0364 | Matthew Sullivan

Hello, this is Matthew Sullivan from Quantum Re. And you're listening to EA interviews, EA.

Interviews, episode 364, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week. Join Mario Ficcini for today's Expert Authority Effect interview. Expert Authority World. Have I got a great guest for you, Matthew Sullivan. He's going to be teaching you how you can extract money from your home. Some very unconventional ways that I have not heard about and I'm excited to learn these. But I'm also going to ask him some of the stuff that I see here that is very unique. One of them I will tell you right now, he worked on Richard Branson's corporate finance team. The rest you're going to have to tune in right after we thank our sponsor. Every business needs a book, including yours. And that's why I'm launching my new book to help you regardless of where you think your current writing abilities are. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's EA publishingmethodbook.com Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Matthew Sullivan. Matthew, how are you feeling today?

Very well. Thank you for having me on, Mario.

Oh, it's my pleasure. I can't wait to dive into this because I have so many, I was going to say we have so many great questions ahead. It sounds a little self serving, but I'm excited to ask you all these questions and I know you're going to have great answers. There we go.

Well, I hope so. Yes.

So tell us about your business and what you teach people with homes because it's not a mortgage, but it's also not a heloc, and I've heard of a heloc, but what do you got going on and why is it the best option?

Well, I think first of all, let's talk about what the problem is and.

How we're solving it. And I think the problem, funnily enough, is something that's got worse over the last 18 months and it's something that we describe as being house rich but cash poor. So in other words, what's happening is the value of most people's homes is increasing significantly, yet they're under pressure to meet their normal obligations and the only way that they can tap into this additional wealth that is growing almost on a day by day basis is to go back to the bank and borrow money. So as your home equity builds, as the value of your home Builds. It seems great on paper, but it, you know, almost impossible to get your hands on it. And so what we do is we have a financial tool called a home equity agreement that is not a loan. So it's not a mortgage, as you said, it's not a home equity line of credit or a heloc. It's not a reverse mortgage. It's a way for us to invest in the potential appreciation of your home. So the way that we, we get paid is as an investor, we share in the potential upside of your home. And that means that we can unlock potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars of your equity for you without you having to borrow more money.

That is fascinating. How did you get into it?

Well, when I moved to the U.S. which was almost eight years ago, I came hot on the heels of the Jobs act. And the Jobs act was a change enabled you to raise capital online and it gave birth to all of the crowdfunding platforms. So I was very much involved in crowdfunding at the very early stages and going to all these, you know, fairly innovative financial conferences, I stumbled across this product which, you know, was very much in its infancy then, you know, seven or eight years ago. And over the last few, three years in particular, there's been an enormous growth in the uptake of home equity agreements. But I was fascinated by this concept of being able to unlock equity without having to borrow money, having been a homeowner in the UK for 20 something years and seen that firsthand as a problem. So it was a fascinating construct. It was very much in the early days. But we set up Quantum Re, you know, four years ago to try and bring this to market, to try and seize this opportunity and bring this little known alternative financial product into the mainstream.

Why do you think so few people are talking about it and why isn't it mentioned more over a traditional mortgage?

I think really it's to do with how young it is. And we're seeing significant growth both from the investor side, in other words, the people that want to buy into these types of agreements, but also the uptake from homeowners. So I think to answer your question, there are a number of different reasons. I think first of all, people have to be motivated to look for alternatives. And I think the pandemic has really put millions of people on the back foot in terms of their ability to borrow money. So even though house prices have appreciated significantly, it seems harder than ever to be able to borrow money. So that's the first thing. So, you know, people need to find an alternative. But Also, I think it's just time served. I mean, this product has been out in social media and in the mainstream for almost a decade now. And it takes time. I think if you remember when reverse mortgages first came out, you know, people were scratching their heads going, so we get a cash lump sum, but all the interest is what kind of stored up or how does that work. And the same with a heloc. I think when home equity lines of credit first came out as a product, people were a little unsure how they worked. But over time, as more and more people get involved, I think it will become a mainstream product.

How long do you think that will be?

Well, it's happening quickly now, so it's like a head of steam that's building up. And first of all, it sort of starts slowly, but then if you bring all these other factors in, house prices have gone up, there's lots of equity locked up in your homes, it's harder than ever to borrow money. Economic pressures from the pandemic that are still with us. So all of those elements are there to create this real need for money. And I think that's really helping to accelerate the uptake. So I think it's going to be within the next, you know, I'd say two to three, three years. There'll be a real seismic leap in terms of people's general awareness of these types of alternative products.

So what are you seeing with your clients and customers? How many of these deals have you done and what is it doing for them?

Well, we over, you know, over the last few years, we've, we've unlocked millions and millions of dollars. I don't have the precise number, but it's, you know, there's a lot of people that we've helped and the people that we help really.

Have requirements of all different sorts. In other words, people need it to repair their credit situation. So if you have lots of credit card debt or you have an unexpected bill that came in, like healthcare expenses, for example, it's a great way of using your wealth that's trapped in your equity to settle those problems, because it's not debt, so you're not borrowing money to pay off other loans. So it's a great way, way of settling that. We also have people that want to access their home equity and invest it in other properties or other types of investments. It's a great way of diversifying out of your home. So really, the people that we've helped over the last few years range from all sorts of different requirements, but in every case, it's been a very important and potentially life saving, life saving, sorry, life changing amount of capital.

It could be. I mean, you never know. I mean if someone needs, like said with the healthcare and medical. If someone needs the money and there's insurance only caps it at so much.

Exactly. And I think really it's the fact that cash can be available to you even though you've exhausted every other option. So we work with people who have a credit score of 500, sometimes even below that if they have enough equity. So people that have wealth trapped in their homes, that have been turned down by every lender are still, you know, great opportunities for us.

Let me ask you, what is the typical home value you're pulling from?

Well, the homes that we.

Or the range? I should say.

Yeah, the range typically is about a quarter of a million dollars up to a maximum of $5 million. The average I would say would be around the sort of 7 to $900 mark. That's if you, if you sort of, you know, flatten everything out. That's the average home value. The average amount of capital that we unlock is around one hundred and something thousand dollars. So just, just around one hundred thousand.

Now is that one hundred thousand on the quarter mil or is it one hundred thousand on the nine hundred thousand?

If you, if you, the, the maximum that we can allow you to Access is normally 25% of the value of your property. So that, that is an average across all of the deals that we've done. So if you have a quarter of a million home, the most that you would be able to unlock will be about 70,000. Okay, so sorry, six, 60 something thousand. I was applying metric mathematics there. Sorry.

But that's good to know. It's an extra 25% regardless of, you know, whatever the home, home value is. I mean 25%.

I mean the important thing is if you know, if you've spent years and years paying down your mortgage and your price, your property has gone up in value, you know, it's, you know, you potentially have hundreds of thousands of dollars of wealth. That's your money that's just sitting there. And really what we're doing is we're using financial instruments that are used every day in commercial real estate. So in commercial real estate, for example, you have all sorts of different flavors of debt. So you have senior debt and junior debt, mezzanine and shared appreciation mortgages. You have lots of different flavors of equity funding, like preferred equity, just, you know, I'd say normal equity. Then you have a combination of debt and equity but if you're a residential homeowner, the only financial instruments at your disposal if you qualify, are all debt based. So what we're doing really is using tried and tested funding mechanisms that work every day in the commercial world, the world, we're just applying those to the residential market. And There is over $23 trillion of equity in residential homes in the U.S. it's an enormous pool of capital that's sitting there doing very little for the homeowners.

So I want to play devil's advocate for a second, and let's use the example of a half a million dollar to a million dollar home, because I would think statistically, I know you're saying 700 to 900,000 with a maximum of 5 million. I would just think just like income levels at 2, 3, 4 and 5, there's less homes at that price than half a mil to a mil. Would you agree?

Yeah, it depends. I mean, yes, I mean, those are good numbers to use there.

So with half a mill to a mill, let's say the $500,000 home goes to 6,650 and the mill goes to $1,200,000. Now it's going up in value. And you're saying that's $200,000 extra. 150 to $200,000 extra in equity, you can now pull from up to 25% overall, correct?

Yeah. Well, what we're saying is that there are different agreements that we work with. There are different durations. So some are 10 year agreements and some are 30 year agreements. They all work in a very similar way. And that really is to say we'll give you an investment today in exchange for a share of either the value of your home when you sell it or a share of the amount that it's gone up since we have signed the agreement. And that share depends on how much we invest. So if we invest more, then we get a bigger share of the appreciation, as you would expect. And so there are depending on what do you want as a homeowner, if you want a shorter duration agreement, we calculate the equity share in one way. If you want a longer duration, there are a number of companies that we work with that calculate the share in a slightly different way. But ultimately the most important thing is you get cash today with no monthly payments ever, because it's not a loan. And the only time that the obligation becomes due is at the end of the agreement, which can be as long as 30 years from today.

It sounds fantastic. And I love what you're saying about the equity and how it's going up and it's already there. So if someone want, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you said you can get up to 25%, you could also only take 10% out, right?

Exactly. I mean, so what we're saying is that you can take, again, these are sort of, you know, broad brush figures. It does depend on the home, but normally you can take up to 20, 25% of the value of the home. So if you have a million dollar home, we would be able to invest up to a quarter of a million dollars. But the other important thing is we want to make sure that you're left with lots of equity. So normally after our transaction, you would still have around 20%, maybe some more, depending on where you are and what.

So you figure out the total equity and that's why you kind of cap it at 25 because you want something left over. And that, that was the devil's advocate. Part of what I was asking you is what happens if that half mill home goes down to 400,000 on the mill becomes 800,000 again?

That's, that's, it's a great question because that's what's so different about our product compared to a loan. See, with a loan you're still on the hook for the full capital amount that you borrowed and any interest. With a home equity agreement, potentially if your house depreciates, goes down in value and you sell it at that point, as an investor, we're on the hook potentially for losses. So we share in the upside and the downside. So it's very much a partnership. We're very much stepping into the shoes of the homeowner. So what's good for the homeowner is good for us. And similarly what's bad for the homeowner is also bad for us. So it's much more of a team or of a partnership approach than you would see typically from a lender.

That is fantastic. And I noticed for anyone that wants to look this up and just know the terms, is it home equity agreement or contract or is it interchangeable?

Well, again, see, what's that, There are a number of different variations, but it's all based around the same concept, which is a home equity agreement. Some of the companies that are in the space refer to it as a home equity investment. But it's really, I think that's, it's, we're becoming closer to agreeing what we're actually going to call this thing. And so I think if you search for home Equity investment or home equity agreement. That's what's going to give you most of the information that you need.

Excellent. And the best place they can look is on eainterviews.com for the show notes, because we're going to have the details with this, with all the links to your stuff. I just, I like to be precise. And, you know, also. So when I ask what. How would you describe the difference between a home equity agreement and a heloc?

Again, a HELOC is a loan. It's just structured in a different way. And the way a HELOC is structured is you have the ability to draw down money. So you don't borrow money up front. You get a line of credit, which is what the LOC stands for. And if you want, you can borrow that money on demand, and then for a period of time, you just pay the interest. And then when it converts to a fully amortizing loan, then your payment go up every month so that you can start paying off the principal amount. So it's like a mortgage, but it's structured in a different way. But the most important thing is it is a loan. And that means that it comes with all the things that loans come with. So first of all, you've got to be able to qualify. So you need to have a certain credit score, certain income, and, you know, you have to be able to meet the lending criteria to be able to get a heloc. As far as a home equity agreement is concerned, there is no debt. It's a completely different structure. We're investors. The risk that we take is we don't charge interest. We say, when you sell your home, we'll take a share of the amount it's gone up. So we're betting that your house is going to go up, and if it does, we'll take some of that appreciation and that's our return. And so they are really chalk and cheese. They can work together. So you can have a home equity agreement and a HELOC as long as all the numbers work. So they're not mutually exclusive. You can use a home equity agreement to pay off a heloc. So, you know, they are, as I said, different animals that both live in the same space.

Okay, well, I appreciate you breaking that down because I know you're saying you need to qualify and have the credit score and all of that for the home equity agreement agreement. I'm learning you already need to have a mortgage or a home. Correct.

You don't need to have a mortgage. You just need to Have a home that you own that you, you may have paid off your mortgage, you may have acquired the home. It, you know, you may still have a mortgage, but you need to be a home owner. So we don't work with people that are thinking of buying a home or are about to buy a home. You have to.

So it's not for first time home buyers, it's for people already have. Whether it's for people primary residence or a rental property, it sounds like that.

Wealth without having to borrow money.

Okay, so it could be a primary home or a rent, or it could.

Be an investment property. And again, that's another great point. You don't have to live there to be able to access your equity. So if you have a portfolio of properties, for example, that you've had for a long time and they've gone up in value and you don't want to borrow more money, but you want to increase the number of properties that you own, you can use capital that we access for you as a down payment on another property perhaps. And we have a number of clients that have done that.

Now what if someone has like a warehouse, commercial building, does it apply to anything?

No, we work purely with residential properties and the reason for that is because of it's a very large asset class and also it's much easier to value. So valuing commercial properties is. It's a bit of an art form. Valuing residential homes is much easier. There's much more information as anyone knows, if you, you know, you've got countless valuation tools that will give you a very good idea about what your property is worth today.

So I want to ask about the exit of this. You're saying whether it goes up in value, goes down in value, you're sharing in that risk either way or reward. Have you ever had anyone say I want to buy back out of it early? So let's say you do it for 10, 20 years and then after five or six they decide to move. It went up in value or they think it's going to go up. Can you buy out early?

Yes, you can. And you can buy out without any form of prepayment, sorry. Or early settlement penalties. So we actively encourage people, if they want to use this instrument as short term capital, there are some incentives to enable them to do that. So it is very much useful as a short term capital source of capital or a long term source of capital if you don't want to sell your home and move out for up to 30 years. So it does work for either end of the Spectrum.

So you could realistically say, I'm going to take it for 10, 20, or 30. And after five, I mean, you might need it now for something after five, say, hey, I got it back, you know.

Absolutely, yeah. It's a bit like when you take out a mortgage for 30 years. Most people don't have any intention of running the full 30 years with that mortgage. So it's useful to know that you've got that time. It's useful to know that you can stay in your home for three decades without having to worry about, you know, settling this agreement. But again, you may decide to move, you may decide to buy the agreement back to refinance it. So it is entirely up to you. And as I said, we in many cases actually incentivize people to do that.

Is there any upsides you haven't mentioned yet? Because I'm not hearing a ton of downsides, to be honest.

Well, again, the thing about this agreement is there is a cost associated with it. So as a homeowner, you are giving up some of the future appreciation potential now. You're giving away something that doesn't exist today but probably will exist in the future. And that's the thing that most people.

Object to. If you were to say, where do people sort of start scratching their heads? It's this concept of, hang on, I want to have all of my equity both today and in the future. And so people tend to be very possessive about something that may actually not transpire. Their homes may go down in value, but the people that we work with are entirely happy with this concept because it's money that doesn't exist. And in terms of the future equity. And so really, the challenge, the educational challenge, is getting people to understand that we do make a return on the investment. It can be a very good return for the investor. If it's a good return for us, it's going to be a good return for. For the homeowner as well. And conceptually, once you understand that, then it's all about the numbers. And we make sure that when we go through the early illustrations, we make it absolutely clear what the cost would be if the home went up this much or if the home went up that much. So the homeowner is able to make a fully informed decision when they go into this type of agreement.

I think it sounds good because like you're saying, if it's not there, if you don't, if you need it now and you don't have it, what are your options? And if you let's Say it goes up on a million dollar home 20%. So you get 200 grand in extra equity. Well, if you're still going to get 100 even if you're taking 100 out of it, right?

Well, yeah, that's right. And also your property may go up to 1.2 million, but then the following year it may go back down to 950,000.

Unless you've actually tapped into that equity, unless you've done something to make that equity available, it's irrelevant because it's like watching a stock price go up and down.

I was just going to say a lot of what you're talking about sounds like put and call options.

Well, it is structured in a very similar to a covered call. In other words, what we're saying is we're not going on title, we don't own any of your property, we're not going to come and camp out in your spare room. But we have an agreement with you in exchange for some investment capital that when you sell your home, your asset, we're going to take a share of some of that appreciation. And that agreement, we put a lien on title to make sure that when you sell your property as the lien holders, we get paid first. But you're right, it's very similar to an option agreement. It's structured in almost exactly the same way as an option. And because it's an option agreement, there's no taxation impact that's immediate. So the capital you get is not treated as income and you can use it to reduce a potential capital gains tax liability. So if, for example, you're in California and you sell your property and you've got this huge capital gains tax liability, you can use these instruments to reduce your capital gains tax bill because you can offset the cost of the agreement against your capital gain.

Oh, no kidding. So you could have a $2,000,000 home, take out 500,000 and now it's valued at $1,500,000. Even though you still have the money?

Well, no, the property is still worth $2 million. But when you sell it, if you'd have bought it for say half a million dollars, you'd have a pretty large capital gain. And the cost of that capital gain, you could say, well actually I've already effectively unlocked some of that, that 500,000. It cost me $600,000 to offset or to unlock that 500,000. So I'm going to use that capital to offset or reduce my capital gains tax bill. But you know, when everyone's talking about taxation, one always has to have this sort of long caveat that says, you know, people, circumstances are all different. You know, do chat to your CPA about this. But you know, the princip that it is a very efficient mechanism if you have a potential capital gain.

I get what you're saying. And also disclaimer, we're not attorneys, but we're only tv.

No, I get it. I love what you're sharing, I really do, and I appreciate it. I have a couple more questions for you before we thank our sponsor. And one of them is, what is the biggest success story you found with one of your people? You've done this with one of your clients.

Really, it's, it's. And they are they.

I should say partners. I'm sorry? I should say partners because they're not. I usually say clients, but they're not customers. They're not clients. They really are your partners.

Well, that's right. Well, yeah, exactly. I think it's. We, we.

They do spring to mind, as I said, these, these.

These, these illustrations, these examples. You know, there are people that have been living in their homes for years and because of that, you know, through a process of attrition and osmosis, they paid the mortgage down, the property's gone up, they're in dire straits because they've lost their job or there's been an illness. And, you know, there are occasions. And what happens is that you end up in this sort of vicious cycle because the less income you have, the more you start using your credit card. So your credit score begins to decay, which means that you can't borrow money. So you've still got all of this wealth, but it becomes more and more difficult to actually access it. So there have been a number of situations where we have unlocked, you know, hundreds of thousands, like two or three hundred thousand dollars for people that needed that money. And that has become, you know, really life changing for them because they didn't have any other options. And it's a straightforward swap. So a straightforward exchange where we're saying, we'll make the investment, we will make money if your home goes up. And the homeowners are very happy to do that because the value to them of having that capital today with no monthly payments and no tax immediate tax implications is so valuable. And what we're doing is we're just allowing them to access their own money. So, you know, there are lots and lots of these types of examples that spring to mind.

Yeah, that's really great. You're able to help those, the people out. And so Many of them too.

I have the wheel of whatever here.

And I want to ask you the first question is yellow or black?

Yellow. Yellow. How about that? Okay, yellow. I think I started with yellow, but black and then went with yellow.

So let's go with yellow it is.

This has been trademark forever. I'm just gonna do this.

Yellow. So something unique about you. I saw.

Your pilot.

Yes. And still in one piece. What? They say there's old pilots and bold pilots, but no old bold pilots. Yeah.

So have you, do you have any of your own machines and have you thought about getting one in the future?

Well, I used to own a helicopter called a Bell Long Ranger. This was a few years ago. And that's a seven seater, which is the most efficient way of turning money into noise that has ever been invented. And the old saying that the greatest moment of helicopter ownership is the day you buy it and the day you sell it is absolutely true. So, you know, it was fantastic having my own helicopter for approximately nine minutes before I realized that, you know, rather than being able to just park it when, because you rent these things by the hour and you can go fly them self fly higher. So when you rent them, if something goes wrong, you just say I'm really sorry but you know, one of the four, one of the blades fell off or something and it's their problem. But if it's your helicopter then, then they start rubbing their hands, you know, and as the tech team comes out with their box of wrenches. So yeah, so it's great from a, from a, you know, from a kudos perspective. But everything else is an abject disaster.

I noticed you said one of the blades fell off. I get.

Well, clearly not because that would be.

I was just going to say have you ever had land a helicopter with auto rotation?

No. You practice that a lot. But I mean, obviously if one of the blades does fall off, then that would involve an enormous amount of paperwork which one tries to avoid at all costs. But no, if the fan falls off the top then, you know, normally that's, that's not a good thing. But no, I haven't had any engine failures. I had a bit of stormy weather once. Took off right into a very, very blustery storm, which scared the living daylights out of me. And you've never seen a helicopter turn around and land so quickly. But that was. And also flying into fog, you know, got to be the worst thing that you could do. The worst feeling ever is flying into fog. Because it's like, you know, all of your senses start Lying to you. Your ears tell you you're going one way, but your instruments tell you you're going another way. And it's, you know, it's, it's a great way of figuring out just how, you know, unreliable, you know, the human body is when it comes to, you know, flying machinery and limited visibility.

Wow.

How did, how did you get into it?

Well, we, years and years and years ago, back in the 18th century, we worked very closely with Richard Branson and we had this idea one day to create this company called Virgin Helicopters. And we would shuttle people from London Airport or Heathrow Airport into the, you know, the center of London, into Battersea, which is near Chelsea. So we set this company up and I was part of the team that did that. And I thought, you know what, I've always, always wanted to fly. This was God, years ago, like 20 something years ago. So I turned up every Saturday for, you know, weeks and weeks and learned to fly. And I ended up flying, you know, some, some really cool machinery. I actually ended up being the one of the directors of the Virgin Air Ambulance, which was this huge, sort of very complex helicopter with, you know, lots of moving parts, most of them in search of an oil leak. And occasionally they would let me fly that. Not in, not in anger, but I would fly that. I would position it from where it was parked overnight and go and landed on the top of the Royal London Hospital, you know, so that was, that was a bit of fun.

Wow, that's fascinating. I thank you so much for sharing that. I, there's, I don't think I've ever asked anyone that question before.

Yes, that's fine. No, it's actually got me thinking, I was thinking I really need to do. I haven't flown for quite a while actually. So, you know, it's one of those things.

So you don't miss it too much, huh?

Well, I do. Well, I do, but it's slightly nerve wracking because when you think about it, it's, it's like, you know, it's a bit like trying to, you know, learn to ski for the first time. You know, when you're faced, it's like, okay, your skiing lesson today, we're going to put you on a black slope and down you go. That's, that's what it would sort of feels like. So, but no, I do, I do miss it terribly. I miss the, the, the, the pureness of it. The fact that you cannot think about anything else when you're sitting there for, you know, flying this thing. You're not worrying about what you're going to have for dinner or whether or not you sent that email to someone. You're so focused. So it is actually extraordinarily relaxing to do.

I can relate to that. I've never flown a helicopter, but there's certain things I've done with business and personal and it's just like some people think it's too complex or too complicated, but it's like you're so fully engaged, it's so simple and. And you'll get back to the rest whenever.

Yeah, exactly. That's it. It is. That is the pure is the involvement. If you're fully immersed in something, it becomes very relaxing.

Wow, that's. That's fascinating. All right, we have to do something. We're going to thank the sponsor and we'll be back for the Imperfect action round. You've heard me say every business needs a book, including yours. And it's true. And that's why I'm launching my new book@eapublishingmethodbook.com so you can learn the seven steps to publish and purchase promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. But you know what, don't take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors like Lori, I went from having.

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Rocio, there's no way in the world I would have been able to do this with somebody else again. I've attempted it in the past. It didn't serve me. As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless process.

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Hey, their words, not mine. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get your copy and I look forward to hearing your transformation as our next video success story. Once again, that's EA publishingmethodbook.com and we are back with the imperfect action round. Matthew, are you ready to take imperfect action?

Well, I think so. So it depends.

Yes, after everything you've said, I think it's going to not be a problem for you. So I got three questions. Rapid fire answers, 66, 60 second or less rapid fire answers. The first one is what is the fastest path to the profits?

Trying not to take a fast path to profits. Sorry, that's. That sounds, sounds contradictory, you know, but in other words, if you want to make money quickly, you'll never make money quickly. The thing is that you have to take your time, you have to become expert, you have to do your research, you have to put the hours in, work hard. You know, it's perspiration.

You may get lucky, you may get the timing right, but most of the time it's pure dogged determination. And that pays off with profits. And I think, as I said, the search of the get rich quick scheme is always going to end in tears.

Excellent. Love that. Answer number two. What is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it?

I'm not sure I fully understand the question. Mario, Sorry, could you ask that again? Can we chop this out in the edits? Sorry, I know we're live.

It's totally fine. I don't even think we need to edit it. But it's. So the question I have, as you know, the people you're working with, what is the biggest problem your prospects make and the fastest way for them to fix it? So what do you find your prospects keep doing.

Over and over like the biggest problem you're solving for them?

Well, I think really the biggest problem that we face, I think I sort of touched on this earlier, is the fixation that people have with the fact that they should not under any circumstances touch the equity in their home. And I hope I'm answering your question here, and this is a psychological connection that, that is probably born out of historical reasons. It's a fear that if you access your home equity that you're going to lose your home. And all of those are valid fears, but they should be addressed in a logical fashion. So, you know, the, the biggest challenge that we have and the biggest, I wouldn't say mistake, because it is an entirely valid, you know, reaction. But the thing that people should try and do is consider how it works, look at the mechanics of what their home is. It's somewhere to live, but it's also something that traps a lot of their wealth. And I wouldn't dream to say get educated because that's a horrible thing to suggest but just take the time to try and understand how these types of alternative financial structures could benefit you. They don't work for everyone. And so really the answer, I think is just take the time, be open minded and take a few moments to try and figure out how this might work and then make an informed decision at the end rather than leaping to a conclusion.

I think that's a great answer. And I don't think there's anything wrong with saying get educated. I mean, if you don't know something, you should get educated.

I think, yeah, I think so. But I'm, I'm certainly not the person to say that. I think, you know, one is one, one's advice is, you know, the benefits of education are, you know, are significant. I think so that's just making informed decisions, I think is a great way to go.

I agree, I agree. It's always better to be informed. Number three, what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

I think really solve problems and be responsive through the customer lifetime. And I think the important thing is that things don't always go according to plan.

Whether you're a customer or a provider. When they don't, then don't treat your customer as someone that should not be contacted or kept in the loop. You know, things don't always run as quickly as they should. You know, in our situation, we don't always get the appraisals back as quickly as we want them to. But what we don't do is we don't leave our customers hanging because they're counting on the money. They need that capital. So you just keep your customers involved, you know, up to speed with what you're doing, you know, good and bad, so that at least they know because they can make, you know, these, they're adults, they, they know that things don't always go according to plan. So treat them as such and, you know, treat them with respect. And I think then that respect goes two ways and they become much more loyal because they realize that.

You'Re in it for the long run with them.

Very good, very good. With all the books I publish for entrepreneurs and help them get their expertise out there and share their message as well as get leads and profit for their business. It's always fun to ask what books have impacted your business? What would you say to them?

Well, I think the troubles, I can't remember the author, but the book is called Getting Things Done or Getting Stuff Done. It's something like that. I mean, this is where everyone please rely on, you know, Mario, your show Notes, because I'll figure it out. But it's. It was this book that.

David Allen.

David Allen, that's the one. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it's because you're reading it thinking, this is absolutely right. And the thing that really stuck with me was don't use your brain as some sort of repository for useless information. In other words, don't try and remember everything that you've got to do, or don't try and, you know, remember every conversation. You know, your brain's not designed for that. Your brain is designed for creativity, for, you know, thinking about solutions and not for, you know, some, you know, random access memory. So put all this stuff down, write stuff down in a place that you trust and use that. And that. That's something that just. Just literally took a weight off my shoulders. Really simple advice. And it's not, you know, psycho babble. It's not mumbo jumbo. It's. It's really interesting, sensible advice. And, you know, he has some great lectures that you can watch on online, you know, YouTube and that sort of stuff where, you know, he talks to the teams at Google, for example, and they're all pretty smart people, you know, so these aren't, you know, dumbed down. These are really good lectures. So that, that was helpful because it's. It was a scientific approach that made absolute logical sense and, you know, had immediate effects and, you know, apart from the fact that clearly I can't remember the guy's name.

Well, I appreciate the recommendation regardless, and for sure. Anyone listening, check out eainterviews.com for the show notes of this episode. We'll have all the links on there and everything. Where would you like people to learn more?

I think our website is really the best place. We've got a downloadable guide and we have all sorts of, you know, videos and podcasts, you know, and other information. There's a calculator there where you can figure out how much equity potentially you could release. So the website is Quantum Re, Q, U, A, N T, M RE Quantum Re dot com. And we have a phone number. We have human beings behind the website. So please feel free to give us a call and we'd love to see how we could help you.

Well, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for sharing with Expert Authority World. I'm so glad you were able to come on.

Thank you, Mario. The pleasure was mine. Thank you so much for having me on.

All right, Expert Authority World. We have another great episode here today. I'll see you tomorrow. Have a great day. And God bless.

You're already the expert, but have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate qualified leads while increasing profit for you 247 and if so, how well are you promoting it? With my new book, the Expert Authority Effect Publishing Method, I take you through my process step by step. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get started. Now. Once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.Com thanks for listening to today's episode. I would love to know what you enjoyed most from it if you haven't done so already. I invite you to connect with me on my new LinkedIn. You can go to it directly at eainterviews.com LinkedIn Once again, that's eainterviews.com LinkedIn lastly, check out the full eainterviews.com site for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I'll see you on the next one.