When you are ready to buy a home your credit score plays a big role in determining what mortgage loan programs you might qualify for, as well as how much you'll pay for mortgage insurance, if you lender requires it. The better a homebuyer's credit risk the more lending opportunities are available to him or her.
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Topics:
Mortgages 101,
Loan Programs,
Mortgage Rates & News
Massachusetts first-time home buyers who fall into the low- to moderate-income category will want to consider the "ONE Mortgage" loan program from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership.
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Topics:
Home-buying Tips,
Mortgages 101,
Loan Programs
When you buy a single-family home or condominium in Massachusetts your mortgage lender will want to know whether the home you are buying is worth the amount of money you have agreed to pay the seller.
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Topics:
Home-buying Tips,
Mortgages 101,
Real Estate Misc.
Homebuyers that have less than a 20 percent down payment when purchasing a home might have to pay monthly private mortgage insurance, or PMI. It also is referred to as just mortgage insurance, or MI.
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Home-buying Tips,
Mortgages 101,
Video
A few months ago all the so-called mortgage experts and real estate pundits were convinced that interest rates for mortgage loans were going to start increasing in 2016, signaling the end of years of abnormally depressed borrowing costs. They predicted homebuyers were about to experience significantly increasing interest rates for the first time in years.
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Topics:
Mortgages 101,
Mortgage Rates & News
A real estate appraisal, sometimes referred to as a home appraisal, is an estimate of a property’s value. Property value is based on such factors as location, amenities, structural condition, square footage, number or bedrooms, number of bathrooms and recent sales of similar nearby properties.
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Topics:
Home-buying Tips,
Mortgages 101,
Real Estate Misc.
A Closing Disclosure is a five-page form that provides the final details about the mortgage loan you have selected. It includes the loan terms, your projected monthly payments, and how much you will pay in fees and other costs to get your mortgage (closing costs).
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Home-buying Tips,
Mortgages 101
Average U.S. mortgage interest rates declined for the fifth straight week, Freddie Mac reported in its weekly mortgage market survey on February 4, 2016.
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Topics:
Mortgages 101,
Mortgage Rates & News
After the lender's real estate attorney, also known as the closing attorney, explains at closing to the homebuyer that by signing the "note" he or she is promising to pay the loan amount back, homebuyers are sometimes surprised when the attorney then presents the mortgage document to be signed.
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Topics:
Home-buying Tips,
Mortgages 101
The new Truth-in-lending RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rules, which went into effect in October, came with some new real estate industry jargon, as well as a new tool for homebuyers to compare home loans offered by competing lenders.
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Topics:
Home-buying Tips,
Mortgages 101,
Mortgage Rates & News
Despite concerns among potential Massachusetts first-time home buyers over the Federal Reserve raising short-term interest rates and how that might eventually affect mortgage interest rates, 30-year, fixed-rate interest rates for home loans have declined and remain low.
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Topics:
Mortgages 101,
Mortgage Rates & News
Not since Y2K have so many predicted such great disruption and chaos in our lives.
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Topics:
Home-buying Tips,
Mortgages 101,
Mortgage Rates & News,
Real Estate Law