How She Built One of America's Top Mortgage Companies | Corinna Carter E505

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Rich Somers Report – "How She Built One of America's Top Mortgage Companies | Corinna Carter" (E505, May 19, 2026)

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Episode Overview

In this compelling episode, host Rich Somers sits down with Corinna Carter, founder and CEO of one of America’s largest female-owned mortgage brokerages. Corinna shares her powerful personal journey from runaway teen and young mom to industry trailblazer, and unpacks the operational, leadership, and customer service philosophies behind her company’s explosive growth. Together, they discuss current interest rate environments, business scaling in tough markets, building high-performance teams, and creating exceptional client experiences.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Corinna Carter’s Early Life & Mindset

• Overcoming Adversity

  • Corinna tells her story of overcoming a tumultuous upbringing:
    • “I was a runaway at 12. I was institutionalized at 14. I was behind 12-foot brick walls that I could not get out of. Then I came out of the institution, got pregnant at 15 and became a mom a month before my 16th birthday.” [00:37]
  • Early responsibility shaped her leadership skills:
    • “I've always managed myself and someone else from the time I was 15, make sure they were fed, they were clothed, we had food on the table. It took me a very long time to figure out where my natural strengths came from. And they actually come from being a mom early because I was responsible for someone else's life early on.” [00:37 - 02:00]

• Lessons from Early Motherhood

  • Being a mother taught her grace and resilience, which she applies in business:
    • “The biggest thing is having some grace in how you're dealing with people and understanding where they're coming from, because their underlying struggles may be something that you could understand more.” [08:03]

Building and Scaling a Mortgage Powerhouse

• Explosive Growth Amid Market Uncertainty

  • Corinna's firm grew from 30 to over 130 loan officers, even as rates climbed and markets stagnated. The business expanded 18%-22% year-over-year for four consecutive years. [02:00]
  • She underscores the importance of process-oriented management and not relying on individuals:
    • “The one key to doing that was our 2A days and subdividing our process, not relying on one.” [25:44]

• Current Real Estate Market Insight

  • Corinna and Rich discuss the impact of persistent high-interest rates, recent Fed policy, and global turmoil (Iranian conflict, oil prices). They agree substantial market movement is unlikely in the coming year:
    • “I don't predict a whole lot of drastic movement in the next year...if they [the Fed] do 0.25, I mean, 25 basis points, maybe 50 basis points.” [03:43]
    • “If we have seven to, you know, 15 million first-time home buyers that need to buy a house and they're not buying...Are we preparing sellers properly for the houses sitting on the market long enough?” [03:55]

Leadership, Hiring & Team Building

• Finding and Managing the Right Talent

  • Rich shares his own leadership evolution: “I only want killers on a team. And if you're not a killer, like, I can't have you on board...I don't ever want a corporate vibe. I don't micromanage.” [14:35]
  • Corinna emphasizes personal inventory before hiring: “The first hire is...what your non-negotiables are...Personal inventory means your calendar, your email, your personal journey...what is it that your personal inventory is taking up your time?” [10:17]
  • Brain dumping and deep personal orientation are her keys to onboarding:
    • “We did a month of just brain dump. Who I am, what I like, what I don't like, what are things that would take time. And some of it is not all business related, but it was really getting to know how Karina's brain works.” [10:58]

• Delegation Exercises and Tools

  • Rich’s 3-column exercise for hiring:
    • Column 1: Write everything you’re not good at/don’t like doing
    • Column 3: Your highest and best use (what you’re good at and love)
    • Column 2: Things you’re good at but don’t like
    • Make your first hire’s job description out of Column 1 [13:17]
  • Corinna’s favorite productivity tool: Speechify
    • “Speechify has gained me back about two to three hours of my day because I'm a little adhd...I speak to my email, I listen to my email, I speak to my documents, I listen.” [12:03]

Operational Excellence and Customer Experience

• Process over People Management

  • Corinna’s management philosophy: “We don't teach sales. Right? We don't manage people. That's what you just said, right? You don't manage people. We manage the process. So if we can create the process, we create the process flow. We can manage the process. But you're not here to manage people. The people have the talents that they do.” [14:59]

• Creating Unreasonable Hospitality

  • Drawing parallels with American Airlines Concierge Key, Corinna aims to make both clients and employees feel as prioritized as elite travelers:
    • “If this is the feeling I get when I travel, how do we make our loan officers and our team feel the same way?...No call goes unanswered within two hours, some type of response.” [20:00]
    • Anecdote about being driven across the tarmac by the airline, reinforcing the impact of white-glove service in her business philosophy [17:02 - 19:51]

• Systems and KPIs

  • The company structure includes multiple operational desks (disclosure, submission, approval, closing, audit). Each employee is responsible for a desk, not an entire file, and must “pass the baton” cleanly. [21:47; 22:40]
  • Twice-daily check-ins (9:30am and 3:30pm EST) for virtual teams nationwide, which has driven them from 600 to 2000 loans annually:
    • “We do 9:30 and 3:30 check ins...it's helped us scale from 600 loans to 2,000 loans a year. It's also helped us manage who's going to be a good fit for us.” [21:44]

Marketing and Scaling

• Marketing and Repeat Business
  • Successful scaling, according to Corinna, came from process discipline and consistent service, which drove both referrals and repeat business—not just marketing funnel hacks [25:23].

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You got to have the grind and you got to creep over to that hustle because that's where the money is made.” – Corinna Carter [00:37]
• “It is hard for other people if they don’t know exactly who you are and what you like. So if you’re not giving them that grace to have time to learn that...” – Corinna Carter [10:58]
• “We don't teach sales...We manage the process.” – Corinna Carter [14:59]
• “We try to keep [daily check-ins] between 8 and 12 minutes. But it's basically a check in to see if they're on target, what they're doing.” – Corinna Carter [21:50]
• “No call goes unanswered within two hours, some type of response. And if we don't have the answer, we let them know what our solution is to get that answer.” – Corinna Carter [20:00]
• “Speechify has gained me back about two to three hours of my day because I'm a little ADHD.” – Corinna Carter [12:03]

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Important Timestamps

• 00:37: Corinna’s early life and how it forged her leadership
• 02:00: Company growth and resilience through market cycles
• 03:43: Current and future interest rate predictions
• 08:03: Leadership lessons from being a young mother
• 10:17–13:17: Hiring, delegation, and productivity tools
• 14:35: High-performance team building and culture
• 14:59: Philosophy on managing process, not people
• 16:15–21:17: Customer experience, structuring for hospitality, and American Airlines concierge story
• 21:44–25:44: KPIs, twice-daily check-ins, operational desks model, scaling from 600 to 2000+ loans annually

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Takeaways

• Corinna Carter champions leading with grace, structure, and process, rooted in her powerful personal story.
• Scaling a service business in tough markets depends on meticulous operational discipline, empowered and well-selected teams, and relentless focus on exceptional customer experience.
• Thoughtful hiring, process innovation, and tech adoption (like Speechify) have been pivotal to her success.
• White-glove service—both internally for staff and externally for customers—is the core of repeatable, sustainable growth in mortgage and beyond.

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For listeners in finance, real estate, or entrepreneurship, this episode offers an inspiring playbook on scaling from adversity to industry dominance, blending hard-won life wisdom with actionable business tactics.

Transcript

[A]

Hey, guys. We are buying two more boutique hotels along the California coast here with Summers Capital. 45 rooms off Market in Catalina island and a second deal up in Bodega Bay, which will make a total of eight boutique hotels owned and operated. Our investors get passive income tax benefits. And the best part is, unlike investing on Wall street and a lot of these other asset classes like multifamily, our investors get to go and stay and experience these boutique hotels firsthand to see how their money's working for them. And so if you want to learn to see if we can help you before this opportunity fills up, you can go to summerscapital.com invest to book a call with my team. [e-mail] invest to book a free call with my team. Now let's jump into the show.

[B]

I was a runaway at 12. I was institutionalized at 14. I was behind 12 foot brick walls that I could not get out of. Then I came out of the institution, got pregnant at 15 and became a mom a month before my 16th birthday. I have always managed myself and someone else from the time I was 15, make sure they were fed, they were clothed, we had food on the table. It took me a very long time to figure out where my natural strengths came from. And they actually come from being a mom early because I was responsible for someone else's life early on. You gotta have the grind and you gotta creep over to that hustle because that's where the money is made.

[A]

All right, guys, today I got a female entrepreneur who is the maybe the one of the largest 100% female owned mortgage brokerages that she owns today in the US Doing a lot of big things in the lending game, but also helping a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of business owners scale. We got Karina Carter in the building. What's up Karina?

[B]

Thank you, Rich. Thank you for having me.

[A]

Of course. Man. This fit, I gotta say, I was just telling Oscar before we started recording like you were probably the best fit, swaggiest dress guest that we've had on in quite some time.

[B]

Well, I had to come to impress you, Rich.

[A]

I like it, I like it. So Karina, you, you run one of the top 50 mortgage companies in the in the country right now?

[B]

Yes, we're in the top 50 for mortgage brokerages. We've scaled from 30 loan officers to over 130 and we have any down market. In the past four years we've increased our business 18 to 22%. 23, 24, 25 and now looking at 26.

[A]

Wow. Each year and the name of the game for a lot of people in the real estate game, you know, whether you're mortgages, whether you're, you know, real estate agent or maybe a real estate investor. Since the rate environment went up in 2022, people forget, hey, we've been in a high rate environment for over four years now. But the theme was always survive to 25. Now we're in 2026. The rate environment's still high. Things have been somewhat stagnant. But the fed just did three rate cuts to end 2025. We got a new fed chair coming in 2020, I'm sorry, may of this year. And also, also we got the Iran war. That's, that's kind of going on right now. Do you feel like we're going to see some downward pressure on interest rates this year because of everything that's going on?

[B]

I feel like we should. Does that mean it's going to happen? We've had a very unique year in 2025 with a lot of people predicting things happen and they didn't happen. So I'm going to share this. I would say the market is where we are right now and it's kind of been there the past few years. So anything better is going to be a little bit better for moving markets that are a little, what I would call stale. But I don't predict a whole lot of drastic movement in the next year. I just really don't.

[A]

Okay, okay. Yeah. I think that's a sentiment that a lot of folks that I'm having on that are in the know for the capital markets are really saying, do you anticipate any rate cuts this year by the Fed?

[B]

Uh, yes, I do.

[A]

How many basis points would you anticipate?

[B]

I'm gonna say if they do, uh, I don't think there's gonna be anything Dr. I'm going to say if they do 0.25, I mean, 25 basis points, maybe 50 basis points.

[A]

25 to 50. Okay.

[B]

But I don't think it's going to be anything drastic. And when I say that if they do, I don't think it's going to be anything that's going to shift the market where we are. I think some of the markets that are pretty stale or lasting a little bit longer in a tougher market are not going to rebound. And one of the things we've saw on that is there's not as many first time home buyers. So if we have seven to, you know, 15 million first time home buyers that need to buy A house and they're not buying. Where are these houses going to go that are going to, that are sitting on the market or that going to come onto the market? Are we preparing sellers properly for the houses sitting on the market long enough? So I feel like that is really diving into that. It's going to shift differently if we dive into that versus the interest rates, if that makes sense.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It'll be interesting to kind of see. But I, I agree. I don't think there's going to be a ton of movement this year. I think most people are anticipating 50 to 75 basis points worth the cuts. I think people that are more aggressive say maybe 75 to 100. You're saying 25. So it'll be interesting to kind of see what happens.

[B]

One thing I think 25, 50.

[A]

Yeah. One thing I do know is, you know, depending on what happens with this situation in Iran right now, I know oil prices has gone through the roof. We're looking at, you know, 110 bucks a barrel right now. And so we'll see. I know when there's turmoil as far as, like national events like that, there's war, it tends to put downward pricing on rates. So selfishly, I think I'm, I'm rooting for, you know, cheaper rates. I think the economy just runs better with cheaper rates. I think real estate, getting financing, cost of capital, even the government, you know, you think about the, the national debt today, that doesn't multiply as much when, when our rates are lower. So it'd be interesting to kind of see how this plays out. But you, you started and this is something I found interesting. You were a runaway at 12 years old, you were pregnant at 14 and now you're, you're a female entrepreneur running one of the top mortgage companies in the, in the country.

[B]

Yep. So I'm going to share. I was a runaway at 12. I was institutionalized at 14. So is actually it, it actually means me and my mom fight all the time about it, really sharing and saying, was you really institutionalized? I was behind 12 foot brick walls that I could not get out of. I was the only one that was not committed there by court order. So basically to go in and get analyzed, like, was I really insane or was I just a little ahead of my time? You know, and I think we don't look at that naturally for some kids these days that maybe have a little extra energy or whatever it may be. Um, so then I came out of the institution, unfortunately, got pregnant at 15 and became a mom. A month before my 16th birthday. So I have always managed myself and someone else from the time I was 15, make sure they were fed, they were clothed, they ate, we had food on the table. So I think that makes a difference right now in businesses of where you come from, how you do to make sure that you're coaching your team properly on how they're going to scale. And for me, it's hard because it took me a very long time, probably up until the past five years of scaling my business to figure out where my natural strengths came from. And they actually come from being a mom early because I was responsible for someone else's life early on.

[A]

That's really good. And how many kids do you have today?

[B]

So I have two.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

My daughter's 41 and my son is 33. My son. My son works with me. He's my COO. And then my daughter was working with us, and during COVID she got her degree and she decided to move on to healthcare. And it was right before we scaled. So every day I come home and she's like, thank God I left you.

[A]

That's too funny. That's too funny.

[B]

Because then you have almost 200 people. I would have to manage with you, and I'm not doing that. So desean could have that.

[A]

What's. What's the biggest thing you learned? You know, being a runaway single mother at 15 years old, that. That helped you really build what you built today.

[B]

I would say one of the things is biggest things is having some grace in how you're dealing with people and understanding where they're coming from as much, because their underlying struggles may be something that you could understand more. And when you employ people into your business and you employ people into your workflow, you have to also understand how they're going to start their day, how they're going to bring their energy, what that's going to be like. And being a mom young, I really had to bring that foot forward and really understand and show people that I was there to participate, I was there to work, and I wanted to learn and I wanted to educate other people. So I think it's very important for other people right now to really share their journey, because if they don't, people just come to work and they really think, okay, do I have something to give here? And are you giving people. You do a really great job about that, about giving your team their independence, right. Of letting their. Them perform their job. But you've laid out what their work is for them. So is the problem really within that, do you know how to work with people or do you know how to lay out their journey? So a lot of people can work with people, but they may not know how to lay out their journey. So if you can coach them through laying out their journey first, that's really important. Then they can learn how to work with other people. You can't just truly just hire someone and then say they come to work and then when I have something to do, I'll give them something to do. So being a mom, it was really laying out that journey of how I was going to figure that out and create that independence, but yet still be able to say, hey, can we do this together? And how can we do. I mean, me and my daughter grew up together. I think about this. I was, you know, 30 with a 50, a high school, you know, junior. Do you know what I'm saying?

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

So a lot of people weren't even moms then.

[A]

That's crazy. So what is the biggest constraint that you feel like? You know, new businesses coming up, business owners coming up, they're looking to make that first hire too. How do you suggest they, they come up with the, the job description for that first hire?

[B]

So the first hire is I'm going to say what your non negotiables are like first, what you want done and then two is I really employ personal inventory. So what does personal inventory mean to other people? Personal inventory means your calendar, your email, your personal journey. Like, is it the fact that you've got too many personal appointments that week? Is it the fact that you don't have enough people to manage your calendar? Is it the fact that you don't have enough people to manage your email? What is it that your personal inventory is taking up your time? I just, after three years of fighting and pulling and tugging, have my first executive assistant.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

And it is it. We did a month of just brain dump. Who I am, what I like, what I don't like, what are things that would take time. And some of it is not all business related, but it was really getting to know how Karina's brain works. And I think that's the grace I was trying to share earlier a little bit. And sometimes it's hard for other people if they don't know exactly who you are and what you like. So if you're not giving them that grace to have, have time to learn that. Right? So I could come in and say, somebody be my executive assistant and they could slay it, but if I don't give them the Journey, path, or really tell them what I like and what I don't like. And if you've done that ser. Personal inventory of what that is before, you hire someone so you can map it out. And now we have. Oh my gosh, we have so many tools to do that so easily and to buy back our time.

[A]

Yeah, right. What are some of the tools that you like?

[B]

So for me, my number one thing is speechify.

[A]

Okay. What does speechify do?

[B]

Speechify. Speechify has gained me back about two to three hours of my day because I'm a little adhd. Right. That's why I got in trouble younger. Right. I did everything but nothing. So if I can listen to emails, if I can listen to documents, if I can listen to contracts, if I can listen to books and still be working, and I would say one of the things, I 100% agree with, that I can't remember who said it, the keyboard is going away. So I don't use my keyboard. Like, I speak to my email, I listen to my email, I speak to my documents, I listen. I've even handicapped myself a little bit, Rich. Like if I. I was at a conference a couple weeks ago and I was like, oh, my God, I'm relaying this really fucking horribly because I can't voice it. I'm taxing. You know what I'm saying? I'm trying to tax and grammar, bad spelling grab bad. That's just not who I am. But I can tell a story. I can tell you how I want things done. I can show you how I want them done. So that has drastically helped me relay information, listen to information, and conquer, like a hundred things more in my day.

[A]

Yeah, that's really good. That's really good. Yeah. One of the things that I, I like to do is, you know, come up with three columns. This good exercise for someone maybe coming up with their first hire. And on, on the, on column one, write down everything that you're not good at and you don't like doing. And then on the far right column, which we call them number three, write down everything that, that you're good at and you love doing. This is going to be the stuff that's going to be your best use of your time, the highest and best use. And then the second column, which is the middle, is things that you're good at but you don't like doing. And so with that first hire, it's like that column one, these are all the things that you don't like doing, you're not good at. And it's like, that's the job description for that first, that first hire and you delegate all that stuff and then, and then you can take all that time that just saved you and you can reallocate that time and doubling down on your highest and best use, which I think is a pretty cool hack. And you know, for me, in the beginning, I was telling you, before I started recording, I didn't know what good talent was. When I first started Summers Capital, I just went and hired like a bunch of people that I already knew in my network that I thought would be good fits. And some of them were or turned out to be great fits. But, but most of them did not. And it wasn't until I like, accidentally hired good talent to where I realized I was like, damn, that's what good talent looks like. And, and now, you know, my whole, my whole philosophy has shifted now. It's like, I only want killers on a team. And if you're not a killer, like, I can't have you on board. And the one thing that I don't like doing is, is micromanaging. So, you know, for one, I don't ever want a corporate vibe. I don't micromanage. The team knows, like, if I have to micromanage you, you're not going to be on the team very long. I just feel like it's, it's a lot easier to grow when you have a bunch of really talented people on your team that are, you know, all aligned with the target.

[B]

I agree. And, you know, one of the things I think right now that a lot of people take for granted is customer service is really, what does that customer service look like within your industry? How do you create that truly unreasonable hospitality that makes that consumer feel important? And I think that's one of the things we do within our company, is how we, how we do that handle culture. Because we don't, we don't teach sales. Right? We don't manage people. That's what you just said, right? You don't manage people. We manage the process. So if we can create the process, we create the process flow. We can manage the process. But you're not here to manage people. The people have the talents that they do. So I can't really teach them sales. Now, if they have the talents to go out there and create more sales, we can teach that. Right? But in other words, what you're saying is, as they come to the table, if they have the great attitude, the great work ethic, and they have the customer service skills, we can basically teach Them any part of our job.

[A]

That's really good. You talk a lot about identifying structure. What does that mean when you say it's very important to identify structure? And how should one go about identifying structure?

[B]

I've always said, what does your experience want to look like at the end? Game? Right. We always talk about rewards, surveys at the end, the customer service experience. But if you start from there and you back it up, go from Z to A instead of A to Z, what. What did it end with? And then back it up and say, how did you get there? But the most important thing is, is they always say is how do you make that person feel? Right. Do you make them feel important? Do you touch on the touch points? What is it that made that whole experience an A plus experience for you? And. And that's very important. So I'll. Can I just share a real quick story? So I was very fortunate last year to be granted American American Airlines. I travel mostly.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And the concierge. So I was joking with Dora, my strategic operations explorer, and we were saying we were delayed. I said, let me call the pilot. And my phone rang and she was like, who is it? I said, it's the pilot. And she's like, no shit. I was like, no, it's not the pilot, but it's my concierge service. Right. Hey, Karina, it's going to be a little bit late. Do you need me to get you anything or can I come guide you to the next gate? What that looks like? And she was like, really? And I was like, yeah, but that was like, the feeling. And then when I was late for one flight delayed, they picked me up at the ramp. They drove me on the tarmac to the next plane.

[A]

That's so cool.

[B]

And I was like, okay, I may not fly private, but this is pretty freaking cool, right? So you want them to feel like that, right. You don't want them to have a bad experience?

[A]

And Pace Moreby has American Airlines concierge. What's. What's the name of it?

[B]

The. The concierge.

[A]

The concierge. So break down for the listeners that don't know, what is American Airlines concierge key?

[B]

Yes. So the concierge key. You get elected so you can't earn the status. You get elected once a year, and every year it rotates every March. So I'm just, like, praying right now that I get it again for next year. Yeah. That you get elected based on your status, based on your points, maybe even based on if you're an influencer or not right. And that's important. So when I just went on vacation, it was like, okay, I came dressed for you, but when I travel, I like to dress very casual. So when I came back from vacation with my daughter and my granddaughter, we had a two hour delay. And one of the ladies called, but when we went up to the ramp, they called concierge first. And I was always wondering, how could you get that? But you get elected based on all that. So I strategically planned out my business. So I bulked a lot of stuff up on my American airline points, but I said that I got to the gate and the lady said, I called concierge only. And I was like, yeah. And I gave her my pass, my boarding pass. And she was like, oh. And my granddaughter was like, is everything okay, grandma? And then she was like. So I wrote some feedback. I was like, I'm not here to complain, but I would like to share. Maybe she could have said, let me check your boarding paths versus. Oh, you are.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know what I'm saying? So you don't want someone to feel like, oh, they're doing business with you. You want them to feel like, I'm doing business with Karina. I'm doing business with CMS, right?

[A]

Yes. 100%. 100%. And so with concierge Key. I know. Pace was telling me with a podcast that we did, he said, like, they'll fly you, they'll pit. They'll basically pick you up, take it to the airport. They'll take you from gate to gate. And if you have like a connecting or a connecting flight, they will, like, take you from one gate in a. In a cart to the other gate.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Even on the tarmac. Is that right?

[B]

Even on the tarmac, yeah. So that was pretty cool. So I haven't had that experience except for once this year, but they've guided me through, make sure I land on time, make sure I get to the next plane on time. So anybody in your party goes with you no matter what. So as long as they're ticketed on the same ticket. So I really took this year and said, okay, if this is the feeling I get when I travel, how do we make our loan officers and our team feel the same way? So we have a thing called that a response within two hours, our leadership, our CEO, which is me, CEO, our growth architect, or strategic operations, which is Dora. And no call goes unanswered within two hours, some type of response. And if we don't have the answer, we let them know what our. What our solution is to get that answer right. And that's very important to us in the mortgage industry. Because in the mortgage industry it's really known for deep diving. Like I gotta call this person, call this person. I really gotta wait another day or two to get an answer. And we really emphasize that we're part of what you're paying us for. Not we hire you, but in sales you hire a backbone and you employ a operations division to help you run your sales. Then we want to be in position to accommodate you and help you grow your business. Does that make sense?

[A]

Yeah, that's a really good framework. I like that. Okay. And so talk a little bit about operating Systems and like KPI's because I think this is a big thing that, you know, a lot of business owners when they first get in a business, it's very chaotic. And I think the operating system and the way that you manage both Weekly and monthly KPIs can be very useful, very important. What are your thoughts, process and how do you approach KPIs and that sort of stuff.

[B]

So we have a, we have a lot of non negotiables.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

So I'm going to start there. So part of our non negotiables. So I'm going to go with our operations team. That's what they employ us to help manage. Right. We don't manage the people, we manage the process and operations. So for us we have two a day. So we were a football family. And so we do 9:30 and 3:30 check ins. So we have 50 people working virtually all over the United States that will work on our files. And if they are processing west coast and east coast files, they have to check in 9:30 and 3:30. We try to keep them between 8 and 12 minutes. But it's basically a check in to see if they're on target, what they're doing. It's helped us. And this is six years in. This is not like something we made up last year. We've been doing it for six years. It's helped us scale from 600 loans to 2,000 loans a year. It's also helped us manage who's going to be a good fit for us. Because they check in, they know where they're at for their day, we ask them where they're at. Also we have our process divided into desk, not into one individual person. So we don't hand off a loan file to someone who's going to take it to closing. We have a disclosure desk, a submission desk, an approval desk, a closing desk and an Audit desk. And in those they have to pass the baton without dropping it to the next desk. But they know exactly where they are, where their desk stops, where the nest next desk starts. Say that twice. Next desk starts. And as well as how to coach their team members backwards and forwards so that way each person can be accountable for their timelines. And that's how we've kept ours at about 14 and a half closing days for the past six years.

[A]

Wow, that's really good. And so just so I'm clear, you guys are doing loans in the residential space and are you doing QM and non qm?

[B]

We are, we're doing QM and non qm. Last year was probably our biggest non QM space that we've done. But we have been doing non QM for 15 years. I've always done it, so it's nothing new to us. So I did a lot when I was rebuilding my business in 13 and 14 and went around to banks and said hey, you guys can't do the self employment, you can't do the reverse mortgages, I'll do them. So I got known for that a lot to help me finish and kind of recalculate where I was going with business. So it's not new to us, but 90% is regular QM. Okay, got it in 27 states.

[A]

And so 9:30am, 3:30pm is this Eastern or Western time?

[B]

It's Eastern.

[A]

Eastern time.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

So if you're in California working on Karina's team, it's 6:30 in the morning, you're up.

[B]

It is, it is. And we have three processors that never miss a meeting in California.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

And they check in at 6:30. That's one of our things. So when we interview we also ask, what does your virtual day look like? Are you doing dishes, are you getting laundry, are you working on files? We don't care. Same as you. Not micromanager. We don't care what work times you actually work. We care that our timelines get met. Our disclosure desk is 24 hours, our submission desk is 24 hours. And our processors have 24 to 48 hours to reach out to the loan officer and consumer to let them know how they're going to guide them to their journey for clear to close.

[A]

Yeah, I mean 600 loans a year, that's a serious business. You're doing almost two closings a day.

[B]

No, we were doing 600. We're at 2,000 a year now.

[A]

Yeah, 2,000, yeah, yeah. That's a lot.

[B]

Yeah. So we're doing 2,000 units a year.

[A]

Wow. So that's. That's six or seven loan closings a day.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Absolutely. I mean, we have 22 on the books for this Friday.

[A]

Yeah. And so what was the key to scaling that big, especially in the marketing side? Because obviously, a lot of people need to know who you are, and you're gonna have a lot of repeat clients, you're gonna have a lot of referral. But also, like the top of the funnel, the marketing and all that sort of stuff needs to be huge. And so for you guys to build this kind of volume, what was the one key to doing that?

[B]

The one key to doing that was our 2A days and subdividing our process, not relying on one.