Mortgage insurance should not be confused with mortgage life insurance, which is designed to pay off a mortgage in the event of a borrower's death. Mortgage insurance makes it possible for you to buy a home with less than a 20% down payment by protecting the lender against the additional risk associated with low down payment lending. Low down payment mortgages are becoming more and more popular, and by purchasing mortgage insurance, lenders are comfortable with down payments as low as 3 - 5% of the home's value. It also provides you the ability to buy a more expensive home than might be possible if a 20% down payment were required.

The mortgage insurance premium is based on loan to value ratio, type of loan, and amount of coverage required by the lender. Usually, the premium is included in your monthly payment and one to two months of the premium is collected as a required advance at closing.

It may be possible to cancel private mortgage insurance at some point, such as when your loan balance is reduced to a certain amount - below 75% to 80% of the property value. Recent Federal Legislation requires automatic termination of mortgage insurance for many borrowers when their loan balance has been amortized down to 78% of the original property value. If you have any questions about when your mortgage insurance could be cancelled, please contact your Mortgage Banking Officer.

The maximum percentage of your home's value depends on the purpose of your loan, how you use the property, and the loan type you choose, so the best way to determine what loan amount we can offer is to complete our online application!

Yes, applying for a mortgage loan before you find a home may be the best thing you could do! If you apply for your mortgage now, we will issue a pre-qualification letter online instantly, subject to you finding the perfect home. You can use this letter to assure real estate brokers and sellers that you are a qualified buyer. Being pre-qualified for a mortgage may give more weight to any offer to purchase that you make.

When you find the perfect home, you will simply call your Mortgage Banking Officer to complete your application. You will have an opportunity to lock in our great rates and fees then and we will complete the processing of your request.

A credit score is one of the pieces of information we use to evaluate your application. Financial institutions have been using credit scores to evaluate credit card and other applications for many years, to assist with their loan decisions.

Credit scores are based on information collected by credit bureaus and information reported each month by your creditors about the balances you owe and the timing of your payments. A credit score is a compilation of all this information converted into a number which helps a lender determine the likelihood you will repay the loan on schedule. The credit score is calculated by the credit bureau, not by the lender. Credit scores are calculated by comparing your credit history with millions of other consumers. They have proven to be a very effective way of determining credit worthiness.

Some of the things which affect your credit score include your payment history, your outstanding obligations, the length of time you have had outstanding credit, the types of credit you use, and the number of inquiries which have been made about your credit history in the recent past.

Credit scores used for mortgage loan decisions range from approximately 300 to 900. Generally, the higher your credit score, the lower the risk your payments will not be paid as agreed.

Using credit scores to evaluate your credit history allows us to quickly and objectively evaluate your credit history when reviewing your loan application. However, there are many other factors when making a loan decision and we never evaluate an application without looking at the total financial picture of a customer.

An abundance of credit inquiries can sometimes affect your credit scores since it may indicate your use of credit is increasing.

However, the data used to calculate your credit score does not include any mortgage or auto loan credit inquiries made within the 30 days prior to the score being calculated. In addition, all mortgage inquiries made in any 14-day period are always considered one inquiry. You should not limit your mortgage shopping for fear of the effect on your credit score.

There is no charge to you for the credit information we will access with your permission to evaluate your application online. You will only be charged for a credit report if you decide to complete the application process after your loan is approved.

Whether you're purchasing or refinancing, we're certain you'll find our service amazing.

If you'll be purchasing but haven't found the perfect home yet, complete our application and we'll issue an approval for a mortgage loan now with no obligation.

Yes, you can borrow funds to use as your down payment, however, any loans that you take out must be secured by an asset that you own. If you own something of value that you could borrow funds against such as a car or another home, it's a perfectly acceptable source of funds. If you are planning on obtaining a loan, make sure to include the details of this loan in the Expenses section of the application.

We take full advantage of an automated underwriting system which allows us to request as little information as possible to verify the data you provided during your loan application. The automated underwriting system compares your financial situation with statistical data from millions of other homeowners and uses the comparison to determine the level of verification needed.

Generally, the income of self-employed borrowers is verified by obtaining copies of personal (and business, if applicable) federal tax returns for the most recent two-year period.

We will review and average the net income from self-employment reported on your tax returns to determine the income which can be used to qualify. We will not be able to consider any income which has not been reported as such on your tax returns. Typically, we will need at least one, and sometimes a full two-year history of self-employment to verify that your self-employment income is stable.