Rates:
Well let me get this out of the way 1st, RATES ARE STILL GREAT, and RATES will be GREAT even when they get the 5.00% mark, which may be sooner than later.
This whole week we say interest rate creep higher and higher, when was compounded today by a GREAT unemployment number.
Unemployment dropped from 7.9% to 7.7%. It was expected that we would see 171,000 new jobs last month, but a whopping 236,000 were actually gained.
The 10 year bond rose to 2.06% today.
Then we have tons of money being put into the Stock Market, with the Dow hitting all time highs, thus Bonds are being sold, quite rapidly.
Weekly Jobless claims also declined to 340,000, down 7K from last week.
The outlook of rates falling is getting slimmer and slimmer each day. Most talking heads feel that the US economy is chugging along and that the Federal Reserve will be forced to start unwinding their efforts to force rates down.
Moral of the story is: Time to get in a rocking chair, have some sweet tea, and talk of the good old days when rates were in the 3’s.
Lock them, lock them, lock them.
VA Loans:
Over the last week, many Realtors have called and asked for information on VA loans, so here is some basics of the VA loan.
-100% financing
-Upfront Mortgage Insurance, called a VA Funding Fee, but rolled into the loan.
-Seller can pay up to 3% of the buyers closing costs.
-No Monthly Mortgage Insurance.
There are certain fees which the VA veteran CAN NOT pay for and needs to be paid by the Seller, these fees are, and some lenders don’t charge them:
-Title Commitment Fee
-Courier Fee
-Doc Prep Fee
-Escrow Fee
-Processing Fee (Junk fee anyways)
-Tax Service Fee
-Underwriting Fee
The VA loan is probably the BEST 100% financing loan in the market today, underwriting guidelines are fairly limited.
-620 Minimum FICO score
-You can have some medical collections
-<1 year out of a BK or a Foreclosures or a Short sale, lender specific.
Always call and ask! And some VA Veterans believe that once they use their VA to buy a house, they can’t buy any more. But this is False, I have a VA veteran who is on his 4th VA loan.
Lead Generator for the week:
Call all your past clients and make sure they have filed for their Homeowner’s exemption BEFORE 4/15/2013.
Here is your Script:
Ring Ring: Hello, is this Mrs. Jones?
Yes: Well this is Mr./Mrs. Realtor who helped you with your home purchase. I was just calling to make sure that you filed your Homeowner’s Exemption with the county. Because if you don’t by April 15th, you taxes will go up.
Also I was hoping to ask you if you had any friends or family who are needing to sell a hope. The market is extremely short on homes to sell right now, and we are needing listings.