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Show Summary
In this conversation, Alan Pezeshkian shares his extensive experience in the mortgage finance industry, discussing his journey from a loan originator to the founder of House America Financial. He emphasizes the importance of building successful teams, providing mentorship, and adapting to the evolving needs of both retail buyers and investors in the real estate market. Alan also highlights the significance of bridging the gap between traditional retail buyers and investors, advocating for a more integrated approach in real estate transactions.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Alan Pezeshkian (00:00)
people advance, their business grows, their team grows, and there’s a sense of independence.I want to do things for myself, on my own. There’s nothing wrong with that. People are ambitious. They like to feel that something is their own. and I think for those leaders who understand that part of what they need to do is also promote, encourage people to want to become that entrepreneur. can build teams, large teams.
Dylan Silver (02:02)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest Alan Pezeshkian is a seasoned leader with over 35 years in mortgage finance beginning his career as a loan originator in the late 1980s and later founding House America Financial now a top 15 lender in Los Angeles County with more than 4 billion funded. Alan welcome to the show.Alan Pezeshkian (02:27)
Thank you, glad to be here.Dylan Silver (02:28)
It’s great to have you here and you’ve done so much. talked about four billion funded active since the 80s. I want to go back to the starting point. How did you get into real estate? What was your entry point into real estate?Alan Pezeshkian (02:43)
I was basically looking for a job and didn’t know what mortgages were about at all. I had just graduated UCLA and my dad was actually trying to get a loan from a mortgage broker and the broker said, what do you do? And I said, I’m just looking for a job. And so my entree into the mortgage business was a fluke. just was, I was at the right place at the right time. That broker got me in the business. Next thing you know.countrywide home loans is hiring telemarketers in their call center went there and spent the rest of the next 18 years there. After that, Bank of America bought countrywide and I pivoted, did something else and in 2018 I launched a mortgage banking company called House America Financial and
That’s going to last 35 years for you.
Dylan Silver (03:41)
I want toask you maybe a granular question about what it takes to build successful teams in the mortgage space. I’m a realtor. I’m licensed in Texas. So I’ve seen teams and I kind of think I have an idea of what is the hallmark of a successful team, but you’ve built teams. What advice would you have for folks who may be building teams themselves about how they can do to retain their top performers, but also what they can do to attract
you know, people who are looking for a home.
Alan Pezeshkian (04:12)
Yeah, that’s a great question. I’ve built teams. I think it all comes down to value prop. You know, I could have been, and I’ve originated, I originated for years. And at the moment where I saw that there was only so much that I could do on my own, I said, okay, let me decide, do I want to continue doing this thing on my own, one man show myself, or do I make it a business? And there’s…There’s not a right or wrong answer. But in my view, if you decide to take the path of being a sole owner, that’s okay. But you’ll never grow, you’ll never expand, you’ll never scale. But if you have this vision of creating a business for yourself and ⁓ becoming a team, that’s when you basically need to…
I’m going to take a step back, I’m not going to be the main person, but I’m going to then give this much of the business to one person, give this much of the business to this person, give this much of the business to that person, and stand back, provide value, leadership, mentorship, and let these smaller components over the years grow. And so
That’s precisely what I did. You know I was originally doing a lot of business and I chose to own a business versus own an origination kind of platform. And you’ve got to also stay relevant. It’s not just giving this portion of your business to somebody. It’s continuing the constant mentorship, the leadership and providing value.
and you can never stop doing that because the minute you stop that transfer of value and leadership and mentorship is when you’re risking seeing that segment of the business you gave up go away. So that’s kind of the…
Dylan Silver (06:56)
Now,when we talk about, you know, having that constant desire to improve and pouring into people, what I often hear as a common, I would say, want or maybe a gripe of folks is that they feel like their team is either stifling their growth or they feel like they’ve outgrown their team. But at the same point in time, I find that interesting because
in many cases, these teams have built people up, whether it’s as a realtor, whether it’s as a loan officer, how can teams and business owners in this space continue to pour into their top performance once they’ve gotten to a point where maybe they feel like they could potentially start their own venture? Or at that point, is it almost like they’ve got to let these folks go once they’ve gotten so big?
Alan Pezeshkian (07:47)
You know, if you recognize in advance teams that are growing and get in front of what their needs are, I don’t think you will get to a point where they leave you. Butpeople advance, their business grows, their team grows, and there’s a sense of independence. You know
I want to do things for myself, on my own. There’s nothing wrong with that. People are ambitious. They like to feel that something is their own. and I think for those leaders who understand that part of what they need to do is also promote, encourage people to want to become that entrepreneur. And you can you can build teams, you know large teams.
within the larger framework of your establishment. So it doesn’t need to be small teams keeping them small for you know selfish reasons, just the opposite. I think you need to promote the idea of team, support them, and help them grow. And if you play your cards correctly and if you do the right thing, those teams will get larger and larger and they’ll stay with you.
Dylan Silver (09:08)
Now, I do want to pivot here, Alan, and ask you about another side of the business. I know that you have experience in traditional ⁓ retail buyers, but also with investors as well. These are really two distinct segments. Talk to me a little bit about what your involvement is in the investor side and how you got involved there.Alan Pezeshkian (09:29)
So my mortgage company is called House America Financial and what we do is we do your traditional financing from conventional loans, government loans, non-QM loans, we cater to basically every type of loan that’s out there. However, there is a growing need for non-traditional loans. Why? Because property values areare going up, you’ve got tremendous competition among builders, developers who want to build and you know do these larger projects. There was a need to provide financing that’s easier to obtain than through banks, through credit unions, through even my own mortgage company. I launched a separate venture that satisfies two
basically two elements. it provided financing options for savvy, sophisticated, experienced builders, developers, people who would not just build and do a rehab work, also investors who would want to buy and fix and flip. They needed quick close. So they needed access to quick financing. They needed access to an easy, streamlined transaction that could close in 10 days.
So where does that money come from? Well, the money comes from another part of the equation. And the other part of the equation is I had within my circle a very large network of people who were complaining about where to keep their money. In part, You know, put it in, leave it in CDs, they’re earning three, 4%. That’s hardly keeping up with inflation. Leave it in the stock market, we’re at an all time high.
every morning the question is, my portfolio up 10 % or down 10 %? That volatility, people don’t have the stomach for it. US Treasuries, Okay you know you’re earning money at 4 % and it’s probably going to go lower. And so I became this bridge, the bridge between helping these investors earn a much greater return than 3-4 % and I also satisfied the real estate investor who needed quick money.
Dylan Silver (12:08)
Yep.Alan Pezeshkian (12:24)
And my job here is to make sure that I take the capital from the investors who want to their money, prep their money, somewhere that pays them 8, 9 percent, but identify low leverage, carefully unwritten real estate backed loans where I’m also servicing the investor who wants to buy a piece of real estate or a bill.So, what makes this thing unique for me is my 35-year background. I’ve managed risk. I’ve sold billions to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Wall Street, you name it. On those kinds of loans, there is no room for error. You make a mistake. That loan is yours for the next 30 years. and so, applying that expertise to private lending, much easier.
Dylan Silver (13:02)
Sure, sure.Alan Pezeshkian (13:19)
much easier. And uhDylan Silver (13:21)
Now, whenwe talk about working with investors, working with builders, fix and flippers, folks looking at infill lots, I’ve often seen this partition both on the lending side, but also as a realtor on the realtor side, quite frankly. Folks who are saying, well, that’s the investor world. This is the retail world.
And for me, as someone who comes from a background before I was, I’m a newer realtor, I’ve been licensed less than a year. I always thought that it would make sense that they were kind of one in the same. But now I see there there does tend to be this divide between them, between them with realtors saying I only want to work with retail buyers or others saying I only want to work with investors. My thought is, is that we’re starting to see now
Alan Pezeshkian (14:03)
So.Dylan Silver (14:14)
a little bit more, I would say, meshing between the two because you almost, I can say where my family’s from in northern New Jersey, you almost have to think like a real estate investor in order to buy some of these properties, just because of how cost prohibitive it is. And then in other places like Texas, where I’m licensed, it is there’s so much opportunity to develop that you’re also seeing folks who may not traditionally be, you know, real estate investors or developers start start looking at it more and more.Alan Pezeshkian (15:24)
Yeah, think like anything else, if you pigeonhole yourself to one or the other, I think you’re creating some boundaries for yourself, unnecessary boundaries. I think you’re limiting yourself. So, you know, if the ultimate goal here is to acquire property, whether it’s a built property, whether it’s a rehab or a ground up, I think realtors can kind of…open their spectrum of who they want to target, it doesn’t just need to be this or that. There could be opportunities on both ends.
Dylan Silver (16:05)
Yeah, for sure. you know,when I think about I can say this myself, Alan, as someone who thought I could do the most help for someone being a realtor, helping them find the home. Once you become a realtor, you realize that the real heroes of this game, and I’m saying this humbly, are the lending professionals. Because as soon as we get a lead, what’s the first thing we’re going to do? We’re going to send them to the lender. But let’s see if this person can get approved, right?
Alan Pezeshkian (16:21)
Yeah.I’ll give an example.
I had a good friend who was a realtor and he framed his slogan as the condo king. And he would just go and say, I do nothing with condos, nothing with condos. People would go to him and you know, hey, no, if you don’t have a single fan, I’m just going to do condos. And then the condo market kind of got little bit dry. And so he figured out that, wait a minute, all these years,
where he labeled himself the Condo King. Maybe, maybe, he should get into the SFR units commercial. once he did, I think his business took off even further. So specialization is good, but real estate is a broad thing, especially residential now. Somebody might not wanna go and get involved in a…
high-rise office building, I can understand. But within the general kind of residential real estate, whether it’s a home, single family, multi-units, I think you should have a more of an open mind as to who you want to go and work with.
Dylan Silver (17:38)
I couldn’t agree more. I think wherever you are in the country, you may think, well, this doesn’t work here now. Or maybe there’s not as many people doing this here now, the strategy, or the municipality. But now with AI and with the ability to connect with people, mean, there’s more and more people doing deals in areas where they’re not physically located. And it seems like lenders right now, or every lender is nationwide as far aswhat I’m seeing. Speaking of which, Alan, we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go if they’re interested in reaching out to your team? How can investors get in contact with you? And where can folks go to reach out to your team?
Alan Pezeshkian (18:21)
Our website houseamericafinancial.com They can go there. They can always call me directly on my cell phone. I work 24 7 365 days My wife sometimes complains about that, but that’s just how I’m wired I’ll be happy to leave my cell phone. It’s 818-521-8288 Again 818-521-8288 Any day any eveningholidays, weekends, I’m available. I love it.
Dylan Silver (18:56)
Alan,thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for coming on the show.
Alan Pezeshkian (19:00)
My pleasure.
