Former Mayor Now Mortgage Broker

Politics and small town values have become valuable assets in Karl Reitz life. After spending more than half his life in the banking business, the sixty-year-old former mayor of Laconia, along with his wife Sherry have launched a new mortgage company to serve the Lakes Region and surrounding communities.

With more than four decades of mortgage banking experience, Karl and Sherry Reitz estimate having closed more than 3000 loans since 1973.

Reitz says he served as pro-tem mayor for two years in the 70’s and then as mayor (both of which are volunteer positions) from 1986-1988 while also building a rewarding career in finance.

His banking experience began as vice president of a local savings and loan. But he also worked as an officer with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and with a private mortgage broker.

Reitz said his political ties and community service, such as sitting on the local hospital board, has helped him build a lucrative client base. “We didn’t even have a sign out front and we didn’t do any advertising,” he said of his office located downtown. “People just know me from being active in the business community.”

“We’ve just recently started with radio and newspaper advertising,” Reitz told MortgageDaily.com. “And we’ve closed roughly 4.3 million (during 2004).”

Reitz said Apple Mortgage works with 50 correspondent lenders and tailors its loan programs to its borrowers, even at times offering hard money loans to those who cannot qualify with any of the lenders. “We might have a private investor that is willing to loan the money to those with collateral,” he explained. ” It allows some people to get the loan done when otherwise they wouldn’t be able to.”

Apple Mortgage says it never charges an application fee or requires the applicant to give a deposit. “If we make it work, we collect a broker fee.”

For now, Reitz and his wife are the only two employees at Apple Mortgage — and he hopes to keep it that way for a while. “We do all our own processing and closing,” he explained. “Every component is known to us, it doesn’t get lost.”