June 2020 Issue

HOUSINGWIRE MAGAZINE ❱ JUNE 2020

HOUSINGWIRE MAGAZINE ❱ JUNE 2020

2020

50 young leaders energizing the industry

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PRESENTS

THE

AGILE FULL PAGE AD

MARKETER MARKETER June 11–12, 2020 LIVE EVERYWHERE Register at housingwire.com/engage

HOUSINGWIRE JUNE 2020

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sarah Wheeler NEWSROOM MORTGAGE EDITOR Ben Lane EDITOR-AT-LARGE Kathleen Howley REAL ESTATE REPORTER Julia Falcon REPORTERS Phil Hall, Angela de Gale, Alex Roha DIGITAL PRODUCER Alcynna Lloyd COLUMNISTS Dustin Brohm, Mary Frances Coleman, Julian Hebron, Kristin Messerli, Logan Mohtashami CONTRIBUTORS Rohit Gupta, David Stevens HW+ HW+ MANAGING EDITOR Brena Nath MAGAZINE EDITOR Kelsey Ramírez COLUMNIST Scott Petronis

SALES VICE PRESIDENT, SALES Jennifer Watson Laws jlaws@HousingWire.com NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR, REAL ESTATE Mark Adams, madams@HousingWire.com CALIFORNIA Christi Humphries chumphries@HousingWire.com CENTRAL Chris Anderson canderson@HousingWire.com SOUTHEAST Tamara Wren twren@HousingWire.com GREAT LAKES Lorena Leggett lleggett@HousingWire.com NORTHEAST AND HW+ CORPORATE Vernesa Merdanovic, vmerdanovic@HousingWire.com

CONTENT SOLUTIONS ASSOCIATE CONTENT EDITOR Jessica Davis AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT DIGITAL EDITOR Maleesa Smith DIGITAL CONTENT STRATEGIST Alyssa Stringer

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Lindsley Harris lharris@HousingWire.com BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, REAL ESTATE Amanda Luzsicza, aluzsicza@HousingWire.com

CREATIVE MAGAZINE DESIGNER Emily Carpenter COVER PHOTOGRAPHER David Williams

CORPORATE PRESIDENT AND CEO Clayton Collins

MARKETING MANAGER Caren Karris

CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER Diego Sanchez

MARKETING COORDINATORS

CONTROLLER Andrew Key

Katie Galbraith, Brooke Combs

CLIENT SUCCESS MANAGER Haley Hess clientsuccess@HousingWire.com AD OPERATIONS COORDINATOR Matthew Stafford CLIENT SUCCESS COORDINATORS Talia Quigley, Layne Powers

4 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

EDITOR’S NOTE

A race against time IT was just as COVID-19 started to spread, and the idea that

ing industry. They are pushing the housing industry forward

states would shut down was just a rumor when we chose the

through innovation, even in the midst of difficult times. They

2020 class of Rising Stars. Within just one week, California

are bringing fresh ideas and new approaches to leadership at

had closed down and there was talk that New York would be

a young age. For example, when Shannon came to work at

next. We knew we had to move fast if we were going to intro-

Genworth, she quickly set to work automating the company’s

duce you to Unikqua Shannon, a Rising Star from Genworth

systems. At under 40 years old, Rising Stars are a true inspira-

Mortgage Insurance Corp. She is impressive, driving innovation

tion to us all. To learn more about new leaders like Shannon

at Genworth after teaching herself the coding for Genworth’s

and the other Rising Stars, turn to page 30.

systems and automating everything at just 24 years old. She is blazing a trail for her company, rising up as one of housing’s next great leaders. Within just one week of Rising Star nominations closing, we selected Shannon as our cover subject, found a photographer in her area and held the photoshoot.

Responding at a moment’s notice, Shannon prepared for her socially distanced photoshoot and, in the parks of North Carolina, posed for the cover shoot just days before the country shut down, sending everyone to their homes.

This year’s class of Rising Stars are blazing the trail in mortgage, real estate, fintech and other sectors of the hous-

Kelsey Ramírez Magazine Editor @kels_ramirez

Tweets From The Streets Closed a transaction today where buyer’s agent, appraiser, & I NEVER physically entered the property! Not the ideal way to do things, and I am glad the local directives have loosened up. Even with that, it closed early and was a relatively smooth transaction. #realestate #WestSac 3 4 20 @erinnstumpf

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. © 2020 by HW Media, LLC • All rights reserved

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 5

Behind the

Scenes With Unikqua Shannon

6 HOUSINGWIRE â?ą JUNE 2020

pg. ❱❱❱ 30

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 7

Things may have changed, but our focus remains the same: being responsive when our partners need it most.

We’re here for you so you can be there for them.

Discover More QLMortgageServices.com NMLS #3030

JUNE ’20 JUNE

30

RISING STARS This year’s class of Rising Stars celebrates 50 young innovators moving the housing industry forward. And from where we’re standing, the future is bright.

52

58

64

HISPANIC MOVEMENT

JON TOBIAS

PROPTECH

Hispanic homeownership is surging in communities across the U.S. In fact, it is the overall homeownership driver.

Fairway Branch Manager Job Tobias set out in Phoenix at a time when the market was struggling. Now he is a top LO.

Find out how two companies are using proptech solutions to eliminate pain points for the housing industry.

By: Jaimie Smeraski

By: Kelsey Ramírez

By: HW Content Solutions

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 9

CONTENTS JUNE

20

18 THE LINEUP 12 PEOPLE MOVERS CoreLogic adds industry veteran Selma Hepp as deputy chief economist.

14 STARTUP PROFILE AREAL.ai allows lenders to automate the entire loan approval process.

15 ON THE SHELF “The Art of Statistics” teaches readers how to think like statisticians and interpret data.

16 UNIQUE SOLUTIONS Monster Lead Group’s Ken Bartz gives 3 Ways to Scale During a Boom: Focus, Pivot, Outsource.

NotaryCam CEO Rick Triola

18 LOCAL INTEL The large number of at-risk counties makes the Northwest vulnerable to coronavirus impact.

20 EVENT CALENDAR engage.marketing is in its third year, but this year there will be no travel necessary to attend.

THE LINEUP

VIEWPOINTS

22 HOT OR NOT

24 FIRST-TIME BUYERS

Working from home became the norm during COVID-19, and that may not change.

Genworth CEO Rohit Gupta says first-time homebuyers will lead us out of the economic crisis.

26 TAKING THE LEAD David Stevens says we need to think about ways to help lead the nation back to growth.

21 TAKE 5 NotaryCam’s Rick Triola was the founder of the Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame.

10 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

24

CONTENTS JUNE

BACK DEPARTMENTS

84

68 TRADE DESK Anthony Casa talks about how brokers have dealt with change during COVID-19.

72 MORTGAGE FHFA’s Calabria says it may be harder to get a mortgage even after the COVID-19 crisis ends.

76 REAL ESTATE Housing activity drops in what would have been the peak homebuying season.

80 FINTECH Columnist Julian Hebron asks: Can fintech companies survive COVID-19?

84 POLITICS & MONEY A detailed account of how Fed Chairman Powell rescued the mortgage market.

FHFA Director Mark Calabria

88 BY THE NUMBERS

72

A breakdown of the current homeownership rate by age and demographics.

BACK DEPARTMENTS

CFPB Supreme Court hearing

90 Q&A 1 Lenders with a separate system for reverse mortgages are doing borrowers a disservice.

91 Q&A 2 Freddie Mac’s Donna Corley asks: Can lenders balance access to credit with increasing risk?

92 KUDOS

76

The mortgage industry’s ongoing united effort to combat COVID-19.

94 PARTING SHOT

94 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 11

Selma Hepp CoreLogic

12 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

BAKER

GATES OLSEN

MURRAY SHERMAN

A

RCHANA ARUNKUMAR joined the advisory board at AREAL. ai. Before joining the board, Arunkumar was the director of product at Ellie Mae, and also currently serves as the director of product at Dropbox.

Compass elected Eileen Murray to the company’s board of directors, bringing decades of experience to the company, including Murray’s current position as co-CEO of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. Murray began her career at Morgan Stanley, becoming the global head of technology and operations, treasurer and controller for the firm, eventually rising to chief operating officer.

Knox Financial named Chris Baker its chief product officer. Baker holds more than 15 years of experience, and prior to Knox Financial, Baker was head of automobile insurance vertical at insurtech company EverQuote, vice president of deposit products and new product development at Banco Santander and oversaw credit card strategy and analytics at Bank of America.

Si mpleNex u s elected C at h leen

NORRELL

ARUNKUMAR MORTON

CoreLogic added Selma Hepp as deputy chief economist. Hepp was chief economist and vice president of business intelligence at Compass and Pacific Union International. She also served as chief economist at Trulia and senior economist for the California Association of Realtors.

Schreiner Gates to its board of directors. Gates, a HousingWire Vanguard and Women of Influence award winner, previously served as the executive vice president of sales and marketing at Ellie Mae, and is also the CEO of consulting firm Trifecta, which she founded in 2009.

The American Land Title Association appointed Chris Morton as its senior vice president of public affairs. Prior to joining ALTA, Morton was the executive vice president of government affairs and business strategy at the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting for 10 years.

SYNRGO named Ben Sherman its president and chief operating officer at the company’s Brea, California office. Previously, Sherman was the vice president of business development at Old Republic Title and ePN, where he guided business development, sales, management, and growth initiatives for more than eight years.

Invitation Homes promoted Kim Norrell to executive vice president and chief accounting officer. Norrell was promoted from her position as interim chief accounting officer, which she has held since

January 2015. Prior to joining Invitation Homes, Norell spent five years as a real estate accounting and project management consultant, was vice president of finance for CW Financial Services and held positions at Olympus Real Estate Partners, WMC Management Company, AIMCO and Arthur Andersen.

Invitation Homes also promoted Jon Olsen to executive vice president. Olsen previously served as senior vice president of finance and head of capital markets, managing director and head of capital markets and managing director and cohead of asset management. Prior to joining Invitation Homes, Olsen worked in the real estate investment banking groups of Jefferies & Company, Goldman Sachs, and Banc of America Securities.

FirstClose named Joe Dahleen its senior vice president of strategy and sales. A 25-year veteran of the mortgage industry, Dahleen has experience in loan production, quality control procedures and secondary marketing.

Trelix named Brian Simon its next president. Simon is also the president of mortgage co-op Lenders One. Simon has more than 20 years of experience in the mortgage industry, and has held many leadership positions including chief operating officer of New Penn Financial (now NewRez), CEO of Caliber Funding (now Caliber Home Loans) and chief operating officer of Freedom Mortgage.

T he Roxborough Group named Nicholas Bryer its senior vice president.

Before joining the Roxborough Group, Bryer was vice president of investments at CIM Group, and prior to that he was a member of the acquisitions group at Beacon Capital Partners.

Find out the why behind the daily news cycle.

HW+ members get exclusive access to: Premium Digital Content Deeper dives into the why behind the housing industry’s most impactful stories

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STARTUP PROFILE

AREAL.ai is an intelligent automation platform that allows retail, correspondent and wholesale lenders to automate the loan approval process, even for less-standard borrowers. AREAL.ai instantly analyzes data required for underwriting with a single API call. Retail lenders eliminate the days-long back and forth process with borrowers, and use AREAL.ai to instantly analyze the documents submitted by borrowers to determine whether any backup documentation is necessary. Correspondent and wholesale lenders can eliminate the need for human review, using AREAL.ai to review the loan package, extract the data they need and make a decision on the mortgage package in minutes.

Things To Know Attempting to Disrupt: Need for human interaction in lending Launch Date: March 29, 2020 Funding: In the process of raising first funding round Location: Nationwide

AREAL.ai

More than 1,000 trained document types

Returns info in structured JSON format

Holds five-second response time

The disruptor score, unique score and launch size were determined through interviews with and editorial research on the company.

7 9

UNIQUE SCORE:

3

LAUNCH SIZE: FUNDING: 14 HOUSINGWIRE â?ą JUNE 2020

IN PROCESS Pre-Seed

Seed

A

B

C

HIGH

LOW

DISRUPTOR SCORE:

ON THE SHELF “The Art of Statistics” BY: DAVID SPIEGELHALTER BASIC BOOKS

Statistics are everywhere, from business to science to news – and today, statistical literacy is more important than ever. Statistician David Spiegelhalter shows readers how to look at the math behind the numbers to make connections and better understand the knowledge we can derive from raw data. Spiegelhalter draws on real-world examples to teach readers how to think like statisticians, how best to approach a problem and how to responsibly interpret the answers we glean from data.

HousingWire’s top stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Find the right fit for you.

GET ON THE LIST:

www.housingwire.com/newsletter

“Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life” BY: NIR EYAL BENBELLA BOOKS

Even as technology allows us to conduct business in uncertain times, it also offers a world of distraction – and so do the various other offline preoccupations that interrupt our work and our personal lives. Former Stanford lecturer and behavioral design expert Nir Eyal dives into the psychology driving us to distraction and discusses how to get the most out of technology without letting it control our attention span. Eyal offers practical advice and techniques to take power over our own time and attention in order to stay focused on our personal and professional goals.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 15

3 ways to scale during a boom: Focus, Pivot, Outsource Monster Lead Group asked some of its clients to share advice on how they’ve been able to scale their business to take advantage of unprecedented opportunities in this current boom market. Here are their insights:

KEN BARTZ

Chief Visionary Officer Monster Lead Group

1. Keep MLOs focused on sales.

Clients using Pareto’s 80/20 principle to increase volume from their existing sales team are seeing significant increases in originations by focusing 80% of their MLO’s time doing only the 20% of things that make money.

At Caliver Beach Mortgage, Brad Bennett moved the most time-consuming tasks to other resources in the organization, allowing his MLOs to focus 90% of their time on selling. “They just pitch it, close it, book it and move on to the next one and that allows our loan officers to get three to four times the pipeline size that they normally would get,” he said.

Redistributing the MLO’s lower-value tasks moves the needle for efficiencies as well as productivity.

Instead of spending time chasing documents, verifying income and ordering appraisals ad nauseum, move those tasks to other resources who can focus on reducing and eliminating conditions to pave the way for underwriting. This is the exact strategy JFQ Lending used to go from $0 in August of 2017 to over $300M a month in volume in February of 2020.

2. Pivot your products and mindset.

Additional training is used to keep minds fresh, talent scaled up and confidence high.

Bennett applies the “5-wide” football strategy used by defensive players to draw from any of five different plays. “A 5-wide strategy means VA, FHA, conventional, non-QM and purchase. It gives me 5 pillars to stand on and I looked at the business as a tabletop,” he said. “So, if I have four legs, I’m good. If I break one, my table is going to be a little wobbly. If I break two, I will lean to one side, but I’m still standing on this side. If I have five legs, four on the sides and one in the center then I’m indestructible.”

Pivoting your MLO’s mindset is also critical, “because it's the difference [between] being an order taker versus being an adviser and you have to be an adviser,”

16 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

explained Nick Borunda, vice president of sales at JFQ Lending. “The No. 1 thing is recalibrating that mindset and practicing what it actually sounds like. And it’s not just a one and done. I'm on a regional level, so every Tuesday and Thursday we'll [train] a hundred people plus at once. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, our sales directors are doing that on a more individual basis with the people that need more practice.”

3. Outsource your marketing.

“Go with experts,” explained Franco Prezioso, President of Service 1st Mortgage. “I wear a lot of hats; I’m too busy for that. I let them do the stuff that I’m not an expert at. I’ve got other things to do in order to stay on top, to grow our business.”

For lenders who use direct mail in particular, there’s no question this task requires time, talent and focus most leaders don’t have in abundance. Especially if you have no internal marketing team, getting this critical business process off your plate frees up hours or even days each week.

Manny Fajardo, President of Premiere Lending, knows consistent lead generation is the golden egg and direct mail marketing is the goose. “We had kind of poked around on some landing pages and stuff like that but to me that’s just hoping and praying that the SEO is performing the way it needs to,” he explained. “That's why I think this approach for us has been so successful because we understand that we're not blindly sending mail. We may be sending mail to people that aren’t expecting it, but that mail is going to that specific person for a reason. It makes it more powerful. And we have really given up all other lead sources that we were involved in before and gone 100% with Monster because of that.

To find out how to use direct marketing strategy to grow your business, download the free guide, The 7 Deadly Sins of Mortgage Mailers at monsterleadgroup. com/7DSLP, or call us at 240-MONSTER.

I CAME TO ACADEMY... with the company’s acquisition of Republic Mortgage at the end of 2014.

I STAY AT ACADEMY... because the Leadership Team has made me feel like I am part of a huge family.

Academy’s leaders communicate quickly and transparently with team members like Kim via live video broadcasts to provide company updates and individual calls and texts to simply check-in. Their doors—whether in office or virtual—are always open.

Corp. NMLS #3113 | Equal Housing Lender

Find your reason to join the Academy Team at join.academymortgage.com or call (800) 660-8664.

LOCAL INTEL By: Brena Nath

Bellevue, Washington Despite initial fears that Washington State would become a hotbed of the pandemic, local real estate agents and mortgage professionals are still optimistic about the housing forecast for the rest of the year. “We feel like we might possibly have not been quite as impacted because our state is so tech-based that there hasn’t been as much need for face-to-face type of sales,” said Robert Lipston, regional director for the Pacific Northwest at Opes Advisors in Bellevue, Washington. “Like many of the more seasonal markets, due to our weather and the amount of rain we get in the winter, people do not really come out much,” he said. Lipston predicted that the typical demand from early spring would simply be delayed.

The California Bay Area was one of the first places in America impacted by the coronavirus pandemic as California became the first state to order all residents to stay home. Nick Solis, broker-owner of One80 Realty in the California Bay Area, said the Bay Area still has a lot of jobs, even if it is less than what they originally had before the pandemic. “There are a lot of growing businesses, and we have a massive shortage of housing here. So the reality of it is in the Bay Area market, people still need to buy and sell because they need to be able to move in and out of the area.” He added that as the constraints start to come off, he thinks it’s going to bring a lot of people off of the fence.

18 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

Northwest

California Bay Area

Royal Oak, Michigan Michigan received some backlash from mortgage industry professionals for its draconian stay-athome guidelines and non-essential business definitions compared to its neighboring states. But that doesn’t mean the show doesn’t go on in the housing industry. Paul Apostolakis, co-owner of Omega Lending in Royal Oak, who predicted many people not currently owning their homes will be eager for the American Dream, said, “My theory is that those without houses are now feeling very vulnerable,” he said. “Now, people are living in their homes for once – they’re not just sleeping in it. If you have been home and didn’t value it, you’re saying, ‘Oh, I’m stuck in this box.’”

While the spring housing market looks drastically different than what many expected, according to one mortgage broker, the Northwest’s housing market should be able to successfully navigate the challenges. Vantage Mortgage Group President Andy Harris explained that because of the current demand and the lack of inventory, there will still be a strong housing market. “Right now, we have a shortage of inventory in the Northwest, so it’s still a seller’s market. Sometimes we’re still seeing bidding wars; it’s still out there,” he said.

Northeast

It will take some time to get a full picture of the impact of the coronavirus to local housing markets, but there are some early predictions coming out that estimate what places will be hit the hardest.

According to ATTOM Data Solutions, as a whole, the Northeast has the largest concentration of at-risk counties, making it the most vulnerable area to coronavirus impact. Other clusters are in New Jersey and Florida, while the West and Midwest have the smallest. ATTOM based this list on the percentage of housing units that received a foreclosure notice in the fourth quarter of 2019, the percent of homes underwater in the fourth quarter of 2019 and local wages.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 19

EVENT CALENDAR

The result is something we couldn’t be more excited about!

ENGAGE.MARKETING SUMMIT JUNE 11-12, 2020

SESSIONS INCLUDE:

Cost: $195 - $1,500 housingwire.com/engage

• • • • • • • •

VIRTUAL This section of the magazine is normally devoted to in-person events for the real estate and mortgage industries, but most of those have been cancelled for the foreseeable future.

We know the angst of event planning in this turbulent time firsthand, as we were already deep into planning our annual engage. marketing summit for June 11-12 at the start of this year.

Like many other organizations, we weren’t sure what to do as the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic became more clear. We considered postponing or even cancelling the event, but we also recognized the impact the summit has had on mortgage marketers since we started it three years ago, and we felt like those marketers were going to need practical expert insights more than ever in this current climate.

With that in mind, we decided to use the opportunity to host a virtual event and leaned into that format — with all its exciting possibilities.

In addition to some very relevant panels, we have created individual sessions that follow a master-class format. These sessions maximize the face-to-face aspect of learning from someone on a screen, and let us offer more sessions than at a normal in-person event where you have to get people on and off stage. And, because it’s a virtual event, we were able to tap into an incredibly successful group of speakers who might not be able to give up a whole day or two to travel.

20 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

The Lender-Realtor Partnership Keeping Prospects Warm How to Make Marketing a Revenue Center Path to Pivot How to Squeeze Your Content How to Maximize Marketing’s Influence in the C-suite Building a Marketing Tech Stack Marketing Strategies of Top LOs

MASTER CLASSES: • • • •

Video Branding Voice Social: with separate sessions for LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram

SPEAKERS INCLUDE: • • • • • • • • • •

Rick Arvielo, CEO of New American Funding Patty Arvielo, President, New American Funding Casey Hurbis, CMO of Quicken Loans Sarah DeCiantis, CMO of UWM Steve Moffat, CMO of Guaranteed Rate Jake Fehling, VP of Marketing, Movement Mortgage Jim McDonald, CMO of Planet Home Lending Brian Covey, VP Regional Production, loanDepot Kevin Peranio, Chief Lending Officer, PRMG Barbara Yolles, CEO Ludwig+

Rick Triola NotaryCam CEO

As founder and CEO of NotaryCam, Rick Triola brought remote online notarization and remote online closing technology to the housing industry.

He founded NotaryCam in 2012, and completed the first mortgage RON in 2014. Triola devoted the last six years to advancing nationwide RON legalization. And as COVID-19 spread across the U.S., that effort took one step closer to becoming a reality. A bipartisan bill introduced in March in the U.S. Senate, entitled the “Securing and Enabling Commerce Using Remote and Electronic Notarization Act of 2020,” would authorize every notary in the U.S. to perform RON. Here are five things you didn’t know about Triola:

1. People would be surprised to know I... was the president and founder of the Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame in New York, and at one point, I was the youngest stock broker in America.

2. Besides my job and family, my greatest passion is... embracing life to the fullest. As a result of sports injuries I sustained, I had a kidney transplant in my early 20s, and having faced that kind of situation so early on, I try to appreciate my life and make the most out of every day.

3. The future is… digital.

4. Biggest business success this year… was the rapid adoption of RON in Florida. Its RON law went into effect on Jan.1, and within the first three months, our month-overmonth RON closing volume doubled.

5.My biggest learning opportunity was… founding NotaryCam. As a former real estate agent, the value proposition of RON was obvious to me, but little did I know how long it would take to get all stakeholders on board to make this a viable solution for the real estate industry.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 21

Hot SIZZLE? Not FIZZLE? 1 1 WHY THE

WHY THE

FORBEARANCE



Due to the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, approximately 10% of borrowers whose mortgages were backed by the Federal Housing Administration or the Department of Veterans Affairs went in forbearance during the first two months. The data came courtesy of a new report from the Mortgage Bankers Association, which polled more than 50 mortgage servicers that collect payments on nearly 77% of the mortgage market. Despite what some, namely FHFA Director Mark Calabria, predicted, forbearance quickly became a major concern among lenders.



2



3

CALIFORNIA HOUSING





2



3

WFH Working from home quickly became the norm during the COVID-19, but that may not change for the foreseeable future. Zillow CEO and Co-Founder Rich Barton took to Twitter to announce that Zillow employees would be allowed to work from home through the end of 2020. Zillow is working through office re-opening plans now and expects that to be a gradual process over many months. “We want to make sure employees are supported and have the flexibility and visibility to manage their lives with work in these uncertain times,” a Zillow spokesperson said.

COVID-19 MIGRATION Stay-at-home orders have triggered a wave of temporary migration. Demographers and Realtors alike predict this is a tipping point for people who’ve already been dreaming of backyards, private pools and more space. It will accelerate trends that were already happening, they said, and bring a new level of consideration – whether people upgrade their apartments and condos for larger units or move out of dense cities altogether. “It’s not going to change people’s view about living in the city; it’s just going to speed up people who planned to move to the suburbs,” said Nicholas Haubrich, a broker with @properties in Chicago.

22 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

On March 19, California became the first state to issue a stay-at-home edict to halt the spread of COVID-19.

After that, the California Association of Realtors released new data covering March, the month that the new COVID-19 era began to take root. CAR reported existing single-family home sales in March totaled 373,070, an 11.5% drop from February – the first double-digit month-over-month decline in nine years and the largest in nearly 13 years. The year-over-year 6.1% decline in sales was the first in nine months and the largest since March 2019.

LUMP-SUM PAYBACK A growing number of borrowers think they have to repay all their missed mortgage payments from COVID-19 forebearance in one lump sum, either because they’re confused about their options or because that’s what their mortgage servicer told them. But that’s not actually the case, according to the two biggest sources of mortgage financing in the country. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each issued a statement, reiterating that borrowers are not required to repay their missed payments all at once when their forbearance period ends.

OPEN HOUSES More and more home search sites and brokerages have been adding new digital offerings to their respective websites to fuel the demand for home-buying despite the current pandemic, including home search portal Homesnap, which added live open houses to its website. Because COVID-19 led to open houses being paused across the country, Homesnap Chief Product Officer Lou Mintzer told HousingWire that the company had to spring into action to make seeing a home still possible. Through the Homesnap platform, agents and home shoppers can search for homes and take open house tours virtually.

VIRTUALLY TRANSFORM YOUR BORROWERS’ EXPECTATIONS. INCREASE YOUR REMOTE CAPABILITIES WITH UWM. Every day, a growing number of homebuyers and real estate agents are going online to find mortgage information and, more importantly, mortgage solutions. That’s why it’s important for you to have a dedicated technology partner like UWM. From application to closing, we provide an unparalleled collection of tools that can help make the loan process entirely virtual.

• Blink: Allows your borrowers to apply for a mortgage completely online • Doc-Less: Combines e-sign technology with systems that securely and automatically verify income and assets • EASE Docs 2.0: Generates a state-compliant mortgage disclosure in minutes, allows you to add your own docs for e-sign and much more • Virtual E-Closing: Allows your borrowers to close from anywhere, anytime through a smartphone or tablet These are just a few examples of our tools and technology designed to help you grow your virtual business.

To learn more about our complete collection of digital resources, contact your UWM Account Executive.

YOU + UWM = YOUNITED | 800.981.8898 | UWM.COM This information is provided to mor tgage and real estate professionals only and is not intended nor is it authorized for consumer distribution. NMLS #3038

VIEWPOINTS

By Rohit Gupta

Emerging from crisis: 5 takeaways from first-time homebuyer market behavior Facts to consider when planning for an uncertain future

Given the vital role the housing market plays in the U.S. economy, you can look to any number of indicators on a weekly, monthly or annual basis to better understand the current state of the market. Beyond housing starts and home prices, though, first-time homebuyers have emerged as an important bellwether through the cycle.

This group of people is achieving part of the American Dream: Owning a home.

In doing so, these buyers take a unit from the market but don’t give one back, like repeat buyers do. First-time homebuyer purchases are pure growth—and growing is just what this segment has done for the past five years. While the first few months of 2020 defy historical trends, here are five takeaways from first-time homebuyer market behavior in 2019, drawn from data used in Genworth’s Q4’19 First-Time Homebuyer Market Report, to consider as our industry plans for an uncertain future.

1. THE FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYER MARKET FINISHED 2019 STRONGER THAN EVER.

In the fourth quarter of 2019, first-time 24 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

homebuyers purchased 517,000 single-family homes, a 6% increase from the third quarter of 2018. To put it into perspective, 38% of all homebuyers and 56% of purchase borrowers were first-time homebuyers, making them the most important customer segment for the housing industry at the end of 2019.

While the first half of 2019 was slower, a stronger second half pushed the first-time homebuyer market to a strong full year result of 2.09 million. With the market exceeding 2 million first-time homebuyers each year for the past three years, it represents a long overdue rebound from the trough earlier in the decade. Historically, the number of first-time homebuyers has averaged 1.8 million a year, or more than

18 million over a decade, meaning it’s entirely possible that the decade of the 2020s could see more than 18 million first-time homebuyers.

2. FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYER DEMOGRAPHICS CONTINUED TO MATURE THROUGHOUT 2019.

As we look to the future, you may begin to see a shift in growth from first-time to second-time homebuyers as the Millennial population continues to age, suggesting a turnaround in homeowner mobility.

In terms of the economy, a recovery in homeowner mobility is important because it implies a significant increase in opportunities.

Think of it this way, as housing demand transitions from entry-level homes for first-

Rohit Gupta is President and CEO of Genworth U.S. Mortgage Insurance Business. Gupta also served as chairman and remains a board member of the U.S. Mortgage Insurers trade association.

time homebuyers to “move-up” homes for second-time homebuyers, home price growth could follow by moving upmarket. The strong recovery in the first-time homebuyer market throughout 2019 increased the pool of potential second-time homebuyers, creating a prolonged housing cycle as well as a change in growth opportunities for the housing industry.

3. STRONG JOB GROWTH AND AFFORDABLE HOMES REMAIN IMPORTANT FACTORS FOR FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS.

In 2019, first-time homebuyers were building their careers smack dab in the middle of a strong job market.

Present-day 2020 is completely different, and we won’t see the effects of that until later in the year. It’s no surprise that first-time homebuyers have been moving to areas with strong job growth; however, strong job markets tend to significantly increase home prices, which can hamper housing affordability.

As a result, you often see many firsttime homebuyers living in areas with strong job growth and medium housing affordability.

When looking at job growth on a stateby-state level, states with fast job growth reported first-time homebuyer growth rates of 44% between 2014 and 2019, compared to the 37% growth rate for states with slow job growth. There is an interesting interaction between job growth and housing affordability. Faster job growth tends to make housing less affordable.

For example, most states with slow job growth have either medium or high housing affordability. Only two states, Alaska and Wyoming, have both slow job growth and low housing affordability. The most economically dynamic states, which also have the fastest job growth, tend to have lower housing affordability. Arkansas is the only state that has both high job growth and high affordability. In 2019, the best options for first-time homebuyers were states with fast job growth and medium housing affordability, including Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

4. LOW-DOWN PAYMENT MORTGAGE OPTIONS ARE ESSENTIAL TO GET FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS IN HOMES.

5. IMPROVING HOUSING AFFORDABILITY PROVIDES A BETTER ENVIRONMENT FOR FIRSTTIME HOMEBUYERS.

A 20% down payment is beyond what most first-time homebuyers can save before their peak household formation age of early to mid-30s. On average, it would take the typical borrower at least seven years to save for a 20% down payment, which is understandably discouraging.

Historically, a large majority, about 80%, of first-time homebuyers have used some form of low-down payment mortgages, whether that’s conventional, FHA, VA or USDA loans. Up 1% from 2018, 1.66 million first-time homebuyers used some form of low-down payment mortgage in 2019.

2019 also was the second biggest year for the low-down payment mortgage market in history. By comparison, only 426,000 first-time homebuyers put down at least 20% of the purchase price in 2019.

Growth in the low-down payment mortgage market is driven by conventional loans backed by private mortgage insurance, especially loans with a 3% down payment. Among 3% down payment conventional purchase loans, over 90% go to first-time homebuyers. Growth in that

More than any other factors, lower interest rates and slower growth in home prices helped improve housing affordability in 2019. In addition to lower mortgage rates, housing affordability also improved as homebuilders expanded building activity by 16% in the $200,000 to $400,000 price range, leading to the fastest growth in new homes sold since 2016. The increased supply could shift home sales to new construction and reduce the inventory pressure in the previously owned market and pressure on home prices. Lower rates mean significant savings for first-time homebuyers, but the number of homes in that critical $200,000 to $300,000 range lagged the demand in 2019. A sufficient inventory of homes in the $200,000 to $300,000 price range provides more opportunities for first-time homebuyers to enter the housing market without waiting for existing homebuyers to move on or up to their next home.

“2019 was a banner year for first-time homebuyers, but the lasting effects that COVID-19 will have on that segment of the market are yet to be seen.” market has made the private mortgage insurance industry the leading source of mortgage credit enhancement for firsttime homebuyers for the second consecutive year. Translated, the private mortgage insurance industry enabled lenders to finance 720,000 first-time homebuyers in 2019. At the end of 2019, over $1.2 trillion of single-family mortgages had insurance coverage from the private mortgage insurance industry, representing almost 11% of the total mortgage debt outstanding.

WHAT NOW?

During the past five years, the tremendous growth in the first-time homebuyer market showed that first-time homebuyers were busy building careers and flocking to areas with abundant job opportunities attractive to prospective first-time homebuyers. 2019 was a banner year for firsttime homebuyers, but the lasting effects that COVID-19 will have on that segment of the market are yet to be seen.

While current market conditions are unprecedented, we can look back at history to see how this segment of the market has fared during times of crisis—and the most similar model we can reference is the 2001 recession triggered by 9/11. During that time, the number of first-time homebuyers fell by 14% to 1.95 million and the decline lasted for one year. In 2002, the number of first-time homebuyers recovered to more than 2 million. Regardless of how the housing market is affected by the COVID-19 crisis, first-time-homebuyers will remain an important force to watch through the recovery and beyond.

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VIEWPOINTS

By David Stevens

Coming out of the dark Restoring a healthy real estate market is key for the larger economy While the nation is consumed with the impacts of the coronavirus and the safety of friends and family, as well as the economic impact on our communities and businesses, the housing finance sector needs to begin thinking about ways housing can help lead the nation back to improved productivity and growth.

The real estate industry—and all the ancillary benefits it creates with new jobs, goods and services—accounts for roughly 40 basis points of the country’s GDP. Restoring a healthy real estate market will have a significant positive impact on our economy.

Before the impact of the pandemic became clear, we were all looking forward to a robust year and a strong spring market fueled by a migration of Millennials from rental into homeownership and aided by near-historic low interest rates and full employment. In fact, the only concern was the shortage of available inventory to serve this market.

This is all due to demographics, as demonstrated by the chart showing household formation. In 2008, when the Great Recession began, not only was America facing excessive credit risk and unsustainable loan products, we were actually losing owner-occupied households, with the only growth being in rental housing. Fast forward to the last few years and the opposite is true—owner occupied household growth is well over 1 million per year and rental household formation is declining.

What happened?

For one thing, Millennials are a decade older, no longer home from college and living in their parents’ basements, but part of the workforce and establishing their own homes. A decade ago, my household had six occupants and today my family makes five different households.

This trend is driving the demand that will fuel the housing economy for many years to come.

The chart on household formation by Yardeni Research shows the growth in 26 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

household formations among owners versus renters.

But the impact of what we’re facing now, as well as other demographic conditions, may pose challenges to those who otherwise want to own. The Urban Institute in its 2018 paper, “Barriers to Accessing Homeownership Down Payment, Credit, and Affordability,” pointed to down payment, credit availability and affordability as the three key factors limiting access.

The impediment of a down payment will only be exacerbated by the economic impacts of COVID-19, after otherwise creditworthy borrowers have been forced to tap into their savings due to job furloughs or losses, pushing the American dream of buying their first home even further out of reach.

For policymakers, this poses a real problem. If you look at existing U.S. housing stock, approximately 70% of all homes are owned by white, non-Hispanics. But, if you look at what makes up the demographics

of future household formation, we see a dramatically different picture. Roughly two-thirds of all new households will be formed by minorities, primarily AfricanAmerican, Hispanic and Asian.

This creates challenges because minorities generally do not have the benefit of inherited wealth to aid them in buying a home, unlike their white counterparts. In fact, on average, the wealth of whites is significantly higher than that of minorities.

According to the Federal Reserve Board, the median net worth of whites is almost 10 times higher than African-American families and eight times higher than Hispanic families.

For policymakers, this demands a new way of thinking. It is already becoming clear what is needed to help support access to this new demographic of people who cannot count on mom and dad to help with the down payment. And that clarity was shown by FHA’s annual report to Congress in 2019. Roughly 40% of all FHA purchase

David Stevens is the CEO of Mountain Lake Consulting.

Prior to this role, Stevens was president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association and was the former U.S. Assistant Secretary and Federal Housing Commissioner for President Barack Obama.

transactions had some form of down payment assistance.

For FHA, DPA loans have always posed a greater concern than mortgages with the traditional required down payment. And there have always been several types of down payment assistance. A down payment could be provided by a parent or relative, an employer, various housing finance agencies that used to be able to raise those proceeds by issuing mortgage revenue bonds or even secondary market revenue—a scenario that has created a swirl of debate these past few years.

As a former FHA Commissioner, I share the view of former commissioners that we can never repeat the horrendous lesson learned from the infamous Seller Funded Down Payment Assistance, frustrating then-Commissioner Brian Montgomery in his role as FHA chair during President George W. Bush’s administration. SFDPA was eliminated by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, but the wave of defaults fell in my lap that first year with the program producing the defaults of roughly one in three FHA-insured

mortgages.

To be clear, this was not just about mortgage defaults, this was about the disruption to families and destruction to credit ratings of thousands of people—mostly minorities—because of this one program. You see, in order for the seller to fund the down payment, they simply raised the home price high enough to cover it, and when the family moved in they were already under water, and this was only magnified by declining home values that followed during the Great Recession.

DPA loans have always posed a greater concern than mortgages with the traditional required down payment.

I am concerned that other options for down payment assistance—with the exception of those provided from secondary market revenue—do very little to help minority homeownership, or access to home-

ownership for anyone without a mom and dad with extra cash. The traditional role that housing finance agencies played in issuing mortgage revenue bonds to raise money for down payments just does not work in today’s marketplace. It’s literally an illiquid market.

DIVING INTO DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE

So, I began looking into down payment assistance created from secondary market revenue as potentially the best option for providing the down payment needed to buy a home. What I found is that most DPA loans have secondary market revenue as part of the program.

Using this approach to DPA has endured scrutiny over recent years. Regardless, if we are to look at a program to change the homeownership rates for those not born into a family with intergenerational wealth, we need to think differently. As HMDA data shows, black homeownership is as low as it was when housing discrimination was legal decades ago. After decades of attempts by presidents from both sides of the aisle attempting to change the

Chart by TPC HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 27

paradigm, we have made zero progress.

Something has to change.

The question is whether we can stand up a sustainable DPA program that will eliminate the need for inherited wealth to make the down payment. In my search, I looked for ways in which to make a DPA product funded by secondary market revenue actually work, adhering to some of the following principles: integrating financial literacy education and coaching for borrowers, requiring borrower reserves, creating incentives that lead to greater commitment from borrowers, and instituting more controls on underwriting. If we can solve the down-payment problem

28 HOUSINGWIRE â?ą JUNE 2020

Regardless, if we are to look at a program to change the homeownership rates for those not born into a family with intergenerational wealth, we need to think differently.

in a manner that does not increase default risk, we may have one solution to support the kind of paradigm shift needed. One important thing about secondary market revenue as a source of funding is that, unlike SFDPA, it does not produce an artificially inflated home price. It does not produce immediate negative equity any more than any other HUD program. It simply helps a borrower get into a home without needing to spend years more than others to save up for the down payment.

In my search, I found, and began a deep dive into, one program in particular that seemed to check many of these boxes—a program offered by CBC Mortgage Agency

through its Chenoa Fund. CBCMA, based in Utah, developed a DPA program that, while using secondary market revenue, maintains a variety of protections to en-

in three forms, but an example of one provides forgiveness of the second mortgage after three years of timely payments on the borrower’s first—set-

ing risk management that is multilayered, consistently reviewed and evaluated, and includes a thorough due diligence on every loan to check for fraud, appraisal quality,

How do we create stability and lifestyle support for families not wanting to relocate every time a lease expires? sure borrower success. These protections could become a model for HUD to consider should they propose a way to manage this form of DPA. Here are just a few examples of how CBCMA is leading in this area: 1. CBCMA contracted with Hope Loan Port, an organization whose board I was a member of while president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association. HLP helped by being the conduit for mandatory pre-purchase home buying counseling for borrowers with credit scores below 640, and working to raise that to 670, who desired to get a loan. Since the partnership, CBCMA and HLP met monthly to review results and discuss solutions such as developing a feedback loop for at-risk borrowers. Most importantly, CBCMA absorbs all the cost for the counseling, which is now performed

by Money Management International.

2. CBCMA also provides a free post-purchase counseling program called the “Borrower Success Program.” All borrowers are automatically enrolled in this program and it keeps the housing counselors in close touch with the borrower for a full year following settlement. They are also looking to extend this for 24 months given the demand and what they perceive to be its value, particularly as recent and new borrowers are facing the impacts of the pandemic.

3. At CBCMA, the down payment assistance is always structured as a second mortgage. This helps to improve borrower commitment. It comes

ting a major incentive for the homeowner. And during this three-year period, the second mortgage is “silent,” meaning the borrower only needs to make payments on their FHA-insured mortgage. This gives the borrower instant “skin in the game” and incentivizes them to stay current on their mortgage from the start.

4. CBCMA also sets a 620 floor for all DPA loans, but that can change and typically varies between 620 and 640 based on factors such as a borrower’s history making payments like the one being considered, and other measures that reflect a demonstrated ability to support their liabilities such as a maximum 125% payment shock.

5. CBCMA caps back-end DTIs, too.

For example, if your FICO is between 620 and 639 the DTI is capped at 31% for housing and 45% for the secondary ratio.

6. CBCMA has reserve requirements for borrowers that vary by credit quality but can include factors like meeting the VA residual income test, at least two years employment with the same employer, or two months PITI reserves, among others.

7. CBCMA does a full second credit review of each FHA mortgage to ensure that it meets all FHA guidelines.

How does a program like this help? First, 54.3% of all borrowers assisted through the Chenoa Fund program in 2019 were minorities. Even more importantly, 34.8% were the first generation in their family to ever own a home. The point is this—by deploy-

and other eligibility criteria, this program can be the foundation of a game-changing model to support real change in homeownership statistics in the years ahead.

I have been an outspoken voice raising concerns about DPA programs, but the frustration that we all face is in answering the question of how we affirmatively impact the long-term wealth of those who did not inherit it. How do we create stability and lifestyle support for families not wanting to relocate every time a lease expires?

Funding these programs through secondary market revenue is a solution that creates no greater homebuyer risk than another DPA mortgage and may even perform better given the more conservative underwriting. What is unique about Chenoa is that they operate nationally. This helps keep the state HFAs more competitive as they eliminate any monopoly advantage, and this can only produce better rates and better customer service—something that competition provides.

In the end, this only solves one of the three problems of advancing access to homeownership—the down payment.

Credit availability and affordability will come from building more entry level housing and encouraging that to happen through public policy and private partnerships. My research has changed my way of thinking on DPA as a solution. HUD should lead the way by taking a program like CBCMA’s Chenoa Fund and standardizing these types of best practices to ensure sustainability. If we work together on this, we can effect meaningful change that will help families for generations to come.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 29

50 YOUNG LEADERS

HOUSING INDUSTRY

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31

32

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Karen Abram

Dana Aldis Erik Anderson Ajita Atreya

35

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Bryan Budd Samantha Budzyn Mark Gordon

Rola Gurrieri Rob Hayden Adena Hefets

37

38

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Chris Hill Hemanthkumar Jambulingam Karen Kreutziger

Linh Lam George Lane Brad Lookabaugh

Maggie Mae Tim McCallum Clay McMurray

40

41

Megan Meyer Arun Mohan Jason Morgan

Charles Myslinsky Michael Oursler Auvese Pasha

Unikqua Shannon

34 John Bosley Rodrigo Briceno Gary Brownell

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44

42 Devang Patel Sarah Pierce Alex Rayner

45

Joseph Restivo Nicole Reyes Ben Rubenstein

Anthony Scotese David Skoien Russell Smith

Ashley Smith Phil Sparling Adam Stern

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47

48

John Stevens Stew Sweet Evan Wade

Melody Warren Tyler White Brittany Whitmire

Jordan Wild Michael Wojcik-Holmes Mike Yu HOUSINGWIRE â?ą JUNE 2020 31

32 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

Unikqua Shannon: Forging her own path RISING STAR STANDS ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF AUTOMATION

By Julia Falcon

As

a mortgage insurance pricing analyst at Genworth M o r t g a g e Insurance, U n i k q u a Shannon says that starting her day includes getting a feel of what the market is like that morning, what competitors are doing and watching rate changes.

But rewinding to college – which for Shannon was only three years ago – Shannon had other plans. She started out her education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with aspirations to become a dentist, then thought about working in magazines before she switched to studying information science.

While she was in college, Shannon spent a lot of her time volunteering for the hungry, and establishing Carolina Cupboard, the UNC Chapel Hill food pantry.

Shannon said food insecurity was something she felt like she needed to help combat, and it is now a passion of hers.

That carries over to Genworth, where she is leading its food bank as the food bank relationship manager for over two years.

“We have a lot of great volunteer initiatives, but people really get up for the food bank,” Shannon said.

“That’s one thing that I’m really proud of just because it means a lot to me.”

In the nearly three years she has spent at Genworth, Shannon trained her teammates on how to use the robotic process automation system, created a user-friendly template for the team to use while testing and developed training materials with a live demo for her colleagues.

Via this product, Genworth can test thousands of test scenarios with little human interaction. Previously, the company was unable to validate all potential loan scenarios given the cost and effort required. Now, Genworth is able to detect issues with rates and guidelines prior to any customer interaction, resulting in a better customer service experience.

Shannon’s use and understanding of robotic process automation transformed her department at Genworth.

Her department needed to understand the ins and outs of both the rates and guidelines testing process and the actual system that returns the rates and guidelines.

Instead of taking hundreds of hours and the valuable time of many employees, she automated these testing efforts. As her first project using RPA, she taught herself the software to code it and strategically developed workflows to provide the correct results consistently.

One significant piece of advice that Shannon received was to not be afraid to fail. Now, she says that’s one piece of advice she would give, too.

“Pretty early in my career, I had a mentor who told me: ‘I just want to make sure that you know it’s okay if everything’s not perfect all the time,’” Shannon said.

“I know I can speak out more or raise my hand if someone asks me to code something I’ve never coded before or anything where a mistake could happen. Not letting that stop me from trying to be better – I think that was really great advice.”

Shannon said she loves where she’s at in her career now, but could see herself shifting to a more strategic role in the company as time goes on.

When she’s not at work or spending time at the Genworth food pantry, Shannon spends her free time with friends, playing Cribbage, exploring the Raleigh, North Carolina food scene and painting.

“In general, I’m just always trying to be better,” Shannon said. “It’s been a really cool few years working at Genworth and getting to know the industry from this side of things and I’m just really grateful for the opportunity.”

As for her own inspiration, Shannon said she looks to her mother, who works at the Pentagon. Shannon said her mother grew up with a lot of adversity and reminds her of herself. “[My mother] is very successful in her career and I just always love hearing about how she didn’t stop, so she never saw her upbringing or her background as a liability,” Shannon said. “She went to school, went to grad school, and whatever she wanted to do, she made sure that happened for herself. She’s really happy and has such a great family and I just love listening to that and thinking ‘yeah, it doesn’t matter where you start, as long as you kind of got the drive to push where you want to be.’”

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 33

Rising Stars take the lead on revolutionizing housing This year’s class of Rising Stars celebrates 50 young innovators moving the housing industry forward. Coming from all sectors of housing – mortgage, real estate, fintech, servicing and more, these up-and-coming leaders are blazing their own trail. The norm is no longer good enough.

From their use of data to how they bring their teams together and even lead those that follow behind them, these young leaders are the future of the housing industry.

And from where we’re standing, the future is bright.

Narrowing the selection down to 50 was more difficult than ever before, and the list of nominees was even more competitive than previous years. Flip through to learn more about HousingWire’s 2020 Class of Rising Stars and their amazing accomplishments.

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Karen Abram Founder dashCMA Age: 37

Karen Abram’s inspiration behind producing a simple, visual revamp of the traditional 60-page comparable market analysis is fueled by an Albert Einstein quote, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Adams is a data storyteller, and has always had the unique ability of being able to help people feel comfortable with big data. As a real estate agent herself, Abrams wanted to create a tool that would empower agents to support and defend their pricing strategy in minutes, not hours. In 2019, dashCMA was named a “What’s Next” finalist in real estate innovation by the California Association of Realtors.

Abrams is dedicated to bringing perspective to pricing in 2020, beginning the year by announcing dashCMA partnerships with MLSListings and deals with Keller Williams Forward Living, Seven Gables and Carolina One. Along with this, dashCMA was named the preferred vendor in Realty One’s Marketplace for CMA’s—all before hitting the company’s one-year mark.

What is one thing you would tell a younger version of yourself?

“My advice would be to stay curious. I had the privilege of working for Chiat Day and participating in ‘Disruption Days’ and at UM when they changed their brand identity to ‘Curiosity Works.’ Both experiences helped me re-learn how to learn.

Intellectual growth comes from trying, exploring and being uncomfortable.”

Dana Aldis

Senior Vice President of People and Customer Experience Homesnap | Age: 38 Homesnap’s customer experience team, led by Dana Aldis, has achieved a 92% customer satisfaction rating by resolving agent issues while simultaneously educating agents about the company to help boost app and website engagement. Aldis has promoted 10 customer support advisors to various departments within Homesnap. Additionally, Aldis leads the employee experience team, which fosters an empowering office culture, and has maintained an employee Net Promoter Score of 95 for Homesnap, meaning that nearly every employee would recommend it as a great place to work. Aldis supervised the creation of and oversees Homesnap’s culture crew, a bottom-up initiative of roughly 25 employees. This passionate group tackles everything from keeping the office green, planning volunteer events and defining the company’s core values. Guided by those values and Aldis’ leadership, Homesnap has created a culture of empowerment, freedom to fail forward and ownership over one’s work.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

“I would tell myself to quit aiming for perfection. No one is perfect, so you’re not fooling anyone. Instead, strive to make an impact. It’s impossible to make an impact without taking risks and making mistakes, so if you’re not doing those things you won’t leave a legacy that matters.”

Erik Anderson

Chief Operating Officer MAXEX Age: 37

Erik Anderson is a dynamic, results-oriented executive and board member with significant experience scaling organizations in high-growth environments. During his three-plus years as CEO of Sourcepoint, Anderson assembled a team that delivered a fivefold increase in revenue, added 2,700 associates and launched new offices and business lines globally. He and his team came to be known by their clients for their understanding. They always strived to listen, understand and deliver—in that order. His tenure at Sourcepoint led to the thirteen most profitable quarters in company history. Anderson now brings his critical operational and industry experience to MAXEX as chief operating officer. In this new role, Anderson is working to build upon MAXEX’s previous growth and support its market momentum, using his expertise to help deliver on the incredible market demand that has been tapped into by the creation of the first true on-demand mortgage exchange for whole loans.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

“Listen to understand, not reply. Use this understanding to help others solve the problems that frustrate them most. Whether as an individual or a company, focus on how you can understand and help and over time. You will find this behavior is appreciated and rewarded.”

Ajita Atreya Senior Economist Freddie Mac Age: 35

As a senior economist in Freddie Mac’s Economic and Housing Research Group, Ajita Atreya advances Freddie Mac’s business needs and ensures its future growth with her keen research and analytical expertise. In order to help the company minimize housing risks, Atreya detects, recognizes and assesses the risk, and creates solutions that help avoid unwanted outcomes. Atreya is a highly recognized subject matter expert on the housing market. Her work, published in top academic journals and international journals, has been cited numerous times on matters including the areas of risk assessment, risk perception, behavioral economics and community resilience. At Freddie Mac, her work is published as Insights, comprehensive research studies that have a large readership and are recognized widely by industry peers. Atreya’s public-facing work has been an invaluable tool in helping educate various audiences on Freddie Mac’s value, both to the public and its investors, while also helping them understand broader issues in the economy and the housing market.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received? “‘Respect everyone’s perspective because all perspectives matter.’ The way you see the world might be completely different from how others see it and understanding others’ perspectives helps you make informed decisions – whether in business or life.”

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Rodrigo Briceno Director Invictus Capital Partners Age: 34

John Bosley

Executive Vice President, Capital Markets and Correspondent Planet Home Lending Age: 38 John Bosley’s analytic and strategic insights are the fuel driving the growth of Planet Home Lending’s correspondent division and many successful capital markets initiatives over the past five years.

Bosley provides leadership insight into market opportunities including entry points, exit strategy, projected returns and risk management. On a day-to-day basis, Bosley manages both capital markets and the company’s correspondent division, which grew volume by 70% in 2019. That growth continues because of Bosley’s contributions to capital markets, sales and operations. On the operations side, Bosley’s implementation of offshoring and technology enhancements contributed to a 20% reduction of cost per funded loan in 2019. He and his capital markets team provided MSR pricing analysis and hedging, underpinning the growth of the company’s servicing portfolio from $14 billion in 2018 to $19 billion in 2019.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“Training and empowering others. Many employees in my divisions began in lower-level roles, had a strong passion for their work, and grew into positions with more responsibility. I talk about how things are done, but also why they are done, so people understand how their role contributes to Planet Home Lending’s success.”

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Rodrigo Briceno has played a key role in developing the non-QM securitization market. He educated and facilitated processes with rating agencies, investors, underwriters and legal teams to find the necessary liquidity to execute Invictus’ strategy and create its securitization platform. Briceno, who joined the firm in 2012 as its seventh employee, is now responsible for running Invictus’ securitization program. With his help, Invictus became the first non-QM issuer to have its inaugural securitization rated AAA, and subsequently led the completion of 15 transactions under the Verus Mortgage Capital shelf. Invictus was an early institutional investor in non-QM, and at the time the firm began buying loans, there was very little research in the non-QM space. Briceno researched and developed the non-QM market, step by step, working with mortgage originators, warehouse banks, rating agencies, servicers, diligence firms and bond investors to help shape the market as he raised awareness for market participants and raised institutional capital.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

“Surround yourself with the right people. Make sure you can learn and grow with your team every day. It is important that your team’s experience is diverse and that everyone is open to new ideas. When you combine diverse skill sets with a hard-working collaborative team, you can achieve anything.”

Gary Brownell

Senior Managing Director of Business Strategy Home Point Financial Age: 29 Over the last five years, Gary Brownell has helped the company grow from a small lender in 2015 into a major nonbank. He built out a multi-site consumer direct group into a $150-million-a-month operation from the ground up, all while simultaneously leading enterprise-wide marketing and communications. In his current role, Brownell is the principal architect of Home Point Financial’s Home Ownership Platform, which has drawn more than 200,000 active users since its launch in October of 2019. As a spinoff to the Home Ownership Platform, Brownell created the exclusive Customer For Life program, an initiative focused on building relationships with and providing long-term value for mortgage brokers by helping them retain their clients. Since Customer for Life’s launch in 2019, thousands of customers have been reconnected back to their original loan officer. Brownell has taken the lead on working with agencies to challenge the current process of loan origination and streamline the customer experience using customer data on an ongoing basis.

What is one thing you had to overcome to succeed in this industry?

“Trying to change thinking and strategy in a mortgage environment is uniquely challenging, because so many parts of the industry are deeply entrenched. In my experience, pushing ideas to the table that have no precedent is a massive ongoing challenge, but it’s what I enjoy most.”

Bryan Budd

Senior Vice President of Correspondent Operations and Co-Issue Mr. Cooper |Age: 38 Bryan Budd is a trusted leader who works tirelessly to give his clients and his team members a positive experience. Budd has played a significant role in growing Mr. Cooper’s correspondent channel and co-issue program to become one of the largest in the industry. He is responsible for executing a best-inclass operations platform for 800-plus correspondent clients and 100-plus co-issue clients. When Mr. Cooper acquired Pacific Union Financial, Budd led the integration of the operations platforms and team, including delegated and non-delegated. Budd’s management of the credit box policy integration led to a final offering and channel structure that were prudent and attractive to prospects. Budd also played a key role in the launch of Mr. Cooper’s loan acquisition platform for delegated loan transactions, the Mortgage Xpress interface. Budd managed the platform development from inception to functionality, and he continues to manage the platform’s enhancements, such as the recent integration with Ellie Mae’s Investor Connect.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“Focusing on what is right versus who is right. Every team member, from individual contributors to executive leaders, can add value and provide thought leadership.

Focusing on the ideas themselves, as opposed to where they came from, provides a diversity of thought that helps teams win.”

Samantha Budzyn

Director of Operations Nexsys Technologies Age: 30

Samantha Budzyn spent nearly 18 months visiting states around the country, helping to blaze a path for adoption of digital closing legislation. She lobbied and testified for changes to existing laws and regulations, working with lawmakers and secretaries of state providing education about why digital closings are important to their constituents. She contributed to industry groups—speaking at multiple conferences and events to provide guidance on how to implement digital closings (as well as addressing their benefits and common pitfalls), and acting as a co-chair for key committees where she drives change in the mortgage and title industries and brings awareness of new topics and trends. Before joining start-up company Nexsys Technologies, Budzyn reported directly to the president of a nationwide title and closing services provider, which gave her unique insight and understanding into the needs and expectations of the mortgage industry. Now on the solution-provider side, Budzyn helps Nexsys Technologies craft digital closing products.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“I’ve developed a true passion for learning, and I’m never satisfied with my current level of knowledge. I continuously reassess what I know about current processes, and I’m always eager to expand my knowledge base, plunge into a new certification or business education program or explore new industry trends.”

Mark Gordon National Sales Director Princeton Mortgage Age: 38

Mark Gordon is continually equipping motivated individuals with tools and skills needed to thrive, leading Princeton Mortgage’s sales team to excel beyond their goals. Gordon drives the team with expansive training sessions focusing on a theory from the Princeton Selling System: a system he developed that contributed to 300% retail sales growth. Prior to Princeton Mortgage, Gordon was branch manager at Metropolitan Mortgage (now Brightgreen Home Loans), where he became the top producing loan originator within his first year. He later became the founder of Fortren Funding, which was responsible for nearly $1 billion in loans in a five-year period. At Princeton, he has built a sales machine that is thriving as one of the major pieces contributing to the company’s tenfold growth since 2018.

The sales team grew in size by 500%, retail sales have risen 300% in two years, wholesale sales have jumped 1,000% in two years and 95% of Princeton Mortgage’s loan originators experienced their best sales year in 2019.

What is one thing you would tell a younger version of yourself?

“You need to read more. The more I’ve read, I’ve learned that you don’t have to experience every pain and failure. It’s easier to learn lessons through others’ journeys. I’ve begun reading more recently and I feel like I missed out on many lessons that books could have provided for me in the past.”

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Rob Hayden

Director of Sales and Strategic Partnerships Jetty Age: 31

Rola Gurrieri Senior Vice President of Credit Policy Guaranteed Rate Age: 38

At Guaranteed Rate, Rola Gurrieri oversees the underwriting department and manages the organization’s credit policy. Gurrieri recently formed Guaranteed Rate’s credit concierge department as a way to support the company’s loan officers to deliver the best options and solutions to homebuyers. Gurrieri recently built an underwriting development program to mentor and teach industry newcomers on how to become efficient, competent and knowledgeable underwriters. She is one of the youngest professionals in the industry to participate in intimate roundtables hosted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where she is able to provide lender feedback on Federal Housing Administration policies.

She is also a member of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s credit advisory boards, in which she works with other industry leaders to analyze and advise on market conditions, credit policies, potential risk, and emerging trends.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“Training and empowering others. Many employees in my divisions began in lower-level roles, had a strong passion for their work, and grew into positions with more responsibility. I talk about how things are done, but also why they are done, so people understand how their role contributes to Planet Home Lending’s success.”

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Rob Hayden’s expertise lies at the intersection of real estate and technology. After working at a venture capital firm where he focused on real estate investments, Hayden joined Jetty, a real estate startup with a mission to make renting a home more affordable. As a founding member of the company before the age of 30, Hayden helped to define and lead the overall direction and strategy of the business. When Jetty launched in 2017, deposit alternatives, Jetty’s hero product, were unknown to the housing industry—and yet Hayden still had the foresight to predict there would be a need in the multifamily market for a product that grants affordability while also benefiting assets. He grew Jetty’s sales distribution from nothing to more than 1 million contracted units to date. Most recently, under Hayden’s guidance, Jetty’s sales team has grown more than 400% in one year, with Hayden overseeing partnerships with some of the most well-known and respected property management companies in the U.S., including Blackstone/LivCor, Greystar, Pinnacle, Cortland and Related.

What is one thing you had to overcome to succeed in this industry?

“Changing the stigma around the word ‘sales’-people typically associate a sales role with someone spamming your inbox. In reality, sales roles can be the most strategic positions at a company (especially if the company is a fast-growing one).”

Adena Hefets Cofounder and CEO Divvy Homes Age: 33

Adena Hefets is the CEO and cofounder of Divvy Homes, and is fierce about her leadership role as one of the few female executives in the property technology space. Since founding Divvy Homes, Hefets has raised nearly $300 million in capital to give more people the opportunity to own a home. In May 2019, Divvy Homes launched a new streamlined mobile application that uses artificial intelligence to create a dynamic application process personalized to each buyer’s unique financial situation. With this model, the company assesses customers based on how mortgage-ready they are predicted to be in three years, rather than determining their ability to get a mortgage now. In June 2019, Divvy Homes established a strategic partnership with Navicore Solutions, a national leader in the field of nonprofit financial counseling, to help renters in underserved communities transition into homeownership. Divvy Homes now serves eight major American metropolitan areas and has plans to expand even farther into new markets in the coming year.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“Setting clear objectives and holding myself accountable to meeting those goals.

While having a clear definition of success is key to scaling a business, having a purpose-driven mission is what motivates me to wake up each morning to build something that’s making a positive impact on the world.”

Chris Hill

Team Leader in Capital Markets United Wholesale Mortgage Age: 37 Prior to his career in finance, Chris Hill spent 10 years playing professional basketball in France, Belgium and Turkey. Now, Hill is a well-respected leader in the mortgage industry and leans on his basketball experience as he leads more than 20 team members. Hill joined United Wholesale Mortgage in 2015 as a member of the business innovation group, where he uncovered areas where UWM could improve efficiencies and help its broker partners grow. In his following role as liaison between the secondary marketing and sales teams, Hill exemplified his leadership skills by creating a new synergy between the two teams that didn’t previously exist. This synergy led to several successful collaborative initiatives, such as company exclusives like Exact Rate, which allows mortgage brokers to offer borrowers custom rates to the thousandth decimal point and outprice their competition. In 2019, Hill was promoted to his current leadership position within the UWM capital markets team and helped lay the groundwork for the company’s record-breaking production year.

What is one thing you would tell a younger version of yourself?

“Life isn’t about trying to be perfect. You’re going to fail and make mistakes. What really matters is how you respond when facing adversity. There are critical lessons that come from failure. It’s whether you choose to embrace those situations and what you learn from them that’s most important.”

Hemanthkumar Jambulingam

Director of Products Tavant | Age: 38

Hemanthkumar Jambulingam oversees the development of Tavant’s VELOX suite and directly manages FinXperience Broker and Dual AUS products. He had a major hand in building the FinXperience Broker platform suite, a digital platform that connects borrowers and loan officers throughout the loan life cycle. He also built a user experience for loan officers and for lenders, banks, financial institutions, wholesale and correspondent brokers to connect on the Omni platform and originate TPO loans.

Jambulingam defined the solution that runs the FinDigital Platform – Dual AUS on a single click to identify appraisal waiver, income, assets, collateral reps and warrants.

Jambulingam has enabled Dual AUS and process optimization for three of the top 20 originators in the U.S., enabled a 40% cost reduction in loan servicing for a top bank in the U.S., and enabled wholesale lending business in six months for the nations’ largest lender (ranked No. 4) out of the U.S. top 100 list of originators.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“The key to success is attitude, passion, and listening to constructive criticism. In my career, positive feedback helped me improve my morale and motivated me to achieve new heights. Constructive criticism has helped me fine-tune my thinking and approach to achieve my goals.”

Karen Kreutzinger CEO Flat Branch Home Loans Age: 37

Since joining Flat Branch Home Loans as a processor about nine years ago, Karen Kreutzinger quickly worked her way up to CEO while helping the company achieve significant growth. When she started at Flat Branch Home in 2011, Kreutzinger showed drive that has since led her to her current role. From selling direct to agencies like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to creating programs for new products such as the HUD 184 and portfolio loans, Kreutzinger consistently takes the lead when it comes to improving Flat Branch Home Loans’ competitive edge.

And she does all that while maintaining a good client experience. Under her management, the company has grown from 30 people in three locations to more than 400 people across 15 states in 53 locations, and is looking to originate more than $2 billion in loans this year.

At Flat Branch Home Loans, she collaborated with a programmer to customize processes and enable teams to automate time-consuming and repetitive tasks. In addition, she obtained her insurance license and added an insurance division to Flat Branch Home Loans.

What is one thing you would tell a younger version of yourself?

“If you’re trying to grow into a leadership role, my advice is to get a mentor. A mentor with different strengths than you so you can work on being more well-rounded. Confidence would be the other piece.

You must be confident.”

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George Lane

Deputy General Counsel Auction.com Age: 37

Linh Lam

Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer Ellie Mae Age: 37 Linh Lam has been instrumental in the success of several key information technology initiatives at Ellie Mae. She joined the company in 2017 to lead Ellie Mae’s front-office enterprise applications team and shortly thereafter assumed responsibility for the entire enterprise applications team. Lam took over the leadership of Ellie Mae’s IT function as vice president of information technology in October 2018, and she has since led her team to increased delivery and service expectations, as evidenced by the team’s contribution to successful launches for projects including the Partner Marketplace, Automation of Employee Onboarding and Offboarding, Enterprise Service Management and the Corporate IT Cloud Journey to AWS. In her current role, Lam continues to lead several major all-company projects, including Project Phoenix, which will ultimately improve operational efficiency and performance across the company. Lam is also an active participant in Ellie Mae’s EMerge Women’s Leadership Group.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“Lead by example. It’s what we strive to do when we want to inspire change and make the world better. It’s what we do as parents when we want to teach our kids what’s right. And it’s how women inspire our loved ones and daughters to be strong female figures.”

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As Auction.com’s deputy general counsel, George Lane leads a team of lawyers and ensures that the company can successfully traverse the legal landscape of all 50 states and more than 3,100 counties. Lane and his team’s guidance and decisions help influence the company’s direction. He and the legal team have implemented various auction strategies such as proxy bidding, extend the bid and assign the bid, which are beginning to have revolutionary effects in helping lenders obtain maximum value on their distressed inventory and engaging foreclosure buyers. Lane and his team created and drafted a 50-state solution regarding purchase and sale agreements, giving Auction.com the ability to use an easy plug-and-play purchase and sales agreement nationwide. Lane and his team also implemented foreclosure sales online in Ohio, which now serve as a working model that other states can emulate to move foreclosures online and has led to Auction.com’s foreclosure third-party sales rate in Ohio to rise over 15% since inception of the program.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

“Be an athlete. Never limit yourself to one area of the law or business. Continuously work to expand your skill sets as an in-house counsel and perform at a high level in various arenas. This allows an attorney to effectively guide and impact both the company and industry at large.”

Brad Lookabaugh

Vice President of Portfolio Management Unison Age: 31 Since joining Unison four years ago, Brad Lookabaugh has led multiple programs that have enabled the company to partner with more customers, including the creations of Greenlight and its Equity Origination System. He oversees a unique combination of three teams at Unison: investment analysis, business systems and information technology, encompassing around 30 employees. When his team realized the company was scaling significantly faster than their software tools could keep up with, Lookabaugh saw an opportunity to challenge the status quo and develop processes and technologies to help the company skyrocket its growth.

Without the tools that Lookabaugh spearheaded, Unison would still be approving investments by hand at a fraction of the speed, impacting the customer experience. The tools he was central in building have been instrumental in helping Unison achieve its impressive growth: The company has seen a 95% year-over-year increase in inquiries from consumers between January and June, and $4.2 billion in total value for the homes Unison has invested in as of December 2019.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“I am constantly re-calibrating what great work is. I view all my and my teams’ work as an infinite series of iterations. Our product can always be better – more efficient, better design. I try to broaden my view of what is possible, then, I set out to clear it.”

Maggie Mae

Lead Product Manager Top of Mind Networks Age: 34

With more than 10 years in the industry, Maggie Mae is a respected leader known by insiders as the “mad scientist” of mortgage marketing. She began her career as a junior loan officer in 2008, during a time of changes and challenges. Despite joining the industry at the same time that the DOW dropped 774 points in one day, Mae continued to come out on top. She swiftly moved into a role as marketing coordinator at Bank of America, followed by a role as head of marketing at Absolute Mortgage, where she helped grow the company from three to 14 locations in just 18 months. She joined Top of Mind in 2017, and continued to build and enhance the capabilities of the company’s market-leading Surefire CRM. Last year, Mae helped Top of Mind expand its multiple listing service coverage to over 650 boards across all 50 U.S. states, making its database the industry’s most extensive and making it easier than ever for loan officers to automate the creation of detailed, property-specific collateral for their customers and real estate partners.

What is one thing you had to overcome to succeed in this industry “The media has long portrayed women as helpers in the workplace, not leaders (e.g., nurses vs. doctors, teachers vs. principals, receptionists vs. executives). Being a female leader in fintech comes with its own cross to bear. Fortunately, things are changing one executive and one company culture at a time.”

Tim McCallum

Vice President of Customer Management Fannie Mae Age: 39 For more than 10 years, Tim McCallum has implemented industry-changing technology and process improvements at Fannie Mae, giving the company’s customer management teams a competitive edge. McCallum began his career at Fannie Mae as a senior manager with REO alternative disposition in 2010. Just two years later, he was promoted to director of short sales and one year after that, he jumped to vice president of short sales and mortgage release. In his current role, McCallum is responsible for the end-to-end management of Fannie Mae’s largest single-family lenders. One of his greatest accomplishments at Fannie Mae was implementing pricing and negotiation strategies to a portfolio in excess of $20 billion annually and increased returns by more than 1300 net basis points over previous methods. He also pioneered Fannie Mae’s HomePath short sale platform to reduce risk in fraud, financial and reputational areas by negotiating directly with realtors through an online portal.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received “You learn a great deal more by listening than by speaking. Great ideas are all around us and come from everyone including customers, employees and consumers. By asking the right questions, being inquisitive and listening to the responses often generates new and creative ways to approach everyday problems.”

Clay McMurray

Chief Marketing Officer Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation Age: 38 As Fairway Independent Mortgage’s first chief marketing officer, Clay McMurray scaled the marketing team from seven to more than 30 teammates supporting over 2,700 loan officers at over 650 branches.

McMurray’s team provides unparalleled support to the company’s 2,700 plus career-professional loan officers and established Fairway as one of the nation’s largest retail lenders. McMurray spearheaded a program which created a 239% increase in branch visits and 159% increase in phone calls. He also led the creative vision and direction for Fairway’s rebrand and website design, successfully sourced and launched marketing tech that has resulted in exponential growth and leads the company’s on-demand marketing platform, which in 2019, delivered over 9 million emails—about 3.8 pieces for each Fairway loan officer. His expertise has led recognition as No. 1 USDA purchase units and volume 2019, No. 1 Federal Housing Administration purchase volume in 2018, and No. 1 mortgage company to work for, five years in a row.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed? “‘Always finish what you start.’ This phrase was very popular in my home growing up, and it’s helped guide me throughout my life. School, sports, marriage, parenting, work…it’s a discipline that applies across the board, and it’s something I practice every day.”

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Arun Mohan Director of Product Credit Karma Home Age: 32

Megan Meyer

General Manager of Market Operations Opendoor Age: 34 Megan Meyer was Opendoor’s 20th employee, where she took a role as a renovations product manager. She told Opendoor Cofounder and CEO Eric Wu to put her where he needed her, and she’d get it done. She did just that. In just a few short years, Meyer has assumed a myriad of responsibilities across varied parts of the business, from tech and pricing operations to product and in-market operations. In her current role, Meyer works closely with the general managers for each Opendoor market to ensure they’re working cohesively and are aligned with the company’s mission as they grow their local footprint. Meyer is responsible for local construction operations, which has grown a network of over 1,000 in-market vendors that provide a variety of home services in preparation for putting Opendoor-owned homes back on the market. During her time at Opendoor, Meyer has been instrumental in helping the company scale sustainably from just one to 21 cities.

What is one thing you had to overcome to succeed in this industry?

“There aren’t many women in construction. As a young female working for a disruptor, earning the respect of industry veterans was a challenge. I learned the importance of building relationships, and also of being yourself—even if it’s very different than the world around you.”

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Arun Mohan was integral to the inception of Credit Karma Home in 2017, where he spent the months prior to launch researching, strategizing and pitching leadership on why Credit Karma was well positioned to offer its members an optimized mortgage shopping experience. Mohan’s research resulted in the launch of Credit Karma’s Home Buying Power tool. Since its launch less than a year ago, the tool has helped more than 4 million members unlock their home buying power. In 2019, Mohan made significant inroads in evolving the tool into an end-to-end digital home-buying platform, which promises efficiencies, certainty and transparency for both consumers and lenders. Mohan’s visionary thinking and expertise in product development has been a key driver for Credit Karma Home’s success to date. In his current role, he hand-crafts the company’s innovative home products, aiding more than 100 million members to homeownership. His desire to make meaningful change in an industry that has seen little innovation is what fuels his team to set ambitious goals, and enables his leadership to back them.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“Embracing change. The moment I internalized that life is an ever-evolving pursuit for betterment, this mental model became pivotal in my self-improvement efforts as well as an unlock for building new products, teams, and businesses from scratch.”

Jason Morgan Principal Morgan Properties Age: 29

Jason Morgan truly grew up in the family business, and always intended to have a career at Morgan Properties after gaining diversified, outside experience. Now, Morgan is principal and a second-generation leader of Morgan Properties. Since May 2017, he has been instrumental in elevating Morgan Properties from the 25th to the fifth largest apartment owner in the country with over 75,000 units and $10 billion in assets. He founded and leads the company’s debt investment platform, where he has put together a team and developed the processes that have enabled the company to become a major investor in the Freddie Mac K-series CMBS space. Last year, Morgan helped spearhead the company’s acquisition of Morgan Communities, nearly 95 apartment communities, and the Lantern Portfolio, encompassing 10 apartment communities in two of the company’s core markets. Under his leadership, Morgan Properties completed its biggest debt investment year to date by acquiring five separate K-Series B-Pieces from Freddie Mac in 2019.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“My philosophy is to determine the end goal and work backward from there. I’m a long-term planner with a vision for the future. I pride myself on being incredibly hard-working and prepared to outwork our competition to position Morgan Properties as the nation’s best-in-class, value-add multifamily owner, manager and investor.”

Charles Myslinsky

Chief Product Officer OJO Labs Age: 37

Charles Myslinsky leads the product roadmap and growth of OJO, an artificial-intelligence-powered advisor for home-buying. Previously, Myslinsky led the trajectory of Jet.com that sold to Walmart for $3.3 billion. During his time as Jet.com’s vice president of product, Myslinsky brought on thousands of sellers and grew the catalog to tens of millions of listings. Following the acquisition of Jet. com, he led Walmart’s effort to create a single platform enabling product discovery, consideration and purchase across physical and digital storefronts, which was key to the organization’s ambitious omnichannel strategy. Myslinsky was drawn to OJO Labs because the company set out to solve complicated problems within a domain that has remained largely untouched by impactful innovation. In his role as OJO Labs’ chief product officer, Myslinsky is spearheading an entirely new home-buying experience that moves beyond home search towards discovery with a product that establishes trust and allows every transaction to progress seamlessly, helping consumers make complex decisions with confidence and ultimately leading to more homes sold.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

“As a product builder, every decision impacts how someone feels about the value we provide or the problem we solve. Over time, people won’t remember what you did but how you made them feel.”

Michael Oursler

Chief Operating Officer NewDay USA Age: 30

Throughout Michael Oursler’s eight years at NewDay USA, he has greatly contributed to the company’s success through his natural leadership skills as chief credit officer and senior vice president of operations as well as NewDay University vice president of capital markets and most recently, chief operating officer.

As chief credit officer, Ourseler was the architect of the Accelerated Underwriting Program, which is a series of fast-track career training courses and a cornerstone of NewDay University. Company leaders have credited Oursler with the Accelerated Underwriting Program’s many graduates and other company accomplishments due to his leadership, training and underwriting expertise. When the COVID-19 outbreak occurred in March, Oursler took a step further and played a critical role in seamlessly shifting more than 500 employees to work from home within a matter of days. His work in developing and leading company operations is a major reason why NewDay USA is changing the lives of veteran families across the U.S. Oursler has received many awards for his outstanding work and success, including HousingWire’s Insider Award in 2018.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

“Be yourself, play to your strengths, and have the confidence in yourself to always be surrounded by people smarter than you.”

Auvese Pasha

Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Sourcepoint Age: 34 During Auvese Pasha’s more than 15 years in the business process management space, he has witnessed an industry shift from organizations being viewed as outsource providers to becoming important partners in the financial services industry. Pasha provides guidance and leadership to a diverse team of nearly 4,000 employees, which provides services to seven of the top 20 mortgage originators and processes tens of thousands of loans per month in the origination channel across loan fulfillment, title and escrow and post-closing. Pasha has been integral in expanding revenue 80% yearover-year, diversifying Sourcepoint’s business model to a 50/50 split between origination and servicing solutions, launching initiatives for the company including the first implementation of Sourcepoint’s speech and text analytics product, firstCustomer Intelligence, and opening three new operation centers in Arizona, North Carolina and Texas, as well as a second location in Florida.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“Looking to solve challenges two steps ahead. In the mortgage industry, companies often work to solve a problem only to create new ones down the value chain. I practice the ‘ask what’s next’ approach to understand how anything we do—strategic and tactical —impacts the next two steps.”

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Sarah Pierce Head of Sales Better.com Age: 27

Devang Patel

Director of Business Development and Acquisitions Toorak Capital Partners Age: 35 In just three years, Devang Patel assisted in building a nationwide correspondent network and acquisitions process for Toorak Capital Partners that has purchased more than $3 billion in loans. In 2016, Patel was the first hire for KKR’s loan-aggregation platform, Toorak Capital Partners, where he now reports directly to the CEO. Patel was instrumental in building an operational front-to-back loan purchasing process, which has facilitated the purchase of over 12,000 loans and a multi-billion-dollar principal balance since 2016. Throughout his career, Patel has excelled at taking on increasing levels of responsibility across equity capital management, loan securitizations, ratings operations, due diligence and business development. Patel manages a team for business development, relationship management, client onboarding and loan due diligence operations. He regularly presents at KKR Board of Directors meetings, where he has spoken on Toorak Capital Partners business development, operations and credit performance.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

“Work hard and take a chance on yourself. For 18 months, Toorak employed five employees. I took a leap of faith and was rewarded with the opportunity to help build the largest capital provider to the residential bridge market. I am thrilled that I seized this fantastic opportunity.”

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Sarah Pierce has hired, trained and built Better.com’s sales team to more than 400 members across four offices in less than two years, leading to revenue gains of 385% year-over-year. Her entrepreneurial experience, coupled with her frontline experience as a loan originator helped catapult Better.com from a startup to an industry disruptor. Pierce partnered with Better.com’s engineers and product team to develop automation and data-driven technology that would streamline her team’s workflow and free them up from the time-consuming paper-heavy tasks. In 2020, the company’s loan originators have an automated workflow system coupled with training and development that, under Pierce’s watch, has allowed Better’s loan officers to outpace the industry by 1,216%. Pierce’s efforts in automation also benefit customers, who close with the company in 21 days versus the industry average of 42 days. The result: increased accuracy, reduced costs for the customer and revenue gains for Better.com.

What is one thing you had to overcome to succeed in this industry?

“When I first joined, I struggled to have my voice heard by those in positions to make change or build the necessary digital products. Rather than demanding my voice be heard, I developed relationships and began to run initiatives, which demonstrated that my on-the-ground insights were key to larger company strategy.”

Alex Rayner

Producing Branch Manager Academy Mortgage Corporation Age: 31 Alex Rayner began his mortgage career at Academy Mortgage Corp. in late 2015, and since then he has quickly moved up the ranks from loan officer to sales manager to his current role as producing branch manager. Since 2016, his first full year as loan officer, Rayner has increased his total loan volume by 478%, from $7.98 million to $46.15 million in 2019 alone. His total volume increased by 59% from 2018 to 2019 alone. Rayner has been a two-time qualifier for Academy Mortgage’s President’s Club for the company’s highest producers, and in 2019, he ranked No. 2 among all loan officers at Academy Mortgage for purchase units. His particular passion is helping customers who have been declined by other lenders to achieve the dream of homeownership, and his areas of expertise include Federal Housing Administration loans, first-time homebuyer programs and down-payment assistance and bond programs. With a five-year plan featuring detailed yearly milestones, Reyner is goal-driven and always looking for opportunities to grow. He sets and completes daily goals, and people know they can depend on him to get the job done.

What is one thing you had to overcome to succeed in this industry?

Simply put, fear. Fear of rejection, fear of failure and fear of the unknown. Embracing that fear has been instrumental in helping me find success.”

Joseph Restivo

President and CEO American Mortgage Network Age: 39

Joseph Restivo saw an opportunity to create something very exciting: American Mortgage Network, a 100% employee-owned company for the benefit of all employees.

Restivo studied the inequality among compensation levels, such as the imbalance in earnings between rank and file staffers, loan officers, management and senior executives. In creating an employee-owned company, a balance was brought between compensation levels. This new model empowers employees to think like owners, making decisions to benefit the whole team and their clients. Another industry challenge that Restivo addressed was efficiency. Restivo’s philosophy was to make a 100% web-based platform so that he could work with anybody, anywhere in the world. A browser-based cloud-based system enables the company to ensure data security and manage customers’ personal information. The company is a low-cost producer, which utilizes streamlined processes and decentralized decision-making to enhance efficiency and provide fast turnaround to its clients.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

“When in my twenties, I focused on business and money. At a dinner, a well-known consultant offered me advice. He said, ‘Change your focus. Concentrate on building relationships with people that could help build my career.’ His counsel changed my perspective and is the foundation for my success.”

Nicole Reyes

Vice President of Product Spruce Age: 33 Under Nicole Reyes’ leadership on the product team, Spruce has increased the pace of delivery on critical technologies in service of their clients and is creating a new standard in real estate transactions, in which buying and selling real estate is simple, affordable and effortless for everyone involved.

Last year, Reyes’ team played a critical role in building workflow management tools, which served to enhance the company’s API services and shepherd in client integrations. This initiative contributed to the massive scale of Spruce’s business that was accomplished in 2019. The product team also continued to introduce innovative functionality into the digital closing dashboard, such as adding the ability to fund earnest money as well as notarize remotely online. By constantly putting the needs of Spruce’s clients and partners first, Reyes’ product team continues to create cutting-edge technology and has greatly contributed to Spruce being named not only in the HousingWire Tech100 list, but also in the 50 startups to watch in New York City in 2019.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“Getting up early. It’s the most important time of day for me, where my mind is clear and I can think big picture. It affords me the space I need to meditate or work out, and I can carve out three to four hours of incredibly productive time.”

Ben Rubenstein Founder and CEO of Opcity Realtor.com Age: 36

Ben Rubenstein founded Opcity in 2015, which uses artificial intelligence to match buyers and sellers with real estate professionals. Following Move/realtor. com’s acquisition of Opcity, Rubenstein joined realtor.com in October 2018. His Opcity technology platform established the framework for realtor.com’s Core Network, which now includes more than 11,000 brokers and more than 100,000 agents. This consumer-first culture helped create a unique ecosystem, and lead to more than 40,000 closed transactions which generated more than $8 billion in closed transaction volume over the past four years. Under Rubenstein’s leadership, the realtor.com/Opcity team has expanded with the creation of three new products and the launch of two new verticals: The Broker Lead Accelerator, which helps brokers manage the consumer leads they generate or purchase by running those leads through Opcity’s proven process; ReadyConnect Live Buyer, which helps lenders connect with home shoppers and grow their professional networks.

What is one thing you would tell a younger version of yourself?

“Be more vulnerable. Showing weakness will lead to more buy-in and openness from your team. If you put up a tough exterior and don’t communicate what is going on, your team will emulate this behavior and it will be harder to have real conversations and connections.”

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 45

David Skoien

Head of Asset Management Amherst Residential Age: 37

Anthony Scotese

Assistant Vice President of Operations ServiceLink Age: 34 Anthony Scotese has always exhibited a passionate entrepreneurial spirit during his 10-year tenure at ServiceLink. Scotese started with ServiceLink as an entry-level, REO technician and has moved his way up the ranks in the field services division to executive and managerial positions. He led a number of initiatives that have been an integral part of the company’s success, including developing new opportunities related to FHA servicing and property preservation, growing business within existing clients and expanding the company’s FHA and REO footprint in new servicing shops. Scotese also helped the company’s field services division convey over 1,000 assets per month.

Recently, he played a crucial role in the development of property preservation models in ServiceLink’s new cloud-based default servicing platform: EXOS One Marketplace. This platform’s predictive modeling allows servicers to compare disposition paths as they evolve.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“I am very analytically minded and one habit that has helped me succeed is marrying data-driven decisioning and relationship management. Fact-based decision making is extremely important, however, without finding the proper balance of managing human relationships all the data gathered will be rendered useless.”

46 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

David Skoien oversees Amherst Residential’s commercial real estate and single-family residence asset management and servicing functions. Upon joining Amherst in 2015, Skoien was an integral member of the team responsible for building the company’s commercial real estate debt lending business from the ground up. Skoein played a pivotal role in the offering of Amherst’s first public market collateralized loan obligation securitization transaction. The approximately $400 million portfolio of commercial mortgage assets was required to be certified by ratings agencies. Having helped to create Amherst’s institutional lending business from scratch, this certification process was truly the culmination of Skoien and his team’s hard work, and is a significant milestone for Skoien. With more than 15 years of experience in the real estate asset management space, Skoien currently manages $4.3 billion in assets across Amherst’s commercial real estate and single-family residence practices.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

“Professional success is rarely achieved through one person’s actions alone, but often results from the contributions of a reliable, hardworking and adaptable team.

Surround yourself with employees that share your work ethic, resilience and passion to succeed, and remember to celebrate your successes with those that made it possible.”

Ashley Smith

Director of Marketing Finance of America Reverse Age: 36 Since joining Finance of America Reverse two years ago, Ashley Smith has been a dynamic leader who helped differentiate the company and its reverse mortgage products from others in the industry. As head of marketing for one of the largest reverse mortgage lenders in the U.S., she’s tackling the industry’s No. 1 challenge: public perception. Smith was first tapped to implement a strategic pivot for the company, developing the Introducing HomeSafe campaign, a campaign featuring jumbo reverse mortgage customers as they share their life-changing impact of Finance of America Reverse’s HomeSafe loans. The innovative campaign launched with “The Venice Sessions,” a series of unscripted video interviews with HomeSafe borrowers that made the borrowers celebrities and highlighted how they used home equity to achieve their retirement goals. To date, the interviews have received more than 15 million targeted views. Smith continues to introduce campaigns focused on sharing the experiences of Finance of America Reverse’s customers.

What is one thing you had to overcome to succeed in this industry?

“Assumptions about what originators care about in a lender partner. As I’ve become familiar with the reverse mortgage space, I’ve found a depth of concern for the borrower that I never anticipated. Now FAR’s strategic focus on showing the impact of these products connects with partners on a new level.”

Russell Smith

Director of Real Estate Strategy HouseCanary Age: 31 Russell Smith’s leadership enables HouseCanary to provide nationwide reach for enterprise customers, including institutional investors, big single-family rental owner-operators, banks and financial institutions and their consumer clients. During Smith’s two and a half years at HouseCanary, he has moved up quickly. Initially hired as product marketing manager, he immediately shifted into industry relations to champion HouseCanary’s multiple listing service partners and ensure that HouseCanary’s products and initiatives are in line with the broader industry’s best interests. Today, Smith heads up industry relations and the HouseCanary brokerage team. When he first took on this role, HouseCanary was only registered as a real estate brokerage in Washington, D.C. Within a year under Smith’s leadership, HouseCanary celebrated earning brokerage licenses in all 50 states. Smith is also now responsible for the day-to-day operations of this nationwide brokerage, and he’s scaling out in-market operations while continuing to build and manage partnerships with HouseCanary’s largest clients across the real estate landscape.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received? “‘Take the job seriously, not yourself.’ Building transformative products and businesses is hard work that takes collaboration and conflict resolution within teams.

You have to take the work seriously, but never personally.”

Phil Sparling

Senior Director, Head of Centralized Title and Settlement Operations First American Mortgage Solutions Age: 33 Phil Sparling’s leadership in First American Mortgage Solutions’ title and settlement business line has driven substantial market share improvement from 2018 to 2019. His focus helped this business line increase revenue per employee, while at the same time reducing total costs per open order. Sparling’s leadership in the company’s Clear2Go title automation and innovation project, which automates title search and clearance, resulted in a faster, more efficient underwriting process. Sparling’s strong contributions to First American Mortgage Solutions are not limited to the centralized title and settlement business. He also leads implementation of company projects to enhance customer service. Additionally, under Sparling’s leadership, revenue for the fulfillment services business line significantly grew in 2019, driven by First American Mortgage Solution’s ability to provide top lenders with temporary staff during spikes in refinance volume. Sparling’s ability to cultivate relationships, drive technology innovation, and work seamlessly across company divisions while upholding rigorous quality standards, make him a “rising star” within First American Mortgage Solutions.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“Always be looking to take on the ‘Next’. My boss and peers know I am always ready and willing for the next responsibility, project, opportunity or new client engagement.”

Adam Stern Chief Product Officer Docutech Age: 34

Bringing more than a decade of mortgage experience to Docutech, Adam Stern leads new product innovation and ongoing optimization of Docutech’s ConformX document generation engine and Solex eSign, eClosing and eVault platforms.

Before joining Docutech, Stern had previously served as the chief information officer at NewRez, where he focused on developing and integrating technology as a core component of a rapidly growing origination business. Throughout his career, Stern has been able to match said processes with technology to transform the loan cycle. In his current role, Docutech has utilized Stern’s product strategy and innovative mind to continue to grow the company and its capabilities. Stern hasn’t been at the company long, but just since his introduction to the Docutech team in October 2019, he has assisted in the integration between Notary Cam’s Remote Online Notary and Docutech’s Solex eClosing solution.

Because of this integration, Docutech was able to offer a way for borrowers to remotely notarize key mortgage documents electronically—one of the final steps needed to create a full eClosing and a critical step for the times.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“I’m a bit of a data nerd and constantly diving into data and reporting. This helps me to better understand the issue at hand and use that to drive my approach.”

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 47

Stew Sweet

Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy LendUS Age: 35

John Stevens Chief Marketing Officer SRE Mortgage Alliance Age: 40

John Stevens is a passionate and articulate advocate for the mortgage industry.

He has served as the youngest president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, and most recently has been named chief marketing officer of a new wholesale company, SRE Mortgage Alliance. Stevens started on the NAMB board of directors in 2011, served as vice president for the 2015 to 2016 year, president-elect for the 2016 to 2017 year and was sworn in as president for the 2017 to 2018 year. He is now the immediate past president of NAMB, as well as ethics chair for the 2018 to 2019 term. Stevens has also served as a NAMB committee member on the Membership, Bylaws, Policy and Procedures, Nominating, Finance and Government Affairs Committees.

With a profile that is consistently recognized as one of the top 3% most viewed profiles in the world on LinkedIn, Stevens is known for his expert knowledge of social media, marketing and personal branding. Stevens is a recipient of many awards, including being recognized for more than seven years running as one of the 40 most Influential Mortgage Professionals.

What is one thing you had to overcome to succeed in this industry?

“For me to be truly successful, it has to be about the people who I work with and the customers we serve. That is how we build success. By lifting others up, not by inflating our own egos.”

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Stew Sweet started in the mortgage business at the age of 22 after graduating college with a major in political science. Sweet started as an originator and quickly moved to managing one of the most profitable branches in the LendUS footprint. Sweet is a key member of the executive management team and works directly with the chief executive to drive corporate initiatives. He has been recognized for his strong leadership skills and ability to stay current with industry trends and has been named in the top 1% of all load advisors in the U.S. by volume in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Sweet is passionate about creating efficiencies while leveraging technology and automation to improve the customer and originator experience.

During his time at LendUS, he has created and rolled out a new loan program that has already attracted more than 13 new real estate offices partnerships, with more than 1,600 realtors who want to partner with the LendUS sales force to offer this cutting edge product to their clients.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“I started in the mortgage industry straight out of college, knowing nothing about finance. I learned that life isn’t about what you know—it’s how hard you’re willing to work. Fortunately, I had mentors that showed me the ropes, and taught me that there’s no substitute for hard work.”

Evan Wade President and CEO Epoch Lending Age: 31

Evan Wade’s 12 years of banking and mortgage industry experience paired with his extensive technological background is leading him to make waves in the industry. Wade became a mortgage broker in 2018 when he cofounded Philadelphia Mortgage Brokers, where he remains a partner. Wade is also the founder of Epoch Lending. In 2019, both of Wade’s companies funded a combined $140 million in volume, with Epoch Lending closing $93 million in its first year. Wade became an assistant store manager for TD Bank at the age of 22, worked as a loan officer at retail lenders such as Movement Mortgage, cofounded Philadelphia Mortgage Brokers and launched Epoch Lending in December 2018 to further expand efforts to help loan officers nationwide become independent. Since its launch, Epoch Lending has become licensed in 11 states, with several more pending. As a technologist, Wade has helped numerous technology companies improve user experience, introduce new features, and bridge the gap between loan officers and technology platforms in the mortgage industry.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“I am a relentless researcher. I’m constantly reading about how this business works and how to improve. I also love testing new technologies to streamline the mortgage process.”

Melody Warren

Marketing Director Envoy Mortgage Age: 29

Melody Warren’s career experience in integrated and cross-channel marketing has helped Envoy achieve Housingwire’s Tech100 award. She manages a team of marketing experts, ranging from digital strategy and implementation to content development and multimedia design. Warren reidentified Envoy’s customer journey through strategic campaign analysis with tactics that contribute to a big portion of improving the bigger picture: mending the loan originator-to-consumer relationship through more concise and clear touch-points, and ultimately increasing Envoy’s customer pull-through rate. She initiated surround web optimization, resulting in a 45% increase in engagements and more than 600,000 profile views nationwide. Related web strategies enabled Envoy to collect more than 24,000 new reviews for loan originators, a 42% increase, with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5. Throughout 2019, Warren and her team were key players in branding, marketing and launching the new streamlined digital mortgage application, EnGen. What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“Finding great mentors! You’ve heard the quote, ‘sit with winners, the conversation is different’. This statement could not be truer. Greatness is contagious and pushes us to new levels. Having mentors in my life is a game-changer for me and I would not be where I am today without them.”

Tyler White

Vice President, Strategic Operations and Business Development PropStream Age: 35 With more than 13 years in real estate data, Tyler White rose from his beginnings in customer service to become a top revenue generator. In his early career at RealtyTrac, now ATTOM Data Solutions, White helped build a data sales division that is now the core focus of ATTOM Data Solutions. He designed, sold and supported several data products including MEGA: a lead generation product that created a new source of revenue for the company. In 2016, White helped launch DataTree by First American into the data licensing space, and worked with the product team to conceptualize a lead generation platform, DataTree Lists. White uses his data knowledge to help build real estate investment software that provides the most accurate information available for real estate investors to make informed investment decisions. Since taking on his new role at PropStream, White has helped expand product capabilities and functionality ten-fold, which has led to an over 60% increase in revenue.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“My inquisitiveness. I explore every possible option and if I don’t understand something, I don’t stop until I do. I question things until I understand them from as many perspectives as possible. I feel by truly understanding how things work and why, you have the ability to push innovation and change.”

Brittany Whitmire Senior Vice President of Marketing First Guaranty Mortgage Corp.

Age: 33

In the face of the challenge to continuously improve and expand, Brittany Whitmire’s tenacity and grit distinguishes her from others in the housing industry. She leads First Guaranty Mortgage Corporation’s marketing team with strategy and the big picture top of mind.

Whitmire has decreased the retail channel’s marketing cost to acquire a loan by 140%, spearheaded joint marketing agreements to increase lead delivery threefold month-over-month, oversaw the creation and success of a social media strategy, developed proprietary, non-QM brand Maverick Solutions, launched a point of sale platform, oversaw the creation of four different websites, supported the standup of a wholesale channel, and built a marketing team from scratch within two years. Whitmire’s business background allows her to take complex processes and distill them down to measurable analytics and deliverables. She formed her marketing team by investing in a mix of subject matter experts and fresh faces to create a diverse group of professionals who are driven by quantifying business results.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received? “‘Learn to thrive in chaos.’ In the fastpaced mortgage industry, it can be hard to sift through the noise and prioritize getting results. When you thrive in chaos, you find a sense of calm in any scenario and rise to success.”

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Michael Wojick-Holmes Director of Broker Advocacy Class Valuation Age: 29

Jordan Wild

Senior Software Developer SimpleNexus Age: 29 Jordan Wild’s strong leadership skills, programming prowess, and customer empathy have driven platform advancements that have propelled SimpleNexus to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies. These advancements have helped lenders achieve 30% higher pullthrough and a 20% faster time-to-close across 784,602 loans in 2019 alone.

Since joining the company during its startup phase almost four years ago, Wild spearheaded the development of SimpleNexus’ integrated disclosures solution, now used to generate 40,000 mobile disclosures packaged per month and growing. He developed the solution by sitting down with local lenders several times a week to understand the disclosure process from both the borrower and lender perspective, and he and his team refined dozens of prototypes over the course of a year and half based on lender feedback. Wild’s ability to channel the voice of the customer has been a significant contributor to SimpleNexus’ more than 90% customer retention rate. Wild also plays an important role in training new employees by helping them hone their script-writing skills and mentoring them on the complex mortgage process that SimpleNexus supports.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“Practicing empathy has been central to my success, both personally and professionally.”

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Michael Wojick-Holmes started at Class Valuation as a receptionist in 2015, but quickly adapted to an industry he knew nothing about, and was promoted to director of client services in 2017, managing more than 60 team members. Broker relations has been a passion of Wojick-Holmes’ since he started at Class Valuation, and in 2019, he was again promoted, this time to his current position as director of broker advocacy. In this role, he formed a team that exclusively serves as a support system for Class Valuation’s broker partners. Wojick-Holmes welcomes the opportunity to address concerns and build new relationships, and believes his biggest business accomplishments are not based on awards or promotions, but rather taking a bad situation and working hard to turn it around and form a new relationship.

By putting himself in the shoes of those trying to make their homeownership dreams come true, Wojick-Holmes motivates himself to work tirelessly to make sure there is a smooth appraisal process.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“One habit that has helped me succeed in this industry is being empathetic. Each appraisal has a borrower on the other end, going through what can be a very stressful process in their pursuit of homeownership. Being cognizant of that is an important habit that has helped me succeed.”

Mike Yu

Product Manager Blend Age: 24 Mike Yu joined Blend almost four years ago as the product team’s summer intern. Since then, Yu has worked tirelessly to bring the housing industry forward and into the digital age. In his current role as project manager, he’s driving projects that encompass roughly 30 team members, empowering them to push the housing industry forward. When Yu first joined the team, Blend had two lender partners and was processing two loans per day. Now, Blend has over 225 lending partners across the country and processes nearly $2.5 billion in loans daily. Yu establishes strong relationships with lenders, banks and credit unions across the country, working closely with them to help their digital transformation journey. Yu led every aspect of the launch of Blend Insurance Agency, an independent insurance agency that enables borrowers to seamlessly shop for and purchase homeowners’ insurance digitally within the mortgage application process. Since launching in 2018, it has served over 30,000 customers with customized insurance quotes.

What is one habit that has helped you succeed?

“A consistent routine from about 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. that includes cleaning my inboxes, getting some sleep (at least eight hours!), and going to the gym. Doing this lets me start every day with a clear mind, knowing that I don’t have anything urgent left over from the day before.”

Building credit in the industry Congrats to our 2020 HousingWire Rising Star Rola Gurrieri!

At Guaranteed Rate we value grit, decisive action, and growing for good. Rola is a shining example

ROLA GURRIERI Senior Vice President, Credit Policy

of these qualities. As SVP of Credit Policy, she spreads her passion for making homebuying affordable for everyone.

Proud to have a rising star on our team. Way to go Rola!

RATE.COM RATE.COM NMLS ID #2611 (Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org) • AL - Lic# 21566 • AK - Lic#AK2611 • AR - Lic#103947 - Guaranteed Rate, Inc. 3940 N Ravenswood, Chicago IL 60613 866-934-7283 • AZ - Guaranteed Rate, Inc. - 14811 N. Kierland Blvd., Ste. 100, Scottsdale, AZ, 85254 Mortgage Banker License #0907078 • CA - Licensed by the Department of Business Oversight, Division of Corporations under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act Lic #4130699 • CO - Guaranteed Rate, Inc. Regulated by the Division of Real Estate, 773-290-0505 • CT - Lic #17196 • DE - Lic # 9436 • DC - Lic #MLB 2611 • FL - Lic# MLD1102 • GA - Residential Mortgage Licensee #20973 - 3940 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, IL 60613 • HI - Lic#HI-2611 • ID - Guaranteed Rate, Inc. Lic #MBL-5827 • IL - Residential Mortgage Licensee - IDFPR, 122 South Michigan Avenue, Suite 1900, Chicago, Illinois, 60603, 312-793-3000, 3940 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, IL 60613 #MB.0005932 • IN - Lic #11060 & #10332 • IA - Lic #2005-0132 • KS - Licensed Mortgage Company - Guaranteed Rate, Inc. - License #MC.0001530 • KY - Mortgage Company Lic #MC20335 • LA - Lic #2866 • ME - Lic #SLM11302 • MD - Lic #13181 • MA - Guaranteed Rate, Inc. - Mortgage Lender & Mortgage Broker License MC 2611 • MI - Lic #FR0018846 & SR0018847 • MN - Lic #MN-MO 20526478 • MS - Guaranteed Rate, Inc. 3940 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, IL 60613 - Mississippi Licensed Mortgage Company, Lic # 2611 • MO - Guaranteed Rate Lic # 14-1744-A • MT - Lic# 2611 • NJ - Licensed in NJ: Licensed Mortgage Banker - NJ Department of Banking & Insurance • NE - Lic #1811 • NV - Lic #3162 & 3161 • NH - Guaranteed Rate, Inc. dba Guaranteed Rate of Delaware, licensed by the New Hampshire Banking Department - Lic # 13931-MB • NM - Lic #01995 • NY - Licensed Mortgage Banker - NYS Department of Financial Services- 3940 N Ravenswood, Chicago, IL 60613 Lic # B500887 • ND - Lic #MB101818 • OH - Lic #MB0804160 & Lic #SM.501367 - 3940 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, IL 60613 • OK - Lic # ML002651 • OR - Lic #ML-3836 - 3940 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, IL 60613 • PA - Licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities Lic #20371 • RI - Rhode Island Licensed Lender Lic # 20102682LL, RI - Rhode Island Licensed Loan Broker Lic # 20102681LB • SC - Lic #-MLS - 2611 • SD - Lic# ML.04997 • TN - Lic #109179 • TX - Licensed in TX: Licensed Mortgage Banker & Licensed Residential Mortgage Loan Servicer- TX Department of Savings & Mortgage Lending • UT - Licensed in UT: Utah-DRE Mortgage Entity License #7495184 & Utah-DFI Residential First Mortgage Notification – Utah Department of Financial Institutions • VT - Lic #2611-1 & 0930 MB & 6100 • VA - Guaranteed Rate, Inc. - Licensed by Virginia State Corporation Commission, License # MC-3769 • WA - Lic #CL-2611 • WI - Lic #27394BA & 2611BR • WV - Lic #ML-30469 & MB-30098 • WY - Lic#2247

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T h e c r it ic a l r o le o f His p a n ic s in r e v it a liz in g a p o s t -p a n d e m i c ho u s ing m a rk e t Surging homeownership in Hispanic communities B y J a im ie S m e r a s k i

HOUSINGWIRE â?ą JUNE 2020 53

In

February, the U.S. Census Bureau released its homeownership report which indicated that 2019, like the four years that came before it, was a positive year for Hispanic homeownership.

Hispanics have been driving homeownership growth in America for more than a decade, a trend that is likely to continue, according to the data.

This past year, Hispanics added 277,000 new homeowners, increased their total number of households by 435,000, expanded their labor force participation rate and raised their median household income. NAHREP’s 2019 State of Hispanic Homeownership Report, released in April, documents these trends in detail.

However positive the data was in 2019, 2020 will be different, and not just for Latinos. This year will present a new set of economic challenges that will disrupt the housing market, possibly for years to come. The COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique economic crisis that is substantially different than those we’ve seen in past recessions.

With record-high unemployment and a rapidly diminishing consumer confidence, the housing market, like almost all others, will undoubtedly take a substantial hit. While no one knows how deep or long this recession will last, it is all but certain that when this is all over, the fundamental trends that have driven Hispanics to lead the way in terms of homeownership growth will help lead the nation to recovery.

DEMANDSIDE: HOWHISPANICSAREDRIVINGHOMEOWNERSHIPGROWTH The Hispanic population has consistently demonstrated a passionate desire for homeownership.

The one factor that distinguishes them from other demographics is age. Hispanics are young: on average, they are almost a decade younger than the overall population and 15 years younger than 54 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

their non-Hispanic White counterparts. Quite simply, Hispanics are just now aging into prime home-buying years, while the majority of the population is aging their way out.

There are currently 59.9 million Hispanics in the U.S., about 18.3% of the overall population.

Over the past 10 years, Hispanics accounted for more than half of the total U.S. population growth. Contrary to popular belief, this growth has predominantly come from native births, rather than immigration. In fact, for the nearly 20 million Latinos under the age of 18, a full 94.3% are U.S.-born. The youthfulness of Latinos is driving them to form new households as they age into adulthood, one of the main precursors to homeownership.

Over the last decade, Hispanics accounted for 40.4% of the net household formation growth in America, adding 4.3 million new households.

The growth in both new households and owner households contributes substantially to the U.S. GDP. In 2018, the National Association of Home Builders estimated that housing made up 16.3% of the overall U.S. GDP, or nearly $3.4 trillion dollars. Over the last two decades, the Hispanic contribution to housing GDP grew, significantly outpacing the overall market. Over that time period, Hispanics more than tripled their monetary contributions to housing GDP, while the overall market was just shy of doubling.

NAHREP’s State of Hispanic Homeownership Report also tracks barriers to homeownership.

On the surface, Hispanics tend to have lower credit scores, higher debt-to-income ratios and lower incomes than the overall population.

But as Hispanics get older, their credit characteristics improve. Hispanics also tend to live in higher-cost areas like California, New York and Florida. However, data from Freddie Mac shows that some of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations are located in more affordable areas of the South and the Midwest.

OPPORTUNITIESTOADVANCEHISPANICHOMEOWNERSHIP GROWTH Given much of the future of housing demand will squarely rest within the Hispanic community, our entire industry would benefit from a few policy and industry tweaks that will allow even more

Hispanic s have been d r iv in g h o m e ownership growth in A m e ric a fo r more than a decade, a trend that is lik e ly to c o n t in u e

Hispanics to participate in homeownership.

In partnership with Freddie Mac, NAHREP’s 2019 State of Hispanic Homeownership Report identified three strategies to reach the Hispanic consumer: a millennial approach, geographic approach and a human resources approach.

As an industry, we have to be better at serving the Latino market in a way that works for them, and that means not solely relying on marketing materials translated into Spanish. The first strategy for recruiting new Hispanic homeowners is focusing on those we have dubbed “Mortgage Ready Millennials.”

The report defines “mortgage ready” as non-mortgage owners aged 37 and younger in 2018, who have credit characteristics that could qualify them for a mortgage, such as a FICO score over 620, a debt-to-income ratio at or below 25%, no foreclosures or bankruptcies in the prior 84 months, and no severe delinquencies in the prior 12 months.

In 2018, there were 4.9 million of these mortgage-ready Hispanic Millennials across the U.S. and many of them live in housing markets that currently have an adequate supply of housing stock. The report features the top 20 markets with the most mortgage-ready young people who could afford the median-priced home in the market, ranked by the availability of housing inventory. Notably, Texas topped the list with five of the Top 20 markets, likely due to its more affordable cost of living, but more expensive cities

T h e n u m b e r o f c u lt u r a lly c o m p e t e n t L a t in o r e a l e s t a t e a g e n t s a n d m o r t g a g e p r o f e s s io n a ls w ill n e e d t o d o u b le in t h e c o m in g y e a r s t o m e e t t h e g r o w in g d e m a n d f r o m H is p a n ic h o m e b u y e r s . such as Miami, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Chicago also made the cut. Beyond just focusing on the younger generations, the industry can look to Latino migration patterns to identify up-andcoming Latino housing hubs.

The second strategy outlined in the report is to identify where the future buyers are today, and where they are possibly headed. The report proHOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 55

vides Latino migration data for every state in the U.S., along with Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. Between 2015 and 2018, Latinos migrated from some ultra-high-cost states like California and New York, each losing 205,000 and 191,000 Latinos respectively. Texas, as noted above, has benefitted from an influx of Latinos with the highest number of domestic migrants at 102,000.

What is worth noting, however, is that non-traditional Hispanic markets are booming as well, with states like North Carolina (which added 34,000 Hispanics), Washington (added 42,000) and Georgia (added 34,000) seeing substantial growth to their Latino populations.

The final strategy might be the most important of them all; investing in people. In this year’s report, NAHREP surveyed top-producing Hispanic real estate agents and asked them questions about their Latino buyers in 2019. When asked how they got their clients, they overwhelmingly answered that personal relationships, referrals from previous clients or people they know, were the No. 1 way they got new business.

These top producers also serve predominantly Latino clientele. Over half of those surveyed reported that at least 60% of their clients are Latino, and more than a third reported at least 81% of their clients are Latino. That’s pretty remarkable, but not all that surprising.

Buying a home is often the largest financial transaction families engage in during their lifetime. It is also one of the most overwhelming and confusing processes, even for the most educated. When experience, language and cultural barriers are added to that equation, the process is even more challenging. NAHREP challenges

H is p a n ic s a r e b y f a r t h e y o u n g e s t a n d f a s t e s t-g r o w in g d e m o g r a p h ic , a n d t h e y h a v e t h e h ig h e s t la b o r f o r c e p a rt ic ip a t io n a n d h o u s e h o ld f o r m a t io n r a t e s in t h e c o u n t r y . the industry to recruit more Latinos as leaders and employees. The number of culturally competent Latino real estate agents and mortgage professionals will need to double in the coming years to meet the growing demand from Hispanic homebuyers. The companies that meet this chal56 HOUSINGWIRE â?ą JUNE 2020

lenge will undoubtedly capture the majority of this new business.

SUPPLY SIDE: RECORD LOW INVENTORY WILL LIKELY WORSEN While the COVID-19 pandemic is throwing a wrench in the economy for all populations and market segments, there are pre-existing systematic barriers within the housing market that will likely continue, if not get worse. The No. 1 barrier to homeownership growth today is tight housing inventory, especially in the more affordable price points.

In 2019, the U.S. Census Bureau reported a record low homeowner vacancy rate at 1.4%, matching the lowest level ever recorded in 1993.

Zillow reported that in December 2019, there

both Hispanics and immigrants play in the construction labor market, where both populations make up a substantial share of the overall pool of workers. In 2018, Hispanics made up 29.5% of the construction workforce. In states with high Latino populations, Hispanics make up more than half of the construction labor pool, such as California at 54%, Texas at 60%, and New Mexico at 66%. Nearly a quarter of construction workers are also immigrants.

MOVINGFORWARDINANEWECONOMICREALITY 2020 has been extraordinary. The health and economic effects of the COVID-19 crisis will have a lasting impact on our society that is difficult to quantify. While the housing industry will experience a setback, it is unlikely to be a repeat of

W h ile t h e r e a r e m a ny f a c t o r s t h a t w ill in f lu e n c e t h e s e v e r it y o f t h e c u r r e n t r e c e s s io n , it is a c e r t a in t y t h a t t h e H is p a n ic c o m m u n it y w ill p la y a c r it ic a l r o le in t h e r e v it a liz a t io n o f t h e p o s t-p a n d e m ic e c o n o m y .

were 7.5% fewer homes on the market than the year prior, the lowest ever recorded by the group since they began collecting housing data.

Housing professionals know that there is no silver bullet that will solve the inventory problem.

Experts believe that restrictive zoning presents the biggest challenge to new home construction, but building regulations are complicated and predominantly exist at the local level.

Nationwide, labor shortages have also put a damper on new construction. Ever-tightening immigration policies have only exacerbated the problem. In the aftermath of the pandemic, these problems may get worse before they get better.

The National Association of Home Builders underscores the realities surrounding an extreme labor shortage in the construction industry, with the majority of builders reporting substantial unfilled labor needs in some of the most critical jobs for housing production. In partnership with NAHB, the 2019 State of Hispanic Homeownership Report outlines the role that

2008, when subprime lending artificially inflated a fundamentally weak market. Today’s market is just the opposite: With nearly 12 million new households added over the last 10 years, record low housing inventory, and subprime lending all but disappeared, housing demand coming out of this crisis will likely remain strong.

While NAHREP’s homeownership report is an analysis of the 2019 activity, the economic and demographic fundamentals articulated will remain relevant in the aftermath. Hispanics are by far the youngest and fastest-growing demographic, and they have the highest labor force participation and household formation rates in the country. As a community, Hispanics are hardworking, resilient, and have a drive for homeownership that has led them to achieve half a decade of positive growth. While there are many factors that will influence the severity of the current recession, it is a certainty that the Hispanic community will play a critical role in the revitalization of the post-pandemic economy.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 57

Jon Tobias: Rising through fire

58 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

How one top MLO was born in the Pheonix housing market —

By Kelsey Ramírez

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 59

J

ohn Tobias, senior vice president, area manager at Fairway Independent Mor tgage C or p., is re sponsible for putting more Americans into homes than almost every other mortgage loan officer in the U.S. Tobias was a top 1% mortgage originator in 2017, before he became a branch manager at Fairway and shifted his focus to enabling his team, and is passionate about his work, his team and paving the way for others to follow.

Once a top originator, Tobias is now focused on leading his team. He explained that his new role deals a lot more with people than it does originations. He brings his experience as a top originator to his role today as he empowers his team to make deicisions and excell in any market.

Today, Tobias is a long way from where he started, or even thought he would start as he graduated college.

“Ever since I was a little boy, I wanted to be a loan officer,” Tobias said.

It was a joke.

“People just kind of fall into our industry, it’s not one of those things that you can get a college degree for,” he said.

Tobias graduated in 2002 from the University of Arizona with a degree in regional development, the closest he could get to commercial real estate – the family business.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do but that’s what my dad had done and that’s what I’d been exposed to as a kid, commercial development, so I just figured I would go into that because I didn’t really have a specialty that I wanted to get into.”

But when Tobias accepted his first job just six months after he graduated, all of that changed.

Taking the first salary offer that would move him out of his parents’ house, Tobias

60 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

suddenly found himself in mortgage originations. It wasn’t part of his plan, but he fell in love with it.

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From his Monday video updates to his Saturday email blasts sent out to partners, Tobias stays connected to his teams and to the industry through a variety of methods.

His team sends out emails every Saturday with market updates, price changes and more to stay in front of their partners.

“We try to have as much face time as possible and ultimately they work with us because of our high-level communication follow through,” he said.

Tobias was a top 1% mortgage originator and held the top spot for most loans closed in Maricopa County, which encompasses the Phoenix area, from 2013 to 2017, according to the Scotsman Guide.

Arriving at that top spot took work, and Tobias began his career as an assistant processor in October 2002 before becoming a processor, which he did for two years. But his thirst to learn more was clear. He took a job at Meritage Homes, where he began working in the homebuilder space in their mortgage arm.

In January 2008, in the midst of the Great Recession that brought many housing professionals to their knees, Tobias struck out on his own. He grew his volume and after a time, his team became so overwhelmed that they couldn’t return phone calls fast enough.

Like most of the U.S. before the Great Recession brought the housing market down in 2008, Phoenix, Arizona, was thriving. Jobs were up, incomes showed strong growth, confidence was high and mortgage borrowing was soaring.

But then, the Great Recession hit. Incomes fell for the first time in 40 years. Home prices plummeted. Unemployment rose. And

one in seven mortgages were at least 90 days late.

The crash was felt across the U.S., but Arizona was hit especially hard as metro areas in the Grand Canyon state had been growing at breakneck speed. Phoenix was one of the cities most impacted by the financial crisis — some even called it the epicenter of the housing crisis.

Even several years after the crisis hit, two-thirds of Phoenix mortgage holders were underwater — owing more on their home than it was worth.

Median home prices dropped more than 50% — a drop experienced by no other city the size of Phoenix, which has more than 4 million residents.

Phoenix residents compared it to the Great Depression. The once-thriving economy was lost. The heartbeat of the city was dropped to a mere flutter.

And it was from this recession that Tobias emerged when he set out on his own in 2008. Forged in the fire, his team rose to become one of the top lenders in the Phoenix marketplace for the next 10 years.

Tobias and his team embodied the fighting spirit in Arizona as they fought their way to the top, even in one of the most challenging economies the city had ever seen. After setting off on his own and growing his team, Tobias’ career once again took a turn.

About five years ago, Tobias joined Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp.

“I really wanted to grow, I wanted to run a branch, wanted to manage a P&L, I wanted to recruit, and I felt like this was the best place for me to be able to do that,” Tobias said. “And it’s worked out wonderfully so far.”

Tobias now leads 18 team members on The Tobias Team and heads a branch of about 120 team members.

His personal team originated nearly $20 million per month in 2019, or about $237 million for the year.

“I really wanted to grow, I wanted to run a branch, wanted to manage a P&L, I wanted to recruit, and I felt like this was the best place for me to be able to do that,” Tobias said. “And it’s worked out wonderfully so far…”

What does it take to grow that kind of team?

“It’s a heck of a lot of teamwork, a very high level of communication, and everybody knowing their roles and working together in concert to make sure the process is smooth,” Tobias said.

The team draws in about 75% of its business from real estate agents, 15% from builders and about 10% from past clients, he explained.

T

The role Tobias plays in origination today looks vastly different than it did even just a few years ago. Today, Tobias is an area manager for Fairway, HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 61

and plays a much smaller hands-on role in origination.

Now that he is an area manager, each day looks different. As a loan of-

Now, Tobias’ days consist of many conference calls, and talking with different branch managers and mentoring them on their financials or helping

“And when you do a lot of loans, you see a lot of things, you learn how to navigate and ask questions differently up front and look for other ways to help people…” ficer, he could structure his day, but now, his Outlook calendar moves him from one meeting to the next.

“My No. 1 goal is to make sure I’m responding to people as fast as possible and solving their needs and providing solutions,” Tobias said. “That’s what I do all day; it’s being in the people business, helping people all day long with issues or helping them be better in some way.”

Now, as he sets agendas for his team, he said that seeing how he is helping change the lives of those around him is one of the bright spots in his day.

He feels this impact, for example, when he goes to a holiday party, and someone tells him how much he has impacted their spouse’s life at work.

Or when they talk about how much their spouse loves working for the company and the culture it has built.

The culture, tools, team building and coaching Tobias provides his team pushes them to the next level.

“It’s fun to watch people grow and take the next steps in their careers,” he said. “We like to make it the best place for a loan officer to come work and grow their business.”

Tobias is drawing on his experience as a loan officer himself to drive his decisions as a manager today. His time as an originator helps him know what to provide his team in terms of marketing and other tools to help them focus as they grow their business.

62 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

them with recruiting by calling or following up with recruits.

His life away from the office can be just as crazy as his days inside. Having a baby is enough to keep anyone on their toes, but Tobias actually has four children – including triplet toddlers. He has his share of help with two nannies, but it leaves little time for hobbies.

In the mornings, he always starts his day off with a one-on-one with the same person. As he drives his oldest daughter to school each morning, Tobias uses the time to talk to her and spend time together without distractions.

Tobias is focused and driven, including during some of the most difficult times for his company and the industry overall.

I

In March, COVID-19 swept across the U.S., and all but eight states declared stay-at-home orders. This not only affected the businesses that were forced to close during the time, but also the functioning of the businesses that stayed open.

At the time of this interview, Arizona had more than 8,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 348 deaths.

Most of these cases centered around the Phoenix area. Arizona ranked No.

23 among states with the most COVID19 cases, and the peak was still yet to come, expected in late May or even early June, according to data put out in mid-May by the Arizona Department of Health Services.

The state was under stay-at-home orders similar to many other states in the U.S., but unlike other states, Arizona did not begin opening its economy on May 1.

Once again, the state is going through a crisis. Though not the same as the Great Recession, the similarities were clear as the state’s residents were unable to work, and forbearance requests shot up.

Formed in the midst of crisis, Tobias and his team were ready to face the current challenges.

The team’s high level of communication help bring them together and keep them close even in this time of crisis when everyone moved to remote work.

“We’re continually sharing everything that’s happening in the industry with our branches so that they always know what’s going on,” he said.

“And then there’s information overload, but we like to be more transparent, and make sure that they know everything that’s happening out there rather than feeling like we’re doing them a favor by shielding them, and then their heads are in the sand and they don’t know what the big picture looks like,” Tobias said.

The bottom line, according to Tobias: you have to make communicating a priority.

Communication is critical not only to keep the company thriving during a crisis, but could even inspire permanent change moving beyond COVID-19.

“I think it’s gonna stick,” Tobias said of the work-from-home policies. “I could see some of our people continuing to work from home – having these smaller amounts of office space and lower rents and lower fixed costs because some of the people that we thought just had to be in the office every day working are just as efficient, if not more efficient, working from home.”

“We’ve learned to adapt and communicate in a different way, trust each other and let some people work from home to where we may not have as big of a footprint with office space in the future because we’ve seen that we don’t necessarily have to have it.”

Tobias was able to step up during this time, in part, because of the company’s emphasis in technology, which allowed him to be ready for the unpredictable year to come.

T

The ultimate goal for Tobias and his team is increasing homeownership.

One of the biggest responsibilities of a loan officer is being a counselor to clients, and helping them know what to do throughout their journey to becoming homeowners, Tobias said.

This often includes asking extra questions, thoroughly knowing guidelines and

knowing how to put together deals for tough situations.

And his team is prepared to ask these questions because it is originating more than 900 loans per year.

“Loans are all like little puzzles in a sense,” Tobias said. “And when you do a lot of loans, you see a lot of things, you learn how to navigate and ask questions differently up front and look for other ways to help people.”

In situations where borrowers don’t have the “perfect” credit score, down payment or credit profile for a traditional loan, the Tobias team works to find a scenario where the borrower can still achieve homeownership, or gives them advice on how to improve their profile.

His team also runs credit simulations for borrowers that test various scenarios.

This allows his team to go a step further to advise their clients on exactly what they need to do or improve in order to qualify for a mortgage, increasing homeownership through homebuyer education.

W

With a production volume of about $237 million in originations a year, Tobias and his team are helping about 900 families each year by refinancing their homes, putting them in new ones and for some, starting the dream of homeownership for the very first time.

Tobias’ role has morphed over time from a loan officer, to a team leader, to area manager. Now, rather than originate, he puts the right tools and information in the hands of his team members to give each of them an even greater reach in order to make homeownership a reality for even more Americans.

“It’s morphed over the past 18 years,” Tobias said. “It’s been a heck of a ride, I’ve learned a ton, still learning every day, but I’ve been very fortunate.”

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 63

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HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 67

TRADE DESK

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.

ALTA............................69 MBA ............................69 AIME ............................70 NAHB...........................70

68 HOUSINGWIRE â?ą JUNE 2020

CEO American Land Title Association

American Land Title Association

Diane Tomb

ALTA members, As the nation copes with the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans are left wondering if they will have to close the door on the purchase of their dream home. Thankfully, options are available for families looking to close on a new house or take advantage of low rates and refinance their mortgage.

If your clients have already found the perfect home, but they’re concerned about meeting in-person to sign closing papers, tell them not to worry. Federal and state laws have enabled lenders to facilitate e-mortgages in any state.

In addition to e-mortgage options, talk to your clients about digital e-closings and remote online notarization. While digital e-closing may require you to meet faceto-face, all closing documents are signed using an e-signature. RON, however, empowers homebuyers to complete purchas-

MBA members, The MBA Opens Doors Foundation provides a silver lining of hope for families in need.

MBA Opens Doors Foundation has established itself as an influential industry foundation that takes pride in assisting families in need.

This month we celebrate a tremendous milestone – helping more than 5,000 families.

Since 2012, we have provided housing assistance grants to families with critically ill or injured children, of up to $2,500 a month, through our Home Grant Program. So far, the foundation has granted more than $7.2 million thanks to our more than 1,500 donors and supporters.

Opens Doors works with social workers at each of our network hospitals to identify families most in need of

es without contact. This legislation already has been passed in 26 states, allowing consumers to remotely sign closing documents by engaging with a notary via webcam while signing electronically. This is critical as many families are putting property purchases on hold because they are unable to meet notaries in-person. In response to the pandemic, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have provided temporary guidance on the acceptance of using RON on loans they will purchase.

The latest innovations in homebuying are enabling families to still find their dream home during a crisis. While many may still be standing behind closed doors during the coronavirus pandemic, consumers can open the door to the next chapter in their lives by utilizing the latest technological advancements to safely close on a new home digitally.

help. Since first partnering with Children’s National Medical System in Washington, D.C., Opens Doors has expanded its hospital network to 12 children’s hospitals across the country. We hope that this number continues to grow.

It’s a huge accomplishment to have helped more than 5,000 families, and we recognize the importance of continuing our work during these unprecedented times. Opens Doors provides a silver lining for families who are suffering and inspires the industry to continue to support our mission.

Mortgage Bankers Association

Robert Broeksmit

President & CEO Mortgage Bankers Association HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 69

Anthony Casa

Chairman Association of Independent Mortgage Experts

Independent Mortgage Experts

TRADE DESK AIME members, It’s no secret the housing market has seen extensive volatility in the last few months.

Now, more than ever, it is a great time to be in the independent mortgage broker channel. Our ability to work with multiple lenders puts us in the best position to serve consumers’ best interests by having optionality and being able to find solutions.

Independent mortgage brokers are adapting by expanding the lenders they work with to consistently offer the best options to clients and get them to the closing table. Regardless of the market

NAHB members, As chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, it is my responsibility to advocate on behalf of the more than 140,000 members involved in the home building industry, a key component of our nation’s economy.

Advocating during a worldwide pandemic has meant making sure our members are able to remain on the job to perform essential work as our nation tackles an acute housing affordability crisis. But even as our members remain on the job, safety must remain our top priority.

That’s why I asked our members to take part in a national COVID-19 Jobsite Safety Stand Down, during which we educated workers on what they must do to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.

NAHB’s federal legislative team worked closely with the Trump administration and Congress to make sure housing and small business concerns were addressed in the $2 trillion stimulus package – the CARES Act. The financial aid for

taxpayers and loans for small businesses will help bridge the gap caused by loss of revenue, increased supply costs, and paid leave requirements.

NAHB teams led webinars to help members learn about and take advantage of the loans and tax relief programs in the stimulus bill.

And a bevy of resources including economic forecasts, business continuity information, consumer information and materials to assist our state and local partners is available on our website at NAHB.org/coronavirus.

We remain in uncharted territory as the novel coronavirus has spread across our country. But the unprecedented response we have shown as a nation confirms that we are all in this fight together.

National Association of Home Builders 70 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

climate, I feel a personal responsibility for the success of all the brokers that have joined the channel under my advisement, so during the slow down caused

by COVID-19, I couldn’t be prouder of the AIME members who are leaders in their communities and taking it in stride.

We are truly independent together and it is times like these we have to focus on the most important things, which are serving the best interests of our clients and being good partners with the lenders we do business with. We are going to move forward, wash our hands more often and continue to be the best in the business.

Dean Mon

Chairman National Association of Home Builders

June 11–12, 2020 | LIVE EVERYWHERE

A HUGE THANK YOU TO OUR 2020 ATTENDEES AND OUR SPONSORS!

housingwire.com/engage

72 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

Mortgage

Calabria: It may be harder to get a mortgage even after COVID-19 crisis ends FHFA DIRECTOR PREDICTS MORTGAGE LENDING LANDSCAPE WILL CHANGE AS COUNTRY RECOVERS

BY BEN LANE

FROM an economic standpoint, the main question surrounding the spread of the coronavirus is just how long the country will be shut down and just how much damage that shutdown will cause to the economy.

One thing that is clear, however, is that the mortgage lending landscape is changing significantly as the crisis wears on. Certain segments of the business – namely government, non-QM and jumbo loans –dried up substantially as lenders pulled back from loans that are seen as riskier than GSE loans.

And according to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria, some of those changes may be sticking around for a while.

“Anybody’s housing price forecast right now should be taken with a grain of salt. And that’s no slight on forecasters,” Calabria told HousingWire in an interview in April.

“To me, I don’t see that as a bug. I see it as a feature,” Calabria continued. “We’re really at a point where there’s a wide range of possible outcomes for the housing market over the next six months. Given that uncertainty, I certainly think it’s appropriate for people to re-examine their underwriting standards.”

And that’s exactly what has already happened over the course of pandemic-related shutdowns.

The first domino that seemed to fall was non-QM lending. In late March, many of the biggest lenders specializing in lending to borrowers outside the Qualified Mortgage lending box began pausing their activities due to uncertainty in the market.

Then, the Federal Housing Administration lending environment began to shift with many lenders raising their FHA requirements, thereby limiting the number of borrowers who were able to get an FHA mortgage.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 73

But Calabria told HousingWire that DTI is proving its worth as Then, many lenders dialed back their jumbo lending as investor interest dried up. Beyond that, a growing number of lenders tight- a piece of the underwriting criteria as this crisis wears on.

“We’ve had some anecdotal conversations, somewhat data-drivened lending standards as a record-breaking number of people en with some of the servicers and the predictors of who is taking lost their jobs.

The reason for all these changes was the same; there was far too up forbearance are really closely related to DTI, FICO and these much uncertainty in the market and lenders were uneasy about things,” Calabria said.

“And even though they’re all lending to borrowers whose borrowers that have been curcredit profile isn’t “perfect.” rent, unsurprisingly, borrowThat’s much different from “This is the case every cycle, where ers who are having the hardest what the mortgage market extime once they’ve lost their perienced in recent years, with you go a really long time and people job and making their loans lending to borrowers who don’t convince themselves that, no, there are those who have high DTI,” fit tightly in the GSE credit box is no more housing cycle and there’s Calabria continued. “Currently, increasing substantially.

I think the data we’re seeing, According to Calabria, that no risk and we can all be highly the conversations that we’re situation has played out nuleveraged…” having, I think it puts to rest merous times before. the QM-style arguments that “This is the case every cycle, DTI doesn’t matter. That’s not where you go a really long time and people convince themselves that, no, there is no more hous- what we’re seeing in forbearance take up.”

Therefore, Calabria said that he doesn’t envision the GSEs moving cycle and there’s no risk and we can all be highly leveraged,” Calabria said. “That happens every cycle. So, do I expect that kind ing away from DTI in their underwriting standards.

“QM has always been CFPB’s purview. It’s important to keep of behavior to ever truly go away? Probably not.”

But Calabria said that the tightening in credit availability is a in mind that you know, we always look to QM going forward as a floor,” Calabria said. normal reaction to economic situations like this one.

“During my next four years, we’re certainly not going to be aban“Just like you saw a pullback after the last time,” Calabria said.

“Certainly, we saw credit standards tightening in 2009 and 2010. doning DTI. I think I’d be the first to say that FICO, LTV are much In fact, we saw credit standards tighten as early as 2006. So, there bigger predictors,” Calabria continued. “But you know, these are was a slow tightening over that time. I think you’ll see this as a re- the sort of environments where DTI actually matter. I don’t see minder that credit risk is an actual thing in the mortgage market.” Fannie and Freddie abandoning DTI. I do see us taking a harder As the credit box has slowly expanded in recent years, discus- look at what should be the maximum allowable DTI. Fannie and sions surrounding changing the federal mortgage standard have Freddie will always have underwriting that goes beyond QM.” Overall, Calabria believes that lending standards will change also started to bubble up.

Earlier this year, for example, Consumer Financial Protection “semi-permanently” coming out of this crisis, with lending stanBureau Director Kathy Kraninger said the bureau has decided to dards outside of the GSEs perhaps remaining tighter for some time.

In previous situations like that, the GSEs expanded their portpropose an amendment to the QM Rule that would “move away” folios to ensure that people could still buy houses if they wanted from debt-to-income ratio as a factor in mortgage underwriting.

The Ability to Repay/Qualified Mortgage rule requires lenders to. As for whether that will happen this time around, Calabria to verify a borrower’s ability to repay the mortgage before lending said it really depends on just how bad things get.

“I really think we all need to not lose sight of the current situathem money, including a review of a borrower’s debts and assets to ensure they have the ability to repay the loan, with a stipulation tion today. It’s a public health issue. And so, things like driving homeownership or driving purchases, we don’t want to be the that their DTI ratio does not exceed 43%.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not bound to this requirement, facilitator or putting somebody in your house, whether it’s an a condition known as the QM Patch, which stipulates that loans appraiser or a home inspector or Realtor,” Calabria said.

“There’s an expectation that Fannie, Freddie, everybody else, sold to Fannie or Freddie are allowed to exceed the 43% DTI ratio.

Calabria himself previously said that he believes the QM Patch that some part of that market for the next few weeks is unfortugave the GSEs an unfair advantage because loans sold to them nately, going to take a pause,” Calabria continued.

“Once we’re through that, I certainly could see a month from did not have to play by the same rules as loans backed by private now, two months from now, if we’re through this public health capital.

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Mortgage

issue and we’re at a point where the industry has not been able to slowly come back, then yes, I could absolutely see Fannie and Freddie’s market share increased at that time,” Calabria continued. “And that’s appropriate.”

As for the other big topic pertaining to the future of the GSEs, Calabria said he believes both companies are still firmly on the path to exiting conservatorship, but noted that this crisis has likely delayed things a bit.

“It purely is a timeline issue at this point,” Calabria said when asked if anything that’s happened in the last few weeks has altered the plan to get the GSEs out of conservatorship.

Calabria noted that earlier this year the FHFA hired a law firm

to help the agency end conservatorship. The law firm in question is Milbank, a New York-based firm which will aid the FHFA in the legal pieces of reprivatizing the GSEs. As such, Calabria said the process of ending conservatorship is continuing to move forward.

“I always saw that equity raise as a 2021 or 2022 event, not in 2020,” Calabria said. “So, to me, this probably delays things two or three months. But again, that’s with the caveat of our hope and expectation that in six to eight weeks, we’re through the public health crisis. If not, then that’s obviously a different situation.”

Either way, Calabria said that the lending landscape will be different post-crisis from what it was before.

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Housing activity drops in what would have been peak homebuying season COVID-19 CREATES A NEW LOOK FOR HOMEBUYING SEASON

BY JULIA FALCON

AT the end of February and the beginning of March, it was projected that the spring homebuying season would arrive early for the 2020 season.

In fact, January 2020 was the strongest January for purchase mortgage applications in 11 years, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The beginning of March also showed that homebuyers were anxious to get moving into homebuying season, but that desire was before the coronavirus changed everything for the housing industry and the economy overall.

Although there were still homes being sold in early March, they were likely under contract in February, before COVID-19 forced most of the U.S. economy to shut down, Redfin said.

But toward the end of March, when stay-at-home orders were put into place and people were left unemployed, there was a 148% year-over-year increase in homes being delisted during the week ending March 29, totalling 28,140 homes pulled off the market, according to Redfin.

Even though the coronavirus shutdowns occurred mid-month, home sales in March were still impacted, sinking 9.1% nationwide from February on a seasonally adjusted basis. Redfin said this was the largest monthly decline on its record. The fall was 1.2% year over year in March – the first year-over-year decline in nine months.

By the last week of the month, they were down 11.5% from the same period a year earlier.

Nationally, active listings fell 13% year over year in March.

“The impacts of the coronavirus hit the economy hard in midMarch, as we have been reporting in our weekly data, but it’s good to step back and take an aggregated look at the market,” Redfin Lead Economist Taylor Marr said. “Real estate activities nearly ground to a halt in some parts of the country by the end of March, disrupted by shelter-in-place laws.”

The markets that saw the biggest home sale declines from a year ago were all in New York – Rochester had a 18.5% dip, New York HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 77

sank 18.3% and Nassau County fell 17.3%.

Seasonally adjusted new listings in March saw the largest drop from a year earlier in Allentown, Pennsylvania; Kansas City, Missouri; and Tulsa, Oklahoma by 46.2%; 46.1%; and 42.7%, respectively.

HOME LISTING TRAFFIC SPIKED DESPITE SALES GOING DOWN Even though new home listings and home sales dropped since COVID-19 hit, there were more buyers actively looking for homes online in April than during the same time a year ago, according to Zillow.

When shelter-in-place orders went into place around mid-March, page views for Zillow for-sale listings fell as much as 19% year over year, the company said. But by mid-April, Zillow said that overall visits to its website rebounded to levels that were higher than they were a year ago.

Although the typical spring home-buying season was altered due to COVID-19, there was clearly still interest among consumers.

People were looking at homes listed online across the U.S., particularly in Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas and Atlanta. Even though some metros had more viewer traffic than others, the national total was up 13% year-over-year for the week ending April 13, Zillow said.

Of significant note, Minneapolis had strong year-over-year growth in traffic before March 11, then made a massive drop starting March 16, around the time Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz closed public gathering areas and restaurants.

Once mid-April rolled around, overall Zillow traffic spiked by double-digits.

New York metros, which were a hot spot for the COVID-19 outbreak, had a decline of more than 30% for the seven-day period ending March 22, and stayed at about 24% down in the first week of April. Data for the seven days ending on April 13 showed New York listing views up, but still down about 8%.

Listing views for the Boston metro area, also a major COVID-19

Even though some metros had more viewer traffic than others, the national total was up 13% year-overyear for the week ending April 13, Zillow said.

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hot spot, dropped more than 20% by the week ending March 20 and remained below that level through April 8, when it began to recover and go back to normal levels, Zillow said.

San Francisco saw a drop in listing views of 28% for the week ending March 22, but bounced back in the week ending on April 13, when traffic was higher than the same week last year.

Los Angeles, despite a 20% drop for the week beginning March 16, saw higher year-over-year views through the first two weeks of April, according to Zillow.

MORE HOME SHOPPERS ARE WILLING TO BUY WITHOUT SEEING THE PROPERTY FIRST During a time when we were told to stay home for our own good, there were still home shoppers out there. But how are they shopping?

According to a survey from Realtor.com, about 25% of shoppers said they would buy a home without even stepping foot in it.

Even as more people remained socially distant and stay-athome orders were issued across most states, technology took center stage.

In March, Redfin saw a 94-fold increase in video chat tour requests, while Zillow had a 191% increase in the creation of 3D home tours.

“Uncertainty around COVID-19 and limitations around social interactions and group gatherings like open houses have made buying and selling homes more difficult than ever,” said Nate Johnson, realtor.com chief marketing officer. “As real estate agents and consumers seek out ways to safely complete these transactions, we believe that technology will become an even more imperative part of how we search for, buy and sell homes moving forward.”

Despite social distancing guidelines, 47% said they still would prefer to see a home in person with a buyer’s agent; 23% would prefer to go alone; 13% prefer an online video tour and 6% of

shoppers preferred their agent going to the home and showing it via video chat.

When asked which technology features were most helpful when deciding on a new home, 61% said they preferred a virtual tour of the home; 58% said they prefer accurate and detailed listing information; 53% preferred accurate and detailed neighborhood information; 51% preferred high-quality listing photos and 39% preferred the ability for the agent or landlord to walk them through the property via video chat.

But does this mean home sellers were comfortable with others touring their homes?

When asked by realtor.com about selling within the next six months, 56% of sellers said they were comfortable with letting their agent in their home to take photos.

Over half of the survey’s respondents said that they would still allow their agent into their home to give a virtual tour; another 47% would let an agent walk a buyer through the home in person; 44% would let the agent walk a buyer through the

“Uncertainty around COVID-19 and limitations around social interactions and group gatherings like open houses have made buying and selling homes more difficult than ever...”

home via video chat and a whopping 53% would actually hold an open house.

Looking toward some stability in the housing market, 68% said their plans to move or not to move haven’t changed in response to the pandemic.

But, of those whose plans have changed, 9% said they weren’t planning to move right away, but need to at another time; 14% canceled their plans to move altogether; 9% said they would rent rather than buy while 7% said they would still rather buy than rent.

Thanks to virtual advances, 24% of people said they would be willing to buy a home without seeing it in person and 30% said they would be willing to rent one.

While 83% of respondents said their living situation has not changed because of COVID-19, 8% said they moved in with immediate family; 6% moved in with a partner; 2% moved in with extended family and 2% moved in with a new roommate.

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Fintech

80 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

Fintech

Can fintech companies survive COVID-19?

BUSINESS COMES TO A STOP DURING PANDEMIC

BY JULIAN HEBRON Editor’s note FROM Kelsey Ramírez: As COVID-19 shut down businesses across the world, housing fintech companies quickly felt the impacts.

HousingWire Columnist Julian Hebron questioned if this could be the death of fintech companies, saying, in short, that it would not. He even suggested companies like Unison could be the solution for homeowners who can go the traditional route during this time.

And maybe it could have. That is, if it hadn’t closed down its doors entirely during the pandemic. The company posted this on its website in April: Unison believes that home co-investing is more relevant than ever, providing financial flexibility to homeowners across America.

However, like many others, we have made necessary changes to ensure that we will be able to continue to deliver on our mission of optimal homeownership over the long-term.

While we have temporarily suspended accepting new applications, we encourage you to check back soon to join our wait list. In the meantime, please take a look around!

Is this simply the cost of doing business during a crisis, or did Unison and other companies fail in their promise to bring an

alternative real estate business model to consumers? I’ll let you decide.

It remains to be seen what companies will survive the pandemic. Housing fintech companies are struggling, perhaps even more than traditional lenders and real estate agents.

DOES UNISON’S 50% JOB CUT SIGNAL DOOM FOR HOUSING FINTECH? Home equity co-investing pioneer Unison cut almost 50% of its team in April, and no, this doesn’t mean housing and fintech doom for two reasons.

First, cost-cutting is crisis leadership 101.

React fast and smart. Job and budget cuts are extremely painful for all souls involved.

And fear is the first reaction among team members, investors, boards, counterparties and customers. But nerves calm down as people digest smart rationale.

Second, survival is job No. 1 in a crisis.

We started March 2020 evangelizing industry visions from bright conference rooms and ended it triaging careers and companies from crowded kitchen counters. Vision means nothing if HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 81

Fintech

“Today, the coronavirus is shutting down entire industries; we are already seeing more homeowners turning to Noah for help...”

you don’t survive, and the bigger your vision, the faster you must adjust in a crisis. Fast adjustments buy you time to weather the coronavirus storm.

In fact, even category-leading iBuyers made hard, fast decisions to win the long game. Zillow, Opendoor, Redfin and other iBuyers stopped buying homes and closing contracts after COVID19 began spreading in the U.S. Some of them took even greater steps as Opendoor laid off 600 of its employees, or about 35% of its total staff after raising more than $1 billion in funding in the last few years.

“COVID -19 has had an unforeseen impact on public health, the

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U.S. economy, and housing,” Opendoor CEO Eric Wu said in a statement.

This came after the company had already paused its homebuying efforts and began canceling pending contracts, leaving some home sellers stranded with two mortgages.

And co-investing (aka shared appreciation) category leader Unison cut 89 sales and marketing employees, contractors and consultants for the same reason.

They certainly were not alone in the fintech world either.

Between March 11 and April 12, Forbes’ Layoff Tracker identified 231 tech startups reporting layoffs, creating a total of 19,830 individuals laid off as of Easter Day. Real estate saw the fifth highest number of layoffs in the U.S. and had already lost 1,591 jobs in early April due to the pandemic.

Redfin, WeWork and Compass were at the top of that list after their own economic struggles.

COULD SHARED APPRECIATION HAVE BEEN YOUR CORONAVIRUS HOME EQUITY SOLUTION? Unison created the shared appreciation category in 2004.

Companies like Unison, Point and Noah (formerly Patch Homes) give a homebuyer about half their down payment in exchange for about a third of the appreciation.

Fintech

Homebuyers who give up some future appreciation conserve cash now and don’t take on the extra monthly cost. But the more interesting play right now is shared appreciation for homeowners.

Let’s say a homeowner with some equity lost their job because of coronavirus.

A lender can’t do a home equity or cash out deal for them, but they may qualify for a shared appreciation deal.

Unison and the other players look at debt-to-income ratios, but they’re not making a loan, they’re making a co-investment.

So they may do a deal like this if the equity profile works longterm (and they may require their cash to pay off other debt at funding).

Here’s what Noah CEO Sahil Gupta said on helping coronavirus impacted homeowners: “Today, the coronavirus is shutting down entire industries; we are already seeing more homeowners turning to Noah for help,” Gupta said. “Noah is dedicated to being a long-term partner to homeowners by making our products more accessible during this time so we can put even more money in their pockets.”

Like everything in a crisis market, it’s case by case, but lenders should keep an eye on this for clients who need to tap home equity at zero monthly cost. It could have been a great niche-y solution in a tough market phase.

And shared appreciation companies that survive have huge potential later because about 65% of U.S. home equity is owned by folks 55 or older – these people need a way to tap equity without breaking monthly budgets.

CAN SHARED APPRECIATION COMPANIES WIN THE LONG GAME? So will shared appreciation companies survive?

Many of you mortgage folks reading this are saying “Nope, the model won’t weather a down cycle.”

That’s your transactional revenue brain talking.

Unison makes transactional revenue as each deal funds, plus they make recurring revenue by managing a shared equity portfolio for the investors who fund their deals.

But their investors aren’t warehouse lines like mortgage banks use to fund deals.

Pension plans and other institutional money managers who want housing exposure give Unison money to manage.

Unison invests that money in people’s homes using these shared appreciation deals and takes an investment management fee for doing so.

This fee revenue continues even as home-buying transaction revenue slows to a trickle. So they trim sales and marketing until transaction revenue comes back.

Survival tactics.

WHO WILL SURVIVE THE SHORT GAME? It’s another story if the coronavirus causes massive home price declines over the years.

And there’s certainly strain right now. Here’s Point CEO Eddie Lim on stark realities: “The growing number of necessary shelter-in-place orders has had a widespread effect on many people and industries,” Lim said. “It affects our ability to order appraisals, notarize documents and record crucial documents with the county, causing delays throughout our process. The changing economic climate is also dramatically impacting home valuations. We are seeing valuations drop significantly and continuously.”

But it’s still early to accurately predict home price impacts and when home transactions resume a normal pace. Which brings us back to where we started.

It’s tempting for some to predict doom for fintech models like shared appreciation and iBuyer when they see stark adjustments to stark reality.

But cost-cutting is crisis leadership 101, and survival is job No. 1 in a crisis.

Mortgage lenders learned how to fight this kind of fight in August 2007. Now it’s the fintechs’ turn. And I predict we’ll see some true warriors emerge.

Good luck out there.

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Politics & Money

How Fed Chairman Powell rescued the mortgage market SIX WEEKS IN MARCH AND APRIL THAT LED TO AN ALL-TIME LOW IN RATES

BY KATHLEEN HOWLEY

ON a Sunday night call with journalists in mid-March, four days after the World Health Organization had labelled COVID-19 an “alarming” global pandemic, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell laid out his plans to rescue the U.S. economy.

An important part of that was saving the mortgage and housing markets by avoiding a credit crunch and reversing a spike in interest rates that would crush demand for homes long after state lockdowns had lifted.

The programs Powell commenced that night would lead, six weeks later, to the lowest 30-year fixed mortgage rates ever recorded.

Anxiety in the U.S. was high when he got on the phone with journalists – in the previous three days, the National Basketball League and other major sports organizations had called off games, U.S. states had begun shutting down and movie star Tom Hanks had announced that he and his wife, Rita Wilson, had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

As always, Powell, 67, spoke softly and calmly, using the bland language that leaders of the world’s most powerful central bank are known for. One wrong phrase could cause markets to react around the globe, as they had more than two decades earlier when former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan’s choice of two words, “irrational exuberance,” sent markets into a tailspin.

Powell started by expressing concern for the victims of the coronavirus and for the harm caused by the economic shutdowns, describing the “stay at home” orders being issued by state governors as “essential for containing the outbreak.”

He also announced more than half a dozen new measures the Fed would employ to buffer the economic blow of the shutdowns, including the Fed’s biggest foray into the bond market in over a decade.

Initially, the bond-buying would take the form of $500 billion in Treasury bills and $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities, Powell said.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 85

Both would support the mortgage market because the investors not the purchase that followed later that day, showing how much who decide what yield they’re willing to take for MBS – and thus value bond investors put on the Fed’s word.

The market specialists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York what interest rate borrowers pay for home loans – benchmark their decisions off the yield for long-term Treasuries, especially in lower Manhattan, who execute purchases for the central bank, the 10-year bill. Yields shrink when competition for bonds goes bought $30.2 billion of MBS that day, a smaller investment than the $35.8 billion in the prior trading day, a Friday. up.

Mortgage-bond investors were, as usual, making their pricing “We’re going to go in strong starting tomorrow, and we’re going to buy across the curve, and we’re going to buy MBS, and we’re re- decisions on expectations.

There were much bigger investments coming in the second half ally going to use our tools to do what we need to do here, which is restore these important markets to normal function,” Powell said, of the week, but the rate didn’t move on those days as much as on aiming to avoid a repeat of the 2008 credit crunch that crashed the day of the “unlimited” announcement.

In a three-day buying spree starting on March 25, the Fed the financial system.

It helped. The next day, a Monday, the Fed went out and bought bought $99.9 billion of MBS, with a peak on the 26th, when it $7.6 billion of MBS, and the daily average rate for a 30-year fixed purchased $41.9 billion. Those purchases pushed down the avermortgage tumbled by 23 basis points – almost a quarter of a per- age daily mortgage rate a total of 8 basis points over the three days, according to Optimal Blue data. centage point.

In all, Fed purchases of MBS The following day, a Tuesday, between March 16 and April the Fed purchased $3.6 billion.

13 totaled $458.1 billion, ac“We’re going to go in strong startOn Wednesday, it bought $6.2 cording to data provided to billion. ing tomorrow, and we’re going to HousingWire by the central But, it wasn’t enough. The buy across the curve, and we’re bank.

COVID-19 death toll had risen Even after mortgage rates going to buy MBS, and we’re really by almost 10 times in the fell to an all-time low in April’s prior week and the economic going to use our tools to do what final week, Powell said the data became bleaker, with we need to do here, which is restore purchases would continue for jobless claims soaring to a as long as they are needed to these important markets to normal then-record. support the mortgage market.

By that Thursday, the averfunction...”

Powell’s pledge of uncondiage mortgage rate had once tional love worked. From the again spiked to a two-month predictions he made on the high as many nervous lenders began adding in what’s known as a “risk premium” to their orig- March 15 call with reporters, he probably wasn’t surprised by that.

“As these purchases roll forward, you will see the Treasury marination process.

Normally, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage is ket and the MBS market returning to normal market function, about 1.5% to 1.6% above the yield on the 10-year Treasury, but and that will actually support economic activity,” Powell told

by March 19 the margin was the widest it had been since the reporters on that call.

A reporter from the Financial Times pressed him during the call financial crisis more than a decade ago.

So, Powell tried again. In an announcement posted on the about what to call the MBS buying.

Could it accurately be called a resurrection of the quantitative Fed’s website at 8 a.m. on Monday morning, March 23, before the opening of U.S. stock markets, he said the central bank would easing program former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke used during make unlimited purchases of MBS and expand several of its other the mortgage and housing markets meltdown more than a decade ago? programs.

“I’m pretty sure that every person on this call has an editor askThat’s when the magic happened. The average mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan had its biggest one-day shift, according ing to determine whether or not this is quantitative easing,” the to data provided to HousingWire by Optimal Blue that goes back reporter said.

Powell responded, in short: Call it what you want, as long as three years.

The Fed’s pledge of unlimited support shaved 32 basis points it works.

“What I can tell you definitively is the purpose of the asset puroff the average rate that day, pushing it down to 3.45%.

It was the announcement itself that made borrowing cheaper, chases,” Powell said. “It really is to support the availability of 86 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

Politics & Money

“As these purchases roll forward, you will see the Treasury market and the MBS market returning to normal market function, and that will actually support economic activity...” credit in the economy—households and businesses—and thereby support the overall economy,” he said.

“In terms of what it’s labelled, that’s of less interest to me,” Powell said.

On April 29, during a video press conference with reporters, Powell deemed the program a success and said the Fed would slow the pace of its MBS purchases.

“Our purchases have helped market conditions improve substantially in recent weeks,” Powell said, referring to the

bond-buying program that reversed a mid-March spike in mortgage rates. “In light of this improvement, we have slowed our pace of purchases.”

It wasn’t quite the same as the “Mission Accomplished” banner unfurled across the bridge of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in 2003 when President George Bush marked the end of the first phase of the Iraq War. But, for Powell, it was a rare pat on the back. The next day, Freddie Mac announced the all-time low in mortgage rates.

BY THE NUMBERS

HOMEOWNERSHIP RATE Q1 2020

United States Homeownership rate The homeownership rate of 65.3% in the first quarter of 2020 was 1.1 percentage points higher than the rate in the first quarter 2019 at 64.2% but was not statistically different from the rate in the fourth quarter 2019 65.1%.

Homeowner Vacancy Rate The vacancy rate has trende d dow nwar d over the past several years, dropping to 1.1% in the first quarter. But this number was much higher outside of major cities, where the rate climbed as high as 9.2% in some areas.

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Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Homeownership Rate by Age of Householder Those ages 65 years and older had the highest homeownership rate at 78.7% in the first quarter, and unsurprisingly, it was the lowest for those ages 35 years and younger.

And for most age groups, homeownership increased in the first quarter.

Homeownership Rate by Races and Ethnicity When divided by race, non-Hispanic Whites hold the highest homeownership rate at 73.7%.

Even the next closest demographic, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander has a homeownership rate of just 59.1%.

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Q&A Joe Langner ReverseVision President

Creating transparency for reverse borrowers Lenders with separate reverse mortgage system doing borrowers a disservice Lenders are doing their borrowers a disservice by not keeping keeping reverse mortgage products in the same system as other products, one expert explained. In order to increase transparency, lenders should keep all options together so that borrowers are able to see a full picture of the products that would work best for them, explained ReverseVision President Joe Langner.

“Lenders that keep reverse mortgage lending operationally siloed by maintaining separate technology workflows drastically reduce the likelihood that reverse programs will benefit borrowers as intended or allow loan officers to include a reverse mortgage scenario when it is among the best options,” Langner said.

HousingWire sat down with Langner to talk about the developing role of reverse mortgages within mortgage lending.

HousingWire: What are some of the greatest challenges in the reverse industry that could be solved by technology?

Joe Langner: One of our greatest challenges is transparency. By that, I mean making sure every borrower who could benefit from a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage or private reverse mortgage loan is presented with its merits as a matter of course when comparing other loan alternatives.

Since reverse mortgages are typically originated in a siloed system, LOs aren’t set up to quote a reverse mortgage program when serving eligible borrowers.

Our strategy at ReverseVision is not only to offer the best reverse mortgage lending platform, but also to equip lenders to tap the immense value of a vastly underutilized lending program directly through their preferred LOS and POS applications.

Additionally, we are working to integrate our solutions within the financial planning community, as many borrowers leverage their expertise when making retirement planning decisions.

HW: Why is it important that lenders can integrate reverse offerings into their system?

JL: Integrating reverse mortgage programs with forward lending platforms is important for allowing loan originators to present senior borrowers with a comprehensive view of their options, giving senior borrowers the information needed to make an 90 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

informed decision. Especially in today’s unprecedented economic environment, it’s critical that lenders allow borrowers to explore HECM counterparts to traditional refinance, HELOC and purchase programs.

Lenders that keep reverse mortgage lending operationally siloed by maintaining separate technology workflows drastically reduce the likelihood that reverse programs will benefit borrowers as intended or allow loan officers to include a reverse mortgage scenario when it is among the best options.

HousingWire: If you had your way, what would the reverse mortgage space look like in 5 years? In 10?

JL: Here’s the current situation: over 1 million borrowers age 62 and older receive mortgages each year, yet HECM and private reverse mortgage volume accounts for a disproportionately small fraction of overall loan production. I believe this is because the majority of eligible borrowers are never presented a HECM or reverse mortgage alongside other options by their loan originator – even when these products are the most pragmatic option for borrowers. My goal is to accelerate this shift, since so many borrowers stand to benefit.

In five years, I would like to see ReverseVision integrated with all major forward lending LOS and POS applications.

Hopefully before, but certainly in 10 years, I would like to see an industry-adopted standard practice that HECMs and private reverse mortgage programs be presented to every borrower they would benefit.

Ultimately, I aim to establish HECM and private reverse products as staple programs in mainstream lending portfolios with an API-enabled platform that incorporates reverse mortgages into the initial loan evaluation process and loan origination workflow.

Q&A Donna Corley Freddie Mac Executive Vice President

Can lenders balance access to credit with increasing risk?

Standards tighten as virus spreads Many lenders began tightening their lending standards as COVID-19 spread, but could they increase credit access to help first-time homebuyers and others achieve their goals of homeownership? While lenders were seeking to ensure access to credit, they also did their diligence to ensure they are originating safe loans, explained Donna Corley, Freddie Mac executive vice president and head of single-family business.

“Every lender may be different in their approach, but we all must play our part to ensure we’re putting borrowers into homes that they can keep,” she said.

HousingWire sat down with Corley to discuss handling credit and risk as the pandemic spreads.

days. And we are offering loan modification options that lower payments or keep payments the same after the forbearance period.

HousingWire: How should lenders balance opening access to credit with risk during this time?

Donna Corley: Every lender may be different in their approach, but we all must play our part to ensure we’re putting borrowers into homes that they can keep.

Freddie Mac is in the market every day providing liquidity, stability and affordability to the industry. We’re buying loans that meet our underwriting guidelines to ensure that we keep the mortgage money flowing to lenders, who can provide financing to prospective buyers. That is the countercyclical role Freddie Mac was created to play.

HW: What kinds of things can the secondary market do to help keep the access to credit open? Or is there anything they can do?

DC: Freddie Mac has already taken a number of actions to make it easier for the mortgage industry to buy or refinance a home during a period that requires social distancing.

Among others, we are offering flexible approaches to allow lenders to verify the employment status of borrowers, knowing that traditional verbal verification may be difficult to obtain.

We’re also allowing alternatives to interior appraisals to keep appraisers and homeowners safe. These actions will help us provide much-needed liquidity and stability to the housing market in this difficult time. That’s fundamentally our role – to be here in good times and in bad to keep the market going.

HW: Do you foresee a substantial drop in credit performance as we come out of the pandemic?

DC: Right now, we are focused on making sure homeowners with Freddie Mac-owned mortgages who are directly or indirectly impacted by COVID–19 are able to stay in their homes during this challenging time.

We’re doing this by offering mortgage relief options for those who are unable to make their mortgage payments due to a decline in income.

For example, we are providing mortgage forbearance for up to 12 months, and waiving penalties and late fees during that time.

We have suspended all foreclosure sales and evictions of borrowers living in Freddie Mac-owned homes for at least 90

HW: HousingWire recognized you as one of our 2019 Women of Influence. What is your secret to success?

DC: I wish I could say there was just one secret to success. From my experience, success is the result of a lot of hard work. The way I managed my career was by focusing on excellence and doing my job well.

There’s no substitute for excellence if you want to be successful and move ahead. Furthermore, I think the true definition of success isn’t just in what you accomplish, but how you accomplish it.

A final thought: once you do make it to the top of the ladder, success means more if you lean in and lend a hand to women coming up behind you.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 91

Kudos The mortgage industry’s united effort to combat COVID-19 Companies come together to fight for American dream

BY BRENA NATH

FROM the frontlines to front porches, the housing industry hasquickly found ways to support those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The devastating consequences of the virus reached many parts of the housing industry, and most notably, the ability to call a place home, as the record number of job losses and forbearance requests show people’s fight to be able to stay in their houses.

One of the few things that nearly all people in our industry can agree on is that everyone is working toward the same mission – supporting the American dream.

But to continue to support that dream, everyone has to unite together in the fight against the global pandemic. Here are only a handful of the many initiatives that the industry has introduced to help aid the relief efforts.

EASYKNOCK Proptech platform EasyKnock announced it established a nonprofit to aid struggling homeowners stay in their homes, as the recent economic disruptions caused by COVID-19 have the potential to significantly displace families.

Created by Jarred Kessler, CEO of EasyKnock, the company stated that its new nonprofit, The Stay Mission, was introduced to help families at risk of losing their homes due to evictions or foreclosure filings. Looking at the long-term impact of coronavirus, The Stay Mission’s goal is to help the millions of Americans that could be out of work or underemployed.

“We’re living in unprecedented times,” Kessler said. “Due to this pandemic, more and more Americans are behind on their mortgage or rent payments and struggling to keep a roof over their heads.

Through the launch of our nonprofit, we hope to do our part to ease 92 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020

the burden on American homeowners.”

For this year alone, The Stay Mission plans to donate $100,000 to charity partners and also has a larger goal of donating $1 million over the course of 5 years. The nonprofit plans to partner with four to five organizations that align with its goals VETERANS UNITED HOME LOANS Sending support to the same people it serves, Veterans United Home Loans launched #HereForOurHeroes, an initiative that offers people a way to share encouraging messages to those working on the frontlines. These frontline workers include National Guardsmen, first responders, healthcare workers and other military personnel who are helping in the COVID-19 relief efforts.

Personalized messages that were submitted online were printed on postcards and sent with Operation Gratitude care packages. To financially support Operation Gratitude, the VA lender also pledged $250,000 for care packages shipments to 50,000 military COVID19 frontline responders.

Operation Gratitude is a nonprofit that is dedicated to forging strong bonds between Americans and their military and first responder heroes through volunteer service projects, acts of gratitude, and meaningful engagements in communities nationwide. According to the nonprofit, every year they send more than 300,000 individually addressed care packages to soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen deployed overseas, to their children left behind, and to first responders, new recruits, veterans, wounded heroes and their caregivers.

“Since 1636, Guardsman have stood at the ready assisting citizens across the United States,” said retired Chief Master Sgt. Denise Jelinski-Hall, 3rd Senior Enlisted Advisor National Guard

Kudos

Bureau. “Today, they stand again on the frontlines in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Receiving a letter of gratitude shows Guardsmen how much they’re valued and appreciated.”

ELLIE MAE Like many other companies, Ellie Mae was forced to pivot its annual conference, Ellie Mae Experience, adjusting to a new, virtual way of conducting conferences and networking opportunities. However, while the company had to redesign its plans for the conference, it didn’t abandon the various initiatives that it created to give back during the in-person event. It simply adjusted how it would look.

The first initiative wasn’t COVID-19 focused, but it would’ve brought many smiles to those who attended, lightening the mood as the virus surely would have been at the forefront of every conversation.

For its event, Ellie Mae partnered with Pawsome, an organization that was going to bring in therapy dogs for all the attendees.

Not only did Ellie Mae remain committed to its financial donation to the organization, but it also donated all of the pet gear, such as leashes, dog bowls and dog beds intended for attendees to a local humane society.

On top of bringing in therapy dogs, Ellie Mae not only delivered on its original plans to help frontline workers, but it created additional ways to give back. Based in California, the first state to declare a stay-at-home order, Ellie Mae found new ways to give back to the community, using its platform and the conference to unite people together in the cause.

The company was prepared for 3,000 to 4,000 people to all be together in one place, meaning they had a surplus of resources like hand sanitizers and masks that are extremely important during a pandemic. Since all the supplies were shipped to the company’s headquarters in Pleasanton, Calif., it gave them the opportunity to reach out to their community and find the places that really needed supplies.

Those masks were also not the only masks that Ellie Mae had on hand. Since they have two very large office buildings on their campus, as a normal precaution, they have a supply of masks in the event that there could be a fire.

Given the shortage of masks available for frontline workers, the company assessed their internal supplies for the exact number they would need for when they return to take care of their employees, but everything else they donated to one of the hardest hit areas in the Bay Area, Santa Clara, giving their supplies to a hospital in the epicenter of the city’s coronavirus fight.

Looking at Ellie Mae’s redesigned Virtual Experience 2020 conference, they even found ways to include additional relief efforts at the virtual conference and after.

After reading stories every day about first-line responders who don’t have enough personal protection equipment to get by, Ellie Mae said it would donate $10 for every person that attends Virtual Experience to GetUsPPE.org. The organization’s mission is to help communities get personal protective equipment to healthcare providers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Then after the conference, Ellie Mae said it would stay true to its commitment to Operation Gratitude, the nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect Americans and their military and first responder heroes. Once the company is back in the office, they’re going to make sure that they make good on that promise, creating the welcome packets and donating them to Operation Gratitude.

“A cornerstone of who Ellie Mae is and how we were founded was with a very philanthropic culture,” Ellie Mae Chief Operating Officer Joe Tyrrell said. “Every year we’re doing something through our Ellie Cares initiative, whether it’s helping military families or Habitat for Humanity.

Commenting on the company’s decision to donate to frontline works, Tyrrell said that it’s true to who they are as a company.

“Anything we can do to give back to the people that are really making big sacrifices during this time, we’re going to try,” he said.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ JUNE 2020 93

PARTING SHOT â?ą FATE OF THE CFPB

Photo credit: Shayna Arrington, The Money Source chief compliance officer

In March, people lined up to hear the oral arguments in Seila Law LLC v. CFPB, a case which could determine if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is constitutional. Supreme Court justices could determine that its leadership, only fireable for cause, is unconstitutional, or they could do away with the bureau entirely. Since hearing oral arguments, no decision has been made.

94 HOUSINGWIRE â?ą JUNE 2020

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2020