Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Today's topic is going to be on building community. Is it simply a publicity stunt or does good actually come of it? I have with me today a good friend of mine and a Senior Escrow, sorry, not Senior Escrow Officer. I'm used to saying that from my role, Senior Loan Officer, branch manager of Advantage Mortgage, who is making some waves in our marketplace. Kahren, thank you so much for being on the show today.
Hi Justin. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. This is awesome.
Yes. For those of you who don't know Kahren, she recently is a part of a newly launched, I should say, mortgage company here in town and I have to share something before we get into today's topic. I saw something that Derek Hill had posted online that was comparing Quicken Loans to the prices that you guys have. And I think consumers need to know that, just because it has flashy advertising, it's not necessarily the best deal. Even though they may say that it's the best deal and that it's super fast, it may not actually be the best deal. And then I think the phrase was that was quoted that I loved is that "Whenever a big brand has fancy TV commercials, somebody's paying for that and that somebody is the clients." So, before we get going on the topic, talk just a little bit about that--what you're excited about with Advantage Mortgage. And I know you guys have a huge heart. That's what really we're going to talk about today, but you're also doing some pretty cool stuff on the pricing side too.
Absolutely. You know, I think that a lot is changing in the mortgage space and our goal is to provide education and transparency around that. Everybody has choices with their mortgage and with their financing and it's true glitzy commercials or expensive trips or you know, those things cost money and they come from somewhere, and really we want to educate the consumer and let them know that they're paying for that. And so really that's our goal is providing that transparency and giving the consumer the power in this negotiation and really understanding--how interest rates are comprised, how fees are set up and really enabling them to understand really where that comes from. Your large retail lenders in this large space, they're not always going to provide the best value for the consumer. So, we really just want to educate our consumers and talk to people through that and provide as much transparency as we can in that space.
Awesome. So rather than paying for Super Bowl ads and other forms of fancy advertising on TV, you've taken a different approach, which is to get out and build the community. Talk to me a little, talk to the audience a little bit, about how you came to the conclusion that you wanted to build your business this particular way.
I think Derek and I both love people. We love interacting with people. Both our customers our referral partners our people that work for us and work with us and out in the community really getting that excitement and involvement because we love people. So, I think really that's where it all started is just knowing that my super power is working with individuals and I love talking to people. I'm definitely an extrovert in that way. I get my energy from talking to people and from sharing what I'm passionate about. So really that's where it started is really just wanting to connect with other individuals abd connecting in that way that was meaningful for us.
And you believed at your core that you could go contribute to the community and build the community instead of just focusing on building business that you could build community and it would come back around like that. People would appreciate that and value that more than a glitzy commercial on TV.
Yeah. It's, it's kind of more of a service over self mentality and really knowing that giving back so much more comes back to you. As an aside, I became a big sister about 12 years ago at a time where I really felt like I needed to give back. I knew that children were unfortunately not going to be in my future and I love kids and I wanted to spend that time. And so I thought, well, Gosh, I'll go invest my time and improve the life of a child. And I connected with Lindsey who is now in college and we've maintained this connection over almost 12 years now. She gave so much more to me than I gave to her that I really realized years ago that when you give, you receive so much more in return. And that's just a small example of really what giving has done in my life. Derek is very much the same way and it just allows us to really, truly, authentically give and so much more comes as a result. And it feels great. I think she gave me more than I than I ever gave her.
I think that's the beautiful thing when we set out to only pursue our own success, we find that we don't really end up with a whole lot, but when we seek the success through other people or for other people--or rather seek significance--I agree, something magical happens. We change, our hearts change, our priorities change and naturally we begin to attract the people that are like us, people that would like to have that kind of impact in the community as well. I think it's a beautiful way to build business and community. I would hope that those that are listening to this, that may not be in the mortgage or real estate industry at all, may start to choose who you work with differently because of what Kahren is teaching us today. It's not just about who shows up in front of you via fancy marketing, but get to know the people at the core. First of all, the pricing may not be as advertised. You may actually have a better price by going to somebody who does business this way. And in doing so, you're contributing to the community in a much bigger way.
Absolutely. Well, and like attracts like, so it feels great. We're very hyper focused on who we're giving to and why. We choose organizations and we make connections that are very, very local. We're very passionate about certain organizations within the organizations that we live and work. A lot of these organizations--Sparks of Hope, the Canby Center--these places don't have a ton of paid positions on staff. It's really, really important that we're connecting with organizations to where it goes back to the community. It's not paying for all this infrastructure. Just in the same way that we don't want to have this big organization that has all this infrastructure and expensive ads paying for leads and, you know, that's just not in our wheelhouse. It's not in our hearts. We want it to go to the consumer just like we want it to go to the community when we're doing these things. And it really comes back in such big amounts. It's insane. And when it's authentic, and when that's really coming from your heart and that's how you feel it's even more impactful.
Let's say that there some real estate agents out there right now that are hearing this message and it's resonating with them. "I also love to connect people. I also want to actually make a difference, not just in my own business but in my community and actually seek out organizations that help." What would you say would be a key step for someone, a first step to take to get involved and to start to build the kind of business that you guys have built?
You know, I think there's a bunch of different facets that go into that. I started by just really feeling and figuring out what I love to do and what makes me happy. I had a business coach one time, asked me if you could design the perfect world, the perfect day, what would that look like? What would you want to spend your time doing? And you know it was a simplistic viewpoint, but I really said I want to drink wine and pet my dog. That sounds so funny, but you know, I love animals and I love community with people and sharing with people. And that was really the essence of what it wa...
