What’s new out there? Well, United Airlines is talking about having couches in the air. There’s always something new in compliance, and there are firms […]
March is the only month this industry feels bad about what it does to women. The other 11, it doesn’t think about us at all. I’ve been in mortgage long enough to know the calendar, long enough to smile in the right photos and say the right things and be visible enough to matter and small enough not to threaten anyone. I learned that early. Every woman in this industry does, because the alternative has a cost and we aren’t the ones who decide when it gets paid. It was March, actually, when it…
The mortgage process still treats key parts of homeownership as separate conversations: borrowers focus on interest rates and monthly payments, while insurance, taxes, and other costs often appear later as surprises that reshape the true cost of owning a home. Yet the economics of homeownership have shifted dramatically in recent years, and that fragmentation is becoming harder for consumers to navigate. One solution is to integrate related financial products like insurance directly into the…
I’ve been doing some flying recently, and have not seen the terrible security lines that the press has mentioned. Then I found out why . And there’s this perspective . On a more serious note, this week I was in Virginia, and the Commonwealth appears poised to follow Utah and become the second state in the country to approve plug-in solar , which are convenient panels that plug directly into a home’s electrical system through a standard wall plug and can significantly reduce energy bills. Of…
I’ve been doing some flying recently, and have not seen the terrible security lines that the press has mentioned. Then I found out why. And […]
Sometimes life comes down to a coin toss . Here in Virginia Beach, at the Southern Trust Mortgage Sales Summit, a conversation topic is originators not leaving their business to chance. Pricing practices are rarely left to chance, and Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to the CEO of Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO), to inform the company of his investigation into FICO’s pricing practices in the mortgage credit scoring market. Public policy is not left to chance either, and tomorrow’s…
Sometimes life comes down to a coin toss. Here in Virginia Beach, at the Southern Trust Mortgage Sales Summit, a conversation topic is originators not […]
For years, trigger leads have been one of the mortgage industry’s worst open secrets. A borrower applies with one lender, their credit gets pulled, and suddenly their phone lights up with calls, texts, and competing offers from companies they never asked to hear from. That’s exactly what the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act was designed to curb. The law was signed on September 5, 2025 and took effect on March 5, 2026. It amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act to sharply limit when…
I head to Virginia today for a Southern Trust Mortgage Sales Summit. With 9 million people, Virginia’s population has been steadily increasing, unlike… Japan. Japan’s economy is stagnant and its population of 123 million is slowly declining, resulting in many things, including 9 million vacant houses and Buddhist temples losing relevancy. The country’s solution? ChatGPT-designed AI robot monks. Thanks… I’ll pass. AI may have dominated the conversation at this year’s ICE conference (and…
I head to Virginia today for a Southern Trust Mortgage Sales Summit. With 9 million people, Virginia’s population has been steadily increasing, unlike… Japan. Japan’s […]
