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Hey, hello everybody and welcome to Spotlight Vancouver, Washington.

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I'm your host Doug Varenas, licensed real estate agent in Washington and Oregon.

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Happy New Year to everybody and thanks for all the subscribes and likes and support

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of the show.

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If you have any requests, any suggestions, I always appreciate them and I appreciate

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you for listening.

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Today, we have the money magician I call him from Guild Morgans, Trevor Bonnet, a loan

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officer and I'm wondering if they're coming up with a better term than loan officer.

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It sounds a little, it kind of reminds me of law enforcement in a way.

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I don't know if they're working on that.

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You know, I don't know if anybody's actively brainstorming other names and loan officers

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but I hear them all the time, mortgage professional loan officer.

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I prefer loan guru but then I have people tell me that, you know, that's a little culty

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as well.

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So, I want to go with money magician.

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Yeah, I'm going to go with money magician because I love it.

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Okay, that's what I usually say and as a money magician, you really provide a lot of services

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that I think people don't know about and I'm always counseling buyers about consulting

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before sooner rather than later.

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Can you speak to how and when someone who's interested in buying a home should get in

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touch with you?

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Yeah, I mean day one, you know, is kind of the short answer unfortunately to be vague

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but oftentimes I have conversations with people every day, multiple times a day and

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they have a whole list of reasons on why they're waiting and those reasons aren't we can't

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afford a house, we don't know what we're doing, it's well, I need to work on my credit

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or I need to, I have to pay off my debt and unfortunately with lending and with credit

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scores which pay a strict not a licensed credit professional, have to maybe put that down

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there.

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And I think one of the goals that I have in place that I can help you get to where you

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want to be faster and oftentimes less cost effective route than you were originally

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going to go, there's nothing common sense about updating your credit scores or knowing

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what type of loan programs there are.

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And I've had people that wait and wait and wait and they pay off all their debt and

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they close off all their accounts and they see a massive credit drop because now they

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have no active trade lines.

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They paid off everything as agreed but at the end of the day the credit bureaus don't

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look at it that way.

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So oftentimes when I have people tell me, hey, I'm three months out, start today, hey,

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I'm six months out, let's have a conversation, let's develop a plan, let's figure out where

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you're at.

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Everybody's a little bit different on a tailor made search, it's kind of a pick your own

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adventure but that being said, get me in the conversation day one so that we can make sure

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you're on the right path.

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Yeah, sooner rather than later, I mean even a year or two I would recommend reaching out

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because you're the one with the key to the finances so you know what you're looking for

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and the value that you provide is that you're able to tell them exactly what they need to

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do to get where they need to be to get that financing.

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So I feel like a lot of times this is like somebody feels like you guys are like a teacher

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or a gatekeeper, like they have to turn in their homework and they have to have it all

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perfect before they turn it in but really it's the opposite.

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You want to bring your homework if you will, your application or your potential to purchase

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a home and you want to present the information earlier so you can get that feedback like

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you said.

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What are some of those mistakes that you see potential borrowers making?

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You mentioned like paying off the wrong debt.

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What are some other mistakes that you're seeing out there for people looking for a loan?

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So it's just based on a couple of them kind of freely trying to improve your credit scores

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but not everybody's got a friend at their local tavern or their mother-in-law or somebody

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has advice and sometimes that advice is great and sometimes that advice is not good at all.

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And so getting me started in the process earlier will give you kind of the blueprint of what

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a lender is going to look at in regards to your credit score.

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A big one.

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I have $50,000 in student debt, I need to pay that off before I start.

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Okay, well how much is your monthly liability on those student loans?

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Because that's really what a lender is going to look at.

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What's your payment history on those and what is your monthly liability?

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Because I'm going to look at a couple things.

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There's DTI which is debt to income ratio.

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I want to make sure that you can afford this new home you're purchasing along with your

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current debt load that you have and maybe there's some room there where I can tell you

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hey debt to income ratio is too high.

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Let's focus on these debts for this reason.

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Another one changing professions.

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You know, hey I just went from a W-2 nurse where I was working 36 hours a week every

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week shift differential and all that.

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Well now I'm a car salesman and I'm making way more money but it's all commission based.

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Well, I can't use that for the foreseeable future.

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So having me in the process earlier can help you kind of forgo some of that heartache or

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that help you to not make such big life decisions that might hinder you from buying an house.

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So again, it's really getting in early because from my understanding it's the amount of monthly

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debt that you have versus the amount of total debt.

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So like you mentioned in the student debt example, you may have quite a bit of debt

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but you may be on an income based repay or something where you're only paying $300 a

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month.

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So it's not based on the total debt and you really need to reach out sooner like you said

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to just kind of get a bird's eye view of where you're at and where you need to go.

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Yeah, 100%.

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And another common one is like not having a down payment.

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Right?

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Oh, I'm saving for a down payment.

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And you know, most people don't know that there are down payment assistance programs

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for people and there's such a wide variety of programs out there for people that not

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just I offer but just lenders in the community that you can get into a home with little or

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no money down and still have your payment be relatively affordable.

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That being said, the less you put down, the higher your loan amount, the higher your monthly

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payment will be.

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So there's a caveat there but it does open the doors.

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And what we're finding is in the last few years with inflation and with, you know, upkeep

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and jobs and how expensive everything is, people are not out saving the market.

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People are not putting away enough money in their saving account to make a dent in a down

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payment on a home.

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The real people that are finding success are the people that are purchasing a home and

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letting that equity naturally build, you know, not like what we saw on COVID but, you know,

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maybe one to 3% year after year while they continue to pay their mortgage payment down.

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And then when those people are ready to buy their next home, now they have this down payment

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from the sale of their home or they have an equity position that they can utilize to greater

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benefit themselves and their families.

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Right.

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It's always time in the market versus trying to time the market.

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And I just did a New Year's show where predictions and one of them was like, we're not leaving

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the 6% to 7% range anytime soon.

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So, you know, people that are waiting for this, you know, the 3% rates again, like it's

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just, it's not going to happen in the foreseeable future.

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And so I don't think that's a reliable strategy because, again, you're missing out on some

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equity opportunities, you know, with time in the market versus trying to time the rates

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and try to time when there's going to be the housing crash, you know, that we've been talking

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about for, you know, five years or longer.

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That just hasn't quite happened.

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You know, what would you say you mentioned kind of people that have, you know, there's

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a lot of people that have the lower interest rates, but they are having additions to their

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family or their living situations change or their job situations changed, you know, but

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they're hesitant to give up their, you know, 3% loan, understandably, to buy, to upsize

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to another home.

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What do you say to those potential buyers about where they're at?

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You know, there's kind of a cliche in my industry, which is date the rate, marry the house.

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And I think people really forgot this during COVID because people were writing offers on

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homes where we're seeing during COVID time, where we're seeing like, oh, I'm just going

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to offer above asking and wave all of these, you know, inspection contingencies and all

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of these things that protect home buyer, because I'm going to get a 2.5% interest rate, you

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know, and then they sign the dotted line and a year later, their three bedroom, two bath

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house or three bedroom, one bath house for some people, all of a sudden they're realizing,

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oh my gosh, we just had our third child.

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And we don't fit this home anymore.

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And so although I do think it's kind of a cliche, dating the rate and marrying the house,

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you have to have a home that fits your needs.

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And people can get creative and they can help their home to fit their needs and then kind

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of come up with some creative ways around that.

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But at a certain point, you know, a 1200 square foot home or smaller, there's only so much

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stuff you can do with your stuff.

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And when you have other human beings living there, like your small children, you have

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to figure out what you're going to do to make sure that you have the space that you can

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actually enjoy your home you're living in.

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Kind of a similar situation.

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Call your lender.

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Call me day one.

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Hey, I'm just curious, what does it look like?

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And your lender should be able to do, you know, a 15 to 20 minute application.

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Go, hey, we're just going to update this from the last file.

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Any changes in income, any changes in assets, what do we do if we sell that home?

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What do we do if we maybe rent out your current home?

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And then just go over grass tax.

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This is the numbers.

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This is what it looks like.

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At least you're not guessing or you're not operating out of a place of fear where you're

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saying, I don't want to give up my 3% interest rate or my 2% interest rate.

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You're saying, I actually can't afford the payment on a 6% interest rate.

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And that's something that I would much rather have.

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Right.

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And I think people forget the equity piece too.

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Like most of the people that have a 3% interest rate or they have a lot of equity that they

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could potentially put towards a home that's going to fit their needs a little better.

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And they tend to forget that part of the equation and they're focusing on the higher rate environment.

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And there is only so much renovation you can do.

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I live this personally.

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And I think renovation is a great way to kind of circumnavigate some of those uncomfortable

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parts of getting a little bit crowded in a home.

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But yeah, ultimately, if it's not working for you, you need to take some action.

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And I think, like you said, focusing on your equity position, how that's going to work

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in your favor, even given a 6%, 6.5% rate is just going to give you a picture on what

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that monthly payment is going to be.

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And it might be different than you think.

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It might be in a better position than you think.

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Information is power in this circumstance.

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So the more information you have that you can make an educated decision for you and your

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family, the better.

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That's just plain and simple.

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So if you're just guessing, right, if you're just saying, I don't want to pay double an

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interest, OK, but you're going to stay there because the rate climate is not as of current

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predictions were expected to see 6 and 7s for the next year, maybe more.

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Now predictions are dangerous because they change all the time.

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And I think that the overall theme here is sooner, better than later.

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Where can people find you if they want to reach out to get that consultation and find

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out where they are?

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Yeah.

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So I mean, I give out my cell phone to everybody.

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So that's probably the best one to reach me at, which is 9210650.

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You can also find me at GuildMortgage-TrevorBonnett.

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And that's B-O-N-N-E-T-T for the last name.

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Maybe you'll put some fancy banner down here.

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I will put everything.

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I'll put all your contact information in the show notes.

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Perfect.

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Trevor, I want to thank you for all the service you provide to the people of Clark County and

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beyond, and we're going to have to have you back to talk about some other things at some

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point, but I appreciate you.

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And I want to wish you and your family a happy new year.

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I appreciate it.

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Happy new year, happy 2025, and I would love to be back.

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All right.

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Thanks, Trevor.

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Appreciate it.

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Sergey talked about the Jahrhwald