President’s Message
By Sherry Gallitz
President, MBA of Florida
I have had the privilege of being part of the MBA of Jacksonville chapter and MBA of Florida (MBAF) for over two decades. I firmly believe that this organization has significantly contributed to and shaped my career. I am grateful for all that it has done for me. I love this industry. I am extremely dedicated to work as hard as hard as I can, with the help of my peers, to protect this industry.
We are experiencing uncertain and unprecedented times: we are navigating through a pandemic, forbearances, RON, and Liquidity issues. On one hand, we see the vast majority of other industries struggling to adjust to the ‘new norm’. On the other, the mortgage industry is flourishing. The MBAF has stood tall and consistently stepped in when our Industry needs us. Our elected officials depended on the MBA to help correct legislative language within the Cares Act that was negatively impacting our Industry and economy. This allowed us to keep taking application, underwriting and closing loans. With household incomes in various degrees of decline, our ability to help our consumers refinance to lower their payments or utilize much needed equity has been invaluable. Without the MBAF and all of your extraordinary efforts together, our Industry and the US economy could be failing our US homeowners now in their time of need.
The MBAF advocates for policy change on our behalf with state legislators, the Comptroller’s office, the state Insurance Commissioner, and the GSE’s. Together we partner with home builders, the title industry, and the mortgage brokers to make sure that the business environment is as fair and on a level playing field. No one company can fight these battles alone, and the MBAF provides us with a strong, highly respected organization dedicated to protecting the industry’s well being – we are stronger and more successful together.
This past spring the MBAF and all the local chapters showed support for the National MBA in the Mortgage Action Alliance (MAA) Growth Campaign – we had great success. Florida is ranked third (3
rd
) in the country for supporting the MAA initiative when compared to other states; I take great pride knowing that I helped lead that effort. I encourage you to join me by banding together to help our Association by reaching out to our non-member peers, colleagues, and friends and ask them to help support the industry that supports them.
Click Here to Join MAA
.
Also, I would like to accomplish the goal of having our non-member peers to become members of the MBA of Florida or/and to support their local MBA Chapter.
Click here to learn more and join MBA
A special thanks to Mike Azzarello for his leadership and direction, and all of the previous MBA Officers and Board of Directions for their dedication to our Industry this past year. As your incoming president, I am excited to embark on exciting new opportunities or challenges the industry may bring. When I go through tough times, I’m often reminded of this quote: “Crises don’t build character, Crises reveal character.” This quote resonates and reminds me of everything this industry has been through and how far we’ve come together. The MBAF, myself, each o
f
us…..
W
orking together to support our industry. Together – we are powerful.
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Special Message
from MBAF Immediate Past President
Michael Azzarello, CMB
Thank you for allowing me to serve as the MBA of Florida President for the 2019-2020 term.
As I leave this position, I would be remiss if I didn’t first acknowledge all those suffering from effects of the coronavirus with poor health or the massive unemployment many are experiencing due to the economic shutdown. I hope you and your families are staying safe and well until we get through this mess. I also want to recognize recent events that brought much light to racial injustice and lack of diversity our country has been experiencing for generations. My hope is that everyone can get on the same page knowing we are all created equally and everyone should be treated with respect and kindness!
Now back to the MBA….
- We started off my term with a bang at our Eastern Secondary and Annual Convention last June in Bonita Springs and had the BEST sessions ever, in my opinion. Attendance was good, people were upbeat and the conference was a success! See our video if you forget the excitement and success we had! Since then, mortgage production has been excellent with low interest rates and a strong home purchase market. If you are on the origination side whether it is lending, MI, Title, Appraisals, etc., business is booming for us. If you are a larger servicer, MSR valuations and COVID related forbearance costs are a question.
- In the spirit of Embracing your Opportunities, we reactivated our Education Committee at the direction of Tim Bazell and Sherry Wenrich who took charge and created very successful quarterly sales training webinars. These educational webinars not only provided valuable information to our members and future members but also allowed the MBAF to promote our association across social networks with the goal of increasing our visibility and membership.
- Our Membership Committee co-chaired by Richard Peek and Doug Leever along with Brenda Thomas did a great job renewing and adding new members this year. Although we did not hit our budget, we were close. My stretch goal for 20-21 would be to exceed our membership budget to cover our administrative expenses and our net income from Conferences be used to build up our reserves. I would encourage everyone to support our Membership drive by identifying future members and sharing the benefits of MBAF Membership with your friends and colleagues in the real estate finance industry. We could really use their membership and sponsorship support this year more than ever.
- Political Advocacy was also in play this year with an awesome Tallahassee Legislative Day in February under the guidance of Eric Prutsman. Sherry Gallitz also took the reins this spring working with National MBA to expand MBA grassroots MAA membership with the state of Florida ranking # 3 in the nation with MAA membership! With so many political decisions related to COVID affecting our industry, MBA has stepped up our representation in DC and Tallahassee and we are managing our way through the crisis. Unfortunately MPAC fund raising has hit a COVID snag so MPAC will be a focus in the early months of the new year at both the state and local levels.
- Now along with the rest of the world, our association and members have been dealing with COVID 19 since late February. The pandemic has impacted everyone and is disrupting our Eastern Secondary and Convention plans this year causing a postponement from June to September 3-4 in Orlando. The Secondary and Convention Committees (thank co-chairs) have worked many hours to put together a fantastic B2B Conference and we are now just trying to make it happen! All Sessions and speakers have been set for months and we are now closely monitoring the coronavirus, taking registrations and sponsorships and keeping in touch with our speakers. We all miss the education and networking opportunities at our conferences and we are hopeful we can make this happen in September. Look for more information on decisions soon.
The end of my term is bitter sweet. I enjoyed my time and the experience leading your association but sad that the pandemic came into play this year leaving much work ahead. I want to congratulate Sherry Gallitz and her new board and I look forward to continuing working with them on our association issues and OPPORTUNITIES in the new year.
Finally, I want to thank all of our 19-20 Officers, Board, Local Chapters, Committee Chairs and Committee Members for their volunteering spirit, expertise and support of our association and our industry. I also want to thank Brenda Thomas (AKA SUPER BRENDA) for her unwavering commitment to the health and success of the MBA of Florida! As a career Mortgage Banker, I could not be more proud of our accomplishments as an industry and the homeowners we have helped over these many years. I leave this office with good thoughts and much optimism for the future of our industry and the MBA of Florida.
Thank you!
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Announcement
2020 Eastern Secondary Market Conference and
Annual Convention
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Our Executive Committee met via conference call to discuss the situation with COVID-19 and the impact it continues to have on our member companies and their ability to send staff to travel and attend conferences. COVID-19 has placed us in a terrible position with the coronavirus spike that has been happening in Florida and the realization that we, the MBA of Florida, will not shoulder responsibility of the wellness of our attendees to participate in our Eastern Secondary Market Conference and Annual Convention-September 3-4, 2020. We also know many companies are still in travel/event restriction mode and it is not in the best interest of anyone to try and hold this event.
We have cancelled with the hotel, and they will automatically cancel and refund your hotel deposit if you have made a reservation.
We are going back to the drawing board and revisiting if the 2020 Eastern Secondary Market Conference and Annual Convention will be held. We will advise as soon as we know more.
Also, already in the works are other opportunities to continue to educate you, your peers or your staff with industry specific webinars and maybe some motivation mixed in. Keep an eye out for more information on this coming out soon too. So in saying that see notice directly below on our August 4th Webinar!
On behalf of the MBA of Florida Leadership
we appreciate your support of the MBAF and our industry.
Stay well, be safe, be smart. Let us get through this together.
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WEBINAR August 4th
Power of Negotiations
by Steve Richman, That MI Guy, Genworth Mortgage Insurance
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Power of Negotiations: They start sooner, end later and apply to more situations than you think. Join us in this webinar with That MI Guy, Steve Richman, as he discusses the best ways in which you can learn to negotiate.
We will cover:
* Effective preparation techniques for negotiations.
* How to determine who has the strength in a negotiation.
* How to negotiate with unreasonable people.
* The most effective question you can ask in a negotiation.
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Membership Renewals are due on July 1st. If you are not on the list below we have not received your payment. You can log in to renew online
Click Here
or email mbaf@mbaf.org for a hard copy of your invoice.
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FINANCIAL INSTITUTION MEMBERS
A&D Mortgage LLC
AmeriHome Mortgage Company LLC
Assurance Financial Group, LLC
Capital City Home Loans
Centennial Bank
CenterState Bank Mortgage
Embrace Home Loans
Envoy Mortgage
Farm Credit of NW FL
First Community Mortgage
First Federal Bank
Freedom Mortgage
Group One Mortgage
Home Point Financial
*Homebridge Financial Services, Inc
.
*iberiabank
Inlanta Mortgage
K Hovnanian
Paramount Residential Mortgage
Planet Home Lending
Regions Bank
Synovus
TC Federal Bank
*The Mortgage Firm
*Truist Bank
Union Home Mortgage
United States Automobile Association
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ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
*Arch MI
Capital Markets Cooperative
CATIC
Essent
*Genworth Mortgage Insurance
Home Captain, Inc.
MERSCORP Holdings
*Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp.
*National MI
Optimal Blue
Southern Title Holding LLC
The Compliance Group
XINNIX, Inc.
INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS
Michael Azzarello, CMB
Scott Colclough
Gina Dionisio
Matthew Goldman, CLO, CRO
Michelle Knoebel, CMB
Doug Leever
Katerina Rodriguez
Alan Verch, CMB
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