Hometown Lenders' top-performing branch appears to have left the mortgage shop in late July.
Hometown's Mokena, Illinois branch, which is said to originate close to $20 million in volume monthly, is now employed by Ixonia Bank, according to the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System.
It is uncertain why the branch called it quits with the lender. The branch did not respond to a request for comment.
Hometown responded in an email that it wishes "nothing but the best for the former Hometown team members that were part of the Illinois branch."
"We will continue to work with our former employees to ensure that all obligations and responsibilities are fulfilled," the mortgage shop's legal counsel said Monday.
Sources familiar with the matter claim that the branch headed for the door due to the company's
According to former and current branch managers at Hometown, many employees left the company in part because the lender continues to struggle to make payments on time. A
Since June, the company's headcount of loan officers plummeted from close to 400 employees to 169 LOs, NMLS shows.
Employees have accused Hometown of being inconsistent with paying wages on time, failing to fund health insurance and compensate branch managers for business expenses, missing money in deferred compensation accounts and 401k accounts not receiving a match.
A pattern of not paying is also creating some legal trouble for the mortgage shop.
A former Oregon-based branch manager is suing Hometown Lenders for not paying her an agreed upon amount to settle prior unpaid wages and compensation. The lawsuit comes shortly after claims have circulated that the lender is not paying for rent and utilities on time because of alleged financial problems.
The lawsuit filed by Deanna Louise Taylor claims the mortgage shop owed her more than $140,000 when she left in August 2022. Per the suit, the company did not have the financial wherewithal to pay this amount, so the two parties came to an alternative agreement regarding how much the mortgage shop would compensate Taylor.
Taylor wanted to be "amicable" and agreed to the undisclosed, reduced amount that worked for the lender. The amount was due by March 25, 2023, but the former branch manager alleges that Hometown "failed and refused to remit the full amount of the settlement sums."
The former Hometown employee claims the mortgage lender's "failure to pay these monies has damaged [her]" and she is seeking the severance pay owed and interest accruing from the date that the wages were due and payable.
Hometown Lenders' legal counsel said it does not comment on active litigation, though he noted that the company "continues to take steps to ensure any obligations to its former employees are met."
In June, the same attorney commented that any delays in payment "are a product of the same market conditions being experienced by most other independent mortgage bankers" and noted those publicly expressing disappointment are a "thin 'top layer' of unhappy employees."
