Six months after launching in Washington and Texas with an aim to be “the best at purchase mortgages” fintech startup Tomo Mortgage LLC has expanded into Florida, Connecticut and Colorado and now offers jumbo loans of up to $3 million to better serve homebuyers in pricy markets.
The move into additional markets doubles Tomo’s footprint, which now covers nearly one quarter of the U.S., the company said, with additional markets planned later this year. The company has already obtained a license in Michigan but is not yet offering loans there.
Greg Schwartz
“Tomo’s rapid expansion is proof that there’s tremendous appetite for what we’ve built – a digital experience, designed from the ground up to meet the needs of homebuyers today,” Tomo cofounder and CEO Greg Schwartz said in a statement.
Founded in October 2020 by former Zillow executives Schwartz and Carey Armstrong and backed by $70 million in seed funding, Tomo says that by focusing on purchase loans and pairing its technology with local experts, it can deliver homebuyers a “simpler, faster, less expensive mortgage experience.”
Tomo boasts that it can create pre-approvals “within hours, not days,” and says it closed 100 percent of its loans on time in 2021.
The company also matches homebuyers with partner real estate agents through its sister company, Tomo Brokerage. Tomo Mortgage LLC and Tomo Brokerage Inc. are owned by parent company Tomo Networks Inc.
Schwartz told Inman News founder Brad Inman last fall that the company “looks for the most productive, highest service agents and we commit to them … and they want to work with us.”
“Having a cutting-edge mortgage company available to help homebuyers purchase their dream home is one of the most important factors when they are ready to make offers,” said Ruben Orozco, a real estate agent at RE/MAX Legacy in Sanford, Florida, in a statement.
The addition of jumbo loans of up to $3 million to Tomo’s offerings will also be welcome news for agents. An 18 percent increase in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s 2022 baseline conforming loan limit, to $647,200, is the biggest leap in records dating to 1970, allowing the mortgage giants to back loans of close to $1 million in costlier markets.
But fees Fannie and Freddie will implement on April 1 for high-balance, “conforming jumbo” loans that exceed $647,200 could make jumbo loans a better option for some borrowers.
Tomo Mortgage is currently hiring for roles in analytics, design, engineering, legal, marketing, mortgage operations, mortgage sales, human relations, and product. Many of those roles can be performed remotely, while others are located at offices in Stamford, Connecticut; Austin, Texas, and Seattle, Washington.
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