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Healthy Diet, Weight Loss, Fitness & God's WordLouis Jeffries (481)    http://healthyweightloss4babyboomers.com Down Payment Assistance and First Time Home Buyers in IllinoisPosted Monday, November 23, 2009 (11 hours 31 minutes ago.) Viewed 1 times. Down Payment Assistance and Illinois. These are the steps to get financial help for a first time home buyer in Illinois. *** Review the complete Home Start guidelines online. *** Contact a loan officer from an approved Home Start lender and get pre-approved. *** Take a 1st time home buyers class. *** Find a home that meets the pre-approval parameters. *** Close on your first home. Illinois Home Start Program. The State of Illinois started a program for first time home buyers to take advantage of the federal stimulus package 1st time home buyer $8,000.00 tax credit to help more people buy homes. The Home Start program was changed to offer financial help for low to moderate income borrowers buying a home in the state of Illinois. The 1st time home buyer can still get the $8,000 tax credit and they would also qualify for the 1st time home buyer grant. To get the financial assistance through the State of Illinois the first step is to understand the program and what help is available. The program is called Illinois Home Start and it offers up to 3 per cent of the purchase price of your new home for down payment and or closing costs when you are buying your new home. Illinois does not lend you money but they give you the financial help. The loan comes from a participating lender and the loan is based on the FHA guidelines. The complete guidelines are listed on the Illinois Housing Development Authority web site. Approved Lender - Knowledgeable Loan Officer. Knowing the benefit of free financial help now you contact a participating lender who will qualify you to purchase a home under the FHA Guidelines. The Illinois Home Start Program has two additional guidelines that most people who qualify for a FHA loan today will meet. First you must have a minimum credit score of 640 and secondly your debt to income ratio can not exceed 43%. Your loan officer can help you determine if you qualify based on these factors and can approve you to receive the financial help. When choosing a loan officer make sure he is knowledgeable about the Home Start Program and FHA guidelines. First Time Home Buyer Class. After you have been approved and before you close the loan you must take a first time home buyer class through a HUD certified agency. This class will help you understand the basics of financing your home. It is highly recommended for all first time home buyers. There are online options but, I suggest you take a class in person because you can ask questions and learn from the questions asked by other participants. Choose Your Home. Once you have been approved to get an FHA loan and qualify for the Home Start financial help, then you and go out and find a home that you like to for no more than the amount that you have been approved to purchase. Once you have found a home and have an accepted offer to purchase said home, your loan officer will register you for Illinois Home Start so you can receive the financial help to purchase your 1st home. Close Your Loan. Buy Your Home. Finally, the lender closes your loan and at closing you are credited 3% of the purchase price toward your down payment. One last thing to know is that you must have a minimum of $1,000 as your minimum investment to purchase your home. That is a good deal. For as little as $1,000 investment you will buy your first home and get down payment assistance in Illinois for 1st Time Home Buyers under the Illinois Home Start Program. -------- A Mortgage Banker for 20 years I have been able establish relationships with banks, lenders and federal, state and local agencies that offer down payment assistace and special programs for first time home buyers. For financing for your first home contact me at Firsttime homebuyer You can also email me a louisj@alldominionmortgage.com 
Permalink Comments (0) Qualifications for a Reverse MortgagePosted Thursday, November 19, 2009 (4 days 6 hours ago.) Viewed 1 times. The FHA Reverse Mortgage. As a senior who has worked hard all your life to provide a quality lifestyle for your family you deserve peace and the same quality lifestyle. Most Americans have the majority of their net worth tied up in the equity of their home. Many are still paying a mortgage. To access that equity and maintain your quality of life without making payments the federal government has made available the FHA insured reverse mortgage to make life easier for senior Americans. This is a loan offered through financial institutions not the federal government, but the program would not be possible and would not have all of its safe guards without the insurance through FHA (the Federal Housing Administration). How to Qualify for a The FHA Reverse Mortgage. To be eligible for Reverse - HECM Mortgage you must: *** You must be 62 years of age or older. *** Own your home. *** Have a low mortgage balance or no mortgage at all. *** Live in your home. *** Complete a counseling class with a HUD approved counselor. *** Own a Home that meets FHA eligibility requirements. *** There are no credit qualification criteria. *** There are no income or debt to income requirements. What Types of Homes are Eligible? For your home to be eligible for a FHA insured HECM Mortgage, it must be a single family attached or detached home or a 2, 3 or 4 unit home with at least one unit occupied by the senior borrower. HUD-approved condominiums, town homes and manufactured homes are also eligible. The homes must not have hazardous deferred maintenance that could be a safety risk to the occupants. How Do I Receive Payments? Once you have qualified and actually receive the loan you have a number of options to consider to get the equity from your home. The option you choose is based on your financial situation. For example some people do not need extra cash if just stop making mortgage payments. Some seniors can handle their monthly bills but have little or no emergency reserves and or can't pay the property taxes on their home. Some seniors need help meeting daily living expenses. Whatever your situation is their is an option to help you enjoy your golden years without worrying about your finances. Your options include: $$$ Receive monthly payments as long as at least one borrower lives and continues to occupy the property as a principal residence. $$$ Receive a lump sum payment of all the proceeds at closing. $$$ Start a HECM line of credit to be used for whatever you want, whenever you want it. The money in your HECM line of credit is available to you whenever you need it until you use it all. $$$ Combination of the three. You can choose to set up a line of credit and an annuity. You can withdraw a portion of your line of credit at closing to do a project immediately while still having funds available for future. Regardless of how you choose to use the money from your FHA insured HECM reverse mortgage as a senior you can enjoy the peace of mind and quality of life you deserve without worrying about meeting monthly living expenses and using the equity in your home without making payments. -------- Louis Jeffries has been a Mortgage Banker for 20 years. Louis specializes in government programs such as FHA, first time home buyers, 203k rehab loans and FHA Reverse Mortgage. Contact Louis for a personal consultation at louisj@alldominionmortgage.com Visit the Blog Reverse Mortgages
Permalink Comments (0) Simple Effective Strategies to Improve Your Fico Credit Score NowPosted Monday, November 16, 2009 (7 days 1 hour ago.) Viewed 1 times. Easily Improve Your Credit Scores. To get the best credit and interest rates you must have the best fico credit scores. These strategies will help you improve your fico credit scores and qualify for the best mortgage rates, auto loan rates and credit cards. Implement these to improve your credit score today. Legal Credit Repair. You have the right to legal credit repair. If you hire a professional company to assist you to remove items from your report that are either inaccurate, improperly reporting or just do not meet the legal standards required for the credit reporting agencies to follow in reporting your credit history or you do it yourself. So the number one strategy that many people use to improve their credit scores is to dispute those items. It is an effective method especially if the you stick to it. Unfortunately, the credit reporting agencies are not eager to help you. In some cases they have been known to arbitrarily dismiss many consumers disputes as frivolous and unfounded. This deters a lot of people. Experts say much as 20% of all disputes that are submitted to the credit bureaus are arbitrarily dismissed as frivolous. That means 80% are reviewed and worked on. Chances are if you dispute the inaccuracies one or 2 more rounds that they will be properly reviewed and handled. Reduce Your Balances and or Increase Your Credit Limits. A second strategy almost as effective as disputing negative items on your credit report is to reduce the balances on your credit cards and or increase your limits. The balanced owed on a credit card as a percentage of the high credit limit affects your credit score. They higher that ratio the lower your score. The lower the ratio the higher the score. This factor alone can account for one client who pays his bills on time every month with a credit score of 750 while another client who also pays their bills on time every month only has a 600 score. A 750 is considered very good credit while a 600 score is fair and the consumer would not qualify for most credit programs. If they do qualify they would pay a higher costs. Paying on time accounts for 35% of your credit score. The available credit factor will account for 30% of your credit score. These two strategies alone can account for 65% of your total score. Negotiate Old Collections and Late Payments. Older negative items on your report have minimal impact on your fico credit score. To improve your fico credit score you want to remove these derogatory trade lines completely from the report. If you pay them off or make payment arrangements you create a new activity that make the negative item a recent activity therefore effectively lowering or worsening your score. This is the exact opposite of what your intentions may be. Improve your score by negotiating with your creditor to pay the item off at a discount and have them completely remove the trade line from your credit bureau report. You must get this in writing before you send them the money. Otherwise they have no incentive to follow through and remove the item. Finally Strategies. These strategies will help you improve your fico credit score allowing you to qualify for the lowest interest rates. Other strategies to remember is time. The longer an account is open the more positive points you add to your credit score. The type of accounts you have also affect your score. Mortgages and installment loans have the highest value, then major bank credit followed by national department store accounts. All other accounts, though they affect your credit score they have less of a positive impact. Use these strategies to improve your credit, get a mortgage, credit card or auto loan. Louis J. -------- Legal Credit Repair is a right not a privilege. Whether you do it yourself or hire a professional you have the right to have inaccurate and improperly reported information removed from your credit bureau report. For more information on legal credit repair send me an email to louisj@howtogetthebest.com or or go to CREDIT REPAIR I will follow up with you and send you a free credit newsletter.
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