Logan Utah Mortgages and Real Estate: December 2009

I closed a loan this week that made me love my job as a loan officer even more and I thought I should write a blog post about it. 

 For the past year the Jones family (names changed for obvious reasons) didn't think they could get a mortgage to consolidate some medical bills that they had because they had heard about how hard it was to obtain financing (Thank you media...not!) with their credit score which was below 700.

The Jones were living paycheck to paycheck and dipping into their savings each month because of these other debts. Mr. Jones was stressed and Mrs. Jones was working more hours at work to make ends meat. These added stressed were making life much more difficult. They would have loved to do something but they were so convinced that they couldn't obtain financing that they didn't even try to talk to a loan officer.

About a month ago, a good friend of the Jones family convinced them to give me a call to see if there was anything that I could do. When I first met with them the way that the Jones were talking about their credit and their debts and situation, at first I didn't think there was anyway that I could help them. But after completing the loan application and pulling their credit, it turned out that I could get them qualified for an FHA loan.

The Jones were accurate in thinking that they could not get conventional financing but they didn't consider an FHA loan. An FHA loan is a government backed program that has more lenient guidelines and still allows people to get financing with great interest rates.

To keep a long story shorter, after about 25 days from our initial meeting, the Jones were able to pay off their old mortgage, a high-interest second mortgage, 2 credit card bills, some medical bills, and lower their monthly payments by over $600 with a single FHA mortgage at 5%.

The Jones were so happy and Mr. Jones told me that he felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Because of the refinance, they were going to be able to start adding to their savings account again.

I love helping people like the Jones family. I think that mortgage brokers and loan officers have taken a beating in the media as of late but they don't often report about these kind of stories. When I can help someone like the Jones family, it makes me proud to be a loan officer.

Mortgage Rates for the Logan Utah Real Estate market as of 12/10/2009

Conventional
-30 year fixed 4.875% (APR 4.987%)
-15 year fixed 4.25% (APR 4.366%)
-7/1 ARM 4.25% (APR 4.177%)
-5/1 ARM 3.625% (APR 3.554%)

FHA
30 year fixed 5.0% (APR 5.566%)
15 year fixed 4.5% (5.143%)

USDA Rural Housing
30 year fixed 5.0% (APR 5.620%)

If you have any questions about these rates, please contact John Neil at 435-770-2709.Mort

Interest rates for Logan, Utah are up a little bit today..

Conventional Loans:

-30 year fixed 4.75% (APR 4.874%)
-15 year fixed 4.25% (APR 4.355%)
-7/1 ARM 4.125% (APR 4.0%)
-5/1 ARM 3.625% (APR 3.544%)

FHA Loans:

-30 year fixed 4.875% (APR 5.344%)
-15 year fixed 4.5% (APR 4.992%)

USDA Rural Housing:

30 year fixed 5.0% (APR 5.433%)

Questions: 435-770-2709

The profession of loan officer has been beaten up pretty badly in the media as of late. We were blamed for the sub-prime crisis and consequently much of the problems in the financial system. It's obvious now that there was some unscrupulous lending going on. Many of the loan programs that got borrowers into financial trouble are gone and I suppose that many of the dishonest loan officers are gone with those programs.

Even with all the changes there are still some bad loan officers out there. But there are also some good ones. It can be hard to know who is who and whether a loan officer is going to provide great service or not. The following lists should help you know what to look for.

A "good" loan officer should...

     - Be available 24/7
     - Ask a lot of questions about your situation and listen more than talk
     - Present you with multiple options
     - Disclose how much they will make on the transaction
     - Provide you with a good faith estimate and a guarantee that it will not change at closing
     - Explain the option of locking or floating the interest rate
   
    

A "good" loan officer should NOT...

     - Try to predict the future of interest rates because nobody knows!
     - Set unrealistic expectations for closing dates and times
     - Collect a check for the appraisal until the borrower has had 3 days to review the initial disclosures
    

These are just a few things to look out for when you are meeting with a loan officer. I like to think of myself as one of the good ones that is trying to give the profession some dignity again. I think that the changes that are occuring in the industry are a good first step to helping establish the consumers trust in the mortage industry again.

If you can think of any other things that a good loan officer should or should not do, I would love to see your comments on this.