Troll’s Blog

FHA Streamline Refi’s have less MI starting Jan 26th

For those of you with FHA loans there is some good news. FHA has reduced the monthly mortgage insurance by a half of a percentage point. The old rate was 1.35 and the new rate is .85. This means we can reduce your monthly mortgage insurance and most likely reduce the interest rate on your mortgage simultaneously through a FHA streamline refinance. Give us a call today for a quote at 206-204-4000.

The Troll

Celebrate Veterans Day with an IRRRL (Earl)

Happy Veterans Day to all of you who have served our country. The VA has made it incredibly easy to lower mortgage rates for its veterans through the IRRRL (Earl) streamline refinance program. This program allows VA borrowers the ability to take advantage of today’s really low interest rates without the hassle of a formal refinance. The Earl requires no income qualification, no appraisal and no mortgage seasoning whatsoever. It’s so easy! Even if you have just recently completed your VA loan, interest rate movements in the past month can still allow us to substantially lower your interest rate with minimal or in many cases no closing costs at all. The Earl is an incredible opportunity for veterans and the Troll is proud to offer it to his customers. All VA loans in Washington are eligible so please call the Troll at 206-204-4000 for a quick chat and a quick quote to see if Uncle Sam can save you money.

Thank you for your service

The Troll

Deflation, the Boogie Man

Consumers like a good deal right? They like to get the best price for the product they are after and are typically willing to shop for it, especially since the Great Recession. It would seem on the surface that deflation is a positive circumstance. It isn’t. The problem with deflation is our economy is primarily consumption driven. Consumer spending accounts for 70% of our nations GDP. If prices start to fall people are more apt to put off major purchases because they feel they can get the same product later at a discount. When spending drops, so do corporate revenues, companies then feel pressure to cut costs, which leads to layoffs and other personnel cutbacks. Companies are likely to freeze salaries or even cut pay for those workers remaining. Dwindling income makes consumers even more leery about spending money, worsening the whole cycle.

At the moment deflation is a very real concern. The U.S. inflation rate dropped from 2% in July to 1.7% in August and will probably come in lower during the rest of the year because plunging oil prices will lower the cost of gasoline and other products affected by petroleum or energy costs.

The only way to stop the Boogie Man is by making borrowing super easy and inexpensive. Will lower rates be the result?

The Troll

Interest Rate Report

Interest Rate Report

Rates have fallen over the past few weeks and the stock market’s volatility has aided the decline. Remember, when investors feel pressure they turn to the safety of bonds. When this flight to safety ensues interest rates drop. That is exactly what has occurred. The bottom line is the economy is not rolling along and there is again the opportunity to take advantage of historically low interest rates.

The Troll

Seattle Real Estate Recovery

The figures are out and the recovery has been made. The median price for a single family residence in Seattle rose to $543,500, handily eclipsing the past high of $501,000 set in August of 2007 just before the real estate crash. The reasons for the recovery are straight forward. Seattle has a solid job market, interest rates are still low and the supply of housing has been a measured pace.

If you are looking to buy a house in Seattle you should seriously consider working with the Troll. He can find your house, complete your loan and Save You Money! The Troll’s commission is paid by the seller and the lender respectively. Therefore, he is happy to absorb your closing costs associated with this lucrative endeavor. Give us a call and we can prequalify you on the spot. Remember, the Troll won’t sell you a house he wouldn’t buy himself.

The Troll

The VA IRRRL – A Great Program for Veterans!

There is great news out for those who have served our country and also have a mortgage. The VA has released a program that makes it super easy to reduce interest rates on VA loans with hardly any paperwork required. The best part of the IRRRL is that we can most likely reduce your interest rate with zero closing costs! The IRRRL requires no employment, income or asset information. There is also no appraisal requirement as well. It’s that easy. Give us a call today and we can get you headed in a better direction on your mortgage.

The Troll

Is Mel Watt in Over His Head?

The Troll has just read a piece at Rueters written by Margaret Chadbourn regarding the inaction of Mel Watt the newly appointed director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The link is here http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/14/us-usa-housing-regulator-idUSBREA3D0NA20140414 .

As you know, the Troll has been an advocate for Mel Watt being named the director of the FHFA. At the moment the Troll is beginning to doubt his own optimism. The silence from the leader of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is speaking volumes.

In the article the author makes some significant observations. One is that Mel Watt has been completely silent. There has been nothing from him regarding any assistance becoming available to the 7-10 million homeowners currently underwater on their mortgages. These folks are the unlucky ones that have loans not backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Director Watt is quoted in the article saying he is “meeting all day and reading all night”. You would think by now he would have something to say.

Conversely, in Oregon there is a program that has been expanded nicknamed the Merkly Mortgage (named after the Senator) that is assisting those with loans not backed by Fannie or Freddie. You should Google it.  The question must be asked, why can’t the director of the monstrosities that are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac put together a program that can assist these types of loans and the State of Oregon can? If you are one of these people or someone who cares about the well being of other Americans hurt by the Credit Crisis/Great Recession make your voices heard. You can contact FHFA Director Mel Watt directly at director@fhfa.gov or 202.649.3800. You should also contact your representatives in Congress to voice your displeasure. Don’t be satisfied with a canned auto response, follow up with a phone call. It’s up to us to help ourselves.

UPDATE

MEL WATT DOES NOT HAVE THE BACKBONE TO HELP MILLIONS OF AMERICANS CURRENTLY UNDERWATER ON THEIR MORTGAGES. MEL WATT SHOULD STEP DOWN…

The Troll

 

All quiet on Harp 3.0 – Call your members of Congress!

The new director of the FHFA Mel Watt has been on the job for roughly 1 month. In that time nothing new in regards to changes for the HARP program have surfaced. The Troll himself has written an email to the director at director@fhfa.gov . I encourage all of you to do the same. I specifically wrote about underwater mortgages ineligible for the current HARP rules due to them not being backed by Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. Here is the paraphrased response I received –

 

Thank you for contacting the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator and conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Although there is pending legislation, at this time there is not a HARP 3.0 program in place. Therefore, you may wish to contact the members of Congress that represent your area. Should there be a future announcement regarding any changes to the HARP guidelines, it will be posted at http://www.fhfa.gov.

The FHFA does not have the legal  authority to extend the HARP program to those entities outside of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

 

So there you have it. Although there is pending legislation it appears we still need momentum to get this over the hump. If you want an opportunity to save money by refinancing Shout it from the Rooftops! Millions of people could be affected in a positive way. The Troll knows because he has helped hundreds do it.

The Troll

Mell Watt is Kicking @$$ and Taking Names! UPDATE-NOT!

In his first major policy shift from the outgoing FHFA director, Mel Watt is moving quickly. Watt has decided to delay the previously planned fee increases for federally held mortgage loans. This is an about face if you will that might signal the beginning of a new policy that is more consumer/homeowner friendly. The goal of the planned increases to these fees was to shrink the footprint of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In other words reduce the amount of loans being serviced by these 2 GSE’s. This might be construed as a signal that Harp 3.0 is in the works and Homeowners across the country will soon be able to refinance their mortgages to historic low rates.

UPDATE

MEL WATT HAS PROVEN THAT HE DOES NOT HAVE THE BACKBONE TO HELP MILLIONS OF AMERICAN BORROWERS CURRENTLY UNDERWATER ON THEIR MORTGAGES. MEL WATT SHOULD STEP DOWN…

The Troll

Harp 3.0 news and Who is Mel Watt?

Hello my loyal followers. Today I’d like to provide some news about Harp 3.0. At long last, the Democrats in the Senate have overcome the Republican filibuster to the nomination of Mel Watt as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. As previously posted, this means that Mel Watt is officially the director of the FHFA and all indications are that he will push Harp 3.0 into action. Mel Watt is a longtime congressman of North Carolina was tabbed to be the director of the FHFA by the Obama administration. The goal of the nomination was to bring mortgage relief to the millions of Americans that have not been able to refinance under the current Harp 1.0 or 2.0 structure. Specifically those homeowners with mortgages not backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. In addition to those folks there is speculation that the program will be widened to include re-Harping, changing eligibility dates to increase the availability of Harp 3.0 to more Americans and streamlining the employment and income requirements to allow those previously unable to qualify to take advantage of the program as well. These are big changes that will bring historic interest rates to millions! This is the moment many have been waiting for!

I will update the blog as soon as more information comes available.

The Troll

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