June 10–A ranking of the 250 top-producing Latino mortgage originators is out, and more than two-thirds of the group are employed at Wells Fargo & Co.’s home lending unit.
Last year’s top-producing Latino originator was Manuel Corral, who closed 310 loans during all of 2014. He is employed by GEM Mortgage in Pomona, California.
Corral has been in the business for three decades and specializes in first-time home buyers. Half of his business is conducted with Latino borrowers.
Corral was among nearly 800 originators at 42 firms who were nominated for the Top 250 Latino Mortgage Originators List from the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.
The final count for those who made the list, including those who tied for positions, was 264 loan originators employed by 33 firms.
In all, the top-250 originators closed 22,711 loans for more than $5 billion last year.
Men accounted for 63 percent of the group, and women made up 37 percent.
No. 2 in the ranking was Edward A. Hernandez. The Wells Fargo Home Mortgage originator, who works in Highland Village, Texas, closed 298 transactions last year.
Benjamin Herrera landed in the third spot with 274 loans closed. He is employed by Wells Fargo in Des Moines, Iowa.
After that was Donald Ambrose King IV, who also works at Wells Fargo in Des Moines. King closed 264 loans last year.
No. 5 was PrimeLending’s Alexander Varela, who is located in Bedford, Texas. Varela’s 2014 production was 262 loans.
The sixth through 10th positions were respectively held by Miguel Dominguez of PrimeLending in Sterling Heights, Michigan, with 248 loans; Carlos Augusto Gutierrez-Villalba of Wells Fargo in Tempe, Arizona, with 224 closings; Sergio Corona of Wells Fargo in Des Moines, with loan production of 222; Natalie Navarro of Wells Fargo in Tempe, with 216 loans closed; and Jorge Montoya of Guild Mortgage in Reno, Nevada, with 202 fundings.
Out of all the 264 mortgage originators who made the list, 181 worked at Wells Fargo.
Although the Des Moines-based lender is the biggest lender in the country, its market share is just an estimated 15 percent — far less than the 69 percent share it maintained among the highest-producing Latino originators.
