Real Estate with Renee Featuring Suncoast Credit Union

Good morning, Southwest Florida and those near and far. My name is Renee Han. I'm with William Ravis Real Estate, and I am so pleased to have with us today Oksana. And Oksana, welcome, by the way.

Thank you. Good morning.

Good morning. I laugh because as we are all living and working in these new environments, right, so more of us are working from home and You know, the day before we were working from home, we weren't necessarily ready for that. And so I laugh as I was getting ready to get on with you this morning in my home, and the mowing guy starts going around. So if you hear a little mowing in the background, I'm sorry, but it'll be a beautiful lawn when he's done.

Did you have to run outside and ask him, please stop?

Could you take a half an hour break for me? Sure. Well, good morning. I've got Oksana, as I mentioned. With Suncoast Credit Union, and I've had the opportunity to do a number of transactions with Oksana, and I'll talk more about that. But what I'd like to do for those that are joining us live or that may be coming back to watch as part of replay, Oksana, is give them a little bit of your background. Tell us a little bit about yourself, and then we'll jump into the business side.

Perfect. Good morning again. Thank you, Renee, for inviting me. It's A pleasure, yes, and we've worked together for quite some time now. Um, you always a pleasure to work with. Um, so my name is Oksana. I am a mortgage loan officer at Suncoast Credit Union, the largest credit union in the state of Florida. Just, um, a few things about myself and a few things about my lovely credit union. Um, I am originally from the Ukraine, um, came here 12 years ago, quite some time ago, graduated UCF, University of Central Florida, and started with Suncoast a little over 5 years ago in a different role. I worked in different departments which allowed me to get that exposure and understand what a credit union is. I started doing mortgages and I absolutely loved them. I will not go back to doing anything else. This is my true passion. Um, credit union, um, Suncoast Credit Union began in 1934 as a Hillsborough County Teachers Credit Union, and we've definitely grown since then. We recently reached $10 billion in assets, and that put us at number 10 in the United States. If you're curious, there are over 6,000 credit unions in the state of— oh, sorry, in the United States. So being number 10, I think it's pretty fantastic. Um, when it comes to applying for a mortgage, you You don't have to be a member of a credit union. You can open membership later and it's free. There are no fees or charges. A couple more things. We serve 39 counties in the state of Florida. And as long as you work, live, worship, or go to school in any of the counties that we serve, you are eligible for our membership. So welcome aboard.

Well, and thank you, Oksana. I, you know, I have such a strong— on the personal side for a minute, such a strong admiration and respect for people who have an adventurous spirit and the courage to expand beyond their home countries. My assistant, Vera Ivanova, is from Russia. And, you know, when I, when I look at her picking up and moving her family here, and, you know, that takes courage. And same from you coming from the Ukraine. I just, it makes me feel so meek having only lived in the US and traveled from state to state. So that already tells us a little something about you.

And I traveled a lot. I actually used to work on cruise ships.

I love it. Was that to sample the places you might ultimately go live?

I'll stay here. I love it here. Yeah, I, yeah, I traveled a lot as a, you know, part of my work. I used to live to work in a casino, actually. So I used to take people's money. Now I give it to them.

I love that. Well, at least there's a consistent theme intertwined through your life, Oksana, and thank you so much for sharing. You know, one of the things I've come to appreciate in my real estate business— I have the pleasure of working with a lot of people, you know, making a transaction come together is so much more than just the two real estate agents that are involved. It's inspectors, it's mortgage companies, it's closing companies, it's service providers. All of that. And as someone who comes out of the corporate world myself, having worked as a senior executive for quite some time, I've always had this bias towards professionals who really live and breathe and are passionate about their business, number one, and who are responsive. Because as you know, in the professional environment, Um, people don't want to necessarily wait all the time for things. And so I wanted to say that as a backdrop to say one of the things that I've appreciated working about Oksana and why Oksana have— and I have done repeat deals— is Oksana is one of, and I will say the few, um, mortgage professionals who take responsiveness and put it on a whole nother scale. I hesitate to share this because I don't want everybody to start calling you late at night. Let them call. But I remember one of the first times we worked together, Oksana, it was on a weekend. It was in an evening. I had sent a note expecting to probably hear back from you Monday morning and got a pretty immediate response. So again, there's— I understand that's one element of who you are as a professional, but in a world where things move fast and particularly with buyers, you know, they will move on to the next person if somebody's not responsive to their desires, needs, and inquiries. So I just wanted to call that out upfront as one of your, I think, very unique attributes.

Thank you. Yes, it is a competitive world. So you gotta stay on top of it.

Yeah, well, you're doing that very well. So what I wanted to start with, You know, you've obviously— I didn't even know that about Suncoast, by the way, of being in the top 10. So congratulations to you and Suncoast Credit Union. When somebody's thinking about purchasing, I, I want to ask you a two-part question. One, what do you think is the best time to engage if I'm a buyer? How early or late should I be reaching out to mortgage options, number one? And number two, What are some of the considerations that you would pass on as some things they should think about when selecting their mortgage solution?

I believe that once you have that thought in your mind, that here we go, I think I would love to buy a home, whether it's tomorrow, next week, in 2 months, or in a year, you should definitely reach out to a loan officer and talk about it. Part, um, the, the most important thing that I love about Suncoast is we're all about members. So it's not so much, you know, selling, it's more of a consulting and advising. So I love that, had to have that conversation with my members or potential members, um, not only about the entire process of buying a home, but about how to get there. That's what you want to have. You want to have that first conversation. Not many, especially first-time homebuyer, uh, confused, lost. So you want to have that first conversation with them and guide them, because if they're not ready today, they will be ready with your help. So, um, next step would be, I do encourage, once you're ready, I do encourage my members and potential members to get as much information as possible from different financial institutions when shopping for a mortgage lender. Why? Because one size doesn't fit all, and, um, buying a home is one of the biggest purchases in anyone's life, and you should definitely not compare different lenders to get to see what the best deal that you can get. So for example, in today's world, it's not that smart to just compare mortgage rates because as we know, rates are low across the board. So you should ask a lender if they have any special programs or promotions that will save you even more. Another thing to look at is lenders' fees. 3 lenders, 3 different lenders may offer the same mortgage interest rate, but if you look deeper into the details of closing costs, for example, you may notice that they charge different fees. And I personally help my members to compare apples to apples. I ask them, send me, you know, loan summary from your other lenders, and we'll go through them together line by line, because that's important. That's what they appreciate. And I don't make them feel any bad if they decide to go with a different lender. That's totally fine. I will be the first one to guide them through the process and tell them, look, this is a better deal, but, you know, also pros and cons. You got to compare everything.

No, and that's so important because you hit on something that I see a lot when people are shopping around with lenders, and that is they focused almost exclusively on the interest rate without realizing things like, you know, has anybody factored points into that? So do you have another cost that they didn't necessarily, you know, as that they put forward to bring your interest rate down? Have you looked at, like you said, origination, lending fees, and that whole picture? And let's be very honest, I'm not poking at anybody in particular, The mortgage companies don't always make it easy to be able to see the side-by-side comparison because they may call things a little different. They may even structure their estimate to you to look different, um, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do the diligence of stepping through and asking. So let me ask Oksana, if, if somebody were trying to do that apples-to-apples comparison— and, and I appreciate your willingness to help them do that— but they really need to think about interest rate, mortgage fees, closing fees, and, and any points that are in. Any other things they should ask directly about to assess the cost of lending?

Sure, a total out-of-pocket cost. As you know, some mortgage products, special promotions maybe, may allow you to put less down because the mortgage rates are so low today. You may not want to put that much down and save that Liquid, liquid cash, new furniture, other expenses when you buy a home. So definitely, total out-of-pocket cost is important. So different down payment requirements. Another thing to consider, and it is important to some people, how your mortgage will be serviced after closing. Do you have a choice, an opportunity to walk into a branch and talk to a live person about your mortgage that recently closed? You're confused how you make payments. So that is something also, um, again, to consider whether your loan will be sold to other lenders after closing or not. That's, you know, something also some people ask. But yes, when it comes to total out-of-pocket costs, that's pretty much comparing every single fee, pretty much. As we know that some fees are standard on a mortgage, um, application for, uh, you know, on a purchase of a home, and these fees lenders have no control over.

Like the doc stamps, title fees.

If the title company is selected by the seller, you know, whatever they charge, that's going to be title fees. But, um, there are fees that you can and you should compare. Lenders' fees, origination fee. Some lenders have processing fees, administration fees. Points is very important. Need to understand what these points are charged for and whether you can maybe buy down rate even more if you're willing to pay more points. So all this, that's what, that's the conversation that I have with my members. It is a lot, so we usually go back and forth, and it is important I make sure they understand what, what these fees are.

That's fantastic, Oksana. One of the other things, recognizing that being with Suncoast, you know, when I reach out to my buyers and I do it very early in the process I always give somebody choices when they ask me for introductions because I don't necessarily know the best option for them, but I want to give them amongst what I call categories some choices. So when I send out a communication relatively early on, uh, getting them thinking about if they're going to be borrowing money to purchase the home, you may want to start to talk about people. I, I, I do one of couple categories, right? So you're my go-to credit union category. I've got a broker category. Tell me a little bit about when— and I do it by category because I think it's important for people to understand that those different lending entities have different setups. They have benefits and I won't say drawbacks, but considerations. So when somebody's thinking about utilizing a credit union credit union as a lending option. Oksana, what are some of the considerations and advantages that you think there are? You touched— started to touch on a few of them when you're talking about considerations, but walk us through what you think some of the benefits of working with Suncoast are.

So, um, first of all, um, just in case someone doesn't know, a credit union is— on the biggest difference between a credit union and a commercial bank is in ownership. A credit union is owned by members. I am a member of Suncoast. I'm one of the owners. What that means is pretty much all the profits are returned back to our members after expenses and payroll, of course. So what that allows us to do is offer lower rates, not only on mortgages, on consumer loans as well, higher dividends and free services. So we cover— we offer all the services that any other commercial bank offers., but, um, we may have, uh, quite competitive rates, uh, better products when it comes to mortgages especially, and, um, free services as I mentioned. So for example, we don't charge points. So these are all these things that I'm going to mention will help you save in closing costs. So no points, that's the first thing. So we don't, um, as a credit union, we're not required to pay intangible tax. So that saves you on your closing costs as well. So we offer some contribution— lender's contribution towards your closing cost on some mortgages. And we have special programs that allow you to put lower down payment and have, for example, no private mortgage insurance. That's saving every month on your mortgage payment because on a conventional loan— and Suncoast only works with conventional loans— on a conventional loan, um, If you have a PMI and you make just regular monthly required payment, you will pay private mortgage insurance for the first 6-7 years. So having no PMI saves you thousands within the first 6-7 years. So another benefit of going with Suncos is we do not practice risk price lending. That is, um, that means your rate, your mortgage rate, does not depend on your credit score or your down payment. So lower credit score and lower down payment makes a loan riskier for a lender, so they would generally try to minimize that risk and increase your interest rate. We don't do that at Suncoast. Our mortgage rates are posted on our website. You can check them at any time, and your rate will depend on a posted rate on the day of the application. So a couple more things, um, on some mortgages we do offer to waive PMI with the low down payment. We have a couple promotions right now. The first one is called Lock and Shop. We will lock your rate, your mortgage rate, on a pre-approval. Generally, the rate can only be locked when the contract is received. We are offering you to lock your rate for 60 days on a pre-approval. You have 60 days to shop for your home, and in case rates go up, You're safe.

And that's 60 days from closing?

No, this 60 days from the day of the application. We're talking about the first step, the pre-approval. Yeah, on a pre-approval, so we lock your rate. Then when the contract is received, the rate is officially locked for that specific property. But, um, you also have one opportunity— one, you, once your loan goes to processing, you, what, you have one opportunity to what we call float down, relock your rate if rates drop. As you know, rates keep— rates keep dropping. So for the last few months, we've had some, you know, rates go down dramatically. So if rates go down again, you have still have that opportunity to relock your rate and take advantage of a lower rate, and there is no charge for that. So we lock your rate at the beginning on a pre-approval, and then you can still relock it once you found your home and your loan is processing. And another promotion I wanted to mention, and that is because I work directly with one of the builders, local builders, it's Christopher Allen Homes. So we get a lot of business from them and we also work with other builders. So if you, um, build a new home and the builder, and you go with Suncoast as your lender, we will lock your rate on certain mortgages for 180 days. So as you know, it may take some time for your home to be completed. With Christopher Allen, for example, it's between 4 to 6 months. So during these 6 months, your rate is still safe. Unlike on a regular resale, for example, we lock your rate for 60 days. So you would not have to worry if rates go up. But again, there is also that flow-down opportunity that you can relock it if they drop again.

Now, that's great. I didn't even know that about the, the new build, 180 days. So fantastic. I have a question and I apologize in advance, Oksana, because I did not tell you I was going to ask this question, but it's popped up. So, and I know how quick you are on your feet. One of the things that I think I've certainly learned a lot about, I did not know until I got into real estate myself, is not every property is eligible for every type of loan. And the easiest example is with condos, and not all of them are approved for FHA. Would you mind just sharing— that's something that I've seen come up a lot more recently. Um, I would just love the high-level, um, explanation of that as people are considering and starting to purchase homes that they might need to have in the back of their mind if they're looking for particularly multifamily.

Good question. Yes, and, um, it's the biggest concern with, um, my members that come to me and say, oh, we were denied. We were buying a condominium and we were pre-approved initially, and then we couldn't get it because of the financing. So as I mentioned before, Sancos only works with conventional loans, and all our loans are portfolio. Right now we don't sell any of our mortgages to any other lenders or Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. We may start selling, um, some of our mortgages to Fannie again, but right now we do not. What that does is it allows us to be more flexible when it comes to different property types, especially condominiums, because, um, condominiums are considered riskier property type for a lender. So that is why many lenders would ask for a higher down payment, and we do have those mortgages as well. For example, in the 30-year fixed, minimum required down payment for, um When you buy a condominium, it's 25%, but we also have great options that allow you to still put low down payments, such as our First Time Homebuyer Mortgage, for example. So you can put 3% down only on a condominium. You will have no PMI. So that's a great option, especially for first-time homebuyers, as you know, limited assets, um, maybe some issues with credit, which we can work with.. And, um, we in— at a credit union, we do have those mortgages that still, um, allow you to look at the condominium and get financing and get a great rate. So we're not going to change your rate based on a property type.

Oh, that's great. Thank you. And then you answered some of this. We talked about— you talked about first-time home buyers, low down payments. Are there any other special programs or options from the credit union that you wanted to highlight that we haven't already talked about?

So yes, a couple features programs that we offer at Suncoast. The First-Time Homebuyer is one of them. As I mentioned, it is, um, the biggest benefit is 3% down payment, no PMI. Um, another benefit of the First-Time Homebuyer, Suncoast contributes up to $1,000 towards your closing costs. The rates, um, the rates are low on all mortgages, yes, but the rate for the First-Time Homebuyer is also posted on our website. For the first-time home buyer, as long as you have not owned any real estate within the last 3 years, you are eligible to apply for this mortgage. So first-time home buyers is not just you never own a home. 3 years, that's what HUD says, so we follow their, um, guidelines. So that's our first-time home buyer mortgage, and it is for a single-family, condominium, and townhome, primary residence of course. Now another mortgage program that I'd like to mention is, um, called Suncoast Community Heroes, and this program is for any school board employee, any employee, not just teachers, our lovely teachers. Everybody is eligible. Everybody, as long as you get paid by the school board, you're eligible. Any fire department employee, law enforcement, nurses, veterans, these groups of individuals, um, will, um, can apply for the Sankos Community Heroes. And the biggest benefit of this mortgage is also 5% down, no PMI. But within this program, we have different mortgage options, both fixed-rate mortgages and adjustable-rate mortgages. And Suncoast doesn't charge anything to do this loan. So what that means is no PMI and no lender's fees. So that's a great saving.

I think that might have been, if my memory serves me correct, the first time we worked together was, um, for the home purchase of a nurse who took advantage of your, your lending program.

Yes, nurses are eligible. Absolutely, yes.

Yeah, that's fantastic. Well, great, Oksana. This has been very helpful. Again, we— it's one of those topics that we don't need to know about until we need to know, and then everything's under the gun. So I appreciate you helping educate those of us, um, that are directly working in real estate and those that may be considering a near-term or long-term real estate purchase or for sale in some cases. So thank you so much. I wanted to offer you one last opportunity of anything, Oksana, you'd like to share with the audience in closing today.

Well, if you guys, um, as I mentioned earlier, um, as long as you— once you start thinking about buying a home or refinancing— I actually handle first mortgages on primary residences and second vacation homes, and both purchases and refinances. So once you have that thought, please give me a call because that's where we start. I will discuss all the entire process and run some numbers for you without running your credit first. So you have that information about how much it will cost or again, how to get there. So that, that's the first conversation that I love. I mentioned because it allows me to not only know more about you, but, um, see how we can help, because as a credit union, we all, as I mentioned, all for members. So we will try and get you into a best financial position.

Thank you so much, Oksana, and you hit it. I find there is this two parts to hesitancy to engage people earlier than you think you should. One, they don't want to inconvenience people, and two, they're afraid we're going to stalk them. So I often say the same thing that says, look, if you get your partners— partners being mortgage, partners being real estate agents— involved earlier, and if you've selected the right people who aren't there to badger you and stalk you— neither of us happen to fall into that category— we can be hugely helpful in getting you to think about before you spend a lot of your time because what Oksana and I can do from our two areas of expertise is really talk you through what's important, what are your goals, what is your timeline, what are some of the considerations, and help you from, you know, maybe spending time and energy on things that won't get you to those goals, and then equip you so that when you're ready to do something, you've got all your, your ducks in a row. So, I'm a huge proponent as well, Oksana, in proactively engaging. And I always tell people, it's never a bother. Our jobs are built in a way that these are long-term nurtured relationships. And as I mentioned, I'll attest to— Oksana's not a stalker, I'm not a stalker. We have plenty of business that keeps us busy. We're, we're both big on referrals. And, uh, so feel free if you've got a future real estate need to reach out to Oksana. She's a a great resource. And again, I'll, I'll end with what I started with— she is very responsive. And we know that there is a portion of the population that may do their home shopping on the weekends, or they're exploring, or the weeknights if they're working. And we're seeing more and more of that come into this area as we're becoming an attractive place for people to come at all points in their lives. And I've just found Oksana to be a great partner in that because she'll be there when you're there. So, Oksana, thank you so much for joining us today. And for those that are with us live and on playback, feel free to reach out if you've got any questions or if Oksana or I can be of any assistance to you now or in the future. And everyone have a great day. It is November 3rd. I would say happy voting day, but I think nowadays most people are almost all done with their voting. But if you haven't voted yet, be sure to go take the opportunity It is our privilege and right to be able to do that. So everybody have a great day. And Oksana, thank you again for your time.

Thank you, Renee, for having me. Thank you. Have a great day.

You too.