The Ben Borden Mortgage TEAM; The leading source for home loans throughout Virginia!

A Loan Officers Point of View
Me like every one else has been watching the news concerning the so called “Subprime Woes”. Of course all the talk is blaming the lender, brokers and anyone else but the borrower. The fact is during the course of 2000-2005 and even today many, not most, sub prime AND prime borrowers only care about the lowest rate and fees with no regard to how the loan will affect their overall financial well being. [Read more →]

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Dow 13,000… Are we heading to a recession or is the Fed on track to tame inflation? The latter seems to be the thought of many. The GDP numbers came out on Friday and were way below expectations at 1.3%. But those who looked deeper in the numbers saw that wage inflation was lurking around in the ECI or Employment Cost Index. The Subprime market and gas prices have the consumers on edge. I am still on the side that feels rates will be lowered in the late fall or mid winter. With this in mind, I would still opt for short mortgage terms, ie. 1 to 3 years.

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It is very important that home buyers choose the right real estate agent. I can not stress this enough. A real estate agent is more than someone to show you homes for sale. The majority of the real estate markets in Virginia such as, Northern Virginia real estate market, Fredericksburg Real Estate, Tidewater real estate and Richmond real estate markets are hot. More often then not, when you submit a contract there is already a contract on that home. When it comes to having someone represent you as a buyer, it is incredibly important that you have a strong negotiator. [Read more →]

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There is a little known way that you can own a home with no money. No down payment and no “out of pocket” closing costs. The idea is called a “seller concession”. Seller concessions are when the home seller agrees to offer a percentage of the sales price, anywhere from 1% to 6%, as a credit for your down payment or closing costs.Very simply, Lets say you were buying a home for $150,000. In the contract to buy the home its written that the seller agrees to pay 3% or $4,500 towards all closing costs, pre-paids or points. [Read more →]

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I thought this was a pretty interesting article. Speaking with many of my customers they informed me that they had previously believed using mortgage brokers in Virginia was somehow more expensive.J.D. Power and Associates Reports: Mortgage Brokers Provide Valuable Service for Home Loan Customers. Although slightly fewer than one-third of mortgage shoppers use a broker to help them find their current mortgage, those customers who do tend to be very satisfied with the lending experience, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2005 Home Mortgage StudySM released today.Among consumers who responded to the survey, 29 percent indicate that they contacted a broker to help them find their current mortgage. Those customers who used mortgage brokers tend to be substantially more satisfied with the broker personnel compared with those who interfaced directly with the lender’s personnel.

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