Carrying it Forward

The Zabe Mortgage Group was founded by Audel Avila in 2008. Audel's career in real estate began in 1996 when as a loan officer assisted hundreds of families with their mortgage needs. By 2001, Audel had already opened his first mortgage branch located in Madera, California.

With the real estate business beginning to sink after record-breaking sales around 2007, Audel knew that if he was going to continue to work in an industry he was passionate about he would have to overcome the bleak economic conditions and look at every adversity as an opportunity. So he set out to build a stronger and better business model in the mortgage industry.

It was simple. Carrying this new business model forward meant having more control of the experience given to the buyer during the loan process. Second, by working directly with investors as a correspondent, his branch would have the ability to perform in-house processing, underwriting, drawing final documents and fund the loan all under the same branching company. Third, finding a mortgage bank with strong systems and technology as a prerequisite would allow him to hit the ground running. In addition, having good quality control at the front and back end of the transaction would allow his branch to be compliant with existing and new laws following the mortgage crisis. While this added much more responsibility and cost to his branch compared to a broker model, where most of the responsibility goes to wholesale lenders.

After extensive research, Audel created a partnership with Golden Empire Mortgage. Since then his branch has grown to a total of five mortgage professionals and four supporting staff in little over a year.

Today, Zabe Mortgage Group is stronger and more resilient than ever, demonstrating their core values having learned to survive and adapt to the challenging economic times of our nation. Their continued pursuit to dedication reflects in the success of their mortgage professionals and their clients they have helped reach their goals.

"The future is bright for our branch and future affiliates. Not only are we coming out of this mortgage crisis a lot stronger, but also our eye is set on expansion and solid growth over the next 15 years. Ultimately, we know that running a business based on our experience, integrity, excellence, and building lifelong relationships with our customers and referral sources is the best recipe for our success." Audel Avila