Interview with Beverly Powell
In this episode, we will uncover 3 keys:
- The Journey to Homeownership
- Financial Wisdom for Fempreneurs
- Overcoming Obstacles
A Podcast Transcription
Episode 25: Empowering the self-employed to realize the dream of homeownership! Realtor~Beverly Powell
Intro
Odiva Vasell: (00:00)
Welcome, my fabulous fempreneurs. I am really excited about our guest today. I have a special someone who is near and dear to my heart. Beverly Powell, also known as Rev Bev. Welcome, Reverend Beverly.
Beverly Powell: (00:22)
Thank you. Thank you. I’m so happy to be here with your fempreneurs.
Odiva Vasell: (00:30)
And you have a thriving real estate business, and so this is something that I’ve never talked with anyone about. I follow some people on social media, and I watch people get beautiful houses because they know how to work in the market, so to speak. But I know nothing about it so I am so ready for your teaching. So tell us how you got started in the real estate industry.
The Journey to Homeownership
Beverly Powell: (01:05)
I got started in the real estate industry way back when I was in Michigan. I grew up in the Michigan area, and I used to love to go out and look at model homes in the summer. That was part of my entertainment, just going out, looking at model homes and walking through them. And I’d pack a lunch, and we’d just go and look at homes. And then when I moved to California, all of the building that was going on out here and the beauty of it and all the palm trees and everything, I was so fascinated with California. So I picked that trait up again. I started visiting model homes and looking at homes, and it was such a pleasure for me. And I had two boys at the time, so we would pack a lunch, and I’d take them along with me, and we’d go look at house after house after house. New construction. I would take pictures of the model. And I’d go home and try to design their rooms like the models, and design other rooms in my home, like the models. And then I met a gentleman at my church who owned a real estate company, and he invited me to come work with him on a concert that the church was promoting and several other people as well, in the church. And so we did; we worked on the concert for the church, and after that, I’m hearing all this real estate information in his office, and I was just really attracted to that. So I told him about my attraction to real estate, and he said, “Well, if you’d like to stay on, I’ll train you in real estate, and I’ll help you get your license.” So that’s how I got started by a man I don’t know how many years ago, a long time ago. I don’t even know where he is right now. But he helped me get into real estate. And it’s a great business. It’s a great way to meet people. It’s a great way to establish friendships. It’s a great way to, um, know that you’re helping people, that you’re contributing something to society.
Odiva Vasell: (03:00)
Yes. That’s incredible because you’re helping dreams come true.
Beverly Powell: (03:05)
Yes. Yes.
Odiva Vasell: (03:07)
I mean, for me, that’s like one of the biggest dreams a person can have, to well, not everybody has to own. But for me to own your own home and have a place to call home because so many of us go through those situations financially, where it’s up and down and you don’t know where you’re going to be or live. How can someone start, I guess, dreaming again if they’re in that situation where they’re living from paycheck to paycheck or home to home, which is not theirs, it.
Beverly Powell: (03:47)
How they can start that dream or reactivate it?
Odiva Vasell: (03:50)
Yes, reactivate the dream.
Financial Wisdom for Fempreneurs
Beverly Powell: (03:53)
Start by saving. Get an account that you just put money aside for your home, for your future. It’s one of the largest purchases anyone will ever make. And so it’s a big deal for all of us to have our own. I know several people that have paid off their mortgages, and now they just live with paying taxes and insurance every year. So it can be done. You’ve got to get that account going. Put the money aside. Make sure your credit stays good. Make sure you don’t overtax yourself with credit obligations. Make sure you have more money coming into your business. And we all are business owners. I tell people that we’re all business owners. We have the Powell business, we have the Jones business, the Williams business. You have a business, and that business is running your home, and you have to run and manage your home like a corporation. You can’t just take in all the money that you earn and give it all back to the world.
You’ve got to invest in yourself. Take your profits and invest in yourself. Keep your income as high as you can and keep your outtake as low as you can. Outtake means your debt, what’s going out and so your debt-to-income ratio, your income should always be greater than the debt that you have because they have programs if you can save as much money as you can for down payment or your closing costs they have all kinds of programs based on credit reports and your income that can help people get into a home. There are down payment programs to help you, down payment assistance. There’s closing cost assistance. You can ask your seller to pay your closing costs. There’s a lot of options that we can use in the market to help people get their homes, but we have to position ourselves according to their standards to be able to meet that and be able to receive that kind of support.
Odiva Vasell: (05:44)
Okay, excellent advice. So when you meet somebody who has done all these things, they’ve got their ducks in the road, and they’re ready to find their dream home, what’s the first step? They call you and set up a meeting. What does that look like?
Beverly Powell: (06:03)
Okay, first step. As a matter of fact, I had a first step for a first person yesterday that called. She wants to buy a home for her and her mom. Her mom lives with her. She’s not married. She has no children. And so I’m talking to her about the areas she’s interested in, what home ownership looks like to her, the type of home that would interest her and her mom and the areas. And then from there, I want to know your financials. A lender is going to want to look at your financials. They want to look at your credit report. They’re going to look at your two years’ tax returns. They’re going to look at your pay stubs for two months. And every lender is different as to how much information they will request of you. But once they get that information, and I do help people with the lender as well, so that they know that they’re getting a quality lender along with a quality realtor, and that once they get all the financial information to the lender, the lender can review all of that, and then he’ll come back to me and to that potential client and let us know just how much they can qualify for and what kind of programs they can put them under to help them succeed in purchasing a home.
Odiva Vasell: (07:15)
Okay.
Beverly Powell: (07:16)
And it’s good to be pre-qualified or pre-approved, because when you’re shopping for a home, you want to be able to let the seller know that you can afford the home and that you have done your work, your financial work upfront. That means we’re a serious buyer. That means we’re serious about what we’re going to do here. Am I serious about my attraction to your home, Mr. Seller? And to show you how serious I am, I have gone and got pre-approved. and here’s my document to show that I’m pre-approved with xyb lending. And so then we don’t have to be in a competitive situation, or if we are in a competitive situation. We don’t have to wait to get financing. We already have it.
Odiva Vasell: (08:00)
Right, I understand. That’s a good step. You see, I love watching these realtor programs, but they do kind of create a fantasy of one, two, three. You see the home, you like the home and you get the home. What’s the gap between there? I’m pretty sure it’s not as easy as what we see on television programs. I like this one. I’ve got it. What else happens in between that time where you choose the home that you like?
Beverly Powell: (08:33)
Well, it can be that easy. Depending again on what you look like on paper. We’re judged by what we look like on paper and what we have in the bank. But I don’t want to discourage people in the fact that maybe you don’t have $50,000 sitting in a bank account to buy a home. Maybe you don’t have an 800 credit score. Maybe you only have 650 or 680 or whatever the situation is there are programs out here to help people become homeowners. And so in between all of that, we may not get the first home. It may take us two or three homes before we get it. And then again, on the flip side of that, we may get our first offer on a home. We may get it. But the thing is making sure that you’re positioned to buy the home. Because once you see a home that you really like and it’s talking to you and you’re talking to it and you feel the connection, you want to be able to take the next step, and the next step would be submitting an offer to purchase. If you’re not ready for that and the seller gets another offer in, well, and they’re all set and ready to go, then they will more than likely go with the buyer who’s prepared to purchase the home and enter into escrow immediately once that seller accepts that offer, there could be a counteroffer in there. We’ll have to deal with that and other things that may come up in the life. And no transaction, no matter what anybody says, has the same personality. And you hear people say, well, when I bought my house, this and happened, but they’re not telling you what their credit score was, what their financials were like, what the lender, all those things that may come up in a transaction. So it’s best to trust your professionals to make sure you’re listening to them and taking the steps that they suggest you take so that we can have a successful close of escrow and you can get the keys and have a wonderful time in your new home.
Odiva Vasell: (10:24)
I love what you said about you might not get the first home. And I could imagine someone they got their paperwork together and they put a bid in on the home. And for some reason, not everything that they had was desirable in order to the seller. And then they’re crushed, and they think, okay, I’m not going to try this again. But what you’re saying is that they can have that momentum and just realistically knowing that something better could come along. But you keep trying a second and a third time. Okay?
Beverly Powell: (11:07)
Absolutely. You’ve got to keep trying a second and a third time. But it doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen like that for everyone. I’ve written offers, and we got accepted on the very first offer on the very first home that we put an offer in on. That point is when you’re well educated, when your realtor is educating you on every step of the process from beginning to end, there’s a lot of hands involved in a real estate transaction. There’s the seller, the buyer, the selling agent, the listing agent, escrow title, insurance. There’s all kind of hands in there. The lender into this. There’s a team of people working to help you be successful in purchasing a home. And so once you are aware of all the steps and we do sit down and have what I call a buyer consultation where I walk you through all the procedures and answer your questions to make sure that you understand the process and what we’re going through. And then I reiterate those as we’re walking through the process. As we’re looking at homes, I might reiterate something we talked about in our buyer consultation, but that helps people stay sharp and they remember what I have trained them on and exposed them to about the home buying process.
Odiva Vasell: (12:24)
Wow. That is fantastic. I come from a family who invest in real estate, and not everyone gives you this buyer consultation. So when you talk about a quality realtor now, I see the difference in what mistakes can happen if you don’t have someone to sit down and teach you the ins and outs, getting those ducks in a row. You can be wasting your time if you don’t even know what they are at the first step. So I think that’s really fantastic that you sit down with people and give them that consultation so that they know how this all comes together. That’s fantastic.
Beverly Powell: (13:16)
I also have them sit down with the lender, and I sit down with them to make sure they understand their loan, the type of loan that they’re getting. I want to make sure that all the parties that are involved in this, because I’m the key person, I’m the key controller, I’m going to be controlling that file to the best of my ability. I can’t control everything because some things Escrow has to do, Title has to do, but that I can control. I want to make sure that not only do they understand the home buying process, but they also understand whatever loan the lender is suggesting for them and their family that they understand that loan and what it means to their family. So there’s a lot of ins and outs there, and it’s important that we communicate and teach. Now, sometimes you have seasoned buyers and sellers. They’ve been through it a few times. They bought a few homes. They already know it. So you don’t have to go into that kind of depth with them. But they do expect, as I would expect, someone to walk with me, journey with me till we get to the finish line.
Odiva Vasell: (14:19)
Okay. Okay. Yeah. That is phenomenal. And the other part of that that I want to ask you about is how hard is it for entrepreneurs? Fempreneurs especially because this show is about fempreneurs, when I’m just thinking, how can they get started in this process? Because the typical buyer, let’s say, 20 years ago, had a company. They were working for a company. And that company gave the evidence of income and their buying potential. But when you’re working for yourself and you might not even be giving yourself a paycheck, what would the first step be to kind of, again, get those ducks in the road for an entrepreneur?
Overcoming Obstacles
Odiva Vasell: (15:20)
Well, some of the things that would be are they have no income document loans. That would be in the lender. I try not to cross lines in the profession, so that’s a blurred area for me. I’m not going to go into all of that. But we do have no income documentation. What that means is you don’t have to show documentation, but your credit score has to be very high. You have to show your bank statements to show that you’ve got money in the bank. They can see what’s going in and coming out of that account. So there are other ways that they can qualify you. It may be a little higher interest rate for you to have a No income documentation type of a loan, or you can again document what’s coming into your business, and your bank statements will document the income that’s coming in. So if you’re getting $20,000 a month in business with the service you provide, your bank statements should show that your business account should show money in and money out. So you should show your debits and credits, and then they can work from that. And your income tax returns, they can work from that. How much you wrote off and how much you really had cash on hand in your pocket when it was all said and done.
Odiva Vasell: (16:34)
Well, that answers the question. I mean, that sheds a lot of light on where you can start. And we talked about this before we started the interview. Taking that first step is the hardest part.
Beverly Powell: (16:51)
Can I interject something else?
Odiva Vasell: (16:52)
Please, please.
Beverly Powell: (16:54)
Okay. We. Can also, if the fempreneurs are in a situation where they may not have enough income, there are other things that can be done. Again, it’s all individually driven and programs that are available for that particular person’s financial scenario. But perhaps they could have a mother or a father or both that would go on title with them or daughter or son or friend. I mean, there are things that can be done to help people become a homeowner legally done.
Odiva Vasell: (17:24)
Wonderful… Wonderful. And I would like to know with all those years of going to model homes and learning how to design, in a sense, your ideal home, when it came time for you to buy, were you able to find your dream home? How did it happen for you?
Beverly Powell: (17:50)
Well, yeah, it did. I was in the city of Corona, California showing property to some clients that particular Saturday. I’ll never forget this Saturday. And it was such an exciting day. Sun was shining. It’s beautiful. We saw about seven homes. They made a decision on the home that they wanted. I told them that I would get the offer written up and get back to them that evening. That was fine. But there was one house we went to a new builder development, and this home was 3074 sq feet, had six bedrooms, four car garage, a nice size backyard, living room, dining room, family room. And I was in love with that floor plan. So after I finished with my client, I went back to that builder’s office, and I gave them a $2,000 deposit to hold that property for me until the next day. And I told her, after church, my family and I would come out and we would look at it, and then we make the decision if we wanted to move forward. So that’s how I got my home. And that four-car garage was just great because we put two cars on one side. And then we had a big game room with a pool table, dartboards, piano, and everything with the epoxy floors. We put in epoxy floors for my children, and that way we could keep them close to home so we could watch over them a little better. So that was my dream home. I love that home.
Odiva Vasell: (19:14)
Yeah. It all starts with having their dream and believing in the dream and believing the dream can happen. I’m inspired. I’m really inspired because I’ve seen so many coaches talk about mental health, physical health, and your home is part of your health and wealth journey, having that place to call home. And sometimes we think it can’t be done because we don’t have what? XYZ what so and so has. But there are programs for everyone. Everyone’s journey is different, so I’m really inspired by that.
Beverly Powell: (20:06)
Yeah. I had one client. If I’ll insert this, I had one client. He was a single gentleman, an older gentleman, but very nice and very well. Just real articulate. And he couldn’t get a home right at that moment because his numbers, his credit score was a little too low. It was below the bottom line for credit, issuing credit of that nature. But I said, if you work with me and the lender, we’ll revisit this in a year. And it took him two years. But I stayed close to him. I stayed in touch with him, made sure he was doing what the lender told him to do, paying off this debt, paying off that debt, putting this amount in your savings account, getting ready and preparing for that home. And two and a half years later, in total, he was able to buy his home. Because he did what we asked him to do. It was a journey. But two and a half years later, he and he’s still in the home today. And that was like six years ago. So you can do it. You just have to listen to your professionals. And then we have to, as my mom used to say, you have to plan your work and work your plan. And that’s what some of us have to do sometimes. It doesn’t mean you’re less than. It doesn’t mean you’re not as wealthy as somebody else. It just means we have to plan differently. We have to work differently. And then when you’re in your home, we have to also watch out for people that want to saturate you with the debt. Because the first thing you get when you get your home, you want to fix it up, right? So you get all of this mail, carpeting, painting, walls, window coverings, everything’s coming at you, and no money down, and you pay later. So then next thing you know and I manage through budgeting in this buyer consultation as well, being good budgeters and being good managers of your family business. Not to get caught up in that. Because once you oversaturate yourself with debt on top of a house payment, then you become strapped and then you become house poor is what I call it, because you’re just working to pay for a house. You can’t enjoy the house because you’re out of control in your finances. So I try to help people in that area, too. Throw those things away when you get all those sales pitches in the mail, take one room at a time and take your time. The house that Jack built wasn’t built in a day. No house is built in a day. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Take your time.
Odiva Vasell: (22:32)
Take your time. That’s excellent advice. I can imagine getting caught up in the euphoria, oh, I got a house. Let me decorate this and decorate that, and getting a little carried away. But having a budget, it and being aware of the temptations that can lead you to becoming house poor, it’s really, really wise. And I know you’re a woman of wisdom, and I’m going to have you back so that we can talk about your ministry and how you’ve been inspiring. Yeah. You’ve been inspiring a lot of men and women in your area. That is what your greatest passion is. Yeah. So I’m just going to bring you back so that we can talk about that. And I would just thank you, not only for doing this interview, but thank you for doing the work that you do in helping people to believe in their dreams and make those dreams come true. Thank you so much.
Beverly Powell: (23:44)
Thank you and you for having me. I really appreciate it, and I hope it helps someone.
[music]
Conclusion
In conclusion, by making your dream home happen, think of it like friendly tips for your adventure. We learned from a fempreneur about sticking with your dream, being smart with money, and facing problems with a positive spirit. The keys to your dream home aren’t just keys; they’re like symbols of your strength and smart money moves. Whether you’re just starting or well on your way, know that getting your dream home is totally doable. Take advice from others, and may your journey be full of happy house hunting and the joy of making a place your own!