Cornerstone Mortgage take steps to grow its own

Turnover in the mortgage business can be high and, when times are good, poaching is commonplace. That’s why Cornerstone Mortgage has come up with a different idea of how new loan originators should be recruited and trained.

Grow Our Own is a program geared toward the next generation of finance professional, enrolling college students and recent graduates in both intern and junior loan originator programs to teach them the mortgage business, according to Jim Hunter, program visionary and a loan officer at one of Cornerstone’s two Fort Collins offices.

The program uses connections with area universities like CSU and UNC to find students interested in pursuing a career in finance, and then enrolls them in the program, where they learn the elements of mortgage banking.

Those enrolled in the junior loan originator training then go through 20 hours of training before taking the federal and state licensing exams. In all, the program is six months long.

The most recent local class to complete the training consisted of eight recent graduates from CSU, UNC and the University of Colorado. Some of the former trainees are already helping to originate loans at Cornerstone.

At the end of the program, those who have graduated college and are ready for a full-time job are encouraged to stay with Cornerstone, Hunter said.

The Grow Our Own program fits right in with the company’s Attraction Program, a strategy aimed at improving the recruiting process typically seen in the finance industry.

The idea behind the Attraction Program is that there are many talented young people ready to enter the job market who can help get the finance industry back on its feet, and the Grow Our Own program is an opportunity to capture some of that talent, according to Hunter.

An aptitude in finance or real estate and previous sales experience are preferable, according to Cornerstone, but students and young professionals from other disciplines can take part in the program as well.

One trait potential Grow Our Own Trainees must hold: an interest in a career in financial services.

The talent exists, but those who possess it aren’t typically searching for a career as a loan originator, Hunter said.

“People don’t go to college to become mortgage bankers,” he said. There is “constant recruiting” going on between competing mortgage companies in Northern Colorado, and the Grow Our Own program enables Cornerstone to publicize its company values to interested young professionals without taking employees from other companies.

“The companies that survived the recession are good companies and they can help get the industry back on track,” Hunter said.

And the industry is indeed picking back up.

Like many other sectors of the economy, mortgage banking is making a slow but steady climb as the economic situation gradually improves.

The industry suffered 70 percent attrition since 2008, according to Hunter, but a combination of factors is creating enough of an uptick in business that mortgage firms are hiring once more.

Home sales continue to increase every month, as banks clear foreclosed properties off their books and homes that sat on the market for months or longer are suddenly being snatched up in bidding wars.

With home sales, of course, come mortgages, and with mortgages come loan originators.

Refinancing is also gaining popularity, as interest rates remain historically low. Hunter has seen as especially noticeable increase in homeowners refinancing in the last three months, and doesn’t expect that to slow down any time soon.

“Those interest rates are going to stay low for the foreseeable future, providing an opportunity for more families to refinance,” he said.

New regulations that have been passed since the recession began in 2008 have made it more difficult to get into mortgage banking.

More stringent requirements have been placed on would-be loan originators, who are regulated at the state and federal levels.

“It was easy to get into this profession pre-recession,” Hunter said. Now there is a shortage of qualified candidates. Grow Our Own helps remedy that, according to Hunter, because those who want to become loan originators are given the necessary training and exams.

A freshly-minted loan officer can provide many benefits to a company, Hunter said, beyond the enthusiasm and energy that come with beginning a career.

New loan originators are more likely to stay loyal to a company that trains and hires them, Hunter said, and because this new generation has no experience in a good or bad market, they tend to be immune to market conditions.

Molly Armbrister covers banking and finance for the Business Report. She can be reached at marmbrister@ncbr.com or at 970-232-3139.

on Facebook on LinkedIn