In the current mortgage origination paradigm, detail is very important. Documentation and organization is what helps to get a loan file through the process. Bruce Salik of Prospect Mortgage states it is his organizational skills that help to set him apart from the competition.
Salik has 20 years of experience in the mortgage industry. Previously, he had been a sales person in the packaging business, but his position was relocating to Texas. Being from the Northeast, relocation was not an option and he decided to try something different.
He had family members who were in the mortgage business who suggested he try it and he has never looked back.
There are similarities in those two kinds of transactions, Salik noted, saying, “sales is sales.”
His job in the packaging industry provided a lot in the way of training, including on how to deal with people, how to sell and how to organize. Salik took that knowledge and applied it to the mortgage business and found “the transition was pretty easy.”
Salik has been with the New City, N.Y., office of Prospect Mortgage for the past three-plus years. People join the organization, he said, because it supplies “great marketing, great products and great service.” It provides him with the level of support needed to be a top producer. In the 2010 Origination News Top 150 Loan Officers, he ranked 21st with $108 million in volume. For 2011, his numbers were similar to those for 2010.
Loan purchases made up 60% of his business last year, and that was down from a typical year, where his share of purchase volume can be as high as 68%.
“I don't think what we do is super hard. I work hard; I am very organized. Right before I leave my office (for the evening), I plan my following day. I list 20 items, write them down and check them off one-by-one.
“So I am really focused on the goals at hand per day, per week, per month. I am always trying to establish and maintain my goals and as long as I can do that I find I am successful,” Salik said.
Furthermore, “I tell people the straight deal from the very beginning. I never make up anything. If I don't know the answer to something I will look it up and get back to the customer.
“I will always tell my Realtor partners if I can do a deal or if I can't do a deal.” This is because Salik takes the time at the beginning of the transaction going over the borrower's documentation. It is a matter of paying attention to detail and he said his clients and partners really appreciate that.
A large part of his business comes from Realtor referrals. Other referral sources include past clients, attorneys, financial planners and accountants.
While his office is in Rockland County, which is a northern suburb of New York City, Salik is licensed in New Jersey and Connecticut as well. He could be dealing with $100,000 home purchase in upstate New York or a $6 million co-operative apartment purchase in New York City.
When asked which end of the spectrum is easier to work with, Salik said the larger deals usually “have a lot of moving parts,” because of the various business interests of the purchaser.
At the same time, a small condominium transaction with a low downpayment requiring the buyer to obtain private mortgage insurance has its share of moving parts as well which need to get approved, he noted.
“I just feel if you go through either deal upfront and tell the client what they need up front, the deals run smoothly,” the caveat being that as long as there is no problem with the loan collateral, or if the building is a condo or co-op, if the building meets secondary market requirements.
“I don't find either deal hard, as long as you take the time” to get the borrower properly prepared, Salik said. “Now more than ever, because years ago, you could fall back—'Well, if I don't really pay attention to detail, maybe I could just switch him into a stated income loan.'
“But of course the world has changed. You just really have to pay attention to your detail,” he explained, adding that because it is now harder to get a deal through underwriting, it makes it that much more important to spend the time upfront with the client.
Salik's marketing is aimed at his existing customer base and his existing business partners. Prospect Mortgage, he said, has some unique customer-facing marketing campaigns, as well as ones for the B2B angle as well.
Those campaigns have been very successful for him, and the people behind those campaigns at Prospect are one reason he affiliated with that company.
“There's economic updates that go out every Monday morning, and I have business partners like Realtors, attorneys and financial people that will call me up and say, 'I hear about your marketing emails and I would love to be on your list.'
“So, I usually get solicited to add people,” he said.
Salik said he does not typically market to get refinance applications. There are things about the way the real estate business is transacted in New York, like the use of consolidation, extension and modification agreements during refis so that the borrower can save on taxes.
But those can make the process cumbersome, he commented.
Furthermore, his team needs to spend its time chasing down such things as CEMAs and title issues, whereas during a purchase transaction, attorneys generally handle the title and similar issues as they are arise.
He did send a couple of marketing pieces last year to his current customers to solicit refis and both times, it was successful.
Salik has two assistants and two processors to support his origination activities. He said he is “hands on” in the way he works, unlike others who might have junior loan officers on their team. “I do every origination myself, I look at every application personally and I speak to every borrower.
“My goal is to pass the loan off to my processing team and my assistants once I have all the documents and I know the file is good to go,” he said.
But no matter if it is a small loan or a large loan, Salik looks to give the customer the same level of service.
“Our goal is to just originate a file and move on to the next deal. And if you are not paying attention to detail, you are going to go back into that file while it is in process trying to fix what you weren't detailed about upfront. It is going to cost you time and money.
“If you just worked smart from the beginning, you could just keep originating,” he said.
