My New Blog

Despite the media hype, the sky isn’t falling. People are still buying and selling homes; however, times have changed, and your clients need your professional guidance more than ever. At Land Mortgage, we have been fortunate to navigate the rough waters of the past few weeks well. We reacted quickly to the market when the landscape changed, and we’re asking you to help yourselves and us by creating proper expectations with your clients.

Documentation & Money down – With current market conditions everyone involved in a real estate transaction must understand that borrowers will most likely have to provide more documentation than has been the norm for the past few years. Also, prepare your borrowers; they most likely will have to bring money to the deal which hasn’t necessarily been the norm either.

Jumbo Loans (Non-conforming) – A Jumbo is defined as a loan where the loan value is greater than $417,000, not the property but the loan. If you have a house valued at $520,000 and the borrower requires financing in order to purchase, it could work. If your property values exceed $520,000, financing options may become more expensive.

Conventional/Conforming Loans – Large agency lenders (Countrywide, Wells Fargo, Citi, etc…) do not currently have an appetite for lending “out of the box,” which means they are averse to lending out of the conventional market, anything above a loan value of $417,000. We are witnessing a return to the tried and true: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA. Why is conventional not suffering? Because the only groups buying loans in the bond market are the aforementioned government-chartered entities.