Hummel Mortgage Team - Powered by Lending Heights

Lending Heights - Hummel Mortgage Team is a mortgage lending practice based in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, serving borrowers throughout the Commonwealth and in Florida. The team is led by Todd Hummel, a licensed Mortgage Advisor (NMLS #747940) who holds licensing in both Pennsylvania and Florida. The practice works with a broad mix of clients: first-time buyers purchasing an initial home, existing homeowners moving up or refinancing, self-employed borrowers with non-traditional income documentation, and real estate investors acquiring or refinancing rental property.

The office can be reached at +1 610-401-4071. Hamburg sits in northern Berks County along the Schuylkill River, which places the practice within reasonable distance of Reading, Allentown, Pottsville and the surrounding communities that make up much of its Pennsylvania client base.

Background and Experience

Todd Hummel brings more than 33 years of professional experience to the mortgage business. Roughly 18 of those years were spent in banking, where he worked in collections, supervised customer service operations and managed lending functions. The past decade has been devoted specifically to mortgage lending. That combination of backgrounds is relevant to how files are handled: experience on the collections and credit side tends to produce a practical understanding of how underwriters read a credit profile, what raises questions and what documentation resolves them before a file stalls.

The stated approach is consultative rather than transactional. The process begins with understanding what the borrower is actually trying to accomplish, whether that is a monthly payment target, a timeline tied to a lease ending, a long term plan to hold property as a rental, or a desire to consolidate debt. Options are then explained in plain terms, and a loan structure is built around the individual situation rather than fitting the borrower into a single default program. For files that are complicated by self-employment, non-standard income, credit history or property type, the emphasis is on finding a workable path rather than declining and moving on.

Purchase Financing

Purchase lending covers the full range of agency and government backed programs. Conventional financing is available for primary residences and second homes, structured around the borrower's income, down payment and long term plans. FHA purchase mortgages are frequently used by buyers working with smaller down payments or credit profiles that fall outside conventional guidelines. VA purchase loans are available to eligible veterans and service members, and USDA rural housing loans serve qualifying properties and borrowers in eligible areas of both Pennsylvania and Florida, which covers a meaningful share of the farmland and small town geography across Berks, Schuylkill and Lebanon Counties.

Preapproval is a central part of the purchase process here. The team issues clear preapprovals so that buyers understand their actual qualifying range before writing an offer, which matters in competitive situations where sellers and listing agents evaluate the strength of the financing behind a bid. Pre-approval applications are handled through a secure 1003 application portal, the standard uniform residential loan application format used across the industry.

Refinancing and Equity Products

Refinance work begins with an analysis of whether the transaction makes financial sense at all. Rather than assuming a refinance is appropriate, the team reviews the existing loan, the new terms, closing costs and the borrower's remaining time horizon in the home to determine whether the numbers justify the move.

Available refinance paths include conventional rate and term and cash out options, FHA Streamline refinances for existing FHA borrowers seeking a lower rate with reduced documentation, and VA Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans (IRRRLs) for existing VA borrowers. For homeowners who want access to equity but prefer to leave a favorable first mortgage rate untouched, home equity lines of credit are offered as an alternative to a full refinance.

Specialty and Non-Traditional Programs

Several programs in the lineup address situations that standard agency underwriting handles poorly:

• Bank statement mortgages, which qualify self-employed borrowers using deposit history rather than tax returns, a common need when legitimate business write-offs reduce reported income below what the borrower actually earns.
• One-close construction mortgages, which combine the construction loan and the permanent mortgage into a single closing, eliminating a second round of closing costs and a second qualification process.
• Buy before you sell bridge loans, which allow a homeowner to purchase a new home before the current one sells, removing the need to write a contingent offer in markets where sellers rarely accept them.

Investment Property Lending

Investor financing is a defined part of the practice, structured around the goals of both newer investors buying a first rental and established owners expanding a portfolio. Programs include DSCR purchase and refinance mortgages, which qualify the loan on the property's rental cash flow rather than the borrower's personal income, an approach that allows investors to continue acquiring property without running into debt-to-income ceilings. Fix and flip financing supports short term acquisition and renovation projects intended for resale, and multi-unit investment property loans serve buyers of duplexes, triplexes and larger rental buildings.

Working With Real Estate Agents

The team also functions as a lending partner for real estate agents. The support offered to agents centers on three practical points: preapprovals written clearly enough that listing agents can rely on them, responsive communication during the contract period, and proactive identification of problems before they become closing delays. For agents in Berks County and the surrounding region, that relationship is intended to provide a consistent point of contact rather than a rotating cast of loan officers.

Service Area

Pennsylvania coverage extends statewide, with concentrated activity in Berks, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Schuylkill, Chester, Dauphin, Northampton, Bucks and Montgomery Counties. That footprint covers much of southeastern and south central Pennsylvania, including Reading, Allentown, Bethlehem, Lancaster, Harrisburg and the communities between them.

Florida licensing allows the team to serve clients relocating south or buying second homes and investment property there, with particular focus on Volusia County and the greater Orlando area. The dual licensing is useful for Pennsylvania homeowners who retire to Florida, buy seasonal property or acquire rental units in the central Florida market while keeping their primary lending relationship local.

Getting Started

Prospective borrowers and agents can begin with a conversation about goals and timing by calling +1 610-401-4071. Applications are submitted through a secure online 1003 portal, and preapproval is typically the first step for anyone planning a purchase.