Perlman said the biggest difference between the refinance boom in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and whenever the next one occurs is that large companies are ready to handle the volume of the next surge.
“The problem with waiting is that when every LO, IMB, broker shop, or small retail place was blowing up in 2021, that was because your major aggregators didn’t have the systems and processes in place to capture it,” Perlman told Mortgage Professional America. “Mr. Cooper has been great, Rocket is better, but when you have the Freedoms, the PennyMacs, the AmeriHomes, of the world who have been paying for loans to come into their ecosystem.
“They are prepared, have AI built out, the overseas staff, the internal loan originators, they’re going to be able to ramp up far quicker than they were the last time. If we’re not doing the same thing, at a different scale, and we’re just sitting and waiting, when the turn comes, we won’t be able to capture the business.”
Worst possible timing
St. Germain and Perlman are veterans of the mortgage industry. They decided to partner and form Choice Mortgage Group in 2022.
“We’ve collectively been working together for a really long time,” St. Germain said. “So, we actually funded our first loan in June of 22, which is the absolute worst month in modern-day history to start a mortgage company. Rates went from like 4% to 7% overnight. We’ve survived, we stuck it out, and now we’re at a point where we’ve already grown 100% this year, with a strong shot of growing another 100% by the end of the year.”