Welcome back to Millennia Up, it's go time.

It's go time.

So why don't you explain what we're doing here?

So a couple weeks back, which I mean, in real time, it was like

last week, but in watching this time, it was probably two months ago.

We asked you to ask us questions that we can answer for you.

So we collected a bunch of the questions that we got.

Seth and I both picked about five, there might be more than that in there.

Might be more than ten.

I don't know, total.

And we wrote them down, we mixed them around in a little bowl.

And we're gonna see how far we get, too.

And then we're gonna answer them.

I have no idea what And we're

gonna try to stay away from word salad y answers.

Yeah, we'll see.

I think we should think of this more as like a lightning round than anything.

Alright, fine.

That's fine.

Honestly, well

Like, if anybody's needs more information on these questions on these

answers, I'm not saying we give two sentence answers, but I don't want to

spend ten minutes apiece on these things.

I don't know what Seth wrote down.

I only know what I wrote down.

And at least I know that with my questions, they

are pretty straightforward.

But we'll see.

I don't know.

Why don't you go first?

Seth is like freaking me out.

I don't know what he wrote.

And probably the hardest part about this is going to be reading his handwriting.

Because if you don't know, it's awful.

It's terrible.

Ladies first.

You're answering what you pick.

You're not going to get that.

Yeah.

We wrote it on post its and we did not put sticky side in.

So they're all going to stick to each other.

What's your favorite part of your job?

Okay.

So I'm answering the ones I pick out?

Yeah.

I'm not even, okay.

Okay.

My favorite part of my job, you wrote that very nicely too, for

anybody who needs to know Seth's handwriting, as a lefty, favorite

part of my job, where do we start?

It's genuinely helping people.

I've said that before.

I've always been.

All right.

That's it.

I'm going.

All right.

Cool.

I've always been in a customer facing industry my whole working career.

I work best with people.

I like helping people.

I like making them feel better than they did beforehand and making

a bigger difference for them.

So I love getting to the finish line and actually getting them and helping them

achieve their goals and using us, helping them with a system to take away anxieties

and make it a more seamless process.

It sounds so generic and friggin printed on piece of paper what

I'm supposed to say, but that's what I genuinely love doing.

And I do believe that's why so many people are in this industry,

because I think people like to help other people and they want to try to

help them with this whole process.

But I think I like doing it mostly because I like to note that people are

being educated while they're doing it and that I like knowing that I am meant to be

in this field to be able to help people because there are some people who are in

this industry who don't take that extra time to like really educate themselves

and strategize and get creative and who are not really as much like people peoples

that they need to be able to get it done.

And I like that I am in this industry because I like to do

it and it only helps people.

that's what I like about my job.

Okay.

That's good.

And I like seeing really cool houses.

Yeah.

Oh, what is earnest money?

Look at that.

That was one that I had for you, but I'm going to answer it.

This was a question I got.

Is this your hand?

No, this is mine.

No, that's your handwriting.

This is mine, right?

Do you have one in here that says earnest money?

Uh, no, not quite.

Not quite?

Not quite.

Do we need to combine them?

No, it's fine.

Okay.

So earnest money.

I got this question on Sunday.

And we actually just talked about this two episodes ago, too.

We did.

That's why I cut you off.

Oh,

because I was like, I'll talk about too much because I knew

this question was going to come up.

So earnest money.

I got this question, just how it works, why it is what it is.

And how it works in a real estate transaction.

So earnest money is essentially a deposit in, I am not an attorney, but

my understanding is that a contract.

Needs what's called consideration, which is money needs to be exchanged in

order to like fully enforce a contract.

So.

In the end, this deposit is placed shortly after two parties

sign an agreement of sale.

in the state of Pennsylvania, 90 percent of the time, most of the

time, the money is then held by the seller's real estate agent.

And what that really means is that it's put into an escrow account, like at an

office, it's not the real estate agent holding the money, it's their office.

The only people who can hold the money are brokers.

And then at settlement, That money is brought by the listing

agent to settlement and that goes directly towards your closing costs.

Cause that was the question that came up was like, well,

what happens to my deposit?

Like I need that money or I get that money back.

If you're told that

you're closing, if your estimated closing cost are going to be 30, 000.

It's not going to be 38, 000 if you put in 8, 000.

Yeah.

So it's basically your closing costs are going to be whatever it is less the

deposit because the deposit goes directly towards your closing costs at settlement.

So that was a question that I got.

Yeah.

So if you're closing costs are 30, 000, it's not going to be

30 and your deposit was 8, 000.

It's going to be 22, 000 left to bring to settlement.

Yes.

Exactly.

So that's pretty much it.

It'd be great if the one that I have followed this up.

You want to

answer your own question?

Yes.

This is literally the one that I said, wow, this would be a really

good one to follow this up with.

And it's the one that I got.

What is escrow and why do I have to put my money in it?

This was actually meant for, we, I swear to God, we didn't plan this.

It's the

exact same question.

No, it's

not.

No.

So where I came with this is, so people have asked me.

I'm actually more than one person asked me this is with your mortgage payment.

So we talk about escrow, it's like deposit, but there's also an escrow

account for your mortgage with interest.

And the principle going towards a mortgage is say 1, 900, but your

mortgage payment is like 2, 600.

What is the rest of that money?

And like, why is it more?

And we say that's your escrow account.

People are like what is in that?

So, to answer that, so your escrow account, that is the account, so you're

paying extra on top of your principal and interest to cover your taxes for your

property, so that if you get a tax bill.

Then that goes to the mortgage company and then they pay your

real estate taxes for you for your property and your school taxes.

Unless you're in lower Potts Grove and they have a surprise

one that you didn't know about.

That's my problem.

And it also pays for your biggest ones are going to be that and then

your homeowner's insurance is where that also comes into play too.

Yeah.

So basically an escrow account, it's the fund that the lender keeps on

hand to pay your taxes and insurance.

Yep.

That worked out really hilarious.

I

got escrow and earnest confused.

I was like wait, Oh, here we go.

Why should I pay an agent to sell my house when they are selling themselves?

When the houses are selling themselves.

Oh, when the houses are selling themselves.

This was my question that I've gotten from somebody.

Are you understanding the question?

I understand the question.

We got to think about it.

No, I'm just thinking to myself, I'm actually, I was actually thinking

about who asked you this question.

Eh.

The shithead?

Which one?

It was this one.

The person who asked this question doesn't really have a full

understanding and I'm not being defensive, I'm just stating a fact.

They probably don't have a full understanding of

the scope of the question.

Duties that

I don't think you know who it was and it was something It was

actually this question that this person asked me because their parents

will not use an agent to sell houses

Listen, sometimes you can get away.

I'm gonna just throw it out there.

Sometimes you can sell a house by yourself It's fine.

I actually was having this conversation over the weekend with somebody, and he

was joking about how he'd always go Fizzbo or whatever, but he was full of shit.

He was, he's going to use an agent, but he's never going to sell.

He's like, yeah, he lives with, it's just him and his wife and they

have no reason to sell anytime soon.

I explained to him, I'm like listing a house right now is like

dropping food into a fishbowl.

I mean, it's like , you, the amount of calls.

And the amount of logistical headaches that you would have to endure if you

have a house that's priced right and a good location and good condition.

It would consume everything that you did for at least a week.

And then on top of that, most people don't understand all

the nuances of the contract.

Like I love Fizbo's because they don't, I mean, not that I would try

to deceive anybody, but it's not my job as a buyer's agent to tell

Fizbo the ins and outs of a contract.

I had a really bad taste in my mouth too one time when somebody

said that they will not buy it.

It was somebody who was on Facebook or whatever and they said Oh, no

cause they were selling off market and I said, Oh, I actually have a

buyer who would like really want that.

Can you send me some details?

He said I'm not working with an agent.

I said, Oh, yeah.

If you don't want, I said first of all, if you want me to double represent,

like I can talk to you about that.

If you don't wanna use an agent, that's perfectly fine.

I'm happy to just help you with doing the transactional stuff.

If you don't want me involved at all, that's also fine.

I'm not telling you to use me, I'm just saying I have a buyer who

would like to have it and he did not want a buyer to be represented.

And I was like, that's shady.

Yeah.

Cause okay.

So you want to prey on somebody else and just be able to take advantage of them.

And so they can't be represented and to be able to be told, no, that's not right.

Or no, that's not fair.

I didn't like that.

Yeah.

And so I think that there's a underestimation, even in this

market, I would say it's like.

30 days worth of activity shoved into three.

I'm like just short of sending my family out of town when I have a

listing that's really, I'm on the phone all day answering questions.

I keep sellers asses out of a sling with the disclosure and

trying to navigate negotiating and answering questions the right way.

But all the lead up to a lot of listing agents or buyers agents, like I can tell

you, I can walk in and you pay me for my advice on what buyers are going to want.

I had a seller just earlier in the year and she's just I'm just

amazed at what we got for the house.

The process was so smooth and everything like that.

And I said, listen, you did everything I told you to do.

And we worked for four months to get that property on the market.

And it was a home run.

We had multiple offers and the house was not like HDTV ready.

It was old.

It had a lot of deferred maintenance, but it was in the right

market and it was priced great.

And I would just say, just be sure that you're not leaving

any money on the table by

You so are.

Even in any market.

I'm sorry, but I know you're supposed to be answering this

question, and I know I wrote it.

But if you're selling yourself without an agent, you are, like,

sure, you can throw it up on the local homes for sale sites and whatever.

And that's fine.

But like that, is that really where the serious buyers are?

It's not going into the MLS.

It's not getting sent out to the people who are actually like qualified and

working with a buyer's agent who are actually serious about purchasing.

And you get, my favorite is the neighbors that say, Oh, I'll buy the house.

But then they like lowball

you.

And there's so many guys who are like, I'll buy your house.

If you ever sell, just let me know.

I'll buy it.

I think almost, it almost never works out.

Yeah.

That's bullshit.

I would just say definitely be sure you know what you're getting

yourself in for and you'll never know if you lost yourself money.

There's a lot of guys who'll sit there, Oh, I sold my house on my own.

It's , so

the neighbor sells and uses an agent and

50, 000 more than what that guy got.

So I can appreciate this question though, in some respects, because I've podcast

that people are off doing their own thing.

And they're really, I'm sure they're good at their accountants and

plumbers and everything like that.

And they, they don't know what they don't know.

And it's just, it's easy for people to be like, Oh, it's easy.

It's ah, just put a sign along and everyone comes in and

I get to pick my buyer, but

it can be very overwhelming too.

It can be overwhelming.

You'll get frigging, I do this for a living and I'm overwhelmed.

I do this for a living and it's like, it hijacks.

Because

in this, like you can't just like always go, you might be able to get it

up on Zillow or something maybe, but If somebody, if they see like a for sale

thing, they can't always find it online.

No,

it's hard to even find your house and be able to

exposure.

And the other thing that a lot of people don't realize is that

brokerages pay for premier placement on these silos and all these sites.

And it's like, you put your little Fizbo on there.

Trust me, it'll go up, but, and you might list it and it's there

for a little bit, but it just gets lost in the sauce because.

You've got remaxes and callbackers and KWs and compasses of the world

paying for that premier placement.

So that's another good point, but all right, let's go to the next one.

Do I have to be a U.

S.

citizen to buy a home?

Triggered.

Triggered.

Are you thinking about what I'm currently thinking?

You're an

ITIN expert.

Yes.

Yes, I am.

Unfortunately, no, it was a fantastic learning experience.

No, you do not, but there is, you do have to have an ITIN number at least.

It's something to talk to a lender about and see what programs are available.

So you can, it will cost you a lot more cash out of pocket though.

Yes.

You won't get as good of a rate.

Not every lender is going to be able to have the loan product to do it.

If you are not an American citizen or a US citizen or have some other

kind of pretty solid classification.

you're not going to be underwritten by what a normal American

citizen would be the entity.

So Fannie and Freddie, which are like the two, they service, I think 90 percent

of the loans in this country, you are going to have to go all off market.

And it's basically, it's called a non QM loan.

And you essentially, God, what did she pay?

What did it was 10 percent 10.

75 percent

interest rate,

interest rate.

Yeah.

It was something like that.

Yeah, so it's a higher risk.

Yeah.

But yes.

And it's something

to be very, very, very, very upfront about, too.

And I don't mean just saying it's the lender once.

Multiple times before you hand in any information.

This is it actually happened, I don't know if I told you, this happened to a friend

of mine, too, whose wife is not a U.

S.

citizen because she's from Australia.

It was a hellish experience for them, too, on the lending side

because they did not hear them out.

about what they were looking to do and that she couldn't be on the loan and

that ended up costing them like, Oh my God, like tens of thousands more.

So short answer, yes, you can.

But if you are going to make sure that you're doing your research into

programs, who offers them and that.

And the one that we had was they went to a lender because of an

advertisement for this ITIN loan program.

Told them about it and the person because it was just like a paid

lead on the company's ends like they were like yeah, yeah, sure.

And then like just approved them FHA for I still couldn't even tell you what reason.

And it just jumbled everything up.

So make sure that things look like.

Four months to close it.

So it

did, it closed.

We got there.

Oh yeah.

We got it done.

It took two lenders and four months and a lot of contract extensions.

And

our lender is the one who ended up getting it.

And our lender

was the one that's the reason why we work with our lender and

not just some guy off the street.

And also I would say if you are going to investigate this, if you're listening

and you don't live in our market.

Definitely go with a more niche, smaller bank because these big banks

really, they offer this stuff, but they don't need to process these loans.

They don't need the risk profile in their mortgages.

So

it's going to cost a lot more money,

but it can happen.

And don't discount the idea.

Also between that, there's also student visas.

There's the HB one visa.

There's a lot of different working visas that people can work with.

So it just depends on doing your due diligence and making sure that you're

crystal clear on what your immigration status is now and what it will be.

If you've, I think there's a different, there's a nuance with.

If you actually have applied for citizenship, there's

there's different stuff.

So yeah,

just do not withhold anything.

Don't like keep any information to yourself about it, throw everything out

on the table and make sure that it's something that they can actually do.

Cause they will find out.

And I had

a long conversation with our lender and there's a understandable

hesitancy to just open up all your personal business to an American lender.

Like we get it.

But if you want to be able to own a home in this country, you're going to have to

play ball with the banking institutions.

They're going to give you the money to do it.

All right.

What do we got?

Oh, I got another Nusky question.

Let's see what we

got.

Why would I give up my 3 percent interest rate?

Somebody asked you this?

Or how many thousands of people asked you

that?

How many thousands of people have asked me this?

We did get into it last episode, so.

We did.

We recorded three episodes right before this one, and we're finding

that we answered some of these things.

If you didn't watch them, then here you're getting answers now.

And if you want to watch them, go watch them.

Yeah.

Or listen to them, whatever.

Just go back and watch them and listen to them anyway.

Yep.

It's good.

So why would I give up my 3 percent interest rate?

I'll parrot what I said before, is that there's more to life

than just an interest rate.

Now, I wouldn't try to quote sell somebody to take a 7 percent interest rate for an

extra bedroom, but there are times when I think people are drinking the sand on

a house that doesn't really serve them.

It's not necessarily ever was supposed to be their forever home.

The house is too big.

It's not in the right school district, the house is like weird, it's unique,

it's in a niche kind of market, I think there's a lot of reasons why you would

give it up, I think also somebody could sell a house for 3%, take a 6 percent

rate and wait for interest rates to come down, because interest rates will

come down, people don't understand like, Right now, interest rates are

hovering in that high six to seven area.

They are going to come down one way or another, either they're going to come

down at the Fed's discretion or an economy will force them to come down.

So I think that people need to see the forest through the trees.

They need to see that there's more to life than just a low mortgage payment.

Again, I'm not going to tell people that they should just do it because it's

fun or the reward has to outweigh the interest rate, but I think there's going

to be a lot of people in the next, in the coming two years that are going to have

a hard time grappling with that question.

Okay.

What is a home appraisal and why is it important?

Huh.

As much as we like to give appraisers shit, as the bad guy, they help keep

the real estate market from going absolutely insane and inflated.

Even though it might appear as if it has over the past couple of years,

because it has, but we also do, we can find a lot of things for that, but the

appraiser basically Let me back up.

What is an appraiser?

Or what is an appraisal?

Appraisal is what is executed by an appraiser to assess

the value of the house.

When you get the appraisal, it goes back to underwriting with the lender,

and it'll tell the lender how much the bank will be permitting to lend.

Okay.

Did I cover that correctly?

Sure.

Adequately for yourself?

And why is that?

You

mean that you mean appraisals don't get you super wired and not

when we're talking in the abstract, I certainly pay attention to them when I,

uh, yes.

So it's pretty much one of the biggest hurdles.

Make sure.

So usually during a transaction, if there's two or else you want to get

past before it's, you're pretty much like in the clear versus inspections.

If you got them second is appraisal.

So once you clear your appraisal, so if you're say you offered 400,000 for the

house, and it appraises for 415,000.

Congratulations.

You now have $15,000 worth of equity in your house right off the bat because it's

worth more than you're buying it for.

So that's awesome.

So that would be a high appraisal.

We love those.

They're more if you are in far between.

Then there's a low appraisal, which is where negotiation is

going to have to come into play.

And if you get a low appraisal, that means if you offered $400,000 and

that's what you're under contract for.

And it appraises for say like $390,000 there is $10,000 that you need to

decide what you're going to do about it.

So the bank will only put through a loan based off of a $390,000 value.

So that doesn't mean that they will loan $390,000 depending on how much you're

putting down and what program you have.

There's $10,000 that you need to figure out.

So some of the things you do, you go back to the listing agent.

You can either negotiate to, ideally it would be the best if

you just bump the sale price down.

To 390 to what the value is, wash your hands, be like, okay,

sweet, done, figure that out.

Next, the seller does not have to agree to it.

And if you cannot come to terms, then that falls under your mortgage contingency,

which is the pretty much like the last contingency holding into your contract.

And if you get a low appraisal, you guys don't come to terms, then you can

walk away from the house and walk away from the deal, get your deposit back.

Or you can do, you can either just come with that extra 10, 000 cash at

settlement to make up the difference.

It doesn't go towards the equity, but with that amount, give it like a year,

you're going to earn that back with what it's going to end up being worth.

So you can come with the full amount or you can meet in the middle somewhere

and say either you can bump the sale price down and maybe 395 and then

you come with an extra 5, 000 or you can just keep it at 300, 000 and then

both of you pay 5, 000 at closing.

But yeah.

There are ways around it and ways to negotiate it, but it is important to

prevent you from overpaying for the house and keeping the market at least

somewhat stable across the board.

Okay.

Cool.

So appraisal and why it's important?

Yep.

Did you get another one for me?

Why are HOA fees so high?

Didn't we have this?

Who asked this?

This is something that came across the One of

my friends.

One of my friends that I haven't heard from in a while.

Well, it's good.

Yeah.

It's good.

People are coming to us for the information, which is the right move.

Why are HOAs fees so high?

First of all, high is relative.

Hmm.

I always advise my buyers, you need to understand what

you're getting for your HOA fee.

And a lot of times, the amenities are there, you understand, you got a pool,

you got a playground, you got a clubhouse, big, you got lots of common area, or the

HOA covers a lot about the exterior house.

So a lot of times what will happen is buyers don't understand the

difference between a condo and an HOA.

So an HOA is essentially like a planned.

You want to define HOA.

HOA is a homeowner's association.

And essentially what that is it's a bunch of deeded lots in a grouping and

they all are in the same community.

Usually what that really means is that there are common elements to the

property and the community itself that everyone has to pitch in to take care of.

So it can be as simple.

I've seen stuff as like a hundred dollars a year.

And it's literally just maintaining a drainage.

My friends is like 79 or like 78 a year or a month, something like that.

Basically your HOA fee, your homeowner's association fee

needs to be commensurate with whatever is being maintained.

So the condos, which are not HOAs, but they're the same thing, a condo building.

Whether it's a high rise in the city, or if it's just a sprawling community

in the suburbs, condos, usually the fees are higher because you're taking

care of the exterior, the roofs, lots of sidewalks, there's more density, a lot

of times these condo associations, they have pools, they've got hot lots, they've

got clubhouses, that type of thing.

So

if it's a condo to keep in mind, it's say the roof

isn't your responsibility.

It's like just financing in a cost of if the roof ever has to be replaced, like

that's a cost that you don't have to pay.

A lot of times, a lot of times too in condos is that you don't pay water.

You don't pay gas.

You don't pay utilities because if the water line is all coming and

the heater is all servicing multiple units, instead of cutting that all

down to into eight pieces every month, it's easier to collect the fees.

They just collect the fees and then they just pay the gross amount.

It's an interesting question.

I always dive in and make sure that you're getting the value.

The other thing to keep in mind is that sometimes an HOA fee that doesn't have

a lot of maintenance, a lot of things maintain, and the fee is still high.

They are raising money for a capital improvement.

Keep in mind HOA and condo boards, who are the people who run

these, it's just the residents.

They're off doing their own professionals and something else.

Without a good management company, a lot of times what will happen is an HOA or a

condo association will fall behind in the amount of money they need to maintain that

roof, or to replace the sewer lines, or re gunite the pool, or redo the clubhouse.

That rate, every month, will be inflated because they've

got to catch up, so to speak.

That's why, but most HOAs are pretty equitable for what you get.

And I think a lack of understanding about what these fees actually

go towards is the biggest.

Yeah.

So pretty much to say, why are they so high?

That's something you would want to ask and also define what your

def, what do you think a how is?

It's too high for an HOA fee.

A non high rise building, or for an HOA, not a condo?

Yeah,

HOA.

HOA without a pool?

Mm hmm.

That's the other thing a lot of people are like, HOA, so, and I

I see more HOA communities without pools than I do with.

Yeah, exactly.

But a lot of times, if your agent doesn't know there's a pool in the a lot of

times you can pool into a community.

You don't even pass by the pool with the clubhouse and the buyer has no idea.

And they're like what the hell are we paying?

All this

first of all, before I even am showing anybody a property, if it's in

an HOA fee, I'm in an HOA community.

I'm finding out what the HOA covers because that's going

to be the first question.

Well, that's because you're Jen Musky.

That's because I'm Jen fucking Rusk.

But in the end, I would say a non pool non having to take

care of the exterior of homes.

I don't know, but probably, but Once you get past like 250.

Yeah.

That gets to be like, okay, what am I paying for?

If I'm

paying like 3350 a month, you better be cutting my lawn.

Well, they're going to cut your, yeah, I would say, yeah, if they're

even at two 50, I would say, and really what I mean by HOA, like that's really

for like townhouse communities, you'll get where if you have single family

homes, it'll probably be closer if it's two 50, there better be a pool

or something going on in there because usually you have to mow your own lawn

and take care of your own lot and they just have to take care of common areas.

Now, the more rural you get.

The more like acreage they have to mow is common area.

And a lot of times the township requires it cause they have to maintain

the drainage swales and all that.

It can be all over the map, non high rise condo.

I think once you pass three 5, 400, I think you got to really

start looking at what the hell?

God, I'm looking at some in the fit in the city right now for a client

and some of those condo fees, man.

Woo.

Like we're keeping it under.

I think we're capping it at 700 a month in condo fees.

And I've seen some that are like, I wish our MLS would let us like

cap, like with condo slash HOA fees up to whatever I can't.

So I have to like manually filter those out.

But there are some for Oh my God, I think the most I saw

for condo fee was, Like 1, 100.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You can get some, you can get stuff on the main line too.

They're like, that's really expensive.

But a lot of times they're, they've got like real infrastructure issues.

They got to maintain, there's

a doorman and

yeah.

And there's just old, like just old pipes and they got to replace

all the electric or they got to replace all this, that or the other.

The other thing in high rise condos, people don't think about

elevators, super expensive.

Cause not a lot of people do them.

That's a big nut.

It's like the

one I was thinking of too, on top of it has a rooftop pool.

So that'll definitely add to it.

Keep in mind, a lot of these HOA fees, insurance, liability insurance for

people slipping and falling on the elements that the HOA is responsible for.

A little fun fact, when you buy in an HOA or condo, the lender has to

contact the association to make sure there's no litigation that exceeds

their general liability policy.

Hmm.

Because That I didn't know actually.

Yeah if there's a slip and fall.

And they've got a limited liability policy of a million bucks and

they're being sued for two million.

The insurance company only covers a million.

Where's the other million coming from?

It's coming from the residents.

So the lender wants to know, is there going to be a special assessment

based on a loss in this litigation?

Well, fun fact.

Okay.

All right.

So you can tell your friend, just there it is.

Ask Jen.

All right.

Last one.

Why did my mortgage payment go up?

Aren't they supposed to stay the same?

My friend asked me this.

Great question.

Yes.

So you buy a house because you never have to worry about your

rent going up an unpredicted amount

At any point in time, my friend's mortgage payment ended up going

up and he did not expect that.

I believe we had the conversation,

when you're going through a home buying experience, there's so much

information coming at you that like, Your brain doesn't absorb all of it.

If you have not purchased yet and you will at some point, or if you currently

own, then listen to this because this is something that does happen that shouldn't

fly under your radar and to be expected.

So your mortgage payment can change.

It can go up typically not drastically though.

So if you notice your mortgage payment go up, it would be

because your taxes went up.

So I just don't know.

I just got done telling you about escrow account and what gets paid from that.

So sometimes if they haven't pulled enough money into your escrow account

to cover all the taxes, then they will increase your mortgage to cover

the cost of the taxes is one reason.

It could also be that your homeowner's insurance may have

gone up because of claims.

Those are really like the two biggest reasons that they would unless there is

like a special assessment that's done where the township needs to get something

done for whatever reason, the funding doesn't cover it, but then they go to

the residents to have to pay for that.

So those are a few things, a few reasons why, but like I said,

it's not typically drastic.

Like my mortgage payment just went up maybe I think it was like 40 a month

for a 50 a month for the next 12 months.

So it goes up, but it's not like it's gonna change.

No

landlord raises your rent 40.

It's always a $100

right?

I never have to worry about getting displaced out of my house

Yeah.

That is the other thing a lot of people don't talk about is that

unless you just don't stop paying your mortgage all together, no one

can take your house away from you.

So we help a lot of people who you know, they're getting a rent raised

all the time and then it says oh by the way Oh, yeah, we're gonna sell it

Yep.

Your mortgage payment can change.

That can be why.

It doesn't have to do with your interest rate though.

So typically that'll be fixed.

And if you ever have questions about why your mortgage payment

changed, then you just read out.

Reach out to your mortgage company.

Yep.

And they will be able

to sell you.

One thing also to keep in mind is that sometimes they'll do

one higher payment for a makeup.

So instead of raising it incrementally, they'll just do okay, we need to

replant it because your taxes went up.

So they'll be like, okay, instead of paying, 2200, you're going to

pay 2475 or something like that.

Just to make, to make sure that they have, cause they have to keep a

certain amount of money in the escrow account for based on the terms and

conditions of which that loan is sold.

Meaning like your lender sells it to somebody else and says, okay, if

you're going to service this loan, you have to keep a certain baseline.

So it's that kind of out of the control of the lender.

Which by the way, that happens a lot.

And that's actually something that nobody asked, because nobody, I don't

think anybody knows about that side of it, which I'm glad you mentioned it.

So this is going to be a bonus tidbit of information.

The majority of the time, with the exception of some

lenders will hold your loan.

So the company that our lender is with will hold your loan

for a lifetime of the loan.

But more times than not, and pretty much standard practice, is You work

with one company to get you your loan and to get you into the home.

And then after you have purchased it and after it's issued, then

they will sell the loan and it'll be sold to a different company.

So my current mortgage is with A mortgage company that I did

not purchase my home with.

So they sell them off and that is normal and that is okay.

And again, if you were to ever have like questions of why am I getting

this mortgage payment from a company I've never heard of before, you just

talk to the lender that you'd been working with and they will tell you.

And

yeah and we might have a guest on to talk about the mortgage

markets and all that good stuff.

If anyone's really interested in how the sausage is made, but yeah.

And then we do have a lightning round for Jen.

She doesn't know about why.

Okay.

Bye.

Because I'm just going to ask questions.

It's really easy.

Okay.

Okay, don't get too nervous.

Which do you like better?

Oh, okay.

Music, or movies?

hmmmm music.

That's the wrong answer.

I don't care.

My attention span sometimes can't hold onto movies.

Baseball, or football?

Football.

That's an easy one.

Dogs, or cats?

Oh, man.

owning or enjoying other people's?

Whatever.

Uh.

Cats, because I love my cat.

I love both.

I want to pet your dog.

Avril Lavigne or Taylor Swift?

Oh, Taylor Swift.

You have to respect Taylor Swift, I didn't say.

Beach or mountains?

What's the time of year?

Ideal both.

Ideal mountains, ideal beach.

Which one?

You guys spend one day somewhere.

Which beach?

Are we talking are we talking tropical or are we talking like wildwood?

Ideal.

So whatever you

I'll go beach, but I love the mountains.

Okay.

Tea or coffee?

Coffee.

Wawa.

Hmm.

Apple or android?

Apple.

Truck or car?

Mmmmmmmmmm truck.

Christmas or Thanksgiving?

Christmas.

One place you'd go before you die?

Oh.

Alaska or somewhere where, or Netherlands where I can see the northern lights.

I was gonna say I can't believe, I thought you'd be like scanning.

I was

picking which one.

I was trying to figure out

where.

I can see the northern lights.

Yes.

What would you name yourself if you could change your name?

Oh my God.

Um, I was asked this on a recent podcast and I was stumped

probably because my name is awesome.

But I'm never really, my

name is pretty, I think my name is probably going to start

becoming like old people names.

It is.

I don't know.

Can I just change it and tell you what my name would have been?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

What?

Yeah.

Gertrude.

Gertrude!

My dad wanted to name me Gertrude.

I was like, ew!

How would you even shorten it?

Trudy.

He said, no.

He said Gertie.

I was like, how is that better?

That is like in no world better.

No Gertrudes out there.

I mean, I have a rare name, I have a weird name like Seth, but

Gertrude is one of those I know

multiple Seths.

Yeah, there's some famous Seths.

I don't think there's any famous Gertrudes, are there?

Gertrude Hawk.

That's it.

I

don't

know who it is.

It's not famous.

It's

chocolate.

Okay.

Um, all right.

I thought it was like gonna be on the spot and I had to code the answers.

It's so much better.

Okay.

Yes.

All right.

I

was, I was not going to put you on the spot.

All right.

All right.

I guess you

wouldn't.

Okay.

There you have it.

If you have more questions, actually, though, we want to know them.

We might actually start adding in a segment of answering

a question per podcast.

Drop more questions if you want them.

Yeah, and

we're thinking about adding a second episode for each week, and that would

be a great, great format, at least for some of those Friday afternoon drops.

Yeah.

So you can drop the comment on YouTube if you're watching it there, and

if not, just at Millennia Podcast, double L, double N, double P.

If you're not sure how to spell it, it's just double letter.

Double letter.

And you got it.

Alright, see you guys.

Alright, bye!