Speaker 1: 0:00

The following program. The ENT , mortgage and Realty Show is paid for in full by ENT mortgage, LLC and equal housing lender consumer access.org number 2 5 5 3 6 8. The advice and opinions expressed during the Academic Mortgage and Realty Show are solely that at the hosts and guests of ENT mortgage, LLC, and not WTMJ or Good Karma Brands.

Speaker 2: 0:20

Welcome to the Accu Net Mortgage and Realty Show, getting you inside information on buying, selling, and financing your home with expert advice from Accu Net Mortgage and Realty. And now here's Brian and David Wickers.

Speaker 1: 0:35

Welcome to the Anette Mortgage and Realty Show. I'm Brian Wicker, licensed real Estate broker with ANet Realty Advisors and also the majority owner of Academic Mortgage, where my individual N ML s ID number is 2 5 9 6 1 0. And I'm here again today with my son David, who is the president of Academic Mortgage and his individual NMLS ID number is 3 2 8 8 4 7. Remember, you can get a podcast to today's show and any of our past shows wherever you normally get your podcasts. So, David, what a difference a week makes <laugh> . It was a crazy week for not only stock markets, but also treasury interest rates and mortgage rates as well. Do you wanna kick us off with , uh, kind of a quick summary?

Speaker 3: 1:16

Well , uh, to go back, you know, last week as Tim and I were describing, hey, rates had come down , uh, with the tariff , um, influence and markets had digested that in a way which had led stocks had come down and then, but also mortgage rates and treasury rates had come down as well. That, that, that was a week ago,

Speaker 1: 1:39

Which is kind of the normal, let's call that the normal thing when the stock market is tanking. Usually investors are selling stocks and what are they doing? I'm looking for someplace safe to put my money. I know, right ? I will buy United States Treasury bills and bonds, and it's that 10 year treasury that has the greatest influence on mortgage rates. So things were behaving normally last week.

Speaker 3: 2:05

Then the market kept digesting and completely reversed course. And it , in many ways, dad, I, this isn't my , uh, unique perspective, but markets didn't wanna put their money anywhere. They didn't wanna put money in stocks, didn't even wanna put money in treasuries or bonds or mortgage backed securities. It was just a cash world. Like, you know what, I'm just gonna rip all my money outta everywhere. Felt a lot like Covid when we didn't know what, what to make of the world. Everyone was just like, how's about cash? And so yields and rates whipsawed back the other direction away from the relief that we got over last weekend. And rates kept climbing all week long. Even even with the pause that arrived , uh, on Wednesday that did nothing to relieve for, for our perspective bond markets, if only because the continued , uh, tit for tat with China, it was like, well, it's great that, you know, El Salvador got a break on tariffs. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . But like China's kind of still the not just 800 pound gorilla in the room. Yeah . But like 10 gorillas in the room.

Speaker 1: 3:19

So , uh, interestingly though, some news outlets, including Bloomberg, you know, put out news stories saying mortgage rates are down. 'cause they were quoting Freddie Max week , uh, in arrears average of interest rates. <laugh> . So Freddie Mac comes out with their , hey, over the last week, you know, mortgage rates are better. Well, that's like saying the average temperature over the last week was, you know, 40, but now today it's 60. Yeah. The two don't have anything to do with each other. So don't believe that Freddie Mac , uh, based headline that mortgage rates are down. The reality is that mortgage rates are up , uh, from where they were. And then we also, we caught some breaks on, on usual inflation numbers that would've been mortgage interest rate friendly. Yes. We got the consumer price index. That was a pretty friendly number relative to expectations. Then we got the producer price index number on Friday, which is , uh, inflation at the wholesale level. And I believe that was actually negative, right?

Speaker 3: 4:20

Yes, yes.

Speaker 1: 4:20

Prices driving .

Speaker 3: 4:22

Yep .

Speaker 1: 4:23

Normally that'd be great for mortgage rates, but this got a, I don't care.

Speaker 3: 4:26

Exactly.

Speaker 1: 4:27

A big fat , I don't care.

Speaker 3: 4:29

Well, and it because, because tariffs have been implemented or paused or whatever it might be, but like it hasn't yet arrived down river . And so it is this almost , um, waiting game like inflation. We conquered old inflation it seems based upon the reports this week on CPI and PPI, but we, we don't yet know what new inflation might look like or how bad.

Speaker 1: 4:55

Well, and here's what consumers are thinking. The University of Michigan came out with their monthly , uh, consumer sentiment index also on Friday. And guess what? It wasn't good. People are not feeling good about, you know, their money or their lives with all this uncertainty and a couple of interesting things, the sentiment was down 11% from February down 34% from a year ago. And then they also measure what do consumers expect prices to do over the next year? And by that measurement, consumers are thinking, you know what? I think prices are gonna be 6.7% higher a year from now, and that's not good. It's the highest number, by the way, since 1981. So consumers are thinking tariffs equal higher prices. Well ,

Speaker 3: 5:40

Well, yes. If you double the price of t-shirts from China, it will increase the cost of the T-shirts. That's just, you know, math.

Speaker 1: 5:48

That's basic math. Yeah . And , and so in , in the meantime, you know, in the real, in the real world , uh, we saw , um, we could still offer a 6.99% 30 year fixed rate , uh, on Friday at the end of business. Uh, you'd have to pay a half a point to get that , uh, one half or 1% of the loan amount on a $250,000 loan with all excellent credit and all the other Right. Stuff. Uh , and that has an A PR 7.05 and I'm gonna say that's probably where we were in February.

Speaker 3: 6:16

Oh , January. Yeah. Rates are as high as they were since January. Not that dramatic.

Speaker 1: 6:22

Not not that dramatic. Alright. When we come back , uh, let's talk about what buyers are experiencing and sellers for that matter. In light of all this , uh, you know, turmoil. Is it really mattering? Do buyers care that mortgage rates are up from their absolute low points of a We could go , we'll cover that right after this. You are listening to the ENT Mortgage and Realty Show on AM six 20 WTMJ

Speaker 2: 6:47

Home buying advice from the guys who know it best. This is the ACU Mortgage and Realty Show with Brian Wicker on WTMJ.

Speaker 1: 6:56

Welcome back and thanks for joining us today. Uh, David, despite the interest rate turmoils of this last week, you were just telling me you helped a lot of people , uh, get accepted offers , uh, last week. Uh , that's great. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:10

Well, because as you noted , uh, in the first segment, headline world had a lot of fodder this past week. Right. But as I like to say, do you know how many of my home shopping clients called me and said, Ugh , we're calling off the house hunt because I saw the 10 year treasury did went from this to this. Yeah . And the answer is zero. In fact, I was, we across the board at Acuate as well as me individually, we got more people getting out there on the house hunt because home buyers have never bought because of what interest rates are. People buy houses for real life reasons. And there , there's a world in which I would like to declare that interest rates aren't even real life. They're just gasoline that you put in the car and nobody ever bought a car and got excited about the gasoline. Hmm .

Speaker 1: 8:05

That's a good analogy. I like that.

Speaker 3: 8:07

Thank you. I I am try to be the maestro of metaphor when it comes

Speaker 1: 8:11

To market . There you go . Maestro metaphor.

Speaker 3: 8:13

Well, because Dad, it's on a $300,000 loan. If you went from a six and a half to 7%. Oh my gosh. Like sure. That would be a , a easy path to have heartburn, right? Ugh . Rates went up, it's $99 a month, dad. Okay . To go from six and a half to seven on a $300,000 loan.

Speaker 1: 8:36

And , and , and , and the six and a half was a flash in the pan or the six and three quarters Yeah . Or whatever the low point was for your particular scenario. It was a flash in the pan and now that's gone. So Yes.

Speaker 3: 8:48

Gotta

Speaker 1: 8:48

Do with the reality.

Speaker 3: 8:49

That's

Speaker 1: 8:50

I was gonna ask you about your, you had mentioned somebody that you were helping , uh, beat out 10 other offers. How did they do

Speaker 3: 8:56

That? Okay, so in , uh, consultation with their real estate agent, they beat 10 out , beat out 10 other offers because they were utilizing things like a rock solid preapproval and an appraisal waiver. Their agent, it feels like , uh, Fridays starting at about like, you know, 11:00 AM my cell phone starts to go ping, ping, ping, ping, ping from agents with their clients who want to go write offers. And they're checking in with me to be like, Hey, can you run 1, 2, 3 Main Street through the mortgage underwriting software?

Speaker 1: 9:34

Yeah . Yeah . 'cause you got 'em trained

Speaker 3: 9:35

To see if we get Well, yeah. To see if we get an appraisal waiver because

Speaker 1: 9:39

Which is the magic sauce man.

Speaker 3: 9:41

It is. Well 'cause write , writing the offer and saying , uh, dad, I will pay you a billion dollars for your house. Yeah. Well that's great. If , if in your heart you want to pay a billion dollars for the house, that's great. A seller is also thinking to themselves, well, but can you actually arrive to the closing table? Yeah . Two , what could go wrong two or three or four weeks from now? And , and bring me the billion for this house. And my client beat out 10 other offers they had been looking for. I think they had like two plus years. And oh my gosh. Finally decided like when, when they found the right house, when it was the one that they wanted, they were ready to make the strong offer because losing had become tiresome. Sure . And on the advice , uh, of their real estate agent, we utilized the full appraisal waiver and their incredibly great , a strong down payment , uh, to write an offer that beat out 10 other people.

Speaker 1: 10:44

Do they have a home sale contingency?

Speaker 3: 10:46

They did not.

Speaker 1: 10:48

And do they have they do not . Do they own another home

Speaker 3: 10:49

Or not? They do not. They are currently renting.

Speaker 1: 10:52

Oh, perfect. Okay. So that, you know, what you're trying to do obviously is make it easy for the seller to say Yes. Well , and go ahead.

Speaker 3: 11:00

Here , here , here's the other element too. So Milwaukee is a small place, small walkie , as we sometimes like to call it, reputation matters. And as I do for all of my clients, Hey, would you like me to call and or text the listing agent to advocate for your offer? Because guess what? This listing agent, a grizzled real estate veteran has been doing this for a long time, knows that academic mortgage has been doing this for a long time and is familiar that it's not just some random online pre-qual Yeah . That's being included in this offer . It's Oh, this is David and Brian and the AIT team. I've got both of their cell phone numbers. Yep . Oh, and this person's rock salad and I have an appraisal waiver. Right .

Speaker 1: 11:52

Let's not forget that

Speaker 3: 11:53

I , I remind my clients that the reputation of who you're working with can be almost as influential as the number that you're offering because imagine

Speaker 1: 12:04

Yeah . For the ingredients. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 12:06

Well , and it all matters, right? If, if you try to bake a cake and you don't have all the ingredients, you're just gonna end up with a lump of flour . So it all matters. And for my client, it was enough to help them beat out double digits. Other people,

Speaker 1: 12:18

Are these people having to pay over asking by the way

Speaker 3: 12:21

They did? Well, they did. They're paying the price they're willing to pay dad.

Speaker 1: 12:24

Right. Right, right.

Speaker 3: 12:25

But in relation to the list prices, who cares?

Speaker 1: 12:29

Cool out . Correct. And , and they , we should note that, you know, they have the comfort now of knowing, well, at least either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac's computer system Yes . Believes that value that you're willing to offer. Uh , when we come back, I do have the numbers , uh, for March. And let's talk about, well, how many people are paying over asking. I've got those numbers and a few other great stats to, to , uh, impress you or at least make you more well informed at the next cocktail party. You are listening to the Acade Mortgage and Realty Show on AM six 20 WTMJ,

Speaker 3: 13:01

Getting

Speaker 2: 13:02

You into the home of your dreams. Here's more of the Accu Ed Mortgage and Realty Show with Brian Wicker on wtmj.

Speaker 1: 13:10

Welcome back. I'm Brian Wicker, the elder. That's David Wicker, the younger, taller, smarter, better looking of the wicker men . And , uh, so David , uh, you know, March is not that far back in the rear view mirror. And so if we take a look at , uh, the five county Metro Milwaukee area and data from the multiple listing service, you know, the question is, Hey, we , it's a hot market, you know , it's a seller's market still, and you know, how hot is it, as Ed McMahon used to say? And so a couple of things to note is that the number of home sales was actually down in March by 8%, which is 98 fewer closed sales. So we had 1,142 closed single family detachment capital

Speaker 3: 13:50

Sales . Whenever you tell me that, whenever you tell me that, I always wanna go look at my calendar to be like, were we missing a business day in the month or is that No ,

Speaker 1: 13:57

You know , that's No, no , that was a good one. You know, March has got 31 days. I don't know if you knew that. Yeah . Um, yeah, so I , I'm guessing because it was probably a lack of inventory, but this is a guess on my part. Median sales price , uh, was $338,500. And now remember, that's five counties in a mix of single family detached in condos. But that's 23 grand. More than a year ago, a 7.3% increase. If you look at year to date meeting sales price we're up 30 grand, which is 10% over 2024. New listings in March totaled 1,662, which was almost as much as March of 20 24, 25 fewer homes listed. But let's call that a tie. And , uh, there are currently David 2,931 condos and single family detached homes listed for sale in southeastern Wisconsin on the MLS. You want to guess how many of those have offers?

Speaker 3: 14:53

Uh, 71%.

Speaker 1: 14:56

Oh , you, you're gonna make everybody feel relieved. Only 48%, only 48% have offers. And so that does mean that there are , uh, about 1500 homes in condos that don't. But if you take a look at that traditional measurement of, is it a buyer's or a seller's market, if we take the overall number of listings, active listings, 2,900 and change and divide it by , uh, the number of home sales in March, you got a two and a half month supply. If you divide it by the typical April , uh, number of home sales, which is more like 1400, then you're closer to a two month supply. Yeah . So still a seller's market. Uh, but what I am always most interested in is how many buyers are having to pay over , uh, asking And do you want to hazard a guess , uh, on that percentage for the month? Merry Mary , month

Speaker 3: 15:48

Of March? Well, just to give the background though, for our listeners, you know this, how much a buyer is paying over the list price is seasonal, right? It is. The fewest percentage are paying over list in and around Christmas time ,

Speaker 1: 16:04

Christmas and January.

Speaker 3: 16:05

Yep . But that , but that peaks in May, June and July that it is the frothiest of months for over the list price. So we're, we've begun to climb the hill , uh, toward the peak month . So I'm gonna guess 51% of home shoppers in March paid a dollar or more over the list price.

Speaker 1: 16:24

Okay. And the answer would've been 50%. If you were looking at March of last year. Last year, okay . This year it was only 47%. Huh , <laugh> . Okay, so we're off by a little bit. Uh, the number or uh , uh, or percentage of buyers who bought paid $10,000 or more over asking however, was exactly the same this March compared to last March, which was 28%. But then that kind of caused me to go looking. Right ? I'm like, okay, so if we're, if we're only at 47% paying over asking . Yeah . Um, so I popped in and I looked at it by county. And so remember the overall five county average was 47%. So Milwaukee County home sales in March, 49% closed over asking , and by the way, that was 537 of the 1,142 closed sales. So a little better than the five county average. Waukesha County with 300 closed sales was right at the average of 47%. Racine had 131 closed sales, and they were only at 38%. Uh, of the transactions closed over asking well below the average Washington County was also below the average with 97 closed sales, and they averaged 41% of buyers paying over asking . And Ozaki County though was the hottest, but also the fewest number of sales. So 77 closed sales in Ozaki, but 56% of buyers paid over asking in Ozaki County in March, which is well above the five county average. Just kind of interesting to remember that all real estate is local. It's not really a five county hyper local . You Yeah. It's not a five county , uh, you know, market. 'cause very few people are willing to say, Hey, I'll buy either in Ozaki County or Racine. Right. That's , you're looking at a much typically narrower geography than that. And , um, so quite a

Speaker 3: 18:14

Bit of , but this is , wait , but this is where David always says the list price is a made up number, so that's right. As

Speaker 1: 18:20

A remind . So maybe that, maybe that 47% number for this month of March just means that sellers were asking more relatively compared to, you know, a year ago. Yeah . And so it is all about, you know, how many people are shopping, how many offers are you getting, you know, where does it all shake out? And also where you started. Yes. Um, speaking of that, I got a story. Maybe you got a story about Oh yeah . You know , where are people starting out , uh, you know, in their asking process and trying to maybe even incite a bidding war . Uh, let's talk about that along with any other stories you got in your hip pocket. David, when we come back right now, it's time to turn it over to the WTMJ Breaking News Center.

Speaker 2: 19:03

Don't break the fact to get into a house, back to the ACU Net Mortgage and Realty Show with Brian Wicker on WTMJ.

Speaker 1: 19:11

Welcome back and thanks again for hanging out with us. Uh, I'm Brian Wicker , uh, the , uh, majority owner and chairman of Anette Mortgage. That's David Wicker over there, the president of Anette Mortgage. And so , um, David, I've been working with , uh, a couple , uh, in suburban Chicago. So it's not only a hot market in the Milwaukee area, it's a hot market in a lot of parts of Chicago as well. Yeah . And , uh, we've been helping them shop since the fall and in fact, they had an accepted offer, but it fell apart on inspection. And they're looking in some very specific suburbs. Yeah . You over there.

Speaker 3: 19:46

Have they expressed , um, that if they could go back in time, they wouldn't have made such a big deal out of the inspection given that their house hunt has continued? Or are they they were glad to skip that risk ? I haven't brought

Speaker 1: 19:59

Up this , I haven't brought up that sort of subject, but I kind of think that it was significant enough that they don't regret it, is my Okay . My belief, but good question. Um, and , and so now they , they kind of came across through word of mouth for sale by owner property in their target area where they wanna buy. And the nice thing is it's kind of at the lower end of their price range shopping. Uh, and so they had their buyer's agent approach the sellers, and they, they learned that, well, you know, we , we think we're gonna go out on the market and they're gonna go for sale by owner . So they're, they haven't done their pictures yet. They're not out on Zillow or wherever else they're gonna post. Uh , but they said, you know, we think we're gonna go out in the low seven hundreds and hope to incite a bidding war. And so then of course, you know, our buyers are like, well, is there a price that we could offer you

Speaker 3: 20:52

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 20:53

That would prevent you from going out and doing that?

Speaker 3: 20:57

Yeah. The answer is , the answer always is yes. There's always a price. They

Speaker 1: 21:02

Weren't willing to share it. So it was kind of frustrating. Okay. And , and , and , you know,

Speaker 3: 21:08

No, I, no, I wanna wear this great outfit out at the bar. You can't tell me, don't propose to me. I wanna go out and I want people to pay attention to me when I walk through the bar wearing what I'm wearing. I want that. Well,

Speaker 1: 21:19

Well, so, you know, so it was uncomfortable because it's like, oh, great, now my, our buyers are gonna kind of be a stocking horse, if you will, where, and they did put in an offer, by the way, 50 grand over what , um, what the sellers had said they were gonna come out at mm-hmm <affirmative> . So that's not 10%, that's more like , uh, eight 7% 8% seven , yeah . Seven or 8% over their, you know, starting price. But they put in a financing contingency now, albeit , um, I've got their rock solid preapproval set up such that they don't have to sell the condo that they own now, so it's not contingent on the sale. Great . And so the latest was the seller came back and said, well, you know , we really like a cash offer. Um, and , and my , my solid Me too . Yeah , of course I would. But that's not really practical because the , the , the Illinois offer to purchase allows you to make a cash offer, but say , but I'm still gonna get a mortgage. But you can't use the getting of the mortgage as an excuse to get out under that, you know, path. Yeah . And so, in fact, these folks really do need a mortgage now. Um , unfortunately I did not get the appraisal waiver at the price at which they're offering. Um , and, and the other thing though, that I did offer , uh, and I don't know, they're kind of talking this this weekend yet, is, well, the original pre-approval letter was at 20% down. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . And I verified assets that could go to 25% down. Yeah . So I did give them that pre-approval here , uh, with a greater down payment. You know, maybe that's gonna be enough to help the say yes, but it's kind of a unfortunate situation for my buyers, right. Because they're kind of getting used a little bit to say, well , where do you think Okay ,

Speaker 3: 23:08

The market really is, are they, I mean, wouldn't couldn't you turn this around to say that the buyer had insight information on exactly what was most important to the seller, which was gonna be , uh, a bidding more and make me feel, offer me a price that is gonna make me feel like I am worth what I think I'm worth.

Speaker 1: 23:30

Right. Yeah. And so,

Speaker 3: 23:32

Yeah .

Speaker 1: 23:33

Okay . So they're, they're making that effort. Oh, by the way, in terms of occupancy, that was another small detail in here is , oh , well, the , the sellers might need to live here for a while. 'cause they have an accepted offer on some new construction , um, the property that they're moving to, and it's like, oh , don't forget, they can only stay in the house for 60 days or 59 days. Yeah . Because when you buy a home as a primary residence, you as the buyer have to occupy within 60 days, which means you can't give the seller 75 days to live there.

Speaker 3: 24:05

No . Yep . Heads in beds unless you're gonna

Speaker 1: 24:07

Move in with 'em , which is, yeah. So we'll see that. We'll have to give you an update , uh, next week to see if , uh, they prevail on this or,

Speaker 3: 24:16

Or not . But it sounded like were , were you privy to, or was it communicated that there were competing offers as well for the same

Speaker 1: 24:23

Property? No , no , because they're not out on the market yet. Right. This is a preemptive offer by our clients.

Speaker 3: 24:29

Oh, they wrote the offer even before it went up on the physical . They just like wrote

Speaker 1: 24:33

It. They're like, here . Yeah , exactly. Oh , hey, we know you're, we know, you're still working on getting out Right to the greater public to incite this bidding war. Okay . Yeah . But we want to give you this preemptive offer that's, you know, significantly over what you're asking.

Speaker 3: 24:47

I know you've proposed to me, but I'd still like to talk to some other people. I know I've got your ring as a backup to your point, iTalk horse. That's ,

Speaker 1: 24:55

That's kind of the , you know, but yeah, if you , if it was a bigger ring, if you said cash offer, then we'd be Okay. Well , I

Speaker 3: 25:02

Wouldn't go on these other dates. Oh, man. Okay.

Speaker 1: 25:04

Well , right, right. So it'll, it'll be interesting to see what happens. All right . When we come back, David, let's tell one of your stories from this past week. Yes . Helping home buyers. You're listening to the Academic Mortgage and Realty Show on Wisconsin's radio station. AM six 20 WTMJ.

Speaker 2: 25:21

Important home buying questions and answers you can count on. This is the Acuate Mortgage and Realty Show with Brian Wicker on WTMJ.

Speaker 3: 25:30

Welcome back to the Acuate Mortgage and Realty Show. I'm David, that's Brian over there. Dad, among the plethora of , uh, clients who got accepted offers this past week. One was an Army veteran who had just moved back to town. They're Milwaukee people. Originally they had moved out west for a job and now they're back in town. Uh, because guess what? I think they, you know, grandkids , uh, grandparents, free babysitters, all the reasons I once knew a guy who did that. He moved back from California for free babysitters. Oh yeah , that's right. So they , um, as we got them prepared for the house hunt, we of course talked about his VA benefit for getting a , a VA mortgage, which the quick summary is you can put as little as 0% down on a VA loan. You may be subject to a funding fee , uh, which for a first time use can be 2.15% or higher depending on the size of your down payment. However, if you have a service related disability or injury, you can be exempt from that funding fee. And in fact, my client is Oh wow.

Speaker 1: 26:36

So no funding fee and then there's no monthly government mortgage insurance or guarantee fee either. So it's a great deal.

Speaker 3: 26:44

My clients had sold a home out west and so they had a boatload of proceeds from that sale . They were not looking to necessarily use the 0% down on a VA loan. They're looking to put as much as a 20% down payment on the new next home here in and around the Milwaukee area. So of course then we could analyze and compare a VA loan compared to a conventional loan. Which one is better? Which one might get you a lower rate or lower closing cost depending upon, typically

Speaker 1: 27:14

The VA loan would have a lower rate by a quarter percent or something like that.

Speaker 3: 27:18

Yes. Generally speaking, a VA rate dad would be a little bit lower than a conventional rate. However, then after I generate the pre-approval letter and multiple pre-approval letters, 'cause I'm not gonna, you know, run out of electrons as I like to share with clients, give them both, here's a conventional pre-approval letter. Here's a VA mortgage preapproval letter. They then had to go out into the wild and go on the house hunt and decide , uh, in consultation with their buyer's agent, they found a home. And I posed the question to the buyer's agent, I said, they expect this to be competitive. Which of these loan options do you believe would set our clients up to be the most competitive and actually win? And in looking at the property, the condition of the property and the competitive landscape, we all agreed , uh, together client realtor David, that providing a conventional pre-approval letter and putting conventional financing on the offer was likely going to be the path that would allow our clients to actually win. That kind of stinks though. 'cause if you served in the Army, you'd probably like to use your VA benefit. But, but winning in the , they , my client very well could have written their offer using their VA benefit and guess what? They might have won. But for them it was more important to prioritize getting the home rather than utilizing the benefit. And part, I think my job and all of acuate is to share here is what is available to you. And then the client decides how they would like to proceed and for them the conventional loan so that they could have a better shot at winning.

Speaker 1: 29:07

And they did win.

Speaker 3: 29:08

And they did win. Yes sir . They beat out about four other offers.

Speaker 1: 29:12

Any other, any discussion on whether it , maybe they wanna approach the seller and say, you know, I am a veteran and you know, I'd like to try for a VA loan and you know, see where that goes. Do we have enough time to, we don't have

Speaker 3: 29:26

Enough time.

Speaker 1: 29:26

Okay.

Speaker 3: 29:27

Right now to

Speaker 1: 29:29

Kind of go that way and then, and then if that doesn't work, we go back to conventional. It's two different appraisals by the way.

Speaker 3: 29:35

Although I did think to my, I did share with the client, like, think about this, like chapters in a book, maybe they get into the home on a conventional loan. If down the line, you know, let's say Christmas time rates have returned from their moon trip higher here, we could always refinance into a VA loan. Yeah . Because, and, and that would make sense because he is exempt from the funding fee. Right . And get that lower rate, there's still going to be a future opportunity to use that VA benefit if it makes sense.

Speaker 1: 30:08

Alright . Good, good. Uh , good diagnosing.

Speaker 3: 30:11

Well , alright . You right. It's not just about what happens on the laptop right. In , in preparing a mortgage game plan. A good mortgage practitioner then says, well what is it gonna take to win out in the world? Because that's the only, that , that's how the rubber meets the road. And, and

Speaker 1: 30:28

You know, even though there may be a misperception about VA loans being tougher on property conditions Oh yeah . Which there really aren't. Especially if the properties and good condition. Uh , anyway, good job in getting 'em in the end zone 'cause Yeah . All the first thing, it's all that matters. Get the accepted offer. Alright , why don't we come back? Uh , I've got one more story to share. Maybe we've got another one. You are listening to the Accident Mortgage and Realty show on AM six 20 WTMJ.

Speaker 2: 30:52

Find a place to call home without the headache. This is the ACU at Mortgage and Realty Show with Brian Wicker on WTMJ.

Speaker 1: 31:01

Thanks again for joining us today. Uh , I'm Brian Wicker. That's David Wicker over there. And uh, David, I've been working with a , um, client who has, is in the final stages of their divorce. So thing number one is we have to get the marital settlement agreement finalized and approved by the court so that we know whose debt obligations are whose in terms of Definitively. Definitively. Yep . Yeah . And hopefully they're gonna have that done here in April. Um, and they've already sold their house, their former marital residence. Uh, so that the good news is, you know, they don't have that, she doesn't have that to worry about and I'm working with the Sure . Soon to be ex-wife and um, and , and so then we're, you know, kind of down to talking about a few things like, hey, I'm gonna be getting some money from my ex-husband , uh, to balance out our retirement accounts. Sure. And I think you threw out this , uh, acronym , uh, week or two ago Quadro Qualified

Speaker 3: 32:03

Domestic Relations order. Yeah ,

Speaker 1: 32:04

Yeah. There you go. Quadro . And so it's like, oh, okay. And her attorney mentioned, you know, you could use that money and then you don't have to pay the 10% , um, early withdrawal penalty on that IRA money Yeah . When it's coming from a Quadro . Um,

Speaker 3: 32:21

But on, on any, well on a lot of IRA rules, you can take money out to buy a home and avoid the penalty.

Speaker 1: 32:30

No . It's only if you're a first time home buyer. Right. Okay . And she's not a first time home buyer , so she doesn't get that. Yep . Yeah , there's a $10,000 exemption for avoiding the penalty, but you still have to pay the income tax. And so I , I'm not sure where she's gonna land, but I think it's gonna be, you know, let's just say ballpark, 25% marginal income tax bracket now that she's either, you know, married filing separately or or single person

Speaker 3: 32:56

Head of household. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:59

I'm not , I don't know . Yeah. Maybe the head of household. Well anyway , so let's just pretend for sake of our discussion here on the radio show, it's 25%. Well, if she wanted to be able to use 10 grand from the ex-husband's retirement, she'd actually have to access $13,331 because she would owe then $3,333 of income taxes. Right. On the 13,333 in order to net the 10 grand. That is a heavy penalty. Or you

Speaker 3: 33:33

Know, is there, but so they had sold the previous home. Yeah. Were those funds, not they , it sounds like she wants to make even more down payment those funds

Speaker 1: 33:43

After they cleaned up their balance sheet there wasn't very much leftover , but she's got some Right. But they , they took care of paying off a lot of other obligations

Speaker 3: 33:52

Balances. Yeah. Mm-hmm

Speaker 1: 33:53

<affirmative> . Mm-hmm <affirmative> So this is just in the category of uh Yeah . People,

Speaker 3: 33:59

Well, the right the answer is yes you can, but let's talk about should you and well,

Speaker 1: 34:04

And how much expensive is that?

Speaker 3: 34:06

Well, like a ribeye, right? It's like, well may I tell you the chef's recommendation? But if you order it hockey puck, I will yell back to the kitchen. But I I , that's not necessarily the way that I would order my ribeye, but that's okay.

Speaker 1: 34:20

Well and the other interesting thing is that , uh, it's the kind of penalty that, you know, unless your IRA custodian makes you withhold the money upfront , a lot of times you don't realize the pain until the next year when you go to file your tax return. Hey, it is tax return season , uh, coming up, you know, Tuesday everybody's gotta file their taxes. Um, so it'll be interesting to see what she decides, but at least we can help her quantify the relative pain or, you know, the income tax or not bite that would come out of the , out of the apple. Alright , so , uh, to recap, boy, we got a tumultuous market, but we're still helping people , uh, write offers and get 'em accepted regardless of what interest rates are doing. Hopefully they'll calm down sometime in the relatively near future, but we're , uh, happy to help you or your loved one figure out exactly uh, what the right way is to , uh, make that offer successful. Our favorite tool is that rock solid preapproval with the appraisal waiver if we can get 'em. And David, you said you got two this week with down with appraisal waivers with what down payment

Speaker 3: 35:27

As little as 10% down. Got the full appraisal waiver, which is a new , uh, uh, increase in scope for the full appraisal waiver. So not necessarily having to commit to a 20% down payment. You might even get that full appraisal waiver with as little as 10% down or less theoretically. But you gotta check in. Keep, keep your acting at Loan Consultant tuned in , uh, to your house hunt and any offers you might write.

Speaker 1: 35:55

That's all the time we got for today's show. Thanks for tuning in. You've been listening to the Accu Mortgage and Realty Show on AM six 20 WTMJ.

Speaker 4: 36:04

The proceeding was a paid program. Advice and opinions expressed during the Accu Mortgage and Realty Show are solely that of the host or guests of Accu Mortgage and Acuate Realty Advisors and not WTMJ Radio or Good Karma Brands. Milwaukee, LLC.