The Issue A few weeks ago I had a past client call me about refinancing her loan. She only owes $144,000 and has a great rate at 3.75% BUT most all of her credit cards are maxed out or close to it and they have two car loans so even though they make good money, […]
There are those whose goal it is to pay off their mortgage…as quickly as possible. Some people’s approach to this is to get a 30-year mortgage and pay extra every month while others just get a 15-year mortgage and pay it off that way. Then there are those who get a 15-year mortgage AND make […]
In the first part of this (at least) two part series, I talked about three tools for Realtors – you can read all about them here. There are some other tools that can serve Realtors and their clients well that I did not include in my first post so here we go with Part II. […]
With a title like this, some readers may think I am trying to justify higher interest rates than my competitors. The fact is, I have very competitive interest rates, I just think that if that’s all you focus on when getting a mortgage, you miss a lot of other things. For instance, the timing of […]
Over the 24 years that I’ve been a loan officer, I’ve tried to add value to my clients and my Realtor partners as a way of differentiating myself from my competition. To me, adding value is providing something of value that isn’t expected as a part of the normal service. I watched a video the […]
What is the Return on Investment on the Equity in Your Home? Some people think it’s the rate of appreciation on real estate in their local area. Other’s aren’t quite sure what to say because it seems like the answer should be obvious but if it is, why do I ask the question? Because the […]
Having been in the mortgage business for about 24 years and in the financial services industry as a Series 7 Licensed Representative for Fidelity Investments for 2.5 years prior to my employment as a loan officer, I always cringe a bit when people, consumers, loan officers, or Realtors, talk about getting the lowest rate. There […]
There are several ways to look at the logic behind how much you should put down on a house you are purchasing. For most first-time homebuyers, it’s all they can do to scrape together 3 – 5% of the purchase price for their down payment (FHA requires 3.5% down and conventional has programs with as […]
I was meeting with a client the other morning who needed to either refinance or sell her townhome to access some equity to pay off her sister. If she decides to sell, she will buy another townhome closer to work, where as it will be pretty much business as usual if she refinances. A situation […]
There are lots of pieces to the puzzle of a real estate transaction and about all of them are complicated. It’s important to have good, scratch that, GREAT professionals on your team to help you get pre-approved for a mortgage, find a home, negotiate a good deal (whatever that means for your specific situation) on […]