The key now is not to get mired in the current slowdown but look to the future, he added: “We focus on the long term,” he said. “We know our models are going to work and it’s working right now. We know our way of doing business is the future. We’re dealing with the pain right now that everyone is feeling, but we’re also focused on the future, on building this business for the future. That’s really what we’re focused on.”
For the time being, however, mortgage originators might be feeling a bit like Sisyphus trying to push the boulder over the hill. Fain had the presence of mind to pivot to the purchase market just as the refi wave waned – fully aware the party was going to end. This timely pivot also helped him avoid the most corrosive effects of economic downturn.
“One of the things that I learned from that experience is this could all end,” he said of the recent refinancing wave that has now dissipated. “I knew that when rates were that low rates would go up – what goes up must come down and what goes down must come up when it comes to mortgage rates.”
While he availed himself of the low-hanging fruit of refis, he was quick to focus on the original mission, he noted. “I got as much as I could those couple of years,” he acknowledged. “I looked at it as a capital injection – this is phenomenal, but I won’t let it distract me from what mission I was on before rates did go down. When I look back, I’m back to my 2019 ways but doing it the 2023 way with skills I’ve developed over the last four years.”
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