{"id":49517,"date":"2026-04-29T22:19:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/ron-leonhardt-says-ccm-is-pot-committed-as-two-harbors-deal-advances\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T22:19:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:19:55","slug":"ron-leonhardt-says-ccm-is-pot-committed-as-two-harbors-deal-advances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/ron-leonhardt-says-ccm-is-pot-committed-as-two-harbors-deal-advances\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron Leonhardt says CCM is \u2018pot committed\u2019 as Two Harbors deal advances"},"content":{"rendered":"

The pending acquisition of Two Harbors Investment Corp<\/strong>. would allow CrossCountry Intermediate Holdco<\/strong> to build the \u201cperfect mortgage company\u201d in the vision of founder Ron Leonhardt.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt actually allows us to control the borrower experience from start to finish,\u201d Leonhardt<\/a> said on stage during HousingWire<\/strong>\u2019s The Gathering<\/a> in Austin on Wednesday. \u201cWe are pot committed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments came one day after Two Harbors announced<\/a> it had amended its merger agreement to increase the all-cash price CrossCountry will pay to $11.30 per share, up from $10.80 per share under the original March 27 agreement. <\/p>\n

The amendment follows an unsolicited competing proposal submitted on April 20 by UWM Holding Corp.<\/strong> The Two Harbors board unanimously approved the amended merger agreement and scheduled a special meeting for shareholders on May 19.<\/p>\n

Leonhardt said the deal \u201cgives us that whole complete customer experience, and there\u2019s a lot of financial synergies on the servicing and subservicing.\u201d CrossCountry Mortgage<\/strong> (CCM) plans to compete with other subservicers<\/a> once the deal closes.<\/p>\n

The proposed acquisition fits into a strategy outlined by Leonhardt in 2024, after two challenging years for the industry, when the company had a \u201cgreat balance sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a balance-sheet business; if you don\u2019t have a balance sheet, you can\u2019t play,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I made the decision to keep our servicing. I had a big bank offer me $1.3 billion for our servicing at the time, and I thought about taking it. I\u2019m like, \u2018Well, they must want it for a reason, so I kept it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In January 2024, Leonhardt decided CrossCountry would look more like PennyMac<\/a><\/strong> and Mr. Cooper<\/a>,<\/strong> as his team was doing all the \u201chard work\u201d for somebody else to make the money.<\/p>\n

What followed was a strategy to acquire mortgage servicing rights (MSRs), with the company taking eight months to build the team. CrossCountry reached a book of about $200 billion in owned MSRs by the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. Two Harbors had about $162 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hopeful that we can get the Two Harbors deal closed; it gives us close to $400 billion in servicing. But, more importantly, it gives us control of the service, which also means that we can give a better customer experience,\u201d Leonhardt said.<\/p>\n

The deal also fits into the strategy beyond the recapture game. In 2022, CCM bought a nonqualified mortgage (non-QM<\/a>) platform, which Leonhardt said has reached more than $10.5 billion in securitizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you can count on origination<\/a> income solely to make money,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, we have servicing income, we have asset management, and origination is going to feed both of those arms, which means I can get fairly aggressive on pricing to keep driving originations.\u201d<\/p>\n

While its focus remains on the retail channel, CCM\u2019s strategy also emphasizes retaining servicing amid a less fragmented industry. But Leonhardt said the previous model of selling MSRs<\/a> still works for many players.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started my company, you could get a 20-to-one leverage ratio,\u201d Leonhardt said. \u201cIt\u2019s significantly harder to enter, especially a retail model, as far as net worth requirements \u2026 and it doesn\u2019t matter how big you are. My costs go up every year, so there are significant barriers to make that jump. I started off as a two-man shop and worked all the way up. I don\u2019t really think that opportunity is there.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pending acquisition of Two Harbors Investment Corp. would allow CrossCountry Intermediate Holdco to build the \u201cperfect mortgage company\u201d in the vision of founder Ron Leonhardt. \u00a0\u201cIt actually allows us to control the borrower experience from start to finish,\u201d Leonhardt said on stage during HousingWire\u2019s The Gathering in Austin on Wednesday. \u201cWe are pot committed.\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49517"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}