So Buying Your Dream Home Should Be Quick, Easy and Fun?
Sometimes you read something that is so good, you just have to share! (not to mention the hilarious picture)! My thanks to Donne Knudsen, a Los Angeles County Mortgage Loan Originator, for providing this analogy that many homebuyers will be able to relate to . . .the trip can be hard but the destination is definitely worth the struggle! My mind has already taken off with the "turbulence" post . . .if Donne doesn't follow through on that one, I may have to step in and do so from the perspective of a Realtor®!
So buying your dream home should be quick & easy & fun? Here’s a suggestion. Go down to your local Toys R Us, take one of the boxed up Barbi Dream Houses off the shelf and put it in your cart. Grab a few of the accessories and toss them in the cart too.
Go up to the register, pull out your credit card and 15min and a couple of hundred bucks later (or more depending on accessories), you are walking out the door with a “Dream House” - the quick & easy way and who knows maybe even a little fun too!
Now, if you want to purchase a home (dream house or otherwise) here in Los Angeles or Ventura county and you need to get a loan to do: sit down, strap in and hold on tight because you are quite possibly in for one #%!! of a ride before ever being able to call yourself a “homeowner”.Recently, my friend and fellow Mortgage Loan Originator (MLO) Extraordinaire, Gene Mundt, posted Duking it Out Between a Rock and a Hard Place. What Homebuyers SHOULD Know VS What They WANT to Know where he discussed the lack of interest that many prospective borrowers have towards learning about the loan process.
While I didn’t disagree with the topic of the post or even Gene’s opinions, what kind of irked me a little were many of the comments from Realtors/agents who were complaining about how the loan process should be “fun” and oh yeah, “painless and seamless” (gotta love that comment). SERIOUSLY???
Early in my mortgage career, I had a broker who taught me a very interesting perspective about the loan process and one that I have passed onto hundreds of my prospects and clients over the years. Bear with me here for a few moments, there is a moral to my story.
Buying a home and getting a loan is kind of like taking a cross country flight from JFK to LAX (or vice versa) and your Realtor/agent and MLO are your pilots. Hopefully, if you’ve chosen carefully, your pilots have made this trip many times before. While they may not be able to control every single factor or condition of the flight, they know exactly how to handle unexpected problems and are confident in getting their passengers (buyers/borrowers) to their destination (the closing table).
The baggage handlers you pass off your “luggage” to and the TSA screening you go through before boarding the plane, well folks, that’s the pre-approval process.
God forbid you’re not be up to required federal standards or you have a particular circumstance or situation! Without getting into the gory details, I think we can all agree that is a process that is not quick & easy nor is it painless & seamless and it’s most certainly not FUN!
But you make it through and you’re in your seat and ready to go. That quesy feeling in the pit of your stomach as you descend? That’s your body adjusting to the elevation and change in oxygen (mixed in with maybe little anxiety and fear).
You see, your body’s not used to that and it takes a moment to make the physical adjustment. Same thing happens to first time buyers when they’re stepping out into the market for the first time.
Along the way, your flight may run into some problems like turbulence (that’s a whole other post) or maybe even an unruly situation among the passengers. Your anxiety and fear start creeping up again. Luckily for you, your pilots are experienced in handling these types of problems and they handle it as they have been trained to. Sometime later, you’re coming in for a landing and you’re back on the ground and have arrived at your destination.
Moral of the story: The journey was definitely not quick & easy nor was it painless & seamless. Sometimes it was a little scary and rarely fun but once you got to your destination (a little jet-lagged and maybe a little weary from the trip), you were just so happy to be home!
Buying a home is a serious business and getting a loan to buy a home, especially here in Los Angeles & Ventura counties, is also a serious business.
It’s not a game (as much as it seems like it sometimes) but it’s quite possibly the biggest investment that most prospective homeowners will ever make in their lifetime. Even if it’s not, it is most certainly a decision and a process that must be taken very seriously!
Oh, and those unlicensed clerks at the big, national, retail banks? They are nothing more than flight attendants on a puddle jumper from JFK to DC (no intended disrespect towards flight attendants - really!). Their job is to greet you as you enter the plane and get you into your seat as quickly as possible. They are not trained nor are they qualified to fly and they couldn’t get a borrower to the closing table with a tour guide and a map.
The home buying process is a serious process and it takes serious professionals to be able to assist prospective buyers/borrowers through this complicated and convoluted process. If you are interested in getting pre-approved, please feel free to contact me, Donne Knudsen from C2 Financial Corp. at 805.2069123 or donne4loans@earthlink.net.
Photos courtesy of flickr: melimeliall4dolls stargazer95050
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Donne Knudsen
Mortgage Loan Originator - C2 Financial Corp.
NMLS# 249822 / DRE# 01364050
805.2069123
E-mail My Blog
Serving low-medium income individuals and families as well as first time buyers with their mortgage needs including down payment assistance
Los Angeles County -- Ventura County
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