I'm a third year analyst with a private mortgage lender specializing in FHA HUD and FNMA DUS lending. I'm currently considering a career in underwriting, but am curious as to others experience with either FHA, FNMA, or FHLMC underwriting. The obvious difference is the underwriting process with a HUD loan is much longer than Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
What are your experiences like? Which do you find more enjoyable/rewarding? Lastly, which GSE do you feel have the most job demand as an underwriter? Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions that you can offer.
I was a multifamily underwriter (well, an analyst) at Freddie Mac from 2008 to 2009 (I moved on after a year because I thought Congress was going to shutter the GSEs at any given moment--guess I was wrong about that one!). It was a good experience. Freddie Mac has an awesome campus in McLean, VA, and amazing employee benefits.
Having that work experience on my resume definitely gave me instant credibility in the real estate world. I felt like the pay (at the time) was considerably above market for the analyst position (this is in 2008: $55,000 + 25% bonus, with the bonus almost guaranteed based on the easily reached metrics (keep in mind that production bonuses have been eliminated for underwriting last I checked, but base salaries boosted)).
Getting hired to the GSE's multifamily group is almost as difficult as getting hired by the federal government--it's really, really random. From what I recollect, HR screens the resumes, so your hiring manager may not even get your resume (and HR is never really qualified to determine what a hiring manager might like). And when I was there, EVERYONE at Freddie Mac wanted to get into the multifamily group, so there are a ton of lateral resumes coming into HR. Despite my exact work experience lining up with Fannie Mae job openings, I never once got a call back from Fannie Mae over the years, which shows how incredibly difficult getting hired by a GSE multifamily group is. Realistically, I wouldn't expect even a call back, let alone an interview or getting hired. Best bet is to go to a delegated underwriter, such as Wells Fargo, PNC or Prudential, if you want to do GSE underwriting.
Freddie Mac is a great place to work. If all jobs had the pay, benefits, hours and flexibility that FRE had (has?) then a lot more people would enjoy their work. However, it just wasn't for me. It was the kind of stale place that attracts the personality of those who want to be employed long-term at a single company. Most of the multifamily managers/executives, for example, had been at Freddie Mac for 10+ years. As a result, you could see how stagnate and inflexible the thought processes were in the group. It's hard to describe, but one day at lunch I just thought to myself--is this really where I want to be 10 years from now? It's just kind of a sterile place that doesn't really embrace change (and why would it? The managers never worked anywhere else to learn other best practices).