Mortgage Matters

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content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Roland Daniels 0:43
Good morning, Las Vegas. Welcome to Mortgage Matters. I'm Roland Daniels, a certified mortgage advisor with Geneva Financial. My NMLS number is 355859. Our company NMLS number is 42056, and I'm here this morning, as always, with my fantastic co-host Heidi Griffith. Good morning, Heidi.

Heidi Griffith 1:07
Happy Sunday.

Roland Daniels 1:09
Happy Sunday.

Heidi Griffith 1:09
Happy October.

Roland Daniels 1:10
Happy October. Can you believe it?

Heidi Griffith 1:13
How is it October? I love October. October is absolutely my favorite month. Well, once it once it cools down, it will be my favorite month, sweater weather, cozy. Do you like pumpkin spice?

Roland Daniels 1:25
No,

Heidi Griffith 1:25
I do. It's time for some pumpkin spice. Okay, I'm Heidi Griffith. I'm also a mortgage advisor and your director of client services. My MLS number is 2247754. So I think I think that it's it's much needed. We need to talk about the elephant in the room, interest rates.

Roland Daniels 1:46
We do. We do. Okay.

Heidi Griffith 1:47
We do. Lots of talk about them, isn't there?

Roland Daniels 1:50
There is. There's a lot.

Heidi Griffith 1:51
There's a lot of talk about them. They're high. They're the highest they've been in years.

Roland Daniels 1:55
They're just higher.

Heidi Griffith 1:57
They're still high. They're high. Yes. Yes. Yes. Higher. And so, in passing, in talking to people, people are asking on a daily basis, "Should I wait? Is now the time to make to wait, or does it make sense to actually purchase?

Roland Daniels 2:14
Well, you know, we've been hearing that question at least from me since 2017. Oh heck yeah!

Heidi Griffith 2:20
Heck yeah!

Roland Daniels 2:20
And things have changed somewhat since 2017,

Heidi Griffith 2:25
tremendously.

Roland Daniels 2:25
And then this is where we are today. But I still hear that same question nine years later. Well,

Heidi Griffith 2:31
I I remember I was actually talking to it had to be like 2021. I was talking to somebody and rates were they were below four. Rates were below four. You know, we were in that whole COVID mess.

Roland Daniels 2:42
Right.

Heidi Griffith 2:42
Feds reduced rates. Everything went down, and they told me that they were going to wait. They were waiting till they went lower. I'm like, you know, how much lower mortgage rates in the threes. You know, and I don't. I I didn't hear anything back from the gentleman. I don't know. You know, did he end up buying? Didn't he end up buying? It should be interesting to see how his story played out. But you know, coming out of that, as rates went up, we certainly heard it a lot because people were they were geared towards those two and a half, three and a half, four and a half percent interest rates. And you know, we've had this conversation way more than one time. We have those those rates were put there because of a

Roland Daniels 3:25
purpose

Heidi Griffith 3:25
a black swan incident, COVID right, and three and a half, two and a half, even four and a half isn't necessarily normal in the mortgage world.

Roland Daniels 3:36
No, and studies have shown that the most homeowners, I think more than just around 60% are still carrying a mortgage, 5% or below.

Heidi Griffith 3:45
Right, right. So about 60% of the people that live in their own home, about they're carrying a mortgage, 5% or low.

Roland Daniels 3:52
Yes.

Heidi Griffith 3:53
Yeah. So that's interesting, and that's that's creating that lock-in effect. We'll get to that though. Yes. That's creating that lock-in effect. But I really I want to talk about mortgage rates. I can't pretend like rates are at all time lows. I can't tell every single person that I talk to today is a great time to buy. However, I have a lot of conversations about why it might still be a great time to buy.

Roland Daniels 4:15
Yeah, it could be a great time to buy for you depending on your own circumstances and if it fits in your budget.

Heidi Griffith 4:21
Absolutely, and and how many conversations are you having with people right now? Because you know what's the rate? I hear rates are high. When are rates coming down? That's the big one. It is. We can't. We cannot even try and gage that.

Roland Daniels 4:35
We can't get away from it either. You

Heidi Griffith 4:36
know, I'm going to say the last five to six years things have changed tremendously. Economists used to be able to sit down and watch trends, couldn't they?

Roland Daniels 4:48
They could.

Heidi Griffith 4:48
They would sit down. They would watch trends. They would kind of have a feel for where the market was headed based on certain indicators.

Roland Daniels 4:55
Well, just like watching the stock market, I would say before that. Don't know. Within the last two years, things have changed, but prior to that, we can gage it by just being in the stock market. If the stocks are going up, then usually that means that our interest rates will go up. And if the stock market is doing poorly today, vice

Heidi Griffith 5:16
versa,

Roland Daniels 5:16
usually the bond market is doing well, and then in turn we get better rates,

Heidi Griffith 5:21
but that's not happening.

Roland Daniels 5:22
No, it's not happening in today's world.

Heidi Griffith 5:24
And and typically, when we've got crises like war, the housing market and the mortgage industry tends to do exceptionally well.

Roland Daniels 5:34
Yeah, they usually adjust.

Heidi Griffith 5:35
People tend to buy homes during wartime.

Roland Daniels 5:38
Right.

Heidi Griffith 5:38
Prices tend to be for mortgage rates, tend to be favorable.

Roland Daniels 5:43
Yes, usually they go down.

Heidi Griffith 5:44
But between inflation and oil and all of the factors that play a key part in today's world, we're not seeing that.

Roland Daniels 5:52
And most importantly, the uncertainty in the market. There's so much unknown, and that creates, how should I say the secondary market to be nervous,

Heidi Griffith 6:04
right? And and so that is what we're seeing, and you know when when the Fed meets every month and they talk about what they're going to do with interest rates, that's short term interest rates. It's not mortgage rates,

Roland Daniels 6:16
correct?

Heidi Griffith 6:16
That's credit cards, that's car loans, that Stephen

Roland Daniels 6:19
HELOCS,

Heidi Griffith 6:20
right? But that but that's not a 30-year fixed mortgage rate.

Roland Daniels 6:23
It is not,

Heidi Griffith 6:24
and the mortgage industry doesn't follow that to a T, but it can play a role.

Roland Daniels 6:31
It can play a role.

Heidi Griffith 6:32
It's not necessarily common that we're at where we're at today with the Fed raising the short-term rate, which they did last month.

Roland Daniels 6:41
Yes,

Heidi Griffith 6:41
right, and here we are, and we're watching rates rise.

Roland Daniels 6:44
And it was the first time that they had raised rates since 2023, but even when they were lowering rates, the mortgage industry

Heidi Griffith 6:52
continued to rise.

Roland Daniels 6:53
To continue to rise, the mortgage

Heidi Griffith 6:54
industry continued to rise. But again, I think that the conversation is number one: we we acknowledge that rates are higher. We

Roland Daniels 7:03
do.

Heidi Griffith 7:04
We acknowledge that rates are higher, but I think the conversation is let's take a look at the current real estate market, higher rates, and you know what does that mean to a buyer? Because I really feel like a few years ago when rates were lower,

Roland Daniels 7:20
right,

Heidi Griffith 7:21
and we'll go back to those three and a half and four and a half percent interest rates. I remember the bidding wars that were happening. People were purchasing homes without ever seeing them because they had to hurry up as soon as it was listed, put in an offer, and that offer had sight unseen, and that offer had to be strong, and that strong offer may have included offering over list price, which happened a lot at that time. And then when you offer over list price, now the property's got to appraise. And if it didn't appraise, there were a lot of buyers that were willing to come out of pocket and pay over whatever that amount was that it appraised for. So if they offered 500,000 and only appraised for 450, if they had that $50,000, many people were actually spending $50,000 out of their own pocket to get that property, even though the appraiser said the house isn't worth that additional $50,000. So they knew

Roland Daniels 8:18
they were coming into the

Heidi Griffith 8:20
upside down.

Roland Daniels 8:21
Upside down.

Heidi Griffith 8:21
Upside down. They were waiving their home inspections.

Roland Daniels 8:25
Wow.

Heidi Griffith 8:25
So if there was some major issue, don't

Roland Daniels 8:28
recommend. No,

Heidi Griffith 8:29
not never. That could be the best $500 you ever spend if something is you know really wrong with the property that you're looking at: air conditioning, plumbing, the big stuff, right? Right. But so there wasn't a whole lot of negotiating room. It was truly a seller's market. But over the past few years, you know, as we came out of those four and a halfs, we really saw a nice, stable market.

Roland Daniels 8:53
We did.

Heidi Griffith 8:54
It benefited the buyers. It benefited the sellers. I know you and I have been doing this for years now. You know, we've been able to work with our real estate professionals, and they've been so phenomenal about negotiating and getting some seller credits.

Roland Daniels 9:08
They have,

Heidi Griffith 9:08
even when it was kind of that balanced market, but there wasn't a whole lot of negotiating happening prior to that.

Roland Daniels 9:15
Right. And what about today's market?

Heidi Griffith 9:17
It's changed a little bit, hasn't it?

Roland Daniels 9:19
It has.

Heidi Griffith 9:19
It's changed. So if you have any questions about anything we're talking about today, please feel free. You can give us a call or text us. We're at 702-540-0420. Again, you can call or text us. We're at 702-540-0420. You can also visit us on our socials by searching for Mortgage Matter Radio. So Roland, let's start with the part that everybody's talking about. Rates are high. What do you say to somebody who hears and thinks, "I'm gonna wait"

Roland Daniels 9:47
What a question! It is a question. You know, I understand, and I'm and I understand why you feel that way.

Heidi Griffith 9:53
Right.

Roland Daniels 9:54
Your rate affects your payment, and your payment does have to work and fit into your budget, but. A rate headline by itself does not tell us whether it's time to buy or maybe it's not a great time for you to buy.

Heidi Griffith 10:08
Because for some people, it's not a great time to buy.

Roland Daniels 10:10
Right.

Heidi Griffith 10:11
For some people, it could actually make sense to buy now. Yes. I think that the the rates are the elephant in the room. That's why we want to have this conversation, but they're not the entire house. They're the not. They're not the entire story. No, it is

Roland Daniels 10:22
not the entire picture.

Heidi Griffith 10:24
So while we're not minimizing the rate, right, we're saying that the rate has to be looked at inside of the whole story, inside of the payment, inside of your life, all of that good stuff.

Roland Daniels 10:34
Exactly. So we start with what you are comfortable with, right?

Heidi Griffith 10:39
When we talk about payments and and down payment and all that kind of stuff for sure.

Roland Daniels 10:43
Not with the biggest number that you can qualify for, but the rate is definitely real.

Heidi Griffith 10:49
Yeah. Oh, absolutely.

Roland Daniels 10:50
Right, and the decision still has to be based on what's best for you and your family.

Heidi Griffith 10:54
Yeah, and that's true. So I I don't know if you remember. I bet you do. And if you're listening, you probably remember too. So back when we were coming out of those super super low rates, there was a lot of talk. I'm sure we've all heard somebody say, "Well, rates are going up, and I'm going to wait till they come back down. They're they're bound to come back down. And there was a lot of chatter on social. There was a lot of people in our industry, a lot of real estate professionals who were out there kind of talking about this, and it still makes my skin crawl a little bit, but it was it was you date the rate and you marry the house, and it feels really salesy to me. I I'm not a person who stands by those words because we never know when rates are going to change, where you can then you know get rid of that that nasty rate and find a new bro. No no no no. So, but with me saying that, the reason why I bring that up is because at some point the goal is for rates to come down. Now I don't know what that horizon looks like. I don't know if that's six months, if that's 12 months, or if that's five years.

Roland Daniels 11:58
I wish I knew because I would be rich.

Heidi Griffith 12:00
I wish you knew too. Then, but we don't know, right? So when you're purchasing, when you're sitting down and you're talking with someone, you want to understand what is today's payment, not what is it going to be when rates come down,

Roland Daniels 12:15
right?

Heidi Griffith 12:16
Right? What does it look like today, and can I comfortably afford that? Not just can I afford it on paper? Because when we pre-approve you, when we qualify you, we're basing it on the debts that are on your credit report.

Roland Daniels 12:28
Right? Does it fit into your house today?

Heidi Griffith 12:30
Right. And so those debts, your car payments and your credit card, your minimum credit card payments, and maybe you pay more than minimum, but we're just basing it on what the minimum required is. Your student loans, all of those kind of debts. That's what

Roland Daniels 12:43
shows up on the credit report,

Heidi Griffith 12:45
right? And that's that's what we're qualifying you on. We're not qualifying you on how many times you eat out a week. We're not qualifying you on how much you spend in your your kids' extracurricular activities or vacations or all of that kind of stuff, are we?

Roland Daniels 12:59
No, and sometimes we feel that we should.

Heidi Griffith 13:02
Well, we have those conversations. We do. We have those conversations. So just because you qualify for something on paper doesn't mean that you're going to be comfortable living with it. Right. So even in today's environment, we want to make sure that whatever that rate looks like, that you're comfortable with

Roland Daniels 13:20
it. Yes, because we want you to be successful.

Heidi Griffith 13:22
Absolutely, and so I think that brings us to why rates are where they are. Let's talk about why rates are higher.

Roland Daniels 13:28
Let's do it

Heidi Griffith 13:29
because the economic news has been giving, I think, a lot of us mixed messages.

Roland Daniels 13:34
I agree with you,

Heidi Griffith 13:35
right? So we got a couple reports in this week, and I think that they're telling us two completely different stories, which is weird. It's weird. I think we

Roland Daniels 13:43
hear two different stories all the time. Well, we do,

Heidi Griffith 13:45
but this one. I mean, I was, I was actually, I had to read both of these articles twice when I sat down. So inflation numbers came in. Right. That's the number that the Fed watches really closely. It's the it's the personal consumption expenditures, the PCE. It came in at 3% and that was way lower than they actually anticipated.

Roland Daniels 14:05
Okay,

Heidi Griffith 14:06
that's good news. Inflation isn't as high, right? It gives the Fed a little bit more room to hold off on another rate increase, possibly in October. I mean, we don't know what they're going to do,

Roland Daniels 14:16
right?

Heidi Griffith 14:16
But the indicator now isn't oop, we're going to go up again,

Roland Daniels 14:20
and now it's like maybe we'll hold off,

Heidi Griffith 14:22
right? Maybe we just don't do anything, and then the jobs numbers came in.

Roland Daniels 14:27
And what happened with the job numbers? Okay,

Heidi Griffith 14:29
so jobs numbers came in. There was 90,000 jobs added in September. Sounds awesome.

Roland Daniels 14:35
A lot of jobs.

Heidi Griffith 14:36
We want people working, but but the things that we don't talk about now. First of all, you and I had this conversation. Those jobs numbers are a little fudged, right? They're going to change a little bit.

Roland Daniels 14:46
Well, they always change, and then there usually an adjustment will be made three months later.

Heidi Griffith 14:51
And when we talk about these jobs numbers, does that 90,000 new jobs mean that 90,000 new people got jobs?

Roland Daniels 15:00
Not necessarily,

Heidi Griffith 15:01
because I betcha a lot of those people are having-they already have a job,

Roland Daniels 15:06
right? They need two jobs, and they're

Heidi Griffith 15:07
having to get a second job

Roland Daniels 15:08
or a third job

Heidi Griffith 15:09
or a third job to support their families because everything is so dang high

Roland Daniels 15:13
and so expensive,

Heidi Griffith 15:14
right? So we do have 90,000 more jobs based on this jobs report,

Roland Daniels 15:20
right?

Heidi Griffith 15:20
Again, good news for jobs, but that doesn't necessarily help mortgage rates.

Roland Daniels 15:24
It doesn't.

Heidi Griffith 15:25
And even with better inflation, yay, we don't want high inflation. Yeah,

Roland Daniels 15:29
we want lower inflation.

Heidi Griffith 15:31
Treasury yields still went up.

Roland Daniels 15:33
They did.

Heidi Griffith 15:34
Treasury yields still went up. So, Roland, help me connect that. So, inflation comes in better than expected. Why aren't we seeing relief in the mortgages?

Roland Daniels 15:42
Well, you know that is part of the problem, and we are getting those mixed signals. Yep. So when core inflation came in at 3% lower than expected, that gave the Fed or gave them room to hold off for another increase coming in October. Yep. But private employers added, like you said, 90,000 jobs in September, when economists only expected 70,000.

Heidi Griffith 16:10
So 20,000 more jobs.

Roland Daniels 16:11
20,000 more jobs. So the economy is still kind of hot, and that doesn't give investors much reason to expect that the rates will actually come down right away,

Heidi Griffith 16:25
and then that made the bond market.

Roland Daniels 16:27
That made the bond market react negatively.

Heidi Griffith 16:29
Yeah, long-term yields they did. They did what?

Roland Daniels 16:32
Long-term yields moved higher, which matters to mortgage pricing.

Heidi Griffith 16:37
So that's one of those indicators. That is an indication. Interest rates.

Roland Daniels 16:42
So the Federal Reserve controls short-term policy rates, but mortgage rates are influenced more directly by longer-term mortgage bonds, mortgage-backed securities. The Fed does matter, but it's not that that one-button mortgage rate control because you have inflation, you have wars, and most importantly, oil, and most importantly, uncertainty in the market.

Heidi Griffith 17:07
When you say uncertainty in the market, because this is very true. When you say that, what does that look like? What's what's uncertainty in the market?

Roland Daniels 17:15
Well, we don't know what's going to happen. We don't know what policies are going to be implemented. Every day is a new day. Wars come and go. Today we're at war. Tomorrow we're not at war. Today we're going to bomb. Tomorrow we're not going to bomb.

Heidi Griffith 17:29
I like tomorrow better.

Roland Daniels 17:30
Right. Oil prices are going up. Tomorrow oil prices are going down.

Heidi Griffith 17:34
Right. So when we say uncertainty in the market, are we talking about investors?

Roland Daniels 17:38
Investors, the ones that are putting the the major investors in the market. It could be from large investors from other countries, or even our institutional investors right here in the U.S.

Heidi Griffith 17:50
Yeah, and that makes sense. So, and in conversation with folks who who are big in the market, right? Right. They actually think that the Fed might continue to raise rates isn't a bad thing.

Roland Daniels 18:03
No, because they're looking at maybe we do need to enter a recession

Heidi Griffith 18:08
because that can actually bring down long-term rates, can it?

Roland Daniels 18:10
Can and historically, but it's not the same debt environment that we've seen before. Just like I said, the United States we are $40 trillion in debt and still rising day after day. I don't.

Heidi Griffith 18:25
I don't know if you can actually physically like comprehend 40

Roland Daniels 18:29
trillion. $40

Heidi Griffith 18:30
trillion

Roland Daniels 18:31
in debt.

Heidi Griffith 18:32
That's not, and it continues to rise. And it continues to rise. It's not dropping.

Roland Daniels 18:36
And so far, no way out of it.

Heidi Griffith 18:38
So we can't build a household housing decision around hoping for a recession, though.

Roland Daniels 18:43
No, we cannot,

Heidi Griffith 18:44
and we can't assume that what we saw before is going to happen again. We cannot. So it's interesting times. Yes, new territory.

Roland Daniels 18:53
New territory.

Heidi Griffith 18:54
So you know, and and what we're saying doesn't mean that rates can't improve. The indicators are that they're not going to improve overnight?

Roland Daniels 19:02
Anytime soon.

Heidi Griffith 19:04
And when we hear the headlines that you know rates are down, understand. So, for example, we were pricing out some loans for some clients at the end of last week or at the end of this week. We were pricing out loans. The market changes constantly throughout the day.

Roland Daniels 19:23
Well, that was a dramatic change last week.

Heidi Griffith 19:25
There was a dramatic change in the middle of the day.

Roland Daniels 19:28
Yes.

Heidi Griffith 19:29
So you were looking at locking an interest rate for a client, but you were watching it like a hawk because rates are not as low as we'd like them to be. Right. And midday, you were like, "Oh my goodness, because we're constantly watching that stuff.

Roland Daniels 19:44
Right.

Heidi Griffith 19:44
Rates came down, but did they come down when we say rates came down, like visibly different?

Roland Daniels 19:51
So when we talk about rates come down, so maybe it went from let's say seven and three quarters to seven and a half, or at least opened up that window. For us to even offer that rate,

Heidi Griffith 20:03
right? Because at one point of the day, and again, this was last week. These rates don't apply to come Monday morning because we don't know what happens tomorrow morning. True. But so at one point, the best rate for a gentleman who has good FICO,

Roland Daniels 20:19
right?

Heidi Griffith 20:19
Good assets, good income, right? 7.625 was that rate.

Roland Daniels 20:25
It was, and

Heidi Griffith 20:26
it dropped to seven and a half. Was it seven

Roland Daniels 20:28
and a half? It opened the door to seven and a half.

Heidi Griffith 20:30
So, which was a big win at that point in time.

Roland Daniels 20:34
Yeah, but just two weeks, three weeks ago, we saw rates that were right close to 7%

Heidi Griffith 20:39
Yep, yep. So things move and things change, and I think that we're we're not having this conversation to scare people or tell people not to buy. I think we're actually having this conversation because it's not just the rain, and that's that's not us over here trying to sell you. Nope. But we have to look at big pictures because when rates do come down, whenever that magical day is, I don't want us to be in a situation like we were when rates went through the you know the floor and were so ridiculously low that we created this environment because there's still tons of pent up demand in the market. There is. There's been a lot of people, a whole probably more people than not over the past five years, that have been waiting for rates to drop. So, what happens when they do? What happens when rates drop and all of these people are back in the marketplace? Does that drive prices up? Does that limit seller concessions and negotiations? Does that put you back in the situation that we were in, where we were offering overlist price, where we were waiving vital parts of the mortgage process.

Roland Daniels 21:46
I think that pushes us towards a seller's market.

Heidi Griffith 21:49
Well, and we don't know that that's going to happen, but it could. It

Roland Daniels 21:53
could.

Heidi Griffith 21:53
It could. It caught me by surprise back in 2021.

Roland Daniels 21:57
Right.

Heidi Griffith 21:57
I'm. I'm paying really close attention to it in 2026. So, us having this conversation is just-it's facts. This is this is where we are today. So, and it's interesting because we obviously still have clients. People are still buying. There will always be people that are buying and selling real estate.

Roland Daniels 22:16
Always.

Heidi Griffith 22:17
We actually have two buyers right now, and this is unique to today. This we haven't seen. I mean, we do a lot of down payment assistance.

Roland Daniels 22:25
We do,

Heidi Griffith 22:25
and the reason why we do that is because we do understand that it's hard to save up for the down payment. You might actually qualify for a payment. It's a dang down payment, right? Seven years is the average. The average person. So we offer that because we understand the value of homeownership. We understand that if you want to be a homeowner, that could potentially be the easiest-not the fastest, but the easiest path to wealth creation.

Roland Daniels 22:51
And it gives you an opportunity to keep some of that money in your own pocket instead of spending every single dime you have to acquire that property. Right,

Heidi Griffith 22:59
because we don't want you to close on your property with no money on the bank. We want you to be able to eat and put in, you know, a new countertop in your restroom. Or if something happens in your house, have a little bit of an emergency life events.

Roland Daniels 23:12
Maybe maybe the AC breaks or your car breaks down. How are you going to pay for it?

Heidi Griffith 23:16
And with the Nevada Housing Division and the Nevada Rural Housing Division programs that actually makes it possible, but these two clients that we have, they're different. They are two different buyers, two different properties. One property is a $650,000 single family house in Henderson. The other one is $140,000 condo.

Roland Daniels 23:36
Right, right, right near here in by UNLV,

Heidi Griffith 23:38
close to UNLV. That's correct. Both of the buyers have 20% down. Their goal is to put 20% down. They're both. They both have great credit. They both have great incomes. Great. They're in great positions to purchase. And traditionally, if we had mentioned to them, and we always talk about it, by the way, but if we'd mentioned down payment assistance, and they're like, "Why? I'm putting 20% down. Why do I need down payment? Right. I'm doing this because I don't want mortgage insurance with a conventional loan with 20% down and 80% loan to value, no mortgage insurance. So they're doing it for the mortgage insurance. Well, as we look at interest rates in today's world, in today's in last week's world, this was the conversation, right? Because we're basing everything on you know what happened last. Yes, we pulled rates, and the majority of rates had cost associated. They're called discount points. A discount point, one point doesn't equal 1% reduction of your interest rate. So if rates were, we'll just call that at seven. If you paid one point. That doesn't mean you're getting six. Right. It's usually what a quarter of a point is a quarter

Roland Daniels 24:44
of a point because one point could cost you $20,000, and

Heidi Griffith 24:47
it could. Yes. And it could. And when we sat down, and when we sit down with all of our clients every single time, we come up with different options. Maybe you have two options. Maybe you have 20 options. But you know, here we could do this program. We could lay it out. This. We're structuring right,

Roland Daniels 25:01
and we present those options so you can make a decision for you and your family. The

Heidi Griffith 25:05
best decision, yes. That way, you it's not just a one size fits all. Here's what we have. This is what you're gonna do. But so when we sat down and we took a look at all of those options, both buyers separately, they don't know each other. No, they don't. We had the conversation with the Nevada Housing Division. You can actually utilize their program, and their rates have been they have been fair market. They've been they've been great their interest rates compared to what the market

Roland Daniels 25:34
is. And and one important thing. By the way, these

Heidi Griffith 25:35
aren't five and a half percent interest. No, they're not. They're not. They're not. They're comparable to the market.

Roland Daniels 25:40
They're comparable,

Heidi Griffith 25:41
but there's no cost.

Roland Daniels 25:42
There's no cost in what we call LLPAs, which are loan level pricing adjustments that do not take place when it comes to the down payment. Yeah, so it doesn't matter

Heidi Griffith 25:53
if you have a so for Nevada housing minimum FICO is 640 for Nevada rural housing it's 620. So if you had a 620, or you had an 840. You're not being deemed. You're not being the same. But so there's no cost. The rates are very fair. Yes. And when they took a look at it, they're like, okay. So if I get this one buyer was using the 3% one's using the 5% If I get this 5% in down payment assistance on that $650,000 house, about how much is she getting?

Roland Daniels 26:22
Right around 25,020.

Heidi Griffith 26:23
$5,000. No interest. No payment.

Roland Daniels 26:26
You have to pay it back, but you have to pay $5,000, and you don't have to come out of your pocket.

Heidi Griffith 26:30
And she had the $25,000, and she sees the value. And hey, wait a minute! Now I can hold on to my own money for a while

Roland Daniels 26:37
and let it work,

Heidi Griffith 26:38
let it grow, because hey, short term rates are high now. I can invest, make a little bit more on my money, and when I'm ready to refinance, I'm going to hold on to that money. I'm going to make some interest off of it, and then I'm just going to pay this back. But right now, I don't have to pay for a cost of the interest rate. You don't. I'm getting a rate that I would potentially get, or maybe I might get a little bit higher rate if I didn't use this. That

Roland Daniels 27:03
is true.

Heidi Griffith 27:03
And I'm getting $25,000 that I don't have to pull out of my bank account right now.

Roland Daniels 27:09
Give me the $25,000 every day.

Heidi Griffith 27:11
It's a really smart way to structure. It was just really interesting to me that we have two clients, both with 20% down, both are moving forward with the Nevada Housing division programs. So that's right. Yes, rates are higher than we would like them to be.

Roland Daniels 27:24
Yes, but it doesn't mean that they will stay that way. It

Heidi Griffith 27:27
doesn't mean that they will stay that way, and it does not mean that that means you should wait. For some people, it does.

Roland Daniels 27:33
It does

Heidi Griffith 27:34
not for all people, though. Not

Roland Daniels 27:35
for all.

Heidi Griffith 27:35
It's all about having a conversation.

Roland Daniels 27:37
It is.

Heidi Griffith 27:38
So before we get out of here today, as we always do, I want to take some time to talk about something that's really important to both you and I, Roland.

Roland Daniels 27:45
I agree.

Heidi Griffith 27:46
It's fair housing, right?

Roland Daniels 27:47
Fair housing.

Heidi Griffith 27:48
Fair housing laws protect every single one of us. Silver State Fair Housing Council is the nonprofit organization right here in Nevada that helps people understand their housing rights. They give people somewhere to turn when they believe they've been victims of housing discrimination or treated unfairly, and they educate housing providers, landlords, property managers, realtors, all about their responsibility in making sure that they treat everyone fairly when they offer housing. They're advocates and they're an invaluable resource. So, if you'd like any more information, or maybe you believe that maybe you experienced something that just didn't seem right when trying to get housing or living in housing. You're more than welcome to give us a call or text us, and we'll make sure we connect you with the Silver State Fair Housing Council. Our number again is 702-540-0420. That number again is 700420.

Roland Daniels 28:43
So remember, rates are higher than we've seen in a while. But higher rates don't always mean no opportunity. Buyers have more inventory.

Heidi Griffith 28:52
They do

Roland Daniels 28:53
possibility of more negotiating room. Yep. And there are more ways to structure their home purchase. If rates improve later, we can look at it later. For now, just make sure that the payment, the cash, and your plan all work together. We have strategies that we could utilize. We'll be back next Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. right here on KUNV 91.5. Until then, believe in what's possible, even if you've been told that it's out of reach. And remember, stay true to yourself and your mind.

Heidi Griffith 29:30
Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai