Make Your Home Work For You on Tax Time

When tax time comes around again, don’t forget to tap into the potential savings that you are entitled to as a homeowner!  A professional mortgage broker can help you to get the biggest return out of your home when it comes time to fill out your income taxes.

  • First and foremost, remember to deduct the interest on your mortgage payments on primary and secondary homes.  You can make this deduction so long as your mortgage is less than a million dollars and you itemize your return.
  • The property taxes you’ve paid are an itemized deduction on your Federal taxes for as long as you own your home.
  • Did you make any improvements to raise the value of your home?  Many of these can be written off.  However, any renovations to restore something to its original state probably cannot be written off.
  • Did you install any energy-efficient features in your home?  These can be used to offset your bill.  This deduction can be for up to ten percent of the amount you spent on the energy-efficient upgrades, up to $500.
  • Do you work from home?  Don’t forget to calculate the deduction for your home office.  As of this year, the write-off is easier before as homeowners have the option of taking a flat rate of $5 per square foot of their home office.

Your Credit Score

Credit scores for mortgage

What do you know about credit scores?  In today’s financial world, a proper understanding of your credit score and how it affects you is becoming more and more crucial.  Following the financial crisis of the last decade, people are waking up to the importance of credit and the role it needs to play in a healthy economy.  It is therefore that, as a responsible citizen, you can no longer afford to not arm yourself with a basic knowledge of credit scores, how they work, and how they come into play in your life. Continue reading “Your Credit Score”

Predicting the Impact from Future HELOC Loan Resets Time to Refinance?

by MPA | Nov 26, 2014

The majority of home equity lines of credit (HELOC) were originated at the peak of the home equity boom between 2004 and 2006, so the concern now is the oncoming wave of defaults when the estimated $190 billion in HELOC loans reset between the fourth quarter and 2017.

The fear is that payment shock will not only cause a wave of defaults, but that it also may impact bank balance sheets and the mortgage markets where HELOCs are concentrated. Unlike the first-lien market when banks sold off most of the credit risk, more than 85% or $580 billion worth of HELOC loans are on bank balance sheets, and nearly 50% of them are located in California, Florida, and New York. So, should the market brace itself for the big storm of the reset, or are the fears unfounded?

Should you have a HELOC that was originated in 2004 – 2007 the time is now to Refinance by going to the David Haley Mortgage website and applying now! If you need more info on David Haley, check out his Testimonials or try out his Mortgage Calculator. With home values on the rise, it is time to take advantage of the current market trend! Call David Haley today to see what your true Blended Mortgage Rate is.

weighted-average-rate calculator
Continue reading “Predicting the Impact from Future HELOC Loan Resets Time to Refinance?”

Getting Ready to Buy a Home

Buying a home is one of the most important steps in one’s life, so we have put together some advices hoping that we can help make your home buying process easier.

SAVE FOR DOWN PAYMENT AND CLOSING COSTS
With most loan programs you will need to put between 3% to 20% of the home’s price and this can come in a form of a Gift Down Payment. The one exception to this rule is the VA loan program where you can do up to 100% financing.

**Do you want to know if you qualify for a VA loan? Go here /va-loans/ **

Other cash expenses are the closing costs. According to Zillow, “…home buyers will pay between about 2 to 5 percent of the purchase price of their home in closing fees. So, if your home cost $150,000, you might pay between $3,000 and $7,500 in closing costs. On average, buyers pay roughly $3,700 in closing fees, according to a recent survey.”

However, each case is different so you should talk to your Loan Officer, she or he will give you a Loan Estimate which will give you an idea of what your closing costs will look like. Remember this is only an approximation and these numbers may change.

COLLECT DOCUMENTS
Providing the right documents to ensure your capability to qualify for a Home Loan is very important. Start collecting your financials: W-2’s, paystubs, bank statements and copies of your last two tax returns. Of course, required documents vary from person to person, but these are the basic documents that you will want to gather.

KNOW WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD
According to Money Under 30 you should “Aim to keep your mortgage payment at or below 25 percent of your pretax monthly income” and “[Try to] keep your total debt payments at or below 33 percent of your pretax monthly income.” (THIS ARE THE IDEAL NUMBERS), however most find this to be too tight for their buying opportunity.

BUILD YOUR SAVINGS ACCOUNT
Now that your expenses will increase with a monthly mortgage payment, taxes, insurance, utilities and others, it is best practice to have a good amount of money in your savings for emergencies.

GET PRE-APPROVED FOR A MORTGAGE
You don’t want to find your dream home and then find out that you cannot get financing to purchase it! Make sure that you can actually get a loan before you start home shopping. Talk to your family members, friends or co workers and ask if they know a Loan Officer that you can work with.

LOOK FOR A REALTOR
Finding a Realtor that you can trust is very important. Make sure you ask these 9 important questions.

LOOK FOR HOUSES
Your Realtor will most likely put you in a Home Search site or program, so you can get notifications whenever a house fits your criteria. But you can also look on your own; there are different kinds of Home Search Engines, so you have a lot of options out there.

A good Home Search App we recommend is Home Scouting, it has accurate Listings and live, real up-to-date active homes, unlike other Real Estate search sites, it lets you save searches and favorite homes, it’s private and does not sell your name or contact information.

To download the Home Scouting App:
iPhone: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/homescouting/id643321575
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hbsr

After downloading the app, use this code: 4254716039

We hope these tips help you to get you ready to buy a home, and please do not hesitate to contact David Haley if you have any Home Loan questions. Don’t delay and call today! 425-471-6039

Happy House Hunting!
image02

Mortgage Rates Remain Low – Fees to Increase?

Rates Stay Low, BUT Will Costs Go Up?

We are enjoying extremely low interest rates, for sure. With the global economy, the national economy and unemployment where they are, no one is predicting a dramatic change in rates any time soon. BUT, on Monday, the Obama Administration floated out some interesting proposals they are considering through the Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Edward DeMarco. It appears that two significant changes in housing financing are on the table.

You should know that FHFA is the new regulator that is overseeing the restoration of viability of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They are charged with reducing the risk on loans delivered to the GSEs in order to protect the U.S. taxpayer.

In a speech this past Monday, Mr. DeMarco mentioned two potential changes:

Increasing the role of the private sector to lessen the risk held by the public sector.

The method mentioned was increasing the insurance coverages assumed by the PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) companies. One result could be higher insurance rates for loans where customers put less than 20% down. The second wrinkle is potentially more damaging…the idea that PMI coverage may be required on loans with 21%-25% (maybe even 30%) down! Clearly, this is an attempt to get more fee income to the MI companies to entice them to remain viable and continue to serve those with less than 20% down. Regardless, the net result is that more people will have to pay more money for private mortgage insurance. “How much?” and “To what extent?” is yet to be defined; however, more costs to more people is bad.

Adjusting fees.

Recognize that the GSEs charge fees. Explaining what they are and why they exist is a topic for a different day. Suffice to say, today, fees are fairly standard geographically speaking. Mr. DeMarco is talking about adjusting the fees (i.e., increasing them) for areas that have proven more risky. This proposal means the hardest hit areas will have the most difficult time recovering because the increased fees always get passed on to the consumer. Rather than “spread the risk”, FHFA is talking about punishing the defenseless.

The predictable outcome of these “strategies” is higher costs to the consumer which makes buying a home more expensive. As costs go up, desire to buy goes down (as does the borrower’s ability to be approved for a mortgage).

Message: Buy sooner rather than later!

 We’d like to thank KCM Blog for this post.

Free Trees & Plants – Seattle Curb Appeal & Do A FHA Energy Efficient Mortgage

green-tree Go Green – Plant a Tree!

One of the ways that you can generate curb appeal for your properties is through a beautification effort and that does not mean taking a hit from your operating budget.

Here are three ways to get free trees or plants for your properties. Free Trees & Plants – Very simple way to get trees and plants. This is a not-for profit foundation that collects plants from nurseries that would be thrown away. They nurture the plants and ship them to you. You only pay for shipping and handling. http://www.freetreesandplants.com/

Arbor Day Foundation – When you sign up for a six month membership, you get 10 free trees shipped for free. http://www.arborday.org/

We find that homeowners like the idea of being “Green” for the environment and not having to spend alot of money at the same time. Arbor Day Foundation is one of the best and inexpensive ways to achieve this goal.

I specialize in helping new homeowners in the Seattle, Lynnwood, Edmonds and Bothell area that are interested in receiving an Energy Efficient Mortgage that can be financed above the FHA mortgage loan or a VA Loan. This is often times more attractive and helps in saving money due to better efficiency standards.

We have contacts that will assist us with the HERS Rating and Energy Efficiency that is required when you are interested in this type of financing.

Here are a few examples that can be used in addition to your FHA Loan with the Energy Efficient Mortgage:

  • Replacing a furnace/cooling system
  • Fixing or replacing a chimney
  • Insulating an attic, crawl space, and/or pipes and air ducts
  • Replacing doors or windows

Have questions? Please feel free to contact me.

Seattle VA Loan Limits 2012

VA just released their new loan limits for Seattle, Snohomish, Everett, Tacoma, Lynnwood, Shoreline Area and Surrounding Counties:

King: $458,850 | Snohomish $458,850 | San Juan $432400 | Pierce $458,850

This will allow for 100% Financing for qualifying miltiary servicemen and women.

http://www.benefits.va.gov/HOMELOANS/docs/Loan_Limits_2012_Dec_2011.pdf

Let me of service to you as you served our country! Thank you

Mortgage Insurance, Not a Tax Deduction?

Mortgage-Insurance

Going forward Mortgage Insurance will no longer be able to be a line item deduction after 12/31/2011. As a Mortgage Insurance Company has reminded us: United Guaranty MI company. “MI tax deductibility is scheduled to lapse at midnight, December 31, 2011, now’s the time to expedite them to retain this benefit for your borrowers who qualify! MI tax deductibility will also lapse for FHA and VA loans, which were extended under the same law as private MI.”

As we found out last week, g-fees for new agency loans will be going up to pay for the two-month payroll tax cut.Under the “unintended consequences” banner analysts were quick to point out that, given the increase is scheduled for ten years, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not going away any time soon unless the government comes up with the money elsewhere. F&F will not absorb this increase, nor will lenders; it will, of course, be passed on to borrowers. (The bill also will raise the annual insurance premium borrowers pay on FHA loans by one-tenth of a percent.) The increased g-fee, which makes it difficult for Congress to work on efforts to shut down Fannie and Freddie, based on current rates and a $200,000 loan, will cost the agency borrower about $11 per month. “These institutions, which have been so costly to Americans and are so necessary to the housing recovery, should not be the piggy bank for future arbitrary tax policy,” Dave Stevens (MBA) said. Due to their government ownership, investors still view their (and FHA/VA) MBS’s as safer investments than those offered by private firms. The law allows FHFA to phase in the fee over two years.
So, if you were lucky enough to close your home loan before 12/30/2011 Congratulations!

*As always seek a qualified CPA who can further assist you.* This is not to be construed as tax advice, informational purposes only!

We are hoping that the House of Representatives will continue to extend this tax credit to home buyers, as this is a benefit when you purchase a home and have less than 20% down payment. Make sure you contact your local Representative, Congressman, Senator, or local delgate. We need to extend this tax credit / deduction! As this will only help our real estate markets

Should you have any questions please contact me.

6 Things to Know Before Getting a Mortgage

Are you ready to shop for your mortgage? It can be an intimidating process, as it’s a very significant investment that can lose you thousands of dollars. In my work as a Lynnwood mortgage loan officer, I’ve identified the biggest and most common mistakes that people tend to make when securing their mortgages; follow these simple tips before diving into the home-buying process, and you should come out of it with a maximum of money and a minimum of stress.
Continue reading “6 Things to Know Before Getting a Mortgage”

4 Common Myths about Fixer-Uppers

Are you in the market for a fixer-upper? Indeed, buying a beat-up old home and improving it yourself can be a good way to save big money on your mortgage, but there are many other factors to consider. Your Lynnwood mortgage loan officer has compiled this list of common misconceptions to help you avoid one of the big money-wasters that frequently afflicts the ambitious do-it-yourselfer.
Continue reading “4 Common Myths about Fixer-Uppers”


Madison K. Avatar
What made it great was David and his team taking the time to answer questions and be available for things that came up along the way.
[read more]
M. K. 12/02/2024
Oksana T. Avatar
Very knowledgeable and supportive every step of the way!
[read more]
O. T. 11/01/2024
Jessica H. Avatar
David and his team are the best ! They helped make our dreams of becoming a home owner a reality. They literally are the bees knees of mortgage lenders. I promise you that if you go with David and team you will be in your dream home before you know it!
[read more]
J. H. 10/16/2024
Myles F. Avatar
It was great working with Dave and his team. They were on the ball, coordinated often, and worked hard to make a very short closing sail through without a hitch ll while being very friendly. Dave also personally took several hours talking through options, offering advice, and giving us a first class education on the process and the "behind the scenes" workings. We left better informed and wishing we had received that kind of attention during our first home buying experience.
[read more]
M. F. 10/14/2024
Cobi G. Avatar
David, Jan and the team Provided us with outstanding service, Personal Touch and are super professional! Thank you
[read more]
C. G. 10/07/2024
Yennhi T. Avatar
David and his team has been very helpful to help me got through the home buying process. I am a first time home buyer so everything was completely new to me, especially I don’t have a real estate agent represent me so that make everything 100% harder but David and his team was able to walk me through everything smoothly as that help reduce the amount of stress that I had during the process . I really appreciate David for taking his time to explaining all the details about what everything would cost and what does it cost mean and why it’s necessary. I would definitely looking forward to work with David again.
[read more]
Y. T. 9/21/2024
  • 1
  • 2
  • 8
  • >

Schedule a Consultation

The owner of this website has made a commitment to accessibility and inclusion, please report any problems that you encounter using the contact form on this website. This site uses the WP ADA Compliance Check plugin to enhance accessibility.