A California-based company that began operations just last year has already recruited more than 400 employees and has plans to hire hundreds more this year. A new wholesale channel started last month has also staffed up.
In January 2010, former LendingTree LLC president Anthony Hsieh founded online lender loanDepot.
A projection at the time had headcount reaching a thousand by the end of 2013.
The Foothill Ranch, Calif.-based company appears to on schedule with its recruitment goals.
An announcement Tuesday indicated that “loanDepot is currently licensed in 47 states with over 1,000 individual loan officer licenses.”
loanDepot Senior Vice President of Marketing Matt Murray clarified in a statement that 1,000 is a gross number and reflects multiple state licenses for many of the company’s originators. He said company-wide staffing currently stands at 475 employees, including nearly 450 in Orange County, Calif., where the company’s operations are centralized.
Today’s news release indicated that a new origination center has been opened in Franklin, Tenn. The site was selected because of the “strong pool of mortgage talent” in the area. In addition to handling customers in the Southeast, the center will also serve other parts of the country.
Murray explained in a telephone interview that there are 20 people already employed at the Franklin office. The staff includes former LendingTree Loans employees who were recently laid off.
At least 30 more hirings are slated for the Franklin office this year.
In addition, loanDepot plans to open origination centers in another six major markets.
Murray said that Dallas, Indianapolis and Phoenix will likely be among the six markets. He noted that between 50 and 100 employees are expected to be on board at each origination center by the end of this year. Most of the recruits will be loan officers, though some support-staff hirings are also on the agenda.
“The openings of these six additional origination centers are key to the company’s strategic plans to become one of the nation’s largest independent retail mortgage lenders,” today’s announcement said.
Murray added that it’s been a little more difficult than initially expected to grow the Orange County originator staff, so the company decided to branch out.
He expects that the company will be licensed in all 50 states by Dec. 31.
Last month, according to the executive, the company launched its wholesale unit, O2Funding. The executive team for the third-party operation was hired in January.
More than 50 people are already working at O2Funding, which is expected to soon reach profitability. loanDepot hopes to eventually offer mortgage broker programs in all states.
On its Web site, O2Funding offers Fannie Mae and Federal Housing Administration programs.
Prospective employees are being asked to contact Murray at [email protected].
