#147 Barry Habib | World's Foremost Authority on Mortgage & Housing Industry | Lead Producer of "Rock of Ages" 27th Longest Running Show in Broadway History

Barry Habib Bio

 Barry Habib, CEO of Highway.ai, is an American entrepreneur and frequent media resource for his mortgage and housing expertise.  

 ·       Amazon #1 bestselling author for his book “Money in the Streets”
 ·       Widely credited with saving the Mortgage Industry in 2020 from Margin Calls due to Fed Actions.  His presentation to the Fed created stability at a critical time.

Notable Awards 

·       Three-time Crystal Ball Award Winner by Zillow and Pulsenomics for the most accurate Real Estate forecasts out of 150 of the top economists in the US  
·       2019 Mortgage Professional of the Year
·       Finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year
·       Named to Mortgage Global 100 List 
·       The St. Armand Ventures Businessman of the Year 2021
·       Named to the list of 100 People to Watch in 2023  

During his mortgage sales career, Barry personally originated over $2 Billion. 

Lead Producer and Managing Partner for “Rock of Ages” – the 27th longest running show in Broadway history.   

Produced Criss Angel’s “Mindfreak” at Planet Hollywood in Vegas. 

Highest rated speaker and trainer for over 25 years in mortgage and real estate.

Transcript

[DC and Bobby]: 0:00

All right, everybody. It's the Always Be Cool podcast, hanging out with your hosts, Bobby Kerr, Darren Copeland. What's up, everyone? Today, we're very, very excited. We have American entrepreneur and mortgage and housing expert, Mr. Barry Habib. All right, everyone. Here we go. American entrepreneur and frequent media resource for the mortgage housing industry. Amazon number one bestselling author on his book, Money in the Streets. He's a frequent appearance on CNBC and Fox. He's the highest rated speaker and trader for over 25 years in the industry. During his sales career, he produced over Bobby two billion in production with a B largest producer, managing partner of rock of ages, 27th longest running show on Broadway. Amazing. All around awesome guy, Barry Habib, man. How are you? Welcome to show. Welcome.

[Barry Habib]: 0:47

Well, thanks. Thanks

[DC and Bobby]: 0:48

All

[Barry Habib]: 0:48

for having me

[DC and Bobby]: 0:48

right.

[Barry Habib]: 0:48

guys. Appreciate being here with you.

[DC and Bobby]: 0:50

Absolutely. We are going to jump right in there. We know your time is very precious, but as someone that's been such an integral role in the industry, why don't you kind of just give a brief overview of your background, where you come from and why you do what you do.

[Barry Habib]: 1:06

You know, today I think people are in the mortgage industry a little bit, maybe concerned, maybe fearful as to the market circumstances we have. So it's true that when you look at 2020 and 2021, it's in stark contrast, but you know, I've been in this industry more years than I care to, uh, I care to admit, you know, going on like

[DC and Bobby]: 1:27

Right.

[Barry Habib]: 1:28

37 years in the mortgage industry, but I've also had a career, um, in other things, but we've all had. situations that have been a little bit easier, maybe a lot easier at times, maybe a lot tougher at times, but there's different problems that come up. I mean, I remember a lot of loan officers complaining when business was so good because they didn't have any time is so busy. How am I going to get these

[DC and Bobby]: 1:46

Right?

[Barry Habib]: 1:46

loans through? So, um, you have to remind them at those times that these are, these are high-class problems, right? Um, I'm sure everybody would trade some of the fears that they have today for those problems, but. You know, through life, we have lots of obstacles that are thrown at us and you have to draw upon times where you. were able to overcome those, you know, just a few things for me. I mean, you know, I grew up extraordinarily poor and, you know, my dad passed away when I was a young boy by mom. She literally worked in a sweatshop. So I know what it's like to be poor and that's why it's been very important to me for a lot of the work that I've done to help others and lift people up and help them to try and gain some financial freedom, not just for the sake of dollars because there's a lot of wealthy people that are. not necessarily happy. There's a lot of people that are very successful that aren't very happy. So those could be two different things, right? Because you could achieve success and goals, but it maybe doesn't necessarily translate into huge wealth. Or you can have huge wealth and those goals, but still not be happy. And I think a lot of that comes from fulfillment. So fulfillment, in my humble opinion, comes from doing good and helping others and making sure that what you're doing is meaningful. So we get a chance to do that every day. And That's one of the best things about making more money is that not only do you live a little bit of a nicer life and have a lot of nicer things that money doesn't buy everything, but it definitely does solve some problems. But you can also do really good things with that gives you fulfillment. So from a selfish point of view, doing good for others while it's good for them, we get a lot of that benefit too, right? So it's important to understand that what we need to do is we need to overcome. some of the obstacles that are out there. And people look at challenges and they just get stonewalled on them. But what you have to find is you have to find the opportunities there. I wrote that book, Money in the Streets, and it was literally the tribute to my mom and dad and many people who have come to the United States looking for opportunity. They hear that it's such a wealthy country. Oh, there's money in the streets. And then they come here and they find out, well, it's not exactly like, you know, the roads are paved in gold and you just pick up the money. But... What I did discover over time is that it kind of is. And it's not that there's money that's just necessarily thrown at you, but there's opportunity that's all over. And it's not the actual dollars, it's the opportunity that you turn into dollars, that you can do good things with, that it's a skill to be trained to recognize them. So if we take a look at what's going on in the marketplace today, there's actually some opportunities. Look, if I'm a buyer, I'd be grateful for the higher rate because when rates come down, prices are going to go up. I can always have refinanced it.

[DC and Bobby]: 4:33

Mm-hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 4:33

We do these bid over asked comparisons and the cost of waiting comparisons. When you do the math on them, we use round numbers here, just nice and easy. Let's just say if you have a million dollar home, because it's round number, it's easy. Let's just say there's only 2% appreciation in the next six months. There'll be more than that. So that's$20,000 that you'd make in profit on that home. Okay, so if I waited for the rate to come down by 1%, it's true I'd benefit that my monthly payment would have saved me about $2,500 in lower monthly payment that I'd be having. So I'd

[DC and Bobby]: 5:14

Hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 5:14

get that benefit. And it would cost me $3,000 to refinance. So if I added those two up, that's about $5,500. Let's just say it's $6,000. of cost higher monthly payment cost

[DC and Bobby]: 5:26

Mm-hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 5:27

to refinance, but I made $20,000 in appreciation and about $4,000 or $5,000 in amortization benefit. People forget that one. So I make $25,000. That's the higher rate, six and three quarters. Six months later, the rate goes to five and three quarters. What if I do that, make the higher payment for six months and then refinance and spend the cost for the lower rate? My benefit. It's still rather significant. It's, it's about 20,000, $19,000 benefit, but people don't see that they get hung up. It's up to the mortgage professional to show them those opportunities that are out there. You know, realtors are complaining today that, you know, that there's properties that are being bid over, asking a third of them are well, third of those properties being bid over asked or, are something that the client aside from the emotional Decision-making that comes into play they don't have a way to evaluate it So evaluate it for them if you can say what the appreciation level would be Then you can actually calculate based upon the value today versus how much you'd be bid over asked How long would take for you to break even then you could look forward and see how much money you're gonna make Now if it's gonna take you six years to break even you're either probably bidding too high or maybe this isn't the right home Or the right market to do that But it's gonna take three four five six months which most of the time it will take to break even you might say to yourself Hey, wait, it's two months to close So if I'm in this home for four months and then I break even after that, and then I'm gonna make another$140,000 over the next five years,

[DC and Bobby]: 6:59

Mm-hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 7:00

even though I don't wanna pay over asking price, well, maybe it's the right thing to do. Another

[DC and Bobby]: 7:04

Right.

[Barry Habib]: 7:04

big, big problem for realtors, and I'm just so, you know, I'm sorry to do this, but it's just opportunity after opportunity, right? Some people

[DC and Bobby]: 7:09

Go ahead,

[Barry Habib]: 7:10

see

[DC and Bobby]: 7:10

Barry.

[Barry Habib]: 7:10

obstacles.

[DC and Bobby]: 7:10

You're on the roll.

[Barry Habib]: 7:11

I'm seeing opportunities. I'm saying, what do I need to do now? I need to do a couple of things right now. I need to protect my realtors and referral sources and help them. Because they're struggling now. So what can I do? And here's something I can do is, I could say, wait, what's your biggest problem right now? Is your biggest problem the fact that there's lack of inventory, people are reluctant to give up their low rate. Everybody says 3% rate. Only 23% of people have a rate of 3% or less. So the vast majority are in that 3 1⁄2 to 4 range. That's where the heart of the bell curve is. So look, you don't wanna go from 3 1⁄2 or 3 3⁄4 to 6 3⁄4. I get you, I get you, I understand that. But. Do you really have three and a half, or do you really have three? Because if you have a debt, well you're paying 24% on those credit cards, you're paying 11% on the car loan, you're paying 9% on the home equity loan, I know a year ago it was three, and when I blend your rate for you, which you should be able to do, did you know you're actually paying five and a quarter percent or six and a quarter percent or four and seven, whatever it is, that's your blended rate, so now the difference isn't so much. And now when you say, well hold on a second, by eliminating your debts, Let's do what you really want because life is short. You wanna be in this house because your kids need the room. You need the yard, you want the school, you want

[DC and Bobby]: 8:21

Mm-hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 8:21

the location, whatever it is that you want. This is your dream home. So you don't wanna give up that 3% rate because the payment's gonna be 25,$2,600 a month more. But if we take out a larger mortgage, because most people take all the equity in their home, minus the cost to sell and the cost to buy, and they put it all down in the new home. So rather than do that, why don't we take some of that equity? Get rid of your debt and then take a higher mortgage. Just use that mortgage. Use the leverage beautifully. Let's be their debt manager. Guess what? I'll get you in a new home with a cheaper monthly payment or maybe it's a minimal difference. Maybe it's two or $300 a month. And

[DC and Bobby]: 8:55

Yeah.

[Barry Habib]: 8:55

live life the way you want to be in the home you want to.

[DC and Bobby]: 8:58

And that's

[Barry Habib]: 8:58

What if

[DC and Bobby]: 8:58

great

[Barry Habib]: 8:58

you're...

[DC and Bobby]: 8:58

information, Barry. And the thing is, is also what, you know, it's all about education, right? And having the mindset of going out there and helping as many people right now, being the light, because, you know, a lot of people, you know, they'll spend too much time watching the news or in social media and they kind of get in a dark place. So being around the light and the positivity, and that's why Bobby and I love doing this podcast. But you know, another thing is coaching these, uh, borrowers who are looking at buying the houses is, Hey, if rates go down a percent tomorrow, Now you have a whole flood of more buyers coming out of the woodwork. So now you're going to be back in bidding waters. So not, not only are you, yeah, you might have a little bit lower rate, but now you're going to pay an extra 20, 30, $50,000 because everyone's trying to get back in the market at that time.

[Barry Habib]: 9:41

Yeah, that's why we started off with saying the high rate's actually a friend right now. So you should be thankful for that high rate. Another thing that look, if you want to make, if you're an originator, you want to make more money right now, it's a very easy way to increase your income right away. So, I mean, do you guys know that if you make a hundred thousand dollars a year in the top 15% of earners in the United States, so for a loan originator to do that, you need to do about two loans a month, roughly just right, right

[DC and Bobby]: 10:01

Mm-hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 10:01

around the ballpark. Okay. So

[DC and Bobby]: 10:02

Right.

[Barry Habib]: 10:02

I know it's different for people in different areas. Maybe it's less, maybe it's more. So, okay. Here's the thing I could bitch about the market or I could say, Hey, wait a second here. There's going to be there's going to be in 2023. There's going to be 4.2 million Homes sold on existing homes 700 000 new construction homes. So that's 4.9 million homes that are going to be sold So realtors got 4.9 million chances Now loans that are paid cash, I mean homes that are paid for in cash you take that out There's three and a half million homes now about refinances. There's 1.3 million refinances that are going to be done in 2023. So please don't tell me there's no refis out there because there's 1.3 million reasons to tell you you're wrong. 1.3 million plus three and a half million sales of a home with a mortgage means if you're a mortgagee you know you got 4.8 million chances. Do you need them all? No. How many

[DC and Bobby]: 10:52

Right.

[Barry Habib]: 10:52

do you need? You need two a month? You need 25? So it's okay. I'll miss out on 4 million, 9, 4 million 799 thousand 975 just give me my 25 and I'll be in the top 15% of income earners or give me 50 I'll be making two hundred thousand dollars a year That's what you've got to be thinking about. How do I get my market share? How do I make more money today? You know call centers are doing great. You know why because they take all the emotion out of it They just call

[DC and Bobby]: 11:20

Mm-hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 11:20

people and save a money

[DC and Bobby]: 11:22

Yep.

[Barry Habib]: 11:22

Your clients have equity if you don't call your past clients the call center is gonna call them All you have to do is show them that you use them Tons of equity. Black Knight said the average amount of cash out you could pull is$185,000. 231,000 is the average equity. Tappable cash out's 185,000. Look at the debts they have. Now look, this strategy doesn't work if they don't have debts, but most of your clients have debts, and if they have a lot of debts, it works. You don't need to do 100 of them. You don't need to do 1,000 of them. You need to do just a few, two a month. Call your past clients before somebody else does. Pull the equity out of the home. Reduce their payments dramatically, saving thousands of dollars a month. Or take that excess cash and pay down the mortgage that you're going to give them and then reduce their home reduce their term By 12 13 15 17 years and let them retire more comfortably have them be able to pay for their kids college These are all things that an advisor does now You could choose the option of bitching and saying that the market sucks or what you could do is you could really do something About it guys. I just want to say one thing here because we've all had issues We've all had obstacles as a kid had a lot of obstacles, right? So Rather than wallow in it, I tried to do something about it. And it just took me into my early career in business. In my early career in business, I was selling stereos out of the trunk of my car. So how did I get better? Because I consumed everything. I became a master of my craft. At 20 years old, 19 years old, I wanted to be a master of my craft and I excelled. And then when I first got into the mortgage business, I discovered that as a young person in the mortgage business, I didn't have the credibility. So what I do became a master of my craft, learned everything. And then I noticed that there was a problem. The people were having a tough time when it came to locking their loans. They had midday reprices. So what did I do? I built a company called mortgage market guide, which became ubiquitous

[DC and Bobby]: 13:01

Mm-hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 13:02

that took advantage of a problem. So then I got into healthcare imaging. When I got into healthcare imaging, I noticed something. I said, well, people complain all the time because they go for a scan and then they got to wait like a week or so for their doctor to call them. Now that creates anxiety. People think the worst. So why do we

[DC and Bobby]: 13:20

Mm-hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 13:20

have to put people through that? So you know what I did? I said, let's put a radiologist right on site. By the time you get trust from the scan, you'll have the results. You sit in an ice room and you see it. Look, if the news is great, then you feel great. If the news isn't as good as you'd want, at least you have a plan and that's what people want. And built three centers and sold them. When I got into Rock of Ages, which you were so kind to mention,

[DC and Bobby]: 13:38

Yes.

[Barry Habib]: 13:38

people wanted to have a good time. And I realized that they came to the theater and sometimes they get there late. They wanted to have a cocktail beforehand. This is not cheap.$17, $18, $20 a cocktail. They get the cocktail then the lights go on you got to sit you see you cannot bring your drink to the seats I'm watching these people guzzle their drinks. Say why do you have to make people do that? Why can't you let them drink in the seats? No Barry. We've never done that before So what I do I said, that's not good enough Created the first show in the history of Broadway now. They all do it because I negotiated it

[DC and Bobby]: 14:05

Mm-hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 14:05

that allows drinking in the seats so I look at Obstacles and I see them as opportunities and what I want people in our industry to do right now is rather than bitch about the tough times, pick every one of these as a way for you to help your client make more money by doing debt consolidation, help your client get into the new home with debt consolidation, help your client not wait, help your client bid over, ask in an evaluated way, help your realtor create inventory by doing these things and make yourself much more valuable. This is what you have to do right now.

[DC and Bobby]: 14:42

I think the key to that, first of all, thank you so much for all of your insight. I think the key to that is that you mentioned something in passing and I want people to take notice. You called mortgage professionals advisors. And I think when you have that mindset, then it makes it a lot easier to say, I'm here to serve someone else. I'm here to provide value in a way that's different from everybody else. If I'm thinking of myself as an advisor, you're an educator, you're there to serve them. And I just want to make sure that we're getting this straight. Basically, the more conversations we have, the more relationships we build and the more successful we are. Is that like some earth shattering formula that maybe people have forgotten?

[Barry Habib]: 15:24

Two things with that. So first of all, you can't just say you're an advisor. You gotta walk the walk. Look, I could put surgeon here. You don't want me cutting you open, okay? So you can't just bullshit it. You can't just say, oh, I'm an advisor. No, why are you an advisor? Why? Because you're not a qualified somebody? Sorry, I got news for you. See this thing here? It'll do it faster and cheaper and more accurately than you can, okay? Than any of us can. So that doesn't make you an advisor because you're not a user calculator. What makes you an advisor is putting in the time, putting in the work, using the tools. in order to really make a difference in people's lives. So maybe your excuse was in 2020 or 2021, I had so much business coming out of my rear end, I didn't have time to wind my watch, but today you've got time. What are you doing?

[DC and Bobby]: 16:06

Mm-hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 16:06

Are you bitching or are you getting better? Now, yes, conversations is really, really critical. I have to tell you something, when I first started the mortgage business, I had a lot of problems in the mortgage business when I first started, first as an originator and then when I started my own mortgage company. So let me give you two examples. When I started my own mortgage company, it was at the time where it was, it was 1989 here. I'm in my twenties. Okay. Start my own mortgage company. Great. The mark, the housing market is crashing and rates skyrocketing. So there was very, very little business. I remember like waiting for the mail person to come in to hope that we get some checks so we can make payroll. Right. So I know

[DC and Bobby]: 16:42

Cheers.

[Barry Habib]: 16:42

what it's like. So what did I do? What I did was the same thing I did as an originated when I first started. People wouldn't want to give business to me. I just would have been blessed with the birth of my twin. So I had failure was not an option. So what did I have to do? I went out and I knocked on doors. I talked to anyone that I was making payments to, because I had a captive audience and told them what I did. I looked for business in places where people weren't looking for business. I got it from my hair cutter. I got it from the person at the pizzeria. I got it from the sandwich shop. I got it from anybody that I was making a payment to. Because then I could tell them what I did. They had to listen to me. They had no choice. I took this strategy to the point of where it was almost an obsession. Where I'm driving up and down. I was in New Jersey at the time, living in New Jersey. And there's toll roads there. It was before all the automated tolls. So you had to go to a toll collector if you didn't have exact change. Or you could go to a bucket where you'd throw a quarter in there if you had exact change. I had the exact change. But I would always go to where somebody was there that I could speak to. So even to the point of going to a toll collector and giving them the exact change of a quarter and my business card and telling them, hey, I can really help you if you need a refinancer. If you're purchasing a home, I'll do right by you. I only had three seconds. So I used those three seconds, went to where there was a person, gave them my card. Now my buddies, I was a young guy. My buddies would give me so much crap because they would say, Barry, that's a long line. We can go the expressway. Why are you doing this? I would say, well, listen, I just wanna, just trying to build my business. And they used to give me a lot of crap until one day a guy actually called me. His name is Steve Horton. He called me and he was from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. I did his loan, but I did 17 of his colleagues as well.

[DC and Bobby]: 18:21

Wow.

[Barry Habib]: 18:21

And that was something that always sticks with me because whether it was purchases or refinances for his colleagues, that would have never happened if I didn't go to the lane, you know,

[DC and Bobby]: 18:32

Mm-hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 18:32

maybe have 80 other times where nothing came of it, but something did come of it once and it was huge. And you think about how much money that amounted to, right? I mean, there

[DC and Bobby]: 18:45

Right.

[Barry Habib]: 18:45

was all types of creativity and stories and just going the extra mile, constantly going the extra mile. Look, you have to be obsessed. And that's what it takes to be very successful. And you've really got to be obsessed in times like these because the reward is not only do you survive, but you can actually do well. But then when the market turns, you get an enormous tailwind because now you built market share. This

[DC and Bobby]: 19:12

Well,

[Barry Habib]: 19:12

is a chance to do that.

[DC and Bobby]: 19:14

it's just like everyone that we're talking to, you know, with the LOs and the LOs that we know. And, you know, I'm just so grateful with our, you know, mutual friend, Cindy Ertman, for making this happen today. You know, everything, and I think you mentioned this all the time, Barry, is everything you're doing right now is a two-for-one deal. Like, everyone you're doing right now is gonna be a future refinance. So now is the absolute time to have your foot on the pedal. And I know Bobby's shaking his head because we love that word, obsessed. Being obsessed with success. And that's just what 1000% dead on people just have to get their mind right in order to get back and get back in the game and know this thing is going to turn around eventually.

[Barry Habib]: 19:50

Yeah, and you could say, hey, look, you know, very, it's easy for you to say, because, you know, whatever, no, I was in the same position as you guys. Okay. I'm in the same position as an LO listening to this. It wasn't like I was independently wealthy. I needed those deals. Like I said, I was waiting for the mail to come in to make payroll back in the day. I know what it's like. There has, this is not the first time that the market's been tough. Okay. You know, the market has been tough many times and not only did we survive, we thrive, I mean, there's, there's times like this. that you look back upon and you say, wow, making it through then gave me the tailwind to be extraordinarily successful in the good times. But it does something else for you. It just builds character and confidence. It means that no matter what shit is thrown at you, you can dig down deep and you could find a way to overcome it. And you just have to have the mindset that no matter what. It's not going to happen. Look, I had a big incentive when I first started and things were tough because I had twins at home. So there's no chance I'm going to throw in the towel. I got two children that are two months old. There's no chance that I was going to fail. I would talk to anybody I could. I would stay out as late as I had to. I would do whatever it was going to take to make sure that it was going to be successful. And if you're obsessed. to that point, to making sure that whatever it takes, you can't fail. What I do see is I see a lot of people bitching and complaining about it, and talking about all the things that are wrong, instead of seeing through it and seeing the opportunity and focusing on getting better. Don't wish the market were better. Don't wish you were better, just get better.

[DC and Bobby]: 21:36

Adversity

[Barry Habib]: 21:36

Are you work,

[DC and Bobby]: 21:36

is opportunity.

[Barry Habib]: 21:38

that's right. And you have to ask yourself too, I mean, if you're sitting there, what are you doing right now? Are you working on your expertise? Are you really an expert? Are you working on that expertise every day? Do you really understand the market? Do you really understand the opportunities? Can you articulate these? Are you there working to solve problems of the realtors that you will expect to send you business? Are you in constant contact with your past customers and know their financial situation so you can help them with a refund? How many of you have even called a past customer in the past six months? How many of you called one past customer, but you spent all this time bitching? So don't tell me the market's not Cooperative you're not doing the work if you would be calling people every day Are you calling 15 past customers a day because if you were you wouldn't have time to bitch because you'd be making a lot of money

[DC and Bobby]: 22:25

You know, it's funny that you mentioned this Mary, because, you know, I've seen you several times live and it never gets old, man. It's just such good content and great reminders. But I remember it was a couple of years ago at an event. And one thing that you said to me is like, if you want to be as busy as, as you possibly want to be, how about you just try calling just a couple of your past clients per day? How long would it literally take a loan originator to call two? five past clients. We're not talking crazy numbers here, right? And you're absolutely right. They would be so busy, they wouldn't even be able to see straight, right?

[Barry Habib]: 23:00

Yeah, exactly. Exactly right. Yeah, this is the time for you to dig in, not to withdraw. This is what we're seeing the successful originators are doing and finding a way. I mean, I talked to a lot of originators. They're doing 20, 30 transactions a month right

[DC and Bobby]: 23:16

Yeah,

[Barry Habib]: 23:16

now in this market.

[DC and Bobby]: 23:17

yeah, right.

[Barry Habib]: 23:18

And what are they doing? Everything that I just mentioned to you is what they're doing. This is not some secret. I'm telling

[DC and Bobby]: 23:25

Right.

[Barry Habib]: 23:25

you the recipe. I am giving you the formula.

[DC and Bobby]: 23:29

True.

[Barry Habib]: 23:29

The decision to be successful is just that simple. It's a decision. Look, we're all guilty. We all do things. Look, I will tell you, I wish I was about eight pounds lighter, okay? It's a decision. I decided to have dessert last night, okay? I should have made the right decision.

[DC and Bobby]: 23:47

Ha ha

[Barry Habib]: 23:47

I don't always do that. No one is perfect. But most of the time, I'm gonna make the right decision. And when my back's up against the wall, you bet I'm gonna make the right decision. If you feel like your back's up against the wall, are you making the right decisions? Are you doing the disciplines every day to make the difference? Are you doing what I just laid out for you? Because that's all you gotta do. Okay, I just handed it to you. Are you doing that? Or are you gonna go back to doing the same thing and just complaining about it? I mean, it's a decision to be successful.

[DC and Bobby]: 24:16

I think a lot of people get stuck in working on their business versus in their business. And unfortunately, people get in their business and then they feel like they're busy and they're being productive, but they're not actually doing the things that matter. They're not prospecting. They're not becoming true advisors by studying and becoming experts in the field and working on the business. That's what it takes. It's not just saying busy and, oh, I'm in the business, I'm in the weeds, therefore I'm doing great. No, you need to do these things so that you can serve your clients the best and you can Well,

[Barry Habib]: 24:43

Yeah, you're right.

[DC and Bobby]: 24:44

and also spend the time, we call it living in our green zone, right? You know, living in your money making time. You know, when you get up, don't start checking your email and don't start getting on social media, dive in, start calling your past clients, start calling. Just like you alluded to earlier, have conversations with people who can drive business your way to get mortgages, you know, in your hands, so you can go out there and do that and also, cause we want to be very mindful of your time as well. Barry, but you know, I know there's still, believe it or not, there's probably still some loan originators out there that might not have MBS Highway or maybe have not done the CMA program. So anything that you would like to take for a little bit, man, this is Barry's time. So anything

[Barry Habib]: 25:26

Well,

[DC and Bobby]: 25:26

that you would

[Barry Habib]: 25:26

we'll

[DC and Bobby]: 25:26

like to throw out there.

[Barry Habib]: 25:27

look at no, I mean I want to just give information and hopefully some guidance out there So look if you're not on MBS highway, I mean you're freaking nuts because we just lay it all out for you We give you all the tools. So I mean what are you afraid of spending a little bit of money? I mean you're losing a lot of money if something makes you money. It does not cost you anything It's called an investment. So just think about that. So there's not time to be cheap This is the time to invest in yourself because you're just being cheap with yourself. Okay. This is not the time to be Pennywise, literally pennywise and dollar foolish. Because you will make a lot of money if you are an advisor and if you have the tools. That is going to separate people. So if you're not gonna invest in your brain, if you're not gonna invest in becoming a true advisor, like getting your CMA, then somebody who also is going to win. Okay, this is a zero sum game. There's a transaction out there. One person or another is going to get it. If the client speaks to both. the one who's going to impress them the most with their ability to articulate the opportunity, not just rate. Yes, there are some clients that'll just be rate. I get it. But I am proof positive, and many of you are, that we have won so many transactions, more than what we've lost, by overcoming rate objections because we have persuaded them to see that the best rate on the wrong strategy is much more expensive than a competitive rate on the right game plan for their financial future. And I see that every day with people that are winners. So when you talk about on your business and in your business, yeah, the balance has to be there. You know, it was very interesting. You reminded me of years ago, I was on the speaking tour and I happened to be speaking with Mike Allen and we were together. We spoke together three days in a week and he was a six time Ironman champion. So really

[DC and Bobby]: 27:13

Wow.

[Barry Habib]: 27:13

quite an amazing guy. And, uh, I remember him telling me a story and I love when people like share stories that just, some of them just tend to stick with you, you know? And, uh, and he said, you know, I was great on cycling. I was great when running, but swimming, you know, you know, I was not, not that, not that great with, and he said, you know, I decided to start reading and talking to people who are great swimmers, this, that, and his coach eventually just said to him, said, Mike. You know, There comes a time where you just got to get in the water. So to your point, you just got to start calling your clients,

[DC and Bobby]: 27:50

Yep.

[Barry Habib]: 27:50

okay? I mean,

[DC and Bobby]: 27:51

Yeah.

[Barry Habib]: 27:51

yes, work on your business. Yes, clearly do that, do all those things. But you just got to start getting on the phone and making the phone calls. You just have to do that. You got to start getting out and pressing the flush and talking to people. Get in the water. Do it right now. You have the time to do it. and the results are gonna be amazing. It's not always gonna work out. There's gonna be a lot of noses, there's gonna be a lot of rejections, there's gonna be a lot of the things that don't pay off, just like when I was throwing, giving people quarters and my business card and waiting in line on the highway many times, but it can pay off eventually, and I promise you it will, and it does, and it's huge when it does.

[DC and Bobby]: 28:32

Great stuff. Yeah. Awesome stuff. Awesome stuff. Um, okay. Real quick, before I forget, there was a question I had, so it's a year, 2020, margin calls are starting to come in, right? People are getting super, super nervous. I was wondering, Barry, if you could just take a minute and maybe just share a little bit about your presentation to the fed because you were giving credit to basically saving the mortgage world about three years ago. So a little, little insight for any of the listeners on what that presentation was like.

[Barry Habib]: 29:01

So the Fed thought that they were doing a good thing by bringing interest rates down so rapidly, but what they didn't realize is the plumbing, the way things work. Let's remember that our Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, is not even an economist, he's a lawyer. Okay, so it's like the three of us are smart people, but you wouldn't want me representing you in a trial, right? So

[DC and Bobby]: 29:21

Right.

[Barry Habib]: 29:21

as bright as the three of us are here, there's a role for these things. So maybe Jerome Powell, a little bit over his skis with some of the economic stuff as a lawyer, doesn't mean he's not smart. I just don't know that if he is completely equipped. Well, and it showed itself when the Fed had no clue as to what they were doing. By bringing interest rates down so rapidly, they created a mismatch. You see, when we say your clients lock, there's no magic mechanism that locks them in. It doesn't happen that way. Their rate is always floating until it closes. Thing of it is, is the way we can keep a promise, it's really not a lock, it's a promise to that customer, is by saying, okay, so what we're going to do is we're gonna make, you're gonna say you want the rate here, So what we're worried about is we're worried about if the rate gets worse So if the rate gets worse the way we do it is we make a corresponding bet called a hedge That bets on away for me to make money by shorting bonds saying if bonds get worse I make money by shorting them which offsets the loss that I'd have to make up when you close So I make money in my hedge account which makes up so I can give you the rate you were promised That's the way it works.

[DC and Bobby]: 30:26

Mm-hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 30:26

Now if the rate gets better, I lose money in my hedging account but I make it in the gain on sale. Okay, so I make, that's how we make money in the mortgage industry, that's the way it works. But by creating a sudden shock that is so dramatic, we had enormous gain on sale, but two things were happening. We were forced to break some locks, so we lose our hedging cost to some degree because people were renegotiating. But most importantly, what was happening was our hedging account got so negative and our gain on sale got so big, they balanced. However, there was a mismatch in timing. I had to wait for the customer to close to get this, but my brokerage account, I'm getting margin calls saying, hey, you're so far negative, I need the cash and I need it now. And mortgage companies are paying $10 million in a week,$5 million in a week, and they're saying, we're gonna run out of money, we're gonna close. So I utilized some of the relationships that I have and John Walden put a big article out there. I called Steve Leesman, I was on with him until midnight. Me and Dan and Steve Leesman from CNBC, and we created a whole story and I was on talking about that. And then Peter Bookfar got me on with Robert Kaplan from the Dallas Fed and I was able to explain to him. And there was quite a few politicians and senators I explained this to. So the presentation to the Fed wound up in them slowing their purchases, which then calmed things down on the margin front and it created some stability in the market. But there was some very uncertain times there. People

[DC and Bobby]: 31:56

Mm-hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 31:56

were We're absolutely panicked over the margin calls that were going on. So we were able to get through that. Thankfully.

[DC and Bobby]: 32:03

Yeah, that could have been a major catastrophe. I mean, I

[Barry Habib]: 32:06

I

[DC and Bobby]: 32:06

remember

[Barry Habib]: 32:06

mean, do you think about

[DC and Bobby]: 32:06

it was.

[Barry Habib]: 32:06

what went on? We had a recession, we had a pandemic, and then we had this margin issue. We were just getting hit bang, bang. We didn't know which way to turn.

[DC and Bobby]: 32:13

Right. Exactly. And then everyone got so spoiled with the low rates for a couple of years and they forgot to go out, go out and actually have to work and market call their past clients. And now a lot of them are sitting around and then eventually we'll have to find something else to do. But man, I'm with you. It's what an opportunity right now for loan officers to not only gain market share and go out there and bring some other realtors into their fold and have some new relationships there. but also just establish themselves as a go-to mortgage originator expertise, extraordinary. Like now's the absolute time. And just like you said, Barry, they're going to look back in 12, 24 months and be like, you know what? I'm so glad that happened in 2023 because I have this amazing business right now because of it.

[Barry Habib]: 33:00

reach strength.

[DC and Bobby]: 33:01

Absolutely. Very if people want to get a hold of you get a hold of the highway. What's the best way for people to reach out?

[Barry Habib]: 33:07

So I'm easy to, you could reach me on Instagram. And by the way, I put a lot of content out there. Please feel free to grab that content, send it to your realtors and clients because those reels, they get a lot of traction and people definitely share them because it brings all these points to light for your customers. That's iambarryhabib on Instagram. And you can reach me, you can DM me there, you can reach me there. And if you're interested in MBS Highway, you could just contact, I'll give you, I'll give you, it's. Contact Diana, she'd be the best person to contact Diana. It's diana at highway.ai. Diana at highway.ai and we'll get you on MBS Highway and we do have list reports, we have CMA. There's a lot of tools and solutions that we have that could make it better for you. And the new tool we just released, which is Agent Connect, which is amazing. You know, most mortgage professionals, they'll talk to any realtor, but you could be spinning your wheels and wasting time. What if they don't do any business? What if all they do is listings? What if they send all their business to their spouse? You know, these are time wasters. So you just text anyone's name and we use AI to find the right realtor for you. Boom, we then tell you, okay, here's a dossier on them. Here's a file on them. Here's how much buy side business they did, list side business they did. Here's the type of business they did, the type of loans that they did. Here is your competitors, what company that she referred loans to or he referred loans to, who's the individual LOs that they were referred to. And then we'll help you make contact with them because what we'll do is we'll say, okay, let's... trigger their reticular activator. The reticular activator in the brain is something that the best analogy I can give you is if you just bought a new car and you're now driving down the road, all the cars like that car, they kind of jump off the road at you,

[DC and Bobby]: 34:47

Mm-hmm.

[Barry Habib]: 34:47

that's your reticular activator, that's your pattern recognition that's triggered in your brain so you become more engaged. Well, you're gonna take notice of that. So what we wanna do is we wanna create some marketing pieces but we don't wanna do it just as a sample or something. We wanna do it on their listing or previous sale that they did. So we will pull those up. You click on one of them and then we will create sample pieces to market to them like a real estate report card or an open house or a buy versus rent scenario or an investment or an appreciation report. So all of these tools on their listing. So now they're reticular activated triggered so they're more engaged. So we create that all in a file to send it to them. But then we give you the cover letter. We already write the cover letter for you. And by the way, we'll know to write it if it's somebody you're trying to protect that's a relationship you have or if it's a new relationship. And then what we'll do is we'll send that out for you. And then we'll show you how to follow up with them, where their open house is, so you can drop in on them, who you have in common as contacts, what they've done that's special that you can congratulate them on. So it's an incredible system that allows you to protect and grow your referral relationships. And right now

[DC and Bobby]: 35:50

Wow.

[Barry Habib]: 35:50

that's really important.

[DC and Bobby]: 35:51

That's amazing. That's

[Barry Habib]: 35:52

Yeah,

[DC and Bobby]: 35:52

a

[Barry Habib]: 35:52

we're

[DC and Bobby]: 35:52

la carte

[Barry Habib]: 35:53

doing some

[DC and Bobby]: 35:53

feature.

[Barry Habib]: 35:53

fun things.

[DC and Bobby]: 35:54

That's a la carte feature with the highway now.

[Barry Habib]: 35:56

If you have highway and list reports, we've given it to you free. But if you don't have it, you either get the other or you could buy this one a la carte. It's a really cool tool, guys. It's really, really cool

[DC and Bobby]: 36:04

amazing.

[Barry Habib]: 36:05

people loving it.

[DC and Bobby]: 36:06

Like you said earlier, if you're not doing this, if you're not utilizing these tools, guys, you are behind the eight ball, certain kind of special, you got to in order to accomplish your goals, you need to be utilizing these tools become an expert so that you can truly be an advisor. Absolutely. And Barry, thank you so much for joining the always be cool podcast, man. Awesome stuff, Barry. And

[Barry Habib]: 36:25

Well,

[DC and Bobby]: 36:25

again, thanks

[Barry Habib]: 36:26

you know

[DC and Bobby]: 36:26

to

[Barry Habib]: 36:26

what?

[DC and Bobby]: 36:26

Cindy

[Barry Habib]: 36:26

You guys

[DC and Bobby]: 36:26

for us

[Barry Habib]: 36:27

are pretty

[DC and Bobby]: 36:27

up.

[Barry Habib]: 36:27

damn cool. So I'm glad to hang out with

[DC and Bobby]: 36:30

We

[Barry Habib]: 36:30

cool

[DC and Bobby]: 36:30

like

[Barry Habib]: 36:30

guys

[DC and Bobby]: 36:30

to think

[Barry Habib]: 36:30

for a little bit here.

[DC and Bobby]: 36:31

We'd like to think so too, just ask us. We try our best, man. Hey, thanks again, Barry. Yeah, guys, this

[Barry Habib]: 36:35

Thanks,

[DC and Bobby]: 36:35

has been

[Barry Habib]: 36:35

guys.

[DC and Bobby]: 36:35

the Always Be Cool podcast with your hosts, Bobby Kerr, Darren Copeland, and today's special guest, Mr. Barry Habib. Make sure to find us on Instagram, Facebook, at Always Be Cool podcast. Check out highway.ai or find him on Instagram at I am Barry Habib. Take care, Barry, always be cool. Thank you, Barry.