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What is mortgage planning?

Mortgage Planning is the process of carefully evaluating your mortgage lender Tampa FL options and choosing the right mortgage strategies.  Your mortgage is most often your single largest debt and your home is most often your single largest financial investment.

Tory has 22 years of experience in the mortgage business.  Tory was a mortgage consultant with Wells Fargo for 12 years and now has 10 years of experience with an independent mortgage broker.  Brokers do it better as Tory can shop with many lenders to find the lowest interest rates for you!  Previously located in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Tory is a mortgage lender in Tampa, Florida and helps homeowners and prospective homeowners throughout the great states of Florida, Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Whether you are interested in purchasing a home or refinancing your home, Tory will work with you individually to create the plan that works best for you.

What are the 3 C’s of mortgage planning?

The 3 C’s of mortgage planning are Character, Capacity and Collateral. Character is determined by your credit worthiness, in other words, your credit score and credit report. Having a higher credit score can mean a lower interest rate for you. Ways to improve your credit score are paying your loans on time, not getting too close to your credit limit, having a long credit history and making sure your credit report doesn’t have errors. You can obtain your full credit profile once a year for free at: annualcreditreport.com. If you want your scores, there is a small fee. Tory,mortgage lender Tampa, Florida, can work extensively with you to help repair your credit report. Give Tory a call or text today at 651-206-1076 to see what he can do to improve your credit scores. You also can email Tory@mortgage-planning.com.

Capacity is your ability to repay the loan.  Be prepared to provide your recent bank statements, investment accounts, and proof of income.  Qualifying for a mortgage involves lots of documentation and I want to take the frustration out of it for you.  The more organized you are with your income and asset documentation the easier it will be for you.

Collateral: Your home is the collateral for the loan.  An in-home appraisal is most often required where a professional appraiser comes to the home, does an evaluation, and provides the lender with what they feel is the value of the home.  If you are purchasing a home, a separate home inspection is recommended.  This home inspection differs from an appraisal as the home inspector is going to be looking at areas that may need to be repaired prior to purchasing.  You often can negotiate with the seller if repairs are recommended by the inspector.

What is the most common mortgage plan?

A conventional loan is a type of mortgage that isn’t insured by the federal government.  It’s also the most popular kind of home loan.  Two-thirds of people who purchased a home in 2023 did so with a conventional mortgage, according to the National Association of Realtors.  The most popular mortgage repayment terms are a 15-year mortgage or a 30-year mortgage.

There are 3 types of Government-Backed loans which offer benefits like lower down payments and interest rates for eligible borrowers.  They are FHA loans, VA loans and USDA loans.

FHA Loans: Insured by the Federal Housing Administration, these are popular for first time homebuyers and those with lower credit scores.

VA Loans: Guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, these are available to eligible veterans and active-duty military personnel.

USDA Loans: Guaranteed by the Department of Agriculture, these are for rural or suburban areas and often have low down payments.

What is a Reverse Mortgage?

A reverse mortgage allows homeowners aged 62 or older to borrow money against their home equity, receiving payments as a lump sum, monthly income or a line of credit, without needing to make payments as long as they live in the home.  The loan becomes due when the homeowner dies, moves out permanently, or sells the home.  Tory at Mortgage Planning is available to assist with questions regarding a Reverse Mortgage.

Are you a First Time Homebuyer?

It’s never too early to start mortgage planning for your first home. It doesn’t hurt to talk to a mortgage planner early on, just to make sure that you have your finances in order and are not going to do anything to damage the amount you’d be able to borrow for a mortgage. If you set a budget for a monthly mortgage payment, be aware that in addition to the monthly loan payment there are other monthly expenses involved. If you don’t have a high enough down payment, there may be private mortgage insurance. This is different than homeowners’ insurance and will add to your monthly payment. Homeowners’ insurance and property taxes are often rolled into your monthly mortgage payment. If you are getting a fixed interest rate (the most common mortgage), your monthly loan payment will not change but your homeowners’ insurance and property taxes will change causing your monthly total payment to change yearly. HOA fees are not included in your monthly mortgage lender Tampa FL payment to the lender but if your home has an HOA, these fees need to be considered in your mortgage planning. There are several programs available for down payment assistance for first time homebuyers. The process with these programs can often be slow so allow extra time and patience with these programs and make sure that you have a seller who is understanding of the process.

Refinancing is another mortgage planning option.  You can give your budget some breathing room by refinancing to a lower interest rate, extending the length of your loan or switching to an adjustable-rate mortgage.  Refinancing also allows you to access the equity in your home to pay for home improvements, pay off high-interest rate credit card debt, cover large purchases like a car, wedding or college tuition.  Refinancing to access the equity in your home is called a cash-out refinance.

Mortgage interest rates can fluctuate daily and interest rates are not one size fits all.  It is always best to contact a mortgage planning consultant rather than trying to decipher what the news is saying.  As your mortgage lender Tampa FL planner, Tory will keep his eye on the interest rates for you to give you the best rate possible.  Interest rates also can vary depending on what your financial situation is.  Tory can personalize your mortgage to give you the best advantage in your individual situation.  If necessary, Tory can assist with actions you can take to improve your homebuying or home refinancing power.

Contact us at Tory@Mortgage-Planning.com.  You may ask yourself what the reason would be to contact us.  Well, the truth of the matter is that there is no question too large or too small.  There is no such thing as a dumb question.  We all should have learned that in grade school, but we often still wonder if our question is a dumb question.  You don’t have to worry about that with Tory.  You can ask a question on how to improve your credit so that you can purchase a home in the near future.  You may be in the middle of a divorce and wonder how to now get a home on your own.  Or, on a more positive note, you may have just come into some money and are wondering what home mortgage lender Tampa FL would be the best investment for your newfound wealth.  Maybe you want extra cash to do some remodeling, purchase a new vehicle or go on a vacation.  For those purposes you would want to contact Tory at Mortgage Planning to explore the various options for refinancing or a second mortgage.

You can contact Tory after hours and on weekends.  We realize that you have jobs that you need to take care of.  If you don’t take care of your job you may not be able to obtain a mortgage so we have great respect for being respectful of your time.  We will not contact you at work if you let us know that we should not.  We also understand that you may have a family and we respect how important that time is and will work around your family time.  This is one of the advantages of working with a mortgage broker as they are not limited to a 9 to 5 work environment and can customize the mortgage process to accommodate your personal schedule.  There are clients who work nights and sleep during the day.  There also are clients who work a rotating schedule such as 2 weeks days, 2 weeks evenings, 2 weeks over night.  All you need to do is inform us of your work schedule and we will accommodate you.

Speaking of time, we want to make you aware that the mortgage lender Tampa FL process will involve a time investment on your part.  The whole approval process is done on documentation so you will be asked to provide documents and more documents!  The more organized that you are with your personal information, the smoother the process will be for you.  Paystubs and W-2’s will be required along with your bank statements and investment accounts.  Almost  everything is done online now and requires passwords and user names so it is beneficial if you are up to date on how to access these items.  Tory has a secure link where you can upload your documents.  We all use our phones for everything but pictures of documents are generally not acceptable.  The only document where a picture from your phone is well accepted is a picture of your driver’s license. Almost all documents where we need a signature can be signed electronically which is great for you as you only need to click a button for your signatures.  When your loan is approved and cleared to close, you will meet with a closer at a local title company where all of your documents are signed in person.  The closer is a notary and needs to verify in person that it is actually you that is signing your documents!  These notaries are very knowledgeable and specialize in mortgages and real estate so they will explain things as you go through the signing process and will be able to answer your questions.  Title companies are designed to make sure that you are the only owner on your property.  A title search is done prior to your purchase or refinance to make sure that you are the sole owner and that there are not any additional liens on your property.  If you are refinancing, the mortgage and any other liens that you may have on the property will be paid off.  The exception to that would be if you have a second mortgage and want to keep that at the time that you are refinancing your first mortgage.  If this is the case, the second mortgage would need to be subordinated.  We would contact your second mortgage holder and obtain a subordination agreement that indicates that they are in agreement with staying in second lien position.  The purpose of having lien positions is in case you default on your mortgages (in other words, stop paying your mortgages), and your home goes into foreclosure, the first mortgage gets paid off first and then the second mortgage gets paid off second.  There is more of a risk for the second mortgage, of course, but usually they are the smaller mortgage amount.

Tory at mortgage lender Tampa FL planning also uses Zoom if you are in agreement with using Zoom.  The biggest benefit of Zoom is that you don’t have to leave your home!  Just like the initial documents that can be e-signed from your own computer, Zoom allows you to stay at home which saves time and money from having to travel to an office somewhere.  It also puts a face behind the name so that you have more of a personal connection.  All of the technology that we use now in business and our personal lives is great but it still is important to have the personal connection.  Being able to do so many things from your home also is a convenience if you have children or pets.  How many times have all of us needed to bring our children to an office and they decide at that time to be their worst?  Or we need to get home to let the dog out but we are not going to have the time because we have an office appointment.  The convenience of being able to do so many things from the comfort of your own home is important to maintaining your lifestyle.  Please feel free to contact Tory@mortgage planning today.