CA Broker Busy Growing

Business is booming at Twin Capital Mortgage and the employee base must expand to keep the momentum rolling, company Chief Executive Officer Darius Mirshahzadeh told MortgageDaily.com.

In the past seven months alone, the San Francisco brokerage originated $220 million of the year’s expected total of $300 million — surpassing the total of $150 million in all of all of 2005, according to the executive. The volume is evenly split between subprime and Alt-A loans.

“Our goal is to grow by 100 percent,” the executive said. “You always hear about how it used to be in the refi boom days. Its always refi-mania at our office. For us it’s still like that — always really busy.”

Next year, Twin is aiming for $500 million in originations, he added. Supporting the goal will be up to 120 new employees, consisting of 40 to 60 loan officers, 40 call center employees and about 20 administrative jobs.

“Because of our strong marketing platform we can be choosy of who we pick,” Mirshahzadeh added. “We hire about one or two loan officers for every 10 we interview. There’s no such thing as people closing one or two loans per month. They’re not allowed to stay in our company.”

The company, which Darius and his twin brother Mikey Mirshahzadeh started up around mid-2003, currently has 110 employees — compared to 50 last year.

The brothers’ different strengths have enabled the company’s growth, according to Darius, who said his focus is on the marketing and operations aspects, while his brother takes charge on the sales side.

Also, “we’ve hired some really smart and good people,” the executive said. “We’ve been able build a strong corporate culture. All the leadership in our company pushes for aggressive culture. Its normal to work 12 hours.”

He added, “It’s a combination of creating a culture where high expectations are higher than normal.”