Big Texas Producer

Phebe Ellis of PrimeWest Mortgage Corp. was recently named the Top Producer of the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association for her volume of $27.9 million in the first three quarters of the year.

TMBA honored the PrimeWest senior vice president at the 55th Annual Educational Seminar and Marketplace it recently held in Dallas. Ellis closed about $2 million and $5 million more than the second and third top-producing individuals, respectively.

Phebe Ellis

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Ellis told MortgageDaily.com, adding she felt “very excited to beat out some of the bigger cities.” Ellis is located in Lubbock, a city in West Texas that says it has an estimated population of 201,200. PrimeWest has a total of three locations in the area, according to its Web site. The executive admitted she was very skeptical when her boss submitted her numbers to TMBA. “I was like, whatever, because I knew there were [competitors from] bigger cities like San Antonio and Dallas,” Ellis said. However, after a game of phone tag with the TMBA several days before the convention, Ellis found out she was the top producer via voicemail. “When I heard the message, I started jumping up and down,” she said. “The whole bank heard me.” Ellis attributed her success to “working for a great company and having an excellent team”: the processor, closers and underwriters who help her on a daily basis.Additionally, the award, “displayed proudly, … has definitely helped” at the office and with referrals, she indicated.

The bulk of the 238 units Ellis closed through Sept. 30 came from “new construction and homebuilder loans.”Thus, although her volume may not surpass her 2004 high of $46.7 million achieved with the help of “a lot of refinancing going on” at the time, she doesn’t see the expected slowdown in refinances affecting her much because the core of her production has “always been new construction, people buying a new home.”

“My company has always loved me, but I think they love me more now,” she said with a laugh, adding that the award has helped sales “just a little bit. My builders try to get customers in seeing me. They’re saying, ‘She is the top producer of Texas.'”

Ellis, who started in the title business while still in high school and in 1991 migrated into mortgage lending, has no intentions of leaving the real estate finance sector.

“I don’t know what else I’d do,” Ellis said. “I love my job because it allows me to help people accomplish their dream.”