SPEAKER_02: 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 AccuNet Mortgage and Realty Show, getting you inside information on buying, selling, and financing your home with expert advice from AccuNet Mortgage and Realty. And now, here's Brian and David Wickert and Tim Holtman.

SPEAKER_02: 0:36

Welcome to the AccuNet Mortgage and Realty Show. I'm Brian Wickert, licensed real estate broker with AccuNet Realty Advisors and also the majority owner of AccuNet Mortgage, where my individual NMLS ID number is 259610. Here again today, along with my son, David Wickert, who's the president of AccuNet Mortgage. His NMLS ID number is 328847. And also my son-in-law, Tim Holdman, Senior Loan Consultant Extraordinaire, and his NMLS ID number is 1593146. Remember, you can get a podcast at today's show wherever you normally get your podcasts. And the reason we're all three of us here together today is because it's the last AccuNet Mortgage and Realty show that will air on WTMJ. And we simply decided to deploy the marketing dollars dedicated to the weekly radio show to some other opportunities. And We'll continue to produce a weekly podcast, which you can get, again, wherever you normally get your podcasts. I want to thank WTMJ and Good Karma Brands for allowing us to borrow their airwaves each Sunday morning for the past 15 years and three months. I also want to thank Isaac Marquardt, our radio show producer, for us the last several years. By the way, I estimate that we've done about 620 shows. AM 620 and 620 shows. So we started back in 2010. And do you remember, David, the farthest away location from which we did the show?

SPEAKER_03: 2:02

I know you did one in Beijing. That is the farthest away. That is the farthest. Also, other locales include New York City. Mackinac Island. Right, for sure. Oh, yeah, that's right. Florida, Arizona. Montana. Montana. You did one in Montana? Wow. Oh, yeah. Okay. Any other international? No. Beijing's a pretty good one. It was 2 o'clock in the morning when we did that show. It was very late. And the internet worked, too, during that show, which was kind of the miracle by itself.

SPEAKER_02: 2:35

All right. Well, let's get back to the tasks at hand, which is talking about how we're helping people buy homes in today's still tight market. And we were talking before we got rolling today about how sometimes less is more when it comes to helping people buy homes. And who wants to take the lead on that, David? Because you each had a story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 2:58

Well, and it's appropriate because it's the basketball playoffs, right? And as I tell our clients, if mortgage lend were like basketball, you only have to win by one. Anything above one, It just feels better. It's superfluous, though, yeah. The one that made the most sense for these clients was to exclude one of the spouse's income, zero it out, because then... That sounds crazy to the

SPEAKER_02: 3:54

common person listening. Why would the mortgage world want to have more borrowers and more income? What could possibly be the

SPEAKER_03: 4:03

reason for that, David? Welcome to the policy episode of the Academic Mortgage and Realty Show. But the whole point is, in the last year or two, one of the buckets— that fannie and freddie made available was hey are you a first-time home buyer meaning you have not owned a property in the last three years then if you or if your income that is listed on the application is at or below 100 of the area median income which in most of milwaukee is about 102 000 that's right then you are special and you get a break on the pricing that then would impact your rate and closing costs. And so myself, Tim, Brian, everyone at Acunet is always thinking, can we fit in the box? Is there a way that we can get inside a box, any box? Because as I sometimes have to tell clients, congratulations, you make too much money to be special. But for these clients, it was, man, absolutely. We can line up a sharper rate, lower closing costs, simply by being smarter about how we put this together and exclude one of the spouse's incomes.

SPEAKER_00: 5:20

And they still qualify for the mortgage, which is the main ultimate goal, obviously. Of course. So removing that second spouse's income is not going to damage the risk or chances of them getting the mortgage. So if they're going to get the mortgage either way, why not get it at the best possible rate and closing costs? It's as simple as

SPEAKER_02: 5:38

that. And then, David, they can still, or they both, I assume, are still going to be on title to the

SPEAKER_03: 5:42

property. Correct. Exactly. And though we are not attorneys, if you're an owner, well, half of it is hers and the other half is yours.

SPEAKER_02: 5:51

Yep, there you go. So that's a really good example of less is more. Sometimes we also get breaks on the cost of private mortgage insurance if we can get the qualifying income at 80% or less of the area median income. That's another magic box that we'll oftentimes reach for. All right, when we come back... Let's talk about your scenario where less is more quickly. And then I've got an interesting study just came out from the National Association of Realtors about affordability. We'll get to that right after this. You're listening to the Academic Mortgage and Realty Show on AM620 WTMJ.

SPEAKER_01: 6:31

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

SPEAKER_02: 6:40

Welcome back and thanks for hanging out with us today. We're talking about when less is more. David just had an example of helping a married couple where we excluded one of the... You can do that with unmarried couples, by the

SPEAKER_00: 6:53

way. Oh, that's true, true. And two people on a mortgage. That's

SPEAKER_02: 6:56

true, yeah. Excluding one of the... borrowers' income from the loan. And Tim, you had one on a VA loan. Give us the quick rundown

SPEAKER_00: 7:04

on that. Removing a borrower from the loan didn't change their rate or closing costs to their benefit, but it did enable them to actually borrow more money on the mortgage. To

SPEAKER_03: 7:23

utilize all of their VA benefit.

SPEAKER_00: 7:25

Exactly. Again, sounds

SPEAKER_02: 7:26

crazy to the common man that, wait, by removing a borrower, I can actually borrow more money? That sounds crazy. But why is that the case on a VA loan?

SPEAKER_00: 7:35

Right, so this is a VA-specific wrinkle for sure, but I have some customers, first-time homebuyers, lovely young couple, where one of the borrowers is a military veteran and therefore has eligibility to use a VA mortgage. And the second person, they were not married yet, so this is what's referred to as a non-married co-borrower. And for a VA mortgage... when it's a veteran and a non-married co-borrower, the VA actually doesn't let the veteran utilize their full amount of VA eligibility because they want to keep some in reserve and not guarantee that full mortgage when both borrowers are not either married to each other or both veterans. So the workaround to this is they had a certain down payment goal in mind. Which, by the way, what

SPEAKER_03: 8:28

I'll say, again, on kind of like the policy initiative, it is not on us necessarily to narrate, well, why does the VA do that? We are reporting on here is what has been decided. Correct. And let's... navigate do you because the your clients could have proceeded together as unmarried totally fine but then i think you presented with the well here's if you do it

SPEAKER_00: 8:51

solo yeah it's all about options right and again this is not an acunet rule this is no the va rule straight from the top so i showed them

SPEAKER_02: 9:00

Yeah, go ahead. I was just going to ask you, what is the difference in the down payment for these particular people between, hey, you're both on the loan and only the veteran's on the

SPEAKER_00: 9:09

loan? Right. So if they both wanted to be on the loan and still use a VA mortgage, they would have had to do about 15% down, which they were able to do, but they really wanted to do only 10% down to smartly keep more money in the bank, right, for real life. So I showed them both scenarios. And luckily, the veteran's income was still more than sufficient to qualify for the mortgage in just his name. So we said, hey, there's always options. I even showed them just for kicks what a conventional mortgage would look like with both of them on there. They wanted to go that route. But it was pretty clear right from the beginning that the VA mortgage, in just the veteran's name, got them the lowest rate, no PMI, even at 10% down, and allowed them to only put the smaller down payment down that they really preferred.

SPEAKER_03: 9:57

Come on. The storyteller in my soul then thinks of option four, go get married before closing.

SPEAKER_00: 10:03

What's funny is they brought that up. They literally asked me that on the phone. Can we go get married? They're like, what if we go to the courthouse and get a marriage certificate? And I was like, well, yeah, you could do that if you really want to and i forget which one of them said you know what let's just pump the brakes let's do a real wedding awkward you know in okay uh in in the future at a time that we want but for now we can just uh move forward because you know when they are married if they do in what's called the earl the interest rate reduction loan refi which is a really slick va refi you can always add her back on uh with the refi if they are married at that point in the future

SPEAKER_02: 10:38

all right all right well good less is sometimes more in mortgage lending and you got to have a a knowledgeable loan consultant like we have at Acunet. I just want to take the time,

SPEAKER_03: 10:48

though, Dad, to just comment that VA, lots of lenders out in the world know how to spell VA, but that is not where the expertise can conclude if... any home buyer out there wants to utilize that benefit or analyze using that benefit. I had a client, I think we had talked about in previous weeks, I had gotten them pre-approved of course using their VA benefit, but the competitive situation that they were in led them in consultation with their real estate agent to, hey, we should write a conventional offer on this home because that is what the seller wants to see in order to feel comfortable to say yes. Oh yeah, I remember that. And so VA is a specialty. that the Acunet team knows how to do more than just spell VA. We know how to wield that benefit to the benefit of our clients, but then also use it in comparing to, well, yes, I can hand you a pre-approval letter that says VA. Will that help you win? Or hurt you? Well, exactly. And, Dad, I think the story that you want to get into talks about it's not just about generating the pre-approval letter, which is important. Then you must go forth out into the world and get a seller to say yes to you. That's right. The Acuna team... is hell-bent on helping our clients win, not just be in receipt of PDFs called pre-approvals. I look forward to hearing that story.

SPEAKER_02: 12:19

All right, I've got a story that talks about affordability, and then we'll also weave that in with the National Association of Realtors' latest report on home affordability. We'll get to that right after this. You're listening to the Accident Mortgage and Realty Show on Wisconsin's radio station, AM620 WTMJ. Getting you into the

SPEAKER_01: 12:36

home of your dreams. Here's more of the AccuNet Mortgage and Realty Show with Brian Wickert on WTMJ.

SPEAKER_02: 12:44

Thanks again for hanging out with us and tuning into today's show. That's David Wickert over there. It's Tim Holdman over there. And I'm Brian Wickert, the older guy. So, David and Tim, the National Association of Realtors just came out with a report that looks at affordability both nationwide and at the metro area level. So my first question is, do you think... Well, no, let's talk about the national number first. And the way they did this is they... took a look and said, hey, if somebody was looking, had income, household income of$75,000, what percentage of the listings available on the market right now could they afford compared to what they say is a normal balanced market like 2019? So let's say this, back in 2019 or in a normal market, a household income of$75,000 allowed you to afford 48% of the homes listed for sale.

SPEAKER_03: 13:45

And none of them were in California or New Jersey.

SPEAKER_02: 13:47

Yeah, maybe not. So as of March 2025, I mean, do you think that number is lower? And how much lower do you think it is? I'd say significantly lower.

SPEAKER_03: 13:57

Half.

SPEAKER_02: 13:58

Half, okay. It's worse than that. As of March 2025, a household earning$75,000 can only afford 21% of the homes listed per sale in the United States. So less than half.

SPEAKER_03: 14:10

Are they picking 75? Because that's like from the Friday jobs report.

SPEAKER_02: 14:13

Well, then they also, they really parsed this information out. They also looked at 100,000. And in a regular market, 60% of households earning$100,000 I'm sorry, households earning$100,000 could afford 60% of the listings. Today, it's down to 37%. So again, not as bad as the$75,000 level, but it's just kind of saying that lower in the purchase price spectrum is worse from an affordability standpoint. Now, they also looked at it from a metropolitan area. Do you think Milwaukee metro area fell into the doing better category? Or do you think that they fell into the kind of hold and steady or falling further behind?

SPEAKER_03: 15:00

I'm going to answer the question, because aren't you posing, if you make$75,000 in and around Milwaukee, can you afford greater than 21% of the homes available for sale? I'm going to say yes. Greater than. I'm going to say no.

SPEAKER_02: 15:15

Yeah, okay. And they didn't express it that way in this study, so I can't answer your question directly, David. Sorry about that. But what I can say is that we did... Milwaukee metropolitan area was in the falling further behind category. And the study estimated that this is where they went to the supply side. The Milwaukee metro area would need an additional 1,000 affordable listings to have a sufficient supply for homes, households earning$75,000. which is a bridge way too far because right now there are only 3,400 homes listed for sale. So there is no way that we're going to get anywhere close to 1,000 more affordable homeless things. Do

SPEAKER_03: 15:57

you want to live in Key Wascombe? We are building 1,000 new homes up that way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 16:02

Madison, by the way, was the only other top 100 metro area that showed up in the report, and they are in the stuck in the middle category. Not getting any worse, not getting any better, but... they're 570 listing short for households making$75,000 of income, but they are smaller markets. So maybe it's just as bad in Madison. The bottom line is affordability is an issue in America. Housing affordability is an issue everywhere. And ultimately, I'm going to posit that it comes down to the individual household's definition of what's affordable to them. Affordable.

SPEAKER_03: 16:42

Yeah. Well, and when? Is it affordable right now? Is it gonna be affordable next year or two years from now? We consult clients on that all the time. You're not just buying a home for who you are today, you're also buying a house for who you will become. If it's just the two of yous, but you think you're gonna add to the population of your household in the next couple years, maybe you need to buy more house now, because you're gonna fill those rooms.

SPEAKER_00: 17:09

That was literally advice, Brian, that you gave to me and Grace when we bought our first home in Tosa. Skate to where the puck will be, not where it is right

SPEAKER_03: 17:17

now. My only other pushback, by the way, is there is always a home available to buy at a price point that you prefer. It might just not be on the street corners that you prefer.

SPEAKER_02: 17:32

Okay, good point. And so let's parlay that into a buyer that I've been working with for the last... couple of months and who is looking in milwaukee county in the let's say you know 220 maybe up to the high 200s price range which is a very competitive price range yeah because you know there's a lot of people that can afford a house like that and uh You know, made offers on a couple of homes and didn't win. And so now finally made an offer on Sunday, a week ago, on a home listed in the low 200s. We're going to tell you that story when we come back. You're listening to the Academic Mortgage and Realty Show. Right now, it's time to turn it over to the WTMJ Breaking News Center.

SPEAKER_01: 18:22

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

SPEAKER_02: 18:30

Thanks again for hanging out with us today. And so talking about a buyer, not a first-time buyer, but a single buyer with two kids, shopping in the mid to upper$200,000 price range in Milwaukee County. And so actually last weekend, she was considering two homes. And one was listed in the lower$200,000 And the other one was listed, I think it was for 290. And so in this price range, she's like, okay, based on her experience and the help from her buyer's agents, I got to offer more than what is being asked in the listing price. And so in working up the numbers for her, in the case of the first home she was looking at, a bigger home, her payment was going to be about$2,450 a month. which including taxes and mortgage insurance and all that good stuff. And that made her uncomfortable. She was really struggling with making that offer because of the monthly payment. And so with the other home... Did you

SPEAKER_03: 19:43

do my favorite Brian thing? Did you try to quantify like, well, if it was$100 less, would that make you more comfortable? If it was$115 less, would that be your threshold for comfort?

SPEAKER_02: 19:54

Well, she really wanted it closer to$2,000. which is a long way from$2,450, but check this out. The smaller home, which also had lower property taxes, but which she ended up deciding was sufficient for her family's needs, comes with a payment of$2,040. So$2,040,$410 less than the other one. And now check this out, though. Because of that affordable payment and because of her past experience in losing out on offers, she decided that she could really go all in on this offer. Okay. Because to her, it was about two things. What's my payment going to be? Yep. And I don't want to keep doing this. for the rest of May and into June. I want a house. I want a house. I want to get into the winner's circle. And by the way, thanks to a gift from her parents, we were able to write the offer at, are you ready?$35,000 over the asking price, which is more than 10% over the asking price. Yeah. With$25,000 of appraisal gap. Meaning she's saying, hey, I'll still buy your house at$35,000 over asking as long as it appraises within$25,000 of my offer price. Within$25,000. Got it. Within$25,000. So she's not going all the way down to the listing price. Sure. And then the third aspect was because of the gift, plus with her savings, we could legitimately write the offer and the pre-approval letter with 20% down. So guess what? She got her offer accepted. Huzzah. Boom. Right? Because it was, you know, we talk about this, a no regrets offer, right? Yeah. Good. She was out there saying, okay, this is the best I can do, right? Yep. Now, we'll never know, could she have gotten it if she offered only$25,000, we're asking?

SPEAKER_00: 21:57

Doesn't matter. Why torture yourselves?

SPEAKER_02: 22:00

Yep. And then guess what? How much, you guys know this, but, you know, if the worst case comes through, and her house appraises for$25 under the agreed upon price, it would change her monthly payment by$17 a month. Oh my goodness. And she would not have

SPEAKER_00: 22:18

to bring any more

SPEAKER_02: 22:19

money

SPEAKER_00: 22:19

to closing. Well, and I think the key detail, Brian, with your customer is like she knew even ahead of making the offer what her monthly payment was going to be. And I think that's a service that is really important to customers. And I don't know if... Every home shopper is getting that level of information from their mortgage lender ahead of making offers. And it's like in real life, that's what I would want to know the most is like, hey, if I actually get this place, I want to know before I make my offer, what is my monthly payment going to

SPEAKER_03: 22:48

be? Yep. Well, and unlocking, to your point, getting comfortable with the payment was the unlock for let's get aggressive. If you get aggressive and feel like you don't have enough info... then you don't want to maybe get as aggressive as you could.

SPEAKER_02: 23:04

Well, and on that other house, yeah, she was kind of less aggressive, but it came with a, you know, because she couldn't afford to go any higher in her mind. Just by the way, speaking of affordability, you know, when you look at the principal interest taxes and insurance on this house that she has under contract now, it'll be under 30% of her gross income, which is the federal government's definition of affordability.

SPEAKER_03: 23:28

And again... Because owning a home is not static but dynamic over time, reminding your client, do you think you're going to get a shnibble of a raise next year working at your job? Yep. Do you think that the Acunet team is going to call you the nanosecond when you might be able to refinance and trim a little bit off of your monthly payment? Yep. So, like, that payment is going to continue. You had noted 30%, Dad. That payment's going to continue to become more and more cozy as time goes by as well. Indeed.

SPEAKER_02: 23:58

Good point. So really happy for her that she succeeded with a no regrets offer that she feels great about. By the way, she's probably not going to put all of her money down. I think she's just going to use the gift funds and then keep a lot of money in reserve because she wants to do some things to the house. But we could legitimately write with that 20% down. All right. When we come back, I've got another story on a Florida relocating single borrower. We'll get to that right after this. You are listening to the Academic Mortgage and Realty Show on Wisconsin's radio station, AM620 WTMJ.

SPEAKER_01: 24:32

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

SPEAKER_02: 24:42

Welcome back. And so David and Tim, thanks for hanging out here today on the last show that we're going to broadcast on WTMJ. Remember you can get a, we're going to continue publishing podcasts every week, so you can still get the same content. Just got to go to your podcast. And you can listen anytime.

SPEAKER_00: 24:59

There you go. Sundays at 10 a.m. There you

SPEAKER_02: 25:01

go. There you go. So, um, I got a referral from a Florida real estate agent this last week, guys, for a person who is selling their Orlando home and wanting to buy in Tampa, Florida. Totally different market in Florida. It is not the inventory-starved market that we have in southeastern Wisconsin. And so it's going to be totally okay for this person transitioning, relocating buyer to write his offer in Tampa contingent on the sale of his existing home. Sure. The

SPEAKER_03: 25:36

seller will say, okay.

SPEAKER_02: 25:38

Okay. No problem. And to his credit, he already has an accepted offer on his place in the Orlando area. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 25:44

So that's really low risk to the seller of that

SPEAKER_02: 25:46

new place. Yeah. Yeah. Or, you know, decent. Same job or remote job or what? Well, that's okay. That's a great question, David. How's about no job? Or actually, on the day that I talked to him, he was excited because he had just gotten a part-time job. It's real money. Yeah. Well, except for the fact that we can't use it. Yeah, not to us, it's not. Yeah. It's still real money to him. It is real money to him. And so the plan all along was going to be for dad, who lives in a different state, to be the non-occupying co-borrower on this. So we've got to rely on dad's income. But along with dad's income, we've got to make sure he can afford not only the debt on the new house, because we can't get any income out of the occupying co-borrower, which allows us to still make this a primary residence transaction, right, by putting them both on the loan.

SPEAKER_00: 26:37

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 26:39

But now we've got to take a look at both of their incomes and what our dad's carrying costs for his life, you know, where he lives. And so I get them to fill out a really easy to use online application form. They both do that. Awesome. And I'm kind of putting together all the numbers based on what they had filled out. And it's looking pretty good. Looks like the numbers are going to work because, oh, by the way, the actual occupant wants to roll over a lot of his money. equity. He thinks he's going to walk away with like 200 grand. So he's thinking, Hey, I'm going to put 150 down. I'll still have$50,000 leftover. And you know, let's see if we can make that work. And so based on what they had input online, okay, the numbers are looking pretty good, but I gotta verify things like, does dad have any HOA dues on his property that he owns up in, in the state in which he lives? And then I, I went ahead and got the credit report on the dad. And wouldn't you know that there is an additional mortgage showing up on the credit report? There's the one that he has on his house, which I was anticipating, but then there's also... He's already co-signed for his daughter. Is

SPEAKER_03: 27:53

that

SPEAKER_02: 27:53

the answer? Oh, good guess. Okay. It turns out that he had co-signed on an investment property loan for his wife that is only in his wife's name on title and on the lease. So I had to explain to the dad, who's a super nice guy, that, you know what, we're going to have to saddle you with that monthly payment. Yeah, well, he's obligated to make it. Yeah, and not just half, 100%. I know you co-signed with her. And it's a second marriage, so there's no way we're going to get his wife to co-sign on the Florida loan. That's just not in the cards.

SPEAKER_03: 28:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 28:36

That's because this buyer is not her son. Got it. Right. Okay. So it's like, bad news. We have to count that. Well, but she gets rental income on it. Yeah. Is that rental income only in her name? Yep. It's only in her name. Well, we can't use the rental income. All we get is the debt. You over there, David. How old is the dad? Oh, I like that. He is retirement age, and I'm using pension and Social Security, but he doesn't have any IRAs. Not even a Roth IRA. Correct. He used that in a different way before. So the bottom line is, hey, sorry, we can't help you, but what the dad is probably going to do is get a home equity line of credit on his primary residence, and then make a private loan to his son in Florida.

SPEAKER_03: 29:29

Well, or even until such time as his son on track to try to get a full-time gig in Tampa or TBD?

SPEAKER_02: 29:38

Not sure. He's in the arts area of employment, so he might be doing more freelancing and stuff like that. Hard to say. If he's going to get a full-time job with a salary anytime soon.

SPEAKER_03: 29:51

I got

SPEAKER_02: 29:51

you. But hey, there's... When you have parents that want to help, there's always...

SPEAKER_03: 29:56

And isn't it better to have received the diagnosis that at least you can use rather than be unsure? That's right. Or in this ether of nothingness?

SPEAKER_02: 30:05

Exactly. Because they were quite confident that this was all going to work out. And, you know, unfortunately...

SPEAKER_00: 30:10

Of course. I had parents who a mom was willing to co-sign for her daughter, my customer, to help her buy without a home sale contingency. And the mom was like, you know what? Instead of me co-signing... Is it okay if I just give my daughter a big gift to pay off the mortgage on her old property instead and eliminate that monthly payment? And I said, sure. Feel free. Whatever you want to do. Yeah. So there's many ways forward with parents who want to be helpful.

SPEAKER_02: 30:37

All right. It's time for us to take another break. And when we come back, we'll flip a coin as to who's got the final story for this edition of the Academic Mortgage and Realty Show. And we'll be back right after this.

SPEAKER_01: 30:50

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

SPEAKER_03: 30:59

Welcome back to the Acunet Mortgage and Realty Show. I'm David Wickert. That's Brian Wickert over there. Dad, I have two clients who I helped get pre-approved this past week. One is pregnant. and is going to have a baby in the next three months. The other client is getting married in September. And so, as has always been true, people buy homes for real life reasons. And for my client who's getting married in September, I was able to share with them what has now been my protocol. Hey, you asked, can we afford or get qualified for a$300,000 house? And the answer is a resounding yes. Also, though, because I'm not going to run out of electrons on my computer, I can also tell you that you qualify for a home up to$500,000. Wow. Which is a number that is so preposterously high, I think, given their current status, chapter in life. But... I think it's incumbent upon us to always be advising our clients that not only, yes, here is the plan that you asked me for, for my clients,$300,000. Here's the plan you didn't ask me for, but one that might be worth considering because, well, you're getting married. You might be adding, as I noted, to the number of people in your household over the next three, five, seven years. Is it worth thinking about? Do you buy a home for who you are today or do you buy a home for who you will become in the years that will roll by? And for them, it's going to be a personal decision, right? That they might pick for something more comfortable and then maybe trade that home in for a newer, bigger home in the future. But if they want. They could buy a home that they could be in for a long, long time if they wanted to stretch and reach for that here in 2025. Well,

SPEAKER_02: 33:00

and there's a lot of ground in between 300 and 500, but you're opening up their eyes and letting them know, boy, you've got a lot of options here. Curious, how much money are they thinking about putting down at the$300,000 level?

SPEAKER_03: 33:14

They've got about$30,000 in a savings account. But having that cash in hand,$30,000 represents about a 10% down payment on that$300,000 house. You could still use that same$30,000. It would just obviously represent a smaller percentage down payment if you're buying more house. But you can wield, it's kind of amazing the amount of leverage, right? If you've got the income to qualify and then you've got some funds ready to contribute for down payment, right? Boy, we can really get you to a whole other threshold of house probably that they weren't even considering. And in real life, do they want to afford a half million dollar house? No, they would barely be able to afford groceries

SPEAKER_02: 34:04

in that example. But they could. That's not realistic from there. Because remember, as we were saying throughout this show and all of our shows, it comes down to a person's monthly payment. So where is that maximum comfort level for a monthly payment? Because obviously if you buy a more expensive house, that's also going to have higher property taxes and higher homeowner's insurance costs as well.

SPEAKER_03: 34:23

Well, and as well, it's like, well, if you add kids to the formula, do you want to own a home where you are counting on both incomes? Do you want to buy a home that you are only counting on one of your incomes if either of you wants to spend some time not at work but at home raising babies? Again, to your point on it's real life, and I think it's our job to say here's the ceiling, and then you decide, client, what makes you most comfortable now and in the future.

SPEAKER_02: 34:52

So market conditions, David, being reported by your buyers is still very competitive.

SPEAKER_03: 34:58

Competitive. Southeastern Wisconsin, yeah. Well, and it's a relationship business in 2025 more than any of the year that came before that the ability for your lender to pick up the phone and call the listing agent to advocate on behalf of your offer. And when an Acunet loan consultant calls that listing agent, we're on a first name basis that I get to you know connect with folks that real estate agents that we've done business with for a long time that reputation is to the benefit of our clients uh in helping get them the win just like your client this last sunday i'm sure having brian's name on the pre-approval letter as well as relationships uh around the milwaukee housing market uh every little bit helps

SPEAKER_02: 35:42

At the advice of the buyer's agent, I texted the listing agent instead of calling. Even better. He was saying, you know what? They probably don't want to get a call right now because they've probably got a lot of offers. All right. Well, that's all the time we have for today's show. Thanks for joining us. You've been listening to the Accident Mortgage and Realty Show on AM620. 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.