By Brian Teyssier

Next is, I know a lot of buyers who reach out to me. They always want to refer to the bank. They go to the bank, they ask the bank. So, the bank only has one product. You want to take a guess whose product that would be? They would give you whose loan, whose mortgage? Got an answer? That’s right, theirs. They’re only going to shop for one. They’re not even going to shop for one, they’re just going to give you theirs. It may be the best—I’m not saying it’s not the best—but if you go with a mortgage broker, again, like the one I recommend, Leslie, and I’ve personally used her as well, and listen, you can use anybody you want. And I think, I haven’t researched this, but in almost every state in America, I cannot believe they force you to use any lender. You can use any lender you want. Back in the day, we used to be able to get kickbacks. We’re not allowed anymore, so I don’t care who you use. I’m just telling you, in my 16-year career, I’m just giving you information based on the lender I have used primarily.

So, yes, back to the types of loans. So my mortgage broker will shop for different products through different lending institutions, not just one bank, which I think is a good thing. Again, I’ve had some buyers that said, “I’m going to my bank.” And I said, “Hold on, talk to my mortgage broker.” And Leslie looked and said, “No, I can’t beat the bank.” So, the bank could be your best option.

Next is, some lenders are limited by their type of loans. And I’m not going to get into FHA and conventional and all that, and I not so much mean that. I mean there’s doctor’s loans. So in Pittsburgh, we have a lot of physicians that come in and they have physician’s loans. Some lenders don’t do them; some lenders do do them. We have USDA, which is rural. So that’s not in the city; that’ll be out like farmland. So, some lenders do USDA, and if you’re a buyer, you’ll probably know this ahead of time. You probably know this right now, but if not, ask your agent.

And what else is there? Vacation homes, which could be an investment loan; that’s said to be a second home, something like that. Next, you might want to ask yourself, are you in-person heavy? Like, do you want to be able to see your lender in person a lot, or are you online only? Maybe you don’t want to ever see your lender. Maybe you don’t want to ever talk to them on the phone. And that’s no insult to you lenders out there. Maybe just, a lot of the younger demographics. And even myself, I really don’t like to talk on the phone. There’s nothing in my mind that we can’t handle via email. It may take a little bit longer, it may not. I may get your email before I get your voice message. Me personally, I would probably like both. My lender could be savvy online—savvy meaning they text and they email. You can do your application online, which is usually not the specific lender’s doing, that’s the broker house or the mortgage broker they work for would usually supply that tool. And I think just about every lender has an online application process right now.

But I also want to—this is my big sell for my lender, Leslie, who is in Pittsburgh. If you have a problem, something you don’t understand. And you want to walk into that office, sit in front, and have them explain it to you, even though we have Zoom, having a lender that’s in that same city is vital. And I’m going to tell you, lenders– so there’s big lenders out there, right? Not going to say any names, but it may rhyme with “pocket.” And they may not have individual loan officers in the specific city. I’m not saying they can’t close a loan, but we have had some problems because they didn’t know local information. So, I would recommend going with somebody that’s indigenous and local to that area.

All right, the last point I want to make—I did a little bit of research before I did the video just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. And I’m going to have to actually read this because I’m not going to be able to remember, but I thought it was so good. Anything attached to real estate, you should always get at least three different people. So, if it’s a roofer as a result of a home inspection, three different roofers. If it’s a real estate agent, you should only talk to one, me. Scratch that. Lenders, at least two, right? You probably spoke to your bank, talked to a mortgage broker. Different. I already discussed that. Three would be probably overkill but it’s okay.