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New Motto Mortgage offices in Texas, Florida and Missouri could help RE/MAX’s mortgage franchising business get back into growth mode after five consecutive quarters of declining office counts.
Motto Mortgage DreamNest — already serving the metro Houston market and markets throughout Texas — will host a ribbon cutting ceremony Saturday, June 7, at its recently opened Cypress office.
Owner Frank Martin brings over 17 years of real estate construction and development experience to the new Motto Mortgage brokerage, where Christian Sanchez will serve as branch manager.
“We are thrilled to be open for business in Cypress, and we are looking forward to personally introducing ourselves to the community at our grand opening event,” Martin said in a statement Thursday. “Motto Mortgage DreamNest offers an advantageous alternative to the traditional mortgage bankers currently operating in the Greater Houston area.”
Motto Mortgage had previously announced the opening of new offices in Orlando, Florida (Motto Mortgage United), in March and Girardeau, Missouri (Motto Mortgage Home Advisors), in February.
Motto Mortgage doesn’t make loans itself but provides technology, training and marketing tools to franchisors. Each Motto Mortgage franchise is independently owned, operated and licensed by mortgage brokers who work with multiple wholesale lenders to find the best deal for their clients.
After rapid growth during the pandemic — the number of open offices nearly doubled from 118 in Q1 2020 to 235 in Q2 2023 — Motto Mortgage’s open office count peaked at 246 in Q4 2023 and has been shrinking ever since.
Motto Mortgage open office count
Source: RE/MAX Holdings earnings reports.
Rising mortgage rates slowed the pace at which Motto Mortgage signs new franchise agreements, and some existing franchises have gone out of business or not been renewed. Franchisees sign seven-year agreements directly with Motto Franchising, and 2024 was the first full year Motto has had offices come up for renewal.
In reporting a $2 million net loss for the first quarter, parent company RE/MAX Holdings said there were 224 Motto Mortgage offices open as of March 31, down 8 percent from a year ago.
RE/MAX disclosed in its earnings report that it was providing short-term financial relief to 58 of those offices, which were “temporarily either not being billed and/or having associated revenue recognized.”
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RE/MAX also provides third-party loan processing services to mortgage brokers through another subsidiary, wemlo, which it acquired in 2020.
Karri Callahan
“It’s obviously a tough environment for both the legacy Motto business as well as what we’re seeing in terms of the processing business from a wemlo perspective,” RE/MAX Holdings Chief Financial Officer Karri Callahan said on a May 2 call with investment analysts.
Callahan said the shrinking office count is the biggest driver in the decline in revenue generated by Motto Mortgage and wemlo, but “we really have seen some stabilization there on a sequential quarter basis, which is good to see.”
Company executives were also pleased with the engagement at last month’s Motto Mortgage Innovation and Loan Excellence (MILE) Summit in Orlando, which Callahan called “very, very positive.”
Nearly 300 awards were presented at the MILE Summit, including:
- Top Office, Highest Average Transactions per Loan Officer: Motto Mortgage Executives, Franklin, Massachusetts; broker-owner Bill Wright
- Top Office, Total Volume: Motto Mortgage Preferred, Prince Frederick, Maryland; broker-owner Mark Davis
- Top Office, Total Transactions: Motto Mortgage Advantage Plus, Columbus, Ohio; broker- owner Ric DeVore
In February, Motto Mortgage was named to the 2025 Entrepreneur Franchise 500 List for the sixth consecutive year, ranking 494th.
RE/MAX announced on March 31 that Motto Mortgage President and CEO Ward Morrison — who led the company during its explosive growth phase — is getting married and has decided to retire on June 15, but will continue to work for the company as a consultant for the rest of the year.
Erik Carlson
On the company’s earnings call, RE/MAX CEO Erik Carlson called Morrison “irreplaceable,” but said an active search is underway — internally and externally — for his successor.
“We have a great team in place at Motto and wemlo, and so that team is doing great things right now,” Carlson said. “Obviously, with the mortgage market, there’s a lot of great candidates out there. So we’ll look both within the walls and outside the walls, and we’ll have an announcement on that, I hope, before our next earnings call.”
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