loan officer

processor

administrative assistant

regional coordinator

loan processor

Movement Mortgage

When I was brought on to Movement, it was refreshing that a company put some effort into caring for its employees, which Movement does very well. They have non-profit funds available to assist employees if they need it, free breakfasts on Fridays, the Friday morning meetings, and lavish Christmas parties (which I heard have been cut). I thought being in the HQ would allow me to move around since I was working on an advanced degree. 

Nope. 

Nepotism, poor training, and other managerial issues are tanking this company, and tanking them fast. Already had three layoffs this year (two while I was employed with them) and shut down their smallest office. This company hadn't internally looked at themselves until nearly 10 years in. They thought "hey, we're growing, that's good, right?" 

Nope. 

You can grow too fast, which is what Movement did. That coupled with extremely high pricing has driven a lot of the sales staff away to find better-paying gigs. Sales turnover is high, and a lot of the operations folks are Movement-bred, meaning for a lot of them, this was their first gig in the industry. This meant these folks had no other experience outside of what Movement trained them and these folks were dealing with experienced sales staff who had decades of experience and lots of times things didn't go well. 

The company had a rule concerning being in your role for 1 year before being able to apply elsewhere. That was also coupled with a rule that all internal applicants were spoken to regardless of experience. I applied for a role I really wanted within one year and had to get a one-time exception to do so and was barely even followed up with by the recruiters within MM. After my one year, I applied for other roles that I never got the opportunity to interview for despite having knowledge and experience. 

I was recommended for an unadvertised position that would have been perfect for me. I had experience doing similar things in my advanced degree studies. Spoke their language, knew exactly what they wanted and how to go about doing it. Did I get that? 

Nope. 

Nepotism struck. 

So I left the company and I'm glad I did. I'm paid way more for an entry-level role in a career path I want to be in, and I'm doing an excellent job. 

Would hate to still be sitting on the decks of the Move-tanic right now.

At first the school was fantastic with a family culture. Leadership cared for staff and staff were allowed to be creative in their instructional practices with students. Over time, Leadership has shifted (this year in particular) and our family was broken apart because the focus became more on numbers, money and pushing teachers into the ground. Teachers have no stake anymore. There is no parent accountability but heavy(unrealistic) teacher accountability for what the parents lack. The board is unapproachable and claims we are a "movement of change" but we are doing the same thing as district schools, factory teaching and robbing students of creative learning and embracing fun in the classroom. Now our principal has little to no voice in her own staff due to the shift into "corporate teaching". Her own leaders who she hired years ago are not given the opportunity to grow and have other positions due to new Leadership making all of the decisions. When close to half of your teachers leave in one year, that should tell you something (board members).  The morale has never been so low and Covid had nothing to do with it. There were so many staff quitting they were offering $1,000 stipends for referrals to fill positions.  They had money for that but only paid 50% of staff Healthcare premiums and match 3% for retirement.  CMS pay is the same but match 7% and basically free Healthcare and less hours. The new Leadership extended the staff calendar 8 additional days and an additional 2.5 hours a week with no regards to staff needing before school care for their own children or their family time. What job in corporate America works 9 hours with a 25 minute break for the entire day (for the paywe received)? 
 Movement has caused amazing educators who were truly invested in their community to move and create change for themselves because the school wouldn't nurture and grow them. It's absolutely shameful and heartbreaking. The vision was there and on paper but actions speak louder that plaques on walls and a pretty face pushing out propaganda. 

When I first started working for Movement Mortgage I thought to myself, "This is it, I found a place that I can see myself working at for a long time, this place is great!" 

Over time that feeling slowly started to change for the worse. As the feeling of being a newbie faded and I started to pay attention to other aspects of the job and the company as a whole. I started to notice a ton of things that was just not right. I ignored those feelings and just continued to try to be the best version of me I could be and boy did they eat that up. I was treated very well because I was a top performer. I was happy with my job and my job was happy with me. I was told by my manager "I have plans for you" when I would ask about the potential for a promotion. You see, if you are amazing at your job then you get perks. Not much but there were little things like schedule tweaks and flexibility for family issues/Time off and whatnot. A few years after starting with Movement I ended up going through a pretty bad time in my life, multiple deaths in the family type "Times". I was on anxiety and depression meds. Obviously my productivity at work slowed down because of it. At that time is when I needed the "Extra perks/help" the most, but since I was no longer a top performer, my cries for help were denied. All my "above and beyond" work in the past was easily forgotten and I was being treated like yesterdays dinner. Among other things I started to notice in the company, that didn't settle with me well and thus, my motivation started to decrease.

I could write soooo much more but at this point I will summarize. In this company, depending on your title and the department you are in, you might be treated very well, everyone else might as well be cannon fodder for the numerous layoffs this company does. I witnessed Nepotism at its finest in this company. If you are a brown nosed suck up, a female that is friends with upper management, a Docile Male, a loan officer, a processor or an underwriter then you might make it in this company. If not, I would go somewhere else.

I would say that my number 1 pro is that I love the heart of this company. They do a great job choosing leadership that really seem to model servant leadership and value the employees in this company. I have worked a lot of places and I have never quite experienced leadership quite like this. I also love the people I work with  as well as my loan officers. They do a great job choosing people that fit with the heart of Movement culture. I love all that they do for the community and Love Work program. Also, never been a part of a company that has a prayer room and a chaplain for the employees which I think is awesome. The programs to help with finances and fitness, the gym, starbucks machine, keurich machine, the amazing cafeteria (food is actually really good), etc. some of the things I enjoy. They have really great benefits and we have the opportunity to earn wellness points to deduct money off of our benefits. I did not have to pay much for great health benefits. I love working as a processor. I had no mortgage experience previously and they have trained me well and my team lead has been super helpful with any questions I have had along the way. 7 months later and I am doing well. Will be closing 27 loans this month. They are equipped to help someone with no mortgage experience become a great processor.

I would say the biggest down side for most people that come from other places is the salary. I hear people say they made more at their previous job and/or could make more elsewhere. The usual reason I have heard for people leaving higher paying jobs to come here is the culture here. I have heard people say that there job was so stressful and felt unappreciated, etc. and that despite the lower pay they enjoy working here more because they actually enjoy coming to work every day. Those I have gotten to know so far that have left this company, I would say about all of them mentioned it was due to getting a new job that pays better.

My day would start with scrubbing loans, some purchases some refinances, a verity of loans. I would review all documents such as income, assets, contracts, credit send out the Consumer Explanation Letter to be filled in. I make sure that the loan is ready to proceed I calculate income; and review assets and submit the file to DU or LP for an approval.
 I write a client a welcome letter introducing myself and letting them know what is missing. I like to give an explanation of what I am asking this way it will make sense to the client. I follow up by Email and by a phone call a day later.  Once the items needed provided, I submit the loan into the System as Live or a TBD.
Once a contract is provided, I send the Bank Attorney the Fee Sheet so I can fill in the fees in the system, I re run the DU/LP with the subject property and the updates.  Next I request the Initial Disclosures. I email the client with a reminder to look for the disclosures, once signed I order the Appraisal.
I Email the client to shop for their Home Owners Insurance and to give me the agent’s contact so I can call them and give them the mortgagee clause and if they may have any questions I can help with.
Once the Commitment arrives, I sent it out to all parties and I request for the title.
I go over the commitment one on one with my clients, once all conditions received I upload into the system and update my OneNote. I enter a date next to underwriter to review and clear, once cleared an email is sent out to all parties, I do my 10 day verbal VOE and file is sent to closing. 
I set up a pipeline meeting with my Loan Officer twice a week so we are both on the same page. And I update the One Note every day so this way my Ops Manager is up to date.

The company has a fantastic model, and a great culture of positivism and support. However, the nature of the industry remains.

Origination boils down to cold sales solicitation's. The method by which this takes place varies by company; nevertheless, it is always a mortgage professional engaging a consumer. With best efforts to provide clarity, the dialogue between parties almost always leads to level of miscommunication; which, in turn, leads to disparity between expectation and outcome.

It is a pleasure to match borrowers with suitable loans - to find a solution befitting their financial picture. Learning the process, mastering the guidelines. Improving the life of a borrower, by far, is the best part of this role. Learning the back-end - the programs, the details of how each loan functions - is the key to having the answers for each borrower.
On the other hand, finding the borrowers and building the relationships is extremely challenging, and forces tremendous introspection on interpersonal engagement.

While I appreciate the skills developed at this company, working here as crystallized my desire to provide value with through analysis. My ability to client face, engage new clients, and deescalate conflict  are skills that will definitely be employed in all business interaction, and will certainly help with team building and problem solving. I have gained a deeper appreciation for the individuals who thrive in front office roles.

Stay far away from this place. I was at this company for a month, and then they outsourced our department after the owner told everyone that if one more person made a mistake they would be fired. They disbursed all of the employees to other departments within the company. Processing was a nightmare. They provided absolutely no training and gave you a full pipeline within two weeks. They left if up to other employees to train you, who didn't have the time. You would beg your team lead to train you which didn't care at all and did nothing to help you. I constantly had to work additional hours to train myself and try to understand my job. THEY DON'T PAY YOU FOR OVERTIME. They will tell you verbally that they will not pay you, and then write you through email telling you that you must put in your overtime or you will be fired. So they don't pay you at all. They preach that they are a Christian company when they are the furthest thing from it. This company will not be in business long. They have awful management and dishonest people that are higher up. They higher people right off the street with no mortgage experience and higher them to be processors. People have no clue what they're doing. They reward the wave church followers and the friends/family. No advancement either. I've seen numerous people just walk out on their lunch break and never come back. High turnover. STAY AWAY!!!

When I first started at Movement Mortgage, the two CEOs sent us on a lavish training experience at their corporate headquarters in VA Beach, Virginia. We stayed in one of the nicest hotels at the beach, were treated to lunch and dinner and drinks everyday, and promised wonderful benefits and compensation. The CEOs came in to talk  to us and told us the company was founded on honesty and what is best for the customer and employee. They told us the atmosphere they wanted to create was a "family" like workplace...
This was a horrible misrepresentation of what the job actually entailed. 
The mortgage industry is very unsteady and as my job progressed, my pay decresed, those around me were laid off left and right with most of the time- not even a two-week notice. My position was very unstable as well and although I was one of the few who survived past 6 months after training, I only stayed until I could find another job. My management was awful, not taking any responsiblity for their actions and letting those in lower positions take the fall, and most of the time it costing them their own jobs. I would not recommend this company to anyone.

The office was lovely, and had a great staff kitchen which was always stocked with complimentary refreshments. The manager paid for everyone’s lunch on Fridays, which was nice. Generally everyone took a walk together after lunch, to get some fresh air, stretch our legs and socialize. What I didn’t like is that I was given specific instructions & expectations of me at the beginning (like dress code, for example), but my manager’s ideas abruptly changed, leaving me embarrassed and humiliated in front of my coworkers after she sent me home due to my attire. I was wearing grey yoga pants, a colorful non-offensive printed t-shirt and canvas TOMS brand shoes. I didn’t work directly with clients, and was at the back of the house, out of sight of clients that did come to the office. A manager from a different company spotted me in the staff kitchen, didn’t like what I was wearing & convinced my manager to send me home. I was so embarrassed that I never went back. It was handled distastefully & at only $9/hr, I didn’t exactly have the money for an entirely new wardrobe to fit the sudden & unexpected dress code expectation. Also, I was hired as a marketing assistant, but marketing only made up roughly 15% of my job. The majority of the time, I was a data entry clerk & it was terribly boring and not at all what I was originally hired for.

Depending on the job you hold you may get to leave at 5.  If you work as a Closer, forget it. You get paid well with a salary and bonuses. They give you free coffee and soda and free breakfast on Friday’s and a chance to earn gas cards etc.  However, it’s not worth the hours you work, the pressure, stress, disrespectful and jealous colleagues, and general sweatshop environment. People are so stressed out and unhappy that they have to use alternative caffeine measures and drink alcohol, while they are still working, after the rest of the employees leave at 5.  Most take anxiety medicine just to handle the pressure. You can’t slow down, for any reason, that’s not an option.  If you do well and close more loans than seasoned employees, they get mad and nasty and ignore you and other juvenile behaviors.  If you try to transfer to another job, they won’t let you while you watch other people in other departments be able to do so.  Some extra bonus potential is saved for managements friends.  The company gathers employees under the facade that they are a Christian company and that it’s a Christian subculture that’s a laugh. It is affiliated with WAVE Church in Virginia Beach, VA. and if you are not a member there then you are definitely an outsider.  It’s not worth it; the money, the “free” stuff, isn’t worth your health, time you miss with family and friends. There is ZERO work life balance. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Loan officer 8 salaries reported	$94,448 per year
Processor 5 salaries reported	$75,000 per year
Administrative assistant 1 salary reported	$21.50 per hour
Regional coordinator 2 salaries reported	$60,000 per year
Loan processor 1 salary reported	$51,411 per year

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