Solano Real Estate Scene: Jim Porter
Article By: Jim Porter – July 10, 2026
Helping a family achieve the American Dream of homeownership with a mortgage is a rewarding achievement for a loan officer team.
The licensed originator, processor, underwriter, document drawer and funder all work together to provide the financing required to meet the terms of the residential purchase agreement (RPA) that the Realtor negotiated for the homebuyer with the seller.
Most first-time home buyers are buying with 5% or less down so when they are paying $550,000 for the house, they are buying a 30-year mortgage for more than $500,000.
Nowadays, the median age of a California first-time homebuyer is over 45, an all-time high, so selling a mortgage is not as easy as it used to be now that the buyer will be 75 when they make the final mortgage payment.
Selling mortgages is a huge responsibility and this is especially true for selling cash-out refinances because when a person refinances a mortgage, in most cases, the lender sells the client a whole new 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, which obviously can extend that final mortgage payment from age 75 to 85 or 90.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing a cash-out refinance when the cash out is being used for home improvements or something financially beneficial. One common reason for doing a cash-out refi that banks, credit unions and mortgage bankers sell is debt consolidation, which is often necessary for people that get buried in credit card, automobile, second mortgage and unsecured loan debt.
A cash-out refi to payoff $100,000 worth of high rate and high monthly payment debt can be a financial life saver or a financial disaster. If the borrower pays off the $100,000 in debt and reduces their monthly outgo by $1,200 per month and then invests the $1,200 per month in an IRA or pays an extra $1,200 per month toward the mortgage balance, thus reducing the term of the loan, then this is a winning strategy. But if the borrower spends the $1,200 at the casino every month and runs up the debt again, this will be a disaster and something that happens all the time.
Converting unsecured debt to debt secured against a residence can be a huge mistake, because sadly, sometimes a chapter 13 or 7 bankruptcy is the right solution to avoid losing the house.
Buying a mortgage loan should be done with a local loan officer that cares more about the referrals they will get from you over the next 10 years than one bonus or commission they will make on the one mortgage sale.
Jim Porter, NMLS No. 276412, is the branch manager and senior loan adviser of Solano Mortgage, NMLS No. 1515497, a division of American Pacific Mortgage Corporation, NMLS No. 1850, licensed in California by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the CRMLA / Equal Housing Opportunity. Jim can be reached at 707-449-4777.
Jim Porter, NMLS No. 276412, is the branch manager of Solano Mortgage, NMLS No. 1515497, a division of American Pacific Mortgage Corporation, NMLS No. 1850, licensed in California by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the CRMLA / Equal Housing Opportunity. Jim can be reached at 707-449-4777.
