But Gordon is not shy in spreading the message, and he’s armed with complementary tools to enhance that outreach. “I have investments in other companies,” he added. “One is in real estate technology which will help get our loan officers working more closely with realtors. The relationships we can build with realtors doesn’t just give us a bigger referral network, but makes us the kind of mortgage company that also has reverse people, which makes us more appealing to realtors.”
He gave an example of the appeal: “They know we are really good at FHA 203 rehab loans. It’s not what we focus on them, but we’re good at them and they know we can do it.” FHA’s Limited 203(k) program permits homebuyers and homeowners to finance up to $35,000 into their mortgage to repair, improve, or upgrade their home.
Gordon is candid about the hard times to which his company has succumbed, acknowledging he was recently forced to lay off personnel like so many other lenders. But he said he’s hiring in other departments given the bolstered reverse focus and hopes to hire more people in better times to augment the current 300-worker force.
“It was painful, but we did it,” he said, when asked about layoffs. “We have also been hiring people in sales and we look forward to when we’ll be hiring again.”
For good measure, concurrent to expansion plans, he said a tailored CRM is being developed for loan officers. “You always have to be looking at the future,” he said. “We just announced to our internal loan officers that we’re implementing a new CRM. We’re about halfway through our implementation of that.”
