One thing’s for sure — the secondary market for mortgages hasn’t been the same since Eloise Schmitz entered the picture. Seeing a void in the market for certain mortgage loans after the housing crisis in 2008, Eloise had the vision and foresight to launch LoanNEX, which connects originators, lenders and investors through an interactive platform to work smarter together on non-agency loans, or those not sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
In fact, Eloise co-founded LoanNEX specifically to link buyers and sellers of non-agency loans after the housing crisis essentially wiped out that part of the market. Ultimately, LoanNEX opens up more opportunities for homebuyers who would otherwise be left out.
Today, as the company’s CEO, Eloise leads a carefully assembled team of professionals to continually update and make enhancements to the LoanNEX platform, expertly navigating any challenges the non-agency market faces. Her success story is an inspiration for all.
Eloise’s colleagues describe her as a global thinker with the ability to view the big picture and understand market trends from both short-term and long-term perspectives. Eloise evaluates business opportunities from an immediate revenue standpoint and ensures those opportunities align with the larger mission and end vision for LoanNEX.
Before she co-founded LoanNEX, Eloise worked in corporate finance outside of the mortgage industry, spending 11 years in corporate banking and 12 years as a senior executive at Charter Communications, a Fortune 500 company.
A Revolutionary Platform
LoanNEX leverages the latest technology to provide an intuitive, dynamic and collaborative experience for all users. Unlike the legacy platforms previously used by originators, LoanNEX’s tools are fully customizable, supporting an unlimited number of attributes and requirements, and accommodate all loan types and conditions. “We have added two-way communication to our marketplace tools, giving originators the ability to discover, collaborate and transact, all from a single platform,” Eloise says.
Connecting to the LoanNEX platform is quickly becoming a necessity for originators to find all loan options that will work for their borrowers and for investors to gain access to the best revenue-building tools virtually.
A Good Listener with a Talent for Team Building
Much of the success LoanNEX enjoys is due to Eloise’s team, as she has a talent for building teams with a passion for their work. Eloise provides the strategic vision, has an appreciation of the team’s work, and allows everyone to have a voice. As a result, she has assembled an agile, cross-functional team that can quickly understand customer problems and deliver relevant solutions.
It takes strong leadership and vision to start a mortgage marketplace service and product and pricing engine from the ground up, and Eloise continues to meet any obstacles the market might present. In the past year and half, the non-agency market faced another challenge as the pandemic put a near-halt to that segment of the industry. Eloise and her team worked to enhance products and services with more robust features, and to expand its platform access with new integrations. At the same time, Eloise grew the LoanNEX senior leadership team. All of the changes she made were based on listening carefully to the feedback from customers and her team.
Through the success of LoanNEX, Eloise is inspiring others with her story. “Good leadership is not dependent on gender,” she says. “Being a good leader means listening, learning and not being afraid to move. Giving team members the ability to find their path to success is the most important thing for a small company. Those that can, will. You just have to give people the opportunity to lead and succeed.”
Eloise has taken cues on leadership from two people with whom she previously worked. “I have had the privilege of working with a couple of great people who exemplified truly inspiring leadership. They both took a chance on me, which led to key opportunities that shaped where I am today,” she says. “They also taught me the importance of listening while directing. Respect is a two-way street and must be earned, always.”
“One of my first role models was a credit executive at a regional bank where I worked,” she adds. “He was not an obvious role model, but he taught me important lessons on leadership by showing me how to guide people by being constructive but firm while navigating growth with restraint. He approached unfamiliar opportunities with questions to learn first and opine second. These qualities have assisted me into becoming the steadfast leader that I am today.” IEWL
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