Changes to VA & USDA Funding Fees! Oct 1st 2011 – Still 100% Financing Available

This is my first blog and there has been many changes along life’s way and certainly in the lending industry.

Back in 2008 there were over 13,000 loan officer/mortgage brokers in Washington State.  Now, we are under 4,000.  It has a lot to do with all the lending and educational hurdles.  The folks in this industry typically are full-time hard working professionals.

For all those people you knew who use to do loans, here is my advertisement.

I am still in business and would be happy to hear from you!  Why would you call or want to do business with me???  Fair question.  I can say this, after licking all my wounds from this crazy business, I am still standing!  Why?  Because I love this business.

Yes, it is now more difficult to do home loans but I am still doing them and having a great deal of success by educating the buyers and sellers along with my extensive follow-up.

I can definitely say that today’s real estate agents have been knocked around harder than we (lenders) have.  The seller needs to sell even though the values have dropped.  That is not a fun conversation to have!  I get it!  For those Realtors still doing business – good job!  That will pay dividends as there is always ebb and flow, with the pendulum swinging too far left and then too far right but soon it settles in the middle and evens out.  Okay to chuckle here…For those that are new in real estate that is all you know and for the veterans, you know the motto and creed: contacts, shake those hands and plenty of face time.  That is what it is all about!

Now to address the title question: Yes, these are still 100% Financing – Zero Down Loans*

VA Funding Fees Are as Follows:

Purchase and Construction

Loan Type Down Payment Active Duty Personnel / Veterans National Guard / Reservists
Purchase & Construction 0% 2.15% Funding Fee 2.40% Funding Fee
5% 1.50% Funding Fee 1.75% Funding Fee
10% 1.25% Funding Fee 1.75% Funding Fee

All Other VA Home Loan Types (First Time Use)

Loan Type Active Duty Personnel / Veterans National Guard / Reservists
Regular Refinance
(including cash out)
2.15% Funding Fee 2.40% Funding Fee
Interest Rate Reduction
(IRRL) Refinance
0.50% Funding Fee 0.50% Funding Fee
Native American Direct Loans 1.25% Funding Fee 2.00% Funding Fee
Manufactured Housing
& Mobile Home Loans
1.00% Funding Fee 1.00% Funding Fee
VA Home Loan Assumptions 0.50% Funding Fee 0.50% Funding Fee

 

Additional Use / Subsequent Use:

Purchase and Construction

Loan Type Down Payment Active Duty Personnel / Veterans National Guard / Reservists
Purchase & Construction 0% 3.30% Funding Fee 3.30% Funding Fee
5% 1.50% Funding Fee 1.75% Funding Fee
10% 1.25% Funding Fee 1.75% Funding Fee

All Other VA Home Loan Types (Other Than First Time Use)

Loan Type Active Duty Personnel / Veterans National Guard / Reservists
Regular Refinance
(including cash out)
3.30% Funding Fee 3.30% Funding Fee
Interest Rate Reduction
(IRRL) Refinance
0.50% Funding Fee 0.50% Funding Fee
Native American Direct Loans 1.25% Funding Fee 2.00% Funding Fee
Manufactured Housing
& Mobile Home Loans
1.00% Funding Fee 1.00% Funding Fee
VA Home Loan Assumptions 0.50% Funding Fee 0.50% Funding Fee

The funding fee on VA Assumptions and Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans is currently 0.5%. This rate remains unchanged regardless of the number of times it is used.

VA funding fee must be paid within 15 days of closing or included in the loan amount.

Veterans whose entitlement is based on active duty will pay a 2.15% fee on their first VA loan and 3.30% on all future loans for the purchase of a home or cash-out refinances.

Veterans whose entitlement is based on Guard/Reserve service will pay 2.40% on their first loan and 3.30% on all future loans for the purchase of a home or cash-out refinances.

USDA – Not just for Beef! It is a loan too…. who would of guessed? Your Home Buyers????

New USDA Funding Fee Changes:

For the first time in the history of USDA, the Single Housing Guaranteed Loan Program has implemented an Annual Fee.   The annual fee will be calculated based on the guaranteed loan amount and based on the average annual scheduled unpaid principal balance for the life of the loan. 

Effective October 1, the upfront guarantee will decrease from 3.5% to 2% for purchase loans.   The up-front guaranteed fee for refinance loan transaction will remain at 1 percent.   In addition, an annual fee of .30 will be calculated when the loan is made and every 12 months thereafter until the loan is paid in full or no longer outstanding and the guarantee cancelled or expired.

Well I hope you enjoyed the reading, and if you made it this far you are still awake and ready to do some business!

Look forward to hearing from you.

David Haley

David Haley | Mortgage Loan Officer MLO-76555
Contact David Haley
425-471-6039
6100 219th St SW, Ste 480
Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043
www.DavidHaleyMortgage.com

FHA Mortgage in Bothell, Mill Creek, Lynnwood, Edmonds, Seattle vs.Conventional Mortgage

fha-updateWhen you are looking into your first home to purchase in the Bothell, Mill Creek, Lynnwood, Edmonds, or Seattle area and you are starting the loan pre-approval process, there are a few different loan programs to choose from.

1. FHA financing – which always has the up front mortgage insurance and monthly mortgage insurance built into your payment. The monthly mortgage insurance premium is 1.15% if financing over 95% or 1.10% if less than 95% with a 30 year mortgage and 15 year over 90% is .50% and from 89.99% to 78.01% it is .25% per month.

2. Conventional with mortgage insurance or no mortgage insurance per month, there are different ways to make this happen, there is always a premium to be paid, you can pay it all at one time, the seller can pay it through the closing costs, but be careful as conventional financing allows only so much in closing costs over 90% financing, make sure you are working with an experienced loan officer on these programs.

Another way to structure this is to have your monthly mortgage insurance premium be a little higher per month, reason for this is there is no premium paid in advance, but it does increase your monthly payment.

With conventional financing there are more considerations of what is called credit risk pricing to take into account, the higher your credit scores the better your mortgage rates can be, due to the risk layering set in place by FNMA and Freddie Mac guidelines.

To know which one is best for you, it is important to know your FICO scores, your total debt to income per month, also known as credit liabilities, your reserves i.e. savings, retirement funds, stocks, etc., and the loan to value, which will be your down payment.

When seeking pre-approval around the Seattle, Edmonds, Bothell or Mill Creek area your loan officer will ask for your financial paperwork over the last 2 years and will need to pull your credit, to give you the best way to structure your loan program and options.

Here is a good informational website: www.davidhaleymortgage.com

Seeking Good Loan Officer in Seattle connect with David Haley

Happy Mortgage Shopping!

FHA Mortgage – Gift Funds – Bothell, Mill Creek, Lynnwood WA

Gift funds still allowed for Home Buyers seeking to become a home owner, with home prices that are compared to 2000-2003 prices, and with today’s low interest rates, often times you can get into a home lower than what your rent payments are.

Gift funds can come from family members and all that is needed is 3.5% for your down payment, so if you were to purchase a home for as little as 150,000.00 then you will only need: 5,250.00  as a gift down payment.

There are other ways that you can accomplish this down payment if you choose to not receive a gift from your family, you can take a loan on your 401k up to 10,000.00 when you are a First Time Home Buyer.

When you are ready to go out and begin the home search make sure you have your finances, credit, and employment all worked out, by this I mean get pre-approved before you take the step to go out and look for your home. You must know what your payment and debt to income ratios will be, as well as what you can truly afford.

Buying a home can be easy when you have the right steps done in the right order, believe me, make sure you know what you can truly afford before you go out looking for a home.

Stanwood-listing-003 Who can qualify for a FHA Home loan, just about anyone, you do not have to be a first time home buyer! If you have owned a home before that is fine, you can have one FHA loan at a time, is the main guideline, however some exceptions have been seen before.

So to quickly summarize you can still purchase a home Zero Down* if you do receive a Gift! Should you seek more information and want to know what you qualify for go to the top right side of the website, click “Apply Now” and put David Haley as the loan officer and I will be glad to help you get started to owning your new home!

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.


Brianna C. Avatar
Truly amazing process, support, & communication, so grateful for the guidance in a process that seemed so scary in the beginning, to feeling confident as a first time home buyer! Thank you!
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B. C. 3/08/2025
Brianna C. Avatar
Truly amazing process, support, & communication, so grateful for the guidance in a process that seemed so scary in the beginning, to feeling confident as a first time home buyer! Thank you!
[read more]
B. C. 3/07/2025
Prowler156 Avatar
They're great working with people and their timely manner and they're pretty awesome
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P. 3/04/2025
Prowler156 Avatar
They're great working with people and their timely manner and they're pretty awesome
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P. 2/27/2025
Tim B. Avatar
I'd like to give a huge shoutout to David for being nothing short of amazing while buying my first home. Not only did he answer every question quickly, there were few questions in the first place because he was very thorough, but also explained everything in such a way that made sense. He helped move everything along quickly and efficiently. He was very personable and made me feel at ease about the whole process. Definitely will recommend him to all my friends and family.
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T. B. 1/30/2025
Kayla G. Avatar
David is absolutely fantastic and has been such a blessing to work with throughout the process of buying our new home! He really breaks everything down for you, makes you feel confident without any questions left unanswered and works quickly to help you make your dreams a reality! Can't recommend enough!
[read more]
K. G. 1/30/2025
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