If not, here’s your chance.  Don recently filled in for Nick Reed on the Nick Reed radio show.  You can here Nick’s show Monday through Friday from 6am to 9am at 104.1 FM in the Springfield, MO area or you can hear it online at https://www.ksgf.com.

To hear Don’s show from his recent fill in for Nick click on the links below.

https://www.ksgf.com/episode/podcast-12-07-the-education-system-in-america/  – hour one just waking up – talking about driving

https://www.ksgf.com/episode/podcast-12-07-the-jericho-march/ – hour two – the Jericho March organizer interview

https://www.ksgf.com/episode/podcast-12-07-corona-losing-capitalism/  – hour three – losing our capitalism

Hope you enjoy!

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Well it’s that time of year again. Everyone talks about going to the gym or trying to get that promotion this year or maybe buy a new vehicle or even a home. Here are nine ideas for your financial resolutions that can help you this year on your finances.

1. Get new quotes for your car or homeowners insurance. You may be able to save some money by switching companies or maybe your current company can update your profile and have you save some money.
2. Dropping the full coverage from your auto insurance if you don’t have a loan on it and it’s valued at less than about $3,000. You are not required to have full coverage on a completely paid off car and may help you save some money especially if you’re a good driver.
3. Refinance your mortgage if you’re over 4.5% (as of 1/1/18). Right now we are seeing a trend in the rates going up from the all time lows that they have been at for the past couple years. You should also do this if you’re needing access to some of the equity in your home for repairs or additions.  Contact us to see if this would make sense for you.
4. Call your current lender if you think you have 20% equity or greater in your current home and you have mortgage insurance. Chances are they may be able to order an appraisal and get your mortgage insurance off of your payment if it is a conventional loan. If it’s not, start looking at refinancing your current loan into a conventional loan in case your mortgage insurance is permanent like it is on some FHA and USDA loans.
5. Start or Reallocate a 401k or IRA Retirement account. If you haven’t started saving for retirement, you need to. The earlier you start saving the more you’ll benefit from compounding interest. Check with your employer to see if they match a portion of what you’d contribute and get the full amount from them. It is literally free money for you. If you already have a 401k setup, look at where the funds are going to. You could be missing out on a better performer or one that is having a same return but lower fees. If you have a 401k, think about starting a Traditional or Roth IRA so you have another retirement avenue. These all have different tax ramifications so please look for a trusted financial advisor if you need direction.
6. Pull your annual free credit report from all three bureaus from https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action. This will not give you your credit score but it will show you all of your open accounts and let you dispute them if there is any misinformation.
7. Raise your revolving credit line amount on your credit cards without a credit pull. Some companies may do this, some may not, but when the credit bureaus figure your FICO score they look at the amount of credit you are using compared to how much you have available. If you raise the amount you have available to you it can reduce the ratio of use. Be careful not to get carried away though and use that extra amount you just got.
8. Start a trust if you’re over 50 years old. Putting your assets into a trust can allow you or your loved ones to have less of a headache with probate if someone passes away. Probate can take up to a couple months for you or your loved ones to gain access to anything you may have left behind to them even if it was in a will.
9. Freeze your credit if you’re not planning on making a big purchase soon. With all of the data breaches happening, protect yourself by freezing your credit. When you freeze your credit you stop the ability for someone to open an account even if they have your information. Follow Clark Howard’s advice at http://clark.com/personal-finance-credit/credit-freeze-and-thaw-guide.

Hopefully with these nine ideas for financial resolutions you can help yourself save a little extra money this year and make your financial future come even closer to your goals.

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Home loans are not like car or personal loans

One main thing that a lot of people don’t know about is that home loan requirements are more strict than a car loan, personal loan, and applying for a credit card. We need more documents, more explanations, and follow more regulations than other loans you can get. This leads us to our next topic.

Programs have different credit requirements

Different loan programs have different credit requirements. If you tell us that your credit score is a 680 then you can probably qualify for the typical USDA, FHA, Conventional and sometime VA if you’re also a Veteran. However, if you fail to mention that you had a foreclosure or some late payments on a mortgage or car loan, we may be giving you incorrect information on programs you qualify for with those items showing up.

Accuracy For Your Information

When you are thinking about buying a home what is more than likely your number one concern? A lot of people think about the monthly house payment. Without having an accurate credit score, we are not able to get an accurate estimate for your interest rate. Without that, your house payment can differ and you may end up getting into a house payment that you are not happy with and under contract to buy the property anyways. Would you rather have an extremely accurate quote or leave it to chance that maybe something popped up on your credit report that dipped the scores down and then when we do get credit pulled and its lower, we’re stuck.

Free Credit Report Scores Are Not Accurate

Another question that we get is why are my credit scores different than what’s showing on this other companies website or on my credit card bill? The main reason that those scores can differ either positively or negatively is that the free reporting agencies are not used for true financing purposes.

Hopefully that helps you understand a little bit more about the process and why it is important for lenders to pull your credit first.  If you have any questions, please contact us or if you would like to see how much home you can qualify for, please fill out our quick inquiry and someone from our team will be in touch with you shortly.

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1. PLAN on when you’ll buy a home.
   1. Plan, plan, plan. If you know that your lease is ending in 7 months and you’re really fed up with how you’re paying for the landlord’s mortgage, look into buying a home. We know that sometimes it may be a spur of the moment thing but planning ahead can make a world of difference.
2. Do NOT purchase a new vehicle. (If you can help it)
   1. You may be just graduating college or getting that well deserved promotion at work and be tempted to treat yourself to that shiny new vehicle. If at all possible, fight that urge! When we are calculating your debt-to-income ratio, that car payment can possibly take away the purchasing power that you wished you had. Instead of a $150,000 house, you’re now looking at an $80,000 home.
3. Do NOT change jobs or how you’re paid.
   1. The main reason we try to not have people change jobs is not because of the history but the possibility of the way that you were and are paid now. If you were salaried 6 months ago and now you are paid a smaller salary but with commissions, there is a good possibility we won’t be able to count those commissions since you haven’t received them for two years. So if a job opportunity arises or HR is possibly promoting you to a new pay system, weigh the costs of maybe not being able to buy a home.
4. Do NOT deposit cash or large untraceable deposits.
   1. The old saying used to be “cash is king”. Some people still think that they can bring their mattress money or rainy day funds to closing and unfortunately that is not the case anymore. When we are going through the loan process and see a large deposit that isn’t an auto deposit from payroll, things can get a little dicey. Ever since the mortgage crisis in 2008 and 2009, the government makes us “source” funds like that. It’s their way of making sure that there isn’t possible money laundering or fraud happening. If you sell a vehicle or an item for cash, please document it as clearly as possible.
5. Listen to your loan officer
   1. This is an extremely easy one but you’d be surprised how many times people don’t follow this. An analogy that Don tells his clients is to think of buying a home like a maze. This is especially true with all the regulations and rules they have put in place since the mortgage crisis. You, the borrower, are trying to get to the end of the maze and get into the home. We as loan officers have a better view point of the maze and can help guide you through it. If you don’t trust us and let us guide you, it can take a lot longer to get into the home or possibly do something that makes it to where you can’t get a home at all.

There a lot more tips and tricks that we can share about the loan process but those are the five main tips when buying a home to hopefully make things a little easier for you. If you have any questions or need help in securing a great home loan, please give us a call at (417) 844-5370 or fill out our contact form!

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Here are 7 quick VA home loan benefits for those who have served our country.  Thank you for your service!

1. You can use your VA benefits multiple times!
2. NO expensive monthly mortgage insurance!
3. More flexible on debt to income ratios and credit scores!
4. NO down payment required!
5. Want to place a down payment anyways? Discounted VA funding fee depending on the amount down!
6. Seller can normally pay for all of your closing costs!
7. Normally lower rates when compared to a conventional loan of the same size and term!

VA home loans are some of the best loans that we are able to offer for our veterans and they deserve them! Do you know of someone that doesn’t know if they can use their benefits or not? Have them contact us and we’ll help them figure that out and hopefully get them into a great home loan!

If you have other questions in regards to a VA loan or just a home loan in general, please call Don at (417) 844-5370 or fill out our contact form!

The post 7 Quick VA Home Loan Benefits appeared first on I Want A Great Home Loan.

USA Mortgage was just ranked the #1 lender in the state of Missouri for all of 2015!

We finished last year with 5.25% of the market share in the entire state of Missouri… and we are not even in the Kansas City area. That means nearly 1 in every 19 home loans done in our great state were done by USA Mortgage! That’s a big WOW!!! You know who was a distant 2nd? That “Rocket Mortgage” company Quicken Loans, with only 3.72% of the market share.

“And what about the purchase loans (not refinances),” you ask???

USA Mortgage was ranked #1 with an astounding 7.09% market share! That’s 1 of every 14 home sales in the STATE we financed! The #2 lender was a VERY distant 4.33% of the market share.

We love what we do and it shows in our company’s tremendous growth!

If you need a home loan for the purchase of a new home or to refinance your current home, we invite you to work with our great company and our proven track record. You can start working with the leader by filling out our Quick Inquiry today!

Thank you for being a huge part of our success!

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NEWS RELEASE!

USA Mortgage/DAS Acquisition Company has just been named number one in USDA home loans in Missouri for the 2015 fiscal year.  This is our fifth year in a row holding this title.

What does this mean?

It means we know what we are doing and we love helping people achieve the American Dream of home ownership.  The USDA home loan, otherwise known as the Guaranteed Rural Housing Loan Program, is one of the last 100% financing loans available today.

We are very excited about this news and can’t wait to help others in learning more about this great loan program and all it has to offer.  See the press release below.

If you would like to learn more about USDA home loans in Missouri please contact Don at (417) 844-5370 or fill out our contact form and someone from our team will be in touch soon.

We take great pride in being the #1 USDA lender in Missouri and look forward to working with you!

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We’re excited to announce that IWantAGreatHomeLoan.com has a new mobile app!

It’s a mortgage calculator with taxes and insurance as an added option.  This is a great tool for estimating what your new house payment will be.

Our new mortgage calculator is now available on both Google Play and the Apple Store!

It’s packed with a bunch of useful features such as calculating your complete mortgage payment, looking at your options for refinancing, and being able to compare loan programs that you could possibly qualify for such as FHA, USDA, VA, and a regular conventional loan.

Not only does it compute mortgage calculations, it serves as a line of communication between you and our great team. If you have a specific question, Don’s phone number and email are both there so you can call, text, or email your questions directly to him without having to look up our contact information.  All this can be done from within the app!

Most of the mortgage calculators out there end up only computing what your principle and interest payment would be. Without adding in your taxes, insurance and possibly mortgage insurance, you will not get an accurate estimate for when you’re making your budget. This can lead to bad surprises once you have already found a house and put in a contract or when you’re thinking about refinancing.

Our mortgage calculator with taxes and insurance gives you the option of putting in your insurance quote and taxes amount so you can have a more accurate estimate.

We have put together some screen shots or our new app for you to check out below.  We are excited to bring you this new mobile app and all that it has to offer.

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You may have heard recently a lot of people bringing up the word TRID. This is a new batch of regulations that are supposed to make the home loan process easier and better for home buyers and those looking to refinance their home. So you may be asking exactly what does TRID mean to me when looking to purchase a home or refinance? We’ll go over what exactly TRID stands for as well as how it will affect you when shopping for a new mortgage.

What does TRID stand for?

TRID stands for TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure. While there are a lot of acronyms in that sentence, what TRID is actually doing is taking out the Truth-in-Lending disclosure & Good Faith Estimate and replacing them with a “Loan Estimate” document that is supposed to be easier when comparing loans between other companies if you prefer to shop around for a lender.

What are the Main Changes?

1. Application- as soon as we receive six items of information from a borrower, disclosures must be sent within 3 business days. These six items are your name, income, social security number, property address, estimated value of the property, and the loan amount you are thinking of getting.
2. Time Constraints- the following documents must be sent and received within a certain time period or the closing may be delayed.
   1. Loan Estimate (LE) – the official “Loan Estimate” document must be sent no later than three business days after receiving the six items that make up a full application. Also, it must be sent no later than seven business days before the loan is closed.
   2. Closing Disclosure (CD) must be received by borrowers no later than three business days before the loan closes.
   3. Changes to either of these documents can affect your closing if they are done at the very end.
3. Fees- There is now a 0% tolerance on a lot of fees. So your lender must be accurate in estimating fees such as how much your title work will be, any extra Realtor fees that may not be disclosed on your contract, and any kind of funding fees or up front mortgage insurance. We always like to estimate all of our fees high so there are only good surprises at closing when we get the final figures.
4. Delivering the Closing Disclosure – Your loan company is now responsible for providing you the Closing Disclosure, including HUD-1 information. In the past it has been provided by the settlement agent.

How will all of this affect you?

At the end of the day you’re wondering how all of this will affect you. Unfortunately, it will affect you a little bit. The good news is that you hopefully picked a lender whose company has had training and implemented new ways to make the new TRID guidelines a simple process like we have at IWantAGreatHomeLoan.com. The main thing to take away from this is to be prepared to have more strict guidelines put in place on your mortgage.  From start to finish in the mortgage process it is very important that you stay in contact with your lender more closely than what you may have done in the past to ensure a smoother transaction.

If you would like to read all about TRID in detail you can visit the CFPB’s site on this topic.  Happy Reading! 🙂

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You may be asking “Well why is that? Isn’t staying in debt a bad thing?” I’ll explain why staying in debt, within reason, can help you in your home buying purchase.

I want to say first off that you’re mostly correct in believing staying in debt is a bad thing. Growing up many of us were told to not use credit cards, or try and buy everything with cash if you can, because you don’t want to pay interest. While this is true from a budget standpoint, when you’re buying a house, you want to have an active history of being able to borrow money and responsibly pay it back.

So what does an active history mean?

When lenders go through your credit report, they like to see at least 3 active trade lines open on your account for at least 12 months. These could be items like student loans, credit cards, personal loans, car loans, current mortgages, or anything positive that has been reported for the past 12 months and still shows that it is open. These “active” trade lines show that you are able to pay back your debts that you have made, with a certain level of responsibility.

We’ve actually had some clients come in and say that they knew their credit was good and they didn’t need the accounts open any longer so they decided to close everything.

DO NOT DO THIS!

While this shows that you have been able to manage money in the past, it doesn’t say you are able to manage it currently. If lenders don’t see 3 active trade lines we usually have to ask for items of soft credit and this can prolong the loan process or even disqualify you from certain loan programs.

Here are four quick guidelines to go through before you think about paying off a loan or closing an account.

1. If you plan on paying an installment loan off completely, contact your lender first! You may save a little bit of interest by paying it off now, but you may find out you cannot qualify for a home loan or buy your dream house.
2. If you are paying off a credit card, make sure not to close it. You can always leave it at a zero balance and close it AFTER you have gone through the whole process and closed on your new house. Also, you may need the cash to get the loan.
3. If you do happen to have a lot of different loans and credit card accounts showing a 12 month or more history on your credit report you may close some of them but contact your lender first to guide you what is best to get you the best loan.
4. Always contact your lender and explain your current situation and what you plan on doing. A good lender will help develop a plan on what you need to do in order to get a great home loan!

Hopefully this article has answered some of your questions about paying off all of your debt before buying a home. If you have a unique situation or want to discuss your scenario, please don’t hesitate to call us or fill out our quick inquiry here. We would love to help you get a great home loan!

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