Did you know there is a new law passed for FHA loans where if you wait until it take affect in June 2012 or later to refinance the  MI will be greatly reduced from what it is currenty at? Stay tuned…

If your purchasing a home using an FHA loan you might want to hurry and get locked in!Most lenders will require that you lock or at least register into a particular address and have an FHA case number assigned by a certain date in order to avoid the increase that is coming in both upfront and monthly MI fees on FHA loans. This change is to take place on April 9th. Our company requires we are registered w case number assigned by April 2nd and each lender could have different rules in regards to the date that you must have this done by. The upfront MIP will change from the current 1% to 1.75%
The monthly MIP will change from the current 1.15% to 1.25%

On a $200,000 sales price, this will increase the buyers payment about $25 a month

In MARCH 2012 there is a new refinance program coming out that will not require an appraisal to be done which in turn will help those people trying to lower their monthly payment but have not been able to refinance due to the value of their home vs. what they owe on the mortgage loan. Watch for this program it may be the answer you have been looking for if you have been making on time payments but just have had a difficult time trying to refinance your home

Check with the city you are buying a home in because we just had a buyer purchasing a home in Minneapolis and being the home was in a certain neighborhood there was $7,500 to help towards lowering their overall loan amount which in turn lowers there monthly mortgage payment!  Ramsey County also has a great program which I helped a client of mine  in 2010 get $20,000 towards closing costs and lowering the overall loan amount  for first time homebuyers buying in Ramsey County but the home being purchased cant be in the city of St Paul, at least that is what the rule was last year. Check with Ramsey County to see if they still have the same program and funds available today/ MaryLou Egan is who helped me last year Mary.Lou.Egan@co.ramsey.mn.us  She was very helpful.   Most of these programs either forgive all or a large percentage of the loan if you live in the home for a certain amount of years. They are also typically no interest no payment loans until you move. Check with the city or county to see what their rules are. GOOD LUCK!

Typically it is a minimum of 2 yrs until you can buy again HOWEVER it is POSSIBLE that you could buy right away rather than having to wait that time period. It is case by case situation to get the exception, but here are a couple of possibilities that just may allow you to buy NOW.  Typically the key it to have never been late. Lets say the reason for the SHORT SALE was a divorce, death or loss of job to where one person would no longer be able to reasonably continue to make those payments on their own. 

So if you sucessfully had a short sale and were never late on your mortgage IT IS POSSIBLE TO BUY NOW. You also cannot just do a short sale to simply take advantge of the market and expect to be able to purchase again right away.

Another possiblity is that you have simply outgrown your home and maybe you are locating closer to your employer. Example: you and your spouse bought the home 7 years ago. Today it is you, your spouse, a one year old and now expecting twins. The 2 bedroom house just isnt going to cut it any longer (your family has outgrown the space) and in order to sell the home in todays market you would need to bring in $30,000 due to the values being much lower than they were in the past. so you do a short sale. If you were never late on house payments but need to upgrade to a home with more room for your family. Again it is case by case but IT IS POSSIBLE to get an exception to get into a home today rather than waiting 2 or 3 years until you can purchae a home again.

Starting January 1st 2011 lenders are required to provide new disclosures about your credit. This site will help answer questions that you may have about the paperwork you receive. A credit score can vary from 300-850. The better the credit score the better rates you can get for a home loan and other things such as insurance, auto loans etc. Check out this website for more helpful information  http://www.scoreinfo.org

Having quite a few calls in regards to “how soon until I can buy again?” it seems this may be a topic of interest.  FHA is more lienient then a conventional loan when it comes to how long until you can buy again…A short sale is looked at similar to a foreclosure which requires a minimum of 3 years from the foreclosure date until FHA will allow you to buy a home again. What about if you had a bankruptcy? - 2 years from the DISCHARGE date NOT the filed date.  VA LOANS allow a person to purchase a home just 2 years after a bankruptcy and same for a short sale or foreclosure- just 2 years time.  So just because you had a bankruptcy , short sale or foreclosure does not mean you can never buy a home again! What underwriters do like to see  is that you have had on time payments with your bills since the time that you had the negative debt removed.

Minnesota Housing had a conventional loan that came out in the later part of 2010, no monthly mortgage insurance and 100% financing. Unfortunatly it did not last very long and is no longer available today, but MN Housing does still have some great downpayment asisstance programs  www.MnHousing.gov . You may ask “Are there ANY 100% financing programs out there today?” YES…there is still 100% financing available with VA Loans - which is a great loan for veterans- No monthly mortgage insurance, 100% financing, rates very similar to the FHA Loan.                                                                                                                                                                   Rural Development is another great loan with 100% financing. You must buy a home in a ruraL area and fit into the income limit guidelines. These factors can be found on RD’s website http://eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov/eligibility/welcomeAction.do

Many are finding it very difficult on today’s economy to keep up on their mortgage payment and looking for a way to rescue their home.  If you’re in that position you may want to consider qualifying for a home loan modification program to keep your monthly payment in line with what you can afford without sever burden.  Millions of homeowners today are having financial problems due to the economy and un-employments rate among other things and may qualify for such a program.

In some situations where a home owner is unable to keep up with their monthly house payments he or she may be eligible for the Home Affordable Modification Program also known as (HAMP).  If the subject property has a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac backing then the mortgage lender has been authorized to modify the loan in order to make the homeowners eligible for the HAMP program.

Of course, as with any loan program there are certain criteria the homeowners must meet and guidelines to follow.  These plans are only in place for those who will loose their home from being unable to make monthly payments.  For more information on this program or to see how we can help with your situation contact us here or call 651-398-7673 to speak to our loan officer.

If you do not qualify for a loan modification and do not want to be foreclosed upon you may want to consider the option of a short sale.  Short sales in short are where your Realtor sells the property at fair market value and then negotiates with the bank on your behalf to accept the loan and release you from the debt and lien.  Realtor Derrick Monroe can be reached here for more information on how a short sale may be able to help you.  Remeber, many times there are options.