Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Tuscaloosa and Northport!
Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
NMI Mortgage Funding:Resilience in Real Estate with Winston Ausmer's Transition from Medicine to Mortgages
Embark on a journey with me, Patricia Blondheim, as I sit down with the remarkable Winston Ausmer, whose career leap from healthcare to home loans is nothing short of awe-inspiring. In a candid exchange, the mastermind behind NMI Mortgage Funding unveils the grit and wit it took to steer through the tumultuous 2008 housing crisis and emerge with a thriving business that's all heart. Winston's narrative is a masterclass in resilience and reinvention, offering crucial takeaways for anyone staring down the barrel of professional transformation.
Settle in for a heartfelt discussion that transcends the nuts and bolts of mortgages, as Winston opens up about his zeal for sports and the fulfillment he derives from his children's athletic pursuits—a poignant reminder of the delicate dance between career ambition and the richness of family life. His unwavering commitment to service and the golden rule of exceeding customer expectations are the bedrock of NMI Mortgage Funding's ethos, marking this episode as essential listening for those fascinated by the human stories behind local success stories and the profound impact of businesses built on a foundation of community and care. #GNPNorthport #NMIFunding #BirminghamMortgage #BirminghamMortgages #BirminghamRealEstate #BirminghamHomesForSale #RealEstate #HomesForSale #HomeFinancing #Refinance #ReverseMortgage
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, Patricia Blondheim, and today we have Good Neighbor Winston Osmond, and Winston is the owner and mortgage broker at NMI Funding in Hoover. Winston, how are you today?
Speaker 3:I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine, patricia, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great. Thank you. You came highly recommended and I understand you come highly recommended to most of the people that work with you. But tell me, what is it about NMI Funding? That is extraordinary.
Speaker 3:You know well, you know, I've been in the mortgage business for over 26 years and I've actually have learned that the biggest thing that that I feel like that we do is that we we we do our best to try to exceed our customer expectations. We do get a lot of referrals from real estate agents, from past customers and clients and so forth, but we try to make sure that we go above and beyond and exceeds our customer expectations, because if we do that, then we can expect to get a lot more referrals in the future, in the near future.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I think that a lot of people look at mortgage firms and they sort of see them as one homogenous bunch. This is when you go to get a mortgage, they're all basically the same. That's that myth for me.
Speaker 3:You know, you know, the thing about that makes us different. You know, mortgage broker as opposed to mortgage banker, you know, the thing about that makes us different. You know, mortgage broker as opposed to mortgage banker. You know, I'm saying we have an array of different lenders that can offer a lot of different programs and, you know, we and we assist first time homebuyers. It's important that we, we hold their hand, we guide them, and it's really important that we have very attractive programs for those individuals. Aware, you know, like 100 percent financing, down payment assistance, et cetera, which which pretty much makes us unique.
Speaker 2:Well, how did you get into this business, Winston? Did you? Did you come out of the? Did you come out of the birth birth room with a pen in your hand and a mortgage?
Speaker 3:contract. Well, you know, it's so funny. You ask that my background is the medical field. So that's pretty much what I did in college.
Speaker 3:I was working at Brookwood Hospital but I met a guy from Atlanta. He and I lived in the same subdivision, same subdivision and the thing about it is, you know, he introduced himself to me one day and he was a mortgage broker at the time and, uniquely, we, you know, became real good friends and he was a very successful mortgage broker and I was very intrigued at him and the level of success that he was having and I asked him a lot of questions. I hung out, you know, at his mortgage firm from time to time. I hung out at his mortgage firm from time to time and eventually, over a period of time, he kind of convinced me that that that I would do well in the mortgage business and I talked to my wife about it and I was in a position to where I kind of step, stepped out on faith and I said, if I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, this is my opportunity. And, um, I talked my wife about it and I left my full-time job and, um, and uh, and and and dove into it with both feet and I never looked at a huge challenge.
Speaker 3:It was a very. It was a huge challenge. It was a very. It was a huge challenge because you know I had a salary and then I decided to, you know, to leave my job and work there part time. You know I was I'll never forget that. You know, back in those days I was working at FedEx loading trucks and so forth, you know, until I got my clientele and so forth built up. But in January 2003, when I jumped into the business, he made me vice president of the company and since then we became partners in 2006 and 2007. I bought the company from him and I started my own company in my own name in 2008.
Speaker 2:2008. What an interesting time to do that, Winston.
Speaker 3:Yes, and that's probably one of the hardest times of my career, because here I bought a company and all of a sudden, the housing bubble burst and it was a very challenging time and, believe it or not, a lot of people, including my people, including my wife, says, hey, I think you need to do something else, you know, because it's going to be difficult. So, yes, the first, the next three years were, were, were very tough, uh, uh, but you know, there are a lot of people that were exiting this in this industry, uh, so I felt like it was a perfect time for me to step, to stay into it. And, um, um, I felt like it was a perfect time for me to stay into it and, and, like I said, I just, I just hung in there and stayed in there and says, hey, you know, I've got a big investment in into this and and I prayed and and I'm still here.
Speaker 2:Still here, you certainly are, and hopefully at a point now where you can take some time for yourself and sort of fill your own cup and do the things that light you up. So what are those things? What is fun for?
Speaker 3:you. You know, fun for me is I'm a big sports guy and I, you know, I'll be honest with you. I look at sports every day and I have three kids at home who are in competitive sports. I have a son who plays college football, I got a son who plays high school football and I have a daughter who is doing gymnastics competitions. She's 11 years old and she's level six gymnastics. So running around with them and just making sure that they're at the top of their game, you know and you know I just love to look at young people compete and then, quite naturally, you know that transfers into the business world as well. So I am definitely a big sports guy.
Speaker 2:Winston, tell me what can our readers take away about NMI funding.
Speaker 3:Well, you know the biggest thing is our expertise. You know I've got staff that's been with me for 15, I've even got an individual who's been with me for more than 26 years. So it's our expertise to ensure that we will supply a high level of service, mortgage products that they need and we help individuals to. You know to get across that line. You know to purchase property. You know we hold people's hand, we guide them through that process, we attend our closings and so forth.
Speaker 3:So we follow the transaction from the beginning to the end and a lot of transactions, when you notice there's a lot of brokers and lenders don't actually physically go to their closings. We want to make sure that that that we follow those clients all the way to signing the dotted line.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my mortgage brokers were usually at the other end of the phone if you needed them. That's right, yeah that's right. And a lot can happen at a closing table.
Speaker 3:It really did. I can't tell you how many times that I've had to fix things while I was there. You know a number could have been off or whatever you know, and I was. Because I was there I was able to fix it and and the customers recognize that, and that's, that's one way to exceed a customer's expectations, to make sure that you follow the transaction all the way to the closing table.
Speaker 2:That's pretty extraordinary. I'm rocking my brain right now. I've talked to a lot of mortgage brokers and I've never met one that would appear at the table.
Speaker 3:That's right, that's right If it's. If it's yeah, we try to tell, and all our loan officers do the same thing. So you know, I'm actually currently licensed in three states Alabama, georgia, mississippi, and and we take pride in doing that in those states as well.
Speaker 2:And and we take pride in doing that in those states as well.
Speaker 3:Wonderful. How can listeners learn more about NMI funding and contact you? Well, you know, our office number is area code 205-940-9660. They can even contact me on my cell phone, which is 205-296-6050. There are a lot of mortgage professionals that don't necessarily give out their cell number because they don't want to be contacted after hours. They don't want to be contacted over the weekends and, believe it or not, I talk to a lot of my customers over the weekends because you know what generally happens on the weekends. You know customers are out looking at properties and they may have questions or they may be working from seven to five and can't really talk about things that that are pertinent to their transaction. So you know, I do a lot of communication with my customers via text and I do answer my phone after hours and I just really felt like that's really been really helped me to be successful with our customers. But we do have a website.
Speaker 2:That website is wwwnmifundingcom and we will link to your website in the description below. Thank you, winston, for coming by and sharing your servants heart and your excellent customer service through NMI Funding. It's been great getting to know you.
Speaker 3:Right. Thank you so much for having me. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbirminghamcom. That's gnpbirminghamcom, or call 205-952-0148.