Loan volume has surged in recent years at Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. – and that growth has translated into a significant increase in the Madison, Wisc.-based company’s headcount in Connecticut.
Fairway is aiming to not only hire enough people to keep up with its growing business, but also retain its employees for many years in a famously up-and-down industry that’s now seeing a slowdown.
Fairway’s support of its approximately 40 employees in Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties, reflected in laudatory reviews its staff gave in survey responses, contributed to the firm’s No. 1 ranking for 2022 among small employers (35 to 149 people in the region) in the Hearst Connecticut Media 2022 Top Workplaces awards. It is the first time Fairway has been on the list in the 12 years of the contest.
“We look at our employees as the assets of our company, and we want to take make sure we take care of them,” Justin Egan, an area manager who oversees Fairway’s sales across offices in Fairfield, Hartford, Ridgefield, Stamford and Trumbull, said in an interview.
Egan, based in Fairfield, said that the company’s values help explain why there is limited turnover at the company, which has an average tenure of about four years among its more than 9,000 employees. Egan and his wife, Kristine Egan, who oversees operations in the same area where he manages sales, joined the company in 2018.
The company summarized its values in a statement as “faith, family and work, in that order” – and said the faith reference was not about any specific religious denomination.
Justin Egan also cited benefits such as an employee stock-ownership program, which provides equity shares to all employees after one year of service at the privately held company.
“We want every employee to feel that they have some ownership in the company, which they do after a year, so the decisions they make are for the greater good of the company,” Egan said.
Sales professionals account for about half of Fairway’s Connecticut contingent. They have had plenty of work amid a boom in the single-family housing market in recent years, particularly since the beginning of the pandemic. Fairway’s annual loan volume has increased every year since 2013, when it totaled about $5.5 billion. It jumped from about $39 billion in 2019 to nearly $66 billion in 2020 and then to a company record of $72.5 billion in 2021, the company’s website shows .
“If you’re going to buy a house, you need a mortgage professional, and you need a Realtor,” Egan said. “We work in conjunction with the Realtor. So once someone finds a property, they need to pay for that property. Before they actually close and take possession of the property, we need to fund a mortgage for them.”
The market has cooled down in recent months, however, amid rising borrowing rates spurred by a 2021 surge in inflation. Fairway’s first-half 2022 loan volume totaled about $26 billion, which would put it on pace to finish the year with a total of around $52 billion, which would be a 28 percent decline from last year.
But Fairway officials said they do not expect rising interest rates to disrupt their long-term plans. Mortgage refinancings, which are driven by low rates, comprise a minority of their transactions. In contrast, loans for new home purchases accounted for 62 percent of the company’s loan volume in 2021 and 80 percent in the first seven months of 2022.
Fairway plans to keep hiring for sales and support positions in Connecticut and other states. In addition to the locations that the Egans manage, Fairway also has offices in East Lyme, Enfield, Hebron, Killingly, New London and Shelton. All of its offices in Connecticut are company-owned.
“We have plenty of open positions in Connecticut,” Egan said. “We’re always looking to grow and open new offices.”
Another newcomer to the Top Workplaces list, Masters In Home Care, finished No. 2 among small employers. The company provides residential health care services, including dementia management, to about 800 patients in the Hartford and New Haven areas.
“I think the quality of our clinicians speaks for itself, in that there have been multiple employees who have had Masters In Home Care provide services to their own family members – including myself,” Masters In Home Care CEO and President Chris Pankratz said in an interview. “I know that the quality of the people working here is so high.”
Pankratz is the winner of this year’s top leadership award among small employers.
Norwalk-based software company Criterion, which was also a Top Workplaces No. 1 winner in both 2021 and 2020 , finished in third place.
