Priority Home Mortgage · Grand Rapids
A second purchase is rarely about whether you qualify. It is about the order things happen in, what your equity actually frees up after the costs of selling, and whether a refinance pays for itself before you move again. Those are arithmetic questions, and you should see the arithmetic.
Mortgage Loan Originator · Priority Home Mortgage · NMLS #2403884
Israel Muñoz · NMLS #2403884
Where it usually goes wrong
Almost everything that decides whether a move works is settled before an underwriter opens the file. Whether you can carry two payments for a month or cannot carry them for a week. What is actually left of your equity once commission, transfer tax, and the repairs a buyer will ask for come out of it. Whether the money you would spend buying down a rate comes back before you are likely to move again.
None of those are hard to work out. They are just rarely worked out in front of the person whose money it is.
What he works on
None of this is exotic. It is the part of a move that a rate quote does not answer, and the part where getting the order right is worth more than a quarter point.
You already own one
The hard part is rarely the loan. It is the order of operations: what you can carry, what your equity actually frees up, and whether you buy first or sell first.
Staying put, changing the loan
A refinance is worth doing when the math says so and not because a mailer said rates dropped. The number that decides it is how long you plan to stay.
Refinancing restarts the clock on interest unless you shorten the term. That trade-off should be a decision, not a surprise.
The house is right, the condition is not
A house that needs a roof is not automatically a house you cannot finance. What matters is which program you use and what the appraiser writes down.
Whether a specific renovation program fits your file is a question for a call. He will not promise a product before he has seen the house.
How he works a file
Israel spent four years inside the loan process as an assistant before originating his own files. That is where he learned which documents underwriting is going to ask for and in what order, which is the difference between a file that closes on time and one that stalls two weeks before the date everybody already told their family.
Twenty minutes, English or Spanish, before any form and before any credit pull. You describe your situation, Israel tells you plainly whether there is a path and what it would take. If the answer is not yet, you get the specific list of what would change it.
What you can borrow, what the monthly payment actually is with taxes and insurance in it, and the full cash you need on closing day. Not a range, and not a payment that quietly leaves out escrow. If a program fits, it gets named: MSHDA, FHA, Conventional 97, VA, USDA.
Israel spent four years inside the loan process as an assistant before he originated his own files, so he knows where they get stuck and what underwriting will ask for next. You get his cell number, (616) 706-7590, and updates as things happen rather than after you chase them.
Run the numbers
A lower rate is not a saving until it has covered what the refinance costs to do. Put in the loan you have and the one you are being quoted, and the calculator gives you the month it breaks even. If you expect to move before then, that is the answer, and it costs nothing to find out.
Market intelligence
Snapshot as of May 2026. Refreshed quarterly.
Median home value
$314,900
+2.57% year over year
The middle of the metro. Wyoming, Kentwood and Grandville generally sit below it, which is part of why that is where most first purchases here happen.
3% down on that median
$9,447
$11,022 at 3.5%
What a Conventional 97 and an FHA loan ask for on a median-priced house. Closing costs are separate and run another 2 to 4 percent.
Inventory
+9 to 17%
modest improvement
More houses to choose from than in the last three years, which means fewer situations where you are bidding against six other offers on day one.
Projected appreciation
+3.2%
through September 2026
Modest and steady. Worth knowing because it is the number that decides whether waiting another year actually costs you anything.
Talk to Israel
Whether to buy first or sell first. Whether the refinance is worth it. Whether the house you are looking at will appraise. These are twenty-minute conversations, and you do not have to be ready to do anything to have one.
Or write instead
If you would rather see something in writing before you talk it through, leave a note. Israel comes back to you himself, and nothing you send here starts an application or touches your credit.
He reads these himself and replies in English or Spanish. No newsletter, no call tree.
Ready to move
You have been through this before and you know what it asks for. The Priority Home Mortgage application is open, and Israel reviews every file that comes through it personally.
Opens the secure Priority Home Mortgage application in a new tab. Israel Muñoz, NMLS #2403884. Equal Housing Lender.
Common questions
Shorter answers than the first-time-buyer page, because you already know what escrow is.
It depends on whether you can carry both payments, and on what your equity actually frees up after selling costs. Those are two calculations, not a rule of thumb, and the answer is different for almost everybody. Israel will run both versions and show you the payment on each rather than telling you what most people do.
The number that decides it is the break-even month: how long it takes for the monthly savings to pay back the cost of doing it. If you plan to move before then, refinancing costs you money even at a lower rate. Ask for the break-even and be suspicious of anyone who does not lead with it.
A cash-out refinance replaces your current mortgage with a larger one and gives you the difference. It is most defensible for something that is not optional, like a roof or a furnace. The trade-off is that you are borrowing against your house at a term measured in decades, so it should be a decision you make with the numbers in front of you.
On most FHA loans made since 2013, the mortgage insurance stays for the life of the loan if you put less than 10 percent down. It does not simply drop off when you hit 20 percent equity the way conventional PMI does. Refinancing into a conventional loan is the usual way out, and whether that is worth doing depends on your rate and your equity. It is a specific calculation and worth asking for.
Usually yes on a purchase and often on a refinance, though some refinances qualify for an appraisal waiver. Israel will tell you which applies to your file before you order anything, so you are not paying for something you did not need.
