“Caliber made us fall in love with mortgage banking. It feels like you can do extraordinary things if you create a great culture of people who are aligned, who have clear direction and guidance from the leadership team,” Pendleton said in an interview with HousingWire. “When we lost that alignment at the top, things started to change.”
Rising from the ashes
Shoemaker and Pendleton joined later Home pointsupported by Stone Point Capital. Homepoint went public during the post-pandemic low-rate boom and became the country’s third-largest lender, but ultimately collapsed after private equity investors pulled out due to difficulties gaining market share once the cycle turned.
Homepoint’s origination business was sold to The Loan Store in April 2023. TLS’s main investment group is led by the former CEO of First Magnuswhere Shoemaker worked for ten years. About 30 Homepoint employees also bought shares of TLS early on, while about 175 employees left Homepoint to join TLS, Pendleton said.
“When we arrived at Homepoint in 2018, they were getting out of retail,” says Pendleton. “The attractive thing about Homepoint was that they had a lot of capital; we knew they had an appetite for growth.”
Origination volume at Homepoint grew at its peak through its broker partners to $6 billion per month – but not everything went smoothly. That experience helped the leadership team identify what works and what doesn’t as the group built TLS’s operations.
A team of ‘samurai’ AEs
While the COVID-19 pandemic fueled much of Homepoint’s growth, another key factor was heavy investment in top-tier account executives (AEs), whom Pendleton calls “samurais.”
That approach has also been central to TLS’ strategy. These AEs can usually tell within the first few loans whether a loan officer is a good fit for the experience TLS offers. The company employs about 30 AEs, compared to hundreds at some competitors.
“Sometimes it takes us a little longer than the big guys because they have a 30-year lead in technology and processes,” Pendleton said. “We’re pretty fast; if you’re talking about getting an initial approval, we need 24 hours for the easiest loans. Those guys will handle it in two hours.”
The company inherited approximately 10,000 licensed real estate agents from Homepoint and has since expanded its network to 13,000.
“We’re still expanding the base and we don’t even have the focus that we had,” Pendleton said. “We feel like the wholesale space is growing – it’s probably bigger than most people understand. We’re still seeing the transition from retail LOs to wholesale, and that will continue, if not accelerate.”
Prepare for a higher volume
Acceptance is another area where TLS is investing heavily. Shoemaker himself has made loans, set daily records and challenged team members to improve his production — with bonuses attached, Pendleton said.
In 2026, TLS plans to roll out a new acceptance technology platform designed to increase productivity by guiding users to the most critical issues without unnecessary distractions.
“We spent our first two years developing technology around every aspect of our business that helped us obtain loans,” Pendleton said. “Now is the time to focus more on the customer experience and support our operations teams with better technology and more efficient process flow.”
TLS uses Encompass TPO Connect and builds around the platform – but carefully. One of Homepoint’s pain points, as HousingWire previously reported, was its inability to fully solve technical issues with a semi-custom loan origination system. Although brokers liked the platform, it became difficult to offer additional products.
“You can overcomplicate the technology,” Pendleton said. “You have to be very careful about how you code on these platforms. You have the best possible platform, but over time it goes from nimble to cumbersome and slow to change.”
Choosing the exceptions
TLS’ insurance investments are critical because its strategy goes beyond standard Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac loans. Non-qualified mortgages (non-QMs) are a major concern. TLS aims to close $1 billion per month in non-QM volumes and is currently approaching $400 million.
The company is hiring underwriters with non-QM expertise and also plans to develop talent internally. Pendleton brings deep experience having helped lead Caliber Home Loans’ first non-prime securitization – the COLT 2016-1 transaction – which marked the first rated, non-prime, private-label securitization following the financial crisis.
That expertise has helped TLS build strong relationships with investors. The company is now the largest delivery partner for three major non-QM investors, allowing it to pursue exceptions – which could represent up to 40% of non-QM loans.
“While some investors will say these loans are risky, those TLS works with will seek to assess the borrowers’ ability to repay,” Pendleton said.
Building a resilient business
While TLS is growing aggressively on the pricing front, it isn’t chasing market share on its own. The company’s goal is not to become a $100 billion lender, but to remain profitable and sustainable across cycles – a different outcome than that of Caliber or Homepoint.
“The reward of scale is efficiency and profitability,” Pendleton said. “Then you can keep the revenue, and that’s the only way we’re not going to take over institutional capital. You can only control the culture in the long term if you control the capital.”
Unlike Homepoint, TLS is not planning an initial public offering.
“Public markets are not good for the cyclical nature of mortgages – some people make it work,” Pendleton said. “If you’re competing with the big boys and they see that your cost structure is higher than theirs, they can attack your vulnerabilities. Plus, it cost Homepoint a million dollars to maintain its public status and we were in a very challenging market.”
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