Mortgage Matters: TAMP 2010 State Convention in Review

It's good to come here once a year and catch up with people I don't get to see otherwise" - John McCully, Flagstar AE.

I've been to most state mortgage broker (ahhh..professional) conventions since the 1st in 1987,  and this was one of the smaller in exhibitors and overall attendance. This convention, which is always on my granddaughter Cydney's birthday "weekend," has its share of memories including a few cancellations due to hurricanes and the cowardly act that brought this country together for a while at least.

I agree with John McCully, I enjoy visiting with people I haven't seen in a long time and meeting a few new ones. Much of the talk this year was about loan officer recruiting, compensation changes, DOL, and a lot of speculation about compensation and who was or wasn't going to pay their loan officers minimum wages.

Dialog at the convention always includes a quick look at the name badge to see where the other guy works now, industry changes, who's not around this year and why, and discussions about the exhibitors types. For years the exhibitors were always wholesalers, wholesalers, and more wholesalers with a few credit bureaus, doc prep companies and appraisers thrown in. Then the tech companies began showing up and at times compliance types (you knew what was going on when they started buying booth space). But we could always depend upon the wholesaler. 2010 though was year of the retail mortgage banker. A couple of pure wholesalers exhibited this year, maybe just one, but the retail mortgage bankers exhibiting and in attendance outnumbered everyone else combined.

Prediction; two years from now the convention will be four times this year's size in attendance and exhibitors. Changes. We need to keep our heads out of the sand. Just because we don't want something to happen doesn't mean it's not.

It was a good 1 1/2 days for me personally. Hopefully it was for all attending.

Head down, chin up!

 
Danny