Episode 3

003 How to hire a mortgage lender with Jennifer Martinez of Guaranteed Rate - Mortgages

Our first interview guest is the Vice President of Lending at Guaranteed Rate Mortgage Jennifer Martinez.
Jennifer has been in the mortgage lending industry for 17 years. She got involved early in her career because of her excellent math skills and her love of helping people achieve their goal of home ownership. The favorite part of her job is helping first time home buyers and veterans.
 
Jennifer is also a physical fitness enthusiast and enjoys weekly bootcamp classes with her husband and three children. While she and Ed compare notes on their workout routines there might have been just a little smack talking.
 
In her interview Jennifer shares her best tips on how home buyers should prepare to get a mortgage loan including what questions you should ask a prospective lender. She also explains why you have a 30 day period to shop for a mortgage without it affecting your credit score. Jennifer then describes the major differences between VA, FHA, and conventional mortgage loans.  She also outlines the importance of documenting sources of down payment fund sources, especially if it is being gifted to you. We wrap up our chat with Jennifer with her tips for how to prepare for mortgage 6 months before you purchase your home including information about down payments, closing costs, and transfer taxes in Florida.
 
For more information regarding mortgage loans you can contact Jennifer via phone, text, or email.
 
Jennifer Martinez
Vice President of Lending
Guaranteed Rate Mortgages - Tampa
 
 
 
Links in this episode:
The information contained in this episode has been obtained through sources deemed reliable by Shelley Panas and / or any guest on Selling Sarasota Podcast, however, we cannot warrant the complete accuracy thereof subject to errors, omissions, change of price, rental or other conditions, prior sale, lease or financing, or withdrawal without notice. We recommend to our listeners that any information, which is of special interest, should be obtained through independent verification.
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Shelley Panas

Living in Paradise! After running a successful company in Colorado Springs I decided that although mountains are beautiful, it was time for beaches. I relocated to Florida and joined the highly successful team at CENTURY 21 Beggins Enterprises -- the #1 C21 in Florida! I love it here! There is always something new to experience. At the end of the day, it is so nice to hop on my bike and head to the beach. The feel of sand squishing between my toes, listening to the waves crash on the shore while watching the sun paint the sky beautiful shades of gold, red and purple as it set is the perfect way to end my day. So I ask, why just come visit when you can stay?

I believe there is something profound in owning a home. This is your personal place to dream big dreams, relax in comfort, and be with the ones you love. I became a REALTOR® to help people have a better life.

We started our podcast in 2018 after Ed spent most of 2017 developing ideas for launching a podcast, only he didn't like any of the show topics he was testing. To test his audio gear he started "interviewing" me about my work in real estate. Needless to say, these test recording sessions became very silly very quickly and that's we realized we had our show. Ed brings his technical expertise in web development and digital marketing to complement my skills and experience in real estate to the show.
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Edward Panas

I have been a huge fan of podcasts since before they were even called "podcasts"! I remember listening to talk radio shows as far back when I was a kid through my college years. My frustration was always with getting a good signal or catching my favorite shows when they aired. When "Internet radio" shows started in the early 90's I used to listen to streaming shows from college & public radio stations, but connection speeds were limited. When podcasting started in 2004 I knew this was going to be a significant change in audio entertainment. As my weekly listening time increased over the years my interest in starting my own show grew as well.

I started kicking around the idea of starting a podcast shortly after moving to Florida in 2014, so in 2017 I joined Florida Podcaster Association in Tampa and learned how I could start my own show. As Shelley mentions in her bio, my ideas all sucked. (She says it much nicer than this.) I either lost interest very quickly or the ideas were just plain bad. She agreed to work with me testing out my new gear and audio production skills talking about her work in real estate. We were having so much fun doing these practice recordings we realized that this was our show. After a few months of learning about audio production and working out our content plan, we launched Selling Sarasota Podcast at PodFest Multimedia Expo on February 9th, 2018!