Riano Team Chris Brazell
director of operations what's up Chris
good afternoon good morning
good evening hello
and Jeff Brooks hello
extraordinary how you doing today
what's going man how's it going
well today we're gonna be talking a little bit more uh
about uh
the team or one person specifically um
we're gonna talk about Chris Brazil
you hear him every single week
talking about loan programs guidelines
kind of talking about the market
what's happening out there
but we really don't know who he is
you don't know what his background is
how long he's been in the game
um he's been in 762 years
so I'm really excited to hear about the progress
over that kind of timeline
um but yeah man Chris
let's jump into it let's talk about where you're from
tell me just a little bit about you
got you all right
well I was born and raised in Syracuse
New York so I'm Yankee um
moved down here 22 years ago
23 years ago now okay
but born and raised Syracuse
New York went to school in Rochester
New York so 21
my first 21 years of my life was spent up in New York
um got out of college
wasn't ready to get serious with life yet um
I was just waiting tables at a local restaurant
Syracuse happen to meet my now wife um
she we were dating at the time
came down to North Carolina to actually see Syracuse
NC State basketball game and visit my brother
who happened to be living down here
he was going to NC State at the time
poor guy yeah
I've still I still make fun of him to this day
it's funny he says he he is a graduate of NC State
but he does not like NC State sports at all really
still pulls for Syracuse no matter what okay
yeah so I um
my girlfriend at the time and I
on the wood drive back to Syracuse
we said to each other
what what do you think about moving to North Carolina
and without me thinking that she was gonna say yes
she's like sure
so we went back to Syracuse and three weeks later
we moved down North Carolina on a whim
so wow Syracuse in the dust
left it in the rearview mirror as they say okay
what's the what's the biggest
I think
cultural difference between like where you're at now
and and Syracuse will get you say
so we joke around in Syracuse
are in New York and general
that people don't talk to each other
if you're out in public if you are your
you're gonna be labeled as kind of a strange bird
let's just say I'm really being PC on this
but yes you walk with your head down
you don't talk to people
it's not a friendly environment
not that people are angry with each other
but it's just not a common thing in New York
that you talk to strangers out
out and about in public
and so 1 Syracuse it's so damn cold that you haha
lift your head and face no one wants to admit
so you're usually got a hood up
and you're walking with your head down
so the wind doesn't give you a frostbite on your face
um but yeah
it's just not known as when I came down here
people were saying hi to me in the street
I'm like I'm like who the heck is that
who is that person and how do they know me
but it just came to find out that
that's the culture down here in the south
is that you're friendly to your neighbors
and strangers alike ever
nobody's a stranger down here
which is a cool thing
and I fell in love with it right away
yeah I think
I say hi to 17 people before I enter the gym
every morning
so and Richard you did that up in New York
people would say hey
there's some weird guy in the parking lot
so he's not supposed to check yeah
call the law yeah alright
so know your history there
where you're from
but how did you get into the Ella World
loan officer space yeah
so again kind of going back to being out of college
not really want to get serious with my life yet
just want to kind of enjoy life so I got a waiting
waiter job down here as well you know
my wife and I she got pregnant with our oldest
and so I was like shoot
you know what I need a job yeah
so you know at that time
I didn't even have a resume put together nothing
and so one of the buddies that I worked with
at the restaurant he was a like a head hunter
he's like hey man you're you're good at management
you good at numbers and things like that
and the funny thing is he's like
I got this real good paying job
but it's a manager at Arby's restaurant
I never work fast food my whole life
but two things that offered was good pay and
and health care plan baby on the way too
with a baby on the way
I needed that healthcare plan that you know
we went to the first doctor's appointment
they told us what it was gonna cost and I said okay
time to get serious so yeah
but the funny thing is eight months into that job
when my wife was eight months pregnant at the time
I was held up at gunpoint
so leaving the restaurant at night
wow yeah
leaving the restaurant at night
closing up me and two other co workers
walked out of the restaurant
and somebody put a gun right to my forehead
and walked us back into the restaurant
put us on our on our knees behind the counter uh
couldn't get into the safe cause it's on a time lock
he emptied out the tills um
and made us in uh
took our cell phones made us
throw our keys to the other side of the restaurant
we thought he was gonna take our cars and everything
put
walked us back to the walking cooler of the restaurant
and I pretty much thought I was gonna die
right then and there
yeah yeah
it was definitely the scariest moment of my life
but that's when I knew it was done
I needed to get out of that business
and I was never gonna go back to it again
which I have it so I did get a real job
I had a buddy who owned a art publishing business
actually and he knew my business background
that's what I went to college for as well
so he hired me on as his
as his basically director of operations at that company
too um
and I had another friend who at the same time was
he was a loan officer actually in the Charlotte area
and he's like Chris
you're good with numbers you might like this job
you know pays real well
so I started dabbling in it part time
you know just doing it on the side
while I worked with my buddies company
I took my buddy knew about it
he was cool with it you know
it's just kind of supplementing my income
and it got to a point where I was getting so busy
as being a loan officer I went to my friend
I said look at man
I either need to get a raise or I might have to let
might have to get out he's like
I can't give you a raise
cause our company's so brand new
that it were out of budget for the next five years
and so
I jumped feet first into the loan officer business
and the rest is history
it's funny to hear people even like back then
talk about how good you are with numbers
because like on the team
you're known as like our numbers guy
like you're an engineer
you're going to partner up with Chris
you do not need to talk with my hyper ass
and if you're
if you're like doing a construction of perm loan
those have so many numbers to calculate
so many things to accommodate for in the closing costs
and the loan structure
that you just tend to handle those
so it's interesting to hear that even what 10
15 years ago 20 years ago
20 years ago I was trying to be nice um
that you were still plugging away
with those numbers and like
people could recognize that in you from an out
Dork's better perspective
you know and out from someone else's perspective
that's correct yeah
so I loved it right from the get go
you know it's a fun job
it's to this day
everything's new every day
you meet new people every day
everybody scenarios unique in the mortgage business
everybody starts being unique
from the time they open up their first credit card
in college or before that
so you're dealing with unique situations every day
which I like I cannot do the
the 9 to 5 punching clock
that's just not my DNA so that
so I fell in love with this business
you know and then
you know I was
I was back in the early 2 during the wild
wild west we call it standing come
stay less at very little regulation in the industry
and then hey what do you know what happened 2008
the housing crisis that was
that was that was fun
and I'm being very sarcastic about that
so I was working for a mortgage company at that time
and we had a Tuesday standing meeting
company wide with the CEO
the company the president and founder of the company
was Tuesday sharp at 9:00 every week
and if you were five minutes early
you were late so we got an email sent out
and I wanna say this was 2009
I don't remember the exact year
but it was in the middle of the housing crisis
and so got an email sent out
saying that the meeting is gonna be delayed until 9:15
which was the first time that it ever happened
and so we were like what is going on in the office
we had we had a bunch of TVs in the office and the
in the bullpen as we call it
where all the desks are
and we had it on CNBC and on the bottom scroll it said
I'm not gonna say the name of the company
but our company
assets were bought by Countrywide Mortgage
and we were like what the hell does that mean
went into the meeting and it was a two minute meeting
the owner of the company said
it's a sad day for ex company as a Friday
we're shutting our doors
if you could hear a pin drop company wide on the cell
on the telephone yeah
nobody said a word so we
he walked out of the conference room
and there were three people from Countrywide
standing there
and they grabbed the first three yellows
who walked out of the out of the meeting room and said
I need your files
and so I wasn't one of the first three
I went to my desk I grabbed my laptop and went home
told my wife I didn't
I don't think I have a job anymore
she was shocked
and so I started calling my clients at that time
the first five I called that were all closings
that were coming up in the next 30 to 60 days
they said yeah
it was already contacted by somebody countrywide
they said they're taking over from here
and so we were left high and dry
company filed bankruptcy
there was a class action lawsuit
we didn't see a dime out of it
I think I literally think
I got a check in the mail
when the class action lawsuit settled
for $0 and I remember
and it was for the class action lawsuit
and they sent a check for $0
because
that's all the money that was left from the company
and it was settled and so we didn't get paid nothing
so I had to get out of the business for a couple years
you know again
I need healthcare for my growing family at the time
and so I actually managed an apartment complex
for about a year and a half
and I was like
I need to get back in the mortgage business
I love it I like the
the uniqueness of it you know
and again not being a clock puncher
when I was managing an apartment complex
I had to answer to layers and layers of management
yeah that's not my mentality
it just doesn't work for Chris
and so so I just on a whim
I actually heard an advertisement for this company
and Raleigh that was hiring
and so my wife and kids at the time
their pediatrician
was across the street from this mortgage company
so I set up a meeting I was like
you know what uh
hey Karen I'm just gonna pop in here real quick
you know I set up a meeting
I just wanna see what this is all about and she's like
okay and I said I'll be right out well
I was in there for over an hour
and that person I met with Sherry
and so I walked out and I said
I said I'm going to work with Sherry Rihanna
and my wife was shocked she was like
you just met her for the first time
I was like we have the same mindset
we have the same mentality
we think and act alike
and she got me excited about the business again
I'm gonna go work for her and the rest is history
Sherry actually called me
when my wife was in the hospital
delivering our third child
we were walking down the hallways cause labor was
was slowed down and I was like Karen
I have to take this call Sherry and uh
and sure enough it was Sherry offer me the job
so I always know when I started working for Sherry
because it's on the birthday of my
of my third child so you know
we're going on year 13 this it'll be this year
so I can't imagine taking a phone call with my wife
in labor
I just I don't
I don't know if I would survive
like there'd be a new life and the end of a life
there's a fine line between brave and stupid
I was walking both that day because she was not
she was not enjoying life
and here I am just Nimrod
who's not in any pain nothing
just walking down the hallways and telling her
I gotta take this call that's hilarious
it went on it went fine though
you know I'm glad I took the call
I'll tell you what because
Sherry is the best thing that ever happened to me
as far in me and my family
as far as getting to know her
building the business
building the team together and everything
and it's just been it's been fun
I mean you
how many people get to say they have fun at work right
and that's you know
when you brought you guys along
you know help build our team and just it
it's been it's been a blast ever since
I mean we've written the UPS and downs
you know the mortgage industry
that's one thing about it
is that there's peaks and valleys
we say you know
there's high times where you know
we don't have enough time in the day
to get our work done and there's low times
but hey if you're having fun
making money being able to provide for your family
and doing a good service for the community
we are a local lender
which I love
we service the people that we live and work with
in this area I see somebody in the grocery store
cause I've lived in Hot Springs for shoot
going on 19 years now
I see people in High Springs that I've done loans for
and they come up and say hi to me
that is the best feeling in the world
because I knew I did right by them
which is why you're sharingized mentality is
do right by the client 100% of the time
there's no deviation from that rule
and we've lived by that mantra
we do right by the client every single time
cause we feel like everybody deserves a home
so this this business is a win win we
you know we get paid we have fun
we make money for our family
and we get the joy of seeing somebody close on a house
you know 20 to 30 times a month
nobody can say they get to do that
and it's
it's a it's a privilege to work in this industry
so how did you become director operations on the team
oh yeah Jeff good
thank you so what I you know
Sherry and I were run the business
we were the two main people on the team
we always had our processor Jordan who you know
a little hint there
just happens to be Sherry's daughter
who we seek was out
we always joke around and say
that she's the smartest one in the office
she is
that's why she's the best processor in the business
but and so when we started building the team
I was Sherry's always been the real good person
about being the front face of the company
out shaking hands meeting realtors
not that I don't do that
Sherry loves it lives and breathes it
I'm the analytical person
I'm the person that stays behind the scenes
and make sure the pipelines move forward
make sure I'm reading guidelines on loans
making sure we know the ins and outs of this business
cause it isn't ever changing business
and so when we were building the team
that's how we built it shear was gonna be the
you know basically in charge of sales at that time
and I was gonna be the director of operations
making sure the internal operations run smooth
I work with corporate on you know
closing post closing things like that um
while Sherry's out you know
shaking the tree as we say and as our team built
we've put other people in those positions
but it's always been important for me to maintain that
director of operations just
to make sure that
the internal structure of the business
is run as we know it should be
to stay as a well oil machine
that's good that's good man
thanks for talking thanks for sharing
I think it's great to have people understand like
you know why are you
the one that generally talks about the guidelines
and it's because you've been studying them
you've been paying attention
you've been reading them for 20 years now
at this point I mean
it's always been your niche from very early on
you were the numbers guy
even from an out another person's perspective
you were just good with numbers um
you were good with the details like that
so it's good for people to hear that
good for people to know who they're talking to
when they call in so thanks for sharing
I'll have a beer with you after hours
during the day though my I'm focused
and I'll be the one to go to
if you have any questions about
if you can't get somebody into a loan
some another lender turn them down for some reason
trust me we'll
we'll we'll turn over every single rock
and nook and cranny
to try to find a way to get it done
or explain to the bar why it can't
and that's why
you need somebody that understands the guidelines
in this business that's good
that's good and go orange right
and go orange yeah
that's why I moved down here
I am as consider myself a southern boy right now
all my kids are born down here
but I am Syracuse I bleed orange
my friend I bleed orange
it's good look
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uh
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uh this has been mortgage mindset
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