July 23, 2025 • 26 mins
Looking for an affordable path to homeownership in today's challenging market? Steve Reed returns to Benchmark Happenings to dive deeper into Land to Homes, a pioneering solution for would-be homeowners struggling with sky-high housing costs and limited options.
While apartment renters face $1,200-$2,000 monthly payments with nothing to show for it, Land to Homes is creating a genuinely accessible alternative. Their turnkey manufactured housing service handles everything from permits and site preparation to landscaping and final touches, delivering beautiful, move-in ready homes on acre-sized lots for $220,000-$300,000. Unlike traditional dealers who leave buyers to navigate complex permitting and construction processes alone, Land to Homes coordinates every detail over a streamlined 120-day timeline.
The conversation reveals how Reed and his business partner Jonathan Tipton are transforming the manufactured housing experience with quality features often missing from competitor offerings – paved driveways instead of gravel, proper decking, professional landscaping, and attractive stone skirting. Their financing options make homeownership even more accessible, with zero-down USDA loans and 3.5% down FHA options that can include covered closing costs.
What truly sets Land to Homes apart is their commitment to community impact. Reed shares touching stories of helping families in difficult situations, including moving a family of six from a cramper into a spacious manufactured home. "We want people to say Northeast Tennessee is a better community because Land to Homes is in it," Reed explains, highlighting their people-before-profit philosophy.
Ready to explore affordable homeownership? Visit land2homes.us to see available properties and homes under construction, or call 423-491-5405 to start your journey toward owning your slice of the American dream.
To help you to navigate the home buying and mortgage process, Jonathan & Steve are currently licensed in Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia, contact us today at 423-491-5405 or visit www.jonathanandsteve.com.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Benchmark Happenings, brought to you by
Jonathan and Steve fromBenchmark Home Loans.
Northeast Tennessee, johnsonCity, kingsport, bristol, the
Tri-Cities One of the mostbeautiful places in the country
to live.
Tons of great things to do andawesome local businesses.
(00:22):
And on this show you'll findout why people are dying to move
to Northeast Tennessee and onthe way we'll have discussions
about mortgages and we'llinterview people in the real
estate industry.
It's what we do.
This is Benchmark Happenings,brought to you by Benchmark Home
Loans, and now your host,christine Reed.
(00:43):
And now your host, christineReed.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Welcome back everybody to another episode of
Benchmark Happenings.
And you know, the last time thestar of our show was so amazing
, I just had to invite him backagain for a follow-up.
So Steve, my awesome husbandand entrepreneur of Benchmark
Home Loans, welcome back.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Well, thank you, I thought it would be another year
before you'd invite me back.
So, hey, happy to be back sosoon.
Either that or you were maybejust a little hard up for other
guests, or something like that,but either way I feel honored.
Well, good, good.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
No, not, we've got.
We've got a lot of great folkslined up, but, you know, really
a lot of times we don't have theopportunity to do consecutive
podcasts on specific topics.
So you know, the people wholisten there's, like you know,
every other week we launch a newpodcast and a lot of times it's
(01:39):
always someone different,someone different.
But you know, last time wetalked about your new business
adventure with you and yourpartner, Jonathan Tipton, on
land to homes, really providingthat niche in the marketplace
for homes for people, and so youknow, Steve, I thought it would
(02:01):
be really good to kind of talkabout a little bit more about
the process of land to homes andmaybe just review what that is
again, what you guys are doing,and then let's talk about that
process for those who arelistening.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yeah, so I love talking about land to homes.
I've been talking aboutmortgages for 40 years, so
sometimes that gets a littlemonotonous, although I still
love talking about the mortgageindustry.
But land to homes is just a newtwist on and a new venture, as
you mentioned, as far as whatwe're doing, and so it's really
exciting.
It was and I'm sorry if I'mgoing to repeat myself from the
(02:40):
prior podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I think it's good for us to do a little bit of a
review for those, just in case,if someone did not listen to the
other podcast, you can go backand, of course, listen to it.
But yeah, I think it's good,steve, just to go ahead and do a
recap.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah.
So it was kind of birthed outof the idea that homeownership
become unaffordable for thefirst-time homebuyers, and not
that it didn't becomeunaffordable for maybe
second-time homebuyers as well.
So Atlanta Homes was birthedout of that idea of how can we
help more of our clients getinto homes at a nice less price
(03:18):
point than what they're seeingout there for new construction,
and so that was our why behind,why we started doing this, and
so it just kind of grew fromthere.
But it's just a greatalternative to be able to you
know, whether it's a singleparent, whether it's retirees,
whether it's somebody that wantsto downsize to be able to get
(03:41):
into a brand new home that'sbuilt really well that's
normally on an acre or maybe alittle less, but normally it's
about an acre of ground and tobe able to do that at a very low
price and to also be able tohave a turnkey situation to just
where we hand them the keys andthey get a great rate on their
(04:03):
loan at the same time, and it'spretty much a one-stop shop.
So we were looking for thatsolution, if you will in the
marketplace, to be able to justcome in, because it's really
difficult and we'll get into.
I'd like to talk a little bitabout kind of the process and
what's that look like.
So that might be boring forsome people, but if you're
(04:26):
actually looking to do this, itwon't be boring to you.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Absolutely, and I think that's why, you know, I
wanted to ask you to come backis because I think it's really
important to talk about thatprocess.
So someone out there lookingfor a home, a new home, or just,
you know, wanting to, you know,get out of an apartment or or
looking in general, and but theyhave basically a range of 250
(04:53):
to 300 K and that's what they'vebeen maybe approved for, maybe
not approved or they just don'tknow.
So what would that process looklike, steve, if they contacted
you Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
So the first part of the process hasn't really
changed.
That's to let us get anapplication, make sure they're
approvable, you know, and goover the different loan programs
.
So that's something we can doin our sleep.
We've been doing that forseveral, several years, so that
process has not changed.
But to kind of jump to theland-to-homes process, and one
(05:28):
thing I want to start doing iskind of, I guess, promoting our
website so you can go toland2homesus and it'll tell you
more than I can probably tellyou in a podcast here.
Because, go on there, look athomes we've got under
construction, properties we gotavailable, kind of how the
(05:51):
process works you know.
So that's a great startingpoint once you are approved so,
and you don't have to beapproved to check that out.
So I would, I would advise,just go check out land, the
number two homes.
So what we were running into iswe see people that decide hey,
I think you, I think amanufactured home or double wide
may work for me, or we dosingle wides as well.
We haven't done any of thoseyet but we can.
(06:12):
But once they figure out, okay,that's the price point I'm
going to have to be at and, likeyou mentioned, it's around $250
to maybe $300 on the biggerhomes and we can even get to
$220, $230 on smaller things.
But once they decide that ifthey end up, you know, like down
(06:33):
the street at a differentdealer or something like that,
they're going to make themnormally go get their permits,
they're going to have to pay fortheir water tap.
They're going to have to do alot of kind of nuts and bolts
types, things that a lot ofpeople work every day.
They don't have time to do this.
They don't understand it.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
And every county is different on how these things
are.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
A hundred percent yeah.
I'm glad you mentioned thatbecause they are and we're still
learning things in somecounties and we're keeping notes
and you know taking names andkeeping a cheat sheet, so we've
learned a lot.
But we can cut a lot of timeout of that process so we do all
that for them and it's really aturnkey product.
And we've got like one clientright now.
(07:20):
She works every day.
She's a single mom.
She barely has time to doanything, so she can't do any of
that.
Plus, her credit had taken ahit because of her divorce.
So we've got her over here in acredit repair program.
You know, while this home isgetting built and getting set,
she's over here.
You know, we've got her withour credit repair specialist
(07:42):
that is helping raise her scoreso she can get a better interest
rate.
So we got all that going on inthe background.
So she has that going onbecause she has to send them
some documentation.
So there's a lot of puzzlepieces getting moved around.
I can't imagine adding on tothat, telling somebody to you
know, go down to the city andget their water tap or get you
(08:03):
know, get a permit or all thatso.
So she has that going on.
That's just real life stuff andwe're doing everything else.
So it just really simplifiesthe whole process to where you
know we're going to deliver thathome.
Sorry, I've had allergies soexcuse the raspy but we're going
(08:25):
to deliver that home in aturnkey product that someone is
just going to be able to walkright into and start making
payments in her situation.
I think she is doing an FHA loan, so it's about three and a half
percent down, but on a lot ofthese we can do zero percent
down and USDAda loan and we canpay the closing costs in some
(08:46):
instances.
So you can literally walk intothese with nothing out of pocket
.
So if you take um, like whatwould be an ideal client for us,
somebody that's used to payingI don't know $1,500 a month rent
, which is about a normal rentthese days, but they can stretch
and maybe make a payment of$1,600 or $1,700.
(09:11):
That's a perfect fit becausethey can move right into a house
and we can, you know, kind ofwork on their payments where
they want them, and we'll workwith people, you know.
Sometimes they'll say you know,that's just a little out of my
comfort zone and we'll say, well, can we just do a gravel
driveway instead of a paved?
And you know, can we cut backhere and cut back there.
We don't like doing that asmuch.
(09:32):
I guess we're perfectionistsand we like to deliver a product
that's just beautiful and it'ssitting there.
So so nice, yeah, when somebodystarts talking a gravel driveway
, which is what a lot of ourcompetitors put in, and and I
just start squirming a littlebit because I just really want
it to be nice for them and Iknow it's easier to just get it
done, even if your payment's 40more a month or whatever the
(09:56):
case is, let's go ahead and dothe gravel or the paved driveway
.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You don't want to be parking on gravels and trying to
wash your car in that stufflike that, that forty dollars
extra a month, that's uh goingout and getting coffees or a you
know uh once or twice atmcdonald's yes a month.
So it's really nothing and youknow, I, I was, we were talking
this morning.
Steve, a really good friend ofyours, has a lot of apartments
(10:21):
and you know the average rentalfor even a one-bedroom or maybe
two, but a lot of times one$2,000 a month.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah, that's for most of his two and three.
Now the one-bedrooms are about$1,200, but that's still a lot.
You know when you're whenyou're talking.
You've got a one bedroomapartment at 1200, or you can
buy, go buy a brand new home onyour own slice of the American
dream on an acre and maybe bepaying 1600, you know a little
(10:52):
bit more, but you're sittingthere with something brand new
that you can call your own, thatyou're building equity in and,
uh, hopefully taking care of andimproving as time goes on.
So to me it's a no brainer.
I almost like to.
When clients come in, I like tohit them kind of with the
(11:12):
highest payment and because theonly reason I say that is
because I like them to have thatpaved driveway and stuff, I'm
just kind of picky that way.
So and then we can startcarving it down.
But I'd rather say, hey, here'swhat it is, it's, you know,
$1,700 a month and it's 260,000or whatever.
And then they're like well, Ican only afford 240.
And I'm like okay, well we'llstart taking this off and that
(11:34):
off, and, and we're happy to dothat.
But again I like to see themget the full turnkey package,
because I think they'll behappier with that.
But, we're happy to work withany budget and so we don't want
to scare anybody off becausewe've got someone.
Now we're trying to find areally cheap lot and get them in
(11:58):
for about $220,000.
So it's really hard to do muchless than that, especially if
you're doing 1,500 square feet.
You're doing a double-wide, nowget into a single-wide and that
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
you could do that, but with 1,500 square feet it's
really hard to do and prices aregoing to vary too, because
everything goes up and the costof land, and you know.
So they got to factor all thosethings in.
So you know, I just don't wantpeople thinking that, hey, it's
a set price.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Um right, right, and it's not.
I mean it's it's all over theboard and it's kind of you can
make it what you want but, we'rereally transparent with you
know, with the setup cost and wedon't I mean whatever they
charge us, whatever, you know,graders excavators charge, and
septic installers andelectricians we pretty much just
(12:48):
pass that cost on.
So we've got a goal to keep itas low as we can as well,
because we know they're notcoming in here because they're
not on a budget right.
So we feel like it's a bigresponsibility and it's a big
honor for us.
When someone places their trustin us to be able to for their
(13:11):
home which to me is the biggestdeal you've got going it's
definitely your biggestinvestment.
It's definitely your biggestinvestment.
So when someone places thattrust in us, it's a huge
responsibility that wedefinitely don't want to take
advantage of anybody and we wantto earn that trust and, you
know, hopefully they'll send ustheir friends and we won't have
to spend, you know, $20,000 amonth on advertising because
(13:34):
we've done a good job for them.
So maybe that comes back to us.
And we even had a couple in afew weeks ago that they were
living in a camper with fourkids and Jonathan and I just we
kind of had a meeting in theback room and said how can we
make this work, even if we don'tmake any money or make very
little money on this?
Because they had gone toanother dealer.
(13:56):
They were trying to put sixpeople in a single wide, the
dealer was, which was 988 squarefeet, and we're like they got
to have at least 1500.
Let's get them in maybe one ofour cheaper, lower priced double
wides, which will still bereally nice, but it'll give them
600 more square feet.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
And have three bedrooms, yes, and two baths.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Exactly.
So we're trying to figure thatout and get a super you know
deal on a lot somewhere and makeall that work for them.
So to us that's just a you knowevery now and then I mean we
make money, but every now andthen it's like, okay, we're
going to have a give back homehere where we maybe make very
little money but it's going tobe rewarding for us.
(14:37):
So, um, so we're, we're happyto, you know, to do that.
We just want to be, we want tobe a good community partner
where people are like, uh, thisarea, this tri-cities area,
northeast Tennessee, is a bettercommunity because land, homes
is in it, and so that's, that'sour ultimate goal.
So, um, it's.
(14:58):
So it's not about the money,it's about putting people before
the profit and having a goodtime while we're doing it.
And yeah, hopefully some willmake money and some maybe not so
much, but at the end of the daywe sleep really well.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
There's a lot of blessing in that and this is a
love.
East Tennessee and that'sreally why Benchmark Happenings
was birthed, and I love talkingabout land to home.
So, steve, walk us through aprocess.
So you have a client that'scoming in and they're looking at
a manufactured home.
(15:36):
So what does that process looklike with you and Jonathan?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Yeah, so, like I mentioned it'll, it'll start out
with we want to know that youcan buy something, so it's going
to start out at let's getpre-approved with benchmark.
And so we will normally letanother loan officer handle that
, because we don't want tohandle the whole thing.
It's better, you know, likeApril, handle some of those and
uh, but anyway, we'll get thempre-approved, um, and we'll, uh,
(16:05):
we'll have the conversationwith them.
Hey, you're pre-approved, wedid get that information and
here's what you're approved for.
So, and that's a very quick,easy thing to do.
We can normally do that in lessthan 24 hours.
So, from there, what we like todo is schedule an appointment
for uh.
If it's husband and wife, weprefer they both come in, uh,
(16:27):
because you know one's going tobe stronger in one area and one
in the other and so the wife'snormally going to have more
input on the home because she'sgoing to, as you know
pick out the colors and thatkind of thing.
So we'll get them in and we'llstart just a build sheet for
them and we'll start.
We'll go to our virtualshowroom upstairs.
(16:47):
We'll start pulling updifferent manufacturers we can
sell, you know, a lot of theClayton line.
We can sell Champion, we cansell Fleetwood.
So a lot of Cavco.
There's a lot of differentlines we can sell.
So we'll kind of go throughsome of those.
We'll vet it out.
As far as you know, how manybedrooms do you want, how many
bathrooms, what's your minimumsquare footage?
So we'll start narrowing downhomes and kind of land them on a
(17:11):
home they like and then havethem pick out options.
You know, most of the homes wesell are not extremely
customizable.
They'll have four or five orsix options, you know, with your
colors and that kind of thing.
So they'll pick out that.
Then we'll come up with.
You know, what location do youwant to be in?
(17:33):
Do we have any inventory lotsthat we've already bought?
That will you know?
And if so, the next step wouldbe go out and look at the lot
and see if they like thelocation Right, and we'll get
the numbers together and we'llsay, hey, here's what's going to
be your turnkey price.
And if we don't have a lot,we'll say, you know, here's with
(17:53):
a $50,000 lot allowance.
So if you find a lot, that'smore, you're going to pay more.
If it's less, we'll pass it onto you, you know, at the less
cost.
So it's kind of, you know getapproved.
Step one, step two kind of lookover our products and find you
a home.
Step two.
Step three you know the lot,which is a biggie, because
(18:15):
that's the biggest challenge.
I mean more people can getapproved and pick out a color on
a home than can find a lot.
You know that's reallydifficult because you know
people have kids in school,they're going to be in a certain
area, they, you know they don'twant on the side of a hill, um,
so anyway, the lots, the lots,the biggest challenge.
So, uh, but hopefully we'llhave one in the inventory or no,
(18:38):
or once for sale.
We can go buy for them and um,and then put the, put the whole
deal together.
And so once we arrive at youknow, one, two and three and
we've kind of got our boxeschecked there we would go pull
the trigger.
We'll buy the lot, we'll havethem sign a contract.
We have land home contracts.
If they were sent by a realestate agent, that real estate
(19:01):
agent's fully protected.
We pay them a two and a halfpercent commission, just like if
the house was listed on the MLS.
So, and then from there, we'llpurchase the lot listed on the
MLS.
Um, so, and then from there,we'll purchase the lot, we'll
order the home and while thehome's coming in, we'll start on
the footers.
We'll get the permits.
Um, you know, we'll get ourwater tap.
(19:21):
We'll, you know, do everything.
We'll put the septic in.
Like the lady I was talkingabout, that's in credit repair.
You know, we've already got theseptic in, we've already got
the footers in.
She's in credit repair.
The home's going to be herenext Friday.
So, hey, this is.
You know it's a week away andso we got to be ready for that
home to receive that home, or Idon't know many people that can
(19:43):
store one in their driveway.
So you know I always get alittle bit nervous.
Oh, is it ready to put over thefooters?
Because when they pull the homein, uh, normally they can't
just set it in the middle of theyard, it has to be put on the
footers and um because if it'snot, then we have to set it in
the yard somewhere, and then thetransport guys have to come
(20:05):
back out whichis three or 4,000 more dollars
to come out and bring all theirequipment, set it on the footer.
So we try to time everythingand where it's going to work
like that.
So it's about 120 day processfrom start to finish, which is
four months.
No, it sounds like a lot but itgoes by really quick.
And you know, but when we orderthe home and these turn times
(20:27):
change.
But right now it's about sixweeks with one of the factories
in Alabama that we order a lotfrom and so during that six
weeks hopefully our grader's noton vacation.
He can get out there and do thefooters, he can do the grading,
he can do the septic.
But that six weeks is a prettyshort period.
That is six weeks is a prettyshort period and so once it gets
(20:48):
set, um, just to bore you witha little bit more of the process
um, it has to be marriedtogether the two sides.
So it has to be marriedtogether.
Um, then our uh installer comesand he will do all you know,
the uh putting it on a permanentfoundation, putting on uh
taking care of making sure it'stied down to resist high wind
(21:11):
speeds.
He'll do all that.
Then we'll get our umelectrician out.
He'll do the HVAC system.
We'll get our guy out.
That does the uh drawn on stonearound the bottom of the home.
And, uh, we'll also get our guythat does the finish work inside
, because, if you can imagine,it's gone back together in two
pieces but there's exposed trimand all that that has to be
(21:34):
covered up because it was at onetime two pieces.
So he'll get in and do all that.
And so by the time you do allthat, you know you're looking at
another 30 to 60 days.
So before you know it, you'reat that 90 to 120-day mark.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Well, and then you have decks.
There's decks built all aroundthe back, the side entrance, the
front, there's landscaping tobe done.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Paving.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Paving to be done.
Mailbox, I mean gutters to beput on.
So really it truly is a turnkeyat a whole different level than
people in the past have workedwith other manufacturers or
dealers that you don't get thosethings.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah, yeah, it's like a little symphony orchestra,
you know, and everybody most ofour people work really good
together and the the beauty ofit is you can have a lot of that
going on at the same time, likeyou can have a gutter guy over
there while they're puttingdecks on pretty much.
They may get in each other's wayjust a little bit, but it's not
(22:37):
bad.
And so we figured out what canbe going on at the same time.
You know, the HVAC guy can bethere, you know, while the
home's being put on the blocks,if he needs to be.
So it's kind of an orchestratedlittle deal there.
But the good thing is, a lot ofit can be done at the same time
(22:57):
and you're not relying on thesame subs to do everything, like
it's all a different set ofsubs.
So you, you know, you don'thave to wait on, you know,
johnny Redneck to finish onepart while before he can get to
doing his next thing, becauseyou've got all the different
subs coming in.
(23:18):
So that is pretty cool.
So we make it work and make it,you know, make the timing work.
And hey, it's all about time.
Time is money and people wantto get in their homes and
they're getting patient.
So we're impatient too.
We're ready for them to get inand move on to the next project.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
So then you walk them to closing and then turn over
the key and they've got abeautiful new home.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yeah they just walk in, we have it cleaned, all nice
for them.
So the cleaning crew goes inand cleans it all up.
They, it's landscaped, it'spaved it, you got your gutters,
you got your decks, uh, you know, you just hand them the keys
and they walk in and it's.
It's a cool little deal,because at that point all they
have to do is move in theirclothes and their furniture and
(24:03):
they're, they're done.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
So, yeah, that's great, that is great.
So so, land to homes.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Give us the website one more time, steve website is
land, the number two, and thenhomes dot US, land to homes dot
US, all kinds of cool things onthe website.
We continue to build that aswell and make it a little bit
more interactive.
I think we may put this podcaston there, put a few podcasts on
(24:31):
there so people can listen andkind of learn the process where
they feel you know, we loveeducated customers.
I had a lady the other day saidwell, I know more than most
people and I said you know whatwe love, that we want you to
know more than most people.
We educated customers are ourbest customers, not that we'll
be glad to educate you.
The ones I want you to knowmore than most people.
(24:52):
We educated customers are ourbest customers.
We'll be glad to educate you.
The ones that scare me is theones that think they know it all
and they don't know anything.
So we love a truly educatedcustomer, not one that just
knows enough to be dangerous.
So, hey, get all the educationyou can, and the more you know
about the market and stuff, hey,the better it is for all of us.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Absolutely Well.
Thank you, steve, for coming ontoday.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Thanks for having me.
Maybe it won't be a year, Iguess.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Oh, not a year.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
This has been Benchmark Happenings, brought to
you by Jonathan Tipton andSteve Reed from Benchmark Home
Loans.
Jonathan and Steve areresidential mortgage lenders.
They do home loans in NortheastTennessee and they're not only
licensed in Tennessee butFlorida, georgia, south Carolina
and Virginia.
We hope you've enjoyed the show.
(25:42):
If you did make sure to likerate and review.
Our passion is NortheastTennessee, so if you have
questions about mortgages, callus at 423-491-5405.
And the website iswwwJonathanAndStevecom.
Thanks for being with us andwe'll see you next time on
(26:04):
Benchmark Happenings.
This is Benchmark Happenings, brought to you by
Jonathan and Steve fromBenchmark Home Loans.
Northeast Tennessee, johnsonCity, kingsport, bristol, the
Tri-Cities One of the mostbeautiful places in the country
to live.
Tons of great things to do andawesome local businesses.
(00:22):
And on this show you'll findout why people are dying to move
to Northeast Tennessee and onthe way we'll have discussions
about mortgages and we'llinterview people in the real
estate industry.
It's what we do.
This is Benchmark Happenings,brought to you by Benchmark Home
Loans, and now your host,christine Reed.
(00:43):
And now your host, christineReed.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Welcome back everybody to another episode of
Benchmark Happenings.
And you know, the last time thestar of our show was so amazing
, I just had to invite him backagain for a follow-up.
So Steve, my awesome husbandand entrepreneur of Benchmark
Home Loans, welcome back.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Well, thank you, I thought it would be another year
before you'd invite me back.
So, hey, happy to be back sosoon.
Either that or you were maybejust a little hard up for other
guests, or something like that,but either way I feel honored.
Well, good, good.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
No, not, we've got.
We've got a lot of great folkslined up, but, you know, really
a lot of times we don't have theopportunity to do consecutive
podcasts on specific topics.
So you know, the people wholisten there's, like you know,
every other week we launch a newpodcast and a lot of times it's
(01:39):
always someone different,someone different.
But you know, last time wetalked about your new business
adventure with you and yourpartner, Jonathan Tipton, on
land to homes, really providingthat niche in the marketplace
for homes for people, and so youknow, Steve, I thought it would
(02:01):
be really good to kind of talkabout a little bit more about
the process of land to homes andmaybe just review what that is
again, what you guys are doing,and then let's talk about that
process for those who arelistening.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yeah, so I love talking about land to homes.
I've been talking aboutmortgages for 40 years, so
sometimes that gets a littlemonotonous, although I still
love talking about the mortgageindustry.
But land to homes is just a newtwist on and a new venture, as
you mentioned, as far as whatwe're doing, and so it's really
exciting.
It was and I'm sorry if I'mgoing to repeat myself from the
(02:40):
prior podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I think it's good for us to do a little bit of a
review for those, just in case,if someone did not listen to the
other podcast, you can go backand, of course, listen to it.
But yeah, I think it's good,steve, just to go ahead and do a
recap.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah.
So it was kind of birthed outof the idea that homeownership
become unaffordable for thefirst-time homebuyers, and not
that it didn't becomeunaffordable for maybe
second-time homebuyers as well.
So Atlanta Homes was birthedout of that idea of how can we
help more of our clients getinto homes at a nice less price
(03:18):
point than what they're seeingout there for new construction,
and so that was our why behind,why we started doing this, and
so it just kind of grew fromthere.
But it's just a greatalternative to be able to you
know, whether it's a singleparent, whether it's retirees,
whether it's somebody that wantsto downsize to be able to get
(03:41):
into a brand new home that'sbuilt really well that's
normally on an acre or maybe alittle less, but normally it's
about an acre of ground and tobe able to do that at a very low
price and to also be able tohave a turnkey situation to just
where we hand them the keys andthey get a great rate on their
(04:03):
loan at the same time, and it'spretty much a one-stop shop.
So we were looking for thatsolution, if you will in the
marketplace, to be able to justcome in, because it's really
difficult and we'll get into.
I'd like to talk a little bitabout kind of the process and
what's that look like.
So that might be boring forsome people, but if you're
(04:26):
actually looking to do this, itwon't be boring to you.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Absolutely, and I think that's why, you know, I
wanted to ask you to come backis because I think it's really
important to talk about thatprocess.
So someone out there lookingfor a home, a new home, or just,
you know, wanting to, you know,get out of an apartment or or
looking in general, and but theyhave basically a range of 250
(04:53):
to 300 K and that's what they'vebeen maybe approved for, maybe
not approved or they just don'tknow.
So what would that process looklike, steve, if they contacted
you Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
So the first part of the process hasn't really
changed.
That's to let us get anapplication, make sure they're
approvable, you know, and goover the different loan programs
.
So that's something we can doin our sleep.
We've been doing that forseveral, several years, so that
process has not changed.
But to kind of jump to theland-to-homes process, and one
(05:28):
thing I want to start doing iskind of, I guess, promoting our
website so you can go toland2homesus and it'll tell you
more than I can probably tellyou in a podcast here.
Because, go on there, look athomes we've got under
construction, properties we gotavailable, kind of how the
(05:51):
process works you know.
So that's a great startingpoint once you are approved so,
and you don't have to beapproved to check that out.
So I would, I would advise,just go check out land, the
number two homes.
So what we were running into iswe see people that decide hey,
I think you, I think amanufactured home or double wide
may work for me, or we dosingle wides as well.
We haven't done any of thoseyet but we can.
(06:12):
But once they figure out, okay,that's the price point I'm
going to have to be at and, likeyou mentioned, it's around $250
to maybe $300 on the biggerhomes and we can even get to
$220, $230 on smaller things.
But once they decide that ifthey end up, you know, like down
(06:33):
the street at a differentdealer or something like that,
they're going to make themnormally go get their permits,
they're going to have to pay fortheir water tap.
They're going to have to do alot of kind of nuts and bolts
types, things that a lot ofpeople work every day.
They don't have time to do this.
They don't understand it.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
And every county is different on how these things
are.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
A hundred percent yeah.
I'm glad you mentioned thatbecause they are and we're still
learning things in somecounties and we're keeping notes
and you know taking names andkeeping a cheat sheet, so we've
learned a lot.
But we can cut a lot of timeout of that process so we do all
that for them and it's really aturnkey product.
And we've got like one clientright now.
(07:20):
She works every day.
She's a single mom.
She barely has time to doanything, so she can't do any of
that.
Plus, her credit had taken ahit because of her divorce.
So we've got her over here in acredit repair program.
You know, while this home isgetting built and getting set,
she's over here.
You know, we've got her withour credit repair specialist
(07:42):
that is helping raise her scoreso she can get a better interest
rate.
So we got all that going on inthe background.
So she has that going onbecause she has to send them
some documentation.
So there's a lot of puzzlepieces getting moved around.
I can't imagine adding on tothat, telling somebody to you
know, go down to the city andget their water tap or get you
(08:03):
know, get a permit or all thatso.
So she has that going on.
That's just real life stuff andwe're doing everything else.
So it just really simplifiesthe whole process to where you
know we're going to deliver thathome.
Sorry, I've had allergies soexcuse the raspy but we're going
(08:25):
to deliver that home in aturnkey product that someone is
just going to be able to walkright into and start making
payments in her situation.
I think she is doing an FHA loan, so it's about three and a half
percent down, but on a lot ofthese we can do zero percent
down and USDAda loan and we canpay the closing costs in some
(08:46):
instances.
So you can literally walk intothese with nothing out of pocket
.
So if you take um, like whatwould be an ideal client for us,
somebody that's used to payingI don't know $1,500 a month rent
, which is about a normal rentthese days, but they can stretch
and maybe make a payment of$1,600 or $1,700.
(09:11):
That's a perfect fit becausethey can move right into a house
and we can, you know, kind ofwork on their payments where
they want them, and we'll workwith people, you know.
Sometimes they'll say you know,that's just a little out of my
comfort zone and we'll say, well, can we just do a gravel
driveway instead of a paved?
And you know, can we cut backhere and cut back there.
We don't like doing that asmuch.
(09:32):
I guess we're perfectionistsand we like to deliver a product
that's just beautiful and it'ssitting there.
So so nice, yeah, when somebodystarts talking a gravel driveway
, which is what a lot of ourcompetitors put in, and and I
just start squirming a littlebit because I just really want
it to be nice for them and Iknow it's easier to just get it
done, even if your payment's 40more a month or whatever the
(09:56):
case is, let's go ahead and dothe gravel or the paved driveway
.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You don't want to be parking on gravels and trying to
wash your car in that stufflike that, that forty dollars
extra a month, that's uh goingout and getting coffees or a you
know uh once or twice atmcdonald's yes a month.
So it's really nothing and youknow, I, I was, we were talking
this morning.
Steve, a really good friend ofyours, has a lot of apartments
(10:21):
and you know the average rentalfor even a one-bedroom or maybe
two, but a lot of times one$2,000 a month.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah, that's for most of his two and three.
Now the one-bedrooms are about$1,200, but that's still a lot.
You know when you're whenyou're talking.
You've got a one bedroomapartment at 1200, or you can
buy, go buy a brand new home onyour own slice of the American
dream on an acre and maybe bepaying 1600, you know a little
(10:52):
bit more, but you're sittingthere with something brand new
that you can call your own, thatyou're building equity in and,
uh, hopefully taking care of andimproving as time goes on.
So to me it's a no brainer.
I almost like to.
When clients come in, I like tohit them kind of with the
(11:12):
highest payment and because theonly reason I say that is
because I like them to have thatpaved driveway and stuff, I'm
just kind of picky that way.
So and then we can startcarving it down.
But I'd rather say, hey, here'swhat it is, it's, you know,
$1,700 a month and it's 260,000or whatever.
And then they're like well, Ican only afford 240.
And I'm like okay, well we'llstart taking this off and that
(11:34):
off, and, and we're happy to dothat.
But again I like to see themget the full turnkey package,
because I think they'll behappier with that.
But, we're happy to work withany budget and so we don't want
to scare anybody off becausewe've got someone.
Now we're trying to find areally cheap lot and get them in
(11:58):
for about $220,000.
So it's really hard to do muchless than that, especially if
you're doing 1,500 square feet.
You're doing a double-wide, nowget into a single-wide and that
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
you could do that, but with 1,500 square feet it's
really hard to do and prices aregoing to vary too, because
everything goes up and the costof land, and you know.
So they got to factor all thosethings in.
So you know, I just don't wantpeople thinking that, hey, it's
a set price.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Um right, right, and it's not.
I mean it's it's all over theboard and it's kind of you can
make it what you want but, we'rereally transparent with you
know, with the setup cost and wedon't I mean whatever they
charge us, whatever, you know,graders excavators charge, and
septic installers andelectricians we pretty much just
(12:48):
pass that cost on.
So we've got a goal to keep itas low as we can as well,
because we know they're notcoming in here because they're
not on a budget right.
So we feel like it's a bigresponsibility and it's a big
honor for us.
When someone places their trustin us to be able to for their
(13:11):
home which to me is the biggestdeal you've got going it's
definitely your biggestinvestment.
It's definitely your biggestinvestment.
So when someone places thattrust in us, it's a huge
responsibility that wedefinitely don't want to take
advantage of anybody and we wantto earn that trust and, you
know, hopefully they'll send ustheir friends and we won't have
to spend, you know, $20,000 amonth on advertising because
(13:34):
we've done a good job for them.
So maybe that comes back to us.
And we even had a couple in afew weeks ago that they were
living in a camper with fourkids and Jonathan and I just we
kind of had a meeting in theback room and said how can we
make this work, even if we don'tmake any money or make very
little money on this?
Because they had gone toanother dealer.
(13:56):
They were trying to put sixpeople in a single wide, the
dealer was, which was 988 squarefeet, and we're like they got
to have at least 1500.
Let's get them in maybe one ofour cheaper, lower priced double
wides, which will still bereally nice, but it'll give them
600 more square feet.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
And have three bedrooms, yes, and two baths.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Exactly.
So we're trying to figure thatout and get a super you know
deal on a lot somewhere and makeall that work for them.
So to us that's just a you knowevery now and then I mean we
make money, but every now andthen it's like, okay, we're
going to have a give back homehere where we maybe make very
little money but it's going tobe rewarding for us.
(14:37):
So, um, so we're, we're happyto, you know, to do that.
We just want to be, we want tobe a good community partner
where people are like, uh, thisarea, this tri-cities area,
northeast Tennessee, is a bettercommunity because land, homes
is in it, and so that's, that'sour ultimate goal.
So, um, it's.
(14:58):
So it's not about the money,it's about putting people before
the profit and having a goodtime while we're doing it.
And yeah, hopefully some willmake money and some maybe not so
much, but at the end of the daywe sleep really well.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
There's a lot of blessing in that and this is a
love.
East Tennessee and that'sreally why Benchmark Happenings
was birthed, and I love talkingabout land to home.
So, steve, walk us through aprocess.
So you have a client that'scoming in and they're looking at
a manufactured home.
(15:36):
So what does that process looklike with you and Jonathan?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Yeah, so, like I mentioned it'll, it'll start out
with we want to know that youcan buy something, so it's going
to start out at let's getpre-approved with benchmark.
And so we will normally letanother loan officer handle that
, because we don't want tohandle the whole thing.
It's better, you know, likeApril, handle some of those and
uh, but anyway, we'll get thempre-approved, um, and we'll, uh,
(16:05):
we'll have the conversationwith them.
Hey, you're pre-approved, wedid get that information and
here's what you're approved for.
So, and that's a very quick,easy thing to do.
We can normally do that in lessthan 24 hours.
So, from there, what we like todo is schedule an appointment
for uh.
If it's husband and wife, weprefer they both come in, uh,
(16:27):
because you know one's going tobe stronger in one area and one
in the other and so the wife'snormally going to have more
input on the home because she'sgoing to, as you know
pick out the colors and thatkind of thing.
So we'll get them in and we'llstart just a build sheet for
them and we'll start.
We'll go to our virtualshowroom upstairs.
(16:47):
We'll start pulling updifferent manufacturers we can
sell, you know, a lot of theClayton line.
We can sell Champion, we cansell Fleetwood.
So a lot of Cavco.
There's a lot of differentlines we can sell.
So we'll kind of go throughsome of those.
We'll vet it out.
As far as you know, how manybedrooms do you want, how many
bathrooms, what's your minimumsquare footage?
So we'll start narrowing downhomes and kind of land them on a
(17:11):
home they like and then havethem pick out options.
You know, most of the homes wesell are not extremely
customizable.
They'll have four or five orsix options, you know, with your
colors and that kind of thing.
So they'll pick out that.
Then we'll come up with.
You know, what location do youwant to be in?
(17:33):
Do we have any inventory lotsthat we've already bought?
That will you know?
And if so, the next step wouldbe go out and look at the lot
and see if they like thelocation Right, and we'll get
the numbers together and we'llsay, hey, here's what's going to
be your turnkey price.
And if we don't have a lot,we'll say, you know, here's with
(17:53):
a $50,000 lot allowance.
So if you find a lot, that'smore, you're going to pay more.
If it's less, we'll pass it onto you, you know, at the less
cost.
So it's kind of, you know getapproved.
Step one, step two kind of lookover our products and find you
a home.
Step two.
Step three you know the lot,which is a biggie, because
(18:15):
that's the biggest challenge.
I mean more people can getapproved and pick out a color on
a home than can find a lot.
You know that's reallydifficult because you know
people have kids in school,they're going to be in a certain
area, they, you know they don'twant on the side of a hill, um,
so anyway, the lots, the lots,the biggest challenge.
So, uh, but hopefully we'llhave one in the inventory or no,
(18:38):
or once for sale.
We can go buy for them and um,and then put the, put the whole
deal together.
And so once we arrive at youknow, one, two and three and
we've kind of got our boxeschecked there we would go pull
the trigger.
We'll buy the lot, we'll havethem sign a contract.
We have land home contracts.
If they were sent by a realestate agent, that real estate
(19:01):
agent's fully protected.
We pay them a two and a halfpercent commission, just like if
the house was listed on the MLS.
So, and then from there, we'llpurchase the lot listed on the
MLS.
Um, so, and then from there,we'll purchase the lot, we'll
order the home and while thehome's coming in, we'll start on
the footers.
We'll get the permits.
Um, you know, we'll get ourwater tap.
(19:21):
We'll, you know, do everything.
We'll put the septic in.
Like the lady I was talkingabout, that's in credit repair.
You know, we've already got theseptic in, we've already got
the footers in.
She's in credit repair.
The home's going to be herenext Friday.
So, hey, this is.
You know it's a week away andso we got to be ready for that
home to receive that home, or Idon't know many people that can
(19:43):
store one in their driveway.
So you know I always get alittle bit nervous.
Oh, is it ready to put over thefooters?
Because when they pull the homein, uh, normally they can't
just set it in the middle of theyard, it has to be put on the
footers and um because if it'snot, then we have to set it in
the yard somewhere, and then thetransport guys have to come
(20:05):
back out whichis three or 4,000 more dollars
to come out and bring all theirequipment, set it on the footer.
So we try to time everythingand where it's going to work
like that.
So it's about 120 day processfrom start to finish, which is
four months.
No, it sounds like a lot but itgoes by really quick.
And you know, but when we orderthe home and these turn times
(20:27):
change.
But right now it's about sixweeks with one of the factories
in Alabama that we order a lotfrom and so during that six
weeks hopefully our grader's noton vacation.
He can get out there and do thefooters, he can do the grading,
he can do the septic.
But that six weeks is a prettyshort period.
That is six weeks is a prettyshort period and so once it gets
(20:48):
set, um, just to bore you witha little bit more of the process
um, it has to be marriedtogether the two sides.
So it has to be marriedtogether.
Um, then our uh installer comesand he will do all you know,
the uh putting it on a permanentfoundation, putting on uh
taking care of making sure it'stied down to resist high wind
(21:11):
speeds.
He'll do all that.
Then we'll get our umelectrician out.
He'll do the HVAC system.
We'll get our guy out.
That does the uh drawn on stonearound the bottom of the home.
And, uh, we'll also get our guythat does the finish work inside
, because, if you can imagine,it's gone back together in two
pieces but there's exposed trimand all that that has to be
(21:34):
covered up because it was at onetime two pieces.
So he'll get in and do all that.
And so by the time you do allthat, you know you're looking at
another 30 to 60 days.
So before you know it, you'reat that 90 to 120-day mark.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Well, and then you have decks.
There's decks built all aroundthe back, the side entrance, the
front, there's landscaping tobe done.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Paving.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Paving to be done.
Mailbox, I mean gutters to beput on.
So really it truly is a turnkeyat a whole different level than
people in the past have workedwith other manufacturers or
dealers that you don't get thosethings.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah, yeah, it's like a little symphony orchestra,
you know, and everybody most ofour people work really good
together and the the beauty ofit is you can have a lot of that
going on at the same time, likeyou can have a gutter guy over
there while they're puttingdecks on pretty much.
They may get in each other's wayjust a little bit, but it's not
(22:37):
bad.
And so we figured out what canbe going on at the same time.
You know, the HVAC guy can bethere, you know, while the
home's being put on the blocks,if he needs to be.
So it's kind of an orchestratedlittle deal there.
But the good thing is, a lot ofit can be done at the same time
(22:57):
and you're not relying on thesame subs to do everything, like
it's all a different set ofsubs.
So you, you know, you don'thave to wait on, you know,
johnny Redneck to finish onepart while before he can get to
doing his next thing, becauseyou've got all the different
subs coming in.
(23:18):
So that is pretty cool.
So we make it work and make it,you know, make the timing work.
And hey, it's all about time.
Time is money and people wantto get in their homes and
they're getting patient.
So we're impatient too.
We're ready for them to get inand move on to the next project.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
So then you walk them to closing and then turn over
the key and they've got abeautiful new home.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yeah they just walk in, we have it cleaned, all nice
for them.
So the cleaning crew goes inand cleans it all up.
They, it's landscaped, it'spaved it, you got your gutters,
you got your decks, uh, you know, you just hand them the keys
and they walk in and it's.
It's a cool little deal,because at that point all they
have to do is move in theirclothes and their furniture and
(24:03):
they're, they're done.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
So, yeah, that's great, that is great.
So so, land to homes.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Give us the website one more time, steve website is
land, the number two, and thenhomes dot US, land to homes dot
US, all kinds of cool things onthe website.
We continue to build that aswell and make it a little bit
more interactive.
I think we may put this podcaston there, put a few podcasts on
(24:31):
there so people can listen andkind of learn the process where
they feel you know, we loveeducated customers.
I had a lady the other day saidwell, I know more than most
people and I said you know whatwe love, that we want you to
know more than most people.
We educated customers are ourbest customers, not that we'll
be glad to educate you.
The ones I want you to knowmore than most people.
(24:52):
We educated customers are ourbest customers.
We'll be glad to educate you.
The ones that scare me is theones that think they know it all
and they don't know anything.
So we love a truly educatedcustomer, not one that just
knows enough to be dangerous.
So, hey, get all the educationyou can, and the more you know
about the market and stuff, hey,the better it is for all of us.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Absolutely Well.
Thank you, steve, for coming ontoday.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Thanks for having me.
Maybe it won't be a year, Iguess.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Oh, not a year.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
This has been Benchmark Happenings, brought to
you by Jonathan Tipton andSteve Reed from Benchmark Home
Loans.
Jonathan and Steve areresidential mortgage lenders.
They do home loans in NortheastTennessee and they're not only
licensed in Tennessee butFlorida, georgia, south Carolina
and Virginia.
We hope you've enjoyed the show.
(25:42):
If you did make sure to likerate and review.
Our passion is NortheastTennessee, so if you have
questions about mortgages, callus at 423-491-5405.
And the website iswwwJonathanAndStevecom.
Thanks for being with us andwe'll see you next time on
(26:04):
Benchmark Happenings.
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