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making yourself professional

this is mortgage mindset

today we are gonna continue our meet the team series

last week we had a great talk with Eric

today we are gonna talk with Sherry

of the Sherry Rihanna team

what's up Sherry no

what's going on out there in the big world

Wanna learn about the Miss Sherry Rihanna

yeah

we wanna we wanna find out you know what makes you tick

where are you from um

just the whole process of

of 24 years in this field

and maybe even just a little bit above before

of where you came from

so let's let's kind of go ahead and just get started

um professionally where did you start out at

how that start well

um at my prior career

I kind of got um

capped and where I could go and what I could do

and I was told that I was at the top of

the peak of the industry

and I felt like I was not at a peak of the industry

so I found a new profession

and that was mortgage lending

and so I became a loan officer

back in the day when I've initially started

there were no licensing requirements okay

there was none I love that man

I went to went to a training

a two day training in Texas

came home I was a loan officer hmm

oh Lord

I should have been a loan officer

but anyway I was

but it did teach me a lot of things

about how I wanted things to be done

and done the right way

so it really is

one of the best things that ever happened to me

it's also

in this profession is brought me my love of my life

and we've been married for 21 years now this year

so you know

it's giving me a lot of great things

I've made tons of friendships

lifelong friends family members that

you know I wouldn't have

and I call them family members

I know that they're legitimately not per se blood

but you know

that doesn't mean that they're not family

so you know

this profession has been of such a blessing to me and

um so

that's kind of

why I've been so passionate about doing it yeah

when you started out did you have

I'm like a mentor or someone like that

in that role that kind of help guided you

or was this like a school of hard knocks and boy

I knocked it whoo

knocked it hard but yeah

I mean it

I didn't even get any coaching for my career till about

I think it was 2,013 okay

so when I actually had a second half

second half of that yeah

I went the first half man rough

just rough but

you know I was lucky enough

um

in my career that I started as a loan officer company

I went was working for unfortunately closer doors okay

of course all of us in this business know how that goes

we've all had that joy yeah

at some point if you worked here long enough

you've had the joy so

I went to work for a small little company in the area

it was called D&J Mortgage um

a lot of you probably know it

if you ever listen to sports radio

Gordon Miller was the owner of that company and um

he needed a processor for um

a new loan officer he hired and um

so I became his processor okay

and what I Learned in the process is

how to actually do the business

uh huh so you know

I would process the file from start to finish um

make sure the the application was complete

submitted to underwriting

get it to closing get DOC strong

everything

so I really Learned the whole view of the business yeah

which is kind of unique from my perspective because um

you know me and you talk a lot throughout the week

and most of our conversations are sales related like

you know like locking alone

make a new relationship you know

securing a partnership or something like that um

so it's not as much operations

just being in my role that I mean

I don't hear as much as

about operations or these conversations with you um

but it's interesting is here

that's where you started cause I feel like

you know

you're who I go to when there's a sales question

yeah yeah

so you know

I Learned a lot about operations

and it was important to me to understand the process

understand the relationship between the processor

and the underwriter you know

and build that relationship

and I did it and I did it very well

I mean at one point

and again I wanna go back now

this was the early 2 before all of the legislation

and all the craziness came in yeah

I was closing 130 240 loans a month

wow wow

less oh yeah

and it was great man

it was crazy crazy times

but you won't do that now in the kind of pace

in the way that we did it back then

because we have a lot more regulations and honestly

we needed them so

you know that that was a lot

but it taught me a lot I have touched a lot of paper

but I've touched a lot of lives

I'm still working with people that I worked with

and I was working at Ding and general

so it's kind of funny how they all stick with you

and they follow you

and it's about the relationship you build

absolutely I mean

I'll get on the phone with a client

says their past client I mean

I've been with you for three years and I'm like

you need a past client that I know

this is a past client from five 10

15 years ago yep

still coming back yep

I still know their kids I see

you know they send me their kids

they send me their parents

they send me their friends

you know and it's just how you treat people

yeah so

you know but you gotta do it

you gotta do it right well

at some point along your career

and I don't even know what year you were in

you decided um

I no longer want to do this by myself or I no longer

it maybe it was a volume Candace

you started to build a team

yep so explain why that started

when that started um

what was your mindset behind that

cause you know

we explain

a lot of times when we're talking to a new agent

we're set up very much like a real estate team

where you're like the Vic and

you know you have uh

listing agents and buyers agents

stuff like that underneath

we all kind of have our roles

um explaining

you know your rationale for that

and when that was well

it was back in 2,012 um

we could see the the

what we thought was the end of refund booms okay

and um

I had done very well in refinancing and had

had really built a good reputation

I was an exclusive person at SAS

and just a lot of different things uh

different vendors that were out there

that I was able to kind of

they just love my service in there

all their employees were like

if you gonna use somebody use her so it was really

really helpful for my business

but we could see or we thought

we were gonna see the end of the refinance boom

and at that point

I didn't have a lot of purchase business

I had not done a ton

and so I just started looking around

going out doing different events

meeting realtors trying to understand realtors pains

um their strengths

all the things that they were dealing with right

because I was like if I'm gonna be a partner

then I wanna be a true partner

if I don't understand their world

I can't be one

so getting into it

I realized they work evenings and weekends

yeah right

there's not hey

call me Monday morning at 9:00 when I get in

cause I'm the bank no

that's not when an agent really needs support

they need us you know

after I was just why we've created

what we created here at the Sherry Rihanna team

by the way we work eight to 8

seven days a week just to let you know that um

but I built out of true though

but we built it that way yeah

because that's when my agents are out

and I wanna be a partner to my agents um

so 2,013 um

actually 2,012 Chris was my first hire Chris Brazil

that's our dream operation yes

he was my first hire and Chris and I just you know

locked down

and just started going out and meeting relatives

enjoying business and word got around

really my relationships that I have today

are some of my first relationships

and word got around hey

I'm using her you should use her hey

they do a great job yeah

and it was important to me to to do those things

one of the things that anybody in this town

whether they like me or not

cause some people just don't agree with everybody

they will tell you that they know this

if I tell you it's gonna get done it's done

there's not a question of answer

and I don't hide behind a phone

if you call me I'm gonna call you back yeah

my phone's ringing

I need to answer it if you got a problem

I'm in front of it

I wanna understand it and take care of it

because that is what a true partner does

uh huh they don't hide

I'm always wondering

look around at certain agents and I'll hear them

you know they'll you know

three or four gathered up having coffee or what not and

you know

sometimes you don't even realize cause you're in public

you're talking

and you don't know who's sitting behind you

but to say oh

we know you so and so but on this

this transaction they wouldn't even call me back okay

if your loan officer

during an issue will not call you back

you need to rethink that relationship

that's not a relationship

yeah right

I need to be in the front line with you

fighting this transaction with you

making sure

we're giving the best service to the client right

and so that's another reason build a team

yeah okay

that's awesome and

and talk about like today

talk about where your team is today

where you are today you know

what's what's your role day in and day out

just all that huh

well my team today is six people strong um

I'm No. 7 um

got I've got just right now

I have the best team I think I've ever had

it's awesome I've got

you know got Chris

he's he's handling all the operations

I've got you in sales you're the director of sales

you handle that

Jeff's handling all the back in processing

along with Jordan Christie's up front

handling anybody that wants to connect with me

or build a relationship with me

and um

Eric who is our inside lead person

who is fabulous and amazing

he had to take a break from us

and we really realized how valuable he was to our team

yeah and he's back in that seat

and so you know

it's been amazing for us

it was great getting to know him a little bit more

last week on the show yeah

it was kind of nice

just hearing a little bit from his side

you know just um

where he's been uh you know

he's had a wonderful and adventureful life yeah

and and we get in every day and I mean

we hit the floor running

just about when we get in here

but it was kind of nice just taking 15

20 minutes

and just talking to him about where he's been

with things he's seen that's cool yeah

the things that we um

we provide here are so much different

you know

we build portals for agents to have immediate flyers

where you know

we provide credits for listings I mean

we really try to get out there with the agent and

you know

one of the reasons that we and I say this very humbly

but we close 20 deals a month on average

and help 20 families cause that's what we're doing um

it is the fact that we are team players

yeah and you know

and

we are always thinking about our real estate partners

our financial partners that give us business

our past clients you know

I don't I don't take anything given lightly

and we are very blessed based off of

of where we are and where we're gonna continue to grow

we have big plans um

we are not stopping the growth

that's right um

we you and I have big

big plans haha

and so the fact that we've taken the time and and

made the goals yeah

made the decisions and now we're just moving forward

that's it so

but yeah that's my day to day is to be here

you know I'm here for my Realtors

I'm here for my clients

but I'm most definitely here for my team yeah yeah

cause without the team this does not work yeah um

and I'm very proud to say that

I've got seasoned people that have been here with me

and you know

they always say I can fire them

but they won't go they won't go home

so that's that's always

I think a good sign that we have a well oiled team

but without the people that I've surrounded myself with

it would not be the team that it is today yeah

and just speaking from you know

19 years in the game

I don't think there's a day that goes by that myself

Jeff or Chris one of this

is gonna reach out to you

to get your opinion on something

because I mean you get as many applications as we have

as when you handle as many loans we have

and when agents reach out with just hey

I need to ask you something

I have a wild situation

you're gonna come up with stuff that like

I haven't seen in 10 years

but you might have seen in 24 years

and usually you have so

you know just having that uh

that influence

that and that sounding board to bounce things off of

very instrumental making this thing work

and it being successful as we are

yes and we're gonna keep on being successful

that's it um

and you know if there's somebody out there

that you have questions about

or you you know

you can always reach out to us um

you know a lot of people

they have their go to lender and we get that and we

we love that how I will tell you this

there's plenty of business out there for all of us

all I want is

to make sure that your business is being represented

the way that you would want it to be

and if you ever hadn't questioned or wanna understand

or go through a transaction with the US

please send it over you'll be amazed at what we do um

and not that others don't do it well because they do

I believe

there's quite a few law officers in this market

that I respect you know

and I appreciate them um

but I know that there are some that

that are not quite at the level that

that some of the agents deserve

it's really you know

play at your best level

or you kind of need to regroup and re educate yourself

and then come back out and play

that's it that's it

well sure

thanks for being on today

thank you for listening

if you've enjoyed the content today

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we're here every Wednesday

talking about something in the market

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you feel comfortable

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we don't just wanna be a voice

we wanna be in a relationship with you

we wanna have a partnership with you

we'll see you next week

Mortgage Mindset

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