Is real estate the strangest industry to be in?
News of the weird seems particularly abundant when it comes to properties. Sometimes it’s completely fascinating, like how an ancient Roman marble slab is now at the center of a mystery as experts scramble
to find out how it ended up in the garden of a bungalow in England. In other times it’s totally macabre, as when a group of quadbiking South Carolina teens broke into an abandoned house, which they thought was haunted, and found a dead body in the freezer.
So imagine what it’s like to actually work in real estate. Share a thought for Moses Kagan Co-Founder of Los Angeles-based Adaptive Realty, which is a developer and manager of apartment buildings. Kagan sent a string of Tweets yesterday about how the behavior of tenants never ceases to amaze him.
“We've been managing apartment buildings in LA for like 12 yrs. There's not much we haven't seen,” he said. “And yet: Yesterday, one of our managers spent her day trying to figure out which tenant owns this unauthorized pig.”
Kagan then spent even more time explaining, despite arguments that pigs are great pets, building owners set their own rules and in this case don’t allow pigs. Note: This is a big pig, laying around, unclaimed. Obviously well feed, its owners are not taking otherwise appropriate responsibility for the animal.
This led to a real estate investor in Houston to claim: “Weird times. Literally, last week received a copy of [a] letter from a certified therapist in the state of Texas. A tenant's chickens — the HOA was suing the tenant for — are emotional support animals. We can't do anything about it.” Speaking of which, American Airlines will no longer allow emotional support animals, btw.
At any rate, it’s weird times all the time. While all of this news happened recently, Rise&Shred thinks it’s safe to say that real estate is the strangest industry to work in. Change our mind by emailing us below.
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More Rise&Shred news in brief
—> SimpleNexus secures the $$$
Congratulations are in order for SimpleNexus which secured $108 million in Series B funding following four 
consecutive quarters of record-setting revenue growth. SimpleNexus already plays a role in 13% of all U.S. home loans. President Cathleen Schreiner Gates said in an email, the firm will use the funds to “build on the momentum we received from bringing to market the best eClosing experience lenders and consumers have ever seen.” SimpleNexus provides borrowers with a single sign-on experience from home search to the application, document upload, eClose and beyond for a more streamlined homeownership journey.
The Series B is a follow-on investment from Insight Partners, which initially invested $20 million in SimpleNexus in 2018. Insight Partners has supported more than 50 software ScaleUps in the real estate and fintech verticals alone, including Simplifile, the e-recording network acquired by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in 2019.
—> The Mall of America is no longer delinquent on its $1.4 billion mortgage
The Mall of America has modified the terms of its $1.4 billion mortgage and is current on the loan, after missing months of payments during the Covid crisis as stores shut temporarily and tenants failed to pay rent.
Triple Five Group, the owner of the largest mall in the U.S., started missing mortgage payments in April, CNBC previously reported. But it has struck a deal with lenders, who expressed “strong confidence in the long-term success and viability of Mall of America,” the owners said.
—> Where can homeowners find 20-year loans at a fixed interest rate of zero?
Spoiler: Denmark
Customers at the Danish home-finance unit of Nordea Bank Abp can, as of Tuesday, get the mortgages, which will carry a lower coupon than benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasuries, according to BloombergQuint.
Other lenders plan to follow suit, the coverage states, and it’s all made possible by the negative-interest rate policy of the tiny nation.
Danish lenders first issued 20-year bonds with 0% coupons a few years ago, as investors looking for a safe place to park their money drove down rates. This is the first time since then that such a product has returned to the shelves.
🔥 Why Mindset Matters 🔥
With Josh Pitts
3 lists for 2021 that will help Loan Officers CRUSH IT IN 2021!!!
Rise&Shred is not just dedicated to staying positive daily as a cornerstone to being successful. We’re also sharing 
ways in which we think we can help loan officers find greater success. Sure, it’ll be hard to top 2020 originations, but when does having a tough goal do anything other than motivate us to CRUSH IT IN 2021!?!?
Here are 3 lists that will help us all get there!
1: Bill Dallas says watch these ten videos to become a better LO
Bill Dallas shared on his LinkedIn, these top 10 mortgage coach videos he thinks every LO should watch. “This is really cool for loan advisors,” he wrote. “Here are the top 10 mortgage coach videos from top originators in the industry. Best way to learn is to listen to the best.”
“Whether you want to be a $1-million-plus mortgage leader, you're a NEW loan officer or you want to manage incremental business growth, Mortgage Coach top producers scripts, strategies, and best practices you can use to grow personally and achieve your goals as a mortgage professional,” said Dave Savage, CEO of Mortgage Coach on his LinkedIn.
2. 6 Books That Will Help You Focus on Your Personal Growth
It’s hard to grow professionally when you stop growing personally. As Sacramento super-appraiser Ryan Lundquist said in his recent post, Real estate trends to watch in 2021 (yes, we just linked to a list within a list within a list and our minds are blown too), he suspects that the issue of racism in real estate will rear its ugly head this year. “My advice? Listen, be a part of the conversation, and change as needed.”
That’s easier said than done for those of us who resist change. But it’s possible for anyone to change, as long as they focus and read some of these 6 self-help books as recommended by success.com.
3. 7 tips to convert mortgage leads generated online
This one is a bit of a dig, but it’s worth it. On page 15 of the digital flipbook for the latest National Mortgage Professional Magazine, you can find 7 tips to convert mortgage leads generated online. The author is Michael McAllister, the founder of Empower Funnels and the Idaho Mortgage Source, and considering the booming Boise housing market, his advice is worth taking!
Guaranteed Rate is going to acquire Texas-based Stearns Holdings
A national top 25 lender with more than $20B in origination volume in 2020, Stearns was founded in 1989 and operates in all 50 states through retail, joint venture, partnership and wholesale channels. The acquisition will enable Guaranteed Rate to bolster retail loan origination and further scale its JV platform, while also developing new multichannel capabilities, the company said in a release.
The acquisition also allows Guaranteed Rate to enter the wholesale channel to complement the company's multichannel distribution vision.
The pending acquisition comes at a time of significant momentum for Guaranteed Rate, which recorded its best production year ever in 2020. The move builds on Guaranteed Rate's track record of making and integrating successful acquisitions and connects directly to its goal of becoming the country's #1 mortgage lender.
Guaranteed Rate is acquiring the company from Blackstone.
“We are fully behind Victor Ciardelli and the entire Guaranteed Rate team,” said Nadim El Gabbani, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone. “This combination creates a powerful player in the mortgage industry, and one that we believe is exceptionally well positioned for success over the long term.”
Stearns Holdings has an extensive partnership model that includes real estate agent, builder and relocation joint ventures, private label relationships and independent mortgage bank preferred partnerships. These partnerships include well-known brands such as SoFi and Home Mortgage Alliance. Combining these entities with Guaranteed Rate's existing joint ventures with Realogy and @properties will create one of the largest partnership platforms in the country.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
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