Home Sweet Home in Johnston County: Bart Poynor on Mortgages and More

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] What do you love most about Johnston

Bart Poynor: County? Gosh, that’s a great question. You know, there’s lots of things. You can’t, you gotta like some of the barbecue uh, some of the there’s always somebody cooking a hog somewhere.

I can’t beat that part of Johnston County. I, you know, I also see it as it’s the perfect community. You know, it’s got that rural vibe to it. There’s always something kind of fun to do. But you’re close enough to Raleigh, the big city the sports the colleges, the education, and of course, right down the road, just in our backyard is the beaches the beautiful coast of North Carolina, it’s right here, just a hop, skip and a jump away, sometimes literally a hop over some water on 40, right? Yeah, no, you’re right about that. It’s not far. You know, there’s always something going on here in Johnson County, right? It’s close enough that we can see the Raleigh skyline,

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: right? Well, what would you like to see more of? What if you had to.

What would you like to see more of in Johnston County?

Bart Poynor: I think outdoor recreation opportunities is probably the one thing that uh, we’re kind of missing.

Narrator: Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to [00:01:00] you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden, and today as a guest, we have a friend of mine that goes back 20 some odd years, Bart Poynter, who is a mortgage broker.

With United Community Bank, which used to be Four Oaks Bank, and he’s going to talk to us about some of the things he does and why he loves Johnson County as much as I do. Welcome,

Bart Poynor: Bart. Thank you, Jonathan. I appreciate it. So glad to be out here. I thank you for this opportunity. I think this is a great thing you’re doing for the community and bring valid attention to the Johnson County community.

I’ve been [00:02:00] out here in Johnson County since 2013. My kids moved out here. And just saw as a great opportunity to kind of get away from the rat race and Raleigh more affordable housing opportunities, a little bit more land. I’ve got chickens in my yard. I got 17 chickens running around my yard.

I don’t think that would go over too well in some of the neighborhoods in Raleigh.

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: No, I don’t know that. I don’t know that the city of Raleigh is big old chickens in the yard but out here in Johnston County, you can have chickens. So depending on, you know, there’s some subdivisions that have covenants against that.

So, I guess tell us a little bit about. I was just asking you this, like, I mean, where are you from?

Bart Poynor: Where’d you grow up? So originally I was born in in California. My father was military and spent most of my childhood growing up in in Texas west tech or Dallas and spent a lot of summers out in west Texas.

Texas forever. We’ll always be home in some form, fashion or shape, but moved out here. My mom’s career brought her out here and to Greensboro incidentally. And then ended up [00:03:00] after college, ended up in the Raleigh area, and then gravitated out towards Johnson County. Oh, cool. Cool.

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: So

Bart Poynor: where’d you go to college?

UNC Greensboro in a business school.

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: Okay. All right. And how did you end up in the mortgage business?

Bart Poynor: So great question. I was taking a I didn’t like college. I was not a big fan of school. Not if you, if. You see my handwriting on the intake form you’ll realize probably not the best academics but I was taking a real estate finance course and ready just to kind of say the heck with college and I’m not one of those smart people like your attorney.

And so I took a real estate finance course and I was like, wow, this is kind of fun. I like this and kind of changed my whole outlook on how I saw academics in school. And the finance professor at UNCG had a connections with some of the mortgage brokers in Greensboro. I said, Hey, this is what I want to do.

And by by dumb luck, I got an opportunity to interview, ended up working for a. A mortgage broker in Greensboro who was a general [00:04:00] contractor on multiple rental properties in the Greensboro area And he’s still a good friend of mine to this day Incidentally, he is completely out of the mortgage business and building houses But here I am, I was always joke around and say I was too stupid to get out.

And it’s provided me a good, successful career. It has been good to me.

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: Well, yeah. Well, I mean, you’ve been in the mortgage business for a really long time, so you’ve seen a lot of things and The when did you when did you, I know you’re United Community Bank now, when did you go to work with them?

Bart Poynor: So I’m almost at the three year mark UCB, and I actually really love it here as a home, it’s a small bank that really does take to his namesake and is very involved and committed to the communities that we have a presence in. And we’re actively present in these communities and it’s a good place.

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. Well, and it’s, you know, and you always worry because, you know, United Community is a bank, I think based out of Georgia that came in and bought Forex Bank several years ago and Forex [00:05:00] Bank being a Johnston County homegrown bank, and I’d banked with Forex forever. And now I still bank with United Community as they took it over.

And a lot of us were worried, like would they be as committed to the community? as four oaks bank was and I’ve seen, they have been

Bart Poynor: that? Yes, that is, you k is taking cus with my values, core value I run my business is do w customer, take care of th else kind of falls into p That core value of service and taking care of the customer 100%.

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: Right. Are there any I mean, you’ve worked for several different mortgage brokers. Are there any products that United community offers that are maybe more unique or maybe a little easier to get funded? That’s always the question with people, you know, with the debt to income ratios and maybe their credit score is not perfect.

Have you noticed any of that?

Bart Poynor: So. That’s one of the, that’s a great question. I thank you for [00:06:00] that, Jonathan. There’s, I think a lot of potential home buyers or home buyers have limiting beliefs that they think, well, we can’t make this happen. We don’t have the funds. I actually am doing a presentation for a group of real estate agents that I partner with, and the title of it is Seven Paths to 100% Financing.

seven products that offer 100 percent financing opportunities to prospective home buyers. Phenomenal. That’s just kind of the tip of the iceberg of some of our niche products that our competitors don’t have. And actually give myself a, an advantage, a competitive advantage in this current market environment where offers are extremely competitive.

Sellers aren’t paying the closing costs the way they have in years past. So it helps us overcome one of those limiting. Limited beliefs that maybe folks don’t believe they can buy a house. Our path loan, for instance, Which is a united community bank product that we actually make available in our bank footprint.

So if it’s in a county that we have a bank anywhere in our [00:07:00] entire footprint in southeast The path loan is a product that we offered that offers 100 percent financing, no PMI and rates that tend to trend slightly to significantly better than the overall market rate.

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: So, man, that’s great. I mean, that’s great.

I mean, given everything’s going on now. Well, I mean, United communities, definitely they got offices in Wake County and Johnston County and Harnett County. They still have the one in Harnett

Bart Poynor: County. So actually we do not have that. Okay. the one of the forums had one and done anymore on branch actually closed about a year and a half ago.

But incidentally, we still do offer the path loan in Harnett County.

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: Oh, cool. Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah. And the well, that’s great. That’s great. And your office now is right here at 40, 42 and the Glen road branch. I know you’re there. Several days a week when I go in there to, it’s where I bank and I’ve banked since I got here to 40, 42 Cleveland area back in 2000.

And you know, you’re there with uh, it’s Vicky Weaver’s there. She’s been there forever. Several other good people there that can [00:08:00] help people with their personal banking and business banking as well.

Bart Poynor: So actually, they actually ran me out of there afforded me a, another phenomenal opportunity.

So I actually cover The Smithfield to the Smithfield branches. I covered the Benson branch and the four Oaks branch. So I’m actually no longer in that branch, which is kind of a, we don’t really do promotions in my world. I’m a one officer mortgage originator. There’s a million names for what I do, but we don’t actually get promotions in my world, but in for lack of a better word, it’s kind of a great opportunity or promotion because it allowed me to cover more.

Of the area in johnson county. So instead of coming here and just limiting this one branch I now cover four branches and have the opportunity to build those relationships with those other branches Vicki is vicki weaver is a branch manager there. She does a phenomenal job of being involved in Taking care of the clients but they moved me on and it’s kind of a level of opportunity for

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: me.

Well, that’s awesome. Chad Massigiel is still [00:09:00] there too. And he does tons of loans and does help my business with small business loans many times over the years. So if anybody out there is listening to this, if you need any banking services there, you, and you’re in the Cleveland area, definitely stop by the Glenbrook branch, see Vicki Weaver.

She, Chad Magi, and anybody else there? Definitely call Bart Pointer if you’re, if you might need a mortgage. And see some of these products with a hundred percent financing. We’ve, you know, the interest rates. I mean, you’ve been in this business a long time. I mean, you come into the business and they’re seven or eight, and then you see ’em go to two or three, and now they’re seven, eight, or nine.

So, talk about that adventure.

Bart Poynor: So I, people always ask what, what are rates gonna do? And I always say. I know what rates are going to do without a doubt. They’re going to go up, down, or stay the same.

The truth of the matter is there’s a lot of complexities that go into Mortgage rates. And one of the biggest pieces of misinformation that the media tends to put out is that the Fed’s changing rates, the [00:10:00] Fed’s reducing rates, the Fed’s increasing rates, and the media doesn’t 100 percent understand it, but that actually does not directly impact what mortgage rates the, what mortgage rates do.

Mortgage rates are actually determined by the MBS market or mortgage backed securities markets that are traded. And typically by hedge funds or the buyers of these mortgage backed securities and the demand for those and mortgage backed securities are influenced by multitude of factors. What the Fed does, they tend to run in line with the 10 year treasury bill, but also geopolitical and socioeconomic things going home.

Going on at home in good economies and bad economies cause demands for mortgage backed securities We always say that in a negative economy investors are bond investors, which is a fixed income So when you invest in a bond you’re getting a fixed rate of return on that So if we have inflation, which we’ve seen a high inflation environment the last few years last year and a half two years Investors will actually [00:11:00] go away from a fixed rate of return and invest in other opportunities equities as we know in the stock market in a down economy, a recession or something going on geopolitically, investors like to flock back to what they call safe haven investments or fixed income securities where they know they’re going to get a guaranteed rate of return and there’s much less.

Room for risk. And so we see that flock back to a safe haven investment. The fed manipulate the markets and changing the federal funds rate does have an effect on rates, but it’s more of an indirect effect. For instance, I’ve seen in my career where the feds actually lowered the rate or raise it, risen the rates to combat inflation and slow down the economy.

And because of that, investors see mortgage rates. Or mortgage backed securities actually will go down Or sorry mortgage backed securities will actually go up right bringing rates down because they see it as if feds and fight inflation So [00:12:00] it actually has the inverse effect of what we okay tend to rationally think

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: okay Huh, that’s interesting.

I did not know that so I mean at this point I mean with rates being 7, 8, you know, as we, you know, at the end of 2023, when we’re taping this episode is that causing more and more people to not qualify?

Bart Poynor: The figure, yes, that is coming into play. I wish I had the data available, but the cost of a, the cost of a home today, a 300, 000 home today. It’s significantly more than it was two, three years ago. Right. When rates are less than half of what they are now. Right. The payments on a 30 year fixed mortgage are on a $300,000 loan are up at least 30 40% from where they were.

And that’s affecting when something we call the debt to income ratio. Right. And that’s how much you’re spending of the percentage. [00:13:00] Of your total income when that pay interest rate goes up, the payment goes up and therefore the debt to income ratio goes up. Most loan programs are actually all loan programs have a cap on debt to income ratio.

So when that ratio goes up, it cuts some of those folks out of those

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: products. You’re absolutely right. So yeah I’ve seen that over the years, that’s for sure. In doing divorces, we often have people. In our office who need to refinance to be able to possibly pull cash out to pay the equity to the other spouse as they’re separating or divorcing and that’s becoming harder and harder because the, a lot of our clients are running into the debt to income ratio issue with their house payment is going to go up significantly because in the refinance, they’re going to refinance into 7 1/2.

And they were at 3. And rather than people not be able to qualify, which often will force them to have to sell the home and then actually divide out the cash equity among each party. So, each, you know, the husband and the wife or the 2 spouses as far as that’s concerned, [00:14:00] so we are seeing that some affect our business in the and, you know, and then the inflation in general is just.

It’s hurting people. There’s, you know, people’s incomes are, you know, are not always keeping up with inflation and what they’re spending at the grocery store. And that makes it difficult in any situation. And of course, at this point, they can’t maybe buy as much house as they were able to buy a couple of years ago.

But some of these people, you know, if they drop down in price, they can still buy a house. They just maybe can’t buy as much house. Is that what you’ve seen? Thank you.

Bart Poynor: So, all great points and you really are a student of of your industry and your career and as much respect for that. What I am seeing the trend that I’m seeing now is that while rates are high.

And if somebody is going to sell their house and buy a new house, their house, their equity rich, there’s a lot of equity as, as we know, in this market, a lot of folks have gained a lot of equity because of the rapid price appreciation in this market. And some of it is just [00:15:00] a natural course of cycles and inflation.

But one thing about this area this area was always a great value for home prices and it finally is catching up to some of those other markets, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami. I won’t quite compare it to Southern California or Northern California, but we were always lagging behind in the value of houses. So houses are almost correcting themselves to the, where their natural value should have been a few years ago.

If you think of the price, is it. We would have paid three, four or five years ago for a house. Some of that’s just the market correcting to the demand that we’re seeing in this

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: market. Well, I’ll tell you what, I mean, if you’ve lived in Johnson County more than five years I mean, most houses in, at least in Western Johnson County, you know, if it was 200, if it was worth 200 in 2019, early 2020.

It went up 100 or 150, 000 in about an 18 month period in COVID really [00:16:00] from, say, the middle of 2020 to like, January of 22 and it’s continued to go up. The county commissioners are getting ready to reevaluate all the property. You know, they’ve gone from, you know, you pay your property taxes in North Carolina and the county commissioners have to evaluate the property for 8 years.

But several years ago, they said they’re going to change it and now they’re going to do it. Thank you. In 6 years, and they’re going to do it in 4 years so that they can get back some of the appreciation into the tax coffers so they can get money for more money for schools and the sheriff and stuff like that.

And so you’re going to see I think it might be next year. There’s going to be another reevaluation of the properties here in Johnson County. And I mean, there’s, I mean, they’re saying that there could be as much as. 30 percent increase by just doing this reevaluation in the value of the property for tax purposes in this county since the last time they did the evaluation a few years ago.

So, so you’re right. There’s a lot of people and we talk to people and our [00:17:00] office going through a divorce and they’re like, they really want to keep their house. And I’m But the cost, you know, you can’t take the equity in the house to food line. You can’t take the equity in the house to Walmart.

You can’t take the equity in the house and go to Disney world. Like, like, like it’s nice, but you might be better off with the cash versus having 100, 150 in equity in a house that you’re having to stretch to refinance to buy somebody out of, you know, when you might have just been better off with the cash where you could have taken some of that cash, put a down payment on a different house and had the other cash to help you live.

So, you know, we talk to clients about that sometimes here too.

Have family law questions? Need guidance to navigate legal challenges? The compassionate team at Breeden Law Office is here to help. Visit us at www. breedenfirm. com for practical advice, resources, or to book a consultation. Remember, when life gets messy, you don’t have to face it alone.

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: So, the I guess we’ll ask you more question about Johnson County as we get towards the end here. What [00:18:00] do you love most about Johnston

Bart Poynor: County? Gosh, that’s a great question. You know, there’s lots of things. You can’t, you gotta like some of the barbecue uh, some of the there’s always somebody cooking a hog somewhere.

I can’t beat that part of Johnston County. I, you know, I also see it as it’s the perfect community. You know, it’s got that rural vibe to it. There’s always something kind of fun to do. But you’re close enough to Raleigh, the big city the sports the colleges, the education, and of course, right down the road, just in our backyard is the beaches the beautiful coast of North Carolina, it’s right here, just a hop, skip and a jump away, sometimes literally a hop over some water on 40, right? Yeah, no, you’re right about that. It’s not far. You know, there’s always something going on here in Johnson County, right? It’s close enough that we can see the Raleigh skyline,

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: right? Well, what would you like to see more of? What if you had to.

What would you like to see more of in Johnston County?

Bart Poynor: I think outdoor outdoor recreation opportunities [00:19:00] is probably the one thing that we’re kind of missing. Maybe you’ll use some of those tax revenue increases to create some nice green spaces for us. Right.

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: Well, and the county’s looking at maybe doing a park out here in Cleveland over the next five to 10 years.

They have the land there. They’re going to redo the main greater Cleveland Athletic Association campus there behind the old school across from the fire department where our kids play all the time. And now they have the land back behind the fire department at polenta. You know, right there at the corner of Palena and Matthews where they’ve got that 80 acres that they can they’ve got a plan now to maybe build some fields and walking trails and stuff like that.

So, so I think the county is headed that way. They’ve hired a parks and rec director Adrian O’Neill a few years ago. We’ve never had a parks and rec department in the county. So, I think we have the mountains to the sea trail. That they continue to expand around Clayton and going towards Smithfield.

So I think we’re headed that way, but you’re right. I think we could have [00:20:00] more. And some of that is, you know, cities are more into parks and rec than counties. And this county’s kind of been a little behind. But if you’re going to have all these unincorporated areas out here in Cleveland, which is the biggest city, even though it’s unincorporated, you know, it would be nice to be able to have a few more parks.

And I think they’re coming around to it. The question really will be, you know, how quickly can the commissioners Either get grants or sell bonds or decide to a lot, you know, what could be 30 to 50M to build a park, you know, in the Cleveland community. I mean, we’ll have to see, but I think you got a good point there.

The you know, if there was 1 thing that the people. that you would want the people of Johnson County to know about you or your business with United Community Bank. What would that be?

Bart Poynor: Great question again. You know, I think the number one thing for me is I fell into this business at the right time and the right place for me.

But the number one thing for me is. Is my goal when somebody walks into my office or I get on a telephone [00:21:00] call is doing what’s best for the customer. That’s what I always strive to do and I’ve built my career and practice around always taking care and doing what’s right for The customer and it’s paid huge dividends to me over the course of my career and I think that’s the number one thing We’ve got products.

We’ve got you know The full mix of everything but just taking care of the customer and sometimes that means hey My buddy, my consensual over another company has a great product that actually fits your needs better. Sometimes it means that sometimes it means being a resource of, Hey, how can I help you find a resource?

I don’t do a lot of land loans. Land loans is not my forte. I can refer that business out to somebody who’s like, Hey, Jonathan, you want a landloan? That’s not my wheelhouse. That’s not what I do best. It’s not what my expertise are, but I know somebody that they can’t help you. And just being a resource, you know, give, get is kind of how I built my practice.

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: And all right, well, the last question I’ve got for you is what has you excited about Johnston County moving forward over the [00:22:00] next 12 to 24 months?

Bart Poynor: You know, the, you know, some folks struggle with growth and I think we all struggle with growth because we came out here for a reason. There’s a reason we’re here.

There’s things we like about it. I think with the growth, there’s opportunities for our respective businesses. And I think that’s the, that has me excited. I hope it’s done well and done the right way, but I think the growth opportunities and new friendships, new relationships, new opportunities for business, new growth, new.

New opportunities and resources that we don’t currently have out here. Hopefully some improvement in the schools Those are things that I truly do find exciting about this area. Well, that’s

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: awesome. That’s awesome well, that’s going to be going to wrap up today’s episode if you’ve enjoyed this episode, make sure that you Follow podcast wherever you’re seeing it so that you’ll be made aware episodes when they come out as we have many more exciting guests coming up in the next few weeks.

And I think you’re going to really enjoy some of the true leaders in Johnson County[00:23:00] are going to be on this podcast. And they’ve got a lot of good things to say, and I think you will find it educational and informative. If you continue to follow us, if you can always find, we’re going to find all of.

information in the show no if you want to get in con I guess I could ask you, is the best way to get in My

Bart Poynor: cell phone number is the best way. 919 235 7525. And you always ask me what my office hours are. I doze, but never close. Don’t ever forget that.

Atty. Jonathan Breeden: That’s cool. That’s cool. So yeah, so make sure you like subscribe, follow this podcast where you get, so you can get the future ones.

If you would be kind enough to leave us a five star review. We’re at the bottom where you can review podcasts. It will increase our visibility. So more and more people will find out about the best of Johnson County podcasts that we’re doing here. And until next time, I’m Jonathan Breeden. Thanks a lot.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. [00:24:00] We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.