Mortgage Connects an MGIC Podcast
On Mortgage Connects, we explore the minds and experiences of mortgage industry and lending innovators to bring our audience candid viewpoints on critical mortgage industry developments and influential insights about the unique challenges that lie ahead. Our hosts interview top mortgage professionals and thought leaders across the industry – from proven LOs to established CEOs – who have wide-ranging expertise to provide the best insights into market trends, best practices, marketing and referral strategies, training opportunities, and the future of the mortgage industry.
Mortgage Connects an MGIC Podcast
Charting the course for increased homeownership in the Black community with NAREB
In honor of Women's history month, we interview Dr. Courtney Johnson-Rose, current president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB). She shares insights gleaned over the course of her impressive career, from property-flipping whiz kid to leading real estate broker and developer. We discuss NAREB's mission to increase Black homeownership in America, spotlighting NAREB’s ambitious “Two Million New Black Homeowners (2Mn5)” program. Dr. Johnson-Rose also gives us a tour of NAREB's other educational initiatives, like their “Building Black Wealth Tour,” designed to tear down the barriers detailed in the 2023 State of Housing in Black America (SHIBA) report.
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Welcome to Mortgage Connects by MGI-C, bringing you the latest insights from top mortgage professionals around the industry. I'm your host, concepcion Guerrero, and joining me today is Dr Courtney Johnson-Rose, who serves as the president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, the premier network of black real estate professionals and one of the oldest minority trade associations in the country, with over 115 chapters. Dr Rose began her career as a project management consultant at Essenture, the world's leading consulting company. In 2002, she earned a Texas real estate broker license and joined her family's real estate firm, george E Johnson Development Inc. As a real estate developer and broker specializing in development services, owner representation, master planning and residential and commercial brokerage services. She is the immediate past chair of the Texas Association of African American Chambers. She was appointed as a director of the Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation by Governor Greg Abbott. She has served on numerous boards and received an extensive list of accolades throughout her career. Dr Rose, welcome. It's an honor to have you join me today.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here. I want to thank Magic for inviting me and I look forward to this conversation we're going to have.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm excited for today's conversation as well, because I was preparing for this interview and it made me smile as I read through your vast list of accomplishments and thought I couldn't be luckier to have gotten the chance to interview an individual who has accomplished so much throughout her professional career in celebration of Women's History Month. So to start, let's have you tell us a little bit more about yourself Now. I purposely covered the tip of the iceberg, as the saying goes, with your biography, because there's something about having the individual introduce themselves that really provides that different perspective on what that person is and what they do.
Speaker 2:Well, wow, well, thank you again for having me. I am a real estate broker, you know that's my best way to describe myself. I really love what I do in real estate. As you mentioned, I'm part of a family on business and that's amazing in itself to be able to work alongside of my family and do what I love to do, which is real estate. We do real estate brokerage and we do community development work around the Greater Houston Market. We've been in this business for 45 years, so literally when I was born, this is what my parents did. I mean what I've always known, so it's been a blessing to be a part of it. We've been a part of some very dynamic and amazing projects with housing and developing communities, and that's been awesome to be a part of and be able to actually see. I also serve as the 33rd president of the National Association Real Estate Brokers, which I know we will talk about, and that's been a true honor and an opportunity to travel and meet other real estate professionals from across the country, which has been a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Personally, I'm a mother. I've been married for 20 years. This year We'll celebrate 20 years. It's gone by fast and they say time passes fast when you're having fun. And I definitely have a great husband. We have two wonderful children ages 14 and 9. So we stay busy with cheer and beta club and all those good things. But it's just been a true blessing to be a part of the real estate industry, be a part of the industry with my family and to also raise a family that could be the third generation of real estate. And you know, who knows, we are pushing them to go into real estate, but they both have interest in it. So who knows, maybe the third generation is actually coming up.
Speaker 1:That's exciting. Congratulations on your wedding anniversary coming up as well, thank you. Now I've noticed that many individuals in the mortgage profession stumble into their careers by some form of accident and for those who have been in the line of business for a while, know that it's not such a straightforward path. Now I'm sure you know there's family. Your family's real estate firm played a huge part. But what made you want to follow in the real estate route and make a career of it?
Speaker 2:That's such a great question, concepcion, because I did not plan to go into real estate, even though my parents were in real estate and we had a real estate firm. The only real requirement in my family is that you have a real estate license. That's all the real major requirement is. So I graduated from University of Texas undergrad and I had been interning at a company called Accenture and it was management consultants. They recruited me out of college. I love the culture and the atmosphere there. I love the travel and the excitement and it was just a great place to start your career. So upon graduation I received my real estate license. That's just part of what you do in my family, but two I started working full time for Accenture as a management consultant.
Speaker 2:So I was able to graduate from college and had the real estate license working. So I bought my first property. I was 22 years old and I bought my first real estate property. It was an investment property. It was a condo and I flipped it in eight months and I made $25,000. In conception I thought that I was a real estate mogul, like I had made it. I have the eye, I have the instincts you know, normal for a 22 year old who needs work.
Speaker 2:I have real estate. So this totally changed. My eyes, opened up, you know, a whole new interest for me in real estate when I had so much success early in my real estate career. Fast forward, a couple of months after that, 9 11 happened in our consulting company Accenture. Instead of doing layoffs, what they did was they did a voluntary leave of absence for employees. So they gave employees opportunity to volunteer, raised their hand to take a leave of absence. You kept your, your insurance and you kept your status, and it was for one year period. So since they were looking for volunteers and I'm a new real estate mogul, I volunteer. So I took the one year leave of absence to try real estate and never looked back. That was 19 years ago and it has been a wonderful journey since then, but that's how I transitioned. You mentioned this in your question. Sometimes we get into this industry by accident. I literally it wasn't the plan, but you know, things just kind of happen and it's been full steam ahead ever since.
Speaker 1:That's exciting. It's good to hear. Now. As a Latina myself, it makes me proud to see other women succeed and really pave the way for others. Now, I'm sure you had some stumbles throughout your journey. What are things you did that other women could learn from to overcome those challenging situations or obstacles? And is there a certain instance maybe that comes to mind? You just mentioned one at, you know, buying your first investment property at 22, which kicked off your career.
Speaker 2:You know it's so interesting because I experienced this challenge of being a woman almost daily. You know I have a very busy career. I've taken on this major leadership position. You mentioned 115 chapters across the country. Well, guess what? They all want to visit with the NARAP president. So it's a lot of travel. We plan big events and conferences and things of that nature. So it takes a lot of time.
Speaker 2:I have a husband. I have two active kids, so this whole challenge of motherhood and being a woman leader I experience daily. So the one thing that I will say advice wise for female leaders is to be very organized and disciplined. You know so I have. You know my schedule is very protected in terms of everything has to be thought out. I have to be disciplined. You know I have a girlfriend, one of my best friends. She knows, don't call me in the middle of the day, I just can't do it, you know, and she calls it's an emergency. Something happened because everybody's been trained that. You know this schedule that I have to maintain all of these these are things is very aggressive. So you know, figure out what your boundaries are, figure out what your priorities are and be able to work accordingly.
Speaker 2:With that in mind, I have also very much taken focus in education and what I have learned from myself personally conception is what gives me confidence is education.
Speaker 2:So you will notice on my bio the doctorate, the masters, the PMP certification, the CCIM, all of those things over the years.
Speaker 2:I've always loved to learn and love to be prepared for any situation that I went into. And for women, I've noticed that we are not sometimes as aggressive or confident in situations where it comes to work and speaking up and things of that nature. What has helped me is knowing that I know so, knowing that I've taken the class, knowing that I have the training, knowing that I have the certification you know, learning it before I need it has been a real, a real great attribute for myself personally to give me the confidence that I need to be able to face different situations because I know that I'm certified, I know that I learned that, I know that I was focused on that so that when that situation comes about, I feel like I'm prepared and I'm actually ready for. So I've learned, as as a woman leader, that preparation is really one of the main things that that assists me in. Being prepared gives me the confidence that I need to move forward.
Speaker 1:Those are all really good advice. I mean, I'm a mother myself, so really, those boundaries, and it's very, very important. It's easier said than done, quite honestly, but you know it's something that we must do because it's that time we never get back with our family or with our children, so I'm glad you brought that up. Now I want to switch the focus a little bit here in touch, on the narab side of things. Mgac is proud to be a narab partner and I'm looking forward to seeing how we can support each other's efforts in months to come. But you serve as the president of narab, which is the National Association of Real Estate Brokers and our listeners. For our listeners who aren't familiar with narab, it's an organization that was founded in 1947, making it the oldest minority professional trade association in America, with the motto being democracy and housing. What does serving as narab's president mean to you and what do you enjoy most from it?
Speaker 2:You know, being a rat president is really an honor, and it's even more of an honor being in the role than I anticipated before being installed. This is a very historic organization and it's an organization that has never wavered from its mission of democracy in in housing and increasing black home ownership. And to be able to stand on the shoulders of so many leaders and members that have come before me as a real privilege. So I consider it to be a privilege to be the president of this association. I have enjoyed most making a difference. I feel like the work that we're doing and we'll talk about some of our initiatives, but I feel like the work that we're doing is really moving the needle and moving the community forward and moving our black professionals that are part of our association, for so I have enjoyed that.
Speaker 2:I've also enjoyed connecting with real just. Members are members from across the country. We have 115 plus chapters and I visited several and have been able to connect in rural areas and metropolitan areas and other cities. I love seeing real estate in other areas and being able to connect with real estate professionals to see how we're different but also how it's the same. Some of the challenges are slightly different, but a lot of them are really the same and that's been very interesting to be able to connect in with and learn about different real estate markets and challenges that real estate professionals have across the country.
Speaker 1:Now. Narebs supports many things that range in topics from down payment resource, fair housing and policy, but I want to focus on the 2 million new black homeowners program. This is NAREBS solution in response to its annual report of the state of housing black America, or their SHIBA report, with an objective to eliminate the racial gap disparities in homeownership in the United States. Tell me more about the 2 million new black homeowners program.
Speaker 2:So this is so key and thank you so much, concepcion for mentioning our state of housing and black America report. We affectionately call it SHIBA and we're very proud of it, and this year, in 2023, we produced our 10th edition of the state of housing and black America report. To get a copy of it, you can go to narabcom, n-a-r-e-bcom to get a copy of it. But what the report shared is just like you mentioned, there's 2 million plus mortgage ready black consumers. What does that mean? That means they have to credit. That means they have the income to be able to purchase real estate, but they have not done it yet. They have the income, they have to credit to purchase real estate, but they have not done it yet.
Speaker 2:As a sales, real estate professional, real estate broker, that's exciting for mortgage brokers and loan officers that are listening. That should be exciting because that means that there's a lot of opportunity with the black community to make them homeowners. But how do we reach them? We reach them through education. So narab has a lot of initiatives through our 5-pillar program that we have, where we connect in with faith base and civic organizations to reach the black community. We have our building black wolf tour that's coming up that will be in 100 cities with the goal of reaching 100,000 black consumers in April, on April the 13th. So we're excited about this potential in our community and we want to be the ones to tap into our community, educate them, inspire them and lead them into homeownership. But it starts with the data in the state of housing, and black America report gives us that data. Through that report, we understand the market, we understand the barriers that that market is experiencing and that helps equip us to be able to go out, overcome those barriers and lead them to homeownership.
Speaker 1:Now this SHIBA report. It comes out on an annual basis, correct? That's something that's how it rolls out Okay.
Speaker 2:Yes, usually every November. So this year for 2024 will be released in November 2024. So usually the cadence is every November. Narab produces the state of housing in black America.
Speaker 1:Perfect Something to look forward to and definitely leverage the stats and data in there, for sure. Now, looking ahead, what's in store for you? Are there any exciting plans or travel you're looking for to this year?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mentioned our Nayrat Black Wolf tour. So we are going on a hundred city tour, or the Nayrat Building Black Wolf tour, and we're doing it through our local chapter. Remember, we have one hundred and seventeen chapters. Well, we're doing the tour through our, through our chapters, but I will be a part of several of those. So, for example, for the tour April 13th I'll be in New York. We're continuing the tour. I'll be in Arkansas, be in Miramar, florida.
Speaker 2:You know, some of these locations that we have to go to is just horrible. We have a chapter in Honolulu, hawaii. So somebody has to do it and go support the chapter in Hawaii, hawaii. So just note that through Nayrat, through our tour, through our conferences, we have a great opportunity to be able to travel. Our national convention this year will be July 31st through August the 3rd in New Orleans. What a great city to go to to enjoy and be a part of this wonderful network. So through the the Nayrat Network events, we have a lot of travel coming in, we have a lot of travel coming up and I bring my family as much as possible to enjoy and be a part of it with with me. My parents are realists on second generation, so my family travels with me. My brother is part of the organization, so we just make a party out of it. We work hard, we, we play hard, we serve the community and we enjoy all of it.
Speaker 1:I'm looking forward to the National Conference, Of course. I went last year and it's an amazing event. You get to meet lots and lots of community realists and just getting to know their story it's really an event.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's a whole experience. It's hard to really explain it to people, but it's a whole experience, yes.
Speaker 1:So then, for those individuals that are interested in becoming or attending one of the 100 city tours, or even the National Conference, where can they go to For information?
Speaker 2:great question. So for the building Black Wolf Tour, the site is Nayrat Black Wolf Tourcom, nayrat Black Wolf Tourcom, and then for the conferences, the registration is always at Nayratcom N A R E Bcom. I do want to mention conception that we do have a new Nayrat app so you can download the RealTest Connect app or just search for Nayrat app in your Google Play or your Apple Store and you can get the app and it can start to alert you when we have big events and things of that nature.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:Thanks for letting us know, yep, the app is up Nice Well, dr Rose.
Speaker 1:To close, let's tie it back to Women's History Month here. What advice would you give other women in the real estate or mortgage industry?
Speaker 2:So I love this question because there's so much talent within the female community and I really want us to look at the landscape around us and understand. Times are changing. The value of women and what we bring to the table is definitely increasing, and seize that opportunity. Take a chance, speak up. Now is the time to be able to showcase what your superpower is, what your superpowers are.
Speaker 2:I have a story that I love to tell, particularly when I speak to women's groups, and it's about an older lady who had three sons and her sons were very competitive on who's going to give mom the best gift. So it was Mother's Day and the boys all kind of gathered and they're very competitive. So the first son gave the mom a new house and it's a big house and they had all the rooms and he had furnished it and everything else. So he thought you know, I really really really did it. Second son gave mom a big car with the driver, so she had a personal driver that would take her anywhere. She wanted to go with this car. You know she said the driver's there and ready to take her. So he thought no, I really really want. The third son gave her a beautiful bird and he thought you know, this is a great gift for for her. You know, I think she is going to love it. So he was really excited. So she reviewed all the gifts and she talked to the son. She sat him down. She gave the first son. She said hey, this house is too big. I like my house, I'm comfortable, I don't need this big house. Here's the keys, take it back. Ok, so the so that son was very disappointed. He didn't win the competition. Second son she said I love my independence. I want to drive my own stuff around where I want to go. Take this big old car and this driver back. I do not want this. I love my own car and my independence. So he was disappointed to he didn't win the competition.
Speaker 2:She went to the third son. She said now, son, you did a good job. You know how much I love to cook and you gave me that big bird and chopped it up and I cooked it. And he said mom, you cook that bird? And she said yeah, and it was delicious. And he said mom, that bird spoke three different languages.
Speaker 2:The bird could talk, the bird could sing, the bird could read to you. I got you the bird to keep you company, and the teacher, and the language, and all these things that this bird could do for you. And she said well, if the bird could do all of that, son, why didn't he speak up? The bird didn't speak up. The bird could do all of that, had all of those talents, all those gifts, but the bird didn't say a word. I feel like sometimes, as women in the workplace, that's what we do. We have all these talents, all these skillsets, all these abilities, but we don't speak up. So my advice to ladies is to speak up, use your voice, showcase all the talents and the skill sets that you have. The world needs it, your company needs it. Speak up. Thank you for that advice, dr Rose.
Speaker 1:Well, Dr Rose, thank you very much for your time today. It was a pleasure getting it was my pleasure getting to chat with you and thank you everyone for listening for the latest industry insights. Subscribe to Mortgage Connects on Apple, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or GordonMortgageConnectscom.