Anthony Ebright - FHA and VA Home Loans Santa Rosa, CA

FHA Home Loans, Santa Rosa, CA - Top 10 FHA Loan Benefits for home buyers

I meet up with a new home buyer today who asked me about FHA loans and why she should use this program instead of a standard conforming loan program. She was a first time home buyer who had meet with several lenders and was a bit overwhelmed by all of the information she had thrown at her. Since she was only putting 5% down, I felt the FHA loan was the best fit for her and gave her a top ten list of all the benefits she would enjoy. I also ran a comparison worksheet for my newly endoctrinated home buyer to show her the mathmatical differences. The lightbulb over her head kicked in within 10 minutes and she proceeded with the loan application. Ah, success! I love the lightbulb! So, in the interest of sharing with my Sonoma County Wine Country Realtors in Santa Rosa, I've made another top ten list of benefits for home buyers using the FHA loan. If you're looking for information on VA loans, I have another top ten list on the benefits of a VA home loan as well. Just click on this title: Tep Ten VA Benefits for Sonoma County Home Buyers.

Here's the list of top ten FHA Loan benefits for home buyers:

1. FHA Loans only required 3.5% down at this time.
2. FHA Loans will finance the Upfront Mortgage Insurance. You don't have to come up witht he extra cash to pay for a premium that can equal up to 1.75% of the mortgage.
3. FHA Loans don't penalize you on rates for a Low Fico score. Currently, the minimum fico score is 620. If you have a 620 fico, you pay the same rate as someone who has a 700 fico score.
4. FHA Loans have no prepayment penalties. You're welcome to pay the loan off anytime!
5. FHA Loans offer more flexible debt to income requirements at this time.
6. FHA Loans allow for non occupant co-borrowers. You can combine your income and expenses with a non-occupant borrower's income and expenses to qualify. Must be a relative or really close friend.
7. FHA Loans are assumable. This is a great tool for the home buyer when they become a home seller during high rate markets. You can assume a nice 5% loan.
8. FHA Loans allow the seller to contribute up to 6% of the sales price for closing costs. FHA Loans allow for non-traditional credit on purchases.
9. FHA Loans allow, at this time, for gift funds from family member for the down payment and closing costs.
10. FHA loan limits are high enough to cover the majority of the prices in the county that you live. Here are the loan limits for Single Family Residence:

2009 FHA Loan Limits for Single Family Residence in Northern California

County - FHA Loan Limit

• Alameda $729,750
• Contra Costa $729,750
• Marin $729,750
• Monterey $729,750
• Napa $729,750
• Sacramento $580,000
• San Francisco $729,750
• Solano $557,500
• Sonoma $662,500

There are additional benefits that you can take advantage of with an FHA home loan, but I don't want to overwhelm anyone with too much information. So, contact me if you want more! ;-)

BTW- I only posted loan limits for Single Family Residences. If you want to know about the other loan limits for a different county or for 2 to 4 units. Send me an email. Also, note: I wrote "at this time" several times. It's important to understand these benefits are going to change and will continue to change to adjust to the current market conditions.

Ok, one more note. Inspections: see my previous post on this here.

Image provided by Google image.

VA Home Loans, Santa Rosa, CA - Top 10 VA Home Loan Benefits for Sonoma County Home Purchases

One of my fondest memories comes from growing up in Santa Rosa where my father purchased his first family home using the VA home loan program. As a Veteran who served two terms in the Navy during the Vietnam war, my dad deserved all of the benefits the Department of Veterans Affairs has to offer. One of them was the Va Home Loan Guaranty. With his DD214 in hand, my father was able to by our family home with no money down and with little closing costs. If it wasn't for this program, we probable would have lived in a tiny apartment somewhere until my parents could save up enough money to buy a home. Well, as a way to give back, I learned to originate VA home loans once I became a mortgage loan officer in the early 90's. Unfortunately, the real estate market values in Sonoma County and everywhere else grew so rapidly that the VA home loan became obsolete. The Department of Veterans Affairs couldn't guarantee the increasing loan amounts that were in demand until a few years ago. It wasn't until 2007 when the government authorized higher loan limits for VA Home loans to help revise the declining housing market.

I know there are a ton of resources out there about VA loans, but I thought I would create a short and sweet list of all the benefits the VA home loan has to offer for my team of Realtors in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County. So, here's the list that I think should make up the Top 10 VA Home Loan Benefits:

1. VA Home Loans require no money down
2. VA Home Loans Limit the Closing Costs allowed to charged against the qualified VA Home Loan buyer
3. VA Home Loans will finance the funding fee. It can also be reduced if VA buyer puts 5% down
4. VA Home Loans have no prepayment penalties. The VA buyer can pay the loan off early without incurring additional fees.
5. VA Home Loans allow less than perfect credit to be used for qualifying.
6. VA Home Loans have no Monthly Mi. Other loans require a monthly mortgage insurance payment if you put less than 20% down.
7. VA Home Loans qualify the buyer by using one debt to income figure. I've seen loans with a 48 to 52% DTI get qualified.
8. VA Home Loans are assumable with VA's permission, but seller loses the ability to buy another home until the loan is paid off.
9. VA Home Loans required an inspection to protect the Veteran Home buyer from any potential harm.
10. The Department of Veterans Affairs raised the maximum loan limits to match the demands of the Nation.

Here are the numbers for my area:

2009 VA Loan Limits for Northern California

County- VA Loan Limit

• ALAMEDA $1,094,625.00
• CONTRA COSTA $1,094,625.00
• MARIN $1,094,625.00
• MONTEREY $525,000.00
• NAPA $643,750.00
• SACRAMENTO $516,250.00
• SAN FRANCISCO $1,094,625.00
• SOLANO $435,000.00
• SONOMA $566,250.00

Top Santa Rosa Real Estate Agents and Realtors Maximize MLS Searches with Staged Homes

Yesterday, I went on a Real Estate Agent MLS tour of the latest open houses in Bennett Valley in Santa Rosa, California. As a Sonoma County home mortgage consultant, I like to be familiar with the latest inventory in my area so I can work more effectively with my top real estate agents and Realtors, and their buyers. It's always nice to be familiar with a property that's listed on the Multiple Listing Service, otherwise known as MLS.

What really caught my eye was a property that was beautifully staged. At first glance, I thought someone still lived in the house. Then I noticed the photos in the house were quite generic and asked the listing Realtor if the house was staged. It was. The Realtor told me a staged home was one of the best ways real estate agents and Realtors can present a home when it's no longer lived in. Home buyers have an easier time visualizing themselves in a house full of furniture and things vs an empty house. For this particular house, it was important for the Realtor to highlight the home's space. This Realtor staged the home first before he took the photos of the home to submit to the Bay Area Real Estate Information Services, Inc. Multiple Listing Service or BAREIS MLS. It's important to him that the future home buyer sees this home in it's most ideal setting when the buyer finds the home for first time through an MLS Search or internet searches. As we all know, pictures are worth a thousand words. 

Will a staged home sell better than an empty home? Will a home buyer stop to see a home physically that he or she finds on MLS searches because it's staged? I think it would help, but might not be the end all answer. There are many other factors that make homes appealing to a buyer such as location, price, size, shape, utility, etc. What's your opinion? When is the idea time to stage a home?

BTW- in the interest of education, I've embedded the video below that was shared by Tara Jones on activerain to share a few basic ideas on staging a home.

Are you addicted to Activerain? Here's a cure that will tickle your funny bone.

 

 

 

Last week as I was perusing my rankings on Activerain, I noticed one of my loan officers took a leap over me in rankings so I called him to see what he did to move up so quickly. Since he just started this process, I was really curious to see what steps he took. I figured he would share with me since I introduced him to Activerain.

I told him I would start putting more effort into my activities because I needed to be a good example to my team. As a Sales Manager, I feel I need to lead by example. Well, my HMC - Home Mortgage Consultant thought it was funny and decided to make fun of me. He was quite creative and he brought me back to reality. Here's his post: http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/5446481

I've embedded the video to see if I could do it and I'm posting it because I think it's hilarious! Enjoy!