An Elevated position: Elevations Credit Union tops state in mortgage lending

It all started in April 2009 with the creation of developing a strategy around excellence and the goal of winning the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. That goal was reached two years ago and along with it, Boulder-based Elevations Credit Union expanded their customer base to include 11 branches from Denver to Fort Collins and built one of the strongest mortgage-lending programs along the northern Front Range.

“Remember [when the strategy was developed], this was at the lowest point of the S&P 500 and consumer sentiment during the Great Recession,” said Gerry Agnes, president and CEO of Elevations. “When we made that declaration, one of the first areas we looked at was the mortgage-lending market.”

That particular strategy was in response to large mortgage lenders pulling out of the market, leaving a vacuum. Elevations, a nonprofit, member-owned financial cooperative, heard a “great cry for help” from its members and answered it, Agnes said. But more than just filling a widening gap in the market, Elevations was determined to provide comprehensive mortgage-lending products and services.

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Prior to this point, Elevations was, Agnes said —in the big picture along the Front Range — an irrelevant residential lender relative to market share in its primary market. Now, the credit union holds the No. 1 position.

One critical component of the award-winning strategy was to put the right people in place. In 2011, Elizabeth Million was hired as vice president of mortgage lending. With a background in the real estate business as an appraiser, Million helped to develop what Ray Lindley, senior vice president of lending, described as a “culture of excellence in service” with a focus not only on members applying for mortgage loans, but also on other stakeholders involved, from the Realtor to the title company. Lindley points to this as a game changer for Elevations, building a reputation as a lender who “gets it right the first time” and “delivers on the promises we make.”

Million credits the efforts that led to the Baldrige Award as setting a strong framework for her team. Starting with a relatively small team comprised of three loan officers, a few processors and an underwriter.

“Elevations already had a great reputation for service, but the service was ‘everything else but mortgage,’” she said. The support of Elevations’ leadership to build the mortgage department was crucial in meeting some of the challenges Million faced at the beginning. One of the challenges was shifting how work was done within the department.

“People in the mortgage [business] tend to want to do things a certain way, because that’s how it’s done and that’s what they are used to doing,” she explained.Million built the business one loan officer at a time, putting together a team that was not only willing to work within a new paradigm, but also eager to effect change. A key component was identifying loan officers who had a deep belief in credit-union philosophy and community partnership. Million insists that each loan officer needs to be in the community, working with Realtors and builders to assist them in their own businesses and creating relationships that ultimately benefit Elevations’ members. All their production happens in the state, whereas other credit unions lend within Colorado but outside the state as well.

Once the goals of winning a prestigious award and building a successful mortgage department are met, what’s next? Growth, Million said. The credit union currently has 11 branches in Boulder, Fort Collins, Lafayette, Louisville, Longmont and Loveland. Right now, Fort Collins is a particular focus, with one branch located on the south side of town. Plans to add another College Avenue location are in the works. That leaves more of a very large state in which to expand.

Investing in new communities takes time and effort, Lindley said, and it’s an investment Elevations is willing to make with the long view in focus. It’s about building the brand in new communities, informing new markets about Elevations and its products and making sure quality service is front and center.

It’s the individual member stories that drive the Elevations team. Million remembers one member, a man who had just come through a very contentious divorce. His former wife had engaged in activity during the marriage that severely and negatively impacted his credit score. The Elevations team spent many months investigating the issues and creating a paper trail that ultimately exonerated him.

“No one would help him,” Million said. “But once we pieced together everything that had happened, we were able to help him refinance his mortgage, and he cried at the closing.”

“Our mantra is that we underwrite the story, not the stats,” Lindley said. “We look at more than the data, the FICO score and the debt-to-income ratio. Well, people are people, and a lot of times there is a story behind them. And that story is what is important to us.”