Learn more about Waterstone Mortgage’s Senior Vice President of Secondary Marketing.
“WMC executives for $400, please.”
This Waterstone Mortgage executive team member is the mastermind behind the organization’s FOMC commentary blog posts, and is notorious for having more monitors stacked on his desk than anyone else in the company.
“Who is… Bob Selingo?”
Ding, ding, ding – we have a winner!
As our SVP – Secondary Marketing, Bob oversees our lock desk, capital markets, and servicing teams. Not to be confused with traditional “marketing,” secondary marketing is the buying and selling of mortgage loans between lenders and investors. It’s what happens behind the scenes after you’ve closed your home loan, essentially.
Bob has nearly 40 years of experience in the financial services industry, seven of which have been spent at Waterstone Mortgage.
Like many of us, Bob sort of stumbled into his career as a finance guy – a far cry from a big city police officer, which he thought he would be when he was a kid. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin Madison in 1982, he spent some time in Chicago with his family and started worked at Merrill Lynch through a mutual connection.
He was introduced to mortgage banking through some of his clients at Merrill Lynch, providing a smooth transition into the mortgage world.
When asked what advice he’d give his younger self or someone just trying to break into the financial industry, he says it all revolves around one concept: teamwork. Change is inevitable in any industry, so surrounding yourself with the right people can help you navigate the fast pace.
“There are ebbs and flows that go on – there’s the market and where rates are, the investors we sell loans to, and the guidelines we’re required to follow for that. There’s the pace of volume which comes and goes, there are also regulations that are constantly changing. And then on top of all those constant changes going at different speeds, there’s also the evolution of our industry occurring at the same time. Get yourself in a working environment with a team around you, because it’s going to help you navigate all those changes,” Bob said.
Want some insight into what kind of person Bob is? He went on to say, “I’ve been really lucky that way. The colleagues I work with now on the executive team are just great at teamwork. We’re great at collaborating.
“And, honest to God, this just sounds nice as a manager, but I work for [my staff] every bit as much as they work for me… I’ve worked with some of them for more than 20 years. And If I’ve had personal success here at Waterstone, I know it’s because of the success that they’ve had. That just fosters that teamwork and the desire to maintain that teamwork.”
On top of serving as an integral part of our team, Bob has also introduced us at WMC to Special Olympics, an organization he is extremely passionate about. Thanks to Bob’s advocacy, we’re had the honor of presenting donations to the North Suburban Special Olympics agency where he has coached swimming for over 10 years.
If it wasn’t clear already, Bob is not only fantastic at his job, but a stand-up guy, too.
To see Bob’s work in action, visit the Marketing & Industry page or view his author profile to learn more.
