We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Gross recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.

I have a few since leaving corporate America and going through the broker route. I am now able to help customers who need it the most, the lower fico borrowers. For example, I had a customer who funded recently with a 577 fico and a few missed late payments. The loan would only work if it passed the cert- it could not be manually underwritten. No one else could help him and he wanted to consolidate his debt and pull cash out of his home. I was able to save him several hundred dollars a month and pay off a HUD lien while giving him a few grand. Luckily with the right LTV and DTI ratios, we were able to help, and his family get out of his dire situation. He also got a 5.875% interest which most lenders will not go below 6%, especially with a fico that low. I also save customer easily THOUSANDS of dollars more on loans versus direct lenders and we are much quicker in processing as well. I’m thankful to be in the position where I can find loan programs for all customers and serve them with their best interest in mind.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I ventured into mortgages due to a friend who referred me to a former company she also used to work at. We met in Seoul, South Korea where I originally left the states to work for the Korean Institute of Criminology which is an UNPNI affiliated research center. However, after my first year of doing the job, I was disenchanted with the way everything turned out. My plan was to complete one year at the research center, use this project for my CV and also collaborate with KIC to conduct my dissertation study. I wasn’t accepted to by dream school at Oxford. I was turned down after the interview round, and I didn’t want to go to another school. There weren’t any new research projects, and I didn’t want an administrative job at the end of my term. Therefore, I decided to stay longer and got a job which paid more to teach English. I had a few students I tutored and gained a lot of clients. She saw I was good with people, had a great work ethic, and was competent so she suggested I tried mortgage sales. She said it’s extremely lucrative and it will teach you about business because I mentioned having my own company someday. When I was finally ready to leave Korea, I left to the states and went into that career field. I never looked back and eager to grow my business. I love helping people save money, help them to become a homeowner, or build their real estate portfolio.

I started my trucking industry venture due to a coworker at my former company. He started it and after a few months reaped really good profits. Therefore, my partner and I decided it would be a good business to start. Logistics is recession proof and every company needs deliveries. We delivered long haul shipments across the country and did some deliveries for big names like Papa John’s, but it wasn’t the pizza! lol.

I discovered pageantry from a piece of mail I received. It was for National American Miss and what caught my attention was that they had optional divisions for acting, modeling, and being a spokesmodel. I was a 17-year-old senior in high school at the time and was involved in theatre and broadcasting. I did local modelling, and I thought this would be a great way for me to get “discovered” while winning scholarships for college. My first year I won the best actress, top model, and spokesmodel competitions and was scouted by 5 talent agencies. I was invited to the national pageant to compete in their All-American division where the first top 5 and optional winners are eligible to compete. I didn’t win anything that year but was invited to work with a modeling agency in LA only if I moved there. My mom, a typical tiger mom, told me I couldn’t go and need to go to college. The next year I decided to compete and win the Tennessee Teen title, and I did! Since then, I have been involved in pageantry and won not only NAM Miss Tennessee Teen 2010, but also, USA National Miss 2011, Miss Tennessee United States 2015, Miss Cosmos 2018, and United States of America’s Ms. 2023. Pageantry has taught me how to become a better communicator, increased my confidence and network, grit, and how to be more empathetic by volunteering my time towards community service, my platform is human trafficking awareness, but I also volunteer with veterans.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I feel my previous answer explained my pivot from criminal justice to the mortgage industry.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Contrary to most people beliefs about loan officers and mortgage brokers, most of my business does not come from realtors. I buy leads from aggregate online lead sources such as free rate update and lending tree and convert them. It was like that when I worked in mortgage call center as well. Since I am a mortgage broker and not tied to an office anymore, I have been trying to expand my lead sources- especially since I work with 100+ lenders and their wholesale channel and offer many various programs that direct lenders and banks do not have. Our pricing and turnaround times are unmatched. I believe I can provide a lot of value to realtor’s clients who aren’t your perfect borrower, need niche self-employed programs, or I can save them thousands more and give them a better rate on agency loans.

Trucking is very simple. We used a dispatcher to find us loads, but now we have designated routes. I feel it’s easier to find loads in trucking versus a customer in mortgage.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: sarahkimgross
• Facebook: Sarah Kim Gross