Long Time No Talk - Switching Sides
Wow, I knew I hadn't posted here in a while, but until looking at it just now, I had no idea how much time had passed. Geez. Where does the time go? I've been posting a lot on Facebook lately, but that has it's limitations, so I thought I'd go back to blogging ... and was shocked to see that the date of my last post here was more than 2 years ago! Oh, well ... nice to be back.
Scanning through my posts here, I realize that a lot has changed in the intervening time. The mortgage broker world has been getting completely knocked upside the head and one broker shop after another has gone out of business or is struggling. Don't get me wrong, there are still some survivors ... and plenty of good people left, but the business as a whole was going through a serious shift --- and I started to question whether I wanted to remain a part of it . For one thing, new licensing requirements (good) with significant fees (bad) were put in place.
Even though I had always resisted it in the past, I decided it was time to either consider leaving the industry or try working directly for (shudder) ..... a bank.
At the very time I was contemplating this move, I was approached by a large nationally-known mortgage company which had been recently acquired by a large national bank. The mortgage company's name had been dragged through the mud you could say and the particular management team that I was talking to had been brought in from another institution to "clean house". I really wasn't sure how thiswould work out .... I mean, I was the happy independent maverick broker. Did I really want to go work for one of the largest banks in the country? Talk about culture shock.
Dececember 2008 ... I signed on board as an employee. The behind-the-scenes melding of systems and processes of the two organizations continues to this day, though we're a lot further down the path of integration.
So now I've gone from working for little broker shops that no one has ever heard of to working for an institution so large that a lot of people hate us simply for our size. Quite a switch. I don't love everything about it (but then I can't imagine anything ever being perfect at any large company). All in all, though, I do love the the organization, the technology, the emphasis on compliance and doing the right thing, and the security of working for a company that I don't think is going away. (My last 4 broker shops are all out of business now.)
And, to my surprise and delight ... I can still be competitive on rates just like when I was a broker, so I can totally compete out there in this doggy-dog world of home financing. What's not to like?
Scanning through my posts here, I realize that a lot has changed in the intervening time. The mortgage broker world has been getting completely knocked upside the head and one broker shop after another has gone out of business or is struggling. Don't get me wrong, there are still some survivors ... and plenty of good people left, but the business as a whole was going through a serious shift --- and I started to question whether I wanted to remain a part of it . For one thing, new licensing requirements (good) with significant fees (bad) were put in place.
Even though I had always resisted it in the past, I decided it was time to either consider leaving the industry or try working directly for (shudder) ..... a bank.
At the very time I was contemplating this move, I was approached by a large nationally-known mortgage company which had been recently acquired by a large national bank. The mortgage company's name had been dragged through the mud you could say and the particular management team that I was talking to had been brought in from another institution to "clean house". I really wasn't sure how thiswould work out .... I mean, I was the happy independent maverick broker. Did I really want to go work for one of the largest banks in the country? Talk about culture shock.
Dececember 2008 ... I signed on board as an employee. The behind-the-scenes melding of systems and processes of the two organizations continues to this day, though we're a lot further down the path of integration.
So now I've gone from working for little broker shops that no one has ever heard of to working for an institution so large that a lot of people hate us simply for our size. Quite a switch. I don't love everything about it (but then I can't imagine anything ever being perfect at any large company). All in all, though, I do love the the organization, the technology, the emphasis on compliance and doing the right thing, and the security of working for a company that I don't think is going away. (My last 4 broker shops are all out of business now.)
And, to my surprise and delight ... I can still be competitive on rates just like when I was a broker, so I can totally compete out there in this doggy-dog world of home financing. What's not to like?
Labels: National Bank
posted by Carol at 7:54 AM
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