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While some of the names on this year’s list of Fast 50 lenders may be relatively new in the Massachusetts market, many of the faces behind those lenders carry years of experience in the state’s mortgage industry.
Chicago-based Draper and Kramer Mortgage Corp. and Alabama-based TJC Mortgage Inc., which operates as MortgageRight, are two lenders that have brought their platforms, business models and cultures to longtime local loan officers.
“I think what’s attracting the sales is the efficiency and the pricing of the firm,” said Dan White, Northeast regional vice president for Draper and Kramer. “We now have the best technology; I believe we have among the best price – it’s always a competitive price; we have the best process and the best people, in my opinion, and that results in a really, really amazing experience for loan officers.”
The Fast 50, compiled from data collected by The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, reveals the 50 fastest-growing lenders in Massachusetts for the first six months of the year, compared to the same time period a year ago.
Who are Massachusetts’ fastest-growing lenders? See the complete rankings here.
Historically low interest rates have driven mortgage activity to record levels. Data firm Black Knight recently reported that almost $1.1 trillion in mortgages had been originated nationwide during the second quarter, the most in the 20 years the firm had tracked the data.
Massachusetts saw nearly 148,000 residential mortgages worth $53.67 billion originated between January and June of 2020, compared to 97,690 loans worth $31.96 billion for the same time period in 2019. Lenders processed 31,141 purchase loans and 116,831 refinances during the first six months of 2020, after processing more than 37,200 purchase loans for $15.27 billion and about 60,400 refinances for $16.69 billion during the same time last year.
Draper and Kramer made more than 1,600 loans in the first six months of 2020, a 249 percent increase over the same period in 2019, when it made 466 loans. MortgageRight made 108 residential loans during the same period, worth $42.75 million – a 671 percent increase in number of loans and a 706 percent jump in dollar volume.
A large drop in mortgage interest rates helped encourage large numbers of homeowners to refinance their homes in the first quarter of 2020.
Sought the Right Fit
Before joining Draper and Kramer, White was at Mortgage Financial Inc. based in Tewksbury before the firm was purchased by another national lender in 2016. Deciding that the pairing was not a good fit for their business, White and 55 staffers separated from that company.
When searching for another firm to partner with, White said he asked several people who they considered the best person in the mortgage industry. He was told to contact Draper and Kramer and its CEO Paul Leuken. White said he saw Leuken as a respected and genuine leader, who has created a culture that filters down to the staff, making everyone feel cared for.
The move to Draper and Kramer not only affected White’s team but had ripple effects throughout the state’s real estate and lending communities.
“In this industry, typically you don’t see a group of 50-plus people moving at once, especially 50-plus people who have been in the industry for as long as we all have,” White said. “We’re primarily a referral, a relationship business, so when 50 people moved, that created quite a splash.”
Draper and Kramer further expanded in Massachusetts when Indy Johar, a nationally known top loan originator who had joined the firm in 2017, moved to Draper and Kramer’s Franklin office.
White said Draper and Kramer also gave his team the technology and platform needed to handle the volumes of the low interest rate environment.
“On our own, it would have been a giant challenge to accommodate the volumes which are in the neighborhood of three [times] what they were just a couple of years ago,” White said. “But plugging into a firm that has the ability to distribute work across the country has been a blessing.”
White said processing efficiencies allow the company to keep loan pricing competitive, adding that the firm has not spent money on advertising. The company has experienced “controlled organic growth,” White said, but noted that the company wants to remain at a size where it support a flat organization, giving staff members direct access to regional and divisional managers, as well as the CEO.
Flat Structure Makes the Difference
Being part of a flat organization and approaching lending as an entrepreneur were key factors for Herb Devine when he decided to join forces with MortgageRight.
He opened his own lending firm, Reliable Mortgage Inc., several years before the Great Recession, but found compliance requirements were a barrier to remaining independent.
After working for a couple of larger corporations, Devine saw that the costs for having layers of management affected pricing and profitability for loan officers. He began researching ways to partner with a company that more closely mirrored his own experiences as an entrepreneur.
Diane McLauglin
“Everything that I saw at all the companies that I was talking to, I really liked [MortgageRight],” Devine said. “I wasn’t dealing with a manager – I was meeting the owners – and their model was really the perfect fit for what I wanted to do.”
Devine’s Scituate office is MortgageRight’s first, and he said the company is looking to expand in New England.
“Where they really set self apart is their speed on getting loans closed, and the pricing is excellent – if I need to be lowest rate on the street, I can be,” Devine said. He added: “I’ve been in this business a long time, and I haven’t seen a company that can compare with what their offering.”
