Mortgage Mario & Realtor Dana J Smith video transcript
Hello everyone this is Mario Cardenas
aka Mortgage Mario the proud owner owner
of mortgagemario.com i have realtor Dana
on the zoom call with me how are you
doing today Dana
hi i’m great mario thanks for having me
it is a pleasure and honor to have you
here thank you for waking up early to be
on this call i know that you have a lot
of business you got to take care of so
we can keep this short and sweet but uh
dan if you have the um you know pleasure
of introducing yourself and your
business and kind of just explaining a
little bit of um what makes your your
business great and how how you can help
your your clients in the buying the
selling process of real estate
okay hey yeah great so i am dana smith
and i am a realtor with atlanta
communities um here in cartersville i do
work out of the cartersville office
uh and this coming up january i will
have been in the business for eight
years
um i started out with keller williams
like most agents do because i mean they
do have offer great training um and i
worked on the team as a buyer’s agent so
i had about four years
experience just working completely with
buyers i did a couple listings for
friends but
the majority of my business started out
um just working only with buyers
um when i left keller williams i left
the team i was on and went to atlanta
communities as a solo agent
and since i’ve done that i love being
atlanta communities is a great
brokerage great office we have great
people
um
lots of help lots of uh information
classes that they give us uh just a
great family uh environment they make um
they make everyone feel very welcome
um but since i’ve been with them i have
stepped into a little bit more of the
listing side so i am trying to get a
little bit more listing uh experience
that i probably have done several
since i’ve stepped out on my own
um
most people who are in this business uh
even people who are looking to buy hoes
know that now is uh it has been for pat
the past several months extremely
difficult time for buyers oh yeah
yeah prices have skyrocketed
uh they’re just they’re insane and i’ve
actually even told some buyers look
let’s just lay low for a couple months
see how it goes because uh it is very
competitive very hard out here
and um and i and i’m sure there’s pretty
a lot of asians like me but i know there
are some that are not but i uh i work
with the mindset of
i’m going to treat people the way i
would want someone to treat me and i
want to be fair very honest and i don’t
believe in people paying more for
something if it’s not worth it
um so when i tell people i’ve told some
buyers let’s just not stop looking for a
couple months let’s just wait because i
don’t want people spending their
hard-earned money for something that
is they’re really overpaying it um
and i know that may sound crazy to some
people but i it just i’m not like that
yeah do i want to make money in this
business of course but i also want
people to be happy in the long run uh
and not a couple years from now say you
know you got me by this house it wasn’t
worth what i paid for so
um it’s been an extremely challenging
time for buyers
um i do see it’s slowing down a little
bit now prices are starting to come down
just a little bit i don’t think they’re
probably going to get back to where they
were you know a year ago but they are
starting to come down just a little bit
the market is starting to slow down some
um
and it’s still if you’re a seller it’s a
great time you know for a seller to sell
at home if you have somewhere to go yeah
you know that being said you got to have
somewhere to go
um but yeah i i enjoy what i do uh i
love it i don’t think i could ever go
back to a regular 9 to 5 job
i love helping people
buy their dream home and listening to
what their wants and their needs are
their desires
and matching them up with that perfect
property that will make them happy in
the long run
yeah it is really um rewarding to see
them go through the house hunting
process and it can be stressful for you
know buyers mainly on the buyer’s side
maybe not so much on the listing side
but it can be stressful you know find
the perfect home it’s a big purchase
decision but um you know that’s kind of
what the loan officer in the realtor for
is just take away some of that stress
from them and to you know do a lot of
the legwork and negotiating so
you can get them into the perfect house
but it’s extremely rewarding once you
like finally get from the closing table
and you hand them the keys to the palace
so i think that’s kind of what um gets
me up out of bed in the morning and
makes this uh very rewarding because
sometimes the people would see like you
know what a realtor does in the backend
or a loan officer you’re like why would
why would you do that like
right right
on the weekends and um you know late at
night and you’re you’re showing houses
when you know i’m sure you’re you have
family get-togethers you’re missing on
um you know certain event
wouldn’t want to um miss on the normal
nine to five employee
um right miss on but i think that’s kind
of what keeps us going uh at the end of
the day so what have you been doing so
that’s good so you said you’ve seen
things on the buy side slow down a
little bit has it been
such an extreme seller’s market
obviously
relative to the you know ever since the
housing market’s been around i think
we’re still kind of considered more into
a seller’s market but things that from
from what you’ve communicated to me that
things have dialed down a little bit so
what what would you tell the buyers from
that perspective um maybe that are
holding out
well yeah i think it’s starting to slow
down just a little bit because i i think
buyers got fed up this is you know my
honest opinion i think buyers got fed up
and just said we’re not paying these you
know ridiculous prices for
these homes that three months ago was
not you know it was
20 000 less than what is you know worth
now so um
you know especially you know you got a
lot of millennials now buying homes a
lot of you know the younger generations
and they’re just you know they’re a
different breed and they’re just you
know saying we’re not gonna overpay for
a home
um but like i said i do see prices
starting to come down just so you know
drop just a little bit um
so uh which is a good sign again i don’t
think it’s going to go back to where we
were you know six months ago
um but there is starting to be a little
dip uh in some of the homes and even uh
i listed a house
just this past week in covington and
when i was doing my research on looking
up comparables uh homes are staying on
the market a little bit longer in that
particular area um they’re set on the
market a little bit longer than we saw
you know a few months ago as well too
um but it you know buyers that i’m
working with now you know i try to get
them uh one with what a great lender i
do get buyers sometimes who you know
have their they’ve already gone through
the um talk to a lender
and if it’s someone i don’t know someone
i haven’t you know had experience with i
do have a conversation with that lender
um and if you know i try to get them to
someone who i know
uh does a great job and you know like we
were talking about early it’s very
important to support local and we have
some great local lenders um you know
around here
um
because having
anthony
we all know having a great lender it
makes all the difference in the world
uh it makes i mean it it could make or
break your deal so
and it’s crazy like the concept to think
of like hey
you know you’re you’re you’re you’re
being loaned out five hundred thousand
dollars do you do you want the guy
that’s in your backyard where you can
walk up to their office right nine ask
them questions and after the loan
process is over where you can still use
them as a resource or you want something
on the internet across the country and
you know if your deal gets blown or they
they you know they give you a bad deal
obviously then they’re they’re long gone
i mean it’s not it’s not a difficult
concept
right
yeah having that open communication is
very important and you know with some of
these big corporation lenders you never
talk to the same person on the phone
right uh when you do finally get
somebody on the phone oh that’s not my
department let me get back to you so
yeah it can be very challenging um with
some of these bigger mortgage companies
but so having a great um you know lender
uh is very very important um you know i
would also advise buyers you know try to
go ahead go through the underwriting
process because that can help your offer
look you know look a little bit stronger
um i have a great inspector that i work
with that um can quickly you know like
the very next day can do inspections so
that that can help a buyer out having uh
that resource readily available as well
um
yeah and if you know and we all know you
know if you can go conventional that’s
the way to go you know right now fha i
think it’s a great program you where i
live we you know we are uh usda uh
territory
um which i know a lot of lenders don’t
do georgia dream is another one um
you know so there’s there’s several
options out here for buyers um
yeah so i’ve come across obviously um a
lot of fha borrowers because the
qualifications are a little bit lower
and you know you can have a higher dti
lower credit score
and it has deterred it being a seller’s
market has deterred a lot of fha
borrowed borrowers have you had any
experience with any of your fha
borrowers getting their offers accepted
uh unfortunately i have not uh i’ve had
some fha buyers that we’ve been looking
for you know six seven months now here
but but they’re um
some of them price points are pretty low
so it’s very hard inventory is is really
hard and uh
you know nowadays if if you’re looking
below 250 is is almost impossible to
find now
um
so it has been very hard for my fha
buyers um yeah very hard okay
but you know i think with some uh you
know
i think an email came out the other day
and mario you you can definitely speak
more about this than i can but you know
some of the fha restrictions changed i
believe
um
uh i just kind of glanced at the email
cause i was in the middle of something
they’re supposed to increase the loan
limits right
2021 i’m not exactly sure what the off
the top of my head what it’s going to be
but right now that range is in georgia
it’s anywhere around 356 to 418 purchase
price and um that’s not counting the
upfront mortgage insurance premium that
gets financed into the loan
um but yeah they’re supposed to increase
that and then also one thing that’s
helped me with some a lot of people that
tend to have fa fha loans have a lot of
student debt
and one thing that’s helped me i think i
believe it was in august said um 2021 so
really recently the fhfa
um you know
redid the guidelines for determining uh
student loan debt so
i believe it was typically around one
percent of the student loan debt where
you have to include the monthly dti but
they actually lowered those restrictions
and that allowed me to qualify
um you know some of some of my clients
so that’s good but the rules are
constantly evolving and so yeah that’s
very important why your lender
wants to stay on top of all the
different rules because it’s like
ah there’s just there’s just a bucket
load of rules and regulations and then
you have to remember all those and um
you know you know make sure that you
know each each loan product has its own
set of rules and then and then they
constantly evolve and change fhfa
continuously um amends those so but yeah
and a good lender will obviously work
with the realtor to make sure that we’re
up to date with all those regulations
right
right yeah
yeah but yeah i will once that once that
number comes out i know for um
conforming conventional loans they have
up that to about 625
250 i think
not
625 plus so
um that’s good so we there’s a little
bit more uh me and the bone right there
and i think a lot of that just it’s just
to keep up with the market because the
house is on average i believe in 2020
appreciated um 29
so if the houses are going to appreciate
that much the price points that high
they’re gonna have to raise the loan uh
limits for all these um conforming loans
like that’s right just to keep up with
the rate appreciation uh and also the
rate of inflation so um those these
rules are constantly uh evolving just to
adapt with the the current uh housing
market so right
yeah
it’s a challenging time but it you know
it’s also a great time uh you know one
of the first things i tell my buyers
when we start looking is you gotta have
patience i mean you gotta have patience
but it can happen it may take a little
time but it will happen so um oh yeah oh
yeah so well that’s that’s awesome um
thank you for being on the show this
morning i i appreciate it and
um i’m happy to hear that yeah you gotta
put the plug in mine and um if i don’t
see you until uh christmas uh merry
christmas
merry christmas to you too yeah and i’m
happy to hear that the business is going
well and that you’re safe and uh your
family’s doing well so yep yeah thank
you oh
uh cool dale have a wonderful day thanks
you too