Expert ADVICE
Statewide Lending
LANCE ARMER Santa Fe Mortgage 459 Cerrillos Road 505.988.2501 Armer.Lance@gmail.com
W
hen the name of your company is Santa Fe Mortgage, a lot of people assume you just do loans in Santa Fe. In fact, our license is statewide. We do loans in Albuquerque on a regular basis, as well as around the Taos area. Generally speaking, these out-of-town jobs are the result of relationships I’ve made in Santa Fe. For example, last spring I did a loan for a young woman in Albuquerque who was just finishing graduate school at UNM. I had worked with her father in Santa Fe previously. The daughter was certain she was going to stay in Albuquerque and was interested in buying a house instead of renting. Her dad wanted to help, but was concerned she wouldn’t qualify while she was a student. However, she was able to get a loan essentially using her dad’s income, as an owner-occupied property at the best possible rate. Freddie Mac has a
program that allows a parent to co-sign on a loan. That loan gave the daughter the latitude to buy a home that was a lower monthly payment than her rent was, in a neighborhood where she otherwise might not have been able to find a suitable house. And in the future, if she chooses, she can refinance the house in her own name. Another recent loan I did was for a young couple in Santa Fe who previously financed their home with me, and who were buying a second home outside the Taos Ski Valley. They could have used a Taos area mortgage broker, but by using Santa Fe Mortgage they continued our ongoing relationship, plus I had documentation from their previous loan, which made the process easier. If you’re eyeing one of those idyllic homes in rural (or even urban) New Mexico but realize it’s a fixer-upper, Fannie Mae has a rehab program that allows you to get an appraisal based on plans a specifications of the
improvements you will make. The loan is based on that improved value (the cost of the house with the improvements). It allows you to have professional work done over six months with funds from your closing, so you don’t have to buy the house with a bank loan or cash, and then get another loan for repairs. In this case, the loan is based on the value of the improved property. Beyond Albuquerque and Taos, there are picturesque and beautiful towns throughout the state where local mortgage companies don’t exist. You don’t have to use a branch office or an online lending site. With the efficiency of moving documents over the internet, you can still use a New Mexico based mortgage broker like Santa Fe Mortgage who isn’t necessarily in that town. It’s the notion of distant proximity. Wherever in this great state you envision your next home, we can make it happen with our state-wide lending license and policy.