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Key Factors RealEstateAF
Educational Podcast for Consumers, Mortgage & Real Estate Industry Professionals. We'll Talk About It All! Key Factors podcast, powered by https://ReviewMyMortgage.com . Your Host Mark Jones invites Industry Pros to help uncover & educate on the key factors of various topics. There’s something for everyone so let us be your guides and get educated. Subscribe & Follow on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Facebook, Instagram, & all other podcasting platforms. Host : Mark A Jones Founder of ReviewMyMortgage.comProducing Branch MangerSr. Loan Officer. NMLS ID# 513437NMLS Consumer Access: http://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/Powered by ReviewMyMortgage.com
Key Factors RealEstateAF
Home Affordability - The Government Policies That Help Us & Hurt Us - First Time Homebuyers
Get ready to explore the pivotal role of housing in economic resilience with our distinguished guests, John Hudson and Brianna Jones. We're unpacking the latest residential construction trends, job data, and the impact of lower interest rates on the housing market. Learn about the Federal Reserve's shift from prioritizing inflation to focusing on growth, and how this move is influencing market reactions, particularly for small caps and high-quality stocks. This episode is packed with insights for managing your portfolio strategically in the current economic climate.
Do Kamala Harris's plans to build three million new homes and Donald Trump's opportunity zones hold the key to solving the affordable housing crisis? We dive into a critical examination of these proposals, considering their feasibility and potential impacts. We discuss the intricate balance between federal and state powers, and how current and future administrations' policies could shape the housing market. From regulatory barriers to economic issues, this debate covers all the angles of affordable housing policy.
In our final segments, we discuss practical solutions and advocacy for prospective homebuyers, including the intricacies of a proposed $25,000 down payment assistance program. We emphasize the importance of financial education and professional guidance in the home buying process. From the benefits of zero-down payment FHA loans to the critical role of trustworthy loan officers, we cover it all. Tune in to gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities in today’s housing market, and walk away with actionable insights for navigating homeownership.
Key Factors Podcast is Powered by ReviewMyMortgage.com
Host: Mark Jones | Sr. Loan Officer | NMLS# 513437
If you would like to work with Mark on your next home purchase or as a partner visit iThink Mortgage.
Thank you in a soft landing scenario. So how does it all fit together, and what role do you think housing has in whether, in fact, we can still sort of be resilient in this economy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think housing thank you for having me I think housing is everything. Honestly, there's an old paper housing is the economy, and it kind of oversimplifies everything. But to a certain extent, there's a lot of truth in that, and at 314, that's how we look at the world we have a framework for determining whether the economy's heading into a recession. We focus on residential construction, jobs, and so, because of that focus, we really model everything out in the housing industry, and today's data was definitely a good sign. I mean, there's been weakness. It's something we've been concerned about since mid-year was definitely a good sign. I mean, there's been weakness. It's something we've been concerned about since mid-year. We're still on the soft landing train, I should say, or the bandwagon, but it's nice to see some reactivity to these lower rates, and I think that's what you're going to need to have to keep the housing market moving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean obviously it's been a little bit slippery in terms of that relationship, right, I mean you didn't see an immediate burst of demand. You're seeing existing inventories come back online to a fair degree and not immediately being kind of soaked up. So, more broadly, how much more confidence did you have after today's message from Powell and the market action? Or just were you always in this camp that says, listen, the volatility is noise and we're going to be OK?
Speaker 2:Were you always in this camp that says, listen, the volatility is noise and we're going to be OK. Yeah, no, I think that look to me there's a lot to get kind of ostensibly worried about in the market, and you'll hear a lot about these things, I think, over the next three months and there's validity to them. So things like seasonality September is a notoriously weak period for the market. You have NVID, nvidia earnings next week who knows how that's going to break and obviously the election, which is the huge wild card that nobody knows how to discount, and so in a lot of ways it can feel kind of scary out there. But the bottom line is, I think since mid-year, this market equation has gotten a lot easier to solve.
Speaker 2:So the bottom line is inflation is no longer, at least for right now, a concern in the market, and Powell confirmed that today. He talked about inflation in the past tense, which to me it's a huge change, and it tells me that, no matter what, if you're at home thinking about this and you don't think inflation is dead, it doesn't matter what the Fed, the guy controlling the Fed thinks. Inflation is behind us and that has huge implications for policy. So, with inflation dead, all we have to worry about is growth going forward. So it goes back to your housing question, goes back to is the consumer responding to lower rates and things like that. But the equation is simplified. So growth is everything. At this point in time has major implications for how you create your portfolio and what we're paying attention to. Going forward and ultimately, I think those things that are really headline grabbing risks distraction. Ultimately, if we avoid a recession, the market is going to go higher going into next year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, I mean all those lines about how well it's always been smart to sell the first Fed rate cut. I mean that really was only because Fed rate cuts often led to recessions and a couple of times it didn't happen. That was a bad, bad play. But I guess within the market what makes most sense here. I mentioned earlier that you know today they sort of just enacted the old playbook Russell flying on profitable tech up four percent or so on the day, banks moving. Does that sort of make sense, or or is there another place to do it?
Speaker 3:I'm going to run and go get us yeah for me our fund and our model.
Speaker 2:We invest in high quality companies. I think this is the right part of the cycle for that. I know that if we thread the perfect needle on a soft landing, then, yes, the small caps make some sense, I think. But notoriously this is a bad time in the cycle to be levered up on small caps. So I've been shying away from that space all year and that's just where I am philosophically, where we are in the cycle.
Speaker 3:All we can do is lead the horses to the moon.
Speaker 2:Max 7, on the other hand is a little bit crowded, I think everybody feels that way, and so if you're going to beat the quote-unquote benchmark here, I think you're going to need to find high quality stocks that you feel confident holding through some of this volatility that we're talking about, and so that's what we're doing. A lot of that means no small caps, reduced weight in MAG-7, less cyclical.
Speaker 3:And we're back with another episode of Key Factors Podcast Real Estate, af where the AF stands for and finance. And we're going to be talking about both today real estate and finance. And we're going to be talking about both today real estate and finance and we're going to be talking about it from a bigger standpoint of home affordability and what the current administration, future administration and the potential administration are actually going to be providing us business in the business industry folks, as well as homebuyers out there. So I brought along a very famous guest that continues to provide us with outstanding sports picks Mr John Hudson, how you doing.
Speaker 4:I'm doing great, man. Mark, thanks for having me back. As always, I've got some great, hot sports opinions here to share with the world.
Speaker 3:And we're looking forward to hearing them. So my next guest, brianna Jones how are you doing? I'm good, how are you Doing? Very well? Thanks for reaching out and deciding to join on this. So, without going further, I definitely want to give you an opportunity to tell the audience who you are kind of, how you got into the business, all that good stuff, so that they can understand why they should be listening to your gospel. Go for it, hold that mic closer to you.
Speaker 5:I have kind of a unique background in real estate in general.
Speaker 3:Way closer.
Speaker 5:My family's been in real estate.
Speaker 5:For my whole life my grandmother's been was basically kind of spearheaded Redfin in Austin. So I had a really good look into that when I was young and that's kind of where my interest peaked with that. I mean back in the day when Redfin was a salaried agents and then I moved to Texas 10 years ago to continue training horses. So I had a background in sales already and then I got really burnt out doing that and she got me into the title side of it working for Austin Title. So I had a background in sales already and then I got really burnt out doing that and she got me into the title side of it working for Austin Title. So I learned the back side of it and I kind of was sitting there going man, I'm just on all these commission checks Like this is ridiculous, like what am I doing here? I could do this Like unfortunately I was doing a lot of agents jobs and then I left Austin Title and moved into commercial real estate doing the same thing but on a commercial level and got another again, another realm of experience with it and during that time I got my license and then COVID hit.
Speaker 5:So I got hit multiple times over doing still doing commercial stuff on the backend and doing my license there and linked up with a developer who I still work for now, and so it's been really interesting to you know not only sell real estate myself but also work for a developer here in the city of San Antonio. That gives me an inside track to what's going on in the city, how things you know work and just affordability for housing and who's struggling and who's not, and it's really interesting. So that's kind of my background and I don't see it change any time soon.
Speaker 3:Well, I love the fact that we're getting to see this and we'll be able to kind of attack this from multiple perspectives, and that being a lot of times we tend to only think of ourselves as home buyers and what is the policy going to and how it's going to affect me, whereas we don't think about how it affects the builders, the folks that are actually providing the properties that we can purchase, and for quite some time now, it's been difficult for them to put more homes on the ground.
Speaker 3:We'll just call it that. So, kind of to kick this thing off, I wanted to discuss the different policies, what we're seeing in the media in regards to what you've got Donald Trump, you've got Kamala Harris at this point, the two camps that are vowing for our votes. Essentially, and just like they said in this video, I think home affordability is at the top of the docket in my opinion, and if it's not, it should be. Um, it kind of keeps our economy flowing, uh, it keeps it moving and keeps it growing, um, and I believe that home ownership is the one driver that will lead to generational wealth. You know, I mean, that's just the one thing that if you, as a renter versus a buyer and, john, you've mentioned it many times before the net worth of a homeowner versus the net worth of a renter 400,000 to 10,000.
Speaker 4:It's super simple, right, that's. That's as easy as it could get 40x, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I pulled up and, jc, if you want to go to the references real quick, I pulled up something and I like to use ChatGPT. So this is showing for 2024 US presidential election. The candidates have proposed a range of policies to address affordable housing, reflecting their broader economic vision. So I don't know where it got these from, but it got them. It says Harris, kamala Harris, democratic nominee, building three million new homes, and what I'd like to do is maybe go through each one of these and provide some feedback on them. Building three million new homes Harris plans to contract three million new homes, both for sale and rent units. By reducing regulatory barriers and speeding up the local permit process, this initiative aims to increase housing supply and reduce cost. Me personally, I think that's great. It's more so a issue of how. Do you guys want to add anything to that?
Speaker 4:Well, I was just going to ask our guest, having worked with local PNC. Yeah, how easy is it to get three million just like that?
Speaker 5:Good luck, good luck, good luck getting the permit process. I mean that's why our government exists and has checks and balances and why we have a state government and a federal government. She can't insert herself into the state government. That's just never going to happen, especially in a state like texas with a governor like abbott, and probably whoever comes in after is going to be very similar. Your permitting process just never gonna. You're not gonna speed it up. State level, city level, is completely different than on a federal, and I'm all for it, because when things got expensive a couple of years ago, it was because building costs went up because of regulatory and it's supply and demand Sure, but there's no supply and demand with permits. There's a backlog months and months long.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And you speak of supply and demand. I was watching a clip yesterday. It was actually CNBC, and normally most of them are all biased, but the actual reporter was kind of pushing back a little bit. The idea of regulating prices at the grocery store comes along with price control, and the senator kept saying well, there are states that already have these policies in play. Well, yes, they do. And why is it that you believe that you should inject whatever it is that you're trying to do to it? Because you're using data that is inaccurate, essentially to kind of fake the public into thinking that price control is a good thing.
Speaker 4:Well, you just named it. Fake the public. I mean it's pure political tapestry. That's all that was, and that was a brilliant debate between Liz Warren and Joe Kernan. Yes, sir, which typically you don't get, that kind of pushback from CNBC, of all people. So that was really refreshing. And just to add on, right, you mentioned Texas, but holy cow, even her own people in California. How long do you think the entitlement process is to even get a piece of land ready to be developed? Yeah, before you even move a shovel.
Speaker 5:Ten years Right.
Speaker 4:Right. So it's not feasible to just say, hey, we're going to add three million new units, unless we're talking state-run apartments.
Speaker 3:That's what I'm thinking. Right Projects, that is, land already owned by the government, which is also rare likely to be owned by China.
Speaker 5:It's owned by a couple of REITs and they don't care. They don't care, they just condemned. One in South San Antonio says a nuisance to the public and I had a pretty good insight to that and it took. They don't care, they just condemned. One in South San Antonio said it's a nuisance to the public and I had a pretty good insight to that and it took five years. I mean, they're running the cartel out of there, and if that tells you anything, they just don't care.
Speaker 3:Right. So I guess, with trying to be unbiased in this, I'm going to go back and forth Sure, Because it looks like there's three and four so we can at least get through some of these backwards and forwards. So under the Donald Trump Republican nominee campaign, you've got number one opportunity zones. Trump's administration previously established opportunity zones, which offer tax incentives to investors and economically distressed communities. This policy will likely continue, although its effectiveness in providing affordable housing has been debated. What are your thoughts on that? I like the actual policy that he put in play. I've heard and seen many take advantage of this business owners, investors, putting big dollars into projects and essentially saying it was a damn good policy that was in place because it gives not only them, as the investor, the opportunity and the benefits, but also whatever it is that they're building to the public giving benefits that way as well.
Speaker 4:Right, you know I mean the thing with opportunity loans, opportunity zones and trust me, I'm not for big government jumping in, right, not at all Same. But there are cases where things do have to be subsidized by everybody else, and in a lot of cases, because of who knows where it all started. The reality is, today the only way that you're going to really be able to help a developer and a builder to go out there and do what we would call affordable housing is to subsidize it to where it's economically viable for that home builder or developer as well. Correct, because otherwise builder developers just going to say you know what? My margin is a lot better in the half million dollar area. I'm just going to keep focusing on this. That's exactly right.
Speaker 4:When what we're missing is the $200,000. So I'm all for tax incentives, yeah, because that way it's also not just a blank check being written by the government saying here, go do this, it's, you have to put the work in first and then you're going to get it later.
Speaker 3:You get the benefit out of it. Right, correct, and it goes kind of hand in hand with some of the things that I don't quite agree with. Raising the taxes on the wealthy or corporations, I mean, it's already shown to lead to less productivity, less hiring, less passing down to the actual consumer and the employee. In many cases. You've already seen studies that show by decreasing the taxes on corporations they bring in more revenue. Revenue then provides more pay for those employees and it increases productivity. For some odd reason, you give incentives to do better and people end up doing better. Weird, what a concept. So let's go back to uh Kamala's stuff and I'm going to skip number two. We'll talk about that. One last Um. It says rent relief programs. Harris support significant investment in rent relief, including a hundred million dollars. A hundred billion dollar uh commitment over 10 years to um assist lowincome families facing housing insecurity. What are your thoughts, guys?
Speaker 4:My initial hot sports take. I'm great with you know. Basically Section 8 is what that is.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 4:You know it's just expanding the Section 8 program. I think that I believe that the challenge there, though, is and again you know it's, it's it's frustrating it's how that money gets dispersed on the local levels, because big chunk cuts gets cut up up top and the bottom. By the time it funnels all the way down.
Speaker 4:It's really not helping as many people as it should be right and so you still, you still have so much waste that's stuck in between, very true, and then, at the same time too, are the units really good places for the people that are low income To be there, correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't disagree with that. The idea of building more of the Section 8, also something that they never will own, does it not add more to the idea of staying on the government teat?
Speaker 4:so to speak, and that's the real challenge, right? I mean, I do believe that there should be strings attached.
Speaker 5:Yeah Right, this is a temporary fix, exactly.
Speaker 4:No, go for it Either one.
Speaker 5:Anywhere we look when we do a government program, there should be a clear path forward to get you off the government assistance. Government assistance was not built for people to live on it forever. And guess what? They're all doing it.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 5:Why do you think Chicago's in shambles? Why do you think any of these and I'm going to run on it Democrat cities are like this Because they don't have any term limits. They just keep getting handouts, and more and more. For the fact of matter, you asked me about the illegal immigrants, the housing for illegal immigrants. They're going to keep taking as long as we keep giving. They're going to keep taking to the point where we have no money left to give, so then it keeps coming out of the taxpayers' pockets. We keep raising the taxes and it goes back to more taxes. We're less productive because you cut down your margins and, I'm sorry, the wealthy. When they feel tight, they don't spend money.
Speaker 5:No, middle class is more likely to overspend than the upper class, that's right, that is true. Back to the matter.
Speaker 3:It's true.
Speaker 4:It's very true, you know. Just to kind of pile onto that too, it just dawned on me and so, like Haven for Hope, right that is. I mean it's a private nonprofit, absolutely yeah, but people can't stay there forever no Correct. But what they do is they get them in, they give them a temporary place to get them back on their feet, and then let them out.
Speaker 5:Haven for Hope, arms of Hope, year long commitment, mm-hmm, and that's it. You got to go, you have to have your stuff together and you got to go be back in the world like a responsible adult. Yeah, hopefully.
Speaker 3:And I see no issues with programs like that. I mean, there are times when folks get down and out and they need a little bit of help, and I'm all for it.
Speaker 5:I want to help them, I want to build a community that does that, but not so that we're just supporting them for the rest of their lives.
Speaker 3:Right, we're just supporting them for the rest of their lives. Bingo Right. And it turns out that most of these type programs end up being a prolonged crutch. That then becomes reality and all of a sudden we're 10 years later and wondering why this area of town is still run down, why there's nobody wanting to invest in this area, why the folks in that area tend to have a lower IQ, lower income, lower many things you know.
Speaker 4:I mean that just reminds me that I got to see George W Bush speak a couple of times and man, he had a great, great quote about that and it was interesting. Long story short. But he said that you know, one of the worst days of his presidency wasn't necessarily 9-11, but it was when Kanye called him racist during Katrina Remember that? Yeah, but he kind of went off into a. I mean he was really like genuinely hurt by that Right and he went off into kind of a different story. But you know, he made a quote and it rung with me and it was one of the worst forms of discrimination is that of low expectations.
Speaker 3:That's very true, and I have to from a minority ding, ding, ding. I believe that that is accurate. I mean, you are setting the bar too low for people. They believe they're doing well because they're hitting the bar, so to speak, but the bar is way below the expectations of what it takes to thrive in this world these days, you know. But how folks can't see past it, I don't know. I don't know, and that's not something we're going to talk about today.
Speaker 4:It's another topic.
Speaker 2:It's another topic yes.
Speaker 3:Okay, let's jump back over to Trump's stuff here. Number two reducing reduction of housing regulations. Trump advocates for reducing federal regulations that are that he argues, inhibit housing development. His approach includes rolling back certain zone law, zoning laws and promoting free market solutions. I like the idea of free market solutions. That allows people to compete. It allows plenty of things to kind of take place and run themselves that are all intended to help that investor and also help the consumer. What are your thoughts, guys?
Speaker 5:I mean, the country was founded on capitalism and free markets, so I'm all for it.
Speaker 3:Let's have the capitalism conversation, because there are plenty of folks out there right now in this discussion that will go see. That's the problem Capitalism. Capitalism is the issue, and I believe those people tend to confuse capitalism with greed. Yes, greed is something that can affect anything good. I mean, at the end of the day, greed is greed. Capitalism is the idea of free enterprise. It's the idea if I work harder and have a product that everybody wants, then I can make a living and not only make a living help more people that way.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:What are your thoughts, guys?
Speaker 4:I mean, well, you've got to have capitalism, right? I mean, why is it that China is the one stealing all of our ideas? Right, I mean literally, Literally, Even to Disney for crying out loud, but it's true though. I mean they're a state-run communist country, I mean just quasi-capitalist, whatever you call it right, but in reality they're not fraught with innovation. Right, America is. That's right. We do have the ability to think and grow and test. Look at Elon Musk Absolutely great example.
Speaker 5:Prime example.
Speaker 4:He chose America. Yes, Right To come here and have the opportunity to build I mean the guy's landing rockets in the middle of the motion on a robot, did you?
Speaker 3:see that NASA stuff. He's about to save them too Weird. Nasa denied him a while back from working with them and I think that was the moment when he actually cried because he was hurt. Like this was my dream and you guys are shitting on my ideas and now you're going to call me to save your ass.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and now you're going to call me to save your ass? Yeah, and you know he didn't have to go and buy X. He didn't have to do that. And the man is giving up his livelihood to show the world that. Look at what the media is doing on both sides, running with it. I mean, independent journalism is the only way that people are getting their news these days, and it's incredible what he's done. One, he's not a citizen here. Right, he might have dual citizenship, but he wasn't born here. So why? I mean he wanted to be here. He didn't have to be here, he could have stayed in. I think it's south africa, right is correct, um, and granted, there's not as many opportunities there, but he came here for the opportunities because he believed in the american dream, and the american dream was built built on capitalism, and it's withering away at this point.
Speaker 4:Well, you got a great comparison right. I mean you call Elon the free market versus government and just considered Wi-Fi access for the rural communities. Government spent how many billions of dollars for that? And I think I saw it was like for the price of what the government spent on their system. That has never worked. They could have essentially bought Elon's system for everybody in the country. Yeah, literally Free internet it's crazy. Or even the charging stations.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:The government spent what $50 billion and they built seven yeah. Seven yeah Versus.
Speaker 5:Where'd that money go?
Speaker 4:My wife drove to Colorado in a Tesla the other day or a couple of weeks ago. That's exactly right, yeah.
Speaker 3:And I like the question that you prompted there when did the money go? John had joined us for part one and part two of a US debt crisis, where we talked about the different buckets that our money is being used, and to me does it add up Sure on paper, but then you go deeper into why does it cost this much? Where the hell is the money going? Because it should start benefiting if we are using it the right way, but it's just not. We're sending money off to foreign countries that we're not even associated with.
Speaker 5:Leaving how much in military assets places. Yes, there you go.
Speaker 4:And it all feeds back into inflation, right? Yes, so whatever policies you're putting out, there have to be things that are ultimately going to reduce inflation, because that's going to ultimately reduce cost. That's correct For the consumer. Make things more affordable for the consumer. So you ready for some data, please? I've got some numbers, heck, yeah, okay, so I pulled this off the Texas A&M Recon website. Okay.
Speaker 3:Have you been on that?
Speaker 4:Every once in a while. Yeah, I love it. Love it, even though I'm a horned frog. In July of 24, right? So San Antonio metro area, so that's San Antonio, new Braunfels. The map even includes Hondo, whatever but 3,310 sales Median price was $320,000. The average price was $378,000.
Speaker 4:So I thought that was kind of interesting, right? So you've got some outliers that are right. You've got some higher dollar properties out there being sold. Now compare this to and I broke it down all the way throughout the years but so compare this to July of 2019. Pre-covid 3,525 units sold, right, and so obviously that's new and existing Median price $235,000. So almost $100,000 increase in five years, which the average in 2019, by the way, was $271,000. So $271,000 to $378,000. So now keep in mind and follow me here for a second the median income in San Antonio today is $89,300. Now, back then it was like $55,000. So you had essentially inflation in housing well above what people's incomes are going across. But keep following me here.
Speaker 4:So this is P&I data only. I didn't include taxes or insurance because this would be much more inflated and I just used a 95% loan to value just conventional loan, 6.75 interest rate, which is about market today. P&i on a $320,000 sales price, 95 LTV P&I would be $1,972. Follow me here In 2019, rates were around 5%, so I took that $235,000 sales price, took a 95% of that At 5% note rate $1,198. So you have almost an $800 difference In just the principle, in just the principle and interest. What's kicking everyone's ass right now? Homeowners insurance increases definitely.
Speaker 4:Property tax increase absolutely yeah, even with the uh new homestead exemption cap absolutely yeah, so, even with the cap, oh, we're just going to raise it over here, yeah, but um, but so. So where I'm going with that, though this is, is all. These are all inflationary items, so the cost is far outweighing what people's incomes are.
Speaker 3:Right and correct me if I'm wrong, but this inflationary data is not included in our inflation rate.
Speaker 4:No, it's not so in that video they were talking about, you know, the Fed says you know, inflation has stopped, that's ex-shelter, that's correct. So that takes housing out of the equation. So that does burn, you know. Another question is what's going to happen as the Fed lowers rates. Right, will mortgage rates come down? What remains to be seen. But on top of that, though, does it possibly get us back into a feeding frenzy?
Speaker 3:Yes, and that's what we've been talking about quite a bit, because the idea of supply and demand that we go back to. There are plenty of folks on the fence right now that are ready, willing and able to buy a home. Maybe not willing, maybe ready and able but not willing. And the idea of being willing has to do with that payment comfort and believing that rates are going to come down, believing that the property values or sales prices are going to come down.
Speaker 3:But if you take a step back, you don't even have to be a rocket scientist right here, guys, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to determine that if rates come down and all those folks just like you jump back into the market, we're going to have a feeding frenzy, just like you discussed, and prices are then going to rise yet again.
Speaker 4:So what do we do to get these people off the fence today?
Speaker 3:Educate, educate, educate. Sometimes you got to smack them. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:I mean literally put it out there yeah, and you're right. I mean so yes, you know the Fed is going to cut rates, Yep, but how quickly is that going to bring down mortgage rates?
Speaker 3:Well, in all honesty, that principle or that idea, do you not think that mortgage companies guys are already planning for this already have some of that priced into our rates? Thus far, we're not. What is it? React react reactionary, Reactionary. Yeah yeah, Essentially we've got some of that already the bond market is like the smarter cousin of the stock market.
Speaker 4:There you go. I like that analogy better. They've got analytics to where they can almost see the future a little bit brighter, right. And so what's happening there? Right today, mortgage-backed security prices, which drive interest rates, are at the highest they've been in over a year because they're already seeing rate cuts. Yes, but you know there's an inflation report that comes out before then. So if that inflation report comes out hot, then it goes from the market thinking, oh, it's going to be four rate cuts in a row, that might only be three, and so then mortgage rates that day might get worse, correct.
Speaker 3:Because they had already made the adjustment, thinking it would rain. That's right.
Speaker 4:So my message to prospective homebuyers out there kicking tires is buy now.
Speaker 5:Buy now, you can always refinance. Yes, absolutely, that's the simplest way to put it, and I tell people that all the time, buy now, you can always refinance. Yes, absolutely. That's the simplest way to put it. And I tell people that all the time, buy now, you can always refinance. Because guess what, in a month you might kick yourself when the rate's back at a seven.
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, and I can tell you that half a point in rate that you're trying to wait for doesn't make up the difference in $100,000 price? No, it does not. That's a great point.
Speaker 3:Let me see here, did I? Did I lose my reference? Hopefully it'll click back. All right, jc, let's go back to that. Perfect, and we're back to number four.
Speaker 3:Crackdown and this is under the Kamala Democratic nominee. Crackdown on corporate landlords. Harris plans to address the issue of rent inflation and housing shortages by cracking down on corporate landlords who monopolize rental units and drive up prices. I think this has a lot to do with the smoke and mirrors that we are seeing with the inflation of, for example, utilizing eggs. One company in the industry is driving up the price of eggs. Well, it that company, eggs are not monopolized. So the idea of money, that's right.
Speaker 3:The idea of one company driving up the prices of eggs is absolutely uh. What is the asinine? Why? Because that's not true. Um, if that was the case, the others would just undercut them and they would essentially lose plenty of potential profit or revenue coming in Same with anything similar to this aspect Next to another apartment complex. Well, chances are they're both owned by corporations. They're going to have to get on the same page if they want that concept or idea to stick. But then, at the same time, you've got these rental homes that are right next to this that if they don't get on board, well then they're going to go that way, and then these are not going to fill up in regards to residency.
Speaker 4:Right, I mean the market is the market, right, and and so, and all that is again that's just political wish wash, that's trying to build a you know. Hey, it's us versus them. We're the little guys. Big bad wall street is they're.
Speaker 4:They're the ones that are beating up the little guy says oprah winfrey and yeah, I'm weird uh, but where I was going to go with this and I got a, I got a chart. I'm going to send it to you, okay, because it'll it'll mirror this perfectly, yep, and because I know where they're going. It's like, oh, black rock bad, which you know I'm not a fan, I'm not a fan either, but you know what, hey, but we have to have them.
Speaker 4:good on and good on them. But what it showed was like the percentage of units, uh of, of owned by basically corporate landlords, right, and these were single family houses, sure, owned by like a BlackRock or you know. It was like 3% of the market. Everything else is owned by mom and pops, exactly right.
Speaker 3:And I've shown that statistic in many of the videos that we've done. I don't know if enough people aren't watching that portion of it, but it's very clear that when you go, oh, blackrock's buying everything, well, here's the real data, guys. Right, it's actually us that are buying.
Speaker 4:It's your neighbors, it's everyone else, and right now they're getting their asses kicked because of property taxes, homeowners insurance, and you know the market is actually not letting you raise the rent like you want to.
Speaker 3:Right. So that, in a nutshell, seems to be another broken promise that most should be able to determine for themselves supply and demand. The idea of capitalism going into that. But it sounds good. Yeah, it makes it sound like, hey, we're going to go after those guys.
Speaker 4:All about the panda bears, yeah, and it's just how they put it on paper and what we're going to go after those guys, it's all about the panda bears, yeah, and it's just how they put it on paper.
Speaker 5:And what people? They look at things at face value. They don't actually hear what's being said and go logically that doesn't, it isn't going to work, because they hear it at face value and they oh okay, it sounds like a great idea.
Speaker 3:Because they don't have to put their their, they don't turn their brain on correct and think that's correct. God forbid. Okay, let's go to the last one from trump, and it says cuts to hud funding. During his previous term, trump proposed significant cuts to department of housing and urban development, which um critiques are. Critics argue could reduce support for affordable housing programs. What are your thoughts on that, guys?
Speaker 4:I don't like it Me neither. And having spent a lot of time in Washington DC, I can tell you that HUD is very outdated. I mean they actually need more investment into HUD, but again, I think it's just bloated with corporate, with government waste more than anything else. But a lot of programs, a lot of state down payment assistance programs, rely on HUD funding.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 4:So again, I think that's we're going to cut government out. That's taking it too far to the other direction. Sure, that one bad idea.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we're not here to have you vote for a candidate candidate. We're here to present facts, give our opinions on those facts, and both sides have some dumb shit in them, let's be honest. And it has been marketed for the past three and a half years with zero idea of how it's going to happen. Zero idea of when it's going to happen. It's just this thing that they keep putting out there. That sounds really good, but when you dig into it you go wait a minute. This probably couldn't work because most folks will get into this. So what I'm talking about here is the $25,000 down payment assistant. She has proposed $25,000 down payment assistance program for first-time homebuyers, aimed to make homeownership more accessible. Let's break that down a little bit. $25,000 to homebuyers and before Biden was proposing first-generation homebuyers. That has since dropped off to probably pull more attention to the idea of it. But let's break that down. What are your thoughts on this? Where does that money come from?
Speaker 5:Where does it go? It's the taxpayers. It's a terrible idea, like, okay, you give somebody a $25,000 grant to go buy a house, but then that house that they're going to buy becomes $25,000 more expensive. To find a way to cover the cost of it, that's exactly right. I mean, it's not rocket science.
Speaker 3:Can you break that down for us? Why is that the case?
Speaker 5:So I mean again. It goes back to what's the word I'm looking for, not supply and demand. That's the wrong way to explain it. Basics what's the word I'm looking for? Not supply and demand, that's wrong way to explain it. Basics, fundamentals. You can't say, okay, here, here's a twenty five thousand dollar check, but I don't know where the money's coming from and I have to find it somewhere else. It's just like okay, great example builders. I had a deal last year. I had some clients that wanted to buy this deal. So bad, the builder was offering x amount in closing costs. But what? My clients didn't, because they're like oh great, we're getting $40,000 off this house or $40,000 in closing costs. I said no, you're not. Because if I show you a price history, as soon as they started offering X, y, z amount in closing costs, guess what they did? They raised the price to cover the cost of that.
Speaker 5:But, what people don't see. They don't see that from the backside because we're and that's again one of those reasons why I see why the NARS lawsuits went through because there are certain things that are not transparent, that need to be transparent, that's right, and things like that because they don't pay attention, they're not taught to pay attention and or their realtor is just clues and doesn't tell them.
Speaker 4:You know, brianna I applaud you as a realtor Not hitting that on the money. Me too. Not many would come out there and say it like it is, I appreciate it, I get so tired of getting caught and I get it.
Speaker 5:I do. I get a lot of clients that are like my realtor didn't tell me this, my realtor didn't tell me that and it's just basic education and I think maybe because I came from just a general sales background and a background in seeing you, know, understanding how a cd looks yeah, coming from title, I understand it far more than most people do and I can read and tell you every charge, where it goes, everywhere it comes from. And hey, oh, you're getting this credit here, but guess what it's on the back side. It's not really a credit. That's. You're getting this credit here, but guess what it's on the backside, it's not really a credit. That's where you're getting charged for it.
Speaker 3:I think John and I both can agree and are appreciative of you talking about this, because we have put plenty of content out there and other lenders same thing. Because it's tough for us to capture a client, help them with their credit, get them to the point that they can buy, and then they jump off to a new construction home that the realtor sent them, did not educate them on where it is, and now we're being played against that builder without being told the premise from the realtor, because we're the ones telling them and educating them on where the money's coming from, but the realtor on that side well, there's 3% plus a $10,000 realtor bonus.
Speaker 5:There you go, yes and no, I mean and I can talk about this too because unfortunately, and this is where you guys get hurt the small, not the small builders, the large production builders that build the cheaper homes Lennar, dr, horton, dhi in the last three months I've done seven of them and I've had all my clients pre-approved with a lender and I do, I call them and I apologize every time. I'm like they just can't afford not to take the deal when they're getting a 3.75 rate versus a 6.75 and another $10,000 in closing costs and I can't tell them not to take it. Thousand dollars in closing costs, and I can't. I can't tell them not to take it. I mean that just.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And if I'll take it further, if those builders were Bound by the same regulations that we were, they would have to put that on the closing disclosure Correct and fortunately for them they don't have to. It's behind the scenes, with a joint venture with the actual mortgage company that allows them to buy a massive fund that says you've got 10 million at this rate, Get rid of it yeah that's right.
Speaker 5:And that's what I tell clients too, is you know. They ask well, how are they able to do this? Why can't my you know your lender? That I said, look. What you don't realize is, every time I get a loan sheet from Lenar or DHR, I send it straight to him and say can you beat this? And he calls me. He's like why do you send this to me?
Speaker 3:That's right. We don't have the extra money.
Speaker 5:He's like I don't have the extra money. Every once in a while on something a little bit higher priced, you know, anywhere from $350 to $550, he might be able to get close, but when we're talking 200 to 250, maybe 300. And payment?
Speaker 3:difference.
Speaker 5:yes, Exactly, you can't. Especially. You know, I had a client this week that had to be at X amount of payment and there was just no way. No way he could beat it. But and I tell clients that too all the time look, they're bound by a completely different set of rules and I show them both contracts, I show them a regular contract and I show them the builder contract, and they're like well, I just signed it, I didn't read it. I said that's also a problem because it's 50 pages, that's right.
Speaker 5:I said that is why. That is why my job exists. Yeah, they're like do you read that? I said every single time, because the one time I don't, they're going to sneak something in there and you're going to get screwed. Yeah, and I don't, I cannot do it, because guess who actually gets screwed? It's me, because I'm going to be the one that probably flips the bill when something gets messed, because it was my job to read it for you, because I know that you're not educated on that. That's my job, that's right. So and unfortunately, there is a lot of times I see it happen I'm in Facebook groups all the time and I see a builder's doing this Do they have the legality to do this? And I'm like they did because you signed the contract.
Speaker 3:That's right. You signed it. That's exactly right.
Speaker 4:So I want to follow up on something, though, please. So is the NAR settlement helping?
Speaker 5:with consumer affordability. Like promised, I really not paid attention to it. Nor do I care about it, because I've always proven my worth. I've always explained to clients how they get paid, where they get paid, that actually, in actuality, the buyers have still always been paying for it. It just usually comes out of their loan proceeds going to the seller and it's just a circle of life.
Speaker 3:So you were a realtor in Texas, utilizing the Texas form that we utilize by representation, and believe in your value and can articulate your value. So strange, right? So strange, John, what I want. If you've got something, go for it.
Speaker 4:Well, I was just going to you know, piggyback on that, and that is you know. Again, it was the, the, this administration's department of justice, that was saying that this is going to help affordability for consumers. Right, because you know all these realtors aren't going to get paid anymore. A lawyer found a loophole, Right Well it was a money grab by plaintiff's attorneys is what it was Somebody won in this, but it was sold as it was going to help with affordability, and it's not. That's right, either you know it makes it tougher if anything, it makes it tougher.
Speaker 4:You know one thing that I'm starting to see popping up.
Speaker 5:Right, I mean of course it's all brand new.
Speaker 4:but buyers going to buy houses without representation they're going to get screwed. They don't have a professional negotiating on their behalf.
Speaker 5:Just even advice like let's talk, get an inspection.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm starting to see dual agency Builders. Never tell you to get a third-party inspection?
Speaker 5:Never. And I tell all my buyers we are not. If you can't afford it, I will pay for it, Because I've had people come in. I've had my inspector here that's local found one that they left crap on the roof. They left a tarp on the roof. So it's just things like that.
Speaker 4:Without somebody advocating for you in your corner, you're going to get screwed and you're going to lose more money than it's worth, which is why we get to have buyer's agents. I mean, I'm sorry, that's the whole premise there. Now, did things maybe get skewed and out of hand? Sure, it's like the mortgage business we got slapped around 10 years ago, but still there has to be a representative for the buyer. You know, I mean to protect them. So that kills me when I hear oh no, this is great for consumers. It's like no.
Speaker 3:Explain to me how they ran with it.
Speaker 5:The media ran with it, just like they do with everything else fear-mongering. They hear one headline and they're like let's run with it and let's just blast it everywhere to a point where people are like I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know what to do anymore and I'm like if you actually sit down and read through it, it makes total sense. It's what we've already been doing. We just don't explain it properly. Never taught to explain it properly.
Speaker 3:I right on the money, right on the money. How would the $25,000 first-time homebuyer? Oh goodness gracious.
Speaker 4:First Different keyboard. It's always my excuse.
Speaker 3:First-time buyer credit affect homebuyers and how will they pay for it.
Speaker 4:Well, it's going to hurt them because it's it's basically supply. I mean, we don't need demand promotion right now, we need supply promotion. So what does it say? Increased home ownership access Okay, potentially good market demand Again, we don't need more demand. Access Okay, potentially good Market demand Again, we don't need more demand. There's more than 13,000 34-year-olds turning well, turning 34 every single day for the next 10 years. That's prime first-time buyer age. They don't need demand, we need supply.
Speaker 3:That's right and it actually gives us what it should. There's a concern that increasing demand through financial incentives could inflate housing prices further, particularly in already hot markets. This would reduce the overall effectiveness of the credit in making housing affordable, Funding the $25,000. So federal budget allocation, target tax increase, relocation I mean it's one of those things that all you have to do is do a little research of the basics. Yeah, we learned in school supply and demand, budgeting, checks and balances. We didn't learn that in school.
Speaker 5:I don't teach that anymore.
Speaker 4:Well, the hard part is right. There's no sexy 30-second soundbite in mortgages, Correct? And in reality, if they really wanted to give money to help spur and help with affordability, they would help fund the mortgage credit certificate program Agree Agree, which helps consumers with their payment.
Speaker 5:That hasn't been talked about in a while either.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's talk about that this last we're advocates for it.
Speaker 4:I spoke about that this last. Yeah, we're advocates for it.
Speaker 3:Because I have one that someone had mentioned and I think you saw it and I thought it was pretty genius which, if you were going to propose something to help first-time homebuyers and it's not going to be related to helping the payment and you want it to be for down payment, why not make FHA, which is a government-backed program, zero down? Yeah, just like VA. Just like VA. Just like VA Mimic that concept, because the idea is you guys have been bleeding the homebuyers with mortgage insurance. For how long? With the lowest rate possible of foreclosures in that sector? Where the hell is all the money? Again, government accounting.
Speaker 5:Right Weird, it just kind of slips through the cracks Again.
Speaker 3:Government accounting Right Weird. It just kind of slips through the cracks, but yet we're upside down.
Speaker 5:This country is a business. When you own a business, your partners have to see a profit and loss statement. I've never seen one. I've never seen one for this country, yeah.
Speaker 4:I was going to say pull up the debt clock, there's your P&L. That's exactly right. Pull up the debt clock, there's your P&L.
Speaker 3:That's exactly right. So, that being the case, do you guys have any solutions, additional solutions that could make home affordability possible? I don't want to stay on the Democrat, republican thing. This is not a political show. We are here to provide you guys again with data that we can find. It is to help interpret that data and to do the heavy lifting that some can't or aren't unable to find the data for, don't have the time to, and only able to, listen to sound bites, and maybe you're basing your vote on that. I don't know, but us, as the mortgage real estate experts, are here to kind of chop it up a little bit for you. So do you guys have any potential suggestions similar to the FHA concept or something close to that?
Speaker 4:Well, my biggest point is fund the mortgage credit certificate program because it is for first-time homebuyers and veterans and targeted areas. There are income limits, right. So it's not like it's feeding the rich. It's there to literally help people. Like it's feeding the rich? No Right, it's there to literally help people and it's with the payment. There's already plenty of amazing great down payment assistance programs out there. We don't need more down payment assistance. People need help with the payment. That's right, because inflation has kicked their ass. That's right.
Speaker 1:So and again from the government perspective.
Speaker 4:So I love the zero down idea for FHA. Uh, they should also go to risk-based MI.
Speaker 3:There you go.
Speaker 4:I like that, yep, so it being a fixed amount, go to go to risk-based um, you know, lose the lifetime. Mi sale pitch because it's a government accounting. It's all joke, but no, I believe that FHA is the best program out there, but it also allows itself to be taken advantage of because it allows for the highest debt-to-income ratios of any other program. That's very true. It's very true. So somebody with a 590 credit score shouldn't be financing house with the 56 back ratio 56.99, sometimes Right.
Speaker 4:So it is so, but I think it all does revolve around FHA and HUD and cleaning it up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely, and I think that there's plenty of opportunity to clean that up versus having to throw out stuff that is unjustifiable, it does not. You can't make it make sense without it harming someone else, or even harming the person that you're trying to help in this case scenario.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I hope whoever, whoever does win, you know, one of the mortgage bankers association has been constantly advocating for is for, like, there to be a housing czar.
Speaker 5:Yeah, a housing czar. Put somebody as a secretary of HUD, who knows who has Somebody from the private sector Sure? Private sector who has experience with this? Because right now what the last, like three or four HUD secretaries have had no true experience with housing and development period. They just say, oh, I needed a, a, you know they. Somebody in the cabinet says we need to give him a job, so we're going to give him this job yeah, you get housing yeah, you get the like uh, what is it that show?
Speaker 5:designated survivor? They gave it to him as like a here's a piece of candy because we needed to give you a job, kind of thing. Yeah. But I mean, I think personally, in the long game it starts with education. Like I touched on earlier, they don't teach simple things in high school anymore how to balance a checkbook, how to do your taxes. I would have loved to have learned about a mortgage and whatnot, because coulda, shoulda, woulda. I could have bought a house when I first moved to Texas 10 years ago. It sounds terrible. I'd be rolling in it.
Speaker 5:If I had bought something 10 years ago even in.
Speaker 5:San Antonio or something I could have had, that that could have been a retirement fund or something for my future children to have for college. And because I wasn't taught that, I didn't know any better. Nobody just said, hey, this is how you do it. It starts with education. We need to go back and just educate the generation, the younger generation, because most of my clients are my age or a little bit younger and they have not a clue anything. Or their credit is so bad because nobody taught them that taking out 100 credit cards, racking them up and leaving the balance as high is a bad idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Or not paying on your student loans. That's actually something that we need to do. We have to reform student loans. That's actually something that we need to do. We have to reform student loans. And I actually those are killing potential buyers.
Speaker 3:I actually just had a teacher on last discussion and for those listening, you've already watched it. Last week That'd be coming up, but that was a big topic of discussion. Is education, not only for the students but also the teachers that are out there, is determining why the teachers are going into a profession knowing that they're not going to make what others make, so to speak, and spending like $200,000. Right?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean, I have $40,000 in student debt and I don't care if people can know it. Yeah, I mean, I have $40,000 in student debt and I don't care if people can know it. But had I known that that was going to be that bad and it was going to hurt me as bad as it did when I went to buy my house, I would have never done it. I didn't even graduate.
Speaker 3:Yeah same, I did not graduate college.
Speaker 5:Even if I had, I wouldn't use my degree. And here I am with all this student debt and nobody ever taught me that this is a terrible idea. Yeah, Terrible idea.
Speaker 4:Mark, I've got some fun facts, please. Okay, I mean and I love it A hundred percent of what you're saying on education, that ties right into this. So this is a survey from First Home IQ partnership that's out there, and they did a survey of Gen Zers First of all. First, 58% of Gen Zers say that rent is keeping them from buying. The rent is too damn high because, well, it's hard to save.
Speaker 4:It's hard to save you can't save anything if all your money is going to rent. But this was interesting 39% of them said a lack of knowledge about housing and buying a house is a barrier. So people just don't know what they don't know. And this one was crazy. So still, 20% of Gen Zers still believe that you need 20% to put down to buy a house.
Speaker 5:Wow, I hear that way too often.
Speaker 3:I agree hey, shameless plug for all of those that have a friend like that Send them to reviewmymortgagecom where they can, without a loan officer, research different programs, down payment options and basically put your loan together. That allows you to get behind the curtain. You don't have to have a loan officer to educate yourself, play around, matter of fact, they do it with everything else, yeah.
Speaker 5:The internet's massive. The information is out there. You just have to go look for it, check out the LoanBot.
Speaker 4:And then this was interesting too, too. Trust is a big deal, and so this, this was fascinating me 58 percent of gen zers said they would trust an lo to help them make smarter mortgage decisions, and 67 said they would trust a realtor to help them make smarter mortgage, smarter decisions about buying a home Right there proves our value. That's right. Well, my thing is it should be 100. Right.
Speaker 5:It should be 100.
Speaker 3:Right. Where's the distance coming from?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so you know they've watched too many episodes of Better Call Saul. It's like no it's not how we operate, right, but anyway, I just thought that was fascinating data and it tries right in with the education component and people are more educated. Guess what? Then they don't have all the debt and they can't afford more house.
Speaker 3:That's right, and it seems to stem either from our education system or in our households and households isn't getting hit hard enough in this discussion, but I'm going to hit it right now. Households isn't getting hit hard enough in this discussion, but I'm going to hit it right now. The idea of us becoming parents and teaching our kids some of the things that our parents didn't teach us by way of education, let's say they didn't know. A lot of parents didn't want their children to think that they had a hardship or came in way of a hardship or any of that, so they just didn't talk about it. Yeah, that, as you fast forward, leads to that child who is now an adult.
Speaker 5:That doesn't know anything in the world is rainbows and butterflies bows and unicorns and butterflies.
Speaker 4:Unfortunately it's not sellers that think that a subject to is fine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right. The idea there is is it is sad and it is hurting our economy as a whole, and it is simply lack of education. That's, that's what it is. So bringing this stuff to the forefront. Unfortunately, this generation, the previous, the next generation don't think that this is sexy, like you were saying. It's just not Boring. You get a mortgage, that's right.
Speaker 4:But you know what, hey, at some point you know, yeah, it's cool to live in that loft downtown over the bar I grew up. Yes, but at some point you're going to get a dog, then you're going to get married, then you're going to have a kid, and you know what, in this school. No, you're right. And now you're going to start planning for the future? Yes, and if inflation is kicking your ass and you stopped contributing to your 401k and you're really not saving? Well, if you're paying rent, you got zero savings. But at least if you own a house.
Speaker 3:You have something you have something that's right, that's right and many Americans don't have that.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And not only don't have that, but don't have a plan to put in place to obtain that. They are hoping and trusting in programs like this to think that it's going to save them, when in the long run, it's a it's kind of a I don't want to say circle jerk, but it is it. You're basically robbing Paul to pay the other guy in this case scenario. Well, that was a lot that we just covered in an hour, guys. Is there anything else that you guys want to add to this discussion that we can close off with?
Speaker 4:Work with a professional, absolutely.
Speaker 5:Please, that's all I ask, Doesn't have to be personally. I always tell people don't work with family. That's my big thing. That's a good point.
Speaker 3:I have learned that lesson the hard way.
Speaker 5:Same here. Don't work with family as much as you want to, but work with a professional, please, and talk to a lot of them. Don't just pick the first, joe Blow, off the side of the road that you meet.
Speaker 3:So let me ask you this, to close us out when you say and both of you said the same thing what are some things that home buyers, home sellers, seekers of financing should be looking for when they are vetting experts or people that are claiming they are experts, at least, what are some things that they should be looking for or looking to?
Speaker 4:NMLSconsumeraccessorg. There you go and I put this out there. It's a website that all licensed loan officers are in and it'll tell you their past employment history and I love new people getting into the business. Love it, Love it. But if you're putting yourself out there as an expert and six months ago you were-. Wait, tables Wait tables or a door dash driver. You know it's. It's hard to say that you're an expert on fha financing helping first-time buyers, because you have.
Speaker 4:You might not have been doing it, so, um, look at their facebook page. That's a good idea, google, I mean. Look at their social media and I don't want to knock anybody, but you know again if you're, if all your pictures are not housing related or I don't know. I just think there you should pick who you want to do business with, but just make sure that they're vetted that they've been doing it for a while. This is a profession, not a side hustle. That's right. That's right. That would be my references.
Speaker 5:Yeah. I give people clients, my past clients, numbers all the time and most of my clients are really good about answering the phone and telling them you know X, y, z and reviews.
Speaker 3:I am big on reviews, yeah absolutely, and those, I think, are intended for someone that has gone through the experience to be transparent, good, bad or indifferent. Oh yeah, and they're all out there. We ask for them and they should be used for picking and choosing who you want to work with. We're not doing it for our health. We're doing it so we can display what others have gone through, so that it'll help you determine if you want to work with us or not. Right, you know. So that being the case, guys, I mean, is there anything else you want to add to this?
Speaker 4:That was damn good. Still just a huge advocate for down payment assistance, and that might be another way. If you're vetting out loan officers, yes, ask them about down payment assistance products. Absolutely Down payment assistance where programs can be. They are a dirty word in the mortgage business because you don't make a whole lot of money off of it. Well, because, because, as mortgage people, you don't, you don't, you don't make money on them. But if you do it for the right reason and helping people, that's not an issue.
Speaker 5:I got into this business to help people, not to make money.
Speaker 4:That's exactly right.
Speaker 3:It's a plus, but yeah, I got in the business to make money and it turned out that by helping more people I make more money and it turns into something that is not about the money when you're focused on helping more people, because for us it's not a All right, you apply and we're going to get you into house right away. There's a lot of folks that we have to advise. We've got to help put their income together Absolutely, and that is pretty gratifying when somebody that has been denied at two different places comes to you and can finally get to a place to do it.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, and the last person didn't sit me down and talk to me about these things.
Speaker 5:They didn't show me what, how to fix my credit or what to pay off to get my credit score to even jump 10 points to get me there that's right because I mean it could be something as simple as 10 point credit jump that gets you into a house um, well, I want to thank you both for joining me for this discussion.
Speaker 3:Um, for those of you out there, I'm going to do another plug one more time, because it calls for that. This idea of affordable housing? Um has a lot to do with access, understanding, education and for those of you that are currently renting and curious what is available out there for you and it doesn't matter what state you're in visit ReviewMyMortgagecom, and it is the largest index of mortgage programs in the nation. They are viable programs, down payment assistance, mcc can be added. You can damn near put your loan together, print it out, take it to your loan officer and say hey, here's what I'd like to do. Tell me why, or why not, I can or cannot do this program.
Speaker 3:Great tool for those unbiased, but there's a lot of nuance to what we do. There's a lot of nuance to what is being proposed, and all I ask you as the listener, you as the consumer, is to do your research. Stop taking the headlines at face value. Dig into it and ask the question why and how, or the questions why and how. Again, I want to thank you both for joining. This was not an easy discussion, one that most people tend to shy away from because it's political. Nobody wants to get political and then for us it's not about politics, it's about helping people and I think it's right. That's right and I believe, if you can do that, truly vet out what these programs mean. We've seen on both sides, they both have some dumb shit in them.
Speaker 4:They really do.
Speaker 3:Yes, but some are more logical than others and some have not been toted around for the last three and a half years, et cetera, et cetera, but I'm hoping you guys are getting something out of these discussions. We are now above 10,000 subscribers, so somebody's listening. Congratulations, thank you. Thank you, and hopefully you guys continue. So, that being the case, if you like, or if you've got something out of this, please make sure to like, subscribe and share. Hit that little bell for notifications for additional episodes. We are going to continue coming at you every Wednesday with new discussions, with new experts, with some good topics. These are only getting better. So until the next one, we will catch you later. Adios.
Speaker 3:Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed and under-informed during the mortgage process? Look no further than ReviewMyMortgagecom. With our revolutionary Loan Smart tool, you can self-diagnose your particular criteria and access thousands of mortgage programs to educate yourself. Whether you're a first-time buyer, repeat buyer or an investor, our website offers a wealth of information to help you make informed decisions. So don't go about buying, selling or refinancing a home alone. Educate yourself at ReviewMyMortgagecom, the largest index of mortgage programs nationally, an educational website built for the next generation of future homeowners, just like you.
