October 24, 2025 • 41 mins
Dayna and Delilah Benson have the latest on morgages and advice on home buying.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, hello Southeast Texas. I hope you're enjoying a wonderful Saturday.
We have an exciting group today to talk about. We
have Delilah Benson. She is the AVP Consumer relationship manager
with First Financial Bank, and she's going through MythBusters. What
are some of the things that you thought you knew
(00:22):
about mortgages that maybe are a little incorrect. So she's
going to go through some of that with us. Also,
I'm going to talk about how can you potentially reduce
your mortgage expense monthly. We're going to give you some
tips and tricks on things you can do to reduce
that mortgage payment. But before we get started, i'd love
(00:43):
to give you a little bit of information about what
is the market doing right now. Well, we've recently received
the September twenty twenty five stats. We haven't gotten any
others at this point, so we're going to go with
those and let me give you a little hint as
to how things are going. Actually, last year about this time,
(01:04):
we had about seven months of inventory. This year we're
at five point eight. Last year we had sales closed
at two hundred and eighty total. This year three hundred
and fifty two. So you can see that with that
little bit of reduction in the interest rate and some
(01:26):
of the positive things going on, we are seeing an
increase in the market. Oh isn't that great news to
all of us. We have all been in a little
bit of a season of a challenge and a little
bit of a rut for the last several years. We've
seen the numbers that were fairly low. And while the
(01:48):
market has always moved, it's always selling, There are people
moving all the time, it's just been a little softer
in the last couple of years. We are soon super
excited about what that means over the next several months
and for twenty twenty six. So if you are thinking
(02:08):
about is now the right time for me to go
ahead and get in the market, give my office a
call at four oh nine eight six six eight three
two six. We have someone who can answer that call
for you right now, or go to our website, Danasimmons
real estate dot com and they can sit down and
(02:29):
visit with you about exactly what is the market doing
in either the area you want to purchase or potentially
the area that you want to sell in. We can
give you specifics on what's going on in those general areas.
It's very different from one price point to another, one
(02:50):
location to another. If you're listening to the national news
and taking your information from there, I would recommend that
you not do that. Real estate is very local and
so we want to even narrow it down to specifics
on city or neighborhood or even subdivision. So we're happy
(03:10):
to get that information for you. There's no cost to you.
If you want any of that information, you can sit
down and visit with one of our buyer's agents who
can guide you through. Here's step one, step two, step three.
We have a buyer book that we can give you
that goes through what is the process like, and then
we can guide you through that. If you're a first
(03:30):
time home buyer, if you're a seller and you've not
done you've not sold a property in several years, and
you're unsure of what are the steps involved, we can
have one of our agents meet with you walk through
what does that process look like. What do we do
to prepare your house to sell? What are some of
the things you should do or shouldn't do prior to
(03:52):
putting it on the market. Those are some topics we'll
be talking about over the next several weeks. Because there
are things that you can do to improve the value
of your house that will not cost you a lot
of money. But there are some things that people are
doing that actually impact the home sale in a negative way.
(04:13):
And one of those things I'll tell you about is
solar panels. If you have considered solar panels, I would
give you warnings about that. I have had so many
sellers who have regretted that decision for many reasons. One
reason is they've they've gone to move and they have
(04:36):
to pay off that significant cost of those solar panels,
which could be as much as eighty thousand dollars out
of their equity in order to sell. Others have had
challenges with the fact that the solar panel company went
out of business and there's no longer a warranty associated
with that. There are just so many different challenges when
(05:00):
it comes to some upgrades. So we would love to
sit down and give you our experience. I've been in
this business almost thirty years, and I've got agents in
my office who have been in the business a very
long time as well, So we'd love to give you
information based on what we've seen over the many years,
So give our office a call again four oh nine
(05:21):
eight six six Team Team four oh nine eight sixty
six eight three two six, and we'd love to chat
with you about those upgrades. So I'm going to introduce
you to Delilah Benson. And Delilah, you haven't your first
time guest on our show, so excited to have you here.
(05:41):
So I'd love for you to tell everyone a little
bit about you.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, well, first and foremost, thank you so much for
having me. This is such a cool experience. But my
name is Delilah Benson. I am with First Financial Bank.
I am our consumer relationship manager. Just a little background
on me. I am born and raised from Bone, Texas.
A little different or extended version of myself is that
I didn't do the typical route. As soon as I
(06:08):
graduated from Hampshire and at high school, I went to
lit for a couple of years and then I had
that moment of anxiety of like what am I going
to do with my life? You know? So I did
take a break from school. I ended up getting married,
having children, and in that time frame I did get
introduced to the financial world. I actually started working at
one of those title loan companies that you see down
(06:30):
the road. And then I was fortunate enough to actually
land a job at a credit union, where I was
at for about ten years, and I actually started there
as a teller and moved my way up to one
of their credit analysts. And then in that time frame,
I actually went back and got my degree from Lamar University.
I have a bachelor's in communications, and I took advantage
(06:52):
of the opportunity to get with First Financial Bank as
their consumer lender. And here I am. I've been here
since anyway, and I've been loving it ever since.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I am so impressed that you know, there are many
people out there who you know, I was one of them.
I started out going to school. I was. I went
to Lamar and was working full time to help to
pay for college, and that was taking a little longer
than it does for most because I was working and
going to school and then met my husband, married, had children,
(07:26):
same story, and then was a stay at home mom
for a few years before I started working. And so
the fact that as a mom you still went back
to school and you were able to accomplish that, tell
me how you did that?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Was that was a little rough. I'm not gonna lie
because I did have a few credits that thankfully transferred
from l I T it's a wonderful school. So if
you're ever in the market for that, I do highly
Suggess looking into that as well. But for me, I
ended up finishing my bachelor's within two years, went a
solid two years, summer's winter, all the things, and I
(08:05):
was working full time at that point. I did have
all my babies I have through babies, and so I
just had a great support system along with that. My
husband was very supportive in me making that decision. I
knew that it would grow, not only as on a
personal level but professionally, and so I just had to
take the opportunity once it came about.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So that's amazing. That is an amazing story, and I
think an encouragement to a lot of people out there
listening who maybe have been in that same position and
think it's not doable, but it is, and you're right.
We're so blessed to have Lamar University and lit right
here in our backyard. Sid Valentine over at Riit. He
(08:45):
is so much fun and is always willing to sit
down and talk to someone, give you a tour of
their gorgeous new facility and be able to give you
insight on lots of different options for things that they
have to year degree there and then Lamar University of course,
a four year degree that you can two in two
years if you really push.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yeah, now you said three children.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I do. I have a daughter, she's seven, and then
I have twins, a boy and a girl. And therefore
you're superwoman. That's all I can say. Oh my goodness,
that's pretty.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
That really is amazing. Congratulations so much so you're you're
making it all happen to me.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I tried that.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Well, we are so glad, and are you in Beaumont now?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I am, Well, I live in China and China, we
have our family in China, have a house out there,
and it's been great. My husband's actually from Harn Jefferson,
so it's a no brainer removing, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
By families. You know, so often when I have guests
on the show, I absolutely love that it's people who
were born here and decided to stay here and to
make this community the place that they live, that they
work and they raise a family, and and that we
(10:01):
have so many things here I think that are good
for you to be able to do that. You know,
both my children graduated from Lamar University and my daughter
got to master's. My son went off and got a
he's a CRNA. My son in law graduated Lamar and
my daughter in law graduated Lamar. So they all went
(10:24):
to school here, stayed here, and thank the Lord, they're
raising their children here. If they took my grandbabies anywhere else,
I might be a little upset.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
My brother actually lives in Tennessee, and I can tell
it's tough, but we're thankful that they're able to make
the trips for the holidays and things like that. But
I can definitely understand.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Well, I am excited to have you on the show, Delilah,
and we are super excited to talk about myth busters
mortgage editions. Mortgage editions, So.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Don't go away.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
When we come back, we're gonna have lots of good
info for you. This is the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back.
This is Dana Simmons and I am joined today by
Delilah Benson. She is the vice president of consumer relationship
manager here in our first financial bank location. So she
(11:14):
is going to give us a few MythBusters more eage editions.
So I want to know, Delilah, what do you think
is the most popular myth that people hear but really
isn't true about buying a house.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
The number one thing that I've always here is do
I need twenty percent down for a home? And really
and truly know there's so many programs out there where
it's first on Buyer's FAJVA, Affordable Home, community access, all
the things that are available where you don't have to
have twenty percent down. Now, granted, that doesn't mean that
(11:54):
excludes you from that private mortgage insurance if you don't
have twenty percent, but it does not mean that you
can't get a home loan not having that much cash down.
Some of them go as low as zero percent, depending
on your credit. A lot of the times it will
probably be about three to five percent down instead, and
that's much more manageable than asking for twenty percent. So
(12:15):
I would say that was probably like the golden question
is do I need twenty percent? And no, that's not true.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
And one of the things I love about First Financial
is that you guys have so many different loan programs,
so some of which are you do solely within the
bank it's not like anyone else has them because you
do them in the bank. So a couple of those
(12:41):
one is called MMCT.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Right, Yes, we we categorize, categorize that as affordable home
loan that is more income based, and being in Beaumont,
a lot of that would qualify. Those properties will qualify
an affordable home. We also have what we call community
Access and it's actually for someone who may not have
their Social Security number, but they do have an I
(13:04):
number and they can qualify for a home doing community access. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I know with the MMCT loan, people are shocked at
some of the locations that this loan product will qualify for.
And if you qualify for it based on your salary
as well as the location, you can get into this
conventional loan at zero percent down right, right, which is amazing.
(13:30):
And I think I've read the pro that your program
offers up to potentially two and a half percent of
the sales price and assistance on that loan as well. Yes,
so I mean it's like you have almost no money
you need to get in if you qualify for that
specific loan, right, which is amazing. I will tell you
(13:52):
the MMCT loan is also a good product for investors
because I actually purchased and investment property and it was
in one of those MMCT areas and I didn't even
have to put twenty percent down. I only had to
put ten percent down, and that your income level didn't
(14:13):
matter on that right. If it was an MMCT, I
only had to put ten percent down, which is so
good for investors. It allows them to get more properties.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Right, and if people aren't familiar, MMCT is major minority
since its tracked, and so a lot of Beaumont does
cover that. So we do have sites where we can
look up. If there is a location that you're interested
in purchasing, we can look up to see if it
qualifies as well.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yeah, and so one of the things that I think
is super important is that people are like, well.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Do I qualify? Yes for that, And there are some
different guidelines. It is a case by case basis, but
we definitely want you to stop by. You can call
me and we can look into it and see if
you would qualify. There's different options and sometimes you may
not necessarily want that product, but we have different options
available and we'll suit you to what you would be
(15:07):
better for you.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
That's what I love is that you have so many
options and you're not trying to fit a square peg
into a round hole, right, You're saying, Okay, let's look
at what you have and then what we have, and
let's figure out which one, two or three products will
fit you best depending on what your certain situation.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Is, right exactly, Which actually brings me to my next
MythBuster is the lowest interest rate is always the best deal.
And really and truly it's not. The lowest rate sometimes
comes with higher fees. And just like in this situation,
if you're thinking about an MMCT loan, but really and truly,
(15:49):
maybe that rate might not be suitable for you, and
you qualify for a lower rate, it might have a
different term attached to it. You don't have to feel
like you're locked into a thirty year mortgage. We do
offer ten, fifteen, twenty year mortgages. It's whatever suited for you.
I know a lot of people want to pay off
their mortgage as soon as possible, and if you have
(16:11):
the means to do it, by all means, go ahead
and do it. You know that way you're not locked
into a mortgage for so long. But given said that,
we always try to look at the best interest for
our customers. You know, we want to make sure that
we're not overextending them on a mortgage. And sometimes if
that low interest rate might be tacked on to a
fifteen year mortgage and it might hike up your your
(16:34):
actual payment, and so we try to do our best
in order to look at the overall picture and make
sure that you're getting what you need.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah, and being able to provide that in black and
white data for them to look at, because I know,
I think about an FAHA loan, you only have to
put three and a half percent down, but that FAHA
mortgage insurance premium gets tacked onto that loan, right, same
thing with the VA it might be zero percent down,
but with the VA you have that via funding fee
(17:04):
that's tacked on. So I think that's so critical that
people are able to look at all the pieces together
and say, Okay, here's here's your different loan programs, here's
what the interest rate is, here's what your fees will
be if you use this program, and then they get
to choose based on their situation exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
And then you have to be just be mindful of
like your day to day life, you know, is your
mortgage your top priority. It's to where you know you
want to pay it out faster or do you want
to extend it a little bit longer so you have
a little bit more cash flow on a monthly basis.
Because let's be honest, the economy is kind of crazy
right now, so groceries can get expensive and you just
have to be mindful of all the things.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yeah, thinking through your entire life situation exactly. I love
that you guys are here locally, so it's not like
you're calling someone in New York or Buffalo or California wherever,
and you know, try to talk to someone.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
You guys are here.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
They can come sit in your office and show you
can show them in front of you all of the things.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yes, yes, we are located. I mean we have several
different lenders in each of our branches, so I mean
definitely stop by to one of our locations and we
will be able to sit with you. We can do
some calculations for you and see what's the best bit.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, and talk about where are those locations.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
So I'm primarily located in Beaumont. I am at thirty
five fifteen Dollon Road that's right next to the Big
hib my dear friend Malvana, She's located in Lumberton. And
then we do have writer who is located in our
mid County location and ms Lannie is located in Orange.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
And you still have a couple of other locations throughout
Southeast Texas where if someone needed you to meet them
there at the other locations or you guys will just
meet people anywhere. Almost.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yes, yeah, yes, that's the great part of being you know,
a relationship managers, because we want to build those relationships.
So you know, we're not tied down to the nine
to five. If you do need to meet me beforehand
and say hey, let's grab some coffee, Bill means let's
do it. And you know, we want to make sure
that we have a healthy relationship and kind of know
where each other stand. We do have a location inviter
(19:21):
and some of us float through the Battery location, so
if you ever want to meet we're more than welcome
to meet you at any location. Also, Maurice Phil Yes,
Marie Phil, I believe Newton and Newton so well.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
The other thing is, okay, so you've visited with the borrower,
you guys have come to terms with Okay, this is
the best fit for us, we want to go this route.
You get the pre approval letter, let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
So the pre approval letter doesn't always mean that you're
guaranteed alone. That's one of our myths is that you
have this pre approval, you're gonna lock in. But there's
so many different factors that go into that, so just
be mindful. We do have to ask for, of course,
your financials and things like that, the appraisals because in
the end we want to also make sure that the
(20:09):
house is fit for you in order to do the loan.
That only protects us, but it also protects you as
a customer that you're not buying into something that you
know may not be in the best interest. It might
fall apart on you.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Yeah, so the pre approval is really good and it's
what you want to have upfront because it does give
you a certain stability and knowing that you can buy
a house and for how much. But you're right, there
are things that you have to go through. After you
find the house, you do an inspection to make sure
that the functions are all working. And then even after
the inspection, you a slender order an appraisal. Yes, and
(20:47):
the appraiser will decide if there are things that they
think need to be repaired or not, and sometimes sellers
aren't willing to do those things. And even though the
appraiser caught that, the other thing is title is we
have had things come up so often with tidal issues
because of probates and airs and challenges that no one
(21:09):
knew about in the beginning. And then we go to
open title and find out there are four other people
who actually have ownership of this property as well. So
all of those things go together to create a situation
where you can move forward on purchasing purchasing that home. Okay,
(21:29):
let's talk about another myth. It's cheaper to rent than
to buy.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
That's not always the case, and honestly a lot of
people think that, you know, it is cheaper to rent,
but really and truly, some of these apartments, especially in
this area, have skyrocketed. I mean they're well in over
one thousand dollars for just a single one bedroom home,
when really you can get into a mortgage for half
of that cost. But of course it does depend on
(21:57):
the location, the market trends and things like that, and
what your financial goals are. But nine times out of ten.
It is going to be cheaper to buy than to rent.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
And you're building equity for yourself exactly whenever you are purchasing. Listen,
I have rental property. I have tenants in properties that
I own. What I can tell you is that they
cover my mortgage, they pay my equity, they pay they
cover the cost of my insurance. So all the things
(22:28):
that you would pay if you were to buy a house,
they're covering plus some right, because there has to be
a chushion in there for it to be a profitable
business venture. And so that's even if you if you
rent a house. So I would say build your own equity.
It's what gives you a long term investment into something
(22:50):
that will be yours. And you know, we were talking
during the break about investing and how you know buying
a house. If you think buying a house and you're
going to sell it in two to three years and
you're going to make a killing, it's not going to happen.
Real estate is a long term play. But look at
(23:11):
the market ten years ago and look at the market
today it has Or look at the market when I
started thirty years ago and look at the market today.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Let me just say.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
I remember Ken and I about ten years ago said oh,
we we really would love to have a place in
the hill country one day. We're going to wait till
those prices get better.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Wish we would have.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Bought ten years ago, right, Because that's one thing about
real estate. While you may see little divots for a
little bit, we do. It's cyclical. We see it go
down the hair, we always see it come back up,
and so long term investment.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
We had this. I had this conversation with my father
just the other day and he was like, you know
what I bought this land for twenty five thousand dollars
is a ten acre land? I said, Oh, my goodness,
this would be like I don't know, three hundred thousand
dollars at this point. And it's crazy to me how
much the market has changed in just the last I
(24:09):
would say, fifteen years since he's had it, and a
lot of people are scared to buy, and really and
truly nothing's going to change as far as that market
trend goes. I mean, at this point, we're not going
to be seeing no ten acres for twenty five thousand anymore.
I don't think that people should really hesitate if they
want to buy it, buy it, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
And now it's a great time because, as I was saying,
we're seeing the market start to improve. We still have
a good inventory. You know, when I was talking about
our inventory, we still have about six months of inventory
right now. That's an even market. But I don't know
how many of you remember two or three years ago
when our inventory was two three months of inventory. We
(24:49):
were so low so that it was a seller's market
at that point. September of twenty twenty one was three
point six months of inventory. Anything between a five six
month inventory is a pretty even market. I am gonna
say and go out on a limb here and say
that in the spring of next year, I think the
(25:11):
market is going to definitely pick up, and I think
our inventory is going to begin to shrink. We have
so many things coming to Southeast Texas. You can see it.
You see the new growth out as you're heading into
Mid County. All that's going on over there, and that
refinery and there, and then not over an Orange, and
(25:33):
then there's so much more behind the scenes that people
don't know about that is coming.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
To our area.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
That's going to bring a need for housing, and so
our market is going to get better. Purchase now. Purchase
now while you're not competing with three other people who
want the same house that you want. It is a
much better time to buy now. Then you buy the
house at a decent price. In two or three years
the interest rate drops for or whenever it does refinance.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yes, you're in.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
A position to do that and so, but you already
got the house at a much more affordable price than
when you have to compete. So when we come back
a few more MythBusters, you don't want to go away.
This is the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back. This is
Dana Simmons and we have been visiting with Delilah Benson.
(26:25):
She is the consumer relationship manager at First Financial Bank.
She has been giving us MythBusters Mortgage Edition. So we've
been talking about what are some of the myths that
are out there when you are thinking about buying a house.
So we've been through a few of those. Will recap
at the end of this segment, but let's talk about
(26:47):
what are a few other MythBusters that you hear Delilah.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
One other one, especially you know, graduating college, people think
that you can't get a mortgage if you have to
doudent loan debt. Mini buyers with student loans think that
they can't qualify just because of debt to income ratios.
There's things that we look at. Of course, we do
see if you're deferred on your student loans, but normally
if they are, we just take a percentage of it.
(27:15):
We're not taking the big lump sum on it. But
we try to see about how we can help manage
your student loan debt, you know, that way you can
qualify for it. Sometimes that involves us restructuring some of
your other debt. I've definitely had, you know, a couple
of customers where our refinance and auto to help kind
of eat up some of that debt for the student
(27:37):
loan to where they could qualify for a mortgage.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, so what you're saying is, come sit down and
talk to me, and let's figure out how we can
make it happen.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
I know. Also I've had clients physicians, other people who
are professionals and have graduated. They don't have income yet,
but they have a contract with a company, yes, and
so talk about how that works.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
We actually do have for medical professionals. We have a
program that we can allow them to finance up to
one hundred percent of their home as long as they have,
you know, the resources to kind of back that. There
is some paperwork involved in that, but yeah, we definitely
help our healthcare professionals in that way and to help
them get set up. I mean recently, we have helped
(28:24):
a student that newly graduated and she ended up buying
a home in Houston, and we were able to finance
a full hundred percent of that home for her.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yeah, you guys have helped several of the physicians that
I've worked with who have graduated and moved to Beaumont
to be able to do that. And actually my son,
whenever he was graduating and getting his new position here,
it was just based on the contract. He didn't have
a job, hadn't had a job since he had been
going to school. And so the ability to be able
(28:57):
to get a loan even if you've graduated and you
have the job, but you haven't started making the income.
I think so many people don't understand that it's a
matter of come sit down and talk to us and
let us talk you through what we can or what
we can't do. But every time I've sent someone to you, guys,
(29:17):
if it's something you couldn't do right, then there was
always a plan put in place to say here are
the things you need to do in order to make
this happen exactly. And so to me that is super helpful.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
What about credit, So credit it does range of course,
you know, the better the credit score you have, the
better the interest rate in a sense. But if for
any reason I can't qualify you, like you said, right
then and there, I do help on credit building with you.
We just look at your financials. We see where we
(29:53):
can help you improve, whether it just be you know,
making sure maybe putting payments on automatic pay withdraws to
where they pay on time. It's just simple things like
that that improve your score. It does take a little time,
it's not something that happens overnight. But we definitely have
a plan in place where it can be a six
month to a twelve month plan for you to where
(30:15):
we can get you where you need to be. Because
I know a lot of people's goal is to buy
a home, and so I want to get you there.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah, and if you can't today, let's figure out a
way we can get you there in a timely manner. Exactly,
and there are some people who just don't know, Okay,
what are the things I need to do? And so
that education process of saying, let me help you, let
me show you how we build your credit, let me
show you what you have to do. Those are things
that you know, I feel like they should teach in
(30:43):
college and in high school, but they don't. You know,
I think high school should have and maybe some do.
I didn't a basic here's how you manage your checkbook,
here's how you manage your credit, and so so many
people don't have that option. So you guys being able
to guide you through that is very helpful. So any
(31:04):
other thing about needing to about the credit, I think
it also depends on the type of loan you can
get as well.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Right, yes, some of the loan programs you do have
to have a specific credit score, but we definitely try
to make it work even if you're really close to
a certain bracket. I'm going to do my best in
order to get you at the lowest rate possible, just
so that way we can help you get your mortgage
in place.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
One of the things that we were talking about during
the break is the credit. I mean the interest rate
You've heard me say it here over and over and over.
So many people are concerned about the interest rate right
now when it is really good.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
It is.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
We were just spoiled with unrealistic rates for way too long.
And listen, I was thankful for them too. They just
weren't not realistic. And when you are talking to people,
you know my age, my husband's age, and you know
that interest rates at that point when he bought, when
my husband bought, was like fourteen percent, and people were
(32:09):
still buying houses then. And so the fact that over
the last thirty years, our average interest rate is seven
point seven, we are well below the average rate. Thankfully,
I'm so glad. I remember when I first got into
real estate and the market was like eleven and twelve,
and when we got into seagull digit numbers, I was
(32:30):
like woooo. When we got in the nines, we were
so excited. So it's all relative, isn't it. Yes, Yeah,
it's all relative. So buying a house now at a
really decent interest rate is not a bad idea, because
I'm telling you, unless something tragic happens, which we can't see,
(32:51):
the market is going to continue to grow and to
do better. Here in Southeast Texas. Any other MythBusters we
need to wrap up with.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Let's see, how about you should always choose a thirty
year fixed mortgage. That's not always the case. There are
different options. Like I said, we have fifteen twenty year mortgages.
We do have what we call ARM which is an
adjustable rate matrix, and that would also give you maybe
a set rate for five years, but if the market
(33:23):
changes and maybe the interest rate goes down, then you
can benefit from that. So don't always feel that you're
fixed on a certain term. And just like what we
discussed earlier, it's you know, refinancing is not the enemy.
You know, you want to see about refinancing if needed.
Sometimes you can take that equity out of your home
and put it to investments and things like that, or
(33:44):
even other properties. And that's okay too, just to look
at the bigger picture to set you up for your future.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, and it allows you to if you do a
thirty year your monthly payments may be lower, but you
can always make principal reductions. Yeah, and so you can
always add to that. And if you have extra, add
to your principle and do a principal reduction. So For
some of my customers, you know they'll want the fifteen year,
(34:10):
but they're just not in a position. And I always say,
if you have a monthly payment with taxes, insurance, PMI,
everything of twenty five hundred dollars, if instead of making
twelve payments a year, you'll make a thirteenth payment, that
cuts your years from thirty to about seventeen. Just by
(34:31):
making one extra principal payment a year. That entire twenty
five hundred would go to principle only. So there are
things you can do to get creative to help yourself
long term. But for me, let's go ahead and hit
some of those MythBusters we talked in the last one
to let people know, hey, that's not the case. What
was the first one we talked about?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
First one we talked about was needing twenty percent down
to buy home.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Definitely do not need that. You can get in at
zero percent down right right, even for conventional loans if
they qualify.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yes, what else we were getting to proved means you're
a guaranteed a loan. Not true.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
There are other things that have to happen. Appraisal, surveys,
title commitment, all those things need to happen as well.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
The lowest interest rate is always the best deal.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Not the case it is not. You have to look
at everything right, right. Sometimes people will quote you a
low rate, but what they're doing is they're charging you
prepaid interest up front. So looking at all of the
details is really important.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
And even fees, fees always get tacked on.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
It's cheaper to rent than to buy. We both know
that's all. Rent is temporary guys, Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
And it's not building your equity, it's building your landlord's equity.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Right. And the next one we went over is you
can't get a mortgage if you have student loan debt.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Right, there are options.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Right, Yes, there's more options than not. And then I
think that's all that we went over.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
You don't have to have perfect credit. No, think I
what for the last one. So lots of good MythBusters
that we've talked about today that you need to know
are options for you. If people have a question and
want to get a hold of you, how do.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
They do that, Delilah, Well, they can stop by the
location again. My branch is at thirty five fifteen Dallan
Road in Beaumnes, or you can reach me directly at
four zero nine three one three seven nine seven five.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Well, when we come back, we're going to talk about
one way that you can reduce your monthly mortgage payment.
We're gonna give you some tips, so don't go away.
This is Dana Simmons. We'll be right back. Welcome back.
This is Dana Simmons. And I have enjoyed having Delilah Benson,
consumer relationship manager for First Financial Bank on the show
(36:48):
with me, and she has been through MythBusters Mortgage edition.
We've been talking about all of the myths that are
out there when it comes to the home buying process,
and she has blown up some of those myths for us.
But one of the things that I also wanted to
visit with her about is PMI because this has happened
to me recently. So Delilah, tell the audience a little
(37:09):
bit about what is PMI.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
PMI is your private mortgage insurance. This is actually part
of like the little myth as well that it's just
some big scam and that the lenders just trying to
charge all this money for you, but really it just
helps because if the customer does not have twenty percent down,
it covers both you and the lender in order to
get financing.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Yeah, so it's really just insurance for the mortgage company
that if you default on the loan, that's part of
what PMI helps to cover, right right, And so that's
something that can be added to your loan if, just
like Delilah said, if you don't put twenty percent down.
So I recently was looking at our mortgage and what
(37:56):
I realized was just a month or two ago, is
that it was the date for when my twenty percent
was into the house. So I bought my house four
or five years ago. I didn't put twenty percent down.
I didn't have that total, but I did just get
to the point on my note where I have twenty percent.
(38:17):
But one of the things that you might notice on
your note it says you will reach your twenty percent
on this date and then it will automatically drop off,
but that won't be for another year or so. Yes,
because they want to ensure that you've really got twenty
percent exactly. So I put, actually, not me, my husband
put on this calendar that date that it said we'll
(38:39):
have twenty percent. And so I called the mortgage company
and said, hey, I have twenty percent in what do
I need to do to get that off? She goes, Okay,
it's done, and that was it. So then it was
one phone call and she goes, nothing else you need
to do and dropped my note note, so that I
(39:01):
am no longer am paying PMI on that. And that
is one way if you're struggling with your mortgage. That
is one thing that we can do. I've helped customers
do that. Sometimes the lender will require some sort of
market analysis, so I have provided for many clients a
market analysis to show the lender that there is twenty
(39:24):
percent equity into the house. So if that's you and
you think you may have twenty percent down, call your
mortgage company, ask them what will they require to remove
that mortgage insurance? And if they say that they'll just
take a something from a real estate agent that says
that you have twenty percent into the property, or can
(39:46):
provide a market analysis for you, call my office four
oh nine eight sixty six eight three two six. Tell
my isays that Dana said that she would do that
for you, and I will be happy to connect with you,
get the information and then provide you with that market
analysis to help you get that PMI removed because listen,
(40:09):
anything we can do in this economy to help each
of you, we want to be able to do that.
So let me know how we can do that. Or
go to Dana Simmons real estate dot com. You can
fill out a contact us information on our website and
my ISAs will give you a call and we will
get something scheduled to visit with you. It has been
such a pleasure to have you on the show. Delilah.
(40:32):
Tell everyone again if they wanted to contact you, how
do they get ahold of you?
Speaker 2 (40:36):
Yes, thank you so much again for having me. I've
enjoyed being on. I am at our dollin location. It's
thirty five point fifteen Dollan Road right by the Big
HGB and then my direct contact number is four zero
nine three one three seven nine seven five.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Well, it's been great having you so much great information
for us to know about MythBusters. For people who are
are having things that aren't real and aren't true, we
want to make sure that we're getting them the right information.
I am so glad you joined us today. I hope
you enjoyed this Saturday. This is Dana Simmons with the
Dana Simmons show
Well, hello Southeast Texas. I hope you're enjoying a wonderful Saturday.
We have an exciting group today to talk about. We
have Delilah Benson. She is the AVP Consumer relationship manager
with First Financial Bank, and she's going through MythBusters. What
are some of the things that you thought you knew
(00:22):
about mortgages that maybe are a little incorrect. So she's
going to go through some of that with us. Also,
I'm going to talk about how can you potentially reduce
your mortgage expense monthly. We're going to give you some
tips and tricks on things you can do to reduce
that mortgage payment. But before we get started, i'd love
(00:43):
to give you a little bit of information about what
is the market doing right now. Well, we've recently received
the September twenty twenty five stats. We haven't gotten any
others at this point, so we're going to go with
those and let me give you a little hint as
to how things are going. Actually, last year about this time,
(01:04):
we had about seven months of inventory. This year we're
at five point eight. Last year we had sales closed
at two hundred and eighty total. This year three hundred
and fifty two. So you can see that with that
little bit of reduction in the interest rate and some
(01:26):
of the positive things going on, we are seeing an
increase in the market. Oh isn't that great news to
all of us. We have all been in a little
bit of a season of a challenge and a little
bit of a rut for the last several years. We've
seen the numbers that were fairly low. And while the
(01:48):
market has always moved, it's always selling, There are people
moving all the time, it's just been a little softer
in the last couple of years. We are soon super
excited about what that means over the next several months
and for twenty twenty six. So if you are thinking
(02:08):
about is now the right time for me to go
ahead and get in the market, give my office a
call at four oh nine eight six six eight three
two six. We have someone who can answer that call
for you right now, or go to our website, Danasimmons
real estate dot com and they can sit down and
(02:29):
visit with you about exactly what is the market doing
in either the area you want to purchase or potentially
the area that you want to sell in. We can
give you specifics on what's going on in those general areas.
It's very different from one price point to another, one
(02:50):
location to another. If you're listening to the national news
and taking your information from there, I would recommend that
you not do that. Real estate is very local and
so we want to even narrow it down to specifics
on city or neighborhood or even subdivision. So we're happy
(03:10):
to get that information for you. There's no cost to you.
If you want any of that information, you can sit
down and visit with one of our buyer's agents who
can guide you through. Here's step one, step two, step three.
We have a buyer book that we can give you
that goes through what is the process like, and then
we can guide you through that. If you're a first
(03:30):
time home buyer, if you're a seller and you've not
done you've not sold a property in several years, and
you're unsure of what are the steps involved, we can
have one of our agents meet with you walk through
what does that process look like. What do we do
to prepare your house to sell? What are some of
the things you should do or shouldn't do prior to
(03:52):
putting it on the market. Those are some topics we'll
be talking about over the next several weeks. Because there
are things that you can do to improve the value
of your house that will not cost you a lot
of money. But there are some things that people are
doing that actually impact the home sale in a negative way.
(04:13):
And one of those things I'll tell you about is
solar panels. If you have considered solar panels, I would
give you warnings about that. I have had so many
sellers who have regretted that decision for many reasons. One
reason is they've they've gone to move and they have
(04:36):
to pay off that significant cost of those solar panels,
which could be as much as eighty thousand dollars out
of their equity in order to sell. Others have had
challenges with the fact that the solar panel company went
out of business and there's no longer a warranty associated
with that. There are just so many different challenges when
(05:00):
it comes to some upgrades. So we would love to
sit down and give you our experience. I've been in
this business almost thirty years, and I've got agents in
my office who have been in the business a very
long time as well, So we'd love to give you
information based on what we've seen over the many years,
So give our office a call again four oh nine
(05:21):
eight six six Team Team four oh nine eight sixty
six eight three two six, and we'd love to chat
with you about those upgrades. So I'm going to introduce
you to Delilah Benson. And Delilah, you haven't your first
time guest on our show, so excited to have you here.
(05:41):
So I'd love for you to tell everyone a little
bit about you.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, well, first and foremost, thank you so much for
having me. This is such a cool experience. But my
name is Delilah Benson. I am with First Financial Bank.
I am our consumer relationship manager. Just a little background
on me. I am born and raised from Bone, Texas.
A little different or extended version of myself is that
I didn't do the typical route. As soon as I
(06:08):
graduated from Hampshire and at high school, I went to
lit for a couple of years and then I had
that moment of anxiety of like what am I going
to do with my life? You know? So I did
take a break from school. I ended up getting married,
having children, and in that time frame I did get
introduced to the financial world. I actually started working at
one of those title loan companies that you see down
(06:30):
the road. And then I was fortunate enough to actually
land a job at a credit union, where I was
at for about ten years, and I actually started there
as a teller and moved my way up to one
of their credit analysts. And then in that time frame,
I actually went back and got my degree from Lamar University.
I have a bachelor's in communications, and I took advantage
(06:52):
of the opportunity to get with First Financial Bank as
their consumer lender. And here I am. I've been here
since anyway, and I've been loving it ever since.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I am so impressed that you know, there are many
people out there who you know, I was one of them.
I started out going to school. I was. I went
to Lamar and was working full time to help to
pay for college, and that was taking a little longer
than it does for most because I was working and
going to school and then met my husband, married, had children,
(07:26):
same story, and then was a stay at home mom
for a few years before I started working. And so
the fact that as a mom you still went back
to school and you were able to accomplish that, tell
me how you did that?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Was that was a little rough. I'm not gonna lie
because I did have a few credits that thankfully transferred
from l I T it's a wonderful school. So if
you're ever in the market for that, I do highly
Suggess looking into that as well. But for me, I
ended up finishing my bachelor's within two years, went a
solid two years, summer's winter, all the things, and I
(08:05):
was working full time at that point. I did have
all my babies I have through babies, and so I
just had a great support system along with that. My
husband was very supportive in me making that decision. I
knew that it would grow, not only as on a
personal level but professionally, and so I just had to
take the opportunity once it came about.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So that's amazing. That is an amazing story, and I
think an encouragement to a lot of people out there
listening who maybe have been in that same position and
think it's not doable, but it is, and you're right.
We're so blessed to have Lamar University and lit right
here in our backyard. Sid Valentine over at Riit. He
(08:45):
is so much fun and is always willing to sit
down and talk to someone, give you a tour of
their gorgeous new facility and be able to give you
insight on lots of different options for things that they
have to year degree there and then Lamar University of course,
a four year degree that you can two in two
years if you really push.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yeah, now you said three children.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I do. I have a daughter, she's seven, and then
I have twins, a boy and a girl. And therefore
you're superwoman. That's all I can say. Oh my goodness,
that's pretty.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
That really is amazing. Congratulations so much so you're you're
making it all happen to me.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I tried that.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Well, we are so glad, and are you in Beaumont now?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I am, Well, I live in China and China, we
have our family in China, have a house out there,
and it's been great. My husband's actually from Harn Jefferson,
so it's a no brainer removing, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
By families. You know, so often when I have guests
on the show, I absolutely love that it's people who
were born here and decided to stay here and to
make this community the place that they live, that they
work and they raise a family, and and that we
(10:01):
have so many things here I think that are good
for you to be able to do that. You know,
both my children graduated from Lamar University and my daughter
got to master's. My son went off and got a
he's a CRNA. My son in law graduated Lamar and
my daughter in law graduated Lamar. So they all went
(10:24):
to school here, stayed here, and thank the Lord, they're
raising their children here. If they took my grandbabies anywhere else,
I might be a little upset.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
My brother actually lives in Tennessee, and I can tell
it's tough, but we're thankful that they're able to make
the trips for the holidays and things like that. But
I can definitely understand.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Well, I am excited to have you on the show, Delilah,
and we are super excited to talk about myth busters
mortgage editions. Mortgage editions, So.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Don't go away.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
When we come back, we're gonna have lots of good
info for you. This is the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back.
This is Dana Simmons and I am joined today by
Delilah Benson. She is the vice president of consumer relationship
manager here in our first financial bank location. So she
(11:14):
is going to give us a few MythBusters more eage editions.
So I want to know, Delilah, what do you think
is the most popular myth that people hear but really
isn't true about buying a house.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
The number one thing that I've always here is do
I need twenty percent down for a home? And really
and truly know there's so many programs out there where
it's first on Buyer's FAJVA, Affordable Home, community access, all
the things that are available where you don't have to
have twenty percent down. Now, granted, that doesn't mean that
(11:54):
excludes you from that private mortgage insurance if you don't
have twenty percent, but it does not mean that you
can't get a home loan not having that much cash down.
Some of them go as low as zero percent, depending
on your credit. A lot of the times it will
probably be about three to five percent down instead, and
that's much more manageable than asking for twenty percent. So
(12:15):
I would say that was probably like the golden question
is do I need twenty percent? And no, that's not true.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
And one of the things I love about First Financial
is that you guys have so many different loan programs,
so some of which are you do solely within the
bank it's not like anyone else has them because you
do them in the bank. So a couple of those
(12:41):
one is called MMCT.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Right, Yes, we we categorize, categorize that as affordable home
loan that is more income based, and being in Beaumont,
a lot of that would qualify. Those properties will qualify
an affordable home. We also have what we call community
Access and it's actually for someone who may not have
their Social Security number, but they do have an I
(13:04):
number and they can qualify for a home doing community access. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I know with the MMCT loan, people are shocked at
some of the locations that this loan product will qualify for.
And if you qualify for it based on your salary
as well as the location, you can get into this
conventional loan at zero percent down right, right, which is amazing.
(13:30):
And I think I've read the pro that your program
offers up to potentially two and a half percent of
the sales price and assistance on that loan as well. Yes,
so I mean it's like you have almost no money
you need to get in if you qualify for that
specific loan, right, which is amazing. I will tell you
(13:52):
the MMCT loan is also a good product for investors
because I actually purchased and investment property and it was
in one of those MMCT areas and I didn't even
have to put twenty percent down. I only had to
put ten percent down, and that your income level didn't
(14:13):
matter on that right. If it was an MMCT, I
only had to put ten percent down, which is so
good for investors. It allows them to get more properties.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Right, and if people aren't familiar, MMCT is major minority
since its tracked, and so a lot of Beaumont does
cover that. So we do have sites where we can
look up. If there is a location that you're interested
in purchasing, we can look up to see if it
qualifies as well.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yeah, and so one of the things that I think
is super important is that people are like, well.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Do I qualify? Yes for that, And there are some
different guidelines. It is a case by case basis, but
we definitely want you to stop by. You can call
me and we can look into it and see if
you would qualify. There's different options and sometimes you may
not necessarily want that product, but we have different options
available and we'll suit you to what you would be
(15:07):
better for you.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
That's what I love is that you have so many
options and you're not trying to fit a square peg
into a round hole, right, You're saying, Okay, let's look
at what you have and then what we have, and
let's figure out which one, two or three products will
fit you best depending on what your certain situation.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Is, right exactly, Which actually brings me to my next
MythBuster is the lowest interest rate is always the best deal.
And really and truly it's not. The lowest rate sometimes
comes with higher fees. And just like in this situation,
if you're thinking about an MMCT loan, but really and truly,
(15:49):
maybe that rate might not be suitable for you, and
you qualify for a lower rate, it might have a
different term attached to it. You don't have to feel
like you're locked into a thirty year mortgage. We do
offer ten, fifteen, twenty year mortgages. It's whatever suited for you.
I know a lot of people want to pay off
their mortgage as soon as possible, and if you have
(16:11):
the means to do it, by all means, go ahead
and do it. You know that way you're not locked
into a mortgage for so long. But given said that,
we always try to look at the best interest for
our customers. You know, we want to make sure that
we're not overextending them on a mortgage. And sometimes if
that low interest rate might be tacked on to a
fifteen year mortgage and it might hike up your your
(16:34):
actual payment, and so we try to do our best
in order to look at the overall picture and make
sure that you're getting what you need.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah, and being able to provide that in black and
white data for them to look at, because I know,
I think about an FAHA loan, you only have to
put three and a half percent down, but that FAHA
mortgage insurance premium gets tacked onto that loan, right, same
thing with the VA it might be zero percent down,
but with the VA you have that via funding fee
(17:04):
that's tacked on. So I think that's so critical that
people are able to look at all the pieces together
and say, Okay, here's here's your different loan programs, here's
what the interest rate is, here's what your fees will
be if you use this program, and then they get
to choose based on their situation exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
And then you have to be just be mindful of
like your day to day life, you know, is your
mortgage your top priority. It's to where you know you
want to pay it out faster or do you want
to extend it a little bit longer so you have
a little bit more cash flow on a monthly basis.
Because let's be honest, the economy is kind of crazy
right now, so groceries can get expensive and you just
have to be mindful of all the things.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yeah, thinking through your entire life situation exactly. I love
that you guys are here locally, so it's not like
you're calling someone in New York or Buffalo or California wherever,
and you know, try to talk to someone.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
You guys are here.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
They can come sit in your office and show you
can show them in front of you all of the things.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yes, yes, we are located. I mean we have several
different lenders in each of our branches, so I mean
definitely stop by to one of our locations and we
will be able to sit with you. We can do
some calculations for you and see what's the best bit.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, and talk about where are those locations.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
So I'm primarily located in Beaumont. I am at thirty
five fifteen Dollon Road that's right next to the Big
hib my dear friend Malvana, She's located in Lumberton. And
then we do have writer who is located in our
mid County location and ms Lannie is located in Orange.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
And you still have a couple of other locations throughout
Southeast Texas where if someone needed you to meet them
there at the other locations or you guys will just
meet people anywhere. Almost.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yes, yeah, yes, that's the great part of being you know,
a relationship managers, because we want to build those relationships.
So you know, we're not tied down to the nine
to five. If you do need to meet me beforehand
and say hey, let's grab some coffee, Bill means let's
do it. And you know, we want to make sure
that we have a healthy relationship and kind of know
where each other stand. We do have a location inviter
(19:21):
and some of us float through the Battery location, so
if you ever want to meet we're more than welcome
to meet you at any location. Also, Maurice Phil Yes,
Marie Phil, I believe Newton and Newton so well.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
The other thing is, okay, so you've visited with the borrower,
you guys have come to terms with Okay, this is
the best fit for us, we want to go this route.
You get the pre approval letter, let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
So the pre approval letter doesn't always mean that you're
guaranteed alone. That's one of our myths is that you
have this pre approval, you're gonna lock in. But there's
so many different factors that go into that, so just
be mindful. We do have to ask for, of course,
your financials and things like that, the appraisals because in
the end we want to also make sure that the
(20:09):
house is fit for you in order to do the loan.
That only protects us, but it also protects you as
a customer that you're not buying into something that you
know may not be in the best interest. It might
fall apart on you.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Yeah, so the pre approval is really good and it's
what you want to have upfront because it does give
you a certain stability and knowing that you can buy
a house and for how much. But you're right, there
are things that you have to go through. After you
find the house, you do an inspection to make sure
that the functions are all working. And then even after
the inspection, you a slender order an appraisal. Yes, and
(20:47):
the appraiser will decide if there are things that they
think need to be repaired or not, and sometimes sellers
aren't willing to do those things. And even though the
appraiser caught that, the other thing is title is we
have had things come up so often with tidal issues
because of probates and airs and challenges that no one
(21:09):
knew about in the beginning. And then we go to
open title and find out there are four other people
who actually have ownership of this property as well. So
all of those things go together to create a situation
where you can move forward on purchasing purchasing that home. Okay,
(21:29):
let's talk about another myth. It's cheaper to rent than
to buy.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
That's not always the case, and honestly a lot of
people think that, you know, it is cheaper to rent,
but really and truly, some of these apartments, especially in
this area, have skyrocketed. I mean they're well in over
one thousand dollars for just a single one bedroom home,
when really you can get into a mortgage for half
of that cost. But of course it does depend on
(21:57):
the location, the market trends and things like that, and
what your financial goals are. But nine times out of ten.
It is going to be cheaper to buy than to rent.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
And you're building equity for yourself exactly whenever you are purchasing. Listen,
I have rental property. I have tenants in properties that
I own. What I can tell you is that they
cover my mortgage, they pay my equity, they pay they
cover the cost of my insurance. So all the things
(22:28):
that you would pay if you were to buy a house,
they're covering plus some right, because there has to be
a chushion in there for it to be a profitable
business venture. And so that's even if you if you
rent a house. So I would say build your own equity.
It's what gives you a long term investment into something
(22:50):
that will be yours. And you know, we were talking
during the break about investing and how you know buying
a house. If you think buying a house and you're
going to sell it in two to three years and
you're going to make a killing, it's not going to happen.
Real estate is a long term play. But look at
(23:11):
the market ten years ago and look at the market
today it has Or look at the market when I
started thirty years ago and look at the market today.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Let me just say.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
I remember Ken and I about ten years ago said oh,
we we really would love to have a place in
the hill country one day. We're going to wait till
those prices get better.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Wish we would have.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Bought ten years ago, right, Because that's one thing about
real estate. While you may see little divots for a
little bit, we do. It's cyclical. We see it go
down the hair, we always see it come back up,
and so long term investment.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
We had this. I had this conversation with my father
just the other day and he was like, you know
what I bought this land for twenty five thousand dollars
is a ten acre land? I said, Oh, my goodness,
this would be like I don't know, three hundred thousand
dollars at this point. And it's crazy to me how
much the market has changed in just the last I
(24:09):
would say, fifteen years since he's had it, and a
lot of people are scared to buy, and really and
truly nothing's going to change as far as that market
trend goes. I mean, at this point, we're not going
to be seeing no ten acres for twenty five thousand anymore.
I don't think that people should really hesitate if they
want to buy it, buy it, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
And now it's a great time because, as I was saying,
we're seeing the market start to improve. We still have
a good inventory. You know, when I was talking about
our inventory, we still have about six months of inventory
right now. That's an even market. But I don't know
how many of you remember two or three years ago
when our inventory was two three months of inventory. We
(24:49):
were so low so that it was a seller's market
at that point. September of twenty twenty one was three
point six months of inventory. Anything between a five six
month inventory is a pretty even market. I am gonna
say and go out on a limb here and say
that in the spring of next year, I think the
(25:11):
market is going to definitely pick up, and I think
our inventory is going to begin to shrink. We have
so many things coming to Southeast Texas. You can see it.
You see the new growth out as you're heading into
Mid County. All that's going on over there, and that
refinery and there, and then not over an Orange, and
(25:33):
then there's so much more behind the scenes that people
don't know about that is coming.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
To our area.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
That's going to bring a need for housing, and so
our market is going to get better. Purchase now. Purchase
now while you're not competing with three other people who
want the same house that you want. It is a
much better time to buy now. Then you buy the
house at a decent price. In two or three years
the interest rate drops for or whenever it does refinance.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yes, you're in.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
A position to do that and so, but you already
got the house at a much more affordable price than
when you have to compete. So when we come back
a few more MythBusters, you don't want to go away.
This is the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back. This is
Dana Simmons and we have been visiting with Delilah Benson.
(26:25):
She is the consumer relationship manager at First Financial Bank.
She has been giving us MythBusters Mortgage Edition. So we've
been talking about what are some of the myths that
are out there when you are thinking about buying a house.
So we've been through a few of those. Will recap
at the end of this segment, but let's talk about
(26:47):
what are a few other MythBusters that you hear Delilah.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
One other one, especially you know, graduating college, people think
that you can't get a mortgage if you have to
doudent loan debt. Mini buyers with student loans think that
they can't qualify just because of debt to income ratios.
There's things that we look at. Of course, we do
see if you're deferred on your student loans, but normally
if they are, we just take a percentage of it.
(27:15):
We're not taking the big lump sum on it. But
we try to see about how we can help manage
your student loan debt, you know, that way you can
qualify for it. Sometimes that involves us restructuring some of
your other debt. I've definitely had, you know, a couple
of customers where our refinance and auto to help kind
of eat up some of that debt for the student
(27:37):
loan to where they could qualify for a mortgage.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, so what you're saying is, come sit down and
talk to me, and let's figure out how we can
make it happen.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
I know. Also I've had clients physicians, other people who
are professionals and have graduated. They don't have income yet,
but they have a contract with a company, yes, and
so talk about how that works.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
We actually do have for medical professionals. We have a
program that we can allow them to finance up to
one hundred percent of their home as long as they have,
you know, the resources to kind of back that. There
is some paperwork involved in that, but yeah, we definitely
help our healthcare professionals in that way and to help
them get set up. I mean recently, we have helped
(28:24):
a student that newly graduated and she ended up buying
a home in Houston, and we were able to finance
a full hundred percent of that home for her.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yeah, you guys have helped several of the physicians that
I've worked with who have graduated and moved to Beaumont
to be able to do that. And actually my son,
whenever he was graduating and getting his new position here,
it was just based on the contract. He didn't have
a job, hadn't had a job since he had been
going to school. And so the ability to be able
(28:57):
to get a loan even if you've graduated and you
have the job, but you haven't started making the income.
I think so many people don't understand that it's a
matter of come sit down and talk to us and
let us talk you through what we can or what
we can't do. But every time I've sent someone to you, guys,
(29:17):
if it's something you couldn't do right, then there was
always a plan put in place to say here are
the things you need to do in order to make
this happen exactly. And so to me that is super helpful.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
What about credit, So credit it does range of course,
you know, the better the credit score you have, the
better the interest rate in a sense. But if for
any reason I can't qualify you, like you said, right
then and there, I do help on credit building with you.
We just look at your financials. We see where we
(29:53):
can help you improve, whether it just be you know,
making sure maybe putting payments on automatic pay withdraws to
where they pay on time. It's just simple things like
that that improve your score. It does take a little time,
it's not something that happens overnight. But we definitely have
a plan in place where it can be a six
month to a twelve month plan for you to where
(30:15):
we can get you where you need to be. Because
I know a lot of people's goal is to buy
a home, and so I want to get you there.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah, and if you can't today, let's figure out a
way we can get you there in a timely manner. Exactly,
and there are some people who just don't know, Okay,
what are the things I need to do? And so
that education process of saying, let me help you, let
me show you how we build your credit, let me
show you what you have to do. Those are things
that you know, I feel like they should teach in
(30:43):
college and in high school, but they don't. You know,
I think high school should have and maybe some do.
I didn't a basic here's how you manage your checkbook,
here's how you manage your credit, and so so many
people don't have that option. So you guys being able
to guide you through that is very helpful. So any
(31:04):
other thing about needing to about the credit, I think
it also depends on the type of loan you can
get as well.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Right, yes, some of the loan programs you do have
to have a specific credit score, but we definitely try
to make it work even if you're really close to
a certain bracket. I'm going to do my best in
order to get you at the lowest rate possible, just
so that way we can help you get your mortgage
in place.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
One of the things that we were talking about during
the break is the credit. I mean the interest rate
You've heard me say it here over and over and over.
So many people are concerned about the interest rate right
now when it is really good.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
It is.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
We were just spoiled with unrealistic rates for way too long.
And listen, I was thankful for them too. They just
weren't not realistic. And when you are talking to people,
you know my age, my husband's age, and you know
that interest rates at that point when he bought, when
my husband bought, was like fourteen percent, and people were
(32:09):
still buying houses then. And so the fact that over
the last thirty years, our average interest rate is seven
point seven, we are well below the average rate. Thankfully,
I'm so glad. I remember when I first got into
real estate and the market was like eleven and twelve,
and when we got into seagull digit numbers, I was
(32:30):
like woooo. When we got in the nines, we were
so excited. So it's all relative, isn't it. Yes, Yeah,
it's all relative. So buying a house now at a
really decent interest rate is not a bad idea, because
I'm telling you, unless something tragic happens, which we can't see,
(32:51):
the market is going to continue to grow and to
do better. Here in Southeast Texas. Any other MythBusters we
need to wrap up with.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Let's see, how about you should always choose a thirty
year fixed mortgage. That's not always the case. There are
different options. Like I said, we have fifteen twenty year mortgages.
We do have what we call ARM which is an
adjustable rate matrix, and that would also give you maybe
a set rate for five years, but if the market
(33:23):
changes and maybe the interest rate goes down, then you
can benefit from that. So don't always feel that you're
fixed on a certain term. And just like what we
discussed earlier, it's you know, refinancing is not the enemy.
You know, you want to see about refinancing if needed.
Sometimes you can take that equity out of your home
and put it to investments and things like that, or
(33:44):
even other properties. And that's okay too, just to look
at the bigger picture to set you up for your future.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, and it allows you to if you do a
thirty year your monthly payments may be lower, but you
can always make principal reductions. Yeah, and so you can
always add to that. And if you have extra, add
to your principle and do a principal reduction. So For
some of my customers, you know they'll want the fifteen year,
(34:10):
but they're just not in a position. And I always say,
if you have a monthly payment with taxes, insurance, PMI,
everything of twenty five hundred dollars, if instead of making
twelve payments a year, you'll make a thirteenth payment, that
cuts your years from thirty to about seventeen. Just by
(34:31):
making one extra principal payment a year. That entire twenty
five hundred would go to principle only. So there are
things you can do to get creative to help yourself
long term. But for me, let's go ahead and hit
some of those MythBusters we talked in the last one
to let people know, hey, that's not the case. What
was the first one we talked about?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
First one we talked about was needing twenty percent down
to buy home.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Definitely do not need that. You can get in at
zero percent down right right, even for conventional loans if
they qualify.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yes, what else we were getting to proved means you're
a guaranteed a loan. Not true.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
There are other things that have to happen. Appraisal, surveys,
title commitment, all those things need to happen as well.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
The lowest interest rate is always the best deal.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Not the case it is not. You have to look
at everything right, right. Sometimes people will quote you a
low rate, but what they're doing is they're charging you
prepaid interest up front. So looking at all of the
details is really important.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
And even fees, fees always get tacked on.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
It's cheaper to rent than to buy. We both know
that's all. Rent is temporary guys, Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
And it's not building your equity, it's building your landlord's equity.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Right. And the next one we went over is you
can't get a mortgage if you have student loan debt.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Right, there are options.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Right, Yes, there's more options than not. And then I
think that's all that we went over.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
You don't have to have perfect credit. No, think I
what for the last one. So lots of good MythBusters
that we've talked about today that you need to know
are options for you. If people have a question and
want to get a hold of you, how do.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
They do that, Delilah, Well, they can stop by the
location again. My branch is at thirty five fifteen Dallan
Road in Beaumnes, or you can reach me directly at
four zero nine three one three seven nine seven five.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Well, when we come back, we're going to talk about
one way that you can reduce your monthly mortgage payment.
We're gonna give you some tips, so don't go away.
This is Dana Simmons. We'll be right back. Welcome back.
This is Dana Simmons. And I have enjoyed having Delilah Benson,
consumer relationship manager for First Financial Bank on the show
(36:48):
with me, and she has been through MythBusters Mortgage edition.
We've been talking about all of the myths that are
out there when it comes to the home buying process,
and she has blown up some of those myths for us.
But one of the things that I also wanted to
visit with her about is PMI because this has happened
to me recently. So Delilah, tell the audience a little
(37:09):
bit about what is PMI.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
PMI is your private mortgage insurance. This is actually part
of like the little myth as well that it's just
some big scam and that the lenders just trying to
charge all this money for you, but really it just
helps because if the customer does not have twenty percent down,
it covers both you and the lender in order to
get financing.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Yeah, so it's really just insurance for the mortgage company
that if you default on the loan, that's part of
what PMI helps to cover, right right, And so that's
something that can be added to your loan if, just
like Delilah said, if you don't put twenty percent down.
So I recently was looking at our mortgage and what
(37:56):
I realized was just a month or two ago, is
that it was the date for when my twenty percent
was into the house. So I bought my house four
or five years ago. I didn't put twenty percent down.
I didn't have that total, but I did just get
to the point on my note where I have twenty percent.
(38:17):
But one of the things that you might notice on
your note it says you will reach your twenty percent
on this date and then it will automatically drop off,
but that won't be for another year or so. Yes,
because they want to ensure that you've really got twenty
percent exactly. So I put, actually, not me, my husband
put on this calendar that date that it said we'll
(38:39):
have twenty percent. And so I called the mortgage company
and said, hey, I have twenty percent in what do
I need to do to get that off? She goes, Okay,
it's done, and that was it. So then it was
one phone call and she goes, nothing else you need
to do and dropped my note note, so that I
(39:01):
am no longer am paying PMI on that. And that
is one way if you're struggling with your mortgage. That
is one thing that we can do. I've helped customers
do that. Sometimes the lender will require some sort of
market analysis, so I have provided for many clients a
market analysis to show the lender that there is twenty
(39:24):
percent equity into the house. So if that's you and
you think you may have twenty percent down, call your
mortgage company, ask them what will they require to remove
that mortgage insurance? And if they say that they'll just
take a something from a real estate agent that says
that you have twenty percent into the property, or can
(39:46):
provide a market analysis for you, call my office four
oh nine eight sixty six eight three two six. Tell
my isays that Dana said that she would do that
for you, and I will be happy to connect with you,
get the information and then provide you with that market
analysis to help you get that PMI removed because listen,
(40:09):
anything we can do in this economy to help each
of you, we want to be able to do that.
So let me know how we can do that. Or
go to Dana Simmons real estate dot com. You can
fill out a contact us information on our website and
my ISAs will give you a call and we will
get something scheduled to visit with you. It has been
such a pleasure to have you on the show. Delilah.
(40:32):
Tell everyone again if they wanted to contact you, how
do they get ahold of you?
Speaker 2 (40:36):
Yes, thank you so much again for having me. I've
enjoyed being on. I am at our dollin location. It's
thirty five point fifteen Dollan Road right by the Big
HGB and then my direct contact number is four zero
nine three one three seven nine seven five.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Well, it's been great having you so much great information
for us to know about MythBusters. For people who are
are having things that aren't real and aren't true, we
want to make sure that we're getting them the right information.
I am so glad you joined us today. I hope
you enjoyed this Saturday. This is Dana Simmons with the
Dana Simmons show
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