Dmitry Khorosh, who calls himself “The Mortgage Doctor” in his mortgage-brokerage promotions, had his own prescription for survival when the subprime mortgage crisis and recession battered the housing industry. He turned to his other line of work as a licensed real estate broker in New York and Connecticut.
“During the meltdown, I don”™t think I did one mortgage for a year,” said Khorosh, owner and president of New York Real Estate Solutions Inc. Mortgage deals now account for about 75 percent of his company”™s business, while short sales of houses whose values have plummeted in the last three years make up much of his real estate brokerage work. His company, which he said employs four to five mortgage loan officers and five to six real estate agents, is headquartered in Khorosh”™s home in Pawling and has a Westchester office in the Stark Business Solutions executive suites at 445 Hamilton Ave. in downtown White Plains.
The doubly licensed broker stopped recently at the White Plains office before a mortgage presentation to potential first-time homebuyers at nearby Minerva Place Condominiums, a 14-unit, approximately $4-million development of affordable and workforce housing completed about one year ago by Community Housing Innovations Inc. Gleefully, he popped open a metal attaché case ”“ standard-issue drug-and-cash-hauling gear for cinematic bad guys – filled with his business cards masked as folded $100 bills and prescription vials whose labels promised relief from the symptoms of high and adjustable mortgage rates, excessive monthly payments and “fundsarelow” disease. The mortgage doctor”™s white pills, upon tasting, proved to be mints.
Khorosh recently hatched an even more unusual promotion to attract first-time home-buyers to Minerva Place, where condo sales have been slower than expected, said Alexander Roberts, executive director of Community Housing Innovations in White Plains. Though 11 of the government-subsidized units have been sold, the nonprofit developer has had to lower the cost of one-bedroom units from $240,000 to $225,000 and two-bedroom condos from $295,000 to $275,000, Roberts said.
To buyers of the three remaining condos, Khorosh has pledged to donate prepaid, 24-month leases for a new Honda Civic or comparable energy-efficient car.
“First-time home-buyers are balancing new mortgage payments with daily household expenses,” he said. “Now they don”™t need to worry about car payments as they adjust to owning a home.”
Roberts noted that with gasoline prices having doubled in the last four years and now at $4 a gallon, transportation costs more than food in most households. He cited a 2011 study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics that found that an 18-percent rise in gas prices in 2010 pushed nearly one million people below the federal poverty level.
At Minerva Place, “We”™re hoping that by offering a free lease with an energy-efficient car, it will significantly enhance the affordability of these units for working households,” Roberts said.
“The timing is right for me now to give back,” Khorosh said. “These are people who can really use it.”
Now in his late 30s, Khorosh has been in the mortgage industry since his late teens. A high school dropout, he began his career in the Bronx, where his parents immigrated in the late 1970s as Jewish political refugees from the Soviet Union.
Before starting his own company, he and a partner operated First Resources Mortgage Corp. in New Rochelle for 10 years. His former partner”™s luxury home in Harrison is now in foreclosure, he said.
“In my industry, just within the last three years, of people I know, 80 to 90 percent of my competitors are basically out of business,” he said. “I”™m very lucky.”
Many have been driven out by new state and federal licensing and educational requirements for mortgage brokers and loan originators. New credit standards for mortgage firms have taken their toll even on wealthy brokers, he said.
To pass newly required state and federal tests, “All of a sudden now you need schooling, 75 hours,” he said. “That knocked out 50 percent of the people in the industry.”
“All my nemeses, most of them, are not around anymore. I”™ve outlived a lot of people,” said the mortgage broker.
With the stricter government regulation imposed in the last one to two years, “It”™s a completely different industry and there are so few people in this business,” Khorosh said. It”™s an awesome time to be in this industry. I never thought I”™d say that.”
Congrats dude! Awesome work!!!