Boost Your Income & Support Your Parents with Shawn Kaplan

Forget snoozefests about interest rates and amortization schedules! This episode with our guest Shawn Kaplan is about conquering the mortgage maze with your awesome parents and maybe even scoring them a sweet retirement escape (think palm trees and piña coladas!).

We'll crack the code on killer mortgage strategies that benefit both you and your favorite folks. Imagine the epic high-fives when you help them secure a dream home or secure their financial future – all while paving the way for your own financial fortress!

Here's your ultimate cheat sheet:

• Finding Your Mortgage BFF: Ditch the generic recommendations! We'll show you how to find a rockstar mortgage lender like our guest, Shawn Kaplan (aka: KAP), who boasts a legion of happy homeowners (think Google Reviews on steroids!).
• Down Payment Demolition Crew: We'll bust open the down payment and closing cost mysteries, so you can factor them into your financial game plan with laser focus.
• Building Wealth Beyond the Bricks: This is bigger than just buying a house – it's about building a secure future for the whole family! We'll explore how real estate, including multifamily properties, can fuel your long-term financial security while taking care of your awesome parents (think passive income streams that work for you, even while you sleep!).

So are you ready to ditch the stress and embrace the joy of helping your parents? 
Remember, you have the power to make a real difference.  Let's turn financial planning into a family bonding 

Transcript

Shawn: 0:00

You know, to know where we've gotten, we have to know where we've come and you go back and you look at what we're taught. I don't know what you were taught, but most of the people listening to this probably, we're the same, go to high school, get a great job, work for 30 years, give money to social security and 401k, if you do those two things. And when you, after 30 years, you're about to retire it comfortably. And I was just like, oh, cool. That's the path I'm on. That was my blueprint. I was like, I'll do that. And that's what America is still doing. And what we don't realize is like, that's not cutting the cheese. It's not going to get the job done because you're not meant to live your meager years in, in your golden years, you're meant to live your most abundant lifestyle.

John: 0:50

Hi, I'm John,

Erin: 0:52

and I'm Erin. You're listening to connect and power. The podcast that proves age is no barrier to growth and enlightenment

John: 0:59

tune in each week as we break down complex subjects into bite sized enjoyable episodes that will leave you feeling informed, entertained, and ready to conquer the world

1:12

We're thrilled to welcome Shawn Kaplan, affectionately known as Kap to his fans. Sean. Isn't just a mortgage industry. Maverick. He's a hope dealer. Who has turned his early financial challenges into a blueprint for success. paying off over$146,000 in debt. And helping over 10,000 clients achieve their dreams along the way. As a highly sought after speaker on money, building wealth, paying off debt. Marketing branding and social media, his charisma is as compelling as his credentials. With over a billion dollars in closed loans and a wealth of experience, he is ready to educate and help you. Off the clock. He's a family man celebrating 20 years of marriage, fatherhood and life with three French bulldogs. Get ready to be inspired by his journey from overcoming adversity to transforming lives through his work at cross country mortgage and beyond. Please help me welcome our guest, Sean Caplin. Welcome.

Shawn: 2:21

Well, thanks for having me here today.

John: 2:23

Yeah,

Erin: 2:24

We're super excited to have you here today. I want the audience to know that we have something in store for you, that you guys are going to love a quick little lesson that Sean's going to teach us. But before we do that, if Sean, you wouldn't mind sharing your story about mortgages, what drew you into it? How did you get started and all the exciting things? Because it's not something that you just wake up one day, at least I didn't wake up one day and go, Hey, this is what I want to do.

Shawn: 2:51

Yeah. Nobody, I think goes and says, they're going to go to college and learn how to be a mortgage person. so, I try to like, frame myself before I get to people, with who I am as a person before I say mortgage, because it's 1 of those topics that, it's just not that exciting. And a lot of people, I think quite frankly, don't want to talk about, nonetheless, do they want to do it for a living? But, I grew up with a single mom. my dad passed away when I was young and I accumulated a lot of debt, like about 146, 000 in credit card debt coming out of college. And, I was waiting tables. I was actually working two different jobs at two different restaurants, waiting tables and then learning the mortgage industry during the day. but how I got in the mortgage industry was I was waiting tables. And, one day I met a mortgage guy. And in 2001, and he became my first mentor, not having a father growing up. I always, you know, really, really gravitate towards men that were willing to invest in my life and take me underneath their wing, like baseball or boy Scouts or any of that. I was kind of like a. You know, I was a little hacker. I would go hack my dad. I'd go find my dad for the day, you know, day, week, month, whatever. But I would, I'd gravitate towards those guys. And this guy took me underneath his wing and I did everything he told me to do for like three years. And then he said, I'm going to retire. And so I was kind of lost, but that was my entrance into the mortgage industry. And that was in 2001. And it was a couple of months before September 11th happened,

John: 4:10

That's just

Erin: 4:10

something you don't forget, right?

Shawn: 4:13

Yeah, you don't forget that, and it definitely, I had a driving motivator because, I had student loans all of a sudden to start come knocking and those payments and I knew I needed to do something in the career I had chosen was not going to make a lot of money. I was an engineer. I wanted to go to engineering school just because I thought. That was something I should do. And then I switched to environmental science. So I actually graduated with an environmental science degree. And a month after I graduated, I left the restaurant industry and went full time into mortgages.

Erin: 4:42

What is it he said to you that made you go, oh yeah, I'll give this a try,

Shawn: 4:46

so it wasn't what he said. It's what somebody else said. So, I had graduated, I had this college degree, I knew 140, 000 in debt was knocking on my door. The only thing I knew to do was to work, so I went on a job interview at Vanderbilt. And when I went into Vanderbilt, I thought I was going to like the big fancy place. I grew up in Vermont on a dairy farm. after my dad passed away, we moved out of New York. We went up to New England, went up into Vermont to be with my mom's parents. But I just, I went off to college. And so when I got this job opportunity, going to Vanderbilt for this Vermont farm boy was pretty fancy. So I got all dressed up and I went down to Vanderbilt and they were like, Oh no, you need to go to the other side, backside, there'll be a parking lot. you'll see the door over there. And I was like, Oh, okay. So I went that way. All of a sudden I'm passing the dumpsters. And I'm like back in the air conditioning units and I'm like looking around and I see a door and it said on it there was a sign Vanderbilt environmental health and safety because that's what I graduated with. And I go up to the metal door and there was a glass piece of you know that glass window with the wire in it like a prison almost, and I'm looking at it and I could see like these, this concrete hallway that goes underneath the hospital. And so I opened up the door and I looked to the left and this guy by the name of Johnny Vanderpool is who I was looking for. And I walk in, I looked to the left. There's a man standing there and I, and I look at the door and I said, Johnny Vanderpool, and I was like, sir, I'm Sean. I'm here for the job interview. And, he came over, he shook my hand, was pretty brief and abrupt about it, and he goes, let me show you what you'll be doing, you can decide if you want the job. He took me around the hospital, and I was picking up needles, syringes, gauze, and body parts, flesh, everything, and I had to dispose of it for a whopping 32, 000 a year. And even though I was grateful for the opportunity, I never made less than 50, 000 at the restaurant. So I worked at the restaurant for six years. So I went back that night and I'm standing back, back by bus four. And the lady that owned the restaurant, miss Demas was a little Italian lady, white hair would run around the restaurant smoking cigarettes and stuff, but she was a slave driver. Like, you know, and my family was Jewish. She was Italian. So like she had that immigrant mentality and I liked that. And I'm standing there back at bus four all miserable and pouting and all of a sudden she comes back and she doesn't say anything except one thing and first she goes, she goes, what's on your mind? And I said, well, Miss D, I think I just went on a job interview to find out that I wasted my college degree. She didn't ask questions like why, how, whatever. She said one thing. And she said, what are you going to do about it? And so I told a group today, I said, who are those? What are you going to do about it? Friends in your life? Like we need those because Miss Dimas changed my life. I said, I don't know, Miss D. I think I'm going to get into real estate. She said, you know what, let me bring you up here, introduce you to somebody. And I went to the front, she introduced me to the two men sitting at the table. And it was a gentleman that was a home builder, a gentleman that owned a mortgage company. And he said, you seem like a sharp guy. Why don't you come out and I'll talk, teach you about mortgages. I'll, you know, you can see if you want to do this. And I said, I don't need, I don't know what a mortgage is. I don't want to sell insurance. And the other gentleman became Tennessee's largest home builder, which is Mr. John Floyd, who builds about 900 homes a year. And, maybe I should have gone that direction, but the next week I went out and I met Rob and, he took me underneath his wing and he actually showed me his tax return. He showed told me what mortgages were and I knew and he actually said it was like waiting tables. You take care of people, you do a good job, you make money. You take, don't take care of them, you don't make money. but he showed me that tax return. I remember it had 442, 000 on it. I remember it like I saw it yesterday and he said, you want to do this? And I said, yes, sir, I want to do that. And that was, that wasn't something that was realistic to me. I mean, if you made 60, 000, 50, 000 in my family in New England growing up as a Mason or a construction workers. I'm like, you're doing really well. You had a nice truck. You had some money in the bank. And so it's been a big blessing, big blessing to me.

Erin: 8:46

Yeah, I love that story.

John: 8:47

Thank you.

Shawn: 8:48

Yeah.

Erin: 8:49

And it is true what she said to you. And we do need to find more people like that in our life. John is my second and my last, you know, I had all those trial relationships, but I'm like, I wish he would have been my first, how far along we would have been in life, but I needed to learn those lessons before we connected. But he's the one that pushes me and checks in with what I'm doing. I need and vice versa. And I've never had that before. So when you said that, it's like, Oh, guess what? I've been praying about. And you just said it again. I

John: 9:17

You know, I love your story. You learned it very young, right? It took me many, many years to get to where I'm now living a life of full intention. You know, what, what is my full intention and how do I get there? Right and so you have to think about that every day is this improving my life or is this not improving my life and make as many choices as you can in all the different areas from me. your mental health, your physical health, your financial health, all your spiritual health, all those different areas. And how can you improve? so yeah, thank you for that.

Shawn: 9:50

important, so, so, so important. And, we hit on something there that is critically important. You said, you know, yourself, your mind, and there's a lot of hurting people right now. I've had probably five conversations this week with people that are in difficult situations and they're in a dark place and, fortunately, I learned a lot of that early at an early age. And, unfortunately, I learned it because, my father took his own life and you learn a lot of lessons when, you know, you lose a parent, to suicide and you, quickly learn how you're going to validate yourself. And that can work really, really well for a long time, like at work or sports or achievement. but eventually that can't always be the driving factor because it really needs to come from abundance, not scarcity. And scarcity, what I found out, was it got me to where I needed to be in life and in mortgages. When I got into mortgages, I realized If I just ran, I didn't have to be really good at sports because I was a runt. I got bullied. I wasn't good at school. I cheated. It was just tough. But when I got into mortgages, I realized, I just looked, I said, all right, if I see more people, if I have more conversations, if I work more hours and all these other jokers, I will make more money in this industry. Like guaranteed. So I said, well, I'm going to do whatever it takes. I had three jobs. I had two restaurant jobs. Demas is no Charlies. I got the old people during the week and the kids on the weekend. And I was bartending on Saturday nights. And then I was working my mortgage business during the day. But for the first five to 10 years, all I heard when I would call on realtors and business people, they're like, you look familiar. I know you from somewhere. And somebody taught me what's called the triangle of trust. And that started changing my life. And the triangle of trust is just. Where you build relationships with people there where they want to work with you on your merit and they want to work with you On your credibility and your integrity and that felt really good to me but unfortunately, I had a dark spot on that too because I got so Achievement based in the mortgage industry once again that can become your god that can become your everything And I wanted to make a million dollars so bad. I wanted to help my mom buy a house so bad. Like I wanted to never be poor ever again, so bad. But then I got there and I kept doing it. And then I realized, Oh, this doesn't really change anything. I'm still miserable. And we can talk about that later if we want to, but that's my journey.

John: 12:16

Yeah.

Erin: 12:16

Thank you. I love that.

John: 12:17

So you know, brief question that we have on mortgages is what question should we be asking our loan officers and what are things that we should be looking at through the process, it's a tough world out there, right? And it's becoming more and more complicated all the time. And so if you can just go into maybe give us a little lesson, a little walkthrough on, how we look at

Erin: 12:40

at that. Well, I'm going to interrupt real quick too, for just a sec, because I think some people don't understand some. My 1st experience is a mortgage. I was newly divorced, didn't know anything about it. All of a sudden, they're like, this is the rate you're getting and this is what's happening. I was like, oh, and I'm supposed to sign. I didn't understand down payment. I didn't understand the difference between closing cost. And so I feel like a lot of people. We'll be going through that same process or have gone through that process. So just trying to clear up, what are things to ask? Like, what should you know that it's okay for you to ask and that you should be allowed to have access to, if that makes sense.

Shawn: 13:15

Absolutely. And I think that the big question is right before people know what to do, they ask themselves, who should I do it with? And so they'll say, well, I know I'm going to need a mortgage and I know I need to buy a house, but who do I call? then you get into your different avenues and people always ask me, they're like, how do I know? Or what questions should I ask? I tell people, don't work with companies that don't do this. Because there's a lot of great mortgage lenders out there, but I think it's easier to fall than it is to you know Get a find a great mortgage person So and people get in these traps by calling their bank just because they think it's their bank They go online and start googling and searching. that's another one they will get multiple different opinions from people and they'll call three four or five people and have them all try to do the same Job, definitely don't do that. That's outdated advice. It's all changed with technology in the way that mortgage companies run You What they should do is they should find first of all, I asked, ask a family member or a friend, like who did they use? Did, and did you have a good experience? Oh, you did? Can I have that name and phone number? you do want to ask how long they've been in the business I think is important. You want to look at their Google reviews. I have 500 of them. You can't lie Google reviews. You can't cheat Google reviews. So that's proof that's social proof. I would look for social proof would be the second thing. But a mortgage, I think like my mother, when she came to me a couple of years ago, she's I'm, this is the first house I've ever bought in her whole life. And I said, I'll walk you through it. I said, mom, there's an asset and that's called the house. And let's just say that house is worth 100, 000 for round numbers. When you come and you want to buy that house, you're going to make an offer. And that negotiation, you're going to be represented by a buyer. And then there's going to be a representation of the agent selling the home and they're going to work together to make an offer for you. And there's going to be a point. They're going to say, thumbs up. You got the house that point. Well, you and me need to do is we have to get them the finances, the money, the check. So they'll give you the keys, just like an automobile. And mortgages allow you to have all that money if you're just willing to put down like a security deposit Like we used to go to kmart layaway. She'd put all my christmas on layaway at kmart and it's like it's layaway You're doing layaway with the mortgage company and the down payment is the is what you're starting with. Hey, i'll give you 500 bucks You know, we'll pay the other thousand dollars back by december 31st same thing with a mortgage So if it's 100, 000 in some cases, they'll loan you up to 100, 000, 100 percent of it. In most cases, you can get 97 percent of it. And in almost all cases, people can at least get 5 percent down or 95%, 95, 000, which means the down payment would only be 5, 000 from you. Now you got to remember, there's cost. So I also think like an automobile, there's down payment when you buy an automobile or whether you're going to pay cash for it, and there's tax, title, and license. So when I went to buy cars, my mom taught me, she's like, you make sure you ask him plus tax, title, and license. So because you get hit with 1, 200 after that's closing cost. And I tell people mortgage is two to 3%, you know, you have two to 3 percent accounted for some loans, more different scenarios, but that closing costs has to come from either the seller or from you in the form of cash, which means that would be on top of your down payment. And that's how I begin explaining mortgages and what I call my mortgage for one, one, or my discovery call. And because I work in pictures and then after that then we start getting into Different ways that you can break up that loan, most loans don't have a pre payment penalty That's old school, but still make sure you always ask. I think that's an important question You want to ask if your taxes and insurance are included in the payment? That's important when the first payment is due and in my personal opinion and i'll put a bunch of people probably on the line that are my competitors and my friends out there by saying this but You Ask them if they'll guarantee their budget. Ask them if you will guarantee that I will not bring more than what you put on your loan estimate or else you'll credit the difference back to me.

Erin: 17:29

That's good.

Shawn: 17:30

And so those are just a few. I know I kind of went over the question too far, but just how my beginning explanation process goes to people that say, Hey, I don't know. I'm divorced from my husband. I don't know anything about what I'm doing. And we do all this on zoom, by the way. So I give 30 minutes to every one of my clients.

Erin: 17:48

and it's intimidating, right? If you've never done it before, I was grateful. My brother was a real estate agent, so he's like, I trust them. This is good. Just sign. And it was in the middle of COVID. So it was a little bit crazy.

John: 17:58

But yeah, it was wild, but no, I mean, you're right. there's a lot to it, but yet working with somebody that, that, you know, Has great Google reviews or has a lot of experience. You can walk you through the process is so helpful. Cause I remember all I wanted to know is, okay, I want this house, and I want to know what my end payment's going to be and for how long, that's all I want. I didn't understand PMI and all this other type of, stuff you have to come up with, and so. know, just guiding people through that, I think it's so helpful that people are aware, because there are different types of loans and stuff too, that help complicate it.

Shawn: 18:35

Yeah. learn when you're in the mortgage business one thing that we learned in the mortgage business is you can learn to just try to do what everybody else is doing. Unfortunately, that was where that took me off in that lonely, dark place. Cause I was trying to be so much to so many people really what you should focus on is like, what you're passionate and what you're good at doing. And I'm passionate about this area because I lived in this portion of my life, but I think it's critically important that also, people feel like they're being educated. And they have resources and the people are truly saving the money because just getting a mortgage loan is getting a mortgage loan You can walk. Yeah, you could probably walk into your bank. It probably will not be a great experience I can confidently say that you'll probably go in your bank and you'll get a mortgage You'll be painful. You'll have a lot of calls last minute documents, probably requests questions that are nosy And you know, but at the end of the day, they might not tell you. Hey, wait a minute Are you sure you want to put all this money down right now? You've got a 14, 000 car over here. That's 624 a month. Why don't we maybe pay the car off, get rid of 624 bucks a month going into your brand new home because 14, 000 more down on your mortgage loan would only lower your mortgage between about 60 to 65 bucks a month. Like that's the thing that the people, when you call online, just walk in the bank and that's going to cost you tens of thousands of dollars. And so it's one of those games right now where I feel like it's more critically important than ever for people to have people like us on their side to explain it all to them.

Erin: 20:06

that was another question before we get to the really good stuff. Another question is, Do I put more money down for down payment? Do I try to buy the rate down? what's going to get me the most benefit, right? Cause I know I've heard

John: 20:19

that a lot too. Yeah, this is

Shawn: 21:09

Yeah, this is, that's a really great question. and it's applicable to this audience and this may be one of the most important points of the, the call with us, is so the rules of money have changed. So the reason why our parents, grandparents, and their parents said, Hey, get a mortgage put as much as you can down and pay the loan off to not pay interest But also so the bank can't take it from you also interest rates were 13 to 18 at some points 21 to 22 but The reason why this was born and why you hear put 20 down pay the mortgage off Dave ramsey says cut the term down all that is because it's not Wrong advice terrible advice. It's just wrong now It's not applicable. Now, we don't have those rates. And the other thing was the deed of trust was established because I don't remember what it was. It was the black Monday. I think it was 19 thirties or thirties or forties. banks came in and they called your note due within 30 days. And if you had come to this country and tried to get a place and had a house and got a loan or worked hard your whole life or whatever, and all of a sudden a bank comes in and says, Hey, you got 30 days to pay it off. You can't do nothing. You're going to lose your house. So there, that's where the fear, the anxiety, and the PTSD came from pay your mortgage down. Don't pay the bank, you know, money. The deed of trust was established to protect everybody after that, which says this is what has to happen to foreclose. This is why squatters can stay in a house for three months. There's rules. So you're protected. So I can sell the house, refinance it, you know, within that time period. if that ever happens. But banks can't do it anymore. So with interest rates coming down and home appreciation going up and having a steady, steady, steady track record of showing what real estate values have done since 1943, only two times has the market decreased and one of them was 2008.

John: 23:01

Oh

Shawn: 23:03

table around real estate. You take rates down You put facts that real estate is one of the best if not the best investment that you can ever make And you take the other part and you look at the beginning portion there, which was the first point I was talking about that they can't take your house back from you anymore So now you're seeing the new wealthy generations, and I'm talking about, I've been doing this for 24 years, so for 24 years now, I've been seeing people change their mindset to say, Hey, I don't know if I want a bunch of stocks, a bunch of 401k, a bunch of IRAs. I'm gonna buy some more real estate. I don't know if I wanna put 20% down. I don't know if I wanna put 50 or pay my house off. I think I wanna go buy more real estate. And I think that's smart because not only are they buying more real estate, if you don't want to buy more real estate, you have a massive nest egg that you can fall back on versus having a paid off house. And I think in today's time, I think we can all agree that the world's getting a little scary and I would rather have a bunch of payments that I could make for two, three, four, five years sitting in a bank and feed myself than to have a paid off house and no money in the bank. And that's what America's gotten themselves into. And that's why they're addicted to social security right now. And God bless them. And I hope our country delivers and takes care of these folks who paid for so long. But for you and I, we're in a Ponzi scheme. That money is gone. It's being given out right now. My money would have been over 600, 000. I'll get back 36, 000 per year, 3, 000 a month. If I invested it at 5 percent just in bonds, I would get 95, 000 a year. It's laughable what they're doing with our money. So we got to help our parents And these generations that we're in right now understand there's a little tsunami that's happening, but the good news is they could still fix it. They're just going to have to listen to some of the stuff we're going to talk about here in a minute.

Erin: 24:54

before we segwayed into it, we were just literally having this conversation before we got on as Hey, we need to, we're diversifying our portfolio. And I think this might be an answer he's just given you.

John: 25:07

sure.

Erin: 25:08

So that was great. We're getting all kinds of things answered today.

John: 25:12

That's awesome.

Shawn: 25:13

I don't, the word diversify has always been interesting to me because it's like, we had a garden growing up. My mom would have a two acre garden. She would can freeze food because when you're poor, it's like, you want to try to get as much food as you can get yourself. but she always made things happen. the thing is like diversify is like, well, we're not going to plant the same exact thing every single year. And so I just think it's funny when people are like, well, I need to diversify. Well, I'm diversifying every day, every month, every week, every year. You know, it's like five years ago, I did like putting money in the stock market. You know, Warren Buffett said, put money in every single month. and just do it consistently dollar cost average and I got addicted to that and I did that for 12 years straight But now I look back and that was a mistake I should have taken more of that bought more real estate instead because it's all locked in there in a tax situation

Erin: 25:59

There's our answer lock

John: 26:01

and

Shawn: 26:02

So the answer is that the question is sean, should you know? Shouldn't you just go ahead and just take the money out? And pay the taxes or should you leave it in there because you don't want to do that and you'll lose appreciation. I'm almost at the point where I'm probably going to go and just take a big portion of it out and I'm going to go ahead and pay taxes on it because I think the gain that I would make back on real estate and the passive income monthly is more important to me right now.

Erin: 26:26

Okay. So you said that, but can you dumbify what you just said?

John: 26:29

Make it

Shawn: 26:30

Yeah. So. We all work really, really hard and we get old and then we stop working and we hope that we get a paycheck that allows us to live the lifestyle we want to live. There's two ways that's going to happen. One, it's going to come from the federal government and we're just going to live on that plus whatever else we get. Two, you could say that I'm just going to go ahead and live off my own money, lump sum. And there's two ways to do that. Obviously just take it out of your bank. You got a paid off house, you got cash, whatever. This is what I'm living on, right? But the best way to do it is to get your money to make money. So every month you get what you need, but at the end of your life, your whole balance is still given to your siblings. And that's what the Bible talks about leaving generational wealth to your siblings. And I think that's my call on it. And I think that a big, this is a big opportunity for all of us in America to shift our generational wealth in our families. there's people on this call that are listening to this that are probably the one like Ed Milette talks about like they're the one that's going to break the cycle. I'm going to be the one that will break the cycle. nobody else in my family like is there that I need to help. And, So how are we going to do that? I think is the question that people are asking and that letting your money make you enough money for you to live every single month is what we need to be focused on.

John: 27:52

I love that you're talking about this because in the beginning of the call, we talked about how our families too are getting smaller. So there's less people to support the people above them, And so if you do this and you do have the, this residual income coming in from properties that you own, you can help more people as they face those struggles financially, you know,

Erin: 28:15

so

Shawn: 28:15

And it gives a lot more fulfillment to my job too, because there's nothing, super exciting about just giving somebody a 30 year debt. But when I found out that I could use this as an instrument and a tool to like really improve You know people's lives and change the course of their future Maybe family's futures for generations to come that really excites me and people are like, how do you what do you mean? How do you do that? Okay, lady got a divorce and she is getting some money But she wants to stay in her home with her kids because the kids go to school in the same school zone But she can't afford the house and when she talks to me and we have a consultation You And I say, no, I think you can afford the house. Yes. The payment's going to go up to about 3, 200, but instead of putting all that, money down to get a lower payment, why don't we go and pay off that car, that payment, because you got to have a car and are you getting the credit card balance or is he. Well, we're each getting one. So which one's yours? Oh, the 20, 000. Okay. We'll pay that off too. You just knocked out 1, 200 out of your budget. Now all we've got is a 3, 200 mortgage. That feels really good. I love refi's. I like when rates go down because it feels so good to have a blue collar family come to me and they're like, Sean, we've got this card, some student loans. We've got two automobiles, I'm not making money I was making, but our house has gone up 150, 000. And I could take all that debt and put it in one nice good tax efficient fixed interest rate pile Give them the freedom of waking up and not having any debt other than a mortgage payment every month, And put fifteen hundred two thousand dollars back in people's budgets like it feels so good it's like one of my favorite things to do because i'm like Man, if somebody would have told my mom that if my mom would have had that opportunity, like seriously, it's not rocket science. It's not hard to buy a house and get in a house. You just have to work a little hard to get the credit up. You got to make sure that we can get pieced together some job, employment and income, but other than that, you can hack your way into a home. You can have friends, you can co sign, you can help family members, and we can talk about how we can help our parents if they need to buy a smaller place.

Erin: 30:19

Well, let's lead right into that. You said, let's help our parents. So how do we help our parents?

John: 30:24

What are

Shawn: 30:25

Yeah. So I, what would y'all both say is the common scenario that you see the most, you know, with our parents and our generation out there? I mean, they have a home it's bigger than what they need, maybe further than where they want it to be from family,

John: 30:39

Correct. Oh, for sure. Yeah.

Shawn: 30:42

One person gets sick. One is diagnosed with something. I mean, stuff we don't want to talk about, but it happens. And, so then, the family talks and one of the next decisions they make is, we need to get you closer or get you in a smaller home or get you in a one level, right?

John: 30:54

Correct.

Shawn: 30:55

worse yet is when a spouse passes away and they're left alone, right? So that was my, my mom's situation has been the same for a long time, but here was my mom's situation. We got her into a home and she's taking care of it and things are good. And, but the maintenance is starting to get to be a little bit too much. it's more than what she needs. And, so what we're in the process of doing is we're saying, all right, what's the next step? You can come and live with me. We can try to find you a smaller place. The payment, you know, the finances, all that's probably going to be the same because home values have gone up and interest rates went up. So you're not trading a, a home, most homes for like this drastically lower priced home, that shouldn't be really be a big motivator. But if you're in that situation. My mom's in that situation. There are opportunities where you can help that parent by being on the loan, help them with down payment, and you can even help them and get into a multi family unit, two, three, four, six unit where the other units are producing income because my mom's still able to manage a property. She just can't manage the other property she has and I would help her with that And so I can explain if you have a family member who? Needs a new place and needs help either to qualify or to produce income. We can talk about that if you guys want

Erin: 32:13

Oh, of course I do. I'm like, let's dive into that. I just think it's fascinating because you are finding yourselves. My dad passed away. It'll be three years this father's day. And my mom did. She moved out, moved in with my brother. She could financially afford it. But it was such a change, you know, you don't want to be isolated, be by yourself. So she was fortunate my brother and I both lived here and she picked him. So I don't know if I'm hurt by that or no.

John: 32:39

Not at all,

Shawn: 32:41

if mom's listening to just tell her, you know, she probably Maybe there was like her favorite restaurant was closer by or something.

Erin: 32:48

No, I, no offense here. She knows that, but she went and lived with my brother and his wife at the time and was able to, you know, eventually they sold that home for a bigger one and use the equity from both homes and the profits from both homes. Right. So I'm just excited just to dive in more because I really don't know a lot about it and all the methods and the different techniques. And I know there's a lot out there that we can help truly help people and families because if you're on a fixed. If you're by yourself, if there's a bunch of families living together, how do we pull all of our resources or how do we get creative and make this all work where everybody's

John: 33:24

just happy. Oh, for sure. For sure. And I think so many people, many, many years ago, you know, their home was their biggest investment. They threw everything into the home and then all of a sudden they get older, things are starting to break down. It costs a lot of money to continue to maintain that the kids have moved out, but they have so many stories and everything tied to this. Now, they just moved maybe to a smaller place and they bought, An investment property, a three plex, a duplex, you know, or something like that, and then they rented out those units and manage those, then when did they do get to a position where, say, they need to move into an independent living or an assisted living or something like that, they have all this residual income that's going to be coming in to help supplement. the costs of maintaining their lives, as they get older. And then eventually if they pass away, those properties are handed down to other family members that can continue to reap the benefits

Erin: 34:25

of those properties. So

John: 34:26

does that sound correct? Are we on the right track?

Shawn: 34:29

no, no, absolutely, absolutely you are. You know, to know where we've gotten, we have to know where we've come and you go back and you look at what we're taught. I don't know what you were taught, but most of the people listening to this probably, we're the same, go to high school, get a great job, work for 30 years, give money to social security and 401k, if you do those two things. And when you, after 30 years, you're about to retire it comfortably. And I was just like, oh, cool. That's the path I'm on. That was my blueprint. I was like, I'll do that. And that's what America is still doing. And what we don't realize is like, that's not cutting the cheese. It's not going to get the job done because you're not meant to live your meager years in, in your golden years, you're meant to live your most abundant lifestyle. Like we were traveling last week and I told my wife, I was like, we're going to do this when we're older. Right. And she's like, oh yeah, she says we'll be doing it even more. We'll probably never be home. And I was like, good, And. I see so many people that especially I have so many scenarios I can remember like when my client said I just think I'm like it's a shame this person busted their tail for 30 years and they did what they were told to do but it was bad advice or it was good advice at the time but it wasn't updated and they didn't have a trusted person to like you know say hey you might want to think about changing this up because the rules of money have changed and the government's changed and taxes have changed and there's a lot there. So I think like real estate right now, like here's one of the scenarios I just recently had. we actually had two families. And they came to me and they said, Hey, we want to sell their properties and we want to move into one property. We'll even sell our property. And they wanted to find one property that they could all move into. And then they want to build an accessory, uh, dwelling home on the property. I live in Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee. So outside of town, you can get acreage and land and stuff still. And, so they're like, we don't know how to do that. That's how they came to me. And I said, okay, well, we need to think about this logistically. What is family A's health condition? What's family B's health condition? What's your situation? Okay, well, we don't need them to sell their houses and have to move into yours. Why don't we sell yours first? You go stay with one of the parents or in laws. You got two kids. You said, it doesn't matter. You could do that. Then you sell the other two houses after you find your new property. So you have to first, number one, make sure that, everybody is very clear and on the same page of what the family dynamic is. Because when you start calling mortgage lenders and realtors and getting advice and stuff, they're going to ask you at least the good ones let's say okay. So when's this happening? When's this happening? It's all a logistical timeline so the most common one I really think is just hey, I need to get into a different place But I'm on social security income. I don't even know if that's like my mother makes a very low amount of social security income. The rest of it, she works cash jobs and she works, she has her own business, so we can't go by tax returns, but there's the most of it is, Hey, I know I need to go do something. I just can't, I can't qualify for the loan or I don't have the money down. And so what can happen right now is there's a loan that's called family opportunities loan. where you can not only just co sign for a family member. So I co signed for my mother, helped her with the income to qualify. And I also helped her with the 3. 5 percent down payment, right? And so I'm on the loan and we're both on the title. And I can either stay on there or we'll refinance it later and just put it in her name, but I would like to keep it in my name because something happens to her. Then we both have legal rights to it and ownership. And she's already told me what she wants me to do it with my sister and all that. So that's really, really the biggest issue I see right now. And it's very easy. And the family opportunities loan that just came out a while back is even better. Because now you could put 3 percent down, get a conventional mortgage loan. And my mother wouldn't have even had to be on that mortgage. why would I not want my mother on the mortgage? Well, if my credit score is seven 50 and hers was six 50, the interest rates can be a lot higher if she's on that loan. But if it's seven 50, I can get that interest rate down probably 1 percent lower as a primary residence, even though she's not on the loan and you only have to put 3 percent down. So on a 300, 000 home, you're looking at 9, 000 on a 500, 000 home, 15, 000, very affordable for a family to rally around and say, Hey, let's sell mom's place or let's sell dad's place. Let's get them moved here and let's get them a place right down the road. This actually spawned from the 1980. And came out with the kiddie condo loan is what they called it, which was the FHA non occupying co borrower. And they called it a kiddie condo because they were like, hey, my kid's going to college and I think rent is stupid. We should buy them a house or a condo. I'll co sign and they can rent out the other rooms. And so FHA started allowing a parent to co sign for a child to go to college and so they could buy a house and have real estate to spawn home buying, because it's such a big part of the GDP. So this is spawned off from that years later.

Erin: 39:45

Do you have to be a first time home buyer to only put that 3 percent down or is that part of that program?

Shawn: 39:51

It's part of that program, family opportunities loan. And the other great part about it is if I was to buy that as an investment property, the interest rate would be one to 2 percent higher. And I'd have to put 20 percent down. why is that important? First of all, my family may not have 20 percent down or you might have somebody like me that don't believe in putting 20 percent down Because I want to leverage, you know, I want to acquire the asset without putting the money down but the other thing that I want to do is I don't want to put 20 percent down and I don't want the higher interest rate because that affects it If my mom's trying to help make the payment or we're trying to offset it with passive income,

Erin: 40:27

Is it a smart thing to put 20 percent down or do you feel like putting the minimum down is best

John: 40:35

or does your situation depend?

Shawn: 40:37

is it has to be on your situation Like if you had if you were 70 70 years old selling your place couldn't qualify So your daughter co signed, but you had a million bucks in the bank I would probably say, yeah, put 20 percent down, keep it rest, but most people don't. So if your family's Hey, she's going to sell her house and total, she's got 300, 000 cash to her name. No, do not put 20 percent down. just go ahead and the minimum down. And when interest rates drop and the values have gone up refinance, and you'll probably be at 80 percent or below at that time anyway.

John: 41:14

That's smart.

Shawn: 41:15

or my mom, my mom, her interest rate was so low. on the low down payment loan, it's at 3. 6, 2, 5 percent when rates were lower. Well, it has PMI, but I'm not even going to touch it because even if I got a loan without PMI, it'd have to be like a four and a half.

Erin: 41:30

That's so crazy. I've heard it so much. I know my mind is spinning and it's like, I know I'm supposed to be asking you questions, but my mind's over here thinking, Oh, this could work here. And what about this? And what about

John: 41:40

that? And I just go off of my own

Shawn: 41:41

I'm just thinking about, I'm thinking about my client scenarios. Cause that's the easiest thing, otherwise I'll bore you guys with all the like bullet points. And so by the client stories, give me and you a visual. so the people that are like, hey, I want to help my mom or dad get into a place Get them over here. I'll pay the down payment. I'll do the co signing whatever Sometimes people run into an issue there, too Hey, I want to help my mom, but and I got the income, but I don't have the assets I don't have the down payment and she doesn't either right well a couple of options one You could go and do a home equity line of credit on the house you own and that you live in And now most people are like we put a second mortgage on my house like that's taboo You I remember, I'll digress with my ADD. I'll go off on a rabbit trail, but, you go ahead and you can use a second mortgage and a homemaker line of credit and hear me out on this. What's great about it is you only pay interest on the money that you pull out. it allows you to acquire the new piece of real estate without straining yourself. Literally you'll have no money out of pocket because you have a loan. The down payments come from your line of credit. So you acquired an asset, a house price value, say 350, 000 with nothing out of your pocket that you get. Yes. You got a second mortgage on your home, but we'll either pay that off. With cash flow, or if we refinance the loan, we'll include that balance and get that paid off when we refinance the loan. But the point being is don't let you not having 3 percent down in cash, keep you from getting your family into a property because I think those properties are going to be worth 10 to 20 percent more in the next 12 to 24 months.

Erin: 43:19

Well, I think that's really important for our listeners. If you're wanting to do something, find a loan officer, someone that can get creative with you and go, this is my situation. This is what I'm looking to

John: 43:30

do. What could we possibly do? Like, I'm just calling Sean.

Shawn: 43:35

Yeah. I used, to say this is the point where I would always used to say I'd be like, yeah, find you a great license. But no, you know what? I'm licensed in all 50 states. Like you'd be crazy not to call me. I will help out. I will personally help you. You won't deal with somebody that I dish you off to and I don't charge anything to do it. And it'd be an honor to help somebody who might be headed towards a disaster to say, Hey, give this a perspective. And if I end up doing a mortgage loan for it, great. But I ended up going through a lot of those scenarios with people. There's a link in my Instagram bio and on the cap 1926, where they can book a 15 minute call. But lots of times I'll talk to people and we save the money, but we're not doing a loan or anything. It's just free advice. I just had one two hours ago. His mother got, I'm diagnosed with cancer, unfortunately, recently, and Josh called me, I was pumping gas actually. And the question was, Oh, social security income, is it, can you use it to qualify and is it enough to qualify? And I said, yeah. And I said, actually you can, gross it up 120 percent because it's non taxable. He goes, really? He goes, I didn't think she was going to have enough to qualify, but if we can gross it up 120%, then that definitely gives us what we need probably for her to qualify. So even those little types of things.

Erin: 44:48

what are the other types of income that people may not know that they can use? Social security being one,

John: 44:53

a disability, maybe. that someone's on

Shawn: 44:57

disability, alimony, child support. I mean, at some ages, you're not going to have that. another good little thing, a pension. another thing that trust is you can go and create a small little trust. So this is where you get super creative and I don't want to get too far ahead above people's heads. But let's say here's the scenario, uh, sold the house, made 500, 000. I've had ones that have made millions on their house in California and they'll call me and they want to buy a house in Tennessee to be near the grandkids. This is huge. This may be the biggest, like probably bigger, bigger issue scenario for some families. made a lot of money, got a lot of liquidity, but they have no income to prove and they want to come out here and they don't want to live in a little condo or smart like they want to buy the farm for the grandkids. You take the 500. So in mortgage world, they get denied over and over and over. And now I'm teaching my competition. If they watch this, you should tell mortgage lenders to watch this. But what I learned years ago is I could take that 500, 000 and I can team up with a trust attorney here in town. We take the 500, 000, let's say 360, 000 for math purposes, I take 360, 000 and I partner my client up with the trust attorney. The trust attorney drafts up a trust for 360, 000. That trust gives off 10, 000 per month. Mortgage industry says as long as the trust is going to function for at least 36 months, then you can use that monthly income after we prove with the first deposit. So I set the trust up, they get that first deposit. We use that on the application to qualify after they're in the house It's if they want to go down and call the attorney and dissolve the trust they can do whatever they want

John: 46:41

Wow.

Shawn: 46:42

So that's a great way to qualify for if somebody's hey, I have no monthly income, but I got a bunch of cash

Erin: 46:49

Yeah.

John: 46:49

So I got a question. what if you have somebody that has a small amount of cash, say 50, 000 or something like that? Maybe they have a car payment and they're looking, but they're, they're older, right? Maybe they're in their fifties, sixties or whatever. Is it still a good thing to purchase a house and say, they don't have a whole bunch in investments and other stuff. I mean, they're getting up there in age.

Shawn: 47:13

Yeah,

John: 47:14

so it's like, when do you say, okay, when is the line? Like, eh, maybe I shouldn't buy a house.

Shawn: 47:21

that's a controversial question and I only know one way which is to be honest, which is no I don't think that And in a lot of cases they should go rent. if my wife passed in unexpectedly and I'd lived away from my grandkids and I was like, you know what? I had the farm, like I've done all that. that's where I'm at right now. Yeah, I could go buy a condo townhome or something But if I had a couple million bucks in the bank or even if I didn't and I'm 68 69 70 72 I'm probably just gonna find a really nice place to rent really close to the grandkids and just pay that You know because you're looking at three thousand four thousand dollars a month in rent. You're looking at 36 to 48 thousand dollars a year and have no other maintenance cost and everything I mean that goes a long ways when you have a family or maybe another scenario is this people aren't near families They're out on an isolated island, and even if it's just a condo or townhome They're not ready if they could take on that responsibility. I'm alone. I don't know who to trust. I'm just gonna go rent a place So I do think that especially if you're like, hey, I don't have anybody to leave anything to Renting might be a good choice for you. I don't know if we were going to touch on it But you know the other option too And what we're recently looking into with my mother's, you know, and it gets a lot of bad press because it wasn't explained correctly and people were put into it when they didn't understand it, but is a reverse mortgage. And I'm here to tell y'all, it can be a great tool for people used in the right circumstances. It can be a terrible tool used in the wrong ones.

John: 48:58

What makes it go one way or the other?

Shawn: 49:01

a reverse mortgage, you know, if you don't have an end result goal in mind and you make a decision on a reverse mortgage then you're at risk of saying you know What I didn't know that my family member was gonna have to refinance or pay this balance in full to get my house back but if I know very clearly up front, here's my scenario. I don't mind sharing and being transparent I know my mom doesn't my mom has a really low mortgage payment right now It's only 976 dollars because she has a three point something percent interest rate on it So for her to go anywhere right now is going to be a payment increase. She's like, I think I need it. And I'm like, mom, the only thing we could do is get you a four unit. I could co sign for you on it, just like we were talking about earlier, but you have to put 5 percent down and we would, you could rent out the other three units. Or my sister could live in one and you could rent out the other two units. You guys could help each other and take care of the property and hopefully get it to cashflow neutral zero. We could keep this property at 900 and something dollars and rent it out and maybe make a thousand dollars a month on it, which would help you with your payment over here. or you can stay in your home mom. You don't have to leave. We'll put you on a reverse mortgage You're not going to have any mortgage payment and you're going to get a check for 70 bucks a month goes. Well, I thought a reverse mortgage you were supposed to get Enough back to live on and everything. I said you are we're reducing your mortgage payment by a thousand dollars And I know very clearly that once something happens to my mother or at the end of 30 years That I'll have to choose to put my own mortgage loan on that house or give it to the bank if they want it On a reverse mortgage and i'm fine with that because it's a great tool for us right now

Erin: 50:43

When you have a multi property investment or a home that you're in, and you said break even, what's the average? of years to get

John: 50:53

to that point. Is it like three to five years longer?

Shawn: 50:57

well for breakeven the mate what I was using that term for was like if the payment expenses of that four unit is 7, 000 a month. Well, I need to make sure that my mother is at least generating 7, 000 a month on the other three units So we have no mortgage payment. Or, if we're making positive income on other real estate, or that other house that we don't want to sell, we could take that 1, 000 off it, now she has to bring home 6, 000.

Erin: 51:26

Perfect. Gosh, there's so many different scenarios

John: 51:29

that you can run and do. It's just crazy. Yeah. I love the way you're simplifying this too. And you're sharing stories about, because it makes it so much easier for people. I mean, Aaron has, a little bit of time in the mortgage world, so she has a better understanding, but somebody like me, I don't have any. And so the way you're sharing it and putting out these different scenarios with different people is just amazing. So thank you.

Shawn: 51:54

Well, thanks, you know, it's just it's been put in my lap. I've been trusted with it. I've experienced it and You know can't say i've always given the best advice and I can't always say it's always worked out for people There's a lot of heartbreaking scenarios going on right now, people don't want to leave their homes They kind of have to to get money because they know there's tons of equity and this is the mistake We made by paying off our properties I've had very painful conversations with people where I'm like, you cannot qualify, you have to sell the house. Like you, your, my advice would be to sell the house. And they're like, we don't want to, all our kids grew up here. And, it's so sad because if they would have had a 500, 000 mortgage, half a mortgage on the property or something, they could have had that invested in an IRA or in a, an account that was throwing off income every month to help with that 500, 000 payment. And if they would have done it a couple of years ago or 10 years ago, the rate would have been so much lower. And they'd be living a great life and not have to leave the, you know, and that's happening a lot. Or, Hey, I want to stop working, but I can't stop working. why can't you stop working? my husband died 10 years ago and we paid the house off. So I haven't had a mortgage payment, but I just kept working and all I got was my 401k in the house. And it's like, no, you should not have paid off the house. When he passed away, you should have gotten with a great financial advisor and put it in a very safe place that would just earn you some very simple interest, conservative interest.

Erin: 53:16

So if I am 65, 70 years old, Is it safe for me or not safe? Or just depends if I'm like, okay, I want to go buy a couple of four plexes because I'm in a position to do it. Is that advisable to do it? If you're able to do it, to bring

John: 53:32

in that extra income? Or at least today on today's device?

Shawn: 53:36

I think so, but I can only say that by saying only if you called me and I know that sounds weird, but I can only say that I know it's a good idea if you call me because I can tell you very clearly after 10, 000 mortgage loans that yes or no, this fits with what you've got here, what you're trying to do. If you go call other people, you're at a very, very high risk of them not asking all the appropriate questions. Because we live in a society where everybody wants to sell, talk, say, quote, and then not be held responsible for it. And I won't do that. Most of all, that's called integrity, which most of the world seems to have lost right now. But that's the most valuable thing to me that I can't go back and get. And so, long answer to that question, sorry, is yes, I think it's a great idea, but only if you call me.

Erin: 54:24

I would agree with that. I was in the mortgage world only a short time and I found you out of desperation to find someone to teach me based off of my situation and you were, Dave Savage had this thing and a bunch of you were there and I was like, Oh my gosh, he explains it. He holds class so you can understand stuff. And I really, truly, that's how I started learning. I was like, gosh, I wish he was closer so I could be honest. team and learn because John literally would be like, why are you up? Why are you crying? Why are

John: 54:51

you coming home frustrated? Like it wasn't supposed to be this hard No, I saw somebody that I've never seen somebody put their heart and their passion into something for so long. And then like she said, it created so much stress, so much sadness, so much disappointment, and that was hard to

Erin: 55:09

watch. It was hard to watch your partner go through that. So my whole point to that is please go follow Sean Kaplan on all his sites everywhere. Absorb it, soak it in. He said he can do all 50

John: 55:22

states, definitely.

Erin: 55:24

hit the man up.

John: 55:25

Plus it's got a cool hat when I figure out how I can

Erin: 55:28

a cool hat

John: 55:29

that. Yeah. Yeah.

Shawn: 55:31

one.

John: 55:32

That'd be

Erin: 55:32

thank you. So another question

John: 55:35

I do have, what is the one question you wish people would ask you?

Shawn: 55:40

If you were in my scenario, what would you do?

Erin: 55:43

Ooh,

Shawn: 55:43

I think that's the best question because it allows me to start gaining insight into what they're doing, which once I have insight into what they're doing, I'm very confident that I can earn their trust and show them my value. And it's lights out after that. Because once people understand that, Hey, you have my best interest. And you've proven to me that you know what you're talking about. And for me, I tell people, don't take my word for it. you can't lie 500 Google reviews. You can't lie 24 years in the business and you can't lie being a top 1 percent lender in the nation by doing bad business. And so when people ask that question to me, it allows me that opportunity. And really that's all that I need, but in a society where we're, technology driven, getting on websites, you know, trust seem to just ask anybody for any opinions. There's just a lot of noise out there. And that's how people get themselves in such difficult situations. So yeah, if you were in my

Erin: 56:42

Yeah,

Shawn: 56:42

you do? Would be the question?

Erin: 56:44

that's great. That was a good one. Oh, yeah. So there are some mortgage myths out there. A couple of them that I just kind of came to mind for me was when we've touched about it is a 20 percent is required

John: 56:56

for me to purchase a home. Not true. Correct.

Shawn: 57:01

Not true. You do not need 20 percent down. You don't need 10 percent down and you don't even need 5 percent down in most cases, but you can get loans as zero as easy as zero to 5 percent down in almost all cases right now.

Erin: 57:14

And then the other one, if I have

John: 57:16

bad credit, I possibly can't purchase a home. There's no way.

Shawn: 57:21

That's not true. You can get a loan actually down to a 500 credit score with as little as 10 percent down. You can also get a mortgage loan if you've been in a chapter 13. And now I know most people might say, oh my gosh, that's crazy. But life happens to some people, like really fast and really bad. And if they prove that they made their chapter 13 payments, at least the last 12 payments on time, and you have at least a 500 credit score, You can get a mortgage loan.

John: 57:49

Wow. USDA is only for farmers.

Shawn: 57:53

Not true. USDA is only for people who want to live in the county. So you have to be located in most places are county limits. There's a census track that USDA puts out and they incentivize you to want to live out in the country by offering a 100 percent mortgage loan USDA is just like the beef people, but they're loaning money. Just like the veterans administration FHA. Well, they don't loan the money. They insure it. 100 percent loan and you don't need to be a farmer.

John: 58:21

FHA is only for poor people.

Shawn: 58:25

I think FHA is for smart people because I use three of them. And the reason why, because when I was, had no money and I only could scrape together three and a half percent down, I realized that property was going to go up in value, whether I put three and a half percent down or whether I put 10 percent down. And so FHA, I believe is for first time home buyers. FHA is for somebody that, wants to put less money down. And FHA is for people that may get a better interest rate because their credit score is a little bit lower versus conventional. But other than that, FHA is not a bad loan. It allows you to qualify actually for higher loan, purchase prices, loan amounts sometimes. But you want to try to go conventional if you can, because that's the standard loan that people, you know, hear most about

Erin: 59:14

Ooh, those are all good answers too. Oh, I love it.

John: 59:18

Awesome.

Erin: 59:18

Is there anything that maybe you feel our listeners should know that, you know, again, we're not the experts you are. Is there something that we

John: 59:26

missed or you feel like, Hey, this is very vital that you guys should know.

Shawn: 59:31

the only other thing I would say is be very cautious right now of any sort of refinance activity, any sort of, people recommending it to you because most people have a very low interest rate. And you. At most cases, you want to try to retain that. So I do not want to sell my mother's house because that rate is so low that I can rent that house out. I'll never get that rate ever again. And a lot of people, when these rates start moving down a little bit, they're going to try to convince people. They're going to send you very tricky stuff. They're going to mail it to you. And I see a lot of people get taken advantage of. And they'll come to me later and I'll see they refinance two times in two years. That's not a good idea. But what is a good option? What we didn't talk about and I'll leave you with is sometimes you could just get a line of credit on your house if you want to stay in it. And if there's things you want to pay off that have high payments like a car, some credit card debt that'll help you out with your burden, that line of credit payment is way, way lower. And it'll save you on your outgoing expenses. So say my mother wanted to stay in her house, she could pay off her car with the line of credit. She could do the few repairs that are needed to the roof and the, the gutters and now her overall expenses are lower than they were before she did the line of credit. That makes sense.

John: 1:00:46

That's

Shawn: 1:00:46

So

John: 1:00:47

sure.

Shawn: 1:00:47

the key is I'll just leave everybody with this. I'll say, ask questions, ask questions of yourself, ask questions of trusted professionals, ask people who you should trust, but most of all, ask your family members, your mother, your father, your aging relatives, the important questions. If you're listening to this, because when you ask them the important questions, then you can prepare, but I'm finding most people aren't even having the discussions.

Erin: 1:01:14

I think one of the important things is, too, is not to be embarrassed. You can't help them if they're not completely honest with you. And knowing that you're their trusted advisor and your best interest is just to help them. So please. Don't feel like you're the only person in the world that's gone through this. There's hundreds of us, if not thousands of us that have been in some sort of situation and we feel awful about it or guilty about it and don't. I know I would not judge you. John would not and I'm for sure certain Sean would not either. So please don't not get help. Because you're embarrassed. All right.

John: 1:01:53

So thank you for all

Erin: 1:01:55

amazing information. Now to my favorite question. you want to ask it?

John: 1:01:58

No, you go ahead.

Erin: 1:02:00

Let's do it. We have a fight sometimes about this one What is your favorite place or what is on your adventure list that you'd like to go where you have been to?

Shawn: 1:02:11

Okay, I have to 1 of and I just recently accomplished the 2nd 1. So now I guess I have to come up with a 3rd 1. My 1st 1 was Israel. I wanted to go to Israel. I want to go to the Middle East. I want my brother in law lives over there and I was able to go in 2009. I've been 5 times since. and I love it down there. Got to go to the Dead Sea. that was cool too. And then, recently, I wanted to go, and I wanted to go to, eight, the eight islands down in the Caribbean. But primarily, I wanted to go to St. Lucia and Tortola. And I wanted to go to that beach where you see the airplanes come in, Maho Beach. And so we just got back last week. I took my two girls, my wife on a 12 day trip, and we went to eight islands. we went to Maho beach and got to see a seven 47 come in Delta. Right above my head and I got video of it and that was really cool But I guess now I want to just keep it a little bit more basic. I haven't I haven't been to hawaii and I haven't been out west to like montana and big sky and stuff So I think that's what I want to do next in an rv

Erin: 1:03:16

Nice. We've talked about that at one point too, it's do we just sell

John: 1:03:19

the house and get a little van and just drive around? Just roll. podcast in it. Yeah. Yeah.

Shawn: 1:03:25

That's a whole nother podcast that we can do. We lived in our RV, about 18 months ago for six months because we built our dream home and I don't recommend it a 30 days is nice and cute. After 30 days, I wouldn't go any further.

Erin: 1:03:38

Strangle each other. Well,

John: 1:03:41

thank you so much for, uh, being on our show today. I've learned a ton. I'm excited because I know when we

Erin: 1:03:47

off, it's going to spark so many conversations just with the two of us. So, yeah. And it was a pleasure. Like I said, it was just a complete dream and to have you here because I know where your heart is and how much you really, truly care about us.

John: 1:04:01

value what

Shawn: 1:04:02

Um,

John: 1:04:02

to help people. So thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you

Shawn: 1:04:08

all for your time. I'm honored. I'm very honored to be here. Thank you for having

John: 1:04:11

Yeah, Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Connect Empower. We want to express our gratitude to you for being part of our community, and we hope today's episode has provided you with valuable insights and inspiration to enhance your life and that of a loved one.

Erin: 1:04:27

We are more than just a podcast. We are a community dedicated to enhancing the lives of our aging adults and their support system. We encourage you to visit our website now at www. connect empower. com. Explore more information about our guests from today's episode and to access our free resources.

John: 1:04:49

resources. Our mission doesn't end at the conclusion of this episode. We invite you to take action now by sharing the knowledge you've gained today with someone who may benefit from it. Whether it's a family member, friend, or colleague, your influence can spark positive change.

Erin: 1:05:03

Remember, Subscribing to our podcast ensures you never miss an episode and we have more incredible guests and resources in store for you. So hit that subscribe button and stay connected with us. Your commitment is the driving force behind our mission and together we can create a movement for a brighter future as we age.

John: 1:05:24

I'm John.

Erin: 1:05:25

I'm Erin. Until next Wednesday.