I believe in service through a process, not process through a service. The first means real handholding with a client from beginning to end. The second just means being handed off through a system, and that’s not how I run a file.
Hi, I’m Adam Cato. I’ve spent over 12 years in real estate, and for the last several as a mortgage broker with Anchor Funding, Inc. here in San Diego. I got my start as a Certified Veterans Loan Specialist, so VA financing is still where I spend a lot of my attention, but I work with buyers across the board — first-time homebuyers, self-employed borrowers, investors, and clients referred by real estate agents who need a loan that actually closes.
I handle Conventional, FHA, VA, and USDA loans, along with non-QM options like bank statement, 1099, and asset-based financing for borrowers who don’t fit a traditional W-2 box, plus hard money and bridge loans when timing matters more than a perfect paper trail. If your situation is complicated, that’s usually when I’m most useful.
If you’re a real estate agent, I know how much it matters to get loans funded on time and keep deals from falling apart. I work closely with agents to structure pre-approvals that hold up, flag issues early, and make sure your clients actually make it to closing.
If you want a straight answer about what you can actually afford and what loan makes sense for your situation, reach out and I’ll walk you through it.
Adam Cato is a San Diego-based mortgage broker and Certified Veterans Loan Specialist (NAMB), operating under Anchor Funding, Inc. He specializes in VA, Conventional, FHA, and USDA loans, plus non-QM options for self-employed and 1099 borrowers and hard money/bridge financing. Adam fully underwrites every file before a client starts shopping, and works closely with referral agents to structure pre-approvals that hold up through closing.
I got into real estate in 2015, working with buyers. Back then, I referred my clients’ loans out to a broker who ran a five-minute phone pre-qual instead of actually underwriting the file — and more than once, that caught up with us mid-escrow, when it was too late to fix.
That’s the reason I got my mortgage license in 2019. I wanted to be the one underwriting the file from the start, not finding out about a problem three weeks before closing.
I spent 2020 and 2021 doing refinances, then built that into a full purchase business. In 2023, I added a real estate broker’s license on top of the lending side, so I’d understand both halves of every deal.
When I took the StrengthsFinder assessment, my top two strengths came back as Context and Harmony. Context is why I review a client’s full financial picture before recommending a loan product, instead of just matching them to whatever they ask for. Harmony is why I care so much about keeping referral relationships smooth — a deal that blows up mid-escrow doesn’t just hurt my client, it puts the agent who trusted me with the referral in a bad spot too.
That’s what led me to go all-in on lending. Today, as a Certified Veterans Loan Specialist through NAMB, I fully underwrite every file before a client starts shopping for a home — the same thing I wish someone had done for my clients back in 2015.
One of the deals I’m most proud of was a VA cash-out refinance on a triplex in San Diego. My client wanted to pull over $2 million out of the property, and the numbers only worked if the appraisal came in at the right value.
It didn’t. The appraisal came back about $700,000 short of what we needed.
Instead of walking away, I went through the appraisal line by line. The appraiser had skipped the income approach entirely — despite the property being an income-producing triplex — and never looked outside the zip code for comparable sales, even though that’s exactly what a property like this needed.
I spent weeks building the case: pulling the right comparables, documenting the income the property actually generated, and laying out exactly where the appraisal fell short. Then I escalated a reconsideration of value to one of the VA’s highest authorities.
The revised valuation came back at $2.4 million. The refinance closed.
That’s the kind of file I run — not just submitting what comes back, but knowing when something is wrong and being willing to fight for a client’s number when the first answer isn’t the right one.
Adam Cato is a San Diego-based mortgage broker and licensed real estate broker, operating under Anchor Funding, Inc. He’s also a Certified Veterans Loan Specialist (NAMB) with over 12 years in real estate, focused on helping clients and referral partners close loans that hold up all the way through escrow.
Adam works with Conventional, FHA, VA, and USDA loans, along with non-QM options for self-employed and 1099 borrowers and hard money/bridge financing for unique situations.
A Certified Veterans Loan Specialist (CVLS) is a NAMB credential for mortgage professionals who complete advanced training in VA loan guidelines, eligibility, and the appraisal and underwriting issues specific to veteran and military borrowers.
Yes. Adam regularly works with self-employed and 1099 borrowers whose income doesn’t fit a standard W-2 file, using non-QM loan programs and bank-statement or asset-based qualification when a conventional loan isn’t the right fit.
Adam fully underwrites every file before a client starts shopping for a home, so agents can trust that a pre-approval will actually hold up through closing. He communicates directly with referral agents throughout the transaction to keep deals on track.
On a personal note, Adam is newly married to his wife Katherine. They spend their free time dancing to salsa, practicing Brazilian jiu jitsu together, and remodeling the home they recently bought in San Diego. They also volunteer at orphanages in Tijuana, MX with an organization called Amigos 2 Familia. We are blessed to live in a country with incredible wealth and in fact we don’t know how lucky we have it in America until we see what kinds of conditions those in other countries live in. These orphans have so little and every little bit helps them. Please consider donating to Amigos 2 Familia today by visiting here or better yet! Come join us on our next trip!
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