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Brian Hunton

Brian Hunton has spent more than 20 years in the mortgage business, but the longer he’s been in it, the less he believes a mortgage should be treated as simply a loan.

A house may be someone’s largest asset. A mortgage may be their largest debt. And the decisions surrounding both can affect cash flow, savings, retirement, taxes, investments, family goals and financial flexibility for years.

That’s the thinking behind Brian’s approach to mortgage planning.

As a Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist (CMPS®), Brian looks beyond the traditional questions of What rate can I get? and How much can I qualify for?

Those questions matter.

They’re just not the only questions that matter.

How much should you actually put down? How much cash should you keep available after closing? Is paying the mortgage off faster really the best use of extra money? What are you giving up by putting another $50,000 into the house? How does a mortgage decision interact with retirement savings, taxes or college planning? If you’re buying an investment property, what do the cash flow, NOI, cap rate and expected return actually look like?

And sometimes the most important question is even simpler:

Just because you’re able to buy the house, are you actually ready to buy it?

Brian’s perspective comes from more than studying mortgages. Over the course of his career, he has owned and operated mortgage and real-estate businesses, owned residential and commercial investment property, flipped homes, built new construction and spent years helping families make decisions through changing real-estate and financial markets.

That experience has left him with some opinions that don’t always sound like traditional mortgage advice.

More equity isn’t automatically better. Paying off a mortgage faster isn’t automatically smarter. A 15-year mortgage isn’t automatically superior to a 30-year mortgage. And the lowest advertised rate doesn’t necessarily tell you which financial decision is best.

Brian believes liquidity matters. Cash flow matters. Opportunity cost matters. Rate of return matters. And having options matters.

That philosophy is especially important for first-time homebuyers, a group Brian has served throughout his career. Advanced mortgage planning isn’t something that should begin after someone becomes wealthy. The financial decisions made with a first home can affect the next 20 or 30 years—which is exactly why those conversations should start early.

The same thinking applies to move-up buyers, real-estate investors, self-employed borrowers, homeowners evaluating refinance opportunities and families navigating major life transitions.

Mortgage Decisions Are Also Human Decisions

Before entering the mortgage industry, Brian earned his degree in Human Development and Family Relations from the University of Connecticut, with a concentration in family services and counseling.

That background still influences how he works today.

Money decisions don’t happen on spreadsheets.

They happen inside families.

That’s particularly important during divorce, where decisions involving the marital home can sit at the intersection of finances, housing, children, emotion and an entirely new version of someone’s future.

Brian combines his Human Development and Family Relations background with his CMPS training and mortgage experience to help divorcing clients understand the housing and mortgage questions they may need to resolve before decisions become difficult or expensive to unwind.

When legal, tax, investment or financial-planning expertise is required, Brian believes the best outcomes come from working collaboratively with the client’s attorney, CPA, financial planner and other advisors.

The goal isn’t to tell someone whether they should keep the house.

It’s to help them understand whether keeping it actually works.

More Than Mortgage Origination

Brian also serves as Vice President of Business Development and is an owner of MBA Mortgage Corporation.

Much of his leadership career has revolved around building businesses, developing people, creating sales and training systems, measuring performance and figuring out why some people and organizations consistently perform while others don’t.

He thinks in numbers, but he leads in psychology.

His Human Development background taught him to look at behavior. Two decades of running businesses taught him to look at systems. Mortgage planning taught him to look at numbers. Real-estate investing taught him to look at return and risk.

Today, those aren’t separate parts of his career.

They’re how he thinks.

Through his FUEL platform, Brian also teaches mortgage professionals and businesspeople about sales, leadership, systems, discipline, relationships and building a successful business without losing sight of the life the business was supposed to create in the first place.

The Life Behind the Mortgage

At home, Brian has been married for more than 20 years and is raising a daughter.

And despite all the spreadsheets, systems, goals and performance metrics that occupy his professional life, that’s probably where his philosophy becomes simplest:

Don’t drift into important decisions.

Understand what matters. Ask better questions. Make the decision intentionally. Then build around it.

That’s ultimately what Brian believes good mortgage planning should do, too.

The mortgage isn’t the goal.

The life you’re trying to build with it is.

Russ Vescovi

A Different Kind of Mortgage Expertise

Russ Vescovi came to the mortgage business after spending 17 years working in human services, where he worked with children dealing with a wide range of mental health diagnoses. It was demanding work. His days required active listening, patience, and the ability to manage difficult situations without losing sight of the person in front of him.

Eventually, Russ decided it was time for a career change.

His mother, who worked at a local bank, had a friendly relationship with Brian Hunton and introduced the two of them. Russ entered the mortgage business eight years ago, and what started as a career change quickly turned into something he discovered he was naturally good at.

He also discovered that he genuinely enjoyed learning the business.

A lot.

Curiosity Became Expertise

Russ has always approached mortgage guidelines with a researcher’s mindset. When a new scenario came up, his first instinct was often to figure it out himself. He would sit at home watching television and read through loan guidelines, researching how different programs handled different situations and looking for the details that could make one option work better than another.

That habit has stayed with him.

Mortgage guidelines change constantly, and Russ makes a point of staying current. But his goal isn’t simply to know more guidelines than the next person. It’s to understand how those guidelines can be applied to an individual borrower’s circumstances.

Because every borrower is different.

One person may want the lowest possible payment. Another may care more about keeping cash liquid. Someone else may be thinking about purchasing another property in the future and wants to structure today’s financing with that possibility in mind.

Those are different objectives, even if the borrowers are buying similar homes.

Russ believes the mortgage should be built around the person rather than the other way around. His role is to understand what the client is trying to accomplish, research the available options, and determine what legitimately fits their situation.

The Answer Isn’t Always the Easiest One

One of the things Russ has learned over the years is that not every transaction is going to go exactly as planned.

That’s not necessarily a problem.

What matters is how you handle it.

Russ believes clients deserve to know what’s happening, especially when the news isn’t good. He would rather explain a problem immediately and deal with it honestly than let a borrower sit wondering what is going on.

He also believes that a difficult situation isn’t automatically a dead end.

Sometimes there isn’t a solution. Sometimes there is a different solution. And sometimes finding that solution requires going back to the guidelines, looking at the circumstances from another angle, and doing more research.

Russ enjoys that part of the job.

He isn’t interested in forcing a loan into a particular box simply because that’s the easiest answer. He wants to understand the available options and determine which one makes sense for the client.

That approach has also shaped the way he works with the people around him. Coworkers know Russ as someone who is consistent and reliable—someone who will do the work, follow through, and remain involved when a file becomes complicated.

Communication Matters

For Russ, mortgage expertise isn’t particularly useful if the client doesn’t understand what’s happening.

His experience in human services taught him the importance of listening and communicating through difficult situations. His mortgage career has reinforced the same lesson in a different setting.

A borrower shouldn’t have to chase down their loan officer to find out what’s happening with their loan. They shouldn’t be left guessing when a problem arises. And they shouldn’t be told what they want to hear simply because the truth is less comfortable.

Russ tries to be diplomatic, but he also believes in being realistic.

If something isn’t going to work, he’ll explain why. If there is another legitimate option worth exploring, he’ll keep looking.

For him, being in a client’s corner means both.

A Mortgage Is a Personal Decision

Russ believes one of the biggest mistakes a prospective homebuyer can make is waiting too long to talk with a mortgage professional.

You don’t have to be ready to buy tomorrow.

In fact, that’s often exactly when the conversation should start.

Talking with a loan officer early gives a borrower an opportunity to understand where they stand, identify anything that needs attention, and create a realistic path toward becoming qualified. Sometimes the answer is that they’re ready. Sometimes it isn’t. Either way, knowing that sooner is better than finding out after they’ve already found a house they want to buy.

That same philosophy is at the heart of how Russ approaches his work with Hunton Mortgage Advisory Group. He sees a mortgage as more than a loan approval or an interest rate. It’s a financial decision that should take into account what the borrower is actually trying to accomplish.

Russ’s particular strength is understanding the rules, researching the options, and finding the structure that fits the person—not simply the transaction.

Outside of Mortgages

Outside of work, golf is Russ’s main passion. He enjoys the competition, both against other players and against himself, but perhaps most of all he enjoys how difficult the game is to master. There is always something to work on, and there is always another level to reach.

He also enjoys a good blockbuster movie or getting invested in a great series.

After eight years in the mortgage business, Russ still approaches the job with much of the same curiosity that led him to spend evenings researching loan guidelines in the first place.

He doesn’t believe there is always one obvious answer.

He believes the right answer comes from understanding the person, knowing the rules, doing the research, and being willing to put in the work to find the best legitimate option.

And when things don’t go according to plan, he believes clients deserve someone who will tell them the truth, stay in communication, and remain in their corner.