- 3:16 – Phil Crescenzo is a top-producing lender featured in multiple industry publications.
- 5:26 – Phil’s approach to problem-solving is rooted in creativity and a deep commitment to his clients.
- 7:14 – Spirituality plays a significant role in Phil’s ability to navigate challenging situations.
- 9:02 – Phil emphasizes the importance of being willing to push through difficult times to achieve success.
- 11:05 – Transitioning from a top lender to building something new, Phil focuses on removing barriers for clients and creating more opportunities.
- 13:18 – Despite industry challenges, Phil and his team have achieved remarkable success, ranking #3 nationwide for FHA loans.
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-crescenzo-jr-b5222922/
- Website: https://www.nationone.com/
- Contact Number: 843-277-0395
- Contact Number: 843-619-3005
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exitstrategiesradioshow/
- FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/exitstrategiessc/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxoSuynJd5c4qQ_eDXLJaZA
- Website: https://www.exitstrategiesradioshow.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmelette/
CORWYN:
Do you want something more? More meaningful moments, opportunities, deeper relationships, and memorable experiences? Do you want to make a difference? If you said yes to any of that, a career in real estate could be the opportunity you’re looking for. Guiding people through one of the most important decisions they ever made. The purchase or sale of their home can be both rewarding and lucrative. Exit Realty’s revolutionary compensation model, training, and technology provides you with the tools you need to start and build your successful real estate career. Call Exit Realty Lowcountry Group today at 843-619-3005, that’s 843-619-3005 or visit join.exitlowcountry.com and make your exit today.
Good morning, good morning, and great morning, guys. Welcome to another fabulous episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show.
Hey, I am your host. Yes, that is me, Corwyn J. Melette, broker and owner of Exit Realty Low Country Group in beautiful North Charleston, South Carolina. Guys, thank you so much for tuning into today’s show.
Guys, we have an action packed one. We have a phenomenal guest with the utmost. The guy to me is, look, I hit a light switch and he just comes on and he’s ready to go. So I love it. So I want to give a quick shout out to our listeners from Monkey’s Corner all the way through. Happened to bump into long time listener to the show and just all around great person. Ms. Carolyn LeCue, thank you so much for tuning in. LeCue family, you guys for listening to our show. So I want to thank you for that. Our listeners, the Evans, our others who tune in, who listen to us from all around the world, guys, you guys are amazing. You rock. You humble me with your presence by the radio or wherever it is you happen to catch us. So I really appreciate that. So guys, today we have a top producing lender here on our show who is going to give you some of the nuggets, some of the ins and outs that you need to know so you can be better and best prepared. Most importantly, that you can be successful in your home ownership journey. So I really appreciate you guys tuning in and we’re going to get started by introducing none other than Phil, like Phil, like dollar bill. You know what I mean? Zinzo with Nation One Mortgage. Now Phil is a division manager for the last three years with Nation One Mortgage has been responsible for the problem solving instruction and some of the most complex loans in the mortgage industries since 2000.
And yeah, I’ve known him for a while and he’s been doing it for a long time. He’s trusted by national home builders and top producing real estate agents around the country. Phil runs the division with a high level of commitment and dedication to excellence while maintaining industry leading results. That’s our Phil right there. Industry leading results, guys. He’s been featured in the Scotsman Guide, which we’re going to talk about. Also Charleston Real Producers, as well as a ton of others because he is the guy. Phil, how are you?
PHIL:
I’m doing great, Corwyn, and thanks for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to chop it up anytime with you, anytime.
CORWYN:
Look, I appreciate it, man. I appreciate it. So Phil, give our listeners a high level overview, man. I know you, some of our agents, some other listeners here and they may know you, but the majority of our audience may not. Tell us about Phil. Who is Phil? What do you do? And let’s get into it.
PHIL:
Well, Corwyn, when I first came down to the area, so I’m originally from Philly. I still have the accent. It was Southern New Jersey, but really close to Philly and we love Philly. So we just say Philly. It was really South Jersey. I grew up like rural part of the state, very laid back, very diverse, very just different. A lot of walks of life. It was a great way to grow up. A lot of farmers, workers.
So I started my mortgage career there in center city. Philly is a big melting pot of just a lot of different things too. Different businesses, industries, personalities, all that. That was my background. I did commercial lending there. Never afraid to just jump in and try to tackle something and dive in from a very early age in the business. So I brought that experience down here and that’s when we first met on the other side of a transaction. You were the king of short sales back then. You were everywhere.
And I was on the other side of a transaction. It fell out and it turned around quickly. Whatever the scenario was, I came to the closing because I literally had nothing else going on. So I had plenty of time. I’m bumping into you there. I’m like, oh man, I’m trying to make any kind of contact. And we did. We met there and continued that relationship. That was 2013, between 12 and 13 around that timeframe. And since then, I’ve been just helping and diving in, meeting professionals, getting more opportunities, getting better at that craft, diving into complicated situations, which I’m going to share if we have the time toward the end here. What to do in these situations when a loan’s declined. It’s a panic situation. It’s a 9-1-1 and I’m in it so often that for me, it’s not. And I’ve learned a lot of things over the years. So you fast forward to 2020 and then you have an interest rate drop the first once in a century, along with a lot of deep-rooted relationships and opportunities, and then just propelling forward to continue the momentum.
So I’ve got a great team backing me. So I’m able to do more. I’m able to create more impact and share more opportunities with the team and the people.
CORWYN:
So Phil, so you touched on a couple of things in there. I know you. I know that you are, but you’re a fixer, man. You are. I tell people that in this business, in this industry, there’s some people that they just cookie cutter, they’re vanilla. They do the same thing over and over again, and they’re not creative, nor are they able to problem solve a situation and figure out how to get it done.
But you are one of those individuals who’s able to do that. You are a fixer as it relates to transactions. Because I know I’ve come to you, somebody decided to use someone else and there’s an issue or problem. And I’m like, hey, Phil, hey, what do you think? Can what does it look like? And you figured out how to get those things done. So you come up with a commercial space. I imagine that’s where some of it is because commercial works completely different.
PHIL:
Oh yeah. Very different.
CORWYN:
So you can do a lot of stuff over there. Just, yeah, we’ll do that. We’re fine with that. We’re over here. You got a, oh no, this doesn’t go with this rule of guideline or what have you. Where did you get that from? That ability to problem solve and get things done. Where does that kind of come from?
PHIL:
That comes from a spiritual background. Honestly, it’s a servant’s mentality. I love it. It’s the book of Luke and too much is given, much is required. And man, my number gets called sometimes. And I just know that I’m in that situation for a reason. It’s powerful.
It’s powerful because I just know something’s going to work. Not all the time, not all of the time. I don’t claim to know all that.
I’m saying sometimes there are some times that I know, and nobody can tell me any different why I’m there, why I was placed there, what I’m there to do, because who else is going to do it. And I know these situations. And then I hear things on the other side. Oh, talking to clients after you don’t know how have you helped my family? I got breast cancer. I was diagnosed two months later. And I said, well, at least we got a new house. You don’t want to get breast cancer in our apartment. I didn’t know what to say. That’s all I could come up with at the time. But she started laughing. She said, you’re right. I wouldn’t have been able to do this in the apartment. I wouldn’t be able to have the hospice in here and all this other stuff in the CMA. I wouldn’t be able to do any of that in an apartment. And we had steps. Oh, that’s a problem. Those kinds of situations as I pushed through some of those hard times. But here’s the thing. This is important because I get asked this a lot. The creativity doesn’t matter if you’re not willing to push through that fire with the people and take on that stress and that burden a little bit. You have to. How do you not take that on if a closing just was supposed to happen today? I get calls to make a commitment to be the lenders, a lender 9-1-1. Be willing to do it. We don’t always have to do it, but the willingness to do it opens up opportunities and these kinds of situations. So my team is built on closing and this isn’t a promotion for me or anything else. I just want to share what I’m doing so somebody else can grab onto it. I’m blessed already. This isn’t the Phil Crescenzo show. I want to be used. I’m saying there’s real things happening and they could be happening more often. But if I don’t have the commitment, I’m going to push through and take this burden on to the rest of the end of the month. Creativity doesn’t matter because we’re out of, we’re out of runway. It doesn’t matter. That’s one part of it. Now, by the willingness to do that over and over again, since I was saying the same thing when I first came down here, when we were talking, same exact thing. That was 10 years ago or around 10, 11 years ago. So I started off with a very small handful of clients and worked directly with them referrals. Somebody would ask me, is this property FHA compliant? I said, I’ll be right over. I’ll be fine or not, whatever it takes. And you know what? I learned a lot about the people, about just communication. And when there’s something about when you believe other people start believing and they start to follow. And so I got, maybe I got a little bit better at that. Maybe, I don’t know, but the last couple of years, magic’s happening now because I’m seeing opportunities a little bit faster, like getting out of my own way and just letting things flow. And a lot of great things are happening.
CORWYN:
So Phil, you guys land nationwide?
PHIL:
Just, we’re in about 30 some States, but primarily my focus is the Southeast. But we go up the coast. We’re in a lot of other States too, Midwestern States, California. And if there’s a need, we’re small enough with this team. That’s why I’m there. Cause I was at the biggest, one of the biggest lenders in the country and at the top. And I’m only saying the impact of what that means. I don’t need to do it. That’s not my personality. You know me, but I have to say that to make it real and make the impact. So I left an opportunity, great company, great people. I love the people. I miss them a lot. High level professionals walked out of the top to go build something that I could create and make it the way it needed to be and remove barriers of entry for people that want to step in or that want to step in and apply, just open up the doors, make it a little bit easier and start there. And I don’t know where that’s going to go, but I’m getting pulled in that direction.
CORWYN:
So you are one of the top producing loan officers. You’ve national awards recognition, as far as volume and production. Tell us about some of that. So let’s talk FHA. That’s now vanilla loans, so to speak now for a lot of first time home buyers and for a lot of agents in our area, other areas around the country. It may be USDA, it may be VA or what have you, depending upon what the population in the metropolitan area looks like. But you are ranked what number? Correct? Number three nationwide FHA national mortgage news.
PHIL:
They posted it. You’ll see it online. I’m just not going to parade around and say, yeah, ride around the motorcycle around the town. Because that’s not what got me there. That is not what got me there. And it’s not about me. It’s about my team is amazing, first of all. And I just get the opportunity to lead them. And I’m just creating more of what I’ve already been doing. So when the masses start shifting a certain way and things start getting more expensive, having real conversations sometimes with people, but also being sensitive, knowing that what I might be asking them that they might not know they can say no. They may think because I laid something out, that’s the only way. There’s a little bit of responsibility that comes with that of making sure that the clients really understand what’s going on, that they know what the journey that we’re about to step into, and then being there with them, walking through the steps and by focusing on just the activity and not the number. I had no idea we were going to be there. No, I knew in the years 2023, it was really tough. And I’m like, man, I’m like, this is my 20 plus years. And this is tough for me. So I can’t imagine what it’s like for everybody else. So I know that we’re going to land somewhere on those rankings enough to be respected, did not expect anything near that level as an individual. Obviously, there’s a team backing me. So it’s not just me with that kind of number.
But I’m leading it, I’m running it, and I’m very much a part of it. And no matter what that number is, I tell all the clients and partners, hey, you can call me directly on anything. I’m never going to be too busy to jump in on anything that’s needed. And so just by letting other people grow and develop, that’s what’s turning into something magical, really. It was just creating opportunity. So everybody knows our motto actually is, you can see that, never say no.
CORWYN:
Oh, wow. I like that, nationwide. Yeah, I love it.
PHIL:
And so I get asked the question, well, do you guys have the same guidelines as everybody else? How are you figuring out all this stuff? And then we’re going to touch on that because that’s the real, that’s the real nuts and bolts. And I’m going to give it to everybody because you still got to practice it and do it. It’s not like my business is affected by it. I’ll tell whoever’s out there, lenders, whatever, if they grab on to this, they’re fundamental things. But it’s having a team that can execute and then me leading them is, you don’t say no, you say when. If it’s not a yes now, that person just found out that they don’t qualify for a home. What better time to get out of our own way, give it a day. It’s emotional. You don’t know what people have put into that, how much that means to them. It’s not just an approval. And so we got to respect that and say, Hey, listen, you know what? Here’s what I could tell you. If I can’t get this approval, you will know exactly where you are. Exactly. I’m going to make sure you understand. And then we’re going to talk about getting a real plan together and core up, be real with somebody and say, listen, I’m not telling you how to spend your money, but if it came down to it, if you had to make a decision, the house or the car, well, then the house or that car, not a car, come on that car. Really? I think that was in fact, come on. Yeah. And so you got to get real. You got to get real with people sometimes because nobody else does. They want to look down on somebody. They want to judge them. They want to say, Oh, you made a late payment or your credit score is this or your this or that or whatever. And once you can push past that, you can really have some real conversations. And you find out, you see the wife walking completely sideways because she didn’t want that car and he knows what he’s going to have to do. But in a respectful way, then I have a conversation man to man outside, say, look, we’re not turning anything in until I can show you in writing and approval. And that’s a condition that must be paid off or traded in or returned. So here’s what I learned by staying in that lane, by pushing hard year after year, I realized that the year 2023 trade values went way up. I’m not in the car business, but I had a couple conversations like that. And they were so meaningful because coming off COVID and everything else, the value skyrocketed on these trades and they never would have been able to get out of them anyway. So we took somebody out of like a $1,300 car payment, put them into seven and you couldn’t tell the difference.
I just freed up $600 net a month. That’s about 20,000 in income. Boom, right there in qualifying.
CORWYN:
So for our listeners guys, understand that a lot of lenders don’t do that. Like they don’t sit down, look at the numbers, say, okay, look, if we do this, then we can do this. And we move this, then we get rid of this. Then we can take care of this. And then we can be approved at this. Basically it’s building because you got to build, it’s a foundation. So you don’t just play in blocks. You got to have mortar. So you got to have a mortar. You got to have water to mix it. You got to have the people that labor it and to move it. And this, you know, you got to have sand or whatever else in order to make the cement. And then you join those blocks and they don’t go stack one on top of each other. They hear off and so on. And a lot of lenders don’t do that where they take the numbers and put them into a spreadsheet and start moving stuff around to get someone not only approved, but sometimes to get them approved at a better purchase price. So they have more options. So Phil, that’s some of the things you do. Am I correct?
PHIL:
Yes. And just doing right by the people. As I said, there was one scenario where I said, this is tough because I helped a lot of families. And when you can’t help somebody, you can still help somebody. And I’m going to tell you how. So I get a referral, a loan wasn’t working out, whatever that happens all the time. We’re known for that. And the reason that I’m like, well, why? Because I don’t step on people’s toes and I’m not paying. I don’t want to say it like that, but I feel like you don’t see me outside saying, I saw you had an open house. I know you got a deal, man. Come on. I’ve never done that. And I never, ever have come for anybody’s lender. In fact, I do the opposite. I respect them. I love all of them. I appreciate what they do. And I’m here when I’m needed. And when I’m not worried about a transaction and I feel like I want to feel that pull, you could call however you want to refer to it.
I want to be pulled in that direction too. And I respect everybody. So I’m not coming for who are you working with? Come on.
You see what I could do? So I respect everybody around here and we have really good lenders. Some of them are bank deals. Some of them are like, no, that’s a state housing where that’s a hundred percent. That should be with the bank. That’s a low census track by just, that’s what I mean about getting out of my own way a little bit too. And saying, Hey, you know what? I want people to feel comfortable and I’m not going to get every scenario and that’s okay. And just by letting them know that becoming more of a friend and then saying, Hey, you know what? You got to take that or you got to take that special builder deal because they’re giving so much money. You have to. And they’re like, no, I don’t want to like, you’re doing it. You’re doing it. You have to. And that’s what’s missing. That is what’s missing right now. And so those kinds of scenarios, man, is don’t decide for people and don’t assume or underestimate that they can’t do something. So I just like giving them the opportunity. It’s saying, here’s what we could do. This might not be what you want to do, but here’s what we could do. Here’s a scenario. And I say somebody working on your, their credit, say over the course of a few months, I say, all right, let me see your 401k. If I see a bigger institution, right? Bowling or whatever. Here’s how I take somebody that says, all right, you’re at three 30. And I say, how many kids do you have? They say four. I said, that sounds like a five bedroom because the kids are already sharing a room. They’re not trying to share a room in the new house or else. Why even do it? This is a couple of real stories, man. It’s touching for me. It’s hard. I get emotional about it because I feel like what if they didn’t get that help and they took the worst deal. I got to make sure they don’t get past me. That doesn’t happen. I got to make sure that in this window, right? So I helped the parents and the parents send me the son. It’s not all fun. It’s not easy while the parents got done during COVID. So it was significantly different. And then to try to explain and break it down. Well, why is my payment this? And I thought you were going to take care of us. And I said, you were right. I said, but we’re sitting down. We’re not doing this in email. What’s that? Come by. Yeah. I sit mom down. I said, look, I’m the same person, the guy you, you and your husband in the house. I noticed as mama bear, she’s emotional. I said, now, look, I’m going to do right by your son for the time that I’m given here. I’m going to make sure I do everything right by it. Now, look, six months ago, six months ago, no effect on what we’re doing. I said, what happened here? You told me you got an accident in April. I’m seeing a payoff in may and a late in June. Did anybody go and tell this man, young man, 22 years old, you’re going to leave a 30 day late on his credit. He didn’t even make when you’re not basing it on a deal or a transaction. It’s different. You move different. You just go to different places faster. And because if it doesn’t work here, it’ll work on something else or that’s all I’m supposed to do is just help out a little bit. So the moral of that story was the late came off. The scores went off. I passed them right back to state housing lender and he got done a hundred percent. I couldn’t do it, but the lender could. So we couldn’t help them. We still helped them because I didn’t know what it was about. I said, let’s just do right by them. And when it makes sense, we will move forward.
CORWYN:
Yup. Exactly. That’s the secret sauce, man. That so many times, man, we forget and we don’t have that experience trying to keep a deal at a certain place when the person may be better off elsewhere. I did that. Lender told me, say, Hey, I got this. But if you move over here, then you’ll get this. I’m like, okay, then we’re moving and have an opportunity to save the client some money overall, as well as maybe even initially we’re going to move once we balance it out. If it makes, Hey, then we’re gone. So I’ll shake that. So Phil, let me make sure I get your information out for our listeners right here. Give our listeners where they can reach you where they can get in contact with you.
PHIL:
The best way to reach me is teamc@nationone.com spelled out. That goes to everybody that goes to my team and a little something different about us. Now this is a plug for me, but it’s really for my people. We’re running seven days a week or we’re running seven days a week, not during service. We rotate, but seven days a week, like clockwork, no issues whatsoever, because it’s already built that way. It’s built for you dial the main number and it’s all boys. I’ll jump in. If they don’t grab it, then I get a raise. If it goes to everybody, it comes back to me. I get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. How fast are picking the phone out sooner? I’m just enjoying it. And that comes through and what we do. And when it crosses this lane, they expect that the same way every time. And that’s it. So team C for Crescenzo, easier to spell teamc@nation one.com spelled out. They’ll shoot us an email or question anything. We got you.
CORWYN:
So Phil, I always like to ask this question where we get to end of today’s show. It’s that hindsight question. A lot of times that we get, I’m going to ask this from maybe a slightly different perspective this time, because you’ve been doing what you’ve been doing for a very long time. You’ve helped a tremendous amount of people and you’re still helping people. So I’m going to ask you, I’m going to frame this based upon what you know. Now, if you would have known this way back yonder, when, how much more impact could you have had on others in this? So what have you learned thus far in your career that if you’d have known that in the very beginning, you would have helped a tremendous amount more people than what you have thus far?
PHIL:
Wow. I started with challenges. So for me, once I learned this was a commitment, if you’re going to do it, then do it right and make an ongoing commitment to get better and improve your experience. And I feel like if I get better and my team’s better, my client experience is better. I can reach more people and I can make it simpler. That’s my real passion, making it simple. All these complicated things, making it real, real easy to understand. And then what did I just do? I just widened the gap of people that can come in now. And so it’s a development. So once I learned that, that part, because I learned a lot of what I did by mistakes, by trying things and doing it wrong and trying it again and trying it again. So it’s been a series of learnings really. That trial and error, man. Something serious, man. It’s tough for me to learn, but it’s effective.
CORWYN:
Yeah, it is. It is. It is. Look, you learn about the stove by touching it. So I get it. So Phil, look, I want to thank you, man, for being on with us, Dave, man, for sharing your insight, most importantly, your compassion, your commitment to helping and serving others, that serve his heart, man. I’m going to reference something because you spoke about the book of Luke and I’ve been on this thing for the past, basically the last little week or so about the friends who lowered their friend to Jesus. It’s in Luke chapter five, where they tore the roof off. They couldn’t get to Jesus for a friend who had palsy to get him healed because they believed that he would be healed if he made it to Jesus. And there was a multitude of people. And I say this because they didn’t pull other people out of the way. What you just talked about, you don’t move other people out of the way. You don’t go fight your way into the crowd.
You find another way to get there. And in turn, what you’re doing, you’re tearing the roof off and you’re lowering people in, you quote unquote to Jesus, man, because you love them and you believe that you can serve them and help them. And that’s how you serve and help people, man. I love that. I love that. So please, man, keep doing what you’re doing. Keep doing what you’re doing because there’s a greater reward, man. We don’t do what we do. Jesus gave a simple charge, feed my sheep. Simple charge. He loved people. Keep loving people. Keep doing what you’re doing, my man. And I love that.
PHIL:
Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to speak and share something and touch somebody or help somebody. Appreciate it.
CORWYN:
You definitely have. So, Phil, look, as we wrap up today’s show, man, I want to tell you, thank you. Thanks for being on the show with us from the bottom of my heart, man. Thank you for being part of the Exit Strategies Radio Show family. I really appreciate you and I really mean that. All right.
PHIL:
Absolutely. My pleasure.
CORWYN:
Our listeners, guys, y’all know how we do.Y’all know how we say it. We always put together those two things and we do it this way, which y’all know. I love you. I love you. I love you. And we’re going to see you guys out there in those streets.
