Lender Paid Mortgage Insurance and Single Premium Mortgage Insurance are an interesting spin on mortgage insurance. They are options for home buyers to pay an upfront fee (single premium) or higher interest rate to the lender (lender paid) in exchange for the lender paying the insurance. Based upon the length of time you plan to […]

As I discussed last week, mortgage insurance is a necessary evil for many prospective home buyers, especially those who are first time home buyers. It is a tool which allows individuals to buy the home of their dreams even if their credit is less than perfect or their down payment is less than 20 percent. […]

If you are looking for a low down payment conventional mortgage or an FHA mortgage, chances are you will hear about mortgage insurance. However, this is, unfortunately, another one of those areas of the industry rife with misconceptions. I have had customers who thought mortgage insurance would literally double their payments, and other who thought […]

The two most common types of mortgages customers ask about are the FHA and Conventional mortgages. And at their core, they are both very similar. They are both a type of loan which provides money to purchase a house. They both determine eligibility through debt to income and loan to value ratios, they both use […]

The USDA Rural Development Single Family Residence Guaranteed Loan Program is a loan program designed by the USDA to help bring home buyers into areas deemed rural. This program allows for 100% financing with no down payment requirement, flexible credit guidelines, and you can include closing costs and repair costs in the loan. This is […]

The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) created a program to help first time home buyers buy a home. This program offers up to $7500 to borrowers to act as a down payment, helping buyers purchase a home with no money out of pocket. This down payment assistance is great for anyone interested in buying […]

There is a special mortgage type for active duty military, reservists, and veterans, called a VA mortgage. This mortgage works nothing like a conventional or FHA mortgage, as it does not rely on traditional debt to income calculations and has much more forgiving credit qualifications. It was a mortgage program designed by the government to […]

So we’ve discussed conventional and FHA mortgages, but an important type of FHA mortgage is the FHA 203k mortgage. The FHA 203k mortgage was created to help people buy houses which need repairs. Prior to the 203k loans, lenders were becoming increasingly strict when it came to lending on a house which needed work. But with the […]

In my last post, I discussed what a conventional loan is. But for many customers who do not qualify for a conventional mortgage, or who do not want to put as much money down on a house, going with an FHA mortgage might make more sense. An FHA loan is a government backed loan with […]

The most important first step in buying a house is determining what you can afford and what type of mortgage makes the most sense for you. So, it seemed a good idea to explain what is involved in qualifying for a mortgage and what some of the basic terms mean. For starters, it is important […]