In this Women Investing Network episode, host Sharon Lechter interviews mortgage professional Jennifer Beeston. Beeston shares how a personal experience of being "house‑poor" after buying her first home in 2008 sparked her commitment to mortgage transparency. She discusses recent mortgage market dynamics, noting the pandemic‑driven surge in home‑search activity, historically low rates in 2021‑22, and the current supply‑demand imbalance that keeps the market resilient despite rising rates. Beeston critiques the common "time the market" mindset, urging renters to consider long‑term homeownership rather than short‑term rate speculation. She explains her "game‑planning" service—a free, non‑transactional coaching model that helps prospective buyers map goals, payments, and credit considerations without pressure to apply. The conversation turns to her 2023 book, Brain Hacked, which exposes how algorithms and AI manipulate consumer spending, turning shoppers into "putty" for tech‑driven marketing, and offers strategies for becoming a conscious consumer. Beeston highlights her digital presence (YouTube, Google) as a platform for education and support, emphasizing that sharing professional expertise benefits the broader community.
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This show is produced by the Hartman Media Company. For more information and links to all our great podcasts, visit hartmanmedia.com. Welcome to WIN the Women Investing Network, the podcast where you can learn from successful entrepreneurs, business leaders and real estate investors who are winning in business and life. Learning from others is the fastest way to grow your skills, gain knowledge and avoid pitfalls so you can win. Join your hosts, Jason Hartman and Rich dad, author Sharon Lechter. Sharon is a business mentor, international speaker and best selling author. Jason is a self made multimillionaire investor, entrepreneur and highly acclaimed thought leader. Together with their successful guests, you'll get the tools you need to win.
Hello everyone. Welcome to this segment of the Women Investing Network podcast hosted by Sharon Lecter. And I'm delighted to be here today. And I'm meeting a new friend. So I love doing this because I get a chance to meet incredible women around the country and around the world and I love it when they're a younger generation because that's what I look for women to, to lead the charge. And Jennifer Beaston is not only highly sought after from a mortgage perspective, but what I love about it. She's also very passionate about financial literacy, which of course is my number one passion. So Jennifer, welcome. Thank you for being here.
Thank you. I appreciate you having me on the show.
Well, delighted to have you. And you are with guarantee rate mortgage and you have a book coming out, but you are, you've been featured all over the world, U. S News, Business Insider, NBC News. And you have been really a crusader for making the mortgage process more transparent. So talk to me a little bit about your, your background first. So we kind of figure out little Jennifer and how she got into this world of mortgages.
Well, I can tell you little Jennifer never knew she was going to be a mortgage lender. That is definitely something that happened by chance. You know, as a child, I was always the person who is never afraid to go talk to someone, always curious about, you know, their life, what their background was, their perspective. And fearless would probably be an adjective that I would use to describe myself when I was very young. You know, before you get into your teen years, you start getting all that pressure of, you should, you know, this is what you're supposed to be as a woman. But when you're just that fearless kid, and I was definitely, you know, the person where if there was an underdog, I would stand up for them. I never cared about how it would affect me because from a very young age I always had this feeling of strength of you know you can't hurt them. If you come after me, I can take you on. And, and what's funny to me is now, you know, and it took, it took decades, right? You had to get through those messy teen years, the early motherhood years. But now later in my career, I've definitely just gone back to being little Jennifer.
I love that, that yeah, we all want, I think we all in our hearts want to stay young forever. So that's important. And so you got into the mortgage industry and certainly you've been on a roller coaster the last few years. I don't know if you were in it in the.08 times, but that was a crazy time for mortgages. And recently it's gotten crazy again, but for different reasons. So talk a little bit about what you see has been happening and what you predict the future to be.
Yeah, and I just want to note because I think it's important to. It plays into the entire of what I do. The reason I got into the mortgage industry is because with the purchase of my first house, I was house poor. We had no idea what we were doing. We didn't have a clue and we ended up in a bad position. That's how I ended up in mortgages in 2008. And why I fight so hard for transparency now is because I don't want anyone else to have to go through that. So I just want to note that.
I love that. I love that. I often say to people when I get mad about something, it's usually when I start a new company to do something about it. So I think we're singing the same song.
I think we're definitely singing the same song. Look, it's been a really wild few years. Right when the pandemic first hit, I remember thinking, oh my goodness, we're not going to have any business, you know, because you couldn't go into open houses, you couldn't. Everything just shut down. As a lending company, we didn't know what was going to happen. And then like just this explosion, you know, because everyone was at home on Zillow. Right. You know, people are locked in their houses, suddenly they can work remote. So you have this huge volume of activity. That's where we really saw prices increase in 2122. Rates were like free. Right. I'm sorry, but like a two, you know, some of my veterans are locked at two and a quarter percent on a 30 year rate. That's crazy. Investors were buying houses at 3%. Huge activity. 2021, 2022. 2020 21. Sorry. About that 22 is when you saw rates start to go up and so rates started to go up and everyone's like, oh, we're going to have a housing crash. Well, we haven't and it's not looking likely. And, and that's because we still have the basic supply and demand issue. We do not have enough supply and we have a greater demand. So I think, you know, I'm seeing the strongest spring market that I've seen probably since 2016. I think this is going to be a big year for real estate. And I think the rates, you know, the rates are, they're really not that high historically and they're lower than last year and that's really spurning a lot of activity. Does that answer, does that kind of answer.
I love it. I love it. I think, you know, it's really. One of the things that I mentioned before we started recording was the fact that I've been interviewing a lot this week about the interest rates. And I go, you know, if you really take a step back, yeah, 5% is panic time for a lot of people simply because of the last couple of years. But it really, historically, 5% is a darn good rate. So, you know, one of the things that for those of us that have been around a long time, we remember when the rates were 16, 17, 18%. So, you know, it's. The world is a different place and at the end of the day, you got to know your numbers, you got to calculate it out. It's not. 5% is what the property will cash flow given whatever the rate is. So it's an important process to go through.
So well, and it's also long term. You know, I think a lot of people think short term and they try to time the market. And the bottom line is, is that if you're renting and you know you're going to want to live in an area long term, starting to plan for that purchase now is a good idea because your rent may be cheaper today, but when you're 70 or 80, your rent's not going to be cheaper and you're going to be kicking yourself for trying to time the market and waiting to buy. That's my theory.
Show for all those months and years of paying rent. So, yeah, so talk to me. You do something called game plans with people share a little bit about that.
We do. So we do a lot of game planning. I think that one of the problems in the mortgage industry is it's very transaction driven. So a lot of times people are scared to reach out to lenders because generally when they do, they feel like they have to be ready. They have to know everything. Right. They have to be perfect so they don't reach out to lenders. And there's a lot of lenders that are like, well, you have to fill out an application if you want any information. We're different. So the way myself and my team works is I have a calendar that's opened up, and because of YouTube, a lot of people will come to that calendar and book. And what we do is, okay, are you thinking you want to buy in a year? Okay, let's talk about where you are right now. Let's talk about what your housing goal is. Let's talk about what a payment is and really dial in on how we can help get you to that next step. Do we have to pull credit for that? No. Is it a guarantee to lend? Absolutely not. But is it a free way to just start financially thinking about this big purchase? Absolutely. And I think people should take advantage of that whenever they have professionals that will help them game plan anything financial. You know, it's not taught in schools. I think you should take advantage of it 100%.
Absolutely. Which is, of course, my. One of my biggest passions is getting school systems to wake up. But if we wait for school systems to do it, we'll have several generations still. So it's really up to parents and caring adults to make sure their kids have the information they need to understand money. I understand you have taken your passion and your anger and your hope for the future and acknowledgement of what's happening in the world from a technology standpoint and written a book. Tell me a little bit about your book.
Yeah, so I wrote a book called Brain hacked. It's released May 2023. And what I started noticing is consumer behavior. So as a mortgage lender, I'm constantly looking at how people spend. And because of all the game planning I'm talking to them about, okay, so where is that money going? And what I have found is that over the last few years, people's spending habits have changed dramatically. You know the old school advice of, well, pay with cash instead of a credit card. How many people actually walk into a shop? You know, there's this whole thing going on right now where people think divine intervention has shown them a Ford truck on their phone, when in reality it's because you have algorithms and AI analyzing you 24, 7. Every single click you make, you know how long you're on the page. And this is gunning it up. So that you are basically just putty in their hands. So I wrote a book exposing all the different ways that technology tries to open up your wallet and then some ways to fight back also, you know, because we are in a new era where often it can feel like everything in the world's on fire. Right. How many times have you looked at the newspaper online and you're like, oh, my gosh, when is this going to get better? Well, every click that you make is building the rabbit hole that you're going to live in. So we talk a lot about that because we are seeing more divisiveness across the country, and a lot of this is simply fueled by algorithms.
I love that. And I think it's really important for people to understand that exact element, because we used to talk about point of sale. When you go to a store, there's all kinds of things at the counter because the psychological, they want you to pick up another thing, and they've taken that to a whole new level. And the fact they're delivering that stuff right to you, bombarding you every so easy. Yeah. And you might. You look for you Google one thing, and all of a sudden your. Your Facebook, everything is just filled with the one thing you looked at. It's crazy and yet.
Right.
And change that. So it's a matter of understanding the psychology behind it and learning how to have that accountability and that person, you know, ability to shield yourself from making emotional bias. I always talk about high emotion, low intelligence.
Oh, yeah.
You see that a lot in the mortgage industry, I'm sure.
Yeah, I mean, we see that in mortgages, but definitely with online shopping, you know, they know how to target you when you're at your weakest. They can tell every single time that you've purchased what was the time, what was the motivating factor. So, you know, it's a really interesting topic to dig into, which is why I got into it, because I think we need to help people become conscious consumers in this new age that we're. That we're in now pretty rapidly as well, really. The last 10 years.
Consumers. That's almost a misnomer. I love it.
Well, we can dare to dream.
So, Jennifer, tell us how people can find you.
Yeah. Thank you. So people can find me on YouTube if you just type Jennifer Beast, and you'll find me. Literally, if you Google me, you will find me everywhere. And if. If you can't, I have done a terrible job, but my digital footprint should be pretty aggressive at this point. So, you know, I. There's always ways to contact me that will be tied to YouTube. But, you know, as I tell everyone I'm here to support them, answer their questions, you know, even if they don't work with me, if I can help someone, not make a financial mistake, I sleep better at night. And I think that's, you know, how we as a world need to work together is if we have professional, you know, expertise, just share it and just make everyone in a better position.
Well, absolutely. And, you know, I just want to say it's refreshing to hear you speak. And so anybody interested in a little bit more guidance? I think, Jennifer, maybe you're the gala contact because she's serving, not just selling. And that's something that is really important to have somebody that's going to guide you with that game plan. I love that game plan of your life. So appreciate you being with me today, Jennifer, and I look forward to other opportunities to connect.
Well, thank you. It was lovely chatting with you.
And for the rest of you listening to this podcast, thank you so much. This is the Women Investing Network podcast and I'm Sharon Lecter, your host. And remember, you're fabulous. Have a great day.
Thank you so much for listening to the Women Investing Network. Be sure to subscribe, rate and review the show on itunes or the platform of your choice. You can find the show notes and resources for Today's episode@womeninvestingnetwork.com Remember, the guest opinions are their own and information is of general nature, so be sure to consult appropriate tax, legal or other professional professionals for specific advice.
