MAY 9, 2012

What loan officers want from their employer first and foremost is integrity, said Sue Woodard, president, content and publishing at Mortgage Success Source. She was speaking at the Mortgage Bankers Association National Secondary Market Conference in New York in a session called “Powerhouse Production in a Compliance-Driven World.”

She was citing some of the results from a survey conducted by Hammerhouse in her presentation, including the finding regarding employer integrity.

At the end of her presentation, Woodard gave four keys to recruiting “the best of the best” loan officers.

The list starts with clearly articulating your company’s stability, strength and integrity. Secondly, compensation has to be fair. The employer doesn’t have to be the most generous but it also cannot be a laggard.

A potential employer has to have the business tools in place to support their entrepreneurial spirit and to drive their revenue. Finally they must have assurance of their ability to grow their business in your compliant environment, Woodard said.

Retaining the best producers, she continued, requires a similar set of factors to the ones used for recruiting.

To keep a loan officer, the employer has to do what it said it would do. There needs to be fair compensation and pricing. Marketing support needs to be done in a safe, compliant system. Fourth, use technology to insure business compliance.

Employers need to ask themselves how do they attract and retain top producers and at the same time, how to increase revenues without taking on undue risk, Woodard said.

Let your loan officers market as they want to, but within the framework that you provide, she concluded.

As published online at Origination News.com

Recruiting to grow production is Business Development, and with all Business Development, there are large (hopefully) pipelines of opportunity you are working on to accomplish your infilling or strategic expansion goals. This means that whether you are a branch manager meeting with an individual producer, or a sales leader or senior leader meeting with groups and teams, you have to prioritize your time and the opportunities in your pipeline. Understanding the position of your audience is a critical element in setting the stage for WHAT kind of meeting to have and HOW to prepare for the best possible outcome. With that in mind, we believe all opportunities fall into three categories:

• Networking – Educational: Most referral based, relational professionals are open to learn about new potential partners. They constantly evaluate their own business to ensure that they have the best possible model for supporting their existing referral partners and customers. These types of meetings are over coffee or lunch and are high level, touching on the first two elements of the Six Core Components . Once a Model-Match is established in these areas, the door is open to cover other important “Hot-Button” issues,   issues for you now know that the person sitting across the table form you is a “desirable partner.”
• Actively Open – Evaluating Options: Companies make mistakes, and the market exposes weaknesses in organizations that can cause candidates to seriously look for a new opportunity. In these situations, follow the framework of the Six Core Components but be prepared to cover it all…as well as have your SWAT team on call for in-depth  due diligence from department heads and key raving fans.
• Passively Open – Open but not Active: These are our favorite. Someone will take the meeting out of courtesy or respect for you. These are the best opportunities in our opinion because there are not fire drills, not speed dating…just establishing some rapport, getting to know each other and keeping an open dialogue for the future. In these cases, a meeting can compel someone to move into a different classification, despite going into the meeting feeling that they were currently in the best possible opportunity for their business and career. The most important element to remember with this classification is to have a business development plan for keeping in touch and maintaining top of mind awareness. That can be accomplished by creating ‘tasks’ for yourself in Outlook to call or reach out every 2 weeks, 30, 60 or 90 days. Don’t miss these, your competition will not.

The reason it is important to classify your opportunities is to completely understand how to most effectively spend your time and the time of those involved in the process.  Granted, sometimes the prospects you are targeting can change status suddenly and you must be prepared, with a sense of urgency, and respond accordingly.

Organizing your pipeline properly in advance can really save time. The whole demeanor of a meeting when you are not in the Urgent Box is different. The person you are sitting across from is not pressured and the relationship development and due diligence take their course naturally, as opposed to forced. Ultimately this will impact your business development in a positive way and allow you to grow with the right people.

Let me know how this topic impacts your business. Hammerhouse — a leading strategic and development growth partner — will continue to strive to create value by reporting on the trends and best business practices in our industry. If you want to find out more, give us a call.  If someone has forwarded this RESULTS to you and you would like to start receiving these personally, please visit our website www.teamhammerhouse.net and sign up under our Contact Us page.  We would like to invite you to join our group on LinkedIn: Mortgage Recruiting for Managers & Leaders – Best Practices and Techniques for Recruiting Producers.

Early on in your career you may have had to experience a less than smooth transaction.  Your client had no idea what they were in for, your consultation skills were not as refined as they are now, and it was most likely difficult to tell who was more frustrated by the process…you or your client.  Like learning to ride a bike, your new consultative skills are rarely going to work well the first time.

Selling is really the same.  Cause and Effect – Learn and Apply.  In order for you to learn a new skill, somebody or something has to be the catalyst to teach it to you.  If you plan on being at the top of your game and staying there, the process never stops as you improve and refine.  Many of our companies have studied how the top 10% of revenue generators think.  What do those studies consistently show?  Simply put, the top 10% think and apply differently than the other 90%!

The basic principles of the Top 10%:

• You are not a “sales person” per say. See yourself as a consultant.  When you ask your referral partners the question…“Would you be willing to recommend me to others?”  Make sure you know what the answer will be.
• Assume responsibility and accountability.  No matter what your title is, see yourself as the President and CEO of your book of business.
• Ask yourself …”What do I want?”  Then stop thinking about it and actually begin to execute.
• Have the courage to be bold enough to face your doubts.  Fear and doubt will only waste time and hold you back.
• Be steadfast.  Don’t hesitate.  Your level of belief and passion will define you.

The top sales people across industry lines consistently have a passion to coach and be coached.  Seek out new skills from those that you respect in an effort to increase your success.   Consider taking those skills and passing them along.  Coaching and collaboration will enrich others and certainly enrich you in the process.   Like learning to ride that bike, with practice and concentration, the process becomes much more balanced as we allow ourselves to constantly be open to learning and not fearful of applying what we have learned along the way.

Let me know how this topic IMPACTs your business. Hammerhouse — a leading strategic and development growth partner — will continue to strive to create value by reporting on the trends and best business practices in our industry. If you want to find out more, give us a call.  If someone has forwarded this IMPACT to you and you would like to start receiving these personally, please visit our website www.teamhammerhouse.com and sign up under our Contact Us page.

MISSION VIEJO, CALIFORNIA (April 2, 2012)

Hammerhouse LLC, an expanding national recruiting and strategic growth firm for the financial service industry with mortgage sales and leadership placement at its core, has announced the hiring of David Bertany as VP, Strategic Growth Partner. David is being hired to help support existing and future client growth as well as expand the company’s national mortgage recruiting infrastructure and footprint. David will work directly with Drew Waterhouse, CEO and Eric Levin, Managing Partner in support of clients in the eastern and central part of the country and will be based in our new office in Atlanta, GA. David’s sales and recruiting experience spans 12 plus years. He has been recruiting exclusively within the mortgage industry since 2001. His depth and relationships nationally span many years and he has impacted many people positively in that time.

“We are extremely pleased to strengthen our team in the East with the addition of David to the Hammerhouse mortgage recruiting team. David brings many years of experience with exposure in both external as well as an internal headhunting working within both retail and wholesale production channels. We will be able to immediately leverage David into our business with clients that have retained us to strategically infill and expand their production,” said Levin, Managing Partner. “Our clients continue to focus on the purchase market, and our efforts and business model reinforce the value of a ‘Strategic Partner’ in growing production teams.”

“This is an exciting time to improve the quality and sustainability of production for our industry and we are continuing to create new opportunities for our clients and the candidates we represent. Hammerhouse is fortunate to have excellent client relationships and we will continue to manage and grow our business to support current and future opportunities. We look forward to the positive IMPACT and RESULTS David will have with our clients and his business.” added Waterhouse.

David joins Hammerhouse with over 12 years of mortgage headhunting experience. David was previously employed as a Recruiting Team Lead with a boutique mortgage specific recruiting firm, XINNIX, IndyMac Bank, Taylor, Bean & Whitaker as well as his most recent experience with MetLife Bank over the past three years. In those capacities, he helped source and recruit hundreds of producers and leaders nationally and more recently in the eastern part of the country.

Media Contact:

Cara Hopkins

Director, Client Relations

Telephone: 949.655.0385 x129

Email: cara.hopkins@teamhammerhouse.net

How many producers have you hired, lost to your competition or fired? How much revenue has attrition cost you along the way? What is the perception of recruiting by top talent in your local market?

Stable growth requires a strong foundation. Over the past decade we have found that a key factor of sustainable growth lies in the preparation. Once a business begins to grow, execution needs to be flawless. Following through on all aspects related to adding new people, additional production, clients and business partners is essential.

To be prepared, it is imperative to thoroughly understand and execute around the core pillars of your organization. As an example, if your company identifies five pillars that comprise its core value proposition and you only implement three of them in your branch, you are most likely setting yourself up for recruiting challenges. People you recruit do their own due diligence. As they learn about your company, they also get insight into what makes up your company’s value proposition. When they come on board and you fail to deliver on fundamental aspects of your value proposition, there is a problem. If what you are failing to deliver on was a key factors in their decision to join you in the first place the relationship is compromised. So, make sure you are on the same page with your corporate value proposition. Understand it well enough to ensure that what you are representing in your branch is consistent with other endorsed branches within your company.

In our experience there are five core aspects to focus on when creating your foundation:

• Be crystal clear that your unique value proposition and organizational pillars are understood and an important part of the decision when people join your organization.
• Only hire Model-Match candidates. Non-Model- Match candidates erode your foundation from the bottom up.
• Review expectations weekly, monthly and yearly to make sure everyone is on the same page. That is both for yourself and your employees to make sure everyone is aware of what is actively important to be successful.
• Have a detailed pre- and post-hire on-boarding plan or follow a plan for pre- and post-hire acclimation.
• Establish an important key contacts guide. This sets your new employees up to become self-sufficient and to have access to decision makers. Making sure they ”learn the ropes” quickly and smoothly is key to  retention.

First and foremost, hire Model-Match professionals and underwrite them thoroughly — we call it “Full Doc Hiring.” Bad hires can negatively impact your growth plans for many years. Don’t force growth – have a plan and make sure everyone is accountable to it.

Whether or not Hammerhouse becomes a Strategic Growth Partner of yours, recognize that recruiting is not an event — it is a process. It requires discipline, patience, consistency and a lot of good will. If you need help getting your foundation in order, contact us for a free consultation.

Let me know how this topic impacts your business. Hammerhouse — a leading strategic and development growth partner — will continue to strive to create value by reporting on the trends and best business practices in our industry. If you want to find out more, give us a call.  If someone has forwarded this RESULTS to you and you would like to start receiving these personally, please visit our website www.teamhammerhouse.net and sign up under our Contact Us page.  We would like to invite you to join our group on LinkedIn: Mortgage Recruiting for Managers  & Leaders – Best Practices and Techniques for Recruiting Producers.

Mon, 2012-03-12 17:44 — Drew Waterhouse

The mortgage industry is on the verge of a new chapter, characterized by lower overall production volumes relative to years past, greater compliance burdens and lower product-based differentiation among participants. However, lost in this seemingly depressing news are the seeds of real opportunity for firms and individual originators well-suited to the new environment. A much smaller pool of players has created a need to achieve greater production with fewer originators. No, that is not a contradiction—due to the shrinking of the mortgage industry, the loans closed per originator figures are actually headed higher. This reality has put originators with a documentable track record of strong production in great demand. Could this be the time for you to consider a move to a mortgage lender in which you are better model-matched?

Model-matching is the process of improving the mutual results from relationships between lenders and originators. It is a comprehensive process of assessment of both parties across a wide range of factors, including leadership, culture, business type, operations and technology. This process involves due diligence and consideration of both objective and subjective factors of a relationship in order to produce a holistic picture of positive-matched and negative-matched areas within the relationship. Leadership and culture are among the most important, yet difficult, business relationship components to evaluate. However, let’s take a look at how they can be evaluated.

Leadership
For high-achieving organizations and professionals, it is vital that engagement between managers and producers be conducted in a clear, concise and consistent way. The study of leadership clearly demonstrates that talent (producers and other creative employees) appreciate clarity of vision, a voice in, and an impact on the business processes and freedom to reasonably adapt to their unique circumstances or style (empowerment). Where this environment exists, organizational and individual goals are achieved, culture is seen and morale is high. Questions to be considered include:

Vision
►Can you restate, without prompting or referring to notes, the vision and key strategies of your current employer?
►Do you believe that the vision expressed by your current employer is a prudent one given your understanding of the mortgage industry and market currently?

Voice
►Does your current employer actively seek input from you and others throughout the organization before, during and after implementation of a new project, process or product?
►Do you feel that you can voluntarily share your opinion on matters of concern to you without fear of ridicule or retaliation?

Empowerment
►Can you point to specific initiatives or changes in policies or processes at your current employer that are directly attributable to employee suggestions or recommendations?
►Has the firm been reasonably accommodating to you with regard to minor variations from company policies or protocols as it relates to the unique features of your business?

Leadership can be a subjective quality to evaluate in corporate America. Yet, there are fundamental questions related to a company’s stated vision, proactivity in seeking input from employees and responsiveness to individual employee needs that can help to assess whether your current company’s leadership is a positive or negative model-match for your business.

Culture
The culture of a business is most assuredly influenced by the leadership factor we have just examined. But culture goes well beyond the direct influence of managers from above—it considers the values displayed within the organization. Values comprise a wide range of factors including:

1. Compensation, benefits and recognition;
2. Development and growth;
3. Job characteristics;
4. Organizational character and reputation and;
5. Relationships.

A true, positive model-match can only occur when you, the originator, are aligned with your organization across the full range of these values. Questions that can help to illuminate this alignment or lack thereof include:

Compensation, benefits and recognition
►In light of the recent compensation-related regulatory changes in the mortgage industry is your employer’s compensation program competitive, clear and compliant?
►In your market, how does your compensation package compare to your peers?
►Is your employer’s benefit package competitive and sufficient for supporting your career, family and retirement goals?
►Are employees at your current company recognized for achievements in ways that go beyond basic sales incentive contests?

Development and growth
►Are you given the opportunity and encouragement/support by your current employer to seek training that goes beyond continuing education?
►Do you have access to internal training relative to business planning, professional development, products, technology and marketing?
►Are there key leaders and managers that take a vested interest in coaching and accountablilty with you?

Job characteristics
►Are you given sufficient autonomy and independence by your current employer?
►Does your company provide you with leadership opportunities?
►Would you consider your current position to be conducive for proper work/life balance?

Organizational character and reputation
►Are you proud to work for your current employer?
►Does the reputation of your employer create value for you in your market with your business partners and cllients?
►Does your current employer engage in community service or industry leadership initiatives?

Relationships
►Do the relationships you have with fellow employees at your current organization …
►Do you have relationships with fellow employees and team members or is it transactional?
►Is it an environment where you are able to share and benefit from having relationships that can tangibly enhance your productivity and long term objectives?
►Do you enjoy being in the office and work environment or is it something you would rather avoid?

The culture of an organization can also be hard to quantify, but it is necessary to do so if a true assessment of your current situation can be accomplished and then compared to other opportunities in the marketplace.

Leadership and culture are the first of the core business factors any mortgage originator should evaluate when determining the company with which they have the best model-match. Honestly answering the questions poised above can prepare you to “build where you stand” or to figuratively “Go West, young man (or woman)” in search of better opportunities.

Drew Waterhouse is managing director of Hammerhouse LLC, a national recruiting and strategic growth firm for the financial services industry with mortgage sales and leadership placement at its core. Drew may be reached by e-mail at Drew.Waterhouse@TeamHammerhouse.com.

One of the primary functions we play as a Strategic Growth Partner with our clients is to set up meetings with top producer or sales leader candidates that are keeping their options open. More often than not, these candidates may have heard of, or competed with, our client managers, but never met or sat down to talk about the opportunity of working together. Thus, these are new relationships and opportunities to ‘get to know each other’ with the possibility of establishing a Model-Match and an ‘at bat’ for working together. Top producers and sales leaders WILL keep their options open to learn about and understand an organization’s Leadership, Culture, Operations, Technology, Business Model and Geographic expertise.  The reason: to determine if there is a way to tangibly create greater efficiency to produce work-life balance or to grow their business in a new organization verses their current one. Some managers are really good at these meetings and others are not.

As a function of what we do, we gain a unique vantage point into our client managers’ skills around assessing an opportunity with an individual or team, being able to identify the hot buttons and set appropriate ACTIONs at the end of meetings to keep an opportunity in play.

The topics below are important areas to focus on to be an effective Closer.

• Model-Match – First and most important, ONLY recruit Model-Matches for you and your business. Not everyone is a fit for you and your company – and that really is OK. Determine the kind of person who will be a cultural fit, business model fit and someone who will see VALUE in you as a leader as well as all aspects of your Value Proposition.
• Know, Like, Trust  – People you are recruiting will want to get to KNOW you before they will ever LIKE you. Once they begin to LIKE you, they will start to TRUST you. Sounds simple but there’s a lot more to it. Here’s a previous RESULTS: Know, Like, Trust that elaborates on the topic.
• Follow Up, Follow Through, Never Lie — Much of the feedback we get from candidates we work with is that some of the companies that are recruiting them say they will do something that does not happen. This is a PERFECT opportunity for us and we LOVE it! Set the appropriate ACTIONs and follow through with them. Here is a simple way to manage your activity and pipeline in order to create some structure around this topic, RESULTS: Effective Recruiting.
• Set ACTIONs — Think about an ACTION like a DU or LP finding on a Loan. When you meet with someone, they have needs and wants. Figure them out and create a punch list so you know what needs to get done. Also create a plan to educate your recruit on each of the items they are going to want to learn and understand in more detail. Once you have crossed off all the items on the punch list, ask if there is anything they need or want to understand in more detail. If not, it’s GO time. You will either Close the deal or someone else will.

At the end of multiple meetings over many weeks or even months, you can ‘ask for the business’ and close the deal. If you’ve missed something or misread the Hot Buttons, you will need to course correct and get them identified and off the list. If not, it’s OK to say “I feel we can create value for your business and I want you to work with us, what else do you need to learn or understand before you are in a position to feel the same way?’

At this point its cliché, but it’s true, when you are going after people who drive revenue and have never applied for a job “recruiting is not an event, it’s a process.” One way to get someone to move when they are not ready to move is to offer some form of economic incentive or opportunistic, proverbial carrot. When that is not an option, the best thing you can do is make sure that you are at the top of their list and that they have already learned enough to determine if there is a model-match.

Whether or not Hammerhouse is a strategic growth partner of yours, recognize that recruiting is not an event — it is a process. It requires discipline, patience, persistence and a lot of good will.

Let me know how this topic impacts your business. Hammerhouse — a leading strategic and development growth partner — will continue to strive to create value by reporting on the trends and best business practices in our industry. If you want to find out more, give us a call. If someone has forwarded this RESULTS to you and you would like to start receiving these personally, please visit our website www.teamhammerhouse.com and click the Sign Up button on our home page.

As companies like MetLife exit the business, creating new office and personnel recruitment opportunities for mortgage lenders, a survey from Hammerhouse LLC of originators found that 42% are looking for corporate culture and leadership from a possible new employer.

Products was the response from 24%, while better compensation was the choice of 23%, according to the Mission Viejo, Calif.-based recruiting company’s second annual Survey of Originator Opinions.

“The people who are in the industry today, who are looking to better the business for all, are looking for different things now,” said Drew Waterhouse, managing director of Hammerhouse. It is a shift from the selfish to an attitude of what is best for the business and best for the customer is best for me.

Since the late 1990s, when the branching movement gained momentum, the selling points to recruits had been product and compensation in either order of importance. This survey shows that those are no longer as important as they once were to originators.

But when asked why would they stay with their current employer, there was no one overriding item. Financial strength and stability was the response for 28%, while competitive programs and pricing were cited by 25% and competitive compensation was the reason for 23%. There were 19% that cited internal service.

“What this is telling me around operations is that the unit value of every loan and the corresponding lifetime value of that loan is so critical today that you cannot have operational failure,” said Waterhouse.

Financial strength is being measured on a company’s compare ratios, whether it has multiple investment channels and whether or not they have a strong capital position, he said. Some of the companies recruiting new branches right now say they are touting these attributes.

Over half of the mortgage originators said the No. 1 issue facing them in 2012 is further oversight or regulation for the industry. Fewer than three in 10 said the biggest challenge would be working with a committed and financially stable mortgage lender, while just 12% said it was product flexibility and 8% cited rising rates.

When asked “What size of organization would be the best fit for you?” regional mortgage banker topped the list at 47%, followed by large national mortgage banker at 24%, regional bank at 15%, mortgage broker at 7%, large national bank at 6% and credit union at 1%.

But when asked what company would best support an originator who gets his or her own referrals from business partners and past customers, 56% said correspondent mortgage banker, 28% said a commercial bank and 14% said a mortgage broker.

Waterhouse said that for those who have build up a portable book of business with their own brand, they felt a correspondent mortgage banker would give them the best opportunity to maintain that.

He explained that type of structure many originators felt provided clear and concise structure and leadership.

This is a change in attitude from three years ago, he noted, when a lot of originators sought out jobs at depositories as the industry began to stumble.

“They have found those depositories in many ways aren’t investing in the things they are looking for,” Waterhouse said. That includes investing in the originator to help them build that referral business.

Another telling stat about where originators are seeking new opportunities—over three-quarters said it is important their firm invest in sales presentation tools, business coaching, industry indicators or other value added tools or resources.

Surprisingly, inspiration scored lowest among the desired characteristic these sales people want from their company’s leaderships. It was cited by only 3%.

Indeed, integrity was the most cited attribute, by 35%, followed by communication at 29%. Waterhouse feels that many mortgage company leadership teams have been silent about issues such as regulatory interpretations.

“One of the things I think that this tell us is that when you have clear communication and you have high integrity, you are going to get the truth. Not only are you going to get the truth, you are going to get this when it happens,” Waterhouse said. And given what has happened to the business, loan officers feel this will give them an advantage over those whose management just pats them on the back and tells them to get more loans.

Past culture in the mortgage industry was how much business I can do and make the most money. More than half of the respondents said the new compensation rule has not impacted their competitive standing. But 37% felt it decreased their competitive standing while 12% believed the rule increased it.

Just less than one-quarter of the respondents said they were not licensed, with 14% of those stating they had no interest in getting licensed.

Waterhouse commented, “the survey results indicate those on the front-lines, working directly with consumers, desire to improve themselves and work for the best lending organization possible—even if that means making a change.”

Here’s the scenario: You’re having a great production month: referrals are coming in, loans are closing, and life is good. Everything is working the way you promised and the bond is strong between you and your customer and/or client. Then something happens, such as a delay in a funding, an added closing condition or a title mix-up. The delay can put a strain on the relationship. You will have to have a difficult conversation, so here are tips to accomplish your goal of successfully addressing the issue:

• Set expectations at the outset of a relationship.  Explain that problems do develop and that your job is to help avoid problems if possible, be the customer’s advocate when problems do arise and seek the best possible solutions given the circumstances.
• Address the matter as soon as possible. If it’s a customer, let him or her know you recognize the problem and you are working to make it right. Keep the customer updated.
• Set a specific time and place to address the issue.
• Keep location in mind — privacy is important.
• Never leave negative or private information on a customer’s voicemail.  It is unprofessional and a sign that you are trying to avoid direct interaction.
• Be specific about the concern. In the conversation, avoid being reactive and stay focused and centered on what you want to accomplish.
• Look from the customer’s viewpoint and take responsibility. Do all you can to fix everything with the customer and then clean up on your end last.
• Leave the corporate doublespeak behind. People see doublespeak as an attempt to cloud issues and avoid responsibility. Say what you mean.
• Listen. After you have been clear about your purpose give your customer the opportunity to respond without interruption
• Be positive. Keep the conversation focused on finding a solution, not placing blame.
• Leave the door open for more conversation. The problem is not resolved until the customer thinks it is. Make it clear that you are available. Don’t take offense if your customer is not pleasant to deal with at this time — stress makes us do things we wouldn’t normally do.
• Seek confirmation from the customer that the problem has been resolved to their satisfaction, or at least acknowledgement of your efforts to seek satisfaction on their behalf.
• Document the conversation.

Roadblocks are worth getting past to get to the end result. You may not realize that avoiding a difficult conversation can cripple your progress and result in far more difficult conversations down the road

Do what you can to confront the “elephant in the room” on a daily basis. This will contribute to project success and make you indispensable to your customers and your team.

Let me know how this topic IMPACTs your business. Hammerhouse — a leading strategic and development growth partner — will continue to strive to create value by reporting on the trends and best business practices in our industry. If you want to find out more, give us a call.  If someone has forwarded this IMPACT to you and you would like to start receiving these personally, please visit our website www.teamhammerhouse.com and sign up under our Contact Us page.

MISSION VIEJO, CALIFORNIA – (February 23, 2012),

Hammerhouse LLC, an expanding national recruiting and strategic growth firm for the financial service industry with mortgage sales and leadership placement at its core, has announced the hiring of Anne Marie Bachmann as VP, Strategic Growth Partner. Anne Marie is being hired to help support Hammerhouse’s client growth and expand the company’s national mortgage recruiting infrastructure. Anne Marie will report directly to Drew Waterhouse, managing director and CEO of Hammerhouse and will be based in our new office in Redmond, WA. Anne Marie’s sales, recruiting and management career spans 20 plus years in the Puget Sound Area of Washington State, and she has been recruiting exclusively within the mortgage industry since 2006. Anne Marie has had the unique experience of being an internal production headhunter for national and regional depositories as well as a regional mortgage banker. Her depth and relationships in the Pacific Northwest span many years and she has impacted many people positively in that time.

“We are extremely pleased to have someone of Anne Marie’s integrity, track record and reputation join the Hammerhouse mortgage recruiting team. Anne Marie brings relevant knowledge and relationships in markets we believe are well positioned for growth as the economy continues to improve. We will be able to leverage Anne Marie to help our national and regional clients grow their production teams as they infill existing offices with producers and expand strategically into new markets with groups and teams,” said Waterhouse, Managing Director. “Hammerhouse continues to experience very high demand from our clients (depositories and non-depositories lenders) for originators and teams that focus on purchase business and have transferable referral and customers relationships. With 2011 under our belt, well respected mortgage professionals and leaders continue to be in high demand. We are staying focused on model-matching to our 6 Core Components and expect more demand over time.”

Anne Marie joins Hammerhouse with over 6 years of mortgage headhunting experience. Anne Marie was previously employed as a Business Development Manager with Golf Savings Bank (now Sterling Savings Bank) as well as First Horizon Home Loans and two other correspondent lenders based out of the Greater Seattle area. In those capacities, she helped source and recruit hundreds of producers and leaders throughout the Pacific North West.

Media Contact:

Cara Hopkins

Director, Client Relations

Telephone: 949.655.0385 x129

Email: cara.hopkins@teamhammerhouse.net