Lower reviews

3.6

58% would recommend to a friend

(684 total reviews)
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Dan Snyder

73% approve of CEO

60% positive business outlook

Lower has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 684 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Lower employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

684 reviews
2.0
Jul 12, 2022

Going Downhill Fast

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Co-workers in my department were fantastic; plan on keeping in touch with several of them; genuinely wonderful people -Beautiful campus/facility in a quiet part of New Albany -Cafe on the 1st floor makes great breakfast and coffee -Company hired me during the middle of Covid even though I never worked in the mortgage industry previously, so I am very grateful that Lower got me back on my feet after I lost my previous job due to Covid -Barber shop on first floor with FREE haircuts -- Jomar is great at what he does! Will miss him. -Cool Lower shirts/hoodies available for around $15-$20

Cons

-No remote/hybrid flexibility --> our manager only let us work from home if there was a level 2 snow emergency or greater, even though our team's production was nearly identical (remote vs. on-site) working remotely during the snow emergencies; this suggests to me that management has trust issues in their own employees, which seems odd to me (why did you hire them in the first place?) -Unusual PTO policy --> vacation time and sick days are COMBINED, so hopefully you are somebody that does not get sick often, otherwise, you will not have many vacation days -Lack of growth --> point blank, there was ZERO room for growth in our department; did not see a single promotion in our department in a year and a half, and trust me, that was not because we were lacking talent -Inexperienced management --> A vast majority of department VPs/managers are employees that were Day 1's and were put into their roles by default; I would estimate the average age of VPs/managers is around 30... Feel like most sales VPs/AVPs especially only got into their roles due to their sales numbers and not due to their actual leadership qualities. -Micromanagement --> ties into a couple previous points, but the lack of quality leadership reflects in the constant micromanagement and "helicopter parents" that are in management; again, where is your trust in your employees to work independently? -Industry trajectory --> Morale at Lower was terrific in summer of 2021 when rates were historically low and business was booming; now that rates are climbing back towards 5%, employees are being laid off in bunches and morale is crumbling -Lack of communication --> I don't think anyone outside of the executives has a clue as to where the $100 million in Series A funding has gone towards because it certainly is not going towards retaining their current talent and growing the department teams in quantity...those teams are steadily decreasing across the board -Layoffs --> Related to previous point, if you are in sales/ops especially, unfortunately, your position is hardly safe and Lower has done multiple rounds of mass layoffs since fall of 2021 (some great people included!) -401K match is brutal, so this is not a great place to work if you are looking to build your retirement/post-career funding steadily

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Lower Response
3y
We appreciate you taking the time to provide feedback on your time at Lower. We agree that we have an extremely talented group of employees and are happy to hear that you enjoyed your time working with them! Being a great place to work is a priority and our Leadership Team is actively working to solicit and act upon employee feedback. Flexible work arrangements, Increased PTO, and Additional Manager Trainings are just a few of the items that we have addressed in 2022 so far. We wish you the best of luck in your new endeavors!
1.0
Jun 30, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Used to have a fun environment SOLELY due to coworkers making the best of the grim atmosphere, but all have been laid off or quit.

Cons

Stuck at base pay. Even if you are a skilled salesman (if you are, go somewhere else), there is no way to generate more than an annual 2-3k more than your base pay here (which is abysmal, considering the current economic climate and the lack of work from home options) Mass firings mean more work for you. As lower digs itself into a hole, they will fire departments on a whim, some of which were hired only months prior. When these poor people have been completely juiced from their effort and loyalty, management will give their old responsibilities to YOU to handle, with no compensation increase. Greasy managers. Get ready to be lied to, manipulated, gaslit, blame for KPIs out of your control, and then witness management play favorites from day-to-day. Blind loyalty is paraded around as a virtue, while questioning anything puts you under scrutiny and earns you a one-way-ticket to being let go. Ironic that they claim to welcome free thinkers, because any mentality other than gulping Kool-Aid is openly mocked by higher ups. There's so much more to say, and if there weren't already some other honest reviews on here I would go into more depth, but you probably get the bigger picture by now. All the 5 star reviews on here were made 1-2 years ago when the company didn't have investors, and business was handled honestly. A lot changed, making Lower.com the worst job I've ever had in my professional career, and every day I'm happy I made it out. I wasn't fired like some people here, I quit on my own will. These negative reviews aren't all from people lashing out because they got burned, a lot of us truly "bought in" and dedicated months if not years into this company only to be treated like a fast food employee. Don't believe their social media team (although they admittedly do a phenomenal job of hyping this place up - too bad it's 99% lies), you either get out before it's too late or you become a miserable drone that mocks anyone who doesn't drink the Kool-Aid.

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Lower Response
3y
We appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback. We lead with an open door policy and the experiences and feedback form our employees continue to be the catalyst we use for improvement. The experiences you describe are not aligned with our values and I would like to discuss them with you in more detail. Please reach out to me directly at bbettinger@lower.com.
1.0
Jun 1, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Met a lot of great people. Still have a lot of close friends that I met during my time there If you like a busy/loud environments you'll love the atmosphere

Cons

- Very smoke and mirrors. It's always look at all this fun stuff we are doing but don't question any of the huge problems within the company - It sounds fun that the company is literally all under 30 years old until it's obvious that it's a ton of people that don't know how to run a company - Work life balance is non existent, unless you are okay with being bad at the job and dealing with a million one-on-ones with your bosses discussing performance. If you want to be good then prepare for a strict 9-6 at minimum and half working all hours outside of the office - The pay is wellllll below the industry standard. 80% of LOs never make above their base pay even though it is presented like the base is just a bonus for the tons of commission you'll make - Many claims against sexual harassment from upper management. I personally knew many people who quit over inappropriate behavior and then a lack of care from HR - Sales and Operations have no cohesiveness. Sales is taught to sell any loan to anyone as long as it meets barely any qualifications. Then operations pushes back and says no way this can pass. Sales and ops go back and forth fighting and the loan never goes through, therefore you don't get paid for hours of work even though you were told to sell it anyway. Meanwhile the customer is fired up blowing up your phone and confused why they have practically been lied to the entire time as you string them along - There's a ton of shadiness by upper management. Some of it is expected from anyone high up in a sales environment but you truly can't trust what they say as it will always change to fit whatever they are trying to sell you on next - The turnover is insaneee. In my 1-2 years there, on our team of about 20, I saw about 30 people come and go. The average LO lasts about 6 - 8 months. If you are wanting to grow in a company this isn't the place. Especially if you are wanting to work towards management because you will always have a team of people that just started and don't know what they are doing. Then they quit at the point where they actually do know what they're doing

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Lower Response
3y
We appreciate your feedback. Our people are what makes us exceptional and their energy and passion definitely helps set our culture. We do expect out employees to put in a full work week, but value their work life balance and time away from the office. Lower has won numerous awards for being a place that employees want to work and also for being at the top of our industry, with our leaders and managers a big part of that success.
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