MAKE IT LOOK GOOD, SMELL GOOD, AND FEEL GOOD—YOUR CARPET AND YOUR MORTGAGE TERMS
Most decisions we make are based out of the heart and the emotions rather than logic. But when it looks good, smells good AND feels good, you can bet the deal IS GOOD. In this episode of Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe you will get some tips on how to make your mortgage loan terms feel good and how to make it look good to the underwriter approving your request. We’re going to talk with Jeri Jeffries of Tiger Paws Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning about some things you can do to keep your carpets looking, smelling and feeling good too.
If you have questions or comments, please contact me at (901) 482-0354 or jo@192.232.195.219 To your success, Jo Garner
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Good morning, Memphis! Good morning from coast-to-coast and each of the fair cities in between—not leaving you out in Alaska and Hawaii. You’re on Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe and I’m your host, Jo Garner, Mortgage Loan Officer. You can connect with me at www.JoGarner.com or just email me at jo@192.232.195.219 . If you’re on twitter send me your comments or questions at hashtag #JoGarner so we can answer you on the air.
During this April 9th, 2016 show you will get some tips on how to make your mortgage loan terms feel good and how to make it look good to the underwriter approving your request. We’re going to talk with Jeri Jeffries of Tiger Paws Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning about some things you can do to keep your carpets looking, smelling and feeling good too. You are invited to join us with your real estate questions and comments by calling while we are live at (901) 535-9732 and outside the Memphis area (800) 474-9732.
Jeri Jeffries of Tiger Paws Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning is sitting at the table having coffee again this morning. I always learn something new from this lady. Jeri, you have done some work for some of our listeners and me too. I have heard about your quality of your service and at a fair price too. You have done an outstanding job for me personally. It’s great having you back around the coffee table. Tell us a little bit about yourself, what keeps you in the carpet cleaning business and what you do for your customers.
(Jo) Most or our listeners have heard how I got in the mortgage business. I started out as a very young entrepreneur at around 13 years old in the lawn and landscaping business. My mother did the bookkeeping for me and my dad helped me keep the equipment running. Some business people in our church also gave me some guidance that helped make that business a huge success. I worked for realtors, builders and property managers. After graduating from Union University, I sold the company and it didn’t take long to find my passion which was putting together financing deals for people buying real estate. I love to find just the right mortgage loan for my clients and then attend their closing so I can celebrate with them on one of the most significant purchases they will ever make in their lives. And my referring partners are still realtors , builders and property managers—and it means so much to get referrals from my clients too.
⦁ When you get that house and the mortgage terms that looks good, smells good and feels good, you know you got a deal that IS GOOD. The mortgage market was all of that this week with rates dipping down yesterday to lower than they have been on a Friday in 3 years. (February 10th and 11th they were that low but it wasn’t at the end of the week.)30YR FIXED – 3.625% to 3.75%; 15 YEAR FIXED – low 3’s and some of the government FHA, Veteran Loans, USDA Rural Housing loans are really low too. And jumbo loan rates for loan higher than $417,000 are looking very attractive. If you haven’t considered how much money you can save by shortening the term of your loan, lowering your mortgage payments or consolidating some variable rate debt or higher interest rate debt, let’s talk. Call me personally after this show at (901) 482-0354 (901) 482-0354 or if you want to talk with me on the air while we are live, call (901) 535-9732 or (800) 474-9732.
(Jo) It’s not hard to make the mortgage terms feel good with the rates being as low as they are this week. It is important that the amount of the mortgage payment is low enough to allow the family to save for the future and give to others. There is more to life than making a house note. If your house note with taxes and insurance and mortgage insurance and any association fees does not go over 25% of your total gross income, and your house note with other debts like car loans or credit card debts do not exceed 38% to 40% of your gross income, you should have some room to do some really fun things in life and enjoy living in your home too.
The mortgage underwriting software these days evaluate key factors in your loan file, like funds left for emergencies in your bank account after you have allowed for paying whatever you have to pay at the loan closing table. Having some liquid funds left in case of an emergency is one of the most important factors on your loan file. Next is credit. You will probably need a minimum of 640 for a credit score. An okay score is around 680. But your better mortgage rate pricing is for borrowers with a 700 score or higher especially if the score is at least 740. If there are several positive factors appearing on your file, sometimes the mortgage software will preapprove a loan with debt ratios over 50% of the borrower’s gross income. But you probably don’t want to go that high with your payment unless there is additional income you have coming in that could help pay your monthly obligations.
Sometimes my clients will opt to give their carpets a good cleaning instead of trying to get new carpet just so they CAN keep more money in their bank accounts . Jeri Jeffries, how can you help home sellers and home buyers in this situation?
____2nd segment after 9:15 break: It’s time for the Look Back Memphis Trivia Contest. The Look Back Memphis Trivia Contest is brought to you by notable Memphis historian, Jimmy Ogle. Jimmy offers free historic walking tours in downtown Memphis in the spring and fall. To find out more, ask Jimmy at www.JimmyOgle.com . Our Look Back Memphis Trivia Contest is sponsored by John and Jennifer Lawhon of Lawhon Landscape (901) 754-7474 the Lawhon’s can help you plan your landscaping if you have a BIG, BIG project or a smaller project . The Lawhons are giving away a $25 gift card to the first person with the correct trivia answer. If you know the answer to the Look Back Memphis Trivia Question, call us on the air at (901) 535-9732. 800 474-9732
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Garner # 74 04/01/16
Walnut Grove
Question: I am a main east/west thoroughfare in Memphis with a pretty name. Who am I?
Hint: I was named for a residence built in East Memphis in 1918.
Hint: One of my owners introduced cultivated azaleas to the Memphis area in 1922.
Hint: From 1958 to 1961, residents of the area fought to not have me designated a Federal highway.
Final Hint: The owners of my home have the last name Norfleet.
Answer: Walnut Grove Road. Walnut Grove Road received its name from the home built by Jesse Peders Norfleet and Elise Vance Norfleet in 1918. A dirt road for many years, Walnut Grove actually came to a stop at White Station Road though most of the 20th century; and discontinued for two blocks to Oak Grove until 1961. At that time, the City Limits ended just east of Yates Road, and the I-240 South portion was being constructed to Poplar Avenue. In 1964 Walnut Grove was extended over the Wolf River and bisected the Shelby County penal Farm property all the way to Germantown Road, then a two lane road in Shelby County. The name “Walnut Grove” came from the cluster of walnut trees that existed in the area between Perkins Road and White Station Road. The Norfleets owned about 100 acres in this area, too.
Jesse Norfleet graduated from Vanderbilt and worked at Sledge & Norfleet Company, one of the pioneering cotton firms in Memphis. He was also head of the Clover Leaf Dairy Farm, which supplied Memphis with about one-third of its dairy products. He was very influential in the cotton business and financial circles in Memphis for more than fifty years. Elise Norfleet did introduce cultivated azaleas to Memphis in 1922.
Jimmy Ogle gives free outdoor walking tours on the sidewalks and parks in Downtown Memphis during the Spring and Autumn of each year, with the next tour being the Great Union Avenue Manhole Cover & History Tour at 11:45am on Tuesday, April 5; the Bridge Walk on the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge on at 2pm on Sunday, April 24; the Fairgrounds Walking Tour at 2pm on Sunday, April 17 (assemble at the Coliseum). The D’Army Bailey County Courthouse Tour (indoors): Third Thursday each month at 12:00 noon – the next being Thursday, April 21.
Go to jimmyogle.com for the 2016 Spring Season schedule and location
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QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY JERI JEFFRIES:
⦁ Jeri talks about the special deal she have for our radio and podcast listeners on getting their carpets cleaned in the Memphis area.
2. What services do you offer through the Tiger Paws business?
3. What are some of the advantages of using a professional carpet cleaning service vs doing it yourself? (a) the extraction service pumps the dirt and grime out to the Tiger Paws van and doesn’t leave it to clog up your drains in the house. (b) Tiger Paws uses commercial grade cleaners with specific chemicals to clean the specific fibers in your carpet. For example, you never want to use hot water on wool fibers.
4. What processes do you use and how do you decide which job needs which service?
⦁ What do you do with hardwood floors and leather cleaning?
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QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY JO GARNER :What are some tips to set borrowers on get their loan looking and smelling clean and feeling right for a home purchase or refinance?
First of all the mortgage terms must FEEL good to the borrower. I heard a realtor say many years ago, “you want a mortgage payment that is comfortable to pay so you can ENJOY making the payment and living in the house that is your home.” Those wise words have stuck with me. The current mortgage underwriting software can sometimes preapprove clients with house payments over 40% of their gross income and even over 50% of their gross income. But most people want to live life, go out with family and friends, take a vacation—not be handcuffed to the house note each month. You may have read books by financing gurus that say conservatively you should keep your house note under 25% of your gross income and total debts including the house note should not exceed 38% to 40% of your gross income. The comfort level on these amounts varies from person to person. Leave enough room to invest in the future, save for emergencies, and give to others—you should be happy.
Now, to look good and feel good to a mortgage underwriter, you need to have acceptable credit scores, preferably some reserve money left in the bank after closing and an income-to-debt ratio that meets the loan program guidelines—whichever program you end up using. Some mortgage lenders want to see a minimum 640 credit score but there are some exceptions to that rule. An average score is around 680. The best deals on interest rates are for people with scores in the 700’s—especially over 740. These are mortgage FICO scores and not scores that you get on the consumer sites like credit karma and others. The mortgage FICO formulas tend to have lower FICO scores than the consumer sites.
Money in the bank tends to be more important to underwriters and the underwriting software than having low income-to-debt ratios. I guess the logic is that if you have money sitting around in the bank, you could always opt to pay off debt if you got in a crunch. But talk to an experienced lender before you start paying down and paying off debt to dress up your loan application.
I remember a number of occasions where a client called me and said, “Hey, my wife and I are so excited! We have decided to stop paying our landlord’s mortgage and buy something for ourselves. Oh, by the way, we managed over the last year to save up enough money to pay off ALL of our credit cards. We don’t have any money left, but we don’t have any debt. We should be good, right?”
NOT!! First of all, most underwriters like to see that you have some funds left in your account after closing because it costs money to move from one house to another house and they don’t want you to miss your first house note. Also, roughly 35% of your credit scores are made up of how you use your revolving accounts or credit cards. Good for you that hopefully you have made your payments on time, but if you pay off all of your debt, the creditors have nothing to report and eventually you could see your credit scores go down and not up. Currently the credit scoring algorithms reward you with higher scores if you keep the owed balances on your revolving accounts BELOW 30% of your total credit limit. There are several other little tricks that can help you pump your scores up quickly, but it varies from person to person.
I am happy to look at this with you, but you have to call me personally. I want to work with you personally but you have to call ME. You can reach me directly at 901 482-0354 901 482-0354 or email me at jo@192.232.195.219
⦁ What if you are that person who has good credit? Are there any special perks for people with good credit ?
I am glad you asked. If you are that person who has good credit the answer is YES, there are SEVERAL perks for you. When it comes to mortgage loan types, one size does NOT fit all. If you are talking to a 1-800 number, the person you are talking to may miss offering you some of these money-saving perks that can give you some bragging rights.
First of all, if you have at least 5% to put down on a home purchase and you have credit scores 700 or higher, we need to compare terms on an FHA government program to a conventional Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac program. Here’s why. Under the new guidelines, if you put less than 10% down on a home purchase on a 30 year FHA loan, not only are you going to pay 1.75% of your loan amount which will be added to your loan balance, but you pay for the ENTIRE TERM OF THE LOAN the monthly FHA mortgage insurance—which does not help you.
Let me give you an example. I had a client with scores over 740 that called me up the other day and wanted to buy a house for around $140,000. He said he had some money to put down, but not much. He asked for an FHA loan and said he would put down the minimum 3.5% on the 30 year plan. But he had a little over 5% easily accessible to him. I showed him that buying the house with the FHA loan, he could get in for just 3.5% of the price if the seller paid his closing costs and prepaid taxes and insurance, but he would have the upfront FHA mortgage insurance of 1.75% of the sales price or $2,450 added to his loan –eating up his equity on day one. He would also be required to pay about 96/mo for the life of the loan. It would never drop off. Whereas, if he used the conventional Fannie or Freddie Mac loan program, he would put down 5% of the price and whatever little bit the sellers could not pay as a down payment. He would have no upfront mortgage insurance and he would only pay $41/mo in monthly mortgage insurance which would drop off completely once the loan was paid down under 78% to 80% loan-to-value. Actually he would have paid more like $60/mo but since he had good credit scores, I could use a special deal I have available through a private mortgage insurance company that dropped the monthly part from $60 per month to $41 per month. Sweet deal for the borrower.
Another perk for people with good credit is that most loan programs will offer them the very best mortgage rates right off the bat. Most of your conventional programs either offer higher mortgage rates to people with lower credit scores or they price up the cost of the good rates if the borrowers credit scores are lower. The government FHA, VA and Rural Housing loans do not penalize the borrowers with the lower credit scores so drastically. But if you have high credit scores, talk with me. I have jumbo loans over 417,000 and other special programs through the bank that you can try on for size. You will look good and feel good about finding that perfect loan deal that rewards you for your good credit. Call me and let’s make your plan, work your plan. If the deal works for you today, let’s do it today.
REAL ESTATE TIP OF THE WEEK: (Jeri shared examples of where she has been able to thoroughly clean a carpet and make it look good, smell good and feel good so that the home seller could pay a little for cleaning before selling instead of lot of money to replace the carpet.)
Announcements: 1. Talk Shoppe offers free education and networking to anyone interested in real estate or business. This Wednesday April 13th 2016 Talk Shoppe will be presenting YMCA scholarships for swimming lessons to some Colonial School students who won the poster and essay contests. Thank you to the generous people at Talk Shoppe for your generosity in making this happen and thank you to Talk Shoppe’s Charity Chairman, Lynn McDonald of Erin McDonald Insurance Agency (901) 849-7101. Thanks to Talk Shoppe’s advertisers, Talk Shoppe if free to you for the next 2 months. For more information about Talk Shoppe, go to www.TalkShoppe.com
⦁ 2. To hear today’s podcast of the Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe and others, go to ⦁ www.JoGarner.com
-3. “MAKE YOUR PLAN, WORK YOUR PLAN. IF THE DEAL WORKS FOR YOU TODAY, DO IT TODAY.”
4. Thank you to Mary Lou Nowak, Home Helpers for your financially supporting Talk Shoppe so that it is free to others. Mary Lou is sponsoring an event that will educate and empower– Home Helpers, Mid-South Orthopaedic, Memphis YMCA and Mid-South Medical and Mobility are sponsoring a 55+ Mobility Event on April 12, 2016 at 10am. A mobility mechanic will be on hand to make adjustments to equipment while Jason Ward, Physical Therapist, Connie Binkowitz, Program Director of Mid-South YMCA’s and Mary Lou of Home Helpers will be speaking on mobility topics. Light refreshments will be served. It is located at Mid-South Mobility retail location: 690 S. Mendenhall Rd, Memphis.
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QUOTE CORNER: “Beauty attracts the eye but personality captures the heart” Pinterest
“A diamond is a chunk of coal that did well under pressure.” Henry Kissinger
REJOINERS:
JEFF AND HEIDI ROSS, SHOWHOMES MEMPHIS (901) 831-1177
EVE SOTIRIOU, WATERVILLE MAINE LITERACY GROUP
SALLY BAKER, PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZER, ESTATE SALE PLANNER AND EVENT COORDINATOR WITH THE SOURCE IN MEMPHIS (901) 258-4775
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Transitional Music: “Magic Carpet Ride” by Steppenwolf; “ I Feel Good” James Brown; That’s The Way I Like It” by KC and The Sunshine Band; “Memphis” by Johnny Rivers for the Look Back Memphis Trivia Contest
ABOUT JERI JEFFRIES OF TIGER PAWS CARPET CLEANING & UPHOLSTERY:
I believe in providing a quality service for a fair price and standing behind my work. Honesty has always been my key to success. Additional Organizations where I am involved:
Memphis Restaurant Association, Greater Memphis Chamber, BNI, Food Service Connection, MMHLA
My back ground is in several types of businesses and industries — I have done everything from fast food, to selling vacuum cleaners door to door, to working in the resin and fiber glass industry to commercial pest control, to selling paint jobs for a local paint contractor and now I am here. I decided it might be nice to work for myself. To buy a business, that I could grow for my family. My kids, and their kids
ABOUT JO GARNER-MORTGAGE LOAN OFFICER:
www.JoGarner.com (901) 482 0354 jo@192.232.195.219 twitter @jogarner
Jo’s job description: “As a mortgage loan officer, my job is to give my client the benefits they want from their financing terms—listening to my client and determine what’s of the most value to THEM– What is their comfort level on a house payment, how much are they comfortable paying down, what type of financing do they need to get the house they want to buy or refinance. Different clients have different priorities in life—some are buying their first home with very little down payment funds. Some are recovering from medical challenges, divorces or preparing to send children to college and some are embarking on a long term goal of buying properties to build rental income. Whatever their personal priorities are, my job is to put together a mortgage with comfortable terms that will help them achieve their goals.”
Jo Garner is a mortgage officer with extensive knowledge in tailoring mortgages to her customers who are refinancing or purchasing homes all over the country. She offers conventional, FHA, VA or other loan programs for refinancing and purchases.
Jo can help you look at rent vs buy, when it makes sense to refinance, how to get the best deal on your home purchase financing.
Jo Garner has been in the real estate/financing business since 1987. She got her start in Portland, Maine where she first began her real estate career. She received her real estate education from the University of Southern Maine and was personally mentored in San Diego, California by Robert G. Allen, author of Nothing Down, Creating Wealth and The Challenge.
On moving back to West Tennessee in 1987, she went into business buying and selling discounted owner-financed notes secured on real estate. In 1990 Jo went to work for a residential mortgage company and has been a mortgage loan officer for over 20 years. Her goal is to offer excellent, affordable service to her customers, tailoring the loan programs to the specific needs of her clients.
In addition to her work in the mortgage field, Jo Garner is the primary sponsor and founder of Talk Shoppe in Memphis. www.TalkShoppe.com She was also the editor of Power Shoppe, a free weekly e-zine designed for real estate professionals and others indirectly connected to the real estate industry and currently publishes on her blog www.JoGarner.com .
For real estate financing solutions, plug into Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe. You can find mortgage rates, FHA Streamline refinance with no out-of-pocket costs.