How the Mortgage Magician Rescues Deals Others Blow Up

Devin sits down with Ashley Bedford “The Mortgage Magician” to talk about the uncomfortable truth behind why so many deals end up in rescue mode… and how top producers prevent the chaos before it ever starts.

Ashley breaks down the real reasons files fall apart: weak pre-approvals, missing documentation, misunderstanding condo guidelines (especially in Florida), and loan officers rushing to “yes” without actually verifying the story. She shares the exact standards she uses to protect clients, agents, and title partners, why she stays involved from contract to close, and how a rock-solid process builds a reputation that gets offers accepted.

If you’re a loan officer who wants more referrals, fewer fires, and a reputation that precedes you… this one’s a must.

Connect with Ashley:
Instagram: @AshleyTheMortgageMagician
Website: ashleythemortgagemagician.com

Creators and Guests

Host

Devin Dubuc

Coach. Dreamer. Dad. Helping you own your worth and go after what sets your soul on fire🔥

Designer

Jennifer Rodriguez

Jennifer Rodriguez is the engine behind LOS.Live and The Mortgage Giants, leading everything from graphic thumbnails and episode descriptions to cross-platform distribution. With years of experience as an Office Manager and Executive Assistant, she brings organization, strategy, and innovation to every production. Mentored by Growth Leader Devin Dubuc for the past six years, Jennifer collaborates on branding and podcast strategies that help loan officers nationwide elevate their business. Known for her positive energy, adaptability, and commitment to growth, she is the trusted voice guests connect with throughout the podcast experience.

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This isn’t another sales tips podcast.
This is Loan Officer Success Live - where mortgage and real estate pros come to master modern growth without the burnout.

Hosted by Devin Dubuc, Loan Officer Success Live is a deep dive into the psychology, strategy, and systems that build legacy-driven businesses in today’s market. Whether you're a high-performing loan officer, a rising agent, or an entrepreneur scaling fast, you’ll learn how to attract clients, grow income, and lead with brand, not brute force.

Real conversations. Tactical playbooks. No cold-call bro-hype. Just clarity, confidence, and creative firepower.

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All right, man. We've got a game-changing technology innovator on the call. Wait, no, wait. I got that wrong. You literally just said technology wasn't your thing. No, we've got a top producer, Ashley Bedford, the mortgage magician from down in the sunny state of Florida. How are you doing, Ashley? I'm good. How are you? Thank you for having me. Oh, having you back. This is a part two. Yeah, having you back. This is a part two. I stumbled into you at mortgage con a couple of weeks ago. In fact, you, you actually saw me first and you're like, Hey, turns out we have a mutual friend and she tried to introduce us and we're like, no, no, we, we know each other. Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff. It's a small mortgage world. Small mortgage world it is. So, you know, we've got a pretty interesting topic today and this one may ruffle some feathers, but I think I'm good at ruffling feathers. I think you're, you too, right? You're good with that? Yeah. So why other lawn officers deals keep ending up on her desk? Yeah. Hmm, I wonder what that could be. So, Ashley, in your world right now, what's more common, clean files or files that need saving? Files that need saving? I mean, I think equally anybody can do a clean file, right? But, oh, I say anybody, but that's the traditional W-to, but it's honestly the files that need saving that really should have had all the preparation up front, but instead other people's lack of preparation becomes my emergency. Yeah, yeah. So let me ask you that because when a file hits your desk as a rescue, what's typically what went wrong? Like what caused for that file to go wrong? Not really knowing what to look at or not fully understanding anything besides like a W-II file, not knowing the guidelines, not asking the buyer the questions. I think that's really important. Like ask all the questions up front before you can say anything. Like don't just think, oh, yeah, I can do this and throw spaghetti at a wall, right? So it's just making sure that you fully understand the file. Do your research. Look at the guidelines. I mean... When I first started, you didn't have ChatGBT to look up the guidelines. You can go to these resources to help you understand because guidelines are very gray and interpretable. They are. But ask, hey, what is this interpretation of it? Make sure you understand and you're not just promising something that you can't deliver. Well, you said something powerful the other day, and I love this. You said the barrier to entry in this industry is too low. Let me ask you this. If you could change one thing about the way law officers are trained or the way the law officers do business, let's just talk about that. What would it be? Two years of a training platform or working under somebody, maybe for like a small salary or even like six months of solid training, like no money. Because honestly, I worked for no money for six months. And I anytime the LO was working, guess who was working? Me. And sometimes that was one o'clock in the morning. So it was just what was necessary to learn everything. Getting into the office, I think, is really important because that's how you learn. You're not learning sitting at home in front of your computer. Um, I just think that we handle really big financial decisions. Like you have to get a certification and degree to trade stocks. And I feel like that is less risky than the financial decision that we're making. Not that it's not equally as important for people as longterm, but we're helping people buy actual houses. Like, so not only just the investment portion of it, but the place that they live, their stability don't rob their stability. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, you and I were on a show the other day, uh, cause I host the coast, the MLO live show with Scotty Hudspeth. And, you know, you came on there and I think you dropped a huge truth bomb. And you know what you talked about, you boasted that you've never had a loan that missed closing. Right. Uh, cause you always close on time and we, we kind of backtracked that we're like, well, how do you do that? You know, because this is not common in our industry. It's unfortunate that it's not common. It should be common, but it's not common. Right. And. You unrevealed the biggest thing that I think a lot of loan officers don't want to admit, which is the pre-approval process and what that looks like. So let's talk about that. What should the pre-approval process look like when you're working with a professional? Every single document up front. Now, I might maybe let you get away with no recent W-II, maybe. But for the most part, we are really going to get every single document. Like every single one. I need to make sure there's no hiccups. We're going to review it, make sure that there's no random IRS payments in there that we didn't know about. Because these are things that buyers don't know they need to tell you. And you're not necessarily asking those questions. So, you know, effectively, how do you handle that? And this is another common conversation that we had on the show. How do you handle that when you're working with an agent and, you know, we know some agents, they want it now, right? Like I want that client pre-approved right now and I need it because I want to go out and show them properties here in an hour, right? How do you have that conversation and say, hey, look, I'm not going to put you out there without a solid pre-approval. What does that sound like? Well, I think the most important thing is just reminding them it's for them. It's not necessarily something I want to do. Getting documents from a borrower is the hardest thing. Getting them to fill out the application is nothing. It's the documents afterwards. But I'm protecting not only my reputation, but I'm protecting their reputation. Because if I give you a file that doesn't close or blows up halfway through or at the end, if you go to present an offer for another one of your buyers, especially with my pre-approval, we're not getting that offer accepted because they remember. Yeah. It's not about the hundred files you did good. It's about the one file you did bad. Um, your reputation should mean more than your life because you can't get your reputation back. Literally. So it's a big, big thing is to protect your reputation and your agent's reputation and the client. Like no one wants to go find out. I mean, do you want to drive around and show somebody something that they printed a paper off? And I said, oh yeah, sure. They make a million dollars. Great. Yeah. Well, I talk about this all the time with our teams. And, you know, at the end of the day, you've got to protect your real estate agent's commission as well. We've got to protect the client first, right? That's most important. But we also have to protect our real estate agent's commission because they work very hard a lot of the times for no money to get to the lead. And then when they hand off that lead and they hand it to the wrong person, they're in some cases handing over twenty, thirty thousand dollars or more in income. Yeah. And if you don't treat that like it's twenty or thirty thousand dollars, then you're you're you're missing the boat because the agent the agent expects that they expect you to have as much care for their baby. I always like to say it's their baby. Right. As you do. Right. So how are you going to nurture that thing? What's that going to look like when you hand it over? And with saying that with a baby, like that's another reason I don't miss closing dates is I stay involved in my files. The number one thing that when I'm calling an agent to tell them, I'm like, yes, I verified all the things that should be, that should be normal. Okay. That should be completely normal to verify all the documents. You should not have agents calling and asking that. That's sad actually. But I also tell them you're not going to just be passed over to someone on my team. Like they'll be involved, but I'm here the entire time. And you'd be shocked how many of them accept an offer or entice their sellers because of that. Because so many LOs are like, okay, here you go. Call my processor. Now there's things, of course, I'm going to say, hey, email or get a pre-approval. Like I'm going to copy them in and do that. But beyond that, we're not doing that. Yeah. So what's the biggest mistakes that you see loan officers making in twenty twenty six that's costing them deals? And apparently you should know because you're getting those deals coming to you, right? A big thing in Florida specifically, and a lot of other states aren't having to deal with it quite as much as condos. Yeah. I save so many condos and it's because they don't understand the full. Yeah. They don't understand what they're looking at and read the things before you upload them to the lender. That's right. Yeah. I'm like, what's happening? And be careful what lender you're sending it to because sometimes the interpretation, I'm going to be honest, I have one lender I send my condos to and because I know they're going to close every time and they understand the full spectrum of them and not everyone does. What's the secret? What's the lender? Who do they go to? United Wholesale. There you go. And it's just because I've literally... I did a pilot program with them to help finesse these kind of things and educate. And because I was trying to educate and I was sending out, hey, send me your listings, especially I do a lot of business in St. Pete and Tampa area, which is a huge problem. I'm avoiding Miami at all costs. Anybody who has to do condos in Miami, shout out to Ashlyn. Sorry, Raphael. Literally run quickly because Miami is the wild, wild west when it comes to condos, and I don't even want to touch it. I've literally done a condo there that's no longer a condo. It's a fourplex stacked on top of each other basically now with single family attached. That's crazy. Yeah, I hear they're building up because they have no more land, so they're finding ways to build up. it is the wild wild west yeah no thank you but the rest of florida we got our together a little bit you know and so it's just about knowing what to look for like i'm i'm doing one now and i've closed multiple in there but i've the first time i ever got one to save in there there was litigation and it had gone all the way to um the state of florida like supreme court and so i had to get hold of like a district attorney but doing the legwork and finding those connections um and don't just let the seller send stuff over which a lot of these hoa management companies but i actually used to be on the board of my condo so they don't like me because i know what i'm talking about and i know what they're responsible for yeah but I've made good relationships within the condo department so we can call and say, hey, does this work? Does this not work? How does this work? What do we need for this? Can we go Fannie? Can we go Freddie? Because both of them have very different guidelines when it comes to condos. That's right. Especially in Florida. Well, you're called the mortgage magician. It should also be the mortgage detective. right? Because what you're talking about, and again, you know, if you've been in this industry for a long time, and if you're great at what you do, you already know this, but we learn how to figure out facts and data about, you know, everything. It doesn't matter. It could be like, how do you calculate this income? Or how do you qualify this condo? What program works? You know, you find yourself doing almost skip tracing work at certain points in time in this industry to where people go, wow, how do you know how to do all this stuff? Well, we figured it out. Just learning over time. I mean, honestly, like read the guidelines. I did my entire first year almost, I didn't have an approved eligible. I did manual underwrites and you won't learn the guidelines. A realtor said to me yesterday, you still want that stuff? I'm like, yes. Like those are the people I want to help the most that have everybody else has told them no. Or another thing is stop telling, like, I can't tell you how many LOs have told clients, oh yeah, you can put in this state, besides maybe a few that are FHA approved. Okay. Right. That don't have more investors than they have people that live there. Okay. And so there are special guidelines for the percentages down, like know that information. You have to get limited review on every condo. That's an investment. Just what it is. Well, and you just gave up limited review. So let's talk about that because it's limited review, the same down payment in Florida as it is in other States. No, it's five percent more. It's five percent more. Yeah, that's exactly right. I can't tell you the calls that I get. And I'm like, OK, no worries. But whenever they tell you have to put more money down, make sure you give me a call. A hundred percent. That's showing your guy. What's crazy is the guidelines are there. In fact, as a consumer, you can actually go to the Internet. You can look up Fannie Freddie guidelines. You can figure this stuff out on your own, which is frustrating when a law officer doesn't take the time to do it because that's their profession. Right. This is the thing they're making more than doctors. Well, they should be. They should be if they're great at what they do. They're not all making more than doctors. And then you get that whole look of, well, why am I not able to make that kind of income when I see Ashley's doing it, right? But at the end of the day, Ashley, you're a true professional. And I talk about this all the time. You know, if you're at the top of your game, you're just like a professional athlete. You're out there and you're practicing every single day to get to be the best of the best of the best. Because when you're on the playing field with other experienced professionals, you want to be able to navigate that landscape. and yeah taking the time to do the education is part of it super important um and educating others on your way too um it's baffling how many people try to go to recruit like realtor partners why don't you just start with adding value and closing the loans what's that look like what's value what does that mean to you actually I mean, sometimes we record social media. Sometimes it's actually just closing the deal. You'd be surprised what value that actually is. Like if you have a deal on time, the number one thing I say is if you have a deal that's falling apart, call me. Like I'm not, I understand that you're loyal to your current person. Great. But if you have something that falls apart, give me a call. I have some alternatives that might be able to help you. Don't, I mean, shop your lender, stuff like that. But just as important as rate is, sometimes the rate doesn't mean closing the deal because Guidelines are interpretation. And explain that to your client. Hey, this is a really sticky file. I think that we would have the easiest time for you here. How do you feel about this? Just being transparent. And it's not that you're doing anything wrong or anything like that. It's just literally making sure that the loan can close. It's about structuring. I've always taught people this way. When you're building a file, you don't want it to look like a Quentin Tarantino movie. And while we love Tarantino, right? Great director. At the end of the day, when the beginning is at the end and the ends in the middle, right? We have no idea how to actually analyze that when we're looking at that as a file. And, you know, the other analogy I would say is when you're in grade school and the teacher picked up the red pen, when he first started looking at your paper you knew he had problems right you don't want him to have any reason to pick up that red pen so if you structure the file in a way that when they pick it up it reads like an amazing book right and it's simple to process from start to finish the green pen is being checked all the way through and they're like man i love ashley's files because every time they come over i don't have to question what i'm looking at right all the t's are crossed the eyes are dotted And another thing, if you want to earn like title partners business, please do the work for them at closing. I can't tell you how many title companies said, oh yeah, the broker wouldn't even access the portal for me or they wouldn't help with this. Really? Don't be lazy. Like this is also your paycheck too. Like you need to make sure that those numbers line up. You promised a client a certain number. You need to make sure that checks out. Well, and last time that I looked, the title companies have access to all kinds of other relationship, relational partners. They know all the real estate agents and they know the good loan officers and the bad loan officers. And guess what? They talk when you're not around. And they know before anybody else when that deal is about to blow up. Literally. So guess what? They can tell that realtor, well, hey, I had this girl save this deal before. That should be an aha moment right there, right? Aha. This is why we put together great files. This is why we build great relationships. This is why we show up and answer the phones and work with our title partners as a partner, not as an employer. Absolutely. Yeah. So you mentioned you've been doing a lot more non-QM loans. Talk about that. Like, why is that such a popular product here in twenty twenty six? Well, for example, like, um, you know, a lot of older people may not want to have all their stuff in a U-Haul, right? Like, and I'm, and listen, this might ruffle some feathers and even with some of my partners, but I just, I think a bridge is really expensive, um, overall for what the goal is. Okay. Yeah. There's a lot of non QM products where we can get the mortgage based on their assets. Cause a lot of them are very asset heavy. Hmm. but income poor because they're trying to keep that tax liability down and just taking money when they need it to live. So there's so many products out there that allow for primary residence. Like even one of my lenders has a step-up program where it's interest only. It acts like a HELOC on the new house ish. It's interest only plus a hundred dollars so that they can get away with that. And it's a great product. They have assets to cover it. It, it makes sense. Yeah, I get that. So you're looking for creative solutions that are more economical for your buyer. And that way you can give them the opportunities. Hey, look, we have this program. We also have this program. This is why I like this one for you. This is the benefit for it for long term. And the non-QM space is allowing that and allowing it really well, not just for your retired borrowers, but there's investor opportunities inside of those transactions. It's a whole new world of opportunity out there that doesn't always require the standard income documentation. And they're going to find somebody to close the loan, so make sure it's you. Yeah. And explain to them what the rate looks like. I explained to them, Hey, listen, like I get penalized if you pay this off prior to six months, like this is what it looks like. So I'm very transparent up front. I'm transparent with the realtor so that she can remind them too when they sell their house. But I tell them, Hey, here's your other option of a bridge. But the average rate on a bridge is ten point nine nine. That's crazy to me. Yeah. And so it just doesn't make sense. And a lot of people don't qualify with the bridge. So, cause there are some that eliminate the bridge amount, but there's some that don't. So it's just, it's making sense of what paper's in front of you. Yeah, and we offer a bridge at Premier, and I think you know that because we chatted about that briefly. See, I'm ruffling your feathers. No, not necessarily, right? Because I think the bridge is for a particular consumer, right? It's not going to fit every box. The boxes that fits fantastic for that consumer may be the perfect solution, but as you're talking about, there's other opportunities out there, and that's why it's so important to know your products, right? Because now you can say, hey, look, there's another solution. Let me present it to you. And now you become the educated advisor that's going to help your consumer make the right decision for them, not just the decision that works for you and puts money in your pocket. Yeah, no, I mean, it's so important because there's even times where a realtor will call me and say, hey, you've got to step in on this deal. And I'm like, is and they'll tell me the scenario. I'm like, I think I can help the LO fix this. Now, if I call you and you're a jerk and you have your ego in the way, I'm going to take your deal. But if you're not and you're willing to talk through it and I can tell you how to save it, then we're OK. Like, let me let me walk you through this because you don't know what you don't know. And there was somebody before me that taught me. So let me help you. But don't be a jerk because I'm not I'm just trying to educate you. That's all. Yeah. Well, I love that, you know, you have that inside of you because that's not standard. Like, again, most of the time an original is just going to go up. They're an idiot. I'm going to take this deal and, you know, move on. Yeah. But the thing is that that may not be what's best for the client or the seller or anything. What if they have to close in two days? I have to get a loan estimate out. I can't close for seven business days like that. per law, like there's nothing I can get around that unless it's a non-trade file. And so we're stuck and now you're making everybody wait ten more days. And what if you're the back of a domino that is literally falling over and no one else can close? Well, it's called integrity and you've got a lot of it. So it's a big thing. So just make sure you're doing what's best for the client. Like I had a client the other day, I turned down a two point five million dollar deal. I felt like he was getting a great deal. And I was like, I could probably match this, but you've already done all the work. This guy is your friend. Let's not ruffle the feathers. But if you have anybody else in the future, have them give me a call. I love it. I love it. And I'm sure they will because you solved their problem and didn't expect compensation. Right. Well, in the beginning, I would get really like irritated. And, um, emotional when people didn't use me but now i say i completely understand this is what's very best for you and your family and it's super feasible if you'd like i can review and make sure that you're i'll review your documents complimentary especially new builds because let's just be honest i'm not going to have somebody walk away from thirty thousand dollars that the builder's giving them whether they're building it into the price or not okay that's crazy call me for a refinance later whenever you're ready and offer them that and then say hey would you mind leaving me a google review when you have time for my service thus far That's, that's a, that's, that's, I love that. That's a, that's an amazing nugget right there because. And in the beginning of my career, I was like, whatever, you're lost. Bye. Well, what changed? What was the, what was the change for that? You know, to pass you over that to that next level where, where you understood. I wish I could remember who said this, but honestly, we're not entitled to anybody's business. And ego is expensive. We'll lose you a lot of things. And so get out of your own way. And then the deals that are meant for you are meant for you. Fire people that are jerks, realtors included. I don't care if they're sending you twenty deals. Go get twenty from someplace else with people that are nice to you. I love that. I love that. And listen, realtors are getting smoothed every day, too, by the way. So like they're trying to balance that loyalty. And of course, you'll have some that are loyal, but take the deals that you can get from them and then, you know, be there to save the ones that you can't. Amen. Well, Jessica Hallway's tuning in. She says, you are so inspirational, Ashley. This is my second time listening to you. So it looks like you got some fans on the call today. See, I'm so technologically deficient that I didn't even realize there was comments on the side. Look at that. I can even pop it right up on here. That's We've got some other comments on here. I don't know what they mean, so I'm not going to pop them up here. Actually, let's do it. Are you guys R-cubes? That sounds probably not good. I'm not going to try to decipher that. I don't want to know what that is. Yeah, we got huh, exactly. Something that we talked about the other day, and you're in Florida, so I think let's go ahead and bring it up. You were talking about taxes and escrow shocks. What's happening in Florida right now? That actually concerns me the most about what our, and listen, I don't use this word to scare anybody, but like the foreclosure rate, because even though I'm educating as well, buyers with taxes, think about in January right now in Florida, right? They're buying right now. And a year from now, do you think they remember half of what I told them? Even if I like put the red alert out, post it on my social media, tell them if they don't remember anything else I talked about, remember to file a homestead, add a calendar invite. I literally have them add a calendar appointment on their thing. They still forget. All of them. I don't care. If a realtor is your best friend, they still forget. I've had realtors call and text their clients and they still forget to file a homestead. So the problem is, is that a lot of LOs and a lot of new builds, unfortunately, are not preparing clients for what the property taxes look like. And I have never seen property taxes this high in all of my career. Like we've got somebody the other day, four hundred seventy five thousand dollar purchase in Orange County, eight thousand dollar tax bill. That's a big I didn't even expect when I prepared them for it to be that high. And these estimators are a joke because they're giving such a wide range, by the way, three percent. It's crazy. And so I'm concerned. So I had somebody call me today, went to a new build and we're going to do a refi for him to recapture because some servicers will extend it over forty eight months, which, OK, you're just going to be paying your taxes for forty eight months. That's super fun, too. But he can't afford a nine hundred dollar payment. Thankfully, his rate is a little bit higher so we can get his rate down and we can refinance and kind of like absorb some of that in there. But. they can't afford nine hundred. I don't know about you, but I can't, I don't even want to pay nine hundred dollars extra a month on my mortgage. Yeah. Like just to put that in perspective, you're listening and you're like, I'm not a hundred percent sure what Ashley's talking about. We'll just kind of break it down for you in the layman's terms. So basically when you buy a, especially new construction, it's unimproved. And it's like three hundred dollars. So unapproved means that it's just a land value, not the value with the property that's actually now placed upon it. And so what happens is you purchase that property. And let's say that at that time, the taxes are only based at, like Ashley said, three hundred dollars. However, we know that, you know, in your case, you said about a two percent tax rate. Let's just say it's a four hundred thousand dollar house. Twelve months later, when the tax bill comes out, that becomes three hundred grows to eight thousand dollars. Right. And so now your investor who's setting up an escrow account for you has to short your escrow account or send you a bill to write a check for eight thousand dollars. Right. And you get the choice. It's like, hey, either write us a check for eight thousand dollars. And now your new payment goes to this and we'll divide the eight thousand by twelve or eight thousand sixteen thousand divided by twelve because it's double. That's it. Exactly. Because you got to make sure that next year. Backwards in Florida or in Texas, do you guys pay your taxes in arrears or in forward? Yeah. So we paid, you know, in December we paid the twenty twenty five taxes. Right. So same thing in November. And so that's another problem is that we might set up an escrow account correctly, but the taxes didn't adjust yet because of the time that they closed. So it really takes almost two years to adjust. So when that two year mark comes, they're like, what in the world? that's it and what a crisis that is because again imagine you have you know three hundred dollar tax that was originally assessed at which you know to put that into perspective three hundred dollars divided by twelve is twenty five dollars a month right so that's what they're collecting for your escrow but at the end of the year they find out was eight thousand dollars they're gonna divide that by twelve so they should have been collecting six sixty six however now you're you're behind so unless you write a check For the eight thousand dollars, they're going to have to increase your escrow over the next twelve months to about twelve, thirteen hundred dollars. Or as you said, some lenders are now extending that out to twenty four months to recapture. I'm at forty eight months right now. Wow. Wow. Because that's the only way that they can make it a home affordable foreclosure. Yeah. Yeah. It's unfortunate. So how do you handle that personally? So do you build it? Like did your lenders allow for you to build in the projected taxes up front? And I explain to them too, because honestly, a lot of times, and then as long as I can view that they're pretty financially responsible, I'll say, Hey, why don't you just waive that? Because even on VA and some lenders, we can waive escrows FHA. We can't, but it just will give a different, um, It would just help them put some money aside. But some people can't put that aside. So, yeah. But the thing is, is even like Dirk said, like being proactive, I'll be honest with you. It doesn't matter how proactive you are. It's the timeline and so much going on. Even when I haven't set a calendar invite, they all forget. And it's not any fault of the borrower or anything. It's just there's so much information happening during the time. Right. That what do you do? and we'll go back and we'll talk about uh the timeline is also for setting your homestead exemption so again when you're purchasing again if you're home and most people are in here probably you know in our industry but if you're not in the industry you're your client you're listening to that when you're purchasing a home you have the ability to put a homestead exemption because it's your primary residence on the property and that actually decreases the amount of taxes that are collected so they add certain exemptions to your tax rates and this will allow for you to not overpay your taxes and i'm going to tell you right now if you're on here listening right now and you're like i've never filed this i've been in my house for three years go in and file it and then request to get reimbursed because you can get reimbursement in some states i'm not saying all states you can in texas you should be able to do it most so yeah No, and it makes a big difference. And that is another thing to communicate. Like, I'll tell my clients like, hey, I know you see these taxes are sixteen hundred right now. I just want you to know they're going up and do not run taxes for your client. The estimate have them call the county so they can hear it for themselves. It also adds another layer. I know normally I'm the person that's like, don't make your client do any extra work. But I think this is very important. to have them call so they can hear that actual number because there's something about hearing it, calling yourself, giving them the information and the county will give them actual, especially if they sell a house and have some portability, which can save them. I've noticed that that's very helpful to clients to remember as well. Amen. Well, sometimes it's important to hear it directly from the city or the state, right? Because when we're telling them, especially when they're getting misinformation from other places, sometimes it creates a lack of trust. When you say, hey, look, I want you to call and get it directly from the resource so you can hear it. Then it's an aha moment. It's like, oh my gosh, I have to go with Ashley because not only was she so informative, she walked me through the process, taught me how to do it, made sure I was pre-qualified, but also set me up for success down the road. And these are the things that top professionals, and when we say top professionals, actually, what was the number you closed last year? How many transactions? Two-sixty-five. And by the way, if you're going, oh, but she's got a big team and it's not her, she's not doing all the origination. I'm going to go ahead and say it right now. Bullshit. It's Ashley and she's got a law officer assistant and a processor. Is that correct? Yeah, that is correct. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, we're competing mortgage companies, just so you know. So at the end of the day, I have no reason to embellish the truth. Ashley actually works for aptly. I work for premier lending. So this is who she is. It's competition. It's competition. Collaboration. Collaboration. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. So I'm going to ask you, you know, cause we're getting close to wrap up time and I'm going to ask you, you know, kind of going back to our original here, which is, you know, why loan officers deals keep ending up in your desk. Right. So ultimately, you know, my question is this and I got to find it now cause I lost it. Bear with me real quick here. Yeah. So if loan officers keep doing what they're doing right now, What's going to happen to them in the next twelve to twenty four months? I mean, I think. First of all, you're going to lose your realtor partners that you work so hard for, and it's so hard to get somebody to send you a deal in the first place. Um, you're going to discourage a lot of people from buying and homeownership. Now, do I believe everyone should own a house? Sometimes? No. Like, and that's only because we know it's very expensive. Um, we know it's very expensive to like fix things and put a roof on. And like, sometimes that's not a feasible thing for people. Um, And I'm in the business of keeping people in their houses and not just getting people in houses, but they're going to buy with somebody. So if they're insistent on buying, like you can just provide the information and then it's not your job to convince them either way. Okay. But someone who really does want to buy a house and you're not verifying those documents and you're not making sure of everything, single thing out front, if they don't close, they're fifty percent more likely to never apply for a mortgage ever again. Ever. And this is generational wealth because more like houses pass, rent doesn't. So houses pass through generations. I was literally just going to have you say that quote again because you said it on the morning show the other day. And I want you to back that. So houses pass down, rent doesn't. Rent doesn't. Yeah. And I think that's huge, guys, because what we're talking about is building generational wealth through real estate. And if you're renting, you're building no wealth through renting. But when you're building equity inside of a home, that's wealth that can be passed down from generation to generation. And that's what we're talking about. Don't discourage your buyers from buying a home by giving them terrible service and not creating a process. And thinking that everybody's like that. Yeah. not to like bring up controversy, but another thing to really think about is why brokers really need to do better is because A lot of our government is, I don't know if anybody read the Scotsman Guide article the other day, they're trying to make it looser for banks because banks have lost a lot of market share. And I'm sorry, but banks want to make money. And so we need to be careful so that we don't lose market share. And if we're lazy and we got blamed for the And because otherwise the banks will take back over because they're going to be given some leeway there when it comes to pricing. And so it's going to get aggressive. So your service level is going to be what matters. Like an AI, like you're competing against AI too. Like you have to provide a different service level. Amen. Amen to that. Well, for the one else who are listening right now that just lost the deal to you, what would you tell them? What do you tell them? Be more proactive. Treat this like you would your own family's file. Like I tell every client, I treat them like my family. Educate, educate, educate. Review. Don't be lazy. Don't be in a rush. Haste makes waste. Yeah. There it is. Well, guys, if you want to find Ashley and you should, it's Ashley, the mortgage magician on Instagram, Ashley, the mortgage magician on Instagram or IG, whatever you call it, right? Go over there, find her and, you know, make sure that you subscribe or like her page. Right. And then I think she's probably got a, something that'll get you to other links, but she also can be found on the web at Ashley, the mortgage magician.com. Again, that's ashleythemortgagemedician.com. Go check her out. And if you're in Florida, specifically Orlando, and you want somebody who's going to take great care of you and make sure that every T is crossed, every I is dotted, every stone is left unturned, right? And perform some magician surgery to get your loan to the closing table. Ashley Bedford's the gal you're going to want to talk to. So Ashley, thank you so much. What's that? You said the guy or the gal. I said gal. I promise I said gal. We're going to run this back now. I was going to say, we're going to need a playback, please. What's live so we can always go and ask the audience. But anyways, guys, we appreciate you so much for tuning in and keep coming back for great guests like Ashley. And if you want to check her out, go over to her page and find her there. In fact, you have a Tuesday call. What is it called? What do you do? Tuesday market updates. Just breaking it down in ABCs, like what you want to know about rates because my biggest pet peeve is stop sharing rates without APR and scenarios. If I see one more realtor or loan officer, I cannot stand it because if a five eighty calls you and wants that same five point two five percent, you can't give it to them. And so we have to be reputable. OK, that's it. And give good information. But yeah, so that's that's a big thing for me. So go find her. Those are live streams too, right? You drop those live every Tuesday. Yeah. And so I just break it down. Like what's happening? Why is it being affected? Explaining like why the fed rate doesn't adjust the mortgage rates necessarily, but they don't want to hear like blah, blah, blah. They want to hear like, okay, ABC kindergarten type language. And that's not offensive. It's just literally like, if we barely understand it, how do they understand it? No, break it down in layman's terms, make it really easy to consume so that we have a true understanding. We can go out and feel like we're an expert in the industry because we get to hear from Ashley every week and get a great understanding and an easy way to digest. So, all right, guys. Well, that's it for today. Ashley, again, thank you so much for two-time returning guests. We'll definitely have to bring you back again because you just keep getting better.