Guild Leaders Have An Attitude Of Gratitude

Photo byCourtesy Photos

By Kimberley Haas for The Mortgage Note

Leaders at Guild Mortgage say they are lucky to be able to help people fulfill their dreams of homeownership.

Erin Watts, vice president of product strategy, explained that attainable lending is something she and others at the company are passionate about. They recently expanded the Gateway to Homeownership Assistance program, an initiative designed to help underserved borrowers.

The program launched in St. Louis in 2022 and has since expanded to metros in Arizona, South Carolina, and Texas. Borrowers receive up to a $5,000 lender credit for closing costs.

“We went into it wanting to help the community and help the underserved, so we had to design the program with some closing cost assistance,” Watts said.

As the program expanded, they used data and reporting to determine which communities would make the most sense to serve. Guild has helped more than 800 families become homeowners in these markets with over $4.2 million in assistance so far.

David Blazek, director of product development, said lenders and other regional banks have taken notice, and “that’s a great thing.”

“It’s playing out successfully, but we’re not finished. There’s not an end score, there’s not a goal line in this. We’re never going to be finished. There’s a lot of racial homeownership disparity in St. Louis and many other markets,” Blazek said.

Watts and Blazek said team members throughout the country are embracing artificial intelligence and as 2024 winds down, they predict a busy 2025 for loan originators.

“With rates coming down a bit, it’s going to bring a lot of aspiring homeowners off the fence. It’s going to be an exciting year,” Blazek said.

Watts said their goal is to develop new products so they can help more borrowers as the market picks back up.

“So many borrowers have completely different situations as far as their work and their income and all of those things and I think our goal is to understand that and make sure we have the ability to provide them with mortgage financing,” Watts said.

San Diego-based Guild Mortgage is a national independent mortgage lender providing residential mortgage products and local in-house origination and servicing.