Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Mortgage Matters is your go-to show for all things home financing. Join Roland and Heidi as they break down the ins and outs of the mortgage world. From first-time homebuyers to seasoned investors, we’re here to guide you with expert insights, real talk, and the latest market trends. Whether you're looking to buy smart or refinance right, Mortgage Matters is your trusted source for smarter decisions and financial freedom. Tune in and take control of your home financing journey.
Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU NB studios original program. 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 to
Roland Daniels 0:43
Good Morning Las Vegas. Welcome to mortgage matters. I'm Roland Daniels, a certified mortgage advisor with Geneva financial. My NMLS number is 355859, our company, NMLS number is 42056, and I'm here this morning, as always, with my fantastic co host. Heidi Griffith, good morning. Heidi,
Heidi Griffith 1:07
good morning. Roland, how are you? I am doing awesome. Happy Sunday. Happy Sunday. Maybe we're going to see a little cool down. Oh, we hope so keep saying it, don't we?
Roland Daniels 1:17
We are. It's been rough.
Heidi Griffith 1:19
One can wish. One can wish. I'm Heidi Griffith. I'm also a mortgage advisor and your Director of Client Services. My NMLS number is 2247754, so before we jump into today's show, we've got we've got one big shout out. We've got a shout out the phenomenal Wes we do. Thank you for all that you do. Yep, thank you very much. We're just one week away from our one year anniversary right here on K, U, N, V, and Wes, we couldn't have done it without you. You have been in an amazing part and such a huge asset to us. Thank you so much. We really do appreciate it. Yeah, I can't believe it's almost been a year. Time flies when you're having fun, holy moly. And since we've got some exciting things happening upcoming in September, let's share that. Share what's coming up on the calendar. How about that? Let's do it so I know that we've got our monthly class, the path to home ownership, right? That's with CPLC workshop. Yep, that's Saturday, September 6. That's our all day class. It is. That's our all day class. That's from 830 to three, and it covers, it covers everything it does, A to Z, A to Z, home buying. But even more than home buying, it's home living. It's it's what to do after you purchase your home. You know, they go over all of the different types of insurance, right? What about credit? They definitely cover a huge portion that discusses credit, not just how to fix bad credit, right, right? They're talking about how to improve good credit. They're talking about utilization and do's and don'ts the budgeting portion. These are HUD certified counselors that teach those two portions. They do, and they're very well versed. I agree, even with the budgeting. You know, this isn't a matter of because, you know, we hear a lot of people budget emergency funds are always a big thing, and a lot of us don't really have the room to breathe in our between our paycheck and the bills that we pay, right for a big emergency fund, but they're not just talking about budget. You know, save 50% of your earnings because that's, you know, it's not realistic for a lot of people, right? Realistic tools on how to save, how to budget for upcoming things, whether that's a house, a car, a vacation, all of that good
Roland Daniels 3:41
stuff. And they actually provide the forms as well. They do. They do
Heidi Griffith 3:45
lots and lots of resources. You cover the entire mortgage session that's an hour long. And it's not just this is how you apply for a mortgage. You talk about everything up to and including the 18 different and actually, I think we're closer to 19 or 20 now, but the 18 or 19 or 20 different down payment assistance programs we offer, yeah,
Roland Daniels 4:04
and a lot of times what the underwriter actually looks at, such as debt to income ratio, explaining what that means, because we hear those terms, DTI, but we break it down. What is a DTI? Yeah, because you and
Heidi Griffith 4:16
I understand it, but we look at it every day. We do most people really don't grasp what a debt to income ratio is until they're in it
Roland Daniels 4:23
right, right? And how it applies to you personally, and how to
Heidi Griffith 4:27
make it work, that's right, and how to make it work. So that's going to be on Saturday, September 6. Then we're actually going to be at the center, aren't
Roland Daniels 4:34
we? We are. And Heidi, what is the center? So
Heidi Griffith 4:37
you know, the center, it's such an important part of Las Vegas. It is. It serves as a hub for inclusivity. It's community support, especially for our LGBTQIA, plus neighbors and allies, isn't it. And we're going to be speaking on homeownership. We will be, and that's going to be on September 13, isn't it. I think we're going to be, it's going to be sometime in the morning. We'll have more information probably next week.
Roland Daniels 5:00
Yes, they're still adjusting the time schedule, but I know the last time I spoke with them is like starting at 11am but we'll make sure to provide the details, or you can just give us a call and we'll provide that the times.
Heidi Griffith 5:13
Yeah, absolutely. And then we've got another class with the Nevada housing division, don't we? We do so we had a class last money, and I have to tell you, as an online class, you know, usually with an online class, we get a lot of people that register and then don't hop on for one reason or another. You know, we register for free classes and they they escape our minds or something else to get about or drive, whatever that looks like. We had a packed zoom. It was packed. I kind of keep tabs during those classes of the participants, because with the Nevada housing division, we cover all of their down payment assistance programs, and you actually get a certificate. You get one at the CPLC class the path to homeownership as well, but at the end of the class, you get a certificate, and that makes you eligible for the down payment assistance programs they offer. So I have to keep tabs of the participants to make sure that everyone's getting the certificate that was in the class, and I was scrolling and scrolling and scrolling, trying to make sure it was packed. We had over 20 people in that hour and a half presentation. Which
Roland Daniels 6:18
and how many people register? And think it was like a record people register. We
Heidi Griffith 6:23
had close to 100 people register for that class. Again, with those online classes, we get a lot of people that register, and then, you know, three or four months later, they pop into the class. So it's always nice. I love that class because it's an hour and a half of straight up, what is Nevada housing division, and what are their homeless possible programs? They've got programs that are available for first time home buyers and and that doesn't mean that you've never owned a home before, does it?
Roland Daniels 6:49
It does not just means you haven't owned a home in the last three years. Yeah. So
Heidi Griffith 6:54
they've got first time they've got a teacher program. So their goal with their teacher program was to bring more teachers into our state, K through 12 public school teachers into our state, because we know how high that demand is and how we need to get teachers to fill seats to teach our kids right. And as an incentive, they created the home as possible teacher program that offers, again, K through 12 public school teachers in the state of Nevada, it offers them a $7,500 down payment program, and as long as you live in your house for five years, totally forgivable. 100% 100% you don't have to pay a penny back. And it's also prorated, right? So if in three years, you are moving out of state, or you decide to sell your house because you've got some equity in it, you want to move up, or move down, or whatever that looks like. It's pro rated every single month, isn't it? It is, yeah. And since we're coming up on our one year anniversary, one year Heidi, one year, I know, since we're coming up on that, we thought it might be the perfect time to step back from, you know, the stuff we talk about every week, a single topic instead, maybe share more about who we are, how we got here, and why we do what we do.
Roland Daniels 8:09
Wow, just one year. It's crazy. It is, I
Heidi Griffith 8:12
tell you, I tell you, so Roland, let's start with you. Let's start first and foremost, give me a little bit of background about who Roland is
Roland Daniels 8:23
so I'm Roland Daniels. Of course, you already know that, hi, born and raised right here in Las Vegas, Nevada, 89106, attended Mabel Hoggard, R O Gibson. Went to Western go, warriors, CSN and UNLV. I
Heidi Griffith 8:44
won't give you a hard time about the Warriors. I'm gonna let you slide. Go warriors. So, so you were born and raised here, born and raised right? So you you graduated, you did some college time. Then what happened?
Roland Daniels 8:59
Worked in the casino industry for just a few years, I think three or four years, and then I decided to make a move to the state of Nevada. Okay, so you worked for the state of Nevada. I did. But prior to that, for people that didn't know, I was a real estate agent from 1990 through the year 2000 you
Heidi Griffith 9:18
are in something you guys might not know about us either. So Roland and I have known each other for long, over 31 years. We've known each other there for over 31 years. So in 26 Eric, in 1996 I was 25 Roland said, Why aren't you buying a house? He was a realtor, and I'm like, I don't know. I hadn't even thought about it at that point in my life, and you were the one who got me set up and said, Get out and buy a house. And so that's when I bought my first house. Was in 1996
Roland Daniels 9:48
Wow, that was a long time ago, I know. And
Heidi Griffith 9:52
that's when you were a realtor. And I wasn't right. You also told me at the same time, why aren't you getting your real estate license? And I did that too, and you did. Yeah, okay, so you were a realtor. Then what?
Roland Daniels 10:02
Then I moved on to, like I said, I worked in the casino industry for a few years. Worked in the finance department. That is something that I'm very passionate about. I've always been great with numbers. And then one of the reasons while I got into mortgages was due to my parents, just to make sure that they were taken care of during the loan process.
Heidi Griffith 10:24
Oh, I didn't know that. Yes, very interesting, okay,
Roland Daniels 10:29
but got into the mortgage industry in 2005 so you're still working for the state. I was still working for the state. And where were you working? At the state at that time, I was working for welfare. Oh,
Heidi Griffith 10:40
okay, so you kind of, you kind of, saw all the facets when it came to social services, and then you went on to so you did welfare, you did child support, child support, okay, so you got to see that angle so many years dealing with lots of kinds of personalities, huh?
Roland Daniels 10:56
I've spent my entire life serving the people of the state of Nevada.
Heidi Griffith 11:02
I love that. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Of course, I know you come from a place of service, but so when you got into the mortgage space, and that's it great that you mentioned your mom and dad, because I wasn't aware of that. But when you got into the mortgage industry, and we had had, obviously, many conversations at that point, I was a realtor, many conversations about your whys and all of that kind of stuff, but so then you retired from the state I did, and transitioned very
Roland Daniels 11:31
well time right into the same industry I've been in for the last 20 years.
Heidi Griffith 11:37
And so what was your focus at that point,
Roland Daniels 11:41
just friends, families and veterans, right? Okay, right. So
Heidi Griffith 11:45
it was veterans, yes, aside from your friends, and you actually had quite a few friends that were veterans at that point,
Roland Daniels 11:50
yep, family members, part of the Army, right? Yep, they all served. And then, of course, that led from one thing to another. So I decided to increase my focus on helping people, actually helping, not just putting a person into a loan, but actually showing them the strategies used to start the process of building wealth.
Heidi Griffith 12:19
Let's take a step back really quickly, because I don't want to kind of glaze over the fact that you understand VA Home Loans Seriously, though you know that they're important to me, and I'll talk about that in a minute. But when you started, when you started, you were with a company whose primary focus was veterans,
Roland Daniels 12:39
correct? So we specialized in underserved veterans who had low FICO scores,
Heidi Griffith 12:45
which was an amazing place to be, because I'm sure you, I know I learned a lot once I came on board, but
Roland Daniels 12:51
so I would say 95% of our loans, at least, the ones that I've done, we what's called a manual underwrite when it comes to the VA. And why
Heidi Griffith 13:00
don't you explain that really quickly? Because most, most of us, if we're not in the mortgage industry, we don't understand what a manual is.
Roland Daniels 13:07
So you have manual, and then you have automated. Automated means you put all of the information in AI kicks out an approval that says, approve, eligible. So as long as they had income, they had great credit,
Heidi Griffith 13:22
and they had assets, so you get an automatic based on those stats.
Roland Daniels 13:27
But there's people who've had challenges in their past. Maybe they had some late payments, maybe due to medical maybe they were in the hospital and we're going through multiple surgeries, or maybe they had some kind of condition that they developed or service connected disability with the VA,
Heidi Griffith 13:45
and you saw all of those. I know that firsthand, right? So with
Roland Daniels 13:49
the manual, you have to dig deeper. You have to figure out why, what happened, and then you have to explain to the underwriter what happened. How did we fix it? How do we not have that situation occur when it comes to their credit?
Heidi Griffith 14:05
And I know that you don't like to toot your own horn, so I'm going to do this really quickly. So so basically what that looks like is, first and foremost, every loan product has a set of guidelines that goes along with it. So VA loans, the VA administration has their guidelines. They do have to be followed. And then, then various lenders have different guidelines that they may or may not put on top of what let's just say with the VA the veterans admin puts on top, puts into it, right? Yep. So you've got to follow all of those guidelines, and then you've got to kind of paint a picture so you know you're, you're applying for a loan, you don't get that automated approval right away. And I watched you, and it was magical. I mean, it really was. It was, it was inspiring to watch coming from where I was coming from, to watch you take something that on paper look like, well, this probably isn't going to work.
Roland Daniels 14:59
Work, or they it appears that they don't qualify,
Heidi Griffith 15:03
right? Because you would dig and dig and dig
Roland Daniels 15:07
through the guidelines, follow the guide, and not
Heidi Griffith 15:09
only that, but through the client's specific situation. You know, ask the right questions. You know, document the things that you'd found out in your discovery. Documentation is huge, and then cross post it with the guidelines, and then you had to present it to the underwriter, who is a human. This is not AI anymore, right, right? And you had to paint this picture, you had to tell this story, and you had to make the underwriter see what you saw. And
Roland Daniels 15:35
then you have to stand behind what you find in your of your findings, yeah, because I've watched you fight, so a lot of times I had to bypass the underwriter, go above the underwriter, and go to management, right?
Heidi Griffith 15:47
So I didn't want to kind of sidestep the fact that you were talking about coming from a place of service and helping folks who might not have had the opportunity, but that that mastering of a VA loan from a mortgage standpoint, is essential. It is crucial. There's, first of all, a lot of bad information about the VA loan out in the wild. Anyways, yeah.
Roland Daniels 16:10
One is they take longer than other
Heidi Griffith 16:12
loans. They take longer, they cost harder, they you can only qualify for a specific amount. You can't have multiple I mean, there's a million myths that we could come up with with VA loans. But on top of all of that, there's a lot of lenders, specific people who don't necessarily understand them or know how to do them. So finding someone who has your best interest in mind and actually understands the products and understands the guidelines, I think it's crucial in your journey. So when I came on board, you threw me into the fire, I will tell you that you threw me. You said, read the guidelines. Read the guy
Roland Daniels 16:53
the market helped throw you into the fire. And
Heidi Griffith 16:57
I, I was really impressed. So kudos to you. Thank you. I appreciate it. And so I know you do other things. Obviously, we do a lot more at this point than just VA loans, right? We still do VA loans. We do it all. But I know that I've watched you. I watch you on a daily basis. I mean, side note about Roland, he's up. He's up usually before four o'clock in the morning, but he's at the computer at five. He's either reading, he's taking a class, he's doing some form of research, he's learning to make himself better at what he does for our clients. And I with that, I know you've got just you've got a grocery stack, bag filled with designations.
Roland Daniels 17:43
We'll just start with just the main form, okay, which is a certified mortgage planner. Okay, what's that a certified mortgage planner goes a little bit deeper. It goes into taxes, liabilities, your financials. It looks at the entire picture, not just doing a loan, putting numbers on a spreadsheet, it's actually digging into your life and how to make it work for you. Because everyone is different. Everybody has a different set of circumstances. We all have different income, we have different credit, we have different tax situations, we have different liabilities, yeah,
Heidi Griffith 18:24
and especially if you're self employed, or you have a big portfolio, those things really matter when we're talking about investments. And real estate is still an investment,
Roland Daniels 18:34
it is, and there's different strategies for first time home buyers. Maybe you are in an investor, maybe you're self employed, gig worker, entertainer, or maybe you are a athlete, or retire professional sports or going towards retirement, right? There's strategies for everyone out there. Okay, so aside from that, what do you do? I'm a certified liability advisor. So with the liability advisor. We go from the at the liability side. When you work with set, say, a financial advisor, they're just looking at assets. I'm looking at your liabilities to see where I can find to improve your cash flow. Because everybody lives by cash flow. Of course, it's the money that's left over. How do you make that work best for you and your family? And then there's also a certified divorce planner
Heidi Griffith 19:28
that one gets a little confusing. It does tell me what a certified divorce planner looks like.
Roland Daniels 19:34
So we look at things differently. You want to come to us during the process of a divorce, it's kind of late over Yeah, I work with mediators. I worked with estate planners, divorce attorneys, and we structure there's how should I say, there's different plans and strategies that need to be in place prior to the judge signing off on your divorce. Okay? Right? And we just want to make sure that you're in a position where you can actually purchase a home after the divorce. Even, let's say you're a stay at home mom and you're going through a divorce, you have to show income. There's various types of ways that we can structure different situations to help you qualify so you are ready to purchase a home if you choose to after a divorce, so
Heidi Griffith 20:27
the best time to contact you for this would be during, not after the divorce is finalized, correct,
Roland Daniels 20:33
or through your attorney. Okay. What else you got for us? Well, actually, before we run out of time. We need to get to you. Oh, okay, so Heidi, give us a little bit of background on who you are.
Heidi Griffith 20:47
Absolutely thanks for asking. So obviously, I'm Heidi Griffith. I am also born and raised right here in this beautiful city.
Roland Daniels 20:58
Imagine that two of us, two of us, two, two new and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada,
Heidi Griffith 21:04
born and raised here. I grew up in 89104, don't try and Trump me with that. 106 I went to the old Las Vegas high school. I went to school downtown. Oh wow. I went to school downtown and like and like I mentioned earlier, you and I met a long time ago, and you've been a great, a great role model for me. So I just want to thank you so you, you taught me, Dave, you purchasing my first home. I did, told me to go out there and get my real estate license, because previous to that, I was actually in restaurant management in a casino. And not that it wasn't great, but it wasn't great and and I knew I wanted to make a change, so I went and got my real estate license. Got into real estate. I worked in new home construction for quite some time.
Roland Daniels 21:52
You did, and you achieved a top as a top producer right here in Las Vegas, one of the top realtors, actually, in the state of Nevada.
Heidi Griffith 22:01
Yeah, I was, that was a real estate professional at that point, because I was a new home sales person at that point. And then I decided to move away. You know, it was one of those points in your life where you're like, Oh, let me go see what I can do. And I moved out of state. I got licensed in another state. It just so happened that I picked that 2008 time frame to lead to what happened in 2008 let's talk about that crash. So I lived through that right. I nearly left the industry at that point, because it was very difficult to be in a new city and know very few people and be successful. And I started getting phone calls and requests from people I'd worked with in the past, you know, people that were my clients, who had become friends and, you know, almost like family to me, right? And they were in trouble with their houses, and so a lot of people were in trouble during that time. It was terrible. I even found myself in a predicament. I mean, I think none of us left that time frame unscathed. Came back to Vegas so that I could help. I became a short sale and foreclosure resource. I learned all that I could about the short sale and foreclosure process because we weren't familiar with it up to that point. And then, wham, a lot of us got hit really hard. And it was, it was heartbreaking because, and that was the crash of 2000 that was the crash of 2008 Absolutely, it was very difficult. I was negotiating with, you know, servicers who were overseas. So I was taking and making phone calls in the middle of the night, sometimes that I would be on their time zone, right? And, you know, it was very non human. They had taken the human element out of the the transaction when I knew 100% that these were people, these were people's lives that we were dealing with, and it was a lot, it was a lot. So I went from that and I thought I was going to retire, and then covid
Roland Daniels 24:14
hit, bam. And what happened during covid?
Heidi Griffith 24:17
Well, I thought I was going to retire my dad, who is a who was a veteran. He was a Vietnam vet. He was very ill, he had lung disease, and I knew that I had to keep them safe, and I was going to step down, and then you got slammed, because we all thought that the market was just going to be destroyed because we had stay at home orders, right? How do we sell houses when they're stay at home? Orders?
Roland Daniels 24:42
Covid created a housing monster. It did. It didn't.
Heidi Griffith 24:46
A lot of the reasons why were those two and a half percent interest rates that had got thrown into the fire, and I think those were kind of put into place to kind of stimulate the economy, make sure that we didn't go into a major destruction, right? Yeah. And so people were lined up, and your phone was literally ringing non stop, right? It was. So you threw me into the fire. You're like, come help, you know, answer phones, do some social, and here we are. I got licensed, and here we are, many years later, I'm so I'm glad you're on board. Thank you for having me anytime. And I think we really, we both share the same mission, right? We do. It is service. First and foremost, it's helping folks that might not have ever felt like they had the opportunity to become homeowners. I 100% agree. And even more than that, it's bigger than mortgage. You know, we are bigger than mortgage, and that's why a lot of times people go, Oh, it's mortgage matters. Well, we don't typically just talk about mortgages, because there's a lot of stuff that goes on around us that a lot of people don't like to talk about because it's quote, unquote bad for business, right? And I think it's important that people know and are able to make educated decisions when they move forward with whatever it is they're going to do, agree we're
Roland Daniels 26:01
here to change lives, absolutely, improve, enhance, make you better.
Heidi Griffith 26:07
I love that. I love that. Wow, that was quick, huh? It was so, you know, one of the things we've made a commitment to is ending every single show by talking about fair housing. And especially right now, the change is happening at the national level. This is more important than ever in Silver State Fair Housing Council, you know, they've been a non profit since 1989 they're dedicated to equal housing across Nevada, and both of us serve on the Board of Trustees because we believe in it so much. We say it every week. But they are in need of testers. They've got a tester program where volunteers act as renters and buyers to uncover discrimination, because without these types of testers, most cases never get proven. So right, they focus on outreach, education, enforcement and advocacy to ensure that everyone has an equal chance at housing everyone we are all protected under the Fair Housing laws. And how do we contact them? Yeah, if you, if you'd like to get a hold of them, you can call them directly. Their toll free number is 1-888-585-8634, and you can visit them online. They're at WWW dot SSF, hc.org,
Roland Daniels 27:18
Heidi, can you give the phone number one more time, certainly it's 1-888-585-8634,
Roland Daniels 27:27
so as we wrap up today's show, thank you for letting us share more about who we are and why this work means so much to us. Fair Housing isn't optional. It's the law and it's worth fighting for. And if you feel like you've been treated unfairly when it comes to housing, the Silver State Fair Housing Council is here for you. You can give them a call toll free at 1-888-585-8634,
Roland Daniels 27:59
or visit s, s, f, h, c.org, we'll be back next Sunday at 7:30am right here on K, U, n, b, 91.5, until then, believe in what's possible, even if you've been told that it's out of reach. And remember, stay true to yourself and you're mine. Bye. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai