NewDay USA, LLC has announced plans to expand its Maryland headquarters to support the company’s growth and establish a mortgage “university” program.
The education program will be open to various mortgage professionals including reverse mortgage professionals from account executives to processors, originators and underwriters.
“We want to be able to hire college graduates and provide them a career path in the mortgage banking industry,” said NewDay USA President Joseph Murin.
The company’s new, 60,000-square foot facility will be located across the street from NewDay’s current Maryland headquarters, where it will feature a university structure complete with training rooms and a full-board training company for new and established mortgage banking professionals.
The eight-week training program is not limited to only new employees. Current staff can also receive continuing education on professional development as well as guidance on shifting regulatory changes within the industry.
“We felt that it was a worthwhile time for us to make an investment in a university structure to recruit and train people the way we want them and to continue those people on the path of continued education to keep them abreast of the constant changes that are going on in the regulatory environment,” Murin told RMD in an interview.
With a headquarters move and the implementation of a mortgage training program, NewDay looks to be expanding across the board in all aspects of its lending business, including the company’s reverse mortgage division.
Looking at its reverse program differently these days than it has in the past, NewDay aims to work with others in the senior space to identify and solve individuals’ mortgage-related problems in what it calls a “solution-based” process. This way, the lender works with borrowers to determine which mortgage product best fits the individuals’ needs.
This applies especially to NewDay’s reverse mortgage platform.
“We believe that seniors have multiple reasons when they each a certain age for why they may need a reverse mortgage. What we are trying to do is understand that and solve the problem for these seniors” said Murin.
Murin believes that focusing the reverse mortgage program on a solution-based environment, NewDay would have the potential to be a top-5 lender. But NewDay’s President would rather sacrifice quality over quantity any day.
“It’s more important for us to become the best in that space rather than the biggest,” said Murin. “Focus is not on the numbers, but on the quality of the program. It’s more important in the reverse space that we do it right.”
This includes a strong focus on compliance and company conduct, Murin says.
“The one thing we don’t want to do is wind up on the front page because we’ve stepped out of line,” he said. “We are very cautious about what we do from a training perspective and very cautious about what we do from a follow-up quality control perspective.
NewDay’s expansion comes at a time where the company has experienced a decline in its number of HECM loans. For the nine months ending September 2012 in Reverse Market Insight’s HECM Originators for September 2012, NewDay is the 10th ranked retailer with 524 loans, down 47.8% from the first nine months last year.
Written by Jason Oliva
