Planet Home Lending originated $3 billion in mortgages in 2016. The company wants to grow that figure to $5 billion next year.
According to the company, it expects $1 billion of its 2018 loan production to come from its distributed retail unit.
As part of the company’s plan to get there, Planet Home Lending is planning an expansion of its distributed retail lending channel, and tapping Mike Lee to lead the effort.
The company announced recently that it hired Lee to serve as the company’s new senior vice president of nation production. In this role, Lee will lead the company’s sales activities in distributed retail and third-party origination channels.
Lee will be responsible for building and managing corporate and branch franchises, including recruiting, on-boarding and transition activities.
Lee comes to Planet Home Lending from Cross Country Mortgage, where he was responsible for business development, recruiting, operations, fulfillment, and strategic planning as executive vice president for the Western U.S.
Earlier in his career, Lee held executive positions in sales and production at Peoples Home Equity and CMG Financial. Lee also served as executive vice president of national production for WMC Mortgage, a GE Money company.
“Mike has vast experience in building loan production and is the perfect person to lead our expansion efforts,” said Mike Dubeck, president and CEO of Planet Home Lending. “We are confident he will help us become one of the top mortgage companies in both production volume and geographic reach.”
Additionally, Lee will directly recruit and hire distributed retail branch managers and loan originators in the Planet Home Lending’s key markets, the company said in a release.
In a release, Planet said that it expects to expand its retail presence by supporting the growth of its existing branches and strategically adding branches in strong purchase markets.
“It is extremely important that we find the right partnerships because our primary goal is to invest in and support sustainable and scalable growth. Far too many growth companies’ primary efforts are in new branch acquisitions rather than creating a balance between new growth opportunities and fully supporting their existing branch network,” Lee said.
“Planet will be a leader in product innovation in the mortgage space, particularly in the non-QM world," Lee added. “Coupled with best-in-class service and transparency in pricing, it fosters a culture that represents who we are as a company. We are a service organization that values long-term partnerships.”
