Chris Hardiman on Rising Rates, Lending Strategy & Real Estate Growth

Erika (00:00.952)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pro Show. I’m your host, Erika, and today I’m joined by someone that I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, Chris Hardiman, who’s been making serious moves in the lending and private capital space. Chris, I’m so glad that you’re here today.

Chris Hardiman (00:18.352)
Hey Erika, yeah, thank you for having me. I’m excited as well.

Erika (00:22.808)
So let’s jump on in. So first off, for people who may not be familiar with your world, give us the rundown. How did you get started in the lending and private capital space?

Chris Hardiman (00:35.236)
Sure, yeah, I can do that. I have been fortunate, well, fortunate or unfortunate, depending if you love mortgage banking. I have been exposed to this industry since I was very young, so really kind of just middle school into high school years. A very close mentor of mine, remains a mentor, actually now a business partner, actually started as a realtor.

Started a small mortgage brokerage, turned that into an independent mortgage bank, took it from one branch to license across 48 states, branches in all 48 states, over 10,000 employees, all located here in Orlando, Florida. And I was fortunate enough to grow up in that. So when I left school, which was 2010, tough time to leave school.

not a lot of people hiring for jobs around just exiting that financial crisis. I went and I worked in commercial debt resolution because there was a lot of commercial debt that needed to be resolved, worked out, restructured, personal guarantees that needed to be negotiated out of. So I did that for about two years until I had an opportunity to go work for that mentor, Doug.

for a company called Prospect Mortgage out in Los Angeles. I wasn’t always on the origination side. wasn’t always on the sales side. So I started in the finance side of mortgage banking. That was for Prospect out.

Erika (02:15.104)
Awesome. And tell us more about Fusion Home Loans. That is something exciting that you have going on in your world.

Chris Hardiman (02:23.032)
Yeah, so Fusion Home Loans is a brand new entity. It is not a broker. It is not a depository institution. It is an independent mortgage bank. So we are a retail direct lender signed up with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Jenny Mae, so FHA, VA, USDA, all of the good conventional and government products. Of course, we also broker out a lot of the non-QM products as well. So we make sure that we have those available for

of our referral partners, the business bank statement loans, the DSCR, the foreign national, the asset utilization. But it’s a brand new company. It’s a company that we started a little over a month ago. we’re on day 40, 41 right now. And we knew it was important to come out as a direct lender day one as an IMB. So to do that and to do that with strength.

we partnered with an entity called Acresure Mortgage. Acresure Mortgage is owned by Acresure, which is one of the largest insurance and fintech entities in the world. So they’re in over 26 countries, 12,000 employees, over $5 billion in gross revenues. And that partnership with Acresure enabled us to kind of come out the gate.

with a lot of the systems, the technologies, the investors, really, really the strength that we needed to ramp this thing up and get it running fast so there wasn’t any sort of interruption in business continuity for all of our referral partners, be it a realtor, a home builder, an attorney, a wealth manager, you know, we just needed to keep this thing going for them.

Erika (04:07.15)
That’s exciting and you yourself have had a lot of experience in this industry. With lending and private capital being such a critical piece of real estate, what do you see as the biggest challenge for borrowers or investors trying to secure funding in today’s market?

Chris Hardiman (04:28.824)
Yeah, I will tell you my focus over the past couple years has really, really, really been drilled into residential mortgage banking. I don’t think I’ve originated any private capital debt, probably in excess of two to three years. So my finger isn’t completely on the pulse there. So I’ll address that more on

residential mortgage banking side, so kind of the American consumer, right? And I’m going to sound like a broken record because it’s much of what is always talked about when people address this is really affordability, right? Affordability is what certainly is the most difficult thing that the average American household is dealing with today. And, you know, people talk about interest rates and

It’s a very common thing, especially for the older generation where they’re like, well, the kids these days, they’re complaining about the 6 to 7 % rates. But back in my day, our home, we had a 17 % rate. We had a 16 % rate, which is absolutely true. Don’t get me wrong. It’s true. But the home was 20 % of what the value is at today. Groceries didn’t cost what they cost. mean, look at last week’s.

CPI print, you know, we’ve seen a 1 % year over year increase and just energy caught gas, right? So when you’re talking about all of these other economic variables that are weighing into the expenses that go into just the American household every day, putting groceries on the table, putting fuel into your car, keeping a roof over your head, affordability is what most people are struggling with more than anything right now. Even if they can qualify to get the loan,

The monthly payment is outside of where they just want to be to achieve all of their other financial goals.

Erika (06:36.462)
Yeah, you Chris, you mentioned earlier in your questionnaire that you’re active in multiple real estate groups. Do you have any advice for people about how how networking can be a game changer for sourcing capital or closing deals?

Chris Hardiman (06:57.068)
Yeah, think it’s everything. Networking is everything. Every single opportunity that I have been exposed to or been a part of has been a result of not just networking, but networking with intent, right? Which I think is a lot different than networking, right?

And when I say networking with intent, mean showing up and giving before you expect to receive, right? Like that, that I think is one of the most important things when it comes to networking is when you’re meeting people, you constantly need to have in your mind, you know, how can I help this person, right? Whether it’s they have a need, how can I connect them to someone else in my network that can perhaps fit that need?

do a good job, help build, know, someone that you would actually refer out because you would use them personally. So every single real estate deal that I’ve been a part of, I’m involved in six manufactured home trailer parks. I’m involved in six trailer parks that span between Orlando and Tampa. I have a commercial building with my partner that we got into because we 1031 to 16 door real estate portfolio.

out of that into this, you know, it’s all been because, solely because of the network that I’ve created and I’ve poured into that network before an opportunity came out of it and came to me. I’m not involved in a single real estate opportunity right now that was an actively listed and sort of on the market opportunity, so to speak.

Erika (08:46.55)
Yeah, yeah. Chris, every real estate expert has a moment where things got real. Maybe a deal went sideways or you had the pivot fast in the lending space. Do you have any moments like that you can share for our audience?

Chris Hardiman (09:07.0)
You know, I don’t have anything that has been, you know, a terrible, just kind of like the world’s come crashing down. mean, 2008 was that. You know, we’re in a very different sort of real estate market now. You know, the analogy is gruesome, but I think it’s…

It’s relevant, right? So I’ve heard that the financial crisis was like death by heart attack, right? Like, boom, it just nailed you. You woke up one day and the music had just stopped. This market that we’re in today, it’s almost like death by cancer, right? Like it is just persistent. And we thought we were going to come out of this thing. We thought we were going to get to the other end of it, but we’re just not there. And when you look at these forecasts of

when we’re actually going to see an ease in interest rates, when these things, I don’t think that certainly the strong markets, this isn’t a general statement about the entire US real estate market, but I think that we’re not gonna see a huge reverse in valuation in 95 % of the markets within the United States. I just think we’re in for a lot more pain, right? I don’t know, I don’t think the rest of this year’s gonna be fun at all.

And I don’t think the first two quarters of 2026 are going to be fun either. So I don’t have, you know, a really horrible war story of something that just slammed down on me and I had to pivot. But right now, every single day, we’re waking up and we’re thinking about how we can pivot in that day to really kind of capitalize on the market that we’re in today because it’s not a fun

Erika (10:55.392)
What kind of advice would you give to people out there navigating this market? What should they do first?

Chris Hardiman (11:02.722)
Work, work. And I get it, everyone has to pay their bills, So if you’re in a commissioned-based role and just purely the volume isn’t there, so they’re digging a debt hole, they’re not doing what they’re able to do to just make ends meet, and they have to re-career, mean, that’s one thing I do understand.

But don’t have a foot in both worlds, right? I mean, if you’re in this thing, if you’re a real estate professional, if this is your career, if this what you’re going to do, don’t let up. Go now harder than you’ve ever gone before. This is gonna be one of those situations where those who are still in place, those who still have a foothold, those who are still top of mind, when we come out on the other end of this, they’re gonna be rewarded.

Right? So if you’re serious about this industry, if you’re serious about this career, show up every day. This isn’t a nine to five job. It’s a fricking seven to nine job. You know, it’s six days a week, seven days a week sometime. So you just have to grind.

Erika (12:21.174)
Yeah, yeah. Let’s go back to talking about Fusion Home Loans. What would you say sets your company apart from the rest?

Chris Hardiman (12:31.416)
You know, it’s funny because when we were doing our like prep before we started recording this thing, we talked about how the mortgage market as a whole is becoming commoditized, right? Like, you you’ve got so many options to go online and click and get a mortgage, right? And sure, that’s fine for your 780 credit score buyer who’s putting 20 % down and his income’s all W2 and his assets are just coming from a savings account.

I get that. You know, we’ve always prided ourselves here on the really difficult files, on the files that just go to the brokers or go to the large online lenders and just die because they’re going to take too much effort or work and focus and get through it. We’ve also always really prided ourselves on our reputation within the real estate community. know, real estate remains, particularly residential real estate,

remains very hyper local in any sub market, right? And that’s something that we have always dove into, invested into, and made sure that our reputation is absolutely stellar here in our market. And we are entirely, I mean, yeah, we’ve got some home builders, don’t get me wrong. Yes, we have some wealth managers, but we’re almost entirely realtor referral-based driven.

So being within that Realtor community here in Orlando is something that’s very important to us and making sure that we’re known or a known quantity to the buyer’s agents and the listing agents. So we’re helping our Realtors get more offers accepted just because the listing agent is well aware of the name on that pre-approval letter and how solid that is. That’s something that we’ve always really focused on as well.

Erika (14:25.506)
Yeah, that really ties into what you were talking about with networking. It’s perfect.

Chris Hardiman (14:30.562)
Yes. Yeah.

Erika (14:35.15)
So Chris, before we wrap up, actually, we’re not going to wrap up. I slipped. I wanted to talk about what’s next. So what do you see on the horizon? You just started this company. There’s got to be lots of opportunity out there.

Chris Hardiman (14:53.464)
Yeah, so we’re in growth mode, certainly. We just hired a recruiter in Texas. Super excited for him to come on board. We’re bringing one on board in Maine as well, so we’ll start expanding in those markets. Here in Florida, we’re very focused on growth along just the I-4 corridor. So call it, know, starting in Tampa and wrapping all the way up to Jacksonville, up the coast.

You know, that’s really where we’re focused on growing. we’re doing a lot of recruiting here in our local market, here in other state markets, expanding out into other regions, and also growing our team that’s here in place today. So we love doing that. We’re a place where we like to believe that a $10 million a year loan officer can come to us and we can show them the tools and the tips and the strategies and the technology that it takes to become a $30 million a year loan officer.

So we do a lot of that here. dive into the training, the best practices, again, systems. So that’s it for us. I mean, we’re very much in growth mode. have some very lofty ambitions of where we want to see this company in five years. And it’s going to take a lot of focused growth to get there.

Erika (16:11.18)
Yeah, yeah, well, what you have going on is so exciting, Chris. And you’ve got that work ethic to match the vision.

Chris Hardiman (16:17.806)
Thank you. I think it’s exciting. I don’t know if it’s exciting to anyone else. It’s very exciting to me and my partner and my crew in here.

Erika (16:26.574)
Yeah, yeah, well, we’ll be cheering you on. All right, before we wrap up, if someone wanted to reach out, connect, or maybe they need help with some lending, what’s the best way for them to reach out?

Chris Hardiman (16:41.528)
Yeah, so I mean, at some point I’m going to have to stop this, I still, I mean, my personal cell phone is really a great way to get a hold of me. And that’s 321-239-7760. My email is chris at Fusion HL, like FusionHomeLoans.com. Another great way to get a hold of us is to just go to our social media. Fusion Home Loans is our Instagram page.

I’m sure we have a TikTok. have no clue what it is, but our wonderful social media manager, Daniella, who set this up. I’m sure she has one. Facebook, all of those things. But Fusion Home Loans, that’s our Instagram page. Great way to get in touch with us. You can see all of our loan officers there as well as myself.

Erika (17:27.062)
Awesome, Chris. Thanks so much for being on. keep on doing things the right way. Put in relationships first and scaling thoughtfully. We appreciate that.

Chris Hardiman (17:39.46)
Absolutely. Thank you, Erika. Appreciate your time.

Erika (17:44.394)
And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pro Show. We’ve got more conversations coming up with operators like Chris Hardiman, who are out there building a fantastic lending and private capital empire. We’ll see you on the next episode.