I started Loan Connectors thirteen years ago with one goal in mind: to guide buyers through the home loan process while providing the highest level of service and quality. Like most businesses, I believe that relationships are the key to success and I have been very fortunate to work with many satisfied clients that now feel more like family. In order to continue doing what I love and stay true to my goals, I have decided to make a change.

As of January 30th, 2011, Loan Connectors will cease to exist as a separate company and I will make the transition from business owner to independent loan officer.

While bittersweet for me personally, I believe that I can better serve my clients in this way, without the additional responsibility of running a company. This change will allow me to focus my energies on the loan process with the added benefit of more resources and access to a wider range of lenders. Same Linda, with a new place to hang my shingle.

I will try to make this transition as seamless as possible. Aside from a new office address, some clients may not even notice the difference! I will continue to work tirelessly on your behalf, with the integrity and honesty that made Loan Connectors so dependable. This extends to our other Loan Officers who will bring their considerable experience and reputations to their new companies.

ALG Real Estate Services, Inc. will be my new home. All my contact information will stay the same for the time being. You will also see me taking time to promote my book, “How to Have a Stress Free Mortgage”, while continuing to speak on behalf of the industry, educating clients on the mortgage loan process.

I thank you for your continued support and look forward to working with you in the future.

Sincerely,

Linda Fleischmann, CMC

We are very proud to be listed as one of the top 50 Women owned businesses in the San Fernando Business Journal! Check us out! Other mentionable businesses listed in the Santa Clarita Valley include: Stonefire Grill, Rattlers Bar-B-Que, L/B/W Insurance & Financial Services, Inc., Jorgensen HR, Custom Human Resource Solutions, and Point of View Communications, LLC. Congratulations!

For more information, please go to www.loanconnectors.com

WASHINGTON-In passing a Federal Housing Administration reform bill, the House of Representatives approved an amendment that bans lenders from making FHA loans to borrowers who defaulted on their previous mortgage even though they had the capacity to make the payments.

The FHA bill that was approved by a 406-4 vote directs the Department of Housing and Urban Development to issue guidance and standards that lenders will use to screen borrowers who may have been involved in a strategic default.

The main focus of the bill is to give the FHA mortgage insurance program more flexibility to adjust its premium structure and help rebuild the insurance fund’s capital reserves.

The bill (H.R. 5072) also strengthens the agency’s hand in getting lenders to indemnify the FHA for bad loans and to terminate lenders with excessive early default rates.

But in a surprise move, Republicans offered a motion to send the bill back to the House Financial Services Committee unless the House agreed to the strategic default amendment. The amendment was accepted and the House sent the FHA reform to the Senate.

More and more homeowners with negative equity are being drawn to the idea of strategic defaults as house prices show little sign of recovery any time soon.

First American CoreLogic reported that 4.9 million borrowers have mortgage debt that exceeds the value of their house by 25% and 14% of those borrowers are 90 days or more past due on their payments.

Fannie Mae recently announced a “get tough” policy on strategic defaults. The government-sponsored enterprise said it will take legal action against borrowers who opt for a strategic default and seek to recoup the borrower’s remaining mortgage debt in jurisdictions that allow deficiency judgments.

In addition, such borrowers will not be eligible for a Fannie Mae-backed loan for seven years under the new policy.

If the Senate accepts the strategic default provision, FHA lenders will have to sort out if mortgage applicants defaulted due to financial hardship or simply because it no longer made economic sense to continue making the payments.

Overall, HUD officials were pleased with the House-passed bill. HUD secretary Shaun Donovan said the bill would enable the FHA to “reform its current mortgage insurance premium structure by shifting some of the upfront cost to the annual premium, a move that will increase the FHA’s capital reserves and reduce risks” to the government insurance fund.

When the Senate takes up the FHA reform bill, MBA chairman Robert Story said, “We hope it will adopt the House language on multifamily loan limits and that the Senate will work to keep a careful balance that will allow the FHA to address lender enforcement and loan indemnification without discouraging responsible lenders from participating in the FHA program.”

For mortgage loan information, please visit www.loanconnectors.com

That would help the stress that over 200,000 people have after missing the June 30th deadline!!!!

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The last-minute credit report will be designed to find out whether you have obtained — or even shopped for — new debt between the date of your loan application and the closing. If you’ve made applications for credit of any type — for furnishings and appliances for the new house, a car, landscaping, a home equity line, a new credit card, you name it — the closing could be put on hold pending additional research by the lender.

If you’ve actually taken out new loans that are sizable enough to affect the debt-to-income ratio calculations used in your original mortgage approval, the whole deal could fall through. The added debt load could render you ineligible for the mortgage because you suddenly appear unable to handle the payments without a strain on your household budget.

The June 1 changes are part of a new effort by mortgage giant Fannie Mae to cut down on slipshod underwriting by lenders and fraud by borrowers. Fannie’s “loan quality initiative” will require lenders not only to pull two credit reports for each mortgage transaction but to perform additional verifications of borrower occupancy plans for the property, Social Security numbers and Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers.

“There’s an almost irresistible urge” for many mortgage borrowers, said Don Unger, chief executive of Advantage Credit of Evergreen, Colo. “The lender says, ‘Okay, you’re approved for the loan,’ and you immediately think about shopping for all the things you need for the house. You go to Home Depot” or other major retailers, “and you put in an application.”

In the past, that might not have raised an eyebrow — or even been detected. But under the new double-check policy, when the Home Depot application shows up as a “hard,” or borrower-initiated, inquiry on a credit report, Unger said, the lender “is going to have to contact” the merchant and determine whether credit was extended, in what amount, and how this might affect the applicant’s home financing transaction.

Marc Savitt, president of the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals and a mortgage broker in Martinsburg, W.Va., said it’s not an uncommon scenario. “Most often the new debt involves furniture or other goods for the house,” Savitt said. “However, we have seen debt for new cars and other major purchases.”

Terry Clemans, executive director of the National Credit Reporting Association, recalls one case in which the home buyers “went out and gorged on $40,000 worth of new furniture and all types of stuff” after their loan approval — incurring monthly payments far beyond what they could possibly afford. Under the new policy, they would likely be shot down before closing.

Fannie Mae spokeswoman Janis Smith said lenders “will have to look for things like new credit accounts, increased credit lines, increased balances on existing accounts, undisclosed or newly recorded liens, second mortgages — anything that may have changed since initial application that might impact a borrower’s debt-to-income ratio.”

As a practical matter, some lenders are likely to ask their credit reporting vendors to perform the actual investigations when new debts or inquiries pop up on borrowers’ files. Fannie Mae’s instructions say that “lenders must determine that all debts of the borrower incurred or closed up to and concurrent with the closing” are considered in the final loan analysis.

Unger, however, said all this may not be as straightforward as it sounds. For example, if the credit report is pulled immediately before closing to comply with the “up to and concurrent” requirement, there may not be sufficient time to check out inquiries — especially those in which no actual drawdown of debt has been reported to the national credit bureaus. He also questioned whether entire loan packages might need to be re-underwritten — a time-consuming process — based on credit data discovered at the eleventh hour.

In that event, poof goes your closing.

How should home buyers and refinancers prepare for the new credit check procedures? Lenders and credit reporting company executives say everybody needs to follow just one basic rule: abstinence. Between your application for a mortgage and the date of closing — which might be a span of 45 to 60 days or more — resist the irresistible.

Don’t apply for new credit unless you discuss it in advance with your lender and get a green light.
By Kenneth R. Harney
Saturday, May 15, 2010
For more information on loans, please visit www.loanconnectors.com

This is not a preapproval, but Wells has called it that. This is also why I thoroughly verify my clients information before issuing a preapproval. I just found it appalling that with all that I do as a mortgage broker, I am asked quite often to have my clients preapproved with Banks that don’t even verify enough information to call this a preapproval. Yet, the bank preapprovals are considered top of the line as they are direct lenders, even though the bank itself has not approved it and their loan officers (at least this one) can’t even take the extra step to insure that the client really is preapproved…

Where would you rather be preapproved????? Think about that the next time you blindly go to your bank for a loan without checking with your local mortgage broker.

For more loan information, please visit my website at

“While reading I could almost hear you talking to a client. Easy to understand and put in such simple terms that any “dummy” could comprehend. (Even me)
I found myself thinking about other loan officers that I have overheard. All I can say is that it is no wonder you do the volume you personally handle and they do not. Honestly, NO One even today explains things with such clarity and patience the way you do. Even when you OCCASIONALLY “screw up” you handle it so very well with the client that for the most part they are satisfied.

While everything was informative, I thought Chapter 8 excellent.

On a scale from 1-10 I give it a 9. (only because I don’t want to deal with an inflated ego on Mon.)”

Thanks for the review and for taking the time to read it….love you too!!!!