A friend and colleague of mine, Danny Thornton, wrote the following article about getting the loan that is right for you. One of the problems that a lot of First Time Home Buyers run into is dealing with a lender that is not qualified to make FHA, VA or USDA loans. You must be “licensed” to do one of these types of loans. No matter what a lender may say, in a lot of cases, there is no better mortgage than one of these government programs. Dealing with a qualified mortgage professional, who will help guide your choices, is the best way to get the “right” loan. A conventional loan may be the right choice, but if you don’t have all of the choices, how can you know?

Friday, February 13, 2009

Getting the right loan

When I have talked to people over the last 6 to 8 months, it seems one of their biggest concerns is whether or not their loan officers are giving them the best loan for them. Too many times have I witness loan officers getting on a kick of selling just FHA loans and frankly ignoring USDA, VA, or even conventional loans. The problem with this is that they might not be getting you, the consumer, the best loan for your circumstances.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. A few months back I had a customer call me distraught. The lender that they had contacted previously had qualified them on a conventional loan and the customer had to bring almost $20,000 to the table. The down payment was 10%. After asking a few questions, I found out that the customer was a veteran. Upon realizing this, I immediately thought of the VA loan. In this case, he could get in the home at 100% financing, pay his closing cost, and still have money in the bank for a rainy day. With the conventional loan, he would have been tapped out in the bank.
After digging a little deeper, I realized that this mishap was not the fault of the loan officer though. When I went to their website, I found out that they were not licensed to sell VA or FHA loans. This is something that is very important to know going in when dealing with a mortgage company. Also, another thing to take into consideration is the fact that just because a lender is licensed FHA or VA, it does not mean that they also carry all the products that either of them has available.

The last thing I would like to add to this is that government loans are the almost only way you can purchase a manufactured home on its own land with less than 20% down and also the only one I know of that you can get cash out on a refinance with. If you are working with a lender that doesn’t offer FHA, VA or USDA loans, you might be missing the best product for you.

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