| Sei Kidau, president of Prestige Funding LLC, is affable as we talk in his real estate/brokerage office on the outskirts of Waunakee. We share a laugh when Kidau reveals that he has a degree in political science from UW-Oshkosh and a Master's in public administration, sharing the experience of working in a field outside one's degree. Yet his education is important to Kidau. "It's important for everyone to get an education," Kidau emphasized. "An education in and of itself doesn't guarantee much or success. It just helps put you in the game. Everyone should go to school." Kidau was born in Liberia and emigrated to the U.S. with his family to escape the brutal civil war and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin when he was 12 years old. He attended Vincent High School before he went to UW-Oshkosh where he played football. Oshkosh is also where Kidau met his wife Melissa who had come to the Fox Valley from Jamaica to get an education. Kidau was old enough to remember Liberia where he grew up, yet young enough to become an "All American" youth. He's grateful to be living in the U.S. because it offers opportunities he wouldn't necessarily find back in Liberia. "When I was 12 years old, what my late father told me when he brought me to this country was, 'Look, if you can't make it in America, then you can't make it anywhere,'" Kidau said. "I can say that I'm Black and I have problems, but if you're Black and you're in Africa, you have more problems. If you're Black and in Brazil, you have more issues. If you are Black and in Europe, you have more issues than you have in Madison. So you might as well hang it up. That's the reality of it." Kidau is also grateful for America's system of property rights and how they are recorded and protected. He feels that it serves as the foundation of America's civilization and its wealth. Back home in Africa, there are no guarantees. "You may have a person who sells the same plot of land to three different people and then sits back and watches them fight over it to see who wins," Kidau said about the property rights system in Liberia. "So you have to be very, very careful. Unless you are privy enough to go down to the minister of lands and mines, then you hope they have archives and hope the records didn't burn during the last civil war. You have to depend upon witnesses, people who can vouch that your father owned the land 35 years ago. In America, I can be secure in owning a piece of property and knowing that it is mine. Unless I sell it, no one can take it from me unless the government had a very good reason to take it from me. And then, I would have to be compensated for it what it was worth." "You can put up a shop," Kidau continued about property rights in America. "You can put up a mall. Other kinds of developments can go on and you don't have to worry about somebody else coming along and saying 'That's mine. Here's the mother deed. The other deed that you have is false and you should get your money back from that other guy that you bought my land from.'" Kidau got into the mortgage field by a twist of fate. "I was a nonconforming borrower at one point and a mortgage broker helped me out," Kidau recalled. "So I started looking into the field. I had a friend who was an immigrant who told me that if he sold his house now, he would make $100,000 and move back to Nigeria. His strategy was from the moment he arrived in America, he bought a home. Every time he moved, he sold his home and rolled the money into the next home. It's pretty much like his retirement plan. I was impressed with that. So I thought this real estate thing sounded interesting." Kidau is very much interested in property as a mortgage broker. He acts almost like an independent insurance agent in that he represents his client as he tries to get the best mortgage deal that he can from the loan companies like Wells Fargo, Countrywide and Washington Mutual with whom he has a working relationship. Melissa, Kidau's wife, is the owner of Manchester Realty Group. So together, they can help people find, purchase and finance a home. And if a client's credit history is not where it needs to be, Kidau will help them repair their credit to make them eligible for an affordable mortgage. "You're always going to get better service overall from me," Kidau said. "Our competitive advantage is this. We represent a client through the whole process. We help them find a house. We help negotiate the price. Then we help them get a loan. I'm able to get a person a more competitive loan when I work with them on their home because I make my money on the home and then the loan sometimes ends up being an after thought. I've never lost business to a bank because of interest rates. I make my money making the loan. But when you go to the bank, whatever interest rates they have on their window is what they have to give everyone. With me, I have several lenders. It's like going to 100 banks at one time. Now I'm always going to look and see which bank is giving the best rate for my client." While Kidau personally prefers fixed-rate mortgages because then the home buyer knows exactly what he/she will be paying each month and can plan accordingly, there are times when adjustable rates benefit the customer. "Some people would go with the adjustable rate, depending on the client," Kidau said. "Some clients are maybe moving to town and they know they are going to be in Madison for three years. So they'll opt for a five-year adjustable to keep their payments lower. There's no cookie-cutter for everyone. Doing the adjustable or the fixed rate is strictly based on the individual." Adjustable-rate mortgages are more risky because they can cause cash-flow problems and force the owner into foreclosure when interest rates start to climb. While they work for some people, Kidau strongly recommends against them just to be able to qualify for a mortgage. "Let's say you don't qualify with a 6.5 percent fixed rate, but so then you go for a 5.5 percent adjustable rate mortgage, that's a problem," Kidau emphasized. "You're not going to get a $4 raise in the next 2-3 years. They'll have a crisis at some point. People have to be smart about the biggest investment of their entire life. They shouldn't take it lightly. We don't take it lightly." Kidau prides himself in giving good mortgage advice and the vast majority of his clients respect his advice and takes it. But there are always some who are a penny wise and a pound foolish. "What sometimes clouds the picture is I recommend something and they take it and run around shopping it around and someone recommends something else," Kidau said. "They call me back and say 'Can you do this? This guy says he can do this.' I say Yes, I can do that, but why would you want to do that?' So they respond that they want to do it. So I have a choice. I either give them what someone else recommended to them or I let the other guy take the business. You would not be in business if you err on the side of losing money." At some point in the future, Kidau and Melissa plan to get into the development side of the industry. "Right now, we're in the business of helping families buy homes," Kidau said. "What we found is that sometimes, there is just nothing on the market that meets their particular needs. So we would like to get into the position to actually build the house at the location that they want. Sometimes you show people 50 houses and they just aren't satisfied with what's out there. Sometimes, it might be a matter of getting a lot and saying 'Okay, now we'll build you a custom home.'" It's the next step in Kidau's plan to share his American Dream with his customers. Sei Kidau and Prestige Funding LLC can be reached at (608) 850-4121. His e-mail is sei@prestigefundingllc.net. |
| Prestige Funding LLC and Manchester Realty Group Land values By Jonathan Gramling |
 |