Market Consulting Mortgage is a residential mortgage brokerage company with an experienced staff offering expertise in every area of mortgage lending ... from purchase to refinance. It has access to a full range of mortgage types,
In response to the robust housing market, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced recently that maximum loan amounts will increase in most parts of the country. This is partially d ...
You may not see a bumper sticker about how conforming loan limit maximums will rise again, but that doesn’t make the news any less exciting. In a move signaling the strength of the economy as ...
If it were possible to bet on whether the squabbling and partisanship in Washington will persist, I know where the safe money would be. Given that it is basically impossible to describe the ...
What’s more terrifying than a ghost, goblin or witch hard at work over a steaming cauldron, brewing up a recipe for destruction? A well-meaning friend or family member, dropping a spooky tale ...
In spite of the fact that interest rates continue to hover at the second lowest level since the presidential election last November, the number of consumers opting to refinance the mortgage on their h ...
In a recent article, I discussed whether it is a good idea to continue renting a home or make the leap and become a homeowner. One of the underlying assumptions in favor of the case for home ...
The numbers make a compelling argument for why it’s a great time to stop throwing money away on rent and become a homeowner instead. The following example should help determine whether you sh ...
Okay, using the word, “ruin,” in terms of what a bad credit score can do to your life may be a bit of an overstatement. It is probably more accurate to say that bad credit can pro ...
The dog days of summer are not here yet, but a quick walk outside into the searing heat can sometimes feel more like a swim, with the blazing hot sun looming overhead and the air hanging like a damp o ...
In the wake of the financial crisis, the Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) got a bad reputation. Of course, there was no lack of evidence in the case against ARMs. There were many negativ ...
In a move that signals growing, widespread confidence about the strength of the national economy, the Federal Open Market Committee voted last week to increase the target range for interest rates and ...
With interest rates still hovering at historic lows and the threat of a number of potential rate hikes looming ominously on the horizon, it could make dollars and sense to do a refinance right now.&nb ...
The annual gathering of receipts, W2s and 1099s and the filing of taxes is bad enough. But getting a message from the IRS that someone has already filed under your name has the potential to make any d ...
Time was ticking away. I had some turnovers that day and my shot—usually reliable, sometimes infallible—just wasn’t working. My coach pulled me aside and said, “Just ...
With low maintenance and high affordability, condos are an excellent choice for many home buyers. Why spend the afternoon in the yard pulling weeds or mowing when you could just wander out to the c ...
A unique online tool is being offered to help buyers decide whether it is better to wait or buy a home now. The calculator can help with a number of complicated questions, such as How much more expens ...
Full disclosure - the title of this article is a bit misleading. Are recent changes to the major credit bureaus’ reporting standards a positive for consumers because some types of negative in ...
The reports about President Trump taking on Dodd-Frank may be a bit confusing. Who is this guy anyway, and why is he so unpopular? Did they get the order of his name wrong? Dodd-Frank actually refe ...
A number of important economic indicators are pointing to a looming storm on the horizon for the housing market. Subprime lending is once again on the rise, eerily similar to the market conditions tha ...
With the appreciation we have seen in our market over the past few years and all the recent talk about a looming increase in interest rates, I have been receiving a lot of questions about home equity ...
Kids today, I tell you what - they will never have to go into a library, pull a stack of books and go through the index to find relevant information. If they need to write a research paper, all they h ...
For many people, the aftermath of the holidays is associated with the disposal of Christmas trees, tinsel and decorations. It’s a time of year filled with resolutions and black-eyed peas, workou ...
It’s no secret that financial markets don’t like surprises. Unexpected changes and uncertainty can often lead to volatility and rapid fluctuations. The victory of Donald Trump wa ...
Unless you have a mattress full of cash or an extremely wealthy - and possibly well-medicated - relative willing to give you the funds, chances are strong you will need to obtain a mortgage in order t ...
With the holidays approaching, it seems appropriate to touch on a few strategies for ensuring that minor business problems don’t turn into major annoyances. Having in-laws in town for an extende ...
Similar to a witch enticing children with a house made of gingerbread, cakes and candy, a property flip with the latest and most highly sought-after amenities could potentially conceal a slew of hidde ...
One of the biggest areas of concern for buyers of real estate is losing out on their earnest money deposit. If something goes awry in this transaction and it turns out that my loan application does ...
Did your credit score recently increase for no apparent reason? Or did it fall inexplicably even though your behavior and financial situation hasn’t changed significantly? If you answered &ld ...
Things are good, just not quite good enough. Or else the situation is bad, even though a silver lining exists in many of the storm clouds. Reading the tone of the Fed can be a bit challenging somet ...
In a recent survey on Bankrate's website, North Carolina ranked as the third most expensive state in the nation for closing costs. This information was a bit of a surprise to me, consider ...
Lately, it’s not uncommon to hear about a home selling within just a few days of being offered for sale. This can be quite frustrating for anyone actively looking for a home but there is a viabl ...
With interest rates as low as they are, I have been getting lots of questions from home owners interested in refinancing their mortgages. This is certainly not surprising, considering the average inte ...
Similar to the construction on 3rd Street in downtown Wilmington that was finally completed recently, a credit dispute can elicit groans of discomfort, hassles and irritations. When it comes to succes ...
The latest scam affecting the Wilmington area involves hackers calling residential phone numbers, impersonating IRS agents. In the automated call, a robotic voice issues the following voicemail: &ldqu ...
For borrowers receiving advice from their parents, it’s probable they are hearing about the benefits of making a 20 percent down payment to purchase a home. The conventional wisdom says that mak ...
In a move designed to make a lasting, positive impact on the levels of home ownership in our country, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development has drastically reduced the f ...
Titles are an element that I struggle with in writing these articles. For this one, I vacillated between “How to Keep the Family Home from Going into Foreclosure,” and “How to Avoid ...
“Did you mean to send an email trying to sell me prescription medications from a Canadian pharmacy at a discounted rate? No? Well, I think your Yahoo account might have been hacked.” He ...
In a recent press release from the Federal Open Market Committee, the tone is cautiously optimistic. Littered throughout the release is the word, “however.” Things are good, but other thin ...
Recently I was surprised to learn that the self-employed and the workers they hire account for three out of every 10 jobs in the U.S. These are the innovators and entrepreneurs, the job creators we he ...
Mortgage rates spiked a bit higher several weeks ago when investors sold out of their bond positions and bought stocks. This trend continued for about a week, reflecting the volatility of the stock ma ...
The latest updates in real estate, the mortgage industry and the national economy are an endless source of fascination for me. Considering I’ve been in this business for nearly 17 years and I wo ...
The power of the media to shape public opinion and exert influence on our national economy is something that never ceases to amaze me. When the Federal Open Market Committee voted to increase the fund ...
As I mentioned in a previous article, the level of home ownership in our country has been declining for many years. Since owning a home is a great way to build wealth, and home owners have more of a v ...
In a recent meeting, the leaders of the European Central Bank (ECB) shared their belief that it will likely be necessary to release an additional stimulus package to facilitate a recovery for the stru ...
For the majority of this year, those of us with interests in real estate have been operating underneath the ominous, confusion-casting shadow known as the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures (TRID). The ...
Far and above any other type of investment, rental properties have the ability to generate a monthly cash flow. Even in an environment where housing prices are falling, and economic variables are maki ...
When I hosted an informational seminar recently about the intricacies of real estate investing, the depth of knowledge that the audience put on display had me a bit surprised. The turnout from people ...
With interest rates still hovering near all-time lows, and a deluge of TV shows out there about fixing and selling rental properties, the interest about investing in real estate has never been higher. ...
A report that was recently published by industry news insider CoreLogic shows that national home prices increased by more than 6 percent from June 2014 to June 2015. This is not exactly good news for ...
One of my Realtor friends asked me to post this article to help people gain a better understanding of how to purchase a home and facilitate a more efficient process for everyone involved. As a residen ...
With the expansion of student loan debt and tuition rates continuing to increase, it might be tempting to say that it’s preferable to not have a degree than it is to shoulder a significant amoun ...
If there is one thing that Realtors, mortgage brokers, buyers and sellers all have in common, it’s that everyone wants a successful, timely closing for the transaction. There is a widespread und ...
According to a study that was recently conducted by Zillow.com, small lenders are more willing to consider helping people with low credit scores than larger financial institutions. Small lenders also ...
A recent press release from the U.S. Census Bureau points out an alarming trend: people are abandoning home ownership. Only 63.7 percent of Americans own their own homes, the lowest percentage since 1 ...
The subject of my last article was a publication by Consumer Reports in which the editors recommend that borrowers shop around online and deal with large banks instead of mortgage brokers. After recei ...
In a recent article I found that was written by Consumer Reports, the editors encourage borrowers to shop around for mortgages online and deal directly with large banks instead of working with license ...
A credit score is one of the most important factors that a lender considers when evaluating a person’s options for financing. Credit scores are so important that the difference between a good on ...
A recent press release from the Federal Open Market Committee sent mortgage interest rates on a nosedive and the stock market into one of the biggest climbs in weeks. In short, it was a cheerful momen ...
Sitting down with my clients and reviewing their options is something I enjoy. I love helping people develop a creative solution for attaining their goals: it’s one of the main reasons I’v ...
In my last article I described how getting a conventional loan instead of keeping an FHA loan with mortgage insurance could be advantageous. To explain my reasoning, I presented a conversation I had w ...
Recently a client sent me an article about how the FHA has reduced mortgage insurance premiums, and the result had been a 76.5 percent increase in refinance applications. Apparently mired in confusion ...
Realizing that the tax deadline is approaching at breakneck speed, I started to think about the differences between receiving a W-2 and being self-employed. Employees have the luxury of showing their ...
The days of waiting for a faxed counter offer from a listing agent or wasting hours of precious in-person time at an attorney’s office are over. Technology has given us the ability to work remot ...
The recession and the housing crash produced a ripple effect of consequences. In the wake of the chaos there was a lot of finger pointing and discord. Reaching a compromise or finding a feasible metho ...
In the United States, the notion that our government can require us to purchase something is always going to be unpopular. While the benefits of the National Flood Insurance Program might be easy to s ...
With traditional banks pulling back from the mortgage industry in the wake of legal woes, revised banking standards and constant scrutiny, nonbank lenders are recognizing the opportunity. In fact, nea ...
Webster’s dictionary defines mortgage insurance as an evil monkey that sits on your back, steals your money every month, and gives you nothing in return. Well, that’s not exactly true. Wha ...
People always ask me what mortgage interest rates are going to do. I guess that makes sense because I am in the mortgage business. While at any given time, I do have my opinions and guesses, there are ...
Credit scores have always been an important number that affects homebuyers’ ability to qualify for mortgages and specific rates. Ever since the 2008 crash, the importance of credit scores in the ...
From our homes and cars to our schools and offices, it’s difficult to think of an area of our lives that technology has not affected in some way. The mortgage business is no exception. From star ...
In this article, I’d like to discuss some of the core differences between self-directed IRAs and traditional IRAs, and explore some of the ways a self-directed IRA can be used as a powerful inve ...
The educational system is designed to do more than just educate. It’s also a filtering system to regulate the influx of young people into the job market. Let me elaborate … There was a ...
We’ve all heard the basic personal financing philosophy, “Pay yourself first.” The idea, of course, is that any time you receive a paycheck, or any kind of income, you set a small pe ...
Everyone knows that establishing a household budget is a smart and important money management tactic. But many household budgets are shortsighted and only take a micro view of month-to-month income an ...
It’s no secret that until recently the real estate market has been bleak. There are a number of factors that contributed to the real estate decline, including: much stricter lending regulations ...
In part one of this two-part series on credit scores, I provided some basics about credit scores, including a definition and some background on the credit bureaus and the methods they use to calculate ...
Being in the mortgage consulting and lending business, I am constantly reminded of the importance of credit scores and the enormous impact those little numbers can have on people’s lives. So thi ...
This article is geared toward providing some valuable information to two different audiences: real estate agents and homebuyers. The content for this article came about from a lunch conversation I had ...
During the process of shopping for a mortgage or refinancing an existing property, many consumers assume that the loan option with the lowest interest rate is automatically, and without question, the ...
Welcome to Part 2 of our review of the new lending and borrowing landscape. As a reminder, in Part 1 we focused on how today’s new lending guidelines affect personal lending and borrowing for vi ...
This month, I want to cover a very important topic that could potentially save some people from a lot of wasted time and money, and from a great deal of unnecessary stress and heartache. The topic rev ...
Given the fact that the new Qualified Mortgage (QM) legislation (which became active on January 10, 2014) is going to have a significant impact on home sellers, home buyers, realtors and mortgage prof ...
The lead article on the front page of the January 17th – January 30th issue of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal explores the potential impact of proposed changes to the National Flood Ins ...
This article is really geared toward a very specific group of homeowners — those who know they are going to move to another home between one and two years from now and have never considered rent ...
It’s no secret that for many individuals, couples and families, money and finances are frequently the source of anxiety and household disagreements. Add in an economic recession and hefty credit ...
Endowment Announces $14M In Housing Grants
Emma Dill
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Sep 30, 2024
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Report: UNCW Has $3.2 Billion Economic Impact statewide
Emma Dill
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Sep 30, 2024
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Element Outdoor Living Wins National Award For Oceanfront Project
Staff Reports
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Oct 1, 2024
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Two Join Cornerstone Business Advisors Team
Staff Reports
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Oct 1, 2024
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Workers Strike At Wilmington's Port, Halting Operations
Emma Dill
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Oct 1, 2024
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Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender County residents are eligible to join the plans with coverage starting Jan. 1,...
The campaign, a joint effort by the Alliance for Cape Fear Trees (ACFT) and the N.C. Cooperative Extension-New Hanover County, is essential...
Former Wilmington DEI executives say the momentum of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that flared up in 2020 has fizzled out....
The 2024 WilmingtonBiz: Book on Business is an annual publication showcasing the Wilmington region as a center of business.
