When you participate in a reverse mortgage, you are taking out a loan on your house. Senior citizens can receive a lump sum, or monthly payments. Payment of the loan back to the bank is deferred for senior citizens until they pass away, the home is sold, or they are not living in the home any longer. This is desirable for many senior citizens because they are able to stay in their homes. What’s more, if done properly, senior citizens are still able to pass real estate onto their children and/or grandchildren once they pass away. Discuss your reverse mortgage options with your lender before making any decisions. For many seniors who don’t want to leave their homes, reverse mortgages add freedom and financial certainty they didn’t have before.

Established in 1944, with the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act, benefits were expanded in 1978 with the Veteran’s Housing Benefits Improvement Act. There are fees and restrictions, including when members of the military remarry, so it’s important to speak with your housing lender, as well as your military loan officer before making any decisions about purchasing a home. VA loans are also location specific, and fees are often based on where in the United States you live. However, if you are in the military and you need a home for your family (especially when/if you are away) the VA home loan is a great option for those who have served in the military.

What a loan officer can do is show you different options and loan programs so you may fall within the tolerances of the numbers and be approved for a loan. We can also help you find a program that may help you with down payment money or get approved for a different type of loan program. Some are dependent upon income, family size or location but you won’t know unless you ask. Just remember; what we cannot do is mess with the numbers as they will always tell you the truth.

But as we get ready for Thanksgiving, we are looking at a year that has been very hard for many and thankful it is behind us as we look forward to opportunities and better times ahead. Homes are selling and loans are still affordable as we head into 2010. It look like the Congress will pass another type of stimulus to encourage home ownership for new owners and maybe even for those who would like to move up into a larger home for the sake of a growing family or business. Stay tuned to learn the details as they become available.

There are still a few federal and state programs that can help some people who qualify but the best thing to do is to make sure your credit is above 620, you have at least 3.5% to put down for FHA and at least 5% for a conventional loan and you have a good consistent income coming in. The industry as a whole is going back to very basic lending practices and that means you have to show and prove yourself worthy of getting credit extended to you because banks and investors want to make sure they get their money back. May sound harsh but that is the nature of the business.

When we can close a loan it will already have an appraisal and the client has given us all the documentation along with an appraisal that can be easily transferred.  Other than this scenario, loans take at least two to three weeks to even think about being closed. If you could sit with a processor and underwriter and see how many times they touch each file to order, clear and calculate you would be amazed they turn the loans as quickly as they do. While loan officers are the fuel, it is all the people that work on the backend that make up the engine that allows your mortgages to get processed, underwritten and funded. These people are amazing at what they do and deserve more credit than ever given.

This month I had a client purchase a bank owned property (REO); one who purchased a loan with the assistance of Affordable Housing; another who purchased with the help of a gift from his parents; and another who just moved here to retire.  So you can see, people are indeed purchasing property in the Nashville area.  If you’re ready, you can too.

I was not interested in going to one of the “big guys” as they are the ones who have been most affected by the mortgage back security mess more than some of the smaller banks.  Mortgage companies who are trying to sell mortgage back securities in order to maintain their business models are having a tough time as well finding investors to purchase this paper and seem to be struggling.  What that leaves are the smaller local and regional banks that have the flexibility to sell their mortgage paper or portfolio them within the bank.  It seems smart to me to go with the most flexibility right now.

The bottom line for borrowers is getting the loan they need at a good competitive rate.  New South Federal definitely has this in their favor.  In the end it’s my clients that ultimately win and if they win, I win.