SPEAKER_00: 0:00

The following program, the Accident Mortgage and Realty Show, is paid for in full by Accident Mortgage LLC, an equal housing lender, consumeraccess.org, number 255368. The advice and opinions expressed during the Accident Mortgage and Realty Show are solely that of the hosts and guests of Accident Mortgage LLC and not WTMJ or Good Karma Brands.

SPEAKER_01: 0:21

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

SPEAKER_00: 0:35

Welcome to the Acunet Mortgage and Realty Show. I'm Brian Wickert, licensed real estate broker with Acunet Realty Advisors and also the majority owner of Acunet Mortgage, where my individual NMLS ID number is 259610. And I'm here again today along with my son, David, who's president of Acunet Mortgage and And his individual NMLS ID number is 328847. All right, so David, the big happening last week was the Federal Reserve meeting. And everybody is watching and waiting to see what are they going to do? What happened?

SPEAKER_02: 1:07

Absolutely nothing. I mean, they met on Tuesday and they kept meeting on Wednesday. And when Chair Powell, well, they released their... results of their meeting at, is it one o'clock central? Yeah, on Wednesday. And they said, hey, that Fed funds rate, we're not going to touch it. We're going to leave it be. And then Chair Powell walked out and did his 1.30 press conference, which is like watching a guy dodge questions with words for an hour because their theme is we think we're in a good place and we don't have enough data as the Fed to be moving one way or another, either raising rates or cutting rates. the rate, the Fed funds rate. And so they're just going to hang tight.

SPEAKER_00: 2:01

Well, and I can say, because I had a customer, David, who read something on the internet that said, hey, they might cut a half a percent. And so he was waiting to... Really? Yeah, he was waiting to refi from a 30-year to a 15-year. And actually, I didn't even have to call him. I was going to call him. In fact, I was working up his scenario after the Fed meeting to give him a call to see where things were. Yeah, but he... emailed me first and obviously they did nothing. They left the fed funds rate alone. And so, yeah, but for reasons that are really hard to explain, we did have an improvement in mortgage rates on a Wednesday afternoon. And so luckily, uh, we were able to grab him a five, nine, nine, no cost 15 year, uh, on Wednesday afternoon. But then we think, yeah, on a refi, but then things, um, Things kind of deteriorated the rest of the week. Any explanation? In other words, rates kind of then on Thursday went up a little bit and Friday kind of stayed the same. What's the explanation for that?

SPEAKER_02: 3:07

I think the market, you know, when there isn't data to fill the void, bond traders... have to fill the void with something and so if you just want to take some chips you know off the table that's what happened on thursday and then friday was flat but but dad the if you woke up on cinco de mayo on you know monday or went to sleep on cinco de mayo and then woke up on friday interest rates were flat and you just missed any of the up and the down in the middle of the week lucky for your client you know, he was able to grab. Funny enough, I have a story perhaps later about that like psychological 599, so much easier than six and an eighth, because I'll bet dollars to donuts, your client would have been like, if you had offered him six and an eighth, he would have said, I'll wait. Yeah, absolutely. But he got lucky on Wednesday and got that, locked that in. Because as we like to joke, The number of phone calls that I got because of whatever gyrations rates we're making at the start, in the middle, or at the end of the week from homebuyers who are either getting in or getting out of the home shopping experience was zero.

SPEAKER_00: 4:27

That's right. Yeah. Home shoppers are a little bit more impervious. It's either more refi people that are a little bit more interest rate sensitive. And, you know, so we're kind of right around that 6.99% on a 30-year fixed rate,$250,000 with 25% equity and all the other right stuff with an APR of 7.02. Yep. You know, and so that's not bad, but it's a little bit up from where it had been maybe earlier in March. All right, so David, you want to tee us up for, do you have a story to share with us, or do you think we should go over the MLS April home sale numbers when we come back? Well, let's,

SPEAKER_02: 5:08

I want to talk about those April home numbers, home sale figures, because it will inform a lot of the competitive tools that homebuyers use need to and are reaching for if they actually want to win in May, June, and July. In headline world, as we always like to reiterate, please ignore what otherwise might be a national diagnosis about available homes for sale. And as I am personally experiencing with my clients, the market's the micro markets, the nano markets in which they are looking remains competitive. If someone's looking at a house in Bayside for 900,000, that is a market vastly different than a Tosa bungalow for 350, right? And so I'll be curious to learn as you diagnose or share those April MLS numbers, hey, what did it take to win Because it's going to tell a lot of our buyers, our listeners, what is it going to take to win in June, July, and August here.

SPEAKER_00: 6:23

One of these things you can think about while we're on the break, which of the following municipalities do you think was the fastest selling in April? Was it Wauwatosa, West Allis, or South Milwaukee? We'll have that answer and the other nuggets on April right after this. You're listening to the Accident Mortgage and Realty Show on AM620 WTMJ.

SPEAKER_01: 6:44

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

SPEAKER_00: 6:52

WTMJ. Welcome back and thanks for hanging out with us today. I'm Brian the Elder. That's David the Younger there of the Wickert Men. And so, David, I've got the April home sale numbers according to the Multiple Listing Service for the five-county metropolitan Milwaukee area. And I get that through Acunet Realty Advisors because we're a member of the MLS. And so this is for single-family detached and condos let's go with the number of closed sales your guess David you think we're up or down compared to April of 2024 you know what

SPEAKER_02: 7:25

I'll say they're up just to be the optimist in the room

SPEAKER_00: 7:27

okay nice nice try we're down a whopping 1% there were 13 fewer sales last April, or this April compared to a year ago. That makes it 1,431 homes and condos changing hands with the help of a member of the National Association of Realtors. The median sales price came in at$350 for April. Do you think compared to a year ago, was that up 3% or up 6%? Six. You're correct. If you

SPEAKER_02: 7:57

had given me a double-digit number, I would have bet.

SPEAKER_00: 8:00

You would have believed that? Yeah, it's up 6.1% or$20,000 a How do you think that compares with a year ago? Flat. You are exactly correct. It was exactly flat compared to a year ago and also March. So far, you're doing pretty good. Average continuous days on market for the entire metro area was 34 days, which struck me as long. Because it kind of seems like all the people we're dealing with, like, okay, the house goes on the market on Thursday and then they got offers by Sunday. But that's the average. And that's supposed to be the number of days between the house gets listed and the listing agent changes it to a pending status in the MLS. Now, for the top 10 fastest-selling municipalities, I asked you and our listeners, do you think in April was it Wauwatosa, West Allis, or South Milwaukee? Which one of those was the fastest? South Milwaukee. You are correct, sir. Here are the top 10 in descending order. My hometown of Muskego, average continuous date, and these are for municipalities that had at least 10 sales. Not going to go with the onesies or the twosies. Muskego, average continuous days on market, 19. Racine, 18. West Bend, 17, as was Brookfield. Wauwatosa, I was shocked at this based on stories we hear from our buyers. 15 days, continuous days on market. Glendale, 14. West Allis, 13. Greendale, 10. New Berlin, 8. And South Milwaukee, 11. Only four days average continuous days on market. That's fast.

SPEAKER_02: 9:48

I'm actually more amazed that there were at least 10 homes that changed hands in all of South Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_00: 9:54

Yeah, there were 13. Okay. Last month. Over on the listing side of things, there were 1,977 homes new homes and condos listed in the five county metro area in april and that does represent an increase of 265 compared to march but it was 57 fewer or 2.8 percent less than a year ago in april uh by the way though it is also 546 more listings than the number of homes that sold yeah So inventory is increasing, as you would expect, as we get into the spring months. There are currently 3,213 active listings, according to the MLS. And so if you divide that by the 1,431 closed sales, you get a supply of two and a quarter months, 2.25 months, which makes it a...

SPEAKER_02: 10:45

Seller's market. That's right. If the threshold for that is a three-month supply is when you tilt maybe... toward a balanced market, maybe.

SPEAKER_00: 10:55

Yeah, three to six is supposed to be balanced and six and over. And there are certainly parts of the country, folks, and maybe even micro markets within Wisconsin and southeastern Wisconsin where the supply is over six. I know that in southwest Florida, that's definitely the case. But in southeastern Wisconsin, a 2.24 a month supply. Median listing price, by the way, was$3.749, which is$35,000 higher than the year earlier or a 10% increase. Now, my favorite number. What percentage of buyers paid over asking in April? For context, David, it was 47% of buyers paid over asking in March. In April of last year, it was 59%. Where do you think we came in April of this year?

SPEAKER_02: 11:37

51%. And

SPEAKER_00: 11:40

why do you

SPEAKER_02: 11:40

say that, just out of curiosity? If I recall, there is a seasonality to the percentage of buyers paying over the list price, and we're approaching the start of the top of that mountain in June, July, and August.

SPEAKER_00: 11:57

So last year, 59% of buyers paid over list price or asking price in April. This April, it was only 52%. So a little cooler. Now, what we don't know, though, the other variable on that is, did sellers ask more? Were they more aggressive in their asking price? Probably. And then, by the way, the other thing I look at is the percentage of buyers who paid$10,000 or more over asking. And a year ago in April, that was 40%. And again, a little cooler this year. Only 34% of buyers in April paid$10,000. Are you in the headline

SPEAKER_02: 12:35

business? Come on. Yeah. It remains nearly as it was.

SPEAKER_00: 12:41

There's your look at April home sales. David, where do you want to turn

SPEAKER_02: 12:44

now

SPEAKER_00: 12:45

with the story?

SPEAKER_02: 12:46

I have two stories. We'll flip a coin. You can tell me. You want a grandma story or a financial advisor story, and I'll flip the proverbial coin with you after this break. You are listening to the Acunet Mortgage and Realty Show on AM620 WTMJ.

SPEAKER_01: 13:02

Getting you into the home of your dreams. Here's more of the Acunet Mortgage and Realty Show with Brian Weckert. Welcome

SPEAKER_02: 13:11

back to the Accident Mortgage and Realty Show. I'm David. That's Brian over there. Dad, we'll flip the proverbial coin. Would you like me to share a grandma story or a financial advisor story? I'm going to go with the financial advisor story. Okay. So

SPEAKER_00: 13:27

a

SPEAKER_02: 13:27

client, tale as old as time, wants to go from the old house to the new house. Right. They have equity in their old house, but that equity is locked up. because it's stuck, because they haven't sold their old home yet. Yeah, of course. Fantastic. Can the Acunet team, can David help grab some of that equity out of the old house with a bridge loan and use it as part of the down payment on the new house? Absolutely, yes we can, no problem. The interesting element, and I'm not trying to get you going by any means, if you're a financial advisor for a profession, Do you think you have confidence in your ability to render a rate of return greater than the cost of the borrowed money on your mortgage?

SPEAKER_00: 14:16

Well, not without risk, right? But

SPEAKER_02: 14:20

you would hope you would. If you had such confidence, let's just pretend, what do you think down payment you would make on the new house if you were like, well, David, I am Warren Buffett. I'm actually his grandson, Bobby Buffett. And I think I can get a rate of return that is so much more. What then would be the... You would put a smaller down payment. Giddy up. Hold on. I know the president of a mortgage company who did exactly that thing. I'm looking at him right now. Because if you believe not just perhaps in your ability to make a rate of return and or if you just like having the cash in your account rather than stuck in the house account... the illiquid house account, you would make the minimum down payment. And yet, what do you think was the real-life element that this client, a finance professional, that they were prioritizing greater than their professional ability to make a rate of return? Yeah, they wanted a lower monthly payment. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! And... God, I don't want that ugly PMI. Yeah, I don't want to pay PMI. That's for first-time homebuyers. PMI is for first-time homebuyers. I am a move-up buyer. I am better than that. Yeah, okay. And so the story goes, yeah, we're going to help them take the equity out of their old home. We can't quite get... We're trying to be a little bit conservative about the value of their previous home because... Maybe we can get like 17% of the down payment out of the bridge loan, and then they'll need to come up with the cash for the other 3%, in my example, to get to their preferred 20% down payment. The other interesting element, though, in all of this, Dad, my client, finance professional, has a brokerage account. a month ago, I should say before Liberation Day, they had considered, well, maybe we'll use some of our gains from our brokerage account to make the down payment because that's the account in late March that seemed the most prudent of places to pull money. Well, then April happened while they were on the house hunt. The value of that brokerage account is not what it once was. But it's come back. Well, of course. Well, eventually over time. But I think an excellent mortgage lender, real, and this client is strong. So we have different ways that we can build the new mortgage for the new house. It is helpful though, that we can make that pivot, that the client, you know, I issued the pre-approval letter at the end of March and hey, here was, you know, the preferred game plan at that time. Using the brokerage account money. Probably, or most. You know, maybe I would say if we were going to use both the brokerage account and a bridge loan, most was going to be coming from the brokerage account. Oh, okay. Then, as time goes by and real life keeps going on, their personal calculus changes, right? Yeah, they don't want to lock in the

SPEAKER_00: 17:48

loss by taking the money out of the

SPEAKER_02: 17:50

brokerage account. Exactly, and so we pivot the game plan the mortgage game plan to be like, yes, let's increase the amount of bridge loan and decrease the amount out of the brokerage account so that to your point, they don't sell at a time not necessarily of their choosing for those brokerage funds. Right, right. I was just immensely humored. about, you know, there are spreadsheet answers and then there are real life answers.

SPEAKER_00: 18:17

Well, and you know, maybe they're just not as sanguine about the future of the stock market, you know, and, and, you know, even over time, maybe, you know, a 6.99 return, uh, seems lofty, you know, maybe they're just more conservative, but you know, that people, it is about the payment in a lot of cases. And when we come back, I've got a story about a person looking to buy and for them, the payment is really, really important. We can talk about that and also other things. So, you know, let's not step over the fact that the main point of your story there was we're helping them buy their next house without having to write a contingent on the sale of their existing home, which is very unattractive. So that's the point of that. Yeah, we're going to find a way to make that happen. But then let's also talk about what people are doing on inspections. What are they doing about appraisal gap? We'll cover that right after we turn it over to the WTMJ Breaking News Center.

SPEAKER_01: 19:13

Don't break the fact to get into a house. Back to the Acunet Mortgage and Realty Show with Brian Wickert on WTMJ.

SPEAKER_00: 19:23

Welcome back and thanks again for joining us today. That's David over there, the younger, taller, more handsome of the Wickert men. I'm Brian, the elder. The

SPEAKER_02: 19:32

wiser. The wiser, there you go. The most wise.

SPEAKER_00: 19:34

That's right. So, you know, the home shopping and buying is a journey, right? And... And so after a couple of attempts at writing some offers, and I've got this buyer that I'm working with who is evolving. And unfortunately, in the price range where she's looking, you know, in the$250 to... 300 range, there's a lot of competition in Milwaukee County. A lot

SPEAKER_02: 20:05

of competition. You want to buy a$2 million house? You might have your pick of the litter. But 300,000? That's tough.

SPEAKER_00: 20:09

Yeah, that's a lot of competition. And so, you know, she's had situations over the past week where, oh, this one looks good. Oh, it's already got an offer. Oh, this one looks good. And she goes to see it and boom, you know. It gets an offer, or she wrote an offer on one property, she didn't get it. And so unfortunately, in talking with her buyer's agent, a lot of buyers these days are once again waiving the inspection contingency, which is... you know, can be a little bit scary. But do you have any comments on that? Are you seeing buyers, your buyers, are they waiving? Or are they offering to pick up the first$5,000 of any inspection-related problems? What are you seeing, David?

SPEAKER_02: 20:51

I would say if you are asking for an appraisal contingency, you are adding that gamble factor to your offer. And I have clients who get accepted offers with an inspection contingency, but that is added benefits risk in a seller saying yes, right? Because if one other buyer is reasonably near what you are offering without the inspection contingency, a seller's probably going to say, I'll take that guy. And I have to remind my clients, you are not negotiating with the seller. You are negotiating against how aggressive are the other buyers in the room. That's who you're negotiating against.

SPEAKER_00: 21:36

Good point. And so, you know, it is a risk, but I think, you know, maybe it's more on a property by property basis. right? Hey, how does this property look? You know, and for example, the one that she's about to write an offer on already has the basement already braced up. They just did all the, you know, vertical girders in the basement. So, you know, hey, at least she knows it doesn't have a basement problem anymore. But then the other thing that we introduced this last time was, well, what about, you know, appraisal gap? And so, you know, she's contemplating writing an offer at, let's say this house is listed for$300,000. She's comfortable now after some discussion of writing the offer at$325,000, but saying, hey, I'll still buy your house even if it appraises as low as$305,000. She's willing to give$20,000 of appraisal gap. Her buyer's agent thinks, eh, probably I'll appraise out at around$315,000. But, you know, again, once the appraiser has the accepted offer in hand, remember 90% of the time in our experience when buyers pay over asking, 90% of the time the appraisal comes in at or above the agreed upon higher accepted offer price. So she's willing to take that gamble primarily because I was able to show her the difference in monthly payment would be$17. She doesn't have to come up with any more. Even if the appraisal comes in 20 grand light, right? She doesn't have to come up with any more dollars at closing. She just switches from being a 10% down payment to a 6% down payment or something

SPEAKER_02: 23:08

like that. But I think that, right, that it's about let's turn the lights on and point at the boogeyman. It's not a$20,000 decision. It's a$17 decision. Are you willing to get to the closing table and risk$17 a month?

SPEAKER_00: 23:25

Yeah. Most buyers would say

SPEAKER_02: 23:26

yes.

SPEAKER_00: 23:28

But like your financial advisor from the last story where they were really concerned about payment, she has reason to be concerned about her payment right because she is now a single earning household and um you know one of the comments

SPEAKER_02: 23:43

but not not 17 worth of

SPEAKER_00: 23:46

risk no no no that's like

SPEAKER_02: 23:47

guacamole twice a month

SPEAKER_00: 23:48

well that that's right but it's like all the little things add up you know it's like hey if i offer 320 versus 325 you know okay there's another 40 bucks or something like that or 38 you know more per month you know it all adds up and she's right at the cusp of her comfort level for monthly payments. So she is leaning towards using more of the assets that she has along with a gift from her parents in order to target a more comfortable monthly payment as opposed to keeping that powder dry we might have once she gets an accepted offer we might have another conversation about you know you could keep that extra five thousand dollars over here and just take out 50 bucks a month yes to supplement your monthly payment as opposed to...

SPEAKER_02: 24:37

The sock drawer, I think, is the Brian

SPEAKER_00: 24:39

Wickard favorite. Yeah, that's right. Put it in the sock drawer and take the money out. All right, do you have a story that you want to pivot to next?

SPEAKER_02: 24:45

Yes, that exact, because I have a grandma who got an accepted, not my grandma, a grandma out in the world who got an accepted offer this week getting a gift from her daughter and son to make that monthly payment more comfortable. And I want to talk through the exact conversation that we had about that balance point of cash versus payment. After this break, you are listening to the Acunet Mortgage and Realty Show on AM620 WTMJ.

SPEAKER_01: 25:15

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

SPEAKER_02: 25:25

Welcome back to the Acunet Mortgage and Realty Show. Dad, you were describing one of your clients getting out there. Hey, what does it take to win? I had a client who actually won this week, a grandma. We love helping grandmas. They are what make the world go round. And this woman, is getting help from her daughter. And top of mind for both of them is monthly payment. Of course, grandma is on primarily a fixed income, and so they don't want her to be stretched, right? You still want to be able to afford groceries, maybe a glass of white wine at dinner, et cetera. So the primary contact for me is the daughter. because she's kind of orchestrating the whole thing. Grandma's got$50,000 that she can bring to closing. Awesome. Daughter is willing to give her mom$20,000 toward down payment to make it more comfortable for her to afford life on a monthly basis. And I just pointed out to my client, I said, or the daughter, the payment difference for that$20,000 is only going to make life easier for your mom by$140 a month. So I said, one way, rather than just giving mom$20,000, here it is, instead, grandma could borrow that 20 from Acunet via the mortgage. And then you could Venmo grandma$140 a month from now until the day she goes out feet first out of that house and supplement her monthly payment without the actual cash outlay of here is the$20,000 plunk. Yeah, that is, by the way, 11.9 years. And right. It's like, is grandma going to be in this house for 11 years? It's like, well, maybe, but maybe not.

SPEAKER_00: 27:41

And so how'd that go over?

SPEAKER_02: 27:42

Um, it, the math is correct is my answer because in real life, I'm just thinking like of my mother. Hey mom, instead of you feeling comfortable, I'm just going to send you money. It would be tough to, to get everybody comfortable with the analytical answer versus the, no, I want to make sure that I am okay in my new house. And so I don't know yet for sure, but if I was a betting man, that they're just going to give her the gift funds to borrow less money, even though on paper, I was like, well, you... Keep your cash. But again, it's not about what the spreadsheet answer is. It's about what makes our client most comfortable. And when the client calls the play, that is the play that we run. There's no Aaron Rodgers at the line of scrimmage, you know, calling a different

SPEAKER_00: 28:42

play. Yeah, we're not doing an audible here at the, what do they call it? Under center. Yeah, under center. But what did Elway always call it? He said, like, Omaha, Omaha. No, not Elway. It was Peyton Manning. Oh, Peyton Manning. That's Peyton Manning, yeah. Elway, yeah. Come on. Oh, come on. That's going back a couple of generations.

SPEAKER_02: 29:03

But that's the real life stuff. And ultimately, I think our job as mortgage pastors is to just be like, here are the options. Like, a lot of times with clients, just to torture the metaphor, it's like, if mortgages were like ribeyes, Can I tell you what the chef's recommendation is? But then if you want to order it, you know, still mooing, like I'll yell back to the kitchen

SPEAKER_00: 29:31

and that's how they'll cook it up. Here's another thing about my buyer who's contemplating putting on this offer, putting in this offer on the house. It went on the market on Thursday. And so they were fixing to put in an offer, a nice offer with the appraisal gap and over asking and no inspection contingency. I mean, it had a lot of attractive things about it, but then they found out that the seller was, wasn't going to decide until tuesday so it's like well okay so then the strategy becomes well let's wait to put in our offer we don't want to you know give the seller and the listing agent like well okay i got an offer in now because then what the listing agent would do is say hey got an offer in you know get your offers in ring the dinner bell and so the strategy uh is going to be that the buyer's agent is going to wait, you know, until a little over the weekend or whenever the seller, you know, or the listing agent comes back and communicates, okay, we've got an offer or we've got a couple of offers before they put in theirs. You're disagreeing with that?

SPEAKER_02: 30:34

You know, because I've seen, you know, you can put a short timeframe, you know, this, so your client, that was Friday, they could have said, answer me by, the end of Friday or this deal's off the table. Yeah, but... You're trying to press their... Because, again, a seller saying, I'm going to review on Tuesday is make-believe. Like, they can review whenever they want. They don't have to wait. It's not like they are bound to wait till Tuesday. They could just decide on Saturday or Sunday at 1 p.m. I want that offer. They don't have to wait.

SPEAKER_00: 31:08

They couldn't. They could. All right. When we come back from this last break, we'll got at least one more story to share. You're listening. to the Acunet Mortgage and Realty Show on Wisconsin's radio station, AM620 WTMJ.

SPEAKER_01: 31:22

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

SPEAKER_02: 31:31

Welcome back to the Acunet Mortgage and Realty Show. I'm David. That's Brian over there. Dad, one of my long-term themes in mortgage lending, probably over the next five to 10 years, is that I think insurance is going to be the tail that wags the dog. How's that? Because, well, the condition of a home is going to matter more because if you can't get insurance on the house, I sure can't get you the mortgage on the house. So I had a client out in the Madison area. Apparently, there was some hail storm. Yes, a hail storm came through. Yeah, yeah, I saw pictures from a friend of mine's daughter. It was brutal. So my client got the accepted offer. Hail storm came through. And our closing date is... was AFT is while they were under contract. So the seller has this damaged roof and siding. And we had to go through a couple gentle rounds of, yeah, in order for underwriting to approve the new mortgage, you got to put the new roof and the new siding on. Because we can't, the adjuster went out there and said, you need new stuff. Okay, that is material. And you can't do an escrow holdback for cosmetic things, even if they're material.

SPEAKER_00: 32:55

It's cosmetic. This is more than cosmetic on the roof, right? I mean, I guess it's holding the rain out, but go on. The

SPEAKER_02: 33:02

other element to this, though, I called, because we have friends throughout the finance and insurance world, I called the two smartest insurance people that I know. And I said, hey, the old... The sellers, their old policy is with state farm. Yeah. Do we think that the buyer could even get a policy as the new owner from a new different insurance carrier while there is this outstanding work to be done, claim yet to be resolved on the damage that was? That's a weird situation. What was the answer? The answer generally was no. Because why would a new insurance company want to take on covering a home that has not been made whole from previous work or previous damage?

SPEAKER_00: 33:57

Yeah, you would think that that old insurance company would want to still have the same policy holder be the owner.

SPEAKER_02: 34:04

The one interesting caveat was, well, if the buyer chose the same carrier that the current owner seller has, there may be a path where, right, it's like if Allstate was the seller's carrier and now the buyer is also getting an Allstate, generally because they're just carrying over the liability from the old claim to the new one. But even that is not...

SPEAKER_00: 34:30

But still, doesn't the mortgage world want to insist on, hey, we want to have the home in good repair. We don't want to have the beat-up

SPEAKER_02: 34:36

siding. Yes, ultimately, that was the bogey. Please put the new roof on. Okay,

SPEAKER_00: 34:41

so is that what they're going to ultimately do?

SPEAKER_02: 34:44

Yeah, they will. They're going to put the new roof and siding on. But the insurance element, it's not just about the work. It is also about the coverage. And to me, as I look out, as I pick up my magic eight ball, that insurance element is going to factor in more and more. I think I had said, even on a previous show, If I could advise clients to do three things when they see a house that they love, one, call your agents so you can get into the house. Two, call your Acunet Mortgage Loan Consultant to scope out, hey, how can I be the most attractive buyer that I can be? And three, call your insurance agent. Like, hey, I'm thinking about 123 Main Street. What can you run down in your database or otherwise about this home in general? Because it's going to matter. And you may as well know that in advance about the insurance and the coverage before you're, you know, standing on third base hoping to get to the closing table.

SPEAKER_00: 35:46

Right. So insurance is going to become a more and more expensive proposition depending on where you live. You know, certainly people in Florida and, you know, who have hurricane risk and in other western states where they have more of wildfire, you know, they're seeing their premiums go up. But I think, you know, even in Wisconsin with all the hail damage that we've experienced, you know, premium are going up. We've had some carriers get out of the business altogether in Wisconsin. So yeah, all the details matter. Property taxes, insurance, the whole schmear. All right. Well, that's all the time we have for today's show. Thanks for joining us. We'll be here again next week. You've been listening to the Accident Mortgage and Realty Show on AM620. WTMJ. The preceding was a paid program. Advice and opinions expressed during the Acunet Mortgage and Realty Show are solely that of the hosts or guests of Acunet Mortgage and Acunet Realty Advisors and not WTMJ Radio or Good Karma Brands Milwaukee LLC.