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Show Summary
In this conversation, mortgage broker Nyisha Walton shares her journey into the real estate industry, emphasizing the importance of education for potential homebuyers. She discusses her approach to building a successful mortgage team, adapting to market changes, and navigating the complexities of new construction financing. Nyisha highlights the significance of transparency and communication in the mortgage process, encouraging clients to be informed and prepared.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Nyisha Walton (00:00)
10 commandments that I make my clients sign of things they will not do while they’re under contract to tell them you cannot buy a house. cannot buy furniture for, I’m sorry, you cannot buy a car. You cannot buy furniture for this house that you haven’t bought yet. Do not run your credit. Do not co-sign. Like I have a whole list, but you don’t know it. You don’t know Dylan. So people are thinking, you know, I qualify for this house. I want to put this beautiful car in the driveway of this house and they don’t understand how your DTI is shot. And guess what? You don’t get in there. You got to live in that car.Dylan Silver (00:18)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is a mortgage broker based in Houston, Texas, leading Lending Village with 20 loan officers and in the last two years over 82 million in home loans funded. Please welcome Nyisha Walton. Nyisha, welcome to the show.Nyisha Walton (02:18)
Thank you Dylan, thank you for having me, I appreciate it.Dylan Silver (02:21)
Absolutely, it’s a pleasure to have another fellow Texas real estate operator on the show here. I’m a Texas licensed realtor, so it’s great to see the Texas folks on the show here. I always like to start off at the top, Nyisha, by asking guests how they got into the real estate space.Nyisha Walton (02:39)
So I was a receptionist for a mortgage broker and a title agent. And I worked for them for several years. And then I decided to get my license. I worked for another company and I was a loan processor. And that particular broker told me I would never be a good loan officer. So ⁓ I did just the opposite of what he said. I became ⁓ fastest growing loan officer, awarded by UWM. I was able to open my own mortgage company.And ⁓ I got into this industry for the money. And then I went to my first clothing and I got my first hug. And I realized it was bigger than just money. That’s how I got into it.
Dylan Silver (03:17)
It’s a huge,it’s a huge, huge, huge, huge topic of discussion, I would say, not just in real estate, but in the greater context of the landscape of American life, really. I think there’s a lot of young people right now where home ownership seems very daunting. And I can speak for myself and a lot of people in saying, I feel like we need really, really good.
mortgage professionals, lenders, and everybody in the space to educate.
Nyisha Walton (03:47)
That’s correct. Our company is big on education. We do a lot of seminars. We host events here at Houston and different. We’ve done the Jalen Green basketball camp. We’ve done the University of Houston basketball games. We’re all over educating and making sure people are not just aware of us, but they know how to buy a house. So we’re big on education. If someone comes to us and maybe they’re not quite ready to buy a house, they’re going to leave with a game plan. They’re going to know exactly what they need to do to be prepared to purchase aDylan Silver (04:59)
I want to pivot a bit here, Nyisha, and ask you about that game plan and where folks often get started. I think I’ve had lots of people in the lending space, mortgage space on the show here. And one of the things that has always struck me is that the average person outside of real estate that doesn’t have brokers and lenders and realtors in their family may not know really where to start. Are you seeing that as pretty much true for the average American?Nyisha Walton (05:28)
Yes, people either don’t know where to start or they’re terrified to start.Dylan Silver (05:33)
And you know, I think it’s very regional as well. People don’t often recognize this, that once you start looking at lending and first time home buyer and down payment assistance programs, it’s specific to where you’re based out of it. And this is why it’s so important to find a good loan officer.Nyisha Walton (05:50)
Yes, there are local down payment assistance programs, but there are also national down payment assistance programs. There are programs for first time home buyers. There are programs for people who have owned homes before. You just need to have a well-educated loan officer mortgage team to teach you what you need to know. And one thing I can tell you about down payment assistance, down payment assistance can be a great thing. It could be very supportive, but free money is expensive. So I always like to show people their options if they use DPA versuspulling money out of that 401k instead. So that’s another part of the game plan that we go through with people just looking at numbers side by side.
Dylan Silver (06:25)
I wanna ask you, you mentioned having a good loan officer. You’ve got 20 loan officers throughout the country on your team at Lending Village. Walk me through scaling a team. How did you end up building a team across the country remotely, right?Nyisha Walton (06:40)
I made the table and people came to eat. It wasn’t something that was very hard to do. I’m all over social media. I’m quite a comedian on social media. I have a huge following. People either come to my page to laugh, cry, or learn. So when people see what I’m doing with the community, I just naturally attracted the right people to work with me. they literally just came and our team is amazing. I have people with 20 years of experience. I have people with one year of experience, but we do a lot of trainings. We do a lot of education.When you are a good person and you radiate love and good energy, the right people will come.
Dylan Silver (07:13)
No question about it. I do wanna ask you, you mentioned the comedian presence on social media. When folks are trying to figure out exactly how to market themselves, I see a lot of people go for a very professional, and when I say professional, I mean they’re showing one side of the business, they’ll show their business and that’s about it. But they don’t always let down the curtain and get people an inside look into who they are, and it makes it difficult to get to know someone.And I think that’s really the beauty and power of social media. How do you utilize social media to market yourself, but also to let people know who you are and who your team are?
Nyisha Walton (07:52)
I connect easily with people. It’s just something that I do. So I get up in the morning and I get my posts ready. I plan my posts and I just be myself. I think a lot of people get on social media and they portray something that they’re not. And I just unapologetically get on there. if I feel funny that day, I’m funny that day. But I always make sure that I’m educating, even through humor. Like say, if we have a client that decides to go out and buy a car the day before, you know, closing.This is a learning time. This is a lesson. And so we’ll talk about it. We’ll talk about it. We’ll talk about it.
Dylan Silver (08:22)
and see what you can ask.How is it that people do this, Aisha? I mean, that seems like the
thing not to do. Like, that’s the thing not to do. You’re not gonna go buy a house before closing, but who’s actually buying cars before closing? Like, this actually happens. I thought this was like a myth, but people actually do this.
Nyisha Walton (08:43)
10 commandments that I make my clients sign of things they will not do while they’re under contract to tell them you cannot buy a house. cannot buy furniture for, I’m sorry, you cannot buy a car. You cannot buy furniture for this house that you haven’t bought yet. Do not run your credit. Do not co-sign. Like I have a whole list, but you don’t know it. You don’t know Dylan. So people are thinking, you know, I qualify for this house. I want to put this beautiful car in the driveway of this house and they don’t understand how your DTI is shot. And guess what? You don’t get in there. You got to live in that car.Dylan Silver (09:02)
This is Trump.Nyisha Walton (09:12)
So that’s where education comes into play. You have to drill into people’s heads and I make people repeat them. Did you hear what I said? Don’t co-sign. What did I say? Don’t co-sign Ms. Nyisha. Don’t buy a car before closing. What did I say? Don’t buy a car Ms. Nyisha. Like I make sure that they hear me. Because we’re not drawing you back.Dylan Silver (09:29)
Because hearing it and thennot repeating it is not the same as hearing it and repeating it because then they’re like, no, wait, I did affirm that I will not buy a car. I want to ask you about the furniture. So people may think, ⁓ it’s furniture, you know, it’s not a car. How can furniture affect their approval process?
Nyisha Walton (10:22)
Well, you don’t, one of the 10 commandments is don’t make any large purchases. Purchasing furniture is considered a large purchase. So whether you’re financing or you’re paying cash for it, you’re moving money. We need all your money to stay in the bank. Sit, just be still with your money, pay your bills as regular. Don’t make any major purchases. So buying a new couch is going to cost you a thousand bucks. That’s a thousand dollars. That’s no longer in your bank account. How can that affect your home buying process? Maybe we had just enough money in your bank account for you to have something called reserves.Reserves help make your file look a lot cleaner. Our reserves show the underwriter that you have six months worth or three months worth of mortgage payments set aside in case you can’t pay your mortgage. Now you just spent it on a couch or a washer and dryer. So we advise you not to make any large purchases that, it’ll affect how much money you have saved. It’ll affect, most people aren’t paying cash for this stuff. They’re financing it. So now you’ve ran your credit card bill back up and we’re going to see all this stuff. We’re going to know. So yeah, just, just sit tight. Hold on, wait until.
after closing, after you’ve gotten your keys, after everything’s been recorded, and then go be irresponsible with him.
Dylan Silver (11:23)
And isn’t there, and I could be wrong about this, I’ve heard this before, is there even a time after closing where you have to be a little bit diligent or is it the day of closing you can start making those purchases again?Nyisha Walton (11:33)
wait until everything’s been recorded, not just closed, but recorded where the house is actually recorded with the county that it’s now in your name. That’s what I would wait for. My personal opinion.Dylan Silver (11:42)
And for folks who may not be familiar with how long that process takes, are they notified when that happens? How are they aware when it’s recorded?Nyisha Walton (11:50)
It usually when you’re at the title company you get everything signed it should be reported by the next day so ⁓ I have a little dog that just busted my door open So may hear her ⁓Dylan Silver (11:58)
Go ahead, go ahead. Okay, okay. Riverside is pretty goodabout blocking out ⁓ noise, but we’re a big fan of dogs on the show. Believe it or not, I lived on a ranch in a DFW in North Dallas in a town called Denton, which was really closer to Oklahoma than it was to Dallas, but it’s amazing how big DFW was and is. And when I was living there,
there would always be ranch animals in the background, then I would be worried. I would be like, I don’t know if they just heard that rooster go off, and they may be thinking, is there a rooster in the podcast studio? So I’m a big fan of animals for that reason. I do wanna pivot here, Nyisha, and ask you in general about really adapting to different real estate markets and scaling teams, but also being able to pivot.
as a real estate operator, whether you’re a mortgage professional or a real estate broker or an individual investor or someone who’s a service provider in this space, hard money lender, right? I think there’s a lot of people who would say that you typically have to pivot every so few years, whether it’s five years, seven years, 10 years.
It’s difficult to have the exact same strategy, the exact same marketing for a period of time. Walk me through one or a couple of the pivots that you’ve taken in your business.
Nyisha Walton (13:24)
Okay, ⁓ riding the wave, I call it riding the wave. ⁓ Some of the things that we’ve done when, the biggest thing that I think, the smartest thing I’ve done is being licensed in multiple states. Because when the market changes in California, it’s still usually pretty strong in Texas. So having multiple licenses is one way to pivot the market. Another way is ⁓ when rates went up really high, I got really good at doing DSCR loans. ⁓ you know, investors, investors really don’t,Dylan Silver (13:53)
That’s a hugepivot, yeah.
Nyisha Walton (13:54)
They’re not really,yeah, they’re not rate sensitive. So I just start changing the way that I, what programs and what products I promote and the strategy that I use. I will take somebody else’s strategy in a heartbeat. I may be a fool, but I’m not a bang fool. If I see something’s working for somebody else, I’m going to go ahead and adopt that and make it my own. Just like we do with social media, we do, we take memes, we repost them, right? So, but I see what’s working with.
Dylan Silver (14:15)
repost them.Nyisha Walton (14:19)
other people in my community. I have a lot of other people in the community that I made friends with that are in the mortgage industry. So we have meetings, we talk, we see what’s going on, but I’ll change what products that I promote if I feel like, okay, looks like FHA is not doing too good right now. Let me get into this reverse market. Let me see how I can help some of the reverse mortgage people tap into some of that equity. So I’ll pivot programs when I see that the way, when I fall off that, ⁓What does that call it? The surfboard when I, when the wave knocks me off.
Dylan Silver (14:48)
Yeah, yeah, when the big wave comes, you gotta ride the wave. I tell people this,that adaptability is really what has been apparent to me is the driving factor between someone who’s able to be consistent over not just five, 10, know, but 20 plus years in real estate and people who eventually have to, you know, reevaluate or find a different path because it is challenging, right? And I think when you find one niche,
that is working and then maybe it stops working, right? It can be terrifying for people, but great and effective real estate operators have that ability to pivot, whether it’s with, you you mentioned specific loan products, it could be markets, you mentioned Texas and California. And so keeping that open mind and not being like locked into this is the one and only strategy is critical.
Nyisha Walton (16:18)
It’s very true. then sometimes you have to go outside. You have to meet, you know, go to the new construction sites. Maybe you’re used to just working with consumers because you know, buy leads. It’s time to go outside. It’s time to start networking. It’s time to go to different employers and see if you can become the preferred lender for that employer. you just, it’s sometimes just need to be creative and, and you know, a lot of people are scared, but I say do it scared.Dylan Silver (16:39)
Do it scared, do it scared. You mentioned ⁓ networking with builders. I’ve noticed this trend in general, specifically as someone myself who’s worked with a lot of investors. There seems to be a trend towards new construction, towards new builds, even it being maybe easier potentially for people to get ⁓ qualified with some new builds because a lot of the builders have their own financing or something of the sort. I’m still…fresh to this idea of new construction. Is there any truth to that? Maybe specifically in Texas, is there a lot of push towards new builds in that regard?
Nyisha Walton (17:16)
Oh yeah, new construction, the builders, I can’t stand them. They’re mortgage companies, their rates are so much better. They give these big incentives. I can’t compete with them at all. I don’t even try to. When someone says, Lennar or Toll Brothers, I’m like, hey, if you got qualified there, I say take it, because I’m not giving you a 1.25 % interest rate and $100,000 incentive. And I’m exaggerating. But I can’t. So what we usually take is the turn downs. Because the builders, lenders have much higher requirements.Dylan Silver (17:34)
Yeah.Nyisha Walton (17:42)
to for approvals, a lot of people don’t qualify, they don’t fit into their box. When you come to a broker like me, I can kind of fit you into a different box to make sure that you still get the home. You may not get the incentives, you may not get the rate, but you’re still gonna get that brand.Dylan Silver (17:55)
So when people are physically at those communities, they’re probably being greeted maybe even by a sales team that’s onsite there and they may first try the in-house financing with some really aggressive rates that are hard to beat, But if they get turned down there, it’s not a lost cause. They still have a way to go.Nyisha Walton (18:15)
Correct, their lending requirements are a lot more strict than some of the other mortgage companies lending requirements. They’ll have more overlays. They have credit score requirements. Their DTI requirements are much more strict. So you just go to a broker and have them shop different lenders for you and you see what you qualify for off the broker’s deals versus off the lender’s deals and another, I’m saying off the new construction. And a lot of, ⁓ something that I’ve seen with new construction, Dylan, that I don’t really like isPeople will qualify for the super low interest rate, but then all of a sudden the price of the house goes up. Like what happened? What happened? The house was 300,000, now it’s 300,000. I’m confused. What happened?
Dylan Silver (18:49)
Yeah.Yeah,
it does feel like because it is in-house that they can kind of play with the numbers in a way that is in their favor. And I see that. I’m kind of… ⁓
On both sides, I see it on both sides because I want everybody to have access to those rates, but then at the same point in time, if the price goes up, what’s the purpose of it, right?
Nyisha Walton (19:16)
You just bought the right down by paying more for the house. So you could have done that with another lender.Dylan Silver (19:19)
that’s, yeah, you could havedone that with another lender. I mean, it’s an interesting discussion point. And I think, again, as someone who’s a Texas licensed realtor, it is an interesting trend to see. I was working a lot before I got my real estate license with flippers, and the flippers even themselves pivoted from doing fix and flip to doing ground up construction, because it’s been such a trend. Again, if you don’t adapt, you kind of get lost in the herd.
Nyisha, we are coming up on time here though. Where can folks go if maybe they’re in the market and would like to reach out you to see if they can get an approval or if they have general questions and would like to get in touch with you?
Nyisha Walton (20:03)
You can Google the Lending Village. You can Google Nyisha Walton. We’re all over the internet. We have a great reputation online. Our phone number is 844-405-2400. You can call or text that number. You can go to our website, thelendingvillage.com. You can go to any of our social medias and someone will respond to you in a timely manner and we’ll help you wherever you need, but we’re going to be transparent. So just be ready for some real ⁓ rocking and rolling.Dylan Silver (20:32)
Nyisha,thank you so much for coming on the show here today.
Nyisha Walton (20:35)
Thank you for inviting me to and I appreciate you. I hope you have a blessed day.
