Originator Digest: Charles Dailey - NMLS ID#79048 (iLoan - NMLS ID#4474)

To much fanfare, FHA announced measures to better protect their insurance fund in a recent Final Ruling published in the Federal Register.  Slipped in as a footnote to this announcement was a declaration that FHA is deaf to the concerns of the real estate industry.  They are taking aim to again attempt to reduce the allowable seller paid closing costs.  Make no mistake; they wouldn’t be doing this twice if they didn’t fully intend to see it through this time (regardless of industry feedback).

First, a little history (with a touch of nerdy stuff).  On July 15^th of 2010, FHA proposed to “cap the seller concessions in FHA-insured single family mortgage transactions at 3 percent of the lesser of the sales price or appraised value” after citing the industry norms of 3 percent for conventional loans and 4 percent for VA loans.  They attempted to justify this by saying that high seller concessions encourages inflated appraisals (translation of what FHA was really saying: “appraisers are crooks that don’t know how to do their job and the lenders that we approve don’t know how to underwrite appraisals”) and then they came up with some stats I could have cooked up in my mom’s basement when I was in 8^th grade and put them in a table (but they called it an actuarial table so that sounded cool and a lot of chumps bought it).  Of course there was no mention that higher seller concessions come on smaller transactions and smaller transactions on the whole are done for those who are more vulnerable to serious economic turmoil (not that we’ve had any of that lately).

Immediately after they announced these changes, the industry pushed back.  And when I say the industry pushed back, I mean everyone from builders to bankers to brokers to the National Association of Realtors®.  HUD backed down and instead kept their focus on continuously raising the annual mortgage insurance premium.  Now, in the face of a nearly imminent FHA bailout, they are acting on this again.  Why?  Will it really do anything to shore up how undercapitalized their insurance fund is?  No.  This is simply HUD and FHA bureaucrats making sure that they can say that they did something to avert the need for a bailout when it eventually comes.  It’s nothing more than political CYA.

With this action, the collective costs of political cowardice will be frightfully transparent.  The average credit score for FHA loans right now is 700.  FHA’s mortgage insurance is currently 35% more expensive than the private market alternative.  This proves that there is no actuarial basis for the current costs of FHA loans but rather, FHA is making their current customers pay for their poor decision making in the past in a desperate attempt to prevent themselves from having to face the political music come “bailout time.”  To make matters worse, and this shouldn’t surprise us from what’s happened with the Social Security “trust fund,” congress is now using FHA as a piggy bank at the same time that is faces having to bail it out.  And now we’ll face reduced seller concessions which with will force FHA purchasers on the more affordable end of the home buying spectrum into higher interest rates and do nothing to help the FHA insurance fund.

So if you end up taking a FHA loan and find yourself paying exorbitant mortgage insurance, a treasury override and not enjoying the historical program privilege of seller paid closing costs in excess of 3 percent, please know this: it has nothing to do with the risk you pose to the lender.  It is only a consequence of actuarial and political failure.

Understanding the mortgage process is a constant frustration for consumers. One can search the web and find all kinds of long articles breaking the mortgage loan process into anywhere between 6 and 9 individual steps. Upon reading these, a consumer gets even more confused since each individual step is confusing in and of itself. Unfortunately, the wrong question is likely getting answered in these articles. Most mortgage clients don’t want to become experts on the minutia of processing and underwriting, they just want to know where to start and have an accurate context for why everything happens as it does. The answer for each of these questions lies in the same place.

The mortgage process begins and ends in the same place, with the mortgage loan application. It is filled out and signed at the beginning and updated for signature at the closing. But here’s the key point; every step of the mortgage process is dedicated to verifying a fact or validating an assumption on that was disclosed on the initial loan application. The loan application is broken in to 10 straightforward sections:

1) Mortgage type and terms requested

2) Property information and loan purpose

3) Borrower information

4) Employment information

5) Monthly income and housing expenses

6) Assets and liabilities

7) A summary of the credits (i.e. earnest money and the mortgage) and the costs (i.e. purchase price and closing costs) of the transaction

8) Miscellaneous affidavit section (this covers intent to occupy the property, citizenship and other items)

9) The agreement section (this is the fine print legalese and where the loan application is signed)

10) Information for government monitoring (this covers race, ethnicity and gender)

Nearly all documents a borrower is asked for or asked to sign will directly or indirectly relate to this document. Nearly all of the 3^rd party reports and vendor services used in the loan process will directly or indirectly relate to this document. Throughout the process, as new or updated information is obtained by the lender, the application is updated and re-reconciled with underwriting guidelines. In short, almost all of the mortgage loan process is a collection of acts designed around verifying facts or validating assumptions in this document; the loan application.

Knowing this, what should a prospective borrower seek to do?

If asked to fill out an online application, a paper application or do one face to face with a loan officer. . . be thorough when the initial loan application is filled out. For instance, if there is approximately 11 thousand dollars in a savings account, don’t put 11 thousand dollars on the application if the real figure is 10,771.41. Use 10,771.41 as the figure for the application. If the income is approximately 4000 a month but in reality its 4166.67, make sure the figure on the initial application is 4166.67. Also, insist that your loan officer be accurate on the initial loan application. If you see errors, however small, make sure that he or she corrects them immediately. Don’t tolerate sloppiness.

This may seem like a tedious way to start the mortgage loan process but it has down line consequences. Benefits of an accurate initial loan application include better loan recommendations, faster processing, faster underwriting, a more predictable transaction but most of all . . . fewer if any surprises.

Sure the loan process has a lot of confusing moving parts but if you want to keep it simple, just know that it’s almost all about the accuracy of the loan application and you’ll be way ahead of the game!

While 70 percent* of Americans see homeownership as part of achieving the American dream, the homeownership rate has taken a 10 year decline** that hasn’t been seen since the Great Depression.  While some steps have been taken to assist underwater homeowners to refinance, ***  A fast transition back into homeownership is good for the economy, consumer confidence, the housing market and indeed...the banks.

Some actions can be taken that require no congressional approval.  We, the signers of this petition, ask that the administration to work through the executive branch to implement the following:

• Have the FHFA change Fannie and Freddie's guidelines regarding how long a consumer waits to be eligible for a new mortgage after a short sale to no waiting period if there were no late mortgage payments prior to the short sale and 1 year if there were.
• Have HUD amend FHA's requirement to wait 3 years after a short sale where the consumer had late payments in the 12 months preceding the short sale. It should be amended to a 1 year.
• Have HUD clarify their guidelines regarding buying a short sale where the consumer didn't have late mortgage payments prior to the short sale.
• Have the FHFA, pressure PMI companies to waive their right to deficiency judgment in the event of a short sale.
• Impose a 5 year moratorium on deficiency judgments on first mortgages.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sources:

*http://info.trulia.com/index.php?s=43&item=131 **http://www.mortgageorb.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.9913 ***http://iloanhomemortgage.com/uncategorized/fannie-mae-and-freddie-make-mac-move-to-no-loan-to-value-limit-loans-on-harp/

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has announced a series of changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). This program was designed to be able to help people who were in a position of negative equity. Now, it someone is upside down on their home, there will be no limit to how far upside down they are in order to qualify for these loans. This program will continue to be available to borrowers with loans sold to the Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac on or before May 31, 2009 with current loan-to-value (LTV) ratios above 80 percent.

Here’s a summary of the most significant changes to the HARP program:

• Eliminating certain risk-based fees for borrowers who refinance into shorter-term mortgages and lowering fees for other borrowers;

• Removing the current 125 percent LTV ceiling for fixed-rate mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac;

• Waiving certain representations and warranties that lenders commit to in making loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac;

• Eliminating the need for a new property appraisal where there is a reliable A VM (automated valuation model) estimate provided by the Enterprises; and

• Extending the end date for HARP until Dec. 31, 2013 for loans originally sold to the Enterprises on or before May 31, 2009.

This change, coupled with serious talk of the Fed doing more quantitative easing involving purchasing mortgage backed securities, could be mean BIG opportunities for people who, while well qualified as borrowers, have been locked out of being able to get today’s more favorable interest rates. To find out if a loan is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, first find the property’s standardized address by going to the United States Postal Service website, click on “lookup a zip code,” and find the properties “standardized address.” Then, enter that address into these lookups to see if there’s a match:

Does Fannie Mae Own My Loan?

Does Freddie Mac Own My Loan?

FHFA Harp Changes.pdf

A prospective home buyer or investor might have a clear idea of what he or she wants in the property they'll buy but the current market brings complexities that make setting up search criteria for this purchase a little more complicated. The difference between bank-owned, short sales and person-to-person transactions bring unique elements to this search process that cannot be dealt with by search criteria alone but that's where preparation and planning should begin. There are different negotiating tactics, condition of properties and buyer timelines that must be taken into consideration with each of these types of transactions and they all have a bearing on search criteria for a home buyer.

Let's use an example where someone is pre-approved for a FHA loan and the target purchase price should be around $180,000. Let's assume that they want to be in their new home at least within 8 months of starting the process and want to buy in Saint Paul, MN (although these principles apply to most markets). How might this buyer benefit from 3 sets of search criteria? 

Person-to-Person Sale Search:

In a person-to-person sale, there is no element of the transaction on the seller's side that requires approval from a bank. The seller is free to negotiate solely on the basis of their own interest. I recommend setting up a search labeled "person to person," enter your search criteria and be sure to exclude Bank Owned and Short Sale transactions so you know that these are less likely to have the property characteristics and negotiation differences that those transaction types would. Then, I'd investigate the local market data to find what the percentage of the original list price sellers are getting in that area. In this scenario it would be 91.1% (see chart below). If the seller is getting 8.9% less than asking price then you want to make sure that your search criteria is setup for 108.9% of the price you're pre-qualified for. In this scenario that would be a little over $196,000. Skipping this step could cause a buyer to miss out on the property they're really looking for.

Bank Owned Sale Search: With your "bank owned" search, you want to make the same computation. In this case it would be 10.6 percent less than asking price and 110.6% of the pre-approved amount in this scenario would be a top end search criteria of a little over $199,000. When viewing the results of these search criteria, you want to keep a few things in mind.

The properties in the results are more likely to have physical deficiencies due to being abandoned by their previous owner. This can not only add to the costs of owning that home but present complications with financing. In this scenario, many of the properties showing up in the search might have problems that would lead to FHA work orders. Sometimes, even the presence of FHA work orders can kill a transaction as the bank/seller might refuse to do anything about it and won't allow the buyer to cure the issue either. In this case, the transaction will fall apart. Additionally, depending on the city the property is in, these physical deficiencies can lead to code compliance issues which can present obstacles to being able to occupy the property or even have the title conveyed to the buyer.

Another feature of bank-owed transaction is that typically the contract used is the contract chosen by the bank and it is heavily favored towards their interests. Often times, it's easier to lose earnest money and many have clauses for monetary penalties for delayed closings. Lastly, these transactions statistically close more quickly than any other type. This means that a buyer's financing must be well organized and ready to go (not that it shouldn't be anyway).

These won't be on all bank-owned properties and I'm not suggesting that a buyer necessarily exclude them but when looking at a list of properties through a separate "bank owned search", it's nice to know when one is looking at them what one can expect should they proceed.

Short Sale Search:

Short sales are unique because it's the only situation where the seller doesn't have a true profit motive. Sellers in this situation are not allowed to make money so they are often inclined to take the first semi-reasonable offer with a buyer who looks likely to close. This can translate to very good deals for a buyer and that plays out statistically where we find in this scenario that sellers selling short are taking 83.4% of their original asking price. This would mean that we'd take 116.6% of the pre-approved amount and set this search at nearly $210,000. That's a striking difference from a person-to-person or bank owned sale and can open up some excellent housing possibilities for a buyer who might otherwise have limited their search.

There are two concerns to be aware of with these purchases though. One is that there are sometimes physical deficiencies in these transactions that can be hard to cure if they're significant since the seller is likely to be cash strapped. Nonetheless, these are typically easier to deal with in a short sale transaction than a bank owned transaction. The other, and most important one, is timeline. In this scenario, if the buyer wants to be in their new home within 8 months and want to consider buying a short sale, they'll likely need to submit their purchase agreement within 40 days of starting their search since these transactions take the longest to get done (see chart below). The seller's bank has to approve the transaction and that creates considerable delays. If this buyer has gotten 3 or 4 months into the home searching process with no luck, it might be wise to stop considering short sales as it would likely be unreasonable to get that process done in time to meet the buyer's deadline.

What you need it a Home Searching Tool:

Different people will have different opinions about this but mine is that it can be tedious for both a buyer and their Realtor to establish these 3 separate searches and make the ongoing tweaks, adjustments and refinements that arise as a buyer narrows down what he or she wants. For that reason, a secure and buyer-driven search tool which allows the buyer to setup multiple searches and modify them as needed. The tool would have to be rich in options available to the buyer as far as crafting search criteria is concerned. Beyond the basics it would have to include the ability to require a search for short sales at the exclusion of bank-owned and person-to-person sales and any other combination thereof. I usually recommend the Home Buyer's Scouting Report as it meets this need along with many other. I'm sure there are others that do this but I haven't run into them as of yet.

Conclusion:

Today's market requires a buyer to look at their home search in three dimensions. This can help them find properties they otherwise might not find, avoid transaction inconveniences that otherwise might come up at inopportune times and it can also assist them in managing their home buying timeline. With the assistance of a Realtor in understanding all of the differences in transaction types, the best way to do this is to leverage powerful home searching tools to keep the search process organized and in context.

Chart 1

Chart 2

I have a lot of people call me to get pre-qualified to purchase a home using FHA financing after a short sale.  Early on, not a lot of these scenarios panned out but these days, more and more of them do.  When they don’t, the number one reason is because they took bad advice from a party to their short sale transaction.  That advice?  “Mr. and Mrs. Short Seller, you need to be late on your mortgage to qualify for a short sale.”

This is often false and has devastating consequences.  In many cases, proving imminent danger of default is all that is needed.  Imminent danger of default is defined this way, “a borrower is considered to be in imminent danger of default when he or she is likely to default on his or her mortgage payments within the next twelve months.”  Before we get into the consequences of misinformation, let’s review the facts:

1.      Fannie Mae does not require a mortgage to be late in order to qualify for a short sale.

2.      Freddie Mac does not require a mortgage to be late in order to qualify for a short sale.

3.      FHA does require a mortgage to be late in order to qualify for a short sale (stupid).

4.      VA uses the “imminent danger of default” rule on modifications but there hasn’t been a clear Circular regarding its use with short sales, . . . yet (and it doesn’t say they need to be delinquent either).

5.      PMI providers do not universally require a mortgage to be late in order to qualify for a short sale - some do and some don’t (the trend is leaning towards more not doing it in the future and most of their policies are published on the web).

There is risk in getting this advice wrong both for real estate professionals and home seller’s alike.  For seller’s, should they go into default solely for the sake of getting a short approved, they will forfeit their chance to be eligible for buying a home after a short sale using FHA financing for 3 years.  They will also undermine their chances of getting a shorter pre-foreclosure waiting period with Fannie Mae financing if they want to use the extenuating circumstances argument.  In short, it knocks them out of home ownership for 2 but more likely 3 years.

If a seller doesn’t know that they’re giving these opportunities up when they make late payments and should later find out that it may not have been necessary, the person who gave the wrong advice might want to refer to this whole paragraph as the “provable damages” section of this post.  Unless the person giving such advice was an informed attorney or the loan servicer, any other might as well be practicing law without a license.

Loan servicers get this wrong quite frequently too although somehow they get kind of a pass on this one.  The bottom line is that they need to adhere to the servicing agreements between them and the owner and insurer of the loan.  Say for instance your call a loan servicer, . . we’ll call them P.J Chevy Morgan and they are servicing a loan that’s owned by Fannie Mae that doesn’t have mortgage insurance and they say that the loan must be late in order to get approved for a short sale, the solution is simple.  Kindly inform them that they aren’t servicing their loan in accordance with the wishes of the owner of the loan and they should review their contract and quit making ignorant statements.  And, in the meantime, continue processing the short sale under the assumption of imminent danger of default.  If evidence of their mistake is provided (links above), they will proceed.  A lot of these people working for servicers are truly surprised to learn that they’re wrong and are accommodating after the fact.

There are two lessons here.  Home sellers doing a short sale should do the extra research on the owner and insurer of their loan and look into their policies on “imminent danger of default” vs. true default and real estate professionals should be wary of giving advice on these matters and would do best to carefully and concisely relay communication (with a paper trail) from other parties to the transaction rather than make suggestions.  Indeed many real estate professionals are requiring the retention of outside counsel to handle all short sale negotiations and this just may be the wisest course.

Useful links:

●        Does Fannie Mae Own My Loan?

●        DoesFreddie Mac OwnMyLoan?

If you’re a dog lover like I am, you don’t consider a move without contemplating neighborhood amenities for your dog. In my considerations for a move recently, I had a bit of a time trying to locate most of the off-leash dog parks in the twin cities metro area.  After collecting some information I’d thought I’d share.

Remember that some of these parks require passes, dog licensure and all have rules so be sure to do your research!  Most cities have some kind of requirements but here are Saint Paul and Minneapolis dog requirements:

Minneapolis:

• Purchase Off-Leash Permit Online
• Print 2011 Off-Leash Permit Application
• Get your dog licensed through the City of Minneapolis
• Off-Leash Info Sheet

Saint Paul:

• Leash Law Brochure
• Safety Tips and Etiquette
• Dog Off-Leash Citation Procedures
• Complaint Process Sample

Many of the links to the dog parks will take you to the pages that also have outlined the rules and regulations.

Bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, layout, schools. . .  There are so many things to remember to consider when moving.  Just don’t forget the considerations of all of your loved ones. :)

“This post was written in loving memory of my boy Sir Didymus (Dids) who lived gloriously from October 7^th, 2000 until he died tragically of a twisted stomach on October 21^st, 2010.  I think of him every day.”

P.S.  If I have omitted an off-leash dog park that you know of, please let me know about it in the comment box below so I can be sure to add it!

The FHA Short Refinance Program has always existed in an unofficial form but became a formal program on December 16, 2009 with Mortgagee Letter 09-52.  It was “refined” on August 6^th of 2010 with Mortgagee Letter 2010-23.  It was designed to provide more mortgage options to those that owe more than their house is worth.  There are many requirements for this loan but for most borrowers who are upside down on their home and have good credit; these criteria are likely to be met with the cooperation of the existing lenders about to be paid off.

For these transactions to work, the following criteria must be met:

• The homeowner must be upside down on the value of the home
• The homeowner must be current on the existing mortgage to be refinanced
• The homeowner must occupy the subject property (1-4 units) as their primary residence
• The homeowner must qualify for the new loan under standard FHA underwriting requirements and possess a “FICO based” decision credit score greater than or equal to 500 (actually, 600 with us)
• The existing loan to be refinanced must not be a FHA-insured loan
• The existing first lien holder must write off at least 10 percent of the unpaid principal balance
• The refinanced FHA-insured first mortgage must have a loan-to-value ratio of no more than 97.75 percent of the appraised value
• Non-extinguished existing subordinate mortgages (2^nd mortgages and HELOC’s) must be re-subordinated and the new loan may not have a combined loan-to-value ratio greater than 115 percent of the appraised value (the subordinate mortgages cannot have a balloon inside of 10 years, must permit prepayment, and must have monthly payments)
• For loans that receive a “refer” risk classification from TOTAL Mortgage Scorecard (TOTAL) and/or are manually underwritten, the homeowner’s total monthly mortgage payment, including the first and any subordinate mortgage(s), cannot be greater than 31 percent of gross monthly income and total debt, including all recurring debts, cannot be greater than 50 percent of gross monthly income (these are very rarely accepted and if this is the outcome of initial underwriting, other options should be considered)
• FHA lenders are not permitted to use premium pricing to pay off existing debt obligations to qualify the borrower for the new loan
• FHA lenders are not permitted to make mortgage payments on behalf of the borrowers or otherwise bring the existing loan current to make it eligible for FHA insurance
• The existing loan to be refinanced may not have been brought current by the existing first lien holder, except through an acceptable permanent loan modification
• If borrowers have gone through a modification where the payment wasn’t brought current by the existing lien holder they can be eligible for this program if (1) the modification was made under the terms of the Making Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), the loan may close the month following the date the modification was permanent or (2) the modification was a non-HAMP modification, the borrower must have made three monthly payments on time and the modified mortgage must be current for the month due

While it may seem unintuitive, this can actually be a good thing for your lender.  It requires their consent and when asked, they will evaluate the pros and cons.  They’ll consider if having a loan that’s hopelessly upside down on their books is a good thing, how much they could lose in a short sale, how much they could lose in a deed in lieu and how much they would lose in foreclosure.  Of these options, often the least expensive to the lender is the short refinance which is why these are considered more and more often these days.  Sometimes, they’ll ask that a HAMP modification be considered first and there’s nothing wrong with that.  It will likely result in a good outcome in the form of a modification or move the short refi option forward after a delay.

The loan process for putting these together is similar to other FHA transactions except it’s pre-underwritten on the hypothetical basis of a reduced payoff.  After the loan application, signed lending disclosures, income documentation, asset documentation and appraisal are in the loan file, it’s sent to the existing mortgage companies for their consideration.  Due to the lengthy process of coordinating with existing lenders, these loans can take up to 90 days whereas normal refinances take less than a month.

Short refi’s, HARP loans, HAMP modifications and buying after a short sale are all key products to tackling negative equity.  The FHA products are the least known and least explored but assuming good credit, should always be explored.

Jane Grant, broker of record for Southwest Real Estate serving Riverside and San Diego County does a fantastic job illustrating the pitfalls of incorporating price per square foot as a search criteria when buying a home.

The role of closing costs in a purchase agreement can be confusing both for buyers and sellers.  In the present market, it is customary for there to be sales concessions.  A real estate sales concession can be many things including but not limited to price, repairs and yes, . . closing costs.  Asking the seller to pay for closing costs, pre-paids and discount points is common.  At the end of the day though, a buyer may have several value added considerations such as seller paid closing costs and repairs after an inspection contingency but the seller will (or at least should) always negotiate on the basis of what their net proceeds after all concessions will be.

The term seller paid closing costs is really a misnomer though.  A more appropriate name would be buyer financed closing costs.  This is because despite the fact that it can appear that the seller is paying for them, this isn't the case.  The buyer always pays for closing costs but the question is how.  Will the buyer have them rolled into the purchase price or pay for them with cash out of pocket or a combination of the two?  These are the choices.  No matter what choice is made, they are still technically paid for by the buyer.  If this weren't the case and the seller actually paid for them, why is it that the IRS lets the buyer write off a portion of these costs on their tax return instead of the seller writing them off?  It's because no matter how you slice it, the buyer pays them.

There are many benefits to a buyer when structuring their purchase agreement such that the seller pays closing costs.  It can lower the cash required to close, extend the purchase price a buyer is able to offer, lower the eventual rate that the buyer gets, buy out mortgage insurance and many more.  These various benefits should be weighed by a homebuyer prior to putting in an offer so they know that the offer structure they're submitting is the most intelligent structure to meet their objectives. 

When contemplating the structure of an offer, a homebuyer should remember the limits that certain loan types have for seller contributions.  Here's an outline:

1.)  Conventional (loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac)

• Over 90% LTV: maximum “seller paids” = 3% of the purchase price
• >75% LTV & < 90% LTV = 6% of the purchase price
• <75% LTV = 9% of the purchase price
• Investment properties at any LTV are capped at 2% of the purchase price

2.)  FHA (loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration)

• All FHA loans are capped at 6% of the purchase price

3.)  VA (loans insured by the Veteran’s Administration)

• All VA loans are capped at 4% of the purchase price

4.)  RD (rural development loans)

• Rural Development loans are strange in that they don’t have a cap but most investors force a cap of 6% of the purchase price

Constraints on seller concessions for loan programs are not the only consideration.  If a homebuyer is looking at foreclosures, they need to know that most bank owned properties where the property is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (which is a lot of them) will only allow 3% of the purchase price in seller paid closing costs.  Therefore, even if a homebuyer is planning on a FHA loan with 6% in seller paid closing costs, should they encounter one of these properties with a lower purchase price, they could be facing the decision of choosing between a higher interest rate or a higher down payment. 

Managing the role that seller paid/buyer financed closing costs will play in a transaction is important and not to be left to the moment one is making an offer before consideration is given.  Parties to a transaction shouldn’t get confused about who’s really paying them and make ill-informed decisions accordingly.  It’s also important to ensure that a homebuyer’s loan officer and Realtor work well together to ensure that the offer structure is of maximum benefit to the buyer.