Gina Mattano, Mortgage Loan Officer

Hello and welcome!

My name is Gina Mattano and I am Mortgage Loan Originator with Loan Factory. I believe that life is a conversation, sometimes they are hard conversations, sometimes they are motivating conversations, sometimes they are happy conversations and sometimes they are conversations where the person speaking needs to be heard and the other needs to listen. The last one is so important and not many people understand how to do it. You see when someone is in need of something (help, advise, a lesson, or just sorting out their thoughts) they need to know that they can speak freely and not be judged by what they have to say. They need to know that the person they are talking to is there to listen and then assist in the appropriate manner to the conversation. Too many people listen just to respond and that is not a true conversation.

I was born and raised in Wisconsin and in my early 20's I moved to Las Vegas NV where I gained my independence and grew as a person. I have worked for over 20 years now in customer service in one form or another. I also have worked in sales for a very long time in one form or another. Along the way I discovered that I really enjoyed working with finance. My first experience with finance was working at a Car Dealership in Las Vegas. I started out in their Business Development Center and worked my way up to the Sales Tower as an assistant to the Managers. While in this position the Managers would have me go and talk to the customers and see if they needed anything and talk about the vehicles they were looking at. Just talk to them and see how things are going, nothing major. One day my Sales Manager talked to me about becoming a Sales Associate, I had not wanted to go into sales because I don't like feeling "sold". He said that is what will make me a great sales person. He explained that over the last few months he has watched me talk to guests and he has noticed a difference in the customers after I would speak with them. They are more relaxed and they are laughing at the table while they wait. He said "Your gift is that you have conversations with people.instead of trying to sell them. The other Sales guys work on selling their customers whereas you simply talk to them. That is why you will be great in sales. You get to know your customers." I was nervous about the idea of sales but I decided to give it a try and my Manager was right, I preferred to have conversations with my Clients instead of focusing on the sale and that is exactly what helped me become the number 2 sales person in the store (#1 was a senior sales executive who had been selling cars for over 50 years and he also taught me the knowledge of the vehicles to help with my conversations). I found this to be a fun job, I got to meet and get to know a lot of really amazing people and it all started with a conversation.

Soon I was ready to make a big move in life. I was 30 years old and I was determined to buy my own home! I met with a Mortgage Loan Originator and she was very friendly but every time I talked to her I walked away even more confused than when I went in to meet with her. After a few months of getting nowhere I decided something had to change. Why was her answer to every question "well that is a great question and I want you to go home and google the answer. Look into the program and come back to me, tell me what you learned and we can go from there." The 3rd meeting that ended in "go google" she gave me was our final meeting. By that time my real estate agent had retired and I had to find a new one. Luckily the new Realtor had just worked with a client that used the same program that I was trying to look into and see if I qualified for. She printed out a list of all of the MLOs in NV that worked with this program and I found the perfect MLO (Mortgage Loan Originator). I met with her, mind you I was very on guard due to my previous experience, but this time was different. This time she had a conversation with me. She asked about my knowledge up to this point to learn where I was at in my home buying journey, she asked about my basic information and then she asked me to tell her about myself so that she could learn more about my wants vs needs and what programs I may or may not fit into. She also assured me that she would never tell me to google a program, instead she would research the programs that best fit my specific situation and we would work through them together. 28 days later I closed on my dream house.

The thing that never left my mind was the difference from the first MLO to the 2nd. It had a huge impact on me and I decided that I wanted to go into the Mortgage Industry to help others as she had helped me. I was able to get a job at a local Mortgage Company that was hiring for collections agents. Within 6mo. of working there I became the Manager of the Collections Department and I absolutely loved what I did. It was about having a conversation about their situation and helping them accordingly. At the time a lot of Upper Level Managers started talking to me about switching from the servicing side of Mortgage to the Originations side. This again scared me at the time because I loved what I did so much that I was not ready to change. I wanted to continue to learn what I could in the world of servicing.

Over time I ended up moving out of Nevada and into Georgia where I now call home. After working in personal finance for a bit and taking time to get settled, amongst other things, I decided that I wanted to go back to the world of Mortgage, but this time I was ready to take the advise of previous Upper Level and work on the Originations side. Here I am as a Mortgage Loan Originator, ready to have a conversation with you about your dream of homeownership. Let's talk!