What can originators expect this year?

Hammerhouse, a mortgage recruitment agency, launched its 6^th annual survey of mortgage originator opinions – which includes an outlook on business prospects for 2016.

"Over the last several years, the Mortgage Industry and its Originators have gotten used to a dynamic business environment that includes the normal ups and downs of the markets, along with a constant stream of regulatory and compliance additions and changes that have created an impact, to say the least," Eric Levin, Managing Partner of Hammerhouse. "2016 will be another year where we will see overall volume contraction, with the vast majority of originations coming in the form of purchase activity and very little low hanging refinance fruit.”

The findings of last year’s survey included;

• Regulatory issues replaced market concerns to return as the biggest challenge facing the mortgage industry.
•  Even though half of originators did not quite meet their 2014 production goals, the large majority of responders expected higher production in 2015. 
• While job satisfaction was slightly down, most responders still found their job to be rewarding.
• Originators planned to take advantage of co-marketing and branding with referral partners to meet their production goals         
• On the subject of local managers, originators were almost evenly split between expecting them to help escalate operational issues & just wanting them to "get out of their way."

 
This year’s results could be much of the same, with many originators struggling with TRID delays.