April was a crazy month for mortgage rates. Rates were pretty volatile this month ranging from 5.5% at one time for a low, all the way up to 6.25% on the high side. A .75% swing in a month is no small change. The interesting part is with all that movement during the month the end result is rates being .125% higher than they were on April 1st. After 30 days of wild swings we sit today .125% higher than we were on April 1st. This is the important trend to watch is that rates are moving upward. From day to day rates are swinging wildly but now we can see a pattern that month to month rates are increasing. We started the month at 5.75% dipped to 5.5% shot up to 6.25% and now sit at 5.875%: roller-coaster.
There are still a lot of people holding out for “lower rates” and we may get there. The problem now is that rates have to “drop” just to get back to where they were 2 months ago, and then would have to “drop” again to get lower?
There is only one way to get the lowest rate and its pure luck. You have to just happen upon the day that rates are at there lowest, there is no way to time it or predict it. If there was I would be a bond trader and not a mortgage lender.
We have some strong economic data coming our this week we need to keep our eye on. If rates do not come down this week, I think we will have reset into this new rate range until something even more terrible happens in the economy.
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I think its crazy how long some companies are taking right now to underwrite loans. Hire more people! Do they not realize how many loans they are losing by advertising 30 day underwriting times? I don’t know how anyone convinces a borrower to hang around for 30 days while a file sits in line for an underwriter. Also how do you lock these loans? Are loan officers locking loans for 45 days just to try and get through underwriting?
At my company we always underwrite a file in 48 hours or less. Most of the time files are underwritten the same day. That’s the benefit of being a small privately owned direct endorsement lender. Having extra underwriters to maintain speed and customer service is worth it in the long run.
If you work in Florida and are fed up with long underwriting turn times and want a better opportunity give us a call. We are looking to hire experienced loan officers who understand FHA Loans in Florida and who understand the benefits of great service. Our corporate office can be reached at 904-270-2812.
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Don’t wait weeks for answers on loans and don’t rush around at the last minute trying to get to closing. If you are a Loan Officer or Real Estate Agent looking for a lender who can get your FHA Loans closed with out all the hassles. Look no further.
What makes R P Funding Special?
R P Funding is a small privately owned direct endorsement lender. These means the company Underwrites, Closes and Funds its own loans (just like a big bank would), but is small enough and has local ownership (like a mortgage broker) that we care about our customers and customer service.
When you get an FHA Loan through a mortgage broker they have to send the loan to another larger lender to be underwritten. They lose all control when the file leaves their office. This makes it harder to get updates and it usually takes much longer to get an approval. In most regards working with a local office of a national lender isn’t much different. The local loan officer sends the file off to a corporate lending department somewhere and loses all control. This is where you get left in the dark.
R P funding is a small privately held direct endorsement lender. As the President I stay personally involved with all of our loan officers and meet many of our clients. We make FHA Loans so the file never gets sent off to another party, yet we are small enough that you can get the great service you deserve.
We are currently looking to build relationships with additional Real Estate Agents who understand the power of FHA Lending or want to know more about FHA Lending. We are also looking for experienced loan officers who are fed up with bad service, slow underwriting times, and companies that just don’t care.
If you would like to learn more about our company, check out our website or call our corporate office at 904-270-2812.
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This question comes up a lot, of FHA Requires Collections to be paid off when you get an FHA Loan. The answer is no, FHA has no requirement for collections to be paid off. Just like FHA has no requirement for a minimum 580 credit score.
Even though FHA does not require collections to be paid off, many lenders do. If your lender is requiring you to pay off collections, there is not much you can do about it other than go to a different lender. We do not require collections to be paid off at my company.
We would rather see the borrower keep the money in the bank than spend it on paying off collections. Once the collection happens, paying it off doesn’t change anything.
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Don’t Pay Too Much To Buy In Sail Cove Condominiums!
If you buy a condo in Sail Cove without talking to Lee Utley first, it will cost you $1,000.
Sail Cove Condominiumsis a great place to live and own your own home. With a spring fed lake and upscale amenities Sail Cove is the perfect place for you, but you already know that or you wouldn’t be reading this, would you?
The key to buying in Sail Coveis to talk to Lee Utley at R P Funding. Sail Cove is Lee’s featured condo for this week, meaning any buyer who contacts him this week about financing gets $1,000 off closing costs. That’s right save $1,000 on your closing costs if you call Lee this week.
You already know Sail Cove is where you want to live, so call Lee Utley today, and save $1,000. Lee already offers the best interest rates, most flexible loan programs and now, this week only will give you $1,000 off closing costs if you call him about Sail Cove! It’s that simple! (This week ends on April 25th, 2008, so hurry!)
Just think about what you can do with an extra $1,000… get that big screen television you have been wanting (for your new sail cove condo, of course!), buy a new couch for your Sail Cove Condo, or do whatever you want, its your 1,000 dollars!
Call Lee Utley today at 904-434-6646.
You can visit Lee’s website at www.myRPFunding.com
Are you shopping for condos and want to see them featured as Lee’s featured condo of the week? Call today 904-434-6646.
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Many real estate agents are realizing they need to understand FHA if they are going to make it in this market. This can be a great opportunity for Loan Officers who are knowledgeable in FHA to build new relationships by teaching them FHA. It has been years since FHA was the primary solution for home-buyers, but with the recent tightening in conventional lending it is once again.
My company is holding FHA Training For Real Estate Agents in Jacksonville Florida. We bring in our direct endorsement underwriter to give them information right from the source. She has been an FHA Underwriter for 10 years and is my head of underwriting. There is no better source for training on FHA Loans.
There are certain addendum and clauses that FHA requires to be included in the contract, there are ways to write a contract to reduce the borrowers cash out of pocket, there are ways to use FHA’s advantages for agents when they are marketing homes. All of these are important topics to discuss and build credibility.
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This is a little off topic for my mortgage blog, but I received a number of emails this evening with this imprinted at the bottom – “between 0000-00-00 and 9999-99-99 “
My first thought was that I had been violated by some new computer virus, but it appears it is a bug in a recent upgrade of yahoo mail.
When yahoo mail is sent out it is placing this sequence at the bottom of the mail
between 0000-00-00 and 9999-99-99
I am sure they will get it fixed and it doesn’t appear to be anything to worry about, but thought I would share this, so if you see the “between 0000-00-00 and 9999-99-99 ” you will know why.
Oh well back to Mortgage Rates and No Money Down Loans!
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We knew it was coming. Rates finally worsened after hanging out near historic lows for about a week. We have seen about a .375% increase in mortgage rates in the last 48 hours. Mortgage bonds are down about 80 basis points from yesterdays open which is driving rates UP.
Every time rates hit this low level we have clients that do not listen and try to hang on for a lower rate. When we are sitting at historic lows and inflation fears are on everyone’s mind its just not going to get better, it can only get worse.
Hopefully we will bounce back in the next few days to where we were!
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Mortgage rates bounced around last week in a .25% range but there were no major changes. They just kept bouncing back and forth in that range. Hopefully we can keep some stability this week. We remain near the lowest levels of the past 5 years so there really isn’t too much room to get better. I have a lot of clients right now who are hanging on for “better rates”. I just don’t think it is going to happen – but if I knew for sure I would be in Vegas making billions.
Keep an eye on the stock market, if there are any strong surges it will hurt interest rates. Other than that we need some bad economic news this week if we are going to push down to lower levels. I don’t think we will get any lower, I just think its a question of when they will get worse. If we see any positive economic news or inflation talk, they will get worse and quick! That’s the problem with being at historic lows for interest rates, they have no where to go but UP unless we see even more significant ecnomic problems.
When the mortgage bond market opens in the morning, I’ll give an update of where we stand. Good Luck!
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The mortgage rate market was stalled most of the morning awaiting Ben Bernanke speaking this afternoon. We’ll wait to see what kind of effect Ben Bernanke the Fed Chairman has on interest rates. He speaks shortly at 1:00 pm eastern standard time.
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