“What Does a Mortgage Banker Do?” That was my question eight years ago, when I first considered entering the industry. I was from New York, where people pay $500,000 for a condo the size of a closet, and none of my friends owned or even considered owning their own homes. Hardly anyone spoke of homeownership because the prices were so high, and the down payment requirements were high as well. Still, I wish I had known about mortgages back then. A home would have been a great investment for the four years I lived in New York as a professional.
In a nutshell, here is what we do: Mortgage bankers help people become homeowners. It’s actually quite simple–we provide financing for home purchases (we also do refinancing…but let’s talk about that later). The average price in the Portland area is around $250,000, and most people don’t have $250,000 in cash lying around and waiting to be spent. In most cases, it’s easier to borrow money from the bank. By analyzing your credit, assets, and income, we determine whether or not you fit the criteria set by our bank, and if you do, we take care of the paperwork necessary to secure your home loan.
The transaction takes place in three steps:
1. You and your Realtor find a home.
2. You make an offer on the home, and the seller likes it, she accepts it.
3. The mortgage banker finds the financing, you sign the disclosures necessary to secure the loan, we close the loan, and you become a homeowner.
It’s really that simple. With mortgages, it’s best to apply early so that we can resolve any potential issues early in the transaction. By providing the financing for your home purchase, we mortgage bankers enable people to leverage their credit, assets, and income to own real property.
