{"id":12714,"date":"2025-04-22T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/?p=12714"},"modified":"2025-04-22T13:35:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T17:35:20","slug":"maryland-mortgage-program-recognizes-top-lender-and-realtor-partners-at-annual-awards-ceremony-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/2025\/04\/22\/maryland-mortgage-program-recognizes-top-lender-and-realtor-partners-at-annual-awards-ceremony-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Mortgage Program Recognizes Top Lender and Realtor Partners at Annual Awards Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><b>NEW CARROLLTON, MD (April 22, 2025)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u2013 The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development recognized the top performing lender and realtor partners of 2024 today during the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mmp.maryland.gov\/Pages\/default.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maryland Mortgage Program<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2019s annual awards event.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For more than 40 years, the Maryland Mortgage Program has provided sustainable, fixed-rate mortgages, primarily to first-time homebuyers. Program borrowers receive access to down payment and closing cost assistance and, if eligible, student debt relief through the popular Maryland SmartBuy initiative.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe Maryland Mortgage Program provides more Marylanders and their families the chance to own a home,\u201d <\/span><b>said DHCD Secretary Jake Day.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u201cThe long-term success of this program is built on our lenders, realtors, title companies, housing counselors and other industry partners. These partners understand the importance of home ownership and how it creates opportunities for generational wealth and stronger communities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the fifth calendar year, the Maryland Mortgage Program surpassed $1 billion in loan reservations with nearly 3,000 households receiving down payment assistance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tuesday\u2019s event featured remarks from Secretary Jake Day and MMP Director Maddy Ciulu, along with representatives from US Bank and the Maryland Mortgage Bankers and Brokers Association. Afterwards, several partners were recognized for their accomplishments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-22-133129.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-12719 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-22-133129.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"937\" height=\"746\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-22-133129.jpg 937w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-22-133129-300x239.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-22-133129-768x611.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 937px) 100vw, 937px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Maryland Mortgage Program 2024 Top Performers include:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Top Performing Lender<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">First Home Mortgage Corporation<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gold Tier Lenders<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">First Home Mortgage Corporation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">NFM, Inc. dba NFM Lending, Main Street Home Loans<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Direct Mortgage Loans, LLC<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lower, LLC<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Silver Tier Lenders<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meridian Bank<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">FitzGerald Financial, a Division of TowneBank Mortgage<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">PrimeLending, A PlainsCapital Company<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Movement Mortgage, LLC<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Prosperity Home Mortgage, LLC<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rising Star<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CMG Mortgage, dba CMG Financial and Select Lending Home Loans<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Top Producing Loan Officer\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alexis Vining &#8211; Lower, LLC<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Barry Diggins &#8211; Cazle Mortgage<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lola Pol &#8211; Capital Bank, NA<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Top Producing Processor<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Terri Dikes, Cazle Mortgage<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ashley McGregor, Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ashish Desai, Direct Mortgage Loans, LLC<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Top Producing Realtor<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">James Archie, Samson Properties<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Diego Rodriguez, Spring Hill Real Estate<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">David Wheaton, Revol Real Estate<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smartbuy Student Debt Eliminators<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guild Mortgage<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Photos from the 2025 MMP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/marylandhousing\/albums\/72177720325325457\">event can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW CARROLLTON, MD (April 22, 2025) \u2013 The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development recognized the top performing lender and realtor partners of 2024 today during the Maryland Mortgage Program\u2019s annual awards event. For more than 40 years, the Maryland Mortgage Program has provided sustainable, fixed-rate mortgages, primarily to first-time homebuyers. Program borrowers receive<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/2025\/04\/22\/maryland-mortgage-program-recognizes-top-lender-and-realtor-partners-at-annual-awards-ceremony-3\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239,"featured_media":12720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,23,33,166],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homeownership","category-maryland-mortgage-program","category-press-releases","category-smartbuy-maryland-mortgage-program"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12714"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12721,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12714\/revisions\/12721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}