Mortgage Hackr?

Amazon is getting into mortgage game.

Amazon is getting into the lead generation game. Doesn’t really involve mortgages at all. Just sending prospective buyers information to large real estate corporations (realogy).

An interesting model would be banks providing real estate agents fee free if you take a loan out with them for the home (maybe with a refi penalty). Especially in high priced cities, real estate agents do a job that a corporation, with efficient control of resources, could have salaried employees do for way less.

Slightly off topic, but interested to hear what others have to say about rolling student loan debt into mortgage. I have researched this to death and consensus is great idea for those struggling to make payments, terrible idea for most as hidden fees, costs associated with refinancing. To lay out an ideal scenario for discussion 60k equity in current home, 40k in student loan debt. This is not me as I researched and just making double strident loan payments, a friend said he was going to attempt this I am trying to talk him out of it, want to hear what others have done.

It probably heavily depends on the interest rate on the student loan and the interest rate on the new mortgage.

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The risk of missing a series of student loan payments is bad credit.

The risk of missing a series of mortgage payments is bad credit and foreclosure.

Generally, the interest rate on a mortgage is lower than student loans and the amortization schedule on the mortgage is 30yrs vs 10yrs for student loans.

To use your numbers 40K student loans at 6% for 10yrs amounts to about $445 per month, while 40K at 4% for 30yrs is only $190, needless to say the monthly payment is more manageable but keep in mind in the LONG run you will pay more total interest given the longer amortization schedule. You can offset this by sending the same $400+ payment now as part of your mortgage, even if you mortgage only when up by $200 bc of the additional 40K you rolled in.

Note that cash out refi for debt OTHER than home improvements have tax implications. If you have positive equity in your home, refi to pay off student loans could work in your favor from monthly payment perspective but keep in mind the long run cost and potential tax implications.

As a small business owner, do any members have any recommendations of where to go to see what I might qualify for as well as what changes I need to make to my 2019 tax return for a mortgage? I ask because local brokers (I am in Connecticut) want 2 years of tax returns, which I am fine with, but also want to do a hard credit pull, which I am not.

I plan on applying for a mortgage sometime between April 2020 & September 2020. My fiance is a W2 employee so she is simple.

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As a business owner most mortgage companies will need your company’s 2 year taxes as well as yours. If you are pulling any money from business for down payment they might ask for a letter from your CPA stating that there is no restriction to withdraw funds from business account.

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PM me I have a couple of suggestions.

If you can’t get decent advice from a mortgage company based on hypothetical scenarios, you’re talking to the wrong people.

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Rates will likely be different in the spring than they are now. If the broker wants to do a hard credit pull they’re trying to prequalify you, but if you’re not ready to shop and lock in yet that doesn’t make sense. If you want them to look over everything and make sure you have the right stuff in place before or get an idea how much you can borrow, you should be able to bring them 2 years tax returns, current bank statements, and your credit score from a bank/credit card that offers it (I have 5 different bank or credit cards that show me my current fico score at any time from their app). They should know their lenders and guidelines well enough to guesstimate Bank X will offer you Y with 5% down / Z points / Rate etc.

Looking into doing refinancing with third federal. Deciding between 3/1 @ 3.09% or 5/1 @ 3.39 % with closing cost of $295. The difference coming out to be $74/month. Hoping to do a relock if rates fall further. What do you guys recommend. Is 3 year too short a term to lock into? For relock, option is to relock another 3 year term and can’t switch products (maybe full refinance again if needed).

Fixed rate only IMHO. Did you get the fixed APR as well?

If I see I may be able to get a 3% on fixed or below I may actually refinance my place as well. As long as the market appreciates above the my APR I’m in no hurry.

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For 30 yr fixed, with very low closing costs (under $1000), seeing rate still around 4%, may be slightly lower. That doesn’t helps much in lowering payments.

If you haven’t already, make sure you calculate the break-even point for taking a lower rate and paying more fees upfront.

I’ve never come out ahead taking the lower upfront fee option on a mortgage (but that doesn’t mean you won’t).

Thanks. Will do that. Was looking into low fees upfront as it will be easier to relock if rates fall further.

I’m a Third Federal mortgage customer.

The relock fee is $295 no matter which option you choose at origination, and the relock process is identical either way.

The only difference is if you select the low fee option upfront you’ll pay a higher interest rate.

As a fully recovered, prior ARM holder: don’t get an ARM UNLESS your house was already paid off and you just want something for the deduction. I had a 5/1 when the housing crisis hit and had to scramble- I got BofA to modify the 1st/ARM after 2 years but the second was a balloon I couldn’t shake until I sold the house.

Get yourself one 30y fixed and ideally put as little down to avoid PMI as possible, with one of my banks that is only 3%

Why would you lock into this rate at such a low rate?

I also had an ARM (I believe it was also 5/1) when the crisis hit, and every time it adjusted the rate went down.

I eventually did a HARP with an LTV of LOL, which got me into a 30/fixed, and it ended up costing me a lot of money unnecessarily. I should have let the rate continue to float.

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