Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Dawn Morin, Branch Manager with Equity First Financial

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

Her goal is to make your mortgage loan experience heartfelt and ensure all home loan options are presented. Her mortgage services and expertise are offered in many states. She works with First-Time Home buyers to Savvy Home Investors earning confidence and trust through exemplary actions and communication. The entire loan process is completed within her branch office and always provides mortgage closing funds at least a day before the closing date. Dawn’s greatest attribute recognized by her clients is my ability to identify a loan product that will maximize their lending possibilities. Dawn educates clients throughout the loan process and works with high standards of ethics and professional courtesy. Her passion as a mortgage originator is to provide a service with a successful result – Close on time!Learn more:http://morinhomeloans.com/Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/elite-real-estate-leaders-podcastSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-dawn-morin-branch-manager-with-equity-first-financial

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 us, Don Morin, who's a branch manager with Equity First Financial. Don, welcome to the program. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

You are welcome. I would love to start off. I always like starting off conversations with, tell me your story. You know, like there's so much that you can learn about people's background. So how did you get into the financial services mortgage, a lending industry in the first place? Well, it's kind of a funny story. I actually started out in restaurant management. and then I owned and operated a restaurant and catering company for more than 10 years. And as I was getting a little bit older, I decided I didn't want to run a restaurant any longer or work those long hours or weekends. And so I decided that I would look at another opportunity to where I could be in control of my own hours and income.

And I wasn't capped on income. And so that's how I landed in the lending industry. And that's pretty much helpful. Did you know someone that was a lender and they introduced you? No. I actually knew a group of realtors that I was friends with. And that's kind of how it happened because they were kind of complaining about the lenders that they were working with. Disatisfied. So it kind of put a little spark in me to do some research on that. And that's how it all started. You know, it's interesting. I always like to read between the lines and extract out nuggets of knowledge and truth. And what I heard there was networking, right? You were looking for something and you didn't, you went to your network. You went to these contacts you had, these real estate agents. And then you noticed pain and frustration. They were complaining that, oh, well, we can't. And you thought maybe to yourself right then, maybe I can be that solution. Maybe I should do that. And I think that's so interesting. interesting because I feel like we all have opportunities that come across our consciousness, our path, our day, every single day, every single week, we just need to slow down enough to

watch for them and capitalize on them. And I think that is so neat of an example of how you got from the restaurant business into the lending business. Yes. But you got a little shock when you learned that hours were not much different, except for you could do it remotely. Correct. I still work next to the weekend. I thought I'd throw that in there. Yeah, you can name your own schedule, but yeah, it's definitely not a punch out, punch in. And, you know, I've often used the example before, like, hey, if you are an airline pilot and you take vacation,

some other pilot flies the plane. But in the real estate mortgage industry, when you're out of the office or on vacation, it's rare that you have the freedom to have someone else completely know exactly what's going on with every file, every client. So you tend to kind of always be on. But, you know,

that's kind of that aspect of serving and giving and providing value. So I'm sure that that is part of your DNA coming out of the restaurant business. Absolutely. So what kind of, when you got initially into the business, what kind of borrowers were you working with? How did you serve your clients? When I very first started, my main focus was first-time homebuyers. I remembered when I was a first-time home buyer, and I didn't really have anybody to help guide me through the process.

And I remembered how frustrating that was. And I just needed somebody to really just explain it to me, explain it to me, explain. the process. I was brand new at it, somebody to kind of handhold me a little bit. And that was where I felt that I could be the most of value for people is to help people guide them through that process where I didn't have that guidance. So that's where I started was with first-time homebuyers. And then, of course, it just evolved from there. The more experience you gain as well with yourself in the industry. And the more you help people, the more experiences you have. And then the better you can become and the more people you can help.

You know, it kind of fold upon itself where that first-time homebuyer and you develop that relationship with them, well, years down the road, they need to sell and buy something else. Well, now they're not a first-time home buyer, but they need to, you know, get financing for their next place or, oh, we want to fix up our place. So I think it's really just neat that you just kind of keep building those relationships and then you see what opportunities present themselves. Absolutely. They're also so thankful, right?

I mean, I feel like the first time I bought a house when someone walked me through it, I was like, you're my lifesaver. So I feel like it's just kind of a relief almost from other people who aren't as grateful. Like they've done a million transactions and they're kind of like just do your job. And then you know, you get the first time home buyer and they're like, oh my gosh, let me bend over backward to get you the stock. And you're like, wow, this is twice a difference here. For sure, for sure.

So what are you, oh, go ahead. I was just going to say, I still keep in contact with those very, very first people I've helped. And then I've helped them. I've helped their kids, other family members, and so on and so forth. But I still keep in contact with those, even those very first ones that I helped 15 years ago. Right. That's the best referral source, honestly. Mm-hmm.

That's awesome. So what are you focusing on these days in addition to, you know, first-time homebuyers when they come up or second-time homebuyers, but what kind of loan programs are your focus now? So now I've shifted to, of course, I still maintain doing residential and helping first-time homebuyers and everybody else who needs a residential loan. But I've switched, I've shifted gears a little bit in helping small businesses. large businesses, anybody who needs any kind of business lending. If you need some money for equipment leasing, for startup, SBA loans, all of those types of loans, I'm now being able to offer those. And it's pretty exciting, especially coming from someone who owned a restaurant and had to navigate that all those years ago.

I had an SBA back loan when I opened my first restaurant. So that it's pretty cool. So I have experience on the other side of the process. So I think it gives a lot of value for me to be able to help those people who are new or scared or, you know, just really don't know anything about the process. 100%. And, you know, you might find that first time home buyer that you stay in touch with wants to buy a business. and then they need a commercial loan to buy that business for that startup. What are some of the key differences between commercial lending and residential lending for the borrower?

So there's two kinds of credit, actually, and a lot of people don't know this. So there's your personal credit where basically that's what we do to qualify you for a residential home loan. But there's also a business credit profile. And a lot of people don't know that they're not connected. They're two separate things. So I also am able to help navigate. So somebody might have a wonderful 750 credit score, but their business credit score is not good or fair or below par

because they don't know how to maintain that business credit profile. So I would be able to help you set up your business credit profile or what you need to do to show that you're just, the strong of a business borrower as you are a personal borrower. So that's one of the differences and one of the ways that I can help folks with their commercial piece of it. So when the commercial lender looks at a file, are they literally not looking at the personal credit of the borrower?

Or are they focusing more on the business side and then they balance it with the personal? So some don't even look at your personal at all. They only look at your business profile, but most look at both. Yeah, you'd have to. I mean, I would think you would have to. So I know on the personal side of things, it's pretty common to have someone in the lending industry go, oh, if you have issues, I can help you correct this or update that or increase your credit score because if you pay down credit cards, that could be helpful.

don't close them down, you know, things like that. What are some of the things that a business credit file, what could you do to improve or build your business credit file? Because maybe there's some people looking to do a startup or get that SBA loan and maybe they have a blank slate. Where do they start? So they would start with creating a business bank account and under your business entity name. So you would go to your local bank and open up a business bank.

and open up a business bank account. And that's basically where you start is there. And then from there, you can get credit cards in your business name. You can start building business that way. You can put some of your... So say you're a... Let's see, say you have a paint store and you have a delivery service.

and that delivery service needs a van. You can put that van in your business name, and that's another way how you could grow business credit. Just like if you were to buy a car, a personal car for yourself, that's going to go on your personal credit. And that, so it's basically the same for business as it is for personally.

You're just putting those assets and those things in your business name. Yeah, and you might have the cash for that van. You know, you might be thinking, oh, I've got the cash for it. But hold on, maybe to build my business credit file, let's go ahead and get a loan in the name of the business. And then I'll make payments so that I'm building it similar to building your personal credit side. But I think it just kind of takes that from what you're hearing you say, it takes that focus and know that if I need to get that loan and they're going to look at the business credit file side of things. And I don't have much. Well, how do I start building?

and that's a really good example. Yeah, and that's exactly how you do it. I know this is a common question on the residential side, right? There's this huge controversy. Do you need 20% for a down payment? And obviously, we know the answer's no, but I'm kind of agreeing in the commercial side. What does that look like?

Do you need that 20% down payment or can you do the SBA loan without it? How does that all work? You can. So SBA loan is basically like an FHA residential loan. The minimum required down is basically going to be the same as an FHA loan. So you're not going to need as much down. Now, if you're going to go a different route, yes, you probably would need 10 or 20% down. And in some cases, 30, it would depend on the credit profile.

And everybody's different. Everybody's situation is different. Just like everybody's, every business is different. There really aren't any two that are really, you know, the same when it comes to your credit profile and your needs. things like that. So a restaurant might be a little bit more risky than, say, you know, a dentist office. So the dentist office, their overhead is probably not as much. Their cost of goods is probably not as much. So it all depends on the risk factor. Some businesses are riskier than others. And there's a, you know, there's a formula there that will determine where you fall in your risk factor.

And then that will determine, you know, what kinds of terms and lending and money that you can get with that. And similar to a first-time home buyer where maybe you would want to start with an FHA loan, which is lower down payment, then over time when the house gets more and more equity built up, maybe then you look at replacing that with a conventional loan. It's probably the same with an SBA loan, right, where maybe you would want to start with an SBA loan and then over time, once there's established, you know, history and whatnot, maybe then get into a more conventional side of things. Would that be the same kind of a setup? Yes, it would. So most of the SBA loans, they're adjustable rates. So when, you know, yeah. So when the, you know, when the rate adjust, when the margin adjust, then so there's, you know, there's.

your payment. So you'll want to, you know, keep an eye on that. And it's great for people who are basically new now on SBA loans. A lot of them, they require that you're in business for three years before you can get an SBA loan. But there are some SBA startup funds as well. There's also other ways to get money to get yourself start, to get started up. And then after you're in business for a couple of years, then switch to an SBA loan if you need a bigger space. If you want to expand or do more things, that's another way to look at an SBA loan because you don't have to have so much down. You don't have to have that 20% down. So there's so many ways to get that kind of funding. How many, are you just one product or are you a bank or do you

have access to multiple products, kind of similar to a broker. How does that work? So yes, I am a broker, a commercial loan broker as well. So basically, I could get money for people who just maybe need a little help with cash flow. There's cash flow loans. There's startup loans. There's money to get equipment. Say you work in a ski area. And there's certain months. that business is just booming, but then there's other months where people aren't skiing and maybe business owners need some money to just kind of to get through till the busy part comes again, to maybe make payroll or make some upgrades or changes or things like that. There's loans out there for that as well.

Okay, that's interesting because I know with a bank, you know, like you say they only have one thing, one person that they can kind of approve. But if I were to have some less than favorable terms, you could find someone for me. Absolutely. And some of the lenders, there are a few of them that will go down even with your business credit score and your personal credit score down to a 580. Now, yeah. Now, let's face it, when there's challenges and there's more risk, because that goes to your credit profile, the rate, of course, is going to be higher and the terms are probably going to going to be shorter. Okay. Like the, how many years it is? Is that what you mean? May terms? Correct. And it could be, you maybe only need a short term loan for 12 months.

Sure. Those are, those are out there too. What's the highest you go out to? How many years? 30 year, 30 year fixed. Say you, yeah, say you purchased a piece of property and you just, you know, it's going to be your business. It could go that high or it could be as short as nine months. You know, it depends on each. Sorry, go ahead. No, I was going to say, you know, I kind of considered myself, someone who knew a lot about lending,

but I didn't know a whole lot about the commercial side. So I think a lot of people are going to listen to this and really get a lot of them. I'm trying to ask you questions that I'm like, how does this make sense? So I appreciate you answering all cuts. Well, it's great. I'm happy to help. really am. And it's, it's an area where I personally have experience from being the other side, on the other side being the borrower, and now the experience of being the lender and that how there are,

not everybody fits in one box. Every situation is different. And I find it incredibly rewarding and interesting to find out about all of these different things, different businesses, why people need money, what they need money for, equipment leasing. And equipment leasing doesn't mean that you just rent it. Equipment leasing means you lease it until it's paid off and you own it. That's what equipment leasing is. Okay. So Don, I know that you can read the headlines every day and things change and, you know, rates are up, rates are down. The economy's great. The economy's not. What are some of the things you're seeing currently in commercial lending regarding kind of trends? And then where are you seeing things going? Because I think that there'll always be

a need for people wanting to buy their first home. But then when rates go up, it kind of cools off a little bit until things move. What do you see in that same realm on the commercial side? So the commercial side, it seems to be a little bit busier because when things cost more money or people are on terms. So say you send an invoice out, say you are a person who sells dental equipment. Actually, not equipment. Let's say if you're a person who sells like all of the things that dentists need for their supplies. okay so like their they're gauze their whatever dentists need but you're on a 30 day term so you're the supplier and you've sent out the product but the the business the dentist that you sent it to

has 30 days to pay you well you need to keep buying goods to be able to supply these people in the interim while it takes them they're 30 or 60 days to pay you so there's there's loans out there that you can get based on your invoices that you have out. So that is another way to kind of help. And I've kind of seen more of those loans as, you know, people take time. But you still have to be able to keep your wheel going with your supply chain and to be able to get stuff so that you can sell that out as well. So to be able to keep yourself going.

So let's say that a business comes to you, gets the loan, you get into that first whatever the business is. Let's use restaurant as an example. And things are clipping along two, three, four years down the road and they want to expand. And okay, now let's do another loan, another loan. I know on the residential side of things, there tends to be a cap on the number of loans that someone could have in a, maybe an FHA could have a cap of whatever the number is. Is there a cap on the commercial side of things to where, oh, I'm sorry, you have five loans to get five restaurants. They're doing wonderful, but we can't do that anymore. What does that look like?

So that is actually on an individual basis, and it's going to go according to an individual profile. So your profile. So there could be a restaurant owner who needs a loan because he needed new refrigeration or he needed new chairs. So each one of those vendors, you know, where he got equipment from or whatever he needed the loans for, maybe he does have five, but they're offered for different things. something like that, you can't really kind of put a big blanket on it. It would be an individual thing and how they're paying their stuff. There are some lenders, though, that will not loan to you if you have more than two business loans out. And then there are some that will. So it would really just depend. So just like with banks, there are some banks. If you were to buy rental properties,

they might cap you at five properties where another one might go to 10. So again, it would depend on the institution that's doing the lending and your particular credit profile. Just like with most things, there's never one answer for everybody. It's a case by case. Let's see what works. Let's ask the right questions. Let's see what the needs are and craft the best solution for you. And you being a lender versus a captured bank type of a situation, you can go out and shop and find the very best circumstance for it.

that borrower and really, really put their best foot forward. So I think that's a huge takeaway there from what you're from what you're describing. Yeah, absolutely. And I've had people come to me where they have been turned down by, say, Chase or Wells or one of the big ones. And they're like, but my credit is good. And I don't understand why I'm not getting that. And that's where I help them with their business credit profile, because that is one of the factors. And then, you know, Presto changeo, I'm able to get them the financing that they were initially looking for. It's just by doing things like that and meeting with the people and just looking at the whole picture and seeing how we can help them. And I actually do help a lot of people who have been

denied by the bigger banks and I am able to get them done. I love it. Well, Dawn, it's been really eye-opening and interesting to hear how you got into the business and then now your passion for commercial lending and some of the tips and strategies that you're using. If someone is listening to this thinking maybe there's some ways that you can help them, how can they learn more and then also reach out and connect with you? Well, by all means, you can go to our website. And secondly, you could call me. And my phone number 720-376-108.

And I answer my phone whenever I am available. Excellent. Well, Don, thank you so much for coming on today. It's been a true pleasure talking with you. Thank you so much. And equally the same. It has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much.

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.org.com.