HOMEOWNER INFORMATION

HOUSEHOLD HAZARDS #6

Schedule it today—monthly, semiannual and annual checkups on your home’s most typical points of failure. On a regular basis you should do a perimeter walk, check gas and water connections, asses filters, look at the exhaust line from your dryer, and check bathrooms and under sinks for mold. Catching a small problem now will keep your home in tip-top condition for years to come! Your real estate...

FIRE INSURANCE

CA Fire Insurance #8

If your every effort at fire insurance fails, one lifeline remains. Contact the California FAIR Plan at 1-800-339-4099. While a FAIR Plan policy can be expensive, and it only covers certain losses by fire and smoke, it does provide coverage. Be aware, you will also need to buy Differences in Conditions (DIC) insurance to cover other perils such as theft and liability. We hope you’ve found these fire...

FIRE INSURANCE #5

FIRE INSURANCE: Know the Insurer

As a safeguard to consumers, our state has a California Insurance Guarantee Association (CIGA) which provides protections should an insurer become insolvent. Part of your homework as a homeowner is to check the Residential Insurance Contact List on the Department of Insurance website to make sure YOUR insurance company is there! Your neighborhood professional agents at The Avenue SLO can help you keep...

ADJUSTABLE RATE MORTGAGES – THE PROS & CONS

Now that you know what an ARM is and how it works, you may be wondering what the advantages and disadvantages are. So let’s explore that issue. Offering adjustable rates allows lenders to transfer part of the interest rate risk from themselves to the borrower. If you get a fixed rate mortgage and the interest rate then goes up, it costs the lender money. However, if you have an adjustable rate mortgage,...

ADJUSTABLE RATE MORTGAGES – THE BASICS

An adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) has an interest rate that fluctuates periodically. This is in contrast to a fixed rate mortgage, which always has the same interest rate. Every ARM has basic components: An index A margin Adjustment Period An interest rate cap An initial interest rate THE INDEX An ARM’s interest rate is tied to one of many economic indices, some examples of which are the...

CLOSING COSTS WHEN BUYING OR REFINANCING A HOME

This is a detailed summary of costs you may have to pay when you buy or refinance your home. They are listed in the order that they should appear on a Good Faith Estimate you obtain from a mortgage lender. There are two broad categories of closing costs. Non-recurring closing costs are items that are paid once and you never pay again. Recurring closing costs are items you pay time and again over the course...

DOCUMENTING YOUR ASSETS – VERIFYING YOUR DOWN PAYMENT

When buying a home, it is not enough to just come up with the money. With the exception of no asset verification loans, lenders want to verify where the money for your new home will be coming from. If you can document that the funds are coming from your personal savings, the lender is more confident of your strength as a borrower. In addition, if you can verify that you have additional assets that are not...

FICO® SCORE – A BRIEF EXPLANATION

When you apply for a mortgage loan, you expect your lender to pull a credit report and look at whether you’ve made your payments on time. What you may not expect is that they seem to be more interested in your FICO® score. “What’s a FICO® score?” is a common reaction. Each time your credit report is pulled, it is run through a computer program with a built-in scorecard. Points are awarded or...

FICO® SCORES AND YOUR MORTGAGE

Years ago, credit scoring had little to do with mortgage lending. When reviewing the credit worthiness of a borrower, an underwriter would make a subjective decision based on past payment history. Then things changed. Lenders studied the relationship between credit scores and mortgage delinquencies. There was a definite relationship. Almost half of those borrowers with FICO® scores below 550 became...

ITEMS YOU NEED WHEN APPLYING FOR A LOAN

Have These Items Ready When You Apply For a Loan It used to be that lenders mailed out verifications to employers, banks, mortgage companies, and so on, in order to verify the data supplied by borrowers. Nowadays, the interest is often in speed and getting answers quickly so alternate documentation has become more widely used. Alternate documentation means that underwriting answers can be obtained with...

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