Exclusive: Envoy Mortgage To Acquire Masonmac Distributed Retail Assets

Envoy Mortgage closed a deal to acquire the distributed retail assets of Mason-McDuffie Mortgage Corp. (MasonMac), bringing on about 100 loan officers who produced $1 billion over the past 12 months, the companies confirmed to HousingWire. 

The transaction, announced internally on Monday, is expected to close toward the end of August. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The move is part of a strategic realignment of MasonMac’s business, with its distributed retail production teams joining Envoy. The deal will increase Envoy’s loan officer headcount to about 240, and the combined business is expected to operate at an annual run rate north of $4 billion in funded volume, Envoy President Jesse Passafiume said in an interview.

Cultural and reputational alignment

Envoy, the sister company of real estate platform PLACE, has been leaning into a referral- and affiliate-based business model in recent years.

“We have made very intentional investments in people, processes and technologies at Envoy in order to unlock referral sources and affiliate relationships with some of the top-producing real estate teams and brokerages in the country over the last few years,” Passafiume said.

“MasonMac gives us an opportunity to both add a phenomenal distributed retail production network to help us expand our affiliate partnerships, and some great operational resources to help us continue scaling.” 

Passafiume said he does not expect layoffs as part of the transaction, which he framed as driven by cultural alignment and MasonMac’s reputation, particularly in Western markets. Envoy plans to maintain several of MasonMac’s DBAs and team names.

MasonMac will retain a smaller footprint following the deal. Under its strategic realignment, the company will keep a team focused on portfolio retention and will hold on to roughly $250 million in mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) 

“Because of the growth at Envoy, there’s going to be opportunities for many of the MasonMac team members on the leadership team, while some will remain with me at MasonMac,” said Chuck Iverson, president and CEO at MasonMac.

Iverson said the operating environment made it difficult for MasonMac to fund the level of technology, process and partnership investment it believed was necessary to compete at scale.

“The environment is challenging, and at the same time, there’s clearly a need for investment in process, technology and strategic partnerships that we didn’t feel that we would have the opportunity to make,” Iverson said. “Envoy’s story is quite exceptional in terms of the productivity they’re building with their loan officers, and we just felt like that was the best opportunity we could provide to our people.” 

Passafiume said that Envoy’s funded loans per full-time LO is up 40% year over year, even in a challenging mortgage rate environment.