Lisa Schreiber, who has held a number of executive posts at different wholesalers, joined Total Mortgage Services LLC, Milford, Conn., to head up and grow the company’s six-month old effort in that channel.
Her new title is executive vice president wholesale lending at TMS Funding, which is currently licensed in 19 states. Most recently, she was chief strategy officer at NetMore America, a predominantly wholesale shop based in Walla Walla, Wash., and before that was executive vice president of American Brokers Conduit, the wholesale operation of the now-defunct American Home Mortgage, Melville, N.Y.
Part of her mandate at TMS Funding is to grow the channel. There are currently five account executives; although they are vastly experienced on the wholesale side, all but one has been with the company less than six months.
So, TMS will be adding new AEs, not only to get loans from the states it is already licensed in, but as it grows nationwide.
Meanwhile, the current staff of AEs, Schreiber points out, comes from firms like Flagstar and Homecomings, so not only do they know the wholesale business, they also have knowledge of technology.
Part of her job will also be to build TMS Funding’s culture, one of helping mortgage brokers deliver the proper outcome to the borrower.
Schreiber believes mortgage brokers remain a “relevant source for originations,” and more so, as the new regulatory schemes play out, could see a renewal. “Restoring, in a lot of ways, the perception of wholesale and the broker, is certainly something I have close to my heart.”
TMS agrees with her philosophy regarding mortgage brokers, even though it is a well-established, 13-year-old retail production shop, she said. It has invested in technology for the wholesale channel, including creating a portal, as well as imaging and other things needed to compete effectively. “I never expected a retail organization to have a lot of the platform that I spent the last two and one half years building (at NetMore America), quite frankly.”
So Schreiber sees joining TMS as having the opportunity to take its “pretty good investment” up to the next level. This includes further enhancing the company’s technology capabilities.
A spokesman for Total Mortgage Services noted company president John Walsh, at the time the wholesale channel was first announced in July 2010, said he planned to take a deliberative approach to build the business to make sure he had the appropriate tools in place before he went to market fully. He added Walsh believes wholesale is important in building his company’s business going forward.
Walsh also believes that the broker is important for competition in the mortgage business and for giving choice to consumers.
Schreiber said she had a great opportunity working for NetMore America, but her roots are on the East Coast and she found TMS is aggressive in the things that are important to her, particularly the growth of the wholesale channel and the related technology.
Right now, the product menu consists of conforming and Federal Housing Administration loans, although the company is looking into other products including USDA and VA on the government side.
TMS uses a centralized model for operations, but the new AEs will be working out of their local areas as the company grows.
