Fairway Home Mortgage has brought back Jeff Gilmore, Matt Gray, and the 28-member Fairway Custom Mortgage team in Matthews, North Carolina, adding about $250 million in loan production. The team returned in September after spending two years with another mortgage company.
Gilmore and Gray previously worked at Fairway from 2010 through 2024. Their return fits a broader pattern of former employees and originators rejoining the lender. Fairway said 159 employees returned in the past year, including 52 originators whose combined return represents about $558 million in loan production.
The company emphasizes its operating culture as a key reason teams return. Fairway said its model centers on responsive underwriting and closing, accessible executive leadership, technology, appraisal support, and branch resources designed to help originators move loans through the process quickly.
For Gilmore and Gray, operating outside Fairway highlighted the value of an organization led by executives who have originated loans themselves. Management argues that this perspective affects product, process, and support decisions because the company evaluates them through the day-to-day requirements of loan officers and borrowers.
Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation is a full-service mortgage lender headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, and Carrollton, Texas. The company is licensed in all 50 states and describes itself as the No. 2 overall retail lender in the United States. The returning team gives Fairway additional scale in North Carolina while reinforcing its recruiting strategy around experienced originators and established production teams.
The returning group therefore adds both immediate production capacity and experienced personnel who already know Fairway’s operating model. The lender is using those returns as evidence that its culture, technology, and support infrastructure remain important recruiting tools in a competitive mortgage market.
KEY QUOTES:
“When we originally left Fairway, it wasn’t because we had stopped believing in the company or the people. We saw an opportunity to grow and build something and thought it was worth pursuing. But our time away made us realize how much we valued Fairway’s speed, willingness to find solutions, accessible leadership and genuine desire to help one another succeed.
From underwriting and closing to technology, appraisals, branch support and executive leadership, there is an incredible mindset of doing whatever we can to help our teammates and the families we serve.”
Jeff Gilmore, Fairway Regional Manager
“What we hear so often is that producers miss Fairway’s culture. Fairway is committed to speed. Our underwriters are responsive and share the same sales mentality as our originators, and our executive team is known for its personal involvement in helping win deals.”
Holly Mattson, Co-President Of Recruiting At Fairway Home Mortgage
“One of the biggest things we underestimated, but came to appreciate during our time away, was the value of having a company led by people who have originated loans themselves. That perspective influences decisions in ways that are easy to underestimate until you’ve experienced something different. At Fairway, originators are the top priority.”
Matt Gray, Fairway Regional Manager
