Mortgage / Home Loans

Yes, yes, and yes! Getting pre-qualified helps put the purchasing power in your hands. When you get pre-qualified, you learn exactly how much house you can afford and you know that amount before falling in love with a place that is out of your budget. It's our number one recommendation to avoid home heartbreak.

You may bring anything with you that you wish. We will not be able to give you a specific list of required documentation until after you apply for a home loan.

We recommend waiting to do anything that may impact your credit or would require a hard credit pull. Make sure you do not co-sign a loan or freeze your credit. We also recommend not making any changes to your employment during the application process. All of these actions can impact the outcome of your loan in a negative way. So press pause for now, and know that the wait is worth it.

The first step in buying a house is determining your budget. This calculator steps you through the process of finding out how much you can borrow. Fill in the entry fields and click on the 'View Report' button to see a complete amortization schedule of your mortgage payments.

Use this calculator to generate an estimated amortization schedule for your current mortgage. Quickly see how much interest you could pay and your estimated principal balances. You can even determine the impact of any principal prepayments! Press the "Report" button for a full yearly or monthly amortization schedule.

With most ARMs, the interest rate and monthly payment are fixed for an initial period such as three years, five years or seven years. After the initial fixed period, the interest rate can change every year. For example, one of our most popular adjustable mortgages is a five-year ARM. The interest rate will not change for the first five years (the initial adjustment period), but can change every year after the first five years.

An interest-rate cap places a limit on the amount your interest rate can increase or decrease. There are two types of caps:

1. Periodic or adjustment caps, which limit the interest rate increase or decrease from one adjustment period to the next.
2. Overall or lifetime caps, which limit the interest rate increase over the life of the loan.

As you can imagine, interest rate caps are very important since no one knows what can happen in the future. All of the ARMs we offer have both adjustment and lifetime caps. Please see each product description for full details.

Mortgage insurance should not be confused with mortgage life insurance, which is designed to pay off a mortgage in the event of a borrower's death. Mortgage insurance makes it possible for you to buy a home with less than a 20% down payment by protecting the lender against additional risk associated with low down payment lending. Low down payment mortgages are becoming more and more popular, and by purchasing mortgage insurance, lenders are comfortable with down payments as low as 3-5% of the home's value. It also provides you with the ability to buy a more expensive home than might be possible if a 20% down payment were required.

The mortgage insurance premium is based on loan to value ratio, type of loan, and amount of coverage required by the lender. Usually, the premium is included ink our monthly payment and one to two months of the premium is collected as a required advance at closing.

It will be possible to cancel private mortgage insurance at some point, such as when you loan balance is reduced to a certain amount - below 75% to 80% of the property value. Recent Federal Legislation requires automatic termination of mortgage insurance for many borrowers when their loan balance has been amortized down two 78% of the original property value. If you have any questions about when your mortgage insurance could be cancelled, please contact your Loan Advisor.

None of the loans programs we offer have penalties for prepayment. You can pay off your mortgage any time with no additional charges.

Applying for a mortgage loan before you find a home may be the best thing you could do! If you apply now, we'll issue a pre-qualification approval subject to you finding the perfect home. You can use the pre-qualification letter to assure real estate brokers and sellers that you are a qualified buyer. Having a pre-qualification for a mortgage may give more weight to any purchase offer that you make.

If you've ever purchased a home before, you may already be familiar with the benefits and terms of title insurance. But if this is your first hoe loan or you are refinancing, you may be wondering why you need another insurance policy.

The answer is simple: The purchase of a home is most likely one of the most expensive and important purchases you will ever make. You, and especially your mortgage lender, want to make sure the property is indeed yours: That no individual or government entity has any right, lien, claim or encumbrance on your property.

The function of a title insurance company is to make sure your rights and interests to the property are clear, that transfer of title takes place efficiently and correctly, and that your interests as a homebuyer are fully protected.

Title insurance companies provide services to buyers, sellers, real estate developers, builders, mortgage lenders, and others who have an interest in real estate transfer. Title companies typically issue two types of title policies:

1. Owner's Policy: This policy covers you, the homebuyer.
2. Lender's Policy: This policy covers the lending institution over the life of the loan.

Both types of policies are issued at the time of closing for a one-time premium, if the loan is a purchase. If you are refinancing your home, you probably already have an owner's policy that was issued when you purchased the property, so we'll only require that a lender's policy be issued.

Before issuing a policy, the title company performs an in-depth search of the public records to determine if anyone other than you has an interest in the property. The search may be performed by title company personnel using either public records or, more likely, the information contained in the company's own title plant.

Once a title is issued, if any claim covered under your policy is ever filed against your property, the title company will pay the legal fees involved in the defense our your rights. They are also responsible to cover losses arising from a valid claim. This protection remains in effect as long as you or your heirs own the property.

The fact that title companies try to eliminate risks before they develop makes title insurance significantly different from other types of insurance. Most forms of insurance assume risks by providing financial protection through a pooling of risks for losses arising from an unforeseen future event, say a fire, accident or theft. One the other hand, the purpose of title insurance is to eliminate risks and prevent losses caused by defects in title that may have happened in the past.

This risk elimination has benefits to both the homebuyer and the title company. it minimizes the chances that adverse claims might be raised, thereby reducing the number of claims that have to be defended or satisfied. This keeps costs down for the title company and the premiums low for the homebuyer.

Bankruptcy (Chapter 7 or Chapter 11):
A four-year waiting period is required, measured from the discharge or dismissal date of the bankruptcy action.

Bankruptcy (Chapter 13):
A distinction is made between Chapter 13 bankruptcies that were discharged and those that were dismissed. The waiting period required for Chapter 13 bankruptcy actions is measured as follows: two years from the discharge date, or four years from the dismissal date. The shorter waiting period based on the discharge date recognizes that borrowers have already met a portion of the waiting period within the time needed for the successful completion of a Chapter 13 plan and subsequent discharge. A borrower who was unable to complete the Chapter 13 plan and received a dismissal will be held to a four-year waiting period.

Foreclosure:
A seven-year waiting period is required, and is measured from the completion date of the foreclosure action as reported on the credit report or other foreclosure documents provided by the borrower.

One year of job history with the current employer is typically required unless the employment change is within the same employment field and if applicable outside any probationary employment period requirements.

Information about child support, alimony, or separate maintenance income does not need to be provided unless you wish to have it considered for repaying this mortgage loan.

Generally, only income that is reported on your tax return can be considered when applying for a mortgage. Unless, of course, the income is legally tax-free and isn't required to be reported.

You may be able to take advantage of our bank statement program. This program may require a larger down payment and have a higher interest rate than our regular mortgage rates.

A co-signed debt is considered when determining your qualification for a mortgage. If the co-signed debt doesn’t affect your ability to obtain a new mortgage we’ll leave it at that. However, if it does make a difference, we can omit the monthly payment of the co-signed debt if you can verify that the other person responsible for the debt has made the required payments, by obtaining copies of their canceled checks for the last twelve months.

If you're selling your current home to purchase your new home, we'll ask you to provide a copy of settlement or closing statement you'll receive at the closing to verify that your current mortgage has been paid in full and that you'll have sufficient funds for our closing. Often the closing of your current home is scheduled for the same day as the closing of your new home. If that's the case, we'll just ask you to bring your settlement statement with you to your new mortgage closing.

The most important documents you will sign at closing are the note and mortgage, sometimes called the deed of trust. Unless there are special circumstances, these documents are usually prepared one to two days before your closing. Other documents are prepared by the closing agent the day before or the day of your closing. If you would like copies of the completed documents to be sent to your after they are prepared, please contact your loan advisor.

Any outstanding student loan should be included in the application. If you are not sure exactly what the monthly payment will be at this time, enter an estimated amount.

If you will be working for the same employer, complete the application as such, but enter the income you anticipate you be receiving at your new location. If your employment is with a new employer, complete the application as if this were your current employer and indicate that you have been there for one month. The information about the employment you’ll be leaving should be entered as your previous employer.

At this time those only required to sign will be at closing.

If the home is located in a flood area, then yes flood insurance would be required.

No, we do not currently offer this service.

Interest rates are determined by a combination of your credit scores, loan to value ratio and product type.

You can lock in as soon as you have an approved and signed contract.

There is no fee required to get pre-qualified, but be aware we will be obtaining a credit report.

A home inspection is not required. You may obtain a home inspection, but it would be at your own discretion and the expense would be out of your own pocket.

As soon as we receive your appraisal, we'll update your loan with the estimated value of the home. We will promptly provide you a copy of any appraisal, even if your loan does not close.

The maximum percentage of your home's value depends on the purpose of your loan, how you use the property, and the loan type you choose, so the best way to determine what loan amount we can offer is to complete an online application.

Generally, the income of self-employed borrowers is verified by obtaining copies of personal (and business, if applicable) federal tax returns for the most recent two-year period.

We'll review and average the net income from self-employment that's reported on your tax returns to determine the income that can be used to qualify. We won't be able to consider any income that hasn't been reported as such on your tax returns. We'll need a full two-year history of self-employment to verify that your self-employment income is stable.