What with the mortgage and banking industry the way it is, things change daily with our lenders. Because of this, we either have lenders on the implode watch list (meaning they are in serious trouble) or we have lenders voluntarily deciding to exit the wholesale side of their business. The government's attempt to loosen credit does not seem to be working. Lenders are getting tighter and tighter with their money. They are having issues with their warehouse lines, and underwriting guidelines change daily. Loans are becoming harder and harder to get approved. Along with this, sales of homes in the DFW market have declined and our market share of loans continues to drop. What was once a comfortable (we can count on being somewhat profitable) business has become a rollercoaster ride of yes, we are looking at a great month to loans crashing and burning right and left. There is a lot of turmoil in our office. We know approximately how many loans we must close each month to be profitable. We have missed that number since last August, and its becoming more and more doubtful each day that we will get to that number this month. Lenders have gone from underwriting times of 72 hours to, some of them, 10 days or more. This means that loans we were hoping to close this month won't close till next month. And some loans won't close at all due to lender requirements. This is not the business to be in these days. To top it all off, our President told us the other day that she is looking into "Plan B." One of the considerations of Plan B is for someone to buy us out. Not sure how that is a good Plan B for anyone other than the Loan Officers. From a business standpoint, I certainly would not take on the debt and payroll of this company knowing the number of loans closed every month. So, the only way I see Plan B working is that someone buys the company but absorbs the Loan Officer production into their existing processing staff. (Merely my opinion!) Meaning, unless there is a need for additional staff at the lender, and one is willing to move to North Texas, job opportunities will be limited. Another option of Plan B would be a cut in pay. Not sure how that would work, but I guess a job with less pay is better than no job at all. Mindy and I have already been told that we are at the HIGH end of the pay scale for our positions. Today, the President of Century 21 Judge Fite (our big boss) came around, showing our offices to a bunch of realtors that are working out of an office in Irving that C21 just purchased. They are not keeping that office space, but rather are bringing these realtors to Empire Central for their office. Apparently, they are going to take the space we are currently in and we, along with the relo division will be moved. Not sure where we are moving to, but do know that it will be a "smaller space." It will probably be to one of the empty floors of out current building. Most of the third and fourth floors are empty and have been for some time. So, while we continue to go to work each day, we know everything behind the scenes is changing moment by moment. Our President, Jill, is upbeat and tries to put an optimistic spin all the news she shares with us. But we are not sure we are hearing all the news, and have to take everything we hear "with a grain of salt." Time will tell.
As Joanna told me yesterday, we need to "hope for the best and prepare for the worst."
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