“Play games you can win,” she said during a recent interview with MPA. “A lot of times people will ask: ‘How do you compete with new-build lenders?’ I don’t compete with them. I’m not going to sit here trying to figure out how to beat the best jumbo rate on the block if I don’t have a good jumbo rate. I’m going to find a niche I can win. So play games you can win.”
Her career as a case study
She used her current experience in suggesting how others can navigate around a shifting landscape. “I think what has really helped – especially during this time – is I don’t do a lot of traditional lending,” Hernandez said. “Before, when rates were good, I did some when you’re buying your personal property and it’s vanilla Fannie, Freddie stuff.”
She cited a personal property as an example: “We own a short-term rental in Georgia,” she said. “We have family there. Most of the lending that I do right now is very investor-centric product. When rates go up, these are business decisions. If it still works, we’re still lending on them. So mainly a lot of debt service, fix-and-flip, private money and being able to be malleable and move as the market shifts and embracing that. That’s where I like to be.”
Widening the net
As an added shield from an unforgiving market, she dabbles in some commercial products – although the lion’s share of her work is focused on single-family, she said. “It’s mostly still residential, but hints of commercial as far as the debt service,” she said. “I do a lot of short-term rentals,” she added.
It’s also important to focus on what feels right and not force oneself to do work that’s more of a chore. “I’m really big on staying in the activity that feels good for me,” she said. “Somebody asked the other day about cold calling. If you like cold calling, do that all day long if you love it. But for me, I don’t like that. If I don’t like something enough, I’m not going to do it enough to have success.”
Source: mpamag.com