Tag: colorado mortgage
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First-time home buyers should shop around and educate themselves about mortgage products. Shopping for a mortgage can be intimidating. It’s natural to feel anxious about doing something new for the first time, and getting your first mortgage is no exception. Fortunately, there are a few simple things you can do to make sure you’re being well-prepared before you start looking for your first home loan. Here are a few tips to help first-time mortgage borrowers: 1. Lock Your Interest Rate. Interest rates on mortgages can increase or decrease from day to day or even hour to hour. Discuss the interest rate outlook with your loan officer and try to learn as much as you can about how ups and downs in interest rate quotes might affect your mortgage payment and your ability to qualify for that loan. To protect yourself from interest rate rises, ask about a rate lock, which can reserve a specific interest rate for you for a set time period. If you decide to lock your rate, make sure your lock period won’t expire before your closing date. 2. Consider FHA. If you are a first-time home buyer, you might want to shop for a “FHA loan”, which is a mortgage that’s insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). FHA loans offer competitive interest rates, allow smaller down payment requirements and have easier qualification guidelines compared with other types of loans. The minimum down payment for an FHA loan is only 3.5 percent of the purchase price of the home. FHA loans require that you pay an up-front lump sum mortgage insurance fee as well as a monthly mortgage insurance premium. 3. Take the Tax Credit. If you have not owned a home the past three years, you may be able to qualify for the federal First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, which is worth up to $8,000. The credit is refundable, which means you’ll even get a rebate of sorts from the federal government if the income tax that you owe is less than the full amount of the credit. The credit is subject to income tax limitations and you’ll have to act fast since it’s set to expire after November 30, 2009. Some lenders here in Colorado will allow you to use the credit as a down payment, to pay for settlement fees or other closing costs or to pay discount points to reduce the interest rate on your loan. 4. Educate Yourself. A plain-vanilla 30-year or 15-year fixed-rate mortgage is fairly easy to understand. But other types of loans can be more complicated. If you want to consider an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) or other less common types of loan products, do your homework and make sure you fully understand how your loan works before you sign the loan documents. 5. Shop Around. Interest rates, loan products and loan terms vary from lender to lender. That means all borrowers, whether novice or not, should shop around for loan offers. Ask about the benefits and risks of each loan and be sure to compare the quoted points and estimated closing costs as well as the interest rates on different loans before you decide which would best fit your personal situation.First Choice Mortgage Company’s is committed to be information and education resource for the Colorado mortgage consumer and a full range of mortgage tools can be found on our website www.FirstChoiceMortgageCoLLC.com. We pride ourselves on being a full-service mortgage company where you get the advantage of experienced mortgage professionals, great rates and a very wide range of mortgage products. First Choice Mortgage Company has build its reputation on providing outstanding service to its clients and the launch of www.FirstChoiceMortgageCoLLC.Com is yet another example of the company’s dedication to exceeding expectations.
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The Colorado Division of Real Estate on Monday inactivated 4,560 mortgage broker licenses, about half of the licenses in the state. A total of 4,252 licensed mortgage brokers remained active in Colorado as of Monday August 31, 2009. When Colorado’s mortgage broker licensing last went into effect on January 1, 2008, all of the state’s brokers were automatically licensed. But to keep those licenses, they has one year to fulfill the same requirements as new applicants, which include completing 40 hours of licensing education and passing a written test. The two-part exam tests applicants’ knowledge of federal, state and consumer protection laws, and mortgage lending basics and ethics. By December 31, 2008, nearly 6,000 brokers either still hadn’t passed or hadn’t attempted the exam. Afraid that deactivating so many mortgage brokers at once would hurt the state’s credit markets, the Division of Real Estate granted a 90-day extension, which ended on March 31. Brokers who are listed as inactive on the Colorado Division of Real Estates website, www.dora.state.co.us face a bigger problem than simply running afoul of state regulators. By July 31, 2010, all mortgage loan originators must register with the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry (NMLS), a national tracking system established by the federal Secure and Fair Enforcement (S.A.F.E.) Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008. Unless the loan originator is employed by a federally regulated bank or thrift or one of its subsidiaries, the only way to gain access to the NMLS is to be licensed by the state. Although other states allow entire companies to become licensed, giving every mortgage broker access to the national registry, Colorado doesn’t. Colorado’s licensing system applies only to individuals, and Colorado law would have to be changed to alter that, said Erin Toll, director of the Colorado Division of Real Estate, which regulates Colorado’s mortgage brokers. Why does it matter for a broker to be registered on the NMLS? Because beginning January 1, 2010, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won’t buy loans that lack a loan origination identifier, which can only be obtained by being on the NMLS. About 60 percent of all U.S. residential mortgage loans are sold to either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac according to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Toll estimates that between 60 and 70 percent of all Colorado single-family home loans are sold to one or the other. First Choice Mortgage Company’s is committed to be information and education resource for the Colorado mortgage consumer and a full range of mortgage tools can be found on our website www.FirstChoiceMortgageCoLLC.com. We pride ourselves on being a full-service mortgage company where you get the advantage of experienced mortgage professionals, great rates and a very wide range of mortgage products. First Choice Mortgage Company has build its reputation on providing outstanding service to its clients and the launch of www.FirstChoiceMortgageCoLLC.Com is yet another example of the company’s dedication to exceeding expectations.
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