Cheryl Knowlton: Hi everybody. Cheryl Knowlton, CEO of Dynamite Productions, here with Clay Johnson-
Clay Johnson: Hi.
Cheryl Knowlton: Area Manager for Castle & Cooke Mortgage. All right, let’s get really real, and not all mortgage lenders are created equal.
Clay Johnson: No.
Cheryl Knowlton: And having been in this industry for 20 years now… That’s insane to me. Thankfully we’re not aging at all, right?
Clay Johnson: Exactly.
Cheryl Knowlton: Because it’s 20… how many for you?
Clay Johnson: 22 years for me.
Cheryl Knowlton: 22 years.
Clay Johnson: This is 22 years this month.
Cheryl Knowlton: Wow! Great job.
Clay Johnson: I know, super excited.
Cheryl Knowlton: Congratulations. It is actually kind of rare for a lending institution in the state of Utah to be able to do Utah Housing and to do it well.
Clay Johnson: Yes, and that’s the thing is having that highest level of delegation where literally Utah Housing finds out they have a loan once we’ve funded the loan and it’s done. We have a good enough track record with them that they say, “You know what? Go ahead, you have 100% delegation authority,” and we’re able to do that completely in house. So it’s really you hear all these things, “Utah Housing takes longer, all the, there’s so much more paperwork through.”
There really not. Once you know what you’re doing, it’s just like doing any other loan. We do it well, we do it efficiently, we do it quickly, and I love it because it’s a way that they can get into the home. They get that down payment assistance, and in this market, Cheryl, you know if you ask for closing costs on a sub 350,000, $400,000 house-
Cheryl Knowlton: It could kill the deal.
Clay Johnson: It could kill the deal. And with these loans, you can get the closing costs also financed into it and that way you don’t have to ask for that, and it makes your offer look so much more competitive.
Cheryl Knowlton: Amazing.
Clay Johnson: It is amazing.
Cheryl Knowlton: If you’re a real estate professional in the state of Utah and you run into a mortgage lender who says, “Oh, you don’t want to go Utah Housing,” that is actual code for, “My lender doesn’t do that.”
Clay Johnson: There’s a lot of truth to that.
Cheryl Knowlton: Yeah, because they don’t know how or they don’t offer the program.
Clay Johnson: Well, and the reality is it’s a low-revenue program. As a lending institution, it’s a low-revenue program for us, right? So a lot of them just won’t talk about it. They don’t want to talk about it because they’re not going to make as much money. Well, we really look at this from a long-term perspective. What’s in the best interest of the client? And there are so many situations where it’s no question the best interest for them.
Cheryl Knowlton: Absolutely. Utah Housing is so great and it’s even getting better, and we’ll tell you more about it in our next episode.
Clay Johnson: Bye-bye.