Location Insurance Mortgage

The golden rule of real estate has always been, "Location
Location Location." Today in Louisiana it's more like, "Location,
Insurance, Mortgage."


When we say "real estate" we're mostly talking about something
more than just a transaction. "A man’s house is his castle," as
the old saying goes, or maybe we should say a person’s house is
their castle. But whatever, the adage speaks to something really
meaningful about the value and significance we place on home
ownership. It defines who we are. And for most people their home
is their single most valuable asset. 


As recently as 2005, nearly 70% of Americans owned their own
home. Today that figure is closer to 60%. And with the rising
costs of homeownership, it is hard for many people to buy a house
– especially their first house.


But there are plenty of people in the business of buying and
selling houses and helping others do the same.  


Trey Willard is a realtor and owner of the W Group, a residential
real estate brokerage firm based in Baton Rouge that Trey founded
in 2020 and has grown in the years since to include more than 50
agents in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Lafayette. Trey is a
native of Baton Rouge who got his start as a professional DJ and
also worked as a server at a chain restaurant, where he honed
valuable skills - like how to read a room and quickly build
reslationships. Trey got into the real estate field in 2010, when
he started out as an assistant to a local Keller Williams agent
and realized he had found his calling. 


Mimi Doucet is a senior loan officer at GMFS Mortgage, a Baton
Rouge-based residential mortgage lender with locations in over 12
states and more than 200 employees.


GMFS was founded in 1999. Today it's the largest residential
brokerage in Louisiana and has helped more than 150 thousand
people buy a home.


Mimi has been a mortgage broker for more than 30 years, getting
her start in the early 1990s and working at several firms before
joining GMFS in the early 2000s. She has been recognized by the
industry as one of the top lenders in the state for the number of
loans she has closed.


Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the
Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo
and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.


See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.