Full Transcript is Below:
– Welcome in to our Top Producer series for the month of June, 2021. I’m NFM TV’s, Greg Sher. We’re going to travel up to New England right now, where we are joined by Sal Savastano, he is the Division Executive Vice President of Main Street Home Loans. Thanks for being with us and agreeing to be featured as our top producer.
– Well, thanks for having me, it’s an absolute pleasure. Thank you, Greg. Appreciate it.
– There really two things to talk to you about. Number one is your production, you are a $75 million a year producer, while at the same time running a branch that closes, close to a half a billion dollars. Let’s just get that on the table, how do you manage both? How can you be a great producer and also manage that kind of volume your branch closed over 1600 loans last year?
– I think I’m lucky enough to, over the years being in the business, I’ve learned streamline the process of my production. I got a great, great support staff, Part of the model of management is, here that we entrust our people to do what they need to do. And if the assembly line is working the way it’s supposed to then hopefully, we don’t have as many sleepless nights but let’s just say 2020 was a challenge but we survived and now very happy, real happy.
– What did you think you were going to do out of college?
– All up until I graduated, I thought I was going to law school. And when I got graduated in ’91, the economy was absolutely atrocious and everyone was going to grad school. I just couldn’t wrap my head around another three years of reading and writing, and everything else, and my heart wasn’t in it. So I decided, they tell you, once you’ve spent that many years, it’s okay to take a break. And that was actually the year that I moved to Florida. My brother’s going to school down there and so I said, you know what? Let big brother, go take and look at young brother, make sure he’s doing all the right things, which none of that happened at all.
– Well, I heard a story, speaking of Florida, I want you to tell me if this is true, that once upon a time, you came home pretty late at night and walked into the wrong house.
– Checking my background, Greg.
– That’s what we do, so how do you walk into the wrong home? I understand there was dinner being prepared at the time by the occupants, tell us what happened.
– I love it. Well, with a few defenses. Few defenses, number one, we were returning home from a late evening of a friend’s bachelor party and we had a limo, we had a seat, safe driver to make sure we got at home. And in my defense, all the units in the condominium area that were the townhomes, they all look exactly alike but yes, I know why the person’s door was open, but it was. And probably when I realized the wonderful stew that was on the stove and was interested in the stew, and then realized, I can’t believe I’m in a wrong house. I opened the door, escaped, shut the door quickly ’cause everyone was standing and saying, what in God’s name are you doing?
– You guys have a lot of fun at Main Street Home Loans, you’ve just exploded onto the scene, you and your group of partners and great employees managed to fund over $2.5 billion in 2020. What’s next for you guys, as you continue to push forward?
– I think our mission is to try to just continue and improve our processes systems, and improve the environment for everyone. Because you just mentioned some pretty impressive numbers and one thing that we know, and one thing that we’ve all learned, the greater a company is in size, it becomes a little bit more difficult to keep the same type of environment and culture on pace. So we’re always looking to expand, we’re always looking to talk to people. We’re always looking for those to kind of share the same excitement that we have. But at the same time, we always wanna maintain what we’ve created.
– Family is something that you know a lot about. Your parents have been married over 50 years, your brother, John works with you in the business. You’ve got three beautiful kids yourself, how does all that help create your style, and the family first kind of mentality?
– This business can be very, very, very demanding on all fronts, whether it’s sales or whether it’s operations because it’s really 24/7, it never stops. Someone’s always calling, someone’s always asking, somebody is always doing something. And one of the downsides, I think that I found is, as I was young in the career, it really consumed me. And the sacrifice was my family, and I always knew that when I once got to the place where I could actually literally look at people who work for me or knew the business, or whatever I was gonna change that, I was gonna make sure that we talked about people and say, listen, family comes first, we have a job to do, but it’ll be there tomorrow. While you do a great job, as long as we create those processes and a support team, and a support network, you can still smell the roses, enjoy your family. And we encourage that. One of the very first thing before COVID hit we had the Main Street Family Day and it was just amazing. Everyone, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, children, everyone, we all got together, we got to meet everybody. And you don’t see that very, very often these days, it’s always about money and it’s always about performance, and it’s always about productivity, and you stop, and you just give everybody the opportunity to literally feel differently about it. The work gets done, it just does.
– So you are in New England, as I mentioned here at the outset, you are a die-hard Patriots fan, early on in the season, Tom Brady is going to be traveling to New England, it’s gonna be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Super Bowl defending champions against your New England Patriots. Who will you be rooting for?
– Patriots.
– Okay. No doubt about it.
– No doubt about it. At the end of the day, sports is a business, so I only wish the best for him. He’s basically the best, period, end of story. We were damn lucky to have him at the helm for all those years, it’s amazing. But in the day I can’t be a Pats fan and then wish for Tampa to win, forget that, it’s not gonna happen.
– So I’d asked you when we were getting ready for this to tell me what you like to do in your free time. Golf, beach, boats, and gym, the third one boats. Any truth to the rumor that you once ran a boat into the ground?
– Destroyed it, yup. Put a hole in it, props gone, hit the rock.
– If we ever hit the seas, I’ll be behind the wheel, okay?
– Absolutely. I’ll be a great first mate, can make you a cocktail, sir.
– Sal Savastano, Division Executive Vice President of Main Street Home Loans, you are phenomenal. Thanks for all you have done for the NFM Family of Lenders, we really appreciate it. This has been amazing to spend some time with you today as our top producer for the month of June.
– No, I appreciate it, Greg. Thanks for taking the time to acknowledge it. It really is special, I’m actually honored that I was included in that class. So absolutely. Thank you very, very much. Appreciate it.
– It’s our privilege to talk to you and we’ll talk to you again very soon. We’ll continue to follow your progress. That’s Sal Savastano. I’m Greg Sher from NFM TV, we’ll talk to you again, next time.