20 • July 2014 • UPBEAT TIMES.com The Mortgage Coach


SANTA ROSA, CA. ~ The dust has settled from the burst of the housing bubble. Distressed proper- ties have become less stressed and we fi nd ourselves with a housing shortage. Buying your fi rst home can be stressful and at the same time a rewarding experience. Home buying has always been the cornerstone of build- ing wealth. Owning a home forms a solid foundation for raising families and building stronger communities. Own- ing a home protects you from rising rents. In other words, it adds stability to our lives. There is a large segment of potential home buyers that are forced to sit on the sidelines as lenders sort out ever tight- ening lending practices. We have come a long way from “the stated income” loans once known as the “the liar loans”. Now it is a process of “show me your ways and means”. What this means, is show me your down payment in a bank statement. You will need to paper trail any large deposits. Show me an in- come. You better have a job! This is a full doc world and


by Barry O'Meara • barryo@stearns.com Buying your First Home?


you can’t slide by underwriting. Not many of us can afford to buy a home with all cash, so fi nanc- ing is the only means for buy- ing our homes. So get prepared and get pre-ap- proved.


The Consumer Financial Protec-


tion Bureau was established as a response to the fi nan- cial crisis of 2008 and sub- sequently passed into law in 2010.


It was not until 2014


that the “fi nal rules” took effect on January 10, 2014. These rules are referred to as Qualifi ed Mortgage (QM). In order for a lender to be in a “safe harbor” they have to adhere to these guidelines. “Safe harbor” only refers to protecting the lender from being sued if the homeowner should default on their home mortgage.


It is not a harbor


safe from homes getting sub- merged in a sea of debt! No one can guarantee your home is safe from losing value or getting you underwater with your mortgage.


They have


reduced the chances by mak- ing sensible loans. Keys for Qualifying for a Mortgage are to master the


NoRemember When?


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20 • July 2014 • UPBEAT TIMES


“Debt-to-Income” (DTI) guidelines and demonstrate “Ability to repay” (ATR). The DTI is easy to under- stand; add up your minimum payments of what you owe plus add up what your pay- ments for a mortgage, taxes, insurance, and if any home owners associations dues (HOA) and then divide that number by your income. The challenge is determin- ing your income. Standard underwriting guidelines are pretty strict when it comes to what will count as income. If self employed, you need to demonstrate a two year his- tory of self employment. In- come will be calculated from your taxes. Better make sure you fi le them!


If hourly employed; un- derwriters will want at least a minimum of six months to average your income. If you have over-time, bonuses, or two jobs, you’ll need to show a two year history before un- derwriting will count that in- come. A salaried job is the easiest to fi gure out.


Show


me 30 days of pay and we are good to go. So match- ing your debt-to-income and ability-to-repay can be a complex problem.


Smart Devices ... continued from page 16


to control your home furnace and AC from your smart phone anywhere in the world over the internet nest also learns what temperatures you like and when you leave and come home so it will already have the house comfortable when you get home from work but won’t waste energy all day while you are gone. To me Nest is the per- fect match of energy effi ciency and convenience all in one de- vice. Devices like these that are designed to work with your smartphone are opening up a whole new market of innova- tion and automation I am excit- ed to see what new products are available in the next few years!


LDER ISDOM ... continued from page 15


her to take over the controls... and wouldn’t take them back until she agreed to marry him! Needless to say, his proposal was


accepted. After a few


short months they were mar- ried in 1942 and stationed at the Glenview naval air base near Chicago where Bruce was a fl ight instructor.


In 1944, If you


show consistent income then underwriting can calculate how much home you can buy.


Bruce became a signal offi cer on an aircraft carrier in the Pa- cifi c and Jean returned to Wyo- ming with their fi rst child, Al- lan, to live with her mother and Arvid.


After the war, Bruce


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returned home and joined Ar- vid in the “franching” business (farming and ranching) for fi ve years before returning to col- lege on the GI Bill. He was re- called into the navy during the Korean War and then worked in civil defense in California. By now a family of fi ve, the Bells made their way to Santa


... continued on page 21


JOKES & Humor # 8 Bob was in his usual place in


the morning sitting at the table, reading the paper after breakfast. He came across an article about a beautiful actress about to marry a football player who was known primarily for his lack of common knowledge and his fairly low IQ.


He turned to his wife Marlene with a look of question on his face. “I’ll never understand why the biggest idiots get the most attractive wives.” Marlene replies, “Why thank you, dear!”


Weird Facts & Fun Trivia -9


Human fi ngernails grow about 2.5 inches a year.


In May 1992, a nuclear device was detonated in China. This underground test generated a one-second seismic punch that penetrated thousands of miles into the earth. Nearly on the other side of the globe, chains of seismometers in Canada and the United States picked up the pulse.


Oceans average a salinity (salt content) of about 3%.


Sound travels in air at about 1100 feet per second. Sound waves travel about fi ve times faster in water than they do in air.


magnifi ed ground motion 2800 times, and as a baseline, he defi ned a magnitude 0 earth- quake as being one that would produce a record with an amplitude of one-thousandth of a millimeter at a distance of 100 kilometers from the epicenter.


Gabriel A. Fraire Writer - Editor - Graphic Designer


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Web site: gabrielfraire.com Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. ~Anthony J. D’Angelo


Charles F. Richter devised his magnitude scale in the mid-1930s while investigating earthquakes in California. He used seismographs which


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