If there’s one thing Shan Lassig wants you to know about construction loans, it’s that it’s not as hard as you think. As EVP of Construction Lending, he’s doing more than building the largest privately held IBM construction division in the country. He’s keeping it simple and teaching loan officers how to grow their business with this invaluable tool. Hear him break it all down in this conversation with Hunter Marckwardt.

Hello, everyone. I'm Hunter Marckwardt with CCM Talks. I'm very excited today to be interviewing Shan Lassig, who is our Executive Vice President of Construction Lending, and I didn't realize you were colorblind.

Yeah. Started being colorblind when we were, my, my brother was four and I was three, and we were going to play a joke on my mom. So we got out the butcher knives and acted like we'd cut ourselves, but we put green food coloring on instead of red.

Hunter: No kidding.

Shan: And she started laughing, and we're like, what are you laughing at? We're, we're pissed. We're both colorblind.

Hunter: Really?

Shan: Both of us.

Hunter: That's unbelievable.

Shan: It is.

Hunter: So your shirt's yellow.

Shan: My shirt’s yellow. Yes.

Hunter: What color does it look like to you?

Shan: So I can see yellow and I can see blue, I think. I'm not sure, because I have no idea what blue looks like to you. But I see blue and yellow to me, and then I see all gray, black and white. So you see me wearing a lot of gray, black and white.

Hunter: That's amazing. I'm glad, I'm glad we started with that. So. Okay, so you, you run our construction division, which is huge.

Shan: Yep.

Hunter: I mean, like, like what would you like, what's your proudest moment of what you've done so far with our construction team?

I think my proudest moment are our, our, it's bifurcated into mini, because my proudest moment is when I get a loan officer that's never done a construction loan to close a construction loan. And they go that was amazing. That wasn't difficult. And I said, yeah, all you have to do is take a good loan app, which is tough for most of them. You and I know that.

Hunter: Yeah. For sure. What, what, like give us an idea of the size of the construction group. Like what are we funding annually in construction loans?

Well, so we'll fund, our goal in 2026 is to fund $750 million, three quarters of a billion. We're the largest privately held IMB construction division in the entire country by far. Yeah. By far. And we do end to end from application all the way to modification and servicing. We don't sell a single loan. So we, we've developed really a, a true end to end, probably the very best builder and borrower experience that they've ever been able to experience. And at the end of the day, the post-closing experience for construction is everything. Because if that builder's experience is not good, it doesn't matter how well we took care of the borrower, that builder is the one that gives us more business, so we got to take care of that builder.

Hunter: What … I'm going completely off script.

Shan: You're good.

What percentage of our like … if I'm thinking of loan officers watching this that have never done a construction loan. Literally, it's an application? I mean, it's literally like a 1003? Walk us through it really quick.

Shan: Yeah. So, probably the biggest misconception and one of like one of my very best videos on the construction pages is it is not difficult, the misconception of thinking it's difficult to do a construction loan is crazy. If you can take a good loan out …

Hunter: I'm embarrassed to say I don't do them, right? I mean, it's like …

Shan: We've done we've done 2 or 3 with you. Yeah, you've had it over, you've had it over a good loan app.

Hunter: Yeah. Okay. There you go. Okay.

So from the loan app, the only difference with the construction loan is how do I get to that purchase price or that total cost to build? It's not just a rep C. It's not just a contract. You've got to work with the builder and then maybe a land contract if they're buying land. And then you've got to get all of the cost to construct and then your soft costs. And we have a phenomenal program that does all that for you. You literally just have to enter in numbers, and we have an algorithmic calculator that does it all for you.

So once you now have the total cost to build, the purchase price, it's just like any other process. Only difference with the builder is the builder makes an application for acceptance as well. We make sure that we're working with, with the builders that we want to work with, and we have over 2,000 builders across the country. By far the largest builder network in the country by, by a thousand.

Hunter: Okay. How many people are, like how many of it's spec versus builder business.

So we do all builder business and all pre-sold. We don't do any spec financing. That's one of the awesome things we're rolling out. You know at Sales Rally is that we're starting a CrossCountry Commercial, where we're actually going to be able to offer that, which we're super excited about.

But our product and program, we don't do spec, we do investment. So you can build a home to rent, you can build a second home, and you can build a primary residence with every product. As you know, our suite of products is like no other.

I'm going selfish on here because I truly don't understand. So like when when you are doing a construction loan, literally someone shows up, they find a lot. They say, I want to build a house on this lot. What happens?

Shan: Where do we go then?

Hunter: Yeah, like literally, like if you, if you had to give two minutes on here's the process.

Well, the good thing about that is if you go to our construction landing, we actually have a true loan guide or a loan kind of a journey process. So the where the confusion for most of them gets is, I really like this a lot. What do I do now? I don't know what to do. And we have a full list of builders that we can send that list to builders. We don't recommend builders, we just provide the builders that are accepted. But most of the time when they're doing that, they've already interviewed probably a builder. And they kind of know what they're looking for.

So as they get the lot, whether it's a third party or the builder selling a lot, either way, it doesn't matter. We'll do both. Once the builder and the borrower get together and they put that lot together, and so they have what's called the site planner. This is where the house is going to sit. It fits on your lot. Here's your budget. Now we go ahead and close the loan. And when we close the loan, we buy the lot. That's the purchase. And then the rest of the money is set aside in a, in a builder, it's like a, think about it like a line of credit, okay? And the builder and the borrower take progress draws as the house is completed. Once the house is complete, we then modify that transaction. They move in and they start making the mortgage payment.

Hunter: Wow.

Shan: It's amazing.

It's good to know. You're in terrible shape, right? You don't, you know, you don't work out. You don't, you know, you look like crap. How do you, like, $750 million a year in production and construction, how do you manage the personal?

Well, I'll tell you, the the best thing about my life is I've, I've truly been blessed. God's blessed me with the ability to give back. And that's why I get to work is because I get to give back. And when you have that kind of purpose, that purpose wakes me up. You know, I thank God every morning and and literally that's why is it's my purpose. But then I get to work with my son, who took who took over my origination practice 15 years ago, and I get to work with over 4,000 originators across the country that all want to learn. Or maybe they have a construction loan or whatever that may be. And, and with that purpose, literally, it's what drives me.

But I get up at 4:30 every morning. My spiritual time is till five, and then I have a two-hour workout, workout every day, six days a week. And then my wife and I walk between 3 and 5 miles every morning together. No phones. That's our time. And then my day starts at 7:30, and I crank till about 6:00–6:30, 7:00 sometimes.

Hunter: Do you talk when you walk?

Shan: We, we talk, we argue, we, we hug.

Hunter: Is that where you hash everything out?

Shan: We hash everything out. Yeah, we hash everything out.

Hunter: Is it ever just, is it ever like uncomfortable silence?

Oh, there's lots and lots of walks where we, I walk on one side of the road. She walks on the other. But by the end of the walk, but by the end of the walk or run, we do a run or walk. Literally at the end of that, our purpose is met again and we now know why we're here. So it's a, it's a, it's a blessing.

Hunter: What were you training for?

Shan: Gymnastics.

Hunter: Okay.

Yeah, yeah. And then from that point, I went into play, I played some professional baseball and basketball over in the South Pacific Games with lots of friends of mine, over in the Pacific. And then I started doing Ironmans, Ironman triathlons. And about just under three years ago, we set a world record, actually, 174 world records. We did 100 full distance Ironmans in 100 days.

Hunter: Wow.

And James Lawrence, the Iron Cowboy, we sponsor him and he made me commit to doing 50, and I'm 60 years old, so I'm like, okay, 50. Yeah, I could die. That's a great way to die. So by doing that and by committing to him and again, finding that purpose, we talked about, you know, physical, emotional, spiritual relationship strength. When you are there, I was able to do 60 in 100 days. So

Hunter: 60 Ironmans?

Shan: Yeah.

Hunter: That's insane.

Shan: Yeah. It's definitely insane.

Hunter: Yeah. Wow. That's incredible. If Brock was, I wish we could have done, like, a joint interview with you and Brock, and I could just pepper him with questions. What, what are three words he would use to describe you?

Shan: Disciplined. Motivated. And family.

Hunter: I love that.

Shan: Yeah. Family is my, our whole life is wrapped around our family. We're very blessed.

Hunter: How long have you been at CCM?

Shan: Six years.

Hunter: And are you glad?

I don't know that I could, I don't know that I would use glad. What I would use literally is I'm truly blessed because Ron and I have that same vision. And when Ron and I got together and let's, let's build the best construction team in the entire country. He got out of my way and let me just, just do what I do really well, and it's something that I have a lot of passion for. So I would have to say that, yeah, it's, I'm truly blessed.

Hunter: If you had a if you had one word to describe Ron, what would it be?

So I have a I have an acronym for Ron because Ron is he's literally a mortgage savant. He does things, he does things that a lot of people just don't, don't, don't, they have no idea where his vision is. And I've been very blessed with that way in construction. But the way I, I describe him is he's the Elon Musk of mortgage. He literally looks outside of the box and does exactly what you what ends up being what you should have done. And I mean, it's kind of the Warren Buffett, when people run, he turns around and runs in the fire. And I just love that about him. And he's passionate. You know, at the end of the day, this is his life. And it's very rare for you to have that kind of an owner that that understands the street, understand the commitment and just has as much passion or more passion than anyone else.

Yeah, I agree, by the way. If you had, again, I think of a couple thousand loan officers watching this like, what's the biggest misconception on construction that you have to overcome and how do you overcome it?

I think the biggest misconception is what we kind of started the interview and the podcast on is it is not difficult to do a construction loan. A lot of times you think it and you're looking at going, I mean, this is this is now going to be, you know, calculus. It's there's no difference. When you start with a good loan app, you make sure that your borrower qualifies for the maximum amount they qualify for.

It's like any other loan. And I think the misconception with that is that they don't really understand or appreciate the, the advanced set of digital skills and process that we've set at CrossCountry that nobody's even close to. They, they want to help, but they want to get out of the way. And at the end of the day, I'm like, guys, just send that loan application and we will concierge VIP your client and builder through the entire process and make you look like a superstar.

So there's me, who apparently has sent you 2 or 3 loans, which I was not aware of, so I'm a little embarrassed about that.

Shan: They we're good, too.

Hunter: But someone out like, if all of a sudden I said, you know what? I want to allocate 50% of my time and energy to construction. One, would you recommend it? Two, how would you go about it?

So I would absolutely recommend it, especially in the demographics across the country that are extremely short on housing. You have the ability with a little bit of training to do something that 99% of originators don't have, and that's you get to control the process from end to end. You have the ability to actually be in front of that builder, letting that builder know that we're going to handle everything start to finish, and that that borrower knows they're going to be a CrossCountry Mortgage client for life. That's our goal.

And once, once you understand and realize that, it's amazing when that light comes on and they realize that that that product that that course of business, most builders don't move because they don't know, first of all, where to go and they don't want change. Once the builder recognizes the advancements that we do, it's a game changer. And the builders can say, wow.

Give me the example.

Shan: I'll give you a great example. We've got a builder that is used to doing just builder lines of credit, pre-sold construction transactions, and we closed the end loan for mortgage like we do thousands of times. The risk associated with that for the builder, as we all know over the last two years, is we're babysitting that borrower from commitment to now I've got to requalify you when the house is complete. And we all know that, that during that time, there's a plethora of reasons that that builder or that borrower may do something. Cosigned for my uncle. Decided to buy a new car. Changed my job. And now they don't qualify for what you actually committed for eight months ago.

Hunter

And you say we all. I'm like, no, I didn't realize that like that. And now that I'm thinking through it, yeah.

It is, it is unbelievable. And when you point that out to a builder and say, how about if we teach you how to actually utilize your skill set and maximize the ability for you to actually double your business without doubling your, your exposure? And what that means is you still can do your builder pre-sale, but let's now advance into your process the one-time close product.

So now what happens is when the borrower closes and funds, you get your lot money first, not last on a builder line. That's the last draw you get is your lot money. So you're held captive to that money. We're giving you the money for the land purchase upfront, and then you're using the borrower's funds to build the home, which, by the way, is already closed and funded as if the house were built.

So you don't have to worry about what the borrower is going to do because they don't have to requalify one year or less, start to finish, the borrower doesn't requalify, and then the best thing, one of the one of the probably the biggest advantage that we have that so many companies out there just can't get their head wrapped around, is let's say we lock the loan today under and today we lock the loan at 6.75, 30-year fixed, a conventional 12-month loan. Now we're 10 or 11 months down the road, and that borrower's ready to take their final draw and move into their home. Market's improved, and let's just say the market improved from six and three quarters to five and three quarters. On that same product and program, we float that borrower down for free, modify their their their transaction at the lower interest rate. It recasts their loan. And it's literally a game changer. And then we just step right in with all of the things that we do. You got your refinance coming right after the six months and 210 days, if it's conventional or if it's FHA or VA, and then 91 days if it's conventional. And if rates drop again, we're here. We're here to provide you another refinance and keep you as a client for life.

Hunter: Wow, I didn't, I didn't realize that.

Shan: It's amazing.

So, if we're talking about what's on the I think you already covered it, by the way, what's on the horizon for CCM construction?

What's on the horizon for CCM construction is, first of all, that continued growth that we keep growing this year is 66%. We've grown 66% year over year. And most, most divisions. And most companies out there have didn't grow at all. Maybe at the end of this fourth quarter, please, rates come down and we’ll get even. And then in introducing our builder product with the new, with our new, commercial line, our, our it's going to be amazing. I'm super excited. I don't want to go into too much on that. And then our jumbo product, our two Douglas jumbo product, that I've been working on for over two years, as you know, Ron and I and the team leader, Steven, we've put together a truly amazing array of products that will that will enhance what that looks like.

But at the end of the day, the big difference, in my opinion, is with Bill Pulte at the FHFA and him really pushing for that larger loan amount, especially on FHA, to be able to match conventional. And if we do see that upwards of $1 million, which we've already seen many of those, MSA areas that are a million, 200. That's a game changer. When you can do an FHA transaction at 8 or $900,000 with 3.5% down and never have to requalify. That right there, it's truly a game changer. And because we service the debt and the the amazing relationship we have with all the agencies that everyone else is literally light years behind what we've already accomplished. They’re like we need to get it in this business. Well, it's not that easy. Too late. Again, like Ron always is saying that you're my rearview mirror.

Yeah. Shan, I love talking to you. Your, your energy, your, I mean, positivity, everything that you're doing for the construction team, I don't think I've ever heard a bad thing about you, you know? So the company appreciates you. I appreciate you.

Shan: I appreciate that.

Hunter: So, thanks for doing this with us today.

Shan: Appreciate you. Thanks, brother.