by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
In one year, Wachovia Mortgage has grown its staff from seven loan officers to 26 and counting.
“The loan officers were primarily in the branch offices of the bank and now we have three managers in offices in Perimeter Park, Riverplace Tower and in the Orange Park/Clay County area.” said Milton Nuckols, Wachovia mortgage banking director. “The Westside office doesn’t have a physical office, but we have a bunch of loan officers out there.”
Wachovia recently opened the new office in Perimeter Park in Southside and brought on Brad King, formerly of BB & T, as the mortgage banking leader and his team of Susan Miller and Roy Eppley.
The bank’s new office is 1,600 square feet, but they will be expanding another 2,000 square feet in the future.
“Our volume went from $180 million to probably $375 million by the end of this year,” said Nuckols, who manages all of Northern Florida and what they call “Greater Florida” from Tallahassee to Port St. Lucie.
Wachovia brought in experts to help them determine how to best grow their bank.
“You can’t always grow from acquisitions, so how to do you grow?” said Nuckols. “We wanted to grow it internally and everyone said that growing the mortgage business on your servicing portfolio was the single best way to grow your bank because statistically, if someone has their mortgage with you, they will have a much deeper relationship with you than with any other product.”
The bank used to get a mortgage and then sell them off but, a year ago, Wachovia decided to start servicing their own mortgages again to help grow the business.
“Our goal is to be a top three lender in each of the markets we serve,” said Nuckols.
Wachovia made the decision that they wanted to expand the sales force.
“We started advertising nationally,” he said. “We have billboards throughout and a targeted campaign to Realtors where we send out six letters, with a little gift, explaining our processes that are personalized by our loan officers. Our loan officers have their photo on each of their customer’s servicing statement so every customer has a picture of their loan office every month.”
Nuckols said Wachovia has 55 financial centers here.
“We’ve been in the mortgage business for a long time, but really have concentrated on growing the mortgage business in the last year and a half,” he said. “Now we are going out targeting Realtors and builders.”
Wachovia has plans to add at least three to six more loan officers to their new office in Perimeter Park.
“We are looking for good loan officers,” he said. “We are looking for a variety of people who can meet all the constituents. Not everything is a high-end builder deal. We are looking for people who can do community lending, Realtor business and a little of everything.”