Mortgage Blogs

An escrow shortage means your escrow account holds less than your loan servicer needs to pay next year's property tax and homeowners insurance bills, so your monthly payment goes up to close... Continue Reading

Yes, you can use your VA loan more than once. The VA home loan is a lifetime benefit: you can use it again after you sell a home and pay off its VA loan, and in many cases you can buy another home... Continue Reading

A mortgage recast takes a large principal payment you have already made and uses it to recalculate your monthly payment over the remaining term of your existing loan. Your interest rate does not... Continue Reading

A seller concession is money the seller agrees to put toward the buyer's closing costs and prepaid items at settlement. The amount is written into the purchase contract, shows up as a credit on... Continue Reading

A non-warrantable condo is a unit in a building that Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac will not accept as collateral. Because most conventional lenders sell their loans to one of those two agencies, a... Continue Reading

A locked mortgage rate typically holds for a set window, often somewhere between 15 and 60 days, while your loan moves through processing and underwriting. The exact length depends on your loan... Continue Reading

The Loan Estimate you receive within three business days of submitting a mortgage application and the Closing Disclosure you receive at least three business days before signing come from the same... Continue Reading

If your down payment was below 20% on a conventional loan, private mortgage insurance is likely part of your monthly payment. It does not last forever. Federal law sets out specific points where... Continue Reading

Your debt-to-income ratio is the number an underwriter uses to judge whether you can carry a mortgage payment on top of everything else you already owe. The arithmetic is simple. What complicates... Continue Reading