by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
It’s one of the biggest companies you’ve probably never heard of.
That’s how Foundation Financial Group CEO Paul Scott describes the mortgage services company that’s been at 225 Water St. since November 2004.
Incorporated in Atlanta in 1994 as Homeowners Mortgage of America, the company opened its Jacksonville office almost six years ago and recently relocated its executive team here from its other offices in Atlanta, Savannah and Raleigh, N.C. The expansion to Jacksonville coincided with a change in Foundation Financial Group’s focus away from working with mortgage brokers and toward serving the retail residential mortgage market.
Scott said the next phase of business expansion is to hire an additional 24 employees in the Jacksonville office in the next two quarters. Companywide, 170 new positions will be added in that time, with the goal to expand by at least 600 positions before the end of 2012.
“We’re a quiet company in terms of advertising, but we’re not quiet in the marketplace,” said Executive Vice President-Operations Mark Boyer. “We don’t advertise, so we’ve built the business on work ethic and doing a great job for our customers.”
Boyer said Foundation Financial Group contacts about 150,000 customers and potential customers annually through telemarketing and closed more than $250 million in residential mortgages last year, an increase of 7.6 percent over the previous year.
Scott said the company has weathered the recession and financial market collapse because it avoided writing mortgages that led to the lending crisis. He said that can also make it a challenge to recruit new loan officers and marketing staff.
“It can be hard to find people to hire because we didn’t handle the products that didn’t work,” he said. “We have a strong internal training program and very low employee turnover compared to the rest of the industry. Our employees are engaged and they want to have a career with us.”
“You hate to see a recession, but I think a lot of good will come of it,” said Boyer. He also said the bulk of Foundation Financial Group’s current business is refinancing, which should be an advantage for homeowners.
“We’re doing a lot of business with borrowers who were paying around 7 percent interest and we’re able to refinance them in the 4s. That puts them in a stronger position,” said Boyer.
“The more of us who are confident in the market, the better the market will be,” he said.
Scott said future plans include opening an office in New York or Massachusetts to serve the Northeast market and beyond that, an office in Denver to open the Western market.
The company is licensed in 30 states, but does most of its business in the Southeast, said Scott. Jacksonville was chosen for the new office six years ago because the executive team was familiar with the area and Downtown was chosen for its location and availability of prime office space.
“It’s central for our employees and our philosophy was to be in Class A space. We’re Downtown because we want people to feel proud when they come to work,” said Scott.
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