Royal United Mortgage - Beware Prospective Clients and Employees!

Royal United Mortgage (RUM), a small Indianapolis, Indiana, based mortgage lender specializes in refinancing. It was a company launched during the middle of the home market meltdown by Craig Royal in March 2008.

Kudos to the company for having the capital to start a new business during the time when many mortgage banks/lenders, outpacing consumer banks, were closing doors. However, having capital doesn't mean RUM is void of chaos.

First, it's a company located in the Castleton area of Indianapolis, and many of the men with Type A personalities are suffering from the Napoleon flaw. These miniature men, such as president Michael Keleher and innumerable others, start the training for new hires with a series of threats and equally with a slew of promises. For example, if you don't have the work ethic to get the job done, you won't be here long and you won't make $100,000 a year. Great, another company promising $100,000 when the base salary is $30,000. I was already told my human resources recruiter Kristaan Kane said the realistic total income for the first year would be $50,000. Getting back to this base salary, it is reduced when state licenses are obtained, because RUM's philosophy is a great salesperson would take risk and earn their pay primarily based upon performance (and earn commission instead). The leaders who had come to talk with the trainees the first day, simply spoke of cause and effect, not about how to be a success. The voidance of communications protocol also was demonstrated on the sales floor to new hires and amongst each other.

One must pass the federal exam, known as SAFE 20, to get state licenses. The federal training occurs either the first or second week of employment, and the compliance manager Sandy Densborn breezes through 496 pages within less than 20 hours or look at it as 2-1/2 days of laws such as RESPA, TILA, ECOA, and FCRA.

Outside of the SAFE 20 training, the new hire trainers potty-mouth Darice Maxie and overtanned Audrey McCartey can't agree over how discount points affect the equity of a home. Darice's favorite word is 'shitty.' She discussed with the new hires how some former employees had 'shitty' role plays on phone calls that resulted in termination of employment although there has been no formal training in the classroom or mentoring on the floor.

During the first week of training, fresh-on-the-scene employees go over need-based questions to understand why one would refinance: to get cash out, to make home improvements, to consolidate debt, to get a lower interest rate, and to save money monthly.

While getting a better understanding of what the prospect is looking to accomplish, the loan advisor has to discover 3 to 5 non-financial facts about the client just to chum about schools, weather, pets, cars, family, or hometown. The rapport building strategy is the key to getting the client's business, according to RUM, because lenders provide just about the same solutions when it comes to satisfying financial goals. This pretentious step of acting like advisors like the client, although they are condescending to each other and especially new hires in the office, should get RUM new business. This step of getting a better understanding of the client is called Discovery.

Once a Discovery is deemed a success or even a qualified lead, then the experienced loan advisor moves on to creating a Proposal with three pre-approved loan options. Loan advisors must turn on selling skills during the Proposal step, so they won't lose the client. Oh, and don't forget to refer to the items learned during the rapport building strategy (of the Discovery process) just to remind the caller that you like him or her. Your ultimate goal is to get a Submittal, the third and final step for the loan advisor, before a processor gets her hands on the client's paperwork.

So, let's get back to the Discovery, the sole step an apprentice loan advisor can take for the first few weeks while on the phone. Now the trainers Darice Maxie and Audrey McCartey strictly instructed the apprentices to take as many Discoveries as possible without discrimination in order to gain the experience. Discrimination would include quickly terminating a call, because we get the feeling someone may be disqualified for refinancing. Fair enough. However, the mentor Paul Riccio and the assistant vice president Gabe Allen don't think that way. They believe you should instinctively know when a lead is a waste of time, as in not being able to refinance due to roof damage. Side note: It's against the law to explicitly ask what is someone's income. Allen outright informed me that completing a Discovery is immaterial unless proposals are created. I'm not sure how that pertains to a beginner at the company, because that's all we've been taught to do at this point. Riccio and Allen's responses were always "It's common sense" or "I'm busy" when it came to asking questions. Here's a question: How is an apprentice going to know when a prospect could be a decline when all we've been trained to do is ask questions for the sake of completing a Discovery yet we haven't been trained to look for declinations. Again, the Discovery is the first step, long before verification of employment or even verification of credit.

So, as Paul Riccio was highly praised by his vice president Chris Melvin aka Mel as being an effective and efficient mentor, I was not a witness of these skills. On my very first day only, I sat with Riccio for 1/8 of my shift and he proposed three pre-approved options for a single client. He conceded that his presentation didn't go over well after the client rushed him off the phone. Outside of the second interview, this was the only shadowing to take place as Riccio claimed to be too busy. My assumption is Mel's hiring of new employees automatically means time will be spent to show us what a typical day would be as a loan advisor. Spending much of this first day in training, we were told to find our mentor, shadow them, and not withhold questions. Riccio told me the answers to my questions would come in time. Thus, I had more questions than answers and didn't learn anything.

I see why turnover rate is high, but I wish the antsy vice president Chris Melvin aka Mel told me that before I left my previous employer. Speaking of which, employees such as Nicholas Edwards and a few others bragged about the turnover, because he's the guy who comes to collect keys from a terminated employee's file cabinet. Here's a perfect example: A young man was terminated just after two weeks, and a female employee who came out of nowhere asked Paul Riccio why he was fired. Riccio's open and loud response, "He just wasn't cut out for the job." In my entire career, I've never worked for a company that so freely discusses terminations, as it looks poorly on RUM's reputation. There have been many to tell me about the swift opening and shutting of the door when people come and go so quickly for reasons other than failing the federal exam. I was told longevity is based on whether Mel likes you! It must be true, because apprentice Cher Garcia has failed the federal exam twice, but she's stayed on while others hadn't. I'd rather work for a place where fairness and skills are going to provide me with stable employment.

Another promise of Mel was to not micromanage. It's purely micromanaging when Riccio stands over you while sending out a company email. It's micromanaging - and illegal -when Allen tells you during your very first week to skip lunch and make a call back to a client when, due to a structured training schedule this is the only time slot allowed to take lunch. It's micromanaging to instruct me to place outbound phone calls to leads who've already been called three times by RUM that same day although compliance manager Sandy Densborn told me that I need to be studying for the SAFE 20.

To you readers, always ask about turnover during a job interview. Don't assume a company is hiring due to growth, and be wary of a response that includes the word 'realignment.' Another tip: Get a feel for the interviewer's personality. Mel came off as a jerk during the initial interview by downplaying the importance of my education and saying it was irrelevant, telling me what not to say because he's heard the answers so many times before, and appearing agitated before we could get started. I guess he didn't have enough cigarettes before the interview. After the first interview, I walked out of there thinking I'd never want to return. The problem: I didn't stick with my gut feeling.

Royal United Mortgage strategically posts superb testimonials on its site. But just think about it, nearly 100 loan advisors taking innumerable calls per workday and the testimonials are few.

So, when RUM calls you no less than three times a day to get your business, remember you always can seek your request through a consumer bank such as Chase, Flagstar, 5/3, etc., so that way you can talk to someone face-to-face to test how well they communicate, to test their patience when you ask worthwhile questions, and to get a feel for the company culture. You want to give business at a place where you can respect how they do business. You, as a client over even an employee, are unique and shouldn't be considered a number.