Rising interest rates have changed the math on nearly every mortgage decision your clients face, from how they structure a purchase to whether tapping home equity still makes sense. For many clients, the mortgage is the largest liability on their balance sheet. But it doesn't exist in isolation. It sits alongside credit cards, auto loans, student loans, and other debts, and the way it's structured can either support or undermine the rest of the financial plan.
Too often, financial planners leave these decisions entirely to clients and lenders, treating them as a banking question rather than a planning one. That's a missed opportunity, especially now that some of the most effective purchase strategies involve seller negotiations, family gifting, and timing decisions that sit squarely in a planner's lane. Join mortgage experts to learn the following:
- Rate buydown strategies: how seller-paid permanent buydowns, seller-paid 2/1 temporary buydowns, and lender-paid temporary buydowns work, how to evaluate the break-even, and when a buydown beats a price reduction
- Smarter family gifting: whether parents or grandparents get more impact by helping with monthly payments, funding a rate buydown, or gifting a larger down payment, including the PMI, cash-flow, and gift tax considerations
- Bridge financing: using equity in the departing residence to fund the next down payment
- Buy before you sell: how clients can make non-contingent offers in competitive markets, and how lenders treat carrying two mortgages
