Michigan Mortgage

It’s a Good Time to Jump In

GOOD ADVICE

Evan, Can you finance a buyer who has only been out of a short sale for 2 years? Purchase price is $172,000 and 5% down. Clean credit except for short sale. Thanks! Jenna   Hi Jenna, My first assumption is that with the short sale there were also late payments on that mortgage. If so, [...]

A Year of No Mortgage Payments?

This video is well done and illustrates why we don’t want the government fixing our housing problems. It would be a lot funnier if it weren’t real. After watching this video, resolve to stop voting for or promoting programs like these. They do not work

Now May Be a Good Time to Look at Your Interest Rate

MERS Lawsuit Fouls up Foreclosures

Some foreclosures in Ingham County may have just gotten a lot more complicated. Last month the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS), a private company, did not have the right to use the state’s “Foreclosure by Advertisement” law to initiate foreclosures. MERS is an electronic registry that tracks servicing rights and [...]

Lemonade, Anyone?

Government looks to increase the FHA minimum down payment. Last month, on May 25th, in the House Financial Services committee meeting, the discussion resumed about increasing the minimum down payment requirement for FHA loans from 3.5% or $3500 on a $100,000 home to 5% or $5000 on a $100,000 home. This idea is gaining traction because FHA loan performance has [...]

Personal Story on Loan Modification

This last post on loan modification is my personal story on this topic.

It’s no secret to many of my good friends and clients that the years 2000 through 2006 were very good years for me as a mortgage broker. I was not one who wrote the high-interest-rate sub-prime loans, but even so, many were buying and selling and refinancing in Michigan during those years, and I was able to help many of them…

Is Modification Like Stealing?

One of my more introspective clients asked this question, and I appreciated it a great deal. He said that since he had agreed to borrow the money up front at a certain set of terms, that anything less than those terms could be considered stealing. Hmmm…