This Brokerage Is Recruiting LOs, While Others Face Layoffs

CEO compares company to Navy SEALs: not all can make it

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Staff Writer

While most of the headlines in today’s news report mass layoffs at big mortgage companies, smaller brokerages, like Petra Cephas, continue to grow.

Petra Cephas President and CEO Bishoi Nageh opened his boutique mortgage company in Central New Jersey in 2016, and since then the company has seen its fair share of business cycles — including record swings in supply and demand in 2018, the pandemic housing boom of 2020, and its subsequent fallout in 2022. Despite how bipolar the market has been, Nageh’s company has been steadily building in strength.

“Success is not linear,” Nageh said. “I had one to three employees for what felt like forever, then three to five employees for forever, and now we have 15 employees and we’re going to get to 30 very soon.”

Nageh participated in this interview with NMP Magazine between job interviews with loan officers, many of whom respect the culture of his company and want to be a part of the family.

Spun Off

Bishoi Nageh, Petra Cephas president & CEO — Bishoi Nageh, Petra Cephas
president & CEO

Petra Cephas was a branch under another company until 2015, when it was officially licensed by the New Jersey Department of Banking. It offers a variety of products, including conventional, FHA, VA, Non-QM, and investor loans.

Petra Cephas means “Peter the Rock,” and is named after Nageh’s favorite disciple of Jesus, Saint Peter.

Despite Nageh’s religious affiliation, the company serves all homebuyers regardless of their beliefs. When it comes to hiring criteria, Nageh keeps it simple. “We hire good people,” he said.

“We’re like the Navy SEALs,” he said, describing the company’s culture. “From time to time, people won’t make it. But the ones who do, they’re truly family here.”

That isn’t an exaggeration. Nageh says his company literally tries to mimic the Navy SEALs, replicating their culture. He tells all employees, “When you walk in, you’re not sick, you’re not hurt, you’re a Navy SEAL. We have a mission and a job to do — you’re a leader. There’s emotional intelligence involved, and people are relying on you.”

As intense as this working environment may seem, Nageh says the employees have each other’s backs. Instead of intense competition, the company takes teamwork and unity seriously. That doesn’t mean, though, that there is no room for empathy. On some occasions, Nageh has told employees not to work overtime, or that they can take the day off.

Human Power

Essentially, Petra Cephas is a human-centric business. This type of culture aligns with the company’s business model, using a human-powered customer relationship management (CRM) system. According to Nageh, this is what entices seasoned loan officers.

The human-powered CRM system provides loan officers with a support staff to handle all customer relations activity, allowing loan officers to focus more on getting loans processed, gathering leads, and getting referrals. Instead of clients receiving generic emails sent by bots, they appreciate speaking with a human. This makes communication much more authentic for both the broker and the client.

“If you’re a loan officer for Petra Cephas and meet 20 potential referral partners at a networking event, all you have to do is take a picture of those business cards and someone from the marketing team will put them in your software, and even your phone,” Nageh said.

The company does this through Google business suites. Once someone downloads contact information into Google contacts, the loan officer should be able to download that contact through their phone with the mobile app. A simple, yet efficient process.

The marketing team also handles sending thank you letters to clients, and maintains those relationships so loan officers can focus on sales.

“Most loan officers, when they talk to me, say ‘That sounds like something my assistant would do.’ I say the whole company is built on assisting you,” Nageh said.

Easing Burdens

Usually, loan officers are burdened with extra duties, such as this or weekly updates. At Petra Cephas, the marketing team intimately monitors the progress of each loan officer every week. After every month, loan officers get an email of every single closing they completed and who referred them.

Nageh emphasizes that brokering is a relationship business, and borrowers want sincerity and authenticity. Petra Cephas specializes in developing personal relationships. Nageh says the company won’t send generic Thanksgiving or Christmas cards, because those phrases become saturated and diluted with the other vendors a customer uses. Even plumbers send out holiday cards, so in order to separate your business from the rest, it’s important to send substance.

“We don’t send fluff,” Nageh said.”We provide true value.”

Loan officers also are responsible for following up with their clients. Six months after a closing, the loan officer will check in on the client, and then once every year after that.

Petra Cephas likes to show its generosity in many ways. Every year, two weeks before Thanksgiving, any past clients may come by the office to pick up a turkey — tofu turkeys, kosher turkeys, and natural turkeys are available.

The company also holds an annual Petra Cephas Day, a festival-style event featuring face painters, ice cream trucks, massage therapists, and mediterranean food for all to enjoy. At the last annual Petra Cephas Day, 300 people attended to join in on the fun.

Additionally, every year Petra Cephas rents a cruise for its clients to sail the Hudson River.

Authenticity, Not Tech

Nageh admits he’s investing more in technology at the moment, but he refuses to sacrifice authenticity for technology.

Currently, he is working on technology to replace menial tasks, such as data entry. “It’s a waste of time for loan officers,” he says, “and I don’t want them doing it.”

When loan officers hear about Petra Cephas and how well they’re doing in the current market, they can hardly believe it, Nageh says.

“They’re astonished; they’re flabbergasted,” he said. “Everyone is conducting mass layoffs, like Wells Fargo and loanDepot; First Guarantee filed for bankruptcy, and Sprout shut down. It’s surprising for loan officers who first join the company to see how much we’re growing.”