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But there was something in the air. “We could all feel it,” she said. Carried amid those winds of change, implausible deals would flutter by: “I remember the loan programs. One time, they were offering that we could do an 80/20, 100% financing of a four-plex, stated income, stated assets, with a 620 credit score and no previous homeownership required. It was kind of like, well, do you have a pulse? Would you like a mortgage?”
It was the beginning of the Great Recession, materializing just a few short years into her fledgling career. Banks had begun to fail, necessitating frequent visits to the so-called Implode-O-Meter website. “We’d go to that site every day to see what financial institutions had failed that day,” she recalled. “It was very depressing. “I thought it’s time to return to my roots, so I returned to the family business. Two weeks later, that wholesale lender closed its doors.” The wreckage dotted her community too: “When we first started out in the business, there were thirty-odd brokerages, and when the Great Recession hit it was down to three. We went from having 13 loan officers to basically two.”
She is grateful for two sets of families
Yet the company survived to mark its 20th anniversary this year. Given the experience of the Great Recession, she added, the company is kept lean with the lowest possible overhead. “It was legitimately one of the hardest times in my entire life,” she said. “Those of us who went through it carry those battle scars.”
In addition to her biological family, she credits her adopted family – the rank and file of the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME), of which she’s a member – for unflagging support. She has served on various advisory boards for the group and is an active member of the Women’s Mortgage Network.
“Five years ago, another mortgage broker would’ve been viewed as a threat to me,” she said. “Now I see them as a brother or sister in the trenches. When you realize there’s enough for everybody to go around, and plenty of seats at the table, is what makes it even better.”
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