The Mortgage Brothers Show

Up to date news, tips, and advice, so you can make real estate decisions with confidence.

Interest Rates Are Going Up for 2nd Homes and Investment Properties

04-12-2021About MortgagesEddie Knoell

Interest rates for second homes and investment properties are going up. In the last couple of weeks, the big agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, basically said that they don’t want to have more than 7% of their whole pool of loans to consist of second homes and investment properties. So, for example, if they bought a thousand loans, they don’t want more than 70 of those to be second homes or investment properties. They’re cutting it down by about half from where it was before.

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What are Closing Costs on a Home Purchase?

04-09-2021About MortgagesEddie Knoell

This week we are talking about closing costs on purchases and how to understand them. Questions we’ll be covering include: What are closing costs? What are the typical average closing costs when it comes to a home purchase? How much are they?

We’re going to answer these questions in the context of a real sample deal that we’ve been working on. If you want to follow along with a visual aid, we suggest watching the video above.

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What are Closing Costs When You Refinance Your home?

04-08-2021About MortgagesEddie Knoell

Today we are covering closing costs in relation to refinances. There’s a lot of confusion as to what closing costs are, especially when it comes to getting the prepaids right, and how much they usually cost.

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How Much Home Can You Afford VS How Much Home Should You Buy?

03-23-2021About MortgagesEddie Knoell

A lot of people ask us “how much can we qualify for” or “how much should we qualify for?” when it comes to applying for a mortgage. In other words: What prices of home should I be looking at?

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When Refinancing Is It Better To Roll In Closing Costs Or Pay Them At Closing?

03-21-2021About MortgagesEddie Knoell

In this post, we’re going to dig into a question we get a lot: Is it better for me to pay my closing costs upfront or roll them all into the loan?

The number you’re thinking about probably isn’t just closing costs alone

Often what you think of as “Closing Costs” are actually the closing costs plus prepaid taxes and insurance, plus an interest rate. When you get a quote from a lender, they’re likely incorporating the prepaid taxes and insurance in the quote for closing costs.

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When is a good time to refinance your home and pay off credit cards, personal loans, and home equity lines (HELOCs)?

02-12-2021About MortgagesEddie Knoell

There’s a whole industry built on trying to help people through bankruptcies and debt consolidation. They have a whole strategy to take all your debt bundled together and help you renegotiate payments. But we’re talking about something very different: refinancing. This comes into play when borrowers have reasonable debt, and they want a structure it inside of a mortgage. They want to take the debt from a car or maybe credit cards, or a home equity line of credit (or HELOC) and combine it.

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Are Mortgage Escrow Accounts Good or Bad?

02-10-2021About MortgagesEddie Knoell

Often times we’ll get borrowers calling us asking what an escrow account is for and if it is a “Good” OR “Bad” thing to have one on a mortgage. We figured we’d dig in a bit and help people get oriented. First off, escrow refers to an arrangement in which a third party temporarily holds a sum of money or property until a particular condition has been met. Now, let’s dive in.

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Can I Get a 3rd Mortgage?

02-01-2021About MortgagesEddie Knoell

We get asked this question all the time, but it’s not always in these exact words. Sometimes it’s: How many mortgages can I get on my home? or How many can you just stack? Oftentimes, it’s people simply wondering if they can get another line of credit. They’re thinking of it that way rather than as in terms of positions.

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VA loan limit update for 2021

01-10-2021About MortgagesEddie Knoell

$0 down up to $1.2 million

Today we are talking about VA home loan limits for 2021. Part of this is reminding people of the VA home loan change that happened in 2020. That’s because the loan limit hasn’t really changed and that’s because…

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FHA loan limit update for 2021

01-10-2021About MortgagesEddie Knoell

This coming year brings some great news when it comes to FHA loans. The limit’s gone up for 2021 and a whole new potential bucket has opened up for interested buyers. The FHA is really helping a lot of people, especially if they’re on the lower end of the credit score or if they have a higher debt to income ratio.

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Conventional loan limit update for 2021

01-10-2021About MortgagesEddie Knoell

It’s the time of the year when new things start coming out — new cars are announced, new trucks. But for loan guys like us, nothing is quite as exciting as the new loan limits. And they’ve come just in time for Christmas and they open up a whole new arena for borrowers.

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What Are Mortgage Trigger Leads? Why Are Strangers Calling Your phone?

01-07-2021About MortgagesEddie Knoell

Today we’re talking about trigger leads. We’re going to cover what they are and how to avoid getting annoying phone calls after applying for a mortgage.

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