Benchmark Happenings
Brought to you by, Jonathan Tipton & Steve Reed of Benchmark Home Loans, Benchmark Happenings is a podcast that is a biweekly discussion about living in and moving to Northeast Tennessee along with the local real estate market. Join your host Christine Reed as she interviews Jonathan & Steve, local business owners, sought-after industry experts, Veterans, Realtors, Benchmark clients, and more.
Benchmark Happenings focuses on discussing all things related to mortgages and Northeast Tennessee. Placing the spotlight on all the reasons you would want to live in and move to Northeast Tennessee, Benchmark Happenings highlights upcoming events, local businesses, things to do, and other aspects related to Northeast Tennessee. We will also be answering mortgage questions from buyers, sellers, and real estate agents as well as discussing everything going on in our local real estate market.
To help you to navigate the home buying and mortgage process, Jonathan & Steve are currently licensed in Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia, contact us today at 423-491-5405 or visit www.tiptonreedteam.com.
Benchmark Home Loans | NMLS # 2143
4138 Bristol Highway
Johnson City, TN 37601
Jonathan Tipton
Senior Mortgage Planner
NMLS # 1188088
jonathan.tipton@benchmark.us
Steve Reed
Branch Manager
NMLS # 173024
steve.reed@benchmark.us
Benchmark Happenings
From Renting to Owning: How Land to Homes Makes It Possible
Looking for an affordable path to homeownership in today's challenging market? Steve Reed returns to Benchmark Happenings to dive deeper into Land to Homes, a pioneering solution for would-be homeowners struggling with sky-high housing costs and limited options.
While apartment renters face $1,200-$2,000 monthly payments with nothing to show for it, Land to Homes is creating a genuinely accessible alternative. Their turnkey manufactured housing service handles everything from permits and site preparation to landscaping and final touches, delivering beautiful, move-in ready homes on acre-sized lots for $220,000-$300,000. Unlike traditional dealers who leave buyers to navigate complex permitting and construction processes alone, Land to Homes coordinates every detail over a streamlined 120-day timeline.
The conversation reveals how Reed and his business partner Jonathan Tipton are transforming the manufactured housing experience with quality features often missing from competitor offerings – paved driveways instead of gravel, proper decking, professional landscaping, and attractive stone skirting. Their financing options make homeownership even more accessible, with zero-down USDA loans and 3.5% down FHA options that can include covered closing costs.
What truly sets Land to Homes apart is their commitment to community impact. Reed shares touching stories of helping families in difficult situations, including moving a family of six from a cramper into a spacious manufactured home. "We want people to say Northeast Tennessee is a better community because Land to Homes is in it," Reed explains, highlighting their people-before-profit philosophy.
Ready to explore affordable homeownership? Visit land2homes.us to see available properties and homes under construction, or call 423-491-5405 to start your journey toward owning your slice of the American dream.
To help you to navigate the home buying and mortgage process, Jonathan & Steve are currently licensed in Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia, contact us today at 423-491-5405 or visit www.jonathanandsteve.com.
This is Benchmark Happenings, brought to you by Jonathan and Steve from Benchmark Home Loans. Northeast Tennessee, johnson City, kingsport, bristol, the Tri-Cities One of the most beautiful places in the country to live. Tons of great things to do and awesome local businesses. And on this show you'll find out why people are dying to move to Northeast Tennessee and on the way we'll have discussions about mortgages and we'll interview people in the real estate industry.
Speaker 1:It's what we do. This is Benchmark Happenings, brought to you by Benchmark Home Loans, and now your host, christine Reed. And now your host, christine Reed.
Speaker 2:Welcome back everybody to another episode of Benchmark Happenings. And you know, the last time the star of our show was so amazing, I just had to invite him back again for a follow-up. So Steve, my awesome husband and entrepreneur of Benchmark Home Loans, welcome back.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you, I thought it would be another year before you'd invite me back. So, hey, happy to be back so soon. Either that or you were maybe just a little hard up for other guests, or something like that, but either way I feel honored. Well, good, good.
Speaker 2:No, not, we've got. We've got a lot of great folks lined up, but, you know, really a lot of times we don't have the opportunity to do consecutive podcasts on specific topics. So you know, the people who listen there's, like you know, every other week we launch a new podcast and a lot of times it's always someone different, someone different. But you know, last time we talked about your new business adventure with you and your partner, Jonathan Tipton, on land to homes, really providing that niche in the marketplace for homes for people, and so you know, Steve, I thought it would be really good to kind of talk about a little bit more about the process of land to homes and maybe just review what that is again, what you guys are doing, and then let's talk about that process for those who are listening.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I love talking about land to homes. I've been talking about mortgages for 40 years, so sometimes that gets a little monotonous, although I still love talking about the mortgage industry. But land to homes is just a new twist on and a new venture, as you mentioned, as far as what we're doing, and so it's really exciting. It was and I'm sorry if I'm going to repeat myself from the prior podcast.
Speaker 2:I think it's good for us to do a little bit of a review for those, just in case, if someone did not listen to the other podcast, you can go back and, of course, listen to it. But yeah, I think it's good, steve, just to go ahead and do a recap.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So it was kind of birthed out of the idea that homeownership become unaffordable for the first-time homebuyers, and not that it didn't become unaffordable for maybe second-time homebuyers as well. So Atlanta Homes was birthed out of that idea of how can we help more of our clients get into homes at a nice less price point than what they're seeing out there for new construction, and so that was our why behind, why we started doing this, and so it just kind of grew from there.
Speaker 3:But it's just a great alternative to be able to you know, whether it's a single parent, whether it's retirees, whether it's somebody that wants to downsize to be able to get into a brand new home that's built really well that's normally on an acre or maybe a little less, but normally it's about an acre of ground and to be able to do that at a very low price and to also be able to have a turnkey situation to just where we hand them the keys and they get a great rate on their loan at the same time, and it's pretty much a one-stop shop. So we were looking for that solution, if you will in the marketplace, to be able to just come in, because it's really difficult and we'll get into. I'd like to talk a little bit about kind of the process and what's that look like. So that might be boring for some people, but if you're actually looking to do this, it won't be boring to you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think that's why, you know, I wanted to ask you to come back is because I think it's really important to talk about that process. So someone out there looking for a home, a new home, or just, you know, wanting to, you know, get out of an apartment or or looking in general, and but they have basically a range of 250 to 300 K and that's what they've been maybe approved for, maybe not approved or they just don't know. So what would that process look like, steve, if they contacted you Okay.
Speaker 3:So the first part of the process hasn't really changed. That's to let us get an application, make sure they're approvable, you know, and go over the different loan programs. So that's something we can do in our sleep. We've been doing that for several, several years, so that process has not changed. But to kind of jump to the land-to-homes process, and one thing I want to start doing is kind of, I guess, promoting our website so you can go to land2homesus and it'll tell you more than I can probably tell you in a podcast here.
Speaker 3:Because, go on there, look at homes we've got under construction, properties we got available, kind of how the process works you know. So that's a great starting point once you are approved so, and you don't have to be approved to check that out. So I would, I would advise, just go check out land, the number two homes. So what we were running into is we see people that decide hey, I think you, I think a manufactured home or double wide may work for me, or we do single wides as well. We haven't done any of those yet but we can. But once they figure out, okay, that's the price point I'm going to have to be at and, like you mentioned, it's around $250 to maybe $300 on the bigger homes and we can even get to $220, $230 on smaller things. But once they decide that if they end up, you know, like down the street at a different dealer or something like that, they're going to make them normally go get their permits, they're going to have to pay for their water tap.
Speaker 3:They're going to have to do a lot of kind of nuts and bolts types, things that a lot of people work every day. They don't have time to do this. They don't understand it.
Speaker 2:And every county is different on how these things are.
Speaker 3:A hundred percent yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm glad you mentioned that because they are and we're still learning things in some counties and we're keeping notes and you know taking names and keeping a cheat sheet, so we've learned a lot. But we can cut a lot of time out of that process so we do all that for them and it's really a turnkey product. And we've got like one client right now. She works every day. She's a single mom. She barely has time to do anything, so she can't do any of that. Plus, her credit had taken a hit because of her divorce. So we've got her over here in a credit repair program.
Speaker 3:You know, while this home is getting built and getting set, she's over here. You know, we've got her with our credit repair specialist that is helping raise her score so she can get a better interest rate. So we got all that going on in the background. So she has that going on because she has to send them some documentation. So there's a lot of puzzle pieces getting moved around. I can't imagine adding on to that, telling somebody to you know, go down to the city and get their water tap or get you know, get a permit or all that so.
Speaker 3:So she has that going on. That's just real life stuff and we're doing everything else. So it just really simplifies the whole process to where you know we're going to deliver that home. Sorry, I've had allergies so excuse the raspy but we're going to deliver that home in a turnkey product that someone is just going to be able to walk right into and start making payments in her situation.
Speaker 3:I think she is doing an FHA loan, so it's about three and a half percent down, but on a lot of these we can do zero percent down and USDAda loan and we can pay the closing costs in some instances.
Speaker 3:So you can literally walk into these with nothing out of pocket. So if you take um, like what would be an ideal client for us, somebody that's used to paying I don't know $1,500 a month rent, which is about a normal rent these days, but they can stretch and maybe make a payment of $1,600 or $1,700. That's a perfect fit because they can move right into a house and we can, you know, kind of work on their payments where they want them, and we'll work with people, you know. Sometimes they'll say you know, that's just a little out of my comfort zone and we'll say, well, can we just do a gravel driveway instead of a paved? And you know, can we cut back here and cut back there. We don't like doing that as much. I guess we're perfectionists and we like to deliver a product that's just beautiful and it's sitting there.
Speaker 3:So so nice, yeah, when somebody starts talking a gravel driveway, which is what a lot of our competitors put in, and and I just start squirming a little bit because I just really want it to be nice for them and I know it's easier to just get it done, even if your payment's 40 more a month or whatever the case is, let's go ahead and do the gravel or the paved driveway.
Speaker 2:You don't want to be parking on gravels and trying to wash your car in that stuff like that, that forty dollars extra a month, that's uh going out and getting coffees or a you know uh once or twice at mcdonald's yes a month. So it's really nothing and you know, I, I was, we were talking this morning. Steve, a really good friend of yours, has a lot of apartments and you know the average rental for even a one-bedroom or maybe two, but a lot of times one $2,000 a month.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's for most of his two and three. Now the one-bedrooms are about $1,200, but that's still a lot. You know when you're when you're talking. You've got a one bedroom apartment at 1200, or you can buy, go buy a brand new home on your own slice of the American dream on an acre and maybe be paying 1600, you know a little bit more, but you're sitting there with something brand new that you can call your own, that you're building equity in and, uh, hopefully taking care of and improving as time goes on.
Speaker 3:So to me it's a no brainer. I almost like to. When clients come in, I like to hit them kind of with the highest payment and because the only reason I say that is because I like them to have that paved driveway and stuff, I'm just kind of picky that way. So and then we can start carving it down. But I'd rather say, hey, here's what it is, it's, you know, $1,700 a month and it's 260,000 or whatever. And then they're like well, I can only afford 240.
Speaker 3:And I'm like okay, well we'll start taking this off and that off, and, and we're happy to do that. But again I like to see them get the full turnkey package, because I think they'll be happier with that.
Speaker 3:But, we're happy to work with any budget and so we don't want to scare anybody off because we've got someone. Now we're trying to find a really cheap lot and get them in for about $220,000. So it's really hard to do much less than that, especially if you're doing 1,500 square feet. You're doing a double-wide, now get into a single-wide and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:you could do that, but with 1,500 square feet it's really hard to do and prices are going to vary too, because everything goes up and the cost of land, and you know. So they got to factor all those things in. So you know, I just don't want people thinking that, hey, it's a set price.
Speaker 3:Um right, right, and it's not.
Speaker 3:I mean it's it's all over the board and it's kind of you can make it what you want but, we're really transparent with you know, with the setup cost and we don't I mean whatever they charge us, whatever, you know, graders excavators charge, and septic installers and electricians we pretty much just pass that cost on. So we've got a goal to keep it as low as we can as well, because we know they're not coming in here because they're not on a budget right. So we feel like it's a big responsibility and it's a big honor for us. When someone places their trust in us to be able to for their home which to me is the biggest deal you've got going it's definitely your biggest investment. It's definitely your biggest investment. So when someone places that trust in us, it's a huge responsibility that we definitely don't want to take advantage of anybody and we want to earn that trust and, you know, hopefully they'll send us their friends and we won't have to spend, you know, $20,000 a month on advertising because we've done a good job for them.
Speaker 3:So maybe that comes back to us. And we even had a couple in a few weeks ago that they were living in a camper with four kids and Jonathan and I just we kind of had a meeting in the back room and said how can we make this work, even if we don't make any money or make very little money on this? Because they had gone to another dealer. They were trying to put six people in a single wide, the dealer was, which was 988 square feet, and we're like they got to have at least 1500. Let's get them in maybe one of our cheaper, lower priced double wides, which will still be really nice, but it'll give them 600 more square feet.
Speaker 2:And have three bedrooms, yes, and two baths.
Speaker 3:Exactly. So we're trying to figure that out and get a super you know deal on a lot somewhere and make all that work for them. So to us that's just a you know every now and then I mean we make money, but every now and then it's like, okay, we're going to have a give back home here where we maybe make very little money but it's going to be rewarding for us. So, um, so we're, we're happy to, you know, to do that. We just want to be, we want to be a good community partner where people are like, uh, this area, this tri-cities area, northeast Tennessee, is a better community because land, homes is in it, and so that's, that's our ultimate goal. So, um, it's. So it's not about the money, it's about putting people before the profit and having a good time while we're doing it. And yeah, hopefully some will make money and some maybe not so much, but at the end of the day we sleep really well.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of blessing in that and this is a love. East Tennessee and that's really why Benchmark Happenings was birthed, and I love talking about land to home. So, steve, walk us through a process. So you have a client that's coming in and they're looking at a manufactured home. So what does that process look like with you and Jonathan?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so, like I mentioned it'll, it'll start out with we want to know that you can buy something, so it's going to start out at let's get pre-approved with benchmark.
Speaker 3:And so we will normally let another loan officer handle that, because we don't want to handle the whole thing. It's better, you know, like April, handle some of those and uh, but anyway, we'll get them pre-approved, um, and we'll, uh, we'll have the conversation with them. Hey, you're pre-approved, we did get that information and here's what you're approved for. So, and that's a very quick, easy thing to do. We can normally do that in less than 24 hours. So, from there, what we like to do is schedule an appointment for uh. If it's husband and wife, we prefer they both come in, uh, because you know one's going to be stronger in one area and one in the other and so the wife's normally going to have more input on the home because she's going to, as you know
Speaker 3:pick out the colors and that kind of thing. So we'll get them in and we'll start just a build sheet for them and we'll start. We'll go to our virtual showroom upstairs. We'll start pulling up different manufacturers we can sell, you know, a lot of the Clayton line. We can sell Champion, we can sell Fleetwood. So a lot of Cavco. There's a lot of different lines we can sell. So we'll kind of go through some of those. We'll vet it out. As far as you know, how many bedrooms do you want, how many bathrooms, what's your minimum square footage? So we'll start narrowing down homes and kind of land them on a home they like and then have them pick out options.
Speaker 3:You know, most of the homes we sell are not extremely customizable. They'll have four or five or six options, you know, with your colors and that kind of thing. So they'll pick out that. Then we'll come up with. You know, what location do you want to be in? Do we have any inventory lots that we've already bought? That will you know? And if so, the next step would be go out and look at the lot and see if they like the location Right, and we'll get the numbers together and we'll say, hey, here's what's going to be your turnkey price. And if we don't have a lot, we'll say, you know, here's with a $50,000 lot allowance. So if you find a lot, that's more, you're going to pay more. If it's less, we'll pass it on to you, you know, at the less cost. So it's kind of, you know get approved. Step one, step two kind of look over our products and find you a home. Step two. Step three you know the lot, which is a biggie, because that's the biggest challenge.
Speaker 3:I mean more people can get approved and pick out a color on a home than can find a lot. You know that's really difficult because you know people have kids in school, they're going to be in a certain area, they, you know they don't want on the side of a hill, um, so anyway, the lots, the lots, the biggest challenge. So, uh, but hopefully we'll have one in the inventory or no, or once for sale. We can go buy for them and um, and then put the, put the whole deal together. And so once we arrive at you know, one, two and three and we've kind of got our boxes checked there we would go pull the trigger. We'll buy the lot, we'll have them sign a contract. We have land home contracts. If they were sent by a real estate agent, that real estate agent's fully protected. We pay them a two and a half percent commission, just like if the house was listed on the MLS. So, and then from there, we'll purchase the lot listed on the MLS. Um, so, and then from there, we'll purchase the lot, we'll order the home and while the home's coming in, we'll start on the footers. We'll get the permits. Um, you know, we'll get our water tap. We'll, you know, do everything. We'll put the septic in.
Speaker 3:Like the lady I was talking about, that's in credit repair. You know, we've already got the septic in, we've already got the footers in. She's in credit repair. The home's going to be here next Friday. So, hey, this is. You know it's a week away and so we got to be ready for that home to receive that home, or I don't know many people that can store one in their driveway. So you know I always get a little bit nervous. Oh, is it ready to put over the footers? Because when they pull the home in, uh, normally they can't just set it in the middle of the yard, it has to be put on the footers and um because if it's not, then we have to set it in the yard somewhere, and then the transport guys have to come back out which
Speaker 3:is three or 4,000 more dollars to come out and bring all their equipment, set it on the footer. So we try to time everything and where it's going to work like that. So it's about 120 day process from start to finish, which is four months. No, it sounds like a lot but it goes by really quick. And you know, but when we order the home and these turn times change. But right now it's about six weeks with one of the factories in Alabama that we order a lot from and so during that six weeks hopefully our grader's not on vacation. He can get out there and do the footers, he can do the grading, he can do the septic. But that six weeks is a pretty short period.
Speaker 3:That is six weeks is a pretty short period and so once it gets set, um, just to bore you with a little bit more of the process um, it has to be married together the two sides. So it has to be married together. Um, then our uh installer comes and he will do all you know, the uh putting it on a permanent foundation, putting on uh taking care of making sure it's tied down to resist high wind speeds. He'll do all that. Then we'll get our um electrician out. He'll do the HVAC system. We'll get our guy out. That does the uh drawn on stone around the bottom of the home.
Speaker 3:And, uh, we'll also get our guy that does the finish work inside, because, if you can imagine, it's gone back together in two pieces but there's exposed trim and all that that has to be covered up because it was at one time two pieces. So he'll get in and do all that. And so by the time you do all that, you know you're looking at another 30 to 60 days. So before you know it, you're at that 90 to 120-day mark.
Speaker 2:Well, and then you have decks. There's decks built all around the back, the side entrance, the front, there's landscaping to be done.
Speaker 3:Paving.
Speaker 2:Paving to be done. Mailbox, I mean gutters to be put on. So really it truly is a turnkey at a whole different level than people in the past have worked with other manufacturers or dealers that you don't get those things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's like a little symphony orchestra, you know, and everybody most of our people work really good together and the the beauty of it is you can have a lot of that going on at the same time, like you can have a gutter guy over there while they're putting decks on pretty much.
Speaker 3:They may get in each other's way just a little bit, but it's not bad. And so we figured out what can be going on at the same time. You know, the HVAC guy can be there, you know, while the home's being put on the blocks, if he needs to be. So it's kind of an orchestrated little deal there. But the good thing is, a lot of it can be done at the same time and you're not relying on the same subs to do everything, like it's all a different set of subs. So you, you know, you don't have to wait on, you know, johnny Redneck to finish one part while before he can get to doing his next thing, because you've got all the different subs coming in. So that is pretty cool. So we make it work and make it, you know, make the timing work. And hey, it's all about time. Time is money and people want to get in their homes and they're getting patient. So we're impatient too. We're ready for them to get in and move on to the next project.
Speaker 2:So then you walk them to closing and then turn over the key and they've got a beautiful new home.
Speaker 3:Yeah they just walk in, we have it cleaned, all nice for them. So the cleaning crew goes in and cleans it all up. They, it's landscaped, it's paved it, you got your gutters, you got your decks, uh, you know, you just hand them the keys and they walk in and it's. It's a cool little deal, because at that point all they have to do is move in their clothes and their furniture and they're, they're done.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that's great, that is great. So so, land to homes.
Speaker 3:Give us the website one more time, steve website is land, the number two, and then homes dot US, land to homes dot US, all kinds of cool things on the website. We continue to build that as well and make it a little bit more interactive. I think we may put this podcast on there, put a few podcasts on there so people can listen and kind of learn the process where they feel you know, we love educated customers. I had a lady the other day said well, I know more than most people and I said you know what we love, that we want you to know more than most people. We educated customers are our best customers, not that we'll be glad to educate you. The ones I want you to know more than most people. We educated customers are our best customers. We'll be glad to educate you. The ones that scare me is the ones that think they know it all and they don't know anything. So we love a truly educated customer, not one that just knows enough to be dangerous.
Speaker 3:So, hey, get all the education you can, and the more you know about the market and stuff, hey, the better it is for all of us.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well. Thank you, steve, for coming on today.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me. Maybe it won't be a year, I guess.
Speaker 2:Oh, not a year.
Speaker 1:This has been Benchmark Happenings, brought to you by Jonathan Tipton and Steve Reed from Benchmark Home Loans. Jonathan and Steve are residential mortgage lenders. They do home loans in Northeast Tennessee and they're not only licensed in Tennessee but Florida, georgia, south Carolina and Virginia. We hope you've enjoyed the show. If you did make sure to like rate and review. Our passion is Northeast Tennessee, so if you have questions about mortgages, call us at 423-491-5405. And the website is wwwJonathanAndStevecom. Thanks for being with us and we'll see you next time on Benchmark Happenings.
