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Show Summary
In this conversation, Kevin Parsells shares his extensive experience in the mortgage banking industry, discussing the importance of diversifying income streams and the shift towards ground-up construction in real estate. He emphasizes the need for potential homebuyers to connect with the right lenders and explore various financing options, including programs that require no down payment. Kevin also provides valuable insights for young buyers on investment strategies, particularly in college towns, and stresses the importance of branding oneself in the real estate business.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Kevin Parsells (00:00)
Don’t just go to the credit union you’ve been at since you were seven years old that your parents told you to open a bank account with or a savings account to purchase a house, especially if you don’t have, you know, trade lines, meaning, and these are very simple to do these trade lines. I mean, you can go to Experian, do an Experian boost, use utilities and cell phone, you know, charges that you’re making your cell phone bill as a trade line. There’s so many alternatives to your credit.another big one that most people don’t want you to know. You can use a non authorized user account. That also can be an added trade line. Most mortgage professionals don’t know the secrets of the industry. The other part is you don’t need money down to buy a house. There’s a lot of products. I Somerville, South Carolina is a perfect example. I mean, USDA 100 % financing all day long. mean, you have and if you get a seller’s concession on that property, it covers your closing costs.
Dylan Silver (02:28)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is in the mortgage space with Revolution Mortgage. They’ve got over 100 branches across the country. Please welcome Kevin Parsells. Kevin, welcome to the show.Kevin Parsells (02:44)
Dylan, thank you for having me, man. Appreciate it.Dylan Silver (02:46)
Absolutely. I always like to start off at the top by asking guests how they got into real estate. How’d you get into real estate?Kevin Parsells (02:53)
Actually, I was originally at 18, found an ad in a New York Post for a stockbroker trainee and took the job as a cold caller.and then became a stockbroker investment advisor on Wall Street for seven years. And at the time I was flipping properties and I got to the point where I sold a million dollar house. And I remember looking at the statement, the real estate agent, I think made 45,000 and the mortgage professional made about 45,000. And I sat there and said $90,000 on one transaction. So the next day I went and
Studied and before I knew it a week or two later both myself and my wife were real estate agents And then I realized well on the mortgage side. I can also make some money ⁓ So why not get a mortgage license and then realized well I can work from home or anywhere in the world just like yourself and It’s been a great success man. It’s been an industry that I’ve stayed in now for nearly 20 years. It’s been a pretty cool ride
Dylan Silver (03:44)
Yeah.I want to ask you about deciding to go into the lending space, the mortgage side, because I had the same thought here recently. So I’ve only had my real estate license for really less than a year. I got licensed in April of 2025. I’d been involved in distressed real estate as a wholesaler working with investors prior to that. But what I very quickly saw was as soon as you decide if I’m
on the outside looking in, hey, I’m gonna go buy a home. I’m thinking, okay, I need to reach out to a realtor. I go to the realtor, what’s the realtor gonna say? Do you have financing? Where’s your pre-approval letter? Have you been pre-approved? Here, go talk to my lender. So now I’m thinking, wait, did I get in on the wrong side of this deal here? Did I need to be the lender? So that’s where I’m thinking, did you have any of that sort of a similar process when you decided to get into lending?
Kevin Parsells (05:31)
100 because I was saying well, I’m gonna start this was I think my third property at the time I’m like I’m gonna be doing this at the time me and my wife were young so I was buying houses Fixing them up as I’m living in them and then selling them So I’m like if I’m gonna continue to do this even if it’s three times a year I’m not gonna give two three hundred thousand dollars up and commissions. I’ll keep that money for myself That was originally the plan and then funny enough one of the guys that I know that wasas a stockbroker went into the mortgage business and he pulls up in a Lamborghini. This is in like 2002, 2003. And the guy’s like, I’m going into work. And I’m like, dude, it’s 1130 in the morning. I took the day off. I’m like, what are you talking about? He’s like, I only go in for a few hours a day. Now, lending was a different world then. It’s not so much like that now. A lot of guys in the industry would probably kill me for saying that, but many of them are working, you know, 90 hours a week now. It’s a different environment we’re in.
Dylan Silver (06:18)
Yeah.Kevin Parsells (06:27)
But the bottom line is it’s still very, there’s a lot of financial gain in both industries. I like the mortgage side of things because I don’t have to be bringing people around in a car or meeting them at the house and showing them different properties. And it’s just not my thing, man. I’d rather be free and be able to be where I want to be when I want to be there, you know what I mean? And still be able to make good money. So, yeah.Dylan Silver (06:40)
Yeah.I
echo that and I’m not in this space, but I see the advantage of it. And then I’ve also seen this trajectory for real estate investors, many of the guests of the show, where people will go from fix and flip to multifamily to then lending. So I’ve seen that trajectory as well. I want to pivot a bit here, Kevin, and ask you about scaling within your career, but then also scaling in general in the mortgage space. You mentioned that we were talking before the show.
that you were in New Jersey for a while. Was that where you got started in mortgages?
Kevin Parsells (07:23)
⁓ 100%. Yes, New Jersey. Mostly Monmouth County was really my territory.⁓ but when I was originating mortgages, it wasn’t just in New Jersey, but that was my stomping grounds. and I started doing business in of course, Florida and other States across the country. And now more or less we’re national, right? So we’re in almost every state in the country, because there are certain pockets, of certain markets, regardless of where you’re at and what state you’re in that are exploding right now. I’m in Charleston, South Carolina. We got Lenar building 9,000 single family homes right now.
Dylan Silver (07:52)
Yeah.Kevin Parsells (07:56)
I mean, that’s crazy to think about that. They’re building neighborhoods over the last couple of years. So, you know, the country’s really changed and transformed and it makes sense to not only lend in your local community, but also have the option to go outside. So, yeah, it’s huge.Dylan Silver (07:59)
Yeah.The Carolinas
are a really interesting area. I’ve heard only positive things about the Carolinas and specifically when it comes to family. So I unfortunately I’m woefully ignorant of the Carolinas. I need to go because I’ve had so many guests tell me it’s great investment opportunity. It’s great for family great for young families. So it doesn’t shock me at all that there’s big interest from from builders in the Carolinas. I want to ask you about that. The builders and then also the interest that we’re seeing
really across the board in every regionality of the United States for ground up construction. You mentioned that you had done some flips early on before you got into the mortgage space and there’s been lots of flippers on this show, but I do think that in general, ground up construction is where everything does seem to be pivoting to, both because of market conditions and then because of the housing shortage. Do you feel any of those?
Kevin Parsells (08:45)
Yeah.Dylan Silver (09:05)
pressures as well that there’s a lot of interest in new construction.Kevin Parsells (09:44)
all the time. I mean, we work with hundreds of builders nationwide. Some builders do 20, 30 units a year. Some do 10. Some do hundreds, if not thousands, right? For the big lenders like D.R. Horton or Lenar or, you know, some of the big boys out there, we would get what you would call the fallout. Fallout are usually borrowers that maybe were qualified in the beginning to buy that house. And then all of a sudden, 10 days prior to close, they get a denial. And now we have to shift and come to us as the nineone one saver and basically run that as a non QM non qualified mortgage product. So we go P &L or bank statement or have alternative options rather than just the standard banking that you would do it. know, a Lennar has their own mortgage lending space. The Horton also has the same thing. So we’re able to do things where a Bank of America, Wells Fargo, you know, as a bank would not be able to offer the products that we
Dylan Silver (10:30)
Right.Kevin Parsells (10:42)
We can do so it’s huge. YeahDylan Silver (10:44)
Iwant to ask you, maybe get a little bit granular here, but don’t necessarily give away all the gold for our audience. Maybe save some of it. But I can speak personally, going back maybe, I guess close to six, seven years ago at this point, before I thought about being in real estate, I was looking at buying my home in San Antonio. And it was frustrating because I was being told you don’t have enough established credit.
And I’m like, well, I’ve got good credit. What does it mean I don’t have enough established credit? Well, you’re gonna need X amount of down payment. Now that I’m in the real estate space, I’m thinking, you know, I just didn’t connect with the right person. I just didn’t know the lender who was gonna help me kind of through the hurdles and see down payment assistance programs. And so I kind of just said, well, I guess I gotta have lots, tens of thousands of dollars saved up. And I guess I gotta have established credit, you know, someone to co-sign with. Good credit isn’t enough.
Kevin Parsells (11:36)
Right.Dylan Silver (11:37)
You know, and I’m curious as real estate guys, but as just people in the real estate space in general, what can people do or what general advice can you give folks to make sure that they are connecting with the right person in their area, right?Kevin Parsells (11:53)
Right, 100%. First of all,Don’t just go to the credit union you’ve been at since you were seven years old that your parents told you to open a bank account with or a savings account to purchase a house, especially if you don’t have, you know, trade lines, meaning, and these are very simple to do these trade lines. I mean, you can go to Experian, do an Experian boost, use utilities and cell phone, you know, charges that you’re making your cell phone bill as a trade line. There’s so many alternatives to your credit.
another big one that most people don’t want you to know. You can use a non authorized user account. That also can be an added trade line. Most mortgage professionals don’t know the secrets of the industry. The other part is you don’t need money down to buy a house. There’s a lot of products. I Somerville, South Carolina is a perfect example. I mean, USDA 100 % financing all day long. mean, you have and if you get a seller’s concession on that property, it covers your closing costs.
Why are you paying $2,200 a month in rent when you can own a house that is probably appreciated, that house for the same mortgage, maybe it was $250,000. Now that house is worth $350,000, $450,000 if you bought two, three years ago, right? So now you’re sitting on an extra $150,000 of equity. So if you decide to sell instead of sitting and renting and doing the same thing everyone else is doing and you’re not building anything, you’re giving your money away. So why not look at opportunities? Give us a call.
Dylan Silver (12:57)
Yeah.strength.
Yep.
Kevin Parsells (13:21)
I got a number of mortgage professionals all across the country. It doesn’t matter really what state you’re in. Somebody can help you and if we can’t, we’ll at least refer you to somebody that can. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a DSCR, meaning an investment property. I mean, some of these properties, you don’t even need income. It’s based off the appraised value of the property. So in most cases, if you have a principal plus interest payment, let’s say it’s two grand and the rent’s 1800, they’ll still qualify you.Dylan Silver (13:41)
Right.Kevin Parsells (13:50)
to buy that investment property if it makes sense, right? And this is one thing I told my son to do. My son just turned 20. First thing you should do is buy a property, a two unit property, live in one, rent the other out.Dylan Silver (13:53)
of the ranch.Thank you.
Kevin Parsells (14:44)
Every one ofthe richest people in the business will tell you the exact same thing. If you can get a three unit or four unit property and live in one and then rent the other out, it pays the mortgage for the property. You’re building equity, you’re building value, right? And at the same time, you’re not even having to make a payment because the tenants are paying it for you. So that’s an easy way to build a net worth and take advantage of some of these amazing programs that are out there. You just got to get with, you know, mortgage professionals and really kind of do your due diligence. And this is a great podcast to kind of
Dylan Silver (15:02)
Yeah.Kevin Parsells (15:13)
these little secrets and tricks of the trade to build that network.Dylan Silver (15:19)
Yeah,can be a challenging journey if you’re on the outside looking in and you have no experience in real estate, maybe family doesn’t have connections tied in. And so you’re thinking, well, I’m to go to my bank, right? You mentioned your credit union and then you get turned down there. But you mentioned also too, having a son around the age of 20. I’m thinking for folks who may be in college, you’re going to be spending four or five.
maybe six years, maybe on the short end three years, in one place, in a college town, that in and of itself is a great opportunity to be looking at a duplex, a triplex, a quadplex, right? Because if you’re gonna be there for four or five years, and in many cases people remain around that area for the year after graduation, that, conservatively, is typically what people are looking at as an exit timeline for that type of a deal. They’re looking at holding onto it for…
for that duration. So from an investment standpoint, let’s say you break even, right? You purchase the property, at the end of that time, let’s say you did have to pay some rent, but then you go and you end up selling it, which is probably not what’s gonna happen. You’re gonna end up running out those other three units. When you go to sell it, you’re gonna get your money back. I mean, it might not double your money, but you’re gonna get your money back. Or you could hold onto it versus you’re gonna be spending, depending on where you’re at.
If you’re in Boston, Massachusetts or New York, mean, goodness knows how much you’re gonna spend on rents. So I think more young people should really start to look at, you I’m gonna be spending an arm and a leg on rent, how can I make this work as an investment if I’m gonna be here for three, four, five, six years anyhow?
Kevin Parsells (16:52)
Yeah.100 % man. I mean listen if you’re smart enough to take the risk you win.
I mean, every time on real estate, the thing I always looked at is historical data, right? Regardless of what you’re investing in, look at the historical data. I mean, you bought a house in the sixties. Can you imagine a house that you bought for 20,000 in certain markets has worked three, $4 million today? mean, listen, I bought a house here in Somerville for 300, um, five years ago, that house is worth probably 7, 800,000 now. Um, and if I didn’t do it where I know a few,
Dylan Silver (17:16)
Yeah.Yeah, that’s
Kevin Parsells (17:29)
people you know that are family members that just still renting and it’s like and you missed out on like three four hundred thousand dollars or more of equity and especially in college towns i mean you have valuations going through the roof it’s hard enough trying to find those properties so if you could luck out and find one and you got people that you know that you can trust and you know listen it’s not hard to find some renters you’re going to run a background check you’re going to take a look at the credit make sure they’re good qualifying individuals that you don’t have to worry aboutDylan Silver (17:40)
Yeah.Through the roof.
Kevin Parsells (17:59)
If you can find a tenant that could pay the whole year off, you’re already ahead of the game. So definitely well worth building a strong portfolio in that regards, 100%. That’s great.Dylan Silver (18:03)
Yep.Kevin, we
are coming up on time here. I know that you have branches across the country. So for really wherever folks are you can facilitate and help them through the process. Where can folks go to either reach out to you directly or to learn more about Revolution Mortgage?
Kevin Parsells (18:24)
Yeah, of course. Just check, just Google me. Kevin Parsells. P-A-R-S-E-L-L-S. My website’s kevinparsells.com. One of the important things I learned in this business from day one was brand yourself, not the organization. Because companies go, they sometimes sell, you don’t know. The industry is a wild one. Brand yourself, your name. That’s what’s most important. So visit kevinparsells.com. And if you’re a real estate agent and you’re looking to scale your business,I can literally show you real verified data that we’ve worked with over 100 plus agents that have all doubled their production in 2025.
doubled their production by working with other mortgage professionals. And we have a platform that’s absolutely insane. I won’t get too into depth, but it’s something that not only helps scale the real estate partner, but it partnerships these individuals together. So rather than doing 20 units a year as an agent or 15 units a year, let us help you scale 35 to 40 units. Or if you’re doing 40, go to 80. And we have some things recently on the compliance side based on HUD and some changes that have happened that
allow now agents to start earning some money on the mortgage side of things. ⁓ It’s absolutely amazing. So if you want to learn more kevinparsells.com, feel free to give me a ring or you can join and subscribe and then one of our great people will connect with you.
Dylan Silver (19:37)
Hmm.Kevin, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.
Kevin Parsells (19:51)
Yeah, Dylan, awesome man. I love what you’re doing. Keep it up. Best of luck. If there’s anything I could do for you or anyone else, brother, just feel free to reach out
