Welcome to North Shore Bank's In Your Interest podcast. There are many questions surrounding the mortgage loan process, and some are asked more frequently than others. To help provide answers to those questions is Susan Lidell, one of North Shore Bank's mortgage experts. Hi, I'm Susan Lidell with North Shore Bank.
I'm a mortgage officer and my job is to make your dream of home ownership come true. We've got five questions that people have about mortgages. One of the first ones is PMI. What is PMI? PMI is Private Mortgage Insurance. It protects the bank against foreclosure and allows you to purchase your home with less money in the deal.
Typically, you don't need MI unless you have less than 20 percent down. If you do need MI, then it's rolled right into your monthly payment, so it's not an extra payment that you have to make. Do we homebuyer programs? Absolutely yes. We have many to choose from. WIDA, Freddie Mac programs, portfolio programs.
They help with everything from low down payment, to using grants, using assistance programs, to helping with qualifications for student loans, and even home repairs. So give us a call and we'll put the right one together with you. What's the minimum down payment? Well, the minimum down payment for everyone is going to be different.
The best loan is always going to be the shortest term with the best rate with 20 percent down. Not everybody has that. So we've got programs that'll do that for you, but we won't know that answer until you come in and we talk about what your whole picture looks like. And when we see that, then we can direct you and give you options on.
Next question, kind of goes with how much down? How much can I afford? Well, my question back to you is, do you budget? Because if you don't budget, then you probably don't know how much you want for a house payment. So, do a budget before you come in to see us. When you think of that mortgage payment, what payment is that?
What's the one that makes you comfortable? Because our job is to make this successful for you. When you've got that in your head, we talk about it, we come back into your purchase price. Because we're going to look at the total payment, principal and interest, your tax escrow. PMI if you need it, and your homeowner's insurance escrow.
And we can figure out where that purchase price is for you. Always, five years down the road, I want you to be happy with what we've done here. So, what happens if you come in and it's not so happy? Usually when you come in, we're going to look at your assets, your income, and your credit. We can let you know right away if you can afford.
Or if you can be approved for a loan. And if you're not, well, I for one, I'm going to give you an action plan. What do you need to do and in what area do you need to do it in to get you into your home? And it could be any of those three areas. Any of those areas? Can crash the deal. The fourth thing that we didn't really talk about is the house.
The house can crash the deal too. That's why it's nice that we have the portfolio program. What's your action plan? Go into a North Shore Bank, speak with a loan officer together. Find the best program and product with your down payment needs with your monthly mortgage payment. Make it work for you. We'll help you.
Come see us. North Shore Bank, the bank of you. Thank you for listening to North Shore Bank's In Your Interest podcast. To learn more about North Shore Bank's mortgage and loan products, visit NorthShoreBank. com slash mortgage. And to subscribe to the podcast, you can do so through Google Play Music or iTunes, or your favorite podcast app.
Visit northshorebank.com/podcast for previous episodes. Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender.