Retire Early, Retire Now!

Episode 31: Mortgage Broker vs. Lender with Alex Testa of First Down Mortgage

April 30, 2024 Hunter Kelly Episode 31
Episode 31: Mortgage Broker vs. Lender with Alex Testa of First Down Mortgage
Retire Early, Retire Now!
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Retire Early, Retire Now!
Episode 31: Mortgage Broker vs. Lender with Alex Testa of First Down Mortgage
Apr 30, 2024 Episode 31
Hunter Kelly

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The Episode features a discussion between host Hunter Kelly and guest Alex Testa, a mortgage broker, covering topics like:

  •  getting a mortgage, 
  • fees to look out for, 
  • advantages of using a broker, 
  • effects of the NAR lawsuit, 
  •  tips to avoid information selling by credit bureaus. 

Alex shares insights on mortgage landscape, personal journey, lender niches, loan process, special mortgage products, NAR lawsuit impact, and buyer tips.

First Down Mortgage

Alex Testa

Check out the Palm Valley Wealth Management Website
PalmValleywm.com

Check us out on
Instagram
LinkedIn
Facebook
Listen to the Podcast Here!
Apple
Spotify

Show Notes Transcript

Send us a text

The Episode features a discussion between host Hunter Kelly and guest Alex Testa, a mortgage broker, covering topics like:

  •  getting a mortgage, 
  • fees to look out for, 
  • advantages of using a broker, 
  • effects of the NAR lawsuit, 
  •  tips to avoid information selling by credit bureaus. 

Alex shares insights on mortgage landscape, personal journey, lender niches, loan process, special mortgage products, NAR lawsuit impact, and buyer tips.

First Down Mortgage

Alex Testa

Check out the Palm Valley Wealth Management Website
PalmValleywm.com

Check us out on
Instagram
LinkedIn
Facebook
Listen to the Podcast Here!
Apple
Spotify

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And welcome to the 31st episode of retire early, retire now I'm your host. Hunter Kelly, owner of Palm Valley Wealth Management. And I do this podcast to help you get educated on financial planning topics to either retire early or retire now. And so today I have a special guest, Alex Testa. he is a mortgage broker with. First down mortgage. And today we talked about the process of getting a mortgage, what fees you should look out for, because the interest rate is not always the only fee advantages to using a broker versus a big box, lending company, the effects of real estate transactions, giving the, National Association of Realtors lawsuit, um, that has been settled here in the last few weeks or so. and then a few tips to avoid. Getting your information sold by the credit bureaus and receiving tons of phone calls soliciting you to get a mortgage through various people. lots of value to be had here. This was a great episode, so I hope you guys enjoy it. And if you have been listening to this podcast and are enjoying it, go ahead and share this with a friend, but also leave a five star review on your favorite podcasting app. And so hope you enjoy it.

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And Welcome to the 31st episode of Retire Early, Retire Now. I have Alex Testa with First Down Mortgage with us. I've Been excited to talk to Alex for a while now. We have a little bit of history back in, four or five years ago. He was actually an intern at my old firm, oddly enough, and, we've kind of kept in touch since. we have some mutual friends and such, but excited to have him on to talk about the landscape of mortgages, kind of current, events, and then also talk about, the potential the process of getting a mortgage. I feel like, the listeners demographic here maybe have not purchased a house in a while, or have never purchased a house, so just want it to go through that process. what they need, what they should look out for, specifically maybe in the Northeast Florida region and, go through that process. So, but before we get into that, let's go ahead and, just tell us about your company, Alex, and, um, kind of how you got into mortgages and a little bit of bio. about yourself.

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Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks for having me on First Hunter. I really appreciate it. this podcast, so super excited to do it. But, yeah, about us at First Down Mortgage, we're a small brokerage here in Ponte Vedra. we are licensed in all of Florida and Georgia. real small, mom and pop. There's seven of us total. And that's a really good thing when it comes to working with us. Reason being, we don't have any sort of middle management. We don't have any sort of fees where we've got to pay people. everyone in our office produces. So we are all bringing money in. In that sense, we don't have to add any sort of junk fees that you may see other lenders putting in their loan estimate. We'll dive into all that later on. but yeah, as far as myself and how I got into it, uh, always been kind of a nerd. I've loved numbers. I love math and I love real estate. I grew up in a family. with real estate. As far as our background, my mom was a mortgage processor, worked from home for 20 years, and then she got her real estate license as I was in my freshman or sophomore year of high school. So kind of was already in it, didn't realize it, graduated from school with a degree in finance and a focus in real estate, thought I wanted to be a real estate agent. And my mom kind of sat me down and she said, no, I know how you are. You like numbers, but you also like to socialize and, and be in front of people. You really should call around and see what it would take to be a loan officer here. And I said, okay, yeah, absolutely. I'd love to do that and call around, met with five or six different brokerages as I was finishing up my last year at UNF and really fell in love with the idea of kind of mixing. my math love, but then my social aspect, um, of life. Cause my biggest fear was graduating school and being stuck in a cubicle. Um, so yeah, I, uh, initially started with a brokerage here in Jacksonville beach, really, really enjoyed it. Worked my way up. I was an assistant and then processor assistant worked on a, a team that was setting up loans. So I had to learn a bunch of systems really well. and got to a point where I felt like I could do this. I want to, I want to make the jump. let's, let's start this whole commission based only. And if I'm going to fail, I'd rather fail at 23 than at 40 with kids and a wife. And, it's okay to be broke in your twenties. Not a, not as okay to be broken your forties with a family. So I did it and fell in love. it was amazing. did really, really well my first year and then the market took a turn. So had to completely reevaluate my business and figure out what I was going to do from there on. And, I've been super fortunate with the support at first down and have really exceeded my goals for this year so far already. So I think it's going to be a really good opportunity for everyone to buy a house. And I think in the next year or two, we're going to see a lot of refinances as well.

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Yeah. I was looking at your LinkedIn and, and I, I knew you had worked at a previous firm, doing mortgages as well. And it looks like you came in kind of right at that boom of COVID and everybody going crazy, especially in Northeast Florida. There's All the people moving down

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and

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housing valuations going crazy and rates still, still extremely low. And so what was that experience like and then hitting that headwind of increasing rates?

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Yeah, it was crazy. I always joke around with people and tell them, yeah, I've got three and a half, four years of experience, but it feels like 10 cause I've been in three very different markets already as far as when I initially came in. Rates did nothing but drop prices did nothing but increase and it felt like you could do no wrong as a mortgage broker you're telling people that rates are at 2 percent that loves you and then All of a sudden we hit a wall and things were very very different and you had to kind of figure out and tell people Yes Rates are here. And this is why it's not that anything that we can control just like when you go to a gas station Yeah, it sucks when gas is 4 a gallon, but You can't complain to the guy that owns the gas station. He's not the one controlling the prices. so stuff like that. And that's when I really learned that people are buying houses. No matter what, they're going to get a mortgage and what separates you is your level of service. anyone can go online and shop and try and find the best rate and they may or may not find the absolute best rate. But odds are, if you're looking online, you're gonna get somebody who's in a call center or somebody that's not local to your market who is most likely going to drop the ball on that level of customer service. and so I always tell people in our initial call, I'm young, I'm fortunate enough to work off a cell phone and a laptop, and if you don't hear from me within an hour, something's gone really wrong.

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Yeah, I can, I've been through three real estate transactions and, two of them were kind of that situation where I don't know if it was a call center, but it was definitely a big box type, lending place. and, the service was not there. You have it a recent documents. It's like, hey, I sent you my W two, three times already. And having that level of service, is certainly, certainly valuable. Especially now that I'm in this profession, I understand the level of service and what people want and things of that nature. so you got into the lending space, things slowed down, and I guess what prompted you to go to the new firm? obviously it being smaller, I can relate to that. I'm a one man shop. I run my own business and the level of service that I can give is much better than the big company with a big bull and the horns can get because they, they're a big company. they have to have a lot of clients and things of that nature. And so outside of the level of service, what else have you been happy about as far as working with, with First time Mortgage?

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Yeah. I mean, I mean it's really the support that we have there. Being as small as we are, I am an employee with First Down Mortgage, but they give me all the tools and everything. I need to have my own image and my own brand out there versus where I was before. Everyone had heard of that company. And when I told'em that's who I worked with, they immediately thought of that company as a whole. Mm-Hmm. um. Which can be good and can be bad, right? I mean, sometimes people have great experience and sometimes people don't. And I kind of just found myself in a situation where they're working with me, start to finish. I don't want them to say, Oh yeah, I got a loan with whoever that was and think of just that company. I want them to call me. I work off of my personal cell phone. I don't have a second phone. I don't even use a Google phone number. When people call me, it's the same number my wife calls me on. So I want that experience to be what they remember. Um, and that was a big reason why I left. I want to have my own brand and talking with Chad, the owner of our company, his goal is to never be over 10 people. And that was a huge selling point for me, because that means I can always control my brand. No, that,

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there's a lot of parallels into to me starting this company and you making your transition. Um, I, I kind of felt the same way. Not that the the previous company was bad or anything like that. I just felt like I couldn't grow it into my own, and there was restrictions in that sense. And so, um, being able to, to break off and do my own thing. Now, now people associate Palm Valley Wealth Management with me and not

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not necessarily,

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Using my services with, with the previous firm name. no, I get that. And so why don't we jump into your mortgage broker? You can shop multiple banks or lenders. and so give us the landscape, cause you, you see the big box commercials and you, and you, obviously most people have a local bank that they can go to and get, and get loaned. So tell us the different landscape and like where you, you fall in and the advantages to using you or, or. going to their local bank and, and using that like, uh, what does that look

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Yeah, I mean, first of all, every loan and every process is different. so for me to go out there and say I'm the best fit for everybody would just be false. and that's kind of something I always want people to know in that first call. I want to be as transparent as possible. but I would say most of the time we are a really good fit for everybody. And the reason being is we have a ton of different lenders that we work with and we can shop for them. So they're dealing with us directly, but I'm behind the scenes. I'm probably talking to a dozen plus lenders, shopping for them, seeing who has the best rate and the best product for them. With covid and everything that happened in the rates changing, some lenders tightened up on guidelines. Some of them didn't. Some of them added new products, some of them did not. And so if you're not in it every day like we are, you'll never know that if you go to a big box or retail bank, they have one or two products for everybody and that's about it. So to say that I'm the best fit most of the time I would say yes, but not always and we'll get into it too Like we were talking before we started recording Um as far as physician loans, that's not something where we were probably the best fit But i'm more than happy to tell people where they can go. no, that

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that makes sense. And so Um, I guess what what drives? a particular lender to um, A certain type of I guess Lendee or borrower, I guess Because I think of it from like a, a life and I come back from a life insurance background. where. Where We would go out and we would shop very similar and you would have different life insurance carriers. Be good with smokers or have certain medical complications, things of that nature. So, are there certain banks that prefer certain type of borrowers, like higher credit and other lenders, or are they want to mess around with the lower credit type, borrowers? And So how do they determine those niches? I

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Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's exactly like you just said, it's based on credit scores and loan types and property types is a really big deal right now. Um, financing for a condo can be really difficult, but we've got probably five or six lenders that really will specialize in that and do have good products. Um, as far as how they figured out which niche they want to fall into, I can't really tell you. I don't know how they do it. They may look at the market share and see where there's opportunity for them. And they try and price themselves out of certain spots and then into certain spots. And so being a broker, I see that day to day. I may have someone that comes to me with a contract today. I've got one lender that's fantastic on VA, but then next week I get another VA contract and they've priced themselves out. They may have gotten too busy in their backlog. They don't have enough underwriters So they increase their rates and now we look at a different lender

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they fill that tranche of the type of loan

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Yeah, exactly they may have bought a bunch of mortgage backed securities at Six and a quarter and now they filled that and they don't have that product to offer anymore. So that's where we step in Versus if you're somewhere else and they've filled that out you went under contract. They told you they could get you one rate Next week you go to lock it in and it's not there anymore Um, sorry, that's all they got.

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as far as like when you're shopping, I guess we can transition into the process. So let's say I'm coming to you. I want to buy a new

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house.

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um. What is the process? you already have banks in mind based off a conversation that we have? Are you gathering all that data first? What is the process to working, getting on the phone with

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with you? Yeah, absolutely. When we have our initial call, um, It's kind of like you're giving me the pieces to the puzzle. And then I have you fill out an application online. and then to me, that's kind of where I'm starting to put the edges of the puzzle together. So I have an idea of where I think we may take this. but really, until you're under a contract and we know the structure of this deal, we know the closing date. that's when we're really going to dive into who we want to use as a lender. And there, we're going to ask the questions, Hey, we're closing in 25 days. What do you guys turn times right now with your underwriters? Or. Hey, we, we really need an appraisal within the first 10 days here per this contract. Can you guys do it? So that's where we get into the nitty gritty. But the first conversation we have in the application are really to kind of dial us in. That's going to cut about half of our lenders out of the picture right there. Cause if you come to me and say, Hey, we absolutely, we need a single family. We just need that fifth bedroom and we want a pool. I'm not going to even reach out to these condo lenders. There's no point. We know you don't want to use them.

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what are some of the, the initial documents that you need for, so, I guess for the people that have not, used or gotten a mortgage before? obviously you want to see some income nature. So what are those documents?

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Yeah, it depends on everybody's situation. most of the time we work with W2 clients. so there are W2 employees at their job, and then it depends on how that payment is broken down. If they're a salaried employee with no bonus or no variable income, it's super easy. 30 days most recent pay stubs, last two years W2s, driver's license, and then 60 days worth of, bank statements or asset statements for the account. So, um, They plan on using for down payment and closing costs. Now, if we start getting into variable income, such as somebody with bonus, or maybe they get overtime or commission, lenders want to see a two year history of that, depends on how that payment is broken down. Again, usually what we look at is their last pay stub from the last two years. So when we look at December 31st and their year to date breakdown, it shows us what they made that total year. And if we go to a self employed borrower. We need to look at their tax returns. So if they file as a Schedule C and it's just in their name, they're not separate like an LLC would be. it's just two years of their personal tax returns. Super easy there. Now we do have to look at net income there versus a W 2 employee. We're looking at gross income. So we need to make sure as a self employed borrower, You may have had 200, 000 in gross sales, but if you come to me with 180, 000 in write offs, you're, you're handcuffing us. We only got 20 grand to work with. So that's the conversation that we always like to have upfront right there. That's what we're talking about on the initial call. but if I get someone that's self employed and they want to purchase a home within a year or so, I always want to have that conversation of what are your taxes look like now? And how can we file for this coming year to be advantageous for you? It's it's I always tell self employed borrowers It's kind of like a seesaw on the fact that well if you're not paying a lot in taxes You're not showing a lot in income and it's balances either way If you want to show a lot in income and you want to buy a really expensive house Unfortunately, you're gonna have to show more income and pay more taxes Yep. client Just close on a house last couple months and

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pay more taxes. Yeah, that would be

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Yeah, that would have been a problem. Yeah. So,

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well, good. Um, and so what, what type of special products, I guess, with the new landscape, we talked a little bit before we started recording to me, if I was purchasing a home right now, I would. Consider maybe a five year arm. And so for those that don't know, five year arm locks in the rate for five years and then it's adjustable after that fifth year. So the bet is that, hey, rates are going to be lower. um, and we can refinance or at least similar to the one you have and you can let it run. But, um, I guess what, what are you seeing now?

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Yeah. Pre COVID arms were very popular. People didn't know what we were going to see with COVID. Everything was scary. Uh, but as of now, believe it or not. Almost all arm products are priced worse than what a 30 year fixed mortgage would be. And so the reasoning behind that, if you look at our two year treasury, it's actually a higher return than a 10 year treasury right

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right

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So we have an inverted yield curve and most arm products are priced based off of that two year. So until we have our yield curve returned back to normal, we aren't going to see a whole lot of arm products

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priced

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better now. It's not to say they're not out there. I have seen them But it's it's very very rare right now now as far as Um, some new products that we're seeing because these aren't products are priced so bad. These lenders have come out with what's called temporary rate buy down programs. Um, the most popular one is called a two one buy down. So what this does is it lowers that client's interest rate by 2 percent for the first year and 1 percent the second. So let's say we had a client that locked in at 6%. Year one, they'd be at 4 percent year two. They're at five year three through the remainder of the loan. They're at the 6 percent where we locked them in at. So we do, we still qualify them off of the 6%. We want to make sure that they can qualify worst case scenario if we do get there. but the benefit is this is a seller paid cost. So that cost is the total amount of savings over that timeframe. The lender has made a whole, They're not making any money. They're not losing any money off of this. But as a buyer, the real big advantage is the amount that's in that escrow account or that seller pays for. They're only pulling your monthly savings after each payment. So if you refinance after year one and you still have an entire year of 1 percent lower than your interest rate, In that account that money gets applied to your principal loan amount. So it's still yours There's no risk of it going away or being a sunk cost like a full term buy down so that's really advantageous for a lot of people you can get two percent below the market right now And if rates get better now you have Three to eight thousand dollars depending on how much is left in there To your refinance closing costs. Yeah

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Yeah, because I mean Obviously, if rates dip enough in the next handful of years, you would want to refinance. But, you got to also weigh the cost of that refinance. And so, having that large chunk

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in the escrow

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would make that an easier decision to say, Okay, well, now my breakeven point is much sooner than 10 years away when maybe I'm going to move anyways, or what have you.

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So,

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that makes sense. And so,

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that

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so now that we've kind of talked about the products, um, let's say we've, We've gotten through, giving you documentation. We picked out the type of product that we want. We're purchasing the home and we're, we're at the estimate, uh, and we're looking at the estimate. And so really what I want to talk about here is one. What should we be looking out for on the estimate? And if I'm unsure about the bank or the lender that I'm using, um, where where do I need to look to make sure I'm getting a fair

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fair deal? Yeah, there's a couple things to look at. Uh, the biggest one being section A in that loan estimate. The first section that you see. That is where you're going to see all lender associated costs. So that's going to be something like an administration fee, or a processing fee, or any sort of junk fee for a lack of terms. That's kind of what we say because we don't charge them. We really think those are the fees that people add in to pay those middle managers that we talked about earlier. you're also going to see in that section, the cost for discount points or the points to pay down your rate. Right now, a lot of banks, credit unions and big box lenders, like we talked about, they're all quoting points. People are scared of the rates. And so if you can show them a lower rate, they're happy. And then that's it. But that's not the case with us. I am always going to go through a break even analysis with my clients. If you're paying a point to lower your interest rate by a quarter of a percent and you're not breaking even on that for 50 months, that to me is a really, really bad decision. I don't think anyone's going to be in a loan that they're in right now for four years. So why spend the money now to lower your rate when that money could go towards your monthly payment or towards additional principal? A lot of people don't realize one extra mortgage payment a year cuts off seven eight years of that loan. So Yeah, it's great to get into a lower payment, but at what cost?

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No, that, that's a good point and and just a handful of lenders that I know through various banks and and things like that's what they're saying and doesn't surprise me that you, you're saying this is You get onto bankrate. com or whatever and you see. Oh, it's

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percent, but

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You don't see the asterisk

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that says, down two

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points and it's X amount of dollars to buy it down. And then people don't dive in enough to go, okay, well if I pay this extra four or five, eight grand, well then how long am I in that hole for? And, and if you're going to move in three years

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or

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you expect to refinance, like you

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and

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now you're just wasting that money and then they're,

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they're getting

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deal and everything else. Yeah, that's, that's, that's good information there. and so People don't know about points. The first two mortgages I got, I couldn't wrap my head around, like, what do you mean, points, points, points. Luckily, my father in law was very knowledgeable and had bought a lot of a uh, real

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estate and

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and knew exactly what was going on. So I had a lot of help there. But um, yeah, I could see how people could easily get get screwed over a little bit. there.

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Yeah, a lot of people don't realize too, when we talk about a point, One point is 1 percent of your loan amount. They're not An entire not

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Yes.

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Yes. And a lot of people think, well, if I'm paying one point, that lowers my interest rate by 1%. That's not true. One point is going to cost 1 percent of your loan, and it may only move you a quarter or a half a percent. So, if we're talking someone buying a 400, 000 house, or using a 400, 000 loan, If someone quotes you two points, that's eight grand.

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grand. Eight grand, and it may lower your payment fifty bucks a month. Right. And so, okay, I'm saving six hundred dollars a year. How long is that going to take me to recoup that eight grand? Yeah. Right. And if, it's only two years, okay, maybe it makes sense. but if it's eight, ten, fifteen

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years, of course,

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like, no go there. there are some big changes, uh, upon us, um, as far as the NAR lawsuit. Uh, we talked a little bit, uh, before we recorded as well about this, but it doesn't seem like it's necessarily going to affect you or lenders directly. Um, but the, the realtor industry is definitely, um, gonna change a little bit. and, And so what is your take and explain what this NAR lawsuit is?

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Yeah, so the, the NAR lawsuit came in. And they basically stated that you can no longer advertise in your listings how much the buyer is going to be paid their commission as far as from the seller. So in the past, it's always been negotiable, but this settlement came in and said, Oh, no, it's become the norm. People aren't, aren't allowed to negotiate. So it became a big deal. There were a few bad apples that essentially what happened a few bad apples that yeah created this big problem for everybody else so now It is not a seller paid cost the buyer would have to pay for their real estate agent Unless the seller is willing to so When all this news broke, I wanted to talk to as many agents as I could and my thing was I don't want to talk to all the agents that are in the same situation. I want to talk to an agent that just got their license last week and I want to talk to an agent that's been licensed for 30 years and I want to talk to everyone in between and figure out what's going on. What are your thoughts? Um, so you and I kind of talked before and we're about getting the same answers from everybody. The newer agents are scared. The sky's falling. They're not sure how they're going to sell around this. If they do get a listing and the proven agents that have been in it for a while, They didn't bat an eye. They said, all right, we'll see what happens. Uh, but at the end of the day, if these sellers want to sell their home, they're going to have to pay an agent fee. It doesn't have to be 3%. They can negotiate towards that. But if you're in a position to sell a home under 400, 000, where first time home buyers may be your main potential buyers, the odds of them having enough for a down payment Their own closing costs and now adding three percent of that purchase price for an agent fee Yeah, I mean you're not going to find very many people at all so These agents are going to have to sell a little bit more in terms of Their listings how they want to show that buyer's agent fee. It's not as simple as just putting it in the mls anymore But I mean, people are, these sellers are paying for their realtor. You've got to show them your worth and you got to show them why they should pay you. So this is honestly good news for us because it's going to weed out some of these realtors that jumped in and COVID like we talked about. it's not as easy anymore. You can't jump in there and get a listing, throw it on the market and get multiple offers in three days. So I'm personally a little excited to see what happens. some people are nervous and scared, but. I really think not a whole lot's going to change unless we get into a wild market like we saw in covid Where everything is selling? I don't really see much changing.

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Yeah, and I don't know the fed would, would drop rates that rapidly to to produce that type of market again and just going back to The realtors being scared to me. I just think

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about like

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and everybody's always talking about fee compression and commissions this and commission that And It's like, if you're providing value to your clients, whether that be through a real estate transaction or helping with financial planning, and they foresee that value being worth what they're paying, then you're going to have a job. or you're going to have a business. And if you're not, then you need to go do something else cause you're not going to be making money. So, um, no, that, that, that makes sense. And, and we're, I'm actually going to have a realtor, Amanda Romeo, on next week and we'll we'll dive into it as well. But I guess, before we get out of here, is there anything else that, maybe some tips and tricks that, uh, if we have a new, new buyer, on the market, like, what they should be looking out for?

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Yeah, absolutely. So you do want to talk to multiple lenders. Absolutely. It never hurts to shop. if you get a lender that tells you, well, you don't want to get your credit pulled a bunch of times, you can get your credit pulled as many times as you want within a 45 day window for the same inquiry. It doesn't mean you can go shop for a car and furniture and all this at the same time that that will hurt your score. But if you come to me and we pull your credit for a mortgage inquiry, And then you go down the road and you do the same thing with a different lender and then one more lender Yeah, that's totally fine. Your credit is not going to be negatively affected. In fact, you'll get the same report three times Now what I will say Is be cautious doing that because there are some lenders that will keep your information And call you and call you and call you and call you so you may have to block some numbers, but that's okay one more thing Is If I'm getting ready to buy a house or finance anything, I'm going to go online to optoutprescreen. com. This is a website that will pull you off of the credit spam list. So essentially right now, credit bureaus are selling personal information when your credit is pulled. So if your credit is pulled for a mortgage, any mortgage company willing to pay these credit bureaus for your information. And they're going to call you and solicit you and do everything they can to get you to pick up the phone, which has been the norm. But given the market right now, and we're not as busy as we have been, it's gotten out of hand. I had a client that forgot to fill this information out. He had 143 phone calls over three days, and he was a physician, so he was not happy with that. But yeah, I mean, it's totally free. It's online. Pulls you off that list for five years. And if for whatever reason you want to get the calls, you always go online and put your information back in

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Yeah. Say that one word. I wish I would have known this last year. because I actually, uh, put my information into, I think it was Bank of America. And was thinking about doing a HELOC just because I didn't know exactly what my expenses would be with the, new business and everything else. St. same exact scenario. I had about 40 calls in about eight hours. and it was ridiculous So if I would have known about that, it would have saved me a lot of time and headache and continue to get calls for six months. So what is that website again?

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Yeah, it's opt out prescreen dot com.

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Awesome. Well, that is probably the best tip I've gotten from a guest, since doing this podcast for a total of six months. But, that's good, good, stuff. So, if anybody's interested in reaching out, Alex, how can we, reach you?

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Yeah, my personal cell phone, 904 309 2309, uh, my email is alex, a l e x, at firstdownmortgage. com, and then our website, firstdownmortgage. com.

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I appreciate it, and hopefully we can do this again.

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Awesome man, thanks for having me.

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This podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast is not meant to be financial or investment advice. If you would like help on your specific situation, please reach out to a financial, legal, tax, or insurance professional. The opinions expressed by Alex Testa and First Down Mortgage are not reflective of the opinions of Palm Valley Wealth Management. This is for educational purposes only. and please keep Palm Valley Wealth Management in mind when considering your own situation and making those considerations.