SHOW TRANSCRIPT

 

 

Speaker 1 [00:00:03] Welcome to another episode of the Go John Show, we have Tim Wilson with us today. Tim, thank you for coming in.

 

Speaker 2 [00:00:09] Thank you, John.

 

Speaker 1 [00:00:10] So we are actually recording today in the Long and Foster Studios in McLean, Virginia. We appreciate the organization giving us this space to record. So, Tim, tell us who you are and how are you related to Long and Foster and what do you do?

 

Speaker 2 [00:00:26] So I’m the CEO of Prosperity Home Mortgage and we are a mortgage bank where we’re in the top 20 more independent mortgage banks in the country. We do

 

Speaker 3 [00:00:34] about 15

 

Speaker 2 [00:00:35] billion dollars in loans per year. Most of that purchase business. And my partners are I’ve got real estate partners in 46 states across the country that are part of home services of America. Of course, Long and Foster is our largest brand across the country by far. And Prosperity started as the mortgage bank for long and foster prior to being purchased by home services.

 

Speaker 1 [00:00:57] OK, so how did you get to become the CEO of Prosperity? What was your path here in a nutshell?

 

Speaker 3 [00:01:05] Yeah, it you

 

Speaker 2 [00:01:06] know, I’ve been a mortgage banker thirty five years, so really the net result of getting to Long and Foster was Dave

 

Speaker 3 [00:01:13] Stevens son. Dave Stevens was

 

Speaker 2 [00:01:15] former commissioner of FHA

 

Speaker 3 [00:01:16] but was CEO of Long

 

Speaker 2 [00:01:18] and Foster for for a couple of years. And he and I worked together at a previous bank for 15 years.

 

Speaker 3 [00:01:25] And when he became CEO

 

Speaker 2 [00:01:28] of Prosperity, he brought

 

Speaker 3 [00:01:29] when he became CEO of

 

Speaker 2 [00:01:31] Long Term Foster, he brought me and aronne affiliated business.

 

Speaker 1 [00:01:33] Got you. So what is your market area? So you’re in 46 states. Yes. What kind of challenges do you face operating in 40? Because you have to because each state has their own set of regulations that you’ve got to

 

Speaker 2 [00:01:46] deal with, correct? Yeah, it’s much more difficult than we were when we were just in the mid-Atlantic.

 

Speaker 3 [00:01:50] And but, you know, much more rewarding.

 

Speaker 2 [00:01:53] I mean, we’ve got 30 plus brands that that are real estate partners and

 

Speaker 3 [00:01:58] went from about 10000 agents to 50000 agents.

 

Speaker 2 [00:02:01] So very rewarding.

 

Speaker 1 [00:02:02] Yeah. So you do a lot of traveling.

 

Speaker 3 [00:02:06] I do. I’m probably in a noncombat environment.

 

Speaker 2 [00:02:09] I’m on the road at least

 

Speaker 3 [00:02:10] two weeks a month.

 

Speaker 1 [00:02:11] Wow. That’s got to be tough.

 

Speaker 3 [00:02:13] Yeah. Well it’s I enjoy it. Yeah. I feel most at home. Yeah.

 

Speaker 1 [00:02:17] You have to. So I guess tell us a little bit. I want to just hear a little bit about what tell us a little bit about prosperity. What kind of products do you guys offer. What’s your ideal customer. And then we’ll kind of get into maybe some of your history and some of your stories that that may be somewhat entertaining. Okay.

 

Speaker 2 [00:02:34] So, you know, prosperity, I think, you know, we’re great at conforming loans. Anything, Fannie, Freddie, FHA, really strong the lender. We waive a lot of fees for our veterans

 

Speaker 3 [00:02:47] and

 

Speaker 2 [00:02:48] we’re real strong. I would say up to three million is in our wheelhouse and we’ve done loans higher than that. But really up to three million is in our wheelhouse.

 

Speaker 3 [00:02:55] And so we don’t have a whole lot of gaps.

 

Speaker 2 [00:02:58] Construction firm would be one of them, but we are working to fill that gap and hope

 

Speaker 3 [00:03:01] to have that done and

 

Speaker 2 [00:03:02] sometime in the next year.

 

Speaker 3 [00:03:03] But, you

 

Speaker 2 [00:03:05] know, we’re we’re a large lender and primarily all purchase.

 

Speaker 1 [00:03:09] Good, good, good, good. So reading your bio, so you’ve done some work with diversity and inclusion, and that’s a big hot topic right now. So what is your I guess what is what is your role in with prosperity, with with the area of diversity and inclusion? What are you guys doing?

 

Speaker 2 [00:03:30] Well, we’re doing a lot.

 

Speaker 3 [00:03:31] I mean and

 

Speaker 2 [00:03:32] I think our industry needs to do better in that space. You know, for the Fair Housing Act passed fifty years ago and

 

Speaker 3 [00:03:40] over

 

Speaker 2 [00:03:40] the past three years, we’ve really we haven’t just I’ve seen a lot of money thrown at this

 

Speaker 3 [00:03:46] issue without solving the problem. I think what

 

Speaker 2 [00:03:48] it’s going to take is for senior leaders, decision makers to be involved

 

Speaker 3 [00:03:52] and and looking at it as a business issue and donating both time

 

Speaker 2 [00:03:58] and energy and, you know, the power to make decisions and to this problem.

 

Speaker 3 [00:04:02] And that’s the only way it’s

 

Speaker 2 [00:04:03] going to be fixed. But we’ve we’ve been very active over the past three years.

 

Speaker 1 [00:04:07] Right. So what do you what do you see as kind of the biggest hurdle there or what do you see as the biggest problem? Is there something that you can look at and say, wow, this so you say the Fair Housing Act passed 50 years ago. What is not working? Where do you think the the biggest challenge for under is in underprivileged communities?

 

Speaker 2 [00:04:28] I would use the term underserved, underserved. And, you know, they’re underserved is the definition. I mean, there’s just there’s not enough

 

Speaker 3 [00:04:37] activity, housing

 

Speaker 2 [00:04:38] activity in those markets.

 

Speaker 3 [00:04:39] And and I think

 

Speaker 2 [00:04:41] there’s got to be more focus there.

 

Speaker 3 [00:04:42] So, you know, one of the things, you know, as

 

Speaker 2 [00:04:44] you know, in our model, we have loan officers sitting in real estate

 

Speaker 3 [00:04:48] offices. Right.

 

Speaker 2 [00:04:49] One thing we did started it. And and the two thousand nineteen is we hired twenty three close community loan officers,

 

Speaker 3 [00:04:57] all

 

Speaker 2 [00:04:58] either African-American or culturally Hispanic. So they’re bilingual.

 

Speaker 3 [00:05:02] So that made a huge

 

Speaker 2 [00:05:04] difference, I mean, that group I just looked at their numbers today, they’ve already done over two hundred twenty five million applications this year, and that was from zero two years ago. And so they’ll end up doing about five hundred million in production this year.

 

Speaker 3 [00:05:16] So, you know,

 

Speaker 2 [00:05:17] it was clear to me

 

Speaker 3 [00:05:19] you’ve got to have Rupp’s that look like the community. And and we hadn’t done a good enough job in that up to now. But we are really committed to that.

 

Speaker 2 [00:05:27] We know what works.

 

Speaker 3 [00:05:28] The other thing I would say is we’ve we’ve open an education center in Philadelphia and

 

Speaker 2 [00:05:34] it’s a test. You know, we’re testing things in multiple different markets. Right. In Atlanta, we opened a real estate office in College Park in inner city Atlanta market.

 

Speaker 3 [00:05:43] And, you know, my

 

Speaker 2 [00:05:44] theory around minority lending is there’s a 40 percent gap between minorities and Caucasians and homebuyers. And, you know, I don’t look at it as something that’s the right just the right thing to do,

 

Speaker 3 [00:05:55] although it is I think it’s a good

 

Speaker 2 [00:05:57] business. I mean, I think there’s a trend there and there’s an opportunity. And so I see it as both the right thing to do. But I say this a good business as well.

 

Speaker 1 [00:06:06] Right, right, right. Good, good, good, good. So so, Tim, that’s great. So. So now you’ve actually done some public speaking on this topic. So when you’re up in front of a crowd and you’re talking about this this topic, what kind of feedback are you getting from the folks?

 

Speaker 3 [00:06:22] Great feedback. You know, to me, it’s it’s getting engaged at

 

Speaker 2 [00:06:26] the most senior level of our industry.

 

Speaker 3 [00:06:29] And I attended an event in Atlanta

 

Speaker 2 [00:06:32] a few years ago that was run by Namba Namaz, National Association of Mortgage, Minority Mortgage Bankers and mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers.

 

Speaker 3 [00:06:42] And you know what I noticed at that amount? And I only went because I happened to be in

 

Speaker 2 [00:06:47] Atlanta and I had heard about this organization, and they’re one of the largest minority owned trade organizations in the country.

 

Speaker 3 [00:06:54] And so I wanted to see what it was about. And what I

 

Speaker 2 [00:06:57] noticed was there were no CEOs there. I was the only one there. And every large bank and mortgage bank had a diversity and a diversity employee there. So somebody that runs diversity, inclusion and runs minority lending.

 

Speaker 3 [00:07:14] And I met with a number of them.

 

Speaker 2 [00:07:15] But what was clear to me is

 

Speaker 3 [00:07:17] that they

 

Speaker 2 [00:07:18] they were great people that really knew the issues and the challenges, but they were not in a position to actually

 

Speaker 3 [00:07:25] make deals

 

Speaker 2 [00:07:26] and they were not the decision

 

Speaker 3 [00:07:28] maker. And so, you know,

 

Speaker 2 [00:07:30] I would have, ah, had a diversity and inclusion and had

 

Speaker 3 [00:07:34] a minority lending.

 

Speaker 2 [00:07:35] April Alexander Cheesman with prosperity since we started the company. And she would come back from events and tell me what we needed to do. But it didn’t hit home with me until I was there.

 

Speaker 3 [00:07:45] So I left that conference.

 

Speaker 2 [00:07:47] I made two deals before I left that conference. One was to recruit minority candidates for us and that’s how we got the twenty three close.

 

Speaker 1 [00:07:55] Did you get them from that conference? I got them

 

Speaker 3 [00:07:57] from that to make a

 

Speaker 2 [00:07:58] recruiting deal at that conference. And in two years he has sent us twenty three, those twenty three clothes that are wildly successful. They’re averaging thirteen apps. Vermont. Yeah. And then the other deal I made was with a company called

 

Speaker 3 [00:08:12] DNA Consultants and they, they have a counseling

 

Speaker 2 [00:08:16] service that they

 

Speaker 3 [00:08:17] get, they get

 

Speaker 2 [00:08:19] candidates from churches and communities and they get a mortgage ready. So so we pay for the counseling service. It’s like six hundred dollars and

 

Speaker 3 [00:08:27] sometimes it takes two months,

 

Speaker 2 [00:08:28] sometimes it takes two years.

 

Speaker 3 [00:08:29] But, you know, I was able to make two deals.

 

Speaker 2 [00:08:33] I mean, literally sign contracts on the spot.

 

Speaker 3 [00:08:35] And that’s what is not happening. And so the CEOs and the decision

 

Speaker 2 [00:08:39] makers, they either got to empower the people that are attending these conferences or they got to do it

 

Speaker 3 [00:08:44] themselves. So I became

 

Speaker 2 [00:08:47] way more committed at that point when

 

Speaker 3 [00:08:48] I saw what could move

 

Speaker 1 [00:08:49] the needle. Right. And when was that?

 

Speaker 3 [00:08:52] That was in twenty. Nineteen.

 

Speaker 1 [00:08:53] Right. So you were ahead before of all this mayhem? Oh, just been through

 

Speaker 2 [00:08:59] for the last you know, I followed it for years. Yeah.

 

Speaker 3 [00:09:02] And I, I’ve always been baffled that we can’t solve it, you know. I mean if

 

Speaker 2 [00:09:05] we had a business and I look at it as a business problem,

 

Speaker 3 [00:09:08] I mean if we have a

 

Speaker 2 [00:09:09] business problem at prosperity, I get

 

Speaker 3 [00:09:12] you know, we’ve got the same nine

 

Speaker 2 [00:09:14] senior leaders at Prosperity. When we started the company ten years ago, I get them in a room. We say, here’s the problem. We’re going to test it in two or three markets. We’re going to solve this. Right. We’re going to try different things and we’ll figure this out and then we’ll run it nationwide.

 

Speaker 3 [00:09:25] Yeah, well, that’s what we need to do with us.

 

Speaker 2 [00:09:27] I mean, we treat it just like a business problem, and it’s very solvable.

 

Speaker 1 [00:09:30] Yeah, it’s amazing. Well, congratulations. And it’s it says a lot about you that you that you got ahead of this and dove in and started working on it a long time ago. Everybody’s doing it now. Now it’s in vogue. And that’s great. I think that’s fantastic.

 

Speaker 2 [00:09:46] And yeah, I appreciate that. But, you know, we got the agencies are working closely with us. I mean, there’s really strong engagement right now.

 

Speaker 1 [00:09:53] Fantastic. All right. Well, we’re chatting with Tim Wilson. We’re going to take a quick break and we’ll be right back with Tim. So we’re back with Tim Wilson, CEO of Prosperity Mortgage, and Tim, that was really impressive to me and I’m sure to a lot of the folks that are listening that you were able to get in there and get ahead of the diversity challenge in business long before it became a daily topic on the evening news. So that’s that’s a great leader. And obviously, that has a lot to do with how you became the CEO of Prosperity and, you know, well-deserved, obviously. So tell us a little bit about your history and how you grew up and where did you get kind of your drive.

 

Speaker 3 [00:10:43] So, you know, it’s kind of an interesting background.

 

Speaker 2 [00:10:46] I grew up I was born and raised on a farm in Kansas. And when I was six years old,

 

Speaker 3 [00:10:53] my

 

Speaker 2 [00:10:53] parents moved to a small town called

 

Speaker 3 [00:10:55] Coffeyville, Kansas, and and they had 13 kids. So I’ve got 12 siblings

 

Speaker 2 [00:11:01] and same parents. And we were obviously Catholic that

 

Speaker 3 [00:11:04] they could go I can go without being sad. But so anyway, you know, I was the 11th of 13. I had seven, seven older brothers. And so, you know, it was

 

Speaker 2 [00:11:16] interesting in our household, we had seven bedrooms and one bathroom, not no shower, just one bathroom. So you become pretty efficient when you’re living with

 

Speaker 3 [00:11:24] 12

 

Speaker 2 [00:11:24] siblings and one bathroom.

 

Speaker 3 [00:11:26] But you know, what

 

Speaker 2 [00:11:29] is interesting to me is I’ve never looked at a job as a job as we were young children growing up. We were seeing our brothers and sisters starting their jobs and it all started with paper outs. And we would start paper out when we were 11 years old and and we were able to observe that it gave them independence, that for the first time in our lives, we were able to we had our own money. And, you know, we were I mean, there’s 13 kids. So you didn’t go to your parents any money for a movie yet? You know, that was your job.

 

Speaker 3 [00:11:58] So so we did. Our family grew up

 

Speaker 2 [00:12:01] looking at a job as as an opportunity,

 

Speaker 3 [00:12:03] not as something we had to do. And so and I’ve we’ve kind of felt

 

Speaker 2 [00:12:07] that way throughout our lives. So every job I’ve

 

Speaker 3 [00:12:09] had has, you know, felt like a

 

Speaker 2 [00:12:12] a privilege.

 

Speaker 3 [00:12:13] And I think that that’s the

 

Speaker 2 [00:12:16] way we

 

Speaker 3 [00:12:16] approached it. And I was able to to watch success. You know, I I

 

Speaker 2 [00:12:20] had to paper out at age 11, one on the morning, one in the afternoon. And in those days you went out and you collected you didn’t just I had one hundred and twenty three people on my paper

 

Speaker 3 [00:12:28] route and I went out and, you know, you

 

Speaker 2 [00:12:31] collect the first aid to pay for the papers that you’re getting delivered every day and then you’re the last 40 or the money

 

Speaker 3 [00:12:38] you keep. So I was making about eighty

 

Speaker 2 [00:12:40] dollars a month as an 11 year old and that

 

Speaker 3 [00:12:42] was huge money to me. So so it kind of

 

Speaker 2 [00:12:46] got me started on, you know, jobs being a privilege and a pleasure.

 

Speaker 3 [00:12:50] And, you know, it’s kind of the way

 

Speaker 2 [00:12:52] I’ve looked at jobs all my life and I’ve loved every job I’ve ever had.

 

Speaker 3 [00:12:55] So, you know, it’s I

 

Speaker 2 [00:12:58] was fortunate to grow up in an environment where, you know, you’re looking at a job as

 

Speaker 3 [00:13:04] not just a means to an end, but but,

 

Speaker 2 [00:13:06] you know, something you’re privileged to be able to have.

 

Speaker 3 [00:13:09] So I got into banking because after you went from the paper route, then you went

 

Speaker 2 [00:13:13] to a job until you turned 18, then you went to work for the local bank. And so my brothers and sisters, as they you know, it’s just kind of a stairstep as they

 

Speaker 3 [00:13:22] went to

 

Speaker 2 [00:13:22] junior college in this

 

Speaker 3 [00:13:23] small town. And then they would move on.

 

Speaker 2 [00:13:25] I would take their job at the bank, the next sibling in line, like the paper that was in our family for over 15 years, same paper.

 

Speaker 3 [00:13:31] And so it was just, you know, my business path was laid out

 

Speaker 2 [00:13:37] for me from the time I was five years old to

 

Speaker 3 [00:13:40] the time I went away to college. So at 18, the literally

 

Speaker 2 [00:13:44] day I turned 18, went to work at a bank and I worked at banks throughout college. And they were great places to work because they gave me the flexibility. I could do sports.

 

Speaker 3 [00:13:55] They would let me

 

Speaker 2 [00:13:55] work off hours, I could work weekends. And so it was just a great tool to help me get through college.

 

Speaker 3 [00:14:01] And and it it I just stayed in banking from that point on

 

Speaker 1 [00:14:05] because you’re on the front line with the consumer, you get

 

Speaker 2 [00:14:07] absolutely

 

Speaker 1 [00:14:08] without it. I think there’s nothing better.

 

Speaker 2 [00:14:10] No, I was a teller for many years and loved it. I mean, I’ve loved every job I’ve had in banking. And so I just and again, I’ve loved every job I’ve ever had.

 

Speaker 3 [00:14:19] But it banking

 

Speaker 2 [00:14:21] just kind of got me started. It started on the operational side. And then I went into

 

Speaker 3 [00:14:25] the lending side not too

 

Speaker 2 [00:14:28] long after graduate from college. So that’s kind of

 

Speaker 3 [00:14:30] how and then

 

Speaker 2 [00:14:31] every job just kind of fell in place

 

Speaker 3 [00:14:34] from that point on.

 

Speaker 1 [00:14:35] So so it’s really interesting, you know, talking to Lillian in my mom, Lillian Jorgensen, in the very first episode. So she grew up in a house with no hot water and one bathroom. And what was your looking back on that at that time? Did you feel like you were in a bad situation or how did you feel about what?

 

Speaker 3 [00:14:53] I would say the opposite. I mean, I was awesome. Yeah.

 

Speaker 2 [00:14:57] I had two brothers and three of us slept in the same room four and. Yeah, triple bunk beds for four, I don’t know, 10 years, you know, the other thing interesting in a household like that is we had what was called

 

Speaker 3 [00:15:08] the bump system. And, you know, you have in those days, you didn’t have

 

Speaker 2 [00:15:13] to form a living room, a living room. You had a couch and two chairs and a small living room. And so, you know, there were 13 kids and two adults. And so we

 

Speaker 3 [00:15:22] had at something called the bump system. That was when when somebody

 

Speaker 2 [00:15:26] younger was sitting in a chair. Anybody older could just they didn’t have to say a word. They just put their thumb up and that person would have to get up

 

Speaker 3 [00:15:34] and go sit on the floor.

 

Speaker 2 [00:15:35] And and there was never it was never an argument, never a word exchanged.

 

Speaker 3 [00:15:40] And it was just, you know, I thought that was

 

Speaker 2 [00:15:42] like a federal law.

 

Speaker 3 [00:15:43] And, you know, as I then went to my friend’s house, you know, I

 

Speaker 2 [00:15:47] would try to bump one of their younger siblings and they would say,

 

Speaker 3 [00:15:50] dude, what do you do? And so I then my mom explained to me,

 

Speaker 2 [00:15:55] that’s a rule here in this house.

 

Speaker 3 [00:15:56] But, you know, it was I never

 

Speaker 2 [00:15:58] sat in a chair the last 12 years old, you know,

 

Speaker 3 [00:16:01] being number

 

Speaker 2 [00:16:02] 11 to 13.

 

Speaker 3 [00:16:03] It was, you know, but the bump system,

 

Speaker 2 [00:16:06] you know, created this, you know, it it taught you that they’re going to be rules and you don’t argue with those rules that

 

Speaker 3 [00:16:13] that’s that’s the way

 

Speaker 2 [00:16:15] it is. And and so you learn discipline

 

Speaker 3 [00:16:17] in a house that size.

 

Speaker 1 [00:16:19] So how scarred is number 13? Is that it? Was that was that a brother or sister?

 

Speaker 2 [00:16:26] It’s a brother. I got a little sister, a little brother,

 

Speaker 3 [00:16:28] and he he got gypped. Well, you know, it’s I mean, today we

 

Speaker 2 [00:16:34] get together all the time. So, you know, we’re extremely close. We’re up close.

 

Speaker 3 [00:16:39] And, you know,

 

Speaker 2 [00:16:40] ten of the 13 graduated from college and the other three were a very successful

 

Speaker 3 [00:16:44] business people.

 

Speaker 2 [00:16:45] So almost all of them are retired and they all have retired back in this small

 

Speaker 3 [00:16:50] town we lived down. And so it’s you know, it’s I don’t know. I don’t think anybody felt gypped. It’s even more fun today than it was

 

Speaker 2 [00:16:58] as we were.

 

Speaker 1 [00:16:59] So it’s still lives in your family?

 

Speaker 3 [00:17:01] Oh, yeah. Yeah, about that.

 

Speaker 1 [00:17:03] Yeah, yeah. Some traditions should just never die. Right. So when you went to Coffeeville, did you guys still have a farm or did you move off the farm?

 

Speaker 3 [00:17:12] No. You know, we had we had I

 

Speaker 2 [00:17:15] believe we farm six hundred acres in Parsons, Kansas, and

 

Speaker 3 [00:17:18] my dad was a full time sales salesman.

 

Speaker 2 [00:17:20] He sold insurance, sold hearing

 

Speaker 3 [00:17:22] aids,

 

Speaker 2 [00:17:24] worked for man or.

 

Speaker 3 [00:17:25] Yeah, but he was always a salesman and

 

Speaker 2 [00:17:28] we did the kids did the farming. And, you know, we weren’t successful farmers. We were just kids and.

 

Speaker 3 [00:17:33] Yeah, but but we had we had our own cattle and we had chickens and so we ate really well. But my dad was always a salesman and we moved to Coffeyville. We had he had sold the

 

Speaker 2 [00:17:43] farm and he you know, he raised thirteen kids. The salesman, he was a great salesman.

 

Speaker 1 [00:17:48] Yeah. That was, that was a good move. Farming’s no joke.

 

Speaker 3 [00:17:50] Yeah. Right now it is not. And he was,

 

Speaker 2 [00:17:53] you know, to raise thirteen kids, a salesman. He was good. He was very, very good.

 

Speaker 1 [00:17:58] Right. Fantastic. Well Tim thanks for sharing that with us. We’re going to take another quick break. And when we get back, let’s talk a little bit about covid and some of the opportunities that you’ve seen that have arise from this pandemic. All right, great. All right, we are back with Tim Wilson, CEO of Prosperity Mortgage. So, Tim, let’s chat a little bit about what we’ve been through for the last 18 months with covid and tell us what what you have seen as maybe some opportunities that have bloomed out of this crisis.

 

Speaker 3 [00:18:32] So, you know, the big thing I’ve noticed is and listen, covid was

 

Speaker 2 [00:18:36] horrible and it was terrible that the country had to go through that. But, you know, I hear people say things like when we get back to normal. And the one point I would make in our industry for sure, but in most industries is, you know, there’s we’re not going back to normal. I mean, the employer employee relationship is going to be different.

 

Speaker 3 [00:18:57] So the covid environment

 

Speaker 2 [00:19:00] forced us overnight to go remote

 

Speaker 3 [00:19:03] now. And, you know,

 

Speaker 2 [00:19:04] had that happen 10 years earlier, it would have been a big problem. I mean, there would be loans that

 

Speaker 3 [00:19:08] that could not close and

 

Speaker 2 [00:19:10] because we were all connected internally to a network. Now, fortunately for prosperity, we had gone 100 percent laptops and completely remote. And we did

 

Speaker 3 [00:19:19] it because

 

Speaker 2 [00:19:21] primarily we were mid-Atlantic Northeast as part of Long and Foster, and we knew that there were weather events and we

 

Speaker 3 [00:19:27] had a policy that when the federal government

 

Speaker 2 [00:19:29] closes, we closed for weather. Well, they closed a lot, you know, I mean, about half an inch of snow. The federal government closed.

 

Speaker 3 [00:19:34] So we couldn’t depend on, you know,

 

Speaker 2 [00:19:38] our realtor is our customer.

 

Speaker 3 [00:19:39] Right. And so we knew we had

 

Speaker 2 [00:19:42] to be able to operate remotely. So any time there was a weather event, we told our producers, not writers, take your laptops home and our loan officers and and we never missed a beat.

 

Speaker 3 [00:19:51] So when this happened, it was, you know, within

 

Speaker 2 [00:19:54] 24 hours we were doing everything remote and we thought it might be four weeks

 

Speaker 3 [00:19:58] or

 

Speaker 2 [00:19:58] maybe a few months. Turned out to be over a year.

 

Speaker 3 [00:20:00] Yeah, but but

 

Speaker 2 [00:20:01] it you know, we never missed a beat, had the biggest year we ever had by far, so. Well, and we were able to measure the productivity of our employees

 

Speaker 3 [00:20:09] on an

 

Speaker 2 [00:20:10] hourly basis. So it was clear to

 

Speaker 3 [00:20:13] me that that, you know, the the

 

Speaker 2 [00:20:17] pandemic forced us to look at a different way to do business.

 

Speaker 3 [00:20:20] And and what came out of that are employees that said, I don’t want to go back to commuting two hours. So, you know, I’m out in the field now and I’m not surprised by what I’m saying. And it’s the majority. If you go back to

 

Speaker 2 [00:20:33] pre covid, 90 percent of our employees were coming into the office every day. Right, 10 percent remote employees.

 

Speaker 3 [00:20:40] And if you go back to

 

Speaker 2 [00:20:42] over but not every day, you know, we had an ops center in Bristol,

 

Speaker 3 [00:20:46] Pennsylvania, in

 

Speaker 2 [00:20:49] towns in Maryland, Chantilly, Virginia.

 

Speaker 3 [00:20:52] And, you know, they had

 

Speaker 2 [00:20:53] 50 to 100 people coming in every day.

 

Speaker 3 [00:20:55] So and

 

Speaker 2 [00:20:56] highly productive. But what we found was they were also highly productive from home and felt like their work life balance was better. So it’s clear to us

 

Speaker 3 [00:21:05] that in the new world, the new normal, we don’t know what that is going to look like yet. I don’t think many companies do agree with one

 

Speaker 2 [00:21:12] thing I know for sure. It’s not going to be the old normal. It’s not going to be 100 percent of your employees come to work every day.

 

Speaker 3 [00:21:19] So I expect 60, 70, maybe

 

Speaker 2 [00:21:22] as many as 80 percent of our employees

 

Speaker 3 [00:21:24] will

 

Speaker 2 [00:21:24] come into work three or four times a month.

 

Speaker 3 [00:21:27] And and what I think that as I think all of that

 

Speaker 2 [00:21:31] through and I’m a student of real estate, I mean, I’ve been doing this for 35 years and I’ve worked in seven different states and I’ve called on real estate agents all over the country for the past 35 years.

 

Speaker 3 [00:21:42] So I study this and I as I look at the landscape, the

 

Speaker 2 [00:21:47] single biggest issue in real estate today is inventory. And there’s only one shot at solving that problem that’s build your way out of it. And the builders could not keep up. I mean, there’s eighty six million millennials that are between the age of 13 and 31 that are in their prime

 

Speaker 3 [00:22:02] buying are going to be in

 

Speaker 2 [00:22:03] the prime buying period and over the next 10 years. So there’s no way we can solve that with the inventory that’s currently on the market. So builders have to build it a much faster pace than they have

 

Speaker 3 [00:22:14] up until now. What covid

 

Speaker 2 [00:22:17] the opportunity created by covid

 

Speaker 3 [00:22:19] is

 

Speaker 2 [00:22:20] builders are going to be able to continue to build further out. You know, I came from Chalaby, I lived in California ten years and I saw the

 

Speaker 3 [00:22:27] dotcom boom and bust. Right.

 

Speaker 2 [00:22:29] And the interesting thing in that environment

 

Speaker 3 [00:22:31] is and you’d have to

 

Speaker 2 [00:22:33] be from California to know these markets, but there’s a market called Inland Empire in Southern California that’s probably forty miles

 

Speaker 3 [00:22:39] out of L.A.

 

Speaker 2 [00:22:41] And there’s there’s a market in northern California called Central Valley and it’s Modesto and markets like that. And again, 40 miles away.

 

Speaker 3 [00:22:48] But hour and a half commutes. Right. And as far as the

 

Speaker 2 [00:22:54] Internet boom was created, pricing got so high, people just kept moving further and further out and they kept building more and more homes

 

Speaker 3 [00:23:01] out.

 

Speaker 2 [00:23:01] So everything worked OK. People were willing to take the commute, but it was brutal, brutal on work, life balance and everything. And then there was a dotcom bust. And those. Markets went completely bust, people lost tens, if not hundreds of thousands on their home, really bad environment. So I

 

Speaker 3 [00:23:20] think what

 

Speaker 2 [00:23:21] covid has brought to us is the opportunity to continue to build more remote,

 

Speaker 3 [00:23:27] you know, keep doing the infeld’s in the Bethesda’s and the MacLaine’s.

 

Speaker 2 [00:23:30] But but there are only so many you

 

Speaker 3 [00:23:31] can do that’s going to create capacity, I think, within the Bethesda McLain’s, as other people look to be able to

 

Speaker 2 [00:23:38] build further out, that can work remote. I mean, there’s going to be people that are working for employers in D.C. every day but only go into DC two or three times a month. That’s right. No, and it’s not going to be

 

Speaker 3 [00:23:50] tens of thousands of people.

 

Speaker 2 [00:23:51] It’s going to be millions of people across the country.

 

Speaker 3 [00:23:54] So I think

 

Speaker 2 [00:23:56] there’s one shot at solving the inventory problem that’s to build your way out. And I think as I look over the next 10 years,

 

Speaker 3 [00:24:03] that that’s what it’s going to take.

 

Speaker 2 [00:24:05] It’s going to take a lot of building over a 10 year period. But covid

 

Speaker 3 [00:24:08] is that the pandemic is

 

Speaker 2 [00:24:11] going to offer relief in the

 

Speaker 3 [00:24:13] sense that

 

Speaker 2 [00:24:14] the commute is no longer going to be there for millions of people. And it will create opportunity to build

 

Speaker 3 [00:24:21] in and, say,

 

Speaker 2 [00:24:22] Loudoun County or some of the more remote areas while freeing up inventory in some of the areas where it has to be freed up.

 

Speaker 3 [00:24:29] So, you know,

 

Speaker 2 [00:24:31] almost by accident, I think it’s the perfect scenario. I’m wildly enthusiastic about new construction, new construction builders and buyers, as well as the real estate industry over the next 10 years. I’ve never been more enthusiastic.

 

Speaker 1 [00:24:47] I agree with you there. So my question is and I don’t know if we have a solution for this, but I’m hearing that a lot of corporations, some of the big corporations are coming out and saying that, you know, in the beginning stages of covid, they’re remote workers were extremely productive, but now the productivity is kind of waning off and they want people back in the office. Do you see a challenge in managing the folks that are working remotely and probably not processors and salespeople who are commission based? Right. Because they have to they they eat what they kill. But but your administrative and support staff that may be working remotely, do you see any challenges?

 

Speaker 2 [00:25:26] Well, I think there are two. You know,

 

Speaker 3 [00:25:28] and I went out and visited I did a

 

Speaker 2 [00:25:30] Midwest tour for all of our what I would call back office ops personnel processing underwriter’s. I brought them into the

 

Speaker 3 [00:25:37] office to meet with me, to get feedback directly from them. And and my

 

Speaker 2 [00:25:43] we’re going to go to more of what I would call a hybrid model and

 

Speaker 3 [00:25:46] and my thing, I guess I get

 

Speaker 2 [00:25:50] it now to two challenges, and that’s culture and training. And so I think you’ve got to solve for those every business going to have solved those. Now, I’m

 

Speaker 3 [00:25:58] going to do that by by not leaving people out

 

Speaker 2 [00:26:02] of the office for a year and a half. So I’ve told our people, you’re going to come in three or four days a month because you’re on year. We’re going to continue to drive culture. And that’s where you’re going to see it. Yeah, and we’re going to drive training. I mean, you know, we we did remote training for 18 months.

 

Speaker 3 [00:26:17] And I would say with limited success, you know, when you’ve got people on video. Yeah.

 

Speaker 2 [00:26:22] And you’re doing a one week training course, man, it’s hard to keep their attention. So we are definitely going to be bring training back to the office. And I think we can do that in three or four months, three or four days a month instead of 20 days a month.

 

Speaker 1 [00:26:34] So you bring everybody in at the same time.

 

Speaker 3 [00:26:36] Yeah, absolutely. Building without a doubt

 

Speaker 2 [00:26:39] that there’s answers to this for sure. But but

 

Speaker 3 [00:26:41] it’s it can’t be the way you can’t

 

Speaker 2 [00:26:44] just say, hey, everybody’s coming out every day.

 

Speaker 3 [00:26:46] It’s you know what that decision’s been made.

 

Speaker 1 [00:26:49] Yes, it has. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with you. That’s true.

 

Speaker 3 [00:26:51] I think

 

Speaker 2 [00:26:53] know there’s an answer

 

Speaker 3 [00:26:53] to this and I think, you know, and listen, it may be five days, it may be two days. We don’t know, but

 

Speaker 2 [00:26:59] it’s somewhere between probably two to five days for most of

 

Speaker 1 [00:27:02] our employees. That’s pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. I think some people are talking about two to three days a week. You’re talking about three to five days a month. That’s fantastic. Fantastic. Great. So we’re going to take one last quick break and then we’re going to come back. And Tim, you’re going to share some secrets of your success with us. So we’ll be right back with Tim Wilson. OK, thanks. All right, we are back with Tim Wilson, CEO of Prosperity Mortgage. Tim, thanks again for coming in. I’ve really enjoyed learning some more about you today and hearing your stories. And I’m still trying to understand in my mind what it must be like to get bumped. I don’t think I would do well with me, but if you ever give me this, I’ll know what to do. I am older now. Yes, you are. Yeah, I was just holding my thought, so I’ll always have a seat for you wherever you are. All right. So, Tim, would you share with us some of the things? Obviously, you’re an extremely successful individual and you’re always thinking, I can tell you’re always thinking and you’re reaching out and you’re trying to find new ways to improve the business and and the culture of the company. What are some of the secrets or some of the values that you have in business that have gotten you where you are today?

 

Speaker 3 [00:28:20] You know, to me, it’s

 

Speaker 2 [00:28:23] it’s more around touch and feel. And when I were when I was a manager in smaller organizations,

 

Speaker 3 [00:28:30] I used to call it media

 

Speaker 2 [00:28:32] management by wandering around.

 

Speaker 3 [00:28:34] And, you know, it was always touch. And, you know, as I

 

Speaker 2 [00:28:37] got into bigger

 

Speaker 3 [00:28:38] positions, it was

 

Speaker 2 [00:28:40] both. I never got away from touch. I just think it’s too important. But I started

 

Speaker 3 [00:28:45] getting data that data was vitally

 

Speaker 2 [00:28:47] important, as vitally important for me today. Every morning at 6:00 in the morning, I look at three or four reports

 

Speaker 3 [00:28:54] all the

 

Speaker 2 [00:28:54] way down to the rep level and processor level to know exactly what our backlogs are, what we’re what every rep has taken.

 

Speaker 3 [00:29:01] So I, I got a good sense for the company and I can I

 

Speaker 2 [00:29:05] can spot trends, troubling trends or good trends.

 

Speaker 3 [00:29:08] Right. And so before I leave the house,

 

Speaker 2 [00:29:13] I’ve got a pretty good idea where the company

 

Speaker 3 [00:29:14] stands and what I need to focus on. But I would say my management style in

 

Speaker 2 [00:29:19] general, I’ve been through lots of management training with some really good

 

Speaker 3 [00:29:22] companies.

 

Speaker 2 [00:29:24] I was at a bank for many years where where the leaders of the bank came from. Xerox and Xerox at the time was one of the top training companies in the country. So I’m a big advocate of training and management training and overcoming objections and sales training. And so what we invest a lot in that in prosperity, you know, never read a lot of business books. I got people sending me business books all the time. And, you know, I’d read the titles and they looked great. But I and I’m a voracious reader, but I read nonfiction and history, things

 

Speaker 3 [00:29:55] that keep my attention. So I would say, you know, of

 

Speaker 2 [00:30:00] all the training I’ve ever gotten,

 

Speaker 3 [00:30:02] the one that has been most impactful to me is situational

 

Speaker 2 [00:30:06] leadership.

 

Speaker 3 [00:30:07] And I live by that. And, you know, I’ve got you know, we

 

Speaker 2 [00:30:12] measure things by how many loans we get out of an office. So our typical baseline and every real estate office is to get one out of four transactions. So we call that capture rate twenty five percent capture rate. So if you’re getting twenty five out of 100 loans, you’re a successful office.

 

Speaker 3 [00:30:27] So I’ve I kind

 

Speaker 2 [00:30:29] of coined a saying that says if you’re a twenty five percent or above, I work for you less than that. You work for me.

 

Speaker 3 [00:30:36] Right. So I’m a

 

Speaker 2 [00:30:37] big believer that

 

Speaker 3 [00:30:38] that when you got

 

Speaker 2 [00:30:39] employees or managers that, that are getting the job done, you work for them. And your job is to say,

 

Speaker 3 [00:30:46] what things

 

Speaker 2 [00:30:46] can I take out of your way? Because you’re doing everything right. If they’re underperforming those objectives that I’m far more directive

 

Speaker 3 [00:30:54] and I

 

Speaker 2 [00:30:55] I own their time. And so I’m more directive as

 

Speaker 3 [00:30:58] to what I want them to do. And, you

 

Speaker 2 [00:31:00] know, it seems to work out great because it turns out nobody wants to work for me.

 

Speaker 3 [00:31:04] So, you know,

 

Speaker 2 [00:31:05] that strategy seems to work very well.

 

Speaker 3 [00:31:07] But I think, you know, I watch companies

 

Speaker 2 [00:31:11] manage everybody the same

 

Speaker 3 [00:31:12] way.

 

Speaker 2 [00:31:13] And every contest is the same.

 

Speaker 3 [00:31:16] Every task is the same. And I think you’ve got to get out of the way

 

Speaker 2 [00:31:20] of the people that are killing it, you know, and learn from

 

Speaker 1 [00:31:23] them. Right. So now what do you say to the folks that may be an aspiring CEO? So what kind of things, lessons have you learned along the way that that kind of got you to the next level? So if you go back to being a bank teller, right. So we know how you became you went from milk and goats to the paper route. I’m assuming you didn’t tell me that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. To the paper route to the bank teller. What got you to the next level? Did you always just have a drive to get to the next level? Or did you say, hey, I want to be the CEO of a company one day? How did you get from there to here?

 

Speaker 3 [00:32:02] Well, I think it’s just things kind of fell into place. You know, I it gets back

 

Speaker 2 [00:32:08] to I loved every job I’ve ever had. So I’ve always considered a job, a privilege, not something I had to do.

 

Speaker 3 [00:32:13] Right. And I think that allowed things to fall

 

Speaker 2 [00:32:17] into place to some degree.

 

Speaker 3 [00:32:18] And, you know, the main thing as I got into higher management.

 

Speaker 2 [00:32:24] It was really surrounding myself with talent,

 

Speaker 3 [00:32:26] you know, getting

 

Speaker 2 [00:32:28] people that were great, you

 

Speaker 3 [00:32:29] know, if you look at

 

Speaker 2 [00:32:31] we started prosperity as a single entity ten years ago, and I think I hired the absolute best in the business right there. I got millennials in there. I’ve got a combination

 

Speaker 3 [00:32:41] of young

 

Speaker 2 [00:32:43] thoroughbreds. And then I’ve got some a couple of grizzled veterans like myself. And it just it works very well. Every one of them, 10 years later, are still with the company.

 

Speaker 3 [00:32:52] So it’s good, you know. You know, I

 

Speaker 2 [00:32:55] hire the most talented people I can around me.

 

Speaker 3 [00:32:57] I pay them well and I empower, you know, the

 

Speaker 2 [00:33:00] most important thing is empower them.

 

Speaker 3 [00:33:02] Right. And get out of their way, you know? And so I you got to have talent around you. You know, it’s not anything

 

Speaker 2 [00:33:09] you can do by yourself, and I’m not

 

Speaker 3 [00:33:11] talented enough by myself. So you got

 

Speaker 2 [00:33:13] you got to build talent around you.

 

Speaker 1 [00:33:14] Yeah. Yeah. That’s good. Good advice. All right. So now let me ask you, have you had some major challenges that you’ve had to overcome? Have you have you hit a brick wall or have you had. So obviously, I think covid was a challenge. But have there been other things that have happened in your career that that at the time you felt were devastating, maybe not in your career for you personally, but maybe from a you were working with a company and there was a catastrophic event? I know we had a data breach here at, you know, that was catastrophic to some of our folks here. Did you have any events like that that that you can share with us?

 

Speaker 2 [00:33:54] Well, I would say the most recent event was March of Twenty.

 

Speaker 3 [00:33:56] You know, when covid hit,

 

Speaker 2 [00:33:57] it turned our industry, the mortgage banking industry,

 

Speaker 3 [00:34:00] completely on its head. You know,

 

Speaker 2 [00:34:02] servicing values were wiped out almost overnight. Yeah. Which cost your

 

Speaker 3 [00:34:08] PNL, you know, tens of millions of dollars. Yeah.

 

Speaker 2 [00:34:11] I had people at Berkshire Hathaway saying maybe we should stop taking applications. I mean, what I would consider a significant overreaction to an industry experts.

 

Speaker 3 [00:34:20] And, you know, I stepped back

 

Speaker 2 [00:34:23] and looked at it and said this can be the biggest opportunity we’ve ever seen in mortgage banking. And it turned out to

 

Speaker 3 [00:34:28] be that right.

 

Speaker 2 [00:34:29] Bigger than even I expected. And that’s what I told the board at Berkshire is,

 

Speaker 3 [00:34:35] you know, in an environment like this, the

 

Speaker 2 [00:34:37] feds are going to drive down rates. They have no other option but to do that. And mortgage banking is the best hedge you could possibly have to. Yeah. To get through this. And they agreed. And therefore, we overcame those concerns in a very short time period.

 

Speaker 3 [00:34:51] And they they you know, we had a hiring freeze.

 

Speaker 2 [00:34:54] They took the handcuffs off. They let me hire what I needed to.

 

Speaker 3 [00:34:56] So, you know, they they they made the right moves. And so I think, you know, when I look at something that looks catastrophic.

 

Speaker 2 [00:35:05] Hmm. I just know from experience I’m doing this for 35 years that it’s going to look very different in a month

 

Speaker 3 [00:35:13] when you’ve

 

Speaker 2 [00:35:13] got you’ve got to work every day to get through that month. And that’s what we did in a Koven environment. And I’ve seen that in multiple recessionary environments.

 

Speaker 3 [00:35:21] Same thing. You know, you got to try to look, try to get ahead of it. But but don’t panic, right?

 

Speaker 1 [00:35:26] I totally agree with that. Not panicking part of it. So so how where were you into you were with prosperity in 2007, 08 when we had the mortgage,

 

Speaker 3 [00:35:38] I came

 

Speaker 2 [00:35:39] to prosperity and I actually I think it was 08 or 09. Oh.

 

Speaker 3 [00:35:42] So in 07 I was with Wachovia and David Stevens at that in

 

Speaker 2 [00:35:47] 08, I believe was promoted from President Fellated

 

Speaker 3 [00:35:50] business to CEO of

 

Speaker 2 [00:35:53] Long and Foster. And that’s when he brought me in.

 

Speaker 1 [00:35:54] Right. Because that was the last time before covid that we thought the world was.

 

Speaker 3 [00:35:58] Oh, yeah, right. Well, and that’s another one you can see coming. Yeah. I mean, it was and you know, that’s the thing about,

 

Speaker 2 [00:36:06] I think the opportunities that exist due to remote workers that

 

Speaker 3 [00:36:10] will that will lessen

 

Speaker 2 [00:36:12] that risk

 

Speaker 3 [00:36:13] that, you know, it won’t eliminate recessions. Right. But I think it will lessen the impact on

 

Speaker 2 [00:36:19] remote growing markets

 

Speaker 3 [00:36:21] from a a

 

Speaker 2 [00:36:23] recessionary real estate

 

Speaker 1 [00:36:24] market. Right. So your view is we are not necessarily in a bubble right now. You think we’re in a pretty hard trend with housing and the real estate industry that’s just going to continue for the next decade?

 

Speaker 3 [00:36:38] Well, I think I

 

Speaker 2 [00:36:39] think we are in a temporary bubble created by lack of inventory.

 

Speaker 3 [00:36:42] And again, you know, to me, the

 

Speaker 2 [00:36:44] builders are

 

Speaker 3 [00:36:46] the answer they got. We got to build our way out of this. Right. And they have not been building enough units yet. But I mean, if I’m

 

Speaker 2 [00:36:55] advising any builders right now, it’s built like hell, won’t

 

Speaker 3 [00:36:57] have it right. Because the you know, the math doesn’t change. Right. You know, the math is as obvious.

 

Speaker 2 [00:37:04] It’s more obvious than it’s ever been. The millennials are way bigger than the baby boomers.

 

Speaker 3 [00:37:08] Right?

 

Speaker 1 [00:37:09] Well, not only that I read and I don’t I don’t have the data right in front of me, but I think that building industry, they were building a million homes a year. But I think for the last decade we’ve only been building about

 

Speaker 3 [00:37:20] 500000 are way behind.

 

Speaker 2 [00:37:22] And, you know. There’s a supply shortage that’s going to get worked out as people come back to work and manufacture lumber, you’re already starting to see prices come down some.

 

Speaker 3 [00:37:31] Yeah, but

 

Speaker 2 [00:37:32] but the builders, you know, there’s only one shot that’s the builder way out.

 

Speaker 3 [00:37:36] And again,

 

Speaker 2 [00:37:37] remote workers are going to create opportunity where lots will become available in more remote locations. And when I say remote,

 

Speaker 3 [00:37:44] I’m not talking

 

Speaker 2 [00:37:45] 500 miles from here.

 

Speaker 3 [00:37:46] I’m talking 20 miles from here. So it just you know, there’s only so many infeld’s, right. And so I just you know, I

 

Speaker 2 [00:37:55] do worry if the builders don’t

 

Speaker 3 [00:37:57] get ahead of this, that a bubble is getting created by lack of inventory. Yeah, it’s not getting creative because of a complete imbalance. It’s simply lack of inventory.

 

Speaker 2 [00:38:07] And the buyers are out there.

 

Speaker 1 [00:38:08] Yeah, well, and I think if this and I think you’re correct and if this remote working condition is going to stay in place now, people are having, you know, two people at home that need an office or places to work. You have kids that are going to be going to school, but they’re going to be coming home. And mom and dad or folks in the house may still be working. And they need space. They need a bigger, bigger houses.

 

Speaker 2 [00:38:32] So even the higher end is doing well.

 

Speaker 3 [00:38:34] Yeah, I.

 

Speaker 2 [00:38:36] And that’s a market, you know, 10 years ago, I would have thought, you know, people are going to go smaller. Well, that it’s turned out,

 

Speaker 1 [00:38:43] but extremely flip it. You’re absolutely right. Ten years ago, it was the jewel box house. It was the smaller house that was more well appointed. Now we need square footage.

 

Speaker 2 [00:38:52] If you’re going to work from home every day, you want to work where you want to, you know,

 

Speaker 3 [00:38:56] so I mean, it’s I like I said, I’m wildly enthusiastic. I mean, I’ve been

 

Speaker 2 [00:39:01] doing this 35 years. I’ve never seen a more opportune environment.

 

Speaker 3 [00:39:04] But, you know,

 

Speaker 2 [00:39:06] if the builders

 

Speaker 3 [00:39:07] that we got to build our way out of this, I mean, they’ve got to

 

Speaker 2 [00:39:10] create more inventory than they’ve been creating at twice the rate and creating it. And again, the opportunity is there’s plenty of land.

 

Speaker 3 [00:39:18] Right. You know, if you go to Loudon County and

 

Speaker 2 [00:39:21] other areas around

 

Speaker 3 [00:39:22] and going, you know, somebody will commute

 

Speaker 2 [00:39:25] an hour and a half, three days a month, but they’re not going to commute an hour and a half,

 

Speaker 3 [00:39:29] 20 days a month. So that’s where the opportunity is. I think it’s huge.

 

Speaker 1 [00:39:33] Yeah, 10 four on that. I agree. So, Tim Inclosing, thanks again for coming in. This is I really enjoyed this conversation. Is there is there any thing that you want to add to this conversation that we’ve had today?

 

Speaker 2 [00:39:47] No, I think we’ve covered pretty much everything.

 

Speaker 3 [00:39:50] You know, again, if

 

Speaker 2 [00:39:51] I think it’s a great time to be a homeowner.

 

Speaker 3 [00:39:54] And, you know, one thing people ask me about rates a lot. Yeah. And so that’s always I get that question all the time. And I guess the one last thing I like to tell people is that, you know, housing

 

Speaker 2 [00:40:07] is driven by life events more than interest rates. Everybody is always almost incessantly focused on interest rates. And and and I like to tell the story. And I bought my first house in 1982.

 

Speaker 3 [00:40:19] I had a

 

Speaker 2 [00:40:20] 12 percent two year adjustable two year balloon

 

Speaker 3 [00:40:25] with no

 

Speaker 2 [00:40:26] locked in terms after two years. It’s just whatever the market was so crazy financial product

 

Speaker 3 [00:40:31] that wouldn’t you couldn’t even imagine today. But at the time, it you know, I bought a

 

Speaker 2 [00:40:34] thirty five thousand fourteen hundred square foot house and payola Kansas with on 20 acres.

 

Speaker 3 [00:40:40] And I told my then wife and you know that I mean, I had it all planned out. I was going to have two kids buy a little

 

Speaker 2 [00:40:46] place in the country with 20 acres.

 

Speaker 3 [00:40:48] And then I was done and I told my wife at the time, you

 

Speaker 2 [00:40:52] know, I love this place. We’re never moving.

 

Speaker 3 [00:40:54] And, you know, two wives, five kids, seven states. Later, I’m on my ninth house. So the point is,

 

Speaker 2 [00:41:03] you know, interest rates didn’t drive those purchase decisions,

 

Speaker 3 [00:41:06] right? Life events did. Right. I went to kids to five kids.

 

Speaker 2 [00:41:10] I got married and divorced. And those two wives, by the way, weren’t at the same time.

 

Speaker 3 [00:41:14] I want to make sure that’s clear to the listeners. But, yeah, you know, life

 

Speaker 2 [00:41:19] events are what create purchase transactions. And so interest rates, you know, they’re going to come and go.

 

Speaker 3 [00:41:26] And I tell agents and anybody, you know, even homeowners, you know, you don’t focus on what you can’t control.

 

Speaker 2 [00:41:33] I mean, the head of the Fed Reserve is not going to take my call. And so rates are going to do what they’re going to do.

 

Speaker 3 [00:41:38] But. Right.

 

Speaker 2 [00:41:39] You know, I’ve been through thirty five years. I’ve seen every interest rate environment you could

 

Speaker 3 [00:41:43] possibly see, and I’ve been busy the whole time.

 

Speaker 1 [00:41:46] Yeah. Fantastic. Tim Wilson, CEO, Prosperity Mortgage. Thank you again for coming in today. Really enjoyed the chat.

 

Speaker 2 [00:41:54] Thanks, John. I appreciate it.

 

Speaker 1 [00:42:00] Thanks for listening to another episode of the Go with John show. Now go out there and build something extraordinary.