About Don Parsons

Don brings almost 30 years of experience to the industry with over one-half billion in personal loan production. In the mid to late 70's he was introducing Tom Hopkins Farming methods to an area that was untouched by marketing of this kind. Through this hard work of relationship building he captured market share quickly in the fastest growing county in the St. Louis area as a Realtor. As he began buying property and planning a relocation to Southern California, understanding there was Real Estate Gold there, he found himself facing a prime rate of 20% and found fools gold, or so he thought.  These challenging times provided the environment for re-tooling, learning, and ideas on how to find and buy distressed property for others. Entering the Lending arena, the first refi-mania found consumers falling over themselves getting in line for 10.75% interest rates. As the market turned around and real estate took off again, bringing great luster back to the Golden State, the Berlin Wall came down and thus the end of the Star Wars projects in the early 90's bringing 750,000 jobs over three years to a grinding halt. With this unexpected and tragic loss of jobs, Don designed and introduced the "Seller Assisted Financing" marketing program to Orange County, augmenting it with sign riders and a manual called "Keeping Real Estate Moving in the 90's". Soon after, partnering with a major MI Insurance company, he brought one of the first workshops to the Real Estate community teaching Realtors how to give assistance to troubled home owners through the "short sale" process. As this cycle ended, toward the end of the 90's, real estate took off again, hit a bump, then in the early to mid 2000's saw prices double in many areas.

Along with the boomin Real Estate came new and exotic programs and looser qualifying guidelines, including sub prime mortgages with even looser qualifying.  In July-August of 2007, the chickens came home to roost as they say and there was a credit meltdown in the markets with billions of losses due to some of these products.  Don's role has increased even more as a counselor and his years of experience brings significant skills to the table as he educates and helps clients navigate these very challenging times. 

Don's job description is best seen as a Mortgage Planner, where he treats a mortgage loan like a financial instrument, not a commodity to be shopped and traded. Integrating the right loan and structuring it properly with a client's financial plan while using it to manage equity and thus building a successful retirement at the same time is an unparalleled skill.

In addition to counseling clients in this way, whether it is a refinance or purchase, he gives a great amount of effort to reviewing and aiding seniors with decisions regarding Reverse Mortgages.

Don holds the current designations of Registered Mortgage Advisor (RMA), CMPS (Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist) and CLA (Certified Liability Advisor