WHAT IS A BRANCH ALTERNATIVE?

A Mortgage Net Branch, which is also known as an Affiliate Branch, is a corporate production branch office of a mortgage banking organization. The branch manager operates the branch office with oversight responsibility for both the operating expenses and the staff supervision. Some branch offices are one-person operations, while others are fully staffed production offices employing dozens of professionals.

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES?

Since the mortgage net branch manager is operating a branch of a bank or mortgage-banking firm, one of the chief benefits is that the yield-spread premiums are not required to be disclosed. FHA & VA mortgages will account for a growing percentage of mortgage loan volume as sub-prime products have largely disappeared. Approval to do those types of loans is expensive, difficult and time-consuming to obtain. With a mortgage net branch the branch manager has those licenses on day one. If your mortgage net branch is a nationally or federally-chartered bank (very few are) then you have the additional and powerful advantage of being able to do business nationwide, with almost immediate start-up capability without having to wait for expensive licenses in individual states. The last big reason is that most mortgage net branch managers would prefer to concentrate on originating (and usually hate paperwork). A good mortgage net branch company will not only provide routine items, like payroll and accounting but will also handle compliance and regulatory obligations (audits, etc.) as much as possible, thus freeing the branch manager to do what they do best…originate mortgage loans!