News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Cort Horner loves his job.
Given that he's worked in the mortgage industry for 13 years, that's not always been so easy to do. But after the roughest patch in living memory, the mortgage industry is back, and Horner has a new office in Sisters, as sales manager for Guild Mortgage.
Guild Mortgage is based out of San Diego, California, and has a 50-year history of offering a full product line to homebuyers. The company recruited Horner, and he finds it a good fit.
"It was just a philosophical fit that I haven't seen for about five years in the industry," Horner told The Nugget.
That philosophy revolves around education and service to the customer, and that is the element that makes Horner love his work.
The Sisters man finds his professional satisfaction in getting families into a home and helping people get into a better financial position through refinancing.
With Guild, Horner has many product options to work with and his experience helps him with placing people in the right type of loan for them. Finding that right fit requires a lot of listening and discussion, and Horner is willing to do that, even with people he can't help immediately.
"I talk to a lot of people I can't do loans for," he said. "But I can look at their credit and help them understand how to get into a position to get a loan later."
It has been notoriously difficult even for people in a good financial position, to get credit over the past few years. After a wide-open decade, which set the financial markets up for a disastrous crash, regulations changed and tightened, documentation requirements shifted around and products were introduced and pulled at a confusing rate.
The pendulum swung to create "an extremely difficult credit environment," Horner acknowledged.
"The industry has struggled to find, almost, a sense of sanity," he said.
That's settled out considerably now, and the environment is quite favorable for those who are interested in getting into a home.
"The affordability of credit is incredible," Horner said. "People have more buying power now."
The process is more deliberate and documentation requirements are pretty stringent.
"It's not simple anymore," Horner said. "It's an in-depth process."
With Guild Mortgage, Horner feels well-positioned to help Sisters clients navigate that in-depth process, making it as streamlined and efficient as possible.
For Horner, the key is taking the time to educate clients.
"That's what it's all about," he said. "Educated choices about the loan product they're choosing. And they're choosing."
For more information call Horner at 541-719-1322.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)