By Mike Bodeen · 15 May 2023
Chuck, a friend and client of mine in his early 60’s had never owned a home in his life. He had rented a room from a mutual friend of ours in Tempe for almost 20 years.
Last year, as mortgage rates began spiking, he called me to look at homes in the Sun City communities. Yes, Chuck was actually going to buy a home. But mortgage rates had now exceeded 5% and I’m feeling bad for him that he didn’t buy a few months before when rates were lower.
We shopped for a home and it didn’t take long for us to find a completely updated home in Sun City for $325,000. He loved it! Chuck is a veteran, now working with Hospice of the Valley, and he was able to close on a VA loan at a rate of 4.99%. He couldn’t be happier.
So rates kept rising into the 7% range. And now I look back at Chuck’s 4.99% loan and thinking, “Great move Chuck!”
Chuck’s home buying purchase was an eye opener for me. In my mind, I’m thinking, higher price, mortgage rate increases, wish he’d bought earlier, ad nauseum. But Chuck wasn’t thinking that way at all. He was able to buy his own home and he couldn’t be happier.
So what did I learn from that experience? For one, the money, though important, for many like Chuck, is just a tool to get a home – to live in and enjoy his own space. He could afford it. It did not matter that the home he bought was $25,000 cheaper 3 months beforehand, or that mortgage rates were only 3% just months before. He had found his home. He wasn’t looking back. He was enjoying and envisioning looking ahead to his future.
The next learning point is more of a validation – that our continuous exhortation and encouragement, especially for first time home buyers, to get into a home is not hollow real-estate-agent-speak No, it is a conviction that is only increasing as time marches on.
It’s the Chucks of the world that affirms that I have the greatest job in the world.