Mortgage Definitions: Note or Promissory Note

Commonly we are asked to supply a copy of our note when we are refinancing our mortgage or applying for a second mortgage. Many times as a consumer we state what is a note? So I decided to post the definition here:

Note

A legal document that obligates a borrower to repay a mortgage loan at a stated interest rate during a specified period of time.

Your note outlines the specific terms of the loan. When the loan begins, the maturity date, the interest rate and the sum. If it is an adjustable rate mortgage and the terms of the adjustments and if you have a pre-pay. The note can tell you a lot about your loan.

Where can I find a copy of the note?

Generally, you will have a copy of the note in the packet that the title company provided you at the time of signing. It will say not or promissory note at the top of the page. If you are ever in doubt contact your Loan officer and they should be able to guide you.

Until Next Time!

Mortgage Definitions: Servicing

Many times there is confusion when buying a home of whom you will pay in the end. The use of a broker is very common and when we use a broker to help us obtain a mortgage our loan is sold. The broker may obtain the loan for you through Acme wholesale and Acme will promptly sell that debt to an investor. That investor may or may not service the loan. They may have someone else service the loan. So what is Servicing?

Servicing – The collection of mortgage payments from borrowers and related responsibilities of a loan servicer.

If you are like me that leaves me asking the question then what is a servicer?

Servicer – An organization that collects principal and interest payments from borrowers and manages borrowers’ escrow accounts. The servicer often services mortgages that have been purchased by an investor in the secondary mortgage market.

So in the most layman’s term possible servicing and a servicer is the debt collector. This is where you will send your payment and all correspondence about that payment will be made directly through this company.

Don’t Go Assuming Nothing. Or Maybe you Should? Mortgage Definitions: Assumption

As the series on Mortgage Definitions continues we are going to take a look at Assumption. In most cases the root word assume can bring a negative connotation. For Example: “Honey, I assumed you were going to pick up our son from practice.” Another could be “I was under the assumption Michael was going to block the defensive end.” Either case the word is most commonly used in a way that we do not perceive to be a benefit. 

Assumption - The act of taking to or upon oneself – One of many of the definitions in Merriam-Webster pertains to the assumption of a new obligation. 

In the world of Mortgage Government loans are in many cases assumable. Hud defines an Assumable Mortgage in their Mortgage Glossary well. In short a mortgage that may be assumed simply means that the buyer can take over the mortgage of the seller under the same terms and the same balances. The buyer will have to credit qualify for the mortgage and there may be a small fee but this can be very attractive. 

Example: The seller of a property has an FHA loan which can be assumed at the rate of 4.875%. Rates at the time of the sale of the property are around 7.5%. The seller may advertise that they have an assumable first note at 4.875% making the home more affordable for any potential buyers. The buyer will still have to get a second mortgage for the remainder of what he does not have as a down payment. 

Example: Seller is selling the property for 200K and has a first mortgage for 140K at 4.875%. The buyer will either have to put 60K down or get a second mortgage . Since 100% financing is no longer a viable source and seconds are hard to come by the best case is the buyer has the money down. 

The Assumption Clause  is the provision written in the note that allows the assumption to take place. 

If you are wondering whether or not your loan is assumable check for the assumption clause in the note or contact your Mortgage Professional and they can help you. 

Assumption is another reason amongst many that I think that FHA in most cases is better than a conventional loan. It provides a unique selling proposition that the Conventional Mortgage cannot provide.

 

Mortgage Insurance: Definitions in Mortgage

Mortgage Insurancecan be like gum on your shoe on a hot day. In the years 2002-2007 everyone would avoid Mortgage insurance like is was a plague. The way that we would avoid Mortgage Insurance was by getting an first mortgage and combining with a second mortgage. This type of structuring was commonly referred to as 80/20, 80/10/10 or 75/25. This numbers referred to the LTV/CLTV (http://mattfreeman.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/loan-to-value-definitions-in-mortgage-continued/) .

The break-even of an investor that is lending money is considered to be 80% so if you borrow less than 80% than the investor does not need any protection. If you borrow more than 80% on one loan then the investor wants to have protection in the event you default. When you default and they have to take back the property and they have giving 90% of it’s value their loss can be 10% or greater after all the expenses to foreclose. Please be aware that there are a few exceptions to the rule namely VA and USDA loan programs.

This is where Mortgage Insurance comes into play. The mortgage insurance protect the investor when a consumer defaults and repays them for any losses that they may take. Mortgage Insurance can take on many forms and I suggest that you talk to your Mortgage Professional for the one that may best suit your situation. A few of the types of Mortgage Insurance are as follows:

BPMI – Borrower Paid Mortgage Insurance - commonly used with an FHA loan borrower paid mortgage insurance is paid by the borrower on a monthly basis. For FHA there is an Upfront Mortgage Insurance Premium and then the monthly expense. This monthly expense is in addition to your principle and interest payment, your taxes and you homeowners insurance.

LPMI – Lender Paid Mortgage Insurance – As the name states the lender pays the mortgage insurance premium for you in theory. What they do is raise the rate that you would have gotten by a said amount to cover their risk. The increased rate that you pay covers the losses because the rate is above market. (Why would you want this?)

I am glad you asked that question. In 2007, Mortgage Insurance, became tax deductible. (please note that I am not a CPA and any information here is strictly to illustrate my point. Please consult your CPA for your situation prior to making a decision). However, there were some provisions to what and who could deduct this premium. If you make greater than 100K gross you cannot deduct BPMI. Those that are in that category would have better tax benefits going with LPMI because the MI is built into the rate and Mortgage Interest is always deductible(primary residence).

The reason that 80/20 or 75/25 or 80/10/10 were popular was because the first mortgage was under the 80% break-even and the second mortgage would generally attach a higher rate by 2-3% to absorb the risk they were taken. Second Mortgage were also smaller loans.

You may here the terms PMI(private mortgage insurance), BPMI, LPMI, MIP(mortgage insurance premium) and it can get very confusing. I always recommend that you consult your professional to help explain anything you may be unsure of.

To end this summary of Mortgage Insurance I like to always give a few examples of what I might recommend and when we need or do not need mortgage insurance.

Ex. 1 -  Purchase Price 100K and you need a loan for 85K. Do we need Mortgage Insurance? The answer is yes. Since we are borrowing over 80% of the value of the home BPMI or LPMI would be needed. Another way to finance this to avoid Mortgage insurance would be to do an 80% first mortgage and a 5% second mortgage and putting 15% down. However, second mortgages are the 2009 dinosaur equivalent. They are almost extinct.

Ex. 2 – Purchase Price 200K and you need a loan for 160K.  Do we need Mortgage Insurance? The answer is no. In this case the LTV is exactly 80% and at this LTV and below there is no need for Mortgage Insurance.

In summary, Mortgage insurance is a fee that is paid by you and it is to protect the investor that is taking the chance on lending you more that 80% of the value of the home. It can be dropped when your home reaches that 80% LTV range but can be difficult to do. If you have an FHA mortgage they require 60 payments and a LTV of 78% before you an get rid of it.

If you have any questions regarding what is in this post please leave a comment or call me in the office. Thank you for your time.

As Always, Thank you for reading.

Matt Freeman

Loan to Value: Definitions in Mortgage Continued

Buying a new home or refinancing your existing mortgage is something that hopefully everyone will experience at one point in their life. Mortgages are tailored for the individual or couple that is buying the home. They are assessed by the overall risk the investor will have on the loan based on the qualifications of the consumer. Yesterday we discussed DTI or Debt to Income which is the borrowers ability to repay the debt. Today I would like to take a look at the collateral side of lending commonly referred to as LTV or Loan to Value.

Like DTI, Loan to Value is also expressed as a ratio. It is the amount you will finance for the purchase or refinance divided by the value of the home. The home is what is used as collateral and the greater the equity the lower the risk. Another way to put that would simply be low LTV lowers the risk and high LTV increases the risk.

Let’s look at an example for a refinance transaction. You currently owe approximately 150K on your home. An independent appraisal has determined that the value of your home is approximately 300K. The loan to value on your home would be:

loan amount / appraised value = LTV   150K / 300K = 1/2 = 50%.

We never would use the 1/2 in the example as the number is always expressed as a percentage however, for the example I wanted to illustrate the correct math. 50% LTV would be considered as a low risk loan to value. That means that you have 50% equity in the home and in the event the lender had to take back the property via Foreclosure they would be able to sell for a profit.

80% LTV is considered the break even point for an investor that has to foreclose on a property. They spend approximately 20% of the equity in fees, marketing and reduction of price as well as the holding costs if they are to retake the property. This is exactly why they need insurance know as Mortgage Insurance when our LTV exceeds 80%.

Let’s take a loook at another example. You are buying a home and you have 3.5% to put down as a down payment. The home that you would like to buy is selling for 100K. This means that you would need to finance 96, 500K of the purchase:

LTV = Loan Amount/Appraised Value = 96,500k / 100,000k = 96.5% LTV(please note that purchase price and appraised value can be different. In the event they differ on a purchase the investor will base LTV off the lower of the two.)

We have looked at a few basic examples of LTV here today. The last thing that I would like to dicuss briefly is CLTV. CLTV stands for combined loan to value. This is when you have two or three loans on a property. If you have a loan for 100K and a second mortgage for 50K and the value of the property is 300K how would you determine the combined loan to value? Let’s look at an example:

Loan 1 + Loan 2 / Appraised Value = CLTV; 100k + 50k / 300k = 150k / 300k = 50% CLTV.

These are very basic examples and I must tell you that there is always an LTV and sometimes a CLTV. You will have both in many cases:

Example above the LTV = 100k / 300k = 33% and the CLTV = 100k + 50k / 300k = 50%.

CLTV may also be referred to TLTV or HCLTV which are total loan to value and heloc combined loan to value.

I hope that you enjoyed this information on LTV. Stay tuned for definitions of credit and mortgage insurance coming soon.  As always thank you for listening.

 

 

Definitons: DTI also known as debt to income

DTI also known as debt to income is becoming one of the most important factors when obtaining a loan. The debt to income is a ratio of your debt versus the gross monthly income. This ratio is largely evaluated when determining the risk of the loan. Here is how we calculate your debt to income.

Front end debt to income is the total housing expense divided by your gross monthly income. Total housing expense includes your principle and interest, mortgage insurance, taxes and homeowners insurance monthly. This is commonly referred to as PITI, principle, interest, taxes and insurance. The mortgage insurance is not always charged.

Ex. (excludes mortgage insurance) 100K loan amount @ 6% interest = $599.55 principle and interest + $104.17 taxes and $30 for homeowners insurance = $733.72. If you make $3,000 per month gross then your front end DTI will be $733.72/$3000 = 24% housing debt. This means that your housing debt monthly is 24% of your gross monthly.

The back end ratio which is very closely looked at will take into account the minimum monthly debts that you are expected to pay that report to your credit. Examples include credit card minimums, car payments, student loans, or any other note loan. So the back end ratio will be the housing expense + all the minimum amounts due divided by your gross monthly.

Ex. car payment = $300, credit cards = $300 and student loan = $200 then you have $800 debt load per month. If the house payment is $733.72 + $800 = $1533.72 divided by the gross monthly income of $3000 will give you the back end ratio of 51%.

51% back end ratio would be considered very high and you would have to have compensating factors.

When evaluating your own debt to income simply remember the new total housing payment + other debts that are required to be paid on the credit divided by your gross monthly income should give you an idea. The recommendations for an FHA loan are 31/43 which would include the additional payment of mortgage insurance. Dave Ramsey in his book The Total Money Makeover recommends that your housing payment or front end ratio should never exceed 25%.