Navigating the Mortgage Maze: Interest Rates and Financing Tips

In Episode 45, Dennis Day and Judy Gratton will help you unlock the secrets to navigating the complex world of home loan interest rates with our special guest, Steve O'Donnell from CMG Financial. This episode promises to transform your understanding of mortgage rates by focusing on what truly matters—the monthly payments. Hear Steve’s expert take on how global events and the bond market impact these rates, and learn practical strategies like qualifying with a rate cushion and innovative options such as "lock and shop" for buyers and special rate lock opportunities for sellers.

Tired of the confusion surrounding jumbo and conventional loans? We've got you covered. Steve breaks down the distinctions between these options, shedding light on loan limits across various counties and the waning appeal of adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs). Discover creative financing strategies like bundling first mortgages with second equity loans and understand the critical steps of pre-qualification and pre-approval. Whether you're looking to buy, refinance, or downsize, this episode offers invaluable insights to help you make informed decisions.

Planning to downsize or manage your home equity for long-term stability? Steve provides a comprehensive guide on calculating home equity and cash flow, considering retirement plans and liquid assets. We discuss the benefits of bridge loans, home equity lines of credit, and programs like rate rebound refinancing. From handling fluctuating interest rates to seeking personalized financial advice, this episode equips you with the knowledge needed to navigate today’s volatile housing market. Join us for a wealth of expert advice and actionable strategies to optimize your home financing journey.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Okay, welcome everyone. This is Getting your Edge Out to Right Size your Home and Life podcast. I'm your co-host, dennis Day of the fabulous Edge Group team powered by EXP. I'm with my co-host, judy Gratton. Happy 4th of July, and so on. Judy, did you have a good day?

Speaker 2: 0:17

I did. I had a wonderful 4th of July. I went to the Bothell Main Street Parade. We put our chairs out at midnight on June 30th. We do that every year so we can have a seat.

Speaker 1: 0:28

And our guest today is Steve O'Donnell, a mortgage broker with CMG, and he's here to talk about interest rates, mortgages and all that good stuff. So, steve, let's start off. Tell us who you are and what you do and who you work for.

Speaker 3: 0:48

Well, I'm with a company called CMG Financial or CMG Home Loans and we're based right here in Mill Creek If anyone knows Mill Creek Town Center, we're right down there and I've been. Let's see, I originated my first mortgage, I think, in 1995. So pretty much what's that saying? I've seen it all. So I've seen the ups and the downs and the good and the bad, and there's always, every time I think I have it all learned or know everything they change the rules anyway. So the one thing I pledge is you know, with the changes all the time and everything is, even though I've been lending many years is I will always do my best to get the right answer for every client.

Speaker 1: 1:26

What's going on in the mortgage industry right now? What are interest rates?

Speaker 3: 1:31

Well, you know they've been pretty volatile. But a lot of times people think rate is the most important thing to discuss and to me the most important thing is the payment. So I always try to make sure that the payment fits the client, not the interest rate, because rates will change, but the payment is what you want to the client to carry. Right now, the standard 30 year fixer in the mid to upper 60s, you know which. Historically that's a good rate. In the recent, like last 10 years People are like, oh, that's really high, but it's really not a bad rate historically If you look at through the last 30 years.

Speaker 3: 2:03

I guess that's pretty much it. With the interest rates, they're pretty volatile this week and I know that you know when we talk volatility sometimes that's the difference of getting a credit to buy down the rate a little bit or paying a little bit to buy it to the point where the client's most comfortable.

Speaker 2: 2:19

Kent, what do you mean? It's volatile. Can you kind of give us a layman's term of why it's volatile? What's happening?

Speaker 3: 2:28

Well, a lot of things that happen in the world can affect mortgage prices. It's primarily driven by the mortgage-backed securities market, which is tied to the bond markets, and I'm not an expert in those. I mean I watch the experts, I hear their predictions. In those, I mean I watch the experts, I hear their predictions and, you know, sometimes politics plays a role in that. I mean, it's things that I always say the rate is something we don't control, but you know, we can kind of try to time it a little bit, but in reality, if someone is buying and the rate is at a higher point, well there's a higher likelihood that they're going to be able to improve their rate in the future with a refinance. True, true.

Speaker 2: 3:08

So when someone is considering buying a home and the interest rates, if they're volatile, they shift frequently, right it's, you know, you don't know, from day to day it could go up a quarter of a point, which can make a significant difference in their purchasing power. So how do we, you and I and Dennis, how do we keep our clients informed about that interest rate if it means a difference between them being able to buy what they want and not?

Speaker 3: 3:41

When someone is looking for a home, I usually like to qualify them at a comfortable point to where we have a little cushion. So if the rate does go up a little bit then they have the option of either buying it down or we already factored that in with their pre-approval. Once they're under contract, then it's smart to lock in at the time that the rate is comfortable for them. Then it's smart to lock in at the time that the rate is comfortable for them. You know there's different clients will have different levels of expertise in watching the financial markets and I don't tell someone when to lock. I can give a recommendation but it's their choice.

Speaker 2: 4:17

Is there anything like lock and shop anymore or no?

Speaker 3: 4:20

There is. I haven't really had anyone use that recently. There's some options for sellers as well, where they can lock in a rate to sell a home and I'm learning on that. So that's something that you and I can talk offline about if you have an interest, and that's typically used for a home that maybe has sat on the market for a little bit, where a seller can purchase a rate for an extended period that their buyers can use. So that's something new to me, but it is something I learned a little bit about last week. So that's on the seller side if it's a home that's not moving.

Speaker 3: 4:54

So if the homes are selling in two or three days, there's no reason for, or even two or three weeks. There's no reason for a seller to consider that that's more for a home that's maybe sat for three weeks or four weeks and not getting a lot of interest, than the seller can advertise a lower interest rate.

Speaker 1: 5:10

I had not heard of that. That's really interesting.

Speaker 2: 5:13

I think that's cool.

Speaker 3: 5:14

Yeah, depending on the market or the home, the individual home being sold.

Speaker 2: 5:20

I mean they just think they go to a lender and they go to their bank and they get a loan. They don't understand there are so many working parts that can affect what that loan is, what the interest rate is, how it's structured, how long it is. I mean it's just there's so many working parts. It's really important. I always encourage buyers and particularly to touch base with their lender before they start looking for a home.

Speaker 3: 5:47

Well and that's the thing with a lot of your standard credit unions and banks they're going to have the standard products and that will fit many people, but at the same time, a lot of times a mortgage lender such as myself may have products or better rates than what the banks and credit unions have, depending on the property, the purchase price, the client's individual credit scores and that sort of thing. So experience does play a role, the same as for you and Dennis with selling or buying. The level of experience for a real estate agent makes a big difference for a buyer or a seller.

Speaker 1: 6:24

We kind of built our business around downsizers and we hear this well, I've got this 3% interest rate. I want to move but I can't give up that rate because the interest rates are so high. Do you have an answer for?

Speaker 3: 6:38

folks like that. That's actually one of the things that's created. A little bit of the issue in the real estate market is because there's not a lot of people listing their homes because they're tied to a rate. Now each individual's situation is going to be different depending on like you're bringing up people that are looking at downsizing. A lot that will come into play with that is well, how much equity do they have? A lot of people downsizing might be able to sell and pay cash for something, which me, as a lender, I think that's fantastic. The catch on that, though, is they need to sell before they buy, so how can they do that? If there's no finance, you know they're not getting a mortgage.

Speaker 3: 7:17

And one thing that I've recommended to people in my years as a bank manager I was at a larger bank, I won't name it, but but basically, I had many clients. If they owned their home free and clear or had a lot of equity, set up a home equity line of credit with a significant balance available. That way, they could possibly pay cash for a home or do a significant down payment as a bridge loan without having their house sold first. Now you can't really do that if you're planning on selling in the next short-term period I mean in each equity loan product or equity line of credit products going to have different rules on it. So that's something for someone to do now if they're thinking about moving in three to five years.

Speaker 3: 8:01

So, outside of that, if someone is looking at downsizing right now, I have some incredible products that I'm not going to get into all the nuts and bolts of them. But I have one product where people can borrow from the equity of their current home. It will make their mortgage payment for six months out of part of that equity and then that can be used as a down payment. So you're not having two mortgage payments and it gives you six months to sell your home. So that's I mean, that's just an example of a bridge loan option that isn't that scary and actually how that product actually works is if the house hasn't sold within the six months, then there's an agreed upon price up front that that equity company actually purchases the home. So it's completely risk-free. But it's not going to be as probably as profitable as you and Judy selling the home for them within that six months.

Speaker 1: 8:55

That sounds like a great option. The adjustable rate mortgages used to be cheaper. I mean they were a good buy. Are they still a good buy?

Speaker 3: 9:05

I have not seen any adjustable rates that have really stood out in a long time, ever since the rates went down in the twos and threes. Ever since then I've never seen it. I have not done an adjustable rate mortgage in years. I used to do a lot of them when the mortgage rates were in the eights, sevens, eights, and then they'd have an adjustable rate at five or whatever. But will they come back? I don't know, because that's an investor-driven product.

Speaker 3: 9:31

I'm assuming that the investors that buy mortgage-backed securities are looking at it going. Their margin isn't enough for what they want to profit, because the average 30-year fixed is not held for that long anyways, based on the amount of time that people stay in homes, not expecting to see any incredible adjustable rates in the near future, sometimes with jumbo rates though. So if someone's buying in the jumbo market in the one and a half, 2 million $3 million range, those are driven based on private investors and so those could have some adjustable rate options. That's something that, once again, is on an individual basis, based on the client that's buying. And you were talking about downsizing. Typically, people don't downsize, or jumbo loan home, I guess, would be the term.

Speaker 2: 10:18

Well, now I know the jumbo loans have adjusted over the years as to where you land to become a jumbo loan.

Speaker 3: 10:27

It varies by county. So the national conforming loan limit is $766,550. But within King Pierce and Snohomish County that is a higher limit.

Speaker 2: 10:39

And that means anything above that is then referred to as a jumbo loan.

Speaker 3: 10:44

Correct and depending on where conventional loans are at and jumbo loans. Sometimes jumbo loans are more attractive than conventional loans, sometimes they're not. If they're not, then what a lender can also do is structure it where you keep the first mortgage in a conventional and then you do a second equity loan and you bundle it into two loans for the client. That way they minimize their interest expense.

Speaker 2: 11:13

The reason I'm asking is that so many of the outlying areas in Western Washington anymore are getting higher and higher, where a million dollars is kind of your average price Loan limits in King Pierce and Snohomish County are $977,500.

Speaker 3: 11:30

And then that can vary to the other counties, like Spokane and stuff like that are going to be at $766,550. Now it does also vary based on the number of units. So if someone's buying a duplex, a triplex or a fourplex, then that can be higher balances and still be a conventional as well. Like a duplex would be 1,251,400. It would stick within the conventional and so forth. So the triplex and fourplex will be higher.

Speaker 2: 11:57

So that's. I mean it's good for people to understand that, that they jump into a different type of loan product at that level. And sometimes it can be better, you say, and sometimes it isn't as good, and so then you have to become even more creative.

Speaker 3: 12:15

Right, and if someone goes to the bank or the credit union, they're going to have one option for a jumbo, whereas a mortgage lender such as myself have probably 20 different investors. So that's the nice thing as far as the difference between the banks and the mortgage companies is. A lot of times the mortgage companies have a lot of options that don't necessarily fit the standard customer, like I did a bank statement loan for a gentleman where we used his cash flow to qualify him instead of his tax returns. So there's lots of different options and that's why I always recommend, before you and Dennis take someone touring houses, make sure that they know what they are looking for, because anyone can go out and look at a shiny new house or big, beautiful house and fall in love with it and then find out that that's well above their budget, or well below their budget sometimes.

Speaker 2: 13:06

We recommend that immediately, that you know that's one of the first questions have you spoken with a lender? And then our goal is to try and have them fully underwritten as quickly as possible so that their lender approval letter is strong, not just a pre approval.

Speaker 3: 13:27

Correct. There's three different levels of a pre-qualify or pre-approval. There's a pre-qualify that just basically means that the lender feels like they should qualify at purchasing that particular price point. And then there's what we call an AUS, or automated underwriting approval, which means that the decisioning engine the way I look at that, it's as good as the information that was input. So if someone overstated the income or assets, then it may not be a valid approval, but if it's accurate, with pay stubs or tax returns and bank statements and also we do have a credit report on that so an AUS pre-approval is typically accepted and considered strong enough for most offers.

Speaker 3: 14:15

And then if you have someone that has, that's self-employed or has variable income, I highly recommend doing a fully underwritten pre-approval which is no cost or obligation to the client. And that's what I tell all my clients that coming and talking to me costs you nothing. And if we do a pre-approval there's no cost. If you use my pre-approval letter, there's no obligation I mean. So basically I'm a very low pressure person that just wants people to learn and make sure that they make the right decision for the home that they buy.

Speaker 2: 14:50

So if someone comes to you and they tell you that their goal is to downsize from the home that they're in into something maybe smaller, they have good equity in their home, so they have the cash for either a good down payment, possibly even pay it off, but a loan they want to know is a loan a good idea. Should I buy the rate down with some of that money versus putting it all down as a down payment? What would you say to someone in a situation like that?

Speaker 3: 15:21

The first thing I usually ask is have you already consulted a real estate agent to see what you think your home is worth? Because many times people will greatly overstate or understate the value of their home and having an experienced agent such as you and Dennis would make me more comfortable calculating out what their equity available in that home is. So once we know what the equity is, then I look at what their monthly cash flow is from retirement social security. Maybe they're still working, but if they're still working, maybe they're retiring in one to three years. So I take that into account. What their cash flow will be when they retire. That's for me personally, to make sure that someone will always be comfortable in their home. Then, also, depending on what their liquid assets are, as far as investments and bank accounts and that sort of thing, I mean sometimes people don't have any, sometimes people have a lot.

Speaker 3: 16:17

All that goes into my thought process about what I recommend for that client when they're downsizing. I mean typically the reasons for downsizing are economic or health. I mean as far as like. Well, I guess a good example is my wife keeps bringing up about how eventually she wants to have a ranch house instead of a two-story house, because going up and down stairs that can determine what type of house you're buying. And then the next most important thing is the area, and so once we kind of get that figured out, then we know a price point and then I work it into to make sure that they're comfortable with the payment.

Speaker 3: 16:52

As far as what I brought up before about the bridge loan option, I mean there's many different ways to downsize. You can sell, then buy, you can do a bridge loan, you can have a home equity line of credit set up ahead of time. Sometimes people have enough cash that they can qualify with buying a new mortgage and they still sell their house after the fact. I've had many clients do that. Everyone's got a different situation. That's why I was saying the best recommendation I have is to sit down with a lender that you're comfortable with, that you feel like has the experience to come up with a plan Are there special ways that somebody can buy down this high what we consider now a high interest rate.

Speaker 3: 17:34

Well, there's always the option of buying down the interest rate, which you know. The common term is, that is, paying points. It has not been common for people to pay a bunch of points because a lot of times those funds can be used for having a smaller mortgage or helping cover the closing costs and down payment. It's on an individual basis. If someone's going to get into a mortgage and carry that mortgage for long-term, then paying points is worth it because there's a break-even point based on the amount that you pay compared to the savings and the payment.

Speaker 3: 18:05

I guess the answer to this Dana says there isn't one answer. It depends on that person's situation and if someone plans on doing a big lump sum, pay down on it after selling their current residence, for instance. You don't want to pay a bunch of points on a larger mortgage to have a smaller mortgage after the fact. Yes, you can buy the interest rate down. You can also refinance. In the future. We have what's called the rate rebound, which basically CMG waives all lender fees and gives $1,000 credit towards third-party fees such as title and escrow and appraisal. That's a common thing that people are looking at now is that they're going to buy now with the expectation that sometime in the next six months, two years, whatever they will refinance and drop their interest rates, so we can do that at close to no cost.

Speaker 2: 18:54

Is there a time limit, like how long they have to hold on to the original loan or how I believe it's a six month.

Speaker 3: 19:02

Let me I actually have that up there. I believe it's six months of that. They have made six payments before they refinance and then that offer is good for five years.

Speaker 2: 19:14

Oh, good Okay.

Speaker 1: 19:15

Five years. Okay, that's pretty strong offer. Do you expect that we'll see any significant rate drop in this calendar year?

Speaker 3: 19:29

You know, the funny thing with that question, dennis, is I watch a lot of experts on their daily podcasts, that sort of thing, and I have a saying that the experts, if they're right, 50% of the time they're doing pretty good. Now, in my opinion, I do believe that there will be a rate drop as it gets closer to the election, but that's not necessarily any guarantee or anything like that. It's just I think that there are political moves that happen to push rates down, so I don't know if that will be the case or not. But you know, there's also a lot of factors, such as inflation, things that happen in other to drop and drop and drop, and they really haven't. Honestly, the fact that the rates dropped so low during 2020 and 2021 was wonderful for the people that refinanced and people selling at that point, because it pushed prices up up. But it's created a little bit of a conundrum now, because now you have people that bought at a higher price with lower interest rate, trying to sell to people that will have a higher interest rate.

Speaker 2: 20:56

There's always something to the yang. It always, you know it's whatever it is. If it's good now, there's probably going to be a downside. But I, you know, I frequently tell people that those rates were a result of a national catastrophe. The COVID pandemic To get a rate like that is generally the result of a national catastrophe and I really personally would not like to see us in any more national catastrophes.

Speaker 3: 21:26

Exactly exactly. So. If the rates, if inflation, is in check and people are buying and selling homes on a regular basis, I mean, that's part of the issue right now has been the lower inventory has kept prices up, which is great for sellers but not so great for buyers, right, I like to see an even market where the buyers and sellers are pretty even out there. Then that to me is a little bit more fair. And then the interest rates are typically pretty stable at that point. And when I say stable, that stable might be six, it might be five, it might be eight, I mean, but it fits the economic situation of the country at that point, based on wages and that sort of thing.

Speaker 1: 22:11

Are you seeing a slowdown in new construction because of the high interest rates?

Speaker 3: 22:18

Not at all. I mean, from just being a consumer myself and a citizen driving around, I see lots of new construction builds going out and many of the people in my office here have builder relationships and they're doing a lot of mortgages, so I don't think that the builders are having any issues with selling their properties right now either.

Speaker 1: 22:41

Okay, we have a severe shortage of homes, and the only way to alleviate that is to build more homes.

Speaker 3: 22:48

So Well, and I'm seeing plenty of multifamily like apartment buildings and stuff like that being built too. So there I mean, there's new homes for purchase, but then there's also many new homes going up for renters which those renters would hope to be homebuyers. But not everyone is always positioned to be a homebuyer and that's, once again, is probably getting above my level of economic experience. But I worked with a builder last year, built 48 townhomes and it started off gangbusters where they're getting four and five offers in every home. Then the last few buildings. All of a sudden there was a big slowdown and the rates had actually gone down a little bit. So it wasn't necessarily rate driven, it was just the time of year, I think. They all sold and they all sold for significantly higher towards the end than what they sold for at the beginning. So we did see a consistent increase in prices throughout the sale of the 48 units.

Speaker 1: 23:42

So if we're looking to buy. How do we improve that credit score?

Speaker 3: 23:46

Well, the first thing I recommend is knowing what your credit score is and if there really is an issue. I've had many people think that their credit is fine when it wasn't, or, on the reverse, where they thought that they had something, that their credit was terrible and it was fine. So I can do a soft pull credit check which basically doesn't hit your credit as the same as applying for a car loan, credit card or even a mortgage, and it gives me one score with TransUnion. It gives me the entire report as far as collections balances, all the information I need to be able to advise, and we can do what-if scenarios, which, let's say, if someone's at a 590 credit score and they need to be at a 620, I can do a what if scenario that says, ok, if I do this and this, your score will move to here, and that's all automated through the credit reporting agencies that we contract with, and so I've done that a lot of times for people to help with their to get them qualified.

Speaker 3: 24:45

Sometimes it can be done instantly. You'll pay down this balance from 500 down to $10. And all of a sudden, their score jumps up 20 points. There's a lot of little tricks that we have in the industry that can help people purchase sooner and hopefully that helps a little bit there. I mean, because there's different things. There's the debt to income ratio. So sometimes I'm advising people instead of putting down 50% on your down payment, why don't you do 20% and get rid of all these car loans and boat loans and stuff like that? So once again, it comes down to analyzing each individual home buyer's financial situation and giving my advice.

Speaker 2: 25:31

So you're kind of a counselor too.

Speaker 3: 25:34

Well, that's what I've always enjoyed. I mean, I was a bank manager for many years and I always like to look at the total financial picture for someone, not just hey, can I slam them in a loan. Now, if the client isn't interested in my advice, that's fine too. I mean, many clients that I have have a higher level of education and expertise than I would in the financial world. I mean, I've worked with financial advisors and actually financial advisors are actually some of my best referral sources because they appreciate my advice. I won't say which company, but a financial advisor company that's local.

Speaker 3: 26:07

I have three different gentlemen that have referred me clients not because they're buying a house but because they're going to withdraw a huge amount of their retirement to pay off their mortgage when they retired. And they wanted me to kind of explain to them that there was some benefits to carrying the mortgage, depending on the balance, if there could be a tax benefit. But it was going to be a huge tax implication for the majority of these people closing out retirement and or investments that would have significant capital gains, pushing them into a higher tax bracket. So, hearing it from me when I wasn't trying to talk them into doing a mortgage. I had nothing to do with doing a new mortgage. I think helped in each of those cases them retain the client's funds, which saved that client those clients tens of thousands of dollars that they would have had to pay to the IRS. I have a saying you don't have to have your house paid off to retire, you just have to have enough eggs in your basket.

Speaker 2: 27:07

And sometimes it's better not to have the house paid off. I know I have a client and they were like, yeah, we're going to pay cash for a house. And I'm like, before you do that, you need to talk to a lender, you need to weigh the options so you make an informed decision for what's best for you.

Speaker 3: 27:26

Right, and I usually recommend talking to a lender, a financial advisor and a CPA.

Speaker 2: 27:32

The importance of sitting down with Steve or someone like Steve and understanding what it is you're doing, because it is a complicated business. It's not one size fits all and I think a lot of people think it's one size fits all and it isn't.

Speaker 3: 27:50

You know, having a level of trust. I mean, obviously your clients wholly trust both of you and I want my clients to trust me. The majority of my business comes from past clients. I just had a email come in just a few minutes ago from a client that he bought his first home with me 10 years ago and and he was looking at getting my advice on turning that house into a rental and buying another home. Well, the first thing I'm going to do is probably recommend him having a conversation with the two of you on, first and foremost, you turn a owner occupied home into a rental and then you keep it as a rental too long you just turn that into.

Speaker 3: 28:31

You lost the tax benefit of selling a home tax-free with the exemption.

Speaker 3: 28:38

So the fact of him doing that, yes, he could get some added equity by holding onto the home, but at the same time it might cost him a lot of time, effort and tax benefit to keep it.

Speaker 3: 28:52

And he actually has a disability rating too, which means it's highly likely I can do a second VA loan for him to purchase a new home that he can do as little as zero down on, even though he already has a VA loan. I've actually done loans for people where they've had three VA loans and so it's not a guarantee. It's all based on what their current balance is on their existing loan. But this gentleman bought his home many years ago when the limits were much lower, so I know his mortgage balance isn't going to be that great. So that's the nice thing with the VA loans that a lot. It amazes me of how often I'm meeting with someone and I ask them if they're a veteran and they've owned two or three homes they've never used a VA loan because no one ever brought it up and the banks and the credit unions they're typically not going to bring that up.

Speaker 2: 29:42

Now you just said two VA loans, so I thought you needed to have the certificate that is only good for one VA loan at a time.

Speaker 3: 29:55

No, it's based on a limit, a loan limit, and so if someone has a VA loan and they're buying another home, they typically will have them write a letter of explanation that they're buying a larger home because now they have kids or they're buying down because their kids are out of the house. I mean some letter of explanation as to why they're buying a second home, and typically the most common thing that people will write is but they plan on selling their home after buying. So I've done many, many, many VA loans for people that already had a VA loan. I actually did one last year where the person had two VA loans. He had a VA loan in Indiana, one in Alaska and he was buying in Washington because it moved, but the limits were good enough to where he could still do that. Once again, it comes down to individual. Everyone's got an individual situation, but those are things that a lot of lenders don't think about asking and looking into judy.

Speaker 2: 30:52

Is there anything else that should ask steve not that I can think of, I just I just keep coming back to. People need to sit down and have these conversations so they understand what their story is, what their picture looks like. And, as you said, that does not cost anything, correct? It doesn't cost anything with you and it doesn't cost anything with us as realtors. And then, once you make your decisions, for us, commissions are negotiable, and so it's just the best way to go sit down with the lender first, then talk to your realtors or, in the case of selling, talk to the realtors first so that you have an idea of the value of your home information is power.

Speaker 3: 31:40

The more information a home seller or home buyer has, better equipped to make the right decision for themselves. So we don't make decisions for them. You don't make someone sell their house or buy a house. It's their decision. We're providing knowledge and experience.

Speaker 1: 31:58

If someone was interested in talking to you about their mortgage or buying or selling, how would they get ahold of you? Steve, buying or selling, how?

Speaker 3: 32:06

will they get ahold of you, steve? Well, my cell number is always the best and that's 206-819-7140. And I actually have a. You know, I used to tell people call 24 hours a day, basically Saturdays, sundays.

Speaker 1: 32:23

The problem is, they did I mean.

Speaker 2: 32:23

I would get calls at 1130 at night.

Speaker 3: 32:25

So now my rule is you can text 24 hours a day and I respond If I see it. Someone texts me at two in the morning and I see it at six or seven in the morning when I wake up I respond. So texting is fantastic During the workday. Obviously, calling is great. People can email me. It's S-O-D-O-N-N-E-L-L at cmghomeloanscom. Yeah, I look forward to talking to while working with you and Judy in the future and hopefully doing getting some clients into homes Well thanks so much, steve.

Speaker 1: 32:59

We really appreciate your expertise on this. I think it'd be really helpful folks. So if you're interested in mortgage information, contact Steve. If you want to know the value of your home, contact Judy or I. We do it free and I tell you we'll be more accurate than, say, zillow or Redfin will be Okay for sure. Okay, all right, that's it. Thanks for watching and or listening to Getting your Edge Out to Right Size your Home and Life podcast. Thanks, steve O'Donnell from CMG Mortgages. Bye-bye, bye-bye.