FHA Lending by Community-Based Mortgage Lenders

Posted on December 15, 2008 by admin 
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Community banks, thrift institutions, and credit unions seeking to serve mortgage customers with loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) can qualify for FHA loan approval with minimal capital investment, according to author and mortgage expert Anna DeSimone.  Operating as Supervised Correspondents, local lenders can offer FHA mortgage loans, including options such as Reverse Mortgages, FHA Secure, and Hope for Homeowners. Supervised correspondents maintain control of all aspects of the client relationship without the necessity of hiring FHA-certified personnel.

“FHA mortgage lending is no longer just a product option. For community-based institutions, it’s an imperative for helping to sustain our neighborhoods,” stated DeSimone, founder of Bankers Advisory and author of twelve books and numerous articles on the mortgage business.  DeSimone, who also wrote the three-volume “Responsible Lending Series” on FHA mortgage lending, pointed out that banks seeking to become direct FHA mortgage lenders must invest in substantial training and have a Direct Endorsement underwriter on staff. But as she emphasized in a seminar attended by 80 community banks last March at the Boston Federal Reserve, the supervised correspondent option enables the banks to enter the market quickly and with minimal expense.

FHA mortgage lenders can look to specialists like Bankers Advisory for assistance with FHA licensing and initial steps which include structuring relationships for outsourced underwriting and private-label servicing.  “Community bankers have done well in expanding residential mortgage lending to include affordable housing, soft seconds and mortgages sold to secondary market investors. But recent legislation, including the Housing and Economic Recovery Act and portions of the so-called ‘bailout bill’ are tied to FHA loans. Most small lenders are not familiar with the back-end obligations of FHA home lending, such as quality control compliance and reporting requirements,” explained DeSimone.

Bankers Advisory’s “Audit and Assessment Guide” has 80 pages of step-by-step instructions on submitting reports through the FHA’s mandatory online reporting system.  The company also helps lenders adhere to HUD’s strict directives on quality control through QC plans and services that cover post-funding quality control, document re-verification, trend reports, risk monitoring and compliance.

About Bankers Advisory ( www.bankersadvisory.com )  Founded in 1986, Bankers Advisory has helped mortgage lenders throughout the United States achieve high standards of credit quality and employee proficiency through a full range of audit and consulting services, customized policy manuals, training, and workflow development.  Bankers Advisory has an unparalleled reputation for excellence in the mortgage industry and among national and state banking agencies. The firm’s underwriting experts have audited more than 50,000 FHA mortgage files. Thousands of employees have been trained on Banker’s Advisory’s educational materials.

HECM Loan Limits Not Helping Enough?

Posted on December 3, 2008 by admin 
Filed under FHA news, Published Articles · Tagged: ,

While the 4.3% growth in home equity conversion loan volume isn’t close to what the industry has seen previously, with loan limits raised and fees capped at $6,000 people are expecting a surge of FHA loan applications.  “One reason for the lower reverse mortgage volume was the uncertainty over the FHA loan limits,” said Peter Bell, president of NRMLA, the nonprofit trade group based in Washington, D.C. “There were so many people waiting on the sidelines to see what would happen. Why would you want to close a loan a few weeks ago when you could borrow less and get a higher mortgage rate?”

Watch Reverse Mortgage Video

FHA offers home equity conversion mortgages to qualified seniors who are at least 62 years old. 
Reverse mortgages are SAFE and at a 2.9% Jan. 2009 interest rate. Why not?

While the industry has seen the HECM loan limits increase to $417,000, Kelly suggests that mortgage lenders vow to push vigorously to lift the ceiling to $625,500 as soon as possible, especially given the exit of all jumbo reverse mortgage products.  Raising the FHA loan limits to $417K helps people in certain areas of the country, but in places like California the new mortgage loan limits don’t provide much more benefit. 

An interesting part of the from the story is about FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery’s mother and reverse mortgages, which Kelly describes below:  Commissioner Brian Montgomery, who will leave his post when the current administration exits in January, said there is a bright future ahead for reverse mortgage loans, despite the current credit crunch. He has tried to convince his mother to take out a reverse, but she, like many seniors, has been suspicious of the concept.  “I told her that I was her son and would always be looking out for her best interests,” Montgomery said. “I also told her that I administered the program for the United States of America and thought it was a pretty good idea.”  FHA mortgage lending continues to evolve rapidly, so check back for the latest news and updates.

FHA’s Hope for Homeowners Loan Revised – Will it Stop Foreclosures?

Posted on November 20, 2008 by admin 
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The Hope for Homeowners program has had very little effect in the mortgage refinance market in the effort to provide a lending alternative for foreclosure prevention. HUD reported that it received a total of 111 H4H loan applications in October and were not able to approve any of the loan applications. In addition, HUD said that it approved 88,784 FHA mortgage loans during the last few weeks of October. 

Mortgage Brokers Network director, Steve Park said, “Clearly HUD and the participating FHA mortgage lenders are out of touch with what homeowners need for refinancing in this type of economy.”  Park added that “good intentions and shallow lending guidelines will not get us out of this foreclosure crisis.”

HUD now says that it will provide new “flexibility” for the Hope for Homeowners program, something that certainly has not happened so far this year. According to HUD, “the HOPE for Homeowners Board of Directors has approved changes to the FHA program to help additional struggling homeowners refinance into more affordable, government-insured mortgage loans. These revisions will lower the product costs for borrowers and FHA mortgage lenders alike while also expanding eligibility by reducing the homeowner’s monthly loan payments.”

Proposed Modifications to HOPE for Homeowners Loans include:

___ Raising the loan to value ratio to 96.5% for some Hope for Homeowners loans;

___ Streamlining the process to remove 2nd mortgages by permitting upfront payments to subordinate mortgage companies

___ Enabling FHA mortgage lenders to extended amortization schedules from thirty to forty years.

“These changes will further encourage lenders to take a hard look at this program before heading down the path to foreclosure and will provide families with another resource to refinance into a loan they can afford,” said FHA Commissioner Brian D. Montgomery. “HOPE for Homeowners will continue to serve as another loss mitigation tool that can be used to help families keep their homes.”

Given that more than 8,000 a day receive foreclosure notices it would be great to have a robust, successful Hope for Homeowners program. In 2008 only 3,794 delinquent conventional borrowers were able to refinance with FHA home loans.

BACKGROUND

Increasing the Loan-to-Value and Adjusting Debt-to-Income Ratios

The program will increase the loan-to-value ratio (LTV) on Hope for Homeowners loans to 96.5 % for borrowers whose mortgage payments represent no more than 31 % of their monthly gross income and household debt no more than 43 %. This change will expand the number of eligible borrowers. Raising the loan-to-value ratio reduces the gap between the existing loan balances and the new H4H loan and decrease losses to the existing primary mortgage servicers. In addition, this FHA loan product will continue to provide borrowers with higher debt burdens a 90 % loan-to-value ratio on their FHA home refinance loans with the Hope for Homeowners. This LTV ratio will include borrowers with debt-to-income ratios as high as 38 and 50 %. In conjunction with the LTV change, H4H will eliminate the trial modification that was previously required. This measure was too complicated and required delicate negotiations among the existing mortgage lenders, the new H4H lender, and the borrower.

Immediate Payments to Second Mortgage Companies

H4H will offer second mortgagors an immediate payment in exchange for releasing their liens, to permit more borrowers access to the program. Previously, subordinate lienholders who released their liens were only eligible to receive a small recovery payment when the home owned by the H4H borrower was sold. Given the amount of time that would pass between the creation of the H4H and the ultimate sale of the home, as well as the tremendous market uncertainties, subordinate lien companies were not guaranteed any return at all. To address this problem, the second mortgage companies may now receive an immediate payment at the time the H4H loan is originated.

Extending Loan Terms from 30 to 40 years

To assure that borrowers are put into the most affordable monthly payment possible, HOPE for Homeowners will permit FHA mortgage lenders to extend the mortgage term from 30 to 40 years. For borrowers with very high mortgage and household debt loads, extending out the amortization period may reduce their monthly payments enough to make it possible for them to qualify for this rescue product and save their homes.

Consistent with statutory and regulatory requirements, borrowers must continue to meet the following criteria:

___ Their mortgage must have originated on or before January 1, 2008.

___ They cannot afford their current loan.

___ They must have made a minimum of six full payments on their existing first mortgage and did not intentionally miss mortgage payments.

___ The FHA home loan amount may not exceed a maximum of $550,440.

___ The Initial Mortgage Insurance Premium is 3% and the Mortgage Insurance Premium Paid Annually will be 1.5 %.

___ The mortgage holders of existing mortgage loans must waive all pre-payment penalties and late payment fees.

___ They cannot own a 2nd home.

___ They did not knowingly or willfully provide false information to obtain the current mortgage loan, and they have not been convicted of fraud in the last 10 years.

___ They must follow FHA mortgage underwriting policy of fully documentation that ensures income and employment.

The FHA HOPE for Homeowners Loan program was authorized by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. A Board of Directors was charged with establishing underwriting standards to ensure borrowers, after any write-down in principal, have a reasonable ability to repay their new insured FHA mortgage loan. The program began October 1, 2008 and will end September 30, 2011.

The HOPE for Homeowners Board of Directors includes HUD Secretary Steve Preston, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, and FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair. They have named the following people to serve on the board as their designees: FHA Commissioner and Chairman of the Board Brian Montgomery, Federal Reserve Board Governor Elizabeth Duke, Treasury Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy Phillip Swagel, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Director Tom Curry.  You can read more and get additional information about the FHA HOPE for Homeowners Loans at www.hud.gov/hopeforhomeowners.

FHA Mortgage Loans Enable Compensating Factors to Overide Automated Underwriting

Posted on November 3, 2008 by admin 
Filed under FHA news, Published Articles · Tagged: ,

During the mortgage refinance process, many borrowers fight to get beyond the application stage for several reasons. Especially during this credit crisis that we are experiencing, getting a mortgage approval can be quite tough to say the least.  When an applicant gets rejected by the mortgage lender it may become personal. The common reaction would be to reaccess your mortgage loan application and simply ask “Why wasn’t I approved?”

Fortunately, one of the beauties of FHA mortgages is that the process of manual underwriting and compensating factors. For potential borrowers and those interested in FHA home loans, understanding how compensating factors work will give you the edge you need if your loan is on the borderline of an approval or denial.

Automated and Manual FHA Underwriting Explained
In the mortgage industry, lenders will typically advertise to originators that they use manual underwriting, use “common sense” underwriting, or accept files that “just make sense”. While a number of these are nothing more than just marketing gimmicks, potential borrowers need to understand the advantages of manual underwriting.

Because of technology, when a FHA home loan is submitted electronically, the approval/denial response can be instantaneous. This immediate automated underwriting saves time and reduces processing loads, but it can also be a disadvantage to applicants.  With manual underwriting,  people actually underwrite the loan rather than a computer program. As a result, if a loan isn’t approved under the DU or LP automated underwriting systems, a manual underwriter can make certain exceptions because of certain compensating factors.

Cash Out Refinancing with FHA Loans

Posted on October 29, 2008 by admin 
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FHA home loans have quickly become the mortgages of choice for cash out refinancing and new home purchase financing. Raising capital with a home mortgage was definitely easier in past years. As many consumers have found out the hard way, home equity loans have practically become extinct. Unless you have great credit and are able to provide full income documentation to the lending underwriter, you don’t have a shot to qualify for a conventional mortgage refinance.

Did I mention you also need to be less than 80% loan to value as well? Just last year no equity was required to get cash out when refinancing with a 1st or 2nd mortgage refinancing. After record breaking number of foreclosures every month, most lenders wised up and cut off the home equity loan product line.

In 2008, the thirty year fixed rate mortgage remains competitive and historically pretty low averaging in the mid six percent range all year. For the first time, FHA mortgage loans actually dropped below the conventional interest rate levels. FHA home loans typically carry a little bit of a higher rate because of the increased risk factor that goes along with no equity and lower credit score requirements.  Read Complete FHA Refinance Article. – Article written By Sean Dornan

Choosing a FHA Mortgage Refinance

Posted on October 27, 2008 by admin 
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Homeowners enjoy many benefits of investing in their home year after year. For some, there comes a time when that investment can come in handy. Refinancing with an FHA mortgage loan can be an effective way to put that equity to work.

In the housing market, homeowners have multiple opportunities to invest in their property annually. An FHA mortgage loan can be an effective method to continue the investing. Some of the options that FHA home loan offers for mortgage refinancing on properties used as principal residences are as follows:

FHA CASH OUT REFINANCE

If a borrower bought their home quite some time ago and it has increased in market value refinancing is an excellent choice for homeowners. A Cash Out refinance will give the owners a chance to refinance their present mortgage by getting a larger home loan greater than they currently owe, which repays their current mortgage debt. This gives the homeowner equity access that has grown from their home and utilize it where needed.

In order to achieve the maximum benefits when refinancing your FHA loan, it is usually better to think of an FHA refinance after it has been determined that you have a significant amount of equity built in your home. If the property was purchased over one year prior to the purchase date, the property can be refinanced by up to 95 percent of the appraised value with the permitted closing fees, which will be different in various states.

FHA STREAMLINE REFINANCING INFO

The FHA streamline refinancing choice is termed as such due to the little paperwork required. This selection will allow you to decrease the interest rate on your present home loan fast and more often than not without an appraisal. It saves borrowers considerable time and money with features like:

o    No Appraisal necessary

o    No Credit underwriting

o    No Qualifying Debt Ratios

o    No Credit Check

o    No Income Verification

o    No In-Person Application

In order to be eligible for a FHA Streamlined Refinance your current mortgage loan has to be an FHA loan in good standing and the new loan must lower your monthly interest payments. This loan method of refinancing decreases your monthly expenses by reducing your home loan payments but there is not a choice to get cash back at closing. This is a great option for individuals who have a good financial status, no substantial debt because it saves you some extra money monthly that can be utilized toward something else.

In order to be eligible for a FHA Streamlined Refinance your current mortgage loan has to be an FHA loan in good standing and the new loan must lower your monthly interest payments. This loan method of refinancing decreases your monthly expenses by reducing your home loan payments but there is not a choice to get cash back at closing. This is a great option for individuals who have a good financial status, no substantial debt because it saves you some extra money monthly that can be utilized toward something else.

In order to be eligible for a FHA Streamlined Refinance your current mortgage loan has to be an FHA loan in good standing and the new loan must lower your monthly interest payments. This loan method of refinancing decreases your monthly expenses by reducing your home loan payments but there is not a choice to get cash back at closing. This is a great option for individuals who have a good financial status, no substantial debt because it saves you some extra money monthly that can be utilized toward something else.

In order to be eligible for a FHA Streamlined Refinance your current mortgage loan has to be an FHA loan in good standing and the new loan must lower your monthly interest payments. This loan method of refinancing decreases your monthly expenses by reducing your home loan payments but there is not a choice to get cash back at closing. This is a great option for individuals who have a good financial status, no substantial debt because it saves you some extra money monthly that can be utilized toward something else.

Frank Collins is an avid investor in real estate and contributor to FHA Home Loans and a website to Find Low Mortgage Rates and trusted lenders in your area. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Frank_Collins

FHA Mortgage Benefits

Posted on October 21, 2008 by admin 
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FHA insures home mortgage loans that enable low and middle income borrowers to finance or refinance homes in America.  FHA loans provide government assistance so Americans can purchase properties and become homeowners. Typically FHA home mortgages provide low rate, reduced lending costs and only 3% is required for the down-payment in most cases.

FHA offers mortgage insurance but they do not make home mortgages. However, the FHA home loan program often minimizes the cost of a home financing and there are no penalties for refinancing or early pay-off.  In addition, FHA encourages lending companies to finance loans for borrowers with all types of credit.  With FHA’s Section 203(b) program, a homebuyer can purchase a new or used 1-4 family home. FHA home-buyers must occupy the home.

A FHA mortgage enables borrowers with poor credit scores to qualify for the reduced rate loans, rather than taking the higher adjustable rate loan offered by sub-prime lenders. This can save thousands in interest charges.  Required down payments are also smaller. Instead of the typical 10% down, a buyer can put down as little as 3%. The closing costs can also be financed with the mortgage, lowering the initial costs of purchasing a home.

FHA Mortgage Refinance Loans Improve Rates

Posted on October 21, 2008 by admin 
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FHA refinance loans are a popular government mortgage that streamlines the home refinancing process for consumers. A refinance loan can be considered a useful finance tool that replaces an existing mortgage using the property as collateral to pay off the old mortgage. In most cases borrowers utilize FHA refinance loans for improving interest rates. Cash out refinancing is another popular type of loan that many homeowners use to obtain capital for home repairs, remodeling and debt consolidation.

FHA home loans are a cost-effective options for homeowners who are suffering with an adjustable rate mortgage that increased monthly payments often making owning a home too costly. FHA refinancing may be the most efficient method to avoid a foreclosure or escape a short sale.

Consumers also like FHA mortgages because they do not have FICO score requirements if your debt to income ratio and employment history meets government loan standards set forth by HUD. Many homeowners go through a period in their life when they make their loan payments late.  FHA mortgage lenders may overlook the delinquencies if the borrower indicates that they have recovered and that the proposed loan offers benefits to the borrower. Because FHA mortgage loans do not require much equity, in most cases they are the best option for consolidating first and second mortgages into a one monthly payment.  Continue article >

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