Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Nicole Giamundo, Mortgage Advisor with Envoy Mortgage

Episode Date: December 15, 2023

Nicole Giamundo is a devoted mother of twins, and an avid world traveler, offering her expertise and passion to clients in Parker, Colorado. With a wealth of experience in the real estate and finance industries, Nicole has earned a reputation for providing exceptional service and tailored solutions to home buyers, guiding them through the loan process with care and expertise.Based in Parker, Colorado, Nicole’s dedication to her clients goes beyond just finding the right loan; she prides herself on educating home buyers on the intricacies of the lending landscape, empowering them to make informed decisions and secure their dream homes. Her personalized approach to each client’s unique financial situation allows her to craft specialized plans that cater to their specific needs and financial goals.As a mother of twins, Nicole understands the importance of creating stable and nurturing environments for families. She strives to create seamless, stress-free lending experiences, ensuring her clients can focus on building their future homes and memories with loved ones.Beyond her professional pursuits, Nicole’s adventurous spirit takes her to various corners of the globe. Her travels have enriched her cultural understanding, fostering an open-minded and empathetic perspective that she brings to her interactions with clients from diverse backgrounds.With a commitment to excellence and a genuine passion for helping others, Nicole continues to leave a positive impact on the lives of her clients and the communities she serves. Her unwavering dedication to education, customer satisfaction, and personal growth sets her apart as a trusted Mortgage Advisor in Parker, Colorado, and beyond. Whether you’re a first-time home buyer or seeking to refinance, Nicole Giamundo is your steadfast guide through the labyrinth of home financing, ensuring your journey is nothing short of exceptional.Contact Nicole today to embark on a rewarding and fulfilling home buying experience, backed by a professional who truly cares about your dreams and financial well-being.Learn more:https://www.giamundohomeloans.com/Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/elite-real-estate-leaders-podcastSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-nicole-giamundo-mortgage-advisor-with-envoy-mortgage

Welcome to the Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcast, brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group, bringing you interviews with the best real estate and mortgage professionals, empowering you to understand the current trends in the housing market so that you make the American dream your reality. Enjoy today's episode. Welcome to the Elite Real Estate Leaders podcast today. We have with us Nicole Giumanda, who's a mortgage advisor with Envoy Mortgage. Nicole, welcome to the program. Thank you so much.

I'm so excited to be here. Yeah, I'm looking forward to learning from you. I really like learning perspectives and experiences and ways that different people approach the same industry. Because let's face it, there's a lot of people in the mortgage and real estate industry, but you bring your own perspective and story to how you serve your client. So I'm excited to learn about that. Get us started first with your story and background. And how did you get into the industry?

I have kind of an interesting story on how I actually got. into the industry because it wasn't ever something that crossed my mind that I would be good at. I was in outside sales. I was actually traveling the country, selling the T-shirts and the stickers and the trinkets that you would buy when your family goes on vacation and you go into the gift stores and you buy matching hoodies and all of those things. I used to travel and sell those things. I used to go into the stores and create the brand for the stores. And I absolutely loved it. I met some really great people. I got to go to some really cool places.

And then COVID happened. And in the midst of all of this, right actually before COVID happened, I had started the process of looking into buying my first home. And I felt like I was being talked at. I felt like the loan officer was speaking Spanish to me. I didn't know. I couldn't understand what was happening. And it was just very frustrating. Well, fast-word COVID happens and I lose my job.

So obviously buying a house is now out the window. I had then applied for hundreds of sales jobs and was getting maybe three interviews and no one was really bringing anybody on. And so a family member who's been a loan officer for 25 plus years was like, you know, I think you might be really good at this. And I laughed because I, my initial reaction was I'm not good at numbers. I don't, and I'm thinking back to my experience that I just had trying to buy a house, and I had no idea what went into buying a house or even where to start. And after some more failed attempts with applications and no interviews, I said, you know what, it can't hurt.

And I had decided that I needed to make a pivot in my career. And what really ended up solidifying that for me was I realized I could make a difference in people who are going to buy homes like I was and who didn't understand what to do or where to go or what any of the jargon was. And so I pivoted and I started as a loan officer assistant and then moved my way up into a loan officer and I've been here ever since. That's awesome. You know, what you just described there was you are in the relationship building business. Absolutely. You know, I think when you can think of things like that. I remember years ago, I went to a seminar called the brand of you. And when we can build our brand around us and what we do to serve our clients, then does it

matter whether you work for XYZ or PDQ company? No, because they know that Nicole is out for me to help me, has got my best interest in mind. And that's what you're doing with that traveling sales job is like you were developing rapport. And I always like to say, like, you know, hey, let's go to the real estate closing. Well, in reality, it's a real estate opening because you're opening a relationship or a continuation. You've already started the relationship. But talk a little bit about how you serve your client with that thought of mind, with putting their needs first and building that relationship. You know, and that's exactly what it is, is you are building a relationship. And so how I really work with my clients and the majority of my clients become friends.

some of them even become like family because it's not just, oh, hey, here's what you can buy a house for. Give me your money. Here's what you're going to pay. See you never. And so for me, it is, okay, let's hear why you want to buy a home. What is significant about that? Why are you looking now? Do you want to downsize?

Are you looking at maybe getting something bigger? And so I get to know my clients on a very personal level because I need to know these things so that I can better help understand where I can guide them. If you don't know what people are going through or their current situation, you can't understand how to help them get to where their ultimate end goal is. And so it's not just a transaction for me. I don't just help people buy a home and then shake their hand at the closing table and never talk to them again. I help them years down the road. And so they can call me for anything, whether it's they get into some, you know, credit card debt. They're not really sure how to get out of it.

They can call me and say, hey, Nicole, I'm not really sure where to go here. Can you help me? Of course I can. Absolutely. Or it's my brother's sister's niece is graduating, college and she's thinking about buying a house in Washington. Do you by chance to know anybody that you could recommend to us to help us out? Like those are the type of things that I like to be there for. And I truly enjoy like expanding my relationships with my clients because I have,

right now I have a client from two and a half years ago who sends me Christmas cards and knows my kids birthdays and vice versa. And she's become like an aunt figure to me. Because we've kept in touch throughout the process. I was there for her and really had her back during the process. And now she's like family. And so I just, I love that I can help someone achieve their goals without frustration and stress and then continue to be a friend in the end. Yep.

So talk a little bit about the types of borrowers that you help. I know that there are many, many, many types of loans. So do you work with first-time homebuyers, seasoned investors, or everything in between? Everybody and anyone. I can help anyone who's looking to buy a home. I really enjoy helping first-time home buyers because that's essentially why I got into this business was to help them understand what it takes to buy a home. And even it might not be right now, but I will help them if it takes years to get into a home. I will absolutely stand by their side and guide them through that process.

but I do everything from, you know, your regular, regular conventional loans, VA, FHA. And I also love doing investor type loans, the DSCR, which is a debt coverage service ratio loans to help people really start their investment portfolio in real estate. And those have been really fun to do, especially in this market. Yeah, that's, the first I'm home buyer, I think, is a important thing for one huge reason for you is you can feel that empathy and you've been

there and done that and felt what it was like on the wrong, the way that it should not have been done. You know, and I think that it's like the doctor that goes in for surgery and he goes, oh, my word, as a patient, there's so many things that I now need to do a little bit differently. Right. A hundred percent. And just sometimes people don't, they don't know what they don't know, right? And so you might think that you know what your debt to income ratio is or what's even included in that.

And then you sit down and have a conversation. Someone says, no, you don't qualify. And you're like, wait a minute. Right. So it's really important to me that I have very detailed and thorough education calls with my clients to make sure that they 100% understand know and are willing to get into a house. Love it. So talk a little bit about when that different type of loans that you have, like what are the most popular loans for for some homebuyers? Because I know that there are so many. And I think that a misconception is, oh, I've got to have 20% down. Well, that's nice. But do you have to have 20% all the time? No, absolutely. That is the biggest myth in, in my industry is that you have to have 20% down to buy a home. Sure, there's a couple of. added perks and benefits if you have 20% to put down. But for first-time home buyers, FHA loans are

wonderful because they only need 3.5% to put down in order to qualify to buy a home. There are some added, you know, other guidelines to that. There's some mortgage insurance that's involved. But there's also an option for first-time home buyers who can do 3% down on a conventional loan. So both of those loan options offer very low down payments. But what I like to do is I like to compare the two numbers to numbers. So I always say if the math isn't mathing, we're not doing it. And so, you know, some people come to me and they say, well, I have 20% down to put, you know, why don't I just do that?

I have the money. Well, let's look at the numbers. You know, does it make sense for you to bring an extra $10,000 to closing? or does it make sense to pay, you know, mortgage insurance for a couple of years and save eight of that $10,000 in a high-yield savings account and build money over time? So those are, there's a lot of conversations that go into that. But both of those loan programs are perfect for home, first-time home buyers. I love that you just, sorry, Mike, I love that you just brought that up real quick, because it is so

creative and a lot of people would say, well, that doesn't even make sense. why would I not put down 20%? And you're so right because your money can work hard. If we know you're going to refinance very soon, you know, why not let your money work harder for you somewhere else? And I am so passionate about, you know, finances and saving money. So I love that someone like you is out there kind of going to back for these first time home buyers. Because it is just, you know, all they can do is really Google this information. And I don't know where the misconceptions come from. But, yeah, again, the 20% versus, you know, 3%. It's really not out there like you would think it is.

You're in the industry and you really know it. But it's just so crazy that people do still think there's 20% as the minimum. There are so many loan options these days. So I appreciate that you brought that in here. And I think that is such key valuable information on here. Yeah, it's, you know, and those are, I love having those conversations because you can see the light bulb go off. right when you when you tell them listen you can go to a high yield savings account and put that money in there and grow it five times or you can put it all down in and then you're really only getting out of paying an extra $1,500 over that same period of time when it comes from mortgage insurance. You kind of see what the savings is and really match it up and get that amortation schedule and all of that.

So yeah, you do start seeing those light bulbs go off. And, you know, talking about the last two to three, four years where these rates, people have gotten these low rates, it's even great for those people because, you know, you can get so creative. I mean, what are your thoughts on what are you offering people with those low rates? How are you able to incentivize? There are, I just did actually some work in my own database. And I think the percentage came out to be like 89% of my clients have a three and a half person. cent interest rate are lower. Wow. And I started looking at what people's loan balances are compared to what their house could potentially sell for. And I was looking at my client, and I'm just flabbergasted. It's like $300, $400,000, $500,000 in equity in some of these homes. And it's just insane. These people are sitting on gold mines. And right now there's several different ways that they can utilize that equity without refinancing and losing that, say, two and a half percent

interest rate, right? One of them is going to be like debt consolidation. A lot of people are living on credit cards right now. Life is hard. 2023 has been so hard for so many. And I don't know about you, but my credit card interest rate is 22%. That's outrageous. And so it's really, really simple to take out a home equity line of credit. They're pulling from their equity and they're using that money to then pay off their credit cards. Now that debt's not gone, right? You just pulled it out out of your equity. But now you have maybe say a six and a half percent or a seven percent interest rate on that same amount of debt versus 22 percent. So people would be able to repay that and get rid of that a lot faster. And you're saving a ton of money. Oh, I love money.

And I like how you were mentioning previously about the cash down and if you could do it lower, but then keep your liquidity because that's great for emergencies. And even though you might have the down and you take every dime and you get in the house and then what if something hiccups in your life and then, oh, we've drained it in the house. So that's great advice you gave. And I'll kind of make a comment about the debt consolidation side of things as well. the worst thing in the world is to see that scenario where you're a house rich and cash poor, right? You've got plenty of equity. You got a lot of credit cards. So let's do that debt consolidation loan.

And look, we freed up $500 a month or $700 a month. And then all of a sudden you didn't change your spending habits. So now you're, you're getting right back in the same boat that you were before. So I'm confident that you take the heart of the teacher and educate people and say, okay, we, we, you know, we put the band. mandate on this problem. We fix it now. What can we do with, you know, your mindset and approach and spending habits and take this cash flow per month and create that cushion. So that's a huge opportunity that you're able to make a big difference in the lives of your clients.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Because it is, I mean, it's true. Even my first home that I bought, I think I'd had it maybe two months. And we had a water leak. Two months in and I'm looking at puddles on my floor going, oh gosh. And if I didn't have that mindset already, I could have been in really big trouble. And I've had clients before where the ceilings come down or something has broken. They're like, I just put all of, I literally have $20 to my name because I just put everything into the house. So that's why I really like to break that up and show them that, listen, sometimes it's not always smart to do things the way that other people maybe say is a good way. to do. You know, everyone hears from their friends or their relatives, hey, this is how we did it.

This is how you should do it. It's not necessarily always true. So I like to give the education and the options. Right. And on the flip side, what about these first-time homebuyers who do become, they want to invest? You know, they do move up and they want to start investing. You mentioned the DSCR loan. They have all this, they have all this equity, right? They're sitting on it and, you know, talk about a little bit how they can put that into a DSCR loan because I know a lot of people don't really understand how those work. Yeah. So there's a couple different ways. And remind me to circle back on first time home buyers on how to house hack because I personally did this and I love to educate my first time home buyers on how to do this. But when it comes to the DSCR loan,

essentially what they are doing is they can start their real estate portfolio. They buy an investment property. So say Tia, you came to me and you said, there's a house at 1, 2, 3, Main Street, and I'm looking at buying it. What do you think I could do? How could I go about doing this? I'll pull up a market rent analysis and I'll say, okay, this looks like you could probably get $2,500 a month in rent for that property. And we start running numbers and I see that your principal, your interest, your taxes and your insurance, say is going to be $2,500. That house now qualifies because it is cash flowing in a positive direction for you to buy that home. The cool thing about this is that I don't need any income documentation.

You don't need the two-year stipulation. You don't need to have all of the crazy, you know, like when you go buy a home, you have to show all of your work verifications and your income and all of that stuff. I don't need any of that. I need to see that that property is going to cash flow and that you have a 20% down payment and that you have enough to cover three months worth of reserves should it not rent out right away. So these people who have hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity right now can pull out that money.

We can already see that they have enough reserves and assets in order to do that. And they can essentially turn around and now have a second or third or maybe fourth stream of income having a rental property. So smart. Amazing. I know it seems so easy, but a lot of people don't know about it. No, it's so easy. Now, let's, I want to switch gears and talk about the house hacking with like a first-time homebuyer. So first-time homebuyers, as I mentioned earlier, can get as low as 3%. And I'm going to use myself as an example because this is exactly what I did. My first home was not my forever home. It wasn't the nicest.

house I looked at, it wasn't the biggest. It wasn't in the best neighborhood, but it was something that I could afford and something that I could see would make a good investment property to then cash flow down the road. So I put 5% down. I could have put more, but I didn't have to, right, because you can put as low as 3% down. I lived in that house for a little while. And then when it came time for me to go, you know what, I want something bigger for my family. I then turned around and bought another home of which I could then still put as little as 5% down because that's going to be my new primary residence. If you are going to live in a home, you can do 5% after you've already bought a home and used up your first time home buyer status, right? Right. Now, I'm buying a new

home at 5% down and I now have an investment property. If I were to buy my forever home first and use those low down payments and then buy an investment property, I'd have to put 20% down. Right. Because it's an investment property. Exactly. Yeah. So what I have so many first time homebuyers right now.

They're like, I just can't find anything that like I could see myself living in forever. I'm like, why do you want to live in it forever? Most people move in three to five years. And so start off in a house. that's not, you know, the house out of a pottery barn magazine, but start in one that you could potentially make money off of. And you can just keep going down. And get your tax deduction, get your equity build up, get your pride of ownership, get your feet under your fine better areas you want to live in three to four years down the road. And then what you just said

creates cash flow when they rent it later and retains equity growth, retains tax writeoffs, talk to your accountant. So that's a really cool strategy. I love it. So, I mean, first-time homebuyers are one of my favorites because there are so many options. And these options aren't just readily out there for people to go, oh, I want to be a first-time homebuyer. Let's go see what I can find. This information is just not out there unless you have someone who's willing to take the time and has the knowledge to sit down and educate people on how to do that. So that's what I did personally. If someone is, I think so.

I think we could talk for about 45 more minutes going, ooh, tell me about. this scenario. So if someone is listening to this, go on, let's look at some options for me. Help me figure out some things. What's the best way they can learn more about what you do and then also reach out and connect with you? They can find me on my website. It's geomundo homloans.com. That's G-I-A-M-U-N-D-O-Homloans.com. Or they can call me personally 303-903-395. Awesome. Nicole, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you today. You as well, and I am so glad that I did this. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks so much.

Thank you for listening to the Elite Real Estate Leaders podcast, brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group. To learn more about the topics mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.org.org.com.