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It wasn't too long ago that the Sarasota-Bradenton market was inundated with mortgage firms, the obvious response to the residential real estate boom.
The bust, of course, all but wiped out the marketplace of local independent mortgage brokers. And the all-or-nothing swing has become quite a headache for homebuilders and Realtors who rely on timely mortgage approvals.
But Lakewood Ranch-based homebuilder Pat Neal, something of a trendsetter among his peers, believes he has found his aspirin. Neal recently entered into a joint venture with a Houston-based firm to run a mortgage business directly affiliated with Neal Communities. The firm has been one of the most prolific builders in the region the past five years.
“I think this is better for customers,” Neal tells Coffee Talk. “And it gives us more control.”
The mortgage entity, First Continental Mortgage, will offer mortgages first to Neal new homebuyers, then to other new home and re-sale buyers. Todd Boese, who has been in the local mortgage industry for the past 12 years, will be First Continental's first loan officer.
Boese will work with First Continental Mortgage in Houston, a family-run mortgage firm founded in 1993. That firm, says Neal, has an excellent reputation, in addition to a penchant for using technology to find answers to customers' credit issues.
Neal hopes the mortgage unit will eliminate errors found in mortgage paperwork from outside firms, especially ones made by big companies in other states. In fact, Boese says he already helped one buyer who was turned down by another lender. He found errors the other lender made in determining the buyer's back end debt to income ratio.
“The timing is excellent for opening a lending arm,” Boese says in a statement, “as affordability is back in the marketplace.”
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