Michael Alexander has a strong connection with his clientele, in large part because of the personal attention he is able to give their applications.
In fact, he does practically everything on their applications himself, without the help of any assistants.
And still, he finished 2011 at No. 68 on the
That attention to detail, Alexander said, comes from his background with a college degree in accounting, followed by experience working as a stockbroker and money manager.
He entered the mortgage business in October 2001. One of the reasons for making the job switch was that “I couldn’t grasp the concept of making money on my clients although they were losing money on a trade.
“It just didn’t feel right to me. So one thing that I vowed to do when I got into a different industry was to make sure my clients benefit from every transaction.”
Around the same time he left the financial services industry, he relocated from Pittsburgh to Florida. And when he got to Florida, he found a position in the mortgage industry.
Alexander says most mortgage loan officers are going to “completely disagree” with his approach, “but I believe that personal attention to files is one of the most important things, and honestly, the key to my success.
“I do everything on almost all of my files. On a typical file, I will take the application, submit the file, process the file and close the file.”
He said he has always held the following belief, but it is even more important in today’s environment, to get the client’s documents uploaded the second they arrive.
One of the reasons he does all of this work himself is that with all the technical and legal requirements involved with the process, he hasn’t found anyone who meets his standards.
Another important point is that because of his background in accounting, Alexander says he has good organizational skills. There is no paper on his desk, which he notes is very abnormal for the desk of the average loan officer.
That being said, all of the files are on his computer (and “we have a backup” if the machine crashes). Every day, when he closes everything out, he reviews each one of his files and he knows exactly where he stands. If anything is missing, he looks to follow it up before he leaves for the day.
But not only does Alexander strive to be the high service provider to his clients, he also wants to give the lowest possible price as well.
His goal from when he started was to close a lot of loans and close them at a low fee. And that is how he set his business plan. Feeling he could close eight loans a month, he priced them at three-quarters of a point (well below the typical two points).
In this way, Alexander was priced well below the competition and thus he built his business. He added he was comfortable making this amount of money per loan because of the number of referrals he was getting.
Another reason for his ability to offer low fees is that he works with a national title company that offers a discounted rate for its services. Most people believe title rates are fixed (because of the regulatory environment for that business), but that is not true at all, he continued.
“When I am speaking to a new referral, I’m extremely confident that my rates, fees and service are the best in the industry. It doesn’t always work out, of course—personalities don’t always match—but at the same time I really don’t feel like I am in a sales position,” Alexander said.
There are those at WCS who elect to originate their files as a mortgage banker because they could charge more; whereas if a file was brokered, there are compensation limits (as per the Federal Reserve rule).
Alexander says he still brokers a lot of loans because the price is set low with the wholesale purchasers (at his advice, he said) and this allows him to offer the lowest fees to his customer. A lot of loan officers don’t think it matters, but he said he believes a lot of the referrals that he gets are a direct result of this.
Different financial institutions from various places around the country are among his referral sources; this leads to another interesting thing about Alexander’s business model. Very few of his applications come from Florida.
Alexander said he honors his initial quote to the client to the penny. The new disclosure rules have put in tighter tolerances that have brought the industry closer to what Alexander does.
But, he added, in some ways those new rules hurt borrowers as well. With lender-paid transactions, for example, he can’t offer a broker credit to the borrower. In a lot of cases, he said, he would give the borrower a bigger credit if he could with this kind of transaction.
In the sourcing business, “I focused on areas where the housing market wasn’t hit nearly as bad.” But in Florida, the downturn hit the state hard, driving down property values and making refinancings tough.
He focuses in the Northeast, especially Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey. But he is currently licensed in 25 states.
It is not at all difficult being based in Florida but doing loans from practically everywhere else.
Alexander does most of his client contact by email, although he does make introductory calls to new applicants, as well as call them whenever an important event during the process happens.
When the loan is for a purchase, the distance can sometimes be a barrier, especially with the Realtor. But Alexander has client testimonials and write-ups to help calm their fears.
He also offers his referral partners a par rate, to show them the quality of work that he does.
His likes to work with financial advisors and accountants, because they know what their clients are looking to do and they already have that clients’ trust.
Most of his business right now is refi because of the low interest rate environment. On a dollar amount, his funded volume so far this year is just over $31 million. Alexander said he did notice that last year he had more jumbo loans in his pipeline.
By loan type, his business is split between conforming and jumbo with a minimal amount of FHA.
When he first came into the business, he purchased leads, something he no longer does. But some of those clients from way back then are still calling him to do their latest loan because of the service he provided.
In fact, the one thing he said he lacks is that he doesn’t really market himself well. He admits he needs an assistant, not to take over the files, but to handle the marketing side. He does make client calls on birthdays and sends out cards on occasion.
All in all, “I am happy with the company I work for, happy with the industry, the changes really haven’t affected me much. I love what I do,” Alexander declared.
