Wheatworks Blog: Financial Matters

A new article titled, “Seven Strategies to Get Your Property SOLD in a Slow Market“, has just been added to the MoneyToys™ Real Estate Article Library.

Written by John Allen of Allen Real Estate Services, Inc., in Sarasota, Florida, the article offers suggestions home sellers can use to enhance their opportunity to sell in a slower market. John’s web site is at www.buysarasota.com.

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Wheatworks Software, LLC has launched Bank-Marketing-Software.com a website offering Wheatworks’ new promotional software product for banks which is branded with a bank’s corporate dress, contact information and links to the bank’s Internet resources.

CustomCalcs(tm), the promotional software division of Wheatworks Software, LLC, brands the popular Financial Calculator Suite with a bank’s corporate graphics turning it into a fully-functional promotional item the bank distributes to customers.

Fully branded for bank marketing, Financial Calculator Suite, a Windows®-based collection of financial calculators, is designed to assist a bank’s customers with the financial calculations related to their financial planning while constantly reminding the customer of the bank.

Customers think in a focused way about finances when using a financial calculator. And when that calculator carries a bank’s brand, the customer cannot avoid thinking of the bank whose graphics, message and contact information is in front of them, embedded in the software.

CustomCalcs’ marketing software for banks is designed to be given away for promotional purposes. The branded Financial Calculator Suites are offered as downloads from web sites, given away on CD-ROMs at teller desks, given away at financial seminars, and financial authors have included their branded software with books.

Screen shots showing examples of branded financial software are available at http://www.bank-marketing-software.com/gallery.php. The gallery showcases software Wheatworks’ clients use to attract new customers, build goodwill and promote their banks.

Because this custom branded bank marketing software is designed to be given away for promotional purposes, the distribution license provides broad, royalty-free, distribution rights.

Learn more at http://www.bank-marketing-software.com.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Rick Wheat
Managing Partner
Wheatworks Software, LLC
http://www.bank-marketing-software.com

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Wheatworks Software announces the release of an updated version of Free Mortgage Loan APR Calculator. One of the free financial calculators from Wheatworks.com, this Windows®-based calculator runs on 2000, XP and Vista.

Learn more about the Free Mortgage Loan APR Calculator or download all of Wheatworks Free Financial Software.

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If you’re buying a home, the chances are great that a lender will offer you a loan for a whole lot more money than you can reasonably afford. Why? Because the lender will make money up front and pass your loan to investors.

In the past, your local banker was someone you knew. And when you borrowed money from the bank to purchase a home the banker was careful to lend you only what you could afford … even if you wanted more. This wasn’t necessarily because the banker had your best interest at heart. The local banker knew the bank would lose money if you couldn’t afford your payments and the bank foreclosed on your home.

In the last decade, the mortgage lending world changed. Mortgage brokers take their portion of a home loan and pass the mortgage to anonymous investors in mortgage-backed securities. Mortgage loans are now packaged into mortgage-backed securities in what the financial wizards thought was a way to reduce risk to investors. If you’ve paid any attention to the main stream media this year, you realize the gig is up. The real estate market is in a tailspin for home owners who need to sell. The pendulum has swung towards the buyer’s side of the equation in many areas of the country.

Against this national background of crazy lending which allowed home buyers to borrow so much more than they can safely afford, how can someone know how much money they can safely borrow to buy a home?

First, smile when a lender tells you how very much you qualify to borrow. It feels good to hear it. Second, ignore it. That’s probably crazy lending and the number may be way too high.

What you’re really interested in is not what you may be “qualified” to borrow. You really want to know what you can safely afford to borrow. And this is where you need to be very honest with yourself.

Suppose you’re married and both of you are employed. Should you use both salaries in your mortgage qualification? Only if you’re sure both of you will continue to be employed. If one of you becomes disabled or decides to stay home with children, you’ve cut your income significantly. When it happens, you’ll be happy if you qualified for a mortgage using only one of your incomes.

One of the 16 calculators in Real Estate Calculator Suite is the Mortgage Qualifier. It is very conservative. The Mortgage Qualifier uses loan underwriting standards that worked for borrowers before the recent period of crazy lending. The Mortgage Qualifier provides a good starting point to help you determine the maximum monthly payment and loan amount for which you qualify under safe underwriting guidelines.

What are safe underwriting guidelines? Bankers once commonly used two ratios to determine what a home buyer could afford, the housing ratio (28%) and the debt ratio (36%).

The housing ratio determined the borrowers maximum monthly housing expenditure and included the total housing payment: principal, interest, taxes, insurance, private mortgage insurance and homeowners association fees.

In addition, bankers also looked at the qualifying debt ratio which determined the borrowers maximum month debt expenditure. Lenders once knew that one’s entire monthly income cannot safely go towards the mortgage and debt payments. Home buyers must also have money left over each month for food, utilities, transportation, healthcare, savings, education, and fun!

If you want a good way to find out what you can safely afford, try the Mortgage Qualifier in Real Estate Calculator Suite. Compared to crazy lending, Real Estate Calculator Suite offers a safer, more conservative perspective on buying a home. It focuses on helping you determine how much home you can afford now and in the future.

Download a free, fully functional trial version of Real Estate Calculator Suite.