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Show Summary
In this episode, Frank Apodaca shares his extensive experience in mortgage lending, how he manipulates interest rates to benefit clients, and his vision for expanding his business to help more people save money on home loans.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Frank Apodaca (00:00)
So we did a share screen where we’re pricing our conventional FHA and VA loans. At the end of the conversation, because I also keep my loan on my compensation plan at fair minimum, he said to me, I don’t know why you don’t put a billboard out on the interstate. Because if you his interest rates, your phone will ring off the hook. He told me my pricing on a veteran’s loan was at 5.75.He was telling me that their bank and the industry standard is six and a half. I mean, that’s a big spread to really screw over a better, like, you know, that’s not my thing. It’s like, can I help people? That’s what it’s about.
Q Edmonds (02:13)
I have someone who is a wealth of knowledge, know exactly what they talk about, love the way their team is built. They are unique at what they do. And I’m gonna let him tell you all about that, but I am super excited to introduce you all to Mr. Frank Apodaca Apodaca I did good, Mr. Frank. How did I do with that last name? Apodaca.Awesome, awesome, awesome. So listen, man, I’m so glad you’re here. And listen, we’re going to dive right in. I want you to tell the people what your main focus is these days, what it is that you do. Also, if you want to give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got to doing what you do, we love origin stories. And then, Mr. Frank, tell them what part of the world you’re in geographically, man. So, Mr. Frank, so you have the floor.
Frank Apodaca (02:55)
Okay, hello.It’s pleasure to be here with you. Thank you so much. You’ve asked me a lot of questions, so I’m going to try to go backwards, forwards. That’s where my mind is. So I’m geographically based in Arizona. I live in between Tucson and Phoenix, but I do loans throughout the United States. And we’re approved in all 49 states except for the state of New York. Origin story. So that’s a long one. You can tell by my age and my wrinkles, I’ve been around for a minute.
I’m very candid with you. This is going to be interesting.
I was actually retired for a while. And what brought me out of retirement was when I realized with this mortgage company that I’m based at now that I have access to do something that I’ve never been able to do before. And that is I’m able to manipulate the interest rates on behalf of the client. People were like, what does that mean? Well, internally where our company is, we have 10 internal credit lines. What happens in the banking industry is that no matter where you work, the owner,
because I’ve set these things up because I was an owner of a mortgage company, is that you would give your loan officer a menu. That menu is the list of products that they had to offer the client. So the client would only see that menu and that’s it because that’s where they go. It’s no different than going to a restaurant and you go into a high-end restaurant and they have a very limited menu.
I’ll equate that to the FDICs, also known as Chase Bank of America Wells Fargo. So they have a very specific menu item and that’s it. You have the next year companies called Correspondent Mortgage Banks and they have three to four menus, which means that consumer has more options.
That’s all it means, which is a positive. In theory, that consumer and loan officer has more options when it comes to interest rates as well, which means they can be lower or higher depending on their own profit margins and what their loan officer compensation plan is, which also happened in the real estate community last year where the realtors nationwide pretty much had to set up front what their compensation was going to be with the clients that they’re going to work with. In the lending space, that happened about eight years ago called the loan officer compensation plan.
So going back to the origin story, then I also have 162 broker lines around the United States. So what we do is we search around for the best rate, term, and program. We can find the client based on their situation, which could be credit score, could be that I’m self-employed, could be zero down and based on loan program. And if people saw
behind the scenes. And I’m very transparent. I had no problems doing share screen where we check three different software programs to find the best interest rate for the client across the country. That process is virtually impossible for any client to do. The reason why, besides you having to make 172 phone calls and make applications with almost majority of them to get what an interest rate and fees are, we do it on behalf of the client. And that makes a big difference, but we do it in real time because the factor
that people don’t understand is if you look at the 10 year treasuries, that interest rates can move two to three, five times a day. So it depends on when you’re going to lock the interest rate in, which means securitizing that money for the next 30 years. So if you lock in your interest rate for 6 % as an example, if you call an institution that afternoon or the next morning, it could be 6 and an eighth. It could be 5.875. It can change that much. So that gets very difficult, really impossible for any client to do. So we do that on behalf of our clients behind the scenes.
But the point is about when I realize that I can do this on behalf of my clients and we’ve done the analytics, ⁓ as I might, may have mentioned before, is that the people that run my team is we have a CPA in a series seven, she’s the head of our team. And one of her job responsibilities is to search for the best pricing. can find the client and based on our analytics, we’ve been able to prove on average that I save clients $10,200 in points and fees on the loan. That’s a lot of money.
That money, the client gets a key for finding new appliances, paying down a credit card.
going on a vacation, keeping that money for a savings account for a college fund. We literally make sure that the client gets to keep those funds at closing. And it makes a big difference. Often they don’t see it, but we know behind the scenes what we’re doing for them. And in a quick example, and I can talk all day, as I mentioned, I can talk all day. You know, I had a client that was approved by a national mortgage bank. The Realtor team said, I appreciate you getting approved by the bank. Would you mind getting a second opinion from the people we work with?
That client was at six and a half with 1400 in lender fees. I was at 5.75 and no lender fees. That’s a big difference. And that’s a big difference in savings for that consumer. Of course, the clients tickle pink and be, you know, and this is the kind of service that we do. So when I realized going back to the origin story, even when I owned a mortgage company, even as my titles as being an area vice president for some of the largest mortgage banks in the country, I did have authorization to lower interest rates for certain clients.
clients and I could lower the fees to certain clients. And it became a cat and mouse game over time to where, well, if I lower the fees because one of my loan officers came to me and said, I need to lower the fees for this client or this realtor partner because they’re good people, whatever the reason is, they’re shopping me, we could do it. But the problem is then I lost money on that loan and on that client, which means I had to make it up on the next client.
So that’s just the way it works in the banking industry. That means that next client coming in is going to be charged a little bit higher rates and fees than maybe what they should have. And that’s just the way the industry works. But what I’ve done and the reason why I came out of retirement is because the owner, said, listen, you you’re never going to require me to use your credit line. If you do, I’m going to open my mortgage company again. I’m out.
And I get very candid with the bankers behind the scenes. And it’s worked out beautifully. Because of that latitude, because of that flexibility I have, I’m able to shop around for our clients and save them money. So I hope I answered two of the three of the four questions you gave me.
Q Edmonds (10:06)
I love everything you said. I love how you just explained your position and your team and what you guys do. Let me ask you this. What is the next real goal for you and your team? What are you guys looking to solve a scale next, Mr. Frank?Frank Apodaca (10:17)
Goals. That is an interesting question. When I’ve been called by mortgage banks to say, want to help you grow. Um, I haven’t really had a goal in mind. And because I just sort of been living day by day in helping clients, I’ve been told that my production on the last couple of years puts me in the top 2 % of the United States.out of 100,000 loan officers, I’m the top 2,000 loan officers in the country. these data, these stats don’t matter to me. They truly don’t. When I was in my 20s, they did. It was cool. Not so much now. So with that, we sort of figured out what makes sense for us and what do we want to do going forward. And…
I need to have a meeting with my team and ask them the same questions. So that’s interesting that you bring it up.
So talking about goals is interesting because up until recently, really didn’t happen. I was just living day by day and everything was just coming into fruition. Our loan volumes were great as I was told in the banking industry and I’m not a stats guy when it comes to personal production, my name, my influence. That’s not what I’m about. I don’t care about that.
But I was told that I’m in the top 2 % of the United States. So out of 100,000 loan officers, that puts me in the top 2,000. What’s funny about that or interesting to me anyway, we’re not even trying. This is all based on word of mouth. This is all based on referrals. We don’t market. We don’t advertise. We easily could. And I have to bring a point real quick.
because I do get called by banks and recruiters trying to open up operations in the west coast or Arizona. And recently I went through an exercise with a very large national bank and they’re promising in world and all that kind of stuff, which happens with recruiters and vice presidents. They want to tell you, this is the thing ever. I can go pass that real quick.
So we did a share screen where we’re pricing our conventional FHA and VA loans. At the end of the conversation, because I also keep my loan on my compensation plan at fair minimum, he said to me, I don’t know why you don’t put a billboard out on the interstate. Because if you his interest rates, your phone will ring off the hook. He told me my pricing on a veteran’s loan was at 5.75.
He was telling me that their bank and the industry standard is six and a half. I mean, that’s a big spread to really screw over a better, like, you know, that’s not my thing. It’s like, can I help people? That’s what it’s about.
On that note, I’m people. And with my team, we finally got everything set up on the back-end side to where we can handle more volume. So what we’re going to do next is I have three different platforms of business that I am hiring accounting executive to go out and help.
break those and to get that business moving. I don’t want to talk about this, I can tell you that years ago when I was area manager center and those were the companies back in the late 80s and 2000s. Now there’s so many different real estate companies out there that come in though. But I realize there’s
between what can make a relationship on a business level work or how they can fail. Because I’ve seen it at the corporate level, even when the company I work for owned all of those real estate brands nationwide, worldwide rather. So we’re about to start opening up.
the opportunity to work with us on those three other platforms. And I’m ramping up hiring for people to help manage those particular areas because it has nothing to do with me or my team or trying to make an extra $2. It has everything to do with how can I help those people save more money? So I’m a devout Catholic and I don’t agree with working on Sundays. However, and my wife knows this is that I’m not working on Sunday when I
to the phone on a Sunday because I know I’m helping somebody. It’s a big difference. So if I can save them that $10,200 per loan on average, then I’m going to pick up the phone. Because if I don’t pick up the phone, what’s going to happen is that client is going to go to the other mortgage company. And that other mortgage company is going to charge them much higher than I will. So therefore, I’m doing them a disservice by not picking up the phone and helping them.
And it’s not just about the interest rates, also financial planning. You know, and I apologize, this happens to us all the time. My CPA that runs my team, I was talking to a client, she’s called herself a high level accountant for years. I guess there’s a different designation. I don’t know.
And I asked her, in all due respect, would you mind getting on a commerce call with myself and Jordan so we can round table about how to buy this investment property, put it into a PLLC, and what does that look like for you financially from a tax deduction standpoint and a long-term growth strategy? And she’s like, sure.
And I have to, you with grace, because now I’m talking to somebody that’s already in that field. And when we were on the phone, this was yesterday, she’s like, thank you. I wasn’t aware of this. I did not know about this other stuff. I haven’t been involved on that side of the fence in eight years in tax preparation at the CPA level. So I’ve been out of that. And she was gracious enough to say, yeah, I didn’t know what you guys were talking about. I’m glad I spoke. And I have to say she heard about us by two attorneys that we just did their loan for where I got the sellers to get them a hundred
$100,000 on an $800,000 home. If you understand lending guidelines and real estate guidelines, you’re only allowed 3 % seller contributions on conventional loans, which is on that loan amount. What is that 16 grand with 20 grand?
I was able to get them a hundred thousand dollars back to the buyer in order for them to buy. So they were having casual conversation with this couple and over drinks. They’re like, man, we dealt with this group called the A team and they’re like, who is this A team? And then he started talking and they called me last Thursday. Hey, we heard about you from our friends, you know, happen to be attorneys and we want to apply for a loan. And that’s that same couple that we’re helping them navigate the different
ideas about how to structure your finances based on buying that home. And we end up saving clients so much money when we go through that exercise. And it’s a blessing to be able to help people and give them free information. You know, and I didn’t mention this earlier, but I also have real estate attorneys on retainer for my team. So I can’t tell you how many times I’ll call up Jeff on a Friday night at 6 PM, Jeff, need your help. I need a letter. This client’s doing this is what we’re doing. And that just happened to us recently. If you’re really familiar with guidelines, there’s a,
a guideline called non’s arms length transaction. It’s a big no no in the lending space. I don’t really understand the logic behind it. I really, really don’t. But with my attorney who is a real estate attorney for 40 years, he drafts up a letter, the client drafts up a letter, the CFO of the bank says, we’ll agree to do the law.
You know, and it’s just that kind of stuff we do behind the scenes for our clients. anyway, goals, shoot, dang it, I apologize. We are going to expand our knowledge base and what we do for our clients in a much bigger scale.
Q Edmonds (18:10)
love it. Mr. Frank, I’m loving you, man. Listen, I love it, man. You’re a wealth of knowledge. Of course, you know you’re not, man. We can talk forever. But let me do this, man. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you, Mr. Frank?Frank Apodaca (18:26)
I appreciate you asking. So there’s a couple of ways to do it. ⁓ the best way to learn about what we do, because I have a lot of this information on our website, as well as some of the other team members that are part of our professional group to help clients. It’s theateam.mortgage.Again, the theateam.mortgage, not .com, not .net, but .mortgage. And in there, you’ll see myself and my team lead Jordan talk about the value proposition, about what we do. There’s different other links in there to get education information. And if they want to reach out to us, all of our information is plastered all over the website. And then you can go from there and contact me directly if you wish.
Q Edmonds (19:05)
Well, Mr. Frank, man, let me say three things to you, sir. First, thank you for your time. You could have been anywhere in the world, but you spent time with us. And you know, listen, your time is valuable. You can put a premium on your time. So thank you for your time. Secondly, thank you for your story, man. I love when people answer these questions in long forms because I believe that we are planting seeds in people and we don’t know when the growth is going to happen, but you just plant the seed and later on they remember something that wasplanted deep inside. so I believe you planted a lot of seeds and you’re getting a lot of information. That way somebody could possibly have a course correction, could be going down the wrong road and possibly have a course correction based on what you said. And lastly, Mr. Frank, thank you for your perspective. Thank you for your mindset and the way you think in bringing that mindset to this platform. I truly, truly appreciate you coming through today. Thank you so much.
Ditto, ditto, I appreciate that ditto, man. And so listen, y’all heard Mr. Frank, check his information in the show notes, get in contact with him, check out the A-Team. Definitely get in contact with him, but make sure you are subscribed here, because I keep telling you, we’re going to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Frank. So sir, I say thank you again. And everyone else, listen. Thank you, man. Hey, y’all have a fantastic day, all right?
