Matthew Gibbs - Leveraging AI To Simplify Mortgages

Matthew J Gibbs is a business innovator and seasoned professional in the Canadian real estate & mortgage industry. He's the drier behind a nationwide online mortgage brokerage, The Great Canadian Mortgage Co. His mission is to simplify & expedite the mortgage process to ensure clients have access to the best financing options available. He's leveraging advanced AI technology to streamline the mortgage application process, connecting clients with over 200 lenders nationwide. The approach saves time, offers personalized service, and ensures clients receive the best possible mortgage deal.

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Hear how Matthew got into real estate and became a successful entrepreneur
• Discover how Matthew focused his company on personalized mortgage solutions tailored for first-time homebuyers.
• Unlock the power of AI in simplifying the mortgage application process.
• Explore effective strategies for beginners in real estate investing.
• Overcome challenges and find solutions in the world of business entrepreneurship.

The key moments in this episode are:
00:00:00 - Getting Started in Real Estate
00:04:40 - Overcoming Challenges
00:08:11 - Identifying a Need
00:10:38 - Differentiating the Mortgage Company
00:12:32 - Challenges of Buying First House
00:13:35 - Helping First Time Home Buyers
00:15:22 - Real Freedom Investor Agent Tribe
00:16:11 - Building and Growing a Business

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Matthew Gibbs
So we lived in it for a bit, fixed it up, flipped it and made some money. And that was kind of like the first real money I had really tasted. I grew up with not a lot, you know, working class neighborhood. My folks were, you know, hard workers, not like we were like dirt poor or anything, but everything was like budgeted. And I just came from that kind of mentality. And, like, you work and you go to a job and you get paid and that was it. And so that was like, kind of like the first time that I had actually thought, oh, wow, I could get like a whole chunk of money at once. And so we got into it and we just moved and kept flipping.

Mike Swenson
Welcome to the REL Freedom show, where we inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities and real estate. I'm your host, Mike Swenson. Let's get some REL Freedom together. Hello, everybody. Welcome to a new episode of REL Freedom, where we talk about different ways that people build time and financial freedom through different opportunities in real estate. I'm your host, Mike Swenson. If you want to get started on your real estate investing journey, check out our website, freedomthroughrealestate.com dot. That's freedomthroughrealestate.com dot. We've got articles, videos, tips, all that to help you figure out how you want to build time and financial freedom through real estate. So today we've got an awesome episode for you. I'm so excited to be able to share with you. We've got Matthewhew Gibbs. Matthew is a business innovator, seasoned professional in real estate and mortgage industry, focusing on making home ownership accessible for all people. And you built a great canadian mortgage mortgage company with a mission to simplify and expedite the mortgage process, ensuring clients have access to the best financing options available. You understand challenges faced by first time home buyers, which is a big issue right now, talking about creative financing solutions and leveraging AI technology to streamline the mortgage application process. And then obviously, you as a business owner have a lot to share too, on entrepreneurship and mindset and whatnot. So a lot of stuff for us to dig into. So, Matthewhew, welcome to the show.

Matthew Gibbs
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Mike Swenson
Well, why don't you just start by sharing a little bit about your background and, and kind of how you got into the industry and we'll take it from there.

Matthew Gibbs
How far back are we going?

Mike Swenson
As far back as you want to go.

Matthew Gibbs
Well, yeah.

 Mike Swenson
Okay.

Matthew Gibbs
I got, I first got interested and into real estate in my twenties. Probably like, I would say about 25 years old. Um, I met my wife, my current wife, while I was, when I was 23. And she came with two kids. She, she had had young, and then we had another kid. So by 25, I had three kids. So I kind of, you know, was pushed into the deep end. At the time, I was working like a crappy construction job, like $10 an hour canadian, so like $2 us. But, yeah, it was, it wasn't, it wasn't a good situation. And I was looking for something, you know, to better. To better our situation. Yeah, for the family. So I just, we decided to get into, we decided we were going to get into real estate in some capacity. We started out looking for something with income. We actually had a friend, so one of the girls friends, mom was a girl guide leader, and she was big time into flipping and owning income generating properties and things like that. And she had several of these rooming houses. I don't know if you guys have that where you're at, where there's, you know, ten rooms to a house and that kind of a thing. Whereas for people that are like, collecting assistance and the rooms rented at that time for like $325 a room or whatever, so she owns several of those and she was selling one. And we tried to get it, but we just couldnt make it work at the time. It just was just out of reach for us, what we had for a down payment and that. So we can, and we actually couldn't find anything in the town we were living in for anything that we could afford at all. So we ended up having to move, you know, like an hour and a half outside of town. And we found a little tiny house that needed some work for, you know, under 100 grand. Again, canadian. So not much money at all back then. That was like 2001 and, yeah, so we lived in it for a bit, fixed it up, flipped it, and made some money. And that was kind of like the first real money I had really tasted. I grew up with not a lot, you know, working class neighborhood. My folks were, you know, hard workers. Not like we were like dirt poor or anything, but everything was like, budgeted. And I just came from that kind of mentality. And, like, you work and you go to a job and you get paid and that was it. And so that was like, kind of like the first time that I had actually thought, oh, wow, I could get like a whole chunk of money at once. And so we got into it and we just moved and kept, kept flipping. The market was heading up at that time, and so we'd move into a house, like find a house that was like on a decent street and in a good area, but was kind of falling apart but nothing structural or whatever, just cosmetic stuff. That was easy for us. And so we'd fix it up and flip it and move on to the next one. That's kind of how I got into real estate to begin with.

Mike Swenson
Well, and I think what's interesting to hear is for people that listen to this and they're trying to figure out what to do. There's so many things inside of real estate that you can do. And I think kind of to your point, the key is you just got to start somewhere, right? Like pick a spot. You're going to learn, add knowledge, build connections and relationships on top of that. But if you don't necessarily know where exactly you want to go or what exactly you want to do, just start somewhere and then that strategy can change over time. And you know, you, you don't have to know everything. But I think the key is, is just get started and that's what you guys did, right. And it's not going to be get rich overnight, but it's going to take some time and you're going to slowly grow an ad and grow an ad and grow an ad. And then maybe you switch and move to a different piece or different area of real estate within the industry and you continue to grow, but you're adding knowledge on top of that. And so it's just kind of, you just got to get started, right?

Matthew Gibbs
Exactly. Absolutely. Like that's, that's the thing. And I just hear like a lot of young people now, I don't know what it's like where you are, but like here in Canada, in, in general, it's, it's a lot of gloom and doom. A lot of young people are like, I'm not even going to bother. Real estate is too expensive. And I know it is a little bit more expensive in general here proportionately versus wages and all that and groceries and gas and all that stuff. So it might be a little bit difficult in some of these markets compared to what you guys are dealing with. But yeah, young people are just like, I give up. Im not going to bother. And I think what we did, it wasnt easy. Like I said, we couldnt afford anything where we lived and its like, no, we're going to move somewhere where we can afford something and deal with it, you know, and just to get started, to your point. Yeah, yeah. That's the important thing is you have to be flexible.

Mike Swenson
I think or find somebody who is in real estate and find a way to create a partnership, some way shape or form, you know, like whether it's somebody you know, like and trust. And it's easy for people to say, well, I don't know anybody, I don't have anybody. But if you want it, you'll try to start to figure out some ways to make it work. And it might be, you know, a five step process and you're just at step one, but you got to figure out how to go from step one to step two, step two to step three. And even today, you know, I've been in real estate full time for over ten years and on the investment side for over five years. I mean, I guess I did have an investment before I got in real estate full time, but I'm still learning. Like, I don't feel like there's still so much to learn, so much that I don't know about real estate, but you gotta, gotta find a way to get going. So how then did you dip over into the mortgage side?

Matthew Gibbs
Okay, well that's a bit of a long story, probably too long for this podcast, but generally. So I'd been, fast forward a little bit. I got into online marketing and lead generation and things like that. And so I did eventually end up becoming quite successful in business in general, was able to build a eight figure business, and then unfortunately that business came to an end due to some regulatory stuff. Things changed in the landscape and that business was done. And so I was looking for something else to do. And one of the things that I always found to be a pain in the butt when I was buying places was the mortgage process in Canada. It's very cumbersome. The banks have long wait times and you go to the bank and youre not getting the best rate. Theyre just going to offer you what theyre going to offer you. You go to a mortgage broker, great. But still, same thing, youve got to make an appointment, you got to go see them usually and all that kind of stuff. And it was just really cumbersome and I thought, why cant this just be done online a few clicks, like ordering something on Amazon? And so thats what I got the idea and I reached out to an old friend of mine who was actually the mortgage broker that I got my first mortgage from, and he was running his business exactly like that, local referrals only he didnt even have a website, it was completely archaic. And so I said, hey listen, I think we could change this around and do this this way. What do you think? And he said, absolutely. That was the impetus behind launching great canadian mortgage company was just making the process super easy and being able to reach people all across the country and allowing people to get a mortgage from the comfort of their own home.

Mike Swenson
Go figure. See a need and meet a need, right? You saw a need out there in the marketplace, something that would genuinely help people, and you're able to do that. So what makes you guys unique? What were maybe some of the key pieces of the company that's been successful in maybe differentiating you guys from everybody else out there?

Matthew Gibbs
So what makes us different is, like I said, that you're able to just go online, fill out a form, takes about five minutes, hit submit, and then the application goes out to over 200 lenders. So nobody else is really doing that. Mortgage brokers in general, they might have access to 30, 40 lenders that they have, but we're actually getting the deal out. And so we're going to be able to get a way better rate than even your average broker because we have access to so many lenders and we have exclusive relationships where we send a lot of volume to specific lenders. And so we can negotiate better rates than you could get, even going yourself, maybe even to your own bank.

Mike Swenson
How are you able to create relationships if most of the companies go to 30 to 40? How are you able to get in front of 200?

Matthew Gibbs
It's just that we have access through an exclusive pipeline that we've established, and it's just a lender network that we're working with. It's just the network that we've established.

Mike Swenson
And from a feedback perspective from clients, what do they say in terms of how it's been able to kind of change how they operate? Getting a mortgage?

Matthew Gibbs
Feedback from clients has been great thus far. People appreciate the fact that they still get personalized service because once your application does go out, we work closely with you and we will bring a couple of deals that come back that look good because it's not like you're going to get 200 offers. It goes out to say all these lenders, but you might get like three or four come back to say, yeah, we'll do this mortgage, and we'll, you know, work to get you the best deal from what comes back. So, yeah, it's, uh, it's feedback has been great. People just love the process. It's easy, but still personalized.

Mike Swenson
And how do you help people decide who to choose? Because I know at least in the United States, it's like, you know, some people think well, I'm just getting the lowest rate and that's it. Well, there's sometimes more to that. The ability to close. Different lenders look at income requirements a different way or they, they have different regulations that they have to follow. So if they do get, you know, multiple people back, how do you kind of help them decide which one's going to be the best fit?

Matthew Gibbs
Well, I mean whatever the, the best fit is for you is, is very individual. Right. So we just kind of look at the entire situation of the deal, you know, the person's situation. Um, you know, things like how long they want to be committed. Like here we have there. I think you guys do like 30 year mortgages, right?

Mike Swenson
I typically, yeah, here.

Matthew Gibbs
So here it's like five years is kind of the typical, but some people might want to only lock in for like a three year or one year. Um, and there's could be different reasons for that. But yeah, we just look at the general situation and we just, yeah, it's not always just about rate. You're right. There's other factors at play for sure.

Mike Swenson
Well, I always like to share my story of when we bought our first house, no down payment, it was just a townhouse. We were going to stay there for a couple of years and I remember our lenders like, are you going to stay there for more than five years? And we said, nope. So we're like, okay, great, got an adjustable rate mortgage, bought it and then the market tanked and our, our townhouse was worth half of what we bought it for. And it's like, oh, there's more to it than just oh, not going to live here five years. Okay, great. We'll just get the adjustable rate mortgage and then everything kind of collapses. And that's real. It's really what forced us into becoming a renter. We ended up turning that property in a rental property and moved on and did some fix and flips as well. But yeah, there's a lot more to it and, and somebody that understands and can really meet your needs and help is really important on the mortgage side of.

Matthew Gibbs
Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, thats a situation that a lot of people find themselves in here and I know there too with rates what they are and a lot of renewals like in Canada, theres a crap ton of renewals coming up now this year into this sort of higher rate environment and people are kind of panicking. Right. So its valuable to be able to work with someone that can help you navigate that and help you get into a situation that is going to be the most helpful and advantageous to you.

Mike Swenson
And I know you had mentioned previously about first time homebuyers being a struggle, not necessarily known if they can afford a place of their own. What would you advise outside of your situation? Was a good example of that kind of moving somewhere where you can afford something. But how else do you work with first time home buyers to help them get a spot if they want a spot?

Matthew Gibbs
Well, I mean, there's different things that people can do. Like you mentioned, I finding a partner, for example, and I always recommend if possible, to get into something with income right away, even if it's your first home. And if you can find something that has some income, at least it's always better. So you might partner with somebody. Maybe you're going to get a duplex or a triplex or I don't know. Right. So there's that and then also there's options out there if you don't have, say, a down payment or much of a down payment. At least here we have programs in some areas where there's down payment assistance or through the government type programs. And then there's also you can just outright borrow your down payment. Now, obviously that's not always advisable. People can easily get themselves into trouble doing things like that. 100% financing. And obviously you're paying a higher rate on the down payment portion that you're borrowing. But you know what? There's deals out there and sometimes, you know, there's an opportunity and you want to take advantage of it. Doing something like that can be a good idea as well.

Matthew Gibbs
Yeah, I mean, I guess one of the things that I've been thinking a lot about lately when it comes to building and growing a business because I just recently, like I said, launched this new business, is focus and just learning how to shut everything else out and focus on one thing and seeing it through. I think a lot of entrepreneurs and ive been guilty of this in the past is have a tendency to like do too many things. People hear like, oh, multiple income streams. That means im going to start eight things at once.

Mike Swenson
And thats jason shiny pennies. Yeah.

Matthew Gibbs
Yeah. Its not the way to go and its, and we all know people like that. And I, you know, I myself, like I said, have done that in the past and I just had to learn to just, to just focus on one thing and just stay at it and be able to see it all the way through. Yeah. And it doesn't always work out sometimes, you know, sometimes. And you also have to be willing to get back on the horse. You know, we've all been through failures and I've started, attempted to start, you know, several businesses and not all of them work. So being, being resilient and being able to not let that beat you up and get you down and getting onto the next thing and focusing on one thing at a time, I would say are like my two biggest pieces of advice that I could offer. Jeff.

Matthew Gibbs
Absolutely. Yeah. Everything takes, I think everything takes ten times more effort than you think it's going to. Ten times more time. Ten times more everything. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Swenson
My wife always gets on me when I always tell her like, oh, I got a quick go do something, and she's like, it's never quick and even. And then if I give her a timeframe of, like, just something small, like a 15 minutes task, a 15 minutes task takes half an hour. Right. And so building a business. Right. There's a lot to it. And so what your goal might be for year one, maybe you don't hit that goal. Maybe it takes another year to hit your year one goal. But if you really want to do something that's impactful and your company is definitely something that's changing the way mortgages are done, that's awesome. It takes some time, and so you just got to keep sticking with it.

Matthew Gibbs
Yeah. And having those goals is really important, too. That's the other thing is that a lot of people just get into something and they, they don't really have a clear vision that they can break down into steps. Like, they just don't have that. Like, they might have a general goal, like, I'm going to start this business or I'm going to, you know, be a super successful realtor or whatever it is, but they don't really have like a target, you know, in mind that they're reaching towards. And that's super important too is to have those clear targets laid out.

Mike Swenson
Well, thank you so much, Matthewhew for coming on and sharing. For people that want to reach out to you, they want to learn more about what you're doing and maybe just ask you questions as a mortgage lender, as a business owner, whatever that might look like, how can they do so?

Matthew Gibbs
Okay, so as great canadian mortgage company is get G e t dot, great canadian mortgage dot Co and Instagram great canadian mortgage, tick tock, the same great canadian mortgage, that'd be about it. And if anybody wants to reach out to me directly, I can be reached at Matthew at greatcanadianmortgage.

Mike Swenson
Co. Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing. It's cool to hear your story. It's cool to hear how things have changed. And best of luck as you continue to grow your company.