I just don’t know if they can. Rates as low as 4% for a 30 year fixed loan are virtually unprecedented in our life time. If you are waiting for rates to go lower I just don’t think they are going to. I reveiwed the history of the ten year bond recently and over the last 60 years there has been only one other time the yeilds have been this low and that was during the economic freefall we experienced in 2008. If you look at the average values of real estate in 2006 coupled with the 2 percent higher interest rates and look at the demand then, one can only assume we are at the bottom looking up. Call me with questions or concerns. Happy to help all of Sonoma County home owners. “Hunt for your loan”.

Are you a Sonoma County home owner wishing you could take advantage of the low rates but think that you cant because your house has depreciated below 80% LTV or that your self emplyed income is too low. Well you are in luck. The gov’t has come out with a new loan program allowing owner occupied borrowers the abitly to do a rate and term Refi with a stated income and stated assets up to 95% loan to value with no mortgage insurance requirement. You will need to have a decent credit rating but this is just the answer for many home owners in Sonoma County. Single family Non owner occuppied loans are also availbe to 90% loant to value. Give me a call at 707-431-9715 or shoot me an email at hunt.conrad@prospectmtg.com.

I am an expereinced mortgage lender you can trust.

Yesterday the Fed announced they were keeping overnight rates untouched for an extended period and would be purchasing longer term bonds due to a slowing economic recovery. Bond markets continue yesterday’s rally after the Fed announcement, and reach historic levels this morning. The second auction of the week, a $24 billion offering of 10 year notes, will have results at 1:00 pm EST. Currently mortgages are roughly 0.25 better in price than yesterday’s afternoon price change.

If you are thinking about or are in the process of refinacing your Sonoma County home and you need to ask the current holder of the second deed of trust for a Subrodination agreement, then be forewarned that as of June 31st, they will force you to lower your line amount to a 75% CLTV (combined loan to value). What that will force you to do is to consider the effects of a lowered line amount or may force to pay down the balance of the existing HELOC to the 75% level. Or what most borrowers will do is simply not be able to take advantage of lowering the rate on their first and not complete the refinance.
What makes matters worse is that you and your lender have put in a lot of time into gathering all the information necesary for the first loan. You have also paid upfront for an apprasial($400 to $600) and the lender of the second has had the audacity to ask you to pay a subordination agreement fee of 200$, which by the way is non refundable even though you may not be doing a subordination. Everyone in the process has gone through considerable effort only to find this out at the very end of the process.

And the worst part of the deal is that the new loan typically lowers your rate, thereby reducing your monthly payments. You might even be consolidating some other debt lowering your overall debt burden. By not allowing you to refinace the holder of the second is actually increasing the likelyhood of default on both the first and the second deed of trust. This just doesn’t make any sense. But what does these days in the lending industry.

April 31st marks the last day you can have a property in contract and still qualify for the first time home buyers tax credit of 8,000$. This great gov’t subsidized tax incentive is responsible for a great many of the transactions that have occured the last 6 months. Don’t wait. Get preapproved today by going to my web site, filling out the information and we will have you ready to make offers in a couple of hours. You are not the only one that has procarastinated and soon the opportunity will be lost.
If you are not a first time home buyer you will recieve a 6500$ tax credit if you buy a house before the deadline. Sonoma County real Estate just isn’t going to get any cheaper and with these phenominal incentives going away, it will just get tougher.
Interest Rates are great right now with APR’s as low as 3.625% for a 5/1 ARM. Give me a call, 707-431-9715 or email me at hunt.conrad@prospectmtg.com right now. Don’t wait. Time is running out!

The Real Estate Mortgage Apprasial process is really tough on everybody these days. The biggest problem is that as a Sonoma county lender I have seen as much as a 30% decline in some area values over the last 2 years. The perceived “mental equity” makes it tough on sellers to come to grips with the reality that, if they want to sell their homes, they are going to have to make a serious concesion to what they think there house is worth because the comps out there will not support what they want. Refinances also are experiencing great scrutiny by lenders because of the declining value.

As a first time home buyer, you are probably looking at homes in the lower price range and because of the strong foreclosure market, there have been a lot of sales and comps for apprasialers to use. But that won’t stop a lender from asking for a second or reveiw apprasial. This appraisal is usually done on a computer by some one not local or familiar with the area of the subject property. Having relationships in the past with appraisers was a great benefit to the borrowers and the entire real estate industry but regulators spurred on by ignorant politicians have imposed a new layer of separation, asking us mortgage lenders to use complete strangers not only to us, but to the area. This has created an apprasial process that is inaccurate in general and disfunctional at best.
There are no real safe guards against a “bad” apprasial but as a Sonoma County Mortgage lender for 20 years I can have a few things I can do that can protect a borrower from an unexpected apprasial value. An internet lender can’t possibly see the problems coming but I can. Give me a call to see how I can make your appraisal and entire mortgage loan process be a smooth and effective one especially in these turbulent times. 707-431-9715. hunt.conrad@prospectmtg.com

Everyone thinks that the most important part of the loan process is getting the lowest rate.  But if I asked you which was more important to you…getting the lowest rate or the lowest cost of money which would you choose?

The reality is no one gets the lowest rate.  Most people get a competitive rate.  The diffrence between the same priced loan at a specific rate between companies might only be .125%.  In other words, the most expensive company might be offering a rate at 5.125 for one point and the lowest might be 5% at one point. 

Now this is with all things being essentially equal and this is where the hard part comes in because no one loan is truly the same.  As lenders, we try to fit everyone in to the same box but everyone is different.  Even if we took the same loan and gave it to two different lenders, they might look at it completely differently.  Why you might ask.  Because beyond the computer overlays, there are still people required to make decisions of interpretation of various guidelines.  and those interpretations could ultimately effect your pricing or rate.

When looking for a rate look for a lender that is going to give you an honest explanation of how rates work.  I have heard advertisements for 30 year rates at 3.5%.  They make it sound like it is fixed for 30 years but they are obviously trying to trick you in to calling.  they are called teaser rates for a reason.

Use some one you trust.  Some that has been around, especially these days has a reputation that has allowed him or her to survive this tumultuous period.  for the most part, all the bad guys are gone.  You are really looking for some one you can relate to.  So don’t shop for “best Mortgage rates” .  Search for someone you want to do business with.  In the long run it will be the best investment you ever make.changes.

So you are either already looking for a house or you are just beginning and a realtor just told you to get Pre qualified.  Great Advice!  Getting pre qualified for a home mortgage before you even set out the door to look at houses makes all the sense in the world.  In today’s ever changing financial climate, getting approved for a mortgage loan can be very time consuming and arduous.  Time and effort that are way better spent up front in the home search process than after you have already found a house you want to make an offer on.

 Pre qualification is nothing more than making sure you can qualify for the mortgage payment and purchase price of the home size you are looking for.  By providing us with a snap shot of your financial picture (filling out a loan application) and providing the supporting documentation for your income and assets we can then determine exactly what a lender is going to be able to approve you for.  also the process is a s great way to gather additional information about the entire real estate transaction process.  All the costs will be gone over.  Locking in a  rate will be discussed.  What kind of loan program is best for you can be determined.

With out going through the pre qualification process you will usually be wasting a lot of every one’s time including yours.  I have provided my Pre qualification web site address below.  Do your self a favor and fill out a loan application.  Once I receive it I will give you a call, fill in any blanks and get started on your Pre Approval.

pre qualify online
707-431-9715

When Sonoma county Mortgage lenders quote rates these days, typically we are refering to a 30 day 30 year fixed conforming rate for 1 point. Well what does all that mean?
The First part is the term of the lock period. Right now 30 days is about the average escrow. It does no real good to look at rates that are advertised at 15 days because you can’t take advantage of them. They don’t represent what you can anticipate when trying to figure out your payment You can lock for a longer period of time but typically your rate will increase because the lender is holding that rate for you for a longer period of time in the face of changing economic conditions.
The 30 year fixed program is the most widely used program that we offer right now.  This is a fully amortized loan in which your payment includes both a principle and interst payment.  All these loans are going to require full documentation of your income and assets.
The conforming loan product refers to loans that are less than 417,000 loan amount. First time home buyers will want to take advantage of FHA programs which may have different lending limits,lower down payment requirements but also higher interest rates.
The 1 point refers to the discount fee. As it implies, by spending the 1 point you are discounting the rate you are paying. there are no free lunches now nor were there ever. Paying points will typically pay for itself in the form of cash flow in about 3 years. You don’t however have to pay points. First time home buyers may elect to save their money to pay for home furnishings or window coverings rather than spend the money on buying down their payment. The rate you will be able to get will be slightly higher if you don’t spend points however. Typically a no point loan is .375% -.500% higher than a 1 point loan. You need to speak with an experienced mortage banker in order to decide what is right for you with regard to all these items.  Make sure you understand all your options.  There is no right thing for everyone.

If you have any questions regarding mortgage rates or anything regarding Mortgage home loans in Healdsburg or Sonoma County please contact me at 707-431-9715 or go to my other Website at Prospect Mortgage.