Even as a child, Jason Voerster has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and a unique ability to sniff out new opportunities.
“I was about seven years old and I was in the shower and suddenly came up with this great invention,” Voerster recalled. “So I got out, dried off, got dressed and went downstairs to tell my dad.”
His father waited with bated breath.
“Here’s the idea – why don’t we take the shampoo bottle and the conditioner bottle and put it into one?” Voerster said. “Wouldn’t that be great?”
And what was his father’s reply?
“He said ‘Jason, if that was chemically possible, it would have already been invented,’” Voerster said. “‘It will never happen – they’ll always be two separate bottles.’”
Undeterred, Voerster continued coming up with money-making ideas. At 14, he started his own lawn mowing business. He frequently did lemonade stands (“Everybody does that, but I was really, really big on lemonade”) and in his late teens, he became a magician who performed comedy magic shows for corporate events and county fairs. Then in 2009, Voerster made a fairly large career pivot into the mortgage industry. For someone who likes to think outside the box, it made perfect sense.
“I’m the kind of entrepreneur that if everyone’s going to the left, I need to go to the right and the more people who are going to the left, the more I go to the right,” Voerster said. “Everyone was getting out of the industry because of the mortgage crisis, but I knew that people would still need houses to live in. It wasn’t like no one would ever buy a house again or that the industry was going to collapse.”
So with that idea in mind, Voerster went full force into the mortgage industry. He started out as a retail mortgage lender and in 2017, he started his own wholesale brokerage company, Minnetonka-based Executive Mortgage Brokers where he now employs 30 loan officers who are licensed in the state of Minnesota.
“Our slogan is ‘we work for you, not the bank,’” Voerster said. “Our main goal is to work with our clients (many of whom are first-time home buyers), walk them through the process and explain everything to them in the simplest possible terms.”
One of the benefits of working with a wholesale broker, Voerster said, is the level of transparency throughout the transaction. And, like their slogan says, Voerster and his team are focused on serving the client and their individual needs, not trying to get money back to the bank.
“There’s not one person that fits all loans so it’s important to use a professional and let them tell you what the path of least resistance is to becoming a homeowner,” Voerster said. “And when I’m able to help a buyer purchase their first house and they call to thank me, it gives me such a sense of purpose.”
If you’re considering buying a home, here are three of Voerster’s tips and suggestions:
- Find a professional: It can be tempting to want to go online and shop for a mortgage, but that’s not always going to lead to the best results and it can cause a lot of confusion. Instead, Voerster recommends speaking to a mortgage professional who works for a company that solely specializes in them. “Don’t go to a bank where they have checking accounts and savings accounts,” he said. “Those loan officers have fewer requirements than we do. We have to do continuing education. Fingerprints are taken. We have to take tests. We’re under a lot more scrutiny than the loan officers who work for banks.”
- Shop around: Voerster advises homebuyers to shop loan estimates from multiple mortgage companies to compare rates, fee and terms. Each mortgage company is obligated by law to provide a standardized loan estimate and having this information can help you make an educated decision about which the best mortgage is best suited to your needs.
- Hire a good communicator who is responsive to your needs: Because we’re in a seller’s market where buyers need to act fast, it’s critical to be able to reach your loan officer at all times. “Make sure that your finance person is always there and available Monday through Monday because you’re going to have questions and you may need a pre-approval letter sent out quickly,” Voerster said. Get their cell phone number so you can reach them on the weekends because that’s when many people go house hunting and make sure they’re responding to you in a timely manner. If not, it may be time to find someone else. “You’re making the biggest purchase of your life,” Voerster said. “Communication during this time is absolutely key.”
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