Entries from Searchlight Crusade tagged with 'credit'

Getting Another Mortgage Loan After A Short Sale

Our home isn't worth what we owe. So say you were just an average person selling and buying a house, meaning you put your house up for sale, get a contract to purchase on it then go put in offer...

Quitclaiming Property with a Mortgage

I am currently living with my parents and they wish to deed of gift their house to me but they still have a remaining mortgage on it. Is it possible to do this or do they have to pay off...

Multiple Mortgage Inquiries Do Not Drop Your Credit Score

>broker incurred 19 inquires in 1 week dropping my score. B.S. I'd go the full Penn and Teller on this one if I wasn't trying to stay family friendly. The law is clear on this one, and practice is fully...

Undisclosed Short Sales

What happens if a home you signed to purchase goes into foreclosure before the closing date? We were supposed to close on a home four months ago. On the day of closing we get a call from the seller's...

Can You Keep Your Home Through Bankruptcy?

The answer is "Yes." You don't have to lose your home in bankruptcy. I've done loans for many clients who kept their homes through bankruptcy. But they kept their mortgage payments current, or close enough to current. The condition...

The Lender's Rule of Mortgage Payments

Every so often, someone who thinks they're a wit sends me a copy of The Rules For Relationships According To Women. Unlike those rules, which might have been funny around the time Nefertiti was a debutante, there are very few...

When You Should Not Buy Real Estate

Okay, I did an article called Why Renting Really Is For Suckers (And What To Do About It). Fairness demands that I do a companion article on situations where buying is not a good idea. There actually are some. First...

The "We'll Keep You In Your Property" Scam

This is a pure scam throughout, but it's legal as far as I know. I'm not going to go into more details than I can avoid. The universe knows there's enough people pulling this right now, but the bad guys...

Student Loans and Real Estate Loans: Default, Repayment vs. Nonpayment and Consolidation

This is one of those things that trips up people to buy a house or refinance it: student loans. First off, Form 1003, the Federal Uniform Residential Loan Application has the following relevant questions on page 4, among the...

Can Someone Be Added to an Existing Mortgage?

Got a search for that, and it occurred to me that it is a valid question. The answer is yes. The degree varies. You can simply contact the bank to make yourself responsible for payment. They are usually happy to...

Avoiding Foreclosure in Bankruptcy

How do I keep my home after filing bankruptcy. The Mortgage company wants to foreclose? I want to know if there is anyway to keep the home even after filing chapter 7 bankruptcy. I want to know if there...

Loan Qualification Standards - Loan to Value Ratio

Many folks have no idea how qualified they are as borrowers. There are two ratios that, together with credit score, tell how qualified you are for a loan. The more important of these two ratios is Debt-to-Income ratio, usually abbreviated...

Listing Agents and Pre-Approvals or Pre-Qualifications

It has become very trendy to ask for pre-approvals on loans, because so many escrows are falling through. Unfortunately, as I have explained in the past, Loan Pre-Approval Means Nothing, and prequalification means even less. Both are literally wasted paper....

Negative Amortization Loans - More Unfortunate Details

(This is a reprint originally from December 2005. I have reasons for reprinting it even though these loans are not currently available) My article on Option ARM and Pick a Pay - Negative Amortization Loans is one of my most...

One Spouse Qualifying For A Loan on Their Own

"I am married but want to refinance my house only in my name. What do I have to do?" Refinancing in one name only is actually pretty easy, and there are at least two ways to potentially accomplish this,...

What Can A Real Estate Seller Do To Find Out if A Potential Buyer Is Qualified

A high percentage of buyers out there have no idea of how qualified they really are themselves. They have no clue as to any of the major factors in determining credit-worthiness. To be fair, there are dozens, if not hundreds,...

Loan Cosigners in Real Estate - A Lot of Risk For Not Much Gain

Every so often I get questions about loan cosigners. The main borrowers do not qualify on their own, so they get someone - most often mom and dad - to cosign. Cosigners are a different thing, or so I understand,...

RESPA Forbids Steering - Even "Just For Prequalification"

Agents rationalize this in all sorts of interesting ways, so let's just start by quoting the cold hard federal law. It's pretty damned clear: RESPA no person shall give and no person shall accept any fee, kickback, or thing of...

Having your Credit Run

As of July 1, 2005, mortgage providers have to have explicit written authorization to run credit. I am not certain of the political forces that made this bill, and it is still not clear to me whether this extends to...

Zero Interest Credit Cards versus Home Equity Line Of Credit

Once upon a time, I received an email about the virtues of zero interest credit cards as opposed to Home Equity Lines of Credit. I've organized both the email and my response in order to facilitate understanding: You raise a...