Originating home loans on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border

By: ameer@trustedteam.com

Definitely the products are completely different. In the U.S. we use American money, in Mexico we use Mexican money, and we don’t mix. So in Mexico, we use their institutions, we use Mexican money so we follow their structure, their laws, the products that they have. Now moving forward, there’s a lot of new products coming out. Of course in the U.S. there are a lot more products. Sometimes consumers feel like the products there are in the United States are the same products anywhere around the world. So often they come to us and they’re VA for instance. Now there is no such thing as VA in Mexico. Not even for the active duty military in the Mexican army. But some American clients come to us asking for a VA loan in Mexico. We try to explain as much as we can there are less products and the rate is different, they’re not as competitive as in the U.S. for sure.

But also the home price, the starting point in Mexico is much more affordable compared to the U.S. So it’s very, very different. As far as right now in Mexico, there are specific products for U.S. and Canadian borrowers. Also, there’s other ways for a banking institution to qualify a person. In Mexico, just like in Europe, it’s very important [for banks to ask], “how long have you had that job?” There isn’t self-employment and all the other things but definitely they look more for a corporate job. You kept your job for this many years. That’s what gives the bank trust in the borrower. In Mexico, the bank holds your title. It’s all owned by the bank or financial institution or investor or hedge fund. They don’t have a secondary market where they sell those things. So if they make a mistake, it doesn’t get shared in terms of risk. The risk is fully on them. Of course they do a lot of research before funding a loan.

So in Mexico, just like in the U.S., we connected with institutions. It wasn’t that easy as a cookie cutter in the U.S. where you signed the broker package and the lenders approved you or the bank approved you or you showed your financials. It’s completely different. In Mexico, you have to be in a sense recommended. You have to be introduced.

In Mexico, it’s all about time. So what I mean by time is, time that the banks take to trust you. They wanted to see how you perform. They want to see how you act because they want to make sure that you’re sending them the best possible client, the best possible scenario, otherwise they will simply cut you off. A lot of things are very similar to Italian banking, which I’m more used to than American banking. I understand a lot of those aspects and what they expect from us as a company that partners with them. So we tried to do all that and to really give them clients they truly wanted to build themselves an asset in Mexico. That’s how we’ve been doing business so far in Mexico. We keep adding more and we keep growing just like in the U.S.

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