By Kim Parmon, October 29, 2020
Interest rates are at historic lows. Which is great. Right?!
Every lender I know is the busiest they’ve ever been by about 500% right now. Most people in America that own property are refinancing to take advantage of these interest rates, which means that your lending team is absolutely slammed. Imagine having to do five times your normal workload at your job every day for months on end. You’d be pretty tired and stressed, right? This is why a quality lender with a great team is so important.
Here is my advice on what makes a lender good:
- You want to find someone who knows what they’re doing. Everything is complicated on the lending side right now. It’s an underwriter’s job to scrutinize you and make sure you’ll actually be able to make your payments. Underwriting requirements are constantly shifting these days. Can you blame them? With service industry jobs being shuttered, tenants not paying rent, etc, it’s kind of crazy out there. Find a lender that has the experience to ask you the right questions up front before issuing a pre-approval letter. You want to know that you will be able to get your loan before even making an offer!
- Don’t be dazzled by deceptively low interest rates. Yes, getting a low rate is amazing! But if something seems too good to be true it usually is. Read the fine print. Look up reviews online. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples when you get quotes from different lenders.
- Find a local lender that cares about their relationships. Yes, the big online company may have a better rate, but who cares what rate you are quoted if you can’t get your loan closed? Don’t be the buyer that needs to ask for a two week extension because your lender isn’t getting it done. The seller doesn’t have to agree to extend beyond the closing date you originally agreed to, so it’s important that you work with a lender who is as good as their word. When your lender has a reputation in the community to uphold, you can bet that they will work hard to make sure you are happy.
- Find a lender that tells you the truth, even when it’s not what you want to hear. Honesty is so important in every aspect of life! And it truly is something that could make or break a real estate deal. Sure, it’s nice to hear that Lender B doesn’t care about your car payment when Lender A was worried about it, but I’d ask some more questions before moving forward with Lender B.
If you don’t have a great lender already, ask your Realtor for referrals! We all have worked with people we were impressed by and we are happy to share their contact information with you. Your lender is a key piece of your team, so it’s important to find a good one. And when you find that good one, make sure you let them know they are appreciated! They could use some extra love right now.
Happy house hunting!
Kim Parmon
Principal Broker | Earth Advantage Certified | OR
She/Her
Kim Parmon
Principal Broker
Lead Listing Agent
Earth Advantage Certified | OR
kim@livingroomre.com
Oregon is the fifth state that Kim has called home in her life, and this one is sticking! After moving multiple times in her childhood, Kim fully understands how empowering homeownership and having roots is. She loves waking up every day in this beautiful place and wants everyone to experience what it feels like to live in their dream home.
As a kid, Kim spent her free time wandering through open houses and exploring construction sites for the fun of it. After careers in the professional ballroom dance world, the entertainment industry, and the service industry, Kim stumbled into real estate as both a passion and a profession through the purchase of her first bungalow. After renovating it with her husband and selling it for enough of a profit to pay off their debt as well as buy a new house to live in, everything clicked: she decided to get her real estate license and help her community experience the emotional and financial benefits of homeownership.
Kim put down roots in Portland in 2015 and has cultivated a referrals-based business throughout the years. She understands that real estate is a service and the experience she gives her clients is first-rate. She works hard to anticipate needs. She is responsive, thorough, empathic, and a skilled negotiator who enjoys market analytics and strategy as much as she enjoys connecting with her clients. Her ethics and reputation are the cornerstones of her business and the happiness of her clients is the yardstick that she measures success against.
Kim merged her business with the best agents in Portland at the beginning of 2022, which has allowed her to give her clients more resources, more advocacy, and a top-notch real estate experience. She is honored to be a part of her incredible team and feels lucky to go to work every day.
In her free time, you'll find Kim enjoying lazy evenings by the fire with her husband, daughter, and rescue dogs. She loves dancing, live music, exploring all of the beautiful places around us in the PNW, enjoying a cider and a good meal with friends, and browsing Powell's for a great new book.
Andee Ziegler
Licensed Listing Team Operations Manager
andee@livingroomre.com
Loving where you live will change your life. Everyone deserves that joy. For me, real estate has been a way of nurturing my community and doing what I can to help people find stability, grow generational wealth, and create a little space of their own in the world.
For 15 years I found the most joy in helping first-time homebuyers, guiding my peers through their first major investment and dreaming up what home means for them. I’ve done restoration work on homes from a variety of eras, 1894 Victorian farmhouse to classic 1950’s ranch. I enjoy empowering new homeowners with the knowledge I’ve garnered over the years, from systems to finishes.
In 2022 I joined forces with some of the best realtors in the biz and shifted my focus to operation management for listings. This welcome change opened up space in my life: more cake, less pants.
Andee Zeigler | Licensed Listing Team Operations Manager | andee@livingroomre.com
Jessica LeDoux | Lead Buyer Agent | Broker Licensed in Oregon | jessica@livingroomre.com
Karim Alaeddine | Operations | Principal Broker Licensed in Oregon | karim@livingroomre.com
Jenessa VanZutphen | Buyer Operations Manager | Licensed in Oregon | jenessa@livingroomre.com
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- T: 503-438-5101
- kim@livingroomre.com
