PrimeBenefit is Dedicated to Unions

The PrimeBenefit team of PrimeLending is committed to helping union members save money every time they buy or sell a home, refinance their current home, and more.  We have partnered up with www.Unions.org to offer special pricing that is exclusive to union members.  First let me tell you a little about us and how the program works.

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, PrimeLending is a leading residential mortgage lender that provides homebuyers mortgages without obstacles. Established in 1986 by Chief Executive Officer Roseanna McGill, PrimeLending has grown from a staff of 20 individuals producing $80 Million in annual closed loan volume to a family of over 1,500 members producing in excess of $2.45 Billion annually.

In addition to the corporate office located in North Dallas, PrimeLending has expanded to over 150 branches across the United States including Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington and is licensed to originate and close loans in 49 states.

The goal at PrimeLending is to provide unsurpassed quality service and support throughout the entire mortgage process for every client and referral source. This proactive sales and operational philosophy simplifies and accelerates the loan process at all levels. The company’s knowledgeable mortgage professionals are dedicated to making every customer’s home loan experience a positive and successful one.

PrimeLending decided they could take it one step further and develop a complete PrimeBenefit program which would help union member save money throughout the entire buying process of a home.  This is why the PrimeBenefit program is so powerful.

I would like you to first watch the following 30 second commercial and then I will go through the savings in detail. Commercial The PrimeBenefit Program is broken down into 5 parts:

1)      Real Estate Rebate – Every time you buy or sell a home your will receive a 20% rebate check from your Realtor commissions for using one of our network realtors.  You don’t have to worry.  We only use the best and have to be proven producer and they work for large companies like Caldwell Banker and Chapman Richards for example.

2)      Lender Discounts – Just for participating in the PrimeBenefit program you get 20% off of all lender fees.  In addition to that you will receive an extra .25% off your origination fee.  PrimeLending as we have already covered is one of the nation’s leading lenders and when it come to rate and price we will make sure you get the best rate and program for your needs.  Every loan is a little different as everyone’s situation is a little different, but know this; we are not just here to earn you business today but to be your lending partner for life.

3)      Insurance Discounts – The next discounts you receive are through Liberty Mutual on your homeowners and auto insurance.  For first time home buyers, homeowners insurance is a new thing so we will make sure that you have this option for getting a good deal on insurance.

4)      Moving Discounts – We have partnered up with different moving services such as Van Lines and SAMS to offer you discount on moving when it comes time to move into your new home.

5)      Home Warranty – Finally we have partners with one of the leading home warty company companies to offer you a great price on a home warranty that will cover more for less.  This company will cover item most item that other warranties exclude like roof leaks, washers and dryers, and more.

As you can see this is a pretty inclusive package.  As a union member there is no reason you should not take advantage of it.  I know you have wondered; how much does this cost?  The answer to your question is NOTHING.  That’s right it’s free.  It’s our way of saying thanks for all the work you do for us.  To register for the program click here.  Make sure to email me if you have any questions or call (877)835-5588.

Sam Ashton

PrimeBenefit Specialist

(877)835-5588

sashton@primelending.com

I almost didn’t post this given it is a bit aged however, if you haven’t done a loan recently, or ever, it’s still relevant so I decided to post it after all, so here goes.

I wanted to make everyone aware of some very important and fairly recent changes that are taking place in the lending industry, about appraisals, that affects all of us in different ways and also the impact I have personally seen due to these changes.

Starting back on May 1 of 2009, most every lender in the country started using an outside appraisal ordering company called an Appraisal Management Company or AMC, for all Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. The AMC’s role is to remove any ‘undue’ influence on the value of a property, that a lender, Realtor, or borrower may have on the value a home being  as collateral in financing a home purchase or refinance.

This new law, is a result of a lawsuit brought against Washington Mutual by the state Attorney General of New York. Washington Mutual was alleged to have systematically pressured appraisers to elevate home values at the risk of these same appraisers losing valuable future business from Washington Mutual if they didn’t comply. The practice was likely more widespread than in just New York state but probably not as widespread as it has been made out to be in the media reports. So Congress decide to act and they passed HVCC or Home Valuation Code of Conduct Act to address this issue for the future.

What this means is borrowers/homebuyers will now have to pay “up front” for appraisals. Lenders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans now have to comply and be in compliance on all appraisal which now requires borrowers to authorize a payment method before ordering the appraisal. The authorization is then submitted to the “outside” service or AMC, who then randomly selects an approved appraiser from within their network of appraisers (with AMC’s, like the one I use, it’s a bit less random because the appraiser pool that an appraiser is selected from, is made up of appraisers that have been referred into the pool by either myself or one my colleagues, so we have an expectation that our pool has competent appraisers in it, and I am sure some others AMC’s feel the same as we do in this regard).

Lenders are not allowed to have any direct interaction with the appraiser, and borrowers and Realtors are only allowed to provide access to the property.  When I order an appraisal and interact with the AMC, I use a web-based system that allows us to share info, order the appraisal , and then download the appraisal, once it is completed.  It actually works pretty well.

From what I have experienced to date, the result of these changes have been higher appraisal costs, longer time frames to get the appraisal back to the lender, and lower home values (in some cases), which can sometimes lead to problems in financing for the customer.

These changes are very new to the industry, about 8 months now, and as a whole, will still take some time for everyone to get used to, but while not everyone is happy with the changes, the intent of the new law is good for the industry, it’s just that the borrower is being burdened with it’s cost.

As of this writing, there is still talk of HVCC being repealed. When and if  it does. I will have an update immediately.

Bank of America announced Tuesday (01/26) that it is the first mortgage servicer to sign an agreement formally committing to participate in the second-lien component of the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

The news follows a “verbal commitment” to the program made by CEO, Brian Moynihan made during a meeting with Treasury Secretary, Timothy F. Geithner earlier this month, the company said in a statement.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank says it has systems in place to begin implementing the administration’s Second Lien Modification Program as soon as the Treasury releases final program policies and guidelines. Federal officials first introduced 2MP last April, but since then most market observers have labeled the program as “on hold.”

The Treasury has estimated that up to 50 percent of at-risk mortgages have second liens. The 2MP piece of the administration’s multi-pronged mortgage relief program will require modifications that reduce the monthly payments on qualifying home equity loans and lines of credit when a HAMP modification on the first mortgage is carried out.

The federal government is encouraging lenders and servicers to sign up for the second-lien program, William Apgar, HUD’s senior adviser for mortgage finance, said Tuesday at a housing conference in Washington, according to Bloomberg News. Second liens are “not an easy problem to solve,” Apgar said.

“For many homeowners facing severe financial difficulty, decreasing the payment on the first mortgage without a reduction in the payment on the second lien may not produce an affordable combined mortgage payment,” said Barbara Desoer, president of Bank of America Home Loans.

Desoer said inking the contract before the final program guidelines are released demonstrates “Bank of America’s strong overall commitment to homeownership retention and to the Making Home Affordable program.”

Bank of America is the nation’s largest mortgage servicer, with a servicing portfolio of nearly 11 million first mortgages and 3 million second liens. Through its participation in 2MP, BofA says it will modify eligible second liens regardless of whether the first lien is serviced by Bank of America or another participating servicer.

“2MP will become a valuable addition to Bank of America’s broad toolkit of potential solutions for customers facing financial difficulty and will increase our ability to help even more homeowners,” Desoer said.

Using non-government programs, Bank of America says it modified more than 57,000 second liens to assist financially strapped homeowners over the last two years.

Source:  Carrie Bay (DSNews.com)

Share the wealth:

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Housing Market to Stand on its Own

Kessler’s Take:
April 1st is a big day in the housing world. It is the beginning of the last month a buyer can get a contract in place for the Federal Housing Credit and it is the first day the Federal Reserve will end its debt purchase program of $1.25 trillion buying mortgage backed securities. When this happens the United States secondary mortgage market will have to stand on its own two feet without big brother buying what nobody else has shown an interest in. Mortgage backed securities are commodities like any other bond or stock. When demand is there supply is offered at a low yield keeping mortgage rates low. When the demand is not there the yield being offered on these securities must be raised to entice investors to invest in the commodity. The age old thought is you can not have a perfect world, low interest rates and a booming stock market. What we have experienced in the past 6 months is the closest we might every come. The stock market has rallied back to a bullish mark and mortgage rates have touched all time lows.
The road to housing recovery is not a straightaway; it has many curves that are not seen. The first issue that had to be dealt with was an overabundance of inventory. When the nation’s inventory is over a 6 month supply the market is considered a “buyer’s market” because there is more supply than demand. Over the past 6 months the inventory has burned off and we now sit at a 6.5 – 7 month supply. This was caused by very low interest rates coupled with a federal housing credit and available financing backed by the government.
The second issue is the psychology associated with the housing market. Most buyers and sellers felt that as more time had passed the housing values would continue to drop. After stringing together a couple of months of positive numbers and even some markets seeing slight increases in home values most buyers and sellers feel that the housing market has hit its low and will maintain over the next year.
The government single handedly saved the housing market as most felt it would. I have said before and I will always stand behind: Our friends in Washington, regardless of party lines, all agree that housing is a deep rooted issue that directs our economy. A bad housing market means bad everything.

Kessler’s Forecast:
April 1st should not be looked at as a doomsday in the housing market, rather a day that reality will set in. There is no reason why mortgage rates should be at 5%. They should be around 6% based on the current economy. What will happen is the psychology of most buyers will change. There will be many that will think about what they could have had rather than what they can have. When rates do go to 6% it will affect buying power. It can change a borrower’s ability to borrower in excess of $50,000 for a purchase price. While many are predicating that the increase in rates will stunt the growth of the housing sector, I believe it might help. Buyers will need to get off the fence as the fear of increasing rates will encourage them to buy now.
Traditionally when rates rise home values drop. I do not see this happening in our current market. Home values have dropped to such a drastic degree housing that affordability is at an all time low. When the rates do go up I feel the values will remain the same and people will either dedicate more in monthly allowance or look at lower priced homes. Anybody who has been fence riding looking for the housing market to continue to drop will get scared enough by these rising rates to continue the positive direction of the market by buying before rates do get to high to afford what they are looking for.

Fewer Seller’s Drop Their Price

Kessler’s Take:
A sign of stabilization in the housing market would be to see fewer sellers dropping the sales prices to sell their homes.
Trulia reports a decline in the number of home sellers lowering their asking prices at least once to 21% as of January 1st from 22% in December and 25.6% in November, marking the lowest level since April. The average discount held steady at 11%.
This is one of the signs the housing market needed to see to be in a better place than it was. Sellers are usually the last to acknowledge their home is not worth what they think it is. The report to me means seller’s are listing their property closer to what it is actually worth rather than putting a ridiculous asking price and having to drop it several times to entice a buyer to make an offer.
I have personally watched a study where two like houses were trying to sell. The first set the price well over what it was worth in a buyer’s market, the other house listed the price 10% below the market value. While both houses had the same advertising and both had great Realtors representing the properties, the second house that was listed below market value sold higher than the one that started higher.
What happened was buyers came and saw the lower property first. The public open houses did extremely well because the potential buyers saw that this property was a bargain. After a couple of buyers made offers there was a bidding war getting the seller a final offer 5% above what they listed the property for.
The first example did not fair as well. Getting potential buyers into the property was much harder as the buyers in the market thought the seller was out of their mind and the house just was not worth it. As time passed the seller started to drop the price but at this point the property had been on the market for a long period of time begging the question what is wrong with the house. Six months had passed and the seller finally accepted an offer 25% lower than what they had listed the property for. They had it on the market 4 months longer than the other example and sold it for less.
This shows that sellers need to be realistic when putting their house on the market. It is often better to start low and hope for some action than to hang the price high and pray for a bite. The reports done by Trulia show that sellers have acknowledged the value of their homes has come down and are being more realistic with their expectation of the sales price.

Kessler’s Forecast:
The fact that seller’s have a more realistic mentality to their homes value is a huge step in the right direction for the housing market to recover. The tug of war between buyer and seller has slowly died down and has made room for stabilization in the market. 2010 will be the year of stabilization. There will not be a tremendous amount of bidding wars nor price drops if sellers stay realistic with what the market is willing to pay.

Rates

Kessler’s Take:
The 30 year fixed moved down to 5.06% nationally from 5.09% according to Freddie Mac’s Weekly Survey . Last week I forecasted it would be up to 5.13%. This week upcoming should see an additional decrease to 5.01%, rates should remain in the low 5’s until mid February.
Kessler’s Forecast:
Last week (1/7/2010) – 5.13%
1 week (1/21/2010) – 5.01%
1 month (2/18/2010) – 5.35%;
3 months (4/15/2010) – 5.85%;
6 months (7/22/2010) – 6.25%;
12 months (1/20/2010) – 6.50%

Reports

Previous Week:
None

Upcoming Week:

Wednesday, January 20th
December Housing Starts
U.S. Census Bureau

"Can I still refinance my mortgage?" It's one of the most frequently asked questions from homeowners asking following the credit crisis that began in 2007 'began with defaults on mortgages, and soon all kinds of carnage inflicted on Financial markets in the world. The number of delinquent mortgages held by Freddie Mac jumped besieged by 241%, 46% to 1.1% from August 2007 to August 2008.

Bank failure, consolidations and mergers has reached record levels, as well as largeBanks like Washington Mutual and Wachovia fell or were taken over by the FBI to avoid collapse. Many of them were invested heavily in sub-prime or other mortgage products at risk and has paid a heavy price. Other banks face serious problems as the value of the collateral, which was very houses, which were written for the mortgage, before a writing, when the value of residential property has decreased.

Refinance With all this commotion, you can still mortgage when you go home to get out of troublean adjustable mortgage, or take advantage of low interest rates? Fortunately, the answer is "yes", although there are options in this regard is certainly less than it was in 2006 or early 2007. Although not a mortgage ads on the radio singing the praises of flooded badly advised, but very creative mortgage products, not yet for the refinancing.

What can be done to ensure that you are in the best position to refinance mortgages in the face of stiffeningLender requirements? For days of lenders as part of a page from the military, and the hypothesis is not a "question" / not tell "policy in terms of income, credit and employment history lost forever. Only creditors are cautious survivors and cut of the financial sector is not over yet, because this is written.

Your credit card is gold, I, for example, the FICO score is over 780, you have 25% equity in your home, and is not in an area that is experiencing rapid declineValues at home, you can go almost as before. You should refinance a bit 'of trouble. If you have a slightly lower credit score, such as 750-779, it still stands a good chance at a higher rate of interest on a refinancing.

E 'when you start the suspended under the credit scores, and have less home equity for the provider to protect the position that things are a little' difficult. Then you must do your homework and get a plan for your homerefinancing at a rate of interest. Please do not do, if you can still refinance one in many cases.