One Star’s Rise In The Mortgage Sky

What’s Old Is New

It was at that point Eklund made the decision to re-enter the brokering world, and she set her one-year goal at $10 million in closings. The next year, it became $30 million, then $50 million.

But let’s back up to Christmas 2017. Eklund was headed to a business networking gathering hosted by Keller Williams Key West Compass Realty.

“She had just moved here. She had joined the Chamber of Commerce that day and came to our evening event,” Team Leader Sarah Dolson remembers.

Dolson and Eklund hit it off right away, becoming fast friends and business associates.

“I started using her pretty much 100% of the time for a lot of my deals right after she moved down here and got started,” Dolson says. “I introduced her to people, took her to our association meetings, and kind of got her out socializing.”

Eklund’s nexus of friends and business contacts expanded from there. Even back then, they knew she was a mortgage star.

“It’s not just a job to her,” Dolson explains. “If she can’t make it happen, nobody can because she will go to the ends of the earth to make it happen and make everybody happy.”

Eklund became an MLO at Coast2Coast Mortgage in 2018 and now manages the company’s Southern Florida office.

Early on, founder Keith Richardson had heard whispers about the new MLO down in the Keys.

“I started this company, but then I sold it to a guy named Vern, and Vern just is selling it back to me starting in September of 2022,” Richardson says. “So, in the interim, he had brought on Kristen. I’d heard about her, but I had never met her. She’s consistently been one of our top, if not our top, producers in mortgage volume each month.”

They’ve since met in person and Richardson was surprised to find out this mortgage maven is also easygoing and fun.

“I’ve been in the mortgage business a long time,” he says. “We all have the same product, basically. And so it’s really just one great, big personality contest. And Kristen comes across as someone very likable, but also very trustworthy, serious, and respectful in regard to mortgage. But in the same sentence, she can be so fun and normal and easygoing. I think she puts her customers at ease with her personality, but then she knows the mortgage business super well. She knows exactly what to do for each customer to give them the best product, rate, term, all those things that are important.”

Transient Customers

Eklund got to know the transient mortgage market on the Florida Keys, the country's southernmost island chain, which has millions of visitors per year but less than 100,000 year-round residents.

“When I moved down here, I was told everyone pays cash, no one’s going to finance. Well, that’s our job: to get them to finance and show them the opportunities. Everything is unique, whichever territory or area you live in, but you just kind of have to make yourself available and give them options.”

A house in the Keys might sell three times in 10 years, and there are many second-home investor-owners, so real estate agent and LO relationships are everything.

“It makes everything easier when emotions start running high that everybody’s kind of on the same field, talking the same language,” Dolson points out. “Kristen and I explain everything very clearly from the beginning so there’s no surprises. And then if something does come up, we handle it very calmly. We’ve had to do some extensions, but we’ve never had a deal that hasn’t got to the closing table eventually.”

Hurricane Irma destroyed 1,179 homes on the Florida Keys and another 2,977 suffered major damage, according to Monroe County records. Not only did this change the housing market in her new locale, but it also impeded Eklund’s ability to get right back to work.

“I couldn’t get out and meet anyone because every fourth or fifth house was destroyed down here,” she recalls. “I don’t think my first closing was until May of 2018, and then I had to ramp up and get going and then we had COVID.”

All of these hurdles have not tripped her up from building a life in a place she loves, and doing what she loves.

“I feel like I’ve made a big dent in the community down here as far as volunteering, but there’s just so much more I can do and so many more people that I need to meet.”

She was sick during Key West’s Fantasy Fest the last weekend of October, but Eklund still put on a costume and hit the streets.

“Work-life balance is tough, but you just fit it in,” she says.

Always Answer

She and her husband, a charter boat captain who is also an MLO, enjoy boating and fishing and all the beauty of the Keys. They’re also expecting a grandchild soon.

“It’s beautiful down here,” she says. “This is our life. This is our home.”

Eklund teaches the LOs on her team to put in 100% all the time and always answer the phone.

“Even if I’m out fishing, if I’m within range, I will pick up that phone and tell them I’m honest. I live in the Keys. I’m out fishing. You’re buying a house down here. You’re coming down to do the same thing. I will call you back in two hours. I think people respect that you’re honest with them and that you make yourself available and you call them back.”

The same goes for work ethic, which Eklund and her team prioritize.

“Even if we’re not busy right now, you still have to put in 40 hours a week. You don’t just work 10. The other 30 or 40 are marketing and social media and staying in front of real estate agents. When times are slow, you kind of get in a rut and you get off balance. The key is to stay in balance in good times and bad times so you can overcome those challenges.”

Eklund hates being told no but can’t imagine that the bank job would have suited her anyway.

“If someone tells me no or doesn’t like me, I’m going to try harder and smarter and get them to see things my way,” she says, adding, “I’m not a get-dressed-in-a-suit-type-of-girl that’s going to go sit in a bank all day. I would have been miserable. So life gives you what you can handle.”

Having a passion for the work is more important to her than making the paycheck.

“I don’t ever think about the money or that aspect of it. It’s like, who can I help today? What can I do?” she says. “Especially if a customer is at a 688 credit score and I told them the rate and they’re fine with it but I know they can get a better rate over 700. That’s not good enough for me. I want to try and help them get over 700 and get a better rate. I want to make sure that person’s going to be successful in buying a house.”

Her goal is always to up her loan volume and keep on working for the greater good.

“I’d like to hit over $100 million and help everyone through the next refinance boom we have and see what it brings. I don’t have a retirement date. Some people say, I’m going to do another five years and I’m done. When the passion stops, then I’ll stop. But until I don’t love this job, then I’ll keep doing it even if I’m 80.”