133. Breaking Up, Keeping the House: Divorce Mortgage Strategies

0:01

Welcome to WeChat Divorce, hosted by Karen Chalou, Legal Liaison and Catherine Shanahan, CDFA.

Each episode we sit down with divorce professionals and industry experts to provide insights and frank discussions about real people, real situations, and real divorce to help you achieve your best life post divorce.

0:39

Welcome to WeChat Divorce.

Catherine and I are talking to Zachary Taylor today, a mortgage advisor.

Big topic in the divorce arena for sure.

So we’re going to discuss.

I love the title, breaking up, keeping the house, divorce mortgage strategies.

0:57

That sounds very sophisticated.

Many.

Times, Catherine.

Yeah, sounds sophisticated, but you know, I’m thinking about that.

You know, when you keep your house, a lot of people are like, oh gosh, I’m going to be stuck with all the crap and the other party gets to go.

But it’s reminding me of you renovating your kitchen.

1:13

How is that going?

Or have you started that process?

20 years in, I wanted to renovate the kitchen the moment I moved in to our house 20 years ago.

But you know what the the question is?

And I think in the divorce process, it’s kind of the same thing.

1:29

Like what’s the best way to pay for it?

What’s it going to cost?

No.

How’s it going?

I’m asking you.

How’s it going?

Yeah, like, have you picked out all your stuff?

Did they start demolishing things?

No, no, we have to move out while they’re demolishing things.

1:45

Oh.

You do.

We’re at my work here.

Imagine if they were demolishing things while we’re trying to record a podcast.

Or yeah, I have to.

I have to relocate myself.

Why don’t we take the month off?

We could so.

What are you going to do?

2:03

Rent A home to live in?

Why are they renovating?

I think so like an Airbnb or a short term rental, yeah, because it’s a big deal.

It’s pretty much our whole first floor that’s kind of going under an overhaul, which is exciting.

Yeah, we’ve picked our cabinet tops, our floors, our lighting, etcetera.

2:23

And I have my own baking area.

Oh nice, for the three things you make a year.

I’m going to make more.

Karen’s husband does all the cooking, so he’s probably the Super excited.

Yeah, to Get Me Out from under his feet for sure.

2:39

I’ll have my own sink, my own oven area.

I’m very excited.

Yeah, kind.

Of like in your house.

I think it’s a successful marriage.

The spouses should have their own bathrooms.

You should ask them to renovate your bathrooms too.

I agree and you need your own space in the kitchen like a lot of things for us are his and her, but you’ve renovated your kitchen not too long ago.

3:01

Actually, that was eight years ago.

What?

Yeah, I know.

We’re eight years older.

I think I did that for my 50th birthday.

I thought, I think you woke up one day, renovated your kitchen and told me the next day that’s how it went like.

That’s about how I operate.

Everything’s quick, fast, and if I regret it, Oh well, we’ll do it over another time.

3:19

Yeah, I agree.

So this conversation will be good, learning about mortgages, how you can afford that if you’re thinking of keeping your home.

So why don’t we go ahead and invite our guest in today?

Sounds good.

Hello, Zach.

Thanks for being with us today.

3:34

I’m very much looking forward to this conversation.

Thanks for having me, I’m looking.

I’ve been looking forward to it as well.

Great good.

So in this episode, we’re going to discuss breaking up keeping the house divorce mortgage strategies from strategies for buying out your spouse’s share of a marital home or rental property to understanding how to retain a low mortgage a low rate mortgage amend the amid the split.

3:57

We’ll cover practical steps to help you make informed decisions during this challenging transition.

But first, let me take a just a couple minutes to introduce Zach.

Zach is a mortgage lender with 30 years of experience.

Over 50% of his business involves people in some phase of the divorce process.

4:15

Zach knows the divorce guidelines and paperwork requirements and is able to access programs from his company, Cross Country Mortgage, the number one retail lender in the US, and from over 100 different other sources to make sure his divorcing clients get the best options to fit their situation.

4:34

That’s great, Zach, so again, welcome.

And before we dive into our topic of mortgage discussion, can you tell our listeners a little bit about your story and journey that created the passion for the work you do?

4:53

Yeah, that that’s a a great way to start out.

So, you know, over 30 years in the business, I was plugging away doing my mortgage business.

And then in one of my networking groups, I met a divorced mediator and all she did was, was mediate and we got to know each other over a year or so.

5:09

And she said, hey, you know, you’re so good at what you do.

Have you ever thought about just focusing on, on working with folks that are going through divorce?

They really need a, an experienced mortgage lender.

So that’s where I got my start.

She started referring clients to me that were either just thinking about going through a divorce or they were actually, you know, getting ready to go into their first mediation session.

5:33

And that was probably about nine years ago or so.

And that’s where my journey started.

Great.

And I think you mentioned that you have not been divorced and that doesn’t affect your services at all, I’m sure of it.

Yeah, but it doesn’t, it doesn’t keep me from being compassionate and a good listener.

5:51

And, and because I understand that folks that I, that I chat with, it’s a brutal time, right?

It’s really difficult.

They’re trying to gather facts so they can make confident decisions as they go through the process.

And I’ve heard the same thing at some of your other podcasts that I listened to.

That’s the important thing is get those facts early in the process, right?

6:09

Absolutely.

I would guess, I don’t know, 8085, maybe even 90% of our families and clients.

We, we need to walk through this particular discussion on who’s keeping the home, what’s it going to look like?

6:25

You know, and even in the post pandemic environment, you know, what does that look like with the very volatile real estate market?

So I know this will help a lot of people.

So, you know, let’s just start out with what are some of the top tips that you have for divorcing people regarding financing buyouts and things like that.

6:47

But let let’s just get started.

Yeah, let me, let me just jump in and you know, we can go through 3510, I mean however many, whatever the time allows.

But I’ll, I’ll start out with my #1 tip and that’s that it’s never too early to reach out to an experienced lender and experienced real estate professional that knows the divorce process and understands because it’s different.

7:11

It’s different getting a mortgage through when you’re going through a divorce.

It’s different listing in your home when you’re going through a divorce.

So it’s really important to reach out early, early, early to figure out, you know, what’s going on.

With just a quick phone call with me, you can find out, hey, can I afford to buy out my spouse?

7:30

Many times I talk to both spouses because they’re in a mediation situation.

And can the other one buy you out?

And then if it’s not going to work and you’re going to sell, you know, what does buying a house look like compared to renting?

Or if you’re the person that’s getting bought out and you have your, you know, proceeds from the buyout, you know, what are you going to do with those funds?

7:48

Are you going to buy something?

Are you going to, are you going to rent?

And the most important thing is working with, with the CDFA is that you have to take into account what your post divorce budget is, right?

I think that’s what differentiates a mortgage divorce professional from another mortgage lender is that we really focus on, hey, when you’re through the trees, right?

8:10

And you’re, you’ve got your support lined up, you know what your assets are.

What is your post divorce budget going to look like?

Because many times I talk to people and I talked to the first spouse and there’s no way that they qualify.

So the discussion kind of ends right there.

I talked to the other spouse and he or she qualifies, but then when I dig into the trees in through the trees and the and the details, the budget just doesn’t work right.

8:35

Like it’s just not going to be affordable for them.

They don’t, they’re not factoring in maintenance.

The insurance cost out here in California, insurance has just gone through the roof.

So what’s your insurance premiums, especially if you’re the spouse that did not handle the finances and pay the bills?

It’s really important to factor all that in.

8:53

Let me back this up.

Yeah, let me.

So that #1 Tip had a lot of things in it, so I want to back it up in case, right?

Because it sounds like you’re digging in a little beyond what a mortgage broker does, right?

So what, what?

When you come through our process, we prepare you so we do the income and expenses already.

9:11

So if you have that work completed and that’s going through the trees and stuff, you get that.

OK, So you get that done because we know that’s a daunting task for a lot of people, including myself.

I’m not a budget lover.

And then what they need to know from you when going through a divorce is what’s the advantages to renting versus buying?

9:32

And when we know what the advantages we need to know is what’s the down payment I would need to buy or what are the qualifications.

I think people need to 1st find out what are the qualifications to refinancing.

And a lot of the conversation this year has been about assuming loans, having an assumable mortgage.

9:53

So talking, yes, I agree, talking to a mortgage professional is really important because you need to know what options are available to you before you even go down that path and before you even start negotiating whether you want to keep that home or not because it might not be feasible for you.

10:10

So what are some tips with finding out?

How does somebody find out if their mortgage is assumable or not and what are the qualifications to be approved for refinancing?

Yeah, yeah, that’s, that’s a great question.

And again, to take a step back, you don’t like, at least with me and most lenders that are experienced, you don’t have to apply, give an application, give me all your documents and run a credit report and all that.

10:35

Unless it’s a super tough situation of self-employment with weird income and you have credit issues, you know, then I would say, hey, we have to dig a little bit deeper.

But it just starts with a phone call.

Regarding the assumption, the guidelines are pretty much the same as if you were going to go out and get a brand new mortgage.

10:52

You have to reach out to your loan servicer.

So not the loan officer that did the loan for you, right?

So they wouldn’t call me and say, hey, I’m getting a divorce.

Can I assume my loan?

I would refer them to cross country mortgage as a loan servicing department, which is on your mortgage statement.

11:08

It has an 800 number for who to call, right?

So you’re going to call them right away and say, hey, we’re it’s fine to just be honest and just say we’re going through a divorce because there are only two situations where loans are assumable these days, unless it’s a VA loan pretty much.

And that’s the divorce and death, right?

11:25

You can remove somebody from the mortgage and we used to call it a name dropped, you know, drop the name off the mortgage if you’re getting a divorce or your or, or one of the spouses died.

So you’re going to make that phone call, get the process sent to you because there’s going to be a timeline and a cost that they’re going to charge you.

11:43

It’s not going to be free.

If you do qualify for the assumption they got to redraw some documents, you know, for you to sign that would typically include the deed getting your spouse, you know, off the mortgage, off the title at the same time.

So you have to do that.

11:59

And so the guidelines are pretty much the same whatever your your situation is when you’re divorced, because also you cannot apply for a divorce assumption with a loan servicer until you are divorced.

So in California, that means the marital settlement agreement, what we call it out here is it’s signed, it’s gone down to the court, it’s weighted, whatever that time frame is, it’s been stamped, conformed, and you’re done.

12:23

And then you take the title as a unmarried woman or man.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

So let’s just pause there, Zach.

So I’ve had many clients in the past year where we’re talking about mortgage assumption.

They say, well, I’ve called my bank and they said no.

12:40

And to.

Point it’s all about how you ask the question and the documentation that you have now in that space.

Do they pre approve a mortgage assumption?

Yeah, that’s a great question.

And the answer to that question as far as I know from all the clients that I’ve talked to that have either had success or not in the assumptions is no.

13:01

Do you have to wait until you’re divorced, then you do the application, pay the application fee or whatever they do it.

And you know, for example, one big bank, a National Bank, I just talked to a client that had gone through the process.

So they had to wait till the divorce was final.

They applied, it took them four months, right?

13:19

And they charged like 2500 or three grand.

So it wasn’t free in order to do it.

And so if you go through all that and then you find out that you don’t qualify, you know, then what’s Plan B?

So the answer to that is that with me, since the guidelines are very similar and just a few minutes on the phone, I can say, hey, what’s you know, what’s the support look like?

13:40

What’s it a, a very general idea of what your asset split’s going to be on what’s your income going to be?

And I can say, hey, based off of this, it looks like you would qualify as long as the loan servicer does allow for that.

So that just saves a lot of time and effort, right?

13:56

Because if it’s no, you can, you just got to move on in your mediation discussions and just move on to either the other spouse doing it or you’ve got to either do a refinance and bring in a cosigner or you just are going to need to sell the house.

And, and it’s really hard for people to hear that, right?

14:12

Because it’s like sometimes the best thing that you can do is sell your house and you know, it doesn’t do any business for me.

You sell the house and then you should rent for a while until you kind of just get a feel for what your post divorce budget and is and what it’s working out be.

And then maybe six months or you’re down the line, you kind of like, OK, now I get this.

14:30

I know what my, I’m getting my support where I’m paying it.

Then you can move into buying a place.

So I hope that makes sense to everybody that’s listening.

Yeah.

I want to just recap some of that though, because it can go off in a few tangents there if you’re listening.

And that’s because we go through division scenarios with our clients so that they can be financially clear on the impact of the decisions.

14:52

And this is a this is a hot topic now because people want to keep their home if in fact the loan is assumable.

And the problem that you’re pointing out that if we can’t, if we can’t get that actual approval until post divorce, you may already screwed yourself by negotiating a way a retirement asset and now you’re stuck with refinancing at a much higher rate or you’re forced to sell, which is the whole reason you negotiated something else away.

15:20

So it’s really important if you’re listening to go through a scenario where when you talk to Zach or your mortgage professional, OK, if it’s assumable, this is what I will need and this is what needs to be in the agreement and this is what’s going to happen.

15:35

But you need to be aware that if that does not go through what you’re giving away and what would your alternative be?

Do you, do you want to maybe sell that home so that you keep some of your other assets?

And if you know both of those and what the impact is, you’re not going to be so mad if you don’t get approved.

15:53

What if it’s not assumable?

So for us, knowledge is everything and you need to know what options are available to you and what the impact is so you’re not blindsided.

Right, right, right and.

I just want to say that I’ve had fairly good success and I think it’s pre approval.

16:09

When we get on with some of these mortgage companies, they’ll say yes, we will agree that you can assume the mortgage.

Now maybe it’s not a formal pre approval to your point Zach, but there’s a fairly good confirmation that they will be approved.

16:26

So.

They could.

Be the various lenders as well.

Yeah, Karen, let’s be a little clearer there, too.

You know, we get those approvals from them, but who knows?

Yeah, that’s true.

Of course, I come from just saying nothing’s nothing’s true unless it’s on the side line.

16:45

So yeah, we do get that.

You’re absolutely right.

Because I know when I’m going through the scenarios, they say, Oh yeah, my, my lender said it, yeah, I’m approved.

But now if we hear that it’s not going to really be approved post divorce, who the heck knows what happens after that, so.

Just be careful, remember that there is a difference between talking to their loan guy like me and getting a you know kind of a pre qualification and actually getting a written pre approval from the loan servicer.

17:09

And because the challenge is that when you call the lender, when you get to that 800 number, the, the person that you’re talking to, it might be somebody in another country that just does customer service, right?

I mean, you just don’t know who, what levels of confidence that they have.

17:27

I’ve called on behalf of my clients and conferenced in just to kind of listen and help guide them.

And they’re like divorce assumption.

We don’t, we don’t do that right?

And, and because it’s a one person department and some huge company, right?

They don’t even know that it exists.

So you have to ask the specific questions.

17:44

Hey, we’re getting a divorce.

Can you send me to the assumption department and make sure that you’ve got the right person so that you know that?

The other thing, you guys is what we haven’t talked about, at least in California, I mean, people, the amount of equity that needs to be balanced is gigantic.

18:01

So, you know, somebody bought their house for 400, you know, 15 years ago, the house is worth 3,000,000 now.

So I mean, that’s an exaggeration.

But some of these people, you’ve got 500,000 a million in equity.

And so if it’s, if it’s all Community property, then that’s a huge number.

18:17

How are they going to, you know, are they going to give up all these assets in order to keep the house or are they going to need to finance it right?

Or is it going to be a combination of all of that?

Well, yeah, that’s what I was talking about.

Be careful of what you negotiate away and what you limit yourself to.

18:33

And that’s why we do the scenarios, so they can see that because it’s different seeing it in black and white than just assuming it in your mind.

Because a lot of people just have that mindset.

They want to keep that home, but they don’t actually see it in black and white of what the what you’re actually giving away.

Right, right.

And the Black and white with me is a series of worksheets that I provide to folks that are in the process of figuring out if they can do this or not.

18:55

And it might be two or three different scenarios.

Hey, you finance all of it, right?

You finance half of it and you on your balancing with other assets or you finance none of it and get the assumption and then trade all the assets, you know, for it without financing any of it.

19:13

That’s kind of the three different scenarios that we run through so that they can go back to the mediator together and say, OK, you know, here, here’s where we’re at and here’s what we here’s what we want to do and then the the negotiations can proceed down the right path.

What’s the what’s?

It used to be 6 months, but how many months of alimony or spousal maintenance depending on you know where in every state, what state you’re listening to this from?

19:34

How many months qualify for income?

Yeah.

So it, it depends on the program, but in general you need to have a six month history of steady, consistent receipt of the support.

And it actually has to come from the person that is supposed to be paying it.

19:51

And I say that in a laughing way because sometimes it’s like, I’ll get the, I’ll get this and then once, and then all of a sudden it’s like, oh, there’s like somebody else that’s pitching it and it’s coming in.

You know, there’s, Oh yeah, I’ve been getting it.

And then I’ll see three steady months and then none for two months and then I’ll get three months caught up at once, right.

20:09

So they’re saying, well, there’s six months there.

That’s not going to fly with any underwriter with any loan assumption department.

And so it’s, it’s six months.

And if, if they’re working with the lender that’s really experienced in divorce, that seasoning can start before the the marital settlement agreement is even signed.

20:26

So if there’s a temporary order or not, and there’s been $3000 a month coming in for four months, I, I only need two more months after the marital settlement agreement is done before I close either a new purchase, you know, or refinance.

As long as it’s steady, steady, steady.

20:41

Part of the tip that I, that I give is don’t trade, you know, meaning that there’s childhood expenses like club soccer fees and whatnot, right?

So they’ll say, Oh yeah, it’s all coming in, but it’s 5000 and then it’s 4600 and then it’s 5600 because hey, you owe me for this and that, which is really common with kids, right?

21:02

So get the money, the whole thing.

If the mayoral settlement agreement says 5 grand a month, get that in there every month, every month coming in.

And if you owe your spouse, just demo them back or you know, compensate them some other way.

That will make the process much easier for me to get your loan approved.

21:18

Yeah.

And that’s, that’s really important because a lot of agreements come in that wife or husband, depending on who’s buying the other party out of the house or assuming the loan or refinancing has 30 days to do this or 90 days to do this.

But what they’re not following up with is, wait a minute, how am I going to do that?

21:37

I haven’t had six months of consistent payment.

So even someone who’s not consistently paying in your, in your temporary support, you have to make sure you point out to your attorneys.

He has to or she has to pay me six months consecutively for me to move this on.

And anytime he misses that date has to be pushed back another six months.

21:56

And that is not written into agreements because people don’t know to advocate for themselves.

And I know my my first ex, he paid me and I knew he would always pay me.

But there was one month where he paid me late and I knew because a bonus was coming and I didn’t care because I knew that at least he was good at paying me.

22:13

But it did push off my mortgage approval and I couldn’t believe it.

And I had, I had like 18 months of him paying on a regular basis, but that one month reset that clock for me, which was so frustrating.

But so make sure that this is covered in your agreement that for any time your spouse delays that you need that extra coverage for that time to refinance.

22:36

And that benefits both parties.

I mean, the person that’s not paying on time is ultimately hurting themselves because if if they’re the ones that are receiving the buyout and they’re waiting for to get off the mortgage on the assumption or the refinance or the home equity loan, however they’re financing it.

And so, you know, Catherine, you and I are getting divorced and I’m paying you the support and I’m like not paying it on time, but I want my buyout, right?

22:58

You’re just, you’re just hurting yourself, right?

I knew you would experience divorce by the end of this call.

So I have two questions here.

So the first one is we have a lot of clients and you’ve probably experienced the same things that where the attorneys have recommended that the one spouse, just the the main wage earner just pays the household expenses, not a, you know, a usual amount, it’s just they’re just paying the expenses.

23:29

But that will not count in this type of situation, right?

You can’t just prove that you know the payment of household expenses equates to a monthly stipend.

Correct, correct.

So what what I advise if somebody works with me early, like early in the process, this is how we set up a plan, right?

23:49

We get them set up on this plan.

If your spouse that usually manners the money is saying, hey, while we’re going through this process, I’m just going to keep paying the bills, right?

And then I’ll just send you sporadic money for you know, as you need it, right?

No, the person that’s typically going to be receiving the support they need to get on the, it’s almost like getting trained and training and learning how to pay their own bills anyway, right?

24:14

Like it’s income.

So you have to start right away, even if it’s temporary.

Just saying, hey, I’m going to send you 4 grand a month or whatever it is.

Even while we’re in the negotiation stages, you got to start making your mortgage payment on your own, paying the taxes, right?

Just kind of getting a feel for it anyway.

24:30

And if they do that and they come to me, let’s say in month 5 and I go in and I see there’s five months that came in just like we talked about.

And then I get the marital settlement agreement that says, you know, the same amount of money if it was 4000, I see the MSA for 4000, we can close a month later.

24:48

Does that make sense?

And it’s because they listened and they followed, you know, the guidance of of a professional early in the process.

Yeah, there’s a lot of caution there.

Caution, caution, caution only because temporary support is not always the exact number and you don’t want to, you don’t want to pay the expenses.

25:05

You could be getting more than that afterwards, right.

So you just have to make sure.

Again, for us, it’s all about having financial clarity.

So how?

Fast you want to do it.

So if somebody is like, I want to do this buyout as fast as possible, then if they’re getting $3000 a month, right, and I can prove that they’ve been getting that and then the marital settlement agreement says $5000 a month, we’re still only going to be able to use 3000 for the qualifying, right?

25:31

Because we only have a history of the three.

And it works the other way around.

If there, if the marital settlement agreement says less and you’ve been getting more, you’re going to use the lesser amount because that’s what you’re going to be getting going forward for qualifying, right?

So I hope that helps clarify your you know what you were talking about.

25:48

So then I think you’ve already answered this question, but if one spouse is just doing transfers into the joint account of the same amount every month, you will you adopt that as the temporary support payment?

Frequently if I haven’t been able to get it to talk to somebody early in the process and why I’ve been getting this, I’ve been getting the support, you know, for X amount of months and then it’s going from, you know, again, Catherine and I are divorcing.

26:15

She gets the B of H checkbook.

I get the Chase checkbook, but we’re still have joint accounts, right?

So, and she’s the one paying the support, but she’s just transferring money from our account to our account, right?

That’s not going to establish a record of, of me getting that support.

26:32

So part of the of becoming independent is, is the person receiving the support should open up their own individual account is for the purposes of me getting them qualified right away and and get that money coming into their own account.

Because then there’s that history of support actually going from.

26:48

Different.

This is coming from husband’s separate account earned money into the joint account for the specific purpose of paying that just.

Going into a joint account though.

So.

And it doesn’t say, it says to pay expenses in a memo probably.

27:04

And that’s not going to be a consistent support number for the spouse.

For the mortgage application either?

So that’s that’s not a no, right?

It’s like it’s not a no when people are getting six months and it’s all weirded out like 49151 hundred.

27:21

It just takes a heck of a lot more work for me to show Underwriter.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

It just it, it makes the lender’s job much more difficult, if not impossible.

If the variance is really big, yeah.

No, there’s no variant.

It’s the same amount and it has been the same amount for a year.

27:40

I just so I that’s why I was asking.

So would that qualify for you?

So it’s a maybe, right?

I could, I could probably with a letter of explanation.

Sometimes the mediator will will drop me a short letter just explaining, you know, you know, there’s a section of the marital settlement agreement that looks really complicated.

28:00

I’ll say, hey, can you just do a little clarifying letter for me to give the underwriter that says it’s been going from joint account to her individual account or his individual account to a joint account.

So it just, it just depends because that’s the famous attorney answer to everything, right?

28:16

It’s.

Just and.

Oh my God.

I want you to know that my stomach rumbles when that sentence comes out.

I know, I know.

That’s why I kind.

Of my blood pressure rising when you said it Depends.

It’s what anyone going through divorce hates to hear.

28:31

Yeah, I know, but it’s so true.

I mean, it’s just so many variables.

I know.

Really good.

So any other thing that we need to cover in this particular discussion?

I know we could go on for forever, but it you know that the topic is.

28:48

Yeah.

Keep, refinance, sell.

You know what are the tips?

So a couple of important things that I’ll cover is number one.

Another tip is I’m an advocate of folks running their credit reports early in the process right away.

29:05

You don’t need to pay for it.

You can go to itsannualcreditreport.com is the website that is authorized.

The federal government made the three big agencies run free, allow free credit reports.

So I always suggest, hey guys, you got your financial forms, you got to fill out, you know, and people are still focused on assets.

29:23

Let’s get your liabilities straight also.

So run your credit report, share them, you know, you don’t, don’t click on any ads.

You don’t need to pay for your credit scores.

You know, just get those debts out there.

It helps us identify joint debts, individual debts.

29:38

And then the little authorized user thing.

Have you guys heard of that?

Yeah.

So again, Catherine and I are are getting a divorce and I’m an authorized user on her card.

You want to make sure that you’re identifying that account and that I am no longer an authorized user on her card, right?

29:56

And so running the credit report helps folks identify that.

It helps them figure out if there’s any mistakes.

So if they are going to be doing a mortgage down the line, they can work with, if they’re working with me, I can help them get their credit score up to get the best possible rate.

It might even help them identify some assets that you know, are like not, not necessarily being hidden, but just not thought about.

30:14

There’s, there’s a debt that shows up and it’s, it’s on a side business or a property that one of the spouses, you know, has and just, you know, and it’s not that the spouse is trying to hide it, but it’s like, hey, it’s always been just, you know, my family’s cabin in Michigan, I’ve had it or whatever.

30:32

And then there you go.

There’s a there’s a mortgage on there that shows up and it’s just make sure that everything is completely transparent.

Or they are trying to hide it.

Or I never.

Have been trying to hide I’m talking.

To somebody.

Sometimes we have clients that come and say, Oh my God, I hope my spouse doesn’t know.

30:47

I open these credit cards.

You know, it works both.

It works both ways.

That’s so true.

Really good information.

Really good information, Zach.

How can our listeners and viewers learn more about you and your work?

Yeah, well, I always tell people I’m I’m all over online so you can just Google Zach Taylor mortgages and, you know, all my social media shows up and, you know, my reviews, my website and everything like that.

31:14

I’m a phone call guy, right?

And this age of texting and e-mail and however else people are Facebook messaging, I’m a phone call guy.

I pick up my phone most of the time.

So it, you know, I get called all the time.

Hey, I heard your podcast and I just had some questions, you know, and I’ll pick it up and you know, I’m happy to spend time doing it.

31:34

If you go to my website, there’s also a calendar link where you can make a 30 minute free consultation appointment if that works better for you.

And the important thing to know you guys is that there’s no commitment, no application, no credit report ran right like in this DNA.

There’s so many sales people in our business, in the mortgage business that are just sales people that immediately they’re like do an application, let’s get your credit ran.

31:58

And it’s like, why do that when somebody’s just trying to get that information to help them make those confident decisions, right?

Go ahead.

Are you only in California?

I’m glad you asked that.

Cross country mortgage is licensed in all 50 states.

32:15

So I’m licensed in California anywhere, but initial conversations happen with me, right?

And then I refer them to somebody inside my company that will handle the rate lock and all that kind of stuff.

And then the processing and the closing is handled by my team with, you know, I, I’m not licensed.

32:33

So I’m not going to be doing the quoting of the rate quotes, but I can be the main contact for for that in, you know, all 50 states.

OK, so here’s some takeaways today in this short 30 minutes.

Zach and I got married and divorced and here did I?

Yeah.

That was that.

32:49

And here’s what I remember to do.

I took him off of all of my credit cards as authorized user.

I ran a credit report to see if he opened any accounts I was not aware of.

And I got in writing, which is probably the most important I got in writing any approval, pre approval I got.

33:06

So I’m just not relying on whoever answered the phone to tell me that I’m pre approved to be doing an assumable loan.

They’ve actually sent me a follow up e-mail and Zach could be your phone call guy if you need somebody to get on those calls with you.

Thanks for being here with us today.

You’re welcome.

Thanks for the invitation, that’s really enjoyable.

33:23

Absolutely.

Have a question you want us to tackle?

We’d love to hear from you. e-mail your questions and feedback to WeChat at ck11.net.

This concludes this episode on breaking up, keeping the house, divorce, mortgage strategies.

Thank you again Zach for a great conversation.

33:40

You’re welcome and thank you.

Thanks for joining us on another episode of WeChat Divorce.

We hope this episode was informative and supportive on your divorce journey.

If you're looking for more support for navigating divorce with confidence and clarity, head over to azure-emu-499854.hostingersite.com/ for more podcast episodes, divorce events, and resources for your divorce.

34:04

We’ll see you back here for our next episode.