Although facing serious changes in the mortgage industry, LoanToolbox has not hunkered down to weather them out. Instead, the Westlake Village-based firm moved to new offices that can accommodate up to 40 more people than the 100 currently employed and is looking at various growth strategies including acquiring other companies. The mortgage crisis may be threatening jobs and homes across the country, but as a provider of web-based services for loan officers, LoanToolbox has positioned itself to provide information needed by lenders so they understand what the changes mean for them, for their clients and for their real estate and CPA partners, said CEO David Fournier. “It’s a land-grab opportunity that needs to be taken advantage of,” Fournier added. That is precisely the type of thinking that Fournier was brought in to do when he was hired in 2005 first as chief operating officer for the company, and nine months later when he was elevated to CEO, replacing founder Tim Braheem, who became chief creative officer. Had Fournier known the slow down in the mortgage industry was on the horizon, he would have been more concerned. Instead, he spent those months focused on the teachings and methodologies of Braheem, who Fournier described as a “larger than life” character. LoanToolbox recorded its 11,000th subscriber in August and has a 75 percent renewal rate among its client base. Subscribers mirror the industry as a whole, being both independent loan officers working from home to those employed by the large corporations. Fournier argues that their services offered to improve how loan officers market themselves, find leads and know the difference between, say, an FHA loan and a conforming loan is needed more than ever. The company has positioned its Web site as an information hub and a place to turn to for answers, said Khai McBride, a loan officer and faculty member who contributes to the site. Through discussion forums among subscribers and advice from faculty, loan officers can find out about new marketing approaches or what to do if a certain type of loan is no longer available. There are many loan officers who came into the industry during the boom times who never participated in a down-cycle market before and find the current situation frightening, said Cindy Ertman, another LoanToolbox faculty member. For those officers to survive the tough marketplace they can benefit from the site’s back-to-basics component stressing how to do a proper cash flow analysis and pre-qualify buyers, said Ertman, a vice president with the Platinum Capital Group. “There are a lot of people who don’t know how to read a tax return,” Ertman said. The culprit behind the current crisis is the subprime loan loans made to people with less than perfect credit who found themselves unable to make ballooning payments. Mortgage lenders in turn found themselves in financial straits, declaring bankruptcy in the case of New Century Financial Corp. based in Orange County, or cutting back staff. Burbank-based WMC Mortgage, the subprime lending unit of General Electric, let go 1,100 workers in the spring. Calabasas-based Countrywide Financial laid off 500 last month and has announced plants to let thousands more go. Lawmakers at all levels of government are calling for varying degrees of assistance to homeowners threatened with losing their homes because of escalating mortgage payments. What happens in the next 12 to 18 months will be very interesting, predicted Fournier, and controlled by what actions the federal government takes. Thinking Outside the Toolbox In the meantime, what is necessary for a company servicing the lending industry is to make movement on several fronts. For one, Fournier looks to take LoanToolbox’s technology and services and transfer it to other industries, such as insurance, certified financial planning, and real estate. That growth can happen internally but more likely will take place due to acquisition so that LoanToolbox gets a bigger footprint in the market, Fournier said. There has also been talk on Capitol Hill and in some state legislatures about creating mandatory licensing or certification for loan officers. Fournier believes that what the industry needs to be do is be self-regulating and to get ahead of any lawmakers. “We are better equipped to know what needs to be done and executing that,” Fournier said. But, according to Fournier, there needs to be an interest for LoanToolbox clients to want to get certified, a way for an ongoing revenue stream to come from certification, and a consumer demand for certified loan officers.
