Options are everything!
Business is booming and a large number of first time buyers are entering or coming back to the market. It’s a great time to make that commitment to buy that first house, but in many cases, the buyers don’t get the full story or know ALL of their options. See if any of these sound familiar:
- You are going to need a seller’s contribution to get into a house.
- You can only borrow a certain amount of money.
- You only qualify for this type of program.
People are told these things but are never actually given all of their options or a plan to improve their opportunities! We all know it’s almost impossible to get a seller’s contribution in most markets across the country. So why set that client and the referral partner up for frustration and failure? Was it ever suggested that that client and likely co-borrower entertain taking a part time job to generate additional funds? Two people working a job that even paid $10 an hour could easily generate an extra thousand or two a month. Instead of being frustrated, empower them to solve the problem. It may take a few months or longer to get the cash needed to not needing help from the seller, but isn’t that better than not making any progress at all?
Sometimes credit scores or DTI steps in and becomes a challenge. Instead of just giving the borrowers a smaller loan at a higher rate, what if we used the extra money earned to pay down or pay off debt? That $300 a month car loan with two years left to go can be paid down or off so that $300 can easily become about $70K in additional borrowing power!
What if we are stuck with a limited down payment and need FHA or USDA in order to buy? A couple of thousand dollars a month can quickly grow down payments to 5% or 10% or more! Lower rates, lower or zero MI costs, all possible IF the clients knew they had options!
Think about it. Look back at your preapprovals that are three or more months old and ask yourself; would these people be in a better position to buy if they were banking an additional thousand or two in the bank every month and had a real plan on how to use that money to get their house and under significantly better conditions?
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