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Subject daily business review article
From Jeffrey Brown
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Sent Monday, August 02, 2010 7:38 AM
Jeffrey Brown and Adam Rosenblatt: The Great EscapePair bolt from big bank to be ‘more entrepreneurial’
August 02, 2010 By: Paola Iuspa-Abbott
Jeffrey Brown and Adam Rosenblatt
The foreclosure crisis that nearly brought down the nation’s financial system also helped cut short the
careers of Jeffrey Brown and Adam Rosenblatt at Chase Home Mortgage, a part of financial services giant JPMorgan Chase.
Until the credit markets froze in 2008, the executives were busy providing loans to buyers of condos in buildings sprouting up across Miami. Big lenders like Chase quickly stopped funding those deals, which they considered too risky.
Rather than wait for their careers to become a victim of the crisis, Brown and Rosenblatt jumped from one of the world’s largest financial institutions to a little known company willing to make loans to buyers of new condos from Miami to West Palm Beach.
In November 2009, the pair were recruited by Preferred Trust Home Loans, a new business being launched by former Countrywide Financial executive Charles Rogers. Rogers left Countrywide after Bank of America took over the troubled lender in 2008.
Preferred Trust originates, processes and underwrites loans from a Fort Lauderdale office.
Brown, 43, and Rosenblatt, 31, head the firm’s development services division, which seeks to partner with condo developers to provide financing to the unit buyers.
Brown said leaving Chase — where he worked for two years — for Preferred Trust wasn’t a tough
daily business review articleMonday, August 02, 2010
8:08 AM
Daily Business Review Feature Story August 2nd 2010 Page 1
Brown said leaving Chase — where he worked for two years — for Preferred Trust wasn’t a tough decision.
“Now we can be more entrepreneurial” he said, sitting in the conference room of his new office three floors above Commercial Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. “We have the ability to adapt and change with the market, which is very fluid.”
Even though his new employer is a start-up, Brown said the company is growing because it has few competitors. The challenge the company faces is finding enough qualified loan originators to expand the company. To Brown and Rosenblatt, being part of a large financial institution has lost its appeal.
“In the past, working for a large institutional lender had a value,” Rosenblatt said. “In this market, that name doesn’t hold much credence anymore. It is not as relevant as it used to be.”
For most of 2009, working at Chase was a struggle, they said. They were constantly running into walls erected by loan processors and underwriters, Brown said. “Mortgage products disappeared and new guidelines were hurting the business that was coming in,” Rosenblatt recalled. “Underwriting is sort of an interpreting business, and with pessimism” on the rise, banks were quick to say no to new loans.
Chase, like most financial institutions, was facing a growing number of delinquent loans and didn’t know how to stop the bleeding, so it panicked, Rosenblatt said.
“It was absolute fear, and it was from the top down,” he added. “The damage was done. And when you have fear without any kind of mechanism to control it, the fear becomes irrational. That’s what we saw.” The pair had another reason to leave Chase. In the recession, JPMorgan Chase shut down its retail mortgage origination offices and moved loan officers like Brown and Rosenblatt into bank branches to target bank customers. Mortgages became just another product when before they had been a profitable stand-alone business.
To Brown the change was unacceptable. He had developed a client portfolio over the years based on relationships with South Florida developers, builders and real estate investors and wasn’t willing to let that go.
“I don’t need a bank or a larger institution feeding me business,” Brown said. “I always developed business. The bank branch loan officer model didn’t fit for me.”
So when he decided it was time to make a move, he was ready — and he’s happy he did so.
“We are operating in a space right now where there isn’t really any competition,” Brown said. “With lenders, it is very much a herd mentality. When they are excited about an area or a sector, they all seem to move in that direction. But when they are less excited, they start to move in the other direction.”
Preferred Trust provides loans to buyers of condos at 1800 Club and the Opera Tower, both north of downtown Miami, and The Lexi in North Village. Other projects include Latitude Delray Beach and Terra Beachside Villas in Miami Beach, Rosenblatt said.
“Our challenge is originating loans that have liquidity to them, that there is an appetite for them in the secondary market,” he said. “So far, we have been fortunate.
Daily Business Review Feature Story August 2nd 2010 Page 2
Robert M. Smither, Jr. C.F.O.
The Adler Group1400 N.W. 107th
Avenue • Miami, Florida 33172 • Phone: (305) 392-4025
January 15, 2010
Gentlemen,
I was the Chief Financial Officer for Boca Developers during the three years
ending in August 2008. Boca Developers was, at the time, one of the largest
condominium developers in the southeast United States.
With 1200 units being delivered during a twelve month period, it was
imperative that we align ourselves with a mortgage lender that had the capacity and
expertise to close a substantial volume of loans in a short period of time. After an
exhaustive search of the top mortgage bankers in the industry, we selected Jeffrey
Brown, who at the time was employed by JP Morgan Chase.
Mr. Brown and his team worked closely with the executives of Boca
Developers as well as the salespeople from each of our 6 projects throughout the
State of Florida and became a trusted advisor and friend to all. Having been in the
real estate industry for more than 15 years and having worked with hundreds of
individuals in this industry, I can say without any hesitancy that his market
knowledge and expertise within his field are second to none. In each of the projects
he managed, he closed the vast majority of all loans and when other major banks
failed to deliver commitments, he was able to perform and obtain the financing. In
one instance at our Marina Grande Holly Hill project, he literally took a file on a
Friday afternoon and closed it by the end of the day on Monday. I was astounded,
having never seen execution like this ever before.
Even as Chase and the other banks began to redline condo projects
throughout the State, he made sure that the previous commitments issued on files
closed without hesitancy. He is not just an expert in his field, but also a necessary
dogged in his efforts for his clients. Chase as well as the other major lenders stopped
new construction condo lending in the State and as a result, Mr. Brown recently
accepted position with a correspondent lender. Upon seeing the notice, I
immediately contacted him and we have again, opened dialogue. I am not certain
when we will need his services, but am 100% certain that when we need end loans,
either for our business or the partners of the firm, we will absolutely engage him. In
the meantime, we continue to seek to his expertise on market conditions and
general real estate questions.
I am pleased to say that he is among the very best in the industry and a
valuable asset for any partnership.
Sincerely
