Greg Sher

Rocket announced the trimming of their workforce following the closing of their Mr. Cooper deal.

Now this is how you take care of employees impacted by a merger or acquisition-with dignity, respect- and human decency.

Maybe this will silence the critics........

Clearly, mortgage industry icon Barry Habib has a very prominent seat at the Federal Housing Finance Agency table - he was appointed to the Fannie Mae board on July 21st by Director Pulte.

If Barry can move the needle here, it would be one of the most substantial contributions EVER made from someone in the private sector.

Fixing Loan Level Price Adjustment's (LLPA's) would be the fastest way to make homeownership more affordable. They are essentially risk taxes that jack up costs for borrowers who can least afford it.

A 680-credit borrower putting 10% down can pay up to 2% more in fees than someone with a 760 score.

On a $400K loan, that’s $8,000 upfront or roughly 0.375% higher in rate. These fees don’t go to lenders.....they’re GSE surcharges designed to “price risk.”

The risk models are outdated, built on pre-2008 assumptions that ignore today’s stricter underwriting.

Modern data shows default risk has plummeted, yet pricing hasn’t caught up.

Borrowers are effectively overpaying for risk that no longer exists.

If FHFA rebuilt LLPA's using real performance data, not legacy math, it could immediately save working-class and first-time buyers tens of billions over the next decade.

I'm sure the haters will find a way to criticize Pulte here - but we all know the mark of a great leader is surrounding yourself with the best people who can make the biggest impact.

In that regard, this is an A+ move.

Men of mortgage, there's more we must do.

As Marcia Davies takes her final bow as COO of Mortgage Bankers Association and Founder of mPower, she walks away having planted the seeds of inclusion for so many women in this industry - but make no mistake, it's our responsibility to water them.

As she said herself in her last mPower keynote yesterday;

 "𝙒𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙡𝙤𝙩 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙤 - 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙛𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙚'𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙚."

She is absolutely right.

Despite the fact more male leaders than ever are elevating women in the mortgage business, there are still far too many who aren't - there are too many all-male leadership teams with no diversity - too many men flexing - holding great women back - or worse, not making it a priority to identify opportunities to mPower them.

Marcia's first 10 years got the conversation started - but we (the men) need to kick down that F'in door and see to it the job gets finished.

What does that look like?

It looks like committing to diversity - aiming for 50% in the C-Suite.

It looks like more words of encouragement for the women in our organizations to stand up and be heard.

It looks like promoting those who deserve to be promoted.

And it looks like calling out narcissism when we see it - yeah, that's bold - but that's how we penetrate the last frontier and see to it Marcia Davies legacy is not in vain.

Yes, today we celebrate 10 years of progress.

But tomorrow, we get back to the job at hand.....and as far as I'm concerned, there's not a more important job to do.
#allofus

Are you sitting down mortgage folks?

The top 500 Independent Mortgage Bankers lost 64% of their repeat customer opportunities in 2024 - meaning, they did the last mortgage transaction and 64 out of 100 times, those same customers went elsewhere for their next loan - and the cumulative lost retention across those 500 companies = $108 BILLION.

This freshly-released "Loan Loss Report" tool hit the market overnight for market intelligence users on the RETR platform. Not only does it show you lender-by-lender how many loans each institution failed to retain, but it shows each loan--who the originator was on the original loan - and who the new lender is and loan officer - this shows you down to the loan officer level who is and isn't winning the retention game.

Below is a snapshot from a top 20 IMB for 2024 (provided by RETR).

As the report demonstrates, this lender lost 63% of their retention to the marketplace. Of the 4083 customers who did their last loans with them and closed a new loan in 24', 2577 went elsewhere - half a billion out the door.

Insane, right?

Not only did RETR release this tool - it also came with a handful of solutions to mitigate the loss in the future and capture more of that biz. Problem followed by solution = love it.

It's tech like this that moves the needle for #allofus - Steven Wynands and his team at RETR continue to raise the standard and reimagine what market intelligence can look like - it can be so much more than pulling loan officer and realtor stats - and it should be.

But the real question: HOW IS THIS HAPPENING?

What do these stats say about our ability as an industry to hang on to what we already have?

We say "customer for life" but the reality is, that it's really "customer for one loan" the majority of the time. Huge miss.

Every IMB talks about efficiencies - staff metrics - and how to lower the cost to produce......ironically, we all own the answer sitting in our databases.

It's no wonder massive bets are being placed on building a better retention strategy and a "flywheel" among the bigs.

Either we get better.

Or we be gone.

Thanks for the nudge RETR.

It's GO time.

Here is the loan loss report home page - can put in the company NMLS from there: https://lnkd.in/exAWYFVB

Mortgage oddsmakers had us lasting 8 months.
 
Its been a year - and we're just getting started.
 
Proud of this guy.....Rick Roque, CMB Roque, CMB for taking on the challenge of getting his CMB from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Had the honor of watching him walk the MBA stage Sunday at Annual.
 
He's one of the brightest, most passionate mortgage professionals I know - if you're not following him, you need to be.

Total Expert: I braced myself for CRM hell.

Can you blame me?

Our relationship with Surefire CRM by Black Knight was terrible - and just kept getting worse over the years - nine of them, to be exact. Between the poor communication, broken systems and lack of innovation, we were stuck in a time machine - and it was costing us REAL opportunity money.

This photo was the "𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄" pic - it was taken last March after Total Expert flew in to pitch us on making the switch.

Yeah, you see me smiling - but underneath I was terrified.

How disruptive will it be to switch CRM's?

Could we lose loan officers over it?

What if they're broken too?

Can my marketing team take this on?

On 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 - we made the dreaded CRM switch - almost a year ago to this day.

𝗕𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗠𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗪𝗘 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗠𝗔𝗗𝗘.

Why?

Simple, yet powerful : they are who they said they were.

Founder led - hard-nosed grinders - accountable - available - visionaries - never comfortable - always reaching for more - and MOST IMPORTANTLY, 𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀. 

While they're on the forefront of innovation with their latest Agentic AI tool (voice agents doing lead intake), I never have to worry about them losing their old-school mentality - customer's first.

Doesn't mean their system is perfect - it doesn't need to be.

Next Wednesday in Denver, I will step to the stage at their annual Accelerate conference to host the segment: AI hype vs. AI reality - with Steve Majerus Phil Denfeld and Dan Catinella - and I will do that with great pride and satisfaction.

Yes, making a CRM switch is one of the most frightening decisions you can make as a mortgage leader - but I 100% vouch for my experience with the team and technology behind Total Expert.

Promises made.

Promises kept.

Liquidity, not policy, is about to move the mortgage market. Powell just confirmed it.

Speaking in Philadelphia at the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) conference earlier today, the Fed Chair quietly dropped the most important line of the year:

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙨 “𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙡𝙞𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨” 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙨𝙤𝙤𝙣 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙥 𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙩𝙨 $6 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙗𝙖𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙚𝙩.

Translation:

Quantitative tightening is almost over.

The Fed’s been draining the pool since mid-2022....now it’s signaling the endgame.

And that’s where the real story begins.

I asked legendary housing economist Barry Habib, after the comments, what happens if the Fed halts mortgage-backed securities runoff.

His answer cut straight through the noise:

“𝙄𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙛𝙪𝙡. 𝙈𝘽𝙎 𝙧𝙪𝙣𝙤𝙛𝙛 𝙞𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙩 $35𝘽/𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙝, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙬𝙚’𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 $15–20𝘽 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙛𝙞'𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙙. 𝙄𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙩𝙨 𝙧𝙪𝙣𝙤𝙛𝙛 — 𝙢𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙭𝙩 25𝙗𝙥 𝙘𝙪𝙩 — 𝙞𝙩’𝙨 𝙖 𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙗𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙨. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 10-𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙩𝙚𝙨𝙩 3.6–3.8%. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙨𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙩𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 1.8%, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙨𝙚𝙚 30-𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙜𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙣𝙚𝙖𝙧 5.5%.”

QT pause → stronger bond demand → lower yields → actual relief for housing.

Powell said it in a Philly ballroom, but the echo hit every rate sheet in America...the 10 year closed just a hair above 4% today.

This is how easing begins.....quietly, through liquidity.

No better place to stay up to speed on rate movement than MBS Highway. Best forecasting team in the game.

Because it's never too late for a Mortgage Bankers Association conference photo-dump....

"Hey, what's going on" (perfect metaphoric tune for the mortgage biz) staring Coby Hakalir as the leading man, HousingWire's Clayton Collins - on the drums, Kate Gurevich Dana Trajcevski on backup lyrics - the immortal "Dr." Rick Roque, CMB playing the role of giggles - and lastly, the show-stealing Dan Catinella from Total Expert - that boy got moves!!

Mortgage Bankers Association
Freedom Mortgage
#Pinkperformance
#allofus