Embattled digital mortgage lender Better.com announced today that it had laid off 3,000 workers across the U.S. and India, roughly 35% of its workforce.
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Hello, LOs!
Embattled digital mortgage lender Better.com announced today that it had laid off 3,000 workers across the U.S. and India, roughly 35% of its workforce.
Among the casualties of the latest bloodletting will be loan officers, processors and "agent experience partners" (real estate agent liaisons) in the U.S. Check out our story here.
As TechCrunch reported, Better bungled this layoff too. Employees realized they had been pink slipped when the company's payroll system alerted them of their severance pay.
"Today I found out via my banking app that I was laid off from Better," Kiana Brown, one former Home Advisor, wrote on LinkedIn. "I would say that I am shocked but I am more heartbroken than anything else. I moved as a single mother to a new city for this opportunity all on my own. Spent countless hours preparing and studying mortgage knowledge to advance my skills to be treated as if I didn't matter. I understand layoffs happen. What I don't understand is how the company communicated the news."
Better, a direct lender with limited traction in purchase mortgages and no servicing arm, has been losing money for several quarters now. You have to wonder about the company's prospects of survival at this point given the reputational harm.
As we have reported, layoffs are a fact of life for people in the mortgage biz, but let me ask you, LOs – is there a good way to conduct layoffs? What's the worst layoff you've experienced or witnessed? Share your thoughts with me at jkleimann@housingwire.com.
Pink slips will arrive for 3,000 employees of Better.com, the mortgage lender that received a mountain of bad press three months ago when its CEO, Vishal Garg, fired 900 workers via Zoom.
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