Calm is a skill. Jordan learned it the hard way.

The story

Forged in the worst mortgage market in a generation

Jordan De Jong got into the mortgage world on the business side first — helping loan officers build their referral networks — and liked the lending part so much he went and got licensed himself. His timing was, by his own admission, spectacular: he started originating loans right as rates jumped from the 3s and 4s into the 7s, in a market where everyone was panicking and nothing came easy.

It took months of grinding to close his first deal. But learning to lend in that market taught him something loan officers who started in easy years never had to learn: when the process is hard, communication is everything. Set expectations up front. Update people before they ask. Prevent problems instead of apologizing for them.

That became the whole philosophy. Most people don't describe getting a mortgage as relaxing — the process has a reputation for being stressful, slow, and confusing. Jordan thinks that reputation is earned by lenders, not by mortgages. A good mortgage experience should feel calm, not chaotic — and the loan officer's job is to absorb the chaos so the buyer never feels it.

A Winona State University grad (B.B.A.), Jordan now lends from Fairway's Eden Prairie branch, working with buyers across Minnesota and western Wisconsin — first-timers, move-up families, and everyone in between, on all residential properties from single-family homes to four-unit buildings.