#1: 2010 Top Short-Sale Ratio
> FHA-Volume Rank: #23
> Closed-Loans Rank: #90
Top Originators rankings | Next profile
RJ Crosby didn’t set out to be a champion of short sales. But with half his business falling into that category in 2010 — the highest ratio among the 200 Top Originators — he became just that.
“I went from being a king of jumbo loans to a prince of short sales as a matter of survival,” he says. “It was all about adjusting to the marketplace.”
Crosby lives and works in the Phoenix metropolitan area, where short sales and lender-owned properties play a dominant role in the real estate market. He closed nearly $30 million in short-sale mortgages in 2010.
In addition to helping his clients, he enjoys the benefits his originations provide to others he’ll likely never meet.
“Think about the seller,” he says. “I don’t know the seller, but obviously I know they’re having financial difficulty. When we’re able to close a short sale successfully, there’s a happy family on the other end. We’re also helping that neighborhood. That neighborhood is part of a bigger community, and that community is part of a city I’ve lived in for 44 years.”
He says his success benefits from his company’s ability to close short-sale transactions within 20 days, a time period often mandated by the seller’s bank.
“I think short sales will be a large part of our business for at least the next two to three years,” he says. “In 2011, uncertainty will again translate into opportunity.”
— Darrick Meneken
