Ryan Thomson - Assumable Mortgages Explained, How to Take Over a 2–3% Mortgage in Today’s Market | Real Estate Educators Podcast with Kevin Amolsch

Description

When mortgage rates jumped in 2022, Ryan Thomson saw a problem. The house hacking strategy that had helped him build his own real estate portfolio was becoming harder for his clients to replicate. That led him to rediscover a financing tool that had largely been forgotten during decades of falling rates: assumable mortgages.

In this episode of the Real Estate Educators Podcast, Kevin Amolsch talks with Ryan, aka “The Assumable Guy,” about how assumable mortgages work and why they could offer an alternative for buyers and real estate investors in a higher-rate environment. Ryan explains how qualifying FHA and VA loans can be transferred from a seller to a buyer, including the existing loan balance, interest rate, and remaining term.

Of course, there’s a catch: the buyer still needs to cover the seller’s equity. Ryan explains the different ways buyers may be able to bridge that gap, including cash, secondary financing, and potentially seller financing. He and Kevin also discuss why the value for investors may go beyond immediate cash flow, with low-rate debt potentially producing significant principal paydown over time.

Ryan also shares his own journey from social work to house hacking, becoming a full-time real estate agent, and eventually building a niche around assumable loans. They discuss how specializing helped Ryan differentiate himself in a crowded real estate industry, why “education plus action” has been central to his success, and how he thinks through fear and risk when making major decisions.

Whether you’re a real estate investor looking for alternative financing strategies, a homebuyer trying to navigate higher mortgage rates, or an agent looking for a way to differentiate yourself, this episode offers an introduction to assumable mortgages and the opportunities Ryan sees in this overlooked corner of real estate.

00:00 – From social work to real estate investing
05:05 – Living for free and cash flowing $1,500/month
09:25 – What is an assumable mortgage?
15:05 – Do assumable mortgages cash flow for investors?
18:25 – Assumable mortgages vs. subject-to deals
20:05 – Finding properties with assumable FHA & VA loans
26:40 – Expanding the assumable mortgage strategy
31:00 – Finding a niche in a crowded real estate industry
36:40 – Ryan’s advice for dealing with fear and risk

Connect with Ryan Thomson

Ryan shares assumable mortgage opportunities and educational content through The Assumable Guy. His team currently works throughout Colorado’s Front Range and is expanding into additional markets: https://assumableguy.com/

You can also find Ryan on Instagram by searching The Assumable Guy.

Learn more about Pine Financial Group: https://pinefinancialgroup.com/

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Speaker #0
I've been in this current house for a couple of years, but after that third property, I quit my job and I went full-time real estate agent.
Speaker #1
Okay.
Speaker #0
And my goal was I'm going to help other people house hack and reach financial freedom. Education plus action, just doing the steps daily to learn how it works and what I need to do. I come from a mindset of like If I take the time, I can learn anything. If someone else is doing it, I probably can too. I've always enjoyed freedom and doing things my way and the way that I thought was like best.
Speaker #2
We were in negotiations. Investing in real estate. They're winning. What's up,
Speaker #1
everyone? Welcome to the Real Estate Educators Podcast, where we provide the education you can build on. I am your host, Kevin Amos. We are back. I got another great episode for you today. A Colorado guy. We don't get too many of those, it seems like, even though I'm local, as you all know. So we got Ryan Thompson here from Colorado Springs. I don't know how long you've been in the business, man, but I know you're doing a great job. About seven deals every quarter, and you're the assumable loan guy, coined by, I guess, you. So you're doing a lot of assumable loans down in Colorado Springs. Welcome to the show, man.
Speaker #0
Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, the assumable guy. People started calling me that, so then I started calling myself it.
Speaker #1
Well, it makes it very clear what you do, as long as we know what an assumable loan is. So I want to get into that. But before we do, take me back. I didn't see from your bio here how long you've been doing it. I don't think we've crossed paths before. So this is my opportunity to get to know you as well. So take me back. How'd you get into real estate?
Speaker #0
Sure. I mean, it goes all the way back to, I think, graduating college. Started to do, did Teach for America. Then I got into social work, did that for five years, ran an urban garden, a wood shop, was helping youth coming out of juvie get reintegrated into the community and really enjoyed that piece. At the end of that, I started getting educated on real estate investing, house hacking, financial freedom, and all of those ideas were really exciting to me, especially as I was burning out in social work. you I thought this is a really interesting idea. I want to do this. So I bought my first house hack while doing social work for like 12k down and I rented out three bedrooms and lived for free and it covered my mortgage. And then I converted the garage into a studio apartment. I Airbnb'd that and that covered the mortgage again. So I was 2x-ing the mortgage, living for free, cashflow in like $1,500. And I thought, this is awesome. I'm going to keep doing this. So I've done that every year for the last five years. And I've been in this current house for a couple of years. But after that third property, I quit my job and I went full-time real estate agent.
Speaker #1
Okay.
Speaker #0
And my goal was I'm going to help other people house hack and reach financial freedom. And so this theme and this desire in me to help people, I can't get rid of it. And so I've just decided to embrace it. I get to keep doing that with real estate and that's exciting. And then in 2022 when rates spiked, I had been an agent for three or four years and I thought this is really going to hurt my house hackers. Prices have doubled, rates have tripled. How are people going to get into a home and then be able to turn it to a rental, cover their mortgage and go buy another one? And I stumbled on assumable mortgages in 2022, which was you right when they were becoming popular again. And so I was like, this is the answer. I went all in on that, rebranded, and now I'm the assumable guy and we help make homeownership possible again for homeowners and investors.
Speaker #1
Okay. So the house hack, your very first one, that was your first house you bought, right?
Speaker #0
Yep.
Speaker #1
So your very first house, you house hacked it. You rented out three bedrooms, so it was a four bedroom home.
Speaker #0
Yep.
Speaker #1
And you had three roommates. How'd you get along with them?
Speaker #0
Pretty good.
Speaker #1
It was good?
Speaker #0
Yeah.
Speaker #1
I've got mixed experience. That's why I'm asking.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my experience with all my roommates has been pretty good.
Speaker #1
Okay. And then you finished out your garage. Do you still own that property today?
Speaker #0
Still own that property.
Speaker #1
And are you renting it by the room still? Or what are you doing with it?
Speaker #0
Yeah, I was managing it myself for a while, renting by the room, and then that just became too much work. When I moved out, it's harder to control, I guess, the environment and everyone getting along and wanting to stay there. And so I had a lot of turnover and I was finding a tenant like every other month to fit a bedroom. and um and So I turned it over to property management. They do long-term now so that I can focus on other things.
Speaker #1
Way easier.
Speaker #0
Way easier. You hand it off to property management and then you're like, oh, I can actually scale. Now I have time. You start to see what you can do with your time and how delegating and handing some of that off allows you to do more.
Speaker #1
So I've got a handful of condos. I've got a rental portfolio of single-family homes. And what I could tell you is those condos are hard to manage, man. And it's because they fight with each other. The residents fight with each other. And I only own one of them, right? And so how do I manage a conflict between residents when I don't even own one of the units, one? And two, I can't imagine if they're living in the same house together.
Speaker #0
Dang, I didn't think about that. I didn't realize there was drama that you had to deal with from another condo. That's brutal. Yeah, how do you manage that?
Speaker #1
Yeah, it's hard. Call the police. I can't help you with that one. So I ended up turning all the condos over to professional management also. So I feel your pain there. Okay, so you moved from the house hacking strategy. That was where you pushed your chips in. And then it just became, I guess, not workable in 2022. And that was the interest rate hike to combat the nine. 0.2% inflation rate, right? So we saw the rates going up. How did you come across assumable loans? Let me take a step back, Ryan. Explain to me what an assumable loan is, and then I want to figure out how you got into it.
Speaker #0
Oh, yeah, we should probably explain that. Because this has been irrelevant for 50 years. Rates have been dropping since the 80s. Everyone forgot what an assumable mortgage was. An assumable mortgage is basically something that's written into the loan docs of FHA VA loans. That allows a seller with that loan to transfer the mortgage to the buyer. So the buyer steps into that owning that home with that mortgage. And so they get the loan balance, how much is left. They get the interest rate. They get how many years are left on the loan. So they take it over at 27 years left, 25 years left, which is huge. You're skipping those highest interest years. Everything about that loan becomes the buyer's and the seller walks away. with their equity. And so the buyer, sometimes it's $0, sometimes it's hundreds of thousands, it's all across the board, has got to bridge that gap. So if the home is selling for 500, the loan balance is 400 at 2.5%, you got to bring 100K to close that gap. Now I say 100K, and a bunch of people are going to say, oh, I could never do that. We've got lenders that'll Loan that second equity gap if you put 5% down. And we have... A lot of equity gaps that are much, much smaller than that.
Speaker #1
So are you seeing these cash flow then because the interest rate is so low?
Speaker #0
In Colorado, the cash flow is, you know, it totally depends on how people are running those numbers. Are they budgeting? How much are they budgeting for vacancy, capex, maintenance? Are they managing themselves? Are they not doing a long term or not? Are they doing co-living? If you're budgeting for all those expenses. With property management, you're probably break even to get or lose a couple hundred a month. If you're going to do co-living, it's a smash. It's a hit. The benefit of this, though, is not the cash flow. The benefit of this investment is probably somebody who's a high earner who wants a great return on their money and doesn't need the cash flow and is willing to put $100 or $200 back into the property every month in order to get $10,000, $12,000 of loan payoff every year. And they got into the property for significantly less than 20% down and got a rate in the twos. So no,
Speaker #1
I think it's a fantastic strategy. And for the listener, if you would just go to like a loan amortization schedule online, one of those calculators, and you type in what a 3% loan does. you'll see that it's pretty close to half and half interest and principal, even in the early years. And that's because the interest rate's so low, there's just not a lot of interest to collect. As you go down the schedule, like Ryan, you're saying that really flips and you start going a lot more towards principal. So you're getting two advantages further along in the schedule and that lower interest rate, which kind of helps you with the principal reduction. Am I getting that right?
Speaker #0
Right. Yeah. I mean, yeah, you're exactly right. Yeah, you're paying out a ton of principal. And so if you're after a great return on your money for the long run or the next five, seven years, it's a fantastic investment, even if you've got to put some money back in because cash flow is not covering everything.
Speaker #1
Okay. Now, these are fully qualifying assumable loans, I assume.
Speaker #0
Are you saying different than subject to?
Speaker #1
Yeah. I mean, you could take over a mortgage with a subject to, or there's other strategies as well that you don't qualify for, right? But if you're going to formally assume, you got to qualify for that loan, I believe.
Speaker #0
Yeah. The great thing about this is it is a completely different motion than the subject to, or the other strategies you're talking about, right? Like some of those strategies, you've got some extra risks and you got to work ways around those, do on sale clauses, et cetera, right, that I'm sure you've... You've got ways of working around. But yeah, this is a fully qualifying bank. It's involved the whole way. They look at your they qualify you the same way they would for a new loan, and they're involved the whole way of transferring the loan from the seller to the buyer. So there's no risk of due on sale. There's no gray area. Yeah,
Speaker #1
and you have a great database of sellers that have assumable loans it sounds like. So are you constantly marketing to them and trying to get them to sell their houses to your clients?
Speaker #0
Yeah. So we've got a whole website of assumableguy.com that's got all of the FHA VA loans that are on the market for sale. And it tells you all their loan info and that's on the website. And so that's the whole front range of Colorado. We're about to be in San Diego, but that's how we do that part. And then we do do off market, reach out and say, Hey, we've got. we've got buyers that are really looking for single mortgages and so we've got a handful of properties that are off market that that our buyers get to see that have got assumable mortgages and i'm assuming assuming on the assumable loans that there's equity and
Speaker #1
the way the reason i say that right is because if you have a sub three percent rate you were buying when when the the covid uh influx of cash was coming in, right? So that drove up values. We saw double digit appreciation multiple years in a row leading up to 22. So there's a big equity. And you already alluded to this. Do you ever see the sellers participate in covering that gap?
Speaker #0
Yeah, they can absolutely seller finance that gap if they want to. That's something that's 100% allowed. It's a little bit of a hard sell because, you know, buyer doesn't know seller and now you're giving them a loan and you got all that. but If somebody wanted to do that and the seller was willing, well, we can certainly set that up and have that conversation.
Speaker #1
It's interesting.
Speaker #0
It's allowed. The banks will allow that as part of covering the equity gap.
Speaker #1
I mean, it doesn't hurt to ask, right? And if you got a direct line to the seller and what are you doing with the money when you get it? Is a 7% or 8% return better than where you're going to go put it? I mean, it's just a conversation, right?
Speaker #0
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker #1
How did you, like, I want to say fumble into it, but I'm not being fair to you. How did you discover this and like walk me through that?
Speaker #0
Yeah, I mean, it was a stumble. It was, I went, I, we're kind of at the epicenter of assumable mortgages in Colorado Springs. Like the first assumption processors, I think started here and then went national. We've got five military bases, which all the VA loans are assumable. And I went to, I heard about them like, this is awesome. And so I went to a training at a local title company and they talked all about it. And I thought, this is like, this is the answer. This is what I've been looking for. This is a solution to my clients. It's going to help my house hackers. And then I realized this is so much bigger. This could help anyone that wants to own a home, save $1,000 a month on their mortgage for the next 25 years. And then I started poking. It was like, why can't investors do this? Like investors got to be able to do this, right? Like, let's make this happen. We were one of the first ones to have an investor close. Like it had not been done. And so no one knew if it was possible or not.
Speaker #1
Oh, okay.
Speaker #0
Banks, remember I told you 50 years, like everyone forgot about it. Banks forgot they existed. They hadn't done them. Lenders, realtors, sellers, buyers. Nobody knew what the rules were because no one had been doing it for 50 years because you could get a new loan for a lower rate and you didn't assume sellers. And so we were one of the first ones to do it with an investor. And then that was the answer. Like, okay. this is possible. Investors can assume some of these loans.
Speaker #1
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Speaker #0
Yeah, I mean, banks don't love these loans for that reason. And because they don't get to charge a bunch of new loan origination fees. So they make this process a little difficult. But there's language in the FHA loan docs and there's language in the VA loan docs that entitles the seller to the benefit of allowing a future buyer to assume their mortgage. And if they do not, The servicer, U.S. Bank, says, nope, we're not doing this. One, it's illegal. And two, they will lose the ability to service FHA VA loans in the future, which for most of those banks is 25 plus percent of their business. And so they'll try to get you to go away. But if you work with someone who knows how to do it and knows how to push these banks, then, you know, you tell them what I just told you and they start playing ball.
Speaker #1
I assume I mean I assume it happens because you're doing one or you're doing what? Two to three a month based on the numbers, the seven and a quarter? So two to three a month, I mean I assume you're getting them closed. It just strikes me as odd when it's when the lender it's just an insurance. It's not like a Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae is the actual lender. They own it, right? And they're getting subsidized by the government. So I could see a Fannie Mae loan maybe. may be doing this because the government's supporting them and all these things. FHA is a whole different world, right? So I just find it bizarre. That's all.
Speaker #0
Yeah. I mean, it is bizarre, right? And it sounds too good to be true. No one's heard about them. And so there's a lot of skeptical moments and questions and conversations that we have to have with our clients to help them realize that this is real and an awesome benefit that they can take advantage of.
Speaker #1
That's huge. So how big is your team? Tell me about your team.
Speaker #0
We've got six agents up and down the whole front range. We work Pueblo to Fort Collins. We'll go into the mountains a little bit. And then we've got one agent in San Diego. And so.
Speaker #1
That's random. What's the story there?
Speaker #0
He's a San Diego native and he just moved from Denver. And so he's like, let's do this in San Diego. And I said, I want to do this across the country. Let's do it. Let's do it.
Speaker #1
So.
Speaker #0
Yeah, we want to be a team that's making home ownership affordable across the country and get more people into homes. So our goal is to be in all the major markets.
Speaker #1
And now you can go visit your San Diego office and it's tax deductible.
Speaker #0
That's right. Go visit the office, check out the beach for a little bit.
Speaker #1
So I assume in San Diego, and maybe I'm stating the obvious here, Ryan, but not a lot of investors are buying properties there. even if it's an assumable loan at 2.5%, right? That's mostly going to owner-auction, I assume.
Speaker #0
We just started in San Diego, but I know a lot of my Colorado investors, my buddies that are investors, are very interested in buying in San Diego as investors. So I think one reason, it felt like that was your next question. One reason they're interested- Wait,
Speaker #1
let's do an interview here.
Speaker #0
I'm reading your mind. Is the dad used so they can like put buy a home and then put like two or three more units on it and then flip it. Oh,
Speaker #1
because of that rule with the ADUs, right?
Speaker #0
Yeah. So they could find something like that, that has an assumable mortgage. Now they assume it and they're holding costs or, or they keep it and don't sell it. Now they're holding costs for the, at least a portion of the loan before they finance the construction is at two or 3%. That's super appealing. But yeah, I don't know to be, to be seen if we appeal to the investors or the, or the primary home buyers in San Diego more.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Well, best of luck with that expansion. And that's really exciting for you. Do you have other markets that you're considering?
Speaker #0
I've got a list of 10 that are my top markets. Yeah. And that's a function of percentage of VA, FHA loans in that market and the median home price. If the home price is higher, then you assume that loan and the savings are bigger and it's more valuable to the seller or to the buyer.
Speaker #1
Okay. So the majority of our listeners are Colorado, obviously. and Minnesota. So you don't need to tell me you're 10. You don't have to tell me anything, actually. But just curious, is Minnesota on the list?
Speaker #0
Minnesota is not on the list. But you know what? The only thing that keeps me from not being in a city is a good agent that's willing to learn this and work it. And so I would not turn down any city where that's true. So I mean, if an agent reached out to me, it was like, yeah, I want to join the team. Let's do this in Minnesota. Then we could spin that up.
Speaker #1
And you would entertain that and have the conversation at least.
Speaker #0
Yeah, absolutely. Yep.
Speaker #1
That's really cool. So now we're in 2026. You've been doing this for four years. You've obviously had a lot of success. Give me an example. What do you attribute your success to?
Speaker #0
Oh, wow. We're getting deep. I thought we were just talking about assumable mortgages.
Speaker #1
We got to try to help the listener out here, man. They're out there trying to do what you're doing. They're hustling. They're trying to make some money. How do we help them?
Speaker #0
Yeah, how do we, what do I contribute my success to? Education plus action. Just doing the steps daily to like learn what I, how it works and what I need to do. I come from a mindset of like, if I take the time, I can learn anything. If someone else is doing it. I probably can too. There's this process of how do I think about fear and risk? And for me, the calculation was, do I want to work a job like my friends are and be a doctor or lawyer or just climb a corporate ladder and get a 3% raise every year, but like kind of have very much control of my time and I'll live a comfortable life and I'll have a decent retirement, but I'll probably work till I'm... 65? Or do I want to take some risks and try and start something on my own and create this passive income and real estate invest in all these things that I wasn't taught in school, but that I learned and who anyone who's listening to your podcast is probably already down starting down that path, right? Or well down it. Or I want to try this and like pursue financial freedom and have the luxury of spending my time how I want and living my life how I want. And if this doesn't work, then I can go back to the other path. And so a lot of that was that was sort of what kicked me off down the path. And I think what really helped with my success. And now it's it's always a calculation of, OK, I'm afraid of something. I'm afraid of making this investment. I'm afraid of starting this business. And I have to think through all the worst case and all the fears. And what's the chance of those happening? But what's the upside and what's the chance of that happening? And I think that way that I process through some of those big decisions has been important to my success as well.
Speaker #1
That's an awesome answer, man. I love that. One thing I noticed about you early on in the conversation is that you focused on a niche. Now you've done it twice. One ran its course. And a lot of times, you learn in school the bell curve, right? And as you get to the near the end of the bell curve, you need to you need to change. You need to adapt. And you did that very well. Perfectly, it sounds like. But twice now you've really focused on a niche and you've had success with that. So tell me about a niche, man. How how how has that impacted your success in your career?
Speaker #0
Yeah, I mean, I think it's been huge. I think, you know, if I if I just focus in on the real estate agent. business world, it's saturated with real estate agents. And when I look at it in the marketing, it's like, Okay, someone's being funny. Somebody is being a best friend to all their clients. Someone's trying to have a personality and attract business that way. And they're all kind of doing the same thing. And so my thought was, like, how do I do everything that they're doing, but also add an extra level of expertise and value that attracts? clients to want to work with us because we're an expert in that niche. And if I try and appeal to everyone, then I kind of don't appeal to anyone. And I wanted to feel like, it goes back to the helping thing, right? Like I want to feel like I'm actually adding extra value compared to the person next to me or the other real estate agent. And I felt like for me, the best way to do that was house hacking because I had done it several times already and been educated for a year plus on all these books and podcasts. Like I went deep. So I chose that. And then assumable mortgages, I was like, nobody knows about these. And this is real value. And everyone says they're too hard. They're too complicated. It takes six months and everyone gives up. And I'm like, I bet we could figure out a way to make this work and make it easier on everyone and make it quicker. And then people are saving a thousand plus dollars a month and that's real value. So let's learn all there is about that and advertise that. And we'll get people to come to us who understand, who understand the value. And so that's who, that's who we work with. And we get a tremendous amount of leads because people get really excited about saving all that money.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And there's people, there's money out there. There's no question about that. So. I know you said, well, you don't want to come up with a hundred grand down. There's people out there that have no problem with that, right? So this isn't a strategy for everybody. That's not what we're talking about here. But if you're an agent and you're looking for clients, maybe this is a team to consider. If you're looking for a house, this might be a strategy to consider. That's all, right?
Speaker #0
That's all. And we'll help those people all day long that have got the money to cover that gap. And it's great for a cash buyer, right? somebody who's going to buy cash, but what if you can just keep half that cash and get the rest of it at 2%? I mean, that is a killer investment. Now you can go invest that somewhere else instead of having it tied up in the home. But we get really excited about the person who says, I don't have 100K, I can't do this. And we get to say, we have a lender that'll loan that 100K at like 7.5%. 7.5%, I'm not doing that. I can't do a 7.5% loan. That's crazy. That's crazy. I'm not doing that. They're like, well, hold on. Like the math works. Oh, yeah. Your blended rate when you're getting 400K at two and a half is still in the threes. So like, and they're like, oh, okay. And like being able to help people realize they can still get into this and they don't need the cash is like, it's rewarding, right? And it's, that's fun.
Speaker #1
So you learned about this from a title company class. Do you do, I mean, it sounds like there's some education opportunity around this topic. Do you do like any education webinars, seminars, anything like that?
Speaker #0
You know, not yet, but it's on my list of my long list of, of things to do that I think would, you know, help people, but also be good for the business. That's on that list. I've got it. I've got Instagram channel and a YouTube channel and a podcast where I just kind of talk about it all. and spread knowledge that way. I have some trainings that I'll do for real estate teams. I've gone around and done that. I have those recorded that I share with people. And I've got our whole training, agent training that I've got online. Because we don't have to go into this, but if you wanted to know, besides getting an agent in other markets, the other thing we're doing is We're licensing our system. So if a team that's high performing comes to us and says, we want to do assumable mortgages, help us get leads. We'll make the website. We'll get them leads. We'll train them on everything because the leads are just going to die if they're not trained on all the nuances and we'll do that. So I have a whole training portal where people can do that as far as just like offering that to one-off agents. Uh, that's an idea I have. Yeah. Would people pay for that? Would that be beneficial? Um, I've, I've thought about that. I do not have it yet.
Speaker #1
So it's almost like a light, it's like a licensing fee. They'd pay you every month or something.
Speaker #0
Uh, for the licensing, it's, it's no fee, but you've got to show that you're a high performing team and you're going to give me a 25% referral and I'll send you.
Speaker #1
Okay. So it's a win-win. You monetized it. Yeah. No, that is great. Yeah.
Speaker #0
You don't pay me unless, unless you get paid. So.
Speaker #1
So you got to do some vetting and make sure they're going to actually do it because you're investing time and resources into them. So they're closed deals, right?
Speaker #0
Right. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker #1
Cool, man. This is a really exciting niche. You're right, man. We don't talk about it. And like I said, I've read about it in books, but I don't know anyone doing it. So, dude, it's great to have you on the show. I'm going to ask you a couple more questions, and then I want to get your contact information. I also want to go through my notes. I'm taking some notes as we go through this. But looking back, you've had an interesting life. It seems like everything you've done has been in service. So that's obviously an important motivator for you. I'm just curious, what's motivated you for this financial freedom? Why not the W-2 where you don't have to work on weekends and evenings?
Speaker #0
I've always enjoyed freedom and doing things. My way and the way that I thought was like best. I didn't enjoy doing things just because someone told me that's the way you need to do it and what you have to do. And a really funny example about that was in Texas for homecoming. They had these stupid things that they'd make cardboard back and all these bows and then ribbons with tassels and whistles and bells. And they're called a mum and the girl, you got them for your date. And then the guys wore one of the girl got, they're like 150 bucks. for like this ribbon that you would throw away. And I'm like, this is stupid. And so I would like, would tell my dad, it's like, I'll buy you a nice piece of jewelry for 150 bucks. Would you like that or a mom? Right. And like, don't buy me one, by the way. Like, I don't want to wear that thing all day. And so that's like a really stupid example, but it's one of like the clear things in my mind of like kind of going against the grain and wanting to have the freedom to live my life in a way that makes sense for me.
Speaker #1
It's a cost benefit analysis of the mom or not, right? You were doing a cost benefit. You didn't even know it.
Speaker #0
Yeah, I didn't even know it. You're right. I was just like, this is stupid. That was my analysis.
Speaker #1
That's awesome. All right. You're just getting out of high school. You're getting ready to go into college. You don't really know what you want to do, but you know you want to be wealthy. What's a piece of advice you'd give that self, yourself then?
Speaker #0
Man, if I was... If I was doing that again, I would be so much further now if I had found somebody who was doing it and was like, yo, I like what you're doing. Can you, can you, like, can you help me figure out how to get there? Like, can I come work for you? Can I put in labor for free in exchange for you, you know, giving me advice for an hour a week? Like if I had some. sort of mentor where I could see, oh, this is someone doing it and they can walk me through and like how to get there and drastically accelerate and shortcut, you know, my road to get there that, that would have been huge. So I would, that'd probably be my advice to my younger self.
Speaker #1
That's an awesome piece of advice. I'm going to, I never asked that question. And I just asked you to anybody else before I just, I just came to my mind, but I will share this with you without exception. Every guest that's been on this show has said the people in their life has made a big impact on their success. Maybe it's the biggest impact. Maybe it's somewhere in the top two or three, whatever. It's the people in your network that drive your success. With that exception, everybody says it. And you just said that. So it's just an interesting pattern. I don't even know how many episodes I have, man. But it's been many, many years I've been doing this. And that's the answer. So that's... Because it falls right in line with what successful people say.
Speaker #0
Yeah, I think people want to help people and want to give back and they want to help people they like. And so if you're just like, if you're, if you treat people like, like how you would treat a friend, right? And you do the same in business and you ask for help and you're humble in that way. Like, I think people feel really good helping people. And if you're willing to ask, they're willing to give you that.
Speaker #1
I totally agree. And successful people know that. I mean, you make it, you want to help other people, right? That's where you're at now. So, and that's why you're on the show, right? We're helping our listener. All right, man. So I got my notes. I'm going to go through my notes. I'd love you to fill in any gaps. If there's any color you want to add, anything I'm missing. And then if there's one final piece of advice for some investor, maybe they're a little bit newer that you want to give them, I would love to have a final piece of advice. And then all of your contact information, if there's any chance. Any of our listeners can work with you. That would be great. So we started out just learning about you and we talked about the house hacking and I picked up the three-room thing. But then we got into the assumable loans and we talked quite a bit about that. You have to qualify, but you could take over someone's loan, further in the amortization schedule, lower interest rates, lower payments, potential cashflow, but it's really the other benefits for an investor. If you're a homeowner, there's obvious benefits for that. And you told me that you you are seeing investor loans close that. You also told me that there's some lenders that will fill the gap if you need to fill the gap of paying the seller for their equity. It could be the seller or there's other lenders that will do it. Seven, seven and a half percent price range. We talked about finding a niche. I wrote that down before we even came back to it. Education plus action is what you attribute your success to. I love that. Go earn what you want is what I wrote down because you were talking about... What's driving you to have success? And you're like, I want this. So I'm going to go out there and get it. So if you want something, you have to go earn it. No one's going to give it to you guys. Real estate is saturated. So that's why you got to be a little bit different. What's your differentiator? That's a tough word to say. What's a differentiator? You said, well, we could be buddies. We could be funny. But what's actually making you different? And that's where the niches are. Riches are in the niches. You can save up to $1,000 a month on the mortgage, and then the lender can fill the gap. And then the final thing you said was find somebody doing what you want to do. That's the one piece of advice you would give your younger self to accelerate your success. How did I do, Ryan?
Speaker #0
That was great. Good summary.
Speaker #1
Awesome. What's a final piece of advice for our listener?
Speaker #0
Think about your fears. Write them down. process them, take them all the way to the worst case, and then decide if the upside is worth the risk.
Speaker #1
And typically,
Speaker #0
something's holding you back.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I love this one. And I would say, typically, it's worth the risk. My humble opinion, you might fall, you might fail a little bit. That's part of the process. Enjoy the process. But it's worth it, isn't it?
Speaker #0
Yeah.
Speaker #1
All right, man. How do we get ahold of you?
Speaker #0
You can look up the assumable guy on Instagram. Ryan at the assumable guy.com is my email. Assumable guy.com without the, the is the website. If you go to one of those three places, you'll get all my info.
Speaker #1
Cool. All right. You're a busy guy. You're growing your company like crazy. You're in San Diego. You're looking at other markets, maybe not Mrs. Minnesota necessarily. but you're looking at other markets, you're growing, you're busy. You still came out and hung out with me for 40 minutes, man. I appreciate your time.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Hey, you're welcome, Kevin. Thanks for so much for having me on.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And for the listener, you have other podcasts you could be listening to, and you chose the real estate educators podcast. And for that, I am so incredibly grateful. Thank you for that. If you got value out of this episode, like I did help me out five-star review, share it with a friend that I hope you make this day a great one. I really hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. If you did, please be sure to follow and leave a five-star review. Oh, yeah, and tell a friend.

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Connect with Ryan Thomson

You can also find Ryan on Instagram by searching The Assumable Guy.

Learn more about Pine Financial Group: https://pinefinancialgroup.com/

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Transcription

Speaker #0
I've been in this current house for a couple of years, but after that third property, I quit my job and I went full-time real estate agent.
Speaker #1
Okay.
Speaker #0
And my goal was I'm going to help other people house hack and reach financial freedom. Education plus action, just doing the steps daily to learn how it works and what I need to do. I come from a mindset of like If I take the time, I can learn anything. If someone else is doing it, I probably can too. I've always enjoyed freedom and doing things my way and the way that I thought was like best.
Speaker #2
We were in negotiations. Investing in real estate. They're winning. What's up,
Speaker #1
everyone? Welcome to the Real Estate Educators Podcast, where we provide the education you can build on. I am your host, Kevin Amos. We are back. I got another great episode for you today. A Colorado guy. We don't get too many of those, it seems like, even though I'm local, as you all know. So we got Ryan Thompson here from Colorado Springs. I don't know how long you've been in the business, man, but I know you're doing a great job. About seven deals every quarter, and you're the assumable loan guy, coined by, I guess, you. So you're doing a lot of assumable loans down in Colorado Springs. Welcome to the show, man.
Speaker #0
Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, the assumable guy. People started calling me that, so then I started calling myself it.
Speaker #1
Well, it makes it very clear what you do, as long as we know what an assumable loan is. So I want to get into that. But before we do, take me back. I didn't see from your bio here how long you've been doing it. I don't think we've crossed paths before. So this is my opportunity to get to know you as well. So take me back. How'd you get into real estate?
Speaker #0
Sure. I mean, it goes all the way back to, I think, graduating college. Started to do, did Teach for America. Then I got into social work, did that for five years, ran an urban garden, a wood shop, was helping youth coming out of juvie get reintegrated into the community and really enjoyed that piece. At the end of that, I started getting educated on real estate investing, house hacking, financial freedom, and all of those ideas were really exciting to me, especially as I was burning out in social work. you I thought this is a really interesting idea. I want to do this. So I bought my first house hack while doing social work for like 12k down and I rented out three bedrooms and lived for free and it covered my mortgage. And then I converted the garage into a studio apartment. I Airbnb'd that and that covered the mortgage again. So I was 2x-ing the mortgage, living for free, cashflow in like $1,500. And I thought, this is awesome. I'm going to keep doing this. So I've done that every year for the last five years. And I've been in this current house for a couple of years. But after that third property, I quit my job and I went full-time real estate agent.
Speaker #1
Okay.
Speaker #0
And my goal was I'm going to help other people house hack and reach financial freedom. And so this theme and this desire in me to help people, I can't get rid of it. And so I've just decided to embrace it. I get to keep doing that with real estate and that's exciting. And then in 2022 when rates spiked, I had been an agent for three or four years and I thought this is really going to hurt my house hackers. Prices have doubled, rates have tripled. How are people going to get into a home and then be able to turn it to a rental, cover their mortgage and go buy another one? And I stumbled on assumable mortgages in 2022, which was you right when they were becoming popular again. And so I was like, this is the answer. I went all in on that, rebranded, and now I'm the assumable guy and we help make homeownership possible again for homeowners and investors.
Speaker #1
Okay. So the house hack, your very first one, that was your first house you bought, right?
Speaker #0
Yep.
Speaker #1
So your very first house, you house hacked it. You rented out three bedrooms, so it was a four bedroom home.
Speaker #0
Yep.
Speaker #1
And you had three roommates. How'd you get along with them?
Speaker #0
Pretty good.
Speaker #1
It was good?
Speaker #0
Yeah.
Speaker #1
I've got mixed experience. That's why I'm asking.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my experience with all my roommates has been pretty good.
Speaker #1
Okay. And then you finished out your garage. Do you still own that property today?
Speaker #0
Still own that property.
Speaker #1
And are you renting it by the room still? Or what are you doing with it?
Speaker #0
Yeah, I was managing it myself for a while, renting by the room, and then that just became too much work. When I moved out, it's harder to control, I guess, the environment and everyone getting along and wanting to stay there. And so I had a lot of turnover and I was finding a tenant like every other month to fit a bedroom. and um and So I turned it over to property management. They do long-term now so that I can focus on other things.
Speaker #1
Way easier.
Speaker #0
Way easier. You hand it off to property management and then you're like, oh, I can actually scale. Now I have time. You start to see what you can do with your time and how delegating and handing some of that off allows you to do more.
Speaker #1
So I've got a handful of condos. I've got a rental portfolio of single-family homes. And what I could tell you is those condos are hard to manage, man. And it's because they fight with each other. The residents fight with each other. And I only own one of them, right? And so how do I manage a conflict between residents when I don't even own one of the units, one? And two, I can't imagine if they're living in the same house together.
Speaker #0
Dang, I didn't think about that. I didn't realize there was drama that you had to deal with from another condo. That's brutal. Yeah, how do you manage that?
Speaker #1
Yeah, it's hard. Call the police. I can't help you with that one. So I ended up turning all the condos over to professional management also. So I feel your pain there. Okay, so you moved from the house hacking strategy. That was where you pushed your chips in. And then it just became, I guess, not workable in 2022. And that was the interest rate hike to combat the nine. 0.2% inflation rate, right? So we saw the rates going up. How did you come across assumable loans? Let me take a step back, Ryan. Explain to me what an assumable loan is, and then I want to figure out how you got into it.
Speaker #0
Oh, yeah, we should probably explain that. Because this has been irrelevant for 50 years. Rates have been dropping since the 80s. Everyone forgot what an assumable mortgage was. An assumable mortgage is basically something that's written into the loan docs of FHA VA loans. That allows a seller with that loan to transfer the mortgage to the buyer. So the buyer steps into that owning that home with that mortgage. And so they get the loan balance, how much is left. They get the interest rate. They get how many years are left on the loan. So they take it over at 27 years left, 25 years left, which is huge. You're skipping those highest interest years. Everything about that loan becomes the buyer's and the seller walks away. with their equity. And so the buyer, sometimes it's $0, sometimes it's hundreds of thousands, it's all across the board, has got to bridge that gap. So if the home is selling for 500, the loan balance is 400 at 2.5%, you got to bring 100K to close that gap. Now I say 100K, and a bunch of people are going to say, oh, I could never do that. We've got lenders that'll Loan that second equity gap if you put 5% down. And we have... A lot of equity gaps that are much, much smaller than that.
Speaker #1
So are you seeing these cash flow then because the interest rate is so low?
Speaker #0
In Colorado, the cash flow is, you know, it totally depends on how people are running those numbers. Are they budgeting? How much are they budgeting for vacancy, capex, maintenance? Are they managing themselves? Are they not doing a long term or not? Are they doing co-living? If you're budgeting for all those expenses. With property management, you're probably break even to get or lose a couple hundred a month. If you're going to do co-living, it's a smash. It's a hit. The benefit of this, though, is not the cash flow. The benefit of this investment is probably somebody who's a high earner who wants a great return on their money and doesn't need the cash flow and is willing to put $100 or $200 back into the property every month in order to get $10,000, $12,000 of loan payoff every year. And they got into the property for significantly less than 20% down and got a rate in the twos. So no,
Speaker #1
I think it's a fantastic strategy. And for the listener, if you would just go to like a loan amortization schedule online, one of those calculators, and you type in what a 3% loan does. you'll see that it's pretty close to half and half interest and principal, even in the early years. And that's because the interest rate's so low, there's just not a lot of interest to collect. As you go down the schedule, like Ryan, you're saying that really flips and you start going a lot more towards principal. So you're getting two advantages further along in the schedule and that lower interest rate, which kind of helps you with the principal reduction. Am I getting that right?
Speaker #0
Right. Yeah. I mean, yeah, you're exactly right. Yeah, you're paying out a ton of principal. And so if you're after a great return on your money for the long run or the next five, seven years, it's a fantastic investment, even if you've got to put some money back in because cash flow is not covering everything.
Speaker #1
Okay. Now, these are fully qualifying assumable loans, I assume.
Speaker #0
Are you saying different than subject to?
Speaker #1
Yeah. I mean, you could take over a mortgage with a subject to, or there's other strategies as well that you don't qualify for, right? But if you're going to formally assume, you got to qualify for that loan, I believe.
Speaker #0
Yeah. The great thing about this is it is a completely different motion than the subject to, or the other strategies you're talking about, right? Like some of those strategies, you've got some extra risks and you got to work ways around those, do on sale clauses, et cetera, right, that I'm sure you've... You've got ways of working around. But yeah, this is a fully qualifying bank. It's involved the whole way. They look at your they qualify you the same way they would for a new loan, and they're involved the whole way of transferring the loan from the seller to the buyer. So there's no risk of due on sale. There's no gray area. Yeah,
Speaker #1
and you have a great database of sellers that have assumable loans it sounds like. So are you constantly marketing to them and trying to get them to sell their houses to your clients?
Speaker #0
Yeah. So we've got a whole website of assumableguy.com that's got all of the FHA VA loans that are on the market for sale. And it tells you all their loan info and that's on the website. And so that's the whole front range of Colorado. We're about to be in San Diego, but that's how we do that part. And then we do do off market, reach out and say, Hey, we've got. we've got buyers that are really looking for single mortgages and so we've got a handful of properties that are off market that that our buyers get to see that have got assumable mortgages and i'm assuming assuming on the assumable loans that there's equity and
Speaker #1
the way the reason i say that right is because if you have a sub three percent rate you were buying when when the the covid uh influx of cash was coming in, right? So that drove up values. We saw double digit appreciation multiple years in a row leading up to 22. So there's a big equity. And you already alluded to this. Do you ever see the sellers participate in covering that gap?
Speaker #0
Yeah, they can absolutely seller finance that gap if they want to. That's something that's 100% allowed. It's a little bit of a hard sell because, you know, buyer doesn't know seller and now you're giving them a loan and you got all that. but If somebody wanted to do that and the seller was willing, well, we can certainly set that up and have that conversation.
Speaker #1
It's interesting.
Speaker #0
It's allowed. The banks will allow that as part of covering the equity gap.
Speaker #1
I mean, it doesn't hurt to ask, right? And if you got a direct line to the seller and what are you doing with the money when you get it? Is a 7% or 8% return better than where you're going to go put it? I mean, it's just a conversation, right?
Speaker #0
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker #1
How did you, like, I want to say fumble into it, but I'm not being fair to you. How did you discover this and like walk me through that?
Speaker #0
Yeah, I mean, it was a stumble. It was, I went, I, we're kind of at the epicenter of assumable mortgages in Colorado Springs. Like the first assumption processors, I think started here and then went national. We've got five military bases, which all the VA loans are assumable. And I went to, I heard about them like, this is awesome. And so I went to a training at a local title company and they talked all about it. And I thought, this is like, this is the answer. This is what I've been looking for. This is a solution to my clients. It's going to help my house hackers. And then I realized this is so much bigger. This could help anyone that wants to own a home, save $1,000 a month on their mortgage for the next 25 years. And then I started poking. It was like, why can't investors do this? Like investors got to be able to do this, right? Like, let's make this happen. We were one of the first ones to have an investor close. Like it had not been done. And so no one knew if it was possible or not.
Speaker #1
Oh, okay.
Speaker #0
Banks, remember I told you 50 years, like everyone forgot about it. Banks forgot they existed. They hadn't done them. Lenders, realtors, sellers, buyers. Nobody knew what the rules were because no one had been doing it for 50 years because you could get a new loan for a lower rate and you didn't assume sellers. And so we were one of the first ones to do it with an investor. And then that was the answer. Like, okay. this is possible. Investors can assume some of these loans.
Speaker #1
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Speaker #0
Yeah, I mean, banks don't love these loans for that reason. And because they don't get to charge a bunch of new loan origination fees. So they make this process a little difficult. But there's language in the FHA loan docs and there's language in the VA loan docs that entitles the seller to the benefit of allowing a future buyer to assume their mortgage. And if they do not, The servicer, U.S. Bank, says, nope, we're not doing this. One, it's illegal. And two, they will lose the ability to service FHA VA loans in the future, which for most of those banks is 25 plus percent of their business. And so they'll try to get you to go away. But if you work with someone who knows how to do it and knows how to push these banks, then, you know, you tell them what I just told you and they start playing ball.
Speaker #1
I assume I mean I assume it happens because you're doing one or you're doing what? Two to three a month based on the numbers, the seven and a quarter? So two to three a month, I mean I assume you're getting them closed. It just strikes me as odd when it's when the lender it's just an insurance. It's not like a Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae is the actual lender. They own it, right? And they're getting subsidized by the government. So I could see a Fannie Mae loan maybe. may be doing this because the government's supporting them and all these things. FHA is a whole different world, right? So I just find it bizarre. That's all.
Speaker #0
Yeah. I mean, it is bizarre, right? And it sounds too good to be true. No one's heard about them. And so there's a lot of skeptical moments and questions and conversations that we have to have with our clients to help them realize that this is real and an awesome benefit that they can take advantage of.
Speaker #1
That's huge. So how big is your team? Tell me about your team.
Speaker #0
We've got six agents up and down the whole front range. We work Pueblo to Fort Collins. We'll go into the mountains a little bit. And then we've got one agent in San Diego. And so.
Speaker #1
That's random. What's the story there?
Speaker #0
He's a San Diego native and he just moved from Denver. And so he's like, let's do this in San Diego. And I said, I want to do this across the country. Let's do it. Let's do it.
Speaker #1
So.
Speaker #0
Yeah, we want to be a team that's making home ownership affordable across the country and get more people into homes. So our goal is to be in all the major markets.
Speaker #1
And now you can go visit your San Diego office and it's tax deductible.
Speaker #0
That's right. Go visit the office, check out the beach for a little bit.
Speaker #1
So I assume in San Diego, and maybe I'm stating the obvious here, Ryan, but not a lot of investors are buying properties there. even if it's an assumable loan at 2.5%, right? That's mostly going to owner-auction, I assume.
Speaker #0
We just started in San Diego, but I know a lot of my Colorado investors, my buddies that are investors, are very interested in buying in San Diego as investors. So I think one reason, it felt like that was your next question. One reason they're interested- Wait,
Speaker #1
let's do an interview here.
Speaker #0
I'm reading your mind. Is the dad used so they can like put buy a home and then put like two or three more units on it and then flip it. Oh,
Speaker #1
because of that rule with the ADUs, right?
Speaker #0
Yeah. So they could find something like that, that has an assumable mortgage. Now they assume it and they're holding costs or, or they keep it and don't sell it. Now they're holding costs for the, at least a portion of the loan before they finance the construction is at two or 3%. That's super appealing. But yeah, I don't know to be, to be seen if we appeal to the investors or the, or the primary home buyers in San Diego more.
Speaker #1
Yeah. Well, best of luck with that expansion. And that's really exciting for you. Do you have other markets that you're considering?
Speaker #0
I've got a list of 10 that are my top markets. Yeah. And that's a function of percentage of VA, FHA loans in that market and the median home price. If the home price is higher, then you assume that loan and the savings are bigger and it's more valuable to the seller or to the buyer.
Speaker #1
Okay. So the majority of our listeners are Colorado, obviously. and Minnesota. So you don't need to tell me you're 10. You don't have to tell me anything, actually. But just curious, is Minnesota on the list?
Speaker #0
Minnesota is not on the list. But you know what? The only thing that keeps me from not being in a city is a good agent that's willing to learn this and work it. And so I would not turn down any city where that's true. So I mean, if an agent reached out to me, it was like, yeah, I want to join the team. Let's do this in Minnesota. Then we could spin that up.
Speaker #1
And you would entertain that and have the conversation at least.
Speaker #0
Yeah, absolutely. Yep.
Speaker #1
That's really cool. So now we're in 2026. You've been doing this for four years. You've obviously had a lot of success. Give me an example. What do you attribute your success to?
Speaker #0
Oh, wow. We're getting deep. I thought we were just talking about assumable mortgages.
Speaker #1
We got to try to help the listener out here, man. They're out there trying to do what you're doing. They're hustling. They're trying to make some money. How do we help them?
Speaker #0
Yeah, how do we, what do I contribute my success to? Education plus action. Just doing the steps daily to like learn what I, how it works and what I need to do. I come from a mindset of like, if I take the time, I can learn anything. If someone else is doing it. I probably can too. There's this process of how do I think about fear and risk? And for me, the calculation was, do I want to work a job like my friends are and be a doctor or lawyer or just climb a corporate ladder and get a 3% raise every year, but like kind of have very much control of my time and I'll live a comfortable life and I'll have a decent retirement, but I'll probably work till I'm... 65? Or do I want to take some risks and try and start something on my own and create this passive income and real estate invest in all these things that I wasn't taught in school, but that I learned and who anyone who's listening to your podcast is probably already down starting down that path, right? Or well down it. Or I want to try this and like pursue financial freedom and have the luxury of spending my time how I want and living my life how I want. And if this doesn't work, then I can go back to the other path. And so a lot of that was that was sort of what kicked me off down the path. And I think what really helped with my success. And now it's it's always a calculation of, OK, I'm afraid of something. I'm afraid of making this investment. I'm afraid of starting this business. And I have to think through all the worst case and all the fears. And what's the chance of those happening? But what's the upside and what's the chance of that happening? And I think that way that I process through some of those big decisions has been important to my success as well.
Speaker #1
That's an awesome answer, man. I love that. One thing I noticed about you early on in the conversation is that you focused on a niche. Now you've done it twice. One ran its course. And a lot of times, you learn in school the bell curve, right? And as you get to the near the end of the bell curve, you need to you need to change. You need to adapt. And you did that very well. Perfectly, it sounds like. But twice now you've really focused on a niche and you've had success with that. So tell me about a niche, man. How how how has that impacted your success in your career?
Speaker #0
Yeah, I mean, I think it's been huge. I think, you know, if I if I just focus in on the real estate agent. business world, it's saturated with real estate agents. And when I look at it in the marketing, it's like, Okay, someone's being funny. Somebody is being a best friend to all their clients. Someone's trying to have a personality and attract business that way. And they're all kind of doing the same thing. And so my thought was, like, how do I do everything that they're doing, but also add an extra level of expertise and value that attracts? clients to want to work with us because we're an expert in that niche. And if I try and appeal to everyone, then I kind of don't appeal to anyone. And I wanted to feel like, it goes back to the helping thing, right? Like I want to feel like I'm actually adding extra value compared to the person next to me or the other real estate agent. And I felt like for me, the best way to do that was house hacking because I had done it several times already and been educated for a year plus on all these books and podcasts. Like I went deep. So I chose that. And then assumable mortgages, I was like, nobody knows about these. And this is real value. And everyone says they're too hard. They're too complicated. It takes six months and everyone gives up. And I'm like, I bet we could figure out a way to make this work and make it easier on everyone and make it quicker. And then people are saving a thousand plus dollars a month and that's real value. So let's learn all there is about that and advertise that. And we'll get people to come to us who understand, who understand the value. And so that's who, that's who we work with. And we get a tremendous amount of leads because people get really excited about saving all that money.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And there's people, there's money out there. There's no question about that. So. I know you said, well, you don't want to come up with a hundred grand down. There's people out there that have no problem with that, right? So this isn't a strategy for everybody. That's not what we're talking about here. But if you're an agent and you're looking for clients, maybe this is a team to consider. If you're looking for a house, this might be a strategy to consider. That's all, right?
Speaker #0
That's all. And we'll help those people all day long that have got the money to cover that gap. And it's great for a cash buyer, right? somebody who's going to buy cash, but what if you can just keep half that cash and get the rest of it at 2%? I mean, that is a killer investment. Now you can go invest that somewhere else instead of having it tied up in the home. But we get really excited about the person who says, I don't have 100K, I can't do this. And we get to say, we have a lender that'll loan that 100K at like 7.5%. 7.5%, I'm not doing that. I can't do a 7.5% loan. That's crazy. That's crazy. I'm not doing that. They're like, well, hold on. Like the math works. Oh, yeah. Your blended rate when you're getting 400K at two and a half is still in the threes. So like, and they're like, oh, okay. And like being able to help people realize they can still get into this and they don't need the cash is like, it's rewarding, right? And it's, that's fun.
Speaker #1
So you learned about this from a title company class. Do you do, I mean, it sounds like there's some education opportunity around this topic. Do you do like any education webinars, seminars, anything like that?
Speaker #0
You know, not yet, but it's on my list of my long list of, of things to do that I think would, you know, help people, but also be good for the business. That's on that list. I've got it. I've got Instagram channel and a YouTube channel and a podcast where I just kind of talk about it all. and spread knowledge that way. I have some trainings that I'll do for real estate teams. I've gone around and done that. I have those recorded that I share with people. And I've got our whole training, agent training that I've got online. Because we don't have to go into this, but if you wanted to know, besides getting an agent in other markets, the other thing we're doing is We're licensing our system. So if a team that's high performing comes to us and says, we want to do assumable mortgages, help us get leads. We'll make the website. We'll get them leads. We'll train them on everything because the leads are just going to die if they're not trained on all the nuances and we'll do that. So I have a whole training portal where people can do that as far as just like offering that to one-off agents. Uh, that's an idea I have. Yeah. Would people pay for that? Would that be beneficial? Um, I've, I've thought about that. I do not have it yet.
Speaker #1
So it's almost like a light, it's like a licensing fee. They'd pay you every month or something.
Speaker #0
Uh, for the licensing, it's, it's no fee, but you've got to show that you're a high performing team and you're going to give me a 25% referral and I'll send you.
Speaker #1
Okay. So it's a win-win. You monetized it. Yeah. No, that is great. Yeah.
Speaker #0
You don't pay me unless, unless you get paid. So.
Speaker #1
So you got to do some vetting and make sure they're going to actually do it because you're investing time and resources into them. So they're closed deals, right?
Speaker #0
Right. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker #1
Cool, man. This is a really exciting niche. You're right, man. We don't talk about it. And like I said, I've read about it in books, but I don't know anyone doing it. So, dude, it's great to have you on the show. I'm going to ask you a couple more questions, and then I want to get your contact information. I also want to go through my notes. I'm taking some notes as we go through this. But looking back, you've had an interesting life. It seems like everything you've done has been in service. So that's obviously an important motivator for you. I'm just curious, what's motivated you for this financial freedom? Why not the W-2 where you don't have to work on weekends and evenings?
Speaker #0
I've always enjoyed freedom and doing things. My way and the way that I thought was like best. I didn't enjoy doing things just because someone told me that's the way you need to do it and what you have to do. And a really funny example about that was in Texas for homecoming. They had these stupid things that they'd make cardboard back and all these bows and then ribbons with tassels and whistles and bells. And they're called a mum and the girl, you got them for your date. And then the guys wore one of the girl got, they're like 150 bucks. for like this ribbon that you would throw away. And I'm like, this is stupid. And so I would like, would tell my dad, it's like, I'll buy you a nice piece of jewelry for 150 bucks. Would you like that or a mom? Right. And like, don't buy me one, by the way. Like, I don't want to wear that thing all day. And so that's like a really stupid example, but it's one of like the clear things in my mind of like kind of going against the grain and wanting to have the freedom to live my life in a way that makes sense for me.
Speaker #1
It's a cost benefit analysis of the mom or not, right? You were doing a cost benefit. You didn't even know it.
Speaker #0
Yeah, I didn't even know it. You're right. I was just like, this is stupid. That was my analysis.
Speaker #1
That's awesome. All right. You're just getting out of high school. You're getting ready to go into college. You don't really know what you want to do, but you know you want to be wealthy. What's a piece of advice you'd give that self, yourself then?
Speaker #0
Man, if I was... If I was doing that again, I would be so much further now if I had found somebody who was doing it and was like, yo, I like what you're doing. Can you, can you, like, can you help me figure out how to get there? Like, can I come work for you? Can I put in labor for free in exchange for you, you know, giving me advice for an hour a week? Like if I had some. sort of mentor where I could see, oh, this is someone doing it and they can walk me through and like how to get there and drastically accelerate and shortcut, you know, my road to get there that, that would have been huge. So I would, that'd probably be my advice to my younger self.
Speaker #1
That's an awesome piece of advice. I'm going to, I never asked that question. And I just asked you to anybody else before I just, I just came to my mind, but I will share this with you without exception. Every guest that's been on this show has said the people in their life has made a big impact on their success. Maybe it's the biggest impact. Maybe it's somewhere in the top two or three, whatever. It's the people in your network that drive your success. With that exception, everybody says it. And you just said that. So it's just an interesting pattern. I don't even know how many episodes I have, man. But it's been many, many years I've been doing this. And that's the answer. So that's... Because it falls right in line with what successful people say.
Speaker #0
Yeah, I think people want to help people and want to give back and they want to help people they like. And so if you're just like, if you're, if you treat people like, like how you would treat a friend, right? And you do the same in business and you ask for help and you're humble in that way. Like, I think people feel really good helping people. And if you're willing to ask, they're willing to give you that.
Speaker #1
I totally agree. And successful people know that. I mean, you make it, you want to help other people, right? That's where you're at now. So, and that's why you're on the show, right? We're helping our listener. All right, man. So I got my notes. I'm going to go through my notes. I'd love you to fill in any gaps. If there's any color you want to add, anything I'm missing. And then if there's one final piece of advice for some investor, maybe they're a little bit newer that you want to give them, I would love to have a final piece of advice. And then all of your contact information, if there's any chance. Any of our listeners can work with you. That would be great. So we started out just learning about you and we talked about the house hacking and I picked up the three-room thing. But then we got into the assumable loans and we talked quite a bit about that. You have to qualify, but you could take over someone's loan, further in the amortization schedule, lower interest rates, lower payments, potential cashflow, but it's really the other benefits for an investor. If you're a homeowner, there's obvious benefits for that. And you told me that you you are seeing investor loans close that. You also told me that there's some lenders that will fill the gap if you need to fill the gap of paying the seller for their equity. It could be the seller or there's other lenders that will do it. Seven, seven and a half percent price range. We talked about finding a niche. I wrote that down before we even came back to it. Education plus action is what you attribute your success to. I love that. Go earn what you want is what I wrote down because you were talking about... What's driving you to have success? And you're like, I want this. So I'm going to go out there and get it. So if you want something, you have to go earn it. No one's going to give it to you guys. Real estate is saturated. So that's why you got to be a little bit different. What's your differentiator? That's a tough word to say. What's a differentiator? You said, well, we could be buddies. We could be funny. But what's actually making you different? And that's where the niches are. Riches are in the niches. You can save up to $1,000 a month on the mortgage, and then the lender can fill the gap. And then the final thing you said was find somebody doing what you want to do. That's the one piece of advice you would give your younger self to accelerate your success. How did I do, Ryan?
Speaker #0
That was great. Good summary.
Speaker #1
Awesome. What's a final piece of advice for our listener?
Speaker #0
Think about your fears. Write them down. process them, take them all the way to the worst case, and then decide if the upside is worth the risk.
Speaker #1
And typically,
Speaker #0
something's holding you back.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I love this one. And I would say, typically, it's worth the risk. My humble opinion, you might fall, you might fail a little bit. That's part of the process. Enjoy the process. But it's worth it, isn't it?
Speaker #0
Yeah.
Speaker #1
All right, man. How do we get ahold of you?
Speaker #0
You can look up the assumable guy on Instagram. Ryan at the assumable guy.com is my email. Assumable guy.com without the, the is the website. If you go to one of those three places, you'll get all my info.
Speaker #1
Cool. All right. You're a busy guy. You're growing your company like crazy. You're in San Diego. You're looking at other markets, maybe not Mrs. Minnesota necessarily. but you're looking at other markets, you're growing, you're busy. You still came out and hung out with me for 40 minutes, man. I appreciate your time.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Hey, you're welcome, Kevin. Thanks for so much for having me on.
Speaker #1
Yeah. And for the listener, you have other podcasts you could be listening to, and you chose the real estate educators podcast. And for that, I am so incredibly grateful. Thank you for that. If you got value out of this episode, like I did help me out five-star review, share it with a friend that I hope you make this day a great one. I really hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. If you did, please be sure to follow and leave a five-star review. Oh, yeah, and tell a friend.

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