Hey, hey, hey, it's me Tiffany the budgeinistall.
Hey, guys, it's Mandy Hope. Everyone's having a nice post Fourth of July.
Back at work if you're working.
And not on vacation somewhere, all right, tell me about Essence Fest. I can't wait to hear all about it.
Oh my goodness, so many people gave me double hugs, one for me and one for you.
And although I did want to take pictures, but I mean I took a few, but honestly, it was it was just so packed. Somebody literally just posted on Instagram the perfect description of Essence Fest.
It was. They said Essence Fest both too much and not enough.
There were so many pe boom they said that the numbers almost doubled everyone even like so whenever you go to essence you know obviously you're taking like ubers. All the natives were like, yo, We've never in the history of all things New Orleans ever seen the crowds like this.
Wow, Like it was so.
Bad, Like I had to walk everywhere, like even though like typically like you know, they have like a car if you're speaking for a brand will pick you up and take you to the to the convention Center. No, it was just shorter to walk the half a mile. Can you imagine like full face sweating in New Orleans? Ea, like I'll just walk the half of the Yeah it was, Yeah, it was. But at the same time, you know, the food was still amazing. People were so great. There was
no major incident. It was just girls trip, you know.
The Queen Latifa effect.
Yeah, for real.
And but like other than that though, you know, essence Fest was was awesome.
I mean, Mary J.
Blige, that was my favorite day. I didn't I don't usually go to all the concerts. I usually pick one day to like kind of hang out, and I went Saturday and Mary like just she performed her heart out.
How is she?
Remember last year when you came back from Essence Fest and you were just like, man, I went to this session and act like Mary J. Blige spoke and everyone seems so depressed.
How is she?
He seems more speisty now, like she was just on stage like y'all already know what I'm going through, you know, all my business anyway, and I'm happy to be rid of him. But now he's trying to take me through all this other stuff. But that's Okay, so she's like, come out of the whole. My life is the worst too, you know what, You're not gonna steal my joy.
We were like, yes day, well, shout out to her for being so transparent about it.
Yeah, And it was just so funny because she was like, y'all know you know what, y'all know my business, so let's just do this. And she literally said that, and I was like, look at Mary, and so yeah, she seemed like in a better space, like definitely I'm going through it, but I'm I'm past the worst of it, like he's gone, you know. Yeah, so yeah, so, but honestly, it was just good times. I have to say, like,
you know, Normal is just an amazing city. The food is amazing, the people are so so so so so nice. There's so many things to do and see it Essen inspecially, you just can't even take.
It all in. Yeah, so you know, it's just amazing times.
What were some of you Did you get to go into any sessions or were you like all other stuff?
Yeah?
No, I didn't even Like last year, I think the major one I really wanted to go to, like I wanted to go see Oprah, you know, so because obviously, I mean it's Oprah. But no, because Thursday when we landed, Thursday's not I call it like the unofficial day. Friday I was like working most of the day, and Saturday I worked especially most of the day, and honestly, Sunday, my sisters and I just wanted to enjoy. So we just did the convention center. We went to eat the hotel.
We were saying in the restaurant in the hotel, it's called Old seventy seven. That's the name of the hotel. The chef won a James Beard Award, which is like huge, you know, and so we wanted to like try it, and so we just had like an eating day on Sunday. So no, no real like session other than the ones that I I, you know, was speaking.
At where your sister's just running around enjoying.
Yeah, well a lot this time, you know that my sister Tracy especially, she wanted to kind of come and see like what it looked like behind the scenes, so, you know, because you it's different, you know, and I can honestly I'm not. I have not gone to Essence Best where I wasn't a speaker, so she definitely said it was a different experience because last year they did a lot more kind of like touristy stuff and this year, you know, when you're a speaker.
They're like, go to this room, put on this mic. Are you ready? Go ahead?
He's just you know, so it's She's like, it was fun, but it's just a different experience.
So but they said they really enjoyed themselves.
What were some of the panels that you did, Like, what were what were some of the most interesting things people said on the panels you did well?
I did. Probably my favorite panel was for Ford on Saturday. I did.
They really have this big push for black women entrepreneurs right now at Ford, and they did a pitch contest where some really dope women who had in the amazing businesses they pitched to me, which I was like, this is fun, and so I have to kind of whittle them down until three finalists and then the Dreamcatchers and y'all will see it too, and you guys will get to vote and the winner will win a two year least for Ford Explorer to use toward growing their business.
And so that was really fun just to see people's pitches and be like, oh, like it's hard, it's hard because Ford is one of the major major sponsors. So there's like four I think like McDonald's, Coca Cola, and Walmart, and so they're like the four major sponsors. So they had huge stages in the convention center. So you like we were sitting on the main main stage where like
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds people are watching. So it was definitely nerve wracking, and I was like, oh, better y'all than me, because I'd be nervous too.
But they all rocked out and so that was probably the funnest.
And what business can you talk about? The businesses? Like what some of them?
Yeah, So there's one that you guys might know called. Her name is Arsha Jones. She has a business called Capital City where she makes something called Mumbo Sauce.
Are you familiar? Mandy was like, what mumbo sauce is? It's like it's like a yeah, so it's like a DC kind of like Maryland kind of Like I don't do you know the taste of it. I don't think I've ever had it. I've heard it's like a like a tangy barbecue slash. It's a specific sauce in that region.
Right, But I've never tried it before, but I've heard of it.
I wonderful has Old Day in it.
It's from Maryland, Maryland, yes, right, but.
It's very like if you're from that area, you know Mumbo sauce. But she's the first person to to make it, to like make it into like a business. So she bottled it, created her own version of it. And I mean it's like in like all of these stores. I believe it's in like Target. She's like in big box stores. So she owns like some crazy sized warehouse. She like you know, ships and bottles her her mumbo sauce. So it was just a dope business. I was like, why is she pitching to me? I need to be sitting
here pitching her. But that was a dope one. There's a young woman named Lola who owns Lola International, I believe makeup, so she does celebrity makeup.
She did mine that day. She was awesome. There was another woman which I love her.
Her business is called Sanai Apple Sauce, so she I guess after doing some research, she found that apple sauce is actually really really healthy, but that adults tend to think of apple sauce as like a kid treat. So she wanted to change it that by creating like an adult apple sauce, where like the packaging was adult, it was really healthy for you, all fresh ingredients. So that
was really nice. And then there was a like one in particular called the honey Pot, which I thought was dope black woman who who found out she had I think bacterial baginosis or something was suffered for it for a while, only to find out that like you know, that she could have through like special herbs or whatever,
that you could basically like you know, vaginal health. And so she created a business to help women, especially women of color, take care of our you know, our vaginas I said, vaginals.
I love that you had to say the word vagina like six times in the thirty second period.
That was impressive. Vaginal girl, Clean badge Club. That's awesome. So you can your vaginal health things that you what is So what does she sell?
Like?
It's like, uh, you.
Know what I mean, it's literally I know honestly, I was like, you know what, more power to her because you know, to get up on stage and to share like, oh hey, I had vaginosis by the way, you know, Like so she sounds like she's it's like this. I don't I'm looking at it now. It's like it looks like this pump where I guess she's wipes, feminine plant based care, herbal infused pads with wings.
Oh wow, Okay, I don't know she sold pads. Look, give me was I paying attention? So she it looks like she sells kind of like.
Things to you know, clean your vagina as well as like pads to make sure that you know you are protecting yourself because a lot of times I never heard that. Well, I guess I kind of knew that sometimes there's like a lot of unsafe levels of chemicals and those pads and your vaginas you know, it is an opening and so like you know, these these chemicals can can easily creep up inside and make for an unhealthy vagina.
Yes, vagina. We could do a whole vagina episode.
I love.
I'm loving where this conversation is going. I could talk about vaginal health like all day air day.
I know, And honestly, I was like, should I be Simon Carroll? Like should I be prola Abdul? Should I be Randy?
You know?
But no, honestly, it was all fun and honestly, everybody rocked out.
So it was more so like me just giving like positive feedback.
Like Ooh, I love how you you know, shared, how you use forward to you know, take your business to the next level, or I love that you know so many of the women. I just love women because so many of them, like their businesses were based in service, and if it wasn't naturally inclined to be based in service, they had somehow we've serviced into their business. And I was like, you guys are just amazing, you know. So yeah, it was just a really great time.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, what's happening? So two things I noticed. One it's like businesses are getting rid of straws. Have you noticed this, like the summer when everyone realized how horrible straws offer the environment, and they're like all Starbucks just announced they're getting rid of
their plastic straws by twenty twenty. Yeah, and in place of it, they're creating an adult sippy cup, which is like just imagine like I don't know, they're calling it a sippy cup, probably just for the headlines, but I think it's more like it's probably gonna be like kind of the lids with like a raised opening like you get on a coffee cup or something, a disposable coffee up.
Okay, I don't know.
I went to I went to this resort and they were anti straw. You had to beg for a straw to get one there, and if you did, it would be like the paper kind of straws. So that's cool if you want to be you know, do your part for the environment, request no straw when you go to a restaurant. And then I guess bitcoin is not doing too hot because now I'm starting to see bitcoin headlines again. It's Ben and Wilson's we talked about bitcoin. How is
your your bitcoin? Don't you have a little stash of bitcoin on the side that you were playing with?
I did. I bought like one hundred dollars worth.
And then, you know, so even though obviously it wasn't gonna like break the bank, I'm not gonna lie.
I'm I'm a chicken for losing money.
So after like losing like half of it, I was like, you know what, I'll take my fifty thousand run you.
Know what, your life.
I couldn't out. I can't take I can't take it.
I can't take it, so because I wanted to just see, like what's all the bust for what I wanted to see, like, how do you, like, you know, buy it?
Is it as easy as people say?
And I also wanted to see what it is easy to get your money and honestly as far as like when it was when you sold it, and it was, but I was just like, I am a super late adopter. So by the time I bought it, it was way past its prime and it was like, oh, you should have brought me like ten years ago.
So yeah, I'm a proud bit coin deserter.
Now.
It's such a it's such a smart way to learn. I learned the exact same thing. I put one hundred dollars into this one company that I thought had really good, Like I went to this rushaurant all the time, and I just have I was like, man, I just want to like buy some stock with the robin Hood app. So I chose that company. I put one hundred bucks in and things were going really well until their next quarterly report came out and they announced they were closing
like twenty stores because they had expanded too rapidly. And then the stock I think I've yeah, I think I've lost about like forty five of those one hundred dollars and I'm sitting here like.
What do I do now?
But it's like, also, oh, yeah, this is why I don't invest in single stocks.
Yeah, yeah, honestly I do like Robinhood for that because it's a very are you very Like it's kind of like safe place to be, like, let me buy this one stock and then freak out when I lose my two dollars.
You know. So I did that all the time.
Like if I get like hot stock tips, I'm like, oh, I said, buy this one two dollars stock.
Oh you know what, No, I knew it. I knew it's too much. I can't do this.
Well, do you want to take some Twitter, Instagram and Facebook street headlines see what folks are saying.
Sure, let's check the twitters.
You know what I forgot in our last in our last episode that we talked about how we met our booze, people really love that. I said, Oh, y'all, so nosy, I know, I love it, you know, like, so you guys really enjoyed that, and so we got some great feedback.
Let's see Rnell.
This is in on Twitter rnell profit Her Twitter handle is Oh she did that.
Oh that's cute. Oh she did that? Okay right now. She said at to be a podcast episode one thirty four. I love how you named it. Loved the story about house TIF met Superman all the fiels when she talked about the sweet things he does.
My love language is acts of service, so it spoke volumes. I want that too. Oh, dating over forty is a struggle, ah are now?
Yeah?
Honestly, Like, I mean, you know, I met Superman. We started like really dating like mid mid thirties, and that was a struggle to a child. So yeah, I mean there's no people will tell you, oh, you gotta just do this, you gotta just do that.
No.
I felt hopeless for a long time, like I wasn't gonna find anybody. I just decided to open myself up to a to love looking differently than what I kind of like, what I kind of identified for myself. And as a results, you know, I was able to find something different but awesome. Anything you found in these Twitter ig or Facebook social streets?
Yeah, on Twitter or what do you call him?
Our follower Amby at Amby sweetheart. Her name's Destiny said Shout out to the BA podcast for sharing a list of the best credit cards for college students because I was struggling. Hashtag per hands, hashtag double prayer hands.
Are you ready to break or boost?
Because I have actually have a break in a boost and I cannot wait to rip into my break, especially.
I have a break. I'm break.
I'll go first. Sorry to make you wait to rip into your to your break.
I'm gonna do a break for stitch Fix.
And I don't mean to call them out, well I do, because that's only It's like stitch Fix is one of these uh clothes subscription services where you fill out like a questionnaire about what you like and your sizes and stuff, and you pay twenty dollars a month and they'll send you three to five I think three to five items in the mail, and if you like them, you keep them and you pay for them, and if you don't, you return them and they keep that they keep that
twenty dollars and if you end up paying for them, then they put that twenty dollars toward your purchase.
Basically, and I thought.
It would be great to take like outsource my shopping because I hate going to the to the stores. Like I used to be able to spend hours at outlet stores and the mall and stuff, and now I just I cringe anytime I have to do that.
So I thought it was a great idea.
And I gave it like three months. I gave it a good try. I found maybe one or two things that I liked that I kept. It didn't feel like the clothes were different or special or cool or interesting, and they like kind of were my style, but kind of not. And they kind of they make it so that you can tell your stylists because you supposedly get a style.
You know, it was supposedly well.
It's like, you know, someone sends you a little note saying I'm your stylist, and you know whatever. Who knows that they're like a bot or what. Maybe they're a real person and you give them feedback. But after that third time, I'm a little risk averse two and I'm like, I don't want to keep paying my twenty dollars. And then if you if you don't purchase everything, things are
I think more expensive than they should be. I always felt like I was paying like you would save a lot more if you bought everything all at once, but then I would be buying stuff that I didn't like. Well, you get what you pay for. I guess that's what twenty dollars buys me.
All Right, you're turn, so I'll do my I'll do my break first and then a boostsuince that's nice.
So my break is to Tiffany the budget Nista on Instagram.
You little scam artists, So not me, Tiffany the budget LISTA. So there's actually somebody.
So my Instagram handle is at the Budgetisa, but there's an Instagram handle where their name is literally Tiffany the Budgetista, And so they cloned my Instagram page.
They they took they took my picture.
And they actually sent like a friend request to like all my friends.
People are like when I say all day today, I must have got.
Like fifty texts, emails, Facebook messages, Instagram messages.
Hey Tiffany is this you? Hate? Tiffany? Is this you?
So at first I was like, well, what's their intent because they didn't post anything. So they've been in people's inboxes with their very terrible English saying like hello, like if you're like hey, and then my friend is like hey, how you do hate tiv what's up?
Girl?
They're like, do you know there is financial programs for people with children and parents and women and like the English is so terrible, and my friend like because my friend took a streen jop, she.
Was like, girls, like, what the hell is Tiffy talking about. I'm like, it's not me.
So I posted on my my IG page like with a screenshot like this is not made to scam, please report them. So I already went behind the scenes and did like the official IG reporting where you have to like take a picture of yourself holding your license, which is like so weird, and be like it's me.
I'm the real Tipany first of.
All, they spilled budgetista wrong.
I know an budgety stai.
I'm like, next time, like my friends, I'm like, honestly, I'm gonna want you to think highly more highly of me because that's the highest belt budget NISA. But they haven't posted anything, but apparently if you're friends with them, then they'll send you a message. I don't know what they're I mean, I'm assuming they try to scan people to sign up for whatever program and take your money and then you'll think it to me.
I'm just hoping that people don't.
But obviously if my own friends, like literally one of my closest like or like tightest friends, I'm like, Dessa really, Like I looked at their friends lists, I'm like, really, Dessa, the person with no friends and like two friends, it's friends. Like with the misspelled budget thea You're like, oh, it's Sippany, hey, even though we're friends already on.
Social just trying to be supportive.
I know. So what I did was like people who I was actually friends was in real life. There's maybe like ten of them. I messaged them. I'm like, girl, you know that's not me, right, And they're like, oh, I was wondering. So yeah, So if you see Tiffany the bunch Anista, it's not me. Hopefully by the time we tape again, you'll be down.
I haven't looked at your page in a while. I just remember that picture, the throwback you posted on Father's Day. Why did you look like you were forty four years old when you were like eight years old?
Wow?
What is then? It is that outfit?
Yes?
Meanwhile, Manny, you could not tell me in that purple suit that I was not playing yo?
That was like mine? You can't tell me nothing in this purple suit.
And meanwhile, like the story behind that suit, and the reason where I'm not smiling is that that was my first year in public school. Because when I went to Catholic school, you got really dressed up for picture day.
So that was like my Sunday's Best. Meanwhile, for public school, you don't.
You didn't get dressed no, no, no, And so I went to school in my Sunday's Best first year sixth grade.
Yo. When I tell you, the kids were hollering.
Oh, I'm sorry, and you know it's so crazy.
Like now I'm a teacher, so I totally get it.
All the teachers were like, oh, because you know, as a teacher, that is so cute that like the one little sixth grader got her Sunday's Best on it.
I had, of course, my grandma pumps on like, oh, that.
Was the longest day ever, I bet the.
On top of that, I already had a jerry crow, which was not the style. So I just had a lot going on. It was a bad thing. And so that picture I'm literally looking at the camera like take the camp pictures. I literally ran home from school. My mother was like, I don't care what those kids were wearing. I'm not paying for pictures of you and jeans. I was like, I can't do it. I don't want to go back to school to.
Child like that.
So that was my break, which is Tiffany the Bunch of Lisa on like I said, not that's my name on Insta, but it's not my Instagram name. My Instagram name is at the Bunch of Essa, So don't go cuss me out like at the Bunche of Lisa.
But you can go cuss them out.
But my boost is so when I was there at at Essence past sometimes you know, like I work from home, so I don't necessarily get to see like people's reaction.
So you remember the show Living Single, Yeah.
I watched this whole weekend. I watched like the last season again.
Yeah oh really, well you know, I mean, like I don't want to take anything for granted. Miss what is Golden Girls?
So you know what?
Anyway, I was like doing something called East Sweets. Essence had like a like a like a it was kind of like a smaller offshoot event like that Essence had where they had like other like black business women teach like little classes and seminars and stuff like that and panels. And so I was there and I saw Kim Coles who sin Clair from Living Single, so like.
She's like a motivational speaker now or something, right.
Yeah she is. And so I was in the hallway and I hear her go oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. I'm like, oh my yead.
I'm looking around because like mc light was there all these people, and she runs up to me and says, hey, hey.
Hey, Madra. I was like wait what and she was like, oh my god, Tiffy, I love you. You saved my life. You saved my credit score. I was like wait what.
And she was like, you make my credit score jump like Jordan and you know, like that's like one of my phrases.
I was when I say I was gagging. I was like wait.
I literally gets kept saying wait, okay, wait wait, and she was like you don't understand. She said, I'm fangirling out. She's like, is this how it feels? Because like when people do this to me, I'm like, it feels weird.
Are you weird it out?
I didn't even say anything. I was like wait, okay, wait. And I because I was so nervous and frazzled. I started singing the living Living.
Single, Oh my god, short circuit, I don't know where I'm like, you live it.
She's like looking at me like oh okay, and then her people were trying to rush her away, and she's like, no, I gotta get a picture of Tiffany. So we took like a bunch of pictures and then she likes whisked off, and I just was like, what just happened?
Like I grew up? I told her. I was like, you know, I grew up. Who didn't grow up as a brown girl like on Living Single? I mean, I mean.
You you're the ones who made it possible for there to be a show friend, you know. And I was just I just couldn't believe it that because you know, you're like home, like huh huh, and like wait.
Where is this picture?
And why isn't she on the podcast? And when is that happening?
You know what? I didn't even think about that? Do you never think about that? I want to hit my friend up because you know, now we're besties.
Actually we're not, but I'm definitely gonna hit her up, like I think I think a friend of mine actually friends with her on Facebook, so I'll let her friend request and I'll definitely ask her, like, you know, if you'd love I would love to have you on my podcast. She was so not I just couldn't believe it, man.
Because I was just were you what'd you say? I would have loved that.
I'm getting emotional for you and like clawing at my chest. I don't know why. That's amazing.
I just read it and we started singing because like my brain was like, don't know what to say, just sing the song.
So yeah, that was definitely like I haven't even I saved those pictures.
I have been doing a separate post like my most epic moment, because I mean, like I I got to go to the HBO and Secure party. I went to this like little little party afterwards, and Asa Ray was there and her crew danced it up, and nothing compared to like Sinclair Living single Kim Cole saying oh my god, hey hey hey.
When she said hey, hey, hey, I was like, wait, does she just give me my line? Oh my god? So you know what, remember in the beginning, guys man used toy hait on my hey hey, hey.
Remember how is this gonna turn back on me. It's just rude. And also, did like.
Satt Albert really originate that he did?
Okay, in the public domain.
I'm reclaiming it. No, but yeah, it was just that part was just awesome. And so yeah, that was my boost because I didn't I'm glad I ended it with the booz because I feel.
Like, you know, I don't know bre you can hold that in for so long.
I know I was holding it. I was like, oh, this is too good, this is too good.
All right, let's get to these questions from lovely lovely listeners. You guys can email us at brand Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com or hit us up at brandnambitionpodcast dot com to send us your questions. We have a couple of really good Wednesday I wanted to get to from. Both of them have to do with getting a home for the first time. So the first question comes from listener Naomi. Naomi says, hey, hey, hey see, everyone loves it.
She's like, I'm a third year teacher in San Diego, California, and I'm exploring the option of buying a home using an FAHA loan and FHA loan is a track to me because there's only a three point five percent down payment, and they're lenient with Fyco scores. I'm working on improving my Fyco score from six point thirty to get it over six sixty. My plan is is that by the time I apply for the loan, I will have zero credit card debt, only a student loan, and my debt
to income ratio will be fifty percent or less. I've heard that if you can't put down a down payment of twenty percent, you can't afford to buy a house. But I'm forty years old and I'm running out of time.
What do you think.
I disagree with that notion right, that you can't put down twenty percent, you can't afford to buy a house.
Well, she just like contradicted what she's found out for herself, which is that there are loan programs out there that don't require that much down like the FAHA loan. For example, if your credit score is over five eighty, they require and you meet other requirements, the down payment's only three point five percent, and they'll even accept people with credit scores under that under five eighty. But then you'll have
to put down ten percent. But that's like one of the most common first time home buyer loans.
Yeah, for that's what I used.
Oh you did, okay, well not obviously for this this past house, but like the first THU, yeah, the first one.
That's what I use.
And the thing is that the truth is, I think I might have had the twenty percent, but I decided that, like I did the mask with my mortgage person, and she was like, if you put down the twenty percent, it's only going to lower your mortgage amount by I think it was like twenty bucks a month or she was like, oh, you can have that cash on hand to help with like any like you know, maybe like
surprise expenses. And so I decided, after like weighing the mask on both sides, I decided that that an fah loan and putting down that three point five percent was actually like a better deal for me to be able to still have like cash, you know, at hand, which I needed because I was like, you know, buying furniture and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I don't
think that it means that. I mean I get it, like that's the old school way of thinking, like if you can't put down a substantial amount, but you know, these loans exist for a reason. And if you know that, you're what's most important is what your monthly income is in relation to what your mortgage is going to be.
Because what's the rule of thumb? Many, isn't it?
You really don't want it to be more than thirty percent your mortgage more than thirty percent of what your your your income is.
Yeah, but one third is a good rule of thumb.
Yeah, And so that's what I would say, honestly, like that you want to you don't want to be spending half of your income on on your house because that leads you with very little wiggle rooms. So I think that if if you're in that thirty percent range, like, oh, let's just say, for math's sake, I make a thousand dollars a month and my mortgage is three hundred, you're in a good space.
Definitely, all right?
Next question.
Next question comes from an anonymous listener, also related to home purchasing. She is younger. I think in her what is it?
What does this say?
All right, I'm gonna as a young single person. I don't know what that means. So let's say in her twenty to thirties, she says, I have no debt I contribute the max to my four O one K, a small percentage to my retirement or not retirement, a small percentage to my ESPP, and I have an emergency fund. After paying off my student loans last year, I saved about twenty thousand dollars. But I live in one of
the hottest housing markets in the country. As a young single person, I feel like I'm going to be saving forever, and I'm concerned about knowing who I can trust through the process. I know there are options for lower down payments, but I'm also aware that lenders specifically have targeted black women for subprime mortgage loans in the past. Do you have any advice on where to begin for single first time home buyers. It would be greatfully appreciate it. Thank you so much.
I've heard like good things about NACA and ACA. Do you know what NACA stands for? I never you know, I never looked into that.
No, no, wait, yeah, I've heard of NAKA, but I forget what it stands for now.
So NACA.
There are like so many dreamcatchers posted about NACCA and so I've heard good things, although sometimes it may.
Be a little slow.
Where you take a class, they help you get your credit together and then you can qualify for a program as long as you want to be Like I believe you. No, I don't even think you always have to be owner occupied. I think you're even allowed to do it with like a rental property, but that they can get you sometimes even zero percent down. No closing costs a really low interest rate. So maybe the interest rate is like say five percent, but with NACA that it might be three percent.
So I definitely would look into NAKA. N ACA.
That's Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. I've never heard of Okay, maybe I haven't heard of that. It's a nonprofit community advocacy and home ownership organization mm hm.
And so I mean I've never I can honestly say I've never heard their full names. Is that I just you know, everyone just says, oh, try NAKA. A friend of mine did it. She got a three family house. She does live there, and like her interest rate was like a point or two less a point, meaning, like like I said, if everyone's their interest rate is five percent, that's the going rate.
Hers was three percent, So.
That's significant, Like it's a lot of money of the lifetime of the loan and she didn't have to put down a down payment or significantly less, So that's definitely a good place to start. I also, do you know what I find like if you get a really good realtor, they often are really knowledgeable about different programs happening and
so like. So I asked a bunch of realtors, even if they weren't my realtor, I asked a bunch of them just like, hey, do you know of any programs because sometimes brokers and realtors, you know, we'll we'll hear things before we do or but this is what they do all day every day, talk about this kind of stuff. So I would ask realtors too, like cause I know M ANDT Bank and like Mike, Michael and Tony. I mean, that's not what it stands for.
But they had like.
A program for people of color who were buying homes where it's a majority of people of color living there. And at the time it was like up to like eighteen thousand dollars or something like that, and now it's I think it's like up to five or six thousand, but you could put toward closing, so that's you know, that's out there because M ANDT Bank was definitely one of those companies that were that were giving unfair interest
rates to people of color. So they got caught and as a result they have to do this kind of restitution. But yeah, I mean, I think asking real estate professionals is a great place to start.
And yeah, she seems worried about getting like scammed or duped into a bad loan because she's a woman or a minority, And yeah, it's mortgage lenders have discriminated against people of color.
That's a known fact.
What I will say is, you know, since the housing crisis, organizations like the CFPB and with Dodd Frank Act, it's become a lot harder to offer bad mortgage loans, like offer loans to people that they couldn't that they can't afford, or just bad predatory products in general. So want to keep these organizations around. That's why they're here. But you know, going if yes you can, you can contact like a mortgage broker and see if they have access to any
any lenders. But you know, start from what type of mortgage you're looking for too. If you're a look looking for an FAHA loan, for example, there's a list of FAHA approved lenders that you can work from and you know that, Okay, these have been signed off on by the Federal Housing Authority and there you know, legit and kosher. I chose when we were shopping for mortgage loans. I didn't use a broker because I feel like I know
every single bank and ever. And we just basically went to three or four different well actually five if you include. We looked at us a A, looked at SOFI, looked at Ally, looked at City, and then Quickened Loans, which is an online lender for we were shopping for mortgage rates, and you can do things like check their check the complaint database that the cfp B has online and see if there's a ton of complaints against mortgage lenders before.
And you know, but at the end of the day, you want to pick the lender, you know, whether it's like a home home ownership assistance program or something like that or like a regular lender, pick the one that has the best product and the best term for you, and just compare compare, compare, so you know you're getting the best deal.
Yeah, that is like the key.
Compare compare, And like I would start now, like so almost like it's almost like six months before you're like, you know what, I'm gonna be looking at houses. You can never be too early with like starting the mortgage process. So I don't know if you did this, Mandy, but I didn't let anybody pull my my my score until I was like pretty sure this is the company I wanted to go with, Like I just went online got my score and it was like, no, I know my score.
You know they'll they'll try to like finagle you, like, oh, I can't give you a really accurate I'm like, well, just give me as close as you can to the score that I'm giving you, because I didn't want all of these like pulls and hard inquiries on my on my credit report when I was going to buy a house. So you're you don't just so you know, when you're asking for like interest rates, you don't have to give.
Your score, like, well, you don't have to give them the ability to pull your credit score from.
Their end, right.
So what a lot of lenders offer is a quote. They may offer a quote, which is where they may ask for the last four digits of your social and do like a soft pull of your credit and then give you an estimate like a quote again where they say, okay, we might be able to offer you this rate, And that's a good way to shop around because it won't
ing your credit score. So lending Tree, the company that I work for, offers a mortgage marketplace where you can basically fill out an online form, you put in a couple of pieces of information, then they may be able to direct you to lenders who can offer you quotes. So that's what a lot of lenders do now, and that's a good way to shop around when you're just casually shopping around. But if you're serious about so she asks sort of what are the steps to to home ownership?
So I would say, if you're casually, you know, shopping around, you just want to see what you might qualify for, a quote is one way to go. And then if you're when you're serious, are a pre approval is what you want to get. And with the pre approval, they're actually going to ask for more financial documents, they're going to ask for your full social they're going to do a full on, you know, hard inquiry to your credit history.
That's that shouldn't frighten you from shopping from multiple lenders because as long as you get multiple pre approvals within a short window of time like fourteen I think two to fourteen to forty five days is kind of the standard that according to FIKO, for that window, it'll only count as one hard inquiry. So for example, my husband and I when we were ready to shop, we did all of our shopping in like one week, and my credit maybe dropped five points.
That was it.
And it's not that big of a deal, and it's not you know, it's worth it to shop multiple lenders, But the pre approval is important because this is actually a much stronger this is a much stronger vote of confidence from the lender because they're saying, yeah, there's a really good chance we're going to approve you for this mortgage, and here is the rate that we are the pretty pretty good estimate of the rate we can give you and the terms we can give you, And then you
can use that to compare to other offers from lenders. And also, like when you're buying, when you're putting in an offer on a house, sometimes the seller's agent won't even talk to you if you don't have a pre approval, and in other cases you may like, look, it's gonna make you seem like a much more legitimate candidate than
other potential buyers out there. So it can give you like a competitive edge to have that pre approval because that seller is going to know, Okay, they've checked her credit, she has been pre approved for this loan amount, and we have a really good idea that she's going to be able to close this mortgage loan, so we will go with her. So that's another benefit to the pre approval end. Yeah, you can get as many pre approvals
as you want. I think we did five in the end, and it was really helpful because we could compare and see what all the differences were, and ultimately we went with the lender that offered us the best deal and one of the lenders you know sometimes they would say, you know, we can beat that rate if you show us whatever rate, what you know other rate you can get,
Like I remember we looked at Sofi. Sofi offers a mortgage with just ten percent down, and they they say they don't charge any origination fees, but just basically like a processing fee for your application. A lot of every mortgage lender basically charges the traditional ones charge origination fees.
So one way so Far differentiates itself is by saying, you know, we don't charge fees, but when we compare to Sofi's pre approval offer to what we were getting from other lenders, their rates were higher.
So it was almost like, yeah.
There's no fees, but they charge a higher rate, which over the long term, you know, because we're staying in our house for at least ten years, that could end up costing us more. So it was it was good to have those things side by side to look at and compare.
No, that's goods. There are like a number of numbers you want to look at. Yeah, these are good questions.
I know we said we're not going to talk about renovations, but I just wanted to share something that I learned today.
I'd gone to city hall today in Newark because I heard a little Bertie.
Told me that there might be some sort of tax abatement. An abatement is basically like a hold on paying taxes if.
You're a business owner and a homeowner Newerk.
So I was like, and I've been calling, but like most city halls, nobody picks up the phone.
So I've been calling for like a month.
So I was like, you know, what let me just go down there, because you know, it's just I just need to go down So I went and although I found out that no, that that wasn't true, or at least that's what the person told me, which I felt like they didn't want to look up anything, so whatever, But I walked into so many different offices. I found that there was a tax abatement program, and I just thought about you, Manny, that you know, you might want
to ask your city. So here's the way this tax abatement program works in Newark, that if you do renovations, you can actually get an abatement on the property increase as a result of the renovation. So let's just say that my property assesses for let's just say one hundred thousand dollars, and my taxes are five thousand dollars a year, and then I do one hundred thousand dollars worth of renovation. So now my property has doubled in value, so my
taxes are likely to nearly double. And so if I applied for this tax abatement after renovations are done, I can actually suspend that additional increase for five years.
And I was like, wow, that's awesome, right.
Oh yeah, that's dope.
My husband and I were just talking about that because we had just had a tax, a new property tax assessment this past May, and then we wondered how soon after our renovation they were going to reassess our property and then start taxing us at the higher value. So yeah, definitely, I'll do anything.
You'll save money, right, I was like, you know, just go down to city hall and see like, hey, do you guys have like any sort of I just like kept to general any sort of tax abatement programs, and the lady ripped that out, and I was like, well, this is good.
Any other questions. I think that was good though.
Yeah, we're good.
One questions you guys again, hit us up at Brannambission podcast dot com, ask us anything, tab to send us a question, or you can email us directly at Brandambition Podcast at gmail dot com dot com.
And if you're feeling particularly sentimental, listen to our last episode. Gremandy and I talked about somebody asked really sweet question about how we met our misters, and you guys really enjoyed it. So if you didn't listen, go and listen,
And honestly, I like questions like that. So you can obviously send us you know, financial career, business questions, but you know where this is also a podcast about like you know, brown girl life, and so if you have just some like general kind of like life questions you want to ask us, you know, we like those two.
We're all about the holistic approach, not just money, but other stuff too, exactly, which is why we need Kim Cole motivational speaker to come on the podcast.
To sam let me call my best friend.
Woo woo woo.
Oh oh my god, y'all.
I was like, you have no idea, I mean, no, you know what, Actually I'm gonna send you. I'm gonna like text you like the pictures of like my face like that. You should see the evolution of like my face like wait wait wait literally like hand to chest clutching imaginary pearls like my sister. My sister Lisa was like taking like you know, like secession of pictures and you could just see me losing my mind like looking at her, like can.
You believe that's awesome? You can retire