🎙️ 38 Years in Mortgages, One Rule That Never Changed: A Story Of Resilience, Reinvention and Grit

Why do many deals fall apart when on paper everything looks fine? Today's guest is Ann Zylingold, manager and VP at FM Home Loans LLC. And specializes in deals that don't just fit the box, but scenarios that most lenders really shy away from. She's licensed in over 20 states and is known for getting all the deals done when everyone else says no. This conversation is about trust, problem solving, and what grit looks like when people's home and futures are on the line. Listen this week on Jewish Grit. >> And thank you so much for coming and sitting with us today. >> You're so welcome. We're so experiencing to come to Manhattan. Thank you. Well, I would love to know a little bit more about you. Can you tell us, you know, what you do and Sure. and a little bit about the field? >> So, I'm a mortgage loan originator. I run a branch of FM Home Loans in New City, New York. Um, what I do is I help people get into homes, whether buying a house or even help them refinance if they have for whatever reason they want to take cash out of their home, they want to reduce the monthly payments by reducing their rates, all different kind of purposes. I help people with mortgage loans. Um, I've been doing this now about 38 years at this point. Wow. >> I started when I was 18 years old. It was almost my first field. Um, I say almost is because I tell most people it's my first field, but it really wasn't. I was in real estate for a few months before and um, I was 18 at the time and this was my ticket out of the real estate office because I was uncomfortable in the dynamics in the office and I was too young to just like leave. I got this excuse to go into another business. So, I became a mortgage went to the mortgage business at that point and that's what I that's what I do. So tell me what you've grown today because it's an incredible operation that you're running. >> In um I started in 1988 in the mortgage field. The first two years I really just learned the field. I don't think I made any money. Maybe I did two loans seriously and it probably family loans. And then I had my first daughter and I said to myself, how am I going to ever go to work with a baby? So but I had already just bought a house. So I found I worked actually for my father for a couple years about three or four years and I helped him with his property management. And then I decided to go into become a real estate investor. I thought it was the best thing to do. And I listened to some podcast or tape at that point which said that you should buy real estate on credit cards. So I bought three pieces of real estate using credit cards to fund the purchases. And before I turned around, they were on the wrong side of the tracks. I had drug people. People weren't paying rent. And I was had all this property and I had crazy credit card bills. And then one of my houses was condemned for imminent domain. And so the rent from that one, the four family just stopped at one point. So I had $90,000 on credit cards. I had three little kids. And I really felt it was my my fault, my responsibility because I put our family into this situation. So I decided that I have to like I went back into the mortgage business full-time. This 1993, I made a decision to send my daughter to a babysitter for nine hours a week. Was really, really hard for me to do that, my third daughter. And I just focused. I made myself a five-year plan. I was going to pay off all this debt and I was going to save $50,000 so I can buy another house because I like my house but I wanted something I wanted a colonial not the B level and all that and I just plugged at it and looking back I did a lot of things right but I didn't know I was doing them right I just I connected to Amway believe it or not because they had a book and tape program and I wanted to connect the business books and they gave you one one a month and that's why I did that for that program for that portion and the the tapes were very inspirational so it got me going a a little bit and then I spoke to an insurance agent who told me about her card program, how she kept in touch with past clients. So, I adapted it for my business and since 1995, I've been doing, you know, cards and keeping in touch with past clients. And it just the business kind of went and instead of me doing what my goal is in five years, I finished in four years. And by that point when the business started, it kind of snowballed. It just happened by itself. I was I I was having children. I had five kids, six kids at this time. and just kind of snowballed and just kept on going and and then it came um then in 200 what was it 2004 I I um connected with somebody we became partners in a brokerage and we grew that and we had some loan officers who worked for us and then the crash hit in 2009 it's 2007 2009 about and my partner said I'm out I can't do this anymore I can't I can't be in the mortgage business anymore and I just um that's when I connected with FM home loans I became a loan officer started a branch with them back in 2009 and it was actually was I met him on um was in was on Tishab was in July of 2009 and I signed up September and I've been with them ever since and it just we just just plotted just go through it day after day after day after day and um >> so what does your team look like now? >> My team today looks like we have um I divide my process into two parts. I have the part from lead to contract or lead to a refinance appraisal and then the part from application to closing. So in the lead to contract I have right now two people and myself and on my contract to closing I have now four people. I have three three processors two and a half processors I should say. I have someone who helps with marketing and admin stuff. And um I'm looking to grow my team now. I'm looking to hire now. So I'm procly I'm actively hiring. I have some they've chosen of which I'm going to sign up this week and I'm looking for three more because our business is growing and the leads are growing. >> And you also have other people under you, right, that have different branches. >> Well, what I have what I have is I brought when I came to FM, I had nurtured loan officers before and I brought them with me and other loan officers I have working with me now. Two of them I had with me prior to FM prior to 2009 and I brought um two or three others along the way. I'm very selective. I'm not looking to grow my loan officer team right now. If somebody wants to work with me, I'm open to listening and hearing. But the loan officers that I have are are very they're good at what they do. They're excellent at their fields. And they kind of have mini offices that that grow from my branch. They run their own team just like I do. They have their people who take them from contract to close or whatever, however they want to set up their offices. They work directly with their underwriters directly, not through me. And um they're pretty much autonomous, but they're under my umbrella. >> Wow. You know, you you say that you do creative loans. So, when did you learn that your strength wasn't just originating loans, but actually being creative thinker and helping people problem solve to get into a home? >> Well, you know, it's very interesting. I am not by personality type is not like ra I'm not a rahrh personality. I'm not the kind of person that I'm going to meet you the first time and you're going to be oh my gosh, this is the most charismatic person I ever met and this is the person I want to connect with. I don't have that kind of harra personality. Yeah. >> But I'm an educator. I like information. So I'm married to a CPA. So for the last, you know, 30 years, I've asked every kind of accounting question you can imagine. And I became very good at reading tax returns. There's a lot of income I can pull from a tax return. I just learned how to use that. The second thing is that I don't know it's because I love the mortgage business so much. I just I read a guideline. I remember it. I understand guidelines. And I I read the guidelines. I know, you know, we all everyone in the mortgage industry has the same tools. We all have guidelines. We all have programs, but sometimes you could you're able to just understand them a little better or know something somebody else doesn't know. So, I just have a very good basic knowledge and I ask a lot of questions. If you ask anyone FM home loans, I think I probably ask the most questions. I'm always calling up the head underwriter. Hi, can I just just I just have a few minutes? I just have a question. I have so many questions as I learn a lot from those questions and I apply that to the clients who call me. >> Was there ever a high pressure case that really tested you? >> I've dealt with a lot of high pressure. Um I had something that's happened just this past year. Like I'll give you an example and I actually I thrive on it. I like this. It's very thrilling to me. >> So this is a great one. So I had a client that owned a house and they found another house they wanted to buy. in order for them to buy their new house, so many things had to fall into place and everything had to fall into place the right way. So the first thing is they had to they had to refinance uh a commercial property which would they had a lot of money tied up in the commercial property. Then they had to take a a second a home equity line of credit on the home they lived in now to bridge them. Then they needed to be able to qualify for the new house. So everything had to happen and it couldn't happen simultaneously. So, first we had first the commercial part had to go through, then the home equity had to go through, then the new purchase had to go through, and everything was going well until suddenly they found out that their seller was in foreclosure and the timeline had to be moved up by like three or three weeks or so. And we had timed everything. If everything went right, that would happen. It wouldn't have happened on time. So, we had to speed up the time frame. And there's other snags in the middle. There's a credit snag. There was a a reporting late on a car payment. Turns out that they had turned in a car and for some reason like they reported them late and like right then it showed up as a late payment and it could have derailed the entire thing because the commercial loan maybe wouldn't have closed but they decided to close anyway. The home equity line of credit wouldn't have closed but they also decided to close regardless. And when it came to the next mortgage with the late payment on the mortgage the rate would have been like really high at that time about about 7 and a half% with like two points. And meanwhile, they started to work with the with the bank with because they they didn't feel they were late. It was like a $50 fee of some sort. And and with nothing doing, so they had to close. The house was being forclosed. They didn't have any time. And as they get ready to close the following week, like literally they get a letter from the bank that they're moving the late payment. They they agreed with the they agreed to reverse the late charge. So here's Thursday. They're supposed to close on Tuesday or Wednesday. and we suddenly get the credit the the letter from the bank from the from the car company that they're not they're they're removing the 30-day late. We sent in for a rapid rescore normally takes 5 days. It happened in 24 hours. We rewrote the loan and we closed on time at a rate of six and 38. >> Whoa. >> And this all happened like it's like it's like everything that's supposed to happen wasn't supposed to happen happened. Then everything that could have happened just happened. And so I can't say I did anything. Yes, I did direct them to the right parties. I told them what they need to do. But in the same time, it everything fell into place. And I feel every day I see Yahashem. I see I see the hand of God like directing everything that I do. It's like sometimes like you could let these like little whispers go right by, but I see it all the time. I see it when I'm dealing with clients. I see it when I'm dealing with everything. I just see I just see that things fall into place are supposed to happen that seemingly improbable. Um just it just like I just see that like I see God directing every part of my life whether my business life, my personal life, like every part he's right there. >> Let's talk a little bit about your Jewish journey because you know we're touching upon upon it right now. Talk to me about it. How did you grow up and you know where are you today in that journey? >> Okay so I grew up in Muny, New York. I grew up from a I came from come come from a large family. I'm one of 13 siblings. >> Wow. Um both my parents are Bali Chuva and so we grew up we learned more we knew more than our parents back then you know we we'd go to school we went to yeshiva spring valley we'd go to school we'd come home and tell our parents what we learned in school and we kind of all grew together and then when I was about um when I was 14 my mother passed away and a year and a half later my father remarried and she remarried and then they had subsequently more children so the family grew and um I I when I when there's a couple things with part of my talking about my growing up so my father's from I'm actually from the West Indies. He's from Jamaica. And he he gave us certain life lessons which I think has taken me through. And one of them was that he didn't let us work for anybody. So he felt that we should always be self-employed. We should be um we should have our we can control our own income. But when it came time when I graduated high school and um you know I'd had good grades, I got scholarships, I took a I do well in the SATs, it was like college wasn't going to be an option because that means I'd get a job and I wasn't supposed to get a job. I have to go into sales. Hence, I got into real estate than mortgages because I wasn't you know we allowed to work for anybody, you know. So we started So that's that's kind of what I grew up. I grew up in a little unconventional but uh but you know from household a religious household in Muny, New York. We had a lot of friends and I went through the basis of school system. >> Right. It sounds like your early years were a lot about resilience and and confidence that your father instilled in you just naturally just by growing up in that in that world. >> I was so scared when I went out the first time. I remember every time I used to walk into a real a mortgage office, a real estate office that's I used to do my milk route. I'd call him I say pop I'm about to walk in. He said, "Just go in." You know, I was really so scared. I was really a shy person. Like, you never know now how I was such a shy teenager because I'm no longer shy. I forced myself not to be shy. But, um, yeah, I think he instilled I think a lot of um my success and a lot my family's success is that that being instilled in us that we can do it. There's no sailing and that we should be we should self-direct our income and our profession. So besides for calling your dad and having him help you and give you encouragement, what did you say to yourself to get out of those moments of like fear? >> I can't even remember. It was like back then it was like such a long time ago. It's almost in a blur. But I'll tell you today work in a stressful field. I and I deal with different people's stress and I'm also I'm helping people like the most important as I said the most important purchase of their life. You know, you say you see people when they're when they deal with their money, they get very scared and they're nervous and I'm dealing with that. And I always say like every given moment I have hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars of people's down payments I'm responsible for. Yeah. >> And I feel that I feel that very strongly. So, um, every time something doesn't go well or something doesn't go right, not even for my clients, let's say for me, let's say I'm trying to get a big account and I don't get that account or I'm trying to or I'm competing to get a loan, I don't get the loan and I'm like, "Oh, no. I didn't get that one." My first thing is to do is just like pick up the phone, just go back to prospecting. go down to the basics. Go pick up the phone and start making more phone calls. Just get back into it. What happened happen? The other thing is that I have a gift. I think it's a gift that, you know, I sleep very well at night. I go to bed and I'm out like a light and I wake up in the morning bright and sunny every day. I never wake up depressed. I never wake up upset. I can have had the worst day the day before. But that morning is, I'm ready to go. I'm going to figure it out. This day is going to be different than the day before. And whatever happened happened and what's going to come is going to come. And I just take that like that. The other thing is that I don't worry about things I can't change. It's a it's a blessing and a curse. Good cuz it's you're able to not have a stressful life that way. The problem is I learned I'm so good at that I can turn on and turn off. So I can confuse people sometimes but um if I can't like I'll give you an example of that. I had a situation just this past year like it really stands to. I have this thing I don't like to tell people bad news on Friday. I feel like especially dealing with Orthodox Jewish people sometimes for sure they're going into Shabas why they need to go and hearing a bad news and even people that aren't Jewish non-Jewish people why why they should go into the weekend hearing bad news if they can't do anything about it if they can do something about it obviously I'll tell them so they don't waste time but if there's something they can't do anything about I'll just wait I'll wait till Sunday or Monday I just usually Sunday so I had this client that was supposed to close on a Tuesday and we sent in the file for clear to close. And prior to this, he was a little upset because he wanted to get a little better rate. And I explained to him that his credit score wasn't really good enough for such a good rate. And he said, "Why'd you tell me before?" And I told him, "I'm so happy you get a mortgage. I didn't even occur to me to tell you that if it was a few points higher that maybe the rate would be a little bit better because this guy had a credit history and we got him to point to getting a mortgage." So, he spoke to somebody else and I told him he does X, Y, and Z, he'll be able to get his credit score up. And he told me about it. And I said, "Okay, I don't know anyone who get your credit score up in the next week the way they're telling you, but if it happens, great." Comes to me a few days later, you can rerun my credit. My credit score is higher. What happened was he added his name to somebody as an authorized user, and his score shot up. It's really what happened. And so I um it was great. We got him approved. We sent him in with a better credit score. It lowered his interest rate. He was happy. I'm happy. I get a call on Friday last year. It was Friday, March 14th. How do we know the date? My son got married March 16th with two days before the wedding >> and I got a phone call from the underwriter that she's looking through the file and unfortunately there's an authorized user that wasn't there before and we have to remove it. Now to remove it from bureau level takes about 10 days. So here I have to call this guy and tell him he's not closing on Tuesday, he's closing in 10 days and not only that he's going to get a lower rate the higher rate at the end. It's like how you tell I'm perm about it. And then she says, "The underwrite I said there's another way we can do the loan, but that that way wouldn't have worked because of some other things in the file." So, okay. So, this is what it was. I decided I'm not going to tell him on Friday. So, then I I put it away. So, then Sunday, I'm getting ready for the wedding at 12:00. I stepped out from wherever I was. I remember getting my makeup done or something and I said, "I just have to make a phone call." And I go into the hallway and I call the client and I said, "Listen, my son's getting married tonight. I didn't want to call you on Friday when it was Purim, but we have a situation with your mortgage." And as I'm talking to him, it hit me a solution in my head. And I said, "This is what happened. This is where I think the solution could be." So he says, "Okay, I'll let you know if I can do that." And he calls me up 15 minutes later, it's good. And we were able to close. But sometimes when you sleep on something or you give it a few minutes to take a step back and you go back into it, you can figure something out. So >> what would you say to a young professional that's looking to go into a career that's commissionbased or high stakes? I think that commissionbased income is great there. As I said, there's no ceiling. It gives you a lot of freedom and flexibility, but at the same time, that freedom of flexibility could be if you don't know how to work that could be pretty bad. Yeah. >> So, I think anyone going to such a kind of field, number one, find a mentor. Look for mentors. Look for people that you can look up to. You could have multiple mentors for different things, but look for a mentor. Look for somebody to speak to or that you can connect with. Um, that's one. Number two, make sure that you make sure you you know they talk about work life balance, right? So, make sure you have me time like time is for yourself because you can get caught up when you're self-employed on a commission every dollar and every client and every phone call you can get caught up like working like never unplugging and you have to unplug at some point and so find and I'm not saying like I hear young people saying oh this is my time I'm not going to work between three and seven. I'm not saying that but find find within your schedule within your day. Time is just for you. For me, I do that. My time is early in the morning. I get up early every morning and that started like 30 years ago getting up. I had to be home before my husband left the house in the morning so I got up earlier. So just find me time which is important so you can disconnect. Um and the other thing always be constantly learning. Um don't think your education ends when you leave school. Constantly learn. I read a book a month, at least one kind of business book, leadership book, sales book, strategy book, negotiation book, something book every month. Constantly learn. Find people that you can learn from them and emulate them. I think that's important to constantly learn. Don't think or be be a student your whole entire life. And the last thing is that make sure you like what you're doing. I find that a lot of people do things, they get stuck in things, they don't really like it. and find something that you can really love and apply whatever you're whatever you love to do. Whatever whatever is important to you, whatever you have a passion for, they can channel into what you're doing because you can spend so many hours of your life working. You may as well have fun. You may as well enjoy it. So, love what you do. And the last thing is don't jump from thing to thing. That's I see a lot of people they they they give something a shot like three, four, five months. Not for me, not for me. I don't find success. They go to the next thing. And just if you feel you feel you can plug in, you see the potential, stick with it because these things take time. You don't make the big bucks right away. You have to you have to do the you got to do the the hard work. You got to do the deep digging. So that that would be the advice I give to somebody young. >> And this has been the most impactful interview. And I just want to say thank you so much for joining us today and um I can't wait to continue this conversation. Thank you for listening to Jewish Grit and Ol mentorship podcast. At Olm Mentorship, we believe that everyone needs a mentor. What better way is there to tap into your personal and professional potential than with a Jewish mentor at your side? Learn more at olam.org/mentorship. And don't forget to keep listening on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.