Welcome to New American News! As we reflect back on the last 12 months Toby and I have been “Overwhelmed” Toby’s favorite word with the blessings of getting to work with you all and grow this fantastic company together. Less than two years ago there were less than 10 of us and today this newsletter will go out to over 200 full-time New American team members. For our inaugural edition, NAM selected three individuals who have distinguished themselves as leaders in their respective departments. Here’s a little bit about what they do, and who they are, and why they are so special to us:
Michelle has been working in our Virginia Beach office for a little over a year. A Virginia Beach native, she is the critical accounts manager for all of NAM’s new loan officers. In a nutshell, Michelle assists new loan officers by helping them acclimate to NAM and perhaps most importantly, getting their files in tip top condition and to closing with record speed and precision. Michelle has played an integral part in helping New American set a new industry standard for taking a file from application to closing. Where most lenders take 60 days to close a loan, Michelle and her team can help even the most inexperienced rookies get their files to the closing table in 7 business days.
So, how does she do it? Word on the street is that Michelle does not sleep, as she is known for promptly responding to emails at all hours of the night. Her work ethic, competency, and commitment to creating “Raving Fans” out of her loan officers has catapulted NAM to the top of the industry in this area. Bottom line, if you are a new loan officers and you need assistance getting “up to speed,” Michelle is your go-to-girl.
Where, you may be wondering, did this incredible work ethic originate? Perhaps at her very first job, where at the age of fourteen, our phenomenal CAM Queen suited up as everyone’s favorite mouse, “Chucky Cheese” (I am guessing Mickey is not reading this) and appeared at birthday parties for little kids.
We imagine getting files to closing must be a breeze after earning a living pulling screaming kids out of the ball pit (you know what sometimes happens in there), serving pizza, and sweeping up popcorn while wearing an oversize mouse costume.
We know any loan officer that has had the privilege to work with Michelle is certainly glad that she chose to trade in her mouse ears for her superwoman cape (wait that is Jen Taylor, maybe next issue).
Poquoson, VA native Cassie Rodgers, our expert in moving loans through the pipeline from application to closing, began her career in the mortgage industry as a loan officer but in June of 2010 Cassie accepted the position CTC Queen. When we made the strategic decision to put all loans on a 7 day clear to close track we knew we would need a uniquely gifted individual to manage the flow of information between operations and production. Cassie’s unique background and gifts make her the perfect choice.
Cassie describes her job as “keeping the loan flow moving.” We think of it more like managing the Indy 500! In order to revolutionize the way mortgage processing is done in the industry we knew we needed a outstanding team player and leader. Cassie Rodgers Casey’s comments mirrored Cassie’s “she is a woman of great character and competence that truly cares about our customers and REALTOR partners. Her passion for customer service and front line experience are a great example and encouragement to our loan officers and ops team. We could not be more honored to have her on the team.”
Prior to working in the mortgage industry, Cassie and her family spent ten years working in the ministry, children’s ministry in particular (I see a working with children them developing with our ops folks). She has lived on both coasts, spending several years in both coasts, spending several years in both California and Pennsylvania. In addition to her job with NAM, Cassie is a wife and a mother of four children and spends a lot of her free time following her kids around and attending their sporting events and other activities.
Remarkably, despite a full-time job and four kids, Cassie has found time to return to school and is studying for her degree in business administration. We are certainly glad that Virginia Beach based NAM loan officer Christian Anderson introduced this dynamo to Toby Harris just a short while ago. We can attribute a great deal of our success and our reputation to the efforts of employees like Cassie Rodgers.
GR owns a RE/MAX Agency in Charlottesville, VA, and has the distinction of being NAM’s very first ABA partner. GR describes his business vision as very different than most Real Estate companies. He refers to his business model as an “onion” with “real estate at its center” and ”mortgages and credit repair services its outer layers. “Providing customers with a “one-stop shop” approach for a variety of services has certainly proven to be successful approach for GR By early 2011 he will have made 1 million with his mortgage joint venture.
Similar to our other standouts, GR began his working career with humbling positions. His very first job was working as a janitor in a Hewlett-Packard factory in Waynesboro, Virginia. Mr. Falls worked hard and saved his $1.60/hr wages to put himself through college at Old Dominion University. We figured providing janitorial services might be his worst job as well, but GR said his worst job ever was loading UPS trucks on a midnight shift to pay for his senior year in college.
In his spare time, GR enjoys fly-fishing and shooting guns, which explains why he gets along so with Casey and Toby. An avid gun collector, GR explained, “Every time we get together [with Casey and Toby], “we always end up standing around in a parking lot somewhere checking out each other’s pistols.’ The conversation usually concludes with Toby hitching up his pant leg to show us his latest fire arm addition.”
Toby had this to say about GR Galls “GR and Pat have been great partners to work with and to enjoy life with for a number of years. GR and Pat believed in New American form our earliest days and have enthusiastically referred us to so many of their colleagues. “I am so proud to enjoyed such great success with such wonderful guys.”
So I am probably one holiday season late for this thought it reflecting back on this year fills me up with thankfulness the outstanding teamwork, commitment to excellence, care for one another, and dedicated hard work that our entire team has shown. These characteristics will continue to set us apart from the competition in 2011 as we build the premiere REALTOR centric mortgage bank in the country market at a time.
2010 was a great year for all us us at New American Mortgage. Now we get to start a new year!! we look forward to great anticipation to continued increase in our business, increased service to our
Realtors, builders, and borrowers, and commitment to all our staff and loan officers to be the best mortgage company in America.
New American Mortgage 2010
