Above, Melissa Cohn. Photo by Jill Lotenberg
Melissa Cohn knew early on in life that she had the drive and desire to do something exceptional with her life. She just didn’t know what it would be yet.
“I’ve always been very entrepreneurial,” she says. “I started my first business when I was nine years old, selling brownies during the summer to a general store on Martha’s Vineyard. I’ve always been a horse rider, and when my parents gave me a pony I taught lessons on it. Then I opened a store on the Vineyard when I was a little older, selling alpaca sweaters. Of course, that summer was the hottest on record. It was a shame. They were great sweaters.”
Cohn managed to recover, and is a pioneer in the mortgage industry as we know it today, with 43 years in the business. She remains one of the industry’s top-ranked mortgage brokers and with her team continues to hit past the billion-dollar mark annually.
Cohn began her career with CitiMortgage in New York before launching her own business, The Manhattan Mortgage Company, in 1985. As one of the first independent mortgage brokers, she was able to exponentially grow her business into the No. 1 residential mortgage broker on the East Coast, with more than $5 billion in annual volume. In 2020, she joined William Raveis Mortgage as regional vice president and has been the top originator in the company ever since.
Year after year Cohn is recognized in the industry for top production. She was named in Crain’s 40 Under 40 Class of 1996. In 2023, she was recognized by Scotsman Guide for total volume: No. 50 Top Originator nationwide, No. 10 Top Women Originator nationwide and No. 1 Top Originator in Connecticut.
Now living and working mostly remotely out of Delray Beach, Florida, Cohn has been on any number of boards, including the Child Development Center of the Hamptons Charter School, Volunteers of America, The Lighthouse for the Blind and Real Estate Board of New York. She currently sits on two boards—at the Ellen Hermanson Foundation, which supports The Ellen Hermanson Breast Center at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, and at Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.
Cohn’s business comes from word-of-mouth referrals from agents, attorneys, financial planners and past clients with whom she has built a relationship over the past four decades. Her expertise and insights are regularly featured in the press, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, RISMedia/Real Estate magazine, Bloomberg, CNBC/Acorns and Mansion Global.
RISMedia recently caught up with Cohn to ask about her life, career and what’s next.
RISMedia: What’s your day-to-day like?
Melissa Cohn: I try to get up early, play tennis and have a little bit of time to myself. Tennis is very therapeutic because I don’t have my phone with me and don’t look at my watch. It’s my me time. Even before that I look at my emails and what’s happened in the bond market overnight to see if there are any disasters. Then the next step obviously is what’s going to happen that day, because as a mortgage banker, the bond market can be either my best friend or my arch enemy.
When I get back to work after tennis I look at the bond market again. If it’s stable, then I don’t have to worry about whether I have anyone who’s not locked in or should I be focusing on getting people locked in. Then I’ll go to my emails, scan through the not urgent ones, and respond to the important ones. I find time each day to follow up with real estate brokers and individuals who reached out to me for financing. The way you get clients in the mortgage banking business is to follow up and to keep in touch with your referral sources—brokers, accountants, attorneys and your borrowers as well. I think of everything as wanting to be like an adopt a highway sign. You want people to think of you.
RISMedia: How do you determine when and what to discuss regarding being quoted in the media?
MC: I like to report on something that is important and also be apolitical. The world is clearly not just a database. I like talking about what’s going on in the economy and the political arena, geopolitical arena, global economy, how it impacts buyers and borrowers today and trying to parse what’s the best course of action for borrowers. Trying to boil down into logical, understandable thoughts on what’s going on in the mortgage world.
RISMedia: Has delivering expertise for so many media outlets helped your career?
MC: Yes. When people Google me they see I’m respected in the industry, had a long tenure and that important media outlets come to me for my knowledge. But just because you get quoted in the New York Times or The Wall Street Journal doesn’t make you a great mortgage banker. You have to also prove yourself within your own business.
RISMedia: Can you talk about your perspective on the mortgage landscape with the many decades of experience you’ve had? You’re probably a lot calmer than many people these days having been through so many cycles.
MC: Look, it’s not been a great two years in the mortgage world because we’ve had two not so great two years in the real estate market. Basically take the attitude that “this too, shall pass” at some point. I would assume in the near future we will see rates go down and real estate activity will improve. I’ve been through all kinds of crashes and bad times in the economy where a mortgage business has actually stopped. But I think a lot of younger people who’ve come into the industry, especially in the last 20 years, have enjoyed an extraordinarily low rate environment where you didn’t have to be really good at your job to make money. You basically could be an order taker and do well, but that has changed, and that’s good for the industry because in order to succeed today you have to be very good at what you do. You have to understand about interest rates and where they’re going. How do you counsel borrowers? You have to be creative. You have to be a good problem solver. You have to be able to truly understand banks and their guidelines. There’s no fudging in the mortgage industry these days. The rule is a rule.
RISMedia: You do a lot of volunteer work. What drives you to want to help the many organizations that you’re involved with?
MC: I want to be able to share my success with those who are in need. I spent a lot of my younger adulthood supporting housing initiatives, women’s initiatives and family initiatives. I currently sit on the board and am treasurer of a breast cancer foundation in the Hamptons. And I sit on the board of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation because as I get older, I have many friends and family who have gotten cancer. Some have passed away, and cancer research is critical to improving life and extending life. And then I give to a lot of other organizations as well, but I always think it’s important to be able to share with others who need money so badly.
RISMedia: Can you speak about how women have been able to achieve success in the industry, and touch on what more needs to be done?
MC: I went to Smith College, which was an all women’s college, and I was basically taught that there is no such thing as a glass ceiling if you work hard. I have always tried to bring women into the industry. It’s still probably male dominated, but there are a lot more women today. Women tend to be more nurturing by nature, so they’re probably in some ways better mortgage bankers than men.”
RISMedia: Your daughter Sarah is working with you. How is that?
MC: She is a vice president at William Raveis Mortgage. She works on my team, the Melissa Cohn Group, and she’s an originator, so she works with me with people who are buying properties, refinancing and getting mortgages.
RISMedia: How rewarding is that for you?
MC: It’s amazing. She’s been with me for over five years. I love that it keeps us in close contact. As a mortgage broker, I don’t build a book of business that I can cash in when I die to give as an asset to my children. But if I can teach my daughter my trade, that to me is the best legacy inheritance I can give because she’ll have control of my Rolodex and carry on as the next generation.
RISMedia: What’s it like as a mortgage broker?
MC: It’s not a glory job. A lot of what we do is repetitive. We’re taking applications and reviewing bank statements. We’re not out there with people. We’re not like real estate brokers on TV, driving glamorous cars and wearing glamorous suits. On the other hand, we enjoy the freedom that it gives us, especially post-COVID, where we now pretty much work remotely. It allows us to work from home.
RISMedia: When you were coming out of school, did you have any idea that this would be your career?
MC: After college I was offered a job at Citibank and managed to get myself into the retail banking training program. The man I worked for told me that mortgages would be the way of the future. Mortgage brokerage banking as we know it today was really in its infancy in 1982. And I was lucky enough to work for someone who taught me how to make mortgages a business. That helped me to get started on my own.
I’ve always been good at math, and I love problem solving, so mortgages, to me, were the ideal career. I get to be a little bit nosy. I understand everything about my clients’ lives. I’ve met the most fascinating people throughout my 43 year career because people need mortgages. The world has evolved and taught me how to go out and solicit business from real estate brokers while at the same time find banks that can offer products that will be competitive and the best solution for my clients. I still do that. I’m constantly looking for new lenders and new ideas.
RISMedia: What about the current mortgage rates? Are you surprised people think a 7% 30-year rate is undesirable after what you’ve seen over the years?
MC: I remember selling 16% one-year-adjustable mortgages. When I first started my career I was told that if you can get a rate in the sixes, that would be a home run. That was the rate our parents got. I’ve seen rates in the high teens and I’ve seen them as low as 2%. The way to be continuously successful in this industry is to understand that people always need shelter, and that if you work and build relationships, life cycles will force people to buy and sell and take financing and not just focus on the sort of—I’ve never called the refi business easy—but people choose to just try to sell a rate without understanding everything that goes behind it.
RISMedia: So what’s the plan after four decades plus?
MC: My gut is I’ll probably be around for a while still. At least the next 10 years.
