Newsmakers for the week of December 9, 2002
Newsmakers for the week of
December 9, 2002

Sherri Catalano, mortgage sales administrator for The Bank of Castile, was one of 10 mortgage lenders in the nation to receive an award from Freddie Mac for outstanding service to homebuyers and market innovation.

Nominated lenders expressed how Loan Prospector, Freddie Mac's automated underwriting service, has increased the volume and productivity of their businesses.

Catalano told how she uses Loan Prospector to approve loans for borrowers who had questionable credit with extenuating circumstances. The borrowers thought they could only get a sub-prime loan at a much higher rate with much higher fees.

"With Loan Prospector, we were able to approve the loan at a better rate, which made the house more affordable for the customer," she said.

Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation established by Congress in 1970 to support homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac purchases single-family and multifamily residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities, which is finances primarily by issuing mortgage passthrough securities and bonds in the capital markets.

Catalano was awarded her prize during Freddie Mac's national customer conference in McLean, Virginia.

Michael R. Azzolino, of Spencerport, was inducted into the Alpha Chi National College Honor Society at SUNY College at Brockport. He is a meteorology major.

Joan Greeno, Associate Broker of Nothnagle Realtor's Chili-Ogden Office, was again awarded recognition by the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors (GRAR). She was presented the coveted Sales Master Award for 2002 at GRAR's annual awards luncheon held on November 13 at the Holiday Inn in Henrietta. This honor is given to agents who have 35 or more closed transactions and/or achieve a production level of $4 million or more during a specific 12-month period.

Realtor Abramo "Brom" Bianchi of Re/Max First received the top sales honor from the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors, Inc. at the 92nd Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony. He was recognized by CEO of GRAR John R. Piper as the Sales Master Platinum Award recipient, for sales performance in 2002.

To achieve the award, a Realtor must have achieved closed sales for the fiscal calendar year of more than $10 million in sales volume. Bianchi has been specializing in Real Estate in the greater Monroe County area for the past 20 years. The award places Brom in the top 1 percent of all Rochester Realtors and Associates.