Tag Archive for: freddie mac

Seller-Financing Horror Show; Know When To Walk Away, Know When To Run…

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One of our seasoned listing agents just received a seller-financing request that is so crazy, brazen, risky, and awful – that I had to blog about it. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee mortgage financing scenarios that no commercial bank would ever offer. These include low-down-payment scenarios (10% or less), weak-credit scenarios (scores under 680), and high-debt-ratio scenarios. This enables cash-starved and less-established borrowers to buy homes – but it also, of course, artificially inflates demand and housing prices (a topic for another blog).Read More

Using Liquid Assets To Qualify For Loans (Asset Depletion)

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Rates climbed again today, and the reason is interesting. I explain more with my rate quote below. I blogged a few weeks ago about the expansion of DSCR loans, which allow investors to qualify with rental income only: Hoovering Up Sunbelt Rental Properties With DSCR Loans. DSCR loans have become significantly more flexible and prevalent due to the substantial expansion of the overall “Non-QM loan” market over the past few years.Read More

JVM’s New Charity: Condos Without Borders (Delivering Emergency Condo Financing Analyses)

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There are some 43,000 condo complexes in the U.S., containing almost 7.5 million units – mainly concentrated in urban areas with limited land availability.Read More

Mortgage Delinquencies Are NOT Going to Crash The Housing Market; We’re Not Even Close to 2008!

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Housing crash doom porn remains the biggest problem in real estate.Read More

Rates Will Skyrocket When Fannie & Freddie Are Privatized

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There is much talk now about pulling Fannie and Freddie out of conservatorship and effectively privatizing them again – and this is something I personally very much support even if it results in rates going up (because I think it will be temporary).Read More

Have A Condo Listing? What Listing Agents Can Do To Ensure Faster Closes & More Marketability

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No matter how strong a borrower is, lenders will often recommend not waiving contingencies if the borrower is buying a condo. This is because lenders need to ensure that the condo complex is “warrantable” – or compliant with the criteria set forth by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or similar entities to make the condo eligible for financing.Read More

We’re Seeing More Non-Warrantable Condos Than Ever Before

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After the 2008 Great Financial Crisis, we saw an enormous number of non-warrantable condos. The biggest issues then were HOA (Homeowners Association) dues delinquencies and under-funded HOAs in general, as […]Read More

Fannie Mae Keeps Rates 1.5% LOWER – But Do We Need Them?

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I will do anything to avoid going to the post office – and will drive miles out of my way to go to UPS or FedEx instead. The reasons are […]Read More

When High Appraisals Hurt; Fannie & Freddie Not The Same

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An appraiser came in $9,000 over contract price last week on a $297,000 Texas purchase – so woohoo, right? Wrong. It almost killed our deal.Read More

Price Limits For First-Time Homebuyers? Other Limits?

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We have had young first-time homebuyer tech employees come to us wanting to buy $2 million+ homes with $400,000 to $500,000 down payments – and there were no major issues. […]Read More

Fannie & Freddie Supporting Agent Commissions, But…Has Anything Changed?

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FHA allows buyers to finance their upfront mortgage insurance premium (MIP) equal to 1.75% of the loan amount. So, while FHA loans are ostensibly 96.5% loan-to-value, they are effectively around 98.2% loan-to-value loans because almost every FHA loan includes the financed upfront MIP. Read More

ADU/In-Law/Guest Cottage Financing – Part Deux

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I have been blogging about ADUs repeatedly over the last few years because states and local governments are so aggressively encouraging their construction – as a way to solve our […]Read More

Mortgages After Bankruptcies – Easy to Get! Jobs Report Nonsense Again

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Mortgage rates shot through the roof this morning in response to a very strong jobs report! This is exactly what I predicted would happen in my blog yesterday, as the official BLS jobs reports always come out stronger than expected - particularly in January - before getting revised downward in later months.Read More

2024 Conforming Loan Limits Way UP – At the Expense of Your Kids; Fed Lost Control of Bond Market?

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The FHFA (the agency that regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) just announced its new conforming loan limits, and the new limit for “high-cost” areas is now $1,149,825! This means that homebuyers can buy a $1.2 million home with only 5% down. This is amazing, as this used to be solidly in “jumbo territory” – with down payment requirements in the 20% range for competitive financing.Read More