Indie Artist Music Hustle
Indie Artist Music Hustle Podcast with Blonde Intelligence is where you will experience exquisite cranial repertoire. The podcast (Available on your favorite podcasting platform) provides entertainment news, thoughts on celebrity gossip, independent music artists, as well as businesses that contributor to the music and entertainment industries. The purpose is to provide exquisite cranial repertoire. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button!!!! follow me @BlondeIntelligence @RRoneice. Also the channel name is That Blonde Broad.
Indie Artist Music Hustle
Why Artists Should Buy Property Instead of Renting Another Studio
Welcome to this week’s Indie Artist Music Hustle with Blonde Intelligence. I am your host, Ms. Roni, and I always seek to give you exquisite cranial repertoire. Dreaming of homeownership while pursuing your creative career? This eye-opening conversation with real estate agent Katina Harper demolishes the myth that artists and independent professionals can't qualify for mortgages.
"I am passionate about African Americans achieving the American dream through home ownership," shares Harper, who specializes in helping first-time homebuyers navigate the process. She explains how artists with inconsistent income can document their earnings through royalty payments, digital publishing, and other revenue streams to satisfy lender requirements. "Money is money. They don't care what you do, as long as it's stable and it's documented."
Harper tackles the fear many feel about entering today's housing market, highlighting why ownership beats renting in the long run: "If you're renting a home or apartment, it's appreciating in value as well, but you're not going to see that increase." She reveals several programs offering $10,000-$20,000 for down payment assistance, shares strategies for buyers with student loan debt, and explains how buying multi-family properties can create immediate income streams when you live in one unit and rent the others.
The conversation explores innovative approaches to building wealth through real estate, including investment opportunities in developing areas, utilizing properties for Airbnb income, and acquiring commercial spaces. For artists specifically, property ownership provides stability during income fluctuations and creates pathways to generational wealth that extend beyond your creative career.
Ready to transform your financial future? Pull your credit report, connect with a knowledgeable lender, and remember Harper's advice: "The way to look at it is either I'm going to do it now or I'm going to do it later, but I am going to do it." Your journey to homeownership starts with education – join Harper's upcoming event for heroes in the community or reach out for a one-on-one consultation at katinasalesrealestate@gmail.com.
Music.
Speaker 2:Music, music, music, music, music Music.
Speaker 3:Music, music, music, music, music Music. We got a special guest this week. We have Ms Katina Harper, which is a real estate agent here in Arkansas. Say hello to everyone.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone.
Speaker 3:So what she's going to do now is drop some jewels on us. She has an event coming up, she has some different programs for new homebuyers and she's going to tell why this is important, especially for our community. So what I'm going to do is let you take over and tell everyone a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2:Thank you. So, as she said, I am Katina Harper and I am a realtor here in Little Rock, arkansas. I work with Start to Finish Realty and I offer buying services, investment services as well as selling services. So I've been in real estate for eight years total. I've been in real estate before the pandemic and then post-pandemic as well two different worlds. I specialize in first-time homebuyer education and in working with what we call heroes in our community. So that's our first responders, our educators, any government position, those of us who are serving our community may be more than we're serving ourselves. We have some special programs for that.
Speaker 2:And wealth building and generational wealth building is my specialty. Before you go out and get that apartment, go ahead and get that duplex. It is, it's better money management and that, and so generational wealth and keeping the money within our communities and within our families. Because I know that everyone is paying attention to what's happening in the economy right now. So I think that, whereas I know a lot of people right now and I hope I'm not getting ahead of myself, but I know a lot of people right now are afraid to buy.
Speaker 2:But if you think about it, look at what rent is doing. If you're a renter, you know what rent is doing. If you're a landlord, you're getting over it. But if you are a renter, you know what rent is doing and, at least with a mortgage, it's fixed and then it's appreciating in value. And then you get to realize that if you're renting a home, a house or an apartment, it's appreciating in value as well, but you're not going to see that increase or that big. I mean you don't have the security and and as a people I really do I really am passionate about African Americans achieving the American dream through home ownership. Because real estate is a fixed investment and it is especially in the state of Arkansas. You are always I'll say at least 80 to 95 percent of the time going to see an increase and a return on your investment over other forms of investment, going to return on your investment over other forms of investment.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying not to diversify you should have a portfolio, but real estate is one way to achieve and it's a way to sustain wealth, especially when you have a health crisis or something. If you, if you're a homeowner, you can stay in that house having a health crisis, but if you're in an apartment, they want that money in 30 days okay question many times.
Speaker 3:Yes, especially in our community. We were taught growing up, I would say in a certain age range that you can't have a house note, you can't have a car note. So what steps or how easy is it to actually get from point A to point B, to realize the dream of home ownership, instead of just getting that apartment?
Speaker 2:That's a fantastic question and, believe it or not, the process and the documentation that you have to come up with is not much more than renting. It just depends on what your price point is. It's not much more difficult than renting an apartment because you know a lot of apartments want you to have three times the rent. They want you to have an income that's three times the rent. If you look at that as far as a mortgage, then that mortgage you'll still end up paying less for the mortgage than you would for the rent. So, basically, you're going to have to have, of course, the dreaded credit score and I say dreaded because we dread it, but we shouldn't dread it, no matter what it is, no matter what it is, if it's 400, if it's 800, you need to know.
Speaker 3:At least you have a starting point of where you need to start working from.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and so the first first step go ahead and pull your own credit reports before you go to a lender. Of course, the lender is going to pull your credit reports, but we get a free credit report once a year through all of the different agencies for free, and so you should check it any who. So go ahead and pull that. You need two years employment history and tax returns, and you're probably going to need to have some money in the bank. How much money in the bank just depends on the programs we have, and that speaks to what you were discussing earlier.
Speaker 2:So, long story short, go ahead and pull your credit record and just see where you are. You got to start somewhere, because a year is going to pass by either way. You can spend a year working on your credit to get the house, or you can spend a year renting again so and with no plan for what the next year is. So you need your credit report, you need two years of employment history, verifiable and again, there are programs that work with those of us who are self-employed. So that doesn't knock you out of the box. Like you said, there's a lot of myths.
Speaker 3:So how would that work for independent music artists?
Speaker 2:okay, if you're an independent music artist, are you a business? Have you filed taxes? But here's the beauty of it and I just worked with someone who was in a similar situation. So, even if you say, well, I haven't filed taxes, have you made money? So lenders will even allow you to go and file those tax returns in arrears. So, let's say, you did make money in 2021, but you didn't file, you can still go back and file those taxes and as long as you have two years of tax returns, even if you're an independent artist, there are programs that will work with you based on your credit score. So it's like an algorithm. So everyone is different. So you may have a high credit score, but you may have low residuals and other things someone else may have.
Speaker 2:The best piece of advice that I can give you is to go to the lender and I'm working with Cadence Bank right now on some deals is to go to the lender, and I'm working with Cadence Bank right now on some deals. Go to the lender, why? Because every person is different and you don't want to say, okay, well, this works for me, but it's not going to work for you, or this didn't work for me, so it's not going to work for you. So every person is different. So you can. That is a myth, myth buster. You can be an independent artist and you can still own property, and you should, and you should have a business so that you can own more than one property, so that you can also become an investor. You can get that studio and you can write that studio off, but we won't get into all those things.
Speaker 3:But yes, artists, you can, okay, tell us about this event that you have coming up this weekend.
Speaker 2:So this Saturday, from 1230 until 230, I'll be in the River Market at the Roberts Library and we'll be doing, we'll be hosting heroes in the community. We've got the educators again that I mentioned, our first responders and that. But I've got the educators again that I mentioned our first responders and that. But I've got about a handful of spaces left. So if you want to reserve a spot, if you'd like to RSVP, it's at katinasalesrealestate at gmailcom. That's Katina with a K K-A-T-I-N-A salesrealestate at gmailcom and you can reserve a space. But we're going to go over things like credit. We're going to go over the various types of programs. We're going to discuss student loans and I know that there are a lot of people who believe that they cannot get a home because they have so many student loans and that is, that is another look, that is not true.
Speaker 2:That's another myth you can become a home owner with student loans. So if you don't get to come to the event again it is this Saturday from 1230 to 230 in the River Market at the Roberts Library If you can't make it or if we run out of space, email me and we can do a private one-on-one consultation. And again, that's Katina says realestate at gmailcom. But yes, I love busting these myths and I am also an educator and I love answering questions, because if we are knowledgeable, then we're prosperous. I don't know anyone who's prosperous who's not knowledgeable.
Speaker 2:OK so tell us about some of the programs that you work with. Ok, so we have some grant programs and I say we and that is I worked for Start to Finish Realty, but right now I've been working with Cadence Bank. So there are some programs that can offer you up to $10,000 to $20,000 for a first-time homebuyer, for your down payment and closing cost assistance. That's a fabulous program. There are programs for people who do have the student debt.
Speaker 2:If you can get into a program, then you may have been told that you can't get a home because your um, your debt to income ratio, is lopsided. They have programs that allow you to work with that. So that is one of the major programs that they're going to be discussing Saturday and I'm excited about that because that's going to help a lot of people that I know. Also, some programs for those if you live in a rural area. Now they've been closing in on those areas because you know, we found out that that's how a lot of people were getting homes and you didn't understand how these people building these relationships you see it in rural development.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, you know it. And so, yes, they've lessened the good cause.
Speaker 3:I like that because now I could they could have changed some things on it, but back in the day when I was looking at it, if you live like five or ten miles outside of a town that had 50,000 people, then you own land. Then it was zero down, which was good if you wanted to stay in the country, but if you wanted to stay in the suburbs that wouldn't work.
Speaker 2:And that's the thing about that. But you know, I have some people, some good friends, who live in the country and they like rural living. So that's a program. I grew up in the country.
Speaker 3:I don't want to go back.
Speaker 2:I would say that's not my cup of tea either. But I'll say that's not my cup of tea either. But I'll say that since the pandemic, a lot of people are wanting to move farther out, a lot of people who were living there's, people who have sold a house in the city years back and they've moved out into the country. And again, the pandemic made a lot of people, I guess, but I'm not one. But if you did want, if you were interested in rural living, then we have those programs. And there are also programs, of course, for veterans. I don't know if you have any veterans and again, you don't have to have been a veteran. A veteran means one year. You don't have to be a retired veteran or you don't have to be a disabled veteran. If you are a veteran and you serve this country, give me a call and let's get you into a home, because I think the country owes you that.
Speaker 3:You know what? I got a friend that works with veterans, and I am going to give her your number.
Speaker 2:Please do Thank you. I will fight for them the way they fought for us, because I just think every veteran to me should have a home.
Speaker 3:Okay them the way they fall for us, because I just think every veteran to me should have a home. I do believe that, um, that's the program that I can think of. Okay, I'm sorry, go ahead. So, being in Arkansas and knowing, I would say and this is just the true fact that once you get past Little Rock, going down south, how the pay goes down, does the price of housing go down also, or is it still about the same within the no, but yes, the cost, the cost of a home, typically mirrors whatever the standard or cost of living.
Speaker 2:Standard cost of living is in the area, so price per square footage would be less and even say pine bluff, then it probably is in little rock, however, but I look, I know that what I was paying for rent that's what my mortgage is.
Speaker 3:there was only like a couple of dollars different. So I am not tripping because I was already standing in a place where they hadn't actually went up on the rent, but just looking at everything that's going on in pine bluff, such as building a new hotel onto the casino, having the new dispensaries doing um, revitalization, uh, neighborhoods where you they have grants for that area, so doing all those things. And I remember when I used to stay in California how gentrification happened and I feel like it's a form of gentrification developing now in Pine Bluff. And if you're going to buy, now is the time to buy.
Speaker 2:I don't disagree with you and again, you are correct as far as events happening down in that area. And for those, a couple of things on that if you have family property and you live in Pine Bluff, or if you, if people have moved on because it happens, they need to make sure to secure their property, make sure those taxes are paid and that because, again, speaking to the generational wealth, hold on to the properties that you already have first. But as far as buying other properties, absolutely, and if I could recommend anything, if there are any multifamilies, because that is a strategy also so let's say you know there is a triplex, or even you know a fourplex, a first-time home buyer could move into one and then those other units Rent the other and have the income to pay the mortgage and the bank will give you credit for it.
Speaker 2:So, as opposed to that being a liability, that becomes an asset. So each one of those units that you rent that is now added on to what your monthly income is. As far as the bank goes, I would recommend especially even lots, even vacant lots. I would buy them and hold on to them, and especially in the Pine Bluff area right now you could probably buy vacant lots for in the hundreds, not even the thousands of dollars, and I will pick up a couple, Not now.
Speaker 3:I have a few vacant lots and I didn't get anything in the hundreds. But I did buy some land over by Lake Saracen, right by the lake, and I am going to hold on to that because eventually I want to put another house there. So my water property I am not going to let go of.
Speaker 2:And you should not. And you should not, If anything build and then if you want to Airbnb it or something like that, but I definitely wouldn't.
Speaker 3:I never thought about Airbnb. That's another form of income, because, you know, my show is, I would say, geared towards helping everybody, but especially people who's working in the music industry, because they work so hard and people think that they quote supposed to get all this money. But music can actually be steady money sure, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And again, making wise choices and investments as an artist, because I haven't. I guess I have lived, not not the music industry artist, but I'm a jewelry artist, so I put myself through. I was a river market vendor for 10 years and I gigged, so I understand. So, yes, when you get those gigs that pay well, it is good to go ahead and plop that down on a piece of property and hold Right. Hold or rent, find ways to utilize it. Buy small commercial properties, because commercial properties sometimes there's people who absolutely though sometimes you can scoop those up a little faster even than the residential the business went out of business 20 years ago. There's an heir that lives in california. They don't know it, you know, they don't care anything about it and you can pick that up and even if you use it for storage or an event center, just be creative.
Speaker 2:Artists are creative anyway. So, acquisition, just just acquire, acquire but use a real estate agent. I'm not saying that because I am one or maybe I am, but I'm saying that because, okay, just one or maybe I am, but I'm saying that because, okay, just like. What's this Record company people are shady. Real estate people are shadier. So you definitely need Sometimes, sometimes.
Speaker 3:Let me tell you something my cousin was getting ready to buy a house in California and the real estate agent that she had kept taking her to undesirable locations and she had to let the real estate agent go and go look for her own, because I don't know if it was a racial thing, but that real estate agent was not trying to put her in the best that she could.
Speaker 2:And that's called steering. For those who are thinking of getting your realtor's license, that's called steering and that is against the law. We don't make any assumptions about clients and where they belong. We, based on everything we go to will be based on your desires and whatever your pre-approval goes for, whatever is in your budget. If it says that you're a million-dollar customer, then we'll go to million-dollar neighborhoods. If it says that you are a thousandaire, I'll pick you the best thousandaire property that I can find. But that is against the law. That is. That's called steering. It's akin to redlining. It really is. It's the sister to redlining. When you see that type of malpractice, that's when you know that, again, a layperson may not know, but a realtor does. That's why you need a realtor. You need a realtor because people do what's in their best interest financially.
Speaker 3:OK, so what are some practices that we should be aware of?
Speaker 2:For instance, again go with a realtor, because that you know, I know, you guys know that the scams are through the roof right now. So there's so many scams in real estate. For instance, this happened to a friend of mine, but because she's a friend of mine it didn't get to go through to fruition. So a home had just sold. So there's a small window in between the time when a home sells and when it's recorded. The deed is recorded. Recorded, so let's say that escrow, so now, and so it's after escrow. Let's say so after when you first bought your home. For a few days it doesn't show up as yours, it's caught right, it's everything's in the mail, all the paperwork is in the mail. The deed is not recorded with the courthouse yet.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:So there's a small window. So you have these scammers, because of that small window, who are actually going into houses that have just closed or that are closing and they're pretending to be landlords and renting them out to people or pretending to own the home. This has happened. A person who had owned the home. They caught someone in that window and if you go online not if you're real to go online, but if you go online it looks as if that person still owns that house and you bought it from them. And they said I don't want, let's not use real estate, let's just take more money out of it. That way, you know, I don't have, you know I'm upside down and so that'll just put me further down, and that way we don't have to worry about credit or anything. You can just assume my loan. You know, give me $10,000, things like that.
Speaker 2:So there are a lot of. We're learning about more and more of them every day. Also, of course, the condition of a home. So a realtor any realtor worth his or her salt, is going to tell you to get an inspection. If you have a person who is not a realtor, they'll think, ok, well, I want to say I want to save that $400. That $400 can say, you know, can cost you thousands, tens of thousands. So they're just practices that realtors know. We're going to make sure that you can get free and clear title to the home, because some people have liens or encumbrances on it and you don't know that, you don't know to look for that. Um, so yeah, just different things.
Speaker 2:And also, even though I'm not a loan officer, I will say that I have lost business by saying that's a bad loan because because, again, I'm a community server first and, for instance, when the crash came back in 2007, I was a realtor then. So you would have people getting an 80-20 loan. So say, for instance, if you only qualified for $100,000, but the house you wanted was $120,000 back, then you would have two loans. You would have one for the $100,000 and one for the $20,000. And whereas that sounds like okay, that's doable, there's two mortgages. It is, and then one of them has a balloon payment on it, so that $20,000 one come December of next year. They want all $20,000 of that, right then. And then if you default on it now you're foreclosed on and I said that's not a good loan. I only need one loan for one property, I don't need two loans for one thing. I don't care what it is, but the client went with someone else and I saw her years later and of course she had been foreclosed on. Because who can do that?
Speaker 2:And especially at that time. And and these balloons again, twenty thousand, thirty thousand, I've seen sixty thousand dollar balloon payments oh heck, no look.
Speaker 3:I learned about consumer education in what the the sixth, seventh grade. We learned about balloon payments in elementary.
Speaker 2:Grown people should not be making those types of mistakes well, I will say this many of us are not as financially literate as we should be, and I think you know that for sure. Um, these are some like we talked about the myths. Sometimes in our communities we have not done a good job of discussing finances. You know some, some generations didn't think that was kids business, and so you have people growing up and they're killing their credit. Their credit is already damaged.
Speaker 3:They're they're not even 21 and I wondered about that growing up and I found that parents who have decent credit add their children as an authorized user to several of their credit cards. They don't have access to them, but it builds their credit. So when they start working and they're finished with school, or if they just get a stable job, they're able to go out and buy a home at 21, 22 years old and I was like how they're doing that and that's what parents are doing. So that's what I tried to do with my children and them as authorized users. So when they came, uh, got out of school, they were banging with the credit and could do whatever they wanted absolutely.
Speaker 2:And now I'm looking at people, uh, getting llcs for their kids as they're in high school so that by the time they get out they now have a thriving business and a business that's gone. They've been in business three or four years. My son started a business in high school and he still has it. It's taken some turns, but I know that he's been able to do a lot better during the pandemic than some people who didn't have access to that. And we have to have those conversations Again. They are, they're getting out and they can buy a home, but then what will they end up doing? Many times, especially if they're in an urban area, then they'll end up buying one of those multi-units, like we said, and then now they have income coming in from that and you're trying to figure out how is this kid just fresh out of college and they're taking vacations out of the country and all these other things? It's not because they're smarter, it's just set up better.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because they're going to give you your mortgage money. It will give you your utility money and your savings, and then you're working Absolutely your utility money and your savings and then you're working.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, and as you said, about artists again, because we know that artists a lot of times struggle with producing, sometimes documents that are bank friendly, real estate is a viable business as an artist, if you acquire a couple of properties, then that legitimizes you and that gives you some collateral to do bigger and better things that you want to do with your art. I just think as artists you know if we can be smarter, like I've worked with a guy, kevin cressy, and we we discussed that but thankfully I think his wife was handling the finance. He's been.
Speaker 3:He said you know, I just want to be an artist and a lot of artists Now look at the decisions that they need to have. It should not be hard for artists to be able to produce documents to buy a house, Because you get a quarterly check from your publishing, from your digital publishing, which is SoundExchange, Also from Harry Fox, from Song Song Trust. So you're getting all these different. They're giving you a check or a direct deposit. They're taking taxes out of you. You're doing your W-4s and everything. So if an artist is having a problem producing documents for the bank, that means they hadn't done what they're supposed to do as an artist.
Speaker 2:And I agree with that, I don't disagree, and hopefully more of them are paying attention and doing all of those things because that's all you need, that's what I do. Good, yes, because that's all you need is that paper trail, even if you do lashes. I had a woman get a house bought because she does lashes. That's what she does Okay.
Speaker 3:But Money is money. They don't tell what to do, as long as it's stable and it's documented.
Speaker 2:It's that documentation that sometimes throws us, throws us off um and so again with real estate. That's all it is. It's just documentation. Buying a home is simply documentation. The way to look at it is either I'm going to do it now or I'm going to do it later, but I am going to do it. So if you go to the lender and the lender says, oh my God, your credit is 490 and you know your credit is 490 and you know you don't have a stable work history, okay, now you know where to start. So now you at least know where to start and you've also started a relationship. You've begun a relationship with this particular lender and they will keep reaching out to you and coach you through and just keep working on it, because again six months or a year or two years is going to pass either way well, I thank you for coming.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you again. I thank you for coming. It is lunch and Learn on October 19th, from 12 to 2 pm at the Roberts Library on Clinton Avenue in Little Rock, arkansas. So if you get a chance, come out and meet with her. If you're in the business of buying a home, even if you're an artist, bye.
Speaker 1:Hey girl, let me tell you about this podcast. Girl, everybody has a podcast these days, but this one interviews new and interesting indie artists. It's called Indie Artist Music Hostel with Blonde Intelligence. Really, when can I find it? It's on all podcasting platforms streams live on social media and on RPENTradiocom. What'd you say it was called? Again, it's called Indie Artist Music Hostel with Blind Intelligence. Girl, I'm going to have to check her out. Give it a check, girl.