I say this with a heavy heart but with great optimism moving forward.  Dodd/Frank has won the war, they have successfully brought about the demise of the mortgage broker. Consumers beware! Your choices for mortgage financing have been greatly diminished.  If you thought 2013 was a tough year to qualify for a mortgage just wait and see what comes along.  I have been a broker for almost 15 years, I left the “big Bank” environment and loved every minute of helping my customers gain acsees to lenders all over the country. Something their local S&L or credit union could never do.  I procured financing from $30,000 to over 3 million, good luck with that now Mr.Consumer, at least not without doing your own due diligence and proper Q and A questioner which is what the Broker business was all about, by the way, at no charge.  I took great pride in knowing that 90% of the time I could place any customer into an affordable mortgage (that’s right I said affordable) don’t mistake my professional mortgage planning advise for the scam artists at CountryWide, Beneficial Home Finance (HSBC Bank), Washington Mutual Bank, I can go on and on.  The mortgage Broker had nothing to do and let me repeat nothing to do with the mortgage meltdown.

So why am I still optomisitic you might be wondering? Because I did loose my Branch, I lost my identity, I lost my entrapenuearial  spirit but I didn’t loose my drive, my fight my pledge to every customer that has supported me for 28 plus years.  I will always do what is best for my customer, I will always be a leader, I will always guide you without concerns of personal compensation, I will be your personal mortgage planner for the rest of your (or mine) life.

So where can you find me in November?  I will be joining Genesee Regional Bank (GRB), the Bank is a small commercial lender under great management. I say great because I know the President personally I know their CEO/CFO and the rest of the team that have made the Bank successful. That is why I have decided to join, I am willing to put the time in (again) if we can make a difference. 

Stay tuned.

John Milano signing off. 

First Time Buyers Use FHA Financing To Buy Multi-Units!

The timing is still right to buy a home, rates are down and it’s a buyers market. Could it get any better? You bet! How about buying your first home that is a 2, 3 or 4 family? Not only will you have an income stream coming in, you will also have a great start to building your real estate portfolio. What many people don’t realize is that they can use the FHA government insured loan to buy up to 4 units as long as they owner occupy one of them. In almost all cases the down payment is only 3.5% and the seller can even pay the closing costs up to 6%. Why such a secret? Probably because what doesn’t get talked about usually gets forgotten.

Let me give you some very interesting and wealth building examples. Lets assume you find a 3-family home selling for $175,000 with yearly real estate taxes of $10,000 and the property allows for a 3.5% down payment (cash flow has to equal total PITI 1 to 1). Your loan amount would be approximately $170,500 with mortgage insurance included. At a 5% fixed 30 year rate, the mortgage payment would be approximately $915.00. Adding in real estate taxes, mortgage insurance and property insurance, your total payment would be about $1,976.00. Assuming rents are in the neighborhood of $900.00 x 2, you could be grossing $1,800.00 in rental income, leaving you a whopping $176.00 that is left to pay on your mortgage payment. Starting to get the picture? Even if you have a vacancy the balance is about $1076.00. Probably not much more than what you would pay in a nice rental.

Not excited just yet? How about using gift funds and seller concessions in order to buy the same house with close to nothing out-of-pocket! And now to save the best for last, maybe down the road you are ready to buy your next owner occupied property and you completely rent this one out. Not considering any increase in rents, which you know is not likely, you could gross $2,700.00 and have a net income of $724.00 per month. This is not counting the deductions you will get from Uncle Sam. So, what are you waiting for? Get pre-approved today and enjoy all the wealth building strategies of real estate.