Ask a Mortgage Pro

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Hello, everybody out there in listening world. Wesley Bray here with Core Scope Insights. I hope you guys are having a great week. Uh, what lovely weather we've had, but the rain is coming our way out here, so uh we do need some rain to wash away all this pollen. Um, I'm sure you all are are irritated with all the sneezing and everything that it's done, so uh brought our way. But tonight I've got a very special guest. But hey, remember, here at Core Scope Insights, we're always at the core of industry, always expanding the scope. And tonight I've got a good friend of mine in the studio with us, Mr. John Burkett. Um, so John is uh with Crossroads Mortgage Company right here. Cross Country. Cross Country Mortgage Company. I got that wrong. My bad. I'm glad he corrected me. So, folks, that's no different than my wife. She has to correct me all the time. So, John, why don't you tell everybody about yourself and make sure you get it right? Uh Cross Country Mortgage Company.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Well, cross country mortgage is not big in South Carolina in general, but it is big nationwide. It's the number one retail lender in America. So, what that means essentially is that we make more loans to people living in their home as their primary residence than any other bank or lender out there. And we did that three years in a row. So I'm excited. That's awesome. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

So, hey, you know, you're dealing with numbers all the time, you're dealing with people's financials. What drew you to the mortgage industry?

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Uh my path to the mortgage industry was a kind of an interesting one in regards to how you navigate in to the financing side because I started with a real estate investment firm um in 20 uh 2007. So we were doing property management. Uh, so my experience started there real estate, rental. Um, we were doing some seller financing, and that's kind of how you started learning. I started learning about well, okay, interest rates and payments and all that. Um, we grew a pretty big uh rental portfolio, but the unique thing about what we did was we had an option to buy. So our tenants weren't just tenants. We gave them the opportunity to buy the home. They might be executing on an option two or three or four years into their rental, right? And so the way most would do that is through a loan. They would rent for a while and then they get the loan and pay us off and take the home and they'd be out the we'd be out the picture.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

And um, so I loved that. I I loved the feeling of knowing this person rented for a while and then owned. Did they have ownership? And it was life-changing for them. You could tell they were thrilled with the opportunity to buy. So when that company got sold and I had to figure out what I was gonna do with the rest of my life and my career, I wanted to become a loan officer.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

That's awesome. That's awesome. So let me ask a question here. Um, regarding regarding cross-country mortgage, what do y'all specialize in? Do y'all specialize in anything in particular? And you might have just covered it, but if you want to elaborate on that.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Well, cross-country mortgage, again, being the number one real retail lender in America, the way you get to be number one is you cast the widest net. Right. Right, right. Absolutely. I love that. There's all these different loan programs. And what a lot of lend uh banks or lenders do is they'll kind of squeeze the box a little bit. Well, we don't want to make uh you know a loan to someone who's a 580. We're gonna make our minimum credit score uh 620. Well, Cross Country doesn't do that. Uh, they will write the loan to the specific guidelines like FHA or VA or USDA. They don't overlay additional requirements on the borrower. And so by casting the widest net, in that regard, um, we're able to service a lot more people. I mean, for example, I just serviced somebody, I got them a loan, and they're a 530 credit score borrower.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Wow. So you think it's more leniency because of the interest rate?

SPEAKER_00 4:38

No, I mean, I think the interest rate is uh a whole different dynamic, but the what what casting the widest net just means is like, hey, we want to capture as many people as possible. Not necessarily because of like what's happening in the market to gain market share, but just in general to like say, sure, hey, we want to have uh your business. We want to help you, we don't want to turn people down. Exactly. That's also if we can if we can help you, we will. Now, the other thing is there's a there's a there's a massively growing uh phase of the market, which is called non-qualified mortgage or non-QM. Yeah, it's probably what you may have heard in the past called subprime lending. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

And these are the borrowers who don't fit the box. They're the people who don't have traditional income. They um maybe they don't have like the perfect uh uh situation with their credit or with their um, you know, income or with their debt. So, you know, the thing that cross-country mortgage has done is they've really uh double down on that aspect of the business and do we do all of that in-house. So this would be like a bank statement loan for a self-employed borrower who files their taxes in such a way that they don't show a lot of income. But at the end of the day, they're depositing a fair amount of money month in, month out. And so we can get them a loan on a non-traditional uh mortgage because the traditional mortgages want to see the tax returns, but the bank statement loan says we're just gonna look at the bank statements.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

See what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 6:09

So are our homes or for right now in general, are homes still moving pretty good in the Midlands and in South Carolina? Or have you seen a have you seen a dramatic slowdown?

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Or Wesley, I I'll say this. I feel privileged to be in South Carolina. That's awesome. South Carolina is like probably I think it's top five states for out of state residents moving into. In fact, I think we just surpassed Florida. Um, Florida's very expensive, Texas very expensive. South Carolina is still very economical. Yes. And in particular, we live in the Midlands, right? We live in Columbia, the Greater Columbia area. Well, man, there's homes in in uh our area that are still reasonably priced. I'm saying, you know, 150, 200, 250. You can find them. They're out there. If you're in Charleston, if you're in Greenville, if you're in Charlotte, it's good. If you're in Atlanta, you're not finding a 200. No, you're not finding a 200.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

But you don't have to go far to find it, you know? We're only like an hour and a half from Charleston, an hour and a half from Charlotte, hour and an hour and 15 minutes from Greenville or Spartanburg, you know, up those areas. So that's that's that's really cool. Let me ask you a question. Is there misconceptions that first-time homebuyers have out there that maybe you'd like to clarify or give those folks that feel like, hey, I can't afford to buy?

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

I feel like you could comfort them because, you know, I by the way, John and I, we, you know, we're in a a group that meet for business, and you know, I hear John talk about how much he loves to help people, and every week he's got a success story of how he's helped someone buy a house. Why don't you elaborate on that right now a little bit and tell people what you've been able to do for some of your recent customers and maybe clear that that fear factor for those who want to buy a house?

SPEAKER_00 7:59

So I would say, first of all, um the biggest misconception with uh with with first-time homebuyers, people think, oh, I'm a first-time homebuyer, I'm gonna just, you know, get free loans. And there's no such thing as free, right? Nothing in life is truly free. Exactly. Um, but that being said, there are a lot of programs for people, particularly on the low to moderate income side. Sure. Like you're not gonna get assistance with your first loan ever, your first home purchase ever. If you make $200,000. I'm sorry, you're just not, right? No, it's not gonna happen. These funds that assist, they're for there there's a limited amount of money. So they have to really limit and and box in who gets it. So um, you know, I would say, for example, there's a client of mine, and he's uh just graduated college, he's into his first kind of career job. And um, he's he and his mom are gonna uh buy a home. Not together. He's buying the home. She they're just living together. And I got him a loan where he's getting down payment assistance. So we're covering the down payment with another loan, a second loan. And but that gives him the ability to bring very little to closing, maybe a couple thousand dollars, right? Right. You combine my ability to get a down payment assistance program with maybe the current market condition today, which is sellers giving buyers incentives is a buyer's market. So then that leads us into a position where this guy doesn't bring bring much money, two to you know, two, three thousand dollars to closing. And um, while that may be, you know, the the thought process is well, wait, why do I need to bring two, three thousand? Well, listen, I mean, you have to bring something. You can't go into a home buying process with zero.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Yeah, exactly. Let me ask you, do you think uh people are waiting too long to buy their first house because maybe they're thinking the interest rate will come home down? But my and you're the expert, but my thought to that to somebody looking to buy a home is look, you you're gonna start putting equity into what you own. Yes. And also I look at it as while you're waiting on the interest rate to come up, the inflation still continues to go up. Is that am I right or wrong in that? So I'll let you please, you know.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

So look, there are some markets where values have come down and and maybe it's gobbling up a little bit of the equity. That's not happening in Colombia in our marketplace, maybe at the really, really high price points, but what are we talking about right now? We're talking about first-time home buyers, right? Okay. So let me say this to you if you're a first-time homebuyer out there right now.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

That was my next question I have for you, is please, yeah, elaborate on that.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

All right. As an advisor, which is what I consider myself, I'm not just a order taker, I'm not just a loan officer. I advise. I would say if you have an opportunity to invest, do it. If you have, if your company is doing a 401k, participate. And if you have the chance to buy instead of rent, buy. Why? Because that's a forced savings. Sure, right? Exactly. I mean, essentially, every monthly payment you make, you're ticking down your principal balance owed. You do that over three, four, five, six years, and perhaps the home is appreciating also. Right. Now you've got some equity. You turn around and sell it and you walk away with money in hand that you would not otherwise have had if you rented. You got a guy right now who he knows he's not going to be here for much more than maybe a year. But he's like, man, if I rent, I'm just throwing money away. That's right. Right? Yep. So anytime you have an ability to invest, put money in. Put money in your home, put money in investment uh account, put money in savings. And uh that would be my best advice is you know, don't splurge on unnecessary things. Hey, make your coffee at home. Don't go to Starbucks, you know. Good advice, folks.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

I tell you what, I uh yeah, I feel like we're all learning something here. And um, this is a great show. Glad to have John on with us tonight. But listen, show wouldn't be a show without its listeners or its sponsors. So we're gonna take just a moment here. We're gonna go to break, recognize our sponsors. Thank y'all for tuning in. Hit that subscribe button, hit that ring bell, and give us a like, leave a comment. We always love to see what you'd like to see on the show and further in our comments. And believe me, we read them all and even our emails. So please reach out to us. And folks, hold on to your seat. We'll be right back. When you need printing done right and done locally, choose Pine Press of Lexington, South Carolina. From business cards and brochures to signs, banners, and custom printing projects. Pine Press delivers quality craftsmanship with personal service you can trust. Whether you're a small business, church, school, or organization, they help bring your ideas to life on time and on your budget. Conveniently located at 142 Ellis Avenue in Lexington, South Carolina, Pine Press is your hometown printing partner with decades of experience and attention to detail. Call 803-359-9162 or visit them at Pinepress Printing dot com or stop in today. That's Pine Press of Lexington, where your message makes a lasting impression. Can we all agree that when your equipment stops, your business stops? That's why professionals trust bearing supply in West Columbia. They provide high quality bearings, power transmission parts, industrial supplies, and expert support to keep operations running smoothly. When you're in manufacturing, automotive, construction, or maintenance, their knowledgeable team helps you find exactly what you need fast. With dependable products and customer focused service, Bearing Supply keeps the Midlands moving. Call them today at 803-791-0371. That's 803-791-0371. Alrighty, folks, welcome back. Thank you all for staying with us tonight. I'm enjoying the conversation here with John, and I hope you guys are. So John leads me into segment two. I got to ask you the first question I want to ask you is uh what is the biggest mistake first-time homebuyers make?

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Well, I think one of the things that first-time homebuyers need to know and they need to do well is figure out who their partners are going to be in this process, right? The people who are going to come alongside them. Um, you know, you might give a friend of yours an opportunity, but is that the right decision? Um we're talking about dealing with, you know, a real estate agent, we're talking about dealing with a lender, we're talking about dealing with inspectors, right? Um, insurance coverage, right? So you need to shop around and you need to make a a real kind of wise decision. Now uh what a lot of first-time homebuyers do is they get on their phone and they start browsing the listings. Oh, I like that home. Oh, that's in my area, that's in my price point. And then and then they apply. Right. Right? Right. And that's potentially setting yourself up for failure because uh, you know, what if you can't afford that home? Right. Right now you l you you like that home, but you can't afford it. It's a kind of a Debbie down.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

And that leads me to my next question. What what amount of money should a first-time home buyer need to have say? What is your recommendation? I mean, you know, is it like 10% down, 2%, I mean 3%? What what well I don't know what it is now.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

I haven't bought house in a while. Once again, if we're talking about first-time homebuyers, their programs, I would say bare minimum, you need five grand in the bank. Okay. Now, uh, let's go through some a a mock scenario. Okay. Let's say you're buying a $300,000 home and you're using um like a like an FHA program, which is uh kind of known to be a first-time homebuyer program, right? Three and a half percent down. Well, three and a half percent of three hundred thousand is ten thousand five hundred dollars. Okay. So that's not chump change.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

No.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

But let's say I get you an assistance program that covers that ten thousand five hundred. Okay. Now we're talking, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Well, now we have closing costs. Right. We've got the lender's fee, because we don't work for free. We've got the attorney's fee, because they don't work for free. Right. You've got to insure the home. You've got to set up an escrow account for taxes and insurance that are due later. You've got to pay the recording fee, an appraiser, credit monitoring, et cetera, et cetera. That's probably another $8,000, maybe $9,000. Easy. Okay, now who's got that, right? I told you five. Maybe you and the seller who's selling you the home can split that. Right. They bring five, and you only need four. Right. Right. Sure. And that leaves you some moving money, a thousand dollars sitting there to move into the home, set yourself up, utilities, maybe some furniture. So, yeah, I mean, five is a number that probably anything less than that, it just doesn't make sense.

unknown 16:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

And so you just mentioned my next question. There are still some down payment assistance programs out there for people. Um so what's one thing buyers can do today to improve their chances for approval?

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Well, I think number one, you gotta you gotta be looking at your credit. You gotta be avoiding the derogatories. Um, I can't tell you how many people I see. They've got lates. Don't allow your accounts to go late. Whatever you do, do not go late. Um, also, here's one people are disputing their uh collections. Sure. So maybe you maybe you ran into some trouble in the in the past and you had to go late. I get it. And perhaps that late spun into a collection, right? And so now it's sitting there on your credit, dragging you down. Don't dispute it. Call that creditor, call, call the collection agency and say, hey, can we can we figure this out? Can get can I get back on a payment plan? Can I negotiate this with you? I know I owe you two uh 3,000. Maybe will you accept $1,500? They probably would. And you know what? Once that's paid, it's reflected as zero, you'll get a lift in your score. But at the end of the day, you've got to monitor your credit. Look, I'm about to make you a 30-year mortgage. I'm expecting 360 monthly payments. Right. We're looking at your payment pattern.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

And if you're not paying things on time, it's gonna be tough.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

It's gonna be tough. I don't know who wants to live. Yeah, I get it. And another thing is, you know, and I know when we bought our every house we've bought, we've been told in the buying process, you know, until you close on your house. Don't go make a big purchase, don't go buy a truck, don't go finance. So maybe talk to that and give some, you know, people some advice on that as well.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

Well, the good news with this is it's a snapshot in time, right? Right. You're gonna you're gonna get pre-approved, and that can happen in a day, right? Then you're gonna shop for homes and maybe find the right home, and that might take a month, right? Right. And then if you make a good offer and that offer is accepted, you got another month to close. So we're talking about start to finish 60 days. It could be done sooner. It might drag on a little bit longer. In that period of time, in that snapshot, just you know, stay the course. Status quo. Yeah. Right? There's no reason to go out and do anything. And if you have to go out and purchase something, there's sometimes there are emergencies, put it on a credit card that you already have. Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And what's what is the process typically 45, 60 days from beginning to end? Maybe you can walk us through the process from the loan application to the final.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Yeah, I will absolutely. So, so when someone and I first talk and they decide to apply, that takes literally 10 minutes. Right. Okay. Um, if they're immediately able to be pre-approved, they've got the good credit, they've got the income, we've calculated a debt-to-income ratio, and they've got some money sitting in the bank. They'll have a pre-approval in hand in an hour. Okay. Now, they could be going out and looking. Today is uh what, Wednesday or it's today's Tuesday?

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Today's Tuesday.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

They could be under contract by Friday. Sure. Okay. So let's say they go out, they look at the home, they like it, they make the offer, they negotiate a little bit between buyer and seller, and then they go under contract on Friday. Right. Okay. Typically, and Friday's May 1st. Typically, you'd be able to close that inside the calendar month, maybe at the end of May, right? The things you're going to do during that process are you're going to go through underwriting and they're going to be a full document review. Right. We're going to order a title report from an attorney that of your choosing, that's going to take two weeks. We're going to order an appraisal, which is going to tell us the value of the home. That's going to take 10 days. You're going to perform inspections to make sure that nothing's massively wrong with the home. Or if it is, you ask the seller to cure it, right? And at the end of two or three weeks, then you're going to go back in for a final underwriting review. Assuming all that checks out, all the docs in, and you're clear to close, then it's just a matter of how much do you need to send and how much do we need to send to the attorney to close this transaction. The attorney's going to collect the funds, have you sign on the dotted line and disperse the funds, right? The seller's paid, the county's paid, the agents are paid, the insurance is paid, and you walk away with a deed and you and your keys to the home. And this process took, what did we just say? A month and a week. A month and a half. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I would like for you to do something. We may, this is kind of going to be a um a two-part question. We may have some people out there maybe getting out of the military. And like myself, I used a VA loan when I bought my house. So talk a little bit about VA loans. And if you can, explain the difference between a USDA, uh FHA, VA loan, and conventional.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Just, you know, so the best loan out there is a VA loan. Oh, yeah. Hands down bar now. Okay. You don't have to put any money down, although you can if you want. But 100% financing is a huge win in this short place. Okay. Absolutely. The other thing that really makes VA special is there's no mortgage insurance. Now, if you don't know what mortgage insurance is, I'll tell you that there are stemming from the previous housing market crash, there are now insurance products that protect the lender. In case you default. Okay. So the mortgage insurance is purely an insurance policy that benefits the lender, not you, but they make you pay it. So if you can avoid mortgage insurance, that's huge.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

That's huge, right? That's really huge.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

That's why the VA loan is the best. The next best is probably conventional. Why? Well, conventional financing, if you're if you're a well-qualified first-time home buyer, you can get a 3% down payment on a conventional loan. Right. And that's pretty good. I mean, think about it. Um, also, conventional financing is very attractive to your seller because most of the time with the can with a conventional appraisal, they don't care about the condition of the home within reason. Sure. You can't have a hole in the roof or the foundation is tilted. But as long as the home's intact, watertight, they'll they're a little forgiving on some of the, you know, some of the some of the cosmetic fixer type things that you can handle post-closing. Now, you've got VA, you've got conventional, and those are those are your kind of your two best programs. But don't discount FHA and USDA. Now, FHA is great because it's three and a half percent down, which is again still a low amount to put down. Um, they have credit score minimums all the way down to 500. So they're really again trying to cast the widest net.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Um, and then uh they also have the highest debt to income ratio. So you don't have to make a as much money to go FHA as you would maybe to go conventional. Sure. Right. And then finally, I'll I'll touch on USDA. That's more rural housing. Rural housing. So you can't be in the city, you can't even really be in the suburbs. Really? You gotta kind of be out in the country.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Yeah, you gotta be out in the sticks.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Yeah. But that's also 100% financing, no down payment. And let me tell you about one thing that USDA has that none of the others have. If you go USDA and the home appraises for more than you're buying it for, we can use the gap there to cover your closing costs. Really?

SPEAKER_01 23:53

I didn't know that. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

No other loan product allows that.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

That's that's good.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Conventional doesn't do it, VA doesn't do it, and FHA doesn't do it, but USDA does it.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

USDA doesn't.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

So that's that's a leg up. If you if you're okay with the rural areas and you can find the right home out in the outskirts, that's a that's a great way to do it. As long as you're buying the home right. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

So, folks, hey, I'm learning a lot that I did not know that maybe I can apply to my next house. Because I tell you, I my my wife and I, we talk about downsizing all the time. We're, you know, once the kids are gone and Preston, Preston, we want him to uh, you know, he's getting ready to get married. Leave us be. We'll be empty nesters in what how much longer now, Preston? A year, a year? Yeah, 2028, he's getting married. You got the date set yet? We'll give everybody the date. Oh, you're what's your fiance's name? O'Reilly?

SPEAKER_02 24:43

Oh, Reggie, Reggie, Reggie.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

So, folks, hey, that takes us to our next break. We hope you're enjoying the show. We hope you'll uh enjoy it when we come back because we're gonna get to segment three. And in that segment, we always spin the wheel. So we'll have a lucky winner tonight, like always. So y'all stay tuned, we'll be right back. When your business depends on reliable cooling, you need a partner who understands the science behind keeping things running. That's Hudson Technologies, America's leader in refrigerant solutions. From recovery and reclamation to the refrigerants you rely on every day, Hudson delivers certified high quality products that keep HVAC systems, commercial facilities, and industrial operations performing at their peak. Their unmatched reclamation network means you get refrigerant you need pure, tested, and ready for service. And with Hudson's commitment to sustainability, you're not just keeping systems running, you're helping protect the future of the industry itself. When performance matters, trust the team with the experience, the technology, and the supply to keep you moving. Hudson Technologies, refrigerants reimagined. Learn more at Hudsontech.com. When it comes to finding your dream home in South Carolina, experience matters. And Adam Biedenbow brings over twenty years of proven real estate success to every client he serves. Whether you're buying your first home, upgrading, or relocating, even downsizing, Adam knows the state of South Carolina in his community, its neighborhoods, its schools, and its hidden gyms because he's been helping families build their futures here for over two decades. With a commitment to honesty, hard work, and personal service, Adam Biedenbow is the name that you can trust when it comes to your real estate needs. Call Adam at 803-206-7025 and let Adam go to work for you. See, we didn't put you through too much of a struggle. Just some sponsors that take care of us so uh that we can take care of you. So, hey, we're back again here with John in the studio. John, we're gonna ask you the next question. This is kind of going uh bringing up the switch hitter on you. But tell everybody out in the listening world, and that's hey, we're talking to you folks out there in the listening world, right? So uh tell everybody out there in the listening world, what does refinancing um make sense? Why does refinancing make sense?

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Yeah, let me give you a couple examples, right? So um, if you have uh several high interest rate credit cards and uh maybe a car, right? Or maybe you're needing to buy a new car, right? And so you're considering, man, if I get this new payment, man, these credit cards have been killing me. My budget is so tight, but I'm sitting on $300,000 in equity in my home.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Well, refinancing, even refinancing into a higher interest rate from your existing primary might make sense when you examine the numbers. Like what is my budget now? And if I refinance and consolidate everything to one payment, boom, look at how much freedom I can have. So um refinancing makes sense certainly then. Um also obviously to drop the rate, but also one of the big things we're seeing people do right now is drop into a 15 year. Sure. So you you got in a 30-year, it's been five or 10 years in. So you still have 20 or 25 years left to to to pay. That's awesome. Why not refinance into a 15 year?

SPEAKER_01 28:02

And what what advice would you give someone that's looking at buying a rental property? Maybe they want to get into the rental business, you know, or rental houses. I know I know it's something that, you know, um can be lucrative. Uh so any advice you could give to somebody wanting to do that?

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Get a good agent. Get a good real estate agent. You want an agent who's, first of all, if you're getting into uh investing in real estate, you need people feeding you deals. Right. You need you need people boots on the ground who are telling, hey, this is a hey, this is a home for sale. Hey, this is a home that's coming on for sale. Hey, this is a a friend of mine who's asking me questions about maybe buying this home, but it's not gonna work for them. Would you be interested? You need a good agent. And not only that, that agent needs to feed you deals, tell you what the home is worth, and then tell you what the home can rent for. Sure. Right? That's what they should be. Hey, anytime you find something, tell me what is it worth and what can it rent for? Right. And if you have a good agent doing that, that's worth its weight in gold, man.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Absolutely. Let me ask you this. Uh, do you still think that real estate is one of the best long-term uh wealth building tools out there?

SPEAKER_00 29:09

100%. 100%. I I mean, again, that that whole talk about the forced savings, when you're paying that mortgage, okay, and you're and you're paying down that balance, maybe the value ebbs and flows a little bit, but look at look at the historical trend over the last 40 years. Yeah. Real estate's up. Even when it's down this year, it's still up overall, right? So for sure.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

Sure. Absolutely. Let me ask you this. What's the most rewarding closing you've ever been part of?

SPEAKER_00 29:38

Well, I mean, uh, you know, one of the very first closings I ever had was um this this this you know younger gentleman. Um, and he was, you know, he had no college education. He was just a hardworking guy.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Right. He had very little money. Very little money. I took him USDA, which is we mentioned was 100% financing, so no down payment. But not only that, uh, there's a down payment assistance program that helped him cover his closing costs. Right. So this guy put, you know, when you when you go under contract to buy a home, you have to put a deposit on the contract. It's called an earnest money deposit. It secures that home for you, the seller can't sell it out from underneath you. Well, at closing, this like 25-year-old hardworking blue-collar kid got his earnest money back.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

Oh man, that's yeah, he was like USDA, and we covered his closing costs entirely.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

And he got a check at closing. He he bought a home, got his keys, got his earnest money back, and went and moved into that. That's awesome. I'll never forget that.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

That's gotta be a good feeling when you're helping somebody do that.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

All right. So are you ready? Ready to ready for what? You're probably wondering. Are you ready? I'm just gonna ask you. Are you ready?

SPEAKER_00 30:49

Hey, I'm ready. Throw it at me.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

You're ready, okay. We're gonna play a little game tonight, folks, with John. So we're gonna do uh we're gonna do, have you you know you've seen this before on my show? I don't think so. We're gonna do rapid fire. Okay, rapid fire. So I'm gonna give you some questions that may be re pertaining to or maybe not to mortgage. Are you ready for this? I'm ready. All right.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Let's have at it.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Coffee or energy drinks on a busy day?

SPEAKER_00 31:12

Coffee, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

Favorite South Carolina restaurant.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Ooh. Uh I would say, I'm just kidding. No, favorite South Carolina. I'm a sushi guy. Oh, I love sushi. We'll do that. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

All right. Beach or mountains?

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Beach.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

What's the financial habit everyone should develop?

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Uh saving.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Best advice you've ever received.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

Um marry her.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

It's a good one. All right. If listeners remember one thing from today's conversation with you, what would you want it to be?

SPEAKER_00 31:49

I would want the listener to see how genuine I am about doing loans. And and how for me it's more about I of course I've got to make a living, but it's more about seeing the person and how that buying a home changes their life. And that's what really drives me in, wakes me up every day.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

That's awesome. I I I really can, folks, I can tell you this guy uh just hearing stories from uh past clients he's worked with and the success uh I'm getting tongue-tied. The success stories that he shares with us as a group and with me and in our conversations, just knowing the passion that comes through what he does and seeing how he's uh so um uh excited about what he's done for someone, it really shines through in you, John. So I want to give you kudos for that. I can tell that you enjoy what you're doing, you like helping people. And from what I've been told by a lot of people that know you and we have mutual friends, they say you're one of the best in the business.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

So here's what we're gonna do now, folks. I'm gonna slide over to the table with John. We're gonna spin the prize wheel like we always do. And John, being the guest tonight, you get to do that. There's only one rule, kind of like the price is right, it's got to go around at least once. So uh we'll have you spin the wheel, and then we're gonna have you reach in that golden tumble over there and pull out a winner for tonight's show. So, folks, I'm gonna move over here. Stay tuned. All right, folks, welcome back. We have had a great time in the studio tonight talking with John. So, John, it comes to that time of the night that we do this every week. You get to spin this prize wheel. As I told you, coming over here, it's got to go around one time. So, this right here ain't gonna get it. It's gotta go around one time at least. Spin it as hard as you can or however you want to. But you're gonna actually see what folks win tonight on the when we just.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Does it matter which direction I do it?

SPEAKER_01 33:35

You can do it left, right, either way you want to go. All right, let's give it a whirl. All right. What do we got? Someone has won a hundred dollar Visa gift card. Wow. So we're gonna cross it, cross our fingers. So you cross your fingers, some lucky winner out there. Their fate is in your hands, John.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Yeah, yeah. So I get to spin this too.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

You get to spin the wheel. All right, all right. Let's spin it around, shake it up once a few times that way. And then you got it all shook up.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

Just plop it in.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

I've all shook up.

unknown 34:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

While I'm doing this, man, I appreciate the platform, man. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

No, I appreciate you being on the show, man. It's uh it's awesome having you in here and your experience. So now you get to read out the lucky winner, John Deeson. John Deeson. John Deeson, congratulations, my friend. You have one $100 Visa gift card, and we can't thank you enough for subscribing to the show, liking, and uh just being a friend and supporting the show. We can't thank you enough. But before we close tonight, uh folks, I want to give it back over to John. John, I'm sure these people have been very interested in the content we've provided tonight, especially what you've had to educate people on as far as mortgages. So now tell these people out there in the listening world where they can find you and a little bit about how to get in touch with you.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

For sure. So um basically I work at cross country mortgage, so um you can start there, but my website is John B. Lending, so that's J-O-N without the H, B as in Boy, and then lending.com. So that's gonna navigate you to my homepage. Okay. Um, I also John B. Lending is like my tagline on any of the socials out there, and I'm really trying to develop my TikTok following. So if you're on TikTok, I know this is YouTube. That's right. And hey, we're gonna use a little bit of those to shorten it up. But John B. Lending, so I'm on all the platforms. Just look me up.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

That's awesome. Oh man, I love it. Folks, on a three, two, one, John and I are gonna say goodnight, but we appreciate you. Thank you for tuning in. Three, two, one. Goodbye, everybody.