Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line 10-02-2026: Annette Early shares home buying tips from the FNBA

Transcript

Talk Line 10-02-2026: Annette Early shares home buying tips from the FNBA · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's time for your promised talk line edition today, and
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: I'm joined in the booth by Consumer Real Estate Loan
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Officer Annette Early here from the First National Bank in
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Amboy with some very useful knowledge, whether you're young or old,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: whether it's your first time or maybe it's a refresher
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: when it comes to buying a home. It's not as
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: easy as going to the Walmart and picking one out
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and putting it in your cart and there you go. Uh,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: there are some things you really need to consider to
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: put your best foot forward. And Annette is here to
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: tell you, cause you want to hear it right from, uh,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: right from the source.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Well, good morning. I'm glad to be here this morning
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: to talk to everybody and, uh, give some pointers on
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: what you need to do, uh, for buying a, maybe
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: it's your first home or, you know, first, second, third,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: whatever it is, um, give you some helpful hints. We
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: like to call it. So, um, Yeah, so some ideas,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: you know, some things that you should do to prepare
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: yourself for buying a home is you want to check
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: your credit, consider saving some money, set a budget, and
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: gather your documents that you may need to give to
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: the loan officers or the people that you're talking to
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: about the mortgage. You know, you'll want to consider... looking
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: at your credit score. And, you know, there's a lot
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: of ways to do that. You can either stop into
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: the bank, go over an application with us, get pre-approved,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: and we can run your credit that way and take
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: a look at your credit. But there's also that free,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: or the annualcreditreport.com, and that's free. And you can pull
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: that up, take a look at your credit, and see
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: what's out there. Because if you have some things on
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: your credit that, you know, that you don't know about,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: maybe you had a collection... long time ago, they've quit
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: sending you letters, and you've forgotten about it. That's something
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: that you need to get cleared up in order to
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: move forward. Because that's, you know, that those things sitting
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: out there are just hurting your credit, they're not helping you.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: So you'll want to get those things cleaned up, make
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: sure that you're, you're keeping your credit score up, because
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: those kind of things can drag your score down some.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: So getting those cleaned up are a good way to start.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: And you want to make sure that you're aiming for
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: a credit score of at least 620. You know, but
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: of course, the better the credit score, the better you may,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: the better interest rate you may get in loan terms
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: and things like that. Whatever programs we may be able
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: to get you in, the better the score.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a fantastic point because so many early buyers, especially,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: you know, like my adult kids, you know, will ask
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: me about this and going into it and they're like.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Where there's these three scores, right?
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: And which one is more important? And, well, I just
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: need this much to qualify. And like what you said,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: is doing your homework on where your score is, what
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: you need to clear up. And just because maybe even
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: with a couple of dings, your score is right there
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: at the acceptable level. doesn't mean you want to accept
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: the acceptable level of interest rate you're.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Going to get with that. Aim higher, yes.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, trying to get those things cleaned up and
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: doing it before that you're going, you know, if you're
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: thinking about buying a home, start looking into this now
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: because if you wait till, all right, now is when
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: I want to do this. You know, give yourself some
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: leeway and give yourself some time in case you need
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: to do some cleanup. and save some money. You know,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, there are programs out there that allow for, uh,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: as little as a hundred percent, but there's three and
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: 5% down that, that people can qualify for. Uh, so
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: you don't have to have 20%, but you know, of course,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: if you don't have 20%, then there's, you know, extra
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: things that are involved, uh, you know, private mortgage insurance
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: and things like that, which we can get into if
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: you come in and talk to us. But, um, So yeah,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: if you need to have time to save some money,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: there are programs also that will help you with down
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: payment assistance. A lot of those are income driven. So
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: we can look at your income and say, all right,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: you may qualify for this or you may not. And
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: if you don't, then you've got to start thinking of
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: a plan to have some money saved because you've got
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: to be able to cover some closing costs and you're
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: going to want to have money for incidentals and you know,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: just some things you may want to do to that
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: home when you move into it.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Is there like a good rule of thumb for somebody?
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Because like you said, some of these, you know, my
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: kids ask the same thing. There's these down payment assistant programs. Yes,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: there's different things available. You should definitely check it out.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: But like you said, a lot of these can be
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: income driven. So maybe you don't qualify. So the best
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: thing you can be thinking about in terms of having
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: that down payment, is there some kind of rule like
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Maybe every $ 100, 000, you know, what you're looking at for
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: a price at home, you want to have this. I
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: know it won't be exact, but is there kind of
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: like a general rule or maybe like I would suggest
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: maybe having at least this much?
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: You know, I.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: And if there's no good answer, you say, hey, it
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: depends and this is why you need to.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Come talk to us. Yeah, it's going to depend on
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: their situation. And yeah, it depends. You know, and of course,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: what their income is, like, what are they going to
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: be qualified for? And, you know, I do like to
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: start out with when a customer comes to see me and,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: you know, and they've told me that they're shopping. I
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: like instead of asking them, what price range are you
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: looking at? And I like to ask them, where do
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: you want your payment to be? Because a lot of times.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: That's a good question, and I like that better, actually.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Where do you want your payment to be? Because your
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: payment may not match up with the price range you're
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: looking in.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: Excellent point.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Once you consider the principal and interest, the taxes, the insurance,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: possibly the PMI... you may not get as much as
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: what you wanted. So you may have to then save
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: more for a down payment or try and find those
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: assistant programs.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: And that's why it's so important to give you all
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: a call and start these conversations, get somebody who can
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: answer these questions in the process of which it happens.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: Because it could, like you said.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: It can be nuanced, could also depend on what kind
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: of loan they're getting, or as you said, what.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: They qualify for.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: So again, this isn't just something where you see a
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: listing online and you're like, oh, I think I can
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: afford that. This is something you want to be talking
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: with your banker about now. And the First National Bank
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: of Amboy happy to help you with that. And then
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: as you said, you know, setting a budget, whether it's,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: you know, how much you're going to spend overall, your payments,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the costs, and then reducing debt kind of helping with that.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, so think about paying down. So if you
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: have a lot of credit card debt, maybe think about
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: paying some of those down so that your monthly payments
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: are a little bit less so that when you tell
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: me that you want your payment to be at this,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: I take that payment plus whatever you have for debts
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: and figure your debt to income ratio. We've got to
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: make sure you stay under a certain ratio. So if
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: your payments are too high on some of the debts
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: that you currently have, You've got to think about paying
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: some of those things down so that you can afford
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: the payment that you're targeting.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I kind of imagine the twin scales, right, and
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: having that good balance. And if you've got too much
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: debt on there, trying to just add a house onto
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: there isn't going to go well. And so that's where
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: responsible lending comes in and responsible counseling when it comes
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: to lending comes in.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: And that's what you all are all about.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: And you know, something else I think about here too,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: and a lot of times people, when I ask for
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: documents that are needed, W-2s or pay stubs, you know,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: everybody gets, oh, I don't get a pay stub anymore.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: I don't get my W-2 or, you know, it's usually
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: emailed to me. You know, maybe you need to make
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: sure that where those documents are at. So when we
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: ask you for them, you know where to go and
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: get them so that you don't have to hunt for
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: them and And, or, you know, how to log in
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: to get them, you know, because that's when people tell me,
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: I don't, I don't get one. I don't know how
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: to get it. Well, I need it. So you'll have
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: to figure, you know, try and figure something out so
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: that you can get that to us.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: That's, you know, the other thing, like I tell my
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: kids all the time, once they became adults is like,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: I can kind of give you a guide, help you
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: tell you what to do, but you have to do it.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Nobody Nobody's talking to me now anymore. You're an adult.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: It's your business. So it's the same for you. You
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: need these documents. If it's going to take you some
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: time to find them, make some phone calls. Again, like
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: you said, getting an early jump on these steps is
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: going to be necessary before you even get the chance
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: to find out, one, what you qualify for, and two,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: before you even get to start putting offers in. And
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: oh my goodness, that's a whole other game in itself.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Well, and when you start looking, you start dreaming, and
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: then you start wanting. So it's better to just start
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: get a head start, get pre-approved, or, you know, at
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: least figure out what you can do, you know, call
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: us up, ask us what we can, you know, help
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: you figure out so that you know what you need
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: to target for. I mean, it may not be, we
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: can't do something right now, but give yourself some time,
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: you know, and to be able to achieve that goal.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: And that might be the case. And don't fret that,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: that if you have work to do, you have work
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: to do, but the The first step in achieving that
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: goal is to look at what you need to fix,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: making a list and then getting started on it. Because
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: as I say all the time, the time's going to
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: pass anyways. You know, if it's going to take you
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: six months, if it's going to take you six years,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: you will still be there at the end of six
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: months or six years. Do you want it to be
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: the same or hey, do you want to be coming
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: in and saying, I'm ready to get that house now
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: and that?
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And again, I completely agree with you.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Getting all these steps done and then being pre-approved is
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: really the best way to approach it. You can dream,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: like you said, but I'd hate to see somebody's dreams
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: get deflated.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: So the best you.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Could do, I really want to suggest, is try not
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: to browse the listing so much. Give Annette a call.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Get started on this list, getting your documents, starting these conversations.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: And then once you've got everything knocked out of the
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: way and you know what you're pre-approved for, you know
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: who you can talk to. And who knows, maybe at
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the end of that day, you're on your way to
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: a new home. Yeah, yeah.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: And, you know, they can come and talk to me
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: at our Dixon North location, but we also have Sage.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: He's in our Monroe Center office. Marion's in the Franklin
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Grove office. And Franny and Elsa are in the Amboy office.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: But any of us can be reached by phone. You
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: don't have to come to our locations. If you want
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: to have a phone conversation and have us help you
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: that way, we can do that. Or you can certainly
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: come into the office and sit down with us. We'd
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: be happy to go over things with you.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Multiple different ways to get it done. I'm a face-to-face
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: kind of guy, so that's where I always think of first.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: But absolutely, you can just pick up the phone online.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: No reason to wander around in the home market in
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the dark. Annette, thank you so much for coming and
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: sharing this. Anything we're forgetting to cover?
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: No, not that I can think of.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: Well, this is definitely a good start.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: And again, whether you go in or you give her
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: a call, Annette and the team at First National Bank
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: and Amboy is happy to help you along the way
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: to owning your home. Annette, thank you so much again.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.