Preferred Empire Mortgage president plans to continue growth

Long Island Business News, May 2, 2003 by Nick Anastasi

Marcia Kaufman revived her mortgage lending career at just the right time.

She had pulled back from a 20-year career with Uniondale-based Arbor Commercial Mortgage, which is run by her brother Ivan, to raise her two young children. But after a divorce forced her back into the business world in 1998, she launched Select Mortgage on her own, running it from a borrowed chair in a cubicle in her brother's offices.

"I started from scratch," said Kaufman, who began contacting former customers from her days at Arbor. "Many of them had enough confidence in me to come back."

Today she is president of Melville-based Preferred Empire Mortgage Co., one of the state's Top 10 mortgage brokers. And she's shooting for the Top 5 next year.

Aided by a red-hot residential sales and refinance market, Kaufman had quickly built Select Mortgage into one of the state's 50 largest mortgage companies. Her success drew the attention of the partners who own Huntington-based Prudential Long Island Realty, including its president, Dorothy Herman.

Herman was a partner in Preferred Empire Mortgage, which handled mortgages for Prudential Long Island customers. They figured that Kaufman was the perfect person to breathe new life into it, and so they absorbed Select into Preferred two years ago.

"Marcia is one of the brightest people I know," Herman said. "She was hired to take it to the next level."

Preferred has since grown from 28 employees to 85, while its financings have climbed from $100 million a year to $500 million. She attributes the success to the company's strong reputation for personal service. "It's all we have," she said.

Preferred now operates in about 50 real estate offices (mostly Prudential) on Long Island. Kaufman is looking to boost that number to 100 in the tri-state area, including a move into Manhattan.

Kaufman has established a strong working relationship with Prudential Long Island, the region's largest residential real estate firm. And with Prudential Long Island's recent acquisition of Insignia/Douglas Elliman, which has a relationship with Preferred competitor Manhattan Mortgage, it appears a door has opened for her Manhattan foray.

Kaufman is also interested in expanding beyond the company's base inside Prudential offices, though she's only interested in real estate agencies with at least 15 full-time agents.

"The office has to do a certain amount of business," said Kaufman. "Then it makes sense to put one of my people on site."

Kaufman is working to grow relationships with other real estate services firms, including ReMax, Century 21, Ocean Tide Realty in the Hamptons and Trylon Realty of Great Neck.

The idea of having a mortgage service provider inside a large real estate agency began catching on about 10 years ago.

Other large scale brokerage firms on Long Island that feature an in-house mortgage representative include Daniel Gale, which has a relationship with IPI Skyscraper, and ReMax of New York, which has a non-exclusive arrangement with Washington Mutual.

Kaufman noted that Preferred, like WaMu, is in several ReMax locations. But unlike WaMu, Preferred works with several finance entities, including Wells Fargo, Astoria Federal Savings or Chase.

"We are not a sole source lender," she said. "Therefore we have a greater freedom to pair the right product with the homebuyer."

Outside the office, Kaufman most enjoys spending time with her two children, Max, 11, and Sara, 7. An avid runner, Kaufman also participates regularly in 5K and 10K road races.

In addition, she is a regular at the annual Revlon Run/Walk in Manhattan, which raises funds breast cancer research. Each year the event attracts 60,000 to Times Square and Central Park. She also enjoys playing golf and skiing.

Her taste in music is Top 40, the result of trying to keep up with her two kids. But that hasn't discouraged her from listening to other artists. "I listen to what they like, but that won't stop me from going to a Rod Stewart concert," she said.

Despite the lagging economy, Kaufman is optimistic about the residential real estate market as long as the Federal Reserve Board keeps interest rates down.

"Real estate prices haven't come down, inventories are still low and we are in the spring buying season," she said.