Mortgage Fitness Checkup

When was the last time you had a “Mortgage Fitness Checkup?”

For most people, their house is the single largest investment that they will ever make. In most cases it is also the single largest amount of money they will ever borrow. In addition to that, each and every day they are bombarded with advertising from companies trying to get them to refinance their first mortgage, second mortgage and in some cases even a third mortgage. Why is it that the majority of these people don’t invest the time to visit with their professional mortgage banker or broker to review their mortgage. If life happens, and it does for most of us, don’t our plans, goals and family situations change on a regular basis? All of a sudden the spouse wants a pool in the backyard. They want the basement finished. They want to go back to school to get a better job. Their company is planning on moving its headquarters and that may mean a career change. No longer are we dealing with people getting a 30 year fixed rate loan and paying all 360 payments to pay the loan off.

Most people are keeping their mortgage for an average of 3-5 years, even after the last refinance boom that ended in 2003, over 65% of the people who refinanced or purchases during 2002-2003 have refinanced or will refinance all or part of their mortgage in the past 12 or the next 12 months. Why is that you ask? Two reasons: the first being that many of those people took advantage of the historical low interest rates and financed into adjustable rate mortgages which are now coming up on their first adjustment period. The rest are people that I have previously mentioned, life happened to them and they decided to act. It is that simple. So what are the benefits of a “Mortgage Fitness Checkup?”

Benefits of Mortgage Fitness Checkup

• Determine clients’ current financial goals pertaining to mortgage payment.
• Review interest rate with current market.
• Discuss new programs that have been introduced in last 12 months. Educates borrower to help them from falling prey to the “Dark Side.”
• Prepares potential buyers for upcoming opportunity to purchase.
• Prepares potential investors for the opportunity to build wealth through real estate.
• Prepares current homeowners for possible moves, including assisting in developing strategies to maximize equity in current home.
• Provides credit theft screening.

How long does it take to complete? Depending upon the clients’ questions, a Mortgage Fitness Checkup can take as little at 10 minutes or up to 1 hour if the client wants to spend time strategizing ways to create wealth by using their mortgage as tool. For more information on the Mortgage Fitness Checkup, contact Chris Scheer at 314.223.9824 or chrisscheer@firstintegrity.com.

Special thanks to Bill Cooper of XO Communications for the referral of Sonya Kennedy. Also thank you to Amy O'Brien of Agape Construction for the referral of Juhn Mendin.