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Damon Germanides Featured In Mortgage Professional America 2021

Insignia Mortgage Co-Founder was featured in Mortgage Professional America on January 12, 2021, in an article entitled “How to capture the foreign buyer market when borders reopen.” This article was written by David Kitai, who interviews Germanides on the foreign buyer niche.

“Assuming rates stay low and the dollar stays weak against the basket of foreign currencies there could be big tailwinds for foreigners wanting to buy second homes or investment properties in the United States,” said Damon Germanides (pictured) co-founder of Insignia Mortgage and a specialist in serving foreign buyers. “Typically, your foreign buyer is a well-to-do buyer looking to get a piece of the United States. They should be back assuming travel comes back thanks to a vaccine and herd immunity.”

This is not Germanides’ first time to appear in the industry-leading mortgage publication, and certainly won’t be his last. Read the full article here.

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Damon Germanides Featured in MPA Power Originator 11/25/20

Insignia Mortgage co-founder Damon Germanides sat down virtually with David Kitai at MPA to discuss the secrets to his success in a recent issue of their Power Originator blog. In 2019, Damon personally shepherded over $200 million in loans over the finish line. He talks with MPA about the unique needs of their clients and how the Insignia Mortgage team is able to meet their needs smoothly.

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Insignia Mortgage Earns Nationwide Top Producers Ranking for the 5th year In a Row

Total Volume of over $417 MM in 2019

Insignia Mortgage principals Chris Furie and Damon Germanides have been named among the nation’s top mortgage producers nationwide in 2019, for the 5th year in a row. The rankings are published by the mortgage industry’s premier publications, The Scotsman Guide and National Mortgage News. Insignia Mortgage was also recognized as a Top 25 brokerage nationwide by AIME, the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts, a trade organization founded in 2017.

Scotsman Guide ranked both producers in the top 6 for the “Top Mortgage Broker” category and 45 and 54 in their “Top Dollar” category, respectively. Chris closed 94 loans in 2019, and Damon closed 107 loans for a combined $417,420,675 funded in 2019 and a loan average of over $2 MM, which has been increasing steadily over the past few years.

National Mortgage News, which ranked the top 400 originators who submitted entries by dollar volume, ranked Chris at  #20 and Damon at #21.

As a team, their combined production has been over $3 billion in loans funded since their founding 2012.

Insignia Mortgage is now far and away the top jumbo lender by loan size in the country with an average loan amount of over $2 million per transaction.

Insignia Mortgage has built its reputation by offering a suite of innovative and custom programs at low rates for non-traditional borrowers.

“We are incredibly humbled that our small boutique mortgage brokerage has been nationally recognized as a top 25 broker in the country,” says Damon Germanides, co-founder. As a top broker, Mr. Germanides was also featured in a recent issue of the Scotsman Guide in the article, “Talking Three P’s of 2020 With This Year’s Top Originators. “

Chris Furie, Insignia Mortgage’s co-founder commented, “Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and all the issues it has caused, we’ve been working closely with our lenders to help our clients with refinances and new purchases.”

This year will no doubt be impacted by the current coronavirus crisis, but Insignia Mortgage remains busy and is actively collaborating with lenders and clients to get deals done.

Insignia Mortgage works closely with local lenders to develop lending programs (from $500,000 to $25 million) for those borrowers that do not fit into conventional mortgage programs. Chris and Damon’s unique lending products are designed for foreign borrowers, borrowers with highly complex financial statements and entity structures, and those borrowers who require a no tax return loan, or a loan on an investment property. Later this year, Insignia Mortgage will be rolling out some new innovative products, including reverse mortgage programs.

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“Talking three P’s of 2020 with this year’s Top Originators” – Scotsman Guide 4/30/20

Insignia principal and co-founder, Damon Germanides, was interviewed on April 30, 2020, along with two of his nationally ranked peers in the mortgage industry for their thoughts on how the industry is moving forward under the shadow of COVID-19.

Each was asked for their Perspectives, Predictions, and Pointers. Damon noted that at Insignia Mortgage, “We’re getting deep into the financials to ensure that the bank can get comfortable with the deal, because that’s what this environment calls for.”

Read the full article on the Scotsman Guide website.

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Damon Germanides in Bloomberg.com

Insignia principal Damon Germanides was interviewed this week, on April 21, 2020, in Bloomberg.com in the piece “Wealthy Mortgage Borrowers Face Cold Shoulder From Lenders,” authored by Prashant GopalJohn Gittelsohn, and Shahien Nasiripour.

The article covers the counterintuitive situation in which many holders of jumbo loans find themselves in. With federal rates approaching zero, those seeking an advantageous refinance are finding lenders unavailable to offer favorable terms. Because jumbo loans are not backed by the federal government, they’ve gone from a lucrative market for banks to a near-pariah overnight.

Mr. Germanides is quoted at the end of the article in a comment on how a rock-solid homebuyer he’s working with is finding it more challenging to obtain a mortgage than he would have before the pandemic crisis hit. Loans are still going through, but it is harder “get them across the finish line.” Read the whole article here.

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Damon Germanides: Featured Top Originator, Scotsman Guide, November 2019

Insignia Mortgage’s co-founder and principal, Damon Germanides was recently interviewed by The Scotsman Guide’s chief reporter, Arnie Aurellano, to talk about how he became one of the country’s top loan originators. Damon reveals that working at his family’s beloved West Hollywood restaurant gave him the work ethic that underlies his success and fueled his entrepreneurial spirit.

Read the full Scotsman Guide interview.

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Insignia Mortgage Featured in Wall Street Journal

Insignia Mortgage is featured in the June 12, 2015, Wall Street Journal in the “Jumbo Jumble” section! The article, “More Options for Mega Mortgages,” discusses the emerging trend of the financing behind ‘super jumbos’ with home loans typically ranging from $4 million to $20 million.

Insignia Mortgage, based in Beverly Hills, CA, specializes in tailored programs for high-net-worth borrowers whose mortgage needs are often not met by traditional lenders. Insignia is also well versed in managing the international components of these deals.

Principals Chris Furie and Damon Germanides are among the top of all mortgage originators in the US. In 2014, Chris was ranked #6 in the country with over $190 million in loans and Damon was #32 with over $129 million.
Find out how Insignia Mortgage can help craft a custom mortgage for you!

Contact us to schedule a meeting with one of our Loan Experts.

Top Producers for 4th Year In A Row

Insignia Mortgage Nationally Ranked Top Producers For the 4th Year In A Row

For the fourth year in a row, Insignia Mortgage has achieved top status as among the nation’s top mortgage producers for 2018, as ranked by The Scotsman Guide, National Mortgage News, and they’ve again cracked the $150 Million Club, as ranked by Mortgage Professional America. Insignia Mortgage consistently has the highest average loan size per borrower in the country at over $1,950,000.

Chris Furie and Damon Germanides were ranked as #3 and #4 in the Top Mortgage category nationally respectively for this year by The Scotsman Guide, and #11 and #14 for “Top Dollar”, with a total collective volume of nearly $400 million, a total of 223 closed loans between them and an average loan of nearly $2 million.

Chris and Damon ranked #8 and #10 respectively as top national producers by National Mortgage News.

Chris has been in the mortgage business for 30 years and Damon has been in the business for 15 years.

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Insignia Mortgage ranked #1 and 2 in the top 5 of the $150MM Club Mortgage Professional America (MPA) in 2018

MPA Mag, the magazine of American mortgage professionals, has just published their e-zine featuring the top grossing mortgage originators nationwide for 2018. These professionals were nominated by their peers and then substantiated by documentation. Insignia principals Chris Furie and Damon Germanides each earned a spot on this prestigious list of highly accomplished originators for another year.

Both men cracked the top 5 in average volume, with Damon at #1 and Chris comes in at #2 this year, each with an average loan volume of over $1.9 million.

See the full 2018 MPA rankings here.