After 20 years in the industry, it’s not possible to stump Natasha Robinson. She is a whiz at problem solving. Robinson, vice president of renovation lending for Guaranteed Rate Affinity, leads a large team of loan officers who strive to be smarter than the underwriters by mastering the lending programs and guidelines.
“My clients love that I go above and beyond for them but most importantly, that I can relate to their past experience,” Robinson says. “I grew up in a poor neighborhood on the west side of Chicago, with parents working multiple jobs, and went from earning $2.05 per hour as a waitress to being very successful in my field.”
Robinson has been a Guaranteed Rate President’s Club member for the past five years and a Top 1% Originator for the past four years. Between waitressing and owning a janitorial business, she has learned how to provide excellent customer service in a fast-paced environment, which is a prerequisite to building a successful career in lending. She pivoted to lending two decades ago to help pay for a renovation project she was completing on a 3-unit property, and a mortgage company happened to be the first business she interviewed with. “My goal was to be a financial advisor,” she says. “By helping with the lending portion of clients’ financial goals, I was able to stay on track with my own goals.”
She transferred to a new division of Guaranteed Rate in 2019, Guaranteed Rate Affinity, and grew the business despite the pandemic. “I was able to grow from being a salesperson to a manager of my very large team,” she says. “Our goal is to close $100 million in sales, and we have already passed $50 million.”
Definitely on her way to meeting that goal, she has been busy designing her very own branch, which will soon open in the South Loop.
Guaranteed Rate, Inc. is a private corporation organized under the laws of the state of Delaware. It has no affiliation with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture or any other government agency.
