“…go ahead and start the excavation for your flagpole. Spend conservatively, stay in touch with your local lender, and expect the best possible conclusion. Before you know it, you too will be living on ‘TIMBER FRAME WAY.'”
Our intrepid field management team always travels with photography gear. As we embark upon Site Evaluation Visits and related tasks, we inevitably encounter some unforgettable images such as this one, my favorite all time street sign.
Planting a sign such as this at one’s property entrance is much like raising a flag. It unequivocally announces to the world a beautiful, energy-efficient, and sustainable residence awaits at the other end of the driveway. What a wonderful signature!
However, arriving at the ceremonial flag raising often requires methodical, step-by-step immersion in the rocky world of financing. And beginning this month, Fannie Mae – the largest buyer of mortgages in the housing industry – is instituting some new guidelines.
Designed to ferret out borrowers who may have changed jobs, taken out additional consumer loans, or fallen behind on monthly bills in the weeks between applying for a mortgage and closing on it, the new guidelines could very well delay or even torpedo your home’s principle financing vehicle.
So how does one avoid this unpleasant surprise? The key strategy is of course keeping finances in order during the closing process and postponing the purchase of big ticket items such as cars. And local lending institutions are subtly pushing back at Fannie Mae via credit monitoring, where a third-party vendor is utilized to keep a close eye on a consumer’s credit report without depressing the all-important credit score.
So go ahead and start the excavation for your flagpole. Spend conservatively, stay in touch with your local lender, and expect the best possible conclusion. Before you know it, you too will be living on “TIMBER FRAME WAY.”