Thirty years ago, Roy Taylor was in search of a career that rewarded hard work. He found what he was looking for in the mortgage industry. Starting from humble beginnings serving equally humble clients, he has built a name for himself as one of the top-producing and most highly reviewed mortgage originators in the nation.
Today, Taylor is a senior vice president of residential lending at Draper and Kramer Mortgage Corp. and branch manager of the company’s Downers Grove office. Mortgage Executive magazine has ranked him among their Top 1% Mortgage Originators in America, and SocialSurvey recently named him among their top 100 loan officers based on his customer satisfaction rating.
“At the beginning of my career, I was a loan officer who served underserved, hardworking families,” Taylor says. “As my clients and professional partners moved up in life, so have I.” These days, Taylor’s clients vary dramatically from modest first-time homebuyers to high-net-worth purchasers of multimillion-dollar homes.
Taylor also considers his professional partners — and everyone else connected to each transaction — to be his clients. “It is my job to keep all of these people informed and meet or exceed their expectations,” he says. He follows a simple three-part philosophy in serving his borrowers. “Knowing the guidelines, foreseeing the stumbling blocks from the beginning and always providing white-glove service are what sets me apart.”
Even after 30 years in the business, Taylor finds no lack of inspiration in his work. “The demands of lending are always changing, and each client brings their own unique set of circumstances to the transaction,” he says. “It’s both a challenge and motivation to keep doing it and doing it better.”
Behind Taylor’s accomplished professional life is an equally vibrant personal one. “I have two great daughters and a wonderful wife of over 30 years,” he says. “They are what keep me young and feeling old all at the same time.” Although his livelihood may be tied to real estate, Taylor’s favorite hobby is to get away from land by going boating on Lake Michigan.
