Mid-Missouri Mortgage branches combining under one roof

by Maria Hoover

SBJ Inside Business Editor

mhoover@sbj.net

Come August, all operations of Mid-Missouri Mortgage Company will be housed under one roof.

Kathy King, president and CEO of Mid-Missouri Mortgage, said that the residential mortgage company, which is a subsidiary of Mid-Missouri Bancshares, is moving employees from five Springfield branch offices into a single location at 1520 E. Primrose.

The move to one location will improve efficiency and internal communications, King said.

"It seemed like we wasted a lot of time and effort from one direction to the other," King said.

At the new location, Mid-Missouri Mortgage's 42 employees will be able to handle all aspects of mortgage lending, including origination, servicing, pricing, registration, processing and closing. King said it's likely that the company will add loan originators after the move.

Mid-Missouri Mortgage works with all types of residential real estate lending: fixed and adjustable rates, loans for first-time home buyers, 100 percent loans, United States Department of Agriculture/Rural Housing loans, and conforming and nonconforming loans.

Midland Mortgage which also is moving to the new location is a division of the company that handles nonconforming lending.

"If a loan or the borrowers do not fit the customary secondary marketing needs, we can go through a nonconforming product and offer them the same activity (with) different rates, different programs, of course, but at least we have an option for them," King said.

Nonconforming loans are options for "someone who has maybe been on their job a short time, but has a lot of assets," King said, or for a home for which there aren't comparable properties in the market, and for people with what King calls "challenged credit."

Through the years

King has been with Mid-Missouri Mortgage since it was added to the holding company in July 1999.

"The first year we started, we were putting things in place, getting investors, getting products, getting things set up. The second, third, fourth and fifth year, the economy has been phenomenal. Interest rates have been at an all-time low and we have just been very, very fortunate in the business activity and the amount of volume we've done," King said.

In 2003, King said, Mid-Missouri Mortgage closed just under $200 million in loans. For 2004, she said, she'd like to maintain that level, but in anticipation of higher interest rates, the goal is $180 million.

"That's a little bit of anticipation, hopes of capturing some of the markets that we haven't been able to capture, and getting into different states," King said. "We were licensed in Missouri and Arkansas, and we're getting licensed in Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois."

Loans in other states will be handled in Springfield, King said, and most of them will come to the city via the Internet.

Technology

Mid-Missouri Mortgage added its Web site, www.mmm-co.com about four years ago.

"Last year we did about $12 million off the Internet. It's not huge, but our Web site does provide us with lenders that we wouldn't be able to reach had we not had it," King said.

As part of the Mid-Missouri Bancshares holding company, Mid-Missouri Mortgage gets much of its business from affiliate banks.

"And many of those banking locations are on the borders of the state," King said.

Mid-Missouri Mortgage Company also has a correspondent division, "which means we provide interest rates and products for other banks and credit unions in Missouri," King said. "We've gone as far as St. Louis and we're looking at the possibility of Kansas City."

Customers also come to Mid-Missouri Mortgage because of the two digital rate boards operated by the company. One is off James River Expressway, visible to people who enter Springfield from the east, and the other is off Interstate 44 toward Republic.

The boards post 15- and 30-year fixed interest rates, which are updated daily.