LAS VEGAS — The best-kept secret in financial services is also the best-kept secret in mortgage providers: credit unions. But that notion has some chinks in its armor, as ACUMA, the American Credit Union Mortgage Association has been tapping away at realtors' unfamiliarity with CUs as home lenders for several years now by having a booth at the National Association of Realtors Annual Conference & Expo on Nov. 13-16.
This year's booth will have four working slot machines available for play. As realtors leave a business card, they take a pull for a chance to win a DVD player and other prizes. "I had to get the permission of the Las Vegas Gaming Commission in order to have the slots," said ACUMA President Bob Dorsa, "but it was worth it." Dorsa said that the idea is simply to create lead generation for credit unions. "All attendees at the NAR get a magnetic ID card, so swiping it gives us all the information we need to contact them later on."
This year, with so many lenders going out of business and with credit standards and first mortgage money getting tight, realtors are more open than ever to learning of lending opportunities from credit unions. "Before, realtors had their pick; now I think they'll welcome the fact that credit unions have liquidity, expertise and willingness to step up their mortgage lending. This is our big chance."
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A further hint to that opportunity came in an invitation from NAR to ACUMA to create a panel on just that: The Underutilized Mortgage Option: Credit Unions. Dorsa will moderate the discussion of CU panelists Bill Tessier, VP Real Estate/Builder Liaison for Navy Federal CU, Joe Brancucci, VP/ Chief Lending Officer for BECU, Shannon VanSickler, director of mortgage lending at Bellco CU and Chris Pauling, president of Prudential Northwest Realty.
"The idea is to present a cross-section of what credit unions are all about," Dorsa said. "We have the world's largest credit union (Navy Federal) a community based-credit union (BECU) and an occupational-based CU (Bellco, which also has over 1,000 SEGs). Each speaker will highlight the service orientation of credit unions and show how mortgage lending has become a core product offering and how that is spreading to mid-sized and even small credit unions across the country."
Dorsa added that there would be a video presentation at the booth that is educational and can be viewed quickly (as attendees move along the vendors shows very fast). "We put it together with the notion of giving high-level information fast because people won't have time to just stand and watch. But we hope they'll get the jist of credit unions long enough to swipe the card and think about us as a viable alternative for funding their clients home purchases."
The booth and ACUMA's participation would not be possible (ACUMA raised $40,000) without the sponsorship of the following: Platinum Sponsors. Prime Alliance Solutions, Navy FCU, One Washington Financial; Gold Corporate Sponsors, San Antonio CU, American First CU, Digital CU, CUSO Mortgage, Wright-Patt CU and Silver Individual Sponsors, Merriweet Mortgage, Arizona State CU, Baxter CU, Maine Savings FCU and Bellco CU.
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