Different Loan Programs and More!

Posted by Paul Caparas on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 2:07am.

"Here's a Blog from one of my Loan Officers I work with, Shelly Heimer with The Lenders Group"

My name is Shelly Heimer and I am a mortgage consultant with The Lenders Group, located in Mission Valley. I have been in the business of helping people qualify and buy homes for over 6 years now. I am very excited to be a part of Paul Caparas referral network.

In contrast to all the droom and gloom in the media these days; I really believe that there has not been a better time to be buying a home than now. Home prices are incredible, and rates are at historic lows. This is the time when opportunity is knocking and you want to be sure to answer the door.

When Paul asked me to blog about the mortgage community I was at a loss of where to start, so today I am going to keep it simple and allow you to get comfortable with who I am, and just give you a brief overview of some of the HOT loan programs on the market right now.

Starting with The Federal Housing Administration (FHA); The FHA has insured over 35 million home mortgages and in order to insure these loans FHA regulates the loan guidelines to be sure that the borrower can afford to make the payment along with maintaining living expenses by setting very firm guidelines. When you qualify for an FHA loan, you can be assured that the payment you qualify for is one that you can truly afford. The best part of FHA is that you only need to have 3% as a down payment. This is an opportunity for someone to get into a house with very little out of pocket expense.

Now let’s look at Veterans Affairs Loans (VA); if you or your spouse has served for 2 years with an honorable discharge or are currently on active duty, this may be the best way for you to go. VA allows you to borrow up to 100% of the purchase price and does not require that you carry mortgage insurance premiums (MIP) as does FHA. VA also strictly regulates the qualifying process to insure that the borrower can afford the home and still maintain living expenses.

The two programs mentioned are only 2 avenues for borrowers but they are the only option for those who have less than 10% down; if you do not fall into that category and have been saving for a down payment and have more than 20% to utilize, than you may want to consider conventional financing where rates for this week of December 3, 2008 have been as low as 5.25%

When buying a house it is very important to get pre approved by a mortgage consultant who can look at the BIG picture with you and determine what loan fit’s your personal needs along with long and short term goals. For example, I was able to help a borrower qualify this week who was going to cash out his 401k to gather up an additional 5% to have a combined down payment of 10% as was recommended by another lender. Once we determined that the savings between 5% and 10% was less than $90 per month and that it would take 14 years to recoup it was obvious that was not in their best interest. It is numbers like these that make it important to plan with someone who cares about the clients they serve.

I would be happy to evaluate your needs. Please don’t hesitate to call or Email!

Best regards,

Shelly Heimer

(619) 574-4880 x147

Shelly@shellyheimer.com

Regards,

Paul Caparas

Broker Associate/REALTOR

Weichert Realtors Elite

858-349-2390

www.PaulCaparas.com