Welcome to the fifth annual Origination News Top Originators Survey. We would like to thank everyone who submitted data for the survey.
This listing is the continuation of a legacy of the original top loan officer listings published in two now-defunct publications which have been merged with ON. The first list appeared in the June-July 1999 issue of Broker magazine and had four loan officers who did over $200 million, with the No. 1 producer (Chip Poli, then of Mortgage Master), doing $238 million.
In our current listings, six originators are above the $200 million mark, but the change in the business can really be seen further down the list.
The No. 50 originator on that 1998 list did $28 million. That volume would not have qualified him for this year's top 200, as we had a six-way tie at the bottom of the list, with each originator doing approximately $47 million in volume.
For the 2012 listing, the cut-off point was $56 million. The editors were expecting the 2013 cut-off to be at around $50 million because of the reduction in refinancings.
The information we are publishing here was collected from an online survey post on our website. The information for the leading producers was verified.
As 2014's first quarter ends, we are already starting to see refis becoming a less significant part of the marketplace. Furthermore, there is a jumbo/conforming rate inversion driven by the large banks originating these loans for their own portfolio. These trends are likely to result in lower volume for the loan officers affiliated with independent mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers.
Rates are expected to rise by the end of the year, although marketing expert Barry Habib notes there is a window of opportunity over the short term to drive business with lower rates.
However, there have been economic swerves which have affected origination volume before, and there is still a lot of time left this year.
In the days leading up to the April print edition of Origination News, we'll be counting down this year's Top Originators list online. A new segment of the list will be revealed each business day from March 26 through April 7. The list below will be updated with links when each segment is published, so we hope you'll check back on this story to follow the countdown.
2013 Top Originators
