Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #332: Marifer Vergara with USA Mortgage Homes
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Most people think getting a mortgage means one thing: walk into your bank and accept whatever they offer. That default move can cost you time, options, and real money, especially if your income or assets don’t fit a “perfect borrower” checklist.
We sit down with Marifer Vergara of USA Mortgage Homes to break down what an independent mortgage broker actually does and why it can be a smarter path for home financing. Marifer explains how being independent gives her access to a huge network of lenders, letting her shop rates, compare programs, and negotiate terms that a single bank simply can’t. We talk about real-world borrower situations banks often reject like self-employed income, multiple income sources, and unconventional down payment scenarios, including the surprising ways some lenders can work with crypto.
Then we zoom out into the human side of money and homeownership: Marifer’s journey from Barranquilla, Colombia into U.S. banking, the wild details of handling historical real estate documents in Washington, DC, and the unforgettable chapter where she supported her cousin, Sofia Vergara, during the early LA years. We also swap notes on parenting teenagers in Cooper City and why “make your house the hangout house” might be the best advice you’ll hear all week.
If you’re watching Florida mortgage rates and wondering whether to buy now or wait, we get practical: why it’s not just about the interest rate, how to think in monthly payments, and when refinancing makes sense based on the numbers. Subscribe, share this with a friend buying a home, and leave a review telling us: are you team bank or team broker?
Welcome To Good Neighbor Podcast
SPEAKER_00This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
SPEAKER_01Hello, hello, friends, family, wonderful community. We are back for another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today I would like to welcome to the show a lovely lady that I met, I don't know, four or five months ago, I'd say, over at a local networking group in Cooper City. And as I often do when I meet people that provide services for our wonderful community, I offered an olive branch and said, Hey, why don't you come on the show so we could learn a little bit more about what you do and what you offer. So without further ado, I'm joined by Marifer Vergara. Marifer is with USA Mortgage Homes. Marifer. Good to see you.
SPEAKER_03Thank you so much for having me. Good morning.
SPEAKER_01Good
What An Independent Broker Does
SPEAKER_01morning. Good morning. So everybody, I think most people probably know what a mortgage broker does, right? Pretty simple. You need money, you go to a mortgage broker, you take a loan against your house or get financing to buy a house. But I think that's very surface level. So, Marifer, tell us a little bit about what you do specifically as a mortgage broker.
SPEAKER_03Yes. I'm an independent mortgage broker. So that puts me in a different path than saying when I used to work for Chase or Bank of America. As an independent mortgage broker, I currently work with about 200 banks.
SPEAKER_01Got it. Okay. So when you say independent, obviously, there are mortgage brokers that work directly within the bank. So if you go to Chase for a loan, they are giving you a loan, obviously, from Chase. It's one bank, their whatever products they have. Whereas you, as an independent broker, you now have access to, like you said, 200 different banks. So you could shop around, you could really get uh competitive rates, uh, and you could do a lot more for the client than if they just went through like a one-dimensional approach. I got that right?
SPEAKER_03That's correct. I used to work, I used to be one of those people that work for Chase, uh, Bank of America, and trying to process loans, but the banks are very strict. They want the perfect customer, and they don't understand that that perfect customer doesn't exist anymore. Most people are self-employed, they have different uh sources of income that the banks don't usually accept. Uh and my role as an independent mortgage broker is just I've negotiated with all the banks that I have relationships with, and I said, Well, here are the terms of my client, take it or leave it. And when I was working for Chase and Bank of America, Bank of America and Chase would be like, this is our terms, you take it or leave it. And I think that with an independent mortgage broker, it's a way better experience for the client.
SPEAKER_01So why, I'm like thinking out loud here, why would somebody go? I guess, I guess if you have a relationship, obviously, with your bank and you have all your accounts there and you've been with them for a while, you go to the bank to get that uh to get a loan done. But why would somebody opt to do that as opposed to going to somebody that can shop around to many different institutions?
SPEAKER_03They don't know. Because they don't know that people like me are around to help them.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_03That's is yeah, absolutely. They don't know that there are people like me, independent mortgage brokers, whose job is to shop around their loans and make the banks, you know, create cost of mortgages for our clients. They just don't know that. They think that you need mortgage, you just go straight to the bank. And we, my banks will offer better terms. These are the wholesalers, these are the real lenders, these are the people with the re with the money in their hands. So they're always gonna be about a you know, half a point or a point cheaper than any other banks. And for example, I have a bank that will take your crypto as a down payment. Case Bank of America, they won't do that. Yeah, that's fantastic, right? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's interesting. Uh you see, you hear that out there? If you're looking to get a loan, don't just default and go to your bank. I mean, you could go there and start there and have a conversation, but take that rate and then go contact someone like Merifer and have it shop around and find it. Just it, it's it seems like so obvious to me.
SPEAKER_03It's just my job, and that's why I go around and I try to educate everyone that I meet with with this is this is our role. You know, I used to be in those banks, I used to be that person, and I'm telling you, I will give you better service now, better rate, a better experience than a bank than I could have done for you when I work for one of those big banks.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, not to mention the fact that the person that works within the bank is typically a salaried employee and it's just their tip job to do it. Whereas what you do, you're an entrepreneur, you're running your business, you're growing your business, you have an added layer of incentive to go out there and get the best deal for your client because you're relying on you know future referrals.
SPEAKER_03Exactly, exactly. Yes. Well, when I work for the bank, my hands were tied in a lot of ways. And it was really, it was really, it was not a fun experience that after you talk to the client and you, you know, you got all the paperwork and you're like, this is a done deal. Absolutely. Then you know the bank will just bring it back to you with a note saying, not approved. And I couldn't even give, I couldn't come up with a new strategy, I couldn't help the customer, right? It'll be night. Now I sit down, I'm like, this is our strategy, this is what we're gonna do. Yeah, so um, we'll find a way to get that person in their the home of their dreams.
SPEAKER_01Now, are you doing primarily residential loans here in like Florida?
Who She Helps And How
SPEAKER_01Or I know you probably have to get license to do this. Do you do this beyond just Florida? What is your like ideal client avatar, if you will?
SPEAKER_03Well, I work with uh my first-time home buyers, families, self-employed people, um, to buy the home of their dreams. And um, my license is in this entire state of Florida of my company. We have uh licenses in Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, uh, California, Arizona, Las Vegas, and Texas. So we're very spread around. Um, and I again, if there's a way that we can put you in the house of your dreams, we'll find it.
SPEAKER_01Explain to me the dynamic, just so I have a better understanding. When you said you said my company, this is USA Mortgage Homes. So you're you're an independent broker or an agent through USA Mortgage Homes. Just because I think there's a in my head anyway, there's this uh a little bit of confusion around what it means to be a broker versus just an agent uh versus again, employee for the bank. Could you kind of go through those distinctions and kind of clear the mess in my head, if you will?
SPEAKER_03An employee for the bank is just basically an application taker, just a document collector. Um, and the bank and the retail and the bank, they have a processing department, and those are the real underwriters, the people that really write the loans, they're the ones that make the decisions. You never get to see them. I never got to even talk to them. It was all emails or memos that we send back and forth. So there's no one, no one you talk to, be like, oh, you know, there's they have a they have they have uh their their wife has this money, their dad is gonna give. There's no way to tell an underwriter uh the special circumstances uh on a on a scenario.
SPEAKER_01It's black or white.
SPEAKER_03It's just black and white. Do you fit our criteria as a customer? Yes, no, no, go back. Okay. Um and I'm I'm not an agent, I'm a broker. And my license, I have to hang it with, you know, with with a brokerage, with a mortgage company. And so my license is hanged with USA Mortgage Homes. So I'm an independent broker, but of course, my my the company I um have my license with, they of course have relationships with, I have relationships with banks and they have relationships with many more banks. So together, that's how I get the 200 banks that I work with right now.
SPEAKER_01Leveraging all tools available. When you say hang your license with the company, what does that mean exactly when you hang your license? You just have to, you have to have like you couldn't if you're a mortgage broker and you don't hang your license with a larger entity, you can't operate independent of that.
SPEAKER_03No, you could. You could I I absolutely you totally can. I know some people that work that way, but I'm a people person. I I really enjoy. Um, I if there's one thing I know is that I don't know everything. So I really enjoy relying on the experience of um the people that I work with. They have over 40 years of experience doing just this. And I we we sit down and we come up with a strategy for our clients. And I I think that that's very valuable because I don't know everything. I don't know every product out there, I don't know every strategy out there, but I do know that I'm surrounded by people that know way more than I do, and together, you know, three heads are better than one.
SPEAKER_01Well, you may not know everything, Merifer, but I do. So, yeah, right. Uh okay, so that makes sense. So you have access to the larger, so almost like I don't want to say, I mean, for lack of a better word, like a franchise type concept where you have like a larger entity entity uh to draw from in terms of like their access to the lending network, maybe some of their marketing stuff, some of their advice, some of their you know, things that work for agents, that kind of thing. Not obviously not a franchise, but the same type of idea, maybe.
SPEAKER_03Similar to that. Um, I also they provide a lot of support for me and for my clients, which I appreciate the most. When you're a one-person company, um, you're not gonna be able to dedicate the same amount of uh attention to every single customer. It's just not gonna happen because you're just one person. Um, that's one of the reasons I'm part of a team because I do want my customers to be able to call me or my our assistant or people that can answer the questions 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There's someone always on to answer our clients' calls. That's very important to us and very important for people in this business.
SPEAKER_01That makes sense. It's like the it's the best, it sounds like the best of both worlds to me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely is. I I really, really enjoy working in this model.
From Colombia To Banking Careers
SPEAKER_01Okay, so you mentioned you worked for the banks before. Did you go directly into finance out of college? Is that what you studied in school and you said this is what I want to do? Talk a little bit about your path that got you to where you're at.
SPEAKER_03I um I I went, I was uh I'm Colombian, and my parents, uh when I was about when I graduated from high school, my dad sent me over here because he he wanted me to um study here in the United States.
SPEAKER_01And I chose what part of Colombia are you from?
SPEAKER_03I'm from Barranquilla, Colombia.
SPEAKER_01I was expecting like Bogota, Medallin.
SPEAKER_03No, I'm from the best part, the best part of Colombia. The best part of Colombia, Barranquilla is the coast, is the place where Shakira, Sofia Vergara, me, and many more amazing people are are from. We have the second biggest carnival, second biggest to the one in Brazil. Um, so it's carnival year-round. It's it's such a fun place to live. People are amazing, and it's only an hour and a half away on a flight from Miami and very bilingual, a super bilingual city. So it's a great place to visit, great place to raise a family. I'm very proud of um coming from over there.
SPEAKER_01Only an hour and a half for Miami? Absolutely. So that's like it's like super north. I'm trying to picture in my mind.
SPEAKER_03Wait, that the we have a nickname for our for our hometown. We call it Kiyami, and um and that stands for our hometown is Miami's backyard. That's that's that's the nickname, we're the backyard of Miami. Because it's kind of the same line. Yeah, so my dad sent me over here, and it's really funny. Uh my dad, my dad's like, I wanted you to perfect your English, and you're pretty much hanging out with everybody from from back at home. So I was like, Well, dad, yeah. So yeah, I just they're here, but I bump into everywhere. It's him, our friends. So my dad said, No, no, no problem. I'm gonna send you up north so you can uh you know, you can um, you know, perfect your English. And and so my dad sent me to the University of Virginia. I didn't even know where Virginia was. He sent me, and it's Charlottesville, and I said, Is that is that near Georgia? My dad's like, way north. And so he sent me over there, and I was studying international business, but after two years, it was it's a small town, and every closest at like 10 in the evening. So I was telling my dad, like, I'm losing my mind. This place is so boring. And I was uh lucky enough to transfer to Merriman University in the Washington, DC area. And when I graduated from my international business degree, um I took I took a job, believe it or not, for the money laundering department at Bank of America. Yeah. I was I was uniquely qualified for the job. So they said to me.
SPEAKER_01Why were you uniquely qualified for the job? Is there something we should know?
SPEAKER_03Not at all. Not at all. Just being Colombian, you just know things that I guess people here don't know. No, but uh, yeah, that was um, I was plugged right out of college uh to start working for Bank of America. So I was in the money laundering department. Um and I was uh I had to write policies and procedures to address uh the money laundering. And then um on the same floor, it was the uh the real estate services department, and the head of that department ended up recruiting me out of money laundering. Um and that's how I started just being in wealth management and taking care of the real estate for all the private bank clients. It was a really interesting position because when you're in that area, you're dealing with deeds that were that were that were drawn in like 1700s. So you still see names that you recognize from history books. You see like the families are still owning that land, and you see that it's very interesting. They have they will have like a hundred-year lease on the land, and on top of it will be another lease, and there's a current building sitting over there, and you had to collect all sorts of taxes and make sure they were all paid off. So it's really, really, really interesting. Um, and I enjoyed it very much, and I learned so much in real estate.
Deeds From The 1700s
SPEAKER_01Hold on, I want to stop you there for a second. My mind is spinning here. Why were you encountering deeds from 1700? And you mentioned you mentioned like historical figures. Were there any in particular that stood out to you? Did you see like a deed that had like Washington on it or something like that?
SPEAKER_03I had, I just don't remember right now the actual name, but it was one of the people that were um so the land where Washington, DC is sitting right now, that used to be that used to be owned by I think the Washington, uh the George Washington's family, and it was it was just donated to make Washington DC. So there were there was a lot of documents that were that I had to see that were that were related to um the lands around it. And it's interesting that the the 100-year lease, and then uh they had to pay like three pennies, right? Because back then that was that was what that was a good amount of money. So I would have to like just collect and pay all those property taxes and really learn about the property. Sometimes I had to do deed research and go to the actual corehouses and wear you know the white gloves as to not damage the actual deed and you know, take photos, bring them back to me, authenticate them. It was it was like plain detective.
SPEAKER_01A very fancy I'm I'm still and maybe I'm a little slow here. I'm still having a hard time understanding how that was coming up in the course of what you were doing for work, how you were encountering deeds from 1700. Could you elaborate a little bit further on that?
SPEAKER_03So my job, my job was the real estate services in the wealth management division. So we the so the clients, the Bank of America clients in that in that Washington, DC area. And my office was diagonal to the White House. It was really cool to you know get out of the train and just see the White House and be like, walk the other way to your job. Uh so my our clients were people that you know, all money, people whose families have been here since the revolution. And just because that they were said revolution, that did that didn't mean that their property, that transfer, no, that the property is still their property. It's just that instead of calling the colony of Virginia, I mean, it's still called the Commonwealth of Virginia, it's just that now it's not the jurisdiction of the United States of America. So that land is still owned by some of these old families still. So that's how I got to the point of having to do all this work with real estate. That was really, really interesting. One of the things that I did was um Washington, DC is on um 16th Pennsylvania Avenue. So the good side of Pennsylvania Avenue is the east, the the um the west side, the east side was really bad at the time. Really bad. And all the houses over there were just falling apart. And some of my clients own that land. Um, so it was really interesting having to, you know, you had you had to send people that are extend that know this old construction. They try to save a lot of those houses because they were they're historical. Um, but some of those houses could not be saved, and then they had to develop, they were allowed to be sold, you know, torn down and develop new buildings in the area. But what in Washington, DC, what they do the most is they try to preserve uh as much of the old uh building as possible. So sometimes you will just see the facade of the historical house and inside will be a giant building. That's really, really cool to see.
SPEAKER_01So you moved up there to Virginia, DC, Maryland area, and then obviously you're down here now.
Returning To Florida With Clients
SPEAKER_01When did you come back to Florida? Was it after Sunday?
SPEAKER_03No, I was no, so I was working for Bank of America and the private bank.
SPEAKER_01First job.
SPEAKER_03Um right, and then I started getting um calls from uh some family members that were reaching that level of wealth. Um, oh you know, hey, I heard that you know, when you reach this level of wealth, the bank gives you different level services. Yes, we do. And then I started signing up some of these people as my clients to the bank. And eventually there became so many from Florida, from Miami, that I just I just transferred them here to sucked back into the orbit of funny. You gotta go where the client is, right? If your client is in Miami and your client wants to see you, it's cheaper for the bank to send me to Florida to live than sending me on an airplane once or twice a week, just so I can have meetings with my clients.
SPEAKER_01So you mentioned some some family members started to come into some money. There's one in particular that you have a relationship with. Am I not?
SPEAKER_03My first, my, my first, my first big client as uh wealth management was my cousin, Sofia Vergara. So I thank her for being my first big client, fresh out of my promotion from real estate into an actual account manager in wealth management. So she was a very big support, uh very big supporter on in my career. And her the relationships that she brought to me will allow me to come back to Miami and just be the um you know, their account manager for her and the other celebrities um from her agency that she represents.
SPEAKER_01Did you grow up? Did you grow up with her in Columbia? I mean, she's a cousin, right? So you grew up so okay. So I'm sure you need to be selective here, obviously. She's a star. Surely you must have a story or two you could share publicly.
SPEAKER_03I imitate her perfectly. What's it loves it? I imitate her perfectly, and she loves it. She thinks it's the funniest thing in the world. Like I would she would walk and I'll be behind her, making talking like her, making the same faces. Um, and there was a time where people thought I was her sister because I was with her pretty much every single day, and they would take pictures of us and be like her sister and her eating lunch, or her sister and her uh fighting in a store in Miami. None of that was true. It was just her and I shopping, laughing, discussing things, you know, just so are we gonna hear the impression or no? Yes, you do want me to make the impression, but you I do it very well. Yes, yes, easy, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01I love it.
SPEAKER_03So I was working for the bank, and then she said, I depend so much on you, and I cannot trust anybody else. And she said, My manager wants me to go to LA and be a film star. And she's like, I don't want to go out there without someone that I trust. And then she said, Why don't you come with me? I trust you, and you're my cousin, and I know that you will never betray me and you will work twice as hard as anybody else. And then I took her offer. I took her offer and I moved with her to LA.
SPEAKER_01And it's an offer you can't refuse.
SPEAKER_03An offer you can't refuse. You don't let your family down. Um, and I I knew that she needed my help, and her mom, my mom, like it just said. Everybody was like, please, you know, this is meant to be. So then I just became her assistant and I was doing that for about three years. Yeah, I did everything with her and for her. Um, and I'm very happy and very proud of her for the success that she's in right now.
SPEAKER_01So, what's it like being on the side of a uh a star
Sofia Vergara And Life In LA
SPEAKER_01like that? I'm sure our listeners would like to know you three years you spent with her. Walk us through, you get out to LA. Um, what does that look like? What is the day in the life?
SPEAKER_03When we when we first when we first um moved to LA, nobody knew who she was. Oh no, nobody knew who she was. The only people that knew who she was was just like other Latin people um that have seen her on um Univision, uh uh purchased her calendars, have seen her on TV in Mexico and Colombia. So those people knew who she was. And I will never forget, I will never forget this episode. We were at the Beverly Hills Hotel and we were waiting on her, we were waiting for her car in the ballet parking line. And there were there were all these super famous people. I remember there was this producer named Mag G, who was really big at the time. Uh, I remember Sylvester Stallone was also in the line waiting on their car. There were other people and us. And I will never forget all those people with their ballet ticket in their hand, and the first car that comes is her car. And we and everyone in the line, when they saw her car and we they see us, and everybody's like, Sophia, can I get you sign? And she's she's like, Of course, I'm taking photo, and and I'm like, Thank you very much. Ay, gracias, thank you. All these super famous people are like, Who is that? Who's that girl? Why is she getting her car? And everybody's like, doing like this. And I I got in the car, Sophia closes the door, and I'm like, Sophia, you're so gonna make it. We're gonna make it, girl. We're so gonna make it. Okay, and she's like, How do you know? I'm like, I know, and we drove away, and it was from that point on, it was really great, it was really good for her.
SPEAKER_01The writing was on the wall, the writing was on the wall. You just said it's gonna be. This is this is the path.
SPEAKER_03And being with her was really fun. I get I got to see uh a seat filler for a lot of award shows. That's really cool.
SPEAKER_01A seat filler?
SPEAKER_03When you're at the Oscars and when you are at one of those award shows, there's a policy that there's that when the camera goes over the audience, it should never, ever, ever be an empty. Yeah, but sometimes people go to the bathroom, sometimes people need to get a phone call. Sometimes somebody doesn't want to be sitting there at the time, and so they would they I I mean, I would just be silent, I'd be like, You go sit over there. I'd be like, Okay, okay, I will sit there. I'm on TV, like clapping as if I belong in the room.
SPEAKER_01That's funny. Uh yeah. Are you still close with her now? Do you speak to her often?
SPEAKER_03Yes, not as often on the phone as we used to. Um, it she sometimes she's like she's in vacation in Europe. It's last time she told me she was on vacation in Europe. I think it's six, eight hours difference. And so, you know, we send each other jokes. Whenever I have something funny, I just send it to her. And she loves my children, so I appreciate that she's very she's always asking about them, um, and inviting the inviting us over to her house in LA. So she's really a good family member. Really happy to have her in my corner.
SPEAKER_01Perfect segue into children.
Parenting Teens In Cooper City
SPEAKER_01How old are your kids?
SPEAKER_03I have two kids. My son is 17, and my daughter is about to turn 14.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so we have something in common there because my daughter just turned 14. You've already been, so you said you're you said two daughters, right? No, a son and a daughter, yeah. Okay, so you haven't had a 14-year-old. You've been a 14-year-old girl. I've been a 14-year-old. So I'm scared. I'm scared. What is going on like are you are you are you having any issues yet? I know the teen years are can be formidable, especially for uh young ladies. Are you having any um I guess issues for for lack of a better word in terms of so far, so far nothing, but I'm scared.
SPEAKER_03Uh because right, I'm su at 14, I'm supposed to have some, but not my daughter is she's into golf, so she's uh really good golfer. Oh, that's nice, and yeah, so I think, yeah, so I think that she's you know having her mind focused on golfing, and she has a lot of good friends, so yeah, that's so important.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, keeping them active.
SPEAKER_03I think for for kids to have to be active and have a lot of relationships, you know, friends, uh, you know, family or your your parents, uh your parents' friends, your extended circle of influence is very important. Um, I grew up with so many people around my life that I I truly believe that it helps you, it helps you mature. You have some people to ask advice to. Um, and um, so I'm lucky that my kids have people from different backgrounds to reach out to.
SPEAKER_01I'm running up against this thing with parenting now as the kids get older and start to spread their wings and start to be more independent. Like, obviously, it's a it's it's depends on the the family and the parents. Everybody has different rules and different um expectations for their kids. Um, but at some point, all kids start moving away and hanging out with their friends and staying over their friends' houses and going out to the mall and hanging out. And I don't know like where that line is of what's acceptable and what's not acceptable and when it becomes acceptable at 14. Because the kids now, like some of some of the people, like she's in a very like popular E clique, and her friends they go out and they hang out with like groups. The other night she had a whole group of kids, 14-year-old kids, that were like hanging out at Hollywood Beach, just kids, like the like and I don't know I don't know what's right or wrong there. I'm just obviously figuring out as I go. So um, always interested in having conversations around this to get other perspectives from parents.
SPEAKER_03Um I'm gonna tell you that I I learned I learned my parents, my dad was like, I'm gonna teach you the secret, the super secret.
SPEAKER_01What's the secret?
SPEAKER_03What's the secret? And my dad's like, you gotta make sure that your house is the place where the kids want to hang out that way. Like that you can see what they're doing, you can hear what they're saying, right? My dad's so Colombian. And so I'm lucky. My the kid, the kids, my my my kids' friends, they love hanging out here. Um, and I, you know, I wind them and dine them. I'm like, you want popcorn? Like, you want pizza? So the kids they love hanging out here. Um, they don't, they're not as as adventurous as yours. They won't go to like Hollywood Beach unless it's like, I don't know, a birthday or someone has a party over there. But my kids mostly they just like hanging out here in Cooper City with their local friends. They're I'm very lucky. They're very, they're very chill.
SPEAKER_01Do you live in you live in Cooper City then?
SPEAKER_03I live in Cooper City, yes. I love it here. I've been living here for as long as my my daughter was born um here in Cooper City, so it's uh 14 years.
SPEAKER_0114, 15 years. Or what neighborhood you live in in Cooper?
SPEAKER_03Uh I live in the Monterra community that is on like Sterling Road and Pine Island.
SPEAKER_01Beautiful. Yeah, Monterra's nice.
SPEAKER_03A really fun community.
SPEAKER_01My my daughter is always over in Monterra. She has a bunch of friends who have a lot of kids there, and then like you said, um it's best to have the kids at your house if you can. And I those are nice houses. So my daughter has always wanted to go to friends' houses over there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they just, you know, it's a it's a good, a nice neighborhood. You can they can ride their bicycles, walk around. There's a park that runs through the community. So I I taught my children how to ride their bicycles, and they would ride their bicycles, and I wouldn't have to be afraid of them getting hit by a car or anything else. So I really like this community. I'm very lucky. You know, my my husband and I were by complete accident driving, and we saw that there were this used to be like uh a milk farm back in the day.
SPEAKER_01This you got it you brought in when they were constructing Monterra?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they were 14, 15 years ago. Ah yeah, yeah. But I used to live in Davy and I could I used I remember that this whole thing used to be a cow farm, and you would drive by and see you know cowboys in their horses. It was uh it's it was quite the sight in the middle.
SPEAKER_01Like well, that was a good investment right there. Getting into a community like Montero 14 years ago, I can only imagine the appreciation on those homes over that time.
SPEAKER_03We were very lucky. We're very lucky.
SPEAKER_01We've gone up like three X by over that time, I'd imagine.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. For you, yeah, yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_01Awesome.
Rates, Payments, And Refi Strategy
SPEAKER_01Okay, Merifer. I want you to pull out your crystal ball. You got it? You got it handy? Yep. Okay. What can we expect with interest rates in the future? I know there's a big meeting happening today. I've heard talks. I I'm myself, I've been completely unplugged from the news and from like everything that's going on. So I'm in my own bubble. Um, but there's a lot of uncertainty. I know there's mortgage rates have been high and they've come down. Um, honestly, I don't even know where they're at right now. Where are we at now? And in your opinion, or according to your crystal ball, where are we going?
SPEAKER_03Well, we have a new uh Fed chair that was just sworn in um uh this morning or yesterday. Um, so we people in this industry were really excited about this guy. Um, and yes, it is true that the interest rates, because of all the uncertainty that our that um our country's in right now, the interest rates have been climbing up a bit. We're hoping uh that this new guy has fresh ideas that we're gonna be able to see in a few months. We're gonna hopefully, hopefully, see some interest rates coming down and offering clients um an easier way into getting a home. But I always tell my clients, don't worry about the interest rate. It is not about the interest rate, it is about the payment. Can you afford this payment? Are you paying? I have clients that are paying $2,700 in rent. $2,700 is a mortgage payment. You don't have a down payment, don't worry. I got plans, I got programs that they they lent you the down payment. Some of them they will give you the down payment after three years. And I always tell you getting the house in your dream. That house that is 10 minutes away from your job and 15 minutes away from you know your kids' schools or your other important place, that house is gonna be sold and it's not gonna come back in the market for another seven, 10 years. But I can always refinance you into lower, you know, lower interest rates. So I always tell my clients, it's not about the rate, it is about the payment. So having said that, we are hoping, we're hoping that in the next few months we start seeing some interest rates coming down.
SPEAKER_01I want to press back on that for a second, just to clear something up in my head here about the idea of, and and I agree with you, the the right time to buy is when you find the right property and you can make it work for sure, because you can't time anything, you can't see you know, you can't see what's happening in the future. So but what I was the idea of getting into a loan and then just saying, oh, well, if the interest rate is high, we could just refinance out of it later. That like the way the loans are amortized, right, is that you're paying a lot of the interest up front and not much of the principal down. So if you if you did that, like you wouldn't necessarily want to refinance too deep into the loan because then you're now you're resetting everything and you're paying all the interest up front again for a new 30 years. Do I have that right?
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. We we only do that when it's the right time for our customer. There will be a right time for the customer to ref refinance and save them a ton of money. There will be that time.
SPEAKER_01And we call the numbers out to see. Right.
SPEAKER_03We have we have our own pro, you know, we have a system here that we, you know, it keeps an eye on on all the interest rates. And as soon as it is feasible for the client to re-fi, right away, we'll call and be like, hey, I got good news for you. If we re-fire right now, it was gonna save you. I mean, I have some customer that says, When do you want when is it right time for you to re-fi? Is it when you're saving $300 a month? Is it when I can save you $400 a month? Is it when I can save you $500 a month? So I have those conversations with my clients, and as soon as I reach that threshold, I'm like, hey, I can save you $400 a month, and they go, let's do it.
SPEAKER_01Okay. But what about the again? If you do that, let's say you do that a little bit deep into the loan. And I'm not an expert in this by any means. Let's say you've been paying five or six years, seven years, and you're paying, I don't know, your payments are like 80% interest up, uh, like most of it's applied to interest. And then you refinance later to save the three, four, five hundred dollars a month. But now you're again you're resetting the loan. It's you know 30 years again, and you're paying for the thing.
SPEAKER_03Well, it's not really resetting the loan, right? Because you're your your the balance of the loan, you know, say your original loan was like $385,000 and now and you have been paying, you know, a couple of years into this loan, and and again, we we will always try to find um help for our customer. So um when I when our system says, hey, this person, you know, this is the right situation for them, it's it's it's the perfect time. We we have to analyze whether it's a feasible, uh, it's a feasible deal for the customer. And um like I was telling you before, the loan, the loan value changes, it's not gonna be like $385,000. At that point, it will be like $349,000. So you're not resetting everything, and the terms sometimes are way better. I have had customers that had a 30-year mortgage, and then when they refinance, they're like, hey, our situation is much better, but I don't want to be in a mortgage for 30, I want to be in a mortgage for 15, right? So there's a strategy behind it. Yeah, there's always a strategy behind it. Some people will say, hey, you know, I wanna, I have customers right now that um the purchase their home 100% cash. And now the guy's like, I need some money. So now he needs a mortgage, right? So it's there's a strategy behind it. I your home is not just your home, it's it's also it's a it's a tremendous asset. I I tell people it is a tremendous asset. It's the is the one thing that will you know get you financially way more at it, it will bring you back up, it will be make you more attractive to do business with for every bank if you have if you own your own home. So that's why I try to tell people like you need to buy your own home. And then, you know, your financial well-being, that's the first step for your financial well-being. Um, so that's how we operate. You know, this um there's there's a lot of strategies and a lot of reasons why people would want to refinance, not just to save themselves $500. There's tax, there's some sometimes it's uh this this tax resurance that tax savings from it. And in this case, I have some customers that have their equity completely tied to their home and they need it. They need it to, you know, buy another property, they need it to put it in their business. So many reasons, and many reasons I refinance people.
SPEAKER_01There are a lot of moving parts, and that's why you need an expert on your side.
SPEAKER_03That's right.
SPEAKER_01Yes, that's right.
How To Reach Marifer
SPEAKER_01On that note, Marifer, let our listeners know how they could learn more. How can they reach you? How could they connect? If anybody is out there, is in the market for a new home or is looking to refinance or cash out some equity. How can we reach you?
SPEAKER_03You can reach me. My website is therightknownfory.com. And our office number is 954-248-3898. And there's always someone answering the call, and we are ready to uh we give people a free consultation for any questions. So feel free to reach me anytime.
SPEAKER_01Beautiful. We will, of course, drop a link in the description below to all of your contact information so anyone out there that's inclined can reach out. Merifer, thank you for joining us. It was a pleasure getting the opportunity to learn a little bit more about what you do and share it with our great community. So thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_03I'm here. Thank you so much for having me. It was quite the experience. It was my first podcast interview.
SPEAKER_01So we did great. Thank you. You have a lovely day. Thanks everybody for tuning in, and we will catch you all next time on the next episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Take it easy. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNP CooperCity.com. That's GNP CooperCity.com or call 954-231-3170.