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| Hundreds of jobs are up for grabs at a rapidly-growing California-based lender that began retail operations less than a year ago.
Sage Credit Co. intends to hire 400 employees over the next six months and build its employee base to around 600, company President Quentin Caruana said in an e-mailed statement to MortgageDaily.com. The plan for expansion comes only months after the launch of Sage’s operations. The company incorporated in 2003 but did not start retail operations until the fourth quarter 2005, using the interim time to obtain licensing in all 50 states, according to the statement. Sage closed $25 million in loans in 2005, Caruana said. But the Irvine-based lender’s projected goals include funding more than $1.7 billion in the first 12 months of business and over $5.6 billion annually by the third year of business, according to a recent announcement. “Contributing to the growth is the focus on quality across the board employing the most talented people at the corporate office as a result of the turnover in the industry,” Caruana said. “It provides the company the opportunity to pick up quality and talented employees at a more reasonable cost.” Among the various positions Sage is looking to fill are processors, document drawers, underwriters, regional managers, quality control analysts and licensing specialists, the statement said. A “good portion” of the new employees will be housed at the corporate offices in Irvine, with retail staff housed at branch locations, the executive added. Most of Sage’s branches are in Orange County and others in Sacramento and San Diego, Las Vegas, Nev., and New Jersey, according to a recent announcement in which Sage stated it would expand to 40 locations by the end of this quarter. Currently, the Irvine-based lender has 36 offices, the executive said. Sage’s retail banking model allows focus on cost reduction to operate in a time when the market’s margins are shrinking and “provides the company a competitive advantage eliminating the normal costs associated with an account executive in the standard wholesale model,” Caruana said. The “technological advantages the company has adopted has provided the opportunity to select those products that are most profitable for the organization while still providing the borrower the flexibility of all products through the alternative broker channel through wholesale conduits,” he added. |
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Coco Salazar is an assistant editor and staff writer for MortgageDaily.com.e-mail: MortgageWriter@aol.com |
