Mortgage insurance allows Sonoma County home buyers to purchase property with less than 20% down payment.  Banks only want to lend you money if you have the required down but if you pay for insurnace to cover the differnce, you can put less down. 

 If you are currently looking for a Sonoma County home and not planning on putting down 20% then not only are you looking for the best service (that would be me) and rates and fees (also me) ,  you are also looking for which lender is going to offer you the best pricing in mortage insurance (obviuolsy ME). 2-3 years ago when California Real Estate was in a real tail spin, most Private Mortgage Insurance companies all but left the state.   Getting insurnace on a 5% down loan was all but impossible.   At the very least it was very expensive.   The only option was the FHA, which is still agreat option for borrowers with less than 5% down. Now as Sonoma County Real Estate values are moving upward Insurnace companies are coming back to the market.  If you can get to  5% down,which can include gift funds, Private Mortgage Insurance is a much better option than going FHA and the 3.5% down.  There are many options,  when considering PMI and I would be happy to sit down and talk with you about all of them.  You have options.  Is your current lender giving them all to you?

“Hunt For Your Loan”

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If you are thinking about buying a property in Sonoma County, don’t you think it would be a good idea to find out what it will cost you. I can give you access to my mortgage calculator that has todays rates already imbedded in the program so that all you really need to do is plug in a purchase price and down payment and you can find out what your payments are going to be along with you cash to close including closing costs and Pre-paid items. What is nice about the program is that you can be looking at a home in Healdsburg offered for sale at 450,000$ and plug in the numbers. Maybe it is more expensive than that what you are Pre-approved for (becasue you have already been to my website and been pre-approved for a mortgage) so you drop the sale price to 400,000$ and see if you can afford that price. While the payments are important, often the “cash to close” is often a bigger stumbling block. Knowing exactly what dollar amount it is going to take to close your Mortgage loan is critical to your Sonoma county home buying success.

Visit the Real Estate Mortgage Calcualtor just clink on this link…

You can also save it as an app on your phone and take it with you while you look for a Home. Good Luck House hunting. “Hunt for your Loan”. If you have any questions please call or email me.

If you are planning to buy Sonoma County real estate in the next year the first thing you need to do is you have to get pre-approved for a Real Estate Mortgage. It really does you no good to wander the internet or check out open houses with out the knowledge and advantages that being pre-approved for home loan can provide you. Many Sonoma County Realtors won’t even talk with you until you have filled out an applicaton and rightly so. they don’t want you wasting there time. Your appetite could be for a 300,000$ house and your finacnial reality is that you can only afford a 250,000$. The opposite is true as well. You could be looking at 250,000$ houses and really be able to buy something more expensive. There are so many prgrams out there that I can tailor your loan to, you just will never know until you get pre-approved for the mortgage. Filling out a Real Estate mortgage aplication is so easy. It will take you all of about 10 minutes. Just go to my website and Get Pre-Qualified. Call or email me with questions…”Hunt for your Loan”! I am here to make your home buying easy and fun!

The Rating agency that dropped the credit rating from AAA to AA+ is Standard and Poor’s and is only one of three of the rating agencies. It takes two out of the three to actually effect the credit rating of the country’s debt. In addition my opinion of these agencies is not really very high because they are the same ones that rated AAA the tranches that were at the bottom of all the trouble we now face. In additon many believe that the rating drop was done to send a political message to the politicians
That said, we have all expected Sonoma County Real estate mortgage rates to rise by now. We fully expected that we would be experiencing a certain amount of inflation putting pressure on rates but that has just not been the case. In fact what has happened is that we are seeing a flight to safety to the US bond market pushing the yields down to their third lowest level ever. Obviously, every investor out there believes that the likely hood of America defaulting on their debt is lower than any other available option out there.

So today, the effect of the drop by S&P’s mortgage rating I think has little to do with the mortgage rates but the global economic worries are causing rates to drop because of the dramatic interest in the US bond market. Right now we are in a very low real estate mortgage rate cycle that most likely won’t last very long. I would expect rates to rise very moderately over the next couple of weeks but overall stay low through the end of the next quarter. For whatever that is worth.

I still think that Sonoma County Real Estate is the best long term protection against inflation.

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The FNMA High Balance loan limits for Sonoma County Real Estate Mortgages will be dropped to $520,700 from the previous loan limit of $660,200 in the next month. This 20% drop in borrowing power through the GSA’s could prove to be another hit for the struggling Sonoma County Mortgage industry. Many of the loans we do in Sonoma County, or used to do, were in that 400k to 650k range. Now those loans over the 520,000 threshold will need to be financed by Jumbo investors which typically have even tougher restrictions and guidelines than the FNMA guidelines. There isn’t much anyone can do but acknowledge that interest rates, regardless of whether they are a high Balance loan amount or Jumbo loan amount are still tremendously low. One option for some may be to obtain a high balance 1st deed of trust in the maximum loan amount and couple that with a smaller 2nd deed of trust that could be paid off in a shorter amount of time. If you are seeking more information and/or Mortgage Strategies for a Sonoma County Mortgage please make calling a Local Mortgage expert with 20 years experience a first choice. I am not affiliated with a “Big Bank” and I don’t have the “Big Bank” mentality. I care about you and your loan!

Hunt For Your Loan
707-328-1233

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Check out my new mortgage calculator. It really gives you everything you need to make an informed decision regarding your purchase. It is very similar to the one I use. The big difference is that you can run as many “what if” scenarios as you like with out feeling that you have bothered anyone. Pick a program, FHA, VA or Conventional and just plug in the purchase price and the rest of the fields will be populated with the information you need. Bear in mind that while I have done my best to provide you with the most current Mortgage rates, rates change hourly and your indivisual circumstances may influence the rates as well. This is meant as a guide to get you started. Please call me back or email me if you have any questions.

Good luck with your House Hunting and remember….
HUNT FOR YOUR LOAN707-431-9715

It is really amazing to me. Almost every economic pundit had expected mortgage interst rates to rise by now and yet we are still looking at mid to high 4′s for 30 year fixed conforming interest rates. Bottom line is that the economic recovery picture is not as bright as some would like to believe. Foreclosures cotinue to hamper real estate appreciation. It isn’t fair but the truth. Buying right now is still an amazing opportunity and with all the tremendous loan programs out there and the amount of low priced property in Sonoma County, Now is the time! If you are renting right now, I am almost sure I can show you how you can own for the same price or lower than the rent you are paying. Give me a call to day. I am really happy to sit down with you and go through the numbers process.

“Hunt For Your Loan”
707-431-9715

This has to be one of the most usefull financing tools for both Sonoma County Real Estate owner occupants and Investors alike. Simply put, it allows a borrower to fold in the cost of renovation up front into the loan. It is limited to 35,000 and can include almost everything from carpet and paint to electrical and plumbing. What it doens’t include are additions or structural items but roofs are. The idea here is to make a
Sonoma County foreclosed property livable. The one big difference between a Homepath and Homepath Renovation loan is that there is an appraisal required in order to justify the improvements for the Renovation loan. There is still no Mortgage Insurance required. Owner occupants borrower still put down just 3% of the total of purcahse price and renovation costs. Investors are only required to put 15% down of the total and they can finance up to 20 properties provided they meet guidelines.
This is a tremendous mortgage financing tool for anyone looking to purcahse foreclosure proeprties. If you would like more information I would be happy to provide it to you. Please contact me at 707-431-9715 or at hunt.conrad@prospectmtg.com. you can also fill in the info requested boxes at the bottom of the page.

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The Homepath loan program is a Fannie Mae loan program intended to help Sonoma County borrowers buy Fannie Mae foreclosed properties. This is an amazing Mortgage program for both first time home buyers and investors alike. Owner occupants are given a 2 week first shot at new listings before the investors can make offers. There is no appraisal required for these loans and borrowers are encouraged to finance the closing costs by asking for seller credits. Again…NO APPRAISAL!
In additon Sonoma County owner occupied borrowers have a minimum 3% down payment with NO MORTGAGE INSURANCE. Compare that to FHA and you will be saving hundreds of dollars a month plus there is no up front MI premium. In additon there is no scrutiny for the condition of the property becasue again… there is NO APPRAISAL.
Sonoma County investors can put a minimum of 10% down and also not have an appraisal or MI required. There is also a maximum limit of 10-20 properties that an sonoma county investor can hold vs traditional mortgage loan programs that limit to 4 with mortgages.
All in All, this is a fabulous program for all Sonoma County Home buyers. Please call Hunt Conrad for more information. 707-431-9715. “Hunt For Your Loan”

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Hunt and his team at Prospect were efficient, unflappable and fully engaged in getting my loan. By responding to quickly to all my questions, I got the sense that I was important. They were also experienced , confident and realistic. By the time the loan closed they had me navigating the unknown terrain like a veteran.

Jeff Hinchliffe