Here in New Orleans, the average rainfall is about 5 feet a year, much of it in the summer. Out west, most snow and rain […]
By Wes Costello, EVP of Sales Operations at AnnieMac Home Mortgage For decades, the mortgage industry has relied on traditional credit lines and W-2 income documentation as the primary gatekeepers to homeownership. That approach worked when most borrowers earned predictable income from a single employer and documentation followed a standard pattern. Today, this framework no longer reflects how many Americans are making a living. More borrowers are financially qualified to buy homes, but a…
Studying the mortgage industry for over 35 years, I’ve learned: the winners don’t just think better. They move faster. We talk a lot about rates, inventory, consolidation, and AI. All important. But none of it matters if you’re slow to act. Speed is no longer a tactic. It’s a discipline. Consumer direct channels figured this out years ago with one simple concept: speed to lead. The data is overwhelming. The faster you respond to an inquiry, the higher your conversion rate. Minutes matter. Not…
Here in New Orleans, there’s a lot going on that is not mortgage related, namely parades and celebrating Carnival ahead of Lent. But we shouldn’t let appearances deceive us. John Kruk famously said, “I’m not an athlete. I’m a professional baseball player .” The average elevation of New Orleans is 1-2 feet below sea level, with some areas 8 feet below. Do you think mortgage servicers are concerned about doing business here? On Mortgage Law Today at noon PT Brian Levy, Loretta Salzano, and…
Here in New Orleans, there’s a lot going on that is not mortgage related, namely parades and celebrating Carnival ahead of Lent. But we shouldn’t […]
Did someone say it’s Valentine’s Day ? Indeed. I don’t know the statistics, but my guess is that a sizeable chunk of couples met each other at work or at school. Hopefully they’re paying their tuition, but… New data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York indicated that about one million borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans last year , with 9.6 percent of balances at least 90 days past due. As of September 2025, 3.3 million borrowers were between 31 and 270 days late on…
Did someone say it’s Valentine’s Day? Indeed. I don’t know the statistics, but my guess is that a sizeable chunk of couples met each other […]
Here at San Diego’s MCT Exchange 2026, one topic is, as it is at every mortgage conference, is AI. More specifically, using artificial intelligence to leverage the strengths of existing employees but certainly setting up “guard rails” in rolling it out, and in finite chunks rather than company-wide all at once. Another topic is the ramp up of non-QM in the primary and secondary markets. The book of business is performing well, although is definitely not “cookie cutter”: many loans have…
Here at San Diego’s MCT Exchange 2026, one topic is, as it is at every mortgage conference, is AI. More specifically, using artificial intelligence to […]
For decades, mortgage lending has operated with an artificial divide at its core. Agency lending lived in one world. Non-QM lived in another. Different guidelines, different systems, different mental models. That separation once made sense, largely because the agencies did not buy non-QM loans and had no reason to. But over time, what began as a structural distinction hardened into operational silos, and those silos quietly introduced real costs across the industry. The cost was not just…
