Nations Lending, Carpenter Realtors launch Commitment Mortgage

Full-service mortgage lender Nations Lending and local Indiana real estate firm Carpenter Realtors launched a joint venture, Commitment Mortgage, in order to offer an end-to-end experience — from finding a home to closing a loan in a cooled-down housing market.

“We view the launch of this venture as the natural progression of our company’s growth,” Corey Caster, executive vice president of national production at Nations Lending, said.

Ohio-headquartered Commitment Mortgage aims to leverage more than 600 Indiana real estate agents at Carpenter’s. The goal is to help home buyers search for homes and then capitalize on loan offerings, the lender said in a release.

According to the NMLS, Commitment Mortgage has four sponsored MLOs.

Caster will help operations using his experience of running the joint venture channel at NewRez, Nations Lending said. Erick Cavalcanti, former branch manager of Nations Lending, will serve as president of the JV and oversee its growth.

The launch of Commitment Mortgage comes amid a rapidly shrinking mortgage market that is expected to decrease by half to $2.26 trillion in 2022, down from the previous year’s $4.4 trillion, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

With refis drying up due to the surge in mortgage rates, relationships between loan officers and real estate agents have become increasingly more important, as agents bring in business for lenders.

Founded in 2003, Nations Lending provides Federal Housing Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, conventional, jumbo and the U.S. Department of Agricultural loans in 50 states and has 138 branches across the country, according to its website.

Nations Lending originated $3.43 billion in total loan origination volume over the past 12 years, with purchase mortgages consisting of 46.8% of all loan types, data from tech mortgage platform Modex showed.

Established in the 1970s, Carpenter Realtors operates 33 offices throughout Indiana.