The Future of Mortgages: Insights from Expert Denise Richards

Erika (00:00.878)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Show. I’m your host, Erika, and today I’m thrilled to chat with Denise Richards from mortgageprofessional.net. Denise, you’re killing it in the mortgage and real estate space. Thanks for joining us.

Denise Richards (00:15.448)
Thanks so much for having me. This is fantastic.

Erika (00:19.062)
Our listeners are in for a treat for how you’re making financing clear for everyone, buyers and investors. Let’s jump in.

Denise Richards (00:27.606)
Yeah, absolutely. You know, it’s a crazy time right now in the real estate market. A lot of people are sort of paralyzed, not sure what to do, if they should do anything at all. You know, it’s a very exciting time actually when you want to think about the opportunity here in terms of it being a buyer’s market. But what you were referring to is, you know, having that right fit for that particular buyer or investor. All mortgages are not created equal and not everybody is going to fit into that box exactly perfect.

One of my best strengths, I suppose, is my ability to be resourceful. So if I have a client who comes to me and they’ve got a hard time proving their income, or maybe they don’t quite have enough equity to fit in the perfect program, I have a lot of resources available to me because I am an independent broker. So being an independent mortgage broker allows me to work for the client and not for the bank, which gives me a lot more flexibility.

can find the right program for them if it doesn’t happen to be readily available to me the first time I look.

So it’s been an exciting change since I got my broker’s license two years ago. I’m able to help my client at a much higher level than I ever was working for somebody else. So in terms of finding that right program, I think that is probably one of my best strengths. Depending on where you are in your lifetime, your first mortgage or maybe it is your last mortgage, but we want to look at that entire financial plan. We want to look holistically at your whole financial life in

of any debt that you have. We want to manage that the best that we can and help you build personal financial wealth through homeownership.

Erika (02:13.07)
That’s awesome. You know, in this wild market, what’s been the key to keeping clients happy and your business strong?

Denise Richards (02:21.292)
Well, know, a lot of folks, when they think about a mortgage, if they’ve had one before, they might shake their head and just hope that it goes okay. Fingers crossed, toes crossed, eyes crossed. But it doesn’t have to be like that. With the anxiety of getting into a mortgage, I think the most important thing that I can do for a client is really take all the stress off of them. Let it be the easiest transaction that they’ve ever been through, knowing that I’m on the other side for them at the end and after.

You it’s not, you didn’t just go to Walmart and buy something. That’s not what this is about at all. This is about looking at a client in the entire picture and to determine if it’s the right thing for them. Maybe they’ve come to me because they’ve gotten themselves into some credit card debt. They’re not sure what to do. But maybe I look at that and I determine, listen, if you do X, Y, and Z, you’ll get through this debt without refinancing. And it might not be something that I personally do to help them, but maybe it’s just the guidance that I give them.

So that’s a big piece of what I do. It’s the advocacy for my client.

Erika (03:27.544)
That’s great. And I love how what you do is so personalized. do, and you’ve done like conventional and jumbo loans from what I was looking at on your website. When it comes to investors, what’s a financing strategy that you’ve thought has been really good for them?

Denise Richards (03:43.734)
Yeah, it’s a debt service coverage ratio mortgage. So those who are investors who, you know, lot of folks who are self-employed, they are not going to have a tax return with a whole bunch of income. You know, if you’re smart, you have your costs leveraged correctly so that you can use them to deduct from your taxes. And with that said, sometimes that’s not the option to prove income. Sometimes it’s the property itself. So we’re able to use a rent amount in comparison to the mortgage amount and determine whether

or not the property is a fit for this program. You know, you can have as little as 20 % down for that program and work towards building that investment portfolio without using your own income to qualify. And ultimately, because there’s less documentation, it’s a much easier loan and less stressful loan for the investor.

That’s a big one. Another one is, you know, if you are looking to maybe it’s your first investment property, maybe it’s your first home. Think about a duplex.

you’re walking right into an investment opportunity for yourself. And quite honestly, a duplex is going to allow you to qualify a little easier because you have that added income from the other side of the property. So there are a lot of different strategies that I have for the investor in terms of what they’re trying to do and what their long-term goals are. Some folks just are not, they don’t have the wherewithal to be property managers or even want to have that.

And then there are those folks that that’s really their ultimate focus. a lot of different unique programs. I help the veterans. VA is a very popular program for the vets. allows them to get into a house with no money down.

Denise Richards (05:28.546)
The United States Department of Agriculture, USDA has a rule home loan where there’s a zero down requirement for that. That property would need to be on their map. And here in Southwest Florida, primarily everything east of I-75 is on their map that you can buy with no money down.

So have access to every program available, including the Hometown Heroes that Florida will fund here very shortly. That will be for our frontline workers, teachers, hospital staff, folks like that this time. So lot of opportunities out there, lots of different ways to get into a house. And you might even decide that maybe you need to pull that equity from your home in some way. I have…

lots of different strategies in terms of that also. And we’ll do a true mortgage analysis to determine if that is even a good move for the homeowner.

Erika (06:25.72)
love the way that you see things. You look at everyone uniquely, see how they need to get helped, and you find the best tool for them, the best solution.

Denise Richards (06:35.274)
Mm-hmm. I think it’s very important. I’m not an order taker. This is not transactional. I am not Bank of America. I will never be anything like any of the big box banks. With me, it’s a very personal service. I am a mortgage broker. That means I do not work for anybody else and I don’t, nobody works for me. I am not about building a team and taking care of other people. The only people I want to take care of are my clients. And so for me, after 28 years,

this industry, I am really truly able to do just that.

take care of my client, not babysit other issues or problems or processors or anything else. It’s really the Denise Richards show when it comes to taking care of my client now. And you know what they say, you have too many cooks in the kitchen, it spoils the pot. And every mortgage lender, every mortgage bank, every mortgage broker that I worked for, there were so many cooks in the kitchen. It was really hard for me to deliver the experience that I wanted to. And so now I have that ultimate control.

Erika (07:41.024)
That’s awesome. Yeah, and it’s so good for your clients that you do have that control. So with all the experience that you’ve had, I’ve got to ask, can you share a time where a deal went sideways, but you got through that tough moment, how did you handle that?

Denise Richards (08:03.522)
That is hard. I had one recently. These folks are immigrants from Haiti. both work, husband and wife, they both work two jobs. They work so hard. When we started the transaction and we were under contract, of course you have deadlines and everything else, the wife really didn’t want the husband on the mortgage. It was second job income, very difficult to very difficult to document when they’re

lots of them. You know, and here we got all the way through it and my underwriter cut my income. It’s very, very, there’s a little bit of gray area there, cut my income. We added the husband on, able to close on time. I made these people’s American dream come true. Do you know how good that felt? These hard-working people that want to become American citizens.

They are just, they’re amazing to work with. And the gratitude, you know, that I’m able to help them be a small part of their American dream is, I can’t even put it into words, the value they’re for even just me. That’s one of them.

Erika (09:14.318)
That’s awesome. That is a feel-good story. Thank you for sharing that.

Denise Richards (09:19.52)
It is, and you know what, I actually have another one in case if we edit this, but I had a gal up in Lakeland and she was recently diagnosed with cancer.

And so she actually, I’m sorry, she lived all the way down in Inglewood and she was buying a house in Lakeland. New construction, Wells Fargo couldn’t get it done. And she was in the final hour about to lose her ESCO deposit. And her agent came to me and not only did we get her closed, but we got her closed on time. I had no problems getting her qualified. And so she could be in Lakeland with her niece and closer to Moffitt so she could go for her treatments after her surgery.

That was one of my very favorite ones. Just being able to help the family like that and take the stress off of them was, it’s why I do what I do.

Erika (10:13.358)
love it. I love it. I’ve got to ask you too, with all that you do with mortgages, what’s one tip for anyone watching this podcast who’s overwhelmed by financing?

Denise Richards (10:27.438)
call me number one. If you don’t even know where to start, maybe it’s credit. Maybe credit is holding you up. Maybe you feel your credit’s not where it should be.

People put so much emphasis on their credit score and while that is important, it’s also very transitory. Credit scores change every day. And there are some brilliant ways to get those scores up where they need to be be able to buy. So like I say, even if you don’t think that you’re ready or you don’t think that you can, speak to a professional like me who can at least guide you in the right direction and give you a timeframe.

I I answered your question.

Erika (11:12.046)
Yes, yes you did. I also wanted to talk to you about relationships because and I mean we’ve already talked about a lot with relationships and the clients you’ve been helping and changing their world but when it comes to like networking what’s been like the biggest win with building your network?

Denise Richards (11:37.336)
For me, five years ago, remember I’ve been in the mortgage business since 1998. And about five years ago, I joined a networking team, networking group. And it really changed everything. You know, when you’re a loan officer, you’re almost an L-O-N-E officer. And depending on who you’re working for or with, you may be by yourself all the time, unless you’re out and about. So networking was huge for me.

me an opportunity to meet financial planners, attorneys, other mortgage professionals, and certainly real estate agents. It helped me to visualize what I wanted my business to be like, and I think having known all of these phenomenal people throughout these last five years really is what gave me the confidence and the courage to get my broker’s license and go out on my own.

So my networking is a very important part of my world. I like to say I don’t prefer to serve the masses. I prefer to work with people that I like. And when I network in this fashion and people are referred to me and I’m able to refer people back to them, there’s a level of accountability almost like family. You just want to make sure that that person you’re putting them with.

does the right thing. The person that you’re talking to is getting to the right person. Whether it’s mortgage or roofing or whatever it is, to be a community that, you know, a community contact for somebody. Florida is very transient and there are a lot of people that move to Florida, not necessarily for honorable reasons.

reasons and we’ll start a business and want to do your landscape or your roof or your painting and you don’t know them, don’t work with them. You know, you’ve got to work with somebody that you know and that networking that I’ve done has really allowed me to be kind of a powerhouse in that way where I feel really good about my network and the people that I work with. It was kind of the missing link for me all those years.

Erika (13:45.41)
Yeah, those relationships can be everything. it’s win-win when you can help other people and they can help you back. And you’ve got their back, and they’ve got yours.

Denise Richards (13:58.284)
I think we’re seeing a theme here. It’s all feel good stuff for me, right? You know, I decided when I turned 50 that I was not going to do anything that doesn’t bring me personal joy anymore. And luckily, I get to do something that does bring me joy like this, like those situations I told you, where I’m able to help somebody in such a big impactful way. I may not be changing the world, but I might be saving the world one loan at a time.

Erika (14:02.03)
Yeah.

Erika (14:28.302)
I love that. Before we started this podcast, you and I, were talking about the market and I wanted to ask, what are the trends that you’re noticing and how are you preparing for that?

Denise Richards (14:41.39)
Those are really good questions. know, ordinarily in our industry, we have lots of tools that we use to be able to kind of predict the future, right? Well, I think since COVID, all of that’s kind of out the window. It’s been so hard to nail down what’s going to happen, so much so that even the Federal Reserve Board, their predictions have not come to pass. So it’s been very difficult. So with that being said, I do,

have prepared myself in a way that I can help folks who are not necessarily buying property. Because let’s face it, as a mortgage broker, people buying property, it’s just a captive audience. People need you. In off-market times, it can be more difficult. Something that I am very passionate about is reverse mortgage. I help a lot of seniors change the whole trajectory of their retirement.

through reverse mortgage, which is now FHA insured and it completely protects the homeowner. But in those ways, I’m able to help other people who aren’t necessarily buying. while I don’t can’t tell you for sure what’s going to happen, I can tell you that before the end of 2025.

pressure cooker if you will that I kind of mentioned earlier, it’s gonna pop off. We’re gonna lose that buyer’s market. You’re gonna see these mortgage rates come down maybe as much as a full point, and those buyers sitting on the fence, they’re done. Those sellers sitting on their 3 % mortgage, they’re done. And it’s gonna it’s gonna change everything. So you know what I like to say about the old roller coaster? The only person that dies on the roller coaster is the one that jumps off.

and I’m hanging on tight.

Erika (16:32.174)
That’s great. Another thing before we go, because I don’t want to keep you here too long, is you’re doing so much as a broker, but what’s next on the horizon? What’s a big goal you’re chasing? What has got you excited?

Denise Richards (16:53.954)
have been contemplating building a team. I have been contemplating building a team and as I get older and closer to a retirement age, which is not for another 10 years, but as I get closer, I may start to step away more and build that team and that is something that I am considering. I am considering. don’t want to be the one doing the loans forever.

But right now I’m still so passionate about it, I can’t imagine not being the one to take care of the loans. So that is a goal for me. Another goal is licensure outside of the state of Florida. That will happen as we move forward.

Those are my biggest goals. know, 2024 was such an amazing year in my in my industry. It wasn’t easy, but it was the best year of my entire career. I actually got to go to Wall Street as one of the brokers of the year for.

largest wholesale mortgage lender in the country, I got to go to the New York Stock Exchange and I was with the group that rang the bell. It was a very exciting time and it is an exciting time to be a mortgage broker. Like I say, things may be little stagnant right now, but they won’t be for much longer and that’s really what I’m excited about. I’m excited about being able to handle the influx of business in a way that

people still feel as comfortable by the time they get to the closing table as they do now when I’m not quite so busy. So it’s going to be exciting.

Erika (18:35.65)
That’s great. Well, like you said, you’re hanging onto the roller coaster. You’re not letting go.

Denise Richards (18:42.976)
No, I mean if I hung on through the Great Recession, I can hang on through this.

Erika (18:48.302)
Denise, how can listeners connect with you or learn more at a mortgage professional?

Denise Richards (18:55.552)
Absolutely. So I’m actually the mortgage professional of Florida. LLC is the name of my company. I have a website, mortgageprofessional.net. Always reach me there. On my website, you’ll even see a button that says time with Denise. Maybe you just have some questions. Maybe you just want to get started. That’s going to be the place for you to go to set up a time, a phone appointment, in-person appointment. My office is in downtown Punta Gorda. But I am also

the place from Collier all the way up to Charlotte. I’m going out to Glades County tomorrow morning and I’m all the way out in DeSoto County as well. So this area that I’m in allows me the ability to go everywhere within an hour. All of those places that I just mentioned are all within an hour’s drive.

My website is a great place to start. My Facebook page, Mortgage Professional, I’m right there also. The easiest way to find me, this is my favorite. If you simply Google Denise Richards, not the famous one, Denise Richards Mortgage, and I will pop up. I’ll be the first person to pop up for you. That’s the best way to find me.

Erika (20:08.526)
Good, thanks Denise for the awesome insights on the show today. And everyone, if you love this, subscribe to the Real Estate Pro Show. More pros like Denise are coming on here next. We’ll see you on the next episode.