Season 3 is in full swing, and we’re excited to chat with Larry Bailey, CEO of Mortgage Workflow Partners. Larry is a big proponent of rolling up your sleeves, getting under the hood, and analyzing how a business really works. Not how the CEO thinks it works, but how it actually works. Investing in workflow is critical to ensure both that your business is working the way you think it is and that you’re embracing the best possible functionality. Larry is a true veteran, and we were excited to pick his brain and swap stories.

The Bigger Picture?

Larry has been in mortgage lending since 1993. He’s been a processor, worked in sales, worked up to branch manager, and eventually owned his own mortgage lending company. He knows how compartmentalized things can get. Departments specialize, and C-level rarely has an accurate perception of both what each department does and how that fits into the bigger picture. On the one hand, it’s expectation vs. reality: Larry emphasizes that C-level needs help understanding how their companies actually work, not just how they think they work.

Changing Tech

It’s easy to get caught up in “this is how we’ve always done it.” Also, managers sometimes assume that the method that’s working for their friend across the street will work for everyone. Workflow needs to be customized to each lender, and that includes technology and changes in tech. Big questions Larry encourages mortgage lenders to answer are…

1. How are you using technology?
2. Is that appropriate to your workflow?

Times of Compression and Stress

In 2022—even if things are as bad as they were in, say, 2008—it’s not exactly the easiest environment for lenders. It’s times like these when lenders can benefit most from investing in workflow. Lenders simply can’t afford to have workflow issues in today’s market. What is taking too long? What are you spending too much money on? Honing your process can fortify you against market contractions. Also, workflow issues can negatively affect lenders when volume is way up, too. When things are moving quickly, you will get bogged down and lose money on workflow inefficiencies and a lack of clarity.

The Biggest Game-changer?

The biggest change isn’t one particular product, it‘s a paradigm shift: different softwares from different vendors can now collaborate. That’s revolutionary. Software developers have learned, it’s ok to share functionality. The average lender can leverage multiple technologies in one workflow, without having an army of devs to set it all up and keep it running.