Inman

Co-op real estate loan alliance debuts

A new cooperative alliance between ten mortgage lenders affiliated with independent real estate companies has just formed, the companies announced today.

The organization – the Strategic Alliance of Mortgage Subsidiaries – is the first of its kind intended to meet the unique marketing needs of real estate company-affiliated mortgage lenders, the companies claimed.

The Alliance will leverage the collective marketing clout and economies of scale of real estate company-related mortgage lenders in bargaining with secondary market, mortgage origination giants, and mortgage and real estate services vendors to maximize mutually beneficial pricing and services, the group said.

The Strategic Alliance of Mortgage Subsidiaries is a business cooperative with a membership that is uniquely homogeneous in size, marketing strategies, lending products and secondary market executions, the companies said.

The cooperative’s members will use their combined influence to negotiate with secondary mortgage market enterprises, third party mortgage aggregators, and services vendors on behalf of the Alliance mortgage companies and their parent realty companies.

A fundamental Alliance objective is improving members’ converting their parent companies’ real estate clients into mortgage customers, according to the companies.

“By simply facilitating the organization of the Alliance, the National Association of Realtors is giving a boost to real estate companies that want to grow their mortgage lending affiliates. It’s value-added to real estate companies,” said Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate, in a statement.

Response Mortgage Services, a member of the Alliance, is the mortgage lending affiliate of John L. Scott Real Estate.

The Alliance said it anticipates membership growth in the next year that will include similar mortgage lenders and will take into account geographic diversity as a criterion for joining the group. The charter membership will develop additional criteria for additional cooperative business agreements for new members.

James Dinkel, head of FM Lending is first chairman of the SAMS board. Mr. Dinkel said, “Each of the affiliated companies has built a highly successful and very competitive regional lending presence. SAMS will allow us to continue to provide the services and products customized to serve our individual market areas and at the same time negotiate additional services and enhancements leveraged by the combined size of the membership.”

Founding members of the Strategic Alliance of Mortgage Subsidiaries LLC, a registered limited liability company in Delaware, are: Allen Tate Mortgage Services (Charlotte, N.C.); Devere Capital Corp. (Williamsville, N.Y.); FM Lending Services (Raleigh, N.C.); Gilpin Mortgage Co. (Wilmington, Del.); Key Mortgage Services dba Baird & Warner Financial Services (Des Plaines, Ill.); Response Mortgage Services Inc. (Bellevue, Wash.); Sibcy Cline Mortgage Services Inc. (Cincinnati, Ohio); Trident Mortgage (Devon, Pa.); Tucker Mortgage (Indianapolis, Ind.); and Watson Mortgage Corporation (Jacksonville, Fla.).

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