Getting the Best Financing

Finding the right home is your primary goal. Financing it on terms that still feel good a year later is the close second. Over the years I have worked with many of the mortgage brokers and lenders active in the Phoenix-area market, and I know which ones treat my clients well. When you’re ready, I’ll make introductions to several so you can compare in good faith.

The lenders I introduce you to, and why I’m careful about it

A lender is not a commodity. Two lenders quoting the same headline rate can deliver very different experiences: different fees, different willingness to communicate during the loan process, different track records of closing on time. A lender who is slow with documents in the final two weeks can cost you the deal, no matter how attractive the rate looked at the start.

I pay attention to all of that. The lenders I recommend are ones who have closed cleanly for my clients, who answer their phones, and who write loans for the kind of borrower you actually are: a salaried employee, a business owner, a retiree drawing from investments, or anyone whose financial picture is more nuanced than a single W-2. I’ll send you to several so you can compare rates, fees, and how they treat you when you ask questions. The choice is always yours.

Some of my buyers pay cash

Not every purchase is financed. A meaningful share of my buyers pay cash, often from years of careful investing, including in real estate. The path is shorter in some ways (no appraisal contingency, no underwriting timeline, a faster close), and it deserves guidance, too. I’ll walk you through proof-of-funds documentation, how a cash offer is best positioned in a competitive situation, and the title and inspection work that still matter every bit as much as they do on a financed purchase.

Documentation, and not blowing up your credit between contract and closing

Underwriting today is thorough. Expect to provide more documentation than you might guess, and expect requests to keep coming throughout the loan process, not just at the start. The smoothest closings come from buyers who respond to every request as quickly as they can and assume there will be one more.

One quiet warning that catches buyers off guard: most lenders run a final credit check just before closing. Financing a new car, opening a store credit card for the new furniture, or making any large purchase on credit between contract and closing can change your qualifying numbers enough to delay funding, or in rare cases derail it. Save the big purchases for after the keys are in your hand.

On adjustable-rate mortgages

An adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) starts with a fixed-rate period (commonly five, seven, or ten years) and then adjusts on a schedule. Because the lender is committing to the fixed rate for a shorter window, ARMs often price below comparable fixed-rate loans, which can mean a meaningfully lower monthly payment during that initial period.

ARMs can make sense if you have a clear, realistic plan to sell or refinance before the fixed period ends, and the discipline to do it. They make less sense for a home you expect to live in for the long term, because once the adjustment period begins, the rate can move higher than you planned for. If an ARM is on the table, I’ll walk through the trade-off with you in concrete numbers before you decide.

Fees, and your right to question them

Origination charges, processing fees, underwriting fees, document preparation, and the line items that appear alongside them are usually the largest closing-cost category in the transaction. Lenders are required to disclose them clearly, and you are entitled to ask what each one is for, how it was calculated, and whether it can be reduced or waived.

Asking those questions is not rude. It is the conversation a careful buyer should have, and it is one of the reasons I encourage you to compare several lenders rather than accepting the first quote you receive.

When you’re ready to start that conversation, contact me. I’ll make the introductions and stay with you through to closing.