How the Bond Market Moves Mortgage Rates for Real Estate Investors | Hovig Khatchadourian

Hovig Khatchadourian (00:00)
one of the things that I always tell my clients is speed is your friend in real estate. If you’re taking a week to decide whether seven and a quarter rate or seven point three seven five rate is better, then you’ve lost in your real estate. So that was one of the key points that I learned in

wholesale. The second thing is the closer you get to the money source, the better you are in real estate. And as a real estate investor, that’s should be our goal. You should be getting closer to the money source so that way your return on investment becomes better.

Issa Hanna (01:11)
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros Show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna, and today we have Hovig Khatchadourian with us. Hovig, welcome to the show.

Hovig Khatchadourian (01:18)
Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Issa Hanna (01:21)
I am super excited to have you. I always love to talk to our lender friends because you guys are the ones that make the world turn for investors, right? so with that, for my viewers at home, can we kind of get a quick rundown of what you’re focused on nowadays and a day-to-day in your world?

Hovig Khatchadourian (01:37)
my focus as an owner of brokerage company right now, my focus is helping real estate investors basically to find the deals that or once they find the deal to structure a better lending solutions for them. I come from underwriting, so my first thing is I approach it from the underwriting perspective rather than salesperson. So that’s my day-to-day activity in terms of

I want to help real estate investors structure their deals better so that way they could save money and have a higher rate of return. Other than that, my day-to-day is I spend a lot of time on marketing. I do most of my own marketing in my company. So I use I utilize AI a lot. So I don’t spend a lot of money on marketing, it’s more organic reach. So

And I think going forward that’s the key. You have to create your own identity, your trust, so that way people could come to you rather than spending millions of dollars on advertising. that we don’t even have that budget like other bigger companies. So that’s my focus. And I try to stay positive. I like the positivity. we are in a pretty tough environment when it comes to real estate and weights, but

I try to stay away from that negativity because there’s so much positivity out there, there’s so much opportunities out there. So when people are focused on that negativity, I feel like my job is to bring that out to within other people. Like I was talking yesterday to Realtor. She was so you were trying to structure a deal for her clients and she was getting frustrated and angry that I wasn’t trying I wasn’t giving the correct information for her.

mindset. So I had to stop her. I said, listen, let’s step back and come approach this from a different perspective. I’m trying to strategize. I’m trying don’t forget about the numbers, forget about the rates, focus on the opportunity. And that’s my that’s one of the things I try on a daily basis. I tell them focus on the opportunity.

Issa Hanna (03:45)
Exactly. and a lender that does that, like you, that tailor analyzes everything, that underwrites for their clients, that knows what product fits best for that is such a crucial tool to have in your arsenal as an investor. so the fact that you were sitting down brainstorming, you took the time

To sit down with another realtor and brainstorm for this client just shows that you care about thing. You don’t focus on the negative energy. We’ve all heard it. Prices have gone down. there’s more sellers on the market than buyers, interest rates are up, all that good stuff. But somebody like Hovig who analyzes deals, who looks at stuff, who structures stuff.

He can show you in numbers why that deal will still be beneficial to you such a crucial person to have in your corner, a lot more knowledgeable than the normal lender because you did get into the wholesale space. You were in the wholesale world. So tell us a little bit more about your wholesale experience.

Hovig Khatchadourian (04:45)
Well, I actually started in the mortgage industry many, many years ago as a wholesale processor. So up until the financial crisis, I was on the wholesale side of the business. I worked with companies like Lima Brothers, where they’re Aurora Loan Services, and many other smaller lenders. so that taught me a lot of

Understanding or brought me more understanding about how money works in real estate. And

one of the things that I always tell my clients is speed is your friend in real estate. If you’re taking a week to decide whether seven and a quarter rate or seven point three seven five rate is better, then you’ve lost in your real estate. So that was one of the key points that I learned in

wholesale. The second thing is the closer you get to the money source, the better you are in real estate. And as a real estate investor, that’s should be our goal. You should be getting closer to the money source so that way your return on investment becomes better.

And so those two things have guided me in my daily activities in decision making especially

And when I’m strategizing or when I’m structuring for my business per purposes and for my clients as well. So yeah, wholesale it’s been I would say it created the base for me. It gave me a lot of knowledge when it comes to how the bond market works in terms of the money source of the mortgage industry. And then that’s that brought me here today where I make

certain decisions accordingly.

Issa Hanna (06:23)
I love that. I was telling you guys earlier, a lender who can think and know the problems and foresee things, who’s been in the shoes of the investor, who’s dealt with investment deals before, they can think in a different way and fit you into a better product than that retail person that’s just doing the normal first time home buyer or, retail real estate, right? Retail real estate, investment real estate.

Are two different animals, right? So not all loan officers are created the same.

So Hovig you have all this experience, wholesale, lending, obviously. you’re a great lender for investors and retail clients, but we all didn’t start off at the top, right? We all didn’t start off with the knowledge we have. So I want to get your history. We all have that story, how we got into real estate, and it’s always a pretty cool story. So I want to know your origin story. How’d you get bit by the bug?

Hovig Khatchadourian (07:54)
my background in education is accounting actually. I took my CPA exam when I graduated, I passed the exam, but I never practiced CPA. So a friend of mine was in the mortgage industry and he told me, Hovig you wanna, join with us in a wholesale company? I said, sure, something different. And I had no idea about the mortgage industry. I didn’t know what title was, what escrow was, nothing. But I

the first month that I was in the business I loved it. I started just like you said you did as a processor.

And right here actually in Woodland Hills, so California. And I really enjoyed the business. Every day was a different structure, every deal was different. I started learning on a daily basis. I made sure I would come into the office early in the morning, like 6:30, and I had notes of papers of notes, So every single day I would read from the beginning until that day. And I within six

Months I was getting promoted to sales, and then I started about nine months later. I did my first sales on the wholesale side. I’m like, this is for me. I enjoyed it, I loved it, and then it took off. I never looked back. It’s been 25 years since then. I’ve gone worked for different companies, I’ve gone through the ups and downs of the industry.

It is a great industry. It is I would say it’s very rewarding, when I look back and I see some of my mistakes and some of other people’s mistakes, for example, is when the money is flowing.

Fill your barrels. this industry is always going through its flow, up and down, up and down. So unfortunately, a lot of younger generation, when the money is coming, they’re spending all this money on their cars, on vacation, on luxury stuff, which is fine, we need to enjoy life, but you need to fill your barrels when the money is flowing, because

There’s gonna be a time when that money is not gonna be flowing. And then you need to survive those periods in order to be able to get to the next level.

Issa Hanna (10:08)
A hundred percent

I love how you ended it with that great advice to the next professionals coming up. As a former agent, actually current agent, I’m licensed here in Texas, it’s kind of a private, I invest on my own, but in Chicagoland, between 2013 and 2020, I sold hundreds of homes to a whole bunch of clients, right? But I realized that, as a real estate agent.

or a loan officer or whatever you are of this space, your income depends on what you sell, right? so the months you don’t sell, you don’t make any money. So that got me thinking, and that’s why I bought my rental portfolio, So Hovig, amazing. Make sure you guys put money to the side, invest money into rentals, something for the rainy day. Don’t go buy all the name brand designer stuff.

and the first class flights and all that stuff because your income can fluctuate and you can be doing well for a whole year. Like Hovig said, the market gets hit with something, times change, now your income cuts in half. You can’t sustain that lifestyle. So that always needs to be in your brains for the future. And this is going to all the professionals in our space, lenders and realtors. truly, amazing advice, Hovig, for somebody who’s been in the game twenty five years.

I wouldn’t expect less than that. Golden advice, right? Thank you. and then we were talking earlier, and you told me that one of your strengths was underwriting and analyzing, but also you’re really into the bond market, right? So I’m gonna let you take the floor and tell us from your analytics and from how you’ve analyzed it, what’s the bond market looking like in the US in the next 10 years?

Hovig Khatchadourian (12:24)
Well, I’ve studied the bond market, the tenure note specifically extensively. on the mornings I day trade just a little bit, not the bond market, but just for other things. But I’m a chartist. you can call I’m a bond market expert if and again, there’s no ego here. I don’t say that because I’m anybody. it’s just based on the amount of time I’ve spent and studies I’ve done.

I’ve gone all the way back to two thousand seven and before. And in fact, the question you ask, what’s the bond market it’s gonna be for the next ten years? And I’m gonna answer that, but I wanna put a disclaimer before I do that. whatever whenever we talk about the bond market, this is just for educational purposes, for our purposes only. It’s not a trading advice or anything like that.

to understand where we’re gonna be going the next 10 years, we need to understand where we were before the last 10, 15, 20 years. So if we go back to 2007, the bond market, the law of that day in October, or actually June, I believe, was 103 The price of the bond market was 103

eight and a half. Okay. October fast forward last week, October 1st, 2026, the low of the bond market was the price was at 103.20 and a half. So from the technical perspective, we call that double bottom. Okay, so that’s an extremely strong support level. And if that support level holds

The last time at 2007, when that support level held, the market went up, the bond prices went up for the next five to seven years. So if October 1st low hells holds, then I believe the next five to ten years, the bond prices will steadily go higher, which means it’s gonna ease up the pressure on the mortgage rates. So the mortgage rate is gonna start going lower.

Now I have to also tell you guys is that the bond prices and the mortgage rates are slow moving indicators. So they don’t just go from 103 to 140 within a month. It takes months and sometimes years to go from 103 to 120, 125. So the next five to ten years, if this support level holds, then we are in a better shape when it comes to the mortgage rates.

Because the bond prices will start increasing. So and I’ve got charts. I could show you guys this. I could support everything that I said with charts and with education. but just that’s the overview of my analysis of the bond market, the 10-year note.

Issa Hanna (15:14)
I love that. And with the way the economy in the real estate industry and the market is stabilizing right now. The interest rates haven’t climbed up much. They did just hike up a little bit, but they’ve kind of held steady for the last few years while the market price has corrected itself. I could definitely see that assessment coming true. You spend a hundred hours doing something.

you can consider yourself an expert in it, right? So imagine Hovig he spent years analyzing and this is just a hobby for him. Like you said, he’s not a professional. he’s not giving you any advice. He’s just speculating based on his knowledge and his research.

Hovig Khatchadourian (15:51)
the reason I studied the bond market is mainly the mortgage industry. I wanted to be able to know if I’ve got a client that I need to lock their file, whether today or two weeks from today will be better, which what’s the time frame to lock their file so that way their return on investment will be higher. Because let’s face it, if you lock it at six percent today.

or five point seven five two weeks from today that it’s probably gonna get there, then you’ve done a favor to that client both financially and in their daily life.

Issa Hanna (16:28)
Amazing. And that goes back to a testament of caring about the client, putting the client first, thinking like an investor would think, or even a retail client, because he’s taken the time to research the bond market in order to be able to better understand where he thinks the interest rates might go so that he can save his clients money, right? loan officers out there. I wish more of you guys did stuff like Hovig does because

That’s going above and beyond. That’s going the extra inch than just simply watching the rates every day. It shows preparedness, it showed promptness, integrity, and care for your clients. And that’s exactly how you build a business in our space. So all you young guys, I hope you guys are taking notes right now, because this is school is in session, Hovig is the teacher right now. I’m loving that.

I wanna talk to you about the future, right? We all have a five year plan. So I’m gonna Google you in five years. American Mortgage Factory, that’s your brokerage. you started it, created it in your own image. So I look you guys up in five years. Where am I gonna see you at? What’s the goal?

Hovig Khatchadourian (17:35)
The goal in five years to have at least 10, to multiply by 10 loan officers who share my background in terms of my strategies, my beliefs in terms of helping and creating success and wealth for other people in real estate. That’s the goal.

And I’ve got clients who are millionaires because of the structures that we’ve done with them. and so that’s the goal. it says underneath over there it says American mortgage factory, trust, honesty, integrity, and to keep that level for the next 10 years and beyond, because that’s where we wanna be.

and at the same time to create real estate investors investments for our purposes, for our company, for myself, for my family. So that’s a personal goal going forward.

Issa Hanna (18:25)
I love that. you’ve got the knowledge to do it. So I know once you’re ready for personally to invest in your own portfolio, you’re gonna hit this ground running and become a tornado in the real estate investment space. You know all the products. In the meantime, honesty and integrity. these are the two most important things as a real estate professional that you can be. I told you about my past, I told you about hundreds of buyers.

I never spent a dollar in advertising. Everything was word of mouth. Why? Because every deal I did, I cared about that client. Just like every deal Hovig does, he cares about that client. He puts his client first. It’s as if he’s doing the loan for himself when you come to him. Exactly the type of person you want to deal with. Amazing. And now I want to ask your advice for my younger viewers, for my new agents, my new loan officers. Relationships, networking, business.

Very, very important in our space, right? some say the most important thing. So if you had to give somebody one piece of advice on how to start getting the ball rolling on growing their network, what would you tell them?

Hovig Khatchadourian (19:31)
the greatest the one piece of advice is I would say start creating relationships early on based on trust and honesty and nurture those relationships like your life depends on them. every month add one more relationship. Next month add one more relationship. And again, create your own.

base or standards and never deviate from those standards just because you want to make a few bucks down the line. Okay? Because those are the standard’s gonna move forward with you for the rest of your life.

Issa Hanna (20:04)
A hundred percent. All great professionals in our space say exactly the same thing Hovig did, Don’t chase the check, don’t chase that money. The money will come. All great lenders, all great real estate agents, they’ll tell you the money’s not important. It’s helping the client make the biggest purchase of their lives or even just a really huge purchase. they’re signing away years of their life with a payment.

if you focus on that as opposed to, man, if I do this, I can make this much more money. that’ll go a lot longer. You’ll get a lot more deals that way than chasing the checks. So man, just golden, golden advice.

Hovig Khatchadourian (20:44)
I always say don’t make your decisions based on your luxury car payments.

Issa Hanna (20:50)
Amazing. Yep. Base your decision on what’s best. Yeah. Not hey, I got this car payment coming up. No, that should not come in at all when you’re deciding for your clients. So once again, golden knowledge. And now I want to give you the floor. If my people in California wanted to get a hold of you, because you do bring such a honest and integrity to the game, where could they reach you guys at?

Hovig Khatchadourian (21:14)
they could reach me directly actually at my direct my cell number which is 818-307-5544. Or my email is hovig H O V I G @ loansamf.com or they could google us at American Mortgage Factory, loansamf.com. that’s the easiest place to get there.

Issa Hanna (21:38)
So guys, make sure you contact Hovig. He gave you his direct line. another thing that makes somebody great in our space is accessibility. So he just gave you his direct line. So make sure you reach out. If you’re in California, you need a loan, investors, retail guys, anything like that, and you want somebody who’s knowledgeable, who’s gonna put you first, who you can trust.

Make sure to contact Hovig because like I said, it was a true honor to have him on our show and the guy’s gonna get you to the finish line in the best way possible. Hovig, thank you so, much.

Hovig Khatchadourian (22:11)
I wanna add one more thing before we finalize it. you said advice for people. I’ve been in the business for many years. I actually go through investor fuel podcasts and listen to majority of them. I just wanna learn one thing from each one.

just listen to one or two you will get so much golden nuggets out of it when it comes to real estate investing. So yeah, and I thank you for bringing me on here too, by the way. I’ve learned so much. Again, I’ve been in the business for some time, but every day we learn we don’t know what we don’t know, right? So it’s go through the investor fuel podcast

it’s a weekly thing to go through at least two or three podcasts every week to learn something.

Issa Hanna (22:53)
We appreciate it. we strive hard, Hovig, to bring the top level knowledge for investment and real estate to the game. so we appreciate you endorsing us and we very much do care about bringing that knowledge into this space because knowledge is power in our space. The more you know, the more ways you know how to make money off of real estate, the better off you are. So once again, Hovig, thank you.

We’re all out of time for today. We’re gonna wrap it up. but thank you once again for coming on the show. And to my viewers at home, if you guys enjoyed my conversation with Hovig and want to see more like it, make sure to hit like and subscribe. I talk to people every day that could bring us different knowledge on every aspect of the real estate industry. Until next time, the Real Estate Pros are out.