This week on Power House, HousingWire president Diego Sanchez sits down with Sarah Middleton, the newly appointed Chief Marketing and Growth Officer at Supreme Lending.
Sarah walks through her journey to Supreme Lending and what it takes to succeed in mortgage — from strong leadership to Supreme’s tech-forward mindset, AI-driven marketing, and diverse product lineup. She also touches on M&A, the “branchpreneur” model, and her passion for training, onboarding, and helping loan officers grow, especially in difficult times.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
A diverse product offering is essential for competing in mortgage.
The importance of technology and AI in streamlining many processes.
M&A is currently a key growth strategy at Supreme Lending.
Understanding the aspirations of loan officers enhances recruitment efforts.
There will always be opportunities in the market, even during tough times.
Related to this episode:
HousingWire Data - Enterprise Solutions
https://www.housingwire.com/enterprise-data/
Altos data licensing product relaunches as HousingWire Data | HousingWire
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/altos-research-relaunches-data-licensing-product-as-housingwire-data/
Enjoy the episode!
The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire president Diego Sanchez every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio
Sarah walks through her journey to Supreme Lending and what it takes to succeed in mortgage — from strong leadership to Supreme’s tech-forward mindset, AI-driven marketing, and diverse product lineup. She also touches on M&A, the “branchpreneur” model, and her passion for training, onboarding, and helping loan officers grow, especially in difficult times.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
A diverse product offering is essential for competing in mortgage.
The importance of technology and AI in streamlining many processes.
M&A is currently a key growth strategy at Supreme Lending.
Understanding the aspirations of loan officers enhances recruitment efforts.
There will always be opportunities in the market, even during tough times.
Related to this episode:
HousingWire Data - Enterprise Solutions
https://www.housingwire.com/enterprise-data/
Altos data licensing product relaunches as HousingWire Data | HousingWire
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/altos-research-relaunches-data-licensing-product-as-housingwire-data/
Enjoy the episode!
The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire president Diego Sanchez every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00Assess what's happening, don't overreact to it, and then begin to understand what's the opportunity, because there's always opportunity.
00:18Welcome to Powerhouse, where we interview the biggest names in housing and ask them about their strategy for growth.
00:25I'm Diego Sanchez, president of HousingWire. My guest today is Sarah Middleton, chief marketing and growth officer at Supreme Lending.
00:35Sarah, it's so great to have you on the show.
00:38Thank you. Thank you, Diego, for inviting me. It's an honor. Love HousingWire, love you, and it's just a treat to be here, so thank you for inviting me.
00:47And this news is really hot off the presses. We just published the article this morning about this new position for you at Supreme Lending.
00:57Yes, yes. I am absolutely thrilled to be at Supreme.
01:03There are so many things I know you and I are going to get into to talk about Supreme that hopefully, you know, not just to promote the Supreme name,
01:14but also to help loan officers regardless of where you are and how you're looking at the business today to maybe just give you a few nuggets of hope and also some nuggets of strategy.
01:26Yeah, and you've really had a good career of rising through the ranks at really some of the best brands in mortgage lending.
01:37What attracted you to this opportunity at Supreme Lending?
01:41Yeah, that's such a, you know, I'm so thankful. I am so thankful for the journey when I look back and it's just very much kismet or happenstance, whatever you want to call it, Diego, because I, you know, I don't know how I was so fortunate to be with great leaders throughout my career.
02:02And they all have strengths and things that they do that are just absolutely spectacular.
02:08So there's no, you know, looking back and regretting any of it.
02:12It's just as time goes on, you absolutely get to the point in your life where you go, man, if I'm going to do this, and I've said this over and over, if I'm going to do this at this point in my life, which I want to do it.
02:26I love to help loan officers and help them grow, I love to help managers to grow, I need to be at a place with the things that I believe today are absolutely just fiercely pointed at where we got to go as an industry.
02:44And again, it's not, you know, it's not going to be for everybody, everybody has their kind of their own flavor, and they're attracted to certain things.
02:53And Supreme's not going to be for everybody, but I believe it's going to be for a number of people.
02:58And so my journey, Diego, was really interesting.
03:02I knew, you know, I knew there were a few things that were very important for me to emphasize in that choice.
03:12And so I made this kind of flying leap of faith, you know, left prior company without a net, you know,
03:19it's not always the best advice to quit your job before you have a job.
03:24But I thought, you know what, I'm going to see if anybody's even interested out there.
03:29And I didn't know, you know, I shared with you, I didn't know.
03:33Again, you just kind of wonder, is anybody even going to look up?
03:36And it was really very nice, because I had a number of companies that reached out that just, they were amazing.
03:44And, you know, I posted it today on Facebook, like I was just completely re-energized, just talking to leadership here and there, and the things that they're doing.
03:55But one of them stuck out for me.
03:59And it was Scott Everett with Supreme.
04:03I definitely, on my 26-point checklist of what I wanted.
04:1026 points, I love it.
04:1126-point checklist, and they checked literally all the boxes for me.
04:19Leadership is everything.
04:21And again, you know, Scott's been in the business himself 31 years.
04:25Supreme's been around for 26 years.
04:27And sure, you kind of look back at these long journeys that I don't care who you are.
04:33I mean, there's naysayers everywhere, right?
04:36And there's also positive everywhere.
04:38And I just kind of kept digging in on the leadership at Supreme and getting to know Scott Everett.
04:46And I was looking for humility.
04:49Number one, people don't know Scott.
04:51He's very, very anonymous.
04:53I guess not anymore after today.
04:56So, sorry, Scott.
04:58He just kind of stays under the radar.
05:02He doesn't try to pop his head out and do social media or any of that type of stuff.
05:08That was very, very appealing to me.
05:13Also, the philanthropic side of Scott Everett in Supreme, they don't put it out there.
05:19But I interviewed person, so you're going to crack up, Diego.
05:22I talked to 43 people at Supreme before I made, yeah.
05:27And I just kept asking the same question.
05:30So they interviewed you, but you also did quite a bit of interviewing of them as well.
05:34I did every department, every single department.
05:37And then I dug even further, kind of down the line, because I kept thinking, somebody's going
05:42to tell me something that's not consistent with what you're all telling me, because you
05:47can't hide it for that long.
05:52Somebody's, you know, the Columbo thing.
05:54One more thing.
05:55One more person.
05:56You know, I'm just going to keep asking.
05:57And I kept hearing that same thread about Scott behind the scenes, how he keeps his word.
06:07If he makes a promise to you, he keeps his word.
06:11And that was very important to me.
06:13I'm a person of my word.
06:14If I tell you I'm going to do something, if I tell you I'm going to show up, if I tell
06:19you I'm going to create something or build something, Diego, I will die trying.
06:24And so leadership, number one, you know, learning, learning about Scott, and then second level
06:32going to the exec team, and then down the line to see what level of excellence those
06:39people were at.
06:41I believe today, again, I know you and I are going to be talking further and deeper about
06:46Rocket and what's happened there.
06:48Efficiency is everything.
06:50It's everything for me.
06:52Again, no knock on, you know, bigger companies out there, but I just think you've got to be
06:59able to manufacture the process so fast, so efficiently, so spectacularly, that if you
07:09don't, we're going to lose in this game.
07:12So that's one component for me.
07:14So that's how I started with this process.
07:17I also wanted to know the financial stability of the company and their balance sheet.
07:26And Scott, again, he's not going to be anonymous anymore.
07:30I just wanted to say, can we get in the ring with the big dogs?
07:36Can we get in the ring with the big dogs?
07:38And if you want to grow, we got to get in the ring and we got to start slugging it out.
07:43And I'm not afraid to slug it out.
07:45I love that response.
07:47And I think you are absolutely right.
07:49I do think it is going to take execution, but also scale.
07:55Yeah.
07:56And being willing to take market share organically and maybe inorganically as well.
08:00And we'll talk about that in a little bit.
08:03Um, uh, but Sarah, I think we need to publish that 26 point check.
08:09The spreadsheet on my wall going check, check.
08:13Well, I'm going to keep going.
08:14So I'm not going to hit all 26.
08:16But the next thing was, uh, tech focus and Scott, a lot of people, again, don't know about
08:22Scott, but he's super techie and he's brilliant from the standpoint of, uh, he and the team and
08:29what they have created going back 29 years, they've created so much of their own proprietary
08:37tech, but it's not like a new thing.
08:39It's not a new thing.
08:40It's things that he's, he's been developing and working on.
08:44Now it's not to say that we're not going to, you know, go out today and look at vendors
08:49that are faster, better, you know, quicker, cleaner, all those types of things.
08:53But, but that tech focus, cause Diego, I'm, I'm terrible at tech.
08:57I just am.
08:58I mean, you guys were helping me get on the podcast.
09:01So, but I also, I also recognize today how important it is.
09:07And then we have a heavy, heavy emphasis also with our team on AI, cause that's going to
09:14play into it.
09:15And an example of that is, you know, I'm over marketing and we've pulled AI in quickly, uh,
09:22to just be compliantly accurate on all our marketing pieces.
09:26And literally we're just spitting out stuff 10 X faster.
09:30Now it doesn't eliminate the role because you're still going to have to have somebody
09:34kind of, you know, oversee the more difficult things, which also is a, another global picture
09:39of where I think loan officers have to focus.
09:41But that was the number thing, um, product depth, product depth today.
09:47And I've said it for years and years and years, uh, Dave Savage.
09:52And I are big buddies on this.
09:54We align perfectly, but I have said, you have to be a loan officer.
09:59And I, again, you know, the, the, the consummate professionals are going to, if they haven't
10:06already, and many of them have the top producing LOs, you have to be niche.
10:12You have to be niche, meaning you have to have niche products.
10:16You have to be willing to just really dive into it and just become so good at it.
10:22And to me, again, I'd love to hear your opinion too, Diego, because I don't, I don't want to
10:27just talk the whole time, but I, I think about, so, so Scott and this team, they've been at
10:33the product game for again, 26 years.
10:37And so their product menu was huge.
10:42They don't talk about it.
10:44And I'm like, good, goodness gracious.
10:46Like we do one time clothes, two time.
10:48We do it with VA, FHA, conventional, jumbo, USDA.
10:52Are you kidding me?
10:54And, and now we're putting a heavy emphasis just in, I mean, that's just one product of
11:00thousands.
11:01Um, and, and again, I, I don't know what you think about that, but I'm like, man, if I'm
11:06going to compete against the big dogs and they're out there sourcing through all the
11:11data to get, you know, more of that vanilla lane, then what am I going to do?
11:16Yeah.
11:16I mean, from, from my angle, uh, I think it's, I think it's correct to be thinking about a
11:22diverse product set.
11:23Uh, because if you think about how, like you said, the big dogs are, are addressing this,
11:29they're addressing the full customer life cycle, right?
11:32So not only is it, um, that, that first mortgage, um, but you know, they want to capture the refi
11:38opportunities.
11:38They want to capture the second home opportunities.
11:40They want to capture maybe the investment property opportunities.
11:44You know, maybe when, when we get a little older, they want to capture the reverse mortgage
11:48opportunities.
11:49There's a lot of opportunity in the full customer mortgage life cycle.
11:55Right.
11:55Uh, and so I think a diverse product base makes a lot of sense.
11:59Yeah.
11:59Um, next on the list, this seems kind of goofy, but I don't think people think about it is,
12:05you know, um, Supreme has the gold star of warehouse lines and they have never triggered
12:11a covenant.
12:12That was important to me because again, today you have so many mortgage companies again,
12:19that I don't want to say that you're on the edge of oblivion, but it goes back to that
12:24capital infusion and having, you know, the cash behind it.
12:29We'll see.
12:30We'll see what happens this year.
12:32So I want to dig in a little bit on what you said about, um, you know, getting in the
12:38ring and starting to duke it out.
12:40Um, cause I was like a boxer, right?
12:43Yeah.
12:44Right.
12:44But like, I think it is somewhat true that Supreme lending has been flying under the radar
12:51a little bit for the past many years.
12:54Uh, and that can be a really good strategy because you can sneak up on people.
12:58Um, but it sounds like at this point you're ready to like come out of the shadows, um,
13:04and, and really grow and take market share.
13:07How are you and Scott thinking about that growth and taking market share?
13:12Is it, uh, is it more on the organic side where you're recruiting people or growing your
13:16existing, uh, sales efforts?
13:19Um, is it M and a, how are you thinking about that growth strategy?
13:23Yeah, definitely, definitely M and a going back to the, you know, triggering of the covenant,
13:28uh, piece that can get kind of precarious right now.
13:33Um, and we want to, you know, again, we're all about to, that's another thing that I loved
13:38so much about the 26 point checklist was Scott doesn't allow, um, there's just no jerks.
13:45So, you know, he's very, very careful about that.
13:49Um, but he also, so Diego, don't, don't laugh at me.
13:54I am going to use some baseball analogies.
13:57Um, a lot of people know my son-in-law is a starting pitcher for the Mets and I've been,
14:02but I've been on this journey with, with that journey in baseball, with the Mets, with prior
14:09ownership to new ownership and watching that development and, and what's happened within
14:14that culture.
14:16And again, what also was on my checklist is I want to run with champions.
14:24Not everybody wants to run with champions because it makes you raise your game and you have to
14:31work, you've got to work and you've got to want to raise your game.
14:35And it's kind of like, you know, if I walk out, I'm a terrible, I don't golf at all.
14:40But if I go out on the golf course with my husband, who's a really good golfer, I play
14:45really good because just kinesthetically I'm watching and I'm like, man, I should take up
14:51this sport, you know, and I'm terrible at it, but you just play better.
14:57Like I'll, you know, I want to hang around with you, Diego, because I'm going to, I'm
15:01going to be better because I'm reading housing wire every day.
15:05I'm listening to the interviews, you know, I'm doing, doing the things that, that I'm
15:09hearing from the people that you have on.
15:11So I want to be around champions.
15:14That's Scott Everett.
15:15And so every single person that we have leading every department, they're champions.
15:20They're some of the best in the business.
15:22They're tenured.
15:23They've been with him.
15:24And, and I absolutely loved that.
15:27Again, no place is perfect.
15:28There's always, you know, issues and gaps and all that kind of stuff.
15:32But that was important to me on that 26 point checklist.
15:37Is there, is there a geographic strength at Supreme or, or a weakness that maybe you can
15:43fill in with some recruiting or some M&A?
15:47Yeah, there definitely is, you know, that, that's the other thing too, I think a little
15:52bit, you know, God, God bless the, the big IMBs as they've continued to grow.
15:58And, you know, here, here's the other thing I always want to say, there's enough to go around.
16:03You know, we don't have to bash each other feet.
16:06I mean, there's just, there's enough to go around.
16:08What I did love about geographically for Supreme is there are gaps.
16:15And so that M&A thing will play into this because there's so many areas that we are
16:22just not in where an M&A has, you know, we're starting to get quite a few M&As that we're
16:28talking to and we'll fill that gap in those areas.
16:32And it won't be a crossover or a saturation.
16:35You know, sometimes people think, oh, we, you know, there's too many people in this area.
16:41And so that's, that's a big push for us as we're looking at these, these M&As.
16:45Very interesting.
16:46And as you, and as you think about surrounding yourself with champions, what kind of LOs or
16:54branch leaders would you like to recruit to Supreme Lending?
16:59Yeah, so, so something else that was very important to me, Diego, and again, there's
17:05space for all of it.
17:06There's space for retail with, with a regional, you know, and the branch manager.
17:13I personally, this is just, this is just me.
17:16And like I said, this isn't for everybody, but we definitely have a focus on what I will
17:22continue to call the branchpreneur.
17:25I know.
17:26Do you like that?
17:27That's it.
17:27I do like it.
17:28Yeah.
17:29And, and so Scott Supreme have always been a P&L company.
17:36And that's what I grew up in.
17:38That's what I grew up in the industry.
17:40And that's where I cut my teeth and then went on, you know, throughout my career in that
17:46P&L area.
17:47And I just believe today with margin collapsing, all of the different things that have happened
17:55in our industry with, you know, the bloat of costs that you have to be lean and efficient
18:02and not too layered up.
18:06So from branch to corporate and that corporate support has to be stellar.
18:12But again, it's not for everybody because to be a branchpreneur, you have to be an entrepreneur
18:19a bit.
18:20You have to be able to, you know, really kind of understand a P&L.
18:25And again, we, to me, there's so many loan officers out there that are really, really
18:31good at managing expenses, running their business, staying efficient, not overbuilding their team.
18:37And to me, that's the perfect person, not everybody, but to bring them into that branchpreneur and
18:44really teach them how to run it.
18:46And it doesn't limit their income, Diego.
18:49They can, they can kill it.
18:51They can kill it as a branchpreneur.
18:54That makes a lot of sense.
18:55And as you think about some of the things that are happening on the real estate side,
19:00you know, there's the recent NAR settlement, which changes buyer's agent compensation and
19:06the way that that works.
19:08It seems like there's a lot of mortgage companies and branchpreneurs that are trying to get to
19:17the homebuyer first, right?
19:19How does Supreme Lending look at realtor partnerships and lead generation in general?
19:26Yeah, that's, that's such a, you know, to me, that's such an evolving thing today.
19:31And I think about it from the, again, you know, going back to, sure, you can, you can still work
19:37the lead gen lane if you want to, you know, realtors are obviously they're, they're still a
19:44critical component of the business.
19:47However, again, I'm going to go back to riches and niches, but I also would say niches have to
19:54expand from your referral base too, meaning financial planners, that should be one of your
20:03pillars, CPAs, that should be another pillar, you know, going, going for, through your database and
20:12working your database.
20:14Again, I think loan officers are missing it today if they are not being the mortgage wealth advisor,
20:20as, as I'll call it again, Savage and I are, you know, we've been friends forever.
20:25And, you know, I talk about that all the time.
20:28Like people say, oh, nobody wants to get out of their 3% interest rate.
20:32I'm like, are you kidding me?
20:34We have 1.7 trillion in credit card debt.
20:37We have, we are blown up on car loans and you do that blended rate.
20:42You know, some people are catching on to it.
20:44And we have families that are growing or lives that are changing circumstances all the time.
20:49Yes.
20:50And, you know, and again, another, we have a first position HELOC that we have here at Supreme,
20:56like those specialty products where you can change a family's life if you become that mortgage wealth
21:04advisor.
21:06How do you think about LO training when you have such a diverse product set?
21:13Yeah, it can be a little bit overwhelming to, to learn about all those products and to be that,
21:20you know, kind of mortgage home wealth advisor.
21:23Yeah, that's, so I'm over training here at Supreme.
21:27I'm also over onboarding.
21:29That is another passion of mine, Diego, that I just, I think, again, I'm maybe old school,
21:37but, you know, I grew up in a time in the industry where you studied your guidelines every day.
21:44You learned product, a little bit about product every day.
21:48And then, you know, you watched the top people that were doing product in a specific area and you emulated,
21:58you know?
21:58And so, from a training aspect, I'll give you an example.
22:03We just put together a certification for all of our loan officers that actually happens today at 2 o'clock
22:11on one-time closings and they'll get certified.
22:16It's basically an hour and a half training.
22:19We have one of the top guys that he just got here too, Joe Jensen,
22:23and he's incredible in that construction area.
22:27And so, I think you have to also be willing as a company.
22:31Here's another thing that, you know, playing with the big dogs, okay?
22:36Are we ready to go out and get a Joe Jensen?
22:39You know, are we ready to go out to get the number one reno person in the United States?
22:46Are we ready to go out to get the number one VA one-time clothes guy?
22:51I mean, that...
22:53Are you?
22:53Are you ready?
22:54Oh, yes, we are.
22:55Oh, yes, we are.
22:58Yes, we are.
22:59Because guess what?
23:01They'll come in and they're always...
23:04You know, the thing I also realize is like top people, for the most part,
23:08they want to give away their knowledge.
23:11They want to.
23:12Because they know if they help others, they're blessed because of it.
23:16And they also understand just because I give it away doesn't mean anybody's going to do anything with it.
23:20Because they have a work ethic champion, I go back to the word champion, that they know nobody's a threat to them.
23:28So, yes.
23:29So, today that happens on doing that in-depth training on the one-time clothes.
23:34And then we'll have the two-time that'll roll out.
23:36And, yes, one of the top VA one-time clothes guys is...
23:43We haven't announced him yet, but he'll be here.
23:46Nice.
23:47So, if I'm a branchpreneur or a really good LO, what are you going to talk to me about in terms of the perks, benefits,
24:03and platform at Supreme Lending that's going to attract me to join the team?
24:09Yeah.
24:10So, Diego, you know, I believe in the saying, you have two ears and one mouth.
24:20And I would say back to you, so we can, you know, we can have fun and role play a little bit.
24:25I would say to you, Diego, tell me, and this is always my favorite,
24:30I always want people to tell me their story and tell me what their dream is in the business.
24:36And it doesn't mean that we can always fulfill it for them.
24:42But if I listen to you and I just don't throw, you know, everything and anything that Supreme offers onto you,
24:50you're going to tell me what you dream about in this business.
24:55And I feel like that's a question that maybe you've been asking for a long time.
24:59And it gets you the kind of response that you want in order to have these recruiting conversations.
25:04Yeah, and typically people will tell you, you know, Sarah, I do love being a loan officer,
25:12but I want something more.
25:15I want to be able to coach women.
25:20You know, I want to have that kind of that direction where I can help and I can coach.
25:27And yes, that'll be something that we will be bringing in and launching at Supreme that they don't have currently.
25:35That's also a passion of mine.
25:37That's just one example.
25:38Or the gentleman that I was speaking about that is an incredible one time closed guy for VA.
25:46He said to me, Sarah, I want you to help me to triple my business.
25:51Okay, well, I have some questions for you.
25:54Are you doing this, this, this?
25:57Oh, okay, you're not.
25:59How about if we get you with our marketing team and we set up a plan for you so that we start to put that together
26:08so you can get out to your network?
26:11I mean, the guy, it was so interesting to me.
26:14He wasn't working his database.
26:16Something so simple.
26:17And I'm like, what?
26:18Okay, you're a veteran yourself.
26:23You're working primarily VA loans.
26:27And we veterans know veterans who know veterans who know veterans.
26:31So let's figure out how to kind of mushroom that referral system.
26:37It's so interesting how a lot of times the response you'll get to that question doesn't have very much to do with money.
26:43It's more about other aspirations.
26:45You know, obviously, if you triple your business, you'll make more money.
26:49Yeah.
26:49But it sounds like they just want to grow.
26:51Like they're excited about growth.
26:53Yeah.
26:53And again, I think today, you know, I'm going to throw back to way back.
27:00You know, people panic when big shifts happen in the industry.
27:05They have a tendency to get constricted by fear.
27:08And, Diego, when I look back, and again, I made a ton of mistakes.
27:14And, you know, I certainly haven't done everything right.
27:17But I've learned so much through my, I call it failing forward, through my failures.
27:23But when I look back at the different times in the industry when rates ticked up, you know, they ticked up in 96.
27:31They went from 6% to 8% in like an hour and a half, right?
27:35And everybody freaked out.
27:36Everybody just stopped in their tracks and the world was over.
27:40But if you just, I always say this, practice the pause.
27:45Take a step back.
27:47Assess what's happening.
27:48Don't, you know, don't overreact to it.
27:51And then begin to understand what's the opportunity because there's always opportunity.
27:59So here we have Rocket, right, with Mr. Cooper in Redfin.
28:04All right.
28:05Everyone calm down.
28:08Step back.
28:10One in six.
28:11They're going to take out a loan, a bridge loan of $5 billion, right?
28:15Now they've just gobbled up all the subservicers where, all right, I don't know the answers yet.
28:25But I'm just kind of stepping back on, I think there's going to be a really cool opportunity here.
28:31There's always opportunity, regardless of what's happening, if you can just start to assess.
28:38And then you look at where are the openings for me?
28:42And I'll take you back, you know, Countrywide.
28:47So they were $1.3 trillion in servicing in 2006.
28:55And I remember everybody just saying, and I'm sure, Diego, you know, you remember this too.
29:01Like, everybody thought Countrywide was just going to take over the world.
29:05Well, many times, I'm not saying this about Rocket.
29:10They do a great job.
29:12Dan is, you know, they're incredible.
29:14But sometimes you get too far over your skis.
29:18And then either government regulation comes in, things start to happen.
29:24Well, there's an opportunity in that.
29:27And that happened with Countrywide.
29:30And I got real niche-y during that time as a loan officer.
29:34I had one of my best years in 2006.
29:37It was like $165 million that year.
29:41Yeah.
29:41No, I think it's smart to not be afraid when there's big changes that are happening.
29:47And Rocket, Mr. Cooper, Redfin, certainly a big change that is happening.
29:52They will have $2.1 trillion in their book in terms of MSRs.
30:01So really big book.
30:03One in six mortgages will be serviced by them.
30:05From my perspective, you know, this is a real rallying cry around servicing.
30:12Yeah.
30:13Because if you sell your MSRs to Rocket or one of the other big servicers, in my opinion,
30:23it's very likely that they will take the recapture opportunity.
30:27Oh, yeah.
30:27They're building too much tech for that to be much of an opportunity for the IMB that
30:34sells their MSRs.
30:35How does Supreme Lending attack the servicing strategy?
30:40That's such a great...
30:41That was another question.
30:43On the 26th checkpoint.
30:45Oh, yeah.
30:46I bet.
30:47So at the top of it, they had about $20 billion in servicing.
30:52And Scott, you know, had the foresight, which was smart to sell it all, the majority of it.
30:58I think we have about $5 billion right now.
31:00Well, we're jumping back in to be a full seller servicer right now, right?
31:05So this is the time to do it.
31:07Rates are ticking down.
31:08I mean, you play the market when you need to play the market and you get out of the market
31:12when you need to get out of the market.
31:14And so we will have a much more concentrated focus in that area going forward to be that
31:22full seller servicer versus, you know, having what you just talked about.
31:27I mean, that's perilous.
31:28That's perilous for some of the big IMBs.
31:31Yeah.
31:32I mean, if you look at what happened in Q3 when rates dipped a little bit, Mr. Cooper,
31:38Rocket, NuRes, and some of the other big servicers were doing a lot of the refinancing business
31:45that was happening in that quarter.
31:47A lot.
31:47Right.
31:48So this has been a great conversation.
31:51I've really enjoyed chatting with you.
31:53My last question is around The Gathering, which is HousingWire's upcoming event.
32:00It'll take place in early June.
32:02You are going to be one of our featured speakers there in your new role as CMO and Chief Growth
32:09Officer of Supreme Lending.
32:11What do you think about and what are you planning to share with the audience in June?
32:17Well, so it kind of goes back to, you know, a lot of what you and I've been talking about.
32:23First off, you know, and not to plug you, Diego, but to plug you, I hope, you know, everybody
32:30shows up for it because I think there's going to be, you know, as this time goes on and we
32:37get into summer and we're together in June, I think there's going to be more strategies
32:42that are going to emerge with what's happening.
32:46And it's absolutely my focus to, you know, my why, and I said this earlier, my why in life
32:55and business and another checkpoint for me here at Supreme, we have one core value, just
33:03one, and it's to enrich the lives of others.
33:07And so every single thing we do, and it's how I try to live my life, I'm not perfect, I'm
33:15human.
33:16Again, I'm as broken and messy as the rest of us.
33:21But everything I try to do day in and day out, like, I want you to walk away from this
33:26conversation, Diego, going, you know what?
33:29I'm better because I got to talk with Sarah and every person we come in contact, everything
33:37we do.
33:38I want people to walk away going, she helped me.
33:42That's the legacy.
33:43That's my why is my family, my husband, you know, my grandbabies, my friends, my work co-workers
33:52that I'm around.
33:53I want to help people.
33:55And if I can figure out even one little strategy that I can share at the gathering to help one
34:01loan officer, one branch manager, one, whoever out in the audience, and they come back to
34:08me a year later and said, man, Sarah, that one thing you said to me, it changed my life.
34:14Then you go, you know what?
34:16It's all worth it.
34:17It's worth it.
34:19Yeah, that's amazing.
34:20And I feel like that is the vibe at the gathering.
34:23People are really there to network and learn from others, but also share their values and
34:29to give other people there a return on their investment in coming to that event.
34:34So I love hearing that.
34:36Sarah, it's been really great to catch up with you today.
34:39Congratulations on your new role.
34:42And I look forward to watching you be really successful in it.
34:46Yeah, thank you.
34:47Thank you so much.
34:48I appreciate you, Diego, and thanks to HousingWire.
34:51You guys are great.