Let's Talk with Leaha & Rhonda

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You're listening to locally produced programming created in KUNV Studios on public radio. KUNV 91.5.

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The following is a paid program sponsored by Crawford Management Group and Smart Time Consultants. Please be advised that the voices and opinions you may hear do not necessarily represent the views of KUNV Las Vegas, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Hi this is Leah Crawford and I'm Rhonda Nolan.

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Welcome to the Let's Talk with Leah and Rhonda show. We're here for you and we're ready to go. Let's do it. Hey good morning Las Vegas. I know if you are up this Saturday morning the weather is changing it is warming up so y'all know I am happy about that the reason why I moved to Vegas cuz I'm in the desert I wanted to be warm but February and warm weather weather I will take it you guys know the Super Bowl is tomorrow and my Eagles fly Eagles fly yes my Eagles I'm a silly girl living in Vegas so I am very happy that the Eagles are in the Super Bowl. But today, guys, I put I mean, and it was hard. I keep telling you all. I mean, you are entrepreneur. It is hard to get them to agree to come into the studio with us. But this morning, you know, I'm able to do it. I've been bringing some amazing people for you on Saturday. I got Miss Alicia Taylor in here with me today and I want to tell you guys that I met Alicia maybe almost a decade ago. Yes. We've known of each other, had a few conversations. Every conversation that I have had with this woman has pushed me to another level, taken me to another level. I have been an entrepreneur here in Vegas for now about 14 years and just having her in your, just on your phone and you can call and ask her a question. And she drops, I mean, when I tell you major nuggets that you sit there, you're like, hmm, it's going to take me two years to work that one out. All right, but if that's what I have to do, I'm willing to do the work.

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So Alicia, welcome.

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Welcome to that.

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Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited, especially on a Saturday morning to be able to share this knowledge. And most important, to sit down and talk to you on the air.

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I know, right?

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Because we have amazing conversations on the phone. All the time. Privately, we talk business all the time. So now we get to do that as a social mixer on the air.

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So I'm excited.

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Yes, yes. So first of all, introduce UNLV. I know you're a UNLV graduate. Yes, I'm sitting at my alma mater, all these buildings, all this stuff. I haven't been here in many years. You know, I've been out of school a long, long time, but I'm very happy to be back, you know, where it all started for me. Okay, so tell us about yourself. I mean, what was the road for you to get to be an entrepreneur? So number one, what you said, I'm from Vegas. I went to Rancho High School. I then went to UNLV. I was on that seven and a half, eight year UNLV program.

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Okay.

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Because I literally ran from this campus back and forth to my banking and finance company jobs where I was a full-time employee and a manager. So I was managing a finance company before I even graduated from college. Got it. I've been doing this literally this year I started in 91. Okay. So we're on what 32 years. That's my 32nd year in money and finance. And money and finance and I guess how long did it take for you to understand how money works? It didn't take very long. Okay. I really understood money when I had to start buying my own stuff. Hmm. I tell this story a lot when my when I was a kid my parents bought everything I wanted everything and they kind of did everything they could do to get it to me okay and then I got my first job and I went shopping and I blew my entire paycheck in one day and then realized I wasn't gonna get paid again for 14 days and I'd have no more money in that moment I understood money got it in that moment so we're talking about at age 16 that's long okay I realized I didn't like the feeling of working a long time and then being broke and having to wait to get paid again. You want to know what and that's that was that was an amazing lesson to learn at 16 because I know people 50 that haven't gotten that lesson yet. Yes. Still blow the paychecks. That was that was my very first lesson about money and I was very fortunate at about 19 years old to go work in the credit card industry. Oh and working in the credit card industry MasterCard, I worked at the City Bank at their campus at the Lakes, taught me everything I needed to know about do not over leverage yourself. I remember sitting there every year around December 5th, 10th, I'm 19, 20 years old, I have adults calling me that are older than my parents and they're begging for a credit line increase because they need to buy stuff for their kids for Christmas and their cards would be leveraged. And I was a supervisor at Citibank by then. And I'd have to tell them no. And they would, you know, lose it. Yeah. It's an emergency. It's Christmas. And I'm thinking, well, you know, Christmas is at the same time every year. It's something you can schedule and budget for. And I knew then in that space, that's my second major finance lesson. I never wanted to be on the other end of a phone call when a person who has hardly anything can tell me what I can't have. And I knew I'd never be in that position and I've never been in it. And I try to keep our people and all people from being in that same position. Okay, so I just want to tell y'all that this woman is absolutely amazing. Let's talk about your company because I know you have your own company here. Yes. So, Mortgage Solutions, we are a boutique banker broker. I'm one of the few bankers in the state. I know I'm one of the few females. So, we don't just broker loans. We lend the money and then we sell the loans. Okay. So, a little different distinction than a regular broker. I can sell my loans to whomever I choose. I don't underwrite them myself. I just pre-underwrite them. I make sure they're going to qualify because if I get stuck with it, I have to collect your payments for 30 years. I make sure I get somebody committed to get about a loan before I sign my name. And listen, let's go back to that, because in buying a home, there are a lot of brokers out there. But you're a banker. And I want you to hear me. This woman is a banker, totally different from being a broker. Again, explain that again for those that were you know, they probably don't understand what it means but being a banker What does that mean? So you have a little bit more control number one and you have a little bit more flexibility So I tell people all the time You know, you can go to Costco and buy whatever they have in that store You can go to Dillard's and buy whatever they have in that store Or you can go to the mall and pick whatever store you want. I'm the mall. Huh. I'm the mall. Y'all hear that? Alicia Taylor is the mall, right? Okay, so when it comes to mortgages, and I like to shop as y'all know, I like the mall. Because it has more variety at the mall. More options. More options at the mall. So you know, you go to Wells Fargo, they may tell you Wells Fargo is an incredible bank. I worked there for many years. And so is Bia Bay and Citi, and I can go on and on. The big box banks. But the big box banks put you in a really small box. Hmm. Right? So you have to have really good credit. Yes. Really good history. So everybody can't fit in that box. So that's why you don't want to have to go just to the bank. You want to go to the mall because maybe you got Dillard's money. Maybe you have Macy's money. And maybe you have Forever 21 money. So you know, maybe you need to have options.

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Maybe you need to have options. We give

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those options. We deal with the best credit, most qualified human on earth, down to the person that's barely going to make it into a home. So Mortgage Solutions, I tell people all the time, the answer is never no. There's not a human being alive that can tell you that you can never buy a house. All right, so how can someone contact you? I want to put your number out there, OneGoods. They can reach me at 702-368-0059 and our website is MortgageSolutionsNV.com. One more time mortgage solutions in the like the abbreviation for Nevada dot com okay and give us that number one more time oh two three six eight zero zero five nine five nine so I want to say this I'm an entrepreneur yes I want to buy a house. We specialize in that. Okay oh see now okay so for my entrepreneurs because y'all know it's hard for us to buy a home that first time. Yes. And the second or the third. And the second or the third. And if we want to be investors, it's always a little bit more complicated for us.

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Let's talk about that.

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So it's really important. This is a really good time of year to have me on as a guest. And then, of course, you being an accountant, you really understand. This is a critical time for self-employed people. So when you're self-employed and you're preparing to buy a house, let's just take one step back so that everyone pulls the wool off of each other's eyes and we're crystal clear. We know most entrepreneurs make enough money to buy a house. So they make money. Right. So we all know that. But we also know when you're self-employed, you try not to pay the IRS those taxes. So we have competing competencies. Right. I want to buy a house, but I don't want to claim I make all this money and owe the IRS money for taxes. There's somewhere in the middle you have to meet to buy a house when you're an entrepreneur. So that's part one. So when you know you want to buy a house, you want to prepare yourself so that you can get prepared to end up owing money to the IRS. Because if you don't have some sort of tax liability, you probably didn't claim enough money to buy a house. I talk to self-employed people every day. They call me, ask them, how much money do you make on your taxes? Oh, my company did $20,000 last year. The very next question I ask them is I don't even ask them that because a lot of people don't really know you think they would know but they don't. I go what did you pay the IRS? Huh? Oh I didn't pay the IRS anything I didn't know anything. If you didn't know anything and you made $20,000 last year you didn't claim $20,000 last year. Your net is less than that. So then I just tell them to pull out that schedule C and go to line 31. Now let's go over the net. A lot of times that big number is 200 and that bottom number is 15,000 or less or less. You can't buy a house with that. So it's important when you're self-employed to get your tax professional and your lending professional together so that they both know your goal is to buy a house and do not follow those taxes until you have talked to those two people. Got it. Have an idea how much house you want and obviously know that you can afford to make the payments on it and then you structure your taxes accordingly and be prepared that there may be some tax liability. And the other side to that is because people believe that tax liability is bad.

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And it's not.

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They don't want to pay.

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Say it again. And it is not a bad thing. Something else I've learned. A lot of people think that if they don't receive a 1099, they can't claim that they made income. I've learned that, and I've learned that from some pretty high level self-employed people.

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Really?

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I have this conversation at least once a month, and I tell them, I said, listen, you can go to Costco and buy a whole crate of water for $1,000, and you can go on that strip and sell that water and make $100,000. You're not gonna get a 1099 for selling water, because you sold that water cash to people, but you still made $90,000. You still need to report that income. So that's income you can still report. So if you're out there and you're self-employed and you're thinking, I can't claim this income because I don't have any structured paperwork that brings that money in, you don't have to have that. If you made money, you do owe taxes. Well, even the police to claim the income. Well, you want to know, and then I guess because I also you know I have friends with the IRS I have friends that are IRS agents and we have different conversations and we talk about that because one of the first when it talks to income in the code it says legal and illegal income is all taxable by the IRS and when you think about like the big tax cases from years ago and it's tax evasion and it's like it's tax evasion because you didn't pay the taxes and Dealing with our clients You can plan Just how do we plan so that if we plan? Simple plan you'll have the money to pay the liability Yes, if we just plan because having a tax liability is not a bad thing Especially if you want to buy stuff I tell people all the time my goal is to owe the IRS 1 million dollars a year Because that means I made a whole whole whole bunch of money And I'm gonna give you a high five on that because I'm not I don't I change wallets But you know I have a check in my wallet to the IRS for a million dollars, right? I wrote the check out I said cuz I'm ready to pay you I'm ready because you get to that point I know I made a whole lot of money, and I am looking forward to writing that check. And gladly, you want to know what I might pay you to hear. I want you all to take all your money. There you go. So your question was how does self-employed people get ready? The first thing you do is you determine you want to buy a house. The second thing you do is you get with a lender. You get your credit pooled. You see exactly where you sit in that moment so that you're not out looking for a house and then you find out something's wrong. So you always pre-qualify first and then go find a house. And oftentimes self-employed people are not ready when they call me. Now there's quite a few people that have very structured businesses. They have CPAs. When you rise to the level that you have a CPA or a tax preparer that's been around for a long time. We structure differently. And you have 1120-S's and K-1's and things of that sort.

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Different.

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You're completely different than the way we all start as entrepreneurs. When I opened my company, I was on a Schedule C too, and I'm a banker. And I started with a Schedule C. You open a company, you have a dream, there's a service you want to provide, and that first year or two, you're doing a Schedule C and that's what you're doing. And I want to break this down for you. I mean, from the tech side and what she's talking about. Being an entrepreneur, I'm not as, I am an employee of my company. I am an entrepreneur. So when you decide to get an LLC, there are several things that you can do. You can be a single member LLC and you can do a Schedule C. That's one way. You don't have to cut yourself a paycheck, but it's smart for you to pay quarterly deposits so you don't have a large tax credit at the end of the year. Or you can plan a little bit differently, which is a lot more disciplined because when you're cutting a paycheck for yourself through your company, you got payroll taxes and you have some other things that you have to do to be into compliance. But with the right guidance, right, you can have that tax bill deducted from your income during a year. Again, that's a strategy. And like she said, when you're dealing with accountants, CPAs, and people that understand what we're doing and how to do it and we can show you the numbers to see what is the most beneficial for you. It's not cheap. I'm not going to say that it is and when you're ready we're ready for you. Right. When you're ready. But it's a lot of discipline and it does cost. Yes. You know it does cost for our services and we guide you because we want you to be wealthy. We, I make money when you make money. Absolutely. So I want you to be okay. But okay, so I'm just starting out again. I'm like you. I didn't start off Schedule C. I started off as an escort. I started off as an employee because I understood. And you're an accountant. I'm an accountant. Yeah. So I started. I just I was one of those. I just opened my company. It was extremely successful. I got to the end of the year. I opened in July. I opened in April, but I didn't open my doors until July. And by the end of the year, we'd made a ton of money. Oh, and I went in, hired a CPA, and I'm very meticulous with spreadsheets and books. So I had everything. And he's the person who talked me into changing my structure. Those first two tax returns, schedule C. And I'm okay with that. And I want people to understand, it doesn't have to be sophisticated, it needs to be right. But you want to know what though, Alicia, let me say, because I get a lot of people that come into my office and or they call and the first thing I say well you know I'm I want to set up a business because I want to get business credit right and I'm sitting there and I'm like okay so again say it to me again I want to start a business because I want to get business credit no that's not why you want to set up a business and book for you guys it's called ready fire aim and this multi-millionaire almost billionaire says sell and that's what Alicia did she sold first she opened the doors she just sold she did the business I'm doing the business I'm gonna keep good records and I'm gonna go see the accountant a little bit later but let me make sure that this business is going to work first that I can eat from this business and I don't know as entrepreneurs if we get that because we're told you know you gotta have this business plan you gotta do this you gotta do that no you have an idea sell the product yep I got out there I got it open and then once it got to the point by the time we got to the end of the year we were doing really well. We had a great time in 2004. My company's been open 19 years this April. Oh, congrats. You know what, that deserves a congratulations. Thank you. You know what, congratulations. So for your 20 year, what are we doing? Hopefully retiring. Oh, I thought we were having a retirement party. That's the goal. Okay, a retirement party. I'm here for it, but go ahead. So 2024, the goal is to be retiring, but that means you guys have two years to come see me. You got two years to come see her. This year and next year, end of the year, I plan on retiring. Plan on retirement. Okay. But so the very first thing is talk to a professional, figure out what you need to claim on your income. Now, you should not be considering buying a home. I don't care if you do down payment assistance. I don't care if you get into a house with no money down. That doesn't mean you don't have any money. You should have money saved up because homes are expensive. Things happen. There are bills you will start to pay that you didn't even know existed like the sewer bill. Hmm. Like a sewer. You pay sewer. Yes, you pay sewer. You pay for the trash collection obviously you used to probably paying water and power and cable and some people get those things paid for depending on where they live apartments and some high-rises but when you own a home there's a whole lot of new bills and when things break they need to be fixed plumbing lines to the house and from the street there's a lot of things so you don't want to go into a house where you need 20 grand to get in and you only have 20 grand. You don't want to walk in the door and have no money left. So saving you should be doing before you even come see your loan person. Hmm. Because buying a house is something you should plan for. So let me ask you this, though. So I am I am I am starting off. I don't make a lot of money and eventually I want to buy a house. How much money would you recommend someone save out of each paycheck? Just to build a discipline. I'm a huge fan of if you can try to save 20% of your check. Got it. So if you can't and I'm also one of my mantras in life is about teaching people about money and the relationship with money. People think money is elusive and money is hard to get and once you realize that money is printed every day and it's sitting around you.

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Printed every day.

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Is just as important as air and water. Yes it is. Then you'll change the way you think about it and it'll make you receive more. I believe that. But also if you know you cannot save and you've never saved, then don't start with large chunks of saving because you haven't developed a habit of saving yet. It's like if you don't work out and you don't do fitness, you don't wake up and run a marathon, you walk first. Do a couple laps around the block and then you get yourself. So if you can't save 20% of your check, start with 5%. Start with 10%. Learn how to save, make that a habit. And then once you've been able to do it, then you'll be able to save more money. But you want to consider whatever my mortgage payment is going to be and my down payment is going to be. Typical down payment on your first home, you're probably FHA. You're looking at 3.5% down, maybe looking at 5% down. Whatever that mortgage payment is going to be, you want to have that down payment plus at least six months worth of mortgage payments or have access to them. Got it. 401k, retirement plans, stocks, bonds, mutual funds. Just if a rainy day came, do you have six months worth of savings somewhere? Right. Because I know, I mean, and we saw during the pandemic, we were in a pandemic. I mean, even though we were shut down for two months for some people is they're still trying to get back on their feet, recovering from it. And it's two years later. So having that and that just to give you a rule of thumb. So when you're talking about saving from a paycheck, especially those of us that are lucky to have direct deposit, save what I, when I, cause I started saving at a young age and mine was, my mother told me 50%. She had, she had me trained. Oh my gosh, she had me trained. So I, but I stopped, you know, and then I spent all the money and I start all over again. But what she would have me do is when I first got direct deposit, I set up an account at a bank that I didn't go remember the statement savings accounts back in the day? I set the account up at that bank where I would have to find her to drive for me to go get it but it was direct deposit was going there. I just didn't and one day when I went and they had to update my book I was like oh and I looked at the money and now that's my habit. So when I say like my investment banker and he's like, I don't need to see it. I'm not used to seeing it. I just know that every month. This is my goal to save that money is going near. I don't I don't even tell me. 50% is just so impressive. It is extremely aggressive for people that if you only make $4,000, but I was also young, young living at home, less debt,

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right?

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Less no debt, right? Young living at home, but it was the discipline. Now, when I became an adult, it was, my thing was always $100 and $200. I don't know why, so I always wanted to do $100 and $200. Just every paycheck, $100 and $200, because my life, it was up and down, ebbs and flows, ebbs and flows. Right. And I tell people, when you've lost everything a couple times, and you had to rebuild again, you build the discipline. Yes. And that discipline comes back in handy. Absolutely. So this time I think I got it. Well, you've got it. I got it. And we want to make sure all the entrepreneurs out there get it. And don't be so hard on yourself. Oh, yes. You know, don't let good be the enemy of great, right? So if you can't save as much as you want to save and you have to stop, I tell people, save an amount of money that you can forget about. And you mentioned you'd save a bunch of money and then you spend a bunch of money. It should be such an incremental amount to begin with that you don't miss it.

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That you don't miss it.

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That you don't miss it. If you're taking a big chunk of your money and putting it away, you're going to keep going back into that money and using it. So use a smaller chunk that you don't ever have to go back into. So that would be one. And when you're preparing to buy a house, obviously pay your bills on time. Credit score matters. Credit score is one of the most important things. Right now the lowest credit score you looking at that someone can have. So you can walk into a house for FHA with a 580. See most people don't know that. Really? I put people in homes every day that got 580. 580, 580. Now with a 580 you have to have a whole lot of other things going for you.

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Okay.

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But 580, 580 is all FHA requires to do a three and a half percent down payment. There's no big box bank that allows 580 right okay they don't allow that they require minimum 620 for the most part right so brokers out there bankers like me we can go down to 580 because remember we're the mall so we can take you to forever 21 got you okay okay get that mortgage right so you can get in with a 580 veterans can get in down to 550 and they need no money down but there's a lot of things that go along with those lower scores right okay you need to have more money saved. Your debt ratio needs to be lower. So the run of the mill, the first time walking in, you want to, if you can, get your score to at least 660, 680. Your goal should be try to get to a hundred, a 700 if you can. But can you get in without that? If you have the money you need to put down, you've got the income and you can verify it, you can afford to make the payment. Absolutely. All right. So we're going to give you a number one more time because I'm sure, cause I always thought it was 620. Yes. I always thought it was 620. And people hear that a lot because you need that for down payment assistance. So most down payment assistance lenders require 620. So if they're going to give you some free money, that's the minimum threshold to get that free money. Right. And there's a few out there I think that do it now even at 600. But 5A they'll get you into a house if you have your own down payment money. And I want to tell you guys, if someone's young, you listening to us, I can tell you if you just start, someone told me they started with $25 of $25 a paycheck Yes, so they didn't do a percentage is to $25 a paycheck and with that $25 It grew over time Right now today. She's a older woman now She had a million dollars Never touched it never touched it and all she I mean she started off with just $25 because her goal at that time was she wanted to buy stock in a utility companies yes so that the dividends that she earned paid the utility bills makes it that was her goal it was a simple goal and with that discipline so guys with anything it's discipline it's discipline yep it's discipline it's discipline Alicia one more time give us this number. Guys, please contact her. Yes, so you can reach me at 702-368-0059. One more time. 702-368-0059, and that's Alicia Taylor with Mortgage Solutions. All right, guys, you are hearing a conversation that I am blessed to have this woman in my circle. And she has told me to do some things and I did them and I'm like oh my god who who would have thought that it was not I thought it was hard but she just breaks it down and she break as you can hear she breaks it down with love and compassion and she knows so she's not making stuff up you know y'all always hear me talk about my MSU's people out there making stuff up she's not making the stuff up she's living you heard she's about to retire. Yes. And a year and a half, I mean a year and a half so that's when you know you've done the work. Because when an entrepreneur can say I'm about to retire, I did the work. Yes. I saved the money. I made the right investments. I've done the right things. You know made some good choices. I'm sure you've had some stumbling blocks along the way as well. Absolutely. Every entrepreneur has. Every entrepreneur has. The road to the top for an entrepreneur is real highs and lows, abs and flows, peaks and valleys. And it's a lot of work, a lot of hours. If I added the hours up, I should have retired 10 years ago. I understand that. You know, you know, I know all of you out there. We're working 60 plus 70 hours a week. Easy. Weekends, holidays. We wake up working. The phone is always on. We text and doing something. But you're always. But I wouldn't do anything else me either I wouldn't do anything else again entrepreneurs plan and you want to you want to get with someone like you want to get with Miss Taylor someone that's going to help you get there because we're just talking about buying a home investment property same thing lots of strategies like same strategy be prepared make sure your credit is together. And there's a lot of really creative vehicles to get into investment properties. So when you're self-employed and you don't want to have to claim income, you can buy investment properties just based on your credit score and whether or not the rent on the property you're buying is equal to or more than the payment on the mortgage. So those things require money down. And you shouldn't be buying investment properties if you don't have cash. Because you need to have money to even own an investment property. Because when the tenant is not in there you got to pay that mortgage to right but if two mortgages to pay but if you have the money and good credit their vehicles and products that would blow your mind one day we'll have to come on your show and talk just about that just about investment properties and I am looking forward to that well Alicia as always thank you thank you for having me thank you and I am bringing you back you don't owe you coming back you are coming back you coming back you come if you have to come back because I know we have, Alicia's blessed us this morning with a bunch of information that you might have thought she knew, but she just cleared it up for you. Again, her number is 702-368-0059. My name is Leah Crawford. Ms. Rhonda Nolan is in Arizona this weekend. She is in the Super Bowl town enjoying herself. But as I say, you know, go Eagles, well, fly Eagles fly. Yeah, you almost say it again. Fly. Yeah, Norman Raiders go Eagles, well, fly Eagles fly. Yeah, you almost say it again. Fly. Yeah, Norman Raiders you

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