A Flexible Solution By Lesley Geary
In the intensely competitive real estate market that is Los Angeles many brokers have been putting together “one-stop shops,” adding mortgage and title services to their realty business. For Paul Morris, Keller Williams operating principal for three high profile L.A. offices, the answer has been to partner with Sherman Oaks, California-based Metrocities Mortgage.
“If you are a real estate company owner, the challenge of putting together a mortgage company or even a mortgage relationship can be daunting,” says Morris. “It’s an entirely different and separate business that a real estate company owner knows little or nothing about.”
Morris continues that there is a huge amount of risk, work and uncertainty involved with putting a mortgage business together. But, he says, “Metrocities Mortgage offers a high-end, plug-and-play solution. Simply put, they do the overwhelming majority of the work for the real estate company owner.”
Morris says the reason he has three separate joint ventures going with Metrocities in his Beverly Hills, Studio City and Hollywood Hills offices is that the firm only does mortgage work. “By partnering with them we are able to provide a superior product for our agents and their clients,” he says. “This way, we provide our agents a tool that is superior to other lending products, which can help their businesses.”
According to Morris, there are three areas where Metrocities beats the competition. One of the most important is that the mortgage firm attracts and keeps excellent loan officers. “Loan officers are on the front lines. Even with great loan products it is up to the LOs to deliver the customer service, stay on top of the loans and facilitate the transactions. A great loan officer can and does make all the difference in the world.”
What’s more, Morris says the fact that Metrocities is a loan broker as well as a portfolio lender means that his people get the best of all worlds. “This gives the flexibility of looking at many, many products allowing an agent to better match the needs of his or her clients and also to have the flexibility of keeping the loan ‘in-house.’ This fact, says Morris, is key.
“With Metrocities’ large variety of loan programs, we have saved many deals that would otherwise have crashed and burned,” he says. “Promises were made by other lenders that in the end the loan officer could not pull off. We have taken an application and closed a loan in as little as three days. This is unusual but possible because Metrocities underwrote the loan themselves. This saved a deal for our agent and put a family into a great house that they would have otherwise lost to a backup offer, not to mention saving their deposit, which they would have forfeited because they were outside the loan contingency period.”
When all is said and done, Morris observes that Metrocities Mortgage and Keller Williams share a common philosophy. “They are very responsive and hands on, enabling them to provide the best service to their clients,” he says. “This is really what separates them from the rest.” |
