Navigating Senior Living & On Point with Kristen (Hour 2)

You're listening to Civic Media.

You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.

Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.

Here are your hosts.

John Minow and Jim Schmidt.

Hey, thank you very much.

Welcome back.

Our number two of mine on the mayor here, 97.9 FM WGPW 98.3 96.5 FM WISS.

And of course, worldwide on the Civic Media app, 54 and Green Bay 59 out in 58 in Oshkosh, mostly sunny high in the upper seventies.

Really nice forecast today.

All right.

We're talking a little bit about, uh, you know, we always try to talk about things to the community that help our individuals.

And we've got Kendrick Cornell here right now.

All the way senior living now.

navigating assisted living and memory care for your family and 98% of the people that are listening out there someday will have to deal with this.

So welcome Kendra.

Kendra, welcome.

And did the key word is navigating?

Yeah, it really is.

No one really knows how the journey is going to be when you have to actually start searching.

And for every family, it's very different.

I'm actually the one that does a lot of like the community outreach.

So I'm working with the families as they're trying to.

find a community that's a good fit for their loved ones, somewhere that they can trust and feel comfortable knowing that we have them and nothing's gonna like really happen to them when they're in the, when they're a movement.

And not only that, going to a facility, senior care, whether it's just a place to be or memory care or dementia, there's significant costs to that.

There can be, yeah, that's the

probably biggest concern that most families run into, because then it's like, do you accept Medicaid?

Do you accept where it's just a couple of years of private pay, then we have to make the transition, or is it strictly just private pay?

Different communities have different, well, requirements.

My particular community at Allaway Senior Living, we actually are able to take Medicaid.

We work with a couple of different organizations.

to bring in those that are on it already.

But then also we do work with them on the transition process to where if your private funds do dry up, we can help you start that process.

So you don't actually have to leave your community.

You could move on to Medicaid and actually stay here and age in place peacefully.

And you were saying this, we were talking before that your interest in this, this is relatively YouTube, but your interest in this came from your grandfather kind of searching for a place, right?

In Chicago.

Yep, yeah.

So my mom's side's originally from Chicago and my grandpa didn't want to leave there because, well, that was eventually where he was going to be buried next to my grandma.

That's home.

People in

Chicago, they love it there.

Yeah.

So when he wasn't able to go back to his independent living because he had fallen and broke his hip, my mom and I went down and we spent a weekend searching through all the different communities that were there that offered memory care, but also could immediately accept him on Medicaid.

Now, right around this area, what do you find?

Is there a general age of when somebody comes to your facility or when people should start looking?

Or does it totally depend more on physically and mentally how well the people are dealing in regular life?

So it's definitely a mixed boat of that.

Usually when it comes to them strictly looking because of it just being older and not wanting to handle doing meals, laundry, all of that.

the basic upkeep of taking care of a house.

That's usually when they're in their 80s to their 90s.

When it comes to different diseases like Alzheimer's, because we do have memory care, or they're just not able to go up and down stairs, they have some sort of physical impairment, that can really depend on any age as so many diagnoses happen at any time now.

And when people are like,

deciding that really they probably need something.

It just doesn't happen overnight, right?

And you say it can be a couple months just in the paperwork process to see if you're qualified?

Yeah, for filing for Medicaid, it can take a while.

And then you usually work with an organization that handles a lot of that back and forth paperwork, especially when you're trying to find a community then, they're able to help you to find a community that has open acceptance for Medicaid.

and they then handle all of the back end of paying that community for you through the Medicaid benefits that are given.

Worth Kendrick Cornell, Alley Senior Living, Navigating Assisted Living and Memory Care for your family.

So do we have those, I'm gonna call it a screening house, but those organizations you're talking about that will look for the right place for you, do the paperwork for you, and they're then paid, I don't know how they get paid.

You said through the back end of Medicare, or how are they paid?

So for them, their entire stuff is a little bit through that, but they're the ones that handle getting that Medicaid payment.

They go through their own assessment and tier levels to see what Medicaid will actually pay for that individual to stay at the community.

So it's different compared to what the community itself, most communities will have their own

a nursing team or something go out to assess and determine the level of care.

And that determines what your monthly cost would be at the end.

But Medicaid kind of has their own route for that as well.

And they come to an agreement with the community about this person is at a level two, they need some hands-on assistance, but they're still pretty independent.

Or that they're at a level four to where they need more hands-on assistance.

They need help transferring in and out of bed, getting to the toilet, showering, all of that.

And from there, that's how much coverage can go through.

Kendra, not to put you on the spot, but when a family's thinking it might be time, or in the next year or so it might be time, what are some of the things a family should be thinking about when they're looking for a facility for themselves or for someone they love?

Yeah, so I actually deal with this a lot because one of my main jobs is actually working with families as they're touring the different communities.

So a lot of like the common questions that I'll receive is what kind of activities are going on?

Do you have any church services?

What would like meals look like?

Do you handle housekeeping and laundry services?

So just keeping in mind, like, what are the basic needs that need to be done, but what's gonna make my loved one actually comfortable there?

Are they gonna be able to still regularly attend church?

Are they still gonna be able to play bridge or cards with a group of friends?

Are they gonna be able to have their favorite meal as often as they want?

Things like that.

I

mean, that is, I remember my mom, the first time we had to actually put her in a home type thing.

I mean, that can be kind of traumatic.

for these people when they leave their home for the first

time

and family too.

Yeah, it's a transition period, not just for the individual moving into the community.

It's a transition period for the entire family.

I think a lot of people forget that it's not just the person that's moving.

It's the entire family that has to then accept that they have moved, that they have not just the whole physical new address, but that they need this extra care because that can be

Sometimes a slap in the face like um and my own family realizing that my Grandparents needed the extra help.

I never fully realized that okay.

Yeah He is 90 he does need this help I've been seeing him walking around and I'm just not thinking of it But this is a concern that we need to be addressing We need to be there and providing that type of support

and Kendra just when you speak of communities You're talking about the facility.

You're

not talking about

some people might think community man talk to Appleton.

It's okay.

We have

multiple communities right here in Green Bay?

Yes, we do.

And different needs, and talk a little bit about the Allway Senior Living, where you're at.

You started off, I started off, but you were initially just a senior living center and you've added on now, right, to take care of memory care and some of this Alzheimer's, is that correct?

Yeah, so Allway Senior Living recently went through a management change, so that's how we got a new name.

We used to be Allaway Parkside Village.

So we've been in the Allaway community now for a little under 15 years.

Our assisted living building has been there for about 13 years now.

And for about 11 years now, we've had a new building just right in front of it, actually.

And that is our memory care building.

So that building is secure to provide extra safety for our residents there.

How far ahead, I mean,

Are there like, is this like apartment complexes where like they'll have one apartment open and they'll have 50 applications?

How is this far as available space?

And how far ahead should somebody really start thinking about their, you know, their loved one, whoever it might be about getting them in?

So for us specifically at Allaway, we actually have no wait list at the moment, but there are community, there are other senior living communities around Green Bay that

are pretty full so that they do have wait lists and stuff.

And you'll see that a lot with like certain independent living ones, which is not necessarily assisted living or not getting a lot of that hands on.

Caregivers aren't regularly coming in and out of your room.

It's more like apartment living, but there's extra amenities.

Yeah.

And I just wanted to put in one plug for another association, not a competitor of yours, but some people want to stay in their home.

And there are things you can do to stay in your home as long

as you can.

I mean, there's a point in time where it's like, okay, dad, it's, it's time to, you know, we got to, you need some assisted living.

You know, there's even just HME, you know, with just towel bar or

grab.

There's a number of really good organizations in Green Bay that offer home health.

Right.

And

now

we've

had some of them in here.

Yeah.

And I think that's cool that I'm just.

I'm not there yet, but I would like to stay in my house as long as I can, right?

And I think a lot of people do, but I think John's question is a good one is, when do you start shopping around and say, look, I don't think it's ever too early really to look at a place and logistically.

And like you said, you know, do they have services?

Some people need to go to service every day, you know, and other people, it's more the.

I just think for the confidence level of having your, you know, mom or whomever being.

placed in some place like that to get to know it, get to know the staff a little bit, kind of really kick the tires

versus,

okay, this place has an opening, let's move.

And again, I'm talking about this from personal experience with my mom.

We need to know what time the poker game starts.

We need to know all the

things.

Yeah, so it's definitely nice to always have an idea ahead of time.

Okay, ma, ma, the

dilly in at four.

It's unfortunate because sometimes you just don't know when it actually hits and there are a lot of people are doing that.

last minute shopping, I guess you can call it.

But just being aware of just some of the communities that are in your area, there's a number of them both on east side and west side.

And sometimes it's just as easy as thinking of, well, I'm an east side or I'm never leaving the east side or something like that.

Because the river is scary.

Some people just don't want to cross it.

No, that's the truth.

It's crazy.

Now, one last question.

Question I've got for you Kendra as far as with the type of people that you who if somebody's got somebody that's and we're talking about some other diseases or inflections What do you guys have to kind of like put the brakes on where it's like you know what we're not equipped for that You know what I mean at what level type of person can you accept and handle?

Yeah, so if we're assisted living places and that includes memory care, we're called CBRFs.

So that's a difference between going to a skilled nursing facility.

So that means there are certain types of like wound care that we can't do because we don't have the 24-7 fully staffed nursing equipment there.

Our nurses aren't there all throughout the night and everything, so we can't necessarily change them.

And that can also go into certain care levels for like

having a catheter or something, we can empty it, we can do all that, we can't change it.

That's an actual skilled nursing part.

Some people need

to know this before they, you know.

Yeah, but those are some of the questions that are actually good to ask.

My grandma has a catheter at the moment and it's gonna be on there for the next like so many months.

Is that something that you're able to take and handle?

At that point, most communities are gonna go,

Well, we can empty it when it gets full, but you'll need to actually have someone from a home health organization come in to do that because that'll be a nurse coming in and doing it.

So again, not a bad idea to do some groundwork ahead of time.

And just like you have there, you offer open houses on occasion too, which I think is great if somebody wants to take advantage of that and take a look around.

So people should put that on their list because we're all going to get old someday.

Absolutely.

Kendra, tell everybody where you guys are.

So Allaway Senior Living is located at 1901 Libel Street.

So we are right across the road from the village of Allaway building itself.

All right.

And people can come

in for tours?

Yep, they can come in anytime.

I'm always available.

How

about a website or anything like that, Kendra?

Yeah, you can go to allawayseniorliving.com.

You're able to see a lot of different things there.

You can also visit us on Facebook.

And you can see a lot of what we do for different activities and stuff.

Every Wednesday we do a social hour.

So we have some great artists that come in and all of the residents start getting up and dancing.

Awesome.

Thanks for

what you do, Kendra.

I've had so many of my veteran friends at places like yours and

trying to

act at your places.

So thanks for very much for what you

do.

Yeah, thanks for having me on.

Kendra Cornell, L.A.

Senior Living, Navigating, Assisted Living and Memory Care for your family.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

97.9 FMW, GBW, 98.3, 96.5 FMW, I assess, of course, a civic media amp.

I'll tell you what, that's a tough thing to talk about, but that is such a needed thing to talk about.

And it's inevitable.

Inevitable.

I mean, we're going to get older.

Yes.

And hopefully we can all stay in our homes till the day we die, but that is not likely.

But one of the things we were just talking about during the break here right before Kendra's on her way out,

I have so much respect for the people that work at places like that, so much respect for it.

Especially memory care.

Yes.

But she was in digital marketing before, and she just wanted more people interaction.

And I think it's great.

Yeah, she loves it.

I mean, she thinks this is just a dream

job.

I mean, I hope they do realize.

And again, not to go back to my mom at the time, but she had a couple of special ones where it's like, man, that person would walk in, it would brighten her day.

You know

what I mean?

Hey, Josie, you know, and it's like they weren't they weren't just caregivers.

They were like it's almost like a niece or somebody they became

you know that scene Yep,

the way they felt about

that and my mother-in-law was at a place in Allaway not that different but and they really they came to a funeral I mean they were that close to her that was pretty cool.

I was like, wow,

that's your take your mom down to Oh,

yeah,

how does that go?

It's nice road trip for it's

just different, right?

Yeah, it's just

different traveling with someone who's in their 90s versus, she thinks I drive too fast.

I'm like, wow.

Oh, Mrs. Schmidt, we love

you.

She goes, you know, just why are you in such a hurry?

I said, I'm not really in a hurry, mom, just that you drive

slow.

But so we got there and she was great.

You know, we went to a room and then she came set.

at the pool.

She didn't really want to go to the beach.

Let's just sit at the pool and yeah, it was fun.

She really enjoyed that.

That's really

awesome how the different generations, you had what 92 and 90.

We took a picture of, I'll show you a picture of four generations.

That's what I mean.

It's like 90 year gap.

92 year gap.

She's 93 and 91 year gap.

Okay.

I mean, that's pretty amazing.

That's

pretty cool.

Yeah, it took a picture of the four of us, and that was fun.

How did everybody feel about the pre-cooked food?

Okay.

Yeah, he

asked

me that this morning.

It was

good.

It was...

Yeah.

We judged

you a

little bit.

I didn't.

I just thought it was... I got a lot of comments over the weekend.

I can't believe Jim was out at three o'clock cooking, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm glad I did, because I told John... Were the girls taken?

No, no, they weren't.

They weren't.

No, they weren't.

There was one girl that was kind of close to where we were.

No, I'm glad I did that.

They love the food.

And those pasta salads are always good.

And I told you we made that and shrimp.

It was good.

My mom was, it was great.

She really...

Well, she's very grateful.

She's very excited to go there.

And then I took her back to Appleton that night and yeah, she sent me a text and she's thanks for doing

your mom text 93 Jimmy slowed down

but it

Those people do drive slow in that deck of the state.

That's where we got those two speeding tickets.

Same place.

They might go the speed limit

though.

They might just go

the speed limit.

Thanks for asking.

She of course asked about you.

That's awesome.

Todd, did you do anything exciting?

Because I did not.

I hunkered down.

Saturday went to Monomony Park in Oshkosh for the 4th of July.

How was that

with the food trucks

and

everything?

Oh, it was

great.

Hot, hot, hot.

That was a hot, hot day.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was about it.

Yeah.

Worked a little bit on Saturday, worked a little bit on Sunday, had some beers yesterday.

Perfect weekend.

Perfect weekend.

You know, it's one of those things, though, too, with those food truck things.

Everywhere you go now, where there's events, there will be something.

You know, it used to be that have their stands, but now it is, it is a food truck thing.

And I had somebody that was up in Bailey's Harbor over the weekend.

And I asked if they saw it.

Nick, they didn't know.

But if CheeseCard Nick's listing, I bet that thing was just slamming.

He said he had three great days I saw him post on Facebook.

Oh, did he?

Yeah, so good.

They said there

were so many people up there.

It was incredible.

This is what my experience with Food Truck, not the biggest food truck guy, but they are one of the good people that take both cash and credit card, right?

Are there food trucks that only take credit cards?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Especially when you're on vacation, you carry a lot of cash.

We got to talk about one thing.

We

won't mention the name of the place.

Okay.

Two hour wait for a pizza is the longest wait I've ever heard.

Yeah.

But when it showed up, he said, look, there's no charge.

This is crazy.

I'm like.

I want to pay you anyway.

No, I didn't say that.

Okay.

Thank you It was like so

long and it was one of those things where it must have been just sitting on the counter for a long time and I got it It was cold.

Oh, yeah And you

know what?

And I'm not a jerk, okay?

No, where'd that come from what what we said that okay?

So anyway, she said everything.

I said, no, I said, this is ice cold.

I said, you know what?

We're just, we're leaving.

She goes, I talked to the manager.

You can't for free.

I go like this.

I go, we're out.

She's gonna be free.

Oh,

okay.

Okay, well, I feel this is a good place.

I understand there's a lot going on and you're behind.

No, but yeah, just.

And I do feel bad for waitresses.

They can't take it out on them.

No, but two hours for a pizza is the longest I've ever heard.

Yeah, it was room service.

It was the rest.

It was late.

It was just the kids wanted later.

That was just something they wanted.

What was room service?

It wasn't in a restaurant?

No, it was room service.

Oh, well, that's always long, isn't it?

Well, I only had room service once in my life.

What?

OK, because I'm going to tell you why.

I believe that.

You want to know the reason why?

I don't

know.

I just there's really because when I

was on the road 99% of the time if I'm on the road when I was on the road for games and different things like that They would there's there was only two things the station would not pay for room service or movies Those are two things they would not pay for is room service and movies.

I get the movies Why would the pay for room service?

They're like

really you're too lazy to go down and get something eat

well then take off that service charge I'd that no anyway,

so I've only had it once in my life

Room service.

What?

Uh, no.

Todd, how many times have you had a room service?

Uh, never.

Never.

Never.

Not

once.

Quick pull.

How many times have you had a room service?

Quick pull.

Quick pull.

Okay.

Quick pull.

Something else.

What's next?

We got Kristen Ampo's coming up.

We

got Kevin Van Ness, Snarky Bryan.

We got Frank Hermans.

We got a lot of bleep still ahead.

Back after

this.

John Minow and Jim Schmidt.

Hey, thank you very much.

Welcome back, Madam the Mayor here.

Joining us right now, Kristen Ambows, Point Mortgage Corporation.

By the way, Michael Friedman says, John, I'd allow you to live with me.

Only caveat is you need to clean, drive me to appointments, do my laundry, cook.

Well, maybe not cook.

Jim can

cook.

I ain't living with you, Mike.

It's

about half and half in regards to if anybody's ever had room service.

Kristen,

have you ever

had

room

service?

Yeah, I'll be honest, I order it as much as I can.

Hey, there's nothing more relaxing than having somebody deliver you dinner.

and you eat at the confines, nobody else is around.

Like, to me, that's vacation.

All right, fine.

Put the

tray

outside.

Fine.

And it's, I don't think it's what it used to be.

Like, nowadays, it doesn't really cost any more than going to the restaurant that's in a hotel or anything like

that.

For the radio station I worked for, when I was on the road for them, that was like their number one thing.

No room service.

Oh.

Almost

anything else but no room service.

What you say doesn't cost more.

The cheeseburger, or whatever you're gonna get, or the shrimp, whatever you wanna get, it's the same price, but...

You know, they put on the service fee and the maturity and so, but I was just saying, John, you're going to go have dinner and go down to the restaurant.

Okay.

So it's $20 in the restaurant, but it's $28.

If you do room service, just pay the eight.

We

do.

So my husband and I do this almost every single trip about halfway through the trip.

I

would do that all day.

Okay,

but we do this whenever we go on vacation because we're busy when we're on vacation We like to see everything so halfway through the vacation we take one night and we do a room service Okay, and we don't go out.

We don't do anything.

Okay, and we like re-energize for that second

half.

Got it.

Just stay in it's like it's like timeout day.

Got it

Well for us.

All right.

I

could see that.

So Kristen Ambos, you guys travel a lot though as far as for racing.

Talk

a

little bit about that if you don't

mind.

They won't get to mortgages and things like that.

You got a fascinating other type of life.

Yes.

Yeah.

A lot of people are always, you know, have the questions for it and things like that.

So my husband races off-road.

He races in the champ off-road race series.

So it is an off-road race throughout the Midwest.

He started, he's born and raised Las Vegas.

So very big desert racing background.

Started, this is actually his 40th year racing.

Started when he was 13 and his uncle's team is dad raced.

So this is a generational.

generational thing for us, and so it is our life.

Those

are like dune buggies?

What

are they racing?

Yes, essentially dune buggies, yeah.

They're not quite dune buggies, but that's what everybody... They're more enclosed.

Yeah, they're enclosed.

They're one-seater race cars, but they are... That's what off-road.

That's off-road.

So off-road, so you're thinking circle track.

Off-road is dirt, but it is elevation.

It's anywhere from like one and a half to two miles of track.

And they have anything from single-seater, light buggies all the way up to what we would consider a pro-4, four-wheel drive, massive horsepower truck.

And the thing is, there'll be a big pine tree that

far away, and another big maple tree this far away, and they gotta keep it on that track.

Yep, they gotta keep it on the track, and so it is a different, it is a different type of life, but it is one that we love, and, whoa.

It's fun to watch.

It really is, it really is.

It is, and it draws a crowd everywhere we go.

So that's the spectator sport, right?

It can't be.

I'm just some sports really.

There's both sport and professional.

It's not oval, but it's equal.

They go around a track and right.

Is that what you're

saying?

Yeah.

So they go around the woods, but it's like, I'm

talking about where you spectate from.

So

you spectate from all over.

So there's different.

Have you ever watched an F one race off road racing?

Isn't like F one, but where it is like it is different.

positions in the track have different seats or different bleachers or, you know, different areas to sit because it is so widespread.

I

was watching the Chicago NASCAR race yesterday.

Yeah.

And it's the same thing.

Nobody, nobody, nobody.

And then a whole bunch of people in this one

section.

Yes.

Or have you ever been down to Rotamerica?

Oh, yeah.

So Rotamerica, think of Rotamerica, but instead of pavement dirt.

Like that's just this, that's a little bit longer of a track, but it's got the elevations.

It's got the changes, but this has.

And they

fly

through these things.

Yes.

They have jumps.

They have, I'm doing a terrible disservice.

to any of the guys listening who would be racing right now, probably cringing.

I'm

just watching.

I was going to see what's going on.

I'm

just watching Diverhead pick up empty whiskey bottles out there.

It was a crazy weekend.

I'm glad he picked it up.

I was a little worried about it when I saw it in his hand.

I didn't see him pick it up.

All right, good.

So

funny.

Yeah.

Well, that's cool.

It is.

Interesting, right?

Right.

Outside of work thing to do.

Yes.

Is it a big travel sport or is it a lot of

Wisconsin?

There is some in Wisconsin, but we try the Midwest is huge.

So we go to Minnesota, Michigan,

UPS

couple of big bark river, your X. We used to go to lower Michigan and Chicagoland, but Chicagoland is no longer.

So if we want to watch

is it a paid spectator sport,

you can find it on flow racing.

It's on flow racing, but it is a paid spectator sport for Crandon.

You guys are familiar with Crandon.

So that's the Super Bowl.

Everybody in the country wants to get to a racing Crandon.

It's crazy, especially fall Crandon over Labor Day.

Does he

ever let you drive?

No, I can't fit in the car.

He's 6'5".

So he'd have to do all kinds of mechanics.

But we have that town, I want to say, is 2,000, 2,500 people.

And on Labor Day weekend, I bet you will have 30, 40, sometimes even 50,000 people come into that town for the weekend and watch.

It's crazy.

They have

become the hub of that sport, hasn't

it?

It has been.

And it's the livelihood.

The amount of people that travel from Nevada and California, Arizona that are off-road racers, desert racers out there that come to Crandon as like this is a bucket list for them is unreal.

Kudos to them for securing that, you

know, for

being

that.

And it happens in little old Korean and Wisconsin.

It's the livelihood of that city for a lot of the, a lot of the work and a lot of the locals up there.

We have a lot of good friends that live up there and it runs their city.

It's

amazing.

Is this, do they race in Lena?

They do a racing in Lena and this weekend is ERX.

So we have a weekend off and then we'll be in Lena.

So tell me, do they qualify?

Can anyone go?

How do you say he's got started when he was

13?

I mean,

yeah.

So as his uncle had,

had a team.

And he was on the race, you know, he was kind of the pit kid, if you will, and just learned, learned how to work on the cars.

And it's, it's, it's a deal where if you're on the team, everybody's all in, right?

You got to do everything.

You got to help them.

And we're not just a drive and arrive team.

Our team consists of my husband, our friend, Scotty was been with us for 12 years, Scotty's family, myself, and, you know, our, our,

Daughter's been around in her whole life

and fun as that.

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

It's pretty crazy But we have so we when we go we pit there's three other families that we pit with so there's about 30 of us Wow that race together is like a big race family.

It's really neat We do oh cool.

We have an RV with big trailer.

We're like 80 feet going down the road.

We're oh, I love

getting behind

you

We're like the circus.

Let's

talk a little bit about mortgages

and stuff like that.

What's going on?

What's going on?

So people are really interested because all the media is saying rates are down, rates are down, rates are down.

They are.

However, I just want to put this big.

You always have a buzz.

I know.

And I hate to be the Debbie Downer of this, but I also want people to be, you know, feel and understand the reality of what it is.

It is down, but it's not down.

Like people are thinking that they can refinance at like 6% right now.

In no point.

And that's not quite where we're at yet.

They are falling, which is a great sign.

Hopefully we'll get two rate reductions yet this year, but we're keeping, you know, cautiously optimistic.

It's what it's been.

Great, they're gonna go down.

I mean, did

you saw that handwritten letter that Trump sent to Powell?

I mean,

that

was, I can't believe that got out in the press,

but you know, he

just, there's just some like, I don't know, like when you go to a, like, it wasn't a menu, but it was close

to that.

And he just writes on a drum and his rates better go down.

You've been too slow.

And I mean now, and just underlining, it was his handwriting

and

that got out in the press.

So I

drop rates now.

No, I don't know.

That's basically what it said

was, you know, and I don't know that that's the best.

Can that

happen?

Well,

he

doesn't report to him, but he

did

pointed by him up, but

he's

not going to last.

I mean, they're

yeah.

Well, and I, you know, it's tough because if you there, so it's, it's, it's a double-edged sword, right?

Because we want rates to come down, rates will stimulate the housing market.

There's no doubt about it.

The housing market doesn't necessarily need a whole lot of stimulation right now.

We need more affordable housing.

And if rates come down too fast, it's going to spike like it was last time because

Just the small reduction in rates probably opened up about $15,000 to $20,000 worth of buying power to a people.

So now the more rates drop, you open that up and up.

Now can they afford more?

Yeah, they can afford to own more home.

But does it make more homes?

But it doesn't, exactly.

So developing is gonna be my answer on that all day long until you get the...

the municipalities to reduce the cost of developing and give these developers an opportunity to get in there and really develop some affordable housing.

Or for instance, you know, there was a big conversation of how do we take these commercial buildings that are sitting empty and turn them into condos?

Honestly, I don't have a better answer than somehow subsidize that with.

but the city's gotta become a partner in it.

I mean, maybe

like 30% or whatever,

25,

but I mean, look what's going on in New York with that mayor's race.

And

it's all because of

the housing.

These people have busted their butt.

They

went to college, they got good jobs, and they aren't even in the game when it comes

to

housing.

And it's like, and this guy's running saying, hey, look, I'm gonna get you in the housing market.

Now

how he's gonna do it?

Some people aren't crazy about his strategy, but all I'm saying is,

I think basically all the American dreams to own a house.

That's that's that's yesterday.

No, it's not kids.

You talked

to talk to 28 year old.

They still want their own.

Yeah, they do want their own house.

How do we run out

of houses?

Well, you know, but it's who you talk to.

You know what I mean?

It's like we ran out of

houses.

They stopped building a cool thing.

They, they, they, uh, it was, we did it to ourselves.

We just did it to ourselves.

Yeah.

And then just the cost of everything.

They took advantage of the inflation, took advantage of every, you know, people now are like, well, hair closing costs.

Oh, hi.

It's like, I don't know.

Can I still say inflation?

Yeah,

why are they credit bureaus are up 300% in the last 24 probably 18 months 24 300% credit bureaus are what what an earth is a credit bureau business doing that they should be charging 300% more than they were a year or two ago Wow, like that's the kind of stuff that's out of my control You know what I'm saying and so lenders are doing everything they can to keep their processing and lending down

to keep things as affordable as they can on closing costs.

But when you have credit bureaus going up 300% when you have, you know, and honestly municipalities haven't changed the recording of the mortgage and the deed.

And I don't know how long I hope they don't.

No ideas, but.

It's all in appraisal fees went from 350 to 550, sometimes 650, 750 depending on how far they have to travel and just all the things.

It's layer upon layer upon layer.

It makes it so expensive.

So one of the biggest things we've done as a company lately is

is try to find all the down payment assistance programs that we can to help people so they can keep more of their money into their down payment and help with the closing costs and things like that to offset some of that.

We're using down payment assistance.

We just had a client that was, she literally used Ableton Housing Authority, got $16,000 to help fix up and rehab the home, plus WEDA.

to purchase the home with, you know, no money down technically.

There's 3% down a second mortgage.

So we layered down payment assistance programs to help her.

She's a single mom.

She's now living in a home all by herself with her and her daughter.

And, you know, that's the American dream.

But if you don't have lenders that understand or want to, now I'm going to tell you right now, that deal was a really difficult deal to do because you have a lot of entities.

You've got to meet what Hamilton Housing Authority wants.

You have to meet what we don't want.

But

Do you have a lender that understands that, the patients to work through it?

We can get it done for you.

Well, that did people like you, Kristen, that put to know all that.

Nobody knows all that.

I

mean, you stick around.

Got to set a real quick break here.

Got a text here.

What does credit bureaus going up 300% actually mean to a normal person?

Yeah.

So we're going to talk about that as soon as we come back.

Thanks.

Very interesting stuff, very important stuff.

Kristen Ambo's point mortgage corporation back after

us.

Thanks.

you

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,

civicmedia.us.

Well, Christy Knight, I'd like when you get wound up.

Go ahead.

Continue

when you get going.

I should have left the mics on.

Right.

But it is, it's crazy how people are kind of taking advantage of an industry that the person who pays it all is the buyer.

I mean, it's all the seller pays.

Don't the seller, it's on

their

listing.

And then their closing statement that $18,000 commission, which was 9,000 two years ago, same price, I mean, same house to doubled in price, but the buyer's paying for

it.

And come on,

don't tell me the seller's paying for it.

No, it's, you know, the, it's really hard to, I could debate it like both ways, Mayor.

You know what I'm saying?

Like I could understand exactly what you're saying.

And the consumer just in our world, the consumer is the one that gets hit.

You know, I hate to say it and I hate, so everything we can do to help try to get that down is always the most important piece of that.

And you work on

that, but ultimately, which is out of your control is more inventory.

more inventory because then the sellers, so right now you have a tug-of-war between buyers and sellers.

Sellers still think they can get what they got for houses a year ago, and you and I can't go back and buy stock a year ago, so the sellers have to understand that the market's different now.

Buyers aren't willing to pay it, and buyers are like, no, I'm not.

I will write 15 different offers until I get one accepted with my inspection.

I'm not doing it anymore.

I met with a client last week on Wednesday night and they didn't have an inspection.

Their agents talked them into buying this house.

They were like, we felt pretty good about it.

We thought we trusted them.

That house basically fell apart underneath them.

They're bankrupt all in two years because it was the saddest story.

And I'm like, okay, I don't know what we're gonna do to solve this right now, but we're gonna do everything we can.

to try and find a way out for you because that's so unfortunate.

You're doing everything you can.

And

you also have your on point,

which is people

can learn a little bit, listen to a podcast when you're driving to learn about it.

But again, the bigger picture is inventory.

And I don't think it's...

unreasonable to think that a municipality couldn't buy into some development.

I mean, look at that hotel in Dallas.

I mean, your own part of that hotel is the city.

I'm like, you own part of this?

And they're like, yeah, we bought into this thing.

It's a beautiful hotel.

To invest in it, yeah.

So I don't know, that's got, something's gotta happen.

You gotta, you gotta, you gotta just make, because remember the old days when there was like five houses for sale in a neighborhood?

Absolutely.

Yes.

Absolutely.

So we gotta get back to that.

Anyway, that will help.

But right now, you're doing the best you can.

You're bringing every opportunity in terms of down payment assistance.

That's pretty cool what you did with that lady with the Appleton housing.

You package that all together.

And the capital stack is confused.

That is a lot.

That's

the only

way she could have got the house.

Correct.

And it is a lot, but it set her up for financial, her financial success.

That's awesome.

So it's like, okay, so I'm inconvenienced and it's a little difficult on my desk for a month, but we just changed this woman's life.

Right.

Like I'll do it 20 times over doing that, you know?

So whatever we can do to help, and that's what those grant programs are there for.

So let's utilize them.

All right.

Somebody's looking to

buy.

Who should they talk to first?

Oh, me.

They start with real estate agents, but they really should start with a lender.

I totally agree.

And the biggest piece of it, like you guys have all heard me, people on the air listening, education, education, education, somebody who's going to talk to you and not talk circles around you.

but talk to you.

You can go on social media right now and you can look at 10 different loan officers sites and all of them look like they're top producers.

And I can tell you right now how many of them I've cleaned loans up after because they don't know what they're doing.

Chat GPT is a wonderful thing for people who don't know what they're talking

about.

It's crazy out there.

I'll see these stuff.

And I'm like, oh my God, I just cleaned up a loan last week because you messed it up so bad.

I'm laughing out

of, not cause it's funny.

Last week or two weeks ago when you were on your, and you're very confident to say, go talk to someone else, but

make sure I'm one of the people.

Make sure I'm one of them.

You're talking to people

as long as you're one of them, cause I think they'll come back and say, you know what, thanks for giving me the whole picture.

Yeah.

And at first I think they think I'm just trying to, you know, fear monger them and it's not about that at all.

It's about setting them up.

So okay, when you talk to the other lender, ask this question,

ask

this question, ask this question.

And when you hear the answers,

let me know, because they're spitting something out that makes no sense.

I've always found that transparency is the key to it all.

And the one thing I learned from a lot of the lone officers and gentlemen I worked with in 2008 and 10 is how not to do business.

And the one thing like we were kind of saying that I see similar to the 2008 and 10 era right now is that greed.

a little bit of business and a lot of loan officers or a little bit of business and a lot of real estate agents.

And so it's getting feisty out there.

And so it's just stay the course, work with somebody who's trying to be

patient.

Yeah.

Well, I'm glad

you're doing it.

Not in the market, but if my kids were, I'd sell them to you.

There's just no

doubt about

it.

Thank you.

Nice.

Thank you.

You do a good job.

Give everybody a synopsis of your podcast.

So my podcast is just, it's one to, to watch if you're really looking to educate yourself on your own time, right?

So it's one of those.

There's, and you can find it on my YouTube page, which has even more breakdown and more small shorts.

You got your own

YouTube page?

I'm kind of a big deal.

You're kind of a big deal.

I'm

a big deal.

Wow.

You know, it's one of those where I just, I couldn't, I couldn't fit in the 30 second algorithms anymore on social media.

So I needed a little bit more time to talk.

That's shocking.

Not that

you guys are surprised.

Imagine

that.

So YouTube and all the podcasts are on YouTube, but that's where

That's where the hub of it all is, where you can go and just learn on your own accord.

Well,

I love that you just,

you don't mince the words, you don't dance around something, you just point blank, boom.

Straight shooter.

Straight

shooter.

That's awesome.

Good for you.

Thank you.

We love

having you in here, Chris.

I appreciate it.

We get lots of

comments that people are like, hey, you know, we know all about this stuff now because of her.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.