If you had told Petros Christophilis 25 years ago that he would close 202 deals worth nearly $150 million in volume in 2024, he probably would have asked you what “closings” were. Before Christophilis became a Scotsman Guide Top Originator, he owned a small restaurant with his father just north of Seattle, slinging gyro sandwiches at Central Deli in Alderwood Park Mall. That restaurant was just a stone’s throw away from the office where he was recently (and reluctantly) prodded to discuss his success in the real estate industry during a video call.
When he and his father lost the lease to their restaurant, Christophilis decided to shift gears and go into mobile phone sales, a new field where he quickly became a top sales associate.
Mortgage origination had never entered his mind until he bought his first home in 2001. The experience wasn’t great for him, especially the customer service on the origination side. The process, however, piqued his interest to learn more about the real estate business.
“Having gone through it, I noticed places where it could be improved,” he said, noting that he was still young and didn’t pursue it. But in 2006, he joined a mortgage broker friend in Kirkland, Wash., sourcing refinance leads.
Even though the industry was booming for many at the time, it was a difficult introduction for Christophilis. “Those years were terrible, because I didn’t know what I was doing,” he said. Then, making matters worse, the mortgage industry tanked during the financial crisis of 2008, and the jobs dried up.
Like many others fighting through the recession, Christophilis was in debt for years. He even used credit cards to buy a car and his future wife’s engagement ring. Finally, his persistence paid off when he joined a firm in 2011 and surrounded himself with successful mortgage brokers who did a high percentage of refinances.
“I learned about the transactional side of things, which then evolved into the service-related side of the business. It helped me identify who I was and how I was going to make this process better,” Christophilis said.
Part of his success comes from incorporating the experience he initially had as a first-time homebuyer and applying that in his origination process “I try to see the deal from the borrowers’ perspective, thinking about what they want to know, and how much hand holding they need,” he said. “That’s how things started and how it’s evolved to the present day.”
He attributes his success as an originator to authenticity. “I believe if you are truly authentic to yourself and to your audience, that translates into transparency and commitment,” he said. “And authenticity means being very clear and forthcoming about what the client should expect, and setting proper expectations with the real estate agent.”
With the challenges of today’s current market, Christophilis is hoping for more consistency to ease clients’ minds.
“There is fear out there. Buyers have a fear of buying. Sellers fear selling. Their interest rates are high and economic volatility is high,” he said. “Buyers come out of the woodwork and actually write offers when they see some consistency somewhere.”
Consistency doesn’t mean that rates have to drop – only that they have to stay put for at least a two-week period, he said, so buyers can depend on that rate not changing while making an offer.
“We will see a massive surge in deals when we see more consistency in interest rates,” Christophilis said. “And they don’t have to be in the 5%- or 4%-range. We just need to see more consistency in the bond market. Things need to be more static.”
Judging by his numbers, consistency is something Christophilis brings to his work. He also closed 141 loans for nearly $100 million in volume in 2023. Most of that he attributes to simply giving people the information they need, without sugarcoating anything. “They want to know what they have to do,” he said. “We all have the same goal in mind. Let’s find out what the objective is, and let’s nail it.”
