Innovation, integration, and client growth with Proctor Loan Protector

HousingWire

On the floor of the expo hall at MBA Annual in Las Vegas, HousingWire’s Allison LaForgia sat down with Mike Dimas, Senior Vice President, and Bryan Sommerland, Regional Vice President of Proctor Loan Protector to reflect on the company’s evolution since its 2020 acquisition and to discuss the road ahead.

Transcript

00:00I'm Allison LaVorja, Managing Editor of HousingWire's Content Studio and live from Las Vegas.

00:12I'm with two very special people from Procter Loan Protector. I'm with Mike Demas, who is the

00:17Senior Vice President, and I'm with Brian Summerlin, the Regional Vice President. And it's been a

00:23minute since we've spoken. And last time we spoke, you hinted that Procter had some big

00:30things on their horizon. Tell us a little bit more about where you were in 2020 and where you are

00:37five years later. Yeah, I guess I'll jump off here. And thank you for having us. So our boss,

00:44Damon LaPrey, did an interview much like this five years ago. And maybe this group will see this,

00:50but he alluded to something big coming. And that big thing was the acquisition of Loan Protector,

00:55which is where I came from. Brian came from the Procter side. And we knew there was things in the

01:01works. We just weren't ready to release it to the public yet. So as part of that hypothesis before

01:08that acquisition, we thought there was a big need in the market for a organization to compete on

01:16larger scale. So both Procter and Loan Protector were great organizations, but combined really

01:20leapfrogged us into this space that we were not even prepared for, but it's been so exciting for

01:26the last five years. Now, tell me a little bit about the technology advancements you guys have

01:31made. Five years is a bit of time. So where are we at now? Yeah, well, it's quite significant. So

01:38when we think about technology and investments into technology, we always think about people,

01:45process, and product, right? So you think about how we want to advance as an organization. Well,

01:51when you bring two organizations together, you get the best of the best. So one advantage we had was

01:56taking pieces and parts from both organizations, integrating them into kind of our overall solution

02:01to really support the market. As we all know today, things are moving very quickly, very fast. AI is the

02:07topic probably throughout many conversations that you're having. So we're spending a lot of time

02:13looking at how do we build things ourselves? How do we find partners and vendors to work with us and

02:19integrate into our technology stack? But I think there's a lot of things that we've implemented

02:25already in these five years that's seen significant value to our clients and our new business clients,

02:31but a lot more to come. It's a really exciting time on the technology front.

02:35Now you just touched on this a little bit and I want to dig in a little bit more. So walk me

02:41through a little bit about how these changes actually impact clients and borrowers. Yeah,

02:48I'll take that one. Yeah, go ahead. Good question. As Mike mentioned, there's been a lot of investment

02:53at Procter Loan Protector in our systems and our people, and we stay very close to the pulse of our

02:59client base. And what we hear out there from our clients and know firsthand is that borrowers being

03:06able to self-serve their own needs on escrow related type functions like insurance is paramount.

03:1470% of them, we'll talk about loss drafts a little bit too in this realm, very high touch part of the

03:20business, very emotional part of the business. But through technology now, we've been able to really

03:25shorten the timeframe from ordering inspection, following up on the items that are needed with

03:31the borrower and really being able to serve the borrower better has been paramount and is woven

03:36through everything we do at Procter. Yeah. One thing to add on top of what Brian mentioned,

03:43if you picture a Venn diagram, when we're making corporate decisions about where we're going to spend

03:47money and time, if you have what's good for Procter, what's good for our clients, what are we

03:53delivering to them that makes them better, stronger, feel more comfortable hiring us as their partner,

03:58and then what's good for the homeowner, the borrower. And if we can put a dot right in the

04:02middle of that Venn diagram, that's where we always want to be with any decisions. So when we think about

04:07the technology, and Brian's talking about loss drafts, it's an awful time for a homeowner.

04:11Something bad has just happened to them.

04:12So if we can invest in technology and make the decisions based off how we're and how we're

04:17making those decisions, that's where we find the real value. That's been really awesome for us.

04:22So you just talked about the benefits to clients and borrowers and where you see that ideal dot on

04:27that Venn diagram. Talk to me a little bit more about what this means for new business growth.

04:34Well, we're both excited to answer that question. Our sales have, in the last five years,

04:40has been the last year been exponentially higher. We are seeing tremendous growth organically amongst

04:45new client business. And a lot of that's attributed to the things that we're talking

04:49about here today, the investment we're making in technology, the ability for borrowers to better

04:53serve their needs and be a happier borrower for our clients is really ultimately what we're after here.

04:59So because of that, our culture, that whole taking care of the borrower is of paramount importance to

05:06us and of course to our clients. We're seeing some significant growth in new client opportunities

05:11that have onboarded with Proctor in the last several years.

05:14I think one of the big things through the acquisition, some things we both heard prior to the acquisition,

05:19I should say. We each only had one servicing location. So with the acquisition, with our growth,

05:27we now have four servicing centers. So Daytona Beach, Florida, Cleveland, Ohio, Troy, Michigan,

05:33and a office in Dallas. We're approaching 1,600 teammates here in the United States.

05:42We are just having the most fun we could possibly have when it comes to new business.

05:47But with that, we also have to focus on retention of existing business.

05:52And I think I'm happy to report 99% year over year, we've been able to retain our clients.

05:57So we're very proud of that step more than anything. Growth is wonderful,

06:00but client retention means we're doing right. We're continuing to deliver for our current clients.

06:04So you just talked to me about new client experience and what you've accomplished with technology,

06:12but you just mentioned retention. So walk me through a little bit

06:15about your impact on the borrower experience. So we can really dig into that retention piece.

06:20Yeah. You want to jump?

06:22Yeah. Well, I think one of the things that alluded to or talked about earlier was just in the area of

06:27loss drafts, you know, the ability for a borrower to be able to self-serve is of paramount importance.

06:32And so the investment that we've made in technology is allowing us to better serve

06:37the client's borrowers needs. And borrowers do want to self-serve everything when it comes to

06:41aspect related items. So the ability to deliver that is also creating a scenario where our clients

06:47are getting better grades, let's say, and viewpoint from the borrower to their organization. So we're

06:54trying to, we always have to realize we're an extension of our clients and that's of paramount

06:58importance to us. And taking care of the borrower, as we mentioned before, is huge. And that is really

07:03delivering on that is what's helping, I think, our clients be viewed better by their borrowers at large.

07:08So it sounds like you guys are delivering in both capacities for your clients and for the borrower.

07:13So you really have two different sets of focus in mind, which is outstanding. So I have to ask,

07:19it's been a minute since we've spoken, what's next for Proctor Loan Protector? Where are we going to be

07:25in five years? Well, I think Damon, again, said it best, you know, if you don't know who we are yet,

07:29you're going to. I think most now know who we are. And our belief is if we keep doing what we're doing,

07:37and making the investments, we just had a client summit. We had over 100 guests with us at this,

07:43and we delivered a lot of our corporate initiatives at that summit. And our intent with

07:48that is to remind them that we're supportive of them. And our job is to invest to improve

07:54their borrower experience, deliver their customer requirements from service levels through just

08:00relationships. So everything's paramount. So in five years from now, 2030, I guess we're talking,

08:07you know, we expect to have a much, much larger client base, a much larger footprint,

08:14larger market share. That's our ultimate goal. And I just hope to be here.

08:18Yeah, right. Well, Mike, Brian, congratulations on five years of absolutely impressive growth.

08:27I cannot wait to see what Proctor Loan Protector does with the next five.

08:31We appreciate you having us. This is great. Appreciate it.

08:33Thank you all for being here today.

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