EP# 216: Rooted in Community: Bryan Brackeen’s Journey from Aerospace to Home Financing with a Touch of Football and Jiu-Jitsu
Mar 27, 2024Episode 216
Garfield Bowen & Bryan Brackeen
What makes Bryan Brackeen with Fairway Independent Mortgage a good neighbor?
When a man with a deep passion for community and a rich family heritage in home financing joins us, you know we're in for an inspiring listen. Bryan Brackeen, of Fairway Independent Mortgage, steps out of the world of aerospace, where he's carved a 17-year career, and into a realm where personal connections and custom-tailored home financing solutions reign supreme. He's not just about crunching numbers; Brian is also the coach of his sons' flag football team and a dedicated Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner, offering us a multifaceted portrait of a man whose life is as dynamic as the mortgage solutions he provides.
This heartfelt conversation with Brian doesn't just scratch the surface; it shows us the power of remaining true to one's roots. His commitment is exemplified by his choice to keep his original phone number, a nod to his unwavering dedication to personal service and community values. As we wrap up, we don't just thank him for his stories and insights, but we also extend a call to our listeners to honor the local businesses that punctuate their neighborhoods with character and service, just like Brian does in Wichita and Port St. Lucie.
What makes Bryan Brackeen with Fairway Independent Mortgage a good neighbor?
When a man with a deep passion for community and a rich family heritage in home financing joins us, you know we're in for an inspiring listen. Bryan Brackeen, of Fairway Independent Mortgage, steps out of the world of aerospace, where he's carved a 17-year career, and into a realm where personal connections and custom-tailored home financing solutions reign supreme. He's not just about crunching numbers; Brian is also the coach of his sons' flag football team and a dedicated Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner, offering us a multifaceted portrait of a man whose life is as dynamic as the mortgage solutions he provides.
This heartfelt conversation with Brian doesn't just scratch the surface; it shows us the power of remaining true to one's roots. His commitment is exemplified by his choice to keep his original phone number, a nod to his unwavering dedication to personal service and community values. As we wrap up, we don't just thank him for his stories and insights, but we also extend a call to our listeners to honor the local businesses that punctuate their neighborhoods with character and service, just like Brian does in Wichita and Port St. Lucie.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Garfield Bowen.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a mortgage company? Well, one may be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your neighbor, brian Breckin, with Fairway Independent Mortgage Team. Breckin, brian, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3:
I'm doing. Well, how are you doing, garfield?
Speaker 2:
I am well. Look, we're excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us about your company.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so you know, mortgage business, right, for me is a family business and my family's been doing the business now for 30 years. I'm originally from Wichita, kansas, and if you've ever been there beautiful place, but the winter is a little harsh, right. So I moved to Port St Lucie, treasure Coast area here 10 years ago. I do the business here, the rest of my family does the business there Still one big, happy family business Now Garfield.
Speaker 3:
That being said, you can't be a family business in the mortgage space, right? I mean lots of very large online lenders, large banks. So we teamed up with a large national company, fairway Fairway Independent Mortgage, and we chose them really for two reasons. Number one they're independently held. There are no shareholders. I get calls, I get recruiting calls probably four or five a week from large banks who do have shareholders.
Speaker 3:
We're just not interested in working with them because it changes who I work for, right? If I work for a publicly traded company, then I work for the shareholders and I don't work for my borrowers, and it's just. It's a different connotation and not something that we were interested in. That's why we teamed up with Fairway Independent Mortgage and independently owned and held, excuse me. Second reason is Fairway, very large company in the top 10 purchase lenders in the nation, so teamed up with them, because they have a portfolio of products such that basically if it can be done I can do it. Or the flip side is, if I can't do it, it can't be done. So I get the benefit of working for a very large company with product offerings across the board, but I still get to operate as a family business. So that's kind of the elevator speech there.
Speaker 2:
So, brian, I know Kansas had a little bit to do with the Super Bowl. Tell us how did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so, like I said, it's a family business. So you know, I spent the first parts of my career first 17 years in aerospace and and I worked for they're in the news now the Boeing company and a number of suppliers for the Boeing company for 17 years. During that period of time I had 15 different jobs. They just kept promoting me and moving me around and that's actually how I ended up in the Treasure Coast. I came to work for a supplier of Boeing in Stewart and I was with that job for three years. We had a change of the CEOo at that company and the culture shifted when that, when that change occurred. So I was there another year after the ceo changed and then decided to stop doing aerospace and join the family business and that was about nine years ago now joined the family business.
Speaker 2:
so, um, that's what got me into it you touched on a little bit about fairway being a large company and uh with no shareholders. But uh, what are some of the myths and misconception of the uh mortgage industry?
Speaker 3:
you know um a couple of things. You know that I'll talk about. That happen in a transaction is typical mortgage transaction is you call somebody on the phone a loan officer, mortgage broker, something of that nature Typically. You'll be on the phone with them for a couple of minutes. They'll send you to a website where you'll fill out an application. They'll call you back and they'll prescribe a loan program to you. So the the typical myths or typical interactions are really very little, you know, between the customer and and the loan officer. I do things quite different, we do things quite different. Um, I never send you to website if you're adamant you want to go to website.
Speaker 3:
I've had one or two clients like that over the years, but for the most part you know we'll have a detailed conversation, gar. We'll go into detail. Take the application over the phone. You get a chance to ask any questions or anything you have. You know about the process Because for most people you know you don't buy a lot of houses right throughout your lifetime. Maybe you've had one or two experiences in the past. So each and every time you do it you may have additional questions or you're just at a different point in life to where the prior deal doesn't really give you experience or lend you experience to the current deal. So the biggest, I think, misconception there is that we just take your application and we go back in the back room and we come out with a magic answer sometime later. And while you know a lot of my colleagues may operate in that manner, we certainly don't.
Speaker 2:
So, Brian, when you're not busy running your business, what do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so I have two young boys. Well, one is age 12. One is almost age eight, so they keep me busy with they do flag football. I've coached flag football for the last for goodness, five years, and my boys and I are all involved in a local school with Brazilian jiu-jitsu, so martial arts is also a big part of our lives. I got a brother that's two years older than me.
Speaker 2:
Jiu-Jitsu some martial arts is also a big part of our lives. Okay, I got a brother that's two years older than me Growing up. We tore up the house. I don't know how my parents did it, but we literally tore up holes, punching, kicking, the whole nine yards. But let's change gears a little bit. Life often throws us curveballs. Let's talk about a hardship, one struggle, something you can look back to the end, so you're better and stronger because of it. What comes to mind?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, you know to me, you know, professionally right. I mean there's always personal stories, there's professional stories. But professional story probably the greatest hardship I had was my last year in aerospace, Like I talked about. We had a new CEO, garfield. I would get to work every day at 6 am and I literally didn't know when I was going to come home. And I'll tell you, there was a few nights I didn't come home, I slept at the factory. I didn't sleep actually, we worked all night and then we worked the rest of the day and you know it was. It was so hit or miss. And again, you know you can't. I have young boys and they were even younger at that time Very difficult to balance that kind of work life and still have a home life, which is one of the reasons that I left that industry. That definitely was the most trying time in my professional career. Was that period of time?
Speaker 2:
So you felt like you gave birth when you let that company go. Huh.
Speaker 3:
It was a very, very large weight off me. You know a very large weight and you know garfield, the, the mortgage business again family business. But my educational background is very fortunate, working for the boeing company and other companies where they had a tremendous uh tuition wasn't even reimbursement, it was tuition they paid up front. So as long as you work full-time for them they would pay for your schooling anything you want to do. So while I was there I took a large you know advantage of that and my first degree was in finance, again another degree in accounting and in an MBA. The first one I paid for, but the second, the accounting degree in the MBA, my employer paid for, so huge benefit. So, point being, it wasn't a large stretch to jump from aerospace to the mortgage industry because it's such a strong financial background.
Speaker 2:
Okay, I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit here, brian, if that's okay. Is that okay? Absolutely. I know you have a lot to say about your business, but I want you to narrow it down to one thing, one thing that you want our listeners to remember about Fairway Independent Mortgage and the team Brachene.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I think the biggest thing, I think the biggest separator, right. I mean, if you go to mortgage companies, I'm not going to say that we don't have some niche products that other companies don't have. We certainly have that. But you know, 80% of borrowers are going to utilize the same load programs that most everybody has. The real difference, the real difference between me and them, or the way our family business runs versus your, you know, run of the mill loan officer from a major bank or online lender is those folks are salespeople. That's what they do. The entire interaction is a sales pitch. If you have questions, good luck, because it's a sales pitch. That's what they do. They do sales. They don't have the knowledge and background of all the guidelines and things to the depth that they really need to.
Speaker 3:
The way that we approach Garfield is more of I'm a consultant. I honestly don't care which loan program you pick. It doesn't matter to me. I will talk about your situation. We will take an application, we will go and process that application and I will bring you back options, which is tremendously different than the normal experience for folks. And with those options, I'll give you pros and cons. Hey, garfield, you could do option A here's the pros and cons. You could do option B. Here's the pros and cons. Here's my recommendation. What would you like to do? A completely different experience than most are accustomed to.
Speaker 2:
A lot of my listeners are there and either they themselves or family members are looking to buy a home and they're shopping for a mortgage, and they probably have one word on their mind right now and that's how. One word on their mind right now and that's how how can I get more information on Fairway Independent Mortgage and specifically the team Bracken.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, the biggest thing is, I think you see my website there in my name wwwiapproveflcom. You can absolutely go there, read about us. That's my contact information. Please give me a call. Give me a phone call. I'd love to talk to you. We can talk through your specific situation.
Speaker 3:
You know, some people say, hey, you know, I worked with a lender what I were two, three months ago, six months ago, whatever time for him is and and they denied me. Not a problem, give me a ring, we'll work through it. Right, the answer from us is never no, it might be not right now, but here's the steps we need to do so that we can turn that around and be approved in the future, and we'll even put time frames to that right. So, um, that really is the biggest difference. And again, you know I would, I would talk to people. Or what I would say to people is if you want to purchase, give me a ring, we'll build a plan. Is there a number you'd like to share? Sure, my, uh, my number. You can reach me on 316-734-6856, so the 316. Throwback to my wichita roots. We kept kept the same number on these years listen, brian.
Speaker 2:
I really appreciate having you on the show. I wish you and your business the very best moving forward. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Port St Lucie. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpportsaintluciecom. That's gnpportsaintluciecom, or call 772-362-3840.