 Happy Thursday everybody. Welcome to Geeks Are Sexy. I'm Jason LaDuke from Evil Genius Leadership Consultants. It's the fourth Thursday of the month. Actually, I think it's the fifth Thursday of this month, isn't it? I'm not sure what it is, but the last Thursday of the month I always take over from Michelle Davis for the Geeks Are Sexy show. And we talk about business and success and how to be successful here in Las Vegas and beyond. We're going to jump right into today. Our first guest is Michelle Leaf from Planet Home Lending. Congratulations. That's a relatively new move for you. You were somewhere else before, right? Yes, it is. I've been with Planet Now for about a month and a half. Okay, so very new. Very new. And they're new to Las Vegas, so we're entering the market here in Las Vegas to help serve our community with mortgage lending and financing for their real estate purchases. Yeah, so Michelle is a mortgage loan originator with Planet Home Lending, as she said, they're new to Las Vegas and they are making a big impact helping people get into their own homes here in Las Vegas. We got hit so hard by the recession back in 2007-2008. A lot of people in the Las Vegas area moved out of their own homes and into rentals or when they moved to Vegas were into rentals. And really, that's what you're trying to do is help people get into those homes of their very own at Planet Home Lending, correct? Absolutely. We like to work with our first-time home buyers, repeat buyers, military buyers. Anyone who has a desire to own their own home, that's who we want to work with and get them to their American dream. Yeah, absolutely. That's what it's all about. And that's what the show is all about is how do you take those steps? How do we learn from people like you so that we can all go get into our own home, go have our own successful business, have our own successful careers? So tell us all about Planet Home Lending. What brought Planet Home Lending to Vegas? What makes Planet Home Lending unique with all the other mortgage lenders out there? Well, Planet Home Lending was founded in 2007. We are a privately held residential mortgage banker and currently we service about $12 billion in mortgages as well as originate about $4 billion annually. Okay. So what makes us unique is more than likely when you close your loan with us we will also be servicing your loan. So you'll be making your payments to us. And that's unique in the sense that a lot of mortgage companies sell their loans immediately and so you may close with them and then two months later you're making your payment somewhere else. Now tell us why that's important that you'd want your loan serviced, especially initially with the company you made the loan with versus having it sold somewhere else. I think it just gives them a comfort level. You know, you've been working with the company for anywhere from six to eight weeks. You know your loan officer, they can still help you if they have a question on the back end after it closes. They have a servicing question and that loan officer can direct them to the right sources. So I think that makes a comfort level and there's no confusion as to wait a minute, I closed with this company now I'm paying that company. There's no confusion. Absolutely. I've been through that a couple of times with my loan. I bought my house here in Las Vegas back in 2002 and so I've been through that a couple of times and it's okay. It hasn't been a big deal but every couple of years when that changes over I do all my mortgage payments through an automatic bill pay so that the first money, as the money comes in at the end of the month, the first money that goes out is my mortgage so I know I've got a place to live. I can't go spend my mortgage money out of the casino or anything like that. But even if it's completely benign and there isn't a whole lot of hassle you still got to go in and change that address, change that phone number for your automatic bill pay. So even in the most benign situations, that's something you've always got to watch out for if you've got a mortgage is have they sold that to someone else and if you don't keep track of that, if you don't pay attention when that letter comes in you might find that your mortgage didn't get paid last month. Right, because it still may be going to the original mortgage lender and not the new person who's taking care of it. So then it looks like there's a delay. There are laws in place if you did make the payment to the wrong place that they are supposed to forward the payment so it shouldn't affect your credit but it's still kind of a little bit of work involved. You've got to be paying attention to what you're doing and your finances. And it's stuff you'd rather not be doing. You'd rather be spending your time doing something else. Absolutely. And that's great information especially for a new home buyer that they will be dealing with you for the foreseeable future not dealing with you and then automatically having to deal with somebody else. Exactly. So what are some other things especially for first time home buyers what should people be thinking about before they go out and start looking at buying a home before they even go look at houses? First off I think it's really important that they become emotionally ready. Okay. Sometimes they think okay I could just go out and look at houses and get my financing and everything but they're not emotionally prepared. It is a process and it's usually a new process so they don't understand the dos and the don'ts and all of that stuff. So they have to realize that it is going to be a process and there's going to be ups and downs. You put in that offer you found that great house and all of a sudden you're like oh well I can't afford that house or the seller didn't accept the offer. So you have to be emotionally ready. And then the second most important thing is to go and meet with your lender because the worst thing that could happen is that you're looking online you find your dream home and you can't qualify for your dream home. So you really want to do that because once you're qualified you know what your budget is then you can stay within those parameters so you don't get your heart broken. And then secondly if you can't qualify at that time you know there are some things that your lender can advise you to do to get onto a blind plan so that in the foreseeable future you should be able to qualify. So a couple things of emotion prepare yourself. One if you don't get the house you're looking for there'll be another one. It's okay trust me. And then two there may be some things you need to do some steps you need to take to really get yourself in a credit situation to get that house that you want to get and that you don't have to sell for something that isn't going to meet your needs and people like Michelle can help you with that but you've got to go see them early. So how soon let's say I'm thinking about buying a home. I'm thinking about doing that sometime in 2019. How far before I start looking at home should I come to see you? Since you know nothing about my credit situation or anything like that. Right well now would be a good time because the market's a little bit slow. People tend to get busy but at the same time you want to have everything prepared and sometimes it takes longer. You do now's a good time because if you are holiday shopping and you bring it to charge up those credit cards and max them out that's going to impact your credit score. So if you get that kind of advice ahead of time you'll know okay I should stop here and so forth and really be prepared and then you can adjust your budgets for your holiday budget and in gifts into your home budget because that'll be long term. That is your future. The holiday is just for this year. So that's kind of where you should start at least a couple months ahead of time so that you know where you're headed and what you need to do. And then it comes back to something we always talk about on this show is having a plan and you've got to have a plan before you can deviate from it. So besides having a certain amount of cash on hand and we'll get to what we think that cash amount is for a new home buyer. What are some other elements people should be thinking about in their financial plan before they even start looking at homes? What are some of the factors they should be considering building this financial plan to go buy a home? The thing that I use is in the mortgage industry it's called the Four Seas. Capability, credit, cash and collateral. The capability is your employment. How long have you worked there? Lenders like to see 24 months of continuous employment. Doesn't necessarily need to be with the same employer. However, it does need to be consistent employment. The next one is obviously credit. What are your credit scores? Do we need to work on them? Do we need to increase them? Do we need to establish a credit score? Most lenders require at least two credit scores to get a mortgage. The third C is cash. Do you have the cash to close the transaction? You're going to have upfront fees, your earnest money deposit, appraisal fees, home inspection fees that come right off the top at the beginning once you go to contract. What kind of property are you going to buy? Is this going to be a primary residence or investment residence, a single family dwelling or a condo or a town home? That also impacts the plan that you put in place to purchase a home. We're getting close to the end. I want to give you plenty of time to tell our guests how they can find you and work with you if they're interested in catching up with you or even just getting some advice. What are some of the gotchas that new home buyers run into? What are some of the gotchas that they run into that we can help people avoid if they're thinking about buying a home in 2019? First thing, like I mentioned a little bit earlier is not to max out your credit cards. Credit bureaus look at the percentage of available credit as well as the amount of credit that is used. We like to see about 33% used up as opposed to available credit. Another thing is the gotchas is, well, I pay cash for everything. While noble that you pay cash for everything, we do need a line of credit and we need to see how you pay that credit. So, if you don't have any trade lines on your credit report, it's a good time to establish them because we like to see at least 12 to 24 month payment history. How can someone who has been really conscientious about their money and paid cash for everything, go establish some lines of credit in a smart way but in a quick way too, to help you out as you start looking at their loan? Well, it depends on each borrower. A lot of times I recommend that they go get a secured credit card with their bank is one of the first ways. Another way is if you just got a visa or a mass card to discover, what we're looking for is how you pay. So, if you don't want to run up credit card debt, what I do advise is, go out, charge a tank of gas and pay it off. That was what they always told us about 20 years ago, 25 years ago. Go get a credit card with a small limit and just buy your gas on it and pay it off every month. Right, and because everybody needs gas and you're either paying it cash or credit. So, that way you establish how you pay and that's the critical thing. How you make your payments on time. That's great. So, real quick, tell us what kind of loan programs or what are your most common programs you're offering at Planet Home Blending? We're mortgage, residential mortgage lenders. So, we offer FHA, VA, conventional loans. We also do jumbo loans. We're going into the renovation loan market and we also offer down payment assistant programs. Okay, great. And in addition to what you offer, who are you trying to connect with? What are some businesses or some people you're trying to connect with out there for Planet Home Blending? Well, I'm looking for new borrowers, first time home borrowers. I'm also looking for people to connect with in the real estate industries, people in finance industries as to be a resource for them. Okay. Because the borrower is our primary business but I need to connect with other people and help them get what, you know, achieve their goals as well. Awesome. And then we just feedback, you know, and provide good service to each other. Awesome. All right. So, look right in that camera and tell our audience how they can reach you, Michelle Leaf. They can reach me at Planet Home Blending. My direct number is 702-767-8174 or they can shoot me an email at amleaf at planethomeblending.com. All right. Well, thank you so much for being here today. It was a pleasure to have you. We're going to have Michelle back for our panel discussion. Our next guest is going to be Jenny Fay from Cupcake Girls. Can't wait to talk to her about the great work that that non-profit is doing here in town in Las Vegas and actually all over the whole West Coast. I'm Jason Laduke from Evil Genius Leadership Consultants. This is Geeks Are Sexy. We will be right back with Jenny Fay from Cupcake Girls.