Shant Banosian, the newly promoted president of Rate Mortgage, says he's moving into his position during a challenging time for home mortgage lenders, albeit a much better situation than the Great Recession.
Interest rates remain elevated, and home prices continue to rise, causing prospective buyers to hold off. Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages hovering around 6.87%, and mortgage applications dropping 12.7% for the week of April 18, point toward a slow start to the spring selling season.
Still, Banosian said he expects the industry to shift, with interest rates to be cut, new construction to rise, and housing inventory to pick up. He wants Rate to be prepared.
“I think there’s a massive opportunity in the market. Housing sales have been down, inventory has been down, rates have been up, new construction is down. I think all of those things are going to change,” Banosian said in an interview. “It should be getting busier, but what’s interesting is the loan officer headcount is down. Those who aren’t ready to take on increased business, you’re really going to struggle … I want to make sure we’re able to capitalize on the opportunity in front of us.”
There’s more growth to expect from Rate, he added, all aligned with the company’s goal to become the No. 1 mortgage lender in the country. Industry publication Scotsman Guide currently ranks Rate as the ninth largest. Banosian said achieving that top status comes down to the support provided to his loan officers, pulling on his own experience from decades in the role. He plans to continue working with his team in Massachusetts.
Lessons from the global financial crisis
Banosian credits the Great Recession for helping him in his career. He had just begun with Rate in 2008 — then called Guaranteed Rate — at the peak of the global financial crisis. Mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures were at an all-time high.
“Houses were depreciating all across the country, there were short sales and foreclosures, and people were a little bit more nervous to transact,” Banosian said. “It was one of the best things that ever happened to me, starting my business back then. I had to learn a really difficult and challenging market. It made me resilient.”
The experience brought him his first taste of entrepreneurialism, part of what excited the young loan officer and his small team, despite the factors going against the mortgage industry at the time.
In his first year with Rate, Banosian said his loan volume went from $47 million to nearly $126 million. Seventeen years later, he’s closed more than $10 billion in total loan volume as executive vice president of sales, and he ranks as a leading loan officer in the country by volume, according to Scotsman Guide.
Banosian will take that experience now at the helm of Chicago-based Rate, working alongside CEO Victor Ciardelli and 14 other presidents across Rate Cos.’ various lenders and business units, including Rate Insurance, title insurance company Advocus, and OriginPoint, a lender in partnership with brokerage Compass. Prior to Banosian's promotion, Rate Mortgage was the only Rate company without a dedicated president.
4 am wakeup call, but not on Sundays
Early in his career, Banosian said his success as a loan officer came down to having a laser focus. Today, as a father to three daughters, his focus begins at 4 a.m., a habit he’s maintained for the past six years — except on Sundays.
“There’s no reason to wake up at 4 a.m. on Sunday,” Banosian said. “I have three little kids and a wife, and I work really hard, so I find that I need some time to myself to get my day off the right way. My habits and my rituals are important to me.”
His work life extends to what he sees as one of the most important tools in the residential real estate business: social media.
Banosian posts a video at least once a week to his nearly 14,000 Instagram followers, educating them on some part of the home lending process, whether it’s timely market predictions on tariffs' impact on housing or tips on closing on a home — maybe even ranking the songs on Taylor Swift’s latest album.
“I think more and more consumers are utilizing social media to determine who they’re going to work with,” he said. “Standing out in the crowd is important and when people see you on social media, they can make a determination whether they like, trust, and respect you. I find people tend to work with people they like, trust, and respect.”