Market Pains:
-It's incredibly tough to be successful in mortgage right now, regardless of whether you're consumer direct, retail, or wholesale.
-Leads are sparse, rates are higher than they've ever been since I started in this industry 13 years ago, investors are nit-picking every deal in post-closing, buyers don't have a lot of cash for down payment, and there's still not a ton of inventory.
-Margin compression is making it really tough for lenders to be profitable right now and we need some help from the market to get to the other side of this and stabilize.
-Between margin compression and inflation, it's tough for a lot of production folks to make ends meet right now.
Company Pains:
-This company tried to make good decisions for the business and employees when they were met with headwinds in 2022, but like so many other companies, made some missteps that hurt both the company's reputation and employee morale. Some of the actions taken resulted in negative attrition and loss of culture.
-I've seen a lot of improvement so far in 2023, but the fractured nature of the company's business sometimes creates jealousy between sales and ops/corporate as well as between one division or channel of business and another. There have been lopsided practices that hurt morale - like having annual awards only given to a certain division of the business. This year the leadership has included all divisions. Would like to see that momentum continue to build.
-Benefits plan if you carry the plan for the family is very expensive.
-401k match is lackluster at best.