Strategy, Lending, and Faith with Jody Bruns
In this episode, host Karen McNenny sits down with Jody Bruns, founder of the Certified Divorce Lending Professional (CDLP) designation and the Divorce Lending Association. With over 35 years in mortgage and finance — and having navigated her own divorce — Jody shares how she turned personal pain into a profession dedicated to helping divorcing homeowners make smarter, more strategic decisions about their most valuable asset.
Jody and Karen dig into why the family home is far more than a financial transaction — it’s an emotional anchor, a symbol of stability for children, and often the most complex piece of a divorce settlement. Jody explains how her CDLPs are trained to ask the deeper “why” before ever pulling out a loan application, and she walks through the real risks of keeping a home you can’t truly afford, illustrated by her memorable story of a baseball mom in Colorado who needed to hear an honest conversation about priorities.
The conversation gets into the nuts and bolts of divorce mortgage planning: the difference between a legal transfer assumption and a qualified loan assumption, how spousal support income affects mortgage qualification timing, why settlement agreement language can inadvertently block financing, and the complexity of 1031 exchanges during divorce. Jody also flags a key red flag for listeners: if a mortgage professional goes straight for a loan application without asking questions about your situation, walk away.
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