Strategy
Choose a mortgage that gives you financial flexibility and safety
A mortgage is the largest financial decision people make in a year, possibly in a lifetime. That decision needs to be more deliberate than going to a random website, filling out a form and comparing four quotes from random loan officers that haven’t asked you any critical financial strategy questions.
Homeowners don’t win because banks are competing; they win when they have a smart strategy for their mortgage, get a fair interest rate and closing cost structure, and close their loan with no stress.
The standard mortgage shopping process
Most people go through a three-step mortgage acquisition process. Mortgage shopper and mortgage provider usually spend less than two hours on the process as follows:
- Get pre-qualified (10 minute conversations / web application)
- Complete and document the application (20-30 minutes)
- Close the Mortgage (30 minutes)
BONUS: If you had an outstanding loan officer who really cared, they may even put you on their mailing list and sent you an occasional newsletter with chicken recipes and carpet cleaning tips. (Lucky you).
Yes, there’s a better way
I add three vital steps that will increase your financial safety, enhance your net worth and give you clarity, vision and focus about your home equity and financing.
1. After a basic pre-qualification, my team and I will work with you and your advisors to create an integrated mortgage strategy for you that will help you meet your financial goals, and, more importantly, make sure your mortgage doesn’t prevent you from reaching your financial goals.
2. After closing, we are still working. We will monitor your mortgage for you so that if rates ever drop, we will be there to restructure your mortgage and capture the cost savings for you. If an ARM was the right loan for you, we’ll be there before the interest rate adjusts, to re-strategize the mortgage and make sure it is still right for you.
3. Regular Reviews: If nothing changed for 30 years, a 30 year fixed rate loan is probably a great idea. But because life changes, home values change, and circumstances change, we will be available for you annually to meet face-to-face or via web conference to review your mortgage and house equity to ensure your mortgage is still the optimum strategy for you.
My six-step process
- Pre Qualification
- Mortgage Strategy and Planning Process
- Complete and document the application
- Close the mortgage
- Monitor your mortgage for you (if it adjusts or if the market changes)
- Review your mortgage strategy for you and with you
How can we do this and what does it cost?
Here’s the cool part. We don’t charge any more that a bank or an internet lender charges. Since we don’t put out name on football stadiums, race cars or PGA tournaments, we don’t need to charge extra.
We believe that if we help our clients make great decisions, and that is we are there for them later on when they need to review their mortgage that our clients will return to us and will tell others about us. Our strategy allows us to focus on our clients, rather than spending time, money and energy on advertising for new loans to close.
We’ve found that our ability to work with people without oversize marketing budgets allows us to have the same or lower interest rates and closing costs as everyone else. In fact interest rates and closing costs are virtually the same, due to the impact of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines and government regulations. The real value in a mortgage is the strategy that mortgage represents, not the interest rate quotes in the newspaper.
