Unlocking the Mortgage Maze: 5 Creative Strategies for Homebuyers

Michelle Kesil (01:31)
everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil, and today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, Morgan Harris, who’s been making some serious moves in the real estate space. So, Morgan, I am really glad to have you here. I think that our listeners are going to take something away from how you’re approaching your real estate business. So,

Let’s dive in. So first off, just for people who may not be familiar with your world, can you give us the short version of what your main focus is these days?

Morgan Harris (02:14)
Yes, I am a residential loan officer in the state of Louisiana. So basically I sell money, make mortgages.

Michelle Kesil (02:23)
and what markets are you operating in?

Morgan Harris (02:25)
Louisiana.

Michelle Kesil (02:27)
Amazing. So what caught my attention about you was the way that you mentioned earlier when we chatted about how you’re putting like the fun in funding. Is that something that you are able to expand on and how your specific approach works for your market?

Morgan Harris (02:45)
Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ Mortgages are very boring, to be honest. We are faced with the challenge of selling something that’s not tangible, right? A house, you can see, you can look at it, it’s pretty. ⁓ Money happens in the background. ⁓ You see it go out, you your mortgage payment every month, but you don’t necessarily, you know, give as much ⁓ thought to your loan officer, which in my opinion is…

probably the most important person ⁓ when it’s involved in a real estate transaction. That means purchasing a home, selling, buying, refinancing. So in that sense, ⁓ it’s boring, it’s not fun. And as a Gen Z, younger in the industry, I’ve been here for six years now. Immediately after college, ⁓ I was a D1 cheerleader for four years. So I thought, how could I bring some of that same energy into what seemed like a

very boring space to be honest with you ⁓ and was honestly dominated by older men to be honest. There’s not a lot of young women who I feel would thrive in this industry but nobody grows up and says I want to be a loan officer. Most people fall into it somehow, some way and that’s exactly what happened to me. So I try to emphasize how we can have fun. What does that mean for me? A big part of my job is attaining new clients, right? ⁓

Now most of the time that comes through the real estate agent However, there are a lot of ways that you can generate your own leads through your own sphere on social media So what I did was I’ve done a couple of different fun events But my last one that I just did one of my really ⁓ special agents. Her name is Chelsea Snyder She is pretty famous on tik-tok. She’s famous for the house tour. Nobody asked for and I decided to give

her the house tour that nobody asked for. So I hired a stand-up comedian and I had my rental property listed for sale and I basically took the comedians and made them like pretend to be clients for Chelsea. So she had no idea this was happening. She thought they were legitimate clients and they basically showed up and did the most outlandish stuff ever. They were rolling around with the

grass, they were telling her that they smelled meat in the house and they were vegan. They had fights, like the couple had a fight, you know, my mother-in-law is going to stay here in the master bedroom suite. We even had her get in the shower fully clothed. She took an entire

shower and then she said she, you know, felt some spirits and she started staging Chelsea. ⁓ So I don’t know many other loan officers who doing that. Of course we filmed the entire thing. We’ve posted it online.

everybody loves it. It was a really fun, cool experience that I could give to my agent because now her, she’s getting more publicity from that. ⁓

was able to help a local comedian and ⁓ in the same breath like be able to just have fun doing it. We also have some more events coming up. I like to get really creative with my ideas. So when they say let’s sponsor an open house, we’re not just sponsoring an open house. It has to be fun. Like if I’m not in costume, there’s no theme and there’s no viral moment. Like what are we doing? So ⁓ we have open houses coming up that are murder mystery themed. Who killed the deal is the next open house we’re working on.

We even have an open house this weekend where the actual kids in the neighborhood are running the lemonade stand at the open house. So we’ve invited all the neighborhood kids and their parents. ⁓ I’ve had the money gun, you know, and then with all the fake money, which is fun, right, to bring to a closing, woo, and then you tell them, okay, there’s actually a real $100 bill somewhere here. So then they’re like scrambling to find the real one. That’s fun. ⁓ We’ve done, my gosh, I can’t tell you, we’ve done content camps where I’ve

Run out of studio and let about 20 local realtors come in and film their own content for their own social media not branded with guild mortgage or Morgan Harris, but just to Promote their business. So I think there’s so many different creative strategies out there and nobody’s really capitalizing on them And I feel like if you’re not having fun doing what you’re doing That that sounds like a miserable life, you know There’s way too much boring. So

Here to put the fun in funding is the best way I could put it.

Michelle Kesil (08:05)
Yeah,

I love how creative you’ve gotten with this. That’s really inspiring. Now, everyone I know has also had a moment where things got real. Maybe like a deal went sideways or just you had to pivot fast. Would you mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Morgan Harris (08:26)
Absolutely. ⁓ So thankfully, as far as the actual deal structure goes, ⁓ I haven’t had many. I had a great, great mentor who’s been doing it for very long time, over 40 years. ⁓ So I’ve thankfully been shielded from any of the no’s, right? ⁓ But it’s also a weakness in that I’m very…

Over information overload and almost sometimes ⁓ too precautious. I’m a very conservative person just by nature ⁓ Meaning I want to prevent the problem before it even happens and sometimes that can be really overwhelming for especially a first-time homebuyer when you’re going You know, well, yeah, you’ve got variable income. We’ll have to do it to your average I mean nobody really needs to hear that right nobody The the main thing is they want to get in the house every phone call every ⁓ Paper to fill out that’s

right that is just you know especially with my generation ⁓ I’ll just go ahead and say it if they go to a house and their shoes untied it’s their sign that this is not the one right and so you just kind of have to tiptoe because I’ll tell you who I’m great with and that’s my CPAs my attorneys you know my engineers love me right because I have a lot of details my blue collar guy who’s just got off turnaround and I’m trying to explain to him you know the difference

between a buy down versus a, I mean it’s a lot. So I’ve been learning how to pivot with different type of clientele and also just giving the permission structure upfront. Hey, do you want to know X, Y, and Z? Or do you want to be, or are you just a person who’s like, what’s the cash to close, tell me where to sign? ⁓ And knowing that upfront is basically how you tailor your conversations with your clientele. If you can’t do that, ⁓ I find that that can be

real struggle for especially people who are very type A like myself. I want everything perfect ⁓ but this is a very imperfect business. Life happens ⁓ so sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches.

Michelle Kesil (11:10)
Yeah, absolutely. people don’t talk about this stuff enough. And it’s like what separates the ones who just are dabbling in the industry versus those that are here for like the long term game.

Morgan Harris (11:23)
Yeah, I always say some people have this as a job and then some people have this as a career. I have this as a career.

Michelle Kesil (11:28)
Yeah.

Morgan Harris (11:31)
I hope to continue in that ⁓ But keeping doing that and then also the biggest struggle especially in our market ⁓ as well is gonna be you know The the classic bait and switch if you will ⁓ Because how do you you can tell someone over actually? is a great example. You just asked me of something that it wasn’t my deal But it was a guy he came to me and I immediately saw very He made great money, but it looked wonky on paper and I said look

Michelle Kesil (11:52)
Sure.

Morgan Harris (12:00)
Before you even find a house, let’s get you underwritten. Let’s get your income finalized. Too much information overload. He went to the guy that told him, ⁓ yeah, you’re fine. You’re pre-approved. Everything’s great. And this was a very loyal realtor of mine. So of course you want to take it personal, but in the same breath, you always put your client first. If that’s how they feel comfortable, then you’re supporting them. I mean, again, I’m everybody’s biggest cheerleader. So I am rooting for the week before.

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deals of course, hinging on this deal closing, right? They have said, you know, and it’s the loan officer will come to them and say, oh well underwriting accidentally doubled the income, you know, underwriting, it wasn’t, it was underwriting and my realtors call me going, you know, I don’t understand and I said well, you know, that’s a question to ask them but here’s the difference, you know, let’s call them Joe.

Client Joe did not go to his realtor or himself, look himself in mirror and go, that blonde girl told me this. She told me this would happen, right? He’s worried about getting in the house. That’s all he cares about. it is a good, it’s a hard balance, the fine, fine line. But that is something where, of course my local realtor was super upset. I didn’t have anything to do with it necessarily, but I felt like I could have prevented it.

Knowing what to say, when to say, how to say it, why to say it is huge and that could have all been prevented. ⁓ So at the end of the day the buck stops with yourself. You can’t blame anybody who blames I believe is very low intelligence or just like I don’t know any other way to say it. You can always point the finger back at yourself every single time. So yeah, I think that answered the question.

Michelle Kesil (13:51)
Yeah, absolutely. Accountability is super important. So let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? Like what’s that next real big goal for you?

Morgan Harris (14:04)
The next real big goal for me is going to be number one, obviously, my social media profile. I’m going to be continuing to nurture that. And then providing education in a very… ⁓

not crunchy way, right? ⁓ Everybody has something out there, but a lot of it’s junk garbage. ⁓ So finding again, that balance between not just entertaining somebody, but also educating them ⁓ can be tricky and difficult, but I don’t believe it’s something that is impossible. So my biggest goal right now is getting the message out. What’s my message? My message is to consumers and the consumers, what I want them to know is the first thing that you should be doing

Before you do anything for you open Zillow is getting with a lender find the house that meets your goals, right? Don’t go find the house and then let alone officer tell you what your goals are Okay, you’re gonna make this payment and you’re gonna bring that money

Okay, great, but wouldn’t it be nice to be in the driver’s seat? I use the analogy that, you know, you don’t go to the store, fill up your entire cart, get to the checkout and tell the woman, gotta go, I’m going home to get my wallet, right? That would be silly. Why are people doing it with houses? I can tell you why, it’s because the consumer is driven by the product. They’re looking at their phones, they’re scrolling on Zillow, they see a house, and I can’t tell you how many of them actually will contact the listing agent, like on the house, and say, hey, can you show me this house?

People don’t need to know what we are, what we do, how we do it, but they do need to be educated enough to know you should be finding a house that fits your goals, not finding a house and then seeing it that fits your goals. You want to own the house, you don’t want the house to own you, okay? So, and it’s so much better because imagine if you, it’s the same thing with like a vehicle, for example. If you knew, I want to pay X amount of dollars month, you would go find a vehicle within that price range. You’re not going outside or falling in love with something.

that you couldn’t afford should be the same with houses. ⁓ And it’s the biggest investment you’ll ever make in your entire life. Statistically, one of the greatest ways for the common man to build wealth. So why would you entrust that with just anybody? That blows my mind. ⁓ I don’t think it’s because people are ignorant. I think it’s just because they don’t know what they don’t know, right? It becomes common sense after, but I think the main goal is just saying, start with a loan officer.

and then go find a house, then go contact an agent. That’s my biggest goal within the next 12 months for sure.

Michelle Kesil (17:14)
Yeah,

that’s big, especially when you’re trying to really educate people on a different approach of doing things. yeah, that next move can really like compound things for you. Now, I know that a lot of the listeners are either earlier in their journey or looking to just level up. And I think they would benefit from hearing this when it comes to building relationships and growing your network.

What has made the biggest difference for you?

Morgan Harris (17:47)
Absolutely, that’s a really, really good question. ⁓ Number one, I did this probably about two years ago. I cut out people ⁓ or agents, because of course we all have a call list, right? Every law officer gets, call 50 agents, know, send.

That’s fine. I cut out people or agents that I do not align with values wise. I’m a big conservative. ⁓ I like showing you the highest number up front and by the time you get to closing, it’s $1,000 less when you cash to close and about $20 less on your monthly payment. I love that. Some agents don’t value that. They want who’s got the best deal, who’s got… So when you cut out, and don’t be afraid to stop talking to people, when you cut out the people that your values

don’t align, it makes a world of difference on your psyche. I’ll give you a perfect example. Again, my boss, he’s been doing it for 40 years. He’s had an agent, very, very loyal. All of a sudden somebody comes in, swoops in, oh, start sending all the deals and he’s crushed, right? What did I do? What could I have done better? And I said, that’s not a reflection of you. That’s a reflection of that agent’s values. If that agent doesn’t value all the years, all the effort, all the hard work, you’ve never had a deal go sideways, you’ve always been great, and that she can be sw-

swayed

by, you know, go buy me Chick-fil-A or whatever, that’s not an agent you want to work with. That’s somebody who blows with the wind and there are a good bit of them that do and I don’t think it’s out of malice, I think it’s just out of sheer, you know, just…

going with the wind. I think it’s just what people do. And if you just go ahead and say, you know what, that’s not somebody I want to work with. And you focus really, really, really hard on the people you do want to work with. It makes a huge difference. And then not only that, when you’re talking about relationships, they should be like almost like a friend, like an actual friend. Like this is not a colleague. This is not a money tree that you can shake. Right. I see a lot of lenders almost use agents as like a pawn or a token to be traded.

drives me insane, right? ⁓ I don’t think that any human being should be treated like that. I just don’t. If you’re looking at a realtor as, you know, the money tree, to me, that just screams where your values are, right? I want to be excited for an agent regardless of whether I close a deal, but if they’re winning, I’m winning, regardless of who closes it. So when you start being strategic in who you spend your time with, right, and then double and triple down on what you do for those specific people,

You get a return that is not only like the best return for you, but for them as well Chelsea is a perfect example one of my greatest friends Everybody is like oh look at her. She’s a superstar. She’s amazing We did this together is what I want to say like we’re building each other up the entire time We’re strategic partners in this business. It’s not you send me referrals, and you know I cut a check that’s another thing I’m super big on is I I know a million people in the industry

They write a check, they get the business. And of course there are laws that say you can’t do that. Of course there are ways that are loopholes around that. And I’m not knocking anybody who does pay for leads or do anything like that. I think if that works for you, keep doing it. I am just a big proponent of not paying for anybody’s business. I want to be the girl that you go to because you like me, you trust me, you know me, you know gonna do a good job. While that may seem a little old school, I do also think it’s freeing for the agent as well.

The agent doesn’t have this like ball and chain of like well they did pay for my leads even though I can’t stand this guy like I’ve got to send him you know all of my referrals and so I think seeing agents as friends and strategic business partners that you can grow together and not treating them like that it does just a huge number on your brain and then now you’re getting that space in your brain to think creatively whereas before you were in desperation mode of like okay I’ve got a call

this many people and do all these things. You don’t have space in your brain to be creative when you’re desperate. ⁓ So although my circle is small, it’s continuously growing and I love seeing it because it’s lifelong. Like these are people who I know we’re gonna be thick as thieves no matter what and that’s a really freeing thing. So yeah.

Michelle Kesil (22:10)
Yeah, absolutely. Relationships are everything in this space, so it’s important that you align with those values.

Morgan Harris (22:18)
Yes, and seeking opportunities for another person, I call it the opportunity mindset, right? Not just looking at it as what can I do for you, but what can you do for them and expect absolutely nothing in return. The second you expect, it’s not gonna work for you. Now you’re thinking of this as a transactional relationship. ⁓

When Chelsea calls me and says I need a cool idea, I don’t expect anything from her. Okay, yeah, let’s do a cool idea. Let’s do these things. You’ll be surprised. It’s the giver’s gain, right? If you give, give, give, it will come back to you without you having to ask. The second you have to ask, you should be asking yourself why I’m having to ask for something, right? ⁓ If you create the value, it’s the theory of replicosity? Like, is that the right word? when they reciprocate? Yeah, okay, so like, it’s just natural.

Michelle Kesil (23:05)
reciprocity.

Morgan Harris (23:09)
Like if somebody holds the door open for you, you don’t think well did they say thank you? You just mean thank you right same thing for any strategic business ⁓ and also thinking outside of the box is like huge for me like if somebody’s doing something take whatever their idea is and do it just a little bit different and you’d be so surprised like how How things can change so yeah?

Michelle Kesil (23:34)
Totally. All right, so before we wrap up, if someone wants to reach out, connect with you, collaborate, just learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Morgan Harris (23:46)
Text me? Facebook, Instagram, or just don’t, no I’m just kidding. My name is Morgan Blaytard Harris on all social media. So yeah, call me, beat me if you want to reach me. you know Kim Possible, you got that joke just now. But if you don’t, probably don’t text me.

Michelle Kesil (24:06)
Perfect. Well, listen, I really appreciate your time sharing your story and your perspective. We really need more people in this space who are doing things in this innovative way. So thank you for being here.

Morgan Harris (24:11)
Yeah, that’s cool.

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Michelle Kesil (24:22)
And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with guests just like Morgan who are out here building real businesses. And we’ll see you all in the next episode.

Morgan Harris (24:37)
Bye!