Gurtler recently told Scotsman Guide that her wild growth was due to a lot of hard work and sacrifice. Her first two years, she had to hit the gas and learn as much as she could without falling behind. It was difficult, but she thrived in the high-pressure environment.

Now she’s hit her stride and is intimately familiar with the loan process in New York — which she calls “very long and unique” — as well as the other states she originates in. She studies constantly, keeping up with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rules along with special guidelines for self-employed borrowers. And Gurtler is organized and proactive, with spreadsheets full of borrowers who locked in at higher rates and a calendar packed with reminders to follow up.

She spends her working hours in Manhattan’s Financial District, in an office she calls “inspiring” because of co-workers who are team players (even if they’re technically competing for loans). After hours, you can find her at a comedy show in the city or at home cuddling her dog, Jax.

As a loan consultant for Ally, which partners with Better Mortgage Corp. on its digital platform, Gurtler has one of the largest marketing forces in the industry behind her. She also has a built-in client base in Ally’s banking and auto loan customers. While business slowed a bit in 2023, she still faces a unique problem in the current market: a full pipeline and more loans than she can close by herself.

“There is a lot of volume, so being able to get to everyone can be a challenge,” Gurtler said. “That requires a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication, to sit down and make those phone calls, answer those emails and be available as much as I can.”

She said she had to learn to be a leader and delegate when she needs assistance. She mentions her team often and affectionately, attributing much of her success to their support. Gurtler’s team of loan officer assistants keep in touch with borrowers early in the home purchase process and provide round-the-clock customer service.

This frees her up to focus on more immediate matters like borrowers with accepted offers, closing dates within 90 days and refinance applications. The market slowdown has allowed her more time to interface with each client and to chat with people who are still shopping. She’s earned one of the top accolades among Ally originators for spending so much time on the phone.

“I’m enjoying (the job) more because I feel like I’m giving that personal attention to my clients,” Gurtler said. “I’m building better connections, and I feel happier when they get their offer accepted or they get out of a high adjustable rate, because I know them more personally.”

The slowdown has also offered her a chance to regroup and “get off the hamster wheel.” Her company, she said, is focused on launching new services, including fully underwritten preapproval letters and a 24-hour turnaround on commitment letters.

“Having that in our back pocket is all the rage,” Gurtler said. “The Realtors love hearing that.”

She also has more time to travel and pursue her favorite hobby, snowboarding. Gurtler has made a point to travel to cities that are seeing a lot of in-migration, like Charlotte. When she talks to borrowers buying homes in these cities, it’s easier to build rapport because she understands the area and its way of life.

“I might be the only loan officer that feels this way, but I enjoyed 2023. Maybe not volume-wise, but I’m not in this industry to just make money,” Gurtler said.

Her biggest reward comes from helping people, especially first-time buyers, get into their dream homes. “My favorite thing in the world is when we go over their monthly payment and they tell me that it’s cheaper than rent. Best feeling,” she said. ●

Tips of the Trade

Work with your team if you’re lucky enough to have one. It’s impossible to do everything on your own. You need to work well with others and delegate. Those qualities can really help you reach more clients. Remember how important this is for the client — they’re buying a house or saving money on a refi. This is a big deal, so don’t lose sight of how you’re helping others. Make sure you follow up as much as possible. Stay on top of the borrower so they feel important, because they are.

The post Featured Top Originator: Marissa Gurtler, Ally powered by Better appeared first on Scotsman Guide.

Goss said she wanted a strong pedigree to be a professional mortgage banker. She served in the U.S. Marine Corps for five years, earning a degree in finance during her service, and then went to grad school at Boston University. She had to leave the Marines due to an injury but spoke highly of her experience, calling it one of her “greatest accomplishments.” In fact, Goss was only a few hours away from attending a Marine Corps ball when she recently spoke to Scotsman Guide.

She started her career at Navy Federal Credit Union as a member service representative and transitioned into mortgages after managing a bank branch at BB&T. There, she attended the “retail academy,” which taught her from the ground up how to do all kinds of loans, from conventional to home equity and business loans.

“I was able to break into cold calling people and learned to build relationships. Making calls and having day-to-day banking experience before I got into actual mortgage banking gave me a lot of context,” Goss said. “Being in the finance world made my foundation when I came into mortgage funding really, really strong. … I feel empowered to be able to help (my clients) because of that knowledge.”

Ten years into her career, Goss specializes in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) lending. There’s a lot that people don’t understand about VA loans, Goss said, so she aims to be a source of education — the first one people call when they have questions. She’s visible in her community of Jacksonville, North Carolina, and she’s a familiar face at nearby Camp Lejeune, where she runs classes and seminars for service members.

All of this is great for business, and military relationships are at the core of her business. Goss further expands her influence by serving on the military affairs committee of her local chamber of commerce, stays involved with organizations like Hope for the Warriors and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and is active in online groups for military women.

She’s worked hard to build relationships and is never afraid to “get her hands dirty” by doing the heavy lifting, but she credits a lot of her success to her team. “There’s no scenario that we really haven’t seen, collectively,” Goss said. “I feel like that makes us more powerful.”

Despite some challenges — including a difficult 2023 full of ups and downs for her business — Goss is grateful and loves the career she’s worked so hard to build. “I got to watch my mom do it, and she made a difference in so many people’s lives, so I just love making that difference and I feel like I do it for the right reasons,” she said. ●

Tips of the Trade

I tell people all the time in this industry — because everybody wants to be a loan officer — if you’re doing this for the money, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons, because you will eventually fail. And if you’re looking for something balanced, then you need to pick another career. This is very high stress and you take work with you everywhere you go, even on vacation. You have to be ready to work and you have to have thick skin.

The post Featured Top Originator: Amy Goss, Guild Mortgage Co. appeared first on Scotsman Guide.

“I loved Greece — I really did — and I didn’t see myself ever leaving. … The plan was go, start a career and transition back to Greece. But life has different plans sometimes,” Petritsis said. “This is where I met my wife and we made a home here.”

The couple had three daughters and settled down, but Petritsis and his wife Georgia are keeping their dream alive. They plan to return to Greece for half of each year when they retire.

Life also had plans to move him again, from Albuquerque to Houston, where Wells Fargo offered him a position as an area manager in 2010. He settled there with his family and worked in a nonproducing role for a few years, which gave him time to expand his Rolodex of referral partners and develop a system for building deep relationships with them.

Now he’s back to producing loans at Prosperity Bank, where he’s worked since 2018. He still uses the same building blocks to create mutually beneficial partnerships with Realtors and homebuilders. Making Realtors happy, he said, comes down to three simple things: no surprises, expedited service and a consistent loan process.

Builder relationships are especially important to Petritsis too, since one of the bank’s most popular products is its one-time-close construction loan. He’s eagerly pursued hundreds of these relationships.

“In the one-time-close space, you need to have a relationship with the builder. That was the main focus: ‘How do we become friends with the local builders?’” Petritsis said, adding that he and his team aggressively pursued builders, charmed them with sharp underwriting skills, delivered on promises and executed smoothly.

The construction product — along with other useful tools offered by Prosperity such as home equity lines of credit, lot loans and options for non-U.S. residents — even nets referrals for Petritsis from other mortgage originators. Among his friends and connections in the industry, the products he offers are well known, so when another lender doesn’t have what Petritsis has, the client is often referred to him.

Business has slowed this year in the Houston area, he said, but it hasn’t been as dramatic as some other markets. Houston is a “relocation sweet spot,” Petritsis said, and people are still moving there. He invests time in every client, having a long conversation with them at the beginning of the mortgage process. The 30 to 45 minutes he spends getting to know each client helps him to understand exactly what they need and works to prevent any possible hiccups down the road.

“I really believe that when you communicate with a customer that it’s not about rate, it’s not about terms, it’s about helping them understand the process — a predictable process, I would say, with no surprises,” he said. “That’s what customers are ultimately looking for, to do business with somebody that understands their wants and needs, and gets them to the finish line.” ●

Tips of the Trade

Learn the business. What I mean by that is, be the processor, be the underwriter, know how to analyze income. Know every aspect of the business, and that will really help you better level with the customers and with your internal partners. What I recommend to everybody is to make friends in the industry. Don’t build a transactional relationship; make long-lasting relationships in the marketplace. Your Realtors or builders, everybody’s going through the same obstacles, so it’s OK to be human. Go deep on your relationships.

The post Featured Top Originator: Spiro Petritsis, Prosperity Bank appeared first on Scotsman Guide.

Thousands of originators made the cut for this year’s Top Dollar Volume list, with entrants from all 50 states as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, but only 52 can be crowned as State Champions. The exceptional originators on the following pages had the highest sales volumes in their respective states in this year’s Top Originators rankings (which measure last year’s volumes).

The past few years saw plenty of real estate shake-ups across the nation, with migration patterns shifting and housing costs increasing. Last year set a record for most interstate movers, with 8.2 million people switching states and another 31 million people relocating within the same state, according to StorageCafe. The relatively expensive states of Alaska, New York, Illinois and California experienced the most negative net migration. Conversely, states like Idaho, Vermont, Montana and South Carolina have had high levels of positive net migration and tend to offer more affordable real estate.

Amid a high interest rate environment, movers are understandably eager to save money. Closing costs have increased alongside home prices, but several states are still affordable in this regard, according to an Assurance report released this past August. The lowest closing costs were in West Virginia, Alabama, South Carolina and Arkansas, all clocking in at less than $2,500 on average.

On the other end of the spectrum, New York, California and New Jersey had the highest closing costs, with expenses in each of these states averaging more than $7,500. Measured as a percentage of home value, however, the most expensive states for closing costs were Texas, New Mexico, Michigan and Wisconsin, where these miscellaneous expenses averaged more than 2.5% of a home’s value.

The state champion from Alabama, Kim Moon of FirstBank Mortgage, noted that migration is up in her market of Huntsville. The city grew 3.3% during the past year, its highest growth rate in a decade. And the Kentucky state champion, Jesse Cronen of Northpointe Bank, highlighted how his state’s relative affordability helps him to close more loans.

For this month’s rankings feature, Scotsman Guide reached out to six originators from all corners of the nation — from coast to coast and north to south — to learn what it’s like to work in their markets. Hear from Moon, Cronen and the four other Featured State Champions on Page 39.

This list is the final installment of the 2023 Top Originators series. We’ll take a break from rankings content for the next few months as we gear up for next year. The submission period will open Jan. 1, 2024, and the new rankings will debut in April. Visit scotsmanguide.com/rankings now to see updated guidelines, including changes to the qualification thresholds for dollar volumes and closed loans.

We can’t wait to see your name in next year’s Top Originators rankings. For now, enjoy the holiday season, and best wishes for the new year ahead.

Disparate home price gains between states

National home prices should rise by 3.4% during the year ending in August 2024, according to a forecast this past October from CoreLogic. In August 2023, prices rose 3.7% year over year, but state-level gains were vastly different across the board.

CoreLogic noted that eight states (Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New York, Texas, Utah and Washington) posted annualized declines in home prices. Four other states in the West — California, Colorado, Oregon and Wyoming — saw gains of 1% to 3%.

Much of the Midwest and Eastern Seaboard, meanwhile, saw increases of 5% or more, with the highest gains clustered in New England. New Hampshire led the nation with 9.4% year-over-year growth, while Maine and Vermont each saw increases of 8.9%. Among large metros, Miami led the pack with an 8.3% price gain. Chicago, Washington, D.C., and San Diego each had growth of more than 4%.

CoreLogic also measured the markets that are most at risk of home price declines in the coming year. It ranked the metro areas of Spokane, Washington; Cape Coral, Florida; Youngstown, Ohio; Ocala, Florida; and Deltona, Florida, at the top of this list. The report estimated the probability of price declines in these metros at more than 70%.

The post 2023 State Champions appeared first on Scotsman Guide.

ARIZONA

Brent Nardecchia

High Place Mortgage Inc.

2022 Production Numbers

Closed Loans: 199

Total Dollar Volume: $204 million

“I do what I say I’m going to do, I always show up, I communicate and I do what is best for my clients. Instead of just chasing commissions, I forge long-term relationships. And I’m in a luxury market, which keeps me on my toes with all different types of clients. Although we average loan amounts in the jumbo market, we service every client, including first-time homebuyers, veterans and more.”

OREGON

Julee Felsman

Guaranteed Rate

2022 Production Numbers

Closed Loans: 405

Total Dollar Volume: $180.5 million

“We get to do a little bit of everything — from jumbo to USDA, from condos to new construction, from vintage properties to manufactured homes. Urban, suburban and rural, we really run the gamut. And Oregonians are a creative and entrepreneurial lot, so many of our clients are self-employed or freelance. I love the challenge of keeping up on everything and never knowing what puzzle we’ll have the opportunity to solve next.”

IOWA

Amber Ernst

New American Funding

2022 Production Numbers

Closed Loans: 352

Total Dollar Volume: $72.1 million

“Our market is saturated with portfolio lenders, so it is a challenge sometimes to help the customer understand the difference between fixed-rate financing and combo ARMs. I really try to break it down and show pros and cons, so they understand. In a stable market, things are easy — everything stays the same. But when things change like they have, man, it is a blessing to have a fixed-rate loan.”

ALABAMA

Kim Moon

FirstBank Mortgage

2022 Production Numbers

Closed Loans: 229

Total Dollar Volume: $77.8 million

“I have been in the industry for 40 years and know a lot of people in my market (Huntsville). That is one of the benefits of working in the market where I live. Our market has been named one of the top cities in the U.S. to live for affordability, and we are growing at 3%-plus per year. A challenge is that our market is very rate- and cost-conscious. You must be very competitive on every deal.”

KENTUCKY

Jesse Cronen

Northpointe Bank

2022 Production Numbers

Closed Loans: 546

Total Dollar Volume: $146.7 million

“Kentucky is a very affordable market, thus allowing more clients to achieve the dream of homeownership. With that said, I’m also armed with many products to help meet clients’ needs and ultimately close more loans. If you take care of your clients and put their needs first, your referral base will grow. And with a strong referral base and a strong work ethic, you can grow to whatever heights you put your mind to.”

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Chris Cox

First Savings Mortgage

2022 Production Numbers

Closed Loans: 279

Total Dollar Volume: $200 million

“I have been in this business for over 25 years, and I have built long-lasting relationships with agents and real estate offices in the D.C. metro area. I have a talented team and back room. I am beyond lucky to work in Washington, D.C. I set up an office on Capitol Hill in the early 2000s and it was the best decision of my career. I immediately became easy to reach, meet with and drop in on, and this changed everything for me.”

The post 2023 Featured State Champions appeared first on Scotsman Guide.

“Those clients that we really achieved something with … those are the ones that really make our job worthwhile.”

He loves educating clients, strategizing with them on a path to their goals and eventually seeing them reach their dream of homeownership. “I think (my favorite part) is really just working with clients, and that satisfaction you get out of educating someone and getting them to the point of being able to own their own home when they never thought it possible,” Marquis said.

Much of his business is in conventional and jumbo loans, given the high home prices in his local market. But he said his client base is wide — from first-time buyers trying to avoid high rents to investors seeking to snap up new properties. He sees a lot of clients in biotechnology, a huge industry in Boston, and does U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) loans regularly as well.

Because of his focus on education, Marquis and his team are deeply knowledgeable about guidelines and are more strict upfront so there are no surprise denials later. “We get a lot of business from other lenders, where they fail to structure the loan correctly from the get-go,” he said. “So, for example, they don’t poke holes in the loan the right way and figure out what could go wrong with it. … (They) are unable to close, the customer will come to us and we can help.”

Over the thousands of loans he’s closed in his career, Marquis said that the transactions that stick out the most are the ones where he has helped the client out of a tough spot in their life. “It could be a situation of a client that’s getting divorced and has to refinance to keep their home, or it could be a client that we had to work with on their credit, or they had to save for a downpayment,” Marquis said. “Those clients that we really achieved something with — that they did not think they could achieve, or we got them out of a really challenging spot — those are the ones that really make our job worthwhile.”

Marquis and his team also donate $25 from every transaction to the Friends of Boston’s Homeless housing startup fund. In three years, the team has donated more than $100,000 to the fund, which helps Bostonians experiencing homelessness to overcome the financial barriers to housing and get connected to vital support services.

“You know, we’re all on the earth, we’re all going to end up in the same place at some point,” Marquis said. “And you realize you’ve got to allow others to succeed in this world in the way that we have, right? (It takes) a lot of hard work, but not everyone’s been as fortunate and had the opportunities that we’ve been fortunate to have.”

Marquis is riding out the tough market and positioning himself to capitalize on the next up cycle. His team is active on social media to connect with borrowers and Realtors, and he’s always expanding his referral network through events and one-on-ones. Since joining CrossCountry two years ago, he said he’s had support and freedom to design his own processes that work best for his team and his market.

“I think there’s opportunity in the market for the right situation, but our industry is always challenging. … This cycle is very unique,” he said. “The market’s always developing. Now we have to be forward thinking. What’s our next step? Where do we go next?” ●

Tips of the Trade

When you pursue a certain angle, you’re ultimately going to achieve that if you have a focused and dedicated approach. Figure out what direction you want to go — first-time homebuyers, FHA loans, VA loans — and then be very dedicated to that. If you want to go after purchase business, you have to build that one by one. Realtors want a financing solution that’s going to work. Work as a partner who can help them do more business. Work with up-and-coming agents and build business with them. It doesn’t happen overnight, but if you know your guidelines, you do right by your referral partner and your borrower, you provide excellent communication and you follow up, you can really build a great business in this industry.

The post Featured Top Originator: Andrew Marquis, CrossCountry Mortgage appeared first on Scotsman Guide.

The following pages contain the Top Purchase Volume and Top Refinance Volume rankings. These lists highlight the top 100 salespeople for purchase volume, as well as the top 100 for refi volume, based on 2022 production reports. As with each of this year’s previous rankings, sales numbers are down across the board compared to 2022 data, which measured 2021 production. As the housing and mortgage markets have dipped and normalized since the post-pandemic boom, Scotsman Guide’s rankings have reflected it. But these numbers are not historically low by any means. This year’s Top Purchase Volume rankings exceeded figures from the 2021 list, both in aggregate volume and top individual volume.

Shant Banosian of Guaranteed Rate is at No. 1 in the Top Purchase Volume rankings for a fifth year in a row. His purchase volume has steadily increased over the years, peaking in the 2022 rankings at more than $1 billion. If last year is treated as an outlier, however, Banosian is still on an upward trajectory, having increased his purchase volume from $477.4 million in the 2019 rankings to $815.8 million this year.

Second in this year’s Top Purchase Volume rankings is Mark Cohen of Cohen Financial Group, who similarly increased his purchase volume from $396.7 million in the 2021 rankings to $578.2 million this year. Cohen also moved up two spots in this year’s rankings after a fourth-place finish last year. He’s followed by Ben Cohen of Guaranteed Rate ($550.9 million), whose purchase volume jumped $160 million from the 2021 rankings, and Matt Weaver of CrossCountry Mortgage ($520.4 million), who posted a gain of $185 million from two years ago.

The Top Refinance Volume rankings are a little more complex. While many consider 2020 and 2021 to be the refi boom years, the surge actually began in 2019, when 30-year fixed rates dipped below 4%. In August 2019, refinances had doubled from the previous year, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Now that the boom has passed, the rankings look much like those published in 2019 based on 2018 origination volumes — impressive when considering that the average mortgage rate in 2022 was almost 1% higher than in 2018.

While there are a couple of familiar names in the top five, this year’s Top Refinance Volume rankings saw dedicated refi originators jump up the list dramatically. Hank Metzger of American Financing Corp. took the top spot for 2023, up 10 spots from last year, with a refinance volume of $239.7 million. Notably, 100% of Metzger’s business in 2022 came via refinances. He’s followed by Damon Germanides of Insignia Mortgage ($184.4 million), who increased his refi volume by $26 million and placed No. 2 after not finishing among the top 100 a year ago.

Germanides is followed by Mark Cohen ($173.2 million), who rose nine places from last year; Daniel Klein of Century Capital Partners ($170.7 million), who is new to these rankings; and Thuan Nguyen of Loan Factory Inc. ($156.3 million), who was No. 1 on the Top Dollar Volume and Top Refinance Volume lists in 2021 and 2022.

Congratulations to everyone who earned a place in this month’s rankings. In a difficult year, you outdid yourselves despite a significant disadvantage with interest rates. Keep an eye out next month for the final 2023 Top Originators ranking, State Champions. Have a happy Thanksgiving and a wonderful start to your holiday season, and as always, thank you for reading.

Rate locks drop as credit tightens

This past July, interest rates for 30-year conforming loans rose above 7% for the first time since spiking in November 2022. This caused a drop in mortgage demand, according to Black Knight’s Originations Market Monitor report, despite a decrease in rates by the end of that month.

Overall rate lock volumes were down 7% from June to July. Purchase loan locks made up the lion’s share of rate locks at 88% but were still running well below July 2022 levels. On a year-over-year basis, purchase locks were down 27%, and they were down 35% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019. The average purchase price also dropped slightly from its peak in June, receding to $456,000.

According to Black Knight, signs of credit tightening were seen in July’s rate-lock data through rising downpayments, higher credit scores and lower loan-to-value ratios. Average credit scores on purchase locks for primary residences hit a record high early in July before edging downward.

Temporary rate buydowns drop from recent peak

Mortgage rate buydowns gained popularity in 2022 as interest rates rose, allowing new homeowners to temporarily reduce their rate for a period of one to three years. In December 2022, buydowns peaked at 7.6% of all Freddie Mac-funded loans, according to a report from the government- sponsored enterprise.

But the most recent data available, in June 2023, found only 2.8% of loans with buydowns. This still represents an increase from the near-zero levels of buydowns in early 2022.

Buydowns remain a very niche market, according to the report. They’re clustered both geographically and by lender as 12 nonbanks accounted for 80% of all buydowns in June. Western states had significantly more buydowns, led by the likes of Utah, Colorado, Idaho and Arizona. On average, mortgage buydowns comprised about 1% of all loans in Eastern states, while shares in Western states tended to be in the 3% to 4% range, with Colorado (6%) and Utah (7.1%) as outliers.

Buydowns appear to have a trade-off for homeowners, according to Freddie Mac. While these homeowners pay less for the first few years of their loan, their interest rates were 15 basis points higher on average, meaning they could pay more over the life of their loan if they don’t refinance or move.

Refinances rise after eight straight quarterly declines

Mortgage origination activity rose across the board in second-quarter 2023, according to Attom. The total number of mortgages issued increased to 1.56 million during these three months. While still representing a decrease of 38% from Q2 2022, originations rose 21% from Q1 2023, ending eight straight quarters of declines.

Despite a slight rise in interest rates in Q2 2023, improvements were seen in the purchase, refinance and home equity markets. Purchase loans jumped by 29%, refinances by 14% and home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) by 13%.

Notably, the rebound in refinances came after the market posted a record-low total in Q1 2023. From April through June, lenders issued $141 billion in refinances across 477,219 loans, with units up 14% and volume up 8% from the prior quarter. Refis improved in 90% of U.S. metros analyzed, with the largest quarterly increase in Knoxville, Tennessee (up 87.4%). Refis accounted for 30.7% of all originations in Q2 2023.

HELOCs also increased after two straight quarters of declines. In the second quarter, lenders originated $50.9 billion in HELOCs across 284,591 loans. HELOCs made up 18.3% of all loans during these three months, down from 19.6% in the prior quarter but still four times higher than the levels of early 2021.

Midwest states lead in affordable single-family rentals

Although homeownership is temporarily out of reach for many Americans, many families still want to live in single-family homes. While this tends to be a more expensive option than an apartment, there are still many U.S. markets where this can be achieved affordably, especially due to the growing trend of built-to-rent homes.

An August 2023 report from RentCafe found that 20 markets across the country had single-family homes with average rents of less than $1,700. Of these metro areas, about half were priced below $1,500, on average.

The Midwest accounted for eight of these 20 markets. Milwaukee ranked No. 3 overall, posting an average rent of $1,317 for a single-family home in June 2023. Indianapolis was 15th, with average rents of $1,628.

The cheapest market was Lafayette- Lake Charles, Louisiana, at $1,203, followed by Clarksville, Tennessee, at $1,213. The states of North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana were listed, while Arkansas, Kansas and Indiana each had two cities that made the cut. Major metros on the list included Pittsburgh; Oklahoma City; Columbus, Ohio; and Las Vegas.

The post 2023 Top Purchase and Refinance Volume appeared first on Scotsman Guide.

To learn more about Marquis, read the full Featured Top Originator article here.

The post Featured Top Originator: Andrew Marquis, CrossCountry Mortgage appeared first on Scotsman Guide.

While Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac update the conforming loan limits each year, many homes in pricier markets still don’t qualify for mortgages backed by the government-sponsored enterprises. That’s where jumbo originators come in, armed with the products and knowledge to make $1 million-plus loans possible for high-end clients.

Jumbo loans have seen a significant increase in popularity of late. In 2020, they represented only 19% of the market, according to CoreLogic data. But in 2022, the jumbo share of the market was 32%, the highest level seen since 2005.

Welcome to Scotsman Guide’s first-ever Top Jumbo Originators ranking. This list focuses on originators who regularly produce these large, nonconforming loans. To create this list, the publication calculated and ranked the average loan size for everyone who qualified for its 2023 Top Originators rankings (based on full-year 2022 origination volume). On the next two pages, you’ll find 100 originators who specialize in serving elite clientele, each with an average loan size of more than $1 million.

These originators appear to value quality over quantity. While the number of loans closed by the Top Jumbo Originators ranges widely, from 25 to 552, the median number of closed loans is 58. The median dollar volume is $77.5 million, good for a median loan size of $1.3 million.

The geographic breakdown of these originators is not unexpected: California dominated the rankings, with 58 of 100 originators based in the Golden State. New York was a distant second with 19 originators on the list, while Texas, Connecticut and Maryland each have three originators.

Many of these originators work for private banking arms — or well-placed branches — of large institutions like Citibank and U.S. Bank, each of which have more than 20 originators in this ranking. But independent brokers are represented too. Notably, Beverly Hills-based boutique brokerage Insignia Mortgage Inc. has four originators in the top 11.

In fact, Insignia broker Romy Nourafchan took the No. 1 spot, with an average loan volume last year of more than $3.27 million. Nourafchan has been building his jumbo business since the 1990s and has a wide base of clients, with loans ranging from $1 million to $50 million and beyond. To learn more about Nourafchan and his business, read his Featured Top Originator profile on Page 18.

Second place went to Ghazal Doustar of U.S. Bank, with an average loan size of $3.16 million. Rounding out the top five are Anish Singla of U.S. Bank ($2.84 million), Damon Germanides of Insignia Mortgage ($2.75 million) and Kevin Cassell of City National Bank of Florida ($2.35 million).

We hope you enjoy this new ranking and find it informative. Feel free to reach out with any questions, comments or concerns. Warm wishes for a wonderful autumn, and as always, thank you for reading.

Midwest cities offer advantages for first-time homeowners

The cost of the first year of homeownership — including downpayment and fees, mortgage payments, homeowners insurance and property taxes — varies widely across the country. Point2, a division of Yardi Systems, recently analyzed the 100 largest U.S. markets to pinpoint the most and least affordable cities for first-year homeownership.

Sixteen cities had first-year costs of less than $80,000, with most of these in the Midwest. Detroit was the least expensive city, with total costs of about $25,000 for the first year, followed by the Ohio cities of Toledo and Cleveland, each under $40,000. Fort Wayne, Indiana, and St. Louis rounded out the top-five least-expensive cities with costs in the $60,000 range.

Conversely, the 15 most-expensive cities had costs that exceed $200,000. California accounted for each of the top-eight priciest cities. Unsurprisingly, San Francisco topped the list with total first-year costs of $390,000. A smaller Bay Area neighbor, Fremont, was not far behind, followed by San Jose, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland and Anaheim.

Point2 also found that median-income renter households that save 20% of their annual income can take anywhere from four to 24 years to save up enough to cover these first-year costs. Los Angeles had the longest timeline among the cities analyzed, while Detroit had the shortest.

Coastal urban counties have lowest homeownership rates

The national homeownership rate has increased slightly in the past few years, but many counties — especially those in coastal urban areas — continue to lag. A recent analysis from the National Association of Homebuilders found that 2021 homeownership rates ranged from less than 25% in urban counties of New York to more than 90% in suburban and rural counties of Colorado and the South.

Population density has a lot to do with the lower rates in urban counties, the analysis noted. Four counties in the New York City metro area were among the 10 lowest rates in the nation. Bronx County registered a 19.8% homeownership rate. New York County (Manhattan), Kings County (Brooklyn) and Hudson County, New York, each had rates below 33%.

Similar trends can be found on the West Coast. San Francisco and Los Angeles counties have respective homeownership rates of 38.2% and 46.2%. Meanwhile, California counties with less density (including Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado and Sierra) hover around 80%.

The 10 counties with the highest homeownership rates in the nation each exceeded a 90% rate. Four of these counties were in the census bureau’s Mountain Division: Colorado’s Elbert and Park counties (92.6% and 91.1%, respectively), along with Storey County, Nevada (96.5%), and Meagher County, Montana (92.1%). Five others were in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, Alabama and West Virginia.

The post 2023 Top Jumbo Originators appeared first on Scotsman Guide.

“Don’t pander to the client just to get a deal. If a deal’s not good for a client, I tell them.”

Specializing in jumbo mortgages for high net worth individuals, Nourafchan regularly closes multimillion-dollar loans. Last year, his average loan volume was more than $3.2 million, making him No. 1 on Scotsman Guide’s newest ranking, Top Jumbo Originators. He’s been carving out his niche in jumbos for years.

“My career started in 1990. For seven or eight years, I worked as a broker, then went into banking and worked for big banks and a few smaller banks,” Nourafchan said. “Over this time, my strategy has always been to go after jumbo loans … and continually build my business on higher dollar amounts.”

Now working at boutique brokerage Insignia Mortgage, Nourafchan uses a variety of lenders to meet each of his clients’ unique needs. Regional banks, credit unions, private funds and the private arms of larger banks are all within his arsenal — and he said he’s always expanding his lender repertoire. With smaller banks running low on deposits and pausing loan programs, he has been spending more time recently with sourcing.

“We actually have a good amount of deal flow and we get a lot of referrals, even from other banks,” Nourafchan said. “Our challenge is to continually add new lenders … new private investors, new banks, spending a lot of time on that. Thankfully for us, we know how to do it and how to get them. But that’s challenging.”

Nourafchan said that this year, most of the deals coming through are between $1 million and $3 million. There’s a low inventory of homes in this price range and anything coming onto the market is still getting multiple offers. Homebuyers who can afford these homes would prefer to buy rather than rent, so they’re willing to pay higher interest rates.

Homes from $3 million to $7 million are less in demand but still doing OK, he said, with similar inventory challenges. The high end, however, which involves loans of $10 million or more, has slowed significantly. Inventory is plentiful at this price point, but most buyers just aren’t interested right now. Jumbo loans at any price point often involve complex borrower finances, as high net worth individuals tend to store wealth in assets rather than liquidities. Thankfully, Nourafchan said, he has “the best team in the country” at Insignia to help him process loans.

“When we submit a file to a lender, it’s pristine,” Nourafchan said. “And you know, it’s a flipside too. We know upfront if a loan’s not going to work, which is an even bigger deal. … If we review a file and know it isn’t going to work, we give our honest opinion.”

This honest communication has been key to gaining client trust and referrals. “I don’t overpromise. I’m fair and honest with them,” he said. If a client says they were promised more by another broker, Nourafchan says he tells them to give it a try, but these clients often come back when it doesn’t work out. “Don’t pander to the client just to get a deal,” he said. “If a deal’s not good for a client, I tell them.” ●

Tips of the Trade

Learn how to underwrite a file. Know what an underwriter looks for and understand how the loan works. Be very good at analyzing loans, because that’s the key. You have to be able to understand if the loan will work or not, and why. Continually expand your referral sources — go out there, meet Realtors, join a networking group. It’s work, but it’ll pay off, and it can be fun meeting new people. Deliver what you say you’ll deliver and everything will take care of itself. You’ll soon get a lot of referrals from places you’d never expect.

The post Featured Top Originator: Romy Nourafchan, Insignia Mortgage appeared first on Scotsman Guide.