Outlet: Inside Business

June 28, 2013

For Peyton von Hirsch, the list of titles keeps growing. Since 1998, she has worked for Tidewater Mortgage Services, a company that originates, funds and services mortgages secured by residential real estate in eight Hampton Roads cities. The graduate of Old Dominion University has served on the Tidewater Mortgage Bankers Association board for the past six years, and has been named one of the top-producing loan officers for the Virginia Housing Development Authority for the past five years. Now, she adds president of the Tidewater Mortgage Bankers Association to her list.

Previous experience

When I began working for Tidewater Mortgage Services in 1998, I saw several presidents of the company cycle through. But in 2003, Tom Harriman took over, and ever since then, the company has grown and flourished. It has been wonderful working for him, and he has made my experience incredible.

Because he paid for [us] to attend luncheons and other functions that most companies make their employees pay out of pocket for, it has opened the door for me and the company as a whole to grow and learn lessons that we would not otherwise have learned.

His support has allowed me to excel with the Tidewater Mortgage Bankers Association. The experience I’ve had at Tidewater Mortgage has given me the confidence to go and take on this position that I was not ready for six years ago.

Lessons learned

I like to think of this industry as a golf game: You can play it every day, but you will never perfect it or know absolutely everything. If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you have to work hard, give 100 percent every day and give your customers the best service you can possibly give.

Tom Harriman was a really great mentor when it came to sales. He taught me to promote customer service and take your time to do a complete job the first time, so you don’t have to go back and do everything over again later on down the road.

Changes or improvements to be made

We are the bottom level when it comes to our influence over the government and their regulations, but we still have a voice. Though it’s smaller than being at the state or national level, from a local standpoint we are the strongest chapter in Virginia. Our goal as an organization is to be as vocal as we can when it comes to the new regulations made by the government. We want to make sure that the regulations are not forcing lenders to refuse to give good, common-sense loans to good people. Over the last few years, lenders haven’t been able to give good people good loans because common sense has really left the industry. As an organization, we are trying as hard as we can to keep our ears to the wall and be on top of everything.

Keeping the balance

When it comes to keeping the balance between the real estate market and the lenders within the new government regulations, the most important thing we can do is to keep putting the information out there as to what’s expected when applying for a loan. Before these new regulations were instated, people didn’t have to show proof of income, and now they have to collect tax returns and tax transcripts from the IRS and verify and reverify them. It’s vital to keep everybody informed and updated, whether it’s the Realtors or the general public. Information is key.

Obstacles

So far, I’ve been so fortunate as to not have encountered any obstacles. Working for this company and being the president of TMBA has been the best experience I have ever had in my life. We have a really strong board, and so far everything has been going really well.

Our luncheons have been successful, and so have our extracurricular activities. We hold extracurricular events with our company and other companies so it’s not all business. It also gives us an opportunity to discuss with other companies obstacles within the industry.

It’s also nice that I have a co-worker on the board as well, Rob Runnells, so that we can deal with possible TMBA issues throughout the day, or I can get a quick opinion or answer to a question. As a board, we are very close. We have a golf tournament coming up, a trip to Colonial Downs in July, we take a break in August and then it’s back to the grindstone to finish out the fourth quarter. I’m very excited to finish out the year well.