Boost Your Income & Support Your Parents with Shawn Kaplan

Forget snoozefests about interest rates and amortization schedules! This episode with our guest Shawn Kaplan is about conquering the mortgage maze with your awesome parents and maybe even scoring them a sweet retirement escape (think palm trees and piña coladas!).

We'll crack the code on killer mortgage strategies that benefit both you and your favorite folks. Imagine the epic high-fives when you help them secure a dream home or secure their financial future – all while paving the way for your own financial fortress!

Here's your ultimate cheat sheet:

• Finding Your Mortgage BFF: Ditch the generic recommendations! We'll show you how to find a rockstar mortgage lender like our guest, Shawn Kaplan (aka: KAP), who boasts a legion of happy homeowners (think Google Reviews on steroids!).
• Down Payment Demolition Crew: We'll bust open the down payment and closing cost mysteries, so you can factor them into your financial game plan with laser focus.
• Building Wealth Beyond the Bricks: This is bigger than just buying a house – it's about building a secure future for the whole family! We'll explore how real estate, including multifamily properties, can fuel your long-term financial security while taking care of your awesome parents (think passive income streams that work for you, even while you sleep!).

So are you ready to ditch the stress and embrace the joy of helping your parents? 
Remember, you have the power to make a real difference.  Let's turn financial planning into a family bonding 

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We encourage you to visit our website now at www.connect-empower.com to explore more information on our guest and to access our resources.

To ask us your questions or to share your story, email us at [e-mail].
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John & Erin

Episode Transcript

Shawn (00:00):
You know, to know where we've gotten, we have to know

(00:02):
where we've come and you go backand you look at what we're
taught.
I don't know what you weretaught, but most of the people
listening to this probably,we're the same, go to high
school, get a great job, workfor 30 years, give money to
social security and 401k, if youdo those two things.
And when you, after 30 years,you're about to retire it
comfortably.
And I was just like, oh, cool.

(00:22):
That's the path I'm on.
That was my blueprint.
I was like, I'll do that.
And that's what America is stilldoing.
And what we don't realize islike, that's not cutting the
cheese.
It's not going to get the jobdone because you're not meant to
live your meager years in, inyour golden years, you're meant
to live your most abundantlifestyle.

John (00:50):
Hi, I'm John,

Erin (00:52):
and I'm Erin.
You're listening to connect andpower.
The podcast that proves age isno barrier to growth and
enlightenment

John (00:59):
tune in each week as we break down complex subjects into
bite sized enjoyable episodesthat will leave you feeling
informed, entertained, and readyto conquer the world
We're thrilled to welcome ShawnKaplan, affectionately known as
Kap to his fans.
Sean.
Isn't just a mortgage industry.

(01:21):
Maverick.
He's a hope dealer.
Who has turned his earlyfinancial challenges into a
blueprint for success.
paying off over$146,000 in debt.
And helping over 10,000 clientsachieve their dreams along the
way.
As a highly sought after speakeron money, building wealth,

(01:41):
paying off debt.
Marketing branding and socialmedia, his charisma is as
compelling as his credentials.
With over a billion dollars inclosed loans and a wealth of
experience, he is ready toeducate and help you.
Off the clock.
He's a family man celebrating 20years of marriage, fatherhood

(02:03):
and life with three Frenchbulldogs.
Get ready to be inspired by hisjourney from overcoming
adversity to transforming livesthrough his work at cross
country mortgage and beyond.
Please help me welcome ourguest, Sean Caplin.
Welcome.

Shawn (02:21):
Well, thanks for having me here today.

John (02:23):
Yeah,

Erin (02:24):
We're super excited to have you here today.
I want the audience to know thatwe have something in store for
you, that you guys are going tolove a quick little lesson that
Sean's going to teach us.
But before we do that, if Sean,you wouldn't mind sharing your
story about mortgages, what drewyou into it?
How did you get started and allthe exciting things?

(02:44):
Because it's not something thatyou just wake up one day, at
least I didn't wake up one dayand go, Hey, this is what I want
to do.

Shawn (02:51):
Yeah.
Nobody, I think goes and says,they're going to go to college
and learn how to be a mortgageperson.
so, I try to like, frame myselfbefore I get to people, with who
I am as a person before I saymortgage, because it's 1 of
those topics that, it's just notthat exciting.
And a lot of people, I thinkquite frankly, don't want to
talk about, nonetheless, do theywant to do it for a living?
But, I grew up with a singlemom.

(03:11):
my dad passed away when I wasyoung and I accumulated a lot of
debt, like about 146, 000 incredit card debt coming out of
college.
And, I was waiting tables.
I was actually working twodifferent jobs at two different
restaurants, waiting tables andthen learning the mortgage
industry during the day.
but how I got in the mortgageindustry was I was waiting
tables.
And, one day I met a mortgageguy.
And in 2001, and he became myfirst mentor, not having a

(03:35):
father growing up.
I always, you know, really,really gravitate towards men
that were willing to invest inmy life and take me underneath
their wing, like baseball or boyScouts or any of that.
I was kind of like a.
You know, I was a little hacker.
I would go hack my dad.
I'd go find my dad for the day,you know, day, week, month,
whatever.
But I would, I'd gravitatetowards those guys.

(03:55):
And this guy took me underneathhis wing and I did everything he
told me to do for like threeyears.
And then he said, I'm going toretire.
And so I was kind of lost, butthat was my entrance into the
mortgage industry.
And that was in 2001.
And it was a couple of monthsbefore September 11th happened,

John (04:10):
That's just

Erin (04:10):
something you don't forget, right?

Shawn (04:13):
Yeah, you don't forget that, and it definitely, I had a
driving motivator because, I hadstudent loans all of a sudden to
start come knocking and thosepayments and I knew I needed to
do something in the career I hadchosen was not going to make a
lot of money.
I was an engineer.
I wanted to go to engineeringschool just because I thought.
That was something I should do.
And then I switched toenvironmental science.

(04:34):
So I actually graduated with anenvironmental science degree.
And a month after I graduated, Ileft the restaurant industry and
went full time into mortgages.

Erin (04:42):
What is it he said to you that made you go, oh yeah, I'll
give this a try,

Shawn (04:46):
so it wasn't what he said.
It's what somebody else said.
So, I had graduated, I had thiscollege degree, I knew 140, 000
in debt was knocking on my door.
The only thing I knew to do wasto work, so I went on a job
interview at Vanderbilt.
And when I went into Vanderbilt,I thought I was going to like
the big fancy place.
I grew up in Vermont on a dairyfarm.

(05:08):
after my dad passed away, wemoved out of New York.
We went up to New England, wentup into Vermont to be with my
mom's parents.
But I just, I went off tocollege.
And so when I got this jobopportunity, going to Vanderbilt
for this Vermont farm boy waspretty fancy.
So I got all dressed up and Iwent down to Vanderbilt and they
were like, Oh no, you need to goto the other side, backside,

(05:30):
there'll be a parking lot.
you'll see the door over there.
And I was like, Oh, okay.
So I went that way.
All of a sudden I'm passing thedumpsters.
And I'm like back in the airconditioning units and I'm like
looking around and I see a doorand it said on it there was a
sign Vanderbilt environmentalhealth and safety because that's
what I graduated with.
And I go up to the metal doorand there was a glass piece of

(05:51):
you know that glass window withthe wire in it like a prison
almost, and I'm looking at itand I could see like these, this
concrete hallway that goesunderneath the hospital.
And so I opened up the door andI looked to the left and this
guy by the name of JohnnyVanderpool is who I was looking
for.
And I walk in, I looked to theleft.
There's a man standing there andI, and I look at the door and I
said, Johnny Vanderpool, and Iwas like, sir, I'm Sean.

(06:14):
I'm here for the job interview.
And, he came over, he shook myhand, was pretty brief and
abrupt about it, and he goes,let me show you what you'll be
doing, you can decide if youwant the job.
He took me around the hospital,and I was picking up needles,
syringes, gauze, and body parts,flesh, everything, and I had to
dispose of it for a whopping 32,000 a year.

(06:34):
And even though I was gratefulfor the opportunity, I never
made less than 50, 000 at therestaurant.
So I worked at the restaurantfor six years.
So I went back that night andI'm standing back, back by bus
four.
And the lady that owned therestaurant, miss Demas was a
little Italian lady, white hairwould run around the restaurant
smoking cigarettes and stuff,but she was a slave driver.
Like, you know, and my familywas Jewish.

(06:55):
She was Italian.
So like she had that immigrantmentality and I liked that.
And I'm standing there back atbus four all miserable and
pouting and all of a sudden shecomes back and she doesn't say
anything except one thing andfirst she goes, she goes, what's
on your mind?
And I said, well, Miss D, Ithink I just went on a job
interview to find out that Iwasted my college degree.
She didn't ask questions likewhy, how, whatever.

(07:16):
She said one thing.
And she said, what are you goingto do about it?
And so I told a group today, Isaid, who are those?
What are you going to do aboutit?
Friends in your life?
Like we need those because MissDimas changed my life.
I said, I don't know, Miss D.
I think I'm going to get intoreal estate.
She said, you know what, let mebring you up here, introduce you
to somebody.
And I went to the front, sheintroduced me to the two men
sitting at the table.

(07:37):
And it was a gentleman that wasa home builder, a gentleman that
owned a mortgage company.
And he said, you seem like asharp guy.
Why don't you come out and I'lltalk, teach you about mortgages.
I'll, you know, you can see ifyou want to do this.
And I said, I don't need, Idon't know what a mortgage is.
I don't want to sell insurance.
And the other gentleman becameTennessee's largest home
builder, which is Mr.
John Floyd, who builds about 900homes a year.

(07:59):
And, maybe I should have gonethat direction, but the next
week I went out and I met Roband, he took me underneath his
wing and he actually showed mehis tax return.
He showed told me what mortgageswere and I knew and he actually
said it was like waiting tables.
You take care of people, you doa good job, you make money.
You take, don't take care ofthem, you don't make money.
but he showed me that taxreturn.
I remember it had 442, 000 onit.

(08:21):
I remember it like I saw ityesterday and he said, you want
to do this?
And I said, yes, sir, I want todo that.
And that was, that wasn'tsomething that was realistic to
me.
I mean, if you made 60, 000, 50,000 in my family in New England
growing up as a Mason or aconstruction workers.
I'm like, you're doing reallywell.
You had a nice truck.
You had some money in the bank.

(08:41):
And so it's been a big blessing,big blessing to me.

Erin (08:46):
Yeah, I love that story.

John (08:47):
Thank you.

Shawn (08:48):
Yeah.

Erin (08:49):
And it is true what she said to you.
And we do need to find morepeople like that in our life.
John is my second and my last,you know, I had all those trial
relationships, but I'm like, Iwish he would have been my
first, how far along we wouldhave been in life, but I needed
to learn those lessons before weconnected.
But he's the one that pushes meand checks in with what I'm
doing.
I need and vice versa.

(09:10):
And I've never had that before.
So when you said that, it'slike, Oh, guess what?
I've been praying about.
And you just said it again.
I

John (09:17):
You know, I love your story.
You learned it very young,right?
It took me many, many years toget to where I'm now living a
life of full intention.
You know, what, what is my fullintention and how do I get
there?
Right and so you have to thinkabout that every day is this
improving my life or is this notimproving my life and make as
many choices as you can in allthe different areas from me.

(09:42):
your mental health, yourphysical health, your financial
health, all your spiritualhealth, all those different
areas.
And how can you improve?
so yeah, thank you for that.

Shawn (09:50):
important, so, so, so important.
And, we hit on something therethat is critically important.
You said, you know, yourself,your mind, and there's a lot of
hurting people right now.
I've had probably fiveconversations this week with
people that are in difficultsituations and they're in a dark
place and, fortunately, Ilearned a lot of that early at
an early age.

(10:10):
And, unfortunately, I learned itbecause, my father took his own
life and you learn a lot oflessons when, you know, you lose
a parent, to suicide and you,quickly learn how you're going
to validate yourself.
And that can work really, reallywell for a long time, like at
work or sports or achievement.

(10:31):
but eventually that can't alwaysbe the driving factor because it
really needs to come fromabundance, not scarcity.
And scarcity, what I found out,was it got me to where I needed
to be in life and in mortgages.
When I got into mortgages, Irealized If I just ran, I didn't
have to be really good at sportsbecause I was a runt.
I got bullied.
I wasn't good at school.

(10:51):
I cheated.
It was just tough.
But when I got into mortgages, Irealized, I just looked, I said,
all right, if I see more people,if I have more conversations, if
I work more hours and all theseother jokers, I will make more
money in this industry.
Like guaranteed.
So I said, well, I'm going to dowhatever it takes.
I had three jobs.
I had two restaurant jobs.

(11:12):
Demas is no Charlies.
I got the old people during theweek and the kids on the
weekend.
And I was bartending on Saturdaynights.
And then I was working mymortgage business during the
day.
But for the first five to 10years, all I heard when I would
call on realtors and businesspeople, they're like, you look
familiar.
I know you from somewhere.
And somebody taught me what'scalled the triangle of trust.

(11:34):
And that started changing mylife.
And the triangle of trust isjust.
Where you build relationshipswith people there where they
want to work with you on yourmerit and they want to work with
you On your credibility and yourintegrity and that felt really
good to me but unfortunately, Ihad a dark spot on that too
because I got so Achievementbased in the mortgage industry
once again that can become yourgod that can become your

(11:55):
everything And I wanted to makea million dollars so bad.
I wanted to help my mom buy ahouse so bad.
Like I wanted to never be poorever again, so bad.
But then I got there and I keptdoing it.
And then I realized, Oh, thisdoesn't really change anything.
I'm still miserable.
And we can talk about that laterif we want to, but that's my
journey.

John (12:16):
Yeah.

Erin (12:16):
Thank you.
I love that.

John (12:17):
So you know, brief question that we have on
mortgages is what questionshould we be asking our loan
officers and what are thingsthat we should be looking at
through the process, it's atough world out there, right?
And it's becoming more and morecomplicated all the time.
And so if you can just go intomaybe give us a little lesson, a
little walkthrough on, how welook at

Erin (12:40):
at that.
Well, I'm going to interruptreal quick too, for just a sec,
because I think some peopledon't understand some.
My 1st experience is a mortgage.
I was newly divorced, didn'tknow anything about it.
All of a sudden, they're like,this is the rate you're getting
and this is what's happening.
I was like, oh, and I'm supposedto sign.
I didn't understand downpayment.
I didn't understand thedifference between closing cost.
And so I feel like a lot ofpeople.

(13:02):
We'll be going through that sameprocess or have gone through
that process.
So just trying to clear up, whatare things to ask?
Like, what should you know thatit's okay for you to ask and
that you should be allowed tohave access to, if that makes
sense.

Shawn (13:15):
Absolutely.
And I think that the bigquestion is right before people
know what to do, they askthemselves, who should I do it
with?
And so they'll say, well, I knowI'm going to need a mortgage and
I know I need to buy a house,but who do I call?
then you get into your differentavenues and people always ask

(13:35):
me, they're like, how do I know?
Or what questions should I ask?
I tell people, don't work withcompanies that don't do this.
Because there's a lot of greatmortgage lenders out there, but
I think it's easier to fall thanit is to you know Get a find a
great mortgage person So andpeople get in these traps by
calling their bank just becausethey think it's their bank They

(13:57):
go online and start googling andsearching.
that's another one they will getmultiple different opinions from
people and they'll call threefour or five people and have
them all try to do the same Job,definitely don't do that.
That's outdated advice.
It's all changed with technologyin the way that mortgage
companies run You What theyshould do is they should find
first of all, I asked, ask afamily member or a friend, like

(14:20):
who did they use?
Did, and did you have a goodexperience?
Oh, you did?
Can I have that name and phonenumber?
you do want to ask how longthey've been in the business I
think is important.
You want to look at their Googlereviews.
I have 500 of them.
You can't lie Google reviews.
You can't cheat Google reviews.
So that's proof that's socialproof.
I would look for social proofwould be the second thing.

(14:41):
But a mortgage, I think like mymother, when she came to me a
couple of years ago, she's I'm,this is the first house I've
ever bought in her whole life.
And I said, I'll walk youthrough it.
I said, mom, there's an assetand that's called the house.
And let's just say that house isworth 100, 000 for round
numbers.
When you come and you want tobuy that house, you're going to
make an offer.

(15:01):
And that negotiation, you'regoing to be represented by a
buyer.
And then there's going to be arepresentation of the agent
selling the home and they'regoing to work together to make
an offer for you.
And there's going to be a point.
They're going to say, thumbs up.
You got the house that point.
Well, you and me need to do iswe have to get them the
finances, the money, the check.
So they'll give you the keys,just like an automobile.

(15:22):
And mortgages allow you to haveall that money if you're just
willing to put down like asecurity deposit Like we used to
go to kmart layaway.
She'd put all my christmas onlayaway at kmart and it's like
it's layaway You're doinglayaway with the mortgage
company and the down payment isthe is what you're starting
with.
Hey, i'll give you 500 bucks Youknow, we'll pay the other
thousand dollars back bydecember 31st same thing with a

(15:45):
mortgage So if it's 100, 000 insome cases, they'll loan you up
to 100, 000, 100 percent of it.
In most cases, you can get 97percent of it.
And in almost all cases, peoplecan at least get 5 percent down
or 95%, 95, 000, which means thedown payment would only be 5,

(16:05):
000 from you.
Now you got to remember, there'scost.
So I also think like anautomobile, there's down payment
when you buy an automobile orwhether you're going to pay cash
for it, and there's tax, title,and license.
So when I went to buy cars, mymom taught me, she's like, you
make sure you ask him plus tax,title, and license.
So because you get hit with 1,200 after that's closing cost.

(16:30):
And I tell people mortgage istwo to 3%, you know, you have
two to 3 percent accounted forsome loans, more different
scenarios, but that closingcosts has to come from either
the seller or from you in theform of cash, which means that
would be on top of your downpayment.
And that's how I beginexplaining mortgages and what I
call my mortgage for one, one,or my discovery call.

(16:52):
And because I work in picturesand then after that then we
start getting into Differentways that you can break up that
loan, most loans don't have apre payment penalty That's old
school, but still make sure youalways ask.
I think that's an importantquestion You want to ask if your
taxes and insurance are includedin the payment?
That's important when the firstpayment is due and in my

(17:13):
personal opinion and i'll put abunch of people probably on the
line that are my competitors andmy friends out there by saying
this but You Ask them if they'llguarantee their budget.
Ask them if you will guaranteethat I will not bring more than
what you put on your loanestimate or else you'll credit
the difference back to me.

Erin (17:29):
That's good.

Shawn (17:30):
And so those are just a few.
I know I kind of went over thequestion too far, but just how
my beginning explanation processgoes to people that say, Hey, I
don't know.
I'm divorced from my husband.
I don't know anything about whatI'm doing.
And we do all this on zoom, bythe way.
So I give 30 minutes to everyone of my clients.

Erin (17:48):
and it's intimidating, right?
If you've never done it before,I was grateful.
My brother was a real estateagent, so he's like, I trust
them.
This is good.
Just sign.
And it was in the middle ofCOVID.
So it was a little bit crazy.

John (17:58):
But yeah, it was wild, but no, I mean, you're right.
there's a lot to it, but yetworking with somebody that,
that, you know, Has great Googlereviews or has a lot of
experience.
You can walk you through theprocess is so helpful.
Cause I remember all I wanted toknow is, okay, I want this
house, and I want to know whatmy end payment's going to be and

(18:19):
for how long, that's all I want.
I didn't understand PMI and allthis other type of, stuff you
have to come up with, and so.
know, just guiding peoplethrough that, I think it's so
helpful that people are aware,because there are different
types of loans and stuff too,that help complicate it.

Shawn (18:35):
Yeah.
learn when you're in themortgage business one thing that
we learned in the mortgagebusiness is you can learn to
just try to do what everybodyelse is doing.
Unfortunately, that was wherethat took me off in that lonely,
dark place.
Cause I was trying to be so muchto so many people really what
you should focus on is like,what you're passionate and what
you're good at doing.
And I'm passionate about thisarea because I lived in this

(18:59):
portion of my life, but I thinkit's critically important that
also, people feel like they'rebeing educated.
And they have resources and thepeople are truly saving the
money because just getting amortgage loan is getting a
mortgage loan You can walk.
Yeah, you could probably walkinto your bank.
It probably will not be a greatexperience I can confidently say

(19:19):
that you'll probably go in yourbank and you'll get a mortgage
You'll be painful.
You'll have a lot of calls lastminute documents, probably
requests questions that are nosyAnd you know, but at the end of
the day, they might not tellyou.
Hey, wait a minute Are you sureyou want to put all this money
down right now?
You've got a 14, 000 car overhere.
That's 624 a month.
Why don't we maybe pay the caroff, get rid of 624 bucks a

(19:42):
month going into your brand newhome because 14, 000 more down
on your mortgage loan would onlylower your mortgage between
about 60 to 65 bucks a month.
Like that's the thing that thepeople, when you call online,
just walk in the bank and that'sgoing to cost you tens of
thousands of dollars.
And so it's one of those gamesright now where I feel like it's
more critically important thanever for people to have people

(20:03):
like us on their side to explainit all to them.

Erin (20:06):
that was another question before we get to the really good
stuff.
Another question is, Do I putmore money down for down
payment?
Do I try to buy the rate down?
what's going to get me the mostbenefit, right?
Cause I know I've heard

John (20:19):
that a lot too.
Yeah, this is

Shawn (20:22):
Yeah, this is, that's a really great question.
and it's applicable to thisaudience and this may be one of
the most important points ofthe, the call with us, is so the
rules of money have changed.
So the reason why our parents,grandparents, and their parents
said, Hey, get a mortgage put asmuch as you can down and pay the

(20:42):
loan off to not pay interest Butalso so the bank can't take it
from you also interest rateswere 13 to 18 at some points 21
to 22 but The reason why thiswas born and why you hear put 20
down pay the mortgage off Daveramsey says cut the term down
all that is because it's notWrong advice terrible advice.

(21:03):
It's just wrong now It's notapplicable.
Now, we don't have those rates.
And the other thing was the deedof trust was established because
I don't remember what it was.
It was the black Monday.
I think it was 19 thirties orthirties or forties.
banks came in and they calledyour note due within 30 days.
And if you had come to thiscountry and tried to get a place

(21:24):
and had a house and got a loanor worked hard your whole life
or whatever, and all of a suddena bank comes in and says, Hey,
you got 30 days to pay it off.
You can't do nothing.
You're going to lose your house.
So there, that's where the fear,the anxiety, and the PTSD came
from pay your mortgage down.
Don't pay the bank, you know,money.
The deed of trust wasestablished to protect everybody
after that, which says this iswhat has to happen to foreclose.

(21:45):
This is why squatters can stayin a house for three months.
There's rules.
So you're protected.
So I can sell the house,refinance it, you know, within
that time period.
if that ever happens.
But banks can't do it anymore.
So with interest rates comingdown and home appreciation going
up and having a steady, steady,steady track record of showing

(22:06):
what real estate values havedone since 1943, only two times
has the market decreased and oneof them was 2008.

John (22:13):
Oh

Shawn (22:15):
table around real estate.
You take rates down You putfacts that real estate is one of
the best if not the bestinvestment that you can ever
make And you take the other partand you look at the beginning
portion there, which was thefirst point I was talking about
that they can't take your houseback from you anymore So now
you're seeing the new wealthygenerations, and I'm talking

(22:36):
about, I've been doing this for24 years, so for 24 years now,
I've been seeing people changetheir mindset to say, Hey, I
don't know if I want a bunch ofstocks, a bunch of 401k, a bunch
of IRAs.
I'm gonna buy some more realestate.
I don't know if I wanna put 20%down.
I don't know if I wanna put 50or pay my house off.
I think I wanna go buy more realestate.

(22:57):
And I think that's smart becausenot only are they buying more
real estate, if you don't wantto buy more real estate, you
have a massive nest egg that youcan fall back on versus having a
paid off house.
And I think in today's time, Ithink we can all agree that the
world's getting a little scaryand I would rather have a bunch
of payments that I could makefor two, three, four, five years
sitting in a bank and feedmyself than to have a paid off

(23:17):
house and no money in the bank.
And that's what America's gottenthemselves into.
And that's why they're addictedto social security right now.
And God bless them.
And I hope our country deliversand takes care of these folks
who paid for so long.
But for you and I, we're in aPonzi scheme.
That money is gone.
It's being given out right now.
My money would have been over600, 000.

(23:41):
I'll get back 36, 000 per year,3, 000 a month.
If I invested it at 5 percentjust in bonds, I would get 95,
000 a year.
It's laughable what they'redoing with our money.
So we got to help our parentsAnd these generations that we're
in right now understand there'sa little tsunami that's
happening, but the good news isthey could still fix it.

(24:03):
They're just going to have tolisten to some of the stuff
we're going to talk about herein a minute.

Erin (24:07):
before we segwayed into it, we were just literally
having this conversation beforewe got on as Hey, we need to,
we're diversifying ourportfolio.
And I think this might be ananswer he's just given you.

John (24:19):
sure.

Erin (24:21):
So that was great.
We're getting all kinds ofthings answered today.

John (24:24):
That's awesome.

Shawn (24:25):
I don't, the word diversify has always been
interesting to me because it'slike, we had a garden growing
up.
My mom would have a two acregarden.
She would can freeze foodbecause when you're poor, it's
like, you want to try to get asmuch food as you can get
yourself.
but she always made thingshappen.
the thing is like diversify islike, well, we're not going to
plant the same exact thing everysingle year.
And so I just think it's funnywhen people are like, well, I

(24:46):
need to diversify.
Well, I'm diversifying everyday, every month, every week,
every year.
You know, it's like five yearsago, I did like putting money in
the stock market.
You know, Warren Buffett said,put money in every single month.
and just do it consistentlydollar cost average and I got
addicted to that and I did thatfor 12 years straight But now I
look back and that was a mistakeI should have taken more of that

(25:06):
bought more real estate insteadbecause it's all locked in there
in a tax situation

Erin (25:12):
There's our answer lock

John (25:14):
and

Shawn (25:14):
So the answer is that the question is sean, should you
know?
Shouldn't you just go ahead andjust take the money out?
And pay the taxes or should youleave it in there because you
don't want to do that and you'lllose appreciation.
I'm almost at the point whereI'm probably going to go and
just take a big portion of itout and I'm going to go ahead
and pay taxes on it because Ithink the gain that I would make
back on real estate and thepassive income monthly is more

(25:36):
important to me right now.

Erin (25:38):
Okay.
So you said that, but can youdumbify what you just said?

John (25:42):
Make it

Shawn (25:42):
Yeah.
So.
We all work really, really hardand we get old and then we stop
working and we hope that we geta paycheck that allows us to
live the lifestyle we want tolive.
There's two ways that's going tohappen.
One, it's going to come from thefederal government and we're
just going to live on that pluswhatever else we get.
Two, you could say that I'm justgoing to go ahead and live off

(26:03):
my own money, lump sum.
And there's two ways to do that.
Obviously just take it out ofyour bank.
You got a paid off house, yougot cash, whatever.
This is what I'm living on,right?
But the best way to do it is toget your money to make money.
So every month you get what youneed, but at the end of your
life, your whole balance isstill given to your siblings.

(26:25):
And that's what the Bible talksabout leaving generational
wealth to your siblings.
And I think that's my call onit.
And I think that a big, this isa big opportunity for all of us
in America to shift ourgenerational wealth in our
families.
there's people on this call thatare listening to this that are
probably the one like Ed Milettetalks about like they're the one
that's going to break the cycle.

(26:46):
I'm going to be the one thatwill break the cycle.
nobody else in my family like isthere that I need to help.
And, So how are we going to dothat?
I think is the question thatpeople are asking and that
letting your money make youenough money for you to live
every single month is what weneed to be focused on.

John (27:04):
I love that you're talking about this because in the
beginning of the call, we talkedabout how our families too are
getting smaller.
So there's less people tosupport the people above them,
And so if you do this and you dohave the, this residual income
coming in from properties thatyou own, you can help more
people as they face thosestruggles financially, you know,

Erin (27:27):
so

Shawn (27:28):
And it gives a lot more fulfillment to my job too,
because there's nothing, superexciting about just giving
somebody a 30 year debt.
But when I found out that Icould use this as an instrument
and a tool to like reallyimprove You know people's lives
and change the course of theirfuture Maybe family's futures
for generations to come thatreally excites me and people are

(27:49):
like, how do you what do youmean?
How do you do that?
Okay, lady got a divorce and sheis getting some money But she
wants to stay in her home withher kids because the kids go to
school in the same school zoneBut she can't afford the house
and when she talks to me and wehave a consultation You And I
say, no, I think you can affordthe house.
Yes.
The payment's going to go up toabout 3, 200, but instead of

(28:09):
putting all that, money down toget a lower payment, why don't
we go and pay off that car, thatpayment, because you got to have
a car and are you getting thecredit card balance or is he.
Well, we're each getting one.
So which one's yours?
Oh, the 20, 000.
Okay.
We'll pay that off too.
You just knocked out 1, 200 outof your budget.
Now all we've got is a 3, 200mortgage.
That feels really good.

(28:30):
I love refi's.
I like when rates go downbecause it feels so good to have
a blue collar family come to meand they're like, Sean, we've
got this card, some studentloans.
We've got two automobiles, I'mnot making money I was making,
but our house has gone up 150,000.
And I could take all that debtand put it in one nice good tax
efficient fixed interest ratepile Give them the freedom of

(28:51):
waking up and not having anydebt other than a mortgage
payment every month, And putfifteen hundred two thousand
dollars back in people's budgetslike it feels so good it's like
one of my favorite things to dobecause i'm like Man, if
somebody would have told my momthat if my mom would have had
that opportunity, likeseriously, it's not rocket
science.
It's not hard to buy a house andget in a house.

(29:12):
You just have to work a littlehard to get the credit up.
You got to make sure that we canget pieced together some job,
employment and income, but otherthan that, you can hack your way
into a home.
You can have friends, you can cosign, you can help family
members, and we can talk abouthow we can help our parents if
they need to buy a smallerplace.

Erin (29:31):
Well, let's lead right into that.
You said, let's help ourparents.
So how do we help our parents?

John (29:37):
What are

Shawn (29:37):
Yeah.
So I, what would y'all both sayis the common scenario that you
see the most, you know, with ourparents and our generation out
there?
I mean, they have a home it'sbigger than what they need,
maybe further than where theywant it to be from family,

John (29:51):
Correct.
Oh, for sure.
Yeah.

Shawn (29:54):
One person gets sick.
One is diagnosed with something.
I mean, stuff we don't want totalk about, but it happens.
And, so then, the family talksand one of the next decisions
they make is, we need to get youcloser or get you in a smaller
home or get you in a one level,right?

John (30:07):
Correct.

Shawn (30:08):
worse yet is when a spouse passes away and they're
left alone, right?
So that was my, my mom'ssituation has been the same for
a long time, but here was mymom's situation.
We got her into a home and she'staking care of it and things are
good.
And, but the maintenance isstarting to get to be a little
bit too much.
it's more than what she needs.
And, so what we're in theprocess of doing is we're

(30:28):
saying, all right, what's thenext step?
You can come and live with me.
We can try to find you a smallerplace.
The payment, you know, thefinances, all that's probably
going to be the same becausehome values have gone up and
interest rates went up.
So you're not trading a, a home,most homes for like this
drastically lower priced home,that shouldn't be really be a
big motivator.

(30:50):
But if you're in that situation.
My mom's in that situation.
There are opportunities whereyou can help that parent by
being on the loan, help themwith down payment, and you can
even help them and get into amulti family unit, two, three,
four, six unit where the otherunits are producing income
because my mom's still able tomanage a property.

(31:11):
She just can't manage the otherproperty she has and I would
help her with that And so I canexplain if you have a family
member who?
Needs a new place and needs helpeither to qualify or to produce
income.
We can talk about that if youguys want

Erin (31:25):
Oh, of course I do.
I'm like, let's dive into that.
I just think it's fascinatingbecause you are finding
yourselves.
My dad passed away.
It'll be three years thisfather's day.
And my mom did.
She moved out, moved in with mybrother.
She could financially afford it.
But it was such a change, youknow, you don't want to be
isolated, be by yourself.
So she was fortunate my brotherand I both lived here and she

(31:48):
picked him.
So I don't know if I'm hurt bythat or no.

John (31:52):
Not at all,

Shawn (31:53):
if mom's listening to just tell her, you know, she
probably Maybe there was likeher favorite restaurant was
closer by or something.

Erin (32:00):
No, I, no offense here.
She knows that, but she went andlived with my brother and his
wife at the time and was ableto, you know, eventually they
sold that home for a bigger oneand use the equity from both
homes and the profits from bothhomes.
Right.
So I'm just excited just to divein more because I really don't
know a lot about it and all themethods and the different

(32:20):
techniques.
And I know there's a lot outthere that we can help truly
help people and families becauseif you're on a fixed.
If you're by yourself, ifthere's a bunch of families
living together, how do we pullall of our resources or how do
we get creative and make thisall work where everybody's

John (32:37):
just happy.
Oh, for sure.
For sure.
And I think so many people,many, many years ago, you know,
their home was their biggestinvestment.
They threw everything into thehome and then all of a sudden
they get older, things arestarting to break down.
It costs a lot of money tocontinue to maintain that the
kids have moved out, but theyhave so many stories and
everything tied to this.

(32:58):
Now, they just moved maybe to asmaller place and they bought,
An investment property, a threeplex, a duplex, you know, or
something like that, and thenthey rented out those units and
manage those, then when did theydo get to a position where, say,
they need to move into anindependent living or an
assisted living or somethinglike that, they have all this

(33:19):
residual income that's going tobe coming in to help supplement.
the costs of maintaining theirlives, as they get older.
And then eventually if they passaway, those properties are
handed down to other familymembers that can continue to
reap the benefits

Erin (33:37):
of those properties.
So

John (33:39):
does that sound correct?
Are we on the right track?

Shawn (33:41):
no, no, absolutely, absolutely you are.
You know, to know where we'vegotten, we have to know where
we've come and you go back andyou look at what we're taught.
I don't know what you weretaught, but most of the people
listening to this probably,we're the same, go to high
school, get a great job, workfor 30 years, give money to
social security and 401k, if youdo those two things.

(34:02):
And when you, after 30 years,you're about to retire it
comfortably.
And I was just like, oh, cool.
That's the path I'm on.
That was my blueprint.
I was like, I'll do that.
And that's what America is stilldoing.
And what we don't realize islike, that's not cutting the
cheese.
It's not going to get the jobdone because you're not meant to
live your meager years in, inyour golden years, you're meant

(34:23):
to live your most abundantlifestyle.
Like we were traveling last weekand I told my wife, I was like,
we're going to do this whenwe're older.
Right.
And she's like, oh yeah, shesays we'll be doing it even
more.
We'll probably never be home.
And I was like, good, And.
I see so many people thatespecially I have so many
scenarios I can remember likewhen my client said I just think
I'm like it's a shame thisperson busted their tail for 30

(34:45):
years and they did what theywere told to do but it was bad
advice or it was good advice atthe time but it wasn't updated
and they didn't have a trustedperson to like you know say hey
you might want to think aboutchanging this up because the
rules of money have changed andthe government's changed and
taxes have changed and there's alot there.

(35:06):
So I think like real estateright now, like here's one of
the scenarios I just recentlyhad.
we actually had two families.
And they came to me and theysaid, Hey, we want to sell their
properties and we want to moveinto one property.
We'll even sell our property.
And they wanted to find oneproperty that they could all
move into.
And then they want to build anaccessory, uh, dwelling home on

(35:29):
the property.
I live in Tennessee, Nashville,Tennessee.
So outside of town, you can getacreage and land and stuff
still.
And, so they're like, we don'tknow how to do that.
That's how they came to me.
And I said, okay, well, we needto think about this
logistically.
What is family A's healthcondition?
What's family B's healthcondition?
What's your situation?

(35:49):
Okay, well, we don't need themto sell their houses and have to
move into yours.
Why don't we sell yours first?
You go stay with one of theparents or in laws.
You got two kids.
You said, it doesn't matter.
You could do that.
Then you sell the other twohouses after you find your new
property.
So you have to first, numberone, make sure that, everybody

(36:11):
is very clear and on the samepage of what the family dynamic
is.
Because when you start callingmortgage lenders and realtors
and getting advice and stuff,they're going to ask you at
least the good ones let's sayokay.
So when's this happening?
When's this happening?
It's all a logistical timelineso the most common one I really
think is just hey, I need to getinto a different place But I'm

(36:32):
on social security income.
I don't even know if that's likemy mother makes a very low
amount of social securityincome.
The rest of it, she works cashjobs and she works, she has her
own business, so we can't go bytax returns, but there's the
most of it is, Hey, I know Ineed to go do something.
I just can't, I can't qualifyfor the loan or I don't have the

(36:52):
money down.
And so what can happen right nowis there's a loan that's called
family opportunities loan.
where you can not only just cosign for a family member.
So I co signed for my mother,helped her with the income to
qualify.
And I also helped her with the3.
5 percent down payment, right?

(37:14):
And so I'm on the loan and we'reboth on the title.
And I can either stay on thereor we'll refinance it later and
just put it in her name, but Iwould like to keep it in my name
because something happens toher.
Then we both have legal rightsto it and ownership.
And she's already told me whatshe wants me to do it with my
sister and all that.
So that's really, really thebiggest issue I see right now.

(37:35):
And it's very easy.
And the family opportunitiesloan that just came out a while
back is even better.
Because now you could put 3percent down, get a conventional
mortgage loan.
And my mother wouldn't have evenhad to be on that mortgage.
why would I not want my motheron the mortgage?
Well, if my credit score isseven 50 and hers was six 50,

(37:55):
the interest rates can be a lothigher if she's on that loan.
But if it's seven 50, I can getthat interest rate down probably
1 percent lower as a primaryresidence, even though she's not
on the loan and you only have toput 3 percent down.
So on a 300, 000 home, you'relooking at 9, 000 on a 500, 000
home, 15, 000, very affordablefor a family to rally around and

(38:15):
say, Hey, let's sell mom's placeor let's sell dad's place.
Let's get them moved here andlet's get them a place right
down the road.
This actually spawned from the1980.
And came out with the kiddiecondo loan is what they called
it, which was the FHA nonoccupying co borrower.
And they called it a kiddiecondo because they were like,
hey, my kid's going to collegeand I think rent is stupid.

(38:37):
We should buy them a house or acondo.
I'll co sign and they can rentout the other rooms.
And so FHA started allowing aparent to co sign for a child to
go to college and so they couldbuy a house and have real estate
to spawn home buying, becauseit's such a big part of the GDP.
So this is spawned off from thatyears later.

Erin (38:57):
Do you have to be a first time home buyer to only put that
3 percent down or is that partof that program?

Shawn (39:04):
It's part of that program, family opportunities
loan.
And the other great part aboutit is if I was to buy that as an
investment property, theinterest rate would be one to 2
percent higher.
And I'd have to put 20 percentdown.
why is that important?
First of all, my family may nothave 20 percent down or you
might have somebody like me thatdon't believe in putting 20
percent down Because I want toleverage, you know, I want to

(39:25):
acquire the asset withoutputting the money down but the
other thing that I want to do isI don't want to put 20 percent
down and I don't want the higherinterest rate because that
affects it If my mom's trying tohelp make the payment or we're
trying to offset it with passiveincome,

Erin (39:40):
Is it a smart thing to put 20 percent down or do you feel
like putting the minimum down isbest

John (39:47):
or does your situation depend?

Shawn (39:49):
is it has to be on your situation Like if you had if you
were 70 70 years old sellingyour place couldn't qualify So
your daughter co signed, but youhad a million bucks in the bank
I would probably say, yeah, put20 percent down, keep it rest,
but most people don't.
So if your family's Hey, she'sgoing to sell her house and

(40:10):
total, she's got 300, 000 cashto her name.
No, do not put 20 percent down.
just go ahead and the minimumdown.
And when interest rates drop andthe values have gone up
refinance, and you'll probablybe at 80 percent or below at
that time anyway.

John (40:26):
That's smart.

Shawn (40:27):
or my mom, my mom, her interest rate was so low.
on the low down payment loan,it's at 3.
6, 2, 5 percent when rates werelower.
Well, it has PMI, but I'm noteven going to touch it because
even if I got a loan withoutPMI, it'd have to be like a four
and a half.

Erin (40:43):
That's so crazy.
I've heard it so much.
I know my mind is spinning andit's like, I know I'm supposed
to be asking you questions, butmy mind's over here thinking,
Oh, this could work here.
And what about this?
And what about

John (40:52):
that?
And I just go off of my own

Shawn (40:54):
I'm just thinking about, I'm thinking about my client
scenarios.
Cause that's the easiest thing,otherwise I'll bore you guys
with all the like bullet points.
And so by the client stories,give me and you a visual.
so the people that are like,hey, I want to help my mom or
dad get into a place Get themover here.
I'll pay the down payment.
I'll do the co signing whateverSometimes people run into an
issue there, too Hey, I want tohelp my mom, but and I got the

(41:17):
income, but I don't have theassets I don't have the down
payment and she doesn't eitherright well a couple of options
one You could go and do a homeequity line of credit on the
house you own and that you livein And now most people are like
we put a second mortgage on myhouse like that's taboo You I
remember, I'll digress with myADD.

(41:37):
I'll go off on a rabbit trail,but, you go ahead and you can
use a second mortgage and ahomemaker line of credit and
hear me out on this.
What's great about it is youonly pay interest on the money
that you pull out.
it allows you to acquire the newpiece of real estate without
straining yourself.
Literally you'll have no moneyout of pocket because you have a
loan.
The down payments come from yourline of credit.

(41:57):
So you acquired an asset, ahouse price value, say 350, 000
with nothing out of your pocketthat you get.
Yes.
You got a second mortgage onyour home, but we'll either pay
that off.
With cash flow, or if werefinance the loan, we'll
include that balance and getthat paid off when we refinance

(42:18):
the loan.
But the point being is don't letyou not having 3 percent down in
cash, keep you from getting yourfamily into a property because I
think those properties are goingto be worth 10 to 20 percent
more in the next 12 to 24months.

Erin (42:31):
Well, I think that's really important for our
listeners.
If you're wanting to dosomething, find a loan officer,
someone that can get creativewith you and go, this is my
situation.
This is what I'm looking to

John (42:43):
do.
What could we possibly do?
Like, I'm just calling Sean.

Shawn (42:47):
Yeah.
I used, to say this is the pointwhere I would always used to say
I'd be like, yeah, find you agreat license.
But no, you know what?
I'm licensed in all 50 states.
Like you'd be crazy not to callme.
I will help out.
I will personally help you.
You won't deal with somebodythat I dish you off to and I
don't charge anything to do it.
And it'd be an honor to helpsomebody who might be headed

(43:07):
towards a disaster to say, Hey,give this a perspective.
And if I end up doing a mortgageloan for it, great.
But I ended up going through alot of those scenarios with
people.
There's a link in my Instagrambio and on the cap 1926, where
they can book a 15 minute call.
But lots of times I'll talk topeople and we save the money,
but we're not doing a loan oranything.
It's just free advice.

(43:29):
I just had one two hours ago.
His mother got, I'm diagnosedwith cancer, unfortunately,
recently, and Josh called me, Iwas pumping gas actually.
And the question was, Oh, socialsecurity income, is it, can you
use it to qualify and is itenough to qualify?
And I said, yeah.
And I said, actually you can,gross it up 120 percent because
it's non taxable.
He goes, really?

(43:50):
He goes, I didn't think she wasgoing to have enough to qualify,
but if we can gross it up 120%,then that definitely gives us
what we need probably for her toqualify.
So even those little types ofthings.

Erin (44:00):
what are the other types of income that people may not
know that they can use?
Social security being one,

John (44:06):
a disability, maybe.
that someone's on

Shawn (44:09):
disability, alimony, child support.
I mean, at some ages, you're notgoing to have that.
another good little thing, apension.
another thing that trust is youcan go and create a small little
trust.
So this is where you get supercreative and I don't want to get
too far ahead above people'sheads.
But let's say here's thescenario, uh, sold the house,

(44:31):
made 500, 000.
I've had ones that have mademillions on their house in
California and they'll call meand they want to buy a house in
Tennessee to be near thegrandkids.
This is huge.
This may be the biggest, likeprobably bigger, bigger issue
scenario for some families.
made a lot of money, got a lotof liquidity, but they have no
income to prove and they want tocome out here and they don't

(44:53):
want to live in a little condoor smart like they want to buy
the farm for the grandkids.
You take the 500.
So in mortgage world, they getdenied over and over and over.
And now I'm teaching mycompetition.
If they watch this, you shouldtell mortgage lenders to watch
this.
But what I learned years ago isI could take that 500, 000 and I
can team up with a trustattorney here in town.
We take the 500, 000, let's say360, 000 for math purposes, I

(45:18):
take 360, 000 and I partner myclient up with the trust
attorney.
The trust attorney drafts up atrust for 360, 000.
That trust gives off 10, 000 permonth.
Mortgage industry says as longas the trust is going to
function for at least 36 months,then you can use that monthly
income after we prove with thefirst deposit.

(45:40):
So I set the trust up, they getthat first deposit.
We use that on the applicationto qualify after they're in the
house It's if they want to godown and call the attorney and
dissolve the trust they can dowhatever they want

John (45:53):
Wow.

Shawn (45:54):
So that's a great way to qualify for if somebody's hey, I
have no monthly income, but Igot a bunch of cash

Erin (46:01):
Yeah.

John (46:02):
So I got a question.
what if you have somebody thathas a small amount of cash, say
50, 000 or something like that?
Maybe they have a car paymentand they're looking, but
they're, they're older, right?
Maybe they're in their fifties,sixties or whatever.
Is it still a good thing topurchase a house and say, they
don't have a whole bunch ininvestments and other stuff.

(46:24):
I mean, they're getting up therein age.

Shawn (46:26):
Yeah,

John (46:27):
so it's like, when do you say, okay, when is the line?
Like, eh, maybe I shouldn't buya house.

Shawn (46:33):
that's a controversial question and I only know one way
which is to be honest, which isno I don't think that And in a
lot of cases they should gorent.
if my wife passed inunexpectedly and I'd lived away
from my grandkids and I waslike, you know what?
I had the farm, like I've doneall that.

(46:53):
that's where I'm at right now.
Yeah, I could go buy a condotownhome or something But if I
had a couple million bucks inthe bank or even if I didn't and
I'm 68 69 70 72 I'm probablyjust gonna find a really nice
place to rent really close tothe grandkids and just pay that
You know because you're lookingat three thousand four thousand

(47:14):
dollars a month in rent.
You're looking at 36 to 48thousand dollars a year and have
no other maintenance cost andeverything I mean that goes a
long ways when you have a familyor maybe another scenario is
this people aren't near familiesThey're out on an isolated
island, and even if it's just acondo or townhome They're not
ready if they could take on thatresponsibility.

(47:34):
I'm alone.
I don't know who to trust.
I'm just gonna go rent a placeSo I do think that especially if
you're like, hey, I don't haveanybody to leave anything to
Renting might be a good choicefor you.
I don't know if we were going totouch on it But you know the
other option too And what we'rerecently looking into with my
mother's, you know, and it getsa lot of bad press because it

(47:55):
wasn't explained correctly andpeople were put into it when
they didn't understand it, butis a reverse mortgage.
And I'm here to tell y'all, itcan be a great tool for people
used in the right circumstances.
It can be a terrible tool usedin the wrong ones.

John (48:11):
What makes it go one way or the other?

Shawn (48:14):
a reverse mortgage, you know, if you don't have an end
result goal in mind and you makea decision on a reverse mortgage
then you're at risk of sayingyou know What I didn't know that
my family member was gonna haveto refinance or pay this balance
in full to get my house back butif I know very clearly up front,
here's my scenario.
I don't mind sharing and beingtransparent I know my mom

(48:34):
doesn't my mom has a really lowmortgage payment right now It's
only 976 dollars because she hasa three point something percent
interest rate on it So for herto go anywhere right now is
going to be a payment increase.
She's like, I think I need it.
And I'm like, mom, the onlything we could do is get you a
four unit.
I could co sign for you on it,just like we were talking about

(48:56):
earlier, but you have to put 5percent down and we would, you
could rent out the other threeunits.
Or my sister could live in oneand you could rent out the other
two units.
You guys could help each otherand take care of the property
and hopefully get it to cashflowneutral zero.
We could keep this property at900 and something dollars and
rent it out and maybe make athousand dollars a month on it,

(49:17):
which would help you with yourpayment over here.
or you can stay in your homemom.
You don't have to leave.
We'll put you on a reversemortgage You're not going to
have any mortgage payment andyou're going to get a check for
70 bucks a month goes.
Well, I thought a reversemortgage you were supposed to
get Enough back to live on andeverything.
I said you are we're reducingyour mortgage payment by a

(49:38):
thousand dollars And I know veryclearly that once something
happens to my mother or at theend of 30 years That I'll have
to choose to put my own mortgageloan on that house or give it to
the bank if they want it On areverse mortgage and i'm fine
with that because it's a greattool for us right now

Erin (49:56):
When you have a multi property investment or a home
that you're in, and you saidbreak even, what's the average?
of years to get

John (50:06):
to that point.
Is it like three to five yearslonger?

Shawn (50:10):
well for breakeven the mate what I was using that term
for was like if the paymentexpenses of that four unit is 7,
000 a month.
Well, I need to make sure thatmy mother is at least generating
7, 000 a month on the otherthree units So we have no
mortgage payment.
Or, if we're making positiveincome on other real estate, or

(50:31):
that other house that we don'twant to sell, we could take that
1, 000 off it, now she has tobring home 6, 000.

Erin (50:38):
Perfect.
Gosh, there's so many differentscenarios

John (50:42):
that you can run and do.
It's just crazy.
Yeah.
I love the way you'resimplifying this too.
And you're sharing storiesabout, because it makes it so
much easier for people.
I mean, Aaron has, a little bitof time in the mortgage world,
so she has a betterunderstanding, but somebody like
me, I don't have any.
And so the way you're sharing itand putting out these different

(51:02):
scenarios with different peopleis just amazing.
So thank you.

Shawn (51:07):
Well, thanks, you know, it's just it's been put in my
lap.
I've been trusted with it.
I've experienced it and You knowcan't say i've always given the
best advice and I can't alwayssay it's always worked out for
people There's a lot ofheartbreaking scenarios going on
right now, people don't want toleave their homes They kind of
have to to get money becausethey know there's tons of equity
and this is the mistake We madeby paying off our properties

(51:30):
I've had very painfulconversations with people where
I'm like, you cannot qualify,you have to sell the house.
Like you, your, my advice wouldbe to sell the house.
And they're like, we don't wantto, all our kids grew up here.
And, it's so sad because if theywould have had a 500, 000
mortgage, half a mortgage on theproperty or something, they
could have had that invested inan IRA or in a, an account that

(51:50):
was throwing off income everymonth to help with that 500, 000
payment.
And if they would have done it acouple of years ago or 10 years
ago, the rate would have been somuch lower.
And they'd be living a greatlife and not have to leave the,
you know, and that's happening alot.
Or, Hey, I want to stop working,but I can't stop working.
why can't you stop working?
my husband died 10 years ago andwe paid the house off.

(52:12):
So I haven't had a mortgagepayment, but I just kept working
and all I got was my 401k in thehouse.
And it's like, no, you shouldnot have paid off the house.
When he passed away, you shouldhave gotten with a great
financial advisor and put it ina very safe place that would
just earn you some very simpleinterest, conservative interest.

Erin (52:28):
So if I am 65, 70 years old, Is it safe for me or not
safe?
Or just depends if I'm like,okay, I want to go buy a couple
of four plexes because I'm in aposition to do it.
Is that advisable to do it?
If you're able to do it, tobring

John (52:45):
in that extra income?
Or at least today on today'sdevice?

Shawn (52:49):
I think so, but I can only say that by saying only if
you called me and I know thatsounds weird, but I can only say
that I know it's a good idea ifyou call me because I can tell
you very clearly after 10, 000mortgage loans that yes or no,
this fits with what you've gothere, what you're trying to do.
If you go call other people,you're at a very, very high risk

(53:09):
of them not asking all theappropriate questions.
Because we live in a societywhere everybody wants to sell,
talk, say, quote, and then notbe held responsible for it.
And I won't do that.
Most of all, that's calledintegrity, which most of the
world seems to have lost rightnow.
But that's the most valuablething to me that I can't go back
and get.

(53:30):
And so, long answer to thatquestion, sorry, is yes, I think
it's a great idea, but only ifyou call me.

Erin (53:37):
I would agree with that.
I was in the mortgage world onlya short time and I found you out
of desperation to find someoneto teach me based off of my
situation and you were, DaveSavage had this thing and a
bunch of you were there and Iwas like, Oh my gosh, he
explains it.
He holds class so you canunderstand stuff.
And I really, truly, that's howI started learning.
I was like, gosh, I wish he wascloser so I could be honest.

(53:59):
team and learn because Johnliterally would be like, why are
you up?
Why are you crying?
Why are

John (54:03):
you coming home frustrated?
Like it wasn't supposed to bethis hard No, I saw somebody
that I've never seen somebodyput their heart and their
passion into something for solong.
And then like she said, itcreated so much stress, so much
sadness, so much disappointment,and that was hard to

Erin (54:21):
watch.
It was hard to watch yourpartner go through that.
So my whole point to that isplease go follow Sean Kaplan on
all his sites everywhere.
Absorb it, soak it in.
He said he can do all 50

John (54:34):
states, definitely.

Erin (54:37):
hit the man up.

John (54:38):
Plus it's got a cool hat when I figure out how I can

Erin (54:40):
a cool hat

John (54:41):
that.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Shawn (54:43):
one.

John (54:44):
That'd be

Erin (54:44):
thank you.
So another question

John (54:48):
I do have, what is the one question you wish people would
ask you?

Shawn (54:52):
If you were in my scenario, what would you do?

Erin (54:55):
Ooh,

Shawn (54:56):
I think that's the best question because it allows me to
start gaining insight into whatthey're doing, which once I have
insight into what they're doing,I'm very confident that I can
earn their trust and show themmy value.
And it's lights out after that.
Because once people understandthat, Hey, you have my best
interest.
And you've proven to me that youknow what you're talking about.

(55:20):
And for me, I tell people, don'ttake my word for it.
you can't lie 500 Googlereviews.
You can't lie 24 years in thebusiness and you can't lie being
a top 1 percent lender in thenation by doing bad business.
And so when people ask thatquestion to me, it allows me
that opportunity.
And really that's all that Ineed, but in a society where

(55:41):
we're, technology driven,getting on websites, you know,
trust seem to just ask anybodyfor any opinions.
There's just a lot of noise outthere.
And that's how people getthemselves in such difficult
situations.
So yeah, if you were in my

Erin (55:54):
Yeah,

Shawn (55:55):
you do?
Would be the question?

Erin (55:56):
that's great.
That was a good one.
Oh, yeah.
So there are some mortgage mythsout there.
A couple of them that I justkind of came to mind for me was
when we've touched about it is a20 percent is required

John (56:09):
for me to purchase a home.
Not true.
Correct.

Shawn (56:13):
Not true.
You do not need 20 percent down.
You don't need 10 percent downand you don't even need 5
percent down in most cases, butyou can get loans as zero as
easy as zero to 5 percent downin almost all cases right now.

Erin (56:27):
And then the other one, if I have

John (56:29):
bad credit, I possibly can't purchase a home.
There's no way.

Shawn (56:34):
That's not true.
You can get a loan actually downto a 500 credit score with as
little as 10 percent down.
You can also get a mortgage loanif you've been in a chapter 13.
And now I know most people mightsay, oh my gosh, that's crazy.
But life happens to some people,like really fast and really bad.
And if they prove that they madetheir chapter 13 payments, at

(56:55):
least the last 12 payments ontime, and you have at least a
500 credit score, You can get amortgage loan.

John (57:01):
Wow.
USDA is only for farmers.

Shawn (57:05):
Not true.
USDA is only for people who wantto live in the county.
So you have to be located inmost places are county limits.
There's a census track that USDAputs out and they incentivize
you to want to live out in thecountry by offering a 100
percent mortgage loan USDA isjust like the beef people, but
they're loaning money.

(57:26):
Just like the veteransadministration FHA.
Well, they don't loan the money.
They insure it.
100 percent loan and you don'tneed to be a farmer.

John (57:34):
FHA is only for poor people.

Shawn (57:37):
I think FHA is for smart people because I use three of
them.
And the reason why, because whenI was, had no money and I only
could scrape together three anda half percent down, I realized
that property was going to go upin value, whether I put three
and a half percent down orwhether I put 10 percent down.
And so FHA, I believe is forfirst time home buyers.

(57:59):
FHA is for somebody that, wantsto put less money down.
And FHA is for people that mayget a better interest rate
because their credit score is alittle bit lower versus
conventional.
But other than that, FHA is nota bad loan.
It allows you to qualifyactually for higher loan,
purchase prices, loan amountssometimes.

(58:19):
But you want to try to goconventional if you can, because
that's the standard loan thatpeople, you know, hear most
about

Erin (58:26):
Ooh, those are all good answers too.
Oh, I love it.

John (58:30):
Awesome.

Erin (58:31):
Is there anything that maybe you feel our listeners
should know that, you know,again, we're not the experts you
are.
Is there something that we

John (58:39):
missed or you feel like, Hey, this is very vital that you
guys should know.

Shawn (58:44):
the only other thing I would say is be very cautious
right now of any sort ofrefinance activity, any sort of,
people recommending it to youbecause most people have a very
low interest rate.
And you.
At most cases, you want to tryto retain that.
So I do not want to sell mymother's house because that rate
is so low that I can rent thathouse out.

(59:05):
I'll never get that rate everagain.
And a lot of people, when theserates start moving down a little
bit, they're going to try toconvince people.
They're going to send you verytricky stuff.
They're going to mail it to you.
And I see a lot of people gettaken advantage of.
And they'll come to me later andI'll see they refinance two
times in two years.
That's not a good idea.
But what is a good option?

(59:25):
What we didn't talk about andI'll leave you with is sometimes
you could just get a line ofcredit on your house if you want
to stay in it.
And if there's things you wantto pay off that have high
payments like a car, some creditcard debt that'll help you out
with your burden, that line ofcredit payment is way, way
lower.
And it'll save you on youroutgoing expenses.
So say my mother wanted to stayin her house, she could pay off

(59:46):
her car with the line of credit.
She could do the few repairsthat are needed to the roof and
the, the gutters and now heroverall expenses are lower than
they were before she did theline of credit.
That makes sense.

John (59:58):
That's

Shawn (59:58):
So

John (59:59):
sure.

Shawn (01:00:00):
the key is I'll just leave everybody with this.
I'll say, ask questions, askquestions of yourself, ask
questions of trustedprofessionals, ask people who
you should trust, but most ofall, ask your family members,
your mother, your father, youraging relatives, the important
questions.
If you're listening to this,because when you ask them the

(01:00:21):
important questions, then youcan prepare, but I'm finding
most people aren't even havingthe discussions.

Erin (01:00:26):
I think one of the important things is, too, is not
to be embarrassed.
You can't help them if they'renot completely honest with you.
And knowing that you're theirtrusted advisor and your best
interest is just to help them.
So please.
Don't feel like you're the onlyperson in the world that's gone
through this.
There's hundreds of us, if notthousands of us that have been

(01:00:50):
in some sort of situation and wefeel awful about it or guilty
about it and don't.
I know I would not judge you.
John would not and I'm for surecertain Sean would not either.
So please don't not get help.
Because you're embarrassed.
All right.

John (01:01:06):
So thank you for all

Erin (01:01:07):
amazing information.
Now to my favorite question.
you want to ask it?

John (01:01:11):
No, you go ahead.

Erin (01:01:12):
Let's do it.
We have a fight sometimes aboutthis one What is your favorite
place or what is on youradventure list that you'd like
to go where you have been to?

Shawn (01:01:23):
Okay, I have to 1 of and I just recently accomplished the
2nd 1.
So now I guess I have to come upwith a 3rd 1.
My 1st 1 was Israel.
I wanted to go to Israel.
I want to go to the Middle East.
I want my brother in law livesover there and I was able to go
in 2009.
I've been 5 times since.
and I love it down there.
Got to go to the Dead Sea.

(01:01:44):
that was cool too.
And then, recently, I wanted togo, and I wanted to go to,
eight, the eight islands down inthe Caribbean.
But primarily, I wanted to go toSt.
Lucia and Tortola.
And I wanted to go to that beachwhere you see the airplanes come
in, Maho Beach.
And so we just got back lastweek.
I took my two girls, my wife ona 12 day trip, and we went to

(01:02:07):
eight islands.
we went to Maho beach and got tosee a seven 47 come in Delta.
Right above my head and I gotvideo of it and that was really
cool But I guess now I want tojust keep it a little bit more
basic.
I haven't I haven't been tohawaii and I haven't been out
west to like montana and big skyand stuff So I think that's what
I want to do next in an rv

Erin (01:02:28):
Nice.
We've talked about that at onepoint too, it's do we just sell

John (01:02:32):
the house and get a little van and just drive around?
Just roll.
podcast in it.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Shawn (01:02:37):
That's a whole nother podcast that we can do.
We lived in our RV, about 18months ago for six months
because we built our dream homeand I don't recommend it a 30
days is nice and cute.
After 30 days, I wouldn't go anyfurther.

Erin (01:02:50):
Strangle each other.
Well,

John (01:02:53):
thank you so much for, uh, being on our show today.
I've learned a ton.
I'm excited because I know whenwe

Erin (01:03:00):
off, it's going to spark so many conversations just with
the two of us.
So, yeah.
And it was a pleasure.
Like I said, it was just acomplete dream and to have you
here because I know where yourheart is and how much you
really, truly care about us.

John (01:03:14):
value what

Shawn (01:03:14):
Um,

John (01:03:15):
to help people.
So thank you so much for yourtime today.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
Thank you

Shawn (01:03:20):
all for your time.
I'm honored.
I'm very honored to be here.
Thank you for having

John (01:03:24):
Yeah, Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Connect
Empower.
We want to express our gratitudeto you for being part of our
community, and we hope today'sepisode has provided you with
valuable insights andinspiration to enhance your life
and that of a loved one.

Erin (01:03:40):
We are more than just a podcast.
We are a community dedicated toenhancing the lives of our aging
adults and their support system.
We encourage you to visit ourwebsite now at www.
connect empower.
com.
Explore more information aboutour guests from today's episode
and to access our freeresources.

John (01:04:01):
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We invite you to take action nowby sharing the knowledge you've
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Erin (01:04:16):
Remember, Subscribing to our podcast ensures you never
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So hit that subscribe button andstay connected with us.
Your commitment is the drivingforce behind our mission and
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John (01:04:36):
I'm John.

Erin (01:04:37):
I'm Erin.
Until next Wednesday.