lokalgood

When we bought our house in Del Ray a decade ago, our agent at the time put us on to a friendly local (Rosemont) fellow in the mortgage business.  Half a dozen transactions (refis, a vacation property mortgage among multiple parties) and at least a dozen satisfied friends and neighbors later, and I’m pretty sure I’m working with a mortgage Jedi.  Graham Setliff is his name.  Why a Jedi?

• He makes it easy – “Ugh, that’s a HUGE, knee-wobbling commitment, lots of variables, really bad if we get it wrong, hassle, tons of work, when are the real owners showing up to sign this thing?” – all these thought bubbles come with mortgage proceedings.  So I’ve always prized the easy process I get with Graham.  I’m shielded from the gory details while feeling confident I’m at least in the zip code of lowest rates.  Plus I hate shopping generally (unless it’s for cars).

• Folks I’ve referred come away convinced – to a person, everyone I send Graham’s way comes back happy.  Even my Dad.  God love him but if helping him work a remote control or a new computer (much less a significant financial instrument) is any guide, he’s no easy customer.  One friend ignored my advice (silly man), went with an online bank, had the whole thing blow up in his face, and came back to Graham to put it back together.

• He’s talked me out of bad choices – Plenty of smart people went way, way wrong on the mortgage front these past 5 years.  And as a 2000 buyer in Del Ray, we had plenty of chances to do the same with the equity piling up as fast as the bank offers to spend it.  Graham counseled us well, including talking me down a couple of times when doing nothing was the right thing for us but could have been good for him, at least in the near term.

Plus, he’ll engage in the occasional restaurant quality gab on any number of topics – from tales of our hood, to updates on the local real estate and mortgage markets, family political divides, you name it.  Just the kind of local resource more folks would do well to know is there.

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