June 25, 2025 • 20 mins
Navigating the mortgage landscape can feel overwhelming, especially with today's market uncertainties. Mortgage banker Stacy Luna cuts through the confusion with straight talk and practical wisdom gained from 25+ years in the industry.
Stacy explains why Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group offers what she calls "the best of both worlds" - combining the reliability of banks with the flexibility of brokers. This hybrid approach allows her to maintain control throughout the entire lending process, delivering a five-star experience that keeps clients coming back.
The conversation tackles one of today's biggest homebuying dilemmas: should you wait for interest rates to drop? Stacy offers a compelling perspective, revealing that Florida home values have skyrocketed 65% over five years. "Sitting and waiting is a mistake," she advises, explaining that while everyone hopes to refinance when rates eventually fall, the equity growth you're missing could far outweigh rate savings. As she puts it, waiting for 3-4% rates is like "looking for unicorns and rainbows."
Beyond market timing, Stacy shares insider knowledge on credit optimization. Did you know removing yourself as an authorized user on certain accounts could boost your score by 80 points? Or that strategically timing your credit card payments around reporting dates can significantly impact your score? These small adjustments can make the difference between good and great loan terms.
The podcast concludes with a heartwarming story about helping a family purchase their Florida dream home before Christmas - a family motivated by understanding life's fragility after battling cancer. It's a powerful reminder that mortgage professionals aren't just processing loans; they're helping families build futures.
Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, considering refinancing, or simply planning ahead, Stacy's insights will help you make smarter decisions. Subscribe now and share this episode with anyone navigating the homebuying journey!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back everybody to Business Talk, the
show, where we dive deep intothe industries that keep our
world moving.
I'm your host, didier, and intoday's episode I'm so delighted
to introduce Stacey Luna.
She's a mortgage banker, cmawith Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group
.
How are you doing, stacey?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm doing awesome.
How are you, Didier?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Doing awesome.
Thanks for asking as well,stacey.
I'm doing awesome.
How are you, didier, doingawesome?
Thanks for asking as well.
So, listeners, in each episode,our guests share practical tips
and valuable advice that canhelp you navigate life and stay
ahead in your own journey as youmove forward.
If you're enjoying this content, make sure you like and
subscribe to the channel.
Stick around, because Stacey'sis going to actually share a
story of someone that she hasimpacted with her services, and
(00:51):
it's going to be great to beable to learn about that as well
.
Also, listeners, we're going totalk about mortgage basics what
is a mortgage, loan types andchoosing the right one.
How do you know if you're goingto choose the right one or not,
the approval process, somemistakes to avoid and myths to
(01:11):
bust, as well as refinancing andstrategic advice.
So, with that being said, it'sa mouthful right, Stacey.
All in five minutes, all in fiveminutes, five to ten exactly.
So I'm going to go ahead and,if you don't mind, sharing with
our listeners, stacey, a littlebit about your background.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Oh, ok, just a little bit so a little bit.
I have been in lending as amortgage broker, banker, bank
representative since 1997.
Representative since 1997.
I've seen the ups and the downssince I was here in 2008.
(01:51):
I was here over the last fiveyears and I came into this
industry from the real estateside, so I understood that side
first, and you know.
I do say, though, that I wasliterally born to do this job,
and I say that because Igarnered lessons both from my
father and my mother.
(02:12):
My mother was an accountant.
By the way, accounting isnothing like mortgage lending.
If you're looking at those twooptions for a career, they're
totally different.
But I understood numbers veryeasily, simple numbers.
You know multiplication,percentages, division,
absolutely.
And then my father taught mesales, whether he knew it or not
(02:32):
, but I worked in his store andlearned how to help people make
great decisions.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I love that.
You know, when we look at themortgage industry and we're
looking at what's going on todayin the market, some of our
listeners are not familiar withthe difference between a
mortgage banker or other typesof lenders.
Can you kind of expand on thata little bit?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yes, absolutely.
It's a great question, and it'sone that frequently gets
confused amongst clients andalso partners.
So I have been all of thesetypes of industries, as in
regard to mortgage lending.
So you have a bank right, justlike your bank, where you do
(03:17):
your checking and everythingwith.
That's frequently thought of.
Now, a bank does everythingthey do auto loans, they do
checking accounts, they do IRA,they do all kinds of stuff right
.
Then you have mortgage brokers,which are kind of like an
insurance broker, so you wouldtalk to them and I was a broker
for 16 years of my career andbasically we have options, a
(03:42):
list of maybe 50 differentcompanies that we can go to with
their particular file.
The reality, though, is thatbrokers typically have their
favorite five right.
They have the top ones thatreally encompass most people,
and that's typically who they'regoing to use.
They're the best pricing, theyhave all the best features.
Then we have mortgage bankers,which I work.
(04:06):
Atlantic Bay is an independentmortgage bank.
That means we're kind of thebest of both worlds, in my
opinion, which why wouldn't itbe?
Why would I be here if itwasn't?
But if, if you consider it,we're very much like a bank and
that it's our money we'relending, okay.
The bank, however, you knowagain, they do other things, so
(04:29):
they have a very small box youhave to fit into.
All we do are mortgages, sothat's all we focus on.
But we're like a broker in thatwe offer what I call the
vanilla stuff FHA, conventional,va, usda but then we also are
able to broker other loans out,okay.
So if we have somebody whoneeds a bank statement loan
(04:50):
because they're self-employed,we have that option as well.
So we're kind of a hybrid of abroker and a banker, and I
believe the reason why I came toAtlantic Bay almost nine years
ago was to deliver a five starclient experience.
And that is something, in myopinion, is hard to do as a
(05:12):
broker, because you lose controlof the file when you have to
send it out to somebody else.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Interesting.
It's very well stated.
I couldn't have said it bestmyself.
Let's talk about the currentmarket trends that we're
experiencing right now in thiseconomy.
Any thoughts?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
So I've been kind of I feel like preaching from you
know, to a lot of people aboutis now is truly, I know a lot of
people are sitting on the fenceand there is some concern about
where the economy is going andis it now the time to buy?
And then there's also peoplesitting in their homes that
really low interest rates and Icall them kind of the golden
handcuffs, because you literallydon't want to leave your three
(05:56):
percent interest rate to go intosomething that's in this starts
with a six right right umhowever, right Right.
However, for those people thatdo not own a home, not at all.
I believe sitting and waitingand not buying now is a mistake,
personally, unless you're in asituation where you don't know
(06:18):
if you want to stay in that area.
But if you really want to buy,you've been wanting to buy for a
couple of years and you justkeep waiting and waiting for the
right time.
You're never going to be ableto time the market perfectly
Okay.
However, I can tell you thisright now the average person
buying their first home, ittakes them about seven years to
save up the down payment to buythat first home.
(06:40):
Okay, based upon the currentvalues of homes.
In addition, home prices inFlorida, over the last five
years the value of the homeshave gone up about 65%.
I agree with that buy when therates come down.
(07:02):
The problem is that the homevalues are going to continue to
rise and we have missed out onall this time that we could have
been building equity.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I like what you said, that there's never a right time
for anything, whether it's realestate, whether it's starting
your own business.
You just got to jump in.
Exactly that as well.
So there's never that perfecttime, so I like what you said.
(07:33):
Great answer on that Loan typesand choosing the right one.
You know there's so manydifferent types of loans out
there.
How, in an overview of commonmortgage loan types, when you
talked about FHA, when youtalked about conventional and VA
?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
adjustable rates and fixed.
Can you expand on?
How does a customer know?
Speaker 1 (08:07):
what is the right loan type for them?
Well, that's a great question,and I'm going to give you a
generic answer because thereality is is that you have to
trust your lender?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
uh, because you aren't going to know.
I mean, it's very.
I mean, you can do all theresearch you want on google, but
the reality is is that youdon't know how to structure a
loan as a consumer right?
and so I just had a conversationwith a client yesterday and I
said, listen, I said you'regoing to qualify for probably
three to four different types ofloans.
(08:36):
My job that's what I get paidto do is to look at all those
options through my eyes and say,ok, what are the two best ones
for you, and then kind of goover those with you in depth and
letting and let you choose.
I mean again, I said it earlierthat my job is really to help
(08:58):
them make good decisions, andthat's because this is what I do
, this is what I know, this isall I do.
Right, and you know, right nowgovernment loans are priced a
little bit lower thanconventional loans typically,
and so sometimes that makes moresense if you're not putting a
(09:18):
lot of money down.
Right, because everybody,almost everybody anyway who's
getting a mortgage today and whohas gotten a mortgage in the
last two or two and a half years, they're anticipating that
they're going to refinance,hopefully at some point when the
rates come down right.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Everybody's still, and I and I do try to break this
easy to people, but if you, ifyou're waiting for two or 3%,
again, even 4%, I, I thinkyou're.
I mean, I think you're lookingfor unicorns and rainbows.
You know, are definitelyunicorns rainbows.
Actually, you know, aredefinitely unicorns Rainbows
actually exist.
Maybe 5 percent is the rainbowRight, but quite frankly, rates
(09:59):
today are not really high.
When I got in the business backin the 90s and even people who
bought earlier in the 80s andbefore that rates I was my rates
were between 8.5% and 9%.
Prior to that they were in theteens.
Now I don't foresee that we'regoing back there.
(10:19):
However, I also don't see we'regoing back to when COVID was
happening and we wereartificially kept low to
maintain some monetary balancein the market and helping people
with something.
So this is where I think thatpeople need to really trust
(10:42):
their lender.
Working with a lender thatdoesn't have a lot of experience
is not a great idea and I saythat because I was that lender
at one time and you don't knowwhat, you don't know Right and
you know and unfortunately, justlike everything else in life,
sometimes you you learn reallystrong lessons by making
mistakes.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
No, I I agree with that 100%, and that was actually
well said as well.
Boy you're, you're battling,you're bad're batting.
10 out of 10.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Oh, thanks, I love it .
Speaker 1 (11:14):
So you know, when we talk about the approval process,
we talk about credit factors.
How important is credit in theoverall scheme of things when
applying for a mortgage?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
You know that is a question.
I mean, I talk to people allthe time and they're like, well,
I'm waiting to get my creditscore up.
I'm like, what's your creditscore?
And they're like, oh, it's likea 680 or 710 or whatever.
And I and I'm just like youknow what I said your credit is
definitely good enough to get amortgage.
It does.
(11:56):
Your credit score is a hugevariable in what your interest
rate is going to be and whatyour terms can be, what programs
you're going to qualify for.
However, it's not the onlyfactor, and it is also helpful
to work with a lender that knowshow to help you slightly
improve your score.
So let's say you have a, youknow you've got a 690 score and
you're trying to qualify for aconventional product.
You know to get a certain rateor whatever the situation might
be.
We can look at that.
(12:17):
We have an analyzer in oursystem and we can say, ok, if
you do one, two and three andit's going to cost you maybe a
thousand dollars, or if it costsyou anything, sometimes it
doesn't cost anything.
Sometimes it's just removingyou as an authorized user on an
account, right?
So if we can show you how to dothose things, literally.
I have a client right now who,by removing her as an authorized
(12:39):
user on an account, her scorewill go up 80 points.
Wow, like it's it's huge.
It is huge.
And you know the credit scoringthing is a game.
It's really a game.
The other thing I tell peopleall the time is listen.
If you know when you're paymentis due and you also know when
(13:02):
that creditor reports to thecredit bureau, you can kind of
hack the system to get a higherscore just by paying it down to
10% or less if you can, or 30%at the highest if you can.
If you can pay it down to thatpoint prior to them submitting
it to the credit bureaus eachmonth, that's going to give you
(13:24):
the highest score so thoselittle things can make a big
difference in in your score andthat credit report.
We keep that credit report livefor four months so it stays good
once we pull the hard.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Pull for four months very good and you know there are
some mistakes to avoid.
You know when.
What are maybe one or twothings to avoid during that
process of trying to get a loanor or getting that loan approved
, and there are certain thingsthat you got to not do during
(13:57):
that process before closingright well, so the, the, the.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
I don't want to call it a joke, because it's really
happened to all of us who'vebeen lending for a long time.
But there's always somebodythat goes and buys a car or or
goes and spends a bunch of moneyon something and they have
their credit pull, which thecredit pull doesn't always
necessarily negate the situation.
But if they've taken onadditional debt now, like a car
(14:23):
payment and today's car paymentsare no joke right.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Well, even furniture too, right.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Furniture.
Again, it can and can't.
It just kind of depends on whatthe minimum payment is.
We don't look at how much debtyou owe.
We look at what your paymentsare.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Makes sense.
Okay, so the car would be a bigone.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
The car would be huge .
And I'm seeing car paymentstoday 800, $900, like almost I
don't want to say common, butit's getting more and more
common to see that Definitelyfive to 600.
Whereas if I go back, you know,10 or 15 years ago most car
payments were under three or$400.
Right, you know, 10 or 15 yearsago most car payments were
(15:05):
under three or four hundreddollars.
Right, so they're pretty,they're pretty significant and
that that three hundred dollarsor even could move somebody's
debt to income ratio to wherethey no longer qualify and it's
really hard to take back a carno, that that's.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
That's very, very true.
You know, as we, as we wrap up,you know I was kind of sharing
at the, at the beginning of theepisode uh, is there a story or
a customer that kind of standsout?
I know you got a lot of them.
Don't mention any names, ofcourse, no, of course, but a but
, a, a story that reallyresonated with you, that you
were, that they were, they werehappy and I'm sure all your
(15:38):
clients are.
Something that stands out thatyou'd like to share very brief.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I would say that I have a family that moved here
from Pennsylvania I feel like itwas three years ago, it'll be
three years this December and itwas a husband, a wife and two
children and two dogs, and hewas in the in the manufacturing
(16:12):
industry.
So he worked in a, you knowlike in a warehouse up north in
Pennsylvania, which is, I feellike it's more common up north.
But they have come to Disney,they come to the beach, they
love the beach, and he had justdecided and I didn't really at
the time I didn't understandwhere his motivation was coming
from, but he decided he wasgoing to move his family to
(16:33):
Florida, that they were so inlove with this area and they
really wanted to live here.
Well, he was introduced to mearound December 3rd or December
4th and he had started.
He was starting his jobrd orDecember 4th and he had started.
He was starting his job likethe very next week and he needed
to move down here and he hadmoved.
He moved his family into a onebedroom like a suite hotel.
(16:55):
Imagine this imagine this sweetwife.
She's in this hotel room withtwo dogs, two kids.
She's homeschooling them nowbecause he's working and they're
living out of state.
So she's trying to finish themup for the school year or for
that quarter, that part of theschool year, and find and the
(17:15):
realtor and I or the realtorneeded to find him and I
qualified him for a home thatwas around $250,000.
This is only a couple years ago.
That's not an easy thing to doin Central Florida.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Right, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
But he just had all the faith that it was going to
happen.
He got the job, he startedworking and I said to my team
now, mind you, they still hadn'tfound the house yet and we
needed to get them qualified andclosed on the loan and I
basically said, look, this, thisis our Christmas miracle.
This is going to be ourChristmas miracle family.
(17:51):
I know we can do it.
He's got the job.
So you know, as long as theycan find him a home and
everything goes perfectly,they'll, we can get them in
before Christmas, not to mentionthat the son's birthday.
He was a Christmas baby.
And I wanted them to be in ahome for Christmas not in a
hotel room Right.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
So we were, it all happened, we were able to do
that and just, and they were,they were just super grateful.
It was just one of, and justone of the most special like it
did.
It felt like a Christmasmiracle to me and it was just
just a great moment.
Um, and they were veryappreciative, obviously, and
super excited.
And, um, recently I saw ontheir social media, um, that he,
(18:41):
he has bone cancer and so he,there was a go fund me and I was
, and I reached out to him.
I'm like, oh my, I'm like gosh.
Well, come to find out.
And this man is not very old,he's in his thirties.
This was his second time withthis.
The first time was before I knewhim, and when you meet, when
(19:05):
you meet people, you sometimeswonder like, wow, I've never
seen somebody that is like, hasthat kind of drive that I'm
making this happen for my family.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
But once I realized what he had already gone through
, right.
I got it, you know, I got.
I was like he there was.
Nobody was going to tell him hewasn't going to have this first
family, because he's.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
He has realized that life is way shorter than most of
us do at a very early age, youknow well, stacy, I love that
story and I can tell howpassionate you about how
passionate you are about tellingthat story.
It's, it's, it's there.
That is a great story and thankyou for sharing this with our
listeners as well.
As we wrap up, can you provideour listeners with your phone
(19:48):
number and a website to get ahold of you?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Absolutely.
My phone number is area code407-832-3729.
And my website iswwwstacylunacom.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Well, listeners, thank you so much, you know, for
you know taking the time tolisten to this podcast and if
you do like this content, pleasefeel free to share, subscribe
as well.
As you know, mention somethingin the comments as well.
Stacey, thank you so much fortaking time out of your busy
schedule to be able to, you know, talk about your profession and
(20:32):
your services that you offer,and hopefully we can have you
back on in the near future.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Thank you so much.
We appreciate you asking.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
You're very welcome.
Thank you for tuning in toFirst Media Consulting Podcast
so much.
We appreciate your asking.
You're very welcome.
Welcome back everybody to Business Talk, the
show, where we dive deep intothe industries that keep our
world moving.
I'm your host, didier, and intoday's episode I'm so delighted
to introduce Stacey Luna.
She's a mortgage banker, cmawith Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group
.
How are you doing, stacey?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm doing awesome.
How are you, Didier?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Doing awesome.
Thanks for asking as well,stacey.
I'm doing awesome.
How are you, didier, doingawesome?
Thanks for asking as well.
So, listeners, in each episode,our guests share practical tips
and valuable advice that canhelp you navigate life and stay
ahead in your own journey as youmove forward.
If you're enjoying this content, make sure you like and
subscribe to the channel.
Stick around, because Stacey'sis going to actually share a
story of someone that she hasimpacted with her services, and
(00:51):
it's going to be great to beable to learn about that as well
.
Also, listeners, we're going totalk about mortgage basics what
is a mortgage, loan types andchoosing the right one.
How do you know if you're goingto choose the right one or not,
the approval process, somemistakes to avoid and myths to
(01:11):
bust, as well as refinancing andstrategic advice.
So, with that being said, it'sa mouthful right, Stacey.
All in five minutes, all in fiveminutes, five to ten exactly.
So I'm going to go ahead and,if you don't mind, sharing with
our listeners, stacey, a littlebit about your background.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Oh, ok, just a little bit so a little bit.
I have been in lending as amortgage broker, banker, bank
representative since 1997.
Representative since 1997.
I've seen the ups and the downssince I was here in 2008.
(01:51):
I was here over the last fiveyears and I came into this
industry from the real estateside, so I understood that side
first, and you know.
I do say, though, that I wasliterally born to do this job,
and I say that because Igarnered lessons both from my
father and my mother.
(02:12):
My mother was an accountant.
By the way, accounting isnothing like mortgage lending.
If you're looking at those twooptions for a career, they're
totally different.
But I understood numbers veryeasily, simple numbers.
You know multiplication,percentages, division,
absolutely.
And then my father taught mesales, whether he knew it or not
(02:32):
, but I worked in his store andlearned how to help people make
great decisions.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I love that.
You know, when we look at themortgage industry and we're
looking at what's going on todayin the market, some of our
listeners are not familiar withthe difference between a
mortgage banker or other typesof lenders.
Can you kind of expand on thata little bit?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yes, absolutely.
It's a great question, and it'sone that frequently gets
confused amongst clients andalso partners.
So I have been all of thesetypes of industries, as in
regard to mortgage lending.
So you have a bank right, justlike your bank, where you do
(03:17):
your checking and everythingwith.
That's frequently thought of.
Now, a bank does everythingthey do auto loans, they do
checking accounts, they do IRA,they do all kinds of stuff right
.
Then you have mortgage brokers,which are kind of like an
insurance broker, so you wouldtalk to them and I was a broker
for 16 years of my career andbasically we have options, a
(03:42):
list of maybe 50 differentcompanies that we can go to with
their particular file.
The reality, though, is thatbrokers typically have their
favorite five right.
They have the top ones thatreally encompass most people,
and that's typically who they'regoing to use.
They're the best pricing, theyhave all the best features.
Then we have mortgage bankers,which I work.
(04:06):
Atlantic Bay is an independentmortgage bank.
That means we're kind of thebest of both worlds, in my
opinion, which why wouldn't itbe?
Why would I be here if itwasn't?
But if, if you consider it,we're very much like a bank and
that it's our money we'relending, okay.
The bank, however, you knowagain, they do other things, so
(04:29):
they have a very small box youhave to fit into.
All we do are mortgages, sothat's all we focus on.
But we're like a broker in thatwe offer what I call the
vanilla stuff FHA, conventional,va, usda but then we also are
able to broker other loans out,okay.
So if we have somebody whoneeds a bank statement loan
(04:50):
because they're self-employed,we have that option as well.
So we're kind of a hybrid of abroker and a banker, and I
believe the reason why I came toAtlantic Bay almost nine years
ago was to deliver a five starclient experience.
And that is something, in myopinion, is hard to do as a
(05:12):
broker, because you lose controlof the file when you have to
send it out to somebody else.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Interesting.
It's very well stated.
I couldn't have said it bestmyself.
Let's talk about the currentmarket trends that we're
experiencing right now in thiseconomy.
Any thoughts?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
So I've been kind of I feel like preaching from you
know, to a lot of people aboutis now is truly, I know a lot of
people are sitting on the fenceand there is some concern about
where the economy is going andis it now the time to buy?
And then there's also peoplesitting in their homes that
really low interest rates and Icall them kind of the golden
handcuffs, because you literallydon't want to leave your three
(05:56):
percent interest rate to go intosomething that's in this starts
with a six right right umhowever, right Right.
However, for those people thatdo not own a home, not at all.
I believe sitting and waitingand not buying now is a mistake,
personally, unless you're in asituation where you don't know
(06:18):
if you want to stay in that area.
But if you really want to buy,you've been wanting to buy for a
couple of years and you justkeep waiting and waiting for the
right time.
You're never going to be ableto time the market perfectly
Okay.
However, I can tell you thisright now the average person
buying their first home, ittakes them about seven years to
save up the down payment to buythat first home.
(06:40):
Okay, based upon the currentvalues of homes.
In addition, home prices inFlorida, over the last five
years the value of the homeshave gone up about 65%.
I agree with that buy when therates come down.
(07:02):
The problem is that the homevalues are going to continue to
rise and we have missed out onall this time that we could have
been building equity.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I like what you said, that there's never a right time
for anything, whether it's realestate, whether it's starting
your own business.
You just got to jump in.
Exactly that as well.
So there's never that perfecttime, so I like what you said.
(07:33):
Great answer on that Loan typesand choosing the right one.
You know there's so manydifferent types of loans out
there.
How, in an overview of commonmortgage loan types, when you
talked about FHA, when youtalked about conventional and VA
?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
adjustable rates and fixed.
Can you expand on?
How does a customer know?
Speaker 1 (08:07):
what is the right loan type for them?
Well, that's a great question,and I'm going to give you a
generic answer because thereality is is that you have to
trust your lender?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
uh, because you aren't going to know.
I mean, it's very.
I mean, you can do all theresearch you want on google, but
the reality is is that youdon't know how to structure a
loan as a consumer right?
and so I just had a conversationwith a client yesterday and I
said, listen, I said you'regoing to qualify for probably
three to four different types ofloans.
(08:36):
My job that's what I get paidto do is to look at all those
options through my eyes and say,ok, what are the two best ones
for you, and then kind of goover those with you in depth and
letting and let you choose.
I mean again, I said it earlierthat my job is really to help
(08:58):
them make good decisions, andthat's because this is what I do
, this is what I know, this isall I do.
Right, and you know, right nowgovernment loans are priced a
little bit lower thanconventional loans typically,
and so sometimes that makes moresense if you're not putting a
(09:18):
lot of money down.
Right, because everybody,almost everybody anyway who's
getting a mortgage today and whohas gotten a mortgage in the
last two or two and a half years, they're anticipating that
they're going to refinance,hopefully at some point when the
rates come down right.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Everybody's still, and I and I do try to break this
easy to people, but if you, ifyou're waiting for two or 3%,
again, even 4%, I, I thinkyou're.
I mean, I think you're lookingfor unicorns and rainbows.
You know, are definitelyunicorns rainbows.
Actually, you know, aredefinitely unicorns Rainbows
actually exist.
Maybe 5 percent is the rainbowRight, but quite frankly, rates
(09:59):
today are not really high.
When I got in the business backin the 90s and even people who
bought earlier in the 80s andbefore that rates I was my rates
were between 8.5% and 9%.
Prior to that they were in theteens.
Now I don't foresee that we'regoing back there.
(10:19):
However, I also don't see we'regoing back to when COVID was
happening and we wereartificially kept low to
maintain some monetary balancein the market and helping people
with something.
So this is where I think thatpeople need to really trust
(10:42):
their lender.
Working with a lender thatdoesn't have a lot of experience
is not a great idea and I saythat because I was that lender
at one time and you don't knowwhat, you don't know Right and
you know and unfortunately, justlike everything else in life,
sometimes you you learn reallystrong lessons by making
mistakes.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
No, I I agree with that 100%, and that was actually
well said as well.
Boy you're, you're battling,you're bad're batting.
10 out of 10.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Oh, thanks, I love it .
Speaker 1 (11:14):
So you know, when we talk about the approval process,
we talk about credit factors.
How important is credit in theoverall scheme of things when
applying for a mortgage?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
You know that is a question.
I mean, I talk to people allthe time and they're like, well,
I'm waiting to get my creditscore up.
I'm like, what's your creditscore?
And they're like, oh, it's likea 680 or 710 or whatever.
And I and I'm just like youknow what I said your credit is
definitely good enough to get amortgage.
It does.
(11:56):
Your credit score is a hugevariable in what your interest
rate is going to be and whatyour terms can be, what programs
you're going to qualify for.
However, it's not the onlyfactor, and it is also helpful
to work with a lender that knowshow to help you slightly
improve your score.
So let's say you have a, youknow you've got a 690 score and
you're trying to qualify for aconventional product.
You know to get a certain rateor whatever the situation might
be.
We can look at that.
(12:17):
We have an analyzer in oursystem and we can say, ok, if
you do one, two and three andit's going to cost you maybe a
thousand dollars, or if it costsyou anything, sometimes it
doesn't cost anything.
Sometimes it's just removingyou as an authorized user on an
account, right?
So if we can show you how to dothose things, literally.
I have a client right now who,by removing her as an authorized
(12:39):
user on an account, her scorewill go up 80 points.
Wow, like it's it's huge.
It is huge.
And you know the credit scoringthing is a game.
It's really a game.
The other thing I tell peopleall the time is listen.
If you know when you're paymentis due and you also know when
(13:02):
that creditor reports to thecredit bureau, you can kind of
hack the system to get a higherscore just by paying it down to
10% or less if you can, or 30%at the highest if you can.
If you can pay it down to thatpoint prior to them submitting
it to the credit bureaus eachmonth, that's going to give you
(13:24):
the highest score so thoselittle things can make a big
difference in in your score andthat credit report.
We keep that credit report livefor four months so it stays good
once we pull the hard.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Pull for four months very good and you know there are
some mistakes to avoid.
You know when.
What are maybe one or twothings to avoid during that
process of trying to get a loanor or getting that loan approved
, and there are certain thingsthat you got to not do during
(13:57):
that process before closingright well, so the, the, the.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
I don't want to call it a joke, because it's really
happened to all of us who'vebeen lending for a long time.
But there's always somebodythat goes and buys a car or or
goes and spends a bunch of moneyon something and they have
their credit pull, which thecredit pull doesn't always
necessarily negate the situation.
But if they've taken onadditional debt now, like a car
(14:23):
payment and today's car paymentsare no joke right.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Well, even furniture too, right.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Furniture.
Again, it can and can't.
It just kind of depends on whatthe minimum payment is.
We don't look at how much debtyou owe.
We look at what your paymentsare.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Makes sense.
Okay, so the car would be a bigone.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
The car would be huge .
And I'm seeing car paymentstoday 800, $900, like almost I
don't want to say common, butit's getting more and more
common to see that Definitelyfive to 600.
Whereas if I go back, you know,10 or 15 years ago most car
payments were under three or$400.
Right, you know, 10 or 15 yearsago most car payments were
(15:05):
under three or four hundreddollars.
Right, so they're pretty,they're pretty significant and
that that three hundred dollarsor even could move somebody's
debt to income ratio to wherethey no longer qualify and it's
really hard to take back a carno, that that's.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
That's very, very true.
You know, as we, as we wrap up,you know I was kind of sharing
at the, at the beginning of theepisode uh, is there a story or
a customer that kind of standsout?
I know you got a lot of them.
Don't mention any names, ofcourse, no, of course, but a but
, a, a story that reallyresonated with you, that you
were, that they were, they werehappy and I'm sure all your
(15:38):
clients are.
Something that stands out thatyou'd like to share very brief.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I would say that I have a family that moved here
from Pennsylvania I feel like itwas three years ago, it'll be
three years this December and itwas a husband, a wife and two
children and two dogs, and hewas in the in the manufacturing
(16:12):
industry.
So he worked in a, you knowlike in a warehouse up north in
Pennsylvania, which is, I feellike it's more common up north.
But they have come to Disney,they come to the beach, they
love the beach, and he had justdecided and I didn't really at
the time I didn't understandwhere his motivation was coming
from, but he decided he wasgoing to move his family to
(16:33):
Florida, that they were so inlove with this area and they
really wanted to live here.
Well, he was introduced to mearound December 3rd or December
4th and he had started.
He was starting his jobrd orDecember 4th and he had started.
He was starting his job likethe very next week and he needed
to move down here and he hadmoved.
He moved his family into a onebedroom like a suite hotel.
(16:55):
Imagine this imagine this sweetwife.
She's in this hotel room withtwo dogs, two kids.
She's homeschooling them nowbecause he's working and they're
living out of state.
So she's trying to finish themup for the school year or for
that quarter, that part of theschool year, and find and the
(17:15):
realtor and I or the realtorneeded to find him and I
qualified him for a home thatwas around $250,000.
This is only a couple years ago.
That's not an easy thing to doin Central Florida.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Right, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
But he just had all the faith that it was going to
happen.
He got the job, he startedworking and I said to my team
now, mind you, they still hadn'tfound the house yet and we
needed to get them qualified andclosed on the loan and I
basically said, look, this, thisis our Christmas miracle.
This is going to be ourChristmas miracle family.
(17:51):
I know we can do it.
He's got the job.
So you know, as long as theycan find him a home and
everything goes perfectly,they'll, we can get them in
before Christmas, not to mentionthat the son's birthday.
He was a Christmas baby.
And I wanted them to be in ahome for Christmas not in a
hotel room Right.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
So we were, it all happened, we were able to do
that and just, and they were,they were just super grateful.
It was just one of, and justone of the most special like it
did.
It felt like a Christmasmiracle to me and it was just
just a great moment.
Um, and they were veryappreciative, obviously, and
super excited.
And, um, recently I saw ontheir social media, um, that he,
(18:41):
he has bone cancer and so he,there was a go fund me and I was
, and I reached out to him.
I'm like, oh my, I'm like gosh.
Well, come to find out.
And this man is not very old,he's in his thirties.
This was his second time withthis.
The first time was before I knewhim, and when you meet, when
(19:05):
you meet people, you sometimeswonder like, wow, I've never
seen somebody that is like, hasthat kind of drive that I'm
making this happen for my family.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
But once I realized what he had already gone through
, right.
I got it, you know, I got.
I was like he there was.
Nobody was going to tell him hewasn't going to have this first
family, because he's.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
He has realized that life is way shorter than most of
us do at a very early age, youknow well, stacy, I love that
story and I can tell howpassionate you about how
passionate you are about tellingthat story.
It's, it's, it's there.
That is a great story and thankyou for sharing this with our
listeners as well.
As we wrap up, can you provideour listeners with your phone
(19:48):
number and a website to get ahold of you?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Absolutely.
My phone number is area code407-832-3729.
And my website iswwwstacylunacom.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Well, listeners, thank you so much, you know, for
you know taking the time tolisten to this podcast and if
you do like this content, pleasefeel free to share, subscribe
as well.
As you know, mention somethingin the comments as well.
Stacey, thank you so much fortaking time out of your busy
schedule to be able to, you know, talk about your profession and
(20:32):
your services that you offer,and hopefully we can have you
back on in the near future.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Thank you so much.
We appreciate you asking.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
You're very welcome.
Thank you for tuning in toFirst Media Consulting Podcast
so much.
We appreciate your asking.
You're very welcome.
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