NOLA Lending Group, LLC Purchased by Fidelity Homestead Savings Bank

Known to have one of the most established, networked clientele in the Gulf Coast Region, NOLA Lending Group, LLC will bring to

the table a massive portfolio of consumers, real estates professionals, and experienced sales & marketing staff to its purchase by Fidelity Homestead Savings Bank.  In the last 2 years alone NOLA Lending Group did $1.25 billion in mortgage loans for purchases and refinances in Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Florida, and Alabama.

On the northshore, NOLA Lending Group, LLC has corporate headquarters off of the West Causeway Approach in Mandeville, Louisiana in St. Tammany Parish.  As a win-win move for both companies, Fidelity Homestead Savings Bank will be opening their business doors to the opportunity to be able to sell their new home loans and sales purchase loans, as well as their refinancing loans on the secondary market.  In the past, the bank has taken a a very traditional approach to mortgages by managing their loans and processing payments for mortgages in-house.  With the purchase of NOLA Lending Group, Fidelity Homestead will now be able to start selling some of its existing portfolio on the secondary market.

“It’s a situation where two organizations can come together and match up expertise and strengths to complement each other,” McRee said. “Two solid organizations running different business models but combining forces.”

The reason for the purchase, according to McRee, was because of a 100-year-old model for Fidelity Homestead that was completely

shaken to its foundation with the dramatic decrease in interest rates earlier this year.  Long-time customers whose loans were being serviced in-house by the bank quickly moved to other loan companies both in-state and out-of-state to refinance their loans for these historically low rates.  Fidelity held $308.8 million in single-family to four-family mortgages as of Sept. 30, 2013, down from $518.7 million in loans total at the end of 2008.

In addition to instantly having access to the secondary market, Fidelity mentioned that one improvement that they will be looking to implement in the loan application process for NOLA Lending Group will be to focus on new customers that will have loans that are attractive to secondary market buyers who are looking for low-debt-to-income ratio customers.  Richard LaNasa and Ashton Noel, managing partners at NOLA Lending, will continue to oversee the operation as executive vice presidents and will serve on Fidelity’s senior management committee. The bird’s eye view of the purchase shows two established, strong companies joining together to complement each others strengths to cover more territory and successfully service more customers across the entire southern region of the U.S. including the Greater New Orleans area.

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