Home Buying Tips and Strategies with Jodie Tanga

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Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE:
Welcome back. And thanks for listening to the team Lally Real Estate show how many guaranteed sold program? Well buy it. I’m Adrienne. And I’m Attilio. If you have any questions, just give us a call at 7999596 or check us out online at Teamlally.com.

ATTILIO:
Well, hey, everybody we have our guest today was born and raised in Hawaii. And wait, am I looking at the wrong one? Here we go. Well, good thing they were both born and raised in Hawaii. Highly experienced a loan officer mortgage banker and broker here in Hawaii. She grew up in Kailua and is a graduate of Iolani she went to the University of San Francisco where she studied financial economics in undergraduate and graduate school.

ADRIENNE:
She also worked in banking on the mainland until coming back home to Hawaii, and started Pacific Rim Mortgage. Please welcome our guest the mortgage genius, Jodie Tanga.

ATTILIO: 
Hello. Hey, Jodie. Hello. So what she got us this week or Adrienne, you had a question?

ADRIENNE:
I just want to say welcome back. I mean, Jodie has been on our show, many, many, many times, offering our listeners, tons of mortgage advice and strategies. And news.

ATTILIO:
I think if we went back and recorded all the clips of all the tips that Jodie has given over the years, we could probably have like a 60 minutes special.

ADRIENNE: 
Of Jodie tips. So

ATTILIO: 
Jodie’s tips of the week? Yes. When we hit when we hit 20 years on the air, we’ll do that.

ADRIENNE: 
But yeah, we’re excited that we get a little bit of extra time with you. Earlier in the show, we were just talking about the kind of market that we’re in strategies that you know, buyers are using, when when negotiating with sellers. So yeah, so this is perfect timing to have you on as our featured guest. Yeah, Jodie,

ATTILIO: 
so what kind of strategies you got for the buyers in today’s market? You’re sitting down with them? What would be your advice today?

JODIE: 
One of the things I mean, that we’re really focusing on, is understanding their budget. A lot of people you know, I mean, the big thing is that they are like, Oh, my gosh, interest rates are high. And it’s all relative. But yes, you know, in comparison to the past 24 months, they are high. And so it’s really a matter what one thing that I have been trying to do with everyone is having them understand their budget, like where is the money going? And where can you cut so that you can afford to buy now. And one of the things that we spend a lot of time talking about is why now versus waiting until interest rates drop. And one of our big one of the things that I think is really important for our everyday buyers are the ability to compete, and we know that it was very difficult to compete during the crazy you know, the past 20 months before this this the rates started to increase. So when rates are super low, everybody wanted to buy because they want to take advantage of the lower interest rates. I get it, it makes sense. But when everybody wants to buy, and when it’s a saturated market with buyers, you just can’t compete.

ATTILIO:
And you end up you know what we found people were paying more. They were because the asking price, the was about 105% of asking

ADRIENNE: 
is what it was sometimes even more, depending on the neighbor average. Now it’s like

ATTILIO: 
90% 95% of asking.

ADRIENNE: 
Yeah. So Jodie, what how do you prepare the buyers just besides the budget? Like what kind of other mindset did they have to be in this market?

ATTILIO: 
Well, just just little bit more on the budget, because the B word everybody hates that word. Nobody wants to do a budget. I don’t like Adrienne, she don’t even know how to spell budget. No, I do. I just like I got checkbooks in my checkbook, we just write one check. But anyway, the budget you’re talking about, and I talked to clients about it, too, is that it’s not a 30 year purchase. We started thinking like that with the interest rate and amortization. It’s 30 days, right? All our bills, you think about it, they all rotate on a 30 day cycle, you get paid every two weeks. I would be able to do once a month, I

ADRIENNE: 
would take it a step further with the interest rate. Yeah. Because, you know, you just you watch the market. And there’s always the option to do a refinance when the rates do drop. At some point. Yes, you gotta wait for it.

ATTILIO: 
But talk about God you started in the beginning, you tickled us with it. Adrian was giggling the budget know the why is now a good time to buy as opposed to waiting for the interest rates to drop. Help us with that one. Oh, yeah. Yeah,

JODIE: 
that one too. Oh, yeah. So when I’m talking? Yeah. When I’m talking to people about how much they have available for downpayment, how much do they have available for closing costs? And then they’re talking about like, well, what can I get for the seller? What can the seller cover? What can you know? How much credit can they do for this, that and the other? And so we’re already talking about asking the seller for help, right. And my point to them is giving them the true real life stories of our buyers that we were working with in 2020, and 2019, and 2021, which is we were saying, how much over what the what an appraiser, a professional appraiser comes in and says okay, this house is worth 610,000. How much over that are you willing to pay? Yes. I mean, that’s, that really is the conversation we were all having. And for some of our buyers, they couldn’t even it’s not even within the realm of possibility to be like, Okay, that’s the right, I’ll put 5% down plus, I’ll put an additional like, three to 4% to cover the difference in the appraisal. And so that’s what I’m trying to explain to them is like, this is a unique time in the market, where you don’t have to compete as much and I want to be real here, and you guys know it because you have a pulse on the market, just as much as I do is that it’s thought just sew up and be like, Yeah, I’ll take that one because there is still competition. So it’s like, I It’s hard because I’m trying to explain to people. Yes, rates are high. But now you don’t have to compete as much. But you still have to compete like don’t think you can or you just get to. And so then they’re like, well, which is it? Like, am I competing? Or is it now a buyers market? And I’m like, Well, no, it’s not a buyers market. And I guess that’s my point is like, I’m trying to give you the best. Let’s talk about what is ideal in this market. Now. You don’t like that the rate of 6% You don’t like that? Okay. And I hear you. But you’re not. You’re

ATTILIO: 
closing? Yeah, it’s eliminating all of the competition.

ADRIENNE: 
And I know that, you know, Jodie and her team come up with different options and strategies based on the budget. And you know, that the fact that at some point, you could do the refinance. But again, I think that’s more for someone who’s a little bit of a more sophisticated buyer. Maybe not necessarily the first time homebuyer that could be

ATTILIO: 
I would say that I forget about that. That’s all down the road. What’s in your what’s immediately in front of you is homeownership.

ADRIENNE: 
Yeah, I’m still starting to build wealth and Jodie Are you anything?

ATTILIO: 
Every year if you were to go 20 years backwards and go call those people? Do you regret buying this piece of real estate? Do you think your anybody’s ever gonna say that was the dumbest thing I ever did? I shouldn’t have done that. All right. We’re gonna do we’re gonna say though, even

ADRIENNE: 
like in the 80s when the interest rates were sky high.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. My parents thought at that time, it was like, I don’t know. I think that interest that was like 15%. Yeah. They bought one house in hola for like $90,000. Today, it’s probably worth a million. Right. So that was crazy. The interest rates today again, we always say date the interest rate marry the home.

JODIE: 
Right? Yeah. And I do for some people it’s not my that’s not my answer to everyone in terms of like, it’s always a good time to buy in general. I do think that there’s a lot of benefits to buying in a market like we’re in now. But if you’re concerned that you might get laid off next month, I don’t think you should buy

ATTILIO:
that’s the estrus. Yes, that’s the little piece of information. Like, are you you’re gonna be super stressed out and super stretching yourself?

ADRIENNE: 
Oh, yeah, there. One is for our, for our active duty people. Yeah. And, you know, I always advise that if they’re going to be here for at least three years, it makes sense. When, when it’s the only have a year left? I mean, that’s kind of a risk? Well, because when they put a renter in there, you’re gonna be in a negative position,

ATTILIO: 
I would ask them to is like, take a look at that negative cash flow, because you’re still gonna have growth? Yes, no, you’re gonna have negative cash flow. Is that doable? It goes back to the budget. Well, and then you ask people like, So Jodie, if you were to buy, you know, let’s say it’s $800,000 worth of Google stock? How much would that cost you? And it’s not a trick question.

JODIE: 
How much would 800 100,000 $800,000

ATTILIO: 
if you buy an $800,000? Home through the VA mortgage program? And, and whatever, what would out of pocket from the veteran or active duty person be to buy $800,000 worth of real estate?

JODIE: 
It would be the closing costs, which is like, well, like

ATTILIO: 
9000 9000, can you buy 9000? Can you buy $800,000 of Google stock for nine grand? I mean, that would be like some crazy. So

ADRIENNE:
you know, so being able to leverage that’s it?

ATTILIO: 
Yes. And they’re getting the BH in the colon. And we get that, you know, every situation is different. We’re making general statements here on the radio show. And the listeners are going, Whoa, that doesn’t apply to me. And then what about this? And what about that? Well, that’s a monologue. Just one way conversation right now. Well,

ADRIENNE: 
what about this? What about that? Yeah, it just gives Jodie and her team a call. And then they will help to kind of dissect their situation. And

JODIE: 
if I look back on before that, it’s very easily like, I don’t it’s, I don’t even want to say it, but easily, like 20 things a month, easily.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, you got to think about it. So if your Amazon driver is so good at delivering stuff that your home that they don’t even get out of the car, because they got the toss, perfectly time to land just softly and right in front of your door. We need an intervention, we need a we need a prime Amazon intervention,

ADRIENNE: 
we’ll do a cleanse, we’ll do a cleanse, an Amazon consumer

JODIE: 
debt. consumer debt is just at an all time high. And I think that it’s just become our culture. And I really am trying to like move my self, my family, my kids, my teammates, our buyers, like anyone, anyone that’s gonna listen, it’s like, it’s like, consumerism, you know, let’s let’s own houses and be able to look back five to seven years from now and be like, This is how much equity I’ve built. And let’s, let’s be smart about our money. Instead of being like, how to just get the next thing.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, so to helping Jeff Bezos with his next mansion. Love your family.

JODIE: 
Right, you’re right.

ADRIENNE: 
So So Jody, as we are approaching towards the end of our show. What other topics do we want to touch on to leave our listeners with just to educate them on one last

ATTILIO: 
nugget for the for the listeners?

JODIE: 
I would just say that understanding the what, you know what your lender I mean, choosing a lender choosing to get pre approved. Doing all of that type of due diligence is so important. And and it’s, it’s, you know, a little bit it’s a big path, right? So it’s not just easy to be like, oh, yeah, well, I’m gonna go educate myself and I’m gonna get pre approved and I’m gonna buy. I know it’s a big thing. And so I would just say that it’s important to make that connection. Again, and you don’t know what you don’t know. So you want to make the connection with a proper team, that’s going to be able to tell you what you don’t know. And not just like a, b, c, d, e, not just like one plus one is two. And this is what you qualify for. But like, let’s talk about long term planning, like, why do you want to buy? Why do you want to own? And then let’s really build a relationship so that we can help you

ADRIENNE: 
and have a good strategy.

ATTILIO: 
I’ll share with everybody there is a 12 step program for consumerism, do you know what the first step is? You when you go on to Amazon, and you put it in your shopping cart, you leave it in the shopping cart for 24 hours. If you still want it, you get it the next day, you think about it, as opposed to being and boom, by the time you hit the button, nothing is on your doorstep.

ADRIENNE:
So, so back to choosing the right team to help you with your mortgage needs. Yeah. Can you quickly touch on this before we wrap up? Before we wrap up the show? What is the difference between a mortgage lender and a mortgage broker? Because I know that’s always kind of confusing and alone. I mean, there’s so many different terminology out there how to consumers different Yeah, yes,

JODIE: 
that’s a great, that’s a great thing to highlight. And we’re a broker. So as the reason I love being a broker is because we work for the buyer, like we are basically employed by the buyer to get the best deal possible at the lowest closing costs. And that’s not even including all the other stuff that we do, right? There’s there’s a lot that we do in terms of stress strategy, in terms of doing everything it takes to get your offer accepted and all that stuff and working closely with your realtor. But a loan officer that works for a bank or a loan officer that works for a mortgage banker, or a manager of a mortgage banker, like any of that stuff, they work for the bank, or they work for the mortgage banker, like that is who employs that. And yes, they work for you too. Um, don’t get me wrong. I mean, there’s a lot of good mortgage bankers out there. But ultimately, they’re only given a set amount of product availability, and a set amount of margins that they can work with them. Whereas a mortgage broker, we have way more flexibility and competitive access to getting you the best deals at not just one little line or you know, our bags that we work for, we have access to all the wholesale mortgage companies and lenders that can that can may or may not work for your personal situation. So AB wholesale lender, I might not be able to take you to, but then I might find a different wholesale lender that I’m like, yes, they’re going to be able to work for you. They’re going to be able to save you money and close your loan so that you can attain homeownership. And then guess what? We’re going to keep in touch with you. So that when interest rates do go down, believe me, we’re going to be calling you to say hey, it’s time but be financed.

ADRIENNE: 
I love that you guys have this, you know, you can go shopping for for the best rate when interest

ATTILIO: 
rates go down. Jodie’s like your girlfriend at the club. She’s like, hey.

JODIE: 
So exactly.

ATTILIO: 
Alrighty. Well, thank you so much for being on the show.

ADRIENNE: 
Let’s give the listeners um, the best way to reach out to Jodie and her team.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, what’s the best number for you guys, Jodie?

JODIE:
The best way is 808-488-5510.

ATTILIO: 
And we always tell our listeners when you call the number first thing you got to do is scream at the top of your lungs. And then you’ll say Team Lally sent me.

ADRIENNE: 
Yes. Well, thank you, Jodie, as always for bringing us some Yeah, excellent knowledge.

ATTILIO:
Yeah. All right. Thanks, Jodie. Thank you.

ADRIENNE:
Can you can also find Jodie and her team on the Experts we Trust tab of Teamlally.com and make it easy for you what number can they call they can call us to at 7999596. We will connect you with Jodie. But she does have some great video on the website. You can hear her firsthand and see her.

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