February 7, 2025 • 31 mins
Can you imagine a booming real estate market where inventory is decreasing, yet buyers are more eager than ever to secure their dream home? That's exactly what's happening in the vibrant Las Vegas real estate scene, and we're here to guide you through these exciting changes. Join us, Trish Williams and Courtney Boehm, as we unpack the latest market trends, including the notable fluctuation in interest rates and the record-breaking median home prices of $485,000 in Southern Nevada. We explore the benefits of FHA loans for first-time buyers, highlighting their unique advantages in today's competitive market. Plus, gain insights into why setting clear goals is crucial for personal growth and wealth building, and learn how to navigate the sometimes uncomfortable journey of real estate investment.
With practical advice on credit building and financial preparation, we're here to help you move from your starter home to your ultimate dream home. Discover how establishing credit lines and maintaining a healthy credit score can be key factors in securing a home purchase. We'll share stories of young homeowners who built substantial equity over time, illustrating the stability and wealth potential of real estate ownership. Our discussion also touches on the importance of maintaining a financial cushion for unexpected expenses, and how the Las Vegas market remains a hot spot for savvy investors. Trust us to provide the insights you need to thrive in this ever-evolving real estate landscape.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Vegas Realty.
Check your go-to podcast forall things Las Vegas real estate
.
Whether you're buying, sellingor investing, we bring you the
latest market trends, insidertips and expert insights to
navigate the ever-changing LasVegas realty landscape.
Tune in each week as we breakdown the data, answer your
questions and help you make thebest real estate decisions in
(00:20):
the entertainment capital of theworld decisions in the
entertainment capital of theworld.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, las Vegas, thanks for joining us back here
at Vegas Realty Check.
I am Trish Williams and I'mCourtney Boehm, your co-host.
Yes, and we are here to bringyou the news.
Today, we're going to betalking about market stats and
buyer goals goals forhomeownership so it's going to
be a great show.
Hope you stay tuned in andlet's get started with our
(00:48):
market numbers for the week.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yes, so right now single family homes on the
market are 5,032, which is down95 from last week.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
We see that inventory is going away, guys, it's
moving down, so that's good.
Um, condos and townhouses,those are down huge, 554 at
1,283 for the week.
So are they being bought up orI?
They must be being bought up,but that is a huge jump.
I had to like double check thatnumber Cause I was like this
(01:20):
doesn't even seem right.
So, um, those are, those aredown quite a bit.
That is a huge jump, yeah.
And then we are at ourseven-day stats.
New listings are at 936.
Which?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
is 46 more than last week, so not a crazy number, but
we're definitely seeing alittle bit more listings come on
market, especially getting intothe new year.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
yeah, price decreases .
Those are hovering around thesame number, but it is a big
number.
So 791, that's up six from lastweek.
So sellers are um and this is aword to you guys, for sellers,
like our numbers are showingmovement.
Now, if your home is not moving, look at the price.
It's price or condition.
There's no other, no otherexplanation, just price too high
(02:04):
.
Yeah, it's either or condition.
There's no other explanation,just price too high.
Yeah, it's either.
Price too high, it's notshowing.
Well, definitely this is thetime in the market to look at
those price reductions to makesure that you get your home sold
.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Absolutely, and we have 606 sold this week, which
is up 86 from last week.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
That's a good sold number so.
So yes, those numbers arelooking good.
And 819 in contract.
It's down 10 from last week butthat's a really good in
contract number.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I wonder how many of those solds were people from
California.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, yeah.
We are hoping we're going tostart seeing some Californians
move out here to Vegas, whichthey've been doing, but we're
expecting that that's going toraise over the coming months.
Absolutely.
Where are we at with rates thisweek?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
So yesterday actually we were finally under seven,
which we haven't been underseven since December 17th on a
30-year conventional.
So it did come down a littlebit and then about an hour ago
we saw a little uptick.
It went right back to seven.
So you know, the market isdefinitely holding steady and,
(03:13):
um, we're sitting right at abouta 6.4 on an fha va on our
national average.
So I do think we're going to beright around a seven percent.
I don't think we're going tosee too much movement either way
February, but I think once wehit March when the feds meet, I
do think that's going to comedown.
So we're at a 7%, about a 6.4%for an FHA VA, but it was good
(03:37):
to see it come down and then itcame right back up just a tad
bit today.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, yeah, 6.4 is looking good though, so those
FHA and VA loans are looking alittle bit better, and we have
some news for the week Las Vegassells.
In January broke records.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yes, so there was an article in the Las Vegas Review
Journal that home prices in LasVegas broke records in January.
The median price of houses soldin Southern Nevada was $485,000
, which is the highest everrecorded since May of 2022.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yes, and that's a 9% increase from last year.
So that is huge.
That is huge.
We are definitely holdingsteady in our market.
The talk of a crash, I don'tthink is even in conversation
anymore.
We are definitely holdingsteady in our market.
The talk of a crash, I don'tthink is even in conversation
anymore.
We are definitely holding verywell in our market right now.
So things are looking good, atleast for next few years.
(04:34):
I think you have a loan programto highlight today, yeah, so
today we're going to talk aboutthe FHA loan.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
This is one of our most popular traditional loans.
Okay, the other loans that wetypically see the most going
through the standard banks aregoing to be your conventional,
your VA and then your FHA.
So an FHA loan is through theFederal Housing Administration
and this loan is really going tobe geared towards not always,
but typically your first-timehomebuyers and then also people
(05:06):
sometimes that have a little bitlower credit scores, um higher
debt to income ratios now I'veheard some people say fha.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
They think it stands for first time home buyer no,
but it does not, but not always.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
when you're looking at fha, usually we're looking at
debt to income credit scores.
Typically, if we're looking atconventional side, it's going to
be someone who has lower debtto income.
They have usually a prettydecent or higher credit score
when the rates are high.
We typically will look at bothjust to kind of see what's going
to be best.
However, an FHA loan can onlybe used for a primary residence.
(05:45):
Okay, so it can be up to fourunits, but one of them has to be
occupied by the actual borrower.
Okay, so you can buy a four,four units, but one of them has
to be occupied by the actualborrower.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Okay, so you can buy a fourplex with an FHA loan?
Absolutely yeah, that's a greatoption.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
And we'll use a look at rental income and things like
that to also qualify the loan.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Okay, so that's kind of nice.
That's a good option for peopleand what would you say is the
biggest downfall of FHA?
Because the rates are better,it's primary, it has to be owner
occupied.
But what would be the biggestsetback that people have with an
FHA loan?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
So there is going to be mortgage insurance that is
included in the actual loan.
Okay, so you're going to havemortgage insurance that's due at
closing, whether it's rolledinto the loan or paid up front
with cash, it has to be one orthe other.
But there is a premium up frontand then it's also built into
the loan.
Okay, so with that, on an FHAloan, you typically can put down
(06:42):
3.5%, which is great to getyour foot in the door to a home,
especially for a new homeowneror maybe someone that doesn't
have a ton of money saved.
Yeah, that's a great benefit.
But with that does comemortgage insurance that is
rolled into the payment, and sowe have to look, of course, at
affordability.
Now, if you put three and ahalf percent down only, you're
always going to have thatmortgage insurance built into
(07:03):
the loan.
It will not go away.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Okay, so what is the percentage that you can put down
on an FHA loan to not havemortgage insurance, or is that
existing?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
So, on an FHA loan very different than a standard
conventional loan, which I willget into next week we can do the
conventional.
But on an FHA loan you willnever not see it unless you put
down 5%.
Okay.
So on 5% or more, it will goaway after year 11.
Okay, most people I didn't knowthat.
(07:36):
Yeah, yep, most peoplerefinance out of an fha loan.
Yeah, um, especially becausethe rates come down.
Most people, especially here innevada either don't stay in a
home for more than a certainamount of time.
Usually it's very rare you seesomeone stay in a home for not
always, but most people aregoing to refinance out of that
and go into conventional loanjust because then they get rid
of that insurance.
It's pretty rare you seesomeone hold that for more than
(08:00):
11 years, but it does happen.
But with that, a couple ofthings.
Fha, we're always going to lookat your standard income.
You do have to have qualifyingincome qualifying income, yes.
And we're also going to look atdebt to income ratios, very
different than a conventionalloan, where your typical debt to
income can be a tad bit higher.
So the max is about a 56percent, versus a conventional
(08:22):
loan where it's 50 percent debtto income so you can have a tad
bit higher and credit scores canbe anything under 580 is
usually going to be a hard loanto get qualified because
typically under 580 you'rehaving some other issues, a
bunch of disputes on credit, oryou're just not paying your
bills.
If your credit is 580 or under,it's automatic 10 down okay.
(08:45):
If it's above 580 it's threeand a half percent.
So of course you can put downmore just to make it more
affordable.
And then we're also going tolook at you know, have you not
paid your taxes and things likethat student loans.
So those types of things aregoing to come into play with
that.
Like I said, most people docome out of an FHA loan though.
(09:05):
So just statistically, ifyou're looking at like a half a
million dollar house, theaverage, if you're just putting
the minimum down, like a threeand a half percent, you're
looking at about $17,500.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, which is definitely a very easy down
payment to come up withAbsolutely so that is, it is a
great option.
And what are the loan limits onFHA?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
So FHA this year is $524,000, $524,000, $255,000.
It's up about $25,000 from lastyear, which was sitting right
around $498,000 for a singlefamily residence.
And the nice thing about an FHAloan is it can be a gift fund
from, like, your family, parents.
100% of that and then also 6%of seller concessions.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Okay, so it does give new home buyers the option to
be able to get help take giftsfrom their parents to be able to
, or from anybody, and be ableto get into that home ownership.
And speaking of a goal of homeownership, so we had a great
question from Vanessa and Ithink we can just focus the rest
(10:10):
of our show around thatquestion because I thought it
was great.
So Vanessa says she has apersonal goal of buying her own
home.
Many people say that right nowis not the right time.
How does she know when it's theright time?
And, while she's preparing,what are things that she can do
to improve her credit and savemore for when she does buy?
(10:31):
Any advice would be appreciated.
So that's a lot of a question.
So it's a few questions rolledover in one, but I think, when I
was looking at this, like thefirst thing that came to my mind
was goals and how importantgoals are.
I mean, I'm always I'm a goalsetter and unfortunately this
(10:55):
year we're in February I stillhave not set my goals for 2025,
which I'm working on.
It was just last year was sucha big year, so many things
accomplished.
I kind of put it off, you know,but I think setting a goal is
like is like creating a GPS foryou, you know, it just gives you
direction of where to go andyou set out a game plan, step by
(11:19):
step, and that will help you toachieve that goal.
And as far as like growth, likewanting to own your own home, um
, is, it's, it's growth, it's away, it's a path into wealth and
building wealth, um, it is.
(11:40):
You know, my daughter boughther home at 22 years old and
she's, you know, she was workingat a restaurant.
She's not making income, whereshe would be able to save a lot
of money over the years, but now, today, she has over 200,000
equity in that home.
That's wealth she would nothave been able to build on her
own, but she was able to buildthat through her home.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
And how long has she had that house for?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
She bought it in 2018 .
So what were we?
19, 20,.
So what were we?
19, 20,.
Seven years, and that's a lotof equity.
That is a lot of equity overseven years.
So, yes, this is a great goalto have and one thing that an
analogy that I use often, evenwhen talking to my kids or
talking to anybody about goals Iheard years ago and I can't
(12:26):
quote the source because I don'tremember where I heard it from,
but I still remember theanalogy, but quote the source,
because I don't remember where Iheard it from.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Well, you still remember it.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
I still remember the analogy, but not the source.
But we're all living beings,like plants.
Plants are living beings, right?
So picture yourself as a plantand a plant in a pot.
When a plant starts out in itspot, you give it food, you give
it water and it will grow.
But it comes to a point wherethat pot becomes too small for
(12:55):
the plant and the plant has togrow out of the pot.
Taking it out of the pot andputting it in a bigger pot is
going to cause it to struggle.
It's going to look like it'sdying for a little bit.
It's going to have a hard timeadjusting, but it's necessary
because if you leave it in thatpot, its roots are going to grow
too big.
It's going to start breakingthe pot all around it and
(13:16):
eventually it'll either strangleitself or just die.
I hate to sound so dark there.
You're just going to die if youdon't grow.
But that's how important growthis in our lives and I believe
that homeownership is a part ofgrowth.
I really like that analogy.
Thank you, that's good.
Thank you, it's one of myfavorite ones.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I think, to always have goals and be driven to.
You know, get out of maybe yourcomfort zone or do something
different.
And goals are important,especially writing them down and
having a vision for what youwant.
And I think, especially beingin our industries, we can say
that buying real estate is nevera bad idea.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yeah, I think if you went to any of your grandparents
for instance, and asked them ifthey regret buying the home
that they probably had forevernow.
It's never a bad idea.
It's never in bad idea In thelong run.
You just think of all the yearsand all the money that you can
(14:17):
put into paying rent that goesabsolutely nowhere and what that
could do in your equity andbuilding value over time.
Sometimes it's not instant.
These last couple of yearsappreciation has been happening
a lot slower.
Sometimes it is instant.
It's whatever the market'sdoing and there's even times
when the market goes backwards.
(14:39):
And the biggest tip I can giveyou for that is you just hold
steady, it will come back.
It's always come backHistorically.
It's always come back.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And I think the biggest thing too, especially in
a market like right now, is,worst case, let's say, a couple
of years maybe your home doesn'tbuild a ton of equity, which
especially in this town rightnow, with everything going on
which I'll kind of go over thatin a moment and we'll tie that
back in but I think, even iflet's say you're not building
equity, that moment, at leastyou know what your payments are,
(15:09):
because there's so many peopleI know of that are renting and
all of a sudden their rent goesfrom 2 000 to 2 400, yeah, and
now it might not be affordable,or now they're spending all this
extra money and it's just goneyeah, yeah, and and that is
locking in your payment also, um, the benefit of, if rates come
(15:31):
down or when you build up enough, equity, refinancing and
lowering that payment.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Home ownership is the only thing that gives you the
option to make that paymentlower over time instead of it
going up.
So that is another thing.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
And going into what things can she do to help get
ready and I'm going to coverthat in just a minute, but I
also wanted to kind of justtouch on a couple of highlights.
As far as this market, I thinkit's super important that if you
find a house that matches allyour boxes, it might not be the
(16:08):
perfect home forever or yourforever home, but if it's
something, if you get apre-approval and and it's
something that's doable andaffordable, you can always
refinance.
And I think that there's somethings that, as far as Nevada
goes, that were the number oneplace for investors that are
buying housing right now.
Yes, I believe so in the entirecountry we are the number one
(16:31):
place investors are coming andthey're buying a lot of
properties.
We have some things coming toLas Vegas.
Sony's coming and the WarnerBrothers Studios are also coming
here.
So what that means is a lot ofthose companies are coming here
with a lot of money.
They're buying a bunch ofproperties because when their
employees move over here,they're gonna rent them out to
their own employees and you knowthey're going to make money off
(16:55):
of it.
They're going to capitalize.
So I think when you're lookingto buy a home, unless you have
infinite amounts of money to putdown, you don't want to be in a
situation, which we touched onlast week, where you're in these
bidding wars and these peopleare coming in with a bunch of
cash.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah yeah, absolutely , and there there are markets
like that.
There we've been in marketslike that recently.
And there are markets like that, where where you have to have
more cash out of pocket to beable to get into home ownership
and yeah, that's a that, that'sa great point, and I do think
the best time to buy is whenyou're ready to buy.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Um, when you're ready if you financially have the
means and you feel like it'ssomething that's doable.
But as far as credit goes, oror getting, I think the question
said, um, what can I do toimprove my credit and save more?
So there's some things wealways talk about not doing
before you look at purchasing ahome.
(17:53):
So I'm going to cover those andthen some of the things you
want to be careful of or not todo.
The biggest thing is reallylooking at don't open new credit
lines.
That's a huge one.
Just don't.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Now on that, on that I have a.
I have a question, though.
Often I've heard people saythat they were told that they
should have a credit card tobuild credit.
So what would you suggest for?
Speaker 3 (18:18):
that.
So it's going to depend onwhere your credit is.
If you have virtually no credit, that's one thing, and I do
think it's important.
Based on your timeline oflooking at a home, sometimes we
can kind of do a pre-approvaland give a brief overview of
what we need to do to get youwhere we need to in a certain
amount of time.
Okay, very rarely not veryrarely, but I'd say half the
(18:38):
time people come and they wantto get approved and they're not
ready to buy a house yet, butthey want to have a roadmap on
steps to get there, and so Ithink that's important to look
at overall debts and whereyou're at as far as income, so
we can kind of put you on a roadto get you to homeownership.
If you have virtually no credit, then you want to open credit
(19:00):
because that'll help you buildcredit.
And we have seen people andthere are situations where
there's families that just buyeverything cash, and so it's not
that their credit is bad, theyjust literally don't have credit
.
Yeah, they just never builtcredit lines.
And so in that case, we're goingto have a different
conversation of let's get yousome lines of credit.
(19:21):
Going, that way, we can startestablishing credit right.
Um, if you have no credit,that's a whole different
conversation.
If we're looking at how can weimprove credit scores and and
what to do to prepare forpurchasing a home, one would be,
you know, paying down yourdebts.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, keeping that balance, your overall balance,
under 30%, is the golden rule.
And some people have creditcards that you know they may
have a credit card.
They paid the balance off tozero and then they just don't
use it at all.
And when you're trying to buildcredit, even if you add your
(20:00):
netflix account to that and thenpay it every month, it will
report and as long as that iscontinuously reporting, you're
continuous, continuouslyimproving and building your
credit score so you don't haveto go on a shopping spree and
you don't have to put yourselfin debt by using that card, but
continuing activity on it canhelp build your credit
(20:22):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
And a lot of people don't know.
You don't want to close a creditcard line, no, yes, you don't
want to, for the simple factthat when you're looking at
credit, about 15 percent of yourcredit score is based on your
history of credit.
15% of your credit score isbased on your history of credit.
Yes, so if you've had a creditcard for 15 years and you maybe
(20:44):
never use it which goes back tothe point of you want to use it,
even if it's something small$10, when you close it it
actually does negatively affectyour credit.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, Because it's the time of history of having
that account.
I had an old Mervin's account,like Mervin's.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
It was around.
Now they're all Kohl's.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
And then it transitioned into Kohl's.
But the thing is that thehistory of that line of credit
is so long that it reports verywell.
And I mean, I rarely ever shopat Kohl's, but when it comes I
think it's every two years orsomething they say we're going
to close your account if youdon't make a charge.
(21:21):
So I'll make a charge just tomake sure that it keeps that
line of credit going.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
The more revolving credit you can show and the
least amount of utilization iswhat's going to help build your
credit.
So, if we're looking atbuilding credit as well or
getting your credit score alittle bit higher so if we're
looking at building credit aswell or getting your credit
score a little bit higher notclosing credit obviously credit
accounts and then also recommendjust don't spend on things that
you don't need right?
If we're really trying to focuson getting your debts down and
(21:48):
getting that utilization under30%, we all go to Costco and are
there for two things and end upwith 20 different things.
So really try to pay down thosebalances.
And I typically recommend, ifsomeone has high credit card
balances, we're going to look atwhich one's the highest and try
to pay that down first so weget that utilization under the
(22:09):
30%.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Right and I think it's a good rule of thumb.
If you're out and you're aboutto make a purchase, I always
think it's a good idea to have asavings count.
Everybody should have reservesand funds.
If this purchase that you'remaking is higher than what you
have in reserves at that moment,then it's probably not a
purchase you should be making,because you should not buy
(22:32):
anything.
Say, if just, for instance, say, you only have fifteen hundred
dollars in savings and you'reout looking at a tv that you
want to buy, that's twenty fivehundred dollars, I would say no,
don't, don't, don't do that,because I would say no too that
purchase is higher than theamount that you have saved for
reserves and it's not a smart orwise purchase.
(22:56):
I would um definitely say ifyou're going to do something
like that or you're going topurchase something like that, it
should never exceed the amountof reserves that you have
already saved, because you haveproven to yourself that you can
save that amount or put thatamount aside.
And if this amount exceeds that, then it's probably setting
yourself up for failure.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Absolutely, and I think when you're purchasing a
home, you want to have a tad bitof cushion for things that
maybe need to be fixed, minorthings.
Or, you know, right, when youmove in, obviously there are
going to be expenses, movers andyou might need new furniture
and things like that.
So you really want to look atthat.
I also advise too, if you're,you know, a few months away and
maybe not ready to do apre-approval yet
(23:37):
freecreditreportcom.
You can get a free creditreport once a year I believe
it's once a year and you reallywant to look through that.
Statistically, 79% of people'scredit reports have something
inaccurate.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yes, and let's talk about that for a second disputes
.
So opening disputes on thosecredits, those back when I
purchased my first home, myfirst home was a town home.
It wasn't my dream home by anymeans, but it got me in.
It got me in and when I sold itI had equity that I was able to
put down on the next home.
So that was.
It was fine and I and I knew,and I understood that I wasn't
(24:14):
going to get into my dream homefirst, I just wanted to be in
home ownership.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
And that's the important thing when you're
buying a home is this is astarter home most of the time,
so let's get you in first.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Yeah, yeah.
But back at that time I didhave some inaccuracies on my
credit report.
I had to fix some things beforeI was ready.
I was young and there was somestuff there, but some of it was
not accurate.
The dispute process back inthat time was very difficult.
I had to send letters.
I had to, you know, do a lot ofemails and faxes those fax
(24:48):
machines weren't really oldschool now but all of those
things to get it done.
And now the dispute process issimple.
It's like a click of a buttonto dispute something on your
credit report.
They look into it.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
It is.
Disputes can be very trickywhen getting a loan closed, so
that's why we typically advisewe're going to look over your
credit report and see what's onthe credit report Disputes.
The process has became easier,but you don't want a bunch of
disputes on your credit whenclosing a loan.
Typically, the process hasbecame easier, but you don't
want a bunch of disputes on yourcredit when closing a loan.
typically, the wording has to bechanged and removed okay, so
(25:23):
the dispute if you have an opendispute, they need to be
resolved before you're doingyour purchase and and some of
there has been times wheresomeone's credit is not the
highest and they go to disputeand a lot of times it does
change your credit score becausenow something is changed on
your actual credit report, Right.
So that can be a little bit ofa tricky process and that's why
(25:46):
it's so important to have stepsand have a roadmap and if you're
wanting to buy a house, youknow, in the next three, four
months, you want to get apre-approval so we can start
guiding you towards what needsto be changed, fixed or done.
It is a little bit of a processsometimes.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
And even if you feel like you're not quite ready
right now, Vanessa, it is a goodidea to talk to a loan officer,
call Courtney and get thisstarted, so Courtney can help
lay out a game plan of where youneed to go and what you need to
do to make that happen Doesn'thave to be today and we
understand if you're not readytoday, but setting that out for
you can help you haveclarification on where you need
(26:22):
to go with that and then savingmoney.
Saving money is always hardright, it can be.
It can always be hard.
I learned many years ago I didthe Dave Ramsey Financial Peace
University and then we actuallymy husband and I took it a few
times because we just really hadto like absorb and like go into
(26:43):
it.
And it was hard because a lotof it is, you know, when you're
in bad spending habits.
A lot of it is curbing.
That, you know, and it talksabout if you really follow the
plan.
It's not easy and it'suncomfortable, but you do have
to kind of change the way youlive and that was a big thing.
But one of the biggest thingsthat we took away from that was
(27:06):
the importance of saving,learning to live off.
I mean, we're now at like 80%where we've gotten in the habit
of learning to live off 80% ofour income because we do tithing
for 10 and then we do savingsfor 10.
But regardless of that, learningto live off at least 90% of
(27:27):
your income and right, when youget that check, that payment,
10% goes immediately before youtouch it, before you pay a bill,
before you do anything, that10% is automatically moved into
a savings or reserves account.
And that is a hard habit to getinto and sometimes you look at,
(27:48):
well, this isn't going to workbecause I have this, this, and
that it has to be.
You act as if it doesn't exist.
You put it away before youtouch anything.
Because if you put it awayafter you pay all your bills and
you say, oh, I have this muchmoney left to spend, and then
you make that Sam's Club orCostco trip and it's gone.
Yeah, and Target, it's gonebecause you see it in your
(28:11):
account, you know it's there,and then that money that you say
I'm going to leave over forsavings is already spent and
then it never goes there and youhave good intentions but it
never happens.
Putting away that 10% first andgetting it, getting it reserved
to the account, and thenworking with the rest of the
money, is what it is a very gooddiscipline and very good habit
(28:34):
that everybody needs to get into.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Absolutely.
And another thing that I alwaysadvise is and I can't tell you
how many times I've seen thiswhen purchasing someone will buy
a new car right before and thepayment is high and it literally
disqualifies them from theirdebt to income being something
that we can qualify.
So be really cautious of, whenyou're purchasing a car, the
(29:01):
payment, your income and ifyou're looking to buy a house.
I mean, I've seen so many timesa car just Cars are
depreciating assets they do notappreciate value Does hit
towards your debt to income andif the payment's a thousand
dollars a month.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, and you really should.
There's a saying out there bythe house before the car, and
that really is really is a goodrule of thumb as well.
You know you don't have to havethe best car or the newest car.
A car is a means oftransportation.
Definitely want somethingthat's reliable, but it does not
(29:37):
have to be a brand new car tomake it reliable.
And when you're talking flashysome people want a flashy car
it's going to impress theirfriends and really it's a lot
more impressive over time thatyou're building your own wealth.
You're impressing yourself,you're setting up your own
strategy, because there are somany people that are in
apartments right now with somereally amazing cars but they are
(30:00):
not building long-term wealth.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
So wait until after the house closes before you get
a new car or you take out alarge loan that possibly could
disqualify you from qualifyingfor a loan.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Absolutely.
I think those are all good tips, vanessa.
I hope that helped.
And, yes, if you are watchingour show, please go to our
website, which is our link treeat wwwrealtycheckvegas.
Like, share, subscribe, tellyour friends about us, and we do
want to send a shout out to ourmarketing partner, chicago
(30:35):
Title.
Thank you so much for yoursupport, and we will be here
next week.
How do people get ahold of you,courtney, if they want to talk
about?
Speaker 3 (30:43):
this Absolutely so.
702-416-6918 or cbohm atjfkfinancialcom.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Okay, and I'm Trish Williams.
You can reach me at702-308-2878.
And together we can get you onthis plan and towards your goals
, and I hope you enjoyed theshow and we will see you guys
next week.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Thank you.
Welcome to Vegas Realty.
Check your go-to podcast forall things Las Vegas real estate
.
Whether you're buying, sellingor investing, we bring you the
latest market trends, insidertips and expert insights to
navigate the ever-changing LasVegas realty landscape.
Tune in each week as we breakdown the data, answer your
questions and help you make thebest real estate decisions in
(00:20):
the entertainment capital of theworld decisions in the
entertainment capital of theworld.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, las Vegas, thanks for joining us back here
at Vegas Realty Check.
I am Trish Williams and I'mCourtney Boehm, your co-host.
Yes, and we are here to bringyou the news.
Today, we're going to betalking about market stats and
buyer goals goals forhomeownership so it's going to
be a great show.
Hope you stay tuned in andlet's get started with our
(00:48):
market numbers for the week.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yes, so right now single family homes on the
market are 5,032, which is down95 from last week.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
We see that inventory is going away, guys, it's
moving down, so that's good.
Um, condos and townhouses,those are down huge, 554 at
1,283 for the week.
So are they being bought up orI?
They must be being bought up,but that is a huge jump.
I had to like double check thatnumber Cause I was like this
(01:20):
doesn't even seem right.
So, um, those are, those aredown quite a bit.
That is a huge jump, yeah.
And then we are at ourseven-day stats.
New listings are at 936.
Which?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
is 46 more than last week, so not a crazy number, but
we're definitely seeing alittle bit more listings come on
market, especially getting intothe new year.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
yeah, price decreases .
Those are hovering around thesame number, but it is a big
number.
So 791, that's up six from lastweek.
So sellers are um and this is aword to you guys, for sellers,
like our numbers are showingmovement.
Now, if your home is not moving, look at the price.
It's price or condition.
There's no other, no otherexplanation, just price too high
(02:04):
.
Yeah, it's either or condition.
There's no other explanation,just price too high.
Yeah, it's either.
Price too high, it's notshowing.
Well, definitely this is thetime in the market to look at
those price reductions to makesure that you get your home sold
.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Absolutely, and we have 606 sold this week, which
is up 86 from last week.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
That's a good sold number so.
So yes, those numbers arelooking good.
And 819 in contract.
It's down 10 from last week butthat's a really good in
contract number.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I wonder how many of those solds were people from
California.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, yeah.
We are hoping we're going tostart seeing some Californians
move out here to Vegas, whichthey've been doing, but we're
expecting that that's going toraise over the coming months.
Absolutely.
Where are we at with rates thisweek?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
So yesterday actually we were finally under seven,
which we haven't been underseven since December 17th on a
30-year conventional.
So it did come down a littlebit and then about an hour ago
we saw a little uptick.
It went right back to seven.
So you know, the market isdefinitely holding steady and,
(03:13):
um, we're sitting right at abouta 6.4 on an fha va on our
national average.
So I do think we're going to beright around a seven percent.
I don't think we're going tosee too much movement either way
February, but I think once wehit March when the feds meet, I
do think that's going to comedown.
So we're at a 7%, about a 6.4%for an FHA VA, but it was good
(03:37):
to see it come down and then itcame right back up just a tad
bit today.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, yeah, 6.4 is looking good though, so those
FHA and VA loans are looking alittle bit better, and we have
some news for the week Las Vegassells.
In January broke records.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yes, so there was an article in the Las Vegas Review
Journal that home prices in LasVegas broke records in January.
The median price of houses soldin Southern Nevada was $485,000
, which is the highest everrecorded since May of 2022.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yes, and that's a 9% increase from last year.
So that is huge.
That is huge.
We are definitely holdingsteady in our market.
The talk of a crash, I don'tthink is even in conversation
anymore.
We are definitely holdingsteady in our market.
The talk of a crash, I don'tthink is even in conversation
anymore.
We are definitely holding verywell in our market right now.
So things are looking good, atleast for next few years.
(04:34):
I think you have a loan programto highlight today, yeah, so
today we're going to talk aboutthe FHA loan.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
This is one of our most popular traditional loans.
Okay, the other loans that wetypically see the most going
through the standard banks aregoing to be your conventional,
your VA and then your FHA.
So an FHA loan is through theFederal Housing Administration
and this loan is really going tobe geared towards not always,
but typically your first-timehomebuyers and then also people
(05:06):
sometimes that have a little bitlower credit scores, um higher
debt to income ratios now I'veheard some people say fha.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
They think it stands for first time home buyer no,
but it does not, but not always.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
when you're looking at fha, usually we're looking at
debt to income credit scores.
Typically, if we're looking atconventional side, it's going to
be someone who has lower debtto income.
They have usually a prettydecent or higher credit score
when the rates are high.
We typically will look at bothjust to kind of see what's going
to be best.
However, an FHA loan can onlybe used for a primary residence.
(05:45):
Okay, so it can be up to fourunits, but one of them has to be
occupied by the actual borrower.
Okay, so you can buy a four,four units, but one of them has
to be occupied by the actualborrower.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Okay, so you can buy a fourplex with an FHA loan?
Absolutely yeah, that's a greatoption.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
And we'll use a look at rental income and things like
that to also qualify the loan.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Okay, so that's kind of nice.
That's a good option for peopleand what would you say is the
biggest downfall of FHA?
Because the rates are better,it's primary, it has to be owner
occupied.
But what would be the biggestsetback that people have with an
FHA loan?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
So there is going to be mortgage insurance that is
included in the actual loan.
Okay, so you're going to havemortgage insurance that's due at
closing, whether it's rolledinto the loan or paid up front
with cash, it has to be one orthe other.
But there is a premium up frontand then it's also built into
the loan.
Okay, so with that, on an FHAloan, you typically can put down
(06:42):
3.5%, which is great to getyour foot in the door to a home,
especially for a new homeowneror maybe someone that doesn't
have a ton of money saved.
Yeah, that's a great benefit.
But with that does comemortgage insurance that is
rolled into the payment, and sowe have to look, of course, at
affordability.
Now, if you put three and ahalf percent down only, you're
always going to have thatmortgage insurance built into
(07:03):
the loan.
It will not go away.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Okay, so what is the percentage that you can put down
on an FHA loan to not havemortgage insurance, or is that
existing?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
So, on an FHA loan very different than a standard
conventional loan, which I willget into next week we can do the
conventional.
But on an FHA loan you willnever not see it unless you put
down 5%.
Okay.
So on 5% or more, it will goaway after year 11.
Okay, most people I didn't knowthat.
(07:36):
Yeah, yep, most peoplerefinance out of an fha loan.
Yeah, um, especially becausethe rates come down.
Most people, especially here innevada either don't stay in a
home for more than a certainamount of time.
Usually it's very rare you seesomeone stay in a home for not
always, but most people aregoing to refinance out of that
and go into conventional loanjust because then they get rid
of that insurance.
It's pretty rare you seesomeone hold that for more than
(08:00):
11 years, but it does happen.
But with that, a couple ofthings.
Fha, we're always going to lookat your standard income.
You do have to have qualifyingincome qualifying income, yes.
And we're also going to look atdebt to income ratios, very
different than a conventionalloan, where your typical debt to
income can be a tad bit higher.
So the max is about a 56percent, versus a conventional
(08:22):
loan where it's 50 percent debtto income so you can have a tad
bit higher and credit scores canbe anything under 580 is
usually going to be a hard loanto get qualified because
typically under 580 you'rehaving some other issues, a
bunch of disputes on credit, oryou're just not paying your
bills.
If your credit is 580 or under,it's automatic 10 down okay.
(08:45):
If it's above 580 it's threeand a half percent.
So of course you can put downmore just to make it more
affordable.
And then we're also going tolook at you know, have you not
paid your taxes and things likethat student loans.
So those types of things aregoing to come into play with
that.
Like I said, most people docome out of an FHA loan though.
(09:05):
So just statistically, ifyou're looking at like a half a
million dollar house, theaverage, if you're just putting
the minimum down, like a threeand a half percent, you're
looking at about $17,500.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, which is definitely a very easy down
payment to come up withAbsolutely so that is, it is a
great option.
And what are the loan limits onFHA?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
So FHA this year is $524,000, $524,000, $255,000.
It's up about $25,000 from lastyear, which was sitting right
around $498,000 for a singlefamily residence.
And the nice thing about an FHAloan is it can be a gift fund
from, like, your family, parents.
100% of that and then also 6%of seller concessions.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Okay, so it does give new home buyers the option to
be able to get help take giftsfrom their parents to be able to
, or from anybody, and be ableto get into that home ownership.
And speaking of a goal of homeownership, so we had a great
question from Vanessa and Ithink we can just focus the rest
(10:10):
of our show around thatquestion because I thought it
was great.
So Vanessa says she has apersonal goal of buying her own
home.
Many people say that right nowis not the right time.
How does she know when it's theright time?
And, while she's preparing,what are things that she can do
to improve her credit and savemore for when she does buy?
(10:31):
Any advice would be appreciated.
So that's a lot of a question.
So it's a few questions rolledover in one, but I think, when I
was looking at this, like thefirst thing that came to my mind
was goals and how importantgoals are.
I mean, I'm always I'm a goalsetter and unfortunately this
(10:55):
year we're in February I stillhave not set my goals for 2025,
which I'm working on.
It was just last year was sucha big year, so many things
accomplished.
I kind of put it off, you know,but I think setting a goal is
like is like creating a GPS foryou, you know, it just gives you
direction of where to go andyou set out a game plan, step by
(11:19):
step, and that will help you toachieve that goal.
And as far as like growth, likewanting to own your own home, um
, is, it's, it's growth, it's away, it's a path into wealth and
building wealth, um, it is.
(11:40):
You know, my daughter boughther home at 22 years old and
she's, you know, she was workingat a restaurant.
She's not making income, whereshe would be able to save a lot
of money over the years, but now, today, she has over 200,000
equity in that home.
That's wealth she would nothave been able to build on her
own, but she was able to buildthat through her home.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
And how long has she had that house for?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
She bought it in 2018 .
So what were we?
19, 20,.
So what were we?
19, 20,.
Seven years, and that's a lotof equity.
That is a lot of equity overseven years.
So, yes, this is a great goalto have and one thing that an
analogy that I use often, evenwhen talking to my kids or
talking to anybody about goals Iheard years ago and I can't
(12:26):
quote the source because I don'tremember where I heard it from,
but I still remember theanalogy, but quote the source,
because I don't remember where Iheard it from.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Well, you still remember it.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
I still remember the analogy, but not the source.
But we're all living beings,like plants.
Plants are living beings, right?
So picture yourself as a plantand a plant in a pot.
When a plant starts out in itspot, you give it food, you give
it water and it will grow.
But it comes to a point wherethat pot becomes too small for
(12:55):
the plant and the plant has togrow out of the pot.
Taking it out of the pot andputting it in a bigger pot is
going to cause it to struggle.
It's going to look like it'sdying for a little bit.
It's going to have a hard timeadjusting, but it's necessary
because if you leave it in thatpot, its roots are going to grow
too big.
It's going to start breakingthe pot all around it and
(13:16):
eventually it'll either strangleitself or just die.
I hate to sound so dark there.
You're just going to die if youdon't grow.
But that's how important growthis in our lives and I believe
that homeownership is a part ofgrowth.
I really like that analogy.
Thank you, that's good.
Thank you, it's one of myfavorite ones.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I think, to always have goals and be driven to.
You know, get out of maybe yourcomfort zone or do something
different.
And goals are important,especially writing them down and
having a vision for what youwant.
And I think, especially beingin our industries, we can say
that buying real estate is nevera bad idea.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yeah, I think if you went to any of your grandparents
for instance, and asked them ifthey regret buying the home
that they probably had forevernow.
It's never a bad idea.
It's never in bad idea In thelong run.
You just think of all the yearsand all the money that you can
(14:17):
put into paying rent that goesabsolutely nowhere and what that
could do in your equity andbuilding value over time.
Sometimes it's not instant.
These last couple of yearsappreciation has been happening
a lot slower.
Sometimes it is instant.
It's whatever the market'sdoing and there's even times
when the market goes backwards.
(14:39):
And the biggest tip I can giveyou for that is you just hold
steady, it will come back.
It's always come backHistorically.
It's always come back.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And I think the biggest thing too, especially in
a market like right now, is,worst case, let's say, a couple
of years maybe your home doesn'tbuild a ton of equity, which
especially in this town rightnow, with everything going on
which I'll kind of go over thatin a moment and we'll tie that
back in but I think, even iflet's say you're not building
equity, that moment, at leastyou know what your payments are,
(15:09):
because there's so many peopleI know of that are renting and
all of a sudden their rent goesfrom 2 000 to 2 400, yeah, and
now it might not be affordable,or now they're spending all this
extra money and it's just goneyeah, yeah, and and that is
locking in your payment also, um, the benefit of, if rates come
(15:31):
down or when you build up enough, equity, refinancing and
lowering that payment.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Home ownership is the only thing that gives you the
option to make that paymentlower over time instead of it
going up.
So that is another thing.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
And going into what things can she do to help get
ready and I'm going to coverthat in just a minute, but I
also wanted to kind of justtouch on a couple of highlights.
As far as this market, I thinkit's super important that if you
find a house that matches allyour boxes, it might not be the
(16:08):
perfect home forever or yourforever home, but if it's
something, if you get apre-approval and and it's
something that's doable andaffordable, you can always
refinance.
And I think that there's somethings that, as far as Nevada
goes, that were the number oneplace for investors that are
buying housing right now.
Yes, I believe so in the entirecountry we are the number one
(16:31):
place investors are coming andthey're buying a lot of
properties.
We have some things coming toLas Vegas.
Sony's coming and the WarnerBrothers Studios are also coming
here.
So what that means is a lot ofthose companies are coming here
with a lot of money.
They're buying a bunch ofproperties because when their
employees move over here,they're gonna rent them out to
their own employees and you knowthey're going to make money off
(16:55):
of it.
They're going to capitalize.
So I think when you're lookingto buy a home, unless you have
infinite amounts of money to putdown, you don't want to be in a
situation, which we touched onlast week, where you're in these
bidding wars and these peopleare coming in with a bunch of
cash.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah yeah, absolutely , and there there are markets
like that.
There we've been in marketslike that recently.
And there are markets like that, where where you have to have
more cash out of pocket to beable to get into home ownership
and yeah, that's a that, that'sa great point, and I do think
the best time to buy is whenyou're ready to buy.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Um, when you're ready if you financially have the
means and you feel like it'ssomething that's doable.
But as far as credit goes, oror getting, I think the question
said, um, what can I do toimprove my credit and save more?
So there's some things wealways talk about not doing
before you look at purchasing ahome.
(17:53):
So I'm going to cover those andthen some of the things you
want to be careful of or not todo.
The biggest thing is reallylooking at don't open new credit
lines.
That's a huge one.
Just don't.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Now on that, on that I have a.
I have a question, though.
Often I've heard people saythat they were told that they
should have a credit card tobuild credit.
So what would you suggest for?
Speaker 3 (18:18):
that.
So it's going to depend onwhere your credit is.
If you have virtually no credit, that's one thing, and I do
think it's important.
Based on your timeline oflooking at a home, sometimes we
can kind of do a pre-approvaland give a brief overview of
what we need to do to get youwhere we need to in a certain
amount of time.
Okay, very rarely not veryrarely, but I'd say half the
(18:38):
time people come and they wantto get approved and they're not
ready to buy a house yet, butthey want to have a roadmap on
steps to get there, and so Ithink that's important to look
at overall debts and whereyou're at as far as income, so
we can kind of put you on a roadto get you to homeownership.
If you have virtually no credit, then you want to open credit
(19:00):
because that'll help you buildcredit.
And we have seen people andthere are situations where
there's families that just buyeverything cash, and so it's not
that their credit is bad, theyjust literally don't have credit
.
Yeah, they just never builtcredit lines.
And so in that case, we're goingto have a different
conversation of let's get yousome lines of credit.
(19:21):
Going, that way, we can startestablishing credit right.
Um, if you have no credit,that's a whole different
conversation.
If we're looking at how can weimprove credit scores and and
what to do to prepare forpurchasing a home, one would be,
you know, paying down yourdebts.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, keeping that balance, your overall balance,
under 30%, is the golden rule.
And some people have creditcards that you know they may
have a credit card.
They paid the balance off tozero and then they just don't
use it at all.
And when you're trying to buildcredit, even if you add your
(20:00):
netflix account to that and thenpay it every month, it will
report and as long as that iscontinuously reporting, you're
continuous, continuouslyimproving and building your
credit score so you don't haveto go on a shopping spree and
you don't have to put yourselfin debt by using that card, but
continuing activity on it canhelp build your credit
(20:22):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
And a lot of people don't know.
You don't want to close a creditcard line, no, yes, you don't
want to, for the simple factthat when you're looking at
credit, about 15 percent of yourcredit score is based on your
history of credit.
15% of your credit score isbased on your history of credit.
Yes, so if you've had a creditcard for 15 years and you maybe
(20:44):
never use it which goes back tothe point of you want to use it,
even if it's something small$10, when you close it it
actually does negatively affectyour credit.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, Because it's the time of history of having
that account.
I had an old Mervin's account,like Mervin's.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
It was around.
Now they're all Kohl's.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
And then it transitioned into Kohl's.
But the thing is that thehistory of that line of credit
is so long that it reports verywell.
And I mean, I rarely ever shopat Kohl's, but when it comes I
think it's every two years orsomething they say we're going
to close your account if youdon't make a charge.
(21:21):
So I'll make a charge just tomake sure that it keeps that
line of credit going.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
The more revolving credit you can show and the
least amount of utilization iswhat's going to help build your
credit.
So, if we're looking atbuilding credit as well or
getting your credit score alittle bit higher so if we're
looking at building credit aswell or getting your credit
score a little bit higher notclosing credit obviously credit
accounts and then also recommendjust don't spend on things that
you don't need right?
If we're really trying to focuson getting your debts down and
(21:48):
getting that utilization under30%, we all go to Costco and are
there for two things and end upwith 20 different things.
So really try to pay down thosebalances.
And I typically recommend, ifsomeone has high credit card
balances, we're going to look atwhich one's the highest and try
to pay that down first so weget that utilization under the
(22:09):
30%.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Right and I think it's a good rule of thumb.
If you're out and you're aboutto make a purchase, I always
think it's a good idea to have asavings count.
Everybody should have reservesand funds.
If this purchase that you'remaking is higher than what you
have in reserves at that moment,then it's probably not a
purchase you should be making,because you should not buy
(22:32):
anything.
Say, if just, for instance, say, you only have fifteen hundred
dollars in savings and you'reout looking at a tv that you
want to buy, that's twenty fivehundred dollars, I would say no,
don't, don't, don't do that,because I would say no too that
purchase is higher than theamount that you have saved for
reserves and it's not a smart orwise purchase.
(22:56):
I would um definitely say ifyou're going to do something
like that or you're going topurchase something like that, it
should never exceed the amountof reserves that you have
already saved, because you haveproven to yourself that you can
save that amount or put thatamount aside.
And if this amount exceeds that, then it's probably setting
yourself up for failure.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Absolutely, and I think when you're purchasing a
home, you want to have a tad bitof cushion for things that
maybe need to be fixed, minorthings.
Or, you know, right, when youmove in, obviously there are
going to be expenses, movers andyou might need new furniture
and things like that.
So you really want to look atthat.
I also advise too, if you're,you know, a few months away and
maybe not ready to do apre-approval yet
(23:37):
freecreditreportcom.
You can get a free creditreport once a year I believe
it's once a year and you reallywant to look through that.
Statistically, 79% of people'scredit reports have something
inaccurate.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yes, and let's talk about that for a second disputes
.
So opening disputes on thosecredits, those back when I
purchased my first home, myfirst home was a town home.
It wasn't my dream home by anymeans, but it got me in.
It got me in and when I sold itI had equity that I was able to
put down on the next home.
So that was.
It was fine and I and I knew,and I understood that I wasn't
(24:14):
going to get into my dream homefirst, I just wanted to be in
home ownership.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
And that's the important thing when you're
buying a home is this is astarter home most of the time,
so let's get you in first.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Yeah, yeah.
But back at that time I didhave some inaccuracies on my
credit report.
I had to fix some things beforeI was ready.
I was young and there was somestuff there, but some of it was
not accurate.
The dispute process back inthat time was very difficult.
I had to send letters.
I had to, you know, do a lot ofemails and faxes those fax
(24:48):
machines weren't really oldschool now but all of those
things to get it done.
And now the dispute process issimple.
It's like a click of a buttonto dispute something on your
credit report.
They look into it.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
It is.
Disputes can be very trickywhen getting a loan closed, so
that's why we typically advisewe're going to look over your
credit report and see what's onthe credit report Disputes.
The process has became easier,but you don't want a bunch of
disputes on your credit whenclosing a loan.
Typically, the process hasbecame easier, but you don't
want a bunch of disputes on yourcredit when closing a loan.
typically, the wording has to bechanged and removed okay, so
(25:23):
the dispute if you have an opendispute, they need to be
resolved before you're doingyour purchase and and some of
there has been times wheresomeone's credit is not the
highest and they go to disputeand a lot of times it does
change your credit score becausenow something is changed on
your actual credit report, Right.
So that can be a little bit ofa tricky process and that's why
(25:46):
it's so important to have stepsand have a roadmap and if you're
wanting to buy a house, youknow, in the next three, four
months, you want to get apre-approval so we can start
guiding you towards what needsto be changed, fixed or done.
It is a little bit of a processsometimes.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
And even if you feel like you're not quite ready
right now, Vanessa, it is a goodidea to talk to a loan officer,
call Courtney and get thisstarted, so Courtney can help
lay out a game plan of where youneed to go and what you need to
do to make that happen Doesn'thave to be today and we
understand if you're not readytoday, but setting that out for
you can help you haveclarification on where you need
(26:22):
to go with that and then savingmoney.
Saving money is always hardright, it can be.
It can always be hard.
I learned many years ago I didthe Dave Ramsey Financial Peace
University and then we actuallymy husband and I took it a few
times because we just really hadto like absorb and like go into
(26:43):
it.
And it was hard because a lotof it is, you know, when you're
in bad spending habits.
A lot of it is curbing.
That, you know, and it talksabout if you really follow the
plan.
It's not easy and it'suncomfortable, but you do have
to kind of change the way youlive and that was a big thing.
But one of the biggest thingsthat we took away from that was
(27:06):
the importance of saving,learning to live off.
I mean, we're now at like 80%where we've gotten in the habit
of learning to live off 80% ofour income because we do tithing
for 10 and then we do savingsfor 10.
But regardless of that, learningto live off at least 90% of
(27:27):
your income and right, when youget that check, that payment,
10% goes immediately before youtouch it, before you pay a bill,
before you do anything, that10% is automatically moved into
a savings or reserves account.
And that is a hard habit to getinto and sometimes you look at,
(27:48):
well, this isn't going to workbecause I have this, this, and
that it has to be.
You act as if it doesn't exist.
You put it away before youtouch anything.
Because if you put it awayafter you pay all your bills and
you say, oh, I have this muchmoney left to spend, and then
you make that Sam's Club orCostco trip and it's gone.
Yeah, and Target, it's gonebecause you see it in your
(28:11):
account, you know it's there,and then that money that you say
I'm going to leave over forsavings is already spent and
then it never goes there and youhave good intentions but it
never happens.
Putting away that 10% first andgetting it, getting it reserved
to the account, and thenworking with the rest of the
money, is what it is a very gooddiscipline and very good habit
(28:34):
that everybody needs to get into.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Absolutely.
And another thing that I alwaysadvise is and I can't tell you
how many times I've seen thiswhen purchasing someone will buy
a new car right before and thepayment is high and it literally
disqualifies them from theirdebt to income being something
that we can qualify.
So be really cautious of, whenyou're purchasing a car, the
(29:01):
payment, your income and ifyou're looking to buy a house.
I mean, I've seen so many timesa car just Cars are
depreciating assets they do notappreciate value Does hit
towards your debt to income andif the payment's a thousand
dollars a month.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, and you really should.
There's a saying out there bythe house before the car, and
that really is really is a goodrule of thumb as well.
You know you don't have to havethe best car or the newest car.
A car is a means oftransportation.
Definitely want somethingthat's reliable, but it does not
(29:37):
have to be a brand new car tomake it reliable.
And when you're talking flashysome people want a flashy car
it's going to impress theirfriends and really it's a lot
more impressive over time thatyou're building your own wealth.
You're impressing yourself,you're setting up your own
strategy, because there are somany people that are in
apartments right now with somereally amazing cars but they are
(30:00):
not building long-term wealth.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
So wait until after the house closes before you get
a new car or you take out alarge loan that possibly could
disqualify you from qualifyingfor a loan.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Absolutely.
I think those are all good tips, vanessa.
I hope that helped.
And, yes, if you are watchingour show, please go to our
website, which is our link treeat wwwrealtycheckvegas.
Like, share, subscribe, tellyour friends about us, and we do
want to send a shout out to ourmarketing partner, chicago
(30:35):
Title.
Thank you so much for yoursupport, and we will be here
next week.
How do people get ahold of you,courtney, if they want to talk
about?
Speaker 3 (30:43):
this Absolutely so.
702-416-6918 or cbohm atjfkfinancialcom.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Okay, and I'm Trish Williams.
You can reach me at702-308-2878.
And together we can get you onthis plan and towards your goals
, and I hope you enjoyed theshow and we will see you guys
next week.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Thank you.
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