Pat Flood has lived through the roller coaster ride of the home mortgage business for 37 years.
After two years of frenzied homebuying, industry highs were followed in 2022 by dramatic lows for mortgage lenders.
Flood, president of Supreme Lending Southeast Region, said business was down 75% industrywide and off about 28% at his company, the result of higher interest rates, soaring home prices and a shortage of housing inventory.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
“I like to tell people that it is akin to the restaurant industry in the first moments of COVID,” Flood said. “It got kind of squirrely.”
That could have caused chaos at the Alpharetta company that’s seen steady growth year after year, but Flood said he and his leadership team never lost focus on their No. 1 priority: serving others.
As soon as it became obvious a hard year was ahead, the staff was told of new objectives for 2022: pay raises and no layoffs.
“I’m blessed to be able to tell you we accomplished that,” Flood said.
Flood started the company — which earned the AJC Top Workplace award for the top midsize company in metro Atlanta for the fourth straight year — in 2011. The company is headquartered in Alpharetta and employs 175 people in the metro area and 225 in the Southeast.
Supreme Southeast reported its best year in 2021, with 8,000 mortgage closings worth $2.3 billion, he said.
Last year, the company cut out all nonessential expenses to cushion the blow of the upheaval. Flood himself said he went from March 2022 until March 2023 without drawing a salary.
“I told the whole company in preparation for what I saw coming that there may need to be sacrifices made by all of us, and I’ll be first in line,” he said.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
Last July, as interest rates went up and business went down, Flood started a company training camp. Staff in the operations, sales, and marketing divisions met twice a week to focus on getting better at the basics of the business — estimating the buyers’ costs, ensuring that loans close on time and improving better communication with the customer.
“We’ve gotten to be a better organization as the result of this process,” he said.
The company also launched some new customer service programs over the year. One program allows customers to come back to refinance if interest rates drop without being subject to additional fees. In another, the staff was broken into teams and told to meet one-on-one with local real estate agents to explain “why we matter,” Flood said. In a single, two-week period, staff held 820 meetings. Each team was incentivized with the prospect it could split $10,000 if it outpaced the others, he said.
The majority of Supreme’s operations employees now come in the office only one or two days a month, and working from home most of the time is likely their future, Flood said.
That doesn’t mean the company is abandoning some of its key programs, including one where a guest speaker comes once a month to encourage employees to become their personal and professional best.
Staff members meet regularly in small groups to discuss their individual goals, something Flood has always made a priority. These include areas of family and relationships; health and fitness; personal finance; fun and recreation; faith and community service; and business growth.
In 2022, employees upped their volunteer efforts in the community by building two, instead of one, Habitat for Humanity houses, Flood said.
He expects this will be a brighter year for the company and industry as homebuyers return to the market.
“I think this year is going to be better than the last,” Flood said. “Any movement up is a reason for hope.”
Supreme Lending Southeast Region
Founded: 2011
Ownership: Private
President: Pat Flood
Type of business: Mortgage lending
Headquarters: Alpharetta
Metro Atlanta locations: five
Metro Atlanta employees, 175; nationally, 225
Years ranked as the AJC’s Top Workplace: winner in the small business category in 2014, 2017, 2018, and 2020, and winner in the midsize category in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Employee benefits: Medical (classic deductible with co-pays, also high deductible plan with accompanying Healthcare Savings Account); Dental, Vision, Short and Long-term Disability (LTD provided at no cost); group Life and AD&D; 401k and Roth 401k. Supreme has an Associates’ Emergency Fund to help employees with unexpected financial burdens. Associates have flexible work hours, telecommuting options, and incentive pay for exceptional performance.
About the Author
