September 24, 2025 • 62 mins
What does five generations of banking experience bring to Northwest Arkansas real estate investors? Find out as Chris Harlin, Chairman and CEO of Century Bank of the Ozarks, opens up about his family's remarkable 131-year banking journey and how their community-focused approach creates unique advantages for today's investors.
Dating back to 1894 when board meetings were scheduled "on the Monday after the first full moon," Century Bank has evolved while maintaining its core values. Chris shares the fascinating origin story, from his great-grandfather's role in bringing electricity and dams to the Ozarks to their modern expansion into Northwest Arkansas. The iconic mill wheel in their logo represents not just the historic grist mills of the region, but a banking philosophy that has stood the test of time.
While the American banking landscape has contracted from 12,000 banks in 1990 to roughly 5,000 today, Century Bank has thrived by combining the best of both worlds: cutting-edge technology with the personal relationships only possible at a community bank. "That 50 billion dollar bank cannot do what we're talking about," Chris explains, highlighting how their ability to make lending decisions in minutes rather than weeks provides a crucial edge for investors working in competitive markets.
For real estate investors, Chris offers invaluable perspective on the value of banking relationships versus rate shopping. Beyond interest rates, factors like closing speed, flexible terms, and having a lending partner who keeps all loans in-house creates sustainable advantages that can make or break investment opportunities. As Northwest Arkansas continues its explosive growth, having a banking partner with deep roots, local decision-making authority, and a genuine interest in your success might be your most valuable asset.
Connect with Century Bank at their locations in Fayetteville and Mountain Home, Arkansas, and discover what five generations of banking wisdom can do for your investment strategy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Northwest Arkansas Investing Podcast, your
go-to source for real estateinvesting in Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
With your seasoned investor just starting out.
We bring you expert insights,market trends and practical
strategies to help you buildwealth through real estate.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
From buying and selling to property management
and long-term investmentplanning.
We cover it all so you can makesmart, informed decisions in
this fast-growing market.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Let's dive in.
Welcome to Northwest ArkansasInvesting Podcast.
We have Chris Harlan in herewith us.
He is the chairman and CEO ofCentury Bank of the Ozarks.
They have locations here inNorthwest Arkansas and we're
really excited to have you tothe show, chris.
Thank you.
I heard you got warmed up thismorning with Bo Mattingly over
(00:49):
down in Fayetteville talking.
Were you talking sports or wasit we were talking a little?
Speaker 4 (00:53):
sports and he's kind of involved a little bit too
with some of the same folks Iknow over in Mountain Home with
Big Creek Country Club and wewere involved in that and still
are a little bit on the fringesof that.
So we were talking a littleabout that.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, a little golf, a little sports, a little.
Everybody's excited for theseason coming up tomorrow, yep,
so yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, thanks for coming on.
We appreciate your time.
I know it's valuable, so we'reexcited to get into it with you.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, let's just start here.
Let's give us a quick doesn'thave to be anything crazy, but a
30,000 foot perspective ofCentury Bank how that got
started.
I see there's 130 years ofhistory here, so that's
something I definitely want tohighlight.
If you can just give us anoverview of Century Bank how it
came to be, where you guys arenow just kind of a quick
(01:50):
timeline and where you are inthe bank.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Well, I can take 131 years, it will take more than a
year or two we can go through itno.
So 18, small town right on theArkansas-Missouri border,
gainesville.
For Arkansas folks, if you knowwhere Mountain Home is, it's 24
miles north of Mountain Home,just directly north of Mountain
(02:16):
Home, and Mountain Home is kindof the hub for that area.
Most of the folks in and aroundGainesville that don't work at
the school bank you know a fewplaces around a lot of those
people work in Mountain Home atdifferent factories and so forth
.
So yeah.
Mountain Home is.
I always say, you know those ofus in tiny towns, we tend to
(02:38):
have a secondary hometown andyeah, it's.
You know, if you're, you knowin Goshen or whatever you like,
in Goshen your Fayetteville isyour secondary, or Ozark,
missouri Springfield is, and inour case Gainesville.
Mount Home was kind of thatsecond year hometown.
So you know we all spend a lotof time there.
The movies are there, doctorsare there, hospitals are there
(03:00):
whatever, so is that primarilywhere you are their hospitals or
whatever.
So is that primarily where youare?
That, that's, is that I'mprobably gainesville more than
anything but but, but inmountain home four days a week
for different things, not justbank, right?
Uh, my wife, frances, isprobably in mountain home five
to six days a week, right, butbut anyway.
So 1894, this little tiny town,you know post-civil war those
(03:31):
kind of things, a lot of folksthat settled all over the Ozarks
had come from Kentucky,tennessee, border, and my family
had come over years prior, afew years prior to that, had
come over years prior, a fewyears prior to that, and I think
at some point, I guess, mygreat-great-grandfather had died
(03:54):
and his oldest son and he hadleft eight boys ranging from
like one to 16 or something Wow,ranging from like 1 to 16 or
something, wow.
And the oldest went to WestPlains, missouri, worked in a
bank to help pay for things.
(04:15):
Right right and eventually cameback home, and that's what he
wanted to do was be in thebanking business.
there was a need for that yeahand started this bank with his
brother and another man who wasa relative right but jim harlan
and tan harlan, those are thetwo oldest brothers of this
(04:38):
group and another man startedthis bank of Gainesville.
It was called July of 1894.
Wow, and on the square inGainesville and went through
that for a number of years.
Interesting story.
And I don't.
I've got we have all theoriginal ledgers, which is kind
(05:00):
of interesting.
Found the original minute book,all that One of the funny
things about that originalminute book.
But you know, like now we haveboard meetings are on the second
Thursday of the month.
Yeah, whatever this one said,the board meetings will be held
on the Monday after the firstfull moon.
(05:23):
Really Doing time differently?
Yeah, so that was going on fora short period of time and I
don't know the story on this.
I'd love to.
I never will.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
It's not in the minutes, but they sold the bank
back in 1901 for a period ofweeks and then bought it back,
and I'd love to know the storyon that.
Yeah, you know why were youtrying to get rid of a
shareholder?
You know, did you have thislittle plant Right?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
That's interesting.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Anyway, they did that .
And then in 1907, 1908, in thatrange, they went to West Plains
, started another bank and mygreat-grandfather came in to the
bank and that's kind of whereit came into my lineage.
Okay, in 1908, john C Harlan,my great-grandfather, came into
(06:22):
the picture.
Right, he had done some thingsas a young man in the county
politically Not long after thattoo.
Besides working at the bank hekind of wanted to be in politics
, right, so he ran for the statesenate and state house later,
back and forth on that, and sohe kind of was in the banking
(06:46):
world as well as the politicalscene in the state right, right
for a long time.
Uh, most kind of amazing guyand, yes, did a lot for that
area.
Yeah, while he was in the statelegislature.
Roads of course were terrible.
Helped bring roads he was, hebrought, helped bring
(07:09):
electricity into that area thedams that are on the arkansas
side.
Uh, he was kind of a forcebecause they had both leaders on
both sides of the line.
This is yourgreat-great-grandfather, my
great-grandfather,great-grandfather C Harden, okay
, yeah, was one of the leadersthat helped bring the Bull
(07:34):
Shoals Dam, okay, and NorfolkDam Wow, for those two lakes
over there.
I kind of knew that, but I hada historian there in Mountain
Home send me some informationabout that that they had from
the, I think, the 30s, aboutNorfolk Dam and they had this
meeting and then they had allthese leaders.
(07:55):
A governor of Arkansas, leadersin Arkansas, crossed the state
line, brought him in and allthese leaders were talking about
the, this damn project.
Well, they meant the am, butthey people didn't want to say
that out loud, but they couldand it was kind of a little joke
because they could say the damnproject, yeah, yeah, that's
funny.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Let me ask you a question the logo on the shirt
when does that come?
Timeline wise.
When did that come into play?
Is that around the early?
I mean so, no, no, so so bankof gainesville.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Yeah, was bank of gainesville was what it was.
Okay, my great-grandfatherthere in 08.
He died in 1955.
My grandfather came in there inthe in the 30s as he came of age
, my dad in the 70s came backabout, came back in the 60s and
then became president of thebank 70s yeah, in the 60s and
then became president of thebank in the 70s.
Yeah, in the 90s, mid-90s, wepurchased a bank in a town about
(08:52):
30 miles north of us Okay, inAva, missouri, and so then it
became Bank of Gainesville was aproblem because you want to.
Bank of Gainesville was aproblem because you want to all
these banks, whether it's a townor whether it's a region or
whatever.
In other words, if we got outof the Ozarks of the Ozarks
(09:15):
would be an issue.
So we changed the name fromBank of Gainesville to Century
Bank.
At the time we were trying tocome up with a name and we were
around a hundred.
We turned a hundred years oldin 1994, the year prior to the
name change.
So Century was a thing.
Yeah, my wife actually was, Ithink, the one that came up with
(09:38):
the name Century and my dadsaid oh, is that because we're a
hundred years old and she's?
we were in our twenties at thetime.
Yeah.
No, no, no, it's becauseeverybody around here is so old.
So anyway, that's hilarious,century back of the Ozarks.
Yeah, that's where we couldn'tbe, just be century back, cause
there was already a name.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Well, take me into the, the actual, the water, um,
uh, the actual.
What is that?
What am I blanking on?
What is the actual logo called?
Speaker 4 (10:07):
It's like the heritage mill, the mill, it's
like a mill wheel there areOzark County, missouri, again,
just north of well, this isn'tjust true of Ozark County, but
all through the Ozarks.
There are these.
There's a lot of grist mills,and there's some over here.
And so there are these, there'sa lot of grist mills, yeah, and
you know there's some over here.
Yeah, and so there are four orfive mills in Ozark County that
(10:31):
are historic.
Yeah, one of them, hodson Mill,for instance, is one of the
most photographed mills in theworld.
Yes, yeah, uh, rock Bridge andso on.
So that's kind of become thetheme.
Yep, look for that specificarea, right, and that's where we
came up with.
The Mill logo Looks right.
(10:53):
We even have one.
We had one built outside themain building.
If you look at the website orwhatever, it's kind of front and
center, yeah, and theheadquarters there.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
That's amazing, brian , I'd like to get into a little
bit.
So I underlined uh, stillprivately held and independently
operated, and I think that'sbig.
You know a lot of peoplelistening to this podcast.
Um, I think generally the thegeneral population of people
don't really know banking terms,what things mean.
They just kind of know oh you,if you need money for a house,
(11:24):
go to a bank, or if you needmoney for multifamily, go to a
bank.
Why does that separate you guys?
Being still private, because somany banks are not per se, can
you just walk us a little bitinto why that's a benefit for?
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Well, it's probably a couple of things.
Uh, you know we how many banksout here.
Well, let me back up.
When I started in banking in1990, there were 12 000 banks in
the country and, I think,several hundred banks in the
state of arkansas.
(11:58):
There were 600 banks in thestate of missouri.
Today that 12 000.
In the state of Missouri.
Today that 12,000 in thecountry is around 5,000.
The state of Missouri has gonefrom 600 to around 200.
Arkansas is down to 80 or so.
Yeah.
So all these changes, namechanges, you know, you wake up,
(12:21):
get a letter in the mail, youknow the name of your bank, or
your bank is now owned bysomebody else.
Yeah, those kind of things.
So that consistency isimportant.
Yeah, just, also, there's asmall group of people who you
can get decisions from quickly.
(12:41):
It's not going to committeeafter committee after committee
to get decisions made.
You can talk to the CEO if youwant.
Those are the kind of thingsthat a community bank offers.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Brian talk about how important that is for getting
quick decisions made, knowingthat I think with a privately
held bank, it gets better andbetter the more time is spent
with that bank.
And so someone like let's say,you and a group are investing in
a lot of multifamily I know youguys do what's the benefit of
(13:16):
knowing like, hey, this is Iknow they're going to give me a
response we can go back andforth pretty quick, as opposed
to like I've of course, been init our response.
We can go back and forth prettyquick, as opposed to like I of
course been in it, You've beenin it where it's like, oh, we'll
have a decision next, nextThursday, and then it's kind of
go to this department and towalk us through like how, how
awesome that is yeah, I thinkit's important, especially right
now.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
It feels like it's really hard to get a deal done.
Like I feel like I'm having tolook at a hundred deals to get
one deal done.
Before, like five, ten yearsago, I'd look at 20 and they
maybe wanted so.
Like to get good feedback withthat person before you start
putting money in a deal is superimportant.
To have quick and like goodfeedback is super important.
(13:56):
Then too, with some of thosemore regulated, you have a huge
credit committee.
Sometimes the terms change likeoh, like your originator might
say this is what we think we canget you, and then they go back
and it's totally different thanwhat we originally thought.
So then you're scrambling andhaving to find a different
lender?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yeah, I think that's very Information is not having
to go through a ton of differentpeople.
It's pretty direct and I think,speaking more so to our
audience, like on your side,when you get somebody that you
start building a relationshipwith does it.
I'm going to guess it getseasier the more deals are done
when, when I bring you something, if it's trash every time, you
(14:37):
know it's going to be a littleharder to get stuff done.
But if I bring this group orthis guy continues to bring good
products, I think those boardmeetings are probably a little
easier.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
I would I would think absolutely.
And we even have, you know,situations where we've got,
we've got folks that we've dealtwith for a while.
You know we'll get approvalsover and above where they're at
and it can.
Then it's just we're good withso and so-so here, up to this
level, yeah, you know get afterit.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, I think, speaking more so to our audience
now I think there's a lot ofimportance from creating a
relationship with a bank likeCentury Bank and getting to know
them and not, you know,shopping everybody out every
single time and I know there's atime and a place for that but
really built.
There's a real point in whatI've seen, even with some of the
I'm some of the bankingrelationships I've made with,
(15:27):
like actually having thatrelationship gets you a lot
further than just trying to shopevery single time.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Um, it's a negotiating tool, too, when
you're making an offer on aproduct, like my lender gave me
feedback here, like this is whatI need.
To be able to have thatfeedback from a lender too,
where it's not you're not justthe person that's asking for a
concession here, asking for this, like you know, having that
rapport with a lender, that'sgreat, you want this price, but
me or anyone else is going tohave to finance at these terms
(15:56):
unless they, you know, buy itall cash or something like that
and being able to tell thatseller hey, I'm banking with
century bank and I've been doingdeals with them for this long.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Um, they're local, they've been owned and operated
for 130, 30 years.
With private you, privatelyheld I mean that goes a long way
.
I think, on the seller side ofthings and being like okay, like
we're not dealing with, likelike rocket mortgage or
something like it, it's way, waydifferent having that ready to
go?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
yeah, I have.
I have pre, you know.
So you know.
Contingent on committeeapproval I have, you know, this
bank ready to go at these terms.
The same thing, like I don't doany single family investing.
But you know I have peoplefirst time getting into real
estate.
I tell them what you probablydo as a realtor get your
pre-approval letter before youstart making offers.
(16:45):
One, you're going to come instronger.
Two, you're going to have anidea of what you're.
It'll help you actually narrowyour buy box down to if you talk
to the lender first.
So same thing in commercialmultifamily being able to say,
yes, lender has me at theseterms.
Yeah, because a lot.
It brings more strength to yourconversations with Zelle.
Totally.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
And those approvals, like you said earlier, can come
so fast in this community bank.
You know a lot of times, alex,here at the loan office, here he
may say, hey, because our loancommittee meets on Fridays.
Well, if somebody comes in onWednesday or Thursday it may be
(17:26):
different, or Monday, hey, weneed to move on this.
Is there any way he can callmyself?
Yeah, bill Triva, the chieflending officer.
We can have a mini loancommittee meeting in 10 minutes,
yeah, and make some decisions.
If numbers work and all that,we can make some decisions.
If numbers work and all that,we can make some decisions in
(17:48):
minutes.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
He's been good.
I haven't done any deals withhim yet, but that's because we
just met at the NWA investingevent but we looked at a couple
of deals together.
It's really good.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I have a client who I have a real story of a client
who got a pre-approval letter in30 minutes from Alex and it was
I think it might have been asaturday, um, and I think there
was already a little bit ofpre-work done, but it would.
You have local people that arewilling to do things like that
for you.
I'd like to dive a little bitinto.
I'm just seeing a part on here.
It says most likely to leavegainesville and can you and you
(18:22):
returned as a chairman and ceo,can you walk us through that
like that little story rightthere?
Speaker 4 (18:28):
well, that was you know, or who voted you.
You always do those things inhigh school, you know um so, or
at least we did in the 80s.
That was high school, yeah,yeah.
So you know, that's just one ofthose senior yearbook deals.
Even with, even with hundreds ofyears of legacy banking, they
still thought you might well,you know, because will tell you,
when you live in a tiny littletown, my thought was I wanted to
(18:53):
be in a big city, yeah.
I wanted to get out, yeah, whichI kind of did, and realized
that that wasn't for me.
Yeah, for several reasons.
But you know, I wanted to getout.
They, you know all tiny littlehigh school, everybody knew that
.
So you have all those votesmost likely to do this or
(19:15):
whatever.
Yeah, I was most voted.
They had a most likely to leavegainesville, never come back,
and then they had most likely tonever Gainesville, never come
back, and then they had mostlikely to never leave.
And they got it 50% right onboth.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the other guyleft and never came back.
The two that were votes votedmost likely to never leave.
(19:37):
One did and one didn't.
So, yeah, um, you know, I, Iwanted to get out and get to the
big city, yeah, and then kindof realized, oh, this isn't
really, and where's the big cityfor you?
I went to college for two years, so I graduated high school in
1987.
And I went to college for twoyears at Rockhurst University up
(19:58):
in Kansas City, okay, and thenkind of realized that wasn't my
world, yeah, and came back toSpringfield and finished up at
Missouri State, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
What got you back to chairman and CEO.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
So as I got back into Springfield, I worked in
Boatman's Bank, which was a bankin both Missouri and Arkansas,
in the late 80s, 90s.
And why not work for the familybank at that time?
Well, late 80s, 90s?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
And why not work for the family bank at that time?
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Well, I was still in college and then, as I started
getting out of, or starting toget out of college in 90, 91, I
talked to my dad a little and hesaid, listen, you don't want to
just come straight back to thebank, you know you, you want to
go get some experience, yeah,and that type, sorry wise.
(20:52):
So then I worked at anotherbank after right after college,
for a year, which you know thatmight not have been, that might
have been quicker than what, buthe had need.
So then I came back in 93.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Wow, I see that kind of as a common theme.
I love the legacy story.
I have two boys, two and a halfand five months old, so it gets
me excited hearing about thislegacy and everything.
I think it's a common theme,especially in all across
Arkansas.
I feel like Arkansasians have astrong uh legacy, like pride
(21:30):
with legacy, yeah, and that'sreally cool to see uh, your
legacy, and I think it's whywhat I was going with that is a
lot of these guys who aremulti-general legacy.
They do go off on their likethey they're not just, you know,
straight, for example, my sonmaybe not straight into wages
capital.
He goes off to another firm andgoes back and brings that
(21:52):
experience you know, with theAllens and stuff like that.
Matt.
First he didn't jump into Sageand you know all the ventures
right away.
He worked for, actually, a bank, and I forget some others, but
it's interesting to see that.
I think that's great advicebecause you can maybe get burned
out.
If that's all you know, thenmaybe you do want to run away
(22:14):
because you're thinking aboutwhat else is out there.
But one you get to see whatelse is out there.
You bring that experience backinto your family's legacy.
What were they doing right,right, what were they doing
wrong?
What are things that you canimprove on?
Yeah, so I think that's areally good, wise and yeah
choice.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Obviously worked out well, we did it.
You know, alex, um which itwasn't like this straight plan
that he would come back to bank,that was kind of.
That's probably anotherinteresting story how that came
about.
But he worked after college,worked at Great Southern Bank
he's out of Springfield butthey've got an office just up
(22:52):
the road here too and workedthere for several years.
And we were actually sittingaround Bull Shoals Lake five
years ago or something onFourthth of July and I said why
don't we open up an LPO inFayetteville and you can make
loans for Century rather thanGreat Southern?
(23:15):
So that kind of came about thatway.
This is Alex Martin, yeah, andthen future son-in-law.
That kicked off theFayetteville.
That kicked off theFayetteville, yeah, okay
son-in-law.
That kicked off the Fayetteville.
That kicked off theFayetteville.
Yeah, okay, son-in-law.
I didn't know that was said.
Yes, yes, alex's son-in-lawOkay, married to Abby is our
firstborn daughter.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Wow, wow.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
So that five years ago in July Five years ago,
because we opened the LPO that'son the square and the prior
center there in fayetteville inoctober I believe october of 21,
okay, okay, so we'd opened upthe mountain home brand full
(23:58):
service branch in may, april ormay of 21 and then opened that
one, yeah, um, which I didn'treally have a plan for that, but
then we just kind of gottalking about it and he had that
experience and he brought a lotof that experience.
It was a more formal trainingprocess at Great Southern or a
larger bank, which was great.
(24:19):
Yeah, jackson Britt is futureson-in-law in a few months and
he's worked at another bank.
And then, coming back tocentury, actually next week is
he going to be at the fablelocation.
He's going to work out a fablelocation.
Uh, credit analyst, yeah, whichis kind of new.
(24:40):
You know, that's a new positionfor us live full-time credit
analyst.
So wow, but those guys workinggetting experience that we
didn't have.
We don't have.
We didn't have that formaltraining, yeah, and to bring
that in and formalize some ofthose things, yeah, the lone
steps has been great.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Well, speaking of 2021, this will kind of segue
into a part like how wasstarting the Fayetteville branch
during COVID and that, what was?
Was there anything really weirdthat happened with starting a
branch in Fayetteville duringCOVID?
Like, was that a challenge inany in any way I can imagine
maybe.
I mean, I guess there wasn'tnecessarily like people coming
(25:20):
in and out per se, correct?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
yeah, you know it.
It I didn't notice that and Iguess we were kind of easing out
of that at the time.
And so you know when and that,because that is an LPO at this
time, which that's, I mean wewe're looking to the future and
maybe doing something expandingthat in the near term.
(25:45):
But you know, we were kind ofcoming out of that, you know,
and and he, when we opened thatup in october, you know I
remember, um, we had the chamberwas there, everybody was, you
know, cut, ribbon cutting andall that.
So, yeah, I don't remember thatit.
(26:06):
You know that that was thatchallenging at that time.
Now you, you back up a year andprobably been different.
Yeah, totally, totallydifferent that's, that's great.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
What's uh so how?
Your headquarters is ingamesville.
Um, how big is that favo branch?
You guys have plans onexpanding?
Speaker 4 (26:27):
so favo branch, youville branch you know we're
growing it right now.
Alex has built a great loanportfolio there.
Loan production office or loanoffices don't allow for
collecting deposits yeah.
So you know that's next on thehorizon and you know that's
(26:51):
where we want to expand the bankgoing forward.
And so, as we look towards notonly expanding the loan side of
the bank but increasing thedeposits, we want to do yeah,
we're looking at potentiallygrowth there by doing a full
service branch.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, so I guess I'm just kind of brainstorming,
talking out loud.
You know, I don't want to saythat the Fayetteville thing was
like a whim of a.
You know, there was, of course,a bunch of thought put into
that.
How do you see, from yourperspective as a ceo, how do you
see the growth of everythinghappening?
(27:31):
All the data, all thestatistics and you guys
traditionally being more ofwould correct me if I'm wrong
more like a rule bank type oftype of bank and seeing this
huge growth, how do you, how doyou manage or say, hey, we're
gonna stay this, this size, orwe're going to grow what, we're
going to try to grow with thearea.
(27:51):
What's, what's the balancethere?
I mean, do you try to keepgrowing with all the data and
statistics or do you keep itsmall because that's what's
worked in the past?
Or I mean, it's what is he?
Speaker 2 (28:03):
I've seen, yeah, I think, and where you're going,
I've seen other.
But, like some banks are likeour development bucket is full.
Right now we're not looking atany development deals, but we'll
start looking again.
Or even our multifamily ourmultifamily development bucket
is full right now.
So or a we're we're openingthat back up and we're looking
at this.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I guess is there a strategy on yeah, the strategy
behind seeing the projectionsand growth for this area is Is
there an outlook on that for you, right?
Speaker 4 (28:30):
Well, you know, we went through quite a long period
, probably from the late 90suntil COVID, where it was pretty
low growth.
It's always been a highperforming bank, right, always
(28:51):
been a high performing bank,right, but in terms of our
internal numbers, bankingnumbers that bankers talk about,
that would be customers, and Idon't care, as long as it's safe
customers, I'm gonna care aboutthis, right.
But it's always been a highperforming bank but relatively
low growth, because the marketwe're in, it's been.
It's great.
Yeah, we have the bestcustomers, best communities in
the world, yeah, um, but growthwise, you know, we and in part
(29:18):
we had kept it that way a littlebit on purpose, for variety of
reasons, but in, uh, in duringcovid, most because all these
deposits came flowing back intothe banks most banks' balance
sheets just took a pop, yeah, asdid ours.
So we kind of popped up andcontinued that for several years
(29:41):
, yeah, and so we've seensignificant growth, which we've
maintained, yeah, growth whichwe've maintained, yeah.
Then in, let's say, 2021, wedecided we want to go to
mountain home, fayetteville, andgrowth became, you know,
something we want to focus moreon.
(30:01):
Okay, we've maintained the highperforming part, but we want to
also focus on growth.
That's like, where's thatgrowth going to come from?
It's going to come from MountHolmes, not a large community in
Fayetteville or Rogersstandards, but it is a larger
community than we're intraditionally, right, and when
(30:23):
you start from zero, well, wedidn't start from zero always
had a presence, just not aphysical presence, in Baxter
County, yeah, so you know that'swhere growth was going to come
from.
Obviously here, yeah, or inNorth by Sargassaw a lot of
growth possibilities or optionsthere, right, uh, so that that's
(30:44):
kind of where we well, I seeyou, I see you.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I see you saying you're not willing to sacrifice.
The high performance is, ofcourse, number one, but you
don't want to grow and cut intothat.
You could step on your own feetand just grow too much and the
performance is down, but youlook like you're growing.
Is that what I'm hearing?
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Right, we actually have meetings.
I've kind of developed a newgroup, just some new staff that
have worked in some other banksmore recently, that I wanted to
get their perspective.
Yeah, and you know, I, uh, I, Itold them I'm not, I don't this
(31:34):
, I'm not needing this bank tojust skyrocket the growth.
Right, I'd like to ramp it up.
Where's that?
You know that's going to comesome from our branches in in
Ozark County or that, that typeof thing.
But a lot of that growth isgoing to come from, you know,
(31:54):
north central arkansas, upnorthwest arkansas, we hope and
it is.
Yeah, and you know, just rampthat growth up a little bit,
continue the high performing aswe can, yeah on the investment
side.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
What do you get?
What do you like a lot rightnow and what are you cautious
about, I guess?
Or what are you more aggressiveon or more conservative on?
Is there something like if youget sent an office deal, are you
more cautious on that than aland deal?
Or you know, I think rightbefore we started recording, you
said uh, it depends a lot onthe, the uh relationship and who
(32:32):
you're investing to.
So maybe you're more bullish ona certain uh investor, um, or
maybe it's location too, maybeit's.
Yeah, we have a strong presencein ozark, but we're not as
aggressive on if it's in nixon,missouri, as it is if it's in
Bentonville, arkansas.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Yeah, I would say you know a lot of it has to do with
the borrower and their strength.
Yeah, obviously, the collateral, the location, that type of
thing I'm not.
You know, and we do virtuallyany type of lending, virtually
(33:13):
any type of lending.
A lot of, a lot of land, bareland takedowns we've done which
this wouldn't apply here as muchbut you know a lot of ag
primarily, uh, beef cattle nuttype thing it's not crops or
anything, obviously in theozarks uh.
So a lot of ag.
That's been a big thing for us.
Our traditional lending has beenon ag, again, beef cattle, that
(33:36):
type of thing, ag, land, ag,real estate.
A lot of tourism-based stuff.
Of course we've got lakes,rivers, marinas, tourist-based
businesses over in that area aswell.
So a lot of that Over here.
We've done a lot more.
(33:58):
Some land development, but notnecessarily the development
piece, but the land takedown,get the land ready and then you
know that may be handed off tosome.
You know somebody else who doesthe development lending but a
lot of smaller multifamily stuffin here, those kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah, so a listener listening into this and I know a
lot of my out-of-stateinvestors will listen in on this
podcast and we're taking downsmall multifamily.
Single family, you would say.
Century Bank is a good, a goodfit for that, Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
Alex especially.
You know that's kind of hisforte.
Yeah, he's done some of thatpersonally, you know as well as
been the lender for us, so he'she's kind of you know he's he's
the guy here who's got a lot ofexpertise in there.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah, so it's like it's the bar.
It's a lot of weight on theborrower too.
So I think you know for some ofour people are new into real
estate you might have a strongbalance sheet, but if you don't
have the experience in a certainasset class, it might make
sense to partner up with someonethat has that experience to
show to the lender yeah, yeah,that, that experience to show to
(35:10):
the lender um, so that yeahyeah, 100, yeah.
So you guys started another bankand in the process of selling
that bank, I guess, walk usthrough that process and maybe
some lessons learned throughthat bank that you're now
incorporating too yeah, and it,you know it, it was planned to
be kind of different, verygrowth-oriented was the plan
(35:30):
from day one.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
And also, because it's called Legacy Bank and
Trust, it's not the Legacy Bankin Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
That's Legacy Bank.
This is Legacy Bank and Trust,let's call it based around
Springfield, tulsa, dallas, fortWorth now.
So, but a little bit differentbusiness model.
But in 2002, and the other partof that is I wanted to involve
(36:00):
some other shareholders, becausewhen you have a tightly held
family business, it's hard toget you know other shareholders
or maybe you don't want to get alot of other shareholders
involved.
This was a way to include someother people, and so we did that
, and in 2002 I reached out to abank consultant that I knew and
(36:23):
we were talking about maybebuying a little bank and
starting a whole new operationthat some of us would own both
personally and Century Bankwould own some of as well.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
So we found a little bank and it was up in Missouri,
a tiny bank, probably thesmallest bank in the state state
and we formed this group,bought this bank, branched to
another small town and boughtanother bank that was just
outside of springfield a smallbank.
(36:58):
Yeah, branched again.
So now we're probably in 2007or so.
Yeah, we, that's when we didthat other branch around
Springfield.
Downturn happened.
Everybody kind of had theirmoments during that, 2009 to
10-11.
Yeah, but made it through that.
(37:19):
And then in 2016, we purchased abank in this is Legacy Bank and
purchased a bank in Springfieldand then at the same time and
Century did this as well becamea CDFI, community Development
Financial Institution Catches awhole other discussion probably
(37:43):
we can talk about.
But growing and as we get into2018, 19, 20, 21 all that was
happening growing again.
We built the new headquartersin springfield and continue to
(38:03):
grow.
It expanded to tulsa and thenbought three closed bank
branches in Plano, north, dallasand Fort Worth and opened those
up a couple of years ago.
Then we have made a deal withSouthern Bank in litter rock
(38:30):
that will close later, laterthis year, probably first,
probably january, okay, um andso so from 2003 to basically now
, you guys have gone from 30million to 1.9 billion and the.
The original bank that wepurchased was 18 million tiny
bank, okay, um, I think when youadd up we, we purchased 18
(38:54):
million dollar bank, a 40million dollar bank or so and I
think around a 90 million dollarbanks those, so those three
numbers are the one what wepurchased yes and that and
that's about two billion now.
So in.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
So in 2003,.
How old were you, were you thechair?
Speaker 4 (39:17):
I was 33 or 33, 34 when we started the process of
forming this group to buy thisbank in 2002.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
What's the journey like to?
I mean, because that's a big,it's a big jump and there's a
lot of decisions that have to bemade in between that and I mean
we're hitting it from a verymacro point.
We're just like skimming thesurface of this.
I mean crazy number jump andthis journey and story you could
probably write a book on.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
Well, I actually well , part of.
It's just a family book, butprobably the chapter I've
focused most on thinking aboutis that this one.
Legacy, what?
Speaker 1 (39:57):
I've been focusing on some bigger life things right
now and I guess there's a lot ofstress in between the $30
million and the $1.9 billion andthen selling it and you formed
a group Acquisition now about tosell and I guess was all the
purchases, was it worth it, allthe stress and everything to
(40:21):
make that journey?
Speaker 4 (40:21):
Because that's a journey.
Right there it is and it wasworth.
It is worth it.
The keys I would tell youngerpeople wanting to do something
(40:58):
like this is of great people andallow them to have significant
ownership as well.
And they are owners.
I don't feel like owners,they're owners.
Yeah, and you know, I don't.
Obviously, most of those folksweren't there in 2002, 2003.
The ceo was came in 2004 as cfo.
Yeah, so he's been in a longtime, but as far as being there
(41:18):
in 2002, 2003, there was anothergroup my dad and and a couple
other folks that work withcentury that helped start it.
But in terms of the last,especially 10-15 years, I don't
want to take.
They ought to be sitting heretalking about this, not me.
I mean, I can talk about theearly years and I was I hope I
(41:42):
was supportive, right, but theywere running that show, yeah,
for you know, especially thelast 10 to 15 years.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
So you feel like a lot of that stress or you know,
just with growing, somethinglike that, there's going to be
stress and growth and they theywere involved in that and you
were, you did you feel more of asupport role and that, yeah,
that's what I would say, um,especially the last 10 or so, um
, that that's, that, that's beenmy role.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
The other thing with with that one in century two,
but it's in a way it's it's in away it's more impressive when
with legacy, bank and trust thanit is with century, just
because the size that.
But both century and legacy Icould say this about they both
are run with that same thing wetalked about a minute ago.
(42:36):
With century, you can talk, wecan have decisions like that.
That's a two billion dollarbank that we can.
It's not a ship that you knowyou've got to start turning it
miles ahead of time.
We can maneuver it with a smallgroup of people making
decisions quickly.
So you have all of theinfrastructure and abilities
(43:03):
that you have in a $2 billionbank, but you have the board and
decision ability of a 50million yeah if you need it.
That's incredible, that's what.
That's what besides thatownership and hire great people
allow them to have ownership andthen be able to maneuver
quickly.
I think that's where largerbanks and I don't blame, I'm
(43:28):
talking to people, uh, that wereon boards of larger banks and
they're like it's just not thesame and I say, well, it can't
be, I, I'm not, I'm not even,I'm not gonna throw stones,
right, uh, you just can't have a5, 10, 15, 20 billion dollar
bank maneuver that way.
I don't think legacy would haveif it went to be 5, 10, 15
(43:49):
billion.
Right, it's just impossible.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
How have you kept the culture of Century Bank with
the growth?
Do you do that by keeping theboard small and the quick
decision making.
How do you keep that culture?
Speaker 4 (44:05):
intact.
I think the people that are manmanagement at century, you know
we all have the same philosophyuh, work well together.
The board has the samephilosophy, all tracking the
same direction.
You know?
That's another thing.
Yeah, I'd say kind of myhistory and over 30, some years,
(44:28):
35 years of learning, if we'reall working together and you're
a lender, you're in the business, you're in the risk business.
You're going to have a losshere and there.
That's not the deal breaker.
Deal breaker is if we are,we've got to all be pulling the
same direction, towards the samegoal.
(44:50):
And if one person over here isbuilding alliances against the
others and trying to go adifferent direction against this
group, and yeah, that getsfractured.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
That's where the problem yeah, I feel like you
guys have have walked thisreally fine cool line of and I
don't know if there was everfractures, but like keeping a
really good group of cool peoplefor a long period of time, is
that how it's always been?
Speaker 4 (45:18):
Oh yeah, that's how it's been.
I mean, there's always ifyou've got 60 employees or 200
employees or whatever it is,there's always going to be
issues.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
It's not always roses .
Speaker 4 (45:32):
But we have a fantastic staff, know the
management and and all that forthe most part, has pulled same
direction, work towards thosesame goals and believes in it I
love that you've you've kept itas very family oriented as
possible.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
And, alex, and what was your new son-in-law to be
son-in-law's name?
Jackson, jackson jackson willbe in Century Bank and I think
that's really cool and I thinkthat's something listeners, if
you're listening like is some.
It's it's rare to have in abank like of your size and being
able to make quick decisionsand it's very family oriented
(46:09):
and you don't have to go through20 people to get a decision on
something and you know it's a.
To me it comes off and fromtalking with Alex as a bank,
it's like not going to just tryto do a deal, to get the deal
done, like if it sucks.
They're, you're, you guys areprobably going to tell us.
It's like you're going to say,hey, this, this is like a
terrible deal, like I wouldn'tadvise you doing this.
(46:29):
And I've actually been on thegolf course of Alex and heard
him say like I probably want todo this before.
So, um, I think that'stransparency and honesty with
lending.
Um is the way you guys, that isthe culture.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
It seems um is just doing the right thing well, and
you know, um, all of our loansstay in house.
We, we don't sell loans.
And you know, back during thedownturn, 2009-10, and there
8-9-10, that's where not only alot of banks got in trouble, a
(47:01):
lot of folks got in troublebecause these mortgage brokers
and so forth, they were justhere.
Just sign here and we'll, youknow, qualify you.
Well, they weren't reallyqualified.
It wanted to be qualified.
They weren't really qualified.
They wanted to be qualified.
They weren't really qualified.
And that's not good.
That's not good for the bank,yeah, but the bank didn't care
(47:22):
because they're just selling itand it's not on the bank's books
.
The loan officer doesn't carebecause he's getting that
commission and it's going.
Yeah, but then the customer, ifrates go up, what have you?
They're going.
I can't, I shouldn't havequalified for this.
I can't take care of this.
Yeah, so you know, our lenderseverybody knows this is on the
(47:43):
bank's books you don't want toqualify somebody who can't, you
know, be qualified.
Well, everybody's again pullingthe same direction.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
Yeah, I mean, if you're Mr Investor, listening,
like if you bring something tolike y'all and they say no and
you want to try to find a yes,you might really need to simmer
on that no and really thinkabout, like why did they say no?
And you guys are it's almostlike a second line of defense,
like we might've, as theinvestor, written underwrote the
(48:12):
property and we're like soundsgood.
And then you guys say no andbeing able to ask questions, why
wasn't it a no?
And I think that's somethingthat could protect you from a
downfall in the future as aninvestor.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
Yeah, I like how you give some of your key people
upside.
I mean, I tell that if you wantto get good people and have
them stay, giving them upsidepotential on what they do is
going to be key and how you cangrow turn.
So, whether that's giving themequity or ownership or whether
that's higher percent profitshare, I think that's key to
(48:46):
having a good business thatcontinues to grow, because your
people around you areincentivized to do well on
anything they do, becausewhether that helps them their
equity grow or they get moreprofit.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
So yeah, I think I'd like to hit.
You know, as we three, fourminutes from being ending, I'd
like to.
As a chairman and CEO of a bank, um, you obviously probably
have some favorite books andsome favorite habits that you do
.
Uh, what either?
What's your favorite book alltime?
And then do you have a favoritebook right now?
I mean, you might not be areader, but my wife's the big
(49:20):
reader in our family.
Speaker 4 (49:21):
I would say, um, tell you, when I read recently, that
was fantastic.
I'm probably a little morenon-fiction guy.
That yeah, um.
And I like my wife and I bothlike podcasts and I like, yeah,
I'm a Rogan guy, yeah, um.
So I uh listened to a lot ofRogan stuff and he had a lady.
(49:43):
I don't know if you listen to,I do, I do.
He had a lady and I'm alsofascinated with the kind of CIA
military stuff yeah yeah, so hehad a lady on there named Annie
Jacobs and I believe, yeah, andshe wrote, she's written several
books, but one was calledSurvive, kill Vanish, okay, and
(50:04):
it's about kind of the historyof CIA paramilitary world, yeah,
and goes back talks about thisguy, billy Wall, who's a
fascinating know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that wasone of that's probably the one
that's been on my radar.
(50:24):
What was it called?
Survive, kill vanish, survive.
She also wrote one, a biographyabout this billy wall, who was
in Special Forces heading backto Korea, vietnam, and this guy
we're getting probably off topic.
No, it's fine.
He developed the halo jumpReally Way back, way back, and
(50:53):
then did his last halo jump likeinto Cuba or something, when he
was 85 years old or something.
Oh, my God, it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
That's when I've been going recently.
That's insane.
So, uh, okay, books, do youhave any habits that you know?
People listen to this, ofcourse, for getting updates on
NWA, but like we have a lot ofsuccessful people on here and
successful people have habits,are there any habits that you
feel have helped you with yoursuccess, either a morning
routine or something you doevery day?
(51:25):
Is there?
Is there something along thoselines you would suggest for a
listener listening or brian andI that does help you with your
success?
Speaker 4 (51:33):
I'm not necessarily a routine guy, but everybody
would say anybody that knows methat listens to this, but say,
oh, yeah, I, I'm a schedule guy.
Okay, um, like I always joke.
Somebody says what about, let'sdo this.
You know, april the 25th 2028.
(51:56):
And I go no, I can't do that, soyou know, that's yeah that
probably, and I probably gooverboard with it, cause I'm not
, I I kind of tend to.
If it's not, is it on theschedule, and if it's not, I'm
not very good otherwise, butright, I think to I guess not
(52:17):
double book thing, not you knowthose kind of things, so for me
it helps to have it.
Do you schedule your fun time?
Probably, yeah, probably, it'sprobably all too much.
Yeah, schedule I go golf?
Yeah, I probably overdo theschedule, but I mean I literally
have.
We usually play golf at bigcreek there in mountain home on
(52:38):
wednesdays and it is on thereevery wednesday, blocked out,
but yeah, yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
I have have grown to live and die.
By my schedule I'm.
I'm booked, I have stuffscheduled out to the end of next
year, to 2026.
So do you schedule?
Know fun, but like personaldevelopment or anything like
that, do you have time blockswhere it may not be a meeting
with someone but, like this timeevery day I'm gonna try to
(53:07):
think of ideas or knock outthese calls, or does that just
come to that?
Speaker 4 (53:10):
Yeah, I would say so, and not just that kind of
personal development relating tobusiness.
Also, just like I've gotteninto woodworking last year too,
your grandson is 18 months old,so I've kind of gotten into that
.
So you know, I'm like I've gota schedule literally this
(53:30):
weekend, come up with a newwoodworking project or whatever.
You know those kinds.
What have you been doing withthe woodworking so far?
Oh, I mean, I'm very much anamateur, but just I I made him a
um, one of those busy boardhouses, yeah, for christmas last
year, oh, it's fun.
Then we bought one to have atour house in fayetteville and
(53:53):
it's similar and I told wife,there's no telling what I've got
in this thing I've builtbecause I bought.
I built the frame of it butthen bought all the pieces.
Yeah, this is the mostexpensive.
I just should have bought one.
Speaker 1 (54:11):
But you know those types of things.
Yeah, that's, that's great.
That's great.
Brian, do you have anything?
Speaker 4 (54:28):
Yeah, I guess, just a piece of advice to an investor
approaching a bank, whether it'sCentury Bank, the Ozarks or any
bank.
What kind of advice do you giveto investors approaching banks
of?
You touched on it earlier to um, develop a relationship with
the bank, and there's nothingwrong and I know a lot of people
do it and I'm not saying I'venot done it too to you know,
just shop rates for the bestrate.
(54:48):
I would say that's not alwaysthe best option.
You might get a better rate forthis particular deal, but over
time, you know you, you mightlose out on a deal because I'm,
you're shopping around and, likeyou said, uh, somebody might
(55:09):
just and I've heard about thissomebody might just say, yeah,
we'll, we'll do that for six anda half or whatever, yeah, and
then you get ready to do it andthey go.
You know what, I ran that upthe chain and our bucket's full
on that type of lending.
Yeah yeah well, these communitybanks really don't operate that
(55:30):
way.
Yeah, if you develop arelationship with me or one of
our lenders, or alex or somebodylike that, you know that's,
that's not going to happen.
Yeah, and so you might.
The rate might not always bethe bot in it on the lending
side, yeah, but you know, I dothink that quick turnaround be
(55:53):
able, because you might lose adeal that might make a bunch of
money on the back end but youlost it because you're shopping
rates for that.
Three basis points.
Speaker 1 (56:06):
Yeah Well, and as Winstone Private Lending we had
them on here.
It's not always right, you know.
Look at your fees, becausereally you got to look at it
from like what am I paying forthis loan, not just what is the
rate.
Break down your fees on eachthing.
I mean if you're 7.2 and thisperson's seven, but your fees
(56:26):
are less, I mean it might be amuch better deal at 7.2.
Speaker 2 (56:31):
I think it's a common mistake for investors to get
too fixated on a rate thananything else.
Linkedin's great yeah, tryingto get the best rate, but
there's so many other factorsand just a lot leverage terms,
prepayment, penalties, fees,schedule and then, just even
outside the loan itself, thespeed of execution.
I mean, maybe you get held upon a closing and the bank has to
(56:55):
move too slow and you getpushed out of a set, the the the
seller needs to close at thisdate, but you're not able to do
that because you were trying to.
Speaker 1 (57:03):
You would have wished you would have paid that three
base more, because it just madeyou three hundred thousand
dollars, you know, yeah, so it.
I I 100.
Speaker 4 (57:09):
Agree that that's really smart and you know any of
us, and it's not just bankingyou go, you want to go to the
grocery store.
You think you can go to grocerystore X or you can go to Whole
Foods.
It's not the cheapest, but theymay have, you know, a different
(57:31):
mix of products.
Yeah, that's a good point.
So it's not convenience, allthose things, and that's the
thing that we can offer and I'mnot saying we're the only one,
but it, we, we either can or weare in the process of developing
where we can do anything.
(57:52):
We've got the online bank andwe've got the app.
Yeah, obviously, debit cards,all those things that anybody,
the largest banks, have.
Yes, so you can compete withthem on those products.
They can't do this other.
We're talking yeah, that $50billion bank cannot do what
(58:13):
we're talking about doing.
Yeah, that is impossible forthem.
Mm-hmm cannot do what we'retalking about doing, but that is
impossible for them.
They have as much ability asanybody to do all the apps.
They've got the products.
They have all that and they areunmatched with it, and a lot of
these community banks have gotthat either on par or close
(58:36):
Right.
Speaker 1 (58:37):
But this other relationship relationship part,
yeah, that you're saying havethe relationship and have some.
You get both modern luxuries.
You get both things.
Yeah, I think I think you guysare a perfect blend of yeah, of
all of it.
Speaker 2 (58:51):
I really do yeah, it's been great.
Uh, I love the legacy.
I love that.
Uh, you know, arkansas legacygrowing the bank, hiring the
right people, having therelationship a lot of good
takeaways in this episode, so wereally do appreciate you coming
on today.
Speaker 1 (59:08):
Thank you for having me.
It was a pleasure, chris.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, thanks for listeningin, thanks guys.
This episode is brought to youby Winstone Private Lending, one
(59:29):
of the top private and Thanksfor listening in, thanks guys.
What sets them apart is theirdeep expertise, fast response
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(59:52):
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Banks are about community andCentury Bank of the Ozarks has
been your community bank for 131years.
That's over a century since1894.
They've been helping neighborsbuild homes, grow businesses and
(01:01:41):
plan futures.
Because they're locally owned,your loan approval happens here,
not miles away.
Visit their locations inFayetteville and Mountain Home,
arkansas, as well as Gainesville, theodosia, bakersfield and Ava
, missouri.
Century Bank of the Ozarkslocal bankers make local
decisions since 1894.
(01:02:02):
Member FDIC and Equal HousingLender.
If you enjoyed the show, makesure to give us a follow on your
favorite podcast platform soyou never miss an update.
Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Don't forget to connect with us on Instagram,
facebook and LinkedIn for morereal estate insights and behind
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Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
Have a question you want us to cover, send it our
way and if you're interested insponsoring the show, visit
nwainvestingcom to get in touch.
Thanks for listening and we'llsee you next time.
Welcome to Northwest Arkansas Investing Podcast, your
go-to source for real estateinvesting in Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
With your seasoned investor just starting out.
We bring you expert insights,market trends and practical
strategies to help you buildwealth through real estate.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
From buying and selling to property management
and long-term investmentplanning.
We cover it all so you can makesmart, informed decisions in
this fast-growing market.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Let's dive in.
Welcome to Northwest ArkansasInvesting Podcast.
We have Chris Harlan in herewith us.
He is the chairman and CEO ofCentury Bank of the Ozarks.
They have locations here inNorthwest Arkansas and we're
really excited to have you tothe show, chris.
Thank you.
I heard you got warmed up thismorning with Bo Mattingly over
(00:49):
down in Fayetteville talking.
Were you talking sports or wasit we were talking a little?
Speaker 4 (00:53):
sports and he's kind of involved a little bit too
with some of the same folks Iknow over in Mountain Home with
Big Creek Country Club and wewere involved in that and still
are a little bit on the fringesof that.
So we were talking a littleabout that.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, a little golf, a little sports, a little.
Everybody's excited for theseason coming up tomorrow, yep,
so yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, thanks for coming on.
We appreciate your time.
I know it's valuable, so we'reexcited to get into it with you.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, let's just start here.
Let's give us a quick doesn'thave to be anything crazy, but a
30,000 foot perspective ofCentury Bank how that got
started.
I see there's 130 years ofhistory here, so that's
something I definitely want tohighlight.
If you can just give us anoverview of Century Bank how it
came to be, where you guys arenow just kind of a quick
(01:50):
timeline and where you are inthe bank.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Well, I can take 131 years, it will take more than a
year or two we can go through itno.
So 18, small town right on theArkansas-Missouri border,
gainesville.
For Arkansas folks, if you knowwhere Mountain Home is, it's 24
miles north of Mountain Home,just directly north of Mountain
(02:16):
Home, and Mountain Home is kindof the hub for that area.
Most of the folks in and aroundGainesville that don't work at
the school bank you know a fewplaces around a lot of those
people work in Mountain Home atdifferent factories and so forth
.
So yeah.
Mountain Home is.
I always say, you know those ofus in tiny towns, we tend to
(02:38):
have a secondary hometown andyeah, it's.
You know, if you're, you knowin Goshen or whatever you like,
in Goshen your Fayetteville isyour secondary, or Ozark,
missouri Springfield is, and inour case Gainesville.
Mount Home was kind of thatsecond year hometown.
So you know we all spend a lotof time there.
The movies are there, doctorsare there, hospitals are there
(03:00):
whatever, so is that primarilywhere you are their hospitals or
whatever.
So is that primarily where youare?
That, that's, is that I'mprobably gainesville more than
anything but but, but inmountain home four days a week
for different things, not justbank, right?
Uh, my wife, frances, isprobably in mountain home five
to six days a week, right, butbut anyway.
So 1894, this little tiny town,you know post-civil war those
(03:31):
kind of things, a lot of folksthat settled all over the Ozarks
had come from Kentucky,tennessee, border, and my family
had come over years prior, afew years prior to that, had
come over years prior, a fewyears prior to that, and I think
at some point, I guess, mygreat-great-grandfather had died
(03:54):
and his oldest son and he hadleft eight boys ranging from
like one to 16 or something Wow,ranging from like 1 to 16 or
something, wow.
And the oldest went to WestPlains, missouri, worked in a
bank to help pay for things.
(04:15):
Right right and eventually cameback home, and that's what he
wanted to do was be in thebanking business.
there was a need for that yeahand started this bank with his
brother and another man who wasa relative right but jim harlan
and tan harlan, those are thetwo oldest brothers of this
(04:38):
group and another man startedthis bank of Gainesville.
It was called July of 1894.
Wow, and on the square inGainesville and went through
that for a number of years.
Interesting story.
And I don't.
I've got we have all theoriginal ledgers, which is kind
(05:00):
of interesting.
Found the original minute book,all that One of the funny
things about that originalminute book.
But you know, like now we haveboard meetings are on the second
Thursday of the month.
Yeah, whatever this one said,the board meetings will be held
on the Monday after the firstfull moon.
(05:23):
Really Doing time differently?
Yeah, so that was going on fora short period of time and I
don't know the story on this.
I'd love to.
I never will.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
It's not in the minutes, but they sold the bank
back in 1901 for a period ofweeks and then bought it back,
and I'd love to know the storyon that.
Yeah, you know why were youtrying to get rid of a
shareholder?
You know, did you have thislittle plant Right?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
That's interesting.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Anyway, they did that .
And then in 1907, 1908, in thatrange, they went to West Plains
, started another bank and mygreat-grandfather came in to the
bank and that's kind of whereit came into my lineage.
Okay, in 1908, john C Harlan,my great-grandfather, came into
(06:22):
the picture.
Right, he had done some thingsas a young man in the county
politically Not long after thattoo.
Besides working at the bank hekind of wanted to be in politics
, right, so he ran for the statesenate and state house later,
back and forth on that, and sohe kind of was in the banking
(06:46):
world as well as the politicalscene in the state right, right
for a long time.
Uh, most kind of amazing guyand, yes, did a lot for that
area.
Yeah, while he was in the statelegislature.
Roads of course were terrible.
Helped bring roads he was, hebrought, helped bring
(07:09):
electricity into that area thedams that are on the arkansas
side.
Uh, he was kind of a forcebecause they had both leaders on
both sides of the line.
This is yourgreat-great-grandfather, my
great-grandfather,great-grandfather C Harden, okay
, yeah, was one of the leadersthat helped bring the Bull
(07:34):
Shoals Dam, okay, and NorfolkDam Wow, for those two lakes
over there.
I kind of knew that, but I hada historian there in Mountain
Home send me some informationabout that that they had from
the, I think, the 30s, aboutNorfolk Dam and they had this
meeting and then they had allthese leaders.
(07:55):
A governor of Arkansas, leadersin Arkansas, crossed the state
line, brought him in and allthese leaders were talking about
the, this damn project.
Well, they meant the am, butthey people didn't want to say
that out loud, but they couldand it was kind of a little joke
because they could say the damnproject, yeah, yeah, that's
funny.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Let me ask you a question the logo on the shirt
when does that come?
Timeline wise.
When did that come into play?
Is that around the early?
I mean so, no, no, so so bankof gainesville.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Yeah, was bank of gainesville was what it was.
Okay, my great-grandfatherthere in 08.
He died in 1955.
My grandfather came in there inthe in the 30s as he came of age
, my dad in the 70s came backabout, came back in the 60s and
then became president of thebank 70s yeah, in the 60s and
then became president of thebank in the 70s.
Yeah, in the 90s, mid-90s, wepurchased a bank in a town about
(08:52):
30 miles north of us Okay, inAva, missouri, and so then it
became Bank of Gainesville was aproblem because you want to.
Bank of Gainesville was aproblem because you want to all
these banks, whether it's a townor whether it's a region or
whatever.
In other words, if we got outof the Ozarks of the Ozarks
(09:15):
would be an issue.
So we changed the name fromBank of Gainesville to Century
Bank.
At the time we were trying tocome up with a name and we were
around a hundred.
We turned a hundred years oldin 1994, the year prior to the
name change.
So Century was a thing.
Yeah, my wife actually was, Ithink, the one that came up with
(09:38):
the name Century and my dadsaid oh, is that because we're a
hundred years old and she's?
we were in our twenties at thetime.
Yeah.
No, no, no, it's becauseeverybody around here is so old.
So anyway, that's hilarious,century back of the Ozarks.
Yeah, that's where we couldn'tbe, just be century back, cause
there was already a name.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Well, take me into the, the actual, the water, um,
uh, the actual.
What is that?
What am I blanking on?
What is the actual logo called?
Speaker 4 (10:07):
It's like the heritage mill, the mill, it's
like a mill wheel there areOzark County, missouri, again,
just north of well, this isn'tjust true of Ozark County, but
all through the Ozarks.
There are these.
There's a lot of grist mills,and there's some over here.
And so there are these, there'sa lot of grist mills, yeah, and
you know there's some over here.
Yeah, and so there are four orfive mills in Ozark County that
(10:31):
are historic.
Yeah, one of them, hodson Mill,for instance, is one of the
most photographed mills in theworld.
Yes, yeah, uh, rock Bridge andso on.
So that's kind of become thetheme.
Yep, look for that specificarea, right, and that's where we
came up with.
The Mill logo Looks right.
(10:53):
We even have one.
We had one built outside themain building.
If you look at the website orwhatever, it's kind of front and
center, yeah, and theheadquarters there.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
That's amazing, brian , I'd like to get into a little
bit.
So I underlined uh, stillprivately held and independently
operated, and I think that'sbig.
You know a lot of peoplelistening to this podcast.
Um, I think generally the thegeneral population of people
don't really know banking terms,what things mean.
They just kind of know oh you,if you need money for a house,
(11:24):
go to a bank, or if you needmoney for multifamily, go to a
bank.
Why does that separate you guys?
Being still private, because somany banks are not per se, can
you just walk us a little bitinto why that's a benefit for?
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Well, it's probably a couple of things.
Uh, you know we how many banksout here.
Well, let me back up.
When I started in banking in1990, there were 12 000 banks in
the country and, I think,several hundred banks in the
state of arkansas.
(11:58):
There were 600 banks in thestate of missouri.
Today that 12 000.
In the state of Missouri.
Today that 12,000 in thecountry is around 5,000.
The state of Missouri has gonefrom 600 to around 200.
Arkansas is down to 80 or so.
Yeah.
So all these changes, namechanges, you know, you wake up,
(12:21):
get a letter in the mail, youknow the name of your bank, or
your bank is now owned bysomebody else.
Yeah, those kind of things.
So that consistency isimportant.
Yeah, just, also, there's asmall group of people who you
can get decisions from quickly.
(12:41):
It's not going to committeeafter committee after committee
to get decisions made.
You can talk to the CEO if youwant.
Those are the kind of thingsthat a community bank offers.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Brian talk about how important that is for getting
quick decisions made, knowingthat I think with a privately
held bank, it gets better andbetter the more time is spent
with that bank.
And so someone like let's say,you and a group are investing in
a lot of multifamily I know youguys do what's the benefit of
(13:16):
knowing like, hey, this is Iknow they're going to give me a
response we can go back andforth pretty quick, as opposed
to like I've of course, been init our response.
We can go back and forth prettyquick, as opposed to like I of
course been in it, You've beenin it where it's like, oh, we'll
have a decision next, nextThursday, and then it's kind of
go to this department and towalk us through like how, how
awesome that is yeah, I thinkit's important, especially right
now.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
It feels like it's really hard to get a deal done.
Like I feel like I'm having tolook at a hundred deals to get
one deal done.
Before, like five, ten yearsago, I'd look at 20 and they
maybe wanted so.
Like to get good feedback withthat person before you start
putting money in a deal is superimportant.
To have quick and like goodfeedback is super important.
(13:56):
Then too, with some of thosemore regulated, you have a huge
credit committee.
Sometimes the terms change likeoh, like your originator might
say this is what we think we canget you, and then they go back
and it's totally different thanwhat we originally thought.
So then you're scrambling andhaving to find a different
lender?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yeah, I think that's very Information is not having
to go through a ton of differentpeople.
It's pretty direct and I think,speaking more so to our
audience, like on your side,when you get somebody that you
start building a relationshipwith does it.
I'm going to guess it getseasier the more deals are done
when, when I bring you something, if it's trash every time, you
(14:37):
know it's going to be a littleharder to get stuff done.
But if I bring this group orthis guy continues to bring good
products, I think those boardmeetings are probably a little
easier.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
I would I would think absolutely.
And we even have, you know,situations where we've got,
we've got folks that we've dealtwith for a while.
You know we'll get approvalsover and above where they're at
and it can.
Then it's just we're good withso and so-so here, up to this
level, yeah, you know get afterit.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, I think, speaking more so to our audience
now I think there's a lot ofimportance from creating a
relationship with a bank likeCentury Bank and getting to know
them and not, you know,shopping everybody out every
single time and I know there's atime and a place for that but
really built.
There's a real point in whatI've seen, even with some of the
I'm some of the bankingrelationships I've made with,
(15:27):
like actually having thatrelationship gets you a lot
further than just trying to shopevery single time.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Um, it's a negotiating tool, too, when
you're making an offer on aproduct, like my lender gave me
feedback here, like this is whatI need.
To be able to have thatfeedback from a lender too,
where it's not you're not justthe person that's asking for a
concession here, asking for this, like you know, having that
rapport with a lender, that'sgreat, you want this price, but
me or anyone else is going tohave to finance at these terms
(15:56):
unless they, you know, buy itall cash or something like that
and being able to tell thatseller hey, I'm banking with
century bank and I've been doingdeals with them for this long.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Um, they're local, they've been owned and operated
for 130, 30 years.
With private you, privatelyheld I mean that goes a long way
.
I think, on the seller side ofthings and being like okay, like
we're not dealing with, likelike rocket mortgage or
something like it, it's way, waydifferent having that ready to
go?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
yeah, I have.
I have pre, you know.
So you know.
Contingent on committeeapproval I have, you know, this
bank ready to go at these terms.
The same thing, like I don't doany single family investing.
But you know I have peoplefirst time getting into real
estate.
I tell them what you probablydo as a realtor get your
pre-approval letter before youstart making offers.
(16:45):
One, you're going to come instronger.
Two, you're going to have anidea of what you're.
It'll help you actually narrowyour buy box down to if you talk
to the lender first.
So same thing in commercialmultifamily being able to say,
yes, lender has me at theseterms.
Yeah, because a lot.
It brings more strength to yourconversations with Zelle.
Totally.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
And those approvals, like you said earlier, can come
so fast in this community bank.
You know a lot of times, alex,here at the loan office, here he
may say, hey, because our loancommittee meets on Fridays.
Well, if somebody comes in onWednesday or Thursday it may be
(17:26):
different, or Monday, hey, weneed to move on this.
Is there any way he can callmyself?
Yeah, bill Triva, the chieflending officer.
We can have a mini loancommittee meeting in 10 minutes,
yeah, and make some decisions.
If numbers work and all that,we can make some decisions.
If numbers work and all that,we can make some decisions in
(17:48):
minutes.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
He's been good.
I haven't done any deals withhim yet, but that's because we
just met at the NWA investingevent but we looked at a couple
of deals together.
It's really good.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I have a client who I have a real story of a client
who got a pre-approval letter in30 minutes from Alex and it was
I think it might have been asaturday, um, and I think there
was already a little bit ofpre-work done, but it would.
You have local people that arewilling to do things like that
for you.
I'd like to dive a little bitinto.
I'm just seeing a part on here.
It says most likely to leavegainesville and can you and you
(18:22):
returned as a chairman and ceo,can you walk us through that
like that little story rightthere?
Speaker 4 (18:28):
well, that was you know, or who voted you.
You always do those things inhigh school, you know um so, or
at least we did in the 80s.
That was high school, yeah,yeah.
So you know, that's just one ofthose senior yearbook deals.
Even with, even with hundreds ofyears of legacy banking, they
still thought you might well,you know, because will tell you,
when you live in a tiny littletown, my thought was I wanted to
(18:53):
be in a big city, yeah.
I wanted to get out, yeah, whichI kind of did, and realized
that that wasn't for me.
Yeah, for several reasons.
But you know, I wanted to getout.
They, you know all tiny littlehigh school, everybody knew that
.
So you have all those votesmost likely to do this or
(19:15):
whatever.
Yeah, I was most voted.
They had a most likely to leavegainesville, never come back,
and then they had most likely tonever Gainesville, never come
back, and then they had mostlikely to never leave.
And they got it 50% right onboth.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the other guyleft and never came back.
The two that were votes votedmost likely to never leave.
(19:37):
One did and one didn't.
So, yeah, um, you know, I, Iwanted to get out and get to the
big city, yeah, and then kindof realized, oh, this isn't
really, and where's the big cityfor you?
I went to college for two years, so I graduated high school in
1987.
And I went to college for twoyears at Rockhurst University up
(19:58):
in Kansas City, okay, and thenkind of realized that wasn't my
world, yeah, and came back toSpringfield and finished up at
Missouri State, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
What got you back to chairman and CEO.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
So as I got back into Springfield, I worked in
Boatman's Bank, which was a bankin both Missouri and Arkansas,
in the late 80s, 90s.
And why not work for the familybank at that time?
Well, late 80s, 90s?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
And why not work for the family bank at that time?
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Well, I was still in college and then, as I started
getting out of, or starting toget out of college in 90, 91, I
talked to my dad a little and hesaid, listen, you don't want to
just come straight back to thebank, you know you, you want to
go get some experience, yeah,and that type, sorry wise.
(20:52):
So then I worked at anotherbank after right after college,
for a year, which you know thatmight not have been, that might
have been quicker than what, buthe had need.
So then I came back in 93.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Wow, I see that kind of as a common theme.
I love the legacy story.
I have two boys, two and a halfand five months old, so it gets
me excited hearing about thislegacy and everything.
I think it's a common theme,especially in all across
Arkansas.
I feel like Arkansasians have astrong uh legacy, like pride
(21:30):
with legacy, yeah, and that'sreally cool to see uh, your
legacy, and I think it's whywhat I was going with that is a
lot of these guys who aremulti-general legacy.
They do go off on their likethey they're not just, you know,
straight, for example, my sonmaybe not straight into wages
capital.
He goes off to another firm andgoes back and brings that
(21:52):
experience you know, with theAllens and stuff like that.
Matt.
First he didn't jump into Sageand you know all the ventures
right away.
He worked for, actually, a bank, and I forget some others, but
it's interesting to see that.
I think that's great advicebecause you can maybe get burned
out.
If that's all you know, thenmaybe you do want to run away
(22:14):
because you're thinking aboutwhat else is out there.
But one you get to see whatelse is out there.
You bring that experience backinto your family's legacy.
What were they doing right,right, what were they doing
wrong?
What are things that you canimprove on?
Yeah, so I think that's areally good, wise and yeah
choice.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Obviously worked out well, we did it.
You know, alex, um which itwasn't like this straight plan
that he would come back to bank,that was kind of.
That's probably anotherinteresting story how that came
about.
But he worked after college,worked at Great Southern Bank
he's out of Springfield butthey've got an office just up
(22:52):
the road here too and workedthere for several years.
And we were actually sittingaround Bull Shoals Lake five
years ago or something onFourthth of July and I said why
don't we open up an LPO inFayetteville and you can make
loans for Century rather thanGreat Southern?
(23:15):
So that kind of came about thatway.
This is Alex Martin, yeah, andthen future son-in-law.
That kicked off theFayetteville.
That kicked off theFayetteville, yeah, okay
son-in-law.
That kicked off the Fayetteville.
That kicked off theFayetteville.
Yeah, okay, son-in-law.
I didn't know that was said.
Yes, yes, alex's son-in-lawOkay, married to Abby is our
firstborn daughter.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Wow, wow.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
So that five years ago in July Five years ago,
because we opened the LPO that'son the square and the prior
center there in fayetteville inoctober I believe october of 21,
okay, okay, so we'd opened upthe mountain home brand full
(23:58):
service branch in may, april ormay of 21 and then opened that
one, yeah, um, which I didn'treally have a plan for that, but
then we just kind of gottalking about it and he had that
experience and he brought a lotof that experience.
It was a more formal trainingprocess at Great Southern or a
larger bank, which was great.
(24:19):
Yeah, jackson Britt is futureson-in-law in a few months and
he's worked at another bank.
And then, coming back tocentury, actually next week is
he going to be at the fablelocation.
He's going to work out a fablelocation.
Uh, credit analyst, yeah, whichis kind of new.
(24:40):
You know, that's a new positionfor us live full-time credit
analyst.
So wow, but those guys workinggetting experience that we
didn't have.
We don't have.
We didn't have that formaltraining, yeah, and to bring
that in and formalize some ofthose things, yeah, the lone
steps has been great.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Well, speaking of 2021, this will kind of segue
into a part like how wasstarting the Fayetteville branch
during COVID and that, what was?
Was there anything really weirdthat happened with starting a
branch in Fayetteville duringCOVID?
Like, was that a challenge inany in any way I can imagine
maybe.
I mean, I guess there wasn'tnecessarily like people coming
(25:20):
in and out per se, correct?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
yeah, you know it.
It I didn't notice that and Iguess we were kind of easing out
of that at the time.
And so you know when and that,because that is an LPO at this
time, which that's, I mean wewe're looking to the future and
maybe doing something expandingthat in the near term.
(25:45):
But you know, we were kind ofcoming out of that, you know,
and and he, when we opened thatup in october, you know I
remember, um, we had the chamberwas there, everybody was, you
know, cut, ribbon cutting andall that.
So, yeah, I don't remember thatit.
(26:06):
You know that that was thatchallenging at that time.
Now you, you back up a year andprobably been different.
Yeah, totally, totallydifferent that's, that's great.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
What's uh so how?
Your headquarters is ingamesville.
Um, how big is that favo branch?
You guys have plans onexpanding?
Speaker 4 (26:27):
so favo branch, youville branch you know we're
growing it right now.
Alex has built a great loanportfolio there.
Loan production office or loanoffices don't allow for
collecting deposits yeah.
So you know that's next on thehorizon and you know that's
(26:51):
where we want to expand the bankgoing forward.
And so, as we look towards notonly expanding the loan side of
the bank but increasing thedeposits, we want to do yeah,
we're looking at potentiallygrowth there by doing a full
service branch.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, so I guess I'm just kind of brainstorming,
talking out loud.
You know, I don't want to saythat the Fayetteville thing was
like a whim of a.
You know, there was, of course,a bunch of thought put into
that.
How do you see, from yourperspective as a ceo, how do you
see the growth of everythinghappening?
(27:31):
All the data, all thestatistics and you guys
traditionally being more ofwould correct me if I'm wrong
more like a rule bank type oftype of bank and seeing this
huge growth, how do you, how doyou manage or say, hey, we're
gonna stay this, this size, orwe're going to grow what, we're
going to try to grow with thearea.
(27:51):
What's, what's the balancethere?
I mean, do you try to keepgrowing with all the data and
statistics or do you keep itsmall because that's what's
worked in the past?
Or I mean, it's what is he?
Speaker 2 (28:03):
I've seen, yeah, I think, and where you're going,
I've seen other.
But, like some banks are likeour development bucket is full.
Right now we're not looking atany development deals, but we'll
start looking again.
Or even our multifamily ourmultifamily development bucket
is full right now.
So or a we're we're openingthat back up and we're looking
at this.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I guess is there a strategy on yeah, the strategy
behind seeing the projectionsand growth for this area is Is
there an outlook on that for you, right?
Speaker 4 (28:30):
Well, you know, we went through quite a long period
, probably from the late 90suntil COVID, where it was pretty
low growth.
It's always been a highperforming bank, right, always
(28:51):
been a high performing bank,right, but in terms of our
internal numbers, bankingnumbers that bankers talk about,
that would be customers, and Idon't care, as long as it's safe
customers, I'm gonna care aboutthis, right.
But it's always been a highperforming bank but relatively
low growth, because the marketwe're in, it's been.
It's great.
Yeah, we have the bestcustomers, best communities in
the world, yeah, um, but growthwise, you know, we and in part
(29:18):
we had kept it that way a littlebit on purpose, for variety of
reasons, but in, uh, in duringcovid, most because all these
deposits came flowing back intothe banks most banks' balance
sheets just took a pop, yeah, asdid ours.
So we kind of popped up andcontinued that for several years
(29:41):
, yeah, and so we've seensignificant growth, which we've
maintained, yeah, growth whichwe've maintained, yeah.
Then in, let's say, 2021, wedecided we want to go to
mountain home, fayetteville, andgrowth became, you know,
something we want to focus moreon.
(30:01):
Okay, we've maintained the highperforming part, but we want to
also focus on growth.
That's like, where's thatgrowth going to come from?
It's going to come from MountHolmes, not a large community in
Fayetteville or Rogersstandards, but it is a larger
community than we're intraditionally, right, and when
(30:23):
you start from zero, well, wedidn't start from zero always
had a presence, just not aphysical presence, in Baxter
County, yeah, so you know that'swhere growth was going to come
from.
Obviously here, yeah, or inNorth by Sargassaw a lot of
growth possibilities or optionsthere, right, uh, so that that's
(30:44):
kind of where we well, I seeyou, I see you.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I see you saying you're not willing to sacrifice.
The high performance is, ofcourse, number one, but you
don't want to grow and cut intothat.
You could step on your own feetand just grow too much and the
performance is down, but youlook like you're growing.
Is that what I'm hearing?
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Right, we actually have meetings.
I've kind of developed a newgroup, just some new staff that
have worked in some other banksmore recently, that I wanted to
get their perspective.
Yeah, and you know, I, uh, I, Itold them I'm not, I don't this
(31:34):
, I'm not needing this bank tojust skyrocket the growth.
Right, I'd like to ramp it up.
Where's that?
You know that's going to comesome from our branches in in
Ozark County or that, that typeof thing.
But a lot of that growth isgoing to come from, you know,
(31:54):
north central arkansas, upnorthwest arkansas, we hope and
it is.
Yeah, and you know, just rampthat growth up a little bit,
continue the high performing aswe can, yeah on the investment
side.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
What do you get?
What do you like a lot rightnow and what are you cautious
about, I guess?
Or what are you more aggressiveon or more conservative on?
Is there something like if youget sent an office deal, are you
more cautious on that than aland deal?
Or you know, I think rightbefore we started recording, you
said uh, it depends a lot onthe, the uh relationship and who
(32:32):
you're investing to.
So maybe you're more bullish ona certain uh investor, um, or
maybe it's location too, maybeit's.
Yeah, we have a strong presencein ozark, but we're not as
aggressive on if it's in nixon,missouri, as it is if it's in
Bentonville, arkansas.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Yeah, I would say you know a lot of it has to do with
the borrower and their strength.
Yeah, obviously, the collateral, the location, that type of
thing I'm not.
You know, and we do virtuallyany type of lending, virtually
(33:13):
any type of lending.
A lot of, a lot of land, bareland takedowns we've done which
this wouldn't apply here as muchbut you know a lot of ag
primarily, uh, beef cattle nuttype thing it's not crops or
anything, obviously in theozarks uh.
So a lot of ag.
That's been a big thing for us.
Our traditional lending has beenon ag, again, beef cattle, that
(33:36):
type of thing, ag, land, ag,real estate.
A lot of tourism-based stuff.
Of course we've got lakes,rivers, marinas, tourist-based
businesses over in that area aswell.
So a lot of that Over here.
We've done a lot more.
(33:58):
Some land development, but notnecessarily the development
piece, but the land takedown,get the land ready and then you
know that may be handed off tosome.
You know somebody else who doesthe development lending but a
lot of smaller multifamily stuffin here, those kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah, so a listener listening into this and I know a
lot of my out-of-stateinvestors will listen in on this
podcast and we're taking downsmall multifamily.
Single family, you would say.
Century Bank is a good, a goodfit for that, Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
Alex especially.
You know that's kind of hisforte.
Yeah, he's done some of thatpersonally, you know as well as
been the lender for us, so he'she's kind of you know he's he's
the guy here who's got a lot ofexpertise in there.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah, so it's like it's the bar.
It's a lot of weight on theborrower too.
So I think you know for some ofour people are new into real
estate you might have a strongbalance sheet, but if you don't
have the experience in a certainasset class, it might make
sense to partner up with someonethat has that experience to
show to the lender yeah, yeah,that, that experience to show to
(35:10):
the lender um, so that yeahyeah, 100, yeah.
So you guys started another bankand in the process of selling
that bank, I guess, walk usthrough that process and maybe
some lessons learned throughthat bank that you're now
incorporating too yeah, and it,you know it, it was planned to
be kind of different, verygrowth-oriented was the plan
(35:30):
from day one.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
And also, because it's called Legacy Bank and
Trust, it's not the Legacy Bankin Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
That's Legacy Bank.
This is Legacy Bank and Trust,let's call it based around
Springfield, tulsa, dallas, fortWorth now.
So, but a little bit differentbusiness model.
But in 2002, and the other partof that is I wanted to involve
(36:00):
some other shareholders, becausewhen you have a tightly held
family business, it's hard toget you know other shareholders
or maybe you don't want to get alot of other shareholders
involved.
This was a way to include someother people, and so we did that
, and in 2002 I reached out to abank consultant that I knew and
(36:23):
we were talking about maybebuying a little bank and
starting a whole new operationthat some of us would own both
personally and Century Bankwould own some of as well.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
So we found a little bank and it was up in Missouri,
a tiny bank, probably thesmallest bank in the state state
and we formed this group,bought this bank, branched to
another small town and boughtanother bank that was just
outside of springfield a smallbank.
(36:58):
Yeah, branched again.
So now we're probably in 2007or so.
Yeah, we, that's when we didthat other branch around
Springfield.
Downturn happened.
Everybody kind of had theirmoments during that, 2009 to
10-11.
Yeah, but made it through that.
(37:19):
And then in 2016, we purchased abank in this is Legacy Bank and
purchased a bank in Springfieldand then at the same time and
Century did this as well becamea CDFI, community Development
Financial Institution Catches awhole other discussion probably
(37:43):
we can talk about.
But growing and as we get into2018, 19, 20, 21 all that was
happening growing again.
We built the new headquartersin springfield and continue to
(38:03):
grow.
It expanded to tulsa and thenbought three closed bank
branches in Plano, north, dallasand Fort Worth and opened those
up a couple of years ago.
Then we have made a deal withSouthern Bank in litter rock
(38:30):
that will close later, laterthis year, probably first,
probably january, okay, um andso so from 2003 to basically now
, you guys have gone from 30million to 1.9 billion and the.
The original bank that wepurchased was 18 million tiny
bank, okay, um, I think when youadd up we, we purchased 18
(38:54):
million dollar bank, a 40million dollar bank or so and I
think around a 90 million dollarbanks those, so those three
numbers are the one what wepurchased yes and that and
that's about two billion now.
So in.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
So in 2003,.
How old were you, were you thechair?
Speaker 4 (39:17):
I was 33 or 33, 34 when we started the process of
forming this group to buy thisbank in 2002.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
What's the journey like to?
I mean, because that's a big,it's a big jump and there's a
lot of decisions that have to bemade in between that and I mean
we're hitting it from a verymacro point.
We're just like skimming thesurface of this.
I mean crazy number jump andthis journey and story you could
probably write a book on.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
Well, I actually well , part of.
It's just a family book, butprobably the chapter I've
focused most on thinking aboutis that this one.
Legacy, what?
Speaker 1 (39:57):
I've been focusing on some bigger life things right
now and I guess there's a lot ofstress in between the $30
million and the $1.9 billion andthen selling it and you formed
a group Acquisition now about tosell and I guess was all the
purchases, was it worth it, allthe stress and everything to
(40:21):
make that journey?
Speaker 4 (40:21):
Because that's a journey.
Right there it is and it wasworth.
It is worth it.
The keys I would tell youngerpeople wanting to do something
(40:58):
like this is of great people andallow them to have significant
ownership as well.
And they are owners.
I don't feel like owners,they're owners.
Yeah, and you know, I don't.
Obviously, most of those folksweren't there in 2002, 2003.
The ceo was came in 2004 as cfo.
Yeah, so he's been in a longtime, but as far as being there
(41:18):
in 2002, 2003, there was anothergroup my dad and and a couple
other folks that work withcentury that helped start it.
But in terms of the last,especially 10-15 years, I don't
want to take.
They ought to be sitting heretalking about this, not me.
I mean, I can talk about theearly years and I was I hope I
(41:42):
was supportive, right, but theywere running that show, yeah,
for you know, especially thelast 10 to 15 years.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
So you feel like a lot of that stress or you know,
just with growing, somethinglike that, there's going to be
stress and growth and they theywere involved in that and you
were, you did you feel more of asupport role and that, yeah,
that's what I would say, um,especially the last 10 or so, um
, that that's, that, that's beenmy role.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
The other thing with with that one in century two,
but it's in a way it's it's in away it's more impressive when
with legacy, bank and trust thanit is with century, just
because the size that.
But both century and legacy Icould say this about they both
are run with that same thing wetalked about a minute ago.
(42:36):
With century, you can talk, wecan have decisions like that.
That's a two billion dollarbank that we can.
It's not a ship that you knowyou've got to start turning it
miles ahead of time.
We can maneuver it with a smallgroup of people making
decisions quickly.
So you have all of theinfrastructure and abilities
(43:03):
that you have in a $2 billionbank, but you have the board and
decision ability of a 50million yeah if you need it.
That's incredible, that's what.
That's what besides thatownership and hire great people
allow them to have ownership andthen be able to maneuver
quickly.
I think that's where largerbanks and I don't blame, I'm
(43:28):
talking to people, uh, that wereon boards of larger banks and
they're like it's just not thesame and I say, well, it can't
be, I, I'm not, I'm not even,I'm not gonna throw stones,
right, uh, you just can't have a5, 10, 15, 20 billion dollar
bank maneuver that way.
I don't think legacy would haveif it went to be 5, 10, 15
(43:49):
billion.
Right, it's just impossible.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
How have you kept the culture of Century Bank with
the growth?
Do you do that by keeping theboard small and the quick
decision making.
How do you keep that culture?
Speaker 4 (44:05):
intact.
I think the people that are manmanagement at century, you know
we all have the same philosophyuh, work well together.
The board has the samephilosophy, all tracking the
same direction.
You know?
That's another thing.
Yeah, I'd say kind of myhistory and over 30, some years,
(44:28):
35 years of learning, if we'reall working together and you're
a lender, you're in the business, you're in the risk business.
You're going to have a losshere and there.
That's not the deal breaker.
Deal breaker is if we are,we've got to all be pulling the
same direction, towards the samegoal.
(44:50):
And if one person over here isbuilding alliances against the
others and trying to go adifferent direction against this
group, and yeah, that getsfractured.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
That's where the problem yeah, I feel like you
guys have have walked thisreally fine cool line of and I
don't know if there was everfractures, but like keeping a
really good group of cool peoplefor a long period of time, is
that how it's always been?
Speaker 4 (45:18):
Oh yeah, that's how it's been.
I mean, there's always ifyou've got 60 employees or 200
employees or whatever it is,there's always going to be
issues.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
It's not always roses .
Speaker 4 (45:32):
But we have a fantastic staff, know the
management and and all that forthe most part, has pulled same
direction, work towards thosesame goals and believes in it I
love that you've you've kept itas very family oriented as
possible.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
And, alex, and what was your new son-in-law to be
son-in-law's name?
Jackson, jackson jackson willbe in Century Bank and I think
that's really cool and I thinkthat's something listeners, if
you're listening like is some.
It's it's rare to have in abank like of your size and being
able to make quick decisionsand it's very family oriented
(46:09):
and you don't have to go through20 people to get a decision on
something and you know it's a.
To me it comes off and fromtalking with Alex as a bank,
it's like not going to just tryto do a deal, to get the deal
done, like if it sucks.
They're, you're, you guys areprobably going to tell us.
It's like you're going to say,hey, this, this is like a
terrible deal, like I wouldn'tadvise you doing this.
(46:29):
And I've actually been on thegolf course of Alex and heard
him say like I probably want todo this before.
So, um, I think that'stransparency and honesty with
lending.
Um is the way you guys, that isthe culture.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
It seems um is just doing the right thing well, and
you know, um, all of our loansstay in house.
We, we don't sell loans.
And you know, back during thedownturn, 2009-10, and there
8-9-10, that's where not only alot of banks got in trouble, a
(47:01):
lot of folks got in troublebecause these mortgage brokers
and so forth, they were justhere.
Just sign here and we'll, youknow, qualify you.
Well, they weren't reallyqualified.
It wanted to be qualified.
They weren't really qualified.
They wanted to be qualified.
They weren't really qualified.
And that's not good.
That's not good for the bank,yeah, but the bank didn't care
(47:22):
because they're just selling itand it's not on the bank's books
.
The loan officer doesn't carebecause he's getting that
commission and it's going.
Yeah, but then the customer, ifrates go up, what have you?
They're going.
I can't, I shouldn't havequalified for this.
I can't take care of this.
Yeah, so you know, our lenderseverybody knows this is on the
(47:43):
bank's books you don't want toqualify somebody who can't, you
know, be qualified.
Well, everybody's again pullingthe same direction.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
Yeah, I mean, if you're Mr Investor, listening,
like if you bring something tolike y'all and they say no and
you want to try to find a yes,you might really need to simmer
on that no and really thinkabout, like why did they say no?
And you guys are it's almostlike a second line of defense,
like we might've, as theinvestor, written underwrote the
(48:12):
property and we're like soundsgood.
And then you guys say no andbeing able to ask questions, why
wasn't it a no?
And I think that's somethingthat could protect you from a
downfall in the future as aninvestor.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
Yeah, I like how you give some of your key people
upside.
I mean, I tell that if you wantto get good people and have
them stay, giving them upsidepotential on what they do is
going to be key and how you cangrow turn.
So, whether that's giving themequity or ownership or whether
that's higher percent profitshare, I think that's key to
(48:46):
having a good business thatcontinues to grow, because your
people around you areincentivized to do well on
anything they do, becausewhether that helps them their
equity grow or they get moreprofit.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
So yeah, I think I'd like to hit.
You know, as we three, fourminutes from being ending, I'd
like to.
As a chairman and CEO of a bank, um, you obviously probably
have some favorite books andsome favorite habits that you do
.
Uh, what either?
What's your favorite book alltime?
And then do you have a favoritebook right now?
I mean, you might not be areader, but my wife's the big
(49:20):
reader in our family.
Speaker 4 (49:21):
I would say, um, tell you, when I read recently, that
was fantastic.
I'm probably a little morenon-fiction guy.
That yeah, um.
And I like my wife and I bothlike podcasts and I like, yeah,
I'm a Rogan guy, yeah, um.
So I uh listened to a lot ofRogan stuff and he had a lady.
(49:43):
I don't know if you listen to,I do, I do.
He had a lady and I'm alsofascinated with the kind of CIA
military stuff yeah yeah, so hehad a lady on there named Annie
Jacobs and I believe, yeah, andshe wrote, she's written several
books, but one was calledSurvive, kill Vanish, okay, and
(50:04):
it's about kind of the historyof CIA paramilitary world, yeah,
and goes back talks about thisguy, billy Wall, who's a
fascinating know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that wasone of that's probably the one
that's been on my radar.
(50:24):
What was it called?
Survive, kill vanish, survive.
She also wrote one, a biographyabout this billy wall, who was
in Special Forces heading backto Korea, vietnam, and this guy
we're getting probably off topic.
No, it's fine.
He developed the halo jumpReally Way back, way back, and
(50:53):
then did his last halo jump likeinto Cuba or something, when he
was 85 years old or something.
Oh, my God, it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
That's when I've been going recently.
That's insane.
So, uh, okay, books, do youhave any habits that you know?
People listen to this, ofcourse, for getting updates on
NWA, but like we have a lot ofsuccessful people on here and
successful people have habits,are there any habits that you
feel have helped you with yoursuccess, either a morning
routine or something you doevery day?
(51:25):
Is there?
Is there something along thoselines you would suggest for a
listener listening or brian andI that does help you with your
success?
Speaker 4 (51:33):
I'm not necessarily a routine guy, but everybody
would say anybody that knows methat listens to this, but say,
oh, yeah, I, I'm a schedule guy.
Okay, um, like I always joke.
Somebody says what about, let'sdo this.
You know, april the 25th 2028.
(51:56):
And I go no, I can't do that, soyou know, that's yeah that
probably, and I probably gooverboard with it, cause I'm not
, I I kind of tend to.
If it's not, is it on theschedule, and if it's not, I'm
not very good otherwise, butright, I think to I guess not
(52:17):
double book thing, not you knowthose kind of things, so for me
it helps to have it.
Do you schedule your fun time?
Probably, yeah, probably, it'sprobably all too much.
Yeah, schedule I go golf?
Yeah, I probably overdo theschedule, but I mean I literally
have.
We usually play golf at bigcreek there in mountain home on
(52:38):
wednesdays and it is on thereevery wednesday, blocked out,
but yeah, yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
I have have grown to live and die.
By my schedule I'm.
I'm booked, I have stuffscheduled out to the end of next
year, to 2026.
So do you schedule?
Know fun, but like personaldevelopment or anything like
that, do you have time blockswhere it may not be a meeting
with someone but, like this timeevery day I'm gonna try to
(53:07):
think of ideas or knock outthese calls, or does that just
come to that?
Speaker 4 (53:10):
Yeah, I would say so, and not just that kind of
personal development relating tobusiness.
Also, just like I've gotteninto woodworking last year too,
your grandson is 18 months old,so I've kind of gotten into that
.
So you know, I'm like I've gota schedule literally this
(53:30):
weekend, come up with a newwoodworking project or whatever.
You know those kinds.
What have you been doing withthe woodworking so far?
Oh, I mean, I'm very much anamateur, but just I I made him a
um, one of those busy boardhouses, yeah, for christmas last
year, oh, it's fun.
Then we bought one to have atour house in fayetteville and
(53:53):
it's similar and I told wife,there's no telling what I've got
in this thing I've builtbecause I bought.
I built the frame of it butthen bought all the pieces.
Yeah, this is the mostexpensive.
I just should have bought one.
Speaker 1 (54:11):
But you know those types of things.
Yeah, that's, that's great.
That's great.
Brian, do you have anything?
Speaker 4 (54:28):
Yeah, I guess, just a piece of advice to an investor
approaching a bank, whether it'sCentury Bank, the Ozarks or any
bank.
What kind of advice do you giveto investors approaching banks
of?
You touched on it earlier to um, develop a relationship with
the bank, and there's nothingwrong and I know a lot of people
do it and I'm not saying I'venot done it too to you know,
just shop rates for the bestrate.
(54:48):
I would say that's not alwaysthe best option.
You might get a better rate forthis particular deal, but over
time, you know you, you mightlose out on a deal because I'm,
you're shopping around and, likeyou said, uh, somebody might
(55:09):
just and I've heard about thissomebody might just say, yeah,
we'll, we'll do that for six anda half or whatever, yeah, and
then you get ready to do it andthey go.
You know what, I ran that upthe chain and our bucket's full
on that type of lending.
Yeah yeah well, these communitybanks really don't operate that
(55:30):
way.
Yeah, if you develop arelationship with me or one of
our lenders, or alex or somebodylike that, you know that's,
that's not going to happen.
Yeah, and so you might.
The rate might not always bethe bot in it on the lending
side, yeah, but you know, I dothink that quick turnaround be
(55:53):
able, because you might lose adeal that might make a bunch of
money on the back end but youlost it because you're shopping
rates for that.
Three basis points.
Speaker 1 (56:06):
Yeah Well, and as Winstone Private Lending we had
them on here.
It's not always right, you know.
Look at your fees, becausereally you got to look at it
from like what am I paying forthis loan, not just what is the
rate.
Break down your fees on eachthing.
I mean if you're 7.2 and thisperson's seven, but your fees
(56:26):
are less, I mean it might be amuch better deal at 7.2.
Speaker 2 (56:31):
I think it's a common mistake for investors to get
too fixated on a rate thananything else.
Linkedin's great yeah, tryingto get the best rate, but
there's so many other factorsand just a lot leverage terms,
prepayment, penalties, fees,schedule and then, just even
outside the loan itself, thespeed of execution.
I mean, maybe you get held upon a closing and the bank has to
(56:55):
move too slow and you getpushed out of a set, the the the
seller needs to close at thisdate, but you're not able to do
that because you were trying to.
Speaker 1 (57:03):
You would have wished you would have paid that three
base more, because it just madeyou three hundred thousand
dollars, you know, yeah, so it.
I I 100.
Speaker 4 (57:09):
Agree that that's really smart and you know any of
us, and it's not just bankingyou go, you want to go to the
grocery store.
You think you can go to grocerystore X or you can go to Whole
Foods.
It's not the cheapest, but theymay have, you know, a different
(57:31):
mix of products.
Yeah, that's a good point.
So it's not convenience, allthose things, and that's the
thing that we can offer and I'mnot saying we're the only one,
but it, we, we either can or weare in the process of developing
where we can do anything.
(57:52):
We've got the online bank andwe've got the app.
Yeah, obviously, debit cards,all those things that anybody,
the largest banks, have.
Yes, so you can compete withthem on those products.
They can't do this other.
We're talking yeah, that $50billion bank cannot do what
(58:13):
we're talking about doing.
Yeah, that is impossible forthem.
Mm-hmm cannot do what we'retalking about doing, but that is
impossible for them.
They have as much ability asanybody to do all the apps.
They've got the products.
They have all that and they areunmatched with it, and a lot of
these community banks have gotthat either on par or close
(58:36):
Right.
Speaker 1 (58:37):
But this other relationship relationship part,
yeah, that you're saying havethe relationship and have some.
You get both modern luxuries.
You get both things.
Yeah, I think I think you guysare a perfect blend of yeah, of
all of it.
Speaker 2 (58:51):
I really do yeah, it's been great.
Uh, I love the legacy.
I love that.
Uh, you know, arkansas legacygrowing the bank, hiring the
right people, having therelationship a lot of good
takeaways in this episode, so wereally do appreciate you coming
on today.
Speaker 1 (59:08):
Thank you for having me.
It was a pleasure, chris.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, thanks for listeningin, thanks guys.
This episode is brought to youby Winstone Private Lending, one
(59:29):
of the top private and Thanksfor listening in, thanks guys.
What sets them apart is theirdeep expertise, fast response
times and ability to thinkoutside of the box to help
investors like us close quicklyand efficiently.
If you're looking for a reallending partner, check out
Winstone Private Lending.
Link is in the show notes.
Our next sponsor is AdvantageTitle Escrow.
(59:52):
They're a local company.
They do great work,specifically Kayla Phillips.
I can speak personally on thissponsor because I use Kayla for
all of my transactions.
It's been two, three, fouryears now and Kayla and I have
done a ton of deals.
We probably do between 65 to 80deals a year together and they
do a great job.
The SOPs, so systems andprocessing that they have over
(01:00:12):
at Vantage Title is justincredible.
Clients love it.
They do a great job.
The SOPs so systems andprocessing that they have over
Advantage Title is justincredible.
Clients love it.
They do a great job from startto end communicating.
When I give a deal to AdvantageTitle and escrow I know that
it's going to be taken care of.
There's no second guessing.
I almost am able to treat themlike a second transaction
(01:00:33):
coordinator to my transactioncoordinator that I already have.
I know that they're going tohandle the systems and processes
correctly as an agent, as ahomeowner, as a buyer or seller.
They do an incredible job ofhandling a transaction and
communicating throughout theprocess.
They do a great job withcommunication, especially Kayla
Phillips over there.
I would highly encourage you, ifyou're looking to close on a
(01:00:56):
home, buy a home, if you're anagent listening to use advantage
, title and escrow specificallyKayla Phillips.
So you're going to reach Kaylabest at 501-358-1601.
Or you can email her KaylaC-A-Y-L-A at GoAdvantageTitlecom
(01:01:19):
.
Advantage isA-D-V-A-N-T-A-G-E-Titlecom.
Banks are about community andCentury Bank of the Ozarks has
been your community bank for 131years.
That's over a century since1894.
They've been helping neighborsbuild homes, grow businesses and
(01:01:41):
plan futures.
Because they're locally owned,your loan approval happens here,
not miles away.
Visit their locations inFayetteville and Mountain Home,
arkansas, as well as Gainesville, theodosia, bakersfield and Ava
, missouri.
Century Bank of the Ozarkslocal bankers make local
decisions since 1894.
(01:02:02):
Member FDIC and Equal HousingLender.
If you enjoyed the show, makesure to give us a follow on your
favorite podcast platform soyou never miss an update.
Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Don't forget to connect with us on Instagram,
facebook and LinkedIn for morereal estate insights and behind
the scenes content.
Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
Have a question you want us to cover, send it our
way and if you're interested insponsoring the show, visit
nwainvestingcom to get in touch.
Thanks for listening and we'llsee you next time.
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