By Sandi Frith, of Huntington Bank, WCI Medical School Scholarship Sponsor
Tell Us About Yourself and Your Business. What Is Your Background? How Did You End Up Doing Mortgage Loans?
For as far back I can remember, I loved numbers and figures. I excelled in Math during high school and determined to pursue a career in accounting as a CPA. My parents could not afford my tuition as they were retiring on a fixed income, so I decided to work my way through college. I started a full-time position (executive bookkeeper) and two part-time positions (security officer at a major department store and a Dairy Queen) to pay for school. I attended community college due to lower costs and the flexible schedule I needed to keep working.
After finishing school, I secured a position at an automotive dealership as a finance biller and after a few years, I was promoted to finance manager. Working finance deals, negotiating the best rates for clients, preparing documents, and ensuring customer satisfaction were all key to my success. While I was assisting a client one day, he told me to consider utilizing my skills in the mortgage business. After some thought, I realized that I was ready for another challenge in life so I made the move to a mortgage broker.
I received great training as an entry-level loan officer. A pivotal experience helped me realized I had chosen the right career for me. I was at a closing with a young couple I had assisted when they both hugged me, the wife shedding tears of happiness. I felt so emotional and cried with her. That moment was 24 years ago and I will never forget it. My career was set! The overwhelming feeling of happiness of helping someone with their dream of homeownership will never leave me.
Why Did You Choose to Work for Huntington?
When mortgages started to get more competitive, I thought it would be a more stable environment to work for a bank instead of a broker. Banks had lower fees and slightly more lenient underwriting, portfolio lending, and lower rates. I was lucky enough to find employment with a large Bank and after almost 14 years as one of their top producers in the country, the bank decided to “outsource” to a broker. I did not want to work for a broker again, and I knew Huntington had a physician program that would benefit my business since most of my clients were physicians. It just made sense to choose Huntington given my focus on physicians. Now almost all my clients are doctors!
Tell Us About Huntington’s Physician Mortgage Loan Products.
Huntington offers several programs, which include the adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) products that amortize over a 30 year period, and a 15 Year Fixed product. The ARM products are either 5, 7, 10 or 15 Year ARM’s, which are enhanced with great rates for our physicians. The rate is fixed for either 5, 7, 10 or 15 years, with adjustments for the last 15-25 years of the term. The rates tend to be lower than a traditional 30 year fixed mortgage. If you only intend to live in the home for 4 to 5 years (such as a long residency), why pay a 30 year fixed rate? The savings in interest with the lower ARM rates can add up fast! Most of my attending clients choose the 15 year ARM, as it gives them the “extra incentive” to try and pay the loan off in 15 years by adding money to the principal each month. We are one of very few lenders that offer a 15 Year ARM product!
We require a 10% down payment for loans between $650,000 and $1 Million, but 0% down for anything less than $650,000. Either way, as a doctor you don't pay private mortgage insurance (PMI). Typically, 30-45 days are required from application to closing. If your employment has not yet begun, we do accept fully executed (signed) contracts in lieu of pay stubs. Some people wonder how our underwriters will treat your student loans. For residents and fellows, we utilize a student loan calculator (similar to an IBR calculation) to qualify the mortgage loan. However, for attending physicians, if no payments are listed on the credit report, we must use 1% of the outstanding student loan balances for qualification purposes.
Our “Doctors Only” Program is also available to dentists and veterinarians!
What States Do You Lend Physician Mortgages In?
Currently, the Doctors Only Program is available in our “footprint” states. These states are Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Illinois and Wisconsin will be added to our footprint sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.
What do you like and dislike about working with physicians and particularly with WCI readers?
There is absolutely nothing that I dislike about working with physicians! I love my doctors! The WCI readers are great clients as they come to me already “informed”. In the last few years with social media ablaze, clients tend to be savvier about their finances. Working with a client that is in tune with their finances is helpful for me to assist them in their financial wants/needs/goals. I can more easily “customize” a mortgage option that will best suit them.
What Do You Like and Dislike About Working with Physicians and Particularly with WCI Readers?
The most common mistake is putting too much emphasis on rates/costs. Remember the sayings, “You get what you pay for” and “Too good to be true”? These sayings have a lot of truth behind them. My best advice, which I give daily, is to work with a loan officer you feel comfortable with and someone who has a lot of experience in working with physicians. The loan officer you choose is a key factor in proper communication, ensuring a smoother process, and keeping your sanity.
In What Ways Should Physicians Seeking Mortgages Lower Their Expectations?
I wouldn’t say “lower” expectations. It’s good to have high expectations, as long as they are realistic. Before I start the mortgage process, I set realistic expectations for my clients. This includes timelines, documentation requirements, communication methods and closing requirements.
What Makes You a Physician Specialist When It Comes to Mortgages?
Besides the fact that I can honestly state that 95% or more of my clients are physicians? I’ve been working with physicians for over 19 years and have built long term relationships with not only the physicians themselves, but many major health systems and medical groups as well. My network of physicians grows continuously each year and I can truly say that I don’t have “Banker Hours” – I have “Doctor Hours” – as I am always “on-call” 24/7.
Thank you Sandi Frith of Huntington Bank for your time and support of our mission to “help those who wear the white coat get a fair shake on Wall Street.”
What do you think? Have you used Huntington Bank for your mortgage? What was your experience like? How long of a term are you using for your mortgage? What questions do you have about the mortgage industry in general and Huntington Bank's “Dr Only” program in particular?
[Editor's Note: Many thanks to Ms. Frith and Huntington Bank for their generous Platinum Level contribution to the WCI Medical School Scholarship! This updated article originally published in 2016]
Hi, my name is Nick and I’m a surgical resident in my third year of residency. I purchased a home through the Huntington physician loan program and we closed on our house the day after I started residency. I went with a 7 year ARM in the hopes that I would also be doing my fellowship for two years at the same location. So far we’ve had absolutely no regrets with the program; we were able to purchase a beautiful 3-bedroom 2-bath home. When we moved my wife was unemployed for about six months as a high school teacher and we were able to get this house solely based on my resident income. The monthly payment was originally difficult and somewhat high but that was something we had planned for and anticipated while my wife got a new teaching job in PA. We’ve since been renting one or both of our spare rooms to residents and our “actual” monthly mortgage payment is closer to ~1k a month which is equivalent or better than what many of my co-residents pay in rent, and once my wife was employed our expenses have been of little/no concern and we’ve been able to also slowly work on our roth IRAs. Being able to slowly pay down the principle and using the house as an investment has seemed great so far. And we have a giant fenced back-yard for the dog we got last year which has been one of my wife’s biggest goals in starting her career.
One question I have is, what comes next? When I become an attending we may opt to stay in the same area and even the same house (it’s quite large and we could easily start a family in it), or if I have to move for fellowship prior to the 7 year ARM completing, are there any consequences? My original plan was always to use the house as a small investment to eventually be a down payment for our second home when I become an attending. The longer I stay the more I hope that we in fact don’t end up moving and my plans now are to convert the loan to a fixed rate mortgage (probably 15 years) once I’ve secured a job as an attending if we end up staying. Does this seem reasonable? Are there better options? I put a lot of planning into buying the house and ensuring that we at least broke even by not renting; as I approach the mid-way point of my residency I’m just looking for some pointers on the next part of planning when it comes time to move or refinance.
Thanks!
I think its hard to plan with so much undecided right now. Focus on residency and do what’s next for your family first. Then, if you need to sell, go ahead. Or, if you decide it’s best to stay, keep it and refinance. I would plan you life on what you want to do, and then see how the house fits into that. You still have the other half of residency to finish.
Hopefully the home appreciates enough to cover your exit costs (time to sell, selling costs, fix-ups prior to selling etc) and you end up glad you bought when all is said and done.
Unfortunately, I see that many residency graduates don’t want to stay in their “resident home” or worse, leave the area, can’t sell, and become long distance landlords. You’re not out of the woods yet, but at least things look good so far to you!
Obviously, if you stay in the house for 10 or 15 years, this is going to work out just fine for you. It’ll probably be paid off before then.
I always love working with people who love what they do. Doesn’t matter the profession, it’s great to watch them do what they do so well.
Amen to that. I get so happy to meet a pediatrician or a nephrologist or a pediatric rheumatologist who just loves their practice. It takes all types.
I’ve worked with Huntington on physician mortgages. It has been very good. We used them to purchase a house. We have also used them on a construction loan. I would highly recommend talking to them for this.
Also, they have a nice line of credit program. I know we try to minimize our debt on this blog, but if you need a line of credit to make a big purchase, look into their private banking program. I used it to come up with cash to buy into an ancillary source of income within my practice. I paid off the loan within a year or so, and it allowed me to buy the share at a much lower price then than it is worth now even considering the interest payments.
I had a physician home mortgage with Sandi in 2014, through Huntington Bank. I can truly say Sandi was outstanding to work with and provided me with excellent service throughout the process. The rates were outstanding on a 15 year ARM, closing was smooth. She is highly recommended.
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