97/3 with only 18% MI) † Loan amount of $1,000,000
Stocks are down sharply which is usually good news for mortgage interest rates. What's even better is to have stock down and bonds flat or up. What's good for inflation is good for interest rates. So today, with the Dow down 7/10ths and the bond market not making any bad noises we get a fairly sharp drop in interest rates.
Today's Mortgage Interest Rates for GEORGIA HOME LOANS Effective 1:15 PM EST February 21 IMPROVED
Rates provided by Novation Mortgage, a Georgia Residential Mortgage Licensee Number 20014. Headquartered at 2501 E Piedmont Road, Suite 201, Marietta, GA 30062. A Direct Mortgage Lender and Equal Housing Lender. Based on a $240,000 loan with 20% down or 20% equity on rate and term refinance. Middle credit score of 680 or higher on a Georgia primary residence single family detached home. Borrower must meet standard conforming (FNMA/FHLMC) loan guidelines. This is not a commitment to lend and rates are subject to change without notice. NOTE THERE ARE NO DISCOUNT POINTS ON THESE LOANS. 15 day lock, fully documented income and assets. Total settlement costs less than 3%. Does not include pre-paid items such as appraisal, taxes, insurance or government related fees. * PMI of 35% is required (ask about the Flex97/3 with only 18% MI) † Loan amount of $1,000,000
Ken Cook - Georgia - FHA, USDA, VA and Conventional Home Loans (678) 439-8683
I have learned many things on Active Rain and also had my thoughts confirmed here. That has some of the highest value of anything I can attribute to AR. Yes, the networking is phenomenal but if we were all just talking about American Idol or NASCAR we wouldn't be growing as a community of real estate business people and leaders. So, keeping in that vain let's talk about the myriad different types of POINTS on a mortgage and why you, whether you are a loan officer or real estate agent, need to understand the differences.
What's the POINT? Basis, spread, yield, BIPs, discount ... You Need To Know
There are things I don't know that I need to know ... that I don't even know I need to know. I mean I need to know things I don't even know about knowing. You known what I mean, right? The first step to learning is to admit, "I don't know". Once that's over with I can begin to learn.
Two things always kind of give me a chuckle, people who honestly don't know and are just operating off "hear-say" who honestly want to learn and people who act like they know to your face but head for Google as soon as they leave. I'll admit, I've done both.
We received a called the other day and the man wasted no time in saying, "I want your lowest rate with no points." Being the happy little snot I am I said, "no which points?" I already knew that would fluster him and that's why I asked. He really didn't know what a point was. So I expanded a bit and asked, "No yield points, no discount points, no origination points? Which points would you like to not have? I only ask because the real answer depends on what you are asking for." And the real answer DOES depend on what the caller was asking for.
Let's get to the point (too many puns available for this topic)
Discount Points - almost all crazy low rates you see advertised are either teaser rates (start rates) or rates with discount points (rate buydowns) to get the lower rate. We'll go with the rate buy down or discount points. Let's say the par rate* for today is 6% but you see an add for a 5.5% rate. All the other lenders are advertising 6% but this one lender is advertising 5.5% - they are able to do that because you are going to buy the rate down with discount points. In the example give it is probably going to cost you 2% of the loan amount (advanced interest) to get the rate down from 6% to 5.5%. As a general rule it's 4 for 1 - 4 discount points will get you one percent reduction in interest. So on a $300,000 loan to save .5% on your interest payment it would cost you $12,000.
Basis Points - you really never will hear about Basis Points or BIPs unless someone is using the term incorrectly. A Basis Point is 1/100th of a point or .01% - I have had people call and say, "I'm not paying more than 6 basis points for my loan." Wow, that's cheap. What they are meaning is 6% but what they are saying is .06% - point zero six percent or 6/100th's of a percent. Loan officers need to understand because we do talk about 50 basis points or 400 basis points from time to time.
Yield Points - in mortgages this generally refers to the much maligned on false pretenses Yield Spread Premium. Yied points, in reality, are your friend. The lie is that only mortgage brokers charge them - that's actually a full fledged lie wrapped in an onion skin of the truth. Yield points are actually just profit. The idea that lenders "rebate" money to brokers is ridiculous. Brokers set the yield and lenders pay them what is due. The reason YSP is your friend is because SOMEBODY is paying closing costs and it costs about 3 percent to close the average $240,000 or so loan. The lower the loan amount the higher the percentage and vice versa. That loud mouth little bald headed piece of tripe on the radio doesn't pay your closing costs, you do - over the life of the loan. He jacks up the rate enough to earn more yield. His process is not "his" ... every broker can do it. I just like to pick on him because he's a little twit.
Closing Points - this is generally all of the settlement costs rolled into one number. If someone says, "I bought a house with only 2 points at closing!" and another says, "Good gosh! My closing points were 8!" you can't really know who paid more. The guy who paid 2 may have had a $1,000,000 loan while the guy who paid 8 may have had a $5,000 loan. Do you know it costs just as much to originate, process, underwrite and fund a $1,000,000 loan as it does a $50,000 loan?
So I hope I've pointed out the difference between points. I tried not to beat around the bush and get straight to the, well - you know, point.
*Par rate is the wholesale rate at which money can be lent without any yield spread points. To get the par rate you will have to pay origination points (part of the closing points). Mortgage brokers generally need to make about $2500 per loan just to keep the doors open. Nobody is getting rich at $2500 per loan ... that's the MINIMUM. If you don't have a plain jane loan it's going to cost the mortgage broker more to "do" your loan and since they are in the business for a profit that cost will be passed along to you. Funny, they still beat the bank more than 1/2 the time so if you haven't shopped with your local mortgage broker ... get to it!
Join me this afternoon LIVE online at HTTP://VIRALREALESTATE.COM for streaming video addressing the current market situation and outlook, answering questions about short sales, how lenders determine which markets are declining and more. We're going to talk about why even excellent borrowers can no longer get a loan from some lenders.
This morning, Wednesday, February 20, 2008 started with rates jumping another 1/8th to a new high of 6.25 at just above PAR pricing. With the market changing rapidly after the opening bell we are seeing indicators that rates will go back down 1/8th by mid afternoon but as of 1PM that information has not yet been established.
Here is how the short rate chart looks at 1:00PM Eastern (if you want to know why B_nkrate rates appear lower just ask any mortgage professional.)
Today's Mortgage Interest Rates for GEORGIA HOME LOANS Effective 11:15 AM EST February 20 RATES MIXED
The harshest news for the industry today is for investors and homeowners looking for cash out refinancing, especially on short seasoned or non-seasoned properties. Troubled mortgage insurer Radian has tightened it's market probably to the point of no return. After labeling the entire state of Georgia as a declining market they have cost their lenders billions of dollars in new loan revenue. Time to look at other insurers! Several major lenders have all adhered to the CoreLogic F-Score system and will not lend on properties, regardless of borrower strength in income. assets and DTI, on any property with an unacceptable F score. So now even if you have a superior borrower they still may not be able to purchase a property using one majro bank out of Birmingham, another one out of Cleveland and a lender belonging to a major automotive manufacturer and co-owned by a large banking investment group.
I will be discussing F scores and declining markets this afternoon at 4PM Easter live streaming online. If you want to learn more or have questions to ask please join me at the link below.
Rates provided by Novation Mortgage, a Georgia Residential Mortgage Licensee Number 20014. Headquartered at 2501 E Piedmont Road, Suite 201, Marietta, GA 30062. A Direct Mortgage Lender and Equal Housing Lender. Based on a $240,000 loan with 20% down or 20% equity on rate and term refinance. Middle credit score of 680 or higher on a Georgia primary residence single family detached home. Borrower must meet standard conforming (FNMA/FHLMC) loan guidelines. This is not a commitment to lend and rates are subject to change without notice. NOTE THERE ARE NO DISCOUNT POINTS ON THESE LOANS. 15 day lock, fully documented income and assets. Total settlement costs less than 3%. Does not include pre-paid items such as appraisal, taxes, insurance or government related fees. * PMI of 35% is required (ask about the Flex97/3 with only 18% MI) † Loan amount of $1,000,000
Ken Cook - Georgia - FHA, USDA, VA and Conventional Home Loans (678) 439-8683
The mortgage interest rates rose sharply this morning, as we predicted on Friday they would, so if you didn't lock you just lost at the game. The good news is rates are still historically low compared to the last 3 decades. Other important news includes the elimination of the Go Fast and Easy program from Fannie Mae which gave us a streamlined purchase. The reason, once again, sleazy loan officers at banks and lenders who sell to Fannie Mae abusing the system.
The rule was the file was to be entered as a full doc file and IF the results were approved for Go Fast and Easy THEN you could no submit documentation. What these sleazeball loan officers was doing that now cost the industry millions of dollars - once again - was entering what they knew to be a stated income/stated assets loan as a full doc loan hoping to get the Go Fast approval. WAY TO GO YOU JOKERS. While you're getting angry at my words go ahead and get the hell out of my business and stop screwing it up for everyone else you putzs. You're scum and you don't belong in the same business as my good friends and I so just quit and save yourself the hassle of being prosecuted for mortgage fraud.
Based on a $240,000 loan with 20% down or 20% equity on rate and term refinance. Middle credit score of 680 or higher on a Georgia primary residence single family detached home. Borrower must meet standard conforming (FNMA/FHLMC) loan guidelines. This is not a commitment to lend and rates are subject to change without notice. NOTE THERE ARE NO DISCOUNT POINTS ON THESE LOANS. 15 day lock, fully documented income and assets. Total settlement costs less than 3%. Rates advertised are available through Novation Mortgage, 2501 E Piedmont Road, Suite 201, Marietta, GA 30062. Georgia residential Mortgage Licensee 20014. A Direct Mortgage Lender and Equal Housing Lender.
Two other bits of news before I go.
There is RUMOR that Fannie Mae is ending cash out refinance on investment properties. I heard it from a reliable source but it is not verified. If you are an investor and you want to cash out on some investment properties my recommendation is that you begin that process immediately if not sooner.
And finally - be sure to tune in tomorrow at 4PM Eastern at http://novationmortgage.com/live_studio.php for industry news and Q&A with live video stream. We will be addressing some of the state of the market as well as the trends we see in certain market areas and we'll be answer some questions about short sales and about the possible impact of the changes to FHA and Fannie Mae. We'll be on for 30 minutes so join us as early as possible for a good seat ;)
Media Notice - call Ken Cook at 678-946-0100 for accurate information on the real estate & mortgage industry.
Unbelievable! That's the number of emails I am getting from all across the nation about the new FHA loan limits. You need to stop thinking right now that you can borrow $729,750 using FHA on a single family home anywhere in the United States. That's not what the change is and it is not what the change is going to be. That is the agreed upon MAXIMUM for ANY FHA loan and that will be for a home in the MSA's with the highest MSP's from the previous year.
For example, the MSP in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 2007 was 97k so the FHA limit should be increased to 97 * 1.25 = 121,250 but the MSP in Honolulu, Hawaii in 2007 was 643.5k * 1.25 = 804,375 so the maximum there should be 729,750.
I keep saying should because everything we have read is a guess to this point. We don't know ... THEY don't know. You can be reasonably sure your market are will have an increase over the previous loan limits but we don't know until HUD publishes the new MSA data within the next few weeks.
Here are some calculations using the information from HUD for my market area:
So what happens to cities like ATLANTA where the current loan limit is already higher than 125% of the MSP? UNLESS for some odd reason they plan on lowering the limit to the actual median sales price times 1.25 they have a secret plan!
So that, my friends, is why we will WAIT and SEE instead of jumping to crazy conclusions!
MSA - Metropolitan Statistical Area MSP - Median Sales Price
Media Notice - call Ken Cook at 678-946-0100 for accurate information on the real estate & mortgage industry.
100% Financing IS Still Available and at decent rates - fixed for thirty. This product IS available in some areas of Florida. Every time I hear some blabbering mouth from the news media talking about how 100% financing opportunities are gone I really want to reach my hands through the toob, pull out their tongue and wrap it around there head. They speak with such authority yet they know nothing.
If you are buying a home in Georgia today and you want to get it for no-money-down here is how it works.
660 middle score - very below average Debt to income of 45% or less - very common Full time work for last 2 years - who can't show this that wants to buy a new home? Fully documentable income - two years of tax returns and last 30 days worth of pay stubs Primary residence - meaning you are going to move into the house.
Guess how much the interest rate is: Ten percent? No. Nine percent? No. Eight percent? No.
The interest rate today would be 6.625 (APR 6.737) or less with standard closing costs.
People, that's a principal and interest payment of only $960.47 on a $150,000 home.
YES there is PMI - which, as you know, is tax deductible through the end of 2010.
Look, there are thousands of homes in very good condition available for purchase right now throughout the north Georgia market area. Even on a $400,000 home you can still use this same exact loan. If you credit score is over 680 you get a discount on your rate. If you can pay down 3% you can get a better rate. If you can pay down just 5% you get still a better rate.
Stop getting your mortgage and real estate information from the kids who were the biggest whiner liberals in college ... journalism majors ... and start getting it from people who know what they are talking about who touch this information all the time, every day of the year.
INTEREST RATES ARE PHENOMENALLY LOW! There are more properties available today than you can possible need to make a selection from. Heck! If you can't find what you like I have a loan that will let you pick out the wrong house in the right neighborhood and turn it into the right house for just 5% down! I mean you can add a garage, three bedrooms and a bathroom, finish a basement, install a pool, completely renovate ... AND we hold your hand because it comes with a CONSULTANT!
There is a very simple way to really crank up your search engine ranking and a handful of us are enjoying it nicely! I have a nice paycheck coming next week from a loan I did in Florida because of this neat little trick that also happens to be a free resource to help build your internet presence in a great way. Let me share it with you now.
The 24, if you don't know, is a blog with a limit of 24 of North America's most proficient bloggers. Many are bloggers who publish here at Active Rain as well. The purpose of The 24 is to provide more search engine recognition for those bloggers and it is working. Since I track all of my hits to my "money maker" (http://novationmortgage.com) I can follow the trail from search engine to The 24 and then on to my money making website. I recently tracked my first one from search engine to The 24 to my website to an actual customer for one of my nation wide mortgage solutions - the non-recourse loan for IRA real estate investors! So, that work generated about $2300 in total revenue for me!
The image to the left is a recent sampling of search engine hits, mostly from Google, showing the search engine clicks that brought readers to The 24 and what they were searching for. To follow up and see how they ranked I followed a few them back to the search engine to see how they line up.
short sales wellington florida #6 on Google
wellington FL house short sale #3 on Google
full doc requirements FHA loan $729,000 #5 Google
Anyone who cares about internet marketing knows that being in the top ten on Google and even better being in the top 5 has a very high value. You can either pay to be there or get there by using the right keywords and having multiple postings across the internet.
Some of the most active posts of this month include:
What makes blogs so powerful and why is such a small blog like The 24 attracting so much traffic? The answer really is quite simple. The 24 is only about real estate. The posts on The 24 are strictly about real estate and real estate blogging. The people who post on The 24 are recognized by search engines as having other high ranking pages so everyone who posts with The 24 also benefit from each other.
Active Rain pretty much dominates Google as far as real estate search engine rankings go. I can rarely search for a real estate related topic and not find an Active Rain page cataloged there in the top ten. It is also nice to note that right there along with AR is The 24. In fact on a few topics I personally have 5 out of the ten top results from time to time. Last week for FHA loans in Georgia I had positions 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7. That ain't bad!
So what good does this do for you? There are currently eight blog positions available at The 24. Anyone can sign up but you can only post after I approve you for posting so if you want one of the positions you need to hurry over and sign up then send me an email through that system or here AR or email me at this link and tell me your name and the email address you used to sign up with.
The rules for participating are fairly straight forward. Post at least once per week if you can, keep your posts about real estate even if it is about your puppy make sure it is about how your puppy helps you relax after a hard day of selling real estate or something. Try and keep your content unique (in fact you should always do this - if a search engine picks up double posting of the same content it will only show one - you can get around this by changing the content around a bit).
Come join us! Even if you don't want to participate in The 24 you can post to the OPEN blog which is a new section of The 24 just for people who want juice without the commitment of a weekly original posting. Any search engine juice you can garner WILL help you be more successful and it only takes a few minutes to jump over and post on other blogs as well as keeping your main blogging here on AR if that's what you choose to do! I currently post regularly on over 15 blogs including AR and The 24.
NEW DAILY SCHEDULE
short sales wellington florida #6 on Google