HousingWireHousingWire
In a live-recorded episode of Power House at the Housing Economic Summit, HousingWire President Diego Sanchez sat down with Suzy Lindblom, chief operating officer at Sierra Pacific Mortgage, to explore the company’s growth strategy and how it’s navigating today’s lending environment.
After consulting with Sierra Pacific for six months, Lindblom joined the company full-time in November — drawn in by a culture she describes as unusually cohesive and execution-focused.
“You always hear about that conflict between ops and sales. You don’t have that at Sierra. It really is like family.”
— [3:34]
From consultant to COO
Lindblom, who initially planned to semi-retire, quickly found herself working 60+ hour weeks with Sierra Pacific as a client. The longer she worked with the team, the more aligned she felt with the company’s mission and leadership. President Jay Promisco eventually persuaded her to take on the COO role — a partnership Lindblom says works because of their complementary strengths.
Focused growth in retail and wholesale
While wholesale remains the company’s dominant channel, Sierra Pacific is expanding deliberately across both sides of the business. Lindblom emphasized a thoughtful hiring strategy that aligns with culture, rather than chasing rapid scale. She also sees M&A as opportunistic — not core to the company’s near-term plans.
“We don’t want the big bang. We want to be methodical about bringing on staff.”
— [7:20]
Competing through service, not speed
Asked how Sierra plans to win in the hyper-competitive wholesale market, Lindblom pointed to broker relationships and hands-on service. She’s often on broker calls herself and encourages her underwriting team to be directly accessible.
“We don’t have that factory line. We’re very personable with our brokers.”
— [8:50]
Tech, AI, and what’s next
With a proprietary LOS and POS already in place, Sierra leans heavily into building its own tech. Lindblom says they’ve also made a sizable investment in AI — but she’s clear it’s there to assist, not replace, operations staff.
Looking to 2025, Sierra is focused on staying nimble — preparing for both upward and downward shifts in market conditions and continuing to build a business where brokers, borrowers, and employees all feel supported.
