Today we’d like to introduce you to Suzette Lipscomb.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Suzette. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up around construction. My father (and his father as well) was a builder in LA, and he flipped a handful of houses while I was growing up. He would buy something, live in it, fix it up and sell it. I remember this very cool modern house he built off Laurel Canyon that had a central atrium – it was the 70s after all! I learned tidbits here and there; like how to get the most bang for your remodeling buck, which materials worked best in certain locations and climates, how little things like raising a ceiling made the whole home look larger. Construction was always in my blood, so after he passed away, I was inspired to get my contractor’s license and I flipped a house here and there myself.
In the early years, I attended UCLA and after getting a degree in Economics, I went to work at California Federal, learning the business from a bank (back when rates were much higher than today). Later, I worked for other prominent brokers before I formed my own company, Loans by Suzette in 2000. I have been in the mortgage business for 25 years as a broker serving the luxury home market.
My partner in Rain Gutter Gurus, Karen Coleman, started her career as an aesthetician, was promoted to manager, and ended up running a nine location luxury spa business for two decades before retiring. She ran operations and sales, managed the buildouts, trained the staff, ran a huge call center and handled all the product sales and development as well. We became friends because working in the mortgage business was so stressful that I was a fairly frequent massage guest at the spa. And I also did her home financing. When she retired, she wanted to do something entrepreneurial and we were brainstorming about businesses. She mentioned that she needed her rain gutters serviced and had called several companies to get a bid, and all “no showed” except one! We realized the great need for my clients who were buying and selling houses to have a professional Rain Gutter company who were experts in their field. We thought customers, property managers and real estate agents would appreciate a fairly priced and reliable company who could clean, maintain or replace gutters as needed and Rain Gutter Gurus was born!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
On a professional level, the mortgage business is and has been challenging in a myriad of ways. Even though we do almost everything electronically now, I still try and meet all my clients in person at least once during the process. When I started in the business, rates were extraordinarily high, there were lots of prepayments penalties, balloon notes, and then everyone thought that the internet would transform the mortgage business and eliminate the need for brokers. But technology actually improved the process, and the people and the relationships are still key. When we started, we had to type the loan applications, and no white out was allowed! So if you made a mistake, you had to retype the entire thing all over again. I spent many so many nights working at Cal Fed headquarters that the overnight security guard knew me on a first name basis. The hours have always been very long and that just comes with the territory. The highs and lows of the business are definitely difficult to weather financially, and the new regulations and disclosures (while attempting to serve the consumer), in my opinion, have just made closing loans more frustrating for processors, escrow officers and clients alike.
The Rain Gutter Gurus has definitely been a smoother start. We joke that we did a little rain dance so that our business would be a success, and we had one of the wettest winters in recent history! With this business, the weather impacts people’s appetite for our service, so we recently acknowledged the need for an off season compliment and will introduce Window Washing Gurus in the next month! Hopefully with residential and commercial projects and rain gutters in winter and window washing in summer, we will be busy all year round. One of the things we did to curb some of the intense seasonal demand was to offer a VIP program where we would schedule automatically service every 6 months or so. This is an automated program that gives clients a discount for being repeat customers and allows us to spread out our schedule a bit to control the timing of our service.
Rain Gutter Gurus + Loans by Suzette – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Loans by Suzette specializes in large loans for self-employed clients with potentially complicated income. We work closely with CPAs, Business Management firms, and attorneys to take into account all aspects of a real estate transaction’s consequences as they relate to tax, income and the specific client’s needs. We absolutely will not do a loan for someone that benefits us but not the customer.
I think I am most proud our One for One Program. After reading Blake Mycoskie’s book (the founder of TOM’s), Start Something That Matters, I was inspired to make a micro loan for each real loan we fund. Currently we use Kiva.org’s platform to make those loans around the world. I think my favorite part is choosing the loan based on the client’s profile. We try and match something about the client’s life that corresponds with the people we loan to, so if the client is a doctor, we find a health related business, or a single parent household, we lend to one overseas. The most amazing thing that happened is that when we started this, it never occurred to me that the loans would be repaid, and we could make more loans! So each loan actually grows exponentially as we relend it many times over, this makes me smile.
Rain Gutter Gurus are just that – experts in rain gutters. We clean, repair and replace them on residential and commercial properties, but we also install water retention devices, redirect flow to protect foundations. Our cleaning service goes beyond the typical gardener or handyman cleaning where we actually hand clean the gutters, dispose of the debris, reattach loose screws, caulk them where accessible, all for one fair price. We hope to bring this level of service to window washing as well in the coming months. At press time, all of our Yelp and Facebook reviews thus far are 5 star, an accomplishment we are very excited about.
What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?
Professionally, I would have to say it’s when I read reviews or hear what people say about Rain Gutter Gurus and Loans by Suzette. Many, many clients tell me they could have never bought their home if it weren’t for Loans by Suzette. One client calls me the Dali Lama of loans! Unsolicited compliments from people who say we care about what we do. In both businesses, the team cares deeply, and this makes me proud.
Contact Info:
- Address: Loans by Suzette + Rain Gutter Gurus 433 N Camden Drive, Suite 600, Beverly Hills, CA 90210.
- Website: http://loansbysuzette.com/ http://rainguttergurus.com/
- Phone: LBS 949.376.9789 RGG 888.789.3883
- Email: [email protected] [email protected]
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