Welcome Home with Monique

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU NB studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education for

Monique Buchanan 0:40
you. Hey, family. It's Monique Buchanan, the host of the welcome home with Monique show. I hope you guys all had a great weekend. I want to give a quick Happy Birthday shout out to my husband. Last week, on Sunday, it was my husband's birthday, we went up to Big Bear, California, where a friend owns a very beautiful cabin. So if you're interested in a cabin, you know, just as a vacation home, or, Hey, maybe you want to, you know, move to Big Bear and get about 20 or 30 degrees lower from this heat. Yeah, so I made some connections up there, and we're talking as low as, like, 330 so I'm like, I was blown away by that, you know, the beautiful trees and everything that comes with just being in that, you know, mountain area, the snow squirrels. I Okay, I was out looking at the beautiful little squirrels running around, storing up their nuts. It was, it was awesome. I haven't seen that in a long time. May sound a little corny to you, but I'm from Seattle, so I do miss these things. You know, I love Vegas, but I do miss grass and squirrels and things like that. So anyways, Happy Birthday, Mr. Henry Buchanan. I thank God for your support, and especially when you supported me into getting into real estate. You have my back, and I just love you so much. My dear. Happy birthday to my husband. All right, so now all that mushiness is all done with. Got a show for you. Today's show. I get the question all the time, is it a good time to buy, right? But let me tell you something I can hands down, say this for my buyers, whether you're wanting to, like, upsize your home, put it on the market, buy something new, get a bigger home. Here in Las Vegas, every market is different, but I'm hearing from you know, like I said, I can help you in all 50 states, my team across the nation, pretty much, I haven't heard anybody say it isn't a buyer's market where they're at yet. So I do, I can tell you right now, there are more homes on the market listed than there are buyers. So the buyers, my buyers, we have an upper hand right now when it comes to purchasing the properties, it is what it is that's where we're at. The market changes all the time. In an instant, it can turn into a seller's market. Hey, if Mr. Powell decides to drop those rates. Guess what's going to happen? The prices of homes are going to shoot up. And hey, mortgage is going to be extremely cheap again, right? So there's going to be an influx of buyers that have been waiting on the sidelines. They're all going to jump into this pool at once, which causes, like I said, prices to go up, rates go down, prices go up, right? So here's why I say that right now is a buyer's market, and it's actually like the market is like a gift for buyers right now. Honestly, sellers are literally giving money away to help you buy down your rate, to help you pay the costs that come with buying a home. You not only have your down payment, which is 3.5% if you've been renting the last three years, you're considered a first time home buyer, as long as you don't own anything. So 3.5% is what you would put down, right? So just for easy math, and you know, hey, I'm no math musician, magician, but you know what I mean, I am not the greatest at math, and $400,000 purchase price is going to put you somewhere around $12,000 for your down payment. Okay, so with that being said, you have that $12,000 but guess what else you have closing cost. Closing costs are the fees that are associated with purchasing a home. You have a title company that's going to charge you. They're going to ensure that your title is clean and there's no clouds on your title, which means there's nobody to come after you from the previous owner. Okay, we want to make sure when we transfer the home in your name, you don't have to worry about, you know, things from 50 years ago coming back to bite you. Now, I'm also I was born in Seattle, but I was raised in Texas as well as Vegas and down in the south, even to this day, people are down there buying homes and property and just doing it old school, not going through title companies. So therefore you're taking a huge risk. You don't know what you're getting. You might be inheriting a huge tax bill on that property. So that's what the title company does. They ensure that you're not inheriting. Any bills that are not yours, basically, right? Make sure you get a clean title. They have to be paid. Your lender, he's gonna charge some kind of a fee. He has to be paid. So all these fees are considered closing costs. They are another 3% okay? So I always tell my clients, think of it. When you buy a home, you're paying sick. If you're a first time home buyer, 6.5% of whatever your purchase price is is what you're expected to bring to the table when you buy the home. Now, why am I telling you all this? Well, this is why, right now, the sellers are pitching in on that extra 3% which would have been around $9,000 so you have your down payment of 12,000 and by the way, I'm going off a $400,000 house. Obviously it will be more if you're purchasing a higher amount, just right at 400,000 12,000 for your down around 9000 for your closing cost, right? So that's $20,000 that you would be expected to bring to the table. Now you can pull it out of 401, k, if you already have it saved, good for you. If you have some stock, some crypto, however you come across it, whether it's a gift from family, your 401, K, from, you know, maybe you work in the casino and they give you 401, K, yes, you can pull the money out of that and go ahead and invest in your property, as long as you're going to live in it, right? So my point is, instead of $20,000 that you normally would have to pay to buy that $400,000 home, most of my clients are walking away with keys to their new home for less than $5,000 out of their pocket for the last man, I would almost say, the last year or so, Monique, how are they doing that? Well, a lot of them are using my down payment assistance program. So there's zero down you only need a 640, to 660 credit score, depending on which program you go with, right? They're going to gift you the down payment. Now there are stipulations. Some of them require you to live in the home for five years. Don't sell it or refi it within that five years, if you do, you'll just be pro rated whatever you owe them, and it'll be wrapped into your loan, so you're never expected to come out of your pocket with whatever it is you owe. They just add it into your loan. So if you refinance the house, and let's say that they gave you $10,000 for your closing costs. You decided to refinance your house after six months because the rates dropped really low. And that makes complete sense, and there is no limit to how long you have to wait. The only penalty is you'll have to pay back whatever that is that you owe. So at $10,000 they'll prorate it. Let's say that now you just owe 9500 or 9000 for easy math. So if you owe $9,000 from the 10 that they gave you because you decided to go ahead and refinance and get out of that loan, no problem, they're gonna take that 9000 and add it into your loan. So now you'll owe 409,000 over 30 years, so that probably will bump your payment up. Well, you're refinancing, so your payment is going to go down low anyway. But remember, every $10,000 is typically about 30 to $50 on your payment over 30 years, right? So in other words, your payment will go up 30 bucks, maybe 40 bucks, but you don't have to get the money or to get the money out of your pocket, if that makes sense. I'm just trying to run away with that point. We're not expecting you to come up with $9,000 because you decided to refinance your house. Now you got to go find $9,000 laying around. No, that's not how it works. They simply roll it into your loan so that you can take advantage of the low rates that we know are coming. They are coming Okay, so you can go ahead and take advantage of your mortgage dropping down even lower. But here's the good news, another key point of why it is definitely time to go ahead and take advantage of the sellers paying some of your cost. So like I said, normally you'd be coming out your pocket. 20,000 the sellers, on average, have been giving me anywhere from 5000 to last week, I just got a client out of state. Client. He couldn't believe it. His lender couldn't believe it. I got him $14,000

Monique Buchanan 9:15
to purchase his $400,000 house. So that's, you know, he pretty much has got all of his actually, he has all of his closing costs paid and some money left over. He was just blown away when I did that. Called him and said, Listen, I talked the seller into it. We're good to go. You're you've got the full 14,000 his lender couldn't believe it. Oh, my goodness, Monique, I'm telling you. Have to know how to talk to people and educate the seller. You have to educate their their well, really, I'm educating their realtor that represents them, because I'm legally I don't talk to the sellers directly. I represent my buyer. I cannot talk to the seller, but I can talk to his agent and educate him on why and how we're going to use this money, and that is what. It lets the sellers understand what market we're in and why it you know, hey, at the end of the day, do you want to sell the house? Because right now, there's not a bunch of people banging on your door. I have a viable buyer. He's more than approved. Anthony gets on the line and lets them know that we will definitely get this to the finish line. That goes a long way. So now he knows that my buyer is solid. We're not going to go 1520, days into the deal and then have to back out for some crazy reason, and now the seller has lost all this time and possible buyers. That goes a long way when you know how to communicate with people and let them know. Hey, yes, it sounds like a lot of money, but at the end of the day, you sitting on this market is what's going to cost you even more. So that worked. We got $14,000 from the seller. My clients are ecstatic. His lender is ecstatic. He's going to be able to use that either a pay his entire closing cost and take the leftover and do what's called the buy down, or he could take that whole amount and buy down his rate from 6.25 he can go all the way down to two points, according to my lender, to 4.25 and guess what that is, guys, that was yesterday's rate. So there was no need for him to have to wait on the sidelines and take whatever's left over and overpay, take whatever house is left over and overpay for it. That's why I'm trying to tell you guys I'm getting my clients into rates that they can afford today, because I'm negotiating on their behalf. So if you're just tuning in, this is Monique buchannen. I am not only your local Las Vegas realtor, but I can assist you in any state you are thinking of moving. Not only can I assist you here in the beautiful Las Vegas area, but I can help with any move within the United States of America. Remember, my team stretches far and wide. We're even in 23 countries, you guys. So keep that in mind when you're thinking of buying or selling. I can assist you also. I do sell properties. I list them as well. So this is a really great tool if you're trying to sell your property, just having it mentioned to our listeners. They're telling their friends. It's getting so much more exposure that way. So you can look me up on IG at realtor Monique Buchannan, that's B, U, C, H, A, n, a n, or you can simply give me a little jingle or text, 7029 80 430-700-7029, 84 the 3700 like I said, I've got plenty of clients are coming out of their pocket. This last client, guess what? He's coming out of his pocket, just his down payment. He decided not to use the zero down program. I have other clients that use the zero down program come out of their pocket. Nothing right now, because if I'm able to do like I did with this, gentlemen, get their entire closing costs paid, there's really nothing left for them to bring to the table. Down Payment Assistance took care of their down the seller took care of their closing costs. So it happens. It's happening. You obviously need some money in the bank, right? You need to the bank wants to see that you have a couple grand in the bank. So please don't think you know, don't, don't think that I'm over here saying, just buy it with and have nothing in the bank. You do need a couple dollars, obviously, couple grand. For one, you're gonna have to pay for your inspection. For two, you're gonna have to pay for your appraisal. That alone is about $1,000 plus you're gonna need what's called earnest money deposit, which shows the seller that you're a serious buyer, you're gonna need at least 1000 to $2,000 typically it's 1% of the home. So at 400,000 they would want you to bring 4000 now, I do negotiate that down. So that's not, you know, something that's gonna kill the deal if you don't have it. Sometimes the banks want to see that you have a little reserves. They want to see that you can afford to make one month's mortgage, you know, so you do need to have some money in the bank ready to go. Okay? Another thing I get these phone calls, and it just breaks my heart. I get a lot of my clients will call me, or listeners, some of my listeners will call and they'll be on disability, or they'll be on a really low fixed income. That does not mean that you will not get approved. Okay, you're not approved based off of how much money you come in are bringing into your household, your credit and your work history and many other I you know things are why you would be approved, but what that does affect is how much you're approved for guys. I was trying to talk you guys into buying homes and and telling you guys, please buy you know even what? Four years ago, five years ago, people were saying they're waiting on this crash. Well, guess what, guys, it's been, how many years still, and people are still, quote, unquote, waiting on this crash. That's not going to happen, right? Here's the thing, we have so many people that need homes right now and not enough out there. There's no crash. Another thing, people bought homes at 2% they're not losing their homes. They can always just sell it and walk away with money. Where's the crash? The crash happened because of predatory lending back in the day, okay, people were getting homes that they could not afford, and you. It was just predatory lending. They were giving homes to anybody that had a pulse. All right, they have since then, cracked down on that tremendously. If you are approved today, you're definitely approved, and that's that. So I'm sorry, but I've been telling people this for years, and I'm bringing it up because there's still people out there that are thinking this crash is going to happen, and it just doesn't make any sense. So unfortunately, they could have bought five years ago, all right? They could have bought a home for $200,000 you know, like 232, 45 to six years ago, right? A nice house. Okay, so now they've waited all this time, and unfortunately, the medium home price now is $400,000 almost twice that. So why? Why am I bringing it up? Because if you were on just a fixed income, or you didn't make that much money coming in, maybe only three, $3,000 a month, maybe something like that, and you want to buy a home, well, guess what? Now you're going to be approved for that 230,000 but there are no homes out there at that price any longer, so you waiting on this crash. I hate to say could have just ex made you out of the out of the market, and I'm so sorry to say it, but that's where we're at right now the medium home price is $400,000 okay, so when the rates come down, hopefully that will, you know, bump up that 230 and these are, of course, just estimates, maybe get you to three, but still, you're gonna have very limited options. And remember, you can look at a town home or a condo, but here's the problem with that, they are cheaper. Even at 230 it's gonna be hard to find a condo or a townhome. I mean, there's some out there, but they're, they're HOAs. They all typically have HOAs, and those HOAs are steep. They're, on average, over $100 a month, you guys. And this is added on top of your mortgage. It's never included. You have your mortgage payment, which consists of your fire and hazard insurance, your principal and interest, right? Just how much you borrow from the bank. You've got your taxes, so you don't have to run down to the, you know, tax office at the end of the year. And you have another insurance it's called mortgage insurance premium. MIP, so if you don't put 20% down on your property when you buy it, you have got to insure your own loan. And that, right, there could be $200 plus on top of your mortgage. So let's just pretend, pretend that you know, must say your mortgage was $1,000 right? Just your principal and interest was $1,000 there you go. Well, your taxes are another $100 a month, so that puts it up to 1100 for your mortgage. Right then you've got your fire and hazard. Let's just say that's another 100. So that took that 1000 to 212 100. Okay, so now you've got that other insurance right now, instead of your $900 payment. Now you're looking at $1,400 or maybe $1,500 a month. So that is how the mortgage works, you guys, that's what your mortgage is. I always tell my clients, it's like four bills rolled into one. You got your normal house note, then you've got, I just say, utility bills. You've got these other utility bills included into that payment. That's why you'll see. Oh, wait a minute, I only financed this much. My payment should be $900 No, you still have all these other things that are attached to your mortgage so that you don't have to worry about them throughout the years. The bank doesn't want you accidentally forgetting to pay your fire and hazard insurance, so they include it into your mortgage or your taxes. Okay, so just keep that in mind. And then something else, I want to point out a little tidbit for you guys. When you're on Zillow or any of these platforms, and you see a $600,000 house, and then you see that the payment is estimated at $1,800 and you're like, my goodness, that I could afford that,

Monique Buchanan 19:00
right? Um, sorry. I just gotta let you guys know this normally, that's assuming that you have an 800 credit score and you're putting 20% down on that property. So just know that when you see these, you know really low payments, that is what that is. They're saying. Okay, if you have over it, you know stellar, stellar credit, and you also are putting 20% down. This is around what your payment will be, all right. So I hate to be the bearer of bad news today. I feel like I need to, you know, take a step back and and reset. But I just want you guys to know that, because these are the things you know that are heartbreaking. When people call and they're like, Well, you know, and I'm like, oh, you know, unfortunately, this is how that works. So it's better you know ahead of time and kind of have an idea. That's what I'm about. I'm about letting you guys know the things that are maybe not said, you know, or they're forgotten to be said You know, so that you're not misled in any way. All right, so let's talk about some of these down payment assistant programs that you. You guys should really be taken advantage of right now, because, let me tell you, it's almost like you're being treated like a veteran, you know, and always giving honor to my vets out there. Thank you for your service. You guys totally deserve this, and that's what breaks my heart. When I talk to a veteran that's maybe in their 50s or 60s, and they tell me they've never used their benefit. Oh, my goodness. I just, I just, I don't, I don't understand it, but I know maybe there was reasons or whatever, but all the wealth that was left on the table and and they don't even realize it, the homes and the property that could have made them hundreds of 1000s of dollars honoring their, you know, their service. They deserve that. They deserve it their family and all the sacrifices they made with them being in the service and nothing, nothing was taken advantage of when it comes to that that, you know, DD 214 that that that benefit, okay? So a house will bless your family, if nothing else, your children, their children, right? It will create wealth through your family when you go on to be with the Lord. Right now, you've left a property, maybe a couple properties, because vets have no limit on how many they can can purchase okay? So I think a lot of it is that they don't understand how it all works. But here's the good news, I do, and so does my lender. That's one of the specialties that he does. He has a direct connection with the VA, so he's able to find out everything. If you're, you know, if you served enough time. Because sometimes people don't realize they have it. They say, Oh, well, I don't think I have it because of this. The next reason I was discharged this way, that way, it is a five minute conversation to find out, and could change the trajectory of your life and your family's life. It can change it. You know, one phone call could bless your entire family for generations to come. You might buy land, you might buy a home, and then that home blesses your children and their children's children. So that's a big thing to me. When I talk about my vets. You know, we can give excuses all day long, but at the end of the day, if you're going to purchase a property, it's, you know, going to gain equity over time, right when you rent, and you take that stipend from them and you go get a rental, you're gaining nothing, nothing. Okay, zero. When you could go ahead and and use that towards mortgage, right? I just, you know, so just think about that. You can always sell the property. If you need to move on, or you want to go somewhere else, or you get deployed, you can sell it. You can rent it out. You don't have to worry about managing it. I have property managers that will do everything for you, find the renter, manage the renter, check the renter's credit. You have to do nothing but collect the check, and if there's a couple things that go wrong within that time, yeah, I'm hoping you bought a home warranty, so then you can just have the managers make those phone calls, get those repairs done, you pay your little fee and call it a day. But that way, the day to day task is off of your plate, and at a low cost, they typically charge like 10% of whatever you're bringing in for rent. So if you are charging $2,000 a month for rent, my property managers will charge you 200 bucks a month to take care of all of that, get it off your plate and manage your renters. Evict them if they need to be evicted, serve them notices all of that, you guys, so that you don't have to be worried with those day to day or, you know, tasks. So just keep that in mind. Property managers, I have those so if you're thinking of renting your property, you can always reach out, 7029 84 3700 or if you're thinking about selling your property, I can also assist you with listing your property. And like I said, having it mentioned right here on 91.5k umv, 7029 84 3700 so I'm sorry I started off with about, you know the zero down programs, how it pretty much lines you up like my veterans. So what I meant by that is you're gonna have that down payment paid for you. There's a couple different ones. I don't like to say the names of these programs, so I can ensure that you're putting the right program. We go over all of the details with you, so you can make that decision, you know, an educated decision, all right. So we have got zero down, 640, credit score, one, some of them have income limits. Some of them do not have income limits. Now, all of them require this be your primary residence. Okay? So these programs cannot be used to buy investment properties or even vacation homes. Okay, so just keep that in mind, if you own a home right now. You don't want to sell it, no problem. Guess what? We can get a rental lease going for that property, and you can use one of these programs, all right. Or if you don't need to use a program, you've got money saved, once again, rental lease, and you'll be right back to where you could put 3% down, or 3.5% down to move into that bigger home. Home or to downsize, all right? And go ahead, and now you've got a rental property, the first property that you bought. So now you're building your portfolio. You know, none of us are getting younger. We need all the money we can coming in to supplement our retirement, right? So another one. So the majority of these are requiring a 640 credit score, and the majority of these are giving you all of your down payment, and then some of them are even giving you a little more than that to go towards that closing cost. But remember, I'm going to be going after the closing costs. Monique Buchanan, the major negotiator. You guys hear how I talk, I talk to the listing agents just like this, you know, like I've known them for years. And then, you know, it's a friendly conversation. You have to, you have to be likable in this business, honey. You cannot be coming with attitudes. People will remember you. In fact, I have in my phone, if you're not a very friendly realtor and you're, you're kind of mean, I'll put a little mad face by your little mad face emoji, so I kind of know what to expect if you're calling me. But No, but seriously, Vegas is small, so we have to be, you know, treat each other with respect. And so the the agents out there know me. They know I'm a woman of God, and they know that I'm always on the up and up. I'm never underhanded or shady in any kind of way. I'ma always look out for my colleagues, but always keeping my buyers, or if I'm representing my sellers always keeping them first, so every move I make, they know that too. Okay, so integrity is key. But anyways, let's just recap the show right. Now is definitely the time, guys. There is no greater time in the last 10 years of the Las Vegas market, I have not seen in the last 10 years, sellers giving money towards the buyer's cost. Don't be like that person that keeps waiting on this mysterious, uh, bubble, or whatever they're calling it. They're regretting it now because they've waited too long, and a lot of them are unfortunately priced out the market. Don't let that be you. There's no There's no need, you guys, as long as there people need a place to live in a home. It's always a good time to buy a house. Period. You could always refinance the house. There is no waiting period. We have down payment assistant programs ready to go. It is a five minute conversation. Please do not go out there renting a property and still needing to have a 640 credit score. Most of the property managers require that because of COVID, people not paying rent for two and three years. They got more strict. So the majority of them are saying, hey, you need at least a 640 credit score or we're gonna charge you extra deposit. You heard about the young man that was being charged? I think it was like $6,000 to move into a $2,000 rental, and he couldn't bring his dog. Okay, that's a family member. He couldn't even bring his dog. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't bring your dog somewhere. Okay, my number is 7029 80 430-700-7029, 84 3700 me and my team are here to assist, and we appreciate you. Hope to hear from you soon. Have a blessed week. Thank you for listening. Please remember all terms discussed are simply an estimate. My license number is S 1788, 46, my phone number, if you'd like to contact me, is 702-984-3700, you can also find me on YouTube. Seven.

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