VOLUME IX
“The atoms of our bodies are traceable to stars that manufactured them in their cores and exploded these enriched ingredients across our galaxy, billions of years ago. For this reason, we are biologically connected to every other living thing in the world. We are chemically connected to all molecules on Earth. And we are atomically connected to all atoms in the universe. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust.� - Neil DeGrasse Tyson
9
CONT ENTS
GETTING TO KNOW ORION’S STARS: EXECUTIVE EDITION
ORION LENDING LENDS A HAND 9 LOAN RUSH: AN EXAMPLE OF GREAT TEAMWORK
WHO MADE IT HAPPEN?
FEBRUARY POTLUCK AT ORION ORION OLYMPICS : LET THE GAMES BEGIN
SAINT PATRICK’S DAY WELCOMING OUR NEW HIRES
ORION ANNIVERSARIES
MARCH BIRTHDAYS
Getting to know Orion’s stars EXECUTIVE EDITION
Jeremy Stewart
1. What was your first position in this industry and how did you get there? I fell backwards into an AE position thanks to a college pal of mine... I was interviewed by one of the company’s executives whom later became my mentor (and idol) in this business. To this day, I still remember one of the questions I was asked, (and my terrible answer)... 2. What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives? Try something new, whatever that may be and however that applies to you... Life is short, step out of your comfort zone and try something new... I just recently tried chicken feet at a dim sum restaurant... 3.What’s the best way to start the day? In order to start a day successfully, I prep the night prior. Preparing the night before allows you to start the day prepared, organized and ready to go... after that, 2 cups of green tea (double bagger) is the best way to being any day naturally... 4.What Movie title best describes your life? Moneyball... Sports and outsmarting the elite business owners... Awesome 5. What’s the best way a person can spend their time? That will vary for everyone. Eye of the beholder...Ultimately spending time doing what you love is paramount 6. What are you looking forward to in the coming months? The Spring mortgage months and growing this company with our amazing Orion family. Its exceptionally rare you find this type of talent, top to bottom, under one roof. Love what we do, what we are building, and spending each day working amongst you all. 7. Where would you spend all your time if you could? ALL is an infinite amount of time... If i was forced to select one spot, it would be the family Cabin in mammoth, fishing pole in hand with family and friends. 8. What do you wish you knew more about? I’m really fascinated by both History and Geography and know far less than I’d like. 9. Who inspires you to be better? My mom, my dad, my wife, my incredible kids... But also each of you all inspire me as well. You fuel and inspire me every single day to do better, the be better, to provide and grow a stable company focused on doing business the right way... Should we break into song now? ha.. Seriously, you are all an inspiration. 10. What’s the best and worst piece of advice you’ve ever received? Worst: “Just do it” I was cliff diving up in Montana from a 75 foot jump, no shoes, no good... we did the 100 footer next. Best: “You have to do what you love, outside of your comfort zone, and start Orion (with Curt), it will be a huge success... because you won’t let it not be” Ilda Stewart 11. What’s the hardest lesson you’ve learned? I cannot think of a single hardest lesson, but life is comprised of multiple lessons, and experiences that help shape who you are and often times the toughest are those that make the largest impact. Flipping this around, I often think of those who don’t have the resources or the opportunities that we do in this country and abroad and the lessons, experiences or challenges they face daily.. Do something kind for someone, even the smallest act can make a difference. 12. If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time and why? I’d put that extra time and energy into advancing our company, but also sprinkle in ways to self improve, along with ways to help other that need a hand out there... there are so many great causes, I’d find one and donate my time! 13. What would be the most amazing adventure to go on? I’d love to fund a research team and go search out the Silver bars that were lost when a barge traveling between port towns Olancha, Keeler and Cartego (ghost town now) sank after the gold rush and mining days in the Owens valley. The town of Cartago, which lies below the Sierra Nevada mountain range was the western shipping port for the Cerro Gordo Mines (google it and check out the images). These mines produced Silver, Lead and Zinc ore. The Silver lies somewhere between Olancha and the northern ports of Swansea and Keeler directly below the mines. The lake it roughly 17 sq/ miles... Anyone down?? 14. Whats your favorite thing about your team here at Orion? Its OUR team and its what drives me to get up very early and race into the office every single day. More specifically its our chemistry and collaboration that are among my favorite things about OUR team here.
1. What was your first position in this industry and how did you get there? My first mortgage position was at Acoustic Home Loans as an Account Executive. I was finishing college and working at Wells Fargo as a Private Banker. A good friend from school was starting Acoustic with a gentlemen who turned out being a great influence on my career, Jon Maddox. At the time, I didn’t know what a 1003 was, but I knew how to dial a phone and had the gift of gab. 2. What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives? 100% skydiving. My wife and I went on our 2nd date and it was insane! So we did it again the following year for our anniversary. 3.What’s The best way to start the day? Lemon water and a gym session. 4.What Movie title best describes your life? Glengarry Glen Ross 5. What’s the best way a person can spend their time? Doing whatever it is that makes them happy. 6. What are you looking forward to in the coming months? Baby #2 – arriving September 4th, 2018 7. Where would you spend all your time if you could? Swim up bar – anywhere tropical 8. What do you wish you knew more about? Stock Market 9. Who inspires you to be better? My family, particularly my father. He drove 200 miles each day to work and back to provide a better life for our family. 10. What’s the best and worst piece of advice you’ve ever received? I am not sure if this is two questions or one, but this quote applies to both “if you don’t hear no, you aren’t asking enough” 11. What’s the hardest lesson you’ve learned? Mortgage banking circa 2006 12. If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time and why? I would be interested in furthering my education. I have become a fan of audio books in the car to and from work. 13. What would be the most amazing adventure to go on? African Safari… My wife wants to stay at a place named Giraffe Manor. 14. Whats your favorite thing about your team here at Orion? The people. When speaking with candidates, it is easy to convey how great our team is because I believe it!
Getting to know Orion’s stars EXECUTIVE EDITION
Curtis Edwards
MAKE A DIFFERENCE April is community service month and Orion is lending a hand. Join us on April 7th 2018, 8:30am at the San Clemente Pier as we clean up one of our favorite local beaches. This is a family friendly activity and we encourage you to invite your friends and family to join. We look forward to seeing how we can make a difference next month!
April 7th 2018 @ 8:30am
9 LOAN RUSH: Orion Made it Happen in February Multi Pack transactions are a vital part of our business. They are much more time intensive in all departments, and require an even greater attention to detail than the average single pack. This past monthend, we took on and successfully closed a 9-packer! Yes, you read that correctly… a 9-pack! It took every department working in tandem and communicating to ensure this was done timely and accurately while providing out of this world customer service. On top of all that, it was the last day of the month, all RUSHES and all loans had to fund simultaneously! Here’s a brief timeline of what went down from FA to Funding so you can all witness how remarkable our team is day in and out:
FA DAY
• The Account Manager, Amy Rios, did an amazing job of communicating and setting expectations • Troy Jones (AM Manager) and Elaine Porras (Funding Lead) laid out a strategy and had all departments ready to execute • The last loan was FA’d at 4:45 pm. Thank you to Angela Hicks and Sheri Sanders • The Amazing Doc Drawers had all 9 sets of documents to settlement by 6:30pm PST for an 8pm signing • Meredith Hill and Elizabeth Wakefield took on the funding challenge without hesitation
FUNDING DAY
• Did we mention it was the last day of February? • Meredith and Elizabeth were able to scrub the 9 pack early that morning without impact to their existing pipeline that was scheduled to fund • Closing packages started to arrive at 10:30am and the team jumped into action. Not one loan could fund until they were all ready to fund. • The funders and Elaine gave the green light and all wires were ordered and the files funded by 2pm
The teamwork and strong communication between, the Broker, Settlement Agent, Account Manager, and Funders made accomplishing this challenge possible. The Account Manager and Account Executive let the funding team execute and were available to jump in if anything was needed from the broker. The Broker was more than impressed and is now sending ALL of their business to Orion. A HUGE thank you to the entire team for your dedication and commitment to our customer and sales team.
These individuals each earned a 5 star rating from brokers they’ve assisted in February. Making it happen, one transaction at a time.
5.00 Survey completed on March 7, 2018 for Raelene Holliday Raelene Holiday is the finest AE we ever did have :) 5.00 Survey completed on March 7, 2018 for Deon Ward Deon and his team worked efficiently to get all of our files the attention that they deserve. All questions/concerns are handled with priority and made for an overall great process. 5.00 Survey completed on March 7, 2018 for Clark Knoblock As usual Clark and his team make all my purchases happen with speed and efficiency. Thanks!! 5.00 Survey completed on March 7, 2018 for Tom MacArthur I am pleased that you and your team were able to fund a loan that I couldn’t make work on a conventional basis. Your conditions made sense and you applied common sense (I know - I am still surprised!) to a specific set of circumstances that did not fit into a standard “box”. I have a very satisfied borrower. BTW the borrower actually works for a large local mortgage lender and they couldn’t do his loan. We look great at Westwood Mortgage thanks to you! 5.00 Survey completed on March 7, 2018 for Phil Collins Phil is the consummate professional, working with him is easy. 5.00 Survey completed on March 7, 2018 for James Finch James and Tom are great! 5.00 Survey completed on March 7, 2018 for Justin Simpers Great service!
5.00 Survey completed on March 7, 2018 for Michelle Wilde Loan processes have been exceptionally consistent. Michelle Wilde is an amazing internal guide and information provider for loans coming in. Once in process Amy Rios is beyond reproach communicating, following up, and assuring absolutely nothing overlooked from approval to closing. She is amongst best I seen keeping things consistently smooth. Their work has raised the bar for Orion. Where prior considered for secondary look, Orion has rose to much preferred source due to service. 5.00 Survey completed on March 7, 2018 for Justin Simpers No fault of Justin’s but there was a mix-up with the vesting and final docs that was an inconvenience for our borrower. We’d love to see the UW turn times be 24 hours or less. Compared to our other lenders, Orion’s turn times are slow. But we love working with Justin, so we keep coming back for his service. 5.00 Survey completed on March 7, 2018 for Michelle Wilde Michelle Wilde and Amy Rio’s are great to work with and always available. 5.00 Survey completed on March 7, 2018 for David Blum Outstanding service from account manager David Blum as well as Carmelo Poliandro. Great team. My next submission will be to Orion Lending. 5.00 Survey completed on March 6, 2018 for Deon Ward Deon Ward is an incredible account executive, he was incredible in helping me close this loan. Him and his team worked late hours to get docs out to my client at 7:30PM on a Friday in order for my client to sign that night at 9:00PM with a mobile notary. Jake sold his house but needed this loan to close, the seller of the home he bought was buying another home and that seller was also buying a home so there were 4 homes on this transaction that depended on Jake closing. You guys saved me! Thanks
5.00 Survey completed on March 7, 2018 for Michelle Wilde Completed transaction in February 2018 I feel like a broken record with these Orion surveys!! They NEVER seem to disappoint me!! As ALWAYS they are the BEST lender on the planet!! Great team of people to work with and they go ABOVE and BEYOND what any other lender would do for a brokerread full review. 5.00 Survey completed on March 1, 2018 for Michelle Wilde Michelle is the best !!!! 5.00 Survey completed on February 28, 2018 for Michelle Wilde I absolutely love working with these ladies.....they are top notch and are definitely better than any other lender we deal with. I just wish I had more business to send them. 5.00 Survey completed on February 28, 2018 for Michelle Wilde Michelle Wilde and her Team at Orion Rocks! Very communicative. Very knowledgeable, very quick to respond throughout the entire transaction. One of the very best experiences you will have hands down, when working through a wholesale channel. They truly go the extra mile. 5.00 Survey completed on February 28, 2018 for Justin Simpers Excellent job. Great service. Amazing underwriting process. 5.00 Survey completed on February 23, 2018 for Victor Cserer Victor is super! he knows guidelines, understands processes, and is always available to help. 5.00 Survey completed on February 23, 2018 for Michelle Wilde Michelle is a great AE! 5.00 Survey completed on February 23, 2018 for Justin Simpers Always a great experience.
5.00 Survey completed on February 23, 2018 for Justin Simpers Justin always helps to get our loans closed and on time. 5.00 Survey completed on February 23, 2018 for James Finch great service 5.00 Survey completed on February 23, 2018 for Deon Ward Deon & Ali took amazing care of me. This was a very challenging file and they rolled with every obstacle that popped up. I couldn’t have asked for a better team. They both did an outstanding job 5.00 Survey completed on February 22, 2018 for James Finch Great service with transparent expectations followed by speedy and reliable funding. 5.00 Survey completed on February 20, 2018 for Raelene Holliday Raelene is AWESOME! We know she goes to bat for our loans. She is knowledgeable. When Raelene gives us the thumbs up to submit the loan we feel confident it will close. 5.00 Survey completed on February 17, 2018 for Raelene Holliday Another excellent experience with Orion! 5.00 Survey completed on February 16, 2018 for James Finch My number 1 lender 5.00 Survey completed on February 14, 2018 for Justin Simpers Great working with Justin and team!
Valentine’s Day Potluck
February 14th 2018
PETER KIM + A BUFFET = A MATCH MADE IN
Heaven
The 2018 Orion Olympics are underway! We have the BEST of the BEST at Orion and our “mortgage athletes” have been training hard for their first Olympics Opening Ceremonies are Monday, March 5th and Closing Ceremonies will be April 2nd All production teams will compete within their departments to see who will win the Gold, Silver or Bronze each week We will crown the overall monthly Gold, Silver and Bronze winners April 2nd
Will you walk away with a metal?
Let’s have some fun and fierce competition in March!
15 Things You Might Not Know About St. Patrick’s Day 1. We Should Really Wear Blue Saint Patrick himself would have to deal with pinching on his feast day. His color was “Saint Patrick’s blue,” a light shade. The color green only became associated with the big day after it was linked to the Irish independence movement in the late 18th century. 2. Saint Patrick Was British Although he made his mark by introducing Christianity to Ireland in the year 432, Patrick wasn’t Irish himself. He was born to Roman parents in Scotland or Wales in the late fourth century. 3. The Irish Take Saint Patrick’s Day Seriously As you might expect, Saint Patrick’s Day is a huge deal in his old stomping grounds. It’s a national holiday in both Ireland and Northern Ireland. 4. So Do New Yorkers New York City’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade is one of the world’s largest parades. Since 1762, 250,000 marchers have traipsed up Fifth Avenue on foot – the parade still doesn’t allow floats, cars, or other modern trappings. 5. Chicago Feels Lucky, Too New York may have more manpower, but Chicago has a spectacle all its own. The city has been celebrating Saint Patrick by dumping green dye into the Chicago River since 1962. It takes 40 tons of dye to get the river to a suitably festive shade! 6. It Used to Be a Dry Holiday For most of the 20th century, Saint Patrick’s Day was considered a strictly religious holiday in Ireland, which meant that the nation’s pubs were closed for business on March 17. (The one exception went to beer vendors at the big national dog show, which was always held on Saint Patrick’s Day.) In 1970, the day was converted to a national holiday, and the stout resumed flowing. 7. It’s the Thought That Counts Not every city goes all-out in its celebratory efforts. From 1999 to 2007, the Irish village of Dripsey proudly touted that it hosted the Shortest Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the World. The route ran for 26 yards between two pubs. Today, Hot Springs, Arkansas claims the title for brevity – its brief parade runs for 98 feet.
8. There’s a Reason for The Shamrocks How did the shamrock become associated with Saint Patrick? According to Irish legend, the saint used the three-leafed plant as a metaphor for the Holy Trinity when he was first introducing Christianity to Ireland. 9. Cold Weather Helped Saint Patrick’s Legend In Irish lore, Saint Patrick gets credit for driving all the snakes out of Ireland. Modern scientists suggest that the job might not have been too hard – according to the fossil record, Ireland has never been home to any snakes. Through the Ice Age, Ireland was too cold to host any reptiles, and the surrounding seas have staved off serpentine invaders ever since. Modern scholars think the “snakes” Saint Patrick drove away were likely metaphorical. 11. The World Runs Up Quite a Bar Tab All of the Saint Patrick’s Day revelry around the globe is great news for brewers. A 2012 estimate pegged the total amount spent on beer for Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations at $245 million. And that’s before tips to pubs’ bartenders. 12. It Could have Been Saint Maewyn’s Day According to Irish legend, Saint Patrick wasn’t originally called Patrick. His birth name was Maewyn Succat, but he changed his name to Patricius after becoming a priest. 13. There Are No Female Leprechauns Don’t be fooled by any holiday decorations showing lady leprechauns. In traditional Irish folk tales, there are no female leprechauns, only nattily attired little guys. 14. But the Leprechaun Economy Is Thriving Another little-known fact from Irish lore: Leprechauns earned that gold they’re guarding. According to legend, leprechauns spend their days making and mending shoes. It’s hard work, so you can’t blame them for being territorial about their pots of gold. 15. The Lingo Makes Sense You can’t attend a Saint Patrick’s Day event without hearing a cry of “Erin go Bragh.” What’s the phrase mean? It’s a corruption of the Irish Éirinn go Brách, which means roughly “Ireland Forever.” Source: http://mentalfloss.com
New Hires
Take a moment to welcome the newest members of the Orion Family!
Alice Vance Account Executive
Chris Verdin Account Executive
“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.� - Henry Ford
March Anniversaries
Congratulate our most established members of the Orion Family!
3 Years June Vu
2 Years Lowren Beza Justin Simpers Dena Durniok Angie Medina Clark Knoblock
1 Year Michael Warner
March Birthdays ELAINE PORRAS NATALIE LOPEZ CHERYL BAUER BRIANDA BEJINES SHARON RUSSEL KAREN THOMPSON LISA ATAMIAN ROBERT ANRUD DAWN EVANS PAUL RECTOR
3/03 3/06 3/14 3/15 3/18 3/20 3/22 3/22 3/25 3/27
Everyone has one.
THE GALAXY WANTS YOUR INPUT! IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS, PICTURES OR SUGGESTIONS FOR THE NEXT ISSUE, PLEASE EMAIL THEM TO JCUCCIA@ORIONLENDING.COM AND KEEP YOUR EYE OUT FOR YOUR IDEA IN THE FOLLOWING ISSUE.