Because I knew someone who already had a net branch with this company, I decided I could be successful here, too.
I paid a fee of $400 for the "privelege" of having a net branch with this company.
It's understood that when you're starting a net branch of a mortgage company you'll need proper licensing, lender contacts, etc. Although the representatives at Gateway seemed to want to help me get my branch off the ground, often they'd not have the answers to my questions, make me wait weeks on end for simple things like giving me a password to a website or ignore me altogether.
In fact, I'd contacted the owner of the company, Kevin Stitt, to discuss my future with this company as I couldn't wait for them to "get their acts" together, while they were moving their corporate office out of state (this was mostly the excuse used for not getting back to me).
When I decided I'd had enough, I requested a refund from Kevin Stitt.instead of giving me a refund for giving me the run-around, he decided to call me and "determine" whether he wanted to give me a refund. Evidently, he decided on the call that he would not be giving me my money back because my $400 was nonrefundable. Never mind the fact that they didn't hold up their end of the bargain and always put me off because of their move, because people were quitting, because they were firing people, because nobody would return their calls, or whatever convenient excuse they had readily available at the time.
As of today, the person I knew who had an office with Gateway has since left because of reasons I can't state. I can state, however, that this person would not have left the company had he been happy— plus, he was routinely a top-producing branch.
In addition, the representatives at Gateway would encourage me and others at the company to take "shortcuts" to avoid the hassle of having to get properly licensed in the states in which we wished to do business. Basically, they'd tell you to not worry about getting your license in a particular state and that you can simply refer all your business in that state to another branch manager licensed in that state. What they don't tell you is that you will have to negotiate in a mafia-type way with the branch manager to whom you are referring this business— apparently, these branch managers want generous cuts for their trouble of letting you use their office as a pass-through.in other words, you do all the work and they take a big chunk of change. This environment is very conducive to fraud, intimidation and coercion.
If you are a loan officer or mortgage branch manager, don't just think twice about opening a branch with this company, just don't do it! You'll hand over your money and get no support in return. As far as I'm concerned this company stole my money.
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