For the purposes of our research, mortgage professionals include those individuals that originate, finance or facilitate the process of obtaining a real estate loan. Mortgage Brokers and Mortgage Bankers are both considered “Mortgage Professionals” for the purposes of the Five Star research and award program.

		We ask up to 10,000 to 50,000 recent homebuyers and 250 mortgage and tile companies (depending on market size) to evaluate “mortgage professionals” in their market area. On the surveys, respondents were asked to evaluate only mortgage professionals whom they knew through personal experience, and to evaluate them on two categories of performance: overall satisfaction and whether they would highly recommend them to a friend.

		After the evaluation surveys are received each mortgage professional receives a preliminary score based on their evaluations. Both favorable and unfavorable evaluations are incorporated into the evaluation score.

		Each mortgage professional is qualified against their State’s Real Estate Commission Databases to make certain that licenses are up to date and that no disciplinary actions are pending.

		We then compile a list of the top scoring mortgage professionals – representing less than 7 percent of the mortgage professionals in the market – which we forward on to a Panel of Industry Experts for review. The Panel of Industry Experts is comprised of mortgage company executives, professional and trade-association officers, realty company executives and others directly involved in the mortgage industry. Each Panelist reviews a partial list of mortgage professionals and is asked to indicate which mortgage professionals they believe are undeserving of the Five Star award and to indicate mortgage professionals they believe are deserving, but are not on their partial list. Checks and balances are in place to avoid conflicts of interest; specifically, panelists remain anonymous, only receive a portion of the nominee list and, in most cases, cannot add or remove a mortgage professional by themselves.

		Finally, the mortgage professionals who have made the list are required to certify that their license(s) is active and that they have had no disciplinary actions taken against them.

		Please remember the final list identifies precisely what the evaluation process is designed to do … it identifies those mortgage professionals in the local market that scored highest in overall client satisfaction, based on extensive surveying of recent homebuyers and real estate agents on two key categories of service; based on our review of disciplinary actions; and review of the list by a Panel of Industry Experts. The list is not intended to be exhaustive – in fact the story page states:

	“Although this list will certainly be a useful tool for anyone looking for mortgage services, it should not be considered exhaustive. Undoubtedly, there are many other excellent mortgage professionals who, for one reason or another, are not on this year’s list. But don’t be surprised to see them next year.”

The following additional declarations are included in the section editorial:
As with any research or recognition program, it is important that we provide you the following declarations:

		The Five Star Mortgage Professionals do not pay a fee to be included in the research or the final list of Five Star Mortgage Professionals.

		The overall evaluation score of a mortgage professional reflects an average of all respondents and may not be representative of any one client’s experience.

		The Five Star award is not indicative of the mortgage professional’s future performance.

		Mortgage professionals may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their client’s assets.

		The inclusion of a mortgage professional on the Five Star Mortgage Professionals list should not be construed as an endorsement of the mortgage professional by Five Star Professional or the Magazine.

		The research process for the Five Star Mortgage Professional Program, managed by QMI Research, incorporates a statistically valid sample in order to identify the mortgage professionals in the local market that score highest in overall client satisfaction. QMI Research does not include mortgage professionals on the list unless their score is statistically valid.