Ishbia spoke to MPA last month over a host of issues. This is what he had to say on:
Refinance and Purchase – “Refinance definitely slowed down across the industry because rates went up a little bit. Those who have picked up purchase business are the ones that are growing and succeeding, and those that have not picked up purchases are struggling. If you’re not doing a lot of purchase business, you’re probably going to be doing less business in the second and third quarter.
“The interesting thing is our brokers are more loan officers joining the broker channel as well. We’re seeing a migration from retail loan officers to come over the broker channel, which has been really positive for our business.”
Low inventory – “It doesn’t worry me at all. Obviously, there’s less houses for sale, which is why the values of houses are going up faster than normal, but there’s also a lot of borrowers in forbearance that aren’t making mortgage payments that might sell their house when forbearance ends.
“There’s way more inventory (going to be) hitting the market in the third or the fourth quarter next year. I think a lot of times, people saying that they’re not doing a lot of purchase businesses because inventory is low is just an excuse. It’s just not the reality. Inventory’s tight, but what’s happening is that a lot of those purchases are being lost to cash buyers.”