Darren Stewart

Being from Springfield Missouri, Branson has always held a special place full of memories of family outings to the major theme parks in the area, the lakes, and special times with our family members. My children now enjoy the magic of Branson Missouri, and we continue to create memories each time we visit, we live in Ozark, Mo just a few minutes from Branson. There have been some changes over the years and there are many exciting things happening today in Branson. The completion of the Branson Landing and the new airport scheduled to open May of '09 will bring even more families to Branson to enjoy all it has to offer.

Many folks over the years that have visited Branson, Mo have chose to come back to live or retire or simply purchase a 2nd home at the lake to allow them to make even more memories together with family.

Today is a great time to purchase a home in the Branson, Missouri market BEFORE next seasons big boom of travel and the opening of the airport in Branson. My belief is that demand for housing will increase in that area upon completion of the airport and prices of homes are great RIGHT NOW!

Even more exciting is that there are options to finance homes now in Taney and Stone County that may not be available if you wait until after 2009! The reason for this is that Missouri Housing Development Commssion has removed the requirement to be a first time home buyer in order to receive Bond Money until the end of 09 as part of the economic stimulus package in the area. The income limits and purchase price limits are also increased until the end of 2009 and these will be returning to previous levels at the end of 2009. This option would give you the down payment you need for your home purchase without that having to be paid back.

100% options are available in Branson, MO and Stone and Taney County, one of the best options available today on the market is the USDA Rural Development loan program, under this program your able to finance 100% of the loan purchase at a FIXED RATE FOR 30 years and no prepayment penalty! This program is excellent and allows for you to finance you purchase while not draining your savings or retirement for a down payment.

VA Loans - Branson Missouri will be opening up a VA clinic and that means even more veterans will be looking to relocate to Branson Missouri to live close and receive their medical benefits. The VA loan is the perfect option for you with 100% financing available through VA financing again at a fixed rate for 30 years with no prepayment penalties.

Even the IRS is offering an incentive this year to buy your first home by providing an option to obtain an interest free loan from them at tax time after you have bought your house. This could mean 7500 that you could use to pay down other debt your paying interest and transfer that to a loan that has 0% interest and is paid back in annual payments due when you file your taxes for the next 15 years.

FHA financing is also available that allows someone to get in a home with as little as 3% even with credit scores that may be below 620.

Options, Options Options, there are options available to finance a home in Branson Missouri, there are homes on the market in the area, if you are thinking about purchasing or refinancing or if you have any questions regarding the many options that are available to you please feel free to give me a call to discuss, and put together a plan for your home purchase, your 2nd home purchase, the place you will retire to or vacation at.

Darren Stewart

OakStar Bank

417 447 7927

I wanted to make sure that our business partners in Taney and Stone County were aware of the fact that bond money is availalbe to anyone who is looking to buy a home and they DO NOT need to be a first time home buyer from now until the end of 2009.

Missouri Housing Development Commission is waving the first time home buyer requirement until the end of 2009, and the income limits and purchase price limits have been raised until the end of 2009. This makes down payment assistance available to your home buyers and can be a crucial piece when financing your the purchase of a new home.

If you have talked with a client and their major barrier to homeownership has been lack of down payment please contact me for a solution to this issue for your clients - the bond program is a great way to provide funds to the borrower from the State of Missouri, as long as the borrower lives in the home.

My past blogs have gone into specific details on how the MHDC bond money program works, for more information please feel free to contact me at 417 447 7927.

Darren Stewart

OakStar Bank

417 447 7927

OakStar Bank has officially joined the Tri-Lakes Board of Realtors, we look forward to providing our home lending services to Stone and Taney County.

I used to manage one of the banks in Forsyth and it was really great to get reacquainted with some of you this month, if you ever have clients who need our services or would like to speak with me on weekends or evenings we are available to our clients on weekends and after business hours.

We offer conventional, FHA, VA, USDA and MHDC Bond Money programs, we still have programs for investment properties as well and would love the opportunity to assist you or your clients in the purchase of a home.

We look forward to getting to know more of you as we focus on delivering the services of a locally owned bank to you!

Darren Stewart

OakStar Bank

417 447 7927

Anyone who has felt the feeling of vertigo following a wild roller coaster ride can relate to the month of October if you are in the real estate business and tracking interest rates, we have seen them up and down so much in such a short amount of time as different economic data tested the markets and caused reactions.

Regardless of the up and down in the market the time to buy IS NOW - prices are great on homes in the Springfield market. Thank you to all of our business partners who attended our Community Connection and thank you to the Springfield HBA who updated and informed our valued business partners.

We will be holding another Community Connection in January - more to come on when and who will be speaking in future blogs so watch for that.

The mortgage market is constantly changing and we have established relationships with many investors to provide our clients with maximum flexibiility and a menu of mortgage loans that can meet our clients positions. We offer Conventional, FHA, VA USDA Rural Development, MHDC Bond Money loans.

For more information on your situation or a client that would like to get prequalified there are multiple ways to contact us and apply for a loan:

1) Phone- application- 417 447 7927 this number rolls to my cell even on weekends or if your clients are at your open house and we can take the information immediately.

2) Online at www.oakstarbank.com - bottom right hand corner apply online- the drop down menu allows you to select your OakStar Bank loan officer and when you click submit it calls our cell phone to let us know you applied.

3) in person by appointment at 1020 E Battlefield or we can come to you.

The color this past month has been spectacular, OakStar Bank joined the TriLakes Board of Realtors and we have had the pleasure of being able to enjoy the scenery on our way to appointments in the Branson area.

We look forward to serving you in November.

Darren Stewart

OakStar Bank

I wanted to thank each of my business partners for a great month in September, I also wanted to thank my new business partners in the St. Louis and Kansas City area that I got to work with this past month. We are able to loan anywhere in the state and this month we closed a purchase in the Lee's Summitt Mo area and the Troy Missouri area.

Southwest Missouri continues to be a strong real estate market with many homes on the market and many buying opportunities to move up, downsize, purchase rental etc.

The announcment that until year end 2009 MHDC will be waving the requirement for bond money to be for first time home buyers only has spurred interest and provided opportunity to those that are seeking loan programs but are still in need of down payment assistance.

I have previously blogged about MHDC Bond program, and the Rural Development program.

Thanks again for all your referrals and business this much I look forward to assisting you in October.

Darren Stewart

OakStar Bank