ORLANDO, Fla. – This week on “Black Men Sundays,” host Corie Murray is back with Bank of America Lending Market Leader Vice President John Javier, NMLS ID: 291135.
He’s been on the show before, sharing helpful tips about using a HELOC and securing a new home in spite of market woes. This time, their conversation centered again on homeownership and the challenges faced by potential homeowners who may expect to struggle with rising costs such as property taxes and insurance.
“When you stack all them up, you’re gonna find out what your total expenses or your total monthly expenses are gonna be. Now, that’s still gonna be better than leasing an apartment, even if you’re the ‘snowbird’ that’s gonna spend six months here,” he said. “(...) Once you become a homeowner, the county will provide you with a protection from increasing those property taxes with a cap amount and depending on the county, it could be 3%, it could be 4%, it could be 2%, but only when you declare that property as your primary home, county is going to put that protection in and those increases are not going to go over that max amount. Now, if the property is labeled as a second home or an investment property — like when you are renting the property, Airbnb or any other long-term rentals — there are no caps. So, if the county wants to increase the property taxes by 10%, 15%, 20%, they can do it, and they will do it, and you don’t have any protection against that"
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Javier said that the current market is more favorable for buyers compared to previous years, as properties are not selling as quickly.
“There was something unique going on in the market (several years ago) where you would put a property on the market and in less than a week you would get 15, 20 people trying to buy the property, and the seller was just lying back and waiting for the best one to show up and they would sell that property, like, within days. What’s happening today is if you put a property on the market, it’s not selling that quick, and the main reason why is there are not that many cash investors coming in town,” he said. “So, the best thing that can happen to normal people, members of the community like us, is to actually allow the market to actually behave in a way that only people — normal people, real homeowners who are going to use the property as primary home — can compete for the price and see who’s going to be the better."
Hear the interview and more in Season 6, Episode 13 of “Black Men Sundays.”
Black Men Sundays talks about building generational wealth. Check out every episode in the media player below.
