ditech Adding AZ Employees

The direct lending unit of Residential Capital LLC intends to hire 50 to 100 sales and loan processing employees in Tempe, Ariz., over the next year, company spokesman Brett Weinburg told MortgageDaily.com.

Borrowers in adjustable-rate mortgages are contributing to ditech.com’s ability to grow while other mortgage industry players are trimming staff.

“We attempt to stay close to our customers in trying to understand their needs,” Rick Powers, ditech.com senior vice president and general manager, said in an e-mail statement. “A recent example is our fixed rate campaign that we launched last spring. Consumers want to convert their ARMs into fixed rate products and we have received a tremendous response that has helped our business.”

Mortgage sales employees at ditech.com can earn over $70,000 per year and loan processing employees receive annual pay of $30,000 to $50,000, Weinburg said.

The Phoenix-area office started operations in January 2005 and currently houses 149 employees of ditech.com’s total of 891, the spokesman said. The headquarters office in Costa Mesa, Calif., ditech.com’s only other operation, houses the remaining 742 employees.

The spokesman said he could not comment on ditech.com’s mortgage volume numbers because it is a public company.

Residential Capital’s reported volume of $51.5 billion for the third quarter included the originations of GMAC-RFC, GMAC Mortgage, ditech.com and Homecomings Financial.