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More on purchasing a home without a down payment

Published by Joanne on September 29, 2005 in Featured Articles and Financing. 2 Comments

Contributed by:
Joanne Rocheford, Mortgage Loan Consultant
PH: (206) 242-0800 FAX: (206) 225-2017
Rocheford@msn.com

 

Editors’ Note: This is guest contributor Joanne Rocheford’s second article for Seattle Real Estate Talk.

Interest rates are rising….

In my previous article, I wrote about three ways to purchase a home with no down payment. The second type of financing I described was the 80/20 loan. A buyer obtains a first and second mortgage at the time of purchase to cover the full price of the home. The advantage of this type of loan is one doesn’t have to pay mortgage insurance. This has been an extremely popular way to finance homes this year.

What I didn’t explain previously is that conforming lenders require a 680 credit score to qualify for this type of financing. If you have a score lower than 680, most banks cannot offer you an 80/20 loan. There are however non conforming lenders (translated: higher interest rates, higher loan origination fees) also known as sub prime lenders that will offer you a two year fixed first mortgage followed by a thirty year fixed second mortgage that has a balloon payment due in 15 years. This was still a popular option because the rates have been similar to conforming loans for a two year fixed loan as opposed to a conforming thirty year fixed.

It made sense to go with this type of loan because having a mortgage caused the credit score to go up and one could refinance after two years to a conforming thirty year fixed loan. After two years had gone by, the Pacific Northwest homes would have appreciated enough to completely refinance the second mortgage away.

In the past few months, if you didn’t have perfect credit, you could still get a 6% or less interest rate on the first mortgage and 8 -10% on the second mortgage. I swear I barely blinked and now we’re back into the 8% and 12% arena that I saw three years ago.

With sub prime interest rates having risen dramatically, the popularity of the FHA loan is back. Even with mortgage insurance, the payment on an FHA loan is now more often lower than a non-conforming 80/20 loan. Closing costs on an FHA loan are usually over $1000 less than an 80/20 as well. If you have terrific credit, pat yourself on the back and have your lender compare both payments to see which loan option makes the most sense for you.

The Secrets of Borrowing from Uncle Sam

An FHA loan is a government loan. FHA loans are not credit score driven but look at your payment history. An FHA loan requires 3% down. However, listen closely because people pay lots of money to learn the following secrets: there is a loophole in the FHA underwriting guidelines that allows gift money to be given to you to cover the 3% down payment, your loan closing costs, and your prepaid items (first six month’s property taxes and first year homeowner’s insurance.) This gift money can be from a relative or from a non-profit company. There are several non-profit companies that offer gift money for purchasing a home. Alas, there is always a catch. It isn’t just “free” money like it sounds, or that the infomercial gurus would have you believe.

Back in the day when sellers were having a harder time selling their home and it was a buyer’s market, a buyer could offer a seller full price to purchase their home and ask the seller to participate in a gift program. The seller would oblige in order to sell their home. Today, we have to get a little creative.

Here’s How It Works:

Seller is asking $210,000 for their home. Buyer offers $221,000 and asks the seller to make a tax deductible contribution to a non-profit charity in the amount of $11,000. The non-profit charges an administrative fee of $295 to $795 for their services. The non-profit gives the buyer a gift for $11,000 that doesn’t have to be paid back. The non-profit asks the seller to “replenish the down payment assistance pool.”

One client from two years ago was afraid to purchase a home. His real estate agent and I showed him how we could get him in a home with him paying only $400 out of pocket for his inspection. He purchased a $150,000 house in South Seattle. We marked up the price as described above. His home is now worth $230,000 just a couple of years later. Needless to say, he is very happy we encouraged him to step a little bit out of his comfort zone.

I can tell many a tale like this one.

So there you have it. One more way to purchase a home without any money down. With interest rates continuing to inch up and house pricing continuing to leap on up, what are you waiting for?

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Title Insurance: The Cod Liver Oil of Real Estate

Published by Louise on July 20, 2005 in Featured Articles and Insurance. Closed

Many buyers and sellers know little or nothing about title insurance. This is hardly surprising, because the subject is fairly esoteric and can be confusing (not to mention boring) to most people. However, title insurance is a critical part of a real estate transaction, and it’s worth taking just a few minutes to become familiar with the concept.

Title insurance defies easy definition, but try this rough analogy on for size: Let’s say you wanted to purchase some health insurance. Let’s imagine that you go to an insurance company that doesn’t cover any pre-existing conditions. That company would look through your medical history, run tests, talk to your doctor, interview your previous doctors… all in an attempt to find out as much as possible about your medical history. Lucky you, all they can find is that you have a bum ankle and some premature gray around the temples. Okay, says the insurance company, you’re healthy as an ox. We’re so confident in our skill at finding out any pre-existing conditions that might threaten your health that we’ll insure you against any health problems you have that we don’t know about - your heart, your liver, hangnails, whatever. The only thing we won’t insure you for is any condition which results from your bum ankle or your gray hair.

Title insurance is kind of like that. Our fantasy health insurance company searches the record of your health; a title company searches the title (or record of ownership) of your house. They agree to provide coverage for problems with the title, like a lien or encroachment, that you don’t know about now, but were caused prior to you buying the property. They will not generally insure you for any problems or defects they do discover at the time they do the title search.

Why is this so important? Because any defects on the title that can’t be resolved can delay or imperil the sale of the property. And any defects which are not uncovered become the responsibility of the buyer of the property. So unlike most types of insurance, which cover you against things that may happen in the future, title insurance covers you against things that happened in the past.

I’ve tried to describe title insurance here in manageable terms, but the ins and outs of title can get pretty convoluted. The Wikipedia has a fairly good technical definition of title insurance. I’ll quote a couple of paragraphs here:

A policy of title insurance is a contract of indemnity between the insurance company and the owner of an interest in real property. In plain English, this means that in the event that the insured owner of an interest in the insured property suffers an actual or threatened monetary loss, due to a title defect, lien or other matter of public record created prior to the effective date of the policy, that is not excluded as an exception to the policy, the title insurer will defend the insured against a lawsuit attacking the title, or reimburse the insured for the actual monetary loss incurred, up to the dollar amount of insurance provided by the policy. Typically the real property interests insured are fee simple ownership or a mortgage. However, title insurance can be purchased to insure any interest in real property, including an easement, lease or life estate.

Title insurance differs in several respects from other types of insurance. Where most insurance is the contractual “coverage” where one party indemnifies or guarantees another party against a possible specific type of loss (such as an accident or death) at a future date, title insurance attempts to detect, prevent, and eliminate risks and losses caused by title problems which have their source in past events. Title companies attempt to achieve this by searching public records to develop and document the chain of title and to detect whether there are any adverse claims on the subject property. Any issues found are either fixed before issuing the title policy or the coverage is specifically written to exclude those items. Title insurers typically pay a very low percentage of their premium revenue out in claims in a given year; industry averages are 5 to 10%.

Commonwealth Title has a web page that explains the title insurance process and who pays for what.

RealEstateLawyers.com – a fantastic resource – has still more about title insurance.

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The secret is out: You can buy a home with very little down

Published by Joanne on July 10, 2005 in Featured Articles and Financing. 2 Comments
Contributed by:
Joanne Rocheford
Mortgage Loan Consultant
PH: (206) 242-0800 FAX: (206) 225-2017
Rocheford@msn.com

 

Editors’ Note: Seattle Real Estate Talk is pleased to welcome guest contributor, Joanne Rocheford.

I recently spoke to a senior citizen who shook her head and lamented, “The poor young people today. I don’t know how they’ll ever to be able to afford to buy a home.” I understand why she feels that way. Coming up with a 20% down payment and thousands in closing costs is a daunting proposition for most folks. With the median house price in Seattle hovering around $350,000, few buyers would be able to afford to buy a home if they had to meet those terms.

The good news is that there are ways to buy a house with no down payment these days. And there are ways to reduce your out-of-pocket expenses for purchasing a house – your closing costs – to almost nothing. Would-be homeowners watching late night TV infomercials pay thousands of dollars for audio tapes and CDs that claim to have the “secrets” for buying a home with no down payment. But you, lucky reader, can put your wallet away and go to sleep early tonight, because the secret is out.

Getting your down payment down

There are three ways to get 100% financing, or no-down-payment loans. The first way is to get a 100% loan. This means that if you buy a house for $250,000, you obtain a loan for $250,000, or 100% of the value of the home. In this instance, because you are putting less than 20% down, the lender will typically require you to purchase mortgage insurance, which protects the lender should you default on the loan. On these types of loans, the mortgage insurance can run around $200 per month.

The second way is to obtain a first and second mortgage at the same time. On that same $250,000 house, you would take out a first mortgage loan for $200,000 and a second mortgage loan for $50,000. This in known in the mortgage industry as an 80/20 loan. The interest rate on the second mortgage is a higher interest rate, but you don’t have to pay mortgage insurance with this option. Closing costs are higher on an 80/20 loan because you are actually getting two loans. Most lenders require a credit score of at least 680 to qualify for this type of financing.

The third option is an FHA loan. Although an FHA loan requires 3% down, FHA allows you to use gift money for the down payment. If you don’t have a wealthy great aunt Gertie, you can ask the seller to participate in a gifting program. (I’ll talk more about this in future articles.)

Lowering your closing costs

Now you’ve got 100% financing available to you. What about closing costs? Well, lenders require you to obtain an appraisal, to get title insurance, to use an escrow company, and so on… and they expect you to pay for all this! You can also plan to pay your first six months of property taxes and first fifteen months of homeowner’s insurance. These are known as your “prepaids,” but are often quoted as closing costs.

The easiest way to get your closing costs and prepaids taken care of without breaking your piggy bank open is to ask the seller to pay them. In today’s market if you ask a seller to pay your closing costs, he’ll say no; so here’s what you can do: If a seller is asking $250,000 for his house, you might offer him $256,000 and ask him to pay $6,000 of your closing costs. In essence, you just gave him $6,000 and asked him to give it back to you. Now you have the full amount of the price of the house in financing and all of your closing costs are being paid as well.

So it’s just that simple? Well, almost. When you find a home to call your own, you will write up a purchase and sale agreement offering to buy the property. At this time, you will need to write a check for earnest money to show you are serious about purchasing the home. You will want to have a home inspection done to make sure the house isn’t going to fall in immediately after you purchase it. Most lenders will ask for a deposit of $500 and up to get started.

Now, here’s the beauty of it all: Most lenders will allow you to get cash back at closing up to the amount you put in. In other words, we’ll give you back your earnest money and deposit on the day you close. [This policy varies by lender. Be sure to check with your loan officer or mortgage broker. -Ed.]

Here’s a real live example of a transaction I put together recently. The house was listed for $200,000. The buyer offered $207,000 and asked the seller to pay $7000 of her closing costs. The buyer wrote a check for $500 for earnest money, she paid $400 for a home inspection, and she paid me a $600 deposit. Thirty days later she got $1100 back at the closing table. How much did it cost her for closing? Just $400 for the inspection and the lender doesn’t even require it. (Although we ”definitely” recommend it.) You can see that she had to come up with some up-front costs, but but she got it all back.

Can you afford $400 to buy a home?