Name: Carey Buckley
Title: Senior Account Manager, Radian Guaranty Inc.
Experience: 23 years
Carey Buckley has seen all sides of the mortgage business in her twenty-odd year career – but it’s the private mortgage insurance (PMI) world that’s won her loyalty, with her having returned to that side of the business to take up a senior position with Radian Guaranty after several years as a correspondent lender. She tells The Commercial Record what drew her back.
Q: How did you get into the mortgage business?
A: My stepfather was senior vice president for the Society for Savings. And I was their property manager. This was back in the early ’90s. So, in 1992, United Guaranty, which is owned by AIG, needed a field representative for Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. They had reached out to my stepfather, and that’s how I got the interview. When I started, I didn’t have any background in the mortgage industry. But as soon as I started with them, it was great. I loved it. I learned all about the private mortgage insurance industry, I started building my relationships with the mortgage bankers, community banks and credit unions in the New England area.
Q: What attracted you to the PMI side of the business?
A: Well, I knew I loved dealing with people, and I was always attracted to sales. Being a property manager wasn’t that much fun, so when my stepfather approached me [and said,] “this position is perfect for you,” I knew it, too; I knew I wanted to be doing something on the road everyday in sales.
Q: PMI can be a little tricky – was that something that clicked right away for you?
A: It actually did click right away. I found it very challenging, and very rewarding, when I was able to start building those relationships with mortgage bankers and credit unions, and keep that going. At that time, we had a lot to offer in regards to private mortgage insurance. We were one of the leaders.
Q: It has been a really tumultuous time, the past few years, for the PMI world.
A: You wouldn’t believe what I’ve been though. I was at United Guaranty for 12 years and I loved it. I loved my customers, loved everything about it. But I felt that all I knew was private mortgage insurance, and I didn’t know much more else in the industry, even reading a rate sheet, secondary markets, hedging loans, buying and selling. There were some changes happening at United Guaranty, so I thought, ‘You know, maybe this is a good time to join a company that had been soliciting me,’ which was GMAC Bank’s correspondent division. So I decided to take that job, and it was a really hard decision, because I really did love United Guaranty and the people I worked with. But on a business level I was excited about it, the opportunity to learn more about the industry. So then I was with GMAC for about three years.
Q: And that lead to your role at Radian?
A: Well, I was at GMAC in the years leading up to the whole meltdown. Subprime was getting crazy, and GMAC was moving their platform more into sub-prime lending, and I knew that was something I was not interested in. I had so many contacts and friends who wanted me to come back into the private mortgage industry. They knew that Radian was looking for someone in Connecticut and Massachusetts. And I really missed my customers, and I missed doing presentations – I do a lot of education work – and so I was ready to come back. I felt like I had learned what I needed to learn, and now I think I’ll probably retire with Radian. I love my job.
I’m glad to be back. I’m on the road every day, doing training with executives in operations and sales. We have a secondary market department that assists us on the road, and that really makes a big difference. And I’ve become really involved with the Connecticut Mortgage Bankers Association as well – I was going to all the events and training, so they asked me to sit on the board of directors two years ago, and I also chair my own committee.
Q: Having left the PMI side of the industry and returned to it, how would you say things have changed?
A: The day I decided to make the move – that very day, in June of ’09 – they announced a moratorium [on most new lending]. We cannot sign up any new accounts. We will only insure purchase loans, 720 credit scores, 41 percent [debt to income ratio]. And that’s when I said, “Oh my God, what am I doing?” But my customers really wanted me to get back in – they really wanted to work with Radian, and they didn’t feel like had that connection with the other account executives. And slowly and surely we started getting back on track. And then two years ago, we were one of the first PMI companies to get rid of our overlays and just insure [according to Fannie and Freddie’s guidelines]. And that’s when everything really changed. We’re insuring great quality loans and offer 3 percent [down] loans for first-time homebuyers.
Buckley’s Top 5 Tips For Realtors To Let Them Know PMI Is Back:
- Your buyers don’t have to have 20 percent down.
- You don’t have to go FHA.
- PMI offers several different cost structure that suit different buyers.
- It doesn’t last the life of the loan.
- But it may not be for everybody – PMI policies still generally require a credit score over 620.
