 Welcome back folks, Dow down on 117, Nasdaq is down seven and a half, S&Ps off 850. Let's go over to our man, Mr. Bud Spriggs at the mortgage firm. Bud Spriggs, what's going on? How you doing, Tom? How's your Friday going? It's going great, man. It's particularly going great because in this business, we don't get a lot of days off and we're off Monday. You know I didn't even know that. I'll be working, but I guess some of the banks and stuff will be closed, right? That's right, but our man, Mr. Bud Spriggs, is always working out there, folks. That's why I'm getting this guy on right now. You know that we talk a lot about interest rates, we talk a lot about housing, we talk a lot about mortgages, and so, Bud, I'd like to ask you first off, the name of the firm is the mortgage firm. Can you explain to us the difference between a mortgage broker and a direct lender and exactly what the mortgage firm is? Well, I'll start with the mortgage broker. Broker is signed up to do business with various lenders, so they may bring a loan in and see where it might fit best, where the pricing might be the best fit, or certain guidelines might be looser or tighter with certain lenders. A lender has their own underwriters, own staff, processors, so when I get a loan, I know where I'm taking it. I know where I've got to go to get my answers, and I always have answers at my fingertips. Nice, OK, so that definitely makes a difference for people looking to get money, right? Correct, correct. OK, so, you know, I talk about the note and bond market a lot, so right now we have the 10-year, and I know that mortgage rates come off of the 10-year, you know, basically, so we're at 1.58. Now, when folks, so a 30-year mortgage right now, right, just generic. I'm not holding, you know what I mean? I know different credit, well, a 30-year mortgage, what is the average 30-year mortgage right now? OK, based on loan to value credit, stuff like that, you're going to be in the mid to upper threes right now in a 30-year fixed. Yeah, that's pretty cool, mid to upper threes, right? So, now it's really intriguing about it, because when I look at this 30-year, right, I mean the 10-year, when I put the 10-year up, now for all of us that are in this, you know, basically real estate business, this gets pretty interesting, because the low is, a yield is 1.31, and that's going back to 2016, and it's so interesting that, I mean, it looks like this thing wants to basically go after the low, so, you know, we'll see where that basically shakes out, but that is saying that you're going to be doing a lot of refinances, because you do refinances also, right? You refinance and purchase business. Mostly, you know, it's all referral business, you know, I'm not a big outfit myself, so I'm not out there advertising like some of the bigger shops, but you know rates are low when you hear some of those bigger companies and come on and start advertising with the no closing cost, et cetera, that means rates are low, and I think there's a way to take advantage of it. Yeah, totally. And folks, now, what states can you do business in? Can you do business all over the country? Is it just Florida, bud? I'm licensed in Florida. The mortgage firm is licensed all over. If we had somebody that needed to be taken care of, I could go out there and reach out for them, but myself, if I'm going to handle this, it's got to be in Florida. Okay, so the folks in Florida, bud's phone number is 727-7983. 888. Okay, so now let's talk, you know, if folks, bud's helped me many times, okay, what ends up happening when you have your own business, it's a little more complicated getting real estate loans, okay, because the bottom line is that depending on how many businesses you have, they want those businesses put together with your personals. That being said, bud, what should people be doing getting ready to get a loan? Well, like somebody in your situation, self-employed, one business or multiple businesses, you're going to be looking for your tax returns and, you know, I'll talk to a self-employed individual upfront and I'll get an idea of, you know, what their annual income is, but really do a deeper pre-approval for them and get them situated. I ask for the tax returns to be sent to me right up front so I can get the underwrite, the income underwritten form. Somebody that's a W-2, you know, paystub guy, they pretty much know spot on what they earned. I still ask that follow-up information, but it's a little clear, a little easier to get them started, but, but income documents and assets, and that will get us rolling. Sure. Now, let's talk about, you know, for all you veterans out there, right, because you definitely want to take advantage of the VA loans, man, as I have, okay, because walk us through one, because I mean, it's pretty amazing, you know, a VA loan, you know, you can basically get a loan. What is the, what is the higher amount now that you can go up to on a VA loan? Well, listen, when we started off, when you and I started off going business, the VA loan was limited to whatever the conventional limit was at that time, okay? So say, I forget what the old one was, maybe 477. Now, anything over that on a purchase, if you were going, if you were buying a home for 577, they would take that force, 477, and then they would take the 100,000. You just put 25% of that down, and then they added the rest to the loan. It was called a jumbo VA loan. Right. And those were out there. Well, just recently, the conventional loan limits went up to 510,400 dollars, 510,400, and they, and something came on, so, okay, you know what? We're no longer going to limit VA loans to that loan amount. And a lot of instances, if you buy a home for 700,000, you can borrow 700,000. Really? Yeah. And will they still cover the closing costs? Well, your closing costs can always, listen, when you hear somebody that's covering their closing costs, and you can always get a couple of different quotes, when that's something that's good to touch base on, when people are covering your closing costs, all they're doing is increasing your rate enough that when they sell that loan to Jenny, Fanny, Freddie, they're getting extra money back, and they're going to give that to you in the form of a lender's credit. Now, VA loans right now, the rates are so low that that's not a bad idea. And a lot of your VA buyers go in with the intentions of really not pulling a lot of money out of their pocket to close. That's always an option. Now, okay, so let's picture this. Picture this even in the house that I live in, that the VA loan is on, right? So on that particular one, right, I would be able to raise up what I could take out, right? That's interesting. You could now do increase and get yourself a catch out loan. That's right, catch out VA loan. Yeah, so that's pretty interesting. It's more interesting folks that understanding that you can get into a house on a VA loan at a very good rate. FHA, I mean, that's a good deal too, right? FHA is still 3.5% down. The rates are normally lower than a conventional loan. Okay. And I use FHA when conventional can't be done, or maybe the scores are a little bit lower. Conventional rates are more prone to getting pricing hits as your credit scores go down. FHA also, but not as much. I see. And also your mortgage insurance goes up with the lower scores on conventional. Oh, I didn't know that. FHA is for maybe weaker credit scores, higher debt ratios, could be more gift funds needed, things like that. So what is the definition of a conventional loan then? Conventional, I think of a conventional loan. The way I look at it is a bank loan that an agency, Fannie and Freddie, buy the paper. Yes. And back then they started off 20% down in typical bank quality paper. But as an FHA said, hey, other people need to buy properties too. They came out with the FHA. I see. Okay. The ratios, credit scores, guidelines are a little bit more flexible. Right. Bud's phone number, folks, is 727-798-3888. You want a good mortgage bank, folks? Great guy, great firm. He can walk you through it. Bud, next Friday, it's the TIGA mortgage update. I'll be here, I enjoyed it. Everybody have a great weekend, Tom, you too. Have a great one, Bud. Have a safe one. Thanks so much, man. Look forward to speaking to next Friday, 315. Stay right there, folks. Come right back.