The Lender Almost Killed This Condo Deal. Here’s How We Saved It.

By Tina Heaney

Tina Heaney is a seasoned real estate professional and an American-Australian dual citizen with a rich international marketing background. Her extensive experience in global marketing has given her a unique ability to understand diverse needs and tailor solutions that resonate across different markets.

Here’s something most people never think about when they’re buying or selling a home, and it can quietly make or break your entire deal: the lender your agent works with. I had a condo sale recently that should have fallen apart completely. The financing nearly died. But because of the lender we had in our corner, we saved it. Here’s what happened, because this could matter to you more than you’d expect.

I had a condo under contract, and everything seemed fine, until the buyer’s lender called me. Thankfully, this lender was someone I know and trust and work with often, and she called to tell me there was a real problem. The condo had become what’s called non-warrantable. That’s a term most people have never heard, and I’ll explain it fully in a moment, but the short version is this: the condo association had raised the insurance deductible on the owners significantly, and that threw the whole financing situation out of whack. The lender told me she could still finance the condo as it was, but because of the issue, the buyer’s interest rate would be more than a full percentage point higher. Understandably, the buyer didn’t want to pay that, a point more on your rate, for the life of your loan, adds up to a great deal of money. A lesser lender would have shrugged and said those were the terms. This one didn’t. Instead, she and I rolled up our sleeves and went to work together.

The lender your agent works with can make or break your deal, and not all lenders are the same. There are lenders who simply process paperwork, and if something goes sideways, they hand you the bad news and that’s that. And there are lenders who actually solve problems, who pick up the phone and go to bat for you when things get complicated. The difference between those two can be the difference between closing on the home you love and watching the whole thing collapse. This is exactly why, when I recommend a lender to my clients, it’s never random. These are people I’ve built relationships with over years, people I’ve watched fight for buyers and sellers when it mattered most. That relationship isn’t a small detail. Sometimes it’s the entire ballgame.

If you own a condo or you’re thinking about buying one, you need to understand the non-warrantable trap. In plain English, a non-warrantable condo is one where something about the association’s finances or rules makes it hard for a normal lender to give a loan on a unit. In this case, the problem was the insurance deductible. The association had raised the deductible on the owners from ten thousand dollars all the way to twenty-five thousand. Here’s what a lot of condo owners don’t realize: that deductible is on you. If a unit upstairs floods and damages yours, the association isn’t necessarily covering it, you are. Jumping that deductible from ten to twenty-five thousand is a huge increase in risk for every owner in the community, and it throws off the financial ratios lenders rely on, which is what made the condo non-warrantable and sent that interest rate climbing. Most owners in that association probably had no idea it had even happened.

Here’s where having the right people really paid off. That lender and I didn’t just accept the situation. Together, we reached out to the condo association, the president, the treasurer, and the board, and had a real conversation. The lender was remarkable. She laid out for them exactly what this high deductible would mean for their entire community, not just for this buyer and my seller, but for every owner in the association. Because if the condo is non-warrantable, it becomes difficult, sometimes nearly impossible, for anyone in the community to buy or sell a unit, and that affects everyone’s property value. Once they truly understood what it meant for their future, they changed it back. Just like that, the financing worked, the rate problem disappeared, and the buyer got the condo they wanted. That is what it looks like when you have people who go to bat for you.

The lesson is simple, though almost nobody thinks about it until they’re in the middle of a mess. When you choose an agent, you’re not just choosing that one person. You’re choosing everyone they bring with them, and the lender is one of the most important of all. A great agent surrounds you with great people who will fight for your deal.

So whether you’re buying or selling, especially anything involving a condo, here in the Greater Concord area or anywhere in the New Hampshire to Maine Seacoast, let’s talk before you get started. Call or text me at 603-393-4605, email me at tina@heaney-homes.com, or visit heaneyhomes.kw.com, and I’ll make sure you’ve got the right team around you, so a problem like this becomes something we solve, instead of something that costs you the deal.