RE/MAX Holdings and its mortgage franchise Motto Mortgage announced Tuesday the acquisition of wemlo, a mortgage processing startup, for an undisclosed amount.
Dustin Morton, vice president of product and strategy at Motto Mortgage, recognized wemlo’s potential right away.
“Our network has grown so fast, and we’re always kind of hungry for more solutions when it comes to processing,” Morton told HousingWire. “I thought I was just shopping for a good partner to provide the service. When I found wemlo, I literally immediately ran down the hall and popped my head into Ward [Morrison’s] office and said, ‘I found a processing company that we need to buy.’”
Ward Morrison, Motto Mortgage’s franchising president, said that wemlo is solving “the No. 1 problem within the mortgage broker channel today, which is the quality, efficient, third-party processing of loans.”
wemlo’s platform connects mortgage brokers and loan originators to the largest processing network in the country, which mitigates the problem of hiring experienced processors, Morton said.
“Part of the reason that we have such a challenge finding mortgage processing talent is it’s not an easy job. And that’s really because the processor is such an undefined role. What he or she needs to do for the log file changes depending on the loan product and depending on the market. So, we think that with wemlo we’re going to build highly dynamic, sort of education-based software that’s really going to help the processor understand those next steps to do them efficiently in a way that’s never been done before.”
Motto wanted to partner with a company that would benefit from the power of a publicly traded company, increasing the speed and efficiency of mortgage loan processing, which would ultimately fuel the growth of both companies.
The founders of wemlo understand the benefits of the acquisition, especially in opening up new channels for their business.
“The whole goal here is obviously to provide amazing service to our customers, but being able to have a backing like RE/MAX, as close to the top of the funnel as you could possibly get, to really understand the ins and outs of the whole entire mortgage cycle, is just really phenomenal,” Cofounder of wemlo Steven Gelley said.
For David Rogove, wemlo’s other cofounder, another bonus was the opportunity to solve the issue of numerous non-standardized mortgage systems built on outdated technology platforms, and a limited pool of trained loan processors.
“What’s next is the massive impact that we will have on the mortgage broker channel as a whole,” Rogove said. “It’s phenomenal and it’s solving a massive pain point for Motto [Mortgage], and at the same time, we’re solving a massive pain point for the entire mortgage brokers channel, as a whole, providing them that solution that just really doesn’t exist in the market today.”
Gelley and Rogove will continue to lead the wemlo team’s operations, based near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and will work closely with the Motto Mortgage technology team in Denver.
The two companies will plan and execute integrations within the Motto Mortgage product ecosystem while also using their industry knowledge to advance the wemlo roadmap for independent mortgage brokerages, a company release said.
