Commitment to Care: Carrington Mortgage Services Gives Back to the Westfield Community in More Ways Than One
by Christy Heitger-Ewing
There’s a reason the phrase “actions speak louder than words” resonates with so many people. It doesn’t matter what you say if you don’t back it up with what you do. The team at Carrington Mortgage Services speaks volumes with its support, through Carrington’s own nonprofit Carrington Charitable Foundation, of more than 100 charities across the United States through fundraising events, donation drives and volunteering opportunities.
“Carrington’s commitment to the community is unwavering,” says Rob Petruska, SVP, National Sales, Wholesale at Carrington Mortgage Services. “We’ve supported numerous local charities through the years.”
For instance, Carrington has backed the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, No Kid Hungry Indiana, Gleaners Food Bank and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. In addition, as a proud member of the Westfield Chamber of Commerce, Carrington has sponsored a number of activities that the Chamber hosts. Carrington also donates to various animal charities.
“We do Animal Awareness Grants every year where we give up to $10K to a number of animal rescue organizations across the country,” says Petruska.
Carrington’s biggest commitment to nonprofits, however, is the Veteran community.
“That commitment really comes from CEO & Founder of the company, Bruce Rose,” says Petruska.
In addition to doing extensive work with Veteran nonprofits, Carrington has built 29 homes for catastrophically wounded veterans. In 2020, Carrington started a program called the Gold Star Family Housing Initiative in which they retire the mortgages of specifically selected Gold Star families. A Gold Star family is one where an immediate family member has been lost during active military duty.
“We relieve them of the burden of a mortgage, and make their life easier as a part of recognition for the commitment to how they served our country,” says Petruska, noting that they also hire Veterans.
Carrington partners with a nonprofit called The Honor Foundation, which prepares former Special Operations Forces service members to live a civilian career post-military. Carrington hires these ex-special ops people as Senior Management Associates once they exit The Honor Foundation.
“These are star performers who are always great to work with,” says Petruska.
Each year they hold a Carrington Charitable Foundation (CCF) Golf Classic in which they raise funds for CCF’s Signature Programs that support Veterans. The 2023 event raised more than $1.88 million. They recently volunteered at a Special Olympics event.
What’s more, Carrington makes sure they are endorsing the charities that matter to their employees so they specifically ask their employees which charities they are passionate about.
Another thing that separates Carrington from other companies is their commitment to the underserved borrower in that they do a lot of nontraditional loans.
“We do things that other companies either don’t do or don’t do well,” says Petruska. “One of those are bank statement loans.”
For anyone who is part of the gig economy (e.g., those who walk dogs or drive for a car company) instead of doing automatic underwriting, Carrington does a lot of manual underwriting. This means rather than a computer either giving a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down regarding whether or not someone qualifies for a loan, Carrington actually looks at someone’s personal financial situation to make its determination.
“Even if they’ve been in a situation where they’ve got some bumps and bruises on credit, past foreclosure or missed payments, that will not determine whether we give them a loan,” says Petruska.
In addition, they service roughly 93% of the loans that they originate as a company, and they work diligently to try to keep people in their homes.
“Often when someone falls behind on a payment, the mortgage company will send a letter and you’re on the fast track to foreclosure,” says Petruska. “Carrington does things a bit differently. We do whatever we can to work with borrowers and, whenever possible, keep them in their homes, so they remain Carrington customers for life.”
Carrington services all parts of the single-family residential real estate world. This means they can help folks secure a loan, find a home, do all the title work once the home is purchased and service that loan. So often after purchasing a house and getting a loan, a month after closing the homeowner receives a letter in the mail alerting them that they have a new mortgage company. This doesn’t happen with Carrington.
“You can basically go through all parts of the homeownership life cycle—buy, sell, buy another home—and stay with Carrington the whole time,” says Petruska. “That’s a nice deal.”
Carrington Mortgage Services is located at 2100 E. 196th Street, Suite 100, Westfield, IN 46074. For more information, call (800) 561-4567 or visit carringtonmortgage.com