Business Talk
Welcome to Business Talk, where we dive deep into the stories behind the businesses that shape our communities. We bring you conversations with inspiring entrepreneurs who share their journeys, challenges, and the unique value they bring to their customers.
In this podcast, we explore the passion and vision behind successful businesses, uncovering the secrets to their success and learning about the innovative products and services they offer. Whether you're a fellow entrepreneur looking for insights or simply curious about the businesses in your area, this podcast is your go-to source for inspiration and practical advice.
So, sit back, relax, and join us as we explore the dynamic world of business, one story at a time."
Business Talk
Credit Hacks and Car-Buying Blunders: A Mortgage Banker Tells All
Navigating the mortgage landscape can feel overwhelming, especially with today's market uncertainties. Mortgage banker Stacy Luna cuts through the confusion with straight talk and practical wisdom gained from 25+ years in the industry.
Stacy explains why Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group offers what she calls "the best of both worlds" - combining the reliability of banks with the flexibility of brokers. This hybrid approach allows her to maintain control throughout the entire lending process, delivering a five-star experience that keeps clients coming back.
The conversation tackles one of today's biggest homebuying dilemmas: should you wait for interest rates to drop? Stacy offers a compelling perspective, revealing that Florida home values have skyrocketed 65% over five years. "Sitting and waiting is a mistake," she advises, explaining that while everyone hopes to refinance when rates eventually fall, the equity growth you're missing could far outweigh rate savings. As she puts it, waiting for 3-4% rates is like "looking for unicorns and rainbows."
Beyond market timing, Stacy shares insider knowledge on credit optimization. Did you know removing yourself as an authorized user on certain accounts could boost your score by 80 points? Or that strategically timing your credit card payments around reporting dates can significantly impact your score? These small adjustments can make the difference between good and great loan terms.
The podcast concludes with a heartwarming story about helping a family purchase their Florida dream home before Christmas - a family motivated by understanding life's fragility after battling cancer. It's a powerful reminder that mortgage professionals aren't just processing loans; they're helping families build futures.
Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, considering refinancing, or simply planning ahead, Stacy's insights will help you make smarter decisions. Subscribe now and share this episode with anyone navigating the homebuying journey!
Welcome back everybody to Business Talk, the show, where we dive deep into the industries that keep our world moving. I'm your host, didier, and in today's episode I'm so delighted to introduce Stacey Luna. She's a mortgage banker, cma with Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group. How are you doing, stacey?
Speaker 2:I'm doing awesome. How are you, Didier?
Speaker 1:Doing awesome. Thanks for asking as well, stacey. I'm doing awesome. How are you, didier, doing awesome? Thanks for asking as well. So, listeners, in each episode, our guests share practical tips and valuable advice that can help you navigate life and stay ahead in your own journey as you move forward. If you're enjoying this content, make sure you like and subscribe to the channel. Stick around, because Stacey's is going to actually share a story of someone that she has impacted with her services, and it's going to be great to be able to learn about that as well. Also, listeners, we're going to talk about mortgage basics what is a mortgage, loan types and choosing the right one. How do you know if you're going to choose the right one or not, the approval process, some mistakes to avoid and myths to bust, as well as refinancing and strategic advice. So, with that being said, it's a mouthful right, Stacey.
Speaker 1:All in five minutes, all in five minutes, five to ten exactly. So I'm going to go ahead and, if you don't mind, sharing with our listeners, stacey, a little bit about your background.
Speaker 2:Oh, ok, just a little bit so a little bit.
Speaker 2:I have been in lending as a mortgage broker, banker, bank representative since 1997. Representative since 1997. I've seen the ups and the downs since I was here in 2008. I was here over the last five years and I came into this industry from the real estate side, so I understood that side first, and you know. I do say, though, that I was literally born to do this job, and I say that because I garnered lessons both from my father and my mother. My mother was an accountant. By the way, accounting is nothing like mortgage lending. If you're looking at those two options for a career, they're totally different. But I understood numbers very easily, simple numbers. You know multiplication, percentages, division, absolutely. And then my father taught me sales, whether he knew it or not, but I worked in his store and learned how to help people make great decisions.
Speaker 1:I love that. You know, when we look at the mortgage industry and we're looking at what's going on today in the market, some of our listeners are not familiar with the difference between a mortgage banker or other types of lenders. Can you kind of expand on that a little bit?
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. It's a great question, and it's one that frequently gets confused amongst clients and also partners. So I have been all of these types of industries, as in regard to mortgage lending. So you have a bank right, just like your bank, where you do your checking and everything with. That's frequently thought of. Now, a bank does everything they do auto loans, they do checking accounts, they do IRA, they do all kinds of stuff right. Then you have mortgage brokers, which are kind of like an insurance broker, so you would talk to them and I was a broker for 16 years of my career and basically we have options, a list of maybe 50 different companies that we can go to with their particular file. The reality, though, is that brokers typically have their favorite five right. They have the top ones that really encompass most people, and that's typically who they're going to use. They're the best pricing, they have all the best features. Then we have mortgage bankers, which I work.
Speaker 2:Atlantic Bay is an independent mortgage bank. That means we're kind of the best of both worlds, in my opinion, which why wouldn't it be? Why would I be here if it wasn't? But if, if you consider it, we're very much like a bank and that it's our money we're lending, okay.
Speaker 2:The bank, however, you know again, they do other things, so they have a very small box you have to fit into. All we do are mortgages, so that's all we focus on. But we're like a broker in that we offer what I call the vanilla stuff FHA, conventional, va, usda but then we also are able to broker other loans out, okay. So if we have somebody who needs a bank statement loan because they're self-employed, we have that option as well. So we're kind of a hybrid of a broker and a banker, and I believe the reason why I came to Atlantic Bay almost nine years ago was to deliver a five star client experience. And that is something, in my opinion, is hard to do as a broker, because you lose control of the file when you have to send it out to somebody else.
Speaker 1:Interesting. It's very well stated. I couldn't have said it best myself. Let's talk about the current market trends that we're experiencing right now in this economy. Any thoughts?
Speaker 2:So I've been kind of I feel like preaching from you know, to a lot of people about is now is truly, I know a lot of people are sitting on the fence and there is some concern about where the economy is going and is it now the time to buy? And then there's also people sitting in their homes that really low interest rates and I call them kind of the golden handcuffs, because you literally don't want to leave your three percent interest rate to go into something that's in this starts with a six right right um however, right Right.
Speaker 2:However, for those people that do not own a home, not at all. I believe sitting and waiting and not buying now is a mistake, personally, unless you're in a situation where you don't know if you want to stay in that area.
Speaker 2:But if you really want to buy, you've been wanting to buy for a couple of years and you just keep waiting and waiting for the right time. You're never going to be able to time the market perfectly Okay. However, I can tell you this right now the average person buying their first home, it takes them about seven years to save up the down payment to buy that first home. Okay, based upon the current values of homes. In addition, home prices in Florida, over the last five years the value of the homes have gone up about 65%.
Speaker 2:I agree with that buy when the rates come down. The problem is that the home values are going to continue to rise and we have missed out on all this time that we could have been building equity.
Speaker 1:I like what you said, that there's never a right time for anything, whether it's real estate, whether it's starting your own business. You just got to jump in. Exactly that as well. So there's never that perfect time, so I like what you said. Great answer on that Loan types and choosing the right one. You know there's so many different types of loans out there. How, in an overview of common mortgage loan types, when you talked about FHA, when you talked about conventional and VA?
Speaker 2:adjustable rates and fixed. Can you expand on? How does a customer know?
Speaker 1:what is the right loan type for them? Well, that's a great question, and I'm going to give you a generic answer because the reality is is that you have to trust your lender?
Speaker 2:uh, because you aren't going to know. I mean, it's very. I mean, you can do all the research you want on google, but the reality is is that you don't know how to structure a loan as a consumer right?
Speaker 2:and so I just had a conversation with a client yesterday and I said, listen, I said you're going to qualify for probably three to four different types of loans. My job that's what I get paid to do is to look at all those options through my eyes and say, ok, what are the two best ones for you, and then kind of go over those with you in depth and letting and let you choose. I mean again, I said it earlier that my job is really to help them make good decisions, and that's because this is what I do, this is what I know, this is all I do. Right, and you know, right now government loans are priced a little bit lower than conventional loans typically, and so sometimes that makes more sense if you're not putting a lot of money down. Right, because everybody, almost everybody anyway who's getting a mortgage today and who has gotten a mortgage in the last two or two and a half years, they're anticipating that they're going to refinance, hopefully at some point when the rates come down right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Everybody's still, and I and I do try to break this easy to people, but if you, if you're waiting for two or 3%, again, even 4%, I, I think you're. I mean, I think you're looking for unicorns and rainbows. You know, are definitely unicorns rainbows. Actually, you know, are definitely unicorns Rainbows actually exist.
Speaker 2:Maybe 5 percent is the rainbow Right, but quite frankly, rates today are not really high. When I got in the business back in the 90s and even people who bought earlier in the 80s and before that rates I was my rates were between 8.5% and 9%. Prior to that they were in the teens. Now I don't foresee that we're going back there. However, I also don't see we're going back to when COVID was happening and we were artificially kept low to maintain some monetary balance in the market and helping people with something.
Speaker 2:So this is where I think that people need to really trust their lender. Working with a lender that doesn't have a lot of experience is not a great idea and I say that because I was that lender at one time and you don't know what, you don't know Right and you know and unfortunately, just like everything else in life, sometimes you you learn really strong lessons by making mistakes.
Speaker 1:No, I I agree with that 100%, and that was actually well said as well. Boy you're, you're battling, you're bad're batting. 10 out of 10.
Speaker 2:Oh, thanks, I love it.
Speaker 1:So you know, when we talk about the approval process, we talk about credit factors. How important is credit in the overall scheme of things when applying for a mortgage?
Speaker 2:You know that is a question. I mean, I talk to people all the time and they're like, well, I'm waiting to get my credit score up. I'm like, what's your credit score? And they're like, oh, it's like a 680 or 710 or whatever. And I and I'm just like you know what I said your credit is definitely good enough to get a mortgage. It does.
Speaker 2:Your credit score is a huge variable in what your interest rate is going to be and what your terms can be, what programs you're going to qualify for. However, it's not the only factor, and it is also helpful to work with a lender that knows how to help you slightly improve your score. So let's say you have a, you know you've got a 690 score and you're trying to qualify for a conventional product. You know to get a certain rate or whatever the situation might be. We can look at that. We have an analyzer in our system and we can say, ok, if you do one, two and three and it's going to cost you maybe a thousand dollars, or if it costs you anything, sometimes it doesn't cost anything. Sometimes it's just removing you as an authorized user on an account, right? So if we can show you how to do those things, literally. I have a client right now who, by removing her as an authorized user on an account, her score will go up 80 points. Wow, like it's it's huge.
Speaker 2:It is huge. And you know the credit scoring thing is a game. It's really a game. The other thing I tell people all the time is listen. If you know when you're payment is due and you also know when that creditor reports to the credit bureau, you can kind of hack the system to get a higher score just by paying it down to 10% or less if you can, or 30% at the highest if you can. If you can pay it down to that point prior to them submitting it to the credit bureaus each month, that's going to give you the highest score so those little things can make a big difference in in your score and that credit report.
Speaker 2:We keep that credit report live for four months so it stays good once we pull the hard.
Speaker 1:Pull for four months very good and you know there are some mistakes to avoid. You know when. What are maybe one or two things to avoid during that process of trying to get a loan or or getting that loan approved, and there are certain things that you got to not do during that process before closing right well, so the, the, the.
Speaker 2:I don't want to call it a joke, because it's really happened to all of us who've been lending for a long time. But there's always somebody that goes and buys a car or or goes and spends a bunch of money on something and they have their credit pull, which the credit pull doesn't always necessarily negate the situation. But if they've taken on additional debt now, like a car payment and today's car payments are no joke right.
Speaker 1:Well, even furniture too, right.
Speaker 2:Furniture. Again, it can and can't. It just kind of depends on what the minimum payment is. We don't look at how much debt you owe. We look at what your payments are.
Speaker 1:Makes sense. Okay, so the car would be a big one.
Speaker 2:The car would be huge. And I'm seeing car payments today 800, $900, like almost I don't want to say common, but it's getting more and more common to see that Definitely five to 600. Whereas if I go back, you know, 10 or 15 years ago most car payments were under three or $400. Right, you know, 10 or 15 years ago most car payments were under three or four hundred dollars. Right, so they're pretty, they're pretty significant and that that three hundred dollars or even could move somebody's debt to income ratio to where they no longer qualify and it's really hard to take back a car no, that that's.
Speaker 1:That's very, very true. You know, as we, as we wrap up, you know I was kind of sharing at the, at the beginning of the episode uh, is there a story or a customer that kind of stands out? I know you got a lot of them. Don't mention any names, of course, no, of course, but a but, a, a story that really resonated with you, that you were, that they were, they were happy and I'm sure all your clients are. Something that stands out that you'd like to share very brief.
Speaker 2:I would say that I have a family that moved here from Pennsylvania I feel like it was three years ago, it'll be three years this December and it was a husband, a wife and two children and two dogs, and he was in the in the manufacturing industry. So he worked in a, you know like in a warehouse up north in Pennsylvania, which is, I feel like it's more common up north. But they have come to Disney, they come to the beach, they love the beach, and he had just decided and I didn't really at the time I didn't understand where his motivation was coming from, but he decided he was going to move his family to Florida, that they were so in love with this area and they really wanted to live here. Well, he was introduced to me around December 3rd or December 4th and he had started. He was starting his jobrd or December 4th and he had started. He was starting his job like the very next week and he needed to move down here and he had moved. He moved his family into a one bedroom like a suite hotel.
Speaker 2:Imagine this imagine this sweet wife. She's in this hotel room with two dogs, two kids. She's homeschooling them now because he's working and they're living out of state. So she's trying to finish them up for the school year or for that quarter, that part of the school year, and find and the realtor and I or the realtor needed to find him and I qualified him for a home that was around $250,000. This is only a couple years ago. That's not an easy thing to do in Central Florida.
Speaker 1:Right, absolutely.
Speaker 2:But he just had all the faith that it was going to happen. He got the job, he started working and I said to my team now, mind you, they still hadn't found the house yet and we needed to get them qualified and closed on the loan and I basically said, look, this, this is our Christmas miracle. This is going to be our Christmas miracle family. I know we can do it. He's got the job. So you know, as long as they can find him a home and everything goes perfectly, they'll, we can get them in before Christmas, not to mention that the son's birthday. He was a Christmas baby.
Speaker 2:And I wanted them to be in a home for Christmas not in a hotel room Right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So we were, it all happened, we were able to do that and just, and they were, they were just super grateful. It was just one of, and just one of the most special like it did. It felt like a Christmas miracle to me and it was just just a great moment. Um, and they were very appreciative, obviously, and super excited. And, um, recently I saw on their social media, um, that he, he has bone cancer and so he, there was a go fund me and I was, and I reached out to him. I'm like, oh my, I'm like gosh. Well, come to find out. And this man is not very old, he's in his thirties. This was his second time with this.
Speaker 2:The first time was before I knew him, and when you meet, when you meet people, you sometimes wonder like, wow, I've never seen somebody that is like, has that kind of drive that I'm making this happen for my family.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:But once I realized what he had already gone through, right. I got it, you know, I got. I was like he there was. Nobody was going to tell him he wasn't going to have this first family, because he's.
Speaker 1:He has realized that life is way shorter than most of us do at a very early age, you know well, stacy, I love that story and I can tell how passionate you about how passionate you are about telling that story. It's, it's, it's there. That is a great story and thank you for sharing this with our listeners as well. As we wrap up, can you provide our listeners with your phone number and a website to get a hold of you?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. My phone number is area code 407-832-3729. And my website is wwwstacylunacom.
Speaker 1:Well, listeners, thank you so much, you know, for you know taking the time to listen to this podcast and if you do like this content, please feel free to share, subscribe as well. As you know, mention something in the comments as well. Stacey, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to be able to, you know, talk about your profession and your services that you offer, and hopefully we can have you back on in the near future.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. We appreciate you asking.
Speaker 1:You're very welcome. Thank you for tuning in to First Media Consulting Podcast so much. We appreciate your asking. You're very welcome.