Down Payment Resource Adds 4 To Staff

Down Payment Resource (DPR), an Atlanta-based provider of technology for the housing industry that connects home buyers with assistance programs, said Wednesday it added four new team members.

The additions are intended to grow the company’s sales footprint, expand its relationships with housing finance agencies (HFAs), and provide enhanced support to DPR’s growing customer base, it said.

“Intense consumer demand for homebuyer assistance has driven explosive usership across our tools for lenders, agents, and listing sites — prompting us to grow our team with the addition of four incredibly knowledgeable and passionate housing finance professionals,” said DPR Founder and CEO Rob Chrane. “I look forward to working with the expanded DPR family to champion innovative tools, strategies and programs that make homeownership more affordable and accessible for everyone.”

The new staff members are:

Tani Lawrence, enterprise sales executive: Lawrence is responsible for driving business growth by showing housing professionals how DPR’s solutions can help them better serve homebuyers and conduct operations more efficiently. Previously, she served as senior business development executive at a document fulfillment fintech, where she signed the company’s largest lender client, and in a business development role at Optimal Blue, where she specialized in its comergence risk management toolset.

Angel Romero, HFA relationship manager: Romero has more than a decade of mortgage industry experience to build and maintain DPR’s relationships with hundreds of HFAs nationwide. Before joining DPR in March 2023, Angel served as AVP, post-closing manager, and resident housing program expert at Cherry Creek Mortgage, where she helped drive the company's expansion into underserved markets and streamline down payment assistance (DPA) operations.

Keith Futrell and Kathy Gault, DPA program specialists: Futrell and Gault will use their extensive knowledge of compliance guidelines, DPA programs, and affordable lending processes to provide DPR partners custom DPA insights and strategies.

Futrell has nearly two decades of housing finance industry experience as a mortgage account manager, processor and underwriter, and he has specialized knowledge underwriting DPA programs. In his previous role as an underwriter for Allen Tate Companies, Futrell reviewed and issued two or more loans per day on average and was named MVP of Underwriting in 2019 and 2021.

Before joining DPR, Gault was senior strategic products and affordable housing programs coordinator at Mountain West Financial Inc. In that role, Gault curated the lender’s DPA program roster, trained loan originators on new DPA programs and managed DPA programs.

Down Payment Resource provides technology helping the housing industry connect homebuyers with the homebuyer assistance they need. Its technology is used by five of the top 10 retail mortgage lenders by volume, three of the four largest real estate listing websites and 500,000 real estate agents.