December 22, 2025 • 41 mins
David LeJune, Market President of Financial Bank in midcounty shares some of the ways the bank can help customers, plus some holiday financial safety tips.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello Southeast Texas. I'm so glad you're joining us
on this wonderful Saturday. I have an incredible guest joining
me today, David L. June. He's the market president for
First Financial Bank over in the mid county market, and
he's going to share with us a little bit about
who he is, what he's done, and what are some
ways that maybe he can help you. That's his goal
(00:24):
is he has an incredible servant's heart and if he
can assist you. Believe me, he's one of the guys
I think you're going to enjoy getting to meet and
understand how he really does have a heart of gold
wanting to serve you. For me, I wanted to give
you a little bit of update on the real estate market.
While things have been a little bit soft, we are
(00:44):
expecting a very powerful, incredible boom in the spring. That's
what we are looking forward to. With a little bit
of the interest rate drop and with spring coming, we
normally see a one full increase in our cells. So
if you're thinking about buying or selling, but you don't
(01:05):
know if now is the right time for you, let's
just sit down and look at what is it that's
important to you and is it the right time for you?
Our office number is four nine eight six six eight
three two six, or go to Dana Simmons real estate
dot com and we can schedule a conversation with you
just to sit down and talk. One of our goals
(01:26):
is just to educate you, to guide you through the
process to see if now is the right time or not.
If it's not, we give you ideas and thoughts on
what may be a better time. So, uh, let's sit
down and visit and connect. That's one of the things
we love to do is to educate you on what's
going on so that you can make a wise decision
for you and your family. And that's one of the
(01:47):
things that I love about First Financial Bank is that
they are a local bank. They are ready to educate
and to walk you through what is it that you
need and is there a way they can help you?
And with the Today is David la June. And David,
you've been in South East Texas a very long time,
like all your life.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
My whole life. Yes, yes, this is home. I love it.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I love a lot of people. They know you as
mister portnacious, right, Well, that's part of who you are.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I'm very involved, you know, I always say this, and
I don't want people to think I'm I'm bragging on
Port Nature's but Port Nacus has been a great Portnacus
Grows has been a great community for my family, for
my kids, for me, and I try to give back
as much as I can, with either Chamber, river Fest
of fundraisers, the cases, whatever I can do to help
(02:40):
anyone there. I want to give back because it's such
a great place.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, And a lot of people can say that they
know great things about Portnacius. You know, even though I
was born and raised in Neederland and I was a bulldog,
we still you know, it was a long time ago,
well before you were in school in Port Nahius. I
was in Nederland and we would go to I remember
my family. There were five of us kids and so
(03:05):
seven with my mom and dad, and we'd load up
in that gold station wagon we had with no seat
belts on because you did requirement then, and we'd go
to those p ANDNG state games over in the Astrodome.
And that was a big deal for us because number one,
our family didn't do much, you know, my parents did
(03:27):
so well raising us on very little and made sure
that we still had fun times like driving to the
Astrodome and we wore our bulldog shirts and cheered for
the Indians. And so PNG has had some really cool things,
not just in football, but football's been one that's been
really good. And here recently, you guys have done really
(03:47):
well in football as well.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Oh, we've had a great run. And I come from
a sports family. My father in law played for the
Astros and and so sports is in our family. You know.
This weekend I watched Memorial, I watched West Strange, and
I kept up with Newton. I mean, so we watch everything,
and I talk about Friday night or football. I enjoy
(04:09):
watching the bands. It's so impressive to see how many
kids are participating in a Friday night game. Is it
not just football, it's the band. It's now the TV stations.
You know, they're putting on the games, they're learning, they're involved.
And I always tell people kids that are involved or
kids that stay out of trouble, Yeah, they all want
(04:31):
to do something. You just got to figure out what
they want to do and bring it.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
A sense of community, not just to them but also
to our whole community. Yep, yep, I remember the sense
of community when you know, even though the Bulldogs and
the Indians were battling each other most of the time,
whenever we would go, that would be a sense of community.
And it's a lot of fun. I love Mid County
madness and watching even though I'm no longer living in
Mid County. I live in Beaumont. It's so fun watching
(04:58):
that bantering that they do.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Oh, it's great, it's great. It's a great weekend. It's
a great week yeah. Uh, you know it's tenenty twelve
thousand people at one location cheering and having fun.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah. So raised in Port Nachus.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Raised in you know, grew up in Groves. I moved
to the big town of Portnachus at some point in
my life married a Port NAT's girl and like I
said to her dad was uh. He played for the
Astros as a catcher and was the head coach at
Port Nachus Grows for years. So, you know, athletics and
community has been in our blood since I was a
little kid.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Luckily graduated with a bachelor's degree in education and special
ed and physical education. Coached at Port Hus for nine years.
Before that, I coached at Kelly for two years and
so I taught special ed. I taught emotionally to their boys.
It was a great career. I loved every minute of it.
(05:53):
I just never saw my kids awake. I would leave
when they were sleeping. I got home and I was
home when they were sleeping, and so like, let's make
a change. I can always come back into teaching and coaching.
So I did that for ten years. Rolled into construction.
I did a restoration construction for Fortune five hundred companies
across the country. Did that for about fifteen years. We
(06:16):
had a very successful company. I learned a lot. I
learned a lot about people. I learned a lot about construction.
I learned a lot about insurance and money. It was
a very good education period for me. During that time,
I ran operations, but I also did all kinds of
stuff for the company. And then I've been a banker
for almost twelve years.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
It's amazing. So what I love about the fact that
you haven't always been a banker is that all that
you bring into that position right now. And one of
the things that you and I have talked about is
that in banking, the numbers are important. The numbers have
to work, you know, they just do. But for you.
(06:59):
I guess to watch you work sometimes, and what I
love to see is that for you, it's always about
the people, and the people are also really important. And
that's what I love about First Financial Bank is that
while yes, the numbers have to work, sometimes looking at
the people and who they are and their position in
the community and those factors are involved in making decisions.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Oh, one hundred percent. Yes, And you're right, the numbers
got to work, you know, you've got to put down
and show the bank, the loan committee that the numbers
somewhat work. But the character of the person is to
me more important than anything else. And I always tell
on people. I don't bet on their financials. I bet
on the person. Yeah, And most of my clients, if
(07:45):
something went terrible today, I think they could go get
along more in a weed eater and they could cut
grass and pay my note. That's how much I believe
in them.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Right, right, So you're looking at who are they. They're
not going to let me down, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
And they don't want to let me down. Yeah, Yeah,
you know that's you know, if I'm just a number
and I'm just a rate, I'm not sure that that's
my client, right, you know?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
But you've built these personal relationships with your clients so
that you're invested in them and they're invested in you.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Well, they're invested in me and they're invested in first
Financial bank. You know. I always tell people there's not
many groups that I would bank with in our community,
but there's a few other institutions that do a really
good job. We do a great job. We do a
great job of taking care of the customer by either
knowing all about them, being accessible, can do something. You know,
(08:36):
you never know when you have a glitch Friday evening
after five Saturday morning, and my phone is always on,
I can always get a hold of my assistant, Rebecca
can always work her magic. She's my help desk, and
so we can take care of a customer. You know,
if you're just a W two employee and you don't
need a lot of needs, there's places that can take
care of you. But if you own a business, or
(08:58):
you want a lot of transactions, or you're looking to
do something kind of different, there's no other place to look.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, absolutely one percent believe that too. And then you
have children now in the school system.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, well I say I have children, No there, Yeah,
they now have gave me grand baby. So in twenty
twenty five, I have a grandson and a granddaughter, so
exes it's.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
The best position thing else. So tell me a little
bit about that.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
So I have there's seven weeks apart, a little boy
and a little girl from my son had a boy,
my daughter had a little girl, and so it's the best.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And they live here locally.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
They live next door to each other, so I can
pull in one driveway and cover both of them.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I mean, mine aren't that close. But what a treat.
I'm telling you, there's nothing better with this being the
Christmas season and pageants that are going on and the Nutcracker.
Just this past weekend I was able to take my
granddaughters to the Nutcracker. And you know they're four year old,
four years old, four months apart, so yours are even
(10:03):
closer than mine and age, and boy, isn't it the best?
Just wait, is all I can say, David, you think
it's great? Now, just wait when they can run in
the in the door and go go god. Well, my
name's Granna, and one of them does call me granted,
the other one calls me Gaga. So when she comes
(10:25):
in and goes Granna. There's just nothing better. And then
they run past gimps to come to Granta. That even
makes me more happy, you know, And it doesn't make
him so happy. He sometimes is not as excited about Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
We've enjoyed, we've enjoyed. They're nine and eleven months and
yeah we've had a blast so far.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Okay, well just wait, it's wonderful in it. Every day
it just gets better. But super excited for us to
share about a couple of things that you really want
to talk about, one of which is going to be
a heelock. And if you don't know what a heelock is,
stay tuned. We're gonna visit with David about what is
and is it something that might assist you, So don't
(11:03):
go away. This is the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back.
This is Dana Simmons and I am joined today by
David la June. He is the market president a First
Financial Bank in the Mid County branch. How do you
name that branch?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
What do I call it? Mid County? I mean we're
right dab in the middle Port author Needle and Port
and h just grows. It's all finet, it's all right there.
We're less than five miles from all the cities, so
we call it Mid County.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Tell everybody we're that one branch.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, I get's right there next to Central Mall on
the backside by Sears is a standalone building. It's just
in a great location. We've outgrown the bank by personnel.
You know, we did not know that that bank was
going to take off and grow that fast. And it
handles a lot. There is a lot of volume that
(11:54):
goes through there. But we're very leary. I've talked to
blame with the president of moving and moving far from
that location because it's such a perfect spot.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
It really is. And with all the really nice growth
going on at Central Mall, I mean, there's so much
excitement there.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Sureous, sureous is so good. You know, selfishly I wanted
something good there. Yeah, and I think the group that's
purchased them is doing that. It sparks some interest, so
I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, that's wonderful. Well, while you're located at that Mid
County branch, you can assist people all over Texas and
you do right yep.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
So I have client yeah, I have we have clients
all over Texas exactly you know, I try to work
in Newton once a month, maybe twice a month. We
have a good clientele there. We have a nice, great
bank with incredible employees there, and so they like having
a banker, a commercial banker every once in a while.
And so yesterday I met with some clients in Lumberton.
(12:51):
I mean, yeah, we cover everything.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
So seven locations and so all over Southeast Texas. So
if anyone is anywhere in Southeast Sexes at something that
you can assist with, certainly, certainly. Well, we visited earlier
a little bit about a helock, and so first before
we get into talking about the use for that, let's
explain to everyone what is a helock.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, so it's a great product. Helock is if you
look at the acronym h E l OC right home
equity line of credit. So you take it's two things.
It's a home equity loan. It can only be done
on your primary residence, and it's a line of credit.
So what that means is you're only paying interest only
(13:35):
on what you use off of the line. So let's
just say you take a two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars home equity loan, you set it into account. You
pay zero on that money until you pull it over
and need it. And I always tell people when they
come to ask me, So everybody wants a line of credit,
and I say, okay, tell me what you're going to
(13:55):
use that line of credit for. A line of credit
is a temporary loan. You only want to pull on
a line of credit if you have a result of
paying it back soon one month, three months, six months,
nine months. If you're going to keep something out longer
than that, it needs to be a term loan. And
so a heelock is used for a number of ways,
(14:18):
and I use them a lot. I think it's a
great tool in the toolbox. I call it like it's
a screwdriver. Screwdriver can't handle a phillips or a wrench
or a crescent, but it's a screwdriver. It's got a
very detailed job description. So here's some of the uses
of a helock. I like them for people that are
(14:39):
about to start a business that they used to work
for the man. And what I mean by that, Let's
say they have been the ops manager or the manager
of X building. Maybe it's a plumbing shop and they're
taking over the plumbing shop and they own their home
free and clear right. They've for the man. They've done
(15:01):
really really well. They've been the number one person in
that industry, and they're going to buy the company from whoever.
They own this helock. Because they've done really well for
years and they own nothing on their house, they can
have a heelock to pull a line of credit to
help them with their business startup. And why I like it,
it's usually one of the cheaper interest rate notes that
(15:23):
you can get from a bank. It's a very inexpensive
closing cost, so I always tell people it's around five
to seven hundred dollars for closing costs, and then the
interest is usually below prime, which is a very very
good rate. And if you don't need it for the
first six months, it costs you nothing. You only pull
(15:43):
when you need it. So what do you need it for. Well,
let's say you need it for a quick equipment. You
have to buy a new plumbing equipment, you have to
buy a new whatever. You pull it over there, but
six months later you paid it off back to zero
goes back to zero. It's a great product. That's one
way to use it. The second way to use it.
I love and we've done about three. Everybody talks about
(16:04):
a bridge loan, and I know Dana's worked with customers
that need a bridge loan. Well, again, to me, it's
usually an adult that's on their home for a while
and they have this loan free and clear, and they've
got everything in order, and they find their now last
home that they want to move to. It's maybe smaller,
it's maybe newer, it's maybe single story, but they don't
(16:28):
want to rush and buy this home and then have
to figure out what to do with their house. So
the thoughts are, you do a heelock, you get the
cash out, you buy your new home, you move your
stuff over, you repair it, you do a little paint
tiptips of that, and then you sell your residency that
you've been living in and you go back to zero
(16:49):
and then you have no note.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Which is a huge benefit for so many people for
lots of reasons. One reason is you have a house
and you have pets, and in order to show the house,
you have to put the pets away, or have another
situation where it's a disabled family member who lives in
the home with them. Well, when you are putting your
(17:13):
house on the market, while we can give notice. It's
also still challenging sometimes to get that person out of
the house and somewhere else. Now, you know, could they
stay there while you show the house? Yes, But is
it better if no one is in the home when
you're showing the house. Yes. And most times they just
(17:33):
don't want to be interrupted in whatever they're doing in life.
So this helock product is perfect for not having to
interrupt your life. But it's also perfect for if it
is a situation that's multiple offers and someone doesn't want
to do a contingency cash. It's cash. It's like closing
(17:55):
with cash, and that is a huge benefit for a
lot of sellers. So if you're the buyer and you
have a heelock where you're it's not contingent on you
getting a loan on that house, that's another way to
generate an incredible offer.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, we have three going on right now, and most
they're my customers, but I don't do a helock, so
I have a consumer lender in my office that doesn't.
One of them is a really cool ide a cool
buy So it's a relocation house and they wanted a
cash offer, non contingent offer, and the couple says there's
no way I can do that, And I said, oh, yeah,
(18:32):
I've got a way you can do that.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah. I think that's the key. Sometimes people don't know
they have an option, an education of exactly what you're
saying is a way for them to be able to
do that.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
And I knew they own their home free and clear,
and it worked out perfect. And you know, didn't know
that was an option out there. And sometimes you go
to a broker, a real estate I mean a mortgage broker,
they don't have that option. A heelock is only at
a bank.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Right well, And any other uses that you see for
a helock that you've seen recently.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Those are the two best. Like I did a helock.
I was buying. I was going from a larger home
to a small home, and we didn't want to have
to move in in a hurry. We wanted to clean it,
we wanted to paint it, we wanted to do some remodel,
and so I did a heelock. I moved in the home,
fixed it all up, three months later, sold my house
(19:27):
and walked away with nothing. I mean, it works out perfect.
It's a special buyer and a special seller. Not everybody's
fortunate to have a home free and clear, but those
that are it's a great tool to use. Great tool.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
It's also great if you're a real estate investor.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
That was my other option.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah, so talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So some of I, some people in their later stage
of life, go, I want to get into a little
real estate. I want some mailbox money. But David, everybody's
getting these cash byes, and I don't have enough cash
to win these smaller, these rental properties over So I
look at their financials. I love to grab some things.
(20:10):
Give me a personal financial statement. Let me understand you
for a little bit. Let me do my research. And
if you own a house free and clear, let me
give you a helock. Now you have a two hundred
and fifty three hundred, whatever you want that number to be.
It's eighty percent of the appraise value. Remember it costs
about five six hundred dollars to get one. And then
you now have cash to go to Dana and say, Dana,
(20:32):
I want those three houses. We have cash.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, yeah, And I'll tell you one of the other
ways that we use our helock. Because I purchased my
first rental property about twenty years ago, I mean when
I had very little, but I was able to get
a little townhouse. Well that little townhouse over the last
twenty years has grown in value significantly, which is why
(20:57):
I love real estate. It is a great life, long
term investment. But one of the things that we've done
now is that we use that property that's paid off
and we have a he lock just like you said.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Well, you probably have a line of credit on commercial
real estate.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
That's what I have. Okay, So that's different. This isn't
home equity. Oh yeah, thank you King.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
So the only difference is you've got a little more
closing cost on what you did, okay, which is great.
A lot of people do that too, little more closing costs,
a little higher interest rate. Remember the reason.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Why I love that he lock home equity.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Home equity less, closing less interest.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Yes, yes, yes, that makes so much.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yeah. Well, when we come back, we're going to continue
talking with David and letting him see, letting you see
if there's anything that he may be able to do
to help you. So don't go away. He's got lots
of great information. This is Dana Simmons. We'll be right back.
Welcome back. This is Dana Simmons and David la June
and I've been visiting about heelocks and uh David is
(22:04):
the market president of First Financial Bank there in the
mid County area. Helocks are a great tool. He called
it a screwdriver in the tool belt, so great use
for specific items. So if you have questions, we're going
to give you David's information so that you can reach
out to him if you need to talk to him
(22:25):
about a helock. So David, let's say someone is saying, yeah,
this sounds good, I need to do that. David, how
do I get ahold of you?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, you can call myself. I keep my cell on
at all time. You can call the bank, you can
call our branch number or call myself. I always like
to give it out four zero nine seven one nine
eight three eight five. And what I'll do for you
that helock is not a product I can offer. If
it's connected to your house, A commercial lender cannot work
with it, and so it'll go to a consumer lender.
(22:53):
I have two consumer lenders that I say are the
top in the industry work in my bank, and we
do a bunch of them. I will do an introduction
by knowing you knowing you what you're looking for, introduce
you to either writer or or let and then they
run with it. You know, you don't need a whole bunch,
you need two years tax returns W two income pay
stubs and that really gets you start at property address.
(23:18):
We will have to get it appraised. We have to
give it a value, and remember we can do eighty
percent of the appraise value perfect.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
And well, you brought up a writer and are let
talk about a few of the other things that your
consumer lenders can help people do there in the bank.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah. So you know, my customers when I say by customers,
the bank's customers that come to me, they're mostly business
type customers. They own businesses, they own rental property, whatever that. Well,
I become the go to call for almost everything. So
a lot of my customers are having kids in high
school college and we visit about their credit, or they're
(23:55):
going off to A and M college station and they
have no credit. And so what I like to do
with them is let them talk to either Writer, my
consumer lender, or let and we start working with them
on credit, how to build credit, how to have a
credit score. Eventually, you want a new car, you're going
to be looking for a house when you get that
(24:17):
degree from A and M so and so, and we
are already starting that with them, and we're starting that
process and Rider in Urt does a great job of
showing you some tools to get that credit going.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, and you know, it's something we don't think about
as parents. I did not do some of the right
things when my kids were, you know, eighteen. One of
the things that I know people talk about is having
a joint credit card with your child with a limited
amount of funds on that credit card. That gives them
a little bet, but gives you control, but it begins
(24:49):
to build their credit early.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And so it's all all those things.
It's so important because how many of these young kids.
And what's lucky I have these twenty five and twenty
seven year old a daughter and son of mine, So
that puts me in connection with that age group. And
so they'll call me up and said, mister David, you know,
we graduated from X and were an engineer and we're
(25:11):
a nurse and we found the first house and we
look and they have no credit. Yeah, they have zero credit.
And it's and it's hard to get approved for a loan.
So as we know you're going to graduate with an
engineering degree and you're going to be a nurse, start
building a little credit because one thing you want is
a home, right, you know, And we see that quite often.
(25:32):
So I've been trying to grab them early, bring them
in and talking to them and get them started.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Because I'll tell you one of the challenges is I
see on college campuses all these credit card people who
are hey, sign up for a credit card, and that
college student goes woo hoo and rings up all this
debt and then that's not that's not the right to
(25:59):
get your credit started. And so I think I'm being
able to sit down and visit with someone early on
to say what are the things we need to do
and how do we move forward doing.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, we recommend the two hundred and fifty five hundred
dollars limits. Yes, and so it kind of it has
a block for you.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Right yeah, and gives you a little bit more control. Yeah.
So are let and writer some of the loans that
they do, you get house loans there.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
So we do both. Right. Writer is my consumer I say,
my first financial consumer lender that does most of my
heelocks lot loans cars, professional lines of credit, loans of
that are let does the secondary mortgages right and helps
with construction to perm and we've seen upticked I mean
(26:49):
just here recently. And I want to piggyback what Dana said.
I think this spring's going to be great. Yeah, with
this interest rate coming down. We haven't seen the mortgages
come down as the interest rate comes down, but it's
going to have.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
It's going to come down.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
It's going to come and I think once it sparks,
I think we're about to see that flip homes are
about to go back up a little bit. Rates come down,
and it's going to be on everybody's ready.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Which is why if you're thinking about buying, ideally now
is the best time really because the interest rate isn't
going to make that big of a difference. But what
I think is going to happen as prices are going
to go.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Up, should go should?
Speaker 1 (27:25):
They should go up because they're at such a lower
base right now. I mean the prices are lower than
they've been in a while. Our average sales price is down.
So while some people are like, Okay, well I'm going
to wait for that rate to drop a bit, the
difference isn't going to be significant enough, I believe. I
mean that's just me personally. So if I was advising
(27:46):
you and you're thinking, I'm ready to buy a house,
sooner is better than later.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
I think. So we're seeing. What I'm seeing is my
more older clientele or buying today, right, And so you
know they're they're a little more financially savvy. They've been saving,
and then they're doing the he locks, and that's going
to free up a house. Their house will be for
the newcomers coming in. I start seeing it, We're going
(28:13):
to start seeing some houses pop up.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Well, because even right now, I have a builder who
just reduced a new construction property by fifty thousand dollars,
So that house will not be that price next spring.
I can one hundred percent guarantee that you're not going
to be able to buy that house for that price.
Number One, building costs are going up. I meant you
know you're in construction. Yeah, I mean you've been in construction.
(28:37):
You work with people in construction, and those.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
It never really goes down, dacent How is that? It
really never goes down. You might see a little downtick,
but it's up from six months and a year ago.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Right, Well, here's what I remember. Ninety when was Rita?
Was that?
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Yeah, two thousand and five, two thousand and five Rita. Okay,
I remember the prices of houses new construction was like
under one hundred dollars a square foot. Do you know
where they are now?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
I would say one sixty to one eighty am I right?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Almost two hundred dollars a square foot? And so values
of new construction new construction costs have gone up significantly.
I mean, values of homes are going up. It's a
great investment. I know people are leery about buying a home,
but long term it's your greatest investment. Because you're going
(29:32):
to build wealth over time. You might as well put
it into your own pocket instead of into someone else's.
But anyway, I'll get off my little platform here. So
we were talking about the loans that they can help
you with.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yeah, so it's a number of loans. You know. Luckily
we have all the variety of products, which is great.
It gives you a solution. This last couple I've dealt
with whent to a mortgage broker didn't have the solution,
and we we were able to come up with the
heelock on the relocation house. It was a perfect fit
(30:06):
and so excited for him.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Well, and I think that's the key. And then when
you talked about the engineer and the nurse graduating with
very little credit, you know, I think about my son
when he graduated. The good thing is that you can
go to first financial bank, and there are other products
for healthcare providers, for physicians, for all kinds of different
(30:30):
products that can help someone get into a home based
on a contract, not based on prior history. So there
are lots of things that give you so many you
have so many different options that a mortgage broker doesn't have.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
That's right, that's right. Like your doctors. You know, we'll
get some young doctors move into the area, and we
need young doctors moving to the area. And they have
student debt, they don't have a lot of credit, they
don't have income to show. They may a little bit
of money, you know, at their last year or two
in residency or whatever they were doing, but they can't
(31:07):
and we have some programs that help them get in
because we know the local hospitals give them a long
term contract and we have that to support. So there's
some things we can do.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
And here again you're looking at the people's right, You're
not just looking at the numbers. You're looking at the people.
While the numbers have to work, the people and what
they're doing is critically important. Well, we have had lots
of good conversation. We're going to continue and wrap up
here in just a minute. Do not go away, David
will return. This is Dana Simmons with the Dana Simmons Show.
(31:38):
Welcome back. This is Dana Simmons and I am joined
today by David la June, market president at First Financial Bank,
and he and I have talked about lots of great things.
He locks getting your college kids ready. Are you looking
for a consumer loan or a mortgage? Let me just
tell you. First Financial Bank has an incredible team of
(32:00):
people and David, it's one of the things that I
absolutely love about the bank is, you know, I remember
my husband, he's the one who handles our banking things,
and uh, he always jumps out of the car and
goes in and handles things and everyone knows ken. But
the other day I was with him and he's like,
(32:22):
you just need to come say hello. And I know
the people there, but he's like you got to come
in and and say hello. It's almost like cheers. It's
like where everyone knows your name, you know. And that's
part of what I think First Financial does so well.
They're about relationships and and when someone banks with you, guys,
(32:45):
it's not just banking with David la June. I mean,
it's a whole You have a whole team of people
that are connected with you.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point. Uh, the relationship and
the teams we have, and maybe people don't understand, and
you know, we do a lot for business customers, and
with business customers there's a lot to their business. Some
of them don't have a big staff, you know, and
don't have maybe an office manager. Sometimes we're that person,
(33:13):
not saying we want to be that person, but we
can be that person on my team. You know, if
a business customer comes to me, not only does he
have me as a lender, he has a lending assistant
that my lending assistant who knows that account, knows their
business just as as well as I do. Because they're
the back end people. They help close the loans, they
(33:33):
help get the documentation, They understand the ownership or I
understand the ownership. They get all the documents in order
to close the loan and help that assistant. They'll call
to move money over, make sure the account's right, what's
the payment look like, when is the am moving around?
All those things. That's just one part.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Which is so helpful if you're not available. Oh, you know,
the team concept is huge to me too, So I
completely understand it because you are one person. I am
one person. But if you have an incredible team behind
you who knows all of it and can account for it,
that's where the benefit happens to the customer and client
because it doesn't have to be just you. While I
(34:13):
want people to contact me, if for whatever reason, I'm
on a radio show or you're on a radio show
and someone needs something immediately, there is someone else there
to assist them, and that is part of your team.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Yeah. So when someone's new, I like to introduce them
to about five different people so they have five numbers
they can get a hold of whoever they need and
get the results. Remember, small business owners, there's a lot
going on, a lot going they're busy and they need
help sometimes. So every lender has a lending assistant. They're
very good and They're only way the lenders can survive
(34:48):
is with a great lending assistant. Then you have a
personal banker who helps set up the accounts, knows the transactions,
can help if something's going wrong with the account, Debit
cards takes care of that, knows you just as well.
Then we have an incredible treasury management team credible I
call them the onboarding team. You know, they help you
(35:09):
exit from one institution to ours where that transition is
smooth by ach by all the accounts, what you pay,
what comes in by wiring, and there also helps us
with our fraud prevention. We are on top of it.
I can't tell you another bank that has as much
fraud prevention, fraud classes, and we're always on top of
(35:34):
our fraud to make sure that these fraudsters don't steal
any of our people's money.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
And it's so incredible the things you learn. You think
you know, and then you go to one of these
little lunch and learns, these fraud luncheon learns and you're like,
oh my, I had no idea. So one of the
things that I do love is that you guys are
open to doing that for organizations. If you have an
organization a church, a civic organization, and you want to
(36:00):
get twenty people together and have the first financial team come,
they'll come do that.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yeah, it's very very very good. People go, I know
all about it. You don't. You've just fraudsters are one
step ahead of us. They're always changing and what we
can do. Not only will we have a great presentation
that goes through everything, we give you real life examples
of what we've seen, what we've prevented, and what has
(36:26):
slipped through, how the fraudsters have won. And you know
they're they're they're good, They're they're very good. You would
think if they could just go do a regular job
as good as they do their fraud, they'd make a
lot of money doing it correctly.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
And they get smarter, it seems, because they keep saying
one step ahead, and and it's things like the word
that they use a lot, kindly, right, it's recognizing when
I went to that lunch and learn with First Financial
Bank they did, one of the things that came out
was the word kindly because no one uses that word.
(37:02):
But a lot of times when this is from someone
out of the country, they don't know how we talk,
just like Siri can't understand me how they speak is
a little different, and so that is a super helpful way.
And it's an education class that let's say that you're
a part of a civic organization and you need to
(37:24):
do some sort of presentation. It's a really good one
and it's engaging, it's entertaining, and it's useful.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
We usually get great feedback. We usually learn something from
a customer a new fraud scheme that we didn't hear of.
You know, we've had some very sophisticated fraud schemes this
year that tried to attack our customers, and knock on wood,
we did a really really great job. You know. They
get into your computer, they're watching your emails, they're spoofing
(37:53):
your phone number. They're saying their first financial bank and
it looks like our phone number, but they spoofed it. Yeah,
you know, And what I tell my customers, call me,
call Sarah, phone number, called Kim, call one of us,
and I think everything's fraud first.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yes, so stop, don't do anything.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Don't do anything. There's no reason to do anything in
a hurry. And especially I tell everybody anything past two
thirty on a Friday, it's fraud. On my books. Let's
walk through it a little bit.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Yeah, and when you talk about spoofing, they do it
across your phone.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
It might say Dana Simmons, show yes.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Dana Simmons, and it's not it happened to me. With this,
I've said it, told the story before where it said
Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, because I had the Sheriff's office
in my phone. I lived out in Finet, so I
had their number in case I needed to call them.
My phone said Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. And they're like, well,
we have a warrant for arrest because you haven't paid
a ticket. And I'm thinking, I don't remember a ticket,
(38:55):
and so my mind just starts going and then I
realize somebody because they want me to send the money now,
you know. And so it's catching those things because in
the moment, they're trying to terrify you and make you
think something needs to be done immediately. That's part of
the key, is to make you think. I've also seen
where they say this is energy and we're going to
(39:19):
turn your electricity off if you don't make a payment
by phone right now. And so educating not only yourself,
but being able to take that back and educate, Like
for me, my parents.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
They're the victims. They go after the elderly. You know.
When we do our Luncheon learn we say, what we
want you to do is go tell your neighbors. Yeah,
go tell your parents, your family members, tell them these stories.
That's the only way we can prevent these fraultures from
stealing from us. Absolutely, And it's so sad when we
(39:55):
see an elderly lady come in lost her husband the
year of and move twenty thousand dollars to this unknown
account because she felt like that was needed to be done,
you know, and it's their money, and we try to
stop them. We try to do whatever we can because
we know it's not.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Correct, right, it's really challenging. Well, if you're interested in
hosting one of these lunch and learns, one of these
fraud prevention conferences, how would they do that?
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Yeah, they can call again my phone number four zero
nine seven nine eight three eighty five. Kim Dickerson is
the lead on that. She does a wonderful job. And
if we know a little bit about your organization, we
can even gear it to that group. You know, we've
done it for a senior citizens, We've churches, cities, We've
(40:47):
done it for some officials that are running for public offices,
and had us do a fraud presentation.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Yeah, it's been great, so good. The more people we
can get in front of, the more we can stop.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Absolutely well, David, it has been such a pleasure to
have you on the show today. If anyone is needing
a personal business banker, I can't recommend David L. June Moore.
He is all that. What we've talked about is that
he's a people person and if you need to get
in touch with him. There are seven branches. David is
(41:17):
out at the Mid County branch. He's given you his
cell phone number and you can find him anywhere. Let
me just say it all over Mid County. But thank
you again, David. I appreciate it so much. Thank you
guys for listening today. I hope you're enjoying this Saturday
and watching a little football again today. Today's a big day.
Today's a big day, big football day. So have a
(41:38):
wonderful day and we will see you back here next week.
This is the Dana Simmons Show.
Well, hello Southeast Texas. I'm so glad you're joining us
on this wonderful Saturday. I have an incredible guest joining
me today, David L. June. He's the market president for
First Financial Bank over in the mid county market, and
he's going to share with us a little bit about
who he is, what he's done, and what are some
ways that maybe he can help you. That's his goal
(00:24):
is he has an incredible servant's heart and if he
can assist you. Believe me, he's one of the guys
I think you're going to enjoy getting to meet and
understand how he really does have a heart of gold
wanting to serve you. For me, I wanted to give
you a little bit of update on the real estate market.
While things have been a little bit soft, we are
(00:44):
expecting a very powerful, incredible boom in the spring. That's
what we are looking forward to. With a little bit
of the interest rate drop and with spring coming, we
normally see a one full increase in our cells. So
if you're thinking about buying or selling, but you don't
(01:05):
know if now is the right time for you, let's
just sit down and look at what is it that's
important to you and is it the right time for you?
Our office number is four nine eight six six eight
three two six, or go to Dana Simmons real estate
dot com and we can schedule a conversation with you
just to sit down and talk. One of our goals
(01:26):
is just to educate you, to guide you through the
process to see if now is the right time or not.
If it's not, we give you ideas and thoughts on
what may be a better time. So, uh, let's sit
down and visit and connect. That's one of the things
we love to do is to educate you on what's
going on so that you can make a wise decision
for you and your family. And that's one of the
(01:47):
things that I love about First Financial Bank is that
they are a local bank. They are ready to educate
and to walk you through what is it that you
need and is there a way they can help you?
And with the Today is David la June. And David,
you've been in South East Texas a very long time,
like all your life.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
My whole life. Yes, yes, this is home. I love it.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I love a lot of people. They know you as
mister portnacious, right, Well, that's part of who you are.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I'm very involved, you know, I always say this, and
I don't want people to think I'm I'm bragging on
Port Nature's but Port Nacus has been a great Portnacus
Grows has been a great community for my family, for
my kids, for me, and I try to give back
as much as I can, with either Chamber, river Fest
of fundraisers, the cases, whatever I can do to help
(02:40):
anyone there. I want to give back because it's such
a great place.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, And a lot of people can say that they
know great things about Portnacius. You know, even though I
was born and raised in Neederland and I was a bulldog,
we still you know, it was a long time ago,
well before you were in school in Port Nahius. I
was in Nederland and we would go to I remember
my family. There were five of us kids and so
(03:05):
seven with my mom and dad, and we'd load up
in that gold station wagon we had with no seat
belts on because you did requirement then, and we'd go
to those p ANDNG state games over in the Astrodome.
And that was a big deal for us because number one,
our family didn't do much, you know, my parents did
(03:27):
so well raising us on very little and made sure
that we still had fun times like driving to the
Astrodome and we wore our bulldog shirts and cheered for
the Indians. And so PNG has had some really cool things,
not just in football, but football's been one that's been
really good. And here recently, you guys have done really
(03:47):
well in football as well.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Oh, we've had a great run. And I come from
a sports family. My father in law played for the
Astros and and so sports is in our family. You know.
This weekend I watched Memorial, I watched West Strange, and
I kept up with Newton. I mean, so we watch everything,
and I talk about Friday night or football. I enjoy
(04:09):
watching the bands. It's so impressive to see how many
kids are participating in a Friday night game. Is it
not just football, it's the band. It's now the TV stations.
You know, they're putting on the games, they're learning, they're involved.
And I always tell people kids that are involved or
kids that stay out of trouble, Yeah, they all want
(04:31):
to do something. You just got to figure out what
they want to do and bring it.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
A sense of community, not just to them but also
to our whole community. Yep, yep, I remember the sense
of community when you know, even though the Bulldogs and
the Indians were battling each other most of the time,
whenever we would go, that would be a sense of community.
And it's a lot of fun. I love Mid County
madness and watching even though I'm no longer living in
Mid County. I live in Beaumont. It's so fun watching
(04:58):
that bantering that they do.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Oh, it's great, it's great. It's a great weekend. It's
a great week yeah. Uh, you know it's tenenty twelve
thousand people at one location cheering and having fun.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah. So raised in Port Nachus.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Raised in you know, grew up in Groves. I moved
to the big town of Portnachus at some point in
my life married a Port NAT's girl and like I
said to her dad was uh. He played for the
Astros as a catcher and was the head coach at
Port Nachus Grows for years. So, you know, athletics and
community has been in our blood since I was a
little kid.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Luckily graduated with a bachelor's degree in education and special
ed and physical education. Coached at Port Hus for nine years.
Before that, I coached at Kelly for two years and
so I taught special ed. I taught emotionally to their boys.
It was a great career. I loved every minute of it.
(05:53):
I just never saw my kids awake. I would leave
when they were sleeping. I got home and I was
home when they were sleeping, and so like, let's make
a change. I can always come back into teaching and coaching.
So I did that for ten years. Rolled into construction.
I did a restoration construction for Fortune five hundred companies
across the country. Did that for about fifteen years. We
(06:16):
had a very successful company. I learned a lot. I
learned a lot about people. I learned a lot about construction.
I learned a lot about insurance and money. It was
a very good education period for me. During that time,
I ran operations, but I also did all kinds of
stuff for the company. And then I've been a banker
for almost twelve years.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
It's amazing. So what I love about the fact that
you haven't always been a banker is that all that
you bring into that position right now. And one of
the things that you and I have talked about is
that in banking, the numbers are important. The numbers have
to work, you know, they just do. But for you.
(06:59):
I guess to watch you work sometimes, and what I
love to see is that for you, it's always about
the people, and the people are also really important. And
that's what I love about First Financial Bank is that
while yes, the numbers have to work, sometimes looking at
the people and who they are and their position in
the community and those factors are involved in making decisions.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Oh, one hundred percent. Yes, And you're right, the numbers
got to work, you know, you've got to put down
and show the bank, the loan committee that the numbers
somewhat work. But the character of the person is to
me more important than anything else. And I always tell
on people. I don't bet on their financials. I bet
on the person. Yeah, And most of my clients, if
(07:45):
something went terrible today, I think they could go get
along more in a weed eater and they could cut
grass and pay my note. That's how much I believe
in them.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Right, right, So you're looking at who are they. They're
not going to let me down, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
And they don't want to let me down. Yeah, Yeah,
you know that's you know, if I'm just a number
and I'm just a rate, I'm not sure that that's
my client, right, you know?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
But you've built these personal relationships with your clients so
that you're invested in them and they're invested in you.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Well, they're invested in me and they're invested in first
Financial bank. You know. I always tell people there's not
many groups that I would bank with in our community,
but there's a few other institutions that do a really
good job. We do a great job. We do a
great job of taking care of the customer by either
knowing all about them, being accessible, can do something. You know,
(08:36):
you never know when you have a glitch Friday evening
after five Saturday morning, and my phone is always on,
I can always get a hold of my assistant, Rebecca
can always work her magic. She's my help desk, and
so we can take care of a customer. You know,
if you're just a W two employee and you don't
need a lot of needs, there's places that can take
care of you. But if you own a business, or
(08:58):
you want a lot of transactions, or you're looking to
do something kind of different, there's no other place to look.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, absolutely one percent believe that too. And then you
have children now in the school system.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, well I say I have children, No there, Yeah,
they now have gave me grand baby. So in twenty
twenty five, I have a grandson and a granddaughter, so
exes it's.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
The best position thing else. So tell me a little
bit about that.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
So I have there's seven weeks apart, a little boy
and a little girl from my son had a boy,
my daughter had a little girl, and so it's the best.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And they live here locally.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
They live next door to each other, so I can
pull in one driveway and cover both of them.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I mean, mine aren't that close. But what a treat.
I'm telling you, there's nothing better with this being the
Christmas season and pageants that are going on and the Nutcracker.
Just this past weekend I was able to take my
granddaughters to the Nutcracker. And you know they're four year old,
four years old, four months apart, so yours are even
(10:03):
closer than mine and age, and boy, isn't it the best?
Just wait, is all I can say, David, you think
it's great? Now, just wait when they can run in
the in the door and go go god. Well, my
name's Granna, and one of them does call me granted,
the other one calls me Gaga. So when she comes
(10:25):
in and goes Granna. There's just nothing better. And then
they run past gimps to come to Granta. That even
makes me more happy, you know, And it doesn't make
him so happy. He sometimes is not as excited about Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
We've enjoyed, we've enjoyed. They're nine and eleven months and
yeah we've had a blast so far.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Okay, well just wait, it's wonderful in it. Every day
it just gets better. But super excited for us to
share about a couple of things that you really want
to talk about, one of which is going to be
a heelock. And if you don't know what a heelock is,
stay tuned. We're gonna visit with David about what is
and is it something that might assist you, So don't
(11:03):
go away. This is the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back.
This is Dana Simmons and I am joined today by
David la June. He is the market president a First
Financial Bank in the Mid County branch. How do you
name that branch?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
What do I call it? Mid County? I mean we're
right dab in the middle Port author Needle and Port
and h just grows. It's all finet, it's all right there.
We're less than five miles from all the cities, so
we call it Mid County.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Tell everybody we're that one branch.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, I get's right there next to Central Mall on
the backside by Sears is a standalone building. It's just
in a great location. We've outgrown the bank by personnel.
You know, we did not know that that bank was
going to take off and grow that fast. And it
handles a lot. There is a lot of volume that
(11:54):
goes through there. But we're very leary. I've talked to
blame with the president of moving and moving far from
that location because it's such a perfect spot.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
It really is. And with all the really nice growth
going on at Central Mall, I mean, there's so much
excitement there.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Sureous, sureous is so good. You know, selfishly I wanted
something good there. Yeah, and I think the group that's
purchased them is doing that. It sparks some interest, so
I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, that's wonderful. Well, while you're located at that Mid
County branch, you can assist people all over Texas and
you do right yep.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
So I have client yeah, I have we have clients
all over Texas exactly you know, I try to work
in Newton once a month, maybe twice a month. We
have a good clientele there. We have a nice, great
bank with incredible employees there, and so they like having
a banker, a commercial banker every once in a while.
And so yesterday I met with some clients in Lumberton.
(12:51):
I mean, yeah, we cover everything.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
So seven locations and so all over Southeast Texas. So
if anyone is anywhere in Southeast Sexes at something that
you can assist with, certainly, certainly. Well, we visited earlier
a little bit about a helock, and so first before
we get into talking about the use for that, let's
explain to everyone what is a helock.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, so it's a great product. Helock is if you
look at the acronym h E l OC right home
equity line of credit. So you take it's two things.
It's a home equity loan. It can only be done
on your primary residence, and it's a line of credit.
So what that means is you're only paying interest only
(13:35):
on what you use off of the line. So let's
just say you take a two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars home equity loan, you set it into account. You
pay zero on that money until you pull it over
and need it. And I always tell people when they
come to ask me, So everybody wants a line of credit,
and I say, okay, tell me what you're going to
(13:55):
use that line of credit for. A line of credit
is a temporary loan. You only want to pull on
a line of credit if you have a result of
paying it back soon one month, three months, six months,
nine months. If you're going to keep something out longer
than that, it needs to be a term loan. And
so a heelock is used for a number of ways,
(14:18):
and I use them a lot. I think it's a
great tool in the toolbox. I call it like it's
a screwdriver. Screwdriver can't handle a phillips or a wrench
or a crescent, but it's a screwdriver. It's got a
very detailed job description. So here's some of the uses
of a helock. I like them for people that are
(14:39):
about to start a business that they used to work
for the man. And what I mean by that, Let's
say they have been the ops manager or the manager
of X building. Maybe it's a plumbing shop and they're
taking over the plumbing shop and they own their home
free and clear right. They've for the man. They've done
(15:01):
really really well. They've been the number one person in
that industry, and they're going to buy the company from whoever.
They own this helock. Because they've done really well for
years and they own nothing on their house, they can
have a heelock to pull a line of credit to
help them with their business startup. And why I like it,
it's usually one of the cheaper interest rate notes that
(15:23):
you can get from a bank. It's a very inexpensive
closing cost, so I always tell people it's around five
to seven hundred dollars for closing costs, and then the
interest is usually below prime, which is a very very
good rate. And if you don't need it for the
first six months, it costs you nothing. You only pull
(15:43):
when you need it. So what do you need it for. Well,
let's say you need it for a quick equipment. You
have to buy a new plumbing equipment, you have to
buy a new whatever. You pull it over there, but
six months later you paid it off back to zero
goes back to zero. It's a great product. That's one
way to use it. The second way to use it.
I love and we've done about three. Everybody talks about
(16:04):
a bridge loan, and I know Dana's worked with customers
that need a bridge loan. Well, again, to me, it's
usually an adult that's on their home for a while
and they have this loan free and clear, and they've
got everything in order, and they find their now last
home that they want to move to. It's maybe smaller,
it's maybe newer, it's maybe single story, but they don't
(16:28):
want to rush and buy this home and then have
to figure out what to do with their house. So
the thoughts are, you do a heelock, you get the
cash out, you buy your new home, you move your
stuff over, you repair it, you do a little paint
tiptips of that, and then you sell your residency that
you've been living in and you go back to zero
(16:49):
and then you have no note.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Which is a huge benefit for so many people for
lots of reasons. One reason is you have a house
and you have pets, and in order to show the house,
you have to put the pets away, or have another
situation where it's a disabled family member who lives in
the home with them. Well, when you are putting your
(17:13):
house on the market, while we can give notice. It's
also still challenging sometimes to get that person out of
the house and somewhere else. Now, you know, could they
stay there while you show the house? Yes, But is
it better if no one is in the home when
you're showing the house. Yes. And most times they just
(17:33):
don't want to be interrupted in whatever they're doing in life.
So this helock product is perfect for not having to
interrupt your life. But it's also perfect for if it
is a situation that's multiple offers and someone doesn't want
to do a contingency cash. It's cash. It's like closing
(17:55):
with cash, and that is a huge benefit for a
lot of sellers. So if you're the buyer and you
have a heelock where you're it's not contingent on you
getting a loan on that house, that's another way to
generate an incredible offer.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, we have three going on right now, and most
they're my customers, but I don't do a helock, so
I have a consumer lender in my office that doesn't.
One of them is a really cool ide a cool
buy So it's a relocation house and they wanted a
cash offer, non contingent offer, and the couple says there's
no way I can do that, And I said, oh, yeah,
(18:32):
I've got a way you can do that.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah. I think that's the key. Sometimes people don't know
they have an option, an education of exactly what you're
saying is a way for them to be able to
do that.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
And I knew they own their home free and clear,
and it worked out perfect. And you know, didn't know
that was an option out there. And sometimes you go
to a broker, a real estate I mean a mortgage broker,
they don't have that option. A heelock is only at
a bank.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Right well, And any other uses that you see for
a helock that you've seen recently.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Those are the two best. Like I did a helock.
I was buying. I was going from a larger home
to a small home, and we didn't want to have
to move in in a hurry. We wanted to clean it,
we wanted to paint it, we wanted to do some remodel,
and so I did a heelock. I moved in the home,
fixed it all up, three months later, sold my house
(19:27):
and walked away with nothing. I mean, it works out perfect.
It's a special buyer and a special seller. Not everybody's
fortunate to have a home free and clear, but those
that are it's a great tool to use. Great tool.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
It's also great if you're a real estate investor.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
That was my other option.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah, so talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So some of I, some people in their later stage
of life, go, I want to get into a little
real estate. I want some mailbox money. But David, everybody's
getting these cash byes, and I don't have enough cash
to win these smaller, these rental properties over So I
look at their financials. I love to grab some things.
(20:10):
Give me a personal financial statement. Let me understand you
for a little bit. Let me do my research. And
if you own a house free and clear, let me
give you a helock. Now you have a two hundred
and fifty three hundred, whatever you want that number to be.
It's eighty percent of the appraise value. Remember it costs
about five six hundred dollars to get one. And then
you now have cash to go to Dana and say, Dana,
(20:32):
I want those three houses. We have cash.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, yeah, And I'll tell you one of the other
ways that we use our helock. Because I purchased my
first rental property about twenty years ago, I mean when
I had very little, but I was able to get
a little townhouse. Well that little townhouse over the last
twenty years has grown in value significantly, which is why
(20:57):
I love real estate. It is a great life, long
term investment. But one of the things that we've done
now is that we use that property that's paid off
and we have a he lock just like you said.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Well, you probably have a line of credit on commercial
real estate.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
That's what I have. Okay, So that's different. This isn't
home equity. Oh yeah, thank you King.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
So the only difference is you've got a little more
closing cost on what you did, okay, which is great.
A lot of people do that too, little more closing costs,
a little higher interest rate. Remember the reason.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Why I love that he lock home equity.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Home equity less, closing less interest.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Yes, yes, yes, that makes so much.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yeah. Well, when we come back, we're going to continue
talking with David and letting him see, letting you see
if there's anything that he may be able to do
to help you. So don't go away. He's got lots
of great information. This is Dana Simmons. We'll be right back.
Welcome back. This is Dana Simmons and David la June
and I've been visiting about heelocks and uh David is
(22:04):
the market president of First Financial Bank there in the
mid County area. Helocks are a great tool. He called
it a screwdriver in the tool belt, so great use
for specific items. So if you have questions, we're going
to give you David's information so that you can reach
out to him if you need to talk to him
(22:25):
about a helock. So David, let's say someone is saying, yeah,
this sounds good, I need to do that. David, how
do I get ahold of you?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, you can call myself. I keep my cell on
at all time. You can call the bank, you can
call our branch number or call myself. I always like
to give it out four zero nine seven one nine
eight three eight five. And what I'll do for you
that helock is not a product I can offer. If
it's connected to your house, A commercial lender cannot work
with it, and so it'll go to a consumer lender.
(22:53):
I have two consumer lenders that I say are the
top in the industry work in my bank, and we
do a bunch of them. I will do an introduction
by knowing you knowing you what you're looking for, introduce
you to either writer or or let and then they
run with it. You know, you don't need a whole bunch,
you need two years tax returns W two income pay
stubs and that really gets you start at property address.
(23:18):
We will have to get it appraised. We have to
give it a value, and remember we can do eighty
percent of the appraise value perfect.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
And well, you brought up a writer and are let
talk about a few of the other things that your
consumer lenders can help people do there in the bank.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah. So you know, my customers when I say by customers,
the bank's customers that come to me, they're mostly business
type customers. They own businesses, they own rental property, whatever that. Well,
I become the go to call for almost everything. So
a lot of my customers are having kids in high
school college and we visit about their credit, or they're
(23:55):
going off to A and M college station and they
have no credit. And so what I like to do
with them is let them talk to either Writer, my
consumer lender, or let and we start working with them
on credit, how to build credit, how to have a
credit score. Eventually, you want a new car, you're going
to be looking for a house when you get that
(24:17):
degree from A and M so and so, and we
are already starting that with them, and we're starting that
process and Rider in Urt does a great job of
showing you some tools to get that credit going.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, and you know, it's something we don't think about
as parents. I did not do some of the right
things when my kids were, you know, eighteen. One of
the things that I know people talk about is having
a joint credit card with your child with a limited
amount of funds on that credit card. That gives them
a little bet, but gives you control, but it begins
(24:49):
to build their credit early.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And so it's all all those things.
It's so important because how many of these young kids.
And what's lucky I have these twenty five and twenty
seven year old a daughter and son of mine, So
that puts me in connection with that age group. And
so they'll call me up and said, mister David, you know,
we graduated from X and were an engineer and we're
(25:11):
a nurse and we found the first house and we
look and they have no credit. Yeah, they have zero credit.
And it's and it's hard to get approved for a loan.
So as we know you're going to graduate with an
engineering degree and you're going to be a nurse, start
building a little credit because one thing you want is
a home, right, you know, And we see that quite often.
(25:32):
So I've been trying to grab them early, bring them
in and talking to them and get them started.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Because I'll tell you one of the challenges is I
see on college campuses all these credit card people who
are hey, sign up for a credit card, and that
college student goes woo hoo and rings up all this
debt and then that's not that's not the right to
(25:59):
get your credit started. And so I think I'm being
able to sit down and visit with someone early on
to say what are the things we need to do
and how do we move forward doing.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, we recommend the two hundred and fifty five hundred
dollars limits. Yes, and so it kind of it has
a block for you.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Right yeah, and gives you a little bit more control. Yeah.
So are let and writer some of the loans that
they do, you get house loans there.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
So we do both. Right. Writer is my consumer I say,
my first financial consumer lender that does most of my
heelocks lot loans cars, professional lines of credit, loans of
that are let does the secondary mortgages right and helps
with construction to perm and we've seen upticked I mean
(26:49):
just here recently. And I want to piggyback what Dana said.
I think this spring's going to be great. Yeah, with
this interest rate coming down. We haven't seen the mortgages
come down as the interest rate comes down, but it's
going to have.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
It's going to come down.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
It's going to come and I think once it sparks,
I think we're about to see that flip homes are
about to go back up a little bit. Rates come down,
and it's going to be on everybody's ready.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Which is why if you're thinking about buying, ideally now
is the best time really because the interest rate isn't
going to make that big of a difference. But what
I think is going to happen as prices are going
to go.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Up, should go should?
Speaker 1 (27:25):
They should go up because they're at such a lower
base right now. I mean the prices are lower than
they've been in a while. Our average sales price is down.
So while some people are like, Okay, well I'm going
to wait for that rate to drop a bit, the
difference isn't going to be significant enough, I believe. I
mean that's just me personally. So if I was advising
(27:46):
you and you're thinking, I'm ready to buy a house,
sooner is better than later.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
I think. So we're seeing. What I'm seeing is my
more older clientele or buying today, right, And so you
know they're they're a little more financially savvy. They've been saving,
and then they're doing the he locks, and that's going
to free up a house. Their house will be for
the newcomers coming in. I start seeing it, We're going
(28:13):
to start seeing some houses pop up.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Well, because even right now, I have a builder who
just reduced a new construction property by fifty thousand dollars,
So that house will not be that price next spring.
I can one hundred percent guarantee that you're not going
to be able to buy that house for that price.
Number One, building costs are going up. I meant you
know you're in construction. Yeah, I mean you've been in construction.
(28:37):
You work with people in construction, and those.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
It never really goes down, dacent How is that? It
really never goes down. You might see a little downtick,
but it's up from six months and a year ago.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Right, Well, here's what I remember. Ninety when was Rita?
Was that?
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Yeah, two thousand and five, two thousand and five Rita. Okay,
I remember the prices of houses new construction was like
under one hundred dollars a square foot. Do you know
where they are now?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
I would say one sixty to one eighty am I right?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Almost two hundred dollars a square foot? And so values
of new construction new construction costs have gone up significantly.
I mean, values of homes are going up. It's a
great investment. I know people are leery about buying a home,
but long term it's your greatest investment. Because you're going
(29:32):
to build wealth over time. You might as well put
it into your own pocket instead of into someone else's.
But anyway, I'll get off my little platform here. So
we were talking about the loans that they can help
you with.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yeah, so it's a number of loans. You know. Luckily
we have all the variety of products, which is great.
It gives you a solution. This last couple I've dealt
with whent to a mortgage broker didn't have the solution,
and we we were able to come up with the
heelock on the relocation house. It was a perfect fit
(30:06):
and so excited for him.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Well, and I think that's the key. And then when
you talked about the engineer and the nurse graduating with
very little credit, you know, I think about my son
when he graduated. The good thing is that you can
go to first financial bank, and there are other products
for healthcare providers, for physicians, for all kinds of different
(30:30):
products that can help someone get into a home based
on a contract, not based on prior history. So there
are lots of things that give you so many you
have so many different options that a mortgage broker doesn't have.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
That's right, that's right. Like your doctors. You know, we'll
get some young doctors move into the area, and we
need young doctors moving to the area. And they have
student debt, they don't have a lot of credit, they
don't have income to show. They may a little bit
of money, you know, at their last year or two
in residency or whatever they were doing, but they can't
(31:07):
and we have some programs that help them get in
because we know the local hospitals give them a long
term contract and we have that to support. So there's
some things we can do.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
And here again you're looking at the people's right, You're
not just looking at the numbers. You're looking at the people.
While the numbers have to work, the people and what
they're doing is critically important. Well, we have had lots
of good conversation. We're going to continue and wrap up
here in just a minute. Do not go away, David
will return. This is Dana Simmons with the Dana Simmons Show.
(31:38):
Welcome back. This is Dana Simmons and I am joined
today by David la June, market president at First Financial Bank,
and he and I have talked about lots of great things.
He locks getting your college kids ready. Are you looking
for a consumer loan or a mortgage? Let me just
tell you. First Financial Bank has an incredible team of
(32:00):
people and David, it's one of the things that I
absolutely love about the bank is, you know, I remember
my husband, he's the one who handles our banking things,
and uh, he always jumps out of the car and
goes in and handles things and everyone knows ken. But
the other day I was with him and he's like,
(32:22):
you just need to come say hello. And I know
the people there, but he's like you got to come
in and and say hello. It's almost like cheers. It's
like where everyone knows your name, you know. And that's
part of what I think First Financial does so well.
They're about relationships and and when someone banks with you, guys,
(32:45):
it's not just banking with David la June. I mean,
it's a whole You have a whole team of people
that are connected with you.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point. Uh, the relationship and
the teams we have, and maybe people don't understand, and
you know, we do a lot for business customers, and
with business customers there's a lot to their business. Some
of them don't have a big staff, you know, and
don't have maybe an office manager. Sometimes we're that person,
(33:13):
not saying we want to be that person, but we
can be that person on my team. You know, if
a business customer comes to me, not only does he
have me as a lender, he has a lending assistant
that my lending assistant who knows that account, knows their
business just as as well as I do. Because they're
the back end people. They help close the loans, they
(33:33):
help get the documentation, They understand the ownership or I
understand the ownership. They get all the documents in order
to close the loan and help that assistant. They'll call
to move money over, make sure the account's right, what's
the payment look like, when is the am moving around?
All those things. That's just one part.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Which is so helpful if you're not available. Oh, you know,
the team concept is huge to me too, So I
completely understand it because you are one person. I am
one person. But if you have an incredible team behind
you who knows all of it and can account for it,
that's where the benefit happens to the customer and client
because it doesn't have to be just you. While I
(34:13):
want people to contact me, if for whatever reason, I'm
on a radio show or you're on a radio show
and someone needs something immediately, there is someone else there
to assist them, and that is part of your team.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Yeah. So when someone's new, I like to introduce them
to about five different people so they have five numbers
they can get a hold of whoever they need and
get the results. Remember, small business owners, there's a lot
going on, a lot going they're busy and they need
help sometimes. So every lender has a lending assistant. They're
very good and They're only way the lenders can survive
(34:48):
is with a great lending assistant. Then you have a
personal banker who helps set up the accounts, knows the transactions,
can help if something's going wrong with the account, Debit
cards takes care of that, knows you just as well.
Then we have an incredible treasury management team credible I
call them the onboarding team. You know, they help you
(35:09):
exit from one institution to ours where that transition is
smooth by ach by all the accounts, what you pay,
what comes in by wiring, and there also helps us
with our fraud prevention. We are on top of it.
I can't tell you another bank that has as much
fraud prevention, fraud classes, and we're always on top of
(35:34):
our fraud to make sure that these fraudsters don't steal
any of our people's money.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
And it's so incredible the things you learn. You think
you know, and then you go to one of these
little lunch and learns, these fraud luncheon learns and you're like,
oh my, I had no idea. So one of the
things that I do love is that you guys are
open to doing that for organizations. If you have an
organization a church, a civic organization, and you want to
(36:00):
get twenty people together and have the first financial team come,
they'll come do that.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yeah, it's very very very good. People go, I know
all about it. You don't. You've just fraudsters are one
step ahead of us. They're always changing and what we
can do. Not only will we have a great presentation
that goes through everything, we give you real life examples
of what we've seen, what we've prevented, and what has
(36:26):
slipped through, how the fraudsters have won. And you know
they're they're they're good, They're they're very good. You would
think if they could just go do a regular job
as good as they do their fraud, they'd make a
lot of money doing it correctly.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
And they get smarter, it seems, because they keep saying
one step ahead, and and it's things like the word
that they use a lot, kindly, right, it's recognizing when
I went to that lunch and learn with First Financial
Bank they did, one of the things that came out
was the word kindly because no one uses that word.
(37:02):
But a lot of times when this is from someone
out of the country, they don't know how we talk,
just like Siri can't understand me how they speak is
a little different, and so that is a super helpful way.
And it's an education class that let's say that you're
a part of a civic organization and you need to
(37:24):
do some sort of presentation. It's a really good one
and it's engaging, it's entertaining, and it's useful.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
We usually get great feedback. We usually learn something from
a customer a new fraud scheme that we didn't hear of.
You know, we've had some very sophisticated fraud schemes this
year that tried to attack our customers, and knock on wood,
we did a really really great job. You know. They
get into your computer, they're watching your emails, they're spoofing
(37:53):
your phone number. They're saying their first financial bank and
it looks like our phone number, but they spoofed it. Yeah,
you know, And what I tell my customers, call me,
call Sarah, phone number, called Kim, call one of us,
and I think everything's fraud first.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yes, so stop, don't do anything.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Don't do anything. There's no reason to do anything in
a hurry. And especially I tell everybody anything past two
thirty on a Friday, it's fraud. On my books. Let's
walk through it a little bit.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Yeah, and when you talk about spoofing, they do it
across your phone.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
It might say Dana Simmons, show yes.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Dana Simmons, and it's not it happened to me. With this,
I've said it, told the story before where it said
Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, because I had the Sheriff's office
in my phone. I lived out in Finet, so I
had their number in case I needed to call them.
My phone said Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. And they're like, well,
we have a warrant for arrest because you haven't paid
a ticket. And I'm thinking, I don't remember a ticket,
(38:55):
and so my mind just starts going and then I
realize somebody because they want me to send the money now,
you know. And so it's catching those things because in
the moment, they're trying to terrify you and make you
think something needs to be done immediately. That's part of
the key, is to make you think. I've also seen
where they say this is energy and we're going to
(39:19):
turn your electricity off if you don't make a payment
by phone right now. And so educating not only yourself,
but being able to take that back and educate, Like
for me, my parents.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
They're the victims. They go after the elderly. You know.
When we do our Luncheon learn we say, what we
want you to do is go tell your neighbors. Yeah,
go tell your parents, your family members, tell them these stories.
That's the only way we can prevent these fraultures from
stealing from us. Absolutely, And it's so sad when we
(39:55):
see an elderly lady come in lost her husband the
year of and move twenty thousand dollars to this unknown
account because she felt like that was needed to be done,
you know, and it's their money, and we try to
stop them. We try to do whatever we can because
we know it's not.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Correct, right, it's really challenging. Well, if you're interested in
hosting one of these lunch and learns, one of these
fraud prevention conferences, how would they do that?
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Yeah, they can call again my phone number four zero
nine seven nine eight three eighty five. Kim Dickerson is
the lead on that. She does a wonderful job. And
if we know a little bit about your organization, we
can even gear it to that group. You know, we've
done it for a senior citizens, We've churches, cities, We've
(40:47):
done it for some officials that are running for public offices,
and had us do a fraud presentation.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Yeah, it's been great, so good. The more people we
can get in front of, the more we can stop.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Absolutely well, David, it has been such a pleasure to
have you on the show today. If anyone is needing
a personal business banker, I can't recommend David L. June Moore.
He is all that. What we've talked about is that
he's a people person and if you need to get
in touch with him. There are seven branches. David is
(41:17):
out at the Mid County branch. He's given you his
cell phone number and you can find him anywhere. Let
me just say it all over Mid County. But thank
you again, David. I appreciate it so much. Thank you
guys for listening today. I hope you're enjoying this Saturday
and watching a little football again today. Today's a big day.
Today's a big day, big football day. So have a
(41:38):
wonderful day and we will see you back here next week.
This is the Dana Simmons Show.
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