Kansas City Mortgage Grants
Meet Danielle and Jarod
At Bell Bank Mortgage, we know that every home buyer has their own unique situation as they consider home ownership. We make it our mission to make home happen, with a wide array of loans and programs – and most importantly, the unequaled personal service you deserve!
No matter where you are in the process of home ownership, We’d love to be your trusted advisors. We’ll shepherd your loan from start to finish, so you can close on time, with no surprises.
As mortgage lenders in the Overland Park, KS area, we’re here to work with you to find the mortgage that best suits what you’re looking for. Choose us and Bell, and you will always be a person – not a number. We look at each opportunity as unique, and look forward to helping you find the best home loan option for your personal financial situation!
You may have some questions as you navigate this process. (How much can I afford? Which type of mortgage is best for me? Where do I start?) Call, email or stop by our office – We’d love to connect.
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-Transcript-
Brad Burrow (00:01):
Welcome to In a World with Real Media. I’m your host, Brad Burrow. In this podcast, we’ll dive into the lives of the most successful people in business. We’ll learn how they overcame adversity, took advantage of opportunities and learned from their experiences. Learn from our experts. Get inspired, then go live your story. It’s In a World with Real Media. Hello and welcome to the In A World With Real Media Podcast. I’m host Brad Burrow, and today we have Daniel Hugin and Jared Temple, both producing area managers for Bell Bank Mortgage. And by the way, they’re going to be doing a podcast here, so this is really fun. I’m glad you guys got to come in and be with us. I got lots of fun questions for you guys and how are you doing? We have to say it’s very hot, but it’s nice in the studio.
Danielle Hugunin (00:54):
It’s nice and cool in here. Thanks for inviting us in.
Brad Burrow (00:56):
Yeah, thanks for
Jarod Temple (00:57):
Having us.
Brad Burrow (00:58):
Appreciate it. Yeah, my pleasure. Well, I want to get into a little bit about your guys’ background, so we’ll talk about that in a minute, but tell me about Bell Bank Mortgage. This is a new branch in Kansas City breaking out into a new market.
Jarod Temple (01:13):
Yeah, actually we’ve been here for what, seven years roughly, but we have kind of recently reinvigorated ourselves and we’re pushing towards growth and looking to open another office here in Lee Summit and then probably in the Northland soon after that. Where is the current office
Danielle Hugunin (01:32):
College in Metcalf?
Brad Burrow (01:35):
So
Danielle Hugunin (01:35):
Bell as a whole is really unique because we’re one of the biggest independently held banks in the country and are still owned by the three families that started it. So it’s really unique in the sense that we are a bigger bank, but family is really important to our culture, so it really does make it feel like a community and that’s one of the reasons why Jared and I both love being here.
Brad Burrow (01:58):
It’s kind of unique, isn’t it? I mean, most of the banks that were family owned have been purchased, right?
Danielle Hugunin (02:04):
Correct. I was a part of one of those before this.
Brad Burrow (02:07):
Yeah. So why have they stayed the same? That is unique, do you know?
Danielle Hugunin (02:13):
It’s just always, in fact, bell has a billboard in our Minneapolis market that says not for sale. It has just always been a core part of who we are and it continues to remain that way, which I appreciate.
Brad Burrow (02:27):
Yeah, it’s interesting that you mentioned that because when we bought our house, our mortgage got sold two or three times probably, and that’s disconcerting when you’re a homeowner. It’s like what in the world? Even though the terms stayed the same and everything, it’s like, I don’t know. I just didn’t
Danielle Hugunin (02:47):
Like that chasing around
Brad Burrow (02:48):
For sure. So that doesn’t happen with Bell,
Danielle Hugunin (02:51):
Right? We do retain our servicing, which is great. Our servicing department takes with pride that we answer the phone. There’s no automated system. In fact, Jared, you sometimes have our recruits call just because we want them to know if our client calls a customer service number, they answer the phone within the first couple of rings and they do make our payments, their payments to us. It’s a great to have that. You don’t realize how important that is until you are able to offer that extra service.
Brad Burrow (03:20):
So you don’t have an AI person saying,
Jarod Temple (03:22):
Hello, can I help you? We do not have a phone tree. It’s an actual pickup. There was a quote that or a stat that they had thrown up, I think 64,000 calls last year and something like 98.5% of those were picked up within five seconds
Brad Burrow (03:39):
With Bell
Jarod Temple (03:40):
Servicing. People were calling or servicing people and something like 99% of those were first call resolution.
Brad Burrow (03:48):
That’s got to be,
Jarod Temple (03:49):
There’s no, that’s not even, that’s unheard of.
Brad Burrow (03:51):
Yeah,
Jarod Temple (03:52):
It’s truly amazing.
Brad Burrow (03:53):
I mean, that’s a selling point right there, right? It’s
Jarod Temple (03:55):
A hundred percent
Danielle Hugunin (03:57):
Talk
Brad Burrow (03:57):
About it. Yeah. Yeah, I do want to talk about that. So that’s one thing that your approach is different for that reason. What are some of the other things that sets Bell apart from, there’s a lot of mortgage companies out there, man, and that’s like so competitive.
Danielle Hugunin (04:12):
Honestly, I think it’s the people. I mean, it used to be if your rate wasn’t competitive, well, we all have to have competitive rates. If your service wasn’t great, I mean, if you don’t have great service, you probably don’t have a job. And so taking good service and making it exceptional and you do that with your people, having the right team of people, having the right leadership, just the entire culture as a whole, we care. We care about our clients, we care about our employees, we care about our communities and we invest in those heavily. Bell has a pay it forward program. They give a thousand dollars to each of their full-time employees and they allow us to give that to the cause of our choice every single year. No kidding. It’s pretty
Brad Burrow (04:58):
Incredible.
Danielle Hugunin (04:59):
Wow. Yeah.
Brad Burrow (05:00):
Wow. That’s cool. So what are some of the causes that you hear people giving to? I’m really curious about that.
Danielle Hugunin (05:06):
Oh,
Brad Burrow (05:07):
Threw you a curve ball there, didn’t I?
Danielle Hugunin (05:08):
Yes, but I mean people that have medical issues and maybe can’t cover their costs. I had a friend who was diagnosed with MS and was a part of a team that relayed all the way across the United States. She ran a hundred and roughly 80 miles in a week. So that was what I participated in last year.
Jarod Temple (05:30):
Very cool. This year for our customer appreciation, we’re having what is the organization?
Danielle Hugunin (05:35):
Wayside Waves.
Jarod Temple (05:36):
Thank you. Wayside waves. Awesome.
Brad Burrow (05:39):
We bring dogs to work all the time. Yeah. Did I have Maggie here when you guys were here? We met Maggie. She didn’t come today. Too bad. We love dogs around here. Real media. So, well, you can come to our customer appreciation event at knock one if you’d like. Okay, I’ll do that. I wanted to ask you guys a little bit about the economy. It is a weird place that we’re in, especially since COVID. How do you guys stay on top of that? That seems like a daily changing thing that you have to stay on top
Jarod Temple (06:08):
Of. Yeah. Staying on top of the market. Yeah, good luck.
(06:16):
And I don’t think anybody is completely on top because about the time you think you have it figured out it changes on you. Locally here, I feel like things have inventory is kind of building. Things are staying on the market a little bit longer, so it’s kind of stagnant, which is good if you’re a buyer, it’s not quite as competitive. For a hot minute there people were getting offers and seven 10 offers and it was just really competitive and people were getting frustrated because they put in four offers and five weeks and not winning the offers. And that just gets frustrating. So I think that’s kind of alleviating a little bit and it’s becoming still a seller’s market, but it’s becoming more of a buyer’s market, which kind of getting back into
Brad Burrow (07:05):
The right
Jarod Temple (07:06):
Teeter totters.
Brad Burrow (07:07):
One of the questions I always had thinking about this, because mentioning my son just purchased a house, so people would have to offer to try to win. They would offer higher number and higher number. What if it doesn’t appraise? That seems like a big worry.
Danielle Hugunin (07:25):
It is a worry. And in those situations that’s often addressed in that offer. In the contract, the buyer may say, if the property doesn’t appraise, we agree to bring the difference of up to X amount of dollars. That was very common for quite some time. I don’t see that as much now, and I haven’t had appraisal issues lately. So I mean they happen
Brad Burrow (07:46):
Because the markets, I mean the values of the values have
Danielle Hugunin (07:48):
Continued to go up. Yeah. Isn’t that
Brad Burrow (07:51):
Crazy? If you could have looked back, I think about this, look back like five years ago and you knew what was going to happen, you just go out and buy everything you could buy
Danielle Hugunin (07:59):
Maybe. I think there are those thoughts.
Jarod Temple (08:02):
Yeah, well, the best time to buy was 10 years ago, and I think that’s been true throughout time.
Brad Burrow (08:08):
Fair. Yeah. Yeah. So the economy, do you still see the mortgage business growing and people are going to still have to buy houses, but I notice a lot of 30 year olds and younger, they’re living in apartments now and having to save for a long time before they can actually buy a house. What do you think about that?
Danielle Hugunin (08:31):
Well, the myth of having to save is an interesting one because in reality the minimum down payment to buy is only 3%.
Brad Burrow (08:38):
That seems different than it’s ever been, right?
Danielle Hugunin (08:41):
It’s been that way for a while,
Brad Burrow (08:42):
Has it?
Danielle Hugunin (08:43):
I think that just educating people is really key because there’s a lot of information on the internet and some of it’s true and some of it isn’t,
(08:50):
And certainly having a greater down payment is of value. But when you look at property values and how much they’re increasing over the last year to two years, maybe you’ve saved twice or three times as much as you had a year ago, but if the value has gone up, it doesn’t actually save you. It doesn’t save you in your payment because now you’re paying more for the house. So I always try and educate people on that and remind them that real estate is about the buy. So if you would’ve bought a year ago, you would have that equity now that you don’t. So saving is important, but you don’t have to have as much as you used to.
Brad Burrow (09:26):
Yeah. Do you think the values of homes will still continue to increase?
Danielle Hugunin (09:30):
I do.
Jarod Temple (09:31):
Yeah, for sure. I mean there’s ebbs and flows, but I think in general, kind of like the stock market is always going like this, there might be a dip, but I don’t think real estate has ever been a bad investment. Yeah.
Danielle Hugunin (09:43):
Well we’re in the Midwest. It’s not like we’re on the coast where you see the extreme highs and lows. Kansas City is a hot market. People want to move here. It’s one of the top real estate markets in the country right now, believe it or not. So
Brad Burrow (09:56):
Never
Danielle Hugunin (09:56):
Thought I’d see the day.
Brad Burrow (09:57):
Wow, I didn’t know that.
Danielle Hugunin (09:59):
Thanks to all those great sports teams we have out there. I guess.
Brad Burrow (10:02):
Yeah, pat living over the not too far from us. So let’s talk a little bit about your personal backgrounds. Jared, tell me a little bit about your background. Where’d you go to school? How’d you get into the mortgage business?
Jarod Temple (10:14):
Okay, well, I’m from Iowa originally and went to Iowa State University, go cyclones. Alright. And I got into the business in 2003 ish as an originator and I originated for just about seven years and then got into mortgage insurance and sold mortgage insurance to banks and credit unions for almost 13 years before getting back into the production side and went to a local credit union and was a manager of their retail team. And then about seven months ago came here, just found my dream job.
Danielle Hugunin (10:57):
Yeah,
Brad Burrow (10:57):
Yeah,
Jarod Temple (10:58):
Yeah. Awesome.
Brad Burrow (10:58):
Danielle, what about you?
Danielle Hugunin (11:00):
I’m a lifer. I started in mortgage sort of on accident in 2002. I was going through one of those, what do I want to do with my life phases? Working at Starbucks, I’m
Brad Burrow (11:10):
Still in one of those. By the way,
Danielle Hugunin (11:12):
We all got a job working for someone in the business in Lawrence, which is where I’m from, and never really left the business. Kind of tried to, but we were handwriting applications and didn’t have to have licenses then. So I’m not going anywhere now.
Brad Burrow (11:33):
That’s changed then
Danielle Hugunin (11:34):
A lot. Yeah, a lot has changed. I worked for People’s Bank, a really small family owned bank, and then as they were acquired for 17 years in total and left a couple of years ago to come here at Bell really missed that family atmosphere and that’s really what I was looking for. I’ve in the business a long time, just not at very many places.
Jarod Temple (11:58):
Yeah. Jared, why Bell Bank? Well, that’s kind of interesting. A lot of it’s because of Danielle. There’s another producing area manager in Florida that’s a good friend of mine and I’ve known him for a long time and he’s always had good things to say about Bell and culture. Yeah, it’s about the culture. It’s one of those things that it’s hard to explain. You got to feel it and I just have never felt it the way I felt it here. So that family kind of permeates
Danielle Hugunin (12:30):
And funny story, which we will talk about on our first podcast, but technically I
Brad Burrow (12:35):
Worked here be watching out for that people, by the way. Right?
Danielle Hugunin (12:37):
Yes, it’s coming. I work at Bell because of Jared, and Jared works at Bell because of me.
Brad Burrow (12:41):
Wait, I’m confused.
Danielle Hugunin (12:42):
I know. We ended up at the same place.
Brad Burrow (12:46):
Yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome. Alright, so let’s switch gears a little bit. Let’s talk a little bit about some of the products. What are some of the things that you would offer? Especially, I’m interested in first time buyers. I think that’s probably, and you guys can expand on that if you want, but what are some of the things you can do to help a first time buyer?
Danielle Hugunin (13:03):
Yeah, sure. I mean, affordability as we know is difficult and first time buyers still want to buy. So we do have some great down payment assistance and grant programs that will assist. Depends on the state, depends on a myriad of things. When the stars align, it has. Recently I was able to get a first time buyer, $17,500 in grant funds, which was incredible. Allowed them to That’s
Brad Burrow (13:32):
Huge.
Danielle Hugunin (13:33):
Yeah, it really was. So those were government grant funds. We also have programs in house that help and assist our clients with as little as 1% down. So we assist in any way that we can, every resource that we have, we always look at that with our clients and try and make owning a home more affordable
Brad Burrow (13:56):
Grants. I’ve never even heard of a government grant for buying a house. I guess maybe I’m too old, but that’s crazy.
Danielle Hugunin (14:02):
They’ve been around, I mean, Missouri has their own, Kansas has their own, the Federal Home Loan Bank has one. We partner with them so they don’t always apply to everyone. But
Brad Burrow (14:14):
What does that process look like? I mean, can that happen pretty fast? I feel like a grant. Anytime you say Grant, I’ve worked with a people, okay, this is a six month project.
Danielle Hugunin (14:24):
How does that work? 30 days when they apply with us, we look at their application and do they meet the qualifying factors for what is required for a grant, and then we present those to them when they are under contract on a house. It’s the normal process. We do almost all of the work for them and it’s really easy.
Jarod Temple (14:46):
It’s pretty seamless for the borrower. Very, which is what’s really important. We kind of see what they qualify for on the back end, and then we present it to ’em and then they’re pleasantly surprised like, oh, you don’t need $10,000, you need $3,000 because we’re able to pair this grant and you guys
Brad Burrow (15:04):
Are helping them find those grants.
Danielle Hugunin (15:06):
Yes.
Brad Burrow (15:08):
That’s got to be unique. I can’t believe other companies are doing that.
Danielle Hugunin (15:13):
I think they are. I just think some people are a lot more passionate about it than others. And personally that’s a big passion of mine. It always has been. So we’re always looking for new grants, new ways to bring money to buyers and help them get into homes.
Brad Burrow (15:29):
What are some of the things that you do to help determine the best loan option for your customers? How would you figure that out? I guess?
Jarod Temple (15:39):
Yeah, mean, obviously we get an application, verify income and those types of things, and then we can kind of structure what their plans are and what their goals are. There’s a couple different options for most people. So I think we take an educational approach and say, Hey, here’s your options, and which one aligns closest with what you’re trying to accomplish. And I think I’m a big fan of presenting it to the borrowers and letting them make the decision. And then they may try to explain what their situation is, but something might resonate with them differently. So I just like to have the options presented to them so they can make an educated
Danielle Hugunin (16:22):
Decision.
Brad Burrow (16:22):
What are some of the options that somebody might consider?
Danielle Hugunin (16:25):
Yeah, people definitely want to be educated and they definitely want to feel like they have a choice. I personally like to look at something bigger than just the house. So can you afford this house? Yes, but how much money are we do you have for your down payment? And maybe we need to look at paying off other debt and putting less down. My goal is to help you help bring financial freedom to your life. Not only just a home that you love. Right? It’s important that we talk about your one year goal, your five-year goals. Is this your forever home? Is it a temporary house for you? Is it going to be a rental based on those things? I think that really helps us curate the right strategy for someone together. It’s a conversation. It’s not just, here’s the box, you check this off and we’re good here. Right.
Brad Burrow (17:12):
Do you think most people are prepared for those conversations? Have they thought? The only reason I ask this because in business, when I start talking about strategy, a lot of businesses haven’t thought about it. They’re just in business, they’re doing their thing. They haven’t thought about the strategy. You’re talking about strategy. I think most couples, especially younger couples, I just want to get a house, I don’t know, is forever. Is it five year?
Danielle Hugunin (17:40):
They don’t always know the answers to those questions, but I think they appreciate being asked because they feel as if we are really investing of their success. I had someone to me say the other day, I feel like you care about this as much as we do. And that’s a really good feeling. And it’s true, it’s genuine. We do. So they may not come into it thinking that it’s a strategy, but I think that’s part of our job is to just bring something more to them.
Jarod Temple (18:05):
It’s definitely important for them to start thinking that way.
Danielle Hugunin (18:07):
Yeah.
Brad Burrow (18:08):
Yeah. Well, we should all think that way, right? Yeah. Even in business, you think the strategy side of it is not really paid attention to very often. It doesn’t feel like, especially in smaller businesses, it feels like that. So tell me about the process. What does the process look? Can you talk me through, alright, I want to get a mortgage. What are the steps that it takes to get that over the finish
Danielle Hugunin (18:30):
Line? This is not a really exciting topic right now.
Brad Burrow (18:34):
Oh, really?
Danielle Hugunin (18:34):
See how quickly I can, Reed this should edit this out. No,
Brad Burrow (18:38):
Sorry, I didn’t mean to ask that question, guys.
Danielle Hugunin (18:39):
No, I mean, it’s a good question, but it is probably the least exciting part about
Brad Burrow (18:44):
Buying
Jarod Temple (18:44):
House. It’s not sexy.
Danielle Hugunin (18:45):
You just fill an application out. Do you want to do it with me or do you want to do it online? Whatever works for you guys. I want to make it easy for the client. We ask questions about income assets, we pull credit, and then we look at all of those things together and we can make the determination of what they qualify for. Now that may not be what they want to spend in this day and age either. So I generally say, do you have a budget? How much do you want your monthly payment to be allotted for housing? I told someone the other day, they qualified for $650,000 and they were first time home buyers and about fell off their chair. So
Brad Burrow (19:20):
Yeah, first time home buyer.
Danielle Hugunin (19:21):
Just because you can doesn’t mean you need to
Brad Burrow (19:23):
Or should.
Danielle Hugunin (19:24):
Yeah.
Brad Burrow (19:25):
Or should. Yeah. Yeah.
Danielle Hugunin (19:26):
Yeah. So that’s how we qualify them. And then they get a pre-approval and they get to find a house. And we really make the process as easy as possible
Brad Burrow (19:34):
Is the pre-approval process, the way most people are buying right now, it’s like, I need to know what I can spend and then I go try to find that and make an offer.
Danielle Hugunin (19:42):
Yes.
Jarod Temple (19:42):
Yeah. You need it to make an offer. Most real estate agents are going to require, I think all real estate agents require
Brad Burrow (19:47):
That, right?
Danielle Hugunin (19:48):
They’ll require it.
Jarod Temple (19:48):
Yes.
Brad Burrow (19:50):
So yeah, you’re not going to be able to make, it used to be you’d make an offer and then you’d go to the gate,
Danielle Hugunin (19:53):
Then you get
Brad Burrow (19:54):
Loan.
Danielle Hugunin (19:54):
Yep, yep. Things are different.
Brad Burrow (19:57):
Old school,
Jarod Temple (19:57):
Then you would draw the offer possibly. Yeah. Just kidding.
Brad Burrow (20:02):
Yeah.
Jarod Temple (20:03):
Yeah.
Brad Burrow (20:04):
So that process, is credit score key or is that not as important?
Jarod Temple (20:11):
It’s definitely, it’s
Danielle Hugunin (20:12):
Key.
Brad Burrow (20:13):
Yeah.
Jarod Temple (20:14):
Yeah, it, it’s just like anything else. The better their credit, the less risk and
Danielle Hugunin (20:21):
Better the terms,
Jarod Temple (20:22):
The better the terms
Brad Burrow (20:23):
You’re going to get better interest rates and all
Jarod Temple (20:24):
That stuff. You are, you get better insurance, you get better. Oh, yeah. Yeah. All the things add into the affordability.
Brad Burrow (20:32):
I remember when we bought our house that had the mortgage insurance and I finally paid it down enough where I didn’t have to have the mortgage insurance. That was like a celebration day for us.
Danielle Hugunin (20:41):
See, and this is why people think they need to save 20% to put down, they don’t want this pesky mortgage insurance. But if you have, have good credit, I used to, yeah, this guy used to sell it
Brad Burrow (20:50):
13 years. I spent, yeah, I know you’re going to throw water at me or something.
Danielle Hugunin (20:54):
It’s not expensive. It’s not hundreds and hundreds of dollars. It’s sometimes $20 a month. It’s sometimes $40 a month.
Jarod Temple (21:01):
It’s gotten really affordable and it’s less than the cost of waiting.
Danielle Hugunin (21:06):
It is.
Jarod Temple (21:08):
Well,
Danielle Hugunin (21:10):
I
Jarod Temple (21:10):
Know it’s a necessary evil. I know. Admit that.
Danielle Hugunin (21:11):
This is why we have to educate though.
Brad Burrow (21:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that’s good. That’ll be a podcast.
Danielle Hugunin (21:16):
There you go. Right? Yeah.
Brad Burrow (21:18):
Common challenges buyers are facing. What are the common challenges?
Jarod Temple (21:22):
I would say affordability. Right now, insurance
Brad Burrow (21:26):
Got to be number one, right?
Jarod Temple (21:26):
Yeah. I mean, insurance has gotten expensive. Taxes have gotten expensive, and just the cost of homes have gotten expensive. And that’s just a product of the demand we’ve seen. It’s gotten expensive quick. So I think that that’s probably the biggest challenge.
Brad Burrow (21:45):
I mean, do you see the market still growing though, right?
Danielle Hugunin (21:47):
Yeah. People still, they still sell houses, families change, people get relocated. There are reasons. The interesting thing is that the high end, in my opinion, the high end part of the portion of the market is busier than it normally would be in something like this. And I think that,
Brad Burrow (22:05):
I wonder why that is
Danielle Hugunin (22:06):
Indicative of the fact that a buyer with more money may or may not just the dollar amount monthly. They may be paying cash. It may not matter as much, which is not something that I’ve seen quite as prevalent as I do right now, but it’s still busy.
Brad Burrow (22:26):
Yeah. Do people still use cash?
Danielle Hugunin (22:28):
They do. We don’t actually let them bring real cash, but yes.
Brad Burrow (22:32):
Yeah, I know a real a hundred dollars rent.
Danielle Hugunin (22:34):
Nope.
Brad Burrow (22:34):
This shoot that we’re doing, I was telling you guys about, we had to get some fake money. So there’s a company in LA that prints money that looks like real money, but it’s like we’re all looking at, it’s like, man, I haven’t seen a dollar bill for a while. You forgot what they look like. I know. It’s pretty funny. So interest rates, I’m really interested to see what you guys think about interest rates. I feel like they’re going to start coming down. What do you guys think about that? Maybe I’m completely wrong on that. Doesn’t
Jarod Temple (23:02):
Matter. I think you’re right. It’s definitely been a long time coming. I think most industry professionals have said it was going to come down two years ago, and it hasn’t. It’s been persistent. We have inflation and some other things are within the market, but at some point, something’s got to give. And I think most of the people smarter than me probably think we’re going to be trending down.
Danielle Hugunin (23:28):
I mean, it’s improved at their highs. They were in the upper sevens. We’re staying pretty steady in the 6.75 ish range for a 30 year right now. And the whiplash of the changing, jumping back to the sevens and then back down isn’t quite as frequent as it was. So to me, that’s a good sign. I personally think rates need to come down slowly and gradually.
Brad Burrow (23:54):
You guys would be overwhelmed if they drop fast, won’t
Danielle Hugunin (23:56):
You? It’s not a good, it just won’t be good for anybody. So yeah, the industry
Brad Burrow (23:59):
Can’t handle
Danielle Hugunin (24:00):
It gradual and just steady. So I think we’re seeing some of that to some extent, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty,
Brad Burrow (24:08):
Man. Think of the people that will sell their houses. If the interest rates come down, that’ll just throw the whole market into a flux probably. Right?
Danielle Hugunin (24:15):
I think that’s a possibility, for sure.
Brad Burrow (24:18):
Yeah. Yeah. Slow is better. Yeah. So we talked about the Kansas City housing market a little bit. Are there particular neighborhoods or types of properties that are really, really popular right now that you guys are seeing? Maybe it’s a price range, maybe. I mean, a lot of people in Kansas City will see this podcast. Is there an area that’s really hot?
Danielle Hugunin (24:47):
Johnson County is always hot. I mean, we’re on what, 180 something? When you go all the way south now for new construction?
Jarod Temple (24:56):
Yeah, that’s crazy. It used to stop. Well, 150
Danielle Hugunin (24:59):
Hundred 60th,
Jarod Temple (25:00):
Hundred 59th, hundred 35th used to be corn fields and cow
Danielle Hugunin (25:05):
Pastures
Jarod Temple (25:06):
Just three blocks off of that. And that’s that I can remember. So it’s continuing to expand. Northland is growing quick.
Brad Burrow (25:15):
The company I was mentioning to you, they just got approved to build a whole community in Gardner, but it’s on the west side of Gardner. That’s exactly what you’re talking about. There’s nothing there right now. And that’s going to be a whole new community.
Danielle Hugunin (25:30):
Well, and not knowing what price point, I’m guessing they’re gearing towards the lower, more affordable price point.
Brad Burrow (25:37):
I think it’s four to 600.
Danielle Hugunin (25:38):
Okay. So four is on the low for new construction, but the land price is cheaper there too. So I mean, that’s why, I mean, Kansas City has grown a lot. There’s not an area that people don’t want to live in, really. I think Overland Park is always popular. Brookside is always popular, but it’s not isolated.
Brad Burrow (26:00):
Do you talk to a lot of people that are kind of moving into Kansas City and don’t realize how great of a city this is?
Danielle Hugunin (26:06):
It goes in waves, but yes.
Brad Burrow (26:08):
Yeah. I mean, it really is. We have a lot. My dad used to, my dad was a director of HR at Marion Laboratories. I dunno if you remember that back in the
Danielle Hugunin (26:15):
Day.
Brad Burrow (26:16):
But he always used to tell me how executives would move here and they loved it, and they’d move from the west coast, east coast, maybe Chicago. They loved the size of house they could get here and the standard of living and all that stuff. I still think that’s probably the case a little bit. Kansas City’s a really great market.
Danielle Hugunin (26:37):
It’s not as less expensive as it used to be. And our taxes are certainly more expensive than they used to be and more expensive than some other neighboring states. And so while that’s something that I think people don’t always consider or think about too, it is a part of your payment. It is part of your expenses.
Brad Burrow (26:57):
You don’t think about that when you’re getting a mortgage, probably, do you?
Danielle Hugunin (27:00):
Well, you don’t unless you have a great loan officer that educates you on those things.
Brad Burrow (27:05):
Do you know anybody we could send ’em to?
Danielle Hugunin (27:07):
Just a few.
Brad Burrow (27:10):
Well, I want to wrap up here pretty quickly, but what advice do you have for new home buyers? And I’m really curious to know. It’s like, okay, my middle son, I’ll just give you as an example. He works at Fidelity now. He’s building his career, is renting, trying to save money. What can he do to get prepared to make that first step of owning his own home?
Danielle Hugunin (27:34):
You want to answer?
Brad Burrow (27:35):
Go ahead.
Danielle Hugunin (27:36):
He’s probably more prepared than he thinks. Generally the clients that come in and they’re new, but they have great jobs, they’re saving, they’re probably ready. They may not actually be ready to do it themselves. I think a lot of people in that period, they’re working, they’re younger in their careers and they don’t really want the responsibility quite yet of committing to a house is more what I see. But you don’t have to have 20% down credit maybe if you’re just coming out of school. Having a credit score is important. Sometimes if you’ve never had credit or any type of credit, you don’t even have a credit score. So having credit, having a good credit score, and really just from a budget perspective, I think knowing kind of what you’re comfortable with and being prepared for that piece,
Brad Burrow (28:27):
How do you build credit at that age? Yeah, you have to use it,
Jarod Temple (28:32):
Mom and dad. Oh
Danielle Hugunin (28:35):
Yeah. There are ways.
Jarod Temple (28:36):
Yeah. There’s a lot of ways you can be an authorized user on some accounts, so mom and dad can help with that. Yeah.
Danielle Hugunin (28:43):
When my kids turned 16, I added them as a secondary user on a couple of my credit cards, and they have had credit scores since then, so it’s kind of a little trick.
Jarod Temple (28:53):
I wouldn’t hand my card out to you.
Danielle Hugunin (28:54):
No, no, no. You don’t give your card to the 16-year-old. Can I get on your mine?
Brad Burrow (28:59):
Yeah. I didn’t even know that.
Danielle Hugunin (29:02):
Yeah.
Brad Burrow (29:03):
Wow. And anybody can do that.
Danielle Hugunin (29:05):
Anybody can do it. And yet, to your point, you don’t have to give the access to your account, but it does allow that secondary user to take advantage of your credit history. If you’ve had a card for 10 years, your 16-year-old, even though they were only six, has therefore had a credit card on their credit for that long.
Brad Burrow (29:23):
I think you should do a podcast on that. That is a big deal.
Danielle Hugunin (29:26):
Can talk about credit.
Brad Burrow (29:27):
Yeah.
Danielle Hugunin (29:27):
There are
Brad Burrow (29:28):
Lots of jokes. I had no idea you could do that.
Danielle Hugunin (29:29):
Yeah.
Brad Burrow (29:30):
Wow. And they get the benefit of the hard work of building a credit score. I know how hard that is.
Danielle Hugunin (29:37):
It gets you kind of over that hump, and then of course, it’s easier to apply for your own credit card and get good terms and then start using it.
Brad Burrow (29:44):
How long would that have to be established before it’s legit to a credit company? Is it immediate?
Danielle Hugunin (29:51):
Yeah,
Brad Burrow (29:51):
It can be 30 days. Really?
Danielle Hugunin (29:53):
Yeah.
Brad Burrow (29:54):
Wow. Okay. All right.
Danielle Hugunin (29:56):
It’s a trick. It’s a little trick.
Brad Burrow (29:57):
Yeah. That’s awesome. I had no idea. Anything else they should do? I mean, obviously saving money is with the grants and some of the things you guys are talking about that’s not as big a deal as I
Jarod Temple (30:10):
Thought it was.
Danielle Hugunin (30:11):
Right.
Jarod Temple (30:12):
I would say probably the first thing is just talk to somebody. Get your credit ran, see where you’re at. Get your finger on the pulse, and if you’re not ready, if you talk to somebody, they can tell you what you need to do to get ready. If you are ready, great. We’ll give you a pre-approval. You can start looking tomorrow.
Danielle Hugunin (30:29):
Also, know your community. Where do you want to live? And think about the next three to five years because first house is exciting, and if two years from now it’s suddenly too small for you, or maybe you don’t like the neighborhood because you weren’t thinking about that, selling costs money too. So I think those are other things that first time buyers should be thinking through.
Brad Burrow (30:50):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Maybe you guys should think about doing an online class or something, get prepped,
Danielle Hugunin (30:56):
Have classes.
Brad Burrow (30:58):
Well, I really appreciate you guys coming on. It’s really great. If somebody wanted to reach out, how would you recommend they do that
Danielle Hugunin (31:06):
To either of us?
Brad Burrow (31:09):
Just give me your
Danielle Hugunin (31:09):
Email,
Brad Burrow (31:11):
Your cell phone number.
Danielle Hugunin (31:12):
My cell? No,
Brad Burrow (31:13):
Truly. We can put it in the notes if you want to. Or would they just go to the website?
Danielle Hugunin (31:17):
The website? I mean, you can go to the Bell Bank mortgage website. My direct website is daniellemortgageteam.com. Cell phone’s, emails. But yeah, we can add it
Brad Burrow (31:29):
And just reach out and you guys will help ’em assess where they are.
Danielle Hugunin (31:33):
Yes,
Brad Burrow (31:33):
Absolutely. Go from there. Last thing, so you guys are excited about the podcast. Can you give us just a little bit of some of the things you’re going to talk about?
Danielle Hugunin (31:43):
Sure.
Brad Burrow (31:44):
Yeah, go ahead.
Danielle Hugunin (31:45):
You. This is the master of All Things podcast over here. All right.
Jarod Temple (31:50):
I don’t know about that in the far high. I’m trying. I think our first two episodes, the first one is going to talk a little bit about our story and a little bit about what we touched on today. The second one, we have a guest coming on Steve Richmond, who’s kind of a world renowned speaker, and from Kansas City. He’s actually out of North Carolina. Oh, okay. I worked with him back in my mortgage insurance days and he does a phenomenal job. And we’re going to talk about AI and how it kind of correlates with things going on in the mortgage business and just about change in AI and how it’s changing and how our position as loan officers changing. So it should be really good. I’m excited to get things kicked off going. Yeah,
Danielle Hugunin (32:40):
We will have talks about grants. We may have some clients that want to get on and talk about their experience and how obtaining those grants has allowed them to purchase a house. I mean, there are so many stories that deserve to be told.
Brad Burrow (32:56):
Yeah, I love it. I love it. The grant thing is new to me. My mind’s kind of spinning on that a little bit right now. It’s like I had no idea, but you guys could actually, if somebody would just come in and take the first step, you could help them assess if that’s even a possibility.
Danielle Hugunin (33:11):
Yes.
Brad Burrow (33:11):
Mean what do you have to lose? People are want to do.
Danielle Hugunin (33:15):
People are afraid of being told no, and that’s why we want to make it approachable and seem comfortable and easy, and just overall advocate for what’s best for them. Sometimes that’s honestly sending them somewhere else. We want to be honest and we want to find what’s best for everyone.
Jarod Temple (33:32):
Yeah, and I would say
Danielle Hugunin (33:33):
That it’s not scary,
Jarod Temple (33:34):
I don’t think. No is really in our vocabulary. It’s more of a not now or not yet, and it’s okay to coach them up and say, Hey, this is what we need to do to get you to a spot where you can buy a house.
Brad Burrow (33:44):
Yeah. Well that’s awesome. Alright, so the last thing that I always have everybody do if you’ve watched any of our podcasts, is you have to do the movie voice.
Jarod Temple (33:53):
Okay.
Brad Burrow (33:54):
Right. So what do you think, Danielle?
Jarod Temple (33:56):
I don’t know.
Brad Burrow (33:57):
So you want me to show you how to do it? Yeah, let’s do it. You got to get really close to the Mikey have to say, In a World with Real Media. Just
Danielle Hugunin (34:04):
Like that.
Brad Burrow (34:06):
Yeah, just like that. You go
Danielle Hugunin (34:06):
Back.
Jarod Temple (34:08):
All right, you ready?
Danielle Hugunin (34:09):
Yeah.
Jarod Temple (34:10):
In a World with Real Media,
Danielle Hugunin (34:12):
Oh boy, this could be interesting In a World with Real Media. Edit that out. That was good. That’s awesome.
Brad Burrow (34:22):
Alright, well thank you guys for being on. This is really awesome. Geez, I learned something today. Good. That’s really amazing. So I’m excited for your podcast and I think it’s going to be really great. Hey, if you are interested in learning more, you’ll have to check out the podcast. We’ll share it on our website and stuff so people can see where to go. But share this content, like it, comment, send it out to people. We want to get all this out, and we thank you for watching the podcast and we will see you on the next episode. Thanks. This has been In a World with Real Media. Thanks for joining us. And be sure to subscribe on iTunes and follow real media on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. So you never miss an episode.