Mortgage Lenders

We are first time buyers with no desposit. We are buying a house on a 23% equity incentive scheme (our dream home). We have a financial advisor on the case but despite us having a good wage we are having trouble getting this mortgage, due to the way our salary is structured.

We work for Computer Sciences Corp and they pay a portion of our salary into what is known as a "Flex fund". Out of this flex fund we pay our pensions, and then we can opt for other benefits, such as life insurance, child care vouchers, etc. or we can take it as cash. At the moment, we pay the pensions and have a couple of benefits rather than the cash.

Halifax are saying that as we do not take the fund in cash we cannot count this as salary and thus it reduces how much we can borrow. We have had two letters sent from work to state that we earn what we say we earn, and it is even on the payslips noted down as "Comprehensive salary" (this shows our wage plus the flex fund on top).

The director of mortgage talk is now dealing with it – has this sort of thing happened to anyone else? everyone else understands our situation? What are the chances this will be resolved?

Halifax is correct, as you take it in pension contributions it is not salary. Many firms make pension contributions for their staff and this doesn’t count either.

The whole point of these salary multiples is to keep the mortgage to a level that you can afford, even if interest rates go up to 15% (which has happened during the last 20 years and can happen again). They are acting on your behalf (pity they didn’t do this more before when they loaded their balance sheet with bad debts and forced the bank to the point of failure).

We are going to work with them to get pre-approved for a mortgage and I can’t find them on the BBB website, does this mean they are not legitimate? Could they steal our identities if I send them our personal information to get pre-approved?
No, not working with them out of their local office. They have an office address, but it’s difficult to get over there so I am doing things over the phone and email.

Yes, this would certainly indicate they are not a real company.

Are you working with them in a local office?

I could not find them either. Additionally the google maps they show on their website are not real, they were created by them, not the mapping system.

Im confused he puts an ad in the paper for mortgage processors and loan officers,but when you come to the office he hires you, then helps set up your own business,(he gets the business license, tax id or ein and even set you up as llc,corp or sole prior…) you get no benefits (because your are now self employed) but when it time to pay you, he writes out a business check from his company to yours ,what exactly is he doing? and most of the people that works for him has no clue about there own business?

He is using all of your risk to get a gain for himself

We are thinking about trying out this company with regards to mortgage, my friend has recently become a financial advisor for the corp. But I have never heard of it b4.

Citicorp is one of the predecessors of citigroup. citigroup is one of the largest financial groups in the world and listed at the nyse (C)

There consumer credit division is named "citifinancial".

Would like to know if you purchased the 3 day training, and the "NEW" business opportunity, "Equity Corp."? What did you think of the training and the Bi-Weekly Mortgage Reduction business opportunity? Has anyone become successful after the training?

The only person whose wealth is being built is Russ Whitney.

I need help to change the name of my S Corp. I added the word Lending (which from what I understand is not acceptable, I am a mortgage broker).

What do I need to do to get the name changed?
Thanks

It will depend on the state you are formed in. Each state will have different requirements on what type of name you can or can’t use. Because you are a lender you may also need to go through the Insurance Department in your state to get approval. Consult a lawyer, they should be able to help answer any questions as well as interpret the statues of any given state.

I started a new job May 1st where I work from my home office. I’m a Sales Director and my corp office is in Phoenix. My company already pays for my landline phone and high speed internet service. I am being told that I can write off part of my mortgage as well as my utility bills. Other than telling me to talk to an accountant I am looking for some quick answers. Thanks!
And yes… my company expects me to maintain my home office so it’s not a personal choice but a corporate one.
I am using one of my bedrooms exclusively as an office and I work 8-10 hours a day in this space. My taxes are professionally done so I am sure I will get my answers tax time. I just wanted to get a heads up on some of the stuff I could write off.

Is your company requiring you to maintain a home office? If so then yes you can write off part of your house expenses. What you can write off is the % that your home office is in relation to your entire house. If your home office is 10% of your whole house, then you can write off 10% of your house expenses. The only thing is you won’t get any additional benefit from your mortgage (and it’s only the interest that you pay that you can write off, not the principal) or real estate taxes, as you should already be deducting those 100% on your Schedule A – Itemized Deductions. You would report the house expenses on form 8829 – Expenses for Business Use of your Home. Which will then flow over to Form 2106 – Employee Business expenses, which will flow over to Schedule A – Itemized Deductions under miscellaneous deductions. The amount in total for miscellaneous deductions will need to exceed 2% of your AGI for the excess to be deducted (this is why you don’t want to put mortgage interest and real estate taxes on the Form 8829, you lose some of the amount that way). Expenses that you can deduct on the Form 8829, would be utility bills, house insurance, repairs, maintenance, heat, electric, water, sewer, etc.

I’ve attached links to information about home office to help you see if this is something that you can use for your taxes.

I started a new job May 1st where I work from my home office. I’m a Sales Director and my corp office is in Phoenix. My company already pays for my landline phone and high speed internet service. I am being told that I can write off part of my mortgage as well as my utility bills. Other than telling me to talk to an accountant I am looking for some quick answers. Thanks!
And yes… my company expects me to maintain my home office so it’s not a personal choice but a corporate one.
I am using one of my bedrooms exclusively as an office and I work 8-10 hours a day in this space. My taxes are professionally done so I am sure I will get my answers tax time. I just wanted to get a heads up on some of the stuff I could write off.

Is your company requiring you to maintain a home office? If so then yes you can write off part of your house expenses. What you can write off is the % that your home office is in relation to your entire house. If your home office is 10% of your whole house, then you can write off 10% of your house expenses. The only thing is you won’t get any additional benefit from your mortgage (and it’s only the interest that you pay that you can write off, not the principal) or real estate taxes, as you should already be deducting those 100% on your Schedule A – Itemized Deductions. You would report the house expenses on form 8829 – Expenses for Business Use of your Home. Which will then flow over to Form 2106 – Employee Business expenses, which will flow over to Schedule A – Itemized Deductions under miscellaneous deductions. The amount in total for miscellaneous deductions will need to exceed 2% of your AGI for the excess to be deducted (this is why you don’t want to put mortgage interest and real estate taxes on the Form 8829, you lose some of the amount that way). Expenses that you can deduct on the Form 8829, would be utility bills, house insurance, repairs, maintenance, heat, electric, water, sewer, etc.

I’ve attached links to information about home office to help you see if this is something that you can use for your taxes.

Trying to match or beat national returns for real estate .I plan to use ETFs. This is not downpayment money (ie first 20%) but money above and beyond that. Just curious as to allocations, and I could always get a bigger mortgage and wait to withdraw if the market dropped significantly right before buying. Right now Im thinking

Domestic Dividend ETF 25%
International Dividend ETF 35%
REIT ETF 7%
Utilities ETF 6%
TIPS ETF 9%
Intermed Corp Bond ETF 18%

Any suggestions appreciated especially from those significantly experienced in financial planning.

Invest in the index funds with 2-3 years horizon. You should get reasonable tax free returns over 5-7% above inflation.

As a Realtor it is hard to even trust that a deal will close now-a-days with the lenders going out of business and leaving buyers stuck out at closing. This has been a terrible experience for me.
Here in Houston mortgage brokers and loan officers are hurting and some are even given up. As a Realtor I have other options but rearranging my structure and client base will take me a minute to start building back up.
It would be interesting to know how others in the real estate industry are doing these days.
As the mortgage shakeout forces dozens of home lenders into bankruptcy, some are merely going into something like suspended animation — shutting down temporarily and hoping to escape intact once the crisis has run its course.
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, August 26, 2007
The total volume of subprime loans nationally fell less than 4 percent in 2006, even as defaults and foreclosures were starting to spike, according to data compiled by Credit Suisse. Some big lenders never really did apply the brakes: New Century’s loan volume was down a mere 1.3 percent through the end of February, or about two weeks before trading in the company’s stock was suspended.
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, August 24, 2007
Former branch manager Heather Fern-Luzzi, foreground, and Heidi Freiberg clean up as the Roseville office of First Magnus Financial Corp. shuts down. As lenders cut back because of a credit crunch and slack housing demand, 13,000 mortgage jobs disappeared nationwide in the past week.

After all that babel about lenders and buyers that have committed to questionable loans and lending policies.
What Is Your Real Question??