Bob Ware

IF YOU DO BUSINESS IN FORT BEND COUNTY TEXAS YOU WILL WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THIS:

Fort Bend County Housing Finance Corporation's Down Payment and Closing Cost Grant Program (the "DPA Program") is designed to assist households participating in their Mortgage Credit Certificate Program (the "MCC Program") with down payment and closing costs. There will be approximately $100,000 available on a first-come first-served basis. They will provide $2,000 per household for down payment and closing cost assistance. It must be used in conjunction with the MCC Program.

Program Highlights
A grant of $2,000 per household is available to eligible homebuyers.

Eligible grant uses include down payment and closing cost assistance associated with the

purchase of the home.

Must be used in with the MCC Program offered through the Fort Bend County Housing Finance Corporation.

Eligible Households
Must be utilizing the Fort Bend County Housing Finance Corporation's Mortgage Credit Certificate Program through a participating lender. Therefore, must meet the MCC Program guidelines listed below:
Purchase a home in Fort Bend County, Texas.
Gross income of all individuals executing the Deed of Trust cannot exceed the maximum income limits, for 1-2 persons is $76,560 and for 3 or more persons is $89,320.
The purchase price of the home cannot exceed the maximum sales price, whether the home you buy is new or existing, is $316,177.
Must occupy the property as their primary residence.
Meet standard mortgage underwriting requirements with FHA, VA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or USDA-RHS, as applicable, demonstrating credit worthiness.
In addition to the normal MCC Program fees, pay a DPA Program Processing (the "Fee") of $150.00. May be paid by borrower, seller or lender, as allowable by FHA, VA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and UDSA-RHS

AS ALWAYS I WOULD LOVE TO HELP YOUR TEXAS MORTGAGE CLIENTS, NO MATTER WHAT COUNTY THEY ARE IN

You would be surprised (or maybe not) by the lack of quality control when it comes to the almighty Pre-Approval Letter.

Most all Realtors require their client to come equipped with a Pre-Approval Letter before they will write an offer on a home, this seem on the surface to be a no-brainer, makes sense right? But what is the Pre-Approval actually?

Recently I provided my client (Mr. K) with a pre-approval letter. In order to provide this letter Mr. K provided me with his most recent two months bank statements, and most recent one month's pay stubs for both he and his wife. I also pulled a tri-merged credit report, and reviewed all of his documentation for accuracy. In turn I found these borrowers to be very well qualified, and was pleased to provide them the letter they were looking for conditional upon them selling their present residence.

Mr. and Mrs. K found a wonderful home, and were very excited to make an offer, and the best part in the meantime they found a buyer for their existing home, complete with a Pre-Approval Letter from another lender.

Both the sale of their present residence and their new home were to take place on the same day, August the 3rd. We completed our processing, meet all Underwriting conditions, and were clear to close a week early... you know where this is going right...

We are still not closed as we continue to wait for the buyers of Mr. and Mrs. K's home (even though they were "Pre-Approved") are not ready to close.

The other lender said the reason was that the Underwriters did not like the fact that the borrower had NSF's (Non-Sufficient Funds) transactions showing on their bank statements... duh! But weren't these banking statement need to be reviewed before they issued a Pre-Approval letter? Guess not with this lender.

Now we have a domino effect, at least two houses waiting to close (maybe more), I can think of three commission besides my own that haven't been paid, and allot of daily anxiety for Mr. and Mrs. K.

The moral to the story is; if as a Realtor you are going to emphasize the need for a Pre-Approval Letter, know the source, and if it takes an additional day to get it from the lender, it's not that they are lazy, or trying to be difficult, most likely they are making sure that the letter they provide is a real Approval, not a worthless piece of paper given to appease the clients request. There is no governing body that oversees the quality control of letters provided, and no real recourse if the transaction falls apart due to lenders incompetence. I can only stress if you are going to trust your source, you'd better know your source.

I ran across this information today, and thought you may be interested.

http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2009/05/27/what-happened-to-the-fha-plan-to-monetize-the-homebuyer-tax-credit/

Interestingly today represents a significant change in the real estate market, and will most likely effect every homeowner, but yet I've not seen anything about it in the news outside of the industry... why?

It's hard to understand that something this big is being roll in under the cover of the night, but it is.

Home Value The HVCC requirements have established a uniform set of appraisal guidelines to govern all loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (i.e., all conventional loans). The Code does not apply to FHA, VA, or USDA loans.

All appraisals will be ordered by the Lender via their approved Appraisal Management Companies (AMC's) and will be prepared in the name of the Lender

• Borrowers are required to provide credit card information during the application process and appraisal fee will be charged to the Borrower
• Brokers and Loan Officers are NOT permitted to pay for the appraisal
• Brokers and Loan Officers are NOT permitted to have any contact with the appraisers (all communications are facilitated through the Lender or AMC)

Many people are predicting that property values will continue to go down due to inexperienced appraisers. The more expereinced appraisers will do the same work but for half the price. It will be interesting how this plays out with the real estate industry.

We need to make some noise, so that the average Joe Homeowner is aware, and begins to ask questions.

Untill it's Main Street news, we can not expect to see our elected officials investigate just who benefits from the new change.