At William Raveis, we offer our agents, and in turn, our clients, a tremendous number of products and tools that help the homebuying or selling process immensely. A state of the art cloud-like platform specially designed for us by Microsoft, a nine-state footprint of referrals and connections that’s greatest (oxymoronic) attribute is actually the tight-knit community of brokers throughout, a proprietary mortgage service called Xcelerator365, among many others. One thing that’s not always mentioned is the amount of care and empathy that our agents, executive mortgage bankers and staff put into our client’s journeys’ to find a home.  It’s from this company-wide empathetic nature that several educational efforts are put forth that we are so proud of. Frank Kolb, the SVP of William Raveis Mortgage, along with Linda Dorsey, EVP, started a weekly webinar series in March, called Financing Friday, that’s open to all of our 4,500 agents explaining the complicated ebbs and flows of the mortgage world in this fissured global climate.

It’s surprising and comforting to learn from Frank that this past April has been the best month ever for William Raveis Mortgage, with $107 million in loans. Refinances are up over 200% from last year and over the last few months, unprecedented records have been broken. In 2019 as a whole, $643 million in loan amounts were financed, but in the last four months of 2020, a combined $258 million were financed, projecting astronomical year-end numbers for 2020. In the hour-long webinar, Frank, with Linda and Co-President of William Raveis Real Estate Inc., Ryan Raveis, spoke with confidence about the current market and answered any and all questions of our agents.

Some helpful and highly regarded facts from Frank for today’s real estate market:

• Having a strong pre-approval in this market is essential. If you have any questions, reach out to a William Raveis Executive Mortgage Banker.
• Today’s market is lacking inventory, due to a high number of closed sales. The recent stabilization to stock and bond markets are bringing that inventory back.
• Investors are less concerned as the country begins to reopen, as higher demand occurs. This means that non-qualified programs are back.
• Rates are at an all-time low. If you interest rates has a 4 in front of it, call a William Raveis Executive Mortgage Banker to refinance.
• Conforming guidelines are set to loosen, going back to 45 day locks on refinances, cash-out refinances will be back by June and any overlaps are set to expire June 30.
• As we said before, there is an inventory shortage, so bidding wars are back. Especially in Fairfield County, homes are selling for minimum asking price.
• Beware of scammers, email hackers and phishing. William Raveis Mortgage had a client mistakenly send $73,000 to the wrong bank account, so with swift action, our executive mortgage bankers switched the down payment to a lesser plan and closed the loan four days later. They pivoted and closed earlier than scheduled, and if not for the over 30 investors we have to work with, we would not have been able to execute.
• The benefits of using William Raveis Mortgage are powered by our proprietary service, Xcelerator365. Loans with at least one validated component close on average 8-10 days sooner than loans without making our loan process more streamlined and efficient for the customer. Therefore, borrowers are happy with the quick turn-around time and save time and money with reduced documentation.

Contact your William Raveis executive mortgage banker today for any questions you may have on buying or selling a home during this global pandemic and beyond.