If someone’s looking for a job right now, they’d probably not want to be looking in Michigan, a state infamous for its high unemployment. Nor would they want to target the mortgage and related industries.
So a mortgage company in Michigan seems like a double negative.
Then again, maybe not.
Robert Rahal, president of the southeastern Michigan company Shore Mortgage, which specializes in government loan products, says he’s looking to hire about 100 people for underwriter, loan officer, and support jobs. That’s about a third the size of the whole company as it now stands.
“We’ve been known to do FHA loans,” Rahal says. “The market moved in that direction in the last two to three months. Banks had become more conservative. Ultimately things fell in our direction, frankly.”
Shore’s running a multimedia recruiting campaign: press releases, TV ads, print media, and online recruiting.
You’d think there’d be tons of people in struggling Michigan who fit the bill.
Maybe not.
“It’s skilled work,” Rahal says. “You have to have the experience, and the more experience you have, the better off. This is very labor-intensive work that requires hands-on knowledge. It’s not the automated type of loan process that people have become accustomed to.”
To recruits, Rahal plays up the private firm’s family atmosphere. “We’re not the type of institution that’s going to hire people and fire them,” he says. “That’s not our formula. We’re very conservative. We could probably grow double [our size], but we’re not looking to bulk up and lay off. That’s too arduous a process for us.”
Retail sales turnover, according to Rahal, is about 60%, which he says is “better than the national average” and puts him in the 26th percentile.” High turnover, he says, “is just the nature of sales.” Conversely, Shore turnover among the administration jobs runs in the single digits.