Frugal as I am, there are times that paying a professional is the absolute best use of your money.

Choosing to work with a mortgage broker is one of these times.  It was thanks to our mortgage broker, Adam Siegel, that were were able to buy our apartment in Karmiel.  We spoke to another broker who works for the same office who said there was no way to get a mortgage for our purchase approved.  Adam was referred to me by a friend who was a real estate investor in the US and now works in real estate in Israel, and this a referral that I’ve been very grateful for a number of times.

Adam is amazing at thinking out of the box and finding solutions.  Not only is he highly efficient at finding financing solutions to unorthodox purchasing situations, he’s a very nice person.  This is something you especially appreciate when you have a complicated loan and things get delayed somewhere, but rather than adding to the stress by getting upset, he stays calm and reassures you it will all work out.  And it does.

Now that we’re living in Israel and I can go into banks myself to apply for loans, would I still recommend using a mortgage broker?  Yes, one thousand percent!  A broker can generally get better terms than what you can get for yourself when walking in off the street.  But even if the terms were the same, the sanity that having someone else handle this aspect of home buying brings to my life makes it worth every single penny and more.

The paperwork for buying a home here is much more complicated than in the US and there are huge penalties for not closing the purchase within the time specified in your sales contract.  I appreciate not having to worry about making sure the banks get the paperwork done in the time specified in the contract; the broker does. We didn’t have much paperwork when when we bought our house in the US.  The file when we bought our Karmiel apartment was literally several hundred pages.  I hate paperwork.

Also, it’s extremely helpful to have an English speaker who can explain all the technical legal terms you’re signing on.  The terms of a mortgage are quite important to clearly understand before you sign anything.

Obviously, Adam is once again handling our mortgage for our new home. 🙂

I strongly encourage people to buy a home in Israel if it’s at all possible, and finding someone who knows how to effectively facilitate the process makes a huge difference in being successful in this or not.

If you want to reach Adam, here are his details:

• email: asiegel@mortgageisrael.com
• if calling from Israel – 052-714-4056
• if calling from the US – 845-364-7476

If you give Adam a call, be sure to let him know that I recommended him!

Avivah