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UMortgage will be acquiring Dallas-based brokerage, NXT Mortgage, the companies confirmed to HousingWire. UMortgage is bringing NXT’s assets, technology, and people in-house, including its founder and president, Tyler Hodgson. After the transaction is complete, which is expected to happen within the next two weeks, NXT will be part of UMortgage, adopting its business model and compensation structure. Founded in 2017 by Hodgson, NXT originated $255 million in mortgages over the last 12 months, 74% of which were purchase loans, according to the mortgage tech platform Modex. NXT has 35 active loan officers, the data shows. “Tyler is a certified public accountant, and he did build some proprietary technology that helps with the onboarding process and makes it efficient and scalable. That was a big part of the value added to the company,” said Anthony Casa, who founded UMortgage in 2020. According to Hodgson, NXT and UMortgage have a common vision of building a one-of-a-kind platform for loan originators. “Our partnership will allow us to grow more rapidly towards our shared goal,” Hodgson said. UMortgage and NXT declined to provide financial terms of the deal. A source familiar with the transaction told HousingWire that UMortgage is paying over $10 million in cash and equity, and the payout is tied to the retention of the loan officers. Hodgson, a Marine Corps veteran, will own UMortgage’s shares. He will also be a national sales leader, reporting to Todd Bitter, who was hired in December to replace Casa as chief sales officer at UMortgage. UMortgage, wholly owned by UM Group Holding Company LLC, has completed a series of capital-raising rounds over the last two quarters. The company sold equity to 27 senior leaders, loan originators, branch leaders, and team members, with an average contribution of $200,000 per shareholder. However, Casa, the CEO with board of directors oversight, said he retains voting rights. Casa posted on social media in early December that he expects to own less than 1% of UMortgage by January 1, 2025. The remaining 99% of shareholders will be LOs, branch leaders, and team members. “Our corporate documents mandate that the CEO’s contract can never be longer than one year, which means each year shareholders will vote on whether or not they want the CEO to return. No one works harder than someone on a ‘prove’ it contract,” Casa said. UMortgage is a broker shop and a non-delegated correspondent lender that works with over 22 lenders and banks. According to Modex, it reached $617 million in production over the last 12 months, with 302 loan officers and 22 branches. UMortgage claims it gains 65 basis points from each loan and takes 14 calendar days on average to close a loan.

UMortgage, a national mortgage platform, is closing out 2022 the same way it spent much of the year—with exponential growth. Just this month, the platform brought on mortgage broker icon, Todd Bitter, as Chief Sales Officer to its Executive Leadership team, acquired Dallas-based NXT Mortgage, onboarded top-producing brokers Breon Price— the number one ranked broker in Ohio—and Chad Curtin, sending shockwaves throughout the mortgage industry. The innovative mortgage platform made a concerted effort throughout the year to enhance its Executive Leadership team with highly experienced individuals from different pockets of the finance and mortgage industry. Just in 2022, UMortgage added 4 industry veterans and promoted another 2 to its executive leadership team. UMortgage hired individuals with high-level experience from other big players in the industry, including Guaranteed Rate, American Financial Resources, Homepoint, and United Wholesale Mortgage. "In order to maintain our people-focused vision while we scaled, we had to build an experienced leadership team," claimed Casa. "That leadership was paramount in driving the growth of UMortgage and attracting the most talented loan originators within the industry." Last week, UMortgage broke news that it had acquired NXT Mortgage. After being founded by Marine Corps veteran, Tyler Hodgson, NXT quickly shook ground within the mortgage industry. In 2020 and 2021, the brokerage was named one of America's fastest-growing private companies by INC 5000. Directly following the acquisition, UMortgage announced that it attracted a Motto Mortgage branch led by Price and an NRL Mortgage branch led by Curtin–bringing more than 65 new employees to UMortgage in a three-week span. These major additions signal an investment into the lending platform built by President & CEO, Anthony Casa, in 2020. The platform enters the calendar year with nearly 300 loan originators on its roster—more than a 1,500% increase since the beginning of 2022. If you'd like to learn more about the UMortgage platform and how it's creating a better path for brokers to originate, for buyers to borrow, and for real estate agents to offer better client experiences, sign up for the weekly UMortgage Discovery Meeting, Thursdays at 2pm ET.

Today’s Housing News guest is Anthony Casa, the president and CEO at UMortgage to talk in-depth about an acquisition that UMortgage announced this very morning. Clayton and Anthony also talk about their communication and M&A strategy, the way that he has evolved and attracted people as a leader over the years, and shares some strategy tips about how to recruit the next generation of talent in the mortgage industry. The Housing News podcast explores the most important topics happening in mortgage, real estate, and fintech. Each week a new mortgage or real estate executive joins the show to add perspective to the top stories crossing HousingWire’s news desk. Hosted by Clayton Collins and produced by the HW Media team.

UMortgage seems to be on an acquisition spree. On Monday, the company revealed that it acquired Texas-based NXT Mortgage. And earlier last week, news dropped that the Philadelphia-based mortgage company snagged a Motto Mortgage branch in Cincinnati. The two companies in total will bring close to 60 new employees to UMortgage. Tyler Hodgson, CEO of NXT Mortgage will also transition to the company, and will serve as the company's president.

PHILADELPHIA, PA; December 13, 2022 — Todd Bitter has announced that he is joining the UMortgage platform, citing it as the future of the mortgage brokerage industry. He will take the role of Chief Sales Officer where he will support the platform’s ever-growing roster of loan originators. Bitter has earned a reputation as an icon within the mortgage industry for championing the broker channel and building his own business from the ground-up to become one of the nation’s top-producing purchase-focused brokers. Recently, he has pivoted his focus away from his own loan production to support his fellow brokers and share with them the practices that he utilized in order to replicate his success and retain a healthier work-life balance. His success within this industry and continued dedication to lift those around him has been reciprocated throughout the housing industry. In 2022, he was named an inaugural Hall of AIME inductee. He’s shown continued expertise in client acquisition and retention as the #1 purchase originator within the broker channel in Arizona and a top-10 broker nationally in purchase originations from 2015 to 2021. Bitter was selected as a member of the Founders Club for BACPAC, where he continues to advocate for his fellow brokers within the halls of Washington. Bitter plans to continue this advocacy with his efforts at UMortgage, which was founded as a platform for loan originators aiming to create life-changing opportunities through homeownership for their clients. In joining UMortgage, Bitter plans to continue his initiative in building up the broker channel by becoming an accessible resource for UMortgage’s team of loan originators. “Giving back to the broker community has been hugely rewarding to me and this opportunity with UMortgage is a continuation of that,” expressed Bitter. “My previous work in helping develop my fellow brokers has led me to realize the importance of this support. Here, I’ll be able to channel all of my focus into building the most cost-effective, in terms of both profitability and time-management, platform to help loan originators find success in this industry.” Bitter has developed successful tactics in building strong relationships with his real estate agent partners. By combining this ‘relationships, not transactions’ approach with UMortgage’s in-house Operations staff, Bitter believes that he will be able to assist in developing the best platform for independent loan originators to produce at high volumes and help actualize the dreams of homeownership for countless homebuyers. If you're interested in learning more about how Bitter's new role at UMortgage will help loan originators win more deals in any market, sign up for the weekly Discovery Meeting, which happens every Thursday at 2pm ET. About UMortgage UMortgage is an innovative mortgage platform which helps Loan Originators grow their business and create life-changing opportunities through homeownership. Each LO is able to scale with a large portfolio of lenders available at their fingertips, top-of-the-line technology which allows them to work from anywhere, and dedicated Operations support with clear communication through each step of the loan. With LOs licensed nationwide, UMortgage is providing opportunities to create strong communities through financial literacy, support, and advocacy.

Those in the mortgage industry who survived the Great Recession and now find themselves navigating choppy waters fanned by inflation are worthy of some sort of honorific, it might be said. Perhaps even a moniker suggesting superhero status. Enter Rebecca Richardson, the self-described Mortgage Mentor dispensing helpful advice in her series of social media videos and via her blog. The Charlotte, NC-based mortgage loan originator with UMortgage describes her superpower on her website: “Most people only think about home financing a few times during their lives,” she writes. “I think about it every single day. It’s your home and your future. It’s my profession and passion.” There you have it. Seeking to learn more, Mortgage Professional America reached out to Richardson – and it didn’t require a signal in the sky to arrange a meeting. Through the power of the video conferencing platform dubbed Zoom, MPA was able to learn more about the mortgage maven’s trajectory. “I actually started originating right after college,” she told MPA. “I had worked for a financial planner and got bitten by that bug.” The financial planning world made for an easy segue into the mortgage field after prompting from a real estate broker connection. Entering into the unknown, she had a powerful ally: “Though I didn’t really know what I was getting into, my dad was a real estate attorney, so I definitely grilled him with questions,” she said. Some two decades later, the nationally ranked loan officer is as enthusiastic as ever: “I just like it,” she said. “It’s fast-paced, and it’s interesting. I’ve been doing it for 20 years, and I love it.” She survived the Great Recession through “perseverance and grit,” she said. The same attributes helped fuel her entry into the wholesale market in June after having spent years in retail – joining a growing trend in the process. According to the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME), of which Richardson is a member, 6,353 loan officers who left retail joined the independent mortgage community last year. In the first nine months of this year, per AIME, more than 7,000 loan officers converted from retail to wholesale lending. Another eye-opening stat: The wholesale channel has gained some 18,000 loan officers to date as of September – “a rate of growth in the wholesale channel we’ve never seen before,” one AIME executive told MPA. The shift has prompted a pivot, as loan officers act more like trusted advisors to their clients – particularly in light of the current economic climate. “It’s very compelling, particularly in market shifts like this,” Richardson said. “And also how technology, how marketing, has changed. It lends itself to being able to build more of an autonomous platform versus relying on the company brand,” she said. “And then you’re looking for that platform that offers the programs you need to be able to meet your clients where they are.” Instead of cowering amid a challenging market, she chooses to take a different tack: “Not to have toxic positivity,” she prefaced. “We have to be realistic of what the environment is. But there’s an incredible opportunity to take market share. It’s a natural inclination to shrink back or be scared or all of those kinds of things. This is when you really get to show your strength as a financial professional for your clients.” Like all who availed of the abundant low-hanging fruit of refinancing of the last couple of years, Richardson looks back on the halcyon days of 2020 and 2021 with fondness. But now it’s time to get back at it when the customer needs help the most. “Fantastic,” she said of ’20 and ’21. “Loved the volume. It was all great. But you did not have to work that hard at being that sharp at your skill,” she said. That was then, and this is now: “This is ‘how are you serving that client, what are those tools you’re bringing to help that client win in what can be already an emotional and stressful process’ but even more so because they’re questioning if they’re making the right decision and what’s going to happen next.” How brokers react is likely to separate the wheat from the chaff, she suggested. “Being able to give them some of those tools and that education and some of that flexibility,” she said. “We may not like where rates are, but ‘here’s a 2-1 buydown or here’s another strategy you might want to consider’ – and bring on both sides of that conversation,” she said, role-playing possible scenarios to offer harried customers intent on buying a home in a changed market. “We know homeownership is still a good move to make, even in light of current rates,” she said. “But then also understand where their heart’s at and giving them actionable steps and be able to speak to that,” she said of the posture brokers should adopt with their customers in a shifting landscape. Spoken like a true mentor – indeed, a Mortgage Mentor.

UMortgage is helping drive an influx of Loan Originators from retail channels to the broker space with more than 70 former retail LOs and 112 total LOs joining its platform in Q3 of 2022. While other companies continue with mass layoffs, UMortgage continues to support its claim to grow in a shrinking market. With rates continuing to increase month-over-month, total mortgage industry employment declined from 404,400 to 401,200 between July and August of 2022, according to a report from National Mortgage News. Recently, mortgage application activity has declined in tandem with a decrease in housing market demand. These factors have driven many companies within the mortgage industry to lay off staff members while retail Loan Originators sought out new opportunities to access more competitive rates and products. Despite this overall decrease in industry employment, reports found an increase of 800 individuals employed in the mortgage and non-mortgage brokerage industry between July and August, with UMortgage's weekly Discovery Meeting leading 10% of those individuals to the platform across those months. Bloated cost structures, an inability to compete with rates offered elsewhere, and outdated technologies have cut into profits for retail lenders and led to unsustainable lending practices within the channel. UMortgage has spearheaded a migration away from retail lending by offering its Loan Originators: Robust optionality with a growing portfolio of 20+ lenders and their entire suite of loan products Specialized Operations pods with Loan Processors, Coordinators, and Closers assisting throughout the loan process, led by a dedicated pod leader A fully web-based tech stack that is accessible from mobile devices and eliminates manual data entry Custom marketing materials to help grow individual businesses With these tools in hand, UMortgage is helping retail LOs towards a platform that is built to help loan originators thrive in any market. In Q3 of 2022, UMortgage welcomed more than 112 total Loan Originators to its innovative platform, upping its total number of LOs to 194. UMortgage plans for continued growth for the remainder of the year, with Q4 goals outlining a vision to onboard another 150 LOs by the end of 2022. If you're a Loan Originator looking to increase your business and help improve the standard within the mortgage industry, register for our weekly Discovery Meeting which happens every Thursday at 2pm ET.

These two things are not a contradiction: In 2022, the US mortgage market cooled dramatically and eliminated thousands of jobs in the process. In 2022, lenders and fintechs sensed an opportunity and jumped at it with gusto. The slowdown of the US mortgage market in 2022 has been dramatic, driven by inflation and rising interest rates that pummeled the refinance market and led to a big drop in new mortgage applications. There’s been some mild rebound in recent weeks, but purchase applications remain 30% lower and refinance activity is down 83% from last year’s highs, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly survey for the week ending Sept. 16.

The social media app, TikTok, is expected to reach 1.8 billion users by the end of 2022; will you be one of them? Many mortgage professionals are turning to the platform as a way to connect with prospective borrowers and educate them on mortgages, as well as market themselves. We spoke to UMortgage Branch Manager Arielle Best, known as the VA Loan Lady on TikTok, about the platform and how best to utilize it as a mortgage loan originator. Best joined TikTok in2020 and today has 61.3k followers and 524.8k likes on the platform. She’s part of UMortgage’s “Lender Avengers” team, along with Rebecca Richardson (The Mortgage Mentor) and Nate Fain (The Mortgage Creator). “We’re on [TikTok] mostly to educate and provide information, it’s not necessarily a sales platform,”Best said. “We’re on there to provide accurate information, and if people want to use us, that’s awesome.” Using TikTok Best’s top three tips for loan officers using TikTok are to be your genuine self, keep it short and sweet, and “just do the video.” “Even if the first one sucks, you can only get better,” she said. “You can look at it and say, ‘How can I make this video better?’” She said one mistake she sees a lot of loan officers new to TikTok make is talking to the camera rather than through the camera to their audience. “Be your true self,” she said. “Act like you’re talking to friends when you’re explaining something, as if your best friend came to your house to ask you mortgage advice – talk to your phone like that.” According to Best, her biggest learning curves upon joining TikTok were learning how to use the app’s features and understanding what the algorithm was looking for when putting out content. “Putting out information – useful information –wasn’t gaining traction unless you made it less than 10 seconds, put catchy music behind it and put the words on the screen,” she said. “The biggest thing with TikTok is understanding how viewers want to consume the information, even if that information is something that’s important, getting it to where they’re going to see it.” She said the app’s algorithm is looking for “small bites of information that are useful, digestible and understandable, and in as short a time as you can provide it.” She also recommended learning how to organizeyour TikTok by using the playlists feature. Best has playlists for her Q&A Wednesday series, satire videos and true stories, among other types of videos. Playlists make it easier for your followers to binge your content and absorb all the information. When it comes to deciding what to make videos about, Best says she looks toward her commenters. “I always will go to my comment section, because those are the people that are looking for answers, are the ones asking questions,” she said. “I let them decide what I’m going to talk about.” “That’s another great thing about TikTok that I love– one person can ask me a question that is useful to so many people, and I’ll reply to that with the answer,” she said. “Then so many more people have that knowledge and information now that didn’t and wouldn’t have known where to find it, because the average borrower is not going to go dig through the chapter of a handbook to find information for their loan circumstance.” Best also recommends making videos on important news updates borrowers need to know about. Building a Brand In terms of building a brand, Best says it’s crucial to know your market and to combine your passion with what you’re already doing. As the VA Loan Lady, she specializes in VA loans because she’s passionate about helping veterans. “Build your brand around the things that you love to do, and then your brand comes to you a little more naturally,” she said. The best way to grow your audience is to post routinely, and be sure to cover controversial and often misrepresented topics by providing accurate information, she said. Return on investment Best said she spends less than 10 hours a week on her TikTok. “I’ll spend probably an hour today just replying to videos, and then editing and posting and kind of batch-dumping videos,” she said. What kind of ROI does she see for her time on the app? In April she had 400 people fill out inquiries and applications from TikTok. She posted a video in July that had more than 1 million views, and said that about 530 people reached out afterward. “It wasn’t all applications, but we had inquiries up above 500 for one video,” she said. “If I were to average, it’s no less than at least 150 to 200 either inquiries or applications a month.” Ultimately, Best said, the key to TikTok is to remember that your audience consists of real people you’re connecting with, rather than people you’re trying to pitch or sell yourself to. “You are there to educate and inform them oftheir options for financing,” she said. “Don’t sell yourself, be yourself.” Interested in seeing how other professionals use TikTok? Check out these mortgage and real estate accounts you should be following!

You think things are bad in the housing market now? Stick around and see if mortgage rates climb into the 7% range. If it happens, the current origination forecast of $2.2 trillion in 2023 will look awfully rosy. Even the most battle-tested industry players are preparing for one of the strongest housing market corrections in decades. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell sent a clear message during a press conference following the announcement of the central bank's decision to hike the federal funds rate by 75 basis points on Wednesday: the ongoing housing market correction, which brought the largest mortgage rates increase in four decades, is far from at its end.

While other companies have enacted mass layoffs and hiring freezes, UMortgage has revealed plans to hire more than 250 operations professionals over the next six months. The Philadelphia-based lender said it intends to grow its operations support staff and onboard new talent during its virtual open house event on Sep. 15, 2022. The announcement comes just a few months after hiring 52 loan originators last quarter, bringing its total number to 262 team members. “We’re trying to solve a big industry pain point with this event,” said Anthony Casa, president and CEO of UMortgage. “There are a lot of people unemployed in this industry. UMortgage is creating jobs, being efficient in the hiring process, and setting clear expectations on the standard we have for our client experience.” Casa will lead the open house, along with Sabrina Lopez, who recently joined the company as vice president of operations. During the event, they will discuss UMortgage’s business model, training opportunities for new operations team members, expectations for current available roles, loan process, value proposition, core values, and the team member support system. “What we’re looking for at our operations open house are individuals who are focused on the client experience,” Lopez said. “They are detail-oriented, have excellent communication skills, are advocates for the borrower, and understand the importance of making a difference each day in regards to how they interact with their teammates, loan officers, external partners, and the customer. Our operations team has to have a sense of urgency and must be committed to improving day over day.” The virtual event will be open to all loan coordinators, processors, underwriters, closers, or other seasoned mortgage professionals who are based in the US. The company said its need for greater operations is a “direct result of the influx of loan originators the company hired in Q2.” By the end of the third quarter, UMortgage plans to onboard a further 100+ employees.

Influencer marketing is working wonders for many businesses in today’s modern world. A research report from Lee Odden’s TopRank Marketing revealed that 86% of B2B brands have succeeded in boosting brand awareness and increasing sales through influencer marketing. UMortgage is keeping up with the trends by harnessing the power of social media to educate both consumers and loan officers on mortgage and homeownership. In June, the Philadelphia-based home lender welcomed three prominent TikTok influencers – Nate Fain, Arielle Best, and Rebecca Richardson – as part of its expansion strategy and for a greater marketing push to bolster its portfolio of LOs. In line with the new hires, UMortgage also launched Homeowner HQ, a virtual branch dedicated to educating prospective and existing homeowners across the country. “We approached Arielle, Nate, and Rebecca, not for their social following, but for their passion for educating prospective homebuyers about all of the nuances of the mortgage process,” UMortgage told Mortgage Professional America in an exclusive interview. “Our vision as a company is to educate consumers and people across the country on all the aspects of homeownership. “That focus on empowering others through education resonates with a very specific group of people in the industry, and Rebecca, Nate, and Arielle fit into that group. They use social media to increase accessibility to their educational efforts, which aligns with our vision of creating life-changing opportunities through homeownership.” The trio joined UMortgage after developing a large following on social media. Fain, also known as @themortgagecreator on TikTok, leveraged his 10 years of experience as an LO and unique personality to grow his following to nearly 250,000 followers and more than two million likes on the platform. “For the last year or so, Arielle, Rebecca, and I have sort of joked that we should form a team,” he said. “We all have different personalities, but we share the same vision. I think that’s the mark of a really great team. Our main goal is to educate and empower the public so they can make informed decisions when getting a mortgage. “UMortgage really bought into this crazy idea and vision that Rebecca, Arielle, and I have for our team. UMortgage’s technology and focus on client experience also fit our business model perfectly, which is really exciting.” Like Fain, Richardson also shared her extensive industry knowledge on TikTok with the goal of increasing accessibility to the housing market. Richardson’s TikTok profile @the.mortgage.mentor has more than 127,000 followers, and her Instagram account has another 10,000 followers. “We are able to contribute to the team and our individual clients in the ways in which we are uniquely gifted,” Richardson shared. “If there are areas that we struggle with, we are able to lean on other team members for support.” Meanwhile, Best (@thatonedamnginger) is focused on debunking myths and providing factual information regarding VA loans. Her specialized content has brought in over 58,000 followers and around 488,000 likes. “I started my TikTok channel because I wanted to start giving my knowledge directly to the people it affects, the Veteran and Active Duty Community,” Best said. “I never planned on using that platform as a way to earn business from Veterans and the Miltok community, but it happened. I knew I needed to find a new place to call home for my business because the reach and help I was providing was staggering, but there’s only one of me.” In addition to helping the company boost its presence online, Best, Fain, and Richardson will co-manage Homeowner HQ. “The great thing about Homeowner HQ was the unique experience they brought with them to UMortgage, but they have already been driving consumer education before joining forces with us,” the company said. “What we offer is a place to help grow and scale their business so they can focus on educating more consumers and people across the internet. Because of our focus on getting better every day, this transition has challenged us to continuously evolve our processes to greater support loan originators of every type.” When asked how it plans to use the platform to further expand its lending business, UMortgage clarified that its focus is actually on helping originators grow their businesses. “Rebecca, Nate, and Arielle all have a great client base that comes from social media. Our focus is less on telling them how to get the most out of TikTok,” UMortgage told MPA. “Rather, we want to provide them with the tools and resources they need to best serve their clients and those clients’ loans. “Are they not licensed in a certain state where a client is interested? We have a network of loan originators licensed across the country to help support that. Do they need more people on their team to help serve all of these inquiries? We’ll help them scale that. Do they need additional operations to process all of these loans? We have that, too. We offer all of our LOs an open door to our executive leadership team so that we’re always aware of the ways that improve our processes and best support our LOs and their clients.” Last month, UMortgage rolled out its ‘Partnership Playbook,’ which the lender described as a “continuously-evolving tool with strategies that some of our most-experienced LOs use to grow referral networks and give their clients and real estate agents the best experience possible throughout the home buying process.” “It’s provided an excellent environment that fosters growth and creativity while knowing we have the leadership and operational support to ensure our clients are well taken care of,” Richardson commented. “The overall strategy and purpose for our business is simple: creating life-changing opportunities through homeownership,” UMortgage said. “Just like all of our other LOs, Arielle, Nate, and Rebecca align with that purpose. Our target audience as a collective company is loan originators we can support. Our goal is to empower them to help all individuals who are interested in the personal and financial freedoms associated with homeownership.”

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristi Gibb. Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started? In 2015, my husband, who is a US Army Veteran, and I were in the market to buy a home. We went to our bank to get pre-approved and then met up with our Realtor. He recommended that we get a second opinion from a local mortgage broker. We were sure our bank would offer us the best rate because it’s a Veteran-friendly bank. Instead, we learned that the mortgage broker could offer us a much lower rate and fees than the bank was charging. He explained that banks and retail lenders often charge higher rates and fees and then keep the credit attached to those rates as profit for themselves, rather than passing it on to the consumer. We wound up taking a job and buying a home in Utah. When we moved into our neighborhood, we became friends with someone who owned his own mortgage brokerage. Since our kids were getting older, I began thinking of what I could do for a career. My husband suggested I talk to our mortgage broker friend. One thing led to another, and I found my passion in helping people build wealth through homeownership with low broker rates and fees as a mortgage broker. We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road? It has not been a smooth road. Though our friend is awesome, he was not set up to train a brand new loan officer or guide me on the path to success. I worked hard, took several online trainings, and hired a coach to help me learn what to do to gain referral partners and guide clients through a positive experience while getting their home loan. I was often tempted to quit as I went months without a paycheck, but I continued to do the work knowing that it had to pay off. My coach recommended that I switch brokerages to one that offered mentorship and support. I finally listened and found my second place of employment just as the pandemic unleashed on the US. My second boss offered training, support, coaching, and leads. I was able to refine my skills and process as I helped many families refinance or purchase their homes while I grew my business. My passion is helping our Veterans utilize their VA home loan benefit and educating Realtors and our community on what a great loan the VA loan is. I was surprised when I became a loan officer to learn that there are biases against it. People think VA borrowers are weak borrowers because they take advantage of the 0% down benefit, or that the loans take too long to close, and the appraisals always come in low. This is not the case. My first two bosses weren’t very enthusiastic about me pursuing mostly Veteran clients, so I decided to join forces with Jimmy Hobson at UMortgage out of Bountiful, UT. I’d been following him since I signed up with the Military Mortgage Bootcamp in 2019. He did the work and became one of the premier VA loan officers in the nation. I have finally found my home at UMortgage, where we offer low rates and fees, and share the same drive and vision that provides fast closings and excellent customer experiences. I’m privileged to be on the VA Extension team at UMortgage, where we will soon grow to become the biggest VA lender in the US. Our goal is to help as many Veterans as possible obtain homeownership without getting fleeced by big name lenders who charge high rates and fees and provide call-center level service. Now I teach classes to realtors and homebuyers about the VA home loan, and why it is such a great loan. My goal is to dispel the myths in our community that surrounds the VA loan and help VA buyers win more offers. I love the VA loan because my husband and I were able to use it to buy our first home. It was a huge help! I’ve done a lot of training on the VA home loan benefit and have become a Certified Veteran Lending Specialist through NAMB and a Veteran Mortgage Advisor through the Veteran Lending Council. I study the guidelines daily and seek to be a resource for our Veteran homebuyers and the realtors who help them. I love serving our Veterans. They inspire me to do my best. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others? I do all loan types, but my favorite by far is the VA loan. I’m a Veteran Mortgage Advisor, certified by the Veteran Lending Council, and a Certified Veteran Lending Specialist, certified by the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. I love demystifying the VA loan for borrowers and Realtors. It’s always exciting to me when I can help a Veteran access their VA home loan benefits especially after another loan officer has told them that they had lost it. It really matters who you work with. You want to work with someone who is very familiar with your loan program and can guide you through its nuances. The VA loan has the most flexible guidelines of all the loan programs. “Underwriters are encouraged to consider every possible appropriate factor in seeking a proper basis for approving loan applications for every qualified Veteran” (VA Handbook). I’m grateful to be on a team of VA loan officer powerhouses who can back me up if I’m not sure of the answer, or mastermind with me about different scenarios. I love teaching VA Myth Busting classes to the Realtors in our community and hope to change the stigma in Utah surrounding VA loans. What do you like best about our city? What do you like least? I love the different seasons in Utah. My family and I enjoy snowboarding, camping, rafting, and visiting the beautiful parks Utah has to offer. We also like watching movies and hanging out together. We’re pretty low-key most of the time. Pricing: Brokers saved borrowers $9407 in 2021 over retail lenders When you’re financing a home, check with a mortgage broker. Contact Info: Website: https://www.gibbhomeloans.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristigibbmortgage Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristigibbmortgage/ Twitter: https://www.tiktok.com/@kristigibb Other: https://www.umortgage.com

Tyler Carlston is a loan originator and mortgage broker with UMortgage, specializing in helping Veterans and active-duty military members utilize their VA home loan benefit. In a related development, Tyler has continued to expand his scope to reach more clients, enabling them to own homes without being subjected to high-interest rates by leveraging the access to wholesale rates from various lenders. “With my home and the majority of my business being in Military City USA, I take a ton of pride in making sure our nation’s heroes get taken care of properly when they are looking to use their VA home loan benefit. I always tell my clients that I have their six and that I am here to serve them. With that being said, the predatory retail lenders in town see a huge opportunity to profit on the backs of these Veterans and they take full advantage. I am here to put them out of business.”

Initiative aims to boost financial literacy among consumers throughout the country UMortgage has announced an initiative to provide training and educational materials to help consumers become financially well. The national mortgage company said that it will be hosting its inaugural Financial Literacy Week program from March 28 to April 03. The week-long program was designed to include, and extend beyond, home buying and mortgage-related topics to provide an immersive and well-rounded education. With four sessions per day, the program will cover topics such as investing, designing a career with money in mind, student loans, and several others. Commenting on the initiative, UMortgage CEO Anthony Casa said the goal is to “help fill in those gaps and power a greater sense of financial literacy among consumers throughout the country, especially people in underserved markets.” “Most educational systems in America, from elementary school through college, are putting people at a disadvantage by not making any sort of dedicated financial education courses a requisite part of their curriculum,” he said. “Whether it’s learning about homeownership or retirement, most people don’t have access to this curriculum until the time has either come or it’s passed - for us, that’s a big deal.” UMortgage’s learning and development team and other industry experts will lead the training in each topic area. Courses will be online and accessible to people of all ages and in every state.

Inaugural program a key pillar of company's mission to power financial literacy nationwide PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- UMortgage, a fast-growing national mortgage company, will be hosting its inaugural Financial Literacy Week program from Monday, March 28 – Sunday, April 3. The week-long program is a major initiative of the nationwide mortgage lender, which has prioritized financial literacy as a key pillar of the service it provides borrowers nationwide. The program kicks off Financial Literacy Month, a nationally recognized campaign that takes place each April to bring awareness to the need for more financial education in schools and for adults. "Most educational systems in America from elementary school through college are putting people at a disadvantage by not making any sort of dedicated financial education courses a requisite part of their curriculum," said Anthony Casa, Chief Executive Officer of UMortgage. "Whether it's learning about homeownership or retirement, most people don't have access to this curriculum until the time has either come or it's passed - for us, that's a big deal. Our goal at UMortgage is to help fill in those gaps and power a greater sense of financial literacy amongst consumers throughout the country, especially people in underserved markets." As part of its Financial Literacy Week program, UMortgage will host four sessions per day, covering a broad range of topics that include investing, designing a career with money in mind, student loans, and several others. The program was built to include, and extend beyond, homebuying and mortgage-related topics to provide an immersive and well-rounded education. Training in each topic area will be provided by members of the UMortgage Learning & Development team, as well as subject matter experts from relevant industries, including GradFin, a student loan provider. Courses will be online and accessible to people of all ages and in every state. UMortgage's consistent dedication to powering financial literacy for the borrowers it serves is evident in its mortgage industry-leading Net Promoter Score (NPS) - a measure of customer satisfaction calculated based on the likelihood of respondents to refer friends and family to a company, product or service. The company currently holds a 93 NPS rating on a spectrum from -100 to 100. For more information on the courses that will be offered, and to register online, visit umortgage.com/financial-literacy-week.