IRS PHONE CALL IS A SCAM

I was awakened by a wrong number in the middle of the night, but I missed the call.  Wondering if it was some family member in an emergency, I listened intently as I played all of the unheard  messages on our home voice mail.  I was alarmed at a robotic automated message left from the "Internal Revenue Service".  I was startled at first by the robotic voice's nasty undertone.   As I replayed it, it became apparent that perhaps this is some sort of scam. The message threatened that there will be legal action initiated against me unless I call them immediately.  Click here to hear the actual message.  A police officer was scammed and called the number back.  This is interesting as the scammer actually goes into detail to how they take your money. Click here to see the accompanying video. Watch from 1:45 to 5:00.  A former NFL player, who is a radio personality, left his office and did exactly what the scammer told him to do.  He went to many convenience stores and payed thousands of dollars into foreign Pay Pal accounts before realizing that this may be a scam.

After researching this more in depth, I found that the IRS will never call you on the phone.  The most they will do is send you multiple letters.  If you file your tax returns on time, pay your required income tax, you have nothing to worry about.

Andy Williams NMLS #118317
President
Abacus Regional Mortgage NMLS # 113984
484 695 5972

Ask the "Mortgage Man": Can I buy a house if I just declared bankruptcy?

Ask the "Mortgage Man": Can I buy a house if I just declared bankruptcy?: I have heard this question over and over again, and until now, I was unable to say yes.  The old tried and true method of approval is: 2 yea...

Ask the "Mortgage Man": How is the Government Strike going to effect My Mo...

Ask the "Mortgage Man": How is the Government Strike going to effect My Mo...: How is the Government Strike going to effect My Mortgage? The answer is very little.  Other than the slow down of an already slow mortgage...

Does Fraudulent Activity Still Occur in the Mortgage Business?

A woman thought she had one over on me this week.  She didn't qualify on her own so I suggested she find a suitable cosigner to help her purchase a  home.  She suggested her ex-husband as a viable and willing candidate to go on the mortgage with her.  She had all of his information including his social security number, bank accounts and income figures, so I processed the application and ordered the appraisal for the subject property.  Since neither she nor her ex-husband live locally, I sent all of the papers by way of Federal Express to her home address.  As part of the normal requirements, I requested copies of financial information on both parties as well as drivers licenses for each borrower.  The entire package came back via the mail but her ex's drivers license was missing.  I requested it again and still she didn't send it back.  After much ado, I found that he never agreed to cosign the loan, and she was using his identification to help her get the mortgage. WRONG!  http://www.ssa.gov/employer/ssnv.htmIt is amazing to see just how far people will go to try and fool you.

Andy Williams
President
Abacus Regional Mortgage
484 695 5972
andrew.williams@abacusmort.com
NMLS # 118317

Commercial Loans in the Lehigh Valley requiring NO Appraisal!

Can you imagine buying a commercial property and financing this piece of real estate without having the bank order an appraisal?  Most commercial appraisals cost upwards to $2,000 per appraisal.  This is not only extremely expensive, but a commercial appraisal can be much more time consuming than a residential appraisal.  There is so much more paperwork and analyses that needs to be done to complete a commercial appraisal.  Since there aren't as many commercial properties selling in this market, the appraiser must go to remote areas to find similar properties to compare to the subject properties value.  Since most of my commercial loans don't require appraisals, I save my customers lots of time and money.  We can close most commercial loans in under 30 days!  In addition, I shop for the lowest interest rate which is now as low as four.  For a low cost, low rate commercial loan with the fastest closing, you need to look no further. 

Andy Williams
President
Abacus Regional Mortgage
484 695 5972
NMLS # 118317

3 Great Reasons for Selling Your Home Now!

Even if you, as the seller, are taking a loss from what you paid , you are still making out.  Here are three great reasons why:

1. You may be losing as much as 20% of your value on the sale of your home, but the owner of the home you are buying is doing the same thing.  Because you are buying, the savings for you is larger than the loss.  For example, you sell your house for $ 160,000 which originally cost $ 200,000,  this is a $ 40,000 loss ( 20%).  The home you are looking to purchase is $300,000, but the owner paid $ 375,000 when they originally bought it.  They too lost 20%, but their loss is more since it is based on a much more expensive home than the one you are selling, because they originally paid $ 375,000.  They lost $75,000 and you lost $40,000.  Your net gain is $ 35,000.

2. The interest rates are again at New historic lows, so you will get the lowest interest rates ever!  Not only will you buy a home for much less money than the same house cost a few years ago, but the monthly payment will also be significantly lower, too.

3. The level of selling activity has picked up in the past 8 months.  The National Association of Realtors has seen a steady rise in the number of homes sold since the fourth quarter of 2011. This is making it a great time to find a buyer for your home.  Why not take advantage of all these factors and buy a new home now...even if it means taking less money to sell your home.

Andy Williams
President NMLS #118317
Abacus Regional Mortgage NMLS # 113984
484 695 5972

Can this be the turning point in this Real Estate Market?

      There has been a definite up tick in the level of volume not seen for many years.  Starting in mid-October, the level of new phone calls, pre-approvals, mortgage applications, and closings has increased, for me.  All of the real estate offices I visit weekly have seen a dramatic increase in the number of sales and closings within this same time-frame.  Since the vast majority of my business comes from realtor referrals, I have been the recipient of this influx of new business.  From time to time, throughout the past several years, there are short bursts of activity, only to wane and have home buyers go back into hibernation.  But this time, there is a certain sustenance to this market, the likes of which appear to be just like old times. 
      Each of the past six months, I have seen my personal loan volume increase dramatically from last year, but in most cases, I haven't had this kind of volume in many years.  This reminds me of the mid-90's when we were coming off of a bad market, and things were starting to turn around ever so slightly.  Hopefully this is the bottom of the market.  Although foreclosures and short sales continue to dominate the market, it appears that many other homes are selling too, with multiple offers occurring on some properties.  Perhaps we are over the worst of this.  Better days are yet to come!

Andy Williams NMLS # 118317
President
Abacus Regional Mortgage NMLS # 113984
484 695 5972

NO PMI insurance on Conventional Loans with only 5% down

The program is what is known as LPMI. This stands for Lender Paid Mortgage Insurance. The lender pays a Single Premium Up-Front charge, and the buyer is exempt from paying any monthly Mortgage Insurance for the life of the loan. The borrower must still go through the formal approval process through a participating PMI company, but they won't have to pay anything toward this program. This is offered by a few lenders for buyers who desire not to pay PMI or the FHA monthly risk premium. It is offered only on conventional loans with a minimum down payment of 5% and buyers with at least scores of 680 or higher. The higher their credit score is, the lower the interest rate that is offered to the buyer. Their is a cost to this in the form of a higher interest rate. The average add-on to the interest rate is .25%, but the actual hit can vary based on the borrower's credit score and the amount of the down payment. Obviously, a person with a 800 credit score and 15% down payment will pay less than a borrower with a 680 score and only 5% down. The best part is that the overall monthly payment goes down substantially for the customer - at least by 5%.

Please call me with any questions or additional details.

Andy Williams
President
Abacus Regional Mortgage
484 695 5972
andrew.williams@abacusmort.com
www.abacusmort.com

COULD THIS BE THE BEGINNING OF A NEW MARKET?

I don't want to jinx myself, but the Real Estate market seems to have opened up. I had my best months in newly originated loans in the last quarter of 2011. It reminds me of 1997. Normally after Thanksgiving, things slow down as we go into the holiday season. It is a time to reflect on the year's acitivites. Yu can regroup and work on year-end reports and tax returns. Instead of getting ready for 2012, December was extremely busy in new loans. I had hoped for some momentum going into the new years. Well, I had my best January in 18 years and there doesn't appear to be any sign of slowing down. Is this is a sign of things to come, or an anomaly in the market? One can only hope it is the former.

Andy Williams
President
Abacus Regional Mortgage

Rates Always Stable during last 2 Weeks of the Year

I don't know whether all of the economists and government employees go on vacation for the last 2 weeks of each year, but the interest rates always stay flat for the remainder of the year. Perhaps they are enjoying their families and getting ready for the holidays. Maybe they are taking in a few office parties and spending their year-end bonuses. Whatever the reason, it is safe to say that the Mortgage rates on 30 year Fixed Rate products will not change until after January 1st. For those buyers who aren't closing until the end of February, but are concerned that their interest rates will rise before they get a chance to lock them in, have nothing to fear by waiting until the beginning of January to lock. Rest easy and enjoy the holidays knowing that interest rates aren't going up.

Andy Williams PA. NMLS License no. 118317
President
Abacus Regional Mortgage License no. 113984
484 695 5972

Do You Think Being a Mortgage Broker Gives Me an Advantage Over Other Lenders?

How many times has one of your clients, or you personally, been told that they can't get approved? As a Mortgage Broker, I have access to many different lenders and an innumerable amount of lending programs. I do business with large to small Mortgage Companies, Banks, and even Credit Unions. Each type of lender offers something very unique. For example, one of my credit unions offers PMI insurance rates 41% lower than banks and mortgage companies because they are a non-profit organization serving their members. This savings is passed on to my customer. Working with small local banks gives me an advantage. I can offer lower interest rates on many types of loans than the big banks like Citibank, Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo can give to their customers. Many of these small local banks don't sell their mortgages on the Secondary Market, they portfolio their loans. This allows me the distinct advantage to offer creative underwriting. This means that I can do certain loans that others couldn't dream of making to my customers. I offer the unique opportunity of one-stop shopping. If I have a loan in which one lender doesn't like a buyer's credit, or configures their income a certain way, I can package the loan application, ship it to another lender without any additional monies spent. This makes things easier and less stressful on the buyer, seller and realtor. Do you think it could be worth trying us for your next mortgage application?

Andy Williams
President
Abacus Regional Mortgage
484 695 5972

Ask the "Mortgage Man": USDA Announces changes to PMI insurance

Ask the "Mortgage Man": USDA Announces changes to PMI insurance: Effective today, October 1st, the USDA has announced the changes to their up front Funding Fee. The amount of up front insurance premium th...

USDA Announces changes to PMI insurance

Effective today, October 1st, the USDA has announced the changes to their up front Funding Fee. The amount of up front insurance premium they require to be financed in with the mortgages was reduced from 3.5% to 2% of the purchase price. In addition, they will impose a .3% annual fee which will be added to the borrowers monthly payment on a monthly basis. As an example, if someown is buying a home for $100,000, they will be financing
$ 2,000 and incurring a monthly expense of $ 25. These changes are more attractive for the borrower making this type of financing an effective way to sell real estate. They will still finance 100% of the sale price, allowing the borrowers to finance the closing costs to a maximum of 6% of the selling price. The seller can pay the closing costs if the house doesn't appraise high enough to allow the buyers to finance them. This is another positive sign of the economic recovery in the mortgage industry.

Andy Williams
President
Abacus Regional Mortgage
484 695 5972

Is This Real Estate Market Similar to 1991?

When I got into the Mortgage Business in January 1991 the real estate market in Eastern Pennsylvania had died. We had gone from a crazy frenzied high of 1988 to a low in only 3 years. The heightened craze was caused by in influx of people moving in from New Jersey and New York because we built a new major highway (I-78), which made commuting much easier. The less expensive housing prices were possible for these commuters. This time we had a much longer frenzied period of increasing prices topping out in 2007, this time hitting a low in 2010-2011. The main catalysts for this crazed market were the event of 911 and the completion of a connection between I-78 and Route 33. These are some similarities to our current situation.

There are some distinct differences between these two housing markets. I remember doing a mortgage for a couple in October 1991, who were moving into the Pocono Area from Seattle Washington. They had lived in Seattle for 9 months and made a 30% profit on their home before moving to our area. Another gentleman sold his house in Las Vegas in 2 days before moving into the Lehigh Valley. Three other buyers had sold their homes in Boston, Atlanta and Orlando, respectively with little or no trouble. They each had made significant money on their sales and experienced a prosperous housing market. There were pockets of areas throughout the country doing extremely well, while our area, and other parts of the United States were doing poorly.

Today, the entire United States is in a bad housing market. It seems that values are down significantly, with some areas (Detroit, Las Vegas, Florida, California) being hit harder than most. Most of these areas are dependent upon one major industry feeding their economy, such as the Auto Industry in Detroit. The one good thing for our region is that we don't seem to be hit as badly as some of these other areas, and this time our Corporate Diversity will keep our region from being as greatly affected as other parts of the U.S.

MORE SIGNS OF MORTGAGE MARKET EASING THEIR RESTRICTIONS!

As I have kept you informed of changes within the mortgage industry, there have been some signs of easing with lending restrictions. This time I am glad to say that in the very near future there will no longer be a maximum debt ratio of 50% on all loans. More importantly, there will no longer be a minimum credit score requirement with FHA loans. Most of you don't know that there is no minimum FHA score required right now. FHA doesn't have nor ever had a minimum score. The problem we have all had in trying to get buyers approved is that the large institutional investors who buy an sell FHA loans are the ones who have imposed the minimum credit scores on FHAs. Most lenders are requiring minimum scores of 620 because they have to sell the loans to these institutional investors. If they can't sell them, the banks and mortgage companies are stuck holding the loans in their portfolio. With these investors removing the minimum credit scores, we will be able to grant more mortgages, sell more houses, grow the economy and the GDP. We have hit the bottom of the market and are ready to turn a corner slowly. It appears like we are almost in a normal market. For now, I'll take it!

SCAM'S LIST

I was selling at item on Craig's List. I don't know if you've ever sold anything but it's pretty straight forward. You negotiate with a buyer by email and usually meet face to face to exchange the item for cash.

In this case, the buyers were from overseas... so they sent a check by federal express. By email they told me that their employer would be purchasing the item for them, but the check was going to be for more than the cost of the item. This was supposedly a mistake and the difference should be refunded to them by me immediately upon receipt of the money. This is the first time I thought something is suspicious.

When the check arrived it wasn't certified as was stated in their email. It was written on a normal business check in the name of an LLC. The fedex package came from yet another company (LLC) from a different address. Now I'm really starting to get suspicious. The following day I received instructions to wire the money to yet a different person in another state, because they said the money shouldn't take more than 24 hours to clear. This is no longer suspicious- this is downright sounding like fraud.

They continued to pressure me into wiring funds, but I continued to state clearly that I have to wait for the check to clear since it is from out of state. I brought the check to the same bank in which the check was written. This way the bank can see if the funds are available and if the check is legitimate at all. After going into the system, the bank manager felt that the account appears to be legitimate, but she scanned the check I had deposited. Upon further review, the manager found the account to be closed. Now imagine if I had wired money to a stranger and didn't realize my mistake until after it was too late. Please be careful anytime you come across a scenario similar to this. Watch Out for FRAUD!

Andy Williams
President
Abacus Regional Mortgage
484 695 5972

COMMON MYTHS of CREDIT and FREE WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORE

I have been in the business for 25 years and learned to read credit reports way before there were credit scores. We were taught to carefully assess the credit risk of a buyer based on their pattern of payments, number of late accounts, how recent the delinquencies, type of debt, etc. This training went by the wayside when credit scores were derived.

Today, a loan officer looks at the score to determine the ability for a borrower to obtain a mortgage. With this simplistic approach it has made it much easier to determine a buyers ability to get a loan, but it doesn't help a loan officer to properly council someone with less than stellar credit on how to boost their credit score. I have the experience and am better adept at assessing a person's credit report and showing them ways to improve their credit scores.

There are a few myths about credit which are commonly known yet misunderstood. One of the most common myths which I know not to be true is that most people believe that you must open a charge card, charge it up,pay it off, and close it to establish credit. While it is true you must open an account to establish credit, you don't have to use it at all! When you look at a charge card on a credit report it will show the payment patterns for the past 24 months. If the account has never been used it will still show excellent payment patterns as if the card has been actively used. This is an excellent way to build your credit without ever having to use it. You can open a Mastercard or Visa and cut up the card. This will boost your credit score immensely.

Another common myth is when people tell me they paid their late credit card off in full and closed the account. Unfortunately, this doesn't help your payment history. It is true that by paying off the account will bring it current, but the last few months payment history on the account will display the last few late payments for a long time. It becomes an old account and will no longer rate. It is much more effective to pay the account current and continue to make timely payments for at least 24 months to clean up the recent history on the account.

"I've heard that a bank can turn you down if you have too many unused credit cards...they feel that you have the potential to charge them up?"
This is very untrue. I council people how to improve their credit scores by lowering their credit card balances. If you have revolving charge balances below 50% of the limits you will increase your credit score. If you don't have the money to pay down the balances, perhaps you can have the creditor increase your credit limit to obtain the same objective. For instance, if you have a $500 credit limit and a current balance of
$475, by raising the limit to $1,000 you will be able to artificially be able to reach the same goal. Don't close the unused accounts. They are helping you amass a higher credit score.

For a free assessment and credit counselling please contact me at

Andy Williams
President
Abacus Regional Mortgage
484 695 5972
andrew.williams@abacusmort.com

HEALTHY SNACKS AREN'T SUPPOSED TO TASTE THIS GOOD!

This concoction is one that I came up with over the years that tastes fantastic yet is super healthy. Here are the ingredients:

1 cup of fresh strawberries
1 tablespoon of Lowfat Vanilla Yogurt
1 tablespoon of Lowfat Cottage Cheese
1 teaspoon of Wheat Germ
1 teaspoon of Vanilla Granola
1/4 cup of whole walnuts

Slice the strawberries and mix with all of the ingredients. It stores well in a container to pack for lunches and makes a fantastic snack. It is half the calories of ice cream yet contains Omega 3s and packs alot of protein to increase metabolism and fat burning.

PROVEN STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE YOUR CREDIT SCORE

There are three main strategies to improving your credit and boosting your score. The first and most obvious is to continue paying all debts on time. If you have the money, but are sloppy with paying your bills, try utilizing your bank's on line banking system. You can automatically set up your account so that each bill is paid on the same day each month electronically. This method will ensure the timeliness of your payments. The second strategy is to payoff any existing collection accounts, either by negotiating a partial settlement with the creditor, or paying them in full. Once all judgments and collections are paid your credit scores will improve quickly. Many of my customers' scores have improved 20-40 points within weeks of clearing their debts. The third and probably the most important strategy is to pay down any outstanding credit card balances to less than 50% of the credit limit. By having a balance near the maximum limit makes it appear that you may be living on credit to sustain yourself and could be a candidate for impending bankruptcy. If you don't have the money to pay down these balances, try contacting each credit card holder and increasing the credit limit. This strategy is especially effective to raise the scores because an artificial inflation of the credit limit will do the same thing as lowering your balance. These are all effective and rapid ways of improving your credit scores.

Who Says You Have To Starve Yourself To Lose Weight?

There are many foods you can eat which digest slowly in your system. By eating slow digesting foods, you can curb your appetite and minimize hunger between meals. Oatmeal is one of the best foods you can eat because of the length of time it takes to fully digest it. It is a complex carbohydrate that fills you up but lasts in your system for a long time and keeps your hunger satisfied. There are many other low calorie foods that you can eat which give you important nutrients and suppress your appetite. Eating apples and bananas will satisfy your hunger and yet aren't loaded with a lot of calories. Couple these with a good amount of water on a daily basis will curb your appetite, keep you full, and allow you to lose weight.