Introducing Your Next Favorite Podcast

In Episode 1 of Coffee Break Real Estate, Danny Benjamin and Adam Youhanna kick off the podcast with an unscripted introduction and an honest conversation about real world real estate.

Danny talks about his experience moving from wholesaling and fix and flips into working as a real estate agent, and how that background helps buyers during inspections, negotiations, and renovations. Adam shares what he sees on the lending side, including why communication matters, how financing can cause deals to fall apart, and why buyers should not rush the pre approval process.

They also cover common myths about buying a home, what actually causes transactions to fail, and how buyers can better prepare themselves financially before getting under contract.

This episode sets the tone for future conversations focused on education, transparency, and real experience in today’s market.

Intro and outro music provided by Mahami Music ‪https://www.youtube.com/@mahamimusic

Connect with the hosts:

Danny Benjamin
@dsbexplores
www.YourAgentDanny.com

Adam Youhanna
@adamyouhanna
www.MortgageAdvisorAdam.com

Coffee Break Real Estate
Hosted by Danny Benjamin, real estate agent and expert, and Adam Youhanna, mortgage advisor

Focused on all things real estate.

Subscribe for weekly conversations on real world real estate.
Questions or topic requests welcome.

Transcript

Adam Youhanna (00:10)

All right, so this is our first podcast that we're doing. And that's pretty amazing. So Danny, you and I have known each other almost our whole lives. ⁓ Starting from our parents, my dad and your uncle were good friends as kids. One of your cousins and my two oldest brothers grew up together. Your other two cousins grew up with one of my other brothers, and then you and I. know.

Probably the best duo out of all of them, but we ended up growing up together as well. ⁓ right now we're teaming up together and we're making these podcasts so that, you know, we can help educate, you know, typical, you know, first time home buyers or people that are looking to buy in the near future. looking at, you know, helping people that want to start investing or maybe reinvesting and also maybe some people that are relocating, you know, to the

Danny Benjamin (00:44)

So

Adam Youhanna (01:08)

Phoenix metropolitan area. ⁓ It's pretty much we're not having anything scripted. We're just pretty much ⁓ just talking to each other, having a conversation, just talking about experiences, talking about certain things that we've done to help other people out and things that we could do and encourage others to do. And you know, anything else that you want to add, what do think that other people are going to get out of these podcasts that we're going to be doing?

Danny Benjamin (01:34)

Yeah, just pretty basic info, like you said, not scripted, just maybe situations we've gone through or our experiences and how we can help others.

Adam Youhanna (01:46)

Definitely. So I know when did you technically get your license going live in Arizona?

Danny Benjamin (01:53)

I just got it maybe three or four months ago. So ⁓ mid to late, my name was mid mid 2025. I ⁓ got it. But I've been in real estate for like over five years now. Started off wholesaling, did that for a while. Did fix and flips for a little bit. And then flipped land, did some like small developments and lots splits and different things with land. But

Yeah, I just got my license because I want to finally help other people out and also still fixing flipping. So yeah.

Adam Youhanna (02:33)

So you're actively still doing fix and flips and wholesaling.

Danny Benjamin (02:37)

Not as much wholesaling, ⁓ yeah, ⁓ actively fixing flipping for sure. ⁓ Looking for flips in Phoenix and like I said, got my license as well now to help others out.

Adam Youhanna (02:52)

Okay. So, I mean, I've worked with, you know, a good amount of ⁓ realtors, real estate agents, and, you know, for the most part, people that are looking to sell their homes or people that are looking to buy homes, you know, they hear the same thing from realtors that they say, Hey, I'll negotiate on your behalf. I'll be, you know, very proactive. I'll send you listings and I'll take you out, show you homes and all this good stuff. Right. So I know that you're going to be providing that for your

clients as well, but tell me what things that you're able to offer as far as like, consider that maybe some perks with working with you versus just a typical real estate agent.

Danny Benjamin (03:36)

I think one of the things is, you know, I've been through it. Like I've bought and sold multiple houses myself. I come, you know, from an angle where I did that for a really long time before I even considered becoming an agent. ⁓ So I know how to buy ⁓ with emotions aside. I think that that's the big one, right? Like I am, when I bought and sold, it's always been data. Like what's this house worth? What type of work does it need? How much can I offer? It hasn't really been.

Do I love this house? ⁓ So, obviously there is emotions when you do buy real estate, but I think I can put that aside a little better and look at just data and facts. ⁓ And then with the renovations, I mean, that's a huge one. When we go through inspections, a lot of times those are very daunting ⁓ and very scary, but I can ⁓ kind of calm people down or really know, because I've been through full blown renovations multiple times.

I can really know what to expect, right? Like what's easy, what's not. ⁓ There's certain things that are a lot worse than others. Certain things, it's just like, like don't even worry about this. We'll take care of it after you buy the house or whatnot. So I think that that really helps a lot. And then, you know, and the negotiations. I mean, like I said, I've bought and sold a bunch for myself. So I'm really good at negotiating for them and knowing, you know, what's a good deal and what isn't.

Adam Youhanna (05:03)

⁓ I work with maybe a couple of people in the Chicagoland area. There's one person in particular with we'll give him a quick shout out. His name is Mark East. He's been doing a lot of wholesaling and fixing flipping as well. And he's been very beneficial and very helpful for the clients that we work together with and helping them with the inspection and stuff like that. So that's always something good to have. mean, you could always you could always know an inspector, you know, but like

For you, know an inspector and you know what inspectors look for and you kind of have that like mental math, like, okay, hey, if this is wrong with the place, this is how much that you're probably going to need, you know, labor and materials to kind of fix that. Or this is something that's super small. It's more of an inconvenience than like a something like a caution or something to be worried about, right?

Danny Benjamin (05:57)

Exactly. Yeah, it's an inspector's job to complain. I mean, it's an inspector's job to find stuff that's wrong. They will always find something. I don't care if the house is brand new. ⁓ Something's going to be found that's bad with the house and that's their job. And it's great because that's what they're supposed to do. It's my job to kind of translate that. Right. So yeah, like you said, there's a lot of things where it's like, this is, this is mine. Or don't even worry about this. When, you know, someone that hasn't gone through this before might look at it and be like, Whoa, this is like,

horrible like there's you all these issues and then it's like well this these are Nickel and dime stuff that doesn't really matter and some things you don't even have to fix really like there's a lot of things that inspector reports that I would tell you hey just don't even you don't have to fix this you know but ⁓ but I am able to identify the bigger stuff especially things that I've seen that that would need to be addressed and you know things we can ask the seller to fix and stuff like that

Adam Youhanna (06:52)

100 % when I talk to my clients. So I do it in my under contract call. So once they get under contract, we jump on a call and we go over a lot of different things, you the market interest rates, different types of programs, something that'll set them set them up for like their goals, you know, because not every loan is, you know, just a cookie cutter one for one size fits all. But one thing I do tell them is exactly what you said. I say, listen, the inspector's job is to find.

everything wrong with the house. And it's like I tell them, hey, you might have an outlet cover that's not perfectly level. It might be off like this. They'll take a picture of it and tag it, which it's not going to cost you anything. You get one for 98 cents if it's broken or you just unscrew it with a screwdriver, fix it then you're good. Like stuff like that. Don't let it bother you. It's the major stuff in play that we have to kind of think about and stuff like that.

Danny Benjamin (07:52)

Exactly.

Adam Youhanna (07:54)

So, three, four months now, have you had a closing?

Danny Benjamin (08:01)

A few. ⁓ think I'm at like 12 now. Now granted, some of those are my properties, ⁓ either land that I had already owned or a flip that I did. But I have represented one buyer that closed. And then you and I are representing a buyer right now ⁓ that is under contract to close.

Adam Youhanna (08:26)

So that's good. So you already hit the ground running. So I mean, that's good because, you know, we were talking about some facts and we were looking up how many active real estate agents there are in the country and it's like 3 million. And I think it was, what was this 71 % or 79 % of them haven't sold a home in all of 2025.

Danny Benjamin (08:29)

⁓ yeah.

Yeah, I think it was 30 % that I've had at least one. And then it was like sub 10 % or maybe even sub 5 % that have done more than 12 a year, I think. there's a large number of agents versus how many are actually active.

Adam Youhanna (09:10)

Yeah. So you're already a couple months in, you got one in and then at the end of next month, everything goes well, which, know, we expect it to, you'll have two in a period of four or five months. So you're already at like a top 20, top 25 % real estate agent producing, is, which is crazy. So that's awesome. So what are some things that you like about, you know, being a real estate agent?

Danny Benjamin (09:39)

I really love taking what I've learned and helping others. ⁓ think seeing how people react, right, like with this house that we're helping our client on, like we took him to a bunch of houses. ⁓ So it is, you know, that is one thing is it is a lot of work. There's a lot of driving around and stuff like that. But seeing how his eyes lit up when he saw this one house was great. And then now like just being able to guide him through.

the whole process of like, and to me it's easy. like sometimes like I take it for granted, not take for granted, but like I, I think everyone knows it, right? Like, like, like the inspection we just talked about, I feel like sometimes everyone knows it, but now actually being able to see like, okay, this is, I'm actually helping them through each step of the process, like with the negotiations and the inspection and the title company and dealing, you know, coordinating everything with you and title, you know, everybody involved.

Just seeing how much people appreciate it and being able to help them really, really is fun. And I just love real estate. I love doing deals. So it's kind of fun to be able to do them when other people are involved as well. And not just, you know.

Adam Youhanna (10:50)

That's awesome. Well, we have a special guest here.

Danny Benjamin (10:54)

would you believe? ⁓

Adam Youhanna (11:00)

Celine, can you say hi to Danny? ⁓ I got a realtor calling. Okay, Celine baby, can you go and wake up mama? Yeah. Okay, can we just, can we just, okay, go. Hold on, Dan, sorry.

Danny Benjamin (11:02)

Bye.

Adam Youhanna (11:13)

Yeah, so I mean, right now during this, you know, I had to answer this call because it's a new realtor that I just started working with. We have a client together that we're trying to help buy a place. So she just called and usually, you know, for shooting a podcast, I'm not going to answer. But since this is kind of like a free flow, ⁓ I did answer it. So. And she's calling again. ⁓

Danny Benjamin (11:38)

Your are good. I love it.

Adam Youhanna (11:44)

Hello?

Danny Benjamin (11:46)

Thank you.

Adam Youhanna (11:53)

think she dialed me. So yeah, one thing I think that we always have to answer the phone because that one phone call could be a tipping point for somebody to maybe if you don't answer your calls, then you don't, you're not reliable as you say that you are. And you know, they can be in a hurry.

Danny Benjamin (12:19)

They could be calling six people in a row.

Adam Youhanna (12:22)

and see what answers.

Danny Benjamin (12:23)

But yeah, but well, yeah, and you know, and they might not think anything about you not answering, but you know, it definitely is like an indication of how you how you're going to do work. ⁓ But also they might get in contact with someone that does answer and does get them, you know, so. It's a lead to a very real thing.

Adam Youhanna (12:42)

It is a real thing. And I hear that a lot on all these podcasts that I watch with these, ⁓ legends in the game. always say it's speed to lead. So so far you've been in a few months. What are some things that you love about the job?

Danny Benjamin (12:59)

⁓ I love helping people, ⁓ really helping people do something that I've been doing for myself for so long. ⁓ You know, we're helping a first time homebuyer. So just seeing that progression is huge. So yeah, a lot of it's just just helping people.

Adam Youhanna (13:19)

So like, besides, you know, helping people, like what else kind of, what makes you get up in the morning and be excited to go to work?

Danny Benjamin (13:31)

yeah, and I just love real estate. mean, I, I've been breathing it for, for so long. ⁓ and you know, now it's just another, that's one thing I do love about real estate is there's so many different things you can do, ⁓ a lot. Like there's so many, so now I'm just doing something, something new that also, you know, coincides with my love for, for helping people and working with people too. I'm a big time collaborator. so I really enjoy like.

working with you, working with the title company, working with the other agents, working with the buyers, working with sellers, working with inspectors. Like it's like, it's those big ecosystem that, ⁓ I just, I really enjoy for sure. It's it's fun. And you just don't know what you're to get ever either. Right. Like, ⁓ new house pops up and I, don't, you I can wake up today thinking, you know, I don't have anything going on. And then all of a sudden, you know, I'm

Adam Youhanna (14:15)

Yeah.

Danny Benjamin (14:25)

going on a bunch of showings or I got a new listing.

being able to do something different every day. And we were just talking about schedules. we don't, you someone calls me at 10 PM and there's a really good deal that popped up and they want to go see that house. Like, you know, I'm all about work-life balance, but sometimes you gotta, you gotta do that too. So.

Adam Youhanna (14:47)

Yeah. ⁓ the thing is, you know, people think like, I'm going to go be a real estate agent. work, you know, whenever I want, I could take the day off whenever I want, but it's like, it's like, saying you eat what you kill. You know, if you wake up every day with, ⁓ with a weak mindset, you're not going to, you're not going to get anywhere and you're going to end up going back to a nine to five. But if you have that, that entrepreneurial mindset,

and you have that kind of drive and you could do really well, but, know, just because it's not a nine to five doesn't mean you're not putting 40 hours in. Sometimes you're going to put 60, 70 hours in if you're super busy. I mean, for example, it's like I have I have two kids, so it's like I go to work and then I do what I have to do when I come home, especially now. It's like helping the kids with my wife, giving the kids a bath and then getting them ready and go to bed once bedtime.

is done, it's like 738 o'clock and I'm back on it till 11 o'clock at night or midnight and you know the work doesn't stop.

Danny Benjamin (15:54)

get done.

Adam Youhanna (15:55)

Yeah, things gotta get done. What some things? What? What you saying?

Danny Benjamin (16:02)

How long have you been doing this? Tell me about your journey with the mortgage side of things.

Adam Youhanna (16:08)

So right now it's actually my anniversary. So I started on the floor, technically January, 2022. I started with rocket mortgage. ⁓ I was there for about a year and a half. And then when I stopped working there, what was that?

Danny Benjamin (16:23)

floor on the floor means you were just

Adam Youhanna (16:26)

Like I was ready to go. was licensed, went through my training there and then boom, I was on rail.

Danny Benjamin (16:34)

Got it, okay, cool.

Adam Youhanna (16:35)

Yeah, so that's what I mean by on the floor, because you at Rocket, you go through like different steps. You got to you get like a month straight if you have to study for the exam and do the training, take the test and then you start learning things how to implement when you're taking calls, app calls and stuff like that. And then you kind of get released on your own and do your thing. But that's considered retail side. So I left the retail side after a year and a half in. ⁓

After that took a couple of months off and then started on the wholesale side, which is pretty much being a broker. And it's a whole new world because at rocket, you know, they have. Everything there, you know, so being on the broker side, I was able to implement everything I learned at rocket and then be able to learn a whole new side of mortgages and, you know, been loving it. It's very stressful, but. You know, I wake up every day.

ready and willing to keep going and scale.

Danny Benjamin (17:39)

love it. And so you enjoy the broker side more, assume? Sounds like

Adam Youhanna (17:45)

I

do, ⁓ just based on my lifestyle, I like having that, that freedom to, do the work whenever I want, however I want. I mean, of course not like however I want, like, you know, making up my own rules and stuff, but you know, when you're working for a company, you have to be there. You sometimes we started at 7 AM and you go to like 5 PM, 6 PM. And it's like, you have to be there. You have to be there. You know, I've.

My wife works downtown and we're in the suburbs. So it's like my daughter in the morning. I get her ready, take her to school. Then I go to work and then I got to pick her up at three o'clock, take her home, get back to work and stuff like that. So this gives me more freedom, to do what I have to do. It lets me get out there more instead of sitting behind a desk. So I enjoy doing them too. I love talking to people and kind of learning their story and kind of.

you know, chatting and networking and stuff like that. So being on the broker side or wholesale side is much more enjoyable.

Danny Benjamin (18:52)

Yeah, that makes sense. That makes perfect sense.

I have question. What was that?

Adam Youhanna (19:01)

a question for you.

Danny Benjamin (19:02)

All right, let's hear it.

Adam Youhanna (19:04)

Your experience working with lenders, mortgage, loan originators, what are some things that piss you off about what they do or don't do?

Danny Benjamin (19:19)

So, you know, as we talked about I don't I only have a couple buying deals so I've only worked with as an agent with lenders a couple times but I think like, you know, we talked about earlier not picking up the phone ⁓ Keeping me in the dark About things is definitely something that pisses me off so if you're waiting on something from the underwriter or you know

like you've asked a buyer for something, I kind of like to be in the loop on that type of stuff. Even if it's something I don't want to hear, it's like, I'd rather just kind of know than wait and hear from title like, hey, I haven't heard from the lender or I'm waiting on this doc. And it's like, well, you I didn't know that. Or I'm waiting on the buyer and it's like, well, you could have told me and I could have gotten on them about that. So I think just communication in general. ⁓

And then sometimes just like, sometimes I do feel like lenders, I don't want to say take advantage, but we'll try to ⁓ get more out of the deal. I just, and then, me kind of being the buyer's agent, like I try to get them the best deal on everything is possible. even that includes even ⁓ loans. yeah, some of that as well, for sure. Yeah, a lot of it's communication for sure.

Adam Youhanna (20:37)

Yeah.

Danny Benjamin (20:39)

And a lot of times I know stuff's out of your guys' hands, like as the lone officer. And it's understandable, but it's just nice to get stuff relayed. we're all, a lot of us are just middle people and it's just kind of playing that communication game.

Adam Youhanna (20:54)

Definitely. So how did those

How have your experiences been as a real estate agent working with lenders? Has it been pretty good so far?

Danny Benjamin (21:07)

Overall, yeah, I would say all things considered very good. That's good. I was able to cross the finish line and yeah, it's been good.

Adam Youhanna (21:12)

That's good.

Okay.

Let's see.

Danny Benjamin (21:24)

What about you? about like, for you, working with agents, what do you think you wish agents did maybe like early on in the buying process or at any point? Like, what do you wish that we could do that really, you know, preps the buyer for things you might need or just explanations or what have you seen with dealing with real estate agents?

Adam Youhanna (21:54)

one thing that I expect real estate agents to do, unfortunately in my experience, I haven't had a lot of them do this is literally answer the phone. There's some realtors and I'll, I'm going to shout out a couple of them. ⁓ I worked with somebody named Freddie, Freddie O'Connor, South Azarian, Chris Botchenek, these guys. ⁓ and this one that I had to take a call up, mean,

They're in a showing, right? You don't want to be disrespectful to your clients, but like they answer the phone and say, Hey, I'm in a showing. Can I call you back? Perfect. Right. Or through the automatic text where you can't answer the phone, you have a message that says, Hey, I'm on the other line. Hey, I'm doing this. Let me call you back. Because like how you just said, you don't want to be left in the dark and you know, just like, just let me know. Like if you're busy, great. As long as I know.

that you're acknowledging that I called or tried reaching out to you and I am important to you. That's something I expect, but from my experience, it's like realtors are standing out when they do that, you know, when they answer the calls or they'll send me a text saying, Hey, I can't answer the phone right now. So I really do appreciate that. ⁓ One thing that I've seen so many realtors do is

They literally first thing they tell the bar where is like, Hey, go get a pre-approval. ⁓

Like I always have the acronym Pail, P-A-I-L. P is any properties you own, A is assets, I is income, L is liabilities. The liabilities part comes from the credit report. You we don't just look at the credit score. We look at what debt you have, how much debt you have, and how much you're obligated to pay minimally each month to credit cards, car payments, student loans, et cetera. So I would say, of course, everyone's free to choose who they want. And I know realtors will

kind of help refer people is just let them know like, hey, let the mortgage guy or gal do their process. Just let them go through their process because I've had people not choose to work with me because I'm like, listen, let's get your income in. Let's get your asset documents and let's look at everything altogether so I can tell you exactly the maximum amount you can get approved for. And I can give you the amount that

you need to be approved for for your monthly payment goals. And sometimes I feel like. It's not the realtors fault, but if they can kind of let them know, like, hey, listen, the less the shorter the process that you're going through with a lender or MLO mortgage loan originator, the shorter it is, the less reliable it might be. So just let the let the person go through their process with the financing.

And that way they'll be able to help you out as best. some, some people in my job, they're like, Hey, um, there are some people in my role, they're like, Oh, I'm scared if I ask them too many questions or if I asked for too many docs, they're just going to leave me. It's kind of like a, it's kind of a juggling act, know, like you, you don't want them to leave you, at the same time, you don't want to leave anything on the table for any errors or any denials to happen. Because then anytime something wrong happens in the process, we get blamed for it.

So it's like, that's why I want to do my due diligence because, you know, I really focus on, you know, the client services and that leading to, you know, referrals and reviews and stuff to keep building the business.

Danny Benjamin (25:43)

So you wish we did, you there were some agents at a better job of kind of explaining that to them or having some of that prep. It's like knowing kind of their financial situation or stuff like that. Okay, yeah.

Adam Youhanna (25:54)

Yeah.

Danny Benjamin (25:58)

Yeah, that's smart. Because I always try to figure that out. you could kind of tell if someone's going to get approved or not based on some rough numbers. So it's always good to know that you're not dealing with someone. Because that helps us too. We're not dealing with someone that probably won't get approved or stuff like that. But speaking about that, have you ever had a situation where someone thought they weren't going to get approved or? ⁓

someone had stuff like a lot of dad or something where you were able to work around it and get along for them.

Adam Youhanna (26:34)

Yeah, definitely. had somebody literally a realtor that I know was showing ⁓ properties to them for renting. And then. You know, the the client was like, well, let me see if let's see if the landlord will take, you know, six months of rent in advance or 12 months of rent in advance. Then the realtor smartly was like. Just looked at her and said, why aren't you buying?

You that much? You're paying for 12 months of rent and she went from, she was renting a place for like $2,400.

Danny Benjamin (27:12)

Wow.

Adam Youhanna (27:13)

So she wanted to pay it all upfront. He's like, why aren't you buying? Why are you wasting your money? And then she's like, well, I don't think I'm going to get approved. haven't, I've only had my job for three months. So, he's like, you know what? Talk to Adam. ⁓ this guy calls me like the magic man. So he's like, talk to Adam, let him see if you can work some magic. then thankfully, ⁓ we were able to, you know, she was off of work for about a year and a half came on.

started working a W-2 job only three months. We were able to get her pre-approved. Now we had to mess around with the debt a little bit. She had a car payment. Can't remember exactly, it was like 600 something bucks, right? Which was hurting, was not allowing her to get pre-approved. So I told her, hey, if you pay down, don't pay off, if you pay down six grand of this car,

then we could remove it from your debt. So we won't count it. So that just freed up $600 of debt, went away, got her pre-approved. She got a house up in, not Gurney, Waukegan. She only put 1 % down. We got her maximum seller concessions. She literally came to closing with like 10 grand.

and six grand of it was to pay down her car. So she barely came to the closing table and she's so happy now. So that was a great moment where we had people, where we had somebody literally not sure if they can get approved.

Danny Benjamin (28:52)

So sounds like you take more of a consultative approach. Like you have levers you can pull and you can let them know, hey, if you pay down this debt or do this, do that, then we can get you approved. So it's not just like a yes or no. truly sit down with them and look at the whole situation and see what you can do to get them approved.

Adam Youhanna (29:12)

Yeah, 100%. So what I do is if they're not able to get approved now, my answer to them is not no, it's just not now. So if they're eager to buy a, buy a home and I can tell that they're willing to put in the work, you know, maybe not eat out every day, maybe kind of, you know, eat out, cut it down to maybe twice a week, save some more money for a down payment. If I see them, you know,

eager to do that, then I will literally sit down with them and set up either a three month plan, six month plan or 12 month plan. Because I'm not going to be the type where I'm going to say, Hey, yeah, I can, I can help you. Let's go or no. And I'm not going to, and I'm done, you know, just close all forms of communication. I'm going to be able to say, okay, Hey, if you really want to, and you're willing to wait three months, six months, 12 months, whatever, sit down with me, we'll set up a plan and then we'll go about it. So.

It's always that, it's always yes or not now.

Danny Benjamin (30:12)

Love that, that's huge.

Adam Youhanna (30:16)

Yeah. So what areas? What areas do you think? Let's say, for example, I had a client that wanted to look for a home. ⁓ Husband and wife, two kids. ⁓ Let's say the older one is about to start school. They don't care. They both both parents are working from home. What would you what neighborhood?

or neighborhoods would you recommend in the Phoenix area for them?

Danny Benjamin (30:52)

on. And there's a lot. I Phoenix is huge. I really like Gilbert, ⁓ Peoria, Chandler and Glendale. Now, when I say that those are so the cities in Arizona are huge. ⁓ So it's not like Chicago, where Skokie is like, I think it's a square mile or something small or like, a lot of the suburbs of Chicago are very small.

⁓ so when I say Gilbert, there's parts of Gilbert that, you know, aren't as nice as others. And there's parts of Peoria that aren't as nice as others, but overall, ⁓ those are some, some really nice communities. ⁓ we're helping Joey buy a house in San Tan and that was actually my first time down that deep in San Tan Valley. And it's, that's a really, really nice area. So I yesterday and it's, it's super nice. So if you're, if you're working remote, some of those like further areas are, you could get some really good bang for your buck. mean,

If you're wanting a really nice house that's newer and maybe you want something big, but you don't care about being away from the city a little bit. like Santan Valley is a really, really cool area that's growing and really nice. yeah. But you know, it just really depends on what people want. mean, Phoenix has some really cool areas too. ⁓ You know, any family friendly and some, you know, some are very walkable. So it just, just really depends what.

what someone's looking for.

Adam Youhanna (32:23)

Okay, nice.

So what are some, when you talk to people, you know, I'm sure anytime you walk into a room, people are going to pick your brain on real estate and stuff like that. like, what are some fears that you see people having when they're kind of iffy on buying a house or not for themselves, primary residents?

Danny Benjamin (32:47)

I mean it's the same fear since wait really like everyone really thinks that ⁓ Prices are gonna come down which I'm not a speculative guy. I don't like to tell people what I think is gonna happen I don't like to project stuff going up or down. I'm not that type of agent I'm not You know said I'll buy now because it's gonna be worth X amount in two years like no I don't know and I tell people that all the time I don't know what's gonna happen. What I do know is if you're in a spot

where you feel like you're gonna stay somewhere awhile, like in a certain geographic area. You can get approved for a mortgage and afford that mortgage payment. If you're not putting yourself in a lot of trouble, even if prices come down, they eventually will go back up. Like anyone in 08 that had a house that they bought in 06 or 07 at the height of the market, their prices have recovered. I mean, and even more so, like at least in Phoenix, I'm sure it's...

pretty nationwide, ⁓ so people that were able to continue to afford their mortgage or, you know, pay cash or whatever it may have been, you know, they rode out the wave and they were able to come out ahead in the long run. I don't like to think about what's going to happen. Is stuff going to go up or down? Obviously you want to buy something that's going to go up, right? You want you to, you want to try to time the market as I say, but

It's hard to time the market and I don't like to think like that. Um, because like I said, if you, if you are putting yourself in a good position and you can afford to own the home, then you should just buy it if it's something that you want. Um, so I don't, that's the largest fear I hear is all I'm to wait till things go down or I don't want to buy now cause it seems like it's the height of the market. It might be, but it might not be too. You know, I heard people saying that in

2016, 2015, like honestly since 2008, since the crash has happened, I've not heard people stop saying that they think homes are gonna come down. I mean, our buddy John that we grew up with, he bought his house for 75 grand, literally in 2009 or maybe 2010, either way, 75 grand. And he was being told he's crazy. Like, why are you buying a house right now? So it's just, there's always like gonna be people thinking that.

This is not a good time to buy and it's, know, I just, I don't, like I said, I don't try to time it based on whether it's going to go up or down. I try to time it based on, you ready to buy? Can you afford this? Are you, you know, don't overextend yourself. Don't buy a house because you think like, ⁓ I can afford this and it's really expensive. You know, stuff like that. But I think if you're putting yourself in a good position, then it doesn't matter.

Adam Youhanna (35:34)

Yeah, I agree. I forgot who said this, but they always say time in the market beats timing the market. Yeah.

Danny Benjamin (35:43)

All day.

I got index funds and they don't care. Like I just, like every two weeks I buy X amount of an index fund and I don't care what it does. I don't care if it's at the height of it because eventually when I'm 65 years old and I cash nothing out, it's going to be worth more. know, like, inevitably, if you look at graphs on almost anything, it's this, right? Like it goes up. It's just, then you'll see this, but then overall it goes up.

Adam Youhanna (36:12)

Yeah, I just going to say you'll see you'll see like, you know, ups and downs, but the ups and downs are higher and higher as time goes on.

Danny Benjamin (36:21)

So that's the biggest fear for me ⁓ that I hear. I don't think there's much other than that.

Adam Youhanna (36:29)

Quick story for that. ⁓

March, I think it was March 10th, 2020, right before COVID was declared. I took about, my wife had a 401k. I took, she rolled it over. So we did a, just did a IRA. Put it in, put in the index fund and within a week lost 20 % of that money. And then I think it took like maybe six to eight months and it recovered. And now it's like double of what it was.

Yeah.

Danny Benjamin (37:07)

I tried timing, you know, that's funny you say that because I tried timing things when COVID hit. I sold everything that I sold my house at the time. I sold index funds, whatever it was. just thought like everyone else, the world's kind of going to crap. I, yeah, and ever since then, I literally have told myself I'm not trying to time stuff. I'm just buying and holding and you know, over this time, so like reallocate money, which is totally fine.

You just make the best decision you can in the moment. tried to not think about what's going to happen because that's when, you I this can happen. We saw it during COVID for sure.

Adam Youhanna (37:47)

Yeah. And people are keep thinking, the last five years, ⁓ majority of homes across the nation have gone up 50%. And people every single year are like, next year is coming down. Next year it's coming down. The problem with that is people are listening to the media and I'm not going to get political or anything, but listen, media attracts eyeballs when they talk about stuff that cause or instill fear in people.

They've been saying that the market is going to crash since 2015. Okay. And they're reporters. Okay. They're not economists. You know, they're not people in the game. So you're not going to ask. You're not going to ask somebody a valet attendant at a restaurant. What's good to eat and take their word over the server that you have or the manager, you know, or people that have eaten at that restaurant.

you're going to take recommendations from people that are experts in the field. And that's something that's that we're seeing a lot of these days. And that's what's causing them to have fear and kind of delay their home buying purchase. And it's ⁓ it's mind boggling to me and it's sad.

Danny Benjamin (39:06)

You know, it's funny is those same reporters when the market does crash or you know, is it inevitably a well it might be 50 years from now, but They're gonna say I told you so even if they were saying it for the past 50 years. Yep Yeah, there's there's guys out there and specifically real estate that I've been saying it for a really long time And then when it does happen if it does happen, but you know, it's probably well at some point They'll say I told you so and it's like well, did you really did you like, you know? I just like I said

I'm more of a in the moment type of guy. Does it make sense right now? If something happens, it's out of your control, then it is what it is. if you've got consistent, you know, consistent pay, you put, know, you're, getting into a situation where you really think it's the best situation in that moment, then you can control it. Then I say, you know, that's, that's when you got to make that decision.

Adam Youhanna (40:03)

Yeah.

What's, if you could think off the top of your head, what comes to mind as far as a myth? Give me a myth buster for buying a home or in real estate in general.

Danny Benjamin (40:24)

That's a hard one Just a myth like something people think that

Adam Youhanna (40:31)

what a lot of people think but it's actually not even true.

I don't know.

Danny Benjamin (40:41)

a hard one. It's nothing that I've seen really. ⁓ What about on your end?

Adam Youhanna (40:48)

On my end, can think of two right now. One is they need 20 % down payment to buy a house. The other one is they need like a 760 credit score above to buy a house.

Danny Benjamin (40:55)

Yeah.

Adam Youhanna (41:02)

Those are the two top ones that I can think of.

Danny Benjamin (41:06)

What are the minimums? Are there minimums or is it just situation based?

Adam Youhanna (41:11)

Yeah, depending on the program, depending on whether you're a first time home buyer or not. Let's say, you know, given everything in a broad spectrum. So if you do a conventional loan, if you're a first time home buyer, you could do three percent down payment. That's as low as you can go. You know, of course, as long as the person qualifies, if you put three percent down, your loan amount is higher and you're which means your monthly payment is going to be higher as long as they can qualify on paper to make those payments, then they could do three percent down.

⁓ FHA loans, you can do as low as three and a half percent down, whether you're a first time home buyer or it's your second or third home, it doesn't matter. And then for conventional loans, if you have owned a home, let's say you sold a home ⁓ right before you started buying another one, then you have to put a minimum of 5 % down. But sometimes one thing that people don't know is that

Being a first time home buyer does not mean this is your first home that you're ever buying. Being a first time home buyer in the financing standpoint means the last, even if you owned a home, as long as you sold it more than three years ago, that kind of resets and now you're a first time home buyer again, which is good because you can get some good perks in it. ⁓ What's good, what's cool is like, you for example, ⁓ let's say somebody makes

70,000 a year. Okay. In Phoenix, you know, property taxes are really low, so they can afford a house that's, you know, $300,000, $350, $400,000.

So if somebody's buying a property and let's say AMI stands for area median income. So if the income in that county is say $100,000 a year, client comes in at $70,000 a year, they get a nice interest rate break. So they can get a lower rate by a quarter percent or three eighths of a percent lower than what somebody gets if they make a hundred thousand a year.

or something higher. So there's different types of programs. It's not like their government programs, but if you're doing a conventional loan, there's different types of programs such as, you know, a home possible, which is by a Freddie Mac, or if you have a home ready, which is by Fannie Mae. These allow people with like lower incomes to get some kind of guidance and some kind of help to be able to get a lower interest rate than the typical person who's buying their third, fourth, fifth home that makes ⁓ a decent amount on their income.

That's something that people don't know.

Danny Benjamin (43:52)

I didn't even know that, so that's great. I love it.

Adam Youhanna (43:58)

Definitely.

Danny Benjamin (44:05)

Yeah, I guess in my day, I've had a lot of deals blow up, as they say, or break down or just kind of fall apart. On the wholesaling side and your flipping side, I mean, you're usually dealing with people that are in distress. So I've had sellers not show up to the closing table or decide they don't want to sell anymore or other buyers coming ⁓ to the you know, other buyers coming in and

trying to snake the deal from you. So that world's a little different, but on the retail side and on the lender side, I kind of want to see like what points of failure are there where a deal could fall apart. Like obviously on the agent side, negotiations is the main thing. And that's like the first point of failure, feel like. I had a deal last week where it was just, was very emotional actually, which I wasn't used to.

Cause I am, like I said, I come from a world where it's very fact-based. Like I can offer this much and that's kind of it. ⁓ But we were going back and forth with the seller and it kind of turned a little more emotional where it was not just about the price and it was more so like just trying to get something else out of it. it kind of like the seller asked for one more thing and it kind of glued the deal up because the buyer was just like, Hey, you know what? don't even want to deal with this anymore because

He just asked for a little bit too much. It wasn't even that, you he just asked for a little bit more earnest money. So it wasn't even like the price went up or anything, but it kind of just like emotionally tipped the buyer over and it kind of blew up the deal. And then obviously inspections, I think for me are the second, you know, after getting a property under contract. once you get through the negotiations, the inspections kind of where it can break a deal down.

there's something major with the house and the buyer just doesn't want it anymore, or we ask for repairs and then they don't want to do them, so stuff like that. But beyond that, as an agent on the retail side, I don't really see breakdowns happening after that. But I know there's a financing contingency in every contract that I draft up. So I want to see, what do you see on your end? When do things blow up, quote unquote?

Adam Youhanna (46:21)

⁓ so I'll name a few and then I'll talk about some that are, you know, the biggest ones. So for example, somebody can go under contract on one and then another house on the market pops up and they kind of want to go take that, take a look at that. And if they like it more, you know, anytime you're given an option, that second option is always going to seem a little bit better. It's kind of like that grass is always greener type mindset. and sometimes it is, I mean, we had one with our client, remember?

He wants to go look at another house that popped up on the market. So that deal could have ended. But that's one scenario where I've seen it end. Another scenario is after the inspection is done, ⁓ they don't want to move forward with the home or they try negotiating with the seller. And there's no common ground. So I've seen it. And then ⁓ another thing that's pretty similar to the inspection is the appraisal.

So when appraisal comes in, if it's not where the agreed purchase price is, ⁓ if you have a buyer that's barely able to make that minimum, 3%, 5 % down payment, but the appraisal comes in 20,000 lower, if they can't negotiate something, it's gonna fall apart. And another thing I've seen happen, and I try to prep my clients to not allow this to happen is let's say,

they start shopping for stuff for the home before they get their keys. Okay. Quick story. Somebody went two weeks before closing.

opened up an Ashley's furniture credit card, racked up 12 grand of furniture. Now, I'm not going to talk negatively about the borrower because let me put, let me put the story together for you. It's COVID. Remember everything was taking, you order a couch, takes six months to come. So they were kind of nervous about that. So what they thought was, let me open up this card, put it

put this whole purchase on my credit card and it's 0 % interest for a year. Okay, so this is their thought process. They're like, okay, we can deal with what we have for a few months and then the furniture will come in. But they didn't realize that just because it's 0 % interest on the credit card, it doesn't mean that you don't have a payment. It doesn't mean you don't have a balance. So then what people don't know also is that a couple days before you close,

your lender is going to recheck your credit just to make sure there's no new accounts that open. Sure enough, this person opened up an account and we saw minimum monthly payment. It was like 300 bucks. Nothing crazy, but took them to denial.

Danny Benjamin (49:16)

That pushed their debt to income over to the point where they didn't get them

Adam Youhanna (49:19)

Yeah, and then they, yeah, they're denied.

Danny Benjamin (49:21)

you can't pay it down or

Adam Youhanna (49:24)

No, because what they're going to have to do is they weren't they weren't strong buyers. They were strong enough, but they weren't like strong buyers where they could, you know, pay it off or cancel it and go and do stuff like that. That wasn't an option. So they lost out on their money and then they had to restart the process again.

Danny Benjamin (49:45)

What are the main things like obviously don't open up new accounts, but then you have to try to preserve your cash too, right? Like they probably shouldn't have gone out and bought that furniture. Anyway, or does a lender check your bank accounts and make sure you still have the same amount of cash you did. Obviously you don't want to be switching jobs, right? There's that too, like the actual, uh, your income.

Adam Youhanna (50:04)

⁓

Good question. Yeah, so when you're so the main thing is don't open up new accounts and Sometimes if you have credit cards When that we recheck your credit That's not more of an important issue is if an existing card Let's say your balance is three grand and then it goes up to 3,500 or four grand. It happens. It's common

So sometimes when people are buying a house ⁓ And they're interested in buying a new car I always advise them like hey listen if You can get to point a to point B just wait 30 days till after closing and then you can buy a car the reason why is not because Their debt to income only right that is a big factor, but then What if that causes a problem

where let's say we look up their credit later on and then that car payment, they forget to make the first payment. And now we see a derogatory mark on their credit. That could be an issue. Or even if they went from pre-approval during their pre-approval stage, they bought a car and then there before they bought the car, they had great credit and everything, but they get under contract. And then when we have to pull credit again, we see a new car on there. Nice big car payment.

debt to income goes up and let's say they forget to make a payment. That one late payment, people don't understand that could drop your credit score 80 points and you're adding new debt to it. So your credit utilization goes up. So it's going to drop your score a lot. So these things we always, always, always talk to them. It's part of our, when we take an application and I get to that question.

Have you opened up or do you plan on opening up any new credit, any new debts? I always tell them, stop, don't do anything. Act like I'm your financial planner. If you're thinking about anything, even if it's a Shell gas station credit card, ask me first and I'll tell you if it's okay or not. For some people it is, some people it's not.

Danny Benjamin (52:08)

So they're strong power and have a lot, know, their DTI is really low. ⁓ There's a little room, but they always need to ask you for

Adam Youhanna (52:17)

Always, yeah, even if they're 800 credit score, 20 % debt to income ratio, just ask me.

Danny Benjamin (52:24)

do anything. You mentioned something you said wait 30 days after closing. Is there a reason for that? why can't I just go out and buy a car the day after closing?

Adam Youhanna (52:32)

the the

Yeah, definitely.

Daniel Benjamin (52:55)

Alright everybody, thanks for tuning into our first episode. If you found it helpful, please like, subscribe, and share it with anyone who wants to better understand real estate and financing. Drop your questions or topics you want us to cover in the comments. We'd love to hear from you. Alright guys, we'll see you in the next episode.