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Leaha Crawford and Rhonda Nolen are business consultants that discuss the current struggles of small business owners and entrepreneurs. Each episode covers steps necessary for smaller businesses and business owners to grow and prosper.
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you're listening to locally produced programming created in KUNV Studios on public radio KUNV 91.5
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the following is a paid program sponsored by Crawford Management Group and Smart Time Consultants. Please be advised that the voices and opinions you may hear do not necessarily represent the views of KUNV Las Vegas, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of system of higher education.
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Hi my name is Leah Crawford and I'm Rhonda Nolan and you're listening to the Let's Talk with Leah and Rhonda show. For all the beautiful entrepreneurs out there, this is for you.
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Good morning Las Vegas.
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Hi Leah, how you doing on this beautiful Saturday morning? Hey, you want to know what? It's an amazing day. It's a lot of stuff going on in and around the Valley today. Uh-huh. I do want to bring up something. 2023 Promise Startup Conference is going on today from 10 a.m. To 12 p.m. And they're talking about the Historic Westside. Okay. The Food Sustainability Task Force. Talking about community owned grocery stores, workforce development, bioproductive vertical farms. At Nevada Partners today. So, if you are up and about and you're listening to us, go stop by, go see them. What time does it start? It starts at 10 o'clock from 10 until noon today at Nevada Partners. Hey, you want to, we need, we need, we need community owned grocery store. I don't know if we have one in the Valley. I'm not sure if we have one. A community owned one. Not a small business one. Not a family owned one. But a community owned grocery store. That's cool. And also today, if you have time to go by,
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let's see, the Democrat for the People are having their first engagement today. And they have a training from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then they have a town hall meeting from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Springs Preserves and so they're going to be talking about a lot of things that are happening. They're going to inform, inspire, and ignite to
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get people excited about the election that's getting ready to come up. You want to know what and we're gonna have a lot of fun talking about this election. Oh I can't wait. This one be fun. Entrepreneurs register to vote. That's right. If you move during the pandemic, change your address. That's right. You know, so we we really need everybody. We're just not everybody. We need to vote because this is a presidential coming up. That's right. We have some major races major going on around town. And understand politics is local. That's right. Politics is local. So we pull it up, find out who your state assembly person is, your state senator, your congresswoman, your senator. I mean you just need to know who these people are and are your interests being represented in whatever office that they're serving in. School district, important position, all those positions, those are important positions. Don't just vote for the top. Let's go down that ballot. Right. Let's go down that ballot. Get to know the people on the school board.
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Get to know their background. Get to know what they believe, what they stand for because they're voting on your behalf for your children. For your children.
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For your children.
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Okay, well that's good to know that that's going on. Maybe we'll, you know what, we need to start stopping by some of these things together. Oh, we will be popping in because it's still early in the morning so we got time to make little popcorn calls and stop by and see what's happening in the neighborhood. We can do that and yeah yeah we're gonna do that today but today this is somebody that is near and dear to me. I have known this woman probably the whole time I've been in Vegas. Almost. Almost the whole time I've been I've been here for 19 years. I want to say I've known her for at least 17 of the 19 years. Wow. That I've been here. Okay. And I met her she was a banker. Okay. At the time. Mm-hmm. She was working at a bank on Sahara The banks no longer there. Okay, and we met we hit it off right away Started spending time together. She spent time with my daughter. Mmm, actually she was she would come by and get her and We're going roller skating. We're doing this No, this is not this is pre-Nasir. So, Cassandra, welcome to the show. It is a pleasure to have you here.
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Thank you, thank you so very much.
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I'm so very honored to have received this invite.
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Yeah, yeah.
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So, Cassandra, Cassandra is doing, banking background, but you're doing mortgages now, right?
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Yes, yes I am.
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Okay, so let's talk about that. Mortgages. I want to buy a house. What do I need to do? Well, first and foremost, you know, most people, they see the homes and then they think about the mortgage. And actually that process should be flipped. If the mortgage comes before the house, really the first place, the first stop would be with myself or another lending professional. Let's have a conversation about what your needs are, what you're looking for, and then walk through the process of getting pre-qualified, meaning providing your income documentation and asset documentation and being able to check your credit report so that we can do a thorough evaluation for what you would like to purchase. And then let's talk about that because I know it's very intimidating because this is probably the biggest purchase. And shout out to Monique because Monique was on it. I'm sure she was on before us talking about, you know, just the home buying process. But now I want to just dig deeper into the mortgage process. So I come to you and what if I don't have the credit score? Do you turn me away? I mean, or do you work with me?
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What do you do?
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Or what credit score do you need to qualify for a home?
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That's a better question.
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I'm sorry.
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You know, actually, depending upon the situation, many programs, including like a VA loan for a veteran, they have no credit score requirement. Now the bank may have a credit score or the lending institution may have a credit score requirement, but the VA itself who is insuring the loan and guaranteeing the loan does not have a credit score requirement. That's fantastic. many of our veterans, unfortunately I know so many of them are homeless or uninformed about their full benefit capacity. It's always great to have a conversation with a lending or mortgage professional to really understand what are their options. Because so many of them
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that are homeless, they don't have to be homeless. Right. So if you're an entrepreneur and you are a veteran and your business is running well, if you don't have a loan backed by the VA, you should for your home.
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Absolutely.
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Wow. Absolutely.
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Save yourself some money so you can invest that money into your business. That's fantastic. So we have Ms. Cassandra Smith here from Simply Vegas Real Estate. And let me tell you guys her web page is beautiful my next home is on her web page let me I can only you want to know what I didn't turn and turn around so I can see because I I can only imagine yeah that's her she used to do newsletters and stuff like that yeah my home's right here your house right there me a veteran for a hundred so I can get the hook up on the mortgage. Who's single out there? You want to know what? You're not supposed to tell. Okay. Anywho, Rhonda, I know you're just, right, okay, I hear you. I hear you, but you're serious though. Serious as hell. I'm curious, but you're serious. But saying all that to say, so if I'm not a veteran, I come to you, and I know a lot of times, credit is a challenge for people. Credit and what are the things should I try to fix my credit before I come to you or should I come to you as I am and then you can help me through this process. You know, most people you really you just have to come as you are and have with most of us lending professionals, we can tell you what you need. If you're not ready, we can tell you what you need to do. But in so many cases, people are just, oh, I can't and I don't and this and my bank credit report says this or credit score on my bank account says this or some of these other national information sources say one score or another. And there's so many people that actually can qualify. Right now, we mentioned my real estate background, but I'm with Premier Mortgage Resources. We have a mortgage down payment assistance program where all you need is a 600. Wow. So not only do you not have to have a 680, but you only need a 600 credit score to be able to qualify for the program and get down payment assistance. You have to be a first time homebuyer.
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First, you cannot own.
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OK, you know, because I'll be racing.
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I don't know. Let me let me let me run.
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I hear you say, let me run you my stuff.
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I got all that.
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And so, you know, for entrepreneurs, they may think like, okay, well, I all my money is tied up in my business, right? We have your funds for you. We have your assistance for you. That's just the kind of bring together my lending, my commercial lending background in banking and my mortgage lending background. Currently, as a business owner, one of the greatest investments is a home because you get to use that equity that naturally comes through that happens in our society. You can use that to invest further in your business, to expand in your business. If you're looking for an SBA loan or something like that, a lot of the SBA programs will want to do a deed on your home. So if you don't own a home, you may not get qualified, but just because you own a home, that may increase your opportunity to get qualified for an SBA loan.
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That's interesting.
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That's good to know. That's good to know. So contact information. I have a cell phone number.
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Cassandra can be contacted at 702-472-8000. Again that's 702-472-8000. Or her alternate number is 702-685-3000. That's 702-685-3000.
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Got it, got it.
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How do you like doing mortgages? I love it. You love it? I love it because I get to do when I was a mortgage or excuse me a commercial loan officer I got to help businesses grow and build and help those business owners
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improve their wealth and as a mortgage loan officer for residential mortgages, I get to help individuals, families, grow their wealth opportunities.
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I love it. I love it. So when you're doing this, so again, come as you are, and let's see exactly what it is. And if there's a program out there for you that has down payment assistance, and that way, home ownership is a reality. It is. It is a reality. All right. Are there any tips like, okay, so what are the things that I can do? So I come to you, what do I need to have? What do I need to bring?
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So when you are completing a mortgage loan application, there's some, excuse me, a very, some critical items that we will need, including your identification, two most recent pay stubs if you're paid bimonthly, so we need 30 days of pay stubs, two most recent bank statements, and your two most recent years of W-2s.
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Oh, not even a tax return, just the W-2s? W-2s. W-2s.
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So if I'm an entrepreneur, then what do I bring to you?
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Entrepreneur, we will need the two most recent years of tax returns as opposed to the W-2s. Oh, just that simple. Just need documents. Yes. Just need documents. So what do you see as the biggest challenge that people have when they come to you? Like what's kind of consistent across the board? amongst the social media sphere, providing some information that may not be as accurate as they're projecting it. So when it comes to the credit score, I mean, it really isn't that hard. But, you know, it really is. It's like we need to understand that and then allow us as the professionals to help guide you to get it to the level if we need to, if we need to increase it allow us to help guide you to get it there that the combat of well this influencer said or this person said on YouTube on you know whatever the social media challenge right you know it's just it becomes like almost you know offensive like you came to me as a professional please allow me to help you. Please allow me and what I love about your mannerisms is that you go on and above to service your clients and to make sure that number one you understand because what I can say going through the home buying process you get a whole different level of understanding for the process. A different level I mean you you you start start to understand what which what impacts your score. Yes. The things that you can do and how to maintain it after you get it. Absolutely. How to maintain it and just the things you can I mean and the discipline sometimes just to be able to go through the process because you can't wake up today and talk about my house on Monday. It doesn't happen unless you just got the money in the bank. I mean, you just got the money in the bank. It's a process. It is a process. And walking people, you know, sometimes a lot of people want to just tell, oh, go do that. But sometimes, you know, especially first-time homebuyers situation, you have to walk over to that person, take them by the hand, and we're going to walk through this together. And that's okay. Like, you can make them feel comfortable because sometimes just directing someone to do something, their feet are still afraid to move. And if you just take them by the hand, you know, we're gonna walk through this together and we're gonna get there, it makes a world of difference. And then you have this happy homeowner who, you know, their family tree has changed. You know, they're excited, they're grateful. Yes, because when you turn those keys the first time it's nothing like it. It's nothing like going to the closing
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signing the documents and then your lovely realtor handing you the keys to
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your home. But even that part is intimidating. Really? Oh I love that. Okay so I'm not no okay so Rhonda they gonna give you a stack of papers as thick. Remember those old dictionaries back in the day?
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It was about a hundred sheets of paper you had to sign.
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At least. It's like, remember the dictionary that stood about maybe a foot off the desk? I mean, it's a lot of paperwork that you have to sign.
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Mm-hmm.
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And if you're, I mean, if you're a first-time homebuyer, that's intimidating.
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But don't be scared.
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Don't be scared.
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If you live in an apartment building, it's that thick as well. The last apartment I lived in, that contract was like 50 pages and I had to sign and initial each page. So listen, signing and initialing each page for something that's not going to be yours versus signing and initialing pages for something that's going to be yours and you're going to get the benefit. Especially as a small business owner, you have to have the wiggle room sometimes, especially when you're starting a new business. You have to have the opportunity to have a couple more days to pay your mortgage because again you know the rules here in Las Vegas. Your rent is due day one and if you have not paid you're late. And we all know that in this business if we're waiting on corporate America to pay us it's going to take a minute because believe it or not people corporate America does not pay on time. I'm here to tell you. They do not. So it's really interesting how we must pay our bills on time Or else we get marked down on our credit reports But they no matter what contract you have with them if you're doing business with a corporate company If it's net 30 net 60 net 90 they never pay on time you have to chase your money So you may not have your money on the first to pay your rent, but it might come two days later Why do I need to have all that stress and pressure of being worried about kicked out my apartment? When I don't need to when I can have my house. You know Rhonda. Rhonda sounds like, but she said that like she's taking that personal. She's got some personal experience with that. Oh I do. You should take it personal. Oh yeah. Because you know when you have a five-day notice, a pay or quit. That's right. Sitting on your door and unfortunately even though you haven't had maybe been evicted yet there's a repository where that information goes. So even when you try to go rent the next house, there's some information out there about you. You know, no judgment. Everybody's life has a, you know, has a story. But just understand when you go and apply for the next place, you know,
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although you didn't actually get an eviction, that five-day pay or quit does go into a repository that the landlords can... Wow, I didn't know that.
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See, I didn't know that either.
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That's what I didn't know either.
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Also, too...
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Oh, wow.
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Also, too...
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Hold on.
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Stop, stop, stop, stop. Don't fast forward. I'm sorry.
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Let's stick there for a minute.
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Okay. So, there's a repository that captures when you get those five-day notices.
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Yes.
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Any type of, you know, any type of notices where disruption or something occurs on your property that you're renting and you know you get some type of notification yes Wow okay no sorry I didn't mean to stop you thought I just wanted to repeat that again so that you understand when you get those five-day notices and five-day notices that's why you're having a problem with this next moving somewhere else because they're saying I don't you don't pay on time you don't pay on time don't write on time or you cause you know you cause you cause issues and properties really renting Wow now how long does that information stay out there now that I have to admit I'm not exactly sure okay in that in that particular repository but yes that information is out there Wow Wow never knew that no that's that's a lot. That is a lot. That's a lot. Okay, so no you you were going to your second point I'm sorry, but my second point is with when you have a mortgage Even you get to the 15th before and generally, you know before and actually late charge Right, you know, but if you know if you do have to run it later into the month we don't want to get 30 day late, but if you have that opportunity and we're not worried about being evicted. Right. That part right there. It's lovely to know that I have to the 15th of the month if I need it to pay my mortgage when I'm waiting on corporate America to pay me. Plus you can call the mortgage company though. Yeah and you can call them. You can work with them. You can call them too and tell them look here. I don't have it and I might not have it. Can we restructure this?
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That's right.
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Because I need about six months. I don't know if they let you go that long.
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They do.
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Okay. But I need some time because I need to and you don't have to, you don't have that housing insecurity. Housing insecurity is probably the number one thing that I do experience on a daily basis because as a real estate professional I get calls about rentals or you know even when someone is having a challenge with their mortgage I get some you know get to have conversations with people and kind of help guide them through that process but just as a parent myself imagine that I might not have a place for my kid to stay. Right. Oh that brings on something totally different but I can tell you that she is Cassandra is one of those professionals you know how some people go on and above mm-hmm just on and above and I've watched her over the years get the well you know such-and-such said and she's and but she stays calm mm-hmm she stays consistent and this is what we need to do this is how we need to do it. I mean, she's done some things for me that I that people told me couldn't be done and she said no Leah. This is how we're going to do it. And I'm and well, I'm freaking out and stuff and everybody else freaking out and she said no and she was able to make something happen that I've never seen anyone else do but I know it was because she was consistent and she understood, but she understood the pieces. She was playing chess while everybody else is playing checkers. And she was like, no, you need to do this. No, you need to do that. And I am thankful that I stopped and listen, you know, but I was able to get the people around me to stop and listen and not, you know, you don't know everything about this, right? You know, because she was helping people with foreclosure process like in 2008 2009. I don't think you were doing mortgages then and you were helping people with foreclosures. She was helping people with foreclosures, you know, helping them save their properties. And she wasn't doing mortgages then. But she was just strategic and keeping people calm because she's very calm.
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And you need that because you are so stressed out.
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The whole time.
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You are stressed out. You don't know. I mean, there are other factors going on, you know, with this situation and other people depending upon you. So you have to deal with somebody who has a real cool head to keep you cool.
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Yes, and she does. She has a very calm demeanor. And she'll take the time to explain it to you. 20 times if she needs to. No, this is what that means. No, this is what that means. No, you don't want to do that. You want to do this. And I remember giggling sometimes at night. She'd be like, well, you know, I've had, I've been working all day and I I just got to go home now and I'm like I can only imagine all the phone calls you've had today because she's very calming and if you especially because with this process you need someone like that someone that's going to explain it to you like this is how you qualify for this program you know I know it's in black and white we need to do A, B, and C. Go get A, B, and C. No, not A and C. We got to have B. Let's go get B. And she reads the documents and will explain to you, you know, exactly, you know, and tell you the steps of the process. You know, this is not something, this is her livelihood. Right. And she loves it. And she does. And it makes a difference when a person loves their job the way that they do their job. It does. And it shows. I can honestly say it shows. She's very, very calm. Very calm.
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Very calm. And like she said earlier, entrepreneurs, and Leah and I tell you this all the time, have your documents together. Have your documents together. We talked about this. We said have hard copies of all your documents and then have copies on your computer. Because she said, you need tax forms, you know, you may need other bills you need to show. Have all that stuff at your fingertips so when you come to her and say, hey, Cassandra, I want to buy that fabulous house on the website, so I need to qualify for, you know, a $5 million mortgage. Here, what do you need from me? And here it is, quickly. Because the quicker you can give her the documents, the quicker she can help you. If you play along and wait a week or two and mess around, you may miss the house because somebody else may have purchased it. But if you come to her, you know, knowing kind of the back of your mind, I know she's going to ask me for some documents, let me try to halfway get them together and you get them to her quickly, then she can move quickly. But she's right. She will let you know how much house you can buy. Now you might want to buy that $5 million house and you know I want to buy it. But she may have to say, Rhonda, you don't qualify for the $5 million house, but you do qualify for a half a million dollar house.
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So let's get you qualified for the half a million dollar house.
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Let's take the zero off.
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And then let's find something that you might like. Because Cassandra will tell you, with anything you purchase, if you purchase it and you pay well when you go to get your next one, it's easier.
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So much easier.
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And then talk about that is converting that equity From the house that you're in to your next house that that process and that experience it just makes everything so much easier, but It creates that pride of I did that I think that you put the work in to build that equity in your current home, and now we're just converting that to the next home and it creates an opportunity for you to either transfer your mortgage payment because you have enough to put down and you can buy this now your fabulous dream home with the same payment as the starter home. Oh that's a beautiful thing. Oh I learned from you. I'm just gonna say I didn't know about that. Oh oh. Or you know just being able to. What if I wanted to rent the first house out? Well, there's options for that as well. She got options.
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You know what? She got options.
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Please contact her. So you please contact Ms. Cassandra Smith at 702-472-8000. Please contact her about all your mortgage needs. Right, so if you think you're ready to step into that next home because you are, right, you know, you want to step it up. Right. You've been in your house five, ten years. You have this wonderful equity sitting there and you like me, you want to go from my half a million dollar house to my million dollar house. See, I thought she was going to say 5 million. Then you go jumping again. She just can't sit up. Baby steps. No, I'm just going to say she's not going to say baby steps. She's just going to run with the people.
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Just run.
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Just run.
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Can you imagine now you have $100,000, $150,000, $200,000 of equity that now you can put 20% down on your million dollar home, have no mortgage insurance. Oh that part right there. Oh, because my PMI is ugly. On my current house. That's just a wonderful thing. And the fact that you are putting such a large down payment. And this is money that you've been paying your mortgage. The real estate environment has allowed your equity to grow. And now when you go put that down payment, the underwriter is looking at that like, Oh, okay,
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okay.
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That's 100 150,000. Yeah, that's a beautiful thing.
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That's different. That's way different. Different situation.
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15 20% different if I was even talking to some people that I'm with the mortgages and the tax, the tax stuff, they talked about the capital gains. And, you know, up to 50 to half million depending on what your filing status is, you don't have to claim that as income. So it's a way to even step up without having to pay. You know, it's a way.
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Well, Cassandra has so much information, but it's almost that time. But we have to have you back on the show because you have more gems and jewels to share with us.
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Yes, yes, we'll bring her back on. I'll bring her back on. But thank you.
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Thank you very much.
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For raising us. Give her number one more time Rhonda. You can contact her at 702-472-8000 Ms. Cassandra Smith. Listen you've been listening to Let's Talk with Leah Crawford and Rhonda Nolan. Oh I'm Rhonda Nolan. I'm Leah Crawford. You've been listening to Let's Talk with Leah and Rhonda. I don't know my name this morning. I'm so excited about my new house. You want to know what. She's looking at a website though. She's got these. Right we have to. We got. Right we have to. But that's the start though because you got to see it.
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You got to see it.
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See it to believe it.
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And you see it.
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Alright Las Vegas, until next week, I'm Leah Crawford.
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I'm Rhonda Nolan. See you next Saturday morning. Have a good one.
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Bye bye. You have been listening to a paid program sponsored by Crawford Management Group and Smart Time Consultants. Please be advised that the voices and opinions you heard do not necessarily represent the views of KUNV Las Vegas, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents views of KUNV Las Vegas, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Transcribed with Cockatoo