Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Conor Bodaken, Loan Officer with Aslan Home Lending

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

Having built a career around financial planning, Aslan’s Conor Bodaken understands the importance a loan plays in every client’s financial well-being. This holistic approach helps Conor sift through the lending options available, zeroing in on the best solutions tailored to each client’s specific needs and wants.Says Conor, “Getting to know my clients and doing what’s right for them is the core of everything I do. Let’s work together and bring the dream of owning or refinancing your home to fruition. I will do everything in my power to help you better your position for financial success in the long term.”When not working with his clients, Conor loves spending time with his, wife son, and daughter. As an avid sports fan, Conor volunteers as a coach on his kids’ athletic teams, serving as a role model in teaching how hard work can lead to great successLearn more:https://www.aslanhlc.com/cbodaken/Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/elite-real-estate-leaders-podcastSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-conor-bodaken-loan-officer-with-aslan-home-lending

Welcome to the Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcast, brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group, bringing you interviews with the best real estate and mortgage professionals, empowering you to understand the current trends in the housing market so that you make the American dream your reality. Enjoy today's episode. Welcome to the Elite Real Estate Leaders podcast. Today we have with this Connor Bodakin, who's a loan officer with Aslan Home Lending. Connor, welcome to the program. Hey, Mike.

Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it. You are welcome. I want to hear all about what you do and how you do it. I get us started first with your story and background. And how did you get into the industry in the first place? It was a interesting transition. You know, it was actually, so I just wrapped up my third year. It's been a wild journey to say the least. But about, you know, right around August of 2020, I was transitioning jobs. And frankly, I had no idea what exactly I want to. to do next. And I had assigned so much importance as to what I did for a living until I read Simon Cynix, find your why. And that kind of took it back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And that was really where it was less so much about the title and whatever professional, you know, persona I was trying to put on and more about, okay, why do I enjoy this? Why do I enjoy doing what I do? And that gave me a chance to reflect, again, not so much on what I did, but enjoying the specific ideas or things at work that I do.

And after kind of going through that discovery process, my wife and as well as a very close friend of mine suggested right about at the same time I was reading that book, I look into getting into mortgage and started making some connections there. And then, well, let's just say the rest, the rest, Mike, is history, as they would say. And that's really where I was blessed enough to to get into some networking groups and networked around and eventually got connected with a loan officer who works for the company that I now worked for. And once he introduced me to our boss, Kerry Gussmas, that was just probably one of the most amazing connections I had had up until that point in my life. And again, rest is history.

You know, I love that you started off with the why, because whether it's Simon Siddick's book or just the concept of, you know, why am I here? What am I doing this for? Is it to make a gazillion dollars? Well, guess what? The mortgage industry these days is a hard uphill battle. You know, you can make a buck or two, but it's way harder these days. So I don't think you got into it so that you could make, you know, gazillions of dollars.

You got into it because you had a connection, a relationship. But the overriding umbrella kind of 30,000 foot view was, you know, I discovered my why. And this is now the vehicle and the platform. that is going to help me implement my why. So talk a little bit about what the why is. So my why that I kind of got to was I really enjoyed helping people find a sustainable way and really to not only build relationships with people, but find a sustainable way to manage their finances. And again, it wasn't just logically flowing into like a financial advisor or something like that. I liked working with numbers and I enjoyed showing people how that can work for them,

but also really building those long-term, sustainable relationships so that it becomes a win-win. And when you start to see those lights turn on in people of you're building a plan for them, they're starting to see the results and outcomes of that plan and their lives are getting better. I mean, frankly, that was, to me, there was not maybe a ton of options within that Y, but there was, you know, just enough where it made sense. And that's, that's ultimately kind of taking that no, no BS approach and really exuding that passion for people, helping them make their lives better. That's really where it all came to, you know, a Y for me. And then that's parlayed into, yeah, where I am today.

You know, it's interesting because if you go dig deeper into that, you're like, what is so impactful about helping people understand financial decisions and things? And yeah, you mentioned financial planner and I work a lot with planners and people need to plan for retirement. Got it. But a mortgage is so integral in your daily life to get into that American dream, buying your home, refinance your home, all of those things. And it's such a strong piece of a financial portfolio because if it's done the right way,

it's a solid foundation. If it's put together the wrong way, it can be a travesty. And we saw that a decade or so ago with the whole mortgage meltdown, you know, with the bad toxic loans. And they really were. And, you know, you get into a bad loan that people think, oh, this is just great. And one day they wake up in their whole, you know, financial foundation is. is crumbling. And so that's an observation that I had while you were describing that.

But here's an interesting factoid. Do you know what the Latin derivative of the word mortgage is? I do not, though. No, tell me. So this will tie even deeper into your why and solidify why you need to make sure you are guiding people the right way. Because like, I don't speak many languages, but I know that in Spanish, I don't speak any other language other than uh english and then that i'm doing halfway decent app but you know like mort year more tier is like death so mort is death and then gauge grip the the latin derivative of that

word mortgage is a death grip and in reality a mortgage can be a death grip if it's done the wrong way and you're strapped and you got too big of a mortgage or it adjusted up and so talk a little bit about now with that thought in mind, how you serve your borrowers, whether it's buying home or refinancing, with some of those like overarching guiding principles to help them make those good decisions. Well, and I like that you brought that up. And as it's so funny, I have never heard that before. And that's actually, you could use that, even though you could take it and use it. I am definitely taking it and using it. And I'm going to hopefully in a way that is humorous and and try to offer at least a little bit of levity to the situation.

But, you know, I think you make a great point about you think of it from, or at least I think of it from the perspective of, you're helping somebody make essentially the biggest financial decision of their lives. This is most likely going to be their biggest liability and inevitably their biggest asset as well. And so this is a massive part of their financial plan. And like you said, when done poorly, it does not go. well and we saw examples of that and that was really mostly centered around greed and and self-fulfilling

prophecy and and like you said in terms of uh ways that kind of going back into what you were saying about the why there's all sorts of different ways in this world that one can make money and that's you know there's things that can open the doors too but really inevitably if i'm doing this the right way money will be made my family will be taken care of but just as importantly, so will theirs. And that's really what a lot of it's about. So in terms of, you know, counseling, a lot of it starts just from the very first conversation. So asking questions like, tell me about your goals, you know, both in the short term and the long term, even if it doesn't necessarily have to do strictly with home financing. You know, I always like to take those holistic

lenses when I'm looking at working with a client for the very first time, finding out what's truly important to them. There are more specific questions that we get into, such as, you know, what are the objectives specifically with this transaction? But then, again, I always want to tie it back to how is this going to impact that bigger picture. And if we're making the right decisions based upon that information that is specific to that client and their situation and what's going on in their world today, everything will take care of itself. And that's when, again, things go the right way instead of like you were saying back in the 2008 the financial crisis in 2008-2009 that's when those decisions were not being made based on those those that evaluation so

that's really where I like to get started even before I start asking any sort of personal information or application information it really is about let's get the right mindset going into this and I want to get on, you know, and make that a collaborative experience with the client so that they feel just as a part of it as I am. Yeah. You know, I was interviewing a financial planner this week and I asked the question like, hey, what are some of your strategies for advising your clients on building wealth and retirement? He said, well, the first, and I was like, oh, here it comes. And he goes, the first thing is I don't give any advice until I get information. And I ask them questions and I take them through this assessment questionnaire because, you know, prescripts without diagnosis is

malpractice, as they say. So I love that you said that because when you get the big things in place, then all the other things like, oh, what kind of loan product? We know that'll fall into place. So do you tend to work more with one type of borrower versus another? Like do you work with first-time homebuyers mostly or military? What is what is your mix of how you serve your clients? I'm generally, you know, really first-time homebuyers. has been who I've gravitated to, I would say at least, you know, half my transactions thus far have been mostly first-time home buyers. However, it's been also kind of a nice mix between that, move-up buyers, and then also certain investor groups. So we have some more niche things that are really more designed specifically for investors or self-employed clients. But in particular for investors who are consistent investors, whether we're looking at short-term or long-term, And that's really where, again, we get deeper into those sorts of financial or investment goals. But then even with a first-time home buyer, I think a lot of it in the beginning is just education.

And so it's again asking those right questions of even just starting with what would owning a home mean to you? I mean, that first question can be so impactful and really invokes that emotion that really really a lot of it is an emotional experience as we're going through this. Money is, of course, a very emotional thing within itself. And we're obviously talking about large sums of money when we're buying a home. So, I mean, that, I think connecting with that, especially with a first time home buyer, and really discovering who they are, where they're at, what their goals are, and then, again, laying forth what the plan is going to be.

And the last thing I'll say on that is also trying my best. And I know sometimes it's easier than others depending on the situation. But trying my absolute best to really simplify this plan because that's some of the biggest issues I think in our industry. And I know I could certainly get better at this. I'm sure we can all get better at this. But really presenting it in a very clear and simple way, there's a lot that can go into it. and it definitely feels like drinking from a fire hose at times. But I enjoy playing that role of,

hey, it's okay. If I need to be your counselor, I'll put that hat on. If I need to just kind of talk through things and go through those sort of things and make it less maybe about the finances and more about, hey, talk to me about what's going on. Let's get into the fears around this sort of stuff.

I mean, there's obviously a lot when we're making these big decisions. So I would say, Yeah, those different markets are the folks that I've been able to connect with the best and have been able to serve the best. And so within those two, with for some homebuyers and also specialty investors, what are some of the things that sets you apart with the programs you have access to? Because I'm only assuming that you don't just have one loan product for every single person. You've got your lender that can choose from dozens and dozens so you can assess what's needed. and then select a good product.

But what are some of the things that set you apart that people go, ooh, that makes a whole lot of sense? So that's one of the beautiful things about being with Aslan is we are a true residential mortgage broker. So we have over 75 different investors and lenders that we have affiliated partnerships with. And I say that really just as a way to show that we've got options, a lot of options. So even in that first-time home buyer space, you usually run into things like looking

it, we do have programs that offer them a lower mortgage insurance. So it's going to effectively lower that monthly payment. Things like down payment assistance, we have over 10 to 12 different down payment assistance programs just in the state of Colorado. There's obviously other programs that are even nationally offered. So we have all sorts of things within that space, depending upon what the obstacle or barrier that may exist to get into that loan, we'll, we'll have an option for them and be able to work through it. In terms of the specialty investor side, yes, we do have some things where we actually do not look at the specific income from the investor themselves, such as like the W2, 1099 income.

We look at just the income generated from the property itself. So we look, it's more property specific and not having to do with their existing portfolio. and it's more about looking just at the income, the property itself generates versus the other income streams that they bring in as well. That's a big one because I know that a lot of investors, they want their CPA to hide and do all the legal great things to reduce as much income as possible until Uncle Sam, oh, I make this little bit, so I'm taxed a little bit. But then they tell the banker, lender like you, oh, look at all this big amount I make, but you're like, hold up. I can't use the big amount because look at all the writeoffs. I've got to use this little amount. So now when you're looking at not the personal side of the income,

you're looking at the property itself and is the property going to cash flow, that's a pretty big competitive advantage. Absolutely. And that's, you know, one of those things. And we see this sometimes, you know, to your point about the, you know, hiding some stuff from Uncle Sam, we see that a lot on the self-employed side too. We have, you know, self-employed clients. Just write-offs, regular old write-offs that are just fine to take.

but their write-offs. And unfortunately, the way that our conventional and FHA and certain guidelines are set up, you know, it's one of the, it kind of puts a client in a position where it's, do we want the loan or do we want to pay less taxes? Because unfortunately, we can't have both. So this is where we can kind of get a little creative and get outside the box a bit to find something that is tailored to their specific situation based on, like you said, what is on the tax returns or what's not on the tax returns.

or what's not on the tax returns, but then also be able to give a competitive option that is more based upon the actual income being generated from either their portfolio or the property itself. And then on the first from a home buyer or the non-investor side, one thing that jumped out of me from what you're saying is you're able to get some programs that have lower private mortgage insurance. And I was curious about that because I know that when you put less than 20% down, then that can trigger the PMI added payment in there, but I didn't know that you had any control over that. It's almost seems to me like when you have PMI, it's this calculation. Here it is. But talk a little bit about how you have a little bit of flexibility because that sure helps with the payment.

Absolutely. And that's, so we do have, you know, a couple of our lenders and investors who it is an internal decision within their own policies. And we just simply get to benefit from it that with specific first time and it specifically offered for first time home buyers that they will get even for the same amount of a down payment as say a second or third time home buyer, they will still get a lower monthly mortgage insurance. And it is when we look at, of course, those monthly payments, we figure in everything, principal interest, taxes, insurance, as well as mortgage insurance. So it's anything that we can do to effectively lower that monthly payment, and especially here in the state of Colorado. Affordability is the number one topic that is going to probably stay that way

for the foreseeable future with our home values. So anything that we can do to effectively lower that monthly payment, especially for our first time home buyer, we absolutely want to do our best to make that impact. 100%. Well, I know that if we were to say today's date is and Today's rate is that would not be helpful because tomorrow it's going to change and next week is going to change up down and all around. So it doesn't matter what rate that we're getting today. But talk a little bit about the decisions that go into the rate environment, meaning rates are higher than they were two years ago, but it is what it is. So what advice do you give your borrowers regarding rates? Should they pay extra to buy it down?

Should they do special programs to keep that kind of a lower rate? rate or what options do they have? So that is, I'll say this, Mike, that's a fantastic question, but it is very difficult to answer because so many different, like you said, so many different factors go into that environment. I mean, there's about 15, 20 different factors that will go into each individual person's interest rate. Needless to say, that's actually part of when we go, get into that initial review, and I'm sitting down with a client for the first time, we talk about prioritizing things like monthly payment or the overall cost of borrowing. So closing costs, certain things like interest rate buy downs and looking at those different

programs that frankly, let's say they may be a little bit higher cost up front, but they offer a lower monthly payment. Is that something that would appeal or work for certain clients in certain situations? And again, as a broker, we have a lot of autonomy and flexibility with what we can offer to that client that is specific to their strategy and their objectives of what they're trying to do. So absolutely, when it comes to interest rates, it is, we always present it, or at least I like to present it as a range of this is most likely which you can look to expect, but at the same time when we actually get into the specifics of a loan. And that's when we can find out what are there, not only what their objectives are, but what they're going to qualify for what's available and

eligible to them. And the last thing I'll say is I really enjoy presenting options, because options, of course, gives us an idea of, okay, do I want to take a little bit of a higher monthly payment for less cost up front or vice versa? And there's all sorts of- You know, it reminds me of the commercials you see on TV from the car dealers that say, oh, look at our app, it has this slider. And if you, the more you put down, then it changes your payment this way and it's just like, which, you know, stop sliding it when you feel comfortable. Like, you know, here's the payment. Oh, that's too high.

So if I go down there. Oh, okay, I could do that much. So options are huge. It's, it's kind of like you, you know, if this, then that. If you do it this way, then here's what the payment is. But if you do it that way, then here's what the payment is. Your choice doesn't matter to me because you're just giving them advice and guidance. And I think that's the big key.

I'm glad that you covered that aspect. So, you know, there's always, always. always going to be people that just are confused and don't know the process. And it's great to know that you have that teacher attitude, that educator approach. So I think that is spectacular. And if someone is listening to this thinking, I need to learn more. How can I reach out and connect with? Connor, what's the best way that they can do that? So the best way to reach out to me is my cell call or text me. And it's area code 415-250-250-250-8. 7-5-3. And that's, that's easily, even just shooting a text, call, whatever works best for you.

I would love to get in touch and connect. And I love, by the way, Mike, that you use the words advice and guidance, because that's actually a lot of the words that I use. And the one little, I guess, tag on word that I would throw onto that is also offering clarity. I think when we can offer some clarity, certainty, and in that advice and guidance for a client, client, everything falls into place and we all end up in a win-win situation. So yes, please again, call or text that number and I would love an opportunity to help. Excellent. Well, Connor, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you. Hey, thank you so much for the time. Thank you for the thoughtful questions. I appreciate it as well.

Thank you for listening to the Elite Real Estate Leaders podcast, brought to you by Trailstone Insurance group. To learn more about the topics mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.org.com.com.