Led by a former professional football player,
Movement Mortgage LLC is positioning itself to make one out of every 10 U.S. home loans.
Movement Mortgage
was co-founded in 2008 by Casey Crawford and Toby Harris. The company is currently based in Virginia Beach, Va.
Crawford, who serves as president and chief executive officer, played as a tight end in the National Football League from 2000 until 2003 for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Carolina Panthers. Harris, who oversees operations at Movement Mortgage, spent 14 years at National City Mortgage. When it launched six years ago, Movement Mortgage had just four employees. Today, headcount has reached 1,565 employees working in 40 states. Another The new 104,000-square-foot office is being built with the help of the state, which is providing $53 million in tax incentives. “It’s always a great day in South Carolina when a successful, nationally branded company, like Movement Mortgage, decides to establish their headquarters in our state,” South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said in the statement. Republican U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott both expressed gratitude in the announcement for Movement Mortgage’s decision to locate in the state. Last year, the company funded 22,041 residential loans for $4.332 billion, soaring from 16,766 loans closed for $3.257 billion in 2013, according to data provided to Mortgage Daily. “Movement Mortgage is one the nation’s top 25 private mortgage banks, and was named the nation’s fastest-growing, privately held mortgage bank by Inc. in both 2012 and 2013,” the statement said. Based on Movement Mortgage’s third-quarter 2014 originations of $1.248 billion, it had roughly an 0.4 percent market share. |
photo of Casey Crawford
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But Crawford has much bigger plans for the lender.
He noted in the news release that Movement Mortgage is working “toward our goal of financing 10 percent of new home loans in the United States over the next 10 years.”
That would make the company, which currently services $0.5 billion in loans, the second-largest lender in the country, trailing only Wells Fargo & Co. based on current industry market share.
“The company will attain this growth level with targeted market research and heavy investment in sales leaders and loan officers within the markets the company will be strategically expanding,” Crawford said in a written statement. “Additionally, we will continue to provide best in class customer service by focusing on our six-hour underwriting and seven business day processing goal.”
Crawford explained in a telephone interview that at 37, he is much younger than his peers — giving him a bigger opportunity to achieve such a lofty goal.