Helping A Widow Keep A Roof Over Her Head

Helping A Widow Keep A Roof Over Her Head

Name: Brooke Mulder

Job Title: Senior Vice President

Business: Key Mortgage

How much was your best deal?

Fifty years ago, as Brooke Mulder notes, her Best Deal may not have been possible. Lenders used to make credit decisions based on age and gender. If that was the case, she would not have been able to make her Best Deal a reality!

As she told us, her Best Deal, as with other Best Deals that have been profiled in National Mortgage Professional, did not involve a huge sum of money. In this instance, it was a $125,000 FHA cashout refinance for a prior company. Brooke is currently with Key Mortgage as senior vice president of sales development.

What made it your best deal?

“The reason this was my best (or my favorite) deal is because of who it helped,” Brooke recalled. “My client was a widowed 92-year-old woman who lived by herself in Tucson, Arizona. She needed to do the cashout refi to get enough money for a new roof. Her current roof was fine, but she knew she’d need a new one in the coming years.” Stop there and reflect for a moment on that thought. Her client was at an age when some would suggest buying green bananas was a risky investment – and she was putting a new roof on her home where still lived on her own.

At first glance it may seem odd to help a nonagenarian with a long-term investment. However, this client was confident she had many years still ahead of her.

“I spoke to her daughter at one point during the process. Her daughter was in her 60s and she let me know that the women in their family tend to live to very old ages. They’ve had relatives live to 105 or 108 years old! So even though her mom was 92, she was anticipating her mom being around for another 15 years. I was so happy to get her the money to get a new roof, so she could continue to live comfortably in the house she’d been in for many years,” said Brooke.

What else?

“She was on a very fixed income but was still able to

live by herself. She was also sharp as a tack! At 92 years old, she even e-signed her initial disclosures! I loved being able to help this client stay in her home, which was her greatest wish,” Brooke said.

WIN a $100 Amazon gift card Have a great story about your best deal? We’re not talking about your biggest deal. We want to hear about your best deal – the one that resonates with you personally, the one that became the story you’ve told again and again about why you’re in this business. Head over to bit.ly/MyBestDeal and tell us the details. You can win a $100 Amazon gift card if your story is selected for publication.