For our New Jersey borrowers, we’ve assembled a brand new, all-star loan officer team with over 15 years of combined real estate experience and three languages spoken between them!
Read on to meet our three highly qualified New Jersey loan officers and get to know the people who will make your fix and flip, new construction, cash-out-refinance, and renovate-to-rent deals happen!
Susan Botros
Prior to joining the ABL team, Susan worked as a lending specialist for several large banks, but she didn’t like working for the giant institutions. After taking loan applications and putting them into the system, she never got the chance to see what became of the deal or borrower. Working for a big lender, Susan felt that the loan process was disjointed and lacked a human touch.
At ABL, things are different. Susan is able to build more in-depth relationships with her investors and make recommendations to underwriters based on her knowledge of the situation. With a small lender, Susan has the flexibility to build a best-fit loan package for each individual borrower. One of her favorite parts of the job is the opportunity to build long-term working relationships and watch first-time flippers grow their business and portfolios over time.
Susan studied finance and marketing in college, and she’s always been skilled with numbers. After a few minutes on the phone, Susan can give you an accurate idea of your project profitability and help you understand the deal economics involved with your hard money loan. Susan has been a student of real estate her entire life – it’s the family business – and loves using her experience to help borrowers figure out not only their short-term project strategy, but also long-term goals to make the most of their real estate investment career. While managing her family’s investment properties, Susan began to look into alternative financing options for investors looking to leverage their cash, a search that brought her to ABL.
“I like working at ABL because being a part of a hard money lender that’s also a small business give me a great platform to educate investors. I want to help people get the best available financing for their deals and make a lot of money.”
Susan is one of two bilingual loan officers on this team, speaking both English and Arabic. She loves to travel, especially to Europe, and has family in Egypt that she plans to visit in the near future. Even when she’s not traveling, Susan tries to cultivate new experiences. Each week, she looks for a different ethnic Jersey City restaurant to try foods she has never tasted before.
Sofia Ramos
Born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey, Sofia brings strong first-hand knowledge of Northeast urban neighborhoods to the ABL team. Even though she may not know borrowers during the first phone call, she feels like her experience in the neighborhoods many of our investors work in brings a level of comfort to the conversation that makes it easy for her to understand and work with borrowers. She knows the market and is willing to be honest with investors about project potential.
With ten years of real estate experience under her belt, Sofia is a highly qualified loan officer who is well equipped to help any new or experienced investor secure funding. Sofia worked as a realtor before she joined ABL, helping buyers and sellers find the perfect properties. She understands what buyers ask for and what renovations have the best returns for sellers – knowledge that is extremely useful for fix and flip investors.
As a bilingual loan officer, Sofia wants to bring ABL’s reliable hard money loan services to Spanish-speaking communities in the areas we already lend in. Sofia believes that language provides not only understanding, but also trust and transparency. The loan process is too important for investors to work through in a second language; thanks to Sofia, Spanish-speaking borrowers don’t have to settle. With Sofia on the ABL team, our hard money loans are more accessible than ever!
Sofia also wants to use her extensive real estate and management experience to help streamline the investment process for busy borrowers; she hopes to focus on connecting investors with her rockstar network – enhancing everyone’s business potential.
“My favorite part of the job is putting borrowers at ease and walking them through the process. It’s exciting to talk to new borrowers about all of the potential their new real estate business has and give them the information they need to be successful.”
– Sofia Ramos
When she’s not helping borrowers plan profitable investments, Sofia often goes hiking with her son. Their favorite trails are on Garret Mountain, a nature reservation on the border of Paterson and Woodland Park. Walking in nature helps her find peace and clarity in a fast-paced world. Since Sofia is extremely family-oriented, the time she gets to spend with her son doing something they both enjoy is an added bonus.
Joseph Ruggiero
As a mortgage broker in New Jersey, Joe was working with ABL for a year before he joined the team as a loan officer. After building relationships with ABL team members, Joe decided to come aboard because he wanted to put himself in a position to help a greater number of investors advance in their field, align with an established company, and add to his arsenal of real estate knowledge.
Thanks to his on-the-ground experience working with investors, Joe has a thorough understanding of both sides of the hard money loan transaction. Joe knows what investors are thinking at each stage of the hard money loan and is able to assuage any concerns the borrower may have about what goes on on our side of the process. He is able to simply and effectively communicate with borrowers so that they fully understand the path to funding. Joe’s specialty as a member of the NJ team is helping investors understand the details of their hard money loan and the subsequent impact on their real estate investment objectives.
Joe grew up in Union County and currently lives in Bergen County with his wife and two-month old daughter. As a result, he is intimately familiar with his territories in Northern and Central New Jersey. Like every good New Jersey native, Joe started building his knowledge of coastal NJ real estate by spending his summers at the shore.
“I enjoy piecing together the not-so-straightforward deals. When there’s a challenging deal with many moving parts and you finally see it come together – that’s rewarding for me.”
– Joe Ruggiero
Because of his past work as a mortgage broker, Joe has an extensive network with real estate professionals across New Jersey and can connect ABL borrowers with realtors, contractors, and appraisers who can help investors pull off successful projects.
After hours, Joe likes to watch wrestling matches and college football with his daughter. When he’s not with his family or at ABL, Joe is at home on a wrestling mat where he’s been a competitor and coach for over 20 years.