On the wall behind James Allen’s desk is a striking 40x50 inch print capturing Rami Malek in his portrayal of Freddie Mercury during the 1985 Live Aid concert scene from the 2018 Bohemian Rhapsody biopic. Allen lights up when asked about it. “This was arguably Freddie’s best performance and it happened almost two decades into his career,” he said. “This [print] reminds me that the best performance comes after years of hard work.”
On the surface, people might scoff at this sentiment. Allen’s been a licensed loan officer since 2016 and has already been named in Guaranteed Rate’s President’s Club and Chairman’s Club, as well as one of the top producing loan originators in his home state, Connecticut.
For a career that appears to come naturally to Allen, the path to achieving greatness mirrors Freddie Mercury’s: it all began with music.
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When Allen was fresh out of high school, he sidetracked the typical college or trade paths and started touring with his band, a Connecticut-based hardcore group. The band was signed right away following Allen’s graduation, and then worked on a record for a few years, eventually being signed by Solid State Records. “When [the band] did our record deal we had a manager who was a great, young guy, but as we went through the process I realized ‘This person doesn’t know what they’re doing’ and although he was doing the best he could, I felt like I could do it better,” Allen said. “Twice in my life, I’ve had a weird premonition where I feel like I could do this job well and then eventually [did] that job.”
A couple of years later, Allen went into music management, representing artists and working with labels like Los Angeles-based Epitaph Records. But Allen says that the introduction of music platform iTunes marred his career, and he soon realized he couldn’t support himself — never mind a future family.
Before becoming a top-producing loan officer, Allen started his career in the music industry. He toured with a Connecticut-based hardcore band and worked in music management, representing artists and working with labels like Epitaph Records. This experience shaped his understanding of hard work and dedication.
During this time was Allen’s first introduction to mortgage “Part of the transition [out of music management] involved working with a gentleman that my brother knew who was a high-level mortgage executive,” he explained. “He helped me review a contract that I had for a buyout and during the review he wanted to recruit me to be an LO. I said I wasn’t looking for a job, but it was my first exposure to mortgage.”
But Allen’s second “I can do this better” moment, came two years later, when he was about 24 years old and buying his first home with his now wife, Stacey. “I felt like my LO didn’t know what he was doing … almost like he was clueless and the job could be done better,” Allen said. “It was an arrogant thing to think because I didn’t know what was required to be good at this job at the time. The two jobs where I feel like I’ve thrived the most have been exposure to experiencing a bad experience and just thinking that it could be better and people would be happy to have it better.”
“Every level that you get to in business has its own new set of challenges. A lot of people think that they want what my team has, to do 15-20 loans per month, but it’s not always obvious that there is so much pain and pressure at those levels that is a lot to deal with.”
James Allen, Team Lead Loan Officer, Movement Mortgage
Allen knows, of course, that the grass is always greener on the other side. “In both cases, the jobs turned out to be substantially harder than expected,” he admitted. “I was young, and when you’re young your belief in your ability to figure everything out overshadows the reality of what it actually means to figure it out. I think that’s a good characteristic for young people to have but sometimes it can make you borderline delusional.”
Allen said he didn’t immediately jump into a new career or get his license. But the high-level mortgage executive he met through his brother continued to poke and prod about when Allen was going to dive headfirst into lending. Allen was doing business development consulting work and started working with financial advisory firms, and after a brief stint of going back to school for a seminary program in 2014, he decided to cancel his plans and just get his mortgage originating license. “My wife was pregnant with our first child and I was studying by myself every night with no guidance, no mortgage company, no nothing. I just decided that I was going to get licensed and figure out what I can do from there,” he said. “It was a sudden career change where I said maybe I can explore that job I think I’ll be good at.”
Spreading His Wings
Allen had two offers coming into the business: one was by Prospect Mortgage, which was eventually purchased by HomeBridge Financial Services, and the other was a position with Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation. “The job with Prospect made a lot more money but had no mentorship opportunities, and Fairway’s position paid a lot less but allowed for me to have a mentor,” Allen said. “So I joined Fairway as a loan officer assistant in 2016, working under a loan officer [named John Hodgkins] for a whole year and learning the business. I didn’t close any loans in my name, they all went under John’s.”
Allen and his family. Allen’s leadership style
emphasizes character, family, and customer
satisfaction over profits. His team members,
Nadia Shah and Matt Somuk, praise his
commitment to maintaining a work-life
balance, exceptional communication, and
ensuring the well-being of both his family
and team. This approach has fostered loyalty
and high performance within his team.
In the fall of 2017, Allen and Hodgkins moved over to Guaranteed Rate and Allen started closing loans under his own name, eventually earning the title of branch manager and vice president of mortgage lending. “Next thing I knew, I was a loan officer,” Allen joked.
Allen and Hodgkins remained business partners at Guaranteed Rate until 2021, with their team becoming number one in Connecticut out of every other Guaranteed Rate team in the state. “We were doing 40 loans a month, post-COVID-19 pandemic, and we had two pipelines that were each going to do more than $100 million that year,” Allen explained. “We were trying to operate as one business and it was just too big.”
Allen makes it clear that the ending of his and Hodgkins’ business relationship wasn’t bitter. “We grew together and that was a fruitful relationship for both of us,” Allen said. “I’m a better loan officer today because of our time. He was a great mentor for me and in many ways I’m indebted to him forever …
I think he’s the best loan officer I know.”
Eight months later, after closing over 350 units in 2021 at Guaranteed Rate, Allen accepted a job at Movement Mortgage, a choice that he felt was better for his future as a top producer and for his team.
“What I admire is that he doesn’t ditch the team to go to the golf course to try and make a deal. He works as hard as I do and when people ask how he does it, I can tell you this: it’s a people over profits mentality.”
Nadia Shah, loan partner on the James Allen team at Movement Mortgage
“When I left Fairway, I didn’t feel like I did it with a lot of integrity, and what I mean is that I sent a resignation letter and walked out the door. That’s just not a very adult thing to do to people who have worked with you and invested in you … and I regret that,” Allen said. “So when I left Guaranteed Rate, I [decided] to not do that and I had very adult conversations with senior management about where we were and why [my team] was unhappy.”Allen’s contract with Guaranteed Rate meant that he couldn’t notify his team that he was leaving. His first week at Movement Mortgage had him “sweating bullets,” hoping that his team wasn’t retained. “There was a moment of doubt when you’re the first one to jump and hoping your parachute’s gonna pop out,” he joked.
But Allen’s team followed him. The James Allen team is growing, but the core four are Allen, his preapproval manager Matt Somuk, loan partner Nadia Shah, and team lead Robin Stegeman. Allen adds that they’ve recently hired an executive assistant for himself and someone to work under Somuk’s preapproval arm.
Looking Inward
Keeping a team happy means making sure that they feel supported. Allen says that’s why 2024 will be a year of focusing on reorganizing and elevating service levels rather than focusing on growth. To accomplish this, Allen’s assistant, Brittany Lascko, has been working on a realtor database project for the team to offer real-time status updates on all three pipelines: contact lead to application, application to preapproval and underwriting, and contract to close. “All three of those will have one stacked view for our real estate partners within 30 days,” Allen mentions at the end of February. “I’m not trying to go backward … every level that you get to in business has its own new set of challenges. A lot of people think that they want what my team has, to do 15-20 loans per month, but it’s not always obvious that there is so much pain and pressure at those levels that is a lot to deal with.”
Allen and his tennis teammate, Max
Castrogiovanni, who runs MC Team at eXp
Realty, in a picture taken before their first
official USTA match last Fall. It was their first
season playing organized USTA tennis.
Allen admits it’s a lot on his plate to think about and that at times he finds that he reflects on what he can do better by looking inward. “Your production feeds multiple families now, and there’s a lot of pressure with keeping people employed … as this thing grows it becomes infinitely complicated. And one thing I’m still figuring out is where I best fit in the process,” he said. “I’m still the first one to talk to customers, and we’ve reached a size in the last few years where I don’t feel ecstatic about the service level that I want to provide.”
But there’s a reason his team has followed his guidance. Nadia Shah, who started working with Allen three years ago, calls him “a man of character,” citing that he’s more family and customer-obsessed than profit-obsessed. “He’s the smartest person in regards to numbers and finances, and he always has the best interest of the customer,” Shah said. “I don’t think he sleeps. He has three young kids and makes his schedule flexible so he can make time for family, work, and customers. What I admire is that he doesn’t ditch the team to go to the golf course to try and make a deal. He works as hard as I do and when people ask how he does it, I can tell you this: it’s a people over profits mentality.”
Matt Somuk, preapproval manager,
Movement Mortgage
Matt Somuk, who has also worked on Allen’s team at Movement Mortgage for three years as his preapproval manager, has been in the mortgage industry since 1997 — over two decades before Allen joined. Somuk knows the ropes, and knows that “lending is hard” and “so many things can go wrong.” But he says he’s stayed part of the James Allen team because of Allen’s can-do leadership style. “There are plenty of people in the industry who delay figuring things out. But not him, he wants certainty and he’ll carry out what he says he’ll do,” Somuk says. “James’ family comes first and that includes his extended family at work. Everything always comes down to great communication, making sure we can do what we say, and making sure everything is okay with us on the team.”
“There are plenty of people in the industry who delay figuring things out. But not him, he wants certainty and he’ll carry out what he says he’ll do.”
Matt Somuk, preapproval manager, Movement Mortgage
Allen has a laundry list of goals to make sure employees like Shah and Somuk continue to feel supported. “I’m focusing on staffing us correctly, making sure our technology works well, I want our partners to be happy, I want our clients to feel like there’s a humanized part of the experience … that they’re receiving acknowledgment from us that feels meaningful,” he said. “I want us to be exceptionally different and do more [of the] things our competitors may not be willing to do.”
This article originally appeared in National Mortgage Professional, on the week of August 1, 2024.
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