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Buying your first home can feel overwhelming—but it doesn’t have to be. Open House is the go-to podcast for people who want real answers, practical tips, and a no-pressure look at what it actually takes to buy a home. We talk credit, financing, inspections, offers, and everything in between, all in plain English. If you’re ready to stop renting and start building a future— Open House is officially open.
What's up, everybody? Back with my new podcast, Open House, where we're kind of breaking down all things home buying and selling. Last week, we had a couple good guests on Brandon and Jerome from Cry Light. They broke down kind of a brief overview of everything. And this week I have a local lender on.
Anthony Sharp:Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself?
Ashely McCaleb:Hey, I'm Ashley McCaleb. I'm with LeaderOne Financial. I've been with LeaderOne Financial for about six, seven years now. I've been in the business approximately eighteen years. I've been lending for eleven, but I've been in the banking world for about eighteen.
Ashely McCaleb:So
Anthony Sharp:Really wanted to bring you on because to me, before I became a realtor, this was the biggest I guess the scariest part to me is like, you know, we talked about last week how you kind of just doom scroll Zillow, but really finding out what you can afford,
Ashely McCaleb:Right.
Anthony Sharp:Making your dream a reality. So,
Ashely McCaleb:Well, and when you get into the mortgage aspect of it, you get into an unknown territory. This is not something they teach anywhere. So, so many people just kind of get scared because it's the unknown. I feel like, especially when you're talking about like scrolling through Zillow and everything. A lot of people get scared to even just kind of, you know, bite the bullet and get started anywhere because they don't even know where to get started at.
Ashely McCaleb:So I mean, you know, it's hard to kind of see and know until you know. And that's what I tell people all the time. I'm like, you know, you can sit here and you can scroll and you can look. And then, I mean, I have so many people that come in and they're so scared to even start the process. And then when they started, they're like, what was I worried about?
Anthony Sharp:Right. So in your opinion, what is the start of that process? What should
Ashely McCaleb:be of that process is first getting with a lender. I would say that before, I mean, of course, most of them start in the wrong area a lot of times where they start with a realtor, which I mean, it's good to start with a realtor that's gonna refer you to somebody like me that they know and that they trust and that, you know, is gonna get them in good hands. So it's good to start there. But it's really hard for them to start with a realtor and I hate for anybody to waste your time for sure, when they are not pre approved and they don't know, you know, if they can even be approved.
Anthony Sharp:Because we don't know what what they can, you know, afford, what they're looking for.
Ashely McCaleb:Right. And that's what I hate for them to do is kind of get there and get started and start looking at houses and fall in love with something that they can't even technically afford.
Anthony Sharp:Right.
Ashely McCaleb:So it's best if they get started with a realtor, they get pre approved so they can kind of know exactly where they need to be looking. Because I mean, I might can pre approve someone up to And it's happened. The other day, just for an example, I pre approved someone up to 300,000, but their actual what they're comfortable with paying, they really needed to stay under $200,000. So even though you might can have the buying potential, you don't want to do what we say go house broke where you're paying more for a house than you can actually afford per month.
Anthony Sharp:You're getting preapproved for an amount, you know, may not want to go up to
Ashely McCaleb:that. Right.
Anthony Sharp:Before we kind of get into the nitty gritty of it, what what would you say is an important part of like, if I'm looking for a lender, you know, what makes what makes you a good lender, I guess?
Ashely McCaleb:Well, for me, I feel like what kind of sets me apart is the personality, of course. Like I really make it personal. I really try to divulge into my clients, get to know them very well. Like some of my best friends even now to this day are people that I've done loans for in the past. I actually, like I'm throwing a baby shower in a couple of weeks for a girl I put in a house five years ago here in Columbus.
Ashely McCaleb:So you know, it just I feel like the personality and getting to know my clients and then for them to know that I will go above and beyond to make their dreams happen. I feel like that's what sets me apart. I'm a lender who you can get ahold of, you can talk to, you can communicate. I communicate with everyone throughout the entire process, whether it be the person, the agents. I mean, I keep everybody in the loop of everything.
Ashely McCaleb:So you know, you know where you're at in the process, you know where you stand, you know what's next. And I feel like that just really sets me apart versus some of these online lenders where you can't ever get ahold of them or, you know, they they might do one part of it and then they pass you off to somebody else. And then there's 12 people and you don't know who to reach out to. At any given time throughout the process, even though I do have an assistant and a processor, they're still looking and talking to me.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah. Building relationships and communication sounds like and that's, you know, anything about this whole process really boils down to those two things.
Ashely McCaleb:It's really
Anthony Sharp:good to know. Why is it important that people are transparent with you whenever they
Ashely McCaleb:I laugh about this, but I do tell people that I am one step shy of the FBI. I'm gonna find out. So I mean, whether it be like what we're talking about in the sales meeting earlier, you know, we're diving through bank statements. We're diving through tax returns a lot of times depending on the loan program. But bank statements tell a lot.
Ashely McCaleb:And so we're diving through those because unfortunately, you know, people do hide things. They hide debts, they hide There's people that hide assets. Not really sure why you would hide an asset, but they do. So, you know, there's things that we're gonna find out because we're going through this process and we're deep diving. We're diving through pay stubs.
Ashely McCaleb:We're diving through bank statements. We're diving through four zero one ks statements sometimes, just depending again on the loan process. So when I say that we're one step shy of f, we're going to find it out. So it's better that you talk to me and let's do this upfront rather than it's so much better in the mortgage process to be proactive than reactive.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah. So what can happen if somebody does, you know, not even straight up lies, maybe they just forget something. So why is it important that somebody really goes through everything with a fine tooth comb and gets it to you? Like what can happen as a consequence if something is left out, you know?
Ashely McCaleb:So let's just say, I've had it happen where in the USDA file, and this is just a broad example, where we had a parent who had they were making a payment for or their on their credit was a car loan. And the car loan was actually for their son. Their son was giving them the money to pay that note, but it was just a note that was in their name.
Anthony Sharp:Right.
Ashely McCaleb:So I'm having to hold the debt against them. But for USDA, we have to count every source of income. And so the USDA actually counted that as a source of income. So because we had to count that as a source of income, they were extremely close to going over the USDA household income maximum limit because there is a limit of how much they can make as a family unit, to get a USDA loan. So for that instance, I really needed to count that as income for them.
Ashely McCaleb:And we ended up having to and they were almost at that line. So had they went had it pushed them over that line, then they wouldn't have even qualified for that loan program.
Anthony Sharp:Right.
Ashely McCaleb:So it can ultimately change the outcome of your entire loan process.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah. That's another thing I just thought about. Another reason to really pick a good lender is you have obviously a much greater knowledge of all the different kinds of loans and loan programs that are available to people. Do you have any of those right off the top of your head?
Ashely McCaleb:Yeah. So I and I'll just kind go back to like when I first started. When I first started in this world, I was, with Wells Fargo. And so and it's a hugely known bank. So everybody knows that name.
Ashely McCaleb:Right? But Wells Fargo does a really good job of training their people how to sell products. They don't train them, I will say, and this is just my personal experience. Now, you know, of course, everybody's going to vary. But my personal experience was I kind of got thrown into the deep end of the ocean here where I got handed at first, I only was carrying three branches.
Ashely McCaleb:So I got handed three branches and was told, here you go, you go service them. I literally started and they they were like, okay, so here you go. You start here. You're gonna start on this date. Right?
Ashely McCaleb:You're covering these three branches. Great. They're like, okay, a week into it, I go and I'm sent off to be trained. Well, when I thought I was going to be trained, I assumed it was going to be on product knowledge. It was not.
Ashely McCaleb:I was taught how to sell. Right. And so, which is good. Don't get me wrong. It's an important aspect.
Ashely McCaleb:But for me, a greater aspect of that is knowing product knowledge. And so I have literally had to just deep dive into learning the products on my own. Unfortunately, my manager who was great at the time, nothing against him, he was just covering a lot of area. I wasn't able to get ahold of him every time somebody had a question.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah.
Ashely McCaleb:So I had to learn the products and learn what I could and couldn't do. And and unfortunately, I learned a lot of that the hard way by doing it, you know, because I went from three branches to nine within a year.
Anthony Sharp:Oh, wow.
Ashely McCaleb:So I really had to deep dive into that and learn product knowledge on my own. So I was just basically pushed off the edge of a diving board and said sink or swim. Yeah. And so which again, good and bad. There's a lot of good and bad to that because I did learn a lot along the way and in a lot of wrong ways.
Ashely McCaleb:I had a lot of loans that did not go through because, you know, I didn't know honestly what I was doing at the time. I was just going with it. So, you know, but now I have learned what I can and can't do and product knowledge because I had to.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah. And I feel like that, I mean, sales is going to come as a, you know, as a direct correlation of product knowledge. Feel like like the more you know, the better you can be to sell. Yeah. You can answer any questions.
Anthony Sharp:You know, and that's something else I was going to get into. You said, we had sales meeting earlier for the people who are listening. She come and talk to everybody at CryoLite about what she does and how she can help. And you're talking about being a problem solver. And I thought that was a really good point.
Anthony Sharp:Like, you know, a good lender, feel like is a good problem solver. Agree. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Ashely McCaleb:Yeah. So basically, and there's a lot of lenders around here even. And that's what kind of Brandon was touching on in Michelle's meeting, where we have our guidelines that are the FHA USDA hard guidelines. Here they are. And then you have certain lenders that have certain overlays on top of those guidelines because they're allowed to put whatever overlays that they want onto because they're the ones actually taking the risk.
Ashely McCaleb:Right?
Anthony Sharp:Right.
Ashely McCaleb:So we don't do that, though. We don't have really hardly any overlays on top of our products. Now there are some, of course, like DPAs, down payment assistance programs and things like that, that do have certain overlays that we have to abide by.
Anthony Sharp:Real quick, not to interrupt you. Can I explain what overlay is? What is it?
Ashely McCaleb:So an overlay is where USDA like sets a guideline. Let's say, they set a guideline of a credit score of five eighty one. Right? So this bank might come in and say, well, we don't like taking that big of a risk to do a 581 credit score. So we're going to make our minimum credit score be at a 600.
Ashely McCaleb:More barriers basically to Correct. So that's what's called so basically, they're setting guidelines on top of guidelines. And that's why we call them overlays because it's not the actual guideline of the program. It's their guideline.
Anthony Sharp:Okay.
Ashely McCaleb:So it's called an overlay then. Gotcha. So we actually go by the guidelines of the program. We don't have certain overlays that we put on top of the actual guidelines. But there are certain banks and stuff like that around here who do have certain overlays.
Ashely McCaleb:And I will actually have, certain lenders at banks that if they can't do it, they'll call me. That's actually how I got introduced to one of your real estate agents in your office was she couldn't do the loan. She knew she couldn't do the loan. So she referred it to me and she introduced me to that realtor. And I have that relationship with other lenders in this area where I respect them and they respect me because they're good lenders.
Ashely McCaleb:I'm not gonna say they're not. It's just they might have an overlay that I don't necessarily have so I can get the deal done where they couldn't.
Anthony Sharp:Right. Do you have a recent story? If you don't, that's okay. But just about something that was really difficult to do, but you were, you know, kind of came through in the clutch as being a problem solver.
Ashely McCaleb:Yeah, actually, I just closed a loan that another lender in this area couldn't do because they did have a certain overlay where their overtime calculations. So, for an FHA loan, typically, and I'll just give you a broad example, with overtime calculations, you They were using a worst case scenario. So they were using a two year average, where we can sometimes just depending on, you know, the way it's calculated, we can do a one year average, which might be higher than a two year average. So I was able to get the job done and get that loan closed where she couldn't because of that average. And I literally just closed that loan on the fifteenth.
Anthony Sharp:Gotcha. Something else I want to talk about. We're kind of jumping around, but I'm just thinking of this through the lens of a homebuyer and all the questions I would have for her. So this is basically kind of like, you know, if I was interviewing her and trying to help me with that process. Credit score, like, there anything you want to say about that as far as like what people think they need and what they actually what they actually need some stuff that kind of affect that?
Ashely McCaleb:Yeah. So one thing that's very important, I feel like in credit and just in general is your credit history. A lot of people don't think about it like that. They just look at, oh, my credit score, my credit score. Right?
Ashely McCaleb:But your history is super important because I don't care if you have a 700 credit score. So most of our programs, so like, let's just say FHA, for example. FHA VA conventional, they all run We all have to run every file like that through an automatic underwriting system that we call DU. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. I'm sure you've heard those names.
Anthony Sharp:Right.
Ashely McCaleb:They all have different, guidelines. Right? So we can run one loan through DU, which would go through Fannie Mae. Then we have another one called LP, which runs through Freddie Mac's guidelines. So since we have those guidelines, we can run it either or.
Ashely McCaleb:So DU may not like it for various reasons. The credit history may not be as good. But if you've got certain reserves and things like that, then LP likes that. So you know, we can run it through different programs. But I say that to say this, credit history is super important because I don't care if you do have a 700 credit score.
Ashely McCaleb:If you have a recent late payment, it can override that credit score.
Anthony Sharp:Right.
Ashely McCaleb:So we really do look at history versus credits more than credit score. I would say your credit score is going to determine a couple of key factors. But your credit history is very, very important. So making sure that you especially in the past twelve months that you made all of your payments on time. Really, the last twenty four months are more so important as well.
Ashely McCaleb:But the last twelve months are critical.
Anthony Sharp:Okay. What is something say that a situation where I come to you and I do need to get my credit score up a little bit before we can kind of move forward. Is there what are some things that I would do to kind of achieve that?
Ashely McCaleb:Depending on what you have in your credit profile as well. So again, let's just making sure that all of your payments are made on time. If you have any credit card debt, let's get that down. Utilization rate is very important on credit cards. So not having maxed out credit cards is extremely important for your score and just your overall credit history.
Ashely McCaleb:So of course, making sure your all of your payments are made on time and then paying down on credit card balances if you have them. Not taking out any new debt, especially new loans. I know a lot of people think, oh, I need to get my credit score up. Let me take out a loan. That's really not a great way to go.
Ashely McCaleb:Most credit, lenders who do personal loans and things of that nature, they don't report to the credit bureaus, but every three to six months on average. So I have a lot of people go, okay, well, I'll just go take out a loan, and that'll help build my credit score. And it will in a year.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah. Just maybe not the best way to do it.
Ashely McCaleb:Right. So I would talk to your lender and and a lot of them have ways that they can help you with rebuilding or building credit. And so, you know, whether it be taking out a credit card, paying down on credit card debt, I just wouldn't take it into my own hands though because we do have little, or well some lenders I guess do. I have access to be able to run certain programs and see what to what'll do what we need to do to optimize your credit score. So that is something that we can help with a lot of times.
Anthony Sharp:Right.
Ashely McCaleb:And I'm not saying necessarily just me. Other credit lenders have it out there as well. But, you know, like you may say, oh, let me pay off this credit card and then your credit score drops. And then you have no idea because credit is fickle. It's extremely fickle.
Ashely McCaleb:Where you might not needed to pay it down. Maybe you needed to leave a little bit of a balance on it. Your lender should be able to help you with getting
Anthony Sharp:that kind and paid it off. You thought you're doing something good and then you messed it up.
Ashely McCaleb:And then all of sudden Yeah. Inadvertently, your credit score goes down and it's super frustrating. Because you don't really know what to do. And it is weird sometimes at the outcomes. Like I've had people pay their credit cards down to like an $85 balance.
Ashely McCaleb:I mean, it doesn't make sense sometimes like why that it why it needs to be at $85. But it's all about the utilization rate too.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah.
Ashely McCaleb:So it's really best to talk to your lender first before you do anything like that. Because you could be hurting more than you're helping.
Anthony Sharp:Gotcha. Another thing I was going to ask you about is, so I come to you, we get pre approved, you've dove through all of my finances, found a house I love, we get under contract. What is something I don't need to do during that period?
Ashely McCaleb:Okay. There's a couple of things that you don't need to do. We actually have a little thing that we call the 10 commandments of the mortgage world. It's like, thou shall not do. You don't change jobs.
Ashely McCaleb:Absolutely do not change jobs. You have to maintain income and, you know, change a job sometimes can disqualify you from a loan. And let me just give you an example of that. Let's say we have a truck driver who goes from a w two job to a ten ninety nine job. That can completely disqualify you for a loan for up to two years.
Anthony Sharp:Oh, wow.
Ashely McCaleb:It's a huge It can be a huge deal. So don't change jobs. Don't make any large deposits, especially cash deposits into your account without talking to your lender first.
Anthony Sharp:Write these down if you're listening. One
Ashely McCaleb:big thing, and I know that this this is kind of newer for a lot of people, but taking out these affirms or after pays or whatever, that is a huge It's a huge deal. We're having to explain every single one of those. I had a client recently who I think there was like 30 of them.
Anthony Sharp:Oh, wow.
Ashely McCaleb:And when and here's the thing. When you're taking those into account, I know a lot of them are only like four or five payments. And so that may not seem like it's a big deal. And and, you know, on most programs, if it's 10 payments or less, we don't have to count it into your debt to income ratios unless it's over a certain percentage of your income. So when you're getting 30 of these, all of a sudden, it's a certain percentage of your income.
Ashely McCaleb:So then I'm having to count it as a debt against you. Right. Even though you're like, oh, it's only a couple payments. I only have a couple payments left. Well
Anthony Sharp:Those add up.
Ashely McCaleb:Those add up. So those are a huge deal right now. So and then taking on any new debt that kind of goes along with the Affirm and Afterpay as well as well. You don't don't go out and buy a new vehicle unless you plan on living in it. I mean, and I've had that happen.
Ashely McCaleb:So, and I've literally had to decline a customer when we were a week away from closing because they went out and bought a new vehicle. So don't take on any new debt. Don't make any large deposits. Basically, don't change any aspects like that. Don't open a new bank account.
Ashely McCaleb:Don't change jobs, I said. But anyway, I have a whole spreadsheet. Like I always give it to my clients and we have like little videos on it and stuff like that of things that you should and shouldn't do. But if you have when in doubt, ask. Just communicate with your lender.
Ashely McCaleb:Ask the questions. And I don't care for people asking me anything Because you don't know if you don't ask.
Anthony Sharp:Right. I mean, I felt like it's super easy to do because I mean, buy you think you're going to get a house, you're super excited. Let me go get a bunch of furniture, you know, for that house. Let me let me open up this credit card so that I can go get the furniture.
Ashely McCaleb:Right.
Anthony Sharp:I feel like there's just a lot of stuff.
Ashely McCaleb:And you don't know until you do. So and then you could be messing it up entirely. Right. I've literally had people take out loans and I go, oh, no, pay that back right now.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah.
Ashely McCaleb:Like pay it off and give me the evidence that you paid it off because we can't have that debt against you.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah. We talked about this a little bit. So if you don't have another story, that's fine. But we're just talking about stuff that can mess loans up. Do you have any horror stories that you got to mention names, obviously, but
Ashely McCaleb:Oh, I have horror stories for days. Which one do you want? So let's go to I did have a truck driver. That's why that one was a reference, who was a w two and he changed to a ten ninety nine. He'd been a ten ninety nine for about a month.
Ashely McCaleb:I literally made him change back. I was like, go back to that other job because otherwise, you're done. I had pre approved him and a pre approval just and again, we're jumping around here, but a pre approval is good typically for about four months. So I think he'd been pre approved for about two months at this point. So I didn't know that he had changed jobs.
Ashely McCaleb:Our pre approval was going off of what he had submitted to me previously, which was the w two income. So since he had changed, I told him, I was like, you can either go back to w two or you're gonna have to wait two years. And then, with truck drivers and and not just truck drivers in general, but if you're a self employed borrower, your tax return is everything. So this is one aspect that I tell people all the time. I'm like, go into a good CPA who's gonna get you all the write offs and all that stuff is great, where it limits your tax liability, but you do away with your income.
Anthony Sharp:Can't show anything.
Ashely McCaleb:So you can't show at the end of the day. It looks like you made $5 for the year. Right. I mean, so that's what we have to go off of. So don't don't cut your liabilities down to where you're not making any income.
Ashely McCaleb:So be careful on that. That one's a huge one because I've literally had that make or break a deal before as well. Change of job positions, of course, I've had that happen, horror stories. The main ones are are taking out loans throughout the process. Again, I did have a client who a week before closing went and took out a vehicle loan.
Ashely McCaleb:And here's the thing, they had taken out several loans throughout the process. And we had updated their income. And every time I'm like, okay, don't take out any more loans. Don't take out a like, this is it. You can't take out any more loans.
Ashely McCaleb:We're now maxed out on your income.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah.
Ashely McCaleb:And they went and bought a truck. And so that literally killed the deal for them. So I literally was had to say, I hope you can sleep in it. So I mean, it just it's it's stunk. Mean, because you get through this whole process.
Ashely McCaleb:And then at the end of the day, like, you have to turn them down. Yeah. And I hate that.
Anthony Sharp:Especially after they've, you know, they've done all the work. They've submitted all the documents. They've done the whole process. What is with that, we're not gonna talk about rates or anything. But what about the whole like, buy now, wait for stuff to come down?
Ashely McCaleb:Yeah. And Right. And that's a lot of times that we have realtors saying this and I've encouraged it as well. But you know, you're going to marry the house and date the rate. And what we mean by that basically is interest rates as a general right now are a little bit higher than average.
Ashely McCaleb:Right? So with that being said, house prices have not went down. As we saw this morning in the sales meeting, I think it was 19% is what they're up year end at this From
Anthony Sharp:last January.
Ashely McCaleb:From last January. So you really want to go ahead and get in the house right now that you're going to love because house prices just aren't decreasing. So if you find a house that you love, get in it even though your payment may be a little bit higher because you always have the option later on of refinancing and getting a better payment, you know. So it's better to get into it now and be able to get a lower payment over time versus you're not going to get a lower house price.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah. I'm assuming y'all do refinance as well? We do. What does that look like? So say that exact thing happens.
Anthony Sharp:I find a house I love, but I'm not loving, you know, what I got payment wise right now. Do I just come to you and we talk about that? What does that process look like?
Ashely McCaleb:Yes. So basically, I would say six months to a year end would be a good, you know, at least cooling down timeframe to give you time to get into the house and get a good payment history on Again, here we go back to, you know, credit's important. So you want to maintain your credit. And so over that next year, you don't want to just go, Oh, well, I got in the house. I don't care anymore.
Ashely McCaleb:So maintain your credit, make sure that you're making your payments on time. And then we can always discuss, you know, six months to a year in refinancing and getting you a better payment.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah. And is that like I have to come up with a whole new down payment?
Ashely McCaleb:No. On a refinance, you basically are using your home as collateral, of course. And so on a refinance, you're really out depending on the depending on how much you have value into the house, of course, how much equity you have going into it. You can refinance with as little as zero down. You can finance everything into the loan.
Ashely McCaleb:And it's just going to depend on if it's a great benefit to you or not. I'm one of those lenders where I'm going to look at it and see if it makes financial sense for you. And if it doesn't make financial sense, I'm not going to do the loan. You have some lenders out there that they don't really care. They're going to take your money and they're going to do it whether it's beneficial for you or not.
Ashely McCaleb:I really do care about my clients. And I try to make sure that they know that and that I'm doing the best that I can for them financially. They're going to get once you get a house, you're gonna get bombarded with refinance options. I do. I own my home, of course.
Ashely McCaleb:So I get them probably on a monthly basis. But at the end of the day, you have to look at whether it makes financial sense. And if it's too good to be true, when what they're submitting to you, they're giving you a rate based off of information they don't even have because all of its credit based pricing.
Anthony Sharp:Right.
Ashely McCaleb:They don't they've not pulled your credit. They've not looked at, you know, what your credit history looks like, what your credit score is, anything like that. So they're throwing something at you and it looks too good to be true because it is. Because at the end of the day, there's no way they can give you a hard number when they haven't looked at all the factors.
Anthony Sharp:We talked about this morning in the sales meeting a little bit, a little bit different perspective. But it doesn't do us any good to just, like you said, put them in a house and get the loan closed. Because, I mean, yes, we can sit here and tell you all day long, we're good people, we care about you, and we do. But even from a business perspective, if you want to look at it that way, it doesn't do you any good to just put somebody alone that they hate. And then, know, you're not getting any referrals, they're not happy with you, they're leaving bad reviews.
Anthony Sharp:So like, we really I mean, I can attest to Ashley and myself, like we really do care about you guys. We want to get you in the best situation possible. But like I said, from a business perspective, it doesn't do us any good to to not do that. Right.
Ashely McCaleb:Well, and I tell people all the time, I don't want them to be house poor. I want them to be comfortable. Like, when I try to pre approve someone, I don't just pre approve them based off of the max that they can afford. I try to make sure I'm I always ask them, this is probably my number two question to them is, what are you comfortable with paying monthly? What are you comfortable with your monthly house payment being?
Ashely McCaleb:Because at the end of the day, if you're having to go to work and work to come home and make your house payment, you're not going to be happy. And like you said, it's not a good thing for them. And also, let me just tell you this. With our license, I know with your license, there are certain things that you have to do to renew it every year, right?
Anthony Sharp:Right.
Ashely McCaleb:We're the same way. So I have to take certain, continuing ed classes and things like that. But also, we have a point system. So let's just say I put a client in a house and they missed the first payment. There are certain points that get added to my license when those things happen.
Ashely McCaleb:And over time, if those points build up and we have bad bad loans that we've done, the state can choose not to renew my license. So my license is actually on the line for putting someone in a house as well that they don't need to be in.
Anthony Sharp:Right.
Ashely McCaleb:So there's certain aspects, of course, I'm looking out and I care for my clients. That's actually on the back burner for me. But it's always in my head as well that, you know, my license depends on me writing a good loan. So and making sure that my clients are taken care of and that they're in a house that suits them as well. So I feel like with a realtor to lender relationship, it's very important that we have that general understanding and that you're looking out for clients as well as me.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah. And there's some there's stuff that we can look out for you like that may not always be, you know, I guess, sugarcoating to hear, like you just said, a lot of people are going to look at a lender and say, Oh, they denied me. Well, you know, they might have done it for your own good. Right. Same way with the way with the house.
Anthony Sharp:I don't want to show you the most expensive house, you know, and that's gonna, like you said, make you house poor. I want to show you something you're gonna be happy in. Right. Same way with you. You want put them in a loan that's gonna, you know, set their family up for success.
Ashely McCaleb:But also just a little note on that too in reverse here. I do have a client that, I have preapproved for quite a high amount. He, as far as income wise, he can afford more. But he keeps looking at these lower end houses that really aren't up to standards. So, you know, on a realtor basis as well, you're going to look at aspects too of, is this house even going to pass for this loan product?
Ashely McCaleb:What their guidelines are? Yeah. So, you know, sometimes I know that you guys will show somebody a house and you're like, no, this is never going to pass. Even though they may like it, it's not gonna be the house for them because of other aspects as well.
Anthony Sharp:And the money that they would put into it to make it pass, you could just go get something a little more.
Ashely McCaleb:Right. And why waste the time and the effort, especially since and then let's get into that part, I guess, on the loan products of you can't take out more money on a loan unless you're doing a renovation loan to to make those corrections. And then if you look at a renovation loan, well, USDA, for example, which is the zero down payment product, doesn't allow you to do that. So then you're looking at a totally different loan product and you're looking at a totally different risk asset. So you're looking at higher interest rates always on those, more down and aspects of that that may not suit your borrower.
Anthony Sharp:Right. I have in my notes here why early communication matters. So can you kind of just touch on that?
Ashely McCaleb:Yeah. So like we were talking about earlier with the affirms and after pays and things like that, like communication on that aspect because once we get bank statements, when we once we get to the step of getting bank statements, you know, I don't want to be looking through a bank statement and see a whole bunch of affirms or after pays that I now have to include in your debt to income ratios. And then now you may not qualify for that loan. So communicating with your lender upfront and making sure they're aware of every aspect of that, before they even pre preview is major. Because as a lender and as someone who has done this in the past, you know, getting somebody pre approved and getting them all excited and then they go and they get a contract and then you get to the point of collecting all these documents.
Ashely McCaleb:And then you find things that, you know, you didn't see up front because they weren't disclosed. And then you're having to turn them down. I mean, it just is a huge waste of time and money. I mean, people can have up to 2,000, $3,000 invested in, you know, home inspections, earnest money, appraisals, things of that nature. All these inspections that might occur, septic, termite, that you might have involved and that somebody's going to have to pay for.
Anthony Sharp:Right.
Ashely McCaleb:And then all of a sudden you find something that you have to turn them down for. That's a lot of money, lot of time wasted. And honestly, it can discourage a buyer from wanting to continue with the process even though they might could go back in and qualify for a different house. At this point, they're so discouraged. They don't want to they don't want to do it anymore.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah. They're just fed up with it.
Ashely McCaleb:Right.
Anthony Sharp:Kind of starting to bring it to a close. So what is the best advice for first time homebuyers or just really anybody looking to get pre approved? But just like kind of in a nutshell, what would you say?
Ashely McCaleb:Yeah. My best advice is find a lender who you can get along with personally and who you feel like you can trust, as well as a realtor that's not just looking out to make a killing in this business. You can. Don't get me wrong. There's lenders out there that can make a killing and not to say that they're bad people.
Ashely McCaleb:But especially if you're a first time home buyer, you need somebody that's really going to hold your hand and walk you through this process and that you can trust with every aspect of your life. Because I mean, you know, here's the thing. I tell people this all the time. Life happens. And life has happened to me as well.
Ashely McCaleb:So I have rebuilt my own credit. I have went through a divorce prior that destroyed me. You know? So I've been there. I've done that.
Ashely McCaleb:I'm not a judgy person. And so you want to find a lender that's going to suit you and that's gonna you're going to be able to confide in and talk to, and that's going to hold your hand and walk you through this process. So at the end of the day, my ultimate goal at the end of the day is when closing day comes, you go into that closing knowing what you're signing, knowing what you're getting into and happy as a lark. Like, that should be the happiest day. And often it's not because a lot of times they get to that process and then they they don't know what they're signing, or they don't know what they're getting into, or they're scared still.
Ashely McCaleb:I don't want you to feel that way. So you need to find a lender that is going to make you at the end of the day, feel confident, know what you're getting into, know what you're signing, know what you're doing. So that way when you close, you're happy. You walk away happy, ready to move on.
Anthony Sharp:Right. And I've heard this somewhere before, but it applies to a lot of things. And fear is like just being unprepared. So it sounds like just relationship with the lender, you need to be fully transparent, you know, with everything you got, and then they'll kind of take care of you on the back end.
Ashely McCaleb:And finding a also, as a mortgage lender, finding a realtor who mirrors that is so important. CryoLife is amazing. They really are. Brandon and Jerome really do train you guys exceptionally well. And I, you know, I just brought that up because you work for them and and I've seen it firsthand.
Ashely McCaleb:I've been working with them for almost a decade. And so I've seen them firsthand pour into their realtors and giving them the knowledge that they need. And so I feel like that is very, very important as well. So having you guys know a lot about lending as well, and that's what I try to do. I try to train any realtors that, you know, I work with, you know, any questions y'all have too.
Ashely McCaleb:I try to be open and honest and answer because the better trained y'all are on that aspect, you're giving your clients that as well.
Anthony Sharp:It also makes your job a lot easier if we kinda know what we're doing.
Ashely McCaleb:Right. And then also too, it makes my job easier at the end of the day because you know upfront what's going on. And so I feel like, you know, having a realtor that's also as knowledgeable as well. Or even if it's a newer realtor, if they're willing to find out and ask, you know, so that's extremely important
Anthony Sharp:as I'm sure you would rather us ask questions than
Ashely McCaleb:I'd rather you ask questions all day than tell somebody something and be wrong.
Anthony Sharp:Right.
Ashely McCaleb:So I mean, I tell every realtor I work with, I'm an open book. Let's talk.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah.
Ashely McCaleb:And let's communicate. And that communication is extremely important.
Anthony Sharp:And that was actually kind of the last thing I had on here is just the realtor lender relationship working as a team. Back to our sales meeting today, Brandon talked about, you know, anytime he refers somebody to Ashley, he goes ahead and cc's them all in on the same message. She has an app apparently that's really good. Yeah, I didn't know about that. If you want to talk about that for just a second.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah.
Ashely McCaleb:So on our app, we actually have a calculator on there that you can go into and you can actually like run your own payment. It's very easy. It's very user friendly. And you know, as Brandon was saying earlier, of course, I don't know other lenders apps. I've never, you know, used a ton of those.
Ashely McCaleb:But ours is within $5 is what we came on the last one of his payment. It was $5 higher than it actually ended up being. So and I love to overestimate rather than under. So I'm good with that entirely. And I think the one he ran the other day just, you know, rough basing it was like $20 off of what I ran.
Ashely McCaleb:So if you're within that, you know, then it's always good rather than being 50, 100, whatever dollars off. So our app is really good about that. Our app is really good about, you know, showing you where you're at throughout the process. With our buyers, they can upload all of their documents on our app. They can sign all of their disclosures on our app.
Ashely McCaleb:They can kind of see anything and everything right there. So it's all right in one area for them.
Anthony Sharp:Right.
Ashely McCaleb:And so I think that's very important that you can see what you've done, check off, you know, what you have, what you've got left, you know, anything that I need, I can update it on there and then they can sign it or, you know, upload for me. You can take pictures. And so I think it's really it's a really good app to use to kind of keep everyone informed.
Anthony Sharp:Yeah, that sounds awesome. I actually didn't even know about that. So kind of bring it to a close, guys, if you're thinking about buying in the next year or so, Really just you need to start that conversation earlier, early, get with the lender, be transparent with them. And I think they'll take care of you. If you want to remind everybody who you are, where to find you real quick.
Ashely McCaleb:Yeah. Ashley McCaleb. I'm with LeaderOne Financial. Our office is based out of Winfield, Alabama, but I cover all of Alabama and Mississippi. So I have a Facebook, we have a website.
Ashely McCaleb:But my phone number is (205) 544-5555. Easy enough.
Anthony Sharp:Awesome. Thank you so much.
Ashely McCaleb:Thank you.