Latina Star
One superstar in the mortgage industry is Lizy Hoeffer. She is the number one female and Hispanic loan officer, per Scotsman Guide 2018, 2019, and NAHREP Top 250 Latino Mortgage Loan Originators 2018-2020. She understands the value of determination and educating her clients on becoming homeowners. Hoeffer closed over 1,200 loans in 2020; 100 per month was an average. Those are enormous numbers when the average loan officer closes from 25 to 50 loans per year.
Hoeffer’s mantra is "passion changes everything." She describes this as her superpower, explaining why working with her clients fuels her passion. "Because the thing is that passion is so important to get you to do the things that you're supposed to do. It gets you over those humps of, ‘this is really hard,’ or, you know, ‘I don't think I can right do it right.’"
She was born and raised in Nogales, Ariz. She has family ties in Mexico, and Spanish is her first language. Hoeffer was a receptionist at a mortgage company when she started her career in mortgage lending. She recalls the loan officers in her office calling on leads, and she would listen to them and learn. One day, a loan officer brought her a stack of leads and asked her to shred them. Hoeffer asked, "What if I don't shred them, but call them? You don't have to pay me for calling them, but if I book an appointment, you pay me $50 for the appointment." Her employer did not know that Hoeffer was a natural-born salesperson because her father was a salesman who taught her everything. She had been selling since she was a kid. She doubled her income shortly afterwards.
While in college, she was cold calling, and worked her way up to processing, and then to a loan officer in 2008. She now works for CrossCountry Mortgage, an independent mortgage banking company, and has over 18 years in the mortgage industry.
Picking The Right Market
A sizable part of her success is working with Hispanic borrowers. She wants to eliminate the homeownership gaps. She prides herself on giving back to the community and assisting Hispanics in building generational wealth by using her services, educational classes, and the tools she provides to all her clients.
“One thing that I love about helping Hispanic borrowers is that I think there's something beautiful about immigrant culture,” she said. “Everything the first generation does is to make sure that the second generation is successful. Everything the second generation does is to help the first generation and help the third generation. … One of the things that I think is so beautiful, is this focus on getting the second generation to be a homeowner.”
Speaking Spanish also has been a tangible skill that has helped her grow her business and assist more clients and families. Speaking to her clients in Spanish removes barriers and strengthens relationships.
Hoeffer does run a successful business. She is numbers driven and ensures she is on target month over month to meet her goals. "I look at actions, leads, contacts, and conversions. And for me, it's very metric-driven, as well as it is relationship-driven. But in order to keep up production, you just have to keep your eye on the ball." She uses various tools and programs to keep her productivity at a maximum.
