Brought to you by Diesel David and Main Street Warriors
As a realtor with nearly 3 years of experience in her beloved community, Julia Cox’ passion for helping others has always extended beyond the realm of real estate. With three generations of military service in her family, including her father, husband, and son, the values of service, dedication, and respect are deeply ingrained in Julia’s character. These values drive her commitment to supporting the elderly, a cause close to her heart.
Growing up in Georgia and spending decades in this vibrant area, Julia has witnessed firsthand the invaluable contributions our senior citizens have made. Their wisdom, resilience, and stories enrich our lives, and it’s her mission to ensure they receive the care and support they deserve. Whether it’s through assisting with downsizing, finding a home that better suits their needs, or simply offering a compassionate ear, Julia strives to make their lives a little easier.
As a retired military member, Julia understands the unique challenges that come with aging, especially for those who have dedicated their lives to serving our country. Her approach is detail-oriented and empathetic, ensuring that every senior she works with feels heard and valued. It’s not just about real estate; it’s about community over competition, fostering connections, and creating a supportive environment where our elders can thrive.
In addition to her professional endeavors, Julia is an avid gardener, crafter, and dog lover. These hobbies have taught her patience, the importance of nurturing, and the joy of seeing something grow and flourish—principles she applies when working with the elderly. Her goal is to help them navigate their next chapter with dignity and grace, providing them with the resources and support they need to enjoy their golden years to the fullest.
Together, we can build a community that honors and uplifts our seniors, ensuring they feel as cherished and respected as they truly are.
Connect with Julia on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Amber de Marché’s professional journey has been an exciting one, leading her from a successful ten-year career as an educator in the cosmetology industry to discovering her true passion for real estate during the challenging times of COVID.
With a decade of experience in education, Amber has developed a strong foundation in communication and empathy, which has seamlessly transitioned into her role as a Loan Officer. Helping first-time homebuyers and veterans navigate the complex world of real estate is a true joy for Amber, but she’s equally dedicated to assisting anyone on their journey to finding their dream home.Education is at the heart of her approach. Amber firmly believes that understanding the loan process is crucial for borrowers to make informed decisions. That’s why she takes the time to explain every step of the way, ensuring clients feel empowered and confident throughout the entire process.But it doesn’t end with the closing of your first deal. Building meaningful and lasting relationships with her clients is paramount to Amber. She’s committed to being your trusted lender for life, ready to support you in all your future real estate endeavors.When Amber isn’t immersed in assisting clients, you can find her cherishing precious moments with her family, like chasing her toddler around. As an avid lover of the great outdoors, Amber seizes every opportunity to explore nature’s beauty. And when it’s time to recharge, you’ll likely find her indulging in a well-deserved nap!
Connect with Amber on LinkedIn and Facebook.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.
Stone Payton: 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 our Community Partner program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors Defending Capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, go to Main Street warriors.org and a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors Diesel David Inc. Please go check them out at diesel.david.com. You guys are in for a real treat this morning. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast, first up on Cherokee Business Radio with Just Close With Julia, and 1Look Real Estate office. Miss Julia Cox, how are you?
Julia Cox: I am doing fabulous. It’s a beautiful day out and I’m going to go wash my car after this, so yay!
Stone Payton: Well, we’re delighted to have you in the studio. You and I have been plotting this conversation for some time now. Uh, Julia and I are part of the young professionals of Woodstock, and so we’ve gotten a chance to know each other a little bit. But today we’re going to get to dive in, visit with her about her and her business, maybe get some pro tips for some folks out there. And you’re going to introduce us to a guest that you brought with you here in a little bit, too. Yeah.
Julia Cox: Yes.
Stone Payton: All right. Tell me a little bit, maybe a good place to start. Mission. Purpose. I know you’re in the real estate arena, but for you specifically, you’ve kind of refined your mission, your purpose, your focus. What are you really out there trying to do for folks?
Julia Cox: I am trying to help seniors mostly right now because they are in desperate need for somebody to just help. They get taken advantage of left and right by everybody. So I’m here to inform them, to let them know what their choices are to get them. There’s legal aid. There’s all kinds of things that they are that they can have. The biggest thing right now is I wanted to make sure that all the seniors know that they can appeal their tax assessment. You can either call them and they will send you a written copy, or you can go to the Cherokee County Tax assessor’s office. And down on that page it will say appeal. You have 45 days from your first day of notice. If your appeal is approved, it’s good for three years. So that way you know your your tax is going to stay the same and you’re going to be good to go for three years.
Stone Payton: Well, I’m certainly no expert in the arena, but it has been my observation that our assessment never goes down.
Julia Cox: No it doesn’t.
Julia Cox: Yes, I worked with this one lady. Hers went up 30%. I mean, seriously 30%. So and you know so you know, all you have to do is get one of your trusted realtors to give you a CMA, which is a comparative market analysis, which will show how much in the market the house is worth. And then you can tell that and you can take that and put that in your paperwork and you can go from there. But it really helps. And please, there’s not a realtor out there that will not help you out and it’s no charge.
Stone Payton: So what is the the back story? How in the world did you find yourself in this line of work?
Julia Cox: Well, my thing is, I wanted to be a realtor all my life. It’s just such a big part in people’s life, and it’s such a family oriented thing that this is just something I wanted to do. But as many people know, being a realtor is incredibly hard and it takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of face time. And usually you don’t see any income from anywhere from six months to two years. So it took me a while and I finally get to do my dream job, which is very exciting. And then I got into it and I was trying to find, okay, where where do I fit what’s what’s a good place for me? And just so happens that I’m going into my senior years and we are retired military. So I went and got my Qris, which is a senior real estate specialist certification, and I got my MRP, which is a military relocation professional, and that way I can help the people that I am. And I work with seniors, you know, the 500 and 1C3 the nonprofit seniors like stand up for seniors, Cobb Cherokee Senior Services. There’s quite a few out here, and I work with them because I want to people to move in my community that I support and I work toward and I work for. So it just makes me feel better. They’re walking in and I know what they’re walking into so I can help find them a place where they’re going to flourish. They’re going to feel comfortable. They’re going to know people. They’re going to know, you know where to go when they want to do something, whether they want to be in a quilting circle or wanting to be in a book club, we can help with that.
Stone Payton: Well, now that you’ve been at it a while, what are you what are you finding the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it for you?
Julia Cox: The most fun about it, and this just happened recently, is I had a senior lady and this was just awesome. Um, her son was going to sell her house because obviously he knows more than anybody else. But in the end, she we talked and, you know, we got this set up and she actually told her her daughter that, you know what? She doesn’t want my brother to sell a house. She wants you to. And my brother called me and asked me, what in the world why is mom so ready to move now? And she’s okay with it? That was a huge win because she felt that comfortable with me and it was great.
Stone Payton: Real estate strikes me as a very I don’t know if it’s fair to say, crowded, but a competitive arena from a sales and marketing standpoint, how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a real estate agent? Because there there’s I I’m operating under the impression that there’s plenty of opportunity out there, but there’s also a lot of folks in your business, right. How do you go about the sales and marketing thing?
Julia Cox: You do the best you can and be authentic. You have to be authentic. And it’s like when you go and you you work at a you are what, one of the 500 and 1C3 events and you’re taking pictures. People are like, well that’s rude. You’re taking a picture to advertise. You’re not you’re not advertising yourself. Very rarely am I in the pictures. I’m advertising the event. Plus I just talk to people. I like going out. I like meeting seniors, and I’m authentic and people gravitate toward that. And the real estate is it’s very it’s very challenging right now. And a lot of people are getting out. It’s not as crowded as it once was. The numbers are going down very quickly, actually. So a lot of people are saying the cream of the crop will stay in, but being authentic and being in it for the reason your heart’s in it, there’s a reason that you’re in it. And if your heart is making money, then it’s still your heart. So you’re going to make money. But it’s just honestly, it’s being true to yourself, being authentic, just getting in front of people, helping your community and just being a part of your community is huge.
Stone Payton: Well, and I know you personally to be very invested in the community, collaborative, very relationship oriented, I guess, I guess I would say and one tremendous example of that I think, is, is how you work with other people with specialized expertise in their domain to make all this stuff come together. And you brought one with you. Did I tell us who you brought with you?
Julia Cox: I brought Amber de Marché and she is a loan officer with mortgage. Right. And Darren Hunter is the lead the lead mortgage lender on that team. And Amber is wonderful. And she actually knows how to do reverse mortgages, which is another item that I can bring to the table when we’re talking to seniors. And she also is very savvy about making sure that people are not getting ripped off, and they know how to send money through wire so they don’t send it to somebody in. You know, I don’t know Nigeria because, you know, the prince needs money.
Stone Payton: Yeah, I got an email from him. I haven’t responded.
Julia Cox: But it’s amazing, isn’t it? That man needs a lot of money.
Stone Payton: Well, Ms. Amber, what’s it like to to hang out with Julia?
Amber de Marché: Hi. So super excited to be here. Julia is awesome. All the things you said I second, she definitely has a passion and a heart for helping people, especially the seniors. So yeah, lots of fun with Julia.
Julia Cox: So how did you.
Stone Payton: Get in the mortgage business?
Amber de Marché: Oh, Covid actually helped me get in mortgage. Yeah, I was, um, my background is actually in cosmetology. I was an instructor admissions director at a cosmetology school in Arkansas. And Covid shut all of that down and kind of made me rethink. I knew a mortgage broker that was like, hey, maybe this is for you. You should try it. You’re at you’re not doing anything at home anyways. You might as well come shadow with me. And I totally fell in love with it. So it’s, um, it’s been really, really rewarding, especially, um, you know, growing up with parents that were divorced and living paycheck to paycheck and, um, never really thought that home ownership would be something attainable for myself. And then learning through working in the business that it actually was and have bought two houses now. So I love helping people realize that it’s not quite as complicated. And if you have the right people helping you, like Julia, it really can be simplified and not as stressful.
Julia Cox: So it’s something else that Amber does that I think is really, really great is she is getting a class so she can actually help people budget so they can pay off their credit cards. They can start. And these are because younger people are coming out with credit card. It’s not really money because they don’t teach these items in high school. So she it’s really cool. She’s going to go get her license with this for this. And it’s just that’s going to be huge. That’s going to make a difference. Maybe she can go talk in some high schools. You know even middle schools.
Amber de Marché: Yeah I’m excited getting my financial coaching certification. So yeah I’m excited to be able to to spread my passion for helping people and and help people dive into more day to day financial stuff too. So.
Stone Payton: Well, I agree 100% for what that’s worth. That financial literacy for me is a very important topic, and I also was not very knowledgeable or disciplined about money, even to the point I was very fortunate and made more money than most at a younger age than most in in my first career. But I spent just a little bit more than that.
Julia Cox: And part of it.
Stone Payton: Was like, you developed this mentality when when that is your path, what would just make some more tomorrow?
Julia Cox: Yeah, absolutely.
Amber de Marché: I, I tell people all the time, you know, sometimes I talk to borrowers that are they really want to buy a house, but maybe they’re not quite sure what that looks like and maybe they’re not quite there yet. And like, don’t feel bad about yourself. You know, like they don’t teach you that stuff in high school. And and if you know, your parents are in survival mode or just maybe they they weren’t taught that stuff either, then it’s. It’s just what it is. And I made all the mistakes in my 20s with I can tell you I totally ruined my credit and had to rebuild it. And so through that, you know, definitely have learned a lot and hope to use that to help other people.
Julia Cox: I bet you.
Stone Payton: In your line of work run into some patterns, some things you see over and over, and maybe there’s some patterns among young people trying to get their first house and they do some things, or fail to do some things that to you or just walking around sense and if you can get to them early enough, or even if they’ve made some of those mistakes, you can help them recover. Is that accurate?
Amber de Marché: Yes, absolutely. I would say the biggest piece of advice I give people is just make your payments on time. Like if you’ve opened a credit card or a loan or something, just make your payments on time. It’ll make a huge difference in your whole life.
Stone Payton: And maybe don’t make a crazy big move like the new truck or the new yeah, yeah, yeah. Right in the throes of things. Yeah.
Amber de Marché: Uh, 100%. Yeah. Especially when you’re going through the mortgage process. Like, don’t go buy a truck, don’t change jobs, don’t quit your job. Like, just basically freeze everything. Don’t cosign a loan for anyone. Don’t, you know, purchase anything big? Um, when you’re getting a mortgage, you know, we’re looking at your ability to repay. And sometimes there are certain things that we need to be at a certain point. So maybe you can do it after, if that’s if your heart desires to go buy that brand new Ford F-150, then that’s okay. Do it. After you close on your house.
Julia Cox: You sounds like good advice.
Julia Cox: And you know, some of the some of the two things that I thought that was really cool, that Amber told me about is also, don’t pay off your credit cards and keep your credit cards at like anywhere between 10 and 30% because they want that consistent payment. So I thought that was fascinating.
Amber de Marché: Yeah, they want to see you. The credit bureaus want to see you having a healthy relationship with that credit. So keeping a balance and keeping it paid down.
Julia Cox: And well, I’m glad you.
Stone Payton: Mentioned that because that that would that would be a little counterintuitive for me. But, you know, I’m at a different stage in life where I’m don’t carry debt. But at that point, you really you want to have the the debt capacity, but you don’t want to have the, the where you owe very much. Right?
Amber de Marché: Yes.
Julia Cox: Yeah. Interesting for sure.
Stone Payton: So have you like Julia and maybe you already partially answered this question because because of your focus on financial literacy, but have you chosen any particular niche, a demographic, a psychographic, a certain group of people that while you you’ll be delighted to help a lot of people, that this is where you’re going to focus your sales and marketing energy on and your education and community energy on.
Amber de Marché: Yeah, for sure. And it’s not maybe as specific as Julia, but, you know, young, young families. So young families that either they bought their first house, but it was 5 or 10 years ago. The market’s very different now. And they’re needing to expand. You know, they have kids coming. And you know like we do that take up a lot of space. Um, or um, you know, young young families that maybe are first time home buyers and, and aren’t really sure where to get started or what the process looks like. Those are my favorites to help. But like you said, I’ll help everybody.
Julia Cox: And I wanted to add to that because the more I dive into seniors, because I’ve already doubled the amount of C credits, which is continuing education credits for my seniors, the more I dive in to the seniors, the more it helps me understand the process better. So I like helping seniors, but I am more able to handle anybody because I know how the mortgage works. I know how I know all this vendors, the partners that can help me get their houses up and ready to go or what we’re looking for. So it’s like you, you have a niche, but the niche actually, if you really dive into that niche, it helps you across the board, which is kind of cool. I think it’s the same way for sure.
Julia Cox: Yeah, well.
Stone Payton: Let’s dive into a use case and maybe we can we can have you both dive into a single use case, but let’s just take well, let’s take the young couple and they somehow got into their first home, uh, no kids making pretty good money and all that. And so they were able to get into that one that’s not going to serve in this next phase of life because they want to, you know, they want to have kids. And then, uh, what’s the do they approach you first typically to start getting their financial ducks in a row? Amber. Is that the walk us through kind of at least the early stages of what that looks like?
Julia Cox: Yeah.
Amber de Marché: So it’s funny you ask that question, um, because a lot of people go to the realtor first. Um, but really they should talk to the loan officer first, because when you go talk to the real estate agent, they’re going to say, have you talked to a loan officer? Have you gotten pre-approved? Um, and mostly because as a real estate agent, you know, they don’t want to take you to look at a $400,000 house if you can’t afford to buy it. Right. If your budget is only up to 375, well, now you’ve fallen in love with the house and everybody’s going. To be really disappointed.
Julia Cox: But also they will not. If you if they fall in love with that house, they will make an offer on it. They can’t. Right. Because they haven’t gone through the approval process. Yeah. So it just we’re like breaking hearts and we’re crying almost as much as, you know, the people that want to buy the house, it’s it’s a sad thing. Yeah.
Amber de Marché: So you would definitely reach out to a loan officer first. Um, go through the pre-approval process. So they’re going to most likely ask you to fill out an application, um, you know, maybe provide some documents to verify your income, that you have some savings if that’s the route you’re going. Georgia has some down payment assistance programs. That would be a whole other podcast episode for you. Yeah, yeah. Um, but um, so yeah, depending on the route. So basically anything you put on the loan application, we just have to verify with documents. So like your driver’s license says, this is who you are and this is where you live. And, you know, income is a big thing and asset. So like your bank statements, savings accounts, stuff like that. So definitely talk to a loan officer first and then you can go do the fun part that everybody wants to do, which is go look at the houses with the real estate agent.
Julia Cox: So when I actually talked to people that are coming in and looking at the houses at the open house, I’m like, are you pre-approved? If you’re not, please, I’ve got some great lenders. I can, you know, send you to, well, we’re not looking to buy for six months. And I’m like, the lenders would love it if they got you six months before you bought the house.
Julia Cox: Okay. Excellent. Six months to a year.
Julia Cox: They they would love it because there’s no surprises. They can knock it out before it even happens. So and that’s what I try to encourage people to do is talk to your lender. I mean, just seriously, a year, six months before you’re even looking for a home.
Julia Cox: Wow. Okay.
Amber de Marché: Yeah, I always think about it like, um, like if you’re going so, like, you decide to get healthy, right? And you’re so you have like two parts of that, your diet and your working out. So the real estate agent does the working out part, which is the one that everybody posts about. Right? Like nobody wants to see what you’re eating. They want to see like that heavy weight that you lifted so they can be like, wow, you deadlifted 300 pounds this morning. Way to go. But so so the real estate agents like the trainer at the gym, the loan officers like, the dietician like we’re going to look at your finances and make sure that your finances are healthy enough and that you have good habits. So it could be six months to a year before you’re ready to buy that house. But if you talk to the loan officer first, we can definitely look and see how to get you there.
Stone Payton: It makes all the sense in the world to me. So let’s take this young couple. Let’s say that they took this advice, reached out to you a good six months plus ahead of time. I guess initially you might come back with kind of a working number, but it’s not really a hard number. Right. Like let’s, let’s call it 375. Mhm. Um, let’s and but you’re not necessarily saying okay go get you a $375,000 house. You’re saying, okay, we know that we’re in this neighborhood financially. Now let’s continue to look at and then we’ll get you even better or we’ll help you think through. Yeah it’s 375 but I think we’ll we’ll stop at 350 or something. Yeah. Yeah.
Amber de Marché: Absolutely. Yeah. And you know, a lot of times the purchase price makes a difference. Right. But the biggest thing that we’re looking at is the monthly payment, because that’s really going to impact you more than anything in terms of looking at. So maybe we say, okay, you can afford up to $375,000 based on just how we qualify you for a mortgage, how the bank looks at you, but comfortably for you guys in their mind, they may they might be like, I don’t want my mortgage payment to be more than $1,500 a month. And then it’s like, okay, well then you need to keep your purchase price at 350. That’s going to get you right where you want to be with your mortgage payment.
Stone Payton: So yeah. So getting into the mortgage business, I’m sure the answer to this is yes, but I’m going to ask anyway, did you have the benefit of one or more mentors to kind of help you navigate that terrain and a team you could lean on for a while?
Amber de Marché: Yes, 100%. You definitely need it in the mortgage and in the real estate world because it’s really, you know, everybody says this, but you, you learn so much through the classes that you have to take and the licensing process and all of that. But applying it in the real world is a lot different than reading about it in a textbook, you know?
Julia Cox: So in real estate, they call they call it drinking from a, you know, a water, um, a fire hydrant because you’re getting you can only drink so much. You’re getting all this information. So it it takes you, it takes you a little while. And the more you work at it, you go, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah. It’s really good because it’s like anybody you learn better when you do it. Yeah. So doing it is just huge. And or you can help somebody do it.
Amber de Marché: Yeah.
Julia Cox: Which is awesome at mortgage right.
Amber de Marché: I mean I ask those guys all the time, I’m like, so I have this scenario, I don’t know what to do. So yeah, definitely lean on. And Darren’s been a huge mentor for me. Just helping, you know, with building the business for myself. And you know, we’re all our own brand. Right. So so helping with that as well. So. Yeah.
Stone Payton: Well, that’s a good point. Yes. Your mortgage. Right. And and a lot of us around town know Darren to be a marvelous person. Yes, but you’re also Amber and you get. So you’ve got this whole sales and marketing differentiation thing. I don’t, I don’t know. Do you employ, uh, tools like social media and getting out there in the community talk. Walk us through how you kind of do your sales and marketing thing, if that’s the right term.
Amber de Marché: Yeah, it is the right term. That’s what I call it anyway.
Julia Cox: Okay, good, good.
Amber de Marché: Um, yeah. So I do social media, um, you know, like most people, I get tired of it sometimes. So I take a little. I took a little break, but I’m getting back into it now. Yeah. Um, I do a lot of the business networking groups around to like the Kennesaw Business Club, Woodstock Business Club. I’ve been to some of the business associations, so I’m doing that big in the chamber, the Cherokee chamber. Um, love those people there. Um, and then, you know, I have a passion for helping people, so I, I consider my volunteer to be networking as well.
Julia Cox: Yeah, absolutely.
Amber de Marché: Um, I volunteer with the chin up program through the Children’s Haven. So they, we do like a, a, a program a couple of times a month for middle school and high school kids that are having truancy issues in school and stuff and maybe just need like a positive role model there, somebody to spend some time with them. So, um, I do that. I’ve, I’ve volunteered with Cobb Mentoring Matters, where we mentor kids in, in the middle schools to just kind of be a guide for them to figure out what path they’re taking. And, um, I’ve done some mentoring through Serenade Heights, which is a nonprofit that helps single moms kind of get back on their feet or go back to college and stuff like that. So, um, that’s a big part of of my passion for all of this, so.
Stone Payton: Well, I can tell it. I can hear it in your voice. I can see it in your in your eyes. I think this might apply to both of you guys. Uh, I know I came from the training consulting world, and we would often lean on other practitioners who had specific expertise in another domain much deeper than ours, like home services folks, the people that can get a house ready. Or do you guys probably know a lot of those people? And you, you’ve got your go to lot guy and your go to roof person. Is that true?
Julia Cox: That is.
Julia Cox: Yes. That’s like part of my when I go in to speak to somebody, especially a senior, because there’s a lot you have to do because they’re moving into a different lifestyle. So it’s almost like they have four different buckets. They have what they’re taking with us, they have what they’re going to put in storage. But we’ll probably they have what they’re given to their children, and they have what they’re going to do an estate sale with, or they’re going to sell on Facebook. And I have people for both of those, and then they have what they’re going to donate. So it’s just and then I have this wonderful packer that will help. Impatient. I have a wonderful mover that will take things to the four different places, or break down the old swing set in the back yard. I have an amazing person that can come and do like mold remediation. I have a wonderful roofing person. I mean, it’s just these people are what make up my toolbox. They are so awesome and they they’re what make me smile. And I know I’m doing a good job because they’re doing a good job. It’s like it just reeks of goodness. It’s awesome. But yeah, those are you’ve got those are wonderful.
Stone Payton: And you’re and you’re the same way. Right. You know people in that arena as well, right?
Amber de Marché: Yeah, 100%. I would say most of the time the homeowner looks to the realtor for most of that stuff because they’re in the houses with them, and maybe they’re looking at a house and like, oh my gosh, is this foundational crack in the wall? Or is it just settling, you know? So, um, but I definitely do have people. You definitely have to be the guy that knows the guy, you know?
Stone Payton: Doesn’t that feel great? Don’t you find that incredibly rewarding? In my experience over the years has been if I can just try to help people address their challenge, even if it has nothing to do with what I do, or if it has a lot to do with what I do. But, uh, Tim over at Mesmerize Media, he’s awesome is going to be a better solution because what they want to do right now needs to be more video centric than the than the work that we do. I mean, that’s my my first phone call. I but I get a lot of, uh, and it sounds like you do too emotional compensation from from and it feels good to be the guy that knows the guy. Yep.
Julia Cox: It makes me feel powerful. It really does, because I get very confident because I know these people are going to do a good job. I know we’re going to do a good job on your house. And it just it’s just such a powerful to have all these people behind you. And it takes time. I mean, you know, you’re building I’m building relationships with these people. This is not someone I’m looking up in the Yellow Pages. I’ve met them and talked to them. So. And some of them I’m actually used. I’ve actually used NB roofing because they’re awesome. And I’ve used, um, Russell Hollister to cut down a tree in my backyard.
Julia Cox: Oh, this is great.
Stone Payton: I’m keeping. I’m gonna send them all an invoice.
Julia Cox: Yeah. No, but it’s just. No.
Julia Cox: But I mean, it’s just these these are down home people that come and they talk and you meet and you get. You build relationships there? Not just this person. There a person. Yeah, that makes sense.
Stone Payton: It makes a ton of sense. I’d like to. Before we wrap it up, I wonder if we could do a little bit of a pro tips kind of section. I don’t know if you might draw on something you’ve written before, or some things that you know you’re always going to mention to people, and we can do a couple of different use cases or whatever. And maybe we start with you, Julia, with seniors. And maybe the advice is directly to seniors. My parents recently last six months moved up from Pensacola, Florida to here. So I’ve I’ve been in and around a lot of what you described. And maybe we should have had this conversation six months ago, but maybe a little bit of, you know, things to do don’t do, uh, be thinking about reading just a few pro tips. We could, uh, leave people with who are either the seniors themselves or the people that are kind of trying to help them, like their kids.
Julia Cox: Absolutely. My biggest one for the seniors is please sit down with your family and have the difficult talk. You need to have that talk. You need to know where your finances are. You need to know who’s going to be the executor. You need to know these things, and you need to let your family know that this is how it is. Get your will done. Make sure that somebody’s got the power of attorney to do this. It’s just it’s so important. It helps the strife. There’s not as much strife when somebody dies. People react in different ways that are just so unlike them. And usually it’s negatively because they’re they’re mad their parent has died, so they’re going to take it out on somebody and usually it’s the other siblings. So get that done, have that conversation. And if you don’t know something, please ask your kids don’t. They’re not going to think anything less of you. They’re not going to, you know, please ask them because they’re probably going to know my, you know, 30 year old son helps me with my internet and my Facebook because holy cow, that thing’s over my head. Sometimes I’m like, why is Facebook shutting me out? So just have those conversations. They are difficult, but they’re so, so important.
Stone Payton: I’m sure you got a handful of tips as well. Oh yeah.
Amber de Marché: Yes, a whole handful. Um, I would say the biggest one for any listener that’s thinking about buying a house, whether it’s your first house, second house investment property. Like don’t one, don’t be afraid to go talk to a loan officer. We’re not going to be mean to you or judge you or any of the things, like you’ll get some really valuable information and also talk to a couple. Um, you know, we all do the same thing, but the way that we do it is a little bit different. I had a couple last year that had been trying to buy their first house. They had talked to a couple of lenders and were like, well, we just can’t get approved right now. So I spent a Thursday night, a couple of hours at their house talking to them, and figured out that they actually could buy a house right now, and they actually did last year, buy their first house. So sometimes, you know, spending that little bit of extra time asking questions, if someone says, well, you don’t qualify because of this, like push them to be like, well, what do I have to do? Help me figure it out? So, um, you know, I think if that’s if that’s a goal of somebody, then they, they deserve to, to get that goal.
Stone Payton: So yeah. And I want to reinforce that. Give yourself some runway. Right. Yes. Those things play well together. Yeah. Yeah absolutely. Julia, lay it on us.
Julia Cox: I’ve actually got.
Julia Cox: One more, um, the seniors that are looking to move, whether they’re upsizing downsizing or they just want to stay at home, I really try to convince family and the seniors to stay in the home as long as they can, because seniors are living longer, people are living longer. And, um, the retirement communities, the senior living, the assisted living, it’s very expensive. And make sure that you talk to a loan officer or talked to a financial adviser and see how see what it looks like, because it can get very scary very fast.
Stone Payton: Well, and there’s more and more options, as I sometimes say, more better. My my high school English teacher would not like that for making that a more practical solution for longer, up to and including. I’m sure you both have a go to person to put the bars on the shower and make it a safer place. Absolutely everything from from that to some, uh, I don’t even know what you call it. Like some some bridge services where maybe you do have somebody come in and your home and hang out with you and take you grocery shopping on Wednesdays or whatever before you make that big leap into full blown care. Absolutely.
Julia Cox: And we have people that will go in and I don’t and, and actually watch one of the couples so the other couple can just go out and have maybe sit at the lake and just watch the duck goes by, just have a moment to be themselves. Because one of the biggest things is when a when a person dies, the other one is basically lost because they’ve been spending 24 over seven with that person and they’ve kind of lost their own identity. So they they need help to regain that back. So people going in and just giving them just, you know, four hour break and I know those people.
Julia Cox: So there you go.
Amber de Marché: Yeah I need someone with empathy like Julia to help you through those times.
Julia Cox: So. That’s right.
Julia Cox: That’s so sweet.
Julia Cox: Thank you. Well.
Stone Payton: Amber you were sharing with us before we came on air that you have a family. I know you obviously have a very vibrant career. I don’t know when and how you would find the time, but I’m interested anyway. So I’m going to ask passions, hobbies, other interests that you might pursue outside the scope of your work. Anything like.
Julia Cox: That?
Amber de Marché: Yeah, well, I have a two year old. He keeps me really busy. We’re actually potty training right now, so just keep us in your prayers. Um, but yeah, outside of that, we love pretty much anything outdoors. Um, hiking, kayaking, canoeing. Um, I grew up in Arkansas, so that’s, you know, there’s not anything else to do in Arkansas except for outdoors.
Julia Cox: That is awesome. We live there on tour when we were in the military and yeah, it’s beautiful. Oh my gosh, it’s gorgeous.
Amber de Marché: It is. It’s a pretty place. So yeah, that’s pretty much pretty much it. Besides watching mindless TV shows that probably are not productive in any way.
Stone Payton: But sometimes that’s just a good escape, though, where you don’t you just turn the brain almost completely off.
Julia Cox: Yep.
Amber de Marché: Don’t even have to think about anything. Just worry about what’s happening on the screen.
Stone Payton: Yeah, Julia, we didn’t talk much about military, and it’s probably a whole, uh, additional episode or or more, but there are some special programs and some things to look into for veterans. Is that accurate?
Julia Cox: Oh, absolutely. Well, you have the you know, the veterans have their own loan programs program, which is tremendous. But some people don’t realize when they can use it, how they can use it, and how much it can help them. But and also, Amber actually has a wonderful program for them too, that it’s it’s called a reverse mortgage. And it’s it’s got a bad rap in the past. But then they folded it under the FHA and it’s become a really solid program for certain seniors.
Stone Payton: Yeah, well, I was getting ready to wrap, but now I want to talk about this.
Julia Cox: That’s all right. I’m sorry.
Stone Payton: We’ll come back to your hobbies in a minute. But no, because I’ve seen the commercials and I’ve seen a couple people who play very trustworthy people on television. And because I have heard some of the bad rap around reverse mortgage, I’m like, shaking my head. I’m like, dude, you just cracked through your whole trustworthy image on TV. But maybe that’s my uninformed knee jerk reaction to the idea of a reverse mortgage. So yeah, with your permission, let’s can we dive into that a little bit and educate?
Julia Cox: Absolutely.
Amber de Marché: Yeah. We can. Um, yeah. So reverse mortgages do have a bad reputation. I think that it’s definitely a product that has to make sense for the person that’s doing it. Or you can get yourself in trouble or, you know, hurt someone. So essentially, a reverse mortgage is available to anyone that’s 62 years or older. If you have a couple, only one of them has to be 62. Um, so one can be 59 and the other can be 62, and they’re still eligible. Um, essentially what happens is you so if you had a loan, you let’s say you own a house that’s $400,000 and you owe $100,000 on it. Um, and you want to do a reverse mortgage? Maybe you have a senior, right? That’s struggling financially month to month. They can’t eat the foods they want to eat, you know, because they’re on a fixed income. They can’t take those trips, can’t fix up the house that they’ve lived in for the past 20 years because they just don’t have the funds. A reverse mortgage essentially takes pays off the mortgage that they have and puts it into a new mortgage. You don’t pay monthly payments on the mortgage. So, um, the interest that you would incur just keeps adding on. So that’s where you have to be careful, right? Has to make sense. And there’s a whole calculator that’s used with an algorithm that is kind of creepy. But it’s like we think they’ll live this much longer. So yes, it makes sense or no, it doesn’t make sense.
Amber de Marché: But instead of paying the mortgage, you can get the equity in your house up to a certain amount, depending on your circumstance. Um, you can get it in a lump sum. You can get it in a line of credit. You can get it in certain disbursements. A lot of people do a combination where like maybe you do, you know, a third of it up front, a lump sum at closing. So you get 50 grand at closing. And then after year two, day one, the line of credit opens up, and then they can take out the line of credit so they can get used the money. Um, you know, you can pay back at any time, but it’s not required. So, you know, if you have a senior whose monthly payment is $1,200 a month on their mortgage, I mean, and you’re and now you’re taking that away. Now they have $1,200 more. And that’s a whole lifestyle change for somebody that’s in the right position. I always say definitely talk to your financial adviser. Definitely, like have a meeting with a financial advisor or a CPA because sometimes there are tax implications. Have your heirs, whoever whoever’s inheriting this, whenever you pass away, you know, to have a meeting there. There are ways to get out of it. You can refinance out of it once the once the homeowner passes away, you can sell it and, you know, pay the loan back. But it is a good product if it makes.
Julia Cox: For you.
Julia Cox: You do? You do have to be very careful, because it’s only honestly good for about 10% of it. Is. It is. It is one item in the tool belt. Yeah. So and just talk to a loan officer. And if you go in and you ask them if they do reverse mortgages and they say no, that doesn’t mean they’re any less. That just means that they don’t want to do that because like she said, mortgages, they all do the same, but they do it differently. Mhm. So just find someone who does and you can always ask. Yes. Your trusty, you know real estate person. And we will have probably five loan officers. We can give you the names for fantastic.
Stone Payton: But it comes down to the math. You need somebody that understands that world, understands the math and your unique situation. And it might be, you know, you looked at my parents and absolutely not. It makes no sense. You look at somebody else’s parents and yeah, this is a good option based on their input and in the math.
Amber de Marché: Yeah. So it’s it’s really cool. You’re still liable for the property insurance and the taxes on the property. But I mean, other than that, if it makes sense, if, if your home is going to appreciate and it’s and it’s worth a lot, you know, and all of that like it, it definitely can make sense for someone. And uh, the one of the big questions that are always asked is like, well, what if there’s a housing crash? What happens then? Now they’re just out all of this money. But they since they’re under the FHA now, which is one of the reasons why it’s a better product, is now their insurance is in place that protect the homeowner in the event of like a housing crash that, you know, happens once every generation probably. But.
Stone Payton: Well, thank you. You may very well have restored my faith in this one particular celebrity actor that will go unnamed, because I don’t know if his product is as good as the one you’re talking about, but I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt because he’s a very trustworthy guy and his role on TV.
Julia Cox: There you go.
Stone Payton: Okay, now I get to ask my question what are you into? Do you nerd out about anything in your spare time? If there is such a thing as spare time for a realtor that’s doing as much as you are.
Julia Cox: Okay. Um, yeah, I’m. I love to garden my big thing. And nobody, nobody believes it when I tell them I love playing Zelda.
Julia Cox: Oh, okay.
Julia Cox: Tears of the Kingdom, man, I am rocking it right now. This is. This is like the third time I’ve played it. And I’m trying to go in different ways, and you do different things and you get different outfits and it’s just, it’s so much fun. But this is something I can play at 11:00 at night or 4:00 in the morning when I’m getting up or I’m having to do stuff. And it helped my it helps my mind wind down. I love that, but it’s I have a blast. That garden. My backyard is just beautiful right now.
Amber de Marché: It’s come to my house and help me because ours is like a little. It’s a lot of work.
Julia Cox: Yes it is. And it’s hot. Yeah, it’s very hot right now.
Stone Payton: You never know what you’re going to learn in this little room, right?
Julia Cox: It’s fantastic.
Amber de Marché: That is true. I feel like I need a cooler hobby now because Julia plays Zelda.
Julia Cox: Yeah. No kidding.
Stone Payton: All right, Amber, what’s the best way for our listeners to get in touch with you? Tap into your work, both at the community level and on all of these topics around around mortgage and financing for a for a home, whatever you think is appropriate. Just some good points of contact for them.
Julia Cox: Yeah.
Amber de Marché: So I am on social media. So Facebook, LinkedIn and TikTok and Instagram, you can just search my name Amber Demarcay. Um, or I mean mortgage, right? Woodstock. If you Google that, our phone number will come up. You can reach me there if you want to call me directly. Can I say my phone number? Oh, please. On air? Sure. Uh, my direct phone number is (501) 368-8450. Still have my Arkansas number that I’ve had for too long to give it up.
Stone Payton: And, Julia, what’s the best way to connect with you?
Julia Cox: Uh, please call me (770) 722-6890. You can look me up and on Google. You can look me up in Facebook. Just close with Julia. And, um, the best way is just to call me and ask me, and there’s no stupid question. There really isn’t. And have fun. I just looking for a house has got to be. It’s stressful, but it’s really fun. So take your time. Make sure you’re picky, picky picky picky picky. Don’t get pushed and take your time. If you want to go see 40 houses, go see 40 houses.
Stone Payton: You and I and some other real estate folks I know are really good about that. It looks like an incredible time commitment to me to get out there and and run. But you want them to be then it’s right.
Julia Cox: Yeah. You can go to sleep at night because you know it’s right. It’s like when a senior looks at you and they really want to stay where they’re at, and all it’s going to do is take a couple, you know, some money. And, you know, that’s when we get them to talk to someone. But if they want to stay where they’re at, they need to stay where they’re at. And I want to be able to sleep at night. I’m not making any money, but I want to be able to sleep at night. And I’m I’m making my community stronger. So that’s why I do that.
Stone Payton: You certainly are. Okay, one more time. Those contact points for people.
Julia Cox: Just close with Julia and my broker is one look real estate Gen Jennifer Zielinski. And my phone number is 770722. 6890 and Google and Facebook. It’s just closed with Julia.
Stone Payton: Well, thank you both for coming in today. This has been a marvelous way to invest a Tuesday morning. Your insight, your perspective, your passion, uh, for the work. It just it really comes through. And we sincerely appreciate both of you coming in.
Julia Cox: Thank you.
Julia Cox: Thank you for having us. Yeah.
Stone Payton: My pleasure. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today. And everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you again on Cherokee Business Radio.
