Darren Malone Elite Mortgage Broker Malonehomeloans.com Nmls#38611

05/30/2024

My FREE CHECKLIST Below; You may want to fix or payoff things before call me -WRONG! They may lower your scores 😕 Call me first.
How is my FICO® Score calculated?
Your Score is calculated using positive and negative information on your TransUnion® credit report. It summarizes your risk to lenders at a specific point in time. FICO® Scores consider the following 5 categories of information. The breakdown below illustrates the significance of these categories for the general population. Note, however, that your individual score may give some factors more or less importance based on the information in your credit report.
Payment history: 35%
Amount you owe: 30%
Length of credit history: 15%
New credit opened: 10%
Types of credit you have: 10%

02/07/2024

Get started here! Easy mortgage calculator, apply now in 10 mins, how to reach me. Linktr.ee/MaloneHomeLoans

01/19/2024

01/19/2024

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06/23/2021

What Is A Planned Unit Development (PUD)?
from Forbes Advisor

What Is A Planned Unit Development (PUD)?
A planned unit development, or PUD, is a community of single-family homes, and sometimes condos or townhomes, where every homeowner belongs to a homeowners association (HOA). If you’re shopping for a home, you might need to know what a PUD is and how it works because it could affect you during the mortgage qualification process, as well as during the time you live in the home.

Characteristics of PUDs
Real estate developers design PUDs as attractive and cohesive places to live. A PUD may include a mix of housing for homeowners with different price points along with convenient access to workplaces, shopping, education and recreation.

You might find townhomes, single-family homes and senior living all in the same PUD, along with grocery stores, restaurants, daycares and office spaces. Within a PUD, you may even find religious institutions and light industrial buildings such as warehousing and storage.

Identifying PUDs in Real Estate Listings
One way to identify that a home listed for sale may be part of a planned unit development is if the home looks like a single-family home or townhome but the property type is listed as “condo,” according to real estate listing site Redfin.

Another way to tell whether a property is part of a PUD is if it charges HOA fees. However, a home can belong to an HOA without being part of a PUD.

Planned Unit Developments and Homeowners Associations
As far as lenders are concerned, these are the defining characteristics of a PUD:

The unit owners (homeowners) own both their residence (the structure) and their lot (the land).
An HOA owns and maintains common amenities that all unit owners may use.
The homeowners’ membership in the HOA is mandatory.
The homeowner must pay dues and assessments levied by the association to maintain the common amenities.
Common amenities are ones the whole community can access and enjoy, such as swimming pools, tennis courts, parks, playgrounds, landscaping and security. These amenities are private, available only to community members and their invited guests.

Because PUDs include common amenities, a property in a PUD can be more expensive to own. As a property owner, you will need to pay monthly, quarterly or annual homeowners association dues. HOA dues will affect how much home you can afford. You may not want to pay these fees unless you will use the amenities enough to warrant the extra monthly cost or you like the community enough to pay the extra money anyway.

In addition to paying regular HOA fees for amenities, you will have to follow the rules about how you can use and modify your property. You may be restricted from:

Using your home as a short-term rental.
it—unless the HOA approves the color scheme.
Parking cars overnight on the street.
Putting up political signs in your yard.
Any HOA can have rules like these, though, not just one located in a PUD.

PUD Finances and Rules
Getting approved for a mortgage on a home in a PUD should only be marginally harder than getting a mortgage on a home that’s not in a PUD. As long as the HOA is solid, it shouldn’t be a problem.

The lender will want to review the HOA’s finances as well as the PUD’s covenants, conditions and restrictions, or CC&Rs. You should, too. You may even want to hire a real estate attorney to go over this paperwork with you so you understand exactly what rules you’ll be agreeing to and whether the homeowners’ association is financially sound and smoothly run.

Important things to know about an HOA’s finances include:

How much it has in reserves to pay for major repairs or maintenance
What percentage of homeowners are delinquent on their monthly dues
Whether the HOA is involved in any litigation
If either you or your lender doesn’t like how the community appears to be run after examining the paperwork, be glad you discovered the problems up front and won’t ever be obligated to deal with them. You can’t opt out of an HOA in a PUD; once you buy the property, you’re in it, and the only way to exit the HOA is to sell your home.

Why Lenders Care About PUDs
If your lender one day has to foreclose because you can’t pay your mortgage, the lender will become the owner of your property. It will be difficult to resell the property if the PUD’s HOA is not in good shape or hasn’t taken good care of the development’s common amenities.

You should care about these things for the same reason: You might want to sell your home some day, and if you do, you’ll want your property to be desirable. And until then, you don’t want to own a property that comes with a bunch of headaches.

Your real estate agent can help you get the information your lender will want to review:

Covenants, conditions and restrictions
Budgets, financial statements and reserve studies
Insurance policies for common amenities
You might be a sterling loan applicant, and the home you want to buy could pass an appraisal and home inspection with no issues. But if the HOA is a mess, you won’t be able to get a mortgage for a PUD property.

Bottom Line
A planned unit development can be a very nice place to live. But the amenities come with two major costs: You’ll have to pay HOA dues for as long as you own the property, and you’ll be limited in how you can use and modify your property. However, your neighbors will be limited by those rules as well, which can help keep the community in good shape and preserve property values if the HOA is financially sound and well run.

04/25/2021

What You Need To Know About CRYPTOCURRENCY And Estate Planning

How does the IRS classify cryptocurrency?
How do you list a cryptocurrency in your will or trust?
Who has access to my cryptocurrencies when I die?
How do cryptocurrencies affect taxes?

A small but growing pool of individuals are including at least one cryptocurrency in their investment portfolio. Whether it be someone buying purely out of curiosity—hoping that it might skyrocket one day—or a hardcore cryptocurrency aficionado, both will need to consider what will happen to their investment/digital asset when they die. Is estate planning for cryptocurrency as convoluted as buying bitcoin was in the early days? Thankfully, with a little work and some future-proofing, your cryptocurrency is easily transferred to your beneficiaries.

How Does The IRS Classify Cryptocurrency?

As of writing this, for tax purposes, the IRS classifies cryptocurrency as personal property. It still has a fair market value, much like a house, car, or painting, but it’s not treated the same as money sitting in a bank account. Does this mean that you can get around the Gift Tax by gifting someone cryptocurrency versus fiat currency? Possibly. But if the recipient wants to actually use that cryptocurrency to purchase something or pay off a loan, they’re probably going to have to sell it. At that point they will be taxed. However, cryptocurrency is inherently more anonymous, and thus harder for the IRS to track if not sold at some point for fiat money. While the total value of your assets impacts your estate tax (if it’s high enough), cryptocurrency being classified as personal property, doesn’t have much bearing on it’s transfer to your beneficiaries.

How Do You List A Cryptocurrency In Your Will Or Trust?

One big difference between cryptocurrency and fiat money held in a bank account is that cryptocurrency doesn’t have a beneficiary designation attached to it like nearly all other types of financial accounts. What this means is that if you die without assigning a beneficiary in your estate planning, your cryptocurrency is at risk of dying as well. This is especially true if you failed to write down or give instructions to anyone else on how to access the cryptocurrency. There is no one to call at Bitcoin or Ripple headquarters to reset login credentials.

Some will want to keep the fact that they own cryptocurrency hidden from the general public for privacy or anonymity reasons, but there must still be a way for the representative or executor of your estate to access the currency to administer it to your heirs. Conversely, you could just list it under your personal property, name the individual to receive it, and give that person the information they need to access the cryptocurrency before you die. You don’t have to list the value of the cryptocurrency in your documents because it is constantly changing. If you feel the need to be thorough, you can list the number of currency units, such as “three-thousand bitcoin,” but you could just as easily describe it as an asset to be divided based on your wishes. You could also direct the representative to provide the beneficiary of the crypto with a sealed envelope containing the directions. Generally, whoever will take care of your cryptocurrency after your death, that person needs to be knowledgeable in the what/why/and how of cryptos.

Who Has Access To My Cryptocurrencies When I Die?

If you do nothing to give others access, then no one will. In fact, the state won’t even be able to get at your cryptocurrency to divide amongst any living heirs or your spouse if the access information died with you.

You will need to create a memorandum that contains the information to access the cryptocurrencies. This memorandum can be easily updated without all the hassle of updating a will or trust and it can be included with your other estate planning documents. Information that should be covered in the memorandum includes:

The type of digital wallet(s) you have;
The computer, smartphone, or other devices on which your cryptos are stored;
Website links for any online exchanges you use when selling or trading; and
Username, passwords, and keys needed to access any of these devices, websites, and wallets.

It’s also advisable to create a “How-To” guide for accessing your cryptocurrency, especially if the beneficiary has little knowledge on the subject. Because there are so many cryptocurrency wallets, devices, and storage options available, just having the username, password, keys, and links may not be enough to allow another person to access the asset.

How Do Cryptocurrencies Affect Taxes?

If your beneficiary plans to hold onto your cryptocurrency long-term, the tax implications won’t be felt until he or she decides to sell or trade the cryptocurrency. However, if the cryptocurrency is converted to cash following your passing, it must be declared as income on an estate tax return. Even if a crypto like Bitcoin is held for a period and then sold, there is still the issue of the capital gains tax. Residents of the U.S. must report Bitcoin trading losses or gains on their tax returns. Issues may arise if the trustee or representative of your estate has to sell your cryptocurrency to pay down debt or if one or more heirs intends to immediately sell their share after your estate is closed.

Beneficiaries need to understand that selling a cryptocurrency they’ve inherited is much the same as selling a stock or real estate. It will be sold at the fair market value price and the difference between that price and the value of the cryptocurrency when it was transferred to the beneficiary is what they will be taxed on. For example, if Bob receives two-hundred Bitcoin valued at ten-thousand dollars and then sells them three months later when they are valued at ten-thousand-one-hundred dollars, the taxable gain on the Bitcoin is twenty-thousand. Cryptocurrency tax laws are still new and sometimes confusing. It’s highly suggested that you speak with an attorney and accountant who specialize in this sort of thing.

What You Need To Know About Cryptocurrency And Estate Planning
Author
Attorney Kevin O'Flaherty
Kevin O’Flaherty is a graduate of the University of Iowa and Chicago-Kent College of Law. He has experience in litigation, estate planning, bankruptcy, real estate, and comprehensive business representation.

11/13/2020

Can you pay off debt with a VA Loan?

The VA loan is one of the most dynamic mortgage products available. As if being able to purchase a home with ZERO down payment wasn’t good enough, one can actually even pay off existing debt with a VA loan, even when purchasing a home.

When purchasing a home, the VA loan buyer can ask the seller to contribute up to 4% of the purchase price in seller credit. This seller credit CAN be used to pay off existing debt. This can allow the borrower to pay off higher interest debt as well as enable the borrower to qualify for a higher amount.

For example, last year we helped a retired Master Chief purchase a home for $700,000. The borrower had been told by another lender that he did not qualify. To qualify for him for the loan, we needed to remove a jet ski payment which was $500 per month and had a balance of $7,000. We requested a 1% seller credit toward closing costs, paid off the jet ski, and closed the loan.

We also recently had a borrower with $20,000 in high-interest credit card debt. He purchased a home in Oceanside, CA for $500,000 and we asked for a 4% seller credit toward closing costs to pay off his credit cards. The VA Loan borrower got a home with ZERO down payment, and we as the lender paid ALL of his closing costs, and the seller paid off his credit card debt. These are just a couple of examples of how powerful the VA Loan can be.

The VA Loan also allows a borrower to refinance his home up to 100% of the current appraised value. Most loan products will only allow a borrower to borrow 70-80% of the home’s value. Once again, the VA Loan is heads and shoulders above the competition. Wondering if you qualify? Contact us today.