# What a Loan Officer Does: Christopher Armantrout on the SHS FBLA Interview Series

Canonical URL: https://valor.mortgage/podcasts/shs-fbla-interview-2026-10-21/
Page title: SHS FBLA Interview: What Loan Officers Do | Valor Mortgage

With [Christopher Armantrout](https://valor.mortgage/about-us/), Licensed Mortgage Loan Originator · NMLS [#1210804](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/1210804)
Posted October 21, 2026 by the Springfield High School FBLA chapter
Transcript produced from the video audio and lightly edited · notes on figures added November 2026

**SHS FBLA Interview Series** · Springfield High School (Springfield, TN) chapter of Future Business Leaders of America · Posted October 21, 2026 · 61 minutes · [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c)

In this episode

For the SHS FBLA Interview Series, a student from Springfield High School’s chapter of Future Business Leaders of America sat down with Christopher Armantrout in the Valor Mortgage office in Robertson County. Over an hour, he asked how a mortgage works, how someone becomes a loan officer, what a buyer needs to apply, and how credit scores, down payments, closing costs and interest rates fit together. They also covered buyer’s and seller’s markets around Nashville, how mortgage companies get paid, how Christopher uses AI in his business, and his advice for future business leaders.

## Key takeaways

- **Talk to a lender before the big life decision.** People usually move after a life change, such as a new job, a new baby or downsizing. Talking with a broker or bank first lets you plan the price and payment you’re comfortable with.
- **Becoming a loan officer takes a license, not a degree.** Christopher got into the business in 2015, after moving back to the Nashville area, and opened Valor Mortgage in 2019. The job requires pre-licensing education, a national exam, healthy credit and yearly continuing education.
- **Applying means income, credit and assets.** Expect to provide pay stubs, bank statements and permission to pull your credit. Just because you can afford a payment doesn’t mean you should take it on.
- **No credit score isn’t always a dead end.** Some programs can use on-time payment history on things like rent, utilities, phone or insurance in place of a score.
- **In a buyer’s market, ask the seller to help.** When there are more sellers than buyers, a buyer can negotiate on price and ask the seller to pay closing costs. That matters most for first-time buyers with little cash.
- **Closing costs pay the third parties.** They include underwriting, processing and title insurance, which protects you from old liens such as an unpaid contractor. The Loan Estimate lists them up front.
- **Fixed vs variable rates.** A fixed rate keeps principal and interest the same, though taxes and insurance can still change. A variable rate, like a HELOC’s, can move fast: Christopher’s own line went from 4% to 8% in about six months.
- **Keep a paper trail for your down payment.** Funds need to be seasoned in your account or documented, such as with a gift letter or a bill of sale.
- **AI helps, but it can be wrong.** Christopher uses AI to look up guidelines and run his website, but keeps client information out of it, and he warns that AI answers can be wrong or swayed by what’s published online.
- **Advice for future business leaders:** learn to shake hands firmly, look people in the eye, and surround yourself with people who think differently than you do.

## Chapters

1. [00:00 Introductions: Valor Mortgage and Robertson County roots](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=0s)
2. [01:30 How Christopher became a loan officer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=90s)
3. [02:19 Education and licensing requirements](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=139s)
4. [04:07 What is a mortgage?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=247s)
5. [05:34 When to talk to a lender](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=334s)
6. [07:08 What you need to apply](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=428s)
7. [08:28 Taxes on a home purchase](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=508s)
8. [09:11 Credit scores, and buying with no score](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=551s)
9. [11:04 Broker or bank for a first-time buyer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=664s)
10. [13:18 Getting started, and seller-paid closing costs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=798s)
11. [15:09 Buyer’s market vs seller’s market](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=909s)
12. [17:00 Robertson County and the Nashville market](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1020s)
13. [18:00 Which market is better for a mortgage business](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1080s)
14. [19:15 Closing costs and title insurance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1155s)
15. [21:03 Down payments and mortgage insurance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1263s)
16. [23:33 Homes as an investment, and investment properties](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1413s)
17. [26:42 New developments, builder incentives and refinancing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1602s)
18. [30:13 The five steps to buying a house](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1813s)
19. [31:22 Advantages of a broker over a bank](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1882s)
20. [33:42 Collateral and foreclosure](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2022s)
21. [34:53 How mortgage companies get paid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2093s)
22. [36:12 Fixed vs variable rates, and HELOCs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2172s)
23. [39:47 Interest rates and credit scores](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2387s)
24. [41:20 Total interest over the life of a loan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2480s)
25. [43:14 Interest-only payments](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2594s)
26. [45:26 Regulations: Loan Estimates and seasoned funds](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2726s)
27. [48:07 Loan programs Valor offers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2887s)
28. [50:04 AI in the mortgage business](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3004s)
29. [55:31 Being an entrepreneur](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3331s)
30. [57:05 Serving Robertson County](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3425s)
31. [58:42 Advice for future business leaders](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3522s)
32. [1:00:08 Social media and wrap-up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3608s)

## Full transcript

This transcript was produced from the video audio with speech-recognition software and lightly edited: filler words were removed and names and capitalization corrected, and nothing was reworded. To protect student privacy, the interviewer is not named. Published with permission of the Springfield High School FBLA chapter. Select any timestamp to jump to that moment in the video.

**Read the full transcript (about 10,592 words)**

[00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=0s) **Student interviewer:** All right, what's up, y'all? My name is [student's name], and we're back for the SHS FBLA interview series. We're here with Mr. Chris Armantrout representing Valor Mortgage. And can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

[00:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=9s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Sure. I am owner of Valor Mortgage. I've been in Robertson County operating this since 2019, but I've also been, this has been home probably since 1988, so this is home home.

[00:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=24s) **Student interviewer:** Oh, yeah.

[00:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=24s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Got the opportunity to go to school in Chattanooga and travel abroad a little bit, and then moved around the U.S. and came back here.

[00:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=30s) **Student interviewer:** I got you. All right, so what is Valor Mortgage, like, what's your business about?

[00:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=37s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So Valor Mortgage essentially is giving you the opportunity, giving anyone the opportunity to be able to try and purchase a home. If, you know, as a kid, you say you saw a candy bar in the, and you know, the aisle, the checkout aisle, you'd ask your mom and dad, hey, can I have a dollar to buy a candy bar? Of course. It's kind of that same mentality.

[00:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=58s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Someone says, hey, I want to buy a house, but I need to go talk to a bank. But we work with the sole purpose of allowing financing, like selling mortgages or providing mortgages. That's our, that's all we do, versus a bank has a wide variety of financial products.

[01:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=71s) **Student interviewer:** All right, and what's your job title?

[01:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=77s) **Christopher Armantrout:** My job title, technically my job title would be loan officer, but when you run a small business, you're also the CFO, the owner, the complaint department.

[01:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=83s) **Student interviewer:** Oh, I got you. Yeah.

[01:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=90s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah, all the things, all the hats.

[01:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=90s) **Student interviewer:** So composite a lot.

[01:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=90s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah.

[01:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=90s) **Student interviewer:** So yeah, all right. So what got you interested in becoming a loan officer?

[01:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=96s) **Christopher Armantrout:** I had actually transitioned from publishing into the financial world. I moved back to Nashville in 2014, and my goal was I wanted to get into sales, and I wanted to sell large ticket items.

[01:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=112s) **Student interviewer:** Got you.

[01:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=112s) **Christopher Armantrout:** My first thought was, well, maybe I'll move to Atlanta and I'll sell Lamborghinis. Hey, but somebody made a mention that if I was to get my license, they'd hire me. And so from that I went with it and got a couple years of training under my belt and decided, I think I can do this. And so I managed to do it myself for the last five, well, 2019, that's more than five years, it's like eight or nine.

[02:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=135s) **Student interviewer:** It's a little bit longer, yeah.

[02:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=135s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah, yeah, it's been a little bit.

[02:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=139s) **Student interviewer:** Yeah. All right, so you mentioned you went to UT Chat. What were, like, the educational requirements needed to do what you do?

[02:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=145s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So technically, you, I think you just have to have a high school diploma.

[02:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=151s) **Student interviewer:** Oh.

[02:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=151s) **Christopher Armantrout:** You don't necessarily have to have a, you don't have to have a college degree. It is beneficial. Side note, didn't go to UTC.

[02:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=158s) **Student interviewer:** Oh.

[02:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=164s) **Christopher Armantrout:** I went to another private university down in Chattanooga, Southern Adventist University. So you don't necessarily have to have, when I, well, let me back up. When I became a loan officer, you didn't have to have a college degree. I can't say what that is currently today. It's been a few years.

[02:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=174s) **Student interviewer:** Yes, sir.

[02:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=174s) **Christopher Armantrout:** But it's having an understanding, having credit, having healthy credit. You have to pass a, you take a 20-hour continuing education course and continue to get your education completed every year. But the big thing is there is a loan officer exam, just like you would take for any other major trade.

[03:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=197s) **Christopher Armantrout:** If you're going to get your contractor's license, you study for forever and then you take your contractor's exam. So it's kind of a blend of a financial product market but also a trade market, if you will.

[03:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=210s) **Student interviewer:** So it's like, the loan officer exam, is that like kind of extensive or is it kind of a brief exam?

[03:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=215s) **Christopher Armantrout:** I'd say it's fairly extensive. Large portion of it is going to be mortgage law, and then law ethics and the actual application of what your day-to-day life would look like. I wouldn't say that studying for the test and day-to-day operations, there's not, they don't always go hand in hand.

[03:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=234s) **Student interviewer:** Yeah.

[03:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=234s) **Christopher Armantrout:** What I do every day doesn't necessarily correlate to what I was tested exactly on, but it's important to know that information so that you do do things correctly.

[04:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=247s) **Student interviewer:** Yes, sir. Yeah. All right, so before we, like, dive into the logistics of your company, for our viewers' sake and, like, knowing that, kind of what we're talking about, what is a mortgage?

[04:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=258s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So a mortgage, it's a French word that basically means slow death.

[04:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=265s) **Student interviewer:** Oh, okay.

[04:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=265s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah. The idea of a mortgage is the ability to be, to take out a loan and to be able to pay it back slowly. With, one thing to note with a mortgage is a car loan is going to be something that is, like, the rate is fixed, the payment's fixed, like everything is, like, you're going to pay so much interest over the life of the loan, like you, you know what you're going to pay up front.

[04:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=290s) **Christopher Armantrout:** With a mortgage, interest is front and loaded. What I mean by that is the very first payment you make is probably going to be like 90% interest, and very a little bit of that first payment is principal. And so as you move forward in making those payments, you're, think of it like an arch, if you will, as it moves further and further over, for you be this way, but further and further this way. Your second payment is a little bit more principal and a lot and a little less interest.

[05:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=321s) **Christopher Armantrout:** And so basically it's, hey, I agree to be able to make this a financial arrangement with you, and this financial arrangement is, it's a slow death of that debt.

[05:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=328s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, that kind of makes sense. All right.

[05:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=334s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah.

[05:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=334s) **Student interviewer:** All right, now, like I said, again to the logistics of your company. So let's just say, like you said, a mortgage is a house loan, and when a home buyer is going in the process of buying a house, when would your company get involved in that process?

[05:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=345s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Preferably before you make the hard decision that you're going to make, that you're going to buy a house.

[05:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=350s) **Student interviewer:** Okay.

[05:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=350s) **Christopher Armantrout:** The idea being, yeah, I need to make it, or, you know, hey, I'm gonna, I'm switching jobs, I need to be able to buy a house in this next town over, or like there's life, usually people buy or move whenever there's a life circumstance

[06:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=367s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Change, right? Your parents may decide, hey, we're going to downsize when you move out, right? Or, hey, we had a child, so we need to increase our house size. So I would suggest that before that life decision is complete, you've consulted with a mortgage broker or a bank to be able to say, okay, this is where we're comfortable with, this is how much we want to buy, this is what we want our payment to be around, so that you can financially plan for when that decision is actually executed.

[06:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=393s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Versus getting a phone call on a Friday afternoon realizing, hey, I just got fired, or hey, I just got transferred. So now it's over the weekend, you're like, okay, well, we have to sell this house, we have to buy this house, now you're caught kind of blindsided, if you will. So if there's any inkling of there could be a major shift in our, of our life that results in a housing shift, then you should start having a conversation right away.

[07:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=420s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, so, all right. Getting into, like, your financial planning as you would with, like, applying for a mortgage and getting one, so what type of information would somebody need to apply for a mortgage?

[07:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=433s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So typically you're looking at income, you're looking at credit, looking at assets, and kind of figuring out capacity, if you will. Like, okay, what is someone capable of being able to buy or afford? The example of that would be if someone was to buy a $400,000 house five years ago, that payment may look more like, you know, $2,000, $2,500. That same payment today could be as high as $3,000 or $4,000, just depending on what's happened in the interest rate market.

[07:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=468s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So typically I'm looking for bank statements, I'm looking for pay stubs, I'm looking to get permission to access their credit to look at Experian, TransUnion, Equifax, the credit bureaus, our credit agencies. A lot of personal financial information.

[08:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=490s) **Student interviewer:** Okay.

[08:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=490s) **Christopher Armantrout:** But with all of that, putting on bumpers, if you will, of saying, okay, just because you can't afford doesn't mean you need to afford. So just because you want a million dollar house...

[08:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=503s) **Student interviewer:** Oh, yeah.

[08:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=503s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Does it mean you want a million dollar mortgage payment? Doesn't always equate. So does that help?

[08:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=508s) **Student interviewer:** Oh, yes, sir. Now, you mentioned, like, a million dollar, like, mortgage. Is there, like, a sales tax on that, or is it just strictly the loan, though?

[08:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=515s) **Christopher Armantrout:** It's strictly the loan amount. So there's not a sales tax like you would go and buy a Snickers bar at Walmart and there's 9 and a quarter or 9.75% tax. There's where the tax is going to play is something called... Tennessee doesn't have an income tax, but they have a transfer tax. So when I sell the property to you, the state basically says congratulations.

[08:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=536s) **Student interviewer:** Yeah.

[08:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=536s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So it's not as much, but there is a tax, a transfer tax. And every state is going to have a little bit different, every county may have a little bit different. So it just depends on where you're buying.

[09:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=551s) **Student interviewer:** Okay. All right, now you mentioned something called a credit score. How does that affect your ability and capacity to have a loan?

[09:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=558s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Okay. It can and can't. If someone came into my office and said, I don't have a credit score, typically most financial institutions are going to say, it's great, we can't help you. So not having credit can be detrimental. However, there are products that our company offers that other companies don't, because it's, to them, they could see it as a higher risk.

[09:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=583s) **Christopher Armantrout:** That basically you come in and you say, okay, look, I've had these trade lines. A trade line would be like, hey, I've had a Netflix account that I've paid on time for the last 12 months, or I've had a Xbox Live account that I've paid on time, or car insurance, whatever, those are all trade lines. So technically, if somebody had that, they had a healthy amount of reserves, cash assets in the bank or retirement, then they could come in and buy a mortgage, just buy a house, just like that.

[10:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=614s) **Christopher Armantrout:** However, if someone comes in and they've trashed their credit, like they had a credit card, they opened it up, they went to, you know, Belk or Macy's and they opened the card...

[10:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=627s) **Student interviewer:** Yeah.

[10:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=627s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Went to town, and then they never made a payment on it, well, then now that's a collection. And so now your credit's gone from not having a credit score, period, to you have a score but it's sub 580. Scores usually range usually somewhere between 500 to 820, 840, in that ballpark. Anyone less than 800, anyone less than 580 has, they've made some poor choices in life.

[10:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=649s) **Student interviewer:** Yes, sir.

[10:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=659s) **Christopher Armantrout:** And they need to take some time to try and get it cleaned up to be able to purchase.

[10:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=659s) **Student interviewer:** I got you. Okay, so you said something like how your company offers things that, like, other institutions would not. So let's just say you're, like, a first time couple come to you, and then some other business, right, in business B. In this scenario, like, the young couple does not have a credit score because I've not really had intended to have a credit score for, right? But then they come to you and that is not, like, it's not necessarily affecting their purchase. So, like, between the two companies, would your route be the better one?

[11:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=688s) **Christopher Armantrout:** I would biasly say yes, yes, sir. But the idea is, like, if you go to any bank, a brick and mortar bank, they're going to have, like, their credit standards are, hey, we want, you know, 640 credit score or 660 credit score, we want to make sure that you have a down payment. Or, like, they're going to have very cookie cutter scenarios that work best for them. What we offer is broader perspectives. So yes, these are great files, we can close these, but even if you do have a challenge, there are other options that the bank doesn't want to touch.

[12:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=728s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So if someone wants to go to a bank or to another company and they compare it with myself, they didn't have the history, then having that, being able to essentially build a credit report, and working with an individual versus a corporation, I can walk them through, hey, I need this, this, and this, we're going to create a credit report for you using last

[12:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=756s) **Christopher Armantrout:** year's history, if you will, and then use that to be able to purchase.

[12:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=756s) **Student interviewer:** Okay. Would you say that, like, business strategy of yours has worked out more beneficial to you?

[12:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=762s) **Christopher Armantrout:** It hasn't been a, it's not something that is promoted a whole lot, because it's not your, it's not necessarily the standard way that people think to buy. But I've, I mean, I've closed a few deals that because they, because that was a situation I was able to do it, whereas the bank wasn't going to touch it. So it has been advantageous, but it has been something that I've necessarily leaned into to say this is my product that others can't touch.

[13:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=792s) **Student interviewer:** Okay. So now, with all that being said, yeah, assume a buyer comes to you, has contacted you and has a viable credit score. How would they go about your services to buy their house?

[13:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=803s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Ideally, you just pick up the phone and give me a call. But if they wanted to go online, they can also put an application in online. Typically, I like to be able to have a conversation with the person up front to be able to, I mean, just because what has been displayed on a screen or in an application, right, may, I mean, yes, this looks clean, this looks great, let's do this. However, there may be other questions the application hasn't picked up on that I'd like to ask, so I'd like to have that front initial conversation.

[13:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=836s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Just because you have money doesn't necessarily mean you want to spend your money. The example to that being, when you buy a house, there's costs associated with it. So it's not just your down payment, there's cost to get the mortgage. And right now, when this is being recorded, this is a buyer's market, so you should be able to go to any seller and say, hey, I want to buy this house, I see that the average house that compares to yours is selling for this price, and I want you to pay the cost of close my mortgage.

[14:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=866s) **Christopher Armantrout:** When the real estate agent or the client doesn't necessarily want to have a phone or a face-to-face conversation, not knowing what's available to be negotiated could result in the buyer paying extra cash out of pocket.

[14:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=886s) **Student interviewer:** Who.

[14:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=886s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So an example, I did a deal and helped some friends out. Their realtor never contacted me, I never could, never get him on the phone. It was a extra expense of about $26,000.

[15:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=901s) **Student interviewer:** Oh.

[15:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=901s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So it can be a bigger deal, so that everybody's on the same page. Does that make sense?

[15:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=909s) **Student interviewer:** That is, sure, yeah. Okay. All right, all right. Now, use the term called the buyer's market. What does that mean?

[15:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=909s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So a very clean example would be when there's more sellers on the market, like more people trying to sell their house. It means you as a seller are trying to compete with Joe Schmo selling his house over here, right? So, and I'm a buyer, so then I get to choose between your house. Do I want to buy your house or your house? And so that allows me to be able to negotiate, like, well, I could buy your house, I would like to buy it for $5,000 less, and I want to be able to pay, you to pay this in closing expense to close my mortgage, and you come back and say, no, I'm not wanting to do that.

[15:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=951s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So a buyer's market, because there's more sellers, it allows the buyer to have the advantage to be able to negotiate what they're trying to purchase. That make sense?

[15:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=958s) **Student interviewer:** Yes, sir. And what would the opposite be?

[16:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=963s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Seller's market would be, there's too many buyers in the market, there's only a handful of homes available. So it's a basic supply and demand.

[16:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=968s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, yeah.

[16:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=968s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So if there's, you know, there's only like two houses for sale, but there's 10 people moving to the city, then the sellers basically can say, okay, well, according to the market, we're going to sell our house for, you know, it should sell for $100,000, but we're going to put on the market for 125, and now I've got three or four people bidding to be able to buy my house. And so you can get into a, it's called a multiple offer situation, where you've got multiple buyers coming in and trying to purchase this property.

[16:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1001s) **Christopher Armantrout:** A couple years ago, Nashville was very hot, and I would see people coming from out of state saying, I'm willing to give you $50,000 more or $100,000 more for your house, just because I want to buy this house. So changing between seller's market or a buyer's market, depending on supply and demand.

[17:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1020s) **Student interviewer:** So, all right, so you're kind of saying, like, certain things happen around, like, different areas. How would you say Robertson County compares in that?

[17:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1030s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Being a Nashville metro neighborhood community, we kind of get sucked into that. Like, a lot of people who live in Robertson County commute to Nashville, right?

[17:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1045s) **Student interviewer:** Right.

[17:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1045s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So then whatever Nashville's main market is tends to, they drip onto us. So right now we would be very much a buyer's market, whereas a couple years ago we were a seller's market, where everything was very hot and you had to be very aggressive, and buyers paid their own expenses and they paid above cost, and like, so. As Nashville fluctuates, so does the surrounding communities.

[17:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1066s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, so not so, kind of like a triple effect, you would probably say.

[17:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1074s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah. So it, as businesses is booming in Nashville, it becomes, it will trickle down to us as well.

[18:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1080s) **Student interviewer:** All right. Now, like, as the business-wise, what does each market do for your profitability?

[18:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1088s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Each market, ask that a little differently. Let me see if I can understand it different.

[18:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1094s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, so let's just say you are in a buyer's market compared to whenever you were in, like, a seller's market. Which one does better for, like, a mortgage company?

[18:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1100s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Oh, I would say largely a buyer's market. And the logic to that is, I mean, I work with buyers, I don't necessarily work with sellers unless they're looking to buy again. So from a buyer's market, the seller being willing to pay the cost to close the mortgage, a lot of buyers are going to come, I mean, a large portion of your buyers are first time home buyers, and so those buyers are coming in saying, okay, either I

[18:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1130s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Don't have any money to put as a down payment, or the money that I do have, I need to put it as a down payment. And so I don't, you know, they may not have the funds to do both a down payment and the cost of closing the mortgage. So a buyer's market tends to allow the seller to pay that cost, and so it'll, it can help buyers get into the home.

[19:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1150s) **Student interviewer:** All right, now you said a term, it was like cost of closing the mortgage. What does that mean?

[19:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1155s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So cost of closing the mortgage, or closing costs. With any transaction, whether involving third parties, then every third party needs to get paid. So with, there's a document that gets pushed out called a loan estimate. Loan estimate is basically saying, hey, this is what it's going to cost to close the mortgage. That loan estimate is going to have, you know, there's an underwriter who's going to verify everything that we've submitted. There, that mortgage company may have a processing department, they have to get paid too.

[19:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1184s) **Student interviewer:** Yes, sir.

[19:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1184s) **Christopher Armantrout:** If the buyer, you know, if I'm qualifying the buyer, and in order to get their rate down, the market may say, hey, your rate needs to be this for the scenario that you're pitching, but you want a little bit cheaper interest rate, that's fine, but it's going to cost you money. Like, we will allow you to do that, but the risk, you're going to pay for the risk and cost.

[20:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1208s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So if you buy a house and there's something called title expense. Title expense is, you buy a house from him, he buys, but, and you pay cash, but he had a contractor come in, build a deck, but he never paid him.

[20:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1227s) **Student interviewer:** Yes, sir.

[20:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1227s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Well, the contractor wants to get paid, of course. He puts a judgment against the house, he sold the house to you, you guys didn't go through a title company, and now you own that debt. So the title company is going to provide title insurance that they're vouching, saying, nope, there are no judgments against this property. If there are, the title company will pay that debt on your behalf. So there's different expenses that go into the process of buying a house, so closing costs is the overarching phrase for that. All right, is that fair?

[21:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1263s) **Student interviewer:** Yes, sir, I got you. Okay, all right. And now something, like, else that you said, like, alongside of, like, the cost of closing, was like a down payment. What would that look like if a buyer came to you with a down payment, and how does a different size down payment affects their mortgage?

[21:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1273s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Okay, so very, very, there's a lot to unpack there.

[21:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1277s) **Student interviewer:** Sorry, that was a big question about that, sir.

[21:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1282s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So sometimes you can purchase a house without a down payment. Okay, a lot of times you call it 100% financing. The, what it does come to a down payment, the standard first-time home buyer programs would be 3% or 3.5%. So you buy a $100,000 home, you're paying $3,000 as a down payment, right? You scale up the sales price, it scales up accordingly with it.

[21:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1307s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So if, most government loans, without getting any technicalities, are going to have something that's called mortgage insurance. Mortgage insurance, for a very simplified phrase, is a fat fee that does no benefit for the buyer. Mortgage insurance ensures the investor that, let's say you had three people buying a house, and they all pay less than 20% down, then you would get, let's, and they all bought without, with less than 20% down. But one of them, you know, he can't pay his mortgage, right? So he defaults on the loan. So the mortgage insurance that you and I paid, and some of what he paid, would insure the investors so that they don't go insolvent, they don't lose out on being able to keep servicing those mortgages.

[22:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1359s) **Student interviewer:** I bet you mortgage insurance gets expensive then, if it covers that big of a cost.

[22:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1359s) **Christopher Armantrout:** It can if your score is low, if you use a conventional loan. So this is where it gets really technical real fast. Government loans only, all government loans have it. Conventional loans only have mortgage insurance if you put less than 20 down. So it depends, and that's like my favorite phrase in this industry, because, oh yeah, you can say one thing, and then again, going back to putting an application in and wanting to talk to somebody over the phone, because you can say one phrase and things change just to your degree, and no longer eligible for X, Y and Z programs, which we actually started with.

[23:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1394s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So down payment, it can range anywhere from no down payment to minimum of 3%, all the way up to however much money you want to put down. There's no limitation on how much you can put down.

[23:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1413s) **Student interviewer:** All right, now kind of shifting gears a little bit.

[23:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1413s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yep.

[23:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1413s) **Student interviewer:** So whenever I, always like doing my research, like, mortgage companies, something that kind of, like, kind of like ring my bell a little bit was, like, investing.

[23:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1422s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Okay.

[23:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1422s) **Student interviewer:** And I've heard, like, things where you can, like, invest in houses, and, like, I think it's like an ROI, like a return on investment or something, where it's like over the time you get appreciation for it. What does that look like?

[23:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1432s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So if you were to purchase an investment property, most of the time, or even a primary residence, let's say that homes have always been a, or tended for the most part, been a safe haven against inflation. So, okay, that's good enough?

[24:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1444s) **Student interviewer:** Yeah.

[24:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1454s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Inflation is essentially, think of it as there's too many buyers in the market, and there's too many buyers, then the demand for something begins to cause prices to increase. So your house has been tended to be a safe haven against inflation because inflation, yeah, I'll just leave it at that. So investment, so investment, or some, are you wanting investment properties or investment as a whole? Because there's two ways we could go with this.

[24:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1486s) **Student interviewer:** I'll just say both.

[24:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1486s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Both, okay, I'll go both. So I'm kind of overloading you here a little bit.

[24:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1493s) **Student interviewer:** No, it's all right.

[24:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1493s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Investment, so investment as a whole, we'll go that route, and just say homes tend to appreciate. So you're, you buy a house, you pay

[25:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1508s) **Christopher Armantrout:** And so you pay $200,000 for the house, and then over time as homes around you sell, if they continue to sell and the comparables around your house increase in value, you have a mortgage for, you bought the house for $200,000, other house starts selling for 250 to 300 to 400, then your home is appreciating in value and it is an investment instrument.

[25:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1534s) **Christopher Armantrout:** And investment properties can do the same thing, but they are, with investment properties you're also collecting rent. So if rent is healthy enough, then you're making enough money off of rent and the appreciation of the home to be able to either later sell the property for a profit minus taxes, or you're able to take that money, invest it in, or sell that property, invest it in something bigger later because it's appreciated in value, or sell that property or take out equity from that property, invest it in another property and grow what some would call portfolio.

[26:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1573s) **Student interviewer:** I got you. All right, now you said something called investment properties. Would that like an Airbnb or like something like that, or like what do you mean by that?

[26:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1584s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So it could be, you could buy a property to do an Airbnb, a short-term rental. Another would be a long-term rental. Commercial real estate could be another possibility. Anything that's technically, anything that's not your primary residence or a secondary residence that you are renting out would be deemed as an investment property.

[26:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1602s) **Student interviewer:** All right, now something that's kind of irrelevant to Robertson County as of like right now is Blackwood Farms. Okay, so I like drive by down there like every day to like basically just to get to school and back. Okay, and it's like I went, I drive back down there and then it used to be like full of trees, right, and like a full like green space, right? And then I go back that, like I go around like there now and it's like fully decimated, right, and they've already started putting houses up, right? So what is that field gonna look like for you in terms of mortgage loans?

[27:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1634s) **Christopher Armantrout:** For me, so mortgage and real estate industry are largely come down to relationships. Okay, if I was a part of that builder's, we'll say, real estate family, for lack of a better phrase, yeah, then yes, that would be excellent. There's, within the real estate world, builders tend to, not always, but they tend to have, they create relationships with banks or lenders that they want to partner with, right?

[27:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1664s) **Christopher Armantrout:** And so when that happens, they largely will provide seller concessions or seller credits, or they'll say, hey, if you use this bank or you use this mortgage company, then one of the products will be that your interest rate will start off here. And so they build that relationship, say, okay, if you use this title company, this lender, and you buy from me, then the combination of us working together, you get this incentive.

[28:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1687s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So from a mortgage perspective, unless the client was to say, no, I want to use you, I don't care if they're offering incentives of, you know, $40,000, I have no idea what their incentives are, yeah, then that's where I would be, okay, that works, I'd be more than happy to work with you, let's see what we can figure out. So when major developments come in, unless you have the relationship, it's, or you go back later and say, okay, I see that you bought the house at market, was at like 8%, then let me come back behind you and refinance that and change your interest rate to, you know, 5%, as long as it makes financial sense.

[28:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1730s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Typically when you refinance, the rule of thumb can be that you want to get at least 1% cheaper at least, because there's, essentially when you, you're basically trading one mortgage for another, and in doing so you're restarting that mortgage. Which means you may have gotten to the point where the debt that you owe was, you know, 70% interest and 30% principal, but now your first payment is going to be 90% or more interest. And so, yeah, so you have to decide: one, you're going to pay cost to close this mortgage. Two, okay, it's going to be a cheaper interest rate, so does that benefit me? Three, the time, am I going back to another 30 year mortgage or do I want to cut this down so that I'm not stretching my mortgage out again?

[29:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1789s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So there's a couple things. So to answer your question, yeah, in a concise manner, unless someone comes to me and says, no, I want to use you, I don't need the incentives that they're offering, then it's beneficial.

[30:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1800s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, so would you kind of consider that like corporate mortgages or like...

[30:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1806s) **Christopher Armantrout:** No, it's just relationships.

[30:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1806s) **Student interviewer:** Okay.

[30:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1806s) **Christopher Armantrout:** That's the big kicker.

[30:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1813s) **Student interviewer:** All right, so now kind of getting back on track to where we were earlier. So let's just say the buyer has been approved for the mortgage and is ready to buy their home. What are the next steps with your company, so once you're like towards closing?

[30:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1823s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Okay, well, I'll do this real quick. I tell, generally tell people there's five steps to be able to buy a house. Okay, first step is getting qualified. Second step is find the realtor, find the house. If someone needs a realtor, then the people that I've worked with that I've enjoyed working with, I usually will refer them to that particular realtor in that area.

[30:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1845s) **Christopher Armantrout:** I encourage someone to find, to build a list of must have, maybe, don't need, and don't want, because you don't want to waste a whole lot of time looking at stuff and not knowing what you want, otherwise you're just spending, you're wasting time. Your realtor is going to negotiate your contract. I'm going to send your file to be underwritten twice, if not more. Once underwriter clears everything, then you would go to a title company, sign loan documents, and if you were bringing a down payment, you would wire your down payment to the title company. Very concise version of what this does.

[31:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1882s) **Student interviewer:** I got you.

[31:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1882s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah.

[31:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1882s) **Student interviewer:** All right, so I'm gonna kind of put you on the spot a little bit. All right, so

[31:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1887s) **Student interviewer:** Earlier I kind of mentioned the benefits of like going to just like a bank for a mortgage, right, or like just going to you and your company for your services, right? So what would you say are like the main advantages of coming to like a Valor Mortgage company rather than going to a bank for a mortgage loan?

[31:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1901s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So I have the opportunity to be able to use a lot of the big players that, like, they're called wholesale lenders, to be able to shop different options that might be available in the market. What banks have are, I offer you this product at this price, this product at this price, this product at this price. So they don't necessarily have the multiple options to be able to complete, you know, they don't have the options to be able to shop. That's keyword I'm looking for. Also when you're working with my office versus a bank or another mortgage company, when you guys walked in you saw me, you're able to ask me questions directly.

[32:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1939s) **Student interviewer:** Yes sir.

[32:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1939s) **Christopher Armantrout:** You, when you called me, you're able to get me on the phone, like you're able to have the level of customer service versus oftentimes you work with a bank or you work with a major company, you're going to call a 1-800 number, you're going to get put in, put on hold, you're going to get to play with that country.

[32:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1961s) **Student interviewer:** Oh yeah.

[32:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1961s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So anytime you have a question you have to go through this whole process all over again, versus like what I just explained. It, when you're working with a large company, you're not, you're a number. Like how often, I mean you're a number, so you're going to get put through this assembly line process essentially.

[33:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1982s) **Student interviewer:** Yes sir.

[33:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=1982s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So one of the fastest closing times that I've done is being able to submit a file for underwriting and then within 24 hours have it back out and clear to close. Legally you can't close a mortgage faster than seven days, but you can have it sitting on the table ready to close for six days.

[33:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2000s) **Student interviewer:** I got you.

[33:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2000s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So it depends on what you're looking for. I've had clients that I would, I've competed with rate, gone toe-to-toe with the local bank, but their big thing was they wanted to be able to walk in, strike a check and be able to make their mortgage payment to the person across the counter.

[33:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2016s) **Student interviewer:** I got you.

[33:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2016s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So it boils down to what is your need, like what is it, like what fits the client the best.

[33:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2022s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, that makes sense. All right, now I kind of back to my own research. Okay, I learned something about mortgage loans, or it's like there's differences compared to like standard loans. Okay, and kind of like in specific, I was sold mortgage loans can be used for collateral. What is collateral?

[33:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2036s) **Christopher Armantrout:** The collateral would be like, so you buy a car and you get a loan, the car is collateral. They're going to come back and they're going to repossess the car if you don't pay them, pay the note, right? Okay, so the house is the same thing. So you've heard of phrases like foreclosure. Foreclosure is essentially repossessing the house.

[34:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2057s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So if I was to stop making my mortgage payment, then the bank has legal option to be able to tell the county this is my house now, because he has, he's made the decision not to make the mortgage payment. So that's also another way that mortgage dies. It can die very quickly because I fail to make, to hold, uphold my end of the bargain. So that's a quick death on a mortgage.

[34:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2086s) **Student interviewer:** I got you.

[34:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2086s) **Christopher Armantrout:** But yeah, so it's very, foreclosure, it would be very similar to a repossession.

[34:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2093s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, so how do you, like how do you guys as the mortgage company profit off of like handing out a mortgage?

[34:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2099s) **Christopher Armantrout:** How do we profit? So think of it, there's a wholesale channel, and I guess the wholesale channel would be, best way to describe it, all right, so United States government issues bonds. Those bonds are rated for debt, so that's how money is actually generated. That's another conversation.

[35:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2121s) **Student interviewer:** Oh, I bet.

[35:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2121s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So those wholesalers basically say, hey, we're going to take the debt that is being issued and we're going to increase the interest rate, usually it's about 2%. So right now bond market is about 5 and 5 and a quarter. And so the government sells debt for 10 years, and at the end of 10 years that debt will get paid back to that particular investor buying the bonds. But then that spread between 5 and a quarter and market rate, probably right now 7 to 7 and a quarter, give or take, is how mortgage companies cover their cost. Does that help?

[36:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2165s) **Student interviewer:** I kind of, yes.

[36:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2165s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Okay, I get more detail maybe.

[36:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2165s) **Student interviewer:** I'm sure there's a lot of specifics to it.

[36:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2172s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah, or as he says, it depends.

[36:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2172s) **Student interviewer:** Yeah, it depends. All right, and now kind of like shifting gears, like kind of a little bit more. Yeah, so you said something earlier called a fixed rate. What would that be on a mortgage?

[36:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2181s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So fixed rate, the most primary mortgages are going to be a fixed rate mortgage. Fixed rate basically means interest rates for your, so your payment won't change, your principal and interest won't change. So if you were to buy a house and your lender quoted you your mortgage rate is going to be 7%, then for as long as you have that mortgage, not necessarily as long as you have that house, but as long as you have that mortgage, your payment would be X, Y, Z.

[36:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2210s) **Christopher Armantrout:** And so that doesn't necessarily mean that your taxes or your insurance aren't going to change, because they will. So whereas when you bought your house your payment's $2,000, a year from now your payment could be $2,100, but you come back to Chris and you're like, hey, my payment changed. Yeah, yep, because your taxes went up, congratulations.

[37:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2231s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So it's principal interest, fixed rate interest rate would be something that isn't going to change for the life of the loan. The opposite of that would be either a variable rate. Most home equity lines of credit or HELOCs tend to be a secondary mortgage, and they allow for

[37:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2253s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Their interest rates, they move. So a couple weeks ago, maybe last week, the Federal Reserve, another conversation, yeah, they changed the rates that banks can use to borrow money from each other. And with that it changed the rate that HELOCs operate off of. Have a HELOC on my house, or home economic credit against my house. Several years ago that rate was 4%, which was cheap money, so I'm like, well, shoot, yeah, I'm gonna use that, use some equity, go buy an investment property, like this would be great.

[38:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2287s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Well, within about six months that rate went from 4% to 8%. Doubled. And so it's painful. Your payment changes real fast.

[38:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2293s) **Student interviewer:** Oh yeah.

[38:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2293s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So that's difference between a fixed rate and a variable rate. There are other, we could go down another path, but that's the basics.

[38:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2307s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, so you said something that's like, all right, you said like a fixed rate and like a percent of the like mortgage loan payment is like the fixed rate, right? Where does that fixed rate go to? Like, who does that payment go to?

[38:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2318s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Goes the mortgage company, so.

[38:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2318s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, so you profit off of fixed rates?

[38:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2324s) **Christopher Armantrout:** I probably don't have all products.

[38:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2324s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, all right.

[38:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2324s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So it's just, it's a fixed rate, a balloon rate, an ARM, like there's different key products here. When I sell the product, that investor comes my company. And so as interest rates adjust, my compensation stays the same based off of how much of a loan is this going to be. But my company has a contract with whatever company that I'm partnered with to be able to say, okay, you sell this, this is your cut, essentially.

[39:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2355s) **Christopher Armantrout:** And so my job is 100% commission. Like, there's no salary, there's no hourly. It's you sell a deal, you get paid, you don't sell a deal, you don't get paid.

[39:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2367s) **Student interviewer:** That's your hustle.

[39:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2367s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah, it is a hustle. But it is a, so no matter what the product is, it should be the same. The pricing process should be the same.

[39:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2383s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, now something else, this kind of might be like what you just talked about, but in case it wasn't, like, I guess like I wasn't picking up what you're saying, but all right, so what is an interest rate and like how can that be dependent upon your credit score?

[39:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2392s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Okay, so interest rate and credit scores, they can go hand in hand. If your credit score can help to determine which product you get to. Okay, so if your purchase, let's go use conventional. Conventional products typically price out best for someone who has a 700 and 720 credit score or higher, versus an FHA product may price out better for someone who has a 580 to a 680 credit score. Neither of them are bad products, but your payment can vary.

[40:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2425s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Whereas company A has an appetite for, investor A has an appetite for FHA loans, so then I go and say, okay, Joe Schmo needs to buy a house, his credit score is a 660, he would fit best with this investor. Versus a month later, they don't have as many files that are FHA, and so they're going to base their pricing on FHA financing, because they need more of that type to keep their underwriters busy to be able to make money. Because the more your underwriters are sitting still, you're not making any money.

[41:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2460s) **Christopher Armantrout:** And so depending on supply and demand, depending on this guy's credit score, depending on their appetite, okay, where does this file go, which interest rate is the most enticing to these investors. That make sense?

[41:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2474s) **Student interviewer:** Condo. All right, so kind of pin on like your response or whatever. On average, how much, like, like the duration of the mortgage and like whenever like somebody, or let's say Joe Schmo, that would have paid off his mortgage loan, right? By the time he was able to pull, like pay it off, let's just say it was four years, how much of like, so let's say his loan was like a million dollars.

[41:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2498s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Okay, but pretty big loan, but yeah.

[41:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2504s) **Student interviewer:** Yeah, his loan was a million dollars. How much an interest did he pay over the occurrence of that loan?

[41:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2508s) **Christopher Armantrout:** There's a lot of factors there.

[41:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2508s) **Student interviewer:** Oh, I'm sure, yeah, it's probably like a big generalization there.

[41:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2513s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah. Oftentimes it could be double.

[41:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2513s) **Student interviewer:** Holy.

[41:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2513s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah. And that's a generalization, and it really will would depend on, did he make every mortgage payment on time, was it a 30-year mortgage, was it a 15-year mortgage, what was his interest rate? Because the interest that you would earn, or that investor would earn, on a million dollars would be different if it was 2% versus 7%, right?

[42:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2535s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So there's something called an amortization schedule. Basically it's, when you buy a house, if you look at it you're going to cry, because it shows you, okay, your first payment, 5% goes to principal, 95% goes to interest. And you take each of those payments and you add it up, and whatever that total amount is is your total interest paid over the life of the loan. So if you were to purchase a house and you're able to put as much money towards principal on the front end as possible, you're going to save the most money, because your first payment is largely interest.

[42:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2576s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, so basically what you're saying is like the more you can front load and like as much as you can pay up on that principal as you can at the front end, like the less interest you're gonna have to pay in the long run.

[43:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2589s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Correct.

[43:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2589s) **Student interviewer:** All right, so all right, let's just say you're paying on that principal, all right, and let's just say you're not able to pay, or no, okay, let's say you're kind of going in debt. Okay, now this is kind of like going way off the deep end a little bit. Okay, let's say you're kind of going in debt and you're just strictly paying interest. How can you get back on track to be paying the principal?

[43:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2610s) **Christopher Armantrout:** I would call your dad. No, you can, there are loans out there that allow you to be like interest only, that, you know, hey, I'm going to have this loan for X amount, I get five years, and it's going to be an interest only payment. Like investors may come in and be like, hey, I want to buy this house, it's gonna be interest only, with the anticipation of this, you know, I've moved into Nashville, I'm going to build this project

[43:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2639s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Over here, I need a place to live for a little bit, I don't want to rent, I want it to be mine. So that if I wanted to, I could refinance that debt and keep the house, or I could turn around and sell the house and I'm not tying up my money, if you will. So if you're in a position where you're only making interest only payments and you're looking to pay off this debt, then I would encourage you to find either a different job or find a secondary job to be able to put more cash towards that balance to get it paid down.

[44:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2670s) **Student interviewer:** Yeah, because I think in other words you'd kind of be screwed.

[44:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2674s) **Christopher Armantrout:** You'd be in a very hard spot, for sure.

[44:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2674s) **Student interviewer:** Yeah.

[44:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2674s) **Christopher Armantrout:** And yeah, another thing you could do is if it was interest only and it was financially smart, you could refinance that debt. I've done that with my home equity line credit. Initially it was, I think I had, it was at 8%, and I found an institution that would, I would only have to pay, I think it was like 5.75. So I'm saving like two or three percent of interest on that loan, which gives me some breathing room to be able to put, if I took that same payment and I applied it to the new loan, then I'm starting to put, pay principal off faster.

[45:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2713s) **Student interviewer:** You could get a second job, get a new job.

[45:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2713s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah. Or if you're, if the numbers made sense, refinance it so that you can make it a cheaper, cheaper debt.

[45:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2720s) **Student interviewer:** All right, so now, and this is, this is probably gonna look like a little bit in the deep end too. All right, so in relation to state and federal laws, yeah, like we're like, what certain procedures or regulations do you guys have to follow in like a mortgage company?

[45:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2735s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Oh, there's a lot.

[45:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2735s) **Student interviewer:** Yeah, that's pretty big, pretty big generalization of a question. I kind of realize that now.

[45:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2740s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah, no, it's fair. I would say one of the big ones is there are, there's six key pieces of information that if someone provides me, "Hey, I want this, this, this, this," then legally I have to say, okay, this is what an estimate of what that would cost. Like, I have to provide them a loan estimate. And so there's that.

[45:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2756s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Or, like, there's guidelines like cash. Most of the time you hear people say cash is king. Cash is not king in my industry. Okay, example being if you wanted to buy a house, but the cash that you wanted to use isn't a safe, well, technically, legally, those funds have to be seasoned for 30 to 60 days. Season being they have to be in your account, and the statement that we use, can't, like, I can't see $10,000 just being deposited in your bank account. Okay, I have to use bank statements that show, like, these funds have been in here for at least, like, authenticity purposes.

[46:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2801s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah, the idea behind it is they want to be able to know that this money didn't just appear out of thin air. Whether it be accusing the client, "Oh, you're a drug dealer, good job," oh yeah, no, like, figuring out, okay, well, where did this money come from? And a lot of times people have cash in a safe, or if a family member is going to be gifting them a down payment, there has to be a trail of, okay, this did come from so-and-so's bank account. This wasn't something that they're just like, "Here, Grandpa had $10,000 and I just deposited it." There's no, it rarely is there a way to source that.

[47:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2846s) **Christopher Armantrout:** But you could sell a car, you can have a title of the car, you have a bill of sale, and like, everything has to be documented. There has to be a paper trail. Like, that's the big thing, I guess. I would answer that way.

[47:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2856s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, so basically what you're saying is, like, in kind of like a big generalization of, like, following, like, the legal guidelines, you would say have, like, a paper trail and, like, make sure you got your money's clean, kind of.

[47:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2865s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah, yeah, that's a better term. Yeah, yeah, that's how your money is. I would say money is seasoned, I go that way.

[47:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2871s) **Student interviewer:** Okay, that's why I see where you said that. Okay.

[47:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2876s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah, yeah, the money laundering. Yeah, so it knows your money's seasoned, and it came from a, if it's not seasoned, then it came from a viable source that we can actually say, okay, this is, we can document where it came from. So that would be one aspect of many.

[48:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2887s) **Student interviewer:** All right, now, all right, this question is specific to your company. What type of mortgage loans does Valor Mortgage offer to its buyers?

[48:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2894s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Conventional, FHA, THDA, bank statement loans, profit loss, VA loans. Like, there is a broad list of products that could be offered. The standard loans would be conventional, FHA, USDA, and VA. Those are your bread and butter. Most people buy using that financing.

[48:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2920s) **Christopher Armantrout:** If you're going outside of those, usually there's, you've had a bankruptcy or you're self-employed. Oftentimes someone who's self-employed, they will, I mean, I don't like paying taxes, but I do, but it's okay. Most businesses try to reduce their tax liability the most they can, and when they do that, if they're self-employed, then they're going to come across as not having taxable income. I have to have a taxable income to use certain programs to be able to be taxed, right?

[49:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2959s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So either you're going to have, you're either going to be taxed or you're going to go with what's called non-QM, or non-qualitate, what, non-qualitative mortgage. And those products don't have, typically you're going to have a larger down payment, and you're going to have a little higher interest rate because they're seen as a higher risk product. And not everybody wants to offer that product. So products that I offer may not be products that your bank offers, right, would be a short answer.

[49:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=2993s) **Student interviewer:** Kind of more tailored that you check your mortgage customers. All right, now, kind of gonna, they're not shifting gears, but, like, take a different approach.

[50:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3004s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Okay.

[50:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3004s) **Student interviewer:** All right, so the past few years there's been a certain, like, technology that's really impacted a whole lot of industries.

[50:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3009s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yeah.

[50:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3009s) **Student interviewer:** That being artificial intelligence, or AI. So how is that, like, technology impacted your work?

[50:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3015s) **Christopher Armantrout:** I think it depends on how deep you go into it.

[50:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3021s) **Christopher Armantrout:** I've purposely not used it for my industry in the, I would say in the core of my business, the core of my business being, "Hey, I need to qualify a client." I have used it when I wanted to verify a guideline, using it as a search engine, if you will, right? Because, you know, guideline for an FHA loan could be, you know, six, seven, eight hundred pages of documents to search through to be able to figure out what you're looking for. Where I haven't used it is to be like, "Okay, here is my person's credit profile," dropping it into an AI.

[50:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3056s) **Student interviewer:** A little specific information, yeah, it gets a little sensitive.

[50:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3056s) **Christopher Armantrout:** And so a stronger area where I may have, that have used it, actually a good example would be: my domain, valor.mortgage, has been live since I started my company. I've had to revamp my website several times. First time it was just, "Hey, I just want something up on the web so people can find me and know I'm legit." The second time was, "Hey, I want to move that website so that it's in unison with this software over here, so that when leads come in they'll immediately drop into the sales funnel and everything works, it's just glorious." Then you'll learn, "Hey, wait a second, that doesn't work so good with SEO, so I'm going to remove it out of that and move it onto WordPress."

[51:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3099s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Well, I didn't know that WordPress has updates, and if you don't keep those updated... Thankfully I don't keep any pertinent information on the website. It's just a matter of, this is who I am.

[51:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3110s) **Student interviewer:** Yes, sir.

[51:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3110s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Well, that website flopped. So my cousin is, helped me out to use AI to essentially take my website and totally rebuild it. And now actually Claude sits on my website to be able to make changes for me as I need them.

[52:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3126s) **Student interviewer:** Okay.

[52:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3126s) **Christopher Armantrout:** That's, so that was a long story to say most of my website is modified, managed and processed through AI. So it's, from that perspective, it's helpful. But there are companies out there that, they've set up AI processes so that when a lead comes in it's boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and they'll use AI agents to do some of the work for you.

[52:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3158s) **Student interviewer:** Yeah.

[52:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3158s) **Christopher Armantrout:** That's not how my company operates. So it's beneficial for a little bit, but there has to be a wall of separation between client information and tasks.

[52:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3165s) **Student interviewer:** Of course, because then you're probably like jeopardizing their confidentiality and all that kind of stuff. All right, so kind of on that AI, where do you see this technology going through your business in the next few years?

[52:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3179s) **Christopher Armantrout:** I think it could become more and more, they're going to refine it more and more. But how often, what is the phrase called, hallucinating? Have you ever had, you type something into, let's see, an AI source, and you know the answer already but you wanted to ask AI, and it came back and gave you the wrong answer? It's called hallucinating. And so just because AI can give you the answer or it can do an X process doesn't mean it's going to get it right.

[53:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3209s) **Christopher Armantrout:** And so can it get refined? It can. But if you can ask AI a question that tends to be black and white, I mean, because all AI is doing right now is it's doing search engine often, or it's searching the web to be able to say these are, these are the websites that are talking about this. Even to the point where I can go out and pay to have an article written of me saying I'm the best mortgage broker in Nashville.

[53:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3237s) **Student interviewer:** Yes, sir.

[53:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3237s) **Christopher Armantrout:** And then have that generated throughout USA Today and all the other news articles in the Tennessee and all this fun stuff.

[54:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3249s) **Student interviewer:** Could be kind of false information.

[54:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3249s) **Christopher Armantrout:** False information. It's posted everywhere and it's five-star reviews, it looks great. So now someone goes and searches, "Hey, I want to know who the best mortgage broker is in Nashville." I come up number one, is the one top citation. So then you come to me thinking that because AI said it, it's true.

[54:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3265s) **Student interviewer:** Fair.

[54:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3265s) **Christopher Armantrout:** All right, so AI can give you some strong information just like searching can, but when it comes to problem solving and knowing nuances in, like, example of, "Hey, I'm self-employed, I applied for a conventional mortgage, I have no taxable income." Denied. Well, you're done. Like, yeah, I told me I couldn't do it. But you work with someone and say, "Yeah, correct, you're denied." However, I had a borrower who needed to refinance their house.

[55:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3302s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Bank denied them because it fit, didn't fit their mold, but when they came to me, ended up that their average monthly income was $65,000. Who's going to deny someone who makes $65,000 income of that? They're going to, and they're only going to borrow $200,000. They could probably pay that mortgage back technically in six months. So can AI have some usefulness? Yes. Does it hallucinate? Yes. […] So it's, it depends on what you're looking for. Is that fair?

[55:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3331s) **Student interviewer:** Interesting though. I, that's kind of a different take than what I'm used to though, so I like that though. Okay, all right, so getting into the FBLA side of this interview, you know, Future Business Leaders of America. All right, you're the founder of Valor Mortgage and therefore you're an entrepreneur. What are your experiences being an entrepreneur and how has that like kind of shaped your perspective?

[55:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3356s) **Christopher Armantrout:** I enjoy the freedom of being able to complete what I need to get done on my own schedule. That to me is a huge blessing. The downside is there's no such thing as vacation. My wife kidnapped me and took me to Hawaii for a vacation. It was great, two weeks in Hawaii, I was still working, so it wasn't a mental vacation.

[56:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3375s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So if you're going to be an entrepreneur, there's a quote that, for an old friend of mine said, if there's, leadership isn't just leading, to say like, "Hey, I'm a leader in the community," but if you can't train someone who to either replace you, then there's a lack of, there's a failure in leadership. So being able to have someone who could come in and basically take over my company if I needed them to and understand the business would be a better level of leadership, where I could actually disconnect and say, "Hey, I'm going to go on vacation, I trust you enough to be able to take this

[56:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3417s) **Christopher Armantrout:** While I'm gone. So freedom of time, but also the downfall is your time owns you as well.

[57:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3425s) **Student interviewer:** Oh, I bet.

[57:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3425s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So there's a catch there.

[57:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3425s) **Student interviewer:** All right. Now also, you're like, you are a local business leader of Robertson County. How is serving Robertson County been beneficial to you?

[57:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3432s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So serving, I think networking, being able to meet new people, gain different perspectives. It's easy... Oh man, I had the opportunity to live on the West Coast for a while. I had the opportunity to live in Korea and Thailand.

[57:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3451s) **Student interviewer:** Oh, well.

[57:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3451s) **Christopher Armantrout:** I've lived abroad and come back home. And the more you can surround yourself with people who are of a different mindset from you, because it's very easy to get, you call it like a silo vision of like, we think this way, this is the only way we do things, this is why we do it in this way. It's great, but the more people that you can surround yourself who think differently than you, the more you're going to learn, the more you're going to be tried, the more you're going to be tested, if you will.

[58:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3485s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So in working with community you get to meet all kinds of different personalities, all that. And it taking both what I've learned from living in other countries to living here, working within the community allows you to be able to, you know, bounce ideas off of other people. I've got a buddy over in White House that we try and meet like every other week or so to be able to be like, hey, this is what I'm going through, this is what I need, this is how I'm trying to fix it. And he'd be able to get feedback. So that's been a huge blessing as well.

[58:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3522s) **Student interviewer:** Yes, sir. You know, kind of funny that you mentioned networking. All right, so one of FBLA's missions is to teach the next generation of future business leaders about networking and cooperation, among other business practices. All right, so what would be your advice to, say, the next loan officer or just the next business leader pursuing their vision of the American dream?

[58:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3537s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Learn how to shake someone's hand. Learn how to shake someone's hand firmly and learn how to look them in the eye. If you can shake someone's hand, look them in the eye and be able to have a not a domineering conversation but a firm conversation where you can present yourself... Oh man, there's a keyword I'm missing here. You can basically present yourself on the affirmative, not in a quiet, let's say, fish handshake.

[59:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3572s) **Student interviewer:** Yeah.

[59:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3572s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Then you're going to make a very positive impression initially. From a business perspective, a young person comes to me and I shake their hand and it's weak, they look off to the side and they're not willing to converse with me, that tells me a lot up front.

[59:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3594s) **Student interviewer:** I'm sure.

[59:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3594s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So when you shake someone's hand, shake it firmly and look them in the eye and be very purposeful when you're having that conversation.

[1:00:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3602s) **Student interviewer:** I got you. That's honestly a really good tip. I think our viewers should hope we like that. All right, now kind of a little bit towards the end, does your company have any social media? Like what's your networking platforms?

[1:00:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3618s) **Christopher Armantrout:** All of them.

[1:00:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3618s) **Student interviewer:** Okay.

[1:00:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3618s) **Christopher Armantrout:** The most of them should be, the suffix for all of them should be Valor Mortgage.

[1:00:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3626s) **Student interviewer:** Okay.

[1:00:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3626s) **Christopher Armantrout:** So if you're looking for YouTube, yeah, youtube.com/valormortgage or net, Instagram/valormortgage, Facebook/valormortgage. They should all be consistent except for LinkedIn. I didn't grab that one fast enough.

[1:00:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3637s) **Student interviewer:** Yes, sir. All right, so that's basically a wrap. Any last comments for our viewers?

[1:00:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3643s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Nothing off the top of my head. But if anybody has more questions, I'd be more than happy to sit down and have a conversation and share my stumblings and fumblings along life.

[1:00:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3655s) **Student interviewer:** All right, well, I think that's just about got it. Thank you, Mr. Chris Armantrout, representing Valor Mortgage.

[1:01:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3660s) **Christopher Armantrout:** Yes, sir.

[1:01:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V0eoN7_-c&t=3660s) **Student interviewer:** And that's our next SHS FBLA interview series, and we'll see you guys on the flip.

## Notes on figures mentioned in the interview

This was a conversation recorded in 2026 for a student interview series. Rates, fees and program rules change, and nothing said here is a rate quote, an offer or a commitment to lend.

- **“A French word that basically means slow death”:** the word comes from Old French *mort gage*, literally “dead pledge”: the pledge dies when the debt is paid off or the property is forfeited.
- **Education and licensing:** under the federal SAFE Act, a licensed loan officer completes at least 20 hours of approved pre-licensing education, passes the national NMLS test, submits to a credit and criminal background check, and completes 8 hours of continuing education every year ([12 U.S.C. 5104](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/12/5104)). No college degree is required.
- **“90% interest” on the first payment:** on a standard fixed-rate loan, most of each early payment goes to interest and the share shifts toward principal over time. The exact split depends on the rate and term; the [mortgage calculator](https://valor.mortgage/mortgage-calculator/) shows a full amortization schedule. See also [How can I pay off my mortgage faster?](https://valor.mortgage/answers/how-can-i-pay-off-my-mortgage-faster/)
- **Payment examples ($400,000 house, $2,000–$2,500 vs $3,000–$4,000; $2,000 to $2,100):** rough illustrations from the conversation, not quotes. A real payment depends on the rate, loan amount, term, taxes, insurance and any mortgage insurance.
- **Sales tax and the transfer tax:** Tennessee’s combined state and local sales tax runs up to 9.75%. On a home sale, the state transfer tax is 37 cents per $100 of the purchase price, and a mortgage recording tax of 11.5 cents per $100 of the loan amount (above the first $2,000) also applies ([Tennessee Department of Revenue](https://www.tn.gov/revenue/taxes/realty-transfer-and-mortgage-taxes.html)). The rates are set statewide and collected by each county’s register of deeds.
- **Credit scores and buying with no score:** common FICO scores run from 300 to 850. FHA and some conventional programs can approve a borrower with no credit score using nontraditional credit such as rent, utility and insurance payment history, with manual underwriting ([HUD Handbook 4000.1](https://www.hud.gov/hud-partners/single-family-handbook-4000-1)). Many lenders offer these options, but availability and score minimums vary by lender. Scores can also drop for reasons outside a borrower’s control. See [What credit score do I need to buy a house?](https://valor.mortgage/answers/what-credit-score-do-i-need-to-buy-a-house/)
- **Seller-paid closing costs:** each loan type caps how much the seller can pay: generally 6% of the price for FHA and USDA, 4% in concessions (beyond normal closing costs) for VA, and 3% to 9% for conventional loans, depending on the down payment. See [closing costs vs. down payments](https://valor.mortgage/closing-costs-vs-down-payments/)
- **“A buyer’s market” right now:** his read on the Robertson County and Nashville-area market when the interview was recorded in 2026. Market conditions change.
- **Down payments and mortgage insurance:** conventional loans can start at 3% down and FHA at 3.5% (with a 580+ score), and VA and USDA loans can require no down payment. FHA loans carry mortgage insurance premiums and USDA loans an annual guarantee fee, but VA loans have no monthly mortgage insurance; they have a one-time funding fee instead, which is waived for veterans with a service-connected disability. Conventional loans need private mortgage insurance only with less than 20% down. See [financing a home with 0% down](https://valor.mortgage/financing-a-home-with-0-down-payment/) and [FHA loans](https://valor.mortgage/fha-loans/)
- **Refinancing and the “1% rule of thumb”:** the rate examples (8% to 5%) were hypothetical. Whether a refinance makes sense depends on closing costs, how long you will keep the loan and the new term, not a fixed rate drop. See [Do I need a 1% rate drop to refinance?](https://valor.mortgage/answers/do-i-need-a-1-percent-rate-drop-to-refinance/)
- **“Legally you can’t close a mortgage faster than seven days”:** federal rules require at least 7 business days between delivery of the Loan Estimate and closing, and the borrower must receive the Closing Disclosure at least 3 business days before closing ([12 CFR 1026.19](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1026/19/)). The 24-hour underwriting turnaround was one file; timelines vary.
- **How mortgage companies are paid (bond market, rate spread):** the bond and rate figures were approximate, on-the-spot estimates at the time of recording, not a rate quote. Mortgage rates generally move with mortgage-backed securities and the 10-year Treasury yield. A loan officer’s pay cannot be based on the loan’s interest rate or terms ([12 CFR 1026.36(d)](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1026/36/)).
- **HELOC rate from 4% to 8%, and refinancing it at 5.75%:** Christopher’s own home equity line, described as an example of a variable rate. HELOC rates usually follow the prime rate, which moves with the Federal Reserve’s target rate. Valor Mortgage does not offer HELOCs; see [what a HELOC is](https://valor.mortgage/what-is-a-home-equity-line-of-credit-heloc/) and [cash-out refinancing](https://valor.mortgage/cash-out/)
- **Total interest “could be double”:** a generalization. Total interest over the life of a loan depends on the rate, the term and any extra principal payments, and on a 30-year loan it can approach or exceed the amount borrowed.
- **“Six key pieces of information”:** under federal rules, an application is complete for disclosure purposes once a lender has the borrower’s name, income, Social Security number, property address, estimated property value and loan amount, and the Loan Estimate must go out within 3 business days ([12 CFR 1026.2(a)(3)](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1026/2/)).
- **Seasoned funds and gifts:** lenders typically review the most recent two months of bank statements. Large deposits that aren’t from payroll must be documented, and gifted down-payment money needs a gift letter and a paper trail.
- **Loan types (“non-qualitative”):** non-QM stands for *non-qualified mortgage*, a loan outside the federal Qualified Mortgage standards, such as [bank statement loans](https://valor.mortgage/bank-statement-loans/). See [non-QM loans](https://valor.mortgage/non-qm-loans/) and [THDA and Tennessee first-time buyer programs](https://valor.mortgage/tennessee-first-time-homebuyer-programs/). Program availability depends on lender approval and eligibility.
- **Broker vs bank:** Valor Mortgage can compare options across participating wholesale lenders; banks and other lenders also offer a range of products, and the right fit depends on the borrower. See [Is a mortgage broker worth the cost?](https://valor.mortgage/is-a-mortgage-broker-worth-the-cost/)

## Related

- [Mortgage Knowledge Center: short answers to common questions](https://valor.mortgage/answers/)
- [Tennessee first-time homebuyer programs](https://valor.mortgage/tennessee-first-time-homebuyer-programs/)
- [Closing costs vs. down payments](https://valor.mortgage/closing-costs-vs-down-payments/)
- [Is a mortgage broker worth the cost?](https://valor.mortgage/is-a-mortgage-broker-worth-the-cost/)
- [Tennessee mortgage calculator](https://valor.mortgage/mortgage-calculator/)
- [About Christopher Armantrout and Valor Mortgage](https://valor.mortgage/about-us/)
- [All podcast, radio and video appearances](https://valor.mortgage/podcasts/)

**Quick answers:** [What credit score do you need to buy a house?](https://valor.mortgage/answers/what-credit-score-do-i-need-to-buy-a-house/) · [How early should you start preparing to buy a house?](https://valor.mortgage/answers/how-early-should-i-prepare-to-buy-a-house/) · [What's the difference between prequalification and preapproval?](https://valor.mortgage/answers/prequalification-vs-preapproval/) · [Is title insurance required when you buy a house?](https://valor.mortgage/answers/is-title-insurance-required/)

[Call me at (615) 671-9178](tel:+16156719178). That’s the fastest way to get a straight answer on what you’d qualify for and which loan fits your plans.

If it’s after hours, [grab a time on my calendar](https://valor.mortgage/book-your-appointment/). Pick a slot that works and I’ll call you then.

If your life is too chaotic for a phone call right now — I understand — [start an application](https://valor.mortgage/purchase/) and I’ll review it and reach out with a plan.

About the author

[Christopher Armantrout](https://valor.mortgage/about-us/)

Owner & Senior Loan Officer, Valor Mortgage NMLS #1210804

Christopher is a licensed Mortgage Loan Originator in the State of Tennessee and has been originating home loans since 2015. He founded Valor Mortgage in Springfield in 2019 and works with veterans, first-time buyers, self-employed borrowers, and families across Robertson County and Middle Tennessee.

[More about Christopher](https://valor.mortgage/about-us/) [Verify this license on NMLS](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/1210804)

**Valor Mortgage, LLC** · Christopher Armantrout, Mortgage Loan Originator, NMLS #1210804 · Valor Mortgage, LLC is powered by Encore Lending Group, LLC, NMLS #1249911 · Licensed in Tennessee · Equal Housing Opportunity
724 S Main St, Springfield, TN 37172 · (615) 671-9178 · christopher@valor.mortgage · [NMLS Consumer Access](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/INDIVIDUAL/1210804)

The dollar figures on this page are illustrative examples for general information only and are not an offer, a rate quote, or a commitment to lend. Actual interest rates and APRs vary based on loan program, borrower qualifications, property, market conditions and other factors. Program fees, limits and terms are set by the agencies named above and change without notice; all loans are subject to credit approval, income verification and property appraisal. Not all applicants will qualify.

---

## Contact Valor Mortgage

- Christopher Armantrout, Senior Loan Officer, NMLS #1210804
- Phone: [(615) 671-9178](tel:+16156719178)
- Email: [christopher@valor.mortgage](mailto:christopher@valor.mortgage)
- Office: 724 S Main St, Springfield, TN 37172
- [Book an appointment](https://valor.mortgage/book-your-appointment/) · [Apply online](https://valor.mortgage/purchase/) · [Contact page](https://valor.mortgage/contact-us/)

Valor Mortgage, LLC is powered by Encore Lending Group, LLC, NMLS #1249911 ([NMLS Consumer Access](https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/COMPANY/1249911)). Christopher Armantrout, Loan Officer, NMLS #1210804. Licensed in Tennessee. Equal Housing Opportunity.

All loan programs, rates, terms, and conditions are subject to change without notice. Loan approval is based on borrower qualification, credit review, income verification, and property eligibility. Not all applicants will qualify. Not a commitment to lend.