GMAC Mortgage Corp., a Horsham, Pa.-based mortgage-loan company, is growing exponentially in Spokane and in the Pacific Northwest, says Marco Begovich, the companys Spokane-based senior vice president and division manager.


The company employed just 13 people when it began offering mortgage loans in the Spokane area in January 1997, but today it employs 83. Curt Altig, the companys Spokane-based regional vice president, who administers a six-state area in the Northwest and the Dakotas of a 19-state territory Begovich oversees, says the company could add as many as 54 people here by the end of the year in one of its offices. That would give it 137 employees here in all. The company expects to add to that number as it adds services here, though Altig declines to estimate when or how many people it might add after Jan. 1.


GMAC Mortgage now has 26 branch offices in the Pacific Northwest, up from two just two years ago, Begovich says.


Says Altig, GMAC did not have a focused effort on growing in the Pacific Northwest until January 1997. There was a huge momentum built up going into 1998.


Momentum is the key word. For instance, GMAC Mortgages first-mortgage loan activity in Spokane more than tripled last year, climbing from $40.6 million in 1997 to $123.8 million in 1998 to make it the fourth-biggest mortgage lender here. In 1999, the company expects to make about $175 million worth of first-mortgage loans in Spokane County, Altig says. The numbers are staggering compared with the meager seven loans, totaling only $694,000, GMAC Mortgage issued in 1996.


Altig attributes the growth to the familiar General Motors nameGMAC Mortgage is a subsidiary of the automakers General Motors Acceptance Corp. finance unitand to GMAC Mortgages commitment to acquiring new clients rather than focusing just on loan refinancings.


From late 1997 through 1998, refinancing activity bubbled in the real-estate lending industry due to low interest rates, Altig says. It was a low-hanging fruit, he says, but refinancing periods always end abruptly when rates go up. Though GMAC Mortgage garnered its fair share of that business, it instructed its loan officers to target new loans as well, he says. When interest rates went up, we were positioned well, he says. Rates have fluctuated since.


GMAC Mortgage is a full-service mortgage lender, specializing in first and second mortgages. Though first-mortgage lending accounts for about 80 percent of GMAC Mortgages business, the company also offers alternative lending, such as issuing loans to people with poor credit.


Its operations here include divisional and regional administrative offices, two retail branches, a loan-processing center, and a telemarketing group.


The divisional and regional administrative offices, headed by Begovich and Altig, respectively, are located in an office building at 1101 N. Argonne Road in the Spokane Valley, where GMAC Mortgage employs about 40 people and occupies about 5,000 square feet of leased space. The company recently added about 3,200 square feet of space there to accommodate expected growth. A regional telemarketing center in that location markets GMAC Mortgages services, such as refinancings, to previous customers. A retail loan branch there offers loans through real estate agents to consumers.


GMAC Mortgages loan-processing center here, which occupies a leased 4,000-square-foot space in the Redwood Plaza, at 11707 E. Sprague, processes and underwrites loans for customers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and North and South Dakota and employs about 31 people. The center expects to add as many as 54 people by the end of the year, Altig says.


To accommodate the growth, GMAC Mortgage plans to move the processing center this summer to the Rock Pointe Corporate Center near downtown, where it has leased about 11,000 square feet of space, Begovich says. The companys second Spokane retail loan branch already is housed there. It employs about 12.


Begovich also plans to move his divisional administrative operation, which employs about five people, there this summer, Altig says. Altigs regional office, however, will remain at the Argonne location. Once the divisional administrative staff has moved, GMAC Mortgage expects to add four to six employees at the Argonne location.


GMAC Mortgages decision to open a divisional office in Spokane was unique because national companies usually gravitate toward the Seattle or Portland areas, Altig says. There are excellent (human) resources in Spokane, he says. Altig administers activities in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and the Dakotas, and Begovich oversees the companys activities in those states plus 13 others west of the Mississippi River.


Spokane will be a hub (for GMAC Mortgage) now and in the future, Begovich says.


In the near future, GMAC Mortgage will no longer just be offering mortgages, Begovich says. The company has begun acting as a broker of products such as stocks, bonds, life insurance, and mutual funds, at pilot sites around the U.S., excluding Spokane, he says. All other GMAC Mortgage operations, including Spokane, will begin offering the new services by the end of the year, Begovich says.


GMAC Mortgage expects to open five branch offices in the Puget Sound and Western Oregon areas this year, including one each in Bellevue and Puyallup, Wash., and one each in Eugene, Ore., and Portland. It also plans to open a Seattle office by the end of 1999, Altig says.


Despite growth in Spokane, the company recently closed its Coeur dAlene office. It now leases desk space at a Better Homes & Gardens Realty in Post Falls and employs one loan officer there. Nationally, it bought the assets of the Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate Service franchise network last year. The companys Spokane regional office is developing relationships with franchisees of Better Homes & Gardens elsewhere to lease desk space for loan officers, Altig says.


GMAC Mortgage launched its mortgage lending operations in 1985. The company opened an office here in early 1994, but later closed it. It reentered the Spokane market when it bought the assets of the Spokane office of First Mortgage Corp., of Diamond Bar, Calif., in January 1997.