Welcome to Elevate with Elsner. Join us for inspiring conversations with individuals who have transformed their lives and are making a difference through the work that they do. And now here's your host, Blake Elsner.

Welcome back to another inspiring episode of Elevate with Elsner, where we unlock your passion and elevate your impact. And today, as you can see, this is our first episode. Some are listening. Some can watch, but this is our first podcast from a remote spot. RF Home Company, we are proudly inside the studio and going forward, you're going to see a lot more of podcasts being recorded here. So next to me, I have Ciara Miller and she is a young entrepreneur in the lending industry for Northern Lakes Mortgage. She's been doing it for a little while. And I got to say, when she reached out, there's not many loan officers that are that much younger than me. So without further ado, we need to figure out how she got into this business. So, Sierra, welcome.

Blake Elsner

Hey, guys. What's up? Yeah. Yeah.

Ciara Miller

So tell us. Let's dive in. So I know you were in Ursuline Bear.

Blake Elsner

I was in Ursuline Bear. Go Bears. Yeah, I graduated in 2017 from high school, from St. Louis, lived here my entire life, went away for college to Ole Miss, and then graduated in 2021. Well, I guess before that, COVID hit my junior year, so that kind of put a wrench in all my plans, online learning. all of that, didn't really know what I wanted to do, was actually studying for the LSAT to go to law school. Fun fact, obviously. Here we are, did not end up pursuing that. But kind of just fell into the mortgage industry after college. I actually was just looking for a job and saw the ad for my current company on LinkedIn. And I was like, you know what, I don't know anything about this and went to the interview that was like, that's perfect. We'll teach you everything you need to know. And now I've been doing it for two and a half years and I absolutely love it.

Yeah. I got to say you have a lot of grit and you get out there and you want to make connections. I've noticed that's a big part of how you do it. One thing I will say, though, on LinkedIn is how you found me because I started going live on LinkedIn and I'm like, nobody's on LinkedIn, but apparently people are on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn's where it's at. Yeah. LinkedIn is really where it's at. I mean, it's very slept on, I feel like.

And it's kind of coming back around. I do think you're right. Maybe it's just been slept on and people don't even realize that LinkedIn has some of the best employers now.

Well, you gotta think. You have TikTok, Instagram, Reels, YouTube Shorts, all that stuff that's more, I feel like, the quote-unquote younger generation. Of course, there's older generations on all of those as well. But LinkedIn is where people in any type of business or professional atmosphere went before all those things were cool to post about themselves, their profession, put themselves out there. So sometimes you just got to go back to the basics, especially to network and connect with that older generation that's maybe not on some of those different platforms.

That yeah, that is true about the. The whole like going back to like the basics and doing LinkedIn is is like a basic and I feel like I don't know if it's because you're in the Gen Z. Territory or what, but it's like almost like it's everything cycles back around. I kind of joke it's like my daughter's name Charlotte and. I would never would have thought I would name my daughter Charlotte because that's like an old person's name, right?

Yeah. Well, there's a lot of that making a comeback now.

Yeah, like Apple.

Yeah. Younger people are naming their kids things that are like my grandparents' friends' names. Everything kind of circles back and cycles back like that. But with LinkedIn, I feel like I've made a lot of connections on LinkedIn. And when I tell people that, a lot of people have the same reaction that you do, which is like, what? You're making connections on LinkedIn, but you have to think about, like I said before, that was around before TikTok and Instagram Reels and all that stuff is great. But people have built entire networks and communities and businesses literally just off of LinkedIn.

That is true. I do see like people that post a lot on LinkedIn, and they don't have a Facebook. So it's almost like their Facebook of LinkedIn is their Facebook. So yeah, I did notice that. And that's why I felt like going live on there was kind of like a Like you're saying, you kind of got to reach out to a different audience. And, you know, we have a lot in common, Ursula and being close. I went to the Smet, Ole Miss. My sister went to Ole Miss for like a semester as I joke.

But yeah. That is definitely the place where a lot of people go for a semester. Yeah. Yeah. Too much fun.

I had a buddy just down there. He was at the football game and they lost typically. Yeah. Yeah. But no, so going back, you're at Ole Miss. What did you graduate with?

So I graduated with a degree in public policy and political science. So I was a business major going into college. And then I kind of switched things around like my sophomore year. I grew up in business. My dad owned his own company for my entire life. And then my mom is in finance. She works for Edward Jones. So I always grew up around business. And I was like, OK, that's what I want to do. And then I was like, OK, I really love law. I love policy, politics, all that type of stuff. So I wanted to go into that. And then, like I said before, when COVID hit, I was just like, you know what? I don't want to do any more school. Don't want to study for the LSAT. Had a little bit of an existential crisis. Like, oh my gosh, I don't want to do this anymore. So I was like, well, what do I know? Well, I know business. I know people. I know customer service. Because at the end of the day, you can go to school and you can get your degree in business or any type of different business degree. But really, if you aren't good with people, customer service skills, business is all about people. So going back to the basics of that, I was like, well, I know how to deal with people. I'm a huge people person. So what's something that I can do with that? And that really translates well in my current job, for sure.

Yeah, it does. And that gets back to how I was saying you you're real persistent about, you know, making proper relationships that will, um, not just elevate, like the people that you want to associate with, but it's the people like around you as well. Like you're, you clearly have a drive that, um, very few have in your age in this industry. And so I think that really sparks a really good aspect that comes out of you and coming to the future, just knowing that, hey, I have somebody that's, you know, I'm 32 and you're 25. So that's seven, seven years of a gap of people that I might not even know. So I thought to myself, well, I need to, you know, I need to reach down to a whole nother atmosphere of people. And that's what led me to reaching back out to you because there's a lot of people that reach out. I just never know what's good and what's not. And the thing about it is, I don't know many 25-year-old lenders, if at all.

Yeah. There's not many of us, especially not 25-year-old women, for sure. Yeah. Which, obviously, not to play the gender card, but yeah. There's not a lot of younger people in this space, which is what's really cool about my company is we have older people that work at our company as well, but a lot of our company is younger. My boss, he's 32. He's a SLU grad, has been in mortgages for many, many years, and then branched off and started his own company. And our whole focus is being that younger generation. Because when you look at the lending industry, we like to always say it's like the least sexy side of the buying the home process. Because you got to get financing, you got to get into the nitty gritty. And in that realm, there's a lot of people that are older, people that have been doing it for 20 plus years, pre-2008, pre-housing crisis. And with the current market, it's kind of like they're one foot in, one foot out. They're like, I'm ready to retire. I'm ready to get out of it. Last couple of years have been tough. Maybe some of them are trying to wait out after the election and rate drop and this and that. But at the end of the day, that generation is going away. And also, not that there's anything wrong with anybody older in the industry, but when you have someone that's a first-time homebuyer or even someone like yourself that maybe they have their family, have a couple kids looking for a second home, for a more family-friendly home. On the lender side, we get into the nitty-gritty. We have to look at your finances, how much you make, what's your down payment. And I feel like there's a sense of comfortability that comes with having someone that's more In your age range just because you match better you know when you're talking to somebody that's. Sixty five years old and has established their entire life and then you know you're my age twenty five and you're buying your first home you quite literally nothing in common so that's kind of the spin that we try to put on things is put you know. a perspective on it where we're young, we're fresh, we want to really communicate well, explain things rather than just some of the older practices of, here's your loan estimate, here's everything, here's your monthly payment, this is what you have at closing and go about our way.

Yeah. No, I love how you just explained all that because that's the reason why I have to give multiple people like multiple lenders if they ask because at the same time, one, they should be able to shop around. And two, some people want to go with, like you say, a younger individual. Maybe they want to go with somebody middle-aged or maybe they want to go with somebody that's really old. But as we joke in this industry, we both being in real estate and in the loan field, we both deal with a lot of older individuals on the other side of our transactions. For sure. So I think the average lenders in the 50s, I know the average realtor for sure, is in It's like pushing 60 now. So when we go to our continuing ed stuff, and I'm sure you as well, there's not many young people because it's hard to survive in this industry. So knowing that you took the leap, you've got a lot into it, you're successful already at such a young age, and here you are doing podcasts and reaching out to people. Um, it's, it's, it's truly, it's inspiring for younger people to know that, Hey, there's other things out there that you can do after your degree. And you don't have to just do your degree. You don't have to go, um, into some crazy business. Like you can be a lender. Right. And that's what you've done. And the relationship aspect of it is ginormous. So I think I applaud you on that.

Thank you. Yeah. Relationships are everything in business. It's not easy, I guess, to make connections because you really have to put yourself out there and quote-unquote, go out of your comfort zone. But it's something that I love doing. When I reached out to you on LinkedIn, we went and got coffee. That's a connection that neither of us would have ever made. And now it's like, we're here doing this podcast and that also will lead to more in the future. You just always have to be, I guess, quote-unquote, building your brand to continue to further your business. Like I said before, it's scary sometimes reaching out to people, but you never know who's going to make an impact on you or what you can give to others. It's all about building relationships. And I feel like a lot of people, especially in the mortgage industry, they get comfortable. And they're like, Well, I've worked with this real estate agent or for real estate agents. I've worked with this lender for X amount of years, and it's a comfortable relationship. And when I reach out to realtors, and I'm like, hey, I'd love to connect with you and get coffee." Because when I reach out, of course, yes. If there's something that we can collaborate on, if it can both mutually benefit us and bring us business, that's great. But also just making connections and having familiar faces in the industry. But a lot of people will tell me, they're like, Oh, I have a lender that I've used for 20 years. And I always ask, I'm like, Is that just a comfortable relationship for you or are they actually providing you a service that's worth your time? And you probably don't know the answer to that question if you've been using them for so long. You don't know if they're being good to your clients or getting the loan done quick so you can meet closing and all of that if you don't have another perspective on it.

That is true. And I don't even... myself think about when you say all that stuff, there's a lot that goes into it. And if you don't keep up with it, I don't understand how some people in the industry are still doing it. But as we shift, let's talk about interest rates. So as far as we can talk about What would you say for somebody that's wanting to become a first-time homebuyer, they're renting, Having that fresh, as we say, fresh blood, the person that's young, that's out there, that's not going to judge your finances and say, hey, we all know that we've been there, we're young, times are tough at certain points, you got to start from nothing basically. Everybody starts from nothing, most people. So going forward like what would you say tell people, you know, first time homebuyers to say hey, this would be my plan to get you into a house.

I guess it's kind of... I don't want to say it's a loaded question, but every situation is so different. When I talk to people and immediately they're like, what's the interest rate? What's the interest rate? Or what should I do? It's so situational based. I guess I would tell somebody looking at myself if I wasn't in the industry. Young, 25 years old, maybe you have some money saved up, maybe you're renting right now. I always tell people right now, because everybody's anticipating that rate drop. Yes, we just did have a rate drop with the announcement in September from the feds. But everybody's like, oh, I'm going to wait to see what happens with rates. I always tell people, I'm like, if you can do it now, do it now. Let's get you the pre-approval. Let's get you out there. Start looking so you can find something. Yes, you may get into an interest rate that's on a little bit of a higher end, but you're getting into a home in a way less competitive market before the rates drop. Because at the end of the day, with the interest rates the way they are now and the way they've been the last couple of years, it makes home affordability much harder. And some people, they just can't make it work. So I always tell people, I'm like, if you can make it work now, do it. Because once interest rates drop, you're going to have, you know, everybody and their mother is going to be out there trying to find a house because it's much more affordable and much more, you know, people are more capable of doing it. And then you can always refinance in six months.

Yeah. No, you're, you're totally right. And the refi part, um, you know, there's programs out there, there's incentives, um, so that you can refi, but, I would agree about the part in terms of waiting on interest rates, because we had talked about how the Fed fund rate, when it gets cut, doesn't necessarily trickle down to mortgage rates, because as we were talking when we had coffee, mortgage rates were going down since tax day. So then they cut them and they went back up. So we, as you were saying, like, hey, just because the Fed fund rate gets cut doesn't necessarily mean the interest rates are going to come down because they've already come down.

Well, in the mortgage industry too, with leading up to the Fed announcement mid-September, they were anticipating a cut. So that gets what we call priced into the market on our end. So if they're expecting a XYZ cut, they price it in on our end before it even gets cut. So then things are kind of... all evened out, I guess you could say. But I think what a lot of people get misconstrued about is back in 2020, even though it was before I was in the industry, I've heard it was like rates dropped literally overnight. And I think that that is very, very rare. But since it just happened so recently, and you have all these people that went from a 4% or 5% down to like a 2.5% or a 3% or even lower, people think that that's going to happen again. They think that the Fed's going to make this magical announcement, and then all of a sudden, we're going to wake up and interest rates are 2% tomorrow, when in reality, I don't want to say definitely not, but more than likely not going to be the case.

Yeah, I would definitely agree that money will never be that cheap. It's just not possible because I feel like that'll just create another inflation issue.

Well, I mean, people are so hung up on Interest rates are so high. Interest rates are this, that, whatever." Well, the reality of it is, and I talk to my parents about this a lot because they're in their 60s and 70s, back when they bought their first home. Sorry, parents. No, they're young at heart. But back when they bought their first home in the 80s or whatever, interest rates were crazy high. I believe my dad told me that his first mortgage that he ever had was 17%. And people didn't even blink at that. But it's because we have just seen interest rates at such a low level that people are like, oh my gosh, 6%, 5%, whatever it is. But in reality, that's pretty normal. That's pretty, I would say, even playing field. And then for first-time homebuyers, they have their parents in their ear of, well, I have a 2% or I have a 3% or whatnot. My friend that just bought a home in May, she was like, my parents have a 2.5% interest rate. And because my interest rate is so high, my payment is almost comparable to theirs and they have a way bigger home. I'm like, I get that. I understand. But you're capable. Do it now. Refinance when you can. Build the equity. Don't rent. That's just the way better option.

And I think that's, it kind of is like a cherished belief in a way that like the older generations like to, you know, pass on their beliefs. And if, you know, we don't have that certain opportunity, they're like, we'll wait for it. Right. And it's like, well, what if that never comes? Right. So, and how should we just keep going up? I could, we could have said that when I got, when I started selling real estate in 2015, I'm like, Oh, well, this is the top of the market. 2016, this is the top of the market. Every year, and now we're in 2024, it's gone up. Houses have appreciated and now people still sit there and they go, I don't know if it's going to continue to appreciate. And you might be right, but you might be wrong too, right?

I mean, I saw a statistic and I don't know the exact, so nobody hold me to this, but I saw something recently that when interest rates were really high in the 80s, that they said that if you would have, quote-unquote, waited for interest rates to drop, I think you would have been waiting. It was over 10 years or something like that. So then they did a whole analysis on, okay, if you bought a $100,000 home back in the 80s, how much would it have appreciated in those 10 years, or 15, 14, whatever it was. much equity would you have built, all of that. But instead, you were just waiting for interest rates to drop. So it's kind of like the same thing now with people are like, I feel like they're waiting. Before it was, oh, we're waiting for the Fed announcement. And then that wasn't good enough. And now we're waiting for the election. And then of course, when we get to the election, it's not going to be good enough. Unfortunately, we live in a world where people are not very patient. I think it has a lot to do with having everything at your fingertips on your phone. People just... They're not patient and they don't see the value in doing things for a long-term goal. So I think it's tough for people to wrap their head around and honestly, rightfully so, when you have everything just right there.

Yeah, right there. It's the instant gratification part. I'm guilty of it too because you want something, you want it now, and you want it done. But yeah, you got to think past the The weekend or the month, because you do have to have this vehicle of a house to use in the future if you need to fall back on it, if you need cash. There's a lot of incredible things that you can do with owning a house. It's a little frustrating to see that people don't take it as seriously, because there are programs out there for first-time homebuyers, and people will say, well, the interest rates. And I say, well, no, no, no, it's not the interest rates, right? The interest rate, because when I ask them, I say, they can't even tell me what the interest rate is. And they'll blame it on the interest rate. And I'm like, well, you don't even know what the interest rate is.

Yeah. And I think that's another thing. People just have it in their head that interest rates are so high, interest rates are so high, which I understand. That's all you see in the media. Again, with our phones, we consume different types of media all day long. That's what it's preaching. So I understand that. But also, continuing to rent and just throw your money at the wall, essentially, you're only putting money in someone else's pocket where if you buy a home now, yeah, you have a higher interest rate. You refinance when that day is, whenever it may be. And then you look back and you're like, oh my gosh, I have X, Y, Z amount of equity in my home. And I would have been throwing away thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on rent.

And you don't even have to... There's no saying that you even will have to refi. Right. With the appreciation of houses, you could be in a perfect spot right now at the current rate and never have to refinance again. Cause what if they just go back up or they just stay the same and guess what'll go up is the appreciation of your house. So I think getting in and just figuring that out, the biggest thing when we talk about, I think is cash on hand. People don't have kids our age, millennials, Gen Z, whatever it is. Because everything's so expensive right now, it's just hard to save up money for down payment. Sure. So we were talking about that and there's different first-time homebuyer programs. So explain some of those.

So yeah, there's a lot of different programs for first-time homebuyers. And I feel like that's kind of like the gap for a lot of people is that they just don't know that there's so many programs and so many things out there. So for example, there's so many different programs through... There's different programs through the city of St. Louis. Some employers even have programs for nurses or doctors or things like that for down payment assistance or whatnot. But one of the really cool ones that's not even for first-time homebuyers specifically is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They have a program called Home Ready and Home Possible. And basically, it works off of the area median income. So if you're buying a house, let's say in St. Louis County, it works off of whatever the area median income is there. And if you're below a certain threshold, they actually will just give you a $2,500 credit that can go directly towards any down payment, closing costs, anything like that. So for example, I just had a client that she was a first-time homebuyer. And she closed on her first home and I think her purchase price was like $230. And she brought all in with escrows, everything like that. I think it was less than $8,000 because she got that credit. Obviously, yes, that's still a good chunk of change, but we saved her $2,500 right off the bat with just that credit. And that includes her down payment and all of that.

Yeah. And rent, you're going to be paying that. Good luck finding somewhere normal to live for less than 1,200 bucks.

Right. I mean, if you say, let's say your rent is a thousand dollars, which a month, which no one's is, you know, it's 12 grand in 12 months that you could have just.

Paid less than that to buy a home, so safe, safe for you, and that's the thing you just got to say, like, make a little, you know, budget or make a little sheet to put a little aside. Yeah. to save up just eight grand to be able to buy a house that could, you know, like I said, every house I've bought within a few years, it's gained enough equity where I can just pull out a hundred grand. That's the type of stuff that's powerful.

And see, people get stuck on that too. I feel like with down payment, they're like, well, I want to have 20% so I don't have to have mortgage insurance and this and that. And I mean, I'll use the example of my boss bought a home in 2020, I believe, and put 5% down and he doesn't have PMI anymore in four years just because of how much it's appreciated. Which, fun fact for everybody out there, if you put less than 20% down, and your home has appreciated, your mortgage company should do check-ins and stuff with you to show you the value of your home versus what your current loan amount is to drop off that mortgage insurance. But if you see your home's appreciated and you're doing the math and you're like, oh my gosh, I have 80% loan to value, you can just call them and they'll take the PMI off.

Yeah. I know the good ones, yeah, they'll stick up with it. But I know sometimes you got to be your own You got an advocate for your PMI to drop off or else, yeah, nobody's doing the math. But that's a big part because every house I've bought, personal house like residential houses, I have put between three and a half and five percent. Yeah, that's all you need. Exactly. I have equity in every single one of those. Yes, interest rates were lower, but what I'm saying is, it just might take a little bit longer to create that equity, but it's going to eventually come. Like you say that the lady that just put eight grand down, she's going to make that back really fast with the appreciation of her house and then not having to pay 12 grand, if her rent's even a thousand bucks, luckily not have to pay that.

Right. And then you think about when you get into a home, you like to make it your own. So any improvements that you make, maybe you put in hardwood floors or even if you just paint the exterior of the home, all of that goes into the value. A co-worker of mine, he's in the process of selling his house right now. And I want to say he bought it for $160 or $170 back in 2021. And he's putting it on the market for $225. And like, yeah, he did some improvements like painting and stuff, but like, it's the same house it was that he bought in 2021. And that's, you know, like over 50 grand. Like, that's crazy.

Gets to live for free and then take all that ROI and then go buy something bigger, go buy something that's the same and have cash left over. It's just a very powerful, powerful thing to have. So going forward, I know you don't have a crystal ball. And you're gonna say, just like every lender, buy now. I'm gonna play devil's advocate and say, if you weren't to buy now, why would somebody not buy now?

I mean, again, very situational. maybe you don't have any money for down payment. And I see it a lot with my friends that live in bigger cities, especially where... Let's say you live in... I have a friend that lives in Austin or DC, cities that are booming like that, where owning real estate is so hard because the prices are so high. That, I guess, but why would you not buy right now? A lot of people say... You hear all the excuses in the book. You can't find anything I like. I don't... Interest rates are too high, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, I feel like I said before, you have to bridge that gap in education for a lot of people because There's programs with conventional loans that you can put as little as 1% down. If you're a veteran, you can put 0% down. Sometimes with some of these credits, St. Louis City has given out a ton of grants to people towards down payment and closing costs because they want more people to live within St. Louis City limits to help boost the city. There's so many different programs out there and I feel like everybody's just kind of like, can't do it. But no one really does the research to know. But that's why I just... And ultimately, if I talk to a client, they decide, hey, it's not the right time for whatever reason. It could be not the right time because maybe their significant other just got a huge promotion at work and they don't know if they're going to have to move within the next year. Totally get that. Maybe it's not the right time because A family member is sick, and it's just there's too much going on. There's always going to be personal things that get in the way. And I'm never one to judge that. I'm never like, you need to build equity in your home. You got to handle life first. But to give the excuse of, it's not the right time, or it's this or it's that, you just haven't done enough research on it yet.

Yeah, that's true. And I just liked posing that question just because it's kind of funny because it kind of makes you show yourself like, hey, I'm a human, like I understand, like people have things and that's why you're big on connections. And when you connect with someone, whether they buy now or in five years or a year, it's the connection and then the opportunities that connect through those connections.

And I've had clients too that have been like, Oh, you know, it's not the right time. And then maybe, you know, a couple of weeks or a month down the line, they'll email me or call me and be like, Hey, I just had a quick question, X, Y, Z. And you know, I'll answer their question. Be like, okay, thanks. You know, I'll let you know when it's the right time. And then they'll come back and they're asking another question. And they'll come back and they're asking another question. And then they'll be like, okay, I'm ready. And so that tells me I'm like, obviously, I never want to bombard anybody with information to make them feel pressured upfront. But once people are properly educated, then they usually make the choice of, okay, yes. There's never going to be a quote unquote, right time. But maybe some people... I totally get it if people are like, I just don't have the savings to do it. And then of course, we talk about all the different programs and stuff. But you asked me earlier what something I would recommend to anybody looking to purchase or first-time homebuyer just starting out in their journey. Something I always recommend to everybody is, there's always room for us to save in our lives. There's things that you don't have to have. Everybody these days... Starbucks. Right. Everybody these days is a material... We live in a materialistic society. Not everybody needs a thousand different pairs of leggings from Lululemon or this or that or whatever your vice is, I guess you could say. But I always tell people, I'm like, start a high-yield savings account. Look into them. If you want my recommendations, I'm more than happy to give them to you. Put X amount of dollars from your paycheck every two weeks or whenever you get paid into that, it builds over time.

Especially right now, they're paying out some. It just went back up. Actually, that was one of the things when the Fed fund rate dropped, that was actually overnight. You saw some of those high-yield savings accounts go back up. You saw credit card interest rates go down. But you didn't see mortgage rates move because they've already been moving. But no, I, I, I agree with you and I, I love what you're, what you're doing in terms of, you know, creating a brand and a business because people are going to have to buy houses. There's houses around unless everything turns to a rental and everything gets bought by black rock. Not saying it wouldn't, but, uh, no, we won't be alive for that. But in the meantime, in the meantime, people. And just everybody needs to understand that it is so powerful to own real estate. And there's a lot of ways to get into a house and you don't have to be rich. You don't have to, you know, have everything in order because you're you got to realize how much you're paying in rent. And then you're like, OK, let's just save a little. And you say like to cut, cut some costs like that's so true. It's like Cars, one of the worst investments. I was the worst about cars. I would go out and buy a new car every couple of years.

Oh, as soon as you drive off the lot, it's like there's thousands of dollars just right out the window.

Yeah. And people are buying them left and right. And another stat I read, it was something about there's a crazy amount of Americans that have over $1,000 car payments.

Oh my gosh. I see it all the time. All the time. Especially doing refinances in this market because unfortunately the last couple of years have brought a lot of people into a considerable amount of debt. So a lot of people even still in this market, they're doing cash out refinances, which it makes sense because yeah, okay, you have a 2% on your house, but you have $100,000 worth of credit card debt at 18% to 24%, installment loans that are at 13% to 15% or whatever, even higher. And you're like, well, I have a 2% of my mortgage. So I'm like, do you understand that you're going to be paying off that debt for the rest of your life? You're never going to be able to tackle that. But I see it all the time where it's like... $60,000 loan or $50,000 loan on a car and it's over $1,200 a month. I'm like, that's insane. I mean, you know what? I never tried to judge because I understand everybody does their own thing, but I'm like, I don't know if that was really the best choice, but whatever.

Yeah. It's definitely not a choice that people make. I feel like from a financial smart point, they make it from a, hey, I want this. It's rare, but yeah, no, I, I agree on the, the car part and, you know, going, thinking about like our generation going forward and trying to, trying to navigate, um, the economy and the election and the uncertainty, uh, your, you have a lot more of a reach obviously into, um, the younger side into the 20s. I don't really know a whole lot of people in my 20s. Like I said, you're the first one that is a lender that I know. I don't know any title people that are in their 20s. I don't know plumbers in their 20s. I don't know electricians in their 20s. It's good to see that there's people following me because I kept thinking, Am I the last person in these industries? What am I? Am I the crazy one? So it's good to see that, hey, there's other crazy people that want to be in this industry as well. But hey, if somebody wants to... I haven't even talked about to become a lender. If they wanted to do that, we just sit here and we always try to sell. you know, sell or talk about rates or talk about, um, houses. But if somebody actually was like, wow, like Sierra would be somebody I would want to like, look up to and be like, Hey, I, I might want to do that. If you're sitting behind a desk, I say like, we don't really have to work. I mean, we work, but we get to sit here at whatever two o'clock and do a podcast. Um, and we don't have a boss that says, Hey, you know, you can't do that. So someone might be sitting there going, well, I kind of want to do what Sierra does. If someone's sitting there going, hey, I might want to do that because you are a different different style, you're younger, you're not, you know, I was going to say, you're not going to judge you haven't, you know, you're, you're very open-minded for sure. So I think. Whether it's business advice, um, house loan, anything, I think, um, people should reach out to you, whether they're even just your friends, cause you're going to have a lot of people that, um, will say, oh, she can't make it. She's not going to be able to do this. She's not going to be able to do that, but. I can tell with like your drive and and being how young you are and already putting yourself out in certain situations like this and very persistent. I can only imagine, you know, how easy the loan process would be with you.

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review and tell your friends about the show. Until next time.