“I want more.”
That was the resounding message from mortgage veteran Patty Arvielo, who, after 44 years in the industry, is still finding room for improvement — for herself, for her company New American Funding and for the next generation of leaders.
By more, Arvielo means several things: She wants to see more women enter the industry and become leaders, she wants more female top producers, more mentorship opportunities and to take her company to Rocket-level success.
Arvielo, who spoke to audience members at HousingWire’s The Gathering, shared that she uses Rocket Companies’ success as a litmus test for NAF.
“We may not be the biggest, but the goal at NAF has always been to build an end-to-end solution,” she said. “Rocket is Amazon, and NAF is Walmart, and I’m okay with that.”
But the main difference, Arvielo said, is that “NAF doesn’t compete with its real estate company… we are their partner… we help our retail LOs retain their books.”
‘It’s lonely at the top’
After outlining her ambitions for NAF and her admiration for Rocket’s model, Arvielo turned inward, reflecting on the personal cost of leadership.
Arvielo, who went from cleaning real estate offices at age 16 to pioneering New American Funding with husband Rick, told audience members that it’s lonely at the top.
As a way to alleviate loneliness, Arvielo created a solution by launching her “Thrive and Lead” mentorship program, where she personally mentors between 60 and 70 people per year and has mentored 456 to date, both men and women. “Their stories are gifts, they keep me relevant,” she said. “The secret sauce [for this business] is being in the know and now.”
As a part of wanting more for women in the industry, Arvielo divulged that NAF has a recruitment campaign focused on female loan officers. “I want NAF to be the number one company for LOs who are women and top producers,” she said.
“Women deserve to build generational wealth too, and there’s no better place to do it than the mortgage industry,” Arvielo continued. “So I want to make it really comfortable…I want women to stand up and be able to say confidently that they want more, that they want to be the president.
Making progress in lending
As a proud Latina, Arvielo told the audience that she “does not want to be a box that needs to be checked,” nor does she want her Black or Latino borrowers, who Arvielo says are “overmarketed and underserved,” to feel the same way.
“Leading authentically isn’t having loan documents translated to Spanish,” Arvielo said. “For us, measuring success is meeting the national metrics.”
First Time Home Buyer FAQs - Via HousingWire.com
