Shoemaker, along with series host Andrew Berman—head of engagement and outreach for National Mortgage Professional magazine—discussed insight on what Home Point has seen during the difficult months of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also shared perceptions and trends seen as of late, spoke a bit about Home Point’s success since being founded in 2015, and added a strong statement on the racial inequalities that exist in the U.S. today.
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Shoemaker has over 20 years of experience in the industry and joined the Home Point team in 2018 as executive managing director and chief business officer. He is responsible for third-party originations, customer retention and technology.
Highlights From The Interview
►When commenting about the success of Home Point, Shoemaker said that they really focused on being the best third-party lender they can be. During his time at Caliber Home Loans, he did feel as if he had the ability to focus on something that he was passionate about, such as TPOs. From a channel perspective, he says that competition in the wholesale market has been good for business. In addition, he believes that the growth in market share for wholesale is attributed to the fact that platforms have matured to a point where a wholesale lender can deliver on expectations and protect their referral partners. Shoemaker says Home Point is positioned well to do just that because of its willingness to progress and evolve.
►Shoemaker says that Home Point Financial is the servicer on 99% of the loans it originates, therefore it has the opportunity to build a relationship with the customer and use each interaction to refer them back to the broker for repeat business.
►In terms of COVID-19’s impact on the company, Shoemaker says that Home Point was better-positioned to make the shift to a remote workforce. They already had a portion of their staff working from home, and within a week-and-a-half, they had 96% of the staff working remotely. Shoemaker says they are using the COVID-19 experience as an opportunity to reimagine the workforce and create a more adaptable work environment.
►When speaking about loan originations systems from his experience, Shoemaker says, “The problem that you find is, at some point, the system you built becomes so complex and interconnected, that the actual cost of enhancing it is a no-win scenario. I think it has to do with just this underlying problem within mortgage banking and that the concept of a loan origination system in and of itself is flawed. You shouldn’t have something that has that much interdependency.”
►On the state of the nation's affairs: “I think there is a problem in mortgage banking with diversity. I would broaden that a bit and I would say there still is a structural problem within our country. I think racism and discrimination is still very much alive and it is heartbreaking. Our focus is to first make sure that our people are in a good spot. We’re heavily focused on making sure that we’re helping our family, our Home Point family, digest what’s going on and we’re being supportive. But I believe something more has to come out of this and it’s not just in the mortgage space, it’s our entire country. It’s time. The world is fundamentally broken and it’s unacceptable.”
You can check out the full interview between Shoemaker and Berman below.
