Mortgage Broker - Lee Witte

09/03/2026

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Fannie Mae just made a change.
Almost nobody is talking about it yet.

It just got easier to keep your current home, turn it into a rental, and still qualify for your next house.

No tenant lined up before closing.
No signed lease required.
No first month's rent or security deposit collected in advance.

For eligible departing residences, documented market rent can now be used to help offset the existing mortgage payment. (Think Zillow. Redfin. An MLS pull.)

Here's why this is a big deal.

A lot of homeowners are sitting on 3% and 4% mortgage rates they do not want to give up. They want to move. But selling means losing that rate.

So the alternative becomes:
→ Keep the current home
→ Rent it out
→ Buy the next one

The problem was always qualifying.
Under the previous guidelines, using rental income from the home you were leaving could require:

→ A signed 12 month lease
→ A deposit already collected
→ First month's rent already collected

All before you closed on the next house. While you were possibly still living there. Still house hunting. Still unsure exactly when you were moving.

That created a ridiculous timing problem. You had to find a tenant and commit to a lease around a closing date you might not even have yet. For a lot of homeowners, that made keeping the house nearly impossible.

Now, for an eligible departing residence, we can use documented market rent instead.

Here's how it can work:
→ We document the home's market rent
→ We use 75% of that amount
→ That income can help offset the existing mortgage payment

Example:
Your current home could rent for $2,400 a month.
75% of that is $1,800.
If your mortgage payment is $1,900, almost the entire payment could be offset for qualifying purposes.

And you didn't have to find a tenant before closing.

For homeowners sitting on rates they may never see again, that's a very different conversation.

09/01/2026

📈 Why Have Mortgage Rates Moved Higher So Quickly?

Take a look at this chart. The 10-Year Treasury yield has climbed from around 4.0% earlier this year to nearly 4.8% today.

Why does that matter? 30-year mortgage rates tend to follow the 10-Year Treasury much more closely than they follow the Fed Funds Rate.

In just a few short months, that move in the bond market has pushed mortgage rates noticeably higher. Mortgage News Daily had the average 30-year fixed at 6.87% on August 31, while the 10-Year Treasury is now pushing toward 4.8%.

👉 The takeaway: Don’t just watch what the Fed does. If you want to know where mortgage rates may be headed, watch the 10-Year Treasury and the bond market.

The good news? This works both ways. When Treasury yields come back down, mortgage rates can improve quickly.

🏡 If you're buying, refinancing, or just want me to keep an eye on rates for you, reach out!

Hometown Mortgage | NMLS #437373

08/24/2026

08/21/2026

📣Long post but BUYERS, specifically Veterans please read!!! This was a post last week from Top Performing Mortgage Broker David Kakish

A veteran was about to get absolutely SMOKED by a shady lender…

He was going to choose the “cheaper” lender.
Except the cheaper lender was going to cost him $60,590 more.

This is exactly how Veterans get taken advantage of in the mortgage business. And normally, I’d blur the lender’s name.
Not this time...

If you’re comfortable putting a Veteran into a deal like this, people deserve to know who you are.

Here's what happened:
Vet was under contract on a house and shopping lenders himself.
He came back to me and said:
“My payment with you is about $220 cheaper, but the other lender has me bringing about $5,000 less to closing. I’d rather keep the $5,000.”

Fair. If that were actually the deal, I could take the loss.
Except something smelled wrong.
So, I asked him to send me the other lender’s quote.

And technically, the Veteran was right.
But once I looked under the hood, it became obvious why.

The other quote made the cash needed at closing look lower by changing estimates for things the lender doesn’t actually control.
→ Lower taxes
→ Lower homeowners’ insurance
→ Lower title costs
→ Different prepaid interest assumptions

Those numbers are not proof that one lender is cheaper.
Changing the estimate doesn’t magically make those expenses disappear.
It just makes the worksheet look better long enough to win the borrower.

So, I removed the smoke.
I ran both options using the SAME assumptions for taxes, insurance, escrow, title and interest timing.
Now we could actually compare the two lenders.

And holy hell…

They were giving this Veteran:
A HIGHER rate.
For MORE lender cost.
While putting him into a loan that was $21,339 larger.
And the payment was $220 MORE every single month.

Over 30 years, the difference is roughly $60,590 in additional cost. All while the Veteran originally thought the other lender was “saving” him money.

That is the part people outside this industry need to understand.

A normal borrower is not sitting at the kitchen table calculating prepaid interest, lender credits, escrow assumptions, Section A/B charges and 360 months of amortization.
And they shouldn’t have to.

The borrower sees:
“I bring less money to closing.”

They don’t see:
“I’m borrowing $21,000 more, have way less equity in my house, while taking a higher rate, paying more every month and potentially spending tens of thousands more over the life of the loan.”

Veterans deserve better than that.

And here’s the part that really bothers me.
I looked up the other loan officer.
46 VA loans in the last 12 months.

I obviously cannot tell you how every one of those 46 Veterans was quoted. But after seeing this one?

I can’t help wondering how many of them were shown the same kind of comparison.

Because if your “better deal” only looks better when the borrower doesn’t understand the worksheet... it isn’t a better deal.

It’s a scam.

08/19/2026

🚨 Big news for mortgage rates…very likely.

The Treasury just announced it’s going to buy back a lot more government bonds.

Here’s the breakdown:

👉 More buyers for bonds can push bond prices UP.

👉 When bond prices go UP, their interest rates (called yields) can come DOWN.

👉 Mortgage rates tend to pay attention to those longer-term bond yields like your dog paying attention when you open a bag of chips. 👀

So basically:

More bond buying → potentially lower yields → potentially lower mortgage rates. 📉🏡

GREAT NEWS!

Does this mean mortgage rates are dropping to 5% tomorrow? Absolutely not. Calm down, Facebook.

But it could put some downward pressure on rates, which is definitely good news.

If you like translations on this financial nerd stuff into normal English, FOLLOW.
🏡👨🏻‍💻☕️

08/14/2026

📉 RATES HIT A 3-WEEK LOW.
Is 6.69% “low?” No. But we’ll take it. 🎯

🔥 TODAY’S STORY
The budget deficit surged to its highest level since Mar ‘21. Heavy government borrowing can keep mortgage rates elevated. Buyers waiting for low 5s may be waiting a long while.

Plan for 6s. Refi if the market gives you the opportunity.

Rents are UP!! Let’s get those investors excited. 📲 Text INVESTOR for more info

💡 BUYER PRO TIP
Don’t make a decision based on the inspection. Make it based on the seller’s response to the inspection requests.

💰 THE STAT: Homeowners are 43x wealthier than renters. Not 2x. Not 5x. 43x. Print it. Frame it. Use it. 🏆

📊 NATIONAL PULSE — JULY
🤝 Offers/home: 2.0
⏱️ Days to close: 30
📈 Sold above asking: 19%
🥇 First-time buyers: 29%

Steady. Functional. Priced right still sells. 🎯

Check out Aaron Gordon's Newsletter below for Mortgage related info

Making mortgages easy.

07/17/2026

Congratulations 🎊 Brad & Stacey on the purchase of your Ft Wright home yesterday. They took advantage of a lenders Bridge Loan option to secure the house. A special thank you to Andrew Duncan for helping these buyers and already getting their Bellevue home under contract to be sold.

07/15/2026

📉 INFLATION SURPRISING STABLE. RATES LOWEST IN A WEEK. We’ll take it. Yesterday’s 11-month high already faded. 🎯

🏠 HOME PRICES HIT AN ALL-TIME HIGH. AGAIN. Median existing-home price: $440,600 — 36th consecutive month of annual gains. 36 straight months!! No crash.

🔭 THE HONESTY NOBODY WANTS TO HEAR: Most experts now agree that sub-5.75% rates may require a recession or worse. That’s not a plan. That’s a catastrophe. Work with 6s or wait for disaster. Your call. 🤷

💰 THE $900K MISTAKE PEOPLE MAKE BEFORE THEY DIE. ⚠️ This is the most important tax tip you’ll share this year. Forward it. You bought a home for $100K. It’s worth $1M today. Huge win. 🏆 If you leave it to your kids when you die: They inherit at today’s $1M value (step-up in basis). They sell immediately. Zero federal capital gains tax. ✅ If you gift it to them shortly before dying: They inherit YOUR original $100K cost basis. They sell at $1M. They owe tax on $900K of gains. 💀 Same house. Same kids. $900K difference based on timing.

📊 TODAY’S RATES (via MND) 30YR: 6.64 ⬇️ · 15YR: 6.18 ⬇️·
ARM: 6.30 ⬇️ FHA: 6.27 ⬆️· VA: 6.29 ⬆️ · Jumbo: 6.83 ⬇️

07/13/2026

📊 MORTGAGE RATES: SAME AS EARLY LAST WEEK. Let’s work with what we’ve got. 🎯

🔭 WHY RATES WON’T GO BELOW 5.75%. (PROBABLY.) Fed’s “cruise control” is set at 3%. When banks add markup, you’re at 6%+ mortgages. Simple math. To get below 5.75% something has to bust….economy, jobs, or both. Stop waiting for 5%. Plan for 6s. Refi if 5% happens.

💼 JOBS: STEADY. 59% of Americans were employed in June - virtually identical to a year ago. Not booming. Not crashing. A boring jobs market is good news for rate stability. 📊

🏡 AIRBNB HOSTS WITH LOW LOCKED RATES ARE PRINTING MONEY. Rates above 6% killed new short-term rental investment. New competition dried up. Established Airbnb hosts now have stronger occupancy AND pricing power in 2026. 🎰

😬 MILLENNIALS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE BUYING BUT THEY’RE NOT. Prime homebuying age. Their market share has DROPPED from 29% to 26%. Sidelined by student debt, down payment myths, and analysis paralysis. They need education, not more Zillow scrolling.

buythehouse.mortgage — qualifying income + DTI calculator. Fix the confusion. Close the deal. 🎯

📊 TODAY’S RATES (via MND) 30YR: 6.64 ⬇️ · 15YR: 6.19 ⬇️ · ARM: 6.23 ⬇️ FHA: 6.21 ⬇️ · VA: 6.23 ⬇️ · Jumbo: 6.82 ↔️