Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hot, Happy Mess, Celebrate your magic in the middle of
life's messes Happy. I'm Zeri Hall and this is Hot
Happy made Shoot. What's up? Hey, y'all. I'm Zeri Hall
and this is another episode of Hot, Happy Mess, Happy Monday.
(00:29):
If you're listening on the day that the state used,
because that means you are the realist of the real
can't believe it's almost July? Where did one go? I'm
just glad it's not slowly, but surely we are creeping
out of this pandemic life and I am here for it. Okay,
just a quick catch up on my life. The Olympics
are coming up. I work for NBC so American and Warrior.
(00:52):
We are in full swing Monday nights on NBC A
p M. Let's Go kicking off the Tokyo Olympics. The
Summer Game aimes on m VC two, so make sure
you'll check that out. A lot going on. I'm trying
to get the work life balance down you also. I
just say that to say that I've been dealing with
some burnout. We are slowly crawling out of that. I've
been carving out way more time for self care and meditation,
(01:15):
and I'm getting back into my daily practice because I
had fallen out of it. So we're getting back into
the groove. We're feeling good and we're getting to you
a good place. So a lot of exciting stuff this
summer and a very special event coming up via Hot
Happy Mess, another amazing podcast that I'm not going to
reveal yet, and the Black Effect Podcast Network. I'm not
(01:36):
going to give you anything else, but it's awesome, it's interactive,
and you are absolutely gonna love it, So stay tuned
for that announcement soon. You can follow us at Hot
Happy Mess on Instagram to get the announcement first. All right,
I'm excited you're here today because as promised, we are
bringing you Part does that's two in Spanish of our
home Buyers episode Okay, so as a refresher last week
(01:58):
and our home Ownership Want to one Part one, I
spoke with Kindred Barnes. She's a real estate investor and
the founder of the Key Resource and Kindra kind of
walked us through the pros and cons of renting versus buying,
how to house hack, the importance of shopping around for
a mortgage, first time home buy, our loans so much more.
If you missed that episode, make sure you go back
and listen because she was dropping all the gems. Okay,
(02:20):
in today's episode, we are diving deep, deep, deep deep
into homeownership and we have three amazing experts, two of
which were my realtors. They helped me buy the house
that y'all hear me talking about all the time. Okay,
so these three experts are going to guide us on
interest rates, buying your house, site unseen realtors, lenders, how
(02:41):
to pick them, how to know you have the right one,
what to look for when shopping for a house, what
the heck escrow is, how to make a strong competitive offer,
what you expect during your escrow period, investigation period, appraisal contingencies,
all these things, Um, when is the house officially yours?
And just generally what to keep in mind on this
crazy the journey to home ownership. Okay, So, like I said,
(03:03):
we're diving deep. So you definitely want to make sure
you hit up our website hot Happy mess dot com
because that's where I'll share all of the show notes,
the links, and the resources that we're going to talk
about in this episode. So, without further ado, class, are
you ready to get back to the basics. Grab the
pen and the paper whatever you used to take notes,
because you are about to get schooled in the best way.
(03:24):
I'm about to get schooled in the best way. Here
are the experts. All right, y'all get ready because I'm
super excited for this panel of First Up, I want
to introduce Heather Roy and a Lyrica Bosnac, their business partners,
real estate experts, and best friends. They are also my realtors. Okay,
so they're the ones who have helped me find and
buy this amazing house that I've started settling in. Its
(03:46):
talking hearing about. Okay, if you haven't heard that episode,
go back listen to the I just Bought a House episode.
They're also award winning, list making top producing agents at
Douglas Element and Beverly Hills. Heather and Lyrical work with
clients on the real estate dreams in l A, across
the country and around the world, and they love working together,
which I can personally attest to. And it's so much
(04:07):
more fun when you're working with people who love what
they do. So Hello to Heather and Lyrica. Hello, so
it's good to see you two. We also have the
lovely destiny your Axis Hello Now. Destiny is an expert
real estate agent with the Freddy Garcia Group at Compass
in San Diego, with over seven years of industry experience
(04:29):
as a loan officer, loan processor, and notary public. Destiny
is passionate about guiding her clients through the process of
financing at home and learning how to effectively market and
sell their homes. Destiny is also the founder of Greater
Good San Diego, which is a community organization dedicated to
supporting and uplifting other community based movements. Destiny, how are
(04:51):
you today doing fantastic? Thank you for having me, Zurie Tighten.
Of course, I'm so excited to have all of you
amaze badass women on the podcast today Homeownership. For me,
this has been a first time journey, as our Hot
Happy Mess listeners are well aware now and it was
just the ultimate crash course, and so we've had a
(05:12):
lot of really amazing feedback um as far as just
kind of helping people get their footing maybe if they're
considering homeownership or starting the process and feeling a little overwhelmed.
So I love that we have these three power women
here to kind of give their inside expertise to us today.
So last episode, I spoke to a real estate investor
and she gave us a general lowdown on the home
(05:33):
buying process. But I really want to get the nitty
gritty from you as well. I asked her expert Kindred
last week the same thing. And the stat is that
for six years in a row, millennials that would be
my target demo and also who I am as a
human um are the single largest segment of home buyers
in America. However, we all have realized the housing market
(05:56):
is brutal, so I'm curious to know your personal opinions
on whether we should be buying now or waiting for
demand to die down. I'll kick it off with Heather
and Lyrica because I feel like this is a combo
we've had at certain points, and yeah, I learned my lesson,
but we definitely you know, buying real estate is something
that's an exciting process, and we never think it's the
(06:19):
wrong time to buy property because, um, right now, especially,
the interest rates are incredibly low, so that means that
you can your affordability. It's just much more so if
the interest rates rise, your affordability will be you know, lower,
So it's it's kind of it's a balance, so there's
no reason not to get jump right into the market.
(06:40):
And I think we say that too, because, um, we
shared this with you, zury Uh. Lark and I do
everything together. We act like twins and two headed monster
and all that. But I'm totally open about this. Larka
bought property way before I did, like before either of
us were in real estate, and um, I'll never catch
up to her, Like, you'll always have more equity than
(07:01):
I do. And that doesn't mean just like run out
and buy property without thinking it through. We always have
to make really good, educated decisions. But we encourage everyone
and especially women because it's not historically something everyone pushes
women to go do by themselves. Um, we say, like,
get out there and buy real estate. Um, because if
(07:21):
you the sooner you do it, it's the compound effect
over time, you'll have more equity. And you mentioned those
historically low interest rates, of which I was a very
grateful person. Um, get a little specific for those who
might not be as familiar, we're interest rates sort of
floating right now for someone with generally good credit, which
(07:42):
is the thing we've touched on in previous episodes right now,
they're bouncing around in the threes on the low threes,
and they have been tracking them since the early seventies
and this is just a historically low time. So, I
mean when we were younger that it was double digits
for the interest rates. Yeah, that's really so. If you
(08:03):
google interest rates like as a graph, the graph you'll
see will be jumping up and down all in places
no one would even think about being satisfied with now
because the whole time you've been looking at houses, you've
seen these numbers that are all under six Yeah, wow understix.
Yeah that that three under was really cute of money
on the back, Destiny. I'm curious to know your thoughts
(08:26):
your p o V on this when it comes to
waiting for a market to die down or just saying
you know what it is, what it is and I'm
going to buy anyway. How do you feel? Well touching
on you know what the ladies were just discussing. I mean,
my dad had purchased back in the seventies and I
believe his first interest rate looked about seventeen percent, so
that was pretty Hey. Yeah, luckily the house is paid
(08:50):
off now, so that's fantastic, and it's interesting because it's
appreciated in value. I'm in San Diego, so I know
it's a little bit different from l a Um. I
believe that's where YouTube ladies are from. Correct, Okay, so yeah,
it's a little bit different. But obviously California has seen
such a crazy appreciation with all the values. I think
(09:10):
owning property is such a big part of the American dream.
I think it's so critical for women and people of
color to own homes because in the past, there was
a lot of barriers to you know, from redlining and
a lot of the things that were happening before there
was a lot of industry regulation. So if you can,
I'm a huge supporter of people getting it out there
(09:31):
and trying to especially taking advantage obviously of the historically
low rates because seventeen isn't cute. So and women women
used to not be able to get anything without their
husband's signature year or decades because I mean recently, like
the Earl you know, yeah, yeah, that an entirely different episode. Yeah,
(09:59):
oh my out, it's exhausting. Um. Just a few days ago,
the U S Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary
Marcia Fudge stated that student debt is limiting black ownership now.
She said, it's partly down to failures to enforce the
Fair Housing Act, which prohibits housing discrimination. And we know
black homeownership has been on the decline and black people
pay more for housing than white people. I was reading
(10:20):
this article just the other day. I'm sure all of
you have heard about it, where a black woman was
putting her house on the market and it kept being
appraise lower than she expected, lower than she felt her
house was truly worth. She asked her white neighbor or
friend to to stand in um when the appraiser came again,
and the house immediately went up significantly. And it's appraisal value.
(10:44):
So it's so sort of you know, shadowy, covert discriminatory practices,
to be quite frank, that really make it an uphill
grind for people of color, particularly when it comes to
home ownership. UM Budge says, for people of color, especially
lack people, homeownership is wealth. It's not only wealth to us,
but it's generational wealth destiny. I'd love if you could
(11:05):
just speak to that a little bit. You know, you
touched briefly on rent lining, UM and the laws that
are in place now to protect people from those sort
of predatory and or discriminary discriminatory practices. But I'd love
to just get your thoughts on where we are now. Yeah. Absolutely,
I mean that's a really big reason why I'm glad
to be in the position that I am now where
(11:26):
I can actively help within my own community. The large
majority of my clientele are people of color, and so
that's really important for me to kind of give back
to the community by providing my knowledge and my insight
as well as you know, it's it's a different level
of almost like camaraderie when you actually can help someone
who looks like you. So in all reality, I know
(11:48):
that there is a very lengthy history of discrimination unfortunately,
but especially with that a praise or situation that's super,
super disheartening, I would say, And you know, based off
of my experiences, I feel like, especially in San Diego,
I feel like we've been it's a little bit different.
I mean, I would say, we have a hodgepodge collection
(12:09):
of different ethnicities and backgrounds. A lot of my clients
are Hispanic um. But ideally, you know, we would move
past on just focused on the numbers. The numbers are
typically what should matter the most two people, but I mean,
you can't help when there's a few bad eggs that
are involved. Unfortunately, I really do feel like my presence
in general does help inspire other people. I've received so
(12:31):
much positive feedback, but also having my knowledge from the
lending side has been extremely helpful with my current clientele.
So I do remember, um, when I was doing loans
back in I think it was back in twenty nineteen,
I actually had this experience where I was working with
a black family and they didn't know that I was
black yet. We hadn't like connected in person yet, and
(12:52):
so it was all over the phone, and I remember
it was in Grandpa and he was like, he said,
he's oh, you're asking for my bank statements. You know
that feels like you guys are racially profiling. And I
was like, Oh, the funny thing is like he was
referred to me, the family was referred to me, and
it was by his nephew, and so I knew. I
(13:14):
was like, wait, okay, so I know the racial demographic here.
And I was like, well, I know you can't tell
by my last name, but I'm actually African American. I'm
Filipino and Alaskan Indian. I'm a big mix, right, and
so it's like, oh, okay, He's like, well, since when
did they start asking for bank statements? You know, back
when I first purchased, I didn't have to stand procedure. Okay,
(13:41):
this isn't anything crazy, but it is different, you know
from back in the day when he was first looking
in the market. And so you know, obviously before two
thousand eight, things were not as regulated as they are now.
So you know, they're looking at your tax returns, they're
looking at your W two, is your pace stubs, like
basically everything in your dna um but other than your
first born, you know. So it's we call it a
(14:03):
financial colonoscopy. Oh gosh, just get up in there, in there, heaven,
in there. I love. You could kind of like break
that down for people who are, you know, thinking about
stepping into this home buying process, particularly for the first time.
What should we prepare for before we head into our colonoscopy?
What do we need to have an order? Well, for
(14:24):
the financing, you're going to need everything, just like Destiny
was saying, and you have to be an open book
and you have to be really responsive to the lender
you picked to work with. We're not lenders, were real
estate agents, um, but we have to work closely with lenders.
And it's really cool Destiny, how's that lending background so
that she can give people that high comfort level when
they get asked for things like their VENMO history, like
(14:46):
who is this? What is the Somebody thought that one
of our clients had an extra house, but it was
their payment to the Soho house the club in Los Angeles.
It's a very story. But in generally, yeah, you need
to be you know, you need to be ready. And
part of it is like is this a good time
for you? So we're saying we're always like pro buying
(15:08):
real estate, But then there's a part where you look
and say is this a good time for you? You
talk to a lender, you look at it like if
your credit slow, it's not a good time today, But
like you can make a plan really quickly to work
on your credit. Like it's not unusual to have problems
with your credit. And the more we all talk about
it and talk about how to fix it, um, the
easier it is to like not feel so intimidated by
(15:30):
these things. It's intimidating to buy Verla for sure, and
then you know, I'm also just thinking that. The other
thing we often say to our clients who are buyers
at first time buyers is that you should really want
to hold onto our house for five to ten years,
because if you're thinking of just buying something for a shorthold,
that might because the only time you ever make or
lose money in real estate is the day you sell,
(15:50):
so you just want to be insulated in that and
be able to hold on to some property and life changes,
so sometimes you can't, but if you can, for you know,
whatever reason, if you are able to hold onto the
house for ten years, and you'd come to us in
three and say, I'm ready to get a bigger house already,
we can look at it and see if it makes
sense and see if the market's gone up or down.
If you come to us in three years and are like,
(16:11):
we didn't plan to live here, we're like, oh my god,
the markets down, Oh my god. Like So that's why
we just do this really long range planning when we
talk to everybody about getting in there. Yeah, now I
want to break down This might seem super rudimentary, like
very basic, but when it comes to you our options
for home buying, UM, I'd love all of your will
(16:33):
any one particular person. We don't have to be the
dead horse. But um, when it comes to the types
of homes that we can buy, we have single family,
we have condos, we have multi family. UM. A couple
of my close friends are looking into house hacking, maybe
doing a duplex and then living in one end and
you know, renting out the other to essentially cover the mortgage.
(16:54):
Who is willing to just very succinctially break down what
our options are. I'll do it. I'll do it kind
the first. The first thing I'd like to say is
that actually does matter where you live. So you just
mentioned the duplex in New York City. A duplex means
up and down, so that means one unit that has
two floors in it. So that's just so you have
to know what regionally what you're talking about. So, UM,
(17:16):
here in Los Angeles and I believe San Diego to
a destiny, correct me if I'm wrong. There are different
types of housing. One thing that's um, you know, condos
are what a lot of people would call apartments. So
apartments are what you rent, you pay a landlord. When
you have an apartment, the person who owns that landlord
is owning a condominium, and that means you own the
(17:37):
walls in on the of the unit, so you're sharing,
and therefore you have to pay homeowners dues to own
to your sharing, an ownership of the roof and the
systems and all of that sort of thing. So that's
a condo. A single family house is a free standing house.
We have a lot of product right now being built
that's called small out subdivision, which look like town houses,
(17:59):
but they're being classified as single families because they have
about two inches of free space between the units. So
that's they're put there doing that because of a density problem.
We have a we have a housing crisis in California,
so they're really trying to put more units of housing
on in the space that we have allotted. So that's
what I almost got two not enough space. I needed
(18:22):
more space away from my neighbors. Wound up with more space.
And the thing that makes that single family is that
it has something called its own assess their's parcel numbers.
So a lot of this comes down to like how
things are taxed and how you pay your property taxes.
Or if your loan is part of a group like
a co op in New York, or like if your
loan is just for you. So that's I don't think
(18:45):
there is a short list now. And then there's the
what you mentioned. In California, a duplex or a triplex
or a fourplex is exactly that. It's two different dwellings,
but they have the same assessor parcels number. As Heather said,
so a duplex is you know, side by side. And
the reason why how they looked at me to mention
this is that when I was in law school, I
(19:05):
bought a condo, I sold that condo, took the proceeds,
and bought a duplex with a girlfriend of mine, so
we each lived on one side of the duplex. Acting
like that wasn't my idea. It was totally give Heather
her credit. It was actually just building a social empire
for myself because it was our other friend that she
(19:26):
bought the duplex with, and it was just a time
in our life when we like to go out a lot,
a lot, as one does full table for the garage
naturally so, but then and then eventually, but the thing
is that I bought it with a very good friend,
and so I eventually bought her out of it. But
(19:46):
you can't. You know, we had a contract. It was
not just a um, we had a full on You
don't just go getting property, even with your sister or
your best friend or anything. Like Laric and I have
a partnership agreement for our business US and Lyrica had
a partnership agreement when she bought the duplex with our friend. UM,
so it's kind of cool. It's like, you know, growing up,
(20:07):
paperwork is key. Yeah, because then, like you ever confused
about like how to deal with something like when they
got married, or you know, any of that stuff, you
just you can go back and reference something you agreed
on when everything was really calm, right, because it is
anything but in that moment trying to sort it out.
It's what destiny. I love if you could break down.
(20:28):
I'm curious to know a checklist when it comes to
a buyer diving in. Is there anything that you like
to go over with your clients beforehand before you jump
into the showing? Is anything to keep in mind, anything
to look out for when you're considering what home is
right for me and what home is not right for me?
I remember Heather and Lyrica made me write a list
(20:49):
of like my top ten things, in my top five things,
and if I got three out of five, it was
a good day. Um. And then in the end I
got like everything I wanted, which was the biggest surprise
and blessing. Um. But how do you sort of steer
your your clients into what to look for when they're shopping, Well,
typically I would have a first time buyer consultation, you know,
(21:10):
very similar to this kind of setup. I usually do
a Zoom or Google meet, whatever is easiest for them. Obviously,
coming out of COVID, I got released to having like
buyer consults online. Um. But I will say adjust expectations.
That's typically what I start with, just because with the
way that the market is right now and it is
very saturated, there's a lot of buyers out there, all
(21:32):
competing for a very little inventory. It's it's hard to
get exactly everything that you want. So trying to keep
them as open minded as possible is like a really
key fixture. Also, I will say, you know, even before
the pandemic, I was originally mentored by someone who was
just like, oh, if they do not have a pre approval,
(21:54):
you know, don't waste your time, just wait until you
know they're approved. And I had really good advice from
some one else who said, well, if you're a newer agent,
why wouldn't you go show them homes and obviously this
is again before the pandemic UM and kind of give
them an idea of what it's like. Now. I'm not
saying go show countless homes to someone who's not preapproved
and you don't know anything about their credit or income
(22:15):
or assets. But I always try to advise that, especially
for newer girls who are entering the industry. You know. UM.
Now it's a little bit different because certain sellers will
be hey, we just want serious buyers. We're gonna scared
of COVID, we don't want just anyone walking through UM.
But I always do try to keep it a little
bit open, so trying to open their minds as much
as possible. But the loan officer and me definitely always
(22:38):
wants to know what their financial standing is. Um. It's
it's something that I try not to push right away,
especially if it's something like a Zillo lead, So I
try not to crush them with all the heavy questions
about you know, all right, so let's look at your credit.
A lot of people are terrified about looking at a
hard pool on their credit, and I think it's one
of the best things that you could possibly do before
(23:01):
even starting the process, because at the end of the day,
a lot of people just go, oh, well, I checked
your Credit Karma, I'm fine, and I'm like, nos, this
you aren't. Actually, I know, I thought that was me forever.
I was like, Credit Karma said, I'm great, Like, let's
go buy stuff, and then Fico was like l O L.
It's it's super misrepresentative because typically in the mortgage world
(23:25):
you look at Experience, Equifax and TransUnion, and a lot
of people don't realize that credit Karma uses a different algorithm.
So unfortunately, you know, someone may think, oh, yeah, over
seven fifty credit even no idea, how many times I've
heard that in my life, like literally, and then they're
really shocked when we actually get into the nitty gritty
and it becomes this back and forth like oh my gosh, well,
(23:45):
you know, since it says that, why can't we just
use this score and it doesn't work like that unfortunately.
So that being said, I have an amazing credit specialist
that I actually refer my clients to that is quick
and efficient about getting it to happen for them. So
I think would his name is Rayne Wolf. He's amazing,
Um he actually so. I think it was in November
(24:07):
of last year. I had a client whose credit was
down in the five hundreds. He had actually purchased before
lost the home. And this is you know, decades ago,
and so this was his you know, kind of second
foray into everything. It was two thousand and eight when
he lost everything. Um, so we actually got his credit
score up to f h A level which is a
five eighty, and then we got it higher than that. Um,
(24:29):
we got it. I believe when I left him it
was six sixty. So and it took him a month
and a half to get there, and it was you know,
he had to take the time to do it. But
once he did and he trusted the process, he got
into a home right after. And it was really really
a great feeling because unfortunately, your credit affects every credit line.
It's not just you know, oh can I get this home?
(24:52):
Every credit card, your a p R has affected any
personal loan that you have, so really trying to maintain
your credit is good. I know a lot of people
that have credit scores in the five hundreds are kind
of like no, no, no, I don't want to see
it because it's just taking more points off of it. Well,
the best way to attack that is by assessing which
you know what's being reported, and then you can work
on getting those things off. So yeah, no, that's really
(25:15):
great insight. And for everyone listening, if you're listening and
you're like, oh, yeah, my credit, like trust me, I
was there too. And we have those episodes as are
already published, so go back if you haven't heard them
yet talking about credit hacks, easy ways to kind of
like bump it up a few points. We have an
episode with the budget Nista Tiffany Ali where she is
just diving into the credit from the good, the bad
(25:35):
to the ugly. So by all means, go to that
episode to help you get that score real cute before
you try to put in an offer, because God knows
it's gonna need to be a strong offer, as I
learned Heather and Lyrica, um before we get into the
competition and how to make a strong offer. And this
is for all three of you. I'd like for you,
Heather and Lyrica, to just kind of break down um
(25:57):
a specific checklist, like what are some of the things
you want your clients to think about, whether it's neighborhoods, location, schools,
what should we think about before we decide where to
look and what to look for. I think we break
it down into two categories, and one is all those
things like you were talking about. We had to make
the list like that can be schools, number of bedrooms,
if you want a garage, if you want to live
(26:19):
near a restaurant you love, like all that, and then
re sale. So we have our clients like look at
like personally, like if they have a partner, they sit
down and do it separately and then together if they're
by themselves, like you just sit down and write and
write and write, and then whittle it down and then
we let you we don't give you any resale info
when we have you do that. And so then we
(26:39):
look at that list and look at houses you like
based on that, and then we say, amazing, this is
a match. But then we're going to tell you, like
this house doesn't have parking, or this house like isn't
an easy layout for people with kids, And even though
you don't have kids, and don't want to have kids.
We want to get as many people as we can,
like mass together to try to buy it from you
when you're ready, whenever that is in the future. So
(27:01):
I think that's like we let our clients think about
all their needs and like if you know, if they
say something but it's not making it to their list,
we help them with that. But then we kind of
weigh in after they match up the houses and their
needs and say, now here's the perspective for resale. One
of the number one things we tell everybody is that
there is no perfect house. No matter what range, rate,
(27:22):
price range you are, you will always want a hundred
thousand dollars more or five hundred thousand dollars and more
or a million dollars more. It's true, no matter what,
everybody wants a third bedroom, then they want to movie
bitter than they want to help head, than they want
to be near. Like it's just like nobody's ever happy,
Like it doesn't matter, you know, And it's usually true
(27:45):
in the markets in which we all work and live
because there's just so much demand. So we also say
it's a lot like dating, right, there's no absolutely perfect
partner or if they appear to be perfect. Oh my god,
is not allowed to listen that he's not a She
did single, she made this list. She had to go
(28:05):
back and put single on the list because she's like,
I've not a great guy. He was married though, and
skier was on her top like five Hawaiian case. But
and he can't ski. No way, doesn't even think it's
a sensible use of time. So that's exactly so. But
(28:28):
she's very happy, so you can be happy with you,
So you can be happy even if your house doesn't ski.
That's the takeaway from me. That's a gym worthy of dropping. Um.
When it comes to qualifying, when it comes to you know,
being in in prime form to compete for these these
homes that were competing for um, what do you think
(28:49):
people should keep in mind when it comes to how
much house we can actually afford. We hear about the
debt income ratio. Um, we don't want to be like
house poor. What do you recommend people consider when setting
their budget? And we can kick it off with destiny
and then go to Heather and their cup. I mean,
I would definitely take a look at your savings, your
retirement because certain forms of retirement you can pool and
(29:11):
borrow from and considering how quickly homes are appreciating, I
think that's a really good, you know, asset to utilize
because it's gonna definitely make you more right now than
it is sitting in your retirement plan. Um. I definitely
feel like having a strong down payment is ideal in
this current market. Um. And what's strong to I mean,
(29:32):
twenty percent conventional is one of my personal favorites as
a loan officer, or more if you can. But at
the same time, it really really kind of stinks right
now for f h A and v A buyers, and
that's been a lot of my bread and butter in
the past. Um. I I sympathize with them right now
because a lot of listing agents are literally just looking
(29:52):
at price. And one of the issues that's been coming
up lately is the appraisal gap. Now, ladies, I know
you guys know all about that. Um what's the appraisal guests,
we need to lay down to talk about this, Okay. Well,
So basically, when it comes to you know, f h
(30:13):
A and v A, the Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Affairs,
you know, they ensure certain loan programs that are made
for you know, veterans or you know, people who are
active duty UM. And then f h A typically appeals
to people who have lower credit scores UM and it's
a lower down payment, so it would be three and
a half percent down. Now, the appraisal only you know
(30:36):
basically that comes in, you know, offers accepted, you're in it,
but just based off of how home prices are going
right now. A lot of the times there's a gap
between the actual appraisal value, the appraised value, and then
what the purchase prices, and then it becomes this whole
thing between the seller and the buyer of who's going
to pay for it right now. Sellers have an advantage
(30:57):
they have so many other people you know who are
putting in offers that are strong and they will pay
above the appraisal. So if you have someone you know
who's zero percent down for you know, v A, they
don't really have anything other than covering their closing costs
a lot of the time, and so then it becomes
an issue of like, okay, so how are we going
to cover this ten thousand dollar gap, you know, and
(31:17):
who's going to cover it? With the stellar saying well,
we've got five other offers on the table, so you're
gonna have to figure it out or we're moving on.
So it really kind of sucks. I don't know if
howter you wanted to touch on that, We're well, I
just want to say personally, I was the person getting
all caught up in the gap between what a house
was worth and what I was paying for it. You
(31:37):
get so I almost lived into this, And I do
credit Heather and Lyrica for being like, okay, wait, so
like this is a reality. This is like just think
about it. This is what this me. It's like you
have to come up with this cash, and it's like
you get into these competitive uh gosh, I don't want matches,
Like it's like you're trying to get a house, right,
(31:57):
And I found myself getting so worked up because it's
so competitive that there were a couple of times where
I almost almost was like maybe I should just waive
the appraisal contingency and just screw it, Like I'm just
gonna pay a jillion dollars for this house. I don't
care if it's only worth fifty sets because I want
it and I need a house. But then the moment
(32:19):
comes where the bank is like, yeah, so that's house
is only worth fifty cents, and I'm like, oh, but
the thing is, I don't have a jillion dollars, and like,
I think being honest with yourself, Like I had to
get honest with myself about what I was really willing
to pay more than what a house was technically worth.
And um, it's sobering and it is humbling, but God,
(32:42):
I'm so glad that I did not end up waving
appraisal contingencies because being on the hook for these homes
where a lot of them are having buyer's remorse. I
was reading an article about um so Cal house buyers
where they're buying these houses. They're excited in the moment
because they went above and beyond to get it, but
they paid way more than it was worth. They maybe
(33:02):
waived their appraisal contingencies, so they had to come up
with that cash because the bank wasn't gonna cough up
the money to lend it to them. And now they're realizing, oh,
this doesn't work, Oh this is broken. Oh I've got
to put another fifty k into this house in the
first year. And I paid more than it was worth
because I was so over zealous to land one. So
it's really hard to not get swept up in the
(33:22):
frenzy because that's the state of the union right now.
But Heather and Lyrica, what are your thoughts on all
of that. I think it's so important to pick up
price range where you're really comfortable. And like if you
if you're shopping, if your max is a million dollars,
say just because it's around number, don't shop per million
(33:43):
dollar houses. You want to be the baller to come
in and be like, here's an extra dollars. And you know,
we often talk about whether or not a house is
overpriced what we ought. What we'll say is how's aren't overpriced?
Of ten people want them, they're just expensive. Houses are expensive.
(34:04):
Don't buy something that's too expensive for you, like, and
that's why we talk about all this long range planning,
Like you know, if if you can hold it for
ten years, you can wait for the value to catch
up with what you paid for it. So it knowledge
is really powerful for all these things, like knowing that
your credit being high is good because then you're less
(34:25):
risk for the bank, Like knowing that like the appraisal
is like the way that all the banks like kind
of keep control of their collateral. Like that makes like
helps you get your head out of like you're just
competing with other people who want a house, and you
understand you're part of this big system, and so then
you're like, oh, okay, So if I'm shopping at you know,
five hundred and I can afford up to seven hundred,
(34:48):
that's great. Like then I know I can like put
extra money in and it's a good decision for me
or for my family. Um. So I think that's what
we really believe really good advice. Um it's one thing
to rent, and that is one thing I miss is
just like calling my loan like this is broken. Can
you fix us? No? No, Um, there's a bucket my house.
Can you come and like exterminate all the things? Or
(35:10):
if you migate, Um, now I have to pay for that.
And it's really sad and it's slightly depressent. So the
cost of ownership, like a lot of people think, you
buy the house and if I can afford the monthly mortgage,
we're good. We're in there. Oh my gosh, that's just
the beginning. We say five to ten dollars every year
for something to break and That's what I wanted to ask.
(35:31):
You know, we're in charge of repairs. Now you're you
the asha way, mowing the grass, calling the plumber. These
are all your responsibility. So if someone would just take that,
keeping in mind reminding folks what they're now responsible for
and how much money or what percent is you suggest
they'd be willing to cough up each month or each
year in addition to the mortgage. Yeah. No, I definitely think.
(35:53):
I definitely think that everyone should have a budget that
they operate on when they're home buying. So I think
it's some thing that needs to be broken down. Um,
even before you hop on Zillo. I know it's so
tempting to go on Zillo because it's right there and
it's like fun. And I know a couple of friends
that just shop on their casually, but like they just
be looking through and then like suddenly you're like, I
(36:14):
still shot, I'm happy in every It's addictive, it is,
and it's interesting, but at the same time, I mean,
you should really really consider everything that you're currently paying
for and also look at what you're going to be anticipating. So,
like you were saying, I mean there's all kinds of
little things that you think are gonna be little, but
(36:36):
if you aren't maintaining the home, that's gonna lead to
significant problems later down the road. So I mean, say
there's a little leap right and you're like, it's not
that big of a deal, like whatever, and then the
ankles stopped bursts, and then suddenly it's flooding in your
kitchen and suddenly it becomes this whole other issue with mold,
Like little things can add up, you know, and even
just like for resale value, like having and making sure
(36:59):
that you know, the paint looks good. And I know
a lot of people are just like it's just a
little bit of flaking of the paint, but in all reality,
it's just gonna be harder to fix later down the
road if you continue to dodge that, you know, and
taking care of it. Home maintenance is a huge part
of being a homeowner. But it also comes with the
pride of ownership. It is a really cool thing to have,
you know, the control and the power over it. Like
(37:20):
a lot of my friends owned pit bulls, for example,
they're not San Diego is in the most friendly city
when it comes to pities, and so by owning you
do have that benefit of being able to have full
control and full rain over your property. It's actually really
cool to me. Yeah, absolutely, Heather Lyrica. You you guys
are talking about was it a yearly? Some you said
five K, two ten k? Yeah, that's a year. Yeah,
(37:45):
to just have that, you know, it might one year
you might spend a thousand dollars, another year you might
spend twenty depends on if you need a new roof,
or a new sewer line, or just to fix the
leak under those think as when you're shopping for a house,
like learn about how much it costs to repair things,
because like right here in l A. It costs a
lot more to do certain things than my family and
(38:05):
the Carolinas. But then it's funny because certain things cost
the exact same even though the house might be two
million dollars here that I'm looking at is like four
hundred there. So like you really need to know in
your area how much stuff costs. And time goes by
really fast too. And when I got my house, they
were like, oh my gosh, this air conditioner has like
ten more years, and I just forgot about it. I
(38:28):
was like, ten more years, I'll be a hundred years older,
and now I'm like, oh my god, I gotta look
up how much air conditioner to actually do this. Yeah,
I was awarded and then and that's one of the
things we do when we help buyers when they're buying
a house as part of that general home inspection, is
you're making kind of a list and you should really
(38:48):
like check it to make sure, you know, you know
when that tenure is up so you can have the
money to buy that new air conditioning. Um. And then
in addition to all of that, really like I we
wish everyone would change their filter on their air conditioner
every six months, you know, like that's just the most
sexy thing we're gonna say. Yeah, I have never been
(39:10):
more into a conversation. And you started talking about changing it.
You know, it's like if you have a hot water
typeless hot water filter, you need to clean it once
a year. It needs to be serviced, your condition needs
to be serviced. Everything needs to get serviced. And it's
so I need to be doing that yeah, not yeah,
but once year. So you just put it almost in
your calendar and just say like every June, I have
(39:32):
everybody comes service everything in my house and it really
it saves you in the long run, and it's so boring,
like you can even do like your house's birthday. On
your house's birthday when you bought it, you can just
oh yeah, I love that, like, Okay, this is my
house's birthday. It's great, and everybody else's birthdays that month.
And that's when I changed the filter. I check the
(39:52):
thing like it's all about perspective. I'm a big birthday person.
As soon as you say it like that, I'm like,
my house is are the birthday ceperation. We're going to
celebrate you and give you new things next year at
this time. I like that I will be doing that.
Um destiny you mentioned obviously like an ideal strong deposit.
Are there any other options if you don't have that
(40:15):
much money saved? And what would they be? Yeah? Absolutely,
I mean you can go. Honestly, there is a call
half a program. I would say, it's a little bit
more challenging in this market to get those accepted. Um,
they do have a first responders depending on the lender
who it is. There's all kinds of different programs that
they have, so I would definitely try, you know, different brokers,
(40:36):
try different banks, just see what options are available out
to you at that time. UM. Sometimes it's seasonal, sometimes
they change depending on because like my best friend in Vegas, UM,
she's a loan officer out there at Fairway and she
has different programs that are specifically for teachers actually. UM.
So it just really kind of depends, um, who your
(40:56):
lender is and what they have currently available. But typically
you know, f A Chase three and a half percent down. UM,
there's Home Ready and Home Possible programs which is three percent,
which really depends on the zip code area the home
is in. UM. And then there's you know, conventional can
go down to anywhere from three to five percent UM.
But yeah, there's different options. I will say, a lot
(41:17):
of listening agents once they see conventional, they get excited
and they're like, oh great, But they don't always have
to know that it's five percent down or something like that.
You do have to pay for private mortgage insurance on conventional,
and then there's also just regular mortgage insurance on f
h A. But eventually when you get down to eight
percent or somebody eight percent LTV, then it falls off
(41:38):
or you can ask to have it removed. UM. But
that's just an extra liability that you know your your
lender typically has just in case of default. Um. But yeah,
there's a bunch of different options. That's why I always
encourage people to shop around and consider their options when
it comes to a lender. But you also want someone
who's going to really support you when it comes to say,
(41:58):
you're out looking at houses on the weekend and you
just happen to see one at six o'clock on a Saturday.
Not all lenders are made the same, and not everyone
will respond to you those pertinent, those pertinent moments where
you have a question and you're just like, Okay, I
need to reassess my finances really quick. And so I
was really careful to have someone who is responsive to you,
(42:18):
because otherwise there's the only Monday through Friday guys who
are like, sorry, I'm clocked out. You're gonna have to
figure it out on your own. You know. I'm so
glad you said that, because that was one of my
saving graces in this entire experience. I almost went with
one lender. I ended up going with another. But what
I will say is both were so communicative about oh
(42:39):
my god, I know it's seven o'clock on a Sunday night,
but like, and this is how I ended up with
this house, Like it was literally I toured it on
Valentine's Day. It was like, this is a house, but
it's a Sunday And then I was like, okay, let's
put the offering, guys, So Sunday night, my team is
like scrambling to get this offer together. And very often
it is a time is of the essence thing when
(42:59):
you have ventially other potential buyers who are willing to compete,
and if you have someone who was like I clocked out,
I will see you Monday at nine am, and someone
else is locked and loaded at Monday at nine am,
Like that can really be the make or break between
getting a house or not getting it. So I love
that you brought that up. Um, is there any place
(43:19):
that you recommend people check out when it comes to
finding a lender or shopping around? Um? I mean typically
for me and my clients, so I refer them to
a trusted lender that I work with, and I'm sure
you know have their in Lyca. You guys probably have
your preferred lender as well or lenders so and I
based on off of you know, the experiences that I've had.
(43:40):
You know, the consistency, the communication is obviously huge um,
but also the close. So my lender can close in
ten days now, that's extremely fast, and even with jumbloons,
he's at like seventeen days. So that's the kind of
stuff that gets you know, a listing agents attention. When
you can close and deliver on what you're saying within
my mom time, that is going to put you above
(44:02):
the people who are at fifteen twenty one days, thirty days. God,
some of the big banks are like that. I will
learn you some of the big banks. You know, I
know you house your money there, and a lot of
people are like, oh, that's where it's most safe. But
they are not as incentivized to basically earn your business
because we've already got your money. So at the end
of the day, a lot of those a lot of
those banks mission fed, a lot of them will go
(44:23):
thirty to forty five days as a close. So just
be called mus in a vat when you are making
your choice. For a loan officer HEATHERN Lyrico, When it
comes to buying the house, we've gotten the lender, we've
got the pre approval, we've got all the things, Um,
where should we be looking? I mean, obviously, anyone who
listens to this podcast, there's like a ninety five percent
chance that they spend as much time on redfen and
(44:45):
zilla It's just very on brand for our community. But
on the off chance someone doesn't know where they could
be looking, where do you recommend people look to just
sort of generally brows and find homes to potentially tour
or buying. Well, we have a long speech on this one,
but will kind of shorten it down, which is that
all the information comes from the multiple Listing Service, which
(45:07):
is our membership organization. It's not sexy. It's a really
not not as pretty a bit interface as redsn and zelo,
which is why they're so popular. That S and L
did a whole you know, of what everybody is doing.
So um But but we all also recommend tremendously too,
really interview agents and hire a buyer's agent so that
(45:30):
you have somebody as your person, because if you're just
calling a stranger to help you find a house, it
can be done, but it just won't You won't have
that same representation as you will with someone who you
vetted and met with before. You make an offer on
a house because it's a really big purchase. It's a
really big deal. Um, but you know, for actual looking,
(45:51):
we say look everywhere, look at anything you want, but
the information is all actually the same. It some people
in this frenzy have been willing to purchase a house
site unseen. According to Millennial HomeBuyer survey, eighty percent of
respondents said they'd consider buying a house sight unseen. I'm
not this one. I do believe one of my closest friends,
(46:13):
a k A producer star this very thing star. Feel
free to pop up the record if I'm wrong. Um,
but she and I'm putting her business hire this. But
she was moving to a new state and she saw
obviously online the photos, but she did not get to
tour to house. Her and her husband, and they committed
to it. They committed to buying the house. And I think, um,
(46:35):
it's very indicative of the times we're in a lot
of people are doing it. Eight percent of people are
saying they'd be willing to What are your thoughts on that?
Have you worked with buyers who bought sight unseen? Have
you seen a rise? Do you think it's a good idea?
A bad idea, while the contract in California is actually
very buy or friendly. So you know, the site unseen
is one thing you can make the offer, you can
(46:56):
get into ascrow, but then you can do your investigation
and know it's not as common for people to have
never seen the house before they close on the deal,
but they might make the offer and go down the
wrong line and pay for inspections and be invested in
it before they've actually seen it. So I think that
that's probably ultimately what's more common than just think to
(47:17):
like we say, like we're we always tell you, like
what's the best thing, Like if you're selling in the house,
We're like move out stage a painted white like all
that stuff. That's the best. Now let's figure out what
you can do. So like the best thing is to
come to a town and rent in a couple of
different neighborhoods and check it out and then save about
money and like then like, yeah, that's not probably gonna happen.
(47:38):
Like if you're a military family and you're getting transferred,
you're not going to go there, so like it's part
of the best Like your best option at the time
is to do sight unseen, then really focus on stuff
like resale qualities because the ant your point star is
an army wife, so that is why they kind. And
also your Google Earth is your for use it us
(48:01):
and use it. Look to see if it's next to
a gas tish, and look to see how close it
is to the freeway. Look to see all those things
on Google Earth because you won't know necessarily what it
is just from looking at the pictures, so you want
to see you might be if you're on Googles. I
almost buy those houses all the time when on Instagram
that are like cool stuff for under fifty dollars and
(48:22):
it's like this beautiful Kansas perfect, Oh my god, I
want to buy that. There are certainly no catches with
this flashbards like just on top of it, and like
a murky ocean of like toxic waste or something, but
a toxic destiny. What what would you add to that?
(48:46):
It can be said. I mean it's almost like shopping
on Amazon, right, like when you see a cute like
something like address or something, and then you get it
and you're like, wait, this is not even the same
color as it was. It's like what I asked for
versus what? Yeah? Yeah, so I mean, but I will
say I have help clients mostly when I was doing loans. Um.
(49:07):
I remember I had this one guy who was special ops.
He was in Germany and um his wife was actually
in New York and so he could barely even communicate
with me. And this was a fourteen day I remember,
but he definitely did not see it until he came back. Um,
she was actually driving across country. But some of the
best things about technology nowadays is we have things like
(49:28):
Matterport where you can do a virtual walk through or
if you you know, actually have a FaceTime capability, you
can actually go and show, you know, weird little angles
that the photos on the MLS will not show. I
will say on the listing side, obviously you know you
want the photos to look immaculate. You just you can't. Okay,
We're just gonna blow it out a little bit and
(49:48):
make it look really bright and white and cute and stuff.
And then you get in there and you're like, wait,
why is this so dingy? But like you know, it's
it's you have to work with an agent that you
trust and that you know is going to be real
with you. If you're not going to be there in
person to see it yourself. So I com then stop,
I'm sure she had someone great on her side. She
(50:09):
likes her place, it's beautiful and it's great. I mean,
well to that point. We always we represent both buyers
and sellers, and when are when we'll have our listings
and buyers walk in and they said, this looks just
like the pictures, Like that is the best compliment and
it's what, Yeah, so true. Now I want to talk
(50:31):
a little bit about the escrow process, and to get
to that, you have to have a competitive offer. So
I'm curious to know, do you ladies think that you
should kind of lead with the best and final, because
that's what it started to feel like for me in
l A. It was like, we don't have the time
to be like, let's low ball and then go back
and forth with him, because you're assuming that they're even
(50:52):
going to choose you to engage with. And so I
that was like a steep learning curve for me to realize, like,
we really have to come in hot. There's no you
don't have the time, the luxury of time to sort
of ramp up to your best and final. Um, what's
your perspective on that when it comes to making a
competitive offer, something that's going to stand out from the
rest of them. What's important. Obviously a strong down payment
(51:14):
would be a great thing. Anything else to keep in
mind or try to get together. I love to have
a conversation with the listing agent. As soon as I
know that my clients are very invested and interested, I
typically try to get them on phone, on the phone
in front of them. So a lot of times I'll
be at the listing and we'll just like, you know,
put them on speaker and really kind of pick their
brain and kind of get an idea as to the timing.
(51:36):
You know, what the seller is looking for, you know, Okay,
so say it's a ten thirty one exchange. Their needs
are going to be different than someone else who's literally
just contingent offer or something of that nature. So for me,
I'm like, okay, so do you need a short close, like,
you know, should I come in guns blazing? I will
say that I've started kind of adopting a little bit
of the weight. So if I know that they're going
(51:57):
to be reviewing offers, say on Tuesday, I might come in,
you know, on Monday and submit the offer. Because if
I come in, you know, several days prior to that,
and it depends. Sometimes, you know, the listing agent will
get an offer that's ridiculously good and they'll just be like, sorry,
we accepted it and it's gone. So, you know, that's
kind of the risk you take. But if you do
end up in a situation where you know there's other people,
(52:20):
you can see the line around the building, you know,
to get in there. Sometimes if you kind of wait
and then you can kind of see, like how the
other offers are looking. Typically, if you have a good
listing agent, they're gonna be like, look, we're north of
you know, whatever amount, and then you can kind of
structure your offer according, you know, to what they've told you.
So I think it's really important to have an agent
(52:42):
that's on your side that gets along with other people,
not just you. The client like, that's great, but they
need to have good interpersonal skills with the other agent
because that's gonna be a really big factor. Most listing
agents aren't just going to pick someone based off of
you know, obviously price is huge, but if they don't
like you and the way you come at them, they're
not likely to work with you, especially when they have
(53:03):
other offers and they can tell them to come up.
So as long as they have, you know, good social
skill sets. I think that's kind of not ever really
mentioned or talked about, but it really does help, you know,
and especially if your agent has network and knows the agent,
then you have something really going and that can be
that can be beneficial to you and your buyers. Yeah,
(53:24):
ideally your agent is not a jackass. Um. I think
this is hard to do because you're so caught up,
like in your moment, because this is your big un
buying a house moment. But if you can just take
a beat and think about what it's like to be
(53:44):
the seller, you'll get really good at having a competitive offer.
Like because if you're like, oh my god, they know
they're going to have to go into this buyer's market.
Oh my god, they they might be selling the house
they raise their kids in. You know, Like if you
just for a minute, like think, oh I'm I'm at work.
I don't have time to do this one thing and
sign the paperwork, step out of the meeting because you're like,
(54:06):
oh my god, the seller is waiting to find out
if I'm going to come back with what they want
or not. Like so if you can just have your
agent ask like what Destiny was saying, ask all those questions,
and then if you're in your mind, you can say,
what's it like to be on the other side of this.
You're going to be more competitive just because your perspective
is going to be better and different than probably a
lot of the people making offers. And jury back to
(54:28):
your original question, as far as strategy goes, we should
tell you what's happening in this market. There are three
different kinds of ways that you can list a house.
You can list a house at market value aspirationally, which
is what our parents all did. They were like, I'm
going to list to my house for a million dollars
and then someone's going to make of because I always
(54:49):
wanted to make exactly and in this market some people
do that and then they might get it. But what
has happened, and this is all from the global um
financial crisis, that basically people need buyer confidence. So it's
called event pricing. So people are pricing the houses just
below market, and so that's what what buyers are accustomed
(55:13):
to because they're also if nobody else makes an offer
on a house, buyers like, wait, what's wrong with the
house right, Like, if you don't hear all those other
people are making offers in this market, you're like, oh
my god, that house must not have what's happened right
because of that, that's why they are going for these
ridiculous prices over the list prices. It's actually a pricing strategy.
(55:33):
It's a marketing tool that the seller is using to
get eyeballs and to get people into the houses. So
you want to basically know that. And that's one of
the reasons why making a strong over asking offer is
actually not It's not that, it's what's not being silly.
You know how much houses are worth it if you've
been shopping, even for a couple of weeks, because then
(55:55):
like one pops up on Zilla and you're like, what,
oh my gosh, that's even cheaper than that one from
last week. Like your brain like just keeps taking all
that in and you you have a really good idea.
So yeah, So let's say you've made the offer. Um,
it was strong, it was competitive, and your offer is accepted.
Uh Lyrica, can you break down what is s grow?
(56:18):
What is the inspection period? What can we expect after
our offer is access sure? And I'm going to speak
again to California, because it's very different here in California
that it is on the East and like New York
and Boston, where it's a lot of it's done with
real estate agents. Here, lawyers are lawyers. Excuse me here,
it's not. Most of the time. Lawyers are brought in
to review some of the documents if you want, but
(56:38):
it's not required as part of the transaction. Escrew is
two things. One is it's the time period you're in
from when your offer is accepted to the end of
you owning the house. And as it is also a
third party neutral company that owns the that holds the money,
and also um governs that you know, has that contract
that then governs the deal. And at the beginning you're
(56:59):
making an offer and the counter offers all become the
contract that then governs the entire deal. You're agreeing to
everything upfront. That's why it's so voluminous the paperwork you're signing.
So once escrow opens, that's the term of escrow company
has that contract then and escar is open and a
typical escort period is thirty to forty five days, so
(57:21):
that's what you can expect your time frame to be
during that time, you've got your deal as contingent. We've
spoken a little bit about the appraisal contingency, but you
also have an investigation contingency time to really look at
the house and see what's going on. Property is sold
as is here in California, but people do go and
investigate the house to make sure that the roof is
of sound quality and the sewer line is actually attached
(57:43):
to the house. Yeah, yeah, we did, Like the arborist,
we had check out the trees and you know, and
I learned a lot about protected trees and that I
learned about like can't touch the oaks, not that I
would want to if I did, yes, And then the
other the other contingency is your loan contingency, which doesn't
(58:04):
can speak to more and we've been talking about, but
those contingencies all run concurrent and those are times when
during which if the house doesn't appraise and you have
the appraisal contingency, or the house doesn't have a roof
and that you want to roof on a house, you
can cancel the deal here. So those are the things
that so that's that's kind of a period during which, um,
you know you're there's a little more flexibility as a
(58:26):
buyer in that you're able to really do your investigations
and then cancel. Um, after you've removed your contingencies, what
is within three business days? Also, I should say your
earnest money deposit is you have to This is generally
what it's about three percent. Usually it's again negotiable, but
what's become customary is that it's three that goes into ascrow,
(58:47):
and that's wired into escrow. If you cancel the deal,
all the deal is contingent. You can get that three
percent back that will be wired back to you. If
you've removed all of your contingencies and you're on day
twenty eight of a thirty day ascrow and you decide
forget this, I'm moving to New York instead of California.
Your three your three percent will be at risk at
that point. So and the seller would keep that. Presumably
(59:09):
they're going to have a good reason too, and they're
gonna try really yeah, yeah, I understandably, honestly, UM, so
this is kind of your speak now or forever hold
your peace face when it comes to the inspections and
the contingencies destiny. If you could just speak really quickly
to the loan contingency specifically, and then also negotiating repairs.
This is the moment when we can say, oh, I
(59:32):
noticed this during the inspection or this, are you willing
to cough up a little cash or come down on
the price so that I can feel good buying this house? Still? Yeah, definitely,
I mean a loan contingency is it really kind of
again depends on the strength of your lenders. So typically
when you get your preapproval, you know, you submitted your
documents for review, they've um, you know, they've kind of
(59:54):
reviewed it, and then they're like, Okay, we've assessed that
you're a good potential buyer, so we're gonna give you, know,
your pre approval, so now you can go out and shop. Now,
there's different levels to like what certain lenders will do.
I know that my lender and what I was taught
how to do was basically just run credit, you know,
look through the credit. That's something that I find that
(01:00:14):
other lenders I don't understand. We rescue a lot of
deals with my other lender, Like I feel like it's
it's something that he should do and everyone should do upfront.
But you know, you run the credit and you look
through it, you check for bankruptcy. Is I've heard of
you know, some of my realtor friends have had situations
where they're at the last week of closing and then
suddenly the lender goes, oh, we saw that there's a bankruptcy. Um,
(01:00:36):
we can't actually do this loan and so you know,
things of that nature. So you need to make sure
that your lender is really kind of assessing everything on
your finances in the beginning. UM. So that means doing
the desktop underwriter, which is basically do you UM. You
want to make sure that that passes, that it says
approved eligible, and then you can go out and shop UM. Again,
(01:00:57):
a lot of lenders are more in ridge to just
get give you the pre approval but UM and gain
the business from the realtor. But when it comes down
to it, a lot of things can go wrong without
having some form of underwriting done on the file. So
you know, I believe that issuing UM pre approvals haphazardly
is actually really detrimental. Yes, it might take a little
(01:01:19):
bit of time. Say, for example, you need to get
a verification of employment done because your income might be variable.
So in that case, you know, Okay, so we need
to ask your supervisor or your HR department to fill
out this verification of employment and break down your commissions
and bonuses so that we can actually see an average
what you're actually making. Yes, that might take two more days,
(01:01:39):
that might take a couple more days. It really kind
of depends on how quickly you know, your supervisor works
on it. You know, so, um, but I would rather
have all of that work done upfront prior, you know,
to really home shopping and you getting emotionally attached and
the offer getting accepted and then suddenly it's like, oh wait,
you know the loan fell through. So uh, but the
(01:02:00):
loan contingency is yes, like you you typically wouldn't remove
that unless you are a cash buyer. Um. But in
certain cases, some people, especially be a buyers right now,
they're doing everything they can and they're waving all types
of contingencies. And I kind of wanted to speak on
that as well, um because a lot of agents that
I know are waiving things like the home inspection contingency,
(01:02:21):
and I think that's actually really in place to help
protect the buyer because you can still have an inspection done.
Um if you waive the contingency of the home inspection contingency. However,
you're not necessarily able to ask or request repairs be made,
So it really kind of depends on the agent that
you're working with on the other side of the deal.
(01:02:42):
I will say that my team lead he had waived
the inspection on a property that his buyers were so
desperate to have. Then they found out there was foundation
issues at amounted to about sixty grand so um. In
that case, they were like, okay, we're actually gonna walk.
And the seller actually agreed to pay for it. And
so because they knew I mean honestly, if they go
(01:03:04):
back on market and they canceled the deal, you know
with them, they would still have to disclose that by
law to any of the other buyers and offers that
come through. So essentially it's like, we'll just get it done.
You have to do what you gotta do. And that's
why it's important as a homeowner to make sure things
like the roof and the foundation are good. Um, that's
something you want to check in on every so often.
(01:03:25):
So got it, got it. Thank you for breaking that
down so clearly. We touched on closing costs in part
one of this home Ownership one O one. So if
y'all are curious as to what closing costs are and
how much to consider for that, go listen to part
one of this episode. Otherwise you probably already know. But
just in closing, I would love if each of you
ladies could just break down final takeaways, tidbits advice when
(01:03:48):
it comes to just this journey in general, and then
also that first, oh my god, this is my house.
Like I feel like it's like going home with a
baby for the first time, which I'm not done yet
for the hospital, it's like, wait, I have to keep
this thing alive. So that's how I felt with the house.
But it's been a really fun, beautiful, awesome journey. This
is my baby right now. Um So, is there anything
(01:04:10):
that you all recommend folks keep in mind as they
start their journeys. Heather Lyrica, I think don't be intimidated. Like,
if somebody is making you feel intimidated, they're just not
the right partner or the right team member for you
to do this. Because even if you do go through
everything and decide it's not right for you to buy property,
that's fine, but it should be your decision. You shouldn't
(01:04:31):
decide because you don't understand something or people aren't patient
enough and telling you what you need to know. There
are so many people that know about all this that
you should just keep going until you find somebody that
not gives you the answers you want. It's just is
willing to be patient with you and tell you. Because
no one's born knowing how to buy house, like, no
matter what they tell you, no matter how easy they
(01:04:53):
make it look on TV like, we all have to
learn how to do it. And you know there are
people out there who will help you could guar it out. Yeah,
and those TV shows aren't real as fun as they
are to watch. It does not take thirty minutes destiny anything. Yea.
(01:05:19):
I will say it can be an emotionally draining process. Um,
no one really wants to fork over a huge part
of their income to, you know, buy something. It's just
not a very necessarily enjoyable thing. I always try to
advise that, you know, I know we just saw this house,
and I know you love it, but just try to
take yourself out of that emotion because if you lose
(01:05:41):
it a lot of the times that will affect the
you know, basically the momentum that you've already kind of
built with like looking at homes. So I really do
try to say, you know what, like you need to
do some self care, light a candle, like, take a
break from looking at zillo. I know you've been like
this like the whole time, but like you know, really
kind of take yourself out of it, breathe understand that like, Okay,
it'll happen when it's meant to be. It'll meant you know,
(01:06:03):
it'll happen for you. But don't get to too stuck
on anything until you're actually accepted offering you're doing your investigations. Um.
But yeah, I mean also it's just it's a huge
thing that you're doing for yourself and your family. I
think it's really a huge, um benefiting factor because of
the generational wealth. You know, basically by owning property and
(01:06:25):
being able to pass that on to your family hopefully
at some point in your life, um, that will help them,
you know, gain in the world. So I feel like
that's a huge thing that a lot of the previous generations,
as we were talking about earlier with redlining, a lot
of African Americans in particular, we're missing out on those opportunities,
and so I just feel like right now it is always,
(01:06:48):
you know, a great thing to research and prepare yourself for.
Educate yourself as much as you can, and you know,
as you know Lyrica and how they were saying, like,
it's really important to partner with someone who you trust
and who's going to take the time if it takes
six months to buy something it takes six months, if
it takes a year or whatever, but like, at least
you're going to be with someone that actually cares about
(01:07:08):
you wholeheartedly rather than just seeing you as a number
and a statistic and a paycheck right right, So that's
spot on a dred percent. I backed that one up
for sure. You want to feel comfortable, especially when it's
the first time process, which it was for me. I
didn't want to feel rushed in anything. I didn't want
to feel bad if I had to pull out of
you know, um s grow in my investigation period. I
(01:07:29):
wanted to feel like my team was on my side
and whatever that meant, whether men we're buying in the
house or we're not buying the house. They fully supported,
which I can personally attest to the fact that that
was the case, so Heather Larca, thank you so much
for that. Thank all three of you ladies for joining
us for this episode of Hot Happy Mess. This was
jam packed with info. I absolutely loved it. We'll have
all of the ladies information in the show notes. So
(01:07:51):
if you want to reach out to Destiny, Heather, Lyrica,
ask more questions, maybe buy a house, you'll have all
their contact info in the show notes. Okay, so check
that out or go to Hot Happy Mess dot com
for that info. Ladies, thank you so so so much
for joining me today is wonderful, Hi Happy Thank you
(01:08:12):
again so much to that amazing trio of women for
the deep dive into home buying. And before we head out,
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(01:08:33):
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(01:08:54):
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