Unlocking Homeownership: Shay Morton’s Journey to Empower Families

Michelle Kesil (00:01.096)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil, and today I’m joined by someone I’ve been really looking forward to chatting with, Yates-Morton, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate space. Shay, I’m so glad to have you here. I think that our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching the lending and real estate.

business and everything that you’re doing. So let’s dive in. So first off, for those that may not be familiar with you and your world, just give us the short version on what your main focus is these days.

Shay Yates Morton (00:45.71)
Sure. My main focus is being a mom. So I am, while I am a lender and soon to be real estate entrepreneur, I also am a mother. And so I think my main focus is raising my three girls. I have 15, 13 and eight. So they require not only a lot of attention, but a lot of time and setting up a business for success and just being a good example for them.

which bleeds a lot into my work. So we’re very passionate about helping people. We have the idea that everyone deserves to own a home, or at least have that path forward to be able to figure out how to own a home. And we really focus on that with our VA clients, as well as our first time home buyers. And then anyone that just needs that second glance for flexible financing, self-employed, they often get overlooked. So we really like to try to help those that maybe don’t.

fit into the conventional boxes.

Michelle Kesil (01:41.768)
Great, yeah. In what markets are you operating in?

Shay Yates Morton (01:46.029)
operate in 28 states, but I am located in Springfield, Missouri. I cover all of our Missouri and Midwest. I have an office in Arkansas and in Oklahoma, Kansas, anything touching Missouri. So I cover Iowa, Nebraska, and then I have a huge focus in North Carolina because I do a very large amount of business there.

Michelle Kesil (02:08.04)
Love it. Yeah, that really caught my attention the way you’ve been able to manage multiple markets. That’s not easy in this climate. What has been the key to keeping that running smoothly?

Shay Yates Morton (02:24.065)
In the beginning, I learned that there has to be two sets of clients. Relators are your clients and then you have your client families. Families that I close become my family for life. I tell them I’m a lifelong lender. When their children get ready for homes, I want to be the one they call. When their brother or sister want a house, I always want to be the top of mind. But then you have relators. My hope is that when I connect with a relator and I’m able to be honest, upfront, transparent, and be able to close deals smoothly.

that I build those realtor relationships that continue to come back four to five times per quarter or 10 to 20 deals per year. When you can build a relationship and that realtor becomes someone that you understand to be a client, you have a whole different side of the business. And I think that’s as an online lender previously, that’s where I really focused my goal was making sure that I was very transparent, that I’ve communicated great.

and that I really kept top of mind of what they were experiencing on their side and made sure that all parties were aware, whether it be the listing agent, the buyer’s agent, or the client, because everyone has a role to play. And I think that’s really where I cultivated those relationships.

Michelle Kesil (03:34.42)
That’s beautiful. Now every operator I know has a moment when things got real. Maybe a deal went sideways or a time they had to pivot fast. Would you mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Shay Yates Morton (03:50.028)
We just experienced one. In my world, I can do both. I can do retail, which is your everyday transaction, same as if you were to walk into a local bank or any type of online dealer like Veterans United or something like that. That’s retail. But then you also have a broker world. And if you usually hear about brokers, you broker this, you broker that. So what a broker is, is essentially if you don’t fit in the traditional channel.

then I can take that loan and I can offer it to someone that’s willing to take on the additional risk. So in this particular case, we had an under 580 borrower that doesn’t fit in your traditional channel. They were a USDA file. USDA is already very dependent on USDA themselves. And so you don’t really get to move that along at a speed that you necessarily want. The broker is in charge of the transaction. You’re really just a communicator. They ask you for some things, you upload some things and you pass it on.

The underwriter that was handling this from this particular broker let us know that on the 23rd, they uploaded it to USDA. That ended up being a false statement. They did not get it uploaded until the 27th. So while all parties were communicated with really well, we missed our closing date by about six days because that’s the turn time. And all you can do is apologize, communicate, and set those expectations up front that when you have a broker transaction, there is less transparency on your side because you don’t hold all the cards.

And so that was a really hard conversation because you’re talking about a family that’s ready to move in, a realtor that has three deals going, that this is the first and you have to domino close and you’re affecting multiple people’s lives. And while they may not be angry at you because you’ve done all the things that you’re supposed to do, you still take a responsibility to that family and that delayed closing. So it was very good news to be able to call today and share that tomorrow we’re going to be able to close, to be able to try to make amends with that realtor.

And then just let them know, like, we’re always there to advocate. We may not have got it done on time, and that really is not our goal, but we still put a family and a home. And in the long run, those extra six or seven days is not going to matter to that family.

Michelle Kesil (05:57.286)
Yeah, absolutely. That’s the kind of stuff that people don’t talk about enough. And it’s really what separates the ones who are just dabbling in this business versus the ones here for the game long term.

Shay Yates Morton (06:11.625)
It’s a hard world. they’re, not every deal goes easy. And our team takes on deals that aren’t necessarily easy. A lot of times we may be the last option for this client to be able to buy a home. And what I’ve learned is if the client is willing to work really hard and match my enthusiasm and willingness to help them, then we’ll go a long ways. But I think the important part is starting upfront and being very honest with your loan team.

You can be very honest with the realtor, but if that does the communication, doesn’t follow through, and there’s something in the background that I’m gonna find down the road, it hurts the whole process. We never try to make anyone feel bad for any mistakes that they have made in their past. Everyone has a past, especially when it comes to credit history, bank accounts, anything like that. But what I do have to do is be willing to know those things up front so that I can predict how our underwriting team is going to handle something so that the transaction goes smoothly.

So anything from a DSCR, which is an investment opportunity, that fairly well you have money, but necessarily that money isn’t sourced from the right place, or you’re not looking at all the details of it. It’s still very important to be honest about it, because when I find something out later in the transaction, it makes it hard for everybody.

Michelle Kesil (07:27.6)
Yeah. So let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? Like what’s that next real goal for you?

Shay Yates Morton (07:38.538)
Right now we are very focused on always our VA clients. I am very passionate about making sure that the veteran community has been serviced. Those that served for us, I believe we should serve for them. And I want to make sure that veterans that have necessarily not had the best credit history know that there’s still options to be helped. A lot of lenders have a 600 or a 620 credit score requirement, and the VA product itself doesn’t even have a FICO requirement.

And so it’s very important to me that we service those veterans or get them on a path outside of that when it comes back to the original reason for lending. We like to focus on the investor side effects. So DSCRs and second homes that you can turn into income opportunities. We have a great second home product that allows you to have your second home at the same rate that you would have a primary with just putting an extra 5 % down. And that makes it game changing. I’m all about creating generational wealth.

making a change not only for this generation, but the next generation as well. And the way that I feel we do that is by real estate. So when you can be in Missouri, buy a second home in North Carolina as a condo, be able to take your family there, great, 40, 50 days out of the year, but then turn that into an investment opportunity where you’re consistently making money and have that at the same rate as you would have a primary home, it’s a win for everybody. Right now we really look at those HELOCs that people…

have really locked in on that 2.5, 2.99, that 1.99 from those COVID times, and you don’t see them wanting to move on from that hope because of the rate that they have. There are other opportunities. You can take a portion of that equity, invest in that second home, and make that an income-generating property. So I think we’re just really looking forward to that next round of trying to see how we help people become generational wealthy with real estate.

Michelle Kesil (09:31.654)
Yeah, that’s big. That’s such an important thing to facilitate that growth for others. Now, I know a lot of people listening to this are earlier in their journey or potentially just looking to really level up. And I think they benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, I know we touched on this a bit, but I’d love to hear more about what’s made the biggest difference for you.

Shay Yates Morton (09:34.215)
and facilitate.

Shay Yates Morton (10:00.659)
think the biggest difference for me is being genuine. Whenever I sit down and talk to anybody, I know no strangers. My children hate that, just so you know. It doesn’t matter if I’m in the cashier line, if we’re standing at a restaurant, if it’s the secretary at a school. It doesn’t matter where I am. I am a person that attracts other people. And when you are those type of people, you find the right connectors and connections.

There for a long time, I was always looking for realtors, like, let me find this realtor, let me find that realtor. But you know what? Not only realtors know people that want to buy homes, everyone does. You need roofers and you need inspectors and you need insurance agents and you need plumbers. There’s so many different people out there that you can connect to. And I would say that the way that you connect is to be yourself, let your own personality show through, because that’s who people are attracted to is the person behind

the camera. There are so many loan officers that can do the exact same thing I can. I’m not going to say necessarily they do it in the way that I do it because we all do it just a little bit differently. But what I know is that my personality is what attracts other people to come back to me. Yesterday, I had a client and they were in their late 70s. We did an FHA loan for him about six months ago. And she called me yesterday and she said, Hey, I wanted to let you know that I sent you flowers and they got returned. And I’m like, you sent me flowers?

Like, I don’t know that I’ve ever had a borrower send me flowers before, but that’s so sweet. And she had just finished chemo and radiation. A borrower that has been gone six months from my pipeline, but that I made an impact enough that six months down the road, they saw that I had lost my dad and they wanted to send me flowers. That’s something that you just can’t take away that feeling. And she, at the end of that conversation, she’s like, by the way, my friend’s looking to buy a house and I definitely sent them your information. And that’s how you do that. That’s in Virginia.

I live in Missouri, but you can impact people in a way that they put your name out there and they start to make those connections for you as long as you’re being genuine and connect.

Michelle Kesil (12:05.126)
Yeah, you can’t make that. Relationships are everything in this space. All right, so before we wrap up, if someone wants to reach out, connect with you, collaborate, or just learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Shay Yates Morton (12:12.667)
All right, so.

Shay Yates Morton (12:24.208)
Well, my cell phone number is always available. I’m one of those people that always answer. And that should be available, but also shaymorton.com. So S-H-A-Y-M-O-R-T-O-N.com. You can go to our website. It directs you to anywhere else that you want to be. I’m on LinkedIn. I’m on Facebook. You can find me anywhere and everywhere. As I’ve closed many loans in many states, it’s not very hard to Google my name. I thankfully am now one of the first people to come up and a of people have my name.

So, but my website is shaymorton.com and it’s fairly easy to reach me from there.

Michelle Kesil (12:59.112)
Perfect. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story, your perspective. We really need more people in this space doing things in this right way. So thank you for being here.

Shay Yates Morton (13:09.915)
Yeah, thank you.

Michelle Kesil (13:11.724)
And for those of you tuning in, you got value from this, make sure that you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like Shay, who are out here building real businesses. And we’ll see you on the next episode.