Over the course of the last month there has been a ton of commentary in this space about the transition of the America’s Mortgage Choice team from Mortgage Broker to Mortgage Banker. A funny thing happened as part of the transition. It became fun to be in the mortgage industry again. After all the problems and challenges over the last couple of years a “swamped busy” challenge of a month end was fun to be around.
Sometimes you don’t know exactly how good or bad something is while you are in the middle of it. This was the case with brokering loans. We just came to accept the fight that is the lending environment on the broker side. All the problems of arguing guidelines, HVCC compliance and slow turn times were combining to make the business a lot less “fun”.
On our first month on the banking side we were able to have some semblance of a normal month. This means we got the chance to have discussions about the underwriting of our loans with underwriters who are on the same team. Second we received appraisals (and no they were not all perfect) quickly and efficiently, and true to their word when we were being recruited, the turn times stayed at two days!
We sent loans to closing with funds on the days that they were scheduled. Actually providing this level of service is an accomplishment in itself these days. On the broker side, purchase deals were still going sideways and closing 3-5 days after scheduled. Oddly the lenders just don’t seem to care.
Oh well, not our problem any longer. We are back to being about closing good loans for good borrowers. It’s a great feeling about the business again!
