Consumer Education

What is debt to income ratio? Which is different than what is my monthly budget. All right? Because I really want to just land there just for a second. Because it's super important that when you're going out looking for a home, you've identified what is that monthly number, that monthly payment that fits with the rest of your lifestyle? Because it's really easy to fall in love with a house that's higher than your budget. I mean, the higher you go, the prettier they get. Right? But that might not work with the fact that you want to start a family. You want to buy a car. You want to go on vacations. Maybe you want to build up investments to secure your financial freedom and retirement. All of those things should be talked about, discussed with your lender. Bringing in all the other things about your life to ensure that you pick the house payment that allows you to have a life, not just live in a home. Lisren to this episode to get the full story and why you need to know its affect on your credit score.

Do you know what goes into a credit score? We're going to be going through a five-part series to share with you what you need to know.
 
What makes a credit score?
Let's start off with the five factors that can ultimately affect your score: payment history amounts owed, length of history, credit mix, and credit inquiries for new credit. The first three go hand in hand. Your payment history will appear in your credit report for all of your open and active trade lines. Payment history demonstrates how you were able to manage your debt over a period of time. Paying your bills on time consistently yields a higher credit score, and in turn, allows you to borrow more money.
Additionally, the longer your history of consistency exists, the higher your score will be. I mean, this is important, because while you're shopping for a home, do not close any accounts as that cuts your history short. Also, keep your balances low, ideally below 30% of the credit limits and make sure above all else, keep making your payments on time. I mean, if you're looking to purchase a home, now is not the time to miss a payment. Even if it's by accident, a missed payment can drop your score by as much as a hundred points.

Purchasing your first home is a major accomplishment .. it’s also stressful, daunting, and overwhelming!  Knowing exactly where to start the journey to homeownership will allow you to optimize the most of your available time, money, and energy.  So first steps first... do you talk to a real estate agent or lender first? 
If you are a first-time homebuyer, you may not even have those names to fill in the blanks.  The best practice is to start with people you trust. Who in your life do you know who is a realtor, a lender, or maybe someone who just purchased a home and had a great experience?  These initial contacts might not be where you land, but picking their brain on why they liked working with their team can give you a good direction to start from. 
As a lender, I want to say everyone should first dial in their credit availability, payment budget, and optimal purchase price before looking at homes.  But sometimes people get excited... I get it. Looking at homes is a lot sexier than talking about financing.  But the last thing you want is to find the perfect home $25,000 outside of your budget.  You will also want to find a realtor who specializes in the type of home or location desired. Let's take Denver Metro for example. You would think anyone can go anywhere, but looking at horse property with a well and septic, versus condos downtown, versus multiunits in the suburbs can take a different skill and a focused search.   Talk to your agent openly about what is important to you to ensure there is a match. 

The table below is taken from Tracey Wilson's presentation at the Agent Ignite session. These are derived from his research. If you have questions, please visit his website. This is the BIG RED button he talks about in this presentation.
Here is the PowerPoint from this presentation.
Here are a few points covered:
1)American Rescue Plan: $1.9 trillion for COVID Stimulus Package
Passed even though $800 billion of the previously passed $2.2 trillion CARES Act (passed 3/20/20) had not been spent yet
2)American Jobs Plan: $2.3 trillion for infrastructure
Raise the corporate tax rate to 28%
Increase the global minimum tax paid to 15%
Impose a corporate minimum tax on book income
Eliminate tax benefits for the oil and gas fossil fuels sector
Increase corporate tax enforcement
3)American Family Plan: $1.8 trillion for universal pre-K, free community college, SLD $50K forgiveness, paid family leave
Raise individual income taxes
Raise cap gains tax rate
Increase estate tax
Limit step-up in basis

 
Nicole welcomes Tracey Wilson of Investment Property Exchange Services. You can find him at ipx1031.com. Ipx1031 has provided its clients with superior qualified intermediary services for three decades. And each year they assist thousands of clients and their tax and legal advisors by providing proven exchange solutions that best achieve the client's goals of enhancing their business portfolios and preserving equity. But he'll tell you more about that at the beginning of this episode. This is a two-part episode. There is so much to learn. This first one covers the basics you need to know as an agent and as an investor, about a 1031 exchange to avoid capital gains taxes. He will give you guidance, no matter how creative you think you are, he will have solutions and some recommendations to keep you out of hot water with the IRS. Listen to this episode now.

Real estate investments are my favorite topic to talk about, but also my favorite type of loan to help a client with why because in an area where loan officer gets to be creative, often purchasing investment isn't cut and dry. It requires strategy and planning. If you've ever joined me from my building investment empire class in the second Thursday of each month. 
And you know, I advocate purchasing a home as a primary, living in it for a year and then doing it all over again. Why? Because when you purchase a home as a primary, you can put as little as 3 to 5% down and that frees up cash when you compare it to purchasing it as investment property, which requires 15 to 25% down. 

Welcome to another episode of the Double Coma Club with your host Nicole Ruth of the Ruth team. The number one lending team in Colorado. 
I want to share with you that we just hit another historic low in interest rates. 
Really, that's what I'm thinking right now as I'm processing what just happened to the 15-year fixed. Now if you remember, we hit the historic lows 17 times last year into this year on the 30-year fixed. Now the 30-year fixed didn't hit and hold time historic low. 
But the 15-year did in fact. It's lower than it was during that entire period of time. It just hit per Freddie Mac, 2.12%. Now Freddie Mac does typically have a point 8% discount on many of its loans as it does a national survey. So 2.12 is the national survey with .8 in discount. So what's point? 

There are certain times in life where change is the best thing that could have ever happened. Sandra Thompson replacing Mark Calabria is one I will celebrate for a long while. 
Why? Well, Sandra Thompson gave us all a gift this past week by undoing the FHFA Adverse Market Fee.  This is a huge win for everyone trying to capitalize on the equity they have built up in their homes.  Mark Calabria initiated the Adverse Market Fee in August 2020 stating that there was "additional cost and risk" to FHFA with homeowners taking equity out of their homes.  What he was really doing was increasing capital levels during last year's historic refinance boom.  

Spoiler alert: Your real estate agent will not like this tip - not at all. This is only 4 minutes. Take notes. We don't want t spoil the math or the surprise.

How do you start in your 20's investing in real estate? You start with the first one. It's the toughest. Let's think of money in terms of buckets.Your checking account feeds
short term expenses
Long term savings
outside investments
retirement
Consider setting up automatic transfers.
1 month of expenses, then the remainder rainy day fund, build this account up first.50% monthly needs housing food - your short-term expenses for living and entertainment.30% rainy day20% retirement investment bucket.
To invest in real estate, consider saving $125/month. By the time you graduate college, you can afford to buy a home.People who invest in real estate are 48x's wealthier than those who rent.