Back in May of 2009, I was just a single girl looking to buy my first house. One of my coworkers,…read moreNoel, had just bought his first house and told me about FHA loans and his experience. I thought, sure, I have great credit, my income isn't bad, and I have a little cash to put down as well, but I still didn't think anyone would want to give me a home loan and I told that to Noel. He said, "Britt, you are wrong. You need to call my guy. His name is Ron Howard, and he is THE MAN." Really, that's exactly what Noel said, and I remember it to this day, because in the end, he was right. There's no better way to describe him. I giggled when I read the other Yelp reviews here, because Alan R.'s review starts with that very same sentiment. Clearly, there's a pattern here...
I followed Noel's advice and Ron and I got that home loan put together like a well oiled machine. He looked at my financial situation, explained to me my options in terms of loans, told me what he needed from me to get my house financed, and then I spent the next couple of weeks printing, signing, faxing, calling, or whatever I had to do until BAM! I was well on my way to first time home ownership. It was SO easy.
The interest rate I was able to get was unheard of at the time, to the point where people I told thought that I must be mistaken. As a matter of fact, my best friend who was in the same identical financial and personal situation as I was in ( i.e. single, first time homebuyer, same job, same income, same price range) bought her house exactly two weeks after I bought mine, and did NOT go through Ron. Instead, she used her brother-in-law who was in "the biz", and got her a rate of 5.35% on a 30 year fixed. According to him, that was an amazing deal, "the best he has heard of" and the best it would ever be. The rate I ended up with was 4.5% on a 30 year fixed. We put the same amount of money down and our houses also cost the same, selling with only a $4000 price difference between the two.
Fast forward to now, February 2014. Life has carried on and I'm now a married lady, expecting a baby, and looking to move into a house with more space. While we no longer need an FHA loan, our conditions are a little more complicated than they were a few years back. We make more money, but we also already own two houses and want to buy a third one before having to sell anything. I told my husband that I had worked with Ron back in the day and that I felt so confident in his abilities that I wanted to contact him again and see what he had to say. Thankfully, my hubby went along with it. I emailed Ron later that day, and immediately got a warm response, he clearly remembered me, and it was almost like reconnecting with an old long lost friend.
This time, we also have had the pleasure of working with Ron's production partner, Melissa. Between the two of them, we could not be happier with our experience. They are both incredibly knowledgeable and helpful, but they are also very down to Earth and friendly, and the response time with emails or phone calls is of lightning speed. Again, we were able to go over multiple types of loans and scenarios to see what would work best for us, with some of these options being paths we would have never known existed had we not had the guidance that we did. We never felt stupid or pressured., and today, we got the news that pending an appraisal on the new house we found, our loan has been approved. Everything is just falling into place.
My husband and I highly recommend both Ron and Melissa. Quite honestly, if I'm ever in the home buying market again, I will not waste my time elsewhere because I know that nobody will give us better or more personal service than Ron and his team.
Ron Howard, you really are the MAN! :)