Chasing Excellence

Brian Dewald is the President and Senior Loan Officer of Maverick Lending Solutions, a mortgage brokerage he owns in the Denver, Colorado area, ranked in the top 1% of lenders nationally every year since 2015.

Brian's path into mortgage started at a bicycle shop, where he worked as a service manager in his late teens and early twenties before a local mortgage broker recruited and mentored him into the industry in the early 2000s — he still uses the same HP 12C calculator that mentor taught him on, two decades later. Today Maverick Lending Solutions is a family business, with his wife Annetta and son Alex both working alongside him.

In this episode of Chasing Excellence, Brian joins host Tony Thompson to talk about why so many originators have left the business in the past two to three years, and why that's an opening rather than a warning sign for the ones who stay disciplined — plus an underserved market he sees real opportunity in: military personnel who don't realize what home-buying options are available to them.

🔑 What You'll Learn:

How a chance introduction at a bicycle shop turned into a 20+ year mortgage career

Why Brian still uses the same HP 12C calculator his first mentor taught him on

Why he believes "the fat are getting fatter" for the originators who stayed disciplined through the shakeout

Why military buyers are one of the most underserved segments in today's market

His case for hiring a coach — the same way Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, and Michael Jordan did

Why he credits his wife Annetta as his "greatest cheerleader" throughout his career

Connect with Brian Dewald: https://mavericklendingsolutions.com/brian-dewald/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-dewald-b871ba4/

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David Brecher is the President and CEO of FM Home Loans, a mortgage banking company he's led since the late 1980s — built on 100% retail, purchase-focused lending across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Florida, and staying so close to its communities that David says needs can change block to block within Brooklyn alone.

That community-rooted approach kept FM Home Loans out of subprime lending entirely, which is a big part of why the company not only survived the 2008 financial crisis but came out of it stronger, under the same ownership and strategy that built it.

In this episode of Chasing Excellence, recorded in Brooklyn, David joins host Tony Thompson to talk about FM Home Loans' recent community honor from HCCI, a HUD-certified housing counselor based in Harlem, for its work helping marginalized communities access affordable homeownership — plus how the company thinks about affordability in one of the toughest housing markets in the country, and why David now describes FM Home Loans as being in the housing business, not just the mortgage business.

🔑 What You'll Learn:

• Why FM Home Loans never touched subprime lending — and how that decision helped it survive 2008
• How partnering with not-for-profits like HCCI opened up affordable mortgage options for underserved buyers
• Why David sees today's biggest challenge as high prices stacked on high rates, not either alone
• How FM Home Loans is helping convert renters into owners in select markets
• Why David describes the company's philosophy as "we're not in the mortgage business, we're in the housing business"

Connect with David Brecher: https://fmm.com/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/dbrecher/

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Michael Newmann is a Senior Loan Officer and Branch Manager at CMG Financial, leading The Newmann Group out of Medford, Oregon, near the California border — joining CMG in November 2024 after building the bulk of his nearly 20-year mortgage career at one prior lender.

Michael's path into the industry was pure fate: a former collegiate baseball player who studied sports psychology at UC Davis, he was floundering after graduation until a random sales call, pitching advertising to a woman named Mary, turned into a job offer instead. She wasn't buying what he was selling, but offered to hire him into mortgage lending. About a year later he took her up on it, and he's worked with her ever since.

In this episode of Chasing Excellence, Michael joins host Tony Thompson to talk about why he thinks interest rates are more perception than reality, how his psychology background shapes the way he serves clients, and why he believes AI should amplify human connection in mortgage lending rather than replace it.

🔑 What You'll Learn:

• Why Michael sees the interest rate "challenge" as mostly psychological, not fundamental
• His personal filter for every client: "do they walk out my doors better than how they came in?"
• Why he's leaning into CMG's All In One Loan as his focus and passion
• How he thinks originators should use AI — to offload tasks they don't love, not to replace human connection
• Why he believes the future belongs to originators who understand "the power of connection"

Connect with Michael Newmann: https://www.cmghomeloans.com/mysite/mike-newmann | https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelnewmann

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Cori Angel is a Mortgage Broker at Vantage Mortgage Group, an independent, fiduciary brokerage in Portland, Oregon that works with roughly 40 wholesale lenders rather than being tied to any single company or rate sheet.

Cori got her start in the industry in 2005 after asking her retail manager for a promotion into management — he didn't have an opening, but sent her to his wife, who was hiring at a mortgage company down the road. She walked in knowing nothing about lending and learned the business from scratch during an era of 8-10% interest rates, watching some of the ethical shortcuts up close that would later help trigger the 2008 housing crash. Two decades later, Cori still runs her business as a fiduciary and trusted advisor rather than a transaction-based lender, building plans with clients who aren't ready to buy yet and staying close with past clients through calls and check-ins during slower stretches.

In this episode of Chasing Excellence, Cori joins host Tony Thompson to talk about growing up in Anchorage, Alaska — moose, buffalo, salmon, and reindeer sausage dogs included — and how that grounded upbringing shaped the fiduciary, relationship-first approach she brings to every client today.

🔑 What You'll Learn:

Why Vantage Mortgage's fiduciary, 40-lender model keeps them from steering clients toward any one lender

How a retail manager's referral — not a five-year plan — led Cori into mortgage lending in 2005

What she learned watching unethical lending practices firsthand in the run-up to the 2008 crash

Her method for coaching clients who aren't ready to buy: build a plan, then walk them through it

Why she splits her time between working "in" the business and working "on" it

What growing up in Anchorage, Alaska taught her

Connect with Cori Angel: https://vantagemortgagegroup.com/about-us/meet-the-team/coriangel/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/cori-angel-mortgagespecialist/

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Abdul Erinfolami is the Founder and President/CEO of Loan Spot Inc, a mortgage brokerage he built from his living room in the Chicago area, now closing around 120-130 loans a year.

Abdul immigrated to Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood from Nigeria in 2003, joining parents who'd arrived in the late 1990s — seven people sharing a two-bedroom apartment, with his mother working as a nurse. He started working at 16, spent four years as a personal trainer, and entered the mortgage industry in January 2019 at age 22, a year after buying his own first property.

In this episode of Chasing Excellence, Abdul joins host Tony Thompson to talk about why he named his company Loan Spot — simple enough that, in his words, "it has loan in it" — and why he still treats every relationship, not just every deal, as the real product he's selling. They cover his structured weekly rhythm (agent touchpoints, follow-ups, pre-approvals, post-closing calls, and VIP networking, each with its own day), why he tells new originators not to quit after two years, and how he reframes Chicago's low-inventory market as opportunity rather than obstacle.

🔑 What You'll Learn:

Why Abdul believes "people do business with who they like" more than any pitch

How he structures his week around relationships — agent touchpoints Monday, follow-ups Tuesday, pre-approvals Wednesday, post-closing calls Thursday, VIP networking Friday

Why over 80% of new originators quit within two years, and why "it's a contact sport" you have to keep showing up for

How he reframes today's low-inventory Chicago market: "transactions and deals are still being closed — they're either gonna be closed with you or without you"

Why he still teaches new agents to make 20 contacts a day, even as lead-to-close ratios have gotten tougher since the pandemic

Connect with Abdul Erinfolami: https://loanspotinc.com/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/abdul-erinfolami-65ba5b184/

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Saul Pinela is a Producer Branch Manager at Neighborhood Loans in Geneva, Illinois, just outside Chicago, where nearly 14 years with the company — and more than 22 years in the mortgage industry overall — have made him and his team the #1-ranked down payment assistance (DPA) provider in the Chicagoland market, closing around $80 million a year.

Saul's path into mortgage wasn't planned: fresh out of the University of Illinois in 2001, he was only a few months into a job at TCF Bank when his father was diagnosed with cancer, and his mother was getting by doing hair out of the house on very low income. When a college friend offered him a way into mortgage lending, Saul took the leap without knowing much about the business — and found he loved helping families, a passion that's carried him from a 20-25 person shop into what's now a national lender.

In this episode of Chasing Excellence, Saul joins host Tony Thompson to talk about the affordability squeeze he sees daily in the Chicago suburbs, how DPA programs can now stack up to $40,000 between county and IHDA funds, and why he believes non-QM and bank-statement lending will keep growing as more buyers move into self-employment.

🔑 What You'll Learn:

• Why a family health crisis — not a five-year plan — pulled Saul into mortgage lending
• How down payment assistance can now stack up to $40,000 between county and IHDA programs
• Why affordability remains the biggest daily challenge for buyers in the Chicago suburbs
• Why Saul expects non-QM and bank statement lending to keep growing as more buyers go self-employed
• His philosophy: "do it right or not at all"

Connect with Saul Pinela: https://neighborhoodloans.com/saul-pinela/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/saulpinela/

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Guy Williams Jr. is Team Lead and Co-Owner of the Roberts Williams Team at RE/MAX Premier Realty in The Villages, Florida, the #1-producing Realtor team in The Villages and surrounding areas for six consecutive years, with more than $400 million in total sales and nearly 1,000 families served since 2020.

For years, Guy and his business partner and brother-in-law, Matt Roberts, ran the team without real systems in place until late 2023 and early 2024, when they made their first hires, built out a full team of eight, and brought on a business coach through The CORE, a lender and real estate coaching organization. Following that coach's playbook — with a deliberate focus on repeat business and referrals over pure transaction volume — the team has doubled its business in the past two years.

In this episode of Chasing Excellence, Guy joins host Tony Thompson to talk about avoiding what he calls "commission breath," his "Bigger Pile Theory" for chasing mentors across every area of life, and why he's more excited than afraid about where AI is taking the real estate industry.

🔑 What You'll Learn:

Why Guy warns against "commission breath" — and how it kills repeat business and referrals

His "Bigger Pile Theory": constantly seeking out mentors across family, fitness, finance, business, and spirituality

How hiring a business coach in 2024 helped the Roberts Williams Team double its business in two years

Why he believes AI will enhance relationships in real estate, not replace them

His prediction that two-thirds of the industry could shift to discount/flat-fee brokers within 3-4 years — and why relationship-focused agents will still win

Connect with Guy Williams Jr.: https://www.robertswilliamsteam.com/ | https://www.remax.com/real-estate-agents/guy-williams-the-villages-fl/102073657

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Sergio Gutierrez is the Broker Owner of GRC Lending in Miami, Florida, 40 years into a mortgage career built on straight answers and hard-won referrals.

Sergio got his real estate license first, but three months in, a friend named Carmen suggested he also get his mortgage broker's license "just in case." He passed on his first attempt, and within six months had left real estate behind entirely — mortgage, he says, was his "actual click." GRC Lending takes its name from the last-name initials of Sergio and his original partners, with a company slogan, "Get Ready Close," built around a Formula One-style logo. Sergio's business leans heavily on Miami's immigrant community — clients from Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti, Jamaica, and the Philippines — and he's candid about the real obstacles they face: high property taxes that price out mid-income buyers, and lending restrictions for non-permanent resident borrowers, even those who've lived in the country for years.

In this episode of Chasing Excellence, Sergio joins host Tony Thompson to talk about why he never dodges a phone call, why telling a client the truth — even a "no" — has built him more business than competitors who overpromise, and the story of client Eric Gray: a failed loan, an honest phone call, and six buyer referrals since.

🔑 What You'll Learn:

Why "commission breath" and dodging tough calls are, in Sergio's words, what kills a mortgage business

How honestly telling a client "no" in two days built him more repeat business than competitors who dragged out a "no" for three months

The real lending obstacles facing Miami's immigrant homebuyers — high property taxes and restrictions on non-permanent residents

His advice to young originators: invest your commissions into real estate equity instead of spending it

The story of client Eric Gray — a failed loan, an honest phone call, and six buyer referrals since

Connect with Sergio Gutierrez: http://www.grclending.com/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergio-gutierrez-273b7222/

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Jennifer Kline is the Spacecoast Area Manager at Neighborhood Loans in Melbourne, Florida, a nine-year mortgage veteran closing more than $80 million a year who joined Neighborhood Loans this past February.

Jennifer never set out to work in mortgage — she started as a mobile loan closer for extra income while staying home with her daughter during the mid-2000s refinance boom, all while working toward a teaching degree and eventually a master's degree aimed at becoming a school principal. Instead, an opportunity opened at Chase's loss mitigation center, and mortgage became her career by accident rather than design; she was named Rookie of the Year in her first year in the business.

In this episode of Chasing Excellence, Jennifer joins host Tony Thompson to talk about treating her business like an actual business rather than tracking leads on sticky notes, mentoring young female real estate agents as what she calls a "mentor mom," and her own homeownership story — buying her first home at 24 with down payment assistance, then using that equity to help fund a business her husband ran for 25 years, a chain of events that ultimately helped fund 30 more home transactions.

🔑 What You'll Learn:

Why Jennifer calls real estate "psychological selling" in a fear-driven, high-rate market

How treating her business like an actual business — not sticky notes — quadrupled her production

Why she now mentors young female real estate agents as a "mentor mom" figure

Her own down-payment-assisted first home purchase, and how the equity from it funded 30 more home transactions

Why she considers herself a "hold" on herself — and what Tony thinks she's missing

Connect with Jennifer Kline: https://neighborhoodloans.com/jennifer-kline/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-kline-19403363/

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Sukesh Shekar is the Founder and CEO of Altgage, a mortgage company he built in Boston after a $1 million home purchase of his own turned into an education in everything wrong with the mortgage process.

Before mortgage, Sukesh was a junior partner at McKinsey & Company — a Ph.D. and Notre Dame alum who assumed a home purchase would be straightforward given his own financial background. Watching how opaque and frustrating it was, even for a high-income household with a physician wife, is what pulled him fully into the industry roughly three to four years ago.

Altgage's approach leans on details most brokers skip: watching the 10-year treasury for the right moment to lock a rate, waiving escrow where it genuinely helps a borrower, and structuring loans around how a client's income actually qualifies — all sped up by AI tools Sukesh uses to learn faster and analyze deals. His take on where the industry is headed: as AI takes over more of the mortgage process, the brokers who stay curious and keep the human guidance sharp are the ones borrowers will still need.

🔑 What You'll Learn:

• Why Sukesh believes human guidance becomes more valuable, not less, as AI advances
• How watching the 10-year treasury can help time a rate lock
• Why "insanely curious" is his #1 trait for new loan originators
• What his own home-buying experience taught him about fixing the mortgage process

Connect with Sukesh Shekar: https://www.altgage.com/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/sukesh-shekar/

Subscribe to Chasing Excellence for more conversations with the mortgage industry's top producers and broker-owners.