Oct/Nov 2022 Issue

HOUSINGWIRE

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SARAH WHEELER MANAGING EDITOR JAMES KLEIMANN SENIOR MORTGAGE REPORTER BILL CONROY REAL ESTATE & TITLE REPORTER BROOKLEE HAN MORTGAGE REPORTER FLÁVIA FURLAN NUNES REPORTER CONNIE KIM LEAD ANALYST LOGAN MOHTASHAMI CONTRIBUTORS RICK SHARGA, SCOTT OLSON

REALTRENDS

VICE PRESIDENT OF REAL ESTATE MARK ADAMS EDITORIAL DIRECTOR TRACEY VELT DIRECTOR OF RANKINGS PROGRAMS LIZ SMITH EXECUTIVE MANAGER, CEO PROGRAMS JILL OLMSTED SENIOR DATA ANALYST KEERI TRAMM

FINLEDGER

CEO CLAYTON COLLINS

COO DIEGO SANCHEZ

DIRECTOR OF FINANCE ANDREW KEY DIRECTOR OF PEOPLE AND CULTURE AMY BEARD CHIEF OF STAFF ALEX BRIDGEMAN

VICE PRESIDENT OF GROWTH CAREN KARRIS GROWTH MARKETING MANAGER GREG ROBERTS

MAGAZINE EDITOR AUDREY LEE

SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER EMILY CARPENTER

GRAPHIC DESIGNER BRANDON JOHNSON

VICE PRESIDENT OF PRODUCT HOLDEN PAGE UX/UI MANAGER BO FRIZE

WEB DIRECTOR BRENT DRIGGERS

AD OPS COORDINATOR ELIZABETH LEDOUX

DIRECTOR OF HW+ & EVENTS BRENA NATH

SENIOR WEBINAR & EVENTS MANAGER ALLISON LAFORGIA MARKETING PROGRAM MANAGER LESLEY COLLINS

MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR SARAHI DE LA CUESTA

PEOPLE OPERATIONS MANAGER JAMIE BRIDGES

AD OPERATIONS MANAGER MATTHEW STAFFORD MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST CAROLINE ABAD EMAIL MARKETING SPECIALIST ALI MORRISSEY

GROWTH COORDINATOR SYDNEY SMITH

SENIOR EVENTS MANAGER KATIE GALBRAITH

EVENT SPECIALIST MAKENNA CLAY BUSINESS ANALYST WHITNI ROWE SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIST KENNEDY BENJAMIN

REVERSE CHRIS CLOW

SALES

EDITOR JOE BURNS REPORTER TANNISTHA SINHA JLAWS@HOUSINGWIRE.COM OR (469) 870-4572

SVP SALES AND OPERATIONS JENNIFER WATSON LAWS

VP SALES MICHAEL ORME WESTERN CHRISTI HUMPHRIES, LINDSLEY HARRIS, CASS HECKEL

CENTRAL & NORTHEAST SAMANTHA STEIN SOUTHERN AMINA JAHIC

CLIENT STRATEGY MANAGER ADINA RITTER STRATEGIC ACCOUNT MANAGER BRIA SOYELE SALES MARKETING MANAGER TOD MOHNEY

CONTENT SOLUTIONS

MANAGING EDITOR MALEESA SMITH CONTENT EDITOR JESSICA DAVIS

ASSOCIATE EDITOR MARNI DAVIMES MULTIMEDIA PROJECT MANAGER DALTON JOHNSON

JUNIOR DIGITAL PRODUCER ELISSA BRANCH CONTENT SOLUTIONS COORDINATOR EUNICE GARCIA

The intersection of housing and innovation

OUR OCTOBER/NOVEMBER ISSUE has long focused on the state of housing, but what’s unique about the theme this year is the collaboration and synergies that are happening in the space. The state of housing at this point is, in fact, innovation.

This issue includes two big features — our 2022 HousingWire Vanguard honorees and a power-packed list of the housing companies that made the Inc. 5000 list.

What’s remarkable, and not too surprising, is the way these two lists intertwine. The leaders who made the Vanguard list are also at the helm of the companies on the Inc. 5000 list. Then, take it a step further with the third feature in this issue, on page 90, and you can see that many of these companies and people are the same key stakeholders at the forefront of the conversation for integrating innovation into more government

regulations and policies.

Neither of these lists is easy to make, as they highlight years and years of hard work. So those listed, both people and companies, deserve a huge round of applause.

Brena Nath HW+ Managing Editor @BrenaNath

Tweets From The Streets

Honored that Griffin Funding made the list for the 4th time! by @GriffinFunding

The information contained within should not be construed as a recommendation for any course of action regarding legal, financial or accounting matters. All written materials are disseminated with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal advice or other professional services. HW Media does not guarantee the accuracy of information provided, and is not liable for any damages, losses or other detriment that may result from the use of these materials.

© 2022 by HW Media, LLC • All rights reserved

Shaping the Next Generation of Leaders

People Movers

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appoint a chief audit executive and chief compli ance officer respectively.

Hot Seat

Dominic Iannitti, CEO of DocMagic, answers ques tions about DocMagic’s digital revolution.

Take Five

Lesli Gooch, CEO at the Manufactured Housing Institute, shares her biggest business success.

Event Calendar

Conference season contin ues with events from MBA and NRMLA in Nashville and Atlanta.

Local Intel

Boston expereinces a shift toward younger buy ers entering the housing market.

Trade Desk

Six trade organizations share their events and plans for the end of the year.

Title 106

The ‘Texas Title Queen’ Rachel Luna stumbled into the world of title and never wanted to leave.

Mortgage 110

As the housing market shifts from refi to purchas es, HELOCs are gaining popularity.

Real Estate 114

The rental market reports on another year’s finances with some familiar compa nies coming out on top. Kudos 120-

Planet Home Lending stocks food pantry shelves with produce they planted and harvested themselves.

Parting Shot

Logan Mohtashami pre sented on the savagely un healthy housing market at the Economic Conference.

By Don Neff

2022 Vanguard Honorees

By Rohit Gupta

Digital transformation in

By Romi Mahajan

Congratulations Jerry Weiss

HousingWire has honored Jerry Weiss, Freddie Mac’s EVP and Chief Administrative Officer, as one of the key leaders moving the industry forward. Congratulations to Jerry who, for nearly two decades, set the standard for leadership excellence at Freddie Mac while playing a major role in how we execute our mission of making home possible.

Visit

Katharine Loveland | Volly | CEO

Volly appointed Katharine Loveland as its CEO. She will focus on delivering Volly’s comprehensive technology suite of products and services to customers. Loveland was previously the vice president of customer success at the appraisal management software company Reggora. Prior to her stint at Reggora, Loveland spent eight years at Accenture, the multinational professional services firm.

Dave Applegate | Cenlar FSB | Chairman

Cenlar FSB, the nation’s second-largest mortgage servicer and largest sub-servicer, named Dave Applegate as the company’s chairman. In this role, Applegate will continue to invest in all aspects of the franchise. Ap plegate previously held leadership positions at Homeward Residential, Radian Mortgage Insurance, GMAC Mortgage and Bank and Common Securitization Solutions, a joint venture owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Applegate also served on the Fannie Mae advisory board.

Ross Gloudeman | Xactus | Chief Compliance Officer

Xactus appointed Ross Gloudeman as the chief compliance officer. Gloudeman will be responsible for over seeing Xactus's regulatory compliance framework and administering regulatory changes required by the credit and mortgage industries. He most recently served as the general counsel and chief compliance officer at Azminuth GRC, a regulatory tech company. Gloudeman's 15-plus years of experience include senior man aging director of enterprise risk at Home Point Financial.

Mike Smith | Doma | Chief Financial Officer

Doma appointed Mike Smith as its chief financial officer. In his position, Smith will continue to support Do ma's goals in improving the home-closing process. Smith has 30 years of experience working with teams and companies to navigate IPOs, acquisitions and other public company transitions. Smith originally joined Doma as the chief accounting officer, and he previously held the same role at Banc of California Inc., where he also served as director of treasury. He also held CAO roles at loanDepot and CapitalSource Inc.

Casey Crawford | Live Oak Bancshares | Board of Directors

Live Oak Bancshares and its subsidiary, Live Oak Bank, have appointed Casey Crawford, the co-founder and CEO of Movement Mortgage, to its board of directors. Crawford founded distributed retail nonbank Movement Mortgage in 2008. He has been awarded the John Maxwell Transformational Leadership Award, HousingWire Vanguard award and Charlotte Business Journal's Most Admired CEO. Crawford said he joined the board of directors of Live Oak Bancshares "to transform the way banking is done.”

Cissy Yang | Fannie Mae | Chief Audit Executive

Fannie Mae appointed Cissy Yang as chief audit executive. Yang will be responsible for leading the compa ny’s audit strategy, including internal controls, operational processes and risk assessments. Yang was most recently at Credit Suisse, where she served as head of audit for investment banking, fixed income and U.S. legal entities and compliance in the Americas. She previously worked at PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ar thur Andersen.

Dennis Hermonstyne Jr. | Freddie Mac | Senior Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer

Freddie Mac named Dennis Hermonstyne Jr. as senior vice president and chief compliance officer. Hermons tyne will manage the agency's compliance risk management program to ensure adherence to legal and con servatorship obligations. He was most recently at Santander Bank, where he served as executive vice presi dent and chief compliance officer, and previously worked as deputy chief compliance officer at E-Trade Bank.

Dominic Iannitti

President and CEO DocMagic

HousingWire recently spoke with Dominic Iannitti, president and CEO of DocMagic, about eNote adoption.

Q&A

HousingWire: Where does the industry stand in terms of digital adoption, and more specifically the adoption of eNotes?

Dominic Iannitti: Many lenders were considering, or at least researching, digital implementations when the pandemic hit, putting industry adoption on the fast track.

These days lenders are seeking to leverage mort gage technology to streamline the loan process. Many have digital capabilities in place already, and with so many warehouse lenders ready to fund eNotes and servicers ready to support them, along with increased expansion in the investor space, the popularity of eNotes is growing.

HousingWire: Talk to us about DocMagic’s setup process for lenders to get started with Total eClose, eNotes and a secure eVault.

Iannitti: We’ve partnered with many lenders that started with a hybrid model and then made the transition to utilize eNotes and, in many cases, to completely paperless closings.

eNotes are a game-changer for risk reduction, processing speed and overall efficiency. By leveraging both eNotes and DocMagic’s award-winning eVault technology, lenders can experience an array of eClosing benefits.

Our eVault technology has been the industry leader for many years, giving us the expertise to implement and support the critical aspects of eNotes.

DocMagic’s eClosing Team has personally super vised thousands of eClosings. Whether it’s getting set up with MERS, partnering with eNote-ready investors or servicing eNotes, we wrote the playbook on how to make it happen for lenders and their supply chain partners.

HousingWire: What are some of the efficiencies of eNotes, and how will lenders that implement eNotes now benefit compared to those that wait?

Iannitti: The expediency of eNotes carries through the entire process — from originator to warehouse, investor, custodian, and servicer — in a matter of seconds. Your workforce is more productive, mov ing loans forward through the pipeline at the speed of a click.

Errors in quality are costly, but especially in this environment.

Having everything signed electronically and dated correctly is critical. The eNote can be registered immediately with MERS, allowing loans to be de livered within minutes of closing — that’s real efficiency.

Organizations that implement eNote technology will gain a competitive advantage over those that wait. The efficiencies, benefits and ROI of eNotes are not a nice to have, but a must. This is positively where the industry is heading.

HousingWire: What should lenders be looking for in a long-term eClosing vendor/partner?

Iannitti: Lenders should start by choosing a vendor with experience — thousands of successful eClosing transactions. An inexperienced vendor may not have all of the necessary components in place to do business with other providers in the space.

Lenders should also select a vendor offering all-hybrid and fully end-to-end paperless eClosings. The best option is a one-stop shop that provides every element of an eClosing. Why go to one vendor for document generation and another for eNotes?

Finally, look for a vendor that can scale to your future growth. Some vendors have components of this technology, but can they help you scale to thou sands of eNotes by the end of the year? DocMagic offers a fully cloud-based service layer and flexible technology designed with capabilities adaptable to every conceivable eClosing option.

Lesli Gooch

CEO, Manufactured Housing Institute

Lesli Gooch, CEO of Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI), is known for her ability to achieve policy and political goals that translate into significantly improved housing options nationwide. Gooch’s advocacy efforts in the manufactured housing industry have had a far-reaching impact on mil lions of Americans striving for affordable homeownership. Gooch was recently recognized as one of HousingWire's 2022 Women of Influence.

Here, Gooch answers five questions that give an inside look at her life:

1. People would be surprised to know I ... went fly fishing and I enjoyed it.

2. My biggest learning opportunity was... running for Congress.

3. Biggest business success this year... MHI displayed three manufactured homes on the National Mall for Homeownership Month

4. After I am finished with my career, I hope people remember... there is always a path to ‘yes’ if you listen to and hear one another.

5. Last concert I attended was... Eric Church.

NRMLA 2022 Annual Meeting

November 1-3

Cost to attend: Member $800 Non-member $1,050 Presented by National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association

ATLANTA, GA

THE LARGEST GATHERING of reverse mortgage professionals is taking place in November. The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association will host its Annual Meeting, a place for industry profes sionals to get the low-down on all things reverse. NRMLA’s Annual Meeting brings together professionals who have originated reverse mortgages exclusively for decades and mortgage professionals who are new to the game and want to learn how to offer reverse mort gages in a safe and ethical manner. This year's sessions will focus on compliance, sales and marketing.

LISTEN NOW

Angel Booth of Premier Reverse Closings

For this episode of The RMD Podcast, Reverse Mortgage Daily Editor

Chris Clow sits down with Premier Reverse Closings (PRC) Senior Sales Executive Angel Booth. Booth discusses what helps keep her and other professionals engaged in the reverse mortgage indus try for the long haul and what the closing side of the business is seeing in terms of opportunities and challenges in today’s mortgage marketplace.

Chris Clow: If you look back to what the reverse mortgage environment was 10 years ago, where the industry at large was still dealing with the fallout of the financial crisis and maybe some irresponsibly originated loans, and then you look at where we are today in terms of reputation, how do you think things have changed?

MBA Annual

October 23-26

Cost to attend: Member $1,499 Non-member $3,699

Presented by Mortgage Bankers Association

NASHVILLE, TN

TRAVEL TO MUSIC CITY for four days of nonstop mortgage knowl edge. MBA Annual is one of the largest gatherings of real estate finance professionals. Everyone from young professionals to CEOs can learn and grow at MBA Annual. Featured at this event are an ‘mPowering You’ summit for young women in real estate finance, a DEI-focused meeting, a regulatory meeting and the installation of the 2023 MBA officers. There are dozens of panels, keynotes and net working opportunities. Some of the most notable speakers include the former speaker of the house, Paul Ryan, Roger Ferguson, presi dent and CEO of TIAA and a special concert featuring Darius Rucker.

Event TIP

Angel Booth: I think it shed light on our indus try. I truly believe that many of the policies and procedures that they put in place stemmed from the things that were going on on the conventional side because we had already addressed a lot of the things that we had in our own history. But we're such a small industry, a lot of that wasn't really getting picked up.

When the financial crisis came to fruition, we had to deal with changes like the HECM lending limit and protecting the non-borrowing spouse and so many different things that we were already changing within our industry. We know that things are not going to always stay the same, we know that things are going to change, but more often than not, they're changing for the betterment of the perception of the product. But as we see, we have ebbs and flow. (...)Nothing's going to change and happen overnight, but I think we are definitely heading in the right direction, and even if it’s a little bit difficult, we know it's for the betterment of the program. So we have to be okay with that and let those things happen. Scan the code to listen now!

"Conferences are an opportunity to meet other industry professionals that are really interesting and won derful human beings that I might not otherwise cross paths with. And if we get to partner together or help each others’ careers down the line, then that’s just icing on the cake."

- Heather Siegel, Lead Account Executive Qualia

By Brooklee Han

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix has been arguably one of the hottest housing markets in the country over the past two years, but as interest rates have climbed, demand has cooled and inventory has risen dramatically. At some points this past summer, the active listing count for the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale metro area topped 10,000, according to data from St. Louis Fed. “Inven tory is rising, and days on market is also a bit longer, but we still have a significant turnover of existing product,” Bob Nathan, a local Engels & Völkers agent, said. “It is not a crazy hot market anymore, it is now just a very strong market, but there are less concessions being given up by the buyer. So it is a little bit more back toward normal.” However, as interest rates continue to rise, homebuying demand cools further and concerns about a possible recession become more prevalent. Accordingly, Phoenix is feeling the pain. The city ranked at No. 8 in a Redfin analysis of metro areas most likely to feel a big impact as these gloomy economic scenarios materialize.

Lafayette, California

Just 25 miles east of San Francisco, Lafayette, California, is known for its high quality of life, top-rated schools, low crime rate and some of the highest home prices in the country. In June, the median sales price for a home in Lafayette came in at $2.065 million, according to Redfin. Despite the steep home prices, homebuying competition was intense in Lafayette until mortgage rates began to rise.. “We have gone from so many offers on homes and not a lot of inventory to a slightly sleepier environment as people pause and figure out lending and what they can now afford with the decline in the stock market and rising interest rates,” said local agent Dana Green, team leader of the Compass-based Dana Green Team. For sellers, Green said this change means having to alter pricing strategies and being a bit more modest with list prices. However, she noted that this shift did not come as a surprise. “We all saw it coming based off of the number that came out Q1 this year,” she said. “We were at such an unbeliev able high, and it obviously can’t stay that way forever. It is hard to know what a normal market looks like anymore. We went from a normal but strong market to the COVID market and now this sudden shift, so we are still trying to figure out what our new normal is.”

British Columbia, Canada

Vancouver, Huntsville, Alabama

Huntsville, Alabama, is perhaps best known as the birthplace of the Saturn V rocket that would one day send Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon. However, it wasn’t always a bustling metropolis for the military technologies and aerospace industries. The city’s initial growth is attributed to the cotton industry and trade associated with railroad industries. “We have always been known for great white-collar jobs, but we just didn’t have anything to fill the gap,” said John Brooks, a local agent with Coldwell Banker of the Valley. The opening of an Amazon distribution center and the addition of a second Toyota plant, among other things, have changed the situation. The abundance of job opportunities combined with Huntsville’s strong public school system and growing arts and cul ture scene have made the city a place many wish to call home. “We are usually ranked as one of the best places to live, and with this latest huge migration, a lot of people decided to move here, which gave us a bustling real estate market,” Brooks said. Like else where in the country, high levels of housing demand resulted in rapidly rising home prices and low inventory, but as interest rates have risen and fewer people are looking to make cross-country moves, Brooks said things have slowed down. “I think Huntsville will still see some relocations probably into next year, and I think that is going to help our local market stay balanced,” he said. “We have definitely started getting more inventory, which is a healthy thing because it is not sustainable for everyone to continue to go up $40,000 over list price on every single home.”

With easy access to the Pacific Ocean, great skiing and a milder climate than other parts of the country, it is a wonder why everyone doesn’t want to live in Vancouver, British Columbia. Even during the height of the pandemic, when many people looked to get out of cramped cities, the housing market in Vancouver remained strong as homebuyers from other parts of the country decided to take advantage of remote work opportunities and relocate. But over the past few months, local eXp Realty agent Sarah Kwan has noticed a shift in the market.

“There are definitely a lot more price reductions,” she said. “I first noticed the drop in March because I had a townhome listing and the week prior there was another unit that was virtually the same and it had twice as much foot traffic as we had.” According to Kwan, pric es have dropped an average of 2% month over month, but in some markets, she has seen prices drop 10% month over month. Despite these drops, she said that if a property shows well and is priced strategically, it will still generate plenty of interest and possibly even a multiple-offer situation. “In markets where we have seen large price drops in the past 30 days, it is very important that you are looking at sold inventory on a weekly basis and maintaining communication with your clients so you can make changes if you need to.” Kwan said she doesn’t confirm the final list price until right before the home is listed. Looking ahead, Kwan expects the market to continue to slow down. “It was expected regardless of interest rates. It was kind of bound to happen. There is only so long it can keep going up,” she said.

Boston, Massachusetts

Founded in 1630, Boston is one of the oldest cities in the U.S. In its centuries of existence, the city and its housing market have seen a lot. As one might expect, despite its high home prices, the metro’s housing market is pretty hearty. In July, Redfin named the city as one of the met ro areas with the lowest chance of a housing downturn if the U.S. entered a recession. “We are seeing pockets of high activity, but prices are super stable,” said Ricar do Rodriguez, a Boston-based Coldwell Banker agent. Rodriguez attributes at least some of Boston’s resilience to the metro's limited inventory and constant stream of demand, thanks to the various industries that call the city home. But while other markets across the country are dealing with shifting conditions and changing trends, Rodriguez said he has noticed a new homebuying trend in Boston. “Our buyers are younger than they used to be,” he said. “I think during the pandemic, a lot of people passed along financial resources to their children earlier than they would have because I am seeing more young people engage in the homebuying process than I have in my 20 years in the industry.”

OVID helps green the building industry

Homebuilders are implementing resilient features for highuse areas of the home.

By Don Neff

The benefits of green building materials and practices have been discussed when creating our homes and workplaces for a while now. The COVID-19 pandemic required a light-speed adjustment in this direction, as our offices were locked down with stayat-home orders and everyone worked away from office colleagues and technology support. Working remotely, although not a new concept, became our new normal, and hybrid and remote office environments will continue to be part of our future. In a short amount of time, it became apparent that we would need to embrace green building concepts such as daylighting, orientation, insulation, ventilation and mass (DOIVM*) for a healthier home environment. In addition, technology needed to be integrated into our work-from-home lives in new ways we had not thought of before.

As people spend more and more time at home, it will be essential for homebuilders to include these innovations in future builds that create a more sustainable and durable home for families who use their in-home appliances and resources more than they did in the past.

REMOTE WORK TECHNOLOGY IS HERE TO STAY.

Zoom meetings from home offices have become widely used— in addition to other tech tools like Skype, MS Teams, Bluebeam and CaptureQA— to support productivity at home and for business to continue. Working from home reduces commute time, saves gas and encourages savings. Equally important, working from home requires creative solutions to “unplug” from work. This involves physical and mental separations, including programmed downtime to maintain work-life balance. The physical separation can be achieved through architectural design solutions for new construction or remodeling and creative space-planning ideas for previously established home layouts. These designs and redesigns address the need for multiple work areas for dual-income earners or home-schooling needs

where families are all working and studying under the same roof. Without establishing these boundaries to separate work and personal time, the pressures of home and work-life stresses can lead to burnout, overwhelm us emotionally and ultimately compromise our immune systems.

HOW ARE WE INTEGRATING GREEN BUILDING PRODUCTS AND PRINCIPLES?

We all know about plug loads creating excess electrical demand and occupant behavior putting wear and tear on home operating systems. Both can unravel the most sustainably designed and constructed healthy home-work environment. This risk of poor system performance grows when five or more people are all living and working at home—around the clock, and potentially taxing the home’s systems, such as active or passive ventilation.

A healthy home supports occupant health. But without feedback loops, we have no metrics to measure brewing problems, which can lead to a subtle deterioration of indoor air quality or potential long-term deterioration of the home.

Sensors that measure temperature, humidity, moisture level, water leaks, hot spots, cold spots, mold growth, carbon dioxide (CO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon monoxide (CO), supply and usage of site-generated solar energy and battery charge levels are just a few examples of things to keep an eye on.

The integration of these sensors into a data hub or dashboard— either centralized at one workstation, distributed throughout on a room-to-room basis or both—is also important. The dashboard can provide immediate feedback to understand occupant effects, system function and overall home performance. Examples of a power usage dashboard have been demonstrated by Southern California Edison in their Southern California Energy Education Center, showing variable costs in real time when several appliances automatically turn on and off throughout the day, either in parallel or in series.

Measuring this cost will help occupants adjust their behaviors to schedule usage during nonpeak pricing periods. The real test will be when major equipment and appliance manufacturers provide integrated plug-and-play whole-house solutions on a large production scale.

These advanced systems can also include the programming of

home maintenance activities into the system, with maintenance alerts, monitoring for compliance and tracking completion with automated recordkeeping. A robust online customer service system could then be a game changer for sustainable building practices.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

The COVID-19 pandemic inspired some sustainable concepts, but the future holds many more building technologies, including leading trends from Europe and American universities that could gain widespread adoption by homebuilders. These concepts incorporate energy efficiency, resource conservation, automation and modern technologies, including different levels of integration. Here we explore a few examples of sustainable techniques and technologies, such as dynamic glass and flexible building skins that could be adopted by homebuilders. It’s the home of the future, and the future is now. We learned about several of these new technologies at the International Advanced Building Skin Conference in Bern, Switzerland.

Level 1: Aerogel insulation is a high-performance product that marries thermal functionality with fireprevention properties. Aerogel insulation presents a new product with construction applications not only in exterior (building) envelopes, but also in fireresistive assemblies. It is reportedly such a good insulator that a blowtorch on one side won’t ignite a match on the other side. In fire-prone areas, we think this idea will be embraced by builders and buyers alike.

Level 2: Transparent solar panels are thin and flexible “see-through” membranes for application on exterior building assemblies and envelopes. These are a topic of research in MIT’s “Center for Excitonics,” an energy frontier research center funded by the US Department of Energy. The efficiency of these transparent panels is not as great as conventional solar panels, but partially and fully transparent solar panels can be integrated into windows in buildings and cover larger areas than their traditional counterparts.

In terms of overall electricity potential, it’s estimated that there is five billion to seven billion square meters of glass surface in the United States. And with that much glass to cover, transparent solar technologies have the potential to supply some 40% of energy demand in the United States—about the same potential as rooftop solar units.

Level 3: Dynamic glass windows can help enhance indoor comfort while providing unobstructed views to the outside. In some applications, dynamic glass windows, each with a unique IP address, allows occupant-controlled shading through an electrochemical process inside the glass. This light-sensitive window glass can change from clear to tinted on

demand to achieve various levels of shading without mechanical systems. Electromagnetic glass automatically tints when heat from direct sunlight warms the glass. The shading results in a lower heat load for the building. These features combine translucent functionality and energy efficiency in one elegant solution.

Level 4: Technology solutions include current market solutions and blue-sky future concepts to explore.

1. Remote mobile security is currently available in the nation’s markets as evidenced by numerous products integrating digital image, sound capture and two-way communications with access controls and emergency service provider notifications.

2. Remote sensing functionality for lighting and HVAC systems integrates with the mobile security features above, allowing control of several house-specific operating systems. This is like a programmable 24hour setback thermostat to mirror in-home occupant behaviors, which can operate remotely from your cell phone. Sensors can also detect leaks or system trouble signals, alerting users to issues before major damage or complete failure occurs.

3. Precise point-of-use delivery designs promote wateruse efficiency and energy conservation through trunk, branch and twig pipe sizing coupled with a primary and secondary water heater closer to the point of use. When coupled with a demand pump, water is no longer wasted.

4. Power generation and energy conservation blend solutions above with sustainable building designs. Passive-haus designs are super-insulated buildings with DOIVM-driven design attributes.

Level 5: Lifestyle predictive behaviors is a programmed set of parameters for all the above referenced technology solutions, which recognize changing needs over time. Community wide examples include age-specific active adult master-planned communities with a wide array of physical and social recreational programs. Home-specific examples include universal designs for aging in place. And even one step further is embracing baubiologie, or healthy home designs, to respect and respond to these age-related lifestyles.

The nation’s building industry is experiencing a dramatic renaissance of innovation, driven by concurrent revolutions in digital data capture and green building practices. These trends have accelerated thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, driving rapid adoption and diffusion of new technology. We believe that these products and principles will persist long after the pandemic is over.

*Credit to Chris Prelitz, sustainable home builder and consultant in Laguna Beach, CA for the acronym, DOIVM.

Don Neff is the President of LJP Construction Services.

P

utting the housing market into perspective

The challenges that first-time homebuyers face and the obstacles still ahead

By Rohit Gupta

2022 has been filled with discussions on homeownership affordability challenges for good reason. The challenges buyers face today are significant: higher interest rates, higher home prices, historically low inventory, increasing costs for labor and materials and supply chain challenges.

On the surface, these factors might make the outlook for the housing market look bleak, particularly for first-time homebuyers. Looking deeper, however, it is clear that the market conditions are not so simple. Despite continuing affordability challenges, many Americans still desire and aspire to homeownership. They simply need assistance to clear the hurdles in their path.

THE STATE OF THE MARKET

Homeownership affordability is inarguably lower now than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Home prices have increased exponentially over the past two years, with the Federal Housing Finance Agency reporting an 18.3% increase from May 2021 to May 2022. And though the housing supply has steadily increased since February, it still remains tight. This has not only affected home prices but also rent, placing affordability pressure on non-homeowners as well.

Interest rates further complicate the market as they have increased from a record low of 2.65% in January 2021 to 5.22% in August 2022. Perhaps because of this change, only 17% of consumers reported it is “a good time to buy” in Fannie Mae’s June 2022 Home Purchase Sentiment Index.

All of these statistics, however, tell only part of the story. Financial obligations, such as debt and lease payments, remain historically low as measured by the Federal Reserve Board’s financial obligations ratio. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Data indicates that disposable personal income per capita continues to rise and household balance sheets remain strong.

Additionally, the labor market is currently very strong. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that at the end of June, the job openings rate (the number of open roles among all positions filled or open) is 6.6%. Further, income growth continues, strengthening the average consumer’s financial position.

WHO ARE FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS?

Over time, the average age of the first-time homebuyer rises and falls. Per the National Association of Realtors, the current average first-time homebuyer age is 33 years old. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that more Americans are reaching that prime homebuying age in the next four years than in the last decade. This suggests more first-time homebuyers may be preparing to enter the market than we have seen in quite some time, and the industry needs to be ready to support them.

OBSTACLES FACING FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS

First-time homebuyers face several unique challenges that make homeownership seem less attainable, but the biggest is affording a down payment. In a December 2021 survey of nonhomeowners by NerdWallet, 36% of respondents said the main reason they do not currently own a home is they lack enough money for a down payment. Low income and credit scores were the next most common reasons at 34% and 32%, respectively.

“Home prices have increased exponentially over the past two years, with the Federal Housing Finance Agency reporting an 18.3% increase from May 2021 to May 2022.“

- Rohit Gupta

Only 16% of respondents stated they have no interest in buying, and only 9% cited their main reason as waiting for lower mortgage rates.

For many, student loan debt is a significant challenge to accruing enough savings for a down payment. This is particularly a concern of millennials, who are a key first-time homebuyer demographic. In June 2021, 35% of millennials surveyed by the National Association of Realtors stated that student loan debt was a barrier to buying a home. Another 2021 study by Experian reported that millennials between the ages of 25 and 34 were the most likely to hold student loan debt and that millennials overall owe an average of $40,000.

Policymakers continue to wrestle with the challenges of student debt. In August, President Biden issued an executive order that may further remove barriers against homeownership for those repaying student loans. The white house reported that if all borrowers were to claim the relief provided by the order, up to 43 million borrowers would receive some relief, and approximately 20 million borrowers would have their full remaining balance forgiven. Altogether, potential homebuyers with student loan debt may be better positioned to buy a home than they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As for the next most-cited barriers to homeownership, low income and credit scores, the market currently suggests trends may be moving in the right direction. Wages are steadily rising, household debt service payments have remained steady for the last year, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has initiatives under way to validate and approve new credit score models.

OPPORTUNITIES REMAIN

If the biggest obstacle to homeownership for most first-time homebuyers is the lack of funds for a down payment, then the first solution is finding low-down payment options. There is a significant difference in saving for a 20% down payment versus a 3 to 5% down payment. Lower down payment programs can assist those interested in homeownership in achieving their dream sooner. For a household earning the national median income, it could take up to 14 years to save a 20% down payment for a single-

family home of a median price. And during that decade or two, home prices may continue to rise, and the potential buyer will lose the opportunity to build wealth through equity.

Fortunately, there are conventional and government down payment programs for lenders to leverage. Various government agencies, including government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration, offer low-down-payment programs that can help potential homebuyers enter the market earlier. On the conventional and portfolio side, the private mortgage insurance (PMI) industry plays a critical role in supporting first-time homebuyers and low-income families who are not able to make a 20% down payment. The industry is well capitalized and takes an active role in working with lenders, the GSEs and the FHFA to identify areas for expansion of the credit box. In the last year, PMI helped more than 2 million homeowners purchase or refinance a mortgage. According to the U.S. Mortgage Insurers trade association, in 2021 nearly 60% of purchase originations with PMI were attributable to first-time homebuyers. Over 40% went to borrowers with income below $75,000 per year.

PMI bridges the gap for homebuyers, helping first-time homebuyers and low-income borrowers achieve homeownership earlier than otherwise possible.

Not only does PMI serve the lender by supporting low-down payment lending, but it also provides benefits to the homebuyer. PMI companies offer homebuyer education courses that help prepare the homebuyer for homeownership. Additionally, some mortgage insurance companies offer products that aid the borrower after closing. Programs are available that help offset the costs of a homeowner’s insurance or major appliance repairs, both of which are beneficial for first-time homebuyers.

LOOKING FORWARD

The affordability challenges in today’s market cannot be dismissed or ignored, but they are not insurmountable. Overall, many consumers are still better positioned to buy a home today than they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially with the low-down-payment options available. The PMI industry stands ready to play a critical role in increasing the accessibility, affordability and sustainability of homeownership.

Rohit Gupta is president and CEO of Enact Mortgage Insurance

“PMI bridges the gap for homebuyers, helping firsttime homebuyers and low-income borrowers achieve homeownership earlier than otherwise possible.” - Gupta

D

igital transformation in the housing market: possibilities and problems

Nine categories for digital transformation

By Romi Mahajan

Over the past five years, the idea of digital transformation has animated the pages of the business and technology press and the agendas of executives around the world. The basic notion is a simple one in articulation. Organizations need to incorporate digital technologies across their fabric.

They need to make internal and external-facing processes and engagement more efficient and rewarding to all parties. It is easier said than done.

This dichotomy between intention and reality is visible in the digital transformation endeavors that have been undertaken across the housing space. Despite the difficulties, there are remarkable advancements in a variety of areas across the industry and throughout the housing supply chain.

Here, we will discuss a sampling of achievements and areas that continue to offer potential but require further work.

For many, this author included, the housing market is characterized more by opacity than transparency.

Certainly, education and free resources are available for anyone capable of doing the research. The options for most, while not limited, are certainly circumscribed by the industry as it exists today. In Silicon Valley speak, this all translates to one unvarnished truth: The housing market is ripe for disruption.

And while this is true, and while some aspects of the housing market and process have indeed been disrupted, other parts give new life to the phrase “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Below I’ve detailed the nine steps of the buying and selling process and given each a score from one to 10. A score of one indicates a full digital transformation, and a score of 10 indicates that nothing has developed digitally *Note: This is not an exhaustive list of areas.

1. Search initiation, Score: 2

2. Search process, Score: 6

3. Buying process, Score: 6

4. Final transaction process, Score: 8

5. Mortgage financing affordability, Score: 9

6. Valuation, Score: 2 Appraisal, Score: 7 AI and computer vision tools, Score: 3

9. So now what? Score: 7

WHY THESE SCORES?

Industry watchers can offer their opinions, but the realities are complex and messy. Digital transformation is not a spell whose mere incantation can change a large industry overnight.

Rhetoric and reality don’t always match in the housing industry. We need to avoid the hyperbole and disingenuous claims made de rigueur by Silicon Valley public relations professionals and instead focus our energies on one of the most important sectors of our economy, and indeed of society as a whole, housing.

Part of the process Score Explanation

Search initiation

2

Search process

6

Buying process

6

It is a truism in housing now that, for the most part, search initiation is done online, largely from mobile devices. Companies like Zillow and Redfin have embraced this trend and made the process much easier for the consumer and almost fully digital.

After search initiation, there is the ensuing process to find the right house. The process is analog and physical, though the agent has access to a variety of digital tools at their disposal.

Much of the literature on buying a house makes it appears as though the buying process is simple and quick. But most buyers’ testimonies prove that the steps are opaque and require hand holding. It is in contrast with the notion of digital transformation, which values transparency and self-service.

Final transaction process

8

Mortgage, financing, affordability

Valuation

9

Before a buyer gets the keys, there is a lot of back and forth—on the phone and conducted via third parties. Companies like Flueid digitize and use data to enhance parts of the transaction process , and they are moving towards a one-click close. But we are still far away from the entire process being digitized.

Financing is the least digital and most antiquated part of the process. For the most part, the instruments, qualification process and lending aspects haven’t changed for decades. Innovative companies like Rook are changing the game, but their processes aren’t operating at scale.

2

Appraisal

AI and computer vision tools

So now what?

7

Valuation is an area that, in many scenarios, is highly digitized. Auto mated valuation models (AVM) from companies like Quantarium, along with shifts in regulation, bode well for digitization.

Traditional appraisal processes are being changed by companies like Reggora, but the persistence of bias-prone appraisers has been a real scarlet letter on what could be a far fairer process.

3 The advances in AI and computer vision are phenomenal, but we need to see a lot more in terms of adoption and scale.

7

When a buyer closes on a home, then, in the words of an industry watcher, “the real fun begins.” We do a poor job as an industry of help ing first-time homebuyers understand what the current condition of a house might mean for the near future and their plans. Companies like PUNCHLIST USA are working on this, and we expect to see a lot more from them soon.

Romi Mahajan is president at KKM Group and an advisor at Quantarium and Rook Capital.

Dawar Alimi, Paul Anastos

Robert Baca, Alok Bansal

John Beacham, John Berkowitz

Vicki Brown, Michael Catalano

Bill Dallas, David Dickey

Tommy Dunbar, Armando Falcon

Kristy Fercho, AJ Franchi

Chase Gilbert, M. Ryan Gorman

Chris Heller, Mat Ishbia

Tawn Kelley, Jarred Kessler

Len Krupinski, Rose Lally

Kosta Ligris, Alex Lofton

William Lyons, Benjamin Madick

Christopher Mayer, Mary Ann McGarry

James O’Bryon, Pete Pannes

Tom Piercy, Andy Pollock

Pete Roeske, Sean Ryan

Rob Sayre, Lisa Schreiber

David Sheeler, Thomas Showalter

Desmond Smith, Dan Snyder

David Stevens, Susan Sullivan

Jeff Tennyson, William Tessar

Dale Vermillion, Natalie Verrette

Don Wenner, Shane Westra

Thaddeus Wong, Ron Zach

Faisal Adil, James Albertelli

Susan Anthony, Seth Appleton

Rob Barber, AJ Barkley

Gino Blefari, Peter Bowman Gary Clark, Court Cunningham

Raj Dosaj, Michael Dubeck

Vanessa Famulener, Mike Farr

Erika Garcia, Donna Gibson

Jeff Gravelle, Heather Harmon

Kuba Jewgieniew, Jay Jones

Aaron King, Chris Knight Shelley Leonard, Pamela Liebman

Michael Lucarelli, Gene Lugat

Sandra Madigan, Scott Martino

Steve Meirink, Marc Minor

Kevin Pezzani, Kristi Pickering

Steve Price, Tammy Richards

Priscilla Salud, Dave Savage

Faith Schwartz, Shaival Shah

Jeremy Sicklick, Jim Smith

Dan Sogorka, John Stevens

Steve Sussman, Katie Sweeney

Rick Triola, Michael Valdes

Jerry Weiss, Joe Welu

Arvin Wijay, Charles Williams

33 82

Vanguards: The top 100 executives in housing

By Lesley Collins

Each year, the HousingWire Vanguards represent an elite group of industry executives who are moving the housing market forward. But these industry veterans didn’t fall into these roles overnight. The vast majority of them have carved unique paths for them selves, picking up invaluable knowledge along the way to help them better strategize and lead their organizations. Chris Heller, chief real estate officer at OJO Labs, earned his real estate license when he was 20 years old and built one of the most successful real estate teams in the U.S. Priscilla Salud, chief operating officer, started her career as a file clerk and held every single position along the way before leading Archwell’s HR division and building out the organization’s entire global operations in India and Southeast Asia. Shelley Leonard is using her decades of experience to steer Xactus with a fresh approach toward advancing the modern mortgage experience. She previously served as chief product and digital officer at Black Knight and led the servicing technologies business, including the MSP loan servicing solution — a business with over $800 million of revenues. Kosta Ligris owned a title and settlement business for almost 20 years prior to his role as CEO at Stavvy, providing industry experience that helps him understand the unique challenges that come with processing mortgages. Having served in every operations role over her 28-year mortgage career, Academy Mortgage Corporation president Kristi Pickering has acquired the knowledge and experience that has provided her great acumen to see the big picture in her current leadership role. The following pages include the origin stories of 100 industry elites who contin ue to have a major impact on the housing landscape. Congratulations to the 2022 HousingWire Vanguards who continue to improve and shape the housing landscape.

Faisal Adil

President Altitude Home Loans

ALTITUDE HOME LOANS president and CEO Faisal Adil cares not only about the mortgage business but, more importantly, about all the people who are part of it. Whether working with a client, an employee or an es crow officer, Adil ensures that they are treated equally with appreciation, encouragement and empathy.

Adil started Altitude Home Loans in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recognizing an opportunity when other lenders panicked, Adil launched a company geared for remote work, staffed with people he trusted to do their jobs and do them well. Adil’s ability to inspire commitment, loyalty, success and belief in oneself was instrumental in driving the company’s growth from five to 130 employees in six months. Adil’s comittment to the company’s core culture of empathy, excellence and doing the right thing filtered through to every employee.

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic waned, Adil contin ued to empower his employees to always be the best they could be and never fear innovating.

James Albertelli

CEO Voxtur Analytics

JAMES (JIM) ALBERTELLI, CEO of Voxtur Analytics, is a real estate technology visionary with a proven track record of execution. This year Albertelli upended the en tire title insurance industry by overseeing the launch of the attorney opinion letter, a cheaper alternative to title insur ance, which is now accepted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He is making homeownership more accessible and affordable using validated data to underwrite real prop erty value, condition, tax and title, focusing on providing certainty, transparency and fundamental fairness to those who loan, buy, sell or otherwise transact real property.

Albertelli is redefining standards across the lending lifecycle by using targeted data analytics to simplify tax solutions, property valuation and settlement services for investors, lenders, government agencies and servicers. He has brought together a team that differentiates itself by offering a unique set of complementary services across the lending lifecycle, incorporating machine learning and artificial intelligence expertise into all products and services.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

You cannot control everything, so do the best with what you can control. I received that from my grandmother, mom and dad.

Give first. Give when you don’t have anything to give. Trust the abundance of the universe always.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Dawar Alimi

CEO Lender Price

DAWAR ALIMI, CEO and co-founder of Lender Price, has been in the mortgage industry for over two decades, building technology and running various companies over the years. He has earned a spot as a well-respected thought leader in financial technology and innovation.

Under Alimi’s leadership and vision, sales revenue at Lender Price has increased in the last 12 months with an overall growth trend of over 300% since the company launched in 2015, despite a decline in mortgage vol umes. This caught the eye of the private-equity world re cently, providing the company with the right capital infu sion to help continue delivering innovation to the industry.

Lender Price is now one of the leading companies in the mortgage industry. 22 of the top 30 wholesale lenders are now leveraging the Lender Price platform, including 8 of the top 12 banks and credit unions. On average, close to $30 billion in funded loan volume passes through the platform every month.

Paul Anastos

Chief Innovation Officer Guaranteed Rate Companies

AS CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER at Guaranteed Rate, Paul Anastos focuses on differentiating Guaranteed Rate from its competitors by enhancing the company’s suite of proprietary technology and developing effec tive marketing solutions to promote its brand and mort gage professionals. Anastos currently oversees a team of 350, which includes talent from across Guaranteed Rate Companies — Guaranteed Rate, Guaranteed Rate Affinity, OriginPoint and Proper Rate — as well as the standalone AI mortgage technology company, Gateless. He also collaborates with the organization’s worldclass executive and technology teams to modernize the mortgage process and implement revolutionary Fintech solutions.

Within the last year, Anastos has helped drive the development of end-to-end digital solutions to serve customers across a diverse array of financial products beyond mortgages. The organization has recently re leased a steady stream of announcements, including new product launches, such as its 100% digital home equity line of credit and personal loans.

What has been the secret to your success?

It’s working with talented people who want to be the best, who are the best and who are committed to making us the best. When you work with a team like that in whatever you do, you can do great things.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Don’t let the things that matter least control the things that matter most.

Susan Anthony

Chief Operating Officer

Finance of America Reverse

SUSAN ANTHONY, chief operating officer of Finance of America Reverse (FAR), is an industry visionary and veteran who is inpsired daily to find ways to provide 10star experiences for her partners, borrowers and team. Anthony has a proven track record of aligning IT strategy with the corporate mission to support outstanding custom er service, quality products, substantially improved pro cesses and growth. As a leader in the industry, Anthony is helping FAR transform the way people approach re tirement through the knowledge they’ve built over years. Its mission is to continue to invest in resources around the power of education.

Anthony is one of many female leaders at the helm of FAR, helping turn people’s retirement visions into realities. She finds joy in implementing innovative ideas and putting them into best practices for the company. Her peers and colleagues characterize her as a dynamic and engaging leader with a proven track record of sustainable business growth, product innovation and industry leadership.

Seth Appleton

President MISMO

SETH APPLETON is leading an innovative and collab orative effort to accelerate the industry’s digital transfor mation. As the president of MISMO, he works across the real estate finance ecosystem — with lenders, servicers, issuers, mortgage insurers, service providers, technology companies, GSEs and government agencies and regu lators among others — to shape the future of how infor mation is exchanged in the industry. Appleton is leading MISMO’s work on more than 30 initiatives aimed at solv ing key business challenges and creating opportunities through standardization and collaboration.

Appleton has led MISMO to several key milestones over the past year. MISMO membership has increased significantly, up from 320 members in 2021 to 500 mem bers in 2022. MISMO initiatives increased from 19 to 34 over the past year. And the number of eNote registrations continues to grow. To date, there have been more than 1.7 million eNote registrations. Since eNotes are MISMO SMART Docs, this is a significant accomplishment for MISMO and the industry.

What has been your secret to success?

Surrounding myself with the right people and making sure that I identify their talents and allow them to use them to the best of their abilities.

What has been your secret to success?

Surround yourself with great people that work as a cohesive team. And never be afraid of learning new skills and subjects.

Robert Baca

Chief Technology Officer

ICE Mortgage Technology

ROBERT BACA, chief technology officer at ICE Mortgage Technology, owns the strategy and execution for the technical infrastructure that supports one of the largest client bases in the housing industry. When devel oping innovative solutions across the ICE platform, he approaches each project with a customer-first mentality, a focus on collaboration and a dedication to quality. As a leader, Baca never shies away from a challenge, embraces sincerity and encourages everyone to share their ideas.

The innovative technology that Baca’s team delivers not only helps ICE customers drive efficiencies across their workflows while saving time and money, but also pushes the broader industry forward on the digital mortgage journey. When deciding where to invest his team’s time and resources, he always develops solutions that are de signed to help them be successful and keep the customer top of mind.

What has been the secret to your success?

Treating others better than I treat myself and al ways helping others before helping myself, focus ing on the customer, listening to folks and paying attention to what they are saying and helping out no matter where the help is needed.

Alok Bansal

Managing Director and Global Head of Mortgage Services Visionet Systems

ALOK BANSAL is the managing director and global head of mortgage services at Visionet Systems, and he is instrumental in scaling the organization to new heights. In less than four years, Bansal has successfully led mortgage business growth from 200 employees to more than 4,000 mortgage and tech professionals, while registering stellar revenue growth.

Bansal has been the catalyst of growth through stra tegic partnerships, designing and developing product solutions like automated underwriting, data manage ment, fraud detection, consumer behaviors analytics and managing large-scale operations enabling disrup tive growth to the client partners. Today the mortgage business contributes over 51% to the overall business of Visionet, processing over 65,000 loan applications every month.

Under Bansal’s leadership, Visionet is now one of the highest performing tech-enabled business services pro viders, catering to 300+ leading financial institutions, Realtors, investors and servicers dominant in the hous ing industry.

What has been the secret to your success

Successful hiring, leading by example and giving my team freedom to make decisions independently.

Rob Barber CEO ATTOM

THROUGH HIS CLEAR AND CONCISE DIRECTION, ATTOM CEO Rob Barber ensures the company delivers data-driven critical insights and analytics-ready property data solutions that address a wide range of business needs.

Barber’s laser-sharp focus on positioning ATTOM as the most comprehensive property data provider remains steadfast. It continues to influence and secure partner ships with industry-leading companies to bring new datsets to the market to power innovation.

Barber directs the enterprise, data and proudct strate gy, customer acquisition and service, as well as corporate management teams and leads the company’s corporate M&A strategy. Barber’s passion for property data guides the ATTOM team of forward-thinking experts, who are dedicated to ensuring ATTOM’s key stakeholders achieve success through a culture of integrity and excellence in a positive and collaborative environment.

Setting a full schedule for Mondays, front-loading the week with important tasks aligned with goals. It helps ensure it’s nearly impossible to have a bad or unproductive week.

AJ Barkley

Head of Neighborhood and Community Lending Bank of America

AJ BARKLEY is the head of neighborhood and commu nity lending for Bank of America, leading the bank’s work to ensure broad-based and equitable access to lending and capital for individuals, families and small businesses across the economic spectrum.

A recognized leader in financial services, Barkley works with nonprofits, community advocacy groups, professional real estate organizations and industry leaders, advocating for housing stability, affordability and generational wealth creation for under-represented groups. Barkley is a long-time champion of affordable and sustainable homeownership, and she is responsible for the bank’s Community Homeownership Commitment, a $15 billion program to increase homeownership, par ticularly among first-time homeowners, underserved communities and multicultural borrowers. Barkley has been recognized as a HousingWire Woman of Influence for her work in this area. Barkley joined the company in 1996 and has held leadership roles in retail sales, Merril Lynch and served as the area executive for the Dallas/ Fort Worth market.

Be brief. Be bold. Be gone. When you receive feedback from others, always listen, learn and apply. Don’t forget to reflect so you can be the best you.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

John Beacham

Founder and CEO

Toorak Capital Partners

AS FOUNDER AND CEO at Toorak Capital Partners, John Beacham has been a transformative leader in the private lending industry, spearheading improvements in underwriting guidelines and credit criteria. He has linked small balance commercial and residential orig inators with institutional capital, pioneering bridge loan securitizations, helping to dispel the negative association with “hard money” and creating a sustainable engine to help address the housing shortage by providing more than $9.1 billion in capital to fund housing for 40,000 families to date.

Toorak has consistently grown under Beacham’s lead ership and has been profitable every month since month five of its operation. In six short years, Toorak has provid ed more than $9.1 billion in capital to fund over 25,000 loans. In 2021, Toorak funded more than $2.5 billion in loans, added 25 lending partners and now works with over 85 partners in the U.S. and U.K.

John Berkowitz

Co-Founder and CEO OJO Labs

AS THE FOUNDER and CEO of OJO Labs, John Berkowitz is transforming the way consumers buy, sell and own homes with the industry’s first guided market place. It connects people with bespoke solutions tailored to their individual needs.

Berkowitz has taken OJO from an emerging start-up into a purpose-driven real estate industry powerhouse, all while ensuring the company’s success is intertwined with its purpose of equipping anyone to unlock the abun dant benefits of homeownership. Fueled by his commit ment to purpose, Berkowitz has scaled OJO to millions of consumers by building a company that offers a strong value proposition for consumers in any market and by supporting them at any stage of the homeownership jour ney. With a clear vision for the future in mind, Berkowitz is driving tangible impact in an industry long resistant to change.

Find something that you’re good at, and then really focus your time on it so you become the best at it – whatever “it” is.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

When I started the journey to founding OJO Labs, I had a fear of failure. I was familiar with the risks and responsibilities of founding a company, and it led to significant apprehension. A mentor advised me to embrace this fear and channel my focus and energy to make sure it doesn’t become a reality.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Gino Blefari

CEO

HomeServices of America

GINO BLEFARI is the CEO and chairman of HomeServices of America, the country’s largest resi dential real estate brokerage company based on trans actions. He is also chairman of HSF Affiliates, which operates the franchise networks of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and Real Living Real Estate; he is chairman of both brands, Berkshire Hathwaay HomeServices and Real Living Real Estate.

Blefari joined the HomeServices of America family from Silicon Valley, at CA-based Intero Real Estate Services, which he founded in 2002 and through mid-2014 served as its president and CEO. Under Blefari’s direction, Intero became the fastest organically growing company in the history of real estate.

Blefari is ranked among the top five most powerful and influential leaders in the residential real estate industry, according to the Swanepoel POWER 200 rankings from 2016 to 2021. He received the 2007 Italian Business Man of the Year awared by the Italian American Heritage Foundation along with several other accolades.

Peter Bowman

Co-Founder and CEO Flueid

FLUEID’S CO-FOUNDER and CEO, Peter Bowman, began bringing real estate online in the mid-1990s. He has devoted his career to being a technologist and data expert, driving innovation within the real estate, mort gage and title sectors. Bowman conceptualized a firstof-its-kind title decision engine in the 2000s and has leveraged his depth of experience in developing Flueid’s core software as a service product: the Flueid Decision platform. Under his guidance, Flueid has reached reve nues of more than $32 million between 2017 and 2021. Bowman has partnered with Flueid’s leadership team to create people-centric initiatives that support employ ees at an individual level. He has established a monthly, always-on cadence of career development check-ins and meets with the full Flueid employee base weekly to build knowledge and understanding of the company’s vision. Additionally, he created an Employee Well-Being Fund to support teammates facing both challenging and celebratory life events.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Do everything with integrity and honor, and it will continue to give back for your entire career and life.

Vicki Brown

Executive Vice President LoanCare

VICKI BROWN is an industry veteran with over 36 years of servicing and subservicing experience. She has a professional approach and work philosophy that em phasizes delivering a superior customer experience first and foremost.

Brown came to LoanCare in 1990 and moved into cli ent relations in 2007 where she successfully managed 70 clients by partnering with not just LoanCare teams, but also with her clients to establish consistent processes and messaging from the time a loan originates to the time it goes through servicing.

With extensive experience in technology, mortgage and other industries, Brown brings a unique perspec tive to any situation and possesses a powerful talent for fostering collaboration across operational teams on all sides to enhance services and the experience provided to homeowners and clients alike.

What has been your secret to success?

I am passionate about treating others with re spect, no matter their title or responsibility. I have an open-door policy for all team members. I am very transparent, approachable and supportive.

Michael Catalano

Co-founder and General Partner

PURE Property Management

AS CO-FOUNDER and general partner at PURE Property Management, Michael Catalano is driven to transform the cumbersome and complex process of man aging and renting properties into simple and satisfying experiences. Through his dynamic leadership, Catalano has been able to influence industry leaders to band to gether and build together, resulting in PURE’s team of experienced industry professionals and seasoned tech nology innovators. PURE’s team is well on its way to pro viding a consistent high-tech, high-touch and hyperlocal property management service nationwide.

With his exceptional relationship-building skills and respect in the industry, Catalano has been actively in volved in every one of PURE’s 40 acquisitions, which has grown the business to over 20,000 single residen tial properties under management. With the launch this year of HOA, PURE now actively manages over 13,000 HOA properties.

What has been the secret to your success?

It’s about the people. We’re a people-first company. From the outside, people will say we’re just acquiring doors. But the reality is we’re attracting the right people. That’s been our not-sosecret secret.

Gary Clark

Chief Operating Officer

Sierra Pacific Mortgage

AS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, Gary Clark is at the forefront of Sierra Pacific Mortgage’s growth and has led the way by recognizing the organizational strengths, galvanizing them with improved processes and then tak ing them to market. Clark has worked in virtually every el ement of mortgage lending — starting in the industry over 40 years ago and developing his expertise in everything from governance and risk management to policy and advocacy. The broad spectrum of his accomplishments distinguishes Clark as an exemplary leader. Clark cham pions the Mortgage Action Alliance grassroots advocacy network, which allows constituents to play an active role in shaping legislation and regulations.

Clark was awarded the designation of certified mort gage banker by the Mortgage Bankers Association in 2006, and he continues to be a tireless advocate for the mortgage industry through his service on the MBA Residential Board of Governors.

What has been the secret to your success?

When people come to me for answers, I always try to provide the background and “why” behind the decision. I think any successful individual will go beyond what is asked and deliver more than what is required.

Court Cunningham

CEO/Co-Founder Orchard

AS CO-FOUNDER and CEO of Orchard, Court Cunningham sets the company vision and strategy that propelled Orchard to 850 employees in five years. Under Cunningham’s leadership, Orchard achieved triple-digit growth in 2021 and will more than double its growth this year. Orchard’s explosive growth is a testament to Cunningham’s commitment to delivering value to home buyers and the real estate professionals who serve them. Cunningham inspires and empowers the entire compa ny. Through transparent town halls and regular commu nication, Cunningham helps everyone to feel ownership over the work they do. Orchard’s spring 2022 anony mous engagement survey for employees revealed over 90% confidence in Orchard’s leadership, with 100% of employees sharing that the leaders at Orchard keep them informed about what is happening, both within the orga nization and within the larger industry.

What has been the secret to your success?

Success begins with the people you hire. As a CEO, you should build a team around you that is empowered to take risks, own them and find a way to try new things.

Bill Dallas Chairman Dallas Capital

BILL DALLAS, chairman at Dallas Capital, is known for building two mortgage companies from the ground up, First Franklin and Ownit Mortgage Solutions. In 2009, Dallas purchased Skyline Home Loans, with Upfront Ventures and a talented team, to modernize the tradition al mortgage business. In 2018, Skyline was purchased by Finance of America as another stepping stone toward realizing its mission and vision to bring the promise of dig ital mortgages to customers and advisors. Today, Dallas leads the combined business.

Dallas Capital has completed more than 40 M&A transactions — Intertwin, MindBox and Cloudvirga to name a few. Finance of America and Cloudvirga’s Two-X Digital Mortgage Platform engages customers, empowers advisors and removes friction from the home loan process.

David Dickey

Chief Technology Officer

United Real Estate Group

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER David Dickey is an essential asset to the United Real Estate Group team. Dickey has a keen understanding of the levers that drive services revenue and margin. He is responsible for de fining and developing strategies associated with growth capital, industry positioning, mergers and acquisitions, sales, marketing and core operations of a real estate net work with $27 billion of transactions annually. He also manages the development and deployment of United’s proprietary technology product stack.

Dickey always keeps the bigger picture in mind as a leader. He has a unique perspective on technology for real estate due to his outside-the-industry knowledge. This year Dickey and his technology team successfully launched the cloud version of a proprietary end-toend agent productivity suite, a product that provides lead-to-transaction support for the entire agent popu lation while allowing for customization to support the company’s growth strategy.

Sunday night I print off my calendar and look at how my week works. If something doesn’t fit into the strategic goals that our organization is trying to achieve, I simply cancel and don’t spend time on it. I am constantly managing my time to ensure that I am focused on the organization’s goals.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

Raj Dosaj

Head of Real Estate Markets

CAPE Analytics

WHEN RAJ DOSAJ, head of real estate markets, joined CAPE Analytics in late 2019, his mission was to bring new data sources to the real estate market and dramatically improve its understanding of built property. Three years later, Dosaj has succeeded in creating a new sector in property data by merging AI and geospatial imagery with the contemporary needs of the real estate market.

This year, Dosaj brought to market the CAPE AIRE platform, AI-powered property intelligence for the real estate industry. As part of the AIRE platform, Dosaj also brought to market CAPE Liquidity Score, the market’s first predictive liquidity metric. Before joining CAPE Analytics, Raj was a managing director at Unison, where he led lender-focused business development efforts and suc cessfully brought in the first 5% down payment and 80% LTV product to the housing market.

Michael Dubeck

CEO and President Planet Home Lending

CEO AND PRESIDENT Michael Dubeck’s strategic vision amid a complex and changing mortgage market has propelled Planet Home Lending forward in servicing, originations and asset management. Dubeck’s market insights are drawn from his three decades of industry ex perience, including a successful career on Wall Street as part of First Boston (now Credit Suisse) and Morgan Stanley. Dubeck is a nimble and thoughtful leader who built a synergistic, multichannel company designed to weather all markets.

Over the past year, Dubeck has amassed strategic funding that will enable the company to take advantage of opportunities that arise in today’s dislocated market. Through a series of intelligent and calculated moves, Planet expanded its distributed retail footprint, increased its mortgage servicing portfolio, acquired new subser vicing clients and grew the company’s correspondent lending channel.

I approach my work by logically breaking down a problem and directly interacting with the key stakeholders involved. The combination of these two actions has led me to the creation of optimal solutions.

What has been the secret to your success?

Understanding how multiple mortgage channels can work together synergistically. In the Planet ecosystem, originations, servicing and asset man agement work across business lines to support each other in all market cycles.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

Tommy Dunbar

Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Managing Partner Old Colony, REALTORS

AS EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT of Old Colony, REALTORS, Tommy Dunbar leads with innovation and passion. Dunbar built an innovative infrastructure that al lows the company to thrive amid emerging technologies and shifting buyer and seller demands. By driving new technologies, encouraging buyer/seller relationships and providing top-notch education to improve recruit ment and retention, Dunbar has helped make Old Colony one of the largest and most successful real estate broker ages in its region.

Dunbar has led the efforts that helped Old Colony REALTORS earn some of its top accolades to date, in cluding West Virginia’s largest real estate brokerage in 2021. Old Colony was also named a 2022 RealTrends 500 Company and a 2022 RISMedia Power Broker Company. Dunbar has built an innovative infrastructure, which has also helped boost recruiting, coaching and mentoring efforts.

What has been the secret to success?

I surrounded myself early on in my career with excellent mentors. They taught me that knowledge and expertise will only take you so far — true success not only lies in the quality of service that we provide as a company to our sales associates, but in the relationships we build.

Armando Falcon CEO Falcon Capital Advisors

AS THE CHAIRMAN AND CEO of Falcon Capital Advisors, Armando Falcon has established the firm as the preeminent business strategy and eConsulting advisory firm serving the mortgage, real estate, bank and capital markets sectors.

Falcon leads Falcon Capital Advisors with an all-star team of more than 40 advisors who have spent decades in the mortgage finance trenches at both government and private entities. The firm provides a full range of strategic business consulting services, advice, technical expertise and engagement execution to lenders, securities issuers, servicers, financial institutions and government agencies.

Before founding Falcon Capital Advisors 15 years ago, Falcon was the director of OFHEO (now FHFA). Earlier in his career, Falcon was general counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee of Banking and Finance.

A decision-making habit. Whenever I have a significant decision to make, I pause to consider if there is any additional relevant information I don’t have. I have learned from experience that consequential data and information can be easily overlooked in any decision analysis. Pausing to ensure all relevant information is in front of you, and then obtaining any missing information can suddenly make a difficult decision much easier.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

Vanessa Famulener

President of HomeLight Homes HomeLight

VANESSA FAMULENER, president of HomeLight Homes — the overarching umbrella for HomeLight’s flagship financial products, HomeLight Cash Offer and HomeLight Trade-In, as well as the company’s mortgage operations — continues to lead innovation and forge a pivotal change in how homes are bought and sold in the United States, helping to empower top real estate agents and their clients across the country to compete and win.

Famulener has shown incredible resilience in the face of an increasingly uncertain market for homebuyers and sellers. By overseeing the continuous health and expansion of HomeLight’s flagship products, Famulener has guided the business forward with strong leadership and unwavering confidence, allowing HomeLight and its partner agents to grow while other proptech companies retreat.

What has been the secret to your success?

Leading with empathy and tenacity, especially as a working mother. It is a secret that I wish were less of a secret and more mainstream.

Mike Farr

President, Retail Finance of America Mortgage

MIKE FARR, president of retail at Finance of America Mortgage, is a natural-born leader, and his energy, confidence, tenacity and empathy create loyalty and excitement in the teams he leads.

Farr was promoted to president of retail and tasked with uniting two retail channels within Finance of America Mortgage into one, growing the company by adding quality mortgage advisors and being accountable for the direction and decisions the company has made. Farr tackled all tasks head-on. He maintained steadfast leadership through some of the most turbulent months the mortgage industry has seen. He is a steady force in leading the Finance of America Mortgage retail business in the face of headwinds and uncertainty. His leadership has been instrumental in keeping the focus on the orga nization’s goal: helping customers achieve their home ownership dreams.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Never underestimate someone’s ability to teach you something. Often we think we can only be coached up by someone more educated or more experienced or smarter, etc. However, there’s wonderful advice all around us if we are humble enough to receive it.

Kristy Fercho

Head of Home Lending Wells Fargo

KRISTY FERCHO IS executive vice president and head of Wells Fargo Home Lending, overseeing one of the na tion’s leading combined home lenders and servicers. In her role, Fercho leads a team of more than 25,000 mort gage professionals in sales, operations, servicing, capital markets, portfolio management and risk management. Fercho joined Wells Fargo in 2020 from Flagstar Bank, where she served as president of the company’s mort gage division since 2017. Prior to joining Flagstar, she spent 15 years with Fannie Mae, where she led the strat egy and business performance of single-family customers in the western United States. Fercho currently serves as chair of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and is a member of its residential board of govenors.

AJ Franchi

President and Chief Operating Officer Gold Star Mortgage Financial Group

AJ FRANCHI, president and chief operating officer at Gold Star Mortgage Financial Group, is a visionary leader with a track record of success in developing and executing strategic plans to drive operational improve ment and innovation. Franchi’s industry-leading initia tives involve the automation of innovative workflows. His work resulted in off-the-charts improvement in all facets of operations, making Gold Star Mortgage a stand out company. Franchi has demonstrated success in leading the company through rapid periods of growth and natural declines in the industry while still maintaining the highest level of service for borrowers and retaining staff without requiring a reduction in the workforce.

Franchi joined Gold Star in 2008 as an intern at age 22. Less than four years later, he was named director of retail operations for 400 loan originators and appointed to Gold Star’s board of directors, where he remains their youngest member of record.

Visualize the change you want, then take ac tion. My dad always said, “What the mind can perceive, the will can achieve.” This amounts to a daily practice of taking action to drive the change and progress you’re working toward.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Focus on how you make people feel. This is one of the most important things to focus on in leader ship. Decisions are based on feelings, so keeping that in mind when leading a team or company is essential.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

Erika Garcia

Chief Operating Officer

Precedent Management

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Erika Garcia empha sizes female leadership and equity throughout Precedent Management by hiring, coaching and mentoring females in the industry. As a young woman in a male-driven in dustry, getting a seat at the table was not easy. However, her relentless drive helped Precedent Management find its niche in risk mitigation for real estate servicers and ag gregators. At just 34 years old, she became the compa ny’s chief operating officer and, through her leadership, has grown the company to be an industry leader in risk mitigation and component servicing.

She is a member of NAMMBA and the Women’s Fund of Miami Dade, an organization that supports women and girls to rise to leadership and achieve equal oppor tunity in her community. As a leader, she is a true example of a professional woman leading the organization to new heights.

What has been the secret to your success?

I have always acted as the CEO of my career and stayed away from comparison.

Donna Gibson

Chief Operating Officer and President QC Ally

DONNA GIBSON was recently named QC Ally’s first-ever chief operating officer. With over 35 years of quality control experience, including 10 years at QC Ally, she drives success in partnership with clients, while continuing to provide the care, accessibility and accu racy QC Ally was built upon. Gibson continues to be a leading industry expert for both quality control and fraud detection services.

Gibson’s business intelligence for loan quality sets the standard for driving the manufacturing and process of improvement for origination and servicing. Her exper tise and understanding of how to integrate technology to ensure adherence to best practices and underwriting guidelines mean QC Ally partners can trust the accuracy of their service.

Gibson has a passion for youth growth and devel opment. She created a nonprofit, K-BALP, that supports community youth development by opening doors through sports scholarships.

What has been the secret to your success?

Being grateful and making the most of every day through growth and building personal connections.

Chase Gilbert CEO Built Technologies

CEO OF BUILT TECHNOLOGIES CHASE GILBERT has taken on entrenched complacency in a $1.6 trillion industry and gotten more than 170 of the nation’s biggest construction lenders to embrace the idea that construc tion financing could be smarter. He did this by creating a solution that didn’t just offer to streamline one or two processes or save money in managing construction loans. Instead, he developed a platform that reimagined con struction commerce to answer lenders’ biggest concerns.

Gilbert’s leadership empowers and enables his teams to work towards an innovative culture focused on fixing lending and spending for the entire construction finance ecosystem. He is committed to a workplace that values open communication and honest collaboration while maintaining a positive attitude and passion for solving complex problems. In doing so, he has created a team of individuals who are collaborating in a unique workplace environment, all toward the same goal of revolutionizing the industry.

M. Ryan Gorman

CEO

Coldwell Banker Real Estate

AS THE CEO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate, M. Ryan Gorman has efficiently guided the nation’s oldest and most established real estate company to launch new con sumer products designed for sellers as they prepare their homes for today’s housing market. During times of uncer tainty and high volatility, Gorman leveraged his leader ship platform to offer insight and guidance to consumers and the industry, alleviating fears and educating the pub lic on the real estate market. Under Gorman’s leadership, Coldwell Banker has spearheaded an innovative path into the 21st century, generating revolutionary initiatives to better support agents and consumers.

An advocate for increasing DE&I within the real estate industry and opening the path to homeownership for all, Gorman conceived the brand’s Inclusive Ownership program, an industry-first program aimed at increasing the diverse demographics of franchise affiliate owners that includes financial benefits and a robust mentoring program.

What has been your secret to success?

I strive daily to be worthy of our people. It is humbling to serve the most legendary brand in real estate. For more than 116 years, Coldwell Banker’s founding principles of honesty, integrity and service have been our north star, and I never forget that. We have built on this foundation with technology, tools and programs that will allow our agents to shine for centuries to come.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

Stay focused on the customer.

Jeff Gravelle Chief Production Officer

Newrez

JEFF GRAVELLE, the chief production officer at Newrez, has more than 20 years of industry experience and has managed and led capital markets, sales and trading platforms through a range of market environ ments. His resume has provided him with a wide range of skills that he uses daily in his current position. Today Gravelle drives success by his leadership and ability to tackle the most difficult challenges facing the industry and Newrez. Having led Newrez production channels to record growth levels, Gravelle’s commitment to objective decision-making has made him a great partner through the Caliber acquisition as well.

Gravelle joined NRZ – soon to be Rithm Capital Corp. and the parent of Newrez – to manage a range of the fund’s mortgage assets in January 2020. Under his direction, Gravelle scaled all businesses to maximize opportunity but specifically built a marketing and DTC platform that achieved industry-leading recapture rates in less than 12 months.

Heather Harmon

Co-Head ODHB Opendoor

HEATHER HARMON is an innovator and technolo gist at heart, developing digital experiences and solu tions to empower homebuyers. As the co-founder and former chief operating officer of RedDoor, a digital-first mortgage brokerage acquired by Opendoor in 2021, Harmon was responsible for the organization’s growth and operations. Now she has been working to lead her team in the launch of the new Opendoor financing app that enables consumers to get mortgage preapproval in less than two minutes, providing buyers with more sim plicity and certainty.

A fearless leader at heart, Harmon embodies a men tality of constantly pushing boundaries to amplify the customer experience through product innovation, auto mation and AI, all while leading a team of innovators passionate about creating solutions to address customer pain points.

What has been the secret to your success?

Steve Jobs once said, “Don’t hire smart people and then tell them what to do,‘’ and I’ve made that my own personal leadership mantra.

Success cannot be achieved without an incredible team — and I’ve been lucky to work with extraor dinary people over the years. Because of this, I’m constantly looking for ways to appreciate and inspire my team. We should never take for granted the way things have always been or we miss the opportunity to innovate and truly make a differ ence. I remind myself every day to stay curious, push the boundaries and challenge the status quo.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Chris Heller

Chief Real Estate Officer

OJO Labs

AS CHIEF REAL ESTATE OFFICER at OJO Labs, Chris Heller oversees all of the company’s industry partnerships and relationships, including an agent referral network of more than 30,000 of the industry’s top agents. With more than three decades of experience in real estate, Heller brings extensive expertise to the role, having held influ ential industry positions, including CEO at Mellohome and former CEO at Keller Williams Realty International.

Heller earned his real estate license when he was 20 years old and built one of the most successful real estate teams in the U.S. From being named Rookie of the Year in 1989 to becoming the top-producing agent in San Diego County and the No. 1 Keller Williams associate in all of North America, Heller has dedicated his career to sup porting agents and helping consumers achieve successful homeownership. Since joining OJO Labs, Heller’s vision and leadership have helped grow the company from an up-and-coming start-up to an industry leader.

Mat Ishbia

President and CEO United Wholesale Mortgage

MAT ISHBIA is the president and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage, the No. 1 wholesale mortgage lender in the nation for seven years running and the No. 2 mortgage lender in the nation. Under Ishbia’s leadership, UWM has become one of the most innovative lenders in the industry.

With his focus on supporting independent mortgage brokers across the country and growing the wholesale channel, Ishbia has taken UWM from a 12-person com pany to a 9,000-person team working together on one campus in Pontiac, Michigan. At the end of 2019, UWM broke the all-time record of wholesale volume in one year with over $107.7 billion in mortgage originations, while holding its title as the fastest-growing mortgage compa ny in America. And in January 2021, Ishbia took UWM public in the largest SPAC deal ever, shining a spotlight on the entire wholesale mortgage channel and elevating the status and value of brokers nationwide.

A willingness to do whatever it takes and not be stopped, or even slowed, by my fears. I can deal with fear faster than most people. Early in my career, I was terrified of making cold calls, but I just went out and did it. When I became a com pany leader, I quickly conquered a fear of public speaking to the point where I became a keynote at major industry events.

What has been the secret to your success?

Do what’s right, all the time. At UWM, we’ve believed in the broker channel from the beginning, and we never let other people sway us away from that. I’m a firm believer that once you know something is right, you need to live by it and go all in with it.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

Kuba Jewgieniew

Chief Experience Officer and Founder Realty ONE Group

KUBA JEWGIENIEW, chief experience officer and founder at Realty ONE Group, is a visionary entrepre neur and a modern-day pioneer in the real estate indus try. He created a national franchise brand that challenges boundaries, welcomes all, focuses on success and gener ously gives back to communities and causes everywhere.

Since Jewgieniew started Realty ONE Group in 2005, he has been a relentless advocate of the real estate pro fession, creating a 100% commission model for the com pany, while at the same time providing Realtors with the coaching, tools and support they need to be successful. He is a passionate leader who inspires legions of pro fessionals with his relentless drive for success. He also demonstrates courage and compassion daily by innovat ing, giving generously and sharing a love for Realty ONE Group affiliates, their clients, friends and family every where. For his contributions to the industry and beyond, Jewgieniew has been repeatedly named an RISMedia Real Estate Newsmaker and a Swanepoel Power 200 industry leader.

What has been the secret to your success?

When you’ve come from very little, you never forget. I practice gratitude daily and am always thankful for what I have at my core — my family, intimate friendships, a job and a company that I’m passionate about. There is nothing more important than the opportunity to positively affect people and create change.

Jay Jones

Executive Vice President, Servicing Mr. Cooper Group

AS A COMPANY, Mr. Cooper Group’s main goal is to keep the dream of homeownership alive. Since joining the team in 2019, Executive Vice President of Servicing Jay Jones has been doing exactly that by focusing on growing Mr. Cooper’s portfolio while delivering greater value and a better experience for customers. Jones has more than 25 years of experience in the mortgage in dustry in various key leadership roles; today he leads the company’s full servicing organization with more than 3.9 million customers and more than 4,000 team members.

As Mr. Cooper continues to focus on becoming a $1 trillion servicer, Jones has led the team to increase the company’s portfolio by approximately 12% in loan vol ume and approximately 20% in unpaid principal bal ances since stepping into his leadership role last year.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Take a bet on yourself and the team, and sign up to tackle challenges, no matter how big or small. As a leader, you must prioritize teamwork and be part of finding solutions to accomplish greatness. Celebrate the team for achievements, and take responsibility if it fails.

Tawn Kelley President Taylor Morrison Home Funding

TAYLOR MORRISON HOME FUNDING President

Tawn Kelley began in the mortgage industry over 35 years ago. In that time, she has gone from entry-level roles through entrepreneurial success to now leading financial services at one of the largest public home builders in the United States. She learned early on in her career to prior itize strategy, organizational alignment, working norms, teams and processes. She firmly believes in transparent leadership and consistently shares information with her team to foster a sense of trust and provide motivation.

Kelley has been a true inspiration to her team in this ever-changing mortgage and housing environment, and she has displayed many behaviors indicative of a true leader during these unprecedented times. Kelley is regularly challenges the status quo, pushing her leaders to think differently, innovate and shift to ensure best-inclass business practices and an unparalleled customer experience.

Jarred Kessler

CEO and Founder EasyKnock

JARRED KESSLER, CEO and founder of EasyKnock, is an industry thought leader and vision-driven entrepre neur with a mission to redefine the real estate industry and empower American homeowners to achieve per sonal and financial success. Through his leadership, professional excellence and guidance, Kessler has led EasyKnock through a year of immense growth. He in creased strategic partnerships with real estate agents, brokerages, home builders and others by offering their clients access to sale-leaseback products and helped partners broaden their customer bases.

Kessler led EasyKnock through the completion of a $57 million Series C funding round in 2022 and launched several strategic initiatives, including the acquisition of FarmlandFinder, the first online sale-leaseback platform for farmland. Additionally, Kessler has led the team in broadening its overall customer base, aiming to expand the reach of Americans who benefit from innovative solu tions, helping them to take control of their finances and plan for the future.

What has been the secret to your success?

A commitment to growing and giving opportuni ties for others to grow. Approach every shift as a gift to make a difference. Learn from challenges and lead our team with purpose. Together we can overcome anything.

What has been the secret to your success?

Having grit above all else. It is imperative that you have a resilient spirit and perseverance in whatev er you are working toward.

Aaron King

CEO and Founder Snapdocs

AFTER MORE THAN 20 YEARS of experience in the mortgage industry, Snapdocs CEO Aaron King knows closings to be the most critical and complex point of every mortgage transaction. He believes in the power of tech nology to solve the underlying fragmentation problem and unlock the value of real estate for everyone. King has put this belief front and center as he drove new initiatives to empower lenders and the industry on their journey toward a true digital mortgage. While the industry has talked about the potential of digital closings for a long time, this potential has only been realized within the last few years.Snapdocs is now used in 20% of all real estate transactions. King has played a critical role in leading this movement over the past year, introducing new inno vations that pull the entire industry forward and driving real results for lenders nationwide.

Chris Knight CEO Opteon

CHRIS KNIGHT has served as group CEO of Opteon since 2016, overseeing offices in three countries and 20 acquisitions. Knight serves as a strong leader for Opteon’s diverse employee base. Since moving to the U.S. from Australia, Knight has been integral in adapt ing innovative technology for U.S. markets that results in two-day turn times. And Knight has driven the nearly 40% growth of the U.S. client base during the course of the last year.

As a leader, his boundless energy and strategic ap proach to improving processes and procedures proved to be the linchpin to Opteon’s success in navigating the in dustry’s high order volume. Knight’s commitment to clear lines of communication and full transparency endears him to Opteon’s employees and clients alike. During Opteon’s monthly all-company meetings, employees have full autonomy to pepper him with questions — no topic is off-limits.

What has been the secret to your success?

A regular cadence of self-reflection and honesty about my strengths and weaknesses.

The right people are in the right places. Invest in your employees, put the right people in the right roles and encourage and nurture opportunities for growth.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

Len Krupinski

Chief Operating Officer

Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp.

LEN KRUPINSKI, chief operating officer at Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp., leads incredibly diverse teams, from capital markets to credit and risk. Krupinski presciently contributes to the management of underwrit ing resources. Under his guidance, Fairway had pushed that team to work remotely prior to the COVID-19 pan demic so Fairway was already prepared for that indus try-wide shift. Fairway was in a strategic position to hire additional underwriters expeditiously as volume grew and its systems were already prepared for remote on boarding, training and production. Speed to respond is a core value of Fairway. Krupinski has been able to pivot its secondary strategy without impacting the company’s sales force and customers by finding alternative liquidity sources to sell loans. Over the past year, Krupinski em powered his team to make quick decisions and execute changes with an emphasis on this speed to respond.

What has been the secret to your success?

The ability to listen and learn. I am humble but smart and always available to hear from my teams. Most importantly, when it’s needed most, I’m not afraid to adapt and change to stay ahead of the market shifts.

Rose Lally

Chief Information Security Officer and Vice President of Governance and Control Altisource

IN THE TIMES WE LIVE IN, where data is a differenti ator and the lifeblood for most businesses, Rose Lally is the steward and protector of data for over a dozen business es under the Altisource umbrella and for all of its clients as well. As the chief information security officer and vice president of governance and controls, Lally takes com pliance very seriously and runs a tight ship to ensure the integrity of the Altisource businesses and the safety of client and customer data. Lally also leads several other teams to round out ownership of all things information security and governance and control for Altisource.

In 2020 Lally participated in a Business Continuity Planning and Execution During a Pandemic event spon sored by the Mortgage Bankers Association and contin ues to provide leadership with Altisource’s COVID-19 pandemic response plan.

Lally is a member of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) and is a certified in formation security manager. She is also an advocate for increasing the number of women getting into the cy bersecurity field and has spoken at several Women in Technology conferences.

Shelley Leonard President Xactus

Pamela Liebman

President and CEO The Corcoran Group

XACTUS President Shelley Leonard has had a successful career that spans over 25 years. She has extensive exec utive experience in leading companies to drive growth, improve performance, increase market share, launch successful new products, expand into adjacent markets, manage M&A activity and more. She is considered a rock star performer in every position she has held. At Black Knight, she served as chief product and digital officer and led the servicing technologies business, including the MSP loan servicing solution, a business with over $800 million of revenue. Today she is leading the charge by guiding Xactus through its culmination of acquisitions and working to redefine the way mortgage verification services are delivered.

Leonard is a role model who is respected by her peers and colleagues, and is on the forefront of an industry movement to advance rather stagnant processes and de velop innovative workflows and technologies to accom modate a more consumer-centric mortgage experience.

PAMELA LIEBMAN is the president and chief executive officer of The Corcoran Group and oversees the firm’s 5,700 affiliated agents and employees, and a range of high-impact corporate projects. Under her strategic direction, Liebman transformed Corcoran into one of the nation’s most successful and prestigious real estate firms, achieving record sales of more than $23 billion annually. Responsible for some of the most high-profile new development projects in the history of New York City, including personally overseeing the record-setting sales at 220 Central Park South, Liebman has cemented her position as one of the most discerning visionaries in New York City real estate.

After taking the bold step to launch its affiliate net work in 2021, Corcoran was recognized as Realogy’s fastest-growing brand. It now operates in over 40 mar kets and spans the country from Hawaii to Westchester County, New York.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

I was once told to always remember the “why” — why we choose to work in the mortgage busi ness — which is to help people buy homes and make sound financial decisions. It is important to remember that “why,” especially when the market and lending environment becomes challenging.

What has been the secret to your success?

Great leadership starts by empowering the individual.

Kosta Ligris

CEO and Co-Founder

Stavvy

KOSTA LIGRIS, CEO and co-founder of Stavvy, aims to evolve the industry by digitizing the mortgage process to create more efficiencies for the businesses involved and deliver a better experience for consumers. Ligris is a constant innovator and industry veteran who founded Stavvy to deliver a solution that was built with the mort gage industry in mind, enabling lenders, services and title and settlement businesses to streamline their workflows. Stavvy’s solutions remove the paper to make processing mortgages more automated.

While many tech start-up founders come from tech nology industries, Ligris had a storied career within the mortgage industry before starting Stavvy. Having owned a title and settlement business for almost 20 years, he understands the unique challenges that come with pro cessing mortgages and is excited by the opportunity to reduce the use of paper by digitizing the process.

Alex Lofton

Co-Founder and President

Landed

ALEX LOFTON is the president and co-founder of Landed. The company is on a mission to help essential workers build financial security by unlocking the power of homeownership. Since founding Landed in 2015, Lofton has led Landed to help more than 1,000 essential workers access homeownership through its unique down payment assistance program (DPP) and other homebuy ing services.

Lofton is the embodiment of professional excellence and leadership. He has seen the company through all foundational moments of growth, including fundraising $140 million to date and the company’s latest series B raise of $31 million. He is focused on continuing to scale Landed’s flagship shared equity down payment program to stimulate positive change for a specific segment of working Americans.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

My late father taught me to believe in people and to do things for others while expecting little or nothing in return. It’s important to help others because you should and not because you have an agenda.

Always ask. I’m an asker. I have a strong habit of asking others for help. In return, I always try to re spond with an enthusiastic “of course!” whenever someone asks me for my help or participation.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

Michael Lucarelli

CEO and Co-Founder RentSpree

MICHAEL LUCARELLI is the CEO and co-founder of RentSpree, known today in all 50 states for its easyto-use tenant screening process, renter management, partnership program, rental screening API and overall rental solutions. RentSpree has grown its database by partnering with over 250 of the most trusted names in real estate, and it has reached a million users.

Under Lucarelli’s leadership, RentSpree became the industry’s holistic rental management software provider, offering 10 property technology features equipping real estate professionals with the resources to streamline all rental processes and generate new deals. RentSpree took an antiquated system of paper rental applications and cut down time initially by creating digital software. With over one million users reached this year and a post-money valuation for Series A of $53 million, RentSpree is the future of renting in real estate.

What has been the secret to your success?

I know that building a great company is impossi ble to do without forming a team of great people. For that reason, we are very deliberate throughout the hiring process to ensure a strong culture fit as we grow bigger.

Gene Lugat

Executive Vice President

PrimeLending

AN INDUSTRY VETERAN with more than 35 years of experience, Gene M. Lugat has a relentless passion and servant’s heart that results in tremendous benefits for PrimeLending. In Lugat’s current role as executive vice president of national production strategies and multicul tural lending, those who work with him often describe him as driven, dedicated, empowering and unstoppable. Across the PrimeLending organization, Lugat has made a powerful and lasting impact as a results-oriented leader, talent developer and culture ambassador.

Lugat leads the company’s efforts to develop and promote homeownership in traditionally underserved markets. Under Lugat’s leadership, the company has a diversified approach that is the product of years of work, research and foresight. Lugat and his team constantly innovate and evolve to proactively address consumer needs and create sustainable wealth one diverse house hold at a time.

What has been the secret to your success?

Leadership is about collaboration. That’s why I strive to surround myself with great people and let them do their jobs.

William Lyons

CEO and President

Griffin Funding

GRIFFIN FUNDING CEO and President William (Bill) Lyons’s career in mortgage and real estate has been ded icated to serving the self-employed and veterans. Lyons has been on Shark Tank and serves on the Forbes Real Estate Council, and his company, Griffin Funding, has been recognized by Inc. 5000 four times. Lyons has helped prepare Griffin Funding so the organization could pivot its marketing and focus even in a changing market. He is a leader who truly cares about his people, clients, veterans and community and has ensured that he gives back to that community by donating a portion of all VA loan revenue to Shelter to Soldier, which rescues dogs from shelters and then trains them to be service dogs for combat veterans with PTSD.

Benjamin Madick Co-Founder and CEO

Matic Insurance

BENJAMIN MADICK is the co-founder and CEO of Matic Insurance, a digital P&C insurance marketplace built for the mortgage industry. Under his leadership, Matic has simplified homeowners insurance for consum ers, lenders and servicers — trailblazing the concept of “embedded insurance” and creating a buying process that fits naturally within the homeownership experience. Madick exemplifies professional excellence and lead ership by empowering his team to fulfill Matic’s vision, fostering an environment where employees can thrive and supporting humanitarian causes through the Matic Cares Foundation. Madick’s visionary leadership and expertise have propelled Matic from a small start-up to a high-growth insurtech leader with over 250 employ ees — a 40% increase in employee headcount since last year. In the last 12 months, Matic’s unbiased insurance platform has grown to 45 A-rated home and auto carri ers across 50 states, allowing consumers to shop for the best rates and coverage and saving them an average of $642 per year.

Making the first 15 minutes of my day really count. It sets me up for the day and the week. This has helped me become more productive, focused and patient.

The difference between good entrepreneurs and great entrepreneurs is the ability to objectively assess where you are vs. where you want to be — something that I evaluate regularly. I’ve found that it’s important to be ruthless about self-awareness, both personally and in business.

What has been the secret to your success?

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

Sandra Madigan

Chief Digital Officer Black Knight

SANDRA MADIGAN is leading Black Knight’s efforts towards digital transformation in mortgages by concept ing and supporting the development of numerous digital capabilities that provide for a better customer experience through instant access to information; the ability to start the loan process anywhere, anytime; and the ability for borrowers to continue interacting with servicers digitally after the loan closes. These efforts also include digital solutions that help improve operations for Black Knight’s clients — from loan prequalification and approval to pro cessing, closing, servicing and beyond.

Madigan leverages her broad set of skills, in-depth knowledge and experience in mortgage banking to drive game-changing innovation as the key to success for Black Knight. By leading Black Knight, and the mort gage industry, in the adoption and understanding of Lean Agile and design-thinking principles that Madigan has pioneered, Black Knight’s digital product development has become significantly more efficient and collabora tive for more intuitive, user-friendly products and faster speed-to-market.

Scott Martino CEO Endpoint

NEVER SATISFIED with the status quo, Endpoint CEO Scott Martino has leveraged his more than two decades of settlement experience at one of the nation’s largest title companies to build a unique digital real estate closing experience from the ground up. Since its launch in 2018, Martino has overseen the development of Endpoint’s in novative technology. Today it comprises a national title and settlement platform that integrates digital technol ogy built specifically for the purchase transaction and the experience of seasoned closing specialists to deliver consistency, security and cost savings at scale to prop tech companies, investors and tech-forward real estate brokerages.

Under Martino’s leadership, Endpoint has continued to grow, introducing new proprietary features and in creasing automation to provide an even more efficient closing experience, while shifting to a business model that offers dedicated closing specialists within a centralized transaction experience.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Our careers would be better served by not focus ing on a straight-line career growth path, but by making as many lateral moves as possible within our organizations to round out our skills.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Fall in love with the problem. Don’t fall in love with the solution.

Christopher Mayer CEO Longbridge Financial

CHRISTOPHER MAYER IS THE CEO OF Longbridge Financial and professor of finance at Columbia Business School. Mayer has guided Longbridge’s development as a fast-growing reverse mortgage business with a focus on customer service, responsible lending, product cre ation and technological adoption. Under his leadership, Longbridge has grown from a start-up to the third largest securitizer of HMBS securities in the U.S. Mayer also teaches real estate and real estate finance at Columbia Business School, where he previously served as senior vice dean. His research explores topics in real estate and financial markets, including housing cycles, mortgage markets, reverse mortgagesr, debt securitiza tion and commercial real estate valuation. Mayer has advised policymakers on the financial crisis, testifying six times before committees of the U.S Senate and House of Representatives, writing on the causes of the housing and credit bubbles for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and authoring numerous op-ed articles on housing and credit makrets. He is frequently quoted in the media, in cluding the New York Times and CNBC. As a professor, he served on the school’s executive committee and pro motion and tenure committee.

Mary Ann McGarry

President and CEO Guild Holdings Co.

MARY ANN MCGARRY IS THE CEO and a director of Guild Holdings Co. and serves as a member of the or ganization’s board of managers. Prior to becoming CEO, McGarry served in a number of leadership positions at Guild Mortgage, including president, chief financial of ficer and chief operations officer.

McGarry joined Guild Mortgage CO. in 1984 as an internal audit supervisor. Prior to joining Guild Mortgage, she worked as an accountant at Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Co. In addition to her role at Guild Holdings, McGarry serves as a member of the board of directors of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), representing the Guild Giving Foundation, a nonprofit organization, and is a member of Fannie Mae’s advisory council.

What has been the secret to your success?

Creating a culture of listening, where everyone is genuinely heard. We find solutions together, engaging eople to contribute and analyzing data about how we can be better.

Steve Meirink

Executive Vice President and General Manager

Wolters Kluwer

STEVE MEIRINK, executive vice president and general manager at Wolters Kluwer, has a laser-sharp focus on building a global team that enables lenders to leverage technology that simplifies and automates long-standing manual processes in the residential mortgage business. His passion fuels enthusiasm and buy-in from colleagues, customers, business partners and stakeholders taking part in the digital transformation journey.

After seven years at Wolters Kluwer, Meirink is respon sible for the overall strategy and P&L for Compliance Solutions’ operating portfolio covering the banking, lend ing, insurance and brokerage markets. He has overseen exponential growth for the business in revenue over the past few years.

What has been the secret to your success?

As a leader, it’s been critical to help employees understand—and embrace—how their individual contributions contribute to the broader mission of the business.

Marc Minor

Founder and CEO Higharc

MARC MINOR IS the founder and CEO of Higharc, a homebuilding automation platform changing how new homes are designed, sold and built. Minor found ed Higharc in 2018 to dispatch technological solutions that ease pain points plaguing the $405B US residential homebuilding industry, pain points Minor felt himself when designing and building his family’s own home. He has grown the business significantly since its launch, and as of June 2022, 31 communities actively use Higharc. Higharc is on track to grow over 200% year over year for the next three years.

Under Minor’s leadership, Higharc has raised $25.8 million in capital since its inception. Higharc customers built hundreds of homes faster and more efficiently in 2022. This year, homebuilders using Higharc saw an 80% faster plan configuration.

What has been the secret to your success?

Collaboration is the key to successful campaigns.

James O’Bryon

CEO

RE/MAX Gold

JAMES O’BRYON, CEO of RE/MAX Gold, has guid ed the company for more than 24 years. His leadership has seen the organization expand from five offices and 100 agents to 121 offices with 2,500 agents. His inge nious view of the real estate world has led to exponential growth and an extraordinary environment designed for successful agents, staff and essential services partners.

O’Bryon has led the company through many tough times across the years, including the Great Recession, and emerged with an organization that was smarter, healthier and better poised for growth and support. With a strong ability to identify talent, O’Bryon can see value and potential in anyone. His desire and drive brings out the excellence in all with whom he works.

What has been the secret to your success?

Surrounding myself with phenomenally talented individuals. This group drives each other to be better each day and in turn has contributed to my success.

Pete Pannes

Chief Business Officer Covius

PETE PANNES HAS PLAYED a leading role in repo sitioning and growing Covius from a company focused on outsourced origination into a diversified provider of tech-enabled solutions to the mortgage, finance and capital markets. As chief business officer for covius, he has overseen a 300% growth in business in the last three years while the company pivoted to tech-enabled services.

Since Pannes joined Covius in 2015, Covius divested of its fulfillment network and pivoted to investing in tech nology and tech-enabled solutions to meet the indus try’s changing needs. Pannes led the organization’s client and revenue growth through four strategic acquisitions: reQuire Holdings, Chronos, Clayton and most recently Nationwide Title Clearing. Covius’s reach across the indsutry has also grown through client-driven strategic platform partnerships in the last year, and the company has been recognized as a HousingWire Tech 100 for the last four years.

What has been the secret to your success?

Preparation. It could be dialing in one’s product or process knowledge, specifics about a market place or a competitive situation or even how you prepare for a number of contingencies that may produce a problem or challenge.

Kevin Pezzani

Chief Operating Officer Supreme Lending

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER KEVIN PEZZANI is a leader who truly listens to and invests in people. He is known for his sincere efforts to make Supreme Lending employees feel heard and valued, and he does this by following through with simple, yet impactful tactics such as writing daily thank-you emails, making weekly checkin calls, holding monthly company meetings and leading quaterly department town halls — all with a genuine in terest in listening to what is and is not working.

He does this for all the employees of Supreme Lending — no matter their job role — and they trust him to not only consider their opinions, but to take action on their ideas. Wherever possible, he turns employee feedback into opportunities for professional growth.

Since joining Supreme Lending in April 2021, Pezzani’s excellence in leadership has shown in his strategic over sight to streamline the company’s operational processes and infastructure and in his collaborative efforts to set industry-leading standards throughout the organization.

Kristi Pickering

President Academy Mortgage

AS PRESIDENT of Academy Mortgage, Kristi Pickering’s primary focus is on the implementation of strat egies to support the company’s long-term vision. She has been instrumental in streamlining processes and imple menting technology to increase speed and efficiency to enhance the overall lending experience. Having served in every operations role over her 28-year mortgage ca reer, Pickering has acquired invaluable knowledge and experience. This experience enables her to see the big picture in her role as president.

Pickering is committed to helping her Academy family continue to inspire hope, deliver dreams and build pros perity. The launch of Academy’s social impact program provides her team members with the tools and resources they need to inspire hope within their communities by serving in ways that are meaningful to them.

Stay true to yourself. Watch how others lead, study how leaders in history handled situa tions and dissect characteristics of successful individuals.

I believe it is so important to begin every day with a morning routine. So each morning, I wake up before the sunrise to get a workout in, as it helps me to start my day with a boost of energy and positivity. I also set the tone for the day by creating a clear action plan on what I need to accomplish in the day ahead.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Tom Piercy

Managing Director

Incenter Mortgage Advisors

TOM PIERCY serves as managing director of Incenter Mortgage Advisors. Piercy has positioned his traders and analysts to handle an unprecedented volume of transac tions, deadlines and analytic work. Having 36 years of experience in trading MSR has enabled Piercy to antici pate the active MSR trading environment.

Incenter Mortgage Advisors, under Piercy’s leader ship, has been a major facilitator of the exceptionally high volume of MSR trading. Piercy’s role has been to harness the firm’s in-depth capabilities in the valuation and hedging of MSR assets. Piercy has also spearheaded development of Incenter’s eMSR Precision Pricing tool to support the guidance they offer. This technology resource provides real-time, loan-level pricing options to sellers that allow them to deliver “all-or-nothing” to one buyer or split their pool among multiple buyers to achieve the maximum possible price.

Andy Pollock CEO Anchor Loans

FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS, Andy Pollock has built and led strong, sustainable organizations in the mort gage and capital markets sectors. Pollock joined Anchor Loans, in 2020, as chief operating officer, and assumed the reins of CEO later that year.

In his first full year as CEO, Anchor’s volume increased from $1 billion per year to $1.8 billion, even as its work force continued to work remotely due to California’s COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

Pollock’s performance at Anchor is the latest in a long series of successes at financial services, mortgage com panies and start-ups. In late 2021, he led the negoti ations that resulted in Anchor’s acquisition by Pretium Partners, a specialized investment management com pany. Additionally over the course of the year, under Pollock’s leadership Anchor has expanded its national sales organization, decreased its loan concentration in California markets, expanded its executive leadership team and so much more.

What has been the secret to your success?

I value honesty above all else. It’s important to be strategic and understand what move to make at the right time,but any action must be morally and ethically correct and executed with extreme honesty.

The secret to my success had nothing to do with me, but with everyone around me. Hire the best, retain the best and promote the best. I have a keen sense for recruiting, commitment and nurturing top talent.

What has been the secret to your success?

Steve Price

Executive Vice President, Foreclosure Auction Services Auction.com

STEVE PRICE, executive vice president of foreclosure auction services at Auction.com, is a transformational executive who pioneered new methods in foreclosure sales pricing, marketing and auctions during the 2008 downturn. Today he continues to innovate and improve outcomes in foreclosure through the development of key buyer enablement tools and services that have made a meaningful difference to Auction.com and the industry it serves. In the past two years, Price has overseen the strategy behind Foreclosure Remote Bid, a feature on the Auction.com mobile app that allows users to place a bid on select foreclosure auctions from anywhere. Price also serves as the co-chair of Auction.com’s Workforce Culture and Development Committee, which focuses on improving the development and opportunities for associ ates within the company and the communities they serve.

Developing a keen eye for identifying the talent within as well as outside of my organization, setting the vision and empowering associates and teams to accomplish their goals.

Tammy Richards CEO LendArch

AS CEO AT LENDARCH, Tammy Richard’s goal is to automate the mortgage process end to end, make the homebuying process easier and more accessible for all and reduce the wealth gap through homeownership.

A 37-year career veteran, Richards continues to stay at the forefront of automation and digitization. She custom ized the first automated processing system, Mortracs, and is developing several systems that make homeownership accessible to all.

Richards provides the intellectual property and exper tise when architecting new systems. Her reputation and relationships in the industry have provided opportunities for strategic partnerships with the best and brightest in the industry. She plans to leave the industry better than she found it, so she mentors and trains future leaders. Richards currently assists lenders with efficiencies, reductions in cost and automation to improve her clients’ business.

What has been the secret to your success?

Pete Roeske

AmeriHome Mortgage

PETE ROESKE, executive vice president of retail lending at AmeriHome Mortgage, has more than 40 years of experience in financial services. Using his skills and lead ership, he is fortifying AmeriHome’s Consumer Lending production channel, launching a new distributed retail lending production channel and building affinity relation ships within the company and industry. He is the key driver in helping AmeriHome seek new opportunities being built on the exceptional AmeriHome foundation.Roeske has the unique ability to re-imagine current business models and implement action strategies that provide innovative solutions based on his years of industry knowledge. The current market presents unique challenges and Roeske faces these challenges head-on and pivots the business in order to make the company successful.

Sean Ryan CEO

Aspen Grove Solutions

AS CEO OF ASPEN GROVE SOLUTIONS, Sean Ryan constantly challenges the status quo of the mort gage servicing industry to innovate, modernize and dig itize. He pushes Aspen Grove to become more efficient and ensure better outcomes for all stakeholders, including homeowners. Through Ryan’s leadership, Aspen Grove has provided solutions to the industry for 25 years, and it has remained an independent technology solution provider. Ryan has driven Aspen Grove’s homeowner engagement technology, enabling any servicer to im plement simple journeys to ensure their borrowers can interact over the life of the loan. Ryan is driving the indus try forward by the launch of these solutions and the push for constant improvement in technology and in servicing operations.

Outside of work, Ryan is involved in many trade asso ciations and local charities, including a group to build sports and recreation facilities for his local community.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Don’t be dead right. Listen, know your audience and respond in an appropriate style. Be able to impact everyone in the room. Understand the situation, the real question and solve the problem. And never complain without offering a solution. My dad told me that.

What has been the secret to your success?

Belief and stickability. Belief in our team, our tech nology and our direction to help the industry for the better, and sticking to it over 25 years.

Executive Vice President of Retail Lending

Priscilla Salud

Chief Operating Officer Archwell

WITH MORE THAN 25 YEARS of experience in mort gage, Priscilla Salud is the epitome of a humble leader and has mentored over 30 individuals who have gone on to leadership positions inside and outside the mort gage industry. She started her career as a file clerk and held every single position along the way to her current position. Now she leads everything from HR to Archwell’s global operations in India and Southeast Asia. Salud’s authentic leadership style, ability to build effective teams, strategic operational outsourcing expertise and focus on technology initiatives are key drivers in Archwell’s success.

Salud has played a pivotal role in the growth at Archwell. She has helped expand the team to over 2,000 employ ees in 2022. As a result of her efforts, Archwell has had a 280% increase of overall revenue from 2021 to 2022.

Dave Savage

Chief Innovation Officer Sales Boomerang and Mortgage Coach

AS THE FOUNDER AND CEO of Mortgage Coach, Dave Savage launched a first-of-its-kind technology that empowers lenders to educate borrowers about their financing options with interactive presentations that com pare loan performance over time. Savage is committed to helping all of his borrowers achieve the best financing outcome with personalized mortgage advice. It trans formed their lives and his — propelling him through the ranks as a top-producing loan officer.

Savage founded Mortgage Coach so any loan offi cer could replicate his success by providing life-chang ing mortgage advice at scale. In his role, Savage has grown the firm’s customer base from a few dozen bro kers to nearly 150 enterprise mortgage lenders and led the technology platform’s innovative evolution over the years. Under Savage’s leadership, Mortgage Coach has increased its enterprise lender customer count by 48% and gained adoption by nine of the top 10 retail IMB mortgage lenders by volume.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Embrace discomfort, embrace tough situations— those that make other people cringe or want to crawl under the table. Find these moments and use them to your advantage.

What has been the secret to your success?

I am always grateful and always curious.

Rob Sayre

Chief Information Officer Amrock

ROB SAYRE is the chief information officer of Amrock. He leads the technology teams with a strong passion for innovative solutions that streamline processes and pro vide superior user experiences. Throughout his tenure at Amrock, Sayre’s teams developed technology-driven solutions, most recently announcing the launch of elec tronic closings, allowing clients to close a mortgage right from their mobile device.

Sayre’s enthusiasm for technology innovations that cre ate seamless digital experiences for clients has led his teammates to affectionately nickname him the “Paper Bully.” He pushes the idea of eliminating paper not only because of the impact that it has on the environment but also because it saves time and money. Through Sayre’s leadership, and the hard work of his team, Amrock achieved an impressive milestone of hitting one million digital closings in the fall of 2021.

Lisa Schreiber

President LSK Consultants

LISA SCHREIBER, PRESIDENT OF LSK Consultants, relies on her 30-year tenure in the industry, to be a men tor and advisor to many growing companies. She has held every position in residential mortgage originations except a direct servicer. LSK focuses on everything from technologies that improve how they present options to customers to investors purchasing loans from sellers to the sellers building their origination platforms. Schreiber has aligned those efforts to ensure quality and performance of the assets that are produced. Staying relevant is key to Schreiber’s ability to continue to grow and maintain her business.

Outside of her direct responsibilities, Schreiber is board member and has traveled with The Grandmother Project, an NGO that focuses on educating elderly women to improve the lives of women and children, strengthening communities in Africa and around the world. Additionally, she is an MBA member and part of the Loan Production Committee.

What has been the secret to your success?

A great deal of empathy for team members, lend ers and their clients. I have a passion for finding solutions to meet the needs of all parties and to go beyond just a digital transformation.

Taking every opportunity to listen and learn from anyone that I have encountered throughout my career. If I had not learned and built those relationships, I would have never been successful building my business.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

Faith Schwartz

Founder and CEO

Housing Finance Strategies

FAITH SCHWARTZ is a leader in the housing indus try and has served in executive leadership roles for many large companies, including H&R Block, Dominion Bancshares, Freddie Mac and CoreLogic. She has founded and managed growing organizations such as HOPE LoanPort, TMC mortgage and HOPE NOW. Schwartz led the HOPE NOW Alliance through the Great Recession of 2008, working with two administrations, government agencies, banks, Wall Street firms and non profits. Today she continues to reach at-risk borrows by leading a pro-bono effort “Not Ok? That’s Ok,” a cam paign to reach at-risk borrowers through 60 banks and mortgage companies, 120 nonprofits, co-branded with the CFPB, at COVIDHELPFORHOME.org.

Schwartz is the CEO and founder of strategic adviso ry firm Housing Finance Strategies, which serves banks, mortgage companies, nonprofits and fintech companies. Her focus is on “all things housing” and modernization of the mortgage business. She hosts an annual confer ence, HOUSINGDC22, which addresses housing policy, tech modernization and regulatory issues and supports women in leadership.

Shaival Shah

Co-Founder and CEO Ribbon

RIBBON CEO and co-founder Shaival Shah under stands through personal experience the opportunity homeownership brings to individuals. He has been on a crusade to help others achieve homeownership and fight inequalities in the housing market. Shah created Ribbon, alongside co-founder Wei Gan, to empower everyday buyers with confidence and certainty through all-cash, non-contingent offers. This passion for creating equity in the homebuying process also permeates Ribbon’s work culture. Just as Ribbon is people-focused at the core of its business model, Shah has also dedicated leadership appointments to creating an inclusive and diverse work environment that is people-centered. Shah empowers tal ent acquisition teams to attract a diverse, representative pool of candidates that represents the greater commu nity Ribbon serves. Shah believes that each employee is an owner. Therefore, Shah and the leadership team are transparent about business strategy and performance, sharing board decks and other strategic information with the team.

What has been the secret to your success?

One of my leaders once said, “I have complete trust in what you are doing, and I am here solely as a resource that you may need.” It is a reminder, when you hire someone to work for you, give them the reins and be there for them.

Success is acknowledging fears, confronting them and living with the results. Shame is our percep tion of what others think, not what they believe.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

David Sheeler

Senior Executive Vice President, President of Residential Servicing and Correspondent Lending

Freedom Mortgage

DAVID SHEELER is senior executive vice president, president of residential servicing and correspondent lending, and a member of the executive leadership committee at Freedom Mortgage. Over the course of Sheeler’s tenure at Freedom Mortgage, he has launched new business lines and driven the growth of existing busi nesses to further expand the company’s market presence. Due to his experience and breadth of knowledge, Sheeler not only runs the company’s Servicing, Correspondent, Flow MSR acquisitions and EBO financing, but he is also a strategic partner, working with other senior leaders on MSR risk management, technology development and capital structuring. Sheeler has a background as a certi fied public accountant, so he understands that results mat ter. He focuses on accountability to those results. Sheeler has been instrumental in driving large-scale initiatives to digitalize the customer experience and increase customer empowerment.

Management is an upside-down pyramid. I have carried this philosophy throughout my career. I believe that if you are not available to help your team members and are not listening to what they are telling you, you will not be successful. All employees need to feel valued and need to have a purpose in doing their jobs well.

Thomas Showalter CEO Candor Technology

CANDOR CEO Thomas Showalter was a rocket scientist and a team member on NASA’s Space Shuttle program before he shifted his laser-like focus to the technology used in home lending. Showalter set out to tackle the most significant and hard-to-solve problem in mort gage manufacturing: modeling an underwriter’s critical thinking. Using his proprietary, patent-pending form of Knowledge Engineering, Candor successfully under writes a loan to the highest level of integrity with virtually no human assistance.

Showalter is the architect of the company’s Loan Engineering System and its underlying CogniTech Expert System Technology. Using cutting-edge AI technology, CogniTech thinks through issues and resolves them in real time, just like a seasoned underwriter would. Showalter’s forward-thinking mindset has enabled Candor’s Expert System AI to power the underwriting of more than 1.8 million loans with zero repurchases, delivering quality at an attainable cost.

What has been the secret to your success?

A willingness to listen. Whether it’s listening to cus tomers about their specific needs or pain points, or to colleagues about their thoughts and ideas, listening to the people around you is something I consider to be the most crucial element to success in any field.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Jeremy Sicklick

CEO and Co-Founder

HouseCanary

JEREMY SICKLICK co-founded HouseCanary in 2013 to modernize the residential real estate industry. Today he is doing just that. His team began digitizing and in dexing information about every home, every mortgage and every neighborhood across the country. With this groundbreaking data set, the HouseCanary team has built a family of next-generation valuation solutions that are powerfully detailed, predictive and accurate. Sicklick’s leadership allows HouseCanary to offers an array of property search, analysis, real estate invest ment and valuation and forecasting services that are changing the real estate market and overall homebuying experience.

Sicklick seamlessly pivoted the company to remote work and adapted to the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, while simultaneously navigating historic real estate market volatility. Despite these chal lenges, HouseCanary delivered nine quarters of sequen tial growth, increased total active customers by 50% and more than doubled revenue year over year.

Occasionally let your guard down and be com fortable being the dumbest person in the room. As we continue to build our team and scale the business, I seek out individuals to work with who are true masters of their craft, smarter, brighter and harder working than me.

Jim Smith

Senior Vice President, Maxwell Diligence Maxwell Financial Labs

A CERTIFIED MORTGAGE BANKER with over 30 years of experience, Jim Smith channels his customer-first ethos and passion for innovation into shaping technol ogy-powered solutions that drive the industry forward. Since he began leading Maxwell Diligence, a solution offering high-quality QC and due diligence for local lenders, Smith has grown its client base,improved its margins by 30% and dramatically increased employee engagement and utilization. Smith’s unwavering focus on high-quality QC and due diligence outcomes is reflected in the way he’s built the processes and teams that make up Maxwell Diligence. Today the solution employs 76 em ployees who leverage Maxwell’s technology-enabled platform to produce trusted results.

Beyond his achievements at Maxwell, Smith is an ac tive member of the Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Committee (LARAC) for the Colorado Mortgage Lenders Association, where he is committed to helping lenders better facilitate homeownership in their communities.

Embracing challenges and obstacles. An eye on the end goal and a commitment to persevering through adversity make the end accomplishment that much more rewarding.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

Desmond P. Smith

Chief Growth Officer

United Wholesale Mortgage

CURRENTLY SERVING AS CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER at United Wholesale Mortgage, Desmond P. Smith brings three decades of mortgage knowledge and experience to the table. Since joining the UWM team in 2021, Smith has been laser focused on communication and collaboration. In his role, Smith supports the strate gy and execution of keeping UWM’s clients ‘all in,’ an initiative that was launched in March 2021. Whether its traveling to brokerages around the country or welcoming clients to UWM’s campus for state-of-the art training op portunities, Smith always finds ways to ensure clients are taking full advantage of all of the tools UWM provides so they can further grow their business. Smith is the com pany’s biggest advocate for service being everyone’s responsibility. He is keen on ensuring clients receive the most elite service and works every day to empower the UWM team to do more, take ownership and grow their business.

Dan Snyder Co-Founder and CEO

Lower

AS CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, Dan Snyder has trans formed Lower from a small start-up to a successful fintech. He’s done this through strategic risk taking, building and developing a world-class team and creating a strong vision for the company. Over the past year, Snyder has been laser focused on building an elite executive team. He knows as the company continues to grow, he needs the right talent by his side to help the innovation flow. Downstream, he has been integral in helping young er team members navigate the ever changing housing market environment. Snyder is there to give a helping hand and encouraging word to these originators. From bottom to top, Snyder is working to engage with the team, create new strategic partnerships, aggressively recruit new talent, and foster an environment where everyone can thrive.

There is no place in business for emotion. Passion and conviction, yes, but not emotion.

Writing when I’m stuck. I needed to write every thing out. No one likes to write, but I gave it a shot. I just started writing out on paper what I wanted to do, what I didn’t want to do, and the words just started flowing. I learned a lot about myself through this self-reflection and what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Dan Sogorka

Chief Executive Officer Sagent

DAN SOGORKA joined Sagent in March 2020 as CEO. On Sogorka’s watch, Sagent brings the same modern “push button, get mortgage” experience lend ers and consumers get in originations to servicing, where lifetime consumer relationships are managed and grown — and where homeowner hardships must receive imme diate, digitally simplified, compassionate and compliant resolution.

Sogorka has kept Sagent ahead of those consumer and mortgage servicer expectations with several key mile stones, like establishing a partnership with the National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America (NAMMBA) to shape the future of the servicing industry to reflect and embody the diverse American population it serves. During his time at Sagent, Sogorka has drastically accelerated modernization of how banks and lenders power the homeownership and consumer lending expe rience for more than 14 million borrowers.

John G. Stevens President SRE Technologies

JOHN G. STEVENS has worked in the mortgage in dustry since 2003, first as a loan originator and now as the the president of SRE.com. In his current role, Stevens leads the development of the industry’s only multi-solution platform for the U.S. real estate industry. By creating an online destination for real estate agents and mortgage originators, and those special professionals who are li censed to do both, known as SRE Professional Experts, SRE.com is creating value for everyone in the pipeline by putting human capital into cutting-edge eCommerce.

Outside of his direct responsibilities, Stevens has served his community as president of the Rotary Club of Pleasant Grove. He has also served as chair of the Pleasant Grove Planning Commission and chair of the Utah County Planning Commission. Additionally, Stevens has been named an honorary colonel in both the Pleasant Grove Police Department and the Utah County Sheriff’s department.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

I believe my aptitude for finding and creating landmark deals with banks, lenders and fintech partners must also translate to talent: I’ve worked hard to recruit and retain one of the industry’s top executive teams who have built a Sagent culture that’s delivering our disruptive modernization vision fast.

From the time I was very young, my father told me that I was destined for greatness, so I took what he told me as truth. Over the years, it became a part of who I am. It’s not about believing that I am great, but rather that I’m supposed to do great things.

What has been the secret to your success?

David H. Stevens CEO

Mountain Lake Consulting

DAVID H. STEVENS is the CEO of Mountain Lake Consulting and a 38-year veteran of the mortgage bank ing industry. Stevens previously served as the president and CEO of Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and prior to this role, he served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at HUD. Stevens served in a variety of key industry leadership roles prior to his work in Washington, including as pres ident and chief operating officer of the Long & Foster Real Companies, executive vice president of wholesale lending at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and senior vice president in charge of single family lending at Freddie Mac.Stevens currently sits on the board of real estate investment trust Dynex and works on advisory projects in real estate finance and provides technical and strategic consultation to financial institutions and intermediaries.

Susan Sullivan

Chief Human Resources Officer

Enact Mortgage Insurance

SUSAN SULLIVAN, chief human resources officer, is a people-centric leader focused on ensuring Enact is a positive and inclusive workplace. The past year has pre sented challenges of a new caliber, and her leadership has been pivotal to Enact’s success. Sullivan consistent ly pushes for initiatives to make Enact a more inclusive, supportive and engaging workplace, making her a true vanguard at Enact.

Sullivan has led her company through an IPO and a return to office following the COVID-19 pandemic, all while managing her day-to-day responsibilities as chief human resources officer. During the IPO, Sullivan led all the HR changes that come with being a publicly traded company, such as determining executive compensation and organizing the senior leadership structure.

What has been the secret to your success?

I am never one to let something lie. Far too many in our business find ways to delay doing what they need to do to be successful. Far too many practice perfection, which to me often delays achievement. I am a huge believer that “perfection is the enemy of the good,” and in our business we cannot afford to waste our time — we need to simply do it now.

Say yes to things you don’t think you can do. Whether it’s applying for a higher-level job, tack ling a new project or learning a new skill. Say yes to the scary stuff. Be scared and do it anyway.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

Steve Sussman

Chief Business Development Nationwide Appraisal Network

IT IS NOT EASY to effect change and deliver rapid growth at a well-established company, but that is exactly what Steve Sussman has done on behalf of Nationwide Appraisal Network (NAN), a nationwide AMC in busi ness since 2008. As the chief business development of ficer, Sussman overesees the teams that are responsible for all sales, marketing and revenue-generating activities.

In 2021, Sussman oversaw an expansion that included establishing business relationships with three new top10 lenders and generating two-times year-over-year revenue growth at the organization. This is especially noteworthy, as it follows 2x growth that took place under Sussman’s leadership in 2020.

Under Sussman’s leadership, NAN has onboarded more than 1,000 new lender and broker partners with more than 400 new lenders and brokers onboarded in 2022. This incredible growth is driven by efforts from Sussman’s teams to build meaningful relationships and to establish consistent branding and messaging related to NAN, its mission and its initiatives.

What has been the secret to your success?

Listen more than you speak, and when you do speak, be authentic and honest. When you have those conversations, always remember that the big, scary, ugly elephant in the room is always the best topic to discuss if you want to build a truly meaningful relationship.

Katie Sweeney CEO Association of Independent Mortgage Experts

AS THE CEO of the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME) Katie Sweeney has made monumental moves in the industry. After the 2008 finan cial crisis, mortgage brokers’ market share fell from well over 60% to single digits. Thanks to Sweeney’s leader ship, that market share has begun to recover. She has made it her mission to regain the impact of the broker channel.

Sweeney’s efforts to represent and defend the indepen dent broker channel are the very definition of leadership, coining the organization’s phrase, “We help people help more people.” Her passion for the cause and the fervency with which she advocates for the channel has inspired not just financial contributions, but real-world action as well. She has overseen the development of an AIME Member Portal, launched mentorship and job placement services, revamped AIME’s business model and ushered in a re newed focus on diversity initiatives through AIME’s Spark small business grant program.

What has been the secret to your success?

My success is directly tied to the success of those around me. I’m very proud of the teams I’ve been able to work on, lead and ultimately build. My career has been a series of start-up-style environ ments, and that world can be tough. I strive to be a bumper when things go sideways and the biggest cheerleader when things go right.

Jeff Tennyson

President and Chief Executive Officer

Lima One Capital

JEFF TENNYSON, president and chief executive offi cer of Lima One Capital, has led almost every segment of the residential mortgage industry, creating large national originators in non-prime, conforming and business pur pose lending. Tennyson is a leading CEO in the BPL indus try and has created one of the industry’s premier lenders at Lima One Capital. Since joining Lima One in 2018, Tennyson has led the company to exponential growth. His leadership has solidified the company’s national expan sion and dynamic company culture, empowering Lima One to become one of the largest private lenders in the residential real estate space.

Today Lima One Capital continues to grow under Tennyson’s leadership and is on pace through the first half of 2022 to surpass 2021’s record $1.6 billion in orig inations, despite market headwinds.

William J. Tessar President

CIVIC Financial Services

CIVIC FINANCIAL SERVICES President Bill Tessar is a one-of-a-kind leader and a once-in-a-lifetime mentor. Over the past year, he has proven yet again that he is a force to be reckoned with in the private lending space. He conquered the extraordinarily tall order of driving a private money lender through an acquisition by a publicly traded company, doing so amid a global pandemic, volatile market and ever changing financial landscape. His mastery of knowing when to lead tactically vs. strate gically has impacted the direction and continued growth of CIVIC Financial Services.

Tessar’s contributions to CIVIC and the private lending space have instilled credibility, integrity and confidence in the industry, in turn paving the way and opening doors to new opportunities. From lenders to borrowers, young professionals to mortgage veterans and Main Street to Wall Street, the impact of Tessar’s contributions has incrementally raised the bar for the entire industry. He continues to apply his 30-plus years of conventional mortgage experience and with that, continues to apply the discipline to CIVIC.

With the changes in our industry and constant volatility in the capital markets, I try to encourage our company leaders to always reflect on what we are doing as a company and to understand its impact, while not forgetting to celebrate our victories along the way. Our industry is constantly evolving, and we must be doing the same.

Don’t ever get outworked. When you put your head on your pillow at night, you will rest knowing that you didn’t get outworked. This simple concept has motivated me throughout my entire life.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

What has been the secret to your success?

Rick Triola Division President NotaryCam

RICK TRIOLA, the pioneer of RON in real estate, con tinues to play a pivotal role in its advancement not only through his tireless efforts as a grassroots advocate for RON legislation nationwide, but also through his efforts in expanding the ways in which the mortgage industry can use RON. His passion and persistence for deliver ing the best possible user experience for both notaries and document signers has advanced RON technology and placed Triola at the forefront of the RON revolution, providing lenders with a digital closing solution. From the start, Triola has followed the mantra of “customer first,” and he has worked hard to lead by example. As the founder and division president, Triola is essentially synonymous with NotaryCam and its stellar reputation. Triola’s contributions to NotaryCam are seen in every successful transaction, product update and the compa ny’s industry-leading 99.8 % customer satisfaction rating.

Michael Valdes

President of eXp Global eXp Realty

MICHAEL VALDES joined eXp Realty as executive vice president, international expansion, in May 2020, and he advanced to president of eXp Global in September 2020. He led a team that expanded eXp Realty opera tions to 17 international locations, all without ever getting on a plane. As the only Latino president of a publicly traded real estate company in the U.S., Valdes is an in spiring, encouraging leader who is well respected for his integrity and for his ability to build community. Valdes has successfully introduced the eXp brand to thousands of people across the globe.

Valdes is also the executive chair of ONE eXp, eXp Realty’s diversity, equity, belonging and inclusion initia tive, a group of more than 5,280 eXp Realty agents and staff who are working to build eXp Realty into the most diverse, equitable and inclusive real estate brokerage in the world.

Trust, honesty and integrity. Our driving force behind every decision, whether it affects our cus tomers, partners, team, etc., is that it is never the wrong time to do the right thing.

The one habit I learned early on is that everything is infinite, and the only thing which is finite is time, and one must use it wisely.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

What has been the secret to your success?

Dale Vermillion

Founder and CEO Mortgage Champions

DALE VERMILLION, Mortgage Champions founder and CEO, is in the trenches every day, just as he’s been for the past 27 years, with his clients developing strategies and tactics to help them succeed. And in this market espe cially, the value of his timely counsel is proving critical to not only keep organizations afloat, but to continue to steal market share — even amidst rising rates and historically low inventory. From hosting Zoom session after Zoom session to taking executive calls around the clock to vis iting struggling branches in-person to identify problems and implement solutions, Vermillion is as engrained with his clients today as he was when he first left the C-suite to become an independent consultant.

Natalie Verrette

President and Chief Operating Officer Champions Funding

NATALIE VERRETTE brings a mission to mortgage as the president and chief operating officer of Champions Funding, a wholesale CDFI and non-QM lender. The industry veteran brings an extensive understanding of operations, market development, recruiting, strategic partnerships and communications, which is steering the path of Champions. Verrette’s passion to serve the under served ripples through the company from the programs offered to the people she brings onto the team. During the past year, Verrette championed the launch of a new non-QM wholesale lender. Starting a company at any time presents obstacles. The tumultuous times pre sented in 2022 made it especially necessary to have the direction and guidance of a seasoned industry veteran who can mitigate risk while growing the company’s book of business through valuable offerings to the industry.

What has been the secret to your success?

First, is working with a purpose much bigger than ourselves. For us that means giving back to the less fortunate. Second, is having a teachable spirit and always being open to other people’s ideas and suggestions. Third is to stay as humble as possible, as you never know who your next boss or client is going to be. Finally, stay balanced and put priorities first.

Maintain humility at all times. While my knowl edge is extensive, I know there is always a better way. Embracing change and adapting to it keeps organizations relevant. Many leaders perfect their way and are not open to change processes or ideas from entry-level team members.

What is one habit that has made a crucial-difference in your success?

Jerry Weiss

Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Freddie Mac

FOR NEARLY TWO DECADES, Jerry Weiss, executive vice president and chief administrative officer, has set the standard for leadership excellence at Freddie Mac. Weiss’s stewardship of a broad array of areas ranging from the company’s nationally recognized economic re search, external relations and compliance to regulatory examinations and supervision, human resources and its relationship with its conservator has helped Freddie Mac effectively serve millions of homeowners and renters. He has been a trusted advisor to six CEOs and numerous board members.

In 2021, Weiss was tapped to serve as interim general counsel, charting the legal direction of the company in a time of immense internal and external transition. Weiss’s contributions to Freddie Mac have been significant and varied over the years. Overall, few individuals have had more influence, impact and oversight over Freddie Mac’s execution of its mission than Weiss.

What has been the secret to your success?

Treat people with respect and build a team of kind, talented and hardworking people who respect others. I’ve worked to surround myself with a diverse group of individuals who share this inclusive philosophy, and it has made me a better person and Freddie Mac a better organization.

Joe Welu

Founder and CEO Total Expert

FOUNDED IN 2012 by Joe Welu, Total Expert was born from a challenge mortgage lenders had faced for years — the need for an industry-specific marketing and sales platform that understood the nuances and complexities of the lending industry. Welu’s vision for a high-quality customer experience has helped thousands of financial marketers and hundreds of mortgage insti tutions across the nation deploy personalized marketing and sales strategies at scale. His masterful understanding of engagement strategies has taken Total Expert from a start-up venture to an industry-leading fintech company, serving the nation’s top lenders and loan officers.

Under Welu’s leadership, Total Expert continues to break through the industry because the platform pro motes financial well-being by focusing on personal re lationship building, an idea at the core of Welu’s mission.

Today Total Expert is powering marketing and revenue growth for nearly 30% of total mortgage production in the United States.

What has been the secret to your success?

Learning to embrace the feeling of being uncom fortable. In both my personal experience and through Total Expert, I’ve found that the most growth and progress always come when you stop fighting the urge to resist change and unfore seen challenges. I believe that to create deep, meaningful change, you must step outside of your comfort zone.

Don Wenner CEO

DLP Capital

DON WENNER is an entrepreneur, author, father, hus band and the founder and CEO of DLP Capital, which he launched in 2006. Wenner has led DLP to nine straight years on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private com panies in the nation. He has been ranked as one of the top 15 real estate professionals in the country by the Wall Street Journal. Through his impact investing strategy, DLP has closed more than 25,000 real estate transactions, totaling over $8 billion, funded $4 billion in loans and acquired more than 25,000 homes and apartments for over $4 billion. Wenner is committed to the DLP purpose: Dream. Live . Prosper.

DLP has had year-over-year growth for the last 16 years, expanding into new markets, including Texas and Florida. From 2020 to 2021, DLP doubled yearly sales transactions and is on track to do so again in 2022.

Shane Westra

Chief Product Officer SimpleNexus

SHANE WESTRA, chief product officer at SimpleNexus, has helped shape the digital mortgage ecosystem by leading the development of best-in-class technology that is used by 400 plus enterprise mortgage lenders and touches one in seven U.S. mortgage loans. On an accelerated timeline, Westra’s leadership has helped SimpleNexus evolve from a mobile-first point of sale product to a homeownership platform with five dis tinct product offerings. In short, Westra is setting the bar and the pace of mortgage tech innovation.

Westra is leading the way in the emerging eMortgage technology as a highly passionate, forward-thinking leader. Among his most notable contributions has been his oversight of the rapid enhancement of the Nexus Closing, SimpleNexus’s eClose solution. During this time, he oversaw the build out of RON and eSigning functional ity, which gives lenders the flexibility to conduct eClosings from anywhere.

What has been the secret to your success?

Empower your people. Invest in your people. Celebrate your people. Our people are our most valuable asset.

What has been the secret to your success?

Understand and care about the users. They are the individuals we are serving and the group that we are innovating for. Focusing on making things as easy as possible for our users is the ultimate source of clarity.

Arvin Wijay

CEO

Consolidated Analytics

AS CEO of Consolidated Analytics, Arvin Wijay is a hands-on leader who exudes effective and genuine leadership ability. With Wijay’s unique balance of op erational and technical effectiveness, deep knowledge in finance and a genuine caring and empathetic approach to people, he effectively leads a company of diverse and passionate employees. Thanks to Wijay’s innovative and surgical approach to problem solving, Consolidated Analytics has grown over 200% in the past four years. Wijay has built a reputation for leading growth, opera tions and sales and marketing initiatives for B2B start-ups, turnaround and Fortune 500 companies. He navigates through industry uncertainty and ensures the company is well positioned to flourish in volatile times by predicting market conditions and adapting product and service of ferings at the right time. With a glass-half-full mentality, Wijay sees progression through a progressive approach and motivates his team to do the same.

My leadership approach at Consolidated Analytics fosters empowerment and accountabil ity, which enables individuals and teams to in crease productivity, quality and profits through the company’s operations, growth and acquisitions.

Charles Williams Founder and CEO Percy

AS A THIRD-GENERATION real estate professional, Charles Williams, founder and CEO of Percy, has har nessed various types of data to solve one of the most fundamental gaps in real estate: quantifying and pre senting buyers as an asset to agents and brokerages. He drives the strategic vision for Percy, aligning top-level goals while managing a seasoned team of real estate and technology industry leaders across sales, marketing, operations, product development and customer success. Williams is particularly passionate about product strat egy and continues to brainstorm with top brokerages on innovative new ways to support customers.

Williams led record company growth in 2021 through partnerships with customers and other vendors, attract ing more real estate professionals to the Percy platform. In 2021, Percy clients closed nearly $20 billion in sales through the platform, averaging over 3000% ROI. Percy supports over 100 large real estate brokerages, creating over $1 trillion in sales opportunities through the plat form’s home valuation pages.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Persistence pays off. The start-up world is a roller-coaster ride, but you have to believe in what you’re doing, and it has to be something you enjoy. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it, so you have to enjoy it enough to muscle through the tough times. Keep going. It’ll pay off.

What has been the secret to your success?

Thaddeus Wong

Co-CEO and Co-Founder

FOUNDER AND CEO Thaddeus Wong and his CoFounder and Co-CEO Mike Golden grew @properties from a small four-person shop in Chicago to the nation’s eighth largest brokerage firm in just 20 years. This past year was undoubtedly the most consequential in the com pany’s history, as the acquisition of Christie’s International Real Estate propelled the company from a regional bro kerage to a worldwide entity, with affiliates in nearly 50 countries and territories. Wong led the @properties’ ac quisition of the Christie’s International Real Estate brand, reenergizing the brand and network with the same spirit and vision that propelled @properties to quickly become a top 10 brokerage firm in the U.S. and the No. one bro kerage in Chicago.

Wong’s unwavering glass-half-full outlook, marketing genius, focus on innovation and passion for the indepen dent brokerage are driving factors in the company’s con tinued growth, which also included several new @proper ties franchises and brokerage acquisitions in 2021.

What has been the secret to your success?

Growing up, my father instilled in me the impor tance of leading with empathy. I’ve followed that mantra closely in my career, building the idea of relationships and love into our company’s core values, which I believe has been a large part of our success. You can never go wrong when you treat each other with respect.

Ron Zach

President and CEO NRL Mortgage

AS AN EXPERIENCED LEADER with over 20 years’ experience in the mortgage and real estate industry, NRL Mortgage President and CEO Ron Zach has demonstrat ed in the last 12 months why he is Vanguard material. He expanded the company to serve 48 states, including the addition of new branches and new team members. Zach’s vision and leadership have transformed NRL into an award-winning company and one of the fastest ris ing mortgage firms in the country. Just last year, funding around $3 billion — the company’s most profitable year ever.

Zach’s extensive experience, commitment to ex cellence and caring and compassionate style are his greatest strengths as a leader. He has received awards from National Mortgage Professional’s 40 Under 40 list, Mortgage Professional America’s Hot 100 list, HousingWire’s Rising Star award and a Most Admired CEO award from the Houston Business Journal.

What has been the secret to your success?

Our talented staff, originators and branch manag ers join NRL for many unique reasons. Whether it’s our company culture, the 24/7 hands-on support, flexible branch models or competitive compensa tion packages, we create a solid foundation for our sales team to not only produce loans but cre ate a successful and profitable career with NRL.

@properties Christie’s International Real Estate

An inside look at the latest trends in housing regulations and policy, featuring the 2022 Vanguards

By Audrey Lee

Four leaders share their thoughts on the state of housing legislation

The theme of this October issue of HousingWire magazine is “The State of Housing.” While so much could fit under that umbrella, we want to focus on the people who are shaping the narrative at the top — the policy and regulation experts. The FHFA and the GSEs are essential to painting the picture of today’s housing market and industry trends. To help shed some light in this area, several of the 2022 HousingWire Vanguard honorees share their insights on what’s happen ing at the federal level that’s going to affect housing this year and into 2023.

Seth Appleton, president at MISMO

HousingWire: Which trends in housing are you and your team most focused on as we move into 2023?

Seth Appleton: The cost to originate a mortgage remains stubbornly high, so we are focused on developing stan dards that enable the industry to leverage data and technology to reduce costs, maximize efficiencies and lessen the need to constantly reverify and revalidate information. On the servicing side, we are focused on easing friction by standardizing the information exchanged during a ser vicing transfer transaction; this is particularly important given the high volume of servicing transfers that have taken place this year. Across the board, we are fostering interoperability, innovation and efficiency in the digital mortgage process.

HW: As a 2022 Vanguard honoree, what has been your proudest accomplishment?

SA: In 2022, it is the release of a new version of the MISMO reference model, which is used to manufacture every residential mortgage today. The new version will bring significant benefits to the industry, including a standardized data exchange to support the non-agency market.

Looking back, steering Ginnie Mae through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic is likely my proudest career accomplishment to date; we were able to provide stability to the market at a very uncertain time.

HW: What major changes in federal regulation and legislative policies should people be paying more attention to?

SA: There is an increased focus on financial technology and innovation from all corners of Washington and beyond, so any policies in this space must be clear, thoroughly vetted, well-reasoned and ultimately beneficial to consumers.

HW: From your perspective, how has collaboration in the in dustry helped move the needle when it comes to eClosings?

SA: Every mortgage transaction has multiple stakeholders, so collaboration to develop standards, best practices and a common language has been absolutely vital to the industry’s digital progression. It is fundamental to what MISMO is and does.

HW: What do you think the next frontier in digital mortgages is? Or the next area of focus and implementation?

SA: There is a lot of room to grow the scalability of fully digital transactions that start with electronic applications and end with eNotes. This includes many of the processes in the middle of an application, closing and secondary marketing, in which today there can be back-and-forth movement from digital to analog formats.

Armando Falcon, CEO at Falcon Capitol Advisors

HousingWire: Which trends in housing are you and your team most focused on as we move into 2023?

Armando Falcon: Looking ahead to 2023, there are a cou ple of broad trends that we are focusing on. The first is the overall business transformation that’s taking place in the mortgage industry. This is the result of several forces: the Fed’s anti-inflation policy; the rapid deceleration in lending that’s resulted in a 40% drop in applications; the rising cost of mortgage production, which has now broken the $10,000 per loan threshold; and the continued drive towards digitization in mortgage lending. These are top of mind for my team, our clients and the industry.

The second broad trend is access to homeownership and affordability. Home prices have never been higher, pent-up demand stronger and housing inventory tighter. These conditions are challenging for even the average homebuyer, let alone low-income and minority buyers. There is a growing sentiment in both the public and pri vate sectors that more needs to be done to help consumers, particularly underserved buyers, prepare for homeownership and to close the affordability gap. We’re seeing new energy and new initiatives in this area at many mortgage and housing agencies. Similarly, large lenders are expanding their ESG and social responsibility programs. The commitment is real, and we see it only getting stronger.

“Across the board, we are fostering interoperability, innovation and efficiency in the digital mortgage process.” - Seth Appleton

HW: As a 2022 Vanguard honoree, what has been your proudest accomplishment?

AF: Is it okay to say that I am proud of building a consulting firm made of some very talented people who are helping the mortgage industry adapt to a market in transition? That I’m proud of the role that they are playing in helping modernize mortgage production and the secondary market? Because I am.

Over the past 15 years, our group has grown to more than 50-plus associates, many of whom have held leadership positions at leading lenders, tech and data providers and mortgage agencies. It’s hard to pick just one project because we’ve had several interesting engagements recently: for example, our work with Ginnie Mae on its Digital Collateral Program; or the asset sales program that we manage for HUD that has moved more than 50% of these vacant properties to nonprofit organizations for affordable housing; or the analytic work we provide to the industry participants to help them measure progress on their ESG investments.

These engagements are helping to make the mortgage industry more efficient and more resilient, two goals that I pursued as a regulator and continue to focus on as a consultant to the industry.

HW: What major changes in federal regulation and legislative policies should people be paying more attention to?

AF: As I mentioned, there is a lot of interest and momentum around addressing the challenges of affordability and inclusion in homeownership. It’s a priority at FHFA,

FHA, HUD and Ginnie Mae. These agencies are trying to come up with creative solutions to make housing more affordable and homeownership more achievable. There’s almost a New Deal spirit at work.

We’re also seeing new market-based initiatives coming from the private sector. One of the nation’s largest lend ers, for example, has just announced that it is testing a new program that will provide zero-down payment mortgages with no closing costs to first-time homebuyers in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in five major cities.

HW: How has your experience as the director of OFHEO (now FHFA) influenced your initiatives and leadership at Falcon Capital?

AF: The GSEs and Ginnie Mae have been evangelical in their support of digital lending. Today roughly 5% of all conforming mortgages are eNotes, and all of the agencies are on record encouraging lenders to originate more assets digitally.

Ginnie Mae has been accepting eNotes on a pilot basis since the beginning of the year. In June, they expanded their Digital Collateral Program, and they are now in the process of accepting new applications from eIssuers, eCustodians, and subservicers.

This was an important milestone in digitizing govern ment lending, which was roughly a $757 billion market.

HW: Falcon Capital regularly works with government agencies in program management and strategy. Is there one project or partnership that you are proud of in particular?

AF: Lenders see the value in giving their customers the

“There is lots of interest and momentum around addressing the challenges of affordability and inclusion in homeownership. It’s a priority at FHFA, FHA, HUD and Ginnie Mae.”Armando Falcon

same kind of convenient digital experience that they encounter in other aspects of their lives (e.g., banking, shopping, transportation). They’re also worried that if they don’t provide this experience, larger national retail lenders will. This is why I believe these initiatives will con tinue even in the smaller, more competitive environment that the industry is now facing.

Creating digital, rather than paper, assets provides greater capital market efficiencies and reduces costs and errors. Recent ROI studies have shown that eClosings and eNotes can save originators approximately $400 per loan. That’s a big number when you consider that the average originator lost $82 per loan in the second quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Faith Schwartz, CEO at Housing Finance Strategies

HousingWire: Which trends in housing are you and your team most focused on as we move into 2023?

Faith Schwartz: The central tenet of our practice and my work throughout my professional career has been the consumer. We continue to put the consumer front and center as we view this economic cycle of increasing in terest rates and inflation. These headwinds impact consumer capacity to qualify for new mortgages and maintain homeownership.

Against the grain of these challenges is a robust marketplace for jobs, so we see opportunities to modernize the mortgage application process through smart technology. This starts with origination innovation such as the use of “credentialed” bank statements to measure the ability to pay and includes enhancements to property valuation such as 3D scanning to deliver more precision and automation to the appraisal process.

Modernization and automation are critical focus areas for our team as we seek to create a mortgage market that leverages source data so all downstream participants can benefit from improved risk management and transparency.

HW: As a 2022 Vanguard honoree, what has been your proudest accomplishment?

FS: Success for all this year can be measured collectively through how we managed the COVID-19 pandemic. I am proud of the Help for Home alliance we brought to market and the broad participation of 60 mortgage servicers and over 120 nonprofits. This work helped to align parties and ensure no COVID-19 pandemic-impacted borrower was left behind.

As I think back to my days leading the HOPE NOW Alliance, I am very pleased with how the industry stepped up to the challenge and rallied for the benefit of the consumer. We have done good work here, and I am the first to acknowledge the success of the CARES Act forbearance and maintaining homeownership for those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

HW: What major changes in federal regulation and legislative policies should people be paying more attention to?

FS: The Biden administration set forth an ambitious housing agenda, and FHFA Director Thompson, HUD Secretary Fudge and Ginnie Mae President McCargo have spoken quite clearly to the imbalance in our housing system. They have framed much policy in a lens to move the needle on the homeownership gap.

As I talk to the industry and our clients at Housing Finance Strategies, I shine a bright light on paying close attention to how we as an industry can address this chal lenge. I see great opportunities through Special Purpose Credit Programs, and our senior advisor Jeff Jaffee has provided thought leadership on the challenges and busi ness solutions that we can seek.

We all should be paying greater attention to the homeownership gap.

HW: If you had the power to implement one piece of housing regulation today, what would you implement?

FS: That’s an interesting question because the needs across the board are so extensive. However, if I had to choose one regulation to implement through a magic wand, I would choose climate policy. The industry has great intelligence on climate, but the consumer does not.

We should be rolling out policy now to create a more informed consumer, plus we should provide qualifica tion incentives to begin this long process of remediation where necessary and prepare for the very real climate risks on the near-term horizon.

“The industry has great intelligence on climate change, but the consumer does not. We should be rolling out policy now to create a more informed consumer, plus we should provide qualification incentives to begin this long process of remediation where necessary and prepare for the very real climate risk on the near-term horizon.” - Faith Schwartz

I worry climate risk may disproportionately impact those who can least afford it. As I have throughout my career, we have to look at climate risk through the eyes of the consumer and implement policies accordingly.

HW: Heading into 2023, what do you think the government will be focused on when it comes to housing?

FS: Having worked through many tough economic cycles throughout my career, I believe the government will focus on the challenges that this interest rate environment will present. Offsetting inflation will be a key focus area of the government, and I anticipate we will see a continued focus on the homeownership gap through innovation in products, services and credit scoring to name a few.

I also expect to see more from the PAVE task force in 2023. This will include greater use of technology to eradicate bias from the process, but also I see the start of a movement toward an alternative workforce, one that can bring significant change and diversity to the workforce.

At Housing Finance Strategies, we are so excited to continue our efforts to work with the government and our clients to shape the mortgage markets of tomorrow in 2023.

Katie Sweeney, CEO at Association of Independent Mortgage Experts

HousingWire: Which trends in housing are you and your team most focused on as we move into 2023?

Katie Sweeney: We are looking at national as well as local

trends to identify areas where we can help brokers and homebuyers make the most impact within their commu nities, specifically, the disparity in lending practices for underserved communities and equalizing the regulato ry requirements for wholesale mortgage professionals. Representation for brokers and bringing the important issues of our community to Capitol Hill are at the forefront of our agenda for 2023.

HW: As a 2022 Vanguard honoree, what has been your proudest accomplishment?

KS: At its peak, independent mortgage brokers represented 60% of the mortgage market. Yet, in 2008, despite these impressive numbers, mortgage brokers lacked a voice and presence in Washington, D.C. Their absence from the important conversations in the aftermath of the 2008 crash resulted in an unfair share of the blame for the 2008 fallout. As unreasonable and unfavorable regulations subsequently rolled out, our market share shrunk to as little as 8%. We are working to ensure that independent mortgage brokers are never again in the same position they found themselves after 2008. It is an ongoing process, and I am proud of the progress we have made. In June, we launched a remarkably successful grassroots advocacy network, the Broker Action Coalition (BAC), which has facilitated tens of thousands of actions in less than 90 days since its inception. In July, we also created the Broker Action Coalition Political Action Committee (BACPAC) of the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts, which raised over $300,000 within the first 24 hours.

Furthermore, we have strengthened AIME’s advocacy

“At Housing Finance Strategies, we are so excited to continue our efforts to work with the government and our clients to shape the mortgage markets of tomorrow in 2023.” - Faith Schwartz

arm to protect, support and grow the broker channel through legislative actions, grassroots advocacy and various homeownership committees. This threefold approach enables AIME to make a real difference, which emboldens our community and paves the way for future leaders to continue making a difference when and where it matters most.

HW: What major changes in federal regulation and legislative policies should people be paying more attention to?

KS: We should all be paying more attention to regulation that creates disparities between origination channels, particularly when those create disadvantages for the con sumer. One of the policies we are actively working to roll back right now includes the 15 BPS FHFA TPO Surcharge, which adds a 15 BPS charge on all third-party originat ed (TPO) mortgages that nationwide direct lenders and big banks do not have. We are also working to expand the success of Maryland House Bill 809, which allows disabled veterans rated 100% P&T to get access to their property tax exemption before taking ownership of the home, impacting buying power and closing costs in nearly every state. At the time of this submission, we have had meetings with congressional leaders of over 28 states looking to introduce identical bills in their states.

HW: What are the biggest policy initiatives that AIME will go after in 2023?

KS: AIME’s 2023 advocacy plan prioritizes the top 10 topics identified by BACPAC contributors in 2022. The leading policy initiatives all surround discrepancies between bro

kers and all other lending channels, starting with rolling back aspects of Dodd-Frank that created an unfair playing field between brokers and bankers. These regulations were instituted based on assumptions that have been proven inaccurate over the last decade.

Licensing requirements vary widely between brokers and bankers, TPO channels have a massive lack of access to DPA programs, and even something as simple as APR intended to create clarity for the consumer is calculated differently. The entire goal of APR is to serve as a universal number that consumers can immediately reference and determine which mortgage is less costly when shopping. Incongruency across information that is intended to assist the consumer undermines the very purpose of these regulations and results in misinformation.

We have the solutions, and we’re working hard to ensure they are presented to the appropriate parties. Our objective is to work on meaningful legislation that allows consumers to have access to all lending options and the security of knowing their mortgage loan originator is ed ucated and compliant, regardless of the channel they chose to work in.

HW: Why is it important to you to use AIME as a lobbying arm, and what impact do you hope to have in changing policies?

KS: Brokers now make up close to 25% of the market and, up until a year ago, had no presence in Washington, DC. A segment that large in an industry as important as housing should never be mute. While it is clear that we still have work to do, I’m proud to say that we now have a voice and we are using it to make change for the better by providing politicians and regulators a message delivered directly from the American consumer. It is an important message, and it is our obligation to ensure that it is not only heard but respected and acted upon.

AIME represents 65,000 independent mortgage bro kers and the consumers that they serve. Our members are largely made up of small local businesses and their employees. Our members, and our leaders, are boots-onthe-ground originators who communicate directly with current and would-be American homeowners every single day. As such, we are uniquely positioned to take on nu merous challenges that negatively impact homeowners across the country.

Brokers are the local mortgage experts in their commu nities. When they have a seat at the table, homebuyers and homeowners gain a voice that has the cultural competency and awareness to advocate for their community’s unique challenges.

To learn more about these influential Vanguards and their professional experiences, turn to page 30.

“AIME’s 2023 advocacy plan prioritizes the top 10 topics identified by BACPAC contributors in 2022. The leading policy initatives all surround discrepancies between brokers and all other lending channels.” - Katie Sweeney

The housing industry makes its mark on the 2022 Inc. 5000 list.

Companies in the housing ecosystem — from mortgage to real estate, title and appraisal — made a strong showing in the Inc. 5000 list this year.

In late August, Inc. mag azine released its list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. based on percentage revenue growth from 2018 to 2021. To qualify, com panies must have been founded and generating rev enue by March 31, 2018. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit and independent — not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies — as of December 31, 2021. The minimum revenues re quired are $100,000 for 2018 and $2 million for 2021.

The data-driven list is comprised of companies from all industries in the United States, and these businesses are labeled as “the most successful companies in America” as a result of their placement on the list. Of the total 5,000 companies listed, a not-insignificant amount are housing industry companies like real estate brokerages, title companies and more.

Eighteen mortgage technol ogy companies, 15 real estate technology companies, 66 mortgage lenders, nine title insurance companies and four appraisal management companies were included on the Inc. 5000 list. The CEO of one of the Inc. 5000 companies, is even a speaker at this year’s HW Annual conference.

MORTGAGE LENDERS

It was the first year on the list for each of the five topranked mortgage lenders. theLender, which offers government and conventional mortgages, as well as non-QM products, saw a 20,489% three-year growth rate.

MortgageOne, ranking 284th on the list, came in second place for top mortgage lenders, grow ing 1952% in the past three years. Zap Mortgage, Trius Lending Partners and ASTAR Home Capital trailed with a four-digit three-year average growth.

Trius Lending, a local direct and hard-money lender specializing in residential investment, at tributed its rapid success to customizing to inves tors’ needs.

“The edge that we have as a local lender focusing on Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic is to meet with investors in person and closing loans more quickly than national lenders,” said Joshua Shein, partner at Trius Lending.

According to the firm, the core business at Trius Lending is residential rentals or properties for fixand-flip investors. About 35% of its customers are first-time real estate investors. Trius is hopeful to get

repeat customers as it keeps its losses to a minimum, Shein added.

“We raise money from outside investors, and that’s how we fund these loans. Those investors and also ourselves want to be looking out for our loans, and we believe that approach helps us to keep the losses to a minimum,” he said. According to the firm, Trius has more than 350 loans it holds and services.

Several of the top 10 HMDA lenders by vol ume were on the Inc. list. Freedom Mortgage, the seventh-largest HMDA lender, was ranked No. 4158, with average three-year growth of 112%. Guaranteed Rate, the 10th-largest HMDA lend er, ranked No. 1673, with a growth of 372%.

Mortgage brokerages on the list included the Everest Equity Company and Right Key Mortgage.

As with many lenders, technology was one of the main factors that propelled their growth, like LoanFlight Lending, a Florida lender that saw 420% growth. Mortgage technology companies took up many spots on the list separate from the mortgage lenders.

LoanFlight Lending started building a cloudbased model for loan originations in 2017 as a backup plan for when tornadoes hit, but when the pandemic hit, “having that contingency plan paid off in a different way,” said Paul Blaylock, CEO at LoanFlight. LoanFlight funds loans with ware house lines and bids the loans out to about 15 bid ders, including traditional banks and nonbanks every day.

“We didn’t have branches all over the country. We had a consumer-to-direct model in place be fore others,” said Blaylock. “Everything can be done except for closing. A lot of what we save we pass to the customers.”

MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY

Eighteen companies offering mortgage tech solu tions made the list, including several repeat winners.

The list of mortgage solutions providers on the Inc. 5000 list was topped by TrueWork, an employ ment verification software company, which ranked at No. 64 with 5950% growth over three years.

Maxwell, a mortgage solutions platform designed for America’s local lenders, was next at No. 164.

The company, which has been recognized as part of HousingWire’s Tech100 for several years, saw growth of 3137%. Last year Maxwell placed 154th

Of the total 5,000 companies listed, a not-insignificant amount are housing industry companieslike real estate bro kerages, title companies and more.

on the Inc. list with a three-year average of 2752% growth.

Notarize, which offers an all-in-one workflow to complete remote notarizations as part of the eClos ing process, jumped to second in this category from third last year. The company came in at No. 167 with 3064% growth, after 3645% last year.

Morty, a platform that lets homebuyers shop lenders to compare and lock in mortgage interest rates, ranked No. 363 on the Inc. list, with 1624% growth. This is the first year the company, which was launched in 2016, has made the list.

LenderClose, No. 564, grew by 1117%, and Sales Boomerang, which grew 888%, landed at No. 708. These companies round out the top five mortgage solutions providers on the Inc. 5000 list. Sales Boomerang was No. 101 last year with an average growth of 3882%.

TITLE INSURANCE

Nine title insurance and settlement services pro viders were named to the Inc. 5000 list, down from 12 in 2021.

Virginia Beach-based Priority Title & Escrow came in as the top-ranked title company for the sec ond year in a row, ranking at No. 984, with a 661% growth rate over three years.

This is the firm’s sixth consecutive year on the list and its second-highest placement on the ranking. In 2021, it came in at No. 793.

The eight other title service providers on the list included AccuTitle (No. 1115), Celebration Title Group (No. 1149), World Wide Land Transfer (No. 1932), PropLogix (No. 2317), Centurion Land Title (No. 3093), First National Title Insurance Company (No. 3792), TitleSmart (No. 3808) and Clear Title Agency of Arizona (No. 4059).

This is Celebration Title Group’s first year mak ing the list. Meanwhile, Centurion Land Title and Clear Title Agency of Arizona rank again after their most recent appearances in 2020 and 2018, respectively.

Celebration Title Group is also the youngest title firm on the list, having been founded in 2016 by CEO Amanda Douglas.

AccuTitle recorded a solid three-year growth rate of 582%, landing it as the second-highest ranked title firm overall and an improvement of one place over its 2021 ranking of 1575.

The firm’s CEO, Bill Bartzak, came from a med ical software background, and when he entered the title industry, he began looking for ways to stream line the closing process.

“We wanted to figure out where we could create some efficiencies and maybe put some companies together that made sense,” Bartzak said.

Initially, this meant AccuTitle purchased four closing software providers, including Closers’ Choice and Landtech. More recently, Bartzak said, his firm has entered into more strategic partnerships with vendors servicing other parts of the closing experience, such as remote online notarization companies.

“There are all these other ancillary services nec essary to facilitate closings, and that is what we are looking at now — pursuing closer relationships with those third-party vendors,” he said.

As refinance volume dries up and purchase vol ume decreases, Bartzak said he feels his firm is ready to tackle the challenge.

“It is definitely slowing down,” Bartzak said. “The number of transactions is down, but our busi ness continues to grow. So as we lose some transac tion volume, we make it up in other areas of service, and it looks like our numbers this year will be higher than last year.”

Despite the challenges facing the industry, in cluding relatively high interest rates and decreas ing housing affordability, Bartzak said AccuTitle is completing roughly 80,000 closings a month.

Looking ahead, Bartzak feels that the closing process will continue to be streamlined.

“I think that is going to be the big topic here the next couple of years — just making the process as easy as possible for the agents, underwriters, all the vendors, the search companies and the lender, and enabling them to communicate under one roof — or in this case, technology platform. But there are only going to be a handful of platforms that win out, and we fully expect that we’re going to be one of those left standing at the end,” he said.

APPRAISAL MANAGEMENT

Four of the ranked companies were appraisal management companies.

Nationwide Appraisal Network ranked No. 1427 with 451% revenue growth from 2018 to 2021, rising from its ranking of 2627 in 2021.

Collateral Management ranked No. 2160 in 2022 with 274% in revenue growth, slightly lower than its No. 2076 ranking the year prior.

Home Base Appraisal Management sank to No. 4517 and 98% revenue growth in 2022, from No. 4278 in 2021.

Appraisal management company AccuComp was ranked No. 4572, with 96% revenue growth.

“We didn’t have branch es all over the country.We had a consumer-to-direct-model in place before others. Everything can be done except for closing. A lot of what we save we passto the customers.” - Paul Baylock

Nationwide Appraisal Management, the top-ranking AMC, said it has 12,000 appraisers that it can call upon, dispersed over every country.

Steve Sussman, NAN’s chief business development officer, said the company’s recent rapid growth is really a product of years of responsible growth.

“Our company’s founders spent years building up operational infrastructure, really trying to perfect every aspect of customer service order execution. And only then did we real ly begin efforts to build a sales team and to grow. We did it the right way and now it’s paying its dividends,” Sussman said.

As many AMCs raised ap praisal fees over the last 24 months, Sussman said NAN made a decision to continue to print its management fee at the top of every invoice.

“We wanted the lender and broker community to know we were never taking advantage of the market. So, whether an apprais al was $500 or $5,000, our management fee held steady. We didn’t squeeze every penny out of every order because we’re looking at it from a long view of establishing a meaningful relationship,” Sussman said.

NAN was also not afraid to take on some of the tougher appraisal assignments, Sussman said. “A lot of our initial growth in the last few years came from markets where many AMCs prefer not to work. In fact, our foot in the door with three of the top 10 lenders came in rural Texas.”

Those three lenders ultimately expanded NAN’s allocation to a national footprint after seeing what NAN could do in some of the really tough markets, Sussman said.

Existing relationships with appraisers was also key to NAN’s growth. “We believe that our job is to sit between the appraiser and the lender, to make sure the lender understands the perspective and the challenges of the appraiser and vice versa.”

NAN also instituted a next-day pay program, where appraisers got paid within on day instead of the traditional 30.

“We committed to paying the appraisers indus try-leading fees to make sure that they’re well com pensated for their work and we had a really loyal relationship that went both ways. So the appraisers were inclined to take on our work and it helped us to shine during that time.”

REAL ESTATE TECH

In 2021, real estate accounted for 16.9% of the U.S.

national gross domestic product — it goes without saying that it’s a vast industry. Because of that, it’s a popular industry ripe for technological disruption.

We’re seeing a seismic shift toward technology, in partnership with agents and brokerages, that adds efficiencies and removes redundancies in the home buying and selling process.

Many start-ups opted to build new technology for agents and brokerages in an attempt to help meet record housing demand in 2021 and ensure homebuyers and sellers could navigate the complex and evolving mar ket environment.

This year a number of these real estate agents — and brokerage-focused tech firms — made the Inc. 5000 list.

These companies are of fering innovative ways to buy and sell homes — joining a list of start-ups that want to expedite and improve the traditional agent model.

Ideal Agent earned the highest real estate tech nology spot in the rankings as the 73rd fastest-grow ing company in the U.S., posting a 5514% average growth rate over the past three years.

Through its platform, the company matches buy ers and sellers with local and national agents from its brokerage network and says it “streamlines trans actions and provides commissions as low as 2%.”

Last year’s category leader, OJO Labs, which of fers a platform for buying and selling homes, came in at the third-highest spot for this category at No. 355 with 1660% growth. This ranking is down from its placement last year when the company entered the list in the top 50, at No. 48, with 6767% growth.

Despite the market shift and recently announced layoffs, iBuyers and cash-offer based service pro viders, known as Power Buyers, on the list include: Orchard (2350%), Ribbon (3172%), The San Diego Home Buyer (2749%) and HomeLight (1663%).

Keeping Current Matters, a company providing marketing content and educational resources to agents, also made the list at No. 3174 with a 168% three-year average growth rate.

Below you can find the full list of all the housing industry companies to make the Inc. 5000 list. Snap a picture, post and tag your company or that of an industry colleague. All of these winners deserve a round of applause.

“There are all these other ancillary ser vices necessary to facilitate closings, and that is what we are looking at now — pursuing closer relationships with those third-partyvendors.” - Bill Bartzak

Origination Platforms and

Solutions Special Report

The origination process is complex. In today’s market, mortgage companies need solutions that streamline the mortgage process so they can close more loans, faster. Lenders are looking for a digital platform that provides end-to-end support and flexibility to deliver a great lending experience. Leveraging technology can help lenders originate more efficiently and scale more effectively.

The three companies featured in this section offer innovative solutions so lenders can provide a better customer experience and increase their profit margins.

BLACK KNIGHT BlackKnightInc.com/Empower

THE EXECUTIVES:

Black Knight’s Empower offers an end-to-end digital platform that decreases friction in origination

Optimizing

the mortgage process means finding fast, efficient solu tions for each part of the customer journey. When it comes to origination, modernization is key to enhancing the customer experience, improving overall cycle times and increasing overall profit.

workflow that can reduce costs and manual tasks.

Joe Nackashi leads the company’s overall vi sion and direction for Black Knight to provide premier solutions and services for many of the nation’s largest lenders and servicers.

JOE NACKASHI, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER RICH GAGLIANO PRESIDENT, ORIGINATION TECHNOLOGIES

Rich Gagliano is responsible for the overall strategy and product direction of Black Knight’s origination technologies.

Regardless of the size of a lending busi ness, having the right origination software is the first step in creating a homebuying experience built for the 21st century.

Black Knight, a leader in providing integrated software solutions, has delivered a system for lenders of all sizes. Empower, Black Knight’s loan origination system (LOS), offers an end-to-end digital platform that supports retail, consumer-di rect, home equity, correspondent, whole sale and assumption channels — all in a single system.

“A preconfigured and fully integrated platform eliminates the need for disparate third-party systems, making it a true allin-one solution for origination,” explained Joe Nackashi, CEO of Black Knight.

Empower supports first mortgages, home equity loans and lines of credit and also features integrations with a full suite of high-performing Black Knight origination solutions, including an indus try-leading product and pricing engine, fee service, compliance validation testing, a digital point of sale system, eClose, busi ness intelligence and more.

By decreasing friction and eliminating touchpoints in the origination process, Empower provides lenders, loan officers and borrowers a faster, smoother and more streamlined borrowing experience. The system’s bundled, configurable ap proach helps lenders scale their business to any market condition with an all-inclusive, seamlessly integrated digital ecosys tem — at one low cost per loan.

“Using this single platform, lenders gain access to API-based integrations and advanced workflow capabilities to deliver a complete digital mortgage experience to their borrowers,” said Craig Rebmann, managing director of origination technol ogies and product management.

Through the automation of repetitive tasks based on the lender’s config urations, Empower reduces the need for human intervention. Referred to as “lights-out processing,” this advanced technology actively monitors the system for any data changes. When an exception occurs, Empower triggers a separate work item and alerts the user that additional reviews are needed, significantly reducing the need for lenders to shift focus and significantly increasing productivity and profit in turn.

CRAIG REBMANN MANAGING DIRECTOR, ORIGINATION TECHNOLOGIES AND PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

Craig Rebmann is responsible for building and enhancing Black Knight’s loan orig ination system, Empower. With decades of technology and mortgage experience, Rebmann leads Black Knight’s efforts in the development of LOS technology.

“Empower is helping lenders reduce and, in some cases, eliminate many pain points in today’s origination process by delivering configurable, dynamic capabilities in one complete system,” said Rich Gagliano, president of origination technologies.

Black Knight’s LOS supports data integrity and security all while eliminating the errors and duplicate entries common with using multiple systems.

The system also provides management reporting on user productivity and loan metrics derived from a beginning-to-end

Empower also integrates with Black Knight’s artificial intelligence/machine learning solution that can improve the work process by reading, comprehending and drawing conclusions based on docu ment or data content, leaving little room for human error.

“It can take on ‘stare-and-compare’ and validation responsibilities, such as verification of income, assets and insurance more accurately and at scale,” Gagliano noted. “Using these and other automated capabilities, lenders can manage production more quickly and effectively while re ducing the overall cost per loan.”

CoreLogic’s Accounting Automation suite can quickly help lenders streamline appraisal payment processing CORELOGIC corelogic.com

Surprisingly,accounting inefficiencies, particularly in the areas of tracking, collecting, reconciling and distributing appraisal fees, are costing some lenders tens of thousands of dol lars, sometimes even more, every year — dollars that could be going straight to their bottom line. In today’s business environ ment, lenders look for every opportunity to streamline and optimize their operations to reduce their origination costs on each loan.

As part of its recently enhanced Valuation Workflow Solution, CoreLogic launched a new Accounting Automation suite that can quickly help lenders reduce the costs associated with invoice process ing and accounts payable overhead while simplifying their tax record management processes.

CoreLogic’s comprehensive Accounting Automation suite is designed to streamline appraisal payment processing, accounting reconciliations, and all the manual head aches associated with verifying the timely payment of appraisal vendors.

The Accounting Automation suite helps eliminate many common pain points, including:

• Having to combine fees prior to pay ing vendors

• Reconciling complex appraiser, AMC and lender fees

• Being unable to refund the borrower as needed easily

• Determining exactly what was dis closed, how much was collected, which ancillary fees were charged and who is owed what prior to closing

• Managing 1099 issuance and TIN matching for appraisal vendors

Accounting Automation creates a simple and secure way for the borrower to pay for their appraisal using their credit card. As appraisal orders are completed, payments to appraisers and AMCs are automatically

paid via direct deposit, and all transaction records are easily accessible for simple ac count reconciliation. Ensuring timely and accurate appraisal payments are made simple with Accounting Automation. The payment process can be integrated with a lender’s LOS and white-labeled with a lender’s logo and branding to ensure a seamless borrower experience.

The lender’s implementation process for Accounting Automation is simple. CoreLogic creates a payments account for you, activates the functionality and notifies third-party vendors of the change in the process. Given Mercury Network’s and CMS’s broad industry adoption, chances are your third-party service providers are already connected to Accounting Automation.

And the solution’s vendor satisfaction is high — who doesn’t appreciate receiv ing fast and reliable payments? Vendors can also view and download reports detailing the payment status on every order. These features help reduce confusion and questions and help to foster better relationships.

“In addition to helping lenders avoid rev enue losses by automating the accounting process, our new Accounting Automation solution helps lenders scale more quickly because they are not spending the additional time it takes to manually reconcile invoices and generate payments,” said William Gillis, senior leader of marketing at CoreLogic. “The solution also creates a standard payment process for appraisal vendors, which many lenders don’t have today.”

The Accounting Automation suite helps lenders reallocate personnel from the manual collection, payment and recon ciliation processes to more urgent busi ness concerns. Beyond just automating the accounting process, the solution can help lenders protect their bottom line from costly appraisal fee cures and realize significant value.

THE EXECUTIVE:

WILLIAM GILLIS, SR. LEADER, MARKETING

William Gillis leads Product Marketing for Collateral Risk Solutions & Loan and Borrower Solutions for CoreLogic.

ICE MORTGAGE

THE EXECUTIVE:

Encompass by ICE Mortgage Technology provides an allin-one workflow for omnichannel lenders

STEPHANIE DURFLINGER, SVP, PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

Today’s

lenders must be as agile, efficient and scalable as possible to respond to evolving consumer preferences and fast-changing market conditions. Encompass by ICE Mortgage Technology is the industry’s most complete end-to-end solution that provides the flexibility and configurability needed to deliver a next-generation lending experience for every channel, all from a single system of record.

As the only truly digital lending platform that provides an all-in-one workflow for omnichannel lenders, Encompass helps customers generate more leads, close more loans and drive unparalleled ROI.

By managing every loan, including home equity, refinance or new purchase, in one place, lenders are also able to make better decisions, keep costs down and quickly adapt to changing market trends.

Due to recent market shifts, there is an increased demand from consumers for home equity lending products. With Encompass, lenders can feel confident in knowing their LOS platform has the flex ibility to support home equity lending at scale.

Customers can drive applications with an array of leading point of sales solu tions, as well as retain and build referral business through seamless integrations with sales and marketing solutions, such as Velocify. Encompass also delivers on being the most compliant LOS with dynamically generated required disclosures and HMDA reporting to support home equity lending.

“We partner with customers to under stand their pain points and identify opportunities where we can minimize complexity in their processes. Encompass is designed to grow and adapt with their busi ness, so their loan origination system is ready for whatever comes their way,” said

Stephanie Durflinger, senior vice president of product management.

Encompass is equipped with powerful technology to automate any task, process or service within a matter of clicks.

By automating previously manual and time-consuming tasks, lenders and investors can acquire, originate, close and sell significantly more loans in less time, all while delivering a best-in-class borrower experience. Encompass also offers a taskbased workflow that enables operations managers to easily create, assign, manage and track all their loan tasks in a single unified interface.

With Encompass eClose, Encompass customers also benefit from having a single workflow for their closing process. For wet-signed loans to a full eClosing and everything in between, now lenders can have one partner, one workflow, one source and one network for it all.

Unlike other solutions, Encompass also allows mortgage lenders and investors access to the largest network of partners in the industry. The Marketplace by ICE Mortgage Technology includes thousands of leading mortgage companies that span the full gamut of technology solution categories, from mortgage servicing and title to escrow, automated underwriting ser vices and many more. Through prebuilt, bi-directional API integrations, customers can use these trusted, proven solutions to enhance and digitize their lending workflows.

With a long history as an industry lead er, ICE provides a wealth of experience, compliance expertise and data-driven insights that no one else can match. Through best-of-breed automation and data, Encompass is helping customers re duce costs, increase revenue and deliver better customer experiences at every step of the loan lifecycle.

Stephanie Durflinger is senior vice president of product management for the full suite of digital mortgage solutions at ICE Mortgage Technology.

Congratulations

2022 HW Vanguard Winner Rick Triola

What started as Rick Triola’s desire to make real estate closings easier turned into an obsession and, eventually, a revolution. His tireless efforts led to RON laws and the leading multiparty, secure closing platform that adapts to any scenario. As he heads towards a well-earned retirement, we congratulate Rick on behalf of the NotaryCam® team and the industry at large.

NotaryCam Makes the Secure Difference NotaryCam, passion ensuring secure knowledgebased NotaryCam offers freedom by bringing all the to the virtual closing table.

Trade associations from across the housing industry are on the front lines of issues that lenders, real estate agents and everyone in between face every day. In these letters, they give their members an inside look at what they are working on, and the most important issues facing each industry today.

Katie Sweeney President Association of Independent Mortgage Experts

AIME members,

We did it — another AIME Fuse National Conference is in the books! Here at AIME, we’re not winding down though.

We’ve launched significant initiatives and unveiled our next round of campaigns to drive the broker channel for ward, and we have no plans to take our foot off the gas pedal.

Brokers have been supercharged by coming together in a show of strength at our conference, and the energy was truly electrifying.

We’ve challenged each and every originator, processor, broker-owner and staff member to channel that en ergy into their business through the end of the year and into 2023. After

all, the broker channel deserves it, our industry deserves it and homebuyers across the country deserve it.

Homebuyers have always been a focal point of our association’s mis sion. We have now brought that into the foreground through our advocacy efforts, educational programs and dou bling down on building the awareness that independent mortgage brokers are a vital option for homebuyers.

I urge the rest of the mortgage indus try to join our efforts in supporting borrowers nationwide — get involved in your local community and spread the word that homeownership is financially advantageous, attainable and acces sible through their local community mortgage experts.

Association of Independent Mortgage Experts

MBA members,

It is hard to believe it is already that time of year again.

In October, MBA will host its Annual Convention and Expo 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee. To kick it off, we will swear in the volunteer leaders who will guide MBA — and the industry — over the next year.

First, I thank our 2022 chair, Kristy Fercho, who was an exceptional leader over the past twelve months. Fercho was the first Black MBA chair and only the fourth woman to take on the role. Her vision and commitment to a more inclusive mortgage industry, including through MBA’s Home for All Pledge, will expand oppor tunities for minority households and professionals for years to come. We are grateful for her service and look forward to our continued working relationship.

The same passion and results-oriented approach can be expected from MBA’s incoming 2023 officers: Matt Rocco (chairman), Mark Jones (chairman-elect) and Laura Escobar (vice chair).

Rocco, the chairman and chief executive officer of Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, will offer tenacious energy and practical business experience that will be crucial as residential and commercial/multifamily real estate finance businesses and issues evolve in today’s changing market.

Mortgage Bankers Association

His in-depth expertise on various topline issues will be critical to MBA’s strategic planning and overall direction.

Jones, chief executive officer and co-founder of Amerifirst Home Mortgage, has been an active leader within MBA and will be a particularly valuable voice for independent mortgage banks. His expertise in financ ing sustainable, affordable housing in communities across the country will benefit our industry and its customers.

Escobar, president of Lennar Mortgage, is a tireless advocate for mortgage lenders and their customers.

Her strategic mind, energetic personality and deep compassion for others will ensure we continue to succeed in our members’ commitment to advancing homeown ership and affordable rental housing opportunities nationwide.

As we face new challenges in 2023, I am confident these three visionary leaders will guide our association and the industry to the high level of success our members have come to expect and appreciate.

Robert Broeksmit

President & CEO Mortgage Bankers Association

Jerry Konter Chairman National Association of Home Builders

National Association of Home Builders

NAHB members,

It’s time to make your plans to attend the National Association of Home Builders International Builders’ Show (IBS) in Las Vegas Jan. 31 — Feb. 2, 2023. Registration is open now, and hundreds of exhibitors are already signed up for the Essential Industry Experience!

IBS is filled with nonstop networking opportunities and exceptional educational offerings. It’s why it’s the largest gathering of residential construction industry professionals in one place — the newly expanded Las Vegas Convention Center.

Like me, I’m sure you can’t wait to check out the unparalleled IBS ex hibit floor, where hundreds of new products and services are launched every year from the top manufactur ers and suppliers across the country and around the world.

Can’t-miss annual networking events like the IBS House Party, the Young Pro Party and the Closing Concert keep attendees coming back, while exciting new exhibits like the New Product Zone — in Las Vegas for the first time — showcase cut

ting-edge products and solutions for the home building industry. And be sure to view the most forward-thinking designs and innovative new products up close at the 2023 IBS show home, the New American Home.

For the 10th year in a row, IBS will co-locate with the National Kitchen & Bath Association’s Kitchen & Bath Industry Show for Design & Construction Week (DCW). This pre mier event connects the entire home building industry. NAHB is proud to again be part of this amazing week.

New members and first-time at tendees can take advantage of great savings. They can also help support our important advocacy work to keep housing thriving amid uncertain economic times. Plus, meet members from across our more than 700 local homebuilder associations in every corner of the nation representing every aspect of the industry.

Register at BuildersShow.com and keep up to date on details for all the premier events, including the key note speaker for the DCW Opening Ceremonies and locations for all the great parties.

NAR members,

In November, Realtors® from across the country and around the world will gather in Orlando, Florida, to experi ence the premier global event for real estate professionals — but with a twist. NAR’s flagship event — REALTORS® Conference & Expo — has been reimagined, retooled and reinvented to better meet the needs of attendees, bring more value and exceed expectations.

The all-new 2022 NAR NXT, the REALTOR Experience is much more than a conference and expo. Participants will explore what’s new and what’s next, exchange ideas and information, experiment with cutting-edge innovation and get insights from top experts.

At NAR NXT, the innovation is in the experience. You’ll find fresh, future-focused content, rave-worthy presenters, elevated programming, facilitated networking, offsite field experiences and many other unique features.

Every minute of the conference is carefully curated to optimize your time and maximize your experience. NAR NXT is your go-to, comprehensive source to connect with real estate professional colleagues, peers and leaders, industry information and business solutions.

Global practitioners will find the information, education

and connections they need to thrive in international real estate.

That includes networking with attendees from around the world at special events, such as the International Welcome Reception, making the global real estate market accessible with an introduction to a CIPS designee or understanding the influence of global business councils and alliances with invitations to select meetings.

Visit narnxt.realtor to learn more, including the conference schedule, speaker lineup, networking opportunities and registration information.

Whether you are a new agent, career changer or established broker-owner, we hope to see you at the NAR NXT, the REALTOR Experience this November in Orlando, Florida.

Leslie Rouda Smith President National Association of Realtors

NAMMBA members,

These are the bare facts: 84% of organizations are antici pating a shortage of leaders in the next 10 years. While 83% of organizations say it’s important to develop leadership at all levels, only 5% of companies have implemented leader ship training programs within their companies.

That is a huge gap.

This gap is only yawning wider as the American work force is currently retiring at a rate of 10,000 per day. That rate will peak at 12,000 per day by 2030, less than eight years in the future.

Only 85 women are promoted for every 100 men, despite women scoring better in 17 out of 19 characteristics that distinguish excellent leaders.

Clearly, some potential leaders in the workforce are being overlooked.

NAMMBA’s Leadership Academy has developed a sixmonth mortgage leadership program to address these shortfalls. The program will put your best and brightest on the right track to taking on more leadership roles. More so, it will educate them on how they can build alliances across service channels, departments and their communities.

It’s intense. It’s transformative. It allows you to start building up the leadership team you want to see now — not when it’s too late.

When 2030 hits, your organization could have an es tablished, respected, proactive, goal-crushing leadership team in place, instead of a list of excuses as to why you can’t find the right talent.

When you cultivate your leadership potential with NAMMBA, you can write your company’s ticket to the future.

The next Leadership Academy program starts in January. Registration is open now but will close in December, or as soon as the limited spaces are filled.

Some of our partners are able to register employees for free. To check your perks, contact info@nammba.org.

National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America

NRMLA Members,

Steve Irwin President and CEO National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association

National Reverse Morgage Lenders Association

In survey after survey, one of the greatest fears cited by America’s aging population is running out of money in retirement.

Reverse mortgages were conceived as a means to help retirees with lim ited income access the accumulated wealth in their homes to cover basic monthly living expenses and to pay for healthcare. However, today we are seeing more consumers using re verse mortgages strategically as part of a comprehensive retirement plan.

Now is the perfect time to add reverse mortgages to your product line to help improve older homeowners’ retirement security. Use NRMLA’s Annual Meeting & Expo, November 1-3, in Atlanta, as a starting point to better understand the nuances of offering reverse mortgages.

While FHA’s home equity conversion mortgage still accounts for the majority of reverse mortgages made in the U.S., there is a growing market for private-label reverse mortgages that come with higher lending limits

Tony Thompson President National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America

and greater flexibility to help address your clients’ specific needs.

Nobody gets up in the morning and thinks about getting a reverse mortgage. Instead, they think about how to pay for healthcare, fix the roof, pay the property taxes or enjoy retirement. A reverse mortgage provides solutions to these issues and many others so people can live more financially secure lives as they age.

NRMLA’s Annual Meeting brings together a mix of professionals who have originated reverse mortgages exclusively for many years with those who are new and want to learn how to offer them in a safe, compliant and ethical manner.

We look forward to your participa tion and encourage you to use the opportunity to make new friends, network with the industry’s top sub ject matter experts, learn something new and stay abreast of important issues and trends within the reverse mortgage industry.

You can learn more at NRMLAonline. org.

Title talk with Rachel Luna

THE “TEXAS TITLE QUEEN” SHARES HER EXPERIENCE

BY BROOKLEE HAN

With over 13,000 followers on Instagram, Rachel Luna, the principal of Texas-based Patriot Title Company, is the self-proclaimed “Texas Title Queen.” Luna has worked her way through the ranks and is now among the most recognizable pros in the title industry.

“I have worked every position in the title industry, from the front desk to file clerk to copy girl to a notary to an escrow officer. And now I am the principal of the largest woman-owned title company in Texas,” Luna said.

HousingWire recently caught up with Luna to discuss her career, the “boutique title experience”

and bringing title knowledge to the masses through social media.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

HousingWire: Can you tell me a little bit about your background and how you found your way into the title industry?

Rachel Luna: I was born and raised in Houston, and I am of Mexican-American descent. It was a very modest upbringing, and my family taught us to be hard workers. During school, I had the opportunity to be part of a co-op program with a title company. I graduated high school quite early, and I ended up being a title clerk there for a while before going to university, where I got a degree in business. After college, I went to work for a builder, and from there I just stayed in real estate. I eventually became a salesperson for the builder and learned the sales side of things. Then I worked with a title company to partner with the builder, and then I found myself

transitioning fully back into title. And the rest, as they say, is history. I never left title again.

HW: A saying frequently thrown around in the world of title is that you are either born into the industry or you stumble into it. It sounds like you stumbled into title! Prior to the co-op program, did you know anything about title or had you considered a career in the world of real estate?

RL: I definitely stumbled into it. I was originally interested in pursuing journalism or law. So I had these two different interests, but I ended up in title. I like that title has a legal aspect to it, but I also like that we are able to talk to people and get to know them a bit throughout the transaction. Then there is the investigative piece, and that was what I wanted to do with journalism — I wanted to be an investigative journalist, so I loved going to the courthouse or the town hall and looking for records. I like that there is a balance between legal stuff and people. And I love seeing people buy their first home — it is such a great moment for them, and it was infectious for me to be around that at such a young age. And then every deal is so different, so every day is different. Also, having been in sales, I like that title is right in the middle of the real estate transaction. Title sees everything, and we are how it all gets done. I really enjoy and feel gratified by getting deals done because I know we have helped those people cross the finish line.

HW: You mentioned doing sales for a builder before getting back in title. What led you to leave the sales side of real estate?

RL: I was a top salesperson and was making a lot of money, but I had no life. I

was working every Saturday and Sunday, every Memorial Day weekend and Fourth of July weekend, and one day I woke up thinking, “I am not giving up another Thanksgiving weekend to help people shop for houses.” I was young, and I think I had bitten off a bit more than I could chew, and I felt that maybe I just wasn’t ready to give up so much. I wanted to stay in real estate because growing up, I had read so much about how most self-made millionaires did it through real estate, and then my grandmother had rental properties, and I saw how she was able to build wealth from that. So I moved back into title, and I really feel like it is some sort of divine destiny for me because here we are years later and I have been able to build my business, perform with a high level of integrity, gain respect in the industry and still have time to be fabulous in between.

HW: Your fabulous side is definitely showcased on your social media platforms. You do a great job of highlighting your personality while educating people about title insurance. How did you start using social media?

RL: Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we had been talking about doing a podcast, but I just wasn’t sure. You know, what if we couldn’t get a guest on or they weren’t dynamic? I just didn’t feel like a podcast was my vibe. But I am really great with crowds. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I was looking for a way to stay in touch with my clients, so I decided to start filming some shows and posting them on social media and YouTube. The platforms are all changing right now — our main audience is millennial homebuyers, and to connect with them you really have to use these tools to elevate your business and brand. So I just started by showing the daily life of someone in title and showing them around the office and the

different tasks we do and basically how we run a title company. I think a lot of people were curious about title, so they started watching. And I think the videos resonate because I am just being myself; there is no falseness here. Showcasing this world to a massive audience through social, that was really the secret sauce of us elevating the brand name and who we are. I am making title popular, and a lot of people in the industry are happy about that.

HW: Consumer education and understanding is typically viewed as a major hurdle by most title companies. How are you using your YouTube channel and your social media to improve consumer knowledge of title?

RL: That is something I am a huge advocate for because the consumer needs to know what they are buying and what title insurance does because it is their insurance policy. I feel like most people just think the title company disburses funds and gives them the title to the house, but we are actually an insurance company, and people don’t understand that. They don’t understand that we are actually protecting their purchase. Sometimes we get calls from clients asking about papers they get in the mail because they just don’t understand that they are purchasing an insurance policy and those papers are the physical copy of their policy.

A home is one of the largest investments a person will make in their life, and it is important to protect that investment and protect everyone in the transaction. We are also working to educate lenders and real estate agents because a lot of them don’t know that if you refinance within a certain time frame, you can get an extra discount on your policy. We are actually working on some content about that process now that we will share soon.

HW: We are hearing a lot about real estate agents leveraging their social media to generate leads. Have you had any success with this through your social media?

RL: After I enhanced my social media presence, we actually started having consumers directly reach out to ask us questions about selling their home and how much the closing costs would be to determine if they really did want to sell. So we give them a complimentary breakdown of the settlement costs, and then when they are ready to sell, they almost always come back to us for their title company. Sometimes we are even the ones who recommend their Realtor, which is kind of the opposite of how things normally work.

But our inbox is always full of questions about title from consumers and we take those engagements very seriously because that is how you develop public awareness of the industry and what we do.

HW: What have been some of the biggest challenges you have faced as you have built your business, and how did you overcome them?

RL: The biggest challenge in building the company was realizing how much I needed to invest in my frontline. I always tell people that this is a customer service business, and when I started out, I did not invest as much as I should have in my frontline — my receptionist and all the people out front. I was putting more into watching my bottom line than really investing in my team and the people out front because as a new business owner, you are always looking at where you can cut back and increase revenue. But I learned really quickly that the frontline is

everything in the title business, and you have to invest in your folks out front if you want to increase your bottom line.

One of the other obstacles was dealing with the big competitors in our industry because we are an independent and we are up against these big, publicly traded companies like Stewart or First American. But I came at it like we are a boutique title company trying to create our own space in the market.

Creating that rapport with clients and getting them to see it as they could either be a little fish in a big pond over at one of the Big Four, or they could be a big fish in a smaller pond with us. As a boutique, we value their business, but we also know their kids and their dogs — they are more to us than just a file number. So changing the perspective of our client base to trust us as an independent boutique company with their business and to give them an experience was the biggest challenge.

HW: What differentiates a boutique firm like yours from the larger title companies?

RL: What I say is that you can shop at Gucci, or you can shop at Macy’s. At Gucci or Chanel or Versace, you are going to have an experience when you shop. You can have a glass of wine or some strawberries and champagne or a croissant, and there will be flowers and beautiful music. For us, this means making sure that the closing setup is elegant and that the homebuyers and sellers feel relaxed and a little spoiled. At Macy’s, you are going to have some comfortable chairs, but that is it. Buying a home is an occasion, and it should be treated as an event. We want real estate agents to look good for their clients, so we make sure they don’t have a cookiecutter closing experience.

HW: One of the biggest challenges facing the title industry is the

talent crunch. Some people in the industry have termed it the “silver wave.” What are your thoughts on this, and what role do you see your social media presence playing in potentially driving more people into title?

RL: Through social media, we get a lot of people reaching out, saying things like, “My mom is a Realtor, and I have gone to her closings, and I don’t want to be a Realtor, but I am really intrigued by title,” and that is great. If you are a detailoriented person or you love numbers, title can be a great business. We have recruited people from some accounting firms and from the county clerk’s office because they saw what we do on social media.

Obviously, it helps if they have some knowledge, but I tell everyone that if they are willing to put in the work, we will train them because so much in our industry is hands-on learning. We put them in our incubator program, and within two or three years, they are licensed and are closing agents. Once they become closers, they can build their book of business and grow their business as large as they want.

HW: What is your best piece of advice for someone considering a career in title?

RL: If you want a long, stable career where you will be able to increase both your income and your knowledge and you will always be challenged, title is a great place for you. Something similar can be said for real estate agents, but there are so many of them, and it is such a big pool to compete in. Title and escrow it is a lot smaller, and if you are willing to put in the work, you can become the best. If you are powerful, passionate and the best version of yourself, then anything is possible.

Mortgaage

HELOCs are now “raging back”

HOMEOWNERS TURN TO HOME-EQUITY LINES OF CREDIT

BY BILL CONROY

A

combination of fast-rising home values and the fact that nearly two-thirds of borrowers with at least some home equity have mortgage rates below 4% is helping to propel a resurgent market for homeequity lines of credit (HELOCs).

HELOCs allow homeowners to tap the equity in their home without incurring a much higher first-lien mortgage via cash-out refinancing.

HELOCs are revolving debt that, in the case of a 30-year HELOC, for example, involve a draw period of 10 years and a repayment period of 20 years.

Unlike fixed-rate, lump-sum or second-lien, home-equity loans (HELOCs) typically carry variable interest rates.

HELOCs also are also popular because the

interest on the loans is tax deductible if the funds are used for approved home renovations.

The interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.22% as of August 11, according to a Freddie Mac weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s secondquarter 2022 Household Debt and Credit Report shows that limits on HELOCs jumped by $18 billion in the second quarter of this year, “the first substantial increase in HELOC limits since 2011” and an indicator of an increase in new originations.

HELOC balances stood at $319 billion for the second quarter, according to the Federal Reserve report.

“Balances on HELOCs increased by $2 billion [in Q2], a modest increase but one that follows many years of declining balances,” the report continued.

Another report by TransUnion shows the number of HELOC originations nationwide, based on the credit bureau’s analysis, jumped from 207,422 for second-quarter 2021 to 291,736 for the second

“Mortgage lenders are now considering adding home-equity lending to their portfolios as they look for growth in a declining refinance market and seek opportunities to cross-sell to their existing customer base by tapping into historic amounts of home equity.”

quarter of this year — a 41% increase.

TransUnion reports that as of first-quarter 2022, the most recent comparable data it had available, overall mortgage originations were down year over year by nearly 45%, and cash-out refinancings were down by 23%, but HELOC origination volumes were up by 29% over the period.

“Mortgage lenders are now considering adding home-equity lending to their portfolios as they look for growth in a declining refinance market and seek opportunities to cross-sell to their existing customer base by tapping into historic amounts of home equity,” said Joe Mellman, senior vice president and mortgage business leader at TransUnion.

“Consumers are increasingly interested in HELOC and home-equity loan lending — leveraging rising home values to access affordable capital.”

“At the end of Quarter two, the average U.S. homeowner had $216,900 in tappable equity, up $9.7K (5%) in the quarter and $43.4K (25%) from the same time last year.”

-Andy Walen

OOne of the largest lenders in the country, Bank of America, also reported a big jump in overall home-equity loan originations over the first six months of 2022 — from about $1.7 billion in 2021 to $4.6 billion this year, based on the principal amount of the total line of credit, according to the bank’s second-quarter 2022 earnings report.

HELOCs were not broken out separately in that report.

“HELOCs seem to be the only thing people are talking about these days,” said John Toohig, a managing director at Raymond James, a board member and president of Raymond James Mortgage Company and head of the firm’s Whole Loan Group.

“We have already doubled our best year in trading HELOCs, and we’re only seven months into the year.

“We’ll probably trade a little over $1.2

billion by the end of the year if we keep this pace. So a product that was relatively esoteric, something you didn’t regularly see, is now raging back,” said Toohig.

Toohig added that HELOC loan buyers include banks, credit unions, money managers and more.

The loans are typically kept on balance sheets — although there have been a few private-label securitizations involving HELOCs in 2022.

Toohig’s take is that there are a lot of homeowners out there with “really low coupons” on their first mortgage, and they don’t want to refinance into a much higher-rate mortgage, even to get cash out, so HELOCs are gaining steam.

“I haven’t seen them [HELOCs] trade at this kind of pace in at least a decade,” he said.

“It feels like every nonbank in the country has called me in the last two

-Joe Mellman

months wanting to stand up a HELOC program.”

Among the nonbanks that either have or plan to introduce HELOC loan products are Rocket Mortgage, Guaranteed Rate, loanDepot and Rithm Capital.

BBlack Knight reports in its Mortgage Monitor Report for the second quarter that the amount of tappable home equity nationally hit $11.5 trillion in the second quarter — after accounting for homeowners retaining at least 20% equity.

That figure is up by around $500 billion from the first quarter and $2.3 trillion year over year.

“At the end of Q2, the average U.S. homeowner had $216,900 in tappable equity, up $9.7K (5%) in the quarter and $43.4K (25%) from the same time last year,” Andy Walden, vice president of enterprise research and strategy at mortgage tech giant Black Knight, wrote in a recent report on the home-equity market.

In yet another report demonstrating the potential for the HELOC market, real estate data-solutions provider ATTOM found that nationally, as of second-quarter 2022, the percentage of mortgaged homes considered to be equity rich stood at 48.1%, up from 34.4% a year earlier.

In addition, ATTOM’s report states that at least half of all those paying a mortgage were equity rich in the second quarter year over year equity-rich levels rose in all 50 states.

Equity rich, as defined by ATTOM, means that all debt balances secured by the property represent no more than 50% of the property’s estimated market value.

“After 124 consecutive months of home price increases, it’s no surprise that the percentage of equity-rich homes is the highest we’ve ever seen and that the percentage of seriously underwater loans is the lowest,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at ATTOM.

“While home price appreciation appears to be slowing down due to higher interest rates on mortgage loans, it seems likely that homeowners will continue to build on the record amount of equity they have for the rest of 2022.”

Black Knight’s Walden added that some 73% of equity is now held by homeowners locked into first-lien mortgage rates below 4%, and half having rates below 3.5%.

“Borrowers [at these low rates] may be reticent to access their equity via refinancing,” he wrote in his report.

“As a result, we expect to see more homeowners turning toward secondlien home-equity products [such as HELOCs].”

“After 124 consecutive months of home price increases, it's no surprise that the percentage of equity-rich homes is the highest we’ve ever seen and that the percentage of seriously underwater loans is the lowest.” - Rick Sharga

Greystar once again tops property management rankings

RPM LIVING, MORGAN PROPERTIES, HARBOR GROUP, AND AVENUE5

ALL ADD OVER 10,000 UNITS TO THEIR PORTFOLIOS.

BY JOE BURNS

In August, Multi-Housing News (MHN) released its “Top 50 Multifamily Property Management Firms of 2022," including self-reported operating data from some of the largest U.S. management firms and an analysis of the multifamily industry.

While the data does not include all major multifamily property management companies, with several notable firms (Cortland, MAA and Alliance Residential) not participating each year, it does include units managed and occupancy rates for most major players in 2021.

The report paints a decent picture on the size and movement of established property management firms over the past year.

According to the rankings report, the Top 50 includes a combined 3.05 million units under management, with the average participant portfolio increasing an average of 10% between 2020 and

2021. MHN attributes this change to continued expansion across regions and asset types and says that 30 of the 50 companies had occupancy rates of 95 percent for better.

FinLedger also looked at last year’s rankings, which included data from 2019 and 2020, in order to show a larger sample size and give additional historical context.

You can find a data visualization for the top six ranking companies later in this story.

GGreystar Real Estate Partners topped the list for the second year in a row, with just over 700,000 units under management (UM) in 2021 and a 94.4% portfolio occupancy rate (PO).

While the firm’s total management portfolio did fall 27,497 units from its 2020 total (-3.92%), it still manages over three times as many units as the next

largest firm, Lincoln Property Company (210,086 UM).

Lincoln also finished second for the second year in a row. Its total units managed decreased by 97 units from 2020 to 2021 (210,086 UM).

The company stayed pretty steady in terms of unit volume, and it increased its tenant occupancy across its portfolio by 2.6% (95.3% in 2021).

Cushman & Wakefield took third again as well, adding 3,049 units in 2021 for a total management portfolio of 166,271 units. It did not disclose portfolio occupancy rates.

Other notable firms in the 2022 Top 10 include RPM Living (112,872 Units

Managed), FPI Management (139,852), Morgan Properties (95,440), BH Cos. (106,353), Avenue5 Residential (86,958), Bozzuto (83,324) and Highmark Residential (75,712).

AAlmost all of these firms also improved occupancy rates.

The largest improvement was shown by Bozzuto, which increased its units managed by 3.89% and occupancy rates by 4% in 2021. Despite this, the East

Almost all of these firms also improved occupancy rates. The largest improvement was shown by Bozzuto, which increased its units managed by 3.89% and occupancy rates by 4% in 2021.

Coast-based developer and manager fell from fourth to ninth overall in the MHN rankings.

Additional companies with 98% plus portfolio occupancy rates include Habitat America LLC, the Breeden Co. and Burton Carol Management LLC. The report also noted that occupancy rates among respondents increased 2% overall to a total of 95%.

The report attributes this to multifamily property management companies overcoming pandemic-related restrictions and near all-time high occupancy rates in suburban zones and the Sun Belt, Midwest and Southwest.

As a result, established property management firms will be critical in maximizing this increased opportunity.

percentage growth (28.2%), adding 9,284 units to its management portfolio, and also was the top firm in terms of portfolio occupancy (98.3%).

RPM Living showed the list’s largest overall unit volume growth, adding 31,286 units in 2021 for a 27.72% increase in its portfolio.

Founded in 2002, this unit volume growth highlights the firm’s ongoing expansion efforts over the past few years, with RPM organically adding 19,000 units in 2020 and 58,000 units via its merger with CF Real Estate Services in January 2021 for a 112,872 unit increase from 2019 through 2021.

Other firms showing large unit volume growth include:

• Morgan Properties added 22,012 units in 2021 (23.06%) and increased its portfolio size by 41,315 units since 2019.

• Harbor Group International added 13,212 units in 2021 (24.58%) and increased its portfolio size by 21,913 units since 2019.

• FPI Management added 12,311 units in 2021 (8.8%) and did not disclose portfolio size in 2019.

• Avenue5 Residential added 11,086 units in 2021 (12.75%) and increased its portfolio size by 19,100 units since 2019.

largest decrease in overall portfolio units on the list.

Balfour Beatty Communities dropped 2,263 units (-4.7%) to 48,150 units in 2021, totaling a 956 loss in units since 2019.

Indigo Real Estate dropped 901 units (-9.52%) to 9,462 units in 2021.

Inland Real Estate Group dropped 580 units (-2.72%) to 21,357 units in 2021, but

VVesta Realty saw the largest percentage growth in 2021, growing its 3,636 multifamily units under management in 2020 by 40.61% to 8,953 in 2021, followed by IDM Cos., which grew 30.45% to 6,390 UM.

S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co. ranked third in

PProperty management firms on the list that saw decreases in total unit volume during 2021 include:

Envolve Communities dropped 5,216 units (-18.43%) to 28,295 units in 2021, but still saw a 3,338-unit increase since 2019.

Presidium dropped 1,753 units (-29.61%) to 5,921 units in 2021, accounting for the

still saw a 1,437-unit increase since 2019 (19,920 UM).

Related Cos. dropped 200 units (-0.33%) in 2021, keeping its units managed at just over 60,000.

The rankings report also noted that assets in gateway markets were the slowest to recover, but “still showed significant growth as many young people returned to urban cores across the country.”

It also claims that multifamily property demand will continue, due to inflation and increasing interest rates that are driving homeownership “out of reach for the average household.”

To the left, please find the chart displaying the rankings of the top six management companies: Greystar Real Estate Partners, Lincoln Property Co. Cushman & Wakefield, BH Cos FPI Management and RPM Living.

Established property management firms will be critical in maximizing this increased opportunity.

Assets in gateway markets were the slowest to recover, but showed significant growth as many young people return to urban cores across the country.

Planet Home Lending volunteers to fight hunger in their community

By Audrey Lee

The Howard County Food Bank gained valuable volunteers and donations from Planet Home Lending as the organization partnered with Farmlink to deliver farmfresh produce to the food bank. Volunteers from Planet Home Lending didn’t just donate canned goods and other grocery items. They got their hands dirty, pulled weeds, fertilized plants and supported multiple organizations through their vol unteer efforts. Battling food insecurity is only one of the many charitable causes that Planet Home Lending supports through its Planet With a Purpose initiative. Below, Samantha Manfer, chief business development and brand officer at Planet Home Lending, answered a few questions for HousingWire about their recent contributions.

HOUSINGWIRE: WHAT INSPIRED PLANET HOME LENDING TO GET CONNECTED WITH FARMLINK AND THE HOWARD COUNTY FOOD BANK?

SAMANTHA MANFER: We funded the Farmlink Project’s Impact Tour to spread the word to farmers with surplus crops that they could donate to local food banks. That initial support helped Farmlink to grow from a grassroots stu dent organization in California to a national organization with a dozen employees. With help from Planet With a Purpose (PWaP), Farmlink has shipped more than 40 million pounds of food — preventing 41 million pounds of carbon emissions and delivering more than 62 million meals to hungry people.

HW: WHAT HAVE BEEN THE MAJOR SUCCESSES OF THE PLANET WITH A PURPOSE CAMPAIGNS?

SM: When we started our social responsibility platform, PWaP, our goal was to support and grow nonprofits that have the potential to improve the world, the communities we serve and our planet’s health.

Planet Home Lending has funded the plant ing of more than a quarter million trees in our National Forests over four years via a partnership with the National Forest Foundation. Planting trees helps sequester our nation’s carbon footprint. The quarter-million trees will help store 125,000 metric tons of carbon emissions over their lifetimes.

This year Planet is planting trees in the Arapaho, Roosevelt, Francis Marion, Sumter

and Chippewa National Forests in Colorado, South Carolina and Minnesota, respectively. The restoration project includes a wildfire recovery and a native habitat restoration for en dangered species.

HW: HOW HAS THE LOCAL COMMUNITY BEEN IMPACTED BY YOUR VOLUNTEERS AND CHARITABLE DONATIONS?

SM: The Community Action Council of Howard County’s community garden grows organic produce for its food bank. Volunteering in the garden and the food bank highlights that peo ple affected by food scarcity deserve fresh vegetables in the summer just like everyone else. Planet employees picked tomatoes at the gar den and also sorted produce donated to the food bank by backyard gardeners. We saw how happy the food bank customers were to receive summer’s bounty of tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, peppers and other vegetables.

HW: IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE?

SM: Aside from PWaP, Planet has employees from executive team members all the way to entry-level contributors who have served our country. Endowing a scholarship with the Army Scholarship Foundation is a way to honor and thank them, as well as our many VA borrowers. The Army Scholarship Foundation is a 100% volunteer organization, so there are no overhead costs. We like that every dollar we do nate gives service members’ families who’ve sacrificed so much for us a chance to grow and learn.

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❱ HOUSINGWIRE TAKES D.C.

Logan Mohtashami had the opportunity to pres ent virtually at the private Economic Conference in Washington, D.C. As the lead analyst for HW Media, Mohtashami has an understanding of the hous ing industry, and the economy, like no one else. He shared his knowledge with the Committee for Eco nomic Development to drive home just how savagely unhealthy the housing market was turning at the end of the summer and make a case for his six recession red flags.

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