By David Pilley on May 2, 2011
.jpg.aspx?width=75&height=75) Sometimes I get a topic to research that involves a financial term and the name of a state. I’m a little hesitant at first; since I don’t live in that state, I don’t really know specifics. This week, I got “home loans in Virginia,” and I was lucky enough to find a website with some valuable information. It is a site you can visit to learn about possible home loans in Virginia, as well as any other state in the country.
Quicken Loans is the largest online mortgage lender. The company is headquartered in Detroit, and, besides giving mortgage loans, it also consists of One Reverse Mortgage (based in San Diego) and Title Source (a mortgage settlement service provider). It processed about $29 billion worth in mortgage loans in 2010. Quicken Loans has been accredited by the Better Business Bureau since 1986, and it currently holds a rating of A+.
The site has a wealth of information about different types of home loans and what you need to know about them. It also shows you what kind of interest rates to expect with each type of loan, and it offers a mortgage calculator to show you how you will be paying off the mortgage.
Most helpful of all is that the site shows examples of how much you will be paying on your mortgage with certain criteria within your state. So, when I looked at the state of Virginia, it offered the entire range, from a 30-year fixed-rate loan with no points purchased to a 7-year adjustable rate mortgage with two points purchased. The amounts of the example loans are $200,000, $300,000, and $400,000. I clicked on “30-year fixed-rate, $200,000 loan, 0 points” to see what I would find. What you will find is a straight-forward chart showing your possible payment plan. It shows “total monthly payment” (broken down into monthly mortgage payment plus taxes and insurance), mortgage rate, APR, and points. You can also click to see a description of what these terms mean if you’re not already familiar with them.
The example of “30-year fixed-rate, $200,000 loan, 0 points” revealed a monthly payment of $1,260 and an APR of 4.97%. This information, however, is just an assumed example. When coming up with these numbers, the site assumes that your debt-to-income ratio is less than 30% and your credit score is over 720. Remember that the lower your credit score, the higher your potential interest rate. Also remember that your interest rate can be lowered in the long run if you purchase points.
So, if you’re in Virginia (or if you’re in any state, really), Quicken Loans is a good place to look for getting a home loan. It has reliable information, understandable term descriptions, and an A+ from the BBB also helps.
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