A Homebuyer’s Smart Guide to Real Estate Fees and Financing With Fred Glick and René Pérez Jr. Of Arrivva

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

• Dive into the challenges agents and buyers face today, including rising fees and changing commission dynamics
• Discover smart ways to leverage the equity in your current home
• Explore various financing options to help you make the best choice for your financial goals
• Delve into local market insights, and analyze the trends that could impact your buying and investing decisions
• Learn homebuying tips on when to lock in an interest rate
• Hear expert advice on when refinancing makes sense and how to navigate the process smoothly
• Get insights into mortgage document preparations

In this episode with Fred Glick and René Pérez Jr.

Fred Glick and René Pérez Jr. of Arrivva tackle the critical elements of real estate fees and financing strategies that every homebuyer should know. They share insights on how to navigate rising listing fees, commission debates, and the evolving landscape of real estate services. The episode also explores smart ways to leverage home equity, compare financing options, and make informed decisions on rate locks and refinancing. 

Whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or a seasoned investor, the We Fixed Real Estate podcast offers valuable tips to help you maximize your financial opportunities in this dynamic housing market.

Resources mentioned in this episode

• Fred Glick on LinkedIn
• René Pérez Jr. on LinkedIn
• Arrivva
• Arrivva Mortgage
• Zillow
• Redfin
• Fannie Mae
• Freddie Mac
• RSU
• Idiocracy

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Welcome to We Fixed Real Estate. We got René we got Fred.

[00:00:03] Fred Glick: Okay, René with the traffic report.

[00:00:07] René Pérez Jr.:  Yeah, there’s a good amount of traffic here going from Vegas to Los Angeles. I assume they got rid of that problem on the road with the car with the noxious fumes or whatever was going on there.

[00:00:011] Fred Glick: Like the road was closed for like two days or three days.

[00:00:23] René Pérez Jr.: Oh really?

[00:00:24] Fred Glick: East. Yeah, this was like a couple of weeks ago.

[00:00:26] René Pérez Jr.: Well, I’m glad you did not get stuck in them.

[00:00:30] Fred Glick: Yeah. Because you’d still be there.

[00:00:32] René Pérez Jr.: The reason I was late to this call is because there was an agent that we worked with a long time ago. We were representing the buyer and he was representing the sellers and he just asked me like, if we were still doing what we were doing and that he’d be interested in joining. So and potentially joining, so people are kind of thinking

[00:00:51] Fred Glick: That’s interesting. Drew and I are talking, it’s like, we don’t have anything really bright and new to talk about on the podcast, but, you know, it’s all crazy out there and real estate agents are going to have to make a decision on what to do.

From what I’ve been able to pick up, a lot of companies are trying to charge more for the listings now for some reason. I don’t know why they’re trying to justify that. Buyer broker contracts are still going to try to get two and a half percent of the sale price. It’s insanity.

[00:01:23] René Pérez Jr.: When people look at that number, we’re going to laugh. I think it all just, I think it all just depends on every transaction. I think it’s all about transparency. A person should have no problem to pay 3 percent if it’s because there are because the agent is fully managing the construction of the house. Right?

[00:01:44] Fred Glick: Yeah, exactly.

[00:01:46] René Pérez Jr.: Different than like when you’re representing a buyer that comes to you, writes one offer and then wants to get paid 50, 000 dollars. I think that’s where the problem is. Right? So, and I was explaining that to the agent that called us, but there actually is a big topic that I didn’t want to talk about because I’m tired about talking about commissions.

It’s just whatever happens is going to happen and we should be focused on giving people our best service. I’ve gotten a lot of calls from people who are thinking about buying and they already own a home, but they want to use their equity in their houses. And they’re asking me how they can do that.

And if it makes sense for them to do that, based on them having a mortgage low to 3%. So I think Fred, that could be a great thing that if you can kind of discuss what the process would be.

[00:02:35] Fred Glick: Yes. Swing loans.

[00:02:37] René Pérez Jr.: No, no, no, no, no, no. This is not swing loans. They want to continue owning the property, right?

But just buy an investment property with record. So that’s what we talk about.

[00:02:48] Fred Glick: You could get what’s called a cross-collateralized loan, but it’s ridiculously expensive. So here’s what you have to do. You probably have to, if you want to use the equity in the property and don’t want to refinance your three-point something mortgage, there are second mortgages that you can get on the property and there are two different types.

One’s a loan. Probably the rates are in the sevens and eights and nines depends on loan-to-value and credit score, but maybe it’s only a 15-year term. So the payment might be higher. There’s a million different ways to do those loans. So you just have to look at what’s available with the payments are.

But separately, you can get a line of credit, and the way the line of credit works, it’s like a credit card. You use it, you pay it up, you pay it down, you pay interest only for the first 10 years. And after the first 10 years, they usually convert them to a 20-year fixed mortgage for the balance, or you can refinance it into a new loan and it’s interest only.

So the payment’s lower, but you have to qualify based on normally the qualifying rate that the lenders have, which is usually the current rate plus 2 percent or a million different ways. But that’s the way to get the money out. There are also these lenders who are now doing kind of mirroring what the FHA has done called the kind of loan where you don’t make a payment.

It’s just they’re gonna lend you your equity, but they’re gonna go in partnership with you. So when you sell the house or within a certain period of time, you have to pay them off at a predetermined number, but you’re giving up a lot with these types of mortgages. They’re even on the radio now with simple people saying. “Oh, I got this new program where I took equity out of my house and I don’t have a monthly payment.” Oh guys, you’re going to pay at some point. So also, but the other good news is you can do a Fannie Mae loan, which in LA, San Francisco, the Bay Area, you can get a loan up to 1, 149, 825 with as little as 5 percent down for investment properties.

Now the PMI is going to be really expensive. But it can be done. So everybody’s got to look at their own situation and see what the story is with their finances and talk to a mortgage person. Oh, wait, we do mortgages. Yeah. Set a time to contact us and we’ll talk about your situation in detail and figure out what’s going to work.

But there are ways, there are ways, that’s for sure.

[00:05:33] René Pérez Jr.: I’ll take your word for it.

[00:05:35] Fred Glick: There you go. And the other thing, if you do need to sell the house, there are swing loans and we can go into details of what that is, but basically there’s a lender who’s going to lend you based on the equity in the house you have and the house you want to buy based on how much down payment you’re going to put.

So sometimes you can even do a hundred percent financing.

[00:05:54] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Collateralized mortgages. So the whole point is this allows you to kind of expand your real estate portfolio with the equity in your house that you already have.

[00:06:02] Fred Glick: Pretty much, pretty much what you’ve been doing. Hey, Drew, while we were talking real estate, anything new on the houses in your neighborhood? Remember they were all for sale?

[00:06:11] Drew Thomas Hendricks: It’s gotten even weirder. I think a bunch of people all moved onto my street. The houses were all built in 65 and I think they never moved. Because yesterday I was driving to the store, three houses, one right after the other had junk removal services, just gutting the inside of the house.

[00:06:29] Fred Glick: Or could this be part of one of the big companies like BlackRock who’s selling off a lot of property? Maybe they own them all? And they’re selling them all? We don’t know.

[00:06:43] Drew Thomas Hendricks: These are like three-bedroom, two, three bedroom house, three-bedroom houses that never got updated. So the one sold just down the road for me for a million, now the house right next to it is for sale and getting gutted. And then three houses down getting gutted and by saying gutted, they’re just hauling all the crap out of it.

[00:07:04] Fred Glick: Like, like kitchens and bathrooms or just

[00:07:07] Drew Thomas Hendricks: No, like boxes.

[00:07:09] Fred Glick: Wheelchairs and boxes and yeah.

[00:07:11] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Old water heaters and stuff that people stored, broken down stuff. Hoarders.

[00:07:17] Fred Glick: I’m sure stuff’s coming on the market.

[00:07:20] Drew Thomas Hendricks: It’s up to seven. There’s seven now that I’ve identified that are vacant.

[00:07:24] Fred Glick: Wow.

[00:07:25] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Or being gutted.

And this one that I just saw in Zillow, it’s the one that was really had the junk removal service, their property, the property is still valued at 48, 000 before the tax.

[00:07:38] Fred Glick: Great, great algorithm guys.

[00:07:41] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Well, no, not that. The property is valued for a million, but the tax history shows the 48, 000, which means that’s probably the, and it went up 2 percent a year. So that’s got to be original.

[00:07:54] Fred Glick: Yeah. Yeah, totally. The city is thrilled to get rid of them because they changed it to 1. 25 percent of the sale price. It’s a lot more money.

[00:08:05] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah. The price point is not very good for flippers, but we’ll see. Or investors.

[00:08:10] Fred Glick: Yeah, we don’t like flippers. We don’t like investors buying flips. Charge too much.

And there’s, there’s not a lot of margin in these years. I mean, you really got to steal it.

[00:08:22] Drew Thomas Hendricks: It’s really hard. I’ve got a friend that lives in Texas and he’s on his way to Alabama, and he’s been flipping homes in Alabama because he can buy them for 89, 000 on the street and sell them for 145, 000.

[00:08:35] Fred Glick: And put maybe 10, 000, 15, 000 in?

[00:08:38] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah, there’s a little, it’s the metrics work a lot better in the 100, 000 home than the 1, 000, 000.

[00:08:45] Fred Glick: Without a doubt, and the people are a little more desperate to get rid of them. Usually in the lower number.

[00:08:51] Drew Thomas Hendricks: In this 100,000-thousand-dollar home, you put in just almost builder-grade countertops in it, it’s considered a big upscale improvement. Yes, put in your new manufacturer floor and compared to the 50-year-old carpet and you’re good to go.

[00:09:08] Fred Glick: Sounds like a plan.

[00:09:09] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Won’t fly in California. I don’t think that.

[00:09:12] Fred Glick: No. There are places, there’s a bunch of Tiktokers who they go through the stats and they tell you, “Hey, in this city, it’s gone down.” You know, it’s just, it’s all case to case, but, you know, there are places that’s slowing down.

It’s the middle of the summer. Nobody’s going to go let alone buy anything in like the desert. It’s really slow now. Well, yeah, and it’s kind of slow for us because it’s August. It’s just summer, but rates are coming down. And remember, yeah, 5 million more people have qualified for a mortgage based on every half a percent, and interest rate dropping nationwide.

You know, then you got to have the money and the motivation too, but we’ll see probably as rates come down, we’ll get more buyers, but we’ll also get a little more inventory because allegedly economies, the reason they drop rates is so they can stimulate the economy. So when you stimulate economy, that means there’s something wrong with it.

And that means usually unemployment slows down, but who knows? Who knows? And the problem is like the people who thought about retiring to Florida, and now it’s like, well, you probably don’t want to do that. The insurance prices are insane. If you can get it, the hurricanes have been hitting all kinds of global warming situations down there at condos, as we talked about a million times, are having issues.

So that might blow it down in Florida and not speed things up to market in, I don’t know, Wisconsin or Ohio where people are going to sell and move. So there’s, there’s a million little factors going into every piece of real estate. That’s what it amounts to.

[00:11:05] Drew Thomas Hendricks: So what if I like, I had a friend over the other day and he, they’re younger and they were, they’ve been looking for a home for the last couple of months and they’ve just decided to take a few weeks off because it’s slow.

But is that, to me, that didn’t seem like good advice. We should just see if something new is coming to market.

[00:11:22] Fred Glick: If you’re really, you’re either in the market or you’re not in the market. So if you’re in the market, you’re a little Redfin alerts, Zillow alerts going to pop up. You got to keep that going. I mean, yeah.

Problem is people make this like a thing. They go out to brunch and they figure, “Okay, we’ll hit these five open houses.” You know, maybe they’re interested in one, but they want to see everything. Just focus on what you’re really, really, really want. And if something pops up, go see it. Because depending on the area, it might be off the market in three days. You just never know. So keep your pre-approvals, your fully underwritten pre-approvals alive. Make sure you check them.

[00:12:00] Drew Thomas Hendricks: How long does a fully underwritten pre-approval last?

[00:12:04] Fred Glick: 90 days from the day that the credit report is run, they got to run another credit report. So it’s, you know, a little bigger, 60 to 75 days, your approval is good for it but check with your lender.

And then set yourself a calendar alert to know to go back, give them a new taste of a new bank statement. And they rerun the credit. And you know what? It’s only three points on the credit. So if you have 790 scores, it’s not going to make a difference that goes to 787 or even 784.

[00:12:34] Drew Thomas Hendricks: 801. You may want to think about it.

[00:12:37] Fred Glick: Oh, if you’re into the prestige of the 800 club or something, but it doesn’t mean anything. It’s like the value of property. It doesn’t mean anything except the day you buy it, the day you need to refi for an appraisal, and the day you sell it. Other than that, it doesn’t matter. Same thing with credit scores.

[00:12:53] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah. Talk about interest rates where you see them starting to drop and there’s. Looking out in the horizon, it looks like there might be dropping even further. If you’re looking for a pre-written, pre-approval of a credit, would you lock in a credit score for a better offer or what’s the,

[00:13:09] Fred Glick: How would you lock in that? Lock in a credit score? Lock in a interest rate?

[00:13:13] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Interest rate.

[00:13:13] Fred Glick: Lock in an interest rate. You can’t lock in before you find a house. Normally, there are programs where you can lock for 60 or 90 days in advance, but you’re gonna be like a quarter percent higher than what the market rates are. And if, and rates are trickling down. You don’t need to do one of these things.

[00:13:29] Drew Thomas Hendricks: So the environment switched there, whereas like maybe last year where the rates just kept suddenly rising, you might want to lock it in.

[00:13:36] Fred Glick: Yeah, you just want to lock in and get it done. Go to your comfortable number and don’t look at the rate. Look at the monthly payment. If you’re not going to write a check for six and a half percent.

[00:13:46] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah.

[00:13:47] Fred Glick: So I, this was yesterday. We had a buyer like, nine? No, a million something, a million 050, or something with a 780 mortgage. Some ballpark like that. But we’re quoting ’em six and an eight with even money back towards closing costs.

[00:14:07] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Wow.

[00:14:07] Fred Glick: And 6%, was only a few hundred bucks to get 6%. So we’ll be in the fives. You can be in the fives points if you want now.

[00:14:15] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Wow.

[00:14:16] Fred Glick: Yeah. So stuff’s come down.

[00:14:20] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Considerably. Yeah. I had no idea they’ve dropped that far.

[00:14:23] Fred Glick: Yeah. And again, it all depends on credit score and loan-to-value, type of property that you’re buying, number of days of walking in. There’s a million different factors going to rate.

So if you go to Arrivva.mortgage, click on rates, you can put your scenario in and get live rates so you get an idea.

[00:14:40] Drew Thomas Hendricks: So as far as refinancing, someone that bought a home last year a year and a half ago at seven, seven and seven or so, three and a half.

[00:14:47] Fred Glick: Yeah. Exactly.

[00:14:50] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Is there a magic number on the interest rate when it makes sense to refi?

[00:14:55] Fred Glick: Look at the dollars, the dollar saving. If you can, let’s say save a hundred bucks and it doesn’t cost you a thing to do it because it’s a no-cost refi, do it. Can’t hurt. You know, unless you wanna wait.

[00:15:09] Drew Thomas Hendricks: It’s never a no-cost refi. The amount of time it takes to gather all the documents.

[00:15:15] Fred Glick: It’s not too bad. It’s all electronic. And with us, our systems, you just upload your pay stubs and W2s. I mean, your accountant sent you the W2s, your employer sends you the pay stubs, your banks electronically send you the bank statement. So that’s pretty much all you need. Photo ID. So it’s not bad unless you have multiple companies.

You need P&Ls. I mean, it can get crazy, but RSUs, that’s one of our bugaboos, Fannie and Freddie say three years they want to see of history. So if it’s not Fannie, there’s other lenders that can do it. But you want the best rates, you got to follow the toughest guidelines.

[00:15:57] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Sure. What’s an RSU?

[00:16:00] Fred Glick: Restricted Stock Unit.

[00:16:02] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Oh yeah.

[00:16:02] Fred Glick: It’s the stock options that they give you give as part of your compensation instead of paying you cash. So the people who three years ago got their Nvidia RSUs, they’re doing good. They’re buying houses.

[00:16:15] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Or the people years ago that got their Intel, RSUs aren’t doing so good. Not doing so well. Same price it was in 1998.

[00:16:25] Fred Glick: Without any splits?

[00:16:26] Drew Thomas Hendricks: It didn’t split. I mean it yeah, I was shocked. I was shocked at that. It was like, if you go back on the all-time short.

[00:16:34] Fred Glick: Yeah.

[00:16:35] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Peaked like in 19, March of 1998 at $22 and now it’s $22. Yes, there’s dividends, but you’re not really, I don’t think you kept Intel from 1998 to 2024 for the dividend.

[00:16:48] Fred Glick: Yeah. I don’t think anybody’s kept it that long. There’s long-term investors, but that’s a little ridiculous. I’m sure you,

[00:16:54] Drew Thomas Hendricks: I feel bad for Intel stock options like you spent,

[00:17:00] Fred Glick: There’s all kinds of ways to make money going up and going down, so.

[00:17:03] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Mm-Hmm, Well, good luck. I was shocked at that. And the same timeframe, advanced micro devices in 2005, 2012, I believe it was 2 dollars a share, now it’s 150. How did Intel just, that’s a whole different podcast.

[00:17:23] Fred Glick: Completely different podcast. Yeah.

[00:17:25] Drew Thomas Hendricks: We Fixed Tech Industry. That will be coming out next week. We’re doing this real estate, but just shows you, you got to adapt.

[00:17:36] Fred Glick: Yep. Context, baby. Context.

[00:17:39] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yes. Speaking of context, where’s your coconut water?

[00:17:41] Fred Glick: I’m out of it. I’m waiting for more. So, sorry guys, you didn’t send me any I’m out of it, drinking too much of it.

[00:17:49] Drew Thomas Hendricks: That’s funny.

[00:17:50] Fred Glick: It’s nice It’s got electrolytes in it, too. It’s another good thing.

[00:17:55] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah. Did you ever see that movie Idiocracy?

[00:17:58] Fred Glick: Yeah.

[00:17:59] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Crocs. They made fun of Crocs in it. Now Crocs are the biggest thing. It’s pretty funny. The amount of things in that movie that has come true.

[00:18:06] Fred Glick: Mike Judge, he’s just out and out brilliant. So, Idiocracy. Great movie. Go see that.

[00:18:16] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Let’s see. I think we’ve put a, put a book end on this. We Fixed Real Estate unless you’ve got something.

[00:18:22] Fred Glick: Yeah, it’s August. It’s boring. It’s just everybody’s quiet. Enjoy the whatever the Olympics and surfing was awesome.

[00:18:33] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Oh yeah. Did you watch any of that?

[00:18:35] Fred Glick: Oh yeah, I caught the surfing.

[00:18:36] Drew Thomas Hendricks: That was good. First round one or the second round when I was like 15 feet was amazing.

And then I love the Kauli Vaast, who’s a Tahiti local won the gold.

[00:18:48] Fred Glick: Oh yeah. He was great. I mean, it’s hometown court, you know, he knows every piece of water in there.

[00:18:54] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah. I’m watching the peers and all the pro-surfing contests. He always makes a good appearance there.

[00:19:00] Fred Glick: Yeah. John, John blew it. I mean, he just wouldn’t take a wave.

[00:19:04] Drew Thomas Hendricks: I was kind of surprised by our local girl, Caitlin Simmers. She’s from Oceanside. I’ve seen her surfing out there since she was about three, always ripped. She was there and did really well in round one, but round two, then she missed round two with all the good ways and then was forced to surf round three.

And it was just like complete mushy slop and it’s horrible. Yeah. So she did not, but she had a good attempt and she’s got a long career. She’ll be in the next one.

[00:19:37] Fred Glick: Well, what we get out of this Olympics is one picture, too bad he didn’t win. It’s like, dude, really? That wave, he didn’t win? Yeah, Medina.

[00:19:47] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Where he came out and it’s just like he’s posed there.

[00:19:50] Fred Glick: He does ten, and then he goes one, yeah.

[00:19:53] Drew Thomas Hendricks: The funny thing is if you watch all his contests, that’s his maneuver. This is the first time it got captured in that angle.

[00:20:01] Fred Glick: Yeah, it was just an amazing picture.

[00:20:03] Drew Thomas Hendricks: He’s been practicing that kick out maneuver for years. But this is not We Fixed Surfing, this is We Fixed Real Estate.

[00:20:11] Fred Glick: Well, we could, we could, it’s a cut, cut and edit we could do We Fixed Surfing. Dude, gotta have the word dude in there though.

[00:20:20] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Did you make it out lately?

[00:20:23] Fred Glick: Nah. Nah. I was just down at the beach, Marina Del Rey, but no, there’s no surfing there.

[00:20:30] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Is the water?

[00:20:31] Fred Glick: That’s like a sneaky dog, by the way, real estate hint. You have a dog in Marina Del Rey. Go all the way down to the end where that long walkway is. There’s the beach there. It’s kind of rocky at the end, but dogs are there all the time. Nobody, nobody cares. Yeah. Yeah, it’s like a private dog beach that nobody really cares.

[00:20:56] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Good tip.

[00:20:57] Fred Glick: All right. That’s enough. We’re boring everybody now.

[00:21:01] Drew Thomas Hendricks: No, they’re probably now just tuning in. This is fantastic.

[00:21:06] Fred Glick: Well, René, let’s just get the weather report.

[00:21:10] René Pérez Jr.: I was in Vegas for a conference for the week.

[00:21:13] Drew Thomas Hendricks: How was the weather in Vegas?

[00:21:14] René Pérez Jr.: You know, 114 degrees.

[00:21:16] Fred Glick: It’s like 71 here, probably, in Marina Del Rey.

Anyway, enjoy the summer, the warmth. See you on the next one.

[00:21:23] Drew Thomas Hendricks: See you on the next one.