How to survive amid uncertain times
You might say Denver-based Socha Lending Group is really percolating of late, having been awarded a SPARK Leadership Award last year by the Better Business Bureau.
And that’s not all: “We are now the largest LGBTQ-owned and -operated mortgage brokerage in the United States,” a palpably proud Mike Socha, president of Socha Lending Group, told Mortgage Professional America in a recent interview. “It’s been quite a struggle to be an openly gay man in mortgage. I’ve been told by a lot of predecessors over the many years I’ve been in this business I needed to tone it down and not be myself. So, I think that being able to advocate and be a strong leader in the community and be able to help our community to embrace homeownership and be able to do all those great things – not only for the LGBTQ community but a lot of other minority communities – has been just amazing, and to win an award for it is just icing on the cake.”
MPA caught up with Socha at last week’s AIME on Tour stop in Denver, a series of regional networking events designed to connect Association of Independent Mortgage Experts members, independent mortgage brokers and wholesale mortgage professionals. The tour stops represent opportunities to secure updates about important initiatives while learning how to get involved in advocating for the broker community.
Socha’s pretty familiar with advocacy as a self-described “fierce advocate” for the LGBTQ community to have improved access to lending. While he likes to joke he began his career in kindergarten, it began in 2004 – just a few years prior to the Great Recession – starting as a mortgage loan originator at Citibank in Washington, D.C. and later running mortgage operations for Citibank in Virginia before moving with his husband to Colorado.
The couple own the Socha Lending Group, a 100% LGBTQ-owned and -operated boutique mortgage brokerage that now operates in 10 states in addition to its Colorado base – including Texas and California. Along the way, Socha has earned multiple awards – as much for his advocacy efforts as for business performance. Among those awards: The Visionary Mortgage Brokerage (LGBTQ) Award 2022, 40 Under 40 Most Influential People in Mortgage 2020 and the aforementioned SPARK Leadership Award (LGBTQ) last year.
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Those unfamiliar with Socha Lending Group will find a common thread on the internet: A predominance of five-star reviews from the likes of Google, Zillow, Facebook and Zachs Investment Research. Socha said it’s no accident, and an extension of the corporate culture.
“It’s very important to us,” he said of the highly rated reviews. The secret recipe: “I would say the number one thing is kindness. I know that’s a really strange thing to say, but everybody to us is the most important person we’ve ever met because this is the most important transaction that they’ll probably do in their life.”
That kindness manifests itself in the way his customers are treated, he added: “We don’t rush people. The first consultation we do with pretty much everybody is 45 minutes if not an hour or an hour and a half. We make sure they understand from soup to nuts - we let them know everything we can possibly think of to know.”
To ensure such customer experiences, Socha said he personally trains all his loan officers. A premium is placed not on sales or products but more intangible dynamics, he suggested. “We see ourselves more of a solutions people. I train every single loan officer myself, and I think that’s it’s really important they understand the differences between every lender, how one lender might make more sense than another for certain situations and how to really explain that. A lot of people, when they focus on growing their team, focus on products and sales. That’s not what I train on – I train on people, I think tone is very important, making people feel comfortable is very important, people’s stories are really important.”
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That softer focus has not compromised business, to hear Socha tell it. Rather, the focus on customer service augmented with a creative business approach in austere times – what with inflation, soaring property rates and rising rates – have combined to help shield the brokerage from the most corrosive effects of economic downturn.
“We closed 21 loans in the last two weeks,” Socha noted. “We’re doing really well. I really and truly believe – and have always done this whether it’s COVID or not COVID – we can survive off lower margins. And if you survive on lower margins, you do more volume and then you win more deals. I think a lot of brokers just make up an excuse as to why they can’t do that – even if they’re a one- or two-person operation. I think it’s just an excuse. If you’re able to really look at your expenses and run a lean shop and really make sure you’re doing things the right way and not being extravagant on certain things or writing too much off that shouldn’t be written off, you can survive off those margins and flourish.”
In such uncertain times, it’s important to pivot to other products now that the refi wave has ended: “Half of our pipeline is non-QM,” Socha told MPA. “I think people don’t understand non-QM. They want to run away from non-QM. Embrace it. We’re the only brokerage in America that I know of that can actually lend to Americans and Canadians on Mexican properties in Mexico. We have a full commercial division. We had a plan, because to be able to do commercial lending, you have to have a certain amount of equity and experience. We put a plan together to get there because we weren’t there two years ago, but we are there now. And now we actively have connections with commercial brokers.”
It’s easy to succumb to economic woes, and it’s another thing to overcome them with equal parts customer service and business acumen. In summing up the attitude one must take, Socha paraphrased a certain sports apparel giant: “You have to plan to make sure you know what your goals are to diversity yourself and then plan it. And then, do it.”
