There are certain qualities that make a great mortgage lender — patience, honesty, availability and supportiveness among them. For Joe DeBesse, senior loan officer at Guaranteed Rate Affinity, it turns out that these same qualities were the ones he honed in over 20 years of coaching youth sports.

“I was laid off from my job at the local power company,” recalls DeBesse, “and a friend who owned a mortgage company brought me in because of the connections I had made while coaching baseball, hockey and soccer — a great start, database-wise.” Today, his former players are all in their 30s and comprise a strong part of a business based on personal contacts and referrals. “It snowballed from there,” he adds.

Now in his 16th year as a lender and celebrating his first time making Guaranteed Rate’s President’s Club, DeBesse says he brings a casual but focused approach to working with clients, to whom he’s available whenever needed. “This is a seven-day-a-week business,” he says. “I lead a team that shares the workload, and we rely on each other for support to get the job done, which can make it seem as though I’m in multiple places at once.” Known for working with his clients to assure that things are done in a way that suits them, this straight shooter and deal finder always puts his clients’ best interests first.

With eight grandchildren that keep him busy and a booming business that he has built over the years, DeBesse says the same well-learned lessons that serve him in life now help him to serve his clients. “I’m very good at reading between the lines to establish exactly what people are looking for,” he remarks. “I try to listen more than I talk.”

Guaranteed Rate, Inc. is a private corporation organized under the laws of the state of Delaware. It has no affiliation with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture or any other government agency.