Pg 26 • FEBRUARY 2020 • UPBEAT TIMES, INC.


You are cordially invited to advertise with us! advertising@upbeattimes.com The Mortgage Coach


Leap into Home Ownership! by Barry O'Meara of Santa Rosa, CA • barryo@stearns.com


year, so brace yourself and set Facebook to chill! Don’t click on the clickbait - let it go! Being a Leap Year, we even have an extra day to ap- preciate were we live.


T


If you are a first-time homebuyer, and this year you plan to make that big investment – a home - you should know about financing. Unless you win the lottery, or have a generous relative bestow a massive fortune on you, you need financing to achieve home


ownership.


he New Year is off to a brisk start. 2020 is an election


The financial debacle of 2008 forced lenders to be more cautious when making lend- ing decisions. The Consumer Financial Pro- tection Bureau (CFPB) signed into law in 2010, set re- strictions and guidelines to prevent an- other financial catastrophe.


November 20, 2013, the


CFPB issued its final rule for lending. To simplify the dis- closing process, the CFPB in- tegrated RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act) and TILA (Truth in Lending Act) into TRID (TILA-RE- SPA INTEGRATED


DIS-


CLOSURE). TRID rules set the standard FOR how all loans need to be disclosed, and the period of time the dis- closures need to occur in.


If


any steps are missed, it could jeopardize the funding of a loan. This rule is known as ‘Know Before You Owe’. APR is the acronym for An- nual Percentage Rate.


This


number puts all lenders on an even playing field. The term should be “Average” Per- centage Rate, because APR is taking all costs associated with financing and amortizing over the life of the loan. APR considers lender fees, title, escrow fees, pre-paid inter- est, and any discount fees you might pay to lower the interest rate. Pre-paid interest is inter- est collected from the day the loan funds to the end of the


Relax in Comfort.


funding month. All mortgage loans are monthly, and inter- est is paid to the rears. This means the payment made on the first, is collecting interest for the prior month. Lenders will collect interest to even the month out.


When you


make your first payment, it is based on the payment due on the first.


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100 Fourth Street • Santa Rosa, CA (707) 575-3198


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110 Fourth Street • Santa Rosa, CA (707) 575-8287


Debt-to-income ratio is an important rule. This standard is how the underwriter will calculate your income, and the amount of debt you can handle. The standard rule was 45% debt-to- income was the most you could get approved for. Now the ratio can range from 43% to 49.9%, depend- ing on investor and loan pro- gram. When trying to qualify for a home loan, sometimes we need to add income to make your ratio’s work. This can be done by adding a rela- tive to the loan for additional income, or adding additional borrowers and holding title as Tenants-In-Common (TIC). Sometimes it takes a village to buy a home. With the local economy buzzing and home values holding strong, consumer confidence is up. If you own a home, you have equity in your back-pocket. If you bought your home in the last few years with a small down payment, you now have an opportunity to refinance out of your mortgage insurance, or pull some cash out, and make improvements. Or you could consolidate debt, be- cause Interest rates are still historically low.


As we enter this Leap Year make that extra day count. Whether you are planning to buy a home, or need to refi- nance to improve your cash flow, set your goals, and make the best ‘leap’ into 2020.


I looked up my family tree and found three dogs using it. ~ Rodney Dangerfield B. O’Meara Weird Facts & Fun Trivia - 5


Anne Boleyn, Queen Elizabeth I's mother, had six fingers on one hand.


In 1876 Thomas Edison set up the first industrial invention factory at Menio Park, New Jersey. Its 80 researchers had a mission to create a minor invention every ten days and a major one every six months.


From 1928 to 1968, the medals for the Summer Olympic Games were identical.


European settlers


introduced European honey bees to New England in about 1638. North American natives called these honey bees the "white man's flies." Honey was used to prepare food and beverages, to make cement, to preserve fruits, to concoct furniture paste-polish and varnish and for medicinal purposes.


There are more than 16,000 known species of bees.


The first spacecraft to send back pictures of the far side of the Moon was Luna 3 in October, 1959. The photo- graphs covered about 70 percent of the far side.


When you start with a portrait and search for a pure form, a clear volume, through successive eliminations, you arrive inevitably at the egg. Likewise, starting with the egg and following the same process in reverse, one finishes


with the portrait. Pablo Picasso


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