I'm no lender, but in my business loans are a very important part of the process. Everyone knows that things have changed in the mortgage industry and continue to change.
It is important for loan officers and real estate agents to keep up on these changes as part of our good customer service for our clients.
In the boom years, rates were low, loans were plentiful and conventional loans were quite easy to get. 80/20 loans were prominant to cover the 100% financing people were looking for. Today things have changed. But there are still some really great loans out there. Actually, I've been working with FHA loans for a number of years with my clients. What surprised me was that a lot of other agents were not and in often cases they didn't even understand the loan to be able to explain it to their sellers (down payment assistance, costs rolled in, etc). I was in a continuing education class one day a few years back and the teacher asked how many people had a client who had gotten an FHA loan in the last six months or a year. I was amazed to see only the hands of myself, my husband and I think one other agent in the whole class. IHFA currently is an extremely popular and seemingly good option for buyers these days as well.
But that's another story. The loan that seems to be my clients loan of choice in the year 2008 is the VA loan. I'm currently working on sale with the Buyer getting a VA loan. They seem to be a really great option for my Buyers right now. Veterans who have never used their VA eligibility are looking into it and applying for their certificate. I'd love if any the mortgage folks who blog on buildingcredibility would take part in a discussion either in the comments section of this post or in a separate post and talk about the benefits of VA loans (as well as FHA and IHFA) to today's consumers.
Kasey Boles - 208-830-6186 - kaseyboles@BoiseRealtyStore.com - Jon Gosche Real Estate
BoiseRealtyStore.blogspot.com - www.BolesBoiseRealEstate.com