00:06Hi, I'm Sarah Wheeler, Editor-in-Chief at HousingWire, here with David Schneider,
00:11CEO of Sendlar, to talk about some exciting news. And we're here on-site in Dallas. David,
00:16thank you for being here. Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
00:19It has been a big week, right? Exciting week for Sendlar. We featured the news about the
00:24proposed acquisition, PennyMac, in HousingWire. How are you seeing it, though? Tell us your
00:29view. Yeah, you know, we've obviously been talking about it for a while, and we think it's just such
00:34a great fit for a few reasons. One, it's a new business for PennyMac. PennyMac's decided that
00:40they want to get into the subservicing business. And when they thought about getting into it,
00:44they thought about, we should partner with the very best. And that's what Sendlar is. We're the
00:47nation's largest subservicer. And this gives them a real opportunity to get into that new business.
00:53Two, it's great for our people and our clients, because we're partnering with a larger institution
00:59that brings a lot more resources, a lot more capital strength, wants to be in this business.
01:05They own their own servicing platform. They can invest in servicing. So we think it's just a
01:09great fit. They're picking up the whole business and making it part of PennyMac. So we're excited to
01:14become part of the broader PennyMac family. Well, let's dig into that a little bit for your
01:19clients. What does this change on the day-to-day for them? Yeah. So for clients, the great news is,
01:24it doesn't change a lot, except for as we move forward, we continue to enhance what we do for
01:29our clients. So from now until close, it's business as usual. The day of close, the day after close
01:35versus the day before close will look exactly the same. We'll have the same people, the same agents
01:41on the call, answering the calls, the same client managers, helping our clients with whatever issues
01:46that come up day-to-day. And then as we move forward, we'll start to think about the transition and
01:51how do we leverage their platform to better serve our clients. And the thing I'm very confident in
01:57is as clients move to that platform, and that will be a year from now, a year and a half
02:02from now,
02:03it'll take some time because it will be done very thoughtfully, very considerably. But when we do do that,
02:09it will be a platform that has more capability and is better for the consumers and better for the
02:15clients and will be an even better experience. You know, the one thing that's interesting is combined
02:21the two platforms, about 4 million loans. And it's hard to go a day now without reading something
02:28about AI or technology investment. And having 4 million loans over which you can spread that
02:36technology investment is just massive. It's really significant and gives that combined entity a
02:42significant advantage. Well, it definitely piqued our interest. As you know, we were all over this story.
02:47Tell me from your perspective, what makes Sunlar and PennyMac a good fit?
02:51You know what? PennyMac's a unique business in that most of its business is business to business.
02:58Like they are a large correspondent lender. So they deal with mortgage banks. They already deal
03:02with many of our clients buying loans. They have a wholesale business as well, but they're more of an
03:09institutional lender. And that's what we do. We're an institutional subservicer. So that fit
03:14together is just, we think the same way. We think about clients. We think about client service. We
03:19think about how to interact with clients and provide a better level of service. So we think
03:24culturally it's a good fit. And I got to tell you, you know, we did the CEO, David Spector and
03:30myself
03:30did the town hall last week with all our employees. And the best thing about that town hall is we
03:35both
03:36talked about the same thing. We both talked about the values that we share, how we work with our clients,
03:42how we treat homeowners and how we treat employees. And, and that sink was there and you could just
03:47see it and you see it on paper, but it's more impactful to see it there on the stage, people
03:54speaking the same language.
03:55Well, and I mean, this, you know, this is not something that happens overnight. This is something
03:58you vet way ahead of time to make sure this is a good fit, right? Obviously all that's come together
04:03where you feel good about that.
04:05Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
04:06So you talked about how it won't change, but, but some things will change, right? What happens
04:11the day after the close as far as like your customers?
04:15So the day after close, the, the, the main thing that happens is what we will become part
04:21of PennyMac and we'll be employees of PennyMac. So I will trade in my Sunlar shirt for a PennyMac
04:26shirt. I hope I get the Olympic shirt that they have because they're a sponsor of the Olympics.
04:31So we hope we get that, but the day, that day after we'll just change our shirts, but
04:36we're still going to answer the calls. We're still going to be the same people. It's the,
04:40you know, they're keeping all of our sites. They're keeping all of our people. And then
04:45again, over time, we will move to their platform when we think we can get, you know, even better
04:50outcomes.
04:51There's going to be some change in the market between here and there. What does business
04:55look like for you? What do you anticipate changing as far as how you do business between
04:59here and the close? I, you know, for us, we've been laser focused on providing subservicing
05:06to clients who decide that they don't have the size and scale to do the business. And
05:13I think this is a big indication that size and scale makes a big difference in terms of
05:18a servicing platform. So I think there's going to be a lot more people who look at this and
05:22go, Hmm, it really is difficult to run a large subservicer. It's very expensive. The technology
05:29cost you have to make in terms of investment is significant. And, you know, we might want
05:34to look at partnering with someone who can really bring that technology, bring the AI
05:38capability, bring the people who have the experience. So we're actually looking at this
05:43as an opportunity to not only keep our business, but to grow it and grow it really significantly.
05:48Great segue into my, into my next question was like looking overall, how do you think this
05:53acquisition impacts, you know, the business of subservicing?
05:57I, you know, I think, I think you're seeing a lot of activity in the mortgage world, um,
06:03in terms of consolidation, like we've seen a lot this year and I don't see that trend stopping.
06:09Um, I, I see that continuing, uh, mortgage banking is, and always has been like doing the same thing
06:15over and over again and doing it right. Like a lot of widgets that that's what the business
06:19is about. And this business will continue to consolidate. And I think subservicing,
06:25um, you, you know, you're always going to have several good competitors. Um, and I have great
06:30deal of respect for all of our competitors. I just think we're going to do it better and have the
06:34ability to bring more to, to our, to bear for our clients. I can, I can sense your passion for
06:39this.
06:40You're obviously really excited about this. What's your, what, what are you most excited about
06:44in the second position? To me, the opportunity to be part of a company like PennyMac is pretty
06:48special. Um, they've been around a long time. They've built business the right way.
06:53And as I mentioned before, they share our common values. They, they think about how to treat clients
06:57the same way. They think, think about how to treat homeowners the same way, employees. And I'm
07:03confident that as these teams come together, we're really going to build a powerhouse of a business
07:07that will serve our clients and customers for years to come. And I think we'll grow the business too.
07:12I think we'll grow it and people will look at it and go, that's something that we want to be
07:16part
07:16of. So I'm excited to be part of the PennyMac family. Thank you for sitting down with us and,
07:20and talking about all that's going on. We will be keeping a close eye and talk again soon.
07:24Thanks very much. I appreciate the time.
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