Financing and Insuring you new MIlford MIchigan home

Relocating into a new area can be intimidating when it comes to establishing new mortgage and insurance relationships. You’ll need the best advice and support that you can get for both financing the home and insuring it. Two of our sister companies provide all that you will need. However, if you want to shop around a bit, please use caution and take much of what you read on most of the mortgage sites with a grain of salt and a dollop of skepticism. The best rule of thumb is - “if it sounds to good to be true…it very likely is!” – and beware the hungry loan officers who might be circling your home (or calling you incessantly). For information on predatory lending read this article or follow this link to the site of the Center for Responsible Lending.

There are laws being considered in Congress that would make qualifying for a loan more difficult, so don’t delay on getting your financing locked in. You may also wish to learn about down payment assistance programs and look into what is available nationwide and in our state. You may also wish to get a clue about your potential taxes, so here is a link to a nice tax estimator. There is also information about the tax credits that may apply due to energy saving things you have done or could do.

It’s also a good time for you to get a handle on your credit score and how that will impact your ability to get a home loan. There is a new credit scoring system being adopted by the “big three” credit bureaus. Take the time to understand it and then go get your free credit report so that you know going in what your score is. A recent FTC request in court would force lenders to alert you to any issues in your credit report that may cause them to charge you more, but that has not yet been put into effect, so it’s currently up to you to stay in touch with your lender and stay in tune with what’s happening to your credit score.

You should also take the time to fully understand the terms and conditions of your mortgage loan, especially if it is the Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) that is so popular these days. Understand your ARM, so you won’t get nasty surprises a year or two from now.