CEO reveals how broker originators can streamline their processes
Broker originators know all too well the fast-paced, high-pressure environment where days can be a whirlwind of client meetings, market analysis, and endless paperwork.
Cheryl Dempsey (pictured), CEO of Coastal Breeze Processing, has carved a niche in the mortgage industry, offering streamlined and effective support services that have become indispensable for busy mortgage professionals.
Dempsey and her team are helping broker-owners expedite the mortgage process. In this Q&A, she shares insights into her journey, the evolution of her company, and the impact of her services on the mortgage landscape.
Mortgage Professional America: How did you start in your role? What attracted you to the profession?
Cheryl Dempsey: I got started like everybody does, right? I wanted to be a mortgage broker when I grew up.
Is that not normal? No, I’m joking. So, I originally started in the industry to provide operational support for my husband, who is a broker-owner and a loan originator. He has his own brokerage, and I wanted nothing to do with mortgages because I had a career independent of that and was happy with what I was doing. My undergraduate degree is in finance, and I have an MBA in accounting concentration.
Before mortgages, I worked in government finance and spent some time in higher education with graduate business programs. But that changed, as all things do, when we started expanding our family and found ourselves with three kids under three.
The dynamics kind of shifted for our family, and the intention was to allow me the flexibility of working for my husband while contributing to family income and being able to be home and available for our kids. Much to my surprise, what started as a job turned into a passion, and I love the opportunity to support brokers and their clients through homeownership. After working in the broker channel for a few months with my husband, I realized there really was an industry need for strong support staff and the ability to understand the unique needs of brokers. And so that’s really how the company got started.
MPA: Describe your career journey today.
Dempsey: I am a licensed loan originator and a licensed broker because that is a requirement for having a company license. But what I do specifically is operations, so my clients are mortgage loan originators. What I do is support their origination files and loans to get them through processing and all the way through closing. If you think about the funnel, the leads come in, and the loan originator structures the file, and they work more on the client side.
I also deal with borrowers, but I get the contract and have the loan set up and ready to go. And once it’s ready to go through underwriting, that’s when my company kind of comes in. So that the loan originator can step outside, work with more clients, and increase their efficiency in getting more loans. We take on the back-end operations process once it goes through underwriting and get it to closing.
Read more: Loan processor vs. underwriter: what’s the difference?
MPA: Tell us a little bit more about your company and the team around you.
Dempsey: It started with just me. I do now have a team. We have two full-time processors on staff. We’re getting ready to hire another, and we’re going to continue to grow as we grow the business and gain more clients. We started out just licensed in one state, Florida, and I’m happy to say that within 13 months of opening the company, we’re now licensed to do business in 13 states with more coming. So, it’s an exciting time of growth for us.
MPA: What type of loan products does your company work with?
Dempsey: We work with them all: purchase, refinance, first-time homebuyers, veterans. My husband is a veteran himself. We have a VA loan. I also work with brokers who do a lot of non-QM products. Reverse mortgages are big in Florida, so [it means] working with all of those products and ensuring we can better support the LO and that process and have an intimate knowledge of those guidelines, not just the guidelines but also how each lender operates because each lender has their own intricacies and nuances. Understanding the products the lenders offer and just that general guideline overview.
MPA: What have been some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in the mortgage industry, and how positive have these developments been?
Dempsey: One of my passions is serving on AIME’s government affairs committee, advocating for brokers and trying to get involved with legislation at the state and federal levels. One of the things that I’ve seen change within the past six months is the growth of broker originations and this continuous drive to impact legislation that affects the consumers and originators.
We’re seeing changes at the state and federal level that maybe weren’t previously addressed. There’s current legislation around trigger leads. We talk about LPAs making changes and having more input with the CFPB and the future at the state level. We see some increased awareness of updated laws related to VA disability and property tax exemptions. All those things help facilitate increased homeownership and ideally provide that light at the end of the tunnel. More folks can purchase homes to get into those homes and find a product that works for them and meets their needs. I think it’s getting a ton of traction and momentum and a huge positive change.
Read more: Why mortgage brokers shouldn’t avoid the tougher deals
MPA: What are some of the biggest challenges you see, and what advice would you give broker originators looking to speed up their origination process?
Dempsey: I don’t like the word ‘challenges’ because everything’s an opportunity for growth and learning. I think one of the things that makes for a successful and streamlined process is ensuring great communication between the loan officer and myself, as well as all of the documents and narrative.
Make sure that when it comes to our office and our team ready to process, we have a full understanding of what that big picture looks like, what the goals of the client are, how this is going to be structured, what the thoughts are and making sure we know simple things, such as even preferred methods of communication for the borrower. Some want phone calls, some want email, some want text messages, so we’re happy to meet everybody where they’re at, but we just need that information. So that’s helpful in letting us streamline that process and get moving a lot faster so that there’s less headache for both the borrower and the LO.
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