Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Gabby Malara, Mortgage Broker with DNVR Lending, LLC.

Episode Date: October 6, 2023

Gabby is a mortgage broker with over three years of experience in the mortgage industry. She comes from a family background in real estate, and her college education was focused on this field, which has helped her develop a deep understanding of the industry and a passion for assisting clients in achieving their real estate goals.Throughout Gabby’s career, She has had the opportunity to work with a variety of clients, ranging from first-time homebuyers to seasoned investors. Her expertise in mortgage lending has allowed her to guide clients through the intricate process of securing a mortgage, from pre-qualification to closing. In addition to providing exceptional service to her clients, she has also formed strong relationships with industry partners, including real estate agents, to ensure a smooth and successful transaction for all parties involved.She makes sure to stay up to date on industry trends and regulations and actively participates in multiple organizations within my community. During her free time, Gabby enjoys traveling, trying out new restaurants, and spending quality time with her family and friends.Learn more:https://www.dnvrlending.com/Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/elite-real-estate-leaders-podcastSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-gabby-malara-mortgage-broker-with-dnvr-lending-llc

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 Gabby Malara, who's a mortgage broker with DNVR lending. Gabby, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me.

Hey, I'm looking forward to talking with you. And I always like to start off with the question, what's your story? What's your background and how did you get into the industry? Because so many times people that are in real estate, whether it's real estate side or lending side, there's a really interesting path that sometimes is unique to them. So what is your story? And how did you get into the business? Yeah. So funny thing is, is mine's really not that interesting. I kind of chose this path at a young age. I grew up in a real estate family. And so I always kind of knew the industry when I was younger. My mom was a real estate agent. My brother was a title rep. And then I had some other family members in the business. So it sparked my interest when I was younger. And when I went off to college, I was able to

add real estate undergraduate degree. And that degree was actually really heavy in finance. And I remember one of my real estate finance classes ended up being one of my favorite classes that I took at my university. And that's kind of what pushed me to the mortgage side of things. So when I graduated, you know, I had a lot of connections in the business just because of my family. And I got hired at a big mortgage company in Denver and have basically been doing mortgages ever since. So I'm up on about four years now coming up on my fourth year. And it's, yeah, it's been crazy. I've seen a lot of different markets in the four years that I've been doing it, some good, some bad. And but yeah, that's kind of my story and the good will come back the bad will come back and it's like like anything

you know if you talk with a financial advisor you know oh look the stock markets they're up one day and down the next that's the way that life and cycles and business work so i think that that's a really interesting and solid observation you know a lot of times i don't hear of people that are in the mortgage industry that have a real estate slash finance degree a lot of times it's just oh yeah i got you know, my mortgage certification and whatever. But I think that having that academic background and foundation is really strong. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely helped me surprisingly. Like just what I learned in school has carried over so much into the business now. And yeah, you're right. Like not a lot of people have gone to school for this. Not a lot of people

grow up and are like, oh, I want to be a mortgage broker. But yeah, it was just something that strikeed my interest, you know, so. And like you said, you had parents in the industry, title, real estate agent, but you gravitated toward the number side of things. So of course, then lending would make, make, it's way there. So I know that there are mortgage lenders and there are mortgage brokers. Talk a little bit about what side of the equation you're on as well as what are the differences. Yeah. So I actually started out as a correspondent lender, which is kind of like, when you think of a lender. That's kind of the big companies, you know. And so I started out as a correspondent lender.

And basically that is when everything is in-house. So funding takes place in-house. There's in-house underwriters, processors, all of that, like in the same building as you. So there was some perks to that side of mortgage lending. Because if you had a problem or anything, you could walk down the hall and, you know, bang on your underwriter's door and be like, hey, we have this problem. Like, how can we fix it? But it ended up, the correspondence said, you know, as the market started to shift, it just ended up not being like the best for me or my clients. And that's when I was introduced to go over to the broker side of things. And the main difference is we work with several different lenders that, you know, we send

our loans to, depending on who has the best rate or best loan products. So we get a shop kind of for our clients. Funding doesn't take place in-house, you know, whatever lender we are using, they have their own underwriters. So we don't have an in-house underwriter. But the biggest perk on the broker side of things is our interest rates are a lot better. And that's what brought me over to the broker's side is because I just, you know, it's hard competing with other lenders when my rates were so high.

And the reason brokers have lower rates is because we just don't have a lot of overhead. You know, we're not paying people's salary to get the deals done. You know, we just are taking the loan and referring it out. And, you know, so we don't have overhead. So that means our interest rates can be lower. And in a market, like right now, a low interest rate is so important to clients. And so that's kind of what brought me to the broker side. You know, that's a really big observation when you see a company, you know, in any industry is the same way.

Like, let's say that you were looking for a home improvement company. And it's one of the biggest ones you see on TV, Billboard's Radio. You kind of have to assume maybe their prices are a little bit higher because they're spending all of that money. But yet, if you have a low, local person, that's just a one man shop, one woman shop, and they have wonderful reviews. So you feel like you could trust them, you probably feel like their prices were a little bit lower because they don't have that overhead. So what you just mentioned there is a big aha. Secondly, I think that one of the benefits would be if you were working for a, you know, in-house, like you mentioned a correspondent,

but like a like a bank, let's say, all you could offer is their products. And that's it. Whereas a broker, or you're free to go to hundreds of places to get the best deal for your borrowers, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we work with so many different lenders. And there truly is a loan product for everyone. So that is a huge advantage. And I, you know, shopped lenders to find the best rate for, you know, because they shift every single day.

So, you know, you never know which one might have the lowest rate or the best product. So it's nice to have those options. So there's a product that everybody can, you know, that works for everybody. Yeah, that's huge. So what, you know, you've, you've been in the business long enough to see a little bit of volatility, you know, rates were great, not great, good, all around. It's, that's going to happen. What are some of those challenges aside from, you know, the shifts in the economy, whatnot, what are some of those challenges that you had to address and overcome as you started in the business. And now as you're kind of coming through the first four, five years. Yeah. So honestly, one of the major challenges I face, it doesn't even have to do with the market necessarily. Since I, like I mentioned, I got into the industry right out of college. So I was like one of the youngest people in the business at the time. Like I was 21, 22. And that was really tough for me getting started. It was tough to go against the biggest players in the game, you know, people who've been

doing it for 20, 30 years, you know, and just building respect with my referral partner. homeowners, home buyers, you know, real estate agents and all of that. So it took a lot of time for me to just try to prove myself. I was, you know, dressing up all fancy and like blazers and, you know, just trying to act older than I was just so. Yeah. People respected me. And as time on, obviously, I kind of realized that I shouldn't be insecure about being young as long as I knew what I was talking about and I was good at what I was doing. So I really just focused on that. and I kind of had a realization that my home buyers, as a lender, I don't even see them in person until the closing table. So they have no idea how old I am. And as long as I knew what I was talking

about, then that's all that really mattered. So we just really, you know, learned the business really well and just kind of kept going. And that eventually went away. Granted, I did, you know, get older, but it's no longer like an insecurity of mine because I just know what I'm doing. And, you know, you've been in the business four or five years. There's people that have been in the business 20 or 30 years and you could always feel inferior compared to someone else. But you need to compare yourself to where you were. And I think to your point, when you can speak confidently about your knowledge base, and I

think we've already touched on this, you've got a degree. And who knows what percentage of lenders do or don't have a degree? But I would venture to say that you're in the vast minority where you can use that as a competitive advantage. And then secondly, you take a caring, empathetic approach that educates your borrower so that they don't feel like you're talking down to them or talking so fast they don't understand it. So is that the approach you take is like, you know, being a teacher and an educator so that they really understand each nuance of the process? Yeah, definitely. And, you know, just starting out, I was working with a lot of like first time homebuyers. I was just my main

clientele when I first started out. So it was good to be able to really explain them and slow down. like what we were talking about and get them to really understand, you know, because I feel like some of the players that have been in for 20 years, they just kind of send a loan application. They don't really go through it. And I had the time to just really go through the whole process with them, slow everything down, make them really understand and educate. And so that was an advantage I had even, you know, being younger and maybe even less experienced at the time. 100%. Because so many times people just really resonate with someone that takes a moment. moment and doesn't treat them like a number. And that's that's huge. And you probably have learned

through, you know, four or five years of closings like, oops, this roadblock happened. This imploded on this deal. But here's how I fixed it. And now I'm going to prevent it from coming up on the next deal. So you just do a little bit more explaining or a little bit more documentation. So can you think of some of those ways that you've now streamlined and prepared your borrowers a little bit more based on lessons learned from the past. Oh, 100%. Yeah. You'll never make the same mistake twice, right? At least one one big mistake, you know, can be crazy. And obviously, I've had some, but we always find a solution for everything. There's always a solution. And you learn that, you know, as random things come up and things that you've never seen before come up,

there's always like a way to work through things. Yep. So what are the types of clients, and borrowers that you're seeing now. You know, like for instance, it could be a buyer's market, a seller's market, but do you find people that it's still a good mix of first-time home buyers versus people looking to do home improvements? What are you seeing in the industry now? Honestly, right now, I would say I haven't done an investor or a second home loan in so long. The majority I'm seeing right now are first-time homebuyers because, one, they haven't seen.

This is the only type of interest rate they've seen is higher interest rates. So they don't know what the twos even look like, right? But also there's just a huge advantage for first-time home buyers right now. It's because they don't have to compete against people with a ton of money selling their home and, you know, using that money to buy a new home, right? There's not that competition in the market for them so they can ask for solar concessions and buy their rate down and, you know, get improvements done for inspection items. and they just kind of have a say.

And, you know, in ways to keep rates low, they can do two one buy downs, one-o buy-downs, which is like keeps your interest rate lower in the first few years. And the way they're doing that is having the sellers pay for it. So, you know, there's just a lot more negotiations happening right now with first-time homebuyers. And I really do believe that they have kind of an upper hand, even with the higher interest rates right now. Yeah. And, you know, higher is relative.

Because if you look back in time, rates were way higher. than they are right this minute, and they were way lower as well. So it's, I've often said it's so many times in these conversations that if you want to buy a house for the purposes you need to buy a house for, maybe you relocated here, or maybe you just, it's time to buy a house to start getting equity build up and pride of ownership. Make the best decision on the actual property and the best decision on the financing that you can right now. Don't wish for something in the past or wish that just deal with it.

And then as things change in the future, next one to two to three years, you can always tweak it and polish it up and, you know, refinance it down the road. So, I mean, I think that's a huge aha that people finally, you know, are coming to the realization like you, what you just mentioned. Yeah, because I see, we see people refinancing every three to five years, you know, rates go up and they go down. So I try to do educate on that point, you know, that whatever payment and rate you have today, that's not going to necessarily be the payment that you have for 30 years. You can always refinance. And obviously, I want clients to be comfortable when they go into contract and close that they're comfortable with their payment no matter what, even when it gets

with a higher rate, even if they do refinance, you know, they got to be comfortable. But it is important to know that that's not going to be your payment forever. You can always refinance down the road. Yes, 100%. So let's think about something. You've seen the industry for most of your life with the family members in the industry and now you've experienced it. What advice would you have for people that are maybe starting their career regarding getting into real estate or mortgage or both, you know, because you can make the case for, oh, I can do it all or I can make the case for I prefer just the real estate side or just the mortgage side. What are some tips that you would give people looking to get into the industry? Yeah, I would say my number one advice would just be

to stick with it even during the hard times because the market is constantly changing and it's tough to adjust when the market does change. And as mortgage lenders and real estate agents, we're commission only. So when the market's low, we sometimes don't know when our next paycheck is, you know, and that can get really scary. But I just say that if you keep your head up and you keep going and, you know, you're active going to networking events and staying in front of people and meeting as many people as you can. You know, even in those small or in those slowed down times, you know, you stay busy. I always say activity brings activity. And it's so true. So if you keep going, you know, business will follow. Business will come to you. And I feel like it's easy for people to,

you know, just give up and be like, I can't do this right now. But, you know, if you stay consistent, that business will come and, you know, there's a brighter side to it. So I would just say stick with it, you know, hustle, even in the slow time. and don't give up. Yeah, and you know, it seems like there's a book that I've read in the past, and it's a concept too, but three feet from gold, you know, and it's the concept of the gold miner and he's just digging, dig and dig and finally gives up. And then the next one comes in, it's like, oh, three more feet, boom, I hit, I hit it.

So it's like you need to keep on because you're learning every step of the way. It reminds me, too, of the mindset of do you have five years of experience in the industry, or do you have one year of experience five times over? Well, the five years of experience means I'm learning in year one and then I'm applying what I learned to year two and then I'm growing and I'm learning and learning. So that's really great advice you gave because it's like just keep on, learn, always watching for opportunities to improve yourself. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, just keep going because I know I've had some thoughts in the past like when time was tough and, you know, the paychecks were slow and I was just like, gosh, like how long can I do this? I stuck with it. And then even when the market shifting, business comes and you realize why you got in the business in the first place. You know, it's always greener from the other side. 100%.

Well, it's been really a great time chatting with you, Gabby. If someone is interested in learning more about you and what you do and connecting with you, what's the best way that they can do that? Yeah. So any, I always have my phone on me. So call, text, my number. is 720-355-5-1-995. You can also reach me through email. My email is my first name, Gabby, at dNvr lending.com. And you can even shoot me a DM on Instagram if you want.

My Instagram handle is Gabby Malara, just first and last name. And I have two. So Gabby Malara underscore DNVR. You can find me on one of those two pages and reach out. I'm happy to help. Excellent. Well, Gabi, thank you so much for coming on. Today's been a real pleasure talking with you. Yeah, thank you for having me. It was great.

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