Neil Surgenor: I was a financial advisor in the late 1990s through early 2001, working for a top 10 investment firm. I was also a trader for the largest short-term trading company in the world at that time. I enjoyed Wall Street, but there was some volatility in the financial markets at the time, making it a bit challenging to navigate. I was engaged to be married and thinking of having children – the constant worry and uncertainty that comes with this profession was getting old. I knew a colleague that was also a trader who left to get into the mortgage business, and it piqued my interest. So, I decided to make a career change.
I joined one of the largest mortgage companies at that time and learned the business. Within one week, the office manager grew tired of me wanting to come in early and stay late, so he gave me my own set of keys to the office. I would cold call from morning until night and come into the office seven days a week. Having been born in England and having been raised in Africa, almost everything was new to me in the US. I didn’t know what escrow was on a mortgage when I started. Three months into my career, I was the top producer in the nation out of thousands of loan officers, and three months after that, they asked me to become an office manager at a new office they were opening. One year later, I was promoted to Metro New York manager for purchase business supervising six offices in and around the NY Metro Area.
Over the next decade, I took time to learn all facets of the business and remained in the top 1% in my field, both in retail and wholesale.
My goal at any organization is always to be number one in the nation within my first six months – I consistently did it in three. The ‘secret’ to my success was no secret at all – I just worked harder than anyone else, something I believe I still do to this day. I have always been competitive, which motivates me to be the best I can be. I realized along the way I wanted to separate myself from the crowd and wanted to specialize in some sort of niche products. I became interested in the physician space, studied it, and slowly became recognized as a resource for people in the medical and dental world to help them navigate buying a home. I have been blessed to have become known as one of the top experts in the country and a top producer for TD Bank.
MPA: What inspired you to focus on this niche, and what specific advantages do physician loans offer compared to traditional mortgage options?
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