Anthony Lombardo

About

You can say with confidence that Anthony Lombardo found his passion, combining a love of entrepreneurship and personal growth to form his new, full-service mortgage brokerage, Empire Home Loans, Inc.

Along with industry stalwarts and long-time friends, Leo Whitton and Julie Yarbrough, the three visionaries created an innovative business that best serves consumers – and is already upsetting the mortgage industry.

The genesis of his love for technology, science, and patterns grew as he attended El Camino High School in Sacramento, leading him right to Cal Poly for college, where he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in 1998. After college, he returned to Folsom to work at Intel, honing his knowledge of systems, components, and organizational flow.

In 2003, Anthony decided to move to Arizona to partner with his mother, who founded Hi-Tech Mortgage, Inc. in 1999. With Anthony adding the proper structure and technology to the already-budding mortgage firm, Hi-Tech Mortgage has thrived, funding more than a billion dollars in home loans and still going strong.

But Sacramento held a strong calling for Anthony, who moved back to California’s capital city in 2008, while the US was sliding into the real estate and mortgage meltdown. While others might be discouraged and disheartened by our broken housing system, Anthony saw opportunity.

He began investing in houses, “buying when blood is in the streets,” as Warren Buffet famously suggests. There was even a foray into starting his own real estate firm in 2010, Lombardo Real Estate Inc, where some good old-fashioned hard work landed him on the Master’s Club list two years in a row, as well as being named a NAHREP top-250 Realtor in the entire US!

However, Anthony’s love of the mortgage industry never waned, and he’s remained a licensed mortgage broker since 2003.

Always focused on the big picture, Anthony also served as the California Association of Mortgage Professional (CAMP) Sacramento chapter President, growing our chapter to #1 in the whole state of California, where it’s remained since. Thanks to his track record of effective leadership, Anthony was voted President of that same California Association of Mortgage Professionals for all of California in 2015 and 2016. He’s still an active member of CAMP as well as a member of the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME).

Anthony’s passion to build something new, bold, and higher-reaching led to his collaboration with Leo Whitton, himself a formidable mortgage lender and industry advocate, and people-centric home loan dynamo, Julie Yarbrough. The three friends envisioned a new platform that would upset the current stale mortgage industry, better serving and empowering their clients and the general public.

Anthony Lombardo, Leo Whitton, and Julie Yarbrough have done just that with Empire Home Loans.

“We wanted to start something really special here in California and beyond,” says Anthony. “Leo, Julie, and I have always been in-sync, and the timing is perfect now.”

Anthony lives in Sacramento with his wife, Jessica, where they raise their two great kids.

“I really enjoy spending time with my family; camping, music, and being social with everyone,” says Lombardo. “But I also get excited to get back to work Monday mornings, because I love what I do!”