FLORIDA KNOWLEDGE CENTER

If you are purchasing a home and have a substantial portion of your assets inside of a retirement account such as a 401K, 403B or other retirement product or annuity, you may choose the increasingly popular option of tapping those funds to make a down payment on your new home. Like any other accounts you may have in your name, such as brokerage accounts and bank checking, savings and money market accounts, most popular retirement accounts qualify as assets to be counted toward your “reserves”, a measure used by mortgage lenders to determine how many months of payments you must have in order to serve as a buffer covering payments you might miss if there were any interruption of your income.

Borrowers planning on using money from their 401k should try to find other resources. This transaction is considered a Hardship withdrawal and will come with a 10% penalty.

It is important to speak with your human resources department as well as your tax professional to determine whether borrowing against your retirement account or taking a straight withdrawal is the best option for you. Be sure to review all possible avenues to access your money.

Retirement accounts such as 401(k) or 403(b) annuity accounts are generally administered or sponsored in whole or in part by your employer. In addition to serving as excellent documentation of your earnings and savings, your 401K or 403B accounts can be used in a variety of ways to help finance your new home purchase. Depending on the specific restrictions applied to your account, you may have the option of withdrawing money directly from the account or “borrowing” money in the form of a loan (against your own funds) which is repaid at a generally low rate of interest. Regardless of whether you cash money out of your account or take a loan against it, be sure to thoroughly document any details of the transaction, including any withdrawal or loan application paperwork, demand drafts, cashier’s checks, deposit tickets, etc. for the purpose of substantiating this source of funds to your lender.

Lenders do treat down payment money from retirement accounts differently from program to program and state to state, sometimes from case to case. In particular, borrowing money in the form of a loan may increase what the lender perceives as your monthly debt obligations, because even though you are borrowing money from your own account, you are still obligated to make a payment every month which you wouldn’t have to make otherwise, and lenders will often consider this to be detrimental to your qualifying DTI or Debt to Income Ratio, making it harder to borrow as much money as you may need. On the other hand, cashing out any type of retirement account will almost always create a taxable event and sometimes also a penalty fee, which generally accounts to more than the nominal interest rate common to the loan option. Speak with your loan officer about the requirements of your individual program and weight the options with him/her or another trusted financial professional.

You may also consider speaking to your employer about any down payment assistance programs which may be available to you as part of your benefits package. These can come in many forms, but it is important to clarify with your employer that any down payment assistance granted does not amount to a loan and that there is no expectation of payment. Why would an employer want to help you make a down payment? Call them old fashioned, but most companies do want their employees to stick with them, and if your employer helped you achieve ownership of your dream home, how would you feel about them?

As with the 401K, 403B or other retirement account options, down payment assistance from your employer should be documented in detail and all copies of communication, checks, deposit tickets and statements of account, along with signed records stipulating that the funds are given freely and not to be repaid, should be kept for submission to your lender.

If you intend to withdraw funds from these types of accounts to use towards your down payment, be sure to let your mortgage consultant know in advance, as these transactions can take a considerable amount of time to be processed.

Quite often if your down payment comes from your 401k or retirement fund, there is no penalty. Speak to competant tax professional and mortgage broker.

Florida Mortgage Rates

Getting the right Florida Mortgage Program and Rate is probably the most important part of choosing your Florida Mortgage Loan. Having the best Florida Mortgage Rates will save you thousands of dollars through out the course of the mortgage Loan.

At American Mortgage Rates, we strive on finding the best Florida Mortgage Program and Rate possible for you, the client! Our Licensed Florida mortgage brokers constantly educate them selves on the latest and best Florida mortgage programs to better serve you. There are many different loan programs to choose from which all have different Florida Mortgage Program and Rate, so by staying educated in this area allows us to find you the best Florida Mortgage Program and Rate possible.

Fortunately, due to our production in the mortgage industry we have been able to meet certain standards with our lenders and banks. These standards allow us to pass additional savings to you the client because of our preferred pricing on our Florida Mortgage Program and Rate. Your Florida mortgage broker should go over all the possible Florida Mortgage Program and Rate when choosing your Florida Mortgage.

When inquiring about a Florida Mortgage to your Florida Mortgage broker, be sure to ask about what kind of pre-payment penalty that is associated with that particular Florida Mortgage Program and Rate, some Florida Mortgage Program and Rate have no pre-payment penalty where some have very high penalties. This is something your Florida Mortgage broker should go over with you when choosing the best Florida Mortgage Program and Rate for you.

Feel free to call or inquire over the web about today's Florida Mortgage Program and Rate, we will be happy to quote today's best Florida Mortgage Program and Rate that we have available to us.

Since we work with many Lenders we get the best Florida Mortgage Program and Rate available where when dealing with one particular bank they are limited to there own loan products where they might not have the best available Florida Mortgage Program and Rate that day, when banks compete with each you the savvy mortgage shopper could take advantage of this by working with a real good Florida Mortgage Broker who is up on the Florida Mortgage Program and Rate.

A fixed rate mortgage is a mortgage that has a fixed interest rate for the term of the fixed rate mortgage term. This means your principal and interest payment will not change for the entire term of the loan until it is paid off. A 30 year fixed rate mortgage means that you mortgage is fixed for 30 years. A 15 year fixed means the same that your payment will not change for 15 years and then your mortgage will be paid off.

An Adjustable rate mortgage is a mortgage that has an adjustable interest rate for the term of the mortgage. This means your principal and interest payment will change for the entire term of the loan until it is paid off. Adjustable mortgages can adjust monthly, yearly, or sometimes mat be fixed for 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 years and then start to adjust more often.

For more information about our many loan programs and Florida Mortgage Program and Rate please call us at 954-475-8787 or fill out our short mortgage form.

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