Real Estate Explained

House Hacking, Credit Fixes, and First-Time Buyer Secrets with Nick Comeau

• Nick Bush

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In this episode of Real Estate Explained, host Nick Bush sits down with Nick Comeau, a Senior Loan Officer at First Heritage Mortgage to break down the biggest barriers first-time buyers face — and how to overcome them.

He shared his personal journey from getting into the mortgage business at 26 to helping countless buyers secure their first home. We dived into the common misconceptions about homeownership, including why you don’t need a perfect credit score or 20% down to get started. We also explained how "house hacking" — renting out part of your home to cover expenses — can be a game-changer for first-time buyers looking to build wealth.

Whether you’re a first-time buyer, thinking about upgrading, or just curious about the market, this episode is packed with actionable advice and insider tips to help you make confident decisions.

🎧 Tune in now to discover why buying your first home might be easier than you think — and how to make smart moves in today’s market!

👉 Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review if you found this episode helpful!

Podcast Intro 

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Speaker 1:

It is actually impressive how you built the CPV, listing how you pivoted, because that's not how you came in the game. That was like listing photos, right?

Speaker 2:

Drone photos for listings.

Speaker 1:

That's how you came in the game this is your company, or is it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, nice how old, are you? 24. Sheesh, I thought I was young. Good for you, man.

Speaker 1:

Good for you.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome.

Speaker 1:

How old are you?

Speaker 2:

good for you, man. Good for you, that's awesome. 26 dude, that's still so young.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's still so young, yeah, trying to 34 oh, thank you yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So you know, black, don't crack baby. No, no, yeah, I'm 34. Yeah, I had a kid when I was 20 and, yeah, you wish you would have done that. Fuck, no, you don't, bro. That is the wrong move. You know what the problem is Is that, like my 14-year-old now since I'm successful and his mom is like pretty successful too like he thinks that you should have a kid when you're young. Oh, boy, and I'm like, no, bro, like this shit is not the wave. Like we just figured it out. Like this is no, you can't. Like I, we just figured it out. Like this, no, you, I'm like 30, I'm like, bro, first of all, I need to be 50 at least before I'm a grandpa, you know, and I'm like, but 20 is not, like it's too young. So he can't even, he doesn't see the bullshit. No, he doesn't want to have a kid, but like puberty.

Speaker 2:

He'll be in the middle, mr puberty. Like I don't want a kid, yeah, but no, like, but like he, he can't come.

Speaker 1:

He thinks that like he should have a kid young because he doesn't. I'm like bro at 23, you don't even know what the fuck life is yet. You can't do that. And he's like no, because he's just trying to figure it out, but it's a problem. Yeah, is it started? Are we started? Yeah, we start. We just like cold start bro.

Speaker 2:

There we go.

Speaker 1:

You know what I mean. So we've been in the pod for a little bit. They're seeing you on camera. The blue Komo on the is it Komo or Komo?

Speaker 2:

Komo, komo. I knew that before Either way.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so no, it's the Nick way, so tell the people who you are Well.

Speaker 2:

I'm Nick Komo. I'm a loan officer, so it's going well. Man, I can't complain. Complain, just trying to help anyone and everyone. I I'll treat someone who's a janitor the same way I'll treat a ceo. Uh kind of was born into the business, dad's been in the business for 30 years but he works in the secondary market so we don't everyone's like come on home loans. We don't work together, that's my brand, that's my name.

Speaker 2:

That's my business. He's secondary market doesn originate works at a whole different company, but he got me in the business from one of his clients because his clients are mortgage companies. Yeah, so that's how I got in the business and has been at a couple different companies and as a branch. Recently Nures went to call center, got rid of retail.

Speaker 2:

So we all switched over to First Heritage in late July, early August and from there it's just been taken off yeah um and I and I'm coming up on year five in the biz and it's everything starting to come together the hard work, the networking, the connections, keeping the name out there. This whole business is word to mouth. Your, your name is everything and that's what I've come to know when transitioning from a company and it was my second time transitioning in the talks I had it was your name is the reason people work with you. Half the time people won't even remember the company you're with. They'll remember Nick did a good job on that loan. We're going to give him business Because I don't have a work number I give out my cell phone number.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I take calls at 11 o'clock at night, like it, just when I, if my phone's ringing and I and I see the number and I recognize it, I'm like I I have to pick up the phone. It's not like, do I look at it? I'm like I'm gonna push this off. Like it's like I have to pick up the phone. It's the only way to keep doing it and I'm 26, so I don't have kids yeah I don't have a wife. Um, I'm just trying to keep going and be successful yeah I want to.

Speaker 2:

I want to make some money and I want to help people out and I want to set myself up for a life to live that, thankfully, my dad set my family up for a life to live. You know that's, that's my role model.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, that's great man. You just bought a house. What a few months, like six months ago.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, August. Right when I started In the process of transitioning jobs. I was buying a house. It was thankfully being in the business. You know the documents you need to get. You know, the timelines you need to meet, so it makes it a lot easier.

Speaker 1:

What did you buy and where did you buy? Did you buy a?

Speaker 2:

townhouse cond only okay. So I have a buddy who's my roommate renting out a room and um, got got a good deal on it.

Speaker 2:

Uh, knew that, actually knew the owner selling it because I'm from only yeah so I knew the owner, so got a good deal on it, hooked it up and uh, it's been good, I mean. And I would just say that's another thing, like when people are making that decision to rent or to buy. You just have to look at this. It's a built-in savings account. Like I didn't buy taxes this year and even six months you get your 1098. And I made a video about that today.

Speaker 1:

You get your 1098.

Speaker 2:

That's a tax write-off. You can write off the interest in your home. You can write off part of the property taxes. So again, it's a built-in savings account. It's something that you.

Speaker 1:

So elaborate on that right. So you're 26. I think the average first-time homebuyer now is like 36.

Speaker 1:

I saw that, yeah, it's gone up right, I think I bought my first house. When did I buy? In 21. So I was 31. So I was a little late to the game also, but I got into the business at 26,. So my database and the people I've been helping have always been like 24 to 34, right, I'm 34 now and I don't think that people like your age and Bronson's age really can comprehend why they need to be buying. They think they kind of need to be. They're like trying to overprepare, right? So how do you talk to people in this age group and get them to understand that this is the right move?

Speaker 2:

Well, it's just about laying it down and keeping it simple with them. People think you need to have a ton of money saved up to 20% down. They're worried about the interest rate, they're worried about the monthly payment and I'm like listen, there's two ways to have it. And I mean, I look at it from this way because I invest my money that I get every month. I don't keep a bunch of money in my checking account. I invest it, I give it to my financial advisor. I say do what you want, I want to make money. That's great.

Speaker 2:

That's where I'm thinking. So my thought is, everyone is like I want to put 20% down. I want to put 20% down and I'm like they don't want to put pay mortgage insurance. But let's say you're worried about the payment, go ahead, put more money down. But if you're not too worried about the payment and you can qualify for it, why not put less down? You're? We've seen it every year. Homes in this area go up, up and up and and it's really probably not going to stop.

Speaker 2:

It might mellow out, but I mean it's going to keep going up. We live in a prime area. I mean dc is always growing. It's melting pot is what they call um, and the one thing I say is is you can have that money either going towards equity, which your house is going to go up, or you can have it in the money market account, where it's going to go up, up and up with invested with a financial advisor. So it just depends on where you want to go. I mean you put in the house your money's still making money.

Speaker 1:

You put it in a investment.

Speaker 2:

your money's still making money. You put it in an investment account, your money's still making money. It's about keeping what's comfortable with you and if that monthly payment is comfortable with you at minimum amount down, I would say, do the minimum amount down. Or if you know you're going to have a roommate, then think about okay, I've had buyers who have said, oh, I'm going to have a roommate, no-transcript to have, and you're going to want to live there for five years and hope to have appreciation and sell.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So it's kind of like knowing that and knowing that information and that's where I come in. I'm like listen, I do side. I know a good amount about real estate. Just growing up, my family invests in real estate heavily. My uncle develops in North Carolina. He buys land and sells it to builders. My cousin is becoming a developer in Pennsylvania. He had 38 units. He sold a bunch of them, he did a lot of rentals and now he's going into the buying land building. He's building 19 town homes this year and setting it up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, building he's building 19 townhomes.

Speaker 2:

This this year, oh really, and setting it up in, uh, gettysburg, pennsylvania. So he's in the new development now and just it's kind of in the business so, or in my family being in real estate and stuff and stuff like that. So what I'm thinking is okay, you can have it. And, like, my thought is I'm gonna have this house that I have.

Speaker 1:

Maybe I keep it as an investment I don't know yet, but my obvious goal is I bought an only appreciation is going to go up, so I think, depending on where it's at, I can sell it and use that for a down payment on my next house without taking any money out yeah, when I first got into the business at 26, um, you know, the first people you reach out to, at least on the realtor side, is friends, family, sphere, and so, luckily, I was popular in high school and so I could reach back and say, hey, I just got my real estate license. I need your name, phone number, email address, home address. I'm basically going to start marketing to you. But then it's like hey, are you interested in buying a house?

Speaker 1:

And everyone was giving me those same objections. Well, I don't have an 800 credit score yet, or I have student loans, or I don't have 20% down payment. And so the foundation of my business and my career is built on first-time homebuyer seminars where I was just debunking all of those myths. And even nine years later, it's interesting to to see how prevalent all those myths are still. You know, they're still around, right?

Speaker 1:

people still think you need 20 down. They still think you need perfect, clean credit, these student loans. You know they feel like it's an, it's an issue and so I think that you know you do have to constantly educate people on um like that. These things aren't real and you could bring three percent down. You can do mmp, you can do vhda, you can do dc, open doors and sometimes come with zero down or one percent down um. The other thing you mentioned is house hacking. Right, what you're basically doing now and I don't know if you intentionally house hacked, but that is definitely an easy way to alleviate. Some of you know that pay that, that payment, and have more cash flow um overall. So did you intentionally house hack or?

Speaker 2:

I bought the house knowing I was gonna have someone living with me. Um, that was one of the main reasons that I was like, okay, because we were playing around with the idea of moving to arlington. You know, we're young, let's go rent a house, let's live with a bunch of our buddies, have fun. And it's like came to the time where I was like, okay, business started hitting. I had my sphere mostly in montgomery county, where I do loans in a bunch of states, but mostly my spheres in montgomery county. My office is in rockville. I was like you know what? I saw this house on the market. I went to an open house and I was like, oh my god yeah it's turnkey, everything's redone within the last five years.

Speaker 2:

It was ideally what I wanted. So I put in an offer and it just happened Knowing I hit up my roommate before I put in the offer who's my current roommate and was like, hey, man, I think I'm going to do this. He's like, honestly, I'm probably in. And that's just what was like, okay, I'm ready to do it. I only needed one and came through, got a good deal on it and it kind of helped out. But if you're young and you're looking to buy a house and you're worried about the payment or don't know if you have a roommate, if you're looking with a group of friends to rent, you guys all have to decide as a group where you want to live, if you're the one that's going to buy and you guys are arguing back and forth. What I've noticed is if you buy the house and you bring the idea to them, less work for them to do.

Speaker 1:

They're in yeah, they'll rent it out yeah I have a few clients.

Speaker 1:

I have one client, um. A good buddy of mine went to him and his wife's wedding. His name's uh, ryan, ryan and christina, and uh, we're on our he's, we're putting his house on the market in like two weeks, um, and then they're gonna buy in mclean kind of their forever, their you know, next 10 year house, right and um, and and we're on deal number seven, right, and so what he did was he bought a. He bought three houses in a year, like he. Well, three houses over the course of three years, right. So he bought a condo, then he bought another condo, then he bought a townhouse with his now wife, um, and then he sold the condo, sold the condo.

Speaker 1:

Now we're selling the townhouse and we're gonna buy um something else, and and I think that people don't realize that they can actually do that so I always say, if I could go back to you know 24, what I'd do is I'd buy a house every year, putting three or five percent down I think you have to do it at five percent and I would just get 10 of those and then I then I know, like that's the cap, right. So you know what I'm talking about right.

Speaker 2:

10 is the cap.

Speaker 1:

Can you explain what I'm saying from the lender standpoint?

Speaker 2:

So one absolutely great idea. Two, I would say if you buy that first house conventionally, you can go 3% down. If you don't want to put 5% down, you can have one FHA house, put 3.5% down. But it is true, the max that Freddie and Fannie will allow you to have on a conforming loan is, if you want financing, you can only have 10 finance properties. If not, you have to go into a non-QM or maybe even try and get a commercial loan. That probably includes you putting close to 20% to 40% down. It might be more than 20% I'm a residential guy but I know it's up there for commercial but you could go DSCR, which is debt service coverage ratio, if you have more and you just would strictly be buying it as an investment.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Where you put 20% down and it's basically not income-based. It's based off of the rent that you're going to charge or the rental schedule that you're going to charge.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but to be able to do that you have to buy like laterally or up right.

Speaker 2:

Correct.

Speaker 1:

Well, you don't have to buy laterally or up unless you're buying it as a as a primary so if I do that and I say I'm going to commit to moving 10 times in the next 10 years, well, is it all going to be in the same area?

Speaker 2:

are you going to be buying in different areas? Because sometimes work's a reason, sometimes more space is a reason, sometimes you live there and you're like you know what. It's not what I thought it was. Yeah, there's ways that you can write letter of explanations and things like that. That's why you always got to consult your mortgage advisor. So talk to the underwriter. That's what I like to do Get the idea first and then I'll get the file done and just make sure it works and make sure I can get a pre-approval.

Speaker 1:

So you mentioned underwriting and it triggered me, right, because I've never seen a job posting for an underwriter. And anytime there's an issue in the deal not anytime, but most times it's the underwriter being like anytime there's an issue in the deal not anytime, but most times it's the underwriter being like hey, this is an issue you need to figure this out, right. And I tell my clients, like, when they give, I get upset about it. But when my clients get upset about it, I'm like look, the underwriter's job basically is to hate on the loan. Right, it's to like hate on it and kind of find issues because they're going to sell the loan after the fact. So I have two questions, right, can you explain what, like, an underwriter's actual job is better than me just being like they hate on the loan? And then, why do you guys hide the underwriter? Why can I never talk to the underwriter and clarify?

Speaker 2:

Well, I mean, we don't hide them, but they don't want to talk to anyone because they already get it from us. We want to make the loan work, but they don't want to talk to anyone because they already get it from us. We want to make the loan work, but they want to make the loan work. To shout out our underwriters at first heritage mortgage, they're the best. Uh, they rock. No, they really do. I mean, they're they're willing to work with us and make it work. But I think the main thing is being just as upfront as possible. When, when you're buying a house, you need to tell your loan officer everything because, more likely than not, if there's something I see that's even going to foreseeable, foreseeably be an issue, I'm taking it to my underwriter before I even an issue of pre-approval yeah I'm saying, like, let's review this, like, can I make this work?

Speaker 2:

is it okay for me to issue a pre-approval on this? Because if not, then that's when you're going to come back and be like what the hell happened during underwriting, like what's going on. So you know, they, they do take the brunt of the force and probably the brunt of the brunt of the blame, but, um, they're great and they do anything to help us make it work. At first, heritage, um, we, we've done some things, that we've gotten some things done that, thanks to our underwriters, they found a way they look, they look over the guidelines. I mean, I know I have my underwriter working. Sometimes she works till like 10 o'clock at night.

Speaker 2:

She has, and I'm like geez, like go to bed please I need to be rested for tomorrow, but you know they work as hard as we do and they're not even in sales, so you know they want to make it work and I'm I mean it. It's as well as the loan officer prepares a loan. When you got to take a loan, you got to tell the story of the loan. Right, it's a story. You have two people trying to buy a house. It's a story. You got to write the story for the underwriter to review and make it seem like okay, this should go to freddie and fanny perfectly so what does that mean?

Speaker 2:

so how do you have to, how do you have to like let's say, if they're self-employed, you have to say, okay, well, this is why their income has declined, or this is why their income is increased now, and things like that. Or if they're W-2, they get bonuses every year, but let's say they got bonuses yearly. Now they're switching to a job where they get bonuses quarterly. So two years ago they were at a job where they received an annual bonus. This year 2024, they were at a job where they got quarterly bonuses.

Speaker 2:

Well, probably because if the quarterly bonus is higher, you have to average over two years, but if the quarterly bonus is less, it's just that one year of the quarterly bonuses. So it really just depends on telling the story. And it's just like if you see something coming up, you have to just paint the picture of why it can work, which is why you have to work with the underwriter before the loan if you see something being a problem, so that you can help paint the picture, and then they can approve the picture. That's going to go to that investor or it's going to go to Fannie and Freddie to make it seem like, okay, this won't come back to the company and they won't have to hold it on their line until an investor takes it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, what conversations are you having with people about interest rates right now?

Speaker 2:

The interest rates have been the same for two years. You've been waiting for them to come down. You can see that they're not coming down. So the have been the same for two years. You've been waiting for them to come down. You can see them. They're not coming down, so the thing is is you've seen?

Speaker 2:

home prices go up. Yeah, interest rates aren't going down. They're volatile, they're up and down. But if you feel like you're ready to buy and your income and assets make sense, just do it like if you're thinking about do it and you and you don't do it, you're never going to do it. If, if you're thinking about doing it, just do it. Test the waters a little bit, dip your toes in, get an estimate, see if that payment would work and see if you have this cash to close, and if you do, just do it.

Speaker 2:

The worst thing that can happen is you can always sell your house. Obviously, you don't want to foreclose and go through that problem, but it helps your credit if you pay payments on time. Um and that's another thing I want to talk about is credit if you have bad credit, like I was looking at someone's credit the other day and their credit was 575, but it's because they were an authorized user on their parents account. Their parent didn't have good credit, got it removed, got him improved over 100 points oh really, how long did it take three days, three days.

Speaker 2:

I pulled the credit. He got it done the next day, submitted it to get re-scored, got it back the next day that's awesome dude. So three days they got their credit up 150 points. They didn't even know that that was the reason that their credit was bad.

Speaker 1:

They thought they had good credit yeah, so somebody like that, why did they even, why did they do like a pre-approval? How did you even get them to do a pre-approval?

Speaker 2:

I mean it's introduction from friends, introduction from family, introduction from a realtor. I take the phone call and I'm like my first thing is I want to get them on the phone. If they don't have time to take an application over the phone, I say, well, let me do this when you have some time. I'm going to send you a link, fill it out. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes, but if you have time right now for a 25-minute phone call, I'm going to take this over the phone and I'm going to get everything. So that way, when I have them on the phone and I'm taking the loan application, I see something. Okay, this is their job. Well, are you self-employed? Are you W-2? Do you get any bonuses? I can kind of already paint the picture myself.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Because if I can get him on the phone I can get that pre-approval within two hours. I mean, I had a guy who bought a house in December. He went under contract in November His lender got fired. He wanted to write on the house. He didn't know his lender got laid off. One of my realtors connected me with him.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Called me on a Saturday at 1230. He didn't have time to talk. Sent him a loan application. Loan application fill out the loan application submitted. All the docs got them pre-approved at 230 that same day yeah, it's just about being available. Um, really, and being able to know what questions to ask, which you learn every day on a loan file.

Speaker 2:

You learn every day when you're helping someone buy a house something new yeah it's learning what you can do and then taking those learning lessons and then asking those questions so you don't make that same mistake again. Because, you need to know everything, like if someone's getting laid off, if someone's switched jobs in the past two years, or if someone. Some of these jobs are their subcontractors, so they work for an agency who assigns them different companies throughout the year. So I've had a client who works for for a agency that they're a contractor of and they'll send their w-2.

Speaker 1:

but they'll switch to different contracts every year.

Speaker 2:

So they're working with one company for six months. Then they're then their contracts up. They're working with another company for three months. So it's like you need to make sure you ask those questions up front when you find out what they're doing yeah for a loan okay, what?

Speaker 1:

what's your mix? Are you doing more? Are you working your sphere, or are you more realtor based kind of lender? I'm trying to do both yeah, so you are working because I found over the, I've always asked lenders.

Speaker 1:

I'm like why don't you work your sphere? Because when someone comes to me and they want to buy a house, like the first person I'm connecting them to is a lender, because we can't do anything until they're pre-approved. So why did you decide to work here at Sphere and why do you think that most lenders don't make that decision?

Speaker 2:

I don't know why any lender wouldn't make that decision. But I would think that some of it is like, I guess like call reluctancy right.

Speaker 2:

Like some people don't like to cold call. I mean you either have it or you don't. Right, it's work ethic and that's just the truth. It's you have it or you don't. People are in and out of this industry in all aspects real estate, title, lending, insurance. It's like you hear about the money that you can make. You need a license. Once you get licensed, you think it's just.

Speaker 2:

Oh, all your friends and family are going to use you. I've had friends that don't use me. I have family. My family normally does use me, but that's because my family has been based in real estate for a while. Yeah, but family won't always use you and friends won't always use you. And your family members, friends, will try and get your referral, but that doesn't mean they're going to use you. So it's just about brand, brand, brand. I mean brand, brand, brand. I mean I post videos. You post videos. It's about keeping your name top of mind and then also just reaching out. I mean I try and have events, first time homebuyer seminars, things like that, showing people that you're educated, even if they can come to you for questions or anything about that. It's just answering the phone, picking up the.

Speaker 1:

I have friends call me even about like something that's not about buying a house, about financing financing questions yeah, I think that that's the same thing too, like when people ask me about um video, like how do you prioritize video? Like social media, now everyone does it. But I was doing it like a long time ago, before it was really popular, and I'm like, well, one I get, I get to record a commercial every day for my business, right, like I'm gonna put put some content out. That's a commercial for my business, for people to know, like what I do. And then the other thing is it lets people know that I have the information right, so for my sphere or whoever's seeing me, they know. Okay, well, nick has the information. So whenever I have the question, this is who I'm going to ask.

Speaker 1:

And you mentioned top of mind. I always say real estate is less of a sales game and more of a top of mind game. Right, and obviously you have to keep in touch with your people, so you are top of mind. But if you're putting out content and letting people know that you're the person that should be the resource, then when it's time, you're going to get that Right. You're going to get that transaction.

Speaker 2:

Well, another thing I'd say about, like the sphere, it's being involved. I'm involved. Member of the Olney Chamber. I'm a board member of the Olney Chamber. I'm in charge of the Young Professional Network and the Olney Chamber. I organized the whole Montgomery County Young Professional Network which we have events once a quarter. I got all the chairs together of every chamber in the county and said we need to do this because we get 80 to 100 people there. It's just keeping the name and associating your name with that, because then people see oh nick, he's not just a member of the only chamber, he also does mortgages then, it's the social media aspect.

Speaker 2:

Like you said, social media is a free mailer. Not many people read the postcards or read the read the newspaper anymore. My dad still does, a couple other people I know still do, but it's it's more like the sports page. I mean magazines. Even some people read magazines. But when you want to get an article, like when I want to get a sports article, I'm not going to flip through a magazine to read a sports article. I'm going to get the article that I want to read from the internet yeah you know.

Speaker 2:

So social media is the number one, I think, thing that's up and coming and to reach the younger generation is that's where they get all their information. They get all their information from social media. So I I'm out all the time sometimes and I'll have friends going to me.

Speaker 2:

Oh my god, I love your videos like I see all the time and it's like that's how you know it's working. Like people are coming up to you and saying, oh, I love, I love your videos. People I've had that I've never expected to call me will call me and be like, hey, I'm thinking about buying a house. Like I might not be ready right now, but what? What are some of the steps I should be prepared for things like I'm like, if you're even two years out, three years out, four years out, I'll work with you. Just for when you're ready, I'll give you the, the tips and and the keys yeah the amount you should budget to save.

Speaker 2:

Like that's a big thing too because, like, like you said, there is mmp, there's there's programs where you can come to the table with little to no money if you can get seller credit.

Speaker 1:

Oh, you guys have a grant At First Home. You guys have a grant program right now right, oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Look, he's like I'm sporting First Heritage At First Heritage. You guys have a grant program, we do so explain that.

Speaker 2:

Funds are limited. Fhlb grant funds. It's two separate pools, so it's two separate pools. There's one pool that's the affordable housing program. This is a grant. It's forgiven after five years. There's no payment on it. It goes up to $20,000. If you are a veteran first responder, educator, yep and like firefighter, law enforcement, you're eligible for up to $20,000. You have to make below 80% of the area median income in your area, which is like $120,000,.

Speaker 2:

Right, it's different and the $20,000, $25,000 hasn't come out and won't come out until May. But for $20,000, $24,000, we'll use for now. It's depending on your household size. So it really does depend. It's not $120,000 because that this bank uses their own AMI. I do have a website calculator, so that's why I always say just reach out to me, but if you're not and you're a first-time homebuyer, you're eligible for $17,500 instead of $20,000. And that's just if you're a first-time homebuyer under 80% of the AMI. And now there's a separate one where it's repeat or first-time homebuyer has to be buying your primary. This one's $15,000, fully forgiven grant. Both are at the market interest rate, but the $15,000 one it's just a grant, it's free money.

Speaker 2:

The second one is forgiven after five years. Or the first one is forgiven after five years, this one fully forgiven at closing. It's $15,000, and it's between $80,000 and $120,000. So if you're in that bracket of $80,000 to $120,000. And so, like your friend right here is selling their home, If they're in that bracket of $80,000 to $120,000, they're eligible for $15,000 and they might not need it, but they're eligible for it. It's good to have yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it depends on household size. So a household of six is going to qualify for more, or with more income than a household of two.

Speaker 1:

And is household 18 and up or includes kids.

Speaker 2:

Includes kids, so anyone. If you're pregnant, you count that. I'm serious, I found that out. If you're pregnant, you can count that.

Speaker 1:

You can count all that. Yeah, dope, dope, dope. Anything that. What do you feel like?

Speaker 2:

buyers and sellers need to know about the real estate market right now I mean, if you're buying, I just want to let you know that interest rates aren't going anywhere. So if you're someone that's like I'm gonna wait till interest rates come down, uh, you're gonna be waiting, home prices are gonna go up. So, and if you're selling your home, I think it's about a need. If you, if you have a need to sell, sell your home, as you know, then you got to sell it regardless of the interest rate. Talking to a buddy at the gym, he bought his house in 2021, has a good interest rate, but his wife's having a kid, yeah. So he's like it's not a matter of if we're gonna sell it. We kind of have no choice.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, uh, my girlfriend's cousin is talking about moving. They're getting ready to have their second kid. They don't have any room in their townhome. They're talking about they're going to have to sell it. So now it's a matter of okay, those 3% interest rates were there. It was great. Now you have some equity in your home. What can you do to kind of go to the next step? You can take that money. You don't have to put it all down on the house. You that money, you don't have to put it all down on the house, you're not going to get that same payment. That same payment's gone. So it's just going to depend on what you are comfortable with and the size that you need to accommodate for cool, cool.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for joining me, man. This was great yeah um, where can, uh, where can people find you? How do they reach out to nick I?

Speaker 2:

mean cell phone, for sure, and that's the best way, because I'm looking at my cell phone always. So if you want me to drop my number, I will 240-743-9785. But then another thing is I'm on social media Kamo Mortgage, nick Kamo on Facebook and Nick Kamo on LinkedIn, so you can find me on all those. If you want to shoot me a DM, feel free. That's awesome dude.

Speaker 2:

I would call Nick a young, talented lender, but he's actually been in the're competitive in this business. You'll be great If you're. If you're not like this is a competitive business and given you have friends I have friends that are lenders, you have friends that are realtors but if you see one of your friends doing this amount of business, you're like I need to do that because I want to beat him.

Speaker 2:

It's you got to work hard. Ethic then it's. It's a hard business to be in because the hours are late. I've been working until 11 o'clock all week, I mean it's busy. If you don't want to put in the hours, uh, it's going to be tough to make it.

Speaker 1:

If you do want to put in the hours, then you're right for the business and if you do want to buy a house and you need financing, hit up nick, come on and if you need an agent, hit up nick bush.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there we go, nick and nick. Come on, you know how we do it appreciate you bro yes, sir.

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Nick Bush

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