How Michael Most Grew From 3 to Nearly 30 Loan Officers in 18 Months
Show summary
In this episode, Michael Most shares his 26-year journey in the mortgage industry, his approach to building a nationwide team, and how he leverages AI to enhance recruiting and relationship management. Listeners will gain insights into trust-based client relationships, effective team building, and innovative use of technology. In this episode, we explore innovative strategies for scaling a mortgage fulfillment business, leveraging technology, systems, and team management to reach a billion-dollar goal.
Key takeaways
- Michael Most started Most Home Loans with only 3 of the 10 loan officers who had promised to join him, then grew to nearly 30 people in about 18 months.
- He identified a 'magic number' of 13-15 recruits as the tipping point where proof of concept kicked in and referrals started driving growth on their own.
- He built a four-step recruiting system: identify prospects, move them from cold to warm, warm to hot, then let the close happen naturally without forcing pressure.
- Using ChatGPT as a sparring partner after recruiting meetings revealed that money alone doesn't close deals; people fear disruption, reputation risk, and whether daily workflows like email will still function at a new company.
- He spent hundreds of hours doing one-on-one 'therapy' sessions with his first recruits before the team's growth began to compound.
- His average loan size is $1 million or more, serving high-net-worth but hardworking middle-to-upper-class clients in Southern California, not cash-buying trust fund clients.
- His business tagline, 'the Most Trusted Name in Home Loans,' reflects his stated approach of leading with trust and direct communication when problems arise in a transaction.
In this episode
- 00:00Intro: From 3 guys to nearly 30 loan officers
- 02:08Welcome and guest introduction
- 02:45From wanting to be a criminal lawyer to a mortgage career
- 10:28Launching Most Home Loans with Al Hensling and United American
- 13:33Building trust with clients and recruits
- 18:07The four-step recruiting system
- 19:49Using ChatGPT to improve recruiting and self-awareness
- 28:55What Most Home Loans does and who it serves
- 30:34How to get in touch with Michael Most
About the guest
Michael Most is the founder of Most Home Loans, based in Los Angeles/Southern California, with 26 years of experience in the mortgage industry. He started in post-closing in 1999, became a top originator at companies including Citibank, MetLife, and Wells Fargo, and built Most Home Loans within Al Hensling's company, United American, growing it from 3 to nearly 30 loan officers in 18 months with a goal of reaching a billion dollars in production.
Listen to the audio
“If you want it done right, do it yourself.”
Michael Most
“Chat gives you no ego, it's a machine.”
Michael Most
“It's not you versus the bank, it's not the bank versus you. I am the liaison.”
Michael Most
Questions answered in this episode
How did Michael Most grow his loan officer team from 3 to nearly 30 in 18 months?
He started Most Home Loans within Al Hensling's company, United American, bringing only 3 of the 10 people who had originally promised to join him. He recruited slowly at first using LinkedIn and cold outreach, getting almost no response, until he hit what he calls the 'magic number' of 13-15 recruits, after which referrals and word of mouth created proof of concept and growth snowballed to 22, then 27 people.
How does Michael Most use ChatGPT in his mortgage recruiting business?
After meetings with potential recruits, he dictates or types notes into ChatGPT about how the conversation went, his read on the person, and their objections. ChatGPT pushes back on his assumptions and has no ego, which helped him realize that money alone (even an extra $100,000-$500,000 a year) doesn't convince people to switch companies because of fears around disruption, reputation, and whether their day-to-day workflow (like email) will still function.
What does Most Home Loans specialize in and who is the ideal client?
Based in Los Angeles/Southern California, Michael Most's average loan size is $1 million or more, serving affluent, high-net-worth, hardworking middle-to-upper-class clients rather than trust fund cash buyers. His tagline is 'the Most Trusted Name in Home Loans,' and he positions himself as a hands-on liaison who communicates directly when problems arise during a transaction.
Why did Michael Most leave independent mortgage banks to work at big banks like Wells Fargo and Capital One?
In 2007 he noticed warehouse lines at the independent mortgage bank he worked for were starting to freeze up, so he left and joined big banks (Wells Fargo, MetLife, Capital One, Citibank) for about 12 years, including a stint he describes as 'mortgage heaven' at Capital One until that division was shut down around 2017.
What convinced Michael Most to finally start his own company instead of working for other mortgage companies?
After COVID slowed down in 2022-2023, and after years of disagreeing with how various companies treated people, he decided to build a nest egg and do things his own way. He partnered with his friend Al Hensling, who let him build Most Home Loans inside United American and share resources, with a stated goal of reaching 20-30 loan officers and eventually a billion dollars in production.
Resources and links
- Most Home Loans’ Website
- Michael Most’s Email Address: michael@michaelmost.com
Full transcript
Michael Most (00:00)
Expecting to be like, yo, what’s going on? Like, well, let’s be honest, Al looks at production, Al looks at the monetary value in our business, right? So he didn’t say a word. He believed in me. He gave me the chance. Within about 18 months, I was able to take that from those three guys, and we now have close to 30 people on the team. So super happy. Couldn’t be happier in terms of where I work, how we work, the way we’re originating in today’s market.
Especially when things are challenged or tough. Love the people I work with. I’m just super grateful. So that’s the longer but quick version of the last twenty six.
Cody Crabb (02:08)
Welcome back to the *Real Estate Pros* podcast by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Cody Crabb, and today I’m joined by Michael Most, founder of Most Home Loans. Michael spent 26 years in the mortgage industry and now he is building a nationwide team with an ambitious goal of reaching a billion dollars in production. Michael, welcome to the show.
Michael Most (02:28)
Thank you so much, Cody. Really excited to be here and thanks for putting this together.
Cody Crabb (02:32)
So I’d love to hear a little more about people that aren’t familiar with you. tell us a little bit about how you got into the industry because it isn’t exactly one of those you see in kindergarten on the when I grow up I wanna be it’s a pretty specific thing. So I’d love to hear the story of how you ended up here.
Michael Most (02:45)
Yeah, what I always call the comical but short version of it, which is I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and I had a dream of being a real attorney that went to court every day, a criminal lawyer, just defending criminals and being a criminal lawyer, litigating, doing all of it, like court appearances, you name it. So I sat down and as I was preparing to go to college.
I had a whole plan. And by the way, I want to be very clear as to who my ambitious goals were based on David Baldacci and John Grisham. So I just want to put this into perspective. It’s not like I had some really bright uncle that was this amazing lawyer. I just this came from TV and reading some books, and I was pretty focused and locked in. This is what I was gonna do. So from doing a little bit of research, I did, I found out that you need to build a resume.
And then do a couple of years working for the district attorney. And when you do that, you can then go into private practice. Okay, great. That’s my path. So I finished regular, I get my bachelor’s degree. I’m studying to start to do the LSATs. And I meet someone in the community, and they told me that there’s a mortgage company that’s looking to hire someone to run their closing department. So I don’t know what a mortgage is. I’m going to be a criminal lawyer.
Doesn’t really sound like for me. They go, no, this is banking. It looks really good on a resume. Try it out. So I go and I work in a post-closing department in 1999. And I spent about almost two years learning the entire business from the bottom up. Anyone that’s familiar with mortgages, when you work in post-closing, you have the finished product already and you’re trying to buy convince the investor to buy it off of the warehouse line as quickly as you can.
And many times they give you pushback. So you got to figure out from an underwriting perspective, you’re almost reverse engineering, which is a very big part of my personality strength in terms of like what the problem was or how to do it right the next time or whatever else it is. Found it very rewarding. I enjoyed the job. I did it for almost two years. And then I walked into their office and I said, This has been great. I’m out of here. I’m gonna go to law school. And they said, Great.
Might as well just keep your email open. And if anyone ever calls you for a mortgage, there’s no licensing back then. This is two thousand one. So if you want to do a loan, bring it in and originate the loan. I said, Great. And this is two thousand one. So if anyone that knows the history of mortgages, my phone and email just started blowing up because people would like Google you or Yahoo search you and find any mortgage again. And all of a sudden.
Cody Crabb (05:07)
Yeah.
Michael Most (05:09)
The calls
were coming in on their own and I’m sitting there trying to study for the LSATs and my phone is blowing up and you’re making 10, 20,000 commissions. And I’m like, wait, like something’s going on here. And we’re having all these meetings. I’m at a pretty good place at the time. And I take it to the next level, honestly. And before I know it, 2007. Like the years just like flew by, law school went on hold. And
I honestly was able to spend my time just originating. But at this point it’s now two thousand eight. I don’t know what to do next,
my phone starts ringing, as we say, and people are calling me, they need to do their mortgages, and I’m able to literally close their loan in days because I know exactly what they need to do to underwrite and anything. but all of a sudden, 2001 becomes 2002, 2003, and I’m blessed beyond belief.
I’m going to give you the shorter version today, but if I sit and write a book on my 26 years that I’ve been doing this, every single company and every single turn I took, I had someone watching over me, a God, what I a Davi figure, whatever you want to call it. But like I always ended up in the best place for myself. I couldn’t be more grateful. Having said that, fast forward in 2007, the warehouse lines, I was working for an independent mortgage bank. And in 2007, the warehouse lines started to freeze up.
I knew it was a problem. I left and went and joined the big banks. I worked for Wells Fargo, MetLife, Capital One, Citibank. And I did that for like 12 years. I left the independent mortgage companies and I went there. I fast forward all the way to 2016 or 17, I should say, right? and at the end of 2017, at this point, I’m working for a bank called Capital One. It was mortgage heaven. It was great.
the whole what’s in your wallet. That was their whole theme of like everything was just everyone was positive. It was based out of Texas. Everyone was like nice to you. Like you for like it was it was some of the greatest years. I met some of my closest friends from there. Fast forward, they decided to shut down Capital One Mortgages and they just stayed in auto and stuff. And I was like, all right, what’s next? And
My management team that was leaving Capital One, Dave Dickey, a very close friend of mine, went to join an IMB again. And I was like, am I gonna go back to the IMBs? I didn’t want to make all these different changes, but I did. And I went back to the IMBs. I was there for five years all the way through COVID. At the end of COVID, as everyone knows, when things started to get a little slow at the end of 2020, 2022, going into 2023, finally wanted to like do something different. I wanted to do it my way.
Just no better way to say it. I had my issues with all the companies I had worked at where I thought they could do things a little better or diff or differently, treat people in a different kind of way. Finally, I looked in the mirror one day, and what’s that famous saying? If you want it done right, do it yourself, right? So I said, I’m gonna go do this myself, my way, which I’m sure some people will resonate with and appreciate, and others will probably complain about and think of.
way they can do it differently than me but I just had this passion to go off and do it things were slower in 2023 I built up enough of a nest egg that I was able to do this and I really at my core I enjoy working with other loan officers and solving their problems and helping them grow I’ve been through the ups the downs at certain points in my career like I was the number one originator at Citibank, MetLife, my division at Wells Fargo like
Been to the top of the mountain and know what it takes to get there. And I know what it feels like to come down from that mountain. And I’ve been through all of those ups and downs, and I wanted to share those experiences with other people and help them either avoid some of those challenges or make them better within that process. So decided to do this. I met with currently one of my best friends in the entire business, Al Hensling, who was running a company, is still running a company called United American.
And I said, I’m going to go start Most Home Loans. And he said, why don’t you build it out within our company? Let’s share resources. Believe in you. I originally went to him and I had about 10 people working with me. And I said, I’m going to come with 10, but I’m going to try and build this billion-dollar team. I’d like to get up to 20, 30 loan officers. Well, here’s the funniest part. I go to join him, and of the 10 people that all promised me they were coming with me, only three came. So
Here I am starting this company with me and three guys, and I’m like, I couldn’t have had more egg on my face to this very day, and hopefully he watches this. He’s never said a word to me. Never said a word, never made me feel bad. He always believed that
Cody Crabb (10:28)
That’s a cool guy right there. So yeah. He’s beyond I’m sure you were expecting it too. Yeah.
Michael Most (10:33)
Expecting to be like, yo, what’s going on? Like, well, let’s be honest, Al looks at production, Al looks at the monetary value in our business, right? So he didn’t say a word. He believed in me. He gave me the chance. Within about 18 months, I was able to take that from those three guys, and we now have close to 30 people on the team. So super happy. Couldn’t be happier in terms of where I work, how we work, the way we’re originating in today’s market.
Especially when things are challenged or tough. Love the people I work with. I’m just super grateful. So that’s the longer but quick version of the last twenty six.
Cody Crabb (11:10)
The shorter version. no, thanks so much. No, I love I love a good I love a good origin story. I think it’s I think it’s it’s really interesting for people to hear about because a lot of people I mean I it is one of those kind of things you find yourself in by accident. Like a lot of real estate investors are kind of like I got a inheritance from grandma or I found
long lost property somewhere and it just kinda balloons into this other whole other thing and it sounds like very similar to you. just kinda fell into it and then you’re like, hey this like has this pretty cool. so that’s thank you for sharing that. so what at what point yeah please
Michael Most (11:43)
share with you just
one quick funny story because of the way you’re like the way you set it up I just want to share some vivid memory when I first started working and remember from a kid I didn’t understand what a mortgage was and it kind of doesn’t even make sense what is a mortgage like what does it actually mean I’ll never forget I’m sitting at my desk maybe the second or third day there and I’m too embarrassed
My manager, whatever, like, what is a mortgage? What am I doing? Like, she’s showing me paperwork and she’s like, You have to line this up, and here’s where you gotta put, like, she’s just teaching me organizational stuff, like where stuff has to go. And she hands me the collateral docs, which I now know what they are, and on it says mortgage, right? The documents call them mortgage or the recording of a mortgage is the recorded mortgage. I’m like looking around, I’m going, well.
Mortgage is just this one document, one lost the rest of all this.
Cody Crabb (12:38)
Why do we have a whole company about this? Yeah.
Michael Most (12:40)
Well, it’s twenty-six years later and I still wonder what all the rest of the noise and everything really is.
Cody Crabb (12:47)
Be honest, it sounds like that’s kind of why you started what you did. Because you’re a little bit like, I’m not sure why you need such a massive operation for all that. Yeah. That’s so funny. man, I love the idea that you’re just sitting at a desk like, I hope no one asks me what a mortgage is before I have a chance to go look it up at lunchtime. that’s amazing. No, I think everybody could relate to that in some way in like a for their first few jobs. Like, I don’t know what I’m doing. so okay, the this you started out
in the in the industry, then you kind of ventured out on your own. At what point well, what made people buy into what you were actually building at that point? Because it seems like, this is one of the biggest financial transactions someone’s ever gonna make and for a lot of people. You know, what made people kind of trust you and see that you had something different?
Michael Most (13:33)
And are you referring to like the recruits and loan officers that are on my team or are you saying in general my clients that use me for my
Cody Crabb (13:40)
honestly, I was gonna say I was gonna say one, but now I’m kind of curious about the other. I’m curious about the loan officers who kind of wanted to you know, you’re getting people to join this team. what is it that you told them that kind of got them to maybe check out what you’re doing?
Michael Most (13:53)
Yeah, so I could say that for me, I think my reputation preceded me. So, for example, the company that I was at prior to starting this, I was the number one loan officer in all of Southern California. And they’re a pretty big, well known operation. they have people there that do hundreds of millions of dollars a year. I think my best year there, I was like top twenty.
And so although I was number one in SoCal, I wasn’t even there were 19 plus guys who were better than me from around the country, meaning more production. and you so I was part of a real organization. These guys really knew how to originate and really do well. And I was pretty humbled by it. But I found that a lot of it was very East Coast based, and I found that the California market was very different than any look on the map.
I mean, look, it is just natural size compared to like most of the other states, right? and I always found that people did things in many of the companies I worked at on a national lens. And it always bothered me because you can’t nationalize these things. Otherwise, it’s almost socializing it in some ways, right? You need to sometimes break down the individual and the different marketplaces and stuff like that. So when I started recruiting, remember I had a non-compete, like everyone does.
So I couldn’t even just like start calling all these other people. They had to either organically reach out to me or it was people from other companies. But I had a pretty good reputation because people knew who I was. because I was always on leaderboards and I was always winning awards at all the other companies I worked at. And started simple and I started slow. And I made a lot of a lot of bad introductions. I went onto LinkedIn, I was chasing some losers.
I was trying to go after some winners that wouldn’t return my calls. Like everything I’ve done in my life, I do from the bottom up. I don’t care. hit me. You can keep hitting me. I’m gonna keep getting back up. I’m gonna learn it the long way. I’m not in a rush. I’ll be patient. I’ll take all those bruises as I go. so yeah, the first few months, took it down. no one will return my calls. And then eventually you land one person and then someone else.
I knew I called recruiters, I called LinkedIn, I tried everything. Nothing was working, nothing whatsoever. I called the owner of the company that I’m working with and was like, Do you have any ideas? And no, here’s the thing: no one will really get up and do the job for you. They’ll give you some general ideas, but you can go out there and figure it out yourself. eventually I got one person and then another person. I always knew that once I got
To the magic number in my head was like 13 to 15. Once I had 13 plus people, they would start telling other people, and that would be proof of concept. So in business, I understood I needed proof of concept. I just needed to prove that this actually worked. And I gave hundreds of hours, just countless hours of therapy, sitting with these people, the first people that joined the team, and just helping them in any and every way I could.
I was like really laser focused on it. And it was just a lot of time and patience. And then eventually I hit that number 10, 12. And from there it started to snowball, which I knew it would. I went from 15 to 22 like this, and I went from 22 to 27, like very quickly. and then at this point, you get to be a lot pickier. You pick and choose the right people that you want to join the team, but very good relationship with all of them.
That I talk to, I deepen that relationship with them on a constant basis. And I call them my friends because they genuinely are.
Cody Crabb (18:07)
Mm. So did recruiting get easier at that point or was it just like a different challenge? Because it sounds like at first it was just like anybody, like just sell just come over here. But then, it sounds like it kind of upgraded to how do I find somebody that’s a good fit for what we’re looking for? Was that harder or is that easier? Because I feel like that’s just a different challenge, right?
Michael Most (18:27)
Yeah, so I’m a systemic kind of personality. And like I said, I do reverse engineering as my natural and I’m mathematical and I’m into mortgage, right? So I think of things in very mathematical ways. So you can imagine I built out a four step system as to how to recruit people because you generalize after the first five or six what is working, what’s not working. And then you need to tweak it. So I came up with like a basic model of like how do you identify them?
How do you take them from cold to warm? How do you take them from warm to hot? And if you could do all that, then it takes the pressure off of the close, right? Like I tried to spend a lot of time on the middle, and then let the close just happen naturally. When they’re ready, if they’re ready. we tell you the biggest turn for me, and I openly admit this and I tell this to everyone is the more time I spent on ChatGPT.
Better and better I got at this. I found out through ChatGPT where my weaknesses were and where I needed to strengthen my approach because I was used to doing things my way through my lens. And I’m not a therapist, right? I’m not a psychologist. There’s a lot of psychotherapy that’s going on here, but how do you really know what’s driving the other person? And being able to take notes, put that through Chat, have it as a sparring partner.
I owe a lot of the success in my recruiting to Chat’s support. Hmm.
Cody Crabb (19:49)
Interesting. I don’t really hear a lot of people talk about it this way. So I’d love to get a little peek at like, you know, how some ways that you’ve been able to use it because I think AI is one of those things where it’s at this point it’s not going anywhere. This is basically like the internet, and there’s plenty of companies back in the day that were like, we’re gonna hold off on investing in the internet and getting all in there. And there are plenty of companies that just completely fail because of that. And so I always I always want to kind of
Talk about AI as like obviously we need to keep a really close eye on it, but also like, don’t throw everything you’ve got into it. So I’d I would love to hear a couple of ways that you’ve maybe been able to take advantage of what it can do.
Michael Most (20:24)
So before I do that, just to give credit where credit’s due, I my I have a I have a 15-year-old son, Evan. one of his very plays a lot, a lot of basketball, and one of his very close friends is Ethan. Very little similar. Evan, Ethan, you can get right. But Ethan is from New Jersey and we know his parents really, well. I met Ethan’s grandmother a couple of years ago. This is an 80.
Plus, I don’t want to say exactly, maybe 82, 84. And I met her, and we were socializing, families over like a Passover, because we’re Jewish, like loving this Passover holiday. And I meet her, and then I’m talking to Ethan’s dad, who I become pretty good friends with, and he tells me she’s 83. And I’m watching her paying out emails from her iPhone, and I’m thinking to myself,
I couldn’t have been more impressed or blown away by this 80 plus year old woman who has seen so much in her lifetime, has adapted to before IBM existed, to all the way through IBM, through the internet, to now to Chat and whatever. She’s there and I was like, gotta talk to this woman. and I got her for a couple of minutes, and she told me a lot about her story in a very quick way, but she pressed upon me something which was.
Said, Michael, as soon as I see things changing, you can either adapt to the change or fight it. By personality, I do whatever I can to adapt as quickly as I can. And she’s this wildly successful, sharpest like woman you’ve ever met, still running a very successful company in her 80s, because of how she doesn’t resist it, she learns from it. After that conversation, I came back because this was about, I want to put maybe about three years ago.
Cody Crabb (22:07)
Good time to learn that lesson. Yeah.
Michael Most (22:09)
and I was like, Chat was like becoming something and like everyone else, and anyone that’s listening to this, it was a I was like, I’m not, I’m not doing, I don’t want to learn something new. I don’t want to find out, I don’t want to become a software engineer or whatever. After that interaction with Mrs. Lefkowitz, that’s her name. I came back and I was like, I gotta be her. Like I got to learn how to adapt. And these are just challenges. So the same way you take on other challenges in life, take this on.
Learn it, master it your own way. So I started having these conversations to answer your question all the way to come back. I just have to give her credit because she had such an impression on my life. So kudos to her. coming all the way back, I came back and I started taking notes, literally handwritten notes, and or I would dictate it into a phone, whatever it was, and I would just start sparring all day long with Chat.
and I’d create subfolders for each different person. I’d be like, Well, here’s my read on this person. And consistently, they would correct me and tell me, hmm, that’s not my read. So I’d be Well, I just showed, so let me give you example. I’d speak to someone and I’d be like, Well, I just went through the economics and this guy could make another hundred thousand dollars a year working with us versus his current place. How are they not signing on the dotted line tomorrow? Like if I offer someone a hundred thousand dollars.
Cody Crabb (23:26)
Yeah, would you like some free money, please? Yeah.
Michael Most (23:29)
Like, who doesn’t want free money? They kept pushing back in so many ways and told me so many things which I was able to apply to recruiting. For example, people don’t want disruption. So although there’s a ton of money on the other side, they fear disruption. They fear their reputation. They fear whether or not they’re going to be able to still originate loans in my platform the way they’re used to originating loans here. Are their emails gonna work? Like some of the simplest things that they don’t are.
Articulate, but these are things that definitely concern them. And for some people, there’s something personally going on. So it was, I’m a very black and white literal type person. And what it helped me do is pull back some of those layers, understand, listen better, understand some of those fears, some of those objections that they really have. It’s not just about money. I met with him.
He was like the real turning point for me because here I sat with this guy and I showed him how he was losing a half a million dollars a year. I’ll never forget leaving that meeting. I was like, Jeff, I kind of know you and I know your situation. You could appreciate another half a million dollars a year. And he looked at me, he’s like, Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s worth the stress. And I was like, my God, I’m missing something. And I was able to look in the mirror.
And realize that for a lot of people that’s just not what it’s about. Right. And you have to be able to attack it or see it differently or let it go ’cause you’re not alone.
Cody Crabb (24:52)
Wow, that’s that is a that right there as like a just any anyone that in any business like that is dealing with people that where you’re trying to kind of have this dialogue, that right there is like the most key thing in the world because you it no matter how good your argument is, no matter how right you are or you might be, if they don’t see it that way, it doesn’t matter. Like it really doesn’t matter. And that’s what I mean.
in any sort of sales type relationship, it really just comes down to did they perceive that what you’re saying is right and is it true? And so I think like you said, we I the AI part of this sometimes is an it enables us to kind of ask these dumb questions of like, what was I missing here? What did I and like when no one else would really be able to say necessarily it it’s a cool way to kind of get that feedback. I I’ve
I totally agree with you.
Michael Most (25:45)
And you lose you the one thing Chat gives you that the world can’t give you no ego, it’s a machine. So you
Cody Crabb (25:52)
If you tell it to it, doesn’t care about hurting your feelings. Like if you just say be as brutal, it’ll just say whatever and if it hurts your feelings, it hurts your feelings, whatever. But it doesn’t care.
Michael Most (26:01)
I’m happily married. I’m sure many people are. You don’t want your spouse telling you what they think you did wrong, even though they love you more than any computer can, right? and when they tell it to, you’re kind of like, You know more than me, right? Like your ego steps in. Right. Go chat, it’s not a person, it’s a machine. So how could you possibly dig it personally? Just like, yeah, give me more.
You know what I mean? Tell me what you think. Whatever. It’s just it’s kind of I almost see it as a reflection, better version of me. Right. So it’s
Cody Crabb (26:33)
Perfect recall and perfect, it knows your goals. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
Michael Most (26:37)
So, it’s humbling, but it’s fun.
Cody Crabb (26:39)
Think that I love this because that this is like everybody’s trying to figure out how to use AI in various ways. Oftentimes we don’t necessarily talk about exactly how. This is a great example of like how it can augment you instead of like taking the place of you. Like you’re not outsourcing your thinking. If anything, you’re doing more thinking and more analyzing, and you’re just able to kind of augment what you’re what you’re capable of. So has learning that way, has learning this.
kind of method kind of changed the way you lead people that are kind of already on your team and like the way you recruit people as well.
Michael Most (27:14)
Yeah, so it’s it’s what’s interesting is I try with some of the people on my team to get them to try this. No one wants to hear it. I’m like, after your meetings, jump into Chat and just like dictate out like how that meeting went, how you felt about it, your read on it, what they thought, and just throw it in as the old Dictaphone. do you remember Louis Litt on *Suits*? I was re-watching that show.
Cody Crabb (27:37)
Never watched it, no, but well, as someone that was in law I could see why you’d be into that for sure.
Michael Most (27:42)
Yeah. It was a great show. This character, Louis Litt, but he would, this was filmed many years ago. And he would walk around with this Dictaphone, right? And it would just take his notes. and he was like a quirky kind of character. but I want to see Chat in that same way. Like, just throw information in there. What do you have to lose? it will only organize it, give you feedback. And by the way, if you don’t want it, just don’t go read it or don’t listen.
Cody Crabb (28:08)
Yeah, true. It’s it is it’s like a really good it’s a feedback generator that you can completely ignore with no consequences. So I mean there’s yeah, it’s like asking a mentor that really doesn’t care whether or not you listen to them. So it’s pretty good. Yeah, it’s a good it’s a great scenario. and as far as like AI goes too, like I said, I love that you’re focusing on the person side of it. Like you’re using this to improve relationships, you’re using this to understand people better.
instead of kind of using it instead of that. so I think that’s great. I think I’m in my opinion, that’s the way you use it. Like you use it to augment what people can do instead of replacing them. so tell me a little about Most Home Loans. Like what kind of what kind of market do you serve? Like who what kind of stuff do you do? If who should be looking into Most Home Loans is as an ideal candidate?
Michael Most (28:55)
So years ago, I came up with a tagline because it really embodied who I am as a person and something I’ve always led with. And I’ve had it now for many, years. So in my tagline, it always says, the “MOST” Trusted Name in Home Loans. Right. And it’s a playoff of my last name. I
Cody Crabb (29:10)
Yeah. I get a lot out of it.
Michael Most (29:12)
get the most out of it, right? but I take a lot of pride in being trusted.
I don’t like anyone not to feel trusted. I don’t like when I’m doing transactions and working with people that I can’t trust. It’s just a horrible feeling. So I lead with trust and I lead with my word, is very, important. My integrity and my word is very, important. So I work with clients that can see that, feel that through the passion of the way I work. In terms of like my product set, like I am in Los Angeles, Southern California. So I deal with the average loan.
is a million plus ideal in a lot of the more affluent high net worth individuals that need some of that hand holding and also value the money that they’ve earned. Not dealing with trust fund babies, right? Like those tend to be cash buyers. I’m dealing with hardworking middle to upper class clients that just want someone that’s going to shoot them straight. What do I need to do with this? So if there’s a problem, get on the phone and I communicate it. This is
Our problem, and we are gonna solve this. It’s not you versus the bank, it’s not the bank versus you. I am the liaison between whatever the problem might be, many deals, there’s no problems. But if there’s a problem, definitely want me in your corner because trusted that I will get this done for you and I will fight as hard as I possibly can. Are there others out there that could possibly do the same? Sure. probably few and far in between.
Cody Crabb (30:34)
All right, so who should be getting in touch with you and how can they do that if they wanna if they wanna work with you?
Michael Most (30:40)
I like people. So whether you’re a loan officer, whether you’re a potential client, if you fed off of my energy from today, like you and I just got along pretty well. Like I think we’d be good friends. I’m hoping to stay in touch with you. Like anyone that fed off my energy, I was like, yo, that seems like a pretty cool guy. Like I like to get to know him. I have zero motive, zero intention, just want to meet more and more good people. that if I could be of any help to them and possibly
Vice versa. It’s just about meeting good people and enjoying the people you spend your days with.
Cody Crabb (31:10)
Love that. So how so how can people find you online?
Michael Most (31:13)
Yeah, so it’s Michael Most, it’s mosthomeloans.com or michael@michaelmost.com. And pretty easy to contact from there. And then just look up this good looking face guy. Do you know what I mean? Like it’s pretty
Cody Crabb (31:24)
Yeah, we get on and he’s like, Hey, how’s the camera like can is it can I do anything to yeah. No, yeah, no. I think it’s good. you’ve got some stuff set up. people I think a lot of our audience is gonna be interested in getting in touch. So thank you for sharing everything that you did. I really appreciate that. and thank you listeners for giving us some of your time as well. If you liked this episode, make sure you don’t miss the next one.
Michael, it’s been a pleasure. Thanks so much for joining us today. And we’ll catch you on the next one.