Unlock the secrets to homeownership in our 150th special episode as we dive into exclusive lending options and expert tips with Catherine Meyer of Ameris Bank. How can the latest financial strategies and unique loan programs help you turn your dream of owning a home into a reality?
Catherine, dives into her journey through the financial sector, from cold-calling jobs to navigating the 2008 market crash and eventually becoming a top lender. She discuss various loan products offered by Ameris, including unique options like medical loans, first-time homebuyer grants, and buy-down options. Catherine shares her insights on the current and future real estate market trends and emphasizes the importance of understanding the full financial picture when making homebuying decisions. Listeners get valuable tips and advice on navigating the mortgage landscape, no matter their financial status or homebuying experience.
Key Takeaways:
Navigating the Mortgage Industry (4:03)
Catherine's experience starting in the mortgage industry during a market crash provided her with a fresh perspective and rapid learning curve.
Ameris Bank’s Unique Loan Programs (8:14)
Ameris Bank stands out with its flexible and diverse loan offerings, including 100% financing for medical professionals and down payment grants for first-time homebuyers.
Adapting to Market Changes (7:01)
Catherine's career journey highlights the importance of adapting to regulatory changes and market conditions, a crucial skill for success in the financial sector.
Connect with Catherine@:
Website: https://bankers.amerisbank.com/sc/charleston/catherine-meyer-221435
Email Address: catherine.meyer@amerisbank.com
Connect with Corwyn@:
Contact Number: 843-619-3005
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exitstrategiesradioshow/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxoSuynJd5c4qQ_eDXLJaZA
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmelette/
Shoutout to our Sponsor: EXIT Realty Lowcountry Group
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EXIT Realty has a revolutionary compensation model training and technology that provides you with the tools you need to start and build your successful real estate career. Call EXIT Realty Lowcountry group today at 843-619-3005 that is 843-619-3005 or visit https://exitlowcountry.com/joinexit and make your Exit today.
CORWYN:
Do you want something more? More meaningful moments, opportunities, deeper relationships, and memorable experiences? Do you want to make a difference? If you said yes to any of that, a career in real estate could be the opportunity you’re looking for. Guiding people through one of the most important decisions they ever made. The purchase or sale of their home can be both rewarding and lucrative. Exit Realty’s revolutionary compensation model, training, and technology provides you with the tools you need to start and build your successful real estate career. Call Exit Realty Lowcountry Group today at 843-619-3005, that’s 843-619-3005 or visit join.exitlowcountry.com and make your exit today.
Good morning and great morning to you guys at Exit Strategies Radio Show family. Hey, welcome to another fabulous episode guys. Look, I got to first, tell you all how much you all humble me. I am always overwhelmed by the people that listen to us, that we bump into in our comings and goings that tell me faithfully they tune in to listen to us here on WJNI 106.3 FM in Charleston, South Carolina. Guys, thank you. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for tuning in. And most importantly, thank you for carrying forward, quote unquote, the torch and igniting others. So we really appreciate that. Thank you for telling your friends, your family, coworkers, et cetera. I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank our loyal listeners, Pastor Elder Evans, Ms. Carolyn Lequeu who listened to us, people out in Monkey’s Corner, all the way down to the coast. You guys rock. So guys, you know what our mission here is. Our mission here on this show is very simple.
That is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education, guys. We are legacy building. That is what we do. Guys, today we have a fabulous episode in tune for you. We have went and we have climbed the mountaintop. We have got one of the leading lenders in our community to come down off the mountaintop down here yet to this little loaf alley and to share with us some amazing information, guys. So I want to welcome to our show today none other than Catherine Meyer with Ameris Bank. Catherine, how are you doing today?
CATHERINE:
Thank you for that. I’m great.
CORWYN:
How are you? I am incredible. So I want to start by having you introduce you. I mean, I do all right, but I want you to introduce you and tell our listeners a little bit about you, your path to where you are now. And let’s get into a conversation about what’s going on in the market.
CATHERINE:
All right. Let’s do it. Well, as you said, my name is Catherine Meyer. I graduated from James Madison University in 2008. It was a really interesting time to graduate and to get into the workforce. So my first job out of school was a cold calling type of job, which was like a boot camp. And then the market crashed. And what’s interesting about the market crashing is that it was the mortgage and housing industry that crashed the market. And what did I do in 2009? I got into the mortgage industry, which was a really interesting time to get started. I think I actually had a little bit of a leg up compared to the people who had been in the industry for 10, 20 years, because I got to learn it all from scratch as it was being rebuilt. Whereas a lot of the more seasoned people had to unlearn everything they knew and completely relearn all of these new guidelines and all of these new documents. And I didn’t know any different. So I caught on pretty quickly. I started up in Bowie, Maryland, which is right outside of Washington, D.C. And I was an in-house lender for a home builder. And I actually started as an interesting way in which they trained me. I started closing loans. So they started me on the very back end so that I saw what happened when it was all said and done. So I was literally going through the paper closing packages. They were like two inches thick and doing all of those things. And then they moved me into processing, which was obviously a step before closing. And so I learned the ropes there. And then once I really had a handle on everything, then I started originating. I don’t even understand how originators can understand the industry inside and out without seeing firsthand what happens after you pass the torch. But I started in with a builder. I left the industry for about a year and went and got my Series 7 and 63 and worked in the stock market for a little while. And we followed only financial stocks. So real estate companies, REITs, home builders, things like that. So then I got a little bit different of a perspective there. And then I went back into the industry and started doing purely refinances. And I was working in Tyson’s Corner, also in the Washington, D.C. area, but was licensed all over the country. So I got to learn all the nuances that happen in all these different states. Things that you wouldn’t even think about, like if it’s a community property state versus if it’s not. So I got a ton of information there. And then when I moved down to Charleston in 2016, I believe it was, I started working as an in-house lender for a real estate company. So then from there, I learned that side of the traditional retail market. So in 2019, 18 maybe, I forget which year, I moved over to Ameris because I was competing with Ameris at my old lender. They had a really good pricing and they had a lot of loan programs that I could not offer where I was. And one of my biggest compliments I’ve ever received was my now boss. We were competing and he lost the deal, even though he had better pricing. And he said, it’s because I built a better rapport with the customer and they liked me. So he said, I got to have her on my team.And so I went and worked for him and I’m still here and I’m very happy here.
CORWYN:
So apparently you are just a glutton for punishment. As you start, everything you’ve done has been around in this financial realm.
And we know, again, like you said, how things have shifted and changed over the years. Catherine, I’m not going to hover on this, but you pointed out one thing that a lot of people, you know, those in the industry know, those outside of don’t know. There were a significant amount of regulation changes that took place coming out of the recession. That was part of kind of the, okay, look, this is why we got here. We need to fix this. There’s a lot of changes. And like you said, people that were existing prior to and doing business prior to with those regulation changes, now they had to forget what was where you didn’t. You had the advantage of, okay, well, I got in right here and I got it. This is what we’re doing and we’re going to go forward. So Ameris is a interesting bank and I’m going to say interesting because you guys have like this array of programs and products and all this stuff, the service, almost everybody. So let’s talk about some of those because, you know, that’s somewhat unique. Most times banks are very like right here, rigid, just very limited offerings. If you don’t fit in a little box, that’s it. But you guys have a very big box, a very large toolbox, if you will, to go into and help people build a loan that’s going to work for them. So let’s talk about that. What kind of products you guys currently offering and what are you featuring?
CATHERINE:
Absolutely. So we’ve got your run of the mill conventional VA, USDA, FHA loans, the ones that kind of everybody knows about. Our portfolio loans, I’d say that’s where we shine. We do lot loans. A lot of people are like, can I just buy land? I’m like, absolutely. We do that. We do land loans. We do doctor’s loans. And the cool thing about our medical loans is that we will actually do veterinarians, chiropractors, physician’s assistants, whereas typically it’s just a traditional medical doctor. We have a grant program for first time homebuyers. We have so many portfolio loans, so much so that we write really good loans. So even though business has slowed down quite a bit with rates going up, we’re still a profitable bank, which is very important because it means that we are not writing loans that default, but we have so many programs. So that means that we’re writing logical loans, meaning it’s people who we can look at it and say, you might not fit into this box, but if we can make sense of this loan, we will do it within reason, of course. But I’ve seen at other banks I worked at, people have a lot of money to put down, a lot of money in reserves, and they have a great credit score, but maybe they’re self-employed and their taxes just didn’t show income. And here at Ameris, we’ll do a bank statement loan. So their cashflow will use as income rather than just their tax returns. We’ve got construction to perm loans. So if you want to build on land, we do that. Just you name it and we have it.
CORWYN:
So let’s talk about, I want to pull out maybe a couple from one end of the spectrum to the other, so to speak. See a physician loan product. I’ve seen that offering go past me a few times because I’m you guys’ distribution list. So I see that stuff go by me. So let’s talk about that. If you are a doctor, look here. As a matter of fact, if you’re not a doctor and you got a doctor in your family, somebody who’s coming through school now, you need to perk your ears up, get your pen and paper and let’s listen to this, but let’s talk about that program. So what is, and it’s very unique. I’ve seen it at play and at work. So let’s talk about it. What does this thing like do that basically nobody else can do?
CATHERINE:
So in a nutshell, it’s a hundred percent financing loan without mortgage insurance for loan amounts up to 1.5 million. It’s pretty good. So primary residence only, of course. But like I said, I mean, this goes to residents, fellows, chiropractors, podiatrists, optometrists, veterinarians, all of those. So that’s a big one.
CORWYN:
Yeah. So wait a minute, a million and a half dollars up to loan amount, a hundred percent financing with no M.I.
CATHERINE:
Right. No PMI. Correct.
CORWYN:
Man, look here. That’s almost like giving away money almost. That is incredible. And obviously you guys have, so let me plug this piece of it in to make sure that I have some clarity on it, but you guys are taking what the initial offer lettering and using that for qualification, do they have to be seized in a certain amount of time? What is that looking like?
CATHERINE:
Every loan is so different. Every customer is so different and it’s the most nuanced industry ever. So in order to start the process, somebody would do an application. I would pull their credit and I would run it through like an underwriting system and everything like that. So if there’s anything, when it comes to applying with us, that maybe it’s unknown, we have this process called an okay to proceed. And so I can submit it up to an underwriting team before we even have them write an offer, which just gives a nice kind of level of insurance and security for them. So if I’m writing an offer, I can say, Hey, we’ve already had underwriters review it, and as long as it meets these criteria, the loan will work.
CORWYN:
Wow. That is impressive. That’s awesome. I love that. Cause you know, I had a few clients. So I’m actually one that was on a residency that moved and we had talked about this product. I mean, this is awesome. So let me get you to the other end of the spectrum, first time home buyers and all that stuff. You guys have, if I heard you correctly a little bit ago, you guys have a down payment assistance or a grant or something in there that you’re currently offering?
CATHERINE:
Yeah, we have a down payment grant.
CORWYN:
Okay. Let’s talk about that. So how much, and what’s the criteria for somebody to qualify for something like that?
CATHERINE:
Yeah. So they have to only contribute $500 of their own funds. So that’s the requirement there, which is not too bad. Also just for their primary residence, but it’s eligible for up to 4% of the purchase price up to $12,500 can be used towards the down payment and closing costs, and it can also be used in conjunction with Home Ready and Home Possible and those types of programs.
CORWYN:
Okay. So essentially you can just wrap that into, recover those types of loans. So if somebody qualifies FHA, if they qualify VA, USDA, any of those particular programs, Home Ready, Home Possible. But for our listeners, guys, Home Ready, Home Possible starts at what? 3% now, is it 5%?
CATHERINE:
Yeah, it’s a 97 LTV. Yeah. So 3% down.
CORWYN:
So 3% down if you qualify, which is conventional loan product. So now you’re talking about having enough money to cover your down payment potentially as well. That is mind blowing. Now you guys doing a lot of those loans now?
CATHERINE:
We do. It’s hard with a place, and you know, because you’re local to Charleston, obviously, so in a place like Charleston, that’s growing very quickly. Prices are going up and rates are up. There’s an affordability problem here. So obviously for people who already own homes, there’s a ton of equity that people have. I think the average amount of equity across the nation is like $250,000 is how much equity people have in their homes. If you already own a home, well, you know how to get the down payment for your next home, you would sell it. It’s really hard with how expensive things are right now for people who are first-time home buyers to save enough money to have a down payment. These types of programs really help to get people into the home. Of course, there’s income restrictions and things like that, but they just increase the income limits a little bit in our area, which is helpful. But yeah, we’re doing a lot of these. I actually have a couple right now. We’re also doing the Palmetto Heroes until that money runs out, but that’s a vehicle that’s getting people into home ownership.
CORWYN:
So the requirement for these funds, just to make sure I have clarity for our listeners on that, Catherine, first-time home buyer, that classification is someone who, you know, there’s a couple of different people call it first-time home buyers, whether it’s, they haven’t owned a home in a certain period of time, or they just don’t own one at the time of closing on the new home. So which category do you guys use for that particular fund that you’re talking about?
CATHERINE:
So a first-time home buyer is somebody who has not owned a home in the past three years.
CORWYN:
Past three years is what you use. Okay. So someone who owned a home three years ago, three, four years ago that they sold at that time period, maybe had a job shift change, maybe they moved into the area from another area or something, and have been in for a time period and they would qualify if they haven’t owned that home, if it’s been closed prior to the three-year mark from the date of closing on this. Correct?
CATHERINE:
Mhm. And did you see anybody when the pandemic was hitting, I’m just curious, who they sold or they like didn’t pull the trigger on buying a home because they were afraid of what was going to happen?
CORWYN:
Of course. Yeah.
CATHERINE:
I know. So for those people, at least that those three years have passed if they had owned a home previously, but I was seeing a lot of it as well during the pandemic.
CORWYN:
Perfect. Makes perfect sense. So, so Catherine, you have worked all around finance, just being blunt in my statement here, how money moves. So what are you, we ain’t gonna hold you to this, but economists are saying that rates as the fares continue to meet throughout the year, there’s somewhat of an expectation they may ease prime down, purchase money mortgage rates, those are not directly impacted by prime, they’re impacted by the economy about by other means, other indicators, but that is like the first step, so when you see the prime rate go, typically, eventually you begin to see some shifts and changes with our purchase money mortgage rates. So what are you anticipating as we traverse through the summer and into later in the year?
CATHERINE:
Isn’t that the million billion dollar question. If I knew the answer, I’ll just preface by saying, if I knew the answer to that, I would own an Island somewhere. I’d be very rich. Yeah. I have heard several different theories and I am glad that you clarify when it comes to what the fed does, because I’ve had a million times where people are like, Hey, I said that I saw that the fed was lowering rates, can I get a lower interest rate? So just for anybody who’s listening, who doesn’t know how that works, when the fed’s lowering rates, it’s for short term rates or increasing it short. It’s not these longer term rates, which is what mortgages are, but there is a trickle down effect. Obviously it does impact it in some capacity. I heard just today in talking to somebody who I will not name, but somebody who’s pretty knowledgeable. They said that they think that the first couple of quarters of the year are going to remain where they are. And then they think that we’ll have a really big end of the year. So in the last two quarters of the year, I also heard somebody say a few weeks ago that they thought that this anywhere between six to 7% interest rate for a regular run of the mill loan would could last another two years. So that being said, I’m not one to make a prediction. I will just say, and this is what I’ve been telling a lot of my clients. You can always refinance, assuming you qualify, we can refinance you. I’ve always heard that the interest rate market does not drive the real estate market. So for people who are really afraid of rates and everything like that, being where they are, where they were in 2020 and 2021 and everything that was unprecedented, that was abnormal. That was not a normal rate environment. I’d say where we are right now is a bit normal of a rate environment comparing to historically speaking, I would say.
CORWYN:
So to kind of maybe piggyback on a part on part of that, Catherine, funny. I just, I’ve said this, I’ve had this conversation, I think most recently as in the last day or two, that you can’t rebuy the house and there’s a lot of pent There’s people right now that because rates where they are, what they qualify for, they want to qualify for more or some just a little bit, eh, I don’t know. Uncertain and they’re waiting because they are uncertain. But what happens is when, if there is, cause the reality is rates are very good in comparison to. When you go back and talk to people that have been in home ownership, they’ve owned homes for 30, 40, 50 years. They’ve seen double digit interest rates. Go back to the eighties.
CATHERINE:
That was 18 point. What was it? Like 18.3. I forget what it was. The highest rate ever.
CORWYN:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Someone said to me one time when they first got into the business, then they bought a home, they said, look, you was lucky to get the 1299 special. That’s what it was. We’re having these conversations and people are getting hung up, but also on the other side of the flip coin flip of the coin is, and it’s funny, I just was having this conversation with a gentleman who quote unquote is the godfather of a local company, and he was sharing with me that first home he bought the rate, but he also shared me what his salary was. And his salary for his first home he used to buy his first home was under $10,000 a year.
CATHERINE:
Yeah. It’s all relative.
CORWYN:
Exactly. So here we are with salaries significantly higher than that. Yes. Pricing is significantly higher, but on top of that, interest rates are considerably lower. So kind of bounce those things out. But again, you can’t rebuy the house. So if rates do ease, then that’s going to inject a significant amount of people more into the market, which then will drive pricing up significantly as competition takes hold.
CATHERINE:
So I’m really glad you said that because I have people who are like, and I think it’s all about how these conversations, right? Like how the consumer is hearing the discussion about rates. And if all of your hearing about the housing market is rates are so high, rates are so high, you’re going to look at a rate and say, this rate’s too high, but nobody’s talking about, okay, well, if you’re waiting for rates to go down, but pricing doesn’t go down with it of the home, then you’re still ending at perhaps the same monthly payment.
They’re not necessarily looking at it from a cashflow perspective. So if you’re waiting for rates to go down 20%, but then the cost of the home goes up 30%, well, you’re not in a better position. And I’m not saying that houses will continue to go. I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen, but it’s a matter of you cannot play the market. The market’s going to win. You cannot time it perfectly.
If you were to just lock in on the best day that ever was of rates, which probably is behind us, then you’re lucky, you caught a unicorn, but you can’t time that forever. You know?
CORWYN:
it’s dumb luck. Yeah. You don’t know the market is declining until you look behind you and see that it was higher than what it was. Exactly. You look back, you never knew you was at the peak. Most people are standing at the peak of a mountain and have no idea that they’re there until they look down and realize that everything is below them. If that makes sense. So it’s a hindsight matter and most people get caught up in that. And even within our industry, the reality is that we’re in a great market. There are a tremendous amount of opportunities. Take advantage of the opportunity that you can, as I’ve heard it said here recently, drive to you qualify.
If you don’t qualify for the home in a neighborhood or area, which you want to be in, start driving and drive to you qualify and make the purchase. Because if you don’t, what’s going to happen is when you do decide you finally want to say, okay, well, look, things aren’t getting better and I got to start driving, then you’re going to have to drive further because you didn’t drive what you could have.
CATHERINE:
And have you done any, or are you seeing any of the buy-down options? Because that’s another really good tool and it makes a seller way more competitive, I mean, they’re going to get a lot more offers I would think if they’re willing to pay some of the closing costs and do some of these buy-down programs. So I think that’s another thing that also is very unique versus pre-market crash is we have a ton of really, for lack of a better word, really, really good loans, really good loan options. They don’t have the risk that these other loans have. We’re not doing Nino loans or no income, no asset or stated income or anything like that. These are real loans. These are good loans. And there’s tons of options and we can get really creative. So for anybody who doesn’t know what a buy-down is, I’ll just give an example. Let’s just say a 2-1 buy-down. So let’s pretend that the interest rate today is a 7%.
So the two would, let’s put a 2% difference, let’s say. So let’s say that the payment between 7% and 5%, let’s pretend it’s a thousand dollars just for easy math. Okay. So that’s a, let’s say it’s a thousand dollars difference a month in what those rates would be. Well, the seller can prepay the difference of those payments for however many years it’s stated. And so that way the buyer has this monthly savings that they’re experiencing and their rate is locked at the higher rate. So there’s not a refinance at the end of this or anything like that. After the, let’s pretend it’s a two year waiting period, cause there’s several different options here. Then their payment just goes up to what it would have been had the seller not been buying it down. So there’s tons of options like that, that we can get creative to make people more comfortable and if you can refinance in the meantime, you can refinance. There’s no, no harm, no foul. It’s just whatever amount of money has not been like paid back. It just gets applied to the principle of the loan balance. These are options that I don’t think a lot of people even know are out there.
CORWYN:
They don’t. And Catherine, that’s where people win. You saw me put the field gold up. That’s right there. That’s where people win because, and that comes from working with people that understand like you. Okay. Hey, let’s lay this thing out. Let’s figure out how to do this. Let’s move this around. Hey, if the seller can do this, or if you have the money to come bring this, do this, then we can do this. And this is how this impacts you over the longterm, et cetera. And a lot of times people are just, well, this is what it is. And they expect the people just to accept it. But there’s a difference in working for them versus just working with them. There’s a start difference in that. So Catherine, really quickly come towards the end of the day show. How can people get in contact with you to learn more? Cause you guys service where are you all in all 50 States now?
CATHERINE:
Everywhere except for Nevada and New York. Yeah. So all over the country, the easiest thing to do, and it’s just because like I said, every person in their situation is very unique, very nuanced. You can’t quote a rate without seeing the full picture. For example, www.amerisbank.com/catherinemeyer is where you can go to apply, or you can email me at catherine.meyer@amerisbank.com.
CORWYN:
Awesome. Awesome. Our listeners guys, look, y’all need to make sure y’all plug in that y’all connect with Catherine so that she can tell you what it is and what it can be. Sometimes we get so focused and so hung up on getting the picture as it is that we forget that the picture changes and it can be changed. So what do we need to do to have a different outlook or different experience? So please make sure that you connect with her. She got down payment assistance. We always love that. Cause we always like to help people that we want to serve the underserved. Those that think that, Hey, there’s nothing out there for me. There’s no way for me to get here. Well, we know there’s a path and a pathway for, but on the other end, when you’ve gotten to quote unquote, when you’ve gotten to that doctorate, when you’ve gotten to that level, we also got help for you over here to help you become a homeowner really and truly. So Catherine, thank you so much for being on with us today and sharing that information.
CATHERINE:
Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
CORWYN:
You’re welcome. So for our listeners, guys, look, Hey, y’all got some jewels and some nuggets today. So please make sure y’all plug that stuff in. Make sure you use it. Most importantly. And you know what? I’m about to give it to you. I’m about to tell you how I feel. And I always, y’all put that thing together a certain way. And I tell you, I love you. I love you. I love you. And guys, we’re going to see you guys out there in those streets.
