HousingWire Mortgage Rankings: How top LOs dominated government lending in 2025

“The FHA manual is probably about 12 inches thick. All I did in the military was read guidelines. I figured out that the key to the city, especially in a tough market and on harder deals others don’t want, is knowing the guidelines,” Smith, an Arizona-based originator for CrossCountry Mortgage, said in an interview with HousingWire.

Martin Medve also followed a path from the military to mortgages. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in the mid-1980s with a bachelor’s degree in math and flew as a Navy carrier pilot. He now splits his time between working as a commercial airline pilot and serving as a senior broker at Trident Home Loans.

“Word of mouth is where we’re getting most of our business,” Medve told HousingWire. “About 80% of our loans are VA loans, 90% of our borrowers are veterans, and a large number of our loans come from referrals from family and friends. Fathers are referring to their sons, and as they go into the military, their squadron mates are referring to us across the board.”

Medve, who is based in Florida, is among the country’s top LOs by dollar amount for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) loans, reflecting a focus on supporting veterans and active-duty service members.

These LOs go beyond the bread and butter of conventional loans. They dig deeply into borrower files to find ways to qualify clients for a mortgage. They build networks of real estate agents to help them thrive, and they are willing to teach these agents the specifics of FHA and VA programs. Some rely on strong communities.

These LOs have thrived even as the rules have been rewritten.

In March 2025, for example, the FHA issued new guidance limiting loan eligibility to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, aligning with President Donald Trump’s broader policy agenda. In the VA space, 2025 was marked by a push to restore a partial claim program intended to help thousands of struggling borrowers.

Smith and Medve both argue that well-structured FHA and VA loans can compete with conventional financing. LOs say they can often win on speed and pricing while qualifying borrowers at higher debt-to-income ratios. But in some cases, their home purchase offers still aren’t accepted because real estate agents and sellers don’t fully understand the products.

Tacticians in a tougher market

About 30% of Smith’s FHA files, he said, are turndowns from local brokers or lenders that involved missing a simple guideline or lacking understanding of a gray area.

“That’s the unfortunate part of where our industry has shifted a bit — more toward sales and ‘cheapest is best,’” Smith said.

Now that the housing market has gotten tougher, agents need tacticians who know how to get things done, he added. If a loan officer can bring an agent one or two more closings and extra income in a market like this, that LO becomes more valuable than someone who only handles easy deals.

Smith said 95% of his clients are Hispanic borrowers. He’s the kind of social media-driven LO who pushes out educational content for borrowers and runs classes to train real estate agents, who are the source of most of his leads. “Too many lenders overlook the agents who don’t know a lot,” he said.

This year has started strong for Smith. His team averaged about 380 applications per month in the fourth quarter of 2025. But during the first quarter of 2026, they are at roughly 560 applications a month — an increase of nearly 50%. Smith closed 75 transactions himself in March. In his Arizona market, there is now more than six months of inventory, creating what he calls a “true buyer’s market.”

“A lot of times, I get my offers accepted over conventional,” Smith said. “I think it’s more about communication. People still want to work with the right person. And the pricing is better on FHA too. You can often need fewer concessions than a conventional buyer, especially when some conventional buyers don’t have a lot of money in the bank.”

‘One-to-one approach’

For Medve, while other LOs on the team lean on a more real estate agent-centric model, he has taken a broader approach by tapping military forums and charitable events. “We connect with our peers very well, so it’s one-to-one for me,” he added. 

Medve said Trident, founded in 2007, does not advertise, which helps keep margins and pricing lower while focusing on volume. The company is heavily staffed to maintain high-touch customer service, with more than 100 people on the team.

Trident also structures its operation differently from many shops. The company audits every loan before it closes, which Medve said helps avoid post-closing conditions or problems with VA loans moving to servicers. Most loan officers are not making 200 basis points and many have other jobs. Operations staff handles most of the “busy work,” while LOs focus on compliance, quoting rates, taking applications and walking borrowers through terms.

He noted that Trident did not lay off employees when COVID hit. Instead, Medve and co-owner Tim Moor used their airline salaries to keep everyone on payroll. “It’s a little bit of a sacrifice to do that in the downturns,” Medve said. “But when things turn up, you can handle a tremendous number of loans.”

In 2025, most of Trident’s volume came from purchase loans. Last year, the company offered an affordability program built around a 2-1 buydown, which helped to qualify borrowers with newer jobs who needed more payment flexibility early in the loan term.

Looking at how 2026 is unfolding, Medve is clear about his expectations.

“I’ll easily do 1,000 to 1,250 loans this year,” he said. “We’ve done as much in the first three months as we did the entire year last year. We went from 68 loans in January to 150, and we’ve seen year-over-year growth of about 30% per quarter. Tim and I are both retiring from the airlines this year, so we’ll have more time to focus on the business and enjoy life.”