4 Financial Benefits of Owning a Home

Owning a home provides many benefits, and here some some of the key financial advantages homeownership offers.

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Owning a home brings with it many benefits, but there are four specific financial advantages you should know about if you’re thinking of making the jump to homeownership: 

1. You will have a fixed mortgage cost instead of rental costs that could rise from month to month. This means you won’t have to worry about your landlord deciding to raise your rent and giving you a deadline to start paying it before they find a new renter. 
2. Owning a home builds equity, which means you can build money over time just by making your monthly mortgage payment and living in your house over the years. This is especially true in our Denver market, which is appreciating at an astronomical rate—some people have been able to gain as much as $80,000 in one year. 
3. You can build wealth without paying capital gains. 
4. A mortgage can act as a forced savings account. As you pay your monthly mortgage, some of that goes toward your interest and some of it goes toward paying down the balance. Over time, though, you’re paying off your house, and that acts as a savings account. 

Owning a home gives you more opportunities to make more money.

Overall, homeowners can put themselves into a better wealth category because you’re giving yourself more opportunity to make money. Studies have shown that people who own homes have 45x greater wealth than those who rent. This makes all the sense in the world to me because I equate renting with taking your money and flushing it down the toilet. 

Some people claim that renting eliminates certain other costs like paying taxes or making repairs to the property, but don’t be fooled into thinking that renting is cheaper. You can be sure that landlords add those kinds of costs into the overall rent. 

The bottom line is that owning a home has always been a better option than renting. If you have any questions about the benefits of homeownership or you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in our market, don’t hesitate to contact me. I’d love to help you out.

Separating Mortgage Fact From Fiction

Have you received a letter with an offer that seemed too good to be true? Today I wanted to clear the air to separate fact from fiction when it comes to these types of offers.

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I'm joined today by VP Regional Underwriting Manager, Scott Strong, to help me separate fact from fiction in the world of mortgages. 

Have you ever received a letter in the mail that says you're pre-approved, pre-selected, don't need an appraisal, and that you can get up to 95% cash out? These are the kinds of things we want to discuss to help keep you from wasting your time and having your credit pulled unnecessarily. 

We're currently not aware of any FHA or conventional loans that offer cash out up to 95% of appraised value. It's simply fake! Now, some programs will allow you to bypass an appraisal. FHA loans typically streamline, so you don't need an appraisal, but not all loans are like this. When you do a streamline, there are costs associated with it. 

There's no such thing as getting something for nothing.

When you see 'zero closing cost options available,' know that there are actually some. However, this typically happens on a case-by-case basis, so you need to meet with your Loan Officer. It doesn't really have anything to do with underwriting. The same typically goes when you see something like 'no application fees.'

I always tell my clients that there's no such thing as getting something for nothing. Somewhere along the line in a loan, you're going to pay for it. I don't want anything to be hidden from clients, so I want you to be very well informed. We don't want you to get suckered into a bad deal for lack of asking the right questions—talk to your loan professional to get the facts.

If you have any questions I can help you with, please don't hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I'd be happy to help however I can. 

Why Work With Fairway Independent Mortgage?

Why work with my team at Fairway Independent Mortgage? I could give you thousands of reasons, but today I wanted to focus on some of the biggest benefits you'll see by working with us.

Buying a home?  Get a free home scouting report

Looking for a home loan?  Start a mortgage application

Why use Fairway Independent Mortgage? There are thousands of reasons I could tell you, but today I wanted to focus on some of the most important ones.

1. Ease of transaction: Dealing with lenders and banks can be tough because of all the documentation you have to deal with and the fact that sometimes, there's just no communication. With our team, we care about you and we know what it feels like to be on the other side of it. 
2. In-house underwriting: Out of 502 branches of Fairway, our team has a designated regional underwriter in-house with a team of six people. If we have a question, we don't have to send it to Wisconsin or anything; we can just walk down the hall and speak to our underwriters. If you know anything about underwriting and getting loans approved, you know having them in-house is amazing.
3. We offer a 20-day close guarantee: If you get into a competitive situation and you're dealing with someone who is looking for a buyer who can close fast on the house, we guarantee a 20-day close. If we don't close in 20 days, we offer $100 dollars toward your closing costs for each day after.
If we don't close your loan in 20 days, we'll pay $100 per day extra toward your closing costs.
4. We have a team: It's not just me trying to do everything; we have a team of six people who will guide you on the path to homeownership. It's a journey that changes, which means you need guides.
5. Over-the-top service: We're not satisfied unless you're satisfied. If we have to work late or be here early to ensure your deal is done, we will. We won't sacrifice service on any loan. We want to be the team that you refer to family and friends.
6. I'm a military mortgage specialist: I'm very good at VA loans and I love helping our veterans out, and I've also become a reverse mortgage specialist. That means I can help seniors make better choices with their homes to give them a better life. We also support the American Warrior Initiative, and I personally support C-CORP, which helps people who need food in our community. A percentage of each loan I close goes to each of the charities I support because I believe in them wholeheartedly. 

If you have any other questions about why you should work with us, I could talk to you for hours. Just give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to helping you!