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Law Have Mercy!
Law Have Mercy! isn’t just about the law anymore—it’s about life, business, health, and everything that sparks curiosity. Join Personal Injury Attorney Chaz Roberts as he dives into candid conversations that mix legal insights with lifestyle tips, entrepreneurial wisdom, and personal growth. From breaking down complex legal issues in simple terms to exploring the challenges and triumphs of health, business, and beyond, Chaz brings his unique perspective and passion to every episode.
Whether you're here to learn, laugh, or find inspiration, Law Have Mercy! has something for everyone. Just remember: the opinions of our guests are their own, and nothing on this podcast is legal advice or creates an attorney-client relationship—it’s all about entertainment, exploration, and empowerment. Let’s make it fun!
Law Have Mercy!
Unlocking Home Buying Success: Credit Score Tips & Financial Strategies with Derek Robin
Unlock the secrets to improving your credit score and mastering the home buying process in our latest episode with mortgage advisor, Derek Roban of Preferred Lending Solutions. Derek shares his personal journey from a frustrating first-time home buyer to a dedicated mortgage advisor with a passion for financial advising and personal development. Together, we reminisce about coaching our kids' soccer team and challenging ourselves with 100 daily pushups, illustrating the importance of a balanced life while navigating financial complexities.
Discover the pivotal role your credit score plays in securing home financing and the practical steps you can take to maintain and improve it. We delve into the nuances of financial transactions, from understanding the impact of minor debts to the importance of timely bill payments. Derek shares invaluable insights on the significance of credit cards and the often-overlooked pitfalls of last-minute credit checks. We also tackle the modern tipping culture, the frustrations with hidden fees, and essential tips to protect against identity theft.
As we discuss real estate market strategies and financial planning, learn how seller incentives can be leveraged to your advantage and the merits of future refinancing. Derek and I underscore the necessity of a comprehensive financial plan, especially for those receiving large sums of money, and emphasize the value of a robust financial team. We round off the episode with a candid conversation about balancing work and personal life, the evolution of podcasting, and building an online brand and community, offering you a holistic approach to improving your financial well-being and navigating the home buying journey with confidence.
You can watch most full episodes of Law Have Mercy on YouTube!
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If you are in need of legal guidance, visit our website: https://www.chazrobertslaw.com/
This show is co-produced by Carter Simoneaux of AcadianaCasts Network, Chaz H. Roberts of Chaz Roberts Law and Kayli Guidry Bonin of Beau The Agency, and Laith Alferahin.
When is the best time to try to improve your credit score?
Speaker 2:You should be in a constant state of always being mindful of it. In the same way that you would guard your social security number, you should always be cognizant of your credit score. Poor credit scores are money vampires.
Speaker 1:Today's episode. I have a good friend of mine, mr Derek Roban. He is a father of two. He is a husband to a beautiful wife. He's a mortgage advisor for Preferred Lending Solutions. Is it Preferred Lending Solutions? Did I get the name right?
Speaker 2:You did.
Speaker 1:Cool, he's a coach, a stage dad, a podcaster, all-around good guy. He's the designated guy who holds me back on the sideline of the soccer field so I don't get arrested. Derek, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Chance.
Speaker 1:Bro. Um, you so funny. All right. So Derek and I have coached together on a soccer team for many, many years now, where our kids are playing select soccer this year. So we go out to the field and now like we just bring a lawn chair, we don't actually have to coach because they have like private coaching. And Derek's like look, I see my old buddy Chaz, let me go tell him hello. And he walks up and we start talking and say, by the way, derek, we're going to be running every time we have practice. Yeah, and not only are we running, but we're in a hundred pushup challenge where we do a hundred pushups a day. Are you in? And he's like, ah, you know, I guess I need to get back in shape. Yeah, 30 minutes later he was in the group text and ever since then, a hundred pushups a day.
Speaker 2:A hundred pushups a day. I've missed two, by the way, so I got to catch up.
Speaker 1:Was that at the?
Speaker 2:beach. Uh, one day, and I think like day six, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Have you noticed any difference?
Speaker 2:I have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've noticed it. I have, yeah, and I noticed in my core and it was like so the challenge is you just do a hundred pushups throughout the day. You could do them, knock them out all in the morning, the evening, whatever 10, whenever you think about it, and I think it's been a good thing so far I've stuck with it.
Speaker 2:I haven't stuck with a lot of things lately, yeah, um, cause usually when I would do those things, I was always, it was always within the constructs of like a team, you know, or a group. And we do have a group. It's virtual now, so I'm proud of myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good job. Well um rates are coming down.
Speaker 2:They are.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I locked my first refi in like two years yesterday. That wasn't the result of a divorce or a death.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's exciting. What does a mortgage advisor do? I can tell you what I do. Yeah, I mean, obviously we help people with financing for homes. Sorry, you want to ask that again.
Speaker 1:What does a mortgage advisor do?
Speaker 2:We wear a lot of hats. I know I wear a lot. I can't speak to what everyone else does, but had a great mentor. The way that I run my business, my practice, whatever you want to call it, as long as there's extreme ownership, that's really all that matters. Um, but the thing that really shaped me was who I learned from and my experience. The first time that I bought a home, uh, I went through a national online lender. When our first, we bought our first home in Texas Uh, they brought me to tears twice, not because I was sad.
Speaker 1:You're just sensitive.
Speaker 2:I was angry like rage against the machine, angry like it was bad. So, just through the benefit of being able to look in the rearview mirror when I started doing it, that was always kind of the core tenets of what I wanted things to be was all based off of the way that I felt whenever I was on the other side and I swore to myself I didn't want anyone to ever feel like that. So what do we do? You know we do financing for homes. Obviously, a lot of people quote rates and take realtors out to lunch and take pictures for closings. That's all part of it.
Speaker 1:I thought that was the only part of it.
Speaker 2:That's probably the only part of it for a lot of people. Some are really good. Are there people better than me? Of course there's always somebody better, but I take a more holistic kind of approach to it. Um, but I take a more holistic kind of approach to it. So I do have a background in financial advising out of college, uh, and then I think when I turned 30, this kind of I was never a reader uh, a flitch, a switch flipped where personal development kind of became a thing. So I consumed a lot of of those things and, uh, including for for finance, like over and above what I had learned in school and done professionally and, um, really just digging deep right, like someone comes to you and they need an attorney, you probably ask them a lot of questions a ton a ton.
Speaker 2:So mine are a few fold. One is obviously it's through the context of purchasing a home. Part of it is through building wealth. That's a big focus for me. And another one is you'll laugh at this because I often use an analogy that I am kind of like their attorney. Lending is hard. It's confusing to people. Even if you bought five houses, you just don't do it often enough. You know it's kind of a use it or lose it thing, but the way I explain to people like what my role is, think of me like I am your attorney. I'm going to ask you a lot of questions. I am genuinely curious, but I'm filtering information, as you're telling me. And the underwriter, that's who ultimately issues final loan approval, where wire transfers start happening at title firms and people purchase homes. The underwriter is kind of like the judge. I am presenting your case as a borrower. You are putting up collateral to get a loan. I want the verdict to be that you're approved.
Speaker 1:That's a good analogy.
Speaker 2:So you're telling me things. Okay, that's important for me to know. I'm glad you told me, because this would have blindsided us later.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Tell me the second. Thing. We don't need that.
Speaker 1:Good piece of evidence. You're filtering.
Speaker 2:Need to know that's gone in the shredder. You didn't tell me that you know all that stuff, so that part of it, the wealth building part's important. You know people. The only thing that people typically know what to ask is you know what are interest rates doing? What is your interest rate? And I never, ever ever answer that question because it's so layered. What are you trying to do right? Are you a veteran? Because maybe we'll look at VA.
Speaker 1:Are you trying to? Are you buying a rental property? How long are you going to be in the house? My conversations with people who are moving up the corporate ladder every three years and sell their house every three years, those are way different.
Speaker 2:You're trying to minimize the extra cost that each group has, depending on their goals, because the person might be out of the house in's right, doesn't need the same tool as someone that plans on living there 30 years, correct, correct, we have different tools in the toolbox, but it's not just about interest rates, it's about what loan strategy is going to suit you best. And then we combine that with how do we put the best purchase strategy together with your realtor Right, efficiency of funds. I don't want you to look back three years from now and say, hey, I wish I would have done this, I wish I would have done it that way. You know, we have the um, I have some excellent software that we'll look ahead into the future. You know, nobody has a crystal ball, but with math you can project.
Speaker 2:So my goal is always to say, hey, look, here you're buying a house, obviously right, here's your point of sale stuff. So you're thinking, well, point of sale, what are you talking about? What's my interest rate? What does my payment look like? What do you estimate that I need to bring to closing in dollars? So we look at that stuff. But we'll look at different strategies and say, hey, look, if you buy the house like this, here's what this looks like two years from now. So I'll show people different options. Some of them at point of sale look a little sexier on paper, right, but if we look out into the future it may be a more costly option.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we don't just focus on the price of the house. It's more of a 360 degree deal where we look at like which one's going to cost you the least amount of money, because there is a difference.
Speaker 1:And some. Not to throw anyone under the bus. But there are some brokerages that probably say, okay, how do we get this person in a house and how do we make the most money in that transaction? Probably, yeah, probably. And now what's the best actual tool? Correct? So you probably have a pretty specific customer, because the guy that comes in, the same guy that goes to the used car lot and says, hey, what's my monthly note? Right, and they're not factoring in any other thing, that might not be the best customer for you.
Speaker 2:We'll talk about it. That conversation evolves as the minutes pass, and and sometimes that's really all that they're concerned with, and you know, and that's okay, but just open, and I would be doing them a disservice if we didn't try to uncover all of their needs. You know, one of the part of the way that I have the conversations as well is okay, what's your, what's the number one thing you're trying to accomplish? And it's kind of a rhetorical question, because I know the answer hey, I'm trying to buy a house, but and then so I'll give them examples like hey, look, ok, so there's eight things you really want to have happen while we go through this together. What's number one, though? Because if I do two through eight and I don, and we can't do number one, then you won't be completely satisfying. Now, if I find that we just can't, but we can do everything else, I'll let you know that up front. But I at least want to get number one, because that's the most important thing to you. What's the most important thing?
Speaker 1:Would you say that buying when? So you're basically trying to put people in homes and obtain financing for them to buy their home, whether it's an investment property, a residential, or if it's their home that they intend to live in a second home. Whatever, yep, does it really come down to a function of credit score and cash on hand? Is that the two main drivers?
Speaker 2:Credit score. What funds, if at all, do you have available for closing and then purchasing power, what does your income look like? And that looks different for different people also Like, hey, I want to. Nurses are my tightest referral group, I've found over time, I guess because they work in close proximity high stress environments, weird hours sometimes and it was really interesting when the interest rate environment increased. You know, I have a nurse named Sarah might come and she bought a house and her payment was $1,400 a month, you know.
Speaker 2:And then Emily comes back the following year and says, hey, I want to live next to Sarah, and I say, okay, well, cool, your payment's $1,900. Now, she didn't say it, but you're thinking like, well, do you like Sarah better? And it's like, no, that's just where money is right now. But it looks different for different people. I've had couples make multiple six-figure incomes with no children that could afford a $550,000 house. And then I've had single people who make like $90,000 but have no debt and can afford the same amount as the other people. So it's a balance of what do you make versus what do you owe. We don't look at total debt, we look at payments that show up on the credit report.
Speaker 1:And so credit score is very important.
Speaker 2:Credit score will determine your financing terms. You know so, people with low credit. We have to check all the other boxes also.
Speaker 1:And when do you find that? I'm sure you give some counseling, I think just based on some conversations we had on how to reduce credit score. When is the best time to try to improve your credit score?
Speaker 2:You should be in a constant state of always being mindful of it, in the same way that you would guard your social security number. You should always be cognizant of your, of your credit score. Poor credit scores are money vampires straight up. Maybe you go get a new iPhone at AT&T or Verizon. You can't get on the payment plan. You have to pay for it up front. They're doing that because they're doing a soft credit check on you to see if you're going to be reliably be able to pay that phone, that monthly installment with your service. That determines whether or not you put down a deposit when you move from place to place for utilities or water, cable or whatever. Um, I've seen some people with vehicles at 19 interest rates. Wow, you know, um started seeing the car notes in the eight, nine hundred dollar range. I'm like, wow, you know, you got a lexus or mercedes. They're like, no, it's a camry.
Speaker 1:Can I add another one, auto insurance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's another one.
Speaker 1:Auto insurance runs your credit score. They've challenged that and your financial responsibility also could determine your ability to drive.
Speaker 2:It does. It does and that's an interesting conversation I have with a borrower. Okay, we got insurance information from the seller. They're saying insurance is this much, so I'm going to expect that, so let's prepare for it to be higher. We don't know what their insurance rating is, because people usually don't know they have an insurance rating as well. Maybe that person's credit score is 150 points higher than you, maybe they're 15 years older than you are. You know, there's there's tons of things that come in.
Speaker 1:So if you were talking, if you were talking to one of my clients and you had to give them advice on how to start improving their credit score today, what would you say?
Speaker 2:Pay your bills on time. You know that's. That's the big one, the one I find that trips people up the most is they'll ignore things that come in the mail. Like, do not ignore the mail, pick up the phone, Just as a best practice for myself. I pick up the phone and whether I want to pay something or not, typically it's medical bills, right, like you go to the doctor, you get a $30 copay from the dentist or the physician and you get a patient responsibility thing. Or they say, hey, we're still processing insurance, let me see if we can get rid of that part. I just pay it anyway. Ultimately the accounting catches up. But those will hit people.
Speaker 2:What are some other ones? First-time homebuyers when they leave, know, and they go to another apartment before they buy a house and they don't turn in their cable box. We see Cox communication judgments all the time. Borrowers are real steadfast and matter of fact about not paying it. Like I'm not paying that. You know to heck with those people. And I'm like, well, it's to heck with your credit score. You know your stuff is perfect, except for that. Oh, by the way, you're 24 years old. Like negative items or negative credit events impact have a greater impact when you're younger, because the length of time your credit has been established is less.
Speaker 1:So it's proportionally higher credit, proportionally bigger liability based on the number of years you've been on earth. That's correct.
Speaker 2:So I'm 43 years old. If I have a 30-day late on a credit card, it's going to impact me this much still negatively. If it's a 23-year-old, it would be this much, so their score would drop by quite a bit more.
Speaker 1:What about credit cards?
Speaker 2:You should have one, you should maybe have two. So there's five things that determine a credit score, that make up, kind of, how the scoring system works. The captain obvious one is you have to have on-time payments One of them we just talked about. The second one would be the length of time that your credit has been established. So, all things being equal, someone who's had, let's say, a Discover credit card account for 20 years and everything else is the same, their score is going to be higher than someone who's only had one for two years.
Speaker 2:Credit mix is important and this is where I think some of the younger generation is a little bit underserved, probably from guidance from the Internet, maybe from parents who are trying to do the right thing and protect their kids from mismanaging credit cards. We've all done things that we wish, we like. If I would have known I wouldn't have done that, or um, but preventing a child from getting a credit card, all it does is hurt, you know. And if you don't want to give them a credit card, one way to do, um, to increase a credit score is to get someone added as an authorized user on your account. So I mean, I have a 23-year-old guy right now he's got a 787 credit score. His parents had him open one when he was 20, and they attached him to two of theirs that they've had open for 25 years.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Mom and Dad.
Speaker 2:Totally gets to ride the coattails, so I pull up the account. It looks like he's had it since 1991. The dude was born in 2001.
Speaker 1:He piggybacked on his mom and dad's open credit card for 25 years, even before his birth, correct, wow, so you had number four, I think yeah, the um new credit.
Speaker 2:So if you've had too many inquiries, too many new accounts, you, the more that you have in a short amount of time, the riskier you look so be careful on that home depot and tj max you should? You probably shouldn't be doing those anyway okay right.
Speaker 2:All things being equal, you want a versatile option, so it's just a standard visa, discover mastercard. You can use them in more places. Um, store accounts are not, you know if you, it's the inferior option out of the two. So when you go sign up for a card, like they'll, I'll get asked all the time and I'll say, hey, would you like five percent off for your purchase? I was like for 60, maybe, and then I'm gonna leave the checkout line. I'm about to go buy some more stuff. Make it count, right, um, but whether you get approved or denied, Are you saying that that's a lot of consumer psyche?
Speaker 1:They'll see that 5% and it'll. I realize you're making a joke, but do you think that 5% encourages more people to spend more money?
Speaker 2:For some.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've seen it all.
Speaker 2:If you're spending $100, why would you burn a credit inquiry for a $5 savings?
Speaker 1:Well, good point.
Speaker 2:No, if I'm spending $5,000 and I get 40% off, that's different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but Latho will tell you the Amex will give you that anyway, right? So why get the Home Depot card?
Speaker 2:I think the big thing that the consumer cards have switched to is really just the point systems, not the frequent flyer miles, but to incentivize you to keep shopping. Eventually the psyche is well, oh, I'm going to go to Target today or wherever and get $200 worth of free stuff. Well, it's not free. No, you spend a lot of money. Hopefully all that stuff that you spent to earn that $200 was worth it.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about that in a second.
Speaker 2:What was?
Speaker 1:number five.
Speaker 2:I always forget the fifth one. Oh, credit utilization. So the quickest way if you have a credit card. So here's not only do credit cards help increase your score, so is because if you have a credit, utilization means lines of credit versus installment loans. So a lot of times we'll see people with payday loans, vehicle loans, student loans. Those are all money that you owe where there's a fixed amount owed every month.
Speaker 2:Just because you have a credit card doesn't mean you have to use it. You open a card. I mean I have four in my wallet. You know they each have a specific purpose and I use them. But if I didn't use them, I could have four and just keep them. I only owe money if I use it Right.
Speaker 2:So if someone only has loans and they have zero credit cards, then their credit mixes off and that's 20% of how your score. You know it's one of the five components. So one of the. The fifth one, credit utilization, is how much do you owe on your lines of credit? So that can be a HELOC on a house, a home equity line of credit, but predominantly it's credit cards. What do you owe versus what is your limit? The magic number to start getting tangible benefit in your score is typically 30% utilization. So if you have a $1,000 limit, you want to keep your balances $300 or less. The lower you go, the higher the score goes. You know I get credit monitoring on my credit cards. Mine does like this, depending on when my statements cut and what I owe at the time.
Speaker 1:When did? This is completely unrelated, but I wanted to ask your opinion when did it become the norm for businesses to pass on credit card fees to the consumer?
Speaker 2:You know I'm not sure, but I'm starting to notice it a lot more. You know I'm not sure, but I'm starting to notice it a lot more.
Speaker 1:Some companies do it on the slick too. They're like oh, cash your card. That used to mean like do I need to put the prompt in the front for you to stick your card in or not?
Speaker 2:I think they added another charge COVID. It's psychology, it's gamesmanship. You know, we're come eat over here, right, our food's not as expensive? Well, it's not. But then you have all the add-ons, right, right? What do you get more upset by Death, by a thousand cuts, or that you feel that you overpaid for food, and that's going to vary from person to person too. I mean, I'm not a fan of it. It's just the cost of doing business, like in my mind. Like make the burger go from $13 to 1450.
Speaker 1:Right, they're going to put it in somewhere, but something about that 3%, it's like man, they used to eat that as as a as a way to get people in the door. Look, we have these other forms of payment Right, yeah it. Payment right, yeah it. Just it annoys me. And not to mention the tip system that we've developed. Like you check me out at chipotle or starbucks or whatever and you got a tip line. I guess it's just, it drives me crazy and I tip. That's the worst part, because they're everybody in the store is looking at me like are you gonna tip?
Speaker 2:I'm like, yeah, here you go, yeah, I oh man, that's a load of commerce. Yeah, I'm super sensitive about that. I grew up, but I in college I waited tables.
Speaker 1:Okay, I started, started at the bottom so you're empathetic, but you had to work for your money to an extent right.
Speaker 2:Um, I mean I worked my way up to to Ruth's Chris around here that you could call that amongst the pinnacle of the profession. But, man, we worked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for that 20%.
Speaker 2:If I wasn't nice, I didn't get paid. If I didn't take care of the people's children, I didn't get paid. If I wasn't nice to the guy's wife, I didn't get paid. If I wasn't respectful and polite, I didn't get paid. If I wasn't nice to the guy's wife, I didn't get paid. If I wasn't respectful and polite, I didn't get paid. If I forgot stuff, I didn't get paid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what if you just rang up the cash register and then you flipped that around? The square pad and you're like 5, 10, 15, 20%. I'm like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 2:I started noticing that through all the fast, casual stuff. And I remember a couple of years and I just I just felt like I wasn't being nice. But one time we had gone into a place, you know, bill was 50, 60, $70. And it was a place we hadn't been and the tip prompt came up and uh, I just I was like hey, is someone going to be serving us? And she said no, and I was like okay, and I think that was the first time that I skipped over it.
Speaker 2:And you know it's, it's a lot more pressure too, because with, with those, you're right in front of them, right? You know, at least at the restaurant I would drop a, you know a, drop something off, thank them for coming, hope they enjoyed their evening. Then I would walk away. I wasn't standing over them, right. So I'm definitely not a fan of that. But I guess I'm old school in that regard. Like, if I go to a restaurant and I have a great service, I can appreciate it because I did it, but those people are I'm not paying. That's part of their, that was part of the incentive to perform. Right, this stuff is just doing basic things.
Speaker 1:I mean that's and they're hourly employees, it's not. At least, as a waiter you were making half a minimum wage or whatever, and we're tip based $213 an hour. $213 an hour If you're working the cash register. I would assume that you're getting some kind of fair hourly rate. And that you're getting some kind of fair hourly rate. And I've heard places that they don't even pass the money on to the employees. That's just like some extra cush for the business owner.
Speaker 2:That doesn't surprise me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's crazy. I've heard that from a few places in town. I'm not going to name any names, but yeah, so I had a cyber lawyer on and she talked about locking your credit. Are you familiar with this?
Speaker 2:I actually need to do it. I do have a couple of clients that have purchased multiple properties where, like if they hadn't bought in a year or two, I'll forget and I go to pull and I can't pull. So it works. It works and I call them like hey, I need you to unlock my stuff.
Speaker 1:It's super easy you just slide a button and it unlocks it. And she actually said you should do it on you and your kids and your kids. That's right, Because I mean, it seems like every other month there's a data breach and you know that social securities are running, like Clay said, in Russia somewhere and they can open up credit cards and all kinds of stuff. And, and they can open up credit cards and all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 2:And I think if you do it with one, it does it for all of them. So, for example, if you would call, you know it's Equifax, TransUnion, Experian, it's my understanding. If you do it through one, it does it for all of them.
Speaker 1:So, derek, we talked about like the five ways that you can improve your credit and like the timing, so you think that you should start doing it now. Do you find that when people first start thinking about it, they're already in the market and trying to buy a house and they wait too late?
Speaker 2:People usually. The order of operations is usually flipped right. They'll connect with a realtor. They'll start looking online. They'll get really excited. Sometimes they fall in love the house and then they work backwards to see if they can actually do it, can they, some people?
Speaker 1:Some people you can throw some cash at things and make Sometimes people are ready.
Speaker 2:You know we have to work backwards Like, hey, I want to put an offer, we need to do an app, send me documents. Sometimes it's so obvious or people are buying so so below the level that they can actually afford the kind of like their max purchasing power that we can move pretty fast. We can still move pretty fast. You know really everything's digital now email, text, document upload portals, mobile mobile, mobile home loan applications, stuff like that.
Speaker 1:I really respect how you go through all of these financial documents. If I have to send a P&L or a financial statement, my eyes start crossing. And then you're asking for electricity bills and all kinds of like there's so much there's so much minutia, man, and it's like you, you have a good way of just juggling all that stuff I think it's a product.
Speaker 2:It's everyone's brain works different. It's a product of what, how you, how fast you can connect the dots in your mind, what, what your training is, what your education is, what you're interested in. We get title work in. So I mean we deal with real estate attorneys, we get title work in. I don't look at that. I mean I do right to an extent, but I'm just like you know.
Speaker 1:I know you've had a Send that to Underwriting. Let us know They'll find out any issues.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll put the ball back in there. Like, don't just send me title work, what? What are the highlights? Are there anything is there? Are there anything on here that needs to be remedied or requires further curative work? Yeah, don't make me look through it. That's not what I do. Like you got paid to do that, come tell me right? So if you have, if they have questions about the closing disclosure at the end and we're talking about money and we're talking about the loan, I don't just send them stuff and tell them to figure it out.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You know, um, we'll go over all that stuff, but every everyone's different. So you look at legal stuff and you just breeze through it. I can't you look at the stuff that I'm talking about. Um, you know my stuff, and then you get caught up.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, I have a degree in finance. I do numbers all day, I look at tax returns and like balance sheets too. There is a difference between an accounting brain and a finance brain. It just it doesn't work.
Speaker 1:I look at Kevin. Kevin's a mathematician. He knows how to divide by three or multiply by three. That's all a math lawyers know.
Speaker 2:It just takes a little bit longer and I think maybe it's a product of you know. You just get busier. You need to be hyper-efficient with time, as life gets more layered and not complicated, but just full.
Speaker 1:But in the heyday, right when it was rolling, when you had 2.5, when everybody was at during COVID, when everybody was refinancing at two and a half percent, 3.7, 2.75, three, 3%, Dude, you were probably working 10, 20 cases at a time.
Speaker 2:Uh, I, I think at the peak I had 48 lock loans at one time. Yeah, it was. Uh, I think it was. Did your wife have any access to you whatsoever? I had 48 lock loans at one time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did your wife have any access to you whatsoever?
Speaker 2:Not really. Yeah, I think this is a season in our life.
Speaker 1:honey, I'll see you in six months.
Speaker 2:Pretty much. I tell the story a lot. I think it's blurry, but there was four or five I think it was five days in a row. I worked like 19 hours.
Speaker 1:Just on the phone in a row.
Speaker 2:I worked like 19 hours just on the phone. I had to. I had to get caught up before the phone started ringing the next day, Otherwise it was going to be so insurmountable.
Speaker 1:These are refis mainly trying to take an advantage of the interest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I, I did 114 purchases that year, so for me it wasn't, I was still six, I think. 65% purchases that year and those are a lot more labor intensive.
Speaker 1:And then you figured out you got to make hay while the sun shines.
Speaker 2:That too.
Speaker 1:Because what happened?
Speaker 2:And and people who do refiles typically have it together right Cause that means they've already purchased a home Right. So unless they completely fell apart, our life dealt him a bad hand. After they got in the house initially, they generally and people actually like when people buy their second homes their financial profile almost always completely changes. Almost always. Credit scores are higher. They're managing debt differently.
Speaker 1:I see one car note instead of two or none which is fun, because then they get to buy a lot of house. But yeah, that season you were in in your life I use that term all the time seasons because that helps justify sort of look, this is temporary. I got to focus on this area at this point in my life. Interest rates skyrocket at post-COVID right, the inflation gets out of hand, interest rates go nuts and to the upside and then all of a sudden it's crickets. I would imagine, oh yeah. And then you're like man, when I was doing 48, I was miserable, but that doesn't seem so bad right about now, yeah, yeah. And then you're like man, when I was doing 48, I was miserable.
Speaker 2:But that doesn't seem so bad right about now. Yeah, yeah, that was the peak. I think I actively managed somewhere between 26 to 35 for about a year and a half after that, which is still a lot of work.
Speaker 1:But you know I was watching this guy that I follow on TikTok and you know that's famous last words. I heard this thing on TikTok, right, but he made a lot of sense and he was like look you, and it goes back to marry the house, date the mortgage. And it's like, look, when interest rates come down, the prices of homes go up. So it looks like rates are going to continue to come down because inflation has cooled some or they need to boost the economy and when these rates come all the way down, don't wait. Don't wait till the rates come all the way down, because the prices on houses go skyrocket and I think we're already dealing with sort of a shortage of homes for certain segments. Talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:So simple supply and demand rates come down. A lot of people have been sitting on the fence for two years. Some of them are slowly starting to jump off for various reasons, but yeah, when they go down. So for every 1% drop in rates full 1% it's projected that 5 million homeowners nationwide jump off the fence. Wow 5 million.
Speaker 1:Meaning they're going to the next home.
Speaker 2:Meaning they're going to start looking for houses Wow. Meaning they're going to the next home. Meaning they're going to start looking for houses Wow. So that seller's finally not feeling like they're trapped and going to purchase the next one, which frees up inventory for somebody else to come by. Yeah, that's people who haven't bought that finally do it, whether they do it on their own, or their parents have been holding them hostage and telling them not to do it, which is bad advice. By the way, we can talk about that in a second. Yeah, I want to hear about that. Yeah, so we're kind of at a sweet spot right now. You know so elite level credit for conventional loans. So that's just plain. Jane Vanilla Bank mortgage people with 3% to 5% down minimum good credit. Those people are in the low sixes right now. Um, but where?
Speaker 1:which historically is not bad it's not.
Speaker 2:You know, we had a.
Speaker 1:We were living in an alternate reality for a couple of years I mean, if you told that to people in the 80s and they'd be like can I get four of those like yeah they were 13, 15 like with the way that things are going now.
Speaker 2:I feel like it's a sweet spot because they're they're down, but sellers are still giving incentives to sell their house, okay, okay. So maybe you have a seller who's selling for a certain price and then they're like, hey, well, we'll contribute $10,000 towards closing costs and prepaid insurance and taxes that you have to bring at closing. People who have it, who have the stuff that they need, whether the loan requires a down payment or not, but they have their closing costs and insurance and stuff. What we're doing with people like that and when we get incentives. Now I have people coming to closing with no money, right, or they come with their down payment, their closing costs, and then we take that $10,000 or whatever the seller's offering and then we purchase a below market interest rate for the client.
Speaker 1:You buy down points Buy down points, okay.
Speaker 2:So what they do? They come to closing. I joke all the time because I'm very social. You know you'll get a hug and a high five from me. I love closings. That's the party for us.
Speaker 2:Right, you get a house, but then you get a seller funded refi at closing, right. So if this person is maybe at six and a quarter at closing or whatever number, right. But we get it down to five and a quarter and then interest rates drop and then people's Apple news feeds start blowing up. Their parents are like telling them hey, rates went down, you just bought a house. They see Bobby at the gym right, sarah goes and has coffee with her friend. Hey, you should refi doing things now and the contract is negotiated. You have to have the right seller, you have to have a good realtor to negotiate the contract for you.
Speaker 2:And we work kind of holistically to say again, we talked about the perfect purchase and loan strategy, not just the interest rate. But when we put all that together, those people that I've helped purchase in the last two years, those people get to go and tell their friends and their family that are telling them to do that. Go and tell, like their friends and their family that are telling them to do that. Okay, I'm already there, right? So we future proofed them against a refi that the seller paid for when they bought the house. So if rates go to five and a quarter, and they're at six and a quarter, they're already done. It's not going to make sense for them to do anything until maybe they get to four, seven, five.
Speaker 1:Right Because it's more money to refi right and until maybe they get to 475.
Speaker 2:Right because it's more money to refi right, and it's more time, it's extra cost. It's extra cost, Right, but you have to be in the money you know to use a. It has to make sense, it has to make sense Because there's costs associated with it. Right, a refinance is an exercise in spending money to save money. Yeah, so in the same way, you spend money to make money, but business makes an investment in some equipment. They got to know that they can generate enough revenue to cover the cost. Eventually, it's pure profit.
Speaker 1:I remember I had a talk with you about one of my rent house I have and we looked at it and you're like, look, the benefit is a wash. The juice wasn't worth the squeeze. The juice wasn't worth the squeeze, so we can't spend real cash today to save.
Speaker 2:you can't nominal there's expressions, I figure they are like you step over a dollar to save a dime, like it was, it just wouldn't have worked. What's important is you have to have somebody who's honest enough to tell you that right, right, and and and I belabor that point yeah, that's a good point all the time because and some like mathematically, for people who have low loan amounts, they'll come for a refi and I'm just like, look, I would love to do it, but it would behoove you to save money doing this instead. Yeah, you know, and and there's, there's some value to that. A lot, because then they know cause I tell people all the time like, look, I can't, I only get paid if I help you, and I would, I would love to help you, but there's better ways to do things. There's a better use of your money now.
Speaker 1:I think it's just good business.
Speaker 2:It's good business.
Speaker 1:We're talking about that with the guests before you Like. Look, we have conversations with clients all the time. We give them a free consultation and we tell them you don't need a lawyer to do this, and that's just good karma, it's just good business it is, it comes back around. It comes back around.
Speaker 2:Is it quantifiable? Maybe Do you know when it's going to happen? No, but you just got to know that if you're doing the right things, good things will happen, whether it's for you or for somebody else, or both.
Speaker 1:What about the people on the sideline? I'm thinking about the meme with the skeleton like that think that they're gonna buy a home at like pre-covid prices that's not gonna happen ever it won't ever like, show me the two hundred thousand dollar three, four bedroom house in youngsville or plafiat please well, they still.
Speaker 2:They still have houses in that $200,000, that 220 range, but now it's 350 square foot less. Now it has no brick on it. Now it's not a 3-3, it's a 3-2. Wow, it's not a 4-3, it's a 4-2.5. Yeah, you know the costs, the lots are getting smaller.
Speaker 1:Then you get like some kind of crazy. Aren't you like a success story, like your house? How so, I don't know, didn't you get it at like a certain price, like it's doubled in value, basically, like where you are, like you found a sweet spot, right?
Speaker 2:I mean, there's a lot of people in Youngsville, bruce, or like that area that I would say, well, I got lucky because I do this for a living right, so I was able to time my refi perfectly. You know, have a 15 year loan at one seven five Like it doesn't need. I can't even pay my house off early. It would be financially irresponsible to do that, actually, Right.
Speaker 1:But I know that people that purchased in 2017, 2018 and a good neighborhood buying a house is kind of like trying to lose weight.
Speaker 2:Okay, imagine it being January 2nd. You go into the gym and you're like, hey, I want to lose 30 pounds and the trainer says, well, look, you got to eat this much food and do this much activity based off your goals. Mathematically. If you do everything right, we don't have any complications. You should have this much gone like by this amount of time. But nothing starts until you start. So for people sitting on the fence to answer your question, if you don't start now, your appreciation clock never starts. So people two years ago who said, hey, I'm going to wait two years. Well, guess what? Their $200,000 house that that they they wanted to buy back then but said no because it was too expensive. That house is selling for two 15 now that quit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they didn't add any equity to. I mean they didn't. They didn't pay down any equity on the house, that's right.
Speaker 2:So you know you put a down payment, you have this much equity as you pay your loan down. You know you build more. But then property appreciation happens, so it grows on both sides. So did I get lucky? I would say yes, because we found the house that we liked. We were one of the first 10% of homes in the neighborhood that we bought in, were one of the first 10% of homes in the neighborhood that we bought in which ultimately has grown to be so popular. They're, I think, on their fifth phase now which is great.
Speaker 2:But I didn't wait, I started and I let time do its thing, and so I have built wealth through, just through being a homeowner. So people two years ago that didn't buy and they've been paying, say, just easy math, $1,000 in rent for two years. And they say, well, I can't afford to buy a house. I had this conversation the other day I wasn't in front of a computer so I used the same example and he said I can't afford to buy it right now. And I asked him how much his rent was going to be. He wasn't. His fiance didn't want him to move until he had finished nursing school, which he was two years out from. And I was like, well, it sounds like you can. He said well, no, I can't. So what you just told me, without telling me, is that you can afford to burn $12,000 a month. That sounds expensive Like I'm 20 years older than you, so I mean, just, naturally, you know my income is higher. I can't afford to waste twelve thousand dollars a month, you know. So he said well, what if we, when I, when I, get a job and we move right, then I'm going to lose money. So what you told me, you had a little down payment You're going to pay your loan down. It's going to appreciate. So let's say, worst case, after realtor commissions and whatever you have to give to a bar to incentivize them to buy your house and pay your loan off, that you have to come to closing with $1,000. Because that's the thing, by the way.
Speaker 2:Some people have to show up with money to sell homes. Let's say, you're upside down a thousand dollars. Do you want to lose a thousand dollars or do you want to lose 24? Because you can look back and say, well, I only that's a thousand divided by 24. Whatever that comes out to you and that's how much it costs you to own a house. That's pretty awesome, you know. And then if but if you bought four or five years ago, anybody that that bought.
Speaker 2:From 2016 to 2020, like right before COVID, property value shot up I mean everybody's up 20 to 30%. A lot of people's wealth is trapped in their houses, so you have people who don't want to jump off the fence. If you're living at home, I guess it's okay, as long as you're saving, right to take that next step. If you're renting, you're losing money. It's not tax deductible. Somebody asked well, hey, what happens if I can't pay my bills. Do you think your landlord's not going to kick you out? By the way, they can probably do that in a month At least. You have to go through the foreclosure process when you sell. You can stay in it longer.
Speaker 1:And you can scratch the money together and get, get right.
Speaker 2:You do something because the bank doesn't really want your house, right, they don't want to hold on to the house, they don't cut the grass, that's right. So there's that. And then somebody said, well, but I don't what if I can't, I get foreclosed on. I don't want to lose the house. I'd have to. You know, I'd have to sell it. And I was like, why don't you just keep it? And so how would I keep it if I can't afford it? I'm like, look, I talked to way more people who are never, ever going to buy a house than I do, who actually can be a homeowner and become homeowners.
Speaker 2:There are a lot of people that are paying rent right now to somebody. It might as well be to you, right? So if you fell on hard times, you don't have to move out and go back and live with mom. You can. But don't sell right. Get a tenant, because there's a lot of families now that have kids. You know, mom, the wife doesn't want to live in an apartment. Dad's got to go find a rent house. Let them rent yours.
Speaker 1:They're in for two years on an assignment, a traveling nurse.
Speaker 2:Traveling nurse and maybe they want to stay there forever. But two years from now you get it back together. Well, guess who widened that gap for you? As your home appreciated and paid your loan balance down, you go back in it. They've created $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 worth of wealth for you, while you were saving up money to get to that next season of life where you could go back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great point.
Speaker 2:You really never have to lose the house.
Speaker 1:If I have a client who comes into a windfall of cash we're talking about six figures Sure, some of them want to buy houses. Would you recommend that they buy the house cash if they have the money, or still look into financing?
Speaker 2:Very situation specific, very situation specific. Some people I'm sure you've seen both right A wide spectrum. You've had the good fortune to help a lot of people who needed your help and some probably weren't homeowners at the time that maybe won't ever be able to be a homeowner, meaning they probably also couldn't get approved for a loan without some sort of significant life change that would flip them from one camp to the other.
Speaker 1:For those people, they probably need to pay cash you know, Bird in the hand better than two in the bush.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:For other people it's different. You, you know, I was watching one of your um. Uh, it was a client testimonial. You had a late. You had a young lady on who was talking about how you just didn't let her get the settlement, like you were trying to connect her with financial professionals, with which resonated with me because you know we're. We have a network of financial advisors, cpas, um, a coaching group that I belong to talks about being captain of the wealth team Because, again, I look at it holistically.
Speaker 2:So if I'm getting turbo tax returns but I see people have sophisticated income, pay somebody to do that for you, but if they're averse to investing, but if they're averse to investing, why don't you invest in real estate if you can get financing? You get a half a million dollars and you want to buy a half a million dollar house and pay cash. You could, or you could, put down a hundred and then go put down a hundred four more times, get a bunch of rentals. When do you want to stop working? You know, I know this is this is tough work. Are you trying to pass this off on your kids? Is this part of your? What's your future plan Like? Maybe you want to grow the business, to sell it, but you want some mailbox money, right? Do you want to be a real estate investor? Like the types of conversations and the questions that I ask it, it really, especially when people come in the chunks of money, don't do anything, yet A lot of times people want to pay off a vehicle with a big tax return.
Speaker 1:So you could also have that conversation with them and say, look, I can get you at 5%. Historically the market will give you 8% to 10%. It's not guaranteed, but it would make sense to not put all your money into the house and put some of it in the market or whatever. But it depends on the sophistication level of the client and their credit score and all that good stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, risk aversion, future goals.
Speaker 1:I would say, another one would be but they still should have the conversation with you oh, a hundred percent you know a hundred percent. Like, even even if you have the cash, you should still have the conversation and then you can tell them say no, you would be honest with them after 30 minutes and say pay cash, make sure you have enough to cover your insurance and utilities and and go for it One thing and people forget too, like once you pay a house off, you still have housing expenses, you still pay for insurance.
Speaker 1:As a man looking to replace three air conditioners, I could tell you yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean, if you think you're going to pay cash and not have any expenses for a house, you need to talk to somebody and the property taxes keep going up and the insurance here.
Speaker 1:Hopefully we have a great hurricane season that we come out untouched, because, man, we need these premiums to go down.
Speaker 2:I think we will. I think we will. Yeah, we're almost at the end of it. Anyway, right now we're pretty fortunate. I had the unique perspective. A lot of people never leave Lafayette. We bought our first house in a suburb of Houston. The property tax is over there every year.
Speaker 1:Bam.
Speaker 2:Like crazy. It got to a point where our homeowner's insurance and tax escrow was higher than our principal interest on our payment.
Speaker 1:A friend of mine said you think you own property here, but you're really just leasing it because if you don't pay your property taxes, they're going to take it from you. That's right.
Speaker 2:So that would be a reason Throw some in emergency savings. A lot of people are like, well, hey, I want a low note. What happens if I lose my job and I can't pay the bill? Like well, that's what savings is for right, you know, go lock it up in a CD. You know, if you don't trust yourself, go put it as a go be a co-account holder on a savings account with a parent. You know, as long as there's some trust there, somewhere where you can't touch it. But if you have a slow month or you have a bad month or you have a bad handful of months, that's what it's there for, what I would tell you too. You made me think of something. I ran back. I ran into it back in. I think it was 2018.
Speaker 2:When you stop utilizing credit, all of your scores go away. I think it's about around three years. Just two examples to share with your audience One of the guys in the office did a loan for an attorney. Did so well, paid everything off, paid cash for everything, marriage dissolved, had to go buy another house no credit score, oof. So we were able to do it. He had to have a down payment, which you know. He was well, well off, right. So 10% down, and he had an atrocious interest rate but all the things that he had worked for over time. So you have to, you have to stay in the system.
Speaker 1:I guess is the point. Yeah, shut up, dave Ramsey. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You have to. You have to stay in the system. You know, and even if you're not trying to buy things, what we talked about earlier insurance, cell phones, like deposits on things if all that goes away, it's almost like it never happened, which is bananas.
Speaker 1:If you listen to Dave Ramsey, you're gonna be 75 years old when you buy a house. Right, Pay cash, pay cash. Don't you love how the billionaires give all the financial advice, right? I mean, there's some parts of Dave Ramsey that's like spot on, like the waterfall method and the snowball method and some of his advice, but the whole not taking loans thing, dude, this country was built on credit. I mean, come on.
Speaker 2:I had an elderly couple one time too, who theirs went away at the end because they had just gotten you know. So a lot of times I'll get a realtor a call and say, hey, I have a client who wants to pay cash for a house, um, older person, you know, later, man, couple, whatever and I'm trying to tell them they should at least take out a small loan. Right, and that's how I know, like, when my realtors get it too and that's part of that is just educating, like here are the things that we see, like, if you ever have a client like this and even if I don't get them like, advise them to at least do a tiny one, just to keep the history of something.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because if they ever need it and they don't have it, not because they never had it to begin with, but because they had it and it vanished. That can be pretty unsettling and it's really, really, truly. It's not fair either unsettling.
Speaker 1:It's not, and it's really really. It's really. It's not fair either. Talk to me. We got a couple of minutes left.
Speaker 2:Talk to me about the podcast. Podcast is going great. I would say that you had a big, big part in getting started. You know, I remember I had reached out to you and told you there was something you had done in a real one time where, I think visually, I had an idea in my mind visually, whatever you had done, whatever your delivery was, whatever the topic was, all of it kind of came together and it was the embodiment of whatever I was thinking about. But I couldn't visualize it. So it was that that's when I'd reached out to you, I came to watch one of your episodes, and how long did it take after that?
Speaker 1:So you're already considering it before I dropped the podcast.
Speaker 2:I was I mean.
Speaker 1:I don't say it was an afterthought. I think you might've had your equipment before me. Uh, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I had it for a while and didn't use it. You actually inspired us to beef up our cameras, so appreciate that. Um, yeah, I mean it's. It's been a process right. Things have changed right. Everyone's on their phones. I mean, I always think about you when I see the billboards. I know you talk about it with the attorneys. I think I had a real pop-up. The guy was wearing a white shirt, was talking about billboards. I mean billboards now are in people's hands, yeah, so if you're not in, front of them.
Speaker 1:Um well, podcasting is the thing that you can multitask.
Speaker 2:You can listen to it while you're running, working out in the car I think part of I think part of it is is the the personal branding part. Um, I was listening, I was listening to one uh the other day and there was some study I can't cite it but it was uh millennials, which I'm like, the first year of millennials, 1981. I always thought I was Gen X, but millennials, which is like 81 to 95, they were surveyed about branding and 70% responded that they would rather get like a personal branding resonated with them more than like generic corporate advertising. You know. So I think it's important, but it gets, it humanizes you. You know people get to see you. You allude to it a lot of time. I'm a dad, a husband.
Speaker 2:I struggle, I have successes you know, um, I wake up some days and feel like a million bucks, and some days I don't want to get out of bed, like all of that stuff is real Right, and I think it's important to share that so that people know that, so they know that you are just like them, a person, that you're a person. We're not robots. We have flaws, we have things that are really great, and it's important for people to see that it's, I think, on my side, because loans are boring, you know there, there, there are means to an end. They're a function, but, as you've found out today, there's a lot more to it than just trying to finance something.
Speaker 1:Well, I love that you're philosophical and deep, that that hits me in all my fields, but I want you to plug your damn podcast.
Speaker 2:So it's doing well. We just finished up episode 10. It's been a lot of work. I saw the stuff that went into yours a lot of editing. I got super lucky. Not only did I somehow trick a beautiful woman into marrying me, she's also super talented with video editing software and gave me the green light to spend over $40,000 on equipment.
Speaker 1:So you think you're going to get a podcast If you're listening at home and you're going to try to come take us on 40 Gs.
Speaker 2:I think, yeah, pretty much Every bit of it. Can you do it for less? Sure, I'm at a point in life where I again I credit, credit my wife. She told me just get what you want to be done with it right. So we just went top tier. I'll never outgrow the capacity or the capabilities of the equipment no um, I'll never be disappointed with the output. Um we get to what's that?
Speaker 1:what's the name of it?
Speaker 2:the nest podcast. The nest podcast and that's on all platforms. I haven't done any of the audio ones yet, like Spotify and Apple, but we are on YouTube. I regularly post clips to Instagram.
Speaker 1:You don't post it on Apple or Spotify?
Speaker 2:I haven't yet. Oh, you need to, man, I haven't yet. You should take me out to eat and we can talk about it. You need to Buzzsprout, carter, yeah, and you bring on people in the real estate industry. I've started out that way. I would say we've, I've transitioned. The conversations are a little bit different. I don't want them to all be the same.
Speaker 2:It is a way to highlight realtor partners, whether I work with them or not, to kind of be a profile. You know I looked into doing things like hey, what if I get a camera crew out here and I do an interview and some sort of marketing, commercial type stuff? It's expensive, all right. So it's a way for us. It's a way for to showcase myself but also showcase the partner. You know we cut it up into clips. We offer deliverables so that they can use for marketing content as well. If they would do that as one off, it would be a lot of times they'll get into the thousands of dollars.
Speaker 2:So I think there's something there, um, but we're you can only talk about the same thing, so much. So I've found you had told me something. You know, talk, have interesting conversations, but also like I'm wanting to have different ones now, um, even considering branching out in the format where, like, I'm wanting to have different ones now, even considering branching out in the format where it's not just two people, maybe it's me and three other people. So I do have aspirations of being kind of like a connector, like a round table I guess, more kind of like the really high end ones, you see.
Speaker 1:I can't do that with lawyers. Everybody be fighting for the floor.
Speaker 2:Well, so part of kind of like the mix I wanted to do was really just have everybody be different. Yeah Right, have you on, have a realtor on and maybe have a restaurant manager, you know, just as an example, everyone's going to be able to bring different things to the conversation. Truth be told, with that many people with that many different backgrounds, I won't even have to look at a piece of paper.
Speaker 1:Like it's just going to flow. And it's funny because you and I talk business. Sometimes we're in completely different industries. We have some of the same struggles, just being an entrepreneur, family man, this and that. Last question how do you maintain your work-life balance?
Speaker 2:It's an elusive thing.
Speaker 1:The myth of work-life balance, I should say yeah, um, the myth of work-life balance.
Speaker 2:I should say yeah, uh, you just got to work on it. I think the big thing, whatever, whatever I do, whatever anyone else should do, is just always just aim for being consistent. If that means means consistently battling at 50-50, 60-40, 40-60, being efficient with time, I think really time management. I talked a lot on the episodes that I have about calendars and time blocking, which is calendars are starting to be super easy for me now. Time blocking still can be a struggle, but be efficient with your time, but be efficient with your time.
Speaker 2:So, like yesterday, I had a block of time where I left and I went and did something with one of the boys because I knew next week it might be tough, like fitting those things in Family or growth with the downtime. You know, fight the urge to take a nap, stuff like that. But I think, with all that too, one thing that I've tried to consistently focus on is I heard a great thing a long time ago and it said it's okay to take days off. It's not okay to have an off day because the way that I show up is going to directly affect the way that my family is supported and how business goes. So if I can't be 100% or at least 80% on the phone, I push it, you know, and say, hey look, I have an appointment, let's connect tomorrow and maybe that appointment is with me.
Speaker 1:Well, when you leave here and I appreciate you coming here, but when you leave here, you got to check out the latest episode I put 30 minutes out on work-life balance Okay, and I'll give you a spoiler. One of them is the power of no Okay. So that's going to hit you all in your fields, Derek. I've read about that. So, Derek, how can people find you?
Speaker 2:Facebook, instagram, linkedin, tiktok. I'm the Derek Roban on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and the Nest podcast on YouTube, and that's spelled like Roban, it's spelled like Robin for out-of-state listeners.
Speaker 1:That's right, derek. Thank you, brother, of course.
Speaker 2:Appreciate you, man.
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