Open Mortgage was founded in January of 2003. The original observation behind Open Mortgage was that the mortgage industry was dominated by small broker shops that operated with little technology or organization. If you study Realtors or Mortgage brokers you find only a small handful of truly successful operations. Each of those has a well-defined strategy – more... and a system for working that strategy. There is no one best strategy, but people who continually work their strategy, review their strategy, and optimize their strategy have better business success. The founder, Scott Gordon, believed that a web-based software platform could be developed to provide a framework for originating loans under different marketing strategies. This platform could provide tools to automate many of the client management and marketing tasks that would be part of a successful strategy for running a mortgage office.
The platform developed by Open Mortgage is called CABO. CABO is a very large SQL database with a web-based front end. CABO has been under continual development since mid 2002. The company has a full-time web developers so development costs are kept low, and are paid continually, so there is no outstanding cost or debt related to the platform development. Virtually every aspect of the company is managed, run, or coordinated through CABO.
Originally, CABO started as a client database with marketing tools that allow loan officers to place clients on an automated 7-year post closing campaign of emails and letters. The platform is excellent at delivering email blasts (large volume of email sent at one time for efficiency) sent as individual emails from one loan originator to one client, with photos and signatures.
Branch management features have been added that allow a branch manager to track their branch account 24/7 online. CABO tracks all loan officers commission splits and automates payments of complicated splits including mentor and branch referrals. CABO allows online bill pay, so that branch managers can request that branch bills be paid through CABO. ACHs, wires, or checks are sent from corporate through the system. CABO is viewed as the most advanced platform in the industry at a branch manager's disposal.
Coming from an engineering background, as opposed to sales, Gordon takes compliance very seriously. Open Mortgage has had a policy of internally auditing 100% of branch files since the very early days of the company. Closed loans are uploaded to CABO and audited, usually within 60 minutes of upload. CABO manages a network of internal and external auditors, who vie for each uploaded file. With this level of compliance checking in place it is easy for Open Mortgage to adhere to a 'Best of the Best' attitude with our branches. We don't want to hire every loan originator out there. We want to hire the best. Having this strong suite of tools gives Open Mortgage the leverage to demand high levels of compliance from our branches. If we find a branch with a bad attitude about compliance they are terminated. We truly do adhere to a zero tolerance policy.
During the last 24 months Open Mortgage has been moving into correspondent lending. A complete LOS has been integrated with CABO. Loan officers can use an external system such as Calyx Point and import to CABO, or they can originate directly in CABO. Underwriting and condition management is coordinated through CABO. This allows for better management of underwriting, and simplifies the task of Open Mortgage bringing all funding management, doc drawing, and shipping in-house.
Open Mortgage's long term goal is to continue to grow our branch presence across the country, while continually improving our internal knowledge and the expertise of our originating teams. By vesting knowledge and procedures in our online platform we make it easier for the company to be efficient and nimble. Bigger, older companies tend to have much of their knowledge vested in the heads of employees. That makes it much harder for them to grow, change, and adapt to new technologies.
Open Mortgage started out as a broker in one state and grew to be a broker/banker in 20 states. We continue to hone our correspondent and banker skills. Open Mortgage has grown in liquid assets and is now becoming a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Seller. Our longer term goal to continue to move deeper into mortgage banking and lending, always with the most efficient systems we can develop.
There are a lot of changes happening in the mortgage industry, and Open Mortgage is set up to thrive with change. We are staffed to handle strong growth. Because of our automation, growth in accounting, bill paying, auditing, and compliance are trivial. We have recently tuned that same level of automation with our correspondent lending and line management. Open Mortgage is well positioned to handle the current turbulence in the marketplace, as well as the increases in individual branch production that we expect to see, with less surviving competition, and when the market stabilizes and home sales return to higher levels. – less – More from ZoomInfo »
Open Mortgage Employer Reviews
Working at Open Mortgage
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