Happy Thanksgiving
There is so much to be thankful for.  If I were to write it all down, I simply wouldn't know where to begin or end.   Mortgage Master Service Corporation will be closing at 2:00 p.m. today to start celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday.  Our office will reopen for business as usual on Monday, November 30, 2009. Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Tax Credit for Home Buyers who have Owned a Home
I was asked this question by one of my friends on Facebook: "I was listening to one of your videos from last Monday and you mentioned something about a tax credit for people who has owned their homes for the past 5 out of 8 years... Do you know what that is all about yet?" When the first time home buyer tax credit was extended with the "Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009",

Mortgage Rates pre-Turkey Day
It's a short week with the Thanksgiving celebration beginning on Thursday.  In the Seattle/Bellevue area, if you're recording a real estate transaction such as a purchase or refinance, the week is even shorter since King County is closed on Wednesday for a "furlough day".   With fewer traders, shorter weeks tend to create volatility--so watch for extra mortgage rate changes this week.  As I prepare this rate post, the DOW is up around 150 and we could easily see a rate sheet with pricing for the worse.   If you follow my updates on Twitter, you know that I broadcast rate quotes and when I re

The Last Word: Page 3 of the Revised HUD-1 Settlement Statement
If we mortgage originators had more flexibility of when a good faith estimate could be revised for our clients, I would be applauding the last page of the revised HUD-1 Settlement Statement.  On this page, the borrower actually get to compare the closing costs on the good faith estimate directly to the those shown at closing on the estimated HUD-1 Settlement Statement side by side.  My beef is that we are very limited by HUD's grey definition of "changed circumstances" which allows us to issue an updated good faith estimate. The page 3 of the HUD-1 also breaks the fees into the various tolerance levels.   The first section has the fe

Overdraft Protection and Your Credit Score
I have to admit, a lot of my content for the articles I write come from my clients or other home owners who have really good questions.  When I can't find an answer ready to refer them to here at Mortgage Porter, it's time to write a post!   Here's a great example of a question I recently received from one of my refi clients: "I have a question about a possible impact on our credit score, which you may have some insight into.  We have been meaning for some time to get overdraft coverage on our checking account for "just in case" and today, we got that lined up.   However, I'm reading over the documents fr