What to Know Before Buying a Home: Hidden Costs, & Secrets to Save Big with Quiana Watson
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January 31, 2025
TLDR: Discusses essential insights for home-buying from real estate expert Quiana Watson, covering closing costs, down payment assistance programs, property taxes, maintenance expenses, credit analysis, and the true cost of owning a house.

Buying a home is a significant financial commitment, and understanding the process can save you from costly mistakes. In this podcast episode, real estate expert Quiana Watson dives into essential insights that every potential homebuyer should be aware of, particularly related to hidden costs and effective budgeting strategies.
Key Takeaways from the Episode
Understanding Hidden Costs
- Closing and Down Payment Costs: Many buyers focus primarily on the down payment, neglecting additional expenses such as closing costs, which can range from 2% to 5% of the home's purchase price. Each state may have different requirements and programs for assistance, so it’s vital to inquire early.
- Ongoing Expenses: Homeownership entails several ongoing costs beyond the mortgage payment:
- Property Taxes: These can fluctuate based on local property values and should be accounted for in your budget.
- Homeowners Insurance and Mortgage Insurance: Insurance costs add a substantial expense, particularly if you are required to pay mortgage insurance on loans with less than a 20% down payment.
- Utilities & Maintenance: Buyers often overlook utility costs and regular maintenance, which can add up quickly. A well-maintained home typically incurs additional expenses such as plumbing and electrical repairs.
The Importance of Credit and Financial Positioning
- Before jumping into the mortgage application process, buyers should know their credit scores and outstanding debts. Lenders typically evaluate your financial stability through debt-to-income (DTI) ratios to determine how much they are willing to lend.
- Good Faith Estimate (GFE): Quiana emphasizes the importance of obtaining a GFE from lenders rather than relying solely on pre-approval letters which often do not reflect true borrowing power. This estimate gives a clearer view of all associated costs including the expected monthly mortgage payment.
Navigating Mortgage Options
- Types of Loans: Quiana outlines various loan types available for home purchases, including FHA loans, which require a lower down payment, and VA loans, which offer zero down payment for veterans. Understanding these options empowers potential buyers to find a loan that suits their financial situation.
- Negotiate Seller Concessions: In today's market, there's an opportunity for buyers to negotiate with sellers regarding closing costs. Seller concessions can significantly reduce the amount of cash needed upfront.
Working with Professionals
- Selecting a Real Estate Agent: While some buyers may think they’re saving by not hiring an agent, Quiana strongly recommends engaging with a knowledgeable professional who can guide you through each step. Look for agents with a proven track record in negotiating and understanding the local real estate market.
- Home Inspections: A thorough inspection can uncover hidden issues that may become costly later. Quiana highlights that buyers should consider having specialized inspections on older homes or areas of concern such as roofing or plumbing.
Practical Applications for Homebuyers
Set a Realistic Budget
- It’s crucial to calculate a comprehensive budget that considers both the mortgage payment and all related expenses. Quiana advises buyers to practice financial discipline, aiming to live well within their means to avoid becoming "house poor," which means overextending oneself financially to afford a home.
Embrace Home Ownership as an Investment
- Homeownership is not just about acquiring a place to live; it's also an investment. Quiana suggests viewing your home as an asset that can appreciate over time—something that will contribute to your overall wealth if purchased wisely.
Think Long-Term
- When buying a home, consider your future goals. Will the house meet your needs in five years? Are you planning to grow your family or change jobs? If so, choose a property that can adapt to your changing life circumstances.
Conclusion
Quiana Watson’s insights provide a comprehensive overview of what it truly means to buy a home in today’s market. Understanding hidden costs, establishing a reasonable budget, and getting support from real estate professionals can significantly enhance your home purchasing experience. By applying these principles, prospective buyers can navigate the complexities of homeownership with confidence, making informed decisions that lead to long-term financial stability.
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Yeah, you, we back, we back, we back, we back again. Okay.
Yeah. Yes. Busy week. Busy week. Or don't stop. So we don't stop. Well, yes. Very timely episode. If you've been following us, you know, we've been doing these How To series. The last one shot to Chris saying was how to, you know, start investing in stocks. We've done, um, we've done one on real estate with Matt. We've done technology, artificial intelligence. We've done, uh,
taxes. We've done how to teach the kids about money, a variety of different stuff. So this one, we wanted to go back to real estate, but we wanted to take it from a different, a different lens. Last time we did like, you know, how to actually buy a home as far as like mortgages and the financial side of it. But we wanted to do the things you need to know before buying a home. So it's very, very, very important because a lot of times one of the biggest things that I think people
are not fully aware of or educated on is what actually happens after, you know, you get an approval for a mortgage, right? There's a lot of expenses. There's a lot of nuanced things that go on the play and you realize it when it's too late and then it kind of, you know, puts you in a tough spot financially a lot of times because you're not prepared or you didn't know or you could have made out better if one thing was done better.
We wanted to have a whole entire live where this is going to go over the things that you need to know before buying a home. So you need to know all of these things because if not, then you'll be surprised. Yeah, I think one of those things is like, again, we wish we would have known, I think it's for every level, right? If your first time by it,
You've bought real estate before, rules change, lowest change, provisions change. And so you got to stay up to date with this thing. It's not a game. And again, number one, it's going to save you time. But most importantly, it's going to save you money, right? Because sometimes you prepare to get the home and everybody thinks down payment, down payment, down payment. And there's so many other costs and nuances. Like you said, that could throw our budget off and we won't even be prepared to have the home, right? We get that pre-approval ladder and it's like, oh, I can get this amount.
not so fast. And so we don't know step by step today to help everybody get on the right foot when it gets to having real estate. Yeah, so we're going to get into it. And we have a professional who's going to walk this door. It's extremely qualified to have this conversation on the top. When you look at real estate agents, but somebody has actually built the real estate agency.
And one of the top in Atlanta, one of the top in America, Keanu Watson, who's been doing this for a very long time, and has sold millions, hundreds of millions of value dollars of real estate throughout the course of our career. Like I said, actually has an agency with other agents under her.
Um, so she's probably the most qualified person to speak about this from a real estate aspect because that's the whole point of having some professional helping you sell your home or helping you buy a home is actually they're supposed to be walking you through all this other stuff. So on one side, you have somebody like Matt who's at the bank who's giving you the finances to actually buy the home, but then you have somebody that's in the field
That's actually walking the property that's actually has to do the inspections that has to, you know, negotiate with the other seller or buyer and earnest money and all that type of stuff. So you got to hear from both perspective because it's important. So we're going to bring her up. And before we do, don't forget you deserve to be rich. New York Times best seller.
You can go to youdeserve2brichbook.com. Make sure you get your copy. That's why we're important for your financial journey for sure. Good place to start. Essential. Essential. Hey, hey. How are you? We are great. How are you feeling today? I'm incredible. Cannot complain. Life is good.
I would never expect anything less from you, Keanu. For sure. So, Keanu Watson, friend of the show, she's done several episodes with us before, live events, invest fast.
you know, the whole gambit. So somebody that has added a lot of value to not only your clients, but a lot of people online that have gotten information and inspiration from the real estate side. But also, like I said, from the entrepreneurship side as well, as far as I know, personally, a few people that actually have become real estate agents because of you. Yep.
And not even knowing you just following your pay, you gave them inspiration to actually become a real estate agent. So first of all, thank you for joining us. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I can't wait to dive into this episode. Yeah, no. I feel like it's important information they need to know. It's just so much information online. I think everybody feel like you can use technology and AI. You can chat GPT everything, but you really can't. Like when it comes to buying a property and understanding contingencies,
financial obligations and all those details. That is not a Googleable. That's not Google information. You need to have an expert that can really walk you through those details in those layers. So I'm ready to share that and really set the record straight. So a lot of people won't be so afraid of homeownership, but understand the value and what to expect.
You have it. So all right. Sorry, buddy. Get ready. Hit the like button. Share. Okay. So as I said, you know, Kiana is going to go. So how are we going through this? How we've been doing this is that, you know, we have slides. We'll interrupt the slides and kind of ask questions and then we'll just need it off there. But, um,
I know that you put together a presentation to kind of go over what you think is important for people to know before purchasing a home. So I guess we could jump, we could jump right into it. Okay, let's jump right into it.
And this is just introducing myself who I am, what I offer. I'm glad that you went over that. I do have a real estate company in Atlanta. I have at this moment 20 agents in counting that work with Watson Realty Co. We're here in Buckhead. And we also have great partnerships with developers or with a lot of developers to list and sell their properties. But don't be afraid. This particular
An interview is all about first time buyers of people looking to purchase a home. I started my career off working with first time buyers and helping them navigate the process. So I want to make sure you guys understand that I have a training academy agents who were success where I have mentors.
Several thousands of people across the United States in outside of the country to really learn how to navigate the real estate world and beyond that, I've gotten plenty of accolades for marketing sales, recognitions. I do have my master's degree. I clearly understand business, real estate.
I want to just kind of dive back right into this and jump into something that I want to say first because we always asking like what are the things like what should you know when it's time to buy your first property. And the number one thing that I think that most people need to know
is before we just jump into it, everybody does not qualify for down payment assistance just because you're buying your first house. All right, let's jump right into it. Things you should know before buying a home. I personally feel like when you're buying your first property, you hear all these stories everywhere and that story is I'm gonna qualify for some type of down payment assistance. And because I'm buying my first home, the government are some big thing within the world is going to give me money.
The truth is that is not the case. You do not automatically qualify for down payment assistance or any type of assistance just because you're purchasing your first home. You need to understand that these programs are designed for people that are in low income to moderate areas. So if you are beyond that amount or if you have more than a certain amount of money saved or if your credit score is not at a certain place, you're not going to qualify. So for example, I'm licensed in the state of Georgia. We have what's called the Georgia dream.
Most people look at the Georgia Dream and say, yes, I'm going to use this to buy my first house. Well, the minimum credit score, you have to have a 640 minimum credit score. You can't have more than $20,000 saved and you have to actually have a, you have to be in a low income to moderate area. So you can't make above like $65,000 in certain areas and then certain areas you can't make above $59,000. So you have to really understand the qualifying factors for these to have down payment assistance.
So when you're thinking about buying your first home, I always advise you to start with a real estate professional. We get a bad rep. Oh, they didn't show me the house. They didn't find me the house. But a real estate professional actually has relationships with a lot of different lenders, a lot of different brokers that can actually guide you when it comes to getting some down payment assistance, and then debunk that myth of if you qualify or not. If you don't qualify, then you should be in a position to start saving for your down payment in your out-of-pocket expenses.
So when you're looking to purchase a home, I think it's important that you understand your out of pocket expenses and debunk the myth that somebody is just going to give you money to purchase your first home. If you do qualify, it's great. You should be able to utilize it to buy your first property. But if you don't qualify, don't be discouraged and get a better understanding of what you do qualify for.
So that's just one of the biggest things I feel like I have to tell first time buyers. Sometimes I have people making over 150,000 a year. Like, hey, I want down payment assistance from my first house. You don't qualify. So you have to position yourself to buy your first home and understand the importance of home ownership.
Yeah, there's a piece there that gets confusing as well, right? Like, what do I qualify for, right? So the home down payment assistance is one thing, but sometimes people get these pre-approval letters and it's like, I'm approved for 400,000. That doesn't necessarily mean you're getting 400,000. I think there's a common misconception that happens around it. Can you clear that up for us?
Yes, the common misconception is they will do an approval, but your approval has to depend on your loan type, right? Certain loan types will go up to 59% or 60% of your debt to income ratio. Some are going to go 40% of your debt to income ratio. But if you understand how you want to live your life, most people have different, you have different calculations like you guys have, you deserve to be rich.
And I'm sure you tell them about how you may want to live about 30% or 40% of your income. So if you're living off of that, why would you want your mortgage to take up 40% when your mortgage needs to take up maybe 30% or 25% so you can have the other remaining balance to do what? To live and pay the utility bills and save and invest. So I would say instead of focusing on what I'm approved for, make sure you guys need to get what is called a GFE.
A GFE is a good faith estimate. When you're talking to a lender, you can go online and put anything online and they're going to shoot you out in approval. That's a pre-qualification letter. They didn't take the time to understand what your debt to income ratio is. They didn't take the time to have you submit your bank statements, submit all of your income that you're making so they can really calculate what you are comfortable paying per month. So it's not about how much I can spend, it's how much I want to spend.
So when you get a GFE, they're going to do an estimate of your out of pocket expenses. It breaks down your mortgage amount. It breaks down the amount of money you have to put down. The interest rate at the time, we'll talk about interest rate, ladies, the interest rate at the time. And then it shoots out, okay, based on this, this is what your monthly payment will be.
With the GFE, it helps you to avoid saying, I'm approved for 400,000, where you really need to say, I'm ready to spend $2,000 a month on the mortgage. And this is how much I need to search for. Got you. So it really helps a lot. I think that so many people are thinking, I just got approved for this amount. A lender will approve you for the Mac.
That their job is to approve you for the match. It's your job to protect yourself and say, I don't want to spend the match. I have a certain budget of what I want to spend per month. And then you go retroactive with that good faith estimate. And then your pre approval amount needs to reflect that and you need to stay within that budget because you don't want to be house poor. So as we move on.
I hope that really makes sense for you guys. Too many people are just thinking about the total picture and not understanding home ownership is designed for you to build wealth, but you can't build wealth when you're putting all of your income just directly into the property. So you have a lot of financial responsibility as well when it comes to being a homeowner.
So when I broke that down, what is your budget? You know what your budget is. So if you're already paying rent somewhere, which most of you are, and if you're not paying rent anywhere, calculate what you want to contribute towards your overhead. Because you think about a mortgage, your mortgage payment does not include your light bill, it does not include maintenance, it does not include your water bill, it doesn't include groceries, like it doesn't include what you need to live.
So when you work on that, create a very comprehensive budget and don't go beyond that, because you have to plan for the long-term commitment. One thing I always say about buying a property that you have to understand, the purchase price that you use by the property is stuck to you forever.
You can't renegotiate the purchase price. You can go back and renegotiate what the interest rate is and refinance and possibly get a lower monthly payment. But the way that the economy is going now and the interest rates are going now, who can predict when the rates are going to be low enough to refinance? So always go into it the first time being very cognizant of what you want to spend per month. Okay.
All right. Let's go. Now you have a slide with housing related expense, housing related expenses. Jump to that. So yeah, let's let's talk about that. Yeah.
Okay, guys, so let's just talk about some housing related expenses that you need to include, right? You have your monthly mortgage payment and your monthly mortgage payment includes your actual mortgage amount that you financed, the interest that you're paying back on the loan, as well as if you do, if you have to pay private mortgage insurance, that dollar amount will also be included inside of your monthly payment.
You have to pay your property taxes, which is considered your escrows and your property taxes. That's one thing that does fluctuate.
Your property taxes is one thing that fluctuates that most people do not account for. I saw this big thing on TikTok. Let's just address this head on. People are like, wow, my property taxes went up. My property taxes went up so high. No one told me about it. Well, it's a fluctuating expense. And the reason that it goes up, it goes up if the value of the area that you purchased in actually appreciates in value. So let me explain to you what a value appreciation is so you know
No, you may not like increased property taxes, but why it benefits you in the long run. If you buy a property for a half million dollars and in two years, that house is now evaluated for $600,000, $500,000 minus that from $600,000, you have $100,000 in equity. That means your home is now worth an additional $100,000 from the time that you purchased it.
So when the tax assessor goes back out to the property and assess your values, they're going to increase your taxes because now your home is valued at more. That benefits you if you want to do a couple things. One, let's just say you suddenly need to sell your house and move to New York. You know, you wanted to hang out with EYL. If you need to sell your house from Atlanta to New York, you put your house on the market. You have that difference in equity.
And you can actually try to make them the numbers in the market, sell it for 600,000 after agent fees, you'll come home with probably $70,000, right? That is what equity is. That's why it's so valuable. But if you just hold on to the property and in a couple more years, you want to actually do a
equity line of credit, a home equity line of credit where you say, Hey, bank, my house is now worth $600,000. I need $50,000. Can I leverage this house and get $50,000 to start my own business? That is why equity is so important. So yes, your taxes will go up because they fluctuate, but getting home equity is something you should be proud of as a homeowner who wants to buy an area that's not appreciating that defeats the purpose of homeownership.
So here's the question inside of that, right? Because a lot of people will be doing renovations on a home, they're upgrading their home, right? How often is the tax assessor coming, right? Is it every six months? Is it one year, every two years, so that people can prepare because a lot of times people will allocate their budget based on what the property tax is now. Obviously, as you do improvements that will go up hopefully if you're in the right area. How often is that guy or that woman coming?
They don't actually come out to your property. They look at what has been sold in the area. So you're thinking about a tax assessor. It's all digital. They're just looking at what has been sold in the area. So if your neighbor sells their property and they did some upgrades, it's going to affect you.
And they're going to look, oh, so this house actually just sold for 700,000. We have no idea what you did inside of your property. But what we're going to do is say, now this area, now this entire area is worth this dollar amount. So when these things happen consistently, the only time someone is going into your property and I don't want to get too ahead of the game is when you get an appraisal.
You guys know what an appraisal is. So an appraisal will go into your property when you're ready to sell your property. Or as a home owner, if you're a home buyer, if you're ready to buy a property, your lender will not give you any money. There is no lender in the United States of America that will lend you money without you getting an appraisal.
An appraiser was a third party company, so no, you can't just say I'm calling my friend. That's an appraiser, and they're going to come out and tell me what this house is worth. That's not how it works. A lender will assign an appraiser to your actual file. The appraiser goes out and they will compare the condition of the property that you're interested in purchasing to three other properties that have sold on the market.
When you get your appraisal back, they're going to measure the square footage of the home. They're going to look at the condition. They're going to look at market conditions. And then they're going to tell you, if you let's say you place an offer on the house for $500,000, the appraisal is going to say, hey, this house is worth $500,000, which is great. Or they're going to say, hey, you got to deal. This house is worth $550,000. That means you have instant equity. Or if they come back and say, this house is only worth $475,000.
Let's just say that does happen. That means it's coming in below the actual price that you said you would purchase it for. That is your agent's responsibility to submit an amendment to reduce the purchase price, a copy of the appraisal, and advocate on your behalf to say they're not going to pay the difference, the lender is not going to pay the difference, and I'm only going to buy this property for what it is worth.
So that kind of leads into why you need a real estate professional. A lot of times, y'all don't understand the contingencies when you're supposed to get money back, what you're supposed to do, and that's what happens with an appraisal. So all of that kind of leads into like your taxes, but to further ask the question, yes, it is important that your home is of praise that value when you walk in. So that way you can have appreciation and equity when you have, in the instance, you're trying to get out of it.
Yeah. So let's talk about some of these other fees, right? Cause we know about the mortgage. Some people know about the property tax. We know about homeowners insurance, but there's some other fees that. But wait, but before we go to the slot, so, cause we didn't, we didn't, I just want to make sure people get that the whole thing. So can we go back to the, can we go back to the slot? Yep. So utilities is a big one because this is why a lot of people choosing, you know,
Different type of energy efficient things for their homes and act that could that can save a lot of money, right? And even setting up Utility a lot of times can is as a process water gas or type of stuff and then of course the homeowners insurance But the homeowners insurance is vitally important now, especially you look at California fires. You look at Florida. You look at floods. So okay
The taxes, we just talked about that. That's important. The mortgage is pretty going to be straightforward as far as on the bank side. You should understand those terms. But there's homeowners insurance and the utilities. Can you talk about that? Because that's something that people will need to really have an understanding of what they're getting themselves into before they actually get the home.
Absolutely. So let's jump into utilities. If you're looking for a single family home, it would be ideal. And I want you to write this down. Oftentimes, agents don't do this as the previous homeowners provide you with a statement of what their utility bills are. What are they're paying on average for their light bill? What are they paying on average for their gas bill? Those are two controllable expenses that you don't really consider when you're buying a home. Why is this important?
Let's just say you're buying a 5000 square foot home on a basement. And you're coming from a two bed room apartment that's maybe 1300 square feet. The difference in the amount of heat that's required to heat that space, the amount of HVAC that's required to cool that space, it could be almost the cost of
It could really be thousands of dollars. So while you're out here assessing what your expenses should be, ensure that you get that information from the current homeowner before making your purchase. So utilities are such a big deal. And then when we talk about homeowners, homeowners association fees,
So you guys are in New York. So a lot of times you guys are buying, not y'all. Cause you know, you deserve to be rich. But a lot of people are buying condos, townhouses, things like that. And there are a lot of times those fees are included. So you get into an HOA, they'll say, here's an additional, I saw a condo here in Atlanta where the HOA fee is $1,400 a month.
But it includes the utilities and then it includes amenities. So it includes, so it kind of offsets, but you have to understand how that will affect your monthly payment. So HOA fees is a huge deal. I think we get a big like bad rep. I don't want to house in the HOA. It's good to it and it's not so good. The good parts of it HOA is if you are in a neighborhood, a single family neighborhood,
and everybody has to maintain the exterior a certain way, everybody has to maintain the grass, their yards a certain way. It actually helps with your value appreciation. You're going to hear me say value appreciation a lot because I want you to understand that is the number one reason for getting into real estate and owning a property is value appreciation and ownership. That's it. So of course, HOA fees is something you need to consider and see what's included in that. And then routine maintenance.
I most recently was consulting with someone, and they have to get an entire new HVAC system. They got a quote for $20,000. You can't call the landlord. You are the landlord. You are in charge of that maintenance. So getting routine maintenance on your property and accounting for those additional expenses. I hate to scare people. Everybody has this scare tactic. I'm going to tell you, and this is not even like,
look into any type of home warranty companies that offer complete protection. So when you get a home warranty company that helps you with the routine maintenance. So instead of you being responsible for that $20,000 fee to replace the system, if you were paying a monthly fee into a home warranty company, then you could call them the same way you would call your landlord. Why do I want to say this? Because I'm thinking people try to scare people into not owning a home saying,
My landlord can pay for that. Well, if you were paying a $50 fee per month and your HVAC system went out tomorrow, you would be able to call your home warranty company to cover it. So don't allow these expenses to scare you, but be very aware that these expenses are there. So your job is to protect yourself.
So again, unexpected expenses are going to happen. You're going to have to get your gutters cleaned every year. You're going to have to get your exterior of your property pressure washed every year. Some people do it every quarter. You have to consider that you want a home inspector to come inspect your property every single year, not just when you buy the home. When you initially buy the home, you do get a home inspection because you're negotiating with the seller for any defects in the property and you don't want to purchase a property with the defect. But what happens when you live in a home?
There could be underground leaks that you are not aware of that continue to happen. Your HVAC could be at the bottom of like at the end of its lifespan. So you get a home inspection every single year. That's about five or six hundred dollars. But what it does is preventative maintenance. That preventative maintenance. Now you can call your home warranty and your handyman.
to address issues before they become too expensive. No one talks about that type of maintenance, but that's what it requires to maintain a home. So outside of that, you have the utilities, you have the just maintaining the integrity of your property, but then you also got to account for certain things. And I'm going to focus on single family homes because it's completely different maintenance than having a condo. A single family home, you may want to take into your budget. At what point do I have to replace the roof? An average roof span is 15 to 25 years.
So you have to think about that. At what point do I have to replace the HVAC system? They keep changing the freon and different things in the HVAC system. That's typically five to 10 years. Some of them are saying 20 years. So what you want to do is budget that. And I will not stress this enough. Get a home warranty, get a home warranty, and then make sure when you purchase your property, you're getting scheduled and consistent maintenance of your home. That is how not to do it.
There's a part here like we talk about the homeowners insurance, but most people don't know about mortgage insurance. And I'm assuming that a lot of people are doing being first time home buyers and they don't have the 25% down payment or 20% down payment on a phone is this category. So talk about what that is and kind of give it like an explanation of what mortgage insurance actually entails.
Yes, so mortgage insurance covers the lender. Mortgage insurance does not cover your property. It covers the lender in case you default on the loan. So when you're paying mortgage insurance, a lot of people are like, do I have to pay it? Yes. You have to pay mortgage insurance unless you're putting 20% down. If you're putting less than 20% down, at some point though, what does happen, you do pay the private mortgage insurance, but at some point when you have invested more than 20% towards the principal,
of your mortgage. You can actually call your mortgage lender and say, hey, I have invested this much. I want the mortgage insurance to come off. The mortgage insurance will not cover your house if it's damaged. The mortgage insurance doesn't cover your house. God forbid if there's a fire, it only covers the lender because the lender is taking a chance on you because you don't have enough skin in the game.
You have enough skin in the game for them to say, hey, we're going to give you this mortgage, but you're putting less than 20% down. So we need insurance on top of what we're giving you, just in case you default and you cannot satisfy the law. That is what mortgage insurance is, and you can't get around it. So what's some best practices as far as for the homeowners insurance, right? For the homeowners insurance, what's best practices that people should be aware of when getting a homeowner insurance policy?
you get what you pay for. Cheaper is not always better. And I feel like oftentimes when you're shopping with different home insurance companies, and I have great relationships with homeowners insurance companies, you're just thinking, this is going to affect my monthly payment. It is. They take the calculation of what it will cost you for 12 months, and then you're paying on it every single month as a part of your escrows. Your escrows include your insurance and your taxes, right? So when you're thinking about, okay, I have to pay this amount,
I would say shop and tell them the truth. If you have three Rolex watches in the house, right, and you just did an upgrade in your kitchen and did soft clothes, cabinets, and wolf appliances, you need to tell your insurance company about this. Because what happens is you're getting insured at the house with, say, you buy a house with, you know, GE appliances, you're just happy to own a home.
You read the book, I deserve to be rich. You do a stock option play, and now you want to renovate your kitchen. And you go and do this whole renovation. It's a $100,000 renovation, and you don't report it to your homeowners insurance company. What happens in the interim if your house catches on fire? Like I said, like what happened in LA and things like that? If you never pay the difference in that cost, it's not covered.
So that's why keeping up with your homeowners insurance and making sure that you tell your preferred insurance agency the truth about your assets. They can understand how much it will cost to actually rebuild the property because there's different levels to insurance. Cheaper is never better. I will always stay be educated about the level of insurance that you receive. So in case something happens because that is what insurance is for your cover.
And then also it's important because they had a study that like I think 30% of homeowners actually they're paying more money and all the ancillary stuff than actual mortgage. So you got to have a budget. You got to have an idea of how much money you're going to spend. Because if not, if your budget is like 2,500 in your mortgage is 2,000, you think that I got a $500 surplus. But then when you add all these utilities and the taxes and then the insurance and then, you know, maintenance upkeep.
And the budget is actually your $2,000 a month mortgage actually turns into $4500 a month that you actually end up spending.
that causes a lot of problems. Yeah. And one of those taxes that I didn't even see in there is school tax, right? Like everybody wants to live in a great neighborhood and go to the great school. Well, that costs. And so that that's something that's getting paid semi-annualy or sometimes quarterly. So just keep that in mind. Like when you want to move to that great neighborhood because it's a procedure school, the people that own property there, they're paying school taxes, which is another amount that you're going to have to put into that, that budget that you apparently thought you had when you were starting the buying process.
Oh, and this is one thing I want to tell you guys, and I'm a professional, right? So it shouldn't have happened to me, but it happened to me too with homeowners insurance. One of my investment properties, I'm just like, why is this monthly note so high? What happened, right? I did put down 20%, so I just pay yearly, I pay annually, and it slipped my mind to renegotiate the terms of my homeowners insurance policy.
So they increased my homeowners insurance policy beyond the limit that I wanted was comfortable with. So always remember, you have to advocate for yourself and every year when it's time to renew that policy, you do know you don't have to be stuck with who you started with.
you can actually shop around, let them know you're shopping around, shop three different people, tell them you're shopping, get the lowest rate, and then every, but get the lowest rate that has the highest coverage. Let me say that one more time, get the lowest rate that has the highest coverage, and that will help with controlling your overhead expenses. Probably important, probably important. All right, so how do we avoid overextending ourselves?
Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. I'm serious. We have to stop. You're probably going to look at my page and say, who is she to talk? All she posts is these multi-million dollar properties. Well, that's how I started. That's not how I started. And you've got to understand your first home, depending on who you are and where you are in your life, may not be that multi-million dollar mansion that you want. But that starter home will set the foundation for you to get to that next level, so assess your budget.
You know, there are so many rules about how much you should say, how much you should live off of, and how much, you know, you should invest in just your overhead expenses of living life. So what is your budget? Is it going to be the 30% rule? You know, if it's like 30, you know, everybody has a different rule that they live by. I also want to say they're living off 30% of their income. They're investing. Do you hear this? They're investing like 40% of their income.
And then they're just saving the remaining balance. So what is your essential real budget? And don't go beyond it. And I would say add a contingency of about 5%. So if you think you can live off 30% of your income, reduce it to 25%. That way you can account for inflation. We are living in the data and age of inflation. We cannot control the cost of gas, groceries, and living expenses.
Next up, having emergency savings. Having emergency savings because things can happen as a homeowner. Like as a homeowner, you are responsible for any of the overhead or any expenses to maintain your property. So make sure you have enough money to save. And just consider the future changes that you may have in your life. So don't always think that this is going to be where I always am going, you know, where I start is where I'm going to finish. Real estate is nothing like that. You can start with
a townhouse that's affordable. You can live in that townhouse. You can start with a multi-family home, which a lot of people like to house hack that is affordable. Live in one side, have the other side covering the mortgage, and then by the time you're ready to move on to your next level, because you have invested in a business or you've gotten a promotion at your job, you can now elevate to the next level by selling that property, leveraging it as a rental, and build your wealth and not feel
feel so confident. Build your wealth and not feel like I'm behind. That is why most people over leverage. You feel like you're behind and you're not. If you just bought one property, you're ahead of most of the people in the world. So just buy that property and not don't worry about keeping up with the Joneses. That's a fact. That's good information. Okay. All right. So then we have to understand the cost of homeownership. Oh, yeah. Probably important.
Yes. The cost of home ownership is it depends on the program that you get, right? There are so many different loan programs that are available. Let's just go over them. You have FHA financing, which is the most popular financing. That financing requires 3.5% of the down payment.
However, your one-time cost is going to be your down payment, and then you have closing costs. Down payment, closing costs. So when you're getting alone, FHA financing 3.5% down, you have conventional financing, which is 20% down, 5% down, or 3% down, depending on the program that you use. You have VA financing, which is 100% financing. I'm only talking about the down payment. We're not talking about closing costs.
So those are like the three different finances that you can use. Then you have one time costs. Those one time costs are your closing fees. What are closing costs? Closing costs are the cost for them to run clear title on your property. You're paying attorney's fees, you're paying any HOA fees, any activation fees. That is what goes into your closing costs. And they can typically be between two to five percent of the entire purchase price of the home, right? Your home inspection fees, you have to pay that.
You're still going to pay for your home appraisal. Your home appraisal is ordered through the lender, but you pay out of pocket for a home appraisal, and then you have to pay your moving expenses. Of course, you're going to have to move, transfer, and get utilities in your name, and maybe hire a moving service unless you're going to hire some of your friends, right?
But the ongoing cost of homeownership is property taxes and they will go up. Property taxes is something that's ongoing. Another ongoing expense is going to be maintaining the property. Maintenance of the property is something you are responsible for as a homeowner.
you are always going to have to pay for homeowners insurance. That is ongoing expenses you were responsible for as a homeowner. And of course, the mortgage, because if you don't pay the mortgage, the bank is going to take the home back. So you're being foreclosure. So when you're thinking about the ongoing expenses and then the one time upfront expenses, be prepared to handle both.
Well, let's also talk about, let's get the one important one, the DTI, the debt to income ratio. So let's go over that if we can.
Yeah, so most people think like, how do I get approved for the mortgage? It's how they calculate your debt to income. Your debt to income is how they're going to say how much more money, how much more debt can we approve you for? Because getting a mortgage is a debt, but it is a good debt, right? So to calculate your debt to income ratio, you need to take your monthly recurring, monthly recurring debt payments. So let's just say you owe, I'm going to make it simple, $10,000 in student loans, but you pay $100 a month.
So you got that $100 a month that you're paying. Let's say you have a $300 a month car insurance, a car payment that you're paying. So recurring bills are what they count to your debt to income ratio. And then you divide that by your monthly income. And when you make that division, that is how much they say, OK, this is your calculation for your DTI ratio. And then they input that in the system and say, well, based on this amount, we can approve you for this dollar amount. That's how you get these automatic approvals.
but you still need to remember, get a what, GFE, a good faith estimate. Make sure a lender does not have you just out here with the pre-qualification and putting your hard-earned money at risk. And let's just say you've paid, you know, you people are paying earnest money, they're paying for home inspections and appraisals, and then a lender never did the detailed work. And when they do a deep dive into your file, now all that money is wasted because you technically don't qualify for the loan amount. So it's better to do all that upfront.
Submit your paperwork upfront. Be transparent about your income, your debts. So that way the calculation makes sense and you don't be house rich in income work.
But then also it's important to do your own as well because especially if you come from renting, like if you rent an apartment for $2,000, you pay $2,000. And now there's even a luxury apartment, like before you used to have to pay first and last month rent. But like with the luxury apartments, now you just pay $500. So you pay a security deposit of $500 and you get the apartment. Now you got to
Pay the electric, there's usually like some like kind of maintenance fee trash removal, like $150. But what I'm saying is this, if you get approved for $2,000, if you get approved for the mortgage, that doesn't mean that you can actually pay that mortgage.
Right. You got to factor in all those other things. If you live in an apartment, you're not going to be paying an additional $2,000. But you could be paying an additional $2,000 as a homeowner. So if you go into it, and you just think if I'm like a renter's mind set up, like, OK, the mortgage is $2,000, I'm going to go and pay $2,000. I might add a couple of hundred in for, you know, no, you might have to add an additional $1,500.
So, if you look at it from that standpoint, even though the bank gives you this approval and says that you're qualified for this, you should do the numbers on your own as well to see what the real cost is going to be every month, because that could be something that can really put you in a bad financial situation.
payments like for mortgages and insurance, that's not even including like you have to live, right? And you may have children and you may have credit card debt and you may have student loan debt, right? Like all those things are going to have to be taken into account. And so it's important before you make that decision to make sure that you lay this all out. The next thing obviously is your credit score. It's like, that's important for multiple reasons. I think everybody understands that. So imagine this, right? Like I know my credit score, right?
I've been trying to get this down payment. 20% has been the number, but I can't really get to the 20%. It's tough for me to pay my rent, pay my student loans, all my debts, and try to save to get to 20%. What are some of the procedures or some programs that I can, if I don't have 20% down to buy this home?
If you don't have 20% down, I would say you first want to figure out what mortgage type you could be approved for. There are conventional financing programs that are really good programs and there's a 3% down home ready program that they could qualify for.
That is a conventional loan product, or you can do a conventional product that's 5% down. You're putting 5% down, but just keep in mind, you're going to have to pay that private mortgage insurance again, because they're taking a risk on you. But if you're in a position where it's like, I cannot say 20% down, but I have saved quite enough.
You need to meet with a lender. And I say this all the time. People are so afraid. If they pull my credit, then my score is going to go down so much. Throughout the process of buying a home, they're probably going to pull your credit three times. So if your credit cannot handle a one-time pool to prepare you, then you're mentally not ready for home ownership.
I would tell them to give you what is called a home ready plan. So when they do a home ready plan, what is that? Tell your lender, listen, I want you to give me a home ready plan. In a home ready plan, they're going to run your credit. They're going to assess all of your income. They're going to do your debt to income ratio. They're going to talk to you about how much you want to spend per month. And if your score is not where it needs to be, they can do what is called a rapid
rescore. A lender has the option to do a rapid rescore where they'll tell you where you could focus your energies like maybe you're paying debt down but you're paying debt down in a
to a credit card or to a space that doesn't affect your score going up. But a lender will tell you exactly where to allocate those funds so they can get your score exactly where you need it to be and then connect you to the right loan program. You think that it's just one person. No, when you're working with a mortgage broker, they're shopping your profile to several different lenders that are willing to take a risk on you and then they'll understand your buying power. That is how you empower yourself. You empower yourself by taking the first step.
You can do as much as you want to in the background, but if you if I were you and you have at least $25,000 saved and you feel like I can't get further and I have like a 620 credit score, but buying a house is on my goal list. Now is the time to consult with a lender because home prices are not going down.
We see that. So if you can get in early enough, that helps you because what you, but negotiation power is high. So you can negotiate. I just ran some numbers. And again, I can only speak for the metro Atlanta area, but I have agents in every city, especially New Jersey. I got a lot of agents in New Jersey.
And they are telling me they're able to leverage and negotiate and get more concessions from the seller and actually are getting more people to reduce the asking price because there are not many buyers on the market right now, right? So you can leverage that to reduce your out-of-pocket expenses. And when you get a seller concession, what is a seller concession? Let me tell you. A seller concession thing, in exchange for you purchasing my property, I'm going to contribute this dollar amount towards your closing cost.
and that reduces your upfront out of pocket expenses. And typically, depending on the loan type, they can go up to 3%. As a reminder, they cannot go above 3% of the purchase price. Even a dollar above it, they have to reject it from the lending standpoint. So when you're leveraging the negotiating power, you're
the out-of-pocket expenses, and you're reducing the cost of just the home. Even with interest rates being where they are, when rates go down a point, my rule is at least a point and a half, because you'll see a difference. If rates go down a point and a half, call your lender, refinance. Now you're able to get a lower monthly payment, even lower than you already allocated, but you've already used all your levers to negotiate the purchase price, which will never change.
And then the reduction of out-of-pocket expenses will never change. That is how you win in today's market when you are a buyer. That's good information because you said all this stuff and stuff that nobody really knows. You just go and buy a home and you just wing it. And a lot of times, man, it puts you on a lot of trouble. You can cause somebody to foreclose on their home. Let's talk about the different types of loans if we can. I know it is.
Absolutely. So there are technically, there are different long types. You have FHA financing. FHA financing is really kind of put together for, it's like really designed for first-time homebuyers, but you can be a second-time homebuyer and use it. You can have low credit scores. You can have a low credit score as low as 500. I've seen people offer the program.
And your down payment is 3.5%. Now, you can put down more. That's the part people don't know. You can put down more, which will affect your monthly payment. But typically, you can put down as little as 3.5%. They actually are a little bit more lenient when it comes to your debt to income ratios. And you can use this loan type to purchase a home, a multifamily up to four units.
So FHA is the most popular loan type for first-time home buyers. A lot of the down payment assistance programs that you heard me speak of, they are attached to the FHA financing. So I would encourage you if you are a first-time home buyer, meet with the lender, get with the professional and find out what your full picture is and what you're approved for. So that's one loan type. The next loan type is going to be conventional financing.
Conventional financing is the traditional financing and there's several different conventional financing. Most people are using conventional financing to purchase their homes. They have the home ready program with as little as 3% down. You have your jumbo loans and a jumbo loan is a loan where you're absolutely
more than likely put 20% down. You're buying a home that is actually higher than what they will allow you to loan on. And so you get jumbo loans within a conventional financing program. You have a 5% down.
in the conventional financing program. They actually have a higher credit score minimum, but it works best for people with strong credit. And you are going to have the option, if you put 20% down, to not have the private mortgage insurance. So that is why when you're doing an FHA loan, you have to have private mortgage insurance. You don't have a choice, right? Then another loan type is going to be
your VA financing and this is for veterans. If you're a veteran and you're looking to purchase a home, they have lower credit scores. And as you can see, it's about $5.80 on the credit score, but you have no down payment. You're only responsible for the closing costs. That's right. No down payment. Let me say this one more time. Zero down payment. You're only responsible for the closing costs. But what happens is, when you're getting a conventional loan and you have to put 3% down, you pay that at the closing table.
The VA financing says we're going to do no down payment, but there is a funding fee. But the funding fee is wrapped into the loan, so you don't have to pay it out of pocket. But you're still responsible for your closing costs, so keep that in mind. And this is only for military veterans. So I really think that the VA benefits in the VA loan is underused. I'm from Fayetteville, North Carolina. It is a military town. I think that anyone that served in the military should use their VA benefit.
deserve it, you worked hard for it. It's the only financing that is giving you 100% financing, a very lenient back-end system, and you're able to get in with very little money out of pocket. And that is the goal. As little money out of pocket, what front is possible, you can become a homeowner. And this loan is for primary residence, correct? This is not like a primary residence. It's your primary residence.
And quick wait, when you talked about the jumbo loan, seriously, what is the threshold? Because I feel like obviously it changes over. So what is now the threshold for a jumbo loan? What is the amount that you have to have in order to qualify?
It just depends on the lender. Jumbo loans, they shift, right? So when people say, I was approved for a loan, right? It depends on your lending. So let me give you an example. I closed the deal in December. The house was $3 million. But the lender based on the risk and the profile of the client was like, we're only able to lend them based on what? They're debt to income ratio and their profile $2.5 million.
So the difference between 2.5 million and the 3 million, they had to bring a half million dollars to the closing table. So a jumbo loan is when you're buying homes that are multiples of millions of dollars. And depending on the risk that you are, the lender is going to shop that around, but you are always going to add minimum put 20% down no matter what on a jumbo loan, but it could be more depending on your profile and your debt to income ratio because the lender is the one taking the risk on that jumbo loan.
So your state, your state you're in that fluctuates how much you can qualify for for a jump alone. Because they take into account like California, of course, the lending is higher. New York, the lending is higher. Atlanta, they're going in alignment with what the lending should be here. Then your credit profile and then what your debt to income ratio. That is how they calculate it.
So going off script, let's talk about some things like what is best practices to negotiate like if somebody's buying a seller because I know there's earnest money, sometimes you can negotiate different fees and stuff like that. So from a negotiation standpoint, what are some things that can be negotiated or at the very least looked at when purchasing a home from somebody?
Let me break down what the buyers are responsible for when it comes to buying a house. I think that really helps. Let's start with number one, with this new segment from the National Association of Realtors. What has happened is, and we didn't speak on this enough, but we need to.
People used to say, how do me as your buyer's agent? My services are free. And now with this new lawsuit, the services were never free. The sellers actually did a lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors, saying, listen, when we sell our property, we're paying for seller agent representation.
So when a buyer is in the field looking to buyer property, they should pay for their own buyer agent representation. So now you are responsible for the compensation of your buyer's agent unless your buyer's agent can negotiate it from the seller.
We are no, we no longer advertise our market. But when I list a property, I will say, well, I'm going to pay a buyer's agent this percentage in order to bring me a buyer, we can no longer negotiate that. So you're responsible for that. And typically that fee is can be up to 3%.
So how do you negotiate? You let a buyer's agent know, listen, I'm only willing to pay you whatever that percentage is. And you sign a buyer compensation agreement, agree to that price, but also they are going to advocate for the seller to pay their compensation. So that's going to be the first thing that you need to actually negotiate.
Secondly, you can save money. I don't, I personally don't feel like you should. Your energy is best used and you're in negotiating the seller to contribute to your closing costs. When you're thinking about earnest money, earnest money is actually applied.
to your bottom line numbers when you get to the closing table. So if you want to win an offer and you like, listen, as long as I have an agent that I trust, and I can just say this, I have never lost a client's earnest money. I know the dates, I know the timelines, I know the rules. I'm just happy with this. You're familiar with this? I know exactly. Let me be as vague as possible.
And that was not ideal, but I can tell you what I'm saying. Well, she said it publicly. That's why I'm speaking about it. What happens is this, there's contingencies to the contract. So when you saw that Jada lost her earnings money and she didn't want to move it to the property, there are contingencies. So a contingency is the timeline that you have to meet that all parties can use to get out of the contract, specifically the buyer.
So when you submit 25,000 earnest money on the necessary for a contract, you have a couple contingencies. One, you have your due diligence period. A due diligence period in the state of Georgia and most other states do have this is your time period to inspect the property and negotiate repairs
prior to moving on to the next contingency. So if you have a 14 day due diligence within that 14 days in the state of Georgia, again, keeping up in other states do have this too. If you get a home inspection, you get a roof inspection and you come back and say, Hey, seller, I did not like this inspection. I want you to make these corrections prior to closing. And your agent puts down those corrections. If the seller does not agree to it, you can terminate your contract within that due diligence period and get your money back.
Once you pass the due diligence period, then you have the financing contingency and the appraisal contingency. The financing contingency is the time period that the lender has to provide a letter of commitment to the law. So when you first get your mortgage approval letter, that's an approval.
But they have to now take the actual binding contract that you signed. And now they start submitting that binding contract along with all your other documents to an underwriter. And an underwriter will come back and say, this is a letter of commitment. We are committed to actually funding this property.
Then you have your third one, which is your appraisal contingency. And we spoke on that. So in that appraisal contingency, if the home does not appraise that value, then your agent needs to do an amendment to reduce the purchase price. The seller does not, let me say this again, the seller does not have to agree to reduce the price.
They do not. So if you paid for a home inspection and you paid for the appraisal and seller say, I don't care what your appraisal said, my home appraised at this value, you can terminate the contract and you can get your earnest money back. But all the other expenses that you spent to purchase the property, you will not get refunded to you.
So in the case of Jada, I think it was a little bit of buyer's remorse, probably when you she was under contract to purchase a property and I think it was like thinking about the exposure, you know, of buying that property. I don't think that I think it
This is what happens when you buy a property, you need to be an experienced agent that understands how to protect your privacy. So you should, if you are a celebrity or a semi-celebrity, we have this issue all the time. And I hate to say it, especially when you guys are working with us and we're very social and social media people. And that's how we get our business. But when you're protecting the best interests of your clients, the number one thing they should be doing is purchasing the home in the name of an anonymous LLC.
Or they should also be buying it in the name of a trust. And then the second layer that you need to add, I have closed plenty of deals that y'all know about that nobody else will ever find. Get it out of my name, because anything that I sell is public knowledge. So what I do is I don't close the deals under my name. I close it under the name of the other agent on the other end. So when someone comes to my page and try to see who she works with, they can't find it and you can't find them.
And I think she had an issue with her privacy being exposed. She was afraid of actually closing on that property because she is a single woman in Atlanta. And I don't think that she felt comfortable. So she passed all of her contingencies. So she should have made that decision for the state of Georgia within her due diligence period. You can terminate for any reason.
You can wake up and say, I just decided I don't want this house and you get your earnest money back. It doesn't have to be a reason in the state of Georgia. She passed that contingency, then she changed her mind. And her agent should have explained that to her. Like I always explained, when soon as your due diligence period comes the day before you get an email, this is the last day to terminate, do you still want this house? My team calls, do you still want this house? Otherwise, when you pass this one contingency,
The only way out of the contract is what? Financing or appraisal? So she passed the contingency and she changed her mind and that's okay but you got to do that within your due diligence period. That's why it's important to take your time when buying and also if you are a public figure, take the time to make sure the person that's representing you understands how to protect you because
I want to say, I got to just say this, as a minority business in Atlanta, I see it happens so often. We're popular. I'm popular. And then I work with other popular people. And there's so many other people that are minorities too. We want to get the luxury business, right? But we can't put them out there. We got to be comfortable with our names being in the rooms instead of our blasting their addresses and their personal information all over social media, which is probably why she ended up having the remorse she did have.
And she got out of that con and she decided to terminate the contract because she wasn't comfortable. She didn't subsequently end up buying something after that though. And I think they followed those rules and it made her more comfortable. So let's protect each other in terms of inspection because you brought this up and this is important. If I'm going, I'm looking at a property. Some of the things you can see with your eye, right? Like I can see like the roof may need to be repaired. But then there's some things that you're not going to see. So what are the questions that we should be asking
while expression has happened. I'll give you a prime example. I'm in a home right now. My plumbing, right, to the city line had a belly in it, right? That repair cost me over $20,000, right? That's not something I can see with the naked eye. So what are you telling clients as you go into inspection, the questions is you should be action. Obviously, age and condition is important, but what are some other things?
There are different levels to home inspections, right? So let's just say you buying a new construction property, you can just literally get the general inspection of the property. But if you are buying a property that is a little older, you need to get a home inspector, you need to hire an engineer, and you need to hire a plumber, a plumber that will actually inspect the pipes that actually go from your house to the road.
When you didn't do an inspection from your house to the road, because that's what you're responsible for, then right where I know exactly what you're talking about and we're right where the city is responsible. Before you're responsible, if it's on your side, you have to pay for the repair, if it's on their side, they have to pay for it. But because you probably just did the general home inspection, it was missed because you need to actually do though. It costs a lot of money.
to buy a house. So most, especially if you're getting an older home, so I'll have a whole list. You can get a higher and an individual roof inspector, a plumbing inspector, a general home inspector, a HVAC inspector. So when you're getting all these inspections, it can cost you up to $1,500, but it protects your best interest in the long run.
Whatever you don't do upfront, you pay for in the end as you're seeing for yourself. Has you paid for that inspection for the plumbing where they use one of those likes to go down the plumbing hole? You would have solved this and you could have negotiated this with the seller prior to closing.
What do you, what do you say about a real estate attorney? How important is that? And how do you get the right one? Because then I look at, um, uh, looking at the land and making doing like the GI, the geological test on the land and stuff like that. So that's important as well, right?
Yes, so if you're looking to purchase land and doing geological tests, keep in mind every state is different. So where you all are in like New York, the attorneys negotiate the contract and Chicago, the attorneys negotiate the contract here in Atlanta, the agents negotiate the contract. Our closing attorney doesn't come into play until it's time.
until we're under contract and they're just running clear title, right? So how important is it to hire the right people? So if you're getting land and you know you're buying land to build a home, then you need to hire an engineer.
so that way someone can actually look at the land. And you should also, if you should know, hopefully you know, if you're going to build, you know exactly who you want your builder to be. So they can do the soil test, or you can hire someone to do the soil test, and then also make sure that whatever you want to build on the lot, the setbacks.
that it's also set up the setbacks, understanding what you can build in the area. That's when it comes to actually hiring a professional. Your attorney is not going to know that information. Now, you can order your own survey, but nine times out of 10, the average person doesn't even know how to read the survey. They don't know what they're looking at. But if you hire the right people up front,
I feel like what happens is, again, this is Google University. It's like, oh, I could buy my own land. And then you get the land, you do the soil test. Now, the house that you wanted to build, you can't build on, because you tried to save money upfront by not hiring a professional. And now you got to go back and hire a professional in the end.
You are preaching right now. Topography reports, I didn't realize what's so important. And even when you're buying a home, right, you think you can build things that you want on the land. And it's like, well, you got to get permits for that. Like even the permit process, talk to people about that. I don't think people really understand that process, right? Give me a permit to do everything. Yeah.
I think that we, again, we have to realize that there's a reason that there are people that have dedicated their lives to doing those jobs. So you buy this land and you're told that you can do ADU, right? So I could just build me a little house in the back of my house because I got all this land. And then you go to get the permit and there's like, well, we're zoned this. And now you got to get it rezoned for that. And they're not trying to help you.
because they work for the city. They just like, here's the paperwork, let me know when you get it submitted. This is what you should be doing within your inspection period. This is why you should be, if you know that you are buying a property and you got four acres and you want to build a pool and you want to do an ADU, you should hire a general contractor to walk you through that process, pay them their fee, whatever that fee is, so that way you understand where you are and what your limitations could or could not be on that property.
You can't just get land and start building. It doesn't work like that. I mean, we wish it did. It doesn't work like that. Not in the state of Georgia, not New York. Now, there are certain player areas that don't require GCs like Texas, Texas has different zoning laws, but they still have processes.
And I think the best way for us to avoid the pitfalls of buying land, thinking we can build whatever we want to do, or buying land to build a big house and then not getting your own inspections, I represent developers.
But I can tell you right now if I was buying a house from any person, I don't care what developer it is, I'm going to get. If I'm buying land, I'm getting my own soil test with my own engineer. I don't care what you give me. I'm getting my own survey with my own surveyor. I don't care what you give me because you have to keep in mind, you're the one responsible for paying the mortgage, not them.
This is your, this is your asset. So why are you putting it in the hands of someone else? You should always make sure that you're financially prepared to invest in yourself and in your own knowledge and in the own paperwork you need. So in the event it doesn't work out and you're within your due diligence period, you can terminate and move on and get your earnest money back. What are some red flags to look out for? Is somebody buying a home? I would say the number one red flag to look out for is,
One, when you're walking into the property, make sure that you take a second just to look into the utility closet, kind of look at it. You're not, you may not be in HVAC check, but I can tell you, water should not be dripping down from anything. So check into that. If you have an opportunity, turn the water on in the bathtub, turn the water on and see how the water pressure is. That helps you. If it's low water pressure in certain bathrooms and it's high water pressure in certain bathrooms, that could be a plumbing issue.
When you're in the living room, not stop hard. This ain't like stomp the yard or nothing, but stomp down a little bit on the subfloor to see if you could have a squeaky or uneven floor and you possibly could have a subfloor issue. Those are things I would look out for, especially if you're getting a resale home. If you walk into a basement and it's done, but you're like, hey, this looks like a done basin, but
It just seems like the quality of craftsmanship is not there. Look up, go look that address up with the city and see if they ever got permits to complete that basement and then ask the seller to provide you with any permits they did to complete the basement because if they hired just some Joe blow to do something and it wasn't permitted, permitted work on a basement, it's hard to record that actual square footage. So now the square footage is not recorded with the city because it was never recorded.
So you can't even use it for your value appreciation and you want to check behind the work. Those are things that you can easily do on your own when you're looking at property. You spoke about this. And I think it's probably one of the most important pieces of the process. People overlook it. They don't really, you know, adequate enough money toward it. And that's the closing cost. Oh, yeah.
Talk about that, the time it takes, what you should be doing to prepare for it, the best strategies when getting to that point. Because again, this is something that if you're not in this process and you never get to the closing point, you really don't have a good idea of what it takes.
This is what you should do. If you know that you want to buy a house and it's 500,000, you need to calculate. So you're in this that you're getting a conventional loan. So go ahead and calculate 5% of half a million dollars. That's your down payment. And now calculate 3% of a half a million dollars. That is your closing call. Then calculate. Don't forget.
another 3% for buyer's agent compensation. You are now responsible for that cost. Now, I don't want to scare you. 99% of sellers are still paying buyer's agent compensation because it has been embedded in them and they want to get their property sold. But buyers need to know based on that new lawsuit, that is your responsibility. So 5%, 3%, 3%.
So if I were you, I would calculate 10% of whatever a purchase price to be. And that is the amount of money I need to have saved. That's what you have to have saved. That's including all of the expenses. And then think about it as a plus if you save on that dollar amount because now your agent has advocated for you and now you don't have to pay a buyer agent compensation. That takes away 3%.
and they're able to get 1.5% from the seller towards your closing calls. Now you're up 4.5%, but the money is still in your bank account. Good for you. Now you have some savings. But don't go into buying a home thinking you don't need any money. We used to say that and we used to do that and times have changed. This is how to buy the house in 2025. This is not how to buy a house in 2020.
during the pandemic. This is completely different. And so you need to be financially prepared. Another thing that people don't really fully comprehend, especially like I said, if you just come from an apartment, is furnishing the home, right? Interior design aspect. Obviously, you know, that's going to depend on how big the home is, your taste, what you, and then, you know, of course, you can move some stuff in.
Even that's an expense moving, but you got to move some stuff in. But if you move it from like an apartment to a home, you're going to have to buy some stuff. You're not going to be able to just fill a whole home with just a one-bedroom apartment furniture. So what should they expect? And what's some best practices as far as, you know, furnishing homes? We don't want to get into more debt, do we?
And I mean, it's like, you don't want to get into more debt on average to furnish a home. And it's just like an average home. You could use Wayfair, you know, Amazon has all these things, great products, you got a lot of different places you can go to. Raymore Flanagan. But even if you go on the lower scale for a 3000 square foot house, furnishing it with
kitchen, kitchen table, chairs, couch, television, on a suite, king size bed, you can do twins or maybe queens in the other one. It's $25,000. That is on the lowest, lowest end.
And if you know what your furniture looks like, who wants to put a very small love seat in the middle of a 3,000 square foot living room with top with two-story windows, right? You're going to have to account for that.
I think we just need to save for a homeownership and stop. I don't want it to be like, it's easy peasy. It can be. It can be easy peasy, but you should save for it. And if you're responsible and you want to get like different accounts with these furniture companies that you feel like you can pay off the debt and this debt is going to help help you and you want to consider it positive debt, then finance the furniture. But I wouldn't recommend it. I'd rather have to be saved to buy the furniture outright so you again are not putting yourself into more debt. So you do have the furniture place and I know you've seen that it's been
I keep up with y'all renovation.
But that's important though, right? And sometimes relationships is important that can help you in this process, right? Sometimes having people that work in real estate, they have trade accounts. And you know, if you have a trade account, then you're going to get, you're going to get 20% down. I know that for R and H, like even now, like you can pay toward that. And now you're a member and you get a trade account as just being an individual. So there's some ways, but again, 24, that's, that's, that's, that's a real minimum. If you're trying to further something 3000 squares. Yeah.
Exactly. So we have to prepare for these expenses. You know, I've seen the videos where people walk into these empty houses like I used all my money on my down payment and I'm sleeping on the air mattress. It should still be an accomplishment. If you all, if all you have is a bed and now you have purchased a home that you can afford.
and you're able to make enough money and you're making enough money to save and then spend a certain amount and take your time to furnish the place, take your time. You know, wrong wasn't built in the day and you don't have to build your house in the day, but you do want to be realistic about how you need to live as you're purchasing these assets.
Yeah, I think you could definitely furniture 3,000 square foot house with 20,000 off. But the thing is, so it's also all right. So we painted a very discouraging picture for homeownership, but it's a realistic picture. But I think for my philosophy, I think this speaks to the point of going down is helpful for the average person, meaning if you get approved for a $500,000 mortgage,
try to buy a home for 300,000 because you're going to have all these other expenses. And as we say all the time, you don't want to be house rich and cash poor. And that's something that I saw firsthand when I was a financial advisor, people would cash out there for all in one case. Literally, they have no money and it's been every dollar that they had to buy a home, just to buy a home and then all this other stuff. So that's a trap.
for you to have debt for your whole entire life. And that's not a pathway to financial freedom. So that's just important for people to keep in mind, like just because you get approved for something, that doesn't mean that you have to go to that same amount, right? Like you can go lower than that and then have excess money to do all of the renovations and buy furniture and pay, you know,
the taxes and all that stuff as opposed to going up to that max liquid dating all your savings, borrowing money, and then you're in a home. But as soon as something happens, then you're screwed. But then I got to ask you this too. Well, you want to say something?
Yeah, I'll say this. It depends on what, how you see the value of homeownership. Like I worked for a corporation when I purchased my first property and I did take money out of my 401k, but I didn't take all of my money out of my 401k. I leveraged it towards the down payment of a property, which subsequently became a rental property for me. And then like six years later, when I finally did sell that asset, I made about $160,000 on selling that asset, which was,
pennies compared to the $19,000 I took out of my 401k at the time. So being smart, but that asset was actually less than $200,000. Now that was obviously a long time ago, but that goes to show that when you're looking to buy your first property, if you're keeping up with your own budget, you understand your entry and your exit strategy and you're buying this property to one, build your own internal wealth.
and you no longer want to rent, you understand the value of homeownership, then use a portion. I'm okay with using a portion of your 401k, but you don't wipe it out trying to buy a million dollar property that you know you cannot afford. That is what happens. That is why that's what normally happens when
People are buying a property. It's like they're trying to get something they can't afford to flex on people that don't care. Like you should be only flexing on yourself. And if you are proud of yourself and what you've purchased, I don't care if you're sleeping on an air mattress. Be happy that you purchase an asset and then you're leading your way and you're working your way towards wealth.
The hardest thing for most people to recognize is the houses that you see that are the things that you want to see. That's like, wow, that's a beautiful house that gets the most likes on social media. That's not going to be the house you buy and you live in. There are people that are making the millions of dollars that were fused to buy those type of assets because they see it as liabilities at that point. They're only buying certain things within a bare minimum of their budget of their income. So stay within your own budget. And then you'll be just fine with understanding the value and seeing the value in homeownership.
And then I got to ask you this before we wrap this is that for people, you're a real estate agent, right? They don't need a real estate agent because they're going to save money that way. Or they want to negotiate real estate agent's prices. So what's the commentary for that? I think that you have to assess the risk.
That's how I feel, accessories. If you want to work with an agent, there are agents out here and there are different companies that have flat fees. That basically means you kind of, they just do just enough to keep you within, to tell you what you should expect on the contract. And you can negotiate a flat fee. As an buyer, I have had this happen to me a lot because I represent a lot of sellers. And so they'll come and say, well, I don't have an agent. And so therefore they think that they're going to save money.
So the way that I do my listing agreements is there's a fee that I'm going to get paid regardless. So they come in, they negotiate their fees, they advocate on their behalf and now there's a delay or they let's say they're asking for certain things during the home inspection period.
Well, they're asking me, how do I read this home inspection? Or what should I ask? I'm sorry. I don't represent you. I represent the seller. You are a customer. Tell me what you want me to ask them. That's how it goes. Tell me what you want me to ask them. I'm not here to advocate for you. I don't represent you. When I'm representing the buyer, my job is to protect your best interest and save you as much money as possible. When I'm representing the seller, I'm there to advocate their best interest and make them profit the most money as possible.
So if you feel like you're savvy enough to understand these contract laws, and what you read, then try it yourself. I could say nine times within the work. Is it a conflict of interest if the agent represents the buyer and seller?
I do it all the time. It's called dual agency. It's allowed it instead of Georgia where the seller is going to be my client and the buyer is my customer. I'm always fair, but when it comes down to it, I'm advocating for the person that hired me, and that's paying me the compensation, which is the seller.
And that's what normally happens a lot. So when they're coming saying, hey, I'm going to save you some money. And then they're like, well, what's going on in the contract? The way I broke down due diligence periods, financing contingencies, nobody's breaking that down to you. I hope that you know what those periods are because if I'm representing the seller, I'm going to make sure that by the time you submit your inspection a day after the due diligence period, I'm going to tell you sorry.
Thank you for providing us with this. However, you do the diligence ended yesterday and we don't have to make any changes. You want to terminate? You can terminate. We're going to retain your $25,000 earnest money. I wish you the best on your home buying journey. That's how it goes. So you're not saving, but you only, you know, assess the risk. Assess the risk. Here's one of those things in people get disconfused, right? When we think about real estate, we think about our pathway to home ownership.
People will sign the title. Some people end up on the deed. Talking about the difference between the two because there is a difference. And if you end up on one of the other, it could determine a lot of things in your future. Well, what happens is this, people always want to be on the title and the deed. When you're buying the property and it's in your name, you finance it through the mortgage company, you get it all financed, you're going to be on the title. That's how state of Georgia is. You're going to be on the title and on the deed. But let's just say you're married.
And the wife is not on the mortgage, but the wife wants to be on the deed. Like Tyler Perry say, make sure your name is on the deed. Cool. You add the wife to the deed. The benefit is if you cannot sell the asset without the both people that are on the deed signing off, you cannot sell it. But let's just say you go into foreclosure.
Both people that are on the deed are now in foreclosure, even though the person that's on the deed is not on the mortgage. So the upside is, OK, I'm going to make sure I'm on the deed because he ain't going to make no changes without me. But get that. That works. But then if a negative change happens, it also affects you negatively as well. So consider that when you're adding yourself to the deed.
It's like you do have the responsibility as long as the mortgage is in good standing. It doesn't show up in your name. And that's how people try to kind of house hack marriages. I don't know how to explain it, but like offset the debt. So like the husband can buy the primary property, the wife can buy the secondary property and it's offsetting the debt. But in the event, in the event there's a foreclosure or bankruptcy, everybody on that deed is responsible.
So, okay, there's a lot of information, valuable information. And then, like I said, I think we kind of, you know, it's realistic, but I don't want to discard people from buying a home because it is still, you know, a valuable asset that goes up over the course of time as long as you buy correctly, but it is important to buy correctly. And it's important to actually use professionals. So you don't make mistakes, you know, we're using the wrong lawyer, using the wrong real estate attorney, using the wrong. Anybody that's in the process can actually cost you hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars of mistakes.
You know, as far as you actually are in the field. So I would say the last question I would go to.
How can somebody know if they're using somebody that's good as far as a real estate professional agent? Obviously, they should use you if they're in the Atlanta, if they're in the Atlanta metro area. And I'll let you say your information boy. What are some things that you shouldn't ask a real estate agent or somebody in your profession to know like this is the person that I want to work with?
I think oftentimes we're going too quickly. If I was a buyer in this market and the agent that wanted to represent me on the largest purchase of my life didn't have the time to sit down with me and explain to me the purchase and sell agreement which is something you're going to see this as your writing offers. You may write four different offers on four different houses and if they've never explained to you the simple purchase and sell agreement and the contingencies
In the timelines in your state, whatever your state is, your agent should be able to tell you at what point do you get your money back or what point do you not get your money back. So you're very aware of the contingencies of the agreement. Then they also need to have an understanding of appreciation values. So whatever area you're looking to purchase in, they should be able to tell you what the appreciation values are in the area and what the market trends are in the area.
That way you're actually going into an area where your asset is going to appreciate and you're going to see more value. They should know that. And then beyond that, you should make sure they don't have what we like to call commission breadth. And it happens all the time. Someone trying to force you to hurt and make a decision because they need the commission. We are all salespeople, but we should be advocates for our clients. So you should feel like they're advocating on your behalf at all times.
actually as a buyer, biting to save you money and showing you the proof of them trying to save you money. Emails, text messages, advocating, letting the seller know who you are, why you deserve to get this concession, what's wrong with this property. Getting a mass negotiator is so important because it saves you thousands of dollars because I can tell you sellers are not just going to give you anything.
So you should look for those, all of those qualities when you're looking to hire an agent and ask them, can you show me your track record of sales? Like, what is your track record of sales? I think it's okay to ask that question and look them up. Always tell people, you can Google me. I didn't forget social media. You could go to Google and you can see my reviews right there. Somebody, what other people say about you is more important than what you say about yourself.
And I just wouldn't trust someone that I didn't feel like had my best interest at heart. I know they're getting paid, but they're getting paid to perform a service. And that service is to advocate on my behalf, save me money and get me in an asset that is going to be a positive asset for me. AKA Keanu says she's popping in real life, y'all.
I'll end with this. A lot of people, and we run through a lot of people all the time, they look at real estate as the place that they're going to go. When their career may not be something that they thought it would be, I'm going to get into real estate because I think it's a way to make money and I think it's an easy way to make money.
I've seen you work. I've seen your agents work the amount of dedication that you put into it. What's your advice for people getting into this space? What's the things that the misconceptions that they should know?
Oh, and I like MJ says, Keanu's your fault. It's your fault. You're floating in the room. You're wearing jackets on your shoulders. I'm doing it right now. I'll take full responsibility. I'm a glamor person, whether I was selling real estate or whether I was working at the McDonald's Drive. It's who I am as a person. But the knowledge that I have about the market, my invested interest in understanding real estate and all facets of real estate, that is something that you want to have when you get in here.
75% of agents last year didn't even close the deal. They're leaving the industry because the influx of people that came when we had the pandemic and what happened was there were more buyer demand, interest rates were low. All you had to do was post a picture with your arms crossed and boom, you could get a client and everybody was just trying to end a frenzy. Now it's like the cream of the crop is coming to the top.
And because of that, if you want to get into this industry, take it seriously, know that it requires way more due diligence, way more negotiation skills than it did before. And it's not something that I would say would be, I'm getting into real estate because this is my way out of where I'm at. When if 75% of licensed real estate professionals that actually closed a couple deals, couldn't close a deal last year, I hope that you come into this industry with a different mindset that I'm ready to serve.
the best interest of people and advocate on their behalf and understand the contracts. Understand the contracts and be able to negotiate. Don't come here thinking it's a cute picture and I'm walking around with a Chanel bag and some Louboutins all day. That is just not the reality of what really happens behind the scenes. If you don't get a good grasp on both, I tell people that social media posts is to grasp your attention. I need something.
You got to, yeah, press the button in my bio, but when you reach out and you go through my assistant and you go through my admin and I go through my onboarding process and I explain the contract, I explain the liabilities of the contract, I make sure you understand exactly what you're getting into. I am like a human computer working on your behalf to protect your best interests as you're buying a home. You can't be a hobby. This can't be a hobby for you.
This is people's livelihood that they're investing in. They're using that last 20,000 or 30,000. The least you can do is be educated and make sure that you're advocating for them. So if you want to get in this industry, I don't discourage anybody, but take it seriously. How can people find you and how can people work with you?
You can find me on social media. My name is Keanu Watson. You can link in my bio. Go to my website, KeanuWatson.com. Everything is Keanu Watson. It's easy to find. Go to my website, click my contact page. Call me 404-98-36380. We are ready to work with you. I have my agents here at Watson Realty Co. We work with all price points, all budgets, investors, first-time buyers.
Luxury clients, listings, developers, you name it, we can service it. So we look forward to you guys reaching out to us, especially in the Metro Atlanta area. Is it outside on Atlanta or just Atlanta?
Oh, no worries. See, I got you. I have a training academy of over 1500 agents throughout the nation, some are even in Jamaica. I have some people outside of the country, Toronto. So with that being said, no matter where you're looking to purchase the home, if you reach out to me, I can connect you to a licensed agent that has been through my training that actually understands the process. They're looking to advocate and serve your best interests. So make sure you contact me for whatever state you want. So I just sent someone a referral to Dallas, one to Miami. I sent another referral to another client looking in Birmingham.
And New Jersey is a lot. I've told you, I have to go out. The only reason I do my events, NDC is the middle of New Jersey. So I always tell people, you actually got me somebody in New York. Oh yeah, I did get you somebody in New York. And they was in my training academy. So yeah. Well, you definitely connected. And you're a key on as somebody that definitely has been a one from the beginning.
So I always appreciate you coming in and dropping information. But if you're in the home buying process or you're looking to rent too, I think you help people out with rent. I think your agent is helping me. Yeah, my agent's going to finish you with rentals. I think that that's a bridge way. Everybody is not in a position to purchase. Who are we to judge? I think that we all need housing. And that's our job and advocate as real estate professionals is to give you housing and make sure you understand how that works.
Oh, if you're looking inside your home, you might need help too. Absolutely. Are you going to need help to sell it? I'm going to tell you that, right? You will need help. We represent buyers and sellers. You will need assistance. And mostly, as you guys can see, if you look me up, I work with a lot of developers. They're developing building, which is why I'm pretty abreast of the building process. So even if you're looking to build a custom home or you want new construction, I can assist you there as well.
Yes. Congratulations on all the developments that we've been watching on social media as well. Congratulations. Oh, I know who you're watching and why you're making those design selections. They look good.
You know, always, always a pleasure. All right. Thank you guys for listening. We'll see you guys back here next week. Hopefully you got your pins and pads and watch this episode a few times so you can get all that information. That's important. And download the app for the podcast app, too, if you're listening on the audio side or iTunes or Spotify. But all right, guys, it's been real. Peace.
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Essential Home Buying Tips: Utilities, HOA, and Mortgage Insurance Explained

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In this insightful clip from EYL, we're joined by the incredible Quiana Watson to delve into the often-overlooked costs and fees associated with purchasing a home. As first-time homebuyers, we usually focus on the big-ticket items like the mortgage and property tax, but what about the other expenses that can catch us off guard? Quiana breaks it down for us!*Key Takeaways:*1. **Utility Costs**:Quiana emphasizes the importance of getting a statement of utility bills from the previous homeowner. Understanding these costs ahead of time can prevent unexpected expenses, especially when moving from a smaller apartment to a much larger home.2. **Homeowners Association (HOA) Fees**:The realities of HOA fees can be both beneficial and burdensome. While they help maintain neighborhood standards and can include utilities and amenities, they also add to your monthly expenses. Quiana points out that understanding whatâs included in these fees is crucial before making a purchase.3. **Routine Maintenance & Home Warranties**:Owning a home means you're responsible for its upkeep. Quiana suggests investing in a home warranty to cover large expenses like H-Vac system replacements. Routine maintenance, such as gutter cleaning and pressure washing, should also be factored into your budget.4. **Mortgage Insurance**:Often misunderstood, mortgage insurance is required if you put down less than 20% on your home. Quiana clarifies that this insurance protects the lender, not you. However, once you've paid 20% of your loan principal, you can request to have this insurance removed.5. **Homeownerâs Insurance**:Quality matters. Many homebuyers opt for the cheapest insurance but, as Quiana advises, cheaper isn't always better. Proper coverage is essential, particularly if you've invested in upgrades. Always inform your insurer of significant changes to ensure you're fully protected.6. **Budgeting for the Unexpected**:Rashad Bilal adds the importance of having a well-thought-out budget that encompasses all potential costs, not just the mortgage. This foresight helps prevent financial strain and ensures you enjoy your new home without constant worry.*Expert Insights:*Quiana shares her professional experiences to highlight common pitfalls and offers practical advice to make the home buying process smoother. Her emphasis on value appreciation and ownership as primary reasons for entering real estate is a critical reminder for new homeowners.Whether youâre considering buying your first home or looking to understand more about the additional costs associated with homeownership, this episode is a must-watch. Budgeting accurately and having a strategy in place can make all the difference.*Join the conversation!* Share your thoughts and experiences with us in the comments. Have you encountered unexpected expenses in homeownership? How did you handle them?*Don't miss out on this essential advice! Make sure to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more expert insights.*---*Hashtags:*#EYL #HomeBuyingTips #QuianaWatson #FirstTimeHomebuyer #HomeOwnership #Utilities #HOAfees #MortgageInsurance #HomeMaintenance #RealEstate #PropertyInvestment #HomeBudgeting #ExpertAdvice #FinancialPlanning #DreamHome---By covering all these essential topics, this clip aims to provide a comprehensive guide to help you navigate the complex world of homeownership with confidence and ease.Our Sponsors:* Check out Acorns: https://acorns.com/EYLAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
February 04, 2025
Is the American Dream Dead?

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Welcome to the latest clip of Black Out with Ian & Rashad where hosts Ian Dunlap and Rashad Bilal dive deep into a topic that touches everyone's lives: Is the American Dream dead? ð¡ðFrom the foundational myths of upward mobility to the harsh realities of today's economic landscape, Rashad and Ian dissect the very fabric of what many believe to be the "dream." Rashad opens the discussion by recognizing the appeal of America for entrepreneurs and go-getters. Yet, he quickly transitions to a sobering critique of the societal norms that portray a middle-class life as the pinnacle of success. He argues that the idea of attaining the American Dream by simply working hard and climbing the economic ladder is a myth.Rashad highlights the structural issues within the mortgage system, explaining how the banking system manipulates the concept of homeownership. He points out how the vast majority of Americans are buying homes they can't afford, leading to catastrophic outcomes such as mortgage defaults and long-term debt. He underscores the fact that most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, making them one step away from financial ruin and even homelessness.Ian then shifts the focus to the broader implications of this crisis. He questions who the American Dream is really for and posits that while it may be dead for the average citizen, it's very much alive for financial institutions. Ian paints a stark picture of the middle class's erosion, driven by ever-increasing debtsâfrom credit card bills to student loans.Both hosts draw a connecting line from individual debt to societal control, pointing out how actual wages have stagnated while the cost of living has skyrocketed. They reveal a troubling reality where most people can't afford basic necessities without relying on more debt, making the notion of the American Dream more of a nightmare for many.Join us as we explore these pressing questions and hear Rashad and Ian's unfiltered thoughts. This is a conversation you don't want to miss!*Timestamps:*00:00 - Intro00:13 - Ian's Opening Question: Is the American Dream Dead?00:52 - Rashad on Entrepreneurship in America01:57 - The Mortgage System and Middle-Class Myth03:09 - The Economic Strain and Homelessness Risk04:35 - Ian on Financial Institutions' Perspective08:08 - Final Reflections and Call to Action*Key Takeaways:*The myth versus reality of the American DreamThe financial traps embedded in the mortgage and credit systemsWhy the middle-class dream is more of a nightmareThe societal implications of indebtedness and stagnant wages*Hashtags:*#BlackOutPodcast #AmericanDream #EconomicReality #DebtCrisis #MiddleClass #FinancialFreedom #HomeOwnership #StudentLoans #EconomicDiscussion #IanAndRashadDon't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more insightful discussions! ðOur Sponsors:* Check out Acorns: https://acorns.com/EYLAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
February 02, 2025
Is the AI Bubble About to Burst?

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In Market Mondays, hosts discuss if the AI bubble is bursting due to recent market corrections of tech stocks like Nvidia, SMH, ASML, and TSM, the emergence of Deep Seek, a Chinese app company claiming advanced AI functionality at a lower cost. Skepticism regarding Deep Seek's capabilities arises, and investment experts express continued confidence in key player companies like Nvidia and AMD.
January 29, 2025

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