Mortgage Matters

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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 Griffith 1:06
Heidi, well, good morning. Roland, good morning. How are you getting better? You're doing better. I'm glad to have you back with me today. You were under the weather, huh? Hey, I lost my voice. It's nasty bug that's going around. Yep, still lingering, huh? Still lingering. Well, I'm here every day you're gonna feel better. Yeah, that's right. So I'm back in the studio. Thank you. I'm glad you're back. Thank you for filling in absolutely taking control. That's right. Good morning, everyone. I'm Heidi Griffith. I'm also a mortgage advisor and your Director of Client Services. My NMLS number is 2247754, 2247754,

Roland Daniels 1:44
and we're glad you're starting your Sunday morning with us.

Heidi Griffith 1:47
We really are. So we're kind of in that weird in between space, right? We are. Christmas just passed. It did. The new year is absolutely just days away, right around the corner, 2026, it's going to be here, right? So it will be however we all celebrated right over the past week, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or simply just spending times with friends and family. We hope that it was meaningful for you. Today's show is going to be about reflection and about looking forward. We're going to talk about preparing for home ownership in 2026 the brand new worker Advantage program offered through the Nevada housing division, and this has been a game changer for so many working households in the state, and how you can learn more about it at our first in person home buyer class in the new year.

Roland Daniels 2:32
It is the first one of 2026, and more to come. Here we go. Let's do it. If anything we talked about today sparks a question, or if you're starting to think about home ownership and what that would look like in 2026 feel free to give us a call or text us. Our number is 702-210-2057 once again, that's 702-210-2057

Heidi Griffith 3:00
so I've been doing a lot of reflection. I think a lot of us do this time of year, right? It's a great time for reflection. We started thinking back, and I started thinking about the past couple of years, and I know that I ended the past several years, you know, kind of telling myself, Oh, I'm so glad that this is over. I did things a little different this year, and I think it would be great to actually talk about because it really it changed my perspective completely. I told you about what I did, right? You did? Yeah. So I actually sat down last weekend and I looked at the past year's calendar. I have a paper calendar and I have a digital calendar. I went back through to see all that we'd done throughout the year. And I also went back through the year in pictures in my phone, right? So I looked at everything, and it was, it was pretty amazing. You know, of course, some stuff has happened over the past 12 months, some good, some not so good, but last year was really a whirlwind year in the best way, right? Overall, 2025, was it was we produced. We hosted over 30 classes, closer to 40. Wow, obviously, we did various workshops. We did a ton of community events with an amazing turnout. We did. We had the toy drive, which couldn't have been more. That was truly life.

Roland Daniels 4:26
Unfortunately, I had to miss it when I saw the pictures, it

Heidi Griffith 4:31
was, yeah, next year is going to be bigger and better, but so we have the toy drive. You know, you and I had some personal milestones, right? And, of course, the show, you know, we're here. We're here. And throughout all of it, our listeners have stood by us. So whether you tuned in once you listen every week, you catch the podcast, or even share an episode with somebody that you care about. Thank you so much we do. Thank you for the bottom of our heart. It, yeah. Thank you for spending a small part of your 2025 with us. We really we don't take it lightly. And this is important to us. It is very important. It is so last week, you weren't here. I was not. I was in studio with Josie Haddam with the Nevada housing division, and we talked about the new workers Advantage Program, right, right?

Roland Daniels 5:19
We've been getting a lot of calls regarding the program.

Heidi Griffith 5:22
Man, this is the program that's designed for households where at least one person works full time in one of the four designated essential worker categories. That's and that's through the Nevada housing division, right? It is those categories fall under health care. So when we talk about health care that could include doctors, nurses, techs, even home health aides and support staff working in medical facilities, right? And it also covers education, it does, and that was a big one for me, because we, we've been doing the teacher program with the Nevada housing division for some time now, but

Roland Daniels 5:59
it's only designed for K through 12 public school, public school charters,

Heidi Griffith 6:04
right, right. So, but, but you've got to be, you know, with the school district, whether it's down here in the south, with Clark County School District or anywhere else in the state. But you did have to be a full time teacher, not even a substitute, and there was no like admin or any staff that could utilize that program. That program was actually put into place for teachers to move to the state, right? That's a $7,500 down payment assistance program. So you get 7500 bucks, and that money is forgiven after you've lived in your home for five years. But we got a lot of calls from and we know personally, a lot of folks that work for the school district we do aren't necessarily teachers K through 12, right? And so this new worker Advantage program actually allows them the opportunity with some assistance as well. And it's not just some assistance.

Roland Daniels 6:59
So can you give us a rundown of some of the positions associated with education? Absolutely.

Heidi Griffith 7:04
So obviously, teachers, we just talked about that so, but admin support, staff, education aids and that in this can be either in public or

Roland Daniels 7:13
private schools. And I get a lot of calls from bus drivers,

Heidi Griffith 7:18
bus drivers as well. Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, there's a huge list. If anybody ever had any questions, they could reach out. We could go through the list, and Nevada housing has this great little tool that if your your specific job actually isn't on the list, we can send it over to them, and they'll they'll stick it into the computer. The computer will pop out whether that job is appropriate for the down payment assistance program or not. But then, not only do we have education and health, but public safety, right? And that includes so that's going to be police officers and corrections officers, awesome, you know, firefighters, EMTs and other emergency responders as well, right? And it's also for the construction industry. And this is a really interesting one. I'm really happy that it's on the list, because a lot of times these folks, you know, the skilled and unskilled laborers, right? Whether you're union or non union, this is going to cover you, right? And the reason, we learned about the reason last week from Josie, and it was actually really interesting, and they were taking a look at the state as a whole, and in the event people were leaving the state, these are the folks that we were looking at that would kind of keep the city running. And that was the reason that these essential worker categories were kind of put into place.

Roland Daniels 8:44
There is a certain shortage in different trades when it comes to the construction fuel, yep, yep.

Heidi Griffith 8:50
And I mean, so when we talk about the vast amount of people right that fall under these essential workers categories, and then we couple it with a $20,000 Down Payment Assistance Program, right? So you get 20 grand. But, and I keep going back to this magic sauce, right? You know the magic sauce? The magic sauce is we have the ability to buy down the interest rate, buy

Roland Daniels 9:15
down the rate 2% or 4% interest rate buy down, which means you can typically get a rate somewhere in the low fives.

Heidi Griffith 9:25
Yeah, we're working on a file right now where she decided to use the 2% buy down, and the rate that they were able to lock at on the day that they locked was 5.625

Roland Daniels 9:37
Can you imagine at 5.625

Heidi Griffith 9:40
in today's market. Been a long time. It's been a long time, and that number one substantially reduced her monthly

Roland Daniels 9:47
mortgage payment, mortgage payment, right? And it is a permanent buy down, not a temporary buy down, that's right?

Heidi Griffith 9:53
And then by using just the 2% versus the 4% there's a lot of money left after. Add out of that $20,000 that they'll be able to use towards their down payment and closing cost. So with that, you know, there's 900 loans available in the state,

Roland Daniels 10:11
yep, first 900 families within the entire state of Nevada,

Heidi Griffith 10:15
right, right. So with that, they anticipate about nine

Roland Daniels 10:20
months. So about 100

Heidi Griffith 10:23
loans a month, about 100 loans a month. They'll do once the funds are gone. On this one they're gone, but we still have nine months. We still have nine months,

Roland Daniels 10:32
right? Because it just went in effect, December the first.

Heidi Griffith 10:34
December 1, yes, so just right under a month, we're close to a month.

Roland Daniels 10:38
And do you know how many loans have they already reserved so far?

Heidi Griffith 10:41
Well, last I spoke to her, and that was last Friday, they had reserved 50, okay, 50 of those. So they pretty much right on point for where they want to be, okay. And that brings us to to the next step, right? Because all of the programs that the Nevada housing division offers, and they offer several, not just the worker advantage, not just the teacher we were talking about, but they've got a program for first time buyers. Josie and I talked about a program last week, the hip DPA, and that actually allows you to own a home in another state, right? As long as this, the home in Vegas, or, excuse me, in Nevada, is your primary

Roland Daniels 11:19
residence, right, right? It gives you the opportunity to own an investment property in another state, right?

Heidi Griffith 11:23
Just one, but you can still own a property in another state. But all of the programs that they offer require home buyer education, and we have you covered. We do. We do our first class of 2026. Is fresh into the new year. It's going to be on January 7. That's a Wednesday. This is going to be an in person class. I love in person classes, especially with the Nevada housing division, because we bring lunch, right? And snacks, because I love snacks, you do. And it's a great opportunity, especially if you like to be there and talk to folks. It's only an hour and a half of your time. You're going to learn all about the programs they offer. You're going to learn a bit about the lending process and what that looks like. And then there'll be a real estate professional there that will walk through the actual home purchasing process. So a great hour and a half, plus snacks, plus lunch, and you'll receive your home buyer certificate, yep, which is required for all of the Nevada housing division programs, and that certificate actually is, is good for all of the down payment assistance programs we offer. What are we at about 20? We're right around 20. We're about 20 different down payment and many of them require homebuyer education. This certificate will actually cover all of

Roland Daniels 12:41
those, right? And don't forget, Nevada, rural housing also has a sister program, and they have 200 of these available rural rocks, $20,000 Yes, yeah. They have 200 that's available for families,

Heidi Griffith 12:55
and that's available anywhere in the state that's considered rural, yep. So the the obvious ones, right? So prompt and mesquite and Laughlin and up north, but there's also pockets right here in the Valley. So as we start to wind down, we may be able to take advantage of some of those that are right here in the valley. That's right? Yeah, yeah. If you have any questions or would like to register for our upcoming home as possible Down Payment Assistance class, you can call or text us. We're at 702-210-2057, again, that number is 702-210-2057, you can also head over to our Facebook page, just search mortgage matters radio, and you'll find the link to register for that January 7 class as well. So here we go again. New Year's coming up. 2026, 2026. Is coming up, and I think a lot of us actually sit down and start planning out our goals, if we haven't already done so right,

Roland Daniels 14:01
right time to start planning for 2026

Heidi Griffith 14:03
it's an x well, yeah, I started in early December. I know that you and I have done some goal setting, right? And, you know, I'm sure a lot of people have, and maybe home ownership is on your list for 2026 right? But buying a home really doesn't start with scrolling listings, does it? It doesn't. It doesn't. It starts with understanding your credit, your finances, and what feels comfortable for you month to month. So when you're thinking about buying a house, right? A lot of people go directly to and we laugh about this, but to Zillow and start, we start looking at the the amazing, you know, million dollar home we do. We like looking at pictures. Not that many of us can't afford million dollar homes, but some of us can't. I know I can't, right? I can't either. And so the best thing to really do, and we talk about this at every single class, is kind of start off with figuring out where you are. And the first step is, usually the money, isn't it? It is because the two biggest. Hurdles that people have when they're thinking about buying a

Roland Daniels 15:02
home, you're saving enough money for the down payment and

Heidi Griffith 15:07
credit credit. So those are the those are the two things that maybe stop people in their tracks. So saving for the down payment, 68% of people say that the reason they haven't purchased a home is because they don't have the money for the down payment. Down payment, right?

Roland Daniels 15:24
Yeah, we have the down payment assistance programs that

Heidi Griffith 15:27
are available, about 20 of them. We do about 20 of them. And you gave me the stats, and then we talked about that several times. Takes the average person six

Roland Daniels 15:39
years to save up for that down payment. That's a long time, a long time.

Heidi Griffith 15:44
That's a long time. So that's stopping a lot of folks, kind of, you know, putting their dream on hold. But there is support available, there is, there is. And the second one is credit, right? It is. And the thing about credit when it comes to purchasing a home is it really depends on what your needs and wants are different programs have different credit scores,

Roland Daniels 16:09
and we have many different programs that require different scores.

Heidi Griffith 16:12
Right the the down payment assistance programs have different credit scores, and then depending on the type of program that you use, that score is going to fluctuate. So for example, Nevada housing has a minimum FICO score

Roland Daniels 16:26
of 640 across the board, on all of their programs,

Heidi Griffith 16:29
completely across the board. And a lot of people, I know we've talked to so many people that have attended classes, and they're like, well, it's probably not going to work for me because I don't have a 640 Well, let's sit down. Let's talk about it. Let's do a soft credit poll. First of all, let's see where you're really at. Because until we make that first step, until we start doing something,

Roland Daniels 16:49
we're stuck where we were right. And it just starts with a simple conversation,

Heidi Griffith 16:53
just an assessment, just an assessment, so that we can see where you are. And the interesting thing is, I know that when I run credit reports, it's typically not as bad as people anticipated. It being right and so many people and Josie and I talked about this, so many people start with not necessarily the right stuff when they start tackling their credit

Roland Daniels 17:17
but we all have different ideas what a credit report or what our credit scores are, and what should we actually pay down on those Right, right?

Heidi Griffith 17:27
And a lot of people, you know, many of us have medical collections. We do, and it's unfortunate, and I wish that medical wasn't reported on credit reports. But it is, it is, it is, and it still is to this day. However, from our standpoint as mortgage lenders, we don't look at the medical collection at this point, and at this point we do not take them into account. Now they could impact your credit score, yes, which we base things off of. But when we start looking at derogatory credit, we're not focusing on medical we're not focusing on charge

Roland Daniels 18:08
off, right? It's part of your credit profile, but really is not necessarily going to make or break your credit report when it comes to qualifying for a mortgage, right?

Heidi Griffith 18:18
Right? The stuff that we're looking for more than not is going to be recent

Roland Daniels 18:24
lates, yep, making sure that you're paying your bills every month on

Heidi Griffith 18:28
time, right? And even one late payment doesn't mean that you're not going to get a house. It just means that we're going to have to explain it, correct? So we write what's called a letter of explanation. Well, you you actually, as the borrower, write that, and we'll explain the situation, because the underwriter that's going to underwrite your file is a human, and we want to make sure that they see that you're a human, you're not just a file. And we all have bumps in the road, don't we? We do so between credit and finances, those are the two biggest hurdles. Finances, you know, we can sit down and we can talk about what your goals are. We do have down payment assistance programs available if that's not a route you want to take. We can talk about how to start saving and what that looks like. We can we talk about credit, and we go over credit if your credit isn't where it needs to be based on the program that's best for you and your needs, because we're all about number one options, right? So we'll give you all of your options. And we also want to make sure that you're being set up to be a successful homeowner.

Roland Daniels 19:34
Yes, we really do want you to be the most successful homeowner possible.

Heidi Griffith 19:38
Absolutely, absolutely, because I really still believe that home ownership will continue to build wealth and legacy. It's not an overnight wealth builder, but if you set yourself up correctly, it could be great for generations to come.

Roland Daniels 19:56
Yes, because real estate is still I'm pretty sure the number. One way to build Well, 100%

Heidi Griffith 20:02
100% so if you'd like help figuring out what your next step might be, or maybe you'd like to schedule a free assessment call, feel free to reach out. You can call or text us. We're at 702-210-2057. Again, that number is 702-210-2057, I really feel like a conversation could totally be your first step towards home ownership in 2020. Oh, I totally agree with you, and you know, if your credit isn't where it needs to be today, we have free resources. We do. We have free resources. We have a HUD certified counseling agency that we work with, credit counselors will meet with you. They'll go over your entire credit profile, so your whole credit report, and they'll give you, step by step, what you need to do to start to build that credit pack up.

Roland Daniels 20:54
And actually, we've been using them for now, for the last five years.

Heidi Griffith 20:58
Yeah, it's just it's so nice to know that there's free resources available. There's a lot more free resources than most people are aware of. I agree, the best thing to do before we just start, you know, calling willy nilly is figure out, is there someone that can help me with that that's not going to charge me

Roland Daniels 21:21
whether that looks like $600 a month or or not $600 but $600 fee for the cost of

Heidi Griffith 21:28
their service, 100 or 200 bucks a month. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And in in that road, sometimes credit actually gets burned. It gets repaired out

Roland Daniels 21:38
of the gate, so we can use that money towards down payment and closing costs. Yep, we

Heidi Griffith 21:43
sure can. And in many instances, we can get it done quicker.

Roland Daniels 21:48
In some instances, yes, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Heidi Griffith 21:51
So I'm gonna come back to goals, right? We all have goals in the new year. Not all of them are always financial, are they? They're not. Some goals are about impact, yep, involvement and making sure that opportunity is accessible to all of us. I like that, yeah, because that's that's where we come in. And this is why, every single week, we talk about this before we leave today, I want to talk about something that's near and dear. That's super important, very important. And I say it all the time. You say it, you know, we talk about it every week. We don't talk about it enough. And that is fair housing. That's why we work with the Silver State Fair Housing Council. We actually had Kate on air a couple weeks ago. And the work they do matters.

Roland Daniels 22:41
It does it really very important, especially in this environment,

Heidi Griffith 22:45
Yep, yeah. Silver State Fair Housing Council works to promote equal housing opportunities through education and advocacy. One of the ways they do this is through their housing Tester program. Kate walked through it with us. I actually took the housing tester training, just so that I had kind of a behind the scenes look at what housing testers do, and how was your experience. It was amazing, really. It's a three hour class, it's very one on one, and Kate does an amazing job explaining the importance of it and what that looks like when you're out there doing a test, and testers aren't there to to call someone out. They're not there to find out who's doing things bad. What we want to do is we want to educate. You know, the housing world, property management companies, landlords, you

Roland Daniels 23:42
know, folks like a sense of making sure that everybody's being treated the same.

Heidi Griffith 23:46
That is correct, that is the that that's correct. And when you become a housing tester, basically what happens is you get an assignment, and you don't know what that assignment is in relationship to they tell you, Okay, you're going to call or go to this property, okay? You're going to speak to whomever is there, and you're going to tell them this script. And basically, I mean, it's like a secret shopper. You're you're acting, right? So you, you know they can send me out. And I am a single mom with two small kids, and I have great credit, and I make X dollars a month, and I want to rent this property because I recently moved to Las Vegas. We don't know the reason I'm being sent. We don't know who the other tester, because there's always going to be two is and what they look like, what they sound like, what their personal situation is, but they're always very similar. There's just one thing that's different, whether that be me going in and an African American woman going in, or me going in and a single woman. Okay with no going in. Okay? So we never know what that looks like as a tester. And after that, all you do is you go back and you report your experience, how you were treated, what exactly they said to you, how long the conversation lasted, so on and so forth. You'll have a whole list of things that you fill out, right? And then what they can do is Silver State can then look at both tests and start to make adjustments. And, you know, one bad test doesn't mean that the housing provider is bad, right? And she made that very clear. And I think that that's an interesting thing, because some people have bad days. I mean, I know I do. I think we all do. We all have bad days, and maybe I spoke to one person and the other tester spoke to another. So it's a really controlled environment, and they just are kind of keeping an eye on the patterns. It's really just one of those ways that we can help make sure that all of us are treated equally and fairly when we're looking at housing, whether we're buying or renting, right, right? Because the Fair Housing Act protects all of us, all classes, that's correct. So you know, if you're thinking about making 2026 a year, maybe that you're going to give back in a really meaningful way, and you'd like to learn more about becoming a housing tester. You can call or text us. We're at 702-210-2057, again, our number is 702-210-2057, and we will connect you with more information. Because remember, fair housing isn't optional. It's a foundation to opportunity, and it is definitely worth fighting for.

Roland Daniels 26:48
So as we close out 2025 and look ahead to the New Year, we just want to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening, for learning with us and for being part of this community. If you have any thoughts or questions about anything that we've talked about today, or if you have an idea for future topic, please feel free to reach out. Our number is 702-210-2057 once again, that's 702-210-2057 2210, 2057, we'll be back next Sunday morning at 7:30am right here on KU NV, 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. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. You

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