Helping First-Time Buyers Own a Home with Reina Miyamoto

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Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE:
Welcome back. And thanks for listening to the Team Lally real estate show home of the guaranteed sold program we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne. I’m Attilio. And if you have any questions just give us a call at 7999596 or check us out online at Team lally.com.

ATTILIO:
Our guest today was born here not flown here. She grew up here in Honolulu. After graduating from college she discovered her passion for mission driven work and has dedicated most of her career to the nonprofit sector. For

ADRIENNE:
the past 18 years she’s been with Hawaii HomeOwnership Center demonstrating unwavering commitment and passion for their work. And program expansion. Please welcome back she’s I think she’s been the most attended radio guest out of any of our guests. Yeah,

ATTILIO:
she actually qualifies for a free 32 ounce of Big Gulp at 711. That would

ADRIENNE:
be the Executive Director of HHOC, Reina Miyamoto.

ATTILIO:
Hello, Reina.

REINA:
Hello, thanks for the invite, and I’ll definitely take that big goal.

ADRIENNE:
And then, and then Reina. Just so you know, my mom is visiting. And she’s here in the studio. And she’s been licensed since 1983. So she may have some questions for you as well with this Homeownership Center and all the resources that is offered. Yeah, if you hear another female voice Yeah.

REINA:
Same here. Yeah.

ATTILIO:
All right. So let’s I know you will have different things that you will talk about what were some time we’ll get that stuff in but right off the bat because I will tell you like. I will tell you right now that if we were to go on to social media, and post, like if we did a posting like owning a home in Hawaii is possible and affordable. The haters would be coming out of the woodworks and blowing us up saying that that’s not true. It’s not possible. Yadda yadda bah bah bah.

ADRIENNE: 29:56
Yeah, there’s a lot of negative negative negativity. Yeah. out owning a home here in Hawaii.

ATTILIO:
So let’s blow up that myth that you that you don’t have to all graduate and move to Vegas can tell us about the myth of owning a home on Oahu. Reina, is it possible?

REINA:
It is possible. You know, we see folks that are not necessarily high income earners that are becoming homeowners. Here in Hawaii, a lot of them are starting off with condos to kind of starter homes and they’re working. And you know, really the key to that is getting financially ready and having just that commitment to that goal of becoming a homeowner because it does often take some perseverance, while working with your realtor to find that home too fast as possible. Well,

ATTILIO:
you know, if Confucius was the realtor, he would say, what is the journey here? What are the first steps in this journey to homeownership? If Confucius was a realtor, that’s what he would say. Awesome.

REINA:
Well, I hope you that Confucius would also self answer that question that’s being educated. Getting educated is step one. So just understanding the buying process getting what is mortgage ready, are there resources available out there? And of course, I’m a little biased, but I think white Homeownership Center should be step one to getting all of that support. Yeah,

ATTILIO:
I think Go ahead, Adrienne.

ADRIENNE:
And then you know, with the Hawaii Homeownership Center, is it expensive to join? Or how did they get these classes and access? Yes,

ATTILIO:
Reina I’m gonna guess that it would be cheaper to get educated on homeownership, then then then taking a small family to the movies and getting refillable pop popcorn, I think it would be cheaper to get sign up for one of your courses, how much? You’re right,

REINA:
it’s actually $60 per buying unit. So if I’m buying by myself, I’m buying unit have one but even if I had four brothers and sisters that were all buying together, we’d still be a buying unit. And it’s $60 6 Zero for per buying unit and for a lifetime membership of services. So they can take as many classes one on one coaching with our staff as they want and through our referral from 100 Little Board of Realtors member like the two of you. Yes, yes, somebody can get $50 off that $60 membership fee.

ADRIENNE:
Well, it’s so $10 $10 Wow. That’s how

ATTILIO:
much they charge for napkins at the theater is $10 You know, it’s 120 for the refillable popcorn. So this is a lot cheaper, you know why? You’d probably be better off skip couple movies and get educated on homeownership so,

ADRIENNE:
so Reina, once they get signed up, and they start the, you know, the journey and the process Yeah, typically how long are people going through these classes and education before the are ready to you know, to purchase

REINA:
each person’s individual situation varies. So I mean, we have some people that just need the education, you have a coaching session, and they realize, Oh my gosh, I can do it now. I’ve we find folks that are like, Oh, you need to pay down some of my debt, I get in a better financial position, I could actually borrow more for the house versus carrying debt for something else. So they might take a little bit longer but I would say the majority of our folks be 18 of the first couple years if they’re you know if the their focus on homeownership is number one you know, unless happens sometimes that but yeah, most folks are willing or later,

ATTILIO:
I want to be a big shout out to the whole construction industry. If you guys aren’t already doing this, the labor unions all of them you guys should be like I make it mandatory you can be part of our union are part of our company. We pay for give you the time. And you know, we have all these young people building these homes that they’re not buying. So I would start out with the construction industry and you homeowner and you business owners, general contractors, all of you should be like mobbing the white Homeownership Center with your staff.

ADRIENNE:
You know who else should be doing that? Yeah. Realtors. Yes, there’s, there’s a couple of them that I’ve been talking to for quite some time. Like

ATTILIO:
the actual Realtors like, hey, not our owners. Yeah, that’d be like I work at the Toyota factory. But I show up to work in one form. No Realtor you need you should start with you. That’s right. So should be a homeowner

ADRIENNE:
start with you headed or the Hawaii Homeownership Center. I’m sure there’s some things that they can teach you. Yeah, I know that one of our team members, Kelii Lum went through the program. He did. And he, you know, he’s very, he loves information and he loves growing and then once you know, he went through the classes, boom, he purchased his first home. Yeah. And he felt very comfortable doing that. Before he was a little nervous. Going through it for himself. Right

ATTILIO:
now. Let’s talk about the big one. The big one. Well, the big one is all I can ever afford a home and it’s you know, they get educated and find out that’s not true. Let’s talk about down payments. What is the big huge myth that most of the biggest myth that people have towards downpayment for buying a home,

REINA:
I think there’s so people out there that think they need 20% down payment to purchase a home and they don’t actually know. How much do they really need for downpayment and as you know, closing costs is another cash investment that they need to be prepared for as well too when buying a home. And

ATTILIO:
how, how little can someone be putting down? Not zero, but just above zero? What what would what would they be looking at percentage wise? Like

ADRIENNE:
they don’t have a VA loan? Yeah, yeah, right,

REINA:
or USDA? Then minimum 3% down payment. So that’s still a lot of money, especially in our market. But yes, 3% is definitely better than 20. Well, let’s

ATTILIO:
do the math. Because people are like, Oh, I cannot do math, but I can lay on one home, I’ll do the math for you. You find one. You cannot everybody here can buy one $500,000 condo with all of your family. That’s crazy came price too. But what is it? Is it the math 15,000. And all you got to do is chunk it down, chunk it down and spent, you know, divide two years into 15,000. And put the money do it do it three years be better often than not doing

ADRIENNE:
it. So go through that education with Hawaii, Homeownership Center while you’re doing the classes, make sure that you’re you’re you’re you’re saving every month. And by the time you’re done with the classes and learning you’ll be ready to go with your down payment. Yeah. So So right now, I’m just curious, who’s the Who’s the youngest person that’s gone through your training there at the Hawaii Homeownership Center that’s actually been able to purchase?

REINA:
Gosh, you know, I don’t actually track that one by one. But I do know, in terms of my own personal experience, I think they’re in their early 20s. There might be like, 22,23 it was a couple. Yeah. Yeah. And they they’re both working. One of them was in construction at the time. And they had a child already. And they were saying we need to buy a home for our family. And yeah, through some perseverance and coaching they, they made it happen. Yeah, that’s

ADRIENNE:
pretty amazing. So 22,23 years old, young family, they went through the education and they were able to successfully purchase a home and stay here in Hawaii didn’t have to move away. Well, to stay right here.

ATTILIO:
The number one barrier to homeownership for these local kids nowadays is the lifted truck with a bumper sticker that says ma we built on it. And I’m describing that and that’s not everybody, but here’s the deal, folks. Stop getting the 678 $100 car payments

ADRIENNE:
and with the gas that it takes to to Yeah,

ATTILIO:
he’s it’s like 6070 $80 to fill up the tank kit,

ADRIENNE:
like a Prius or something. Yeah. That money towards your house, you

ATTILIO:
can be on top smoking and drive one Prius because you’re gonna be like, Man, I’m the man or woman because we own a home. That’s right. I rather drive a Prius and own a home, then when lifted, totally milked out truck and be sleeping on my mom’s couch. Okay, so just as for you local kids, this is tough uncle giving you the advice. If you don’t own a home in Hawaii, you choosing not to. I’m just giving it keeping it real and authentic. And you don’t know what you don’t know, Confucius said that. And I don’t know if he did say it, but just say Confucius said it and it lends immediate credibility to whatever you just said. But I will tell you this. We’ve worked with Rena and the white homeownership for many, many years, well over a decade, well over a decade. And it’s important to support organizations like this. Reina Oh, can we support your organization?

REINA:
Well, thank you for asking. You guys are already already doing it. But I’m hoping that we’ll gain more friends through this radio show as well, too. So we do have a golf tournament that’s coming up in August, we do have some teams that are still available. So find that that’s a financial support to our organization. We have lots of space for encore sponsors that might want to meet our golfers or something on the course, T sponsors like what you guys do to opportunities for prize donations as well. We have a few other fundraisers that are after our golf tournament as well. And you know, folks are just interested in making our services available to their employees or friends and family. You know, I welcome a call from anyone to help us get more connected into the community.

ATTILIO:
You know, here’s a shout out to the business owners. Adrienne. Yes, when you have a company and you have staff Reina maybe even know this from from all your research and data. We know this as a fact that when you have a big company with employees, that the employees that own homes, retention is higher. Not their renters are bad people but

ADRIENNE:
there’s more stability in homeownership

ATTILIO:
and renters can be just as stable but the statistics prove that when they’re

ADRIENNE:
renting, no, and they have to keep moving that can be very disruptive variable. Yeah, that’s very disruptive and stressful for their home environment. Yeah. Now like you know, they could be in a really good rental where they don’t have to move for 10 years, but that doesn’t always happen. Yeah. So it’s just, it’s better for them to be homeowners.

ATTILIO:
So Reina, would you like, would you could you guys do you guys do a roadshow, where you can go into a big company? And if they got 50 employees, you guys come over there and do a presentation or or you haven’t come to you guys, how does that work?

REINA:
You know, I find that a lot of employers that are already you know, engaging with us for that kind of service. They’re doing like lunch and learns, virtually so especially if they have employees on different islands, then that allows it, you know, they can zoom in, zoom out, eat their lunch at the same time. So but we can accommodate and in person one, preferably for a larger group, because you know, when it’s a free presentation, show up is not as much as when you pay for something, but um, we’re willing to work with folks because we do think that even making the information a soundbite at a staff meeting, we’re open to that too. Sometimes you’ve gone to like virtual meetings so we just pop in, make an announcement and the follow up session out there.

ATTILIO:
Yep. Okay, employees isn’t going to tell you what you’re going to do. This is required. No, it’s not required. I’m just telling you it is. You’re going to provide food because all employees show up for free food. And they’re going to you’re going to feed you as the employer is going to feed the tummy but Raina is gonna come in and feed the mind. And you’re gonna have minimum minimum if you do make it a meet. I will tell you this make it a meeting that you may bring Reina in the white homeownership to meetings you guys are already have and bring value because we do the same thing. Your staff is tired of hearing your voices but you bring a stranger in and they’re like oh that totally makes sense. We should own a home. bring rain and to do that feed your people feed their minds, help with employee retention, you’ll be you’ll be be stepping it up as awesome culture for people to want

ADRIENNE:
to make sure that you’re sponsoring one of those duties or in some capacity the golf tournament coming up in August

ATTILIO:
oh and then ran out here’s a big shout out for for businesses to get involved with you guys. Do you know about the wasn’t even that you? What’s you shoe the shoe the shoe that that you buy it and then they give the if you buy one of the times yeah TOMS Shoes. That is funny because those shoes Mimi mi TOMS Shoes the TOMS shoes look just like the shoes people who were in prison and high fashion models where they were very similar. Always joking like that, because they don’t really get the shape shoelaces with the ones in the prison because they don’t want you hanging yourself and I guess high fashion and we don’t want them hanging themselves either. But Reina when you buy the shoe, they give a shoe away. And because the product or service is tied to giving back to the community that when individuals see competition or something that’s similar 98% of the time they go with a company that’s giving back to the community. So if you guys support Hawaii home ownership and talk about it on your website and and and everything. When consumers are looking to spend money with your organization, and they see you’re giving back in the community and they don’t can’t tell the difference between you and their competitor 90% of the time they’re going to pick you that would be the what’s in it for me. Therefore I benefit marketing for benefit marketing is what we call it. Reina what what’s the website that they can go to where they can send you guys a big fat check to?

REINA:
So our website that also has our mailing address on it is h i home ownership.org o RG.

ADRIENNE:
Okay. So Reina, I know this is another service that you guys do offer. And you know, I just had referred a client over to you that is distressed behind on mortgage payments, trying to do her second loan modification. Yeah, let’s just briefly touch on that. Because I know that is, you know, something that you guys offer assistance with that maybe people just don’t, don’t realize that. So have some extra extra resources.

REINA:
We do offer that service at no charge. So on our website, you can request an appointment, it’s a short form, to have a conversation with one of our staff. And so if somebody does need help with putting together that little modification package to submit, we are available to help out with that. A lot of times folks just want to kind of talk through the situation and you know, what are some of their options if there are there any resources available to help them? We create an action plan at the end of the session to be able to just help them get to where they need to go. So we do that for homeowners but it’s also available for renters that are also having a hard time making their rent payments as well. Oh, that’s suitable housing is important

ADRIENNE:
to know that’s it. I didn’t realize that you were there to help renters and we’ll make sure that Duke Kimhan of Hawaii Pacific Property Management is made aware of that well, sometimes the renters they have You know, I watch a lot

ATTILIO:
of realtors listen to the show. So if you’re doing property management, hey, hello. And your renters are having challenges come over come from contribution and direct them to the resource for Reina at Hawaii, you know, not rain, specifically but her team. And you can just help renters you can help homeowners facing foreclosure or in a distressed situation. And you can help people get into homeownership, because I think, tell us you always have good stories tell us a story that’s going to make us cry.

REINA:
And give us chicken skin. Maybe chicken skin, just thought of like a family that purchased in the last year or so. So I mean, interest rates are already on the rise by that time, but I’m finally a five. So two working parents, you know, the dental assistant and the dad was a cook with three children. And they’re essentially living in one bedroom buy all together with the king, everyone to save money. And they’re, you know, they had the envelope system to put some money away, make sure that they’re managing their expenses, and still being able to have emergency savings as well as the house in mind in the future. And so it was really challenging. They use as many first time homebuyer programs as they could get their hands on. And so I think they had, in addition to a first mortgage they had they use our nonprofit affiliate that did a below market second mortgage at a different closing cost loan, they did a mortgage credit certificate. And so when I saw that picture of them in their living room with Christmas tree back, I just kind of imagine what it was like for them in terms of going from one bedroom with all five of them together for I don’t know how long it was like to actually have some space for the kids and have a have room to celebrate on their own and have some family memories. And these are the people that we’re working for. These are working people that we see every day and we don’t necessarily think about what is their their home situation like what is their housing situation like but we would like them to have a stable place. So kind of like Adriana saying that they can stay here in Hawaii, they don’t feel like they have to move away.

ATTILIO:
Think about the pebble that’s dropped in the in the pond that’s called our community. When you have people that are stable in their housing, they can spread out. There’s less domestic issues. There’s less stressed out people less people cutting you off in traffic getting all upset pissed off, because they can come home. They can, you know, relax, enjoy, and then go back out there and be good citizens in our community. So it’s a it’s a ripple effect that affects our entire community by helping people with homeownership. So you realtors out there driving you bougie cars, you better be writing some checks for those T sponsorships. Come on help out. Adrienne, what else? You have a question for Reina?

ADRIENNE:
Um, well, not really just you know, Reina, if you can, you know, give our listeners one, one last word of wisdom on or two or two on how they can, you know, make a difference with the Hawaii HomeOwnership Center. Yes, let’s, let’s end on that. Okay. So

REINA:
besides, you know, being a supporter or a friend raiser where you’re bringing in folks who could use our support, I think that I think having hope for homeownership and sending that message is really important to that. I’m not saying that we’re not in a tough policy market. We absolutely are, it is challenging, yet we’re seeing people being able to do it. And we want folks who are interested in homeownership to at least get educated about it, find out what resources are available, because it may be possible sooner than later. Yeah. I

ATTILIO:
would agree with you. 100%, Reina. There’s, you know, there’s the reality of our situation. But what’s what, and we don’t necessarily have any control over interest rates, housing, inventory, any of that, but you do have control over your perception and your perception is going to be affected by the knowledge that you have in your brain

ADRIENNE:
and your mindset around it.

ATTILIO:
Then your mindset. So get educated go down to Hawaii Homeownership mythbusters.org. I’m making up a domain name for you guys and get educated and

ADRIENNE: 
then Reina they can do it in person or on the Zoom. Right? Yeah.

REINA: 
The live classes are actually by zoom. So that’s their live instructors. We find that folks, the orc Montcalm like a drive down here. But we do also have a self paced education option. So use that option that’s available to them as well. And we

ATTILIO: 
know they all can’t do it because they’re all spending time on Tiktok and Instagram and all that Baloney, which is not improving their lives in my opinion. Why not? You know what you guys can you guys just can you chunk it down into 32nd TikTok videos, then everybody would watch it.

REINA: 
Not a bad idea.

ATTILIO: 
There you go. You don’t want if they people won’t come to you go to where the people are at tiktok videos.

ADRIENNE: 
Well, thank you. Thank you Reina for coming on and reminding our listeners about what a great resource that you guys is having a community and that they need to come out and get educated if they’re not a homeowner yet. All right, yeah. And

ATTILIO: 
we’re gonna have you back on maybe just a quick talk about the golf tournament, how you can whack this tiny ball but make a big change in our community by helping this nonprofit organization get people owning homes in our community and making everything better on Oahu. Alright, thank you so much, Reina.

ADRIENNE: 
Thank you, Reina. Thank you. 

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