First Mortgage

Please have the following:

• Last 30 days of paystubs
• Last two years of W2s
• Last two months of bank statements
• If you are self-employed, we will need your last two years of tax returns.

If you are applying jointly, they must also provide these documents.

A conventional loan requires a minimum credit score of 620 or higher to be eligible.

A conventional loan requires a 5% down payment.

Apply. You can apply before you find a home and get pre-approved. By doing this you’ll know how much you have to spend, you’ll be ready to make an offer faster and you can estimate your payment for your budget. There is no harm in getting pre-approved, it costs you nothing.

Closing Costs are fees being paid to the county to register your mortgage, title fees, lender fees and processing or underwriting fees. Pre-Paids are the funds that fund your escrow account. An escrow account sets aside a monthly amount of money needed to pay home owners insurance and property taxes.

No. There are no penalties for prepayment. You can pay off your home loan any time with no additional charges.

An adjustable rate mortgage, or ARM, is a loan type that offers a lower initial interest rate than most fixed rate loans. The trade off is that the interest rate can change periodically, usually in relation to an index, and the monthly payment will go up or down accordingly. Against the advantage of the lower payment at the beginning of the loan, you should weigh the risk that an increase in interest rates would lead to higher monthly payments in the future. It’s a trade-off. You get a lower rate with an ARM in exchange for assuming more risk. For many people in a variety of situations, an ARM can be the right mortgage choice, particularly if your income is likely to increase in the future or if you only plan on being in the home for three to five years.

Interest rates fluctuate based on a variety of factors, including inflation, the pace of economic growth, and Federal Reserve policy. Over time, inflation has the largest influence on the level of interest rates. A modest rate of inflation will almost always lead to low interest rates, while concerns about rising inflation normally cause interest rates to increase. Our nation’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, implements policies designed to keep inflation and interest rates relatively low and stable.

No, your loan will always be serviced by Servion, our mortgage partner.

The 15-year fixed rate mortgage offers two big advantages for most borrowers: You own your home in half the time it would take with a traditional 30-year mortgage. You save more than half the amount of interest of a 30-year mortgage. Lenders usually offer this mortgage at a slightly lower interest rate than with 30-year loans. It is this lower interest rate added to the shorter loan life that creates real savings for 15-year fixed rate borrowers. The possible disadvantages associated with a 15-year fixed rate mortgage are: The monthly payments for this type of loan are roughly 10 to 15 percent higher per month than the payment for a 30-year. And, because you’ll pay less total interest on the 15-year fixed rate mortgage, you won’t have the maximum mortgage interest tax deduction possible.