Live Better with Centric

On this month’s podcast, we sat down with Centric’s VP of Mortgage Lending, Ashley Wilson, to talk about the home buying process. Ashley shares with us the many ways that the Centric mortgage team helps our members Live Better in the home of their dreams. From a first-time homeowner to those ready to build their forever home, Centric can help everyone reach their goals of homeownership. Ashley sheds truth on many myths people believe about being able to own a home. Even if you aren’t ready now to purchase a home, Centric’s Certified Credit Union Financial Counselors can help you get your finances in order and reach all of your financial hopes and dreams.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Carmen Gonzalez  0:02  
Welcome back to another episode of the Live Better Podcast by Centric FCU. I'm your host and Centric's Community Partner Coordinator, Carmen Gonzalez. I'm so excited that you're here. Every month we post a new episode where I'm joined by a guest to chat about finances and all things living better. Subscribe today so that you never miss an episode. Today, we are joined by Ashley Wilson, who is Centric's, VP of Mortgage Lending. She has been on this podcast before she always shares such great information. So we're so thankful that she's joining us again today to share with everyone more things about mortgages and home buying.

Ashley Wilson  0:35  
Well, thanks, Carmen for having me on. I'm glad to be here again, to share some information with you. And our podcast listeners.

Carmen Gonzalez  0:43  
Yes. And, you know, typically I know if anybody is a regular listener and is listening right now, you know, I usually try to give us something so we know a little bit more about our guest on our podcast. And last time we did you know, you told us a little about yourself how long you been here. But my question this time, since we kind of already know you a little bit is what is one appliance or feature that you think every house should have?

Ashley Wilson  1:05  
Hmm, that's a good question, Carmen. I believe that one good feature that any and every house should have would be I would say good installation, well ventilated. Because that will carry you over the life of the loan of the house, you've been in the house because it will cut costs on your utility bills, you don't want to have a house that's not well insulated. And your utility bills are sky high when it's cold, and you have to bring your utility bills more. And so that makes your bills more than makes your monthly cost output more. So I would definitely check on having a well insulated house. And for the people that are entertainers, for as far as Thanksgiving, Christmas, my biggest drawback when I bought my house was it did not have a double oven. So I mean, it might sound small. But once you start cooking for a lot of people, you wish you had a double oven. So that's just a small tidbit.

Carmen Gonzalez  2:03  
No, and that's good. So my mom just recently got an oven that has like the double thing going on. And while she does not cook out of both of the ovens, typically at the same time now sometimes she does. But it also comes in handy on the fact that if she is cooking a bunch of things, or someone brought something, and it's extra than she can store it in that like that second spot that's not cooking to keep it warm while we're making sure everything else is finished. So definitely that's a good tip. Yes. Personally, I know that in our family also, because we mentioned the kitchen, the kitchen is the place where my family gathers, like no matter how many people are in our house. And no matter how fabulous my mom has set up the kitchen table, everyone is actually right in the kitchen. Correct. So I think the best thing we bought our new house was having such an open space somewhere where people could sit in convene. And that way, you know, I don't know if it's because you're close to the food, or that's just where mom hangs out. But that kitchens important. So definitely taking that into consideration for sure. But for anyone who might be looking for a home, I hope that maybe you take a little bit of our advice on the kitchen aspects and the installation. I know that's huge, not only just for when we have our few cold minds, but also from we have that heat so we're keeping that air inside and not helping cool off the

outside and is exactly.

But how can we prepare ourselves before we start looking to get a home? What are some steps we need to take

Ashley Wilson  3:26  
I would definitely advise anybody that is maybe looking at steps to purchasing a home to maybe look at your financial background that you have, maybe get with one of our certified financial counselors here at the credit union, to make sure that you are on the right track as far as credit, make sure you have enough tradelines because that is important. I know some people say that, hey, I have a 700 credit score, but you may only have one credit card. So you may want to get with one of our certified financial advisors here to see how many trade lines I have. How many trade lines do I need for each loan program? About how much money do I need to put a downpayment down if you have to put a down payment down and definitely save money. Make sure that you own your job a certain amount of time. And just basically have your finances in order. Don't go out looking for a house before you're pre qualified.

Carmen Gonzalez  4:20  
Yeah, definitely. And I think it's good to mention there as you said, you know, figuring out your financial circumstance. I know I've talked with you. I've talked with Victoria, I talk with Kathy, I've talked with all of our mortgage team and all of them always say that. There's always situations where people think that they wouldn't qualify until they come talk to somebody and you don't just have to talk to somebody in our mortgage team. All of our certified financial counselors we have over 50 They can help you look at your current financial status. And if they don't have a question, they we all know how to get in contact with our mortgage team to help you figure out what you need to do.

Ashley Wilson  4:52  
That is correct. Every loan officer every member service rep and any branch even if you call in over the phone that you're able to Get in contact with us via phone via email, they can send over your contact information to us and we will get back with you guys. Within a day or two. Yeah.

Carmen Gonzalez  5:10  
So with that, you mentioned a pre qualification. What does that do for us? And what? You know, how does that help us out?

Ashley Wilson  5:18  
The pre qualification process basically tells you how much you can purchase, we can give you different scenarios on which loan program you qualify for, it will give you a general idea of your downpayment, it will give you a general idea of your closing costs, we give you a scenario if the seller is willing to pay some of all your closing costs. We give you estimates on your homeowners insurance on your property taxes, an interest rate that you may qualify for based on your credit score, how much you may qualify for, based on your debt to income ratio. So it goes it's a lot that goes into it. When you come in, and we are more than willing to sit down and go over everything with you. Yeah,

Carmen Gonzalez  6:03  
definitely. And like she said, they are more than willing. I know I've been through the process, and you know, at all times, calling them reaching out to them. Y'all deal with this every day. I know y'all are more than happy to help our members, right, figure it out and answer all of their questions. Um, so you mentioned we talked about, you know, that pre qualification is really how we get that process started. After we get that pre qualification, what are some steps that we should be taking to find a home

Ashley Wilson  6:28  
some steps that I think people should do to find a home would definitely be to get with a realtor, unless you're buying from a family member that you know, they're selling you the house, I would say get with the realtor so that they can have access to show you homes that you're wanting to look at, put a contract in on the home, be your leg work, basically, and be your midpoint between you and the seller, are you in the seller's agent, so that you can find out different information about the home, they have different disclosures that they can send out to you, as far as things about the home and has it ever flooded, if it's in a flood zone up front before you even put a contract in on the house. And they can be your midpoint as if if you want them to sail if they want, if you want them to give any closing costs on the house, if you want them to pay any of your home warranty. And going back and forth on the sales price of the house as well to basically you know, they help you find the house they also help you negotiate they do they help you to negotiate the price of the home. Yeah.

Carmen Gonzalez  7:31  
Um, with that, like do they kind of help us, once we get our pre qualification, they can kind of look at that and kind of direct his own, where to look at what kind of things we're looking at, and kind of give us a estimate of, you know, I guess just a general idea of where we should be looking right,

Ashley Wilson  7:47  
that can give you a general idea of where you need to look at. But sometimes most buyers are influenced by school zones, where they want to purchase a home at, and they will stay generally in that area. So they will know to look in that area for you. And also another thing would be to get with your lender to know how much you're pre qualified up to and have a lender that you're more comfortable with, so that they can give you more information that it's willing to spend some time with you.

Carmen Gonzalez  8:15  
Yeah, definitely. And talking about that. I think so many people you mentioned, your lender can kind of guide you on some things and your Realtor can guide you. And I think that's a big deal for a lot of people because homebuying sort of like this very different topic that either people don't talk about or you do it once and then you kind of forget until it's time to buy it again. So what are some of the myths that people believe about home buying or home ownership?

Ashley Wilson  8:41  
There are a lot of myths out there. The biggest myths that I believe that people believe in is that they have to have perfect credit. They come in and say why don't you have a 650? Well, you can qualify for some loan programs with a 650 or they have to have a ton of money to put down there are loan programs out there that does not require any money down. The rule development program that we offer here at the crow at the credit union does not require any money down. We also offer our famous first time homebuyer program, it does not offer any money down. It does not require you to put any money down and also you can purchase the home inside or outside the city limits. So that's a perk of our first time homebuyer program. There are closing costs associated with all loan programs. But in the negotiation process, the seller can pay all of some of your closing costs. So that's a great point about myths that people believe in.

Carmen Gonzalez  9:37  
Yeah. And you mentioned our first time first time homebuyer program. I think that I know that's that's partially how I bought my home. Oh, can you share anything I know that again, this is very every person situation is different. Everybody's qualifications are different and so we can't share exact specific information. If you want to find that out. Reach out to us we'll share a little more about How to do that later. But what are some what are some of the more details other than just not having to have a downpayment?

Ashley Wilson  10:05  
The first time homebuyer program does not require downpayment. It is a loan program that we keep here at the credit union at Centric. It is a fixed rate mortgage, it is a straight mortgage for 30 years that you will have, we can finance, primary residence, it can be a site built home, or it can be mobile home and land. So, some people are just not ready to take that big step to purchase a home. And it can be less costly if they do mobile home and land. So we do offer mobile home and land for our first time homebuyer program as well. We finance 100% of the value of the property. And there is no PMI on our loan program.

Carmen Gonzalez  10:50  
And so you're mentioning PMI? I know that's one of those things that I had no clue about, and still kind of a little foggy. Oh, what is that? And, you know, how does that either benefit us when we do have to have it or what is what is PMI just tell us about it.

Ashley Wilson  11:03  
PMI is private mortgage insurance. It is insurance that a lender has on mortgages when we finance over 80% of the value of the property. So with us financed and over 80% of the value of this property, then we do not have to have PMI insurance on our first time homebuyer program that we offer here at the credit union. When you do any other loan program as far as rule development, FHA, they have PMI on their loans that you pay monthly, it goes into an escrow account, and it is adding it to your monthly payment if you finance over 80% of the value of the property.

Carmen Gonzalez  11:40  
Okay. And so with you saying that, you know, over 80%, the fact that our first time homebuyer program, you know, will allow you to lend us 100% of the value. That's a huge deal, right? Yes, that is definitely. And then you mentioned, this is kind of I didn't have this question prepared for you previously, but you mentioned it, and I thought it'd be a great thing for anyone who's looking at a home loan, or if somebody already has a home loan, maybe they want to consider refinancing. Why does a fixed rate mortgage you know, how does that benefit us?

Ashley Wilson  12:10  
A fixed rate mortgage benefits you because you're not your interest rate doesn't change. I know with the market, your interest rate could fluctuate, it could increase or decrease with that your mortgage payment could increase and decrease. So you're not stuck with any surprises. We do offer one Adjustable Rate Mortgage here at the credit union, which is our home equity line of credit. But we notify our members within 30 days in advance if their interest rate will change. But we do give them the option to switch their home equity line of credit to their second to a fixed second mortgage. So

Carmen Gonzalez  12:50  
now that's so awesome. And again, like you said, you are notified of that beforehand. So even if you do have a HELOC, that's something you're concerned about, don't worry, you will be notified beforehand. And so those are the things to consider. And I think that's one of the situations where, again, it's something a lot of people don't know about. But that's why that pre qualification meeting we talked about is so so important is because we find out all this kind of stuff, right when we talk to you. And so you talked about you did mention the closing costs, and that, you know, all loan programs have that included, but are there any other costs, I know we've talked about down payment as well, but are there any costs that we should be prepared to cover outside of our mortgage loan.

Ashley Wilson  13:29  
Um, sometimes you'll need a an inspection done on the property, when you first look at the property put a contract and on the property, usually you have at least 10 days to do an inspection on the property and inspector comes in and basically goes over the house like a fine tooth comb. He looks under the house, he looks on top of the house, he looks at the outlets, he looks at different things in the house that may be of hazard to you. As far as the buyer or the seller, he also looks at different things in the house that may need fixing. And then he gives you this huge report. And you present it to the seller of the house and ask them if they're willing to fix any of these things. And then you kind of negotiate back and forth with them. The cost of that can run you anywhere from 250 to 450 Depending on the size of the house. So that's one cost that you will incur outside of your closing cost and your down payment and termite inspection. Sometimes that's added in to your closing costs. Sometimes they'll have a septic inspection done, but normally that's the sellers cost of the loan.

Carmen Gonzalez  14:41  
Yeah. And I think too, if you're, you know, buying land and stuff, sometimes you'll have to pay a surveyor cost.

Ashley Wilson  14:47  
You do sometimes have to pay a survey we don't require a survey because normally the land is already surveyed out but sometimes you have companies that sell and huge tracts of lands in that They're still in smaller tracts out of that huge tract of land. And they will sometimes negotiate well, I'll pay half for the survey, if you're willing to buy the smaller tract of land, or I'll pay the survey as far as the seller or the buyer. And sometimes that can be a cost editing.

Carmen Gonzalez  15:16  
Okay. Yeah, I think and I know, I asked that, because I know that especially where we are right now, I think land is probably one of the hottest commodities someone can get. I know plenty of people who they'll buy land before they go buy a house, because they know that you know, at least that if they can lock that in, then I can do so many things.

Ashley Wilson  15:33  
That is, that is true. A lot of people buy land before they build their houses, they secure their land and where they want to build their houses, or they secure the land, and maybe come back later on and put a mobile home only on the property, we offer mobile home only loans, or we can combine the mobile home and land as the package. After you've owned the land, we can also do that. So that's an option. We do construction loans as well. So if you have land and you're thinking about building in the future, you can always come in and sit down with one of our loan officers here at the credit union and go over your options or of building, we would just need your bids and plans and some more information from you. And we can look at your construction loan.

Carmen Gonzalez  16:16  
Okay. Now that's good. That was gonna be my next question is, you know, how does construction loans work for us? And so really just getting basically your plans in order? And then y'all can help us figuring out the next steps from there?

Ashley Wilson  16:28  
Yes, that is correct, we can let you know how much money you'll need for closing as far as your construction loan. And as far as your permanent financing as we'll

Carmen Gonzalez  16:37  
definitely and that's so helpful. And especially because I recently was reading something, and I've talked with a few of you. And the fact that you know, it is getting to be the cost are going down a little bit for construction, constructing anything, really. And so now's a great time to start considering that,

Ashley Wilson  16:53  
yes, it's a very good time, things are going down, the only thing that's probably hindering some people is getting material in, it's taking a little bit longer for the material come in. So that's kind of lagging the construction process, our construction loan process is normally nine months for you to construct your home. Yeah.

Carmen Gonzalez  17:13  
And that again, I think I've said it in previous podcasts. We've talked in different stuff we've done, but any home buying process is a journey. But the construction loan process is definitely a longer journey. But I mean, you are there for us, right?

Ashley Wilson  17:26  
We are we're here for you, we normally get an appraisal done on the property. If you think you need or to make any changes during the process, we're always here to help you along the way. Normally, the builders and you form a relationship so they know what you need, and basically what you don't need and how to get your costs down. If you want it to make improvements to other areas of the home. Yeah,

Carmen Gonzalez  17:52  
definitely. We've talked about builders, and you know, you mentioned inspections, or if we've talked about all the different things, you know, but I think sometimes unless we're having to deal with it every day, we don't really know where to look, Can y'all help us connect with people, when we have to get either I don't want to say survey and inspection or anything like that.

Ashley Wilson  18:11  
We can direct you in the right path. Normally your realtor, they have a list of people for as far as inspectors that they normally use termite inspectors as far as home inspections, surveyors, inspections for your septic system. So that's the good thing about having a realtor, they normally have a list of those people that they can direct you to. And we also have list as well that we can direct you to as well.

Carmen Gonzalez  18:38  
Yeah. And again, that's just another example of during the whole process asking the people who that y'all do this every day, I see have seen all the situations. And so asking y'all and reaching out to y'all definitely helps us. Yeah. Um, and so, again, that's just one of the ways that the mortgage team is so awesome. They help us so much. But what are you know, how does the centric mortgage team help our members live better and borrow better? And I'm sure you've got some stories and we would love for our listeners and me personally, I love to hear those stories.

Ashley Wilson  19:13  
We we always say we literally help our members live better because we help them get new homes. We have helped them refinance their homes to put them in a better financial situation, whether it's refinancing to pay off their debt, to get their interest rate down, to purchase the home that they never thought they would buy. I always tell people about a situation that I had a member basically called in and she talked to one of our loan officers at one of the centers, and she was just going over her loan that she currently had and was talking about that she had got pre approved and another mortgage company and then it fell through and she wasn't sure why. And they never went over in detail with her about her credit her information. So she picked up the phone and she called the mortgage department just on a whim to see, you know, hey, what do you have to offer for me because she was basically deflated because she had been through the process a couple of times. And it was always a no so I ran her information. And she was so excited that she got pre qualified. But her biggest drawback was, every time she went and look for a house, her husband could never agree on the house. So it took her forever to find a house. I mean, a long time. So her and her husband, they had been on their job a long time. And they had been renting this house for I'm think, maybe 10 years. So it was time for them to move on to something else, something bigger for her and her family. And one night, she says she's found a house online, on realtor.com. No pictures were online, she just saw the address. She called a realtor and said, I want to go look at this house. And so she say they went and looked at the house the next day, and she said she fell in love with the house, her and her husband both. So I got the contract that night. And I saw the address. And I was like, Hmm, that looks familiar. So the address of the house that she was actually wanting to buy was the address of my member that was doing a construction loan. Oh, so she was selling the house and actually building her own house. So it was like a win win for both of our members. One of my members got to sell her house in order so she could finish building her house. And then my other member got to buy her dream house. And so at closing, she cried and and it was very emotional and touching. I mean, that's what we're here for. We like to help our members live better and do things that they never thought that they could do. So we just love stories like that. Yes, and

Carmen Gonzalez  21:42  
those are, I mean, I know me personally, I love hearing those stories, because anybody, um, you know, so much of our life is indicated about where we get to live. And knowing that Centric is there to help us the mortgage team is there to help us find that home, get into that home. I love the story that one of the girls on the team mentioned that she had somebody who came and talked to her about a mortgage loan, she knew she was gonna be able to get here because she had just graduated, she didn't have two years of job history. And she graduated from nursing school went straight to nursing. And, you know, she was able to share with her like, hey, you know, like you went to school, you followed the process. So I can take that on top of the fact that you are about to start your job and how much you're making through that and get you into the home for you and your child. And those are the kind of things I think so many people don't realize. And again, that's why you just have to come talk to one of them

Ashley Wilson  22:30  
just have to call and talk to us and just share your story with us. Yeah, and we'll be more than willing to help you along the way. That's what we're here for. We're just don't take your application and go we kind of talk to you give you scenarios and and we kind of go with the process to see what best fits your needs.

Carmen Gonzalez  22:47  
Yeah, and I think that's important. And I always, anytime anybody talks to me about you know, homebuyer thing. I'm like, I just have to connect you with our mortgage team. Because even partially when I'm trying to either create a workshop or create content to help our members live better and help our community partners live better. Y'all are always just a call away or email away to find out what information that I personally don't know because I don't deal with it every day. And so that it's just so awesome. And mentioning that story and mentioning you know your story me sharing one of the other girls story from the team. Share with us give her you know the whole mortgage team shout out who is on your mortgage team and how can we get in contact. We have

Ashley Wilson  23:25  
a great group of ladies on our mortgage team. We are all ladies as of now. Our mortgage mortgage team has grown basically double within the last couple of years. We have me Ashley, I'm VP of the mortgage department and I'm located on Cypress Street we have Kathy she's been with us a few years. Kathy Harris. She is located on Thomas Road center. We have Victoria Sullivan. She has been with us a while she was recently in the Ruston center but now she is working remotely. She takes all of our leads that come in online members that may call in her past members that come into Ruston center that she's worked with in the past she still works with them she's able to do any and all things mortgage the same way that we do it in the office. She does the same thing. And I knew his mortgage loan officer that we have is Christy Greer. She is located in the Ruston center as well and our mortgage loan processors we have Tesa Morris. She is located at the mortgage center we have Priscilla she's located at the West Monroe Cypress Street location. And we have Cindy and she is at our West Monroe mortgage center, as well.

Carmen Gonzalez  24:44  
Yes they are also awesome and I do want to share I love to anyone who is regular listener has heard me share you know my love for the fact that Centric really does help all of our members live better, and how inclusive we are with our you know, love for other cultures and everything and so I do want to shout out the fact that Priscilla is fluent in Spanish. And so if one of our listeners is a Spanish speaking person, or if you know someone who is looking for a mortgage or wanting to take that next step, but they can't find somebody to help them personally, because they can't find somebody to speak the language they're most comfortable in, give us a call. We will connect you with Priscilla, she helps so many of our Spanish speaking members, even if they do speak English, sometimes you just want to have that you know that first language, your native language spoken with you. And so Priscilla is more than happy to help you through that process. And again, we're just another way that we're helping our members, all of our members live better.

Ashley Wilson  25:35  
That is so true. And Priscilla, as always willing to welcome anybody with open arms, she's willing to help in any way that she can. And it is great to have someone that is local, that you can come inside the branch, you can call over the phone and know that they're right there, and that they're able to help you instead of you know, talking to someone that you don't know where they're at. So that's a great point, Carmen, thank you.

Carmen Gonzalez  25:59  
And we love our team so much. We love all of our members who get to connect with them. So again, reaching out to us real quick, I'm just going to share those different ways that you can always connect through MyCentric.org, you can give us a call it 318-340-9656 and we can get you connected or stop by any of our locations. And if someone at that location is not one of our mortgage team is not one of the people on our mortgage team, then they know how to get you connected super easy. And so come visit us come talk call us give us get us connected so but I do want to also mention the fact that you know, once we've gotten through the journey of home buying, we've gotten the home of our dreams we've moved in what are some things that we need to keep in mind or we need to prepare for after the mortgage buying loan and home buying processes over

Ashley Wilson  26:49  
depending on if we close your loan in house. Or if we sell it in a secondary market, Carmen is different ways that we service your loan now loans that we keep here at the credit union and our first time homebuyer program. Loan would be one of our examples, we service the loan 100%. So if you have any questions about your escrow account, which involves your homeowners insurance and your property taxes, you're more than willing to reach out to one of our loan officers. And we can answer any questions that you may have about that. If you change your homeowners insurance, contact us and let us know that anything about servicing your loan as far as if you want to how you want to make your payments if you want them auto transferred, or if you want to come inside the branch or where to make your payments. It doesn't matter if it's the loan that we've have here on our books at Centric or if it's one that we've sold in the secondary market, we're always here to help you with your loan.

Carmen Gonzalez  27:47  
And again, yes just like you know, even when it comes to that after the closing a loan and talking about escrow, all that stuff, y'all are always there to help us. And also I want to mention at this point, you know, after you've done that, after you you know achieve the goal of buying a home being a homeowner, you might have new goals or maybe you want to start working on getting debt free if you have other debt. Reach out to us you don't you know, obviously if you've worked with the mortgage team, if you want to reach out to them, ask them to connect you with one of our other financial counselors who works more on the loan side and budgeting side and they're more than happy to do that. And you can connect with us again the same ways that you connect with the mortgage team you connect with our financial counselors. And they can help you with you know building back up your savings because homebuy can drain that a good bit. And definitely

Ashley Wilson  28:34  
can want all new things sometimes even though you don't need it, you want it but yes

Carmen Gonzalez  28:40  
and I always suggest to people before you start furnishing your new house maybe reach out before you go get that you know 0% for so many months loan or you get a new credit card from you know, Lowe's or whatever place you like to shop at, reach out to us, you know, maybe the next step for you. You know, we want to help you protect your credit even after you've bought your home so we want to make sure that we're helping advise you on that too. So again, definitely just reaching out to us. Ask us questions don't ever think you're bothering us or worried about annoying anyone we want to talk to you we want to help you live better Live better in your home and live better with your financial goals.

Ashley Wilson  29:17  
Yeah, and definitely keep in mind that your budget will change drastically after you buy a house so you have to have the mindset of I have bought a house so I do need to start saving like you said Carmen and I might need to change maybe my spending habits because you may not be used to having your house note and a certain dollar amount so I would definitely reach out to one of our certified financial advisors. Maybe they can do a budget for you Yeah, your new house payment that you may have

Carmen Gonzalez  29:47  
definitely and on top of that to considering the fact that you know maybe you want to open up another savings account. You know centric he can open up to seven savings accounts name or whatever you want customize them. But home repairs are a thing, and or just buying new things for your home or you might have to start, especially if you're a first time homeowner, if you've, you know, maybe you graduated college moved out of your parents home, you might have start buying more things for yourself. And so open it up in a savings account for that and preparing for those things definitely helps, too.

Ashley Wilson 30:17
I would definitely advise open up a savings account or home repairs common because I had a scare over the Christmas holidays where I had a plumbing issue and it was the day after Christmas so it was extra costs. For them to come out, I didn't know what was wrong with it and then they were talking about having to dig up my concrete and run another line and I'm thinking, Oh my gosh, how much is? This gonna cost. But all I could see was the dollar signs in my head. And so if you have that savings account, you don't have to worry about it and then another thing that you can have when you purchase a home is a home warranty. You can have the seller to pay for you a home warranty. They can pay for the first year and after the first year you pay monthly for your home warranty and a home warranty can also cover plumbing problems, anything that may happen in your home. And it could be less costly air conditioning units. I know a lady that bought a house she had a home warranty and so we replaced the unit. It was about $6000. She had a home warranty. All she had to pay was her deductible, which was $100. So it was a good thing for her to have. 

Carmen Gonzalez 31:25
And I know, especially I think the air conditioning is one of the first things I I always think. About air conditioning and your washer going out or your dryer, I know a couple years ago the middle of summer in Louisiana, you know, taught our air conditioning. Our house went out and knowing the fact that we luckily had a home warranty, I was gonna be able to cover that really helped getting that process started and covering those costs and then recently I know that your washer and dryer don't go over your home warranty, but getting warranty on those. Things is really beneficial, even if it does increase your cost some because my mom's washer went out, just it died had. Just died on her, and luckily it's still covered in warranty. So she was able to call and get them to come repair it and it was covered, and so she'd have to charge. That extra money and so just again thinking about those things, considering those things to really help yourself financially in the long haul. 

Ashley Wilson 32:16
Right, that is correct.  

Carmen Gonzalez 32:18
As always, we're always here for you. Our Centric mortgage team, like she said, we've got them in every place. Basically, the team has grown over the past few years so much and so you can reach them in so many different ways. They are there for you Monroe, West Monroe Ruston all mine. They are there to help you out so just reach out at any time and again. Ashley, I thank you so so much for taking time out of your day to come. Talk to us, talk to me, talk to. Our listeners and share the information that you have. 

Ashley Wilson 32:45
Thank you and thank you for having me like Carmen said. Please reach out to our mortgage department with. Any and all of your mortgage needs, even if you don't know where to start, how to start or when to start. We can help you get started, so we'll be here to help you along with your journey of your home buying process. 

Carmen Gonzalez 33:04
Thank you for listening to our podcast and tune back in next month for another episode of the Live Better Podcast by Centric FCU. Don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and to ensure you never miss out on helpful tips like us on Facebook at Centric Federal Credit Union and find us @MyCentric on Instagram Pinterest, TikTok, and on YouTube you can find information about today's topic. Our monthly blog and more at mycentric.org. Centric is federally insured by the NCUA.