East Coast Mortgage Corp. has arranged home financing from Verona, New Jersey since 1995. Plenty of lenders will walk you to the closing table. Rather fewer will explain what happens in the years afterwards — when the escrow changes, the payment moves, and a letter arrives telling you to pay somebody else.
On a thirty-year fixed loan
Who we are
East Coast Mortgage Corp. has arranged residential financing from Verona, in Essex County, since 1995. Three decades in one town means a good deal of repeat business: the buyers we financed in the late nineties are the ones refinancing now, and their children are the first-time buyers.
It also means we have watched what actually goes wrong for borrowers, and it is seldom the loan itself. The trouble tends to arrive in year two or year five — an escrow analysis that raises the payment, a servicing transfer that confuses somebody into missing a month, an insurance renewal nobody read.
None of that is exotic and all of it is predictable. A borrower who was told in advance handles it in an afternoon; one who wasn't spends a fortnight worried. Explaining it costs us nothing and is the part of this job that people remember.
Closing day is the beginning of the loan, not the end of it. Most mortgage advice stops at exactly the wrong moment.
Three decades of lending from one office
Both sides of residential financing
We explain the years after closing, not just the day
Essex County, serving northern New Jersey
Loan programs
Which one fits depends on your down payment, your credit, the property and how long you realistically expect to stay.
The standard route for buyers with established credit — primary residences, second homes and investment property alike.
Government-insured financing with more accessible down payment and credit requirements. Note that its mortgage insurance behaves differently from conventional.
For veterans, active-duty service members and eligible spouses — frequently with no down payment and no monthly mortgage insurance.
Financing above conforming limits, which comes into play across much of Essex County and the surrounding towns.
Rate-and-term or cash-out, with an honest calculation of whether the savings recover the costs before you sell or refinance again.
On conventional loans, monthly mortgage insurance can end once you reach a certain equity position. Many homeowners pay it long past that point.
After closing
Every one of these is normal, legal and extremely common. Each also generates a wave of panicked phone calls from homeowners who were never told it was coming — which is a failure of explanation rather than of anything else.
Once a year your servicer runs an escrow analysis. If property taxes or insurance rose, the escrow portion rises to match, and you may also repay a shortage from the year just gone. The interest rate has not changed. The payment has.
Extremely common and entirely lawful. Your rate, term and balance do not change — only who collects the payment. You should receive notice from both the old and new servicer, and there is a grace period during which a payment sent to the old one cannot be treated as late.
Criminals watch public mortgage records and send convincing letters redirecting payments to their own account. Before changing where you send money, phone your servicer on the number from your existing statement — never a number printed on the new letter.
On a conventional loan, monthly mortgage insurance can be removed once you reach a certain equity position, and must automatically terminate at a set point. Nobody is obliged to remind you of the earlier date, so a great many homeowners simply carry on paying.
How it works
Your goals and finances, and a candid read on what is realistic.
Documents reviewed properly, so the letter stands up when tested.
Options compared with taxes and insurance in the monthly figure.
Appraisal, title and conditions, with attorney review alongside.
Figures confirmed ahead, and a walk through what year two will bring.
Client feedback
A letter arrived saying my loan had been transferred and to send payments to a new address. I called the number on my old statement first, as I had been told to, and the transfer was real. It took four minutes and I would have worried for a week otherwise.
My payment rose two years after closing and I assumed something had gone wrong with the rate. It was the escrow analysis, which had been explained to me at the time — I had simply forgotten. One phone call and it made complete sense.
I was told my refinance would not pay for itself before I planned to move, and that I would be better off leaving the loan alone. Being talked out of a transaction is not what I expected, and it is why I came back three years later.
FAQ
Get in touch
Buying, refinancing, or just trying to work out why a payment changed — tell us the situation and you will get a straight answer, including when the answer is to leave things alone.