Every builder wants to excel in three important areas: selling more homes, maintaining their margins, and giving buyers an experience worth recommending. These goals often compete for attention. A strategic mortgage partner is one of the few decisions that supports all three at once, because financing touches every stage of the sale.
For more than two decades, Cornerstone Capital Bank has partnered with 100+ home builders nationwide, using both joint venture and preferred lender models. Shinn Builder Partnerships named Cornerstone its 2024 Service Provider of the Year in the company’s first year as a member.
“The builders who win in this market incorporate mortgage financing as part of their sales strategy, not as an afterthought,” says Mike Iorio, Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Cornerstone Capital Bank. “The right partnership gives them a consistent buyer experience, sharper visibility into backlog, and financing solutions to help more buyers qualify.”
Start with the model that fits your business
Cornerstone offers three models, and each meets a builder at a different stage of growth:
- Preferred lender: A partnership backed by a dedicated lending team with access to a broad range of home loan products. This model is a clean entry point for builders who want the benefits of a strategic partner.
- Mortgage broker joint venture: You co-own and receive all the benefits of owning a mortgage company, but with a reduced capital requirement. The joint venture originates and processes the loans, and Cornerstone funds and closes the mortgage.
- Mortgage banker joint venture: Co-ownership of a Full-Eagle, HUD-approved joint venture that manages the loan from application through closing, seamlessly integrating your sales process with the mortgage operation.
A more consistent buyer experience
When your buyers move through one reliable mortgage process, the experience and process become more efficient and predictable. A single partner replaces the inconsistency of juggling multiple lenders, extends your brand, and raises client satisfaction.
That consistency can carry past closing. Cornerstone services many loans in-house, so buyers stay within the Cornerstone family and receive attentive care for the life of their loan. The servicing platform recently earned a Fitch Ratings upgrade, with a 94.1% customer satisfaction rating and an 88% first-call resolution rate.
Run a mortgage line of business without running a mortgage company
When you form a joint venture, that venture becomes the mortgage company, and Cornerstone’s in-house teams operate it. Secondary and capital markets, compliance and legal, accounting, marketing, human resources, servicing, licensing, and IT all run behind the scenes. You share in forming the culture, and receive financial benefit from the production, without managing the administrative work.
Tresidio Homes, Cornerstone’s partner in the Table Rock Mortgage joint venture, felt that support from the first day. “The set-up process was seamless, straightforward, and required very minimal time investment on our end. The Cornerstone team handled all the heavy lifting with hiring and training new personnel,” says Carl Baker, VP of Sales and Marketing.
Creative financing strategies to sell more homes
These strategies can help builders move inventory and keep buyers off the sidelines:
- Second Look Advantage: From self-employed and gig income to credit and down payment situations that fall outside traditional guidelines, buyer profiles keep expanding. Last year, conforming loans accounted for just 51% of purchase mortgage rate locks. Demand is there; often the only thing missing is a way to close it. Cornerstone can help builder partners capture that demand by taking a second look at buyers who may need more financing flexibility. This program expands your buy box through over 3,500 loan product variations, including non-QM, affordable, and portfolio options, so deferred buyers can become homebuyers today.
- “With Second Look Advantage, a builder doesn’t have to replace an existing lender relationship,” says Iorio. “We can complement that operation, adding the products and capacity to qualify more of the buyers already walking into their communities.”
- Strong Start Home: Reduce early-payment friction by covering up to six months of interest, taxes, and insurance for buyers. Easing that initial cost gives buyers a compelling “start now” advantage without cutting your sales price.
- Forward commitments: Advertise below-market rates to draw interest to your communities and protect your margins instead of discounting the price. Lowering the rate can make a real impact in improving affordability, opening the conversation for buyers who assumed the payment was out of reach.
Stability that supports long-term growth
Financing strategy carries the most weight when the market shifts. Established in 1988 and 100% team member owned, Cornerstone has successfully navigated seven down cycles and holds $3.8 billion in total assets as of the first quarter of 2026. The company pairs extensive third-party warehouse lines with internal bank funding capacity as a backstop, so your buyers, your team, and the partnership itself have a steady foundation.
Take the next step
Join Cornerstone for an upcoming webinar on Wednesday, August 26, at 10:00 AM (MDT) to see how the right lending partnership can strengthen your sales strategy. Save your spot here. If you’d like to get a head start on exploring which model fits your business, connect with Mike Iorio, Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, at miorio@houseloan.com.