Hello, LOs!
Nice to see you again! I've been out on parental leave for the last month or so, and man, lemme tell you, I have never been so tired. But I am so glad to be back at work, so let's get right down to it.
Earlier this month, Guaranteed Rate made the decision to shut down Stearns' wholesale division. In doing so, the Victor Ciardelli-led IMB laid off the operations staff that supported the broker channel operations as well as the SoFi partnership. That's 348 jobs chopped.
Industry sources tell HousingWire that G-Rate is hardly the only large lender looking to cut costs by eliminating jobs and folding less profitable operations. Those moves don't always meet the requirements for issuing a WARN notice, but they're often key to staying in the black.
"I think what you're seeing a lot of firms do is they're doing it discreetly in smaller groups, like heavier performance management, and then they're doing it by changing comp," said one mortgage executive. "I think what you're going to find is that operationally, there's going to be a lot of talent out there because there's just going to be so many people looking for a job and there's just not going to be many because the capacity got so overbuilt."
It's now undeniable that margin compression is really hurting firms big and small, wholesale and retail.
We know there's lots of waste at the branch level for many retail shops. So, lemme ask you, retail LOs – what are you seeing out there? Are your colleagues losing loan officer assistants now that volumes are slipping and the lender doesn't think the costs are justified? Have you seen top producers head for the exits?
Let me know anonymously by emailing me at jkleimann@housingwire.com. (I will trade baby pics for information!)
James Kleimann
Managing Editor, HousingWire
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