Content area
Full Text
This issue's Q&A features Gregg Mower, the chief financial officer of Sacramento, Calif-based Neighbor's Financial Corp. He has been a mortgage originator during the past 12 years. Mr. Mower is a member of the board of directors of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers.
Q: What is your target market?
A:The majority are FHA,VA and conventional loans, primarily A paper, for first-time and move-up buyers. We've got branches in (the Northern California communities of) Sacramento, Williams, Stockton andTurlock.The majority of our loans have been between $80,000 and $200,000.
Q: What type of loans do you offer?
A: We don't do much jumbo business, which may seem strange for someone from California.We don't like to trip over dollars to pick up pennies. We'll do B paper, if it comes our way, but we don't look for it.
Q: Are you using automated underwriting systems?
A: We're using Loan Prospector and Desktop Originator. We'll only use them on the cookie-cutter deals and I can use them to impress folks with the quickness that I can provide. It has its uses on A-paper, but not on government and not on anything subprime. You still need human beings on the tough loans. I don't think automated underwriting will ever be 100% of an operation, unless you're doing only cookie-cutter, 'A' deals, which you can't do exclusively as a broker. I see it being used in the future as a tool for risk-based pricing.
Q: How has your business grown in recent years?
A:We started the company in 1990. In '93 you could sleep and get loans because of the refi business, In '94, when the rates jumped up, the Realtor referral business kept us going. In '96 we acquired Bankers...