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Stan "The Real Estate Man" Fikes and Rachel Nichols as they talk all things real estate in the Las Vegas valley. Get the latest information on the housing market from industry professionals with decades of experience!
Speaker 1 0:00
You're listening to locally produced programming created in KU NV studios on public radio K, u and v 91.5. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Speaker 2 0:26
Hello to you, standard real estate man fixe Welcome to the Real Estate roll. We're all avenues lead to a home. I'm here with my distinguished co host, Mr. Mike, the lone wizard Sweeney.
Speaker 3 0:40
Thank you, Stan. And thank you for joining us today for our exciting real estate show.
Speaker 2 0:56
Hello to you, and welcome to the Las Vegas real estate room. I'm Stan the real estate man Fikes. from Vegas Warren Realty. I've been a realtor since 1988. My license number is 28 to eight. Today, I'm here with my business partner, Mike, the loan wizard Sweeney. Introduce yourself, Mike,
Speaker 3 1:22
I stand Thank you for having me, first of all, and being called the wizard is quite the compliment I have been Mike again, my name is Mike Sweeney. I work for American Pacific mortgage. My license number is 103615. I have been in the mortgage industry since 91, when I was in New York transferred out here about 30 years ago. And I had the pleasure to meet Stan a few years back and one of the training classes I do for my builders in Santa Ana. I've been working together ever since. And I'm really thankful that he asked me to do this first show with him here at 91 5k, u and v and really want to thank the tech guys here, they've been a lot of help for us up to this point.
Speaker 2 1:57
Thank you, Mike. Today we want to talk about buying a home, selling a home and getting a loan. There's certain procedures that you as a buyer need to take in order to buy a home. My job is to help you find the home and get that home that you desire. My job is of course to make sure you get a decent loan for the home, you desire my head several different packages that he offers, for first time buyers for move up buyers for veterans. For FHA buyers. He has a full package of loans. Mike, please explain to the audience your different types of loans.
Speaker 3 2:43
Thanks, Dan. Well, one of the first things you want to decide is when you're interested in purchasing a home is come to somebody like myself a lender, we do something called the pre qualification, we just extract we make it very simple. I've been doing this for a long time I do high end loans. And I do first timers and everything in between. Your first decision is that you want to buy a home for all the purposes the owning a home tax, the tax benefits, the equity position that goes up to for savings that you realize over a period of years. But when we have our consultation, and it's one on one, we usually start on the phone, we can do it in person, we ascertain based on your income, your credit, the money you have saved if you're a veteran, if you're a first time buyer, we might put you into a down payment assistance program. There are so many different programs for consumers. Based on that first meeting, we have again we do it on the phone initially, we meet in person in one of my offices here in Las Vegas. And we we ascertain at that point what might be best for you. And again, it's there's a lot of regulations, and we make it as simple as possible. We try not to scare anybody. A lot of the things you see on television and hear on the radio necessarily aren't true. This is a great time to buy a home and we're gonna get into some facts and figures here in a couple of minutes with standing with us bantering back and forth. But the first decision is that if you own a home currently, you know one or you know we grow we have experience owning. So you have experience with mortgages and you also have experience with homeownership. You might be downsizing, upsizing with kids moving out of the homes, some people are looking for smaller, smaller homes. Some people are looking for new construction or looking for your last home. Las Vegas in particular is a huge second hometown vacation homes we call them second homes for folks from all over the world and all over the country. So you would reach out to Stan initially, you would get to a real estate person, give them some of your you know some of your your likes of which bedrooms, that type of thing. And then Stan would turn you on to somebody like myself, and we do that pre qualification when we get the ball rolling.
Speaker 2 4:50
Now after you get pre approved for a home, which is a good thing, then it's up to me to find the home that fits your desires, I have access to the entire Las Vegas market of new and resale homes. All I need is to know your parameters of a home, how many bedrooms you want, how many baths you need, how many garages you need, and above all the location that you prefer in Las Vegas, Nevada. Once that happens, then we can get out and look. But first and foremost, you must be pre approved for a loan. And that's where Mike comes in, in hand, because you will see Mike, he will tell you what you can afford. And then he turns you over to me. And it's my job to get you a home that fits your needs and the location that you and your family like. Now, a lot of people are saying that it's not a good time to buy. Everybody's on the fence about the interest rates. But in my opinion, anytime you have a roof over your head, that counts more than anything. And the longer you wait to buy a home, thinking that the interest rates going to come down or the prices are gonna come down, you might be sitting on that fence a long time. It's always best to own a home, that's where your equity is. That's where you make a big profit on your property. And that's where you have a nice roof over your head. I'm sure you were will agree that sitting on the fence is not a good thing. But a lot of people are still doing it. Mike and I have 67 years between us in the loans and real estate. So we are here for you. All you have to do is give us a call. And we will make it happen for you. Mike also has a very special loan program and some information you like to tell you about.
Speaker 3 7:02
Alright, so to Stan's point to big talk about the real estate industry in particular, over the last since COVID. Since 2021, we had the big ramp up in housing purchases is the increase in interest rates based on what the Feds been doing to combat inflation. Now it's true that interest rates have gone up we're in the call it the middle sixes the 3% Three and a half's that were around a couple years ago probably won't be back for quite a while. But what people fail to inform people of and again, this comes down to her initial private Campbell's kind of when we when we meet or consultation, initially based on your incomes, how much money you haven't that type of thing, we recommend a type of loan that you might want to want to get an FHA, for instance, only requires 20% down the big question I answer because I do a lot of training for local real estate agents, builders. And in the general in particular, what people need to understand is, for instance, a year and a half ago and rates were four and a half to 5%. That's when we were really ramping up selling a tremendous amount of homes in 2021. Our median price in Las Vegas specifically was about 482 at a 5% interest rate all in when I say all in its taxes insurance, you have to have homeowners insurance is approximately $2,800. Today what people fail to inform the public and this is a lot of people in a television shows that you folks listen might listen to that it's absolutely correct and interest rates have gone up what they felt when inform you of when somebody like standard myself, when inform you of the exact same house a year and a half ago that was 485 482. Today is 425. The increase in rate it's six and a half percent. So I'm gonna do a little math for you. So if you can just kind of visualize this. So a year and a half ago, we were for 82 purchase price, our principal interest in taxes payment was 2871. Today, that exact same house is four and a quarter at six and a half interest rate and your payments 2825. I'll do the math for you. That's $46 difference. Now here's what Warren Buffett recommends. And I think you guys know who Warren Buffett is the Beckett biggest thing you can do in investments is buy low and sell high. Well buying a $485,000 house today for 424 is something Warren Buffett highly recommends, even if the interest rate is six and a half percent as they are currently your payment does go up a teeny bit $46 however when rates do correct, and they always do I've been doing this for 32 years. We have these valleys we have these peaks. We we all know that rates will get back down to five, five and a half. Which constant is you just bought a $480,000 house for $425,000. What's temporary Is your interest rate. So when our rates do correct, and they most certainly do, they will, I should say I'm sorry. Because what the Fed is doing is working our core inflation has gone from double digits to now four and a half to 5%. Depending on what chart you believe, when it gets back in line, our rates will get back down to four and a half to 5%, you will do a refinance, your payment will drop $250 a month. But you're still but you're going to realize the capital gain on the house of that spread of approximately $50,000. So people really need to be cognizant rates went up, but prices came down. So it's just a scale. So it's kind of amazing how the things play out in the real estate game. And this has happened before it'll happen. Again, we're in the middle of it right now. But the time to buy a house really, really is right now. And I think you do know who Warren Buffett is, and he recommends that you purchase a home now. And that's when he would get to Stan. Again, you would tell him the type of house you want the area, etc, etc. Another big thing people miss out on is the massive tax benefit you have when you own a house, the interest is deductible and your 1040 Schedule C that you would have when you own a house when you currently don't own, you don't have a schedule C that is the form that is attached to your 1040 that allows you for write off self employed people know what that is, W two folks would have no reason to have a schedule C unless you own a home and you write off your interest. So in the case of hypothetically the average $450,000 house is going to have about $16,000 in interest annually. That is that is deductible on your taxes. So besides the benefit of the tax benefit, which you're going to be able to write off, you also have the appreciation that you have to take into account. Americans aren't very good at saving money. But the average depreciation on our town even conservatively runs at 8%. So you guys do the math, that's 30 plus $1,000 a year, call it 17,000 hours on your taxes, you're saving approximately 50,000 bucks a year to own a house to live in your own home versus renting and paying someone else's mortgage.
Speaker 2 12:11
Speaking of renting, Mike, if somebody's renting a house at $1,600 a month, and five years, they would have paid the owner of that property $96,000 It's incredible isn't ask wonderful. That's money that they are losing. That's why real
Speaker 3 12:29
estate was always the best investment to be to have in the United States of America since their early 30s.
Speaker 2 12:35
Now let me ask you, do you want to lose $96,000? Or do you want to put that money in a property, and it's yours to keep. That's why it's important for everybody to own a house. Mike and I have this goal in the next six or seven years that we get everybody in Las Vegas or house. And the only way we can do that is by you guys calling us to use our service, which is at no cost to you. We are here to help you find the home. That's our desire. No matter what the market is. Everyone needs own a home, stop paying rent, buy yourself a house and pay yourself. As long as you can afford a house you liked that house. And it fit your needs is always a good time to buy. Why wait, let me give you a little story. I just sold a house to two young brothers together. That house is for $325,000 when the builder closed out that community that same house was $425,000. These last made $100,000 Almost on that property. And they still calling me to this day, thanking me for putting in money in their pocket. Now what they can do is decide if they want to resell it, and do it again and make more money. And at some point, you can sell your house and pay cash for a house and you're done. Now you have a free house to enjoy with your family, your friends. You can have your barbecues. You can have your friends over you can play your music as loud as you want, of course until the police come. But owning a house owning a house is just simply marvelous. You will never regret it. And for those of you that already have a house and you want to move up, we also sell resale homes and we help you move up to so we have a full service real estate company and we do everything we can to get a person's house sold and to get them in a new house or get first time buyers in their first home. Mike also does VA loans and He has first time buyer programs. Could you tell him a little bit about those programs? Right?
Speaker 3 15:05
Yeah, sure. So, VA programs pretty self explanatory. As long as you're a veteran, and you were discharged from the military. With an honorable discharge, you would qualify for 100% of the loan purchase. So as most veterans know, there is no money down the houses are freely assumable. This is a very, very big veterans town. We besides Nellis, we have the Air Force base here. But there's a lot of retirees that come to our town are working here that have an eligibility certificate so they can purchase their home using a VA benefit, which is why I question the best loan of all the loans I've done 3032 years. First time buyers, there's, there's a multitude of programs for the first time buyers. The biggest thing for them is the downpayment, 3%, three and a half. All that money can be gifted from friends and family. Interest rates are exactly the same. There are some programs that will they're called downpayment assistance programs that help out folks with their downpayment and with your closing costs. Again, when we do that one on one consultation, you yourself, if you want to bring your parents or your financial consultant would stand, we'll work out exactly first of all, what you can afford, according to the federal guidelines, and you don't have to buy up to the number that hypothetically the government says you can afford 3000 hours a month for a house. And again, when we quote a payment, that's all in principle, interest, taxes, insurance, and homeowners, as well, if there's if you're in an HOA, you might be comfortable only paying 2500 You do not have to buy up to the limit to what the Fed say you qualify for. And again, as far as downpayment that can be gifted a lot of people don't realize that money does not have to come from you can come from your parents, your uncle's your cousins, it doesn't have to be 20% are still a fallacy around that. When I first started this, you didn't need 20%. And that was a long time ago, since then, and VA and FHA know three and a half percent to zero. So you can get into a house relatively cheap cost out of pocket closing costs can be paid for in your behalf by the seller, realtors can contribute, I can contribute as a bank, because we're a direct lender. So your closing costs. So the fallacy that people need a tremendous amount of money to own a home is is just that it's a fallacy. That's why our one on ones are so important. I've been doing this for so long. And it's amazing how misinformed people in this day and age still are. So that's why that one on one consultation is really important. I pull your credit, which I share with my clients. A lot of people see their credit scores based off their Discover card or one of your credit cards that necessarily isn't by what use you use by what we go by. So no fee to you, well pull your credit all three agencies and share that with you. And if we need to work on your credit to get your scores up to get you a better interest rate. I've been doing that for 30 years as well. So that's at no cost to the consumer. So that's all a service that I provide with Stan and Stan O stands claims.
Speaker 2 18:10
Now also, you know, you guys need to get a pen and paper so you can write our phone numbers down. Because surely we we will be giving us some contact information. So do take the time to get yourself a pen and paper. It's kind of hard to remember phone numbers off the cuff. I know I have that problem. Now for people that are going to resell their homes. Let me give a little bit of information about how long we take to sell a home. Normally, resale homes sale in 30 days, 60% of them and 16 and a half percent sale and 31 to 60 days. So that's a pretty good length of time for your home to get sold is a decent time to get your home. So Las Vegas as of May 2023, we had 6548 homes available, and of those homes 2316. So, so that's basically one out of three homes are selling when people put their homes on the market. Now with the new homes. The builders offer a lot of incentives for people to buy in the build time to get a new home is normally 60 days to six months. Now some are taking maybe 12 months to build a home but those are bigger homes. Now the builders have a lot of quick move ins that you can move into under 45 days. So if that's something that you're interested in, and I'm sure you've had the time to get the pen and paper so I'm going to give you my phone number which is 702-809-2941 Now, you can call me 24/7. Even if you have to wake me up at night, I will answer the phone. Mike, let them have your phone number, please
Speaker 3 20:10
remain the same local because then I hear both locals. And certainly I need to point out working with a local lender and a local real estate agent are incredibly important. But getting back to the phone number minus 702-375-4424. Unlike Stan, I don't answer my phone 24 hours a day, but I do answer it seven days a week.
Speaker 2 20:29
That's because Mike he tries to sleep at night. I dream about real estate so I don't sleep too much. I'm thinking about you and getting you in a home. So again, my number is 702-809-2949. Now, Mike, you were telling me something about an FHA program for first time buyers. Could you go over that just briefly?
Speaker 3 20:51
Yeah, FHA came out after World War Two, to help non veterans purchase a home. It's their guidelines, believe it or not have been same since 1949. changed very little, does require downpayment of that three and a half percent, but there are three and a half percent can come from an array of folks, like I said, it can be gifted, it can be downpayment assistance, it can be what we call accumulated savings. So let's just hypothetically say that you need $15,000 for your down payment, you can save it, we can help you put together a savings plan to show you exactly how much money you need over the course of the purchase. If especially if you go I've done new construction here in town for 30 plus years, there's a tremendous amount of people who might not have the money to close on a house today. But it's not pertinent because you're not close on the house for six to seven months. As long as you can put yourself on a regimented savings plan, whatever that might be 2000 3000 hours a month per company, you know, naturally predicated on your income. We can get you to the promised land. But there is some you know Owning a home is a big deal coming down with a down payment is also a big deal. But we can show you specific figures that it definitely pencils to own a house, and especially in the United States of America and especially in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm sure you're all just stories, the equity we pick up is tremendous. In our town, we have we average 20 20% conservative, we're eight. So do it. I don't know how many people save 20% of their their annual income year, but not very many people do you want a home you are for saving. So in our thanks then picked up that I've known his clients you, you might want to sell your home. But a lot of people are keeping those homes for rentals and buying in an additional house for their owner occupied possession, keeping their current home and renting it out because our tone dictates very big rents. As most of you know anybody on this, on this line is renting a home or an apartment for that matter.
Speaker 2 22:54
The average rent is $1,695 in Las Vegas, Nevada, that's throwing money away. Like I said, you have to keep your money in your pocket. Do not give it to someone else. Do not let other people dictate your life. Get out of those rentals. Buy yourself a home. Now, Mike, on the conventional side, what do you have folks that need jumbo loans? Because a lot of people I deal with want to buy 123 $5 million homes they might need a jumbo loan.
Speaker 3 23:29
Well, what is the jumbo terminology that is Fannie and Freddie Fannie Mac, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, they buy conforming loan limits, which in our town are just up to six $724,000. When you cross that threshold, the terminology is Jumbo. That is for the higher end homes, the million $3 million houses, those get a little bit more complicated, but that's what's referred to as a jumbo. One thing we haven't talked about it's really popular in our town is reverse mortgages as well. What a reverse mortgages is for folks over the age of 62, which is a big demographic in Las Vegas, and that's very complicated, but we also do a lot of reverse mortgages.
Speaker 2 24:11
Now I know you've still got that pen and paper in your hand we we will give you our website. My website is new home safari.com. There you can find more information about new and resale homes. And you can also search for new homes and resale homes and my website. Mike please give me your website.
Speaker 3 24:35
Mine is WWW dot Michael dot Sweeney at AP mortgage.com And I also have a training school which is training tour. You can hit me up there which is www dot Trane en tour.com
Speaker 2 24:51
Well today we would like to thank you for tuning in to our show, and we will be doing a show every month. is the second week, the second Sunday of the month. So also tune in at that time, and the time will be 830 in the morning, second Sunday 830 in the morning. Anything else, Mike?
Speaker 3 25:15
No. Again, I like to thank you for having me, Stan and I look forward to our next show. And I want to thank 91.5 for allowing us to be on there. Much appreciated.
Speaker 2 25:24
Absolutely. We look, we look forward to talking to you soon and we look forward to getting you into a home. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Las Vegas real estate room. I can be reached at 702-809-2949 and also you can go to my website, new home safari.com
Speaker 3 25:49
And you can reach me at 702-375-4424
Transcribed by https://otter.ai