Chris Lee - Combat Veteran Purple Heart | Loan Officer | CrossFit Coach

Opening Quote: "...If you're not willing to change and you're not willing to grow, you're just going to die and you're just going to like you can probably live comfortably, you know, doing the same thing over and over again, like those dinosaurs that are still doing from there who are if once from their database or whatever have you. But if you're not willing to, you know, tell your story, bring in, you know, actual inquiries and bring in people that are going to pull you up and then literally talk about things that no one wants to talk about or answer questions on a regular basis. You know, just being out there, being a good person."                                                                   - Chris Lee

Guest BIO:

"Mortgage Lending Expert, Former Military Officer, specializing in the VA Home Loan Benefit, providing homes to our nation’s greatest asset, the US Military Veteran. Over 13 Years of honorable military experience as a United States Army Officer (Captain / Ranger / OEF & OIR Veteran) with proven expertise in project management, operations management, leadership/team development, policy development, and budget planning."

Guest Social Links:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mylenderchris/
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/chris.lee
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-lee-942202149/

FOLLOW THE HOST:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thechrismedellin/reels/?hl=en
Website: https://chrismedellinofficial.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismedellin/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa3OeVpb3rtAAcPEfZ4RFTA?view_as=subscriber

This podcast has been edited and produced by Content by Fabio LLC

Transcript

Chris Medellin -
Welcome to The Breakthrough with Chris Medellin. And I am here with a very special guest, my man, Chris Lee. Chris, welcome to the show, man.

Chris Lee -
Fantastic to be here, Chris. Awesome.

Chris Medellin -
Well, I got to introduce this guy. So let me first talk to you a little bit about breakthrough and why we did a rebrand on the podcast. It's because through my journeys in meeting extraordinary people like you, Chris, I've had the opportunity to hear the journey that you've gone through in order to break through to the next level of your career.

Chris Medellin -
And, you know, there are all these breakthrough moments that we go through in life. And a lot of times just before that breakthrough moment, there's something that happens. Either you're pissed off, you're tired, or you're stuck. There's something dark that's happening right before someone breaks through. And it's a mental shift that happens that happens to us in order for us to get across that next level and those breakthrough moments need to be told.

Chris Medellin -
And so, Chris, I have to introduce you. You and I were meeting a couple of days ago at a happy hour. And let me before I go into, you know, who you are professionally, I want to talk real quickly, your husband, your father, you're an Army vet. You're a badass together, a Purple Heart. CrossFit level two coach.

Chris Medellin -
I mean, I don't know what it is. You don't do but one. But what you did is you transitioned in the last year into an educator, and you are helping veterans build wealth through real estate and through investing in real estate. And this is remarkable because you entered the market when everybody was running out of the market, which is insane.

Chris Medellin -
But you closed over $20 million in volume your first year and you helped about 15 veterans get into homes. And that's extraordinary. And as you were telling me, that didn't stop there. You helped these guys do something with their lives and with their veteran benefit that they might not have otherwise been able to do. And so when I heard your story and I was walking into this new branch, I saw this amazing space and I was like, we got to figure out how to do a podcast right now.

Chris Medellin -
And you were cool enough to just be like, Let's go, man. So thank you for being here today.

Chris Lee -
I appreciate you. Thank you so much. That's a great intro.

Chris Medellin -
Well, so. Okay, so we are in lovely Honolulu, Hawaii, and the weather is amazing. This branch is amazing. And so, Chris, let's start off from the beginning. How did you end up one? Let's start with you getting into the military. What got you to the military, to begin with?

Chris Lee -
Oh, that's a really long story, Chris, but I'll try to abbreviate it like the wave tops. Right. My father served in the Army. There's a great amount of discipline and respect I have for my father. He was always involved in my life. He's a very silent, kind of person. And then there's this absolutely amazing amount of respect I have for him and the discipline he built in me with all my extracurricular stuff like that.

Chris Lee -
So an amazing human being, an amazing man, my mother, and absolute, unconditional support for our family as well. I always knew that he served. And you know, I had goals and aspirations for other things when I was growing up as a kid. But 12 years old. September 11th, 2001. Watch Those two planes hit the World Trade Center. And immediately I knew why.

Chris Lee -
You know, being 12 years old, you know, you're like, you don't have that much hate in your heart. But like, you kind of realized that there need to be people that need to protect those that can't freedoms protect themselves. And so it was weird because, like, I lived in Georgia, right? Very, you know, God-fearing, potent place of honor.

Chris Lee -
And your name is sometimes the only thing that you have and a very wonderful place to grow up. A very wonderful place to make some of your best friends. Watch some of my history teachers, some of my friends, fathers, uncles, and aunts immediately mobilize and deploy to Iraq, to Afghanistan, and watch them fight a war while we're living this great American dream.

Chris Lee -
My parents are the product of the American dream. Blue-collar people own dry cleaners my whole entire life. I know the value of hard work, and I understand the value of sweat equity. I think very early on in my life I knew I wanted to jump out of airplanes, kill bad people, and then and like, protect those that need to be protected in whatever way I could.

Chris Lee -
And I know that's a very like, aggressive way to say it, But like, you know, I just wanted to be a ranger. I wanted to do the most for my country. And I felt like that was the most for my country. Fast forward enlisted in the Army Airborne School, and Ranger School, a couple of deployments, Fast forward. The Army saw fit that I become an officer in the Army branch infantry.

Chris Lee -
Got to lead men in combat. Absolutely wonderful opportunities in my life. Got to deploy for combat operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. I got to live all over the world in Washington, Georgia, California, and Germany. And now here in this beautiful state of Hawaii. I've been injured in combat. And it's one of those things where they were ready to do medical retirement right there in Landstuhl, Germany after I was recovering.

Chris Lee -
And all I want to do is get back in the fight. So I know the value of never quitting. I know the value of trying to get back in. I had literally thought that the military was going to be my career. I was going to continue to serve forever or until they told me no. I met the love of my life here in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Chris Lee -
A fun little application on your phone if you've ever heard of that Tinder.

Chris Medellin -
I missed that whole generation of the Tinder generation and I missed it.

Chris Lee -
It was pretty cool. Now we owe them a really nice letter.

Chris Medellin -
But so Tinder does work.

Chris Lee -
Oh, Tinder 1,000% works, so it's great. I was also very upfront. If you couldn't tell from the way I talk and the way I am like I let you know what I, want, and need. And I very, very seldom hold anything back and I just fell in love. This woman, her name's Olivia. She's the mother of my wonderful son.

Chris Lee -
But I knew I was going to marry this woman the second day. Like, really kind of. Really the first date, but like, that second date. And. But she was going to be there to support me. That's for 2017, April 29th, 2017. My best friend in the whole wide world died serving for the 82nd Airborne as a paratrooper, leading men in combat, stepping on an IED, and fighting a war that didn't belong to him his name is Weston.

Chris Lee -
My son is named after him. My wife's idea. I love it. That's it's hard to like to live up to that. And this kid is just absolutely doing it in stride. Wasn't passed away. And when was One more thing that I share all the time is obviously you take advantage of the time that you have with your friends and family and you never know when the last time you going to speak to someone is literally you never know when the last time I'm going to speak to someone is and I had so much guilt in my heart because of this moment when the last thing that I ever told them was, Don't worry, brother. You know, we've all fought. It's okay. You know, I know you're working hard, but it's not like, you know, you're in that much trouble. I appreciate what you do. Come back home real, real soon. And I told them I was like, one of the last things I wanted to do was like, Hey, I'm thinking about getting out.

Chris Lee -
The army met the love of my life. I think we want to start a gym or something, you know, maybe across the gym or do something cool. He's four years younger than me. He's following in my footsteps. And then he had a real talk Mom, with me and said, Chris, as the most selfish thing I've ever heard. You ever say.

Chris Lee -
And it hurts because I told my son I was like, Dude, you have no idea. I've done my time, I've done what I needed to do. It's my time to get out. And he goes, He told me that I owed it to those men. I owed it to the people in this country. Don't squander that leadership. Don't squander that potential.

Chris Lee -
This is coming from a 24-year-old young man. At the time, I was 28 and I was like, Whatever, man. Yeah, fast forward a week or two and he passed away. We're able to respect them, honor them, and memorialize them. He's buried in Arlington, next to Heroes and I try to live my life with that high expectation that he set for me.

Chris Lee -
I changed my whole entire life. After that, I said, I'm going to go be a commander. I'm going to do everything the Army asked for me until they say no successfully led to company commands up in Schofield Barracks. Got to do a whole bunch of cool stuff, like bilateral training exercises with some of our partner forces, the turning, the aggression of the Chinese government and Russian government, and absolutely fantastic ways to lead men, preparing them for combat.

Chris Lee -
And I loved every second of it. And then 2020, this pandemic happens and I've been running, I've been sprinting, being a leader for the first time in my life. I've had time to, like, spend time with my family. I had a newborn son, and for the first time in like 90 days of just uninterrupted, no one bothered me.

Chris Lee -
Everything was virtual. Everything was on Microsoft Teams. Zoom and I got to truly value growing my family for the first time and like that moment I realized they knew I no longer needed the army, and the army definitely no longer needed me. But my family needs me every day and I need my family every day. And that was one of the greatest breakthroughs and aha moments I've ever had in my whole entire life.

Chris Lee -
And that was the longest like the intro of, like, military-type stuff. I could, you know, I can condense it down to, you.

Chris Medellin -
Know, I have to ask like 15 questions, get that all out. Yeah, but you, you had a cadence, and in the way that you told that story I think that's exactly what this, this show is about. It's about, you know, giving the listener an opportunity to understand how you got there. Right. And really understand the psychology of a breakthrough. And you being 90 days, you know, like when you think about all the death, all the bad things that happened during the pandemic, and it's hard to look at all the bright side that came out of the pandemic, you know, and you had a breakthrough moment that wasn't a career like it wasn't it was you know when I think about breakthrough, this is the most interesting thing about you.

Chris Medellin -
When I think about a breakthrough, I think about people who are stuck, and who get unstuck. And then they skyrocket their career right. And you may or may not agree with this outsider looking in, but what happened is that breakthrough moment came with you committing to your family in a different way. But through that, then you went on a journey to transfer, you know, into a different career altogether.

Chris Medellin -
And this is a guy who was thinking, I'm going to, you know, go be a CrossFit gym owner. And now you're helping vets in a way that I mean, there's a lot of really great lenders out there, don't get me wrong. And many of them work in this office. But when you approach a VET, you have a different mindset and a different way to connect with them than just your average loan officer who's doing a VA loan.

Chris Medellin -
Yeah, So I love this breakthrough moment, and thank you. Thank you for taking that. And by the way, guys, I don't know if I said this. We started filming and we started going through this and we had to read three starts. So, Chris Lee, you can find him on Instagram under my lender. Chris So please follow him and you will see his gorgeous mustache, but he has amazing content as well.

Chris Medellin -
But let's get back into it. So you, you go I mean, well, first off, I got to go back because you there's so much I want to talk about and I want to jump into this transformation into being a lender. But before I get there, to the extent that you're comfortable with it, I want to talk about you said you were injured. You almost quit. What happened?

Chris Lee -
In 2013, So originally got injured in 2012, and an IED blew up my vehicle. I was all fine. I was like 100% fine. But you obviously I.

Chris Medellin -
Got to ask questions. Where are you?

Chris Lee -
Afghanistan.

Chris Medellin -
So you're in Afghanistan. Talk to me about that day. Okay. I want to go through it. I mean, you know, obviously, what month is this?

Chris Lee -
So this was early like March or early March.

Chris Medellin -
What's the weather like?

Chris Lee -
It's freezing. We're in the mountains, like right above, and in something called the Tengue Valley. And then it's just a really shitty place. But this wasn't even the story of like when I really got injured, like I got hurt, got cut up a little bit and like, you know, stuff flying around in the vehicle and I was fine.

Chris Lee -
So but I had a concussion, which is like, you know, they kind of red flag you Fast forward, you know, this is September now.

Chris Medellin -
So March now you go to September.

Chris Lee -
Yeah, we were fighting all year round. So right around March timeframe, you know, every day our mission was to deter enemy forces away from this main highway, Highway One, and essentially kind of went straight through Afghanistan, connecting Pakistan with India. And, you know, the main supply route, a lot of vehicles there, pretty much, you know, these victims of opportunity, these targets of opportunity for Taliban to, you know, insert their aggression, insert their influence in a negative way.

Chris Lee -
And so our job was to deter that also was to deter indirect fire, which is like mortars, rockets, things of that nature coming into like the main towns and cities that were around how we want. If I was a platoon leader at the time in charge of 34 men, some of the greatest Americans that ever want deserve, we fought almost every day close engagements like very near. And then a couple of my guys got injured and then I had some friends pass away from the fighting. And it's hard because you just get up the next day and you just keep fighting. So it's difficult, but that's what war is. So you just keep fighting and then, you know, it's like we always like look back on it and always like wonders, like, man, if we're there one more month, if we're there one more day, like, it was like, I don't think we would have been as lucky as we were.

Chris Lee -
Fast forward to September. We had just finished this ten-day-long patrol. It's essentially moving from one end of the town to the opposite end of town, clearing these suspected sites where there's been enemy activity. We found caches of weapons systems. We found, you know, sensitive information. We found all this good stuff, thought some killed bad guys, kill bad people, and then continue moving forward. And then we're like literally about to leave like last day of the mission. We're waiting for, like, coordinates for our helicopter. Come pick us up. Very large Chinook. As we're going up, it's in the dark. We have night vision goggles to help us move because we make large movements during the night. We fight at night. We were involved in a very complex, very violent, very concentrated ambush where there was an absolute ton of RPGs or rocket-propelled grenades, and heavy machine gun fire.

Chris Lee -
And then it was very damning like a lot of us got injured. I was kneeling, kneeling next to a building, and in my general vicinity, an RPG had hit and exploded near my head. I was knocked out unconscious and then very quickly medically evacuated to the nearest facility to help me with the concussion and also the damning effects from the RPG for the next couple of weeks recovered there in Kandahar, Kandahar Air Force Base, CAF. And then from there, I was transition and transferred up to Landstuhl, Germany, which is one of the best medical facilities in the world. For two months, about a month and a half, I recovered there and then finally transitioned over to Walter Reed Hospital and then back to my unit after about four months of recovery.

Chris Medellin -
Back to your unit where?

Chris Lee -
Back in Fort Stewart, Georgia.

Chris Medellin -
Okay, so you're back.

Chris Lee -
I actually like my entire company and my entire battalion. Had they all redeployed before even got before I got back, like like they knew I was they came to visit me? I had friends and family come visit me in the hospital. And it was good. It was a very beautiful hero's welcome for sure. And I just love the fact that, like the whole time I was recovering, they wanted to like medically retire me. And I was like, absolutely not. I was like, I know, like prove over and over. And then I had competency. It was really bad back then. And then, like the traumatic brain injuries, TBI, that you get from close proximity, concussive explosions, it's very serious.

Chris Lee -
And I had to in a very short amount of time span, that's like six months in between. You know, it's like a punch-drunk boxer, you know, fighting within six months of each other.

Chris Lee -
Parkinson's, you know, it's like. So it was kind of scary. I knew I was fine. But the simple fact that, like, I had to, like, really prove myself and really be on my P's and Q's about like, hey, I'm going to trust the recovery process. I'm going to give my brain time to heal and give my body time to heal. And then, you know, it was good. It was like it was a weird time period, too, because like literally two years prior, like in 2011, 2010, like, like, and not to I never were going to talk shit about the Army, but like, they didn't really take care of their veterans and their war vets. Back then, no one knew was like a really heavy fighting season and stuff.

Chris Lee -
And then it was like, okay, like a lot of our guys are going to kill themselves, other guys or have these, like undeniable like to debilitating diseases because of how close they have been to explosions and have really messed up their internal organs like everything. And then so I was like one of those things. Like I always thought I was too tough for that. And then I am not I am definitely vulnerable and I want people to know that you can be vulnerable, that you can ask for help, that you can't, you are not made of steel, and that you shouldn't be coat and the on like you should accept and receive information like a sponge and receive help like a sponge.

Chris Medellin -
That's amazing. Chris. When your explosive went off next to your head did and you immediately were out. Right? You're passed out, you get medically evacuated. What was it? What timing of that? Because it's like you're in the middle of an ambush. I mean, you're out. Do you know how long you were out before you wake-up and you come to your senses?

Chris Lee -
Oh, I woke up. I mean, I woke immediately and I was just. Okay, well, we got to fight, so we fought.

Chris Medellin -
So you kept fighting after this?

Chris Lee -
Oh, yeah.

Chris Medellin -
Okay, so you missed this. This is important.

Chris Medellin -
You and. And how did you guys get out of this ambush?

Chris Lee -
Oh, so we had to kill them. Yeah. And then we found out very quickly that, you know, once you run out of ammo was like, it's. It's pretty easy to win. And then so it all hunkered down for a while, fight back. And then we finally got the support we needed from our higher headquarters with close combat aviation support and things like that. And then we were able to get extracted out.

Chris Medellin -
How long did that take from the moment to the injury to you're on a helicopter?

Chris Lee -
Probably a couple of hours.

Chris Medellin -
A couple of hours, yeah. And are you feeling it Just adrenaline pumping through your veins? Is this like you don't even realize that you're in pain? At this point.

Chris Lee -
I was like, I'm fine. I was like, Oh, I thought it fell down. Like, I was like, Oh, I didn't realize the explosion did anything. Wow. And then, you know, you're bleeding and like, you know, you're kind of like, okay, I'm not, but I'm not like, losing like a much, like, huge amounts of blood or anything. Yeah. So he was like, I'm fine.

Chris Lee -
I'm 100% fine. And then Doc checks you out, does the exams, and then I don't want to really mention this that much, but like, because I, I really don't want what happened to, like, be a reason for feeling like second guess my opinions but like I had post-concussive seizures right afterwards and like there were tiny, almost like epileptic right And then like the smallest triggers of just like hyperfocus and hypersensitivity to things.

Chris Lee -
And it was like a couple of hours later, like I was on the floor and like a person has a seizure and we're all back.

Chris Medellin -
Do you think this is all after the adrenaline wore out?

Chris Lee -
1,000%!

Chris Medellin -
Yes. And now your body's like telling you it's time.

Chris Lee -
It wasn't crazy if you had like, a heart monitor on or something like that or some type of vital signals, you know, that's crazy back then. But like, I can only imagine, like, how fast my heart was racing. Like. Like what the fight or flight response was doing to my body that just kept me focused.

Chris Medellin -
And even through all that, you stayed in the Army for how much longer?

Chris Lee -
Eight more years.

Chris Medellin -
Eight more years. You are a hero, my friend. I appreciate you. Thank you for your service. And you know, you come out, right? You decide that, you know, you go through this, this, this, this breakthrough moment where you say, okay, you know, it's time for me to transition out of the military and for anybody who knows anybody in the military, that's probably one of the hardest and scariest things that people do is transition into civilian life and, you know, tell me about that moment, because I'm pretty sure you had a number of ideas.

Chris Medellin -
And then here you are, you know, figured out a way to make purpose of your life and be able to build wealth for yourself as well and serve, you know, the community and the military community the best way you know, how. So let's talk about that a little bit.

Chris Lee -
Love to actually, you're 100% correct, Chris. It is scary transitioning out. And as unnerving, especially like because you don't know what's on the other side, you don't really know. The last job I had before the Army was working, at my parents dry cleaners.

Chris Medellin -
So you were, you, you went, you almost went from like, just extreme entrepreneur type of hustle, right? And grind because that is a grind to do what you were doing with your parents and then to go into the military, which is a whole different, completely different mindset. Now you're out and it's like, what do you do? Like, what can you do for Yeah, like it's great?

Chris Medellin -
It's all I mean, and this is probably a really bad analogy, but the only best way I could say it is like somebody who gets out of the ghetto jail, who's been in prison for a long time and has to like a transition into a normal life. It's like you're you have all this optimism. Oh, yeah, but is the world going to accept you?

Chris Medellin -
You know, the way that they should. Right. And can you are you going to be okay with it? So tell me about this is so interesting.

Chris Lee -
It's funny that you say like you and analogize it with jail because we make fun of it all the time, like, you know, serving our sentence, you know, a three-year, four-year commitment or whatever, obviously extended mind to 14. But it's one of those things like, yeah, yeah, people do become that kind of institutionalized. Like if I know a lot of people that didn't have the army, they would have nothing else.

Chris Lee -
That includes family. They include a social life, which includes a personality. Yeah, people are one-dimensional that way. So I'm glad that they had the army at least. But I was I know that's not the same story for most people. My leadership was 100% supportive of me. My commanders loved the fact that I had a plan.

Chris Lee -
My commanders knew my potential. They did not worry about what I was going to do on the other side because they knew that I was resilient, resourceful, and ingenious in the fact that I'd find something to do and be good at it and get paid for it.

Chris Medellin -
Sorry to interrupt you. But is it normal that your commanders would be nervous about somebody transitioning out and say, Hey, I don't know that this is the best time for you? Like there's there's a discussion about this.

Chris Lee -
There's typically a selfishness, right? That's like you don't want to lose your best leaders. You don't want to you don't want that talent to go away. But if you're genuine and I had a good reason. I had a family I wanted, you know, I knew what the next three years were going to be. I was going to move three times to really terrible places.

Chris Lee -
No offense to those who were stationed in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Fort Hood, Texas, or Fort Polk, Louisiana. But those places suck. They're not fun to be in living or growing a family. And I wouldn't be growing a family because I'd be working like crazy. I knew what, you know, feel great leadership was going to be, and then it was going to take up.

Chris Lee -
Most of the time, it wasn't a blink in my son's would being five years old. That never have hung out with me because I was, Oh, daddy was always working. So but with that being said, my leadership loved that I have a plan. I also gave back. I didn't have to take that second company command. I didn't have to be that sort of a leader.

Chris Lee -
But I chose to and I knew that the service and the give back, they were going to reciprocate with me having that easier transition. And the most interesting. So it was kind of like a, you know, give a little up-front to get a little on the back end. It didn't take advantage of an amazing program that the Department of Defense does. It's called Skill Bridge. The Army calls it a career skills program because they're difficult and then they like to name things, even though there's this anonymous thing amongst all the other branches called Skill Bridge. It's essentially six months of uninterrupted internship with an organization that as long as you can get it approved through the chain of command and through as long as there are no like competing legalities, you can't go and be a drug dealer for six months. You know, it's got to be an official organization. They're going to teach you something. They're going to get you ready for that transition once you get out. Yeah, I got a full six-month internship working with Jeff Howard, a branch manager, working here at this wonderful company. And then I got to learn a lot through my mentors, like my loan officer, friends, and buddies, and they taught me so much.

Chris Lee -
But I will say like, like that's when the mortgage industry was good, like 2020, 2021.

Chris Medellin -
You're interning during COVID time frames, Just love and life, right? Like looking at it like you guys are all making crazy money, right?

Chris Lee -
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, You guys are making tons of money, right now, and like, you're just doing granted. Yes, it was hard work, but I was like, Yeah, you can work hard. Everyone can always work harder. And I'm just like, Man, you guys are. You guys have a lot of toys. You guys have a lot of free time.

Chris Lee -
And you guys, it's like, okay. And just making stacks, right? And just like, okay, I finally got my license in November of 2021.

Chris Medellin -
Oh, my gosh. And like for those listeners, that's right around the time that the market just starts taking, you know, rates start creeping up, we don't realize it's going to be a slow down as it as it turns out to be. But by that point in November, you probably have another six months of a decent market and then it comes crashing down.

Chris Lee -
I guess you call it decent, but, you know, like, you know, people have established realtors, right? So people have established businesses, partnerships, and things like that. And I'm trying to meet with young guys, young realtors, build them the way I see them, you know, like trying to give them knowledge, inculcate that type of partnership from the ground up, and those that were late to the game getting a real estate license while they're watching their predecessors, their business slows down.

Chris Lee -
So they're not giving stuff away anymore. They're not co-listing anything. They're like, absolutely not. I'm like, okay, they got to they've got to fend for themselves. Now. They've become like this, it got to the point where as like I only know the market like getting progressively worse, and then so what do you do? It's like you outshine the competition with customer service because when the market's good and everyone's fat and happy, they become lazy and it's so easy to identify those lazy ones. And then like, sooner or later your sins will catch up with you. And then that's when the younger, hungrier loan officers out there are going to take your business because this market can be sustained. We are seeing improvements.

Chris Medellin -
We turn the corner. I mean, it's definitely starting to pop again.

Chris Lee -
Oh yeah.

Chris Medellin -
And then but you did all the work right during the hardest year of the industry in the last ten years. This last year was the hardest. And you still help 35 people, 50% of them being vets. What was what attracted you to do this type of work? I mean, what was the opportunity that you saw? And yeah, let's start with that. What was the opportunity? You saw to be a lender after being here six months, you still wanted to come back.

Chris Lee -
So I was in the Army since 2006 and then I hadn't I didn't use or buy a home or use my VA home of benefit until 2015.

Chris Medellin -
Okay.

Chris Lee -
Because all my leaders before that told me to be age basic loans for housing are for rent. You're only going to be here for two or three years. Why the hell would you buy it?

Chris Medellin -
Oh my gosh.

Chris Lee -
Lee, don't waste your time. Like I'm going to give you time. Off to go, house hunt. Find the first apartment that's available and rent it out with your buddies. Roger that, sir. Roger that. Not worse. Of course, you're right, Doug. Find a place on the post where they'll take care of you. Yeah? Yeah. Why? Why would they lie to me?

Chris Lee -
Well, they were just uneducated. They're just uneducated and a little selfish.

Chris Medellin -
Think about wealth. I mean, from 2006, right, that you would have built if you can go back and instead of buying or renting an apartment, are you going to use that housing allowance on an FHA deal that you could rent out the other side if you needed to own a duplex? I mean, what kind of wealth do you think you would have done if you would have done it that way?

Chris Lee -
I'd like to look at it just in the simple fact of the VA guidelines the way they were. Mm-hmm. And I could have owned four different properties in four different locations, had at least two of them paid off by now, Had guys like it all been close to military bases. They're not going anywhere. The names are changed, but they're not going anywhere.

Chris Lee -
And like there's always going to be someone to rent it out because they have to. And back then, you know, like, you know, if you are the party in residence, you know, you still have entitlement over and over again. And then Purple Heart recipients, there's no funding fee. Like there's like there are so many things that were like, hey, buy a house.

Chris Medellin -
But no one knows this.

Chris Lee -
No one knows is no, no one's.

Chris Medellin -
Talking about this, right?

Chris Lee -
Yeah. And no one told me about this. And then it was so neat because obviously, a loan officer taught me how to do like, about the VA loan. Not out of the military, Not not anyone in the army. None of my leaders taught me to buy a house. No. No one told me that I had this benefit. I just assumed I needed $20,000.

Chris Lee -
I needed savings to put down. And I was like, well, I don't have $100,000, so I'm not going to buy a house. So I just assumed that that's what I've always been taught. My dad never uses V.A. alone. He bought a house because he had saved for years, and decades to put a large down payment on a beautiful home that I and my family grew up in.

Chris Lee -
And I was like, okay, that's how that's that's how I know how to buy a house. I didn't know about these 3% down. I didn't know about zero-down VA loans. I didn't know about investment opportunities. I didn't know about deploying residents. I didn't know about rental property management. I didn't know about any of these things. But I didn't want that ignorance to perpetuate itself.

Chris Lee -
So I got my first home in 2015, loved it, still living. It was great. And then when I became a commander, this is that aha moment for myself that maybe I could do lending because I just gave a class in the VA home loan off the cuff and I'm not even a loan officer. I've said, I'm not going to talk about rates, but like I had leaders come in, I had they literally came into my organization and they, you know, sometimes it was just them, their wife or them, their small family or whatever, have you and there wasn't enough housing on post for them to live in, so they had to live off post. I'll be like, okay, yeah. I was like, Oh, what are your plans to live off? So we're going to find the nearest rental. And I was like, Absolutely not. Like, Go, Have you ever bought a home before? Yeah, sir.

Chris Lee -
But, you know, homes like here in Hawaii, they're like $700,000. I was like, Brother, you're making $3,000. VH was like, at that time, I was like, You can afford that mortgage like, you won't do the math. So we do the math together. He's like, I'm not a loan officer, but you got to talk to one. I gave this company a lot of business well before I ever joined the mortgage lending world, and I look back on it, I'm like, I should get a referral fee.

Chris Medellin -
You learn so much that and by the way, like there's an I don't agree with, you know, not paying people, right? So that's not, my thing. But there's a rite of passage that happens for every, you know, loan officer That's a great loan assistant started whether they were an assistant or started off as a processor and in your case, an intern of like all the things you did to get to where you're at.

Chris Medellin -
Yeah, it almost makes you appreciate it more. Oh, yeah. But it also helps you become a better leader because you now can say, I'm not going to do what I did to me, to somebody else, or what happened to me with somebody else. But it's still it's a rite of passage. I mean, in fact, most of the things you learn by mistake in this business are all the times you get burned by not knowing something or not looking at a document or, you know, scrutinizing in the way that you should.

Chris Medellin -
But I do appreciate that rite of passage that you did because it's made you an amazing loan officer.

Chris Lee -
I appreciate that. Chris, and you know, like like I believed I am a tactic expert, Like, I know tactics. I know leadership. I understand that if there's a problem, I can solve it. No matter how complex the problem is, I can solve it. And then I used to inculcate that to my other leaders, my subordinate leaders, and squad leaders, my team leaders, my platoon leaders, my lieutenants, whomever, and the only time I ever get like a thank you letter or like, you know, a phone call back of like, can we thank you so much for your service. And I never got that was like, Captain Lee, guess what? I was like, What? It's like, run that house and ever bitch that you made me by as I didn't make you buy a house, bro because I. But I bought it. And then, like, I'm really happy I lived in it. My family was really happy that we live in it.

Chris Lee -
I was like, That's awesome, man. It's like, Well, yeah, I was for peace. Yes. I was like, preventing the station from moving to another duty station. I was like, That's awesome, brother Like, tell me, tell me more about that. And he goes, I just sold the house for $1.1 million. You did what I just saw. The title company just gave me a check for $400,000 after I paid, you know, my realtor and all this other stuff.

Chris Lee -
I was like, Congratulations, brother. I'm so super proud of you.

Chris Lee -
Well, yeah, he literally said that he's paid off all of his family's generational debt.

Chris Medellin -
Generational debt? Yeah.

Chris Lee -
He's. But he got to build a home from the ground up in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. His hometown, Cash.

Chris Medellin -
This is why you do what you do.

Chris Lee -
And like, he was such a nice guy, right? And then, you know, he gave me this, like, $2. Chris No plug for risk is great. Great, great steak. Great, great, great restaurant. But $200. That's right. Yeah, that's right.

Chris Medellin -
That's right.

Chris Lee -
And then, yeah, he gave me that gift and was like super appreciative and I was just like, That's awesome, brother. It's like, and, you know, it's, you know, it's crazy. Is that like, he doesn't remember who his loan officer was? I was like, You don't remember who your loan officer was? It's like, No, but you're the one that gave me that education.

Chris Lee -
I was like, kinda. It's like, yeah, I was going to run I was going to run an apartment, like, we're going to live in a tiny apartment. And you told me to go buy a house. So I did. I was like, fudge. I was like, That's awesome.

Chris Medellin -
But that's leadership. It's mentorship. And you think about like, you know, you had you've had so many people under your command, you've saved so many lives and you now have an opportunity to change someone's life by giving them the opportunity. So, you know, over the last year, you went on a journey in probably one of the hardest markets as a new person in the business.

Chris Medellin -
Did you find what was a mindset you had to overcome somebody saying, well, you're relatively new, Chris? You know, to the industry, why should I be using you? Like, you know, did anybody ever say that or do you just I mean, you're natural. I mean, nothing about like I literally up until we did this, you might have told me and I probably went over my head because I didn't believe you, that you just got into the business, you know, But you're doing you're helping so many people.

Chris Medellin -
You're doing amazingly well. But one of the things I can read in talking to you is you're never going to do something that you don't understand how to do. So how did you overcome, objections, or did you just have enough confidence to get through it?

Chris Lee -
Honestly, Chris, not to insult our profession is not that hard. It's not that hard. It is not that hard. The rules and regulations like it's they're black and white. There's wiggle room here and they're right. If you have a problem, you can figure it out. There are people above you that can answer questions for you. I've never been afraid to ask.

Chris Lee -
I've never had any humility in terms of like, Oh my gosh, they're gonna think I'm an idiot if I ask this question now. It's like if they don't know the answer, that's like if it's not readily available, it's not a stupid question. It's like, if I can't Google it or, you know, and now ask Melo. I like it's really not that crazy of a question and I have no reservations about making a phone call I no reservations.

Chris Lee -
Interviewing realtors I thought would work for me I had no reservations telling my story and I used to and I know that especially if you're a salesman because that is the root of all word salesmen. I know that if you're not willing to change and you're not willing to grow, you're just going to die and you're just going to like you can probably live comfortably, you know, doing the same thing over and over again, like those dinosaurs that are still doing from there who are if once from their database or whatever have you.

Chris Lee -
But if you're not willing to, you know, tell your story, bring in, you know, actual inquiries and bring in people that are going to pull you up and then literally talk about things that no one wants to talk about or answer questions on a regular basis. You know, just being out there, being a good person. And then I just find it difficult because people think of it as work.

Chris Lee -
If you don't treat it as work, it's like, hey, my intent is to have X amount of veterans this year. My, intent is to help out X amount.

Chris Medellin -
How many Vets do you want to help this year?

Chris Lee -
I want to do 60 transactions this year. And I wanted I want 40 of them to be military. I want them to be.

Chris Medellin -
But you don't stop with just that. And I'm sorry. We're I bounce around a little bit, but like, you don't stop. We're just helping a veteran with just getting them the mortgage. I've you've gone further on that. Talk a little bit about some of the things that you've done to help, you know, your brothers and sisters with you know, that transition and buying a home and helping them use benefits that they may not have known they had.

Chris Lee -
Oh, yeah. Especially those that are serving active duty, serving, you know, like a lot of them, this is like their second or third duty station. And it's crazy because they're just like me. The first time they bought a home was here in Hawaii. So I was like, Oh my gosh, you have a great opportunity. Well, if you didn't know this, you probably don't know about the other things that you have available to you.

Chris Lee -
Do you know that you can get a grant that will help pay for your spouse to go to college while you're still serving? Did you know that you could sign up for online classes for free and get a bachelor's degree? Did you know that? Hey, if you've served X amount of years, six years, and you know you're going to serve another four years, you can take your post-9-11 GI benefits, GI Bill benefits, which are free college tuition and board, room, and board and give that to your child or give that to your spouse.

Chris Lee -
And I can show you how for my guys that were transitioning at the same time, this is great because I have two great borrowers that were transitioning out of the army. Both of them were in the Army, transitioning out of the Army. And I was like, Oh, that's awesome, brother. It's like, have you, you know, gone and done a VA claim yet?

Chris Lee -
Department of Veterans Affairs claims for, you know, compensation, pension, and stuff like that. Oh, nothing's wrong, sir. I was like, well, have you ever been deployed before? You ever carried a heavy rock He ever had, You know, weapons go near your face. We, by the way, shoot almost on a weekly basis. So yeah, I was like, we're going to go get your ears checked.

Chris Lee -
We'll get, you know, go do these exams. If you get a disability rating, which is 10% or more, which is very common, you can get your funding fee totally waived. And he told me it's like, but we're already starting the loan process. So yeah, put in the claim now before we close and then that claim will retrograde back to its original start date.

Chris Lee -
And I promise you, I'm not promising the VA is promising you because I read in regulation, they'll give you a refund of your funding fee. And like clockwork, it took about two months, but they got a nice check in the mail from the Department of Veterans Affairs for that 2.3% that they originally used as a funding fee for a 600,000 all-at-home.

Chris Lee -
That's a lot of money.

Chris Medellin -
That's a lot of money that gets rolled into the loan many, many times. Right. So it's you know, to get that check, it's like it's here's what's interesting to me because my dad is 100% disabled Vietnam vet I remember this distinctively like right when he was going through the process he had to go through all these, you know, checks he had to go through.

Chris Medellin -
He had to talk to like the psychologists and stuff. And in his mind, he kept thinking he was like playing the VA, you know, like he was like, I'm going to get all you know, I'm going to get dizzy. Like, No, you're not. You deserve this. Yeah, You know, you're not okay. These are things that you need to do.

Chris Medellin -
But he kept, you know, and I think that there is a lot of pride in vets, you know, to say they're vulnerable or to be able to say, you know, I need to go get checked out. You know, I have two brothers who were in the military as well. My dad is constantly pushing him to go get the test done.

Chris Medellin -
And they like push it off and push it off and push it off. And I just think, like what you're doing by, you know, using those benefits to also tie it into how you can continue to build wealth from it is hugely important. But you're also helping them with their health and their mental health.

Chris Lee -
Oh yeah.

Chris Medellin -
Because I don't think I mean, it's not normal for somebody to go through that amount of trauma, you know, and come out walking and talking like normal. I mean, they're there's some, you know, mental things that happen, you know, post-traumatic stress, you know, syndrome. All those things have, you know, impact But the fact that you're helping people is just truly amazing.

Chris Medellin -
So I want to thank you. Um, you know, for those of you that are listening and are in, you know, Hawaii, Chris Lee is a loan officer, a loan consultant at Loandepot. He works where is this location?

Chris Lee -v
So we're in SALT in Arco. It's right on the cacaoo waterfront, one of wonderful places in the heart of Honolulu, probably one of the most rapidly growing little areas within Honolulu.

Chris Medellin -
It's turning into such a cool little area. Like even the place we went to last night. Was this cool You know, connect with Chris on Instagram again? It's my lender, Chris on Instagram. Find him. He has amazing content. Chris This has been an absolute eye-opening experience for me. You know, I love my podcast is really about giving somebody out there an opportunity to break through in a way or get inspired to break through in a way that you did and really, you know, touch the Chris that's out there, you ten years ago and I think you did an amazing job telling your story and you're a very humbled individual.

Chris Medellin -
And I'm very blessed to have this opportunity to talk to you. And I wish that there were more people in the world like you, man, because you are an absolute hero. And I appreciate your service. And it's people like you that allow me to live the life that I do. So thank you very much, my friend.

Chris Lee -
Appreciate it, Chris.

Chris Medellin -
Thank you all, my brother.