The Wellington Chamber of Commerce has announced that Supreme Lending has joined as a new member. Supreme Lending, a Dallas-based national mortgage lender, recently opened a new location at 12230 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Suite 208, in Wellington. The company has more than 57 branches nationwide employing more than 500 people. Senior loan officer Larry Skarsten is in charge of the Wellington branch.
Skarsten was born and raised in Flint, Mich. After graduating from high school, he worked in the nightclub industry as a DJ and lighting technician. He moved to West Palm Beach in 1994 and became a mortgage broker in 1997.
Skarsten decided to step away from the nightclub industry in 2000 and focus on the mortgage business exclusively. He was recruited by Homebanc Mortgage Corporation and worked with it for two years. In 2002, Skarsten began working with Priority Mortgage, a joint venture between Illustrated Properties and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. At Priority Mortgage, Skarsten ran the in-house mortgage division and was a top producer.
Skarsten did so well with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage that in 2006, the company gave him a branch in North Carolina to open and work from the ground up. So he and his family moved to Greenville, N.C., and the business opened its doors in 2007. While in North Carolina, Skarsten served on the board of directors for the local chamber of commerce and the Pitt County Home Builders Association for two years. In 2008, he won the Affiliate of the Year award by the Pitt County Board of Realtors. A few years later, in 2011, Skarsten was given an opportunity to return to Florida. He opened the Wellington Supreme Lending branch last September.
Supreme Lending provides residential mortgages. “We underwrite and fund our own loans,” Skarsten said. “We have in-house processing and underwriting, which streamlines the process. A lot of your bigger banks might take 45, 60, sometimes 90 days to close a loan, while it takes us 26 days from start to finish. In the mortgage business, bigger is not better.”
Skarsten noted that large banks are currently inundated with the Harp 2.0 Refinance Program and that they are spending a lot of time refinancing their current customer base. His business is 98 percent purchase buyers, which this allows for faster service.
Skarsten said that another feature that sets Supreme Lending apart from the others is their desire to cater to the customer. He noted that Supreme Lending is completely paperless, which adds to the efficiency and convenience of the loan process. Loan applications are done electronically in the comfort of the customer’s home and at their chosen time. “It’s all about when it’s convenient to the client; maybe that’s after tucking in the kids,” he said.
Skarsten said the days of packing up the kids after work to go visit the loan officer’s office are over. The paperless process is what allows Supreme Lending to have a loan ready in 26 days. Skarsten said there have been cases in which a buyer has been fully approved in 10 days.
For more information on Supreme Lending, call Skarston at (561) 370-5224, e-mail larry.skarsten@supremelending.com or visit www.homeloansbylarry.com.
Above: Michela Perillo-Green, Bob Salerno, Larry Skarsten, Mark “Boz” Bozicevic, Denise Carpenter and Carmine Marino during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
