A couple of weeks ago, we discussed whether or not coronavirus would impact U.S. real estate markets. Now, with offices closing down and shelter-in-place orders on the horizon for major cities, itâs clear that sales will be slowing down. As a Realtor, what can you do to prepare during uncertain times like these? On todayâs podcast, we talk about the things you can do now to set your real estate business up for continued success. Listen and learn how to keep generating leads, what you need to ask escrow officers, and ways to show properties without hosting open houses.
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Category: Moving Guide

Show Summary Hey everybody, excited to have Steve Richards on the show today! Today, we are going to talk about something that we are both very passionate about and that is…
Pack your suitcase and fill up your gas tank because on this episode of the podcast, weâre talking to Jim Ross of American Fleet Support and Jason Vitug of Phroogal to make sure you and your car are road-ready.

Podcast: First Time Home Buyer
For this podcast I sat down with Walt Wollet, mortgage loan officer with Pacific Residential where we discussed his experience as a first time home buyer. Learn about the home buying process from the perspective of a mortgage lender and how handled the process and what things he might have changed to make it even better. You can connect with Walt Wollet on LinkedIn, Facebook.
You can connect with me on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram. About the author: The above Podcast “Podcast: First Time Home Buyer” was provided by Paul Sian. Paul can be reached at paul@CinciNKYRealEstate.com or by phone at 513-560-8002. With over 10+ years experience, if you’re thinking of selling or buying, I would love to share my marketing knowledge and expertise.
I work in the following Greater Cincinnati, OH and Northern KY areas: Alexandria, Amberly, Amelia, Anderson Township, Cincinnati, Batavia, Blue Ash, Covington, Edgewood, Florence, Fort Mitchell, Fort Thomas, Hebron, Hyde Park, Indian Hill, Kenwood, Madeira, Mariemont, Milford, Montgomery, Mt. Adams, Mt. Washington, Newport, Newtown, Norwood, Taylor Mill, Terrace Park, Union Township, and Villa Hills.
Transcript:
[00:00:09] Paul Sian: Hello, everybody. This is Paul Sian, Realtor with United Real Estate license in the state of Ohio and Kentucky. And with me today is a returning guest, Walt Wallet with 5th 3rd Bank. He was with a different lender in the past, and now he’s with 5th. 3rd. We’ll talk Are you doing today?
[00:00:24] Walt Wollet: I am fantastic today, Paul. We’re out here at the on my new piece of property that you helped me acquire and I’m excited. Toe do a podcast. It’s been a while.
[00:00:36] Paul Sian: Yeah, that’s that’s one of the reasons to that we decided to do this. Podcast is hey, your lender. I’m the You know, I’ve been through the process of myself of buying my own house as a real real estate agent, so I know how it is. So let’s we want to get the perspective of a mortgage lender, you know, buying the house. So I guess let’s just start from the very beginning. What’s what’s the first step that anybody has to do If they’re they’re interested in buying a house, they skip, you know, leave out the real estate agent. They know they want to buy a house, and they’re gonna talk to a lender at 5th, 3rd, and that happens to be you. So what’s their What’s their first step?
[00:01:10] Walt Wollet: So for my first step, and we talked a little bit before this about just being an active consumer, and we’ll get more into that. But it really it really what I what I would tell people is that you need to do an honest debt analysis, and you honestly need to look at budgeting eso. You need thio when you’re when you’re buying a place you need, you need to take in all what all those costs are, you know? So what are the costs that you know you have to pay every month, is there, You know, do you have a $40 credit card bill you pay every month? Your cars? You know, your auto loans, whatever, whatever you pay every month and you need you need to analyze that. Um, just just so that way you’re not wasting your time, right? So it’s like the first thing I would do is get is get pre qualified or talk to a lender, you know, And I’m an insider, so I kind of knew what I had to do and what I did was before I got pre qualified, was paid off, paid off all my credit cards because I could, um, you know, just to make sure that when my credit was pulled, I had I had a score that was higher so that I could get the best rate in terms that are available. Um, so that that was that was that was a big That was a big thing that I that I did your credit score a big part of it is is factored by credit utilization. So a lot of times, people that are borderline approval if they can get, get added to a secure card or get added to, you know, another account, unauthorized user account or pay down credit cards, Um, you know, say from 70% to below 50% utilization than their score could shoot up. And we can, you know, we can qualify them for, for for what they really want to buy. So that that that that would say that would be the first step is always to just talk to different lenders and talk to different people. Don’t go toe one lender and just trust them and like I wouldn’t want any what, buddy? That I work with to just talk to me. I want them to do their own research. And I want them to know that I’m going to take care of them now If they find someone else that maybe is promising them better numbers or whatever. You know, we I hope that we can talk about that. But, you know, at the end of the day, we have toe, we have to perform and do what’s best for consumers. Yeah,
[00:03:27] Paul Sian: definitely looking at that. Going back to the the credit score. And you mentioned credit score affects your your interest rate. And you know what? Let’s do you have Ah, breakdown. Basically, you know what? What credit scores and how how much impact on your interest rate is? I mean, is it is something easy to quantify? Or is it a little more, you know, computer oriented than that or computer algorithm oriented than that?
[00:03:53] Walt Wollet: So this is another. This is another question. Where it gets into every bank is gonna be different on that account. Okay, so you have the agencies Fannie and Freddie, right? That that back these the back these loans and securitized these loans. And they said, Ah, lot of what the fees and charges are on on those you know on those products and and those were built in to the actual interest rate into the actual loan. In a lot of cases,
[00:04:21] Paul Sian: those almost like base fees,
[00:04:22] Walt Wollet: right? But then other people. So what a lot of banks will do and Chase Chase is an example is notorious for this, but so say they don’t want They don’t want a certain loan. They still legally have to offer it. But they’ll raise the interest rate on that product so that they don’t have to, you know, originate or services many of those loans. So, you know, truthfully, you know certain certain companies will do that with government loans if they don’t want, You know, they don’t want to deal with the potential risk of having the the agency’s forced them to buy back those loans if there’s any sort of auditing or documentation issues, so they just set their their margins, you know, like this that their rate really high, um, to try to dissuade people from applying and you’re seeing that a lot with refinances that some of the larger lenders now, too, Just for the same. The same exact reason.
[00:05:17] Paul Sian: So what do you tell us about some of the hiccups that you had happened to you in your specific alone while you were trying to buy a house?
[00:05:25] Walt Wollet: So I would say that I would say that any hiccups we had Mike, who helped helped who helped us out on this purchase, did a did a great job with, you know, a soon as stuff came out of underwriting. Soon as underwriting came back with a message, he would reach out to me and anything we needed, we would get. We did a good job together. Me being an insider, of documenting everything up front that we needed Thio. So any letters of explanation and any sort of thing like that, I’d say that the biggest hiccup was probably and especially right now with Kobe, it was the appraiser. So you way had required a desktop appraisal on this purchase, which is essentially a drive by appraisal. Now, typically, you know, in any other market, a normal market. I guess you might say you would have that appraiser reach out. They would be reaching out to the selling agent so the agent would know. Okay. The appraiser has seen the property. They’re out here
[00:06:25] Paul Sian: there physically walked in the property, right? And almost like a home inspection,
[00:06:28] Walt Wollet: right? And so that didn’t happen with this purchase, I guess. I think he pulled. He might have pulled into the back, you know, a little bit and checked out some of the buildings and took off, right. Um and then and then the appraisal came back. Luckily, was all good, but I think one of the hiccups was just that. That that cellar not knowing that the that the appraisal was done and that the seller’s agent not knowing. And that kind of elevated there, um, anxiety, right?
[00:06:55] Paul Sian: E, remember talking with the seller’s agent, basically, you know? Hey, when’s the appraisal happening? And, you know, I asked, I did ask the agent. You know, did they praise will call you and that kind of send up red flag on her part unintentionally because, you know, they won’t be contacting her. They would just be driving by, you know, looking at the back of building or looking, walking the building that really get, you know, looking to get inside the building.
[00:07:20] Walt Wollet: But as far as just just hiccups now and generally on in this market with loans is ah, big thing I talked to with my team and my manager all the time is just getting things in is clean and as clear as possible, you know? So what I think a lot of especially first time clients don’t understand is you cannot tell me that your student loan payment is this when really, it’s this and you cannot You cannot say that you make this much money when really you make this much money and every little detail of that application is gonna be verified and is gonna be put through extreme due diligence. So with that said, you know, like where when where we run into problems or where any lender will run into problems is when the story changes, you know? So it Z okay, we’re calculating, you know, 40 hours a week for your income, and then we get you know, the verification of employment back. And it’s it’s 32 you know, a week. Um, even though your recent pay stub stay safe 40 like, you know, those kind of issues I think everyone runs into and deals with, and it’s just like we have to have it perfect, you know? So if we’re talking about homeowners insurance numbers up front and this is what they are, and this is what you know, this is what they need to be. Then that’s what it is, you know. So we can’t I guess we can’t have, you know, radical changes in process or else you’re gonna have a loan that goes on forever and ever.
[00:08:45] Paul Sian: Yeah. So make sure you, you know, you’re dot your I’s cross your T’s and making sure the information is 100% correct. I mean, probably one of the best ways to do that is, you know, go on your own, pull your own credit report. Make sure you see all your accounts. Kinda like you had mentioned the beginning. Take a look at all your debts and and your assets as well. You know, make sure all your income is properly documented. Make sure all that’s documented. You know, the numbers that you’re reporting are what you’re being, what it is being reported to the lender that way. It you know, it’s smoother process underwriting is gonna have less less questions and you know you’re the one will go through easier,
[00:09:20] Walt Wollet: definitely. And one thing that I advise a lot of people to is I like to have, if possible, if time permits have that credit conversation with the clients up front. So even, you know, two weeks before they’re ready to shop, you know, even months before ideally, we talk about the credit and that there was a There was a case recently with a friend of mine, a client who’s a doctor, and he had mentioned, though I you know, I have this collection from this utility and I don’t know where it came from. And you know, there’s there’s laws that debt collectors and that people have to follow. And a lot of times you know what we’re seeing in the world, right is with with corruption and people not following rules and people not doing what they need to dio Ah, lot of times you as a consumer and you do you have rights to dispute that and toe thio and try to clean up that information yourself. The, uh, credit bureaus have legally every year have to send you a copy of your credit report if you request it so and I always advise people to do that, definitely
[00:10:21] Paul Sian: take a look at it. It mentioned fees earlier. We talked about a little bit about lenders fees and let’s talk a little bit more. I mean, what? We have your base fees that the the these other, like government sponsored entities, so to speak, the Fannie Mae Freddie Mac’s that they have charged. What sort of extra fees are you know, Banks, tacking on the loan and whatever. I guess what? Some of the reasons for these fees
[00:10:45] Walt Wollet: so every every loan requires people that work on it. So one thing is, is that I always say is you know, I would advise consumers toe, look at different lenders and talk to different people Now, I’ll tell you right now that cheaper is definitely definitely, definitely not always better. And a lot of times there are lenders out there that you know they’re overpriced and they’re at the top of the market and they know it, um, and so I guess there’s a There’s a huge discrepancy between fees in various programs and various lenders, and it’s just a matter of going and asking those questions. Okay? What is you know, why is the processing fee this why, you know, what’s this underwriting fee? And then it’s always okay to ask. Well, hey, is there anything we can we can do about this? So in my case, when it comes toe the fees or the stuff that I that I had to pay for it. So you know, certain things that the bank paid for because I’m an employee, which is a great benefit to us. Um, you know, help me, Help me, you know, save money. As I bought this place, one thing that a lot of buyers don’t think about is all those incidental fees. So every home inspection is 4 to $500. You know, every, um, you know, just just buying garbage cans out here was $150 you know? So there’s these. There’s these costs that come up, you know, the wax seal on the toilet stuff will come up, and you just have to make sure that you have that budget it in and that you’re prepared for those expenses. And so, like we you know, a lot of times if there’s multiple people living in a house and it’s it’s one person on the loan, you know, like that’s when I’ll look at it and be like Okay, well, you know, really, there’s three people that are gonna be living in this house. Three people sharing expenses. It’s different. Um, but those kind of loans are are always more difficult, you know? So you really want to make sure that, um, you understand all the costs involved, Especially if you’re especially if your debt to income ratio is higher as it is because you have a lot more expenses. So,
[00:12:54] Paul Sian: yeah, we’re talking about those fees. I mean, it’s almost example is some of the car dealers used car dealers or even new car dealers? I mean, you know, the you get through the negotiation process you got, you got the price on the car, and then you go talk to the finance finance manager quote unquote. And that’s where they you know, they start trying to tack in all these, you know? Hey, let me let me throw this warranty on you. Let me throw, you know, non, you know, payment protection in case you’re disabled. Campaign and So that’s where they start packing in things, packing their basically fees. You know, they’re fattening the bottom line of the car dealer, of course. And you know, that’s that’s part of their job. But you know, the same time to as consumers, our job is to look at that critically and say, You know, do I really need that? You know, Do I need a no payment fee? You know, because I’m disabled. I’m not currently working, but at the same time to, you know, turn around, look at your auto insurance or look at your homeowners insurance. Are they providing some similar coverage that you know that you would need or you know would would avoid? And least in that case, in the autos auto example, It’s not so clear cut. You always don’t have that type of thing. You know you’re homeowners insurance. Not necessary gonna cover you. You know, if you can’t, you can’t pay the mortgage, but there might be other, some other benefit or some other protection. You know, your employer might be offering something for you too, you know. Why pay the extra fee to the lender. You know, when it’s saving you money and they’re just trying to pad their bottom line versus, you know, you’re trying to save your dollar and you know, it’s a long term purchase you’re investing for, you know, 2030 years. Mawr costs them or the higher the interest rate. I mean, the more you’re paying overtime,
[00:14:35] Walt Wollet: and that’s why it’s so. It’s so important up front. You have, You have power is a consumer, you know, like and lenders, you know, if if any lender doesn’t, you know, it doesn’t wanna be competitive. That za red flag, probably. You know, so especially with with us in the bigger banks, you know, we we have you know, we did until, you know, kind of some of the, you know, the new fee with Fannie and Freddie for refinances, um, kind of cut into our margins a little bit. But, you know, we’re willing, toe, do you know we’re willing to do whatever we can do toe win business, you know? But at the same time, we have to pay people off a fair wage and we employ Americans, you know, So that Z you know, that can can be a difference, right? But it’s just a matter of like weighing, weighing out things. You know different. You know this. This lender might have the best deal, but they might take a really long time to get it done. You know this lender there there really fast, But they’re very expensive, you know? And what’s the What’s the trade off? And so you know, it’s always good toe talk to multiple people about that to gain a broader understanding for yourself.
[00:15:46] Paul Sian: How are they giving those fees? I mean, I’m presuming you need to get a credit report. Run right, Okay. And then how how big of an impact is that? You know, you’re getting multiple credit reports. Let’s say I talkto 34 lenders and I say, Okay, go ahead, run my credit if I, if I do it over the same day or a couple of months, is a big difference.
[00:16:05] Walt Wollet: So as as Faras a assed faras, a hit on the credit report. Yes, it’s it’s 30 days, so you’re allowed. What sends a red flag to the to the bureau’s is when you shop for a bunch of different things. So say that when I was buying this house, I also have my credit pulled for a car and I had my credit pull it for a tractor on and I did all this financing stuff. Well, my credit score, which just start to tank because it’s because the way the agencies that their algorithms or reading that is this person doesn’t have any cash right there. They’re financing everything you know. Here’s another credit card inquiry, so it’s all within that 30 day window. So you legally you get your credit pulled once with a lender, and then you have 30 days and you could have the credit polled, so long as it’s a mortgage inquiry and not any sort of general finance inquiry. And it’s how they’re coded to the to the actual credit providers, right? But so long as it’s a mortgage inquiry, it only it’s only gonna count is one hard inquiry. So you you’re you’re the credit agencies. They don’t wanna dissuade people from shopping for mortgages because we need to have a fair, you know, a fair and ethical mortgage market. Um, and it and it iss you know it. It’s definitely better than at what I’ve heard about, you know, from from some of the people I work with in before 2000 and eight. Right? But, um,
[00:17:30] Paul Sian: but comparison comparison shopping is, uh, could be a big saver. I mean, you know, thousands upon thousands over the life of the loan. Definitely going back. Now, we’re going back to your own personal experience looking. You know, hindsight is 2020 looking back at the whole process. Is there something you think you could have done better? That you know, would be good advice for somebody else?
[00:17:51] Walt Wollet: Yeah, I think I am. I think I probably I probably should have paid off all my all my dead sooner, you know? So that was that was one thing is I really, um
[00:18:05] Paul Sian: when you say sooner, how much sooner? And say prior to applying the loan. How much quicker should you have done
[00:18:12] Walt Wollet: that? So just as an example, I had There’s a company. There’s a rental verification company, and I pay them a fee toe, add toe, add my rental trade lines to my credit report, and those were not added before my credit report was pulled. So just like things like that that I had done to strengthen my credit profile in my score, they weren’t reported, right. And then I paid off all my cards, like I said, but some of them were still reporting balances when we pulled s. So it was kind of like take
[00:18:45] Paul Sian: 30 to 60 days for some companies report.
[00:18:47] Walt Wollet: Exactly. And so And here’s what I found out is that you most companies will offer what’s called off cycle reporting so you can call them like, Hey, I’m you know, I’m gonna get my credit pulled for, you know, this investment property loan. And I just paid off this credit card. I’d like it to report. And so some of them were honest with me, and they’re like, Oh, well, yeah, we can report And they did, and others said they did, but they didn’t. And it’s just the nature of, you know, the nature of it. So I would I would say a lot of that stuff. I would I would just, you know, I would just get it done as soon as possible. If you know, you know, if you know that, that’s gonna happen. Like I had my I had my credit pull twice for this home purchase. Um, because the original credit report expired right. Um, and I did that in February, you know? So I knew in February like, Okay, that’s what my actual score is. And then I use that credit report to attack the, you know, some of the balances and anything. Any other derogatory is that we’re keeping my score lower than where where I wanted it to be. Okay, so
[00:19:50] Paul Sian: all great advice and all great conversation. So I appreciate you taking the time to be on this podcast with me. Any final thoughts?
[00:19:59] Walt Wollet: Um, I, uh I just I just say everyone stay safe out there. And, um, you know, it’s just like with with what we’re talking about with with lenders, you know, and with getting different opinions and different perspectives in the world right now, that is what I would advise everyone to dio, you know, So, ah, lot of people there usedto watching CNN. They’re used to watching Fox News. They get their perspectives in their opinions, you know, from this one place. And I think that, you know, especially right now, is as you know, things were kind of, you know, getting getting a little crazy
[00:20:38] Paul Sian: up in the air,
[00:20:39] Walt Wollet: right? We need we need to All kind of, like, you know, realize that that everyone’s a person and that, you know, people are people and that we just way have to We have to do a better job working together. We have to hold our leaders accountable in this country.
[00:20:55] Paul Sian: We’re in this together basically,
[00:20:56] Walt Wollet: right, you know, And then and then that’s that’s all I That’s that’s all I would say to people is just and especially if you’re working with mortgage lenders right now, we’re all you know. We’re all stressed out and we’re swamped. And, you know, your I promise you you’re not the only client you know. So it’s like, you know, just just be patient with people. Um, you know, there’s a lot of people that that, you know, behind the scenes that work on these loans and your your loan originator eyes going to do their best for you. But a lot of times things, things happen. Unfortunately, and you know, you just need to take it as a learning experience and move forward. And I think that’s what our country needs to do with, uh, a lot of this craziness right now
[00:21:38] Paul Sian: wholeheartedly agree in the awesome advice. Thanks again for being on
[00:21:42] Walt Wollet: awesome. Thank you, Paul.
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Brian Weast is a top-producing Dallas-area Realtor who, as a Leaderâs Choice Trainer, practices everything he preaches. The results were almost immediate after learning at the 9-week Leaderâs Choice program â within a year, he had risen to the very top of his 1,700-person agency. Brian and his team have grown their annual production to a level of 250 transactions and $45 million in volume. Already an advocate for the program, becoming a Leaderâs Choice speaker and coach was a natural progression for Brian. This helped him launch and sustain his successful business. Join us as Brian shares his mindset and a glance at his journey to becoming a Real Estate Rockstar by helping other hard-working, driven people achieve similar life-changing results.Â
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Show Summary Hey, welcome back for another segment! This is the 3rd and final segment that I wanted to share with you from my recent live event called the Thankful Real…
There are so many benefits to getting outside of your comfort zone and learning about another culture, and what better time to do it than in college? On this episode of the Zing Podcast, we get all the tips and tricks to make the most out of your study abroad experience.

For this podcast about financial planning I sat down with Scott Trent of Skylight Financial. During the podcast we discussed financial planning in general, qualifications to be a financial planner and how a financial planner can benefit homeowners and real estate investors. This podcast is helpful for those who may not be certain what a financial planner does and can learn how they can benefit from working with one.
I hope you enjoy the podcast and find it informative. Please consider sharing with those who also may benefit. Listen via YouTube: You can connect with Scott Trent on LinkedIn.
You can connect with me on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram.
About the author: The above article “Podcast #11: Financial Planning and Real Estate” was provided by Luxury Real Estate Specialist Paul Sian. Paul can be reached at paul@CinciNKYRealEstate.com or by phone at 513-560-8002. If you’re thinking of selling or buying your investment or commercial business property I would love to share my marketing knowledge and expertise to help you. Contact me today!
I work in the following Greater Cincinnati, OH and Northern KY areas: Alexandria, Amberly, Amelia, Anderson Township, Cincinnati, Batavia, Blue Ash, Covington, Edgewood, Florence, Fort Mitchell, Fort Thomas, Hebron, Hyde Park, Indian Hill, Kenwood, Madeira, Mariemont, Milford, Montgomery, Mt. Washington, Newport, Newtown, Norwood, Taylor Mill, Terrace Park, Union Township, and Villa Hills.
Transcript
Paul Sian: Hello everybody. This is Paul Sian Realtor with United Real Estate Connections licensed in the state of Ohio and Kentucky. Today I have with me Scott Trent Financial Planner with Skylight Financial. We’re going to talk about financial planning and add a little bit of real estate information on that. Scott, how are you doing today?
Scott Trent: Do an excellent, how are you Paul?
Paul Sian: Good. Glad to have you on. So let’s get started, tell us a little bit about your background. What do you do and how long have you been doing it?
Scott Trent: Sure. Well, it started in 1999. That’s just wrapping up college and started working for a local retail bank back in the day that was bank one, which of course became chase bank. And uh, for about three or four years with the banking industry, had a couple of different roles started off essentially kind of right on the teller line, cashing checks and making deposits. And then within about a year I was tapped for personal banker role and was able to acquire my insurance and investment license and to be able to expand the services I provided my client. And you fast forward to working primarily in that space and the investments in the insurance space. A couple of different companies such as nationwide in western southern and was right about 2007 then I had an opportunity to expand my role into leadership and management and so from about 2007 to 2017 I’ve trained and developed and recruited and was in a leadership position in the financial services industry. And right about 2017 I just decided to lean back towards my personal practice and spend more time with my clients, which really is my first love is just spending the time with those clients, helping them achieve their goals and seeing their eyes light up when you give them hope that they can actually accomplish the things that they set out to accomplish when they first signed on with that first job right out of college.
Paul Sian: Very nice. You did mention something about licenses and they in your statement there, so like I guess we can go on with that. What kind of licenses are you required to have and what kind of licenses are helpful to have in your line work?
Scott Trent: That’s an excellent question. So at a minimum you want to work with a financial planner that has an insurance license and at least one securities license. And the reason for that is because any financial plan is going to ideally holistically look at the different moving pieces of someone’s life. We’re going to look at cash flow and protection, risk management, wealth accumulation, tax reduction, retirement and ultimately a state of planning. And it’s with those different areas, there’s going to be some, some expertise needed as it relates to saving money, investing money as well as protecting your income and your assets. And so again, at a minimum bar you’re going to work with someone who has an insurance and investment license. On top of that, there are other designations of the industry provides such a CFP or cou chfc is going to emit apple bet soup out there of different designations that you can achieve. But I tend to tell people you want to work with someone. Again, that is looking at from a big picture, looking at both the protection and the wealth accumulation side. And I would say just as important as licenses or designation. Do you want to work with someone that has a rather quit experience?
Paul Sian: Okay, great. What kind of licenses do you have?
Scott Trent: So I have an insurance license in Ohio where where I reside and also uh, about a dozen other states that I conduct business said on a regular basis as well as uh, a series six license, the series 26 license, a series 63 license. And I’m also approved for financial planning through my broker dealer.
Paul Sian: Okay. So it looks, sounds like some of the licenses to our state restricted just like real estate or are all of them state restricted or though some of their general that you have licensed you can work anywhere?
Scott Trent: That’s a great question. So typically what happens is any insurance side of the house, once you are licensed in the state that you reside, you can fairly easily become what they call non-resident license in other states that you wish to do business and which is essentially filling out a background report, paying a fee and they kind of stamp stamp off and approve it. And so then in that way you’re able to conduct the insurance transactions in those states that you have clients that are, you know, for example, I have clients in the west coast and east coast ever where in between and I, I need to be licensed in the state that they reside as well as my own. On the security side or the investment side, you have one set of licenses that determines what type of business that you can conduct for your clients. And then the series 63 that you might’ve heard me mentioned that says that I can service the clients that reside outside of Ohio or I do, but you also need to be registered and approved and those surrounding states as well. So there’s a bit of administration that needs to take place, but at the end of the day, as long as you have filled out the proper forms and you’re mindful of your continuing education, just like you are as a real estate professional, you should have no problem servicing clients anywhere in the country.
Paul Sian: Okay. And we did a, you did kind of talk about, you know, one financial planner does coming, explained it in the light detail and through your intro, can you boil it down to us, boil it down to somebody who’s never met a financial planning before. We never talked to a potential central planner. What, you know, what exactly you do and how can you help somebody?
Scott Trent: That’s a great question. So you’re, from a bullet point standpoint, I would say it’s really about the why, how, and why and the what speaks to goal clarity. What I find working with our clients, Paul, is that mom and dad or partner’s, they’re getting up every day. They’re going to work and they’re doing their job. Then they’re coming home and will oftentimes doing mom things and bad things and catching their breath and then we get the little ones off the bed and next thing you know, we’re waking back up doing it all over again. And you know, kind of big picture. Intuitively we’re working to provide for our family and we’re working to have a great lifestyle. But you’d be surprised that most often people aren’t actually having a good conversation about what they’re really trying to accomplish and setting benchmarks for things like we want to have x amount of debt paid off in three years, or we want to save up for a great family vacation.
We’ve always wanted to go overseas. But yeah, we ended up just going to Florida every year because we don’t take the time to plan it through. And next thing you know it’s summertime. And so it’s about that clarity that the conversation that needs to happen between the partners in a hole, the spouses often let’s say, hey, where are we really getting up and working for a day to day basis? And so goal clarity, what do we want life to look like? If we wake up 20 years from now looking at a rear view mirror, what things would we have wanted to accomplish, make, make it feel like we’ve made some progress. So that’s a lot of it. The houses, the strategy or the roadmap. So once we identify what a client wants and help provide, help them have that conversation of clarity among all interested parties, then it’s how do we get there? And that’s where our expertise comes in and that’s looks like cash flow design that looks like different vehicles or products sometimes. Sometimes it’s as it’s a matter of saving, saving the right amount and the right kinds of buckets. And so again, that’s that more technical roadmap piece of it and it ultimately the why of it is this, the accountability, it’s, it’s part of my job is to keep the, why are we doing this in front of them? It’s what, what do we want to feel, what do we want to experience? And so if we, we’ve looking to the future and we can see our future selves waking up with the confidence of knowing that, that all of our financial lives are in order, that all the moving pieces are fitting together like a, like a perfect puzzle. There’s total efficiency there. It’s, it’s making sure that we keep that in front of our coins to say, Hey, this is why we’re saving this much. On a monthly basis. This is why we have that insurance in place. This is why we are investing in these types of instruments and vehicles. It’s all about, it’s about the experience that we want to create for ourselves and for the people that we love the most. So I guess that’s a little bit more than bullet points fall, but in a bullet point, it’s the why, how, and why. Otherwise it’s the goal, clarity of strategy and accountability that we provide.
Paul Sian: Actually that’s, yeah, that’s very well said. So it’s not just long term planning, it’s not just you know about retirement. It’s also about your short term. If you want to go, like you mentioned the vacation plan or even then you know, my case, I deal with a lot of real estate investors. So somebody who wants to set up a plan for investing in real estate, you can help out with that too. Correct?
Scott Trent: Oh absolutely. And so, you know, the time frame, it has a lot to do with what their client has going on in their life and this season that we meet them in. So, you know, for example, and we hear a lot about, I’ve really liked to get in to real estate investing. And then we say, well, when do you see yourself doing that? And sometimes they’ll say, well, you know, in the next two to five years. And sometimes they say, well, like right now I can’t. And so we’ll take a step back again, kind of coordinate all the moving pieces of their financial world and letting math and math have a seat at the table and not just intuition and not just kind of what we want and, and you know, let things that, you know, sometimes we see something on the internet or hear a friend talk, we’re like, Ooh, I want that. And so then we just go do it. And so again, that’s a big part of it. But also its let’s, let’s have the emotions have a seat, but also led logic and math and rationale habits. Have a seat, the tables.
Paul Sian: Well, yeah. And you mentioned long term plan, also short term plans, looking at things. So, I mean just uh, and we can go a little situations or specific, basically you have to look at everybody’s individual situations and how they’re, you know, what they’re doing and what their goals are. Let’s say we have somebody who’s a, you know, there were w two income earner, they make x amount of money per week, per month, what have you, and so they’re interested in, in a real estate investing. What kind of general advice would you give to that person and you know, maybe they don’t have a full down payment saved up yet and they need 20-25% for whatever they’re trying to buy. What kind of suggestions would you have for them.
Scott Trent: Paul What I would say with someone who’s looking to take their first step into the financial independence or looking at that opportunity to, to start a real estate investment portfolio, it is always looking at it through the filter of what we call our four pillars of financial security or the value system, that value system that we use when it relates to financial planning. And those things are going to be making sure that you’re protected against major financial risks, that you are becoming a world class saver, saving upwards of 15 to 20% of your income on a monthly basis, making sure that you have a life events fund. We have says that I have upwards of a year’s worth of my income in places that I can access outside of my qualified plans such as his Iras so that I’m able to deal with not just rainy days in emergencies, but I’m also able to take advantage of great opportunities like I ain’t a great property for a great price and also taking a look at the debt that I have on my balance sheet that already exist and so we would do with a client is to say, Hey, let’s take a, let’s take a holistic look or three 60 look about how a purchase of a real estate property, what impact these other creek cake, key critical areas of financial planning and your overall wealth strategy.
Paul Sian: Okay, great answer. You had mentioned a debt in there. Let’s go talk about that a little bit of an most people are buying real estate using that, you know, your mortgages, commercial mortgages, residential mortgages. What are your thoughts on debt? I mean a good, bad avoiding to some that’s good, bad. What do you think?
Scott Trent: That’s a great question too. I think that it is difficult especially you’re right up in the Midwest to ever say Ted is good. However, when it comes to that, when I, when I’m, what’s an easier answer to give is the what, what is the fat kind of debt and so bad debt is higher interest rate, unfavorable terms, excessive fees, consumer base that such as credit cards or retail store cards, things that we, that that we acquire just for lifestyle. Because a lot of times what that represents on someone’s balance sheet is that they have let their once supersede their actual needs.
And so what lending institutions are happy to do is to say, hey, if you want an extra money to be able to keep up with the Jones’ is it will give us a call or come see us on credit card.com and so I always caution against that kind of debt because it speaks usually to a bigger problem on the other side of things. Acquiring that for the purpose of acquiring assets like real estate, like vehicles, that can be very wise decision because it helps you leverage your own cash flow and leverage your own opportunity to earn income and your own savings and oftentimes, particularly as it relates to real estate for home purchases for example, there are, there’s some tax favor ability to be found with those kinds of debt. And so what I’ve, what I’ve loved the, the good debt, Paul, the best debt is low interest rate, tax deductible kind of debt.
That’s good debt. But again, this kind of summarize, I would say the bad debt is usually represented by death that we were required to just improve our lifestyle, close trinkets in the house, furniture, things like that. That’s usually about ego, about lifestyle as well as just as much to do with our neighbors and our neighborhoods. What does ourselves or the people that we care about the most.
Paul Sian: You had mentioned the taxes in there too. I do. I guess Texas do come into play as a financial planner when working with your clients.
Scott Trent: Yeah, absolutely. And so one of the things that we’ve helped the client with recently is to help weed through the confusion of the current tax situation because of the tax cuts that will were implemented in 2018 and so as an example, all you brought up about, it’s not just long term planning, it’s not just retirement plane that we help our clients with.
It’s also short term goals. And so taxes is a great example of that because what we do know that unless there’s some overall legislation that gets passed, what we can expect is that in December 31st, 2025 the current tax cuts are going to that. So another way to think of that is come January 1st, 2026 everyone’s taxes are going to go up if they’re earning the same income of the art today. And with that creates opportunity. It’s one of the things I’m working with a family right now on is this idea of exploring, does it make sense to take advantage of after tax investing rather than what most people focus on kind of cause they told to just what they see their neighbors and their friends and family doing, which is maximizing their pretax dollars is what could happen without getting too far into the weeds fall is because of the current tax environment.
We might be deferring taxes at 20 or 24% all the way to wake up and later in life and find that we’re now paying taxes on those same dollars at a higher rate, 30% 32% 36% and higher. So we just have to be careful about that. And so taxation is a area of emphasis that is necessary working with any financial planner. And I would just caution folks that if their financial planner is not having a meaningful conversation about long term impact of taxation, then they might want to seek out a higher authority on the matter or maybe it might be time to start interviewing other financial planners. I think the asterisk that I would add there fall is that that’s also why we partner with local professional CPAs so that they can have the kind of final say so in these matters as it relates to wealth building in financial planning in the in the area and Ronald Taxation, we are very familiar with that have very powerful tools that speak to taxes.
However, what we are not as certified public accountants and so as you can imagine, we want to make sure that we always work with someone who, who is that when it comes to crossing those ts and dotting those I’s. Also, I think with the financial planner, bigger picture is working with a successful financial planner also should give you access, favorable preferable access to the financial professionals that they network with. Such as personal make herself a professional real estate agent as well as an attorney as well as a property casualty specialist to CPA, a benefits consultant if it’s a business owner on and on. And so it’s really working with the right team, but ultimately working with someone who is going to be that can symphony conductor or that quarterback of their team, who’s going to take the responsibility to make sure that all the orders are running in the right direction.
Paul Sian: Great answer. Actually that wasn’t, that answers my, uh, it wasn’t going to answer my next question, which is a financial planner is not a solo person. They work with, uh, with a team as you mentioned, you know, working with the accountants, the attorneys, CPAS, what have you. So that’s a great answer. We had discussed earlier you had discussed about building up an emergency savings fund. Then you mentioned a year, which is great. And that’s the idea was the year, you know, we’ve heard online from anywhere from three months up to six months. I mean, what’s, how do you suggest people go about building that savings funds? I mean, especially for somebody who thinks they’re living paycheck to paycheck, I mean, where do they find that, that room, that gap to start, start that savings fund?
Scott Trent: SoI guess it would clarify first the difference in an emergency savings fund in a life event. It’s fun. So for an emergency savings fund that’s best suited typically at the local bank, and that’s going to be in the form of a savings account on or maybe even a and no fee checking account. And that’s going to be where you want to have about three months, maybe six at the most. A lot of it has to do with the comfort level, the individual client. But typically three months is more than fine to have on hand at the local bank. That’s money that I’m an ATM card or a debit card swipe away or uh, a dash over to the local branch away from getting access to my funds. Outside of that, the next six to nine months that we talked about from a life events that doesn’t necessarily have to be in cash at the bank, but it just needs to be somewhere outside of a qualified plan.
Because as you probably know, and your listeners know, Paul, money that’s inside of a qualified plan is largely inaccessible until I’m 59 and a half. And last I want to jump through hoops, pay interest rates to access my money or God forbid pay taxes as well as IRS penalties. And so when we talk about life events, fun big picture, we’re talking about braces for the kids. We’re talking about a $2,000 car repair emergency that jumps out the bushes on us. We’re talking about, um, the vacations that we want to go on. So it’s the experiences that we want to have in life for the people that we care about most, but it’s also the things that life is inevitably going to do, which is getting, throw those curve balls. Dot Us good and bad. So as far as how do we get there, take baby steps, it’s just sometimes it’s as simple as going to your HR coordinator, your payroll director and saying, Hey, can I split my direct deposit between two counts right now?
This is kind of hitting the checking account. And then from there it’s, it’s um, you know, all bets are off and it’s a feeding frenzy. And ultimately, uh, fortunately for the bills and the lifestyle expenses and gas money and everything else, uh, the best way to say fall, no matter how you do it or what vehicles you use is systematically and consistently. So it’s those things that you don’t have to pull ever go online, go to the local branch and things that just happened. That’s why good and bad, most of Americans well is in their qualified plans are the 401k because it comes out before it ever hits our bank account. It’s out of sight, out of mind. It just piles up. You know, the, the, the tough part about that is, again, that’s a qualified account. So there’s some heavy restrictions that keep us from being able to access our funds when we might need them most.
So just like the 401k if for example, I talked to a college student this afternoon and it was as simple as go to the HR director happens, split your direct deposit into two separate accounts and just start taking out $25 a pay check and having that diverted to a secondary account just so that it starts to pile up and the idea that the money’s there but really need it, but it’s just that extra layer that helps reinforce the discipline to say, okay, I’m not supposed to touch that. That’s for future purposes. That’s for rainy days, real emergencies and not frivolous spending. And so start with baby steps. And next thing I would look at is working with an advisor who has tools to help you analyze your spending. Your cash flows ideally will help bring awareness to where those dollars are going. What I find fall is that what most of our clients, there might be 10 to 15% of their monthly income.
That just seems to just disappear. It’s not accounted for it. And so using the tools such as, uh, we use a tool, Claudine money for example, and we’re personal financial view that will really electronically analyze someone’s spending habits so they can say, oh, I wonder how much money we’re spending out spending on a monthly basis eating out. Well, click, click, click. This is exactly how much that is. And we can set short term goals on what we think that should be and we can keep, we can track our progress through these financial tools. The other thing that we look at in a financial planning process is we want to analyze the cost of the services that you’re currently receiving. So for example, when we work with our lending and credit specialist or real estate professionals or CPAS or attorneys or property and casualty specialist, we’re making sure that our clients are getting value, not always looking for cheap.
In fact, the chief is not a word that I tend to use or any of the professionals and network with. We’re making sure that we’re getting the best value since we have a finite amount of dollars coming in. We want to make sure that those are being used, maximized and leveraged the most appropriate way. So it is taking the baby to start somewhere. It is working with an advisor to find the awareness of where the money’s actually going as well as taking a look at the cost of service for the services that we’re currently enjoying as well as I. Lastly, I would say looking for ways to minimize the impact of interest rates wherever possible, whether that be through right refinancing or creating a debt payoff strategy so that we are avoiding those excessive interest rates in feet.
Paul Sian: Yeah, it takes a, an overall, you like you’re, you’re saying you have to look at the budget, get to look at the incoming money, outgoing money as well, and kind of build that plan. So I mean that’s, that seems you to be your specialty. Very much. So. Moving on, let’s go back to the topic of real estate. And I go over one of the controversial statements made by Gary Vee, Gary Vaynerchuk. I mean he had, he had say stated, uh, rather than buying a house, it’s better to go, you know, go rent and I don’t know that upset a lot of real estate agents too. I mean that’s kind of our bread and butter. We’re, we’re buying and selling real estate. I’m of the opinion though. I mean I, I help a lot of buyers and sellers with the investment real estate too. So it’s not that, you know, I have to own a house personally, but I can own an investment property and I’m helping somebody else, you know, live in a place. What are your thoughts on the ownership of a house or renting, renting the place to live.
Scott Trent: Interesting and not, I read an article last week that talked about the difference in buying and renting or leasing in different pockets of the country. And as I said, it’d be four people. I work with clients all across the country and in some markets it’s really hard to justify a home purchase as it, as it compares to renting a home. You know, for example, a lot of clients on the west coast where housing market is very tight and there’s certainly a premium for home homes costs there in that part of the country. And so what we find is that the monthly cost of leasing a home can oftentimes when you consider the fact that with home ownership, I also am now responsible for property taxes, homeowner’s insurance, as well as the upkeep of the property that that can sometimes more than double the living expenses as it relates to housing. Whereas compared to here in the Midwest where sometimes it can actually be much more cost effective to own a home rather than rent a home from a monthly cash flow outlay. Even when you add in insurance and taxes and the kind of monthly maintenance, if nothing else, it’s oftentimes a break even when you consider all factors. So I think that would go back to as you say, Paul, you know, or Scott does it. Does it make sense to own or rent when you think about Gary V’s advice way I would look at that is again, just like any other decision that our clients would come to us and ask our feedback on. We would take a, at the basics we’d say, okay, before pillars of financial planning or financial security or these value system that we use to build our clients’ financial plans on the perfect protection, the become a world class save or having the life events fund to be debt free or have a, have a plan to get us there.
If a, if home ownership or home purchase would get in the way of us living out those values or achieving those financial objectives then and renting would, then we’re going to say it. We should think about writing for another year or two. However, if, if our clients can own a home and be protected well and be a great saver and be building their life events fun and have a handle on the that that’s already existing on their financial balance sheet, then by all means we’ve been encouraged folks to take, take ownership of a home so that they have acquired an asset. They’re building a liquidity in the form of equity and they’re also able to take advantage of the things we talked about earlier, which is having the tax deductibility from interest payments on the mortgage and so on and so forth. And so the other astronauts that I would have there is the sense that if someone comes to us and says, yeah, you know, my job, we’re an up and coming or a rising star and you know, are two of the five year goals are too.
And we want to, we want to be really nimble because we’re very likely to be transferred across the country, maybe Chicago or San Diego here in the next two to five years. Again, why would attend to encourage those folks is and can be consistent with say, nimble homeownership home purchase, maybe a terrible idea. This is because it’s, it’s easy to, it’s much easier to give a landlord a 60 day notice that you’re moving out than it is to be able to sell a home in 30 to 60 days regardless of the market. Also the fact of course you gotta be careful that we’re not holding an asset that we’re going to look to sell or relinquish in the next 12 to 24 months or even three to five years. Knowing that it’s not often, but every so often the housing market can regress such as 2007 and eight and we have to be careful that we didn’t make a 30 year decision based on 24 to 48 months factors, if that makes sense.
Paul Sian: Yeah, definitely makes sense. And it’s a a great point. I mean just like real estate, you know, when you brought up earlier the cost differences, you know, living in California versus living in Cincinnati, Ohio, it’s location, location, location is agency. So, I mean when you get over here for you know, $250,000 you know, in California you can easily do the, be able to get 1.2 million depending on the location you’re at. So same, same thing for the individual person. I mean it’s the, it’s the individual that matters. What’s your life goal? What’s their life plans? And you know, somebody who’s going to be here in Cincinnati for two years, it doesn’t make sense. It might not make sense. The, you know, there are high transaction costs, you know, where they’re from, your, your real estate closings, closing costs, your, your mortgage closing costs. So I mean that that kind of adds in and you might not get that pay off in two years. Especially if value state stay flat or decrease.
Scott Trent: That’s an excellent point perspective. If I could leave your listeners with one nugget of wisdom for what it’s worth, I would say the sooner that you can let go, other people have expectations of you and let go of what other people might think of you and the perception others have of you, the better off you’ll be. We find so often that the pressure to keep up with the Joneses that use that expression again or to to everybody else is doing it just kind of like kids in grade school. That same peer pressure exists with hardworking families, grownups, parents here in adulthood and the idea that we’ve got a finite amount of time and a finite amount of resources and at the end of the day being able to look in the mirror and have satisfaction about the progress you’re making it for yourself with people that you love, making sure that you have a plan that works and offer seen circumstances, good days, bad days, sunshine or rain.
Knowing that you’ve prepared a path for yourself and for your family. That is a general one that reaps benefits for generations and that we’re teaching the generation coming behind us about financial responsibility. I think if we can find joy and peace in those principles and those ideas and the visions of that kind of a future rather than making sure that, you know, we look good when we pull up to the company picnic or the family or a union or making sure that we form to the right neighborhood with the right car and the right toys in our garage. No, I think we’d be much better off as Americans because sadly enough, the statistics say that the average American to saving 5% or less of their income or an overwhelming majority of folks are not even prepared to deal with a thousand dollar emergency if it were topics that out of the bushes.
And so I think that what I’d like to leave your listeners with this idea of we can do better and one of the best ways to start doing better is to think a lot less about the perception and approval of others and really start thinking about the idea that the stakes are high and when, when we consider the magnitude of the impact of our financial decisions, not just for our lives but the lives of the generations that follow, I think we can make the best well informed decisions and whether that includes home purchase or renting or if it includes real estate and investing or for or not. I think that working with myself and my team, we really work very hard to make sure that we keep the main thing, the main things and minimize the distraction of other things I’ve mentioned.
Paul Sian: We’ve talked today, plan for now and plan for the future. All very great and solid advice. Thanks Scott. Appreciate you. Haven’t you on the show here and I will chat with you soon.
Scott Trent: Thanks Paul.
Debt, Savings, Career, Education
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