Last week, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) announced its first-ever Diversity & Inclusion Transparency Report. According to a recent Fortune article, “women and racially diverse talent now account for 65% of [PwC] entry-level hires, 7% of whom identify as Black, 12% as Latinx.” Shannon Schuyler, PwC Chief Purpose and Inclusion Officer, said the company’s goal is to […]
Stratmor recently reported that 84% of the purchase money volume originated last year was generated by producers with less than five years in the mortgage business. When I shared this fact with senior executives, the majority were surprised; only a handful of managers noticed a similar trend at their companies. This raises the question, […]
Last week, shock waves rippled through mortgage banking after 50 basis points were unexpectedly added to refinance loan fees. This action took a lot of lenders by surprise and sent many originators into panic mode. This is yet another example that the business world is filled with events that can seemingly come out of nowhere. […]
Before the Covid-19 virus swept through the country, industries were already facing unprecedented challenges from technological innovation to dramatic shifts in consumer buying behavior. But amid this global pandemic, selling has never been more difficult. Mortgage managers, originators, and home loan prospects alike are operating in an environment of extreme uncertainty about what the […]
Every day, we are witnessing changes that many predicted would be coming to the mortgage landscape, but now they have arrived. From online loan processing to video conferencing, our industry is undergoing a fundamental shift. While it is hard to concentrate on the future when the present is so robust with refinance volume, mortgage […]
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the normal way of doing things is being redefined on a daily basis. Many financial experts consider this global pandemic to be a “black swan” event. From Nassim Taleb’s “black swan” theory, the term refers to rare, unexpected events of large magnitude with potentially severe consequences. While predicting the future […]
Last week, I discussed highlights from Quicken’s IPO and how the company has achieved record growth by having a defined sales process; and training and developing employees. While these are certainly not new concepts, they are rarely practiced at mortgage banking firms. While a number of lenders claim to provide employees with a structured […]
Last Tuesday, the Quicken IPO was finally filed after countless rumors that it would happen. Based on my recent conversations with sales leaders, there is no question that Quicken’s S-1 was read closely by mortgage executives across the board. Much of the material from ISMs was well known in the industry, but some statements were […]
Conventional wisdom in our industry assumes that the next step for mortgage processors is the underwriter position. In the past, this seemed logical when the processor role was primarily administrative. But today, many lenders expect processors to communicate with borrowers, vendors, and other parties in the loan process. As the processor role has evolved, so […]
There is never a perfect time to make changes to your sales process. In the current marketplace, where volume is overwhelming and many lenders are turning away business, it may seem counterintuitive to discuss what it will take to succeed in a 2021 purchase money environment. Nothing could be further from the truth. According to […]