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How do I know how much house I can afford? |
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Generally speaking, you can purchase a home with a value of two or three times your annual household income. However, the amount that you can borrow will also depend upon your employment history, credit history, current savings and debts, and the amount of down payment you are willing to make. You may also be able to take advantage of special loan programs for first time buyers to purchase a home with a higher value. Give us a call, and we can help you determine exactly how much you can afford. |
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| Q : |
I'm looking at Market Street's good faith estimate and comparing with others'. Your title fees are more than your competitor's. Why are you charging more for the title company? |
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Actually we are not charging a dime for title work. That's just a hypothetical scenario what some else is going to charge. Most likely it's the exact same loan as the other GFE you are comparing with. The mortgage company is not your title company. Do not shop mortgage companies based on title insurance and fees. Our competitors loan officer can omit a likely fee the title company may or may not charge.
When shopping for title companies, break the fees in to two categories; state regulated fees such as title insurance and endorsements do not change, they are fixed. But fees, legal fees can range quite a bit. Write down what they quote and get what's called a "pre-hud" to see the fees. Our processors are directed to get a "pre-hud" to you asap when we open title. If the price is out of line, we keep shopping. |
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| Q : |
Are you a loan broker or a bank? |
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We are not a broker like your real estate broker; we are not a thrift-bank as where you have a checking account. We streamline and limit our functions to originating home loans then selling then to entities that specialize in servicing homes loans. Our business model eliminates much of the cost associated with getting your loan closed. We find this gives us an edge when competing with larger institutions. We are licensed to lend on in the Sate of Texas, license numbers 79700 and 79701. |
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| Q : |
Do I need a survey even if it's not listed on the good faith estimate? |
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We can take your old survey if you never added pool or changed how the survey will look. Also, your title company will have to accept the survey as well. Shopping for a mortgage that does not require one can be a waste of time. Every home loan we know of, requires a survey.
The good news is we should be able to accept a copy of an old survey. Make sure it has a surveyor's stamp and license number. If you can't find one, we got a lot tricks of trade to tack them down. We rarely see our borrowers pay for a survey.
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| Q : |
What does my mortgage payment include? |
| A : |
For most homeowners, the monthly mortgage payments include three separate parts:
Principal: Repayment on the amount borrowed
Interest: Payment to the lender for the amount borrowed
Taxes & Insurance: Monthly payments are normally made into a special escrow account for items like hazard insurance and property taxes. This feature is sometimes optional, in which case the fees will be paid by you directly to the County Tax Assessor and property insurance company. |
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| Q : |
How much cash will I need to purchase a home? |
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The amount of cash that is necessary depends on a number of items. Generally speaking, though, you will need to supply:
Earnest Money: The deposit that is supplied when you make an offer on the house
Down Payment: A percentage of the cost of the home that is due at settlement
Closing Costs: Costs associated with processing paperwork to purchase or refinance a house
Ask us for a good faith estimate if you need spefic answers, we have sample Good Faith Esimates. Call us and ask us for one.
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| Q : |
I have got a emai of some forms to signed and sent back. Who wrote them and where did they come from? Why are all these promulgated forms required? |
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These same forms are required by all the FNMA wholesale lenders that work with Market Street or most any other mortgage company. These same forms are generated in most the loan processing software being used today. Wholesale lenders want to make sure that the borrowers are serious candidates for thier loans before they incur the expensive task of underwriting. Some of these disclosures are a preview of what you will see at the closing table. Our lenders do not like anyone to go to closing and be surprised. |
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| Q : |
Who will service our notes? |
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As far as we know, every lender we know of operates exactly the same way we do. Our loans are eventually sold to lenders that qualify to have your loan backed by FNMA. Many times, the loan can get sold/or assigned to a lender we did not initially sell to like J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo or host big institutions that hold billions of dollars in loans but do not have the need to spend money marketing as a retailer. Most borrowers never heard of many of these larger servicing agents funded by the investors from Wall Street. The most important fact to remember in all this is the address you send your check might change but not the loan.
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| Q : |
What is the difference between a fixed-rate loan and an adjustable-rate loan? |
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With a fixed-rate mortgage, the interest rate stays the same during the life of the loan. With an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM), the interest changes periodically, typically in relation to an index. While the monthly payments that you make with a fixed-rate mortgage are relatively stable, payments on an ARM loan will likely change. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type of mortgage, and the best way to select a loan product is by talking to us.
We rarely lend an adjustable rate mortgage or anything with a prepayment penalty. The terms of the loan can't be change they way a credit card company can. We mostly lend fixed rate FNMA loans with the lowest rates. |
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| Q : |
How is an index and margin used in an ARM? |
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An index is an economic indicator that lenders use to set the interest rate for an ARM. Generally the interest rate that you pay is a combination of the index rate and a pre-specified margin. Three commonly used indices are the One-Year Treasury Bill, the Cost of Funds of the 11th District Federal Home Loan Bank (COFI), and the London InterBank Offering Rate (LIBOR). |
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| Q : |
How do I know which type of mortgage is best for me? |
| A : |
There is no simple formula to determine the type of mortgage that is best for you. This choice depends on a number of factors, including your current financial picture and how long you intend to keep your house. woodlandsmortgage.com can help you evaluate your choices and help you make the most appropriate decision. |
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| Q : |
Can I loose my lock is I do not sign and return the forms sent to me. |
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YES!! |
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| Q : |
Some spots on the loan application and other forms are left blank, do I need to fill them in? |
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The loan application does need to be filled out where applicable; sometimes your information may not have been purged over in to the email. This same application can be perfected and signed again at closing. If you know the answer to a question on an application, please write the answer as clearly as you can.
Some of the forms are suppose to be left blank that do not apply but none of the forms are suppose to be 100% blank. Just call our office or Charley at 281-797-1800. Call ASAP so we don't loose any time.
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| Q : |
How can I predict what interest rates or going to do? |
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You can not. This is our own opinion: If rates have been volatile over the past several weeks, then expect them to continue bouncing around. Imagine a volley ball rolling quickly down an uneven gravel road with hills, wash outs and pot holes. When that ball (or interest rates) starts rolling faster, it will bounce more. We don’t know for a fact if that road is leading up and hill or down. Except, we have seen the hill rolling up rolls fastest and the hill rolling down has the most resistance.
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| Q : |
What affects interest rates? |
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This answer will change and the factors will change. The “Fed” used to lower the interest rate that it loans money to banks. However that number is too close to zero% to still have much effect. The fed still has tools but now we are too complicated for a FAQ. Instead, we have to look at other indicators. Here is a list factors we site in early 2009:
- Bond prices, 10 and 30 year t-bills and a host of bonds issued by institutions are the bonds that count most.
- Supply and demand. If the wholesale markets are too backed up, they are not lowering their prices regardless. We call it “File-Flow”. Many wholesale sources cut staff during the melt down of 2007 and 2008, building their staff back again takes time.
- Rising inflation expectations and inflation reports. The expectation of inflation is worse than actual inflation reports of what already happened in hind site. The price of a barrel of oil has correlated with rates and well.
- Uncertainty: A volatile market kills prospects of lower rates. Imagine an investor warehousing a bunch of loans at 4.5% then when it’s time to sell them off to FNMA, rates move to5%. If that investor borrowed the money to loan the money, things even worse. Rates moving and bouncing around scares off investors or they require a greater return for the risk.
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| Q : |
I have 20 or more pages to send back to you, can we fax it? |
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Yes. Fax to 281-465-0602. You can also scan in to PDF and email the to us. |
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| Q : |
My scanned file size is too big to attach to email. Is there an easier way to do this? |
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Yes. Look for a preferences tab or properties tab when your printer window pops up right before you push the scan button.
Click that open and look for a way to reduce the lines per inch. We only need 72 lines per inch (aka 72 dpi). You can send your scan at 100 dpi or even 600 dpi, just eats up more time to do it.
Try to save your scans as a PDF, but a TIF or a JPG is OK too. |
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| Q : |
Oil and gasoline went down in price, does this mean interest rates are coming down? |
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Actually that means rates have already came down, as in past tense. The news you are reading about the price of oil is also past tense. If rates are still flat, then there are other factors pressuring the rates up because usually see rates decreased when oil falls. |
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