The Accunet Mortgage & Realty Show 5-18-25

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
The following program, the Accident Mortgage
and Realty Show, is paid for infull by Accident Mortgage LLC,
an equal housing lender,consumeraccess.org, number
255368.
The advice and opinionsexpressed during the Accident
Mortgage and Realty Show aresolely that of the hosts and
guests of Accident Mortgage LLCand not WTMJ or Good Karma
Brands.

SPEAKER_01 (00:21):
Welcome to the AccuNet Mortgage and Realty
Show, getting you insideinformation on buying, selling,
and financing your home withexpert advice from AccuNet
Mortgage and Realty.
And now, here's Brian and DavidWickert and Tim Holtman.

SPEAKER_02 (00:36):
Welcome to the AccuNet Mortgage and Realty
Show.
I'm Brian Wickert, licensed realestate broker with AccuNet
Realty Advisors and also themajority owner of AccuNet
Mortgage, where my individualNMLS ID number is 259610.
Here again today, along with myson, David Wickert, who's the
president of AccuNet Mortgage.
His NMLS ID number is 328847.
And also my son-in-law, TimHoldman, Senior Loan Consultant

(00:58):
Extraordinaire, and his NMLS IDnumber is 1593146.
Remember, you can get a podcastat today's show wherever you
normally get your podcasts.
And the reason we're all threeof us here together today is
because it's the last AccuNetMortgage and Realty show that
will air on WTMJ.
And we simply decided to deploythe marketing dollars dedicated

(01:18):
to the weekly radio show to someother opportunities.
And We'll continue to produce aweekly podcast, which you can
get, again, wherever younormally get your podcasts.
I want to thank WTMJ and GoodKarma Brands for allowing us to
borrow their airwaves eachSunday morning for the past 15
years and three months.
I also want to thank IsaacMarquardt, our radio show

(01:39):
producer, for us the lastseveral years.
By the way, I estimate thatwe've done about 620 shows.
AM 620 and 620 shows.
So we started back in 2010.
And do you remember, David, thefarthest away location from
which we did the show?

SPEAKER_03 (02:02):
I know you did one in Beijing.
That is the farthest away.
That is the farthest.
Also, other locales include NewYork 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?

(02:22):
No.
Beijing's a pretty good one.
It was 2 o'clock in the morningwhen 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 (02:35):
All right.
Well, let's get back to thetasks at hand, which is talking
about how we're helping peoplebuy homes in today's still tight
market.
And we were talking before wegot rolling today about how
sometimes less is more when itcomes to helping people buy
homes.
And who wants to take the leadon that, David?

(02:55):
Because you each had a story.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (02:58):
Well, and it's appropriate because it's the
basketball playoffs, right?
And as I tell our clients, ifmortgage lend were like
basketball, you only have to winby one.
Anything above one, It justfeels better.
It's superfluous, though, yeah.

(03:40):
The one that made the most sensefor these clients was to exclude
one of the spouse's income, zeroit out, because then...
That sounds crazy to the

SPEAKER_02 (03:54):
common person listening.
Why would the mortgage worldwant to have more borrowers and
more income?
What could possibly be the

SPEAKER_03 (04:03):
reason for that, David?
Welcome to the policy episode ofthe Academic Mortgage and Realty
Show.
But the whole point is, in thelast year or two, one of the
buckets— that fannie and freddiemade available was hey are you a
first-time home buyer meaningyou have not owned a property in
the last three years then if youor if your income that is listed

(04:28):
on the application is at orbelow 100 of the area median
income which in most ofmilwaukee is about 102 000
that's right then you arespecial and you get a break on
the pricing that then wouldimpact your rate and closing
costs.
And so myself, Tim, Brian,everyone at Acunet is always

(04:51):
thinking, can we fit in the box?
Is there a way that we can getinside a box, any box?
Because as I sometimes have totell clients, congratulations,
you make too much money to bespecial.
But for these clients, it was,man, absolutely.
We can line up a sharper rate,lower closing costs, simply by

(05:14):
being smarter about how we putthis together and exclude one of
the spouse's incomes.

SPEAKER_00 (05:20):
And they still qualify for the mortgage, which
is the main ultimate goal,obviously.
Of course.
So removing that second spouse'sincome is not going to damage
the risk or chances of themgetting the mortgage.
So if they're going to get themortgage either way, why not get
it at the best possible rate andclosing costs?
It's as simple as

SPEAKER_02 (05:38):
that.
And then, David, they can still,or they both, I assume, are
still going to be on title tothe

SPEAKER_03 (05:42):
property.
Correct.
Exactly.
And though we are not attorneys,if you're an owner, well, half
of it is hers and the other halfis yours.

SPEAKER_02 (05:51):
Yep, there you go.
So that's a really good exampleof less is more.
Sometimes we also get breaks onthe cost of private mortgage
insurance if we can get thequalifying income at 80% or less
of the area median income.
That's another magic box thatwe'll oftentimes reach for.

(06:12):
All right, when we come back...
Let's talk about your scenariowhere less is more quickly.
And then I've got an interestingstudy just came out from the
National Association of Realtorsabout affordability.
We'll get to that right afterthis.
You're listening to the AcademicMortgage and Realty Show on
AM620 WTMJ.

SPEAKER_01 (06:31):
Home buying advice from the guys who know it best.
This is the Acunet Mortgage andRealty Show with Brian Wickert
on WTMJ.

SPEAKER_02 (06:40):
Welcome back and thanks for hanging out with us
today.
We're talking about when less ismore.
David just had an example ofhelping a married couple where
we excluded one of the...
You can do that with unmarriedcouples, by the

SPEAKER_00 (06:53):
way.
Oh, that's true, true.
And two people on a mortgage.
That's

SPEAKER_02 (06:56):
true, yeah.
Excluding one of the...
borrowers' income from the loan.
And Tim, you had one on a VAloan.
Give us the quick rundown

SPEAKER_00 (07:04):
on that.
Removing a borrower from theloan didn't change their rate or
closing costs to their benefit,but it did enable them to
actually borrow more money onthe mortgage.
To

SPEAKER_03 (07:23):
utilize all of their VA benefit.

SPEAKER_00 (07:25):
Exactly.
Again, sounds

SPEAKER_02 (07:26):
crazy to the common man that, wait, by removing a
borrower, I can actually borrowmore money?
That sounds crazy.
But why is that the case on a VAloan?

SPEAKER_00 (07:35):
Right, so this is a VA-specific wrinkle for sure,
but I have some customers,first-time homebuyers, lovely
young couple, where one of theborrowers is a military veteran
and therefore has eligibility touse a VA mortgage.
And the second person, they werenot married yet, so this is

(07:55):
what's referred to as anon-married co-borrower.
And for a VA mortgage...
when it's a veteran and anon-married co-borrower, the VA
actually doesn't let the veteranutilize their full amount of VA
eligibility because they want tokeep some in reserve and not

(08:15):
guarantee that full mortgagewhen both borrowers are not
either married to each other orboth veterans.
So the workaround to this isthey had a certain down payment
goal in mind.
Which, by the way, what

SPEAKER_03 (08:28):
I'll say, again, on kind of like the policy
initiative, it is not on usnecessarily to narrate, well,
why does the VA do that?
We are reporting on here is whathas been decided.
Correct.
And let's...
navigate do you because the yourclients could have proceeded
together as unmarried totallyfine but then i think you

(08:49):
presented with the well here'sif you do it

SPEAKER_00 (08:51):
solo yeah it's all about options right and again
this is not an acunet rule thisis no the va rule straight from
the top so i showed them

SPEAKER_02 (09:00):
Yeah, go ahead.
I was just going to ask you,what is the difference in the
down payment for theseparticular people between, hey,
you're both on the loan and onlythe veteran's on the

SPEAKER_00 (09:09):
loan?
Right.
So if they both wanted to be onthe loan and still use a VA
mortgage, they would have had todo about 15% down, which they
were able to do, but they reallywanted to do only 10% down to
smartly keep more money in thebank, right, for real life.
So I showed them both scenarios.
And luckily, the veteran'sincome was still more than

(09:30):
sufficient to qualify for themortgage in just his name.
So we said, hey, there's alwaysoptions.
I even showed them just forkicks what a conventional
mortgage would look like withboth of them on there.
They wanted to go that route.
But it was pretty clear rightfrom the beginning that the VA
mortgage, in just the veteran'sname, got them the lowest rate,
no PMI, even at 10% down, andallowed them to only put the

(09:54):
smaller down payment down thatthey really preferred.

SPEAKER_03 (09:57):
Come on.
The storyteller in my soul thenthinks 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 onthe phone.
Can we go get married?
They're like, what if we go tothe courthouse and get a
marriage certificate?
And I was like, well, yeah, youcould do that if you really want
to and i forget which one ofthem said you know what let's
just pump the brakes let's do areal wedding awkward you know in
okay uh in in the future at atime that we want but for now we

(10:24):
can just uh move forward becauseyou know when they are married
if they do in what's called theearl the interest rate reduction
loan refi which is a reallyslick va refi you can always add
her back on uh with the refi ifthey 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 gotto have a a knowledgeable loan
consultant like we have atAcunet.
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 tospell VA, but that is not where
the expertise can conclude if...
any home buyer out there wantsto utilize that benefit or
analyze using that benefit.

(11:08):
I had a client, I think we hadtalked about in previous weeks,
I had gotten them pre-approvedof course using their VA
benefit, but the competitivesituation that they were in led
them in consultation with theirreal estate agent to, hey, we
should write a conventionaloffer on this home because that
is what the seller wants to seein order to feel comfortable to

(11:29):
say yes.
Oh yeah, I remember that.
And so VA is a specialty.
that the Acunet team knows howto do more than just spell VA.
We know how to wield thatbenefit to the benefit of our
clients, but then also use it incomparing to, well, yes, I can
hand you a pre-approval letterthat says VA.

(11:50):
Will that help you win?
Or hurt you?
Well, exactly.
And, Dad, I think the story thatyou want to get into talks about
it's not just about generatingthe pre-approval letter, which
is important.
Then you must go forth out intothe world and get a seller to
say yes to you.
That's right.
The Acuna team...
is hell-bent on helping ourclients win, not just be in

(12:16):
receipt of PDFs calledpre-approvals.
I look forward to hearing thatstory.

SPEAKER_02 (12:19):
All right, I've got a story that talks about
affordability, and then we'llalso weave that in with the
National Association ofRealtors' latest report on home
affordability.
We'll get to that right afterthis.
You're listening to the AccidentMortgage and Realty Show on
Wisconsin's radio station, AM620WTMJ.
Getting you into the

SPEAKER_01 (12:36):
home of your dreams.
Here's more of the AccuNetMortgage 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 olderguy.
So, David and Tim, the NationalAssociation of Realtors just
came out with a report thatlooks at affordability both
nationwide and at the metro arealevel.

(13:05):
So my first question is, do youthink...
Well, no, let's talk about thenational number first.
And the way they did this isthey...
took a look and said, hey, ifsomebody was looking, had
income, household income of$75,000, what percentage of the
listings available on the marketright now could they afford

(13:26):
compared to what they say is anormal balanced market like
2019?
So let's say this, back in 2019or in a normal market, a
household income of$75,000allowed 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, doyou think that number is lower?
And how much lower do you thinkit 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 householdearning$75,000 can only afford
21% of the homes listed per salein the United States.
So less than half.

SPEAKER_03 (14:10):
Are they picking 75?
Because that's like from theFriday 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% ofhouseholds 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

(14:38):
kind of saying that lower in thepurchase price spectrum is worse
from an affordabilitystandpoint.
Now, they also looked at it froma metropolitan area.
Do you think Milwaukee metroarea fell into the doing better
category?
Or do you think that they fellinto the kind of hold and steady

(14:59):
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 inand around Milwaukee, can you
afford greater than 21% of thehomes 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 thatway in this study, so I can't
answer your question directly,David.
Sorry about that.
But what I can say is that wedid...
Milwaukee metropolitan area wasin the falling further behind
category.
And the study estimated thatthis is where they went to the
supply side.
The Milwaukee metro area wouldneed an additional 1,000

(15:37):
affordable listings to have asufficient supply for homes,
households earning$75,000.
which is a bridge way too farbecause right now there are only
3,400 homes listed for sale.
So there is no way that we'regoing to get anywhere close to
1,000 more affordable homelessthings.

(15:57):
Do

SPEAKER_03 (15:57):
you want to live in Key Wascombe?
We are building 1,000 new homesup that way.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (16:02):
Madison, by the way, was the only other top 100 metro
area that showed up in thereport, and they are in the
stuck in the middle category.
Not getting any worse, notgetting any better, but...
they're 570 listing short forhouseholds making$75,000 of
income, but they are smallermarkets.
So maybe it's just as bad inMadison.

(16:23):
The bottom line is affordabilityis an issue in America.
Housing affordability is anissue everywhere.
And ultimately, I'm going toposit that it comes down to the
individual household'sdefinition 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 nextyear or two years from now?
We consult clients on that allthe time.
You're not just buying a homefor who you are today, you're
also buying a house for who youwill become.
If it's just the two of yous,but you think you're gonna add
to the population of yourhousehold in the next couple

(17:04):
years, maybe you need to buymore 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 ourfirst 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 theway, is there is always a home
available to buy at a pricepoint that you prefer.
It might just not be on thestreet corners that you prefer.

SPEAKER_02 (17:32):
Okay, good point.
And so let's parlay that into abuyer that I've been working
with for the last...
couple of months and who islooking in milwaukee county in
the let's say you know 220 maybeup to the high 200s price range
which is a very competitiveprice range yeah because you

(17:54):
know there's a lot of peoplethat can afford a house like
that and uh You know, madeoffers on a couple of homes and
didn't win.
And so now finally made an offeron Sunday, a week ago, on a home
listed in the low 200s.
We're going to tell you thatstory when we come back.

(18:14):
You're listening to the AcademicMortgage and Realty Show.
Right now, it's time to turn itover 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 andRealty 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 inMilwaukee 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

(18:54):
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 herbuyer's agents, I got to offer
more than what is being asked inthe listing price.
And so in working up the numbersfor her, in the case of the

(19:17):
first home she was looking at, abigger home, her payment was
going to be about$2,450 a month.
which including taxes andmortgage insurance and all that
good stuff.
And that made her uncomfortable.
She was really struggling withmaking that offer because of the

(19:38):
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 thatbe 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 hadlower property taxes, but which
she ended up deciding wassufficient for her family's
needs, comes with a payment of$2,040.
So$2,040,$410 less than theother one.

(20:19):
And now check this out, though.
Because of that affordablepayment and because of her past
experience in losing out onoffers, she decided that she
could really go all in on thisoffer.
Okay.
Because to her, it was about twothings.
What's my payment going to be?
Yep.
And I don't want to keep doingthis.

(20:41):
for the rest of May and intoJune.
I want a house.
I want a house.
I want to get into the winner'scircle.
And by the way, thanks to a giftfrom her parents, we were able
to write the offer at, are youready?
$35,000 over the asking price,which is more than 10% over the
asking price.

(21:01):
Yeah.
With$25,000 of appraisal gap.
Meaning she's saying, hey, I'llstill buy your house at$35,000
over asking as long as itappraises within$25,000 of my
offer price.
Within$25,000.
Got it.
Within$25,000.
So she's not going all the waydown to the listing price.

(21:23):
Sure.
And then the third aspect wasbecause of the gift, plus with
her savings, we couldlegitimately 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, wetalk about this, a no regrets

(21:44):
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 shehave 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 houseappraises for$25 under the
agreed upon price, it wouldchange 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 keydetail, Brian, with your
customer is like she knew evenahead of making the offer what
her monthly payment was going tobe.
And I think that's a servicethat is really important to
customers.
And I don't know if...
Every home shopper is gettingthat level of information from
their mortgage lender ahead ofmaking offers.

(22:39):
And it's like in real life,that's what I would want to know
the most is like, hey, if Iactually 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 yourpoint, getting comfortable with
the payment was the unlock forlet's get aggressive.
If you get aggressive and feellike you don't have enough
info...
then you don't want to maybe getas aggressive as you could.

SPEAKER_02 (23:04):
Well, and on that other house, yeah, she was kind
of less aggressive, but it camewith a, you know, because she
couldn't afford to go any higherin her mind.
Just by the way, speaking ofaffordability, you know, when
you look at the principalinterest taxes and insurance on
this house that she has undercontract now, it'll be under 30%
of her gross income, which isthe federal government's

(23:25):
definition of affordability.

SPEAKER_03 (23:28):
And again...
Because owning a home is notstatic but dynamic over time,
reminding your client, do youthink you're going to get a
shnibble of a raise next yearworking at your job?
Yep.
Do you think that the Acunetteam is going to call you the
nanosecond when you might beable to refinance and trim a
little bit off of your monthlypayment?
Yep.

(23:48):
So, like, that payment is goingto continue.
You had noted 30%, Dad.
That payment's going to continueto become more and more cozy as
time goes by as well.
Indeed.

SPEAKER_02 (23:58):
Good point.
So really happy for her that shesucceeded with a no regrets
offer that she feels greatabout.
By the way, she's probably notgoing to put all of her money
down.
I think she's just going to usethe gift funds and then keep a
lot of money in reserve becauseshe wants to do some things to
the house.
But we could legitimately writewith that 20% down.
All right.
When we come back, I've gotanother story on a Florida

(24:20):
relocating single borrower.
We'll get to that right afterthis.
You are listening to theAcademic Mortgage and Realty
Show on Wisconsin's radiostation, AM620 WTMJ.

SPEAKER_01 (24:32):
important home buying questions and answers you
can count on.
This is the AccuNet Mortgage andRealty Show with Brian Wickert
on WTMJ.

SPEAKER_02 (24:42):
Welcome back.
And so David and Tim, thanks forhanging out here today on the
last show that we're going tobroadcast on WTMJ.
Remember you can get a, we'regoing to continue publishing
podcasts every week, so you canstill 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 aFlorida real estate agent this
last week, guys, for a personwho is selling their Orlando
home and wanting to buy inTampa, Florida.
Totally different market inFlorida.
It is not the inventory-starvedmarket that we have in

(25:22):
southeastern Wisconsin.
And so it's going to be totallyokay for this person
transitioning, relocating buyerto write his offer in Tampa
contingent on the sale of hisexisting home.
Sure.
The

SPEAKER_03 (25:36):
seller will say, okay.

SPEAKER_02 (25:38):
Okay.
No problem.
And to his credit, he alreadyhas 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 Italked to him, he was excited
because he had just gotten apart-time job.
It's real money.
Yeah.
Well, except for the fact thatwe can't use it.
Yeah, not to us, it's not.

(26:07):
Yeah.
It's still real money to him.
It is real money to him.
And so the plan all along wasgoing to be for dad, who lives
in a different state, to be thenon-occupying co-borrower on
this.
So we've got to rely on dad'sincome.
But along with dad's income,we've got to make sure he can
afford not only the debt on thenew house, because we can't get

(26:29):
any income out of the occupyingco-borrower, which allows us to
still make this a primaryresidence 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'scarrying costs for his life, you
know, where he lives.
And so I get them to fill out areally easy to use online
application form.
They both do that.
Awesome.
And I'm kind of putting togetherall the numbers based on what
they had filled out.

(26:59):
And it's looking pretty good.
Looks like the numbers are goingto work because, oh, by the way,
the actual occupant wants toroll over a lot of his money.
equity.
He thinks he's going to walkaway with like 200 grand.
So he's thinking, Hey, I'm goingto put 150 down.
I'll still have$50,000 leftover.
And you know, let's see if wecan make that work.

(27:21):
And so based on what they hadinput online, okay, the numbers
are looking pretty good, but Igotta verify things like, does
dad have any HOA dues on hisproperty that he owns up in, in
the state in which he lives?
And then I, I went ahead and gotthe credit report on the dad.
And wouldn't you know that thereis an additional mortgage

(27:43):
showing up on the credit report?
There's the one that he has onhis house, which I was
anticipating, but then there'salso...
He's already co-signed for hisdaughter.
Is

SPEAKER_03 (27:53):
that

SPEAKER_02 (27:53):
the answer?
Oh, good guess.
Okay.
It turns out that he hadco-signed on an investment
property loan for his wife thatis 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,

(28:15):
you know what, we're going tohave to saddle you with that
monthly payment.
Yeah, well, he's obligated tomake it.
Yeah, and not just half, 100%.
I know you co-signed with her.
And it's a second marriage, sothere's no way we're going to
get his wife to co-sign on theFlorida 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 incomeon it.
Yeah.
Is that rental income only inher name?
Yep.
It's only in her name.
Well, we can't use the rentalincome.
All we get is the debt.

(28:56):
You over there, David.
How old is the dad?
Oh, I like that.
He is retirement age, and I'musing pension and Social
Security, but he doesn't haveany IRAs.
Not even a Roth IRA.
Correct.
He used that in a different waybefore.
So the bottom line is, hey,sorry, we can't help you, but

(29:17):
what the dad is probably goingto do is get a home equity line
of credit on his primaryresidence, and then make a
private loan to his son inFlorida.

SPEAKER_03 (29:29):
Well, or even until such time as his son on track to
try to get a full-time gig inTampa or TBD?

SPEAKER_02 (29:38):
Not sure.
He's in the arts area ofemployment, so he might be doing
more freelancing and stuff likethat.
Hard to say.
If he's going to get a full-timejob 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 wantto help, there's always...

SPEAKER_03 (29:56):
And isn't it better to have received the diagnosis
that at least you can use ratherthan be unsure?
That's right.
Or in this ether of nothingness?

SPEAKER_02 (30:05):
Exactly.
Because they were quiteconfident that this was all
going to work out.
And, you know, unfortunately...

SPEAKER_00 (30:10):
Of course.
I had parents who a mom waswilling to co-sign for her
daughter, my customer, to helpher buy without a home sale
contingency.
And the mom was like, you knowwhat?
Instead of me co-signing...
Is it okay if I just give mydaughter a big gift to pay off
the mortgage on her old propertyinstead and eliminate that
monthly payment?
And I said, sure.

(30:32):
Feel free.
Whatever you want to do.
Yeah.
So there's many ways forwardwith parents who want to be
helpful.

SPEAKER_02 (30:37):
All right.
It's time for us to take anotherbreak.
And when we come back, we'llflip a coin as to who's got the
final story for this edition ofthe Academic Mortgage and Realty
Show.
And we'll be back right afterthis.

SPEAKER_01 (30:50):
Find a place to call home without the headache.
This is the Acunet Mortgage andRealty 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 Ihelped get pre-approved this
past week.
One is pregnant.
and is going to have a baby inthe next three months.
The other client is gettingmarried in September.

(31:19):
And so, as has always been true,people buy homes for real life
reasons.
And for my client who's gettingmarried in September, I was able
to share with them what has nowbeen my protocol.
Hey, you asked, can we afford orget qualified for a$300,000

(31:40):
house?
And the answer is a resoundingyes.
Also, though, because I'm notgoing to run out of electrons on
my computer, I can also tell youthat you qualify for a home up
to$500,000.
Wow.
Which is a number that is sopreposterously high, I think,
given their current status,chapter in life.

(32:05):
But...
I think it's incumbent upon usto always be advising our
clients that not only, yes, hereis the plan that you asked me
for, for my clients,$300,000.
Here's the plan you didn't askme 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

(32:25):
household over the next three,five, seven years.
Is it worth thinking about?
Do you buy a home for who youare today or do you buy a home
for who you will become in theyears that will roll by?
And for them, it's going to be apersonal decision, right?
That they might pick forsomething more comfortable and

(32:47):
then maybe trade that home infor a newer, bigger home in the
future.
But if they want.
They could buy a home that theycould be in for a long, long
time if they wanted to stretchand 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 eyesand letting them know, boy,
you've got a lot of optionshere.
Curious, how much money are theythinking 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$300,000house.
You could still use that same$30,000.
It would just obviouslyrepresent a smaller percentage

(33:36):
down payment if you're buyingmore house.
But you can wield, it's kind ofamazing the amount of leverage,
right?
If you've got the income toqualify and then you've got some
funds ready to contribute fordown payment, right?
Boy, we can really get you to awhole other threshold of house
probably that they weren't evenconsidering.
And in real life, do they wantto afford a half million dollar

(33:59):
house?
No, they would barely be able toafford groceries

SPEAKER_02 (34:04):
in that example.
But they could.
That's not realistic from there.
Because remember, as we weresaying throughout this show and
all of our shows, it comes downto a person's monthly payment.
So where is that maximum comfortlevel for a monthly payment?
Because obviously if you buy amore expensive house, that's
also going to have higherproperty taxes and higher
homeowner's insurance costs aswell.

SPEAKER_03 (34:23):
Well, and as well, it's like, well, if you add kids
to the formula, do you want toown a home where you are
counting on both incomes?
Do you want to buy a home thatyou are only counting on one of
your incomes if either of youwants to spend some time not at
work but at home raising babies?
Again, to your point on it'sreal life, and I think it's our

(34:46):
job to say here's the ceiling,and then you decide, client,
what makes you most comfortablenow and in the future.

SPEAKER_02 (34:52):
So market conditions, David, being
reported by your buyers is stillvery competitive.

SPEAKER_03 (34:58):
Competitive.
Southeastern Wisconsin, yeah.
Well, and it's a relationshipbusiness in 2025 more than any
of the year that came beforethat the ability for your lender
to pick up the phone and callthe listing agent to advocate on
behalf of your offer.
And when an Acunet loanconsultant calls that listing
agent, we're on a first namebasis that I get to you know

(35:20):
connect with folks that realestate agents that we've done
business with for a long timethat reputation is to the
benefit of our clients uh inhelping get them the win just
like your client this lastsunday i'm sure having brian's
name on the pre-approval letteras well as relationships uh
around the milwaukee housingmarket uh every little bit helps

SPEAKER_02 (35:42):
At the advice of the buyer's agent, I texted the
listing agent instead ofcalling.
Even better.
He was saying, you know what?
They probably don't want to geta call right now because they've
probably got a lot of offers.
All right.
Well, that's all the time wehave for today's show.
Thanks for joining us.
You've been listening to theAccident Mortgage and Realty
Show on AM620.

(36:02):
The preceding was a paidprogram.
Advice and opinions expressedduring the Acunet Mortgage and
Realty Show are solely that ofthe hosts or guests of Acunet
Mortgage and Acunet RealtyAdvisors and not WTMJ Radio or
Good Karma Brands Milwaukee LLC.