Welcome back to Brown Ambition with Tiffany, Alicia, and Mandre soon to be another last name.
You just said Mandre. I did no, no, no no, because that my you. I have friends who call me Mandra because that is that. That accident happens so often. Really at my own graduation, both college and high school, the person reading my name because my last name is Woodruff and when they say Amanda, they start reading Woodruff before they finished, and I think, okay, so it's always been Amandra or Amandra Wandruff.
I'm not I can say that.
Not bad.
That's ok. That's my nickname.
I'm so used to it, right, So people always call me Stephanie.
I'm like, like, Africans cannot say Tiffany. They cannot. I'm telling you.
They're like, You're like, no, Tiffany's like literally and uncles they're like, ah, Steph, how are you. I'm like Steph, So now I have it. I can't even say tiff That's tell you.
Like how a native Spanish speaker might say, they put e in the friend and most words.
But I was gonna say that the natives they do that, both the Africans, West Indians and Hispanic people tend to call me Stephanie.
So that is your linguistic lesson of the day, Brown ambition. It's important to learn languages, so you know what it's We're already almost halfway through February. That's why is it sucks that this is the shortest month. But I thought we could kick off the show by sharing a little bit of black history. If you don't mind, are you down for the something I learned today? Let's do let's let's do it.
Well.
I Well, one thing I'll point out is so the end day n double a CP Image Awards for yesterday, so I relived it through my Instagram feed. I don't actually know what channel they come on, but uh, I never actually watched it, but I always tune in for the speeches after So of course Hidden Figures one and they're amazing. But then Denzel won for his role in Fences, and he gave just a really I mean, I feel like Denzel should have been a preacher if he wasn't
like a multimillion dollar, you know, award winning actor. But he can preach, you know, and it's like, really, yes, if you haven't you need to go. I might play a clip of his speech but he just gave an amazing speech. He was like, basically the theme of his speech was that don't let anyone tell you this is easy.
It's hard and if and I'm glad that it's hard, because if it weren't like he says, easiness is a bigger threat to success than difficulty, and he talks about that, he talks about the benefit of challenges, and you can just I don't know. I just felt like I went to church in two and a half minutes.
I'd do very much.
Thank you, very much, Thank you, Tanny See Williams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neil, Edward Albie, August Wilson. August Wilson is one of the greatest playwrights in the history of American all world theater. It is a privilege and honor, a responsibility, a duty, and a joy to bring his brilliance to the screen. I am particularly proud and happy about the young filmmakers, actors, singers, writers, producers that are coming up
behind my generation, in particular Barry Jenkins. Young people understand this young man made ten, fifteen, twenty short films before he got the opportunity to make Moonlight. So never give us up. Without commitment, you'll never start, But more importantly, without consistency, you'll never finish. It's not easy.
If it was easy, there'd.
Be no Kerry Washington. If it was easy, there'd be no to Rogi Henson p Henson. If it were easy, there'd be no Octavia Spencer. But not only that. If it were easy, there'd be no Viola Davis. If we were easy, there'd be no Michael T. Williamson, no Stephen McKinley Henderson, no Russell Hornsby. If we were easy, there'd be no Denzel Washington. So keep working, keep striving, never give up. Fall down seven times, get up eight.
Ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship. He's is a greater threat to progress than hardship.
So keep moving, keep growing, keep learning. So yeah, it work.
Wow, And it was nice he called that all the different names and the actors and the audience, and just felt so nice. But what I also wanted to share is I read this article and I don't know how I missed this last year, But last year this news came out. So everyone knows Jack Daniels, this famous Southern bourbon. Don't I knew Kennethy, Kennethy, thank you. I was gonna say Tennessee or Kentucky. I forget Tennessee.
Yeah.
It turns out so the history of the company's over one hundred years old, I think one hundred and fifty years old. And you know, this man named Daniels who created the whiskey was always credited for it. But actually this apparently the original Daniels was taken in by a family and the patriarch of the family is who got him into to making whiskey. But it was that guy's slave, a man uncle Ners or near Us, who was really responsible for all the methods and the recipe for the
original Jack Daniel's whiskey. And I never knew that.
I think I saw that somewhere. I think I saw an article about that, and I was like.
Yeah, Black Enterprise did another story yesterday on it. That's where I read it, and then I was like, wait, they said it happened last year. So this came out last year and the Telegraph, of all places, look at Britain calling out Colena. How America has whitewashed its own history. But yeah, and this guy's descendants have been trying to get him more credit for the actual recipe and all that,
but you know, just kind of reminds you. And I mean this was also in the year that you know, Hidden Figures came out, and you just realize there are these like huge moments in history, these huge things that were accomplished, and all these nameless people, these nameles African Americans who don't get credit or didn't get credit. So I just wanted to give a shout out to uncle near. Yeah n e A R I s.
Although I don't partake in the drink, I know, but you know, no, that's awesome.
Actually, that's funny story. Jack Daniels is like my everyone has like if you do drink, you you know, you have like your trigger liquor, the one it turns you into like a crazy person. That's my trigger liquor. Trigger trigger liquor. That's a dangerous combination of it sounds really terrible.
I was somebody I was wearing like a Detroit like sweatshirt.
It's just like sweating. I got so nervous.
Liquor.
Stop saying that exactly.
I don't like it.
Like it's like funny because it's like the same kind of like player on words and I was like, oh my god, you have a Detroit sweatshirt. And I said, girl, I love the d And then I realized and I said it like so loud, proud, and like I'm just gonna leave that.
We all have those moments. That's that's what she said, moment you.
Know, yes. And then meanwhile, there's some people who are like, I don't get it.
Is that once again, that's one of those You're innocent and we want to keep you that way, so we're not going to explain what that means.
Yeah, I don't know. I feel like our audience is on to us to get it.
But I I can't wait for the wins because I have an awesome win. But I'm gonna save it.
Okay, oh did you buy a house?
No? No, no, it's not me. It's an awesome win for somebody who like, I'm like, I'm so proud of that.
Oh okay, okay, good. I'm trying to I always do that. Someone's like I have a surprise that I'm like, immediately start trying to guess it until I ruin it. For my song. It's a cute little habit. So the biggest, one of the biggest things, well, two big things in women's news today, women's history. So one step backward is that Betsy de Vos was nominated to be the Department
of Education secretary. As a former teacher, Tiffany Leitch, how do you feel having a woman of her you know, lack of stature and experience.
That's charge because one thing you learn when you're a teacher is you learn how critical it is for the upper levels of you know, of people who are in education and creating policy, how critical it is is they have at least taught because there's no substitute for that.
Like there's certain things that you cannot learn without being in the classroom because you're like, oh, for example, I'm working on you know, like that that literacy bill was my friend who's an Assembly women Assembly Women, Angela v. McKnight, Right, So we're working on this financial literacy bill for elementary and middle school students that they make it mandatory to teach financial education in the lower grades. They already have
a law in place for high school. So I met with the Education Committee in New Jersey and the women were like adamant, like they were kind of like pushing against this potential law. And Angela asked if I would come and sit with them and talk with them, and so I did. And this is the pushback. It was like, the educational day is already two packed, and me, being
a teacher of ten years, totally got it. And I explained to them, I know what that looked like to have a new you know, some sort of new mandate and then having to fit it where, when, and so what I was explaining is that the way I wanted the law to be phraised was not that you had to set aside time in the day for its financial literacy time. Instead was to give teachers the tools to teach to incorporate it. And they're already packed day. So
instead you already have library time. Why can't there be at least three or four books in your library area that deal with money. You're already doing counting. Why can't you know that sometimes some of your counting activities include you counting up money. So that nuance of like, because it's so easy for somebody to say, hey, add this new thing to your classroom.
It's good for the kids, But as a teacher, you're.
Like why and how and so if you don't get that, if you don't understand what it's really like to implement these like laws and mandates, because ultimately the teacher has to be the one to implement those things, and she doesn't have that nuance understanding. And so it's really frustrating because you know, she's going to make laws and or make changes based upon something that she has no idea how that's going to affect the day to day learning of a child, you know, and you can see the difference,
like you know, so it's just really frustrating. But I did get a giggle out of her trying to visit a public school and then.
Running her out. Here's a video. I will send it to you so maybe we can share it.
In they like protest, there's one guy. Your kids are the wokest of the woke. On another level, I feel like I slept through middle school. These kids are like mm hmmms, Betsy, we see you, we know who you are and have you.
But it wasn't the kids.
It was like I guess some like protests or so like parents or whatever, and this guy told and he's.
Screaming shame, shame, shame.
So that's been like that's been like my hashtag with my friends, like shame, shame, And so he's like basically telling her our schools are not for sale.
She looks so uncomfortable. They usher her to the car.
You know, he doesn't touch her anything, but he's very clear and vocal. But yeah, I'll share the video because I definitely got a snicker. Like you thought it was gonna be easy. She was like, you cannot buy our schools.
Shame, sham, shame. That's a good title for the podcast today.
Shame, shame, shame. I don't know, I feel like that my term people.
Away, like what's happening.
This is the Catholic edition of Today's past exactly ten million hail marries for everybody. So the other half of this was so Betsy Devas was, you know, after a highly contested confirmation hearing, finally she was approved. She's in it where you know, it sucks, but it's over. But during the course of the week, Elizabeth Warren had a moment for her. You know, I feel like she's like
launching her twenty twenty campaign already. But Miss Lizzie Warren on the floor of the Senate was trying to read the letter from Credit Scott King criticizing Jeff sessions from back in the eighties. Credit Scott King wrote this letter and while she was reading it, apparently there's some like old rule on the Senate floor that you're not able to disparage actual lawmakers like your your senate brethren or whatever, and they invoke that and kicked her off the floor.
But there's you know what they say about when you ban a book or when you ban something like there's you're not by banning it, You're only ensuring that everyone is going to read it, like way more people are going to hear it or read it than ever before. And of course, what did miss Lizzie Warren do. I love her, She's my spirit animal. And those purple pants suits, I love it. She went outside and proceeded to read the letter on Facebook Live and got like over two
million views, and it was all over the news. She's got her own hashtag.
Now, let's Lizzie speak, Let Lizzie speak, Let Liz speak.
But then and hashtag, she persisted, it's everywhere. I mean, it's gone viral. She's still I got an email from her campaign like this happened on a Tuesday. By Thursday morning, I had an email saying you can buy your she persisted t shirts on Elizabeth Warren got I was like, all right, all right, all right, I mean, you know, goes toward her campaign or whatever, but uh yeah, I just so shout out to Elizabeth Warren and I feel like her voice, you know, was absolutely heard in the end.
And who was it that Chuck Schumer came in behind her and he was able to read the whole thing? You know what I do? You know, hearing that, I just have to say, I feel a little weird hearing about the the protesting. Well, the way you know, Elizabeth Warren was treated was sort of people were saying, you
know what, they had done that to a man. Because then Chuck Schumer came right behind her and read his letter and then to hear the I mean, I know that Betsy da Voss is like completely unexperienced for this office and all that kind of thing, But I wonder if the same sort of visceral reaction would be happening if it were a guy. I mean, I don't think Jeff Sessions is getting run out of you know where if he goes near a police precinct or I don't know, you know what I mean. I and when you said
the shame, shame, shame. That made me think of Game of Thrones when you know, as a nerd Game of Thrones, there's a central scene that's like famous and the queen is being shamed by this church who has all this power, and she's forced walk naked through the town and as she walks, they yell. This nun is yelling shame, shame, shame at her the whole way down, and it was sort of seen as like a and she's you know in jail, in church jail, which used to be a thing,
I guess, wow, for committing adultery. So it's it's it's just fascinating. I mean, yes, there's reasons to completely you know, not want her anywhere near our public schools and our you know, higher education. But I don't know, I just I'm trying to like step take a step back and listen to how how people are criticizing and how they're sort of treating people, you know, as Voldemort is fleshing out his cabinet, I mean I think she's like the only woman.
Right, Yeah, well yeah, I think so.
I can't think of any other women in his cabinet. I mean, so, uh, it's just it's it's it's interesting, and I'll just I'll just leave it there at dot dot dot.
I will I'll give you some update about my I told you a little earlier we had some update about.
My house search done.
So I've learned so much about this process. I meant, what so you know?
So one, for those of you who know Superman and I, I wanted to buy a house.
You know, we just recently were engaged.
But one of the reasons why I wanted to get a house, it's because when when we first started dating, you know.
I knew I wanted to purchase a house.
I had one before when I was like in my twenties and lost it to a foreclosure, and I wanted to do it right the second time around.
And as we started to get more serious, I realized, Huh, if.
We purchased the house in the right way, I can really and we can really position Superman, my fiance to to to really start a business.
And so he works for the city where we live in Newark, for the.
Housing Authority, and one of the things he does is that he flips properties and stuff for them. It's like knows how to fix everything. So I thought, well, why don't we get multi family house since literally this is what you do for a living. And he was like, I don't want to be a landlord.
And it took like a year and a half, but finally I was like, you are a landlord. You are a landlord.
You're a landlord of three hundred units, so what's you know, like you're doing it? And so I'm like, but you know, and so we did the math and it wasn't until we did the math that we saw that after basically three multi family houses, it well exceeded what he made as as working for the city. And so not going to say that he would quit, but at least that was an option for if I decide that I no
longer want to work for the city. Once we get three properties, you know, I've more than matched my income. So that was like my dream because I, you know, I travel a lot, and sometimes he wants to go and can't get off work and he wants to kind of go back to school, but you know, he's raising his.
Daughter, so he doesn't have as much time.
So we've been looking for multi family properties and we wanted to live in Newark because Newark is really starting to yeah, pop honestly, Like you know, they talk about places starting to transform, and they've been talking about Newark is coming for years.
But it's fine. You should have heard.
I went to a baby yesterday and all the way out in Long Island and those crowd of people were talking about Newark. So you watch out.
I know, honestly, it's Mandy.
It's like scary, like scary, but exciting. I mean if yeah, there's so many first of all, one like you know, the they it's almost basically here. They have these new apartments downtown Newark for a one bedroom Mandy twenty two.
Hundred dollars, what Newark, New Jersey twenty two hundred dollars for a one bedroom.
It's crazy because Newark has already has two trains that go directly to New York City. They're building a third, so you're gonna have three trains directly to the city. And I can literally from Newark get to Midtown faster than somebody from Brooklyn can. And then Newark has an international airport that flies everywhere in the world, so it's already and then it's right next to a port. It's it's the position of Newark is already perfectly positioned it
just the infrastructure was there but not being utilized. And so now they're starting to clean up the neighborhoods. And there's one neighborhood in particular that I particularly like. It's a Weekway section of Newark. It's very family focused, so everybody there has lived there for like I lived here twenty years, I lived to ten years during the riots.
Is one of the few neighborhoods that did not fall victims to the riots.
So the houses are beautiful, like nineteen thirty, nineteen nineteen, and I love those kind of like old houses, and many of them have been renovated. So we've been looking, but it's been discouraging because a lot of the houses have not been kept up.
So you might find a house for eighty.
Thousand dollars and you're like, well, I don't know that we have the skill set yet to renovate at this level. Or you see a house for like two fifty or two seventy and you're like really, like the floor is pulled up, like is it even worth this?
So we finally found the house this weekend, whoo whoo. So Mandy, it is perfect. I cannot wait for to have you a fiance bou to come.
Is it a house? Are you doing? Are you doing?
Like the multifamily, it's a multi family, and so this is what's so great about it.
It's three units. It's in my beloved Weekway section where I want to live. It's two blocks from the park. Weekway is famous for the Weekway Park.
It's a beautiful park, and they're even renovated even that, but it's already a beautiful park with a big lake in the middle. So it's super close to the airport. It's three family. Two of the units are already rented. Unit one is renting for one thousand dollars a month. The unit two is rerunning for fifteen hundred, so twenty
five hundred. This is already making. So we did the I spoke to my mortgage guy a couple of days ago and I said, you know, how much would the mortgage be for this house if we put fah loan thirty year, two percent down, current interest rate, our mortgage would be two thousand dollars a.
Month if we lived there.
And so so rent is already making twenty five hundred. Our mortgage is two thousand so one we live rent free and two we make five hundred dollars a month.
Woo.
And what makes the house so great is that, like online, I didn't even want to go see it because my realtor was like, let's go see it, but I said no, it says there's only five bedrooms total in the three family house. So I'm like, five bedrooms is not enough. That's just two bedrooms for a unit and one bedroom in the unit in the attic. She said, let's still go see it. So she tricked me and made me go, I don't know who wrote the listing. It's not five
bedrooms total. One unit is five bedrooms. Fandy, five bedrooms in one unit, and beautiful horns were forced through it, I know. So I walk in and I'm like, wait, this place is huge. And then we go and I'm like, oh, so here's one bedroom in the front. That's weird, but there's another bedroom here, and then this bedroom has an office off of it, and then there's three in the.
Back and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
So one and a half as five bedrooms in office open concept, but it's still it was built in nineteen thirty, so it has my charm. So if that wasn't good enough. The price of the house is actually like, so, well, so what place. It's a two hundred and thirty nine thousand for a three bedroom, three family that's nothing. And then we went go to the back and I said, well, let's see the backyard. And I was like, oh, there's a cute little garden kind of space. I said, oh,
there's not much of a backyard, but okay. And then behind the backyard there's this little like park and I was like, oh, this is cute. It had like a little slide and I'm like, oh, this is like you know, it looks like a slide that somebody bought, like for their kid. And I'm like, this park is cute, but it seems weird that there's a park behind the houses because how would anybody reach it?
Like how did they get to this park? So she's looking at the listing and she's.
Like, wait, I don't think that's a park. I think that's that's part of the property. You have a double lot. Mandy almost peed my pants. We have a park, like literally it's all fenced in, like it's we have a park. We have our own park. So like if we have kids, if we don't want to go to the park, you know up the street. Like here you go in the backyard, and the neighbor of the next door neighborhood she came out. It was funny because a superman actually knew her. They were old coworkers.
And I asked her and I said, this piece in the back is that all?
She said, yeah, she said if you look next door where she lives, she's got a double lot too.
She said, see all of this back here, she's got her own park. And I was like, are you.
Giving up parks to people in Newark?
I couldn't believe a double lot. It's basically a quarter of an acre, that's how big this property is. What Meanwhile, Newark has notoriously low taxes, so like it's like half the taxes of the surrounding area. So this house is like you don't understand how I've been like, we saw the house yesterday.
Was it yesterday?
I believe yes today yep, and put an offer in already, and like so I've been calling, like I was like calling all of my like my team, my lawyer, my mortgage person.
I know they've been annoyed.
I'm like, I know it's Saturday. I know it's Sunday, but honestly, I need this property, Like where are we.
Going to find this? And so this is how God works. If you believe in him and I do, the good thing.
Is going well exactly. That's my that's my standard. Otherwise he ain't real. I don't want any angry emails. I'm fine.
So this is what this is what we found out.
So literally, the listing was just opened two days ago, so we saw it like on the second or third day of that. The listing was open and they're only showing the property on Saturdays from eleven to noon. So we went and for whatever reason, this was the first showing and the person on the third floor and on the second floor they weren't available, so we were only
able to see at first the first floor. And as we were leaving, the person I served for it happened to like, I guess, come home when we were leaving it, and he let us.
See his apartment. But everyone else that went to go see it.
Because one it's not saying five five bedrooms per unit, it's saying five bedrooms total. So a lot of people are not going because they're like that's too small. You know, So that's one and then two those who did go to see it and they're like, whoa, there's five bedrooms in this one unit I'm allowed to see.
They're waiting until next week to see the rest of the units.
We're like, we're not gonna wait because next week it's going to be like a bidding war. So I'm trying to lock it in. So we put in our offer. They basically kind of accepted it, and we're trying to push through attorney review, which is like the So what happens when you buy a house. You see it, you love it, You tell your your realtor, I want to make an offer. So even before that, you should have
your financing in place. So you find a bank that you want to work with, and they give you what's called a pre qualification letter, which basically the bank saying Tiffany's good, if she finds a house, we're going to give her money up to this amount of money. And typically the pre file pre free qualification letter you match it to the house. So if the house is two fifty, the bank will create a letter specifically for that house saying, yes, we'll give Tiffany too fifty and if we find a
different house. Yes, we'll give you money for up to two seventy nine whatever it is that your income and stuff will bear.
The bank will create a letter.
Specifically for whatever house you're interested in. So every time you see a house, you have to call your mortgage person if you're interested, for them to create a new letter. Meanwhile, this is Saturday. I text David, I emailed him, I called him. He got my letter within ten minutes. I send it to the mortgage person. She said it to them. She said it to the buyer's agent and they were like, okay, you know, like you know, it's full.
It's a full offer.
So you know, the next step really is my attorney tomorrow is going to review and submit to say you know that yes Tiffany will Superman will buy this house pending there's no lead, there's no you know, just basic things that you want to put inside the letter. And so if they accept that and woo who on you. Once you exit attorney review, they can't take in any offers.
So right now we're in a very iffy place because they can still take offers, but not too many people wanted to make an offer because they didn't get to see the rest of the house. They're waiting until next week. So if we can lock this up before Friday, it's our house. So that's like, I know, I feel like it's.
Like like who wants to be a millionaire?
And I'm like, e so like, which is crazy because tomorrow I go take the reel on Tuesday, and so I'm like, gonna be on a plane for six hours.
So I'm like, so many gets, so many things can happen in six hours.
You know, it's Wi Fi on planes, I know.
So I'm like, I'm buying it for the first time.
My cheek behind is gonna get it, and so yeah, so now we're just I'm just waiting to see what the other side would say. And so it's such such a great learning lesson my My realtor came to me today. She knows I really want it, and she said, Okay, here's what could possibly happen. Somebody could say, Okay, instead of two thirty nine the asking price, we'll give you two forty two. So she said, what what you can
do to combat that? Is say, she said, you can add an addendum to your offer, and the offer would say if somebody comes to you with a higher price, we will exceed it by one thousand dollars automatically up to this amount. So today, that's what I have to decide tonight before we got on and take.
Doesn't that make them want to get another? Like, doesn't that make them want to start a bedding more a little bit?
Well, they're risthic there is. So that's the risk. The good thing is is that they can't. They can't say, hey, we got to all.
They have to show us the other person's offer, like someone has to come and say yes, and they have to show us the official offer to say this person actually put in for two forty five. So I my task was to go to my mortgage guid and I felt so bad. It was like Sunday night. So I was like, hey, David, so the house is two thirty nine right now, and that means our mortgage is two
thousand right now. The house is making twenty five hundred dollars a month at the very least, we want to break even, no, no, no money out of our pocket every month? How much house can we buy up to twenty five hundred? And he was like, honestly, the house is two thirty nine at if the house was to seventy, your mortgage would be twenty.
Two hundred a month, And I said, oh, I was actually surprised. I didn't know you could go that high.
So I said, okay, so that's our new MAX said, So I gave Adrian permission that up to two seventy she can that Adria my agent, Diana, I gave her permission that up to two seventy we can match and exceed one hundred dollars by someone else's bid, because what that does is automatically they have to go with us. Like, so basically, I want this house because it's worth it, because it's already below market. Honestly, Mandy, when I looked online to get tell anybody I know, I just like, well,
they don't know where it is. But like, when I looked online, the house, according to Zillo and Trulia, is worth about three hundred and fourteen thousand dollars. So already, even if we get it for two seventy, it's still built in equity. So I'm like, I'm willing to pay up to two seventy, you know, and still we still would not Instead of making five hundred dollars a month, we would make three hundred because our mortgage would be twenty two and our income would be twenty five and
we would live rent free. So either way it's a win win win. So y'all stay a prayer that by the time we come live, I'm like, I got a house, y'all, we make him money. And you know from the air, this is the beginning stept for Superman to get the next one and the next one and the next one and hopefully turned this into a business for himself so he can have more time freedom.
And that's the idea for like any repairs and stuff that is Superman like, is that the plan that he'll be able to handle whatever if it needs work or whatever exactly.
So that's the benefit too, that anything next level that he doesn't know how to do because he works in that industry. He's got a guy, you know, so he's always like all my friends call him, like, he's the guy that my friends call when they're like, does Superman know.
Somebody for you know, next level plumbing?
He knows a guy. And so that's what makes me very comfortable because people don't want to be landlords because they worry about that piece. And that's the piece for us. That's already taken care of.
Here's my technical question. How are you guys doing the mortgage? Are you both on it or is one of you on it? How are you discussing?
So because I had a foreclosure, I think this is the year my foreclosure falls off, So technically I can't qualify for a mortgage. So what I did when I first started dating him. You know how women were always planning in events like we're getting married.
You just don't know it yet. I know, I just met you.
So when I first met him, within the first six months, I taught him how to raise his credit score from like a six twenty to a seven fifty, which is excellent. And then I showed him how to automatically save, so his paycheck that he gets gets split in like three or four ways. Money goes into his daughter's college fund, money goes into like a savings account for him, and now money goes into what's our joint joint savings account for the house. And so he's been saving, saving and saving,
and so so his credit is good. He's worked at his job for like sixteen years. He makes you know, enough, and he's got the money saved that he's been saving for three years. So it's really this this his name will go on and he can add me to the deed, but I can't go on.
Financially, I can't go on. And so what we did was we looked around.
So if you're brown, which you know brown ambition, there's a bank called M and T Bank that around.
Are they only Are they only in this region?
I don't know, Honestly, you should google to see because M and T Bank the government is forcing them because they they they participated in some discriminatory practices against Latino and people are black people, and as a result, the government is forcing them to give money to us. So M ANDT Bank is going to give us money. I know they're gonna give us money up to six percent
of the loan amount. So it's about we're gonna get about fourteen thousand dollars from M ANDT Bank of just money toward the house, so you can put it toward the down payment, you can put it toward closing costs, whatever it is. Six percent of the maxim they'll give you about nineteen thousand dollars in total. And so that's why we decided to get our mortgage through them. So we can get that free money. Basically you have to.
The only caveat is with MT Bank as long as it's in your area, is that you have to live in an area where it's over fifty percent people of color.
Check that box anywork? Pretty sure?
Yeah, basically, I'm exactly because I know so imagine all of this, and even though like our down payment because we're doing a three point five percent down payment because it's an fah loan, it's like a little over eight thousand dollars, but honestly, technically nothing out of pocket because as far as the down payment, I don't know how
much closing costs will be. I'll let you guys know how much they end up being, but we might only end up coming out of pocket for all of this, like maybe a couple of thousand dollars to have a house and not having to pay a mortgage. Isn't that crazy?
That is especially since like this has been like a roller coaster for me, just as listeners, because like two weeks ago, you're like, I'm not getting an incompaverity anymore.
It's hard, no, but it's been such a roller coaster. That's so I'm glad that I'm.
Sharing I am cautiously optimistic. Yeahsing my fingers. I hope it all works out. It sounds amazing.
Yeah, so I guess you know they're selling it.
Who knows how much money they put into it, but obviously they're probably gonna make honestly, probably one hundred thousand dollars on this house.
Okay, Okay, interesting, Okay, I have a thousand more questions, but yeah, so right up next, because I just well, well, I'll ask the big question is what kind of rate did he qualify for if you don't mind sharing? And have you locked in the rate and how that kind of all works because people always want to know when you lost in the rate.
So the rate doesn't get locked in until the offer is fully accepted, meaning like you, so once you leave attorney review, So when you make an offer, they can accept it, but it doesn't mean they can't accept other offers.
So what happens is.
You make an offer, they say, Okay, this seems cool.
Then their attorney and your attorney basically go back and forth, and my attorney might say, well, we want to put a clause in there that says that there's lead pain, y'all got to pay for this and we want to put a clause in there it says it has to be a legal three family, because what if it's not, and then I can't run out the top space legally, So my attorney will want all these clauses, or like if the if the inspection comes back and there's you know, like there I don't know, you know, an oil.
Tank in the ground that needs to be removed.
So she's gonna put all these clauses and their attorney is going to go They're gonna go back and forth. We're basically that's attorneys reviewing the contract back and forth once they come to an agreement and both sides say, yes, we like what this legal agreement is saying about the contingencies about buying this house. Once you leave attorney review, you are officially in contract and you can lock in that rate. So our rate is about four percent right now.
This is what the this is what the standard rate is like. This is the lowest rate right now anyway that you can get if you have excellent credit and excellent it is seven forty or above. So it's about four percent. But the rates are only going up, so literally it's four percent today. We might lock it it might be four point two so right now, but we're yeah,
we're not locked into a rate right now. Until you have an official contract and you're locked in I think for about like thirty days or I'll find that exactly how long you lock in your rate. But yeah, right now,
our rate is not locked in. So it's like yay, It's like pins and needles because you're like, well, what if Because in this moment, right now, until we leave attorney review, anybody can make a offer, gotcha, And so we're just like somebody can come and say we want to pay two fifty that's why we put the adendem in today. Well up till two seventy we're willing to
pay two fifty one to fifty two. It's like you know, and so, I mean, I have a good feeling about it because now that we're adding this addendum.
It sounds like perfect. It sounds like if it doesn't work out, then there probably isn't a God.
I feel, yeah, God, God, Mandy said that I did it.
I'm feeling really really heathen is today. So I want to say one thing real quick. I want to back up because I love one thing that you did, which is exactly what we did. We were shopping for an apartment. Even is you kind of work the opposite of most people when they buy a house or look for an apartment or whatever. It's like, oh, what's the most I can get for, Like, how what's the biggest loan? And then I'll shop backwards from there. But you you were like,
here's what I can afford. How much of a mortgage can I get to where I can still afford my monthly payments? And I think a lot of people don't do that, and it's especially important now because you know, to kind of bring it back to Lord Voldemort's salary. But everyone sort of I mean, you may not know what Dodd Frank is, but people are talking about how Trump wants to roll back Dodd Frank legislation, and just to do like a quick explainer on what that is.
So Dodd Frank regulations went into effect after the recession, after the subprime mortgage lending crisis, and you know, millions of homeowners lost their houses and were underwater on their houses.
It was a big mess because banks at the time were lending all willy nilly to people, giving people huge mortgages they could never afford and lying about the people's income or leaving their income blank on their mortgage applications, and it was the bank's fault, but it was also like five percent the person's fault for like, you know, believing that they could afford this crazy house. And so I think it's really important now as Trump plans to roll back these legislations on banks that made it a
lot tougher. Basically what Dodd Frank did it created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is an agency that's cracked down on tons of financial businesses, from mortgage lenders to payday loans to prepaid debit cards. They created the CFPB, and it also made it a lot harder for like
banks to make easy, easy mortgage loans to people. Okay, So I feel like it's really important for people now, like if if they do roll back these regulations, all like the sort of the kiddie wheels are coming off again and it's going to be a lot easier, I think, for people to get sold huge mortgages they can afford.
So it's it's even more important to like go in there and know know your numbers, and like don't listen to what the bank person says, because it's the interest to sell you the most faddest loan possible for the longest term, you know, with the highest highest interest rate.
So I just want to say that real quick, and shopping for a good rate and and knowing what you can afford, all that's really important because you don't you can't trust that the bank officer is going to be, you know, looking out for your best interests, because how often are they?
Honestly, So take a first time home boyers class. Honestly, that to me, that was when I bought my first day.
It was really helpful.
Like even though I took one before and I bought a property before, there was so much new stuff. Mandy, Honestly, I'm like, I don't remember this, you know. So taking a first time home buyers class would be also really helpful because there's so many nuances that you're like, so what happens next? And having a team if I knowing what I know now. One, take a for first time home buyers class. Make sure you have your budget tight. You've already been working on your credit and your savings plan.
This is all before even searching.
And then two having your team in place, like a really great realtor that comes highly recommended. I had a real tlor. At first, she wasn't that great. She was nice, but wasn't that great.
And then so I got I got recommendations from her, from people knew had just purchased a house, even my lawyer.
Last night, I was gonna.
Go with the lawyer that I used for my first house ten years ago, and I left him a message.
I called, but you know it's Sunday. It's Saturday.
So I called my friend who was an actual lawyer, and I said, hey, Mikaela, you just bought a house. I know you're not a real estate lawyer, but who did you use? Because who better than tell you who's a good lawyer than a lawyer? And she told me, oh, I use a friend of mine Sharing, she's a real estate lawyer. I called Sharon. Ten minutes after that, Sharon picked up. I've been on the phone with Shared four times over this weekend. And you want a great team.
So you want your real estate agent, you want a great lawyer. You're gonna want a really great inspection person. So these are people that have to be on your team. And what you don't want is they all are working with each other, like meaning like I don't want my real estate agent to tell me what lawyer. No, I want to find my own. They should all be working for you, not for each other. So you're you're a real estate lawyer, should not be the person that you're
your inspector suggested to you. They should be separate entities, so you know, so that way you know that, not to say that the people are going to be in cahoots, but just to kind of protect yourself against that. But yeah, some of the team members are that A mortgage person that's very responsive. You know my mortgage person, I mean he's off and then Monday he has off. But I've been texting David all night and he's been on it, sending me my pre qualification letter when I needed it.
So that's you know, that's going to be critical. Or do these people move for you? Because if not, if David waited till Tuesday, the house might be gone then what And so yeah, so that I mean I think that if you guys have any house, I feel like we did we did Today's tips through this, but if you guys have any questions, you know, and I can't wait to kind of share I feel like I really we need to do like a really good like blog post about this, right Mandy, Like about like the steps.
I don't know if it's different in other states, but about really buying a home, especially if you want to buy a home slash investment property.
I don't. Yeah, I think it's really important because I don't think a lot of people realize that the mortgage the home buying process starts before you even go home shopping, Like it starts for months and months and months in advance. It starts, like what you said with Superman. It starts with the work of preparing yourself and building your credit and making sure that you're not doing a lot of that, like a lot of the things that are like red flags when you're being like picked apart by a lending
like a mortgage financing company, a bank whatever. You know, Hey, you went really ham at the store over Christmas and you know, well, it's credit card debt, you know, and I approve you. Or hey, you lost your job or you just started a new job in the last three months, you know, you look like risky. Like people don't know all the different things that they can do to kind of like cause bumps in the road, so it's like
you have to prepare early. And yeah, if if you guys have homeowners questions buying a house, whatever, you can send those two go to Brown Ambition Podcast dot com ask us anything to leave us a question there or email us at Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com. And yeah, maybe we can put something together for people just based.
On I think we do, like maybe like a checklist of like the steps of home buying or something like that.
I think that would be great if people are just interested. I mean, how many people watch HGTV like they don't know, but I feel like I'm an expert. I'm like, how much do you have left for your renovations and repairs on the but you know, and maybe it's just like a list of free home first time home buyers classes resources I took. I took a seminary and I took the the Tanya rape leays or it. It was good.
I think I talked about we went sometime earlier this year or sorry last year now, and I you know, we were nowhere close to buying a house, but it was still really educational. And there's a free pdf like an ebook that the loan officer who works from the largest lending companies in the US call Guaranteed Rate. He actually just wrote and like a free ebook. I might
just post that online. It's an excellent like primer on just the mortgage process and this like exactly like I said, the things you can do to delay the mortgage process, the things you should do to make sure it's a smooth process. Like I read that, you know, in like I gobbled it up because it was really interesting. It's like all these insider experiences from the right, from the source, like a mortgage loan officer who's right there in like
the trenches with everyone all the time. So maybe I'll post that and then if you guys have any questions, send him in and who knows, maybe I'll get that guy to come on sometime. That'll be awesome some tips, but then just learning from your experience too. It's really interesting because you're right in it, in it it's okay, all right, good vibes, everyone said, tifany good vibes.
Yes, So now it is time for brown break, brown boost. What you're gonna do. What you're gonna do brown break or boost?
Nice?
I like it, I know, I was like, oh, I was like in my mind.
I was like, oh, what am I gonna say? I don't know, and it came out just but goodie.
Yeah, you know, it came out good. So are you gonna are you gonna break? Are you gonna boost?
I want to take a boost today? Well, I want to answer if someone had asked me on one of the social media channels, what was the name of the money app that I gave a boost to a while ago? And it was called Level Money L L e V as in Victory E L Money. And that's the app that I use day to day. And it's it's cool
because you don't really think about it. It just tells you every day you have seventy five dollars left to spend today if you want to stay on budget, you know, and if you spend eighty, then it takes five from tomorrow's budget and on and on. So Level Money and Today's Boost I wanted to. I start thinking of sort of what my favorite bank products are, and I just thought, men, I haven't even like really given a shout out to the fact that I love my savings account bank, my
Ally savings account. Yes, I know we both use Ally. You're a fan of Alley but we haven't given them a shout out.
There Bay and they are Bay all.
And then also I'll give a shout out to my former Bay. Capital one three sixty ally just narrowly beats Capital one three sixty. They're both great. But our online banks are just huge. I mean, I don't know why more people don't know about them. It can be I guess a little nerve wracking or not nerve wracking, but just it's just different to think, Okay, I don't have a bank branch to walk into, there's no person behind the count or my dad would never like do it.
All he called me was watterday. He was waiting in line at the bank and I'm like, to do what posits some money? There's an ATM right outside. He's like, I don't know, my friend brand is working today. I want to say, yeah they do that? What are the DA does love Brenda? I'm like, yeah, I still no Brenda and say hi, but you know, you know, getting any interest? I digress so online banks. So the biggest
reasons why I love online banks. Online banks means no bank branches, no bank people, lower overhead costs, and that means less fees tacked on to their products because a lot of the reason that bank, like big bank fees, Bank of America, all the big banks are so freaking high. Like they charge you for a minimum balance, they charge you for maintenance, they charge you for I mean, I had to pay for a cashier's check, like to get my own money, you know what I mean? The other
day eight dollars at Chase is nuts. The reason they do that is because your overhead costs are so freaking high. So I love online banks. They have very low fees. They often reimburse you for ATM fees, and if they don't reimburse you, they have they have a you know, free fees up to a certain dollar amount. No monthly maintenance fees to worry about. Uh. And on top of that, they actually earn you something on your money. So ally is one percent on their savings accounts, and I don't
forget what the checking account interest rate is. I actually don't have a checking account with them. And Capital one through sixties point seventy five percent and like that may not sound like a lot, but my Bank of America, my old, good old Bank of America savings and checking account was like point zero one point zero one percent interest which was like maybe two pennies like a year from them, which is Pray Cray Gray. So that's my
shout out. Ally, Bank Capital one through sixties are good ones and just you know, Magnify Money on give another shout out to them. If you want to just shop around for a better savings of checking account. It's not that hard. People don't people like people wait forever to
change their banks. It's crazy, like they it's it seems like a lot of work, but it's it's really not that hard to transfer banks and to get out of a bad bank and get to a bank that actually earns you some money and treats you better and doesn't charge you so many fees. A good place to start I love Magnified Money is Savings Account Comparison Page because
we just lay everything out every single bank. We look at them and we rank them based on their interest rates and their fees and also how transparent they are about their fees, which kind of like sets our page a part of the thing from other ones out there. So if you if you want to shop around, you're interested, you're curious, you can you can definitely start there. But I don't know if you're not banking online. I don't know what you're doing with your life.
I want to give a shout out too, I'm gonna see I don't know, just like team like, the last few weeks have just really showed me how important it is to happen like an awesome dope team around you, you know, because sometimes there's just so many things floating, so many things happening, it's hard to keep up with things. But I have an awesome, awesome, awesome team, and I'm recognizing that it's not just like the team for the Budgetista.
It's like my life team Superman is part of the team Supergirl, my sisters, just having like such a great support system. And so that's my brown Boost. I'm feeling in a great mood. I'm not trying to put any wie down and rides out there because I want this Dagon house.
I want to park in my backyard. I want my park.
What I'm already like want to put a hammock right here. So yeah, so that's my That's why brown boost is just the teamwork.
Makes the drig work. We will indeed, So now it's time for wind.
I feel like you're moving us along. I know you're about to pack and go to California.
Move this train along.
Yes, I cannot wait to go. But I'm like, yes, I gotta get up at like four am. So I'm like, oh, I'm not looking forward to it.
So yeah, so Wins, I can guess what you're I just thought. I So we've had her on as a win before, we actually had it on as a guest. Love the a j.
My Win is so epic for her, so lovey. I'm like, we didn't talk about this last week, didn't. No, this is new, this is new and so awesome. It's like beyond awesome. I'm like, I can't even believe it's happening. So, for those of you who don't know Love, we had her on before. She's amazing. She's funny, she's smart. She is the personification of black girl magic. And what I love so much about Love is that it's not just
that she's just really dope. She's actually so nice, Like she's always looking out for you, like she'll hit me up if she sees an opportunity, or like she's just a really dope nice person. And you know when even from first meeting her in person and her not knowing me.
She wasn't one of those who are you again? Are you important?
Not that kind of person at all. And so love has a New York Times bestseller, be clear, It's called I Am Judging You. She shared it with us on a podcast and as if it wasn't cool enough that her first book was a New York Times bestseller and you know, did really well.
Accolades genuinely funny.
Yes, accolades on top of accolades. I mean, every celebrity you could think of holding that I Am Judging You book. Shanda aka call me Miss Rhymes has brought the rights
to Lovey's book Are You Kidding Me? And it's going to make a comedy series, like if It's unbelievable because one Lovey first was connected with Shanda because Lovey used to do at least a live tweet Shonda shows, and so that was like her so just to see that, and like at twenty twelve, love used to tweet like one day you gonna see me?
She always wanted to.
She just told me like personally and like and chatting like when I saw her person once.
You know, I'd love to be a TV writer. I can see that. I love to write, I'm a writer. This is what I love to do.
And she shared some tweets from like three or four years ago, even earlier than that, like twenty twelve where she says, you know, one day you're gonna see my name name in the credits. And to have Shonda the coin of TV. Let's be clear, Shonda Rhyme Hymes is the dictator of TV right. She owns Thursday Night, she owns Your Soul on Thursday. And to have her developed Lovey's book, I am judging you into a comedy series. I don't even know how love is able to to just stand I mean, like.
Just how how can you stand it?
She said the other day. And I thought it was so cute. She was like, honestly, it feels so surreal. I'm feeling like I'm watching a good ass movie on somebody else's life, and I'm like, yo, this movie is good as hell. Yeah, she's it doesn't feel real. And what I love And someone said, because I had posted about it, someone was like, what excites them? Almost as much as the fact that Lovey is Doue has this deal with Shanda is the number of women of color
that have posted about it. And shared it because love and I said, it's a testament to her character because she's so awesome. I am so genuinely excited for it, like it's me. When I read it, I was like, are you kidding, Like I'm telling him, like Superman like, yo, so Lovey because he knows Lovey and he was like what, So we're all excited. It's not even me, but yeah, so that is the win on wins on wins, and
I'm just really proud of her. And what I love is that Lovey is using this opportunity to also teach us along the way. She's face book the other day that although that this is a huge deal, people think that that means she's rolling in the dough. And she's like, you know, I want to share the good, the bad, the ugly of this whole process. And she said, can I buy some more Oxford shoes and some more Blazers? Yes, am I super rich? Now No, that that's not how
it works. That the more money you make, the more people you have to hire, the more money you have to spend. And she's just like, I love the fact that she's showing the other side of this. So yeah, she's just awesome, and so I'm proud of her.
Oh that makes me so happy because especially for kids out there, just anyone who's like a writer or whatever, it sounds all glamorous.
You know.
Cheryl Strade wrote an amazing or it was an amazing excerpt from her she's the author of Wild and like she's like super famous, and she wrote like the real story of what it's like to be an author and how the book advances work. And so I think that's it's great to tell the other side of the story.
And like TV business is rough, like because a while back, Issa Ray, before she did the HBO show Shonda, Shonda and her team had bought the rights to Issa's book and we're going to not her book, but she they were gonna work with Asa Ryan developing a series, and then that didn't work out. I don't think ABC was like down for it or whatever, and she had to bunce back and came back with HBO. But it's rough out there. But I feel like Levy Levey's star is
like this rising. I mean it's like up in the skies in the universe is in a different like, yeah, it's in a different stratosphere right now. And it's really exciting for her and just Shonda, I feel like Shonda and and and it reminds you like Ava Duverne. But these are women who were like reaching back and lifting people up behind them, which is which you know you don't really get to see a lot of. And it's just like, and here's why we need more women in power police.
Yeah.
Yeah, so they can look behind them and see who who needs to catch up and give them that leg up. And oh, it's exciting. I can't wait. Yeah, right, so we need to have back on the show then, right to tell us when in details and like what's the story going to be? Like what is she going to be in it? Who's who's playing her?
Right?
Oh?
Who would you get to play her?
I don't know? And I'm like, how is it really gonna go?
It's known actress, Like I think that she needs an original, like someone new.
But I wonder if it's like because because I am judging you, really isn't like a story of Lovey's life necessarily, so like it's it gonna be like a collection of different story It's gonna be like skits like who knows, I'm.
Just who Chad? But yeah, We definitely have to have her back on again for sure.
Okay, you work on that.
She gets to hint, do it. I'm like, anyway maybe.
And with Lovey No, it's amazing. Hey, I'm gonna tach him off that way, and I can't think of anything better than none.
Right, it's awesome.