When The Loan Underwriter Makes A Mistake

“challenging underwriters mistakes in housing loan paperwork” was a search that I got. You can’t challenge them. Butting heads with an underwriter is stupid and counterproductive. There’s only one person who gets a vote, and it’s not you, whether you are an applicant, processor, or loan officer. The underwriter may not be the original application …

The Effects of Divorce on Real Estate

The bottom line on this question is always, “Whatever the courts say.” Divorce law is complex, and different from state to state, and even when you think you’ve got a clear message in the law as written, the courts may interpret it differently, or there may be precedent that says otherwise, or even just some …

Legal Late Payments on Your Mortgage

(I have noticed a fair number of hits to this article that, judging by their search query, probably want the article on What Happens When You Can’t Make Your Real Estate Loan Payment instead) I got a question about legal late payments in California. Unfortunately, there really is no such thing as a legal late …

Homesteading and Declaration of Homestead

One topic I haven’t covered yet here is homesteading. This has nothing to do with the Homestead Act of 1862 that encouraged settling the western United States. A declaration of Homestead basically protects your equity. In many cases, you may not even have to file a declaration to receive the benefits, but whether this is …

Practical Applications: Credit Cards versus Home Equity Line Of Credit

You raise a lot of issues. Some I’m going to deal with very quickly, others I’m going to spend some effort on, but nothing as in depth as a full article would have. I’m going to keep referring to material found in Credit Reports: What They Are and How They Work I’m going to take …

Recurring and Nonrecurring Closing Costs

Many people are uncertain as to what closing costs are. Basically, they relate to the costs of doing the transaction. There are people who work on getting your loan through the process of approval and funding, and those people have got to be paid. Anytime you’re talking about a fee for a service that needs …

Real Estate Loans: What If One Spouse Has a Bad Credit Score?

There are several possible options to deal with this issue, depending upon the exact situation. For A paper, both spouses must qualify, credit score-wise. The way around this is a quitclaim to the spouse who has a good credit score as sole and separate property. The catch is that then the good credit score spouse …

Property Taxes and Whether They Were Paid Through Escrow

my prorated property taxes came were paid at closing but now I’m getting a delinquent tax bill You mean they were supposed to be paid at closing. There are two major possibilities: 1) They were not, in fact, paid 2) They were paid, but were miscredited, or they were properly credited, but your county goofed …