Mortgage lenders know 2022 is going to be a trying year. After frantically trying to build up capacity to meet demand in 2020 and 2021, they're slimming operations and renegotiating comp with operations staff in 2022.
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Hello, LOs!
Mortgage lenders know 2022 is going to be a trying year. After frantically trying to build up capacity to meet demand in 2020 and 2021, they're slimming operations and renegotiating comp with operations staff in 2022.
But some appear to zig when others zag. Take, for instance, PennyMac. According to Inside Mortgage Finance's latest ranking, PennyMac was the second-biggest mortgage lender in America in 2021, with $235 billion in originations, a 20% jump from 2021.
While others are shutting down call centers and laying off LOs and others, PennyMac is expanding its originations arm. The California-based lender and servicer is opening a $4 million originations call center for 325 jobs in Franklin, Tennessee.
It's already well known for its servicing platform and its correspondent business line, but PennyMac executives clearly see a real opportunity in both the broker channel and in consumer direct. It's the latter that I find interesting.
Plenty of LOs tell me that call center LOs are "low-skill" and are given hundreds of cold leads in the hopes that one or two pan out, which will pay their relatively meager salaries. Even if that's true, this model isn't going anywhere.
So lemme ask you, LOs – what do you think about the future of the originations call center? Will it simply continue to be a reliable way for lenders to do refis on the cheap? Do you see a future in call centers handling a bigger share of purchase mortgages? Maybe Big Data gets smarter and customers get more accustomed to digital lending? Share your thoughts with me anonymously at jkleimann@housingwire.com.
PennyMac is expanding its consumer direct lending business while some competitors are laying off employees on the expectation that the channel cools down with higher mortgage rates.
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