The Get Rich Slow Podcast

Lance Johnson, Robert Delavan, and Adrian Schermer

Welcome to the Get Rich Slow Podcast! Our goal is to pass on the knowledge that we and our expert guests wish we knew a decade ago to get the most out of your financial life. We'll provide you with insight into wealth-building activities and practices that can help expand your net worth. Get insight from top professionals who will reveal tips on how to build wealth, by working smarter - not harder, and help you identify your financial blind spots.  With over 50 years of combined experience in the financial industry, Lance Johnson, Investment Advisor Representative Registered Investment Advisor, Robert Delavan, Licensed Principal Broker in Oregon, and Adrian Schermer, licensed Senior Mortgage Specialist in Oregon and Washington, will teach you what it means to get rich slowly and grow your Net Worth by being Brilliant at the Basics. https://www.getrichslowpodcast.com/ read less
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Episodes

78. Introduction to 1031 Exchanges with Milissa Ormiston
18-10-2023
78. Introduction to 1031 Exchanges with Milissa Ormiston
Tune in today as Lance, Rob and Adrian are joined by Milissa Ormiston to discuss the basics to 1031 Exchanges.   Links & Resources Mentioned: ROI Disclosures: https://tinyurl.com/48xfx2wu Adrian Schermer @ Directors Mortgage: https://www.directorsmortgage.com/loan-officer/adrian-schermer Rob Delavan @ Delavan Realty: https://delavan-realty.com Lance Johnson @ ROI Financial: https://roi-fa.com Milissa Ormiston: https://www.ipx1031.com/locations/name/milissa-ormiston/  Events: https://roi-fa.com/events   Transcript Adrian Schermer (00:03.062) Hello future millionaires and welcome back to the get rich slow podcast. We are your hosts Rob Delevan, Lance Johnson, and I am Adrian Schermer Rob Delavan (00:09.193) Good morning. Lance J. Johnson (00:12.1) Hello there. Adrian Schermer (00:15.366) On today's episode, we are going to be exploring some new topics with our guest, Milissa Ormiston. Milissa, hi, how are you doing this morning? Milissa Ormiston (00:24.495) Good morning. I'm doing well. Thanks, Adrian. Just trying to stay dry in this drizzly Oregon morning. Lance J. Johnson (00:31.768) Summer is over. Adrian Schermer (00:31.844) Yeah, it feels like home again. Yeah. Milissa Ormiston (00:33.716) Yeah, officially I think so. Lance J. Johnson (00:38.976) It's funny because usually I always go to Cabo at this time to extend my summers and I didn't this year. And so yes, the rain is here early. Adrian Schermer (00:39.126) You can catch us online. Oh, go ahead. Rob Delavan (00:48.926) Hmm. Milissa Ormiston (00:51.215) Is it your fault then, Lance? I said, is it your fault that we now have rain? Yeah. Okay. Adrian Schermer (00:51.298) That last little bit. Rob Delavan (00:51.476) You're in. Lance J. Johnson (00:53.444) Excuse me. Lance J. Johnson (00:56.932) I think so. I think you could probably blame me. Adrian Schermer (01:00.214) Sounds good. You can catch us online, Apple podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube, if you'd like to see the video that accompanies this presentation along with some visuals and on Stitcher as well. In today's podcast, this is a precursor to our one hour tax seminar that we're holding live on the 19th of November. As a prep for this seminar, we're gonna cover a few of the basics within 1031 exchanges. We're defining and mapping out what a 1031 exchange is, including the qualifications, timeframes, address, address vacation home requirements and explore primary residence and combining residence exemption with 1031. Adrian Schermer (01:46.102) And let's start things off with a success story about this topic. Milissa, it sounded like you had something for us. Milissa Ormiston (01:52.699) Well, yeah, Rob was asking me, you know, did we have any of those last minute oo-oos and just had one a couple of weeks ago. Hate to see this type of thing. You know, the phone call I always hate to hear is I sold my property because that means it's too late, guys, if you sold your property and you don't have your exchange in place. So I was boarding a flight from Seattle to Portland. So just like a little quick flight here and late afternoon and a gentleman reached out to me to say, hey, my property is supposed to be closing today. I wanted to do an exchange. Well, that's not exactly something we like to hear. And so I asked him if the property had funded and recorded and he said, well, it was supposed to. And I said, well, it was late enough in the afternoon that I thought that was maybe a possibility that hadn't happened. So I said, well, if it hasn't funded and recorded, we can make it happen. Rob Delavan (02:32.656) Mm-mm. Milissa Ormiston (02:50.491) I got me some information, reached out to escrow as it turns out, fortunately for the seller, the buyer's funds had not shown up to escrow that day. And so we were able to, he was very lucky, had escrow send those things to one of my exchange officers as I'm getting into my seat, I'm calling an exchange officer saying, Hey, you're doing a last minute exchange. There's an email. Here's some information. Get this set up. Adrian Schermer (03:00.566) Lucky. Hey. Milissa Ormiston (03:18.899) Once I landed in Portland back on the phone and my port exchange officer is like, well, I have everything, but there's a seller carry note, which, you know, is a little bit of a challenge with doing a 1031 exchange, which is definitely something we'll talk about more on the 19th is how do you work with a seller carried and a 1031 exchange? Um, cause we're trying to get creative out there right now with interest rates and everything. We were able to work our way through that and successfully close the following day when the buyer's money showed up. So it was definitely a win for the guy and for us. So and my team being that pretty much most of the time I was on a plane. So I was glad we made it happen for him. Rob Delavan (03:53.469) Wow. Adrian Schermer (04:02.71) Ha ha Rob Delavan (04:02.841) Wow. Moral of the story. You guys are incredible. Also moral of the story. Don't wait till the last minute. Don't put you guys through that. Milissa Ormiston (04:11.547) No, and escrow had been telling the guy for a couple of weeks he needed to reach out and he literally did it the day it was supposed to have happened. Don't put yourself through that stress. Yeah, exactly. Rob Delavan (04:15.454) No cheers. Rob Delavan (04:21.705) No, it's not worth it. Plan ahead, right? Kind of a theme of our entire podcast for the last three years. Awesome. Well, good job. And I, and I'm sure we'll, we'll dig into some more of that, uh, in our event, which, uh, I want to actually talk about our upcoming events. Um, you can go to roi-fa.com/events Adrian Schermer (04:28.024) Hahaha. Milissa Ormiston (04:28.733) I'm sorry. Adrian Schermer (04:30.722) There is a trend. Rob Delavan (04:48.053) Um, and this particular podcast is for our next prequel to our next seminar, uh, which is, um, rentals and 1031 exchanges 7 PM. And that is on October 19th. Um, I will say our next one is November 16th and it's on IRAs, pension, social security, qualified versus non-qualified. Um, don't miss that one, especially as we start getting into end of year tax season, um, and financial planning season. So that's also at 7 p.m. And we invite you to bring a friend and RSVP, and we want to make sure that we have enough room in our space. Lastly, also on the events page, we do have Santa is coming a little bit early this year to the ROI Delavan office over here in Boones Ferry. The event is happening Saturday, November 11th. He was nice enough to Adrian Schermer (05:35.101) Santa! Rob Delavan (05:45.869) RSVP for a couple hours, one to 3 PM. Uh, we will be hosting Santa. Uh, it will actually be just outdoors in a heated tent. So that this year we will not only host families, kids, but also the fur kids, um, and so forth. So, uh, that was a big request last year is people want, um, photos for their Christmas cards and they want them with their fur babies and their kids. So, um, we listened to the feedback. Milissa Ormiston (06:12.751) That's awesome. Adrian Schermer (06:14.582) Those people are weird, man, and I'm one of them. Rob Delavan (06:14.673) Um, so yeah, so definitely looking forward to that. It's, it's going to be fun. Um, the, so I want to jump straight in. Uh, we already got a little bit of a recap of what's going to happen here. So, uh, the first question, Milissa, uh, is what are 1031 basics? Uh, and this is very high level. Um, we could go on forever, but that's what the, uh, seminars for is to really deep, uh, deep dive into it, uh, 1031 basics. Milissa Ormiston (06:17.959) I'm sorry. Rob Delavan (06:43.025) basics defined along with type, timeframes, and then how do we qualify for. Milissa Ormiston (06:47.835) So a couple of things to keep in mind is a 1031, when we're talking about that, we're referring to the section in the IRC tax code. And what this refers to is where an investor can sell an investment real estate property, purchase a replacement investment property, and be able to defer the taxes on the sale of the relinquished property. So this is a way for people to defer the taxes. Preserve that equity and cash available to go into the replacement property so you can buy more investment real estate. It is for those properties that are such as rentals, use of for my business or trade. This is not for flips or new construction. They do not qualify for a 1031 exchange. Timing is, as we just talked about, you need to open up the exchange before you close. That is super key. Like I said, I hate that phone call when they call me up and say, I sold my property. It's like, does that mean you have an accepted offer or transfer of ownership has happened? That's a key element. That's the do or die deadline. Timeframes, really tight, Rob. You only have 45 days from the point of closing to either close on that new property or identify what it is you're going to buy and... Rob Delavan (07:57.501) Mm-hmm. Milissa Ormiston (08:10.743) Identification's a really important deadline that people kind of brush over and go, I need to identify, but I have 180 days to complete the exchange. They wanna jump right to that 180 days, which yes, indeed, I have 180 days to complete the exchange, but when I look at the way real estate really works, most people are never gonna go out 180 days to complete the exchange because... Rob Delavan (08:34.773) Mm-hmm. Milissa Ormiston (08:35.855) Um, typical close of escrow on a transaction is 30, maybe 45 days. So the only time I ever have a client go out 180 days is if it's a big commercial client that's always buying and selling real estate and they have a portfolio of projects that they're looking at buying or new construction. Otherwise, most people are going to close in that first 45 day window or maybe 60 to 75 days, because when I get to that ID. Rob Delavan (09:05.904) Mm-hmm. Milissa Ormiston (09:06.671) Deadline within the exchange, it is super critical and I can never feel like I can stress that enough to people because whatever is identified on day 45 and I'm limited to how much I can identify, I can only buy one of those properties and it's a pretty serious deadline. Rob Delavan (09:21.756) Mm-hmm. And by identify, you basically have to in writing commit to, hey, there's these three properties that are potential candidates for me to replace my sale with. Milissa Ormiston (09:39.651) So that's exactly what people want to say Rob is potential. Here's where I want you to think of it. You're right. I have to, it's a physical step that they take on day 45, which is completely separate than me buying real estate. So we have to kind of keep in mind, there's two things really going on. There's the real estate portion and then the exchange portion. And the exchange is a truly arbitrary date and deadline within the exchange. Rob Delavan (09:44.174) Right. Adrian Schermer (09:45.432) Ha ha ha. Milissa Ormiston (10:07.951) Um, that I have to basically, it's like the IRS drew a line in the sand and said, okay, Rob, now you got to tell me what you're going to buy. You're limited to what you can identify, and then you can only buy one of those. So the way I always want people to think about it is you have something under contract that you intend to purchase. You're going to identify that particular property. And then if you choose to, you can identify additional properties as backups. And like you mentioned, the most commonly used rule is the three property rule. So I can identify up to three properties, but keep in mind, I can only buy one of those properties. If I don't have it under contract, I have zero ability to know at that point, if the seller is going to sell to me or if I can come to an agreement with the seller. This isn't, you know, oh, well, that didn't work. I'll try again. It's a deadline. Rob Delavan (10:34.046) Mm-hmm. Rob Delavan (10:37.894) Right. Rob Delavan (10:51.965) Right. Rob Delavan (10:55.857) Yeah. And that's a, that's. Lance J. Johnson (10:58.864) And sometimes there's issues that arise where, you know, you think you have one type of rental or property and one of the three you identify may not qualify as a same like exchange or? Milissa Ormiston (11:13.455) Not so much that Lance. A lot of times people are confused by the like-kind requirement as long as my I'm selling real estate and buying real estate because that's what we're talking about in a 1031 exchange and but my intention for both what I'm selling and purchasing is for investment purposes or use in business or trade I meet the like-kind requirement so I can go from vacant land to improve property or single family to multifamily, multifamily to commercial. I can also go short term or long term to short term. So it's the intent that's the key element to meeting the like kind requirement. And that's definitely a conversation I'm going to have with somebody upfront. So if they come to me, Lance and say, Hey, you know, I'm buying this, I'm selling this rental property, but I want to buy a primary residence. Well, I'm going to tell them upfront. That doesn't qualify. Rob Delavan (12:05.034) Mm-hmm. Milissa Ormiston (12:05.695) or I want to flip a property. We're going to let them know that doesn't qualify. So that's part of the initial conversation. And that's why people don't want me to be calling me the day they're closing because I want to make sure they understand what qualifies and what doesn't qualify. Lance J. Johnson (12:20.72) I think in our world, one of the questions that normally comes up is, hey, I wanna sell it, I'll just use an example of a client. I wanna retire in Oregon. I wanna, for a number of different reasons. And so I have a rental place and I'll just make up something, Sunriver I wanna rental place on the East Coast, but then eventually I may live in it. How long do they have to rent that property? Milissa Ormiston (12:31.611) Sure. Lance J. Johnson (12:49.06) to qualify and then retire in it. What is, I've heard one year, I've heard two years, I've. Milissa Ormiston (12:56.943) Sure. And of course, we're always going to say, talk to your tax advisor, but to preserve the safe harbor intent. Okay, Lance, that's what we're trying to do with this particular situation is to preserve that my intention was that property was intended for investment purposes when I exchanged into it. They're going to want to wait a full 24 months before they move into that property. Again, that is to preserve the safe harbor intention of that exchange. Now there's another key element to that is if I converted out of investment status after I've exchanged into it, the other key element is I need to hold that property for a minimum of five years before I sell it. I've had several, I've had this happen with several clients this year where they wanted to sell that. property before five years were up and they had converted it out of investment status and working with a couple CPAs on that, that would be a bad thing because what that means is I'm going to get hit with all my taxes I deferred on my previous transaction and on the sale of this property if I sell it before five years are up. There's definitely some key elements to the process as far as converting from Adrian Schermer (14:05.698) Mm. Rob Delavan (14:06.076) We love you. Milissa Ormiston (14:15.563) investment to primary that I want to know and understand because, you know, as we well know, Lance, people do things and then they find out they did it wrong after the. Lance J. Johnson (14:29.216) Well, I just think it's interesting. You got the 45 day and a hundred-eighty which are very important hurdles. But then it's the afterwards where you're not involved. And then they go on and about their daily life and, you know, oh, by the way. Rob Delavan (14:29.492) Hehehe Milissa Ormiston (14:34.567) Thanks. Milissa Ormiston (14:44.551) Yeah, well, you know, if they if they bring up that's what their intention is, I'm definitely going to have that conversation with them so that I make sure that they understand, hey, to preserve your safe harbor intention, you want to wait two years before you move in. The other thing the IRS wants to see you do is make sure that you own it for at least a five year period before you sell the property. If I've exchanged into that property and converted out of investment status. And I explain why and. Rob Delavan (15:11.8) Mm-hmm. Milissa Ormiston (15:13.511) kind of the math of what happens because that's going to jump right into the other tax code that kind of parallels the 1031 and that's the 121 tax code which is for our primary residence and the way that tax code reads and by the way there's a lot of misconception on how that tax code reads as well which is I must own and live in the home as my primary residence for a minimum of two of the last five years. And that actually provides me with an exclusion of gain versus a deferral. So I get to get rid of gain of two fifty as an individual five hundred as a couple. Now, it used to be prior to 2008 that I could just move into my investment property and get that exclusion of gain. Guess what? The IRS realized they had a loophole and they changed that. So it is now a proration of that exclusion based on how many years of ownership. To time and qualified use as a primary home. So they don't get 100% of that 250 or 500 exclusion if it was an investment property first that was then converted into a primary residence. Rob Delavan (16:22.197) Hmm. So you start, you start to get into some jujitsu there. Um, and probably some, some depth that, uh, yeah, we definitely can't cover today, um, uh, Melissa, you did have a basic, like a, a fourplex example of that. Um, can you just tease us? Lance J. Johnson (16:22.804) Yeah, there you go. All right, that's good stuff. Milissa Ormiston (16:24.392) Thank you. Milissa Ormiston (16:28.832) Hahaha! Milissa Ormiston (16:34.73) No, no, not at all. Adrian Schermer (16:41.997) Yeah. Milissa Ormiston (16:42.755) So this is a mixed use exchange, right? A little bit different. Yep. So there's kind of a multitude of ways that the 121 and the 1031 can be combined. One is converting from investment to primary. Another which I know we'll talk about next week is the in primary to investment. Um, and then the other one is what we would refer to as a mixed use exchange, which is primary and investment property. Um, we'll, there's a couple, I typically like to use a duplex, honestly, even though I have in my, my presentation, a fourplex, just because a duplex is such a great visual for everybody, because we can visualize in a 50-50 kind of environment, right? Rob Delavan (17:25.018) Oh, OK. Milissa Ormiston (17:35.691) So if we say that we have a duplex and I live in one half of it and I rent out the other half and both sides are identical, as long as I meet the two in the last five years, the portion I live in would qualify under the 121 exclusion of gain of 250 or 500. And the other half of my property then would qualify for a 1031 exchange for me to defer the capital gains on that portion. So what would happen is Rob Delavan (17:54.325) Mm-hmm. Milissa Ormiston (18:05.079) 50% of the proceeds at the end of the transaction would come to me for my portion that I live in and then 50% of the proceeds would go to the exchange account to do the 1031 exchange and then half of that value would be my replacement value on the new property. So again, easy math, I'm selling a million dollar duplex. I now need to buy a $500,000 replacement property. 50% of the proceeds after all my closing costs would need to go into the new property. And that's how a mixed use exchange, it doesn't have to be that pretty. They can be really convoluted, but that's just a great visual of how a mixed use exchange works. Rob Delavan (18:48.533) So, fellas and audience, are your wheels turning yet? Lance J. Johnson (18:53.772) Well, that's what makes 1031 so exciting. And why, honestly, you have a job because there's all these rules that allow you to take advantage of tax stuff. And then there's all these different, you know, you got short-term rentals, long-term rentals, commercial property. You can mix use them. That's, you could have multiple properties. There's regular 1031. There's reverse 1031. And so those are. Adrian Schermer (18:54.262) my game. Milissa Ormiston (18:58.983) I'm sorry. Lance J. Johnson (19:22.872) Those are all, you know, you start to add up all these combinations of things. And what you get is kind of a good seminar that talks about, Hey, make sure you have somebody just kind of overlooking your, your shoulder, making sure you're dotting your eyes, crossing your T's you're going through all the steps. Make sure you have a professional tax person to help you when the 1031 is not in your sites anymore, before you go selling property, moving into property and things like that. Rob Delavan (19:47.103) Mm-hmm. Lance J. Johnson (19:52.46) And people, you know, then there's, there's federal rules and state rules, right? And so you gotta know. So if I'm starting with a couple of properties in Washington and Oregon, and then you move, you move them all into one place and I'll call it Delaware, where there's no state taxes or Florida for income tax. You just, you just kind of know all the rules and it can be, get complex and fun. I mean, that's actually the sexy part of. the real estate side and the financial and the tax side of things. Rob Delavan (20:21.205) I'm going to go to bed. Milissa Ormiston (20:22.59) Thank you. I don't know, Lance, that people think 1031 exchange taxes is sexy, but I would agree with you. I think it is actually. Lance J. Johnson (20:31.448) Confusing and then therefore, you know, it's like a love hate relationship. So it's sexy on one hand and, and not so sexy on the other end. Adrian Schermer (20:32.656) I do. Yeah. Preparation is sexy. Milissa Ormiston (20:40.599) Exactly. Well, you know, I agree with you 100% because they're the basics, right? 45 days, 180 days, what a fully tax-deferred exchange looks like, identification, what qualifies for like kind. Those are the basics. And that's the part that's probably the easy part that people can maybe read up on their own. And then there's all the little nuances that... You really do need to talk to somebody to make sure you understand what you need to be doing, which makes it fun on my part because it is a little bit like a puzzle, right? There's some people have this puzzle they're trying to put together, and sometimes they're trying to stuff the pieces together not quite right. And my job is to kind of help them move those pieces around so they fit together correctly. Rob Delavan (21:32.157) Yeah. Well, this is, this is going to be fun. I want to leave it there. Let's, let's, let's leave some room to explore here. So, I mean, it's obviously a powerful tool. We're going to, to defer taxes, right? We've got to use the right words within our real estate and investment endeavors. It's also obviously confusing, misunderstood, and all of these assumptions are made. So, we are hosting. Uh, Milissa of IPX exchange, uh, and Jan of James Keep & Company and Lance Johnson with ROI financial, um, as an expert panel on the 19th of October, uh, 7 PM. I will be the MC and, uh, we're just looking forward to unpacking and, uh, this topic more, uh, and also just opening up questions from the audience. That's where it really gets interesting. We've had some, uh, Adrian Schermer (22:06.003) Mm-hmm. Rob Delavan (22:28.145) Some cool stuff happened and we have podcasts in the past that we've released with Milissa, Milissa and Lance. You guys really started playing with those puzzle pieces on some, uh, so it kind of geeking out on this, which, uh, we'll have a lot. Milissa Ormiston (22:35.239) Yes. Lance J. Johnson (22:39.188) Well, I mean, I see this. I see this, the first one is just being an introduction to clients and what you get into really quickly is all these like just scenarios. You know, it's like, I just got back from a hockey tournament with my kids and it's just many different dynamics that happens. And it's like watching a hockey game. Sometimes it ends up in a fight. Sometimes it's a great game. It's just, it's just very interesting. And Rob Delavan (22:51.828) Yes. Milissa Ormiston (23:02.407) I'm sorry. Adrian Schermer (23:03.801) Hahaha! Lance J. Johnson (23:07.552) And like I said, to me is, you know, anytime we can educate our clients, add value to their situation, explore options for them, because sometimes it's, you know, sometimes commercial is the better way to go. Sometimes it's vacation rentals, sometimes it's long-term rentals. Sometimes it's not in the state you wanna live in if your long-term goals is to retire somewhere else, you know, so I think that's the fun part of the planning is really helping them think out. Rob Delavan (23:14.953) Now. Lance J. Johnson (23:35.984) Estate taxes, income taxes, real estate, you know, exclusions, you name it. So it's fun. Rob Delavan (23:41.905) Right. Um, so RSVP, uh, www.roi-fa.com/events Um, we invite you to bring a friend seven to 8 PM on the 19th. That is a Thursday of October. Uh, you guys will be glad you did. You'll get to experience the full hockey 1031 exchange analogy. Adrian Schermer (24:02.262) Hahaha! Lance J. Johnson (24:02.936) Yes, yes, you know I was going to bring it in at some point in time. Milissa Ormiston (24:05.223) This looks like a half-gate, but it's already on the page. Rob Delavan (24:07.825) There you go. You've never you've never experienced that before right Milissa, even though you've talked about this a thousand times our websites are again roi-fa.com , delavan-realty.com directorsmortgage.com and We'll have links on our PowerPoint here. Also, you can reach out to Milissa at IPX1031.com/ormiston Milissa Ormiston (24:13.461) I'm looking forward to it. Rob Delavan (24:35.605) And appreciate everybody for listening and looking forward to this event. Milissa Ormiston (24:47.835) Thanks for having me. Rob Delavan (24:49.257) Thanks guys. Adrian Schermer (24:50.21) Thanks everyone. We'll catch you next time on the Get Rich Slow podcast. Lance J. Johnson (24:50.253) Thank you. Rob Delavan (24:53.578) Bye bye.
77.News of Interest Rate Drop
25-08-2023
77.News of Interest Rate Drop
Tune in today as Adrian, Rob, and Lance talk about news of a recent interest rate drop in an article from CNBC “Mortgage demand jumps nearly 28% in one week, as interest rates drop to lowest point in months” Published Wed, Jan 18 2023 7:00am. We’ll share our thoughts on this article and then take a deep dive on the best strategies for buying and refinancing in this changing market.   Links & Resources Mentioned: Referenced Article: https://bit.ly/interest-rates-drop ROI Disclosures: https://tinyurl.com/msywepvw Adrian Schermer @ Directors Mortgage: https://www.directorsmortgage.com/loan-officer/adrian-schermer Rob Delavan @ Delavan Realty: https://delavan-realty.com Lance Johnson @ ROI Financial: https://roi-fa.com Events: https://roi-fa.com/events   Transcript: Adrian Schermer: Hello future millionaires and welcome back to the get rich slow podcast. We're your hosts, Adrian Shermer, Rob Delavan and Lance Johnson.   Robert Delavan: Good morning, fellas.   Lance Johnson: Good morning everybody.   Robert Delavan: Nice to see you, bright and early.   Adrian Schermer: Good morning guys.   Adrian Schermer: Today we are going to be digging into a fresh topic. You can reach us online at Apple podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Amazon, and along with a number of other streaming platforms. We're also on YouTube if you'd like to see our smiling faces. If you'd like to get links to all of this, including our own personal sites, you can go to getrichslowpodcast.com for more information. And today's episode is about mortgage demand. We've seen a jump in mortgage demand as interest rates are dropping. This is going to reference a CNBC article. The link is in the show notes, as well as a quick short link that you can get to through Bitly. And it's pretty interesting.   Robert Delavan: Yeah, and this is the end of January, right? So 2023. It's, it applies to right now but what's really interesting is when it's really the concepts that matter here, because rates are gonna go up and down.   Adrian Schermer: Yeah, this is real fresh bleeding edge data. I'm usually more interested in seeing how the ninth month, I'm sorry, 90 day rolling averages end up looking. But it's an indicator as we enter a new season, you know, as we break past the holiday, this is as much data as we have so far and we're seeing some indicators. So what are those indicators? Well, there's an increase in mortgage demand by 28% in just one week. As interest rates drop, it's the lowest point it's been in months. Applications to purchase a home increased by 25% week to week, and while that can be a bit anecdotal, again, we want to look at larger totals when we talk about data like this, or I like to. It's still an indicator of where things are trending at least. We'll see how it shapes out. But let's take an aside real quick. Rob, you had a success story to share with us?   Robert Delavan: Oh yeah, so my mom actually took a fall three, four weeks ago, Lance, Adrian, you both were very aware of it. Thank you guys for the well wishes there. And just, and initially we thought she really hurt her knee. It really ended up just being kind of a bruise. She's in her seventies, you know, and had some health issues, and this morning was the first time in about three and a half weeks that she came over and... helped me get the kids ready and I took off and had business meetings and all that sort of thing. And she's driving and she's mobile. And she said she she walked around Fred Myers yesterday. And she wasn't sore today. So just a big personal milestone, you know, you guys both know her well and...   Adrian Schermer: Such a sweet lady.   Robert Delavan: you know, just wishing good things for Marsha and so forth. So   Adrian Schermer: Yes.   Robert Delavan: that's all, big success story, and my kids were very happy to see her this morning.   Adrian Schermer: Oh, I bet.   Lance Johnson: Well, mobility is half the battle in retirement, right? So you start to lose mobility and depression sets in and people get heavier and all sorts of medical stuff. So mobility is one of the biggest things that we see with clients. So,   Adrian Schermer: Yeah, even if it's a shuffle, if you can keep your legs under you, keep em moving.   Robert Delavan: Yep. Hey, just, just yeah exactly. Keep moving. Love it. All right. Keep us, keep us moving fellas.   Lance Johnson: So, well, let's start off with the first question to Adrian. With interest rates rates dropping, what does that mean for somebody who recently got a loan?   Adrian Schermer: Oh man, you missed out man. Terrible time. You shouldn't have done it. No, I'm just kidding. What it means for someone who's getting a loan is that we're seeing a trend in the direction that you probably were hoping for. We had this great saying that I loved kicking around, marry the home, date the rate. So especially for a lot of buyers, they were looking at their payment as, you know, obviously you gotta qualify for it, you shouldn't grab something that's above budget, but, you may have a lower payment in the future. This may be a temporary thing, you know, based on market indicators and what experts are saying. We were kind of at a high point. So where rates are right now, it's probably not big enough, we'll chew into this more in a second, to justify doing a refinance. But things are moving in the right direction and you should probably be checking out, hey, where's the market at at least every couple of months to try to figure out where that sweet spot is for refi.   Robert Delavan: Is there a general rule, and this is actually really Lance and Adrian, like, you know, do you kind of like, is it 1%? is it 2%? You know, and obviously like APR and those conversations go into this, but let's assume everything is equal apples to apples when you start thinking about that, or at least the antennae go up.   Adrian Schermer: Yeah, I've heard the 2% rule. What have you heard, Lance? What's the...   Lance Johnson: Usually the numbers are 1% when you're doing rate term to rate term versus   Adrian Schermer: Mm-hmm.   Lance Johnson: somebody does a remodel, they got credit card debts on that remodel, you know, and they have a line of credit and that interest rate is higher versus the current rate, but then the fixed rates have dropped whereas, you know, then that's a little different because now you're consolidating. And then, you know, sometimes like we looked at today, you know. Sometimes 15 year rates and 30 year rates are really far apart.   Adrian Schermer: Yeah.   Lance Johnson: And so, you know, you could go to that 15 year and really save some money on the backend and it's not going to crush your front end monthly payment. And then sometimes those are interest rates or 25 basis points where, you know, you're better off doing a 30 year and then making payments like that. So it really depends on the spread between those 30 and 15 year and, you know, getting 1% or more so that the fixed closing costs don't really eat away at your refinancing benefits.   Robert Delavan: So I'll sum up the concept that you really need to be talking to your financial advisor, your lender, you have to have a plan in place.   Adrian Schermer: Yeah, yeah, your mileage may vary right? This is like our phrase of the month but you’ve got to do the math   Lance Johnson: We try to figure out the break even we got to figure out, you know, how long is it you're going to break even on the two mortgages? You know, you could be four years out and who knows, you might not even be in this house. So you then have to figure out the upfront cost versus cost over time scenario. So yeah, I think just having sorts of conversations in refinance after you just did a loan and then usually you have to wait, what, six months to 12 months before you can do that again.   Adrian Schermer: Yeah,   Robert Delavan: Would you mind, one of you, mind kind of playing out the Reader's Digest 45 second payback period, number of months, interest rate variance, that sort of thing, with actual numbers? Just kind of play with this concept of if you're saving $100. Anyway, I don't want to do it for you guys, but you know the drill.   Adrian Schermer: Yeah, and so I'm going to have to play only with hypotheticals here because   Robert Delavan: Yes.   Adrian Schermer: it's it's there's going to be so much variance, and if you watch some of our episodes about what closing costs consist of, then you'll know this could be thousands, tens of thousands of dollars in range, depending on how you decide to do it, if you decide to buy a lower rate, etc but usually the math is honestly pretty simple. Closing costs divided by savings is one way that we calculate break even point. Generally, if it's less than a couple of years, it can be good, but Lance, I think you might speak with more wisdom to this is the idea that, you know, we saw this as well after 2009 and entering that when rates were lower, we had people where they would come and hop and they would do like three refinances in a row because rates would drop again and then they would do it, and again, and again, and there's a certain point where you do it, and then you do the next one so soon that you, you burn up the money that you saved in the refi, because you got to pay closing costs all over again.   Lance Johnson: Yeah, I mean, it is a simple calculation of cost minus the savings per month. You know how many months before you break even and you know, and you have to kind of weigh, do I take a slightly higher rate if they've come down significantly to not do an upfront cost? And it really depends on are you in this house for the next 15 years or, you know, you're in it for the next five years and you're moving on. And that might sway what rate you take versus what upfront cost you take.   Adrian Schermer: And I got to say, Lance, you raised a huge point earlier. The 15-year, I cannot stress enough, if you got used to that 30-year payment, if you locked in above 7% when you bought your house, and then a 15-year is potentially in, let's say, the fives, or if we see that slide into the fours .Yes you're going to pay more per month because of the 15-year pay term, right? Like a 15-year, if it was apples to apples, but when you factor in. a difference in rate that is potentially 2% or more, you may find that it is; that delta is much, much smaller, and you might go; I think that's advice that I'm definitely going to be giving my clients when they call for that refi is: Hey, let me just pass you the numbers for a 15 and consider the concept, especially if you're dropping mortgage insurance in the process, let's say, you bought that house with less than 20% down back when rates were, you know, well above 7%, and maybe you didn't do a buy down because you you had this belief with the rest of the market that hey, rates are going to make their way back down. Comparing to a 15 year, I think it's gonna be a super, super smart decision for some people to make, hey, I'm used to this bigger payment. Why don't I turn this into time off my loan instead of a lower payment at this point?   Robert Delavan: Yeah, and I've heard Lance give that advice quite a bit over the years is, eh, you want to look at this. What's your cashflow situation? And then of course it comes into like, you know, um, what's your income? Do you have tolerance for that within your budget?   Adrian Schermer: Yeah.   Robert Delavan: You know, there's a whole domino effect and that's the, I guess that's the piece. And Lance, I think I jumped it on a little bit here on question two for you, but   Adrian Schermer: That's good, we rolled through it.   Robert Delavan: kind of talking about   Adrian Schermer: Lance has taught me to love the 15 year again. I love it.   Robert Delavan: kind of penciling out here, so of what works. So.   Lance Johnson: Yes, that's been two episodes in a row that you've gone into question two. You…   Adrian Schermer: We're just so organic guys.   Lance Johnson: yes, yes.   Robert Delavan: I get so excited.   Lance Johnson: I think we, I think we did answer question two. What sort of savings are we talking about? It does it pencil out if you add closing costs and other fees and you know, you gotta, you gotta look at my big thing is numbers don't lie. Just people lie about numbers.    Adrian Schermer: Hahaha   Lance Johnson: …and so I think you just let the numbers speak for themselves.   Robert Delavan: Right.   Lance Johnson: I think a good advisor will point out what is a 30, what is a 15, what is a 5, what is a 7/1 ARM, 10/1 ARM, and those numbers are always changing. So like a month and a half ago, the 5 and 7/1 ARMs were very attractive over the 15 and 30 years, and so 15 and 30 were similar, 5/1 ARMs, 7/1 ARMs were very attractive. Now here we are a month and a half later, and the 15 year’s really attractive. and the 7 and 5/1 ARM is really not much different than the 30. And so those change on a week to week basis…   Adrian Schermer: Yeah.   Lance Johnson: …depending on, you know, the companies are looking what their revenue streams and what they're looking for for portfolio. You know, they package these things   Robert Delavan: Mm-hmm.   Adrian Schermer: That's a great point, yeah.   Lance Johnson: And so, you know, you just got to kind of look at all four and let the numbers speak for themselves, and you know, if you're going to spend cost on on closing costs, you know, try to wrap in as much of the debt, if you have consumer debt, or other things to free up cashflow. And then there's a whole planning sequence that goes along with consolidated debt and stuff.   Robert Delavan: Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely.   Adrian Schermer: Yeah, that's why I've liked working with you, Lance, too, because it's there's a core concept that I want to throw out there. I as a lender, I can't tell you what to do. I could present you a 30 year, 15 year, maybe a couple rate options for both, and you and I, we've worked with clients before who I have felt have chosen the, air quotes, wrong answer. And it just was because it didn't pencil out. Maybe it's buying too much rate, you know, spending too much on an interest rate, in my opinion based on the turn time they have for a property. Having someone like Lance, who is is more obligated towards giving you the advice for your end financials who has the fiduciary responsibility to tell you which path seems the right based on your goals, and just have a second sounding board because at the end of the day, if a client pushes for one product or another, whether I think it's a good idea or not is not my… I can give my opinion and nothing else, at the end of the day, I take the order, and that's part of the way that I'm regulated. I'm not supposed to push people. I'm not supposed to say no, you know,  if they want to make a decision like that.   Lance Johnson: Yeah,   Adrian Schermer: And Lance, I know you've helped a lot of people.   Lance Johnson: and I also know in talking with a lot of mortgage brokers, not necessarily you, you're not going to push things, but you're not going to disclose all things. I think you do a better job, but a lot of mortgage broker, here's the two options you have. Well, they have more than two options. It just takes a lot more work to present all options, and so sometimes I like to give more than two options because if you're not pushing something, but you're only given two options and they have 10 options. You're not really disclosing all the options they have.   Adrian Schermer: Mm-hmm.   Lance Johnson: You're really kind of focusing, narrowing them down to a direction you want to go in. I'm not saying you do this, I've seen this with other mortgage people. And so I often like to throw in ones I know they're not going to do just so they can see what the market is bearing, and so then it's easier to make a decision that this is the better option when you see all options or as many as you can. I mean, sometimes I think you get into paralysis by analysis and some clients get that, and so too many options really debilitates them. Nut too little doesn't give them all the options, so I try to flush those out a little bit. Alright, so Rob, let me give you a question. If I'm a buyer who's on the fence, would now be a good time to purchase? Yes or no?   Robert Delavan: Well, it depends, your mileage may vary, right? Yes, if you're in a good spot, good employment, looking for, hey, I just couldn't pay as much or didn't want to pay as much for a home 12 months ago when the market was very different and a seller's market. And now it's a buyer's market or at least the trends are going that way, nationally, and the, we're getting deals. You know, we're able to get closing cost concessions, we're able to get, you know, prices where we're not competing against 30 different; 30 different offers or you know hundred thousand over to get the property and that sort of thing. The flip side of that, the counter argument is, well rates are higher, so the monthly payments more. So, you know and we've and we've covered that, now rates have dropped and we address that a bit in this episode, and then the concept of dating the rate versus buying the house and having a plan in place. So you know the question is, is, I hate to say this, yes and no, or maybe. With that said, what really pushes things over the edge is; where are they at in a life cycle, in addition to their financials and their finances and that sort of thing. Regardless of the, you actually used the term Lance, which I've used before on the market the last six months, it was kind of as rates like really spiked from the threes to the sevens over the last 12 months there was almost analysis paralysis by the entire market in real estate, just like, you know, what the hell do we do?   Adrian Schermer: Yeah.   Robert Delavan: And payments are so much higher and prices haven't come down that much, and, you know, everybody's just kind of was sitting and waiting and volume in the market just, you know, went through the floor. And now with this, the data that we have, which we quoted and so forth, in this article that we were discussing, things are jumping back up, and in theory, when more people enter into the buying market, that's going to affect demand. So in theory, that would then improve prices or at least stabilize things and kind of pop them up for the spring, which is normal. During that six months or so where the market was, eh you know, kind of sitting, hanging, paralyzed market if you will. People were still, you know, having kids. People were being born, people were dying, people were changing jobs, getting jobs, losing jobs. You know, getting married, all of the things that drive the housing market to do transactions, those were still happening, even though we were seeing a lot less volume. So people were sitting and waiting. Well, at some point, and I think we saw a little bit of it with a little bit of interest rate pressure, there's this, you know, pent up demand a little bit. So we'll see where that goes. It's gonna be fun. I wanna do multiple, well frankly, we'll do multiple kind of state of the market updates and have these types of discussions and podcasts throughout the year of, hey, what's happening in the short term versus the 90 day, six months, 12 months, that sort of thing. But right now I see people jumping in, especially with the data that's been presented here, and my brokerage is seeing an uptick in volume. Buyers are jumping back in. Sellers are saying, ‘well, maybe this spring will be a little better’. We're looking at all of those data points. But the life events aren't changing. Or I guess I should say the life events are still happening. And Lance, you see that every day, I mean…   Adrian Schermer: Yeah.   Lance Johnson: Yeah, well, I mean, Ithink I tell clients that, you know, we're not probably going to get the deals like we did in 08, 09.   Robert Delavan: Right.   Lance Johnson: There was, you know, some people might claim that there was felt like there was some fraudulent activity around the, you know, different institutions and stuff.   Robert Delavan: Sure.   Lance Johnson: and so, you know, fair disclosure and transparency wasn't quite there.   Adrian Schermer: Yeah.   Robert Delavan: Right.   Lance Johnson: And so you had six, six and a half million people lose their homes, which was unprecedented in America. So we're not going to have something like that. But what you are going to have is are they going to be layoffs? Yes, they're already happening.   Robert Delavan: Yes, right.   Lance Johnson: Are people going to be moving? Yes.   Robert Delavan: Yes.   Lance Johnson: You know, are they going to have to give up a old interest rate of 2.625 because they got moved from Portland to Nashville or whatever. You know.   Robert Delavan: Mm-hmm.   Lance Johnson: There's all sorts of stuff. What I’m telling clients is you know selling a weeks with…   Robert Delavan: Right.   Lance Johnson: …you know 25 offers more planning involved   Robert Delavan: Mm-hmm.   Lance Johnson: and if it's a rental and you have laws protecting and you have to give disclosures of when they move out and timing of everything’s gunna take place and so I tell people get looking, find out where you want to be, do a little bit ahead of time. I just think the cycle's longer right now.   Adrian Schermer: Mm-hmm.   Robert Delavan: Yep. Yep.   Lance Johnson: But when you find that place, you're still gonna have to be ready to act because those diamond and roughs are gonna be there.   Robert Delavan: Mm-hmm.   Lance Johnson: Good deal, somebody willing, somebody that has to move and they're looking for that first buyer and you're the first or the 15th?   Robert Delavan: Yeah,   Lance Johnson: …you know, so.   Robert Delavan: yeah, and we're getting back to that, and what's probably a good point to tie a bow on that, Lance, is a normal market is balanced. I guess this will probably kind of bring us into the final thoughts here. A normal market is, they say, about six months supply is normal versus we've experienced less than two months, and these crazy hot markets and all of these things, nd at the end of the day, like, ah, we can get better deals, we can negotiate better deals. There are those opportunities out there, and I think that's probably the biggest message is, be ready for that opportunity, you know, and I appreciate you pointing that out. You know, the client has to be ready. Adrian, that client has to be pre-approved. Their finances have to be done you know   Adrian Schermer: Yeah, yeah, I would share that opinion with you, and it should vary to, depending on situation. If you're thinking to yourself, I need to, I need to own a house for two years and then I'm out of this town. Maybe this wouldn't be the best time because like you're saying, Lance, you know, we may have a push from unemployment and that may impact values. If you plan to own this house for 5, 7, 15 years, you know, like your kids are going to graduate high school before you move out of this place. Buying represents potentially a lower risk to you because it matters less what happens a year down the road. What matters more is what the value is gonna be at the end of that 15 years. So playing the waiting game and gambling on what the market is going to do, I would probably say if it's the right time for you, don't make that gamble. Instead, just if the right house is there, take advantage like you said Rob of the fact that it is leaning more towards a buyer's advantage market where you can get seller credits, where you can get a little more negotiation, where you don't have to send in an offer without seeing it, that's overestimated value, to enter into a 40 offer feeding frenzy you might be in a more comfortable shopping position, which I personally and I think you guys would agree. I find that more ethical just on the front of, of like it not being a high pressure sales environment necessarily. When you're making a six figure purchase, you can maybe sleep on it and then make an offer and not feel like you're losing position because you didn't slap money on the table the second you walked in the door.   Robert Delavan: Yeah, it's awful nice to be able to have a little more even bargaining at the table, so to speak. So final thoughts here, that's a wrap for our episode. I thank everybody for tuning in. We have some exciting stuff moving forward that we're very much preparing for this year, for 2023. As always, our websites are here, we have delavan-realty.com, roi-fa.com, and Adrian at directorsmortgage.com, and then we do have, as always, our disclosures and the specifics of the, if you wanna look up that article, go ahead and jump into that. That'll be in the show notes as well as the PowerPoint. Thank you all for listening, and we'll catch you next time on the Get Rich Slow Podcast. Thank you fellas.
76. Buyer Credit and Seller Concessions
03-08-2023
76. Buyer Credit and Seller Concessions
Buyer Credit and Seller Concessions   Tune in today as Adrian, Rob, and Lance talk about buyer credits and seller concessions. We’ll dive into what these are and how you can leverage them to your advantage in your next real estate transaction.   Seller Concession Caps  Conventional Loan for the purchase of a Primary Residence Less than 10% down - 3% of purchase price 10% or more but less than 25% down - 6% of purchase price 25% down or more - 9% of purchase price FHA or USDA Purchase 6% of purchase price VA Purchase 4% of purchase price   (confirmed May 2023 - subject to change)   Links & Resources Mentioned: Referenced Article: https://www.realtor.com/advice/sell/what-are-seller-concessions/ ROI Disclosures: https://tinyurl.com/msywepvw Adrian Schermer @ Directors Mortgage: https://www.directorsmortgage.com/loan-officer/adrian-schermer Rob Delavan @ Delavan Realty: https://delavan-realty.com Lance Johnson @ ROI Financial: https://roi-fa.com Events: https://roi-fa.com/events Transcript: Adrian Schermer: Hello future millionaires and welcome back to The Get Rich Slow Podcast. We are your hosts, Adrian Schermer, Robert Delavan and Mr. Brilliant at the basics, Lance Johnson. Good morning gentlemen!   Robert Delavan: Good morning, happy to be here.   Lance Johnson: Good morning there, Adrian. Good to be back. Back in the saddle   Adrian Schermer: Yes, back in the saddle. You can watch The Get Rich Slow Podcast, or I should say you can listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, as well as a few other platforms that are smaller. We are also on YouTube if you'd like to see the video, and you can follow along with the presentation that we have with some slides showing what we're attacking. And today, this week, we're gonna talk about some... seller credits and I want to start this off by talking about a big win I had with Rob's team. We were doing a purchase. We had a first-time home buyer, which is always awesome. They really wanted to have a seller credit to assist them with closing costs. We've talked about this before, you've got your down payment, but seller or closing costs can be something that especially first-time home buyers don't necessarily expect and it's great if we can have the seller pay for that. We're going to chew into that a little bit more in the episode. But in this particular case, we had someone with an accepted offer. It had a $10,000 seller credit on it. We actually got a little bit more because of some needed repairs on the property after the inspection, which…   Robert Delavan: Mm-hmm.   Adrian Schermer: …is a whole episode on its own. But the property still also appraised for 10,000 over the contract price.   Robert Delavan: Mmmhmm.   Adrian Schermer: And we'll dig into this a bit more what that really means, but I'll tell you, the end result is that this client effectively won $20,000 thanks to excellent negotiation and just the way that seller credit works you know? They bought the house, the seller paid for $10,000 of their closing costs, and it's still appraised for over.   Robert Delavan: That was a killer deal, and we can use the term “won”. I prefer to say that it was leveraging what the market will allow right now. And this is winner 2023 so... But yeah…   Adrian Schermer: Mm-hmm.   Robert Delavan: …it was a total win. I mean, the clients were ecstatic with getting a new house and having less cash out of their pocket through this process.   Lance Johnson: And just think about it a year ago, you know, interest rates are down coming out of a great market during a pandemic, which, whole separate episode.   Robert Delavan: Mm-hmm.   Adrian Schermer: Yep.   Robert Delavan: Mm-hmm.   Adrian Schermer: Yep.   Robert Delavan: Right.   Lance Johnson: And people were paying 150,000 over asking price, having to come in with money because it wouldn't appraise, and you feel like a win because you're getting a seller concession, which we haven't seen for a while.   Robert Delavan: Right.   Lance Johnson: What a change from a year ago.   Robert Delavan: Yeah.   Lance Johnson: you know, just great.   Adrian Schermer: Oh, yeah. Yeah. We all heard the stories, right? 10, 20, 30, 50, 100,000 over market value houses selling for.   Robert Delavan: Yeah.   Adrian Schermer: The demand super, super high, and this is kind of one of these advantages. There's always a win, right? Like there's no, I don't want to say there's no bad market, but it's true. It could be bad for one party or the other, but generally, you know, it's a matter of negotiating advantage, right?   Robert Delavan: Yeah, exactly. So this will be a fun episode. Today's episode we're going to focus on buyer credit and seller concessions as you guys probably are already kind of figuring out. We do work on a Realtor.com article that we're pulling from, that just had a advice, sell, what are seller concessions, that sort of thing. So we have a baseline there and that'll be linked in the episode disclosures and so forth. But we're looking forward to this, this episode and we're going to dive in a little more. Throw it to the next slide Adrian. So What we're really going to cover is what is the seller credit and seller concession, how to use it, cap amounts some stories. Lance is I think gonna pick our brains a little bit and then we'll round robin it. The biggest thing to know with these seller concessions is they create a win-win for the seller and buyer. Even though the seller’s giving something up. There's definitely some advantages in this market and we can talk about that, and like I said, we'll be working through some scenarios.   Lance Johnson: Great, well, let me kick this off, and you guys are both in real estate, right? Adrian in mortgage and Rob in real estate and construction and property management. What is a seller credit for people that don't know? Kind of dumb it down for people like me and just make it simple, and what is a credit versus a concession? And talk us through that.   Adrian Schermer: Great. So the first one, seller credit, seller concession, sometimes called buyer credit as well, although it's a bit of a misnomer, all the same thing. The seller is paying for some of the closing costs and it's an allowed process. You're not allowed, a seller can't contribute usually to say a down payment. There's rare cases where that's allowed, usually between family members, but they can contribute to the closing costs, which are, especially for folks doing a lower down payment, can be as much as their down payment in some cases. So it's a great way to cut down that cost and the accessibility to that potential buyer. And   Robert Delavan: So examples,   Lance Johnson: Yeah, so what are some of the costs associated that they can pay down? So, you know, like things that I know about are points and, you know, there's prepaids, so, you know, if you're having your real estate taxes paid for, and insurance, there's actual costs associated based on the rates. So walk me through some of the things they can and can't do.   Adrian Schermer: Yeah, absolutely. For most lenders, you're going to have a flat fee that we charge in order to do the loan itself, and that's how we keep the lights on, we keep everybody paid. Points themselves, you can have a cost for buying a lower than what would be considered market or par rate. That could also be a credit, although at this time in the marketplace, we're generally seeing more of a cost for given rate being a more popular option. We've got state and government recording fees, title costs, including title insurance and the cost to file all of that paperwork. It could be a notary cost if someone's going to come out to you, and it's also, as you mentioned, the impounds. We've got taxes and insurance. You're going to pay the seller for the remainder of the year that they had paid for the last time taxes were due. You're going to pay for your first year of homeowners insurance, and in the case that you have an escrow account that... Part of your payment each month is going to include 1/12th of your taxes and insurance. That escrow account is going to be set up with a two month buffer, because we know taxes and insurance are probably gonna go up year by year, and then enough money seeded so that as you make your first payment, you're on track. That 1/12th of taxes and insurance is going to be, you know, added to a pile that already exists so that when taxes come due in say, October like it is here in Oregon, there's going to be enough money in there to make that payment. And as I mentioned that cost I have seen that hit 3% or even more of the transaction in many cases. Your mileage may vary and state to state. You're certainly gonna see a big difference. I remember when I used to do loans in New York Super high property taxes that amount of money could be a serious chunk of change   Lance Johnson: Yeah.   Robert Delavan: And then also walk through, well, and maybe you don't see these as much, Adrian, but on the, you could also call a credit or concession would be like repairs, and that would be the condition of the house. Just to use a few examples, let's say certain types of lending require you can't have any exterior paint that's peeling.   Adrian Schermer: Mm-hmm.   Robert Delavan: So let's say there's some repairs that would be needed and required by the lender. There's also just the normal inspection items. Let's say there's radon, you know, high levels of radon coming up from the crawl space or the basement and that needs to be taken care of, mitigated and you know, that's a couple thousand dollars typically in our market. Something like that where, or, hey, there's a rotted deck or the roof is leaking or I mean the list goes on and on and on. Every structure has its issues, even brand new construction. there are always things. So there's also ability for concessions for repairs in addition to the traditional closing costs that you already laid out.   Adrian Schermer: Yeah, absolutely, and any of those that are paid directly to a vendor, like we're having the roof repaired by a roofing company, those don't count within the closing cost bucket. So they won't hit any of the closing cost limits because there are caps on what percentage of the purchase price these concessions can be, depending on the loan type, and I'll chew into that in a second. But as you're mentioning, Rob, you know, sometimes we get this “Hey, the floor is damaged” - “Well, we don't want to repair the floor before closing, it's gonna take two months for a floor guy to get out. We want to close now. So that repair is gonna be a thousand dollars. Why don't we give that in the form of a seller concession?” The Seller is going to pay a thousand dollars with your closing costs that frees up a thousand dollars in your pocket when you go to closing, and then you can use that to your discretion to get that repair done, and I believe actually in our example even We had that $10,000 seller credit initially. I know that we grabbed another couple thousand in that sort of, it's that inspection, right? You do that inspection, the scratch and dent special. It reminds me of like bringing your dad or your uncle to buy your first car. If they're good, they're gonna run over that and go, hey, is that a little scratch on the fender? You gotta knock some money off the price. Same concept here, but applying…   Robert Delavan: Right, right..   Adrian Schermer: …it in a way that saves you money at the right time.   Robert Delavan: Right. Yeah, that's a, that's an interesting, which actually nicely segs us to question two, and Lance, let's see, you could target, you could target Adrian or I on that one, whichever dealer's choice.   Lance Johnson: Well, yeah, I mean, I did have a follow up question on the, you know, it seems like one instance is it's around the repairs and they can, you know, the inspection, and then on other instances, it's, you know, there could be a gray area there. So there's negotiations, right? Like, so the floor could be 1000 could be 4000 depends on how, how deep you want to get in. So if there was flooring in a bathroom and you have to get to the other sub floors and stuff like that and there's rotting and mold and stuff, it could really amount up, and so that's where real estate agents like yourself have to go in and say, okay, you know, here's a high end, here's a low end. Obviously the seller wants low end, the buyer wants high end. There's a negotiation and that's... Sometimes an arm length transaction is helpful, right? So you can take the emotion out of it and stuff.   Robert Delavan: Yeah.   Lance Johnson: Well, let me ask that. So how do you use the seller credits, both the seller side and the buyer side of the transaction? Scenario one, offset the cost of repairs of a home inspection, which you guys were alluding to. Sweeten the deal for an on-the-fence buyer. So a buyer likes the house, but not sure if they want to make it. Maybe the numbers are at their top end. Incentivize buyers to stay in the deal when there's lots of competition in inspection. So it seems like competition really kind of sets if you have 10 buyers and they're negotiating, you know, we saw where there was no concessions, but now that inventory is greater and now things, you know, interest rates are higher, there's less buyers, that now you're starting to see some of this stuff. And that really has a mark on. the credits of the seller side.   Robert Delavan: Yeah.   Lance Johnson: So why don't you guys speak on that?   Robert Delavan: And that's a big piece of this. Adrian, you're gonna have your take on this from a lending side, and that's really gonna then kick into kind of the third piece we wanted to look at is like the caps and so forth. But yeah, Lance, you're exactly right. The first two scenarios here are similar in that we're not really dealing with you're dealing with repairs, you're dealing with sweetening the deal. Number three is where it really starts kicking in, competition and so forth. But it's market trends. So the first scenario is just, hey, this buyer, they’re looking at a, and remember, we're in the Portland market, just building out a typical scenario that we'll see a $400,000 home. And it just, that the deck is going to cost 20 grand to redo. You know, and the roof needs to be repaired. It's, you know, 10, 15 year old roof and it hasn't been well maintained. Well, that piece, your typical buyer who's kind of entry level, first timer, that sort of thing, they just can't afford to pay closing costs, down payment, all that sort of thing, and do all these repairs on the house. They just can't do it. So that's the piece where the seller from the get-go is just gonna disclose, hey, guess what? This roof isn't great. We'll make sure you give a roof cert or do repairs or replace, you know, depending on how bad the deck is, that sort of thing. So make it so that there's not as much dollars out in that time where that buyer is most vulnerable. Which is when they're buying the house, you know? They've saved every last dollar that they can possibly come up with, begged, borrowed and steal to get that down payment. Especially the first timers.   Lance Johnson: Well, it seems like it's a moving target where they go in and it’s a  $400,000 house. Some cases the price might have gone up a little bit, maybe not so much anymore. It's stayed flat. But then interest rates go up by the time they close or lock in their loan, and now the payment's 400 bucks, 300 bucks more than they anticipate when interest rates were rising on a month-to-month basis. So... Yeah, and you know, top end is top end. Nobody wants to feel house poor. So,   Robert Delavan: Exactly, exactly.   Lance Johnson: yeah.   Robert Delavan: So that makes a big difference. Another piece, and this was in this article, that we referred to and have in our disclosures here, is basically just being in a position to like sweeten the deal for that buyer that's picking your house versus the one up the street. “Hey, we're gonna do a new deck” or, more common. “We're gonna certify that the HVAC system is in good working order” per manufacturer specs. We're also going to provide a home warranty so that…   Adrian Schermer: Oh yeah.   Robert Delavan: …if in the first year, if the washer dryer or HVAC or any of the systems within the house that would be expensive to replace, for think appliances and so forth, that those sorts of things would be covered for that buyer. So it's just like, kind of more of an incentivization. “Hey, pick our house versus the next guy. We've done more due diligence upfront.” The third scenario, and I really want to give you guys a chance to kind of comment on this, is this is where you're really like at that point where you're almost through the inspection period, this buyer knows that it's getting to the point where it's really a buyer's market and they have the opportunity to go to a number of other properties, or at least they're presenting that they can do that, and they're like, “ah I don't know”. When there's competition in the market for that buyer. and more sellers than there are buyers, let's incentivize them, not just like sweeten the deal up front, like a, “hey, we're gonna offer a home warranty”, like scenario number two, but number three, we're actually saying, “hey, we'll go ahead and replace that roof”. Because that was the big sticking point, or , you know, something to that effect, which actually gets the deal closed. You never know the situation that the seller is in if you're representing the buyer, or at least. You try to find out as much as possible and it's amazing how often you'll actually get the story. But if that seller really needs to sell and there's a certain piece like a $15,000 roof, why not rep for the buyer, push for that, and get that done? And you know, the seller says hey, “you know we're getting our $400,000 price point, but really it's 385. It's a $15,000 roof. Let's get that done.”   Adrian Schermer: Yeah.   Robert Delavan: because we want to close   Adrian Schermer: Yeah.   Robert Delavan: so It's just that, it's exploring the dynamics almost of the negotiation at that point.   Lance Johnson: Yeah, you know, it's interesting from my, I often will get in a meeting with clients where they've been up to bat three times in a row, especially when the market was, you know, interest rates are low, and you had to put $100,000 in the Portland market just to get the house.   Robert Delavan: Right, above right?   Lance Johnson: And maybe they didn't have that cash and they had to come in, and so they were always number two, number three. And so there is and this is probably a segment we should do there is the art of locking down the, the property because you can do all the planning you want but if you come in two, three, four and, you know, we've seen it where people are frustrated. They want to get in the house…   Robert Delavan: Yup.   Lance Johnson: …interest rates are rising and yet you know they, they come in, you know at some point in time we should talk a little bit of the art of locking down a deal.   Robert Delavan: Yeah, Yeah.   Lance Johnson: …and there's a way to do that and use the inspection to figure that out.   Robert Delavan: Absolutely.   Adrian Schermer: To negotiate that bit. Yeah.   Robert Delavan: Yeah, that's a really fun one. Just a teaser for that episode. I'm actually writing that down now for another episode here soon. Thanks for that idea, Lance. Is really trying to figure out what the other side wants. And it was amazing how many times when it was crazy competitive, where we're representing a buyer, we're not the highest, but we'd still get it. Rather than just throwing 100K over list price at it. How about 70K? but we're not gonna ask for this or this or this, or we're gonna give you time or other things that are important to them.   Lance Johnson: Yeah.   Robert Delavan: So that's actually a lot of fun.   Lance Johnson: Well, cool.   Adrian Schermer: Absolutely.   Lance Johnson: The third question, what are the caps on concessions that a seller can contribute to the buyer? So, you know, there's limits, right? You just can't go right this check out. So, why don't, Adrian, maybe you take a look at that there, what kind of caps are there?   Adrian Schermer: Yeah, yeah, and here’s ones for the, this is one for the show notes or, you know, if you’ve got a pad of paper this is the moment to grab some data for you. So the cap is, and these are based off the purchase price of the home, so the first one, three percent for a conventional loan with a loan to value above 90% in other words that you have a 10% or lower down payment then the seller concession can be no greater than 3% percent of the purchase price Once that loan to value exceeds that 10% down payment, so between, in this case 75.01% to 90%, it goes up to 6%, and then with a 25% or greater down payment, it's going to go to 9%. These are for conventional purchases as a primary residence.   Robert Delavan: Mm.   Adrian Schermer: If it's an investment, it's capped at 2%. For FHA loans it is 6%. So that's a big one. There's a much higher seller credit available for those FHA, which is really popular with first time home buyers. So sometimes that can be an advantage there. It's 6% with USDA as well, and then one of my favorite types of loan, the VA, the veterans loan is capped at 4%, which is awesome. Cause that one can be up to 100% financing, zero down.   Robert Delavan: Mm-hmm.   Adrian Schermer: A veteran therefore can also on top of that get a seller credit for up to 4% of that purchase price and in many cases that is well more than your typical closing costs and we have a bit of play there with closing costs because as a loan officer we’ll often use this term - we talk about “soaking up” closing costs. If you have a 3% seller credit, but your closing costs without points comes to let's say 2 and a half percent. You might soak that extra up by buying extra rate. I did that when I bought my house. I had a bit too much left on the table. And that's the thing about the seller credits. If you don't spend that money, you don't get that money. If your seller credits $10,000 and your closing costs is only 9, that 1000 is just, the seller is just going to get to keep that money. You don't get a check at the end and it cannot go towards your down payment. So generally we try to go a little bit over, so we have some spill-over there on the closing costs, that you're going to pay that spill over just to make sure we're making the most of it. Rob, I know that we have also used that for paying out mortgage insurance, which is a whole nother episode, but you can pre-pay your mortgage insurance effectively by buying it out so that it's not part of your monthly payment. There's a number of different strategies. You mentioned home warranty. There's some great ways that if there's leftover on the table, that should be a discussion with your lender to figure out what's the best strategy for, specifically, you.   Robert Delavan: Right. And there's some very simple language that we generally use if we know we're going to be in that range, where there's probably more closing cost concessions than we would necessarily use. Let's say, you know, even with a rate buy down and all of the prepaids of, you know, taxes, insurance and and title insurance and so forth that we talked about in the first part of this episode. It's only $9,000 and we got, and we were able to negotiate 12, and let's assume all the repairs in the case. That's $3,000 that would not, if you write that contract a certain way, that's $3,000 that you could leave on the table on behalf of, the seller just says “oh, okay, closing costs were only 9. I offered 12, but you didn't have 12.” So you don't wanna be in a situation two days before closing where you're scrambling.   Adrian Schermer: Absolutely.   Robert Delavan: But there's a very simple language you can use that says, in essence, the closing costs of $12,000 right up front in the event of an overage on closing costs that will not be utilized, a seller agrees to still provide that in some other way, and that basically, and there's some language cleanup there, that's not exactly how we say it in the documents. But basically it makes it so that that seller can't say, “oh, hey, thanks, you didn't use it so I get it” Adrian Schermer: Yeah.   Robert Delavan: So I There's always things you can do, for example, like repairs or you know upgrades or what have you. So, and Lance, we've had those conversations before, you know, with folks that we've worked with across the board referrals with all of us, and the last thing you want, although every once in a while there's a scenario where somebody's like “you know what? I don't really wanna buy it down” and they get it down to like maybe a couple hundred bucks and they'll leave a couple hundred bucks on the table. But you certainly don't want to leave a couple thousand bucks on the table.   Adrian Schermer: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.   Robert Delavan: So that's the key.   Adrian Schermer: And so for our audience, I want to just paint this scenario, you know, one last time here. Let's say we have three houses on a block, right? They are identical houses. They are all, as far as the market is concerned, worth about 350, right? We know that there can be a swing there. So these houses might be able to appraise for more, but that's what they're trying to sell these houses for. Now, I own one of these houses and I decide that I'm going to put mine up for 360, but I'm gonna advertise it that I'm giving a $10,000 seller credit. For me, as the seller, that is the exact same amount of money when I get to closing. My check is going to be identical at 360 with a $10,000 seller credit, as it would be at 350 sales price. But for a buyer, let's say this is a, you know the typical two, three bedroom starter home, someone probably is gonna be buying this with 3% down payment. 3% down on 350 is $10,500. If you give me a $10,000 seller credit, and I'm expecting to pay that in closing cost, you just cut the amount of money that I have to come to closing with in half.   Robert Delavan: Right.   Adrian Schermer: And that's a huge, huge deal to have another 10,000 bucks, right? You're moving into your first house. I don't know, you wanna do some paint. You wanna just have a buffer. You wanna maybe pay someone to move your stuff for you instead of harassing your friends again. It's such a difference maker, and so we saw that becoming more popular when the market shifted. that people were actually offering it right up front. Hey, I'm on board with the seller credit and I'm gonna help you with that. We also saw it applied to two-one buy downs. This is another whole separate episode. I'm not gonna dig into the meat of what that is, but a two-one buy down basically gives you first year and second year at a reduced interest rate. And there's no free lunch, right? So we know that there's a cost upfront for that and that's probably what's paying that, but there were a lot of sellers also offering a seller credit to help absorb that cost, and what that meant for the buyers was a lower payment for the first few years of homeownership where you are potentially worried about you know hey is something gonna break? Do I have a nest egg that I need to save back up? I'm spending all my money buying this house, what if something happens two months down the road, and I don't have a warranty?   Robert Delavan: Right.   Adrian Schermer: This is the kind of thing that can ease one of the biggest stressors for buyers and Rob you hit the nail on the head. I mean we talked about negotiation, one most important things is asking those probing questions and finding out what are the pain points for your potential client here, and for a buyer, especially in a marketplace of what is typically a starter home or a first time buyer typical home, then that's huge.    Robert Delavan: Yeah.   Adrian Schermer: That seller credit can change, massively change, how easy it is for them to get access to this home.   Robert Delavan: Yeah, and the fun part about this is really where I've worked with, you know, on the financial side. It's all about cash flow. It's all about, you know, preserving cash for when you need it, having contingency plans, you know, those sorts of things, and basically having a similar message where you're putting your client in a position where they have margin.   Adrian Schermer: Yeah.   Robert Delavan: And that's really what these closing costs and concessions for a buyer especially provide, and then for the seller, it's, hey, if you're savvy about it, and you're strategically positioning yourself, your house is going to sell, and the next two in a competitive market for sellers, there's more sellers than there are buyers so the next two up the street aren't going to sell, and yours is, assuming the product is the same.    Adrian Schermer: Yeah   Robert Delavan: So that's where it gets..   Adrian Schermer: and in that example, I gave nothing away. I make the same amount of money. So it can be very brilliantly applied that way.   Lance Johnson: It seems like you actually limit the extra negotiation after the deal because there's limits on the percentage.   Adrian Schermer: That is also an exce… that's an awesome point, Lance. Yeah, you're right. I mean, again, seller perspective, now you can't wrap in that inspection. We've hit that ceiling before. You find something in the inspection, hey, the carpet needs to be fixed. Well, I'm not gonna fix it and hey, you're at your limit for seller concession anyway, so, sorry, there's nothing left for me to give.   Robert Delavan: So it gets, there's a lot of hints and outs on that, and yeah, that's a great point Lance. It happens quite a bit where it's just like, well, we can't really do any more other than this unless you actually go in and replace that, you know, carpet or roof or what have you.   Lance Johnson: Well, this has been a great episode. So give us your final thoughts there, Rob, on this episode.   Robert Delavan: Well, we appreciate you guys listening. A lot of this stuff is high level. I will say that, what do you say Adrian, almost every time? “Your mileage will vary.” Frankly, every single personal situation is different and we have to be very…   Adrian Schermer: Yes,   Robert Delavan: …careful about that, that we're speaking in generalities.   Adrian Schermer: a lot of nuance here.   Robert Delavan: and concepts. So yeah, it's gonna be different for everybody, but this is the fun part and there's a lot of conversations that we end up having specifically with our clients about these concepts. So we do have some exciting future episodes in the works. I think we touched on a couple here. We're looking forward to having some more guests on the podcast too, so stay tuned for that. And that's.   Lance Johnson: And I think we're going to try something a little different where we're going to try to do a Round Robin type round table with eight or nine different people and get into some meteor issues. So we're going to try some of that stuff. So we're excited for this year's podcast. And we're really kind of getting into our stride.   Robert Delavan: Yeah, that's gonna be really fun, especially if we, like you said, get into the meat of it, right?   Lance Johnson: Yeah.   Adrian Schermer: Yeah.   Robert Delavan: So, I'll finish this up on our websites, Adrian, and let's sign off here.   Adrian Schermer: Yeah, absolutely. You can catch us on our sites. It's going to be in the video description. We're going to have links to our individual sites, as well as The Get Rich Slow Podcast site, where you can also request to be a guest or send us some comments. We love reading through what you folks have to say and what you're interested in seeing next. That's also where you'll find the work cited. We've got that realtor.com article that does a pretty good job of explaining some of what a seller credit is and that's it for us!   Robert Delavan: All right, thank you guys.   Lance Johnson: Thank you guys.