Live Q&A Webinar: Financing & Refi Abroad, with Chris

Video Transcript - (with Chris Childress)

Chris:

Good afternoon, everybody. I want to welcome you to our webinar today on financing real estate in Mexico for U.S. buyers specifically. My name's Chris Childress, I'm a member of the MoXi Team here, and we are the company in Mexico that specializes in helping U.S. citizens and permanent residents of the United States purchase and refinance real estate in Mexico and we offer a U.S. style of financing.

Welcome, everybody, we're excited to have you here today and hope to learn something new together. Okay, the purpose that we're here today is that over the last few years we've seen a massive surge of U.S. buyers looking at investing in Mexico, whether for vacation homes or retirement properties, or solely for investment, or even moving as a primary residence, like I did. And one of the biggest questions that we get is, "Can I as a U.S. citizen finance real estate in Mexico, or do I have to pay all cash?" The answer is simply yes, you can finance real estate in Mexico, but the process is a little different than what you might be used to in the United States or in Canada.

And there's not very many lenders who do this well. Many have tried, some have stayed for a little while, but it is a complicated playing field, so there's not many of us out there. And that's where MoXi comes in. We built a compliant U.S.-style mortgage product, specifically designed for cross-border real estate, fully fixed rates, fully advertising loans, no balloon payments on our core product, and the loan is serviced in English with a borrow portal that people can access online. So, we created a very familiar environment, what feels like a familiar environment to finance that real estate in Mexico. So, we're super excited to have everybody so we can cover these topics.

What we're going to cover during our time together today is, we'll talk about who qualifies, what the requirements are, what the trust structure looks like, we'll touch on that a little bit. Talk a little bit about rates and fees of course, and we'll walk through some real-world scenarios and questions that we've got, including cash out refinances and other topics. Most importantly, we're going to answer your questions. Before the webinar our team sent out an invite and asked you guys to submit questions ahead of time, so we've got a series of those today, and they're all just wonderful questions.

Before we get started, just a quick word about MoXi and who we are. Just so you know where we're coming from. MoXi is backed by U.S. institutional capital. We underwrite, our underwriting guidelines are based on U.S. standards, and we've built an infrastructure to make cross-border lending work the way that it should, should be transparent, reliable and borrower friendly. We're not a Mexican bank, we're not seller financing, we're not a mortgage broker, we're a mortgage company that brings U.S. style lending to the international market.

Okay, question number one. Azeema asks, "What are the benefits of financing abroad? Is it only for Mexico or other countries in the Americas?" Well, financing abroad, what we've offered here is an opportunity to finance versus leveraging cash or pulling from savings or equity from foreign assets to purchase. So, what it does, it offers buyers to preserve their liquidity, diversify their real estate portfolio internationally, and often achieve better returns on their cash. Right now MoXi specializes exclusively in Mexico for our core product, because we've built a compliant and U.S. style lending infrastructure here. But we do have plans to expand into other parts of Latin America and other parts of the world in the future. For our core product, it is specifically that's going to be our long-term fixed rate, up to 30-year fixed rate product that is specifically for U.S. citizens in the country of Mexico.

However, we're looking to expand and we've started testing that with our MoXi Anywhere program, which is a different type of loan that we can explore. But for our core product it is specifically for Mexico and we are testing the waters to grow and expand to other parts of the world.

Q number two. Louis asks, "Does MoXi," we've got a couple of great questions, by the way, from Louis. Thank you Louis, if you're on here, for submitting these questions. Louis starts out, and he asks, "Does MoXi charge a property insurance fee?" Well, technically no. MoXi doesn't charge a separate property insurance fee. What MoXi does though as a lender is that we require borrowers to always maintain an active homeowners' insurance policy, a policy on the home. And of course, while we have an interest in the property, we will require that MoXi add our company as an additional loss payee. And this is obviously to protect you as the homeowner and MoXi and our investors. We collect the insurance premium monthly though through an escrow account, similar to how you would in the United States where you pay your taxes and insurance through monthly escrow to your mortgage company. We do require that all loans are escrowed, so we collect monthly for your homeowners' insurance and your taxes and then your trust fee, which we'll talk about in a moment. And then we have that ready at the end of the year.

So, when the invoices come due and the renewal comes due, we've got the money sitting and a reserve account ready to make those payments in a timely manner. To answer your question, MoXi doesn't charge a separate insurance fee as MoXi, but we do require that you maintain insurance and we do collect that monthly and help manage that so we can make sure payments are made out of time and that you've always got coverage.

Alrighty. We also have, Alejandro, we're going to answer those. I see your questions coming in there, so some of these questions may be answered as we go through the list that we've got there, and then as we approach the end we'll take time to handle any overflow there. But I think some of the questions I'm seeing will have answers throughout the conversation. Thank you so much for your engagement, team.

Okay, so Louis asked again, asked the second question, he said, "Does MoXi charge a trust management fee? And if so, how much?" Again, MoXi doesn't charge the trust management fee, it's not charged by MoXi. The trust management fee or the trust itself is basically for the fideicomiso, and that is charged, the trust management fee or annual management fee is charged by the bank that administers the fideicomiso. And the fideicomiso is required for foreign ownership in restricted zones. Most banks charge around five to $700 for this annually. And like homeowners' insurance, MoXi will collect this payment monthly through the borrower's escrow account, again, to make sure that we've got all the funds in place when that renewal premium is due, and we make that on behalf of the borrower. So, we don't charge that fee, or MoXi doesn't charge that fee, but we help to make sure that it's paid as it's charged through the trust bank that administers the fideicomiso.

Louis. "Does MoXi require borrowers to carry life insurance as part of the loan requirements?" That's a great question, Louis. And we get that quite often, because we do see that really often down here in Mexico as a requirement for other mortgage banks or other companies that have come into the market. We don't require life insurance as MoXi. Life insurance is not a requirement for a MoXi loan, and that's one area, again, where we differ from other international lenders. You're absolutely welcome to carry your own policy for your peace of mind, but it is not required by MoXi.

Fred asks, "What are the qualifications for securing a home purchase from MoXi?" To qualify for a home loan with MoXi you must be a US citizen or a permanent resident of the United States with verifiable income and a strong credit profile. We require a minimum of a 700 credit score. 700 allows us to get financing up to 50% loan-to-value, so 50% of the purchase price or appraised value of the property, while a 720 or higher allows us to go up to our maximum, which is a 65% loan-to-value, meaning 35% down payment or 35% equity position is required. Properties must be valued at 350,000 U.S. dollars or more. And the underwriting, our underwriting guidelines follow, or were kind of mirrored off of U.S. standards. So, we'll review your income, your assets, your credit history, just like we would with traditional mortgages in the United States.

Again, the property must be 350,000 U.S. dollars or more. We'll talk a little bit about completion of that of the properties here in a moment, but from a borrower perspective, you'll want to have a minimum of a 700 credit score, but if you want to qualify for our max loan-to-value, which is up to 65%, we'll need to see a 720 qualifying score or higher.

Marty asks, "What types, or what are the typical down payments? What are the typical down payments requirements to purchase a property in Mexico?" Again, for a purchase MoXi loans require a minimum of a 35% down payment, meaning that we can finance up to 65% of the property's value. For refinancing the same standard applies. We can do up to 65% loan-to-value with a 720 or higher credit score for a rate and term refinance. And if we're wanting to do a home equity loan or a cash-out loan, we can go up to a 60% loan-to-value, so 60% of the value. We find that keeping that equity position helps protect borrowers from market swings, and also allows MoXi to offer more stable long-term fixed rate financing without exotic features like prepayment penalties or balloons or anything like that. Offers more favorable terms. We at MoXi think that owning real estate in Mexico should be exotic, not the mortgage that you use to do so. So, we try to avoid crazy features or things that complicate the process.

I did see a question come through just a moment ago, and I'll try to field that here, since we're talking about loan-to-value and those types of things. So, value is determined by an appraisal, just like it would be in the United States. The appraisals are done a little differently here, obviously, the formatting and stuff, but for all intents and purposes the valuation process is very similar, if not almost the same as it is in the United States where we'll actually hire a third-party disinterested appraisal company, a certified appraisal company with proper licensing and such. They will go out, they'll do the appraisal, they'll generate the report and they'll send it over to us. The underwriting team will then review that appraisal to make sure everything's compliant and it fits, and then that's how properties determined ... I'm sorry, that's how value is determined for a property down here in Mexico, very similar to the United States with the appraisal process.

Now let's talk about this. Randall asks, "What is your minimum amount to finance?" Okay, so technically according to our underwriting guidelines, the minimum loan amount with MoXi is 250,000 U.S. dollars, and we have that for a reason. We do though, or we have historically been fairly flexible with that, depending on the overall transaction. And what I'll say on that, just basically depends on the strength of the borrower, the area, cost associated, so forth and so on. You guys may have noticed that in previous slides we said that we focused on properties valued at 350,000 U.S. dollars and more. And then we've also mentioned that our max loan-to-value is a 65% loan-to-value.

So, if you kind of do backwards math on that, 65% of $350,000 is definitely less than $250,000. It's just over 200, I think 202 and some change. So, what we've kind of done is shifted and focused our value or focused our lending on properties that are valued at 350 or more, and we've kind of set our floor at about that $200,000 mark.

We do that for to make sure that we maintain the value proposition for the borrower. The lower the loan size, the higher the percentage of settlement charges associated with the transaction, and then that sometimes creates complications and diminishes the value proposition. We've kind of set our floor at that 200,000, but that is an exception and that's for specific scenarios. For folks who need smaller financing needs we've also created another product, which is called the Anywhere Loan, and this product is specifically designed for clients looking to borrow between 75,000 and 200,000 U.S. dollars. And then it gives buyers more access across structured financing, and this can be used outside of Mexico. It can be used for real estate anywhere in the country, that's part of why we're calling it Anywhere. So, a different product to service those lower than 200,000 loan amounts. Technically our limit is 250, but again, we've set our max value at 350, which creates this floor here. Hope that answers your questions there.

Q eight for the day. Kenneth asked, "Does one need to have equity in the United States," excuse me, "to get a home loan to Mexico?" Kenneth, that's a great question, one we get often, but no, sir, no equity in U.S. real estate is required at all. MoXi underwrites based off your personal credit, your income, and from a collateral perspective we underwrite the subject property that is in Mexico, not your U.S. real-estate holdings. So, you are not required to have real-estate equity in the United States. You are required to qualify from an income asset and credit perspective, but no real-estate equity necessary in the United States.

Francesca asks, "My daughter was born in Mexico and has both citizenships. Would it be easier or offer any benefits to purchase real estate in Mexico under her name?" Francesca, this is a wonderful question and we get this probably a couple of times a day, if not at least several times a week. Now, in Mexico, how you hold title is determined by citizenship and nationality. So, as a Mexican citizen there could be a different way to hold title, and it could simplify ownership in some cases. But for financing purposes, MoXi still requires we underwrite based on the borrower's U.S. financial profile, the income, credit and assets, and then the process would be the same, because we still do the fideicomiso and require it all that. So, the process would essentially be the same, whether she's on title or not.

Question number 10, Mark asks, "Why do you require trust if the property is in central Mexico?" That is a wonderful question, and again, we get quite often, and it comes up more often the more business we do in central areas such as San Miguel de Allende, where we've just opened a new office, in Guadalajara, where we're expanding into and doing new business, in different parts of Mexico where historically the trust wouldn't be required.

MoXi requires all finance properties to be held inside the Fideicomiso de Garantía, or the Warranty Trust, and that is to ensure full legal and financial protection for both our clients and for our investors. While the fideicomiso may not be required for cash purchases in non-restricted zones, it is required for MoXi financing. You see, this trust structure isn't just about geography, it's about security and compliance. It provides a transparent, regulated framework for ownership under Mexican law. It clearly protects both the borrower's and the investor's rights, and there's also an independent third-party fiduciary that manages the trust, which adds an extra layer of protection to peace of mind for the borrower and for their heirs when it comes to foreign real estate. So, holding title in the trust, that does add other benefits, but this is the reason that MoXi requires it in all parts of Mexico, not just in the protected zones. Mark, thank you for your question, I hope that answers what you were looking for there.

Q number 11. Rita asks, "How can I buy in Mexico if I'm a U.S. citizen? Will I own the land? What restrictions are there?" So, Rita, that's a great question, and a lot of people thought that foreigners could not own real estate in Mexico, but you can. As a U.S. citizen, you own the property through a fideicomiso, which is a bank trust. A Mexican bank will act as the trustee, but you as the beneficiary gives you full right and control over the property. So, you can sell it, rent it, pass it on to heirs, refinance it, paint it polka dots, whatever you want to do with it. Well, can't give you a person for that, but you do have full right to control, use, sell, rent, and control the property. The trust simply satisfies Mexico's constitutional restrictions on direct foreign ownership.

While the Mexican constitution does specifically say that full ownership of properties located in the protected zone are to be by Mexican nationals or Mexican entities, they also wrote into the constitution provision for foreign investment, which essentially establishes the fideicomiso ownership and gives foreigners the ability to own and control real estate in Mexico. Hope that's great news for you, Rita. You can absolutely buy and own real estate in Mexico, and we can help you do it. All right. Okay, and we'll just keep on moving.

Next question for today. Miguel asks, "Who does the financing, Mexico banks, or private lenders?" Well, the funding behind MoXi loans come from institutional capital. U.S.-based investors and funds that specialize in cross-border mortgages. We are not, it's not a Mexican bank loan, this is a U.S.-style mortgage secured by the Mexican real estate, which is why we're able to offer longer-term fixed rates and full amortizations.

I do see quite a few questions coming in, so we're going to have time to jump over there in here, just a moment, which is good news. So, okay, Brian asked a question about some of the other banks that have offered financing here in Mexico. He says, "Intercam, Kredi and Yave have all discontinued cross-border lending services. Do we know why and how does this affect MoXi's lending in Mexico?" We don't have personal or firsthand knowledge of what the business practices were or the circumstances that might have adjusted these other entities' approach, but what we do know is that many lenders will try to enter the field and then exit because cross-border lending is operationally complex. It requires compliance, deep infrastructure, servicing capability, and technology that most institutions find difficult to navigate into scale. MoXi solved that challenge through a compliant technology-driven model that connects U.S. underwriting standards with Mexican collateral management.

While we don't have firsthand information of why the programs might not have worked for other banks who have either tried or may try in the future, we do know from experience that establishing a company with the right systems and the right compliance and all of that in Mexico is not for the faint of heart. It hasn't been easy, it's taken a lot of work, a lot of investment, a lot of blood, sweat and tears from a lot of very intelligent people and people who've had a heart set out to do this and make this work. So, we can tell you firsthand it wasn't easy, and it continues to provide challenges, but we continue to work hard to stay focused on overcoming those. And we've been very fortunate to have a great team that's been confident, strong enough to continue to push forward. Brian, thank you for your question. We do get that quite often, and hopefully that provides some insight from MoXi's perspective on the way we may have seen some enter and then depart the field.

Louis asks, "Does MoXi have a client portal where English-speaking clients can see their account and make their payments directly?" We have a couple of portals. Again, a couple of answers to your question. MoXi has an English-language borrower portal where the borrower will log in through the application process and getting qualified. So, you'll have a secure online portal where you can e-sign documents, upload conditions throughout the application and the closing process. Once the loan closes and everything's done and funded, we will transfer the servicing right to our U.S.-based servicing partner and then they will provide you with account access through online portal and just make sure you've got all the tools that you need to stay in communication with us and to keep tabs on your account, have all the information that you need. The great news is that payments are serviced in U.S. dollars in the United States and are automatically drafted from a U.S. bank account each month. So, it's going to pretty much look and feel just like it would in the United States with regards to making your payments and having access to your online portal.

Here's a couple of specific questions or scenario-type questions that we'll cover real quick and then we will jump into the questions coming in through the chat here. For question 15 today, Monica asks or tells us that they own a condo in the El Tezal area that's down here in Los Cabos, and would like to look at financing to take cash out. Awesome, we can absolutely help you do that. MoXi offers cash-out refinancing, which allows you to access the equity in your Mexico property as long as the title's in your name and the home has been completed. Obviously, all the paperwork has to be in order, the registration and manifestations and all those things. Many clients will do exactly this and then they'll take that capital and reinvest it into the property for renovations, or maybe make additional investments, buy another house, pay down debt, whatever you'd like to do. But we do absolutely offer cash-out refinances so that borrowers can harvest their equity in their Mexican real estate.

Obviously, you'd still have to meet the standard qualification criteria, and obviously if the borrower qualifies, then we can loan up to 60% of the property's appraised value for a cash-out refinance. If we're just doing a refinance for rate and term, maybe trying to take out another loan or something like that, we can go to 65%. However, for a cash-out, meaning you're going to take cash out of the property, pull equity, we can finance up to 60% of the appraised value. It's a great question, Monica, thank you so much. And we hope to hear from you on that property.

Jacob asks, "I'm building a home in Cabo San Lucas on a lot that I've owned for years. Can I finance the construction, or a portion of it?" Jacob, I'm sad to say today we don't have a construction program directly, however, we do have that for future thinking. We're hoping to get there sooner than later. However, we do work with many borrowers who are either buying a home and having it built, or have owned their real estate for quite some time and are looking to now build on that property. While we don't offer construction financing directly, once the home is complete and the property's titled, we can finance the finished home and we can treat it either as a purchase money loan, so you're buying a home from a builder being constructed, we can treat that as like a delayed purchase or purchase loan.

Or if in a situation like what you're talking about where you've owned the land for some time, then we can then you would already be entitled. So once your home is complete, the construction's finished and everything's registered, then we can just treat that as a cash-out refinance to reimburse you the cash out of pocket. Okay, so no direct construction financing, no stage funding today, but we do work with folks to help replenish their cash that's been invested, that same. That's exactly right, Alex. Great call. So, depending on the amount that you need to borrow in a situation like this, we actually have the MoXi Anywhere Loan, and that loan is targeted for customers who need to access anywhere from 75,000 U.S. up to 200,000 U.S. dollars.

It's a shorter term loan, it's a 10-year product, a little bit higher interest rates, but much easier to qualify, much quicker to fund, and also doesn't require as much or really any collateral view. So, if you're looking for something under $200,000, if that would help you there, I highly recommend you look at our Anywhere product by MoXi. Thank you Alex for that reminder. Okay. All right, question number 17, we're almost at the end. We're going to field the check questions. Roger asks, "Do I receive full U.S. tax benefits when buying a rental property in Mexico as part of my business?" It's a million-dollar question, Roger, we get that quite a bit. I always recommend consulting with a U.S. tax advisor who understands international real estate. MoXi loans are reported in a way that supports U.S. tax compliance, so your CPA will have the documentation that they need.

Generally speaking, you can deduct mortgage interest as a foreign rental property if the loan's properly structured, but tax treatment really depends on how you hold the property, your overall tax situation. Again, we totally recommend that you consult with your U.S. tax advisor who understands what it is that you're trying to do, and just make sure that they have. But we do issue your 1098, which is your mortgage INT statement, at the end of the year. So, we'll give you the vehicle that you need so that you can report the mortgage interest that you've paid into your mortgage, and if it fits your specific scenario, your guys can do that.

All right, and this, I believe, will be our last question for today, and then we can move to open forum there. David asks, "How competitive are MoXi's rates?" Again, the million-dollar question, we get this one pretty often. From an apples to apples comparison, our rates are incredibly competitive with cross-border financing space, because they're fully fixed, fully amortized and denominated in U.S. dollars. If, in the United States, if you were to apply for a loan as a foreign national, possibly non-owner occupied, so forth and so on, we find that if we compare our program against programs like that that exist in the United States on the other side, we find that we are competitive, if not better priced in many instances than what a comparable product would look like stateside.

Most of our buyers aren't used to seeing those, kind of pricing for the comparison, so to make it easy to understand, I'll tell you that MoXi's rates in general will be about two to maybe 2.5% higher than what you see on your thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages in the United States, interest rates are determined just like they are in the United States based off risk-based criteria. So, credit score, loan amount and loan-to-value is going to determine what your interest rates are. But generally speaking, they're going to be two to 2.5% higher than what you see on the news at night when they're referring to long-term fixed rate mortgages, owner-occupied mortgages in the United States. Most international financing still relies on variable rate products, short-term structures, complicated exotic calculations and that type of stuff. And MoXi's model prioritizes stability, predictability, which is why our rates reflect the quality and durability of the loan structure, fixed-rate mortgages.

6% per year. Let me come back to that, but if we're talking about interest rates, I think generally two to 2.5% higher than U.S. citizens, or I'm sorry, than fixed-rate mortgages in the United States. We've had a dip in the last couple of weeks with the markets moving in the U.S., so right now we're seeing interest rates on our product anywhere from low eights, from low to mid-eights to mid to high nines, just depending on all the criteria. Again, that's going to be loan size, credit score, other qualifying criteria. But generally speaking, we're going to be about 2% higher than what you would see in the United States. Awesome. Perfect. You got it. Thank you so much.

And that is it for pre-questions. These are some of the most common insightful questions we received, and now we can take a look at the live chat and answer some of the questions we have in there. If you're ready to explore financing obviously, or have customers, I know we've got some industry professionals in the call with us here today. Thank you guys. If you're ready to explore financing or have customers that are, please reach out to a member of our sales team, our mortgage advisor team to schedule a call, or visit moxi.global and they can start a loan application right there. Our team is here and ready, willing and able to walk you guys through step by step.

I've got a lot of conversation going on in the chat, so I'm going to try to move through here, and hopefully I don't duplicate message that we've already answered here. Okay, so we talked about the value, we talked about the appraisal process and how the value is derived. We talked about which institutions are making the loan, or the question was there, I see that Alex has covered that. So, we fund our loans directly. We're not a mortgage broker or any of that. We're funded through institutional sources.

Alejandro, we've got the questions there about immediate delivery, so no construction lending yet. Once the home is complete, we can fund on those, but please contact a member of our team, because we do work with customers who are building new homes, buying new homes being built, so forth and so on. So, what we do is we just try to align down the process, work side by side with you from a qualification, underwriting perspective make sure everything's ready so that when the property is complete and properly registered, that we can move towards funding quickly and avoid any long-term delays. So, highly recommend that you contact one of our team members.

"Does property always have to be over 350?" Yes. That really? Okay, I see Alex's answer the question about the 350 value. Thank you, Alex. Guys, again, that's really about value perspective. The minimum loan size is really, we came about that specifically because of the cost associated with closing the transaction, and we found that when you get down in the much lower loan amounts, that the value proposition is diminished when you relate it to the cost associated with it. So, we just want to make sure that we are very transparent in that and that our borrowers have a clear understanding or are comfortable with what they're doing when they're moving forward.

Interest-only loans we've been talking about that we're excited to see that coming down the line. We don't have it today, but what we do expect that we'll move towards that at some point in time.

All right, we are licensed to do business and we're able to do business in all of Mexico for our core product, and then our other Anywhere Product can be used pretty much anywhere in the world. And again, that's the 75,000 to 200,000. It's a different type of loan, so if that's the area that you're looking for, the ballpark that you're looking to play in, please reach out to us and we can give you more information on that.

"Would MoXi consider a multi-unit opportunity with a minimum total of $350,000?" Okay, so try to break down this question here. So multi-unit, one, the minimum value of the total structure that we will work with has to be 350,000 or greater for reasons that we've discussed. With regard to the multi-unit or single unit or whatever, MoXi is a residential mortgage lender, so really we're looking for residential type properties. We do not do commercial, no apartment complexes, anything like that.

We'll do a one to four family, or single family type deal, a duplex, a town home, things along those lines. We do have a provision in our underwriting guidelines. It's not commercial, but we call it mixed use. And when we're talking about mixed use, let's think in El Centro se Miguel de Allende, or maybe downtown San Lucas or San Jose or Puerto Vallarta, but more of a coffee shop downstairs apartment or condominium or living structure upstairs. We offer a mixed use, but there are pretty specific guidelines. 50% of the habitable square footage must be for residential things along those lines. So, if you're thinking of something like that, please reach out to our team for more information on that. But for today, we do not have a commercial product that offers multi-unit unless it's something like a duplex or fourplex. So, great question, and we'd love to talk to you more about that if you're working on a project. All right, awesome.

Jesus over in Riviera Maya, welcome. Let's see, MoXi secured millions for clients. Thank you. "How can my foreign clients refinance their purchase in Mexico and leverage the equity?" Hey, that's a great question, Jesus, and we've been talking about that a little bit here today. Excuse me. Again, we're a residential mortgage lender. We offer purchase money loans and refinance loans, and we offer rate and term refinance, which means maybe just trying to get a better interest rate. But we also offer cash out refinances. So, we just have the borrower apply, we'll go through the process of qualifying from the income and asset perspective and credit perspective for the borrower, and then from the collateral perspective we'll just treat it like a refinance loan would be in the United States. We'll do an appraisal, we'll make sure title's clean. If all the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed and everything is where we need to be, then we'll fund up to 60% of the appraised value in a cash-out refinance for your borrowers.

We find a lot of industry professionals who are working with borrowers and their borrowers will harvest equity from their real estate they purchased in previous years that have appreciated, and then they're now reinvesting that equity that they've harvested into other homes in Mexico. We're seeing some agents have success with that. So again, please bring those to us. Let's talk to you and see how we can help both the borrowers and you, Jesus. Thank you, sir.

U.S. servicing partner, we'll have to get that from our legal department so we can give more explanation on that. But we do have a specific servicing arm in the United States. MoXi does, however, retain the relationship and maintain the relationship throughout the life of the loan. We've got somebody who handles the administrative processes in that, but MoXi still stays in the picture until the loan is paid off. So, there we go. Unfortunately, Canadians at this point in time are not available, however we hope to see that in the near future.

Hi Jake, I see your response. I saw this one pop up when I was answering your question a little bit earlier. We don't lend in the United States as something that we want to be very, very transparent and very clear about. We are a Mexican mortgage entity, right? So, we originate mortgages in Mexico specifically for U.S. citizens. So, we can't use any real estate in the United States as collateral. Some folks will look at harvesting equity for down payments and things along those lines, but we don't use the U.S. real estate as collateral. Again, the Anywhere Loan, excuse me, depending on the amount of money we're looking for, could be a terrific option on that time.

And then Orlando asks about interest rates on the Anywhere Loan. It is a shorter term, much more risky loan for the investors. There's really, the collateral is a personal guarantee, things along those lines, so in those instances you will see interest rates in the double digits. Obviously, they move with the markets, but they are going to be higher than your traditional fixed-rate products. A lot of people will use these as a bridge loan just to finish construction or finalize a pre-construction deal or something along those lines. But please reach out to our team, we'll be happy to dive deep and give you all the information you need on those.

Looks like Alex has answered Fred's question. Fred asked, "How long does it typically take to close a purchase transaction in Mexico?" Average is about 90 days, but each case is different. The time it takes to get a transaction closed and the costs associated with it are directly associated with the complexity of the project itself or the transaction itself. What we find is that when we have well-organized borrowers and well-engaged borrowers who are providing their information and responding quickly, we're able to get through the approval process and get the credit piece of the transaction done relatively quickly. The better engaged the borrowers are, the quicker we can move through the process.

And the same thing goes on the collateral side. If we have a well-organized seller who's got his information together and his legal house in order and is able to provide the documents required by the legal team to move it through the collateral review process so we can get our title reports and so forth and so on, then we're able to move pretty quickly. We've seen closings happen in 75 days, even a little less in some isolated instances. And to be quite transparent, we've seen loans that take six months or even longer to get closed if we have complexities or maybe disorganized parties in the transaction. So it's definitely best to be engaged, but we do realize that nobody wins until we close and fund the deal, so MoXi's commitment is to work aggressively to get to the closing table as quickly as possible.

Fred, great question. Absolutely. Just like in the United States, we'd recommend that you get pre-qualified or pre-approved, and that's what we offer is a full underwrite with our underwriting team, with our decisioning team to issue a full pre-approval that you can take and go shopping before you have a house. So, we recommend that you do that.

No adjustable rate options right now. Our products are all fixed-rate mortgages, so we don't have any adjustable rate or interest-only options today. However, this is a very dynamic industry, so maybe in the future we'll offer a product if it makes sense for everyone.

Alejandro, great question. It looks like Alex has answered your question, but we are a Mexican originator only owned by our U.S. entity, and we're able to transfer the service and rights in the United States to give our borrowers the benefits of tax deductibility and the right documents. I hope I understood that question directly, but since it's serviced in U.S. dollars stateside by our SOC 1 servicer, then that gives us the ability to issue that 1098-INT statement, and you'll take that to your tax advisor, and if appropriate they can use that in your tax filing.

Sergio, for one-to-one, I'm thinking you're asking about if you want to schedule a one-to-one meeting. I see Victoria has answered there. So, if you want to schedule one-to-one, like a discovery call, just contact the MoXi team. You can send an email, we get you connected, but it looks like we've got Victoria there who's chatting with us so you guys can get connected to fill any questions you might have. All right, I see that you provided the email address. Thank you guys.

Alejandro asked about commission fees, and I see that Alex has referenced our fee disclosure. We do have a fee disclosure document called the Mexico Real Estate 101. That's a cost and fees disclosure that gives you a really thorough breakdown what settlement charges might look like in Mexico. I like the way that we've written this document too, because it kind of breaks it down in tables and it speaks to the nation, if you will.

Earlier I mentioned that the cost and complexity of closing a transaction is associated with many different things. One of those is location. So, different parts of the country have different tax rates, so forth and so on. But we do have a document called Mexico Real Estate 101, it's a public-facing document that's always available on the World Wide Web. And it basically talks about overall cost in Mexico. It tells you that, "We are MoXi, here's what we do and here's what we charge." Generally speaking, MoXi charges approximately 3% of the loan amount as an origination fee, and approximately $2,600 in house fees. Outside of that, the rest of the settlement charges are going to be for the most part required whether you pay cash or finance. So, this document has a page that talks about MoXi fees specifically, and then there's another grid there that talks about all the other fees that you will likely see in your real-estate purchasing journey here in Mexico and speaks to those in ranges.

That's a pretty broad and generic document, but it gives you a great early process, high-level overview. If you want to dive deeper on that and get more granular, I absolutely recommend scheduling a call with one of our mortgage advisors so we can dive deep and answer any other detailed questions you guys might have. Okay, awesome.

Alex has answered that question from Jeff about the property over in San Miguel de Allende, 50/50 with your Mexican wife. So, you'll want to definitely connect with a mortgage advisor on the team so we can get more specifics, pardon me, on that deal, but odds are we can certainly help you out.

"Do you report to the U.S. government about the loan about a loan in Mexico?" Taylor, that's a great question. I see Alex, I went to answer that, but do we report to the U.S. government? We get this question a lot, not just about the U.S. government per se, but do we report the mortgage if it's a foreign investment? A lot of people want to know do we report to the credit bureaus, do we report to the government in the United States, so forth and so on. We do report to U.S. credit bureaus as part of our servicing responsibility in the United States. We will report to the credit reporting entities, TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian over there. We do also, as we talked about a little while ago, issue that 1098-INT statement. That's a tax document where we send out to you guys reporting the interest that you've paid in, and then obviously we have to document the interest we've collected. I hope that answers your question and got it. Does that make sense? So, we report to the U.S. and then we also ...

And then we do mortgage interest, but that's about it. Okay? Jake, we'll be talking to you soon my friend. We apologize for any delays again. I see it looks like he bounced, but it was great having Jake a few moments ago.

"Who's the underwriter and are they flexible?" I like Alex's question. We do have a very talented underwriting team. Flexible, certainly. We've got to make sure it fits underwriting guidelines and that type of thing. If you need flexibility or have questions about specific things that you're concerned about, then I would absolutely recommend that you circle up with a mortgage advisor to go over any questions you have or scenarios that you might have. I can tell you that, again, I mentioned earlier, we realize that nobody wins, unless we close and fund the deal. MoXi is ... Our focus is to democratize homeownership across the nations for citizens and we want to make sure that while we're, again, nobody wins unless we're able to make a deal and get the funds.

We're going to do everything we can to approve a mortgage and to make sure that our customers are getting what they're after at the end of the day, but we want to make sure that we do that responsibly while protecting our borrowers and not exposing them to unnecessary misfortune. At the same time, we want to protect our investors so we can continue our business going forward.

And let's see, application fee, looks like Alex has answered that there. We do have an application fee, that's part of that approximately $2,600 we talked about in addition to the origination fee that we charge. Outside of that, all fees or most of those fees will be relevant whether or paying cash or financing. And I got you. Okay, so Crystal was asking about the Anywhere Loan. I see that Alex was talking there.

We have from Zoom user here already working with one of our mortgage advisors. When you're asking about the underwriting, thank you. And Carl is awesome on our team. Carl's one of our senior mortgage advisors. Been with us for a couple of years now. Just a great guy to work with, so you're in good hands there, but he can definitely get you any answers that you need. I'm sure things will work out just like they're supposed to, and we look forward to hopefully celebrating a successful closing with you soon.

Is there anybody have any additional questions or feedback or anything that we could touch on during this last few minutes? If so, please post in the chat. That is a great, yeah, that's a good idea. Let's talk about, thank you so much, Brian, for joining us today, and hopefully we can meet you face-to-face soon.

Yeah, so for the user who's posted about the government shutdown, can we get maybe a little more, maybe a little more context on that as far as what type of challenges we're having? Or if you'd like to circle up? Let's see here, to proofread. Oh, okay. So maybe, I see. So commented a little higher, unable to guarantee with proof that you're getting paid and moving towards retirement, so maybe government pensions or something along those lines. Yes, definitely circle up with Carl on the specifics of that, I know he's familiar with that. And let him know that you're on the chat and then maybe we as a leadership team or other peers of Carl on this side can circle up with him to see how we can influence and help to resolve that and get you moving forward. We do know that certain things going on on that side are causing some challenges with that, so we definitely hope that things soften soon and everybody get back to business. Thank you so much for your questions.

Crystal. No, actually the Anywhere Loan is not collateralized by the hard real estate. The guarantee in that or the security in the Anywhere Loan is through a personal guarantee enforceable in your home country, so no real estate specifically, which is why it's a little shorter term and in tradition a little higher interest rate. There's less actual security there. But it is secured by a personal guarantee. It is, yes, specifically for U.S. citizens. It's securitized by personal guarantee enforceable in the United States. So, the Anywhere Product, all the MoXi products today are specifically for U.S. citizens, and we hope to expand to offer other nationalities in the future. Thank you Alex for that. Or permanent residents, tax paying residents of the United States.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, it is now four p.m. in Cabo San Lucas time, and so Crystal, I think that we're going to have this for redistribution. I'll check with our marketing team. If you could drop us your email address if you have not, or email us at [email protected] and we'll get a reply to you there with a recording. I'll check with the marketing team on how they go out and do that. Thank you, Jason. Thank you so much.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been our absolute honor to have you all here. We will be doing this once a month. We're planning on doing the third week of the month to circle up for a session just like this. So, keep the questions coming, let's do some business together, and we look forward to seeing you all again very, very soon. Thanks so much. Have a great day.