And a pleasant good morning to you.
We're going to talk money, always an interesting topic and a monthly visit with Aaron McCullum from the Marine Credit Union is here.
He's the community lead and you brought a special guest today.
Who'd you bring with you?
Yes, I brought my amazing teammate, Ms.
Vanessa Reyes, our mortgage specialist here at our Racine Financial Empowerment Center.
So
you're the person people come through.
I love this house.
It's my favorite house.
I need $20 million for this mansion.
Can you please give it to me for like a 4% interest rate?
I don't know about the 4% interest rate, but yes, I'm the person you want to talk to to get your dream
house.
Please, I can only 4% and need this $200 million home.
$200 million, huh?
They sell them.
You've been to, you've been to California and Bel Air and all those things.
They're like $30, $40 million homes out there.
Even in Miami Beach, some of those homes out there, those mansions for the drug dealers, they're like $40 million homes.
Wow.
Opening
doors to homeownerships right there.
Drug dealers.
Okay, so before we start on the mortgage stuff, any big community projects coming up that we need to know about that you guys are involved in?
Oh, we're always active in the community.
Let's talk about some of
those.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's crazy how we're already halfway through July.
It's like, where did summer go?
If you want to mark your calendars next week at our good old friends of Racine Public Library, we're doing a family of financial education workshop for adults and for kiddos in collaboration with the city of Racine.
So from 1.30 to 2.30 Monday through Thursday,
We will be there at the Racine Public Library.
No registration, come as you are, and have a great time learning with your family.
As well as, it's hard to believe, just a couple weeks from August, we're on August 4th, that we're doing a community night out with the Mount Pleasant Cop House.
So, if you're looking for a fun, free time out with your family, come out and say hi.
That is from 3 to 7 p.m.
on Tuesday, August 4th.
A lot more, too.
August 1st, if you're a pet fan, if you want to walk your dog in a fun community event, the Wisconsin Humane Society is having a pet walk.
And that is at Pets Park in Kenosha, just down the road.
From 9 to 12, there's going to be a fun pet walk, good conversation, good times.
Come out and see us.
You're going to bring my pet a crocodile with me?
He'll be on a leash.
That'd be quite unique.
I've never seen a pet crocodile.
him on a leash, I promise.
muzzle.
There's people who are brave enough to bring their cats.
So, I mean, cats are welcome, too, if you're about that.
But yeah, staying busy, staying community focused, and it's been really great.
Through our conversation last month, we had a library workshop just a couple weeks ago and a couple of...
You're awesome.
Listeners attended the library workshop because they heard our conversation.
So you mean radio works?
Radio
does work.
I never knew that.
It does.
So if you're like me when I get your calendars full on August 12th, just a couple of weeks from now from four to six, we will be having another fun free library workshop.
And this one's tying it back to school.
So whether you're
getting ready as a parent to get your kids back to school, or if you're a student getting ready to go back to school, we have some great resources and content for you.
And that is from four to six on August 12th.
Let's talk about mortgages here.
I'll tell you a quick story.
My dad, when he got out of the Navy and during World War II, married my mom, and they had an apartment in the Bronx.
That's where I was, you know, that's where I was in the Bronx with my brother.
And he said, I got to get a house.
We're going to get a house.
Didn't have a dime to his name, but we're going to get a house.
So he found this house in a town called Massapequa on Long Island, which Long Island wasn't really built up yet.
There's still some farmland out there, but this was a brand new community, Massapequa.
And he said, I got to get this home.
So he found a home brand new, just built.
And it was $14,500 now.
This was 1955.
So that was a lot of money.
So we spoke to the the realtor and the realtor said well I need something to hold it and he was a vet and This is at the end of World War two.
They were bending over a little more for vets I need ten dollars.
My father didn't have it.
I go back to Brooklyn to his brother Give me ten dollars went back with ten dollars down got a 30 year mortgage and my father said at the end of 30 years He went to the mailbox kissed the last mortgage payment and put it in And he said he thought he would have a heart attack at the end and finally paid off and I'm not gonna get a chance to enjoy it
But that was my father's dream to own a home and get a mortgage.
And again, he was a vet the end of World War Two, so they were a little more lenient toward vets then.
And he got the house for 30 years.
Now, what did I tell you that house was?
I said it was going for, it went for $14,500.
It's now listed for $675,000.
I believe you.
Wow.
I just saw it recently.
My mother sold it for 225.
The next people sold it for 400 and kept going up and up and up.
And it's not a big hat.
It's a ranch style home.
But it's in Massapeak with New York.
So anyway, what my point is, get a home.
You know, your dream could come true.
Make sure you can afford it.
And that's where you come in.
Yes.
You tell them if they can actually, some people can't afford it.
Absolutely.
Some people, I think it's lack of education.
They think that they need 20 percent down or that they need a certain credit score.
The great thing about Marine Credit Union is that we help when other banks say no.
So that's where our unique lending comes in handy.
We take care of people that have had a bad situation happen to them.
You know, for example, divorce.
A lot of people are going through a divorce.
Sometimes their credit, you know, gets messed up.
They won spouse and doesn't pay or the other spouse and it can get messy.
If you, Marine Credit Union,
takes pride in listening to your story, not just looking at a credit score and saying, you don't qualify.
So I have saved deals.
I did one closing last week where the other lender was like, no, I can't do it.
You know, you don't make enough money, but they weren't looking at that she was part-time and in school last year.
And now she's full-time and not in school because she graduated.
So they are like, we have to take the average of the two years.
But
she in reality makes full time now and she's been doing that since January.
So Marine Credit Union was able to help her.
And
again, not everybody can afford a mortgage for a home.
It's what most people can.
And I know it looks sometimes, oh, I can't afford that.
Well, it's your job to tell them how to afford it.
Yes.
I also think that and I also think everybody is generally paying a mortgage.
Maybe it's just not theirs.
You know, when you're renting,
you're
paying someone else's mortgage.
A lot of people are.
Yeah.
And with rent prices right now, I think it doesn't hurt to try and at least get started on the path.
What do I need to do?
Okay.
A lot of mortgages too.
You have to pay mortgage insurance.
He and I.
Yes.
Wouldn't you explain what that is and why you don't charge it?
We do not have PMI on any of our loan.
It's called
private mortgage insurance.
I
do explain what that is.
Private mortgage insurance is basically insurance on the loan.
So it's insurance.
It's the lender insurance.
It's not homeowners insurance.
And I think a lot of people think, well, I have homeowners insurance that's included in my loan.
The homeowners insurance hazard insurance is insurance on the collateral.
private mortgage insurance is insurance on the loan, on the money.
We do not have PMI on any of our programs.
Regardless, if you put five, 10, 15, doesn't matter, percentage down, we do not have PMI.
We're talking to our guest, Aaron McCullum, community lead for Marine Credit Union and Vanessa Reyes, a mortgage specialist.
Thank you for bringing her in this morning.
It's nice talking to you, but it's nice talking to Vanessa as well.
And you're the mortgage specialist.
So all day long, you got calculated, you got numbers, you got people coming in.
I want to buy a home.
Yes.
And they would say, can I afford the home?
And you say, let's see.
Absolutely.
We start with pulling credit and looking at their financials.
And if they don't qualify, I definitely put them on a plan on how they can get to qualifying or what they need to do to get to the point where they can buy their dream home.
What's it says here?
What's one of the biggest myths misconceptions about getting a mortgage?
A lot of people always say, oh, I need I don't have a down payment.
I need 20% down.
I only have you know 2000 saved and in reality, there's so many resources out there.
We actually work with down payment plus, which is a lower income income based I should say not lower income income based grant for $10,000.
So
If you come in and start the process, you may qualify for that $10,000 to help with the down payment closing costs.
Realtors have gotten really crafty with how they draft their offer to purchases.
You can get seller credits.
You don't need 20% down, so I think that's the biggest misconception.
Yeah, that's something I always heard.
You need at least 20% down to buy a home, and then the rest you can finance.
Yeah.
You don't need that,
huh?
No.
Huh.
I was taking to the cleaners one night.
Of course, I bought my home years and years ago.
You know what the most exciting part is?
That last payment to make when you finish your mortgage, you put that last payment in there, give it a put it in the mail slot, and that's the end of it.
Although today you probably just hit a keystroke on your cell phone and sent it.
But yeah, that's a good feeling.
And my father was that that was a good, I own a home.
He never thought in his entire life he would ever own a home.
And by the way, I was wrong about his home.
I said it was $600,000.
$747,000 is what it's going for now.
And he bought it for $14,500.
So that's an investment.
Definitely an investment.
OK, but not all investments pay off, but people want to buy investment property.
Same thing for mortgages, if they're not going to live there.
We actually allow investment properties one to four units with 15% down, where a lot of other institutions do not.
They require 25%, 20% down.
Do the mortgage for 15% down for investment now if you're gonna buy a duplex and live in one of the units It's 10% down because it's owner occupied.
Yeah.
Now.
What about vacant land?
Vacant land is also 10% down only.
Okay.
Let's get into this business
funny story.
So I wanted to be an attorney, but then it turned out that I started working for a PMI company, MGIC, and I started seeing all the foreclosures and I was like, you know what, I want to be on the other side.
I don't want to, you know, look at these foreclosure stories.
I want to let people have the ability to buy a dream home.
So I started working for another bank and as a mortgage lee trainee, and then I just found love with my job.
The fact that I can help someone
get into a home, someone that's been told no, or someone that really doesn't believe that they can do it, and I put them on the path and getting to closing is the amazing feeling.
So you had a choice in letting murderers go free or helping people get homes and you went for the helping
people.
I helping people.
Do you ever see the movie The Big Short?
No, I have not.
You ever see it, Aaron?
Based on true story, right?
Yeah.
Oh, did you see it, though?
I
did not see it.
Oh, you guys.
I heard of it.
I heard of it.
How could you not see it?
It's based on a guy.
He was a doctor and he predicted the big housing crash back in the 80s.
He predicted that was going to happen where, you know, people just getting money, money, money, money that they couldn't pay and everything collapsed in the housing market.
And he predicted that.
And this is when I think was the 80s or 90s Goldman Sachs.
That's when they went out of business To do this whole big thing.
Was it Goldman Sachs that went out of business?
I think pretty sure it was them.
I was born in 94 so you're talking to
the
wrong guy
Anyway, and this guy predicted it was all gonna happen and nobody would believe him and boom it happened and a lot of big stars in there Brad Pitt's in it They gotta play Batman.
I can't think of a But a lot of big stars are in this movie and you gotta watch it.
We watched it twice in the theater
And we watched it a couple of times on DVD.
The Big Short.
It's all about your business.
I'll have to watch it tonight.
The Big Short.
And it is a true story, though.
Everybody, the characters are real.
And the last thing on the screen is the doctor who predicted all this was going to happen, they said he's no longer in the real estate business, he's in the water business.
And we watched it in the theater where people say, what's with water?
Should we invest in water?
If this guy knows me.
And sure enough, water is, we're getting to the...
part now where it's, you know, you got to invest in clean water.
I mean, it's so this guy's brilliant.
The guy who played Batman.
Christian Bale.
Christian Bale.
That you knew.
That you had no problem remembering.
Wow.
So you've got to watch this movie, people, the big short.
And they in the movie, they're investigating this adult dancer.
She has five properties she just bought.
And they said, well,
And this is the guy from the office, the guy who played Michael in the office.
And he says, how can she possibly afford this?
We know what she makes.
Who's giving her these loans for these five homes?
And of course, she couldn't afford it.
And then, boom, she has to lose all of them.
The home, everything crashes on the same day when all these loans are being called in.
And they made new regulations based on that day.
But you can't, you can't get.
You gotta see this movie.
It's your business.
Definitely a watch it tonight.
You're gonna go back
to letting murderers go free.
No, I don't think
so.
No, go ahead.
I was just gonna say, I think, you know, that's what makes marine different is the fact that we lead with our compassion.
We're leading with commitment, courage and collaboration.
And we want to find ways to say yes for individuals, but we wouldn't want to set any individual or family up for failure.
We understand that
What happened, my situation today may not be where I'm at five, 10 years from now or even next year.
And we work when life happens with our members, with our community members to put them on the best path to ownership.
Whether that's home ownership or ownership, however they see fit, is that we're on the mission to advance lives from a place of financial need to a life of ownership and giving back to our community.
And you want people to pay off their mortgage.
You want the money.
I mean, you're in business and you don't want to see them fail because you won't get your money.
I mean, you want to see the money come in.
So you make sure the people can afford what they can afford and get him a home.
It's like it's a wonderful life.
Remember when James Stewart got his home and it's a wonderful life.
Remember, they got his first home.
Actually, he was giving he was he worked for the bank and it was they got people their first homes and they bring them bread and everything.
And these are people that can never afford homes and the big wig in town.
Mr. Potter.
Didn't want people to buy their own homes.
But you're like the James Stewart of the business.
And you know, just by knowing you, the only person I know who works in the finance industry, you sound like a straight shooter to me, Aaron.
I mean, I never had any problem talking to you and you sound like you're an honest guy.
And that's what people, you know, you deal with money and people want to know their money's safe and everything.
That's good.
Just real, we'll maintain names.
But we were talking before we went on the air these these and people know the payday loans.
I was shocked to figure out that they're here that there are people who charge 100 percent and more on a quick loan 300 300 percent.
That means if you buy if you if you want a thousand dollars you got to pay back four thousand unbelievable.
And I guess they prey on desperate people.
Yeah.
But if you can't afford a thousand how are you going to afford four thousand.
I
think it's lack of education where there's so many resources that you can do and people desperation and people think today today and they're not thinking tomorrow they're thinking what's going to help us get out of our situation right now and places like that make it very easy where if they did a little bit more research they could see that their own bank or their own credit union can help.
I know Marine Credit Union, the thing I love about them and I absolutely love my job and working for Marine Credit Union is they really do take pride in helping.
They will find a way, they will, I feel like I've never, since I've been here, told someone, no, it's maybe not right now, but let me put you on a path to help you get to where you need to be.
Talk to this person, talk to that person.
I can refer you.
to Aaron, or I can refer you to another co-worker that may help your situation so you don't have to be in a desperate position to go to one of those loans.
Okay, you got a young couple that want to buy a home, just got a baby, and they say, well, we need a home.
They walk into your place, re-credit union.
What's the first thing you say to them?
It's great to meet you.
Let me know.
I always want to know their backstory.
And you go to the baby.
Good, you, good, you, good.
Yes.
I love it.
After all that,
then what do you tell
them?
I kind of always want to hear their story.
What type of home do you want to buy?
What are your goals?
Because that all matters.
If they're like, we only want to live in this house three years, or we want a duplex because my wife doesn't work.
And we want the extra income to help us pay off the mortgage.
And I like to talk to them and get to know the person.
Then we start the application.
And we basically take hurdle by hurdle.
And like, OK, if you qualify, you qualify for this much.
OK, I have a problem coming up with down payment.
OK, did you know that most 401Ks allow you to withdraw without penalty for your house?
A lot of people don't know that.
Do you have a 401K?
No, I don't okay, but I'm gonna have you talk to a financial advisor.
I'm gonna have you so I kind of Educate them financial planning and not just You're qualified or you're you don't qualify a lot of institutions be like you're denied and they don't even tell you why they send you a letter and Those letters say credit history like okay, but what what am I credit?
I will tell you like it's this it's this and Set you up where you feel okay in six months.
I got this or
maybe you qualify instantly.
And now I introduce you to many realtors here.
This person can help you.
This person can help you.
I give you, and you just start shopping.
I mean, every situation is different.
Every person that walks through my door is different.
My first house I bought, funny you should mention it.
That's how I got my down payment out of my 401k.
I yanked $30,000 out of it and I bought it.
And that was, you know, years and years ago, my first house.
But yeah, I forgot about that.
You could just
take it.
Right.
And there's
no penalty for doing that if you buy in the house with it.
Oh, that's great.
There's so much more.
You know, if you're thinking of buying a house at your first house and you're nervous, you know, people get nervous, you know, because it's it's a big thing.
You know, you're buying a home is your biggest purchase ever going to make in your life.
Even applying is nervous.
I mean, I think everybody just gets nervous when they're getting their credit pulled because it's comes with, I feel like they think some type of judgment, but.
There's no judgment at Marine Credit Union.
I've got to ask.
I'm not going to ignore the situation.
It's the elephant in the room.
Aaron grew a mustache.
But not just a little Charles Boyer, a little tiny one.
Charles Boyer, you're talking about dating myself.
Why'd you grow the mustache?
Oh, it looks good on
you.
Well, then you didn't think I was going to ignore
a curveball here.
Yes.
Well, so a funny story over the weekend, my kids and I watched the new Mario movie and I had a beard, a full facial hair for like the past three months.
And it was so hot that I'm like, I just need to shave this off, start fresh.
And as I'm shaving, my daughter goes, hey, dad, you need to get a Mario mustache.
And so I'm like, I'll see what I can do.
And so this is what I came up with.
And.
Yeah, I had it for like four days now and I'm tempted to shave it off every day.
But just because you mentioned on the air, on the radio, I gotta
keep it for a
couple days.
The
fact you did it for your daughter is
amazing.
Yeah, we
like to have fun.
You know, one of those Dudley Whipshade ones with a twisty little thing.
Well, Raleigh Fingers must actually.
Yeah, Raleigh Fingers.
Remember, of course, we're dating ourselves again.
Raleigh Fingers have that little twisty thing at the end of his mustache.
Well, thank you guys for coming in.
Aaron McCollum, Community Lead for Marine Credit Union.
And Vanessa Reyes, a mortgage specialist for Marine Credit Union, you're not intimidating.
I would mind.
Yeah, you're not.
I'm the best of the biz here.
You think about a bank.
You think of a guy Potter from it's wonderful.
He's intimidating, not you.
No.
You're
very friendly.
And thank you for coming in.
No, thank you for inviting us.
And
hopefully we help a lot of people who are looking to buy a home
for the first time
they're scared to death.
I will also be attending the August 4th event at the Cap House.
If anyone's interested in just one size questions, I will be there.
OK.
That's good.
Thank you guys for coming in.
Thanks for
having a
look good with that, by the way.