Bare with me on the first part of my explanation

                One seemingly complicated aspect about financing a property is the HUD form that discloses the fees involved with the transaction; there can be a lot of fees. There are necessary fees such as title company fees and generally an underwriting fee; then there are the fees collected on your behalf this would include the monies collected to reestablish your escrow account. More often than not the lender will require that you have an escrow account (there are some exceptions) these monies are collected and held in an escrow account to pay your annual insurance bill and your property taxes which in Colorado is  generally paid out twice a year, ½ on February 28^th and the other ½ on June 15^th. The timing on this can make a big difference in the amount that needs to be collected. For the taxes the closer you are to the date the taxes are due the more they are going to collect at closing to make sure there is enough to pay them when they are due. The amount needed for the escrow of your insurance depends on the anniversary date when your annual payment for your insurance is due. Also collected at closing on your behalf is the interest from the day you close tell the end of the month, so if you close at the beginning of the month they are going to need to collect more than if you close toward the end of the month (*if you are paying off an FHA loan it’s best to close at the end of the month).  NOW , for the other fees. OK now there is the appraisal fee, this is a necessary fee that due to the new mortgage industry rules needs to be collected and paid for upfront to an Appraisal Management Company or AMC this fee is around $370.00 unless you have a Jumbo or unusual property. We’ll have another Blog addressing this new rule the HVCC; Home Valuation Code of Conduct (it’s really not good). The remaining in my case FEE is my origination fee, this is what I make. For most other lenders it’s FEE’S there can be origination fee, credit report fee, processing fee, admin fee and in some cases even more fees. MY philosophy and the way I do business is my origination fee includes the credit report (**usually $25.00) I process my own loans so I don’t charge a fee for that.  The admin fee and those other fees are to collect more money from you with a different label, and I don’t operate like that. Now when you see other lenders offer free appraisals or some kind of closing rebate or discount, we all know that the appraisal gets paid for somewhere in the process and usually what they do is credit you at closing to make sure it’s paid for in case for some reason it doesn’t close. Nothings free it all gets accounted for one way or another. They way I prefer to do business is to quote the lowest fees from the beginning. The only fee collected before closing is the appraisal fee and that’s paid to the AMC not to me (because of the new rule it’s the new protocol). I do not undercut my fellow mortgage brokers to steal business. I prefer to take the professional high road on this one. There are good hard working brokers that provide a good service with reasonable fees; even though I rarely get beat on fees if I’m given the opportunity to give a second opinion I well be honest and upfront with you. Sometimes it’s not worth switching for a hundred bucks. Now don’t get me wrong competition is good and that’s why I always give my best quote and do not need to go back and change fees in order to compete for your business. I don’t want to get to long winded here so I’ll continue this on the next blog. Have a Happy Halloween.

For more information CLICK HERE to visit my website.

      I’ll provide topics that are related to the financing of Real Estate. With all the changes that have taken place in the mortgage industry it’s been difficult to keep up for most people who don’t monitor the events virtually on a daily basis. I’ll point out the changes that affect your ability to refinance your property or to purchase property. I welcome you to ask me questions that concern your specific situation. I’ll also work on keeping you in the loop on changes that are going to affect us in the future as they become known. I have over 18 years experience in the mortgage industry. I’m located in Commerce City Colorado on the north east edge of Denver Colorado. Capital Advantage LLC. is a small boutique style mortgage company with my priority on maintaining the highest standard of customer service combined with obtaining the lowest rates the market has to offer. I’m not in this business to have an office full of loan originators and not be able to provide the personal service I feel you deserve. By remaining a small independent mortgage broker I can also maintain the lowest fees in the industry. Be wary of lenders that offer free appraisals, as we all know they aren’t free and get paid for somewhere in the fees or by back end fees which require an increase in the interest rate. I provide an honest upfront method of doing business, my goal is your total satisfaction and to earn the highest compliment of a referral from you. I look forward to hearing your comments and questions. If you would like more information about me please Visit my website: Click Here

Refinance Philosophy for those with ARM loans

In today’s chase for the best rate, for those who have a *conforming Adjustable Rate Mortgage or to be more specific a loan owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac the chances are your ARMs interest rate has been going down and is lower than today’s fixed interest rate loans. If you want to get out of the uncertainty of an ARM and want a fixed rate loan have you a decision to make. More than likely to make the move to a fixed rate loan your rate is more than likely going to be higher and therefore your payment is going to go up. Now the challenging aspect is going to be timing. You want to take advantage of your lower rate as long as possible yet when you make the move to a fixed rate loan you want to lock in at the lowest rate you can. Timing the market is always a tough call and trying to guess when the 30 year fixed rates are going to reach their lows is even more difficult given the challenges in the markets today. Unless there is another sizable drop in the market we might have seen the all time lows and rates are starting the trend back up. Now could be the time to start watching the rates to try to catch them on a dip and get locked in, in the upper 4%’s to low 5% range, at this time 4.75% or lower doesn’t appear to be in the stars; unless you buy the rate down (not usually money well spent unless paid by some else). So what I recommend is that we start crunching the numbers now to determine a strategy and to be at the ready when rates get to your sweet spot. To sign up for my rate quote click here.

* Non conforming loans such as subprime loans or portfolio loans (some institutions keep their loans) are probably seeing their rates go up and are not eligible for loan programs created by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.