Pros
Before COVID hit, before people knew who we were, before Lower.com field, before the big series A funding, Lower was absolutely the best place to work. I thought I was going to retire from this place. Boy was I wrong.
Cons
Strap in. I really didn’t think I was ever going to write one of these. I remember when all of our 5 star reviews were authentic and genuine. Now that I’ve had some time to process the events of 2022, it’s time I get this off my chest. Delusion. The top executives at Lower are completely delusional. Their egos have gravitational pull. They are solely responsible for Lower’s downfall and what is even more mind-boggling is THEY DON’T EVEN REALIZE IT. Greed. Is the market crap? Yes. But guess what? So many mortgage companies are thriving or at the very least SURVIVING in this market. Why? Because they didn’t make stupid decisions 2020-2021. They didn’t get greedy and hire absurd amounts of people during the refi boom (50-100 ppl/month for awhile). They took advantage of the market but didn’t saturate themselves. They didn’t put their names on stadiums or move into lavish offices. They retained their stars, hired a few to help with turn times, and stayed humble. Incompetence. Lower seriously overcomplicates the foundation of a mortgage company. LOANS NEED TO MOVE EFFICIENTLY. If your sole focus is new business, but you over work and under pay your operations department (folks whose job takes a TON of training), guess what? …yep. They’re going to QUIT. Consequently loans don’t close on time and the borrower is stuck paying additional fees for extending their locked interest rates. It’s truly hilarious that they screw this up. Panic. Lower didn’t have a CFO until this year. THIS YEAR. It was too late. When they realized they were bleeding, they started mass layoffs. The worst part about this is they started the layoffs based on production, so they slowly started letting people go, paying some severance, letting a month go by, reassessing, realizing they’re still screwed, and repeat… UNTIL the last round of layoffs. They were down to their best people, only this time, they couldn’t afford to pay severance and they didn’t want to pay unemployment so guess what they did? They sold their soles. They brought almost everyone that was left (some of the best people in the company) in for department meetings. The ops group was fired (unemployment eligible) and the sales people were moved to commission only- meaning they stripped 100% of their base salaries. So now, the people in that meeting weren’t being fired so they couldn’t quit and get unemployment or severance. They were going to get paid more in commission but you have to understand, rates are at 7+%. Pretty hard to completely change the way you do business and make money in the worst market since before the internet was invented. This happened to Lower’s best and most loyal people!!! Oh, in the midst of all of this, they sent everyone a new, pretty shady employment agreement :’) The events that have brought the downfall of Lower would truly make a good Netflix documentary. Hopefully they get wind. To all of my former Lower colleagues that have been impacted by this place, just know you haven’t fallen. You’ve likely realized already that there are a plethora of other companies out there that are being run by competent, experienced people who treat their employees right and pay better, have better benefits, match 401K, etc. The grass truly is greener. Shoot, there’s actually grass. One last thing. A hunch, really. I smell a name change coming (again). There’s no way Lower can patch themselves up after this. People read these reviews. They really do. They’re going to have to paint over everything to try and make themselves look fresh and shiny again.