I've always loved writing, public speaking and education. As a graduate at Princeton University, the art of writing and public speaking became second nature to me. Upon graduating from college, I left the country for six years to travel in Europe and Africa and finally found myself back in the United States at the age of 28 with no job, no money, and no career. I entered the mortgage industry in 1982, and I found it exhilarating and wonderful to be able to use these skills every single day. In those years, I worked for Chase Manhattan Bank as a senior loan officer in Long Island, and I quickly rose up the ranks to become the number 1 loan officer in volume and 2 in dollar amount for Chase in the United States.
Many people in this industry think it's only their selling skills and their interest rates that enable them to close loans month after month─ but it can be anything. Back in 1988, as the market turned and the country began to enter a recession, my wife gave birth to a set of triplets only two years after our 1st son was born. As the country entered the worst time in real estate and mortgages in over thirty years, and as I suddenly had five mouths to feed, the very first transactions came my way because the realtors said to themselves and to me, "We just have to feed 'em babies". Triplets and babies aside, I had to differentiate myself from the average loan officer and try to establish myself in a restricting and almost impossible market. So, I embarked on a path that served me extremely well ever since. I applied my writing and speaking skills to market myself and to successfully get loans done in a way that other loan officers simply could not do. I would take the time to thoroughly understand each transaction and completely and totally research the guidelines and details of each file so that, no matter what, the bank had to approve the file. It was during this period of time that I became one of the most sought out mortgage brokers for much of downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope.
Sensing that the recession was nearly over and have to face economic realities of a much larger family, I decided to open up Universal Mortgage in 1991, and the company has grown by leaps and bounds ever since. The guiding principles that my company uses are the very same ones that I developed as I started out. All of the loan officers in Universal Mortgage pride themselves on knowing details on underwriting guidelines, loan to value ratios, and credit and appraisal standards. Now that we are in the post-subprime epic, these skills are more important than ever. Going forward, especially with the establishment of this blog, it is my goal to clarify and educate the best means of financing during these financially challenging times.
About My Company
Universal Mortgage strives to be the most complete solution for all of your real estate financing needs. We pride ourselves in providing the best customer service in the industry to our clients. Throughout your experience of working with our firm, you will always be speaking to the same one or two people for the entire transaction, not a random clerk who knows you by your social security number. The most important part of any relationship is to get to know one another. Please feel free to take a look around this blog to read about our take on current mortgage hot topics, articles from the news and other useful mortgage and financing information. Hopefully in the near future, we'll have a chance to get to know you as well!
