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Show Summary
In this conversation, Brett Reynolds discusses the innovative cash offer program designed to empower home buyers by providing them with a competitive edge in the real estate market. He explains how the program works, the confidence it instills in clients, and the strategic advantages it offers in negotiations.
Resources and Links from this show:
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- Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
- Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
- Mike on Facebook
- Mike on Instagram
- Mike on LinkedIn
- Brett Reynolds’ Website
- Brett Reynolds on Facebook
- Brett Reynolds on LinkedIn
- Brett Reynolds’ Phone Number: (325) 665-4353
- Brett Reynolds’ Email Address: [email protected]
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Brett Reynolds (00:00)
We’re 100 % confident we’re going to fund their loan and close when we say we’re going to close. And to show that confidence, we’re going to provide an addendum to the contract. We’re going to work with their real estate agent, provide an addendum to the contract that says, hey, we’re going to pay cash for this home if for some reason our buyer mortgage approval falls through. ⁓ And so it helps stand with cash offers. In fact, it could be perceived as even stronger than a cash offerJohn Harcar (02:03)
All right, hey guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host, John Harcar, and I’m here today with Brett Reynolds. And what we’re gonna talk about with Brett is, besides his journey in business and mortgage, we’re gonna talk about a pretty cool platform he has called Cash to Keys. ⁓ It’s helping people buy rental properties, properties as a whole, but Brett, welcome to our show.Brett Reynolds (02:04)
HeyThank you, John. Pleasure to be here, man.
John Harcar (02:27)
Yeah, good to have you on. Excited to talk about this. I love hearing about or learning about new platforms and new things. I’m that shiny object guilty guy. ⁓ But before we talk about all that, Brett, tell our audience a little bit more about you, kind of your background, what got you into mortgage, et cetera.Brett Reynolds (02:37)
There you go.Yeah, sure.
So I have been in the business 17 years. I graduated college end of 2007, kind of smack dab in the middle of or in the beginning of the financial crisis. And so the job that was available was in mortgage and it had to do with refinancing and loan modifications, things of that nature to help people better afford their properties. And I was able to secure a job in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
And I worked in a refinance shop for probably five years. And then from there it evolved into helping people buy property. I had a stint in wealth management where I worked with kind high net worth clients with complex mortgage ⁓ scenarios. And ⁓ work brought me to Houston in 2017. I’ve been here ever since. Work in the retail mortgage space, helping people buy or refinance residential real estate.
John Harcar (03:42)
What got your passion or did you go to school for finance, for mortgage? I mean, what got you into that? Was there like someone in your past that was in that type of industry that maybe planted that seed?Brett Reynolds (03:55)
Not necessarily. did get a degree in finance. My original thought was, I want to be a stockbroker. ⁓ of looked up to my dad’s financial advisor at the time, and I did actually lookJohn Harcar (03:58)
Okay.Brett Reynolds (04:09)
deep ending to that career set. ⁓ However, starting off in that realm was very little pay. It was more of apprenticeship for a year. And I was just out of college, ready to make some money. Some friends of mine had got a job at the mortgage company ⁓ in the DFW area. And Base Plus Commission, that’s what I needed to hear. And I kind of went that direction, stuck that path ever since.John Harcar (04:32)
So you learned the kind of in the mix learning, Or street learning, I like to call it. You’re doing it as opposed to studying it. What were some of the hardest things, the challenges as you kind of started getting into the biz, growing in it, et cetera? What were things that you struggled with at ⁓ the start?Brett Reynolds (04:40)
Yup.Yeah, in the beginning the guidelines were overwhelming. There were so many different pitfalls you could run into for lack of better words. My first job I had a lot of leads coming in, a lot of opportunity. Well, in fact, I was calling,
I don’t know, 50 to 100 people a day, people that either turned us down or we turned down six months prior. So it was very much a sales deal.
John Harcar (05:56)
Wow.Brett Reynolds (06:04)
understanding the guidelines that was the big thing understanding how to get a file through underwriting that was a challenge that I have I think mastered at this pointJohn Harcar (06:13)
Okay. What are some of the attributes you think you had to have or develop to continue to scale your process, your growth, know, move up in the company, move into what, you know, those types of things. Like what attributes did you forget to work on?Brett Reynolds (06:27)
Yeah, so you’ve got to be able to communicate with your partners internally, your underwriting and processing partners. You have to learn how to communicate with them appropriately to keep them motivated and keep them working on your file and not, I guess, for lack of better words, piss them off to where your file goes to the back of the line. But you have to understand how to delegate as well. So that was a critical component. And then just focusing on the positive, which I think is helpful with any kind of career or just life. ⁓John Harcar (06:41)
Right?Brett Reynolds (06:54)
you know there’s there’s so much positive to look at but people let the negative kind of in and and it’s it’s a mental game ⁓ and so i think that’s the biggest part is focusing on on the positiveJohn Harcar (07:07)
Yeah, and I love the fact that you touched on the mental game. think now life is a mental game, obviously. It’s really about how we look at things, how we perceive and approach things. What were some of the mindset tools for you that helped you to get to that mindset, stay on that mindset?Brett Reynolds (07:24)
Well, what helped me in the first half of my career was I worked in a large corporate setting, ⁓ a call center. So I got to see kind of a large mix of people attempting to do my job. ⁓ And I saw people just completely excelling and then a lot of people failing. ⁓ And so I tried to kind of, youJohn Harcar (07:37)
YouOkay.
Brett Reynolds (07:47)
mirror what the top producers were doing and get close with them, look to get their advice, see what they were doing. That really kind of helped me kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel and become a professional in what I do.John Harcar (07:59)
Well, and that’s good. Kind of like a pseudo mentorship type of thing, right? It’s like, not an actual mentorship, but you’re watching and you’re able to see the difference. What people aren’t doing, but what the ones that are successful are, and that’s where you wanted to focus. So that’s awesome. So now up in today, so where are you at today? You’re in Houston, right?Brett Reynolds (08:02)
Yeah.Yes sir.
Yeah, Houston, Texas. I’m in the residential mortgage space, kind of out on my own. I work for AniMac Home Mortgage. We’re an independent mortgage banker based out of New Jersey. We have a growing presence in the Texas market. And so I am kind of the face of the company here at Houston looking to grow. are hiring, we’re expanding, and excited about that.
John Harcar (08:38)
Very cool. Now talk to me about what type of loans you guys focus on. I mean, do you work with investors? Do you work primarily with, you know, ⁓ the homeowner? Who do you target?Brett Reynolds (08:47)
Yeah,so our clients are of course our referral partners, our real estate agents or financial advisors, but ultimately we work with consumers looking to buy a refinance residential real estate. Certainly that could be someone looking to buy rental property or a primary residence or a vacation home. From the investor perspective, we do only work with long-term investors, someone that’s looking to buy a property and hold it for at least six months or longer.
John Harcar (08:53)
Okay.Mm-hmm.
Sure.
Brett Reynolds (09:12)
Wehave a variety of programs, both traditional and kind of that non QM space DSCR programs as well. We have a lot of options there. Correct.
John Harcar (09:17)
DSCR. Yeah. Okay. Verycool. Very cool. Do you guys do you currently now work with a lot of investors in the Houston area?
Brett Reynolds (09:25)
I’d say it’s about 20 % of my business in terms of helping people. And then the other, most of the other would be primary residences. You get a few vacation homes, just closed the property up on Lake Livingston last month. So you get those vacation properties sprinkled in there too.John Harcar (09:29)
Okay, cool. Very cool.What ⁓ are some things that you think are important for folks that are wanting to get into the mortgage business or wanting to get into it and pursue this type of career? What are some tips or things that you can share with us or share with them that might set them up for success?
Brett Reynolds (09:57)
Yeah, so I think having a mentor, having a coach is key. ⁓ If you’re not in an environment where I started in a call center where I could just reach over and tap this person or that person to ask a question, then you’ve got, if you don’t have experience, you’ve got to kind of more or less ⁓ join up with someone that has the experience. You can learn the business from them. Maybe they throw you a small salary or some basis points, something like that. Maybe become what we would call like a loan partner or loan officer assistant. That’s one way to come up.John Harcar (10:26)
Mm-hmm.Brett Reynolds (10:27)
The other way to come up would be maybe being a loan processor, where you really learn the nuts and bolts of the manufacturing process of the mortgage. ⁓ It’s tough to just go straight, even just from college, you could have all kinds of education, but to go right into a mortgage loan officer role would be tough without having someone to show you that experience along the way for a while.John Harcar (11:22)
Sure. Are there any trends you’re seeing in the mortgage world right now that maybe, you know, a lot of us aren’t seeing or maybe things that might be coming down the pipe that you’re looking at?Brett Reynolds (11:33)
You know, I’m seeing, so there’s a lot of chatter about refinancing lately just because as we know, the Fed did lower the Fed funds rate and up until that point, mortgage rates were coming down. Now they haven’t, they didn’t stay down exactly. They popped up a little bit, but today they’re coming down a little bit more. So it’s kind of a, a little bit of a roller coaster. We’re in a volatile market. What we do know is, you know, this year, today is the best time to buy a refinance. If you were going to this year, rates are about the best they’ve been.⁓ since January. ⁓ Home values we expect to continue to rise on average. mean that’s what history has shown us. ⁓ If you can afford to buy now ⁓ and you need to buy, do it because most likely if you wait a few more years that property is going to be more expensive and even if rates did come down, which nothing indicates they’re going to, you might be paying more for that property anyways. First, if you secure it now you can refinance down the road at a lower rate if it makes sense.
John Harcar (12:32)
Yeah, mean, rates go down, prices go up. It’s the teeter-totter, man. That’s just what happens. All right. Well, cool, man. So you’re based in Houston. Do you do any business outside of Houston? Or are you strictly in that market?Brett Reynolds (12:34)
That’s right. That’s the way it typically is. That’s correct.Yeah, I can land anywhere in the state of Texas, but ⁓ you know, oftentimes the Dallas Fort Worth area would be my second where I do the second most business. I lived in Dallas for eight years and that’s where started my career. So I have a lot of connections out there, you know, in Austin, San Antonio that comes up from time to time. Folks relocating to the state of Texas are like several deals I’m working on right now are people relocating from New York, for example, last, last ⁓
John Harcar (12:55)
cool.Brett Reynolds (13:12)
month we had someone relocating from Austin to Texas, Louisiana to Texas is common. So anywhere in the state I can easily originate the mortgage.John Harcar (13:21)
Right. Do you have any ⁓ special tools or marketing channels or things that you feel that you’re doing that really help you excel or maybe bring in and capture more audience?Brett Reynolds (13:33)
Yeah,that’s the weakness of my business. That’s what I’m working on. That’s why join your podcast. Get in the word out there. I’m an expert in writing mortgages and putting those together and solving complex client problems and finding solutions for those. But it is a marketing game too, very much so. And that’s what I tell anyone that’s coming into the retail mortgage business. You’ve got to go out there and find the customers and find the clients. so setting meetings with real estate agents
John Harcar (13:39)
cool, yeah.Yep. Yep.
Brett Reynolds (14:02)
Since COVID, Zoom and calls like this have been prolific to the business. It makes it very easy for me to call and say, hey, just touching base, see you do business here, here, and here. I’ve got a program or a platform I’d like to tell you about. Can we schedule a 20 minute meeting sometime next week? That’s been super beneficial for me. And I’m just doing a virtual call because I can do that with anyone anywhere in the state of Texas. So that’s what I’ve been working on and telling them about our cash to keys platform and other things that we do well.John Harcar (14:26)
Yeah.Yeah.
Yeah. And let’s transition to that, right? So you have this platform called Catch the Keys. What is it? What is it about? What does it do?
Brett Reynolds (14:40)
Yep,so we’re AniMac Home Mortgage, our affiliate AniMac Private Equity powers this platform, Cash to Keys, and there’s three programs underneath it. And these programs provide solutions for clients and realtors in this market for challenges that we experience all the time. The first one is called Cash Offer, and this can be used to purchase a rental property or a vacation home or a primary residence. And what this is going to do is we vet the client.
and this is for a client that plans on getting a mortgage, but maybe they’re in a competitive market, a competitive price point. Maybe the loan they’re qualified for isn’t a very competitive product, like maybe they’re only qualified for an FHA loan or a VA loan, and VA loans are great, but sometimes they’re not perceived as the most competitive in a multiple offer situation. What our cash offer program does is it backs our clients’ offer with our own cash. We’ve vetted them.
John Harcar (15:29)
Mm-hmm.Brett Reynolds (15:35)
we’re 100 % confident we’re going to fund their loan and close when we say we’re going to close. And to show that confidence, we’re going to provide an addendum to the contract. We’re going to work with their real estate agent, provide an addendum to the contract that says, hey, we’re going to pay cash for this home if for some reason our buyermortgage approval falls through. ⁓ And so it helps stand with cash offers. In fact, it could be perceived as even stronger than a cash
for example. ⁓ Let’s say
you are a cash buyer, you get under contract and you’re down the road with the, you know, you’re past your option period, but you change your mind like, hey, there’s a better property down the road and I know I’m going to lose my earnest money, but whatever. Well, that cash buyer can still cancel and just throw their earnest money away. With our platform, we’re still closing. We’ll close with our cash if we have to. it’s, rest assures the listing agent, the seller, the buyer’s agent that we’re going to close.
John Harcar (16:53)
Right.Okay.
So you close with your cash, the investor walked, what do you do with the property?
Brett Reynolds (17:14)
one way or the other.So the cash offer program is designed for someone that wants to buy the property with the traditional mortgage. But let’s say the mortgage fell through. Let’s say they went out and financed the car and they shouldn’t have done that. Or they lost their job or something, you know, whatever, things happen. Okay, if that happens, then we’re going to go ahead and step in and buy the property with our cash. We’re going to try to work it out with the buyer, whatever that situation was, so we can sell it back to them. And if we can’t, then we’re going to put it back on the open market.
John Harcar (17:44)
Right.Got it, okay.
Brett Reynolds (17:48)
But 99% of these, their closing is normal with the mortgage. We’re just backing their offer with cash to help them win that bid.
John Harcar (17:54)
makes it strength, it strengthens it, makes it stronger. So that’s awesome. Okay, so that’s a great way you would be able to help investors, anybody trying to buy, like you said, property, build a portfolio.Brett Reynolds (18:02)
Absolutely.Especially if they’re going up against you know institutional buyers these cash buyers and things like that We’re gonna back their offer with our cash. Absolutely. So that’s gonna help them, you know win the property that they want
John Harcar (18:13)
I love that.That’d be a fantastic tool for lot of our members. That’d be cool. Okay, what’s next? What’s the second one?
Brett Reynolds (18:20)
Yes sir. Alright,so the other one is buy now sell later and I think this is kind of the flagship of the program’s really cool thing here, really cool concept. So this is for someone, now this isn’t for an investment property purchase, but this is for someone that owns a home and they’re ready to buy their next home. They need an upsize or maybe downsize or better school district or relocating for work, whatever it is, but they can’t qualify to buy that next home until they sell their current home first.
And the reason why they may not qualify is either A, their income doesn’t support two mortgage payments or their down payment and closing cost money is tied up in the equity in their departing residence. So we vet them through this full underwriting approval ⁓ deal. we also review their departing residence. And we look at the valuation. We order an AVM, automated valuation model, or a broker price opinion. So we do that. Once they’re approved, then we become the buyer.
John Harcar (18:59)
sure.Mm-hmm. Yep.
Brett Reynolds (19:17)
cash the keys, any private equity is the buyer. We work with their real estate agent. They’re required to have a licensed realtor of their choice, or we can set them up with one if they don’t have one. And we act as the buyer, but the client and the realtor find the property. ⁓ They put the offer together and they put us as the buyer and we close with our own cash. It’s a pure cash offer and we close on that home. The clients can then move into the property and they rent it from us. And then their realtor has six months to sell their departing residence.Once they sell that, that mortgage is paid off, they get the cash, and then we sell the home we bought to them back for the same price. And we do a traditional mortgage at that point. So it’s kind of three transactions. The buyer’s realtor gets paid on the initial purchase. Their commission is as they normally would and on the sale of the departing residence. Yep, so.
John Harcar (19:54)
Nice.Right. That’s
awesome, man. Why did you feel the need to create something like this?
Brett Reynolds (20:13)
It’s just, it’s a challenge that so many folks have and it’s, part of kind of what’s providing the, mean, I think there’s a shortage of inventory in the markets and part of it is sellers that are folks that kind of want to sell, but they don’t know where to start. They don’t want to have to do a double, double move. If you’ve ever worked with a buyer or been someone that’s trying to make offers contingent on the home that you currently own, that’s really tough. A lot of sellers won’t even consider it. ⁓ Or like, let’s say you do, you know,John Harcar (20:30)
Yeah.Brett Reynolds (20:42)
put your home on the market and you might be inclined to take an offer on your house that’s maybe not the best and the highest because you’re in a rush to buy this next house. ⁓ It’s a real challenge and so this takes all that pressure off and it allows someone also ⁓ it’s hard to list a home when you’re living in it. You might have a bunch of kids running around, pets, it probably needs work. So this allows us to buy the home the client wants. They can move into it, fix up their current house. They have two weeks to list it from that point on.John Harcar (20:48)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.Yeah.
Brett Reynolds (21:12)
get all the know ant pets and all that stuff out of the old house that’s right and they get top dollar for that home they have six months they don’t sell their departing residents in six months we’re gonna we’re gonna buy it back from we’re gonna buy it from them so we can sell them the home we bought for themJohn Harcar (21:16)
Clean it up. That’s an awesome program.⁓ that’s awesome. Man, that’s a great program. Too bad it’s not outside of Texas. ⁓ It is. Is it in I… ⁓ is it in Idaho?
Brett Reynolds (21:32)
it is we’re a nationwide company Iwill have to look but I can absolutely check for you man we’re licensed in 45 states
John Harcar (21:40)
I’d be interested. All right, well, cool,Sweet. Brett, love what you do. I love the platform. I think that’s pretty awesome. ⁓ If there’s folks listening to us, it resonates with what you’re talking about. They want to learn more about it. How do they best get in touch with you and reach out to you?
Brett Reynolds (21:48)
Thank you.Yep, so you can Google me Brett Reynolds, Annie Mac Home Mortgage. You can call me on my cell 325-665-4353 or text that number as well. And then of course my email would be [email protected].
John Harcar (22:17)
Perfect. All right, guys. First off, if you’re in the area in Houston and you’re looking for a job, you want to get into the mortgage business, they’re hiring, reach out. Secondly…Brett Reynolds (22:26)
That’s right.John Harcar (22:28)
Great platform. ⁓ If you are looking, if you’re an investor in the area or investor anywhere, really, it sounds like a great tool to buy rentals. And then if you’re looking to sell your property. Brad, thank you so much, man, for coming on here and sharing all this. ⁓ Guys, I hope you enjoyed it. I know I did. And I’ll see you on the next one.Brett Reynolds (22:41)
You bet. -
