Come To Find Out
Welcome to Come To Find Out- your resource for all things real estate. You can come here to find out about the current market, terms that you see and hear during a transaction, things to do and not to do when you're in contract. The show will also feature interviews with industry partners and leading experts to help you choose who you want on your home buying journey with you. The home buying, selling and investing process can be so overwhelming, so this guide is meant to make it just "whelming."
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Come To Find Out
Tailored Mortgage Advice for Florida Homebuyers and Investors
Is it possible to secure a mortgage without navigating the complexities of traditional banking? Join me on this episode of "Come to Find Out" as Nathan Lindley from Gold Star Mortgage Financial reveals the advantages of working with a non-depository bank focused exclusively on mortgages. Discover creative loan solutions such as bank statement loans and financing for non-warrantable condos, perfect for those eyeing investment properties or considering relocating to Florida. With the state entering its busy season, Nathan explains how Gold Star’s tailored support across various states can help you capitalize on competitive interest rates and innovative mortgage options.
Florida’s real estate market is unique, shaped by factors like hurricane season and macroeconomic trends. We discuss how inventory shortages and current higher interest rates influence seller negotiations, and why buying a home should align with your personal and financial readiness rather than market timing. Life events often dictate the decision to purchase a home, and understanding the role of interest rates and financial planning can help manage your mortgage over time. For a deeper dive into personalized mortgage solutions and the Florida real estate market, tune in and don't forget to check out reviews on platforms like Zillow and Google.
To contact Nathan Lindley:
email: lindleyloanteam@goldstarfinancial.com
phone: 727.452.9868
https://www.instagram.com/thelindleyloanteam/
https://www.facebook.com/TheLindleyLoanTeam
Sarah Thress
614-893-5885
First Time Home Buyer course: https://sarahthress.graphy.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sarah_thress_realtor/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SarahThressRealtor/
https://www.youtube.com/@LIFEINCOLUMBUS
Hi and welcome to this week's episode of Come to Find Out. This week we are meeting with Nathan Lindley and he is a Gold Star Mortgage Financial, so Gold Star for short. But he is based in Florida and since you know that I am licensed in Ohio and Florida, a lot of my content ends up being about Ohio just because I'm here, more than in Florida. But I'd really like to make sure that we're educating everyone on Florida. Florida is getting ready to go into their busy season and anyone that's out there thinking about an investment property or relocating In fact, I just had someone call me today that said that they're getting ready to relocate to Florida, so, and they're going in December, which makes perfect sense because no one wants to be in Ohio in the winter. But anyway, thank you so much, nathan, for taking time out of your busy, busy day. Yes, yes. So Gold Star Mortgage Financial. Tell me a little bit about it. You know, because I've heard about it, but I don't know a lot about it, so fill me in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my pleasure. So Gold Star Mortgage Financial is a we are called a non-depository bank and so as a non-depository bank we do loans just like the big banks and the credit unions do, in the sense that you know the underwriting is done in-house. When we go to the funding table or the closing table, you know it's our funds that actually get transferred to the title company and then, like not all banks but a lot of banks, then package all their loans together and they sell it to a servicer and then eventually get sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Our loans follow the same process. So we do have some loans that stay with us that we service in-house but, to, you know, get the most competitive pricing for our loans. You know a lot of times we'll package them to another servicer and let them service the loans. You know through the process, but it stays the same.
Speaker 2:So you know, as a non-depository bank, what that all that means is that we don't do the other bank services. You know we don't have checking accounts, we don't have savings accounts, we don't do car loans. You know we don't have investments. You know, literally from the janitor all the way up to the president and owner, dan Milstein of our company. We are about doing mortgages. So either you're a loan officer producing mortgages, you're an underwriter supporting it or you're, you know, support staff helping the company. But the entire company that's all we do is mortgages. And then one of the caveats of being you know, and I used to work for one of the big banks, so I know what that banking culture is like and I know the tight confines that you have when you're working there. But one of the nice things about working for a non-depository bank is that we can also operate as a broker. We can do one or the other, so you typically get the best interest rate and the lowest fees when you can do a normal conventional Fannie Mae, freddie Mac, fha, va. You know type loan that you know everybody can do.
Speaker 2:But sometimes we need things that are outside that box and when I was at a bank I couldn't do those loans. I had to say, oh well, call this person Now I can transition your file seamlessly over to. Hey, we need to do something. That's outside the box, you know. So it could be a bank statement loan for a self-employed individual. It could be a condo hotel that is not financeable or warrantable by Fannie Mae, it could be. You know some type of property exclusion. That again, fha or conventional loan, you know wouldn't do, it could be. You know a non-owner loan, you know wouldn't do, it could be. You know a non-owner occupied, you know income property, it could be a second home there's, you know it could be a second mortgage.
Speaker 2:You know there's all kinds of other things that can be done in the world of the brokered loans, but not having somebody competing like, oh, we want you to go this way, we want you to go this way, no, we'll just do anything that's the best for you. You know, and so you know the loan officers at Gold Star. You know we don't spend a lot of money on advertising. You're not going to hear about a Gold Star Stadium because that's marketing money that comes out of the consumer's prop. You know. So you know we hire professionals, and so there's professional loan officers, professional underwriters, you know that are very good at what they do, they're very good at finding solutions for you. So that's in a nutshell.
Speaker 2:Our corporate headquarters is in Ann Arbor, michigan. I personally am licensed in St Petersburg, florida. My office is here in, you know, beautiful downtown St Pete, but I've got the ability to do loans anywhere in the state of Florida, but if you need something that's not in the state of Florida, feel free to reach out to me and I'll be happy to hook you up with one of my teammates that would be licensed in whatever state that you're looking at. I believe we have licensing in about 37 to 38 states and branches in about 20 states. We have licensing in about 37 to 38 states and branches in about 20 states, but I can always look that up online to get specifics for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that and I love that you kind of gave like the background and you know all of that and it's interesting to me that you know it seems like this is kind of a unique setup being, you know, a bank without offering traditional bank things. So you have the access to those products for mortgages, to be outside of the box, to give those creative ideas, but yet you can also do the traditional things. So kind of walk me through. If someone was to call you and say, hey, I'm looking to purchase a property, what does your process look like? Do you have them come in the office? Do you talk to them on the phone? Do you do it via Zoom? Do you, you know, like what is it that you do?
Speaker 2:Sure, and this is going to be, you know, loan officer specific, because one of the things about my company is they do not dictate how we do business. So I'll talk you through my personal way and my team's way. So the, you know, the very first step is what we call the discovery call. You know and this is 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes, depending on you know, how much conversation we have. You know, and this is where I'm collecting the basic data of what you're, what you're looking to do. We can do this over the phone, we can do this by, you know, zoom, we can do this by even me just sending you a link and you filling out an online, you know, type of thing and then, typically, from that step, you know, from the discovery call, then what I'm going to do is I'm going to do a soft pull on your credit report. I don't start with a hard pull. It doesn't count as an inquiry, it doesn't, you know, cause the mass trigger leads. That's a whole nother conversation we can have about trigger leads and getting 45 phone calls within a day and a half, you know, but it doesn't trigger any of those types of things, but it gives me what I need to be able to run the numbers for you. And so then we schedule the consultation Now.
Speaker 2:I love to do consultations in my office, so if you can come and join me in downtown St Petersburg for the day, fantastic. If we can't do that, I would very much at least like to do a Zoom call. And the reason that I like to do the Zoom calls is because I'll share information with you on my screen and I want you to be able to see it. And if you have it in your phone, it's not big enough for you to be able to see it, and if you have it in your phone, it's not big enough for you to be able to see it. So I want to have that ability to interact and be able to show you and demonstrate information to you on my screen.
Speaker 2:So that's the consultation, and then from that point, depending on what you know we gather from the consultation, you know, we could do a fast pass approval. We could do, you know, full application. We can do, you know, or we can set up a plan of like okay, you're not mortgage ready, but here's what you need to do over the next three, six, nine, 10, 12 months to be able to get mortgage ready. So that's my steps. Discovery call quick credit, you know, and you know gathering of information If you have complicated income, I might have to ask you for your tax returns depending on, or I may have to ask for, bank statements. But then we do the consultation and that's where we answer and, you know, dive deep into what, what we can have options for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that and I like that you do the consultation call, you know the discovery call, because you're really just trying to figure out. You know, because that's what I do. You know I'm going to sit down, I'm going to find out, like, what are your motivations for buying a house, what you know, what are the needs that you have, what are things you're looking for, and then also connecting them with the correct lender, you know, or giving them a list of lenders to figure out who's going to be the best for them, you know. So I love that you kind of do that too. You're figuring out, you know what are all the things you're looking for.
Speaker 1:Now, obviously, you know anyone that is living in Florida now or has lived in Florida or has watched the news. They've seen that you know there was that massive hurricane a few years ago, uh, that you know. We haven't seen one like that in you know decades. So it was a little crazy, um, and I think that it kind of scared people. So what I'd love to hear is what are you kind of seeing in the market right now, like, are you still seeing it kind of slow? I know this is still the end of like the slow. You know quote unquote slow season for Florida but you know I'd love to hear your thoughts on kind of what you're seeing in the market.
Speaker 2:So, let me first talk about personal experience. You know I moved here in Texas and then I lived there for 12 years and then I lived in southern Indiana for another eight years and then I moved to here. And I've been here for a long time and as far as natural disasters go, I will take hurricanes all day long. You know I lived in Tornado Alley. I know what that freight train sounds like and that is scary as hell. You know, I have seen, you know, massive flooding from rivers rising. You know I have seen all of the. You know all those I haven't seen. You know the wildfires and things like that.
Speaker 2:But of all the natural disasters that are out there, none of them give you a five-day notice to start being prepared for it. And hurricanes, do you know? So? Hurricanes, it's a matter of siphoning through the news and the mass hysteria that sometimes the news can create and knowing when you really need to prepare for it, when you really need to evacuate for it and when you really need to move. But you typically have three to five days of notice. So I personally, you know hurricanes do not bother me at all.
Speaker 2:Now, pinellas County, where I live, has not had a direct hit in you know year, I mean decades. Obviously, you know I'm not. I'm knocking on wood and thanking God every day that I'm not having to deal what you know the families in Cape Coral have had to deal with and the families of you know through all. You know, going all the way back to Andrew, going all the way back to the 1800s, when you know the keys were hit, you know, four times in this, in you know, two seasons, by major hurricanes. You know it does absolutely happen, but as far as life is concerned it is avoidable. Property damage can happen. That's why we have insurance, you know, and so I happen. That's why we have insurance, you know, and so I.
Speaker 2:To me, anybody who is, you know, thinking about, you know, do I want to live in Florida? Take that into account. You know of like, okay, when you live in Florida I don't have to deal with wildfires, I don't have to deal with, you know, lots of other issues, but I do have to pay attention to the tropical season. You know, four, five, six months out of the year and listen, and, you know, learn and teach myself about when I really need to do something versus when it's just a really bad thunderstorm, and so you know, with that, I don't see a lot of market seasonality because of hurricanes. I think it's a talking point that's talked about and some people will throw it out as an excuse or a reason for maybe this trend, maybe that trend. But I think that the macroeconomics are much more a factor in the market than fear of a storm, of, you know, a storm.
Speaker 2:I think that when you look at the supply versus the demand, you and the demand being the number of people that are moving to Florida, the supply being what's being built, you know Florida is way behind the mark. You know the entire country is behind the mark, but Florida especially, is behind the mark. And so you know we don't have excessive inventory, we have more inventory. You know, I think I saw the. You know we don't have excessive inventory, we have more inventory. You know, I think I saw the. You know, oh yeah, the inventory is up. You know, 500% from last year. When, in doubt, zoom out and you look at what our inventory was a year ago and it is multi-generational loads. So the fact that it's higher than last year is kind of like a duh. It's supposed to be higher because it never should have gotten that low, you know. And the other thing is, you know, our population keeps going up. Really, our inventory, or the number of homes that we should have on the market at any given time, should be kind of going up over time too, because we have more homes, because we have more population. But you're not seeing that, you know, especially in Florida. You look at the trend, even as it goes up and down, it's trending and has been trending down. So until that turns around and goes back up, there's still a lot of inventory missing and there's still a lot of demand coming. So that, to me, is the major driving factor.
Speaker 2:Now you hear, you know, anecdotal stories of oh, this house dropped its sales price by you know 500,000. Okay, how realistic were they when they began, you know? Did they throw a price out there that said, hey, if somebody is willing to pay $1.2 million for my house, it's only worth 500, sure, I'll sell. But was it a realistic price to begin with? That's always the first question that I ask. Or you see something that's been on the market for 45, 50, 60, 120, 200 days. Where do they start? What were they realistically expecting to begin with? I think things that are priced reasonably are still moving fairly quickly.
Speaker 2:I do think that we see a little bit of sellers being willing to negotiate right now, which is kind of nice. You know, I wouldn't say that it's quite a buyer's market, but maybe you can get a credit for a 2-1 buy down or you can get a seller credit to pay some points, to get a lower interest rate, you know something to offset the higher rates and make that payment a little bit more manageable for you. To begin with, I think right now and when I say right now I mean literally today and maybe for the next couple months you're going to continue to see sellers that are willing to negotiate with you a little bit. But as the rates drop and you're going to continue to see sellers that are willing to negotiate with you a little bit. But as the rates drop and you know you don't it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:The question is how much and how fast, not whether they're going to drop or not. As rates drop, more and more buyers are going to read that and see that in the news and they're going to start coming back. And when those buyers start coming back to the market, the more buyers then we're going to start coming back. And when those buyers start coming back to the market, the more buyers. Then we're going to quickly transition back to multiple offers, competing bids, total seller's market, where they're entirely in control and buyers are having to extend themselves more and more and more just to be able to buy a house that is literally months away. I don't know whether it's one month away, six months away, 12 months away, but it's going to be driven by rates. When the rates come down enough, every little step down, more and more buyers, more and more buyers, more and more competition.
Speaker 2:There's still not going to be more listings out there. There's still not going to be more listings out there. There's only one thing that can happen. So that's my kind of long-winded response to here's what I think is kind of going on in the market. I'm not scared of storms. Those can be mitigated. I am worried for the buyers that are waiting for the rates to come down. Buy the house now. We can always get you lower rates in the future. We can always get you lower rates in the future. You know we can always get that. But find the house right now that if it's time in your life to buy, go ahead and buy. My humble opinion for what it's worth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I love that and I appreciate that. You know that insight and, ironically, I grew up in Oklahoma so I totally know I have seen multiple tornadoes, I've heard that freight train. It is scary. And you know I plan to move to Florida after my kids are all graduated. So you know people say, oh my gosh, you're so crazy because of hurricanes. And I'm like y'all. I grew up where you had like 10 seconds notice to you know, like not get in a basement, because no one has basements, but to get in your hallway and put a mattress over you, like that's what you do.
Speaker 2:I'll take the five day notice over the you know five minute or you know a minute warning all day long.
Speaker 1:I absolutely yeah, I love it. Well, so I like to ask this and I always preface it with you and I neither one. Well, I assume you don't have a crystal ball, cause I don't have one. If you do, please tell me where you got it. But as of as far as I know, neither of us has a crystal ball. But I'd love to kind of hear what you think, because of course you know you kind of touched on it a little bit. You know, of course we keep hearing like rates are going to go down, rates are going to go down, rates are going to go down. And you know, most are saying everywhere that I've, you know, read and and you know, kind of studied, it looks like it's going to start coming down in September. You know, maybe one rate drop and then, you know, because of everything that's happening in November, are we going to see another one in November, are we going to see more in December. So I would just love your kind of predictions of what you think.
Speaker 2:Sure. So I absolutely will come back to that answer and I will, and I will say exactly what I think. But I'm going to throw out there a challenge of what does it matter? I love that. What does it matter? Rates go up, rates go down. That should not be why you are deciding to purchase a home. Okay, if it is the right time in your life and what I mean by that is that you are stable for the next two to five years, that you have stable employment, stable income, and you know you are ready to settle down a little bit or get onto the hamster wheel that is the appreciation and get off the rent wheel you buy a home. You get the best rate you can in that 30-day window that you have by working with a professional. But you buy a home not because of interest rates. You buy a home because it's the right time in your life to buy it, or it's the right time to invest and purchase investment properties. And there's a reason that people bought a house when interest rates were over 15% because it still made the best sense at the time.
Speaker 2:And I love listening to all of these media sources that say, oh, now's a bad time to buy. Okay, well, great, what alternative are you proposing? Because they never say, well, this is what you should do. They just say, oh, it's a bad time to buy, but they never say what you should do. And then they never disclose this like, oh, oh, I bought a house last year or I've already bought my house, I'm already off the hamster wheel that you're on. So you know, I'm just looking out from the outside because I'm already gaining all my appreciation because I did buy. So you know, the point is you buy when you're ready in your life to buy. And sometimes it's the other direction. You know. Sometimes it's like, okay, my kids are gone, I own a five bedroom house. Well, now it's time to sell and, you know, get a smaller property and that's a whole. Nother conversation we can have about people that are trapped by the rate. But you know, so that's the thing that I look at is like the interest rate should be the least of your discussion points.
Speaker 2:Okay, if you can't afford the payment that you're looking at, then you can't afford the house that you're looking at. Find a more realistically priced house. You know, your first home does not have to be a five bedroom McMansion. You know there are plenty of people that started with very modest, small, moderate homes and then they, you know they stair-stepped up through their life. So, find a house that meets the payment goals that you have, and that's what we call within your budget. Yes, cost of living is high. Yes, all those things. But is it better to do anything else? You rent when your life is flexible. If you're you, you're right out of college and you're bouncing around between jobs and you're bouncing around between where you might live. Do not buy a house, stay flexible. But when you start that first little bit of settling down, then it's time to get onto the appreciation wheel. You buy a house.
Speaker 2:Now what are going to happen with rates? Okay, so you know the Fed has gone through the most aggressive cycle of maximizing, you know rates that they've ever done. It was the biggest swing in the shortest amount of time. And you know the pendulum swings, swings this way. Once it gets up to here, there's only one direction for it to go. It's going back. All the debate is simply how low, how fast? And that's where the crystal ball. I have no idea. But the other thing to keep in mind is that the Fed only meets eight times a year and it's a bunch of I'll save my the individuals on the Fed meet eight times and they decide what to do with rates eight times. The mortgage market trades over eight times a second every market day, you know. So mortgage rates went, you know, like here's the Fed rate, fed fund rate, mortgage rates went up to here and now they're already coming back down. So they bump down. We'll come back down, you know, down a little bit with it, but we're moving every day. So we're looking. The mortgage markets are much, much, much more dynamic and so you're seeing average rates coming down before the Fed even lowers the rates the first time, just on the anticipation. So I know they're coming down. But again, I look at bigger macro opportunities and bigger macro points.
Speaker 2:As to, you know, when is it a good time to buy? When it is not? Well, okay, first of all, you ask your life, is my life ready to buy? If it's yes, then I'm looking at things. Okay, when can? When can I buy? When there's less competition? When can I buy when there's less people? Well, do you do that? When rates are a little bit higher? You don't wait until the rates are at the bottom for that, because then you're going to be competing against everybody. Because again, here's the thing If you buy the house and the rates are here and they go down to here, I can refinance you. We can get a lower rate in the future when it gets there. In fact, I'm starting my refinances right now. From the people that I've done over the last 18 months you know the people that got the worst rates I'm just now beginning to start getting low enough for some of those refinances. So that's kind of my opinion. My crystal ball is they're absolutely going lower because the pendulum is going to swing. How far? How fast? No idea. Should you wait? Hell no. If you're ready to buy, buy If you're pre-approved, if you've got your finances in order, you buy when your life is ready for it and then you manage the interest rate over the life of the ownership of that property.
Speaker 2:I bought my house in 2002. I think I'm on my fifth mortgage. You know, again, I'm in the industry. Obviously I'm going to be a little bit more prone. I get, you know, preferential pricing being, you know, from my company and those types of things, just because they, they cut out everything for it. So obviously it's maybe a little bit easier for me. But again, it's a financial tool that you use as you own the home, so it's not stuck in perpetuity of like. Oh well, this is the only interest rate that you're going to get, and if we get a seller credit, maybe we can do something like a 2-1 buy down Again, maybe that's something we talk about later. Or we do a point reduction or something to help artificially get that rate a little bit lower at the beginning, just to help your payment a little bit lower at the beginning, just to help your payment a little bit lower, until the market comes down and we can refinance into a more permanent option.
Speaker 2:I hope that answers your question. I'm not trying to sidestep it, but I do truly believe that it doesn't matter where rates are going. That's not the question you should be asking yourself. You should be asking yourself do I want to keep paying rent or is there a different option? And that is the question you ask yourself. And there are times where rent is the right answer. But if it's not, don't worry about the rate for buying.
Speaker 2:Find something you can buy now, get off the train or have a plan in place of like OK, I want to be able to afford this Great, come and sit down with me, have a plan in place of like okay, I want to be able to afford this. Great, come and sit down with me, have a conversation with me and we'll tell you what you have to do. Okay, you need to be making this amount of money. You have to pay off these debts, you have to get your credit score up to here and then you can afford this. Great, there's your 10 month plan of what you need to do to be able to afford what you want.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that and I love that you gave that insight and your opinion as well as just your predictions, because I absolutely agree.
Speaker 1:I think that all of the people out there that are like, oh my gosh, no one's going to buy houses now because the interest rates are so high, and it's like, well, there's still people that are having babies, getting divorced, getting married, relocating, getting new jobs, like there's still people out there that need to buy and sell.
Speaker 1:So, you know, for all the people that are trying to time the market, you know, I always tell people like there, there is no timing the market, like the best time to buy a house was, like yesterday. Like you know, I don't know how to like help you to understand that when the rates go down, the prices of homes go up because there's more competition, so more people are bidding on the house. You're getting the multiple offers and people are like, oh, you're going to give that, well, I'm going to give this. Oh, you're giving that, oh, I'm giving this, and it just adds it up. So cool, you got that 5% interest rate, but you're also paying a hundred thousand dollars more for that house than you would have if you had just bought it at this higher interest rate and so-.
Speaker 2:Absolutely possible, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I love that you drove that home. So thank you, and I know that we have a ton of things that we had talked about before we started recording, just like all of your outside of the box loan ideas, bridge loans, equity sharing, things like that. So I'd love to have you back to um, do kind of like deeper dives on that information. Um, yeah, otherwise we'll end up making like a four hour um podcast, but um, but yeah. So if you're open to it, I'd love to have you come back and um and talk about each of those and um. Thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:It's been my pleasure. Thank you so much and I look forward to continuing the conversation on any topic that we can dive deeper for people.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. So in the show notes I will have all of the ways for people to get ahold of you. Would you prefer people email you, call you, go to your website, send you smoke signals Like what, what is your preferred method?
Speaker 2:Um, I, honestly, you know emails and phone calls or texts, you know, uh, because the, the phone number that we'll put is going to be my cell phone. Um, you know, it's, it's what we use as the main office line, because I want to be able to answer phone calls, you know, during the weekend and things like that, as necessary. If you call at a bad time, I'll let it go to voicemail and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. So, you know, give me a phone call, shoot me an email. You know, I'd rather start the conversation that way rather than. You know, you know a website If you want to see reviews on me. There's reviews on Zillow, there's reviews on Google, wherever different things along those lines.
Speaker 2:But yeah, we are not here to try to do 100 loans this month. My office, my branch, Gold Star, the company absolutely they're doing that. They're doing way more than that. Me personally, I'm not looking to do that kind of volume. I'm looking to do 10 loans, really, really, really well, a month. I'm looking to spend the time with my clients, find out what they need, customize the plan, maybe even talk to their other professionals. Maybe we bring in your CPA or we bring in your financial planner and we make sure that the debt side of your ledger is working with the asset side of your ledger and not against each other. You know, let's make sure that we've got a full short-term and long-term financial plan for you and your family.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. Well, thank you so much. And do you guys have social media?
Speaker 2:We do, and I will have all of those links for you down below.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it, awesome. Well, thank you so much and definitely make sure that you take time to review this episode, because feedback is the greatest gift you can give. Please make sure you're sharing this with someone, because that is the greatest compliment that you can give. Nathan and I is sharing this, and then also make sure that you are following along so that you never miss another episode. Thanks so much. Yeah, we'll see you next time on come to find out.