Mortgage & Real Estate Tips and News "Better Informed & Educated Moving Forward"

Monitor Your Own Credit

Knowing Exactly What's Being Reported Before you Apply for Credit (Home Loan, Auto Loan, etc.) Could Save you Thousands $$$

Concerned about what's on your credit report? If you're not, you should be. Your credit score is more important than ever to your financial well-being. It affects whether you can borrow to buy a house, your loan rates, if you can secure credit for future purchases, and if you can cover yourself in an emergency. A potential employer may even (with your permission) want to check your credit to determine your suitability as an employee.

For all those reasons, as well as the ever-increasing risk of identity theft, you need to start paying close attention to what's contained in your credit reports with TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax -- the three national consumer credit reporting agencies that monitor whether or not you've been an upright citizen when it comes to credit. Thankfully, a recent amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act makes it easier than ever to get your reports. The amendment requires each of the three agencies to provide you with a copy of your credit report once every 12 months for free. The only catch? You have to request it.

To obtain a free copy of your credit report, you have three options:

Many consumer experts will recommend that you obtain copies of your credit reports from all three major agencies simultaneously. This makes some sense; each report is likely to contain slightly different information, and you can compare them side-by-side. However, if you instead spread your requests out throughout the year, you can both find out what all three credit bureaus are reporting about you and effectively monitor any changes to your credit over time.

For example, say that in January you request a report from TransUnion, then in May a report from Experian, then follow up with a request to Equifax in September. The downside is remembering when to make your requests; the upside is that every four months (three times a year) you'll be tracking any and all changes made to your credit history. Note that these free credit reports do not include your credit score (aka your FICO), for which the bureaus charge an additional fee.

If, however, you have been the victim of identity theft or are noticing a pattern of irregularities, you might want to enlist the help of a credit monitoring plan like Truecredit.com's three-bureau credit monitoring service, which offers you unlimited access to all three credit reports and credit scores, 24-hour notification of any significant changes to your history, and up to $25,000 in identity theft insurance coverage for $14.95 per month.

If you decide you want the added protection of a credit monitoring service and are willing to pay, don't get lured by those that offer to monitor just one of your three credit reports for a reduced price (typically around $9.95 per month). Since each of the credit bureaus may have slightly different information about you, simply monitoring one does little to keep you protected.

***Please post your comments about problems or successes with monitoring your own credit or maybe one of your clients credit situations that helped close a transaction and help them buy a property or lower a mortgage payment, etc.   Your comments and experiences will help others reading this Blog - we'd love to hear from you!!***

 
Commercial/Apartment Mortgage Loans 

(No Personal Residence used for Cross-Collateralization Required) 

Purchase/Acquisition of Commercial & Apartment Buildings.  Refinance for better cash flow management, pay-off balloon coming due,  Buy-out Partner or Access Dormant Equity for business expansion/additional inventory purchase.  

Looking to expand your business operations? Need more working capital to purchase additional inventory?  Is the local banker asking for  too much paperwork/documentation  and  3 years of 1040's  you'd rather not provide?  Relax, help is here; Pinnacle Mortgage Group specializes in commercial loans to the small business owner!  Our Commercial Loan Consultants can arrange a Low or No Doc, No Hassle Loan Program, tailored to your specific business needs.

Whether you own  or are  acquiring  a commercial property or apartment building, we can help.  Our Commercial Loan Programs offer longer terms than banks - up to 10, 15, even up to 30 year amortization - reducing monthly payments while increasing your business' cash flow!   

Also, for a limited time -  Save even More $$$  with a Pinnacle Commercial Mortgage Loan.  Just mention this online promotion and we will attach an "Appraisal Fee Rebate" voucher to your loan file.  A  substantial Savings  up to $1,500.00! (rebated at C.O.E.)     ****Promotion expires end of the Month****

Pinnacle Mortgage Group represents dozens of Wholesale Commercial Lending Conduit's, including several small balance Commercial Mortgage Bankers.   See below for a list of property types we lend on.

Small Balance Loan Amounts & Loan Limits are;  $100,000.00  to $3,000,000.00.  The Stated Income/Stated Asset (no 1040's needed) program is available on loan amounts  from $100k to $1,000,000. 

Traditional  Loan Amounts  of  $5 Million  to $50 Million  require  standard documentation, dscr/cash-flow analysis, 3 years corp./personal taxes.   More Liberal ratio guidelines with higher LTV's than banks/traditional sources for funds at these loan amounts.

We lend on the following commercial property types;

• 5 + unit Apartment Buildings to  multi-building projects
• Retail Shops/Store
• Medical/Dental/Law Office Buildings & Office Condo's
• Warehouses & Storage Unit Facilities
• Light Industrial Buildings
• Industrial Buildings
• Light Manufacturing
• Strip Mall Shopping Centers
• Gas Stations / Automotive Repair Shops (environmental report)
• Mixed Use Commercial - Store front with residential in rear, etc.
• Restaurant/Bar
• Hospitality Industry - Hotel/Motel
• Grocery/Liquor/Convenience Store
• Elder Care Facilities / Nursing Homes

Our Commercial Loans are C.L.E.A.R.

"Commercial Loans Easy As Residential"

Tom Purcell is a Certified Commercial Mortgage Specialist

Ask for Tom directly regarding any Loan Scenario you have

Note: Stated Income/Stated Asset program is an option to borrowers with higher credit scores,  Loan Amts. on this program up to $1 Million.

Please scroll down for Today's Top Commercial Real Estate News or to Calculate your Debt Service Coverage Ratio click on link -

Return to our Commercial Loans page by clicking the Back Arrow Button on your browser, or the "Home" Button in our Header at top of Page.

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(Please forward Pinnacle Mtg. Group's Web Address to other Business Owners, Investors and Commercial Property Owners you know.  Also Business Owners who'd like to buy the building they occupy) 

Man o man, local sub-prime mortgage bankers and brokers who only focused their originations on that particular market are now either scrambling to down-size their operations or just flat out closing up shop, faster than a snake oil salesman after selling out his magic potions at a carnival!

I've been a local mortgage broker since 1984 and have seen the "rough patches" come and go with real estate and lenders before, albeit with a different set of circumstances before.  In the early 1990's the Orange County economy was laying off our huge aerospace industry in record numbers driving jobs out of the County and causing a drastic reduction in housing prices. That along with interest rates for borrowers with great credit ratings hovering just under double digits. But after the dust settled in the later 90's and everyone who moved (temporarily) to AZ, NV, OR, WA, CO, All came back and brought their cousins and friends with them.  Driving the huge wave of price appreciation we all just experienced from 2000 to 2005. Home Values tripled and in some areas quadrupled !!  The main reason being (and it will Always play a Huge role); our Local Weather and for the most part California's overall "playground" reputation; Summers at the Beach, Winters Skiing the local Mountains or Tanning in Palm Springs, Quad runners and dirt bike racing in the local deserts, golfing 12 months a year, etc. etc. 

"People want to move and Live Here".  We enjoy a diverse economy and great year round weather!  So keep a positive attitude about real estate prices and interest rates. Using historical data as our benchmark, we should be just fine!!

This current "correction" to home values and the economy, local and national, in my opinion should just be a slight hiccup on our overall real estate economy. And really, where's the correction? The median Home Price rose slightly last month.  If rates stay in the 6% to 7% range, housing prices should stay steady for a while, not moving up or down too drastically for the next 12-24 months.  Until supply and demand for our growing region, flexes it's muscle once again later this decade, then we're off to the races again.  All for now.........................more next week