Category: Tips & Advice

Tips and advice from the experts at Global Home Finance…the most knowledgable and efficient mortgage broker in Texas.

You’re Why We Do This

You’re Why We Do This

We're here for you!

Have you been disappointed with how impersonal a home loan process can be? If big mortgage companies have you feeling like you’re just another sale, it’s time to join the Lending for Life family at Global Home Finance.

Here, you have access to experts who guide you through the mortgage process—and know you by name! Forget about waiting on hold for 30 minutes or more. It takes seconds to talk to one of our staff members.

We’ve got an entire team working hard with one goal in mind: to get you the best mortgage rate possible—so you can enjoy your home for a lifetime. Pair that with expert advice and market-leading prices and it’s no wonder we’ve helped over 5,500 families in our 14 years as a mortgage banker and brokerage business.

It’s true, Brad—we want to be your Lending for Life family. We come to work every day with the commitment to give our clients the best rates and programs to fit their individual needs. Isn’t it time to join?

Use a Gift for New Home Closing Costs or Down Payment

Use a Gift for New Home Closing Costs or Down Payment

Gifts from a family member are many first-time buyers’ bridge to owning a home. But you don’t always have to be a first-time homebuyer to use a gift for closing costs. Heck, you can get a gift for a second home purchase too!

There Are Important Rules to Remember

One of the key things to remember is that the gift comes from an acceptable donor. A gift needs to be provided by a relative like the borrower’s parents, spouse, child, other dependent, or any other individual who is related to the borrower by blood, marriage, adoption, or legal guardianship. A non-relative who shares a familial relationship with the borrower, like a domestic partner (or relative of the domestic partner), fiancé of the borrower, former relative, or godparent, can also be an acceptable donor.

The gift of funds can be used for all or part of the down payment, closing costs, or financial reserves in accordance with minimum borrower contribution requirements.

But there are two very important guidelines to remember:

  • Gifts are not allowed on an investment property.
  • The donor cannot be (or affiliated with) the builder, developer, real estate agent, or any other interested party in the transaction.

If you cannot get a gift from a family member and have your down payment ready, then ask about Global Home Finance gifting you the closing costs with our Consumer Closing Costs Subsidy Program. You can change your life or the life of a family member. To talk more about accepting—or giving—a gift that helps build a happy future, schedule an appointment today with Brad Cahoone, Founder of Global Home Finance.

We Make Real Estate Easy!

We Make Real Estate Easy!

Take Charge of Your Real Estate Experience

No matter how hot or cold the real estate market is, buying and selling a home—or refinancing one—can be stressful and complex if you don’t have the right team behind you. Searching for the right real estate agent, finding the best mortgage rates, getting the best insurance, and wading through the paperwork can make even the best of us want to throw our hands up and quit.

We get it… and we’ve built something for you.

Announcing Global Home Realty LLC
By combining decades of experience, Global Home Finance and Insurance Service’s CEO Brad Cahoone and Macey’s Realty’s real estate broker Cary Macey have joined forces to create Global Home Realty—a one-stop shop for your home buying, selling, refinancing, and insurance needs.

This program is different from every other brokerage firm. And it’s a magical thing! With our firm, real estate agents focus on providing you with superior representation. They retain the majority of their earnings—instead of letting traditional brokers take 20–30%. When agents don’t have to worry about how much money they’re making, you reap the benefits of a fully-engaged representative who is more open to cutting their commission a little to in turn save you money.

Here’s how Global Home Realty works harder for you:

Keep Your Hard-Earned Money
We shop for the best house or provide superior listing services when selling your home. Then we pass the ball to our partners at Global Home Finance, where they look across the market for solutions like FHA loans, VA loans, USDA loans, no closing costs mortgages, 100% financing, and no income verification mortgages to get you superior pricing for the program that suits your unique needs.

Get Your Time Back
With all the real estate services you need under one roof, you’ll have less work to do to get into your new home. This saves you time and frustration, and gets you back to enjoying your life.

Protect Your Family and Assets
Working with Global Home Realty means you have access to Global Home Finance and Global Home Insurance Services. You’ll get the best pricing and protection available to protect your family and your assets–all from your trusted team of professionals. We’ve been providing expert advice and serving Texans for over 15 years!

Think You’re Not Qualified? Think Again

Think You’re Not Qualified? Think Again

Need a Non-Traditional Loan for Your Dream Home?

If you’re looking to buy or refinance your dream home—but can’t prove your income—we’re ready to help. We have over 80 years of combined experience and a full array of innovative loan programs to choose from.

Our newest loan opportunity, the NINJA (No Income, No Job, Assets only) Program, can have your mortgage completed in under 30 days without needing tax returns or W-2.* So if you’re self-employed or have hard-to-prove income, it’s no problem for us to get you approved—and into your new home!

Check Out the Qualifications & Benefits of NINJA

Global Home Finance Inc. can help you find the custom mortgage solution that fits your needs, whether you are buying your first home or refinancing an existing mortgage. We are here to help you to find the best mortgage available.

Zero Closing Costs for Veterans

Zero Closing Costs for Veterans

Our great veterans have served this country with honor. Their bravery, dedication, and selflessness have protected our country’s freedoms and kept us safe. That’s why one of our biggest accomplishments has been offering our proprietary House for a Hero VA loan assistance program. We put our money where our mouths are and pay for veterans’ closing costs.

Would a veteran in your life benefit from a VA loan with no closing costs?

This exclusive loan is designed to help qualified veterans, active-duty members, and reservists finance their new homes without depleting their life savings. Through this closing cost subsidy program, we pay the closing costs for veterans with a credit score of 620 or higher.

Here are some of the additional benefits of financing with our House for a Hero VA loan assistance program:

  • 100% financing opportunities
  • No mortgage insurance requirement
  • Flexible credit requirements
  • No income restrictions
  • Qualify for the VA’s Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan
  • Best of all, no closing costs

If you are a veteran or know one who would benefit from our House for a Hero VA home loan assistance program, contact us today—and help us serve our heroes by getting them into a new home… with no closing costs!

The 5 Basic Rules of Buying Wisely

The 5 Basic Rules of Buying Wisely

Buying a home or investment property is usually the biggest purchase you’ll make in your lifetime. Doing your homework upfront can be the difference between becoming a successful homeowner or wasting thousands and walking away frustrated. We’ve compiled a list of five tips that will help you get into your property the right way:

  • Determine Your Budget. Before you even start looking at properties, it’s important to understand what you can afford. A general rule of thumb is to allocate no more than 33% of your gross income to your monthly housing budget. Be sure to factor in principal, interest, taxes, homeowner’s insurance, and association dues (PITIA) when calculating this number.
  • Get Pre-Approved for a Loan. If you’re like most people these days, you’re planning on financing your purchase. Getting pre-approved for the loan before you start looking at homes is the right way to protect your earnest money, inspection, and appraisal fees while simultaneously saving you time and money. Even though some lenders don’t offer pre-approvals, we encourage it—and many seller’s agents won’t accept your offer without it. Being pre-approved puts your (strong) offer in front of the line during a multi-offer situation, and can make the difference in getting the right house in the neighborhood you want to live in. At Global Home Finance, we have some of the most expansive set of mortgage solutions available in the US including our NINJA program for self-employed and hard-to-prove income. Our team will get you pre-approved on the front side so you’ll secure the home you want with the least amount of stress.
  • Find the Right Agent. Good real estate agents can be worth their weight in gold. They know the markets they serve inside and out, and can make sure your kids are located near the right schools. Heck, they may even have a pocket listing here or there that can help you skip the home search (and the bidding wars). We recommend a full-time agent who has at least five years of experience representing buyers, ensuring they’re experts and strong negotiators who won’t leave money on the table when working on your behalf.
  • Evaluate the Property. Once you’ve found your dream home, your real estate agent will help you evaluate how much to offer, usually by running a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) to show what homes are selling for to help support your offer. For an investment property, you can request they find market rents, often called a Comparable Rent Analysis. After your offer is accepted, the realtor will recommend a home inspection and help you review the report to dig deeper into the property, including details about the condition, needed repairs, or any updates. Your realtor will then make requests to the seller’s agent for repairs, closing cost concessions by the seller in lieu of repairs, or a reduction in the sales price in lieu of repairs. Their experience with handling these situations is invaluable to a homebuyer who doesn’t deal with these situations every day.
  • Think Long-Term. Remembering that a home is also an investment can be critical in deciding to buy. When you evaluate the last 100 years of data in the US, the average home price has gone up 7% per year which means in 15 years, you can double your money just based on average appreciation. Every time you make a monthly payment, you’re reducing the principal balance and it ratchets up the wealth effect. In fact, a home is the only hedge against inflation that many normal Americans have. Unless you own a large company or investment portfolio, owning a home can be your key to retirement. If you get a fixed rate, the principal and interest payments never go up (even if taxes and insurance do), allowing you to have some control over your housing expenses as time goes by. While rents go up annually in most parts of the US, being a homeowner can bring stability not only to your budget, but also keep your family in a safe, stable place for many years to come—especially when you employ our team of professionals to lead the charge for you.

Buying property can be a joyous adventure that builds abundance when done correctly. We’re here to help you get into your place comfortably without being strapped for money. Call us today at 866-923-3222 and we’ll ensure you become an educated buyer who is armed with knowledge and ready to take the next step into successful home ownership.

The Truth about Online Home Estimators

The Truth about Online Home Estimators

When considering purchasing or selling a home, many of us jump online to get an idea of the property’s price. These online home valuation sites are convenient and easy to use—but are they accurate?

In short, not really. While sites such as Zillow, Redfin, and Realtor.com can potentially provide a ballpark number, their error rates can be significant… up to 6.9%. There are several reasons for this:

  • Proprietary Algorithms. These custom formulas do provide general information like square footage and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. However, what’s not captured are important factors such as recent updates or remodels, the layout of the home, defects such as foundation cracks, and housing turnover rates.
  • Database Collection. While your goal may be to obtain a fairly accurate home value, online estimators may be more interested in building their database (and potentially selling your information to others) than helping you with your research. If this is the case, they’ll use minimal effort to input correct data.
  • Information Disclosures. Some states, such as Texas, don’t allow public access to the prices of completed home sales. Since most online services rely on this information for their calculations, the estimated price displayed could be unreliable.

While these sites can provide helpful data, they can’t replace an experienced human being who can see the property and understand the nuances behind value. So before you drop the idea of that dream house because it’s well over budget—or you decide to sell your house based on the amazing online estimate you got—consider getting a more accurate number from a real estate agent or an appraiser.

When the time is right...

When you’re ready to find your new home, we’re here to help. Give us a call (866-923-3222). We’ll get you pre-approved and verify the accuracy of the appraisal to ensure you’re not overpaying. Together, we’ll find the right loan solution to get you settled comfortably so you can focus on enjoying your new home.

New Law Lets You Triple Your Earnings!

New Law Lets You Triple Your Earnings!

Become a Triple Threat

Breaking News! The Federal Housing Administration announced that real estate agents can now act in a dual capacity for a home purchase with an FHA mortgage.

While this was already allowed for conventional loans, you now have the opportunity to serve your clients as their realtor and mortgage loan officer on FHA home loans. In fact, agents who want to have control of their process can now do so on about 97% of all transactions. Now more than ever, it makes sense to be licensed as a realtor and a residential mortgage loan originator to boost your income on almost every deal you do—which means a better experience for everyone involved (and more pay for you).

With our Everything’s Under One Roof initiative, Global Home Companies is uniquely poised to help you take advantage of this value-add opportunity to your business. We’ll help you get licensed and trained immediately.

Jump on this before multitudes of other agents learn about this change and start disrupting your market. You can get licensed and trained under our 15-year-old Global Home Finance division where we’re already licensed in multiple states for mortgages. We can get you set up as fast as you can get your license.

Ready to beat the other guys to the punch? Call Brad Cahoone at 855-732-5395, extension 227, and discuss how you can add this life-changing revenue stream to your business. We truly believe you can nearly double your income by adding mortgages to your business plan. (And remember, clients refinance too.) When real estate is slow, you can make money on mortgages and when it’s hot—you can get paid twice!

What’s better than doubling your income streams? Tripling, of course.

When you join Global Home Realty, you can hang your mortgage originator license under Global Home Finance and also become a licensed insurance agent under Global Home Insurance. This means increased control of your process, a better client experience, and more income for you on every transaction.

Insurance can be a residual income stream if you keep your clients year after year. With our EZ-Lynx platform, we have 29 carriers already set up for you to quote the best premiums and coverages to your clients without having to spend years building your own agency or getting appointments with carriers.

Since we allow you to keep 100% of your real estate commissions, there’s no better money-making opportunity in this business. Plus, everyone wins:

  • You can ensure closings happen on time.
  • Your clients will get the best loan.
  • You can secure the best insurance for clients using our in-house technology platforms.

Join us to start earning money on real estate, mortgages, and insurance sales. Call 855-732-5395 today and we’ll talk through how we can get you to triple earnings.

Global Home Finance Now Licensed in California

Global Home Finance Now Licensed in California

Let us help you finance the California Dream!

We are excited that homebuyers in California can now enjoy the same outstanding service and quality mortgage loans as Texas residents have been for years

Global Home Finance, a leading mortgage loan originator serving consumers in Texas, expanded services earlier this year to include the states of Colorado, Florida, Georgia and Minnesota making it even easier for residents of these locations to become homeowners.

“We help you find home financing that fits your needs,” says Brad Cahoone, President of Global Home Finance, “whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or refinancing an existing mortgage. We’re here to help you find the best home loan available.”

Some of the top home loans Global Home Finance offers to help combat rising interest rates are their One-time Construction Loan and Lock & Shop Programs. The One-time Construction Loan allows homeowners to acquire land, get construction financing, and lock in the rate up-front before the new home is complete. This avoids paying closing costs three (3) times saving new construction homeowners time and money.

The Lock & Shop Program applies to conventional, FHA, VA, and USDA programs. It’s the perfect custom mortgage solution for anyone looking to buy a home in the next 12 months. Buyers can lock in their rates and take the time needed to shop for their perfect home. The Lock & Shop Program relieves some of the stress when searching for the right home.

These Global Home Finance loans help buyers protect themselves against rising interest rates. As a Mortgage Broker and Banker, they have access to funds from dozens of wholesale and correspondent mortgage lending entities that they’ve used for decades. As such, Global Home Finance offers superior mortgage loan pricing and the most diverse home loan financing solutions on the market.

Call us to get qualified or apply today!

972-724-3222

Does your real estate agent have what it takes?

Does your real estate agent have what it takes?

5 Traits of the Best Realtors

Friendly, knowledgeable, outgoing… There are certain personality traits that are expected in a real estate agent. But there are other attributes that can take an agent from decent to exceptional. Buying a home is a lifetime investment — you need to be represented by a skilled professional. Here are the top five things you should be looking for when choosing an agent:

  • Full-Time Professional. Your agent should sleep, eat, and breathe real estate. They should know the ups and downs and ins and outs of the industry. For them, it’s their livelihood—not a side job to score some extra cash.
  • Five+ Years of Experience. Accomplished agents have spent time and effort learning the business. Market knowledge, rapport with other agents, vendor partnerships, community connections, marketing expertise, and other invaluable capabilities come with expertise.
  • Strong Negotiation Skills. When working on real estate transactions, it’s extremely important to accurately read situations and respond effectively. Proficient agents know how to strategically bridge the gap between the two sides while delivering the best outcome for their clients.
  • Buyer Representative. Buyer agents understand how to guide their clients through the buying process. From showing you homes to crafting offers to helping with legal documents, they’re always keeping your best interest in mind.
  • Availability and Flexibility. Buying a home takes time and dedication. Good agents know they aren’t working 9–5 jobs and that open and frequent communication is crucial. Last-minute openings, offers, and details are frequently part of the journey.

If you’re looking for an agent, we can help. With more than 16 years of experience, we’ve connected with many real estate professionals. So many, in fact, that we now have our own brokerage firm — Global Home Realty. We can connect you with a proven agent while also assisting in finding the right home loan solution — all under one roof! Call today at 866-923-3222.