Matthew N. Icard with Icard Mortgage Team

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:24] Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Cherokee Business Radio. Stone Payton here with you this morning, and today’s episode is brought to you in part by Woodstock Neighbors Magazine, bringing neighbors and business together. For more information, go to Facebook and Instagram at Woodstock Neighbors dot wbvm. And if you have a heart for community and you want to grow your small business, please consider joining our Main Street Warriors movement. Go check us out at Main Street warriors.org. You guys are in for a real treat this morning. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Icard Mortgage Team. The man himself, Mr. Matt Icard. How are you man?

Matt Icard: [00:01:11] Man, I’m good. I’m having a beautiful week already and just can’t wait to rest of the week to be good and coming up on Christmas.

Stone Payton: [00:01:18] Well, it’s a delight to have you in the studio. You and I have had a chance to connect a little bit when we meet over at Vibe Realty. They’re just doing some marvelous work over there, and we usually spend the first 10 or 15 minutes, uh, going into the, into that kind of mastermind meeting talking about our, uh, our outdoor activities. We we’ve enjoyed doing that, but I’ve really been looking forward to getting you in the in the studio. I got a thousand questions. I know we’re not going to get to them all, but but maybe a great place to start would be if you could articulate for me and our listeners mission. Purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks? Man well.

Matt Icard: [00:01:59] Realistically, it’s about getting people into homeownership, especially our veterans. Um, being the child of a Vietnam veteran and grandchild of World War Two veterans on both sides, I really like helping veterans out and getting them into a better financial situation. But as well as everybody else, first time home buyers, investment properties, it doesn’t matter what it is, as long as I can help you get into a better financial situation in a mortgage, that’s what makes me feel good. Well, it.

Stone Payton: [00:02:27] Sounds like a noble pursuit to me. How in the world? I got to ask, how did you find yourself doing this kind of work? What was the what was the path to landing here?

Matt Icard: [00:02:35] It was a natural progression from in-home sales to car sales to uh oh yeah. The biggest thing you can sell is a house. So I did that almost 15 years ago and went in on an interview that a buddy of mine got me in, and unfortunately he wasn’t hired, but I was, and it kind of stuck.

Stone Payton: [00:02:57] So you’ve been at this a while now? Yes, sir. What do you enjoying the most, man? What’s what’s the most rewarding part of it?

Matt Icard: [00:03:03] The most rewarding part is seeing someone get into their first home. And the emotion and the stress that you know, you go through to get into it is just beyond words. For most people. They it it shouldn’t be that stressful, but for some reason it just is. Even when I bought my first home. Is the home that we live in is the first one that I ever bought. Now I did, you know, 1000 purchases before I bought my first home. But when I bought my first home, my wife will tell you, as soon as they handed me the keys, I broke down and cried like a baby. I mean, it was just I didn’t realize it was as emotional as it was. And then I realized it.

Stone Payton: [00:03:43] So what in your experience, is, uh, what is it that the people that your clients are nervous about and anxious about? What are some of the things you gotta sort of coach them off the ledge about?

Matt Icard: [00:03:55] Realistically, it’s just the outlay of the expense with the not knowing. So it’s it’s not like you’re going into a store, you’re handing them a credit card or your debit card, and when you buy it, it’s yours. I mean, you are literally putting them into a. Um, a mortgage that they’re not going to pay off for 30 years. So it’s the not knowing until you sign on the dotted line. So it’s a, you know, it could be up to an 18 month process. I just had closed the borrower that I pre-approved almost during the pandemic. But because of how the market went, they made 15 offers on 15 houses and never won one. And then boom, we got one. But it it can take a while or you can be in a house in less than 3045 days. It just depends on what house you’ve got and when you, you know, try to buy it.

Stone Payton: [00:04:49] Wow. I cannot imagine trying to get 15 houses and not as because they were outbid or that is that usually what happens. Somebody else just offers a higher number.

Matt Icard: [00:04:59] Yeah. With the market that we are in currently and it’s kind of, you know, easing off is you’re in a such low inventory, high demand that you’re, you know, you’re going to compete with other people. And some people have the finances to pay over what you could pay.

Stone Payton: [00:05:14] And so talk to me about timing is, is there some wisdom in trying to time the market? I know the answer. When I talk to financial services people about financial products, you know, their answer is like, unequivocally, no. Just, you know, establish a an investing discipline in the mortgage world. I mean, like, it’s now a good time to to buy or not necessarily or what do you think.

Matt Icard: [00:05:39] It in my personal opinion, it’s always a good time to buy. Okay. The answer to that question is when is the best time to buy? A year ago, whether it was a year ago, a year ago or a year ago, ten years ago. Right? The reason being is that much like the financial services part of it, when you’re investing, it’s a long terme play. So yes, you’re going to get into a house, but you’re going to build equity in that house. And that’s why it’s a long terme. Play is a year ago rates were a little bit lower. Now obviously they’re astronomically high now. But even two years ago when the rates were real low, that was still one of the better times to get in. But it’s better than a year from now because a year from now, it could be a totally different market and there could be more, more buyers coming.

Stone Payton: [00:06:26] Yeah. And it’s interesting. And I may have this wrong, but, uh, it’s my understanding that, like when I was a kid and I’m a little, you know, long in the tooth and I got gray hair. I think my parents, you mentioned exorbitant, you know, really high interest rates. I think they paid way higher interest rate when they bought their home in, uh, what would that have been in the, in the 70s. Mhm. Right. So historically it’s not really crazy high interest rates is it.

Matt Icard: [00:06:53] No it’s definitely not um historically. And I give this example to most people when I’m talking to them is I know what my parents when they bought in Roswell in 1984, it was almost a 19% interest rate on their house.

Stone Payton: [00:07:07] Oh my gracious.

Matt Icard: [00:07:08] Which obviously today would just I mean, people would lose their mind if I said, oh, yeah, I’m going to give you a 19% on this house for 30 years. Yeah. They’d be like, nope. But yeah, I mean, realistically we are in a little bit higher rate market environment, but it’s never going to be back to the 19%, which is realistically it’s never coming back to that 2.5% we had during Covid either. Right. It’s just the best time to purchase is get in it when you can and then realistically take advantage of the rates when they come down to refinance. That way you’re not competing with other other buyers at that time, right.

Stone Payton: [00:07:47] All right. So let’s talk about the work a little bit. Someone approaches you somehow some way. You begin a relationship with a with a potential home buyer. Just walk us through those early conversations. Some of the things that you’re trying to help them get their ducks in a row, just walk us through that process a little bit.

Matt Icard: [00:08:05] Yeah. So when someone comes to me or someone has referred to me, what I basically do is just have a conversation with them, talk about their goals, talk about their finances, get into, and I basically get into every bit of their finances from what they spend monthly to what their long terme goals are, to how much money they’ve got saved up. And a lot of the time, most people don’t understand how in depth that can go. Well, I.

Stone Payton: [00:08:33] Think a lot of people and there are of course some exceptions. And as we get a little older, some of us pay a little more attention to that in our in our planning. But a lot of people haven’t even asked themselves that. I bet their first response in a lot of cases. Well, I don’t know. I got to go find out. Right? Right.

Matt Icard: [00:08:47] Exactly. Because one of one of the statements I like to make is in the United States, we’re not taught about our finances. I mean, my mom and dad taught me how to balance a checkbook. There was nothing in school to show us how to do that, because in reality, school doesn’t want you to know that because they want you to realistically get out of high school, go to college, get in debt, get some credit cards. Get in debt while they’re in college, which is why you see credit card companies at colleges all over the place. And then once you’ve got the degree and you’ve got a little bit of debt, it’s time to get a job. Well guess what? What happens when you get a job? You got to get a car. So you got to get into more debt and then, oh, I’m going to get married. Well, you might have a little bit more debt when it comes to that. And then it’s time to buy a house. So you’re constantly in debt without being told how to leverage your finances and how to live within your means.

Stone Payton: [00:09:43] So you’re a part therapist too? I would think in some of these conversations and also the it often it’s a couple I would think buying buying buying a home. Yeah. They’re not maybe always on the same page right out of the box either are they.

Matt Icard: [00:09:57] No they’re not. They’re definitely not. I don’t know how many times that I’ve pulled credit on a couple. And when I start going through their credit report of what’s on their credit report, as far as credit cards, there’ve been a few credit cards with balances that one of the spouses did see that the other one did not.

Stone Payton: [00:10:16] Oh my. That’s got to be an interesting set of conversations. Yeah, I don’t.

Matt Icard: [00:10:20] Get the conversation after we hang up, but I’m pretty sure there’s some little animosity going between the two.

Stone Payton: [00:10:27] All right. So you have this conversation. You start having them think, look at some things that maybe they haven’t looked at in a while. They’re kind of getting their ducks in a row. And let’s say we do whether whether they both do it or not, we got some stuff a little out of whack and you’re and so you kind of coach them through, okay, we need to get this down or consolidated or you know what? Y’all work on this and let’s talk again in six months. Like, yeah, keep walking us through that whole oh for sure.

Matt Icard: [00:10:51] So when most people come to me, if they have a budget, great. If they don’t, I help them develop a budget to understand what they can afford and what they can buy. Most people base it off of what their rent payment is. So I don’t want, you know, a mortgage payment higher than my rent payment. Well, realistically, it could be a little bit more because with rent you’re not paying homeowner’s insurance, you’re not paying the property. Well, you are paying your landlord’s property taxes, but you’re not paying property taxes. And most people don’t understand the maintenance that comes with owning a house. And what my wife likes to say is, as soon as you’ve painted everything in the house and got everything the way you want it, it’s time to paint something else.

Stone Payton: [00:11:31] Right?

Matt Icard: [00:11:32] So, I mean, it’s just a constant evolution of that. But when I am walking someone through now, a lot of people know what their credit scores are because they’ve got that Credit Karma or Freecreditreport.com or whatever it is. Right? They know what it is, but they might not understand what the score is evaluating. So most people’s credit, if it’s good, bad or, you know, excellent doesn’t really matter because in reality you can get the same interest rate at a high credit score that you can at a low credit score. The only difference is when you have a low credit score, you’re going to pay more for the rate instead of less for the rate. So the higher the credit score, the lower the cost for the rate is.

Stone Payton: [00:12:13] I explain cost for the rate. I’m not familiar with this this piece of it.

Matt Icard: [00:12:16] So and it’s it’s kind of a weird conundrum. So I’ll give you the little bit of the spectrum of it. So you’ve got from 350 to 850 credit score. Okay. And what most people don’t realize is if you take into account for it is. 350 to 850. You take the decimal point, pull it back one so it’s 35 to 85. Now let’s base everything off 100%, even at the best credit score you can have. If 85% of 100 is that 850 credit score, that means the bank is risking 15% chance that you won’t pay your bills.

Stone Payton: [00:12:56] Ah, that’s an interesting way, because.

Matt Icard: [00:12:57] There’s no 100% guarantee, right? Right, right, right. Well, think about it. What’s 35 then? That means there’s 35. What? That means there’s a 65% chance you’re not going to pay your bill. So how are they going to hedge that? They’re going to charge you more to get into that same interest rate for the mortgage payment being where it’s at.

Stone Payton: [00:13:18] They’re going to charge some sort of fee to get the loan. It’s process.

Matt Icard: [00:13:21] It’s either a fee or they will bump the rate up higher to get it. Gotcha. So there’s always cost for everything where most companies build in their margins. But when everybody sees the interest rates that they see online and everything, they’ve got to realize that is for the ultimate buyer from 800 to 850 credit score with very little down. Everybody wants that low rate, but they don’t realize that it. See, the small print is it takes this type of credit buyer to get that rate. Now you can get it at the lower credit score, but you’re paying more for it. Where right give you a hypothetical. If if I have a 850 on a $300,000 house in, you know, hypothetical interest rate is 6%, I might pay $1,000 to get that 6%, whereas you’re at a 650 instead of 850, you might pay 5000. So you’re paying. Gotcha. Just more. It’s not necessarily a whole lot more, but it’s more over, especially over the life of the loan.

Stone Payton: [00:14:19] Yeah, just one of a thousand reasons that you need and want to have a mat level person helping you navigate all of this.

Matt Icard: [00:14:29] Do you you want them to break it down for the long terme and the short terme, to see what the difference is when it’s time to buy to when it’s time to refinance, to take advantage of a lower interest rate, which is one of the reasons why I’m advocating for most people. If you find the house you love, you’re marrying the house you’re only going to date and rate date the rate and payment. So when the rates come down, you take advantage of the lower interest rate, where you don’t have the competitive nature of trying to buy that house when the rates come down, because everybody and their mother’s waiting on the rates to come down, well, realistically, that turns into another seller’s market to where you’re going to be overbidding for houses, if you remember that in, oh yeah, 2021. I mean, I had one person. By an $800,000 house that bid $950,000 on it. Good lord. Now the appraisal only came back at 800,000, so they put $150,000 over and above their purchase price. Um, that didn’t gain them $150,000 in equity, right? That just means they wanted that house so much that they were willing to risk it and have it long.

Stone Payton: [00:15:43] Terme, you mentioned a terme earlier in the conversation. I want to circle back to it. Uh, pre-approved. How important is it, or is it almost mandatory that you got to get kind of pre-approved to go house shopping?

Matt Icard: [00:15:56] Well, most sellers and seller’s agents now want you to be pre-approved as opposed to pre-qualified. Okay.

Stone Payton: [00:16:02] Yeah. Describe the difference. Yeah.

Matt Icard: [00:16:04] So pre-qualified is you send me all your income documentation. I make sure that you fit the bucket of being able to purchase. So you have enough money for down payment. You have enough income. So you’re in the spectrum of what the lender is looking for. But I don’t put it into underwriting. So there are certain. Aspects of the mortgage that you have to be. I’ll use debt to income as a, you know, little buzzword. As long as you’re debt to income is below a 45% of your total, you know, gross, right? That’s a good qualifier. If your credit score is 750, that’s a good qualifier. If you have, you know, $100,000 in the bank when you’re trying to buy a $200,000 house, that’s a good qualifier. And I call it the mortgage tripod. So you’ve got three legs to a tripod. If you’ve only got two of those, mortgage is not going to hold up. If you have one is really not going to hold up. But if you’ve got all three of those, you’re pretty much qualified for a mortgage. But what a preapproval is, is I take all that information in a loan application and I send it into underwriting before we even find a house. So they’re going to basically look at the entire file, not as in depth as when we find the house, but they’ll give us what’s called an initial approval. So it’s a pre-approval. As long as you find a house, it meets this qualification and nothing changes in your income, job or you know, anything in your life, you’re pre-approved for a loan.

Stone Payton: [00:17:34] And I would think that would be meaningful for a to a seller. Like if I’m selling my home and I’m getting two offers that are in the same neighborhood, and I’ve got one that’s pre-approved and one that, you know, doesn’t, that then I’m probably going to lean to that offer, right?

Matt Icard: [00:17:50] Correct.

Stone Payton: [00:17:50] Got it.

Matt Icard: [00:17:51] And you’re going to and depending on the program itself. So a conventional preapproval is typically taking over an FHA pre-approval. Now FHA is a great product. It’s less money down. But there are some interesting contingencies when it comes to an FHA. An FHA is not necessarily as qualified as a conventional, but it’s still a pre-approval. It’s still a good loan. But for some reason, sellers and seller’s agents would much rather have a conventional than an FHA. And above above that, an all cash offer is going to take it any anyway. So regardless of the mortgage aspect of it, if there’s an all cash offer like an investor, I mean, you’re not going to beat that.

Stone Payton: [00:18:35] That’s yeah, that’s the one that they’re really going to jump on. So uh, 15 years plus now doing this, how long have you been at this.

Matt Icard: [00:18:42] Uh, two. Was it 2009? Yeah. So almost 15 years.

Stone Payton: [00:18:46] Wow. So have you had the benefit of one or more mentors along the way that kind of showed you the ropes and helped you really learn this business?

Matt Icard: [00:18:56] I have, um, a few mentors. One of my first branch managers, um, when I first came into the business, before I even got licensed, because when I came into the business is when, you know, right, in that 2008, you know, when the market crashed and the housing market crashed. So I got in it at the absolute wrong. Nicely done. Exactly. I got in at the wrong time, but for some reason I liked it so much it just stuck. Um, but one of my first branch managers, when I was going to get licensed, I was what what they called a branch marketing specialist. So I made all the outbound phone calls. I cut my teeth on people that were, you know, looking to refinance, looking to purchase. But I was doing the cold calling, you know, 175 calls in the morning, 175 calls in the afternoon. Wow. And talking and listening to my branch manager who had been in the business for, you know, ten, 15 years prior to that, you know, he would say, oh, man, you should have been here during the, you know, late 90s, early 2000.

Matt Icard: [00:19:52] You would have made a killing. I was like, well, I didn’t realize it was just selling. And then as soon as I’ve got everybody on the phone, I literally took them in to loan officers. So I was just handing them deals for the first six months that I was in the business before I was able to get licensed and talk real money. So I got all of that experience before I got on the phone, and I remember the first guy that I sold a loan to, his name was James Nelson over in, I think Winder, and when he came into the office, sat in front of me and he was like, man, it seems like you’ve been doing this for years. And he’s like, well, how how did you learn this? Well, you know, I just finished my online course last week and, you know, made him laugh. But, you know, you know, we just settled right into it, sold it. And he was, you know, he was a great guy. He was happened to be a veteran. The first loan I did are there.

Stone Payton: [00:20:41] I’m operating under the impression that there are some unique characteristics or some idiosyncrasies, um, uh, associated with helping a veteran, um, family get into a home. Speak to that a little bit.

Matt Icard: [00:20:52] Well, veterans obviously very good for me as far as emotionally and heartfelt is what most veterans, they are not taught finances either. They go and defend our country. God love them for that. And when they come home, they don’t have as much knowledge on how to do what they need to do to get into a house, as everybody else. But one of the best parts about a VA loan is it’s 100% financing, so they don’t need a down payment now, do they? Do they need. The money for closing costs? Yeah. Typically, yes. But with like every other mortgage sellers can pay the closing cost. Or a percentage of the closing costs so we can keep it, especially on a veteran, as especially if they’re a disabled veteran, because there’s no what’s called an upfront funding fee, which is kind of like prepayment, not prepayment, but PMI. But since there isn’t one, if they have any more than 10% disability, it’s so much easier to get them into a house as long as we make sure they financially qualify for it.

Stone Payton: [00:21:57] So much of your work to me seems grounded in relationship and really, um, education dependent. Like you spend a lot of time educating your your client. You got to you in fact, you got to educate them before you can really consult them, right. So they can even understand where you’re taking.

Matt Icard: [00:22:14] That’s one of the things that I’ve always liked is I’m a teacher, even, you know, some of the other companies I’ve been a part of, it’s training the other guys how to do it and teaching them about their finances. Because like I said, we’re not taught how to handle our finances. We’re not taught how to leverage our finances. A good example of that is with the way the economy is going. You might be in a low interest rate mortgage because you bought in 2020 or 2021, or refinanced in 2020 2021 to take advantage of those low rates. But with where the economy has gone, you started to, you know, live outside your means or you’ve lost a job and started to, you know, have to put money on credit cards or get personal loans or just get any type of high interest rate of debt. And at that point is using the equity because the market has gone so high on values, you have what’s called equity. So equity you could use to put into all of that debt and learn how to leverage your finances even better. And what most people don’t realize is, if I can save you $100 a month, I can show you how to take all of that debt. And now this is household debt, not just mortgage debt, and save you that $100 and show you how to leverage it into your home and show you how to pay that debt off in less time than you would be if you stayed in the house and tried to pay it off yourself.

Stone Payton: [00:23:40] Aha. And you’re a good friend to have.

Matt Icard: [00:23:43] You know, I try.

Stone Payton: [00:23:45] So, uh, still making 175 calls in the morning and in the afternoon. Or is your sales and marketing strategy evolved a little bit?

Matt Icard: [00:23:53] I don’t make that many calls anymore. Now I have and, you know, I definitely have, you know, when I’ve had to. Yeah. But realistically, referral base is where we’re at with, you know, the icon mortgage team is I’ve got a bunch of different referral partners and agents, you know, in what I’m licensed in 13 different states. So oh wow. I’ve got agents, you know, in those states. But obviously Georgia is where home is and always looking for more referral partners that way. So we can help each other out. Right.

Stone Payton: [00:24:25] So some a consumer, a house buyer who had a great experience, surely they would refer you. But like the the real estate ecosystem, like the people in the home services world or the real estate agents, those are important relationships to you, right? And they and they refer people to you for sure.

Matt Icard: [00:24:43] Kind of like that mastermind we’re in together at Vibe Realty. So realtors I mean, you’re in it, right? Um, I think there is a couple insurance guys in it. There’s a couple, you know, different, you know, contractors in it. I brought Mark a couple of weeks ago who’s a painter that I know. Right. Um, but also being part of networking groups in general is a way to, you know, just have a constant influx of referral business coming in.

Stone Payton: [00:25:09] Yeah, that’s probably a lot more fun than making 175 phone calls. It is.

Matt Icard: [00:25:13] You actually get to talk to people and just get to know them and be part of their family that way. But I mean, even all of my borrowers that I’ve worked with, it’s I don’t friend them on Facebook until after we’re done with the loan because they realistically become family. I mean, I had one lady in Massachusetts years ago and my wife says it’s hilarious is that I have this weird mimicking ability to mirror someone. So obviously you can tell I’m from the South. I don’t have that, you know, huge twang. But this lady was from Massachusetts and she was like 75 years old and she was so sweet. And she goes, Matt, Matt. And, you know, you got to you got to meet my granddaughter. She would be perfect for you. And I’m sitting there, ma’am, you know, I’m married. She goes, that’s all right. That’s all right. Your wife won’t mind at all. She’s perfect. I’m like, gotta love people, man.

Stone Payton: [00:26:06] You do a pretty good Boston. I know, that’s pretty good. I will switch gears on you here before we wrap. Uh, I don’t know when you’d find the time, but, uh, what passions, pursuits, hobbies do you have outside the scope of the work? We’ve been talking about? Where you just get to unwind and enjoy yourself. What do you and your family like to do?

Matt Icard: [00:26:25] Well, my daughter, who is about to turn 16, is a competitive softball player, so.

Stone Payton: [00:26:31] Oh, you can’t have. Any hobbies? You got a 16 year old, you’re going to ball games. Well, I.

Matt Icard: [00:26:35] Do have, you know, you and I have talked a few times about our, you know, collective hobby that way, sitting in the woods and waiting for the four legged animals to walk by. Yeah. Um, but, yeah, coaching her softball teams or even being just the parent in the stands and watching her excel, as well as being married for 18 years to an absolutely smokeshow of a woman. Um, yeah, that keeps me pretty busy now. I played golf professionally back in the early 2000, so I still like to play golf, but I can’t tell you the last time I picked up the golf clubs to actually play.

Stone Payton: [00:27:08] I thought you brushed over very quickly. I asked you something before we went on air and you go, yeah, when I was playing professional golf and I let it go, but now I’m going to ask, tell me a little bit more about the professional golf experience.

Matt Icard: [00:27:19] Well, it started in 2004. Um, a buddy of mine came into town who was a caddie on the LPGA, the women’s golf tour, and I was working for Budweiser at the time, and we were playing in a softball tournament, and he just looked over and he said, you play golf, right? I’m like, yeah. And he said, you’re good. I’m like, yeah, I can, I can play it around. He’s like, well, I got another player who’s caddy is broke his leg and he’s out. Uh, would you happen to want to, you know, carry a golf bag for the week and be inside the ropes at a professional event, which is the chick fil A Charity Championship down in McDonough when they used to have it down there and I said, well, yeah, let me go ask my boss if I can have a week off, because it was happening that Monday and this was like Saturday. So I called my buddy and he was like, yeah, man, you’ve got plenty of vacation time. Go do it. Well, I had an absolute blast. Um, got to caddy at, um, Eastlake during a pro-am with a bunch of chick fil A executives and, you know, talking to the player that I was carrying the bag for that day, and I helped all of them.

Matt Icard: [00:28:23] And, I mean, they tipped me like 5 or 600 bucks each because they were upper executives. And I obviously had never made 2500 bucks in a day. And I was like, well, is this all does this happen? He goes, yeah, you can do that pretty much at every stop. I’m like. Uh, so I looked over at the player that I had that week and I was like, uh, how long are you playing? She’s like, well, I’ve got another, you know, ten, 15 weeks. I was like. You want me to go with you? She was like, yeah. So I literally went back in on that Friday because we didn’t make the cut. And I told my boss I quit. So I literally left Budweiser and went on tour for the rest of 2004 to the first part of 2005 and went to the US open for the women’s and went all over the United States. Didn’t fly out of the country or anything, but had a blast. Got to play with a bunch of different female professionals. Um, you know, name drop here. Played with Annika Sorenstam once. Most people remember.

Stone Payton: [00:29:19] Even I know who that is.

Matt Icard: [00:29:21] Exactly right. You know, Laura Davies, some of the, you know, players that have been around for years had fun with them and playing golf with them. They, you know, said, hey, you could play this if you actually devoted some time to it. So when I came home off the road and just, you know, started working with a buddy of mine, that’s when I kind of ran into my now wife and she was all over it. She says, let’s go, baby. He’s like, you can do it. I was like, okay, so we jumped in. I qualified at the Hooters Tour in Jacksonville, was the qualifying school, and I qualified for 13 events. Um, I think I got in 2 or 3, but lightning never struck in a bottle. I mean, one of those things, it’s five events. Five events now. Sorry, but, um. Yeah, lightning never really struck. And, you know, obviously, if I was as good as I wanted to be, I probably wouldn’t be on the radio with you right now. I’d be with that guy, Tiger Woods and everything, just playing with them.

Stone Payton: [00:30:20] But you still play and go out and have a good time. Oh, I do with clients and friends and that kind of thing I do.

Matt Icard: [00:30:25] I mean, I am the call for most of my buddies when they need a forth and they need a good player, they icart come here. What are you doing? I’m like, I don’t know, call Angie. And as long as it’s within the schedule and I can play, she’s like, all right, go play.

Stone Payton: [00:30:41] Oh, man. All right, let’s leave our listeners, uh, you know, young people, veterans, whoever’s out there getting ready to buy a home, thinking about it, let’s leave them with a couple of pro tips. Sure. Uh, things to think about. Maybe, uh, maybe even some things to to be prepared to have a conversation about with someone like you. Let’s leave him a couple of actionable things. Pro tips.

Matt Icard: [00:31:02] Sure. Um, biggest thing is save some money, live within your means, find a budget, work on the budget and if you can save $100 a month, save $100 a month. If you can save $1,000 a month, save $1,000 a month and realistically set your credit payments up for automatic payments, even if it’s just the minimum. Now you can go in and pay anything else. Yeah, you know, if you’ve got a bigger balance, you can pay it off at your own leisure, but set it up to make the minimum payments without looking at it. So that way you never miss a payment. Because if it’s interesting enough, you can work years to get that 850 credit score. You missed one payment on an American Express or Visa or Mastercard. It’s going to drop it down to 600, and then it’s going to take you another year or two to bring it back up. Because once you have a bad debt on your credit, it typically takes time away to grow it.

Stone Payton: [00:32:03] Well, I’m glad I asked. Did not realize how important that is. Oh, yeah.

Matt Icard: [00:32:08] Minimum payments. And that’s all you have to pay now. You can pay more. Yeah, down the road. And what I typically do with most people, especially the ones that, um, I do cash out refinances when I’m paying, you know, all their debt off is I tell everyone to get two credit cards. Now, if you have, you know, eight credit cards, don’t close them because that can negatively affect. But if you’ve got two credit cards, preferably ones with awards rewards, I should say like an Amex SkyMiles or a Capital One Venture card. So you get the rewards of whatever you buy. Use those two cards instead of your debit card to buy your stuff. If you’re going to the grocery store, put it. Put it on your Amex. Now, as soon as you buy it at the grocery store, get home, pay the Amex off. Pay that debt that you. If you spend 100 bucks at, you know the gas station for gas, pay it off when you get home. It shows you village, but it doesn’t allow you to get into that big debt balance. So and because credit cards are basically government backed, um, it’s a lot more secure than your debit card. If you give somebody your debit card on an automatic payment where it comes out every month, and then all of a sudden you’re short in the bank state in the bank. Mhm. Uh, it’s going to come out and in, in my. Uh, experience. It’s harder to get off of an automatic payment with your debit card than it is with a credit card. Uh, because if you get overcharged with a credit card, all you have to do is go back and dispute the credit card. And the credit card company is going to get their money. Um, the bank does not care.

Stone Payton: [00:33:45] Right. Yeah.

Matt Icard: [00:33:47] Exactly. And realistically, the biggest thing is, um, if you, you know, you can contact me, you can contact any mortgage person for just an evaluation if they’re worth their, you know, salt. You can get an evaluation of your profile without even, you know, putting any money out there to see where you’re at, just to see where you’re at, whether you end up doing something or not. That’s the biggest.

Stone Payton: [00:34:14] Thing. Okay. All right. What’s the best way for our listeners to get in touch with you? Whatever you feel like is appropriate? Uh, email, LinkedIn. I just want to make sure that people can connect with you, maybe do that evaluation and have a substantive conversation with you. What’s the best way to connect? Well, you can.

Matt Icard: [00:34:28] Find me on all social media, um, under Instagram. I’m Icard mortgage, man, because, you know, I like, kind of like the muffin man. Do you know the muffin Man? No. Do you know the man or the mortgage man? Yeah. I don’t live in Drury Lane. I live on, you know, over in Woodstock. Um, but you can also find us as Icard mortgage team.com. It’s got a link to my calendar, um, to where you can just book a 30 minute, you know, calendar session with me. Doesn’t cost you anything. Um, my email. We are powered by quest Rock Home Loans, so it’s Matt Icard. Matt Icard at quest Rock. Dot com. Or you can call me on my cell (678) 206-7640 or shoot me a text. Any way you want to get Ahold of me, I’m there and I typically respond within the hour.

Stone Payton: [00:35:16] Well, Matt, it has been an absolute delight having you in the studio. Thanks for sharing your insight, your perspective. Don’t be a stranger. Come in periodically and kind of get us updated on what’s going on in the market. Might be fun to at some point. Uh, you know, you mentioned teaming up with other people in the, in the real estate ecosystem, maybe bring a referral partner, someone in home services world or a real estate agent, and maybe we’ll profile their business, but maybe also talk about how you guys collaborate to genuinely serve the home buyer. That might be fun.

Matt Icard: [00:35:49] Oh, we absolutely will. And before I let you go, I will tell you one thing that we have been doing that and my wife does a lot of the marketing for us is that she helped with one of our realtors, um, put a drive together for homeless or foster kids here in Cherokee County to where they can drop a. Piece of luggage, a stuffed animal, or a blanket for the foster kids in Cherokee County because when those children are pulled out of the houses in bad situations, they typically don’t have anything with them. So the bags that we’re getting is so they have, you know, a stuffed animals so they can, you know. Cuddle up with him a blanket so they can stay warm because they are literally walking out with trash bags of clothes sometimes. So that was one of I love my wife for having just the biggest heart that way. And right now I want to say our what we call our, you know, library is almost full of bags and stuffed animals and blankets to wear. Um, what do we have? Two drop off points. One at Club Pilates in Woodstock on Town Lake. And then there’s one at our, um, child’s private school for Top Prep in Acworth. And they are absolutely just killing. It brings stuff in.

Stone Payton: [00:37:13] All right. So luggage is one of the items you mentioned. Yeah.

Matt Icard: [00:37:16] Just small, small luggage. Luggage bag, um, stuffed animals and just the little, you know, blankets.

Stone Payton: [00:37:24] Yeah. All right. Well, I’m glad that you mentioned that. Yeah. Keep up the good work, man. Thanks for coming in. And let’s let’s do it again.

Matt Icard: [00:37:31] I will, and you know what? We got to go sit in the woods here. In there? Sure.

Stone Payton: [00:37:35] You got it, man? Yes, sir. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Matt, Aykut and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you again on Cherokee Business Radio.