Lenders shrink commission payouts

Lending Life | Your Look @ Mortgage Origination

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Good afternoon, LOs!

SimpleNexus's third quarter numbers on LO commissions are in, and it sure looks like we're heading toward pre-pandemic compensation levels.

Overall, LOs saw monthly commissions earned in Q3 2021 decrease 17% overall from Q3 2020. Plus, there was a 2.44% decrease in per-loan commission rates to 100.4 basis points in Q3 2021, down from 102.9 bps in Q3 2020. Lenders notably reduced per-loan commission rates on refinances by 7.17%, to 88.4 bps from 95.2 bps a year ago. There was also a huge drop in refi commissions overall, down 37% year-over-year. That contributed to LOs averaging $2.2 million in funded volume per month in the third quarter of 2021, a 14.9% decrease from Q3 2020.

Though purchase volume funded by LOs was up, lenders paid lower commissions in the third quarter of 2021 than they did a year ago. LOs received 108.1 bps of earned commission on purchase loans in the third quarter of 2021, down 1.58% from 109.84 bps a year ago.

So...that's not great. We've heard that a few of the big-name lenders – including loanDepot – are renegotiating commission agreements with LOs. What is your lender doing? Let me know anonymously by emailing me at jkleimann@housingwire.com.

James Kleimann

Managing Editor, HousingWire

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