ART in Mortgage Industy - by Cal Haupt

Have you ever seen an ART Class where all the participants paint a subject from the same perspective and look over at each other to see how others are doing? 

Over the weekend, I was
reminded how important organically adapting a company to the market yields a major advantage and return. 

ART is a diverse range of executive activities creating a tangible expression of the executive’s technical skill intended to be appreciated by the shareholders and community analyst. 

Being able to see the beauty in the Mortgage Industry and its opportunity is a unique skill needed to see a path to incremental success over varying market conditions.  Most in the Mortgage Industry listens to the same paid service view of the market and act upon that data.  As a result, everyone is following the same path and by definition, if you are all doing the same thing an average result is the certain outcome.

The client and secondary market is a zero-sum game.  The client will always get a market rate and the secondary market will hedge and arbitrage that rate to an acceptable return without impact to the client.  How a company functions and the perspective they have of this known universe is what quantifies the rewards.

When I meet someone who follows Southeast Mortgage they always want to quantify us by volume.  I always respond that we track Revenue which is your ability “ART” to convert volume to revenue.  Revenue to Net Income is easy with a grasp on GOGS and Operating Expense.  I have combined 14 companies into Southeast Mortgage over the years and the net margins I observed left a lot of opportunity on the table.  Southeast Mortgage shared a unique perspective with the owners that yielded a significantly greater return for them from the same volume.  Given any volume of production has a theoretical maximum rate of return most only capture ¼ of what is available because that is all they see is available on others canvases.  I call it wasting opportunity.

If I could offer one suggestion to those that participate in the Mortgage Industry, it would be to keep an open mind to a better path.  If you can accomplish your goal 3x faster, don’t discount the opportunity just because the other canvases have the same picture resulting from pack mediocrity and shared expectation.  Traveling the same path always yields the same result.  Take a new educated perspective and create beautiful ART.

Cal Haupt
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Southeast Mortgage of Georgia, Inc.
770-279-0222
www.southeastmortgage.com