The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter News Pick-ups: Imploded: Superior Mortgage Corp

With an off-day announcement in the morning of a national holiday - Martin Luther King Day - Superior Mortgage Corp. of Hammonton, NJ announced they were halting wholesale business "temporarily." From the memo:

"In the past several months many investors, warehouse banks and agencies have made substantial changes, imposed restrictions, limitations or eliminated this channel (Third Party Originations) all together. As a result we have experienced a sudden escalation in TPO loans. Loans that may have been spread among more investors are now spread among fewer. Rather than extend our turn times or continue to add employees to handle this recent surge, Superior has decided to temporarily suspend Third Party Originations."

Another source gave us this:

"They are sitting tight for 60 days... not accepting new apps. With Chase exiting they do not want to be left with huge pools of loans they cannot sell."

Superior Mortgage Corp., both a retail and wholesale lender and approved FNMA/FHLMC/GNMA seller-servicer per their web site, averaged nearly $74 million per month in overall originations for 2007. Sources tell us wholesale was their "bread and butter." CEO and founder Stephen M. Cors is on vacation per a recorded voicemail message, but we spoke at length with Executive Vice President Brian Voglesong who sent us the following statement:

"There have been no lay-offs in Superior's wholesale division. Our production and closing volume through all of our channels of business is at record levels. We are currently hiring and recruiting throughout the company.

Wholesale has been our smallest channel of production for over 10 years (typically between 5 and 10 % of the total company volume). The recent surge of broker business has produced more third party loans than we are comfortable managing. This decision was made to control the volume to manageable levels."

Voglesong stressed that Superior Mortgage had been a "boutique" wholesaler, catering specifically to brokers in its geographic footprint and market familiarity primarily in the state of New Jersey, with additional business coming from PA and a small amount in NY.

The retail web site indicates branch offices in PA, FL, MD, NJ, DE, RI and MA. CityTownInfo lists eight branches. A source familiar with the company told us Superior Mortgage Corp. previously had net branches as well, but exited that arena some time in 2006.

We will continue to update this listing as new developments arise. Please contact us if you have more to add, or post your comments below.

Dixiegirl at 06:56 2009-01-20 said:

Let me be the first to say I have been doing business with Superior for many years. I know the principals of this fine company very well and am confident this temporary action is a prudent move in this very difficult market. Your sources say that wholesale is their bread and butter. That is quite an exageration since I know that it is less than 20% of their production. They are a retail referral driven company and wholesale was a small part. They choose their brokers very carefully and only work with solid companies. If they decided to temporarily halt wholesale it's more than likely because their retail origination is doing so well and with the recent surge in volume they do not want their service levels to suffer. Permalink

OldTimer99 at 00:46 2009-10-04 said:

I think it's a little unfair that Superior is on the "implode" list. This company certainly hasn't imploded; instead they made a reasonable strategic decision to avoid imploding. With all the wholesalers gone, and brokers desperate to move their pipeline of cr*p (the same cr*p that poisoned the other lenders stupid enough to create the product in the first place), it's probably just not worth their time to sift through the junk trying to find a good loan or two. They decided to concentrate on their very successful core business and not get sidetracked by a small blip on the radar. How many companies have the foresight to say 'no' to more business? I've known Steve, Brian and George for many year and this isn't the first time they have made a smart business decision that others would not have had the courage or integrity to make. For example, when net branching became all the rage, they saw very early on the risks of putting originating managers a virtually uncontrolled environment, and overcompensating them for a no-risk job. They stayed away from the big money trend and chose a safer alternative. They are one of very few that has survived with their reputation untarnished, and they deserve every bit of success they have earned. Permalink

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Superior Mortgage Corp - Wholesale - Agency, FHA

Dixiegirl at 06:56 2009-01-20 said:

OldTimer99 at 00:46 2009-10-04 said:

jackkey at 15:31 2011-05-27 said: