Down Payment or Closing Cost Assistants w/ the Texas Home Buyer Assistance Program

Many grant and bond programs in the lending world are available for home purchasing consumers in Texas, but little is known about many of them because most lenders/loan brokers are unaware of their makeups and guidelines. Some of these loans are not designed for a family who may be planning to purchase a "move up" home w/in 5-7 years because in some cases the assistance that is used to help with down payment or closing costs is "not forgivable", meaning there are other guidelines that penalize a consumer that doesn't stay in the loan for a specific number of years. The Texas First Time Homebuyer Program is a great assistance program that offers below market rates and makes a grant available for the client up to 5% of the mortgage amount. Not just anyone can receive these grants and rates. There are guidelines for staying in this loan for specific length of time, but the guidelines are much more forgiving than other programs. If you are in a non-targeted market, your income must be at or below 60% of the median income in your area. If you are in a targeted market, your income can be as much as 140% of the median income. Funds from this program are not unlimited and each year a certain dollar value is made available. To see if you are in a targeted market and/or a good candidate for this program, feel free to call me at 469-450-2723. Be prepared to share with me your total household income and preferred area to move.

Friends In My Life, and MY FRIEND "ROB"

I've always been a "more the merrier" type of guy when it came to making plans. Everyone doesn't feel the same way. Maybe that has something to do with my being an only child, hmmm, never know for sure do we? No matter, it makes me happy in life to have people touch base with me and check in from time to time. I like to know that my involvement in someone's life made a difference. Being in a commissioned By Referral Only business, that requires a person to be loyal and trusting, this "more the merrier" thing has worked out for me. I get to work on a daily basis with people that in the most part look at me from a non-threatened, trusting angle. I can' t imagine how uncomfortable a work day would be for someone that had to work with people that viewed them like a hard core sales person where everyone felt compelled to bargain and ask for fee cuts all the time. It's almost degrading to a certain extent. A person may expect to make $80k-$90k at their own job, but lacks the consideration about you as a person to care about you making a dollar. I have a client that I met with today that I really respect and have grown to have a real liking for as a person. This person (we'll call Rob for this blog) treats me respectful in every facet of our relationship, and our relationship started as business only. I have refinanceD 2 of his 20+ investment homes and am working on 2 more now. "Rob" gives me the look and says, I won't check up on your rates and fees Brad, because I trust you and I know everyone needs to make a dollar. Because I trust you, I will instead move on with my life and do my job while I have you (me, Brad) take care of me. As I was locking his loan and saw that there was a positive turn in the market and that I priced out the interest rate incorrectly the first time, (the rate was actually lower) I had the option of giving him the higher rate where I make MUCH MORE MONEY or give him the surprise a good man like him deserves. I was able to drop both of his rates on both refi properties a total of .75% TOTAL!!!!!! That will save him nearly a hundred dollars a month. Yeah, I love doing that for someone like him, because he deserves it for treating people right. That is how I get to reciprocate in my business. I like genuine people and genuine people generally like me...What a good day at work. I won't tell him until close, so it will be a surprise.

Is the Customer Really "Always Right" in Lending?

There are really only two realms of life for most people unless a person has multiple personalities. You are either interacting with other people from your "Life Life Realm" (normal everyday enteracting "you" and how people know your personality) or your "Business Life Realm" (your typical manner and character that you take with you into business conversations where you are on the business side talking to someone on the "LLR" side). When you are in "LLR", you are talking with people in either realm. But, when you are in "LLR" working with someone in the "BLR", it is the norm to talk to those "BLR" people in a less than respectful way if we so choose when we are not happy with what they have offered us in service or communication. I think it is ok to say that we feel more comfortable talking to a restaurant server in a rude manner because they are in business/service mode, but if we saw this same person when we were both working from the "LLR", we wouldn't so freely express our displeasure with something they were doing in the same manner in fear of being scolded or physically harmeded (in this example you are in "LLR" and the server is in "BLR"). This relationship will flip and go just the opposite from the "BLR" communicating to the "LLR". Oddly enough, most full time people spend more time in the "BLR" a day than the "LLR".
With that being said, lets change our subject to life during our work day. Since all of us spend so much time at work, wouldn’t it make since for people to be just as forgiving and understanding to error when talking with someone in the in the “BLR”. If everyone as a whole were a more reasonable, fun loving, understanding, and forgiving type of person as much as they are or more when working from their own “LLR” in communication with someone in the “BLR”, the outcome would be that more people would live happier lives and work wouldn’t be such a “rough day at work” daily issue.
This is why I treat people that are working when I am not with more understanding and respect. After all, they are working and I am at leisure. Shouldn’t it be easier for me to be “laid back” and understanding rather than someone in the middle of a “rough day at work” already?

Just a random thought to share. Rather shallow random thought, but worth putting in writing. So I don't live by, "the customer is always right" philosophy. If the person of service is a professional and "in the know", the consumer/customer should "let go of the wheel" at some point and let the "pilot" drive the plane. Or, will the customer blame the pilot for crashing because he let them take the wheel when they demanded it? In many cases in business, THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. In the lending business, that philosophy needs to be taken specific to the situation in context.
Next time, Brad

The Lowest Interest Rate

This is a subject that most consumers don't really think about realistically, because so many people want the "IMPOSSIBLE DEAL". There is a reason it's called the impossible deal. An interest rate shopper that is too impatient to give a bank or mortgage broker some important details regarding their credit, lending goals, loan size, employment, etc. is possibly just wasting their time recording in their notes what companies have the best interest rate. The only type of mortgage consultants that will "quote a rate" with those shoppers who say, "I have perfect credit and am putting down 20%, what rate can you get me?", are those that are not relationship based and are familiar with working with pushy consumers that see them as a rate and not a person of service. These types of lenders have designed their business to deal with a non-personal type of consumer that doesn't really appreciate the work he does for their best interests. This type of mortgage person is not going to be a consultant. This person will be a super salesman rather than a super servant, because that is the only way a deal can't be "got" for a rate only focused consumer. DON'T GET ME WRONG, there is nothing wrong with shopping. Just allow the consultant to lead the conversation so that they can get you a real quote rather than someone that is familiar with and depends on impatient shoppers, who will tell you one thing at quote time and another at or just before closing on your home and make you like it. They do this on a daily basis with the other clients that have forced them to "rate quote" w/ limited details. There is too much that a home buyer doesn't know about "back stage" processes in lending that the salesperson can use to pull the sheet over their eyes, and don't think that hours and hours of studying internet material on mortgage, or home buying is gonna save you from these non-referral based, non-relationship based, "application takers". It would be safer for you to talk to those companies and just say, "tell me about your business and what your career goals are, because I need a loan and want to make sure I am working with someone who has the resources and knowledge to make this loan a success for me and my family." Now you will at least get a feel from lender to lender who you can trust. If you get quotes from 5 companies where 4 rates are all w/in a pretty tight deviation amount from each other and the other is a .25% lower than all the rest, be weary. They can't do what they say they can no matter how trusting they sound, and no matter what great excuse they give, most of the time.
Get to know your mortgage consultant a little and allow him to get to know you. This way, you build a genuine trust between one another and he/she will want to give you the lowest rate he can, because he knows you'll appreciate him and possibly refer him to your friends and family.
Next time, Brad

Service First in Business

During a business meeting in which I was in yesterday, we talked all about service. As we were "remodeling" our business as we do personally every other week, (everyone in our office takes out a 3 hour block of time the same exact day of the week at the same exact time of the day, every other week to work only on our personal business, and not on loans) I realized that our company is really a service company or a relationship company, and we happen to do mortgages. Our company name is First Mortgage Investors, but our first focus is relationships and service. That hits home to me. I don't want past clients to think that I was some random person they came across in life that entered their information into a computer and BANG!!!, a loan happened. I would hope that if one of my clients had a flat tire near my home that they could call me on my cell to help them get it fixed. I want to be a family's mortgage guy for life and consult the siblings of the parents that originally used my services like a family uses a dentist or family doctor for years and years.
Next time, Brad

Communication W/ Clients

A goal in most referral businesses is to attract and stay in touch with past clients so that the future isn't cluttered with time wasting lead generating vehicles just to keep a career a float. Using a blog in the mortgage business is a great way to express and share with current and future clients about your mortgage and lending views and style of business so that the business relationships have more material to bond with. Relationships...Relationships...A true referral business has relationships at the foundation of it's business. Quality is better than quantity. The relationships that a referral business person spends his/her time building and keeping up should be those that have character terms like Trust and Loyalty in their make up. Spend time with people that you care about and people that care and respect you and your time. Quality of life is birthed from quality goals.
Next time, Brad