Watch Patrick and Alyson to learn more
From the June KATV interview with Patrick Dennis and Alyson Courtney
No Headphones. No Problem. Please see transcript below.
From the station that's on your side
this is channel 7 news good morning
Arkansas coming up after the break if
you're thinking of buying a home next
we'll share helpful tips for making that
big purchase during a pandemic and
welcome back we have Patrick Dennis here
a loan officer for bank of Little Rock
mortgage joining us and we are
talking about buying a home during the
pandemic and that can seem a little
scary first off Patrick for a lot of
people out there but we do know that
there are a lot of homes for sale at the
moment and people are still buying so
give us some tips in terms of what we
should be looking for and and what
exactly we need to be doing because of
this kind of uncertain time so a lot of
things have changed in our market but
the process still as far as getting
pre-approved or or doing a loan has
really not we've been moving toward
digital online applications things of
that nature over the past couple of
years and we're just kind of forced to
do it a hundred percent now so we're all
working from home but most of our stuff
is done online from the pre-approval
process through getting documents
through the closings okay so first off
what is the most common mistake that you
see first-time homebuyers especially
making so so the first mistake is they
don't go and get pre-approved we have
all this time on our hands we're looking
at Zillow we're looking at these big
houses what we want and how we want a
game room or we want this big yard now
because of quarantine what you really
have to get an idea of what you qualify
for and the way to do that is through
getting pre-approved with a qualified
mortgage lender and the first step to
doing that would be what so your first
step would be a you know find out find a
good lender give us a call go online get
that grim prove already get all your
documents in line get yourself set and
then we'll review it with you to see
what you can actually qualify for but
you want to make sure that you're you've
got something in your budget as well you
mentioned Zillow of course that's a
popular place for people to look a lot
of people are driving around
fall in love with the house this is the
house we have to have what may not
always be the best mindset to go go into
buying a home with definitely not so we
do the pre-approval first we find out
what you qualify for but that doesn't
mean that's in your budget so you want
to make sure that you know just because
you qualify for it that doesn't mean
it's gonna be something that you can pay
on a monthly basis and I think if
there's something we've learned over the
past couple months you want to have a
little bit of money on the side you want
to be able to fit something in with your
credit card bills with your car payments
and also think about your lighting your
electrical take into account all of all
of your payments that you make on a
monthly basis there's a lot of money
that we get about that you need to be
considering okay so if you're in a
position to purchase a home right now
but still kind of answer uncertain or
concerned about the money portion of it
all can you not put down the 20% to
perhaps save a bit absolutely so there's
a myth out there that you need to have
20% down in order to buy a home and
that's just not true we have programs
out there that are as little as 3% down
three and a half percent on an FHA deal
there's there's lots of different things
to consider though the whole 20% down
scenario was to try to avoid private
mortgage insurance but there's several
ways to do that and do it you can pay it
off upfront to to lower that cost over
the long run or you can do lender paid
private mortgage insurance which avoids
it all together and you can still do
that with putting less than 20% down to
the traditional home loans for a
first-time buyer first-time homebuyers
is something that a lot of people go in
just not really educated about or just
not knowing what's out there right so
once we get you pre-approved it really
gives me a better idea of what kind of
options you have for different mortgages
it used to be kind of a
one-size-fits-all or or even to where
you had a conventional or FHA loan
nowadays we have several different
programs so you have FHA for lower
credit scores we're and a half percent
down we have rural
loans USDA where they're they're kind of
based on property eligibility outside
the metro area but they're 100% loans
with really low rates really low
mortgage insurance
we have VA loans for deserving veterans
again no mortgage insurance on that
there's just tons of different options
and we also have something called a home
ready program I'm ready and home
possible which is 3% down first-time
homebuyer and the rates are super low in
the low threes right now and the
mortgage insurance is lower than your
average loan as well it really is a good
time to look into it at the very least
if you're considering buying a home
right now and we have a little extra
time on our hands I think it's a slower
pace right now and buying a home can be
overwhelming so you can really get these
questions answered and really look for
something that fits fits your family and
your financial status Patrick before we
go if first-time homebuyers have
questions out there about buying a home
during the pandemic where should they
turn yes so give us a call at bank of
Little Rock mortgage you can reach us at
two one nine ninety one hundred
BLR mortgage calm or on facebook twitter
just reach out we're here to help any
time you need us Patrick Dennis mortgage
thank you so much for your time great
information as yeah a lot of people may
be interested now hearing about those
low rates and some more options out
there they're out there definitely give
us a holler thanks Alison
thank you and stick around we've got
more good morning that's all right.
