Newly elected Detroit judge suspended; The real cost of living in Detroit

Actually know the backgrounds of the candidates that they elect to scan that QR code. There it is right down there at the bottom of the screen. And we will show you the results later on in the show. And as you know, this show is all about hearing from you. We want to have a conversation. So here's how you do it. You can text us. You can call us 313-765-8844 where you can jump in the Zoom room. The meeting ID number, 892-4909-0290, and on social media, hashtag us at DetroitTalkCity. All right, let's get right into this. Joe Irby, well, thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. You were one of the candidates. There were four candidates on the ballot. Yes. For a non-incumbent meeting, an open seat for judge. Yes. Three of the four got elected, right? Yes. You were the fourth. Yes. So why are you upset? One person that did get elected is someone named Judge Kalelia Davis, but she was banned by the Supreme Court for being a judge for six years. Yes. So I don't know if upset is the actual word, because I truly believe that what God has planned for me, I'm going to get eventually. So, but what I am is disappointed. I'm disappointed in the fact that I put forth such an effort. I was boots on the ground. I was out there talking to people. You know, I have, I think that my background speaks for itself. And I think that I was the best candidate to occupy one of those seats at 36th district court and to see how the The numbers came out. It made me feel it. Still as if the judicial system is not for the people. Now the other two people, they're both magistrates within the court, right? Yes, yes, sir. So meaning they do a lot of the judge's work anyway, and you don't have a problem with those two, right? No, no. They're good. It's just this particular judge, right? Not judge, candidate for- Former judge. Yes. She was a judge. She was kicked out for six years. Yes. But realistically, though, the Supreme Court said that she cannot be a judge for six years, but it didn't say anything about her running. Yes. Do you think the Supreme Court was wrong? I think that the Supreme Court did not clarify what they meant. Because why would you say that a person is... If you were to run and win, you can't sit, that's almost saying that that's almost equivalent to saying you're not a doctor yet until 2029, but you can apply for a job as a doctor right now. And then when 2029 comes. You can go and take the job from someone else. The Supreme Court got it wrong. They definitely got it wrong, in my view. So, but did you, now, do you have standing even to challenge the Supreme Court's ruling? I believe that I do have standing to challenge because I am one of the candidates that's affected by what they wrote. I think that if they would have clarified what they meant, I think that this would not have been an issue. Because originally, there were four of us on the ballot, and then the Board of Elections actually put disqualification. by her name because how can you be on a ballot to serve in a position that you're not eligible for? Here's the deal. You're pretty outgoing. Yes. You just said you were out campaigning all the time. Yes, I was. You've got an army background, right? Yes, sir. You led platoons. You've done a lot of stuff, right? All over the world. Yes, sir. All over the world. Yes, sir. You've handled criminal cases, civil cases. Clearly you're qualified. Yes, sir. Why didn't the voters get the message? Well, in my opinion, I think that voters don't research who they are voting for. It's pretty much name recognition. I mean, I'm known, but I'm originally from Selma, Alabama. I'm not from Detroit, Michigan, but I'm licensed to practice in Michigan as well as in New York. And, you know, I have a 28-year Army background. I retired from the military as a major. I operated the prisoner of war camp in Saudi Arabia. I had over 100,000 prisoners. So I have a, I think that my background speaks for it. for itself. I'm very qualified for the position. Okay, but so in this era of campaigning though, it's really you against the judge, not Judge Davis, because she was not a judge anymore when she was running. Yes, sir. She was running on Kemp. Why did you go, did you say anything bad about her, that she was kicked off the bench for doing a lot of things according to the Supreme Court, that she was... That she was disconnecting videos, that she was sending people to jail for no reason, that she was abusing the contempt powers of the court. I mean, it's all written. I'm not making this stuff up. It's all written by the Supreme Court. Yes, sir. Did you campaign against her? No, sir. I feel that I run on my own merits. I don't have to put someone else down to lift myself up. My experience and what I have to offer should speak for itself, but you know. Candidate, they did what they wanted to do. They voted for who they wanted. So you're done. You're not going to appeal. You're not going to do anything because the voters spoke, right? I don't know what I might do. Maybe the voters wanted someone who's a former judge who can serve three years from now. Can't serve now, but in three years. Well, you know, sometimes we, what is the saying? We do what's not in our best interest sometimes. Here's the deal. We had so many... The ads on television were so negative for the governor's race, the U.S. Senate race. I mean, oh, my gosh. Yes, sir. Did you ever think about going negative against this particular judge? No, never. Do you think that would have helped you? I don't want to win anything like that. As I indicated, I'm a person, I think I have candor. I think I wanted to run on my own merits. And if individuals, if the voters would have just searched our names as judges, it would have popped up. My resume would have popped up, everyone's experience and who they were would have popped up. But people didn't do that. Do you think Kalila Davis is qualified to be a judge? Based on what the Secretary of State, based on what the Michigan Supreme Court and the Judicial Tenure Committee says, no. I don't know. Voters said yes. Well, that's why we're here. Did you ever think about, because there were four people running and three seats. Yes. Did you ever think about having a pack, you know, the two magistrates and you? Because they have to be worried, too, that you could have beaten one of them or you could have, the two of you could have beaten one of them. Yes, well, she came in second. This was. Davis came in second. Yes. I know. What does that say about the voters? I can't speak for the voters per se, but I can say sometimes the school that you attend, whether it's Cass Tech, University of Michigan, Michigan State. Sometimes people vote just because of name recognition or, you know, someone's family member or you attended a certain school and they just vote because, oh, yeah, we want someone that attended our school to go there. And that's not that's not right. You can have people in positions, whether it's judicial. It doesn't matter what type of position you're voting for people blindly and you shouldn't do that. But the reality is that people, maybe they don't take the time to research every little... She got 83,000 or 82,000 votes. Yeah, so that's not an un- That's a pretty good number. It's a good number, but I can tell you that it's the voters' loss, because I am apprised that she would have been on the 36th District Court. You ran for a judge before, though. You were a judge back in Inster. Yes. Yeah, back in 2000. Yes, I had just come out of the military after 28 years. Yeah, it was back in, what was it, a couple of years, 2012, I think it was. Yes, sir. 2012, Judge Inster. Yeah, so you want to be a judge. Yes, that's why I ran, because I know that I'm qualified. We're asking our people today, do you think that many vote that don't know the backgrounds of the people that they're voting for? You would answer yes to that, wouldn't you? Yes, I would answer yes. That's not good, though, is it? No. Whose fault is that? Is it the candidate's fault? Is it the media? Whose fault is it? You know, sometimes I don't think that it's the candidate's fault because everyone has to do their due diligence and research who they want, who they desire. Because once you go to the court and you stand in front of that person that you voted for, you can't get upset with a judge that is not rendering, you know, putting out rules and rendering your case as you want it to because that's who you put there. So, if she was elected, she did get elected, she just can't serve for three years. So, in three years, she'd be okay. The voters said yes. I don't think so. I mean, I think that- Do you think it's a better position maybe that a governor should appoint all judges? And just do away with elections? No, I don't think so. I think it's right for the people to have a choice into who they want. But I think that when you put people in a position of Michigan Supreme Court, they could come back and clarify what their order said. To say you can run, but you can't sit, that's ludicrous to me. So I think it's an injustice that was done. I'm not on the Supreme Court, probably never will be, but the Supreme Court may say that we don't want to substitute our Supreme Court judgment for the rights of the voters. And that maybe the rights of the voters, if they They want her. Maybe six years is a punishment. You believe in redemption, and you believe in a second chance, don't you? You're a judge. I'm not a judge. Not yet. You might be a judge someday. You're okay with that. A second chance. A second chance. Yeah, but it has to come appropriately. She paid her debt to society. She can't be a judge for six years. Now she can. Well, I think that it was something that was... What do you say, the wool pull over the voters' eyes? Because had you been transparent about what your position was, people would not have voted, I don't think. I mean, why would you? You've attempted to do this once before, and you were. Joe Irby, hold that thought. We're not done. We want to hear from you. Do voters actually know the backgrounds of the candidates that they elect? Detroit Talk City, back after this. We'll be right back. So you want to Zoom on Fox, too? We want you to Zoom on Fox, too, but we want to make you look and sound really, really good. So four easy steps. First of all, take the phone and turn it on its side. We want you to fill up the entire screen. Then you've got to look around and you've got to find the light. Remember, we want the light in front of you, not behind you. That's good. And then on the Zoom mic, we want all of this. And finally, turn down the television like I'm going to do right now. We want to hear you, not the TV. All right, let's review these easy steps. First, flip it, light it, unmute it, and turn down the TV. And then you are ready to Zoom on Fox 2. Remember, you can be a part of Fox 2's Detroit Talk City and the sports office. Just Zoom in. Live. Live. Detroit Talk City, I'm your host, Charlie Lyton. Do voters actually know the backgrounds of the candidates that they elect? I'm with Joe Irby. She was, well, she was a candidate for 36th District Court. She came in fourth place out of four votes. The top three went on. She didn't get to go, but one of those candidates got kicked off the bench. It was a judge that got kicked off, but she won the other one. All right, let's go to the phones, okay? Let's do it. Steve from Harper Woods, you're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Steve. Hi, Charlie. Hey, this is beyond insane to me. I can't even believe it happened. My question is, does she get compensated in any way, pension, benefits, any salary? Before she actually gets to the bench, just because she's elected, does she go on the payroll? Great. Do you know the answer? No. In the Supreme Court ruling, it said that it would go unpaid, that she wouldn't be paid because she can't sit in the seat. Yeah, I understand it was an unpaid suspension for six years, but I don't know how many years she has before if she's vested in the in the state's pensions. They don't have pensions anymore. They have 401ks, I think, the equivalent. So but she may get some benefits if she's a sitting judge. Let's go to another phone call. Pat from Detroit. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Pat. Hi, how are you? Good. The reason I'm calling is I agree with your guest that oftentimes we go according to name recognition and how in the world was that judge who was not allowed to sit on the bench able to run? Yeah. So that's my. I mean, no, Pat, I think I think you're right. How did that judge get this run? That's the question. I think that's an error. That's an error that was made above my head. It's higher than me. Like I said, the Supreme Court and this court of claims allowed it. The court of claims is the one who allowed her name to be on the ballot for a position that she couldn't hold. Yeah. When she filed, the election board said, well, wait a minute. You can't you can't fill out this position. You can't do it. But the court of the claims, another judge said. You can run. All right, Gail from Livonia. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Gail. Hi, how are you? Good. I just wanted to make a statement. A lot of times as a voter, we go to the polls and sometimes we haven't educated ourselves in the manner in which we should. And so when it comes to the judges, you don't see whether or not they're Democrat, Republican when they are trying to tell us to vote completely Democratic down the line. All right. I'm upset that that happened for you. I believe that you are an honorable woman that could have led our city great, but for those who, like myself, we have to do more of our due diligence within giving the right to vote that we need to make sure we exercise that right by knowing who we're voting for. A lot of times they just go down the ballot. They go down the ballot, and we don't know, so I concur with her. Sometimes they just don't educate themselves. Thank you. Thank you, Gayle. I appreciate that. What do you say to that? What do you say to Gayle? I appreciate, Gayle, and thank you very much. I know that I would have been a great judge at 36th District Court because they need it. You know, sometimes the people, they say, you'd be a great judge, you've got to get elected. Yes. You've got to get elected. It's a different animal than being appointed or running or whatever. And I, you know, sometimes I think you have to go negative. I think you have to go, it's not going negative. You're just pointing out this person may not be qualified, and the Supreme Court said so. Why didn't you go negative? That's not just not my character to do that. I think, like I said, I mean, whether you're religious or not, I just believe that what's meant for me, I'm going to get regardless of. And if it doesn't happen this second, that's not saying it's not going to happen. All right, let's go to some text questions here. First one, can the governor step in and make it right? If not for that particular seat, can the governor appoint Joe Irby to another judicial seat? There you go. Well, the governor can do appointments, of course. Yes, they can do that. So interesting that she takes the, theoretically, she would be sworn in in January, but because she can't serve, there's a vacancy. Yes. I don't know. Maybe the judge, maybe the governor can appoint a vacancy for the three years. Well, I'm not interested in doing a vacancy for someone that I believe that should not have been on the ballot in the first place. Why would I help them out? Why would I do part of their job for them to come in and finish it? I don't think that would be of interest to me. Joe, what do you say to the people, there may be a few out there that say, It's just sour grapes. You lost the election, and now you're here on television blaming everybody. I don't think that my face showed that I'm sour grapes, because I do what I actually love. I help veterans get their disability. I mean, I am doing the same thing I was doing prior to running for the election. All right. We don't have enough time to go take a week off. A lot of people want to talk to you. We're going to get to everybody over there. But no sour grapes here. You know what? You wouldn't take that appointment? If the judge said, yeah, you can have it for three months. No. No. No. Ooh, okay. All right, let's do this. All right, don't go away. We want to hear everyone's opinion on this issue. Do we actually know who we're voting for, especially when we're voting for Judge? The Zoom room is open as well. We will take a quick break. Detroit Talk City, back after this. There. Welcome back to Detroit Talk City. I'm your host, Charlie Light. Sorry, do voters, I don't know who I am. Anyway, do voters actually know the backgrounds of the candidates that they elect? Joe Irby is with me. She was a candidate for 36th District Court. She came in fourth place. She lost, but a candidate that won can't even serve. Got kicked off the bench. Let's go to the Zoom room right now. Shandrika from Detroit. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Shandrika. Hello, and thank you for having me. My comment is that the city of Detroit missed out on a great judge and I hope that she runs again. Joe Irby has been an attorney for 28 years. I've known her for at least 20 of those and she served this community very well. She's my go to person for all things veterans. And I think that the Michigan Supreme Court needs to step in and address their mishaps with their ruling as it relates to former Judge Davis. Thank you for that. Well, what do you think? Thank you so much for that. I mean, I agree. I definitely agree that they need to step in and correct that error. But if you run again, I'm not asking you if, but if you did, knowing what you know now, knowing who your opponent is, would you do anything differently? No, except for I would run for a Supreme Court so I can make sure that my orders are clear. Clear, clear. Let's go back to the phones. Mike from Detroit. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Mike. Mike. I mean, not Mike. Lord have mercy. Charlie, good afternoon to you too, young lady. Good afternoon. Hi, Mike. Charlie, let's walk it back a step. She is very upstanding. Don't know her personally, but she looks like she has a good teaching aspect. I've been following her. DP officers need help, a good teacher. The kids need help. The principals need help in Detroit. She's coming back running again, and she's going to win. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right, so what do you want to say? The election is two more years, you might as well announce now. I'm gonna run for a Supreme Court judge. You're not gonna run for Supreme Court. You'll think about it, right? Yes, thank you for that. Gwen from Detroit, you're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Gwen. Hi, how are you? Good. And thank you for having me on. My question is to Attorney Irby is how did it get past the Secretary of State and the Chief Judge in 36th District Court to get to the Supreme Court? Does Secretary of State have anything to do or was able to say that this person, it seemed like maybe she has a, you know, emotional and mental problem. Yeah, and in fairness, I did reach out to Kalilia Davis, I invited her to either come on, give me a statement, she didn't get back to me, so that's fine, I at least made the effort. But how do you answer that question, though? How did it get passed? Well, as I indicated, the Supreme Court, the first error was how they wrote the order. So the second thing was that once we turned our petitions in in April, the Board of Elections did put disqualified down by her name. So it was really three of us going into three open seats. But then later after the appeal, the Court of Claims came in. So I was confused about the Court of Claims because I didn't know that Court of Claims covered. This type of actions, let me get, let me get one more text in right here. Uh, hello, I'm not a resident of Detroit, but it is absolutely ridiculous that she could have even run if she has been, if she had been unseated, how could the, how the heck could she have run? That's so crazy to me. Uh, no, I don't, uh, think people do the research and candidates so overwhelmingly the false ads, texts, et cetera. What do you think? People don't do the research. Should they? Yes. I think they should do the research. I'm a prime example. Simple. Well, you really are. Joe Irby, I have a feeling you're going to hear more about Joe Irby, and maybe she's running, maybe she's not. Who knows? Maybe you'll get a million-dollar verdict tomorrow on one of your cases. Who knows? Do, do, do. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me here. All right, coming up in our next half hour, is owning a home in Detroit actually affordable? That is next on Detroit Talk City. Detroit Talk City, I'm your host, Charlie Langton. All right, still to come this half hour. Everyone says that Detroit is one of the last affordable big cities in America. So why are lifelong Detroiters still getting priced out? Between skyrocketing property taxes, high interest rates, renovation nightmares, rising insurance costs, buying a home. Is it a real path to wealth or a financial trap? Realtor Brianna Blackwell joins us to reveal the harsh truth about what it actually takes to buy a house in the city of Detroit. Let's go back to our poll question one more time. Do voters actually know the backgrounds of the candidates that they elect? Just scan that QR code. It's right down there at the bottom of the screen, and we will show you the results later on in the show. Again, the show is all about hearing from you, the viewer. We're going to have a conversation, and we want to know what you think. 313-765-8844. That is our number. You can also go into the Zoom room. Meeting ID number 892-4909-0290. And on social media, 892-4909. Hashtag us at Detroit Talk City. All right. Bree Blackwell. Bree, is that all right? Bree is perfect. Beautiful. Well, first of all, The mayor of the city of Detroit today, 7,500 houses taken from the land bank. They're going to fix them up and eventually sell them. Is that a good thing? That's a great thing. I think any time you can get more houses on the market, especially in our city where we're kind of supply and demand issue, that's a beautiful thing. Is it hard to own a house in Detroit? Yes. Why? To a degree, it is hard. There's a lot that goes into it. Specifically, I would say cash to close becomes an issue, credit readiness becomes an issue, And affordability, for many, becomes an issue. So let's back up on a couple of them. I like this. Cash to close. Cash to close. What does that mean? So that means the amount of cash that you have to bring to the closing table in order to purchase that house. So you think if the house was making easy numbers, $100,000, you put whatever down. Three and a half percent down. All right. But you still have to bring a lot of cash, don't you? You do have to bring cash to the table. In many cases, there are some down payment assistance programs that make that. More attainable, but obviously sometimes those have caps. Sometimes the money runs out in those programs. What's a typical house in Detroit? First time home buyer. How old is a first-time homebuyer, by the way, now in Detroit? So they're saying on average about 40, which is higher than most large cities in the United States. How much would they be buying a house? What would it cost? A 40-year-old first-time homebuyer in Detroit, how much is that house, roughly? Roughly between $92,500 and $105,000. So this is making $100,000. How much can they put down, first-time homebuyer, so they can qualify for something? Right. So first-time homebuyer, if they go through the FHA, it's as low as 3.5%. It's $3,500. Correct. Cash. Cash. Correct. Okay. Now. Are there some closing costs also? What's a typical closing cost? $100,000 house, they put $3,500 down, they're financing $96,500, whatever. So we usually say typically 1% of your purchase price is going to be your closing cost. That's awesome. How much is that? Yeah, so 1% on... Another $900. Yeah, another $900 on top of possibly your 3.5% down. So now you've got roughly $4,500, $4,400. Yeah, and mind you, we're looking at a $100,000 house, Charlie, which, again, depending on where you're purchasing in the city, may or may not be a house that's considered updated. You know what I mean? It may not have those newer floors. It could be a very much older home at that price point. But even that, you still have closing costs, right? Correct. And so you've got to do a title search, right? Correct. You're going to pay, yes. You may have to escrow some taxes or do the taxes. Correct, correct. Taxes, depending on what time of year. Realistically, you need $5,000 cash, don't you? Yeah. Or more? Or more. Because remember, we're also looking at the entry purchase price of $100,000, which I think is very conservative in Detroit. But saying that, so, okay, so we got it. So you need $6,000, $7,000 cash. You have to have that in closing. Correct. Okay, so. How much would a payment be, you're financing $96,000, what would you think the payment would be? Do you have any idea? Oh, well, I mean, I always say, you know, talk to a lender, because your lender is going to be the expert on this, but if we're looking at these figures, your principal and interest would be around about $680, or $680-ish, and that depends on the current interest rate right now. We're at about $7.18. But even if it is, it's about $600, $700? Correct. Is that escrow the taxes and insurance? No, that is just your principal. So you have to have a little bit more. How much more, though? Another $100? So that's going to push us closer to the $1,000 mark a month because, of course, you're considering home insurance in the city of Detroit. And in taxes, we do have one of the higher tax rates for a large U.S. city. I think we have the highest, honestly, based on my research. But even though $100,000 a house, you'd be paying about $1,000 a month. Correct. That's for your mortgage, your taxes, and insurance, right? Yes. The average rent, though. It's going to be more than that, right? Correct. It is going to be more than that. So when a landlord buys a house, there's no cap on their taxes. They're going to usually pay more in taxes, and they're going to have to roll that into the price of the rent for each month. Yeah. So let's do one other thing. This $100,000 house, hypothetical. Will a bank finance the house? Yes. So a bank will finance the house. Is that hard to do? Is that hard to find banks? No, no, I don't think so. It really just makes, you know, if the house has mechanicals, if it's a house that's in good standing, finding a bank to finance the house is not a problem. The only time you'll have an issue is if there's something that's wrong with the house that you find during your inspection where the bank can't lend on that property because of a defect or something like that. How about the roof is old? That can be an issue if the roof is too old. And the bank won't lend on it based on the inspection, and that's something that hopefully the seller will be willing to negotiate. If not... Then, you know, because you have to look at it both ways. The seller wants to sell the house, so it may be worth the seller fixing the roof in order for that buyer to get the house. But that is something. Or if the driveway is messed up or the porch is kind of thing. Yeah, it just depends on different things. FHA is pretty tough, right? They are. They can be pretty tough. Yes. Do you like your job? I love my job. It's a hard job, isn't it? I do love my job. Well, it is hard because you are constantly, you know, reassuring your clients and working them through that process from when you, you know, talk to the lender all the way to the closing table. But when you hear like the. The mayor is going to put 7,500 new homes. She's going to build 1,000 new homes by the end of her term or so, 250 new homes a year. You've got to love that. I do love that, and I love that for the city of Detroit. I love that for the residents. I love that for anybody who's in the market to buy. I think the issue is they need a real estate person to figure out how do we finance homes, but that's what you do, right? Yes, well, that's what I do. All right, let's see. If owning a home in Detroit is affordable, can it be done? We want to hear from you. The American Dream, a reality in Detroit. Text us, call us, 313-765-8844. Detroit Talk City, back after this. Welcome back to Detroit Talk City. I'm your host, Charlie Langton. Is the American dream a reality in the city of Detroit? We're talking about owning a home. Brianna Blackwell. Bri, Blackwell, real estate agent. Yes. Broker too? No, just kidding. What's the difference? There's testing and the capabilities. All right. Yeah. There you go. Let's go to the phones right now. Sandy from Hamtramck, you're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Sandy. Hi, Charlie. How are you? Good. I love your show. I just want to ask a question. Eventually, I want to buy a home. I want to know what credit score do you need to have to order to purchase a home? Great question, Sandy. Now, in fairness, do you know what it is or is it a lender question? So I would say that's definitely a lender question because depending on maybe the program that you're going through, I was just telling Charlie, most of us are always going to say start with your lender to figure out. You know what credit score a lot of people feel as though their credit score isn't high enough. And a lot of times lenders have programs to help you get your credit score up. They can run your situation through a program and say, hey, if you make this payment on this bill and do this, this will bring your credit score up enough. So a lot of people like talk themselves out of buying a house because they think they're not ready and maybe credit is a thing. But a lender can tell you exactly what you need to do to get your credit score where it needs to be to qualify. But even if your credit's terrible. You can still buy a house. You may have to pay a little more. But it's still going to be less than the rent, right? Yes. That's what we're talking about here. Johnny from Detroit. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Johnny. How you doing? Years ago when the stock market crashed, they had cash for keys. It was through Wells Fargo. I bought a house in Rosedale Park. For real cheap, it was going for like $10,000, $15,000, some of $40,000 if you had cash for keys. Yeah. What's it worth today? Rosedale Park. Yeah, $250. $250! Yeah, yeah. See, that's what people don't know. You get the bump in the... Usually they appreciate. Oh, yeah. Some houses go down, but most go up. Most go up. I mean, that's what we always say. Homes appreciate. Date the rate, marry the house. I don't know. Teddy from Detroit. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Teddy. Hi, how you doing Charlie? Hello young lady. I'm calling because I, it's a good thing that she's going, the mayor is going to build these new homes, but my concern is for the new generation that if they do not do something about the property taxes, I have a sad feeling that the new homes are just going to be there standing because our property tax is a killer. Well, I think you mentioned that before. Yeah, I mean, Teddy, you're right. Property taxes, that's for the politicians. Yeah, that is definitely for the politicians to deal with. And, Teddy, I agree with you. That's a conversation I think we're all having when it comes to the overall. price of the house and affordability because you do have to be able to afford the insurance, the principal, the interest, and the taxes, and that overall drives the entire monthly payment up. So, yeah, that is something the city of Detroit is going to have to figure out, I think, over the coming years. And add to it the interest rates going up. And again, when you take a look at the whole thing, if you can make that down payment, it's cheaper than renting. Brie Blackwell, don't go away. Coming up, we've got more text, more calls. You are watching Detroit Talk City, back in a moment. Detroit Talk City, I'm your host, Charlie Light. It is the American dream, a reality in the city of Detroit. Text us or call us. There's the number right there, 313-765-8844. Brie Blackwell, real estate agent, joining us now, talking about this. Let's go to the phones. John from Detroit. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, John. Oh, Flora. How about Flora from Detroit? You're on Detroit Talk City. Hey, how y'all doing? Good, how are you? Y'all are two of my favorite channels. Y'all know that, don't y'all? Yes, thank you. I'm calling, I'm speaking on senior citizens because it's so hard for us to get around and do things. I do would like to purchase a home, but again, what about the prices for the senior citizens? They already been paid so many dues that we still got to keep paying taxes and stuff, and all we get is Social Security. And being an apartment, you know, a two-bedroom apartment would be nice, but you can't even know who to go get an apartment from. Yeah. Well, senior citizen, should they be buying homes too? You know, I do think that everyone should own a home if possible. That's what I say, because the thing people don't realize is when you rent a home, your rent can go up and then you can be priced out of that home. You have no, you have less control, I should say, over the situation. A landlord can decide to sell that home at any point in time, and then you're placed into a market where the rent is high or you're buying at a higher amount. So, you know, I definitely I definitely feel like, if possible, Yeah, I think everybody should do their best to own their home. Yeah, it's just getting the cash. That's the key. Yeah. That is the key to doing that. Then you're good. John from Detroit. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, John. How you doing, Charlie? Good. I just want to know, what's the price in Southwest Detroit? Southwest? I'm sorry, southwest Detroit? Yeah, southwest Detroit. How much is the price? I know I was at $170,000 here. Well, if the price, well, it's good, but it's just Southwest Detroit, the prices, but it depends where you're in Delray, if you're in Michigan Avenue, Corktown, Corktown, yeah, it really depends. It's very specific, I would say, to the area. And if you're very, very familiar with Detroit, sometimes it's very specific to the block. So, you know, it's hard to answer that question, but they can definitely reach out. That's a hot area. It's a very hot area. Lots of growth in that area, especially with the train station, Corktown. I mean, Isn't there North Corktown now, too, above the highway? How much is a house in there? Well, it depends. I was looking at one recently. It was renovated, and they wanted $350 for it. $350? How big? How many square feet? So that house has four bedrooms, about 2,400 square feet. All right. John from Detroit. Richard, sorry about that. Richard from Detroit. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Richard. How you doing, Charlie? How you doing, Ms. Blackwell? Good. Thank you. My question is a credit rating. I've gone through a couple of, you know, looking for houses and they'll check my background on my credit. Then my credit score lowers. So I'm trying to see how I can avoid that if there is a position to do that. Then secondly, credit unions or a banking financial institution when coming to borrow money. A couple of good questions there. The credit score. Starting with credit score, like I mentioned earlier, I say start with the lender, see what credit score they require for the program, and then ask if they don't... Have a program to tell you exactly what you need to do to increase your credit score. Then you can work with a credit repair person specifically on that to bring your score up to the number that's needed. But credit should never be a reason that someone doesn't qualify for it. Well, the worst is you'll pay more. And I said, we don't want anyone to pay more. The worst is you get a higher interest rate. And depending on, I don't want to get too complicated. If you've got 20% equity in the home, you'd still send me a PMI, right? Correct. Which is a scam. We could do a whole other show on that. Right. But if you buy a house for $100,000, okay, you're going to pay us some insurance to insure the lender, called PMI, right? PMI, yes. But if a year or two or three from now, if the home is worth $120,000, will they save that? Will your payment go down? So you can always call the lender back and then see if you can get that removed from your monthly payment. If you buy a house in Corktown or North Corktown, you can do it. It's going to. Let's take a text right now. Home ownership is a falsehood. You pay $100,000 for a home, then fall behind on taxes, and you can get kicked out of the home. Well, what do you think about that? I do. I'm a very honest person. I agree with that statement. But I think it goes for anything. If you fall behind on your car payments, you can lose your car. If you fall behind on your insurance payments, you won't be insured. Homeownership is no different. You do have to stay on top of the payments just like you would anything else. But I can make an argument that if you fall behind on your house, there are a lot of things in the system. There's a foreclosure. There's a redemption period. Correct. There are a lot of ways. Banks don't want your house. They don't want your house. Because when they own it, then they have to sell it. And they likely have to sell it at a loss. So banks act. Most people don't know if you're going to fall behind. And I always tell my clients, call your bank. They will work out payment programs. They will do everything they can. Sometimes they will forego and have you just do interest only payments for a period of time to keep you in your house. So I think a lot of people fear the bank. Oh, call your bank and tell them what's going on. Like people will work with you to keep you in your house. Don't miss your payments, but I mean, if you do, life happens. Let's take, let's take another text here. How does splitting up my mortgage payments into two separate payments per month reduce my mortgage quicker? Right. So essentially when you make two payments, you're making more payments towards your interest each time. So by breaking your monthly payment up into two, you're paying more towards the interest. So Essentially, it just brings down the overall interest that you're paying over the length of your loan, whether it be a 30-year or 15-year mortgage. Yeah. I mean, that's a strategy you have to work out. It's a strategy. Work the numbers. Make one extra payment a year. Sometimes that helps. You want to reduce the principal a little bit, too. Correct, correct. Let's go to the phones. Robert from Detroit. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Robert. Yes, hi. I was calling because I was asked, I wanted to know about the lender, and does that mean a bank, or does that mean that just go to a real estate agent and speak with them and they can help you go through that lender? Good question. Either way works. Most credit unions have lenders or mortgage people on site. You can, of course, ask your real estate agent. A lot of us real estate agents have really good relationships with lenders. I send my clients three preferred lenders. I can tell them these. are good with first-time homebuyers. They'll educate you on the process. These lenders know specifically about the down payment assistance programs. So if you have a real estate agent, if you don't, you can call me. But if you do have one, you can reach out to your real estate agent and they'll send you a list of lenders that are preferred. Yeah. You do work with the banks, though. I mean, everyone has their little niche. So you work with the banks. The thing I always remind people are banks are national organizations. So sometimes if you have a local lender who's familiar with the city, when it comes to appraisals and things like that, having the more local, the better. Because even with a bank, you could be working with somebody out of California who has no idea what the Detroit geography looks like. And sometimes working with those banks can be a little harder. Rich from Redford, you're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Rich. Hey, Charlie, how you doing? Good. I'm enjoying your show, but a question I got for the lady, or just need her to explain. I recently bought a house in Redford. We worked with a broker, signed off on everything, told her what our budget was. The first year, everything went fine. But the next year, our taxes uncapped. Yeah. And our taxes doubled. And we've been here close to five years now. And now our taxes went from $2,000 to $4,000. Now they're up to $6,000 a year. And this was no warning from the broker, no warning from the real estate agent, nothing. And we were on a set budget. Well, so I mean, I can speak to that a little bit. So every brokerage is different. I know the brokerage that I'm with, we actually do have a form that states that taxes will become uncapped at the time of closing, that you should reach out to the city assessor to get a better idea of what your taxes could potentially be. And what happens is when you buy a home, you're taking on that home at the. Your estimate is based on what the person previous paid on taxes. They're going to uncap that, and then at that point in time, they're going to reassess the property based on current value, and your taxes are likely to increase. So he shares a frustration with a lot of people who, I hate to say, maybe weren't educated in that area, and that blame doesn't really fall on any one person. I think it's, like you mentioned, it's very important that we educate each other and look into all the pieces because uncapped taxes can be an issue Come with a fixed amount, and then you get hit with something like that. Especially if you bought that house, like our other caller bought that house in Rosedale Park for $12,000. He's going to sell it for what, $200,000, $300,000? Yeah. $300,000. He's only paying up taxes on $12,000. Correct, or the increments of it. Or the increment, a little bit of increase, but not on $300,000. Correct. You're going to get a big tax jump. Scar from Detroit. You're on Detroit Talk City. Hello, Scar. Hello, how are you? Good. That's good. I have a question. I wanted to know, okay, so I'm on Section 8, and I'm in a home ownership program with Wayne Metro, and I was interested actually in, like, being on a land bank property, but would that be illegal for me to be on a property while on Section 8? So to be honest with you, I'm not sure. I would check specifically with your Section 8 advisor. Like, I would reach out to that person. They would be best to advise you on something like that because those programs have such specific details. I don't want to misspeak on that. All right. Brie Blackwell, thank you so much. Listen, with the mayor putting these houses on the market, building new ones, changing land banks, I think you're going to be real busy. That's the plan. I hope so. That's what you want to be. Yes. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me, Charlie. I appreciate you. That was great. All right, stay with us. We've got the results. Let's go. But first, let's check in with Ruparaj. Rup. Early police fire and emergency medical services funding in Clarkson is uncertain at this hour after voters narrowly rejected a public safety millage. Fox News Camilla Mary is live in Clarkson with what happens next. The News at 5 is next. Welcome back to Detroit Talk City. Now, it is time for the results of our question of the day, our poll, which, one more time, do voters actually know the backgrounds of the candidates that they elect? Here's what you're saying. They don't know. Ninety-three percent of our audience today say they don't know the backgrounds. I wonder why that is. We've got to do a better job of educating them, or maybe the candidates have to do a better job. Maybe those negative ads are not working. We don't know. All right, that is the result of our question of the day. All right, that'll do it for Detroit Talk City. Remember, you can connect with us using the hashtag DetroitTalkCity on Instagram and on X. And, of course, we are here every...