If you’ve paid a significant amount of your loan’s balance down, you may have some decent home equity. Even if you’ve only paid on your loan for a little while, but your home appreciated, you may have more equity than you thought. Should you use the equity? If so, what’s the best use for it?Compare Offers from Several Mortgage Lenders.Keep reading to find out the top … [Read more...] about The Top 5 Ways to Use Home Equity
Standard and Stated Income Loans: What’s the Difference in Guidelines?
Stated income loans haven’t gone away totally, as some people mistakenly believe. While you won’t find them offered by every lender today, there are some that still offer it. Before you decide which loan option is right for you, it’s important to understand the different requirements of the two loans.Compare Offers from Several Mortgage Lenders. Standard Loan … [Read more...] about Standard and Stated Income Loans: What’s the Difference in Guidelines?
How to Get a Free Copy of Your Credit Report
Did you know that you should check your credit report at least once a year? Did you also know that you can get a free copy of your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus? Technically, this means that you can get a copy of your credit report three times. You can do it all at once or you can request one report every few months to take a year-round peek at your … [Read more...] about How to Get a Free Copy of Your Credit Report
How Much of the VA Loan Does the VA Guaranty?
The VA guarantees loans. This is how VA lenders are able to give you a loan with no down payment without requiring crazy hard requirements. In fact, the VA has some of the most relaxed requirements of any loan program today. The VA guarantees the loans in an effort to encourage VA lenders to provide veterans with loans.Compare Offers from Several Mortgage Lenders.The VA … [Read more...] about How Much of the VA Loan Does the VA Guaranty?
How High can Your DTI be for VA Loans?
Most loan programs today look closely at your debt ratio. They want to make sure that you aren’t over committing your finances. For example, conventional loans have debt ratios of 28% for your housing ratio and 36% for your total debt ratio. VA loans, though, don’t have such specific ratios. While they have a maximum ratio they would prefer, they don’t put a lot of emphasis on … [Read more...] about How High can Your DTI be for VA Loans?