How Do Home Loan Brokers Get Paid?

If you are looking to purchase a new home, you should be ready to experience a time full of home tours, short lists and memories. However, if you are new in this field, you may find it hard to get a mortgage.

You may not have the time to get in touch with different lenders, check details and apply for a mortgage. In this case, it’s better that you contact a mortgage broker for assistance. You should know a few basic things before you work with a good professional. The first question is, how do home loan brokers get paid? We are going to answer this question in detail.

What do Mortgage Brokers do?

To finance your purchase, you may contact a bank or a loan provider. Since a bank is just an institution, it can offer a lot of loan options. Therefore, it may not be able to meet your needs.

On the other hand, if you contact a mortgage broker, they can offer a lot of loan options from a lot of lenders. The role of these professionals is to look for the best mortgage rate based on your needs.

For instance, if you need to buy a house but you can’t pay more than 5% of the house price as down payment, the remaining amount will be covered by your mortgage loan. Your mortgage specialist can find a lender that can agree to these terms.

With this type of specialist, you can easily look for a lender who is ready to provide you with the money you need to buy your desired house.

How do Loan Brokers get paid?

First of all, it’s important to keep in mind that these brokers are not bank employees. They are independent workers with proper licensing. Therefore, they get paid in the form of service fees. The payer of this fee can be you, the lender or the borrower.

Typically, this fee is a percentage of the total loan amount, which can be around 2%. The dollar amount is paid upfront or made part of the loan.

Although the commission is only 1% to 2% of the amount, it can be a lot of money for the broker. Based on the number or size of the loan, the fees may vary. However, the good thing is that there are no hidden fees.

The good news is that loan brokers are required to reveal all the fees before they sign a contract. Therefore, you will have to pay only the amount disclosed by them. Aside from this, each fee must be listed on the document. You can ask the broker about all the fees and the purpose they are given on the list.

Before you apply for a mortgage, we suggest that you figure out all the fees that you will have to pay. After all, you don’t want to face surprises at the end.

How To Pay Off Your Mortgage In 5 Years

My wife and I were “home buyers” for at least 7 years on our current residence. Notice that I said home “buyers,” and not home “owners.” There is a common misconception that when you take out a mortgage, you are immediately a home “owner”

Assuming that you have a 30 year mortgage, the reality is that you are simply in the process of buying the home over a 30 year period. The bank, is the true owner of the property. If you don’t believe me, try missing a few mortgage payments, and see what happens.

3 months ago, we paid off our 30 year mortgage (in 7 years, or 23 years early). Now we are true home “owners.” In this article, I’m going to show you step by step how we were able to accomplish this. Using our existing income, and without incurring any additional debt.

Equity

Let’s talk about “Equity.” Equity, or appreciation, is the difference between what your home is worth and what you owe to the bank. So if you owe $100,000 and your house is worth $300,000, then you have $200,000 of Equity in your home.

We had roughly $250,000 of Equity on our house. We owed the bank $115,000 and our house was worth $367,000.

This $250,000 is dormant. Meaning, it looks good, but it wasn’t doing anything for us.

Home-Equity Line of Credit (HELOC)

So the first thing that we did was we ‘tapped’ into this equity. We went to the bank and took out an Home Equity Line of Credit for $50,000.

What is an equity line of credit? Also called a HELOC, an home equity line of credit is a liquid line that you are able to draw funds from at any time for any purpose. It’s like a gigantic credit card.

Although the HELOC had a limit for $50,000, the amount that we owed on it was $0 at the time that we took it out. This is because, similar to a credit card, you don’t owe anything until you actually use it.

Use HELOC to Pay Down Mortgage

Immediately after we got the HELOC, we withdrew $20,000 and applied it to our Mortgage (additional principal payment).

So at this point, we have $20,000 due on the HELOC, but our mortgage has been paid down by $20,000 (from $115,000 to $95,000).

Use HELOC as “new” Checking Account

Before I go on, let me mention that after we used the $20,000 to pay down our mortgage, we still had the same $115,000 of debt ($20,000 on HELOC and $95,000 on Mortgage).

So to payoff the HELOC, we just used it as our new checking account. When we got paid, we took 100% of our paychecks and applied it to the HELOC.

Now you may be wondering, “with all of our money going to the HELOC, how did we pay our bills?” Remember the HELOC is a “liquid” line. So at the end of each month, we made 1 withdrawal from the HELOC to pay our bills (including our mortgage).

100% of Cash Flow

For us, our monthly paychecks totaled roughly $6,000. Our bills, including our mortgage, and all of our living expenses (gas, groceries, etc.) totaled approximately $3,500. So by applying 100% of our monthly checks to the HELOC, and then using the HELOC to pay our bills, we were able to use 100% of our monthly cash flow to pay the $20,000 HELOC off.

So with and estimated $2,500 of cash flow ($6,000 minus $3,500) the $20,000 was paid off in 8 months.

Repeat The Process

We repeated this process until the remaining $95,000 was paid off (approximately 2 years).

What Do You Need?

1. Cash Flow – You must have positive cash flow in your household budget

2. Credit Score – A decent credit score (650 or above)

3. Equity – Positive equity in your home.

What You Should Know

VERY IMPORTANT: The HELOC should be used to paydown your mortgage. It should not be used to fund a vacation, buy a car, or a boat.

ALSO IMPORTANT: The HELOC is not a Home Equity Loan (HEL). A Home Equity Loan is a 2nd mortgage, and it is treated the same.

Don’t Let Them Tell You Different: Your Inner Beauty Is Undefinable

Defining beauty isn’t easy. In fact, for every culture, it means something slightly different. A tribe in Africa treats female beauty to mean a curvy, voluptuous woman, while society in America wants their women to be thin as nails. As different as priorities and perspectives of outer beauty in each culture may be, one thing is the same – inner beauty stems from confidence, inner peace and a positive mindset.Inner beauty isn’t about the face you want to have or attaining the body you’ve always dreamed of having; it’s about being happy with what you already have. Don’t you love your petite nose, slanted eyes, or dimples? If not, you should because true outer beauty begins and ends with true inner beauty. Love yourself – and all of your many unique qualities – and as a result look beautiful to the rest of the world, too.Inner Beauty Stems From ConfidenceWhen you feel good inside, you look good on the outside. Has a co-worker on Monday morning every remarked on your “glow” after having a relaxing weekend away from work and your many work-related responsibilities? It wasn’t their imagination. Your “glow” arose from rosy skin, and a relaxed vibe from the stress-free couple of days away from the office. And when that happens, you radiate a new, happier self. Like magic, you’ve gotten more attractive to each and every person you meet, and all thanks to an inner beauty, due to acceptance and confidence that translates to your outer self.Inner Beauty Stems From Inner PeaceDespite what you may think, you’re not your most beautiful when you’ve just had your hair professional done, or when you’ve just treated yourself to buying a designer dress to wear out for the night. You don’t look your best when you spend hours putting on make-up or only after working off that recent weight you gained last month.Instead, you look your best when you’re at peace with who you are, and where you are in life. Western culture has told us many things about beauty, all of which suggests that in order to be our most beautiful self we must weight this amount (no more, no less!), buy this cream, inject this anti-aging laser treatment, or show up wearing these designer brand of shoes. However, we don’t need to fulfill society’s silly standards of beauty. Instead, we can create our own.Inner beauty isn’t so easy to attain, because one of the key aspects of achieving it is first achieving inner peace. Are you feeling at ease about yourself, or uncomfortable in your skin? True inner peace (not some flittering thought, but a constant state of calm and peace about yourself) can come in many forms such as accepting your “flaws” as part of what makes you, you. It can come in the form of liking who you see in the mirror (no matter how much you want to change). It can be knowing yourself inside and out; believing in yourself and your dreams, and never letting anyone else tell you who and what you’re capable of. Are you feeling at peace about who you are, and what you’re here to do? That inner peace will undoubtedly shine through in your skin, your smile, and even the way you walk.In addition, your inner beauty will send a vibe to all those you meet that you’re positive, happy and peaceful about yourself and the world. And who wouldn’t be attracted to that?Inner Beauty is Attainable With the Right MindsetAnything you want in life can be achieved with the right mindset, and when you have the right mindset, you’ll always exude beauty. If you’ve ever felt empowered after writing a short story, gave a speech to others who felt moved by what you had to say, or felt as though you are unstoppable after running a marathon, that’s the power of your mind at work.Inner beauty comes from many sources, but one of the quickest ways to feel good about yourself and everything you stand for is through a positive, clear way of thinking. Love who you are, and your beauty will always follow.