RE: Real Estate Podcast

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (00:14)
All right, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the R.E. Real Estate Podcast. I'm Clint Galliano, your host, and our other host is Ben Harang. Hey, Ben, how you doing?

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (00:28)
Clint, I'm doing terrific, man. How you doing today?

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (00:31)
I'm doing wonderful. Looks like today we got a guest.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (00:33)
⁓

Whoa, there's three of us out there. That's a first for us. we have with us today, Mike domain with Hancock Whitney, who's a mortgage loan officer. And we're to talk about the, mortgage business a little bit. The interest rates seem to be trying to go down some. so we'll, get Mike's take on that and, we'll, we'll see where it goes. Well, we're going to start Clint.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (00:58)
Well, let's let Mike introduce himself. So we'll borrow something from the life real estate and everything podcast and say, so Mike, you were born and then what?

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (01:08)
you

Mike Domangue (01:09)
Well, I see we're all on the same journey. All a little follow-up challenge here. So maybe that's how I got the invite. I fit in with the theme, I see. You know, I'm from Houma, Louisiana, born and raised here. To start off, I did a little bit of management as a young man and got into consumer finance, you know, early, I say early 20s, probably 19, 20 years old.

transition for a brief period in the all world of real estate. And then from there I was picked up, someone said, man, what are you doing in real estate with all that financial background? Was brought on, hired as a mortgage loan officer. And that's kind of been where I've been ever since. But at this point, close to 30 years in finance, in consumer finance, some sort of banking, mortgages or consumer finance.

And I work with Hancock Whitney now as a Marge Lone originator. man, love it, love the industry. Love the real estate industry as well. And one of the things that I've always wanted was to be able to use my skills and my abilities to help others. And this is a place where I could do that. So it excites me every day, man. I love coming to work. There's always a new challenge, as you guys know, even with y'all. There's a new challenge every day and it's exciting.

It is very rewarding. So, yep, that's a little bit about me. Nothing too super cool.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (02:30)
Okay. So we were talking about rates and I keep saying that they're trying to go down, they're trying to inch down and there's always some resistance. But they're higher than they were a year ago, but it feels like there'll be some rate cuts coming. Like we talked about, the future rate cuts are baked into the current 30-year fixed rate.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (02:30)
awesome. ⁓

Mike Domangue (02:39)
Mm-hmm.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (02:54)
home loan rates. So just kind of tell us where we are on a conventional or an FHA rate today.

Mike Domangue (02:54)
Correct.

Yeah.

So mortgage rates are a little different than a lot of the, pretty much all of the other rates, right? On how they're calculated. And mortgage rates loosely follow the 10 year treasury bond yields. And just a little background, a treasury bond is basically you loaning the government your money and they're gonna pay you back. the money you make on that, the money that you're gonna make off of allowing the government to borrow your money, that's where the yields come into play.

They use a 10 year yield to base mortgage rates because the average mortgage is in place for seven to 10 years roughly is the average. So that's kind of where they base that. And as far as the numbers being baked in to looming Fed cuts, it's not really a system thing as much as it is investors. They know what's coming. So investors sentiment as they start to make changes in the way that they

invest, you start to see those bond yields move ahead of a cut. then some mortgage rates have trickled down ahead of a cut. So when the Fed cuts the federal funds rate, which is the bank, you know, the rate that the rates that the banks borrow money from the Fed, you won't necessarily see a cut from on the mortgage side. We've actually seen times where Feds cut rates and mortgage rates have gone up. I don't think that that's this scenario this time around.

There's so many other factors that play into it. Inflation is a huge, huge factor in market rates. Inflation is continually showing us that it's trickling down. We had a hiccup last month in July and we saw a little bump up and now we've corrected that and we've even corrected even lower from those July numbers and they've re-reported the job data and those sorts of things. we saw really...

really, really good week in mortgage rates last week, and they've held their own. So, you it used to be, you see a good week and you're just holding your breath, you know, it's gonna flip right back up. But here we are middle of the following week, mortgage rates are still holding their own, those treasury yields are still holding their own. you know, look, we're not in, first off, guys, 2020 is an anomaly, 2020, 2021, those rates, that should have never happened.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (05:12)
Thank

Mike Domangue (05:16)
I don't think we'll ever see those rates again, certainly in our lifetimes as we all sit here, live from the senior center on our podcast. I don't think we'll ever see those rates again, but we need to start thinking more fourish. Four to five is a great, great historically, and we're getting there. We're getting there. This past week, just for,

you know, just kind of give you guys an idea of what we're looking at. I've locked anything from mid fives to upper fives on government loans, so that's your FHA, your, you know, your Rural Development, your VA. And then on convention, I've locked anything from, you know, the low to mid sixes. So that's one of those deals. Dang it.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (06:01)
Yes,

somewhere between between five and a half and six and a half. ⁓ Yeah.

Mike Domangue (06:05)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. ⁓

So we're right there, which is a good place to be. It's not great, Ben. And I'll let you guys kind of talk about, we have other things in the market right now that are situational that we can't control ⁓ that are gonna cause it to.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (06:13)
it

Yeah. Well, what we

need to have a balance. Like you talked about the 2.75 rates that people were getting in 2021 during COVID, that creates a surge in buyers, a lack of supply and sellers, and it skews everything. We need to find a balance because right now we supposedly have a half a million more buyers.

Mike Domangue (06:31)
Mm-hmm.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (06:52)
the more property listed, then we have buyers available for those properties nationwide. And that's the first time that numbers ever hit 500,000. So as the interest rates come down, more buyers will get in the game. But there's we better off with a balanced market than we are with a super hot or super cold market. And I used to say that number was about 7 % because historically 7 % was a was a good number. I think we we've become jaded in that that

Mike Domangue (06:56)
Right.

Yes. Agree.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (07:21)
balance might be 6 % now for a period of time and it may go up or down from there. with a balanced market, it's just better for both buyers and sellers when we're not hot or cold. It's just Ben's opinion.

Mike Domangue (07:33)
Agreed.

Yeah, I agree. I agree.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (07:37)
Clint, got anything to add to that?

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (07:40)
Yeah, I think, mean, you're, you're right in that historically it's, you know, for the last, what, 20 years, the historical average has been roughly right around 7%. ⁓ getting down to, to about six, maybe a little bit below that would be awesome. ⁓ but again, people's memories are short term.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (08:01)
Mm-hmm.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (08:06)
They only look at what happened in the last year or two, ⁓ rates that got down so low because of abnormal situation and reactions to those situations that... So people say, well, I'm not gonna do anything because I'm waiting for it to get back to that. We have to explain to people, say, it's not going back to that. So where the real issue is coming in is the people that bought during that time that...

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (08:09)
Right.

Mike Domangue (08:24)
Mm-hmm.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (08:33)
or maybe would normally think about, say, hey, I'm going to sell, I'm going to upgrade, I'm ready to move on to something different, but I don't want to give up this rate that I've got. And it's like, well, there's other things to consider. And I think that as we get closer to a lower rate, what we're seeing now, it'll be a little bit more acceptable to them, maybe closer to

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (08:40)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Mike Domangue (08:46)
That's right.

Mm-hmm.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (09:02)
five, five and a half, they say, okay, I can accept that if I need to sell my house that's at this 2.75 and then go buy it a five, five and a half.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (09:07)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Domangue (09:08)
That's right.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (09:13)
But I tell people that, that, you know, people will ask me, Ben, what's the rates today? And I'll say 6 % plus or plus or minus, and it beat their chest and said, well, I got one at 2.75. I said, congratulations. I hope you like your house because you're not going to be able to sell it. You just, you won't allow yourself to sell the house. Something catastrophic will have to happen for you to sell the house. So that's it. Right, right.

Mike Domangue (09:19)
Heh.

Correct.

Correct. Correct.

Yeah, leaving town, ⁓

know, addition of a family or something like that. But outside of that, you're almost trapped, you know, with that rate to make it make sense. Right. So and that's part of that. guess you guys are seeing with this with the stale sales in the market as well is people not having, you know, they want to feel like they have to move to lose that that two or three percent interest rate. Correct.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (09:44)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Right. Right.

Mike Domangue (10:06)
But we're making progress. There's a lot, a lot, a more politics involved in mortgage rates than I wish that there would be. But we're definitely making progress. So the Fed's gonna, I think without a shadow of a doubt, they're gonna cut rates, I think it's the 20th or it's in a couple of weeks, maybe Wednesday after next, or maybe next Wednesday. Anyway.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (10:16)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Domangue (10:33)
The feds gonna cut rates. just don't know is it gonna be an eighth, is it gonna be a quarter, is it gonna be a half, you know, it's gonna be three, we don't know what they're gonna do. All signs point to a quarter of a percent, which is kind of what we've seen in our numbers over the last week or so. So that's what makes me think that the investors think that it's gonna be a quarter of a percent. ⁓ So look, we're finally going in the right direction. I can remember around this time two years ago, you know, I was quoting 8 % on a conventional loan.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (10:38)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mike Domangue (11:00)
You know, those were dark days.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (11:00)
Mm-hmm. You're probably doing a

lot of quoting and not a lot of writing. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Domangue (11:06)
A of quoting and not all, that's correct. That's correct.

And it was short lived, but it was dark days. If I remember correctly, it was fourth quarter of 2023. And ⁓ it was gloomy, man. And then we kind of had a little movement. And then when it got back into the low sevens, it didn't seem so bad anymore. And then the market kind of moved a little bit. ⁓

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (11:17)
Mm-hmm.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (11:29)
Right.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (11:29)
Yeah.

Yeah. So I tell, I tell people that are waiting for the interest rates to go down, unless you live in, in mama's basement, you still paying that same interest rate, if not higher, if you're renting an apartment or a house. So it's all relative. you, if you paying money to live somewhere, you're better off buying. And with the products that Mike has, you can absolutely buy a house for less cash.

Mike Domangue (11:39)
Mm-hmm.

Correct.

Mm-hmm.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (11:57)
then you can rent an apartment for less cash cash upfront, like hands down, no doubt. I've told Clint a couple of times, there's some tract builders. If I'm obviously passed, the first time home buyer age, but if I'd be coming out right now, I would go to one of those tract built houses and get the best deal I could find. I wouldn't even need to walk into the house, get the best deal, the lowest interest rate, the most closing costs, whatever they're offering.

Mike Domangue (11:59)
Yes. Yes.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (12:25)
and buy it and then make it a house, make it your home. Live there for three to five years while you figure it out. And when they finished building a subdivision, you'll get some appreciation. You turn around and sell it to somebody like you were three to five years ago and move on to something else. But that's a whole lot cheaper than renting something. Anyway, I'm I'm off.

Mike Domangue (12:28)
Mm-hmm.

Definitely.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (12:46)
And if you're still living in mama's

basement, you know, it's worth buying a house just to keep your feet dry, especially

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (12:52)
Just.

Mike Domangue (12:53)
I mean, it depends on mama, but I'm sure you, I would assume you want mama, not as many opinions from mama as well, right? I can only speak from how my kids, what my kids' opinion would be of that, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So mama wants to know why you came home late last night and you're 35, you know, so for sure. For sure.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (12:59)
Right, right. If you're in mama's basement, you need to move out anyway.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (13:03)
You

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (13:08)
Yeah.

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yeah. So

tell us about the low, some lower no down payment loans, just a bird's eye view.

Mike Domangue (13:21)
So obviously

we do all of the FHA, VA, rural development. I have conventional, I have jumbo, I have DSCR, which is an investment property loan that requires no income documentation. Construction loans, we have the whole package, right? One of the things as a federally chartered bank, we are required to

to serve our entire community. And with that being said, MMCT, is the Major Minority Census Track, which in Homa-Tibetot is a small slither of area. So it's really hard to meet the goals for that, right? So one of the things the bank has done to make sure that we can get to those goals is we're offering up a program. I'm gonna grab some notes here, because this is like hot off the presses. We were just releasing it now.

So this is gonna be a completely in-house bank product, what we call a portfolio product. It's 100 % financing, so zero money down. There's gonna be no PMI on 100 % finance product, which is unheard of. So there's no PMI. Right now, the rate, I looked at the rate before I hopped on, the rate today was 5.75. So portfolio, essentially a conventional product, right? But it's a portfolio product, 100 % financing, no PMI, 5.75 interest rate.

and a $5,000 lender credit towards your closing costs. And that's in any of these MMCT areas in the HOMA area and in Slidel, New Orleans, Gulfport, Tampa. So this is a huge, huge benefit to someone who's actually has a property in mind in those areas. Also, if it's not, we also have something to help borrowers what we call LMI, low to moderate income buyers.

So if a buyer makes less than $60,500 a year, annual income, give or take a couple dollars there, we're offering a $3,000 lender credit, no matter what type of loan they buy, they use. And then of course that $5,000 credit in an MMCT, regardless of loan type. if we have a buyer who's...

low to moderate income, but they have a big down payment. They don't need our 100 % financing. They want to put the money down. They would still get the $5,000 lender credit in the MMCT area. So that's really, really huge, man, at a time when things are tight.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (15:55)
So

just to give you an idea that the MMCT tracts are not necessarily what you would think they are. It's designed to go for underprivileged people. The tract that runs through Thibodeau runs from St. Charles street where it hits canal, basically up canal and then towards the east into Nichols. ⁓

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (15:58)
Yeah.

Mike Domangue (16:19)
Yes.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (16:19)
And that's some of the hottest, hottest real estate

properties in the city of Thibodeau in or around it. That's the, the golden mile. So it's just, it's kind of strange that you have these benefits. It's a hundred percent loan with the $5,000 is regardless of income, if I'm not mistaken, I'm like, as long all the property is in, that

Mike Domangue (16:30)
Mm-hmm.

Regardless of income, MMCT. Yeah, so the only

caveat loan amount, max loan amount of 475. But outside of that, yes, there's no income restrictions.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (16:46)
so don't assume you know where the where the properties located is my point you know if you're interested in a property find out what census tract it's in ⁓

Mike Domangue (16:50)
Correct.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (16:50)
Yeah.

Mike Domangue (16:54)
Correct.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (16:54)
Right, and that was going to be the

thing I was going point out is that these are based on census tracts and results of the census.

Mike Domangue (17:00)
Correct. So this is in like 2026 census will come out. The MMCT areas are gonna shift and expand in Houma. If we get some good census data, I mean, you guys know how that works, because, know, so like in the Houma area, you're looking at East side along the Intracoastal between the twin spans and the tunnel back out towards Grand Caillou road. If you're familiar with Houma, pretty much all down East main, all the way to Prospect and that area.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (17:01)
And we-

Mm-hmm.

Mike Domangue (17:26)
and which was, know, Mechanicville and then so Mechanicville Daigleville like that old East Home by Honduras school. And then from Woodlawn Ranch Road South to Dulac. So all of Dulac, know, Grand Caillou Dulac is all in it. So it's, look, it's a great product if it fits, right? It's a great product and it's just one more thing to add to the mix.

You know, look, we have everything from a loan for a physician who, you know, who's coming out of school, it's 100 % financing with no MI to someone who's a low to moderate income borrower who needs help, you know, with closing costs and needs help, you know, with approval. So we pretty much have it all. We want to make sure we meet the needs of every person. And look, what I'm most proud of is that we do that.

with the most competitive rates and fees that I've seen since I've been in the industry, which is amazing. And we do all that under the umbrella of Hancock Whitney, which is a solid company. You know that when you're dealing with us, that you're safe, you're secure. It's next level, man. And I'm really proud to be a part of the organization for sure.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (18:34)
Okay, so the the like I said before the It's cheaper to buy the house than it is to rent it. Mike's mike's contacts all over online if you want to if you want to put it out there mike, we can Tell them how to get in touch with you and give you a call and y'all can y'all can sit down and talk about it

Mike Domangue (18:53)
Well, again, being that I'm old, I'm gonna give you my phone number, but it's 985-688-0155. That's my personal cell. It's 24-7, 365, guys. I work like these guys, like the realtors work. You guys need us after hours and on weekends, and so that's how we work. And then also, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, all that stuff. Everything's Mike Domangue, just my name.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (19:15)
Yeah.

Okay. All right, There you go.

Mike Domangue (19:21)
ApplyWithMike.com, you know, if you want to

complete the application. I'm sorry, ApplyWithMikeNow.com. Yeah, don't go to the other one. That's another guy. He's like a Michigan. Yeah, that's another Mike. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, little known fact. I'm actually also Clint, right? I don't know that, you know, I'm also, name is actually Clint. I just go by Mike, which is my middle name. So, yeah.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (19:28)
That's another mic. Yeah.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (19:35)
You should have played a play.

Right.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (19:45)
I didn't, I didn't know that you didn't, you didn't know my middle name has been, ⁓ Thomas.

Mike Domangue (19:46)
Yeah.

Really? So what's your first name?

Thomas. Okay. All right. Yeah. Were you a junior? Is that why or?

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (19:53)
⁓ So you learn something new every day.

Now I'm named after a great uncle with that name, who they call Ben. I have no idea how that happened. No idea how that happened. when when.

Mike Domangue (19:59)
Okay.

Oh, that's wild. Yeah. When I was younger, I

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (20:06)
All right, for a total.

Mike Domangue (20:07)
changed

my name. You know, like I was like, want to be Mike because, you know, they everyone was calling me by like either Clint Jr. or Clint Michael, like the whole thing together, where they're Michael, Michael. So I changed my name to Mike. now that I'm older, Clint sounds cooler. know, I mean, outside, I mean, obviously, you know, present company excluded. But yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, yeah.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (20:17)
⁓ huh.

Yeah.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (20:29)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (20:31)
Yeah.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (20:31)
Yeah,

well, since y'all said y'all middle names, my middle name, Cheramie

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (20:35)
There you go.

Mike Domangue (20:36)
Share.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (20:36)
And tell them, wait,

tell us where you're from Clint.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (20:39)
I'm from Dos Gris Louisiana.

Mike Domangue (20:42)
What? Nah, where?

Show me where it is on the map, Clint.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (20:45)
Same thing I said the first time I heard it. That's where the duck gets his name from. ⁓

Mike Domangue (20:50)
⁓

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (20:50)
All

right, so you know where Fourchon's at? All right, so the road that goes to Grand Isle from Fourchon, it's about a mile past Fourchon Road. All they got left now is a couple of mobile homes on pilings and a A-frame camp and a cell phone tower in that area. Everything else is gone.

Mike Domangue (20:51)
yeah, yeah.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (21:09)
So literally

the signs with the coming and going on the same sign front and back, that's Dos Gris

Mike Domangue (21:15)
Yeah. I mean,

I figured it was Lower LaFourche with the last name Galliano and a middle name of Cheramie ⁓ okay. Okay. For sure.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (21:23)
Yep.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (21:24)
Yeah. Okay. All

right. Well, Mike, we appreciate you coming on. it's, it's been good as we've been wanting to have a guest for awhile and, you know, check it out and we appreciate your time yesterday going through the trial run to make sure we can pull this off. so if you, if you need, if you need a loan, applywithmikenow.com, ⁓ search for Mike Domangue with an A on online with Hancock Whitney, and I'm sure he'll, he'll pop up.

Mike Domangue (21:37)
Yes, sir.

There we go, yeah?

Yep, yep.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (21:51)
⁓ So.

Mike Domangue (21:52)
Sure will.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (21:52)
You should also register

apply with Magic Mike now.com.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (21:56)
that's a good one. said y'all, y'all to register with apply with magic Mike now.com.

Mike Domangue (21:56)
Wait.

that's the... my god.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (22:04)
All right, we ought to wrap it up before we all get in trouble.

Mike Domangue (22:05)
⁓ I've heard it a few times.

I've heard it a few times, Clint, unfortunately. Unfortunately, I've it, believe me. It's usually someone's mama. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. No doubt. All right, guys.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (22:15)
Yeah. Uh-huh.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (22:17)
Yeah.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (22:20)
All right. ⁓ I'm a, I'm a,

say subscribe, follow, what else we need to do? Clinton like, share, ⁓ and share.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (22:25)
Bye.

Like, subscribe, comment, share with your friends.

rerealestatepodcast.com. can watch the videos. You can subscribe with your favorite podcast apps. All the fun stuff. You can ask a question. You can do it all there from rerealestatepodcast.com.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (22:45)
All right, Mike, we appreciate you joining us today.

Mike Domangue (22:48)
Thanks gentlemen, appreciate y'all having me.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (22:50)
All right.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (22:50)
Yeah,

thank you, Mike. It's another one in the can.

Ben Harang, REALTOR® (22:53)
All right, y'all have a good one. See you later, Clint. Bye.

Mike Domangue (22:53)
You too.

Clint C. Galliano, REALTOR® (22:56)
See y'all later.

Mike Domangue (22:57)
See you guys.