Mortgage Matters

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program. The 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.

Heidi Griffith 0:43
Good morning Las Vegas. Welcome to mortgage matters. I'm Heidi Griffith, a mortgage advisor with Geneva financial, and your Director of Client Services. My NMLS number is 2247754, company. NMLS number is 42056, this morning, Roland won't be with us on air, as he's out this holiday weekend doing what he does best. He's actually helping a client secure their dream home. So that's always good, right? I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with good food, good company and plenty of time spent with friends and family. So whether you were enjoying a big holiday feast or just taking a moment to relax, I trust it was a time to reflect on all of the things that we're grateful for. So now, as we move forward into the holiday season, because the holiday season is officially upon us, it's the perfect time to start thinking about your future and what we can achieve in 2025 especially when it becomes to making homeownership a reality. So we've got a lot to talk about today. We're going to talk about some exciting down payment assistance programs, some tips for first time homebuyers and how you can set yourself up for success in the upcoming year. So whether you're just starting your home ownership journey or looking to explore refinancing options, this show is going to have something for you. So let's jump right in before we get into the topics. I'd like to share just a little bit something meaningful. Wendy wonder once said, The magic thing about home is that it feels good to leave and it feels even better to come back. Whether you're gathering with loved ones this Thanksgiving weekend or reflecting on future goals for 2025 your home is the heart of it all. And speaking of creating your own sense of home, we want to remind you about our path to home ownership workshop happening next Saturday, December 7, that's going to be at CPLC. The location is 555, North Maryland Parkway. That's right on the corner of Maryland Parkway and bonanza. The workshop will be from 830 to 3pm this is the HUD certified workshop where you're going to learn everything you need to know about down payment assistance, preparing for home ownership and getting your home buyer certificate that will make you eligible for all of the down payment assistance programs we offer. And I'll talk about that just a little bit more in the show. I'm going to go back to Thanksgiving really quickly, because it always reminds me how important home is. You know, home is not just a financial investment, but it's a place where life happens, right? It's where we gather for family meals, where our kids grow up, where our grandkids visit, and where the memories are made. And for many of us, home is also really a place of comfort during challenging times. As we look back on the past year, it's clear how important stability and security are and owning a home can provide that foundation for us. So I'd like us to just to take a quick moment to think about how that feels, hosting family dinners, decorating or just enjoying times with those we love. Now imagine next year in your home, hosting Thanksgiving in your own home, the dream can actually be a reality, and today I'm going to talk about helping you plan for it. We're here to guide you through the process from saving and planning to finding the right resources, like down payment assistance programs. So if you're thinking about buying a home in 2025 start planning. Holiday Season is a great time to relax, but it really is also an opportunity to start preparing for your future. And one of the most common barriers to home ownership is the misconception that you need a huge down payment. Down Payment Assistance Programs like Nevada housing division and Nevada Rural Housing they offer assistance to help cover your down payment and sometimes some of the closing costs. And this is where the path to home ownership workshop comes in next Saturday, December 7, like I mentioned earlier, we join forces with our nonprofit, HUD certified, CPLC, and we're going to make sure we walk you through down payment of. Assistance programs that are available. We've actually got 16 that we work with. How to Prepare financially for buying a home. Myths surrounding home ownership that might actually be holding you back and might not be true, and how to plan and follow a solid budget, because that's really important, pre approval process and mortgage process, finding a home to call your own, the purchase offer and the home buying timeline. So we'll be meeting with realtor. We'll be meeting with a lender, and that's actually Roland. Roland presents that mortgage portion of the class. There'll be a HUD certified counselor that will talk about budgeting, and they'll talk about other types of insurance that are involved. So it really is a workshop that will give you the foundation to get started, and we provide lunch and snacks. So that's always good, right? Because everybody likes a good snack. The workshop is free and seats are limited, so if you ever thought about buying a home but didn't know where to start. This just might be the event for you. If you have any questions or you'd like to register for the upcoming workshop, you can give us a call or text us. We're at 702-210-2057 again, that number is 702-210-2057,

and I know that making first steps can sometimes feel intimidating when we're talking about purchasing a home, but we're actually with you every step of the way. We are going to help make your dream of home ownership possible. I want to kind of switch gears a little bit and talk about holiday spending, because like I said, we're here. Welcome to December. It's already here one month left of the year, and as we move from Thanksgiving right smack Dave into Christmas season, it really is easy to get caught up in holiday shopping, but this is really the time to be mindful about spending, especially if you're thinking about purchasing a home in 2025 so overspending during the holidays can leave you with credit card debt, right? We all know that, and that's going to impact your ability to save and could actually hurt the amount that you qualify for when applying for a mortgage. So if you've got additional debt that raises your debt to income ratio, which then reduces your buying power. So to avoid racking up debt, here's just a few holiday shopping tips to keep you on track. First and foremost, create a budget. This has nothing to do with just the holidays. This should be a given. Everybody should be creating a budget. You're going to want to set a specific amount for gifts, for decorations and events, and stick to it, so you might have a ballpark figure in your head. I've got 1000 bucks I'm going to spend this holiday season. But then we sometimes forget about decorations. We sometimes forget about Christmas parties and holiday events, and now I need a new pair of shoes and ooh, I'd like to get a new bag, but this is where we really want to kind of focus on. Let's stick to a budget. Let's make sure that we're not overspending and racking up that credit card debt, especially where the interest rates on these cards nowadays are, and make sure you shop with a list. I learned this the hard way. I used to just go out and buy whatever, but plan ahead, avoid impulse buys. If it's not on your list, really, it does not belong in your cart. And another great idea is to think about giving meaningful gifts that don't really cost a lot. For example, homemade gifts, if you're good at crafts, absolutely, you know, photo frames, they're always a great idea. And if you put a great photo of you and the recipient, and if that's a really nice gift, I really love experiences over things like spending time together or planning a family outing. A lot of people want to buy the most expensive gift because they think the other person is going to like that best. I will tell you, I speak from experience. Experiences are amazing. Plan a trip to the Valley of Fire or Red Rock with your family, I promise you, years from now, they're going to look back on that experience way more than they would look back on, I don't know something, you know, $100 whatever, or gift card, or that kind of stuff. These types of things really do make a difference, and they're impactful other like sentimental gestures, you know, writing a heartfelt note again, like a photo, or if you have, like, a great memory. Sharing that great memory is always a really nice thing to do. It really is the thought that counts. I know that those heartfelt gifts always mean more to me than expensive ones, and if you don't need to use credit cards, then don't. But if you do try and get them paid down quickly, because remember, financial discipline during the holidays doesn't just help you now, it's an investment in your future. Saving even a little bit more this season could be the difference between renting and owning in 2025 and if you need help figuring out how holiday spending fits into your bigger financial picture, you're more than welcome to call. Call us or text us. We're at 702-210-2057 that number again, is 702-210-2057 so we got a great question after last week's show our listener Keith, he actually called us and he asked this question, what steps should I take now if I want to buy a home next year, I don't want to thank you, Keith for calling it really is a great question. It's actually one of the top questions we get this time of year, and the answer begins with getting prepared. I mean, it really does, knowing what's in front of you. First take a look at your credit. You can check experian.com and my fico.com they're both wonderful free resources that are going to give you your FICO score, which is going to be the closest to the mortgage score that you're going to get. They're free. You'll get your Experian score with experian.com obviously, and my fico.com is your Equifax score. So the only score you can't get for free right now is TransUnion. This gives you a great kind of foundation when we start looking at credit. If your credit doesn't look to your eyes like it's not perfect, do not fret, because most of the time, and I hear this story more times than not, it's not as bad as you think. And if it needs a little bit of work, we're actually here to help you. We have resources. We have an AI model that can kind of put everything into perspective and let us know, okay, we need to get to this score. These are the five things that we need to do, or these are the two things that we need to do to get you there. It's usually very simple. And if there's a little bit more work that needs to happen, we actually have, you know, a HUD, certified counseling agency that will look at your credit, kind of create a plan for you and walk you through the steps to get your credit where it needs to be, all for free. So once you know where your credit score is, and if needed, we'll start to work to improve it, small changes, like paying down your credit card balances to get your utilization under that magic 30% and even being added as an authorized user on someone whose account is in great standing with low utilization, that makes a huge difference. We talk about it a lot because it really is one of those little hidden secrets that can help boost your credit score almost instantaneously. So next thing you want to do is you want to start saving for your upfront cost, like your earnest money deposit and your inspection really quickly. I know we talk about Down Payment Assistance a lot. We talk about how that really helps you. Here's the facts. Regardless of what you've heard, there is no such thing as getting into a home for free. There's got to be some skin in the game. You've got to have a little bit of cash. So what that looks like is, even if utilizing down payment assistance, or even if utilizing programs like a VA loan, which is zero money down payment, or a USDA loan which is zero down payment, you're still going to have some money for your closing cost. Now we could possibly ask the seller to help cover a portion of that. You could actually use a gift for that. But there's other costs. So your earnest money deposit, your home inspection and your appraisal are all upfront costs. Those costs happen before you even close on the home and they're really important earnest money. We've said it before, but in case you're not aware, it's going to be about 1% of the sales price. So if the sales price of the home that you're purchasing is, let's just call it, $400,000 you can estimate your your earnest money deposit, it's going to be right about $4,000 that can be negotiated. You'll talk to your realtor about that. Sometimes it'll be a little bit less, but you should estimate that for your earnest money deposit, then you've got your home inspection, another thing that is not required. However, I and probably every real estate professional out there highly recommend this. This is going to be between call it 450 and $800 depending on the property. If you've got a swimming pool or you've got a septic tank or something else that needs to get inspected, that cost may increase, but a good budget for that is probably five 600 bucks. It's the best five or $600 you'll ever spend if something major is found in that property and the seller is not willing to make the necessary repairs or work with you on it, so if you found out that you know there was a major roof issue or something weird, you want to make sure that you're protected, and that's going to protect you, then you've Got your appraisal. So your appraisal is for the lender. It's for the mortgage company. The appraiser comes out you put an offer in for $400,000 the appraiser says the property is only worth $380,000 well, the mortgage company is not going to lend. They're not going to give you. Money if the house doesn't come in at value. So if it only comes in, it just, let's call it $380,000

that's all they're going to be willing to lend on. So now we've got $20,000 right? So what do we do? Well, either the seller can come down in value, you and the seller can negotiate and meet halfway, maybe and or you can walk away from the transaction, say you're not willing to meet me. The house isn't valued. I'm out of here, so you've got your earnest money, your home inspection and your appraisal. The appraisal is going to run you anywhere from 650, to 950, ish, just depending, again, on the property, the location, all of that good stuff. So be prepared to start saving for those upfront costs. You know, if needed down payment assistance is going to cover a significant portion, but having a little saved up is really going to give you a head start some other great tips when we're talking about saving up. And I like this win. We actually use this one a lot. What we want you to do is we want you to start pretending, pretending that you're paying your mortgage today before you find a home, before you even start the process, start paying a mortgage today. So let's just say your rent is $2,000 and your potential mortgage is going to be $2,900 start putting that extra money, that extra $900 off to the side. It's a great way to start saving for the cost you'll need to have money for during the home buying process. Maybe you open a high yield savings account to put that money into, because now you're going to start collecting interest on that. So right? You're going to get free money, and then when you get ready to close on the transaction, when you get ready to close on your brand new home, you've got some money tucked away that can cover some of those costs. And now you're comfortable and familiar with paying more than you're paying currently in rent. And finally, educate yourself classes like the path to home ownership workshop on the seventh of December, they're designed to provide the tools and knowledge you need to confidently navigate the home buying process. And as we reach the end of the year, now is the perfect time to reflect on the past and set goals for the future. So if home ownership has been a dream, I suggest really starting to do some goal setting. Setting a home ownership goal isn't just about knowing where you want to go. It's about deciding how you're going to get there. So you're going to think of it like creating a road map to your dream home by figuring out why you want to own a home and breaking it down into clear steps. You're going to get the bigger picture, it's going to help you break everything into manageable pieces and give you the focus you need to succeed. So the first thing I want to ask, I want you to ask yourself is, why do I want to become a homeowner? It sounds like a really simple question, but when you really sit with it, figure out your why. Figure out why do you want to be a homeowner? Is it because you want to start building generational wealth? Is it strictly financial, or are you really looking for a place that not only can you decorate yourself and paint the walls purple, if that's your thing, but you're also there for you and your family, and figure out what that looks like for you and your family. Have a clear purpose, and that's going to keep you motivated. It really is. You're going to want to map out your house. So setting a realistic timeline, you know, can you start to look for a home within the next 30 days? Is that going to look more like six months for you? Maybe you're on a 12 month plan. Figure out what your timeline is, and then you can break everything into steps. You know, do you have to do a little bit with your credit? Do you have some money you've got to save? Do you want to get prepared by attending a class? All of those things are important, but the most important thing in my mind, is measuring your progress. And this just is not with purchasing a home. This is with everything, especially when we're talking about goal setting, tracking your milestones, is huge. If you don't know where you are and where you're going and all of the steps in between, it's very difficult to get to the finish line. If you say, Okay, I want to work on my credit. I've got to get my credit up to 640 let's just call that. And right now it's at 620 and now I've got the tools necessary. I know what I need to do. I'm going to check in every Wednesday, every, you know, every month, at the beginning of every month, and make sure that you're on track. And then you can take a look and figure out, you know, what do I need to do to make this happen? Because I've been slacking back here, you can make good choices based on that. And one of my favorite tools is actually creating a vision board. I do this every year at this time, I've got one that sits right behind my desk. I'm getting ready to start my 2025, vision board. It's just a. Way to sit down and it's, you know, it's kind of like scrapbooking. You're going to grab some magazines, you're going to grab, you know, you can print some stuff online and figure out what you want your next year to look like, and put it on a board. That way you can turn around. Or you can, you know, put it in front of you, put it on the fridge, and know where you're going. So if home ownership is your goal for 2025 then find the coolest looking house, cut it out, stick it on the board. You know, you can add neighborhoods you love. You know, if you you have a favorite neighborhood, cruise by and take a shot of the neighborhood, or maybe even the street sign. Slap that on your board. And I love words because they have such an impact. I actually have a word of the year. Hopefully you have a word of the year as well. My Word of the Year is actually growth, but you could put words like family or tradition or stability or worthy on your board and involve your family. You know, maybe even you host a vision board party, you talk about your goals, you celebrate wins together. You have snacks, because apparently I love snacks. This is a great time. And this also gets everyone involved, whether it's the kids, the grandkids, the husband, the wife, the friend, everybody that's going to be involved in this. It gets them emotionally involved as well. So you when you say, you know we're not going to buy that item because we're saving for the house, everybody remembers that vision board, and they're going to remember that story. So as we sit here today, and I continue to go back to Thanksgiving, because obviously fresh on my mind, and I still have stuff in the fridge, I want to talk about a family who we recently worked with, who was actually able to spend their first Thanksgiving in their brand new home. They always rented, and they thought buying a house was out of reach. But then they attended a workshop that we did, and it was actually a daughter and her parents. The daughter came to the workshop first, and she started the pre approval process, and in doing so, we actually qualified her. The issue was that what she qualified for, the dollar amount that she qualified for, there really wasn't a lot available in the valley. So we got to talking and thinking about different strategies, and she had made mention that her mom and dad were renting as well, that they'd always rented, and that they talked about potentially, you know, making their move towards home ownership. And so we had some conversations. We brought them into the picture. Mom and Dad came into the office and sat down and chatted, and we figured out that it might be the best move for them if they purchased together, and so they decided to do that. They were able to utilize the Nevada housing home as possible for first time home buyers program, and they moved into their house shortly before Thanksgiving. They actually spent their Thanksgiving together, and they're decorating their home now for the holidays. We spoke to them recently. They're super excited, and their plans are to build some equity in this property and then potentially purchase something else so that the daughter could actually move out on her own. But this was a great way to get them started. So it's really stories like this that remind us why we do what we do. Home ownership isn't just about financial security, it's about creating a space where memories are made. And so as we wrap up today's show, let me take a moment to reflect on the steps you can take this week. Preparing for home ownership doesn't happen overnight, but it actually starts with a very simple plan, review your credit, create a budget, and approach your holiday season with a mindful focus on what truly matters. Holidays aren't just about gifts. They're about memories, traditions and connections you share with the people you care about the most. These moments can also create meaningful conversation about your goals for 2025 whether it's building a stronger financial foundation or taking the steps to owning your first home, it isn't just about having a roof over your head. It's about creating a space that reflects you and your family, a place where you can build memories, share meals and celebrate milestones. It might seem like a big dream, but each small step you take gets you closer to making it a reality. If you're feeling uncertain or just need a little extra guidance, we really are here to help. It's never too early to start planning, and no question is too small. And don't forget, next Saturday, December 7, we're hosting our path to home ownership workshop with HUD, certified nonprofit CPLC workshop is free and designed to give you the tools and knowledge it takes to make your dream of homeownership a reality. Seats really fill up quick, so if you have any questions or would like to register for the workshop, you're more than welcome to call or text us. We're at 702 2102057,

well, that looks like all the time we've got for this week's episode of mortgage matters. Roland and I will be back next Sunday at 7:30am right here on K, U, N, V, 91.5, until then, we hope you enjoy the season and take some time to reflect on your goals for the year ahead. Have a fantastic Sunday and remember, as Roland says, stay true to yourself and to your mind. You