I've had some people ask me why, since I've had the opportunity to work at a mortgage brokerage and at a bank, and could easily still be working at either one, I have chosen to work at Axiom Financial. I can answer that in basically 3 ways:
1) I finally found a company that matches my own feelings regarding customers service.
Early in my career in the financial services industry I heard a mortgage broker state to his co-workers, "You might as well charge people the highest fees you can get away with, because you'll probably never see them again." In other words, max out your commissions on each client. During that time I was working in the financial industry, but was not licensed as a mortgage originator. I decided to change that at that moment. If the financial scenario of my clients at that time required a mortgage refinance, then I would hand them off to someone else that was recommended by others because I didn't think there was much of a difference between mortgage companies. I mean, an interest rate by any other name....right? Well, I was wrong. I decided then to study and get my originators license, where I placed it with a local broker because I knew the owner, Ron Winterton, then of American West Lending. Ron, who had over a decade of experience at that time, taught me the ins and outs of the business and became my mentor.
Because I was still licensed in the insurance industry at this time and that was my primary source of income still, Ron and I had to part ways as his company decided not to remain as an "affiliate" of my primary company. I then moved my license to another small, local broker which was a nice company, but was really nothing but a way to faciliate my loans; no marketing efforts, no local underwriting. We had to send each loan to underwriting to the company where we placed the loan, be it Countrywide, SunWest, US Bank, etc.
Now, someone working at brokerage would tell you that this is part of the strength of using a broker; they can pick and choose the best place to put your loan. I used the same argument....until I realized that this just wasn't true. Could loan officers at brokers do that? Sure, they could. But they don't. They tend to work with 1 or 2 different companies with which they get comfortable. Sometimes those companies have the best rates, and sometimes they do not. Usually it's the companies that have the easiest "submission" requirements or those that have the easiest systems to use or those that do the best marketing to the loan officers. Rarely have I found a loan officer that actually looks at EVERY company they have access to and places your loan with your best interest in mind. In fact, most of the time they place with THEIR best interest in mind, or the one that is paying the best commission for the rate they're using that day. I have never thought that was the best way to do business. In fact, sometimes my wife asks me why I tend to give "breaks" on origination (one of the fees on your loan). The answer is that I ask myself, "If I were in the situation of the borrower, what would I want done?" I mean, obviously I have to make money or I'll be out of business, right? But, I have seen loan officers charge WAY more than they have to and it just doesn't make sense to me. I guess I just wasn't raised that way. At Axiom, I have a company that would rather help me be someone's "mortgage partner for life." That just isn't the attitude at other companies I've experienced.
Axiom uses a third party to make customer service "grading" calls on over 80% of our loans. In 2010, the company as a whole had rating of 9.76/10. My own grade was a 9.97/10, which isn't out of the ordinary in our company. About 90% of the time, I don't even mention to my clients that they might get a call. I'm sure that no other company I've been with could have come close to those scores.
2) There IS a difference in underwriting.
At Axiom, we are a direct lender. What does that mean? Well, like a broker we can use many different companies, but those companies rates are shown together on our "rate search" engine. So, the best rates are right there for us to see so an Axiom loan officer can compare on one website page and actually do what brokers tell you they do. We can use our parent company, PHH Mortgage, or we can use US Bank, Wells Fargo, Chase, GMAC or others. Unlike the brokers who have to send the files to those companies to be underwritten and depend on those companies' underwriters timetable, at Axiom no matter to which company you will eventually make your payment, the underwriting is done locally in Sandy, Utah with our underwriters who are trained to underwrite not only for PHH, but for each company we do business with. Your file never goes any farther than our corporate office in Sandy, UT. Now, we CAN broker the loan somewhere else if we have to, but in 2 1/2 years, I've only found the need to do that 1 time.
Some might not think that is a big deal. They would be wrong. After being in the business for about 5 years, the broker I was with quickly went out of business. I was lucky enough to gain employment with WaMu as a loan officer in their Lindon, UT branch. During that time, my files were submitted to an processor and underwriter (two different people) in the WaMu loan headquarters, located just outside of Chicago. Yes, I said Chicago. What do you think that did? Well, to be quite honest, those processors and underwriters didn't care one bit how fast they finished with my clients' files. You'll find that at most banks. If they don't have local underwriting, then they haven't met their underwriters and those underwriters just don't care. As a perfect example, the last file I was working on at WaMu (then Chase....you probably know what happened) was for a doctor in central Utah and his wife, who were simply trying to refinance their beautiful home. Credit score was over 740. Income, as you might expect, was more than sufficient. The appraisal was more than sufficient, the loan was less than 70% of the value of the home at that time. So, how long did the underwriting take? OVER 45 days! In fact, I left Chase and left the loan for someone else to finish because my regulations I couldn't take it with me. Truth is, they went somewhere else. And if an underwriter is reading this and asks, "Well, was your file complete?" the answers is YES! In fact, the day before I left Chase an underwriter send me an email telling me what a joy it was to get one of my files because they were
always so complete. Made me wonder why they always took so long...
When I came to Axiom, I asked about their underwriting times. They told me at the time that files were in UW from "2-3 days" but it could take as long as 5 days during some periods, almost apologetically stating the last part. "As long as 5 days?" I couldn't believe it. In fact, after 2 1/2 years with Axiom, most of my files have only been in UW for 2-3 days.
Two to five days or 30-45 days? Which do you want? Are there other companies that can do this? You bet, other mortgage "bankers" or direct lenders. Axiom happens to be one of them.
3) "Axiom, Your Lifelong Mortgage Partner"
I mentioned this slogan in number 1, but need to elaborate. At Axiom, we have on a quarter basis in Sandy, loan officers from all over Utah meet to discuss what is happening in the industry and with our company. That wouldn't be surprising to you, I'm sure. Most companies do that. What might surprise you is that on top of the marketing ideas, industry updates and the ususal things you'd expect, we talk in depth about how to better serve our clients and the community as a whole in what we do. That is something I have never experienced in another company. I've been to events for other companies that have filled arenas with tens of thousands of people and they pay lip service to the idea of "service" but when it comes down to it, they are simply "rah-rah" sessions that pay homage to those who make "big bucks."
Oh, at Axiom they give out plaques and such to the "best" in the company, but those plaques are not just for those who earn the most, but also to those who "serve" the best. Sometimes those are the same people, sometimes they are not, but never in my decade in this industry have I seen service given the same amount of applause from a company as earnings.
The next time you're talking to a real estate agent here locally, ask them if they have heard of Axiom and ask them what they think of the company. I submit that if they haven't heard of Axiom, they haven't done much business.
Oh, and my mentor, Ron? He now works at Axiom as well. He sold American West Lending to Axiom just about the time he called me, then working at Chase, and asked, "Have you ever heard of Axiom Financial....?"
