Pre-Qualification vs. Pre-Approval

In Today’s Real Estate Market, it is more important than ever to have a Pre-Qualification in hand when shopping for a home that has been prepared by a reputable Lender, Bank or Credit Union.  The terminology has changed from Pre-Approval to Pre-Qualification depending upon the detail of the Approval provided.

Pre-Qualification

A mortgage loan pre-qualification is an estimate of how much house you can afford and how much money a lender would be willing to loan you.  The best time to get pre-qualified is right before you start looking at homes.  This way you can focus on looking at houses that are within your price range.  By providing a loan officer with your income, assets, debts, and a potential down payment amount, he would then be able to give you a ballpark figure of how much he thinks you could afford to pay for a monthly mortgage.  Your Credit is reviewed and your loan is submitted through an Automated Underwriting Service (AUS). There is no cost to this service and no commitment is required.  This estimate is a helpful tool to you in figuring out if buying a home is a viable option, and if so, what your price range would probably be. A pre-qualification is to give you a range of home prices and in no way is a commitment to lend on a home. The time frame for this is less than 24 hours.

Pre-Approval

Getting pre-approved means that you have a tentative written commitment from a lender for mortgage funding.  In the pre-approval process, you provide a loan officer with actual documentation of your income, assets, and debts.   The Loan Officer is submitting this as if it is an actual loan and a property has been identified.  This will be reviewed by the lenders underwriting team.  The lender will run a credit check and verify all your employment and financial information. Once the final approval comes in, the lender will give you a letter of commitment stating how much money the bank is willing to loan you for a home purchase. Having a certified pre-approval in hand when you start house hunting lets real estate agents and sellers know you are serious about buying when they see you have your mortgage funding in place.  By having your funding in place, it becomes an extreme advantage over other buyers when it comes to negotiating your home purchase as your offer will stand above the rest and you will be able to close in a much shorter time period. The timeframe for a Pre-Approval can take up to 5 Business Days.

It is important to note that a pre-approval and a pre-commitment is still subject to further review as any loan is.  As variables change in lending or in the borrowers financial picture, additional items may be required. In addition to the financial commitment, the lender will also need to verify the property appraisal and title search.

Bottom Line:     

Pre-Qualification is an estimate of a price range of what you can afford by verifying credit, income and running your loan through an Automated Underwriting System such as Fannie Mae or FHA as well as others.     Pre-Approval is a verified commitment from the bank stating how much money it will loan you. Make sure your Pre-Approval is an actual commitment from the bank as opposed to a Loan Officer just doing a quick credit check.

For More Information about Loan Approvals, Loan Programs and mortgages that are best suited to your financial needs, contact me anytime at 978-273-3227 or  email me  and  you can always visit my mortgage site at www.billnickerson.com

Bill Nickerson

The Perfect Loan File

This article came from Mark Greene contributor to Forbes Magazine.  It is very helpful to all of us so that we can truly understand what is going on in this industry and so that we can educate our buyers and sellers.

The media has it all wrong – securing mortgage approval and satisfying credit underwriting guidelines are not the difficulties plaguing mortgage consumers. It’s in meeting the rigorous documentation requirements that most people fall flat. The good news is, the fix is simple. Just scan, photocopy, fax, and deliver every aspect of your financial life. Then, shortly before closing, check everything again.

Mortgage consumers who enter the mortgage approval process ready to battle their chosen mortgage lender will come out with a nightmare story to tell. As the process, requirements, and guidelines are the same for everybody, your mindset is the game-changer. Accepting the redundant documentation necessary for lender approval will make everyone’s life easier.

When I was a kid, my father occasionally issued directives that I naturally thought were superfluous, and when asked why I needed to do whatever it was he wanted me to do, his answer was often: “Because I said so.” This never seemed to address my query but always left me without a retort, and I would usually comply. This is exactly what consumers should do during the mortgage approval process. When your lender requests what seems to be over-documentation and you wonder why you need it, accept the simple edict – “because I said so.” You will find the mortgage approval process much less frustrating.

So, what’s the perfect loan? Well, it’s one that (a) pays back the lender and (b) pays back the lender on time. Underwriting the perfect loan is not the goal that mortgage lenders aspire to today.

The real goal is the perfect loan file.

Mortgage lenders have suffered staggering losses and gone out of business because of the dreaded loan repurchase. As mortgage delinquencies increased, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac began to audit mortgage loans they had purchased and discovered substandard and fraudulent underwriting practices that violated representations and warranties made, stating these were high quality loans. Fannie and Freddie began forcing the originating lenders of these “bad” loans to buy them back. So a small correspondent mortgage lender is forced to buy back a single mortgage loan in the amount of $250,000. This becomes a $250,000 loss to a small mortgage business for a single loan, because it will never be repaid.

It doesn’t take many of these bad loan buybacks to close the doors on many small mortgage operations. The lending houses suffered billions of dollars of losses repurchasing loans from Fannie and Freddie, and began to do the same thing for loans they had purchased from smaller originators.

The small and medium sized mortgage originators that survived created underwriting guidelines and procedures to eliminate the threat of future loan repurchase losses. The answer? The perfect loan file.

It’s no longer necessary to have excellent credit, a big down payment and stable employment with income sufficient to support your debt service to guarantee your loan approval. However, you must have a borrower profile that meets the credit underwriting guidelines for the loan you are requesting. And, more importantly, you have to be able to hard-copy-guideline-document your profile.

Every nook and cranny of your financial life has to be corroborated, double- and triple-checked, and reviewed again before closing. This way, if the originating lender has created a loan file that is exactly consistent with published underwriting guidelines and has documented while adhering to those guidelines, the chances are that your loan will not be subject to repurchase.

Borrowers also need to prepare for processing and underwriting. Processors and underwriters are the people trained and charged with gathering (processors), all of your required-for-approval financial documents, and then approving (underwriters), your loan. You can assume these people are well trained and very experienced, as they are tasked with assembling and approving a high-quality-these-people-will-pay-us-back loan file. But just how do they go about that?

The process begins with the filter – the loan originator (a.k.a loan officer, mortgage consultant, mortgage adviser, etc.) – tasked to match the qualifications of a particular mortgage deal to the appropriate underwriting guidelines. It is the filter’s job to determine if a loan scenario is approvable and to gather the documentation to support that determination. It is here, at the beginning of the approval process, where the deal is made or broken. The rest of the approval process is just papering the file.

The filter determines whether the information provided by the borrower can be validated and documented. This is simple, since most mortgages are approved by automated underwriting engines such as Desktop Underwriter, and the automated approval generates a list of the documents needed to paper the loan file. An underwriter can, at this stage, request additional supporting documentation evidence at their discretion, as not all circumstances neatly fit into the prescribed underwriting box. If the filter creates a loan file with accurate information, then secures the documentation resulting from the automated underwriting findings, the loan will close uneventfully.

So, let’s begin with the pre-approval call. Mortgage pre-approval is typically accomplished with a telephone interview. A prospective borrower calls a mortgage rep (filter), and the questions begin. There will be lots of questions as this critical phase of the process is akin to the discovery period in a trial – you’ll need to disclose everything. Expect to answer queries on what you do for a living, how long you’ve been employed in your current field, and what your salary is. If there is a co-borrower, they will have to answer the same questions.

Every dollar in checking, savings, investments and retirement accounts, also known as assets to close, as well as gifts from relatives and non-profit grants, has to be accounted for. Essentially everything appearing on a borrower’s asset-radar-screen has to be documented and explained.

If you were previously a homeowner and sold your home in a short sale, or if you own a home now and plan to keep it as an investment or rental property, there are new and specific underwriting guidelines created just for you. In these cases, full disclosure of your credit and homeownership past can potentially eliminate unforeseen mortgage approval woes. For instance, Fannie Mae has a new underwriting guideline called “Buy-and-Bail,” for current homeowners’ planning on keeping their existing home as an investment/rental property. Properties not meeting the 30% equity test for “Buy-and-Bail” result in additional asset requirements to purchase a new home. Buyers with a short sale history may have to wait two to three years before they are eligible for mortgage financing again. Full vetting of your previous mortgage life will save you the dreaded we-have-a-problem call from your mortgage lender.

It all comes down to your proof. If the lender asks for a specific document, give them exactly what they are asking for, not what “should be OK,” – because it won’t be.  This is where the approval process tends to go off the rails, when the lender asks for specific documentation and the borrower supplies something else. Here, too, is where both sides get frustrated. So if the lender asks for a bank statement and there are 5 pages for that bank statement, send them all 5 pages, and not just the summary. If you send them the summary page and they ask again, don’t complain that the lender keeps asking for the same thing when you never sent it in the first place. This may sound elementary, but the vast majority of mortgage approval process woes stem from scenarios just like this.

The reason the mortgage approval process is now so rigorous is simple. Avoiding defaults and loan buybacks has become the primary goal of mortgage lenders.   Higher standards are reducing loan defaults, which should mean fewer foreclosures in the future. Government data shows that less than 2% of loans originated in 2009, that were resold to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae went into default after 18 months, down from more than 22% default rates for 2007 loans.

So when your lender requests specific documents from you, give it to them just “because they said so.”

For more information about lending and financing, please contact Bill at 978-273-3227  or by email  Bill’s Email

Mortgage Document Checklist

APPLY ONLINE

A Proper Moving Checklist 8 Weeks Prior to Closing

So, you bought a new home!!  Congratulations!!!

Click the Picture to get your Checklist

Now it is time to plan the Move.  Are you Ready?  Excited? Anxious?  Purchasing a new home is the American Dream and you have worked hard to get here.  Moving can be overwhelming, but  If you have a written out plan of attack, it will make things go a lot easier.

To assist you in this,  I have included a Moving Checklist that will map out your every move in the process.  This will help you keep on track from 8 Weeks prior to the move,  right to the day of your Move and to your final destination.

Moving Checklist <– Click here to get a copy

As always, please email or call me at any time for help with financing or questions regarding the economy.  Cell Phone: 978-273-3227 or Bill’s Email

Bill Nickerson

Offices in Worcester and Leominster

What’s the Point?

Unless you have bought a home, you probably haven’t heard the term point or mortgage point.  Or maybe you have heard the term but don’t quite know what it means.  Having a general knowledge of what a point is and how it works can help you to make important financial decisions when buying a home.

The cost of purchasing a point is equal to one percent of the total loan amount which is used to buy down the interest rate when buying a home.  For example, if the lender offers an interest rate of 4% on a $250,000 loan, and you decide that the payments are too high, you can offer to pay a point (1% of the loan amount) and this would reduce the mortgage rate.  The cost of a point in this example would be $2500.  So, is it worth the investment of the $2500 to save a little money off your monthly mortgage payment?

A point will traditionally buy down the interest rate by one Quarter of a percent (.25%).  It is important to understand the cost of the point, the amount of savings on your monthly mortgage payment and see how long it will take you to break even on the costs.

Here is some simple math:

Take the cost of the point (1% of your loan amount) and divide it by the monthly savings of the rate you have just bought down with points.  The answer:  60 months plus or minus a few months to recoup this cost on average.  If you know you will be in the house for 5 years or greater, or will not touch the mortgage (refinance), then this is worth it to you.  Another example would be if the sellers would be offering to buy points to make the home sale more attractive.

On a $250,000 loan, a 30 year fixed payment at 4.00% interest rate will cost you $1193 per month.  If you purchase one point (1% of the loan amount = $2500), your new interest rate would be 3.75%. Your new monthly payment would come to $1157, a savings of $36 per month. I divide the cost of the point, $2500, by $36 (my monthly savings).  This will give me the number of months it will take to recoup the cost of my investment.  In this case it will take 69.44 months or 5.78 years before you really begin saving.

In My Opinion:

In the case of buying points, it is not a wise investment because of the time it takes to recoup the costs.   These potential funds to purchase points can be earning far more in other investments.  So, unless the seller is buying down the points for you…don’t bother!

For more information about this article, please contact me at   Bill@billnickerson.com

Bill Nickerson NMLS #4194

Understanding how your Credit Works

Credit scores were developed by Fair Isaac and company (FICO). The models created using FICO take all the detailed information about your credit report and produce your credit score using different weights and factors contained in the FICO scoring models.

The purpose of a FICO score is to show how likely you are to become at least 90 days late in making payments in the next 24 months based on patterns in your credit history, compared with patterns of millions of past customers.

Fair Isaac divides the scoring range into five risk categories.

• 780-850 Low Risk
• 740-780 Medium, Low Risk
• 690-740 Medium Risk
• 620-690 Medium High Risk
• 620 and Below High Risk or “Non Prime”

Each of the three major credit bureaus uses their own version of the FICO scoring model. Factors influencing your credit score are:

• Current or late payments
• How late the payments are
• Number of open accounts you have
• How much credit you are using in relation to how much credit you have available
• If there are serious delinquencies on your file like bankruptcy, liens and charge off accounts

Your credit score is a snapshot, in that it is developed at the time of inquiry by a credit grantor pulling your credit file. Your credit score can change with the passage of time as well as with the addition of new information to your credit file. As delinquency information in your file ages, it’s negative affect on your credit score lessens.

Credit Scoring uses the following five areas of information to calculate the score:

• Payment history 35%
• Amounts owed 30%
• Length of credit history 15%
• New credit inquiries 10%
• Type of credit used 10%

It is best to keep balances low on credit cards and other revolving accounts – maintain balances below 50 of the available credit limit. 24 is optimal. The best way to improve your score is to pay down revolving debt.

An inquiry is defined as a request by a lender for a copy of an applicant’s credit report. Inquiries remain on a credit report for two years, but credit scores only look at inquiries in the last 12 months. Your own request for a credit report to review for accuracy is not considered in your credit score.

Apply for new credit accounts only when you need them. Remember that closing accounts does not make them go away. A closed account with a poor payment history may become a more recent account because the date of activity will change. An open account with a low or zero balance is better than a closed account.

HELPFUL WEBSITES FOR YOUR REFERENCE: You can obtain your free annual credit report, without a FICO score, at www.annualcreditreport.com

To contact the credit bureaus:

Experian  1-888-397-3742   www.experian.com

Equifax  1-800-846-5279 www.equifax.com

Transunion  1-800-916-8800  www.transunion.com

DID YOU KNOW??

1. FICO scores are used not only for a mortgage and credit cards, but for auto loans, insurance and utilities.
2. Credit reports reflect charge offs or collection accounts for up to 7 years, and bankruptcies for up to 10 years.
3. You can order a free credit report annually, at no charge, without impacting your credit score.
4. Having a minor balance without missing a payment is better than closing an account.
5. Paying off an old collection may result in a drop in your credit score.
6. Consolidating credit cards increases your ratio of debt to available credit and lowers your score.
7. Using the maximum amount on a credit line can drop your score by 100 points.

For more information regarding financing or the economy, please call or email me at any time.  I can be reached via email at Bill’s Email or call me at 978-273-3227.

Bill Nickerson Training for the Pan Mass Challenge

 

Home Buying Closing Costs: What to Expect

Your mortgage lender, real estate agent, real estate attorney, or settlement agent should be in touch with you a few days before your closing settlement with the final amount of money you’ll need to close on a purchase of a home. However, in some cases, the call may come too close for comfort and may be as late as the night before your closing, so you should be prepared well in advance of the type of fees associated with purchasing a home.  We refer to these fees as closing costs.

The home buying closing costs you might expect to see include:

Attorney fee: In some states, the lender will require you to close with a real estate attorney. These fees are typically fixed and start around $650 and can go as high as $1,000, but in other parts of the country you may have to pay an hourly rate.  You can also hire an attorney for personal representation, prepare the purchase and sales and review all documents in the transaction.  This is additional and can range from $250 to $1500 depending upon the services provided.

Flood certification fee: You’ll pay this fee to have your lender determine if your home is in a federally designated flood zone. If it is, your lender may require you to purchase flood insurance before agreeing to lend you money. This will cost on the range of $25 to $50

Lender’s appraisal fee: The lender wants to make sure your property is worth at least as much as what it is lending you. The appraisal fee will vary, depending on the value of the property. In higher-value homes, you may find a lender requiring two appraisals, and you may be required to pay for both of them. Depending on the state in which you are located, the appraisal fee could be as low as $450 for a single family home and as high as $700 multifamily homes.

Lender’s credit report: Your lender will pull your credit report a few times during the loan application process to make sure your financial situation hasn’t changed. Expect to pay $35 to $100 per credit report for each person that has applied for the loan.

Lender’s document preparation fees: The document preparation fee is a charge the lender bills you to assemble and create the documents for your closing. Ever since settlement agents and lenders unbundled their fees, lenders have labeled their services and collected a fee for each. Expect to pay between $695 and $995.

Lender’s Title insurance: The lender wants to protect its investment, so it wants to make sure the property you are buying is insured and remains insured as long as the home has a loan on the property. The lender’s coverage will cost $2.50 per thousand borrowed.  When it’s time to refinance, this cost is discounted in many cases to as little as $1.50 per thousand.

Real Estate Tax escrow: In some states, the amount the lender requires of a buyer may be substantial.  Taxes are billed quarterly and semi-annual and the lender will want to hold 3 to 5 months in escrow.   You may receive money from the seller for bills that come due after the closing if they cover the time the seller owned the property. Like with homeowner’s insurance, the lender will probably require a lump sum deposit from you to the escrow account at closing settlement.

Mortgage point and loan origination fee: The origination fees are tied to the total cost of your loan and can run up to about 3 percent of your loan. If you pay a point, you should be getting a reduction of your mortgage interest rate. Whether you pay points or origination fees may be up to you. If you decide to obtain a loan with a lower-than-market interest rate, you may agree to pay points to lower your interest rate or buy down the rate.

Notary and other fees: Depending on your state, your mortgage paperwork may have to be reviewed and signed by a notary public. The notary public may charge a fee to witness your signature and verify it on the closing documents.

Prepaid interest on the loan: Usually a lender will bill you in advance for the interest on your loan from the day your loan closes to the end of the month. If you close early in the month, the amount will be larger; if you close near the end of the month, the amount will be smaller. This amount will be tied to the interest rate on your loan.

Recording fees for deed or mortgage: You’ll receive title to your home in the form of a legal document, and this document will need to be recorded with your county recorder of deeds. The mortgage will need to be recorded as well. The recording fee will vary from state to state, but you should expect to pay at least $360 in Massachusetts. Additionally, in some states, there is a mortgage tax that is based on the amount of the mortgage. For example, if the mortgage tax is 1 percent and your mortgage loan is for $250,000, the tax will be $250 to record the document.

Owners Title insurance: If you choose to purchase a buyer’s policy, and I absolutely think you should, the cost is $4.00 per thousand based on the purchase price of the home. If you only buy a lender’s title policy and then someone makes a title claim to the property and you lose the house, only the lender will get a check. Plus, if you have equity in the home, that equity will not be protected now or in the future. You need to buy a separate owner’s policy so that you will be fully compensated in this sort of situation.

Additional Items:

Purchase and Sales Review:  Most purchase and sales are provided by the real estate agents through the Greater Board of Realtors.  It is good to have these reviewed by a real estate attorney and can cost $250 to $500 for this.

Home inspection: While you should have had your own inspector go through the home you are buying early in the home-buying process, this fee will be required by your lender to make sure a newly built home has been completed. Your lender won’t want to fund your purchase unless it has sent someone out to actually see the home and make sure it’s ready for closing. This fee might runs between $250 and $500, depending on the type of new home you’re buying.

For more information regarding closing costs or mortgages, please email me at bill@billnickerson.com

Bill Nickerson, NMLS# 4194

My First Selfie…

 William J. Nickerson | NMLS #4194 | bill@billnickerson.com | 978-273-3227

3.5% down on FHA Rehab Loans

Have you ever wanted to buy a fixer upper?  Did you know FHA offers a few different types of rehabilitation loans?  The Streamline FHA is one of the most common loans available.  This allows you to add an additional $35,000 to your base mortgage to improve or upgrade your home prior to moving in. The same low down payment of 3.5% is required and a minimum Credit score of 640.  Gifts are available as well as seller credits, go here to learn more about that. Seller Concessions and Gifts.

The list below is a general outline of all the items you are able to repair, fix and even replace. 

• Repair/replace roofs, gutters and downspouts
• Repair/replace/upgrade of existing HVAC systems
• Repair/replace/upgrade of plumbing and electrical systems
• Repair/replace existing flooring
• Minor remodeling, such as, kitchens, which does not involve structural repairs
• Exterior and interior painting
• Weatherization: including storm windows and doors, insulation, weather stripping, etc.
• Purchase and installation of appliances. Appliances may include free-standing ranges, refrigerators, washers, dryers, dishwashers and microwaves
• Improvements for accessibility for person with disabilities
• Lead based paint stabilization or abatement of lead based paint hazards
• Repair/replace exterior decks, patios, porches
• Basement refinishing and remodeling, which does not involve structural repairs
• Basement waterproofing
• Window and door replacements and exterior wall re-siding
• Septic system and or well repair or replacement
• 10% contingency reserve with a maximum of $2,500; 15% with no utilities on or foreclosed property

The FHA 203K Rehab loan is a great way to get into a home that may need a little work or a full transformation.  For more information about Rehab Loans, call or email me anytime.

Email me at Bill’s Email

call me on cell:978-273-3227

How to Shop for a Mortgage

After hitting record lows of 3.250% last year, mortgage rates have inched up a little and in the grand scheme of things…it is only a little!  The trend of course is upwards and like the stock market, it is not a straight line up, we have good days and bad days in the markets and Mortgage Rates can sometimes and do change a few times inside a trading day. These rate changes are influenced by the global economy and while rates are still extremely low, refinancers and homebuyers are always looking for the lowest. Rates trade in real-time and react to each little development. But these lows come and go in minutes during specific trading intervals each trading day. And this kind of volatility drastically changes the way consumers should shop for a mortgage.  Because markets move up and down so fast right now, the rates you see in mainstream media* headlines are long gone by the time you can do anything about it.

SO HERE’S HOW TO SHOP FOR A MORTGAGE IN THIS NEW WORLD.

Shop For Loan Agents, Not Rates

Every consumer shops for mortgages and they should. But this is the critical distinction: you should be shopping for the best mortgage advisor. If you have that, you’ll get the best rate.

Here’s what happens when shoppers focused only on rate get quoted by a good loan agent: Loan agent quotes a rate only after they’ve analyzed the client’s entire financial profile and analyzed their home’s value and condition—also known as pre-approving them. The client will either tire of the pre-approval analytics or be unhappy with the rate and go somewhere else. Then 80% of those cases come back to that loan agent because the competing rate quote was revealed to be incorrect when the other lender actually completed the client’s profile, or the home’s value/condition made the loan ineligible.

Mortgages are extremely competitive so rates and fees are generally the same with most (established, credible) lending firms.  What’s not the same lender to lender is the loan agent’s ability to: (1) advise properly, (2) analyze borrower and property profiles, and (3) close with no surprises. So shop to find the lender and loan agent you feel most confident can perform on these three things. Then work with that loan agent to pick a rate target you can’t or won’t go above, and give them a standing order to lock when they see it.

These guidelines are for refinancers. For homebuyers, you can’t lock a rate until you’re in contract to buy a home, but once you’re in contract, the same approach applies.

Rate Targeting

Their are two reasons for the pre-approval and rate targeting tactics discussed above:

(1) A rate quote that flies through the air means nothing. If a loan agent doesn’t issue you written terms after obtaining a full profile on you and your home, then you haven’t received a quote you can count on.

(2) Rate lows are here and gone in minutes each trading day as mortgage bonds rise and fall on economic and technical trading signals. So if you don’t first get pre-approved then set a rate target with a standing lock order, it’s nearly impossible to hit the lows AND close with no surprises.  Your loan agent also must be able to brief you daily or weekly on the market outlook, so if you’re not sensing market competence from your agent, then keep shopping. A loan agent must have a strong read on what’s impacting the rate market ups and downs to deliver you the best terms.

*Mainstream media is almost always off the mark on rate data and commentary. Conversely, Mortgage News Daily strives to provide accurate and realistic rate data and commentary daily. Still, the premise of this piece is to explain what a mortgage consumer must do to manage extreme rate volatility.

Do you have any questions?  Feel free to call or email anytime!!

Bill Nickerson can be reached at 978-273-3227 and email at bill@billnickerson.com

 

Lock your Rate up to 180 Days, then Re-Lock it!

What if I were to tell you that I have a special mortgage program??

What if I were to tell you I have some of the best mortgage rates??

What if I were to tell you I have very competitive closing costs??

Yup…ordinary, just like all the other mortgage companies, banks, credit unions etc!  Pretty dull and boring when it comes right down to it.

Relock Today!

But what if I were tell you that you could lock your mortgage rate in at todays rate and if the rate drops during the process of your mortgage, you could re-lock to the lower rate.  And…It’s FREE!!  Yes, FREE!  No additional premiums, no inflated start rate and it’s offered on fixed rate mortgages.

Buying new construction or Building a new home?  These homes can typically take 3 to 6 months to complete.  In this volatile market of rates changing daily, you can lock in your mortgage rate for 180 days and if the rates drop, you can take advantage of the lower rates.  This allows you the security locking and peace of mind knowing you can still float your mortgage rate down.

But Wait!!!  There’s more!!!  What if you don’t have a signed offer on hand or have even identified a home?  How about if I told you that you could LOCK into a mortgage rate while you were shopping for homes.  This allows you focus on your new home and not have to worry about the markets and at what point rates will move.

This is for fixed rates mortgages up to $417,000.  Don’t be fooled by other lenders that offer these programs and then require you to use an Adjustable Rate or charge you a premium.    I have attached a flyer so that you can share this great program with your friends, clients, builders and whom ever may be in the market.

Click here for your own Float Down Flyer: Float Down

You must have applied for a mortgage through Bill Nickerson and PrimeLending.  You must meet Fannie Mae guidelines and be approved for a mortgage. This article is not a commitment to lend nor does it guarantee the program without first verifying credit, income and all financial documents.  Please call me at 978-273-3227 or wnickerson@primelending.com to see if you qualify for a mortgage today.

Apply for a Mortgage with Bill Nickerson

Hi, My name is Bill Nickerson and I am a Senior Loan Advisor with Flagstar Bank based out of Michigan.  I have been providing residential mortgages since 1991. I grew up in Acton, Massachusetts, My Father was from Concord and my Mother was from Boxborough and we settled in the middle.  

One of the steps in preparing yourself for home ownership is to obtain an approval from your lender or bank.  This process involves filling out a mortgage application and this can be done online, in person as well as over the phone.

This process is done without identifying a property, we would use a range of purchase prices with your down payment to create payments that you are comfortable with.  It is important to understand that it is not what you are approved for, but what you are comfortable paying each month while carrying your traditional living expenses.  You will want to develop a long term plan, 5 to 10 years of what your goals will be with home ownership.  This will help you with budgeting and planning for the size of home you that will best suit your financial needs.

In addition to the application, we will be looking to verify your income, assets and debts through pay-stubs, bank statements and pulling your credit.  Once we have these items in hand, the approval process will take about an hour to confirm this information and provide you with an official approval letter. Here is a detailed list of the items needed for your approval.

 I work closely with your real estate agent and real estate attorney to help coordinate your offer and the purchase of your new home.

To apply for a mortgage, you can click here Apply Online, once completed, I will receive an email alert and will begin the process immediately for you.

For more information on home ownership, to make an appointment for a consultation, feel free to call or email me anytime.

Bill Nickerson NMLS #4194

Flagstar Bank

1500 District Avenue, Burlington MA 01803

www.billnickerson.com

978-273-3227