by Jennifer Ferri | Jan 6, 2022 | Financing
Property taxes—all homeowners have to pay them, but do we truly understand how they are calculated and assessed? In the state of Florida, property taxes are administered by local governments, which means how the taxes are handled can vary from county to county....
by Jennifer Ferri | Dec 2, 2021 | Financing
How long a lender keeps certain records depends on each individual record itself. For example, creditors must retain escrow cancellation and partial payment policy disclosures for two years, loan estimate records for three years after loan consummation, and...
by Jennifer Ferri | Nov 18, 2021 | Financing, Mortgages
When deciding the maximum loan amount that a buyer can afford, lenders will consider your debt-to-income ratio, which is a comparison of your gross (pre-tax) income to housing and non-housing expenses. Non-housing expenses include such long-term debts as car or...
by Jennifer Ferri | Sep 2, 2021 | Financing
No, we’re not talking about Amazon Prime. In the context of real estate, the Prime Lending Rate – sometimes just called “Prime” – is the interest rate that banks charge each other for overnight loans. Some consumer rates – like ARMs...
by Jennifer Ferri | Jun 10, 2021 | Financing, Mortgages
When it comes to your loan estimate, there are some costs that are paid to outside parties that you are free to shop for by comparing providers for a variety of services. These might include a pest inspection, or a survey to verify property lines, or a range of...
by Jennifer Ferri | Mar 18, 2021 | Financing, Mortgages
Identity fraud is often used in mortgage fraud schemes in order to hide the identity of the perpetrators or to obtain a credit profile that meets lender guidelines. Lenders give loans based on a borrower’s credit profile, and fraudsters often use stolen identities as...
