ADA Member Advantage program helps dentist save on mortgage and purchase his dream vacation home
This year, Michael Regan Anderson, D.D.S., M.S., took advantage of historic low interest rates to acquire not one, but two mortgages through the Laurel Road mortgages for dentists program.
A native of the Pacific Northwest, Dr. Regan Anderson relocated to Minnesota to attend dental school at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry, where he completed his masters and certificate program in endodontics. He is the owner of a thriving endodontics practice, Zumbro Valley Endodontics, in Rochester, Minnesota, along with his business partner, Deborah Majerus, D.D.S., M.S.
Dr. Regan Anderson said he decided to settle in the Midwest after dental school because, “My wife is from Minnesota, and her family is here. We knew we wanted to live in a middle-sized city that had job opportunities for her as well as me. Rochester is home of the Mayo Clinic and my wife has a Ph.D. in molecular cancer biology, so it was a good location for both of us.”
The past year has been eventful for Dr. Regan Anderson, to say the least. In spring of 2020, he, his wife and young son welcomed a new daughter into their family. “I had owned my home here in Rochester for about two years when I saw through an email from the ADA that Laurel Road had a mortgage program for dentists.” He was already familiar with Laurel Road, because he worked with the company to consolidate and refinance his student loans. He did some homework and ultimately pursued obtaining a mortgage refinance. “The rates were great.” Refinancing his mortgage from a 30 year down to a 15 year term, Dr. Regan Anderson was able to take advantage of further savings with the additional 0.25% rate reduction that ADA members are eligible to receive. “When I refinanced I had over 20% equity in my house, so I didn’t need to take advantage of the waved PMI. It's a nice feature of the program that could help somebody elsethough, it just didn't apply to me in this case.”
Dr. Regan Anderson’s family was able to utilize the program a second time this year. “We have family with vacation places up in northern Minnesota and we knew we wanted to see if we could buy up there so all the kids can grow up together.” He and his wife found a cabin on a lake in the Whitefish Chain outside Brainerd, Minnesota. “There is a main cabin with a guest cabin on the property and it’s on a lake, so the kids just love to go fishing.” When asked about the fishing prowess of his one-year-old, he said he and his wife mostly just try to keep her from putting the fish in her mouth at this point, but it looks like she will grow up fearless. “The cabin faces west, so as a family we can enjoy the sunsets together.”
While the application process for a loan is never fun, Dr. Regan Anderson added, with Laurel Road it was a relatively smooth process. “Underwriting can be tough,especially as a young business owner. But the loan officer I used for the refinance was the same one I used for our second mortgage and they were probably the best loan officer I’ve ever worked with.” He adds that he when he first started the process of refinancing his home and purchasing the cabin, he had started working with a friend who is a mortgage broker. “He and I were both surprised that this mortgage program was better than what he could get me even with a generous discount in closing costs.”
