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Show Summary
In this episode of the Investor Fuel podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Richard Yeppez, a mortgage lender focused on helping individuals achieve homeownership. Richard discusses his approach to making the mortgage process accessible and less intimidating, emphasizing transparency and support for clients. He shares insights on common challenges faced by homebuyers, the importance of social media and AI in growing his business, and his commitment to serving first-time homebuyers and investors alike. Richard’s passion for helping others navigate the complexities of homeownership shines through as he outlines his goals for the future and the tools he provides to empower clients.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Richard Yeppez (00:00)
buying a home is pretty simple. I think finding the home is a lot harder than getting approved for a home. As long as you meet those three factors, first of all, being creditdebt to income ratio
down payment
And so as long as we can figure out those three things, we can get you a proof or mortgage. Now the biggest thing is, is sometimes you’ll have two of those things. Sometimes you’ll have one of those things. And so ⁓ we never just ⁓ decline you and say, hope you figure it out, come to us when you do. We always put you on an
next home path of homeownership.
Michelle Kesil (02:00)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, Richard Yeppez who’s been making serious moves in the mortgage lending space. So excited to have you on the show today, Richard.Richard Yeppez (02:19)
Thank you, Michelle, thank you for having me on.Michelle Kesil (02:22)
Awesome. Yeah, I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching helping people get their loans and mortgages all squared away. So let’s dive in.Richard Yeppez (02:37)
Yes ma’am.Michelle Kesil (02:38)
Awesome. So yeah, first off, for those who are not familiar with you and your world, can you give the short version of what your main focus is?Richard Yeppez (02:48)
So our main focus here at Next Mortgage is, you know, turning triers into buyers. You know, I think anybody…on their life path of goals has that goal of homeownership. And so our main goal here is to make sure you understand what that looks like in all facets as far as payment, as far as what area that you want to be in. ⁓ So we try to make sure that the home buying process is as easy as possible. And, ⁓ you know, we want to make sure that it’s a pleasant experience for you. It’s not as intimidating as everybody makes it.
Michelle Kesil (03:20)
and where are you operating your business in?Richard Yeppez (03:26)
So my office is in Houston, Texas, ⁓ which is a pretty big ⁓ city as far as everybody’s moving here. Even with the cost of Houston going up, it still seems to be a melting pot of people. ⁓ so ⁓ home ownership inventory is great right now. So I think everybody can still get into a home that’s pretty reasonably priced. And when you pair that up with a great mortgage from Next Mortgage, it kind of makes that transaction a lot better for you.Michelle Kesil (03:53)
Awesome. And do you operate your business in other areas as well?Richard Yeppez (04:01)
Yes, so outside of my headquarters being in Houston, Texas, I’m also the regional manager for all of Texas. So I’m licensed in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and California. I know that kind of spreads me out pretty thin, but the great thing is that everything we do can be done all over the computer, but you still get the same level of services if I’m in the room next with you.Michelle Kesil (04:24)
And yeah, what has been the key to keeping your business running smoothly?Richard Yeppez (04:32)
And I think just being transparent, think anytime, I think not a lot of people buy a home in their lifetime. I’m sure if I asked you how to buy a car, you’d probably give me some tips and tricks because you’ve probably done it once or twice. buying a home is probably that one purchase that someone’s only gonna probably do once in their lifetime. And so it could be pretty intimidating because you don’t know where to start. Interest rates, 30 year mortgages, having a loan for 30 years.can’t even think that far out. So what we kind of do here at Next Mortgage is we kind of make sure you understand the process and how it works and the benefits of homeownership. ⁓ And as far as, you know, renting, because, you know, if you’re renting, your interest rate’s 100%. So that’s one thing to consider. You’re helping somebody else pay down their mortgage. And so we want you to be the owners of your destiny here at Next Mortgage and making sure you understand what that looks like is when you walk away post-closing with a great experience.
Michelle Kesil (06:14)
So yeah, what are some of the common roadblocks that many of your clients come to you with that you help them resolve?Richard Yeppez (06:27)
So one of the biggest things isbuying a home is pretty simple. I think finding the home is a lot harder than getting approved for a home. As long as you meet those three factors, first of all, being credit
because the institutions put credit guidelines on us that we have to abide by. And if you can meet those credit guidelines, you know, what we look at.
is called
debt to income ratio
to make sure that you can, the income you have coming in could support the debt you have going out. And the last piece is, is that every loan, unless you’re a veteran or doing some kind of
down payment
assistance, has a down payment requirement.
And so as long as we can figure out those three things, we can get you a proof or mortgage. Now the biggest thing is, is sometimes you’ll have two of those things. Sometimes you’ll have one of those things. And so ⁓ we never just ⁓ decline you and say, hope you figure it out, come to us when you do. We always put you on an
next home path of homeownership.
And so if your credit is not where it needs to be, we can help you do rapid re-scoring to get your credit scores up. If your income is not where it needs to be, we can kind of coach you along to how to make that debt to income ratio lower so you can be a homeowner. And so we have a lot of different things here where we coin the phrase, we turn triers into buyers, here at Next Mortgage. And so if you want to try, we’re going to help you buy.
Michelle Kesil (07:42)
Awesome. I love that. And are you mostly supporting first time homeowners or working with investors as well?Richard Yeppez (07:51)
So we work with all niches here at Next Mortgage. So actually Next Mortgage is a Homes for Hero lender and so we love our first responders. So if you’re a police officer, firefighter, or a veteran, we’re going to definitely provide you a discount on our lender fees because if you serve the community, we want to serve you as far as homeownership is concerned. We work with first-time home buyers where we’re one of the only mortgage companies that has four down payment assistance programs to help first-time home buyers become a homeowner. And then we also work with those repeatbuyers as far as ⁓ investors. have DSCR programs, a lot of different programs to help investors grow their real estate portfolio on different kind of mortgages where we’re not utilizing debts against them, where we’re actually helping them use those debts to leverage additional houses.
Michelle Kesil (08:40)
Amazing. Yeah. So I know a lot of people listening to this show are particularly investors. So what are some ways that you are supporting them and maybe some tools you can provide guidance on right now?Richard Yeppez (08:56)
Well, a lot of investors tend to be ⁓ self-employed investors. And if you’re self-employed, one thing that we find out is, of course, you kind of want to write off as much money as possible so you’re not paying the IRS all this income that you’re making. So when you do that, unfortunately, as a lender, in most cases, you can only use the income that you’re reporting to the IRS. And so we actually have a great investor program called a DSCR loan, which is a debt service loan. And so the great thing about that is that if you’re still willing to put down the20 % that’s needed for an invested property. As long as the home can support the monthly payment as far as the rent, so if the rent for that property would be $2,000 and the monthly payment on that property is below $2,000, we can still finance that home and we don’t even look at your income. And so where the home is paying for itself, that’s just one tool that we use for a lot of investors who are riding off their income is that DSCR loan because income is not a factor as long as the home
can support itself as far as monthly rent.
Michelle Kesil (10:34)
amazing. Yeah, that’s so important. So where do you kind of vision your business going? Do you have any big goals for where you’re heading?Richard Yeppez (10:48)
Well, in this business, if you don’t have goals, then you’re kind of not reaching for anything. You know, every year… ⁓The UPS team were repeat Presidents Club ⁓ recipients. So this will actually be the fifth year in a row with Presidents Club. And so the great thing about that is that that just shows the amount of homeowners that we’re helping. ⁓ And so every year we try to get better and reach that, have that additional reach to help more homeowners. And that’s the name of the game. As much as we wanna meet our sales goals and things like that, our business is the most gratifying part of our business is getting more people in the homes that
knew they could be a homeowner before. And so meeting those goals and helping more people get into homes utilizing we’re actually the number nine lender in the state of Texas that provides down payment assistance out of all of Texas which is the hugest state in the world for us to be number nine and providing that down payment assistance is pretty amazing.
Michelle Kesil (11:45)
Awesome, I love that. Yeah, are you guys have any plans to like scale? Maybe more offices or yeah, just your business in any way.Richard Yeppez (11:57)
Absolutely. So why are we looking to hire great loan officers who are looking to get into the business or actually have been in the business? We actually have a great relationship with a real estate office that we tend to grow with and so it’s all about creating referral partners. You know the biggest thing when it comes to referral partners for them to scale in their business we always feel like you need a good team behind you to help you scale whether it be an agent or a builder. It’s always good to have a lender that works on the weekends and answers their phone at 8 p.m. because they understand that you’re tryingget a pre-approval. And so us just trying to scale and bring on more referral partners and be available to those builders as far as becoming a deal saver is what we’re trying to do this year.
Michelle Kesil (12:39)
Amazing. Yeah, that is so important to grow the business in that way. So let me ask you this. Every business owner has moments where things get real. Maybe a deal goes sideways or you have to pivot fast. Would you mind sharing one of those moments for you and how you overcame it?Richard Yeppez (13:00)
Absolutely. you know what a lot of things that builders are doing right now is they’re providing these amazing interest rates if you go with their builder. Let’s just take Lennar for an example. Lennar right now is promoting a 4.99 interest rates as long as you’re buying their spec properties that are already on the ground. So of course if you’re pre-approved with me, but you walk into Lennar, ⁓They’re gonna say this amazing interest rate that I can’t even provide so it’s kind of like, you know more power to you You know definitely get that interest rate But there’s a lot of cases where the builders lender all lenders are not created equal So they’ll go to this builders lender and expecting this four point nine nine interest rate
And there’s been times where the builder’s lender hasn’t been able to get them approved because they’re a broker. The difference between a broker and a mortgage company is that a broker who’s a mortgage lender has to sell that loan to a third party and that loan has to fit that box. And if it doesn’t, then that mortgage lender is not going to buy that loan, such as a UWM, United Wholesale. They buy loans from brokers. And if it doesn’t meet UWM’s guidelines, then ⁓ they’re not
going to buy that loan and technically you don’t have an approval. The great thing about Next Mortgage is we are mortgage lender and so we don’t have to sell our loans to anybody. We’re the ones getting it approved so we kind of create the guidelines and we have more more say so on what we’re approving. So when these people walk into a broker’s office and they’re not able to get it done because they’re not meeting this box scenario they can come back to us and where we can dissect the file a little bit more to make it work for them we’re able to get them approved and that’s
the great thing that we love here is that we always have a hand on the file ⁓ and we’re able to do things and be more creative we feel.
Michelle Kesil (14:47)
Yeah, I love that. think the creativity is so important. ⁓ Are there any like cases where maybe someone’s not the right fit for your services?Richard Yeppez (15:41)
Well, I think we’re in it’s so funny you bring this up yesterday. We’re actually having a team meeting And so I asked him a question a valid question if you’re not able to get someone approved for a home loan Does that take away their desire to be a homeowner? Absolutely notAnd so if we’re not able to get them approved, they still want to be a homeowner. They’re still walking away from that conversation saying, well, I still want to buy a house. And so our biggest thing is to never turn them away. You know, the biggest thing I hate is when you walk into a TJ Maxx and you’re buying all this stuff from HomeGoods. And when you’re at the register, they’re saying, hey, would you like to sign up for a HomeGoods card? And you can say 15%. And then you’re mine. You’re like, cool, that can save me a couple of dollars. But if you’re declined for that card, they’re like,
Well, we’ll send you something in the mail. So it doesn’t really tell you how to become a credit card holder with home goods or whatever. They just say, ⁓ you didn’t get approved and have a nice day.
thank you for buying our stuff. That’s the exact opposite of what we don’t want here. If someone doesn’t get approved for us, you know, and unfortunately that happens because maybe the income isn’t there, maybe they don’t make enough income, maybe their credit is not where it needs to be. We still want to give them the tools so they can be. And maybe they’re not going to be with us one day, but at least if we give them the tools to become homeowners, then eventually that would change for them. Maybe the job they work at now doesn’t pay them enough money, but maybe the job they get in the future will pay them just
right amount and so making sure that they understand what that looks like because if maybe if their situation changes later on they’re going to think about us again because we definitely don’t want to lose them as a customer they’re going to think about us again because we told them hey well when I was working at XYZ I was only making $15 an hour and of course I couldn’t have been a homeowner but now that I’m working at ABC I’m making $25 an hour and how much house can I afford now
Michelle Kesil (17:33)
Yeah, I think that’s important, really focusing on the long term vision for that client instead of just what you can do right now. So when it comes to, yeah, like fostering new relationships, growing your network, what has made the biggest difference for you?Richard Yeppez (17:54)
⁓ Social media, ⁓ you know, it’s one thing like I said, you know, I’m licensed in so many states, but I can only be in one state at a time. ⁓ And so just getting the message out on social media has been a big part of our business plan. You know, I get on to my employees underneath me ⁓ when I look at their Facebooks and their Instagrams and they’re not saying anything about mortgages. They’re not, you know, they’re talking about how their kid went to school and that’s all fine and dandy. But if the biggest thing is, we’re all CEO’s.of our own business at the end of the day, know, because we all foster our own relationships. You gotta let the masses know, hey, I’m a loan officer. You gotta let them know so much that they’d never second guess it. Because the last thing you wanna do is go scrolling down your feed and you see that your neighbor next door bought a house and they used somebody else and you’re like, wait a minute.
Why didn’t you even come to me? Why didn’t you even ask me to use me for your mortgage? That’s what I do. ⁓ And so the biggest part of social media is definitely getting the message across and letting people know as far as you can reach it what you do, how it benefits them for using you.
Michelle Kesil (19:02)
Totally. Do you have like your favorite platforms? What’s your social media presence like?Richard Yeppez (19:11)
So, chat gbt is my best friend now. and chat gbt are like this. We hang out quite a bit. And so I try to use, I’m trying to really dive into AI as much as possible because it kind of…I can brainstorm with it. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a back and forth conversation with chat GPT, it’s pretty cool. And so I may be thinking about something and then chat GPT will take it a step further. And I’ll be like, yeah, that sounds a lot better than what I was thinking about. so utilizing AI to the point where maybe you can expand that dialogue that you can reach more with that audience. Instagram and Facebook is always that normal.
you know, social media platform. I’m just now diving into TikTok. It’s really, TikTok really feels intimidating to me because I feel like I have to be dancing on TikTok to get noticed. just, you know, utilizing AI on, know, Instagram and Facebook is kind of where my basis starts.
Are you still there? Okay.
Michelle Kesil (20:32)
I’m period.Yeah, so you’re using AI to support you in growing social media. That’s awesome.
Are you using it for your business as well?
Richard Yeppez (20:51)
Absolutely. ⁓You know the biggest part I’ll do with AI and I I don’t know about you But I actually gave my chat GBT a name because I got tired of seeing hey chat GPT hey chat So my chat GBT’s name is Jubilee, so I’ll just say hey Jubilee What do you think about this or what do you think about this and so? ⁓ I try to have a theme day every day So you’ll have a mortgage Mondays, and you’ll have think about it Tuesdays and what’s up Wednesdays? And so when I you know it’s kind of hard to come up with an idea every day so the great thing about
⁓ chat GBTs you can kind of come up with those themed days that way you’re putting out informative content entertaining content so it’s not all mortgage related you know there’s there’s a couple of pictures of my kids in there as well but the good thing is you’re giving out pertinent information you’re just not throwing stuff out there hoping it sticks
Michelle Kesil (21:43)
Okay, yeah, I think that’s such a valuable way to use that tool and to help support your business. I love that. ⁓ So yeah, before we wrap up here, if people want to connect with you, collaborate, reach out, learn more about your business and everything you’re offering, where are the best places that people can connect with you?Richard Yeppez (22:08)
So if you go on Google and you just type in hashtag Mr. Next Mortgage, that’s Mr. NEXT Mortgage, you’re going to find all of my social media, especially if you just type in Richard Yepez in Google, I got like the first three pages. So that’s a big part of finding me, my phone numbers, all my contact information, you’ll be able to find me the top links and things like that. So definitely hashtag Mr. Next Mortgage, you’re going to find all of my contact information, you’ll definitely find my next mortgage website.site if you’d like to apply and find out and have a conversation with me from there. ⁓ So that’s a great way to get a hold of me. My cell phone is my office phone so if you call that number you’re going to get a hold of me every time.
Michelle Kesil (22:52)
Amazing, perfect. So yeah, thank you so much for sharing your story, your perspective and your knowledge. Thank you for being here.Richard Yeppez (23:02)
Thank you for having me on.Michelle Kesil (23:04)
Awesome. For those tuning in, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations coming with operators just like Richard who are building real businesses and we’ll see you all on our next episode.
