Further oversight or legislation surrounding the mortgage industry will be the biggest challenge to loan originators in 2012, according to Hammerhouse’s Second Annual Survey of Originator Opinions.
More than half of respondents, at 51%, believe the emergence of more regulations will be a critical issue facing the mortgage industry.
Working with a committed and financially stable mortgage lender (29%) was voted the second biggest challenge, followed by product flexibility (12%) and rising interest rate environment (8%).
Correspondent mortgage bankers were voted as the best type of company structure to support originators who get their own leads from business partners or referrals, garnering 56% of the vote, followed by federally chartered or bank-backed institutions (28%).
When asked what size institution constitutes the “best fit” for originators, 47% picked a regional mortgage banker, nearly twice the number of those who picked a large national mortgage banker (27%).
Almost half of those polled are only licensed in one state (46%), but 31% have licensing in multiple states, 9% are working towards getting more licenses, and 14% aren’t interested in getting licensed at all.
The Hammerhouse survey also asks questions relating to what keeps originators with their employers, areas they’d like to see strengthened within their companies, and what would most motivate them to join a new firm.
View the full survey (and results) here.
Written by Alyssa Gerace
