Video Transcription
“Hi.
Chris Lamm with Commerce Home Mortgage. This is the Market Update for the month of June. Thank you guys for checking out this Market Update.
I want to cover three topics.
Of course, we always talk about mortgage rates and what they are doing. In the last seven or eight weeks, mortgage bonds, or mortgage-backed securities, which is what controls the movement in mortgage rates on a daily basis, have really had a rally in them and if you’ve watched the news, the financial news has had a lot of news over the last seven weeks. What that is doing is it’s pushing rates to lows, probably some of the lowest points we’ve seen this year, certainly since the election.
Government loans are well back into the threes. This is pretty exciting news for people that are out there buying. The market is really, really hot right now, so we’re definitely seeing a lot of activity and buyers are taking advantage of these low rates.
The second thing that I wanted to talk about … We have a lot of clients that, when they are going to do their refinance, ask us questions about their home value and what the appraiser is really going to look at. I felt like this would be really a good thing for you if you are thinking about refinancing or when you go to sell your house. The things that most appraisers have told me over the years … Number one, a lot of people think they have to clean their house and have it spotless. The reality is that is not the case. Of course it doesn’t hurt to pick up the toys so the appraiser doesn’t trip over them when he is measuring the house, but for the most part what he is going to be looking at is the square footage, the amenities of the home, and he is going to be making sure that the public records match the condition and that he goes out there and gets an onsite view of the property. He is going to measure it and make sure that he sees the property.
Now, one really important thing I wanted to talk about today … We’ve had a lot of clients over the years that have unpermitted square footage in their home and it’s not uncommon. We’ve had a lot of clients over the years that have either converted their basement or their garage into something that they are going to do with Air B&B or have a family member live there and there is nothing wrong with that from the lending perspective. The one thing you want to keep in mind is don’t be shocked when the appraiser does not give it value or add it to the overall square footage of the home. This can be sometimes frustrating to some clients because the unpermitted addition is in really good shape and it is to the same quality as the rest of the home. Unless it’s permitted, they cannot add that to the overall square footage. Keep that in mind if you ever think of converting something into square footage. You want to make sure you get it permitted if you expect that to be a part of the overall footprint of your house.
Last but not least, we just wanted to congratulate all the graduates out there. It’s an exciting time of year. I certainly remember what it was like for me.
And we just wanted to touch on our Waterworks client appreciation event. It is coming up in early August. We are going to send out a mailer. We had an amazing turnout last year, probably about 450 people. This year, one of our loan officers, Jason, is going to be doing some barbecuing. He’s got a new side business, phenomenal craft barbecuing. We hope to see you all there and of course if you guys ever need anything or have questions regarding anything real estate or lending-related, I hope you know you can call me any time.
That’s it for this month. Have a great day. We’ll talk to you soon.”