Miriam Gilmore is a mortgage banker with City First Mortgage Services in Miami.

Every week, we ask a Miami real estate professional for their thoughts on the top three stories from the week before. This week, we talked with Miriam Gilmore, a mortgage banker with City First Mortgage Services LLC in Miami.

Miami Agent (MA): Are lending standards easing in your area?

Miriam Gilmore (MG): I think that there are a lot of different programs available for buyers right now, even with extenuating circumstances such as people who have had short sales in the past. I think it’s an obvious need in my market. This was such a hard hit area for short sales and foreclosures; a lot of buyers have that on their credit. For first time-homebuyers it’s a different story, but for it’s not for people who are moving or need to buy again.

MA: Does the prevalence of all-cash purchases make it harder for financing to have a place in Miami’s hottest markets?

MG: I think it makes it difficult in two ways: First, cash deals sometimes allow sellers to be able to sit on the property and hold off a while. They have a price and that’s the price they want, and so it turns out they’re not budging on the price. If the property doesn’t appraise, the buyer either has to come up with the difference, or another cash buyer will buy it. Second, cash deals makes it difficult for buyers that are coming in with financing because sellers rather take the cash deal. It’s easier, simpler and quicker.

MA: Are there any new government policies, including Qualified Mortgage (QM), that are having an impact on your business?

MG: Well, the QM is something that is affecting us on the compliance side. It’s so new that the buyers aren’t really feeling it, but everything on our end – on the actual operations side – it’s heavy on compliance and documentation. It’s just more work for operations.

The only other thing is that the FHA loan limits came down from $423,000 to $345,000 so that’s something that’s new and definitely will affect the industry.