Excerpt from HBR’s Official Open House Guide in Honolulu Star Bulletin April 11, 2010
Since opening in the TOPA Tower in downtown Honolulu two months ago, Honolulu HomeLoans has grown to include over 50 personnel and experienced an immediate increase in lending activity, closing $13M in mortgage loans in March…
“We are working with first time homebuyers, move-up buyers, and investors taking advantage of the still record low interest rates and the opportunities available in today’s residential real estate market,” said company President and CEO Tom Zimmerman, who founded HHL together with seven other mortgage industry leaders.
“What HHL is brining to Hawaii’s lending market is a wealth of experience… our team combined has over 750 years of successful experience in the Hawaii mortgage, finance and real estate markets….Relationships are very important in this business. Over the years you build up trust and familiarity with the way people work. The borrower benefits because we can close loans in a timely manner…”
Zimmerman pointed out that, as a mortgage bank HHL lends its own money. “ Being able to make our own decisions and fund our own loans amounts to a real plus in customer service.” HHL offers conventional 15 and 30 fixed rate loans, Adjustable Rate Mortgages, FHA, VA and US Department of Agriculture Loans and will broker construction and land loans for clients.
The HHL Team includes an “honor role” of long-time Hawaii mortgage lenders, some of whom worked with Zimmerman when he started his career in finance at Honolulu Mortgage 20 years ago, and subsequently at Bank of Hawaii. Together with company Chairman Ron Schmid and Gayle Ishima, he founded Hawaii HomeLoans in 2001, a company that was acquired by Central Pacific Bank in 2005 and renamed Central Pacific HomeLoans. Zimmerman and his team managed Central Pacific HomeLoans for the past four years before leaving in August to form Honolulu HomeLoans.
Zimmerman said he is optimistic about the Hawaii marketplace based on the relative stability it has enjoyed through the turbulent years following the subprime crisis.
One of the company’s new team members, HHL Executive Vice President/ Loan Origination, Anders Hostelley noted, “If you look at the most recent statistics from the Honolulu Board of Realtors, you will see that sales prices have leveled out to the point where the average sales price for a singlem family home in the month of March rose to $599,000, which is a 4.2 percent increase over the same period in 2009. Furthermore, days on the market for both single family homes and condominiums have decreased, which are additional signs of a healthy recovery.”
