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My team and I offer the assistance you need to help in all of your mortgage endeavors, without the hassle. Whether you are consolidating your debt, refinancing your home, or purchasing a new home, we have the expertise to close you on time!
We are committed to quality customer service - putting the people we serve first. We have been serving Texas for more than 20 years Take advantage of our expertise in the residential lending industry by applying online today.
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Here at Southwest Funding we have the right loan program for you. Whether you looking for a new home purchase; to refinance to a lower payment; or to take cash out of the equity in your home; we can do it!
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In today’s real estate marketplace, you need an expert mortgage company. Southwest Funding is that company. We have been serving the needs of our clients since 1993 and we have an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. We are a Direct Full Eagle Mortgage Lender and are fully authorized to fund VA, FHA, USDA, HECM (reverse), Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac loans.
1. Purchase borrowers are the most likely to be taken advantage of in a transaction by some bait-and-switch lenders because the borrower is on a deadline.
a. Quotes don't matter! The only legal document a lender is required to stand behind is a good faith estimate, nothing else matters. Too many times I have seen borrowers get a "quote" from another lender only to get something completely different once the good faith estimate is issued. It is actually illegal for a lender to issue the good faith estimate without a property address (usually meaning a sales cnotract) so it is very important you trust your loan officer so you don't get switched right before closing.
b. Make sure your loan has been seen by an underwriter BEFORE you sign a contract. Most lenders give you a preapproval that is worthless, it just means the originator thinks he can get the loan done. Only underwriters can truly determine your eligibility for a purchase. Southwest Funding is one of the few lenders which allow you to have your documents reviewed by an underwriter without a contract.
2. HOW YOU MAKE YOUR MONEY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT YOU MAKE!! Make sure you FULLY disclose how you receive your income. Bonuses, commissions, and overtime, are all calculated differently and are not part of your base income. Some lenders won’t even allow you to use this income so you won’t find out until the very end that your preapproval is now a denial.
3. Getting the cheapest price for a home is not always the best thing. Usually the best negotiation tactic is to get the seller to pay for ALL of the closing costs. This will allow you to bring less money to closing so you are less stressed at closing. A lower sales price really only helps you later if you decide to sell, getting the closings costs paid helps you on the day of closing.
4. Understand you will have unforeseen costs of owning a home. Lawn maintenance, new furniture, and updates are just a few things to keep in mind when budgeting.
5. Make sure the property taxes on the home you are purchasing are based upon your age and the actual improved value of the home. All too often, we see borrowers who closed their loan somewhere else and come to us to refinance because their payments shot up due to a shortage in their escrow account.
6. Have fun! Purchasing a home should be exciting not dreadful.....and call me:)
To really take advantage of the benefits of a refinance, it’s important to time it correctly. Here are a few ways to know if the timing is right:
Actually, they're very similar. You go through the same process of applying for the loan and pay many of the same fees. The main difference is you're not buying a home this time around. Sometimes refinancing is cheaper than purchasing because you might be a break on certain fees since you paid them when you purchased.
The easiest way to figure out whether or not it’s worth it to refinance is to use one of the many available online refinance calculators. They will help you to determine how long it will take to recoup the expense of refinancing with the new savings.
People often refer to this as the “break even” point, which basically means that you figure out how much you will be saving each month and compare it to the cost of the refinance to figure out how long it will take to recoup your money.
The rule of thumb is that, if you plan to stay in the house long enough to recoup the entire cost of refinancing, then it is worth it.
Any discussion of "all-time low" mortgage rates requires careful attention to specifics. Are we talking about weekly survey numbers or actual daily numbers? Intraday vs end of day? Best-case rates or averages? Purchases or refis? Depending on the specifics, it is true that some lenders are offering all-time lows on purchase mortgages. Refis are another story due to the new adverse market fee that is now being added to nearly all conventional refinance transactions.
Sidenote for those confused about extension of the refi fee deadline to "Dec 1." This doesn't mean you can avoid the fee if you lock/apply before December 1st. The event that must occur by Dec 1st is the DELIVERY of the loan--a milestone in the lifecycle of a loan that occurs 2-4 weeks AFTER it closes. In other words, no loan that isn't already locked and in progress is going to beat that date with certainty (and is therefore being hit by the new fee).
That's really the biggest point of distinction between sources claiming all-time lows and those saying "not quite there yet." The others are much easier to understand. For instance, there's ALWAYS going to be a big difference between best-case scenario rates and the average loan scenario seen by any given lender. The MBA's data is the best example of such an average, and that's why it runs higher than my numbers or Freddie Mac's weekly survey.
Lastly, at times there can be very big differences between individual lenders and the average lender from hour to hour and day to day, even though they tend to even out over time.
With all of that housekeeping out of the way, here's what's important: over the past 2 days, the average lender has improved rates significantly. This is mostly a reflection of lenders playing it safe heading into the potential election-related market volatility and breathing a collective sigh of relief as bonds have improved since then (stronger bonds = lower rates, all other things being equal). But another consideration is that lenders are starting to feel a little more competitive with one another.
Why would that be? Simply put, bond markets improved so much, so fast, that lenders didn't need to drop rates remotely as much as they could have in order to be busier than ever. At times, we saw lenders actually RAISE rates even when bonds suggested the opposite move. Now that seasonal factors are kicking in and with more and more of the refi boom being worked through, lenders are finding that inbound application volume needs a bit of encouragement to maintain the same breakneck pace. Fortunately, lenders have plenty of room to tighten their margins (fancy talk for "bring rates lower even if the bond market is merely holding steady"). There would ultimately be a limit to their ability to do that, but we're not close enough to that limit to even begin to discuss it today.