Juan Boldizsar

Did you know that there are quite a few apparently "suburban" areas that are still eligible for USDA Rural Development loans? I was digging around on the USDA web site the other day and, out of curiosity, entered a couple of local addresses. Much to my surprise, I discovered that quite a bit of the area which looks pretty suburban is actually classified as "rural" according to the USDA. Starting just a little east of Hartman Road, from 64 south to E B Street and heading east, there's a fairly big patch of subdivisions (like High Valley Lake Estates and the Greystone Estates, for instance) that fall within the USDA's eligibility map for the rural housing mortgage program.

So what? You ask..... Well, what it means for people in and around Shiloh and Scott AFB is that VA loans aren't the only 100% financing option anymore. That's right, with a Rural Housing mortgage, you can finance the entire purchase price of your new home and you don't need to be a veteran to do it, as long as the home falls within an eligible area. You don't need a down payment, the program requires no mortgage insurance and all that's needed is a 620 representative credit score. On top of that, both seller concessions (generally up to 6% of the purchase price) and gifts are permitted under the program.

To find out if the property you're interested in falls within an eligible area, you can visit the USDA's eligibility finder by clicking here.

At Pan American Mortgage, we offer the USDA Rural Housing Mortgage and can pre-qualify you within a matter of hours. To get YOUR prequalification today, visit my website and apply now!

If you've been thinking about getting a great deal on a house, consider the Fannie Mae HomePath program. Currently, Fannie Mae has about 40 houses listed for sale in St. Clair County, including homes in Belleville, Caseyville, O'Fallon and Fairview that are eligible for this special financing. Since Fannie Mae owns the homes and since they're the ones providing the money to make the loans, they're making it really easy. You can buy one of these homes with as little as 3% down (or 10% for investors)! Seller contributions for closing costs are OK and to make the deal even sweeter, NO APPRAISAL IS REQUIRED. On top of that, the loan doesn't even require mortgage insurance.

To find a home that is eligible for HomePath financing, visit the HomePath website by clicking here. To be pre-qualified for a HomePath mortgage visit my homepage and apply now!

I just came across a blog post in which the writer did not much like the fact that lenders who both originate and service loans insist on having a potential buyer pre-approved by the lender-servicer's lending side. The blogger's complaint was regarding Countrywide -- a company that I, personally, don't care much for. However, I defended the practice in principle.

The jist of my argument is that there are enough pre-approvals out there that might as well be written in crayon on craft paper and bottom-fishers looking for a "free option" that a servicer is perfectly justified in asking that its origination arm pre-approve the buyer. Most pre-approvals are just fine, don't get me wrong. However, the junk that's still out there never ceases to amaze me. It's a shame that it requires certain safeguards to weed it out, making life more difficult for the people who do quality work.

While I worked on the broker side of the business (where I am now, by the way), I sure didn't like the practice. Later though, I had the opportunity to work for a large originator/servicer where part of my job included doing those pre-approvals. Let's just say that I encountered more than my fair share of buyers who complained about me having to pre-approve them whose original "pre-approval" later "fell through." If we hadn't insisted on pre-approving them our REO department and listing broker would have ended up wasting 30 to 45 days for nothing. After my experience working with that company (American Home Mortgage if anyone's interested), I definitely can appreciate why they insisted on those pre-approvals.

The original blog entry and my comments can be found here.

In any event, since the original blog entry was not posted to this group, I thought I'd ask all of you who work with REO's what you think: Is it a legitimate business practice for a servicer to ask that its origination side pre-approve prospective buyers of its REO's or is it just a sinister pretext for steering business for the origination channel?

Thanks for reading!