Hey there. Guess who? It’s me. Let me find the good light though. Let’s see, is this the good … Oh, there it is. Yeah, let’s go like this. Oh yeah, we love that light.

Look, I’m having wine. I think everybody should go live at the golden hour and drink wine. Let’s see.

Today, I am going to talk to y’all about refinancing. Doesn’t that sound fun? Everyone’s all no, that doesn’t sound fun. I’m often giving quotes for people and talking about dos and don’ts and helping people evaluate whether a refinance is a good idea, so I thought it would be kind of cool to just throw out a gentle reminder about refinancing. Like refinancing dos and don’ts.

Okay. No, it’s like this. No. Okay. I don’t think we’re going to get away from this sun. What over here? Shit. Okay, we’re going to go back here.

What to do 1st?

All right. Let’s get down to business. When you’re looking to refinance you should. I highly recommend reaching out to friends and family members. Oftentimes when they’ve had a good experience, you can look to that person that provided the good experience in a positive way, right? You have direct one of your friends or family members has direct experience with this person or company. I really think the trust factor is big. Sometimes though, we don’t always people that reach out to and to ask or get referrals from. Right?

Before we go too far in, I wanted to. My sister got some really bad news today. Like really bad news and I wanted to raise a glass to her and just let her know that hey, I’m thinking about you and cheers to you and may God show you the way and give you the strength to live your best life. Cheers sis, I love you.

All right. Like I needed to say that right now.

Okay. Where was I at? Okay, that was totally off topic. Sorry.

What is the Cost?

The next few items are super, super important, too. The next few items you’re of course, you’re going to be inquisitive about price, about the interest rate and the cost. What a lot of people make the mistake of doing is when they’re looking at the cost of the loan, so those are all the fees. Right? Your escrow, title, lender, appraiser, recording, notary, all of that stuff. Those are fees. Then you have your interest rate.

The things that are relative when you’re shopping are going to be apples and apples. When you’re looking at an interest rate, don’t look at the tax insurance portion of the cost because that is something that we don’t, I don’t control the taxes. The taxes are. Right now when we’re doing loans, we’re estimating about nine months. But another lender may not be so savvy and he might throw out there that he’s only doing two months.

It’s not fair to compare my nine months versus his two months because that’s really irrelevant. When you’re shopping on fees, you’re really looking at what is a lender charging. Are there any discount points? How much is the processing fee, the underwriting fee? Those are the main things that you’re going to be looking for. Processing, underwriting, and points. That’s where you’re going to be looking for the all things equal.

not everything is about price. When I go shopping for things, the cheapest isn’t always the best. Oftentimes if it’s too good to be true, what does that mean? It probably is, right? That’s the adage there.

How Long?

Then, more importantly, if the lender is telling you a certain price, can they deliver in two or three weeks or a month or whatever? I know a lot of people that I have gone with their bank, they’re with their bank like six months later and the bank’s still not making it happen and they’re just not savvy enough to guide you through the process if you have some difficulties.

Like just real life stuff. A lot of people have divorces or title issues or maybe the home isn’t completely in a position to be appraised and what are the ways around that? There’s so many different things where you need somebody that’s a trained and experienced in lending to guide you.

Do they have Reviews?

Also, can you see the reviews on local listings? Are they out there? Can you go put in that person’s name? Go put in Teresa Tims and I’m all over the place, I’m just saying.

There are maybe a few people that have more reviews than me. Justin Brown, for example, he has like a million reviews but I don’t know, I’m jealous actually. That’s why I said that. I’m jealous he has so many reviews. Well cheers to Justin Brown, too! Right? Another lender giving another lender a shout out.

You pay attention to that stuff. You need to be able to validate the people that you’re working with.

Are they good with Appraisals?

Are they savvy with appraisals? Sometimes, an appraisal makes or breaks a deal. Like right now, I’ve got a transaction where somebody wants $40,000 out. If I can’t get the appraisal in at 390 … if I can’t get the appraisal in at three thousand. If I can’t get the appraisal in at 390, then my family is not going to get the $40,000 that they need. I’ve looked at the comparable and I will arm them with sales comparable that they can provide to the appraiser when the appraiser gets out there.

I mean you’re paying for the appraisal. It’s your house, it’s your refinance, and you know Suzy Jones down the street, her house just sold for $390,000 and yours is way better. It’s way nicer, it’s cuter, it has more upgrades, so why shouldn’t your value come in at 390 also?

Sometimes, appraisers take the path of least resistance and they don’t know that you’re looking for a particular value. So they will often go do an appraisal on the conservative side. They don’t do that, that’s not intentional, that’s just … On a purchase, they’re going out with an intention. That house is for sale for 390, they’re going to be looking for costs to support that value, blah, blah, blah. But on an appraisal, they don’t really already have a number in mind.

It’s perfectly fine to give them a number and tell them how much you think your house is worth, and that you would like to see, of course you’re not an appraiser and you’re not telling them how to do their job, but you would suggest that you feel the value as supported by these sales comparable, Mr. Appraiser, as supported by these sales comparable. Of course, you could go tell somebody I think my house is worth $600,000, well that’s all fine and dandy, but where are the closed sales comparable?

If you go to your bank or these online lenders, they use these automated valuation models to come up with the value, what happens when those automated things are wrong and you think you’re going to get your $40,000 and they go out there and your house isn’t 390, it’s 350. Well poof, there goes all your money and the deal falls through.

At TDR Mortgage, we take extra care on our refinances to arm you with sales comparable. Okay.

Lets see. What else did I write?

Oh, will they give you an appraisal credit at the end like TDR Mortgage? At the end of the transaction is this online lender or your bank or loan service going to actually pay for your appraisal?

Credentials?

Are they a mortgage broker? Is the person or company you’re working with a mortgage broker? Did you know that direct lender folks, bank folks, when they’re out shopping for a home loan, oftentimes they end up with a mortgage broker. A lot of really savvy financially educated people come to mortgage brokers. It’s kind of like a little inside secret, because lots of people don’t really know that mortgage brokers, not only do we have to maintain a very high level of credentials out there, but we also have access to really super low interest rates. That was Minnie.

Questions

Are they experienced to handle challenges … Minnie! Come here! Come here. Puppy, come here. Come here, hurry. Come here for me., okay. Ah. Are they experienced to handle challenges that come up in the loan process? You know, just shit happens. Right? You need to know how to deal with it.

She’s all worked up. She heard the jingle of another dog’s collar or something. Okay.

Also, are they funny? Do they make you laugh? Because at TDR Mortgage, we are hilarious.

Do they have an office Pomeranian? Do they have an office Pomeranian with a pink bow? Yeah, probably not.

These are all questions that you should be asking yourself when you’re looking for someone to help you evaluate a refinance.

Closing 

Let’s see. I think that’s it. That’s all we got today. Therefore, if you are looking to refinance. Even if you’re not sure if you should maybe cash out or do a total combination of the first and second. It really depends on what your first is like, or how much cash out, just give me a call. We don’t even have to pull your credit. We can just run the numbers and ballpark it and  Gosh. Calm down.

We can just ballpark it and figure out what’s in your best interest and what’s going to give you the best all-around deal. Right? We want you taken care of. We want to do what’s in your best interest. Not in my best interest or not what’s easiest for the bank or the lender, but what’s in your best interest. I’ve been looking out for best interests since 1998. If you’re looking to buy or sell in Southern California, pick up the phone and call me, Teresa Tims, Thesocalloanpro.com. Bye.