The Great Balancing Act

When approaching mortgage and referral partnerships, Rodriguez says that he considers real estate agents his clients. “My clients are the realtors because my job is not to do a mortgage, my job is to go and get relationships [and] develop those relationships,” he says. “Obviously, with mortgage, you have to have the knowledge; you could have all the knowledge in the world but if you don’t have the relationships, it doesn’t mean anything, and vice versa.”

Viewing agents as clients rather than companions in a transaction has changed the way Rodriguez markets himself to consumers. “I don’t have a one-way preference on how I market.

“I’ll admit I’m not huge on social media but at [my company] they’re marketing-driven, so I have an assistant that does my marketing,” he says. “My approach is personal relationships. I see a lot of people out there with different strategies or coaching, things like that. They like to do cold calls, but I just create relationships with people I’ve been working with for so long and those relationships just refer me to other relationships.”

At this point, Rodriguez admits that he sticks to working with a specific group of real estate agents that he’s been working with for over 15 years. “Saying no [to people] isn’t a bad thing; you don’t want to work with someone who is eating you alive. Why don’t you do business with people you enjoy working with?” Rodriguez says. “All my [real estate agents] I talk to [daily], we share a lot of memories, traveling experiences …we get lunches and we don’t always talk about business. We talk about our goals and how we can be better people.”

Humble Beginnings

Before Rodriguez started at New American Funding, he had a trail of jobs in the mortgage industry dating back to 2007. But before his prowess in mortgage lending, Rodriguez studied electrical engineering in his native Bogota, Colombia. He was in the program for three years before immigrating to Framingham, Mass. at age 21 in 2001. His parents and sister continued living in Colombia while Rodriguez reconnected with high school friends who had also immigrated to the Boston metropolitan area. He worked odd jobs to survive — as a busboy and a server, a mechanic and a car inspector. Eventually, Rodriguez landed a job working for Bank of America as a bank teller.

Around the same time, Rodriguez met his wife, Claudia, and discovered that they both grew up in Bogota about one mile apart. The two decided to move to Tampa and stay with a relative of Claudia’s. “We missed the warm weather and Florida is closer to Colombia in terms of flights,” Rodriguez says. He was able to transfer to a Florida Bank of America branch to keep his job, eventually working his way into personal banking. “By then it was around 2007 and everyone was getting into mortgages. I expressed interest in doing that too, and I had a friend [at Bank of America] who was from Venezuela and he convinced me to transfer into mortgages. I got a call from Chase with an offer to work as a mortgage loan officer. They wanted me because I spoke Spanish and Portuguese. But the same day that I tried to quit Bank of America, they offered me a mortgage loan officer job.”

Rodriguez stayed with Bank of America for three more years. “You have to see the good in the bad,” he says. “It’s bad because the market crashed shortly after, but it was good for me because I learned in a very difficult situation in a difficult economy. I never saw the days when everyone was getting approved.”

After a short six-month stint at Wells Fargo, Rodriguez made the conscious decision to move into smaller companies. “Smaller companies offered more flexibility with getting clients approved,” he reasoned. From there, he went to work for New Penn Financial, FEMBI First Equity Mortgage Bankers, Inc. (FEMBI Mortgage), and Homeowners Financial Group USA.

“I made the decision to leave Homeowners because I realized I was missing out on opportunities out there,” Rodriguez says. “I thought I had everything but there are more programs out there that are better for my clients.”

Diving Head First

With every new job comes challenges, and Rodriguez admits that this year marked the first time he’s had a managerial role with an official title and a team working for him. Rodriguez started the year working for Embrace Home Loans as a producing branch manager based in Tampa, and was given the task of structuring a team. “What I’m tackling first is teaching [my] team new scenarios, new marketing strategies … I don’t want to impose my strategy, because what works for me doesn’t mean that’s the only method, but I just share my experiences,” he says. “When I retire, I don’t want to lose what we’ve built up. I want my team to be equipped with the tools they need to keep the business going.”

Rodriguez says he’s taking inspiration from a mentor at a previous post.

“My manager at Homeowners took us to new levels, he was a big key for my current success. Part of why I left is because he was about to retire and I didn’t want to be with any other manager. What makes a good manager is being someone willing to listen, available to help, and who looks out for your best interest. And the best way to measure how good of a manager you are is by seeing your team’s success.”

Despite Rodriguez not working around the clock like a typical loan officer, his employees don’t feel neglected.

“One of the things I really appreciate about Christian is that he always makes himself available. Whether that is to help with structuring a loan, career advice, or on a personal level,” says Diana Lopez, a senior loan officer at Embrace Home Loans’ Tampa office. “His commitment to not just building relationships but maintaining them is something that I often strive for.”

What drives Rodriguez as a top Hispanic loan officer and as a continual top producer?

“When you start out you always want someone to tell you how you became successful and there is no one specific way,” he says. “I have an amazing team and multiple assistants, a processor, and a few LOAs. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without my operations.”

Maria Gomez, a business development associate who worked with Rodriguez at Embrace Home Loans, touted his commitment to making his coworkers feel valued. “Working alongside Christian has been a transformative journey. His leadership has been a guiding light, shaping not just my professional development, but also my character,” she says. “I admire his unwavering commitment to excellence and his dedication to fostering a positive work environment where everyone feels valued.”

Outside The Office

Rodriguez believes in a healthy balance of work and play which is why he set the boundary of having strict, set business hours as a loan officer. Outside of the office, Rodriguez runs a car dealership in Tampa called TAG — which stands for The Auto Group — with his business partner, Juan Hernandez. The dealership does bodywork, sales, and mechanic work, as well as classic car restoration. Rodriguez makes it a point to work from TAG on Fridays, doing loans behind the counter while delegating tasks to his mechanic staff. With cars being a passion, it’s no surprise that Rodriguez has a few toys of his own. “I have a 1970 Porsche 911, a 1970 Mini Cooper Classic — those are super small — a 1972 Ford Bronco, a BMW 2002 1958, a Deloreon that we’re making electric, a 1958 MGA Convertible, and we’re also fixing a 1982 Ferrari Testarossa,” Rodriguez rattles off.

But above all, he is passionate about family. The father of Bella, age 13, and Luna, age 10, Rodriguez has fostered a love of traveling in his whole family. And whether he’s visiting relatives back home in Colombia or with them at a school event, both girls know that Rodriguez’s weekend time is all theirs.