Gary Lau's (gnl123) Blog

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Mortgage and Lending - Wintrust Mortgage Company
RECENT BLOG POSTS
In the last (30) to (60) days our market has changed.  The Banks and GSE's (FNMA/FHLMC) acting as sellers are trying to control the release of their inventory in an effort to stabilize our market - Less supply, increasing demand.  Buyers are encouraged to make their ‘highest & best' offers on pro...
08/21/2009
As part of the Housing Economic and Recovery Act recently passed by the Federal Government, there are changes forthcoming to the Truth In Lending Act.  These changes go into effect for applications taken after 07/30/09.  Application Fees cannot be collected until three days after the initial Trut...
08/03/2009
Most experts suggest you have your credit checked three to four times per year. I would agree, it doesn't hurt to have it checked to make sure there is no erroneous or inaccurate reporting.  Case in point, I had a customer who recently closed and his report (Trans Union) was reporting him decease...
07/20/2009
The ECOA - Equal Credit Opportunity Act requires the following: Lenders provide fair and equal treatment to protected classes of individuals. A decision on a request for credit extension is provided within 30 days of accepting an application for an extension of credit from any applicant.  That d...
06/22/2009
Sellers (if banks or GSE's (FNMA/FHLMC)) and short sales are taking a long time to get paperwork executed and completed and then we, as lenders, are delayed in getting our files into the underwriters. Underwriters, in most cases, are still carrying a heavy workload and delays there should be expe...
06/08/2009
I know I blog about mortgage issues, but this is some encouraging news about the Phoenix real estate market. May residential sales for Greater Phoenix were 9,290. The last time there were more residential sales was 45 months ago in August 2005 when sales were 10,031.  There were 3,653 more sales ...
06/03/2009
This update from Mortgagee Letter 2009-15 establishes guidelines for use of the first-time home buyer tax credit as settlement funds.   Courtesy of Loan Tool Box - www.loantoolbox.com and Jeff Mifsud.   Here are the 10 things you need to know about these changes: 1. The IRS tax credit refund can...
06/01/2009
Special Update: New guidelines were issued today for the monetizing of the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit that was announced by HUD and then delayed by HUD. The primary change is that the money cannot be applied toward the 3.5% down payment. It can be used for a larger down payment or app...
05/29/2009
I posted last week how the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that home buyers would be able to use the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit for down payments on FHA loans by using a bridge loan.  HUD posted this information on its website - HUD Mortga...
05/18/2009
This has not been approved as of yet, but today it was announced that FHA insured mortgages may soon use the new first-time home buyer $8,000 tax credit as a down payment.  US Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary Shawn Donovan made this announcement at a National Association of R...
05/13/2009
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Gary Lau

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