Opening Doors for Homebuyers Is MMBA Chief's Goal
By Emily Graham
The emergence of technology in the mortgage industry has sped the processing of applications and led to lower fees for customers. Now, Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association Chairman Sushil K. Tuli plans to use technology to get that news out to consumers.
He is leading an effort to launch an association Web site by March 31, providing a members-only source for information. At the same time, the site will be a platform to promote member companies and allow consumers to connect to members' Web sites through links.
The site will "educate customers about the association and the benefits of seeing their lender first when looking for a home," said Tuli, president of Arlington-based Leader Mortgage.
Linking customers with lenders through the Internet has become a natural extension of companies' marketing efforts as the mortgage industry has become more computer-reliant. During the refinancing boom of 1998, the extent of that shift to computer-based loan origination became evident as loans were processed faster than in the 1993 refinancing boom.
"In '93 we used to take loans by hand, bring them here, and somebody would type the application," Tuli said. "It just used to take so much more time. In '98 there wasn't any loan taken by hand. It was laptops or computers here in the office."
'American Dream'
Tuli moved to the U.S. in 1976 from India, where he studied accounting at Punjab University. He launched his mortgage business after working 10 years in banking, starting as a teller, then becoming an accountant and assistant controller at Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Co. After two years there, he went to work for Mutual Bank, where as an investment officer he gained experience in mortgage banking. When a Greek neighbor, an immigrant, needed help obtaining a mortgage, Tuli helped him through the paperwork. The neighbor began referring friends to Tuli, and soon he decided to strike out on his own.
He opened his first office in Chinatown, where he drew a Chinese clientele in addition to Greek and Indian immigrants. A relationship with a Somerville realty firm brought Tuli customers from Cambridge and Somerville, and in 1991 he moved his office to Arlington.
The company has grown to 32 full-time employees and $368 million in loans in 1998 from $70 million in 1990. Last fall, the newspaper India Abroad ranked Leader Mortgage 85th in its list of the top 100 Indian-owned American companies. Tuli's goal is to keep growing loan volume by 10 to 15 percent a year, but he still enjoys helping people buy their first homes.
"The biggest satisfaction I get is when a customer who is a first-time homebuyer comes and applies for a loan with us," he said. "The day they pass papers I feel so good that ... I have helped another person to meet the American dream of home ownership."
Now 48, Tuli dreams of starting a retail bank to fill the gap left when large institutions buy community banks. "I feel that somebody like me can open a community bank and provide service to the people who need it," Tuli said. "I tell my wife, by the time I'm 50, if I don't open a bank, if I don't get licensed, I might give up the idea."
As chairman of the MMBA, Tuli will work to ensure that legislation to limit the points a mortgage company can charge for a loan does not re-emerge in the state Legislature. The Attorney General's office filed suit in October against United Companies Lending Corp. and First Alliance Mortgage Co. for charging up to 10 points and 23 points, respectively, on individual loans.
"What we feel is that the industry is self-disciplined now and that really there is no need to have that legislation," Tuli said. "There are always going to be lenders who will violate, who will take advantage of the situation, but we don't feel because of that the whole industry should be penalized." Mortgage companies that entered the business to catch the '93 refinancing boom are gone, and those that remain take the business seriously, Tuli said. Attendance at the association's educational programs has increased because companies want their employees to understand the business.
"If you look back at 1994, so many mortgage companies closed their doors," Tuli said. "Right now you don't hear anybody closing their doors. People who are coming in, they are investigating, taking the courses, learning the business and then staying in the business."
Copyright 1999 by The Warren Group, 280 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210.
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