Melissa Cohn's new business is a division of FM Home Loans, but it's very clearly her operation, starting with the brand name: MC Home Loans.
"I have my own budget, my own name, my own website, my own Internet," said Cohn, one of the country's most prolific mortgage salespeople. MC Home Loans has just opened its headquarters in Manhattan, across the river from FM's Brooklyn office.
Cohn started the company after she was fired from GuardHill Financial earlier this year, after
She describes her new venture, which already has a staff of 26, as a reboot of Manhattan Mortgage, the brokerage she ran from 1985 to 2012, when
"We are functioning as a team because I have lots of ideas but so does everyone else. By utilizing all of our brain power, we are building Manhattan Mortgage 2.0," she said.
"Everywhere people seem to think being in the mortgage business is so difficult and my job is to take that difficulty out to make it borrower-friendly and originator-friendly," Cohn said.
Cohn had been the leading originator in the nation in 2007 and 2008 according to one industry survey and even during her brief time at Guaranteed Rate,
She said she has clients she has been working with for over 30 years, who have referred children, relatives and friends. "Building personal relationships are key in this business," but too many originators focus on how much compensation they can make off of one transaction, rather than how that deal can blossom into many, Cohn said.
Even with the big changes coming to the mortgage industry with the new disclosure format, Cohn said she was game to start a new business.
"When you find the right group and the right base, it is always the right time to start something," she said.
