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Date: 11/13/25
Duration: 30:39
Guest: Carolyn Swanner
Website: United Community Bank
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Episode 9 Summary:
In this episode, Ed sits down with longtime Hendersonville mortgage pro Carolyn Swanner from United Community Bank. Carolyn shares her story of growing up local, building a 55 year career in banking, and why working with someone who knows the community inside and out makes all the difference for homebuyers.
She breaks down how lending has changed, why online rates can be misleading, and what makes a true local lender valuable from start to finish. Carolyn talks about her hands on approach, the importance of solid pre qualification, how she creates income solutions for retirees, and the unique loan options her team can offer that many buyers never hear about.
Ed and Carolyn also chat about life in Hendersonville, favorite local food spots, the impact of the Ecusta Trail, and why the area attracts so many new residents each year.
Whether you’re buying, selling, or just love learning about the community, this episode is full of practical insight and fun local flavor.
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Transcript:
Thanks for joining us. I'm excited to have our special guest today is Carolyn Swanner. She's with United Community Bank. And Carolyn, thanks so much for taking time. Fun. Love it. You are. Well, you're a staple in the mortgage industry and you've been around and you help quite a few people through the years. So tell us a little bit about yourself and where you're up to lately and then I have lots of questions. Well, as you'll be able to tell quickly, I'm a native and I get so tickled because I have so many new homeowners call and they're from New York or New Jersey or Chicago and the first thing they'll go is, are you a native? What gives it away? What do you think? Yeah. So luckily, I was lucky enough to be born here and smart enough to have never moved. Because a lot of the people I went to high school with, they've spent their whole life trying to make enough money to retire and move back. things have changed a little bit. Local, parents local, born and raised. My parents went to Hendersville High School. I went to Hendersville High School. My husband did, my kids did. So yeah, homecoming there is fun. So. It's changed. lot has changed. I started actually in banking at a little local bank on Main Street called Home Bank. Wasn't what I planned to do. I was going to teach high school English and my father-in-law was in a group that started this little bank and they said, well, just come and help us get it off the ground. 55 years later, I'm still helping get it off the ground. So that was a fun start and that was back in the old days where as we were joking, ⁓ pretty much we had a half a piece of paper and we'd hug and close the loan and we really didn't have to do a whole lot. We'd just go to loan committee and just stand up and talk about them. So you know these people, their parents are so-and-so, they're great and we'd close. Even back then is so funny because... Even the loan officers did the appraisals. And I was about as qualified to appraise a home as somebody off the street. we'd take two of us, we'd go in and go, isn't this cute? I love this wallpaper. Let's say 80,000. And you know, ironically, and let me, never lost a nickel. I've had one in 55 years go to foreclosure. And we knew it upfront. We knew it would. It went from closing to foreclosure. Luckily, there's still a lot of judgment and intuition and helping good people. And yes, the paperwork now is horrendous. I tell nobody hates paperwork any more than I do. But I promise I don't make it up. I strip it to whatever can I get away with that I've got to have. So that works out well, especially people that have never been through the process or haven't been through it since all these regulations have changed and they're going. I mean, they're just like deer in headlights. You mean what? Yeah. So we should get it all up front, get it ready, and then everybody can relax and place furniture in their head and pack and get ready to go to closing. And Carolyn and I were talking before we started recording, but she's exactly right. ⁓ Too many times I've regretted not strongly encouraging people to use Carolyn because she really does get it all done up front and versus the next. Three to four weeks of yeah, it's just daily torment. Why do that? They've got more fun things to do then then then be worried about a current bank statement or a pay stub and Everybody's gonna need the same thing. They're just not telling you that up front It's just because none of us get to make the rules up or this this world would be a lot simpler So that opens up a big question for me. So if somebody's out shopping raids or what's really different than other? banks or credit unions or national mortgage people. You know, back in the old days, we had a rate. We had a mortgage rate. It only changed on Thursdays. So if you didn't like this week's rate, wait until next week and that was it. There was no options. was nothing. That was to take it or leave it. That's your rate. And as you know now, there is no such thing as a rate. Everything now is based on a lot of criteria. Credit scores, down payment, what kind of program, what kind of property. So that's where I think we go way above everybody else in that, unfortunately, we have especially online people, and I am a big believer in local. If you can stay local, your appraisers local, your people are local, your clothes in local. What happens is if they go with online people, and I don't want to use the word bait and switch, but ⁓ many, many, many times, what you're told upfront is not what actually ends up on those closing papers. And they bank on that because at that point, everybody's so frustrated, they just sign it regardless. And they know the percentage is like 90 something percent. We'll go ahead and sign the paperwork anyway. We don't play those games and we're going to sit and listen to you. We're going to figure out what's the best program and what can we do and offer because as you know, ⁓ my gosh, we can custom design a program now. We got first time home buyers. We got special things. We got FHA, USDA. We've got doctor's programs. There is no such thing as a rate. What do you need and what will work the best for you? And I think that's where we spend so much longer with people upfront, comfort level. We want to know Those kind of things. And we're not just going to cookie cutter and stick them in a program when we know in our heart there's something better or an easier solution or maybe lesser down payment and they can use that other money to update the kitchen or something more fun. So if you have somebody call me, they're not going to get, okay, fill this out and we'll get back to you. Not going to happen. So I think... where we stand out is one, we're local, two, we know this market. You could probably tell me the street address and I'm probably tell you what color the house is. And I'm on what third generation of families making, know, grandparents, home loans, kids home loans, grandkids home loans. So I think that local touch, knowing the market and when somebody tells me they want to look at a condo, I know which complex it's in. I know if it's going to be an approved project. And you're not going to get this when you're handed off nationwide. And your processing goes to Dallas and your closing package comes out of California and your check's going to come out of New Jersey. ⁓ Now, love me or hate me, I'm it. We're a one-stop shop. We process them locally, we do them locally, we close them locally, we keep our loans, we don't sell you off all over the world. And so I think that's huge. And if it's not huge upfront, it will be later on. Because if anything goes in the ditch, guess who they can call? Me. I think not just rate. If it was just rate, what difference would it make? But it's not just rate anymore. It's caring, it's long-term relationships, it's being able to offer other products because nine times out of 10, I'm going to give them an equity line and I'm going to give them a free checking account, hook to the mortgage, an automatic draft. It's a lot more now than just a have a nice life after closing. We look to build a long-term family relationship. And that, I think, pays off a lot in the long run. I wouldn't have doing this 55 years if that didn't work pretty well. I think any successful business has to do that. It's beyond one transaction. Especially in Hendersonville. And it's changed so much. So if people already are listening or watching and they're like, gosh, I should have called her. I need to call her. How do people reach out to you? How do they find you? Very Very easy. They can call my office. They can call my cell phone. They can email me. They can text me. Which one of those do you want to give out? All of them. Any of them. I don't care how you call me. Just call me. What's a phone number? Probably, I prefer my cell number, my personal cell phone number. And I know other bankers think I'm nuts that I will give my personal cell. Here's the deal in our world, your world, my world. This is not a nine to five job if I mean, know, when can most people go look at houses? At night after work or on the weekends? Duh, the rest of time, they gotta make that paycheck so we can make that loan and you can close that house. So probably I would prefer my personal cell phone and that is 828-606-3578. because that way I'm more accessible. If I'm not sitting in the office or ⁓ that way they can leave it or they got a contact or they can text me and I promise I may be with somebody and in all fairness, I don't take calls if I've got somebody in my office because that's not fair to them but I will call back. I have a sundown rule. mean, we're calling you back. Well, I'm sorry. Okay, time changed. The sundown rule isn't working because it's dark at 530 now. So forget the sundown rule. I'll just call you back. And I can personally testify 2016 we bought our house and Carolyn helped make that mortgage happen and she's spot on. So she does what she says. She gets it done. So, and can I talk a little bit about prequel letters? Sure. Okay. I'm a big, big, big advocate of doing prequel letters. And most people think it's just because I want to stick something in Ed's hand so he can go show property. But it amazes me that most people are concerned about being able to qualify. When it normally will turn out, they can qualify for more than they thought they could. So I don't want people out shopping and not looking at a home they love for a few thousand dollars because they don't quite understand how that works. And on the other hand, there are people that can qualify for a lot more loan, but their comfort level isn't there. So, so in this pre-qualification phase where they're getting ready to go out shopping, that's when we want to fine tune all that and say, well, you could probably buy another $25,000 house. And if we do it this way, you're not gonna have as much payment shock. And I just don't want them to walk away because you know, in In real estate, they're looking in price categories. And they're shutting off at that price point when maybe that might not be the best solution. And the trick is we do not want anybody to not get a home they love over just a little bit if we can help them up front and get that comfort level and get a price range so that they can give you a realistic price range and not be out showing them the Biltmore house. if they can't have it or if they don't want that kind of payment. So I know that it aggravates people now when they need to get a pre-qualification letter, but there's more to it than just saying, okay, go look at that house. That might not be the house they love, but the next one you show might. So we just want them to have accurate information and a better understanding of payments and... what they could have and what they couldn't have and what they would need way before you put them in the car and and and go start shopping around because that's the fun part is the shop it would may maybe ⁓ maybe not if it depends on on timing and work schedules and all that but on my end that's the fun part i like the the shopping part yep absolutely yeah so tell me is do people ever get qualified for a different amount if they go to a different loan officer or they could. Yes. Okay. And why would that happen? Because of the programs that are offered? Okay. Well, and so it depends on who you're calling, and it depends on experience level of the loan officer, and it doesn't depend on what the prospective homebuyer ask, you know, because a lot of them aren't just going go into a whole lot of detail. I'll tell you why we will see that is because over the years, I've learned a few tricks of the trade. And I know how to create income and I know what will count and won't. especially around here, we're in a retiree market. I mean, we're so fortunate because, and we have been lucky to have a lot of retirees move here. And no, they don't have much income stream. But they have 401ks or IRAs. And I can create a temporary income stream using that. If you aren't experienced in how to establish that, They may call and say, well, we only got Social Security. And they go, well, that won't work. Well, that's not true. That's not true. There are other means of creating income. And I think that's sad that people are shut down just because they're asked for a current pay stub or a current Social Security benefits statement and don't look at potential other income. So that happens a lot. You remember in old days, we used to have this thing called a bridge line. And basically, they weren't a good program to start with, so I didn't like them. if you were going to sell a current home and you had a contract, we could basically loan you money for a new house based on the contract of the old house. Sounds wonderful, unless something happens and the old house doesn't close. You've basically put these people into a situation of a 90-day balloon note. And if you didn't close, everybody's up the proverbial creek. So those are done away with, obviously, because this was putting a homebuyer in a tough situation, you know, a gambling situation. So I use that one as an example because we do that a lot, is that we have a way to loan the maximum on a new house, even when you haven't sold the old house. But we're going to go ahead and make a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage or 15-year whatever they want. And then when that old house sells, all we have to do is make a payment down on the new house loan and drop that payment. So they're not now having to wait till they have the proceeds. And we do what's called a recast. It's not a refinance, so they'll have all this closing cost. We're just going to make a principal reduction and do a modification and change the payment. And what this does is it allows them to go ahead and secure a new house because not many people won't give up their old one until they have found a new one. And it also eliminates the horrible stress of same-day possession at closing. I don't know if anybody's ever been through that where you have a domino and everybody's trying to move in and move out, move in and move out and go do final inspections and walk-throughs and it looks like that extreme makeover program, you know, wherever. That is really tough. If you've ever been through it and you've moved and you've agreed to same-day possession, this, they don't care. Now, you just move in the new one, you get the old one ready, they stage it and then market it later. So it takes a tremendous amount of pressure off That's a great program. It really is. And there is risk as to carrying in two mortgages for a little while. Rarely does that, especially we're lucky in Henderson County. Usually by the time because when you close and you skip a month and you don't even have a payment that one closes and we're already modifying it down. you know, maybe the first payment it depends on timing and what they're selling but other lenders don't offer this. Right. And the people are like, you're kidding I can do that? We do it all day every day. So, and again that comes from experience and you know, you learn from mistakes. ⁓ I try not to do the same one twice. Now with all these different programs, you know, that's what I get tickled. They'll call and just leave message, what's the rate today? ⁓ Or do we want? Do we want to purchase? We want to refinance? Do we want a construction loan? Do we want you to, how much do we have down? What's your credit score? And I know that's a lot of questions, but every bit of that criteria tells you what program or what rate will be. Credit scores are important. I like to to people about those. We like to help people improve are ways. to do that that people don't even realize. Charge cards are the biggest enemy I have in credit scores. We have so many good people that do not realize that it doesn't matter if you owe 500 or 5,000. If you're over half the limit of a charge card, they consider you maxed out and it'll tank your scores. So there's ways to avoid that. You pay your payment two days before the statement cuts. We'd love to help people do that. especially new people that get started because you got to have credit to get credit. Well, you can't get credit if you don't have credit. So helping these young people try to figure out how to get started and get some credit initiated and get some credit history and payment history in there, that's kind of a fun side job I like to do because it's hard. mean, it's hard. Credit scores are important. know, down payment in the old days, you know, had to have 20 % down. Then we created private mortgage insurance and that covered that. Now there's all kinds of programs, 100%, 97.5%. So I don't want people to be scared about that. In fact, sometimes I'd rather keep some of that money. You know, they might want a new fridge or they might want to close in a sundeck or, know, and that way they can improve that property. If they improve the value of that property. they're far more better off with self-worth than paying a little bit more down on the mortgage. there's no cookie cutter. I think that's what drives me crazy is people think they have to fit in this little box. Well, there's a lot of boxes now, and there's sometimes we have to go outside that box. So you just got to deal with somebody that kind of knows the boxes. Well, you're the one. You said cookie cutter. I've done a couple. You said cookie cutter made me think about food. So I love food. What do you know about food? Top three favorite places in the area. You recommend people to go check out. OK, so you've put me in a tough situation. It could be five. No. OK, so here's here's being in small town. My husband owns Swannard restaurant equipment company. We love all the restaurants. And we love all of our good customers through the equipment company. So I hesitate to pick any one as my favorite. I'm a junk food person. So I might not be your finest connoisseur of fine dining. But if I had to pick, gosh, I don't know whether I ought to do that or not. We're local. We love them all. We're so lucky here. ⁓ You know, to be such a small town. Where do you end up eating out the most when you go out to eat? Okay, here. I used to see you a lot at one particular place, but I don't know if I can you. so here you almost need to know what you want to eat before you know where to go. Do you want barbecue? you want Mexican? you want Japanese? What do you want? So I am sure that every couple in the world does the same thing we do every night. Where do you want to go? I don't care. You pick. I don't care. Where do you want? I mean this goes on every night. 30 minutes. So if I'm in the mood for Mexico, I'm going to probably pick Papas and beer. That's what I thought. El Paso, depending on which mood I'm in. Barbecue, love barbecue. I'm either going to to Mo's or even Hug Wild or there's some food trucks that are pretty good. Main Street. Okay. You got to love Shine. You got to love Bustero. ⁓ Cafe Rail. ⁓ The new one on 7th Avenue is delicious. Claywood? The new one. Yeah, I forget its name. ⁓ people are raving how wonderful that is. I mean, my gosh, you just pick any place. ⁓ Your steak, probably Binyons. Love-o-Bob. Rolls. Yes, lots of these rolls. Bloomin' Onion. Yes, it's delicious. ⁓ So yeah, we're eaters. Yeah, we eat out a lot. So and my gosh hot dog world. Yes, no one said that but it's right here. has to be everybody's staple go-to The killer is tamasi's closing at four o'clock on saturday I can never remember that so Yeah, but food look look at the look at this that just just walk down main street. Yep. You made lots of good suggestions. So how about if you somebody wants to an activity or somebody visits the area, hey, you need to go check out. Okay, so I'm going to tell you right now, the hot thing in Hendersonville is the Acoustic Trail. Well, you're sitting on it. You've got it. love it. It is amazing to me, the businesses that have sprung up, because I didn't get it. just, when they first, and it's been years that we've worked on getting the Acoustic Trail, I thought, yeah. You know, I've never really wanted to walk to Brevard, you know, but maybe some people do. I had no idea the economic impact and I had no idea how many people love the hiking, the bikes. It's just amazing. I'm shocked too. And you look at the businesses that sprung up, look at over at Trailside Brewing. Yep. That's a huge complex. You can't even get in the parking lot. I went with family to have coffee at a coffee shop there in Horseshoe. I've never seen that many people in a place in my life and they were bikes and they were on bikes and riding and all that. So we've always had the Pisco forest. We've had the trails. We've had the thing. This has been a huge impact, I think on Hendersonville. I agree. And fast too. It opens a few months. It opens and it's just like everything's exploding. I'm probably not as athletic as I should be because I sit in a chair for about 15 hours a day. But as we talked to customers, that was huge. And a lot of the reasons, and I'm always going to say, how did you find Andersonville? I mean, you're from Texas, you're from New York, you're from... And a lot of that will be our outdoor beauty, the hiking trails, the walking trails, that kind of thing. So that's huge. And I think another thing here that is so wonderful in activities, did you know that Henderson County has more summer camps than any other county east of the Mississippi? Wow. It's huge. Our camp industry is... Huge and we have so many people that come back here and they will tell me upfront I came to summer camp here every year growing up and it was my fondest childhood memories and I ever said if I could Retire that's where I'd come back to so I don't think people understand that these camps are not only a wonderful activity They're huge on on bringing people into Henderson County because they're just kind of a little silent Business going on and everybody enjoys it but the parents come they drop them off to pick them back up and then the kids grow up and it's big Yeah, will tell you the Acoustic Trail. I love walking I try to walk it every day. Yeah, just to get out you jump on it right here in your office. Yeah, you're right there easy. My kids laugh at me. I'd go a half mile and I'm back I need to go further, but that's all I got in me. That's okay have our other things. A biggie here is the Four Seasons. Distinct Four Seasons. ⁓ I tease them, I only like two of them. I'm a spring and summer person. I'm not good on being cold. But that is, that's amazing to people. I had one lady sit in my office and she had brought me a picture. She lived in Hawaii. And on the calendar, What's the palm tree in the, you know? And I said, my gosh, that's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. She takes Time's News out from under her arm, opens it up, and it's a picture of our fall colors. She said, no, that's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. And when you live here and you don't realize we have people coming from all over the country, all over the world to see these colors that we're just used to. But she said when you live where she lived in Hawaii, She said the sameness would drive her crazy. The temperature never varied more than a couple degrees. She said it got to the point you'd get up and go, God, another pretty day. And she'd watch Christmas Hallmark specials and be so jealous because people are snowing and they're out sledding and they've got their cute little Christmas sweaters on. She said, you don't do that. So that's huge. That is huge here is the city of four distinct seasons. Another thing is our diverse economy. I mean look at me different, I mean we've got the apple industry, we've got all kinds of textiles, we've got tourism. There is such a diversified that we're not dependent on any one business. We're not like the old mill towns that if the mill closed you shut down. is the economy is booming here. And then our low crime rate. while we might fuss about speeding down or being stuck on Four Seasons Boulevard in the Kamikaze turn lane, we don't appreciate the safety of living here. ⁓ People from Charlotte and all that, they come up here and they're just amazed that we don't lock our doors or have our tires stolen off our cars while we're parked. And they said... We walk down Main Street at night and I'm going, uh-huh. We won't even drive downtown. And they get out and it's this freedom to just walk up and Main Street and nobody's gonna muck in there. You're sitting happy and the bursar's open and you eat out on the sidewalk. So I think that's a huge plus here. The Four Seasons, the low crime rate, the diverse economy, cost of living. While we fuss, ⁓ check some of these tax bills from... where these other people are coming from or just utilities and stuff. I'm going, gosh, or insurance premiums. Yeah. It's much better on a, from a national scale. Absolutely. Yeah. If you look at it, you, if you've ever been experienced in what it's like everywhere else, then you begin to appreciate, you know, fuss is loud, you know, when, the tax bill went up, it's really cause look what I paid for a half of the house. So, you know, it's just, it's just one of those areas. We are in like one of the top in the country of the most desirable small towns to come to. So some of us that are born and raised here, we forget how lucky we are that we're already here and we're not trying to buy into Well Carolyn, we're winding out of time, so thank you very much. loved it. Yes, we need to have you again. We'll talk about I would love for people to by and stop by the bank on food. My office is located, we're right there on Four Seasons, but we're at the red light where you would turn left to go into Walmart and Sam's and Staples. Next to the car wash. I'm on the right and I'm smack between the big car wash and the Golden Corral restaurant. You can just pull in there and we always have coffee. We'd love people to stop by. It's a cross chick-fil-a. In that just a unique situation. to remember and Dunkin' Donuts. And Cookout. can fit Jack in a box. mean, eating is ⁓ easy out there. We can just shoot out and shoot back in. So yeah, that's a good location for us. And it seems that people go to Walmart every day. So you're going there anyway, you can just whip in and come in office and speak to us while you're out there. Popcorn Fridays, we have popcorn every Friday. That's awesome. Yeah. Tell everybody your number one more time. Cell number, 828-606-3578. Awesome. Office number, if you want to be real professional, and this does not go through switchboard, you're not going to get hung up, this will go right into my office as a private line in my office, 828... 697-3469. Awesome. Thank you Carolyn very much for taking time. I appreciate it was fun. Thank y'all for watching and or listening and keep living local. Local. Yes. Number one local.