When Guild Mortgage decided to acquire Academy Mortgage it wasn’t the size of the company that mattered, but the “people and the culture,” Guild President and CEO Terry Schmidt said Wednesday.
The two companies had been competitors and the marketplace seemed to see them as like-minded.
“We both do a lot of recruiting and it’s funny over the years that we’re talking to different recruits and it comes up a lot that they’re talking to both Academy and Guild,” Schmidt said.
The conversations between the two companies started in earnest at the end of 2023 and culminated with an announcement on Feb. 13 after the markets closed.
“We are very focused on local fulfillment and sales support and the sales force being local,” Schmidt said of the two companies.
Academy Mortgage is the sixth lender to join forces with Guild via acquisition since 2021 and will increase Guild’s number of licensed originators to more than 2,100.
Guild is recognized as one of the nation's leading servicers, holding $84 billion in mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) in the first quarter of 2024.
“We look at servicing and production as one unit,” Schmidt said.
The balance of that is what has made the company successful in a down market and there’s nothing Schmidt plans to change for 2024.
She said looking at the Mortgage Bankers Association forecast, rates are expected to improve in the second half of the year, but the market will still be challenging due to the lack of inventory.
Guild has primarily focused on the purchase market, which Schmidt said accounts for about 90% of its volume. She said they intend to continue growing their platforms and tools for loan officers.
“It’s a difficult channel,” Schmidt said.
She said Guild is poised to take advantage of the dislocation in the market at the moment and continue to grow and acquire companies it sees as a good fit.
“If we gain market share we’re setting ourselves up for future success,” Schmidt said. “In order to do that we have to continue to invest.”
