Gateway Mortgage Group, Tulsa, Okla., is looking to move into new markets by creating strategic partnerships with homebuilders and Realtors. It is also looking to expand on a traditional retail basis into Florida. And it has hired the same person to oversee both prongs.
David Robinson has joined Gateway Mortgage Group as regional vice president (where he will handle the Florida retail branch growth) and director of alternative sales channels. He will be creating those joint venture and marketing services agreement partnerships for the company’s entire branch network.
Prior to joining Gateway, Robinson was senior vice president of builder services and business manager for central Florida for SunTrust Mortgage. He was also senior vice president and director of business arrangements for First Horizon Home Loans and executive vice president of CTX Mortgage Co.
It is that experience working with builders (CTX was owned by Centex) that gives Robinson a leg up on how to work with these entities.
It helps with the credibility of setting these ventures up. At SunTrust at one point there were 29 or 30 of these ventures and CTX also had some ventures, he said.
“This is especially important to the company’s continued growth as it strives to step in and meet the market’s needs as many major banks continue to abandon the space,” said Robinson. “This expansion goes hand in hand with Gateway’s development into new regions as they further relationships with partners and thus borrowers.”
Recently, Wells Fargo said it was pulling back on its joint venture arrangements. Robinson noted he had come on board at Gateway prior to that announcement, and had been talking with company president Kevin Stitt about this line of business.
He said there is opportunity in this area because as a result of the housing market collapse, a fair number of the builder/mortgage lender joint venture partnerships went away.
So there are good prospects for Gateway to create these ventures, especially in Florida as that market comes back, Robinson said. While Florida is not robust yet, Gateway wants to position itself to take advantage of the changes in that state as things get better.
Right now, Gateway has five or six marketing services agreements in place, mostly with Realtors.
The joint ventures will be standalone mortgage brokerages, with Gateway holding the majority share of ownership.
Robinson said it is easier to manage these arrangements with a mortgage broker structure, and they are less capital intense than a mortgage banker structure. Processing will be handled on a local basis.
They will act as traditional mortgage broker shops, and have relationships with a number of wholesale loan purchasers.
Furthermore, he added, the JV loan officers will be out seeking business from other referral sources in their communities.
That is important from a compliance standpoint, especially with the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act’s prohibitions on steering consumers and sham joint ventures.
Gateway is in the process of actively soliciting new builder relationships.
These joint ventures will help Gateway to continue growing its loan production business even as market conditions will change when interest rates inevitably start to rise again.
“When volume contracts and refinancings subside, it is refreshing to have a company that wants to go out and pursue this line of business and also continue to grow its retail presence,” he said.
