Countrywide Mortgage - Five Steps To Home Ownership
With home mortgages in the headlines these days, homeowners and new home buyers are wary of mortgage lenders. Loose lending practices made it too easy for financially irresponsible individuals to get mortgage loans, leading to a recent increase in foreclosures and defaults. Understandably, homeowners and home buyers want to do business with a mortgage lender they can trust. Countrywide Mortgage is one of those lenders.
Company History
Countrywide Mortgage is neither a fly-by-night operation nor the new kid on the block when it comes to the mortgage lending business. Countrywide was founded in 1969, and its primary business has always been real estate finance.
Commitment To Diversity
Countrywide Mortgage is the number one minority lender in the U.S. Not only is Countrywide Mortgage committed to establishing and maintaining non-discriminatory lending practices to the Hispanic, Asian, and African American markets, but the company is also committed to building an ethnically diverse team of managers and other employees.
Commitment To Education
One way Countrywide Mortgage encourages responsible borrowing is through its Home Ownership Mortgage Education (H.O.M.E.) program. This is a five-step program available to any individual who want to know more about buying a home.
In step one, the customer learns all about basic principles of finance - the fundamentals of money management, how to work with banks, and how to save money.
In step two, the customer learns all about credit: credit ratings, credit scores, bankruptcies, identity thefts, and the effect all of those items can have on getting a home loan.
In step three of Countrywide Mortgage's H.O.M.E. program, the course gets down to the business at hand: buying a home. In this session, students learn how much of a down payment is required for different kinds of loans and what kinds of home loans are available. Step three covers the four Cs of Countrywide's education program: capital, capacity, credit, and collateral.
Step three also includes information about "predatory lending," a topic that covers a variety of abusive lending practices.
In step four of Countrywide Mortgage's program, things really get moving. Students learn how to get pre-qualified and pre-approved for a home loan, how to shop for a home, and what to expect at closing.
In step five, the final step of the H.O.M.E. program, students learn how to secure their property with adequate insurance, how to make their mortgage payments, how to plan ahead to pay taxes and take care of regular home maintenance, and in general how to fulfill every home buyer's obligation as a homeowner.
