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Hey everyone and welcome to the Always On Point podcast here with Kristin Ambos.
We are partnered with 97.9 FM, 15.90 AM.
and all your favorite podcast stations, please go ahead over there, as well as Civic Media app.
So, so excited to be here with you this Sunday.
Lots of things to cover mortgage-wise, and as you all know, the rates have been jumping around, so we'll discuss that today a little bit, as well as some local down payment assistance that we have been working with and finding great success on that a lot of people don't know about.
So today, just kicking off, average mortgage rates, where are they at?
Well,
Right now, you know, one of the hardest things to discuss with our clients is why it rates up when the Federal Reserve just lowered them.
And if you've heard over the last few weeks, you know that mortgage rates aren't necessarily tied to the Federal Reserve rate.
However, whenever the Federal Reserve changed the rates,
Obviously, there is some, you know, there is some affliction there, but mortgage rates are not directly tied to the Fed's fund rate.
The Fed fund rate is going to be your credit card rates, your second mortgage rates, things of that nature.
So mortgage rates, what most people don't understand are typically like bonds, they're safe.
And a lot of investors go into mortgage security bonds because it is a safe investment for their money.
With that being said, right now, you know, what's interesting in the market and the narrative is the last three weeks, rates have actually been up.
They haven't been down.
They were down the three weeks prior to Federal Reserve Jerome Powell speaking.
And once he spoke, just like everything else, it becomes volatile.
Same exact thing happened last year.
And we unfortunately have lost some of the gains that we made in those lower rates.
So right now this week, just to give you an idea, we're looking at an average rate of
around 6.62%.
This is provided by Mortgage News Daily on the 30 year fixed.
15 year fixes right around 5.84.
So with that, that just gives you an idea of where they're at.
Now those are averages.
Those are national averages.
If you are in the market for a home loan and you are being
Priced by a lender, you know, your rate might change a little bit.
Remember, it depends on many things.
One of the things that you can't really do anymore is call a lender and say, okay, well, what's your rate today?
Unfortunately, that's one of the things that I get questioned on a lot with clients is they'll call and they'll say, okay, Kristen, what's your rate today?
And then I respond with.
Well, I'd love to quote you, but I want to quote you accurately, right?
So I want to understand where your credit's at.
I want to understand loan amount.
I want to understand down payment or loan to value, if you will.
Things of that nature.
The other thing that can affect your interest rate is the type of property you're buying.
A single family home has a little bit of a different interest rate than a condo, even though it's a single family home.
condos attached on a single family is not.
A two-unit or three-four unit has a different interest rate if you're living in the property or if it's an investment property.
Same thing if you're buying a second home, that's going to have a different interest rate than a primary residence.
Manufactured home is going to have a little bit of a different interest rate than a stick-built home.
All of these things have different risks upon them.
And so then what happens is,
when you have the different risk layers, then the lenders look at it differently and they put the rates upon them wherever that risk factor is.
So if you are a client who is purchasing a home with very minimal risk, you're going to get a better interest rate than somebody who's buying a home with a lot of risk.
So I'll give you a perfect example of that.
What is a very low risk home?
Well, somebody with probably a 780 or above, 740 or above credit score, single family home, you know, 20% down, just no risk, all good there, right?
Somebody with a lot of risk is going to be somebody with a lower down payment, lower to mid credit score, and then if they're going to buy a risky property such as a manufactured home or a condo.
The reason why those two things are risky versus a stick built home is
two reasons.
One, a condo is attached to another home.
So you take on the risk of what the other home it's attached to is working with.
For example, unfortunately, let's say there's a fire in one of the, you know, you're in a building of 10 condos and one starts on fire, yours may
Also, even though you did nothing wrong, that's a risk to the lender because they want, they're lending on the property.
They really want that property to stay in great shape.
Manufactured home.
The reason why a manufactured home would be potentially another risk is because one, we want to make sure it's tied down to the property correctly.
We want to make sure it's what's considered real property.
The other thing is just the fact that they don't have the lifespan as much as a
stick built home is because they were built in a factory and then brought to the property and put together.
It's pretty much as simple as that.
A really risky property is going to be a manufactured that's older past 1976 because you're really looking at the length of that home and what is the life of that home still going to have.
Thanks to that nature.
So that's just to give you an idea of risk when it comes to a lender.
Now, when you start layering risk, that's where people say, well, I have a 720 score, so I qualify, right?
Well, yes, but if you have a multi-risk layer, you may not.
So you might have a 720 credit score.
But if you have no money down, and so you're purchasing at 100%,
even though you have a 720 score, um, and you don't have a lot of reserves in the bank after the fact of maybe you're paying, you know, closing costs because you're going to still have those things of that nature.
The lender has to look at that risk as far as how are you going to make that first one, two to three payments and so on.
There's a risk that we might not even get our first payment.
That's going to be reflective in the, in the interest rate.
So it's really hard these days to just say my interest rate is
X amount.
If you call lender and they tell you, yep, my credit, or I'm sorry, they tell you, yep, my interest rate today is at 6%.
You gave them no information.
All they're doing is quoting you a very low interest rate to get you to still keep talking to them.
And then they're going to tell you, oh, now I can't offer you that rate because of this.
Now I can't offer you that rate because of this.
Now it's this.
And then they're going to continue to change their story.
I prefer to work with people on their situation.
What is accurate to them?
Because what's accurate to them might not be to another one.
So I'll give you a perfect example of that today.
I had two closings this morning and I'm sorry, two closings on Friday.
And those two closings were both first time home buyers, both single family residences.
One put no money down and actually got a grant from the city of Green Bay from NeighborWorks.
And the other one put their own 3% down and had reserves left over.
Both of them had two different interest rates.
because of the risk layer that they had there.
So again, it doesn't mean that they both were very similar.
One had a little lower credit score than the other one, but otherwise very similar in what they were buying and how they were lending.
However, two different credit scores.
The other thing that people don't talk about is what's
called the CRA or Community Reinvestment Act.
So this act was put into place by the government a few years ago actually already and it's all based on your purchase price and loan amount.
So your loan amount, I've got a client right now who's pre-approved and he is purchasing somewhere between $200 and $250,000.
The CRA is $240.
in his, in his bucket.
So with his bucket, it's 240.
So if he buys a house under $240,000, he gets a slightly better interest rate than if he buys over $240,000.
So we had to go through that and explain that to him, you know, that, Hey, you got about an eighth percent different interest rate.
If you buy in this pool or if you buy in this pool, and that was all just based on the loan amount.
So there's a lot.
that goes into an interest rate.
And that's why I wanted to bring that up today and just go over the rates because so many times people don't understand the right questions to ask.
And when they don't understand, the simple question is, well, what's the rate?
And I'm just shopping lenders before I even do an application.
And I want to just forewarn everybody on that because when you shop for interest rate before you do an application, you're probably going to get bait and switched.
Definitely shop lenders.
No doubt I'm an advocate for it.
But shop them based on what they know and how they educate you.
Because if they don't educate you and they just shoot you right up front, that's going to be how the process of that loan goes from start to finish.
And they can quote you any rate, really?
But does that mean they're going to get you to the closing table?
Does that mean it's locked in?
None of that none of that stuff matters so until you have an application and you've actually sat down and talked to a loan officer Even if it's a virtual meeting a phone interview anything like that Just make sure you're talking to the loan officer the main loan officer that's gonna take you through get your pre-approval going Sign off on everything get your accepted offer lock your rate now.
They all have teams loan officers have to have teams these days We have processors and assistants underwriters that help us because
We don't close loans in 45 to 60 days anymore.
We close them in 20 to 30, even sooner.
I just had a nine day clear to close on a client right now that we're working with.
It was clear to close on Friday and nine days, nine days from start to finish.
We had that done.
So I'd love to tell you that I can do all of that for my clients from start to finish, but no lender can, not if they're doing a good amount of business.
They need the help with the processor.
an underwriter and typically an assistant.
So there's going to be multiple people involved in your process, but they should all be easy to get a hold of, easy to communicate with, answering all your questions.
When you found that team, that's when you know that you're in the right position.
And that's when you know that you're
You're gonna be handheld with white gloves, which is what you should be.
This is a big transaction.
And so often lenders or loan officers treat it as though it's just everyday business for people.
And that doesn't mean that the normal person walking the streets understands mortgage.
In my closings on Friday, I sat down and I had two different clients, even though they were both first time home buyers.
They understood it differently.
Just like when you raise kids, every every child you have needs to be parented differently.
Well, every client needs to be educated differently.
Some know so much about mortgage that I'm just kind of here helping them along and others need my hand to be held with them.
through every step of the process.
And so we have to tailor the needs to our clients and making sure they have, I never ever want a client to walk away from the closing table.
wondering what the heck they just did.
They should understand and that even means if we have to go over it two, three, four, five, 10 times, I don't care if it's 100 times, I'd rather go over it that many times than ever have anyone walk away from the table wondering what just happened or still confused of what they just signed.
So when you are shopping for a mortgage, I just can't specify that enough.
Yes, rate is important.
There's no doubt about it, but
What's even more important than interest rate is understanding who you're working with and them educating you on your situation, your mortgage.
At the end of the day, it's yours and they need to understand exactly what that is for you and what your goals are and what your future is.
So when we come back from this break, we'll discuss a little bit more about a couple loan programs that we've got that are super hot right now, as well as what you can do to be better prepared and understanding the mortgage.
We'll be right back.
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We're so happy to be here with you.
My name is Kristen Ambos.
So a little bit more about me.
I am the number one female loan officer in the state of Wisconsin, three years running.
And you know, one of my biggest passions and what got me to that level is educating clients.
And so that's where the podcast, the radio station obviously came to a huge fruition for me is because there's so much more to a mortgage than just an interest rate.
And so excited to be here.
Thank you all for you who are out there listening.
And we'll just keep rolling with it.
If you have any questions, please text them to me at 920-606-1156.
And I'd be happy to answer them in the next podcast next week.
Just getting all the information.
The more I know what the consumer's looking for, the better I can service them.
So I need you guys to text me any questions you have when it comes to this stuff.
Now, one of the big things that is out there right now is down payment assistance.
And down payment assistance is a really great program.
And we have multiple programs for that, especially in the state of Wisconsin, northeastern Wisconsin here too.
We'll go over a couple, but the state of Wisconsin has a wonderful program run by the state grant.
It's called WEDA, which is Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development.
Weed allows you to purchase home with no money down, 0% down.
Now that doesn't mean that you don't have to have any money into the loan.
Okay, so you have to have some closing costs.
We do have closing costs.
You have to have one year of insurance that you have to prepay.
Insurance is always prepaid on a mortgage.
And then you do have a tax escrow set up.
So there could be some money that is going to be needed in there, but very minimal.
in the grand scheme of things.
So WIDA is a great, great program to have.
And in fact, if you qualify, you could even borrow not only the down payment, but the closing costs and the prepaid.
So you may only need some earnest money, which is good faith money.
That's the money that when you get an accepted offer on a home, you put up to the seller, it's held in a trust saying, I'm going to take this loan to the closing table with every
opportunity I can.
My best effort, my good faith is to you Mr. Sellerman to let you know that I'm going to the closing table and I'm gonna buy your house.
So that means that the seller will take the house off the market then for you.
So that's that good faith money or what's known as earnest money.
Earnest money then if you close is credited back to you at the closing whether it's off of closing costs or things like that.
The other fee upfront that a lot of lenders take is an appraisal fee.
The reason for that is because let's say you have an appraisal contingency in your offer and you don't go to the closing table because the appraisal came in low, that's the one fee that a lender truly has to pay upfront before everything gets done.
So lenders do typically charge for that appraisal.
Appraisals typically run anywhere from five to $600.
So let's say you do $500 to $1,000 in earnest money, $500 to $600 in
appraisal.
That means you will most likely need somewhere around $1,500 or so.
It depends
on the
loan or I'm sorry, the purchase price, but you might need a little bit more, might need a little bit less.
I've seen it happen, you know, like I said, I've got two different closings this last Friday that I just did for two first time homebuyers.
two totally different earnest money, you know, two totally different closing costs because they did two totally different loans, even though they were both first time home buyers and put little to no money down.
So that's why it's really good to have an estimate and working with a lender who's going to break all that down for you.
Now, there are a lot of loan officers out there who don't want to work with WEDA and the unfortunate part is they don't want to work with WEDA or they don't utilize WEDA as an option because
they think WEDA can be a difficult loan or the unfortunate truth is they don't necessarily make as much money selling to WEDA.
I'm of the belief that I'm here to serve.
I'm a servant and I'm here to serve my clients.
So it does not matter to me.
I'm using WEDA if that's the best case for you.
WEDA also has a slightly lower interest rate because of their grant program.
They're utilizing their grant funds to buy those rates down for their first time and not only first time, but workforce, the workforce, you know, moderate income,
workforce people who qualify underneath their max income rates.
So you can get a little bit of a better interest rate in doing that, which is great.
The one thing I will say is if you borrow with WIDA at 100%, there are a few extra costs to doing that.
So the closing costs can be a little bit higher than if you just use conventional or FHA financing.
There's no such thing as free money.
Let's just say that again, there's no such thing as free money.
Even our down payment assistance programs, whether it be WIDA, NeighborWorks, Appleton Housing Authority, there are fees that they have to charge the borrowers in order to maintain their business.
They have to take in some of the costs because they have employees, they have paper, they have rent, they have supplies, they have all those needs.
Just know that even though you're using one of these products, it's not free money.
When we come back, I'm going to break down the two closings I have on Friday because I think it's really important to understand how they both got into homes different and yet still made it work.
Happiest can be.
So we'll talk about more about down payment assistance right when we come back.
Stay tuned.
There's no such thing as free money.
I'm gonna Ambo's here, back to you on 97.9 FM, 1590 AM, WGBW, powered by the Civic Media app, and partnered with Always On Point Podcast.
So here with you today, talking about mortgages, all things mortgage, I know it's exhilarating to people.
it is to me, but I'm hoping that I get more people interested in mortgage and that's why we are here.
I always joke and say mortgages are about as clear as mud, but that is really the truth because there's so many regulations.
There's so, the common sense in a lot of cases is very minimal when it comes to mortgage.
So with that being said, just bringing it to you today, today we are really highlighting our down payment assistance programs, whether it be 0%
or low down payment options out there for people because a lot of people qualify to purchase a mortgage or to purchase a home with a mortgage, but they don't necessarily have a ton of funds to work with.
And with the cost of rent these days, a lot of people are of the mindset, well, why don't I just own a house if I can qualify?
And I actually have a client right now, you guys, first time home buyer, she qualified to buy a home with a mortgage.
but got turned down from renting an apartment.
I'm not kidding you.
So there's a lot of stuff out there that doesn't make sense and I just want to make sure we're bringing it to you as easy to understand as we can.
Every day is a school day.
That's what I just heard from a friend of mine who's joining me today and listening in.
It is a girlfriend of mine and she's here from the UK.
And lovely to have her here in the studio with me.
But we've even been talking about mortgages between the UK and America and different things like that.
And so much of it is the same that we're finding out.
So it's been really educational for me on that.
Getting back to, you know, a home base here in northeastern Wisconsin, down payment assistance.
So we did talk about WEDA.
WEDA is that grant program, a state grant program that we have that allows you to buy and even finance in your closing costs, your prepaid, which would be your escrow account and things to that nature.
Now, a lot of people call and say, well, I just want to include my closing costs in my loan amount.
Not all programs allow that.
WEDA is one of those that will.
The other one of those that will is NeighborWorks or Appleton Housing Authority.
Those are the two main ones in our market.
Oshkosh also has one.
There's a lot of smaller municipalities that do have that option.
USDA, that is a loan program that's out there as well by the government.
That's a government program.
It's not a grant program, but it does allow you to purchase at 100% or zero money down.
But that has to be rural.
Now you have to live in a rural house or a rural property for that.
So a lot of options out here with you.
One of the things that I've learned over the last few, you know, few years, but few months especially.
And for those of you that don't know, I also sit on the lending and counseling committee for NeighborWorks.
Really special place for me.
I learned so much from sitting with these minds.
There's a group of us that are lenders, some work for NeighborWorks, some are real estate agents, but we come together and discuss how we can make this program better for our consumers.
And, you know, we talked this week about it.
And one of the things that we really need to get out there and really make sure is understood is that there are funds available and that these programs are not difficult to use.
I have a lot of real estate agents that'll buck me on using them because we need an inspection or because they're
difficult to do.
And if those of you that don't see me, I'm air quoting right now.
But the truth of the matter is, is they're not very difficult to use.
There are a lot of great opportunities out there.
And I told you about my two first time home buyers that I closed last week.
One of them was with NeighborWorks.
He walked away from the closing table, purchasing a first time home with $550 out of his pocket when everything was said and done.
NeighborWorks covered the down payment, part of the closing costs, and then he got a seller credit for the rest.
That might seem unheard of right now, but it does happen.
So with that being said, that NeighborWorks second mortgage for him was a zero interest deferred payment, silent second mortgage.
So they gave him the money to do that.
So he came to the closing table today and his bottom dollar was zero.
He prepaid for his appraisal.
and he did give earnest money, those two things.
So just over $1,000, he had it all said and done, but then he also got a credit back for some of that.
So with that being said, he really did come with no money out of pocket and actually got a principal reduction on his overall loan amount.
That's massive, you guys.
And for a little bit of work, it took us about maybe seven,
to 10 total business days of the 35, 40 days we had in this transaction to get that neighbor works loan.
It's not a long time.
They are not looking for little nuance things.
The main thing they want on an inspection is to make sure that the house isn't falling in.
The foundation is solid.
The roof is good.
Those things matter.
And to be honest, nobody should be buying a home with those things without having, you know, I'm a firm believer in inspection.
I know the last handful of years we haven't necessarily been able to have inspections on loans because sellers have driven that market.
But I'm here to tell you that it's evening out, yes, by all things considered because of the inventory and lack thereof that it is still what we call a quote unquote sellers market.
But buyers have stepped in and started saying,
I'm going to offer you on your home, but I want an inspection.
I want an appraisal.
I want the basics to protect myself too.
And that's not totally unfair.
A lot of sellers are stepping up and actually having their home pre-inspected.
So that way there's nothing to worry about.
And that way they're getting top dollar for their house as well.
So if you are thinking about listing as a seller, I say pre-inspect.
Get it done, get everything out of the way.
You're gonna have buyers come in, they're gonna feel a lot better, and then they're gonna pay you a premium in most cases.
Think if you talk to a lot of real estate agents, they're gonna tell you the same thing.
If you don't do a pre-inspection, the buyer wants an inspection, I understand on the seller side, you maybe don't wanna open up that can of worms, but think about it, you know, or I'm sorry, on the seller side, but on the buyer side,
a buyer wants to know what they're buying.
They wanna know if they're getting into this house and it's gonna cost them $10,000 out of the gate to change all the mechanicals, or are they gonna pay you a premium because all of that's done and they can move in ready, get in and know what they've got.
So buyers are starting to push back a little bit on the seller demands and sellers aren't just able to call all the shots.
Now, that's not in every single price point, but when I'm telling you as a lender who writes a lot of loans,
I'm seeing it more and more.
I'm seeing a big pickup at inspections.
I'm seeing a big pickup in appraisal contingencies.
I'm even financing homes right now where we have a home sale contingency where people can actually sell their homes first.
So it's pretty neat to see.
Obviously, I work with buyers.
So I'm a buyer's advocate.
However, I have sold homes.
I understand the seller side and I just want to do what's right by all parties in the transaction so that everybody walks away from the table happy.
Now, the second closing I had this week and the first time home buyer I was telling you about, she purchased, she had her own money down, she had everything there, but she was working with Appleton Housing Authority to potentially get a rehabilitation grant.
after she closed.
She purchased a home that needed some love, super excited about a beautiful old character home, right?
But it needed, just needed some love.
It needed some updating.
She paid a really fair price for it because of that.
So now Appleton Housing Authority will go in after the fact with her and do an inspection, see what needs to be done.
They actually have programs between Appleton Housing Authority, NeighborWorks, and then there's a third party behind them that they work with that will do rehab loans up to $25,000.
There's a lot of that that's unheard of.
And again, you've got a lot of lenders that either don't understand or know about it and some real estate agents, unfortunately, that don't understand and know about it.
So they're not going to put that out there for you.
They're not going to advertise it.
I'm sitting here and I'm wanting to educate you because these are real life programs that we can use getting people into homes.
Remember my first one we talked about came into the closing with very little.
Um, I think he had about $1,500 into the house to start, but then ended up at a zero today at closing or on Friday at closing.
I keep thinking it's Friday.
And then the second client bought with 3% down had a.
Seller credit as well.
Both of these homes had seller credits had a seller credit as well She got into her home $7,000 all in that included again down payment closing costs first year of homeowners insurance setting up her tax escrow account The media out there is telling you the mainstream media is telling you that
You can't buy a home.
You can't find anything.
There's 20 offers on everything, the lack of inventory.
How many times have we heard lack of inventory, lack of inventory, lack of inventory?
I'm here telling you that in our market right now, I talk to agents all the time, marketing one offer, two offers.
Sometimes I was sitting on the market for a week or two.
There are a lot of great homes in all price points out there and you can, if you're patient enough, patience, persistence,
positivity, the three Ps.
I've lived on three Ps for very many years, especially since about 2020.
If you have those three things, you will find that house and you will benefit from it.
That will be the start of your wealth building.
If you're not a homeowner now, or if you're, you know, if you're looking to be a first time home buyer, or maybe you were a home buyer, had to take a step back and run for a little while and want to get back into the game.
If you have not owned a home or any other property where you're on a deed,
In three years, you are considered a first-time homebuyer again and re-qualify for all the first-time homebuyer opportunities out there.
So really neat stuff.
If you're out there, take advantage of some of this.
There's some great programs.
And right now is absolutely a phenomenal time to buy Northeastern Wisconsin fall and winter.
does tend to die down a little bit.
Some people just decide they're going to wait till spring.
They don't want to move in the winter because of, you know, snow or cold or whatever the case may be.
So if you don't mind those things, this truly is one of the best times in Northeastern Wisconsin to buy is this time of the year and going into the winter months.
And last year, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we didn't even have snow till the end of December beginning of January.
So you could even buy in December and potentially not worry about.
moving in the snow.
So good stuff there.
All of these programs have first time homebuyer education or just homebuyer education.
So you know that you'll have to put a little bit of work into it, but these classes, some of them can be done online.
Some of them are in person.
Some of them are virtual, but don't take much to do.
Don't be scared of them.
People do them every day and all day.
We've got a lot of clients that are in that, in that area.
And now mind you, the average
home or the average age of a home buyer right now is in their mid to late 30s.
I've got clients all the way from 19 years old right now to I think my oldest was 67 years old first time home buyer.
So we help everybody in there.
Don't think it's ever too late to jump in the game and get started.
Our team is here to help you.
We want to do that.
We want to educate you.
If you listened to last week's podcast, you'll know we'll also work with you on your credit.
If you think credit's an issue, we are a zero judgment zone.
Bad things happen to good people all the time.
Let's work with you in my mind and in my heart.
Anyone who wants to be a homeowner should be a homeowner.
Do we have to do some work to get you there?
We might.
But we're willing to put that work in if you are and we want the opportunity to show you how you can be.
So always just, you know, just think about it.
And if you ever want more information, you can give us a call.
Remember, you can call me text me at 920-606-1156 and I'm happy to help.
So with that being said, so excited.
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Hello again, everybody.
This is Kristen Ambos from Point Mortgage Loan Officer and podcast.
Creator here, 97.9 AM, 1590, oh, I'm sorry, 97.9 FM, 1590 AM on the Civic Media app.
Also find us on all the podcast platforms, Spotify, Apple Podcast, you name it, we are there.
Also my YouTube channel, you can find anything you want on my YouTube channel.
I've been working on that for, gosh, I want to say,
Three to four maybe if it's even five years now a lot of content on there a lot of educational information some short videos some longer ones Just kind of spice it up with all different things so people have what they need again really big educator when it comes to mortgage and in this industry I just don't think that there's enough of it out there financial literacy and things like that and mortgages are not for the faint of heart or the everyday person so me
My mission has always been to break it down and to break it down as easily as I can.
I have been in the business for 24 years.
I think I'm going into my 25th year when it's this long and you're having this much fun, you lose count.
So, but in those years, one of the, one of the seasons I worked through and lived through was the housing crisis of 2008 and 10.
I worked with and saw a lot of people doing wrong by the consumer.
And I mean that just flat wrong.
And it's always been a mission of mine since then.
You know, I was a young, young rookie loan officer at that point.
I think I was probably in the business for gosh, I'd say three or four years.
And I had even considered some people being rookies until they've been in the business about 10 years.
The reason why I say that is because you
Every market's different and every market has a cycle and every market lasts a few years.
I mean, we've been somewhat in the same market for five years, right?
So if you're a loan officer that just got in five years ago, you don't know what it's like to be in any other market.
Same thing with a real estate agent.
You don't know what it's like to have to really deep down negotiate and keep deals together.
And, you know, five years ago deals were really easy to do in the COVID era.
We were just kind of talking about it.
There weren't any inspections.
They're really, I mean, mortgages were done pretty fast.
Easy rates were really low.
Everybody was qualifying.
Similar to 2008 and 10, yet very different because we at least were still getting pay stubs, bank statements, W2s, qualifying paperwork.
2008 and 10, we were not.
We were told not to by the large investors.
We're now, you can't get a loan without proving that you can pay for it.
We want you to have that skin in the game.
You know, we might have the programs to help you with the asset part of it, but not with the income part of it.
You're still qualifying on your debt to income ratio, making sure you can make that payment every month.
It's so important in order to do that.
We don't want you to fail.
Banks don't want people to fail.
We want you to make your payment.
We want you to get your money to us.
Why?
Because if we have to foreclose on you, not only do we have
court hearings that we have to go through and pay for, we have to keep utilities on as a lender, not me personally, but at my company, if you foreclose on my company.
Then we also have to keep your utilities on.
We have to keep the maintenance up on that house.
We have to sell it.
We have to pay a real estate agent to do so.
There's a lot of fees that are incurred in that.
That's a loss to a company.
And no company wants those kind of losses.
We would prefer see the borrower be in the house and thrive and just pay us.
And the lender then makes their money on the interest that it's as simple as that.
So we want to see people succeed.
We want to make sure that that interest is being paid and people's payments are being made.
So we're willing to do whatever we can to make that happen.
Now, with that said, again, mortgages are about as clear as mud.
There's a lot of questions and a lot of answers that we need.
Don't
forget you can text me questions anytime at 920-606-1156.
You can also go over to my website at www.amboseteam.com and you'll find a lot of information there.
I also have a blog there.
Again, you can find me on YouTube, just Kristen Ambos, Point Mortgage, and any of the podcast platforms at Always On Point.
Our role is to make sure we're educating you as best as we can.
If you're working with a loan officer that's
doesn't have any interest in educating you and really leaving you with a lot of questions, find a new loan officer.
It's as simple as that.
This job does not have to be hard.
It can be extremely easy, but you have to be forthright with your clients.
It'd be no different than sitting down with a financial planner who couldn't tell you where they're putting your money.
You wouldn't want to do it.
You'd want to know where your money's going.
You'd want to, you know, maybe you don't understand 100% of it.
Like people don't understand 100% of their insurance policies, their 401ks, things like that.
But you want to know and understand the bare basics.
The other thing I want to talk about, because we've talked a lot about down payment assistance and things like that is how to pay your loan off early and give yourself a better interest rate.
So prime example, have a client that we closed Friday.
Same thing first time home buyer at the table.
We did it before but we did the exercise again at the closing table where even though his interest rate was 6.125% So that's the rate he closed his loan at it's locked in 30 years at the municipality Nothing can change unless he refinances that principal and interest payment is going to stay the same but What he can do for himself is he can add payments to that now with that being said we figured out if he took his principal and interest payment
divided it by 12, that's $61 a month.
$61 a month added to his payment, he will save $31,600 in interest.
Over the course of, instead of paying it off in 30 years, he'd pay it off in 24 and a half.
Talk about some serious savings that he can give himself with just simply maybe not going out to dinner one night a month.
That's it.
$30,000, $31,600.
So if you are interested in that,
Let's talk, I'd love to show you how you can do that and how you can save more money too.
It's all about getting to your better financial future.
So thank you again for listening in today.
Really appreciate you being here.
We'll be back next Sunday with more mortgage education here on the Always On Point podcast, partnered with Civic Media 97.9 FM, 1590 AM.
Have a great
day.
I just move
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