Click here for Part I & Part II

Helping homebuyers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Florida find the right mortgages

Jonathan Kraus is the president of Philadelphia Mortgage Advisors. For over a decade, Philadelphia Mortgage Advisors has provided mortgage financing, processing, underwriting, and closing for homebuyers throughout the Delaware Valley, South Jersey, and Delaware. Through a trilateral focus on rates, service, and advice, the company secures the best possible terms for every client.

EDWIN WARFIELD: You mentioned that you’ve always wanted to run your own company. How do you manage the more delicate parts of that, such as hiring and firing employees, especially in such a competitive market?

JONATHAN KRAUS: Running a company is being able to treat the employee well and having the employee know that they’re going to have a job through thick and thin. Our business is very cyclical. We’re dependent on interest rates to some degree, we’re dependent on the real estate market to some degree, and Philadelphia Mortgage Advisors has always managed through those ups and downs, through those good markets and bad markets. We manage our highs, we manage our lows, and I think a lot of companies don’t do that—and they don’t manage people’s expectations. And when rough times come and the manager, the president in Chicago or in LA says “cut staff,” people lose their jobs. We don’t hire people just because we’re busy this month. We hire people because we know we’re going to be able to hire them. We know they’re going to be employed for 12 months from now, 24 months from now. We take hiring very seriously.

And a lot of companies don’t do that. A lot of companies say, “We need people now. We’re busy out through November.” So, November comes, December 1st slows down, they cut staff. We don’t do that. We only hire when we know that we’re going to keep them.

We hire a lot of temp to perm, so if we’re busy, we’ll go that route. If it looks like the employee is going to work out, and we can hire them permanently and we think we can keep them, we’ve hired a lot of people that way.

We train a lot of people from the ground up, because there’s no college for mortgages. Nobody goes to college saying, “I’m going to be a mortgage [lender].” At least I didn’t. Anybody I know didn’t do that. The mortgage business finds you. And there’s great careers in the mortgage industry. It’s really an unknown industry to a lot of people, but it’s been a good industry for me and I still love doing it to this day.

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Sponsored by:

ABOUT NEWMARK KNIGHT FRANK

Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) is one of the world's leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, NKF's 15,000 professionals operate from more than 400 offices in established and emerging property markets on six continents.

With roots dating back to 1929, NKF's strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NKF's full-service platform comprises BGC's real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.

NKF is a part of BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets. BGC's common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC also has an outstanding bond issuance of Senior Notes due June 15, 2042, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (NYSE: BGCA). BGC Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer  Howard W. Lutnick. For more information, please visit www.bgcpartners.com.

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If you're interested in reaching CEOs, please contact edwin.warfield@citybuzz.co

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