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Meet John Caliendo of Clear To Close Crew at Nexa Mortgage in Southeast Valley

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Today we’d like to introduce you to John Caliendo.

John, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I came into the mortgage industry nearly by accident. I realized quickly how unique it was and wanted to be a part of it. I focused on learning it as quickly as I could. Many of my peers only understood their roles, or departments, and had no idea how the rest of the business worked. I wanted to learn all sides of it. Mortgage is a trade. You can’t go to school for it, it’s a close-knit community where the same people just circulate around. You don’t want to burn any bridges in this industry because there’s a good chance you’ll be working with old coworkers at some point in the future. I try to follow the money. It never goes away, it just moves around. Right now, I believe the best place to be as a loan officer is in the broker channel. There’s plenty of capital, investors are broker-friendly, and I’m more competitive than ever before.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Nothing worth doing is ever easy. Mortgage is dependent largely on what financial markets are doing so things can change at the drop of a hat. Layoffs are commonplace in our industry. We’re heavily regulated, so staying abreast of legal, agency, and regulatory changes are also challenging. Staying employed during the 2008 Great Recession was the most difficult part of my career. But I believe I represent a voice out there. There are people in my industry, as well as consumers, whose values align with my own, and we will gravitate towards one-another naturally, gaining momentum along the way. The bigger we get, the bigger the impact we get to make.

Tell us about your company. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of as a company? What sets you apart from others?
In my 15 years of mortgage experience, I have witnessed a lot of cycles but the trend we’re in currently is perhaps the one that concerns me the most. The industry is consolidating at a rapid pace. The Clear To Close Crew is staunchly against the Monopolization and Collusion gripping our industry. If independent mortgage brokers and real estate agents are going to stay independent, we need to stand together. Just say “NO” to kickbacks, marketing service agreements, and any other grey area RESPA violation. We don’t believe it’s good for our industry and it certainly isn’t good for the end consumer. The consumer comes first, and their interests must be placed above our own. This is something large real estate and lending teams have forgotten.

That’s when I created the Clear To Close Crew, a brand I feel great about and what it represents! We take a blue-collar work ethic and apply it to a white collar industry. Part of my solution was to take my brand to the wholesale lending platform. As a broker, we’re independent mortgage professionals and therefore we’re cutting out the middleman, connecting our clients to major loan servicers, and saving them huge in the process. We keep our margins slim and no matter where the capital is coming from, I want to be able to access it, offering my clients among the best mortgage terms and solutions out there.

Our three pillars of values are: Hard Work, Consumer Advocacy, and Providing Real Value. Providing fast, educational mortgage services, at a discount, are the goals of the Clear To Close Crew. We believe in hard work, rolling up our sleeves for our business partners, and getting into the trenches with them to support their businesses. Because of our heart for consumer advocacy, we invite each client into a screen share session so they can see their loan file, all the numbers, and receive crystal clear information on their loan and how they’re being qualified. We’re offering total transparency. And speaking of transparency, if we make a mistake we communicate that to our referral partners, we don’t make up stories to protect our image or reputation. We are human, and if we mess up, we own it.

Located at Nexa Mortgage, what an exciting time it is to be a loan officer there! The company has among the highest paid compensation plans in the business as well as a unique compensation plan for recruiting other loan officers. In addition, due to the rapid growth of our company, we’ve garnered the attention of the industry’s largest wholesale lenders who are now making unique offers to Nexa Mortgage given the volume we produce. This is on top of our already many wholesale advantages. As we continue to gain momentum, the value we’ll be able to offer our clients, referral partners, and employees will be unparalleled.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
My only regret about the mortgage business is not getting my license sooner. I spent many years working in different departments and areas of mortgage, which serves me well today, but the longer you’re in business, the bigger your database of potential clients become.

Pricing:

  • Our broker fees are paid for by our lending partners!
  • We don’t charge underwriting fees. That equates to a $900-1,000 savings!

Contact Info:

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