Coleman joined the business “when everybody was leaving,” he mentioned. Having simply graduated from school, he didn’t have main payments — a related benefit in a commission-based business. Regardless of the difficult setting, he adopted a easy mentality: “If it’s not damaged, why change it?”
The method has labored properly. An introvert who initially went to highschool to develop into a meteorologist, Coleman ended up within the mortgage business, ultimately talking in entrance of hundreds of individuals to occupy a prime place.
In 2025, he was the U.S. mortgage skilled who generated the very best complete greenback quantity of loans at $644.5 million throughout 606 items, in response to the inaugural version of the HousingWire Mortgage Rankings. The place displays the complete scope of an originator’s manufacturing throughout all mortgage varieties and applications, based mostly on mortgage knowledge sourced by way of InGenius.
Final yr was a troublesome one, even for the highest mortgage originators, as 2025 was characterised by still-high mortgage rates (which went from roughly 7% in the beginning of the yr to six.2% in December). In the meantime, persistent housing shortages continued to have an effect on markets throughout the nation.
For the business’s top-producing LOs, success in the end hinged on counting on trusted companions, educating debtors and investing within the high quality of their service.
How one can differentiate your self
Shant Banosian ranked No. 2 on HousingWire’s top volume list, originating $638.5 million throughout 901 items. Based mostly in Waltham, Massachusetts, he divides his time between origination and his function as president of Chicago-based lender Rate. Banosian mentioned that his broader staff generated a good increased quantity final yr, reaching the $1 billion mark.
“I’ve been lucky and blessed to be surrounded by unimaginable staff members who particularly have stepped up much more over the course of final yr, as a result of I took on the added duty of being president of Fee,” Banosian mentioned in an interview with HousingWire Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler.
“If certainly one of my staff members runs as some extent individual for the appliance of the consumer, we simply acknowledge them because the mortgage officer on the transaction.”
To succeed in the highest rating of originators, Banosian mentioned the key is easy: “service” and discovering methods to face out from the a whole lot or hundreds of competing LOs in a given market.
“All people has charges, has entry to nice merchandise, however how do you differentiate your self? We have a look at the obstacles and challenges that our purchasers and our companions are going through, particularly our real estate agent companions and clearly our end-user shoppers,” Banosian mentioned.
Banosian additionally invests closely in educating companions and debtors, which he mentioned attracts the proper of purchasers.
“If I present sufficient data, it motivates individuals into motion,” he added. “Our aim is to do enterprise in each form of market and actually present up for individuals as they want us.”
Whereas there’s a spot for technology — comparable to automated alerts to inform originators of refinance alternatives — Banosian famous that LOs “can’t automate relationships.” The perfect originators, in his opinion, constantly give attention to the basics: choosing up the telephone, writing efficient emails, constructing a powerful social media presence and monitoring purchasers’ life occasions.
“The common shopper, as soon as they enter their homeownership journey, will take out 11 or 12 mortgages all through the course of their lifetime,” Banosian mentioned. “Most mortgage officers are fortunate in the event that they seize one or two of these. My mission is to seize 10, 11 or 12 of these.”
By way of refinances, Banosian reached $154.8 million in quantity final yr, in comparison with $481.9 million in buy quantity, in response to the HousingWire Mortgage Rankings.
Coleman’s method
Coleman, in the meantime, maintained a excessive share of his enterprise from refinances final yr — producing $334 million in refi quantity in comparison with $302 million in buy quantity. The explanation? A excessive quantity of buy loans made in 2022 and 2023 when charges have been rising in a short time, which offered the prospect to renegotiate with small modifications in charges.
“I all the time discovered that the important thing to longevity on this enterprise is to keep up the acquisition exercise, as a result of refis don’t final endlessly,” Coleman mentioned.
However there’s a catch: Coleman focuses on excessive internet value purchasers, and the bigger the mortgage quantity, the much less curiosity financial savings are wanted to have a significant affect on a month-to-month cost. He’s an skilled in jumbo loans, which sit above the conforming restrict of $832,750 for 2026.
Coleman originates many loans inside the New York City metro and surrounding areas. Fairfield County, the place he’s positioned, was a sleeping county for a decade, from 2010 to 2020, he mentioned.
“Then, rapidly, every little thing flip-flopped with COVID. Nobody wished to be within the metropolis; everybody got here roaring again. And we’re nonetheless coping with that now. Demand far outweighs provide,” Coleman mentioned. Based on him, $2 million to $4 million properties constantly promote above listing worth, and he usually has to put in writing 10 preapprovals for purchasers earlier than they really get an accepted supply.
His clientele largely consists of enterprise professionals shopping for their first or second house who’re on an upward income trajectory.
“They’re often savvy sufficient in order that they’re not essentially needing the identical hand-holding {that a} model new first-time homebuyer would wish,” he mentioned. “We don’t have to take a position almost as a lot time to guarantee that we’re a proper match for them. If I used to be dealing solely with first-time homebuyers, it takes far more time and wouldn’t essentially enable me to function the identical numbers that we have been capable of do final yr, as a rule of thumb.”
Up to now, Coleman sees 2026 beginning off very sturdy, nevertheless it’s the provision concern that he stays involved about in his market.
“You will have lots of people that wish to promote and want to move, however there’s nowhere to maneuver. In order that they don’t wish to listing their home till they discover the home that they wish to transfer to, and subsequently they’re not itemizing their home. It’s like this revolving circle. I’ve wrapped my mind round a method which may repair this, and I can’t provide you with something.”
Ultimately, he famous, individuals should make the choice to listing and transfer if their present house is not finest for his or her household.
“We will do as many preapprovals as we are able to and put them on a drip marketing campaign the place we’ll attempt to talk and simply maintain them apprised of what’s occurring in actual time, and hope that the proper home comes they usually’re able to act. However yeah, that’s the most effective we are able to do. Time will inform.”
