Mortgage Specialists of Illinois, Inc. 1910 S. Highland Ave. Suite 260, Lombard, IL. 60148 Local: 630-627-9580 Toll-free: 888-879-9800

What's New? New Good Faith Estimate format for January 1st, 2010  HUD has revised the Good Faith Estimate substantially, changing the format from 1 to 3 pages. The new estimate will include a cap on how much fees can rise from the time the estimate is given to the closing date. First Time HomeBuyer Tax Credit Extended! The tax credit for new home purchases has been ewxtended through April 30, 2010. If this is your first house - meaning you haven't owned a house in the last 3 years - you may receive a tax credit up to $8,000. If you are a current homeowner purchasing a house and you've lived in your home for 5 of the last 8 years you can get a credit of up to $6,500. Eligible properties include anything that will be used as a principal single-family residence - including condos and townhomes. Please consult your tax advisor. New rules for FHA "Streamline" Refinances On November 17th FHA is changing the qualifications for an FHA streamline refinance. Under current guidelines, if you already have an FHA loan, you can refinance with no income or appraisal as long as you have a 620 middle credit score. Under the new guidelines you may not be able to include all of your closing costs into the new mortgage - it will depend, but early indications are that you will need to bring cash to closing. Bottom line? If you have an FHA loan with a 5.50% interest rate or higher, call us today! Tax Credit ends November 30th! Although there is much speculation that the tax credit will get extended, we do know one thing for sure-it is here now but scheduled to end on Novemnber 30th, 2009. There is still time to get approved, find a house and close but you must act quickly! 95% Financing available! Thanks to the strength of our lenders we can still obtain mortgage insurance up to 95% loan-to-value on purchases of single family residences & PUDS. Condominiums are not allowed under this program. Call for more details! 203K/ Rehab Loans now available! With so many homes on the market in need of repairs - or if you just want to rennovate a home you're buying or purchasing, this is the program for you.. Make the home your own - new siding, windows, appliances, roof, changing the floor plan, energy-efficient improvmenets, etc. can now be financed using an AFTER IMPROVED value! Call Walter today to find out more - 630-627-9580. BEWARE OF LOAN MODIFICATION SCAMS! Beware of anyone that calls you to help with your loan modification that asks for money up-front. Your lender will NOT require any money up-front in most cases. For more information please got to: http://www.makinghomesaffordable.gov/ Fed cuts rates .75% The Federal Reserve has cut the Federal Funds rate on Tuesday, December 16th to .25%. Banks immediately reduced their Prime Rate to 3.25%. Fannie Mae keeps $417,000 as Conventional Loan Limit! Fannie Mae has elected to keep in place the loan limit of $417,000 for single family residences it has just been announced. This applies to all conventional single family loans. For 2 unit properties the limit is $533,850, for 3 units it is $645,300 and for 4 units it is $801,950! Any loan limit over these is considered a "Jumbo" loan, subject to higher pricing (of course, there are ways around that also - just call us to find out how!). APPROVALS IN LESS THAN 1 HOUR! Don't lose sleep wondering whether your loan is going to get approved! As part of our commitment to bring our customers the very best in customer service, we can now give approvals in less than 1 hour. This is a full underwriting approval, underwritten by a lender we deal with, not a "best guess" as with many brokers. Conventional, FHA and Jumbo loans are all available for this program. I WANT TO BUY A HOUSE, WHERE DO I START? Any realtor or experienced home buyer will tell you that the first thing you need to do is get approved for your mortgage first. This will give you more negotiating power with the sellers. In fact, many sellers will not even negotiate with a potential buyer until their mortgage is approved. We can get you approved easily and quickly with NO APPLICATION FEES! Simply give us a call or hit the "apply now" button to the left and we will have you pre-approved today. From there we just need to overnight the loan package to you or make an appointment with you (we make morning, day and evening appointments for customers in the "6 County" area of Chicago). Either way, your loan will be approved in a matter of days and you can go house-hunting with a CERTIFIED APPROVAL LETTER.   Equal Housing Lender Mortgage Specialists of Illinois, Inc. is an Illinois Residential Mortgage Licensee, license number 4590. We are licensed through the State of Illinois Office of Banks and Real Estate. Their telephone number is 312-793-1409.