bruce's biography

Bruce’s Background

After prodding from a friends’ father, Bruce Brown took a leap and began his mortgage career in 1995 by starting his first mortgage company in St. Louis, MO. A professional background in sales management allowed Bruce, with no previous mortgage experience, to quickly grow and build a respected company in his market. In fact, in 1999, after only four years in business, his company was named the “Broker of the Year” by the Missouri Association of Mortgage Professionals.

Bruce is Different

Bruce has always approached his business differently than most mortgage originators. “Education, credibility, honesty, and trust with my clients are the keys to my success.”  Bruce realized from the beginning that a mortgage is a significant financial tool that most consumers don’t think of as part of their larger financial plan. “Most consumers don’t realize there are a number of ways to structure a 30-year fixed rate loan and without proper consideration of their options they can easily cost themselves tens of thousands of dollars in just the first few years of their 30-year mortgage.”

His Education and Yours

The mortgage industry is rapidly changing. Bruce feels the education of both he and his clients are critical keys to his success. “One of the largest problems I see in the mortgage industry is the lack of thorough training and testing which I believe has played a role in the mortgage meltdown.” “Education at the origination level is critical; without it how can a mortgage professional educate the client to the greater financial issues their mortgage decisions make?”

Bruce holds two professional designations in the mortgage industry; Certified Residential Mortgage Lender (CRML) and the most prestigious designation in the industry, Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist (CMPS). In fact, in the Kansas City market there are only a handful of mortgage professionals that have achieved the CMPS designation. CMPS professionals must demonstrate financial knowledge and expertise regarding the tax and financial planning implications of various mortgage and real estate investment strategies. “Once a consumer realizes that typically, their single largest debt is their mortgage, their single largest asset is real estate equity, and the critical component of life planning needs and goals is cash flow, the importance of the true professional becomes apparent.”

Bruce is Credible

With education as his foundation and years of satisfied clients using Bruce’s mortgage strategies as a track record, Bruce has earned credibility you won’t find elsewhere. Bruce has appeared as the “Purchase Pro” on the local Fox television affiliate and has media credentials in publications such as SmartMoney, Dow Jones’ MarketWatch, Forbes, Growing Wealth, and more. In April 2008, Bruce was named “Person of the Week” by MortgageOrb.com, a content website for real estate professionals. Bruce is also the Founder of The Mortgage Advice Forums (www.MortgageAdviceForums.com), an industry first consumer website where over 200 CMPS certified mortgage professionals provide free advice on a variety of mortgage topics. His background and thorough knowledge of credit issues alone has saved clients untold thousands in lower interest rates and improved loan terms. Bruce is perhaps best known as host of Dollars and Homes, a weekly mortgage and real estate talk show that airs each Saturday at 2PM on KCMO Talk Radio 710 in Kansas City.

Bruce is Trustworthy and Honest

In an industry where trust and honesty have taken a huge blow in the past couple years, Bruce works extra hard to ensure that his good name and reputation go untarnished. You must be able to trust your mortgage professional. Building a foundation of trust with clients is critical. Bruce does this by going the extra mile to educate his clients; backing his advice with third-party references and utilizing the latest technology to make the mortgage process as smooth and easy as possible. Sound advice on float vs. lock strategies backed by real-time data is just one example of how Bruce accomplishes this. Passing on knowledge of upcoming economic data reports and how they may affect mortgage rates is another. But nothing speaks more to his relationship with clients better than their own words; so you can rely upon those which he has had a direct impact.