https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYjGQing6XM&t=1s

1. Post-Purchase Mail and Potential Scams

• Junk Mail: Expect a significant increase in junk mail as home purchases are public records.
• Scam Alerts:
  • Look out for misleading mail that creates a sense of urgency, like notices marked "Last Warning."
  • Be wary of mail selling unnecessary products or services, such as title insurance you already have.

2. Title Insurance Clarification

• Most buyers in the U.S. purchase title insurance.
• If unsure, check your closing statement for an owner's title policy.
• Reach out to your lender for confirmation if needed.

3. Mortgage Payment Scams

• Beware of companies falsely claiming you need to make payments to them.
• Verify with your lender if you receive any suspicious payment instructions.

4. Loan Servicing Transfers

• Understand that servicing transfers are common and don’t imply any negative connotations.
• Your loan may be transferred to a different entity for payment collection.
• If notified of a servicing change, confirm with your original lender for legitimacy.

5. How to Identify Legitimate Servicing Transfers

• Look for an official letter from your original lender confirming the transfer.
• Validate any changes in payment details with your lender.

6. Address Change and Mail Forwarding

• Remember to forward your mail via the United States Postal Service.
• Update your address with all relevant parties, like banks and credit card companies.

7. Tax Bills and Escrow Accounts

• Understand how tax bills are handled, especially if you have an escrow account.
• Keep a copy of tax bills for tax filing purposes.
• If you don’t have an escrow account, you’re responsible for paying taxes and insurance.

8. Homeowners Insurance

• Watch for homeowners insurance issues post-closing.
• Verify that your first year's premium has been paid.
• Address any unexpected insurance bills or changes immediately.

9. Closing Disclosure and Tax Filing

• Keep your closing disclosure for tax purposes.
• Some items on the disclosure may be tax-deductible, depending on your situation.

10. First Mortgage Payment

• Check your loan documents for the first payment date and details.
• Contact your lender if unsure about when to make the first payment.

11. Refinancing Offers

• Expect to receive numerous refinancing offers.
• Verify the legitimacy and financial sense of these offers before proceeding.
• Use resources like Mortgage News Daily to stay informed about market rates.

12. Security Measures

• Change all exterior door locks and garage door codes for security.
• Update security system codes if the house has one.

Final Notes

• Keep in touch with your lender for any post-purchase queries.
• Stay vigilant about your new responsibilities and obligations as a homeowner.

Time home buyers, you just closed on your house, you're so excited, you've got the keys, now what should you be prepared for and what should you expect? Okay, so we're going to cover a couple of things, and these are the biggest questions that I see as a mortgage lender, and also, you know, the last time I bought a house, I was surprised by some of this.

So, number one, oh my goodness, the junk mail. The junk mail is going to be off the hook. And here's the thing, so when you guys buy a house, it becomes public record in America, and there's companies that have triggers, like they have whole marketing campaigns set for first-time home buyers. Some of these, you know, like Home Depot, Lowe's, all that type of stuff, generally, you're going to be getting some offers in the mail. But then there's also companies that are basically just trying to trick you and take money from your wallet over products that you don't really need. Those are the ones to be really aware of. And the way that they come to you, they look really good, they look like, "Oh wow, this is official". You know, I remember the last time I bought a house, I actually got incredibly angry because I was getting this stuff that's like, "First Warning", "Second Warning", and it was all nonsense. It wasn't anything that I needed to pay, it wasn't anything I needed, but they were doing this trigger campaign where what they do is they, uh, they do a sense of urgency, which is actually illegal. So, you could report them, guys, um, but yeah, they'll do that. You'll see like a pink envelope, and it will say "Last Notice", you know, stuff that makes you go, "Oh, I should pay attention to this", but in fact, it's just a scam.

Usually, what they're trying to sell is some sort of title insurance, but with most transactions in the United States, you're buying title insurance, okay? For instance, California is a state where it's optional, but like, personally, how many clients have I ever had that decided not to get Title Insurance? One. One. And look, we tried to explain to them, "No, no, no, you want to get this, trust us, you don't..." But, um, if you're unsure, if you're like, "Well, I don't know if I got title insurance," if you check your closing statement, it will show that you got an owner's title policy, okay? And look, if you can't find it, talk to your lender, just be like, "Hey, I got this in the mail, do I need this or do I already have this?" And odds are you already have it, okay?

Um, there's so many scams though, like one of the scams is you'll get something that says, "Hey, you need to make your payments to us now." And I work at Guaranteed Rate, so in the upper left-hand corner, it might say "Re: Guaranteed Rate" with an ASX, and then if you look at the ASX at the bottom, it says "Not affiliated with Guaranteed Rate." But they know that your mortgage was with Guaranteed Rate because of the public records, okay? So, that's what you guys need to know when you close on a house, they know the names of the people, the property address, and the lender you used. So, a lot of times, by using the lender's name, it seems more real. So, what I always tell my clients is, guys, if you get anything that looks super convincing, just text me a picture, uh, you know, "Jen, scam or real?" And I'm always going to respond and say if it's a scam or real.

And when I bring up the companies that will tell you that you now make their payments to them, sometimes it's true, okay? So when you buy a house, often what will happen is servicing is transferred. So, what servicing is, it's basically who collects your money every month. So, if you're VA, Ginny Mae owns your loan; if you're conventional, Fanny and Freddy own your loan, but there are different entities that collect your payment, okay? So sometimes, people go like, "I'm just going to use PennyMac for an example," um, you know, Guaranteed Rate where I work, in the past, we would sell loans to PennyMac for servicing, because they did servicing, whereas we do some but not a lot, okay? And what I mean by that is, we have some clients where we're sending the bills to every month, we're their server, and and we have a lot that we don't. So PennyMac would be sending them the bill. Does that mean PennyMac owns their loan? No, no. And that's the big thing a lot of buyers are confused about. They're like, "Oh, XYZ sold me, they must not like me, this is my lender now," no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's just a lot of lenders don't keep servicing, meaning like, look, Guaranteed Rate, our primary job is originating mortgages, meaning we do more mortgages, we're not a bill collecting firm, that's not the basis of our business. Do we do some? Yes, but there's a lot of companies where that's all they do, okay? So know that your lender has not sold you because they don't like you or anything like that. The person who's sending you the bill, that's literally all they do is they send you the bill, they collect the money, they get it back to the right party, that's it, okay?

And what I always suggest too is, if you're like, "Well, how do I know if it's real?" Fair question, and you should ask that question whenever there's someone saying, "Hey, we're taking over servicing, you have to send your money to us now." You want to make sure you're looking for a few things. Number one, there should be a letter. So we're going to use Guaranteed Rate and PennyMac as an example again, and I don't know that we're actually selling loans to them right now, but I'm just going to do it as an example. So, you would get a letter from Guaranteed Rate that says, "Hey, you know, just so you know, we're transferring your servicing, it's going to be transferred to XYZ."

Okay, and then that comes, and it's going to say, "Hey, Guaranteed Rate is transferring your servicing. Your current Guaranteed Rate loan is this. You're going to be transferred to us. Your new loan number is this." Okay, and you may go, "Ah, this is overwhelming." Guys, it is easy peasy and it's not a big deal at all. If it was a big deal, I would have left working here years ago and gone to a company that does its own servicing. There are lots of rules around this as well, so it's not like, you know, let's say that you miss it and you mailed your payment to Guaranteed Rate, we would have to get it to them on your behalf. So, a lot of rules protecting consumers um, during this period if your loan's being transferred. But yeah, it is pretty darn normal in lending land for your loan to be transferred to a different bill collector. Okay, that's what they are, bill collector.

Okay, very important to know. Um, but yeah, when you get that letter, it's always good to check with your lender. We're always happy to confirm. We reach out to our servicing department, we make sure that that is, is going to be collecting your money um, so that you can have confidence and not worry about it. So, watch out for that. Um, watch out for the scams.

The other thing that you need to watch out for is, did you remember to forward your mail? People forget to do this. They get so excited about buying a house, but they forget to actually forward their mail. So, you can do it so easy now, just go on to usps.com. I think it's .gov, check it, it's United States Postal Service, and you can transfer your mail from your current address to your new home. Make sure you guys are doing this if you know it's going to take you a while to update your address on everything. Because beyond forwarding your mail, you're also going to have to reach out to, like, your bank, your credit cards, you know, your everything. Everything that you guys get mail from. Beyond forwarding it, you have to update your address, and sometimes it can take time. The nice thing about the United States Postal Service is they have it where you can pay like a couple of dollars, and they'll forward your mail for longer. So, you know, when I recently moved from California to Florida, I think I did 24 months because I was like, I know I'll update a bunch of it, but there's just random straggler bills, you know, and I don't want to accidentally miss a bill because we all know that's terrible for your credit. Okay, so really important that you guys forward your mail, uh, and then you update it with all of your bill collectors, we'll call them.

Okay, what else to expect. Now here's the thing, depending on what state you're in, you may get a tax bill shortly after closing. Now, it's always a good idea if you get a tax bill to check with your lender and say, "Hey, do you know if this was covered?" So, if you have an escrow account, meaning that taxes and insurance are part of your monthly payment, that bill will not be an issue unless, you know, there are some states, like California is a great example, where there's a supplemental property tax bill, which is a bill you pay beyond your normal tax bills. Okay, but most states, you know, if you have an escrow or impound account, meaning your taxes and insurance are included in your monthly payment, that account takes care of that bill. You're still going to get a copy of the bill every year, even though the lender's paid it on your behalf, because you need that for taxes. Okay, so make sure you're keeping those tax bills because when you go to file your taxes, they will need it.

Now, if you don't have an escrow or an impound account, meaning the lender is not collecting taxes and insurance monthly for you, you do. If you get the bill real shortly after closing, you want to check your closing statement to see if perhaps it was paid, but if not, remember, you chose to be responsible to pay for your taxes and insurance, so make sure you do.

Um, something else to watch out for is sometimes we'll see, and it's pretty rare, but it's something to keep an eye out for, homeowners insurance issues. So, what can happen is you can close on your loan, when you close on your loan, you're paying for a year of homeowners insurance upfront. It's generally going to be the escrow company or the title company that's getting that money to the homeowner's insurance provider. Sometimes those checks get kicked back, and the way you find out about it is the homeowners insurance company sends you a cancellation notice saying, "Hey, if you don't pay us, we're going to cancel your insurance." So, the first thing you're going to want to do when you see that is you're going to want to talk to, if you were in an escrow state, the escrow company or the attorney, and say, "Hey, I just got this. Can you please figure out why it hasn't been paid?" Because that is who handles the money. A lot of times, people come to the lender, and we're always happy to say, "Hey, let's reach out to these parties," but we don't handle that. We don't handle the initial money to the insurance company; that's something either escrow, title, or the attorney does, depending on the state. Okay, so really important you guys know that. Watch out for insurance bills because I've seen some stuff. Like, it doesn't happen a lot, but I've seen some kind of shady stuff, like a gal called me recently because she closed on her house, but then the insurance company that she used sent a bill saying, "Hey, like, you were quoted improperly; your insurance is now twice as much." So, definitely keep an eye on your insurance bills, and can they do that? Yeah, yeah, they can. They can definitely, you could close on a house, they could go out later, or find additional data, and increase the premium. It's incredibly rare from what I've seen, but definitely, you know, pay attention to those bills.

Now, something else to keep in mind, when you close on your house, you're going to receive a closing disclosure. Okay, this is the final closing disclosure; it's what you sign when you're signing for the house at the end. Keep a copy of this. Start a folder, guys, start a folder for your taxes because your accountant, or if you do TurboTax, they're going to need that closing disclosure because that lists out everything, and some stuff can be tax-deductible depending on your tax situation, like discount points. But once again, it's going to depend on your individual tax situation, and it's not deductible for everyone, but you want to give that to your accountant. Okay, so your accountant's going to need property tax bills, and they're also going to need that closing disclosure statement from um, your signing package.

Okay, now here's the next thing that people are often concerned about. Oh, I thought of another one. Okay, so something people are often concerned about is, "I don't know when to make my first payment." Okay, so look, your loan docs always have in it, like for instance, our loan docs always have a first payment coupon, and it has the date, it has the address, it has everything, so that you're not anxious. However, if you guys are ever worried about that, just reach out to your lender. It's not a big deal. I have people reach out to me all the time. CJ on my team reaches out to servicing, we get them the exact information. It's not a big deal. So just because your loan is closed, it doesn't mean your lender's dead. We are still here for you, and if you're working with a lender that treats you like they're dead and you shouldn't call them, don't use them when you refi. Okay, I can't stress that enough. So, the other thing to know is, you're going to get so much mail telling you to refi, it's going to be insane. And you need to just tear it up, at least until rates get lower, tear it up. But also know that the lenders that are constantly sending out mail about refi, they're refi chop shops. That's how they get their business, that's all they do. A lot of it's really predatory, so you need to be really careful. And if you're ever like, "Jen, this looks really good," just call me. I'll pull rates, I'll tell you where the market is because what we'll see is we'll see these rate bait ads, where their rates are so low, but they're charging you like three discount points. And on a $400,000 loan, three discount points is $112,000. They're stripping your equity. So, really, don't fall into the refi now traps. And if you guys don't want to call me, um, check out Mortgage News Daily; that will tell you where the market's at. Okay, so really important on that.

I'm going to sum up with one last thing, and I'm sure I'll have to do a part two to this video as I think more about it. If you have not, okay, I urge you, change your locks. Every single lock to an exterior door on that property needs to be changed. The garage door needs to be changed – not, you don't have to change the door, but change the sensor to a different code. I cannot stress this enough because you may be like, 'Oh, the owners were so sweet.' I don't care. Who knows who had a key to that house, guys? Who knows if they changed it before they moved in? Look, your safety, your family's safety is top priority. Locksmiths are not expensive, and you may assume, 'Oh well, don't they automatically change the locks?' Not unless your contract states it, and I've got to tell you guys, every house I've ever bought, I've had to change the locks.

Okay, so remember, change the locks on every single exterior door and make sure you're reprogramming that garage door. And if the house has a security system and the owner taught you how to use it, change the code, okay? Change the code. This is your house now, new keys, new codes.

So, I hope this video was helpful. I'm going to be doing more videos about now that you own the house, 'cause we're always talking about how to get you in a house, but we need to start talking about how to keep you in that house happy and get you on the journey to the next one, or just staying in that one forever, whatever suits you best. Um, thanks for watching, guys, and yes, I'm a lender in 48 states, so if you're getting those refi mails and you're like, 'Is this legit?' reach out. I'm happy to tell you where rates really are. Thanks for watching, guys.