Banker turned broker
About Brian Poetschlag
In the mortgage business since 2002. Eleven years inside JPMorgan Chase. Now a broker in Yorba Linda with 175+ lenders on my desk and one job: finding the loan that fits you.
NMLS #487617West Capital Lending NMLS #1566096No credit pull to start
I'm Brian Poetschlag, a mortgage broker at West Capital Lending. I live in Yorba Linda, I've been in the mortgage business since 2002, and I spent seventeen of those years, 2007 to 2024, inside one of the biggest banks in the country. Then I left to do the job the way I thought it should be done.
That's the short version. Here's the rest.
Since 2002, from five different chairs
Most loan officers have done one job at one kind of company. I've worked this business from five different seats: wholesale lending, private money, licensed investment banking, retail banking and management.
Each one taught me something the others couldn't.
- Wholesale lending put me on the lender's side of the desk. I learned how files get priced and how exceptions actually get approved.
- Private money taught me what to do when the institutional answer is no: bridge loans, short-term paper, deals that don't fit a checkbox.
- Investment banking is why I talk about your loan as an asset with a cost of capital and a hold period, not just a monthly payment.
- Retail banking was seventeen years at JPMorgan Chase, 2007 to 2024.
- Management was three of those Chase years, running a top-performing home lending team in Southern California.
Eleven years at Chase
I spent eight years at Chase as a Senior Home Lending Advisor. When you do volume inside a bank that size, you see every scenario, every objection and every way a deal can fall apart. Then I spent three years managing one of the top home lending teams in Southern California, reviewing thousands of files that weren't mine. That's a fast way to learn every way a loan dies.
I left as a former bank VP. It was a good career. It was also a box.
A bank sells its own products at its own prices. When a borrower didn't fit the shelf, the answer was no, even when I knew twenty other lenders would have said yes. I watched buyers lose houses they should have closed on. I watched homeowners sit on equity they couldn't touch. I watched investors get turned away because the bank never built a product for the way real rental deals work.
I'm also a cancer survivor. That does something to your patience for work you don't believe in. After you've had the conversation where the future isn't guaranteed, you stop spending your days apologizing for a product you can't stand behind.
So I left Chase in November 2024.
Why I became a broker
In April 2025 I joined West Capital Lending as a broker. I went from one lender's shelf to more than 175 lenders. That changes the conversation completely.
Now I don't hope your situation fits the product. I compare lenders until I find the product that fits your situation, and I show you the side-by-side. You see real terms, real fees and an APR on every option. If your current loan or your bank's offer already wins, I tell you that and you keep it. It costs you fifteen minutes.
I still know exactly how a bank's underwriting desk thinks, because I sat on that side of it. That helps when a file gets complicated. I know where a deal is going to break, and I can usually route around it before it does.
What I do now
I work with four kinds of clients, most of them here in North Orange County:
- Homeowners with a low first mortgage who want to use their equity without giving up their rate. That usually means a HELOC, sometimes a cash-out refinance, and I put the two side by side.
- Homeowners 62 and older who want to stay put or right-size. See reverse mortgages.
- Buyers and move-up buyers, including self-employed people the banks keep turning down. See home purchase loans.
- Real estate investors who want a loan based on the property's rent, not their tax returns. See DSCR loans.
I'm licensed in 32 states, so I also work with clients well outside California. Some of my recent reviews come from Texas, Missouri and Alabama.
Credentials you can check
I'd rather you verify me than take my word for it.
- Individual NMLS #487617. Verify my license on NMLS Consumer Access.
- West Capital Lending, Inc., company NMLS #1566096. Verify on NMLS Consumer Access.
- California DRE #01733066 (mine) and DRE #02022356 (West Capital Lending).
- CMPS (Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist) and CDLP (Certified Divorce Lending Professional).
- Licensed in 32 states. The full list is on my licensing page.
Yorba Linda, off the clock
Yorba Linda is home. I'm a girl dad, which means a lot of my weekends happen in gyms watching volleyball. I build things in my garage with my hands, because woodworking is the one place nobody asks me about interest rates. And I'm the guy in the 1966 Chevelle. It's not fast by modern standards. It's built right, and I appreciate that more every year.
I also post about mortgages on Instagram and YouTube. I'm roughly 99,000 followers away from calling myself an influencer without laughing.
What clients say
Great person to deal with for business; you understand and put no pressure. He talk like he knew me for years and he was honest.
Brian was fantastic! He listened to us, took in everything he heard and followed it up with options that not only worked for us, but also far exceeded our expectations.
This was a great experienc. Brian was very helpful and helped us through the entire process.
Quoted word for word from my Experience.com profile (5.0 stars from 8 reviews).
More on the reviews page, with links to my full Experience.com profile.
Let's look at your numbers
If you want to know what your house can do for you, or whether your bank's offer is any good, send me the numbers. Call or text (714) 713-3133 or book 15 minutes. If you want the longer argument for using a broker at all, I wrote it up in is a mortgage broker worth it.
Let’s look at your numbers
Fifteen minutes. Your real numbers. No pressure.
Call or text my cell, or book a time. You’ll get a written comparison with real terms and an APR on every option, and if your current deal already wins, I’ll tell you.