Texaslending.com, a Dallas-based origination shop, has reduced its headcount. At the beginning of March, over 40 LOs were sponsored by the lender, but as of April 6, 10 LOs remain, per the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System & Registry.
A swath of loan officers once sponsored by Texaslending.com, a d.b.a. of Aspire Financial, Inc., have transitioned to Houston-based Network Funding in the month of March, the NMLS shows. This includes branch managers and loan officers who worked at Texaslending.com.
So is Texaslending.com still in business? Is it downsizing? Or were parts of the business acquired by Network Funding? The answers to these questions are hazy.
Neither company responded to numerous requests for comment. However, on Network Funding's NMLS page, Texaslending.com is listed as a division of the company.
Other hints include Kevin Miller, the CEO of Texaslending.com, announcing that his company is in the process of "downsizing its footprint."
"Now that 'everyone' works from home we are downsizing from 25,000 square feet of space to a mere fraction of that space. Therefore we need to offload office equipment," he wrote in mid-March. "We are seeing items go for pennies on the dollar."
Miller did not provide further updates about the planned downsizing or what that would entail for the company's employees.
Low origination volume in recent months has prompted a rise in merger and acquisition activity among stakeholders in the industry.
Origination shops such as Guild Mortgage, American Pacific Mortgage and Union Home Mortgage have moved to expand their footprint by absorbing competitors. Certainly, more transactions are on the horizon, with consulting firm STRATMOR predicting at least 50 deals taking place during this period, mainly between nonbanks.
Meanwhile, some players have bowed out of the mortgage origination space, such as Athas Capital Group, Amerifirst Financial and most recently, Homepoint.
