Who Is Fairway? Meet the People Behind Your Mortgage

Meet Fairway, the Dream Team—and the people behind your loan.

This week, my team and I had the opportunity to step in and help a borrower whose financing had hit a snag elsewhere.

Later that evening, after we had gotten things moving and locked her loan, she sent me a simple text:

“Who did we lock with?”

I let her know her loan was locked with Fairway Home Mortgage—the company behind our team.

Her question made perfect sense. She had previously been working with a broker, and afterward it got me thinking: I may sometimes assume people know more about who we are than they actually do.

They may know Sharla. They may have heard me talk about our Dream Team. They may recognize the Fairway name.

But do they really know what all of that means when they trust us with one of the biggest financial transactions of their lives?

I think they should.

So … Who Is Fairway?

Fairway Home Mortgage is a full-service mortgage lender founded in 1996 by Steve Jacobson. Today, Fairway is licensed in all 50 states and has grown into one of the country’s largest retail mortgage lenders.

But those statistics aren’t really why I chose Fairway—or why I stay.

What matters to me is how we do mortgages.

Our processing, underwriting, operations and closing support are all within Fairway. We work directly every day with the people and departments responsible for helping move a loan from application to approval to closing, which gives our team access, communication and accountability when something needs attention.

And speed matters to us.

Fairway is known for offering some of the fastest turn times in the industry, and Speed to Respond is actually one of our core values. That matters enormously to my team because when you are buying a home, sometimes hours—not days—make a difference.

Another Fairway core value happens to be one of my favorites: Creating an Amazing Experience.

I love that.

Because we aren’t simply trying to complete a transaction. We want the person going through it to feel informed, cared for and confident along the way.

Fairway also has its own servicing operation after closing. Servicing is retained by Fairway on some loans and transferred on others depending on the loan and investor, but either way, our Dream Team’s relationship with our borrowers does not simply disappear when the moving truck pulls away.

Fairway’s goal is to provide trusted mortgage guidance and highly personalized service from application through closing and beyond. That is exactly what I want from the company standing behind my borrowers.

And I love something Steve Jacobson says: “It’s not about the loans we do; it is about the hearts we change and the people we help.”

That isn’t just a nice corporate quote to me. It is one of the reasons Fairway feels like home.

Of course the mortgage matters. Pricing matters. Products matter. Underwriting matters. Getting the loan closed correctly and on time absolutely matters.

But there is always a person attached to the loan number.

It may be a first-time buyer who is nervous, a family that needs more space, someone starting over, someone downsizing—or someone whose financing just fell apart somewhere else and needs another set of experienced eyes on the problem.

Those are the people we are actually serving.

Who Is the Dream Team?

When someone tells a friend, “I’m working with Sharla,” they are actually getting much more than one person.

They are getting The Sharla Ellis Dream Team.

There is a devoted team of people proactively watching the details, communicating with each other, following deadlines, coordinating documents, answering questions and looking ahead for anything that could potentially become a problem.

We make it a priority to understand the whole story—not just our individual piece of the file. We know the loan, we know the borrower, and we know what we are trying to accomplish together.

That continuity creates unity, trust and strength.

Our borrowers shouldn’t feel like they have to start over every time they talk with someone on our team. We want them to know they have an entire group of people working toward the same goal.

And when something unexpected happens—and this is real estate, so something unexpected eventually tends to happen—we don’t waste time pointing fingers.

We get to work.

That is the value of a real team.

And Who Is Sharla?

I’ve been doing mortgages for nearly four decades, and along the way I’ve had the privilege of helping more than 10,000 families and funding more than $3 billion in home loans.

I’m grateful for those numbers, but what matters most to me is what all those years of experience can bring to the person trusting me with their mortgage.

After this long in the business, I’ve seen a lot: different markets, changing guidelines, difficult appraisals, complicated income, construction, condos, Veterans, first-time buyers, investors, people who were told no, loans that were starting to fall apart, and borrowers who simply needed someone willing to look at the problem differently.

Experience helps us recognize potential issues early—sometimes before they ever become issues. It helps us know which questions to ask upfront and what details deserve a closer look.

And sometimes it means seeing Plan B, C or D when Plan A isn’t going to work.

That is what nearly four decades in this business means to me.

I’m also tremendously grateful for the customer-satisfaction recognition our team has received over the years. We work very hard at the experience we provide, so of course those results matter to us—but the ranking itself has never been the most important part.

What matters is what those reviews represent:

People felt cared for.

And that is always the goal.

So … Who Did You Lock With?

That borrower’s little text stayed with me because the answer was much bigger than: Fairway Home Mortgage.

She locked with a company that has built its culture around service, speed, communication and helping people.

She locked with The Dream Team—a group of people who know her loan, know what we are working toward and care about how the story ends.

And she locked with me. I’ve spent most of my adult life helping people find a way home—and I still love the work of turning a dream into a plan, solving the puzzles along the way and watching that plan eventually become keys.

That is who I want standing behind every mortgage we do.

So yes, when you are choosing a lender, absolutely ask about the rate. Ask about the fees and ask about the loan program.

But also ask yourself:

Who am I trusting with this?

Who will answer my questions and notice the details? Who will tell me the truth? Who will keep working when something gets complicated? And who will still care about me after the closing papers are signed?