James Morin
Executive Vice President of Sales, Norcom Mortgage
Age: 41
Industry experience: 19 years
Even while the Connecticut mortgage industry has benefited from the refinance boom and strong purchase market during the pandemic, the need for social distancing has created challenges for an industry organization accustomed to bringing its members together: the Connecticut Mortgage Bankers Association.
This is a challenge James Morin will look to address after beginning a two-year term earlier this month as president of the CMBA’s executive board. After starting his career as a loan officer 19 years ago, Morin has spent the past 11 years at Avon-based Norcom Mortgage, which also has had to figure out how to keep putting on industry events for its partners and consumers.
Q: What type of marketing initiatives has Norcom used to reach consumers during the pandemic and the refinance boom?
A: We’ve tried to continue with our normal initiatives. We have various print and TV ads that we run, but a lot of our marketing initiatives have moved online or to social media. We have a digital marketing studio – a group of marketing folks that have expertise in social media – and we really have different strategies based on the social media platform we’re using. Whether it’s Facebook or Instagram or Pinterest or one of the other ones, we have a different strategy for each. Right now, so many people are online and on social media, so that’s where we’re focusing a lot of our attention.
Q: You also appear in videos to talk about the mortgage industry. Have you continued those during the pandemic?
A: It has been a transition when working from home and doing the quarantining-in-place, but now I have a whole green screen setup at the home office. Even though I’m not personally dealing with consumers on a day-to-day basis anymore, the videos are really about trying to educate our following and the people that are out there. There are a lot of misconceptions out there in the lending space.
We’ve continued to do all of our initiatives – and added to them. We’ve really been on the cutting edge with using Zoom and Go To Meeting to adapt our in-person events to the virtual world, so to speak. We’ve done pizza parties and wine tastings and other various creative events virtually to try to deal with this ever-changing environment and world.
Q: Are those events for the public?
A: We’re not only a retail organization, but we do wholesale and correspondent channels as well. So the virtual events have been everything from training and educational events that we do for our real estate and referral partners, continuing education courses for real estate agents or loan officers, and events for first-time homebuyers – really anything that allows us to get out there in front of people.
Q: What are your goals for your term as president of the Connecticut Mortgage Bankers Association?
A: The one that we have to face right away is: How do we maintain and continue with our goals in this COVID world? So much of the livelihood of the CMBA relied upon in-person events, social media and various trade shows. How do we add value back to the membership in a world where things are most likely going to have to be virtual for the near future? Adapting to COVID and the challenges related to COVID in running the organization is going to be the first and foremost, because a majority of what we’re doing and what we’ve traditionally done at the CMBA for the last year 35 years is going to have to change.
Q: What are some other CMBA priorities?
A: Remote notarizations is going to be a big topic moving forward. We were a little bit behind from a legislative perspective compared to other states in the country. Because of COVID and some of the executive orders that the governor was forced to put in place, I think that remote notarization is going to be a big topic going forward in 2021.
Q: Is there still resistance to that in Connecticut?
A: Yes. There was a lot of resistance early on, but when COVID and our need to be remote was forced upon us, I think some of the resistance was eliminated. I don’t know that it’s going to be completely eliminated, but I do think that people are much more receptive. They’re much more open to the idea of a world where electronic closings will be a real thing.
Q: Are there any other legislative priorities for the CMBA?
A: Mortgage servicing still is a big topic, especially right now because of the CARES Act. Connecticut is one of the slower foreclosure states in terms of the process in which foreclosures take place, and we also have loss mitigation rules and other things that need to play out in a certain way. All of that has just basically been put on pause because of COVID and the CARES Act nationally. So, what does that look like moving forward? Some of those things are going to be dictated to us from a national perspective and aren’t necessarily specific to Connecticut.
Q: Where does the Connecticut mortgage industry stand right now and where could it be heading?
A: Connecticut in general has always been the tale of two ends. We have Fairfield County and some of these areas where it’s ultra high-end, and banking looks a little bit different in certain parts of the state than it does in others. Then we have some of the cities, where first-time homebuyers are very prevalent. With both ends of the spectrum, one of the challenges is being able to serve both of those folks in a great way, because the first-time homebuyer in Southington looks completely different and is looking for something completely different than the super-jumbo borrower in Greenwich.
Overall, I think Connecticut is doing very well. The real estate market is booming, and because the weather has been mild, things have continued to boom. We have the inventory shortage with the amount of buyers that are out there, and with interest rates and buying-power being at an all-time high, I think we’re going to continue to see this.
I think the change in the administration – or, maybe the change in the administration – is going to change the philosophies in terms of where interest rates are going and the potential of first-time homebuyer tax credits, which have been brought up as part of the initiatives. I think we’re going to have a wait-and-see approach to how the election still plays out and what will happen going forward, but we’re going to continue to see a healthy market like we have right now. Things are really good in Connecticut.
Morin’s 5 Favorite TV Shows to Binge-Watch This Fall:
- The Queen’s Gambit
- Designated Survivor
- Cobra Kai
- Billions
- The Mandalorian
