Full Transcript is Below:
– Welcome into the Top Producer Series for the month of April. I am NFM TV’s Greg Sher and we are welcoming in from Delray Beach, Florida, Neil Bourdelaise. He’s an Area Manager and Vice President of Main Street Home Loans. Neil, welcome to NFM TV. It’s your debut. Nice to see you.
– Thanks Greg. Yeah. Happy to be here.
– Really happy to have you. We have a lot to talk about, including I got a hold of your high school yearbook, your senior page. Before we get to that, you’re coming off of a tremendous year. You eclipsed $115 million in production. You close just south of 300 units. Have you had a chance to catch your breath yet?
– It was a whirlwind last year, just in so many ways, but yeah, we’re, we’re coming out of it and this year has been, you know, just as strong right now. So I’m super happy, super happy.
– You’re in Florida right now, but you’re a native of Gambrills, Maryland. Kind of later in life you decided to pick up your family and move down to Florida. What went into that thought process?
– Yeah, so my wife and I, you know, we both grew up in Maryland, and we hadn’t had any kids yet. I was working in Severna Park and things were going well and we got pregnant and decided, well, if we’re going to move, you know, we might as well move before we have our first kid. So we just decided to move down to South Florida. It was close to home. I can still maintain accounts. I can go for meetings if needed. So it made sense. So you’ve been in the game 18 years. So for you to make a move to an entirely different state after building an incredible book of business, 13 years into your career, big risk that you took. How did you make sure that that risk paid off with your referral partners?
– It was a lot of effort. I still had flown back quite a bit to meet people and go to meetings and in COVID and everything that’s going on now, it’s been a blessing because you know, Here we are and everyone’s on Zoom. And I can contact people on Zoom and they don’t think any different if I’m in Florida, Maryland, but it certainly was tough in the beginning. It just goes to show that replicate what you did to get there and it should happen for you.
– What’s a day in the life of Neil Bourdelaise like?
– I have team meetings every day. Just maintaining the pipeline management. Looking at files that just came in. So we have a lot of team comradery and lists that we all have and tasks we all have to do each day. I gotta be honest with you. My prospecting game right now is pretty weak. It’s hard for me to get out of the office just because of the volume we have. You know, prior to that, though, it was structured where you want to hit at least five open houses a week. It’s funny that the people that are giving me business now are the ones I met the first year and a half here in Florida.
– So what’s the mix of your book being a Maryland native, but being down in Florida now?
– You know, believe it or not, I mean, I’m still pretty heavy Maryland. I’m about 60/40 now. And you know, a lot of that obviously stems from just being in the business for 18 years. I’ve kept in touch with my old database and done well with that.
– So how’d you stumble into the mortgage business, Neil? Everyone’s got their own unique story. What’s yours?
– Oh man, so when I was– it was right out of college, and I’m a month out of college, I got a job offer from Nova Star Mortgage. Coincidentally, that’s how I met Jan. Jan was working for WMC at the time. And he was the best rep out there, account rep out there. So I was giving him 228s and 327s with no escrow, so.
– Tell us about your experience being part of Main Street Home Loans now for over two years.
– The big thing that I noticed right away is just the culture that Mike and Darran and Pete and all the guys that are building here. It’s just, you can’t really put your finger on it about why but it just makes it a really great place to work. And everyone’s in it together. There’s not a lot of red tape at all. Everyone’s willing to help.
– Well, they’ve got a great thing going there for sure, and you’re a big reason why, Neil. Now let’s get into more of the fun stuff. Let’s take a look here at your junior picture from the school yearbook. And I just want to ask you a question, because your hair has obviously changed since then you went with the middle part in that picture there. What made you decide to go to the side?
– Yeah, that was uh– Yeah. In college. I think I had a buddy come over. He’s like, “listen, man, we’re shaving your head,” so– It all started in college.
– Well, you started from scratch and now we’re gonna zoom ahead to your senior page here. I’m curious to know. One of the things you referenced the most is “All the times with the Horsemen.” What is this “Horseman” club all about?
– This is embarrassing. So, it was just, there was three of my close friends and we were always together. People– you know– we did everything together. So people would just nickname us “The Four Horsemen.”
– That’s it?
– That was a little thing, that was it. That was it, you know, we got into trouble together and we were just known in the school for that.
– Well, Neil, I always like to ask our guests especially our top producers if I can borrow a book from them. But judging from the bookshelf behind you I’m thinking you would not be the right person to ask.
– Not at the moment. No, We’re in between. I just moved offices. This is a temporary office space. So– I don’t have any books in the back, there.
– Well, congratulations on all of your success. Neil Bourdelaise, Area Manager and Vice President of Main Street Home Loans. They are a real staple in the NFM Family of Lenders. Continued success to you, and we’ll catch up soon.
– Thanks, Greg. Appreciate it.
– I’m Greg Sher from NFM TV. We’ll see you again, next time.