NMP National Mortgage Professional March 2023

FROM ADV ERS I TY

THE STEPS TO TAKE FOR SUCCESS, NOT DEFEAT

SPECIAL SECTION

TO AFF LUE NCE

Talita Guerrero, co-founder and owner, Right Key Mortgage

FROM ADV ERS I TY

THE STEPS TO TAKE FOR SUCCESS, NOT DEFEAT

SPECIAL SECTION

TO AFF LUE NCE

Talita Guerrero, co-founder and owner, Right Key Mortgage

STAFF

Vincent M. Valvo

CEO, PUBLISHER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Beverly Bolnick

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Christine Stuart

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

David Krechevsky

EDITOR

Keith Griffin

SENIOR EDITOR

Gary Rogo

SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR

Mike Savino

HEAD OF MULTIMEDIA

am not a good partner to my wife.

The Best, Shining Bright I

Throughout most of our married life, we have both been working professionals. But even though she has a string of well-earned credentials (CPA, Certified Internal Auditor, Fellow Life Management Institute) and held more important positions than I ever have, she is still the one that managed our household, made the family meals, and comforted our children. To this day, she is the one who occupies the center of our family and our finances.

I mention this because she’s always been the person I most admire. She excelled at all things professional and all things domestic. I am, in comparison, a slug.

In this issue, we’re looking at women across the mortgage industry landscape who impress. They’ve taken on big roles, and they’ve taken on less glamorous ones, too, and shown how those can reshape lives. We know that women often face more obstacles to success than men, whether it’s outright discrimination or institutional bias. Sometimes, it’s as pedestrian as having to shoulder all the family responsibilities while also shouldering the necessity of keeping co-workers employed. In whatever form, it’s achievement that often goes unnoticed, or at least unheralded. In this issue, though, we bask in the light of their inspiration.

So let’s hear it for these women and all the many other unsung heroines of our industry and of our lives. May we contribute as much to enriching their days as they enrich ours.

Katie Jensen, Steven Goode, Sarah Wolak

STAFF WRITERS

Rob Chrisman, Dave Hershman, Erica LaCentra, Nick Roberson, Lew Sichelman, Mary Kay Scully

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Nicole Coughlin, Nichole Cakirca

ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES

Alison Valvo

DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC GROWTH

Steven Winokur

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER

Julie Carmichael

PROJECT MANAGER

Meghan Hogan

DESIGN MANAGER

Stacy Murray, Christopher Wallace

GRAPHIC DESIGN MANAGERS

Navindra Persaud

DIRECTOR OF EVENTS

William Valvo

UX DESIGN DIRECTOR

Andrew Berman

HEAD OF CUSTOMER OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT

Tigi Kuttamperoor, Matthew Mullins, Angelo Scalise

MULTIMEDIA SPECIALISTS

Melissa Pianin

MARKETING & EVENTS ASSOCIATE

Kristie Woods-Lindig

ONLINE ENGAGEMENT SPECIALIST

Joel Berman

FOUNDING PUBLISHER

VINCENT M. VALVO Publisher, Editor-in-Chief

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© 2023 American Business Media LLC. All rights reserved. National Mortgage Professional magazine is a trademark of American Business Media LLC. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Advertising, editorial and production inquiries should be directed to: American Business Media LLC 88 Hopmeadow St. Simsbury, CT 06089 Phone: (860) 719-1991 info@ambizmedia.com

Live Or Die On Day One

The first day is the most important day to reduce turnover

BY DAVE HERSHMAN, CONTRIBUTOR, NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE

It takes so many resources to hire a competent loan officer, let alone a top producer. The most expensive cost for a manager is turnover, especially the loss of good employees. Thus, preventing turnover is a key objective of management. And the most important day to reduce turnover is the first day. Remember the adage: Today is the most important day of the rest of my life? Well, the first day is the most important day of a new employee’s career with your company.

BOB HIRES JULIE SCENARIO —

This was a long process as Julie was at her previous company for three years as she hates change. Lunches and meetings over three months finally did the trick. Even so, Julie has very mixed feelings. Her boss made a counteroffer (including promotion to an assistant sales manager role) the day she left.

It was tempting, but she had made a commitment. She shows up for her first day at 9 a.m. Her new boss Bob has a loan app this morning and the office manager is to show her around.

The office manager does just that—to a desk and phone. Ten minutes later into the tour, a major settlement blow-up occurs. She is called away. Bob is delayed in the real estate office and shows up around noon with 30 messages to return. Bob chats with Julie for 10 minutes and starts returning phone calls. Julie attempts to find out how to order business cards and get a voicemail extension.

By 2 p.m., Julie’s old boss calls and makes one more pitch. Julie agrees to meet her that night after work. The next morning Julie calls Bob: I have changed my mind. Bob panics. What happened? I just couldn’t go through with it. It is nothing against you or your company.

COULD THIS HAVE BEEN AVOIDED?

Changing jobs is traumatic enough (if

you have hired the right person). Coming to a strange place and witnessing no support the first day can be devastating. No one starts a new job without some reservations and concerns. These concerns can be put to rest or they can fester and grow. It is up to you. You have invested many hours into recruiting this person. Now you must invest in them as an employee. You start by making the first day a day of orientation.

Here are the keys to orientation:

• Schedule no appointments that day! You personally recruited them and you need to be their ambassador as soon as they walk in the door.

• Be there to greet the employee. Make sure you are there before they arrive.

• Schedule a lunch in the office. Order a pizza and have everyone meet the new employee. This promotes the air of a team.

• Escort them to spend 10 to 15 minutes with employees of different departments. Schedule this ahead of time so that the employees have blocked some time. If key departments are located in different locations, perhaps a visit to the main or regional office can be scheduled or make introductions to key people by Zoom.

• Put together an orientation package that covers some of the most important aspects of the job.

• Hold an orientation session. This could be one day in some companies or an entire week in others. Just the programs and technology alone may take several days within orientation.

THE ORIENTATION SESSION

What to go over in the orientation session?

• General company policies (work hours, meeting schedules, fee schedules).

• Resources: who to see to get what

(business card, email address, website, licensing requirements, key to the door). This section may be entitled — How to get started.

• Access to company forms and loan origination software. Setting up their computer if they are to receive a company computer.

• Organizational charts: the structure of the company. Who handles what functions? For example, whom do they call to get the answer to a program question?

• What decisions must be made quickly, such as choosing a website design.

• Making sure they understand the compensation play and pay policies.

• Going over benefits and making sure they submit the forms in a timely manner.

• Going over marketing policies; for example do they have to get their ads approved by a marketing department? Who pays for what?

• The orientation package — more on that concept to follow. The focus you give them coming in the door will not only create a better first impression and relieve their anxiety, but will give them a better start and help them become more productive more quickly. For example, it is not unusual for them to have prospects they need to take care of the very first day, but perhaps their license is not in place. What are you going to do with those prospects in the interim? n

Senior Vice-President of Sales for Weichert Financial Services, Dave Hershman is the top author in this industry with seven books published as well as the founder of the OriginationPro Marketing System and the OriginationPro Mortgage School — the online choice for mortgage learning and marketing content. His site is www. OriginationPro.com and he can be reached at dave@hershmangroup.com

Coming to a strange place and witnessing no support the first day can be devastating.

Marketers: Bot In To AI

Embrace the opportunities that artificial intelligence creates for content creation

ERICA LACENTRA, CONTRIBUTOR, NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE

Artificial intelligence, or AI, has been gaining traction in the mortgage industry for a variety of uses. For example, numerous mortgage lenders have started looking at ways that AI can be utilized for routine, repetitive data-driven tasks

to simplify the origination process and cut down on human error. Also, many companies have begun to utilize AI chatbots to be able to answer basic questions and assist with customer service interactions.

However, the utilization of artificial intelligence for marketing efforts, especially in the mortgage industry,

is still rather uncharted territory. As marketers in this space as well as other industries, begin to identify more uses for AI, that is likely to change and change rapidly. So where are marketing professionals seeing AI have the best applications in their marketing strategies and ongoing tasks, and where does a human touch still reign supreme?

THE FUTURE OF CONTENT CREATION?

As technology and artificial intelligence become more widely accepted in organizations, there is always the concern that tech may ultimately replace the individuals currently tasked with these job functions. With the idea of utilizing AI for content creation becoming more prevalent, content marketers may resist using AI in these areas for fear that their roles will become obsolete. However, marketers should cast these fears aside and instead embrace the opportunities that AI creates for content creation.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to shape the future of content creation. It can not only improve the quality of content and make marketers more efficient but with the use of AI tools, marketers will simply be able to do

more on the content front. For example, many notable organizations, such as the New York Times and Reuters have started using Natural Language Generation (NLG) tools, like Acrolinx, Article Forge, and QuillBot AI, which allows AI to “learn” from provided data.

As these AI tools process and learn data sets and content that is provided, these tools can ultimately create new content that sounds like a human wrote it rather than a machine spitting back gibberish. Think, better program and product descriptions, ad copy suggestions, crafted data-reports that take no time at all and so much more. Marketers simply need to provide the appropriate parameters and general guidelines for what they are looking for, and AI can assist with the rest.

Another example of where AI tools could assist with marketing is by creating more personalized content for platforms such as social media and marketing emails. Think of the enormous amount of time that could be saved on efforts like daily social media post creation. Tools powered by artificial intelligence can analyze customer demographics, behaviors, and sentiments about your brand from real customers and ultimately craft more targeted content and messaging that appeals to your core audience. No more poring over analytics to craft the perfect campaign. Plus, with machine learning, AI can continue to track what campaigns have been the most successful and adjust over time to ensure your content is driving sales.

Finally, in the same vein as analyzing customer behaviors for application for social media marketing and email marketing, AI can assist with developing content to help organizations meet their SEO (search engine optimization) goals. AI tools for keyword research can

help provide a better understanding of what your audience is searching for that ultimately brings them to your company’s website or your competitor’s.

Tools such as SEMrush can help marketers perform keyword research with ease and determine what keywords customers are searching for more often, where your organization ranks in the grand scheme of things against your competitors and more. Then marketers can take these keywords and utilize other AI tools to develop topics for articles that will perform better with your target audience and boost your visibility online. Ultimately, when used properly, AI tools will allow marketers to reach their core customers with ease.

CAN’T DO IT ALL, YET

While using artificial intelligence for content creation sounds like a nobrainer, the bad news, or good news if you are a marketer currently shaking in your boots thinking you are about to be replaced by tech, is AI generated content is still rather flawed and more often than not, requires human intervention during the content creation process. While the content AI produces is impressive, it often can miss the mark of what an organization may be driving at with its content.

Full articles or blog posts may be nonsensical in places or go beyond the scope of what a company wants a piece to focus on. This is because AI can’t currently use reasoning like a human can, and it can’t create any original insights. It simply creates based on what it’s given, and in a lot of cases, content may be incorrect or piecemealed in a way that doesn’t make sense.

That being said, utilizing AI for content creation has tremendous value and its use will likely grow as advancements are made in technology. However, it is important for marketers to remember that, as of right now, AI is best used as a means of assisting with content creation rather than solely relied on to generate content. n

Erica LaCentra is chief marketing officer for RCN Capital.

These tools can ultimately create new content that sounds like a human wrote it rather than a machine spitting back gibberish.

Where Are We Going? ‘Follow The Money’

Or at the very least, follow the moving trucks to see where the money is going

BY LEW SICHELMAN, CONTRIBUTOR, NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE

Deep Throat was the pseudonym used by screenwriter William Goldman in the blockbuster film “All The President’s Men,” but the famous words, “Follow the money,” were never said by the Watergate source who would be revealed 30 years later as Mark Felt.

While the phrase was in the movie recreating the Watergate scandal, it was not in Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s book or any documentation of the event that led to Richard Nixon becoming the first American

president ever to resign.

Actually, those three crucial words were first uttered during a 1974 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. But the point here is that the mortgage sector would, indeed, do well to follow the money — and, more specifically — the migration trends taking place across the land. After all, where people are moving to is where the business will be. And conversely, where they are moving from — well, let’s just say there won’t be as much activity as there used to be. Or maybe there will.

According to the Census Bureau, between 2010 and 2020, the nation’s urban population increased by 6.4%.

That doesn’t indicate a rush to the big city as much as it is a result in the way the government now classifies urban areas, which are defined as densely developed residential and urban areas and accounted for 80% of the nation’s population at the turn of the decade.

Interesting, perhaps, but not particularly useful. After all, a lot has happened since 2020 — a pandemic, for one thing — that has changed the course of human behavior, perhaps forever.

DOMESTIC MIGRATION

More recently, Census reported that between 2020 and 2021, 251 of the country’s 384 metropolitan statistical areas — about two-thirds of them — experienced population increases, albeit small ones. Almost that many exhibited positive net domestic migration and 92% showed positive net international migration.

Again, interesting, but not terribly helpful to lenders, brokers and agents trying to get ahead of the flow, or at least go with it. However, in what could be an indication of people eventually looking for larger places to live or places more in tune with raising families, 213 MSAs — 56% — registered natural population decreases, meaning there were more deaths than births.

To dig deeper into the natural order, consider the latest statistics from United Van Lines, which claims to be America’s No. 1 mover of household goods. Released early this year, the 46th annual national movers study confirmed what many others have said, mainly that folks are heading to lowerdensity areas.

The report, which tracks only United’s state-to-state migration patterns, found that for the second consecutive year, Vermont saw the highest share — 77% — of inbound residents. Oregon was next at 67%, followed by Rhode Island, South Carolina, Delaware, North Carolina, Washington, D.C., South Dakota, New Mexico and Alabama.

Of these top 10 inbound states, four — Vermont, Oregon, South Dakota and New Mexico — are among the least densely populated states in America, with fewer than 100 people per square mile. And two others — South Dakota and New Mexico — are among the top 10. Regionally, Southeastern states continued to see the highest percentage of in-bound movers.

MORE GOODBYES THAN HELLOS

On the flip side, for the fifth straight year, the study found that more residents moved out of New Jersey than any other state. Two-thirds of United’s moves in “Joisey” were outbound. That’s down a tad from the five-year trend, but still — Wow!

Other states where more folks were waving goodbye last year than saying hello: Illinois, New York, Michigan, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Louisiana and California. (For what it’s worth, Census says California is the most urbanized state in the Union, while Vermont is the most rural.)

The moving company also reported that Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) and GenXers (1961-‘81) were its most frequent clients, accounting for 55% of all inbound traffic. Most cited the desire to be closer to family as their main reason for moving, whereas taking on a new job declined as a driver post-pandemic

However, the two youngest generations — GenYers (1977-‘94) and GenZers (‘95-2012) — likely can’t afford the tariff when it comes to moving their families from one place to another. Though there appears to be no statistics to back this up, only intuition, younger movers tend to turn to friends and family to help with their changes of address than hire an expensive moving outfit.

For yet a deeper dive, we turn to U-Haul, which says it’s the “No. 1 choice” for do-it-yourselfers with more than 23,000 locations nationwide. The company also is the third-largest self-storage operator. And its latest report, which is based on more than 2 million one-way transactions, also confirms that migration to the Southeast and Southwest is a thing among its clientele, too.

Still, U-Haul’s list of top destinations for its one-way U-Haul clients last year is a little different. Texas, California and Florida were the most frequent terminuses. The Lone Star State was the No. 1 growth state for the second consecutive year and the fifth time since 2016. Florida, which ranks second, has been a top-three growth state seven years in a row. Rounding out the company’s top 10 gainers were South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Arizona, Georgia, Ohio and Idaho.

On the flip side, California and Illinois were 50th and 49th, respectively, for the third year in a row for seeing the most demand for equipment leaving their borders. New York was another big loser.

MORE TRENDS

But U-Haul is more than a truck rental agency. Indeed, Media Manager Jeff Lockridge tells me the company sees itself as a full-service moving provider. “We tend to believe U-Haul checks the box on both categories, at

least in part, by offering services at the point of sale for U-Haul customers needing local moving labor assistance on either end, or both ends, of their residential move,” he said.

Because of its breadth of services and wide geographic footprint, the company claims to be “the authority” on migration trends. Its findings do not correlate directly to population or economic growth, but they are “an effective gauge of how well cities and states are attracting and maintaining residents.”

Better yet, its annual report drills down to the city level. And on that score, the company says four Florida destinations were among the top 25 last year, with Ocala heading the list as the top growth city in the country.

The company’s figures are based on the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks arriving in a city or state, versus departing from that city or state. But Ocala may be something of an anomaly.

U-Haul dealers there often receive

trucks from people moving to neighboring communities such as The Villages, Leesburg and the Orlando suburbs, reports Ed Hatcher, the district vice president who oversees operations across Northern Florida. But then, that reflects positively on the entire Central Florida region.

Last year was the third time in this decade that a city in the Sunshine State claimed the top spot on U-Haul’s list. In 2020, it was North Port; in 2021, it was the Kissimmee-St. Cloud corridor. Others on the latest top 10 list, in descending order, include

some surprising choices: SacramentoRoseville, Calif.; Madison, Wisc.; Palm Bay-Melbourne, Fla.; Auburn-Opelika, Ala.; North Port, Fla.; Myrtle BeachNorth Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Surprise, Ariz.; Huntsville. Ala., and CharlestonNorth Charleston, S.C. n

Lew Sichelman is a contributing writer to National Mortgage Professional magazine. He has been covering the housing and mortgage sectors for 52 years. His syndicated column appears in major newspapers throughout the country.

… the point here is that the mortgage sector would, indeed, do well to follow the money — and, more specifically — the migration trends taking place across the land.

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People On The Move

//

Cenlar FSB, a mortgage loan subservicer and federally chartered wholesale bank, announced that D. James “Jim” Daras has been named CEO and president.

> Deephaven Mortgage, a Non-QMfocused lender based in Charlotte, N.C., hired business development leader Tyler Bohn as managing director, national accounts.

> Plaza Home Mortgage announced Jeff Leinan has been promoted to co-president, sharing the day-to-day management with Mike Fontaine, Plaza’s co-president and chief operating officer.

> After a brief departure from Cornerstone Home Lending in early 2022, Kelly Zitlow returns in a new role as executive vice president of sales & engagement.

ON THE MOVE

How To Better Serve Latino Homebuyers In 2023 — And Beyond

BY ALEJANDRA DENDA, SPECIAL TO NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE

BUILD-A-BROKER

> Non-QM lender Deephaven Mortgage has recruited Jason Dumke as regional vice president, wholesale sales east.

> EasyKnock, a technologyenabled residential sale-leaseback platform, announced the hiring of Balaram Putta as the company’s chief technology officer.

> Prosperity Home Mortgage, one of the nation’s largest independent mortgage banks, announced that Justin Messer has been promoted to president and CEO.

> Sagent Lending Technologies, a fintech company offering mortgage servicing software, has appointed Marianne Sullivan as its chief operating officer.

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE //

It has long been known that Latinos are a powerful economic force — and yet recent statistics are startling. If U.S. Latinos were a country, their economic output would rank fifth in the world, above India and the United Kingdom, according to a study from the nonprofit research organization Latino Donor Collaborative. In terms of purchasing power, they spent $1.84 trillion in 2020 — an amount greater than the entire economies of Canada and South Korea.

Zoom in on Latino homebuyers and the figures are equally impressive.

According to the 2021 State of Hispanic Homeownership Report from NAHREP (The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals), Latinos are predicted to account for 70% of homeownership growth over the next 20 years, the only racial or ethnic group that will see an increased homeownership rate.

Sounds like easy money for mortgage loan originators, right? Well, not so fast. That same report warns that the growth is not guaranteed because the mortgage industry needs to create a more conducive environment for first-time buyers, many of whom are Latinos. Other barriers include housing availability (too few homes for sale in the desired price range), affordability and the access to

credit for the self-employed.

It is true that it will take time and concerted effort to fix the large-scale, systemic industry barriers. However, there are plenty of actions loan officers can take right away to better serve Latino borrowers — and tap into this economic juggernaut.

KEY AREAS TO FOCUS ON

Language o idioma — Hispanics are not a monolithic group. While there are several factors to consider when it comes to language, an important one is the generational status of your target buyer. For example, secondgeneration Latinos were born in the U.S. to parents from another country. They are often bicultural, speaking Spanish at home and English with friends and coworkers. It may seem logical to communicate with this group in English only. However, research reveals that U.S.-born Latinos actually prefer brands that show respect for their culture and appreciate them. Even though they are fluent in English, they want to know you are trying to connect with their culture.

On the other hand, you may need

to communicate with first-generation Hispanics in Spanish because there is a language barrier to overcome. Still, in this case, it’s more nuanced than simply translating English marketing copy to Spanish. Marketing materials need to be developed with an audience-first approach, delivering what those borrowers really need.

Culturally aware content — Whereas non-Hispanic whites may grow up in households in which the benefits of homeownership are embedded at an early age, Hispanics are often raised in homes where discussing finances is almost taboo. For these younger Latinos, that lack of conversation about money with their families makes it harder for them to know how to make significant financial decisions their first go around, such as financing education or buying a home. When mortgage companies are creating, managing, or planning content, they must consider these cultural differences in terms of financial literacy. In other words, do not assume Latino clients (or other immigrant groups) understand concepts that many Americans take for granted, such as the value of building credit, the option to purchase homes with no money down and the importance of gaining pre-approval.

Instead of assuming Hispanics are familiar with these financial areas, strive to deliver culturally aware messaging that explains the steps to buy a home and clearly spells out the solutions you are providing. As an example, when we launched the Spanish version of The Federal Savings Bank’s

>National retail mortgage lender Waterstone Mortgage Corp. has promoted Rico Garcia to vice president — enterprise risk, a newly created position.

> Accurate Group, a provider of technologydriven real estate appraisal, and title data announced Michele Golden has joined the company as chief appraiser.

> Planet Home Lending has hired Ricardo Maldonado as retail branch manager for its new Kissimmee, Florida, location.

> Altisource Asset Management Corp. hired industry veteran Danya Sawyer as chief operating officer for its Alternative Lending Group.

Alejandra Denda

Hispanics are often raised in homes where discussing finances is almost taboo.

website, we built it from the ground up, selecting the words, content and even imagery that we believe are most likely to connect with Latinos based on their understanding of the homebuying process. We also launched a mortgage application in Spanish, so that all Latino borrowers can take the first step to the process of home ownership.

Proactively offer relevant solutions — Buying a home is a complex process, and for people who are the first in their family to be able to achieve home ownership, it can feel like a daunting process. Hispanics may even incorrectly believe their circumstances prevent them from owning a home. These can include not having a social security number (even if they were legally admitted to the U.S.), not having money for a down payment, and requiring multiple borrowers on loans. Instead of expecting Latinos to explain these sensitive situations to you, consider communicating solutions at the outset, such as no-money-down governmentbacked loans, alternatives to SSNs such as ITIN loans, and the ability to include multiple borrowers on loans.

Showcase your — or your team’s — diversity — According to NAHREP’s 2021 Latino Buyers Survey of topproducing Latino real estate agents, 60% reported that more than half of their buyer transactions were made to Latinos. While care should be taken to prevent sweeping generalizations, this suggests that at least some prefer to work with people who are similar to them.

Indeed, Hispanic loan officers should celebrate (read: shout) their Hispanic

heritage. If that does not reflect your background, think about how you can communicate your organization’s diversity, and if you’re still lacking in that department, consider recruiting more. At The Federal Savings Bank, our President Javier Ubarri is Hispanic, and even though we have a sizable base of Hispanic employees, bankers, and leaders, we’re constantly looking to hire more Latino talent.

LATINO HOMEBUYERS: LOOKING AHEAD

I recently heard about a Hispanic borrower whose story surprised me — even as a Latina, multicultural expert, and industry insider. A foreign-born owner of a landscaping company, who does not speak English, recently purchased a couple of investment homes in The Hamptons. While these houses were not mega-mansions reserved for the ultra-wealthy, they are still in one of the priciest zip codes in the U.S., and, to me, represent the dynamism and polylithic nature of the Hispanic market.

Higher-income Latinos are growing — so be prepared! In fact, Hispanics earning more than $100,000 per year are growing faster than any other segment, and in

the next five years, affluent Hispanic households will grow 36 percent annually.

In addition to purchasing more expensive residences, Latinos are increasingly investing in real estate, creating more opportunities for mortgage loan officers. Compared to some investment vehicles, such as stocks, Hispanics favor real estate because it is tangible, an investment they can see and feel. In fact, 68% of top producers from NAHREP’s survey already saw an increase in investment property ownership among Latinos last year.

Ironically, perhaps the most significant takeaway about this increasing base of higher-income Latinos has nothing to do with marketing. Rather, loan officers must truly listen to their prospective clients to understand their needs and goals — whether those are buying a first home or purchasing investment properties to build generational wealth. It is only through listening that you can offer customized solutions, demonstrate your empathy and maximize your value to customers. n

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE //

Alejandra Denda is the chief marketing officer of The Federal Savings Bank headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Latinos are predicted to account for 70% of homeownership growth over the next 20 years, the only racial or ethnic group that will see an increased homeownership rate.

Discover Where Your Competitors Stand In The Mortgage Market

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ACC Mortgage

Rockville, MD

ACC Mortgage is the oldest Non-QM lender that has never stopped lending in 22 years. We specialize in Bank Statement, ITIN, P&L, Foreign National and DSCR lending. Price, Product and Process are what make for Non-QM success.

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Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions

Atlanta, GA

Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions is the leader in the non-QM mortgage space. We offer alternative specialized mortgage solutions for brokers throughout the country helping borrowers who don’t fit conventional guidelines. We are pioneering a fresh approach to today’s mortgage lending challenges helping partners to grow their business.

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(855) 631-9943

info@angeloakms.com

LICENSED IN: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MS, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY, DC and the District of Columbia

Acra Lending

Lake Forest, CA

Acra Lending is the leader in Non-QM Wholesale and Correspondent lending programs. Offering a range of programs and services geared toward helping mortgage professionals and borrowers achieve their purchase and investment goals. We are committed to providing simplicity, consistency and an optimal customer experience.

acralending.com

LICENSED IN: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NC, OK, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WY

Change Wholesale Irvine CA

Change Wholesale gives mortgage brokers an unfair advantage to close more loans, faster. Our CDFI certification from the U.S. Department of the Treasury allows us to offer proprietary programs that are tailored to meet the needs of commonly overlooked prime borrowers. Our flagship Community Mortgage requires no income, employment, or DTI documentation. Prime borrowers looking for their dream home or vacation getaway can get approved with just the first page of the bank statement.

ChangeWholesale.com

(949) 255-6085

info@changewholesale.com

LICENSED IN:, AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MS, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY

First National Bank of America East Lansing, MI

Bio: FNBA is a portfolio lender with over 65 years of experience. We understand that in the Non-QM business, service makes all the difference. That’s why we are committed to providing you with the fastest turn times, exceptional service and loan programs that make growing your business easy!

fnba.com/mortgage-brokers

LICENSED IN: All 50 U.S. States

You Be The Judge

Learn the lessons of good judgment for better career results

HARVEY MACKAY, CONTRIBUTOR, NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE

young banker asked a retiring banker what the secret of success was in banking, and he responded, “Good judgment.”

The rookie then said, “How do you get good judgment?”

The older banker said, “Experience.”

To which the youngster asked, “How do you get experience?”

And the retiring banker said, “Bad judgment.”

Or, as Mark Twain famously said, “Good

judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”

Anyone who has ever been in business can identify with that statement.

MAKE REASONABLE DECISIONS

As a business leader and parent, the one attribute that I value most is a person’s good judgment. Judgment is the result of a person’s decisionmaking. When your values are clear, making decisions becomes much easier.

Nothing replaces good judgment. Good judgment is the ability to make reasonable decisions in a set point of time. It is evaluating

circumstances, weighing the positives and negatives and considering alternatives.

“In the face of ambiguity, uncertainty, and conflicting demands, often under great time pressure, leaders must make decisions and take effective actions to assure the survival and success of their organizations,” said leadership expert Warren Bennis. “This is how leaders add value to their organizations. They lead them to success by exercising good judgment, by making smart calls when especially difficult and complicated decisions simply must be made, and then ensuring that they are well executed.”

Judgment comes into play in many ways. People can make judgments about you by the company you keep. When young Steve Jobs was desperately trying to get funding for Apple

Computer, he was seen in a restaurant with a representative of the Rockefeller venture capital firm. The person who saw him had already turned him down but reconsidered and invested $150,000 in Apple Computer, helping it get up and running.

IMPROVE YOUR JUDGMENT

A variety of challenges confront leaders and team members every day: budgets, mistakes, delays, staffing, conflicts, safety, and profits — all call for making decisions that can affect an organization’s future. When decisions must be made quickly with limited information, being able to trust your good judgment is central to making the right call.

What are the skills you need to improve your judgment?

• Ethics is all about knowing what is right and wrong. Is it fair and legal? When I talk about ethics in my speeches, I introduce the subject by saying, “Act like your mother is watching.”

• Consistency is expected. You can’t

next time, and if things went right, learn from your decisions.

SENSIBLE & SOUND DECISIONS

In addition to those skills, John Spacey, writing on Simplicable.com, emphasizes the need for pragmatism and situational awareness. Accepting “difficult real-world conditions such as uncertainty, grey areas and imperfections” is a must for making sensible and sound decisions. Equally important is the “ability to be highly observant and diligent to respond to fast moving situations,” he writes.

A business owner who was nearing retirement invested her life savings in a business enterprise that had been elaborately explained to her by a swindler.

When her investment disappeared, and the wonderful dream was shattered, she went to the office of the Better Business Bureau. They asked, “Why on earth didn’t you come to us first? Didn’t you know about the Better Business Bureau?”

“Oh yes,” said the businesswoman sadly. “I’ve always known about you. But I didn’t come because I was afraid

let emotions or intense situations affect your judgment. Even the best business plans will fail without a dedication to consistency.

• Listen to learn. Listening to others allows you to collect and assess important information, rather than relying on your opinion or personal bias. Good judgment is about making the best decisions, rather than relying on your opinion

• Accept your mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. Accept responsibility and move forward. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes, figure out what went wrong and don’t repeat them.

• Learn from experience. As the opening story says, nothing beats experience in improving your judgment. If something went wrong, do things differently the

you’d tell me not to do it.”

It’s a sad story we’ve heard over and over again. Too bad her judgment didn’t lead her to ask questions that she might have asked about the proposed investment: Is this a risk I can afford to take? Is this person honest and trustworthy? Is this the right time to take such a gamble? What if it doesn’t work out as planned?

Simple but necessary questions could have saved her a life of regret.

Mackay’s Moral: Judgment is knowing which door to open when opportunity knocks. n

Harvey Mackay is a seven-time New York Times best-selling author whose 15 inspirational business books have sold 10 million copies worldwide.

When your values are clear, making decisions becomes much easier.

Tips For Success With Self-Employed Borrowers

Know a business’ viability with a thorough financial review for success

According to the St Louis Fed, the number of selfemployed people increased during the pandemic. As of February 2022, self-employed workers made up almost 11% of the 157 million employed in the U.S. labor force. Now, with a growing number of people being selfemployed, it’s imperative that you know how to work with them.

If you haven’t already encountered a self-employed borrower, chances are that you will at some point.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

The reality is that businesses fail. Based on an analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics data, LendingTree says that 1 in 5 businesses will fail within the first year. And in the challenging economy we’re faced with right now, some businesses won’t be profitable — or at least not profitable enough to support someone’s

MARY KAY SCULLY, CONTRIBUTOR, NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE

investment in a home.

As much as we want to get people into homes, we also want to make sure they stay in them. It is your responsibility as their lender to ensure their income can support their purchase and they are able to afford the loan amount and be capable of making timely payments.

It’s imperative that when the borrower’s income is coming from a self-employed source, their business is considered viable, and that’s why it’s so critical that all relevant documents

are reviewed. Ensuring you get all the information you need to determine the viability helps you make accurate calculations and get comfortable with the adjustments to the reported income.

Making accurate calculations also reduces delays and other errors down the road. We talked about this last month — it’s always better to do things right up front, even if it involves some extra work.

• Farm

- IRS Form 1040

- Schedule F

• Partnership

- IRS Form 1065

- Form K-1 for profit and loss

- IRS Form 1040 may reflect passthrough incomes on B, C, D, E or F

• S-Corp

- IRS Form 1120S

- Form K-1 for profit/loss

- IRS Form 1040 may reflect passthrough incomes on B, C, D, E or F

• LLC

- May complete partnership or S-Corp tax returns

- Single member or spouse may complete Form 1040 or Schedule C

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?

We’ve established that knowing how to work with self-employed borrowers is essential for making the right calculations and assessing their incomes, but it also plays a critical role in the customer experience.

Speaking of work — show your work! Use one of the many industry worksheets available from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, your loan origination software (LOS) vendor or mortgage insurance partner Having it all laid out helps you not only understand the math but also more easily catch any errors you might have made

WHAT DO YOU NEED?

So, to make the right calculations, what information do you need? It’s essential to get their full set of tax returns with all the schedules and worksheets so that you have everything you need to do the math and find out exactly what your borrowers can afford. Depending on the business type and their role within it, the forms you need will vary.

Here are the different business structures and how they typically report taxes:

• Sole Proprietor or Independent Contractor

- IRS Form 1040

- Schedule C

Since self-employed borrowers are so unique, having a reputation for working well with them can do great things for your business. If your referral partners know you excel at working with selfemployed borrowers, they’ll be more likely to send them your way because they know you’ll provide the best experience with the best results.

Plus, the self-employed community is a small one — people talk. And if they are talking about you for the right reasons, that bodes well for future business.

The bottom line is that you can’t handle self-employed borrowers the same as everyone else. Knowing exactly what you need and why you need it will help ensure you do your job accurately, and it will provide a better customer experience for your borrower as well. n

Mary Kay Scully is the Director of Customer Education at Enact, leading the development of the company’s customer education curriculum. The statements in this article are solely the opinions of Mary Kay Scully and do not necessarily reflect the views of Enact or its management.

As much as we want to get people into homes, we also want to make sure they stay in them.

The Principal AS HEARD ON T

he Principal™ is the daily podcast of Mortgage News Network™. Hosted by Mike Savino, director of multimedia, the podcast takes an in-depth look at the major issues of the day in the mortgage industry. Here are some of the highlights from recent episodes.

“If you are a company and you get in trouble, which — depending on the seniority of the insiders involved, the feds might be looking at the company itself as a potential target. And if you get indicted as a company, you might as well say good night.”

– Locke Lord LLP Partner Kip Mendrygal on why companies need to focus on fraud compliance

“There is literally almost no gain you make by being complainy, and Mr. Complainy or Mrs. Complainy pants at work.”

– The Creator Mindset Founder and CEO Nir Bashan on getting people to accept your critiques

nmplink.com/ThePrincipal

“Imagine if we could have that at work everyday for people, right? Like, you could show up to work and feel affirmed and validated and, like, you can do the best work that you can.”

– Wells Fargo Head of Diverse Segments Kristy Fercho on creating an inclusive workplace culture

“I think it’s been low-hanging fruit for a lot of people for a long-time and, to your point, it’s virtually — if you had a heartbeat, you could get loans and originate them with little to no effort. I think in the market we have today, you actually have to climb the tree now to get fruit.”

– Next Level LO cofounder Kenneth Travis on the need to return to basic skills after the refi boom

Nir Bashan

Kristy Fercho Kip Mendryga

Kenneth Travis

Broker business is built here.

In California, brokers, originators, and support staff love the California Mortgage Expo. The show, which is available in Irvine, San Diego, Oakland, and Pasadena, offers educational sessions, product showcases, networking opportunities, and more (we can’t forget to mention the hors d’oeuvres, open bar, and networking parties). Attendees also have the chance to renew their NMLS license with the class the following day. Plus, the show is free for NMLS licensees* with our code NMPFREE.

No brainer? We think so.

MAY

Thursday, May 4, 2023

04 05

MAY

Friday, May 5

California Mortgage Expo NMLS Renewal Class

Acra Lending

Lake Forest, CA

Acra Lending is the leader in NonQM Wholesale and Correspondent lending programs. Offering a range of programs and services geared toward helping mortgage professionals and borrowers achieve their purchase and investment goals. We are committed to providing simplicity, consistency and an optimal customer experience.

acralending.com

(888) 800-7661 sales@acralending.com

LICENSED IN: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NC, OK, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WY

Champions Funding

Gilbert, AZ

Mission Driven Non-QM + CDFI

Wholesale Lender

At Champions Funding, we Non-QM all day, every day! It’s our core business, and we live to serve underserved borrowers through our valued broker partners. We put diversity and inclusion into mortgage lending by empowering the mortgage broker community to provide solutions for non-traditional credit profiles and those who cannot get approved with standard financing. Through our highly coveted CDFI certification backed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, we can offer our flagship neighborhood products and tap into a $1 Trillion market of historically underserved communities in the country.

Focused on speed to closing (in days, not weeks), smooth processes, and userfriendly access to our underwriting and support teams, we offer modern, flexible, and responsible non-traditional lending solutions.

champstpo.com

(949) 763-9494

Wholesale@ChampsTPO.com

LICENSED IN: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, HI, IL, IA, MD, MI, NJ, NC, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA

PRIVATE LENDER RESOURCE GUIDE

DSCR Rental NO DOC Loans

Civic Financial Services

Redondo Beach, CA

CIVIC delivers fast, honest, simple lending for real estate investors. Description of your products or services.

CIVIC Financial Services is a private money lender, specializing in the financing of non-owner occupied residential investment properties.

CIVIC provides Mortgage Brokers and Real Estate Investors with a fast and cost effective funding source for their real estate investment needs.

civicfs.com

(877) 472-4842

info@civicfs.com

LICENSED IN: AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, LA, MD, MA, MI, MN, NV, NJ, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI

Alpha Tech Lending West Hempstead, NY

alphatechlending.com

(888) 276-6565

info@alphatechlending.com

Alpha Tech Lending is a trusted direct lender, with over a combined 30 years of experience in the private lending sector. We offer a variety of loan programs for nonowner-occupied residences that are customizable to suit your real estate investment needs. From fix and flips, long term rental, new construction, commercial bridge, and more. We lend to both new and experienced real estate professionals throughout the country. We value long term relationships built on trust. Our brokers are protected.

LICENSED IN: CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA

Global Integrity Finance LLC McKinney, Texas

DSCR Rental NO DOC Loans

As a direct, private lender, Global Integrity Finance takes a commonsense approach to underwriting, with all approvals made in-house. We are dedicated to providing quick responses to time-sensitive loans, often times with the ability to close in as few as 3 business days. At Global Integrity Finance, we value referrals and our brokers are protected. We are committed to the highest level of customer service, because our success thrives in building relationships.

globalintegrityfinance.com

(214) 548-5190

toby@globalintegrityfinance.com

LICENSED IN: AL, AR, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI

Luxury Mortgage Corp. Stamford, CT

Non-QM, Wholesale, Delegated Correspondent, Non Delegated Correspondent

The Simple Access® Non-QM suite of products was built around the idea that it doesn’t have to be complicated to finance a home. We have created a diverse selection of borrower friendly programs that are simple, innovative, and flexible. For more information on our Correspondent division, visit www. luxurymortgagecorrespondent.com

luxurymortgagewholesale.com

(949) 516-9710 tpomarketing@luxurymortgage.com

LICENSED IN: AL, AK, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WY

Hands-On Advice

Industry Insights

Why Now Is The Best Time To Invest In Tech

BY MIKE SAVINO, DIRECTOR OF MULTIMEDIA, MORTGAGE NEWS NETWORK

Inflooens CEO Amit Ghole and Melody Wright, SVP of Product and Strategy, joined a recent episode of the Principal to talk about why companies need to invest in technology, even when business is slow. They say the right investments can help avoid the need to scale up during good times and slash staff when originations drop.

The interview was conducted by Mike Savino, Mortgage News Network (MNN) director of multimedia. (Editor’s note: Melody Wright has left Inflooens since this interview was conducted.)

MNN: So I guess just to start things off, we’ll start with you Amit and just — to the point of investing in tech. I always like to throw this out there: we keep seeing originations down; originators are struggling. Why should they be investing in tech when they’re trying to think about where every dollar is going right now?

Amit Ghole: Well, like you said, the circumstances are what they are and it’s really about everyone’s ability to

survive, if not thrive in this existing environment. And coming out of this circumstance when policies do change, when there is another wave of refinance — being in a position to be able to scale seamlessly, that is why an investment in the right technology makes absolute sense right now.

MNN: Melody, what advice would you have for originators on, on where to start? Where to get the best, uh, bang for their buck?

Melody Wright: I think they have to start with a strategy, right? And I think that unfortunately what’s happened recently is we came off these two years of incredible momentum where everyone could not keep up. You’re hiring, throwing bodies at a problem, just trying to close those loans, to record that gain on sale. And everybody was just moving so fast that they couldn’t really see the forest from the trees. And of course, there was no time to implement technology, etc. And so we’re at a moment where we have stopped, that all that acceleration has

stopped in a way that has really kind of — the market is a little surprised by how quickly it happened. I think that you have to have a strategy which includes a tool that will ensure that you don’t need to act the way that this industry acts during boom and bust cycles. Meaning that we rapidly scale up and then we slash and burn because we can’t hold the expense.

That’s not how it should be. I’m a survivor of the great financial crisis. I was at GMAC in 2007 when we did our first big layoff in December of 2007, another big layoff in March of 2008. And that was hugely impactful to me that it … should not be this way. Essentially, you have to have a strategy and a plan because you know that this is how origination works. And so to me, understand what you need and what you need is you have to increase efficiency, increase sales and lower costs. And so once you have that strategy, you have to find the right technology to do that. And I would say that’s a technology that’s gonna provide transparency and accountability.

The winning strategy for originators is going to be one that fully embraces digital

MNN: You brought up the point that when times are booming, it’s easy to just say, ‘I gotta make hay while the sun is shining. And then as soon as things contract, like right now, I gotta make phone calls, I gotta do this, I gotta do that. I gotta find my next loan. Where’s it gonna come from?’ So if you’ve been doing that and you really don’t have a strategy, where do you start? Where are some easy low-lying fruits where you can sort of see a quick payoff that, ‘Wow, this is making my life easier?’

Wright: Well, honestly, I think you start at the beginning of the pipeline. If you’re gonna start somewhere, start at the beginning and understand what is getting in your way of getting those

opportunities in the first place. What are you doing with your leads, right? What are you doing with your referral partners? How are you utilizing them? Are you using analytics to make sure that you’re getting those leads in the door, number one. But you’re retaining those leads and you’re making sure they don’t fall out because you forgot to call them. You forgot — and by the way, you did a Google ad and it didn’t get uploaded in your CRM properly. Now you really don’t even know if you’ve lost leads.

So, I would just start from the beginning. Or start from the place where you have the biggest pain point. That’s always good advice. What’s the biggest pain point right now? People

think that that’s sales. And so I think that probably is a great place to start.

MNN: Amit. Start with the biggest pain points. It sounds like really you can find tech to help you do anything you’re doing right now in the mortgage industry.

Ghole: That’s right. And then I would start by saying that, piggybacking on what Melody said about the two things that are most important right now in the given situation is, ‘Hey, do I have enough dollars coming in to feed the rest of the organization and myself?’ So we’ve got a tremendous focus on sales. How can I sustain or even grow sales?

One of the things that we’ve been doing at the company is aggressively

“You have to constantly be retooling your artificial intelligence. It’s a machine, just like you take your car to get an oil change.”

– Melody Wright, SVP of Product and Strategy, Inflooens

The very first thing that we are going to do differently from the rest is we are going to eliminate the silos. Innovation has been taking place, but innovation has been taking place in silos.

– Inflooens CEO Amit Ghole

following all the mortgage coaches and the sales approach, the philosophy being that you have this referral network. And if you can leverage text and analytics to really go after relationships that you would require to come out thriving in this environment — well, how do I go about doing that? Our technology offers those capabilities, modeling after again, teachings of the best in class mortgage coaches.

Then the next stage that I have to address is, how do I — I have so many fixed costs in the organizations. I drive them down through automation and then, as much as possible, find ways to eliminate repeatable processes. So bringing — when you bring these two very, very powerful and needed aspects of your operations together and apply technology to solve for those, those technology products come out as winners as well as lenders who adopt the right technology environment.

Wright: We’re seeing companies that, you know, like Finance of America, that are shuttering. You’re basically going in and you’re trying to grab volume by grabbing people. But the thing is, even when you grab those people, if they don’t have the right tools, they’re not gonna be successful in this market. And one of the things that we’re doing is we’re really trying to solve for the people that’ll be using these tools. Because what we’re finding is that a lot of our kind of younger millennials and Gen Zers interacting in that kind of get to know you kind of sales conversation, that just is not intuitive. And so a lot of the folks that are in the market right now actually don’t even know what’s the first step to establishing these relationships, cultivating leads, etc. And so through our CRM or their CRM component, this is something we’re solving with our lead and referral management and our kind of get to know your referral partners within the application. We have a lot of tools that help you do that.

MNN: And certainly they’re much more familiar with using tech to solve problems just like that. Amit, you’ve talked about the importance of transparency. But talk to me about that in this space. Because I always envision tech companies, companies that are dealing with algorithms and AI, they’re very protective of their

products. So talk to me about what transparency means when you’re talking about technology and how do you accomplish it?

Ghole: One of the core philosophies when we started the company is we promised to ourselves and our employees and our customers is the very first thing that we are going to do differently from the rest is we are going to eliminate the silos. Innovation has been taking place, but innovation has been taking place in silos. And the approach has been that ‘hey, I solve for a problem’ and then throw the problem over the fence. Right now it becomes somebody else’s problem. We took time to bring people and processes together and we take pride in doing that. You know, a good example is we’ve got a large customer whom we are deploying. They came to us with a specific problem of solving for their processing department’s workflow automation. When we gave them a demonstration and made them realize, ‘hey, your processes can actually look at very, very transparently and even engage leads as they’re coming in through the sales funnel. So that when they do go into processing, you absolutely are sitting on top of all the things that you would need for when they’re in processing and vice versa for the loan officers to know what’s going on in processing. For everyone to know and not be surprised with the results and conditions that come out of the underwriting process. And guess what? As the origination is coming along, exposing that level of transparency to your borrowers — wow, never, ever achieved before. We’re very excited to be offering the industry with all this, these tools and technology and provide a whole new experience. Wright: And Mike, one thing I can tell you, when I was managing processors back, we kind of act — one of the companies I was working for, we acted kind of like a staff OG. And I was managing processors that went to work at different companies. And I cannot tell you the amount of time spent, between loan officers and loan processors arguing over something that somebody just couldn’t find an email. We call it, ‘email Joe’ because there was just no one system to capture these data, the timelines, whether the

requirements were there. And so there were just these fights of blame and shame that when you have a system that tells you everything you need to know that’s keeping track of your notes can keep track of your phone calls, etc, it’s all there for everyone — you just are going to gain exponential efficiency.

MNN: The thing that I wanted to ask and is just the conversation around bias in technology. And it’s not exclusive to this industry, it’s in general with artificial intelligence. Because I don’t think people can appreciate when you’re building algorithms, if you are using, for example, bad data and you’re baking it in, those biases will just perpetuate. And we’ve seen in this industry, experts pointing that out in that if you’re using bad tech, you can certainly be responsible for that. How do you account for this? And how do you advise people in this industry to watch out for that as they’re expanding their tech?

Wright: In this process, to me, you always have to look at that and make sure that you have some sort of governance committee that’s reviewing these things. Always … you have to constantly be looking at, have your risk management teams looking at ‘OK, what could I be missing here through this automation?’ And, I don’t think we’re even — we’re certainly not advocating at this point to take the human out of underwriting. But we need to give them the tools to arrive at these decisions faster, but also alert them like, we have a big roadmap. We won’t go into that here, but these are the types of things we want to incorporate is that you have some sort of scoring along the way. Risk-based scoring that says, ‘Hey, listen, this is all great and this is falling out for X, Y, Z, but you need to re-review this because this is high risk because of maybe the neighborhood, wherever it is, you have to do that extra review.’ And you have to constantly be retooling your AI. It’s a machine, just like you take your car to get an oil change. You always have to be looking at your models, checking them, understanding them, and looking for that bias to make sure it doesn’t happen. n

THE NEED FOR

Lenders race to the ‘holy grail’ of the one-day commitment letter

BY DAVID KRECHEVSKY, EDITOR, NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE

Like two jumpsuit-clad naval aviators high-fiving as they strut toward their supersonic fighter jets, financial company executives have a specific goal on their minds:

They “feel the need, the need for speed!”

Harit Talwar, the non-executive chairman of Better with nearly four decades in the financial services industry, is one of those executives. He expressed his “need for speed” in January, when his financial technology brokerage launched its One-Day Mortgage program.

“For my entire career, a one-day mortgage has served as the holy grail for consumer finance companies to achieve and scale,” Talwar said.

That desire for an ever-faster mortgage process, however, leads to a few questions. First, is the “one-day mortgage” even possible? Second, and perhaps more importantly, is it possible for every borrower, regardless of their financial situation? Third, is speed as important to borrowers as it seems to be for financial industry executives?

The answers aren’t as simple as they may seem.

BENCHMARK STUDY

The amount of time it takes for a borrower to complete the mortgage approval process is not just a marketing gimmick. According to “Mortgage Cycle Closing Time,” a study published in December 2020 by Freddie Mac, the top-performing mortgage originators in the second quarter of 2020 “processed loans up to 63% faster than their lower-performing rivals.”

The study was initiated to benchmark mortgage closing cycle times, which the report described as a “critical

performance indicator” for lenders. It also noted that the times had increased during the COVID-19 pandemic due to “high volumes, mandated closures, and social distancing.”

Still, according to the report, the industry average closing cycle time

Clearly, a faster mortgage process is a goal across the industry, regardless of the size of the organization. A more recent study, an “Origination Insight Report” published in December 2021 by ICE Mortgage Technology, found that closing on a conventional mortgage took

had gradually improved from 46 days in the first quarter of 2016 to 40 days in the early part of 2020. It also noted that the range between the higherand lower-performing companies had narrowed over that time, “and is more pronounced across the lower performers, whose cycle times have improved the most.”

The report also noted that customers “increasingly want faster and easier ways to maneuver through the mortgage process.”

48 days; closing an FHA loan took 54 days; and closing a VA loan took 57 days. The average time to close a refinance loan was 45 days, the report said.

COMMITMENT LETTERS

While longing for the one-day mortgage, many lenders tout the speed with which they can approve a commitment letter. These letters can lock in a mortgage rate while offering either a firm commitment to lend the borrower the money needed to buy a

Harit Talwar, the non-executive chairman of Better.

house, or a conditional commitment that requires certain conditions to be met.

That’s what Better’s One-Day Mortgage program actually does. As stated in its news release, “Better customers will be able to go online, get pre-approved, lock their rate, and get a mortgage commitment letter from Better, all within 24 hours.”

The company said it quietly launched a test of the program in the second week of January, and by the time it was officially launched about two weeks later it had “processed over $50 million in One-Day Mortgage commitments, with customers receiving a commitment letter in an average of 12 hours.”

In an interview with NMP, Nicholas Taylor, Better’s head of real estate, said the company’s approval process is often even faster. “In most cases, we’re averaging about six to eight

hours to deliver that conditional approval letter,” he said.

Taylor said the process is a “new combination of technology and personnel,” and ensures that Better customers get a conditional approval letter within 24 hours of starting that process, so they don’t have “to wait 20, or in some cases, 30 days for the lender to greenlight” approval for the borrower.

While Better describes the program as “a breakthrough innovation in the real estate industry,” other lenders offer similar programs. Sun West, for one, has offered its “8 a.m. approval” program for more than a year. That program uses the company’s proprietary AI technology, called Morgan, to provide a conditional commitment letter by no later than 8 a.m. the next day, as long as the file was uploaded by 8 p.m. the

previous evening.

According to Sun West CEO Pavan Agarwal, a customer submitting documentation using Morgan’s website portal will usually receive a decision within minutes.

“Currently, 70% are under 40 minutes,” he said. “The goal over the next quarter is 99.5% in a few minutes.”

FAST VS. FAIR

In a recent interview with NMP, however, Agarwal raised questions about the efforts to create an ever-faster mortgage approval process.

His concern? “I think there’s a greater need for fairness than there is a need for speed,” he said.

He continued, “The disadvantage of trying to do it so quickly is that if you don’t have the technology, then … you only end up doing it quickly for a small segment of the population. And that is not fair.”

From Agarwal’s perspective, completing a mortgage process quickly for most lenders requires borrowers with financial profiles that fit neatly into agency guidelines established decades ago.

“These guidelines are old, right?” he said. “I mean, the culture in which they were written is kind of like a ‘60s’ or ‘70s’ kind of culture, where everyone was like [Gregory Peck] in that (1956) movie, ‘The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.’ … Everyone had a job, they worked at a big corporation, and they retired with the gold watch.”

Agarwal said life is much more complicated today, particularly with a gig economy in which workers hold several jobs, none of which provide a W-2. As a result, he said, the “need for speed” tends to focus on a select group of people, neglecting the rest.

“So, if you’re not part of that culture, then you’re not getting the service levels that you deserve and you’re not getting as many lenders serving you, so that makes your pricing worse because there’s a lack of supply,” he said. “This isn’t some kind of premeditated discrimination; it’s just market forces.”

Given that, he said, “you can’t have fair lending unless you have equality of service. Fair lending isn’t just about, ‘Did you charge one group more than another group,’ or ‘Did you approve one group more than the other group.’ Fair

“I think there’s

lending is really about, ‘Did you give equal service across the spectrum?’”

Agarwal also touted Sun West’s Morgan, its AI platform, stating that it gives his company an advantage over its competitors in speeding up the mortgage-approval process because so much of it is automated, removing human errors.

As an example, he said, humans might mistakenly put the wrong year on a document in January, such as writing 2022 when they mean 2023. Morgan won’t make that mistake, he said.

“So, what happens is then you get all pieces of your problem solved,” he said. “You get speed. You get accuracy. And you get fairness, because it doesn’t matter … how complex it is. … The AI doesn’t care.”

He added that Morgan works with all kinds of borrowers, including not just those with W-2s, but those who are self-employed, have disabilities, have low or high FICO scores, or who have gaps in their resumes, as well as for all kinds of loan types, from conventional to FHA, VA, jumbo, and more.

“We are true fair lending,” he said.

Taylor, Better’s head of real estate, said his company is working to expand eligibility for its One-Day Mortgage program, which among other restrictions currently requires applicants to have a W-2.

“We’re starting more simply,” he said, “but we have some really aggressive goals to meet the needs of the majority of the borrowers by the beginning of the busy season.” He added that Better’s goal is to meet the needs of 75% of the purchase borrowing market within two to three months, and eventually 100%.

THE ‘HOLY GRAIL’

Taylor said he believes there is a difference between the one-day mortgage (or commitment letter) and the so-called “holy grail” of a one-day closing. And he doesn’t believe the latter is a pipe dream.

He said so many lenders have been investing in innovation over just the past decade, that the “flywheel is starting to spin pretty fast.”

Lenders also need to consider the growing expectations of the consumer, he said.

“I do think that everybody wants to be faster,” Taylor said. “That customer

expectation has definitely only grown over the last 20 years for other parts of someone’s life, right?”

For example, he cited how Amazon changed customers’ expectations about shopping online.

“I hate to use Amazon, but … what they had aspired to originally start was a journey to deliver two-day shipping for all products,” he said. “But it couldn’t accommodate all products to begin with. And we look at that kind of ‘assembly line’ and that exercise of, how do you get every single product shipped in two days, if not faster?

“We look at that exercise and we internalize it as a mortgage company within our corner of the industry,” he continued. “And we’re taking it upon ourselves to figure out how to combine tech, ops, and our platform to provide that service for all types of borrowers.”

Ultimately, he said, the industry is likely closer to the “holy grail” goal than you might think.

“I think that all of this is not far away from materializing, but I do think that the challenge we face today is that too much of this industry is not motivated to address that customer need,” he said. “And so I think to really unlock a one-day closing, it requires a company that is truly invested and motivated and curious to solve that question, ‘how do we bring all these disparate parts together?’”

He continued, “Do I think it could happen in one day? Oof, that would require some serious coordination, but I think we are not far away from offering three-day closings or fiveday closings — much faster than the standard 40, 45 days. I don’t think we’re far away from that.” n

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Natural Born FIGHTER

Talita Guerrero: a self-made entrepreneur who made it under demanding circumstances

BY KATIE JENSEN, STAFF WRITER, NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE

Most CEOs of mortgage companies are likely feeling queasy right about now, dealing with all the ups and downs of the industry. Talita Guerrero, who has dealt with hardships all her life, isn’t sweating it, though.

Having a premature baby at 15, launching a mortgage career in the midst of a recession (just after buying her first home), and working two jobs with two kids, while going to college full time, imbues a “never say die attitude” most CEOs just can’t comprehend.

Co-founder and owner of Right Key Mortgage, Guerrero, is a woman of many talents. Aside from being a business owner, she’s also a mother of two, a podcaster, an author, and a member of the Forbes Boston Business Council. She has a laundry list of accomplishments that would strike you breathless if said out loud, but getting here wasn’t easy. In fact, she’d likely

tell you it was damn near impossible, but by sheer determination, she made it happen.

GROWING UP QUICK

At 12 years old, Guerrero, her two sisters, and parents immigrated to America from Brazil, looking for a better life with stable jobs and a good education for the children. But, as most immigrants come to learn, the American Dream doesn’t come easily, if at all.

Guerrero’s childhood was tough; her parents moved around frequently and worked tirelessly. At the time, she didn’t quite understand why her parents weren’t around, but said she later realized they were trying their best to build a brighter future. Her mother and father each worked three to four jobs, which didn’t leave them much time to be parents.

So at the ripe age of 13, Guerrero moved in with her older sister and pretty much had to take care of herself. Without the supervision of her parents,

I took lemons and really made lemonade out of that awful time.

Talita Guerrero, co-founder and owner, Right Key Mortgage

she did what any 13-year-old girl would do if they were left to their own devices: she rebelled.

Those days of partying, dating, and carelessly getting in trouble did not last long, though, because two years later Guerrero’s childhood came to an abrupt end. At 15 years old she found out she was pregnant.

“I was seeing a guy who worked at the same restaurant I was, and we weren’t even really dating or anything. I was just a really rebellious teenager,” Guerrero said. “At 15, I wasn’t living with my parents. I thought I was mature and ready to be an adult, but really I had no idea.”

Living in a dilapidated duplex, Guerrero thought there was no way she could afford to have a baby. She made an appointment for an abortion,

baby, and he was just going to be small. I just really had no idea what it was in for,” Guerrero said. “My baby weighed only two pounds when he was born, and was in the intensive care unit for three months. The doctor said he had a 50% chance of making it.”

During that first week, her baby needed a blood transfusion, and nearly died.

“That’s when it really clicked,” Guerrero said. When people ask why she got into this industry, Guerrero said she responds with this moment. The moment she knew everything had to change. Luckily, Guerrero’s son made it. He’s now a perfectly healthy young man, who recently bought his own investment property.

A NEW WORLD

Guerrero had to play catch-up quickly. Regardless of how rebellious her teen years were, she knew how to work hard.

A year after giving birth, Guerrero’s baby was healthier and she decided to open a cleaning business at 17 years old. In her community people didn’t follow their passions but did what they could to survive. Plenty of adults in her area worked as cleaners, so she could learn how to do it easily and how to get clients.

“I always had this entrepreneur mindset,” Guerrero said. “I was very creative and I’ve always been a really hard worker.”

Naturally, her business took off, but it wasn’t enough to support her small family. One year later, Guerrero got a job that completely turned her life around; she was given the opportunity to work for a local mortgage company in Hyannis, Massachusetts, that needed a Portuguese loan originator.

Suddenly, Guerrero had stepped outside the bubble of her community and into a new world of suits, ties, and money. These people had a different way of accumulating wealth. They had assets instead of three or four jobs. She needed to take full advantage of this opportunity and soak in all the knowledge she could.

but canceled it the day before. The father of her child (who is still a close friend) and her family supported her decision to keep the child.

During that time she thought everything would go smoothly. She dropped out of high school the day after she turned 16, thinking she’d start working early and be able to provide for her child.

“You have to understand, I was a child,” Guerrero said. But in a short amount of time, she truly learned what it meant to be an adult.

Only 26 weeks into her pregnancy, Guerrero went into her doctor’s office for what she thought would be a mundane visit. But the doctor had other news: she was dilated and going into premature labor.

“I thought I was gonna have a perfectly fine

“I felt like I was given a chance,” Guerrero said. “Like I could do something with my life because my whole environment changed.”

Because of her relentless work ethic and desire to learn everything she could about this industry, Guerrero saved up enough money to buy her first home in Cape Cod that year. The market had a phenomenal year, Guerrero was making more money than she ever did, and she was now able to afford a home … but the road to success is winding, and Guerrero’s life was about to hit a sharp curve.

“It was right before the crash,” she said. “I had a really good year and then the market completely tanked.”

Talita Guerrero with her son, Kalvin Saade, and daughter, Kylie Guerrero. after her birth in Boston, MA.

Talita Guerrero and her son, Kalvin Saade, spending a weekend at her Killington, VT Airbnb rental.

Talita Guerrero with her daughter Kylie and boyfriend, Andrew Cook, in Scottsdale, AZ during the recording of the first season of her podcast Você Podcast, which she co-hosts with Andrea Baldini (not pictured).

The beauty of that time, Guerrero said, was that it forced her to take on new roles and learn even more about the mortgage industry. She balanced multiple jobs, including being a processor, an operations manager, a loan officer, and even took jobs outside the industry, like waitressing, to make ends meet.

Although Guerrero was learning so much from her new roles, she couldn’t help but feel like her life was falling in reverse. But she kept her eyes open, studying what everyone else was doing, and discovered yet another opportunity. She asked herself, why are all these Realtors buying up foreclosures and short sales? As a processor, many of her clients were starting to do this as well. What was she missing?

HUSTLING WITH A PURPOSE

By the time the market started to come back, Guerrero was 21 years old; she had a son, a daughter, and a whole new game plan. She went back to school full time at UMass’s business program, and began a real estate investing career by buying foreclosures.

“I took lemons and really made lemonade out of that awful time,” Guerrero said.

The first foreclosure she bought while the market was still down was later short sold — she didn’t make a profit but didn’t lose money either. Then, she became close to a Realtor she was processing loans for and learned how to invest more strategically. In 2011, she bought a $210,000 single family home with about 1,900 square feet close to Boston. Guerrero and her two kids slept on an air mattress for three months while the renovations were being done. Two years later (because as every investor knows, that’s how you avoid capital gains tax) she sold it and made $180,000 in profit. It was enough to put a down payment on two more properties.

“That’s when I started to get really hungry,” Guerrero said.

Guerrero bought a two-family home in Saugus, Mass., and then a single family house on Cape Cod. The Cape house needed a lot of work, so on top of being a loan originator and going to school full time, Guerrero started to work at a diner on the weekends. She would wake up at four o’clock, be at the diner by 5 a.m. and work until 3 p.m., allowing her to make an additional $700 a week.

“That really set me up for my future because nothing seems that challenging now,” Guerrero said.

From there, Guerrero’s investments kept on multiplying and doing very well; meanwhile, she was excelling in her mortgage career as well. By the time she was 27 years old she was a selfmade millionaire.

“I was really getting ahead,” Guerrero said. “I

always had this whole attitude of always wanting to help my community because I was so clueless when I first started, and I saw what information and knowledge did to me. It transformed my life.”

PAYING IT FORWARD

In 2016, Guerrero decided to start her own company, Right Key Mortgage, focused on educating the Brazilian community she came from by helping them buy their first homes. The minute she graduated UMass she drafted a business plan, filed the necessary paperwork, earned her license, and got a processing partner.

Guerrero said she had plenty of advantages being a broker, but as a producer, it’s hard to structure it to scale. In order to give her business the potential to grow, Guerrero decided her partner would focus 100% on operations and she would focus on sales.

“Our whole mission is we’re the company that cares,” Guerrero said. “We had a like 288% growth all the way up to last year, every single year. And that was because the market was great at the time. So we opened strategically, at the perfect timing, and were able to have this awesome structure where our retention rate is insane.”

One of the main goals of her company is to educate the entire Spanish community about the importance of real estate and how to build wealth through investments and achieve financial freedom. On social media Guerrero makes videos speaking directly to her clients, in Portuguese and English, on smart strategic ways to buy or invest in your first, second, or third home. Her podcast, YOUPOD CAST, also educates buyers and investors

It wasn’t until last year, 2022, that her company experienced what the market did, which is a huge dip, but it managed to stay afloat.

Right Key Mortgage grew its licensing to seven states. The company was featured in INC. 5,000 Fastest Growing Companies. She also founded the You CAN Scholarship Fund for undergraduate students who are pursuing a degree after a prolonged pause in their educational pursuits, and preference will be given to those who are parenting minor children. Even undocumented citizens are eligible to apply. Last year, Guerrero also wrote her own self-help book, “Journey To a Dope Life,” written in English and Portuguese.

“We’ve had a lot of accomplishments these past seven years since we opened,” Guerrero said. “We’ve been able to help a lot of families and personally I felt this responsibility to give back now that I was able to step away from origination.”

Guerrero acknowledges this year will be tough, but this isn’t her first rodeo. She’s survived and learned to thrive through much, much worse. n

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Special Awards Section

Celebrating The 2023 Mortgage Lending Women Of Inspiration

they spur the creativity and passion of those around them and their achievements highlight their strength, passion,

In the following pages, we recognize female powerhouses who, through their personal achievements, advocacy and influence, highlight women as forces in the mortgage industry.

Chelsea Balak

VP of Operations

WEMLO

Boca Raton, Fla.

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

Things that can hinder the ability to lead can include second-guessing yourself or your skills. If you don’t have confidence in yourself, it will be difficult to gain the trust of your employees and colleagues. Prepare, be confident in your ability, and don’t be afraid to fail. Finally, just remember that you CAN have it all. You can be a great mom and partner while having a flourishing career.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

Always say yes when an opportunity to learn presents itself. To succeed in the mortgage industry, you must have a hunger for learning and the ability to evolve quickly. Step out of your comfort zone and explore different roles, find what you do and don’t like, then figure out how that fits within your professional goals.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry?

When I entered the field, someone would have to mentor you because training resources were slim to none. Educational opportunities and resources available to newcomers and veterans alike have increased exponentially.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

Looking forward to seeing continued growth of the wholesale brokerage channel. Wholesale offers a marketplace of rates allowing consumers to pick a loan that best fits their needs all while working with a mortgage expert in their community.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

I am proud of the work I’ve done building a business (wemlo) that empowers loan processors with education and fosters a culture of collaboration. Since I joined wemlo in 2019, the company has experienced 164% growth in full-time staff.

Just remember that you CAN have it all. You can be a great mom and partner while having a flourishing career.

Laura Brandao Chief Growth Officer/Partner

EPM

North Arlington, N.J.

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

The ability to lead starts with your understanding of knowing who you are, awareness of your gifts, and your abilities that you share with others. Once you understand yourself, your strengths, and your weaknesses, you are better able to recognize how you can improve in order to be an effective leader. To be a confident leader, one needs first to be confident in herself.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

Listen, be curious, and ask a lot of questions. Network and meet as many people as you can, both veterans and newbies. There’s always an opportunity to learn from others. Make honing your skills and gaining more knowledge part of your daily routine by attending webinars, conferences, and masterminds.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry?

When I started, very few women were in leadership. Happily, this is no longer the case. I’m seeing more women leaders, more communities and organizations within our industry that support women to feel comfortable and gain in their knowledge and confidence.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

Continue to be more transparent by being open and honest with the struggles and the challenges we are facing in this ever-changing market. Being transparent fosters growth and learning from each other.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

It’s honestly realizing the positive impact I have made so far. I’ve had the benefit of actually hearing the stories and watching people’s lives change because of something we did together. It is a joyous, humbling feeling that radiates deep within my being.

To be a confident leader, one needs first to be confident in herself.

Kristin Broadley Chief Innovation Officer QC ALLY Detroit, Mich.

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

Leadership is vision, empathy, and care. Being the inspiration, setting the course, driving execution, sharing knowledge, growing skill sets and supporting the teams are all factors that impact outcomes.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

Welcome! We are a tight-knit family, so once you’re in, you’re IN!

The ups and downs can feel tumultuous, but everything is cyclical. See the slower times as an opportunity to discover areas for improvement.

For women specifically, the face of the industry is shifting, and you can expect more women in leadership roles. Find mentors early. Listen, learn, and grow.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry?

I joined the industry pre-Great Recession, so nearly everything has changed since then. I am proud to have been a part of helping the industry find its footing again while doing so in a more responsible, sustainable manner.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

I would like to see lenders refocus on their quality control operations. Take this time to uncover their risk tolerance, so that they can be certain that their tech, processes, and people are manufacturing loans that do not breach that tolerance.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

There’s a laundry list of projects and things that I’ve helped to bring to life that has been impactful. But when I reflect on my biggest accomplishments, it’s the individuals with whom I’ve worked, the folks that I’ve mentored, the individuals who have mentored me that come to mind. All have helped me grow as a mortgage professional, a leader, and a human.

For women specifically, the face of the industry is shifting, and you can expect more women in leadership roles.

Cheri Caudillo-Kluft

SVP, National Sales, Boston National Title Agency LLC PRESIDENT, BNT TITLE CO. OF CA Irvine, Calif.

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

Time management is particularly important. Successful leaders have to learn balance and prioritize relationship building, especially when business gets tough. Nurturing an atmosphere where people celebrate and inspire one another’s best thinking is a leader’s No. 1 job. Women should seek out companies known for embracing great leaders, whatever their gender.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

Consult successful professionals on how they have advanced. Learn from their wins and losses. Don’t be afraid to admit what you don’t know, and ask many questions. Build on your core strengths. Take what you learn and make it your own.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry?

The more the mortgage industry changes, the more it remains the same. The industry’s economic cycle is W-shaped. What I’ve learned is that you can never take partner relationships for granted. It’s a joy to rise with your whole network and to lift people up when times are tough. When business is down, though, you can’t let your ambition be clouded.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

That a new age of equilibrium and balance is ushered in after the dizzying changes of the past few years.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

It gives me a wonderful feeling to help people obtain the American Dream of home ownership. I know how amazing that feeling is from the other side. I come from a hard-working family of modest means; we were always renters, and it was a watershed to buy my first home.

Nurturing an atmosphere where people celebrate and inspire one another’s best thinking is a leader’s No. 1 job.

Tai Christensen

Co-Founder and Chief Diversity & Public Relations Officer

ARRIVE HOME

Eagle Mountain, Utah

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

Among the factors that can have an impact are: Being underestimated or overlooked because of gender bias; difficulty in finding mentors and sponsors because of the lack of representation in leadership roles; being perceived as less competent or less suited for leadership roles; the challenges of finding a good work-life balance; and possibly struggling with confidence, particularly in male-

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage

The best advice I received when entering the industry is to build in daily hardstops to leave your desk and take a break. Building in hardstops forces me to walk away from my proverbial desk, take some deep breaths and

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage

The dynamic shift in the number of women working within our industry. Changes in societal expectations and an increased focus on diversity and inclusion within our industry has helped to drive more women into the housing industry at large.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

I would love to see a significant increase in the diversity of individuals working within our industry. Diversity within the mortgage industry can help to improve access to credit and homeownership for people of color.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

Being a co-founder of Arrive Home is my greatest accomplishment as a mortgage professional. My fellow cofounders and I pooled a combined 80 years of experience in the mortgage industry and created a company that is focused on expanding homeownership to minority and underserved communities in a meaningful and innovative way.

Diversity within the mortgage industry can help to improve access to credit and homeownership for people of color.

Twyla Hankins

EVP of Operations

AMERICAN FINANCIAL NETWORK, INC. Brea, Calif.

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

Women can bring a refreshing dynamic and unique perspective to the leadership team. Any leadership body is arguably stronger and more effective when it benefits from varied experiences and perspectives. Being recognized and treated as an equal, and being respected as a leader, women can bring a lot of value to a leadership team.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

Invest time in learning the business, ask questions and find a mentor that you respect. But incorporating work/life balance into your routine may be my most important advice. Yes, dedicate yourself to your career and your company, but know that you can only dedicate 100% of your best self to your work if you are reserving time each day for yourself.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry? How I view work/life balance. This business can demand very long hours and claim the majority of your waking hours indefinitely if you let it. It is important to make time for yourself to enjoy life outside of work.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

To continue down the path of the high-tech mortgage. The homebuyer experience can be greatly enhanced if everyone embraces the technology. Take the drudgery and long wait times out of the process.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

Joining the executive leadership team. I am not referring to earning a title, I mean becoming an executive leader and all that it entails. One of the most treasured benefits is the ability to introduce the industry and its opportunities to others.

Any leadership body is arguably stronger and more effective when it benefits from varied experiences and perspectives.

Jennifer Henry Managing Director, Government Credit, Housing Strategy & Capital Markets EQUIFAX Wayne, Pa.

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

One of the biggest issues that women face is the lack of female role models. This can make it difficult to advance their careers and achieve their goals. Women naturally possess qualities that make successful leaders, such as empathy. Women are inherently relationship builders, both with colleagues and customers.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

Women need to embrace their strengths such as self-awareness, emotional intelligence, empathy, and a stronger ability to multitask. Young women should know that our industry is dynamic and ripe with opportunity. Nothing is impossible and every opportunity should be seized.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry?

One of the biggest changes is technology’s role in driving operational efficiencies and access to data. Automation is helping decisions be delivered more quickly, better assessing risk as well as supporting the customer experience.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

The social climate in the country has put more focus on providing greater access to homeownership to minority and underserved borrowers and building up underserved communities. I would like to see continued advancements in technology that further unlock insights that can help underserved borrowers.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

One thing I am most proud of is my role in enhancing Equifax’s ability to help provide access to customer insights that fuel the mortgage process. I helped in developing solutions that empower lenders with the data and analytics they need to combat issues ranging from mitigating delinquency risk and identifying portfolio retention strategies to increasing operational efficiencies with non-performing loans.

Women naturally possess qualities that make successful leaders, such as empathy.

Tracy Huber Director, Product Management, Mortgage

EQUIFAX WORKFORCE SOLUTIONS Saint Louis, Missouri

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

Confidence and sponsorship work hand-in-hand to impact a woman’s ability to lead and advance into leadership positions.You need to have the confidence to step out of your comfort zone because that’s where growth happens. Stepping out of my comfort zone to learn software development was a major career shift, but it opened many opportunities in the mortgage industry.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

Join a business networking group. Networking will force you to be more disciplined about your business. Networking builds confidence, helps you find mentors and sponsors, and most importantly, helps you find your voice and grow as a professional.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry?

My knowledge level has changed the most. I have been able to implement good financial practices in my own life using personal financial discipline and wealth-building strategies that I learned on the job.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

We have been inundated with investors who are competing with individuals looking to purchase homes for their primary residence. This has been a contributing factor to the current housing inventory crisis.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

To date, winning the hackathon at Equifax.I had never convinced a group of senior developers to take on a new mortgage product idea, let alone compete and present the concept across the company globally and endure a question-and-answer session with senior leadership. Taking on the hackathon as a stretch goal enabled me to find my voice and speak as a mortgage professional to a big company.

Stepping out of my comfort zone to learn software development was a major career shift, but it opened many opportunities in the mortgage industry.

Jessica Lampman Wholesale Account Executive

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF AMERICA

Portland, Mich.

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

Confidence is a key factor. Having confidence in your abilities and your knowledge of the industry plays a big role. We all have times when our confidence may waver. Keeping faith in yourself will push you along to continue to grow and influence growth in others. Staying persistent through difficult times is important.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

Ask questions. FNBA was my first mortgage industry position. Asking questions and connecting with people who are willing to mentor you will help you succeed.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry? My outlook has changed. When first starting in this industry, I was not sure how long I would stay in it. It was just a job for me. However, the longer I stayed, the more I found that I really enjoyed it and wanted to make it into a career. The opportunity to help people navigate the mortgage process has been awesome to be a part of.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

I would like to see the industry attract younger people. The average age of a loan officer is growing older, and we need to attract younger professionals to help serve the growing population of homeowners.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

A big accomplishment has been continuously meeting the production goals set by the company and meeting the personal production goals I set for myself. Beyond the production goals, my biggest accomplishment is gaining the trust and respect of my partners, which is something I work hard at each day.

We all have times when our confidence may waver. Keeping faith in yourself will push you along to continue to grow and influence growth in others.

Pamela Marsh

Senior Managing Director and Treasurer

PENNYMAC

Westlake Village, Calif.

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

No matter the gender, an exceptional leader possesses qualities that set an example. Great leaders demonstrate respect for their company, position, peers, subordinates, and customers. Being transparent and setting expectations on an individual basis with the people you work with extracts the best performance out of others and earns their confidence.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

It can provide an incredible career for those that are interested in digging in and learning the details, as it is a fast-paced, competitive business. Find a mentor that you respect, ask questions, and do the work required, and it will be rewarding.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry?

It has transitioned from a business within the banking industry to a business dominated by independent, entrepreneurial participants. The industry has undergone significant technological advancements that have improved scalability and operational performance

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

It is important that the industry continues to diversify the mortgage space with more women and equal opportunities for all. Providing an environment that encourages, supports, develops, and empowers women and minorities to reach their full potential on a daily basis is an important commitment.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to be treasurer of Pennymac in its early stages. It has been extremely rewarding to look back and see how we worked together as a leadership team to build the company into the strong industry leader we are today, with a rock-solid foundation to support future growth for many years to come.

Being transparent and setting expectations on an individual basis with the people you work with extracts the best performance out of others and earns their confidence.

Stacy Mestayer Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel

VOXTUR ANALYTICS

Southlake, Texas

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

Women often (unjustifiably) have more to prove than their male counterparts. I’ve found power in patience. I try to listen more than I talk, which helps me to better understand others so that I can more effectively collaborate and manage.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

Listen, learn, and provide value wherever you can. You can learn most of what you need to know in any setting by listening more than you talk.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry?

I’ve found the most interesting opportunities to be at the intersection of traditionally manual business processes and technology. I started by building a court data-driven decisioning engine for mortgage servicers and traders, which remains the only solution of its kind on the market. I can contribute to the strategic direction of the company, which has opened my eyes to the opportunities for better technology in mortgage to impact the lives of consumers.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

Incorporating more targeted data analytics to drive automation and digitization creates efficiencies that directly reduce costs. As an industry, we have to commit to passing those savings on to the consumer. This is the first step to creating truly transformative change.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

In early 2020, I began spearheading an initiative to build an alternative to title insurance. In April 2022, Fannie Mae released updates to their selling guide approving use of this alternative product. Anyone in the mortgage industry can attest to the Herculean feat that is changing a Fannie Mae guideline.

Women often (unjustifiably) have more to prove than their male counterparts.

I’ve found power in patience.

Laird Nossuli

CEO

IEMERGENT Urbandale, Iowa

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

Women must be especially confident in their abilities and qualifications to be effective leaders — particularly those working in the many organizations where men outnumber women. It is critical that all leaders get to know the people they lead. That is why the best leaders strive to listen just as much as they speak, if not more.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

Relationships are everything in mortgage lending. Entry-level professionals should seek support from others who have experience in their roles. Find a mentor who will help you hone your skills, find your passion, and guide you as you follow that passion.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry?

The biggest change is a stronger institutional push for inclusivity and diversity in home lending. Government leaders and institutions are leading an unprecedented movement to expand affordable housing and close the racial homeownership gap.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

I want to see lenders take more concrete steps to extend affordable housing access to low-to-moderate income and minority consumers. My hope is that more financial institutions will develop affordable housing initiatives that will uplift these historically underserved borrowers.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

Since taking the reins as iEmergent CEO, I have had the opportunity to build on my father Dennis Hedlund’s legacy as founder and create a firm that helps lenders accurately forecast diverse homebuyer opportunities with zoomed-in market data. I was even able to manage our company’s growth while starting my own family, which my fellow mothers in the industry will tell you is no easy task.

The best leaders strive to listen just as much as they speak, if not more.

Kristi Pickering

President

ACADEMY MORTGAGE CORPORATION Draper, Utah

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

Two of the biggest factors are influence and impact. Being a positive influence can help strengthen connections, lift others, and encourage growth. We can make an impact by finding ways to help others become the best version of themselves. It’s so important to invest in your people to help them achieve their potential.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

Always keep a positive mindset. We are in a cyclical industry, and you will experience many highs and lows, but as long as you have a positive mindset, you can overcome any obstacle. Absorb all the industry knowledge you can and continually learn from your mentors and peers. Most importantly, remember to be patient and kind to yourself as you learn and grow.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry? Technology has changed tremendously. Today, we have AI technology, automation, and other advanced technologies that streamline the way we do business. It has allowed us to gain greater efficiencies and create a far better experience for our loan officers, operations team, customers, and partners.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

I would like to see more options that provide greater affordability for first-time homebuyers. I would also like to see new home builds that are not overpriced.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

My biggest accomplishment has been helping people to grow and become their best self. I love encouraging and supporting others to stretch beyond their limits to achieve their potential. Many times, people accomplish things they never thought possible, and the joy this brings me is indescribable.

We can make an impact by finding ways to help others become the best version of themselves.

Cristen Talbert Chief Process Officer

GOLD STAR MORTGAGE FINANCIAL GROUP, CORP. Ann Arbor. Mich.

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

A woman’s ability to lead can be impacted by positive and negative factors. Strong female leaders need to find a balance between confidence and compassion in their decision-making ability. The ability to lead isn’t just assumed when you are a woman, even with equal education and experience. Most women fight their way to the top.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

Be tenacious. Get your arms around every part of the manufacturing process of a mortgage life cycle. Proving your worth will become your best asset, and with knowledge comes power. Seek out a female leader to mentor you.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry?

Technology. In the early ‘90s, the 1003 loan application was a carbon document in triplicate. Technology is the main reason my company was able to pivot easily during COVID and maintain turn times with little interruption.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

More women in senior and executive level leadership roles. It is especially important to have leaders who have experience prior to the mortgage crisis in 2007 because we have wisdom about this industry and the ebbs and flows that cannot be taught.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

The development and mentorship to my team. Despite large signing bonuses and over-inflated salaries being thrown at people during COVID, none of my team left. It was my servant leadership style and open communication about what was sure to come that helped protect them and their careers. We continue to grow despite our competition falling apart.

The ability to lead isn’t just assumed when you are a woman, even with equal education and experience. Most women fight their way to the top.

Poonkuzhali (Jennifer) Vallinayagam

Chief Operating Officer

SUN WEST MORTGAGE COMPANY, INC.

Buena Park, Calif.

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

Women need to be confident in their abilities. To be a strong leader, we must be proud of who we are and what we have achieved. Many women feel like imposters and fear they’ll be exposed. Be who you are and own your achievements. When people see a strong, confident, and happy leader, people will follow, regardless of gender.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

1. Be yourself.

2. Be patient and listen to everything your customer has to say.

3. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

4. Put yourself in the borrower’s shoes every time you work with them.

5. Be content and happy with whatever you are doing.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry?

Technology and the way we utilize it. Everything is digitized, closing is fast, and borrowers are able to sign digitally. Sun West’s introduction of artificial intelligence software and empathetic technology has enabled us to provide reliable, consistent, and fast service to our customers.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

The mortgage industry has a way to go in terms of equal customer service. It is easy to lend to customers with high net worth and income, but more lenders need to reach borrowers with bad credit or financial mishaps and guide them through the homebuying process.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

Being able to deliver consistent, reliable, and fast service to all customers regardless of gender, race, life events, and financial status. We have been able to achieve equality in customer service through our technology.

When people see a strong, confident, and happy leader, people will follow, regardless of gender.

Telle VanTrojen

COO/Partner

GENEVA FINANCIAL Chandler, Ariz.

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

Bias, discrimination, and outdated stereotypes relating to women in leadership still exist in our industry and can impact a woman’s ability to lead others. At Geneva we are interrupters. We value, encourage, and uplift our female employees and have one of the highest ratios of female-to-male originators in the industry. Our executive team is composed primarily of female and LGBTQ professionals of varying racial identities. Our top producing branches are led by women. Our culture encourages diversity, understanding, and celebrating heritage.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

Jump in with both feet and hit the ground running. Be loud, be proud, and don’t ever dull your shine to please anyone else. Don’t worry about how you compare to others. Hard work, determination, and passion will take you further than a negative mindset ever will.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry?

The number of females in leadership and management positions. We are dominating right now, pioneering a new vision that is appealing to borrowers. These women are growing bigger, learning faster, and closing more loans than ever before.

What significant changes would you like to see from the mortgage industry in 2023?

To see the industry become more proactive than reactive to the rate environment. Preparedness for an industry that often swings back and forth in drastic measures would ease stress on operations, sales staff, and the industry.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

Being an integral part of developing a company that is known nationwide for its culture of humanity and kindness to one another. So many trials and tribulations, and I am still standing.

Be loud, be proud, and don’t ever dull your shine to please anyone else.

Serene Vernon President

LOANSTREAM MORTGAGE Irvine, Calif.

What factors impact a woman’s ability to lead others?

I don’t believe there is anything gender specific about being a great leader. A variety of factors impact the ability to lead others, including empathy, strength, commitment, and, above all else, ability to lead by example.

What advice would you give to those just getting started in the mortgage industry?

Create stability in your resume/profile. Everyone knows the mortgage banking business is cyclical. I see too many women jump around when enticed with the next salary/benefit package, rather than speak with their current employer about their needs. I always tell each employee leaving for this reason that the salary sounds great, but what if you only get it for a couple of months before getting laid off? I have seen far too many women with these stories. The last hired are going to be the first laid off. When employers choose who to hire, it’s likely going to be the resumes that showed past dedication and tenure. Be that long-term company employee, and your employer will return the same respect. When it comes time for layoffs, you will still be employed.

What’s changed for you the most since you joined the mortgage industry?

Oddly enough, I’ve never been in any industry other than mortgage. I entered the industry at 18, while putting myself through college. For me, mortgage had a unique way of using all of my skills, keeping me wildly challenged, and giving me a runway for growth without any ceiling.

What has been your biggest accomplishment as a mortgage professional?

Being able to mentor others. It is extremely fulfilling to give someone their first job in the industry, then see them years later leading their own teams or entire platforms.

A variety of factors impact the ability to lead others, including empathy, strength, commitment, and, above all else, ability to lead by example.

Hold on to your Tech goggles

ennifer Vallinayagam is the COO of Sun West Mortgage Company.

Jennifer has a background in software engineering. She began her mortgage industry career at Sun West in 1999. While there, she was part of the lead engineering team and worked on developing the mortgage Loan Origination System which is now known as SunSoft / SMILES ™️.

This software eventually became the backbone of Sun West’s origination and servicing operations and is still used today. Then in 2008, as Sun West expanded its business channels her role evolved. Although she had a background in computer science, Sun West CEO, Pavan Agarwal, gave her the task to manage and supervise the loan processors.

This was her first experience in managing operations. While managing the processors, she saw how long it took them to resolve a single condition. Coming from a software development background, she wanted to create technology that would speed up and streamline this condition review process. She then led the engineering team

to create better condition reviewing Software. They quickly began clearing 20+ conditions a day when it originally took 8+ hours to clear just one condition. She looks at everything from a tech lens and a data analysis background.

Eventually Pavan asked her to expand into underwriting and collateral review. She used her technology background to streamline this process as well. She switched Sun West from a manual to an automated appraisal review process. She took her technology acumen to every department she was asked to manage and used her talent to make the process better.

She never sought after the title of COO or any title for that matter. Instead she earned the title and command through decisive thinking, passion and old fashioned hard work. Her main goal at Sun West is to create more efficient, scalable, and reliable technology. She makes sure every issue goes back to the engineering team and she uses that insight to improve technology. Her ultimate goal is 100% customer satisfaction delivered through AI technology.

Poonkuzhali (Jennifer) Vallinayagam, Chief Operating Officer, Sun West Mortgage Company, Inc.

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Eggs-samples Of What I Find Funny. Yolks On You.

Nick Roberson is a long-time mortgage industry veteran and a board member of the California Association of Mortgage Professionals. He’s a forthcoming and giving guy, who shares his … unique … perspective on work and life on his Facebook account. Here are some of Nick’s FB thoughts this month:

Two eggs, a bagel, and a sausage walk into a bar. “Bartender, my friends and I would like a cold one,” says one of the eggs.

“Sorry, says the bartender. “We don’t serve breakfast.”

• • •

The dude I pay to stop by once a week to pick up poop in my backyard just realized I don’t have any pets.

• • •

Considering how expensive eggs are becoming, I figured it was time to take on a new venture. I will be issuing new NETs (Non-Eggable Tokens), and for those who can’t afford an entire fake egg on their own, I will also offer fractional “Humpty Dumpty” shares to help them out. As a bonus, if you purchase a baker’s dozen NETs, you will receive a limited edition “What the Flock” (WTF) token. NETs can be traded or passed on to your estate when you are gone by using one of our “The Yokes On You” certificates. Please don’t balk at this opportunity, peck up your NETs today at Gettheflockoutofhere.com.

• • •

I’m gonna work on being less condescending. (Condescending means to talk down to people.)

• • •

Nothing to see here. Just a guy sitting in the airport watching football, eating animal crackers, and drinking apple juice from a juice box.

• • •

I stopped at a Cracker Barrel for breakfast this morning, and I am just so happy right now. I just looked around, and I am the skinniest guy in the room by a significant margin. Perhaps the overweight thing is just a matter of perspective. I am curious if the coin-operated defibrillators next to every table are really necessary, though.

• • •

From 2019: So, Savannah and I are driving home today, and she starts talking about politics. She is asking questions about the Democrats and Republicans and asking how she can start her own political party. She said she wants to be a dictator. I started laughing and said, well maybe you can disguise your political party to hide that fact. She decided it would be called the Savannah Party, its color would be pink, and the mascot would be a penguin. Because everyone loves penguins. Then she Googles how to start your own political party. She tells me there are far more political parties than she realized. She then says, “Dad did you know that librarians have their own party? It’s called the Librariatarian Party. I mean like how many librarians can there be?” I immediately started laughing. I said, “Did you mean the Libertarian Party?” She gets this weird look on her face followed by a significant pause. I am pretty sure I could smell hair burning. She looked at the spelling again, and she just started busting up laughing. She said, “That makes a lot more sense. Their conventions would be way too quite with everyone shushing the speakers.” This was immediately followed by her laughing herself into hysterics.

God save us all if this whole Savannah Party thing takes off. Although, I really do like penguins.

My mouth waters when I smell steak. I wonder if the same happens to vegans when they mow the lawn? •

One Sunday, a minister played hooky from church so he could shoot a round of golf. St. Peter, looking down from Heaven, seethed. “You’re going to let him get away with this, God?”

The Lord shook his head. The minister took his first shot. The ball soared through the air 400 yards and dropped into the cup for a hole-in-one. St. Peter was outraged, “I thought you were going to punish him!”

The Lord shrugged, “Who’s he going to tell?”

To see more by Nick,just go to www.facebook.com/nickroberson

Nick Roberson