Are you self-employed and feeling unsure if you’ll ever be able to buy a home? You’re not alone—and in this video, we dive into a real conversation with Justin Hoffman, a self-employed local who felt shut out of the market. Spoiler: He might be closer than he thought.
Together, we unpack what’s holding him back, his current financial reality, and the steps any entrepreneur can take to move forward with confidence—even if buying a home feels overwhelming.
💬 In this episode, we cover:
🧭 Discovery & Motivation
💼 Self-Employment & Income Challenges
💰 Financial Readiness & Lending Options
🏡 Lifestyle & Home Preferences
📅 Timeline & Readiness
🧠 Mindset & Support
✅ Next Steps & Encouragement
📍If you’re a Coeur d’Alene area homebuyer who’s self-employed and unsure where to start, this video will help you feel seen, informed, and empowered. You don’t have to navigate it alone—and the right strategy might put you in a home sooner than you think.
📲 Want to create a plan based on your unique situation? Let’s chat. No pressure—just clarity.
—
🔗 [email protected]
📧 https://destinationliving.co/
[Michelle Rene]
Hey everyone, this is Michelle Rene with Windermere Coeur d’Alene Realty, and I have Justin Hoffman here. He’s with Blackbird Digital. I’m going to let him talk in a minute, so just give me one sec, Justin.
I just want to give people a quick overview of what we’re doing here, and then we’re going to jump right into it. So I’m creating some, you know, content, but this is real life circumstances. I’m a realtor with Windermere Coeur d’Alene Realty, and I just feel like there’s so many questions out there and different scenarios.
Everyone’s situation is different, so right now at the moment I’m sort of focusing on home buyers and helping to answer some questions that come up pretty often, and sometimes people don’t even know what questions they should be asking, and so I work with Justin on a regular basis, and some of these conversations came up, and he has been so nice and generous to let me have this conversation with him and record it, and to help all of you in, you know, maybe you’re in a similar situation. So let’s jump into it. So Justin, can you just give us a little bit of background on who you are, and I mean feel free to, you know, talk about like how we know each other or whatever you want to share.
[Justin Hoffman]
Yeah, yeah. So I’m Justin. I’m 30 years old.
I’m born and raised here in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. I’ve moved around a bit, but always ended up back here. I am the owner of Blackbird Digital.
We’re a full-service ad agency here as well, which has been a bit of a challenge. I’m five years in, started it in my mid-20s after working for almost 10 years as marketing director for another agency, but yeah, you know, I find I’m at this point in my life where I think it’s time to at least start thinking about buying a house. I’ve been renting my whole life, and I know that, especially with how the market’s going around here, like I need to buy sooner rather than later because it’s only going to get harder, but you know, I faced, I think, the pretty typical issues that young people do and that like entrepreneurs do as well when you’re kind of reliant on a relatively weird income that ebbs and flows and that I’ve, I mean, frankly invested pretty much every dollar I’ve had over the last decade into this business.
So it’s just kind of on the surface seemed pretty prohibitive, but I know there’s options, and that’s why I’m here talking with you, Michelle.
[Michelle Rene]
Yeah, yeah. So I can’t wait to dig into our conversation. And so with the buyer, you know, we kind of call them buyer interviews, and there’s some things that I would be addressing in a traditional buyer interview about agency and how realtors work and how we get paid and all those things.
So we’re not going to address that. I wanted to kind of talk more specifically about your situation and, you know, without prying too much into your personal life, but there’s so many people in this boat where you’re self-employed, and you have this income that, like you said, it ebbs and flows. And so there, it’s a little bit of a, you know, different animal, if you will.
And it actually, our original conversation inspired me to reach out, you know, I’m doing these interviews with lenders to give some insight on different topics. And this is a perfect topic because there’s so many questions when it comes to someone who’s self-employed. So that one’s not up yet, but I had an awesome conversation with Lesleya from, it’s called At Home, and she has an amazing podcast room.
Anyway, we went into, you know, some really relevant topics. So whoever’s watching this or even you, Justin, you know, when I do get that up, obviously I’ll share it onto my YouTube, but there’s some really great information and resources in there. And obviously I have so many lender friends.
There’s so many competent people here locally that have like years and years of experience in the biz. So it’s not like you just need to go to one. I think it’s helpful to hear, you know, with these interviews, you’ll actually be able to get a sense, you know, I’ve done one with a credit union, one with a bank, and then Lesleya is a mortgage broker.
So sometimes brokers, you know, can get a little more creative. So anyway, all of that aside, let me just ask you some questions, you know, kind of specifically about what your situation is. And so I think maybe you touched on it, but like what’s helped, what’s sort of held you back from buying anything up till now?
I know you said your speed, right?
[Justin Hoffman]
Yeah. I’d say the two biggest things. One is frankly, commitment.
Not as much now as it was, you know, five years ago, I didn’t know if I wanted to live here forever. And, you know, now that I own a business and stuff, I’m pretty established here. I don’t really plan on going anywhere.
So that’s not as big of an issue. But I think that, and then frankly, just like loan worthiness, like in general, I don’t look great on paper, which is frustrating because the reason I don’t look great on paper is building my future with this business and everything. Like the problem I always run into, it’s easy for me to buy a car.
I can go to a dealership and buy a car because the way they do their credit checks, they just want my total income. And since I’m a sole proprietor LLC, my total income is $500,000 a year. Like that, they’re throwing loans at me at one and a half percent, no problem.
But when you get into stuff, like even some business loans, but especially mortgage loans and stuff where they want to see like my personal income, it’s not much. I only pay myself like 30 or $35,000 a year. Granted, there’s obviously benefits to owning a business.
Like I, a lot of bills, like my cell phone and stuff, I don’t necessarily pay for my personal account because it’s mostly used for work. But because of how young this business is and me just trying to build this for my future and retirement at some point, I don’t take as much money as I probably should. And that always is a red flag right there too, because they want me to have, especially as a single person, they want me to have $100,000 household income.
And I don’t have that, at least not on paper.
[Michelle Rene]
On paper. And so this brings up a really good point that I, in some of these interviews, it’s one of the first things that comes up. So with self-employed, again, depending on who you’re working with, some of the banks or more traditional lenders, like a credit union, they want it pretty cookie cutter to, I think maybe to your point, they want X amount.
And by the way, we don’t have to share any real numbers. But there are some maybe that might be a little more flexible or there’s certain lines on your tax returns that they can add back in. So I think that’s where like the legwork is important and maybe talking to more than just one lender.
And that doesn’t mean you need to go get your credit pulled each time you talk to a lender. It doesn’t cost you anything to sit down and talk to someone and kind of game plan out like, okay, look, here’s my situation. What do you got for me?
Is this a hard no? And most people kind of know what their credit is. So you might, for the lender, they’re not going to be able to give you real numbers until they actually pull your credit.
But if you know, like, you’re a 640 versus a 750, I mean, those are very different scenarios for the lender. But if you’re at least close, then they can give you an idea of what to expect or what programs you might qualify for based on your income, your tax returns and all that. And a lot of times they want two years of tax returns.
That’s you’re further along in the process than a lot of people. Maybe they just started their business or, you know, when you do a tax return, that means you’ve worked that whole year and you’re into the following year. Sometimes if someone just started their business, they don’t even have last year’s tax return.
Right. So at least you have some history and it’s more than one or even two years. So I think, you know, a lot of times when you first start out and I’m getting into the weeds, I’m really conscious.
I’m the realtor. I work with a lot of lenders. We work together on some of these things, but I’m very conscious of like, I don’t know their programs.
Each one is different. And so I’m not going to speak for like what they can or can’t do, but I do believe having, you know, whatever you have four or five years of returns is probably going to be more helpful for you than just having one or two, because generally that first year to, you know, to your point, like you’re investing so much into your business and it might not look like a lot on paper, but you know, anyway, so there’s all that.
So what is kind of prompting you to start thinking at least, at least contemplating this at this point in your life?
[Justin Hoffman]
Oh man, my 30th birthday, my mid midlife crisis.
[Michelle Rene]
Yeah. Okay.
[Justin Hoffman]
I think it’s time to start being serious about that kind of stuff. I got that very much subscribed to in my twenties, I could kind of whatever I wanted. I had the freedom to, you know, just explore lifestyles, I guess, like, and how I wanted to live the rest of my life.
And I know that, you know, I, I I’m pretty well planted now, especially having a business. Like I don’t do a ton outside of running my business. I know I’m going to be here locally.
I need to stay somewhere convenient. And, but still have, you know, place for all my things, which I think is another thing that kind of at least what’s driving me away from renting now is, you know, I rent a suburban house in Post Falls. That’s, I think, 1100 square feet.
It’s okay size for a small, like starter rental, but you know, I’m big into cars and art and stuff like that. So like, I need space and I just, I don’t have much space.
[Michelle Rene]
Gotcha. Okay. Awesome.
Okay. And so what would buying a home right now, or, you know, any, any time in the near future, what, how, like, how would that change your life or what would that mean to you at this point in your life?
[Justin Hoffman]
For me, like I’d say the two big things, a big one for me right now is autonomy. Like just being able to do what I can not having a landlord to deal with. Not that I mean, I love my landlord.
I don’t want to sound like we, I have an issue with them, but I mean, it’s not my house. I can’t do things I want to do sometimes. And then, I mean, investment, I think investment’s important.
I already do a lot. I have multiple investment accounts and stuff. Like I’m very well planning for my future, but real estate’s one of the best.
And again, like I said earlier, like from an investment perspective, especially the longer I wait, the less return you get out of it.
[Michelle Rene]
Right. Exactly. And so you’re renting this whole time, right.
[Justin Hoffman]
And paying as much or more than a mortgage, honestly.
[Michelle Rene]
Yeah. Yeah. You’re probably not wrong because rent.
So again, we’re, you know, anyone watching, we’re in the North Idaho area. I’m in Coeur d’Alene, Justin’s in Post Falls. I mean, it’s kind of a booming area.
I’ve got, I’m sitting right here on Sherman Avenue. We’ve got three high rises being constructed right now. I mean, it’s just like the, the growth is, it really is exploding here and it has been, right, ever since COVID.
So, and even before that, like we were popular, we had kind of been found and are on the radar, this area of Coeur d’Alene and North Idaho in general, but it feels like even more so now.
[Justin Hoffman]
So yeah. I think we’re going through what Jackson Hole did like 15 years ago. Like that’s pretty well where we’re at.
It’s tourist destinations blowing up.
[Michelle Rene]
And I mean, they are trying to, you know, almost every, for sure every week, but almost every day, it seems like there’s some kind of article or, you know, post about the growth here and they’re trying to, I would say, you know, limit it or at least make it so it’s not out of control, but it’s a challenge. It’s a challenge. So I’m not, we’re not going to speak to all that.
So we’ll get back to your situation. So renting, you’re not wrong. Like there’s benefits to renting, right?
Like you can, to your point, you weren’t sure you wanted to for sure be here for the long haul. So that’s one thing. And also being able to, you know, maybe you want to move up or downsize or whatever.
It’s a little easier to kind of move around rather than having to buy or, you know, sell each time if you wanted to either move up or move down. But all that money that you’re spending in rent could be going toward your own investment and your own future rather than, you know, the landlord. But anyway, so there’s pros and cons.
It’s not like renting is terrible for everyone. Sometimes it makes sense for people to make, you know. Okay.
So is the home you’re looking at purchasing, you’re primarily looking for your own primary residence. Are you also sort of eyeballing, you mentioned investment, are you eyeballing that for like a future investment or is this your own use?
[Justin Hoffman]
I mean, right now, if I’m being realistic, it’s probably my own use. I would not be against buying something, again, more suburban, kind of like I live in right now, but probably a little bigger, but with the intention of renting that at some point. But I also, like, I think there’s a lot of options at this point.
Like I understand what I want in life, I think right now. And I know that if I were to even build a house right now, like, I would be able to do what I want. Like, I’m the kind of person that I only need, you know, a thousand square feet of living space, but I want a four car garage or a shop or something, you know, like that’s where I spend my time.
So like I can, I don’t see myself like wanting to upgrade in five years necessarily, like I think a lot of people do. So I’m at a point where I could commit to pretty long-term right now.
[Michelle Rene]
And one of the things that this reminds me of, you know, talking about your primary residence versus an investment property, sometimes you can kind of combine those. So if you looked at maybe buying a duplex or up to a fourplex, you can get a traditional loan, like a regular mortgage. Once you get above a fourplex, meaning like five units or more, actually last year I sold a five unit multifamily property.
They call it small multifamily, but because that was five units, it doesn’t qualify for a traditional mortgage. You have to get a commercial loan, which those rates are going to be higher. And all the requirements are different.
Commercial is like a different animal. So if you can stay under the four units or less, and let’s say we found a duplex or a regular primary single family home with an ADU in the back and an additional dwelling unit. So depending on how big or nice that ADU is, maybe you could live in the front, rent out the back.
You could live in the back, rent out the front. So now it’s sort of dual purpose, right? So you have a place to live.
It’s your primary residence. You got the loan that is the best possible rate that you’re going to get because it’s primary. But depending on the lender, they may be able to, like, let’s say it’s a duplex.
It’s very clear probably like what that duplex rented out for. So they might even be able to use that income to help you qualify. Right?
So now all of a sudden, it’s not just here’s what I make on paper every year, right? It’s like, okay, here’s a little bump, you know, here X amount, they’re not probably going to be able to use 100% of, you know, I don’t know, let’s say, let’s say that unit makes, you know, 30 grand a year, they’re not going to use 100% of that income. But even if it was, you know, they were able to use 20 grand of that income as toward, you know, your credit worthiness or your buying power or whatever.
I mean, that’s a big bump, right? So I think it might be a little bit of a harder sell if it was the single family home with the ADU in the back, unless some rental history on that ADU. A lot of people, they don’t necessarily rent out the ADU.
You know what I mean? So it depends like property by property, but a duplex, they’re going to have history on that. It’s going to be super clear, like how much it had been rented for in the past.
And then just going down that road a little further. One of the challenges when someone is selling a duplex or a fourplex is the rents are low. So they don’t, maybe the people were there for 10 or 15 years, and they’re not raising the rents because the owner doesn’t feel it’s right to do that.
And so now the rents are like the not market. So the lender would look at what the actual rents are, not what you think it should rent for. So that would be, you know, and again, this is kind of like an aside, but it’s just something to think about for your future.
Because let’s say you found a fourplex and I don’t know, mom and dad are able to help and purchase or whatever. However, you know, you’re able to get in. Now all of a sudden you’re living for free because, you know, these others are paying likely, you know, whatever the mortgage would be.
So it’s just things to think about. I will say though, there’s, we’re in an area where those small multifamily properties are kind of few and far between. So the sweet spot might be if you were able to qualify and find, you know, the single family home situation with the ADU, the lender might not be, like I said, be willing to use that in that extra income for your loan.
But if you were able to qualify on your own and had the ADU, I don’t know if this is something that you’re interested in, but it’s an option.
[Justin Hoffman]
Yeah. I’ve been actually pretty curious about that. A couple of my best friends from college ended up buying a duplex and doing the same thing in the tri-cities and it’s worked out really good for them.
Like their renters don’t pay a ton of money and they’re still paying like two thirds of the mortgage payment. Like it’s pretty sweet.
[Michelle Rene]
Which is huge. Two thirds. I mean, you’re paying way more than that in your rent.
Yeah. Yeah. It’s huge.
Yeah. So even if it was half, you know, like say we found a triplex or something. So it, it’s, it’s a real thing.
And also, by the way, so when you do this and let’s, let’s say, I know you said you’re planning on living there for a while. I don’t know, Justin, you might find a person and want to get married and now all of a sudden you want kids and all the things and your life has changed and maybe your person doesn’t want to live in a duplex. Right.
So the thing is you’re not stuck there forever. So you can get into it as long as it’s your primary residence, you live there for X amount of time, a year, two years or whatever. I think usually it’s a year.
If you end up ever selling the two years comes into play with the capital gains. So let’s say, I don’t know, you wanted to sell that in order to buy the real house that you want. Well, if you had only lived there for one year, not two, whatever money you make on that property would be taxed.
And so that’s the capital gains. However, if it was your primary residence for two years or more within the last five years and you sold it within that five years and you had lived in it for the two, then whatever money you make is all tax free. So I’m not a little disclaimer.
I’m not a CPA. I’m not a tax accountant. It’s just my, that’s my understanding of how things work.
But it’s, I mean, that’s real money like in your pocket as opposed to, you know.
[Justin Hoffman]
Yeah. Capital gains tax a lot too. So that’s a pretty big chunk of money.
[Michelle Rene]
Yeah. It’s a big deal. And I want to say the exemption.
So let’s say you made, I don’t know, 300 grand on, I mean, this is, it’s not out of the realm of possibility, but it’s not likely, but let’s just say you made 300 grand. The taxes exempt is I think up to 250 for a single and 500. So they double it for if you’re married.
So anyway, so that’s, that’s that. Okay. You talked a little bit about your business and that you’ve been self-employed for five years.
So we covered that. Tell me again with, you don’t have to disclose numbers, but your income, is it, does it fluctuate quite a bit or to some degree?
[Justin Hoffman]
Right now I’m working on like restructuring my business as an S corp, which would require me on like proper payroll. But right now, just because of how much money ebbs and flows with the business and honestly, the nature of our industry, because we’re doing a lot of like big projects that, you know, we get a couple of huge lump sum payments every couple of months. And then we have like little subscription kind of services to kind of fill the gaps.
But because of those big lump sum payments, like I sometimes I’m not paying myself on the actual payday. I’m putting it off for a week to make sure that all the bills and payroll and everything gets done before I take my money. And sometimes I’ll take less or more.
It just kind of depends on how things are going.
[Michelle Rene]
Well, and the lender is going to look at what’s happening for the year, not for the month or the week, you know. But, but your personal finances are separated from your business, correct?
[Justin Hoffman]
Yeah. Yeah.
[Michelle Rene]
Okay. Okay. And have you had a chance to sit down with a lender at all?
Or like, have you ever talked to someone seriously about buying?
[Justin Hoffman]
Not, not with me as the subject necessarily. I mean, I’ve been exposed to it a lot because of the industry I’m in, the work I do and the networking and stuff. So I’ve spent a lot of time with agents and lenders and stuff just as like clients and prospects and networking events.
But no, I’ve never like sat down and talked about home buying specifically that end of financing. Okay.
[Michelle Rene]
So I love this conversation because my hope is that whenever we’re, you know, done chatting about this, I mean, I’m here as a resource. So I think it’s one of the myths or things that people think like, oh, I’m not ready. So I’m not going to talk to anyone yet.
I think the opposite. I don’t care, Justin, if, I mean, obviously I want you as a client forever. So whenever you are ready, I, you know, want to help you, but it doesn’t mean it has to be right now.
Like if you make, you, you do all your, you know, legwork and research and talk to the lenders, you now, you know, what the game plan is and we have a game plan. So whether it’s in a month or a year or three years, whatever. I mean, I hope it’s not that long just because, you know, some of the stuff we’ve already talked about.
But I just think it’s important to have the game plan together and then you can pull the trigger when it makes sense in your life. And sometimes it changes your behavior too, like to know what the game plan is. So if you sit down with a lender and they give you all the numbers and, you know, yes, there’s low down payment options.
I mean, some are as small as like a half of 1% if you qualify for that particular program. There’s some that is based on location. So like USDA is a loan program.
It’s more for rural areas.
[Justin Hoffman]
Which I think is honestly where I’d prefer to live. I grew up super rural.
[Michelle Rene]
Yeah.
[Justin Hoffman]
I mean, I don’t, don’t get me wrong. I don’t love living so far out of town where I have to plan a trip to the grocery store, but I mean, I like the privacy and quietness of being outside.
[Michelle Rene]
And a lot of people do. So like USDA might be a good option for you. And that’s one of the very low, very low down payment.
I want to say it’s one half of 1%. So you would have to qualify for all the things, right? Like as long as you make X, you know, whatever you need to buy that property.
And there are limits. You can’t make over a certain amount. So again, you know, sitting down with the lender, but here again, if you know what that circumstance is, and then we know what to go look for and where.
A lot of the loan programs don’t do that where it’s based on the location of the property. That one does. But like if you’re, let’s say you’re FHA or you’re conventional loan, you know, it’s not going to matter if it’s in Post Falls or Coeur d’Alene or whatever.
But my point is, like if you, let’s say it’s going to be better for you, maybe, you know, you’re going to save the 10 grand or the six grand or the 20 grand, whatever your number is. Now, maybe you’re not, you know, doing some of the, I don’t know, vacations that you thought you were going to, or, you know, it’s, I’m just saying, like, if you know, that’s the end game. And, and in six months, it’s not like that has to be forever, right?
You know, I’m just saying it’s so important, I think, to have the game plan and know what’s happening, because it helps you to plan other parts of your life too, you know. So, okay. So if it turns out that it’s feasible, is that something you think you, like, if it’s a low down payment, and you’re, you’re sort of exchanging whatever you’re paying for rent, and maybe it’s similar to pay something toward a mortgage?
Is that something that you’re game to do?
[Justin Hoffman]
100% Yeah, I mean, I can, I can save up money relatively quickly. And as a matter of fact, like, I’ve kind of thought about it now, like my lease on my current house is up in October, October 1, is when it like officially starts again. I’ve been there for three years now.
I’ve thought about building and going like a shop home route, which honestly, probably fits my kind of needs the best.
[Michelle Rene]
Yeah.
[Justin Hoffman]
So I mean, I think if I’m, I have a good plan by like, you know, fall of this year, yeah, that would give me enough runway to be able to be moved into a place when my lease ends 2026.
[Michelle Rene]
Okay, awesome. Awesome. So that means, you know, you want to, you’re going to sit down with a lender, hopefully sometime soon right now.
And right now, meaning we’re in spring, to get your game plan. Again, you don’t need to do the credit poll. But then, you, you know, at least what you’re targeting for which loan program and how much to save and all that.
And then when we get maybe two months prior to target date, and remember that takes some time to look around summer. So that puts us in summer, which that’s the height of the market, but that’s okay. Like if what, that’s the point, right?
Like, you know, what your situation is, and maybe, maybe it makes sense, or your lender, I mean, your landlord might let you out a month or two early, you know, now we’re looking at the end of spring instead of the height of summer. So anyway, just ideas and thoughts. The other thing is, if you were looking at building, this is a whole different kind of can of worms that, you know, so I’ll give you some highlights.
In general, as far as the affordability factor and getting into a home, whether it’s a resale home or a new construction, you can always ask in your offer to have the seller pay either closing cost or pay X amount, and we would get the number from the lender, to buy down the rate. So right now, that’s what’s holding a lot of people back is the higher interest rates. So prices of homes are high, they haven’t gone down.
Some people were sitting on the sidelines thinking, I’m just going to wait for the market to crash, because I know it’s going to crash. Well, we’re still growing, we’re still developing, the demand is here, I’m sorry, that ship has sailed, it’s not happening. I mean, short of, I don’t know, another COVID, but even then, like, that helped our market, and it made it actually go bananas, not the other way.
So the waiting, I think, is a mistake, because of all the things we’ve already talked about. But the seller can help pay, you can ask them, that doesn’t mean they’re going to. But because of the climate right now, and how the market is, at least we know the new construction builders, oftentimes, it’s pretty common for them to put X amount toward either closing costs or paying your rate down.
Paying your rate down, closing costs is great. That’s, you know, it’s whatever the number is, $5,000, $10,000, whatever, depending on how expensive the home is that you’re purchasing. So based on that, and then, but the rate, if you’re able to buy your rate down, that helps you for the life of the loan, which is huge, right?
That’s 30 years, that’s a big amount. So if you could get them to do both of those, that’s awesome. There are limits on how much you buy a rate down, or how much the seller can contribute.
Again, I’m not going to go into those details, I don’t know what they are, the lender will. But just knowing, like, let’s say around number, I mean, it’s pretty common right now for lenders to be offering somewhere between $5,000 to $10,000. I’ve heard even as much as $20,000, but that’s on a very expensive home, so I wouldn’t expect that.
But I would say at minimum, you could probably at least get $5,000 covered, maybe $10,000.
[Justin Hoffman]
Yeah, that’s big. So when you say buy the rate down, does that mean like basically just to help boost your down payment so you get a lower interest rate?
[Michelle Rene]
Yeah, so you’re putting X amount, let’s say $5,000, and the lender will tell you how much need to buy the rate down. So yeah, instead of maybe, I don’t know what they are right now this minute, but let’s say it’s six and a half right now, you might be able to buy it down to six, or maybe even 5.9. Like if you’re getting into the fives, if our interest rate was in the fives right now, we would be going bananas. Like people would be buying again.
But that’s why I’m like, shouting from the rooftops, like you can get a 5% rate right now. I mean, maybe not 5%, but 5.5 or something.
[Justin Hoffman]
I’m the kind of person that’s a lot more worried about the price than the rate, because I know you can always refinance down the road. I’d rather save $100,000 on a house than save 0.25% on a loan.
[Michelle Rene]
Yeah, but when you look at that 0.25 over the year, because maybe, you know, if you’re getting into the mid fives, I don’t know what’s going to go lower than that. Are we going to get back into the fours to where it would make sense for you to refinance? I don’t know.
I don’t know that we’re ever going to be back in the fours. We might, but what if we’re not? And so that five, mid fives or high fives, if you’re able to get into that and get into the home because of one of these low down payment programs, like here you are, you know.
Okay, so we’ve talked a lot about the lending part of it and, you know, your motivation. What would the home itself look like? I know you said you like the idea of rural.
I know your family, which I love this, by the way. I mean, yes, you’re my marketing guy, but I mean, we know each other from NIBCA. We’re in the same industry to a degree or, you know, we know a lot of the same people.
I know your mom. She’s amazing. I met your dad last night at an NIBCA event.
I just love, like, it’s all in the family. And this is, I just feel good about, you know, I’m hoping I can help you guys at some point.
[Justin Hoffman]
You will be the one for sure.
[Michelle Rene]
And so tell me about the house itself that you would love. You mentioned a shop home, but you’re okay with a traditional, just like home in a neighborhood.
[Justin Hoffman]
Yeah, at the end of the day, all I’m really worried about is having space for cars and stuff. I mean, like, it’s very irresponsible, but I currently own five cars and I often own motorcycles and stuff too. And I just need space to work on.
I mean, that’s my hobby. That’s what I do is work on cars and I’m not at work. So that’s important to me.
And then I’m also kind of techie. So like having good opportunities for things like, you know, lots of electrical and stuff like that is really important as well. But the car thing is the biggest thing for me.
Like I don’t need a ton of living space. I think a two, maybe three bedroom house is plenty for me. I don’t entertain a lot when I do, it’s a small group and, you know, I just want space to do my stuff and spread out and have tools and stuff, you know, right now, two car garage that I currently share with a roommate.
So we have a split in half and like, I park one of my cars in there and my half the garage is taken up. I got nothing, you know?
[Michelle Rene]
Okay.
[Justin Hoffman]
And that’s.
[Michelle Rene]
What about fixer uppers? Are you handy? Do you want turnkey?
[Justin Hoffman]
I mean, I would probably prefer turnkey, but I mean, I’m perfectly capable of doing a fixer upper. I don’t know if it necessarily want to, if that makes sense, just because I don’t have a lot of time outside of work. But I mean, I’m not against a fixer upper by any means.
[Michelle Rene]
Okay. And you’re okay with like Post Falls, Rathdrum or like what areas would you target or would be most ideal for you?
[Justin Hoffman]
I mean, I do like Post Falls a lot, especially the outskirts of Post Falls. Probably avoid Hayden just because Hayden City is tough to live in sometimes. But I mean, I grew up south of town.
My parents still live there. I’ve even talked with them because they own property out there. I’ve talked with them about buying five acres off of their parcel from them and building a house out there.
And, you know, I’m open to a lot of things, but the shop house thing, honestly, I think has kind of popped into my mind because it’s been really trendy lately. And I know that you can get a lot more house for a lot less money that way. But you run into a lot of permitting issues and stuff like with the originally I was thinking about just doing like an ADU on the back chunk of my parents’ property.
That would be, you know, a quarter mile away from their house. But the problem that we’re running into there is they have a 1800 square foot house. And to qualify for an ADU, it’s got to be half or double.
So like then I’m stuck with either a tiny home or an absolute monster of a house that I don’t need. So yeah, there’s just weird little tricky permit things. I know there’s probably ways around if you know what you’re doing.
But yeah, that’s kind of that’s where my head’s been in the last couple years and kind of what’s brought me to where I’m at. But I mean, at the end of the day, like if even just buying a decent sized house in town that has a three car garage is plenty for me.
[Michelle Rene]
Yeah. OK. And we might get lucky and find one with an RV garage, because that sort of serves like as a shop.
[Justin Hoffman]
Yeah. Especially in my neighborhood that honestly that would be perfect, even though I don’t have an RV. I don’t really want an RV, but yeah, vertical space to put a car lift or something.
If I ever want to, like I can grow into that pretty well.
[Michelle Rene]
Yeah. And usually with an RV garage home, you have the two car plus the RV garage. So it’s like that might be an ideal setup.
OK. Noted. OK.
Time frame, we kind of talked about that. Are you tied to a lease? We discussed that.
This is a good question. I like this one. What part of the process in home buying makes you feel the most overwhelmed or you are uneasy about?
[Justin Hoffman]
I mean, realistically, the money part, but I mean, still the commitment. I don’t know. I mean, I’m just a kind of an anxious person sometimes.
And just thinking about like making a decision that big and sticking with it is overwhelming to me a lot. Like, that’s probably the biggest thing I’ve had to get over in running a business is getting around that kind of personality trait, I guess.
[Michelle Rene]
Well, good on you, Justin, though, because look, you’ve done it and you’ve been doing it for five years. So that means you started when you’re 25. A lot of people think about this forever and ever and ever and they’re 45 and then they start or 35 or whatever, you know, like you did it in your 20s.
So look at all the stuff that you’ve accomplished. You’ve got staff. I mean, good on you.
[Justin Hoffman]
Thank you. It’s been a lot of work. I haven’t had much of a life outside of this, but I love it that way.
[Michelle Rene]
It’s you know, it’s not going to be like that forever. No.
[Justin Hoffman]
I mean, honestly, I like what I do. Like I don’t have I do what I do because I love it. I went into marketing and advertising and design and stuff because that was what I enjoyed doing in my free time.
And I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t working. Honestly, I know I sound like such a boomer when I say that, but I’m like, I don’t really want to retire because retirement to me is just working on personal projects instead of like paid client projects. You know, I’m still doing the same thing, just like the direction, I guess.
[Michelle Rene]
OK. Yeah, I get it. So will there be other people involved in the process?
I like to ask this question because sometimes there’s other people involved, like actually on the loan. And obviously we need to know about that when we’re making offers. You know, is it just you or other people?
But sometimes other people are involved. They’re not on the loan or buying the property, but they are just as important in making the decision, helping you make the decision.
[Justin Hoffman]
Yeah. I mean, right now, not particularly. I mean, I just got to have a four year relationship.
So, I mean, there’s a little little things like that. And I expect at some point I will have another person like literally involved with the buying of the house. But right now, no, I think that, you know, my parents could probably be convinced to go sign if I needed them to most of that, which is probably a pretty new thing because they their business has grown a lot in the last five years or so as well.
So they’re able to do that a little more. But I would prefer not to if I don’t have to. I don’t want to take advantage of them.
[Michelle Rene]
Honestly, the biggest just so you know, that is getting more common because of our market and the higher interest rates. So, I mean, don’t feel weird about like, oh, I had to have my parents go sign. I mean, it is definitely getting more people are having to get creative, you know, and a lot of times the parents are willing to help anyway.
You might, you know, the gift. I forget the number, but there’s there’s a number where it starts to become an issue with your taxes. But it’s a very, very, very high number.
I can’t imagine you would ever, you know, hit that. So, you know, if they did gift you something like help with the down payment, you know, it’s pretty common.
[Justin Hoffman]
Yeah. Yeah. I’m very fortunate to be close with my family and still have that opportunity.
And like I said, I’d prefer not to just so I don’t have to, like, take advantage of them and lean on them and put them in that situation. But, you know, I know if push came to shove, they would be willing to.
[Michelle Rene]
Yeah. Which is awesome. OK.
So what would make this experience feel successful for you?
[Justin Hoffman]
Oh, man, I think a clear plan goals would probably be the biggest thing right now with where I’m at, because I do the thing where I pack a bunch of money away into my savings and then I end up having to spend it on something and like being able to like a sixth car, maybe sometimes. Now, honestly, I’m pretty good enough being on dumb stuff. But, you know, there’s times where I’ve had to like I’ve had a good business opportunity or something in the business doesn’t have the cash right now.
So I, you know, give my owner contribution and do it that way.
[Michelle Rene]
Yeah. Yeah. It’s very typical with self-employed.
I get it. OK. So in my humble opinion, the next step for you would just to be to sit down with a lender or, you know, maybe a couple of options, two or three options.
Obviously, I have people I could refer to you. Your parents might have someone you might know someone. So I just think it would be wise for you to at least explore that.
And then we get back and we powwow and figure out, you know, that timeline, the game plan, whether it’s one month, six months, a year, whatever your situation is. And then you just execute on the plan. Right.
[Justin Hoffman]
Yeah.
[Michelle Rene]
Yeah.
[Justin Hoffman]
I mean, it sounds easy.
[Michelle Rene]
It’s really I genuinely think Justin, you’re way closer than you think you are.
[Justin Hoffman]
I’m sure I am.
[Michelle Rene]
And so, you know, how awesome would it be for you to kind of be in a different situation and let’s say six months or less?
[Justin Hoffman]
Yeah.
[Michelle Rene]
And probably maybe even spending the same amount ish that you are or less and but getting the tax benefits that we didn’t even discuss that. I mean, there’s significant tax benefits, you know, where you’re able to write off the interest. And anyway, so that’s something you can have a conversation with your CPA about as well.
And if it is an investment property, like slash your primary. So if you did find something like that duplex situation, I would highly recommend you talk to your tax person to to just find out, like, what does that look like for you? But I can tell you, like, it will be probably very beneficial for your taxes.
OK, what a good talk. I’m so happy that we have this conversation and I really genuinely think it’s going to be useful for other people.
[Justin Hoffman]
For sure. Yeah. Thank you, Michelle.
I really appreciate you taking the time. And I know I’m I feel like I’m in a weird special situation, but I’m really not. I mean, I have a dozen friends that are, you know, started a business in their mid 20s and they’re still dealing with that.
And, you know, I think the only weird thing I have compared to most of my friends is a lot of my friends are married, which makes things usually a little bit easier, to be honest. But I mean, it’s not a hurdle I can’t get over and I’m definitely not the only one.
[Michelle Rene]
Well, the benefit being a single lady that you have as a single person is it’s your decision. You don’t have to try and accommodate for anyone else. Yeah.
Like the house and it’s big enough for you or it has all the things you need. Like, you know, a lot of people don’t want to live in a duplex situation. Right.
Especially, you know, the chica. So, you know, you’re kind of at a great place, honestly, to be able to change your, you know, the situation is probably going to benefit you financially and in the long term, because to your point, you know, maybe later it’s an investment property when you move on to your next thing. So anyway, I just think it’s something to think about and I wouldn’t be afraid of it.
So it doesn’t, you know, take anything to ask the questions and get the game plan and then we just execute.
[Justin Hoffman]
Absolutely. Yeah. I have a really great mortgage lender in my one of my networking groups that I want to sit down with and I’ve already been thinking about in this conversation has definitely pushed me towards it more.
And then you can send me a couple of your recommendations. I’d be happy to talk to more as well.
[Michelle Rene]
Yeah. OK. All right.
Awesome. Thanks, Justin.
[Justin Hoffman]
Thank you, Michelle. I appreciate it.
[Michelle Rene]
Take care.
[Justin Hoffman]
You too.
[Michelle Rene]
Bye bye.
[Justin Hoffman]
Bye.
Justin Hoffman is the founder and owner of Blackbird Digital, a boutique marketing agency based in North Idaho. A lifelong creative with deep roots in the region, Justin blends his background in design, marketing, and engineering to help small businesses build strong, impactful brands. Recognized as one of Kootenai County’s Top 30 Under 40, he brings a passion for storytelling, strategy, and community to every project.
