How technology will reshape mortgage jobs of the future

New digital strategies and tech-savvy clientele are requiring companies to change how they approach their work, as automation continues transforming operations. Technology specialists will be in ever greater demand, with companies seeking improved efficiency and compliance, especially as newer technology rolls out. Still, mortgage producers will always be part of the equation, industry leaders say.

Today’s trends are “changing the industry of understanding what technology can do, welcoming it as a catalyst to get better versus viewing it as a challenge for people,” said Jina Choi, chief operating officer at Candor Technology.

“It’s never human versus machine. It’s always a machine to help propel that person to be better,” she said.

After years of sluggish adoption rates, mortgage businesses now seem to be taking the emerging technologies more seriously. Lenders are now actively trying to integrate technology across their operations, according to Brian Vieaux, president and chief operating officer at FinLocker, a financial data fintech, which counts several mortgage companies as clients. Before joining FinLocker in 2019, Vieaux himself spent several years in mortgage production.

“One of the big frustrations that I hear from the C-suite at a lot of lenders is a lack of connectivity throughout their tech stack,” he said, noting that some companies were openly considering new solutions or discarding old tools that fail to integrate with current infrastructure.

“I do see folks that are focused on hiring a role to put the energy around a more connected technology stack so that they don’t have all these disparate entry points for either their customers or their staff to come in and out of systems,” he said.

Macro job trends indicate it’s just a matter of time for the digital process to become standard within mortgage, which should accelerate demand for data and tech professionals, specifically within lending and servicing.

The number of real estate brokers and sales agents is estimated to grow by only 4%, or 21,800, between 2020 and 2030, compared to 8% for all occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The pace of growth for property appraisers and assessors is expected to increase at a similar rate, equaling a net gain of 3,400. The number of loan officers across the financial sector is expected to grow even slower, 1% or 4,300.

Meanwhile, the likes of information security analysts are likely to surge by 47,100 from 2020 to 2030, a 33% pace. According to the bureau, software developers, quality assurance analysts and testers will likely to expand by 409,500, a 22% pace.

“I think you’re going to see more specialization on engineering, cybersecurity, specifically around mortgage banking,” said Dan Snyder, CEO of home finance fintech Lower. The company continues to look for qualified product and data engineers, even as volumes decrease, he said

“It’s still the most complex consumer financial product out there,” he said and added that his company continues to look for qualified product and data engineers, even when volumes are expected to decrease.

“We need to make sure that the technology is doing what it says. If it starts to be wrong, well, that can be a really compounded problem,” Snyder said.

Although automation might also drive occupations that had previously revolved around paper-based transactions into obscurity, it opens up new opportunities for quality assurance and compliance personnel, especially if lenders continue to diversify product lines and channels, as many have announced they would in 2022.

“There’ll be compliance roles. They’re going to need more people, and they need better training” said Francisco Ardila, manager of lending services group at Professional Alternatives, a national recruiting and staffing agency headquartered in Houston.

“Compliance is always changing. So, people that can adapt and learn really fast, and then be able to use the technology that is going to be put in place to catch any things that are out of compliance — those will be the ones that are going to be able to kind of adapt themselves into roles,” he said.

Such positions, even when technology centered, shouldn’t exclude anyone coming from originations who may wish or need to transition during a down cycle either. Many businesses also highly value the business skills and know-how that can only be gained from working in the mortgage space.

“When you look at a certain role, and you try to plug it into technology, you don’t immediately see a natural fit, but I would peel that back”, Choi said. Early in her career, Choi worked in loan production before moving into leadership roles at loanDepot and Candor and says knowledge of the intricacies in mortgage lending and the communication skills it requires are natural lead-ins to project management at a fintech. Candor, which designs a loan engineering system using autonomous intelligence in underwriting, employs underwriters because “you have to know your audience in order to be successful in business.” 

“You have to go in with the understanding that developers are not going to understand you, so you need to account for all the different scenarios that may come about your business ask. That is challenging, but that can be learned. The business understanding — that can’t be learned,” she said.

While technology will be at the forefront of mortgage hiring, the search for loan producers won’t come to a standstill, even if mortgage volumes are expected to slow from their record heights of 2021. But the industry is in the process of shaking out the wheat from the chaff, both in terms of originators lenders could pursue and the companies they could join.

“We’re trying to be opportunistic, at the same time, recognizing that the bar has been raised,” said Snyder. “The rotation from doing a rate-term refinance to a more complex, cash-out loan, etc — it’s just a different ballgame. And so, I think there’s going to be a flight to higher-quality team members.”

Where some companies might be tightening up, “there are other lenders out there that are going to use this as an opportunity to expand,” Ardila said, adding that origination teams looking to move on from inefficient or otherwise unsatisfactory business relationships could be enticed to join a new firm.

“They’re going to move more willingly. It’s not just about the money,” Ardila said, noting that he was seeing a “heavy push” on production requests at Professional Alternatives. 

“There are some lenders that are like, ‘Oh, wait a minute, the sky is falling.’ There are others that are like, ‘Great. Balance time. Now’s the time to get out and find more people.’

Many of the expectations and demands lenders look for in a loan producer are in flux, according to Vieaux, leading to a realignment of responsibilities.

“Most lenders aren’t highly focused on curating and nurturing borrowers months or even years before they’re ready to transact,” he said.

But in today’s social-media heavy and tech-enabled business climate, they must realize that they need to engage prospective customers much earlier than before. The day-to-day work of collecting information will become less of a priority as greater emphasis falls on social marketing and brand development, favoring those willing to build community relationships.

“My view is that you’re going to see more lenders — as it relates to business development and marketing — find people that can help them build audiences and build their top of funnel,” Vieaux said.

“It’s going to be a combination probably of influencer-type people on YouTube and Instagram and Facebook and all the social channels that are talking about things that are important to people when they’re a year or two years ahead of buying a home,” he said.