Susan Hilton College Station Real Estate
Realtor & Vice President of Sales
Read my blog below
Mortgage Help Category
Why Did Fannie Mae Fail?
October 10th, 2008 Categories: Mortgage Help, Real Estate News
With all that is going on in the mortgage and banking world right now, don’t you wonder WHY? Why did this mess begin? What started it? Didn’t anyone see it coming?
Yes – someone saw it coming. The New York Times actually reported it coming back on September 30th in 1999. How many years ago is that? Maybe it was while Clinton was President, not George Bush….
In 1999 Steven Holmes from the New York Times wrote that Fannie Mae was under extreme pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans to low and moderate income people. In doing this “Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times…. but may run into trouble in an exonomic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s”.
Do you remember the 80’s when WE bailed out the savings and loan industry? Often times we forget our past, our history and with that we repeat it over and over. Bailout – something new? NO WAY! We do it over and over and over. As much as I disliked my history courses in school and as much as my husband will razz me over saying this….
Maybe we should pay more attention to our past so we do not continue to repeat it but instead make better choices for our future.
Susan Hilton – Realtor & Sales Trainer for Century 21 Beal
Want to Search the Bryan/College Station Real Estate MLS? CLICK HERE!!!
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Debbie Davis is FAMOUS throughout Texas!
September 29th, 2008 Categories: Mortgage Help
Have you heard our own local mortgage broker, Debbie Davis on the radio? If not you should!
Debbie Davis
Not only does Debbie host a show on Sunday afternoons in Bryan College Station, Debbie has a show each morning in Dallas!
Debbie continues to expand her market with straight talk about money, politics, real estate and life. Her conservative politics, belief in personal responsibility and humor makes her show one listeners tune into over and over.
Debbie Davis continues to take loan applications and run Dexter Mortgage while taking care of her two beautiful children, husband, and 2 radio shows. How can she do it? Who knows but she does! And she does it well!
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Government Bailout – Fishman’s Millions – Fair?
September 28th, 2008 Categories: Mortgage Help, Selling Real Estate
So, what are your thoughts about the $750 million billion PLUS!!! bailout coming at us? Did you cash your rebate check? If so, they need it back. If you didn’t cash it yet, mail it back!
So what are your thoughts about Fishman? Remember WAMU? Alan Fishman worked for WAMU 17 days as the chief executive officer. After working those HARD 17 days WAMU went under and was taken over by the FDIC. Now, after working 17 days, do you know how much he is to get?
According to Fox News -
I WANT THAT JOB!!! I want to get a $7.5 million dollar bonus, work 17 days and then get a severence package of $11.6 million!!! Now I don’t blame Fishman for taking it but who are the insane people who authorized this? Was it the board of directors? Maybe they should pay this (and the stockholders who lost EVERYTHING) out of their pockets.
So, now that Fishman has his millions, WAMU stockholders have nothing, our rebate checks are returned and we now are all responsible for a $750,000,000,000 debt… any ideas how we are going to pay this back? I don’t know about you but I don’t think I can pay any more taxes. Wonder how this is going to affect College Station real estate…
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Condominium – Can You Borrow Money To Purchase One in College Station?
April 21st, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Mortgage Help, Texas A&M University
April 20th an article was posted by Kenneth R. Harney of the Washington Post Writers Group. I waited to comment on it until I could checkout the facts. Debbie Davis, owner of Dexter Mortgage reviewed it and said yes it is correct and we are looking for a more difficult condominium lending market ahead.
Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac (HUGE loan investor groups) are making underwriting changes and private mortgage insurers are adding significant new restrictions. What does this mean to YOU? It means that getting a loan on a condominium (or refinancing one) may be very difficult in the coming months.
“Starting May 1, for example, AIG United Guaranty, a major private mortgage insurer, no longer will write coverage on condominiums in hundreds of ZIP Codes across the country that it designates as having “declining” market conditions, including many areas of Southern California. The ban applies regardless of applicants’ credit scores, assets or equity stakes. Even in the healthiest markets, United Guaranty will require a down payment of at least 10% and will reject applications on units in condo projects where more than 30% of the owners are investors.”
I still want to see the map that lenders seem to be using that decides which area is declining and which is not. The Bryan College Station Real Estate Market is NOT a declining oneyet we have had several lenders over the last few months decline loans because of the “MARKET” not the buyers!
Of course putting more money down (20%) will make it easier to get financing on a condominium but there are still other rules coming that could make it almost impossible. ” Under Fannie Mae’s changes, most of the due-diligence research on condo projects’ key characteristics — their legal documentation, the adequacy of association operating budgets, the percentage of unit owners who are late on association-fee payments, the percentage of space allocated to commercial use and the percentage of units owned by investors — must now be performed upfront by loan officers. Not only is this time-consuming and costly, but under the new procedures, Fannie Mae also expects the lender to warrant the accuracy of its research. Some condo legal documents run to hundreds of pages, yet lenders are supposed to take legal and financial responsibility for their accuracy.”
How many loan officers do you know that are going to want to read all the documentation, make sure the condominium complex has at least 10% of its current operating budget reserved for capital expenditures and deferred maintenance, knows what percentage of owners are paying their association fees late AND are willing to warrant the accuracy of the research? Talk about being more labor and paper intensive for the lender!
So now what? Work with a local lender who knows the market and knows who to contact to get the information you need BEFORE the buyer goes out and spends a lot of money on inspections and appraisal. Remember USE A LOCAL BRYAN COLLEGE STATION LENDER!!!
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Closing Cost? What Are They Asking Me To Close? I Thought I Was Buying….
March 29th, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Mortgage Help, Selling Real Estate
Closing costs are simply this: the costs of borrowing money, establishing the loan, purchasing title insurance, establishing escrow charges, conducting pest inspections and preparing the necessary documents to finalize the sale. These costs may be significant and are easily overlooked by a first time buyer.
- The Costs of Borrowing Money. This includes what some lenders call “discount points,” a one-time charge to adjust the yield on the loan to what market conditions demand. Each point equals 1% of the mortgage amount. Two and one-half points on a $100,000 mortgage would cost $2,500.
- The Costs of Establishing a Loan. These might include the loan origination fee, and cost of credit reports. Premiums for hazard and mortgage insurance are usually paid at closing. Also, pre-paid interest will be collected for the period between closing and the end of the purchase month.
- The Costs of Document Preparation. Title insurance costs pay for the search of public records to determine if the property you want to purchase is free from any other ownership or liens. Recording and transfer fees cover the legal recording of the deed with the proper governmental agencies as well as the transfer of taxes.
Susan Hilton – Realtor & Sales Trainer for Century 21 Beal
Want to Search the Bryan/College Station MLS? CLICK HERE!!!
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