All Posts Tagged With: "VA"
Military Borrowers Squeezed Out of Distressed Markets
Purchasing a home in a distressed real estate market can present some unique challenges for military buyers, not just in hard-hit states like Nevada and California but across the country.
Active duty service members and veterans in some parts of the country are getting pushed out of the foreclosure market, hampered by a combination of cash [...]
Credit & Underwriting Standards Tighten for VA Borrowers
VA loans have weathered the foreclosure crisis better than their major lending counterparts. But they certainly haven’t been immune to the overall tightening that’s taken hold of the industry.
The result is that these highly flexible and forgiving loans aren’t quite as forgiving as they once were.
Tighter Underwriting
More restrictive credit and underwriting standards have no doubt [...]
How The VA Funding Fee Really Works
VA loans are built to minimize the financial impact on military members who qualify for the program. Credit and income requirements are generally more lenient than conventional loans and sellers are allowed to pay a sizable portion of closing costs and concessions. On top of that, the Veterans Administrations caps what veterans can pay in [...]
29Jun2010 | Chris Birk | 0 comments | Continued
Veterans, VA Loans Weather Wave of Foreclosures
Foreclosure filings dipped slightly in May as the nation’s lenders continued to slog through almost two years’ worth of distressed properties, according to online foreclosure hub RealtyTrac.
Ten states accounted for more than 70 percent of the 322,920 filings last month. California alone accounted for more than 22 percent of that total. In all, foreclosure filings nationwide [...]
Should We Tax Our Vets?
The IRS has created an excellent Web page — Tax Information for Members of the U.S. Armed Forces — which explains tax issues for those now on active duty. There are a huge number of rules, most of which greatly benefit those now fighting overseas.
But when you look at the forms, deductions, exceptions, alternatives, [...]
First-Time Home Buyer Credit Still On For Vets
While the tax credit for first-time home buyers and sellers largely ended in April, the credit actually continues for active-duty military personnel until April 30, 2011, something that could be important for VA loan borrowers and veteran sellers.
The $8,000 tax credit (along with its $6,500 companion credit for existing homeowners) spurred an uptick in sales [...]
What’s a Hard Money Mortgage?
When we think of mortgages we usually think of long-term financing insured by the FHA, VA or with private mortgage insurance. If we have enough cash for a down payment of at least 20 percent then we don’t need mortgage insurance and can just get a conventional loan.
However, there are situations where owners run [...]
What’s A Foreclosure Purchase Mortgage?
In the world of real estate and foreclosures there’s a financial creature called a “purchase money mortgage.” This is the financing used to acquire a home rather than money to refinance the property or add improvements.
At first it might seem that a purchase money mortgage was the same as any other financing but that’s not [...]
Google Mortgage Ads — Do They Reduce Borrower Costs?
Several months ago Google began offering a new service for advertisers, an ability to post comparison ads. You can see this today with mortgages — just go to:
Conventional Mortgages
FHA Mortgages
Jumbo Mortgages
VA Mortgages
Go to any of these links and you’ll see that Google generates a search for the type of mortgage you want and that at [...]
How Can We Slash Mortgage Insurance Costs?
Private mortgage insurance companies are the private-sector equivalent of the VA and FHA. Such insurance allows individuals to borrow with little down — but only if they pay a premium for such coverage.
How It Works
Some important points about private mortgage insurance (MI) include:
MI companies are state regulated, not federally regulated. State regulation is very [...]
26Apr2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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