All Forum Posts by: C L.

No landline connection required for Magic Jack. You just need a phone to plug into your USB port. That's it. Magic Jack takes the place of landline service.

You should check it out. Google Voice is da bomb. I have 2 GV numbers so I have 3 different numbers ringing through on my cell phone. I can make outgoing calls and select my GV number to show on caller ID.

It's an incredible free service. Hope it remains free.

Yes, the local news in my area did an expose about people wanting to steal homes and they talked about these signs - warning homeowners to not call anyone "from blind signs on the corner."

I will never get why people search for jobs and send resumes with those ridiculous email addresses.

BTW, I did stop using "smakyomama." Just didn't get good responses. :D

Oh so true. And I have never understood why people don't take the time to set up email after buying the domain. Email is usually thrown in for free.

It is so simple to register the email address and then use gmail to send/receive. You can set up gmail so that your reply to/send from address shows as your "professional" email address. The recipient would never see that it was sent from [email protected].

Download Thunderbird (Firefox add-on) and you can manage all your gmail addresses and email from one location.

Thunderbird saved my life.

Indeed Bryan. But isn't that how our lives have evolved in almost every way? Very little trust/loyalty anywhere.

Exactly. My antennae go up when a borrower contacts me who is already deep in process with another lender, especially when he/she makes it clear they have not told the other lender they are leaving. Mortgages are so much work now that I would not quickly jump into a transaction with a borrower who lets me know they are disloyal. They could do the same thing to me.

There has to be a good reason - and a lower rate might not be it. I listen to what they have to say and decide. I have had borrowers who simply misunderstood what their lender told them. I clarified it for them and sent them back.

When borrowers try to jump ship, the other lender finds out and sometimes the borrower ends up going back anyhow. What a big waste of my time that would have been.

That fee goes to the appraiser. He/she is the one making the changes to the report and creating a new one.

However, the appraisers we work with will not change anything w/o first speaking to us. Despite the fact that the borrower paid for it upfront (in most cases), the document belongs to the original lender who made the request.

After Feb 28th, you could qualify for cashout under Fannie/Freddie.

It does not matter if the original loan was Fannie/Freddie. You can refi under whatever program you now qualify for.

The issue with financing as a primary residence is not what you might be doing later. The issue at time of application is what is your "intent" at that time. You will have to satisfy the lender that you "intend" to move from your current residence and make one of the newly financed units your primary residence. Whether you have someone basically house-sitting your unit while you are away is not paramount.

You must keep in mind that since you are dealing with a private, portfolio lender, they can do almost whatever they want - under the law of course. They are not operating under Fannie/Freddie/FHA rules, so a third person (like myself) would be hard pressed to say/know what they will do

These credit scores will not get you a great rate. We must go by the lowest mid score of both borrowers. So, the score that would determine your rate is 650. Your wife's score would be meaningless.

No, you could NOT get your own appraisal. Never, ever. As the lender, we MUST order the appraisal from a licensed appraiser accepted by the lender. Having a buyer get their own appraisal would open up wide scale fraud. Or I should say, "more wide scale fraud."

There are a few items on your tax return that could call for income recalculations IF not revealed at time of application: lower allowed self-employment income, lower allowed rental income, unreimbursed employee business expenses, alimony, dividend and interest income, wide variations in commission/bonus income from prior years.

You have a nonstandard transaction that a nonportfolio lender would carefully scrutinize. You haven't said how much equity you have. Unless you have a LOT of it, some lenders will deny your loan as an investment/cashout at a score of 650. Shopping around for bare bones rates might get you nowhere except for a drop in your score as more and more lenders pull credit. For mortgage pricing, credit scores are tiered and you could easily find yourself facing a higher rate if the score drops by a mere 10 points.

If I were you, I would instead find a good deal and take it

Every borrower wants the lowest rate Josh, but you have to be in the drivers seat in order to find low pricing.

You also haven't stated what the loan amount would be. That could change things too if it's jumbo. And you didn't say how many units. All these details affect rate.

Again, for a portfolio lender, no third party can tell you what they are going to do. They are lending THEIR money and they make the rules.

I would suggest you contact a Fannie/Freddie lender and get a quote. Then compare. Your situation is not the norm and you owe yourself a consultation with a professional. There are far too many ifs/ands/buts for you to get all the "right" answers here.

You can try putting in a request for a rate quote at www.zillow.com. Be sure to provide them ALL the details of your transaction. Bad input, bad output.

Shame no one responded. Would love to know the answer to this.

What happened?