Read more: What’s the next step for non-QMs? The luxury mortgage reveals it all

You’ve been an Account Executive since 2004, but worked at Luxury Mortgage for just under two years. How is the culture of this company different?

The culture is completely different! In older businesses from the early to mid-2000s, it was more of an “academic” environment. At that time, the industry had an influx of young professionals (including myself). The luxury mortgage is more of a ‘family’ oriented culture, which is amazing because you want that close work environment while taking advantage of the vast resources and tools that a much larger company offers. Fortunately, at Luxury, we have both! It seems like everyone here knows each other in one way or another. A significant number of colleagues here have found their way to luxury via a referral. Thanks to references and of course possessing high levels of professional experience, as well as the qualifications and values ​​required by Luxury, everyone tends to integrate perfectly into the family dynamic. I think that’s an important part of the success here at Luxury. We are all seasoned and fully aware of the end goal.

We have already covered the issue of diversity and minorities in the mortgage industry. Data shows that the homeownership rate among blacks has contracted sharply over the past 50 years; that nearly 16% of black Americans who applied for mortgages last year were turned down, compared to just 7% of white Americans, and homeownership rates for black households stand at 45, 1%, compared to 73.8% for non-Hispanic white households. Do these numbers reflect your own experience in the mortgage industry? If so, how?

Thanks for the question. Based on my personal experience, I am not surprised at the data you cite above. At Luxury, we are committed to serving low to moderate income communities, which are disproportionately a demographic minority. This is also another reason why I am focusing on educating the broker community and our corresponding partners on the benefits that non-QM liquidity offers to this segment in particular. You have to understand that it wasn’t until about two years ago that brokers really embraced the non-QM lending space. I remember prospecting brokers no later than 2018, and many of them turned down my phone call, refusing to accept non-QM as a mortgage product, which did a disservice to minority borrowers who were deprived from a traditional income perspective. As a result, they were not fully informed of the options available to them. Take, for example, minority small business owners who can take advantage of our corporate bank statement qualification programs, or a minority borrower looking for flexible options to purchase investment property.