Six kinds of file
What I take on, and what each one costs you in patience
A sole practice cannot be good at everything. These are the six I have done enough of to know where the file stalls before it stalls.
- 09:00Read more
Your first house in Rhode Island
The first one is mostly a translation problem. You are being asked to make a decision in a vocabulary nobody taught you, on a deadline set by somebody else. My job is to take the vocabulary off the table so you can look at the actual decision.
- You have never bought before, or not in the last three years
- Your down payment is somewhere between 3% and 20% and you are not sure which side of that line matters
- Somebody has told you a number and you do not know where it came from
- 10:00Read more
The three-decker, and everything like it
Buying a two-, three- or four-unit and living in one of them is the most Rhode Island way there is to own a house. It is also the file most brokers quietly steer people away from, because it takes longer. I like them.
- You are buying a 2–4 unit and will live in one of the units
- You want the rent from the other units counted toward what you qualify for
- You are looking at a house that needs a licensed inspection before a lender will look at it twice
- 11:00Read more
Self-employed, 1099 and seasonal income
If you run something, an underwriter is going to read your tax returns differently from the way your accountant wrote them. The gap between those two readings is the whole job, and it is worth understanding before you sign a purchase agreement.
- You file a Schedule C, or you own 25% or more of a business
- Your income is 1099, commission, seasonal or lumpy
- Your accountant has been optimising for a low tax bill
- 13:00Read more
Refinance, cash-out and the break-even
A refinance is only ever worth it against a specific date: the month the savings have paid back the costs. If you are going to sell before that month, the lower rate is a worse deal than the one you have.
- Your rate is meaningfully above what is available now
- You want to pull equity out for a specific project
- You want mortgage insurance removed and want to know whether a new loan is the way
- 14:00Read more
Condos, mill conversions and historic districts
Providence has a lot of beautiful housing inside buildings that lenders find complicated. Mill lofts, converted schools, small four-unit condo associations on the East Side. The building has to qualify as well as you do.
- You are buying a condominium of any size
- The building is a converted mill, school or warehouse
- The association is small, new, or has a large single owner
- 15:00Read more
Buy it rough and fix it
Purchase-rehab financing lends against what the house will be worth when the work is finished, not what it is worth on the day you walk through it. It is slower, more paperwork, and occasionally the only way a good house gets bought at all.
- The house will not pass a lender’s condition standard as it stands
- You want the renovation inside the mortgage rather than on a card
- You are looking at something empty, dated or partly gutted
Reach me directly
Not sure which of these you are?
That is an extremely normal place to start. Describe the house or the situation and I will tell you which file it is.
- Fastest(401) 555-0128Call or text. It rings on one phone.
- Writtennadia@botelho-mortgage.exampleReplies weekdays, usually within a couple of hours.
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