danielstevens

I just noticed that last week was our 5 year anniversary helping people out on this forum at NBKC Bank. Time definitely flies! Helping this community in all 50 states has been a real pleasure for us these last five years! -Dan

This is a good question. I do think a good "do it yourself" first step is to find a calculator that helps you calculate the maximum mortgage based on some user input. We have a basic one here that you can take a look at our NBKC website. It's pretty conservative though in determining your maximum amount, with good credit the "debt to income ratio" can be higher than what a standard calculator like this will show you. But it's a good first step. https://www.nbkcmortgage.com/calculators/maximum_mortgage.aspx

This may sound a bit simplified and otherwise obvious, but you can also Google a lender's name you are considering with the keyword like "reviews" or "complaints" and you'll find a lot of information out there on how people view their experiences with specific lenders. BBB, Zillow.com, Lending Tree, Yelp, Google+ all have user submitted review databases on mortgage lenders. Those are used a lot more by people than the official NMLS site. For instance, Quicken Loans which is one of the biggest lenders in the country doesn't have any user experience reviews on the NMLS site, but there are countless user submitted reviews about them just a simple Google search away.

Hello - yes you can do what you are asking. But it may ultimately not be your best option. Quite often people have more eligibility than they realize and can have two VA loans at the same time. Each situation is different, as it depends on the size of the original loan, and the potential size of the new loan at your new house. But it's definitely worth looking into before you decide whether to refinance your old house or not.

Hey guys, we have been doing a lot of $0 cost VA IRRRL loans for people with where rates are right now at NBKC. And quite a few conventional refinances as well where we cover the actual costs (not rolling in the fees or anything like that). So it's definitely possible to find out there. You are all talking about the right things, there is a big difference between rolling in all the costs into a larger new loan where a lender says "no out of pocket costs" and actually having the lender cover all of your costs which is the true "no cost loan".

Hello, I'm sorry your experience didn't go as well as expected. A purchase on an existing house we can order the appraisal right away, but on the new builds it is critical to not send a VA appraiser out to the house before the builder tells us it is 95% complete. This VA rule can definitely cause stress for someone wanting to close as soon as the house is complete. We certainly don't like hearing that your loan officer was avoiding contact with you. If you'd like to speak with someone about that, or anything else, just PM me and I'll get you in touch with a senior manager.

That's a question I would need a few questions answered to be able to give a proper answer. I'll send you a PM.

We only handle the end financing (the loan that can fund when the house is all complete) here at NBKC. As far as your question about approved builders, for VA loans it isn't terribly hard to get a builder on the VA approved list if they aren't already. But it sounds like you need an earlier stage loan, those are usually best done by a bank in the local area of where you are buying. Then you can look at any lender for the end financing when the house is complete.

I think you've got a good chance that you've got something that is workable here. feel free to send me an email at dan.stevens@nbkc.com if you'd like to check further with us.

Probably the biggest variable to answer your question is the current loan size, if the loan size is so small after the 11 years of payments, any sort of fees may make it not very economical to potentially refinance. But with your current interest rate and where the market is right now, it's still worth digging a little deeper to see how the numbers pan out, it could still be a good opportunity.

Techsan - I'd definitely say it's worth checking out. It's possible you may be able to get something in the neighborhood of what ThreeHoler mentioned. It's all about what monthly savings you will get for how many fees that are incurred.

Hey everybody, I try to keep my sales pitches to a minimum on here. But I did want to inform everyone that the 10 year treasury is very low right now, which bodes well for mortgage rates. If you were on the fence considering a refinance, now would be good time you call a mortgage lender to see what may be available to you. So far the "expert" opinions that mortgage rates would be on the rise this year hasn't happened yet, and has actually dropped to the same low range where we were a full year ago. Dan

Thanks for the recommendation, Sledy! It definitely takes an experienced Loan Officer and underwriting team to handle home buyers with transitional employment situations such as you described. Particularly those who work for the Air National Guard or fly commercially it can take some extra TLC, but we have handled enough of these situations to be able to navigate those waters! I'm happy you had a great experience! Dan Stevens, NBKC Bank

The experts general consensus is that rates will move up gradually throughout 2016. However, these same experts have been predicting pretty much that exact thing every year for quite a while. I do think it's fair to assume rates won't drop significantly, but there are so many factors, that even that may not be true. As for your question on investment properties, the answer is yes. NBKC definitely originates investment properties, but only if it's not a commercial building with a lot of units. Dan