Mortgage veteran on finding common ground with The Boss
This article was produced in partnership with ACC Mortgage.
Tony Cantu of Mortgage Professional America sat down with Robert Senko, president of ACC Mortgage, to discuss how Bruce Springsteen’s music closely mirrors the cadence, theme and sensibilities of his own work.
As Robert Senko, president of ACC Mortgage, headed out to a recent Bruce Springsteen concert in Washington, D.C., it dawned on him with the force of epiphany: His specialty in non-QM loans was suffused with the same sense of longing and struggle as the musical sensibilities of “The Boss.” The cadence and musical architecture of the artist’s work, he suggests, is in near-syncopation to the gains, losses and hard-fought victories of his lending niche.
“It’s his great articulation of the struggles and relationships of working folks,” he told Mortgage Professional America. “The parallels between our current market and Springsteen lyrics seem very rich.”
Like Springsteen “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day,” so too does Senko wait for better days ahead for the industry, away from the darkness of economic turndown enveloped by the fog of inflation to the lighted landscape of a rebounded housing market.
“Everybody in the mortgage industry is waiting on a sunny day,” he said. “Everyone is looking for that.”
Not unlike those blue-collar sensibilities that Springsteen (notwithstanding his reported net worth of $700 million) so deftly transmits, so too does Senko celebrate those small, hard-fought victories as foundation upon which to build another day.
Take last month’s volume, for instance: “Average never felt so good,” he said. “Since the market began to wobble hard one year ago, everyone has had to adjust. But ACC did it a little better. Honored all locks, continued offering competitive products with competitive rates. This is what 24 years in business doing only non-QM looks like!”
He quickly curbs his exuberance in reining in what could border on braggadocious – decidedly un-Springsteen-like behavior. “Stay humble, but enjoy small victories,” he adds like a mantra of short penance. “ACC in 24 years has seen lots of good days and bad days. Much like the emotional heartbreak that Springsteen talks about. Many people have had their hearts broken by the non-QM lenders.”
He's reminded suddenly – and with recovered modesty – that he is, in fact, “Tougher than the Rest” (which is another Springsteen song, if you didn’t catch that with the sudden quotes and change in capitalization). “The road is dark/And it’s a thin, thin line,” one line of the song goes. “But I want you to know I’ll walk it for you any time.”
Clearly, one has to be tougher than the rest to work exclusively in non-QM, as Senko has for 24 years. Like the couple described in song sizing each other up (presumably at a club or honkey-tonk; the venue is not described) with a hint – the very slightest soupçon, if you will – of initial tentativeness, so too is the careful dance of non-QM.
After all, non-QM loans are mortgages not meeting strict requirements of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to be considered qualified mortgages. In the lender-borrower courtship, finances must be vetted toward achieving loan terms that are likely to be paid back. No “Dancing in the Dark” here, but illuminated with specific conditions that still allow for flexibility with income or credit history. As niches go, it’s not for the weak.
And yet, he’s up for the challenge. “If you’re looking for love – non-QM love – than I’m tougher than the rest,” he said. “ACC can be that partner for you.”
Still, Senko’s acknowledges the tougher times everyone in the industry has experienced, which prompted him to recall yet another Springsteen song character whose services he wishes he had. “There’s a great line in one of his songs quoting Madam Maria who was a fortune teller in Asbury Park,” he said wistfully.
His fascination with Springsteen led him to get on air at a Springsteen-devoted Sirius radio station last year, during which he was allowed to play DJ with a handful of his favorite Boss tunes. “To be honest, I was terrible,” he said with a laugh. “I knew then I’d better stick to the mortgage industry. They kept me on the air probably because I had good stories.”
So clearly, Senko speaks of his Springsteen ties with tongue firmly in cheek – as someone geeking on a musical hero without suggesting some cosmic connection. Or does he? “I was born in the same town where he wrote the iconic “Born to Run” album,” he mentions casually, with little in the way of conversational segue. “Long Branch, New Jersey.”
He’s thanked for the biographical note, with wishes of “Glory Days” ahead.
