We were lucky to catch up with Laura Contreras recently and have shared our conversation below.

Laura, appreciate you joining us today. Early in your career, how did you think through the decision of whether to start your own firm or join an established firm?

I am so grateful to be where I am today. My new start was back in March of 2019 and I can honestly say now, it was the best risk I could have taken. The opportunity to join my current company, Crosswalk Mortgage, was presented by a friend when I least expected it and as I was preparing to shut down my office in order to figure out what life had for me moving forward.
For me starting my career for the second time happened after my divorce. Dealing with so many “news” in my life were challenging and I found myself concerned that I may not be good enough to not just survive in this business but actually thrive and be successful.

Laura, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

This career found me while my children were very young, I wanted to learn about real estate in order to help family and friends through the process after we realized that the person my mother had trusted explicitely, had taken advantage of her trust. My real estate career transitioned to mortgage loans as it allowed me the opportunity to work from home at the beginning but most importantly it gave me the opportunity to help people with the biggest investment in their lives. Being fluent in Spanish allowed me to help my community through the most important step in building generational wealth. From day one, I have grown my business organically by word of mouth. My business continues to grow in that same manner and 100% of my business continues to come from referrals. I believe that when you do your best to help and educate people while treating them with honesty and integrity, they will continue to refer their family and friends. Some of my most proud accomplishments come from helping the families that had the most obstacles to overcome but because they were diligent and never gave up, we got them to the closing table and they became proud homeowenrs.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

As stated before, 100% of my business comes from word of mouth referrals. Real estate professionals are my #1 source of referrals as they trust me with their clients so that I can hanle the financing by finding the best loan products depending on their situation. In any business, if you treat the customer right, provide great service, keep your promises and offer honest advise you will have clients for life! One of the first things I tell a new client is that I may not always tell them what they want to hear, but I will always tell them the truth.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One of my favorite success stories is a client who was referred to me after he had been told several times that no one could not help him because of his situation. He came to me, shared his story and his desire to buy a home for his family. He had lost everything after the mortgage meltdown and he wanted to start over. We did our research and found that there was a slim chance to find him a mortgage. By studying the guidelines, we found we could request an exception by providing documentation, it was a lot of work on his part and ours but he never gave up, he never wavered and neither did we. At the end, we were able to help him and he has been a friend and loyal customer since 2012! That experience reminds me why I got in this business and why I am still here.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lauracontrerasmortgage.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lendingwith_laura
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laura.contreras.73113528
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-contreras-21921732/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/laura-contreras-placentia

Image Credits

Lesley Bohm Photography (1st and 2nd headshot). Lorena Arguelles Realtor