Bulls & Blogs

Moving mortgaged rental property to LLC is okay

Investment, Loan Guidelines Comments Off

Jan 292018

For more information, please contact me at (512) 261-1542 or steve@LoneStarLending.com.

By G. Steven Bray

Investors in residential real estate have long been dogged by the “due on sale” clause in the standard promissory note. It states that the lender may call the note due upon the sale or transfer of ownership of the property. A preferred vehicle for ownership of investment properties is a limited liability company because it provides some legal separation between the property and the investor’s other assets.

Fannie Mae requires that a borrower be personally liable on a note, meaning the borrower must sign the note in his/her name. Fannie won’t allow the name on the property’s title to be different from the name on the note, so investors sometimes quit claim the property title to their LLC after closing. However, this could trigger the due on sale clause if the loan servicer chooses to enforce it.

I have great news! Late last year, Fannie changed its servicing guidelines so that a change of ownership to an LLC in which the borrower owns a majority interest is acceptable and does NOT violate the terms of the note.

A couple important caveats:

– The change applies only to loans purchased by Fannie after 6/1/16; and

– The title must revert to the borrower prior to refinancing.

Fannie still will not allow the LLC to sign the note, and it still requires the property’s title to match the borrower’s name. However, Fannie will allow the time the property was held in the LLC to count towards the 6-month seasoning period for a cash-out refinance.

I did check with Freddie Mac, and it has not followed Fannie’s lead on this issue.

Qualifying with rental income from Airbnb

Loan Guidelines, Residential Mortgage Comments Off

Nov 202017

For more information, please contact me at (512) 261-1542 or steve@LoneStarLending.com.

By G. Steven Bray

With the growing popularity of Airbnb and other short term rental options, Freddie Mac has updated its conventional loan guidelines to allow you to use that rental income to qualify for a mortgage. However, the conditions for inclusion are rather tight.

To use short-term rental income for qualifying, you must have a two-year history of receiving it as documented on Schedule E of your tax return. Freddie contends that short-term rental income tends to fluctuate, so a historical view is needed. You can expect Freddie to take the lower amount or an average of the two years as qualifying income. Also note that short-term rental income for your primary residence, like renting out your home during SWSX, will not count as qualifying income even if you do it every year.

Freddie announced one other significant change to its guidelines for rental income. If you don’t have at least one year of investment property experience, Freddie will limit the amount of rental income that can count as qualifying income to 30% of the net rental income from your investment property. Freddie says the limit addresses the risk that rental income is a new type of income for the borrower.

Freddie says the changes are effective Feb 9th of next year, but some lenders may implement them earlier.

More leverage for investment properties

Investment, Loan Guidelines Comments Off

Oct 312016

For more information, please contact me at (512) 261-1542 or steve@LoneStarLending.com.

By G. Steven Bray

Since the financial collapse almost a decade ago, rental property buyers have been stuck with a minimum 20% down payment for conventional financing. Not only had Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac not forgotten about all the high-leverage loans they purchased that went bust, but the mortgage insurance companies also got burned. And for conventional financing, you need mortgage insurance to go higher than 80% leverage.

That has changed. Mortgage insurance companies have an appetite for rentals again. At this time for buyers with 680 or better credit, we’re able to accept a 15% down payment.

Of course, you’ll pay a premium for the mortgage insurance. Your MI rate would be roughly 50% higher than what one would pay when buying a primary residence. On a $200k loan, that equates to a monthly MI payment of about $102 assuming good credit. However, it only takes about 5 years to pay the loan down to 78% of the purchase price, at which point the mortgage insurance gets cancelled.

Fannie Mae changes make it easier to qualify for a mortgage

Investment, Loan Guidelines, Residential Mortgage Comments Off

Aug 262015

For more information, please contact me at (512) 261-1542 or steve@LoneStarLending.com.

By G. Steven Bray

Let’s look at some recent changes to loan guidelines that make it easier to qualify for a mortgage. These changes apply to Fannie Mae conventional loans.

– First, many folks, especially those employed in sales, have been penalized when applying for a mortgage if they write off business expenses on their tax return. Underwriting rules said we had to deduct the written-off amount from qualifying income. Fannie has changed that. For salaried borrowers or those with commission income that’s less than 25% of total income, the new rules say we can ignore the expenses.

– Second, with recent home price appreciation, some homebuyers are choosing to keep their current homes and rent them. Previous underwriting rules required that the current home have at least 30% equity in order for us to count the rental income and required the homebuyer to have extra cash or reserves to cover up to 6 months of housing payments on the current home. The new rules eliminate the 30% requirement, but the homebuyer still may need reserves depending on the financial strength of the borrower.

– And, finally, if reserves are required, a borrower now can use 100% of vested retirement account balances to satisfy the requirement. The previous rules required that we use a discounting factor of 60%.

Investors: Freddie raising number of homes you can own

Investment, Loan Guidelines, Residential Mortgage Comments Off

Aug 122015

For more information, please contact me at (512) 261-1542 or steve@LoneStarLending.com.

By G. Steven Bray

After the financial meltdown, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac decided they would limit their loan programs to folks who had no more than 4 mortgaged properties. Freddie finally is raising its limit to 6. The change becomes effective 10/26.

Over at Fannie Mae, it has created a special loan program that allows up to 10 mortgaged properties, but not all lenders offer the program, and it comes with slightly higher interest rates. Freddie’s change is to its conventional loan program, so a borrower who uses the program won’t face higher rates or other hurdles.

Freddie also is removing its requirement that an investment homebuyer have a two-year history of managing investment properties and is removing the requirement that the homebuyer maintain rent loss insurance in order to qualify.

These are huge changes that should make it easier for investment property buyers to qualify for conventional financing.