Build your business with a leader.
Robert Olivas has been originating mortgages and developing loan officers in Southern California since 1988. Today he leads The Brandon Drew Group — a family-run branch backed by Rate's national platform — and he's recruiting originators ready for what most companies never deliver.
I've spent 35 years figuring out what loan officers actually need to grow — and most companies still don't get it. We built ours around the answer.
You don't win this market with a rate.
You win it with execution.
There's a story being told in the mortgage business right now — that wholesale beats retail on price, that the lowest rate is what wins the deal. It's a compelling pitch. It's also wrong. And it's the reason buyers are losing homes and agents are watching deals fall apart at the closing table.
The market doesn't reward what looks cheapest on a quote sheet. It rewards what actually closes — and what closes is speed, deal structure, communication, and the kind of relationships that turn one funded loan into a referral pipeline that pays you for the next twenty years.
Joining The Brandon Drew Group puts you on the exact same retail platform that has produced the country's #1 loan originator for nearly a decade running. The leader who hires and develops you is local. The infrastructure behind you is national. That's the combination that wins deals.
You don't need another platform. You need a leader.
Most loan officers join a brand. The brand sells them a tech stack, a logo, and a comp plan — and then they're on their own. The phone stops ringing. The mentor never shows up. The "support" turns out to be a ticket queue.
Robert built The Brandon Drew Group as the answer to that. A branch where leadership is hands-on, where the door is open, and where the person who recruited you is the same person who sits down with you when a deal is sideways. He's been doing this since 1988. He's still doing it personally.
Have a conversation with Robert →The kind of branch manager who actually shows up.
Robert Olivas didn't build a brand and bolt loan officers onto it. He built a career — one funded loan at a time, starting in 1988 — and then built a branch around the lessons he wished someone had taught him along the way. That perspective is the difference between a manager who pushes for production numbers and a leader who asks what's actually in your way.
For nearly four decades he has guided thousands of families through the lending process — first-time buyers, repeat buyers, investors, military families, professionals across the Inland Empire and greater Southern California. He has weathered every rate environment from double-digit prime rates to historic lows. He has seen lenders disappear overnight. He has seen good loan officers walk away from the business because nobody taught them how to survive a slow quarter. That's the experience he brings to every conversation with a recruit.
As a father of ten, Robert understands that careers are built around lives — not the other way around. He doesn't believe loan officers should choose between a strong income and a present family. The branch culture reflects that. It is calm, professional, supportive, and built for people who want to do this for the next twenty years, not just chase a hot quarter.
Today Robert leads The Brandon Drew Group as Branch Manager, partnered with his wife Colleen and a tight in-house operations team — backed by the national platform of Rate. He is selectively hiring loan officers who want a real mentor, a complete product menu, and the autonomy to build a book of business that's truly theirs.
Six reasons originators move their book here.
Most originators don't switch shops for a comp split. They switch because something is missing. Here's what we put on the table.
A real mentor, not a recruiter
Robert is the person who hires you, coaches you, and sits with you when a deal turns sideways. Same person. Every time. 35+ years of pattern recognition on call.
The full product menu
CalHFA, GSFA Platinum, Hometown Heroes, VA, FHA, Conventional, Jumbo, Non-QM, DSCR, Bank-Statement, Foreign National, 203(h) — the menu most branches can't quote. You'll quote it on day one.
In-house operations team
Processors and underwriting liaisons sit on our team — not in a call center three time zones away. The same people answer your phone every time. That's why our average DPA close is 21 days.
Backed by Rate's national platform
Tier-one tech, marketing, pricing, capital markets, and brand recognition — all from one of the largest mortgage lenders in the country. The plumbing is enterprise-grade. The culture is family-run.
An established DPA pipeline
Our branch is one of the top down-payment-assistance shops in Southern California. That means established realtor relationships, repeat referral flow, and inbound consumer demand you can plug into.
A culture you can stay in
Family-run, professional, calm. We don't churn through originators to hit a recruiting quota. We hire selectively, develop people deeply, and build careers that last decades — not quarters.
Family-run branch. National-scale platform.
The Brandon Drew Group operates as a branch of Rate (Guaranteed Rate, Inc., NMLS #2611) — one of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the United States. That gives our originators access to a tier-one tech stack, a national marketing engine, in-house capital markets, and a brand that consumers recognize.
What you get here is the rare combination: enterprise-grade infrastructure backing a family-run, mentor-led local branch. You don't have to choose between a big-company platform and a small-shop culture.
Three kinds of originators we're built for.
You've outgrown your shop.
You're closing volume but the support has stopped scaling with you. Files sit. Comp gets squeezed. Leadership stops returning calls. You want a platform that keeps up — and a mentor who's been past where you are now.
You're stuck and you know it.
You've got the license, you've got the skills, but the product menu is too narrow and the lead flow is feast-or-famine. You need a mentor, a wider product set, and a referral pipeline you can actually plug into.
You want to learn from someone real.
You've been in the business one to five years. Your last "training" was a webinar. You want to apprentice under a leader who actually closes loans, runs a branch, and will pick up the phone when you're stuck on a file at 8pm.
We don't have a lead problem. We have a willingness problem.
Most loan officers in this business are starving for opportunity. We have the opposite issue. We have the relationships, we have the database, we have the products — what we need is originators willing to pick up the phone and do the work. If that's you, here's what's already on the table the day you walk in.
Former mortgage underwriter. 1,000+ down-payment-assistance loans closed. 21-day average DPA close. One of the top CalHFA producers in Southern California.
You'd also be working alongside Colleen.
Colleen Olivas is Robert's wife, business partner, and Senior Loan Officer at the branch. She's an officially listed CalHFA Lending Hero and one of Southern California's go-to originators for down-payment assistance — known for closing DPA loans in 21 days when most lenders take 45+.
Her underwriting background means she can teach things most originators never learn. If you want a second mentor inside the branch — particularly on DPA, first-time-buyer files, and complicated structuring — that's right here too.
One call. No pressure. Total confidentiality.
Whether you're ready to move next month or just exploring what's out there, the conversation costs you nothing. Robert will listen first — your goals, your concerns, what's working, what's broken — and then tell you honestly whether this branch is a fit.
Book Your Confidential CallThis is what "family-run" actually looks like.
Most branches use the word "family" in their marketing. We use it because it's what we are. Robert and his wife Colleen — Senior Loan Officer and CalHFA Lending Hero — run the branch together, alongside an in-house team that's been with us for years. The realtors we work with know us. The clients we serve come back. The originators we hire stay.
That's not an accident. It's the culture Robert has spent decades building, and the reason most of the people who work here have no interest in working anywhere else. It's also the reason we hire selectively — because the wrong addition doesn't just affect a comp plan. It affects everyone.
If you've been looking for a place where leadership knows your name and your file — this is what that looks like.
The questions every originator asks.
Honest answers to what you're actually thinking about. If yours isn't here, ask Robert directly on the call.
Yes. Your relationships are yours. Your past clients, your realtor partners, your referral network — they all come with you. We help you transition them cleanly with a handoff plan, transition letters, and updated marketing materials so the change is smooth for them and clean for your CRM.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to lock you in. That's not how we operate.
The full menu. Conventional, FHA, VA, USDA, Jumbo, Non-QM, DSCR (investor), Bank Statement (self-employed), Foreign National, 203(h) disaster recovery, plus down-payment-assistance programs including CalHFA, GSFA Platinum, MyHome, ZIP, and Hometown Heroes.
You will not have to send a borrower across the street because we don't have the program. That's a competitive edge most originators underestimate until they have it.
We have hundreds of products — and even more if we need to broker out. You will not have a program issue. That's for sure.Comp is set per-originator and tied to your production, your experience, and what kind of support you need to succeed. Rate (our parent platform) offers competitive industry-standard structures — and Robert sits down with every prospective hire individually to talk through what makes sense for your specific situation.
If you're at the conversation stage, that's the conversation. We'll give you a real answer based on real numbers — not a brochure number designed to recruit you and adjusted later.
Both. Most successful originators here run a hybrid: their own self-sourced realtor and past-client referrals (which are the highest-quality and most profitable leads), plus access to our branch's established DPA pipeline and incoming consumer inquiries.
We don't promise "we'll feed you leads forever" — that's a recruiting trap. What we promise is real top-of-funnel support, established realtor relationships you can plug into, and the marketing infrastructure of Rate's national platform behind you.
In-house. Real people. Same names every time. You'll know your processor, your underwriting liaison, and the operations team personally — they sit on this team, not in a call center.
This is the single biggest reason we close DPA loans in 21 days when other lenders take 45+. It's also the reason originators here actually have time for their families and their pipeline at the same time.
Both arrangements work, and we've structured the branch around either. Some of our originators work primarily from the Rancho Cucamonga office for the camaraderie and quick collaboration. Others operate hybrid or fully remote and come in for periodic team meetings.
What matters is that you have access to leadership, the operations team, and the broader culture — not whether you're sitting in a specific chair. We'll work out the right setup for you.
If you've got the license and the work ethic, we'll consider it. Robert has trained loan officers from year-one through twenty-year veterans. The question isn't your tenure — it's whether you're coachable, hungry, and willing to put in the years it takes to actually build something.
If that's you, the mentorship you'll get here is worth more than any signing bonus another shop could offer.
An active NMLS license in California is the minimum. If you also hold licenses in additional states (Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Florida — anywhere), that's a plus and we'll discuss how to leverage it through Rate's nationwide platform.
If you let your license lapse, we can talk about reinstatement timing as part of the move.
Every conversation Robert has with a prospective recruit is fully confidential. The Calendly link goes only to him. There is no team-wide visibility, no internal CRM logging, no automated email sequence.
If you'd rather skip Calendly entirely, email Robert directly at rolivas@tbdgmortgage.com from a personal email address. He'll handle it from there.
Once we both agree it's a fit, the process generally takes 2–4 weeks depending on your current pipeline and license sponsor changes. The basic sequence:
- Confidential offer and comp agreement
- License sponsor change through NMLS (we handle the paperwork)
- Onboarding to Rate's tech platform and our branch systems
- Transition plan for your existing pipeline and referral partners
- First day on the team
You'll have a single point of contact through every step — no getting bounced between five departments.
The next chapter of your career starts with one conversation.
No pressure. No pitch. Just an honest conversation with a leader who's been in the business since 1988 — and who's selectively recruiting for the next decade of this branch.
My toolkit. Yours when you join the team.
View My App — This Could Be Yours TooThe country's #1 mortgage originator has been at Rate for nine years running — Shant Banosian. The same retail platform behind this branch. He didn't get there with the cheapest rates. He got there with the execution, the relationships, and the systems that actually close deals when other lenders can't.
That's the game we play here too. If it's the game you want to play — let's talk.