A multifamily man: Michael F. Petrie, president of P/R Mortgage & Investment Corporation, is the incoming chair of the Mortgage Bankers Association. He is the first leader of the trade group to come from the multifamily side of the business

Mortgage Banking, Oct, 2004 by Janet Reilley Hewitt

MIKE PETRIE, CMB, SITS COMFORTABLY IN HIS OFFICE ON the fifth floor of the Meridian Mark II office building. His wall of windows looks out on the manicured landscape of a modern business park in suburban Indianapolis. Petrie is the "P" in P/R Mortgage & Investment Corporation. His business partner, long-time boss and mentor for 25 years, Randall D. Rogers, is the "R" in the company name. They are in the multifamily mortgage business, a niche they have mastered after years of working together.

There are photos and honorary plaques all over the place. It's testimony to a company focused on financing affordable rental housing--even some for nonprofit organizations.

Petrie is president and Rogers is chairman, and they built a company from scratch that last year was the third-largest originator of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) multifamily loans in the country, by number of loans. Their offices are side-by-side in an unpretentious office space where people seem to know and like one another. Even little things, like the friendly rivalry of a boss (Petrie) liking the Cubs and a coworker at the front desk liking the Cardinals, don't seem to carry any real friction.

Petrie is the incoming chair of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the trade group representing the entire spectrum of single-family, multifamily and commercial real estate finance companies. He is the first to come from the multifamily side of the industry.

There is irony here in his taking over the leadership role. A few years back, Petrie was among those leading a contingent of FHA multifamily members who openly discussed leaving MBA because they felt it wasn't serving their interests as well as it should. The organizational bias, they felt, was definitely in favor of single-family members, especially when it came to FHA.

MBA since has completely reorganized to better serve its commercial and multifamily members, giving them their own Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Board of Governors (COMBOG). Petrie and fellow multifamily-only member companies--roughly a couple hundred lenders--eventually stayed in the fold. And MBA insiders credit him with thwarting the defection.

He ultimately realized that the voice of multifamily lenders would carry more weight in Washington, D.C., inside a large, diversified, respected industry trade group. Having gone through this, Petrie is more likely to make sure minority member views get heard inside MBA, observers say.

Petrie views his multifamily credentials as a plus. He thinks his business background and MBA involvement on the commercial/multifamily side will help him better understand the various concerns of all sides of the industry. "I just look at it as a bridge. I basically came out of the commercial/multifamily [side of MBA]. I was vice chair and then chair of COMBOG. I understand that side of the business. But I do FHA loans, Freddie Mac loans, Rural Housing loans, and sell Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities; I do have some knowledge of the single-family market, too. It is not a steep learning curve for me to be involved with their issues. As a matter of fact, I feel very comfortable with them," he says.

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In fact, Petrie probably knows as much about the policy issues surrounding the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) as anyone at MBA. He is the point man on the new proposed GSE affordable-housing goals (AHGs) among the MBA officers. He also served on earlier groups that composed MBA's core policy on GSE mission containment and regulatory oversight.

But what makes Petrie a unique leader for MBA are his personal traits. He is an entrepreneur, a small-businessman, a policy wonk and a political junkie--not in any particular order. He's a practical businessman with a very pronounced work ethic.

He's always looking for the bottom line--driving to find the solution, says Cheryl Malloy, MBA senior vice president, who has worked with him for many years since his first involvement with MBA on its FHA Insured Project Committee. She uses the word "intense" to describe him. "I don't think he sleeps at all. He is constantly working," she says.

Maybe it comes from his roots.

Heartland values

Coming from the middle of Middle America, Petrie grew up in Logansport, Indiana, a town on the Wabash River of 16,000, with one high school. He says he comes from a "family of entrepreneurs."

A small photo in his office shows his maternal grandfather standing near a grain elevator he purchased in 1924. Petrie says his grandfather bought his first of five grain elevators at age 18. He was "essentially the banker for farmers. He sold grain like we sell money today," Petrie says.

Petrie's father was a butcher with a small grocery store, and then owned a fast-food restaurant. Petrie worked in his father's restaurant from the time he was 10 to when he was 16. He drove a flower-delivery truck for a nursery during his junior and senior years of high school. He says his only tips came from the local madams, who ordered roses for each other's birthdays.