Three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals were at the University of Hawaii’s law school Wednesday to listen to arguments in an appeal of a federal judge’s 2017 ruling that says limiting the vote to those who are considered native inhabitants of the island is unconstitutional.

Voters would have three choices: independence, statehood and free association with the United States similar to island states that allow the U.S. exclusive military access to their land and waters while their citizens have the right to live and work in the U.S.

Arnold Davis, a white, non-Chamorro resident of Guam, sued in 2011 after his application to participate in the vote was denied.

Last year’s ruling concluded that even though Guam has a long history of colonization and its people have a right to determine their political status with the United States, it’s unconstitutional to exclude voters simply because they “do not have the correct ancestry or bloodline.”

The ruling cites a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows non-Native Hawaiians to vote in elections for Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees.

Guam appealed.

The vote would only be a “symbolic, but no less sacred, non-binding expression of a political opinion of a subset of Guam,” Julian Aguon, an attorney representing Guam, argued Wednesday.

The vote would have ramifications for all who live on the island, said Davis’ attorney, Lucas Townsend. “This is a taxpayer-funded, government-sponsored vote involving the territory’s election machinery,” he said.

Guam plans to submit results to the president of the United States, Congress and the United Nations, Townsend said.

Voters wouldn’t be limited based on their race, but would include only those who were granted U.S. citizenship through the 1950 Guam Organic Act and their descendants, Aguon said. Court documents in the case cite 1950 census data showing that the vast majority of the non-citizens on Guam at the time were Chamorro.

About one-third of the U.S. territory’s 160,000 people identify as Chamorro, the indigenous group that is believed to have migrated to Guam from Indonesia and the Philippines an estimated 3,500 to 4,000 years ago. The U.S. took control of Guam in 1898 after the Spanish-American War.

The Navy ruled the island until Japan took control in 1941. The U.S. installed civilian leadership and granted citizenship to Guam residents in 1950.

It’s not clear when the judges will issue a ruling.

Upholding the lower court ruling will effectively end Guam’s self-determination effort, Aguon said after the hearing.

“This case is so important because it’s about defending the sacred right of self-determination, even if it’s a symbolic vote,” he said. “It really matters to the community. Guam has been colonized for hundreds of years, and this would finally give us some semblance of dignity to be able to have just this non-binding vote. And that’s what it means to me as a Chamorro as well.”

But because you don’t, it’s easy to miss a couple of questions when you are “interviewing” your prospective loan officer.

Remember, this is going to be one of the biggest purchases you’ll ever make. Getting it right can be easy if you know the right questions to ask. Here are seven, with some guidance on what the answers should be:

1. How many VA home loans do you, personally, close each month?

In my experience, a good loan officer will close at least five VA purchase loans every month. This number could fluctuate a bit by region — areas with very few veterans may offer limited opportunities for VA loans — but experience closing these loans is critical.

2. What is the average time it takes to close on a home, from contract to closing date, with your company?

In competitive markets, the average time is 30 days or less.

3. What do you charge for the VA origination fee?

The maximum charge is 1 percent, but some lenders may charge less.

4. Do you charge “discount points”?

These points are basically fees that lower your interest rate. In many cases, especially if you are planning to move or refinance, it doesn’t make sense to pay them.

5. How does your team communicate during the home-buying process?

Be sure your lender will keep you updated. If they don’t have a plan in place to do so, find somebody else.

6. Do you have a secure way to send and receive sensitive information?

Many of the forms you’ll fill out will require strong security measures. You don’t want your Social Security number roaming the internet.

7. What additional costs are associated with the loan?

Remember, just because you’re not putting any money down doesn’t mean the loan won’t cost you anything at signing: You still have to pay for closing costs, although they can be covered by the seller or with a lender credit.

Getting clarity on these small items can help turn an average home-buying experience into a great one.

David Piatek is in the Illinois National Guard and has over 12 years of experience specializing in VA home loans. Find him via email at teamdavid@thefederalsavingsbank.com.

The bill, which is under Senate consideration, would create a fourth VA under secretary and staff up a branch dedicated to transition assistance, employment, education benefits and other non-health-related VA benefits. To pay for the extra staff, it would raise the funding fee on the VA’s Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans. That fee sits at half a percent, but the bill would up it to 0.75 percent for loans closed Jan. 1, 2019, through March 1, 2025.

The fee would revert to 0.50 percent after that date. Get the current funding fees for all VA loans, as well as a breakdown of which veterans are exempt from fees, here.

This funding tactic isn’t new: For instance, the Senate is expected to consider legislation that would expand benefits for “blue water” Vietnam veterans — tens of thousands of service members exposed to toxic chemicals while serving on ships who have been denied recompense for decades.

To afford those benefits, the bill calls for a restructuring of VA loan funding fees that would raise some rates and would make more veterans, including those with disability ratings below 100 percent, pay a funding fee to use the loan guaranty program.

Learn more about the VA loan program at our VA Loan Center.

While VA claimed to save more than 97,000 loan-holders from foreclosure in fiscal 2016, the department completed 18,519 foreclosures that year. Those with VA-backed loans who are facing financial issues should contact VA immediately; read more about what programs are available for beneficiaries in this situation here.

As the financial recovery process continues, keep this timeline in mind:

• When your mortgage is 30 days past due, the mortgage servicer can report the loan as delinquent to credit reporting agencies.
• After 36 days, the servicer must attempt to contact the borrower directly. If contact is made, the servicer should inform the borrower of any repayment or mitigation options.
• When the mortgage reaches 45 days past due, the lender is required to assign a staffer to the case who can answer any questions and work out potential repayment plans. A written notice is also required at this stage.
• If all is still not well after 121 days, the loan case can be moved to foreclosure attorneys unless an “active loss mitigation package” is in place, according to federal documents. This could include a Trial Payment Plan, where the borrower is asked to pay an lower amount over a period of time to test out a restructured mortgage. VA officials can assist with TPP setup.

More details on the foreclosure process are available through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

So, when does Skynet take over administration of the VA loan program? That could be a bit.

For now, VA’s seeking industry input on how an AI-assisted system might work. A July 2 request, outlined the next day at GCN.com, includes a 15-point list of deliverables, such as:

• “Natural Language Processing” to allow communication with veterans of all ages and education levels.
• A “human-like” interactive experience.
• The ability to start, stop and resume conversations or claim assistance, and to accept input via multiple methods, such as voice, text, clicking a drop-down menu item or filling out a form.
• “Automated Learning,” which would let the system listen into a human staffer’s successful interaction with a veteran and use the advice given for similar requests.
• “Multiple areas of ‘expertise’” including the VA loan program.

The request also outlines a variety of security requirements designed to ensure an AI system would protect medical records and other personal data from improper access.

Industry representatives have until July 16 to reply to VA’s request. No deadlines or time frames for purchase, trials or implementation of an AI program are outlined in the request.

Seeking some AI-free VA loan tips? Visit our VA Loan Center.

VA backed more than new 411,000 purchase and refinance loans from Oct. 1, 2017, through May 31. Below are some hot spots for the various types, broken out by county. While traditional military- and veteran-heavy areas are well-represented, the numbers also reflect simple census figures: Arizona’s Maricopa County, for instance, ranks fourth in the nation with about 4 million residents, and Los Angeles County’s 10 million-plus residents are enough to land it a spot on most any list, regardless of veteran concentration.

Don’t see your county on the list? Check out the full rundown, as well as stats from past years, here.

VA PURCHASE LOANS

INTEREST RATE REDUCTION REFINANCE LOANS

CASH-OUT REFINANCING LOANS

Learn more about VA loans at our VA Loan Center.

The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2017 would make nearly 90,000 veterans eligible for disability benefits connected to exposure to Agent Orange and other defoliants. While those who served in-country are presumed to have contacted such chemicals during their service, a 2002 policy change revoked that presumption for those who served aboard ships off Vietnam’s coast.

Reversing that change, and providing other benefits outlined in the bill, would cost more than $1 billion. To cover that cost, lawmakers plan to adjust the VA funding fee tables, which charge different fee percentages depending on the type of loan, the amount of down payment, the beneficiaries’ type of service, and whether the beneficiary has used the VA-backed loan program in the past.

The House passed the bill on Monday and awaits the Senate’s move.

The proposed changes are below, with some rates rising by half a percentage point or less, and others falling slightly. But the bill also would remove language the current law that exempts disabled veterans from the funding fees, as a Phoenix-based Realtor outlined to Military.com.

Under the proposal, 100 percent disabled veterans would remain exempt. All other veterans wouldn’t have to pay fees so long as their loans were under the Freddie Mac conforming loan limit for their region. For most of the nation, that limit is $453,100; higher-cost areas such as large metro centers and Hawaii have significantly higher limits (a full breakdown lives here).

Depending on down payment amounts and other factors, disabled veterans could end up paying thousands in funding fees on loans now exempt from such costs.

The changes would have no effect on loans already in place and wouldn’t apply to new loans until 2019, per the legislation.

A breakdown of proposed funding fee changes, all of which would be in place through 2026:

VA already offers guarantees on certain loans for “alteration and repair,” both of properties being bought with VA loans and of those being refinanced. But that initial program, which took up about a half a page in the department’s Lenders Handbook and offered few specifics, was replaced in April with an expansive how-to guide, walking lenders through the repair-loan process.

Some details from the new publication:

• Purchase loans and regular (or cash-out) refinancing loans are eligible to include repair-based loans. The Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan isn’t mentioned.
• Repairs and alterations “must be those ordinarily found on similar properties of comparable value in the community.”
• Borrowers will be required to bring some cash to the closing table if the total of the sales price, repairs, contingency reserve, inspection and permit amounts is greater than the appraised value (or Notice of Value). The beneficiary must cover that difference out of pocket; if the NOV is greater, the entire amount can be financed (and the funding fee, if it can be added to the total without exceeding the NOV).
• The aforementioned contingency reserve, which is used to cover cost overruns, is not required by VA and is left to the lender’s discretion.
• Lenders can charge a construction fee of up to 2 percent.
• After the repairs, the lender must contact VA and secure a final repair inspection, which will confirm compliance with minimum property requirements.

Learn more about VA-backed loans of all stripes in our VA Loan Center.

Interest rates for all home loans are at a seven-year high, according to data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, with the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 4.61 percent. That figure hasn’t been reached since May 19, 2011, and it’s more than half a percentage point higher than the average from this time last year (4.02 percent).

Freddie Mac doesn’t break its figures down by loan type, but mortgage data company Ellie Mae does, and its latest report tells a similar story. The average 30-year rate for all loans that closed in April sat at 4.79 percent, per Ellie Mae data, with VA loans at 4.63 percent, up nearly a full percentage point since December 2016 (3.76 percent).

As fixed-loan rates rise, more buyers are shifting toward adjustable-rate mortgages, where initial interest rates are lower than the average but can increase after an introductory period. ARMs made up 6.6 percent of all loans closed in April, per Ellie Mae, and made up 0.6 percent of VA loans ― up from 0.1 percent in December 2016.

ARMs are fairly recent additions to the VA loan arsenal; learn more about VA-specific ARM requirements here, and find out more about all types of VA loans in our VA Loan Center.

And it could mean fewer “refinance now” mailers.

The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act passed the House on Tuesday, about two months after it cleared the Senate. The VA loan-related passages had legislative life before that, coming from a joint bill proposed by Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in January.

What those passages mean for VA loan-holders, should President Trump sign the bill:

• With limited exceptions, borrowers will not be able to secure a VA-backed refinance on their loan until 210 days after their first loan payment or after they’ve made six monthly payments, whichever takes longer.
• Lenders must provide borrowers with a “net tangible benefits test” that outlines the full financial scope of the refinanced loan, so borrowers have a complete picture of what they’re paying and saving over time.
• Any fees associated with the refinanced loan must be recouped within 36 months.
• Refinanced loans must have a rate at least 50 basis points lower than the original loan’s fixed rate to qualify for VA backing.

Warren and Tillis proposed the original legislation as a way to combat loan “churning,” the practice of rapidly refinancing VA-backed loans in a way that may weaken the overall VA mortgage program, according to representatives at the Government National Mortgage Association, better known as Ginnie Mae.

If lenders can’t secure VA backing for refinances until more than six months after a veteran signs a mortgage, such deals would become less attractive to the lender … and may result in less veteran-centric marketing to new borrowers often hit with mailers and email traffic that push refinancing options.