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Cch-ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes——————-
December 2013
By Michelle Amen
Cch-ch-ch-ch-chChanges. David Bowie made
this song famous in the early
70s, so most of us are familiar
with it. Change is hard for the
majority of us. No one really
likes it. We are all pretty
much “routine” kind of folks.
In the Real Estate and Mortgage Industry, I see changes
every day. Every day. Particularly in the way that the gov-
ernment does things. (Yea, I
know, go figure.)
Anyway, I see it greatly
impacting my clients during
the transaction period when
buying or selling a home, and
I see it causing great frustration for people when it is not
properly explained to them.
The most frequent thing
that I hear is “Well, that’s not
how they did it when I bought
my house.” Well, when did
you buy your house? 7-10
years ago? Lots of changes
since then. LOTS. For example, the mortgage process.
A few weeks ago I relocated a client (Nancy) from
here to Phoenix, AZ, where
she purchased a home. As
Nancy went through the mortgage qualifying process in
AZ, she was quite shocked at
how “invasive” it was. They
can ask for the most personal,
intimate financial information. Just when you
thought that you had that itty
bitty secret hidden. NOPE!
They WILL find it. Trust me.
We see it all of the time.
When the loan hit underwriting, the underwriter started
calling
for
“stips” (Stipulations - meaning documents required as
proof of something that has
occurred in the credit/
financial history of the applicant). These “stips” can get
quite trivial (in our eyes),
seem pretty stupid (in our
eyes), but most of all, be ex-
tremely frustrating to find all
the documents. AND let’s
not forget that they “usually,
always” happen just a few
days before the closing. Yep.
After Nancy had packed all
her papers. Because what the
underwriters are doing is
putting together a financial
puzzle of the applicant, and
all of the pieces have to fit.
So, turn to the back page and
see my presents to all of you.
In order for ya’ll to be
able to navigate the Real
Estate and Mortgage Marketplace easier, I’ve either created or “borrowed” several EBooks that will explain the
processes in today’s era.
They will be very useful in
understanding the complexities of the components of the
Real Estate Transaction.
For example, did you
know that you now don’t
leave the closing table with
the keys to your new home?
Strange, huh? Call me and
ask me why. Holiday Greetings to All!
Perl Mortgage
Joins Michelle
Amen Team
Jeff Kuehn and Jayme Boyle of Perl
Mortgage have recently joined with
Realtor Michelle Amen to work with
area homebuyers. Kuehn and Boyle have
been Mortgage Lenders for over 20
years. Perl Mortgage is one of the top
Mortgage Lenders in the country and
was recently awarded the “Top 1%
Mortgage Companies” by Mortgage
Exec magazine.
Today’s mortgages have gotten
more complicated with recent and
upcoming changes that apply to new
home purchases as well as refinances.
In January 2014 the “Qualified
Mortgage Rule” (QM) will go into effect
and will classify certain types of loans a
Qualified Mortgage or not. The result is
that if a loan is determined to be a NonQualified Mortgage, the lender does not
have “Safe Harbor” and is in danger of
being sued for a variety of reasons.
Lenders will become more cautious in
their lending guidelines and standards.
For more information about
Qualified Mortgages and to learn if they
will
affect
you,
contact
[email protected].
NMLS#
777505