Rick Kellow's (dad4_2) Blog

Sometimes it makes sense to add cash or shorten the term when you refinance. Before the housing bust, homeowners often saw soaring real estate values as an opportunity to get cash out of their home by refinancing or taking out a home-equity loan. But now that home prices have headed in the other ...

A credit score is a number that lenders use to determine the risk of lending money to a given borrower. Credit card companies, auto dealerships and mortgage bankers are three common examples of types of lenders that will check your credit score before deciding how much they are willing to lend yo...

Six hundred days. That's how long, on average, mortgage loans in the foreclosure process in New York have been delinquent. That's the longest average in the nation, but not by much, according to LPS Applied Analytics, in Jacksonville, Fla. Loans in foreclosure in Florida, New Jersey, Hawaii and M...

Few factors affect the mortgage lending process as much as a borrower's credit score. Mortgage bankers and their Wall Street counterparts have long relied on the FICO score to judge the ‘credit worthiness' of the borrower.  When determining pricing on the sale or purchase of millions of dollars o...

Many of the mortgage bankers we visited last quarter were projecting an uptick in loan volume in 2011.  They realized origination volumes in general would probably decline in 2011, but most were planning to pick up a few new branches and loan officers to offset the industry-wide forecast for a pr...

M&I sold to Canadian bank for $4.1 billion BMO Financial Group, the parent company of Harris Bank, said Friday it has agreed to buy Marshall & Ilsley Corp. - Wisconsin's largest bank - for $4.1 billion. The all-stock deal values Mashall & Ilsley at $7.75 a share, compared with yesterday's closing...

Many times when talking to people about buying a home this question inevitably comes up. Why do I need a real estate agent if I don't have a house picked out? Or why can't I just use the one with the sign in the yard? Most people tend to rank real estate agents right up there with lawyers and den...

The Veterans Affairs Department guarantees no-down-payment mortgages for qualified veterans. Private lenders originate VA loans, which the VA guarantees. There is no mortgage insurance. The borrower pays a funding fee, which can be rolled into the loan amount. The VA funding fee varies, depending...

The House has passed a bill to extend a closing deadline for the homebuyer tax credit to Sept. 30, but similar action in the Senate is uncertain. By a 409-5 vote, the House passed a stand-alone bill (H.R. 5623) to ensure homebuyers who are expecting to receive the tax credit are not disqualified ...

Lawmakers consider home tax credit extension Lawmakers consider giving homebuyers 3 more months to finish sales and qualify for tax credit WASHINGTON (AP) -- Homebuyers may get an extra three months to finish qualifying for federal tax incentives that boosted home sales this spring. Senate Majori...