American Pacific Mortgage (APM) has hired about 150 employees from 20 AmeriFirst Financial Inc. branches from December 2022, confirmed APM.
APM learned that the Arizona-based lender’s branches were ceasing originations last month, creating an opportunity to hire branch managers, loan originators and processors to make up for lost production this year, the director said. APM executive Bill Lowman in an interview with housingwire Monday.
“All of our production is down, industry volume is down considerably, and I think there is an opportunity for well-positioned and well-capitalized lenders,” Lowman said.
Lowman declined to comment on rumors of a buyout of AmeriFirst Financial, adding that the recruitment was not an asset acquisition or a merger and acquisition (M&A). A former branch manager told HousingWire that APM bought AmeriFirst Financial in December and APM “began to implement the APM network.”
However, not all loan officers who wanted to join APM were hired. The focus was on high-production, profitable branches, and loan officers who were part of those branches were brought in, Lowman explained.
“We can get them (LO) up and running in about 30 days. There is a concurrent period in the 30 days where they train while they wait for their license to come through,” he said.
According to Lowman, the compensation structure at APM is similar to what LOs received at AmeriFirst Financial.
“As much as possible, as long as you qualify, we try to bring you as close to the competition as possible like they were at your previous company,” he said.
APM is no stranger to collecting LO from lenders that have gone out of business. In October, APM contract employees of finances of america (FOA). The company had just closed its term business after the announcement that it would close its wholesale correspondent and non-delegated channels that month.
The California-based lender, which has seen origination volume drop to $13 billion in 2022 from $23.6 billion a year earlier, plans to expand in 2023.
The lender said it plans to hire more employees in production, stressing that it is also active in the M&A space. In July, the California lender bought the Tucson, Arizona-based company. Sunstreet MortgageLowman said.
Sunstreet Mortgage originated loans of $345 million in the last 12 months with two active licensed loan officers in three states, Modex data showed.
“We are definitely focused on increasing market share and volume,” Lowman said.
American Pacific Mortgage currently has 445 branches, more than 2,000 active loan officers and 52 licenses, according to the mortgage data platform. modex.
