Houston Mortgage Blog

Welcome back sub-prime? Well not necessarily. But Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has revamped a 2yr old refinance program created under HARP (Home Affordability Refinance Program) and has re-launched it as HARP2 or DU Refi Plus. HARP2/DU REFI PLUS’ new features will increase the availability of refinancing to millions of Americans currently left on the sideline due to falling home values. Estimates put this number as high as 2 million new eligible loans.

In the past three installments we have explored the common tax filing blunders that can plague self-employed borrowers (part 1); business or rental property owners (part 2); and retirees (part 3) when trying to establish a mortgage. But what if you are neither of the aforementioned? If not self-employed, not a business owner and not retired, your taxes are what they are, right? Not so fast there partner. This Houston mortgage broker has seen many a clever W2 employees commit one or one-too many tax somersaults to save handsomely on their tax return just to be disillusioned at time of application for that mortgage.
  
Expensing a car loan could hurt you twice (and wheels come flying off)

Tax filing blunders cause otherwise credit worthy borrowers to effectively disqualify themselves. In part 1 of this series we discussed how unreimbursed expenses and not declaring profit on self-employment can limit your borrowing capacity. Here we will go over blunders that if you commit them you could outright eliminate any possibility of qualifying for that next mortgage.

Let’s face it you’ve heard it before and probably have from time to time have taken the advice from your uncle Freddy or your really smart tax-preparer who explains how they can help you avoid $1k, $2k or much greater sums of money in taxes just by using some available tax deductions. They may even be legal. But there-in lays the problem.  Just because the deductions are legal doesn’t mean they won’t come back to bite you when it comes time to qualify for financing of your dream home or refinancing that high interest loan. In this article I will highlight two blunders and provide others in a series of 5 articles