Cathryn Blair-Bennett

Rick,
I will recommend you to pay current and modify your loan if you are only 2 months behind. It will be well worth it in the long run and will probably end up saving you thousands of dollars in the end instead of paying thousands of dollars on a rental you will never own.
Cathryn Blair-Bennett
First Capital lending
239-645-3795 - Yesterday, 11:17

Ben,
I do not know of any public site to track FHA rates, but you can always e-mail me. I will be happy to let you know. I am a licensed Mortgage Broker and realtor but I work as a full time Mortgage broker.

The FHA and conventional rates have been fluctuating for months so it is hard to predict when they will go up or down. We get price changes from our wholesale and retail lenders up to 4 times daily. This is why maybe they are not publicized, because they change so often even in the same day. Two days ago the rates improved slightly. Today they went down. They are constantly subject to change until you lock in a rate.

In order to lock your rate you must first be pre-qualified for a mortgage, find a property and have a contract submitted. Once you have the rate locked, you are now subject to that lock time frame to close the loan on time or pay a penalty. Like I said, just contact me by email and I will help you out. I will need to know a little info like price on the property, what loan to value is and your credit score. This is what rates are based on and this is why a pre-qual is important. Email me at cblairbennett@FirstCapLend.com
Cathryn Blair-bennett
First Capital Lending Corp
239-277-9244 Ext. 212 - Sat Oct 18 2008, 16:11

Ronald,
If your main concern is the assessment costs, please contact the city of Cape Coral. http://(www.CapeCoral.net) They should provide you with a map of Cape Coral assessments planned in the future as well as those areas already assessed.
These assessments if not already paid could be anywhere from 15K to 23K depending on the area.
You may want to look for homes that have already paid these fees.

Other closing costs you can expect are going to be about 3% of the purchase price, (maybe a little more if you are paying PMI up front going with an FHA program), but this does not include your pre-paid items such as taxes and insurance. The taxes depend upon the location and value of the home and the insurance depends on the insurance policy you choose.

The taxes can be accurately calculated from the property appraisers web site. If you know the address of the property you can key it in and find the information page. From there key in the sales price in the "tax estimator" and it will give you the annual taxes to expect on that home. Divide that number by 12 and you have the monthly taxes for that home. You can expect 2-3 months escrowed for your closing costs.

Your homeowner Insurance is also calculated in. This is up to you and what kind of pricing you can find from your insurance agent. Once the home appraisal is ordered and comes back to the Mortgage broker, the broker will send this report to your insurance co. and they will send back the cost of your annual insurance. The broker calulates the monthly insurance and escrows 2 months as part of the closing costs.

Your out of pocket expenses will be your appraisal report paid up front. (avg. $350) and your homeowners Insurance of one year paid up front. Persons used to be able to pay these at closing, but with the volitile market and the lack of commitment by todays borrowers, brokers are requiring these fees up front outside of the closing costs required.
So to recap, your closing costs will consist of:
3% for fees (which are to pay the lender, Government and other misc. fees (Seller usually pays title fees, but this needs to be negotiated by your realtor.)
Pre-paid items
Appraisal report (up fron POC)
Homeowners Ins, (up front POC)
Any Cape Coral assessment fees

The good news is, most loans will allow "seller concessions" up to 6% which could cover most of your closing costs. And, the assessments CAN be negotiated by the Realtor as part of "Seller paid fees".

Don't let these fees stop you from buying your dream home in the Cape. With an excellent Mortgage Broker and Realtor working for you, you could come to the closing table with little or no money at all! Please feel free to contact me with any more questions you may have regarding financing your dream home. Though I am a licensed Realtor, I am also a full time Mortgage Broker. I can recommend several quality realtors I work with that will do a great job for you! You can contact me at 239-645-3795 or email me at :
CBlairBennett@FirstCapLend.com

Cathryn Blair-Bennett
First Capital Lending
239-277-9244 Ext. 212
239-645-3795 http://www.FloridaLoanSolutions.com

Cathryn - Sat Oct 11 2008, 14:07

Actually Ronald,

I have delt with folks who have needed "proof of funds" and they wanted a pre-approval letter from me. Some private sellers sometimes misconstrue the verbage when talking about offers and what they need to see.

You have not indicated either way if this a cash purchase or if you are financing a property. Either way, I believe you have received several very good answers no matter which way you decide to go. And that is the beauty of Trulia.

Cathryn Blair-Bennett
First Capital lending
239-277-9244 Ext. 212 - Thu Oct 2 2008, 09:13

Your best course of action is a pre-approval letter. You could get a pre-qualification letter, but it is only a loan officers estimation of whether you can afford to buy. The difference between the two is that a pre-approval is an underwriters estimation, which carries much more weight than a pre-qual letter.

in order to get a Pre-Approval, your scenario must be submitted through an automated underwriting system. (This is called an AU approval.) This means you will close the loan if you stay within the rate and loan amount perimeters, and all the required paperwork is turned in and approved by the underwriter.

I am a full time Licensed Mortgage broker and I am available to provide this letter to you in order for you to purchase your home if you are looking to buy. Please contact my office anytime or for your convenience, you can fill out an application online at http://www.FloridaLoanSolutions.com.

Cathryn Blair-Bennett
First Capital Lending
239-277-9244 Ext. 212
cblairbennett@FirstCapLend.com - Thu Oct 2 2008, 06:18

Is there any way you can offer it as a lease option to purchase to someone looking to buy a home? This will let your renters pay the mortgage under contract to purchase it in a years time. You set it up asking for fa security deposit up front. Traditionally asking $2500 to $3000 up front is reasonable. Have them pay the mortgage minus the taxes and insurance. (The up front monies can take care of that for a short while.) At the end of 12 months they may exercise the option to purchase your home. If they do not, they either keep renting or you find other people to start the process over. There is another option as well. There is a company called "Stand By Housing". They are a Fort Myers management company who rents your home on a regular basis for people who need a short term rental for various reasons. They are in dire need of rentals for their program as their progran is of high demand and is advertised nationally. Contact JoAnne at 239-896-8495 or go to their web-site at http://www.StandByHousing.com. - Mon Sep 8 2008, 08:09