Purchasing a home is a meticulous and intricate process – it must never be executed in a hurry. That’s why when Aaron And Devany bought a new build home, they put patience and persistence at the center of their strategy. In this episode, the couple joins David Sidoni to share how two professionals in the service industry took their home purchase slowly but surely, leading to an incredible home-buying experience. Aaron and Devany also talk about their biggest credit and saving tips, detailing why consistency is key to keeping your finances strong and secure.
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Interview With Aaron And Devany – Planned For A Year And Bought A New Build Home
If you think that you’re miles away from buying a home, you’re probably dying to know how somebody who felt like they were light years away from buying a home figured out how to do it. You want to know a story that feels real, something that you can relate to, not some infomercial telling you about the couple with 500 credit scores, no jobs, and somehow they bought a house with no money down in one month. I have a story for you. This is the story of Devany and Aaron.
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Introduction
I’m excited to bring this interview to you. I’ve got some very exciting people here. This is Devany and Aaron. They’re in Florida. When they first came to me you would think that perhaps they couldn’t buy a home. It was February 2022 when they came to me. One year later, like I said you can do this. Guys, welcome to the show. I’m very excited to have you guys here. You closed in March 2023, correct?
Yes, end of March.
How are you doing? Are you enjoying your new home?
It’s good so far. We still have a couple of boxes, but the majority is put away.
Patience And Persistence
The fact that you only have a couple of boxes left, I’m very impressed with. We’re two years in our place and I have tons. Why don’t you tell us right off the bat, you took one year to do your planning on this? What’s your best piece of advice for people out there who want to be homeowners like you guys?
For me, the first thing I would say is patience and persistence. Make sure you take your time and wait for it to feel right. Don’t feel pressured into doing anything that you’re not comfortable with. Don’t try to get into something early because you want to buy a house, be patient and wait for the right house to come around because it will. You’ll find the right Goldilocks house and everything will fall into place the way that it’s supposed to.
We probably would’ve bought a house maybe 2 or 3 months sooner. We liked the house but we felt something wasn’t right. We had this nervous feeling. We waited and we’re glad we did. We’re now in our place and we love it.
I like that a lot. That’s cool. In the patience and persistence, was that something that you used in the beginning when you were getting ready or was that at the end when you were trying to figure out which home you wanted to buy or was it both?
It was a little bit of both. We didn’t want to rush into looking at every single house on the market and taking time off and feeling overwhelmed with it. We wanted to go at our own pace and let it fall together the way it was supposed to. Once it came down to finding the house, we had the idea that if it sold before we were ready for it, it wasn’t meant for us. It will be there when it’s our time and it’ll feel right.
We chipped away slowly since February 2022. Our unicorn realtor helped us out with, “First, let’s look at your credit. Let’s see where you’re at. Let’s go here next.” It was a little bit versus the credit and getting that down and then seeing how much of a down payment we’d like to put down. From there, it all fell into place very slowly, but it felt right.
We looked through several different communities, several different styles and ages of homes before we settled on the one that we’re in, which at first we thought was going to be a little further outside of both our price range and where we wanted to commute from. The way that it all fell together and at the time that we were able to make the purchase, we were both doing a little bit better financially than we were a year prior. That’s where patience and persistence come into play. You might not be dead set ready to go this minute, but if you play your cards right and make smart choices with your money, you’ll be able to come out ahead and do what you want. It might not be a tomorrow thing, but it’s doable.
I love that. I tell people all the time, “I don’t say you can do this today or I don’t even say you can do this tomorrow.” A lot of times I feel like a lot of buyers think it’s a yes or no answer. They call a lender or realtor and it’s a yes or no like, “I want to live here, can I buy a house?” “No.” “Okay, then see you. I’ll talk to you in a year.” By having that guidance like what you guys did was incredible. I think when you guys came to me, you had like a couple of thousand dollars saved and credit scores that what we call fair in the world of credit scores, which means you still totally could have bought a house. You would’ve been approved. You might just not have had a down payment and you would’ve had a higher interest rate and maybe not the right program.
Money Saving Tips
One of the things that I try to stress to people and the reason why I wanted to talk to you guys and thank you much for doing this, I appreciate it is that even with a couple of thousand dollars in the bank, an okay credit score and a year ahead of time, it’s so much easier to work on your own. People think that you instantly fill out the loan approval that weekend. Talk to me about what you guys did a year ago with the credit, savings, and debt. Did you guys have any tricks? Did you do spreadsheets?
I had an interview. She said she and her husband have a monthly meeting. I went, “Will you Zoom me in? I want to see how this goes.” They told me the one that they do once a year is hard and that’s the one they drink at. What did you guys do? It’s not just, “I talked to a realtor now because I want to buy a house.” You talk to your unicorn and that unicorn helped you with a year’s worth of planning. What stuff did you do?
I think we each had our own different things. I know you have your credit cards on like it paid auto pays itself.
Keeping everything paying down and staying on top of car payments, making sure that nothing was late. Automatic payments are set up, get it going so that there’s no room for error. We started revolving your credit a lot more. We started using your card, paying it off, using your card, paying it off.
We used my card a lot. I get paid biweekly. Every single time I got paid money was going toward the credit cards. I was paying off my credit cards twice a month to make sure I met the deadline so I was never late on payments because I was making payments twice.
Was that one of the things that upped your score because you were consistent or was it because you were paying it down and getting more credit available?
It was a little bit of both. Staying consistent and on-time payments. I got a notification of another anniversary of on-time payments for my car loan and how that’s affecting my credit score positively. It all adds up and that’s the thing, it’s not necessarily that there’s one big trick. It’s figuring out how to do all the little things and make them add together. That’s where guidance helps and planning and taking the time to think it out and know what the right step is to be where you want to be a year from now.
There is no one big trick in buying your first home. It is all about figuring out how to do the little things and make them add together.
I wrote that down. It’s not one trick. It’s not an app. It’s not one button. I’m sorry, I love all my readers out there. You have to do twenty things at once.
There’s no other way
You hit it on the head, automate. I want to get T-shirts that say automate. Nowadays, for as much as the Gen Zs and Millennials are getting stuck behind the eight ball trying to figure out how to buy a home, you have tools that the Boomers never had.
It’s there for you. It’s free. You have to take advantage of it.
Devany, were you paying down a credit card that was at a high balance or were you using it and paying it off?
I’m using it and paying it off.
That is a technique. I’ve heard different things from different people but it is a technique that helps build your credit. I tell people all the time, “If you have a credit card and people pay it down to zero and then they keep it there and they’re all stoked that they never have to use it, after six months it stops reporting to the credit bureau.” Using that technique was great. What about savings tips? Don’t tell me that you guys ate ramen because everyone knows how to do that.
It was at a time when going to the grocery store was not quite as expensive as it is nowadays. We ate at home quite a bit more. We didn’t go out anywhere near as often. If we did, it was extremely local. With the type of job that I work, I work in the service industry. Picking up shifts was very easy to do, especially working at two different places. I could work six days a week and no one would turn me away for overtime or anything like that. Both of us working in restaurants, we also were able to get fed that way and save money.
You don’t have to buy lunch when you have lunch at work
At the end of the day, I know that’s very situationally specific but I would say it’s just a matter of using what you have to your advantage. We’re able to save money by eating at work, we’re going to do that. If you’re able to save money by doing anything else commuting to work via bike or a bus or what have you, take advantage of that. It’s finding ways to save the money. It’s not explicitly 1 or 2. It’s back to what we said, it’s all the little things adding up.
Saving money is just a matter of using what you have to your advantage.
We tried not to sacrifice something small that got us through the week like, “On Wednesdays, I usually get a cup of coffee. This week I am going to buy my favorite ice cream.” Every once in a while it’s fine and it makes me happy.
Other things that were small were we didn’t want to still be able to go out once a week. We would go to the movie theater on Tuesdays. That’s where they had the discounted tickets. You can still do what you want to do. It’s being smart about how you do it.
I was talking with my wife about this, many things, whether it’s health and fitness, dieting or budgeting, they stress the sacrifice. They stress taking things away from you. If you have a different goal in mind, it’s easier for you. If you are depriving yourself of something, that’s such a terrible language and mindset where if you say, “I’m choosing not for this week and I’m here on my bike right now saving gas because I’d like to have a home,” that’s helpful.
Loan Process For Service Professionals
The other tip that you said was great was don’t deprive yourself of joy. The line on that is very hard. My wife says that apparently with my sneaker collection, I’ve gone way too far in my own joy, but it was after I had a few other things established first. Talk to me about this because as a performer in my twenties, I had quite a few years in the service industry myself, all those working actors who are the servers. Do you both work in the restaurant industry?
I work on the managerial side of things. He works on the service side. he’s the face you see.
It’s interesting to me because I understand what you were talking about picking up shifts but talk to me about the loan process as people who work in the service industry because a lot of people think they can’t even start talking to anybody about it because they’re not working in a cubicle.
I’ll be upfront. A good portion of our savings did come from a windfall. I suffered a loss in my life. My mother passed away, but at the same time, coming into some money, not enough money to buy a house was not going to change our position. That’s where, “We’re going to dig in our heels. We’re going to work,” because having the proof of income and having all of that back up is where they were very quick to go with us on the loan process. It wasn’t just a matter of you having the money. It’s a matter of you’re making this much money every month between the two of you. You can afford this house.
I’ve worked with people all the time. They get a big inheritance and they call me and say, “I’m ready to buy a home.” It doesn’t work like that. It’s not how much money you have, it’s how much money can you prove you are going to make. That’s why I was curious to ask as service industry people, you still not a 9:00 to 5:00, you were still able to get the loan. did you both apply for the loan together?
We did. We did ask if we could do it all under me. The income was far better with both of us on it than it was with just me. We went with both.
Aaron, that’s awesome because I know a lot of families where one partner is an entrepreneur and they make good money, but the other person is a W2 employee and they’ve ended up using just the W2. I’m curious about this. Your service industry, as you were doing what you were doing Aaron, you had enough history, was it enough tax history? What did you have enough to show to prove your income?
One of my jobs at a resort is resort-styler. I’ve been there for seven years. They’ve taken great care of me and I make excellent money there. My other job happens to be at one of the major theme parks in Orlando. Tourism is always busy, always making money, and always high-ticket price items on the bill. Between the two of those, they almost said universal loan was going to be good on the loan. Having everything else from the other job, the seven years is what helped beyond that, the history with that. The fact that I had been with Universal for almost two years was a big help as well.
Side note. Devany, I’m pissed at you because did you not see my postings? We were there between Christmas and New Year’s. I’m so upset.
It’s the busiest time to visit Orlando.
It is busy. I must have been tired.
It’s okay
Those are the weeks that we’re each pulling 60 hours in our restaurants.
We did have a friend who hooked us up at Disney. I paid for everything ahead of time. We had a buddy who got us the VIP tour at Disney. He was a Club 33 guy. Fancy. Our last day was at Universal, me and my son freaked out. It was awesome. Velo Coaster blew my mind.
Next time when you guys spend more time at Universal, you’ll have to let us know and let’s see what we can do.
I have to do that because a long time ago, back in 1992 I worked on that lot, but that’s a whole other story.
I auditioned for the RIP tours for Halloween Horror Nights.
It’s exciting. What’s cool about this is what I’m trying to make sure that the readers understand is a lot of jobs even side, like you’re talking about picking up extra shifts to someone else who has a regular job where there isn’t another shift available, substitute that for a side hustle.
I work two jobs.
If you work them long enough and consistently and you keep decent enough books for yourself and if you most importantly make sure that everyone has these side hustles and they don’t report it on their taxes. I’m like, “Awesome.” The lender’s like, “Where did you get that money? That might as well be money that your uncle gave you and you shoved in your bank account.”
That’s one of the things I got lucky with too, is both of my locations are very by the book and strict on reporting taxes. Everything I had, I had a very good long history of.
Working With Realtor And Lender
That is amazing. I am blown away by this. I mean people come to me all the time and they think they’re not even in a place. You started this process. How much time was spent talking with Crystal, the unicorn realtor and talking with the lender? Did you guys get action steps and work your way towards it?
A lot of it was spent with Crystal. We didn’t talk to the lender until we were a little bit closer to the time that we were looking to pull our credit and see from there. We did end up pulling our credit we can see, “Where are we at now? What do we need to work on?” He gave Aaron a couple of pointers. I asked a whole bunch of questions. I have a personal loan out like, “How is that affecting me? Should I pay it off faster?” They were helpful with answering all those questions that randomly popped into my head. I’m texting Crystal at like 10:00 at night like, “Sorry, it’s late.”
Lenders are helpful with answering questions that randomly pop into your head during a home purchase.
Getting Into The Community
I tell people all the time, “Text me. If I don’t answer. I’m sleeping, but I will answer when I wake up.” Don’t not text. It’s a to-do list for me when I wake up. it’s awesome. We’re getting ready here because of buyers like you. We’re getting ready to put together this program called The Last Lease Ever that we’re going to be helping people with that gives them what people think the internet tells you, “Do you want to buy a home? Fill this out and we’ll see if you’re approved for a loan.”
You guys said it. There’s a bunch you can do before that. You don’t even have to go into your loan approval. Once you got into that and and you got moving forward, you were building on that savings that you had. Talk to me about the community thing that was interesting to me. You were patient and persistent but you were also doing your research. Did you end up in a community you had never thought of before?
In fact, I didn’t even know that there were many houses built in this community when we started looking. I know this house hasn’t been built yet.
I found the community randomly. I found it and I sent it to Crystal. I’m like, “I know I didn’t say I was interested in new builds, but what are your thoughts on this area?” She asked my opinion of it. How much do you know about the area?” I have a couple of friends who live out here. I’m like, “I do.” I drove past the neighborhood a couple of times, more to simulate what it would be like to commute to work from the neighborhood, “What’s the drive like? How’s traffic? Is it bad?” Traffic has gotten better since we moved in. Oh because all this construction going on. It got better.
That’s a good one. I thought of this right now while you said this. My wife and I are using this trick all the time. We’ll do the Google Maps but if there’s someplace we don’t know, she does the Google Map at the time. We’re going to drive in a week. She does it like three times at 5:00 at night to see what it’s going to be like to drive through LA or wherever we’re going in.
Rush hour.
A lot of people think that they get excited about the process and like, “The realtor’s going to tell me exactly where to live.” I’m like, “I don’t know anything about what you want for your life,” then even if you tell me like, “It doesn’t matter if I feel like I could live in that community. It’s you guys.” What were the factors about this community you liked?
Proximity. It’s in a good spot for both my job and her job as well. We liked that it was new construction and that there’s still a lot of wilderness preservation around and it’s close to a small town downtown area, which is where we both come from from for the last few years. We’ve been living in a small downtown area. Having that sense of community has always been nice. I also like that it is a new build for what we are spending. It was comparable to anything else on the market. I feel like we’re getting so much more out of it.
It has a good balance of getting to work in a good amount of time, but also being far enough away from the theme parks that it’s quiet.
It’s set back enough.
Securing The Purchase
It’s very interesting because a lot of people are talking to me about that, “Just outside,” is the term, “We’re just outside this area.” People are talking to me in terms of remote working. I’ve now had a few people like you that are talking to me in the terms of 10 minutes a commute extra every day, 15 minutes every day totally worth it because I work in hustle and bustle. That’s the cool thing about where you guys are in Florida, like the wilderness. You have to go a little bit outside the standard suburban track to get tons of greenery in space. This is amazing. It’s such an incredibly inspirational story. When you started in 2022, Aaron, you sounded like someone who understood. Did you know you had to be patient and expect it or did you learn that along the way? Did you want to buy in March 2022,?
He was slowing me down
She wants to say I procrastinate, but I was very patient about it and I feel like she was gung-ho ready to jump on it. I’m like, “We need to hold our horses. Pump the brakes a little bit here.” if we had gone with your initial gut, we’d be in a fixer-upper and miserable.
I was like, “If I’m not moved out of this place and in a new house by January 2023, I am couch surfing with friends. I’m not staying here another minute.” He was like, “Give me a little bit more time than that. We will find it. I promise.” You were right.
The interesting thing about that is too, like you’re going to look back in years. We’ve had one little slump in the past many years besides the pandemic by waiting you guys ended up right in there and you’ve seen appreciation since you moved in because. It slowed down there at the end of the year.
That was something I was noticing too, was as it was slowing down, you could probably agree I was getting more and more gungho about, “Let’s keep looking. Let’s find it. the closer we got to this. I was more into it and that was as that slump was hitting.
That is genius. There are truths on both sides. When you are a first-time home buyer, most of the time if you’re like you guys and you’re working, you’d have stable jobs and like you found out in 2022 the pay changes that happen, you’re young. You’re going to increase and make more money. I try to tell people all the time, “I’m not speculating. I’m not trying to get you into this right now to make a sale, but I’m saying you’re young. You’re going to make more money.”
“The sooner you lock into a 30-year fixed rate, I guarantee you rents are going up next year, but by having that understanding and that patience of building and the adjustments you made to your credit score probably meant that if home prices had gone up 5% or 10%, you could probably still buy that home if not more because your approval was much better than when you started in the first time.” That’s what makes the whole buying process something that I wish more people would understand what you did and have that Yin and Yang. It usually turns out there’s one person pushing and the other person saying, hang on then you find that perfect balance.
That’s exactly what happened. We balanced each other out and ended up in the right spot at the right time.
New Build Buying Process
How was the new-build buying process for you? People asked me about that, “Should I buy new in areas where there’s more space, you have a better chance with a new-build?” How’d it work out for you guys?
I was so nervous. My older sister bought a home that was a new-build and they’ve had nothing but issues. Nothing’s working. All the sinks leaked. Her door didn’t shut. The list builds and builds. The longer they’re in the home, the more problems they find. I was like, “I don’t want a new-build home,” but then we found this and I’m like, “Maybe I will. It’s a different builder. I can’t judge them all based on one.”
Doing a little research, we saw good things about the builder as well. They weren’t getting the same negative reviews as some of the different ones in the area. Honestly, once we were set on buying it, the process was very enjoyable. We met with the builder, did a walkthrough of the house, and any little thing that we had even the slightest dislike of put a piece of tape on it. They’ll fix it.
I didn’t know that was a thing until we were there and he’s like, “Here’s your tape.” I’m like, “What do you mean? What tape?”
Isn’t it funny though? Walk up to you and they hand you, was it blue?
Blue and green. One was for paint. If there was a nick in the cabinet, it got one color and if there was a paint smear or anything, it got a different color.
I swear I want to have a class for the builders to explain to them like, “You need to make a bigger deal about this tape because it’s blue tape. You need to have like a roll of it sitting on the table when you walk into the office and say, ‘You get this magic blue tape before we give you the keys you walk around and you mark everything that you want us to make perfect.’” Most of the time, I’m assuming you guys have a warranty for a year from the builder.
We do.
Have you used it yet? It’s been a few months.
We have a list of minor things that we’re like, “We’ll probably tell them about this by the end of the year,” but nothing has been major that we’re like, “You have to come fix this right now.”
If it’s not something that we can fix in ten minutes by grabbing the bag of tools out of the garage, we’re going to call them. If there is an issue, it’s been minor that it’s tightened that real quick.
Thankfully, we’ve been lucky.
Homeowners Association
Put a reminder in your calendar for February 2024 to go around and check everything that you haven’t opened or whatever because then you got a month left and you can call them once and they come out and finish everything up for you I’m going to ask the question because everyone freaks out about this new home. Do you have an HOA?
Yes.
Were you okay with putting that payment into your full monthly payment?
It’s only $50 a month.
It comes out to $50 a month. You do have to pay it in three-month installments. It wasn’t horrible. I did have to call Crystal and ask a bajillion questions about that and we have a CDD too. I’m like, “What is that? What’s going on?” I’m looking at the initial payment we made and I’m going line by line of okay, “What’s this? The next line, what does that mean? Why are they charging me money for this?” She had a lot of good explaining to do.
Settling In
As I tell people all the time, the thing about unicorns is once you’re working with them and you’ve been through the explaining process, the unicorn knows that if you tell somebody else about them they might call you first and go, “What is all this stuff?” then you go call Crystal, “I had the same question,” and then it’s totally taken care of. I’ve been doing this for many years now. Do you know how many times I’ve answered the same question? It’s like I said, the blue tape. I’ve known for years. That’s such a cool thing. The stats are something like 60% or 70% of all homes have some HOA because either the city is bringing it in. That’s the way it’s going to go. It’s been a long year for you guys getting ready for this. How do you feel now that you’re settled in? Do you emotionally feel like you’ve taken the next step in your life?
It’s finally starting to feel like home. we are starting to settle in and feel like we’ve gotten over the hurdle and now it’s what’s the next journey going to be? We’re starting to have our footing and feel comfortable with the finances of it and knowing what we want to do as far as any improvements or changes to the house we figured out how to prioritize how we want to do that. At this point, we are starting to feel, at least in my opinion.
The first two weeks it felt like a vacation. We were like living out of a suitcase like, “Where’s my work shirt? Where’s this shirt?” “It’s in one of the suitcases. It’s somewhere.” You’d get home and you’d go into like the main bathroom. You’d be like, “This bathroom is luxurious and nice,” then you remember, “This is mine. This is my shower with the thermostat on the wall.” From that point, it was like a big sigh of relief like, “I feel comfortable and safe here.” It’s a nice feeling.
I can’t believe all these things. It’s over 200 episodes now and all the things I’m learning. Dve, you told me something that I’ve never thought about before that I’m going to start telling everybody, “Don’t move in right away. Pack like you’re going on vacation. For the first week or two, put everything into storage and hang out.”
We had a big gap. We closed at the beginning of the month but our rent wasn’t up until the end of the month. We had a big whole month. It felt like it wasn’t enough time because we were still scrambling at the end like, “We forgot about the stuff in the attic. we had to go back and get the stuff.”
My biggest piece of advice would be, especially if you do a storage unit or anything, to downsize and hire movers.
If you think you have enough boxes, you don’t. Get more boxes.
When people come down to the nitty gritty at the very end of it and they’re starting to figure everything out and like suddenly they’re talking about, “We have enough extra that we can buy this awesome $4,000 bed set that we saw.” I’m like, “Maybe put it on the floor for a while and hire movers,” because I hear it more and more that people like you figured out, “That would’ve been great.” That was a great piece of advice that you gave people that even a month crossover sometimes I always tell people, “Do the crossover, but even a month you still felt like there was more time that you could have used.”
We didn’t take time off to move. We did it on our days off or on my way to work, “I’ll take a couple of boxes in the car and quickly drop them off.” We should have taken more time off and hired movers or something because in the end we were scrambling.
On the back end, we were taking time off to try and make up for it as well.
That’s another great real-world piece of advice. The move like planning is a bunch of little things. you have to set up your plan, “Am I going to take a week off and tackle it like a gigantic project or do we want to try and do it in little pieces?” That’s amazing. I cannot believe it. I love the fact that when you talked to me originally, you were renting for under $1,000th a few thousand bucks savings you took two years. Now you’re living in an over $300,000 home in Florida. That is exciting I love that just because you’re moved in, you can still look in your bathroom around every once in a while and still pinch yourself. That’s exciting. You deserve it.
Every time it’s clean.
Closing Words
You guys keep getting used to this new financial situation and then maybe next year, you sit down and you go through the budget and you figure out how to get a housekeeper once a month.
We have someone cutting our lawn. I found someone in the neighborhood to cut our lawn.
Pro 1) The best way to get a landscaper once you own a home is to ask the neighbors. I know everybody loves Yelp and reviews and all that. We all figure out everything in life. It’s different. Pool guys and landscapers will give you great deals if they don’t have to drive their truck to another neighborhood if you’re another stop on their route. I’ll do it for people in Southern California here with $3 million homes. They’re like, “Who’s the best garden here in Newport Beach?” I’m like, “Ask your neighbor. That’s how you get the cheap one,” because he’s like, “I can do 2 for 1.”
They already made a Facebook group. We joined the group so we can ask questions about what’s going on in the neighborhood or stuff like that. That’s how I found the guy mowing the lawns.
Not to mention with landscaping, if they’re in your neighborhood, you’re asking your neighbors, you have a firsthand view of the product that you would be getting and the services you know what worth is.
It’s not like a restaurant review. They ate it. They tell you it’s great and you’re like, “Gross. You can look at it. It’s right there.”
The picture can look better than it does in person for sure.
I will leave you with this last piece of advice. Do me a favor on the Facebook group, please. be the person who posts nice things and positive things it doesn’t turn into next door. That’s all I want. Those groups are great for new communities because neighbors get to help each other out. Nowadays when people drive into their garage and close the door behind them, you’re not talking. Do yourself a favor. We’re coming up on the 4th of July as we do this. I’ll walk around and see what people are doing on the 4th of July. You never know. In the new communities, a lot of times they’ll have parties where the kids put sparklers on the back of their bikes and ride around. I don’t know if I should legally say that on a show because that’s probably not safe, but I’m not liable. They’re not my kids.
You’re not encouraging it.
This is truly inspirational. I hope that people are listening to this and understanding that you don’t have to do this on your own. If you think it’s going to take you a year, great. As Aaron said, stay with patience and persistence, but get a guide. You’ll get there much faster. Thank you so much. I appreciate the time.
Thanks, David.
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What a great interview. You know, I have a few items that I want to reiterate because they are such good, you can do this stuff, but let me start by hitting one of the pieces they hit the end there. The best way to get the best deal on a lawn guy, a flower guy, or a pool guy, is to ask the neighbors, not the internet. The dudes who are going to do it for cheap don’t have websites. Let me hit you with the highlights. I’m going to put them back in your eyes one more time so you remember these. One of the lessons they learned is that when you’re reaching out to a realtor or a lender change their mindset. For some of you who are reaching out for the first time, you are not seeking a yes or no answer when you reach out.
If you are reaching out and you are pretty darn sure that it’s going to be a plan in mind, you’re not seeking a yes or no answer when you reach out to a professional. In any good realtor, lender, or unicorn support team, we know that coming in. It’s not a pass-or-fail conversation. It’s Episode 164. Where are you on the shoots and ladder board and let’s set you up? It’s not a matter of, “Can you do this right now?” It’s, “When should you do it and what are the steps to get there?” This is great. These two reached out in February 2022 and they closed in March of 2023. They walked out of that first meeting realizing that they were going opposite speeds so they had to adjust to each other a little bit.
Aaron pulled the reins back on Devany, but together she pushed them a little bit and they learned about the markets, neighborhoods, and eventually as they were planning, researching, and saving together, the picture became much clearer for them. If you do it this way, you’re going to discover what you want while you are working out all those little pieces at the same time, while you’re working on the finances, and while you’re discovering and researching the neighborhoods.
If you do all that at the same time together when you finally get to the place that you’re ready to go, you’re going to have the most options and be able to make the most informed decision. The unicorn support team that they met at the beginning. They didn’t give them a, “Yes or a no. Let’s go look at houses. Call me at six months.” They gave them a roadmap starting with the big three, credit scores, debt management, and a savings plan. Aaron said patience and persistence were the big things he learned from.
What did he say? “Don’t look for the perfect Goldilocks house. Play your cards right. Make the right choices and you’re going to have more options. It might not be tomorrow, but when you’re ready. He was someone who didn’t want to rush out there and wanted to go at his own pace.” Along the way, while Devany was appeasing him a little bit and letting him go through everything that he needed to do to make sure he was comfortable, they realized that thank goodness they had talked to a personal mortgage broker instead of using one of those huge giant online loan factories because they were getting phone calls and conversations happening at all hours. The unicorn lender was absolutely willing to help them with the gear-long planning, and the action steps, helped them figure out when to pull credit, when not to pull credit, hard pull, and soft pull, and gave them the real action steps along the way to make it possible.
It’s not a yes or no. You need someone available to you along the way to give you guidance and help you figure out the 3 or 6-month action steps. Their goal is to make you look borrower-ready to the banks who are going to loan you the money to buy a home. They did it right, trying not to tackle all the big issues at once. One of the things they said that I thought was good was, “I’ve got these three big things to deal with. I’ve got to take care of my credit. I’ve got to take care of my learning this neighborhood, and then I’ve got to figure out what’s going on with my 401(k).” If you do one at a time, that can slow down your process. They learned it’s not one big trick at a time. It’s all the little things that you do working simultaneously.
This is not easy to do on your own. Realize that the guidance and the advocacy of a good support team are going to help you with the planning. What they’re going to do is they’re going to set you up with multiple little action steps, multiple little things you can do if it does take a year, it takes a year. When you get there, everything’s going to be prepared. You are going to be the best-prepared buyer that you can be. I thought it was a couple that had some great how-to tips, automating their savings, figuring out how to use revolving credit to use it, pay it off, and use it twice a month. She said because that worked with their particular payment schedule and they work in the service industry and restaurants free lunch. I don’t know if you can get a free lunch where you work, but use that story to understand that we all have different advantages somewhere.
Use them to try to save money. They do the discount movie night. They worked the plan with a goal in mind. They didn’t have a scarcity mentality or depriving themselves mindset, but rather they had the thought process of abundance because they had a passion, a goal, and that was ultimately going to be their big reward in mind. One of the great things I liked is if it’s going to take you a year and you’re going to be budgeting and doing all these little tricks to save money, don’t deprive yourself. Take moments and reward the little things that you’re doing along the way. What did Aaron say?” Don’t deprive yourself of joy.”
I tell people all the time, “If you’ve got goals on your credit, debt, and savings.” Celebrate when you go 10 points up on your score when you finally get a credit card below 30% usage, if you’ve got to save 8% for your down payment or closing costs and that’s, let’s say $20,000. When you get $10,000, you better go out to dinner and be happy and celebrate. Otherwise, that’s going to be a long, tough year.”
Another great thing I thought was exciting was it’s good to hear about a non-9:00 to 5:00 couple that’s still got a bank to approve them to buy a home. They’re in the service industry, an industry that lots of times doesn’t look good on paper, but they figured out what to do with it. He picked up extra shifts. If you can’t pick up extra shifts at your job, then maybe you find a side hustle after all that work and all that research, with the help of their professional support team who was there with them the whole way from day one, they realized, “We’ve been doing all this research. I think that a new build is best for us,” which is a great time for me to give you a quick disclaimer.
If you’re new to the shows and maybe even some of your homies, maybe you haven’t read this, there are going to be new homes on the market for you. Builders are sneaky and trying to screw you. This is a giant truth bomb that you need to know about. Builders are sneaky. They’re trying to have you buy a home without your own representation. In most of them, you could totally do it if you knew about this one little trick. When you go to a new build site or you sign up for an email, they register you. That registration, the fine print says you cannot have a representative. Do not go to a new build site on your own to Look Lou and look around.
Do not sign up for emails to get updates from the new build site in your area. Do not. You will not be able to have representation. As you heard from them, did you hear how their unicorn at the closing table with the builder, even though the unicorn was sitting right there, the builders still tried to put stuff past them and the unicorn as their advocate stopped it and made sure they were getting the right deal. The builders don’t care. They’re in and they’re out. They’ve got this little trick where if you show up and you sign up or you sign up with an email, the fine print says you cannot have a representative. Make sure that you talk to a unicorn team first. Don’t go out Lookie Lou it on your own. This is for real.
I’ve seen many people get screwed on this one. They’re driving by and, “We’ll call the lender and the realtor in a few weeks, but let’s see what some of the houses look like.” You go in. They make you fill out a form. Once you fill out that form, you’re theirs. I’m stoked that they found the show. They got to do this right with the help of the unicorn support team and willing to work with them from the very beginning working for an entire year. You guys realize that the lander and the realtor don’t get paid until the house closes. That’s why I call these people unicorns. They’re the real deal when it comes to customer service. They’re playing it for the long game. I love that Aaron and Denny figured out that they wanted to move slowly and they wanted to figure out what they wanted to do. Even when they moved in, they still wanted to move slowly.
That was cool. That’s what Devany said because he didn’t have a lot of stuff in there. She felt like she was on vacation, got up, went into her big shower and her big bathroom, and then, “I’m not on vacation. This is mine.” Aaron, at the end of the interview there said, “This is great. Things are going fantastic. What’s the next journey going to be?” I want you to say that to me someday. You don’t have to say it on the podcast, don’t be scared. You don’t have to do it in an interview, but maybe I want you to think, “What’s my next journey going to be?”
To do that, we have to do your first journey. Go to HowToBuyAHome.com. Check out all the free stuff to help you. We’ve helped thousands of people through this journey. It’s all there and it’s all free. Jump on. If you’re thinking like maybe, “I’m six months or 1 year out,” cool. It’s a good time to get a unicorn support team, and they can guide you down the path because you can do this.
Important Links
- Episode 164 – Past Episode
This podcast was started for YOU, to demystify things for first time home buyers, and help crush the confusion. After helping first timers for over 13 years, I knew there wasn’t t a lot of clear, tangible, useable information out there on the internet, so I started this podcast. Help me spread the word to other people just like you, dying for answers. Tell your friends, family, and perhaps that random neighbor you REALLY want to move out about How to Buy a Home! A really easy way is to hit the share button and text it to your friends. Go for it, help someone out. And if you’re not already a regular listener, subscribe and get constant updates on the market. If you are a regular and learned something, help me help others – give the show a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, or write a review on Spotify. Let’s change the way the real estate industry treats you first time buyers, one buyer at a time, starting with you – and make sure your favorite people don’t get screwed by going into this HUGE step blind and confused. Viva la Unicorn Revolution!
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