Evan is also currently closely associated with Churchill Mortgage in TN. Churchill recently named Cornerstone Home Loans their preferred provider in Michigan for local callers to the Dave Ramsey Radio Show.

Evan is a registered investment adviser and has completed his series 65 test and course work. He coaches 100s of clients and small businesses in over five states to achieve maximum investment returns. He speaks and writes regularly on the topics of investing mortgages, personal finances and real estate. He is also a past president of the local Financial Planning Association.

Evan and his wife Jenny live in Mid-Michigan with their seven children and enjoy camping, soccer games for the kids and various church events throughout each week.

We are looking forward to Evan’s contribution to the Mortgages Unzipped team.

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A key component of America’s westward expansion in the 19th century was the government’s distribution of public land to “free farmers,” ordinary citizens who had a desire to establish themselves and their families through agriculture. The Homestead Act of 1862, signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, introduced a system by which these citizens could claim for themselves a piece of the public lands—up to 160 acres—that were controlled by the federal government. The Homestead Act gave farmers a three-step process that allowed them to obtain the land without having to purchase it directly.

1) File an application for a specific homestead.
2) Improve the land through farming or other, provable means.
3) File for deed of title.

The Act itself was the culmination of over a decade of legislative debate, which included several failed attempts to pass a bill through Congress. Opposition to any such legislation had largely been led by representatives from the plantation states of the South, who feared the competition such free farms would create. With the secession of the Confederacy in 1860, the remaining members of Congress were able to pass the legislation virtually unopposed.

Despite the attempt to ease the process, less than half of the homestead applicants managed to achieve the requirements needed to claim title to their land. Additionally, a system of proper checks and regulations were missing from the original bill, allowing for unscrupulous entrepreneurs to abuse the homestead process—occasionally by carving out a homestead that contained a vital resource, such as water, and then refusing to let neighboring homesteads partake of that resource.

The Homestead Act was revised and added to a number of times over the course of the next century, including the passage of the Enlarged Homestead Act in 1909 and the Stock-Raising Homestead Act in 1916. Homesteading as a federal practice ended in 1976 in all parts of the United States except for Alaska, which was permitted to continue granting homesteads for another decade. The final homestead granted in the United States of America was an 80-acre plot in southwestern Alaska, officially deeded in May of 1988. Since then, the federal government has deemed that the “needs of the American people” are best served with the remainder of public lands kept under federal control.

Now you know!

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Today most loans are going FHA….The same folks that wouldn’t go near FHA financing think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread!  The loan and it’s standards really hasn’t changed, the alternative options have disappeared.  However more than a few properties will need to have minor repairs and maintenance done to the property prior to closing…or does it?

Properties that need repairs prior to closing are still being bought and sold and not all of them have to be repaird prior to closing.  A good number of my referals come from a short sale negotiators, and it has dawned on me that unlike a traditional sale, it is much more difficult to get repairs done on a property that is under agreement as a short sale.

Solution – Structure the transactions as 203K loans…If the appraisal comes in needing repairs get the contractor and or Hud Consultantout right away.  Add the cost of repairs to the purchase..No need to delay a closing…and no need for the buyers to start looking again.   If no repairs are needed and the borrower doesn’t want to make any improvements…. no problem, close as a regular FHA loan. The difference in pricing between a regular and an FHA loan today 4.5%-4.625% for a regular FHA and 4.75%-4.875% for a 203K loan.  How much time and money do new home owners spend on do it yourself projects…You should sit down and do the math on what it would cost you in time and money to strip wall paper and paint rooms vs. paying a professional, before you sentence yourself to the next 3 months of hard labor on your time off! 

203K loans have the perception of being too dificult, take too long and are too expensive to obtain.  Those perceptions are simply not reality!

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But are stated income loans making a comeback?

There is at least one lender doing them – here is an excerpt from one of their promotional fliers handed out to brokers:

Which brings up an interesting question – are stated income loans bad?

I don’t think so — at least in my opinion, there is nothing “bad” about a stated income loan.

But when you consider stated income loan programs, there are a number of things that could be considered “dangerous” or “possibly dangerous” that could happen.

One of the more common things that happened during the housing boom is many people “stated” that they made more money than they actually did.

And when the market turned, they were left with a house payment that they couldn’t afford.

So as stated income loans come back (and they are coming back) – the conversation might start at “stated income loans are bad“, but could quickly get to “stated income loans might be bad if…“

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Last month I wrote about how the expiration of the $8000 and $6500 tax credits for new home buying wouldn’t have much impact on the housing market. Those expired, for the uninitiated, on April 30, and since then sales on new homes have dropped to their lowest levels in history. So that wasn’t one of those really good predictions, and I’m sorry, and I admit I was wrong.

Pundits are saying that the drop is caused by buyers moving their purchases forward to take advantage of the tax credit, so that sales just moved from May to April. That surely took place. But at least here in my shop, there were a good number of people that couldn’t get the deal done in time, and who still are in the process of buying. That should have put some shims under the falling market.

So I have a different explanation for why what happened…happened. See, it wasn’t so much about the money. Markets are really smart. They compensate pretty fast for price-altering events like tax credits and artificial purchase incentives (see “Clunkers, Cash for”). When someone offers $8000 as an incentive for you to purchase a home, then the seller of that home adjusts his price upward to meet the new reality that you have more cash to spend, so most of the $8000 does you no good at all. As an aside, this is what the eggheads call “inflation”.

That did happen in this case, though not by anything like $8000 worth. No, the spike in home buying was not caused by the cash incentive as a dollar amount; rather, it was caused by the application of that dollar amount. As in, the $8000 was not a reduction in the price of the home; it was a boost in cash for down payment and closing costs. Yes, I know the government specifically said that the credit could not be used as a down payment. But, humans being what they are, and being waaaaaaay smarter than the government, they got “gifts” to cover the down payment and closing costs, then repaid those “gifts” with the tax credits. Voila! A temporary reinstatement of the zero-down loan programs the government killed last year.

The reason we’re in the economic mess we’re in is really quite simple: we borrowed too much money, and nobody saved a nickel. Now we can’t make the payments on the things we bought, so they’re being repossessed and foreclosed on. For a business, that means money is drying up and that means firings and layoffs. That exacerbates the personal financial problems, which means people stop spending, which further reduces the money for business, and around and around the mulberry bush.

If you have no cash, you can’t buy a home, because there are no zero-down programs outside of USDA Rural – which, not coincidentally, ran out of money 6 months before the end of the fiscal year – and Veterans’ Administration. But this program made it possible to fudge that, and brought a lot more buyers into the game. Until it ran out.

If you parsed the data, and nobody will actually give it to you so you can do this, but what you would find almost immediately is that the large majority of those tax credits were claimed by people whose down payments were smaller than the $8000 credit. Personally, I would bet that almost half of the loans that closed on which the credit applied were closed with gifts as the means of down payment. Perhaps all of those gifts were legitimate. I hope so.

Then, of course, the gravy train reached the terminus and everyone had to get off. Immediately, home sales dropped off a cliff. This doesn’t happen in market conditions where nothing hinky is going on. The market simply adjusts – prices fall, in this case – and people move on. Really, folks, the $8000 is not a big deal. It represents a payment increase of only about $40/mo for a borrower at today’s rates. That might have a small depressive effect on the market, but nothing like what we’re seeing.

Conclusion: the $8000 credit had the impact it did because it filled a market niche where there is huge demand, and that is the niche for 100% loans. The loss of the credit has taken out a very large part of the borrowing pool, those people that cannot come up with $7000-10,000 to put down on a house. Until something fills that gap again, don’t expect a huge market rebound.

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So much for those extra three months.

A legislative measure that included an extension of the closing deadline for buyers using the first-timer credit failed to pass the Senate on Thursday. The amendment would have pushed back the deadline from June 30 to September 30. Instead, thousands of buyers — more than 180,000, according to the National Association of Realtors — may not be able to close their deals in time to utilize the $8,000 tax credit or its companion $6,500 tax credit for existing homeowners.

U.S. Senate officials are apparently looking into potential fixes, according to CNBC reporter Diana Olick. But, as of now, the initial June 30 deadline remains intact.

That means the only extension in effect is the one governing purchases by active-duty military members who were serving abroad on extended duty during the last 18 months. Those who qualify have until April 30, 2011, to purchase a home and until June 30, 2011, to close.

Image: Zoutedrop

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With home values across the nation slipping and mortgage payments adjusting higher, struggling borrowers are looking for relief.

Fortunately, mortgage rates are at or near record lows. However, banks and lenders have become much more hesitant to lend, making a refinance a lot trickier than it has been in the past.

Some borrowers have also taken advantage of loan modifications, though there are downsides to those, such as credit score dings and limited eligibility.

Regardless, both take time and may not be viable options for all homeowners.

So what other choices do you have?

Well, one of the four major components of your mortgage payment is insurance, commonly referred to as hazard insurance, which is required by your lender in order to protect their financial interest in your home.

The others are principal, interest, and taxes.

One of the most overlooked options to lowering the cost of your monthly housing payment is shopping your homeowner’s insurance with an independent agent to see if you can snag a lower premium.

Whether you pay your insurance premium direct to your carrier or through an escrow account, this option can save you big money.

Keep in mind that the longer you stay “loyal” to an insurance company, the higher the odds you’re paying too much.

If rates go up, you’re stuck with a higher premium when your policy renews. If rates go down, which has been the case for several years now, you probably won’t be notified and your premium will not decrease.

If you don’t ask any questions, they certainly won’t lower your rate.

Insurance agents have even noted that companies actually lower a home’s replacement cost (lowering the coverage) in order to keep premiums lower when they raise their rates! And you simply renew at the original, higher premium.

Shopping your insurance and switching to a different insurance company may save you as much as $1,000 per year (or $83 month) and you may even get your hands on higher liability limits and overall better coverage.

What if I escrow/impound my insurance payments?

Many insurance companies rely on your fear of the unknown to continue charging you too much for your homeowner’s insurance. They assume you’ll stay put because of the belief you can’t easily change insurer’s mid-term, or mid-mortgage. NOT TRUE!

The process of switching insurance companies is as simple as providing your loan servicing company’s name, address, and loan number to your new insurance company. Then they simply send a bill to the bank that has your loan, and the bank works out the details. It’s really that easy.

To sum it up, lowering the cost of your homeowner’s insurance is the easiest way to lower your housing costs without mucking everything up.

(photo: thetruthabout)

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Lookout Point at Corona del Mar overlooking entrance to Newport Harbor and the jetty

See Corona del Mar homes for lease – click here for free active link.

 ______________________________________________________

Harrison K. Long, REALTOR® & broker, Explore Group, Coldwell Banker Previews, Irvine, CA.  CA DRE #01410855.  ExploreProperties@gmail.com. 949-854-7747.  National Association of Realtors, California Association of Realtors, and Orange County Association of Realtors.  California State Bar Association #69137. Serving Laguna Beach, Irvine, Newport Beach, Newport Coast, Costa Mesa, and South Orange County.

www.CostaMesaLive.com

www.NewportCoastLive.com

www.CoastLivingHomes.com

www.LiveAtNewportBeach.com

www.LiveAtIrvine.com

www.LiveAtLagunaBeach.com

www.ExploreOCHomes.com 

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See Irvine, CA, bank owned and foreclosure homes – click here for free active link.

 ______________________________________________________

Harrison K. Long, REALTOR® & broker, Explore Group, Coldwell Banker Previews, Irvine, CA.  CA DRE #01410855.  ExploreProperties@gmail.com. 949-854-7747.  National Association of Realtors, California Association of Realtors, and Orange County Association of Realtors.  California State Bar Association #69137. Serving Laguna Beach, Irvine, Newport Beach, Newport Coast, Costa Mesa, and South Orange County.

www.CostaMesaLive.com

www.NewportCoastLive.com

www.CoastLivingHomes.com

www.LiveAtNewportBeach.com

www.LiveAtIrvine.com

www.LiveAtLagunaBeach.com

www.ExploreOCHomes.com 

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