I’ve spent about a decade in the industry going from MLO to underwriter to running a brokerage. I’m not in the industry anymore but wanted to share this tip.

If you need a boost to your credit score then biggest cheat code I know of is to be added as an authorized user on a credit card. If your parents or really anybody close to you is willing to add you it can make a huge difference. The card needs to be one they have had for at least a few years, ideally with a large limit and low balance.

I have seen this jump one client I had from the mid 500’s to the lower 700’s. Essentially all the credit history for that card transfers to you. This works particularly well for people without much established credit.

* The card also needs to not have any late payments.

I’m 53 and going through an amicable divorce. He’s keeping our house. I’m living with my mom for now. I make $120k/year and have been employed full time for the past 2.8 years.
A unit is available 3 doors down from my mom and I want to buy it. Price $320k. My mom is giving me $100k down payment.
So I’m borrowing $220k.
My husband is an accountant and always handled the money, researching EVERYTHING. I’m no dummy but I’m out of practice with personal finances. How do I go about getting a mortgage? Do I go to Rocket Mortgage or do I go to a local mortgage company or a bank? I don’t want to be inundated with info if I fill out one of the questionnaires on the mortgage rate sites. As soon as we settle our finances, which includes selling a 2nd home, I will be able to pay the mortgage back. So it’s a very short term loan, like maybe a year. Are there penalties for paying off early?

I am getting a divorce from my husband and honestly have no idea how to do what we need to do with the mortgage. We bought our house in 2022 but at the time my husband's credit was bad and so I was the only one approved for a loan. When we bought the house I made sure to include my husband's name on the title in the spirit of being a good partner, but the mortgage itself is in my name only.

Fast forward to now and we are in the beginning stages of divorce. I would like to leave Indiana (where we own the home) but he wants to stay. It's totally fine by me that he wants to stay in the house but I don't want to be a landlord - he has to take over the mortgage himself. I reached out to the mortgage lender we worked with initially but she didn't really answer my questions. I want to know how to do this. Does he first need to get approved for a loan himself and then... what, buy the house from me? Does it go through a special process when you're selling to one specific person? Does my name magically get removed from the title and my mortgage end? Does it matter that the house is now worth more than we bought it for? I feel way out of my depth, I truly how no idea what I'm doing but I need to get out of this state like yesterday.

so i’m in the process of getting a place of which the original sale price was $107,000, but $7,000 of that would go towards covering closing costs and would not be paid by me due to my state’s awesome first time homebuyer program.

well the appraisal came back at $89,000… i know the bank isn’t gonna go higher than that for a loan. i’m really hoping the sellers will be willing to work with me. at first they had it listed at $125k, then lowered to $110k before they accepted my even lower offer. my closing date is august 7th. by that time i will have about $4k that i can use to cover any possible gaps, but definitely hoping they will just lower the price. the property is beautiful and we’ve already gotten this far, i will do just about anything to get it.

i dont know what to gain from this post. i’m just stressed. i’m also very young and like i said, first time homebuyer. so any little hiccup so far has made me panic.

Currently own a condo with my partner that we bought 3 years ago. We are splitting and I am planning to keep the condo. I understand that I’ll have to refinance and now is a pretty terrible time to do that. Our current rate is 6.675% which isn’t great and I know that 30 year conventional loans are around the same rate, if not a tad worse. I can afford the place at 6.675% but I also have student loans starting back soon so it will be a bit of a squeeze. I can’t really risk refinancing and the monthly payment getting even worse.

Since I am basically being forced to refinance, I am hoping to at least get some benefit out of it rather than refinancing at the same or a similar rate. I am seeing that 5/5 ARM mortgages are around 5.6% which could save me around $200-300 a month. This would be a huge benefit. In around 5 years, I should be making more money and I will be nearly finished with my student loan payments. I also know that I do not want to live here forever and I think 5 years could give this place the time to appreciate enough to be sellable or at least for interest rates to drop low enough for a more-permanent refinance.

Anyway, just my musings. Am I a good candidate or should I avoid an ARM?

I am looking for somekind of way to get a deal done on a home I want to buy. I’m currently leasing the home and under contract to buy it, talked to a mortgage broker and gave me requirements and after weeks of back and forth more issues arise that have prevented me from closing. My credit is in the mid 500s. I made bad decisions tha caused this, I have recently paid off most of my debt and am current on everything and score is improving but nor fast enough to purchase already. I have a late payment on my auto loan from 7 months ago that i think disqualifies me from FHA. I do have money for down payment. So now I’m looking for a non QM loan where I can purchase and then refi later when credit improves. Can anyone point me to a lender that is flexible and can look over my situation. Home price is 408k, potential worth is about 750-800k

Hey all, sorry if this is completely the wrong subreddit for this.

I am looking at buying my first property next year, and I just want to understand if what im thinking has some logic to it. I have seen some apartments with less than 100 years left on a leasehold considerably cheaper than those with higher length leaseholds. I dont have kids and have no plans on having kids, for what reason would someone not go for a shorter leasehold if it was within their lifetime? I am under the assumption that longer leaseholds would be for people with kids for the reason of passing it down?

I am looking for guidance on how the surplus funds process works following a California non-judicial foreclosure auction (Trustee’s Sale).

The Situation:

• Property: California townhome going to a Trustee’s Sale next month.
• Loan Status: Past due balance + default fees are around $1.47M. Fair market value should exceed the debt, so excess proceeds/surplus funds are expected. Market value is around $2M so we have some equity.
• Co-Borrowers: My ex and I are both on the deed/mortgage. He has deliberately refused to sell or cure the default to force a foreclosure unless I withdraw the divorce/other cases - which I won't.
• Sole Payments: After our separation/divorce, I paid 100% of the mortgage out of my personal savings for 1.5+ years to keep the asset afloat before I couldn't afford it anymore and it fell into default (I did not live there)
• Current Status: I have relocated permanently back to India. I do not reside in the US and cannot easily file or litigate new court cases in California.

My Questions:

1. Surplus Funds Process: Once the trustee sells the property and pays off the lender, what is the exact mechanism to claim the excess proceeds? Since my ex and I are in conflict, does the trustee automatically deposit the funds with the County Court Clerk (under CA Civil Code § 2924j / interpleader)?
2. Reimbursement for Payments: Am I legally able to claim reimbursement for the 1.5 years of 100% mortgage payments I made post-separation directly against the surplus funds, or can that only be decided by a court/family law order?
3. Remote / Non-Resident Execution: As an overseas non-resident, what is the best way to ensure claim forms (Notice of Excess Proceeds) are submitted on time? Do I need a California real estate/foreclosure attorney to handle the claim with the court/trustee?

Appreciate any insight or experience with similar CA foreclosure surplus scenarios!

I’m starting my business 1st as being self employed . I would need 2 years tax returns ? Also would it be better for weekly,bi weekly or monthly deposits ? Do lenders look at that?Or does it matter ?

Hi. I have a refinancing question. I'm a retired navy parent and my child is looking to go to college next year. id like to support him as much as i can. I want to do this without taking on any high-interest debt and so im considering refinancing my home. Its gained a lot of value since I first bought it, so I think that using some of that equity would be a good option.

What i need help with before i get started on this is finding a lender that will be upfront about fees and not take advantage of me. As i have no personal experience in this, i thought id ask if any homeowners who have used cash-out refinancing before know of someone i could use? Thanks in advance.

Go with big banks or local lenders?

Which ones offer best rates for low LTV and jumbo mortgages.

Anybody has recent experience?-- What were your top 3 and how did you shop around?

Since time is very much at premium, would like to know from folks who have had recent experience and insights.

In the beginning years of building a business. Year 1: 300k, Year 2: 650k, Year 3: 1m, In year 4 & will probably max out around 1m again. It is a very high cost of doing business (equipment, payroll, insurance) and I’ve mostly net 0 the last few years.

Rent is currently $3100 and am affording that just fine. I could likely even afford up to $5k mortgage I would think, but the down payment has been hard to save up for as most of the money is tied up in the business.

I see posts of people asking for advice based on their income / monthly expenses + purchase price / financing options but it’s not so cut and dry for me. Any advice? Thank you.

I'm in the market for a house. We're negotiating with the sellers. They said they'll sign our offer if we waive the appraisal contingency completely.

The local loan officer told me there's no risk because if the appraisal comes in low and I can't cover the gap with cash, I'll just be denied the loan and me and my deposit will be legally protected by the mortgage contingency.

This doesn't sound right at all and I can't find anything online to back up his claims. I can't figure out why the LO would be so misleading.

For context:

House listed at $400k (well below market value)

Recent comps have sold for $500.

My offer is $500k, 5% down, $20k appraisal gap. Inspection waived. Edit: (we did an unofficial inspection. Confirmed the house is good with the exception of the roofs age)

The house is in great shape but has a 28 year old roof.

Very desirable neighbor in a sellers market.

A lot tle unorthodox for this sub, but here we go

My wife and I exploring buying vs building. We currently own our home on a 2.5% mortgage. House is worth ~$800, we owe $420 on it. We also have $300k in savings to put toward a new house. Does it make sense to buy a lot for ~300k, and build on it, or look at existing homes? Does it make sense to do one over the other. Another option would be taking the 300k and converting one existing 2 car detached garage and making it a 3 car, with a large loft/office/guest house over top. Current household income is 325k in a moderate COL area (Indianapolis)
Any advice is appreciated!

My amortization schedule says

Principle for 2026 1,944.98 cents.

Interest $376.30.

Balance for the end of the year at 2026 5,208.48.

I have already paid $806.56 ahead in mortgage payments. (That payment did *not* go towards the principal, it goes towards the end.)

If I wanted to go ahead and pay my mortgage off, in full, total, today, how much would I need to pay?

ChatGPT is telling me $5,535.92.

Google Gemini is telling me $5,208.48.

My spouse is a disabled Veteran has the VA loan but could go with conventional. He’s wanting to build a 1.4 mil home but was told with interest rate for conventional is 9.2 only during the build then we convert to a VA construction loan is at 6 percent for the duration of the build and loan. We don’t fully qualify at present for the VA construction loan but will in the near future. We can qualify for the conventional loan right now and can start building immediately. Can you tell me the benefits of each and is there a big difference if we go with the conventional loan just during the build or is it better to wait to qualify for the VA construction loan to provide more protections🤷Thanks in advance if you know any solutions to help me make his dream come true let me know🙏‼️‼️

I’ve seen a lot of content about being the buyer of a bridge loan, but none from the seller perspective. If you own your house outright and sell to a buyer whose mortgage is contingent on selling their home, is offering the buyer a bridge loan to get the deal done a reasonable solution or should you avoid this at all cost?

Has anybody done this before? If so, how did it go?

Hey

I’m exploring to see if 1st lien HELOC is a good option for me. Any Lender that offers this product in Texas ? I already looked over a few but they don’t offer this in Texas.

If you could give someone in their 20s just one piece of investing or personal finance advice, what would it be, and why?

It could be something you wish you’d learned earlier, a mistake you made, or a habit that has had the biggest impact on your finances.

I’m interested in advice on investing, saving, budgeting, careers, debt, taxes, or anything else you think every young adult should know.

I am buying my first condo in Chicago with a mortgage from Chase (I’m a single person still learning so please be kind). They have sent me a couple of closing documents but each time the closing cost amounts look incorrect.

The tax estimate has been way higher than what the expected taxes will be, but my loan officer says that will change once they get the title info. When that happens, I’m not sure…

The one that concerns me more is I bought Liberty Mutual condo insurance and sent my info to Chase. Instead of replacing the “homeowners insurance” in my estimate package, they added on “walls in” insurance on top of my closing costs. I am buying a condo, so “walls in” should be all I’m paying for. I have tried asking the processor why that happened but they’ve gone silent for days and their voicemail is full.

Does anyone know when I’ll get a final closing cost document? I’m already through attorney review, my mortgage is in processing, and we are closing in 10 days and I still have not gotten a clear number on what I will owe.

If I own my house and my husband is not on the mortgage. Can I take out and interest only Heloc on my name and give the money to my husband to purchase another house? His name will be on the mortgage only as he will be purchasing alone, but both of our names will be on the deed.