It takes a mortgage industry village
Take Toshia Drummond (pictured left), of Approved Mortgage Solutions in Plantation, Fla., who was a schoolteacher for 20 years before entering the industry.
“Many, a few years ago, I used to be an English teacher and a literacy coach and ultimately thought that eventually I can be a principal and possibly the superintendent of colleges,” she told Mortgage Professional America in a recent interview. “I did all the things I needed to do – I had a master’s in leadership, a bachelor’s in English and a doctorate in education, consider it or not.
“But there was a shift,” she added. “Because Florida is so expensive, I used to be, like, OK what else can I do?” Her father suggested she get an actual estate license. “So I’m him saying: Are you kidding?” But she did take dad’s advice, securing her real estate license and later her mortgage broker license.
She attributed a way of empathy to her teaching profession, a trait that has served her well in her second act. To illustrate, she told MPA of getting waived her commission fee after a technical glitch prevented a house owner from receiving down payment assistance via a state program, as an alternative working with United Wholesale Mortgage to be sure the borrower achieved homeownership.
She invoked the proverb “it takes a village” – normally related to children brought up in a secure and healthy environment due to a whole community’s efforts – as still applicable to her mortgage broker role. “As a mortgage broker and lender, we play such essential roles in that village,” she said. “It’s super rewarding and reinforces belief in my values that good comes from helping others.”
