Believe it or not, there are similarities between getting a mortgage that works well for you and getting the right landscape design for your home. Both your mortgage and your landscaping you tend to live for a very long time. John Lawhon of Lawhon Landscape Design will be sharing with you some tips on how to prepare for your home’s spring landscaping. Jo Garner gives useful tips for preparing for a mortgage approval.
Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant said, “It’s not the will to win that matters. Everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
Please subscribe at www.JoGarner.com or just email me at jo@jogarner.com and I can send you notices of our new episodes and information on areas of the real estate business that interests you.
To Your Success,
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Good morning, Memphis! Welcome to our internet listeners and podcast listeners across the 50 states! You’re on Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe. I’m your host, Jo Garner, Mortgage Loan Officer. You can connect with me at www.JoGarner.com. Our general topic is “4 Ways to Prepare For A Mortgage Approval & Tips On Preparing For Your Home’s Spring Landscaping.” If you have a question or comment email me at Jo@JoGarner.com , or comment at #JoGarner on Twitter. You can also call me directly off the show at (901) 482-0354. But, right now you can call us while we are live at (901) 535-9732. Today is February 4th, 2017.
Here’s The Scoop About Mortgages and Landscaping
Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant said, “It’s not the will to win that matters. Everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
- Today I will be sharing some ways for you to prepare to get your mortgage approved.
- John Lawhon of Lawhon Landscape Design will be sharing with you some tips on how to prepare for your home’s spring landscaping. Believe it or not, there are similarities between getting a mortgage that works well for you and getting the right landscape design for your home. Both your mortgage and your landscaping you tend to live with for a very long time.
Introducing John Lawhon
Back in the studio this morning we have John Lawhon, the expert when it comes to designing, installing and maintaining landscapes for both residential and commercial customers. John, you have a lot of happy customers from our Greater Memphis Business Network International group, Talk Shoppe, and you did the landscape design for the Collierville Town Center and the Page Robbins Center and more. It’s great having you back in the studio. (John introduces himself and talks about Lawhon Landscape Design and what they do for their clients.)
A Bit About Jo Garner
John, you know a little about my professional history but a lot of people don’t realize that before I got into the mortgage business over 25 years ago, I started out in the lawn and landscaping business at a very young age, and, with a lot of help from my parents back then and some good advice from business people from my church and the community, I experienced a lot of success But I still had to work hard, of course. In the lending business, just like your business, if you take good care of your customer, they will take good care of you.
Mortgage Market News
So, I’m going to do my best to take care of our listeners out there who are in the process of buying a house or refinancing one. Some savvy loan professionals are suggesting if you are within 30 days of closing your loan and you have not locked your mortgage rate and terms, might want to seriously consider doing it, they say. San Francisco Fed president, John Williams mentioned that the Fed may raise their rates again in March. He went on to mention that the Federal Reserve is closer to ending its policy of investing in bonds, which have been a factor in keeping mortgage rates down. Mortgage rates yesterday ended the day with the conventional 30 year fixed rates coming in around 4.125% to 4.375%. The 15 year fixed rate came in around 3.625% to 3.75%. You can get different rates with different mortgage products depending on several factors including credit scores.
Trends In The Landscaping Industry
John talks about the trend around the country for installing using Rain Gardens. The plants chosen for the this type garden are used to recycle water, saving water for the homeowners? More on podcast…
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Ways to Prepare For Your Mortgage Approval
Jo:You know that part of the football game in the last few seconds of the 4th quarter when, if you score one more time, you win the game? You have the ball. Your opponents are closing in. You can run out of bounds. Or you can keep running and hope your team member covers you, or you can take a chance and pass the ball on up the field. But you sense that you have to do something now. A lot of homebuyers are sensing they need to do something NOW before the rates go up pushing up the house payments.
Here are 4 ways you can prepare to score a mortgage approval for yourself. I will give you some helpful detail on each of these later in the show, but here are the 4 areas for you to prepare so you can run your play quickly and successfully when you submit your mortgage loan application to the mortgage officer.
- Determine your personal comfort level on the maximum house payment and down payment you can pay when you buy your home.
- Review your credit history on a one-time a year free credit report site like www.annualcreditreport.com .
- Pull together your income and asset supporting documents to give the lender.
- Put together a team of reputable, experienced professionals to guide you around the pitfalls.
How Much House Can I Afford?
Jo: One of the first ways to prepare for a mortgage approval is to make sure you are comfortable making the house payment and the down payment, if you need a down payment. When I worked on my church finance team, I personally put myself through the budget exercise of finding out what I actually made for gross income and income after all that stuff is deducted. I went through several months of paystubs. Then I started through a few months of credit card statements and my bank statements. After this exercise I was shocked at the amount of money I spent on stuff I didn’t really need. I made a list of once-a-year expenses like some insurances and car tags. Only now was I able to really know what I could afford for a house note and how much I needed to leave in the bank for emergencies. If your married, going through your bank statements and credit card statements is a team exercise, believe me. If you need help with this exercise, I have some very easy tricks you can use to make this a little fun. Feel free to call me directly after the show at (901) 482-0354 or email me at Jo@JoGarner.com or connect with me at www.JoGarner.com MAKE YOUR PLAN. LET’S WORK YOUR PLAN. IF THE DEAL WORKS FOR YOU TODAY, LET’S DO IT TODAY.
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2nd segment after 9:15 break: Our Look Back Memphis Trivia Contest is brought to you by notable Memphis historian, Jimmy Ogle. Jimmy Ogle offers free historic walking tours downtown in the spring and fall. For information about Jimmy Ogle, go to www.JimmyOgle.com . The Look Back Memphis Trivia Contest is sponsored by John and Jennifer Lawhon of Lawhon Landscape (901) 754-7474 the Lawhon’s can help you plan your landscaping if you have a BIG, BIG project or a smaller project . The Lawhons are giving away a $25 gift card to the first person with the correct trivia answer. If you know the answer to our trivia question, call us at 901 535 WREC 901 535-9732.
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TRIVIA QUESTION:
Question:
I was begun as a mission church in 1857 and became a cathedral church in 1871. Who am I?
Hint:
“Free seats” and “open to all” would be the policy of the church, built as a “house of prayer for all people”.
Hint:
My current sanctuary took almost 30 years to complete.
Hint:
A very well respected school for girls was begun at my location in 1847 and is the oldest school in Memphis.
Final Hint:
Four nuns and two priests are memorialized in the altar of the cathedral for their efforts during the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878, eventually losing their lives.
Answer:
St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral. Before it became an Episcopal cathedral, St. Mary’s was a mission church, organized in 1857 by members of Calvary Episcopal Church on the semi-rural, eastern fringe of Memphis, Tennessee, on a spot now considered to be part of Downtown. It became the cathedral church of the old statewide Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee in 1871 and later the cathedral of the Diocese of West Tennessee with the creation of the three dioceses within Tennessee in 1983. A small wooden Gothic structure was built on a lot located at the eastern edge of the city at Poplar and Orleans. It was the desire of James Otey, the First Bishop of Tennessee that “free seats” and “openness to all” would be the policy of this church, built as a “house of prayer for all people.” St. Mary’s Church was officially dedicated on the following Ascension Day (May 13, 1858). Construction of its present English Gothic Revival structure began in 1898 and was completed in 1926. St. Mary’s “Sisters’ Chapel” was built in the 1880s for the Sisters of St. Mary’s to use as the chapel for St. Mary’s Episcopal School, once housed at this location.
Memphis suffered periodic epidemics of yellow fever, a mosquito-borne viral infection, throughout the 19th century. The worst of the epidemics occurred in the summer of 1878, when 5,150 Memphians died. Five years earlier, a group of Episcopal nuns from the recently formed Sisterhood of St. Mary arrived in Memphis to operate the St. Mary’s School for Girls, which was relocated to the cathedral site. When the 1878 epidemic struck, a number of priests and nuns (both Protestant and Catholic), doctors, and even the proprietress of a bordello stayed behind to tend to the sick and dying – including nuns Constance, Ruth, Thecla and Frances, and priests Parsons and Schuyler.
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Jimmy Ogle gives free outdoor walking tours on the sidewalks and parks in Downtown Memphis during the Winter and Spring of each year, with the next being the Judge D’Army Bailey County Courthouse Tour (indoors): one Thursday each month at 12:00 noon – the next being Thursday, February 16. Go to jimmyogle.com for more information.
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QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY JOHN LAWHON
- What are some tips that you give homeowners trying to create curb appeal on a budget to help sell a home?
- Clean up, cut back . Sometimes just moving existing plants to better locations. If the house does not have good curb appeal, you may never get a chance to get people inside the house.
2. Can you give us some tips on how you help your clients control out-of-control water on the lawn and around the house?
3. How can you expand your living space by simple landscaping techniques?
4. What are some examples of how you have helped your clients with landscaping on a budget?
5. Landscaping the big, big project in phases-how do you prepare and execute this plan?
6. What are some well-known locations that showcase your landscaping work and designs?
7. What are some examples of when you have helped a client from preparation to installation of a landscaping project?
8. What are the new trend in having “rain gardens” ?
Answers revealed on podcast. Listen to find out more!
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QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY JO GARNER
1. What are some ways you suggest that home buyers or people getting a loan on their home can prepare to get a mortgage approval
- Determine what is the maximum house payment and down payment you can afford to pay to purchase a home? I covered a little on how to do this. When I worked on my church finance team, we worked with people who had gotten in money trouble for various reasons. Sometimes it was due to a long-term illness, a divorce or death of a bread-winner—stuff like that.
- Today, technology allows you to use some really cool apps on your phone to track the amount of your income and what you spend. To use the old fashioned way, we reviewed the last 3 months credit card statements and bank statements and then made a list of the once-or-twice-a-year payments made to insurance companies, car tags, Christmas and holiday gifts. We reviewed paystubs and W2s to come up with a comfortable amount to be able to pay on a house note. Usually the comfort level was not having the house note with principal and interest, taxes and insurance and association fees on the house not exceed 25% to 35% of the gross income. I common limit on the total new house note and minimum required payments on other debts should note exceed 40% to 45% of the total gross income.
- Review your credit before applying for a mortgage. You don’t have to do this, but you can get your once-a-year free one at www.annualcreditreport.com. If you see delinquent credit on there that is yours, contrary to what you read on the internet, don’t go out and file a dispute on your credit items. Sometimes the loan guidelines will require you remove the dispute and it can delay your loan process if it takes too long. Of course, if you find credit accounts on your report that are not yours, you need to report them to the credit bureaus and the creditor holding that account.
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Contacting the Big Three Credit Bureaus
Equifax Information Services
PO BOX 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
(800) 685-1111
Experian
701 Experian Parkway
PO BOX 2002
Allen, TX 75013
(888) 397-3742
Transunion Consumer Relations
2 Baldwin Place
PO BOX 1000
Chester, PA 19022
(800) 888-4213
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Do’s and Don’ts Regarding Your Credit Report & Your Credit Scores
The higher your credit scores, the better chance you have of getting the lowest, best-priced mortgage rate. You have to make sure you manage your credit in a way that matches what the credit bureau scoring algorithms. Paying the bills on time every month is just one thing among many that you can use to raise your credit score credit limit, always keeping the owed balance over 12 dollars though so the creditor will report to the bureaus.
Many aspiring homebuyers make the mistake of getting a 12-months-same-as-cash account to buy their new appliances, furniture thinking that it shouldn’t hurt them since they don’t have to make a payment for a year or more. The 12-months-same-as-cash accounts can damage your chances to get your mortgage approval because on this type of debt, underwriters on most loan programs are required to use 5% of the entire owed balance as the minimum payment for income-to-debt calculations and this can cause your debt to exceed acceptable limits I a hurry. Also, the 12-months-same-as-cash accounts tend to drop your credit scores considerably—sometimes as much as 40 to 100 points.
Another valuable tip on keeping your credit scores high is to keep owed balances on all revolving credit accounts, like your credit cards, down under 30% of the total credit limit. If you really, really want to score some points, you can keep the owed balances on your credit cards under 10 percent.
Documents Needed For Mortgage Approval
In this current competitive market, you need to be able to move quickly on your offer to purchase the home you want and with a strong pre-approval letter from the mortgage company. and be able to close quickly too. Many times the seller is looking at the strength of the pre-approval letter and how fast that buyer can close.
I was at a closing with one of my clients a few months ago, and though it is unusual these days, the seller was sitting there at the same table at the same time as my home buyer. The seller confessed that my client’s bid was not the highest bid, but the pre-approval letter was strong and he was not looking for a high bid as much as he was searching for a sure bid.
Before you place your application, it is a good idea to pull together your income and asset documents to give to the lender. If you are like a lot of my mortgage customers, your schedule is crazy and you can’t always get to these documents quickly. Here’s a tip—give me the name and contact information of your banker, your employer’s payroll manager and your CPA. I can help you get these needed documents without having you burdened with getting all of these documents yourself.
Mortgage Document Checklist
All pages of your last 2 years tax returns. If you are self-employed in a business other than a sole proprietorship, you may need to send all pages of your last 2 years business tax returns too. If you have not filed the tax return due the year you are buying the home, you may want to file an extension and wait until after closing since the mortgage companies will sometimes take over a month to get the third-party verified transcript back to the mortgage company.
- Last 2 years W2s, 1099s etc
- Latest paystub
- Legible copy of drivers license
- All pages of your latest bank statements and other asset account statements.
- Your military DD214 if you are applying for a Veteran’s Administration loan.
This will give you a head start…
Copies of latest mortgage statement on any real estate that you own. Copies of property tax certificates and insurance declaration pages and leases if the property (ies) is/are leased. A spreadsheet with as much information you can supply on a spreadsheet about each of your properties.
- Put together a team of reputable, experienced professionals to protect you from the pitfalls. You will need on your team a realtor, a lender, a title company or closing attorney, the mortgage company will go through a government approved agency to get a real estate appraiser assigned. You will need a homeowners insurance agent. You have the option of getting your own certified home inspector if you wish. When you start trying to decide who you want on your team, look for the Better Business Business Rating. Sometimes you can put the name of the professional and/or their company name, city and state and the search words “BBB rating.” You may be surprised and how much information you can get from Google.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1.Talk Shoppe offers free networking & education to anyone interested in real estate or in business. Talk Shoppe meets every Wednesday 9A-10A CT at Nova Copy Conference Center 7251 Appling Farms Parkway Cordova, TN. This Wednesday February 8th 2017 Author, Speaker and Trainer, Shelley Baur presents: “Creating Honest Conversations To Create Better Relationships” (perfect for Valentines Day). For more about Talk Shoppe www.TalkShoppe.com
- Talk Shoppe events are free thanks to supporters like Beverly Borwick of www.beverlyborwickdesigns.com She can make unique jewelry for that special person in your life.
- Thank you to Talk Shoppe advertisers like Dr. Dale and Lee Ann Foster of www.MemphisNeurofeedback.com . They use the latest scientific methods to train your brain without prescription medication to overcome effects of ADHD, autism, pain and brain injury. (901) 624-0100
- FOR THIS PODCAST OF REAL ESTATE MORTGAGE SHOPPE AND MORE, GO TO JOGARNER.COM
- Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe reminds you that MAKE YOUR PLAN, LET’S WORK YOUR PLAN. IF THE DEAL WORKS FOR YOU TODAY, DO IT TODAY.
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LEGAL STUFF
REAL ESTATE MORTGAGE SHOPPE OFFERS INFORMATION FOR EDUCATION PURPOSES ONLY & DOES NOT ABSOLUTELY ENDORSE EVERYTHING SHARED ON THIS PROGRAM. SEEK PROFESSIONAL ADVICE FOR YOUR OWN SPECIFIC SITUATIONS.
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QUOTE CORNER
“I’d do some spring cleaning, but then I’d just have to turn around and do it again next spring.”
-Maxine
“It’s not the will to win that matters. Everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
-Paul
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REJOINERS:
- Kevin Yee of Save Energy Solutions, www.sesinfo.biz (901) 492-1649 Dusty Homes! Allergies! High Utility Bills! Stop Bad Air through your leaky duct systems and solve a lot of problems in your home.
- Mary Lou Nowak, Mid-South Home Helpers www.homehelpershomecare.com (901) 414-9696 Mary Lou can help your loved one who needs quality, dependable non-medical assistance in order to remain safely and comfortably in their own home.
- Pat Goldstein, Realtor with Crye-Leike, Inc & 2006 Realtor of the Year. Pat uses her 30+ years experience to help her clients in the Memphis and North Mississippi areas buy or sell their home. (901) 606-2000 http://patgoldstein.crye-leike.com/
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Transitional Music: “Walking on Sunshine” Katrina and the Waves; “Spring Again” Lou Rawls; Brighter Than The Sun Colby Cailet ; “Memphis” by Johnny Rivers for the Look Back Memphis Trivia Contest
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ABOUT JOHN LAWHON OF LAWHON LANDSCAPING DESIGN:
Call: (901) 754-7474
Beautiful gardens begin with thoughtful design. The staff of Lawhon Landscape Design includes professionals with degrees in Landscape Architecture, Plant Pathology, Studio Art, and Agronomy. Our designers and plant professionals create outdoor living spaces with your lifestyle in mind.
Our many years of experience in design, installing, and maintaining Mid-South landscapes make us uniquely qualified to create gardens that are both beautiful and practical to maintain.
A Family Business
Our business was started in 1958 by Rex and Beth Lawhon and was one of the first weed control companies in the Southeast. Over the years, we have kept our client list small and personal in order to serve the gardens of Memphis with the best in lawn and shrub care. The high quality of our work has paid off over the years by the many repeat customers we have – both residential and commercial. We follow the philosophy of doing it right the first time. We hope that you will give us the opportunity to serve your garden needs as well.
In 1985, we expanded our family company by offering a complete design build landscape service. John Lawhon, with a degree in Landscape Architecture, offers complete landscape designs for every budget as well as outstanding plant installation services. In order to help maintain your landscape, we offer complete irrigation system installation. We have verything you need to make your home more beautiful than ever.
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ABOUT JO GARNER-MORTGAGE LOAN OFFICER:
Jo Garner, Mortgage Loan Officer
cell: (901) 482 0354
Twitter: @jogarner
Jo describes her job description: “As a mortgage loan officer, my job is to give my client the benefits they want from their financing terms– listening to my client and determine what’s of the most value to THEM– What is their comfort level on a house payment, how much are they comfortable paying down, what type of financing do they need to get the house they want to buy or refinance. Different clients have different priorities in life—some are buying their first home with very little down payment funds. Some are recovering from medical challenges, divorces or preparing to send children to college and some are embarking on a long term goal of buying properties to build rental income. Whatever their personal priorities are, my job is to put together a mortgage with comfortable terms that will help them achieve their goals.”
Jo Garner is a mortgage officer with extensive knowledge in tailoring mortgages to her customers who are refinancing or purchasing homes all over the country. She offers conventional, FHA, VA or other loan programs for refinancing and purchases.
Jo can help you look at rent vs buy, when it makes sense to refinance, how to get the best deal on your home purchase financing.
Jo Garner has been in the real estate/financing business for over 20 years. She got her start in Portland, Maine where she first began her real estate career. She received her real estate education from the University of Southern Maine and was personally mentored in San Diego, California by Robert G. Allen, author of Nothing Down, Creating Wealth and The Challenge.
On moving back to West Tennessee in 1987, she went into business buying and selling discounted owner-financed notes secured on real estate. In 1990 Jo went to work for a residential mortgage company and has been a mortgage loan officer for over 20 years. Her goal is to offer excellent, affordable service to her customers, tailoring the loan programs to the specific needs of her clients.
In addition to her work in the mortgage field, Jo Garner is the primary sponsor and founder of Talk Shoppe in Memphis. www.TalkShoppe.com Jo is host of Real Estate Mortgage Shoppe and currently publishes on her blog www.JoGarner.com