Podcast Interview—The Crushing Debt Podcast with Shawn Yesner
Episode 321: Entrepreneurship and Credit Scores
Topics discussed:
Why is the majority of the mortgage industry geared against the self-employed business owner?
Why is it more difficult to get a mortgage when you're self-employed?
What types of real estate loans are available to business owners?
On this week's episode of The Crushing Debt Podcast, we talk to Alejandro Szita, a California mortgage broker and real estate broker since 2006. Alejandro is the co-owner of Prosperity Lending, a boutique mortgage brokerage that specializes in self-employed borrowers, including artists, business owners and creative entrepreneurs. Alejandro and I discuss the key to improving credit scores for the self-employed borrower and business owner.
Podcast Transcription:
Shawn Yesner: We appreciate all of the guests who have appeared on our show, and sincerely thank them for providing you, our audience, with useful information. However, the advice our guests provide is theirs, and we encourage you to seek out a professional if you have specific questions about any topic we cover on the Crushing Debt Podcast. On this week's episode of the podcast, Entrepreneurship and Credit Scores.
Intro: Welcome to the Crushing Debt Podcast with your host, Florida Attorney, Sean Yesner, where our goal is to help you get rid of the financial bullies in your life.
Shawn Yesner: So welcome back to this week's episode of the Crushing Debt Podcast. My name is Shawn Yesner, owner and founder of Yesner Law, and I have a guest for you, another guest for you this week. However, before we get to my guest, real quick, I want to talk about our editor, Mark Purvis. Those of you that have been listening the last few weeks know that Mark is an Emmy award-winning videographer with over 23 years of marketing and advertising experience. His newest passion is working with families, helping seniors record their life stories, using fun and creative storytelling techniques. He would love to work with a, a working professional who wants their retired parents to record their life stories so that the family can enjoy meaningful conversations sparked from watching all of these videos together. My editor is a gentleman named Mark Purvis, and the website you can go to to see how to record those conversations is legacyspotlight.com.
So thank you, Mark. Mark's been with us since the beginning of the show. He's been the editor since the beginning of the show, but just recently we wanted to highlight him and his new project here as a sponsor of the show. So I do want to get to my guest here real quick. So let me introduce him to all of you. He is a California mortgage broker and real estate broker. He's been a real estate and mortgage professional since 2005. He has seen the world of real estate from all angles, commercial, residential, and capital raising. He has a background not only in real estate and finance, but also in infomercials, and creating a million dollar real estate enterprise through the home shopping network. He's the co-owner of a boutique mortgage brokerage that specializes in self-employed borrowers, something near and dear to my heart, including artists, business owners and creative entrepreneurs. A lifelong student of economics. He also provides practical information about money and finance. He has an upcoming book that I'd like to talk to him about titled, "Money: What It Is, How It Works, and How You Can Use It To Create Wealth And Prosperity For Yourself And Your Community". He teaches the fundamentals of money and wealth, which is what we're gonna talk to him about today. So, welcome my guest, Alejandro Szita. Welcome, Alejandro.
Alejandro Szita: Thank you, Shawn. It's a pleasure to be here, and thank you so much for inviting me to your show.
Shawn Yesner: Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you being on the show. So, I wanted to talk to you sort of real quick. What intrigued me about talking to you is that, you know, I've been on my own as an attorney now since 2004, and my law firm, Yesner Law, is a, actually, this year is its 10 year anniversary, which I'm gonna talk about as we get into the coming months. But I started,
Alejandro Szita: Congratulations.
Shawn Yesner: Thank you. I started Yesner Law in September of 2012. So now September of 2022 will be 10 years. Luckily, at the time I bought my house, and at the time I refinanced my house, I had owned a previous law firm, but that law firm was, gosh, I wanna say six or seven years old at the time that I bought my, my current house and financed my current house. You know, back in 2012 when I started this law firm, I knew better than trying to refinance. I don't know that I would've gotten a loan with no history. So, why is it so difficult for someone who is self-employed, someone who works for themselves, why is it so difficult for them to get a mortgage?
Alejandro Szita: Because the system is not geared to self-employed or independent people. The system is geared to W2 employees who work for a company. This wasn't the case before, you know, in the fifties, in the sixties, in the seventies, which is what I experienced when I was growing up in my country of Chile. You would go to your bank, you would have an account executive, he would know you, he would know where you worked, he would know about your lifestyle, he would know who your friends were. You want to talk to him. He would punch a couple of keystrokes on his machine, and then he'll see what is your balance, you know? So when you came to him and said, hey, you know, I want to buy a house, he'll know exactly what you needed. However, that system was discarded for a more massive, more impersonal, and a faster system, which is the system we have today, which is risk, "risk driven".
That's how they, when I say they, I mean the people that created this, refer to it. This system has worked very well because it has allowed about 90% of applicants, which is the W2 employees, to get a fast, cheap and reasonably priced, I would say very low priced loan. However, it's pretty much the direct opposite of the system that existed before, and therefore, anyone that doesn't fit the specific guidelines, it just falls through the cracks. And I made it my mission to cater to those people, you know, to the people that, quote-unquote, fall through the cracks.
Shawn Yesner: What are some of those guidelines that the traditional lender looks for? How does the self-employed person fall through the cracks?
Alejandro Szita: Well, one of the things is income. You know, the traditional self-employed person or the business person works on cash flow. He has a variable cash flow. Sometimes he gets a windfall, sometimes the cash flow is low. So he's thinking about cash flow. He's not necessarily thinking about profits. He's not necessarily thinking about monthly income. So, the typical self-employed or entrepreneurial business owner would have a really good month. In that month, he will pay all of his bills. And then when the pickings are sort of slim, he would like, allocate his cash flow in terms of priorities for him and for his business. So I'll give you an example. Let's say he has a bill, and let's say he can't pay the bill, he has the money to pay the bill, but there is something else he can do with the money. He could pay an employee, he could, he could borrow something, he could buy equipment, he could, he could spend it on advertising.
So, he would think, okay, if I'm late on this bill, maybe I'll pay $100, $200 fee. But to him, that's just the cost of the money. He doesn't care. He knows he's gonna pay it, but he prioritizes his cash flow in a different manner. That is the antithesis and the enemy of the system we have today. The system we have today was created by the bond holders. And then, stop me if you feel that I'm going a little bit off topic, but this is what is happening. You always hear, pay your bills on time, you'll have good credit, you'll qualify for a loan. But that's just half of the story. They're not talking about bills, they are talking about contracts that you signed with an institutional financing company. They're talking about credit cards, they're talking about mortgages, they're talking about car loans.
They're not talking about your rent, they're not talking about your electricity bill. They're not talking about the money that you owe, and you are paying to your business partners. It's a very specific narrow range of institutional financing that they're talking about, and they want you to pay this bill like a bond holder, like a clock on time. So that is the enemy of the self-employed, is the enemy of the entrepreneur. I can tell you, I know many, many entrepreneurs, and usually a good entrepreneur is not a good CPA. He knows about money, he knows about the cash flow, he's controlling the cash flow, he's making money, but he's not the guy that is gonna pay all your bills, quote-unquote, on time, on all the institutional bills on time. And boom. Then he gets a big strike against him because of that.
Another thing is the variable cash flow. A regular lender doesn't understand a regular cash flow. A regular lender is looking for a fixed monthly payment, and an entrepreneur is not like that. He could have a month where he made $100,000 and he could have another month where he lost $50,000. That throws the regular lender off completely. He doesn't know what to do. Then the regular lender goes and says, well, show me your tax returns. And the entrepreneur is gonna want to minimize his tax returns. Like I know a client who's a lawyer like you. He grosses 2 million dollars a year, but his profit is $50,000. That's, of course, extreme. But just to let you know, the difference, you know, a W2 employee doesn't have a lot of control over their tax, over he's or her taxes, but an entrepreneur or a business owner does have control.
So when a regular lender tries to evaluate the credit worthiness of the entrepreneur, everything is the opposite. Credit score is the opposite. Cash flow management is the opposite. Income is the opposite. The documentation he's asking for like tax returns is like a non-relevant documentation. However, that is the documentation that is needed. So you have these two universes that collide. You know, you have a self-employed person that makes good money, has a good business, and considers himself credit worthy. He has a relationship with the bank for let's say 20 years. This actually happened to one of my clients. He thinks, I'm gonna buy this house, which to him is cheap. He could pay cash, but he, because he's an expert at managing cash flow, recognizes that maybe paying cash is not the best. Maybe he gets a loan that he can pay. He goes to the bank and says, hey, you know, you've known me for 20 years. I just want to buy this cheap home. Loan me some money. And this happens every single time. He's shocked and flabbergasted when the lender talks to him, like he's a poor guy that cannot even afford the cheap house that he wants to buy, that his credit is bad, that his income is shitty, and therefore, I'm sorry, but no. That is a shock, and it's a shock that sometimes they never recover from.
Shawn Yesner: Yeah, no, I've seen that a lot of times too. And, and I mean even for, even for myself, in other words, I had, I have the law firm, but at, at a previous point in time, I also owned a title company and, and I've since shut down the title company and I now represent some title companies in the area. But I remember when we shut the title company down, it had a massive, massive loss. And to me, I'm thinking, this is fantastic. I've got this loss that I can carry into future years to reduce my taxable income and, and reduce my tax burden and maybe even get a bigger refund, whatever. But when I went to qualify for a loan to refi the house, the lender said, wait a minute, you've got this other company here that's got massive losses. And I, well, yeah, but that company's been gone for three years and I'm just carrying the losses forward every year.
But still, they didn't want to see that I was part of something that was such a big loss. It was weird. I mean, and, and I could, like you said, I mean, I, so the law firm, I get a W2 from the law firm and then at the end of the month, if there's any profits, I get to take some of the profits as well from the law firm. And you're right, there's those months where I go home and hey, we're all going out for a big steak dinner. And then there's another month that I come home and I say, I don't care if the bread is moldy, we're still gonna eat it. Because we can't buy anymore right now. So I totally get it. But it is strange in that, you know, wait a minute, I've got this law firm that's showing these profits for three years. I got this little company that I shut down three years ago that's showing a loss, and now you're not gonna give me a loan because of it. It was the, it was the strangest thing.
Alejandro Szita: Yes, yes.
Shawn Yesner: So what types of real estate loans are available to the self-employed business owner?
Alejandro Szita: There are many. I can tell you that, I know at least there are seven other ways apart from the tax return system to qualify a borrower. You can qualify someone using their bank statements. Because remember the, the self-employed or entrepreneur has cash flow. So instead of looking at their taxes, you look at the cash flow and you do that through the bank statements. So there are programs where you need to show one year of bank statements, programs where you have to show two years of bank statements. And the beauty of this is that it could be any bank statements, it could be your business, personal, a mixture of your business and personal, you know, and the more bank statements you can show, it doesn't have to be only from one account. It could be from 2, 3, 4 accounts. We've had like a hundred bank statements once working for a client.
So you have the bank statement universe, I call it a universe because it's not just one thing. You have like five or six ways of doing it within the bank statement universe. Then you have entrepreneurs that have saved a lot of money and they quote-unquote don't work in the sense that they don't go to work like you and I, but they have investments that they manage. So for those types of entrepreneurs, there are like two or three programs that take a look at the income that he derives from the investments only. He doesn't have to show that he works anywhere. He doesn't have to show any W2s or anything. All he has to show is that he owns the investments and the proceeds from the investments are enough to pay for the mortgage. And then for the business owner that has a profitable business, you can show profit and losses, a profit and loss statement that doesn't have to be audited to sustain his or her income, because at the end of the day, all the lender wants to know is, do you make enough money to pay the monthly payment? And do we see that you've made it in the past for at least two to five years, and can we see that in the future you are going to continue to make the income. That's the number one criteria to make the loan.
Shawn Yesner: So are you trying to say that it's more difficult to get a mortgage when you're self-employed?
Alejandro Szita: Yes, very much so.
Shawn Yesner: Yeah, because of the way the system is, it is set up because of, of what people want to, what the bankers want to see.
Alejandro Szita: Right. And the system is not gonna change, because the system from the point of view of the banker, is very successful. You can get 90% of the people, boom, in like, and in a very inexpensive way for the banker. It's not gonna change.
Shawn Yesner: So, if I wanted to go the traditional route as a self-employed, so let's say I, I bump up my W2 salary to, to show a more robust, more consistent, and I know there's tax reasons not to do that, but let's say I did. And then the next thing I worried about is my credit score. What are some things I can do to maybe improve or increase my credit score?
Alejandro Szita: I'm going to tell you about, this information doesn't come from me, it comes from a loan officer by the name of Philip Tirone. And by the way, I'm not affiliated with him. I don't get anything from him. It's just that I've seen many systems, I've tried them on myself, and this is the only one that works. Philip Tirone created a system back at the beginning of the year 2000, where he really describes how the credit scores work. He has, you can go to eBay, you can download or you can purchase his, he has six CDs where he explains it all. So I'm going to try to summarize it, but again, this does not come from me. Basically the key for the credit score is to have the credit and not use it. When I say not to use it, it means that if you get a $5,000 credit card, don't use more than $500.
You have to have three credit cards. You have to have one installment loan that could be a car. And that is the ideal combination. Those four trade lines, three credit cards that you don't use, meaning that you don't charge more than 10% ever. And then one installment loan, that could be a car. Or if you already have a car, just go to a credit union and refinance it. You don't care how much they give you. Just park it on a savings account, have it for at least two years, and then you have an awesome credit score. This is, I'm gonna tell you a little story that to me was incredible. I had this entrepreneur guy, millionaire, millions of dollars in the bank account. You looked at the credit report, 40 paid mortgages, 40 paid mortgages. Credit score, barely touching 680. Next to him you have this young girl, maybe two, three years credit score, two credit cards that she barely used. 800 and something. credit score. And this is the interesting thing. When you submit the file to the lender, you have the option to write a letter. You have the option of explaining what you're doing. So I explained it to them, look, this guy has 40 paid mortgages, 40, however the system is so like a machine, they didn't listen to it. They would prefer the girl that has two or three years credit history and has 800 than the guy that has 40 paid mortgages all day long.
Shawn Yesner: Wow. That just doesn't seem right. It doesn't seem, it doesn't seem fair.
Alejandro Szita: I know. And that's why that led me thinking, okay, this system then is not geared to assess, you know, how good or how bad you are in paying your bills. This is a very specific criteria. It's the criteria invented by bondholders to see who is the most likely that they can make money on. She's completely the reverse. It's not you being a good person, it's not you being responsible or successful. No. It's a system invented by bond holders to see who they can extract the most money and make the most money. And that criteria is a person who has credit, barely uses it, always pays it, and has a combination of like three or four credit cards, one installment loan, maybe a mortgage. That's the person that they're looking for. Not because that person is responsible, not because that person is successful, not because there is any quality, any moral or value associated with that. It's only because they make, they can make more money on that person. That's the only criteria. And that's what surprised me.
Shawn Yesner: Well, and it's interesting because the other side of my practice is, is bankruptcy and helping people get out of debt, which is the subject of the show, of the podcast. And the interesting thing, someone being sued by their credit card company or whatever and, and we decide that bankruptcy's the best idea for them. And, and they always say, well, won't that hurt my credit score? Well, number one, your credit score is already getting beat up because you've got these lawsuits and you've got these unpaid bills and you've got whatever. But what I've always said, which sounds like you're sort of confirming, what I've always said to them is, you know, look, when you file your bankruptcy and you get your discharge, if, especially if it's chapter seven, the bankruptcy code says you can't file again for eight years. And the creditors know this. And so I've had clients that have gotten credit cards weeks after their bankruptcy is over because the creditors know they've got them on the hook for at least another eight years if they charge up those cards, which would seem to go towards your point of, you know, yeah, they just filed bankruptcy, but I can make a ton of money as the credit card company off of this person if they run up the bill and they can't pay it again.
Alejandro Szita: Yes. And you mentioned something so crucial. Do you know what the rule of 72 is?
Shawn Yesner: Yeah. How long it takes your money to double based on certain interest rate.
Alejandro Szita: Exactly. How much is 72 divided by 20?
Shawn Yesner: 72 divided by 20? I didn't know you were gonna make me do math on this show.
Alejandro Szita: It's about three.
Shawn Yesner: Yeah, between three and four.
Alejandro Szita: If a credit card charges you 20%, in about three years, they double, double their money. So that means that if you borrow a hundred bucks, three years from now and you don't pay it, which a lot of people don't, three years from now, they're going to recover the money and make it again. So they're gonna recover the hundred bucks and make another. So, let's say that you take a credit card, like you were saying, for eight years, because you cannot file for bankruptcy within eight years. What do you have, what do you think will happen to the profit of the financial institution within those eight years?
Shawn Yesner: It'll double at least twice.
Alejandro Szita: Yes. So, they make a shit load of money. Sorry, your editor is gonna cut that out. They make a bundle load of money. Okay. Now imagine that you default by year four or year five, these guys already have made a bundle. I worked, I didn't, I, in my previous life I was in advertising, like you read, you know, the home shopping network. And I used to do infomercials and I made an infomercial for a debt negotiation company. I saw the records of 8,000 people. And this is what moved me. Even on their deathbed, they were trying to pay their debts. You see, people have a moral code and value that the counterparty does not have at all, or cares. So people on their deathbed, were trying to pay the credit card company. Even if they could not pay them completely. So imagine in a few years you more than double your money, you made a, you made a band load, then the person defaults. But even when they default, they still try to settle their debt. So by the time the person is defaulted and paid, the credit card company already made a bundle. So of course, they want you back.
Shawn Yesner: Right? And, and of course you're right. I mean that's the other big objection that I get when, when I talk about bankruptcy with people is, I borrowed the money, I should pay it back. And I say, well, I understand that and I agree with that and it's, it's certainly a very noble position to take. But the visa is not gonna go out of business because they don't get your 10 grand back. Or more to your point, they've already got their 10 grand. Not only have they already got their 10 grand back, but they've got it back 2, 3, 4, 5 times over. So, you know, to file bankruptcy to get rid of the debt. And, and again, certainly I'm not suggesting that bankruptcy's always the right alternative. I've told people before bankruptcy would be a bad idea for them for one reason or or another. But for the people that have that mental block of, I borrowed the money, I should pay it back. Well depending on how long ago you borrowed the money, you've already paid it back. Plus, plus, plus.
Alejandro Szita: Yeah. And I agree with you, it's not a matter of trying to rig the system and going, well if these guys want to take advantage of me, now I'm gonna take advantage of them because then that's a losing proposition that is not gonna benefit anyone. But if you find yourself in that situation, then you need to evaluate, you know, what's going on on the other side. And of course it's better not to get into that scenario to begin with.
Shawn Yesner: You know, we talked about the different types of real estate loans that are available to business owners. As a business owner, is it better for me to try to raise my score and just qualify for a traditional business loan, you know, have my W2s and all that kind of stuff? Or is it better to go the other route and base my loan on bank statements, profit and loss statements, cash flow statements? Should I try to conform to the system or should I go the other route?
Alejandro Szita: That's a very good question and the answer is very personal. What I've seen is some people are very close to the traditional route, in their affairs. So when I see that, I try to help them move to the traditional route in order to qualify. You know, usually it takes between one and two months for most people to qualify that way. Now, if you are very, very far apart, like the other attorney that I was telling you, makes 2 million but he makes 50 grand, the gap is so big that there is no way of even thinking about that. Now the difference between the traditional and the alternative is about half a percent. So that means, just to throw a number, if you could have gotten a 5% loan, traditionally the other side is about 5.5%. So the difference is not that great. But if you're not that far away, I would rather push you to the traditional guidelines so you can get a better deal.
Shawn Yesner: Okay, and that brings up another question, is what do I look out for in order to know if I've got a good mortgage? And let me sort of preface that too with, you mentioned it goes up half a percent if you do a different type of loan. I've always been of the opinion that you don't focus so much on the percentage that the interest rate. And that's what a lot of people today, especially I know I heard this morning, I don't know what you're seeing, but I've heard this morning that rates are now inching into the 6% range where they used to be at 4%. But you know, if I said to you, I'll give you a 6% loan and your payments are gonna be a thousand dollars, or you can borrow twice as much at 4%, but your payments are gonna be $1,800. Well, I'd sort of much rather have the lower payment, even if it's a slightly higher interest rate.
Alejandro Szita: It's not about the rate, it's never about the rate. It's about what you're trying to achieve. What you're trying to achieve doesn't necessarily mean a lower rate. And I think, and another thing is this, you hear like you, you said to me, you hear on the radio, you, you look on TV or the rate is blocked. That rate, almost no one can get it by the way. That's just a number being thrown out. Why? Because the rate depends on your credit score, depends on the type of property you're buying, depends if you're gonna live in it or not. Depends on how much money you're putting down. Depends on whether you are a W2 employee or doing bank statements. And there are like five or six other criterias. So by the time that I looked at your scenario, you're going to qualify for a specific rate that maybe your next door neighbor will not be able to get or vice versa.
So it's not about the rate, it's about what you're planning to achieve. A quick example, I'm quoting a mortgage for this couple that wants to buy a house and use it for investment purposes. They went to a credit union, and the credit union will always give you the best deal in terms of costs and fees. So if you want to save money on rates, become a member of a credit union, and for most people that just wanna buy a house to live in it as a primary residence, the credit union will always be the best alternative. But once you move from that universe a little and you start to get into the business side of it, that changes because credit unions don't cater to business people. They cater to people that wanna buy their primary residence. And then what matters is the deal, maybe you need to pay more points, maybe you need to pay a higher rate, but maybe the type of loan that you're getting allows you to get what you're looking for. So it's not about the rate, it's about your purpose, it's about your objective. I don't know if that answers your question.
Shawn Yesner: No, no. I think it does. And I agree with you and that's sort of how I tried to set it up, is that people that are focusing on interest rate, and I get it, a lower interest rate means lower payments in most cases, but people that are focused on interest rate may be focused on the wrong thing. Focused on, is the payment affordable? Focused on, is the house affordable? If you qualify for a $400,000 loan, that doesn't mean you want to get a $450,000 house and put 50 grand down. Why not get a $300,000 house and put 50 grand down and, and you know, put another hundred grand into improvements or whatever. So I completely agree, is that interest rate isn't the only thing, but is there anything else that a borrower should be looking out for to avoid a bad mortgage?
Alejandro Szita: You know, I wouldn't call them bad mortgages, I would call them undisclosed mortgages. You see, I come from a real estate background and I did a lot of real estate, and in real estate you have this rule, disclose, disclose, disclose, disclose. When I got into the mortgage business back in 2006, it was worse than it is today. And people in the mortgage business do not want to disclose, they don't want to tell people how much a loan really costs because to originate a loan is expensive. Even in Florida where you are, where you can buy a home for $300,000, we're talking about anywhere between $6,000 to $15,000 on a mortgage. So they promote this idea of the no points mortgage, you know, that you don't have to pay any points and points are viewed as this bad thing, but you are paying in one way or the other.
There is a little sneaky rule that if you are a bank, if you are a credit union, if you are a lender, and defining by lender, that if you get a loan that says, Joe Blow Lender, and the paperwork that you're gonna sign says, Joe Blow Lender, they don't have to disclose how much you're getting paid in the back. Mortgage brokers like me, we are like, you know, we have to disclose how much we get. And especially here in California, there is a form that you have to fill in how much the brokerage is gonna get. So we have to disclose it, but lenders do not. So what I've seen them do is they hide their compensation within the points, because points really means that you're buying down the rate, which means that you are paying the lender in order to get a lower rate.
That should be a completely separate line. It should be called discounted points. But the law allows them to merge and mix their compensation in between in order to hide it, in order to say, oh, well look, this loan is not really costing you. But that is not true. So the problem with loans is not that they're bad or they're good, it's that they're undisclosed, they're not explained. You know, we, I take the trouble of explaining every single line of the loan estimate, every single line of the closing disclosure. I have a Zoom call with my clients for one or two hours to review all of the paperwork of the loan before the notary here in California, you know, the notary shows up, then you sign. In Florida, I understand that you can sign it right away at the closing office, the settlement office, the title company, and you're done.
Here it's not like that. So I explain every single document and that is when it's not done. If you're gonna get a loan, just make sure your loan officer or broker or whoever really explains it line by line. Loans are very, and remember this, loans are expensive and you are always paying for it. You're either paying it upfront and you can see it in black and white or you can pay it in the back. What does it mean in the back, it means that you're paying a slightly higher rate in order for the financial institution to compensate the people that originated the loan. And there is no escaping that no matter what the person says, no, don't worry, there is no point, there is no this. The only people that you can believe in are credit unions. Why? Because credit unions are a sort of a nonprofit organization, not a nonprofit, but they are a profit for their members, and therefore you can, if they say, you know, this is no point loans, I will believe them.
Shawn Yesner: Yeah, credit unions are member owned. And so I've had situations. So credit unions are some of the toughest to negotiate with. So if you have a credit card or something that you want to try to negotiate with them, they're some of the hardest to negotiate with in terms of, they won't take a discount on what's owed because they say we're owned by the members, we're not owned by a bunch of shareholders and stockholders and whatnot. At the same time, they're some of the easiest to negotiate with because they have a lot more flexible terms. You go to a Bank of America and they're really not gonna do much for you. You go to a credit union and they have ways we can, you know, extend this out so you can pay it back over a longer period of time or, or whatever. So yeah, I was gonna say credit unions are member owned versus, you know, stockholder owned, stockholder driven. So I did want to give out your contact information here real quick. I've got your email address, which is Alejandro@prosperitylending.us.
Alejandro Szita: Or a quicker one or a simpler one will be info@prosperitylending.us. Some people may not know how to spell Alejandro though, thanks to Lady Gaga, I think that's changing. But info@prosperitylending.us. It's a simpler one.
Shawn Yesner: Yeah. I'll put that in the notes. So if you didn't catch it, you can go to the notes. You can find Alejandro's information. I do want to talk about, real quick, I wanna talk about our, our second sponsor. And so for those of you that are longtime listeners, you know Sam Cohen with Attorneys First Insurance. And so Sam writes Errors and Omissions insurance or Malpractice Coverage for attorneys and title companies all over the country. Now Sam is located here in Florida, so he's got a particular focus on Florida. I know he's got a particular focus on Texas. And a great way to support the show would be to support Sam and Mark, our sponsor from the beginning. But you can give Sam a referral to an attorney or a new title company, you know, that is just starting up. He can write their E&O policy, their Malpractice Coverage. You can reach him at Sam@attorneysfirst.com or www.attorneysfirst.com. But Alejandro, anything, anything you wanted to add, anything we didn't talk about?
Alejandro Szita: I think we covered it all. Thank you, Shawn. It's been a pleasure talking to you, meeting you and being on your show.
Shawn Yesner: Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it. And this is an interesting topic and one close to my heart. Obviously it's a self-employed business owner, but one that we've never really tackled before on the show in terms of why is it so difficult for the self-employed to get mortgages. So I appreciate the conversation. Thank you very much for being on the show. I will wrap up this show like I wrap up all my others and hope that at the end of the month you have more money rather than at the end of the money you have more month. Thank you again to Alejandro Szita. I'll post his contact information and, and all the other information in the show notes. And I think that'll do it for this week's episode of the Crushing Debt Podcast. And we look forward to talking to you in next week's episode.
