“Rob, you’ve mentioned it a few times in your daily write up… What’s the scoop with these calls that tell me that the ‘underwriting team’ has approved me for a $45,000 loan, and just need a little more information”? Yup… I seem to receive 5-8 of those a week. Block, delete. Block, delete. One of Robbie’s recent interviews addressed the legality of these calls, one with Saul Ewing’s Jason McElroy on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The fact of the matter is that the law can’t keep up with technology, good or bad. AI initiatives in mortgage lending often fail because organizations spend months attempting to design a perfect future-state operating model before gaining any real-world experience. They’re trying to keep up. A more effective approach is deploying AI on a small set of live loans, learn from actual workflows, and iteratively refine processes over 30-, 60-, and 90-day cycles. Because AI is inherently adaptive rather than deterministic, successful implementation requires continuous change management, transparent communication about evolving roles, and a willingness to adjust based on operational feedback rather than treating deployment as a one-time technology project.
Saturday Spotlight: Finance of America
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Business growth is harder when you’re missing half the pie
Purchase and refinance lending aren’t going anywhere. But waiting for those markets to fully rebound isn’t much of a growth strategy. Not when there’s a massive slice of opportunity among the growing senior demographic.
Consider the scale: U.S. homeowners hold approximately $34.9 trillion in real estate equity (1), with more than $14.5 trillion held by homeowners age 62+ (2). But the size of home equity isn’t the whole story for seniors.
As homeowners enter retirement, their income, liquidity, and financial priorities may change. Meeting those needs might require rethinking your strategy. Serving older clients throughout the homeowner lifecycle requires a broader toolkit, including products like reverse mortgages.
Building that expertise takes work. Reverse mortgages come with new rules, processes, and borrower conversations. But growth doesn’t come from standing still. And the learning curve could become your advantage. Mortgage professionals who start now have time to develop capabilities that could set them apart as competition grows.
If you’re ready to grab a bigger slice of the pie, you don’t have to do it alone. Finance of America, one of America’s largest senior home equity lenders, brings more than 20 years of experience helping traditional mortgage professionals enter the category with education, tools, and operational support.
Its new white paper with HousingWire, “Growth is hard: why standing still is the biggest risk facing mortgage originators,” lays out the business case for building expertise now—before market pressure forces your hand.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn. Why waiting for “normal” is a risky strategy: Purchase and refi remain foundational, but relying on their recovery leaves your growth tied to rates, inventory, and other factors you can’t control. Why the learning curve is a competitive advantage: Building product knowledge, referral relationships, and operational fluency now could help you stay ahead as demand grows. Why your client relationships shouldn’t end at purchase: A broader home equity strategy could help you remain relevant as clients’ needs evolve, from buying and improving a home to preparing for retirement and funding later-life priorities. You could wait for the familiar market to get easier. But first, ask yourself: Are you missing half the pie? Get the white paper. 1. Households; Owners’ Equity in Real Estate, Level, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 6/11/26; 2. Senior Housing Wealth Remains Largely Stable in Q4 2025, NRMLA, 4/10/26
(For more information on having your firm’s extracurricular activities, employee growth, and your charitable side featured, contact Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt.)
What is AI telling borrowers about your service and price?
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“This began last week. I received the text, and I showed four other lenders that I was there with, and they all went online and looked up their rates. It was a simple $125k loan, 30-yr purchase, great credit. The average rate among the local lenders was around 7.375 percent. I was slightly better in quoting her 7.25 that day.
“She came back with a range of quotes from AI that told her we were in the ‘above average to awful’ range, and that she had three lenders who could do it for around 6.375. And even after that she thought she could find a 6.25 percent with the same fees! You should know that I had just done the mortgage for her daughter and have done ten mortgages for the real estate agent who was helping them, and the daughter was happy enough that she referred a coworker to me for a purchase.
“Supposedly a credit union in Northwest (she is buying in SC) gave her 6.25! I am confident that when it gets down to the nitty gritty (most online lenders have the caveat that their rates are for $200k and above, while she thinks because of her smaller/safer loan she will get the best), she won’t obtain the rate and price that she thinks she will. But the clock is ticking towards closing, and the embarrassment factor sets in, which many times keeps them from coming back. I am lucky that I will see the CD (since I am friends with the Realtor) to see what finally happens.
“And to add to it, while she was shopping for a house (having looked at over 50 per the agent), I gave her the name of a great local independent insurance agent. I just spoke with him and asked if he got the deal, and if she was shopping him with AI?
“His response was that his quote for her car insurance was just in the middle to higher end of the road, per AI, so his quote for homeowners’ insurance couldn’t actually be as good as he said (so he must be lying or missing something), so she decided to go another way! This insurance agent has earned the business of probably 90 percent of the referrals I have sent his way.
Below is the actual AI chain she sent to me. Remember, we were the lowest of five local lenders at 7.25!
Here is AI assessment of what you’ve given me:
Rate: My assessment for you
7.50%+
🔴 Too high
7.25–7.49% 🟠 Not terrible, but shop it
7.00–7.24% 🟡 Reasonable
6.75–6.99% 🟢 Very good
6.50–6.74% 🟢🟢 Excellent
“Here’s my actual position now. 7.25 percent + 1.625 percent origination = too expensive for your profile. That’s the answer I’d stand behind. The fact that the average borrower in South Carolina may currently be around 7.3–7.5 percent doesn’t mean you should accept that pricing.
“Your circumstances are unusually favorable: 800+ credit, primary residence, conventional loan, approximately $125,000, from me, but is $125k approx. to $200k? In AI opinion: Very large down payment, extremely low LTV, strong financial profile. So, I would not be satisfied with 7.25 percent plus $2,031 of origination.
“And here’s why I’m particularly bothered by it. If he were saying, ‘7.25 percent, 0 points, very low lender fees,’ I’d say, ‘That’s not great, but it’s defensible in today’s market. Shop it.’ But he’s saying, ‘7.25 percent + 1.625 percent origination.’ That’s different. You’re paying $2,031.25 just in that origination charge. And if another lender could offer you, say, ‘7.00 percent + $750 lender fees’ you’d potentially be getting a lower rate and saving roughly $1,281 upfront. That’s the kind of comparison I want you making.
‘’One correction to my earlier, 6.50–6.74 percent target: I also don’t want to give you an unrealistic expectation. Given the market today, I would characterize your realistic shopping targets as, best case 6.50–6.75 percent, but likely involving points, very good 6.75–7.00 percent with reasonable/no points, and acceptable 7.00–7.25 percent, if the fees are very low. Your current quote of 7.25 percent + 1.625 percent origination… I would shop this.
‘’I would not lock that quote simply because the market is around 7.3 percent. And because you’re only borrowing $125,000, I think there’s a very good chance that the fee structure matters as much as the rate. If you want, let’s do this properly now: give me the broker’s exact 0-point, 1-point, and 2-point quotes (including the rate and every fee), and I’ll calculate the true cost of each option over 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15 and 30 years. That will tell us exactly what I’d choose, not just which number looks prettier.’” Lord Almighty…
Renters are a source of business. Here are snapshots.
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Entrata Survey Finds Renters Are Redefining What Financial Success Looks Like
Findings show 58 percent of renters are saving for an emergency fund compared to 20 percent saving for a home, while Gen Z increasingly views investments as a marker of financial success
Entrata, a leading AI-enabled multifamily industry operating system, released a new survey revealing how renters are redefining financial success and prioritizing their money. While homeownership remains a long-term goal for many, renters are putting their money toward more immediate financial needs, with emergency savings, retirement and travel ranking ahead of saving for a home purchase.
“The American Dream was once synonymous with owning a home, and now we’re living in a period where we’re seeing that dream shift in real time,” said Virginia Love, Industry Principal at Entrata. “Our survey reveals that renters are still prioritizing saving by making small daily financial trade-offs; they’re just putting their savings toward more immediate priorities like financial security, rather than focusing solely on buying a home.”
For renters, the biggest savings priority is preparing for the unexpected. More than half (58 percent) say they are currently saving for an emergency fund, making it the most common savings goal by a wide margin. Retirement follows at 31 percent, while 25 percent are saving for vacation or travel. Just 20 percent say they are currently saving for a home purchase.
That shift extends beyond financial security to how renters define success. Sixty-six percent associate success with good physical and mental health, while 60 percent point to achieving financial freedom, compared to 39 percent who associate success with owning a home.
Among Gen Z renters, that shift is particularly nuanced. While 66 percent still see homeownership as part of the American Dream, investments are more likely than a home purchase to signal financial success, with 37 percent pointing to investments compared to 25 percent who point to purchasing a home.
Homeownership remains an important goal for many renters, even as some question whether it’s attainable. Sixty-one percent of renters say they would like to own a home, including 37 percent who say it is absolutely part of their dream and 24 percent who would like to own but feel it is unattainable. At the same time, 22 percent say they have no desire to own a home.
(Entrata currently serves over three million residents across more than 20,000 multifamily communities around the globe. Learn more at www.entrata.com.)
RentCafe.com’s latest housing report, which looks at 107 metros to find out where Millennials prefer to rent or buy across the country, showed that for every Millennial who just closed on a home, there’s at least one still signing a lease. Millennial homeownership jumped 74 percent in five years, from 7.13 million households to 12.4 million. But 12.6 million Millennial households are still renting after adding 600,000 more renters in five years.
Here are four key perspectives from the analysis. Which metros are seeing Millennial renters pour in? The top five metro areas for Millennial rentership growth are all in Florida: Orlando leads the pack with a 34 percent jump, adding 44,700 renter households to reach 174,506 by 2023; Lakeland follows with 33 percent, growing from 25,700 to 34,120 renter households in just five years; and Cape Coral, Palm Bay and Miami each grew by roughly 27 percent, with Miami alone counting 324,300 Millennial renter households. In these areas, incomes typically grew nearly twice as fast as home prices (in Orlando, earnings rose 38.3 percent while prices climbed just 20.8 percent, which explains why renters keep coming).
Where are renters trading leases for mortgages the fastest? Also in Florida, but a few metros in Texas and California are close behind: North Port, FL, nearly tripled its homeowner count (from 13,200 to 35,140) while Jacksonville more than doubled to nearly 105,200 in five years. Austin, TX, jumped 111 percent, reaching 176,981 homeowner households. In Stockton and Oxnard, Millennial homeownership also more than doubled, proving that even in California, buyers are finding a way in. In many of these markets, the cost of living stayed below the national average, and when incomes grow faster than prices, buying starts to make more sense than renting. North Port is a good example: the second-highest income growth among all metros analyzed, at 55 percent, against just 21 percent in price growth.
Where did the math finally work out for Millennial homebuyers? Far from the coasts, in smaller hubs where a paycheck stretches further. Grand Rapids, MI, leads the nation with 68.5 percent of Millennials owning their home. Incomes grew 31.5 percent, prices a manageable 19 percent, and job growth reached a solid 7 percent, making buying feel within reach. Ogden, UT, follows with 68.3 percent of Millennials here owning their place, a 31.4 percent income growth, 6.4 percent job growth, and prices up just 17 percent. Provo, UT, rounds out the top three with a 67.2 percent homeownership rate, and stands out with 51.6 percent income growth against a low 16 percent price growth, one of the strongest gaps between earnings and costs in the country.
Where is renting the norm for Millennials? The coastal locations where buying is still out of reach for most. Los Angeles tops the list: 7 out of 10 Millennials rent (906,663 households) up 17.6 percent. San Jose follows with 65.8 percent of Millennials in the renter category. San Diego is next with 64.4 percent, while New York comes in fourth with 63.6 percent and a total of 1.33 million renter households, the largest Millennial renter base of any metro in the country. Across all four, homeownership is growing faster than rentership, with paces ranging from 74 to 89 percent in five years, while renter growth stayed between 9 and 20 percent.
Do you ever miss talent right under your nose? This is a short entertaining video of Sir Ken Robinson talking about how a music teacher missed having half of the Beatles in his class, and what happened when Elvis Presley tried to join the glee club.
Visit www.ChrismanCommentary.com for more information on our industry partners, access archived commentaries, or subscribe to the Daily Mortgage News and Commentary. You can also explore the Chrisman Marketplace, a centralized hub connecting mortgage professionals with trusted vendors and solutions. If you’re interested, check out my periodic blog on the STRATMOR Group website. STRATMOR’s current blog is, “Those Monthly Payments Go Somewhere.” “Pricing That Can Help Borrowers.” The Commentary’s podcast is available on all major platforms, including Apple and Spotify.
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(Market data provided in partnership with MBS Live. For free job postings and to view candidate resumes, visit the Chrisman Job Board. This newsletter is intended for sophisticated mortgage professionals only. There are no paid endorsements by me. For the latest mortgage news, visit Mortgage News Daily. For archived commentaries, or to subscribe, go to www.ChrismanCommentary.com. Copyright 2026 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. Paid job & product listings do appear. This report or any portion hereof may not be reprinted, sold, or redistributed without the written consent of Rob Chrisman. The views and opinions in this newsletter are mine alone unless otherwise specifically stated herein.)
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