Ep9 Leah James Vega - The Truth About Home Buying: Henderson Loan Officer Destroys Mortgage Myths and Reveals the Real Market

Scott Groves  0:00  
I think a lot of people don't understand, when it comes to a loan officer, there's value in the 25 years of experience you have putting deals together, right? I'll know

Leah James Vega  0:09  
ahead of time if it's going to work or not, and knowing ahead of time what could potentially be a red flag or could cause a hiccup in the loan.

Scott Groves  0:20  
Welcome to Henderson HQ. This is the podcast where you get all the stories behind the businesses that make our community tick. Don't forget to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Hey, it's Scott with the Henderson HQ podcast and newsletter. Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing my business partner, Leah James Vega. She is a loan officer here in town who I partnered up with a couple years ago to hand off my mortgage business to she's awesome. So whether or not you're thinking about buying a home or not, even if that's a couple years out, great podcast to check out lot of misnomers and urban legends about who can and cannot become homeowners. Leah goes through all that, and also, as a Henderson native, she's seen all the transformation on the east side of town, Water Street. She went to basic high school, which we talked about that a little bit. So whether you just want to know about the Henderson local scene, or you want to hear a little bit about what's going on with the economy, the housing market, potentially buying a house. Great episode. Hope you enjoy. Don't forget to like and subscribe. Hey, it's Scott groves with the Henderson HQ, podcast and newsletter. I'm actually here with my very good friend and business partner, Leah James Vega, who thankfully I found a couple years ago to take over my business in the mortgage space, as I'm moving more into coaching and facilitating this newsletter. So we're going to interview Leah today, talk all about what's going on in housing interest rates markets, what it's like to be a lifelong hendersonian. I think that's the correct term, because I think she think she's maybe the only one I met out here so far that's born and raised in Henderson. And yeah, we'll just go from there. So, Leah, most importantly, our interest rates going up or down, because you have a crystal ball, right?

Leah James Vega  1:53  
Oh, man, they are trending down. Okay, so that's very PC answer yes. And so yes, they are trending down, but I think just with everything you know we read, And that's been going on the last few months, that they should be definitely in 2026 going down.

Scott Groves  2:11  
Yeah, you and I have been doing this a long time, like both at it like 25 years, and it just seems like it doesn't matter what the rates are, whether they're 3% which I don't think that's ever happened in our lifetime again, or they're 6% or they're nine they're 9% or whatever, every realtor and every client I've ever talked to at any interest rate is like, Oh, that's pretty high, huh? And I'm like, Well, what do you want? Like, historically, they've been about eight they're in the sixes right now. That's actually historically pretty good. So why do you think that's, like, the only conversation realtors and clients know to ask, What's interest rate? What's interest rate, what's interest rate?

Leah James Vega  2:42  
What's interest rate? I think that's just what they've been taught to ask. Yeah, so instead just ask, What do you want your payment to be? Yeah, like, that's what's gonna that's what's gonna drive if you're willing to buy or not, is, let's see what you could afford and what your monthly payments gonna be.

Scott Groves  2:56  
Yeah, you've been in Henderson your whole life, right? Since I was five. Okay, almost born and raised, yeah, raised in kind of born, yes. How long you been doing this crazy job of mortgages housing, working in that space since 9890 Oh, you got me by two years. Oh, really, yeah, yeah. How much has Henderson changed in that 27 years? Oh,

Leah James Vega  3:17  
my gosh, a lot it. It was basically desert, and we were out in BFE, there was nothing out here, and there was boulder highway, and so you had to go down boulder highway to get to like anywhere you wanted to go in Vegas. So it was crazy. It's totally different. There was one high school, basic high school. Where'd you High School? Basic High School. Well,

Scott Groves  3:40  
you went to basic high school. That's how much of a local I am not. I've only been here for four years. The name of the first high school, and Henderson was just called Basic High School. Basic High School, they couldn't come up with something more creative. Henderson high

Leah James Vega  3:52  
or, you know, but it's, I've read about this too, and I can't remember exactly what it was, but it's, it has to do with, like the the mining and the dam, and so it was something. It wasn't like, basic, you're so basic. It was actually, there's a meaning behind it. And I don't know. I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Scott Groves  4:07  
All right. Well, one of the things I love about going out anywhere in Henderson with you is, I always joke that you're like, the mayor of Henderson. Everywhere go. You're like, oh, that's the owner of this place. And this is somebody I went to high school with and and it's like, you just know everybody. So when I tell people that like I moved to Vegas because they don't know where Henderson is. They're like, Oh, you moved to Vegas. I'm like, Yeah, I live in the suburbs. It's just like any other suburb. I don't live on the strip, right? But I've been surprised with, like, how big, little a town like Henderson is. Like, there's a lot of people here, several 100,000 but it's like, everywhere we go, you know, somebody Yeah. So tell us about growing up in Henderson and, like, how much it's grown and how you somehow got to know everybody.

Leah James Vega  4:46  
Well, I love Henderson. I think it's, I mean, it's like, you either love Henderson or you love Summerlin. And I love Henderson, and I love it because the hometown feel, and it's small town, and you can go on Water Street and it's being revitalized. And. You see everybody that you would see at the grocery store or whatever, just hanging out, and you have the car shows, and you see everybody there. It's like a like, a little reunion all the time. But, yeah, I love it. I've, like I said, I've been here my whole life, and my husband likes to think He's the mayor, but it's really, you know, you are definitely the mayor, because I helped him get to that point, but it's okay tell us

Scott Groves  5:23  
about Water Street, because I'm sure that's gone through a massive evolution, like it's changed a lot just in the four or five years I've been here. I can only imagine the evolution that you've

Leah James Vega  5:31  
seen. Yeah, so that used to be when I was young, because my I lived right off of Water Street. My dad still lives in the same house that I grew up in, so I was on Water Street a lot, just walking around. The library was on Water Street. And so we would just, you know, be walking around everywhere. So there was a lot of businesses back then when I was young, but then they all kind of disappeared. The, you know, economy took a crap, and then it just started getting revitalized. And now all these businesses are coming back, and we have restaurants and bars, and they're trying to make it really like, you know, trendy, and people hanging out, and you can kind of bar hop and enjoy good food, and it's totally changed.

Scott Groves  6:12  
So give us your insider scoop of, like, what your favorite spots on Water Street are. I know you have a favorite, like, couple favorite watering holes.

Leah James Vega  6:19  
I do. I have the best dive bar in town, gold mine. And then I would have to say our good friend Luke, and it's his family business. Johnny Max Tavern on Water Street. Those are our two favorites.

Scott Groves  6:33  
Johnny Mac and gold mine. I meandered into gold mine actually did a little video on it, because at the car show that I was at a couple weeks ago, they had like a Beatles cover band in there. Yeah, they were playing a bunch of, like, 60s and 70s classic rock, and then the place was just super vibrant with, like, the amount of people. But it also felt like every dive bar ever went to in the army. So I loved it. It was like, it was like, not corporate kind of dive bar feel, but like safe feeling. If this makes any sense to people that have spent a lot of times in dive bars like I have thanks to my days in the army. But it's like, it's just, like, a cool vibe, like local, but appropriate.

Leah James Vega  7:06  
Yeah, it is. And it's been here forever. I mean, it's been here forever. I remember it used to be a biker bar when I was growing up, when I was a little girl, and my mom, if I had to walk home from school, she'd be like, don't walk in front of the gold mine. You walk on the other side of the street and like, it's just, it's just so funny how things have changed now I hang out there sometimes. So what's your

Scott Groves  7:26  
what's your favorite restaurant to eat down there? Oh,

Leah James Vega  7:30  
I think Azura. I love Azura. That risotto is ridiculous.

Scott Groves  7:35  
Tell us about Azura and Azura wine bar in the coffee shop and how closely related to that you are.

Leah James Vega  7:41  
So my daughter works at the coffee shop public works, and that place is amazing. The same owner owns a zura right next door, and they have amazing food, which I don't think a lot of people would realize what great food that restaurant has, because it's just tiny and it's kind of, you know, hidden. We went there. Did you like

Scott Groves  7:59  
it? I loved it. It's kind of like, it's kind of like an interesting Italian bistro fusion. Like, I've now been back there three times since we went, Oh, okay. And like, everything on the menu is great, yeah? And I just like, I like how small it is and how quaint it is, and you can see the kitchen, you can see how your food's being made. Like, I love it,

Leah James Vega  8:15  
yeah, I do too. And I don't think a lot of people know about it. I mean, they know about it, but they don't really know what it gets really good food.

Scott Groves  8:22  
Yeah, I feel like bad restaurants don't make it in Vegas because there's so many great eateries on the strip. And like, you can go to a random strip mall sushi joint in Henderson, Boulder City, Summerlin, and it has to be good, because the competition is so fierce, right?

Leah James Vega  8:38  
And there's good restaurants, there's, you know, there's chanitas, that's right there. Have you been there? Yeah, I've been there. What else is there? There is that wine bar you like right there? It's called rocking grapes or something. I think I always forget what it's called, rock and grapes. I think it is. And they have, like, really good hummus and charcuterie and, I mean, there's all kinds of stuff down there.

Scott Groves  8:56  
You know? It's funny, because I've been coming up here frequently since the 80s, when my uncle moved up here, and everything in Vegas, all the boom and bust cycles, everything was really just defined by like, gaming and entertainment. Gaming and entertainment. And I feel like the city has made like, a big push to bring other industries into the valley, right, like tech companies and manufacturers and whatnot. But on YouTube, everybody will tell you, Vegas is the worst place to buy. It's going to crash. Yada yada yada. Like you've been here through a few boom and bust cycles. Do you feel like things have changed? Or is there anything different about the economy now than you remember it? You know, 2025, years ago, like the type of people you're doing loans for?

Leah James Vega  9:36  
I mean, it's still a lot of, you know, service industry people, I think, and we have great programs available for those people now too, like bank statement loans. But I think it's definitely a wider variety because of, you know, like entertainment coming to Vegas, we're getting a lot of the California people in the entertainment industry that are moving out here. So I think it's. A different, I don't know. And I mean, we have a lot of executives that have moved out here. We have the tax break. And so I think, I don't know, it's a different crowd. It's higher end where I think it used to be very, you know, our sales prices used not, used to not be very high. Now, like, there's, you know, million dollar homes, $2 million homes. So it's definitely different than it

Scott Groves  10:21  
used to be, yeah. So I know from doing mortgages forever, like, the two biggest misconceptions or Urban Legends is like, you have to have 20% down, and you have to have the two years of tax returns that are perfect in order to qualify. And you kind of alluded to this idea of, like, bank statement loans, not that I would recommend anybody commit tax fraud, of course, yeah. But we work in a city where a lot of people get paid cash, and a lot of people are entrepreneurs, where they're taking advantage of every possible write off that they can take. So can you just quickly dispel those two myths, of like, you don't actually need 20% down, and you don't have to have perfect tax returns and pay stubs to buy a home. Just talk a little bit through like, how much of that has become your business, and what type of programs they are and what you can

Leah James Vega  11:02  
do, yeah, so you can buy a home with minimum 3% down. You don't have to have exact, you know, perfect credit. You can there's so many different types of loan, conventional FHA, that you can have, you know, really not great credit. Actually, I don't want to say crappy credit, but it's not great. And then the bank statement loans. They are good for, you know, tip earners and that type of thing, but they're also good for self employed buyers that do tend to have a lot of write offs at the end of the year. So you're basically using an average of 12 months of deposits in your personal or business account, and we average that 12 months to come up with a monthly income. So, you know, people that do a lot of deposits with cash for tips or whatever they have an opportunity to buy, you know, using exactly what they really make instead of, you know, what they show on paper.

Scott Groves  11:55  
Yeah, I remember years ago, when I first got introduced to bank statement loans, I did it out of necessity, because I had a friend who was a contractor. I know he was very wealthy, made a lot of money, and I just wrote a pre approval letter for him, like on the fly, because he needed one Saturday night, and then I get his tax returns on Monday morning, which is not a good practice as a loan officer, I was like, Oh my God. Like on in your real life, I know how much money you make on paper, you make $65,000 a year. Yeah, and so, of course, like him and his wife's car was running through his business, so that was a tax write off. Every time they ate out or went to Cabo, that was a tax write off. So all of a sudden, where he was really making a couple $100,000 net. On paper, he was showing like $65,000 of income. So we used the bank statement program, and we showed deposits, and I think his loan qualification went from like $300,000 to like 1.4 million. It was that dramatic. It is. Have you seen stuff like that, like looking at people's tax returns versus all the time, all the time? Yeah. How do you explain that to clients when it's like, hey, no judgment, but you're gonna get a slightly higher interest rate to do this bank statement loan, but like, you can't qualify over here telling a business owner that on paper they're broke. Yeah, tough conversation,

Leah James Vega  13:06  
yeah, but they know, you know. They know that they're that's you're a business owner, you get to use write offs. So, yeah, so you're saving some money and paying taxes, but you might have to pay a higher interest rate if you want to buy a house, or you start not doing the write offs on your tax returns and pay more taxes. So it's like double edged sword.

Scott Groves  13:24  
So you can give the IRS $70,000 or your mortgage payment can be a couple $100 higher. Exactly. Interesting. What are you seeing, as far as people that are thinking about buying like, is there a lot of fear right now? I know, eight months ago, half the country didn't want to buy a house because Biden was president. He was going to crash the economy. And now half the country doesn't want to buy a house because Trump's the president. He Trump's the president. He's going to crash the economy, and all people see is the Negative Nelly news and YouTube videos about the market's going to crash. Well, they've been saying that since 2012 like, what are you seeing as, like, an impediment that's stopping people like, maybe they can afford it. Maybe the payment even makes sense with what they're paying in rent, because rents aren't getting any cheaper in Vegas, yeah. Like, what are you seeing that as? Like, slowing people down from buying

Leah James Vega  14:05  
I think people are still worried that the market's gonna crash. And, you know, they always reference like, 2008 it 2008 and, like, it's not gonna be 2008 it's definitely not the same market. We're not doing no income, no asset loans. It's it's totally different. There's laws in place that have stopped all of that. We're still seeing, you know, growth and our houses are growing going up. I think it's like 6% every year for the past three years, or something like that. Yeah. So it's, I mean, I just try to instill that in people that, you know, don't read all the what the media is saying. It's a little on the ridiculous side.

Scott Groves  14:42  
Yeah, I've seen your presentation that you do with buyers where it's like, you can go through every year since like, 2012 and pick a highlight or a headline from CNBC or The Wall Street Journal. Oh, this year property values are getting down. This year property values are gonna go down. And those poor people that have been waiting on the fence in Henderson, they're. Now I'm gonna pay $100,000 more for a house than they would have five years ago, right? Yep. How much have we How much have you seen property appreciate in, like, the 27 years that you've been

Leah James Vega  15:09  
doing this? Oh my gosh. My mom bought the house that I grew up in for $36,000 and when I how, let's see, I don't want to age myself here very but too late. You already started in 19. Yeah. So it's, it's just crazy. And I think that house is worth, you know, like 375 it's still a little town site home. But, I mean, even the town site homes, it's like, but that's 375 now explain what town site

Scott Groves  15:38  
homes are for people that don't know what you're talking about. Because I thought this was fascinating

Leah James Vega  15:41  
there. Well, I think they were built for the the workers that were building the dam, and so it was basically just that's they weren't meant to stay. They were like temporary housing for these dam workers. And they called them town site homes, and they're tiny. You know, my the house I grew up in, like 700 square feet, two bedroom, one bath. We didn't have AC. We had a wall heater. So, like, it's really, times have definitely changed,

Scott Groves  16:08  
yeah, because now the housing track right across the street is like, four bedroom, three bath, new development homes. Those are, what, six, $700,000 Oh, my goodness. So 3540 years ago, you could buy a house for 35 grand, and now it's, you know, 2,000% that much. Yeah, can you crazy? Can you talk about some of the other developments, like, I know, Dragon ridge and McDonald's ranch? Thank you. McDonald's ranch. I mean, I was trolling around up there because I was going to a friend's birthday party. It happened to be on a weekend. I was like, oh, there's some open houses. Let me stop in. It was like, $8 million house, $12 million house, $9 million house, and now they're building that big. Is it a Ritz Carlton development or something like

Leah James Vega  16:45  
some condo? Yeah, it's a high a high rise condo in McDonald's ranch. Yeah,

Scott Groves  16:49  
I looked up that website as well, like, starting at $3.2 million for a condo. So would that have been at all in like, the thought process of what Henderson was going to become 20 years

Leah James Vega  16:59  
ago? No, people used to talk crap about Henderson, that it was like, because we were so far out there. And, you know, they called it andertucky. So, I mean, it's like, yeah, okay, so they're building high rise condos in hinder Tuckey now,

Scott Groves  17:11  
yeah, I remember when Green Valley Ranch went and I was up here with with my uncle, visiting him. This is, I don't know, 2025, years ago. And he's like, Oh my God, who would live all the way out in Green Valley? And now, with the more modern freeway system we have here, it's like 15 minutes to get to his house close to this trip. It's just, it's funny how much things have grown well, and that's how it used to be. It's, I swear, it took a half hour to get to anywhere you wanted to go. In Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, it was like, it takes a half hour. Now, with traffic and everything, it's, yeah, you could be in an hour if you want to get across town. No way. Yes, an hour. Absolutely. Aliante, have you driven out there? No, holy crap. It's like, my the VA hospitals out there. I think is it alliante Or I don't I think it is alliante Four out there. Oh my gosh, that is like an hour track one way, all these evil Californians seriously. For the record, I have a Californian who moved up here tell me a little bit more about your business, because you've actually built a business a couple times now based on economic cycles and different companies you've worked for. Like, how have you been able to stay in business for 25 years? And what's a pretty volatile field. Like, I mean, there's things that you and I can do to keep business coming in, but we are kind of market dependent. We are kind of interest rate dependent. But, like, you've done a really good job of keeping a sustainable business some years better than others. But I think a lot of business owners the market affects them, and they just, like, give up and quit, or they change businesses, or they go get a nine to five job, if they're in an entrepreneur or commission job. Like, how have you stayed steady Eddie, for 25 years?

Leah James Vega  18:47  
Oh, gosh, I don't even know if I would say steady. Eddie, it's been, you know, rough up and down and but I think you just have to keep pushing through. It's about relationship building. And I'm pretty transparent when it comes to, you know, telling it like it is with a loan. So I don't like to sugarcoat it, so I basically will just say if I think it'll work, or if we can, you know, make it work. Or, I don't know, I think that's probably one of the reasons that some of you know, some of the relationships that I've made have worked out well, and you just keep pursuing those and can't give up, I guess, right, you just got to keep going for it.

Scott Groves  19:23  
I don't know how to do anything else. I don't want to. I don't want to wash dogs for a

Leah James Vega  19:27  
living. I do kind of want to wash dogs, but when I do have bad days, I do want to wash dogs.

Scott Groves  19:34  
Can you talk a little bit about you mentioned something like, can get it done, or can make it work. I think a lot of people don't understand when it comes to a loan officer, like, there's value in the 25 years of experience you have putting deals together, right? Like, no offense but the loan officer at B of A who was a teller a year ago, or the guy that's working for $12 an hour at some call center who's just getting Fed Loan. Needs. They just don't have the same level, I don't even want to say professionalism, because they can be very professional, but they don't have the same level of expertise. Yeah, so why does Leah having 27 years, basically a lifetime of knowledge of putting deals together? Why should that even matter to the consumer? Because I don't think they understand why that matters to them. The Realtors might get it, but a lot of consumers don't get like, okay, great. You've been doing this for 27 years. 27 years. What's different in you from going to B of A or Wells Fargo or some online call center,

Leah James Vega  20:28  
I think, being able to look at a deal and look at income and you know their their employment history and their credit, and knowing ahead of time what could potentially be a red flag, or it could cause a hiccup in the loan. Or, usually, you know, when we meet with a client and we do our dreams and goals call, we get all of the information up front, we I'll know ahead of time if it's going to work or not like either I say, you know, we're going to have to do some credit repair for you, or we're going to need to make sure that, you know, there's no large deposits or anything crazy. I think that just knowing, doing so many loans over my lifetime that you kind of just, it's like you just learn from them. You know, it's, it's just, it's still there. It's in my head. I just know that, okay, I've had that happen before. I've ran into this issue before.

Scott Groves  21:17  
Yeah, I think something a lot of people don't understand is like, guidelines are just guidelines. It's like, it's like a painted strip on the road, like you can kind of go across it and play in the gray area, and if you know how to structure deals and talk to your underwriters, like, having that lifetime of knowledge really matters, right? Because I'm sure, yeah, every scenario that comes across your desk, you're like, I've seen that be screwed I've seen that get screwed up before, or maybe you've screwed it up before. It's like, sometimes failure is, like, the best lesson, yep, what's the biggest screw up you've ever made, and how'd you fix it? Oh, geez, I don't know. That was a great interview question. I you recently used for finding a new executive assistant, and the answers were really fascinating.

Leah James Vega  21:54  
I don't know. I'm gonna have to think about that. I've made a lot of mistakes. Oh, I mean, and then you learn from them. So I can, well, I can say right now, just even a deal that I'm working on right now, there was, it's a condo purchase, and there's two HOAs. And when you are working, why would there be two HOAs? It's, it's in Arizona, first of all. And I don't know why they have two HOAs, but they do. It's on a golf course, so I don't know if that has something to do with it. That one is for the golf course. I don't

Scott Groves  22:20  
know. One's for the golf course. One's for, like, the little community, probably multiple builders in the community, so different. HOAs, yeah.

Leah James Vega  22:27  
And so we, you had to order two of the condo questionnaires. Well, one of the condo questionnaires, I guess, didn't get ordered. And now at the last minute. You know, we're having to get the documentation we need for the litigation and all this stuff that's going on with this condo. And just now I will be like, the first thing I'm gonna say is, if you have two condos, I'm just gonna make sure we order both condo questionnaires right up front. You know, it's just stuff like that. Like, I never would have, I don't know, I just never would have thought about that. And my processor does that part of it, but now I'm going to remember up front to do that, yeah, and just so I can be aware of it too, where I'm not going to just depend on my processor to go, Okay, there's two condo questionnaires.

Scott Groves  23:11  
I think you specifically can teach something to like business owners that might be watching this, even if they're in a totally unrelated industry, about dealing with stress. Because I think, I think what a lot of people, even realtors, don't understand about the mortgage space, is all people care about is, did the loan documents get there? Do I have my money to buy the house? But the reality is, you are just the repository of information to get this person to do their job at the insurance company, and this person to do their job at the title company, and this person to do their job at the HOA and this person to do their job at the buyer's agent and the listing agent the appraisal. Like, you don't really have control, nor do you employ any of those people, but the buck basically stops with you, because the last step is like, did we get the loan? Did we get the money right? But you're basically waiting on 1112, 13 other people that you have no control over and like, the appraisal, we legally can't talk to them, because of all the regulation in place. So how do you one manage that stress, and how do you communicate that out to your clients and your realtors? Of like, I can't really blame somebody else, right? Just complete diffusion or responsibility, but it also you only have so much control. You have so much control, right? Right? It's the same thing in restaurants. They're waiting for their vendors. They're waiting for their vendors, they're waiting for everybody, but it's like all I care about did my food get to my plate, or did my plate get to my table? So can you talk a little bit about dealing with that stress and how you communicate with clients and realtors? Because I think any business owner who's waiting on other people can learn from your infinite experience in being frustrated.

Leah James Vega  24:40  
I'm just always frustrated, Scott, just always, just constantly day to day by day. I think you just have to be very transparent about it, like I literally am doing everything I can to make sure that we're getting the documentation that we need from all these different sources and people so that we fund your loan and. We're closing on time. And sometimes, you know, like this, this HOA document, it's a little out of my control. But, you know, I today, I had to involve the agents, the listing agent and the buyer's agent, and just so they're well aware that I am doing all I can. But hey you guys, we're, you know, we're running into some issues, and I need backup, like, can you help me get these documents, because they're not, they're not providing what I need. And ultimately, you know, they're they want the deal to close. So, and I do too. We all get paid when the deal close. But I think you just have to be honest about it. I don't think a lot of buyers realize that, you know, we can't call the appraiser and ask them, you know, why didn't the appraisal come in at that, or why didn't the rent schedule come in at that we're not allowed to do it and yeah, we take the front end of it,

Scott Groves  25:44  
yeah. How do you like schedule your communication with clients? Because I know a big thing of yours is like, well, even if something is going sideways, even if something's going sideways, it's totally out of my control if I over communicate. This is one of the things I like about you and why I originally hired you. Because I was like, Oh, she just feels like a good communicator and an over communicator. So like, how much does that help if there's a problem but you're at least communicating about

Leah James Vega  26:07  
it? I think people just want an update. They don't want you to think they forgot about you. So that's I will just like today, this same little situation is, like, every two hours I would say, Hey, I'm still working on it, just letting you know I haven't forgot about you. Or, you know what? I mean, you just have to just like anybody you don't, you don't want to think they forgot about you. So if you just tell them, hey, I'm just checking in. I don't have an update, but that's my update. Yeah, I

Scott Groves  26:30  
want to circle back around to, like, property values going up and whatnot. How are you finding affordability for kind of, like, your average buyer in Vegas? Is it one of those things where they can't afford it, and they're scared, or they're waiting for the market to crash, or they think there's going to be some smoking deal that's never going to exist again on rates or value or whatnot. Or are people legitimately getting priced out of the market in Las Vegas and Henderson,

Leah James Vega  26:53  
I think a lot of people are getting priced out just because the, you know, the property values have gone up pretty quick, and then with the rates going up the same time over the last couple years, it it did, you know, kind of push people, some people, out of the market, but then I think it also just freaked them out. So I think you just have to talk to them and let you know, like I said before, ask them, you know, what do you want your mortgage payment to be? And then let's focus on that and find something that's, you know, in your price point, I guess.

Scott Groves  27:24  
Yeah, I want to talk about referral partners, because the lifeblood of almost any business is like, referral partners, repeat clients. And luckily, you were at a point in your career, as was I, where it's like, I don't have to work with everybody. I don't have to beg for business from every realtor that's out there. Can you describe kind of like your perfect partner? Most of our referral partners are realtors, although we have some divorce attorneys and financial planners and whatnot. But what is like a good business partnership or a good referral partnership? Look like to you

Leah James Vega  27:57  
a realtor that I would you know that I enjoy working with is someone where we feel like we are partners. They know that I know that they're gonna, if I refer a deal to them or a buyer to them, that they're going to give them their full attention. They're they're going to make sure that they're doing the best they can for them. And I think realtors that I work with know I will do the same, and they'll know that. You know, if the deal can get done, we'll do the deal. I can get it done. But if I don't think it can get done right away, or it's just not the right time for that person to buy, I can honestly say we're going to have to wait, you know, probably three to six months and try to do some credit repair or something like that. I just think being honest, back and forth, and having each other's back, so that when you know you get a new client, you're you're like, oh, I have the I have the best agent for you, or I have the best lender for you, and I know they're going to take care of you. And we close a lot of deals together. So I like that, like partner over vendor, right? So a vendor is basically just providing you a product. They don't care about you or getting your business or anything. They're just providing a product. They don't have your back. They're not going to refer for any deals to you. But as a partner, you're that is, it's a partnership. You're going to refer each other, you're going to make sure that each other succeed, and you know, you're going to try to make your business work together.

Scott Groves  29:22  
Yeah, I'm interested for people that are maybe local area like and they're thinking about what kind of marketing works for them, right? I was interviewing a guy James, previous podcast about how he's doing really well, email marketing, social media marketing. He sells a product, like a $200 product, so people will make an impulse buy for a $200 bike pedal. But when you're thinking about houses, are probably the biggest purchase that 99% of Americans are ever going to make. What have you found works for you for marketing or marketing follow up or like, what channels are you using for marketing?

Leah James Vega  29:56  
I think our the best thing. Thing that we do right now is we have a system in place that we follow up called fledge. So we have, it's like a calendar reminder that tells us each day who we need to follow up with. So I can go in and I come in in the morning, I have like 10 people I need to follow up with. Some of them are past clients. Some of them are new clients that were referred to us, or some of them might be from two years ago that we never touched base, or never, they didn't end up buying a house, or they never, you know, made contact anymore, kind of just ghosted us. So I think having followed up like that, in place where it's not really like a CRM, it's more of just like a reminder. Yeah, we get a lot of business from that. I think social media, obviously, and social media doing the videos is really tough,

Scott Groves  30:48  
but I know you don't like being on video, so thank you for coming and doing a podcast.

Leah James Vega  30:53  
But I guess, yeah, you have to do it. I get it. It's that's what everybody's doing.

Scott Groves  30:57  
But this circles back around to a word that you use a bunch of times with relationship, like, I know you're really good at working the database and, like, staying in relationship with those people, so I'm always like, tickled when I see a deal come across and I'm like, Oh, that's a client that I worked with like, four years ago, or you recently closed a loan for somebody who I call my uncle, and it's like he had never talked to you before. Yeah, I didn't talk to him one time about the deal, you were just like, oh, yeah, we're working the database. We're talking to the people and like, the deals will come. So I would be willing to bet most business owners, they're constantly in pursuit of new NEW NEW NEW NEW they don't follow up with their existing database. Yeah, so what percentage of your deals do you think are coming from, like the existing database and the existing follow up in that fledge system,

Leah James Vega  31:43  
a lot, okay, a lot, really, I and it's past follow up like from realtors that they gave us that information originally, that they've probably lost touch with and have never kept in contact with. And yet, you know, we're coming around, and sometimes we'll reach out to those, those clients that have been around for two years, four years, and they're like, Yeah, I'm not using that agent anymore, but I think I'm ready to buy so that's pretty cool. If you can, you know, keep in touch with someone

Scott Groves  32:11  
like that, yeah, follow up for years, because they'll become a deal eventually, right?

Leah James Vega  32:15  
And then a refinance, and then, you know, they might want to buy a new home, and their kids might want to buy a home. So it's like you just got to keep in touch. I think,

Scott Groves  32:22  
yeah, easier to, like, retain a client forever than, like, build a new one. Build a new right? Build a new one. I love that. I have some interesting questions like, What is a random skill or personality trait that you think helps your business, or maybe something about your past that helps you stay resilient in your business?

Leah James Vega  32:38  
I don't know. I have a good sense of humor.

Scott Groves  32:41  
There you go. That's a good one. I will tell you what I think it is, is like something about you, like you have a je ne sais quoi, or intangible where, like people remember you like, I'm not joking. Every time we've been out, somebody has walked up, Leah, I've seen you forever. I've talked like you are, like, a personable, Memorable Person. I can say, Yeah, I'm personable. I think I am. Yeah. Does that just come naturally, or is it something I had to work on?

Leah James Vega  33:07  
I have to fake it. No, I'm kidding. I'm I think I'm personable. Yeah, yeah. What

Scott Groves  33:12  
do you do outside of business that might surprise me, or somebody that thinks they know you but they don't know you really well? Like, what's a hobby or something you like doing? What's something about you that people don't know? I love

Leah James Vega  33:24  
to watch TV. I do. I love to just binge watch and it's

Scott Groves  33:31  
bad. What's like your guiltiest pleasure? What's the worst show that you watch that people be like, oh, man, I can't

Leah James Vega  33:36  
believe she watched those housewives. No, yeah, those housewives give me every time,

Scott Groves  33:42  
and then we're like The Desperate Housewives of Orange County. Yeah, reality show person, yep. Oh, and then, glad you didn't tell me this in the interview. You know what? I might have thought less of you. You're it's even

Leah James Vega  33:51  
worse, me and my daughter watch shoot. What's it called Love Island? Oh, my god,

Scott Groves  33:58  
yeah, that might be the worst show on TV. It might I have seen one episode, season finale, because I was visiting some friends in Idaho, and they were very gracious. Let me stay with them. They made me dinner every night. They were just like, wonderful people when I was up there for a coaching event and there, and the the loan officer, who I coach, is like, Hey, Scott, kind of kind of embarrassing. I'm like, what he's saying? Well, you know, I got teenage daughters. I'm like, yeah, they're lovely. And he's like, we watch love Island every week as a family. Would you like to join us? And I'm like, sure. How bad can this be? It's bad. It was way worse than I expected. I mean, maybe the most garbage TV I've ever seen. You have to start

Leah James Vega  34:34  
from the beginning, though, to, like, really get into it. So you just have to take you got to start from the beginning and go for it.

Scott Groves  34:40  
Do you remember Paradise Island, the one where they tried to get the couples to, like, cheat on each other? I think I do. So this must have been, like, 20 years ago. I had a girlfriend that watched it. I think I now we're going down the garbage TV route, and this is what I remember like. This is when I realized that, like so many men, are just complete worthless pieces of turd. They had this guy. Went there with his fiance, and she was lovely and beautiful and all the things and whatnot. And then they, like, quarantine the women over here, and put a bunch of hot dudes over there to see if they'll Oh, yeah. And then they put a bunch of hot girls over here to see if the dudes will cheat, and the dude goes on some date with one of the models. And, like, they had her profile up. She was like, Playboy model in med school, all the things, right? Yeah. I was like, Yeah, I'm really looking for something a little bit more. I'm like, more than what it just, oh, man, I can't stand the reality. I'm very glad you did not bring this up to me when we were interviewing. I thought a little less. I love it, all right. Oh, what's it been like raising your daughter out here? Because she's lovely. She kills it as a barista, by the way, I think I missed my calling. I should have worked at a bar or something. Yeah, she's, she's good at that. I know when I tell people that I live in Vegas, they're like, they're like, Oh, you're raising your your your kids in Vegas. And I'm like, yeah, there's temptation everywhere you can get into trouble everywhere. Like, what's the difference? Yeah, it's

Leah James Vega  35:55  
different, because I have two older sons too that. But she's kind of, she's like, 12 years younger than my, my, my middle son, so it's kind of been like, she's kind of like an only child, because they were already grown. They have their own families and everything. So she and it was weird too, because she was a sophomore when the pandemic went on, you know? So then there was, like, she had just started to started the brand new year of high school, or sophomore year, and then there was no school, and then it was online school. And then that was horrible, horrible. So she ended up just doing an actual online school. I took her out of, like, base, she went to basic at the time, and I took her out of that, and just started an online school. And I think that's where she really exceeded, like, she wasn't really, she wasn't into high school, like, I remember, I loved going to high school and hanging out with my friends, and, you know, doing all that, hanging out with your friends and going to parties, and it was all about social she was the exact opposite. So she's just, yeah, so she, in fact, she was so shy that when she first got that job as the barista, I was like, oh my god, how's she gonna do this? She doesn't even like to order food to the waiter and waitress. She'd be like, Mom, can you order for me? I'm like, No, we should wrote up a really and now she'll, like, Come out of her shell, and she does really well.

Scott Groves  37:19  
That's awesome, yeah? What's some businesses that are missing in Henderson? Like, what would you wish was out here that you're like, Oh, I hate having to drive half an hour to the strip for that. Or bagel shop, a bagel shop, a really good bagel shop, yeah?

Leah James Vega  37:32  
Like, even an Einstein Bagels I would like to have just a bagel shop, I think.

Scott Groves  37:36  
Okay, future business idea. Anybody that wants to open a bagel shop on watershed. One of those, Leah, will be your first client in line for a

Leah James Vega  37:45  
bagel. I love a good bagel. I think a Pilates studio out here, like, you know, deep old Henderson, not Green Valley. Yeah, we need one of those. And you know what there? Maybe there's talks of that there. Who knows? There's so many businesses coming here? I'm sure there might be, you know?

Scott Groves  38:03  
Yeah, it's, it's funny how, like, I grew up in LA so to go anywhere, anywhere, it's like one hour table stakes, just to get to a restaurant or an event or a friend's house, like, I see my friend. This is so weird. Three of us that, like, grew up together, went to Boy Scouts together have stayed in touch. One of them lives in Rancho Cucamonga, which is about 45 miles from my old house in LA. One lives in Singapore. I see the one from Singapore more often than I saw the one from Rancho Cucamonga, because, like, when my buddy would come in from Singapore, it'd be a big deal. We'd find an excuse to get together. The guy in Rancho, it's like, oh yeah, there's a UFC fight on tonight. But do I really want to drive two hours out there or take an Uber if I'm going to drink and it's like, you just never get together in LA, I feel here people are like, Oh, Green Valley, so far away. It's like, it's 12 minutes, yeah. But I found myself doing the same thing, like I wanted to sign up at lifetime for the gym there, because they have, you know, all the saunas and the tennis courts all this stuff. Was like, do I really want to drive 16 minutes to get to the gym when, like, my jiu jitsu gym is seven minutes away, right? It's, it's funny how your world gets so compartmentalized, even Henderson, much less all of Clark County.

Leah James Vega  39:10  
Yeah, we get people make fun of me and Vic all the time because they're like, you guys, don't go out of Henderson. You don't go out of your zip code. Like, that's not totally true, but I would find it true. I would prefer to stay, you know, close to home. But

Scott Groves  39:24  
what do you and Vic do for fun? We

Leah James Vega  39:28  
besides watch TV. Yeah, the he doesn't like the reality shows. We, we like entertaining. We like, you know, going and hanging out at the bars and on Water Street and eating dinner and hanging out with friends, and I like to throw, like, Halloween parties and stuff like, I don't know we like to we like to entertain. I think that's our thing. So this

Scott Groves  39:53  
is going to be kind of weird, but tell people about your backyard, because this kind of relates full circle to, like, buying a house a lot of. Times people are like, Well, I'm gonna buy a house to get the one I really want. It's a little outside of my budget. And what I've tried to explain to people is like, when you own a house that you have like, pride of ownership in, and you're not trying to find every excuse to leave your 700 square foot apartment, like you will spend less money going out because you're just entertaining more people at your house. And I know you and Vic made a huge investment in your backyard to make it, like, really, this entertainer's paradise. Like, talk about why you did that and how much you entertain there. And, like, How much money does that save you just bringing people over your house to your backyard, versus, like, oh, we went out for another $200 meal. We went out for, like, more overpriced wine and whatnot. Like, talk a little about building your dream backyard. And like, how that's played into your as his lifestyle?

Leah James Vega  40:41  
Yeah. So the house that we bought, we bought it in 2017 and it was, it's in one it's called Black Mountain estates, and it used to be the first golf course in Henderson. Was Black Mountain Country Club, and it is no longer there. It was on. It was my backyard. And then now it's Lennar Homes, which I hate that, but whatever, I won't go down that road. Anyways, Lee is still a little bit but we lost our view and but anyways, we so we buy this house. It was built in 1962 it's very, I can't even think of the word right now. What kind of kind of like mid century? Mid Century Modern. Yeah, that's what it is. It's small, it's 1200 square feet, but it's on a huge lot. And it was, it was very old, looking like it was old. But there was something about this house I just fell in love with. So we end up getting it. And I could just see the potential. So it already had a pool in it, but the pool was on the side of the house. The pool was built in the 70s, so it was very deep, because it had a diving board, and it was very it didn't have like, we didn't have gas. We was all electric. We didn't have a heater for the pool. There was copper pipes, so there was a lot of leaks and stuff like that. So the pool is a ridiculous so we and we hated where the pool was. They put it like, right when you walked outside your back door or into your onto your patio, it was just this pool. It was really and then the the other side of the the yard was this huge space that was leading up to the golf course. So anyways, during the pandemic, we got the wild hair to backfill the pool, and we ended up building a brand new pool where we originally where we wanted it on the other side of the house, and we put, you know, patio covers made extensions on our patio. We did an outdoor kitchen and outdoor fireplace the pool, where it's basically, it's just a lot of seating in the pool, where you just are really just sitting there, floating or hanging out. And then we have, you know, big, big screen out there, so you can watch football in the pool or movies, or we have a bar out there. We have a stage that we've had bands or, you know, DJs or whatever that are on there. So it's, yeah, it was a big investment, but it's something that I love, that little house, and that's just like my favorite area. It's like the most beautiful backyard. I love it.

Scott Groves  43:18  
And how often do you guys entertain though? Like a lot, yeah, every time I ask you, like, Hey, you want to go do this podcast? Let me get No, we got these people coming over. We got this group coming over. You got friend groups galore, because, again, you're the mayor of Henderson, so

Leah James Vega  43:31  
no, but there's a lot of people now that have pools, but a lot of friends didn't have pools, you know, so they would come to our house. But, yeah, it's, it's fun.

Scott Groves  43:40  
So I know a lot of people in Anderson might be thinking like, Oh, I've got a great interest rate on my mortgage. I don't know if I want to, like, sell, sell and buy and go through that whole headache and start over again and whatnot, but there are some options for people to, like, renovate their home, right? So can you talk a little bit about some of the people that you've helped several in the last couple of months, like, get access to capital, because maybe they have a lot of equity in their house, but they need to add a bedroom, or they want to redo their backyard for this entertainer's delight. Like, what options do you have to help people that are like, Oh, do I really want to get rid of my 3% mortgage?

Leah James Vega  44:11  
Yeah, so you can keep that, and we can do you can do a home equity line of credit, or you can do a he loan, which it's a 30 year loan that's fixed rate. My home equity line of credit is adjustable rate. So, you know, just depending on what you're more comfortable with, and it just, you don't have to take about all of your equity out. You can just use it to, you know, what, what you want to use, to use it for, consolidate high interest debt, you know, build a pool add ons, whatever, but yeah, so you can tap into that without having to touch your low rate.

Scott Groves  44:44  
Yeah, because I think for a lot of people, it would probably be cheaper for them to renovate and make their house into the house they really want, versus selling and buying right if they're in the right location, like you, if they have the right like guts and foundation of the place that they like and they don't really want to move from the neighborhood, probably easier to. Just build what you want, especially if you're in Henderson, because not as many Master Plan communities as there are like in Summerlin. But are you finding a lot of people just like, kind of doing those, like, refreshers of their house versus buying

Leah James Vega  45:10  
something else? Yeah, a lot of people are doing that. I think, yep, what question

Scott Groves  45:15  
Did I forget to ask you about Henderson's I haven't been here my whole life. Like, what's the story you want to tell about Henderson since you, since you grew up here, your kids grew up here, all your friends are here.

Leah James Vega  45:25  
I think, just like what I said before, it's got, you know, a small town feel still. And I think even though Henderson's, you know, gotten so big, and it's not just like, see, when I think of Henderson, I always say old Henderson, because that's like, the oh one five area code, that's, that's old Henderson. And then, you know, then there's, like, Whitney ranch, and then there's Green Valley, and then there's all these places that just keep going out. And I'm like, that's not even Henderson, but it is, I guess. But I think it, no matter where you at, it is, it's a small town feel, even though it's big.

Scott Groves  46:01  
I heard this stat one time that most people that that are in a troubled marriage, they start therapy, like five years too late. I feel like it's the same thing in the mortgage space, where it's like, people call us on Sunday night because they found a house on Saturday. Yeah, so how early should be? People be talking to about their finances, about what they can afford, about getting pre approved for a loan. Like, if somebody is listening to this and they're like, Oh, I'm not gonna buy for another year. Like, how early out should people be talking to you as a local professional that can help them understand their finances and figure out what they can

Leah James Vega  46:33  
actually buy? I say now, like, a year, if you're thinking about it, start it. There's no better time than the President. What if you pull my credit? I'm not gonna pull your credit. We your credit. We do a soft pull. Explain what that is. So we'll do a soft pull on the credit where it's not an inquiry, it doesn't show as a hit to your credit. It we it's usually TransUnion is the soft pull, but we can do a three, three Bureau soft pull now too. And it's just, it just gives us like so we can see what's on your credit, but it's not a hit to it. You won't get a million spam calls. Get the Yeah, you won't get all the crazy marketing. And then we would do a hard pull once you're in contract. So you can, we can do it literally. Whenever start it, take a look at it, make sure you don't have any credit issues, because you never know what's on your credit if you don't really pay attention and right you haven't bought a house. And a lot of people think that, you know, like, Credit Karma is what their actual FICO score is, and it's not. So, you know, we have a different mortgage score that we use, and it can be a lot lower than what's showing on Credit Karma.

Scott Groves  47:36  
Yeah, I know, looking just at like, our CRM and our fledge contact manager, there's a lot of people that you've talked to where it's like, hey, they're on a six month plan. They're on a 12 month plan. We have one guy that's on like, a two year plan, right? Because it's like, he's got to do certain things to get himself in a place to buy. But if people don't have the conversation, they're just never going to know, you never know, or they're going to believe some urban legend like, Oh, I'm never going to be able to buy. I need 20% down. That's not the case. Like rents are so expensive here, you might not get exactly what you want, but you can probably buy a house for similar costs to what some of the more expensive rentals in the area cost. Yeah. Besides Henderson, what did I forget to ask you about your business? Because the problem is I know everything about your business, and I have all this tribal knowledge about mortgage. So what might consumers or Realtors need to hear that are thinking about buying a house or thinking about working with you as a lender, partner

Leah James Vega  48:22  
starting the process, I guess. Just as far, if you're a new buyer, if you're thinking about buying just like what we talked about, it's start it early, so that you know exactly what you're getting in for. As far as realtors, I think the partnership. Do you want a vendor, or do you want a partner? I

Scott Groves  48:38  
love that. What's the craziest story you can tell us about Henderson to close out the podcast?

Leah James Vega  48:42  
Mm, the podcast, the pep con blast. The what pep con blast?

Scott Groves  48:46  
Okay, first of all, that was a very fast answer, and I have no idea what the pep con blast is. So why don't you go ahead and describe that for the people that haven't lived in Henderson

Leah James Vega  48:54  
their whole life? Oh, gosh, I was at Burkholder. I was in eighth grade, and there was a plant. Of I don't know what the plant see. I should know this. I think it was 83 or 84 or something like that. Anyways, a plant exploded, and it was literally like a mushroom cloud. All the windows in my house blew out. The kids at school, like every it was like, We got

Scott Groves  49:21  
bombed. Did people think? Like, yeah, we got nuked or something. And

Leah James Vega  49:26  
there was a mushroom cloud like it, because there were several explosions. And then, like us kids, we ran out, you know, all the teachers are freaking out, and we look in the sky and there's just more explosions. And we're like, oh my god, yeah, you have to Google it the pep con. Pep con blast. It was May 4. I think 83

Scott Groves  49:47  
may 4. Okay, I'm gonna look that up, because I remember in elementary school, engineer highway had to watch those horrible public service movies about, like, if there's a nuclear blast, get that get under your desk and wrap yourself a newspaper, because there. Lead in news. But what the hell is that gonna do? So that must have been, like, terrifying. It was

Leah James Vega  50:04  
terrifying. It was terrifying. No, because we didn't know what it was.

Scott Groves  50:08  
Wow, it's wild. Did you guys, like, was it safe to breathe the air for a while? Did every there

Leah James Vega  50:12  
was a curfew? Like, you couldn't go out that night? A lot of people's windows got blown out. So, like, there was that that people were dealing with. But, yeah, it was crazy.

Scott Groves  50:23  
Okay, let's end on a happy note. Recently, I went to the car show on Water Street, and then the next weekend, I went to the night out, where they had all the fire departments and police department stuff. What's some of the most fun, like, events that you've seen held on Water Street? Like, as a local that you're like, Oh, we try not to miss that every year, you know, parades or festivals or whatever,

Leah James Vega  50:43  
yeah, so they used to have, they used to have a parade, I would think it was in April, and the carnival used to come, and now the carnival still comes. It's just up by the, you know, City of Henderson. But I mean, any of those parades, the car show, you went all the people. So I think anytime that we have parades on Water Street, and everybody goes down there, and all the businesses are participating, and there's, you know, people are walking their dogs, and it's just awesome. I love that.

Scott Groves  51:15  
That's cool. Well, that's the way to end the podcast. Yeah, thanks for coming in. Leah, how should people get in touch with

Leah James Vega  51:20  
you? I'm on social media, Facebook, Instagram, loans by Leah, Leah James Vega, or you can call me on my cell, or you can,

Scott Groves  51:30  
I won't give that on the podcast, but we'll, we'll link to your Calendly to make sure contact me on my Calendly. There you go. Yeah, I don't, I want to put your phone number out there and on YouTube. You'll get a bunch of that. But yeah, we'll definitely put all the links to get in touch with Leah on YouTube and Spotify and all the places. Okay? And thank you for coming in. I know you don't like being in front of the camera. We've been trying to schedule this for a while. Wow. I appreciate you getting out of your comfort zone because you're great at loads and uncomfortable on camera, which I don't know why, because when you walked in, I looked at the camera like, Oh, you look great on camera. What are you talking about? Like, no complaints. So, boy, good interview. Thank you. All right, thank you. Hey, it's Scott groves with the Henderson HQ podcast. I hope you got something out of that episode. If you enjoyed it, please don't forget to like, comment and subscribe to the podcast. It really helps the show grow. And by the way, if you are a business owner, or you know, a business owner who has an interesting product service or just an interesting backstory? Please. Please get in touch with us. Email us at the Henderson hq@gmail.com, we would love to interview you, because that's what this show is all about. It's about building community, supporting local, individually owned businesses, and just making Henderson a great place to live, and don't forget go to Henderson hq.com and make sure you sign up for our newsletter. We send out a once a week newsletter, no spam, about the most interesting local businesses, hot spots, restaurants, community events. Thanks for watching the show. Really appreciate you. You.