Asked whether he prefers to go by “Martin” or “Marty,” Martin Medve laughed. “I go by McFly,” said the co-owner and principal broker of Trident Home Loans. A former U.S. Navy carrier pilot and current Delta Airlines captain, Medve shares his first name with Marty McFly, Michael J. Fox’s character from the “Back to the Future” franchise. Thanks in part to a well-timed coincidence, the name stuck.
“I got my wings the week ‘Back to the Future’ came out,” he said with a chuckle. “So, suddenly I was ‘Marty McFly’ and that stuck. That’s my call sign and all the Navy pilots still call me that.”
Medve, who flew EA-6B Prowler twin-engine aircraft during his naval days, has never strayed from his military background even after leaving active duty. His company specializes in serving active-duty military and veteran homebuyers. Based on 2020 production numbers, Medve topped Scotsman Guide’s 2021 Top VA Volume rankings with $345.6 million in closed loans backed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He also is No. 1 on the publication’s Top Veteran Originators list with nearly $436.8 million in total volume.
As someone who knows what it’s like to walk in a veteran’s shoes, Medve prides himself and his company in being well-suited to cater to borrowers with a military pedigree.
I used the refi boom to create more loyal referral sources. I didn’t use it to make money like a lot of people did.
“It’s just a cultural connection I have with a lot of the people who come to us,” Medve said. “And it’s not just me — it’s our whole team. We have a very broad culture of enlisted military, as well as spouses, from various groups. We’re very well-connected to our borrowers. We understand them very well.”
Working with veterans, Medve said, is simple. Earn their trust and loyalty, which will pay lasting dividends. This client base has been deeply instilled with a code of ethics, he said, and by following a similar set of values, Trident Home Loans sets itself up to be “set for life in this business.” His 18 years in the mortgage business has involved a lot of hard work to build this trust. Now that trust has been achieved, his referral base of past clients tends to do the marketing for him.
These referrals are golden to a company that, according to Medve, “doesn’t really market,” choosing instead to contribute to various military charities and service academies. The past year, he said, has been a good opportunity to strengthen his word-of-mouth network.
“I used the refi boom to create more loyal referral sources,” Medve said. “I didn’t use it to make money like a lot of people did. Anyone who knows anything about the mortgage business knows that refi booms come and go, but it’s purchases that create the life and longevity of the company.”
Medve takes his mission to defend the financial well-being of his borrowers to heart, in large part because so many of them have sacrificed a lot to defend the country’s freedom. Veterans tend to be quite loyal in response to ethical treatment, so Medve prioritizes this interest above all else.
“Not that I don’t do quite well, but I didn’t make money for many, many years doing this,” he explained. “We just built a company around a different ethic. I will fight tooth and nail to ensure that every single person that we close — and it’s not just the veterans — is treated with respect and has nothing to complain about. But considering the number of veterans we work with, for what they do for us, it’s really the least we can do.” ●
