How a Self-Employed Loan Expert Built a Six-Figure Business in 1 Year

Parker Strong (00:00)
I figured most mortgage lenders are like max, like 130, maybe you’re at like 180,

not like a super high ceiling, and he like laughed, and he’s just like, dude, I’m gonna show you something. Shows me his last end of year pay stub that has the year to date on

but it was was it was over a million bucks and I was like, holy crap I was like, are you really like you’re making over a million bucks doing loans and he’s like you’ve been doing it for five years and he’s like, yeah

you got to do is focus on building relationships and just be a genuine human being

you will do extremely well.

Dylan Silver (02:05)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is a mortgage lender based out of Salt Lake City, Utah area who works often with self-employed

Please welcome Parker Strong. Parker, welcome to the show.

Parker Strong (02:21)
Yeah man, thanks for having me Dylan, it’s good to be here. Very excited, I feel very famous.

Dylan Silver (02:23)
It’s great to have you on here. Yeah, yeah,

It’s great to have you on here. I’ve been out to Salt Lake when I was much younger, but I feel like it’s becoming and maybe it’s always been, but definitely recently I’ve had a lot of interest in people investing in Utah, specifically in that greater area. What’s the market like out there?

Parker Strong (02:42)
⁓ Dude, it is wild. It has changed very drastically since when I was a kid. ⁓ When I was younger, I’d say home prices were like really low.

mean, obviously home prices across the entire country have increased significantly, but in Utah, I think a lot of people looped us in with the Midwest, ⁓ where that is, you we’ve never considered ourselves that, but I think people would loop us in there. And now ⁓ with the huge tech boom that Utah has been experiencing, are, think one of the fast, I think we’re in the top five fastest growing states in the country. And so home prices have soared, the economy has flourished a ton. I mean, we’re getting a ton of new people

Dylan Silver (03:02)
Yeah.

Parker Strong (03:23)
are moving into the state and so yeah it’s it’s a cool it’s a cool place to be pros and cons to each I don’t like the traffic that comes with all the new population but I love the cool new businesses and I’m a die-hard hockey fan so the fact that now we have the Utah Mammoth sorry to the Phoenix Coyotes I feel so sad for you but I am as a die-hard hockey fan I am beyond excited that we had enough growth to get an NHL team so that’s what I’d say just this last year this last season was the first season

Dylan Silver (03:41)
I’m sorry.

That’s all, when did they go out there?

Parker Strong (03:52)
So it was last summertime. And Utah’s such a snow state. It’s such a winter sport place. I’ve played hockey my whole life, and so I’ve always loved it. But it was such an underground sport here in Utah, and it killed me because we’re known for the greatest snow on Earth.

Dylan Silver (03:52)
It’s long overdue. Long overdue.

Yeah!

All the winter,

yeah, I mean, I’ve skied out there. The one thing that shocked me so much, and I don’t know if it’s still this way, when I was skiing out there as a kid, they didn’t have the protective bars over the top. And I said, my gosh, is this not Northern New Jersey, New York any longer?

Parker Strong (04:30)
Yeah, it’s because if you

at least at least we have enough snow that if you fall off you’ll survive because you’ll land into some powder so there’s like a save on money don’t put crossbars

Dylan Silver (04:37)
Throw some ice on it.

you’ll be okay. ⁓ I want

pivot a bit here and ask you about getting into the real estate space. I think a lot of folks on the outside looking in, I know me, ⁓ you mentioned before hopping on here, you were working in the

space beforehand. I also was. I worked actually for Nissan, for Chrysler, for a number of different

brands, but I didn’t really know anybody. That’s right, that’s right.

Parker Strong (05:49)
Nice. I won’t hold that against you.

Dylan Silver (05:53)
I didn’t really know anybody in the real estate space or have any exposure to it and it was kind of a leap of faith when I jumped in. How did you get into the real estate space?

Parker Strong (06:02)
Yeah dude, it’s been a journey. So I graduated from Brigham Young University in business strategy and I moved out to Detroit, Michigan, worked for General Motors for their Chevy and Cadillac division to do strategy for them. ⁓ I was there for about a year and then ultimately it was like, I just didn’t really love what I was doing. Plus I love Detroit. There was definitely some great things, but I also was like, this is not where I want to be long-term. ⁓

I decided to come back to Utah. I got hired by a really big tech company that was kind of, it was starting to go through their boom. So they’re called Qualtrics. ⁓ Ryan Smith, who’s the owner of the Utah Jazz and the Utah Mammoth, ⁓ that’s his company. That’s where he made his fortune was through Qualtrics. So I actually got hired by Ryan. ⁓ Part of the…

part of the strategy department. was the operations strategy department. So I came in, worked there, and I was there for about five years. ⁓ And I liked my job. It was a place to be. But I’ve always had just like an entrepreneur type mindset and was just like, I just don’t like love the nine to five work. And so what originally started my journey to get into real estate,

Dylan Silver (07:10)
Yeah.

Parker Strong (07:18)
was I put on my social media and I just said, I’m looking at side hustles. I want to find ways to grow my money. ⁓ What are things that some of you people are doing? And I got a lot of people that responded to me. Utah, unfortunately, is really well known for MLMs or multi-level marketing schemes. And I hate, hate, hate those. So I had so many MLMs that reached out to me that were like, dude, you should get rich quick schemes. ⁓ And I was just like, no, I don’t want to do that. Don’t want to do that. And I had one person.

Dylan Silver (07:33)
Well…

Parker Strong (07:46)
who was like, hey, have ever thought about being a mortgage lender? And I didn’t even know what it was at the time, ⁓ but I had some money set aside that I wanted to get into real estate investing. So I was like, you know what would be cool is like, what if I just learned the ins and outs of mortgages and did my own loan so I could do mortgage or real estate investing? That was my original purpose. So I got into it.

And I did it part-time originally with ⁓ my mentor, his name’s Adam. He’s actually sitting right behind me right here. ⁓ he, originally the way that it was set up was I was kind of like a glorified SDR. I would have people that would come into my pipeline. I wouldn’t actually process anything. I would pass them off to Adam and Adam would actually take them through the whole process and get them closed on the home loan. And then I would get 50 % of the commission and he would get 50%. And so it was a great deal for me as someone who was working full-time.

I made pretty good money just doing that. And then I had kind of a very frank conversation with Adam about a little over a year ago. And I just said, I’m like, hey dude, like I’m so tired of this like nine to five life. Like I really want to get into self-employment. And he asked me a couple of pointed questions where he’s like, well, what’s your like, what do you want to make like in a year? And I was like, I want to make a difference. No, I said, I was like, I want to, I was like, I don’t know. Like, you know, like at the time I thought I was like,

pretty big deal. I was like 28, 29 years old and I was making like 130, 150K which isn’t amazing but it was like pretty good for my age group and where I was. So I was like, yeah, it’s a good salary. I was like happy with where I was and I kind of was high up on my horse about it and Adam at the time was just like, dude, like you can make so much more and he asked me, like, how much do think I make? And I was like, I don’t know.

Dylan Silver (09:21)
Yeah.

Parker Strong (09:36)
mortgage lender, maybe you’ve been, he’s been doing it for five years, so I was like,

I figured most mortgage lenders are like max, like 130, maybe you’re at like 180, and so was like, that’s not like a super high ceiling, and he like laughed, and he’s just like, dude, I’m gonna show you something. Shows me his last end of year pay stub that has the year to date on

and.

Maybe you kill me for saying this, but it was was it was over a million bucks and I was like, holy crap I was like, are you really like you’re making over a million bucks doing loans and he’s like you’ve been doing it for five years and he’s like, yeah and Adams not a flashy guy This is not someone who’s driving like flashy sports cars like he’s and he’s not a sales bro type personality he’s just a very genuine authentic individual, which is who I try to be is just someone like that and and so he’s just like dude like all you have to do he’s like get into the business he’s like

Dylan Silver (10:50)
Yeah.

Parker Strong (11:04)
All you got to do is focus on building relationships and just be a genuine human being who wants to like legitimately help people. And if you know how to market yourself, then you will do extremely well.

So that was really the, uh, that was the, I would say the main catalyst that got me to decide. was like, okay, so I quit my job a week later, went into doing this full time and have now done it for a full 12 months. So I started June of, uh, or beginning of July of 2024 was when I started doing this full time.

Dylan Silver (11:34)
This makes me want to go be a lender because I tell people this. I’m a wholesaler for two years, was a wholesaler for two years, became a realtor. And what I realized from both worlds is deals will fall apart and no realtor on the wholesale side deals will fall apart, but also no realtor will show you around unless you lending set up, unless you have, you know, some way to

Parker Strong (11:34)
you

you

Integrate. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (11:59)
purchase a property. And so

I’ve thinking about it and how difficult it is, especially for young people right now to get qualified. And that really does irk me a lot of ways, especially people who have very noble jobs and can’t get qualified. And I’m thinking like, yeah, it’s great to be able to work with investors. It’s great to be able to show people homes. But in many cases, people don’t have a reliable person that they can go to for lending. And what if I could be that guy for them? And so hearing someone

⁓ like yourself talk about this has really again piqued my interest in learning that side of the business. You mentioned that you just really got started this year in the last 12 months. How has it been in the first 12 months in business?

Parker Strong (12:34)
Those are easy.

You know dude, I try to be as transparent about this stuff as I can. I it was a grind. I got into the business and I didn’t close my first deal until I think it was three months in. ⁓

And so I’d say one thing that was helpful was I had an emergency fund set up. So I knew how much I spent on a monthly basis and I had a six month emergency fund set up where I essentially told myself, I’m like, I’m going to dive into lending full time. If I don’t make a single dime for six months, I’ll be okay. I can still live my life the same way that I’m currently living it. And so that was nice to have that cushion. And it took me about three months. Then I finally closed my first deal and I was like really excited, but I was like, man, this is a fricking grind. And then I don’t,

Dylan Silver (13:24)
Yeah.

Parker Strong (13:26)
dude, I don’t know what necessarily has happened. I think it’s just because like I try to be a very personable individual and like I’m not, I’m not, when I, when I have conversations with people, I’m not over here trying to sell like, I have the lowest interest rates and I’m really fast at all this stuff. Like I’m just like, I think like a chill, cool guy that people are like, Hey, I want to work with Parker. like having a avenue of referral partners from realtors, financial advisors, CPAs and ⁓ insurance agents, like those

are kind of my main funnels. And then also social media, now past clients, which I can lean on, and then doing organic referrals for my own sphere of influence, are kind of my main four pillars that I lean on. I just have conversations with those people, and now it’s like…

I would say like I’m kind of on the trajectory of like for 2025 to hit about the 200k threshold like take home pay, which isn’t anything crazy. There are people doing way more than me than that. But for a first time.

Dylan Silver (14:24)
but replaced your income in a year.

Yeah.

Parker Strong (14:27)
Exactly like being a like my goal was when I started I was like, okay I need to make at least 130 130 to 150 K like that’s what my salary plus bonus was if I if I can do that then I’ll consider success a success and I’m I’m out there so I was like I was super happy about that and now you know, we still have four four or five months left of the year and so I essentially, you know, hopefully we’ll hit that 200 K threshold and

Dylan Silver (14:37)
Yeah.

Parker Strong (14:55)
continue to grow from there and it just snowballs and

grows. And so just keep doing what I’ve been doing and it’s been fun. I’ve had really good mentors. I’ve taken really good classes. I do sales coaching. Like all that stuff has been really helpful. So my expenses are still very low. I don’t pay for a whole lot of fancy stuff. It’s literally just a lot of organic things and it’s worked out well for me. So.

Dylan Silver (15:46)
Yeah.

I want to

ask you about that side of the business as far as doing what I would call would be something that can be done remotely but is highly specific with the regionality in a sense. So let me break that down. I know a lot of lenders who maybe are licensed in multiple different areas but I think there’s a regionality of real estate which is important and should not be overlooked.

What’s your perspective on lenders who are licensed everywhere? Are you licensed in multiple different states? And do you feel like as a lender, it’s important to niche down and focus on one area versus say that you loan everywhere?

Parker Strong (16:38)
I don’t think it’s mutually exclusive, if I’m honest. I think you can have both. ⁓ In fact, five of the deals that I’ve done so far this year have been out of state. So they have not been from, I’m from Utah, so they haven’t been from Utah. They’ve been from outside, and they’ve come from various random sources. And so I don’t think that you need to be only exclusive to one state. ⁓ I’m getting my license right now in Arizona and Idaho, and that’s just because that’s where most of my out of state

deals have been and so I’m like I kind of want to get you know license there just because it makes sense. ⁓ And what I will say I’d say there’s two aspects of it one is.

Dylan Silver (17:12)
Yeah.

Parker Strong (17:20)
is being so focusing on being hyper local, think is a good thing. Like trying to be at events in person, meeting people, forming genuine connections. I mean, genuinely for me, it’s like one of the new things I’ve started to take on is that because I’m so I’m such an avid hockey fan, it’s kind of like a niche.

It’s kind of like a niche sport here in Utah still like it’s growing and like people are getting more interested, but not everybody does it. And so the fact that like, I am such an avid hockey fan, like if you look at my social media, that’s like mostly what I post about. And I do talk about being a mortgage lender, but like people don’t care about loans unless they’re buying a house. And even then they’re really not that

about it. And so having something engaging on my social media, that’s focusing on something hyper local, such as Utah hockey, that’s growing like that is interesting. And that’s why I get a lot of followers on social media and a lot of engagement is because I’m talking about that.

Dylan Silver (17:59)
Yeah.

Parker Strong (18:10)
and then I touch on being a mortgage lender and so I’m living in the back of their heads where when it comes time for financing people are like, ⁓ that one hockey guy does mortgage lending and they’re like, I don’t know any mortgage lenders. Everyone knows realtors but not many people know like mortgage lenders off the top of their head and so because I’m in front of so many people they’re like, I’ll reach out to him. So from a hyper local side of things I think it is important to like go to networking events, be in person, have something that like is relatable that people can look at you as. From the other side of things though,

Dylan Silver (18:23)
Right. Right. Right.

Parker Strong (18:40)
say like a lot of business has come from ⁓

You know, like I don’t think that it’s you have to only stay in that lane. Like I have gotten deals from out of state, from random connections I’ve made from networking groups and being a part of like big online networking things. And people just like, like to I am. And they’re like, Hey, I have a, I have a friend who’s like, like I said, I focus on self-employment. I do this on purpose because I think having a niche is really important. Like if I am just a normal mortgage lender and I say, Hey, send me all your business, then every realtor, right? You’re a realtor. They’re like, everyone sends me.

Dylan Silver (19:12)
We’re like everyone else. Yeah.

Parker Strong (19:14)
that if I go to someone and I say hey I am the best at self-employed income I don’t want to touch your other business when you have a self-employed client come to me because I will get them completed and done I can help them if they’re under two years self-employed I can help them if they write off all their taxes all these all these things right and that’s what I focus on then all these realtors are like that’s really interesting and then that makes me stand out and so those realtors that I have out of state they reach out to me because someone’s self-employed I do a good job for them on the loan and then I’m like hey also at the

of the transaction. like, just so you know, I do all other loan types. I don’t just do self-employed. So if you have other business, like let me know. And if I did a good job on that loan, then it just helps feed more of their business to me, even despite the fact that I’m not living in the same

as them.

Dylan Silver (19:59)
It’s

a huge thing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The lending portion of the deal is the most important part of it. Without that, you have no deal at all. ⁓ And then in the self-employment space, it’s even trickier. And we get into DSCR loans and all different types, but it’s definitely a whole lot trickier and niche down. Parker, we are coming up on time here though. Where can folks go if maybe they are looking for a loan out there in Utah or if they would like some guidance?

Parker Strong (20:01)
Hey, it’s Adam West calling you back. Good, how are you?

Yeah.

Yeah, the way it works for VA loans is if you open up…

Did he forward the one that

I sent him or did it come from titles? Yeah, like I said, actually, my team is licensed in all, every single state. And so if you’re, it doesn’t matter if you’re in Utah or if you’re in any other state, like if you, and I will say this again, nobody is better at doing self-employed loans than me and my team. And so if you are self-employed, doesn’t matter where you are, like reach out to me. My personal cell phone number that I work off of is 801-651-6908. And then people can also email me.

Dylan Silver (20:28)
or to reach out to you.

Parker Strong (20:57)
at pstrong at youmortgage.com and it’s the letter U like you mortgage. ⁓ I’m also super active on Instagram and Facebook so Parker B Strong on Facebook and also Parker B Strong on Instagram and it’s B is my parents my parents wanted to my name is Parker Strong my parents wanted to make sure that I always had a affirmation for my name apparently so Parker Brent Strong so it’s Parker B is the initial and strong so anyway it’s easy to find.

Dylan Silver (21:18)
I like that.

The affirmation for the name.

That is great.

Parker Strong (21:25)
Yeah, definitely

wasn’t on purpose on their side of things, but it’s helped me out throughout my life.

Dylan Silver (21:30)
Parker,

thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Parker Strong (21:34)
Sure thing Dylan, thanks for having me man, it good meeting you.