Spring might seem far off, but if you’re thinking about purchasing a home in 2023, now is the time to prepare. Tune into this week’s episode of Money, I’m Home as Lynne is joined by Consumers mortgage experts David Pendley and Josh Summerfield to discuss how to get your home and budget ready for the spring buyer’s market.

0:00:06.9 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m home. Welcome in everyone. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. From finance to fitness, we have it all. And you know what? I know, I know you’ve got the blankets out. You’ve got the hot cocoa out. You’re looking at winter right now. But guess what we’re going to talk about today? Preparing for spring! You know what happens, the spring buyers market comes so fast and we want to get you ready in advance because a lot of times you do need a few months to get there. So, joining us is our absolute pros, the gurus in mortgage, David Pendley is our vice president of mortgages for Consumers Credit Union and Josh Summerfield is our mortgage sales manager. Both of you, thank you so much for joining us again. It’s always such a treat.

0:00:51.3 David Pendley (DP): Great to be here with you.

0:00:53.2 Josh Summerfield (JS): Thanks, Lynne.

0:00:54.4 LJJ: Well, I’m going to start with you, David. I’ll tell you what, you know what? It is cold. It gets cold in the winter months here in Michigan, but we are looking ahead at spring. What is spring? What’s the outlook look for the mortgage industry?

0:01:03.6 DP: You know, I think it’s going to be pretty well… Pretty strong. Because we’re going to have inventory in the market. There’s going to be an abundance of houses that are going to be priced very fair. It’s not going to be the euphoria that we’ve seen in ’20 and ’21. You’re going to be able to look at a house and think about it for a few days and do the appropriate inspections. So, I think it’s going to be really, really a strong spring market.

0:01:27.8 LJJ: So, Josh, we heard spring, you know what? It excites me to think about that spring in the long run does make you smile. And in Michigan, really, we were not so hugely overinflated with property values, were we?

0:01:41.5 JS: Yeah, Lynne, obviously snow melting. Everybody’s smiling. Houses coming on the market. Everybody’s happy. But yeah, I would agree. I mean, I don’t think… I mean, values obviously went up. There’s a lot of people happy in the last year or two selling their homes at higher values than we’ve seen. But I don’t think it’s gone overboard, not like some of the other markets we’ve seen out there in other states. You know, there may be a little bit of pullback in values, but that’s just going to help the people on the market ready to buy maybe get into a little bit more affordable home than they would have in the last two years.

0:02:13.4 LJJ: So, David, tell me what should our members or anybody listening start to think about right now as they prepare for the spring market? You know, what are things that they can do to get themselves really ready for the home that they get to choose this year?

0:02:29.9 DP: Yeah, great question. So, if I’m a buyer, I’m going to start by building my team. Who’s my team? My team starts with my mortgage lender. They’re going to coach me and help me discern what’s a great payment for my income? What’s the down payment I’m going to need? Are there any credit bumps that I need to clean up before I start shopping? And most importantly, they’re going to get me pre-approved. So, when I walk in, I can come in with a very strong offer. So, it starts with the mortgage loan officers. It’s going to be a good realtor, maybe a trusted advisor. You may want to talk to your financial planner just to make sure it aligns with your overall comprehensive financial goals. So, as a buyer, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to build my team and try to find a great home for 2023. If I’m a seller, a nice house will command a premium price. A well cared for house, a well decorated house will command a premium price, even more so than location did years ago. So, if there’s any landscaping or light kitchen work or cleaning of your house or some painting and some things like that, a nice house will command a premium price.

0:03:39.8 LJJ: Josh, what are you seeing out there? We did hear location. School district is important. Are you helping with that team that David just talked about to really say, here’s your checklist and it’s okay to not sway from what you really want?

0:03:54.4 JS: Yeah, it’s important to be focused on what you want and not really cave and give in on those things, whether it’s school district or move in ready turnkey type of house. All those things are important, but as far as our team’s role in that is just making sure the folks are ready to be pre-approved. It’s about talking about what the comfortable payment is. A lot of people walk through our doors and say, what’s the most I can get qualified for? And that’s probably the wrong question to ask, really. We kind of turn around and say, okay, what’s a comfortable payment for you? So really little bit of financial education on overall budgeting. And then if you’re not quite ready yet, we’re coaching you up on okay, you got to maybe pay off some of these debts, get your credit score back in line, or maybe it’s put away some savings before we’re ready. So, the team is really important. And as we head into the winter months and get ready for spring and start to think about that happy time, you got plenty of time to get yourself prepared.

0:04:51.0 LJJ: You know, David, Josh just mentioned something to me that kind of like, you really start to think about and that is, if you don’t know what even your payment should be or could be, that open conversation, that transparent conversation with your lender is so critical.

0:05:07.8 DP: It really is. It’s so important to do that before you look at a house. I mean, in all the years I’ve done this so many times on a Friday afternoon, I’ll talk to a young couple and they… Hey, we’re just going to go look at houses. We’re not going to buy for three or four months. And I’m like, almost invariably, I’m like, you’ll find a house this weekend and a house can just grab you like nothing… No other material purchase has. And all of a sudden you’re willing to sell your first born child to buy this house and it’s just not how you should do it. You should have a disciplined approach on the financial side. So that house when you do close on it, you feel really great about the economics of it as well as the house that you’re buying.

0:05:47.6 LJJ: Well, I’ll tell you what, we definitely here at Consumers want to be part of your team. And that’s the whole point. Josh, how can people find a mortgage loan officer? Can they walk into any of our offices? I know that we have great technology. But what about that person-to-person contact?

0:06:05.2 JS: Yeah, absolutely. We love sitting down with people one-on-one and really talking through those goals so they can meet in any of our offices that they come into any office in any location, you know, West Michigan, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Coldwater, Holland, Grand Haven, Muskegon, you name it. We got loan officers in every market that they can personally meet with. Of course, if they want to do things more virtual or over the phone, email, all that works as well. They can find all of our loan officers and their pretty faces right on our website so they can find their right fit there. And of course, our FastApp. They can download the FastApp and apply with us right there and talk to our team and really start to work on getting themselves prepared.

0:06:47.8 LJJ: And that really has made a huge difference, the technology along with the intimate… And I don’t say that lightly. It has to be an intimate relationship with your loan officer and your realtor. Because once that happens, you can sing. Isn’t that right, David? You’re going to find that house.

0:07:05.7 DP: It’s exactly right. So, if you find a house you’re excited about, we don’t care if it’s Saturday afternoon at 3 PM, call your loan officer and work the payments on that house with that day’s interest rate, with those taxes and that insurance and let’s see if that house is a perfect fit, but we’re there for you. We want to be available when you need us.

0:07:26.0 LJJ: Well, thank you, David and don’t forget, I love this, a friend of mine who is a master gardener always says, you know what everybody forgets? They forget the landscape. So, when you’re looking at your budget for your house, don’t forget the landscape. It’s your outdoor home. Well, Josh and David, thank you so much for being with us today. Prepare yourself for spring and we will be back again next month with a wonderful topic that will help you get into your home or perhaps sell it with our team here at Consumers Credit Union. Money, I’m home. Thank you so much Jake Esselink for your production skills and I hope everybody has a great week.