Welcome to the January episode of Learn With A Lender with Joel Schaub of Guaranteed Rate!

In this episode Joel discusses how important it is to educate the first-time home-buyers about the opportunities, rates and rents. Joel also describes why the strategy that makes most sense is being comfortable with payments and today’s rates. Last, Joel sends a message to new agents which is to take off your selling shoes and put up your education and helping shoes.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Joel can be reached at joel@rate.com and 773.654.2049.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
Do you have clients that feel they missed the 3% rates of 2019? Well, there’s a solution for that. It’s called a two one or a three to one buy down. We’re going to talk about it today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris, I’m your guide and host through the show today, once again is our monthly series called Learn with a lender with Joel shop from guaranteed rate. Joel is the vice president of lending at guaranteed rate. He’s been doing loans at a high level since 2003. And he’s got to that level because of what he does specifically for agents, which is he gives back part of his commission to the buyer on every transaction. Now last year alone, Joel gave back over $300,000 in closing costs to buyers have worked with them. And that put Jolles production in the top 1/10 of 1% of all lenders nationwide. In fact, out of 400,000 loan officers in this country, Joel is currently ranked number 137. Now last year he closed 319 transactions is and that was over $126 million. Now if you’re looking for a loan officer, we cannot more highly recommend Joel he’s the very best we’ve ever worked with Joel can be reached at Joel his emails joel@rates.com J oel@rates.com. Or you can shoot him a text message or call him 773-654-2049. Let’s say hello to the biggest Cubs fan. I know Joel, good to see you again.

Joel Schaub 2:54
A DJ, thanks so much. I love hearing the numbers. But it’s just so important to be here and give back. We love coming on and being able to share what I’m seeing out there in the industry. And it really is making a difference for agents who listen.

D.J. Paris 3:10
Yes, it really is. And I’m so grateful that you do come on. Because you know, oftentimes, our loan officers are calling agents asking for business trying to, you know, build a relationship with an agent, but not always providing a ton of value, right? There’s loan officers who will call and say we’ve got this new product, we’ve got this new service. And that’s very interesting. But I love the you know, having conversations with you because you really instruct our audience on how to actually grow their business. And oh, by the way, you also do loans on the site. So I just think that’s just a tremendous value to our audience. So I appreciate the dedication you’ve had to our show for all these years.

Joel Schaub 3:50
We’ve talked about this offline where years ago, I realized DJ like I could not control the rates. I couldn’t control what happened in the market. But I can control how much I gave. Right. So I gave my time. And I gave money and I figured out ways that I can contribute. And if you’re an agent, you need to be doing the exact same thing. Find out who your core sphere is, and figure out ways that you can give back to them, because it’s gonna be a wild year here in 2023. And you need people that are on your team and ready to promote you and help you grow your business.

D.J. Paris 4:28
Yeah, and I think that it is it is a good point because, you know, let’s face it, there was a little bit of order taking going on on the agent side and even on the ello side, you know, while rates were at, you know, almost historic lows. So I think now it’s it’s a great reminder for everyone to you know, really ramp up your activity ramp up the amount of value you can provide so that when clients are ready to start buying, selling, you know that you’re the person that’s providing It’s so much value along the way that they it’s called in, in a psychological principle called the, the rest of the rest of the reciprocal principle, which is you provide so much value to somebody they feel a psychological need to pay you back in that could be in the form of using your goods and services. So just something to keep in mind, not to Joel, of course, because that’s Joe’s whole business was built on that exact model. But it’s something to really keep in mind as you move through this year where we know activities a little slower right now.

Joel Schaub 5:31
Luckily, just finished 2022, where the mortgage brokers Association came out with the stat this week that the applications were at 26. year lows means that we gotta go out and actually drum up the business and be providing value, the days of waiting for the phones to ring are over. And this year is literally going to be the year where you have to get out, do the work and provide value. And so if you’re listening here today, one of the things that you can do is make sure that you know where your leads are coming from, who you’re getting ready to give back to and put a plan in place.

D.J. Paris 6:10
Yeah, I let’s dive into that. I think that’s all great stuff.

Joel Schaub 6:15
Well, right now we were talking about the air about buyers that come to you as an agent that say, I think I’m gonna wait until rates come down, right? I don’t want to buy it. Okay. And so let’s flush this idea out so that we have a response. If you’re listening, right now, you’ve heard a buyer say this, sure, think I’m gonna wait until rates come down,

D.J. Paris 6:34
I missed the 3%, boom. And now I don’t want to pay, you know, six plus percent. And I’m gonna wait.

Joel Schaub 6:44
And what happens, if all of a sudden rates dropped two points, there’s going to be a flood of buyers back into the market, we’re going to see it again. So the strategy that makes the most sense, is be comfortable with the payments, where the rates are at today. Go out and buy a property when there’s not much competition, and then refinance the loan down the line, we have to be comfortable explaining and teaching the story. Okay. We can’t wait for rates to drop to jump into the market. We need to be able to buy a property now and be comfortable that when rates come down, not if when they do, we’ll be able to refinance that mortgage.

D.J. Paris 7:24
I think that’s this is a good point, you know, I’m thinking about what agents might even say to their clients, like you were you were just mentioning, because I think we can, well, a lot of clients who weren’t ready to buy back when rates were at those lows, don’t didn’t really know how tough it was to actually buy or buy a property back then. So I think that’s part of the problem, too, is that we see the 3% rate, which we’re not at currently. And we go, Oh, I missed it. But the reality of it was, you were pretty lucky if you were able to buy a property during that time. And you probably overpaid for it based on all the all the competition. So Joel, what you just said is is so important, because you’re right, if if the rates dropped by 200 basis points tomorrow, you know, they go down 2%, well, gosh, think about how much competition is now flooding that same market good, great for sellers, not necessarily great for buyers.

Joel Schaub 8:17
And if I’m a realtor, we’ll get to that business when it comes Okay, when rates do come down, we’ll have all that business as well. But the strategy right now is finding those that maybe are spending too much money on rent, and you can find them an equivalent type of property, you can get out there and buy because if you’re paying X number of dollars in rent, there’s definitely properties in your market that you can buy even with smaller down payments. And that’s kind of taking the time to partner with a loan officer and figure out what those numbers look like, so that you can actually provide value back to the buyers.

D.J. Paris 8:50
I think that’s great. You know, it’s one of the great joys of my life, you’ll you’ll get a kick out of this because you’re in this business. But one of the great unexpected joys of my life, because I don’t know, maybe I’m just was ignorant around how, you know, loans worked. I’m still somewhat ignorant about how they work. But when I bought my first property, and I was not in this industry in any capacity, I was I was at the time, what was I doing? Anyway, doesn’t matter wasn’t working for an IT company. But regardless, I didn’t know the tax benefits that were coming my way through having a mortgage and they were significant. And it was one of the saddest days of my life when I sold that property because I was losing. I was I was going to I rent it after that because it made sense for me to do that. But I lost all of that great interest deduction. And so I think that’s also something that a lot of renters, they just don’t know. I mean, I didn’t know.

Joel Schaub 9:45
It’s absolutely true. And it comes back to this first point of being able to provide value and have a plan right? So if your market is working with buyers that are renting and getting ready to buy, understand the numbers you have to be ready and be able to explain exactly the questions that are going to come up. If you’re a buyer talking to you as an agent, what is the rent versus buying scenarios in my market, it’s very important that you actually understand it so that you can go out and provide value, you’re not going to get ahead, you’re going to be like anybody else who’s going to have a slower year unless you can actually take time, figure out what your market is going to be and then add value.

D.J. Paris 10:23
Yeah, too. I think you’re saying no, your numbers, it’s so important. Because if I have somebody who’s worried about rates and going, Oh, I missed out, that’s a lot of it, I missed out that FOMO fear of missing out. All you have to do is find out what properties they would have been looking at back during those times when rates were low, and show some of the close prices that that you know that that happened, and then show what they’re those same types of properties are being listed at today. Odds are in most markets, those prices are going to be a heck of a lot lower today than what they actually closed for two years ago. So you really do you show the numbers you show your work, like they used to say in school, show the math, and then that really, hopefully should make a pretty compelling argument, why now is still a reasonably decent time to buy a property even with higher rates.

Joel Schaub 11:16
Especially now with sellers being able to come to the table and give credits to a buyer. If you’re an agent right now, and you don’t understand the concept of temporary rate by downs for your clients. Take some time to look into what a temporary rate, buydown does, because right now we’re locking in clients, back in rates in the threes and fours for the next couple of years, while rates are higher. And using seller paid closing costs to do that. So we’ve seen all the rage, right? People are talking about to one rate by downs, and three to one rate by downs. And right now I kind of wanted to pull the curtain back and really hammer home, if you maybe are familiar with what this concept is, what the numbers look like, and how you can use that to get another deal for your next buyer.

D.J. Paris 12:09
Yeah, we’re talking about education. And this is the time when you go out and educate people. And you you I think it can be as simple as how would you actually do this, you would pick up the phone, you would make a list of all the people you know that are renting. And even if they’re your close friends who you want to test this out on first, maybe not your exact, you know, your your prospects who aren’t, you know, as close to you as maybe other people, get some family members and say, Hey, I’m I want to try to explain this this sort of situation we’re in, let me know if this is compelling. Does this make sense does Are you able to follow this. And I think it’s great to test it with people outside of the industry. And because the vast majority of buyers and sellers are not really connected to the real estate industry, they just own or rent. And this would be a great opportunity to get that pitch down. And then if it was me, once I got a thumbs up from a couple of friends as they heard my 510 minutes sort of explanation about where numbers are options, why it might make sense to buy now, and just having that information in front of you, I would be picking up the phone and calling every single person I know and saying, Hey, if you have a couple of minutes, I’d love to swing by by a cup of coffee and just talk about what’s going on in the market so that you can make the best decision. I mean, no one else is really doing that. So I not not nobody, I’m sure top agents are but a lot of agents are sitting on the sidelines, they’re depressed, they’re sad about the conditions in the market, they’re not making these kind of calls.

Joel Schaub 13:38
So let’s take that buyer right now and run the numbers so that if you’re listening, you really understand what the temporary buy downs offer for your client so that you can understand it, and see if it makes sense for your buyers or not. So I’d like to use the number of a $500,000 purchase. And the idea would be getting a closing cost credit of 3%. Okay, using a 3% credit where that dollar amount is 15 grand. And that 15 grand is used by the bank to lower the rate for the next two years. So right now, as of the taping, the rates on 30 year fixed mortgages are just over 6%, by the way, is down from some of the highs that we’ve seen in the last few months. So for this calculation, I’m going to use 6.125. Okay, and that means the rate gets locked in, but for the year number one, the rate is two points lower. So now the client is literally paying 4.125. In year number two, it goes up to 5.125. And then for the rest of the life of the loan, it’s at 6.125. However, we feel in the next couple of years rates are going to be lower than that so they can refinance that loan for free with almost any bank. They’re offering free refinances. And so Let’s take a minute to understand the numbers here. Because I already know you’re listening. And you say, Well, why $15,000, I’ll just take 15 grand off the price DJ, right. And so if we look at the math on that, and we take 15 grand off the price, sure, that certainly does save the client, somewhere around 150 to $200 a month, okay. But if you take that same $15,000, and apply it to driving the rate down into the force, for the first year, the payment is six or $700 less per month. And now you have buyers that are off the fence, right? Now you’re using that money, because the sellers are going to provide it. And it’s just another way for you to get a buyer and have them not have the fear of rates being so high, because it’s a temporary problem. And now we have a solution if the sellers are willing to do a credit to cover a two, one buyer down, or even a three to one buyer down. So there’s a lot of options out there. Call one of your lenders that’s calling you all the time. Ask them to explain it to you. Ask them if they understand it, and partner with them. Okay, there’s a lot of agents right now that need a good lending partner, and mortgage companies all over right now are coming out and saying, We need deals. And so it’s good to find somebody that’s local, and make sure they know what the heck they’re talking about. Work with them and make sure that you have a good partner that’s local that can help you.

D.J. Paris 16:29
Yeah, I mean, it really is that simple. And I think these are the times when agents need to lean on their loan officer relationships and really extract out of their ellos all of this information so that that the agent, because what it really does is it doesn’t only give you an actually viable strategy for somebody who’s not ready to buy or thinks they’re not ready to buy, or maybe doesn’t want to sell currently, it doesn’t just give you ammo, when you’re working with those people, it also gives you a reason to pick up the phone and call people who you maybe wouldn’t have a reason to call or wouldn’t really have much to say other than just checking in hope everything’s well, which is great, too. But when you’re calling somebody say, Hey, I wanted to have a quick conversation, and just explain to you a couple of options that I’ve seen work really well right now, just in case you guys were thinking about it. And I just want to keep you in the loop of what’s going on. I mean, that is it’s kind of like my fantasy with every single service professional in my life, whether it’s my accountant, my attorneys, I don’t you know, I don’t think we need attorneys too much. But like financial advisor, that’s a great example. Now, financial advisors are usually pretty good at this kind of thing. But let’s go back to accountants, because accountants tend, in my experience, not to be as proactive as reactive, I would my fantasy, and I love my accountant. But my fantasy would be my account calls me three times a year, and he’s like, I got this great idea how you can save tax money on your taxes next year. She doesn’t do that. That’s not really her role. But boy, I would love that, right? I would pay for that kind of advice. And so you’re really providing that level of service that really everybody wants. But very few people actually get right all the realtors come around when you’re ready to buy or sell. But when you’re not ready to buy or sell, they tend to disappear. You want to be the one that that swoops in and says, Hey, I’ve got some information for you here, whether you’re ready or not, I want to tell you what I know, so that you can make a good decision. I mean, it sounds so simple. And it really is how you in particular have grown your business over 20 years. I mean, also, you know, you’re a heck of a good loan officer on top of it. But the education piece is what every single person I know says about you. They’re like, Oh, we see Joel, all these events, you know, and he’s very present, and he does all these fun things. But when you actually talk to him, he just knows more than the average loan officer. And of course, that’s why you’re really are that successful, because you actually deliver on that. And that’s what agents can do by leaning on their loan officers relationships to get this information.

Joel Schaub 18:56
is so excited that you said that because last year was a down year, it really was right. But we still average every single month, I was able to help 26 families last year when you looked at the entire year. So 26 families closed or individuals every single month. And I talked to agents that say I would like to get to just 26 in a year. What are you doing? And the answer always leads back to education. I’m educating the borrowers do you know how many people come to me and say the same thing where I don’t think I’m ready to buy. And then we look at their scenario and we help them and we empower them. And we teach them and then the next thing you know, even though they talked to their bank, they’re ready to buy. The agent now has somebody who’s educating fears usually the number one thing they weren’t taught, nobody was helping them. Everyone was selling them. So you can take off your selling shoes, put on your education and helping shoes. You’re going to grow your business and that’s what we’re looking forward to Helping agents this year by making sure they know their market and making a plan and giving back. That’s

D.J. Paris 20:07
why I always love when I get a phone call from a new licensee, a new realtor who pass their exam. And they go, you know, just so you know, I’m a teacher, but I have the summers off. So I can I can work more in the summers, but for now, I’m probably going to keep teaching. And I always say, Well, you know, look at teachers, I think oftentimes become the best realtors, because they’re so used to educate it, like it’s literally their life and being of service, right teachers are of service and, you know, obviously, they’re, they’re one of our most valuable resources in our country. But I always get excited when when anyone who’s a service person, you know, maybe they’re a police officer, or you know, firemen, teacher, people who are of service, they sort of understand that that idea that I can be of tremendous value. And I need to earn the business and earning the business requires that you you know, you’re out there talking to your, your sphere of influence, and, and the people who are not quite ready to make a decision. But you’re that you’re ready to continue to help them. I think I think most most agents will turn you away. If you’re not pre approved. If you’re not ready to buy, they’ll just go okay, well call me when you’re ready, right? They’re not, or they’ll put you on an email list. And you’ll get their email every two weeks for the next couple of years. And that’s fine. But they’re probably not calling, they’re probably not really providing value they might be calling every so often just to go, are you ready? Are you ready? But think about just like turning that model on its head and you don’t wait for somebody to be ready, you just continue to provide value.

Joel Schaub 21:40
BJ, you are so correct. I have a new program that would be really helpful for people that are listening. And it’s catered to the first time homebuyers, right. So Freddie Mac has a loan program called the low to moderate income AMI program. And so you can actually go to Freddie mac.com and look up the area median income for your county, where we’re at here in Chicago, the area median income is $105,000. And that means for buyers that make under $105,000. They could put down as little as 3%. down and lock in rates today at 5.875. Even if they had credit scores in the six hundreds. So let me repeat that again. Yeah, say that when Mr. tambor what we talked about? Just a few moments ago, we talked about mortgage rates being above 6%. Right, conventional loans, if you’re a low to moderate income borrower, and let me ask you, I don’t think $105,000 Very low income. Good. No, in

D.J. Paris 22:47
fact, I’m looking at it. And while you were where you were doing that, I went to Google and typed in, and I’m actually at the Fannie Mae website in my neighborhood. In Chicago, same thing 100 And $6,000 is the medium income, it is kind of interesting, because I’m i It does not seem like a low number. But but that’s technically considered median.

Joel Schaub 23:09
And so that means all of the adjustments on these loan programs are taken away. So that means low downpayment, that normally results in a higher rate wiped away, the higher rates for lower credit scores wiped away. So that means literally, we were quoting borrowers just last week, where the banks were quoting them rates in the high sixes and sevens. And we were in the fives, because we know about the programs. And so it’s important that you work with people that know what they’re doing, and partner with them. Because it can literally make the difference DJ for a buyer that says I’m comfortable and ready to go to somebody that says, I think I’m going to wait. And so I send out a weekly newsletter. And I know that so many people have gotten in on this. And so if you’re listening, and you want to have access to just smart, easy, digestible tidbits that you can share, and sound like a million bucks, you can just simply drop me an email at joel@rate.com. And in the subject line, say add me to your newsletter. In the body, you can say Joel, I love you send me the letter. You don’t have to have a lot of paragraphs in there just a simple message saying you want to be added. And then we’ll drop you weekly things that you can use, that’ll be very relevant, but it is digestible. And it’s in layman’s terms instead of being so over the top with the speak of mortgage. Okay.

D.J. Paris 24:37
I love that I you know, again, we always come back to the fundamentals, but it’s also the fundamentals really are what win the game at least it’s been my experience that way I know. John Wooden the UCLA coach who won the most believe he’s not been surpassed the most number of NCAA Men’s championships. I think he wants seven in a row, by the way at one point in the 60s or 70s. He was all about the fundamentals, he’s he just everything was information and hard work and discipline, he never looked at the score, he didn’t look at it, he would, he wouldn’t be looking at the rates, he’d be looking at activity, you know, he made his player shoot 500, free throws a day, things like that, you know, just getting in the repetition get getting the skill down. And I think this is the year of skill. And we’re also going to be seeing probably a number of ellos leave the loan officers leaving the industry because you know, my activities down, we’re also seeing a tremendous number of Realtors leaving the industry. So that means there is market share up for grabs, you know, now is the time to really start establishing yourself as the Education Source so that you can swoop in in case maybe someone else’s previous agent leave is leaving the business. Just to give you an idea in the last while worrying in January. Okay, so in the last two months, prior to the last two months, are we at a holding company, which is for agents who aren’t practicing just want to keep their license active, they’re basically out of the business. We had 500 agents in that company today through two months later. And we started that company like eight or nine years ago. In the last two months, I’ve added over 200 agents, not our agents just agents in Illinois, that’s because we can serve as the whole state that way. Literally 200 agents have found us we do no marketing at found us and go hey, I’m getting out of the business. So guys, yes, that that’s that’s an unfortunate thing for them an amazing thing for you. Because you get to come in now and sharpen your tools, to everything Joel just mentioned these different loan products, you know, this is now the opportunity, you have to pick up that market share that’s being left behind.

Joel Schaub 26:39
And lead with honesty, I can’t tell you the number of times DJ where somebody just wasn’t ready to buy and they were getting pressured from somebody else, another loan officer at a bank telling them it’s a great time. And I slowly help them and say actually, what we should do is fix x, y and z. We could close this, but I can get you much better terms and lower rates, if we just did the following three things. And yes, it will take you some time. And the honesty that comes through and somebody hears that somebody’s in it, not just for themselves, the buyers then realize you are looking after them. And sometimes we never even in closing them. And they refer us people because we were honest, and we took care of them. That’s what you need to be doing as agents as well. Not everyone’s ready to buy. Just because you want to go get a commission doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy. So understanding leading with empathy and trying to find out how you can help people that’s always going to win. And especially in this market, when people are leaving, you got to find ways that you can give back, lead with honesty, and get your plan together for 2023.

D.J. Paris 27:46
And I want to remind everyone of a statistic that my friend Ryan always reiterates when he’s on our show. And it’s an important one for those of you that are feeling like there’s just no activity out there right now. And I know how it can feel that way. I talked to top agents who feel that way, right now, I talked to new agents who feel that way. So I get it, I understand that that that thought, and I’m not saying you’re wrong. But what I will tell you is this great statistic from Brian that says, and it’s not his, he just read it somewhere. And he always reiterates it, which is 16% of the people in your sphere are going to transact in real estate this year, they’re either going to buy something, or they’re going to sell and then maybe buy something else, you know, 16% of the people you know, so you have business coming, right if you know, 100 people that’s 16 to maybe 30 Plus transactions, based on how you know if someone’s buying and selling or both. So this is the time to really lean into that education, because you can make some huge inroads. So don’t worry about the business that you don’t see right in front of you today focus on your activity, because again, you have people in your sphere that you just don’t even know are going to transact and you want to capture that and by capturing it, you’re going to want to be a value. And then, you know, that’s pretty much how it works.

Joel Schaub 29:01
And remember guys rates are down, we did see just three months ago that rates were over 7%. So take everything that you can and get out there and educate and let people know rates are lower now. And even though the feds will continue to raise short term rates, we’re gonna see a trend and that trend is lower. Okay, we might have a few bumps in the road, but this year is going to be better than you expect. Okay, so stay positive, go out and teach and find the people that really need your help.

D.J. Paris 29:31
I think that is so important. And I just got to watch the chief economist for NAR, the National Association of Realtors. We’re very lucky in Chicago because our Chicago Association while the national association is headquartered here in Chicago, and our local Chicago Association happens to be in the exact Joel already knows this. But for our listeners, the Chicago Association, the local one is actually inside the national association building. So we’re sort of lucky when we go to the car offices, the Chicago offices because we actually get to see sometimes some of these national people. And I will tell you that, you know, and I certainly am not an economist in any capacity. But the chief economist for National Association of Realtors, who is literally just a stats guy. He was not he was comparing what where we’re at now with the the 2008 to 2010 crash. And he’s like, he showed us statistics, he was like, this is just a totally different thing. This is not that. So we don’t, he was not concerned that we’re headed for some huge catastrophe. He goes, the sky is not falling. In fact, he suspects rates will be coming down even further throughout the end of the year. So he says no, things are actually pretty good. It might not feel that way. But he goes, let me show you why he made a compelling case. And I won’t, I won’t make his case for him, because I’ll probably screw it up. But the good news is National Association realtors. And again, you might say, well, they’re incentivized to want to think that things are rosy, but no, I found them to be pretty accurate. Over the years, and boy, things are not so bad. Right now, it’s just going to require more work this year, you’re just gonna have to work a little smarter. But it’s fun to educate people. I think that’s the easy part of the job really, right? Like the dealing with actual transactions. That’s the hard part. So I love the idea that you can just be of service this year, think about this as a service here. And business will come because people again, like I have that fantasy of wanting my accountant to call me now, again, I could call my accountant and I’m not picking on her in particular. But if somebody were to call me and say, I’ve got somebody who does that? I’ve got an accountant, who does that? Do you think I would take that call? I sure as heck would. So I imagine you’d be of service to somebody, they might tell other people and they might be the ones calling you.

Joel Schaub 31:43
And this is your call to action right now you can call back and say, I know you’re a first time homebuyer, I was just listening to an amazing podcast, I think we can get you back with your bank and get rates lower than other people. Is it worth us doing some business together? No, go, Wow. Thank you. And so that’s the call to action. Let’s get out there and make sure that you’re doing the things that it takes because the phones just not gonna ring. Well, I

D.J. Paris 32:08
have two, two action steps for everybody. Of course, number one, take some action from this podcast. Think about what you can do to reach out to your sphere and educate them. You know, listen to this again. Also, my second thing is sign up for Joel’s newsletter, all you have to do is send an email to joel@rate.com. Because guys, let’s face it, this stuff is complicated. And it we we as agents need to see it in small bite sized chunks with with, you know, little bullet points that we can, we can hammer home and Joel does this. And his team does this every single week. So joel@rate.com just mentioned, you want to subscribe to the newsletter, and also reach out to Joel to he provides value to agents, he will talk to your buyers and sellers possibly, and his team would love the opportunity to work with you if you don’t have a good relationship with an ello or somebody that really isn’t providing a lot of value these days. This is these are the times you get to lean on your loan officer and say, Hey, I really need some help here. This is this year’s a little tricky. Can you help me? Joel and his team are absolutely able to assist with that. And Joel, what’s the bet? Well, people can email you joel@rate.com. And is there any other way they should reach out?

Joel Schaub 33:20
People are surprised when they call and they actually get us live on the phone. So 773-654-2049 That’s a direct line right to my office. And then joel@rate.com You can sign up, I promise you, we don’t have anything to sell you. I’ll get you on the newsletter so that you can learn what we’re seeing on our end. And then if you do have buyers that you’re interested in working together with, you can actually introduce us and have no closing costs on those deals, we give a $1,500 credit so that all of the lender fees are covered. So it’s a great way to work with us for the very first time and have no fears that their clients are going to have high fees or high rates. We’re just here to help for sure. So yeah, thanks so much.

D.J. Paris 34:07
I have one last great one last question. And this is kind of a fun question. It’s it’s more of a there’s not a specific answer that I’m looking for here. But I’m just curious, because you are deep within the lending world. And you saw what people had to give up the concessions they had to make back when rates were at those historic lows. Would you as knowing everything that you know, would you and again, there’s a million variables that would influence this, this answer. But would you in general rather have been a buyer during that time, also being in competition with all of the other buyers who are also taking advantage of those rates, or being a buyer now Do you have a particular sense of whether obviously you’d be paying less if you bought this property for the same price, but it wouldn’t have been the same price. So I’m curious, do you have a general thought of what you would have preferred per Personally,

Joel Schaub 35:01
I’m all about ease. And you already know the answer to this question. I don’t like things being difficult. I want things my way, I want to make sure that I’m catered to and taken care of, and I want to see the house before,

D.J. Paris 35:15
you don’t want to buy it unseen.

Joel Schaub 35:18
Right, with no contingencies and everything waive. So right now, don’t worry about rates, if you can afford the payment, now you can go out and get the sellers to cater to you. Okay. And so it is definitely easier right now as a buyer, okay, to go out and get a property compared to what it was 1218 months ago, I still like the lower rates, I’m in mortgages, I would love to have the lower rates, but it’s so much easier now. It really is. Okay, so today would be much better than getting rates at two and a half percent where I had to go find five houses. I loved all five, and I couldn’t even get into one. Now go out, find a home, submitted a value or submit an offer under the value. And when? Awesome, well,

D.J. Paris 36:05
well said. So everyone two things, take some action, call your clients get, give them some information they can us tell them that rates have dropped and tell them why that’s significant. And yes. And explain to them what that means for the marketplace. And then also send joel@rate.com and email, get on his mailing list so he can provide you this value so that you can rely upon his team every single week to give you talking points, guys, that’s what he’s going to send you talking points. It literally gives you a reason to pick up the phone and call everyone and you don’t have to ask for business when you have talking points. You’re an educator. You’re an educator. Okay, awesome. Joel, on behalf of everyone, we want to just thank you again, I can’t tell you how amazing these episodes are for our, for our audience, they love it. And on on behalf of Joel and myself, we love you. We love the audience, we are so grateful that you are here we are at record numbers ourselves, which I’m not saying to brag, because I don’t think it’s most I don’t think I have that much to do with it. But I’m just grateful that this content seems to be resonating with agents. So please also tell another friend and you’re telling another agent about this podcast, especially someone who’s a little bit down right now, guys, I just watched the video last night, the top producer in Chicago out of 46,000 agents was not complaining. But he was saying this is going to be a tricky year. So I have to work harder. Now this is the top agent in Chicago saying he is going to work harder this year so that he can be a value to his clients. Right. So this take take these these tips we’re giving you and take put them into action. Let’s do it. Let’s all do it together. We’ll keep providing value in this in these episodes. You keep telling a friend to subscribe to Joel’s newsletter, and keep showing up every every week so we can provide you more and more value. You can grow your business and then you can tell Joel and myself how grateful you are to us for helping you and I’m teasing. You don’t have to do that part. But we’re just grateful to work to get to your ears and we’re so honored that you listen so thanks on behalf of Joel and myself Joel we will see you on the next next month and we’ll provide even more value then.

Joel Schaub 38:09
Thanks so much DJ was really really good and take this to heart. It’s going to be a great year everybody. 2023 is going to be strong.

Funky Friday on a Wednesday