HousingWireHousingWire
In the most recent episode of the Power House podcast, host and HousingWire President Diego Sanchez sits down with Chris Vinson, CEO of Windsor Mortgage, a division of Plains Commerce Bank. The conversation covers Windsor’s growth and success in recent years, including its focus on wholesale lending, technology and coaching.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. To start the discussion, the duo dive into Windsor Mortgage’s origin story.
Vinson: I started off as a mortgage broker in the year 2000. I actually sold to a bank in 2008 and had one big goal: to figure out how to reach No. 1 in market share. I got that market share in 2012, and in 2016, I really started to work community banks throughout the Midwest. And that was the birth of Windsor.
Windsor was never going to be Windsor. Our demographic was a 45- to 55-year-old male that wore a suit every day. However, as things change and you start one thing and think you’re going in one direction, you switch to the other. I got a call from Fannie Mae and they said, “We know this wholesale group; they’re actually making a shift and change. Would you be interested in adding that to your arsenal of Windsor?”
In 2008, [Plains Commerce Bank] purchased us because I didn’t have enough warehouse lines as a small broker.
Sanchez: Now, the wholesale channel is dominated by United Wholesale Mortgage and Rocket Mortgage. What is your strategy for competing against these two juggernauts and carving out your own slice of the market?
Vinson: Our my main focus is helping originators be better. So, we do a lot of coaching. We offer a lot of a lot of tactical things that can go out and generate more business. So, our philosophy is. “If you want to learn how to get better and to generate more, we’ll help you.”
It’s tough out there right now, so running scenarios, having our live Zoom rooms and being able to talk to our underwriter are all unique things that I think Windsor offers that maybe some of our competition doesn’t.
I think we get asked all the time, “What makes Windsor unique?” We’re looking for your problems and we’re figuring out a solution.
Sanchez: Can you talk a little bit about what your tech stack consists of right now and how you’re maybe trying to differentiate it?
Vinson: I think the big challenge on the tech side is what LOS is the originator broker using. It’s really gotten to a smaller pool, which is nice. So, I guess you could call us old school or stubborn to change. We’re still within Encompass because the backside is good in connecting through all of our back channels and bank side.
Technologies have become even more of a level playing field. But we’re working on our new technologies with the ICDs (initial closing disclosures) so the broker can originate that. That’ll be next month.
