One of the nation’s largest nonbank mortgage lenders is about to get even larger. California-based loanDepot announced it will hire 3,000 new employees by the end of this year, starting with 400 now.

On Thursday evening it held an hour-long virtual job fair across LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube. About 500 applicants contacted the company directly during the event, and more are expected, based on comments on the sites. So far it has garnered more than 10,000 total views across all platforms and continues to grow.

During the event, executives from the company, including CEO Anthony Hsieh, answered questions, as current employees were cheerleading on the message boards.

One potential applicant, who posted saying that he had two years of experience as a loan officer in Texas, asked about remote positions. One of the managers responded, saying there would be remote positions available.  

Demand for mortgages has been off the charts since the start of this year, as interest rates have been hovering near record lows. In the first few months there was strong homebuyer demand, but refinance applications are now making up an unusually high 75% of the total volume.

Lenders have been struggling to handle the onslaught, and that has contributed to a tightening and slowdown in overall lending, among other coronavirus-related economic conditions.

“Mortgage companies, bank and nonbank, are not equipped to handle the current demand,” said Hsieh. “We’re trying to increase the scale of our organization.”

Hsieh says the company currently has about 7,100 employees, all mostly working remotely now. The available jobs run the gamut from loan officers to advertising and marketing, social media and bookkeeping. Salaries will range from $50,000 on up. There also executive positions available.

The mortgage market is still not on solid footing in any respect, as 6.4 million borrowers are already in forbearance programs, delaying their mortgage payments for up to a year, according to Black Knight.

Mortgage servicers, and loanDepot does service some of its loans, are still required to advance those payments to borrowers. The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently announced that for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae loans, servicers would now be limited to four months’ worth of payments, instead of a year, which Fannie Mae previously required. That helps some, but at the rate forbearances are rising, there is still considerable risk.

“We’re absolutely concerned about the risk, but our risk doesn’t change much,” said Hsieh. “We’re hiring into this because we believe that the strategy that we have, as well as the government, is going to continue to support housing in a big way.”