chrisgriffith on March 18th, 2013

Use a Trusted, Referred Mortgage Broker or Banker If you’re thinking of looking for real estate in Bonita Springs or you’re in the process of shopping for a home you’re going to come to the crossroads of financing your real estate purchase if you’re not a cash buyer.  Your real estate agent, if they’ve got [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Mortgage Broker Referral – Get Local

Local Bonita Springs Mortgage Broker If I had a dollar for every sad-as-a-country song story about a mortgage loan that didn’t close on time or a real estate purchase that fell apart because of the mortgage I could retire from real estate.  As fate would have it, I’m sitting at my computer eating a spicy [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Mortgage Brokers – Why Use Your Real Estate Agent’s Referral?

chrisgriffith on January 25th, 2012

Mortgages, Divorce, Refinance and Quit Claim Deeds A couple of great mortgage questions have come in over the last few weeks … Question: We’re considering selling our place and purchasing another and we would like to do back to back closings. Is this something that can be done? Not everyone can pay cash for real [...]

Continue reading about Real Estate Financing Questions | Mortgage Mailbag

chrisgriffith on June 8th, 2011

Take the L Out of Lover & It’s Over … Unless There’s a Note So a while back I’m at this party … when the room thinned out and got a little quieter “Rick” mentioned that he was on his way across town to sign some papers. As a matter of fact, it had just [...]

Continue reading about Quit Claims, Quick Claims and a Mortgage Note

chrisgriffith on April 16th, 2011

Private Money Mortgage Lending Chris Brown from Certified Mortgage planners sent me an email with a new program that may interest a few real estate shoppers.  For those of you mentally ready, but not credit-ready, to get back into the real estate market this may be an alternative to a traditional mortgage for real estate [...]

Continue reading about Private Money Lending For Credit Challenged Real Estate Buyers

chrisgriffith on February 19th, 2011

If you do not see the video above click here: Experian using rental history to calculate credit score: Rental History Credit & Future Real Estate Purchase Wouldn’t it be great to see the other credit bureau’s follow Experian’s lead?  Bonita Springs real estate buyers would be able to rebuild dinged credit by paying their rent [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Real Estate Buyers – Rental History May Help Credit

chrisgriffith on January 26th, 2011

Keys to a Successful Short Sale  There have been several calls and emails from home owners who are either are struggling through the short sale process or wondering what it really takes to negotiate a short sale. From the outside looking in, they some like hostages to transactions going nowhere so I thought I’d just [...]

Continue reading about Short Sale Real Estate Action Item List

chrisgriffith on January 19th, 2011

Foreclosures and Failed Real Estate Offers So you keep making offers on property and not “getting the deal”. I’ve gotten a couple of emails from buyers asking that same question who feel there are shenanigans going on. Without first hand knowledge of the actual transactions, there are a several very real dynamics in play which [...]

Continue reading about Real Estate | Making Offers & Not Getting The Deal

chrisgriffith on January 12th, 2011

Choosing a Short Sale Listing Agent While email isn’t new or revolutionary in real estate it has become instrumental to the success of most contract negotiations and closings, especially when a property is a short sale or a foreclosure. This isn’t a general whine about real estate agents that don’t or won’t properly use email. [...]

Continue reading about Short Sale Real Estate – Communication is Crucial

chrisgriffith on September 11th, 2010

Weekend mortgage rates for buyers of Bonita Springs, Florida real estate.

Continue reading about Mortgage Rates For Weekend Real Estate Shoppers

chrisgriffith on June 16th, 2010

Selling Florida real estate for sale by owner to unqualified buyers.

Continue reading about Home Buyers Vs. Home Dreamers

chrisgriffith on May 17th, 2010

Coughing Up Info Before The Real Estate Hunt What do you have to divulge before you buy real estate?  The short version is “it depends”.  The longer version comes after you decided what you’re thinking about budgeting for your real estate and how you’re going to pay for the real estate. It really doesn’t matter [...]

Continue reading about Must You Give Personal Information to Buy Real Estate?

chrisgriffith on February 17th, 2010

Taking Mortgage Broker Recommendations There’s a big difference between inexpensive and a good value where home loans are concerned. Throw in a few dozen flashy ads with teaser interest rates and all the magic the loan officer promises to work for you and let the mortgage cyclone begin. Getting a mortgage is unsettling for some [...]

Continue reading about Time Zones, Online Mortgages and Russian Roulette

chrisgriffith on February 3rd, 2010

Pros and Cons of a Bi-Weekly Mortgage Program When a borrower enters into a contract to make bi-weekly payments on their mortgage, the amortization schedule is accelerated. For example, with a 30-year amortization schedule, the borrower makes 12 payments per year. In a bi-weekly arrangement, the borrower makes 26 ‘half’ payments, which allows the loan [...]

Continue reading about Bi-Weekly Mortgage Payments | Florida Real Estate

chrisgriffith on January 29th, 2010

The Low Interest Rates Won’t Last Forever To everyone’s great relief, fixed mortgage rates have been extraordinarily low for the last year averaging between 4.75% – 5.25%.  However, perhaps you remember the summer of 2008?  Gas prices crested $4/gal, inflation was all the rage and home buyers were snapping up 6.5% mortgage rates like they [...]

Continue reading about The Dollars and Cents of a Great Interest Rate

chrisgriffith on January 15th, 2010

A Brief but Passionate Affair This was almost the mailbox to a first time home buyer in the Bonita Springs-Estero area.  Some houses just have a few issues that pop up that push them outside of budgeted repairs or even insurance guidelines or lately, mortgage guidelines.  Anything can pop up during the home inspection.  That’s [...]

Continue reading about The First Time Home Buyer’s Almost Mailbox | The Mailbox Series

chrisgriffith on January 7th, 2010

Know Your Credit Score In the past, it wasn’t out of the question to obtain a mortgage with a FICO score in the low 500 range. In fact, if you were willing to accept the payment, you could even do so with little money down. Today, however, if you have a low FICO score, you [...]

Continue reading about Your Credit Score and Your Mortgage

chrisgriffith on December 16th, 2009

Kinda Makes Me Want To Pull The Fire Alarm A buyer recently asked me if there is anything that I can do to speed up the short sale process. Why funny that they asked on the heels of the shiny, new and improved rules that that have just been formed to streamline the short sale [...]

Continue reading about New Short Sale Real Estate Guidelines – We’re Saved!

chrisgriffith on December 4th, 2009

Mortgage Rates Hit All-Time Low Levels Again! In case you haven’t caught the news, home loan rates have done it again, dropping to their lowest level…ever. Not only has the 30 Year Fixed rate returned to its lowest all time level, rates across the board are at their lowest levels.   Yes, that means, go [...]

Continue reading about The Time Financing a Florida Home Couldn’t Be Better

chrisgriffith on November 3rd, 2009

First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Expires Soon Attention potential First-Time Home Buyers!!!  You have less than four weeks to close on your new home to get the $8,000 tax credit.  Do not rely on an extension with possible additional benefits.  Take what you know you can get now.  Not what you could or could [...]

Continue reading about Four Weeks and Counting

chrisgriffith on October 28th, 2009

Foreclosure by Choice When did the mentality about walking away from the obligation of a home change? Maybe the change started when the possibility of owning a home was made so easy that anyone with a pulse and a blue ink pen could qualify for a loan. Home ownership was no longer a challenge for [...]

Continue reading about Strategic Default – Walking Away From The Debt

chrisgriffith on October 26th, 2009

The Haunted Halloween Mortgage Rates Report The 4% rates have come back to haunt us this week. Or is that taunt us? For almost one week, the rates were in the 5% range. However, with a last minute inter-day rate change, an eerie ghost appeared on my rate sheet. I quickly snapped this photo of [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 10-26-2009

chrisgriffith on October 19th, 2009

There’s no place like 4%, There’s no place like 4% It appears as though potential home owners had their house land on the higher rates of 5% and reward them with some red ruby slippers to wish rates back down into the 4% range. But you better hurry and take advantage of the minor dip [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 10-19-2009

chrisgriffith on October 12th, 2009

Don’t Think We’re in the 4′s Anymore Toto Over the weekend a major tornado wreaked havoc on the mortgage industry. Analysts are certain of the cause, but while siphoning through the damage, on thing is certain. 4% interest rates have disappeared from this realm of reality. While we can only hope that these rates find [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 10-12-2009

Financing after bankruptcy, foreclosure, short sale, deed-in-lieu

Continue reading about Credit and Purchasing Real Estate After Foreclosure, Bankruptcy, Short Sale

chrisgriffith on September 21st, 2009

Record Low Rates, Get What You Need "You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well you just might find, you get what you need." – Rolling Stones What does that have to do with this week’s mortgage rate report? Well, funny you should ask. I have heard from a very [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 09-21-2009

chrisgriffith on September 16th, 2009

Finance Barbie: Fake Currency Included Party Dress & Yacht Sold Separately Several days ago I was crossing the state in my car. While listening to the radio I overheard a report of senior vice president, banking executive who had “borrowed” a bank owned home in Malibu, California for her own personal use and entertainment. On [...]

Continue reading about Who Else From The Bank Was on The Guest List?

chrisgriffith on September 3rd, 2009

The Banks Ran Me Around For Two Years and One Half Years   Two and one half years with no payments made to the bank, no response from the bank, no foreclosure, no loan modification, seven accepted offers at about $40,000 as a short sale on his home when he just needed and wanted an [...]

Continue reading about These Feet Would Say In The Queens English…

chrisgriffith on September 2nd, 2009

Banks Get The Gold Mine Consumers Get The Shaft … and Jesus Loves You Sometimes actually getting the bank to give a loan modification doesn’t end with the borrower being getting their issues solved. Loan modifications are an emotional roller coaster. From the day a borrower finally gets a living, breathing human on the phone [...]

Continue reading about The Home Loan Modification Mirage

chrisgriffith on August 31st, 2009

I am changing the format of this up a little bit to make it work with our site’s that we post for, so please work with us as we try this this out.   Mortgage rates have been holding steady for the past couple weeks.  Mortgage applications have increased.  Is this a sign that the [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Mortgage Monday August 31, 2009

chrisgriffith on August 17th, 2009

Interest Rates Trotted Down Under 5% The Mortgage Loan Interest Rates Report for Bonita Springs, Florida. Rates as of August 17, 2009. Holy 4.875% Rates, Batman!!!  Yes, it is in the 4% range again.  How many times are you going to flirt with this before you decide now is the time.   Product Rate Discount [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 08-17-2009

chrisgriffith on August 16th, 2009

  Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy If you can’t see the video above, CLICK HERE. This is a little ditty about how the real estate market really is.  Many buyers of real estate worry that because the market is moving so swiftly they won’t get a great deal.  [...]

Continue reading about The Banks Are Still Loaded With Toxic Assets

chrisgriffith on August 15th, 2009

  Conventional, Cash and FHA Financing Statistics   Wondering how things get paid for in the Bonita Springs and Estero Florida real estate market?  These are the number for July 2009 taken from the Sunshine MLS.  This is the closed real estate sales only during that month.  Cash is king, followed by conventional mortgages and [...]

Continue reading about Funding Estero & Bonita Springs Real Estate

chrisgriffith on July 20th, 2009

Florida Mortgage Rates It looks like rates have pretty much held steady this past week. But how much longer will it hold out? Product Rate Discount APR Monthly Payment Conforming Fixed 30 Year 5.125% 0.00% 5.278% $816.73   Conforming Fixed 20 Year 5.250% 0.00% 5.458% $1,010.77 Conforming Fixed 15 Year 4.625% 0.00% 4.883% $1,157.10   [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 07-20-2009

chrisgriffith on July 13th, 2009

Interest rates for Bonita Springs Florida real estate.

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 07-13-2009

chrisgriffith on July 10th, 2009

HVCC survey results

Continue reading about The Numbers – The Impact of HVCC

chrisgriffith on July 8th, 2009

Years of Bonita Springs real estate home owner association dues go unpaid when properties close. Can your HOA afford the next ARM reset?

Continue reading about Home Owner Associations Lose When Bank Foreclose

chrisgriffith on July 6th, 2009

Your $8000 SHIP has come in. But are you first in line? July 1, 2009 marked the new fiscal year for SHIP (State Housing Initiative Program), a state funded down payment assistance program for low-level income home buyers.  However, this year the $161 million grant used to fund this program has been cut to $30 [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 07-07-2009

chrisgriffith on July 1st, 2009

The home valuation code of conduct HVCC and what it means to those getting or making loans.

Continue reading about The HVCC Wal-Mart Effect

chrisgriffith on June 22nd, 2009

Why HVCC just must loans and funding worse for consumers.

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 06-22-2009

chrisgriffith on June 15th, 2009

What good is a pre-qualification or pre-approval if you’re not going to listen? When a buyer wants to buy a home, the Real estate agent they are dealing with usually asks right off the bat: “Have you been pre-qualified or pre-approved for a mortgage?”  Why is this such an important questions?  There are several things [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 06-15-2009

chrisgriffith on June 8th, 2009

Get The Good Rates or Pay The Toll I am stealing that line from Neil Cavuto of Fox Business Network. In a recent broadcast of Fox News, Cavuto mentioned how someone asked him about mortgage rates.  The person was hesitant to buy a new house because mortgage rates went back up.  Cavuto asked him what [...]

Continue reading about Too Young To Know Good Mortgage Rates

chrisgriffith on June 1st, 2009

Mortgage Prequalification VS Mortgage Approval OK, by now most Consumers realize that they should have financing in place before even starting to look for real estate – so I won’t beat up on that topic any more! (BTW – even if you’re not a first time buyer take a look at First Time Home Buyers [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 06-01-2009

chrisgriffith on May 18th, 2009

Congratulations! Your mortgage Was denied Many people in today’s market are hesitant to apply for a mortgage, whether it be a purchase or refinance.  They are scared, or more so embarrassed, about the possibility of being denied for the loan.  However, those that are denied for a mortgage are one step closer to getting approved [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 05-18-2009

chrisgriffith on May 11th, 2009

Are you too late to the home buying or refinancing game? Some people still think that things are going to get better.  So I decided to hold off one week on writing something, so this way I could write on what did happen.  As they say, “Hindsight is 20/20.”  Now, there is no arguing that [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 05-11-2009

chrisgriffith on April 27th, 2009

Mortgage Rates Hit 5 Year High This week it is projected that mortgage rates will reach a 5 year record high.  Thanks to declining markets, credit lending guidelines tightening down, banks going out of business or merging to avoid bankruptcy, and many other economic factors, potential homeowners will now be facing an even more difficult [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 04-27-2009

chrisgriffith on April 23rd, 2009

The Fleecing of American Home Owners If you’re a home owner fortunate enough to have a job and a home without a mortgage or a least reasonable payments on your home watch and learn what someone in dire straights has to go through to get a loan modification.  It’s an abomination that the banks are [...]

Continue reading about The Loan Modification Run Around

chrisgriffith on April 20th, 2009

USDA 100% Financing Gets An Income Facelift Effective Monday, April 20, 2009, the income eligibility guidelines for USDA 100% guaranteed mortgage loan financing will be changed.  The change, unlike most changes in our current mortgage industry, is for the better.  So what is the change?… Higher income limits in bracketed tiers versus the original per [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 04-20-2009

chrisgriffith on April 13th, 2009

Bonita Springs Refinance Rates Still Below 5% Recently, President Obama talked  about the record low interest rates available for home loans and how this is a great time for millions of homeowners to refinance. Quite a few news sources criticized him for sounding too much like a salesman – but hey, they have to have [...]

Continue reading about Bonita Springs Florida Monday Mortgage Report 04-14-2009

chrisgriffith on April 5th, 2009

If you don’t see the video below click this link:  Why Won’t My Mortgage Company Help? The video is complements of the Consumer Warning Network.  You can read the entire article about how Wells Fargo isn’t cooperating with these home owners HERE.

Continue reading about Why Won’t My Mortgage Company Help?

Google Google+