Today we’d like to introduce you to Walt Bianchi.
Hi Walt, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have an MBA in Finance and began work as an analyst with Citibank in New York. After a stint in the credit card business in financial control I was sent to Italy where Citi had just purchased a bank. I am fluent in Italian having grown up there so it was a nice career move. I progressed through the ranks until they sold the bank and I joined an Italian company that had just invested in two plants in then Czechoslovakia. I was the Finance Director for that operation.
After 2 years there I was transferred back to the New York area in the business’s operations area which turned out to be not to my liking. Shortly afterwards, I moved to Jacksonville and joined Xomed (now Medtronic) as their International Finance Director. A couple of years later Xomed was sold and I went into the consulting business. One of my clients was Prudential Network Realty (now Berkshire Hathaway) where I was the Chief Financial Officer.
While at Prudential, we opened a mortgage brokerage arm and I became increasingly interested in this. In May of 2005 I got my license and launched myself in business as a Mortgage Loan Officer. I have greatly enjoyed this work as, aside form being financially rewarding, it gave me the opportunity to work with people and guide them through the most important financial decisions of their lives. I still derive a great deal of satisfaction from steering people in the right direction and getting them as good a deal as possible. Many past clients have become friends over the years and I find this enormously gratifying.
I continue to enjoy helping people with their home purchase or refinance decisions and hope to continue to do so for many years.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There some bumps in the road of course. Three times the company I worked for was sold and I had to scramble to find new employment. Needless to say, those were trying times.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I think one of my strong suits is creativity. When confronted with problems I enjoy sinking my teeth into them and finding innovative ways to reach effective and practical solutions. Most prominently this has involved setting up accounting, financial and analytical systems to provide senior management with appropriate metrics with which to measure performance. This has also come in handy in my mortgage career as I was able to quickly develop an Excel based system to calculate monthly payments, closing costs and cash needed at closing, so that clients could get a good idea already on a first phone call.
This was a tremendous competitive advantage vis a vis my peers who had to use more clunky software and who therefore could not as easily engage in the what-if scenarios that I could do instantaneously.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
By far the most important lesson I have learned is to never forget that behind the forms and the numbers are real people, with real dreams, real fears and real goals. For them to confide in me, listen to my advice and to be welcomed into their thought process is an honor and I never lose sight of that fact.
Pricing:
- Interest rates change daily so there isn’t really anything I can add about pricing
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.WaltBianchi.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/walt_bianchi/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walter.bianchi
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waltergbianchi-mortgage/
- Youtube: @WaltsRealEstateChannel
