September 2020 issue

September 2020

HOUSINGWIRE MAGAZINE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2020

INSIDERS

FINTECH PRODUCT SHOWCASE

These 50 operational superstars are the secret weapon to their companies’ success.

We profiled 15 companies providing solutions that span the entire home-buying and mortgage loan life cycle.

P. 30

P. 52

The fate of Fannie and Freddie hangs in the balance

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sarah Wheeler

NEWSROOM EDITOR-AT-LARGE Kathleen Howley MORTGAGE EDITOR James Kleimann FINTECH EDITOR Mary Ann Azevedo REAL ESTATE REPORTER Julia Falcon REPORTER Alex Roha DIGITAL PRODUCER Alcynna Lloyd JUNIOR DIGITAL PRODUCER Victoria Wickham INTERN Adnan Khan LEAD ANALYST Logan Mohtashami COLUMNISTS Dustin Brohm, Mary Frances Coleman, Julian Hebron, Kristin Messerli CONTRIBUTORS Mike Rawls, Kris Kully, Christina Jenkins HW+ HW+ MANAGING EDITOR Brena Nath MAGAZINE EDITOR Kelsey Ramírez COLUMNIST Robyn Friedman, Scott Petronis CONTENT SOLUTIONS MANAGING EDITOR Maleesa Smith ASSOCIATE CONTENT EDITOR Jessica Davis DIGITAL CONTENT STRATEGIST Alyssa Stringer CREATIVE GRAPHIC DESIGNER Emily Carpenter SALES VICE PRESIDENT, SALES AND REVENUE OPERATIONS Jennifer Watson Laws NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR, REAL ESTATE Mark Adams CALIFORNIA Christi Humphries CENTRAL Chris Anderson SOUTHEAST Tamara Wren GREAT LAKES Lorena Leggett NORTHEAST Vernesa Merdanovic BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Lindsley Harris BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, REAL ESTATE Amanda Luzsicza DEMAND GEN COORDINATOR Brooke Combs

6 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

HW MEDIA CORPORATE CEO Clayton Collins CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Diego Sanchez PRODUCT MANAGER Matthew Stafford CONTROLLER Andrew Key MARKETING DIRECTOR Caren Karris MARKETING COORDINATOR Katie Galbraith CLIENT SUCCESS DIRECTOR Haley Hess clientsuccess@HousingWire.com CLIENT SUCCESS COORDINATORS Talia Quigley, Layne Powers HOW TO REACH US LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: feedback@housingwire.com TIPS AND STORIES: editorial@housingwire.com CURRENT MEMBERSHIP / SUBSCRIPTION: hwplusmember@housingwire.com NEW MEMBERSHIP / SUBSCRIPTION: housingwire.com/membership MARKETING & ADVERTISING: jlaws@housingwire.com or (469) 893-1486 ADVERTISING CLIENT SUCCESS: clientsuccess@housingwire.com

SEPTEMBER 2020

LE T TE R F R OM THE E DITOR

Election year WE are getting closer to this year ’s elections

This issue also features our HousingWire Insid-

and, as we’ve seen in the past, anything can hap-

ers. These 50 winners represent the secret sauce

pen. In our cover story, Editor-at-Large Kathleen

at their companies. This year, the need for their

Howley takes a deep dive into what a continu-

services was greater than ever, and they rose to

ation of President Donald Trump’s presidency

the challenge – from creating remote work capa-

would do for housing versus a policy shift under

bilities to holding operations together under new

former Vice President Joe Biden. To put it simply:

systems and a sudden surge in new demand for

the two candidates have very different views on

homeownership. Turn to page 30 to get to know

what housing should look like.

the operational superstars that led their compa-

One of the most notable decisions is the fate of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. While the two

nies through some of the most unprecedented times of our generation.

GSEs are not directly on the voting ballot, their futures might as well be. The Trump administration is dedicated to removing them from conservatorship, while a Biden presidency is already looking at housing projects that could be funded about what housing could look like over the next four years.

Kelsey Ramírez Managing Editor @kels_ramirez

Tweets From The Streets I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood...

66K

89.3K

193.4K

@realdonaldtrump

SEPTEMBER 2020

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

7 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

by raising G-fees. Turn to page 24 to learn more

“

To me, innovation is considering thousands of things in order to make sure you consistently do the right things.”

Meet Sue Baker. Leader. Mentor. And above all, friend. After dedicating over 35 years to the mortgage industry, she’s done it all—from loan officer, to underwriter, to tech visionary. Sue is an operational all-star who relentlessly gets stuff done, and never fails to acknowledge everyone working behind the scenes to drive innovation. Early in her mortgage technology career, she co-founded the groundbreaking Mortgagebot POS—the very first online mortgage application. For the past four years, she’s transformed Optimal Blue into the leading secondary marketing automation platform that it is today and profoundly enhanced the client experience. Take it from Scott Happ, Optimal Blue CEO and the person who’s been by her side through it all. “Sue brings unmatched work ethic, reliability, integrity, and brilliance to everything she does. You can always count on Sue to do the right thing, lead by example, and face challenges head on with a positive attitude and an eye toward innovation.”

Congratulations, Sue. Your story has been years in the making and it’s one that will be remembered for a lifetime.

© 2020 Optimal Blue LLC | All Rights Reserved

2020 Award Winner SUE BAKER Vice President, Product & Client Services Optimal Blue

september 2020

People Movers

12 W e lls F a rg o re p lac e d re tiring M ik e D eV ito w ith K ris ty F e rc ho as its ne w he ad of Hom e L e nd ing .

Startup Profile

13 A r turo is a n A I prope r ty a naly tic s c om pa ny that he lp s insura nc e c a rrie rs im prov e d e c is ion mak ing .

Event Calendar

14 M B A w ill hold its R is k M a nag e m e nt , Q A a nd F raud P re v e ntion F orum v ir tually in S e pte m b e r.

Inside Agent

15 R is k in P a r tne rs E s tate G roup lis ts a $ 17 m illion hom e in a C alifornia ma rk e t the y s ay is g ro w ing hotte r.

Local Intel

16 M a nhatta n re ac he d its hig he s t v ac a nc y rate in ne a rly 14 y e a rs as pe op le m ig rate to rural a re as .

Launches

18

Take 5

19 U W M C E O M at Is hb ia d e c line d a c oac hing c a re e r a nd turne d his atte ntion to the m or tg ag e indus tr y.

Trade Desk

72 N A M M B A c re ate d a n initiativ e , for c olle g e s tud e nts to c ontribu te the ir id e as to ad v a nc e the indus tr y.

Mortgage

78 L e nd e rs a nd s e r v ic e rs z e ro in on re c a pture a nd e m p has iz e the po w e r of re taining s e r v ic ing .

Real Estate

82 T he ne w s of a $ 1.1 b illion Te s la fac tor y re v s up the alre ad y hot A us tin hous ing ma rk e t .

Fintech

86 T he re ’s no s hor tag e of re al e s tate le ad g e ne ration tools a nd y e t R O I s till re mains e lus iv e .

1 0 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

Hous ton-bas e d D O S S launc he d its w e b s ite w ith the g oal of mak ing hom e o w ne rs hip m ore aff ord ab le .

SEPTEMBER 2020

Politics & Money

90 T he F air Hous ing A c t c a m e und e r fire as H U D ab olis he s the A F F H rule a nd propo s e s othe r c ha ng e s .

Q&A

94 O pe nd oor ’s E ric a G alo s A lioto talk s ab ou t ho w to le ad a c om pa ny a nd re v iv e c ulture throug h toug h tim e s .

Q&A

95 E nv oy M or tg ag e ’s K im Hoff ma n s ay s that if le nd ing w e re e as y, e v e r y one w ould d o it .

Kudos

96 B e tte r tog e the r : He re ’s ho w one c om pa ny g av e bac k throug h the Ve te ra ns Unite d F ound ation.

Parting Shot

98 C onfe re nc e p la ns fe ll s hor t in 20 20, bu t the hous ing indus tr y w as re s ilie nt a nd b ounc e d bac k from c hao s .

Whither Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? The election results will determine the future of housing as we know it.

By: Kathleen Howley

30

46

INSIDERS These 50 operational superstars are the secret weapon behind their company’s success.

By: HousingWire Staff

52

COMPLIANCE

FINTECH SHOWCASE

Compliance in the fast lane: survicing and thriving in a post-COVID regulatory environment.

We profile 15 companies providing solutions that span the entire homebuying and mortgage loan life cycle.

By Christina Jenkins

By: HousingWire Conent Solutions

Managing through high orignation and servicing volumes

Revamping qualified mortgages: A clearer message?

By Mike Rawls

By Kris Kully

20

22 SEPTEMBER 2020

1 1 â?ą H O U S IN G W IR E

features

f

24

ELECTION BALLOT

PEOPLE MOVERS

Kristy Fercho

| Wells Fargo | Head of Home Lending

Wells Fargo hired Kristy Fercho as its new head of Wells Fargo Home Lending.

Fercho will replace Michael DeVito, who plans to retire this summer after spending 23 years with the bank. A 2020 HousingWire Woman of Influence, Fercho holds 18 years of experience in the mortgage industry, most recently serving as the president of the mortgage division at Flagstar Bank since 2017.

Martina Schubert

| LenderClose | Chief Technology Officer

LenderClose hired Martina Schubert as its chief technology officer. Schubert has more than 25 years of experience in information technology leadership. Prior to joining LenderClose, Schubert was at DLL Financial Solutions Partner, where she was part of two executive leadership teams responsible for managing the enterprise-wide strategic and tactical planning process for IT. Schubert has managed budgets in excess of $14 million and also created IT applications capable of reducing costs by the millions.

Mickey Neuberger

| realtor.com | Chief Marketing Officer

realtor.com named Mickey Neuberger its chief marketing officer. Neuberger has 25 years of experience, including time at 24 Hour Fitness, Loyalty Lab, Travelocity and most recently eBay as its vice president of global marketing. While he was at eBay, Neuberger built the CRM practice from the ground up, doubling its share of site, and led the performance marketing team’s turnaround from flat to double-digit growth, while improving employee satisfaction by over 50%.

Lou Friedmann |

Interfirst Mortgage | Chief Marketing Officer

Interfirst Mortgage named Lou Friedmann chief marketing officer. Friedmann has served as executive vice president of marketing for M1 Finance, as well as chief revenue officer for Bento for Business. Friedmann has also served as senior vice president at Insureon, and spent seven years at optionsXpress, leading all marketing execution of the company from its founding, to IPO, and through its later acquisition by Charles Schwab.

Kathy Kwak |

Proper Title | Executive Vice President

Proper Title promoted Kathy Kwak to executive vice president. Kwak has 14 years of experience in the real estate industry as an attorney and underwriting counsel as well as seven years dedicated to the title insurance industry. Kwak joined Proper Title in 2017 as director of title, making her way to vice president and executive vice president. Prior to the title industry, Kwak was a senior real estate advisor for the Board of Education of the city of Chicago.

Tim Von Kaenel | Sagent | Chief Innovation Officer Mortgage fintech company Sagent announced that Tim Von Kaenel has been named its chief innovation officer, a newly created role. Prior to joining Sagent, Von Kaenel was the chief product officer for loanDepot, as well as Cloudvirga, where he helped usher in the digital mortgage era by bringing push-button, phonebased simplicity to mortgage originations. Von Kaenel also has over 20 years of experience managing startups and Fortune 500 companies.

1 2 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

Prateek Khokhar |

Civic Financial Services | Chief Financial Officer

Civic Financial Services named Prateek Khokhar the company’s chief financial officer. Khokhar has nearly 20 years of experience in the mortgage banking industry, and most recently served as chief financial officer at American Pacific Mortgage and at Skyline Financial. While at Skyline, Khokhar led the spinout of CloudVirga.

He also held executive financial and capital markets positions with PMAC Lending, Prospect Mortgage and Home Savings Mortgage.

SEPTEMBER 2020

STARTUP PROFILE

Arturo is an artificial intelligence property analytics company that helps insurance carriers improve the accuracy and speed of decision-making across claims, underwriting, pricing and renewals.

Unique to Arturo, the company leverages multi-sourced imagery including aerial, satellite, stratospheric balloons and ground-level images from a wide range of imagery providers, ensuring it gives the most up-to-date information. It also provides insurance carriers with configurable APIs so that they can get the information they need delivered to them in seconds.

Arturo also provides its clients with a confidence score, which allows them to see how much they can rely on the data provided. And while the company is focused on insurance for now, it says its predictive property models could also soon be used to impact the mortgage or real estate industries.

Things To Know Attempting to Disrupt: Data availability and efficiency of insurance industry Launch Date: 2018 Funding: Initial investment by American Family Insurance, later investors include Crosslink Capital and IAG Firemark Ventures.

Location: U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and expansion plans for the U.K. ar turo.ai

Confidence score shows accuracy of data

Provides 50 property facts and predictive indicators

Launched in 2017 as part of American Family Insurance, then spun out as its own platform

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

7 8

5

LAUNCH SIZE: FUNDING:

8M Pre-Seed

A

Seed SEPTEMBER 2020

B

C

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UNIQUE SCORE:

HIGH

LOW

DISRUPTOR SCORE:

EVENT CALENDAR

MBA Live – Risk Management, QA and Fraud Prevention Forum 2020 Sept 15 - 16, 2020 Cost to attend: $449 - $999 Presented by the Mortgage Bankers Association

ON THE SHELF The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind

BY JONAH BERGER

LOCATION: VIRTUAL

PUBLISHER: SIMON & SCHUSTER

Most people have something they want to change, and it can be anything from a mind, an industry or even the entire world. Change is difficult on any scale, but especially so when that change is externally focused.

Tactics like persuasion, arguments or pressure don’t always make a difference.

In The Catalyst, marketing professor and internationally bestselling author Jonah Berger takes a new approach to making change happen. Berger argues that creating change is about being a catalyst – instead of pushing harder or bringing in more information to make an argument, catalysts remove roadblocks and reduce the barriers keeping change from taking place.

Instead of approaching the problem from a perspective of “How could I change someone’s mind?” a catalyst asks, “Why hasn’t their mind been changed already? What’s keeping that from happening?” The Catalyst identifies the key obstacles in the way of change and how they can be mitigated, illustrated by case studies including the work of hostage negotiators, activists, marketers and substance abuse counselors.

MBA’s Risk Management, QA and Fraud Prevention Forum is an annual event catering to mortgage professionals in the risk, quality control and fraud prevention divisions of residential mortgage firms. Featured virtually at MBA Live and available for on-demand viewing after the event, the program will feature dynamic sessions, several opportunities for Q&A with speakers and industry peers, and the option for registered attendees to earn CPE credit. Attendees will receive executive guidance from GSEs and the FHA on loan quality, fraud prevention strategies, measuring and tracking loan defect rates, managing vendors, minimizing loan risks and more.

14 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

Event TIP “If you take on each virtual event with a positive attitude, show up with the intention to learn and interact and take notes, you will have an advantage over your competition, who either shows up and tunes out or doesn’t show up at all. Your 2021 self will thank you for not letting one very challenging year get in the way of the long-term goals you want to achieve.” - Haley Parker, Fairway Independent Mortgage area business development manager.

SEPTEMBER 2020

INSIDE AGENT

Riskin Partners Estate Group assistant@riskinpartners. com 975 Lilac Drive Montecito, California 93108 $16,900,000 6 bed 8 bath 3 half bath 12,506 sqft

1 5 â?ą H O U S IN G W IR E

RISKINPARTNERSESTATEGROUP is a Santa Barbara, California-based real estate team representing buyers and sellers in Montecito, Hope Ranch and Santa Barbara, California. The team: Dina Landi, Sarah Hanacek, Robert Riskin and Jasmine Tennis, has sales of more than $2 billion and are representing the home at 975 Lilac Drive, a $16,900,000 home in Montecito. Built in 2011, this luxury property has an office, pool cabana and guest house. This market has seen a dramatic increase in activity since May 1, the team said, as 31 properties in the $3 million to $8 million price range have gone under contract as of June 15.

SEPTEMBER 2020

LOCAL INTEL

By: Brena Nath

Je rs ey Cit y, Ne w Je rs e y

Despite expectations that COVID-19 would create elongated housing sale cycles, Shantanu Sharma, Stem Lending founder and CEO, said that more sales demand and relatively fewer homes listed have contributed to a long run of increasing prices in the Jersey City area. For more perspective, he added that according to their analysis, the seven-day average median listing price in Jersey City grew from $512,250 at the end of the first quarter of 2020 to $589,500 halfway through 2020. At the same time, the days on market for listings dropped from 110 days at the end of the first quarter of 2020 to 62 halfway through 2020.

Nor th Carolin a

1 6 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

North Carolina recorded its first-ever remote online notarization mortgage closing with the help of Quicken Loans and Amrock, an electronic closing provider. The spread of COVID-19 spurred the state to action when it comes to digital closings, which included the passage of the Emergency Video Notarization law in North Carolina, enabling the implementation of RON eClosings. As an advocate for eClosings in the state, North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall said, “The passage of the temporary Emergency Video Notarization law was paramount to ensuring vital real estate and business transactions could move forward, while also considering the health and safety of all involved.

North Carolina’s many years of leadership and preparedness in making eClosings an important option for consumers has never been more important than it is now in the face of this global pandemic.”

SEPTEMBER 2020

California Pouring money into its home state, tech giant Apple announced it is allocating more than $400 million toward affordable housing projects and homeowner assistance programs in California this year. The move is a part of the company’s $2.5 billion commitment to combat the housing crisis in the Golden State and includes initiatives to accelerate and expand new housing production, jump-start long-term developments that would otherwise not be possible, help first-time buyers purchase homes and support new housing and programs to reduce homelessness. “At a time when so many members of our community are facing unprecedented challenges, we believe it’s critical to make sure that their hopes for the future are supported through tangible programs and results,” said Kristina Raspe, Apple vice president of global real estate and facilities.

Ho u s to n , Te x as Ranking high on Clever Real Estate’s list of metros with the largest demand, the Houston area quickly moved past the low demand that it witnessed around late March and early April of this year, eventually exceeding pre-COVID levels by mid-May and then continued to rise. According to Michael Russell, a real estate agent with Keller Williams in The Woodlands area and a Clever Partner Agent, there’s extremely low inventory below $500,000 with price increasing and high buyer demand, especially prices below $300,000.

Russell added that he doesn't expect much of a change in the Houston-area market during the fall, saying that he assumes there will be “more of the same, with interest rates staying low and inventory low, prices will continue to increase, and demand will remain high.”

Manhattan, New York, reached its highest vacancy rate in nearly 14 years of being tracked as more people want to migrate to rural areas and larger living spaces. While the decline in new leasing activity remained well below last year, the removal of shelter-in-place restrictions in the final week of June that prevented in-person showings, is expected to expand activity, a report from Douglas Elliman stated. “With the lifting of the lockdown that prevented real estate brokers from doing in-person showings in the last week of the month, there will be greater transparency in the market. To fill these empty apartments, landlords are lowering the cost of rent, with the median cost of rent including concessions falling 6.6% in Manhattan and 5.7% in Queens.

SEPTEMBER 2020

1 7 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

Ne w Yo r k , Ne w Yo r k

LAUNCHES

Knock Home Swap Knock announced the launch of the Knock Home Swap, which provides homeowners the same convenience of buying and moving into their new home before selling their old one. Offered exclusively through agents who have been trained as a Knock Certified Agent, consumers receive home financing directly through Knock to make a strong non-contingent offer on their new dream home. They have the benefit of immediately taking ownership and earning equity in their new home while avoiding the hassles of living through repairs and showings, and have home prep taken care of for them prior to listing. The Knock Home Swap includes a fully integrated and competitive mortgage. It also includes an interest-free bridge loan to cover the down payment on the new home as well as mortgage payments and up to $25,000 for home prep and repairs on the old house so it can sell for the highest price possible on the market.

DOSS Houston-based DOSS launched its website to the public on July 10 with the goal of “making homeownership in America more affordable.” That educational and transitional site will only be live for six months. Then, the company has plans to launch a voice-activated search portal. Founder Bobby Bryant recently launched the company’s contactless MLS listing program called DOSS BASIC. Ultimately, Bryant says he is working to develop the best technology “to radically evolve the way you search and transact property.” DOSS also promises to increase transactional efficiencies and lower transactional cost.

Black Knight's CA Property Condition AVM Black Knight announced the launch of CA Property Condition AVM, a new automated valuation model developed by Black Knight Collateral Analytics that factors in the condition of real estate properties to help determine more accurate property values. To develop the new AVM, the Black Knight Collateral Analytics used residential sales data that includes public records, Multiple Listing Service records and proprietary data. This combined data produces hit rates – the percentage of properties valued by the AVM – of approximately 95%. Millions of records contain typical physical attributes such as living area in square feet, baths and bedrooms, and key indicators of property condition. Black Knight Collateral Analytics then normalizes the data for consistency in quality of information and to improve data reliability. In addition to providing more accurate values, the CA Property Condition AVM can help companies minimize physical property inspections and provide values when physical inspections aren’t possible.

Xspaced Xspaced is moving to public beta this week. Its goal is to help tenants and landlords create flexible installment plans for missed rent or security deposits. So, how does it work? Landlords can create an installment plan for missed rent or security deposit in less than one minute, according to the company. They then can send the plan to their tenant. The landlord can create an account and receive installments or regular rent payments online. Tenants can also do the same. The company believes its offering is needed even more in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

1 8 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

HousingWire’s HousingStack The goal of HousingStack is to offer a dynamic visual that reflects the rapid changes in the sector, presenting the information and facts on what is happening as close to real time as possible. HousingWire will not tell you who it thinks is better. It is here to try to give readers the most robust, accurate and thoughtful assessment of the products, companies and categories in the space. Along with actively updating this visual so readers can always trust it’s on point, over time HousingWire willl also update the real estate technology landscape with investment data, what review sites say about the companies and actual client feedback about the products. Housingwire.com/housingstack

SEPTEMBER 2020

TAKE 5

Mat Ishbia CEO

Un i t e d W h o le s a le Mortgage

Mat Ishbia is the president and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage. He grew up in Birmingham, Michigan, about 10 minutes from where UWM's corporate headquarters are today, playing just about every sport under the sun and excelling at one in particular – basketball.

In high school, Ishbia averaged 23 points and eight assists a game as his team’s point guard. He played for Michigan State and was part of a team that went to three Final Fours and won three Big Ten championships and a national championship. After graduating, Ishbia declined a chance at a coaching career and turned his attention to the mortgage industry, building a small family business into one of the nation’s largest lenders.

Ishbia gives an inside view of his life by answering five questions:

1. I f I had pi c k e d a di ff e r e nt c ar e e r pat h I wo ul d be . . . a basketball coach.

2 . Pe o pl e wo ul d be s ur pr i s e d t o k now. . . I love Taco Bell!

3. The be s t t hi ng abo ut Sat ur day s i s . . . Spending time with my three kids, playing sports and being in the pool.

4. Si gnat ur e phr as e . . . Never relax – always be striving to get better.

1 9 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

5. My f avo r i t e t hi ng t o do w i t h my e mpl oy e e s . . . Spend a good portion of my “no meeting Thursdays” shadowing team members – this allows me to get to know team members from across the company and stay in the weeds of the business.

SEPTEMBER 2020

M

COMMENTARY

anaging through high origination and servicing volumes post pandemic Pandemic propels mortgage companies to uncharted territories

2 0 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

By Mike Rawls

As the world continues to grapple with COVID-19, industry leaders are watching closely to determine long-term effects on their businesses and to understand how to best shift their priorities to ensure continued success. The mortgage industry is no exception.

The pandemic has propelled every mortgage company into uncharted territory, and without quick action, many mortgage providers will be unprepared to manage what’s to come.

a perfect storm putting pressure on both sides of the house.

This will happen as many of us continue to work remotely from our homes, while caring for our families and navigating our new normal. To ensure mortgage companies and banks can successfully manage this challenge and avoid another longlasting financial crisis, they must take action now.

WHAT’S COMING NEXT As the economy slowly reopens and industries begin to return to standard operations, the mortgage industry is preparing for a unique influx of demands impacting both the originations and servicing sides of the house. We’re facing a booming housing market where homeowners maintain greater equity in their homes.

Additionally, interest rates remain at record lows, and many predict they will potentially drop further in the coming months. Mortgage companies will continue to experience elevated refinance volumes.

At the same time, many Americans are navigating their way through the financial hardships COVID-19 brought on their families.

With unemployment rates similar to those during the Great Depression, homeowners, whose incomes have not been restored, are finding it more difficult to pay their mortgages. Once foreclosure moratoriums are lifted, servicers will see a surge in customers searching for solutions as they come out of forbearance, increasing demands on servicing resources. As we learned from the 2008 housing crisis, a backlog in loss mitigation pipelines, which coincides with high foreclosure rates, has the potential to cause major problems for servicers.

This combination of record refinancing volumes and a spike in defaults, could lead to

WHAT WE MUST SOLVE FOR Staffing issues: While some companies have shifted resources and redeployed team members, there is still a growing need to increase call center staff and provide training to keep up with the growing demands. Servicers experienced record call volumes as the pandemic hit. As customers exit their forbearance plans, we can expect to see call volumes rise again as customers look to understand their post-forbearance options. Along with managing the increase in customer calls, lenders are spending more time scheduling critical services that are essential in the mortgage cycle. Finding available underwriters, notaries, appraisers, title and escrow companies can be challenging.

Technology limitations: While the mortgage industry has made strides in recent years to enhance technology to better meet the needs of their customers and team members, there is more that can be done to automate and simplify the mortgage processes. There are differences in the documentation needed in each stage. Ensuring efficient, secure document management – from the collection and gathering of documents to storing of the information contained within those documents – is critical.

Customer experience: Mortgage companies learned many hard lessons throughout the housing financial crisis and must ensure that customer experience includes ongoing, transparent communications throughout the origination and servicing processes. Ensuring customers have the information they need, in simple terms, will help avoid misunderstanding and delays in the process and guarantee mortgage providers are responding in a timely manner.

SEPTEMBER 2020

Mike Rawls serves as CEO of Xome, a Mr. Cooper Group company. Rawls previously served as the executive vice president of servicing for Mr. Cooper Group. Rawls joined Mr. Cooper in 2000 and was named executive vice president of servicing for the company in 2015. Previously, he held key leadership positions in both servicing and originations.

SEPTEMBER 2020

2 1 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

THE SOLUTION MUST CONSIDER THE ENTIRE MORTGAGE LIFECYCLE As both servicers and originators maneuver through these incredible times, it will take solutions that can operate across the entire mortgage lifecycle and offer intelligent end-toend portfolio management strategies to ensure simple and efficient customer experiences.

For originators, this means offering customers more self-service functionality along with integrated tools for their team members. This will boost customer satisfaction by providing a more personalized experience across multiple channels and will increase the speed at which the lender can resolve customer concerns. At the same time, as homeowners come out of their forbearance plans, modifications will be needed to help limit the additional hardships being faced by homeowners. To simplify the complexity of the modification process, selfservice tools available on mobile devices are the best answer. These solutions allow servicers to provide customers with real-time status updates along with document upload capabilities, digital notifications and educational support to answer their questions and concerns.

Leveraging automation and digital technologies: One way lenders and servicers can prepare themselves for simultaneous refinance applications and loss mitigation activities is to leverage automation, robotics and other digital technologies.

In light of the pandemic and a changing GSE environment, mortgage companies have an even greater opportunity to leverage digital technology in unique ways. This means eliminating much of what has historically been a manual process and implementing AI and machine-learning tools. Intelligent automation can be especially useful for title companies.

Modeling that allows title companies to provide instantaneous, clear-to-close decisions can greatly improve time-to-close metrics and allow operations to focus more time on the

exceptions. Additionally, while some states already allow remote online notarization, in recent months we’ve seen both the Senate and the House introduce bills to authorize all U.S. notaries to perform remotely.

When we think about valuations, the use of analytical modeling that leverages MLS data and public records can better help originators and servicers make smart decisions on the most appropriate valuation product for each specific property. This will save valuable time and money.

Many companies are also investing in mobile applications which provide interior and exterior property inspection flexibility. These applications can eliminate the need for a third-party inspection of the property, as homeowners take GPS-verified photos and videos using their own personal devices. For servicing, mobile apps can be used to accelerate the inspection and reporting process and create opportunities for more participants to perform the required inspections. There are also many other applications in home equity and even PMI release. With technology that can prevent fraud or misuse of the consumer mobile apps, this innovation, combined with big data analytics, is going to change the course of the valuation business.

End-to-end solutions: When mortgage companies make the decision to engage with an end-to-end solutions provider, they better position themselves to manage the work that is coming. Particularly in default servicing, an end-to-end provider can help eliminate needless process steps and reduce delays. Using existing title and valuations updates stored in an advanced data lake creates efficiencies across the board. End-to-end providers can also offer their clients access to the best disposition strategies and both short and long-term modeling options based on their risk tolerance and portfolio management philosophy. Most importantly, a true end-to-end solutions provider can act as an enhancement of the servicer’s workforce, efficiently moving tasks through a seamless workflow, saving time and potential loss exposure.

The mortgage industry is resilient. We witnessed mortgage companies’ ability to survive, and ultimately thrive, following the 2008 crisis. If mortgage companies take steps now to position themselves to manage the influx of originations and servicing needs and partner with end-to-end solutions providers, we can expect the industry to come out of the pandemic even stronger.

R

COMMENTARY

evamping qualified mortgages: A clearer message?

Bureau sends mixed messages with QM Patch final rule proposal

By Kris Kully

The federal Ability to Repay Rule has always been a study in contradiction. Back in 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued the rule to instill strict underwriting standards for mortgage loans, but also hoped not to hamper the availability of affordable home loans for creditworthy borrowers.

The rule provided a safe harbor that would promote compliance certainty, but still claimed that lenders have the flexibility to underwrite loans outside that safe harbor. The rule encouraged lenders to make Qualified Mortgages, but hoped that a safe non-QM market would develop. The CFPB predicted the eventual return of private capital to fund mortgage loans, but cemented the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

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The CFPB is proposing to eliminate the DTI threshold from the standard QM definition, and to replace it with a pricing threshold.

Does the CFPB’s recent proposal to revamp QMs, issued in June, send a clearer message?

In that proposed rule, issued in late June, the CFPB continues to make one thing clear – the automatic compliance protection for GSEeligible loans, which some call the “Patch,” should expire. The CFPB declared in 2014 that any loan eligible for purchase by a GSE constitutes a QM and is deemed to comply with the rule. Most other loans, in order to achieve

that QM status, are limited to a 43% debt-to-income ratio, and the lender must follow the rule’s frustrating Appendix Q in order to establish that DTI. Although the GSE Patch may have been helpful to a mortgage market recovering from the financial crisis, the CFPB clearly does not want to extend it any longer than necessary for a “smooth and orderly transition.”

Another thing that is clear, particularly if the GSE QM Patch is eliminated, is that the general QM landscape needs tweaking. The agency has heard from some in the lending industry, consumer advocates, economists, mortgage investors and others that DTI, particularly within the confines of Appendix Q, is not a great indicator of a consumer’s ability to repay. The CFPB is proposing to eliminate the DTI threshold from the standard QM definition, and to replace it with a pricing threshold.

Specifically, a loan would not constitute a QM if its annual percentage rate exceeds the average prime offer rate by two percentage points. In adopting a rate spread threshold to distinguish QMs, the CFPB recognizes that several factors unrelated to a consumer’s ability to repay may influence a loan’s APR. However, the CFPB has found that APR is strongly correlated with that ability, and is a clear standard that is used in other contexts to distinguish loans that can be free from additional regulatory requirements. The CFPB is proposing to set the threshold at two percentage points over APOR for first-lien loans, with a higher threshold for smaller loans and subordinatelien loans.

DTI REMAINS A FACTOR While the CFPB proposes to eliminate the DTI ceiling, lenders still would have to consider DTI, or residual income, and would have to document that consideration. The proposal indicates the lender could comply by documenting that it followed its standard procedures for considering the factors in connection with a specific loan, and/or by including an underwriter worksheet or final automated underwriting system certification. However, the CFPB would not prescribe what those underwriting standards should or must be.

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DEADLINES EXTENDED The CFPB is rolling out this rulemaking in two related parts, with two different comment deadlines. The public has until August 10 to comment on the CFPB’s proposal to eliminate the GSE QM Patch.

That proposal would extend the Patch to apply only to loans consummated after the effective date of a final rule to tweak the general QM definition. The public then has until September 8 to comment on those general QM tweaks. After considering the public comments, the CFPB will issue a final rule, and the agency proposes a six-month delayed effective date.

For planning purposes, the CFPB indicated that it does not intend for that effective date to be prior to April 1, 2021.

The CFPB will, during that time, need to resolve a potential timing gap. The proposals rely on the same effective date, but while the Patch expiration would apply to loans consummated on and after that date, the QM changes would apply to loans for which the application is received on and after that date. For a loan application received before that While the agency date, the new QM tweaks would wants to remove not yet be available; if that loan is one safe harbor then consummated after that date, based on Fannie the patch would no longer be Mae or Freddie available. Accordingly, the CFPB Mac guidelines, may need to plan for some overlap. it considers In addition, the CFPB reports creating another. that it is still considering whether to adopt a seasoning standard, by which a loan achieves QM status after-the-fact if the borrower actually makes payments for a period of time. While that seems like a common-sense approach (by making payments, the borrower must have had the ability to do so), some argue that is not consistent with the Dodd-Frank Act requirement that lenders make a reasonable determination of ability to repay at the time the loan is consummated.

In the end, while the CFPB is sending a few clear signals, there are still some mixed messages. While the agency wants to remove one safe harbor based on Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac guidelines, it considers creating another. While the agency seeks clear and objective criteria for distinguishing QMs, it would still allow lenders to choose their own DTI levels and verification standards. One thing is clear – an election will occur before these changes become effective, and nothing is clear when politics are involved.

Kris Kully is a partner in Mayer Brown’s Washington DC office and a member of the Consumer Financial Services group. She concentrates her practice on federal and state regulatory compliance matters affecting providers of consumer financial products and services.

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The CFPB also would continue to require verification of income, and is considering providing a safe harbor to creditors using specified standards, such as those required by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, or under one of the government insurance/guarantee programs.

The proposal even asks whether the rule should allow lenders to pick and choose among those standards. The CFPB stated that those agency standards appear reasonable and would provide greater compliance certainty – particularly with respect to verifying income for self-employed consumers.

The proposal would otherwise retain many current QM elements. Loans with interestonly, negative amortization, or balloon payment features, or with points-and-fees exceeding three percent would still be excluded. The APR distinctions for loans receiving a safe harbor versus a rebuttable presumption of compliance also would remain. Accordingly, a loan that meets those restrictions on features and fees would be a safe harbor QM if its APR exceeds the APOR by less than 1.5 percentage points for first-lien transactions – so long as the lender documents its consideration of DTI or residual income, and follows agency standards for income verification.

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The fate of Fannie and Freddie hangs in the balance SEPTEMBER 2020

By Kathleen Howley

SEPTEMBER 2020

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Election results will determine the future of housing as we know it

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On the November ballot, you won’t find the names of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two companies that back about half the outstanding mortgages in the U.S. But the outcome of this year’s presidential election could decide their fates.

SEPTEMBER 2020

companies with no capital reserves, completely dependent on the government.

A year ago, Calabria and Mnuchin came to an agreement to let the companies retain up to $45 billion in combined capital.

“The enterprises are leveraged nearly 1,000-to-one, ensuring they would fail during an economic downturn – exposing taxpayers once again,” Calabria said in the announcement. “This letter agreement between Treasury and FHFA, which allows the enterprises to retain capital of up to $45 billion combined, is an important milestone on the path to reform.”

In February, Calabria hired Houlihan Lokey to advise the FHFA on ending the conservatorships with a public offering of the shares held by the government and said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would soon be hiring their own advisors. And not even the worst pandemic in more than a century has delayed those plans.

In June, the CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced they had chosen their underwriting advisors: Fannie Mae, the bigger of the two GSEs, said it has chosen Morgan Stanley while Freddie Mac said it will use JPMorgan Chase.

So, what’s the rush? A little thing called “election risk,” says Jaret Seiberg, managing director of Cowen Washington Research Group. If former Vice President Joe Biden w ins, all those plans may be off the table.

That r i s k w a s made worse by a

Supreme Court decision in June that put Calabria’s job on the line. The ruling in Seila Law vs. the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau meant both the CFPB and the FHFA director now serve at the pleasure of the president, not as independent regulators appointed to a five-year term who could only be removed “for cause,” meaning negligence or crimes.

“This ruling should ensure that the president can now remove the FHFA director at will,” Seiberg says. “This means election risk is significant for efforts to end the conservatorship as Joe Biden could fire Mark Calabria as FHFA director on Jan. 20 if the Democrat wins the election.”

And, Seiberg said, that may happen because Democrats are less likely to want to re-privatize the companies. Democrats haven’t laid out a plan saying what they would like to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but it likely includes more government involvement than the Republicans.

While there’s no concrete plan for the GSEs, which were seized by a Republican administration in 2008, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has outlined some principals for housing finance reform.

“It is particularly important to ensure that underserved borrowers and communities are not overlooked,” Waters said. “ T h i s means housing finance reform will need to include a comprehensive st rate g y

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N

either party wants to get rid of the companies. What’s up in the air is whether they will be restored to something similar to their prior status as quasi-government entities – meaning, they traded as private companies on the New York Stock Exchange but benefited from an implied government backing – or whether they’ll remain in the hands of the government.

Mark Calabria, the former chief economist for Vice President Mike Pence who was nominated by President Donald Trump in 2018 to become the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has always listed the goal of ending their 12year conservatorships as one of his top priorities.

Calabria might push back if you describe it as “privatization,” because they already are private companies that happen to be in conservatorship. It’s just that the government owns 80% of their shares after seizing them in 2008 in the midst of the financial crisis, and controls every facet of their existence. See? “Privatize” is a phrase that comes to mind when Republicans are talking about shrinking government’s footprint – the Trump administration has proposed privatizing Medicare, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Postal Service and the nation’s roads and bridges.

So, it’s understandable that people use that term for the plan to release the GSEs from government control. But, in this case, let’s call it a “re-privatization.”

Last year, Calabria and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin released a socalled “roadmap” to re-privatize the mortgage giants. One of the first steps to “recap and release,” as the plans to recapitalize the companies is known, was letting them keep some of their profits.

In the dozen years since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were seized by the government, their profits have repaid the $191 billion in bailouts they received, plus they’ve sent an additional $115 billion to Treasury in what was known as a “sweep.” It left the

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“It is particularly important to ensure that underserved borrowers and communities are not overlooked...” around access to affordable mortgage credit, as well as access to affordable rental housing.”

Congress chartered the mortgage securitizers to expand access to home loans for average Americans – Fannie Mae in 1938 as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, and Freddie Mac in 1970 as part of legislation approved by a Democratic Congress and signed by President Richard Nixon, a Republican.

They’ve always had the mandate to foster affordable housing. The way the mandate was interpreted is what led to their downfall during the subprime mortgage crisis.

The main reason for the shaky finances that prompted the takeovers were investments in private-label subprime mortgage bonds, containing loans that didn’t qualify to be backed by the two companies but were bought – once they had been packaged into bonds

by Wall Street and sold to investors on the open market – as a backdoor way to fulfill their a f ford able -hou si ng Congressional mandate.

At the time, Wall Street was making money hand-over-fist packaging risky loans – the type Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don’t guarantee – into bonds and selling them on the open market trumpeting their the highest Triple A rating from com-

panies like Moody’s and Fitch, who were paid for giving their approval.

The problem was: Many of these subprime mortgages were given out on the premise that home prices would continue rising, and the risky borrowers could improve their credit with on-time payments and refinance before some of the more onerous provisions of their loans kicked in.

For example, a popular subprime product was an “exploding ARM,” meaning an adjustable-rate mortgage that had a super-low teaser rate that would more than triple in two years.

There was a housing boom going

on the first half of the 2000s, which every major housing forecaster predicted would lead to a “soft landing” – meaning, homeprice growth would slow down for a period of a few years to balance out the market.

SEPTEMBER 2020

It might have happened that way, if it were for the widespread subprime lending – what one market-watcher called “a monster under the water.”

When the risky loans began defaulting at the end of 2007, that soft landing turned into a housing crash, bringing down not just the value of subprime bonds and the houses they financed, but the safer securities such as those packaged by the GSEs as well, along with the whole housing market.

All the Wall Street executives got to keep their fat bonuses bestowed during the runup to the crash, and many got additional bonuses even while firms like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns toppled and the economy crashed.

But the housing market was broken.

While there had been regional housing crashes in recent decades, it was the first time since the Great Depression the national market crashed.

Prior to Fannie Mae’s creation by Congress during the Great Depression, someone who wanted to buy a home had to pass the muster of local banks who knew they would be holding the mortgage, and the risk, for the life of the loan.

With Fannie Mae, bankers could make loans that met the conservative – but not ultra-conservative – standards set by the government and sell them to Fannie Mae to be packaged into mortgage bonds that were sold to private investors.

That off-loading of risk created a liquid mortgage market that former Federal Reser ve Cha ir ma n A la n Greenspan and others would later call “the envy of the world.”

So, while the collapse of the financial system in 2008 was caused by subprime mortgages that didn’t meet Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac standards, the GSEs got swept into the debacle. To this day, many in Congress blame them for the financial crisis, even though they had been given the nod by regulators to add subprime bonds to their investment portfolios as a

The Biden campaign, on the other hand, proposed a $640 billion housing plan in February it said would improve affordability, end discrimination and protect consumers. The campaign mentioned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as part of those proposals, suggesting an increase in fees for GSE mortgages as a way to fund spending on affordable housing.

“Biden will increase the availability of affordable housing through the Housing Trust Fund, paid for by an increase in the assessment on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” the plan says. “These additional dollars will support the construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing units.”

Biden also proposed tax incentives to encourage the building of affordable housing, and a national “Homeowner and Renter Bill of Rights” modeled on the California Homeowner Bill of Rights that the campaign said is aimed at protecting people from abusive lenders and landlords.

If Trump is the winner in November’s election, it’s likely Calabria will remain as FHFA director and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be released from government conservatorship next year in a share offering that would set a record as the largest in history: Analysts have valued the offering between $150 billion and $200 billion.

In comparison, the largest IPO in history was Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian government’s petroleum and natural gas company. It raised $25.6 billion last year, beating Alibaba’s $25 billion IPO in 2014.

For the record, offering shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac technically wouldn’t be “initial public offerings,” because Fannie Mae began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1968, and Freddie Mac began trading on the same exchange in 1989.

The “offering” would be the 80% of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac held by the federal government since 2008.

Shares of the companies once traded above $68 and were considered as safe as U.S. Treasuries because of an implied government backing. They were kicked off the NYSE after their government takeovers and became penny stocks. In November 2008, you could have bought a share of Fannie Mae for 54 cents. Today, it would cost around $2.

If Biden is elected, Calabria may be searching for a new job, and the re-privatization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac likely will be off the table.

The GSEs will still be the two dominant players in the U.S. housing finance system, but it’s likely to be the government, and not private shareholders, calling the shots.

“Biden will increase the availability of affordable housing through the Housing Trust Fund, paid for by an increase in the assessment on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...”

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way to meet the affordable-housing mandate given to them by Congress.

After subprime defaults caused a panic on Wall Street and toppled major banks such as Washington Mutual, once one of the nation’s largest lenders, the damage spread throughout the economy and soon the “vanilla mortgages,” as GSE-backed loans are sometimes called, went bad too as borrowers lost their jobs and couldn’t pay their bills.

President George W. Bush, a Republican, made the decision to seize the companies in an effort to stabilize the housing market amid the chaos of the mortgage meltdown.

Henry Paulson, then Treasury secretary, made a colorful pledge to Congress in July 2008 when he was lobbying for the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Paulson told lawmakers that giving him authority to rescue the firms would reassure private investors, resulting in the government not having to take full control of the companies.

“If you have a bazooka in your pocket and people know it, you probably won’t have to use it,” Paulson said at the time.

It turned out he was wrong. He got the power to seize the companies, and less than two months later they were placed in government conservatorship. That November, Barack Obama won the election to be the next president.

In 2009, Obama pledged to back the beleaguered mortgage financiers no matter how big their losses might be in the next three years. As the housing market began a slow recovery, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac became profitable again as they packaged and sold those mortgages.

Now, the Trump campaign hasn’t spoken much about housing issues, he has however, shown over the past 3.5 years how he approaches the industry. For example, at the beginning of his presidency, Trump signed an executive order, mandating that two regulations must be eliminated for every regulation created. He has also ended several Obama-era regulations such as certain fair housing regulations.

To date, 860 regulatory actions have been withdrawn or removed from active status under Trump’s presidency. Under his watch, regulators have taken a smaller role and the government has taken a more hands-off approach to the housing industry.

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SEPTEMBER 2020

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2020

Table of Contents 33 34 35 36 37 38

S h a w n A n s le y Robert B aca C a n d a c e B a im a S ue B aker M ic h a e l B re m e r K e n B u rk e B re n d a C o lte r K a trin a C u m m in s B re n d a n C u rle y E rin D av is o n M a ri D e nto n A ru l D h e s ia s e e la n M ic h e le E s p a d a P a m F o rre s te r D o n n a G la n d S a ra h G o o d e M eagan Herzog J ay Is o m L o ri J o h n s o n B re n d a K in g D e a n K irc h e n S a b rin a L o p e z

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S hawn Low S te v e M a r z a b a l K a tie M a x s o n G a rre t t M ay s N z a u M u tis y a K a c e y O ls o n M a rk P a s te rn a k M a rin e P o nte s Te re s a R e b e r D av e R o b in e t t A n g ie R o m a n M ik e S im m o n s J e w e ll S im m s C in d y S n o w W illia m S t a p le s C o lle e n Te e a r s A le x Te p e B r y a n Tra e g e r R ic h Tu c k e r M a t t Tu lly C a thy Tu rn e r M ic h a e l Tw e e to n E d V a n D u re n S h ay V a u g h n J o h n W a lla c e S h a n e W e s tra J e ff Z a k r z e w s k i M a rc Z in n e r

O perations

hav e b e c o m e inc re a s ing ly im p o r ta nt in to d ay ’s e nv iro nm e nt, and s o m e c o m p anie s hav e ev e n o ff e re d s ig n -o n b o nus e s fo r the s e ro le s a s the ne e d fo r the m he ig hte ns . M any of this y e ar ’s Ins id e rs are fro m the s e o p e ratio ns ro le s , and the ir tale nt w a s p ut to the te s t d uring unp re c e d e nte d tim e s . A nd the s e o p e ra tio ns s up e rs tars g uid e d the ir c o m p anie s thro ug h it w ith e a s e – fro m m ov ing w o rk fo rc e s re m o te to c re a ting ne w d ig ita l e le m e nts in a tim e o f s o c ia l d is ta nc ing . T his y e a r ’s 5 0 Ins id e rs re p re s e nt the uns ung he ro e s of the ir c omp anie s , the te am that, b e hind the s c e ne s , k e p t ev e r y thing o n tra c k .

Robert Baca

Managing Director

Senior Vice President of Technical Operations

Vice Capital Markets

Ellie Mae

Over the last year, Shawn Ansley has automated many of the firm’s day-to-day processes to improve operational efficiency and eliminate opportunities for human error. He is also responsible for several recent LOS integrations, including last year’s integrations with Lending QB and OpenClose, that allow information to seamlessly flow back-andforth between Vice Capital and clients. Ansley has also revolutionized the company’s pull-through modeling for more accurate pipeline management and has performed more than 570 semi-annual individual client analyses. Ansley is responsible for developing APIs with both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, providing Vice Capital with the ability to pull pricing from and commit loans with the government-sponsored enterprises directly, thereby dramatically speeding up this critical process. Thanks to the automated systems, enhanced connectivity and improved data access that Ansley established, the firm was able to confidently steer its clients through the market chaos brought on

by COVID-19.

As senior vice president of technical operations, Robert Baca runs the strategy and execution for the technical infrastructure that supports one of the largest client bases in the housing industry. With more than 40% of all loans in the U.S. being originated on the Ellie Mae platform, Baca leads the organization that is responsible for the scale and performance required to handle this percentage of the overall residential mortgage market. In addition to managing this, he and his team connect lenders to the entire mortgage supply chain of third-party providers through the largest cloud network in the industry, all while ensuring that each of the millions of transactions and data exchanges that take place do so as expected and with the highest level of security and data protection. Baca built critical organizations that are accountable for such disciplines as change and release management, performance engineering and Ellie Mae’s first automated testing framework. He was also one of the key stakeholders that introduced the Agile methodology to Ellie Mae.

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Shawn Ansley

Candace Baima

Sue Baker

Vice President, National Underwriting Manager

Vice President of Product and Client Services

CMG Financial

Optimal Blue

One of Candace Baima’s recent projects included creating jumbo guidelines for a new jumbo investor. These jumbo guidelines were critical to establishing a secure partnership with the investor and ensuring that CMG Financial’s borrowers continue to have more access to more loan products. Additionally, Baima designed an enhanced training program for onboarding new underwriters and promoting processors to underwriters. CMG Financial’s underwriters depend on the robust training program and mentorship from Baima to achieve the company’s high standard of productivity. Most recently, Baima was a key figure in the organization’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like other lenders, CMG Financial had to adjust rapidly to a remote work environment and other challenges. Baima was proactive about keeping up with changes to agency guidelines regarding forbearance and keeping the underwriting team aware of all these changes from a safe distance. Baima’s diligence allowed CMG Financial to continue to provide high-level service to its customers without disruptions.

Sue Baker’s background and industry knowledge enable her to immediately envision a more efficient workflow, no matter what part of the mortgage process she is focused on. She has the innate ability to then combine these workflows with others to design highly compelling mortgage technology platforms. Mortgage lenders have generated millions of successful transactions and employed a host of efficiencies with the automation Baker and her teams have designed over the last few decades. Additionally, Baker maintains a remarkable focus on client support and exceptional customer service. Over the last several years, she has led many initiatives to re-engineer the company’s account management and customer support functions. As part of Baker’s ongoing effort to align product development closely to client needs, Optimal Blue conducts numerous collaborative feedback sessions with clients on all product initiatives - all singlehandedly architected by Baker. The results have created a high-touch, client-centric culture that has been well received by clients.

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Michael Bremer

Ken Burke

Executive, Flood Solutions

Vice President of Servicing Operations

CoreLogic

Freddie Mac

Michael Bremer has been a player in the flood determination industry for more than two decades. His operational expertise and deep understanding of the business fuels his capacity to drive quality assurance by minimizing risk and maximizing regulatory compliance. He has had a direct hand in making CoreLogic the leading flood determination solutions provider through various leadership roles inside and outside the organization. Over the last 12 months, Bremer has pushed the business to new heights by achieving precision-driven results for the company through automation, delivering advanced flood products, and leading industry-pioneering work. Under Bremer’s supervision, CoreLogic has automated 94% of its core flood determination service.

Bremer also spearheaded the creation and execution of unique flood products that support evolving industry needs and allow clients to stay ahead of changing regulations put forth by FEMA. Bremer led multiple industry-wide initiatives focused on a FEMA partnership to drive improvements and quality delivery of flood insurance rate maps.

As the vice president of servicing operations at Freddie Mac, Ken Burke is able to use his role to take a bold vision, create a smart strategy and make it a successful reality. Based on client feedback, Burke challenged his team to remove client pain points in the real estate owned space. In 2019, he led “REO Reimagined” through delivery, relieving servicers of most post-foreclosure responsibilities for REO properties by outsourcing these responsibilities to a third party. Client feedback was overwhelmingly positive. In late 2019, Burke partnered with technology and change management teams to champion a new platform called Servicing Gateway. This impacted 7,600 external users and all of Freddie Mac’s nearly 1,200 servicers.

Burke works tirelessly to automate manual processes. One initiative reduced turn times by over 30 days and led to about 80% less field entry. Data quality improved as a result. Burke has also been leading operational strategy for two critical initiatives that will transform key functions of servicing.

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Brenda Colter

Katrina Cummins

Planet Home Lending

Envoy Mortgage

Director of Branch Advocacy

Vice President of Learning and Development

Brenda Colter is passionate about supporting salespeople. She spent the last year analyzing what she heard as a branch advocate, and then applied those learnings to improve the onboarding process as well as corporate support for distributed retail. Colter revamped a weeklong onboarding curriculum, nicknamed “Brenda Colter University.” Now, new mortgage loan originators interact with people from around the company so they can make essential contacts in marketing, IT, operations and other divisions that support them. Interacting with MLOs teaches the divisional employees important lessons and leads to new ideas that support the growth, success and profitability of branches and MLOs. Colter became the “one-stop shop” originators can turn to when they encounter roadblocks. She’s everything an originator needs to get up and running because she’s committed to their excellence. Months later, when they’re settled in and thinking bigger, MLOs often circle back to Colter to talk about ways to grow their business even more.

Katrina Cummins oversees all online eLearning course development and assignments, as well as comprehensive live training classes designed to bring new branch associates up to speed quickly. She is also heavily involved in many company initiatives to ensure consistent communication, documentation and training is provided. While at Envoy, Cummins has spearheaded and redesigned the new-hire training curriculum requirements and live new-hire classes, as well as the implementation of a new learning management system specifically designed to make training more user-friendly for mortgage professionals. Cummins has transformed branches, equipping them with the tools and knowledge necessary to use Envoy’s financial technology systems with ease. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cummins not only rolled out Envoy’s “Triple Threat” initiative - consisting of the company’s new POS EnGen, Day 1 Certainty and eClosing - but she also swiftly changed the company-wide training program from an in-person national roadshow to an online virtual event within a week.

Brendan Curley

Erin Davison

First Guaranty Mortgage Corporation

Premier Mortgage Resources

Underwriting Manager

Brendan Curley has been a strategic leader at First Guaranty Mortgage Corporation, steering the company through an operational transformation in the post-closing department. He created a successful and more transparent department by eliminating aged inventory, increasing timely deliverability and improving the company’s relationship with its partners. In March 2020, Curley’s team reached the pinnacle of its efforts by achieving a best-company track record of timely delivery of post-closing documents within FGMC’s Ginnie Mae portfolio, hitting a 0% pool delinquency rate. He helped lead the firm through the MERS audit process with zero material findings, placing great importance on staying compliant. These are results of the creativity and innovation Curley brings to his role as he continuously improves processes and tweaks workflows. With his guidance on increasing efficiencies, FGMC has been able to decrease post-closings’ cost-perloan by more than 250%. Curley’s expertise, attention to detail and personality greatly contribute to the success of the firm.

For more than 35 years, Erin Davison has dedicated herself to helping buyers achieve the dream of homeownership by creating new operations systems and efficiencies and by streamlining the overall operations process. If you ask her why she does it, the answer is simple: she is genuinely passionate that everyone deserves the chance to own their own home. As an underwriting manager at Premier Mortgage Resources, Davison is constantly driven by the cause behind the mortgage industry and what makes it tick: getting people into a home that they love. Though she has held nearly every role in operations, in her current role Davison now has a new focus in underwriting at Premier Mortgage Resources. Over the last 12 months, Davison has underwritten right alongside her underwriting team. No task is beneath her. If someone needs help, she’s there to get the job done.

Davison continually performs at the highest level of excellence; the excellence that is now directly tied to her reputation and for which she is well known.

SEPTEMBER 2020

3 5 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

Assistant Vice President of Post-Closing Loan Admin

Mari Denton

Arul Dhesiaseelan

LBA Ware

Floify

Director of Client Success

Chief Engineer

Since Mari Denton was hired, the client roster for CompenSafe, LBA Ware’s flagship incentive compensation management platform, has nearly doubled. This growth is attributable not just to the sales team, but also to Denton’s team for maintaining consistently high customer satisfaction and retention. Thanks to Denton’s management savvy, LBA Ware has only needed to bring on one new software implementation consultant while simultaneously reducing help desk tickets by 70%. Denton also launched a feedback program to help understand clients’ pain points. A top finding of this program was that clients craved more training opportunities. To alleviate this pain point, Denton launched CompenSafe University, a two-day training program that helps participants and their lender employers derive maximum value from CompenSafe. Denton ingeniously created a CSU certification that empowers participants with a marketable professional skill and positions them as subject matter experts within their organizations.

Arul Dhesiaseelan has supported the improvement of Floify’s interview-style digital 1003 mortgage application, as well as its enterprise-grade disclosure desk and hybrid eClosing offerings. He also led the company’s third-party integration efforts by filling the role of liaison between Floify and its more than three dozen strategic partners. His efforts have pushed Floify to develop numerous solutions with complementary lending products, including Plaid, Dropbox, DocuSign, Equifax, Encompass, credit reporting agencies and loan origination systems. One of Dhesiaseelan’s recent accomplishments was leading the development of advanced functionality that allows lenders to export 1003 data to PDF format, further simplifying the review and signing tasks. He also established the framework for mortgage teams to customize and adopt personally branded progressive web applications. Outside of Floify’s web app, Dhesiaseelan has supported the company’s mobile offerings and the rebuilding efforts for iOS and Android apps to be fully white-labeled by enterprise lenders.

3 6 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

Michele Espada

Pam Forrester

Senior Director of Talent Acquisition

Vice President, Division Operations Management

Freddie Mac

First American Mortgage Solutions

As the senior director of talent acquisition at Freddie Mac, Michele Espada’s leadership and forward-thinking approach to recruiting top talent allowed her team to transition to 100% virtual hiring over the timespan of just one weekend in mid-March. Because of Espada’s foresight, the transition to virtual hiring has been seamless. In fact, the average time to fill open positions has decreased by three business days since mid-March and the talent team has hired and successfully onboarded more than 250 employees since then. To ensure a diverse workforce, Espada and her team partner with Thurgood Marshall, Hispanic Scholarship Fund, WayUp and others to build diverse candidate pipelines at the early career/entry level. She also leverages the company’s employment branding strategy to reach diverse candidate pools through targeted campaigns visible on sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. As this work demonstrates, Espada has already laid the foundation for successfully leading Freddie Mac’s talent strategy into the future.

Pam Forrester’s three decades of problem-solving for lenders, servicers and investors make her an effective operations executive.

Leveraging her comprehensive knowledge of the post-closing and servicing space, Forrester works with clients to customize and execute business process outsourcing strategies according to their needs.

Forrester has played an integral role in building First American’s CleanFile Solutions’ global business operations into the premiere post-closing provider it is today. Most recently, Forrester led the CleanFile Solutions’ COVID-19 pandemic response initiatives, which maintained continuity in the division’s operational supply chain.

Specifically, she expanded service hours, supported the deployment of a well-trained back-up team across multiple locations and implemented a practiced communication strategy to keep every aspect of the operation in sync. Through Forrester’s leadership, innovative thinking and persistence, the team continues to maintain high service levels with clients while growing the business through this tumultuous time.

SEPTEMBER 2020

Donna Gland

Sarah Goode

Senior Vice President

Director of Marketing and Communications

National Association of Realtors

Denver Metro Association of Realtors

As senior vice president, Donna Gland has evolved what was the traditional role of human resources at the National Association of Realtors from one that was highly transactional to one that is highly strategic, working alongside NAR’s CEO to influence and direct areas such as employee engagement, association culture and major organizational changes. In this capacity, Gland has become a trusted advisor not only to the CEO, but also to the other senior leaders of the organization. Over the last 12 months, she has achieved a number of accomplishments. For example, Gland sourced, interviewed and hired six vice presidents in key roles across the organization.

She also worked to collaborate with business leaders to refine the organizational structures of three of NAR’s largest teams. Gland deployed NAR’s first employee engagement survey and used the results to develop tailor-made action plans for each business unit. And she designed and deployed the organization’s first diversity and inclusion program in October 2019.

As the COVID-19 pandemic began, Sarah Goode played an instrumental role in producing timely information and guidance for an industry in panic. Her contributions also helped Realtors continue to operate safely under Colorado’s stay-at-home executive order. Goode led the Denver Metro Association of Realtors team’s marcom program to quickly refocus its strategy to prioritize disseminating timely and relevant information to its more than 7,000 members. She adapted all available communication channels to share topical, real-time information through a dedicated landing page, ongoing email communication and continuous social media and blog posts. Goode created a COVID-19 portal on DMAR’s website as a central communication hub for the metro-Denver residential real estate community. It became the most-visited page in March and April for DMAR. Additionally, Goode managed the internal production and external distribution of the Special COVID-19 Market Trends Reports in March, April, May and June, which were sourced in about 100 local and national stories.

Jay Isom

Senior Director of Strategic Operations

Senior Vice President of Title Production

HomeLight

Xome

As one of HomeLight’s earliest employees, Senior Director of Strategic Operations Meagan Herzog built the company’s operations from the ground up and created what is now the strategic operations team, a unique combination of sales, business and product operations and management. Her team specializes in identifying improvement opportunities across the entire sales funnel in order to deliver the best-possible experience to clients. Under Herzog’s leadership, HomeLight has seen a 100% increase in lead conversion, experienced a more than 500% increase in lead volume and grown the sales team from 10 people to more than 130 today. Over the past 12 months, Herzog and her team have spearheaded innovative products for HomeLight’s sales team. Such products are related to the organization’s new agent services product lines, including the new title and escrow business, as well as its innovative mortgage business. Herzog also led the development of HomeLight’s internal sales CRMs, which increased efficiency across the team.

After the pandemic caused 70% of Xome’s outsourced title-production capacity to come to a halt, Jay Isom and his team tackled this challenge to rapidly regain and then surpass pre-COVID production capacities. To maintain continuity, Isom tapped into his professional network to identify third-party business process outsourcing providers to supplement the vendors Xome had lost. For context, this was an especially difficult time to be “short” on title production capacity as record-low refinancing rates catapulted the title business into overdrive to manage the significant increase in demand for their services.

Isom’s outside-the-box thinking guided him to leverage existing and counterpart teams at Xome, providing them with necessary training to continue servicing the influx of title volume. Isom and his team were able to secure five new vendors and successfully recuperate the 70% off-shore title production capacity in a matter of six weeks.

Meanwhile, the training Isom’s team administered kept the lights on while reinforcements were secured.

SEPTEMBER 2020

3 7 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

Meagan Herzog

Lori Johnson

Brenda King

DocMagic

Genworth Mortgage Insurance

Director of Client Services

Senior Manager of Credit Policy

Lori Johnson has many responsibilities, including the company’s business-critical new client onboarding experience. Over the last year, and during 2020 in particular, Johnson has taken multiple marquee mortgage bankers and mega lenders live. With companies now working from home, Johnson was also faced with another challenge: implementing, training and fully onboarding new clients remotely.

She worked feverishly to arrive at a remote model that effectively supported distance-based implementations involving multiple teams and parties - all performed remotely. It’s tough enough for companies to turn on a dime and establish a work-from-home infrastructure due to a rapidly spreading pandemic. From an operations management perspective, Johnson helped her own team quickly transition to operating virtually while simultaneously coordinating an influx of new client implementations - also done virtually. Additionally, Johnson smartly put together a remote training program to quickly train new DocMagic implementation specialists to manage new business.

Brenda King has been leading the credit policy team in developing and maintaining sustainable underwriting guidelines, as well as managing the portfolio relationships with customers. King does this skillfully with considerable patience, agility, effort and problem-solving, while maintaining a positive and supportive demeanor. Most recently, she quickly stepped up to lead her team through a tremendous amount of COVID-19 underwriting guideline updates in partnership with the government-sponsored entities to ensure that loans were not only appropriately underwritten, but also that those updates were quickly and clearly shared across the business and with customers. In addition to serving as the business’ co-lead on a year-long project to update internal systems for guideline rules, exceptions and messaging, King also serves an important role as Genworth’s ombudsperson, providing a confidential venue for Genworth employees to obtain answers to policy questions, raise any integrity concerns and facilitate a fair and objective review of all matters.

3 8 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

Dean Kirchen

Sabrina Lopez

Senior Vice President of WFGDefault Services

Managing Director of Wholesale Operations

WFG National Title Insurance

Home Point Financial

Over the past year, Dean Kirchen and his team have been working on integrating the various third-party foreclosure platforms utilized by their clients with WFG National Title Insurance’s Resware production system. The system utilizes open architecture, which allowed the company to do a process flow integration that will eliminate redundancies, keystrokes and errors. Kirchen’s understanding of how the foreclosure software is used on the client’s side helped the team achieve their collective goal of a “next generation” processing unit at WFG. Kirchen continues to provide regular industry updates to his clients and the WFG organization and underwriters. His default services group offers valuable insight on commercial foreclosures as well. On the residential side, the focus has been on forbearance and the changing regulations related to foreclosure in this market. For this reason, Kirchen led the development of a new forbearance title information report, which has become an important addition to the division’s suite of services.

Sabrina Lopez joined Home Point Financial in April 2019 with the responsibility to build an operations site from the ground up in Chandler, Arizona. In her first few months, Lopez worked tirelessly to design a strategic game plan, which included hiring top talent to join her in achieving this goal. In just one year, Lopez’s team has funded over $1.24 billion in loans, grown to more than 200 employees and is on track to fund $1.45 billion in June. Her team has continued to have record-breaking months while maintaining the top production operations team spot. Now, over the past few months, Lopez has taken on the added responsibility of overseeing an additional operations team based in Michigan. In her role as managing director of wholesale operations, she led the team to become the first in Home Point Financial’s history to fund a full $1 billion in mortgage loan volume.

Lopez currently oversees Home Point’s consumer direct operations and is in the process of leading them to yet another record-breaking month.

SEPTEMBER 2020

Shawn Low

Steven Marzabal

Better.com

Common Securitization Solutions

Cofounder and Head of Operations

Senior Director of Securitization Operations

The cofounder and head of operations for Better.com, Shawn Low oversees the backbone of the company’s workforce, which covers areas such as sales, loan fulfillment and Better Real Estate. Over the last 12 months, Low has been particularly focused on building operational scale for the company and preparing it for growth. In addition to this, he also oversaw the operational, cross-functional execution of three partnerships that now account for 30% of Better. com’s mortgage origination volume. Low has also owned product development and engineering of the brand’s core mortgage origination technology. Over this last year, the tech investments that Low has led decreased labor cost per loan by 25% to 30%. Low is also a co-founder of Better.com and has played an instrumental role in shaping the evolution of its vision, strategy and operating model from the beginning. In the earliest days of Better.com, one of his biggest contributions was setting up the company’s India office as well as its offshoring capabilities.

Strategic and passionate by nature, Steven Marzabal is a highly collaborative and influential leader who demonstrates a keen ability to influence other leaders across the organization. Marzabal consistently demonstrates intellectual curiosity and investment in progressive thinking related to operations and technology. He is able to comprehend many facets of the marketplace and develop potential solutions to industry-wide challenges. Marzabal has had a wide reach within Common Securitization Solutions, demonstrated by his leadership of several instrumental teams in support of the June 3, 2019, go-live of the Uniform Mortgage-Backed Security, as well as ongoing business simplification related to the firm’s $5 trillion of assets under administration. Marzabal has also positioned his team to provide critical strategic support to ensure not only that CSS continues to focus on the now, but also to expand the company’s services for what lies ahead, including playing a leadership role for CSS’s new initiatives with different sectors of the mortgage industry.

Garrett Mays

Director of Valuation and Vendor Management

NotaryCam

USRES

As the lead on technology, product quality assurance and compliance, Katie Maxson has been a notable asset to NotaryCam. After serving as notary manager for just over a year, Maxson was promoted to technology/product quality assurance and compliance lead in February 2020. Her problem-solving skills served the company well when the COVID-19 pandemic created internal challenges. Maxson helped develop a new workflow process that enabled NotaryCam to manage a 300% increase in demand for remote online notarization. She also saw the need for and took the initiative to create a better internal structure for the IT and notary support teams. These improvements included a redesigned scheduling process, which Maxson still oversees as part of her responsibilities. She is also responsible for training and managing the team of IT agents who assist the notaries. As part of the development/IT team, Maxson continues to contribute ideas and designs to improve the workflow and functionality of the signing rooms and overall customer experience.

Throughout his career with USRES, Garrett Mays has maintained a positive attitude with an unshakeable business ethical compass. Mays listens to every customer’s goals and objectives, building rapport and providing unparalleled insights that are invaluable to their company’s overarching initiatives and strategic direction. His personal approach has significantly impacted USRES’s customer satisfaction rating. Mays spearheaded the reinvention of the company’s valuation services division by decentralizing the operational structure and creating specialized programs to suit each individual client’s requirements.

By championing such pilot programs, Mays improved the company’s valuation product margin by more than 37%. In recent months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mays successfully transitioned the internal overall operations to a remote workplace. His acute business acumen enabled him to execute the business continuity plan expertly and seamlessly, with no degradation and no breaks in service for clients or employees.

SEPTEMBER 2020

3 9 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

Katie Maxson

Technology/Product Quality Assurance and Compliance Lead

Nzau Mutisya

Kacey Olson

Qualia

ACES Risk Management

Director of Finance

Director of Compliance

As director of finance, Nzau Mutisya has played an instrumental role in shaping Qualia’s sales operations, customer success, finance and operations teams. In the fall of 2019, Mutisya managed the fundraising process for Qualia’s $55 million Series C funding round led by Tiger Global, bringing Qualia’s total funding to $95 million. He had also handled the data room and diligence for Qualia’s $33 million Series B in 2018. In addition to his role in raising venture capital for the company, Mutisya is responsible for the full-cycle development of Qualia’s Bank Partnership channel, having conceived of the idea, negotiated contracts/pricing and led initial sales. He was able to structure mutually beneficial agreements, get contracts and redlines across the line and develop a program that helps to both grow Qualia’s bank partners’ deposits by millions of dollars and save Qualia’s customers thousands. In the first six months of the development of this partnership channel, the company closed more than $1 million in annual recurring revenue.

Kacey Olson’s contributions during COVID-19 have been invaluable.

She is the driving force behind ACES Risk Management’s NewsHub and its daily updates, which has more than 21,000 subscribers. Olson’s team scans hundreds of sources to find news stories and compliance deadlines to include in the NewsHub. In response to the pandemic, Olson implemented new tracking features to the NewsHub. As ARMCO tracked all compliance news related to COVID-19, subscribers were able to search for all COVID-19 compliance updates and news within the “Disaster News” category. Additionally, Olson and her team created a new question set category within its ACES Intelligent Questionnaire, ACES IQ, functionality to house all temporary regulatory provisions issued by state and federal agencies and the government-sponsored enterprises in response to the COVID-19 national emergency declaration. The new category provided ACES users with a centralized repository inside ACES Audit Technology to ensure audits are conducted using the most up-to-date compliance standards.

4 0 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

Mark Pasternak

Marine Pontes

Senior Vice President of Operations

Director of Client Support and Data Management

Academy Mortgage

ClosingCorp

Mark Pasternak gained invaluable experience in sales and operations during his 27-year career in the mortgage industry. He understands the importance of communication and teamwork. Two keys to his success are fostering partnerships between sales and operations and promoting a culture of continued improvement and operational efficiency. Pasternak is laser-focused on providing the highest level of service to develop business relationships, fuel growth and create more opportunities at every level. He is readily available to his sales partners and operations teams to share his insights. Over Pasternak’s eight-year tenure with Academy Mortgage, he has been tasked with leading a number of different functions, and he successfully turned multiple regional operation teams into best-in-class operations in their markets. Pasternak currently oversees a specialty underwriting unit and operations teams in six states, playing a key role in the development and enhancement of the company’s overarching operations processes and procedures.

Marine Pontes oversees ClosingCorp’s data management and support staff of nearly two dozen people responsible for managing cases and support inquiries from almost 400 clients. Pontes applies her diverse knowledge by representing the customer’s voice and needs throughout every aspect of ClosingCorp’s solutions. She has worked alongside departments across the organization to ensure successful implementation and adoption. After spending time in different areas of the company, Pontes has unique knowledge of ClosingCorp’s operations and utilizes that knowledge to succeed in her current position. Since her promotion in 2018, Pontes has, among other accomplishments, improved support response and resolution times by 45%; created a training program for new employees; implemented procedures aimed at improving the quality of support that ClosingCorp provides to its clients; improved data quality, resulting in claims of less than 1%; and mentored direct reports, peers and others, helping them expand their capabilities and reach their career goals.

SEPTEMBER 2020

Teresa Reber

Dave Robinett

Home Point Financial

OJO Labs

Senior Managing Director of Origination Operations

General Counsel

Teresa Reber is passionate, driven and exceeds expectations. In less than one year, Reber has propelled the company’s consumer direct loan volume from $49 million to $200 million and doubled its third-party origination loan volume. She’s successfully proven her ability to build operations to scale. Reber’s leadership and excellence at Home Point Financial have enabled the success of many associates as she remains employee-focused. She has shown incredible leadership at the company, implementing critical process improvements that have not only driven better customer experiences but capacity gains and cost improvements as well. Reber has worked tirelessly to recruit top talent and create an organizational structure that supports multi-billion volume growth, all the while remaining focused on her teammates’ success. She has proven her ability to drive bestin-class quality improvements, lower costs and be successful in any market environment. Reber’s passion for operations and leadership at Home Point has directly impacted the company’s ascent.

In his role as general counsel, Dave Robinett led OJO Labs through a more than $60 million funding round and the acquisition of Movoto amidst a global pandemic. In October 2019, the opportunity to acquire Movoto landed on Robinett’s desk. He spent the next eight months carefully vetting the company and uncovering the massive opportunity in joining forces with this little-known, but rapidly growing, search site already at scale. After several PowerPoint presentations, deep dives and conversations with the team at Movoto, Robinett began scoping potential deal terms. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

In light of economic events and the impact on real estate, Robinett went back to the drawing board to reevaluate deal terms and logistics, while simultaneously guiding the OJO Labs team through a substantial funding round that would ultimately allow for the acquisition of Movoto. Robinett was able to identify a partnership agreement that worked for all stakeholders and generated excitement from both OJO Labs and Movoto.

Angie Roman

Mike Simmons

Paramount Residential Mortgage Group

Finicity

Director of Business Development

Angie Roman has been with Paramount Residential Mortgage Group since its inception in 2001. She has vast knowledge of the mortgage industry from 20 years of experience and has demonstrated tremendous loyalty. As the company’s director of secondary marketing, Roman has been and remains pivotal in running and managing PRMG’s secondary marketing efforts on a daily basis. Roman works around the clock on these efforts for the company. She is both personable and accessible, and she is consistent in her character and work ethic. Roman maintains the perfect balance of “acting like an owner” while always “feeling like the customer.” Her sense of fairness, penchant for detail, empathy and leadership make her invaluable to her team, the owners and the entire origination team at PRMG. She has a terrific ability to sort through data and background stories to find the best outcome possible for all involved. Roman is always selflessly training for the betterment of her team and their long-term career success.

Mike Simmons has made numerous strides in his work with fintechs and large mortgage lenders in the digital mortgage space. In the last 12 months, his work at Finicity in helping the comapny’s clients navigate every aspect of technical integration with LOS and POS platforms has grown access for digital verifications to more than 80% of mortgage lenders, leveling the playing field for lenders of all sizes. Without Simmons’ diligence and skills, multiple independent and small mortgage lenders wouldn’t have the resources or technical expertise to compete and keep up with the digital transformation happening in the mortgage lending market. During his four years at the company, Simmons has held a variety of roles, including inside sales and direct account management. He has worked tirelessly toward helping Finicity’s partners and clients be the disruptors, rather than the disrupted. Simmons has shown continuous growth and improvement, which culminated in his promotion to director of business development in 2019.

SEPTEMBER 2020

4 1 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

Director of Secondary Marketing

Jewell Simms

Cindy Snow

Veterans United Home Loans

FormFree

ITTeamLead

Director of Product

In his role as IT team lead at Veterans United Home Loans, Jewell Simms has been critical to implementing the company’s mobile app, which launched in March 2020. As more than 80% of the company’s employees made a swift transition to working remotely, the app became a tool for them to stay connected to the latest company news and updates. Before the app launched, the content on the company’s intranet was only available to most employees while working in the office. Because this information would now be available outside of the company’s network, it was particularly tricky, but necessary, to securely merge its entire database of more than 3,500 employees into brand new software. During this project, Simms worked with the application company for weeks and bridged the gap between several internal departments. The company’s goal at launch time was a 30% adoption rate within 30 days. Simms’ hard work helped them exceed this goal with an adoption rate of more than 60% before the 30-day mark.

In her role, Cindy Snow makes sure every product decision is tightly aligned with the priorities of each internal function — from development to marketing and from sales to compliance. Since joining FormFree just over one year ago, Snow has been instrumental in facilitating partnerships and product updates that enhance lender speed, pull-through rates and security. Her first project at FormFree was launching a shared site that gives lenders on-demand access to current and historic documentation relevant to their tech implementations of AccountChek. Snow went on to develop processes that both expedite the time it takes new customers to go live and greatly reduce the occurrence of bugs and incompatibility issues. Shortly into her tenure at FormFree, Snow was promoted for her ability to strategically optimize where the organization spends time to ensure customers receive a better experience. Now she keeps every part of the organization marching forward on the same path to ensure organizational success.

4 2 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

William Staples

Colleen Teears

Vice President of Retail Channel Operations

Senior Vice President, Director of Administration

First Guaranty Mortgage Corp.

Radian

William Staples has led the evolution of First Guaranty Mortgage Corp.’s retail operations since he joined the company two years ago.

With his investment in his team, established work ethic and drive for success, Staples has elevated retail operations to new heights. As the vice president of retail channel operations, Staples recently grew his team by nearly 300% in size and has scaled cost-effectively to meet bigger production goals month-over-month. Since starting at FGMC, Staples has been able to help the firm succeed in increasing its mortgage origination volume tenfold. This exceptional growth couldn’t have been achieved without the guidance and coaching Staples provided to the retail operations team. And when the company switched to a remote workforce as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Staples’ team was on the cutting edge and well-prepared and proved to be even more productive working from home. Staples’ ability to continue to connect and motivate his remote team is a testament to his authentic leadership.

Under Colleen Teears’ leadership, Radian takes business continuity and emergency management extremely seriously and was fully prepared to transition to remote work long before it became necessary this past spring. In the last year alone, Teears recruited two leaders to manage business continuity and emergency management and facilities. And while many companies’ business continuity and emergency management plans tend to get a little dusty and outdated, Teears has always made sure they are actively updated through continual collaboration with all relevant parties. Teears has worked over the years to ensure that her preparedness teams reflect diverse perspectives and have total buy-in from the company’s senior leadership. All of that groundwork proved invaluable during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Radian’s business partners and staff have universally noted how well the company has operated during this challenging time. Although it was the result of a team effort, it couldn’t have happened without Teears.

SEPTEMBER 2020

Alex Tepe

Bryan Traeger

eOriginal

Maxwell

Senior Product Manager

Head of Customer Success

As the senior product manager at eOriginal, Alex Tepe is passionate about finding innovative technology solutions to the largest problems that impact the mortgage industry, and he inspires the same commitment within the teams he leads. Since joining the company in 2016, Tepe has proven himself to be a valuable team member and innovative leader. He has been instrumental in designing eClosing and eVault technology. In 2019, Tepe spearheaded the development of ClosingCenter, eOriginal’s flagship digital mortgage solution. His professional contributions to eOriginal have allowed the company to meet the increasing needs for digitization. After COVID-19 stayat-home orders were put into place, remote closings became a necessity. Tepe’s drive to make ClosingCenter a reality last year meant eOriginal was able to respond to the industry’s needs for remote, contactless closings and end-to-end digital lending. This enabled eOriginal’s partners to keep their businesses functioning and the mortgage engine running.

Bryan Traeger brings extensive industry experience and technology expertise to his lender customers. He is one of the key faces helping more than 200 small- to mid-sized community lenders across the country make a step-change decision in advancing their businesses.

Traeger’s impact goes beyond helping lenders evaluate and launch new mortgage technology. Traeger’s empathy and commitment to empowering his customers plays a crucial role in their satisfaction and building lasting relationships. In 2019, Traeger led a team responsible for the adoption of more than $26B in volume through the Maxwell platform while boasting a more than 90% renewal rate/ contract extension. As if that’s not enough, Traeger constantly looks for additional ways to contribute value to the company. From writing blog posts and co-hosting Maxwell’s podcast, Clear to Close, to acting as an internal subject matter expert and hosting team happy hours, Traeger jumps at any opportunity to work with and empower his teammates.

Matt Tully

Chief Operating Officer

Vice President of Agency Affairs and Chief Compliance Officer

Waterstone Mortgage Corporation

Sagent Lending Technologies

Rich Tucker prioritizes people, which has made him successful in his role. He’s extremely approachable, friendly, knowledgeable and willing to do whatever it takes to see his team members succeed. As the recently promoted chief operating officer at Waterstone Mortgage, he manages his team with sincerity, transparency and enthusiasm— and never misses the opportunity to celebrate a team member’s achievements. In a world where companies value the bottom line more than people, Tucker is refreshingly different. He was instrumental in Waterstone Mortgage Corporation having its best year ever in 2019, with nearly $3 billion in annual loan volume and more than 14,000 units. While the national economy struggled through the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, WMC had record-shattering production in March, April and May — mostly thanks to Tucker and his team.

Tucker is well-respected by his employees, colleagues and the sales team. His positivity, sense of humor and tireless work ethic make him an incredible asset to WMC.

Matt Tully played an integral role in helping Sagent reinvent and modernize how lenders power the homeownership and lending experience.

Through a compliance and information security lens, he has driven servicing innovation rooted in compliance best practices that have allowed mortgage servicers to react and adapt in real time to seismic shifts in mortgage servicing policy, particularly in light of the COVID19 pandemic. Specifically, Tully spearheaded Sagent’s compliance and information security strategy, and made some impressive strides during his first year with the company. Among other accomplishments, Tully served as Sagent’s first chief compliance officer; rebuilt the compliance and information security organization by recruiting, onboarding and training five new team members; identified and built strong relationships with the mortgage industry’s biggest players in Washington; and transformed Sagent’s user experience, for both loan servicer and borrower, to prioritize compliance and information security industry standards throughout the mortgage servicing process.

SEPTEMBER 2020

4 3 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

Rich Tucker

Cathy Turner

Michael Tweeton

Docutech

Equifax Mortgage Services

Senior Vice President of Client Success

Senior Director of Global Solutions Delivery

Organization management is one of Cathy Turner’s greatest strengths, and she has proven to be a tremendous asset to Docutech. Turner effectively scaled her team with an innovative design by creating client tiers to better align support models based on client needs. She has recruited and developed new talent in skilled and technical roles, and instituted specialized metrics to measure team performance.

Turner, focused on the big picture, spearheaded the creation of a client advisory board and a user advisory council to help optimize client satisfaction. Additionally, she developed—and now executes and monitors — Docutech’s net promoter score program, delivering ongoing increases despite the challenges of growth and scale.

Turner’s spirit of service shines in every interaction with her, whether it be one-on-one or at an executive, strategic level. Her sense of humor, humility and grace enable her to rise above stressful situations to deliver meaningful results for the company’s clients and the organization as a whole.

Throughout the tumultuous months in the mortgage industry in spring 2020, Mike Tweeton was at the helm of a team facing an array of challenges. As the senior director of global solutions delivery, he pushed to improve the recovery of turnaround times for fulfillment of mortgage supplements. During a perfect spring storm created by favorable housing market conditions, massive attrition at third-party partners and internal staffing challenges, Tweeton also faced a significant shortfall of staff while trying to manage unforeseen volume. Through his unrelenting and meticulous focus on third-party management, ongoing oversight of proper staffing levels and queue management, Tweeton was able to reduce turnaround times by 50% within 90 days — a challenging task. He never loses sight of the importance of taking good care of his team, praising team members for their efforts and providing proper recognition for both professional and personal successes, all while striving for the best outcomes for his customers.

Ed VanDuren

Shay Vaughn

Plaza Home Mortgage

Sandler Law Group

4 4 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

Executive Vice President of Operations

Closing TeamLead

In his role as executive vice president of operations at Plaza Home Mortgage, Ed VanDuren is responsible for the company’s operations, which includes its national correspondent and wholesale channels, as well as corporate underwriting. Since being promoted to this role less than a year ago, VanDuren has led several company initiatives that will help increase productivity and efficiency. This includes revamping of Plaza Home Mortgage’s hybrid eClose process. Since the update, 40% of all loans funded were closed through the hybrid option. VanDuren also introduced remote online notarization capabilities and eClose options for clients, which have been extremely helpful during the shelter-in-place period. Additionally, VanDuren played an active role in partnering with IT and other internal departments to migrate to a new data center. He prepared teams, identified post-transition issues and reported them to IT, and tracked progress to keep the company informed. VanDuren is willing to roll up his sleeves to find a way to help wherever it is needed.

Shay Vaughn successfully leads a team of more than 50 closers who provide service to over 50 clients. As closing team lead at Sandler Law Group, she supports her team through active listening and genuine care about each team member’s career. Vaughn also focuses on building and maintaining positive relationships with Sandler Law Group’s clients. One of her most notable accomplishments in 2020 was helping a client when COVID-19 forced them to shut down their operation center without an ability to work from home. In a matter of weeks, Vaughn coordinated with the client and internal resources to take double the client’s previous loan-closing volume. This saved the day for the client at a very challenging time. Vaughn has managed the difficult balance of maintaining service levels while constantly adjusting processes and procedures to increase productivity and minimize risk. Most importantly, she has been a steadfast voice of encouragement for her staff and peers throughout the difficulties brought on by the pandemic.

SEPTEMBER 2020

John Wallace

Shane Westra

United Wholesale Mortgage

SimpleNexus

Associate Vice President of Enterprise Technology

Vice President of Product

John Wallace’s most notable contribution stemmed from preparing to move United Wholesale Mortgage’s more than 5,800 team members to work from home in less than one week in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As associate vice president of enterprise technology, he was responsible for determining which technologies would best allow UWM to successfully work remotely and strategizing the exit plan of computer equipment with senior leadership. Together, under Wallace’s guidance, his team was able to execute a two-part strategy, enabling team members with equipment to leave the office first and start working remotely, or go through an equipment checkout process and take their desktop home with them. This allowed team members to successfully work from home and ensured UWM’s business continuity.

Wallace was also a key player in making application monitoring come to fruition, building out specific monitoring for each UWM application to ensure that IT developers are able to quickly identify any issues before they reach clients.

Shane Westra completely reorganized SimpleNexus’ product and engineering divisions into new, customer persona-based teams. This reorganization allowed each development unit to become intimately more familiar with the pain points of the end users it develops for: loan originators, technology administrators, borrowers, back-office teams and referral partners. Another initiative Westra introduced was the firm’s 90/90 roadmap, which communicates to customers, prospects and internal teams all the product releases the company expects to release in the upcoming 90 days with 90% confidence.

With this roadmap, Westra built a rigorous business-case process that prioritizes product enhancements that will bring the most benefit to customers. In the last 12 months alone, Westra has led SimpleNexus to achieve the following: 150% increase in the average number of product releases per month; 59.6% increase in product manager productivity; 22.4% increase in Net Promoter Score; and a 99.7% customer retention rate.

Jeff Zakrzewski

Marc Zinner

Xome

Genworth Mortgage Insurance

Government Relations Director

Upon joining Xome just over a year ago, Jeff Zakrzewski led the charge to modernize Xome’s data management practices and position the company as an innovation leader. To better manage Xome’s high volume of data, Zakrzewski has been transforming what was a data deluge into an advanced data lake. As a result, Xome has rolled out new services to perform data analysis on large datasets and make intelligent, fact-based service recommendations for clients in mere seconds or minutes versus what would have previously taken upwards of eight to 10 hours. Most recently, in his role as senior vice president of data engineering and analytics at Xome, Zakrzewski’s data management practices have eliminated from about 40% to 70% of expense out of key parts of the title services value chain and sped up turn times by anywhere from 50% to 70%, while improving overall quality of services for its clients. He also led key data and application consolidation efforts that will result in roughly $2 million in annualized savings in 2021.

Throughout the past 12 months, Marc Zinner has been intensely focused on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Qualified Mortgage Patch rule and the Federal Housing Finance Administration’s proposed Enterprise Capital Rule Framework. And each of these has potential to change the landscape of the overall government-sponsored entities origination and private mortgage insurance market. In order to ensure Genworth placed itself in the best-possible position, Zinner took the lead in analyzing and developing recommendations and alternative proposals to share with the CFPB, FHFA, lawmakers and regulators. Those proposals consisted of clear thoughts and actions to balance prudent underwriting standards with affordable access to credit. Additionally, Zinner spent a great deal of time monitoring the CARES Act’s impact on the mortgage industry and worked closely with other business functions to ensure that internal and external customers had the appropriate and accurate information at their fingertips.

SEPTEMBER 2020

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Senior Vice President of Data Engineering and Analytics

Compliance in the fast lane:

and

SURVIVING

THRIVING in a post-COVID regulatory environment

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— By Christina Jenkins

SEPTEMBER 2020

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A B O U T T H E AU T H O R : Christina Jenkins served as mortgage banking compliance counsel, and before becoming an attorney, gained significant experience in mortgage asset resolution and commercial loan originations at a larger non-bank lender and two national banks. Jenkins is a contributing author to the Texas Real Estate forms committee, a council member and committee chair for the Texas Bar REPTL Section and has served as a substantive group chair and currently a committee vice-chair in the American Bar Association’s Real Property Trusts and Estates section.

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is a month the real estate industry will never forget. In a moment’s notice the “nice to have” tasks on our to-do lists became the new crises du jour. Over the course of a few days, much of the private real estate sector transitioned from office buildings to home offices. The most prepared companies had pandemic and business continuity protocols in place. Still, none of us could have imagined what would be coming our way.

In preparing this article, we asked mortgage, real estate and title professionals to share the experiences and challenges they face in dealing with compliance issues during this pandemic. Their answers were no surprise. What was interesting – even across different sectors of the industry – was that the expressed concerns pointed to a similar solution. Here is what we learned: For those who endured the 2007 crisis, market stability was the most immediate concern…and still continues to be.

Soaring demand for refinances almost overwhelmed the mortgage and title industries, and the purchase real estate market was disrupted by government restrictions without adequate instructions.

Most important, when making day-to-day decisions, professionals did the best they could with the information in hand at the time. Some are forging ahead in whack-amole fashion. All would appreciate guidance on how to comply with the surge of legal and regulatory changes.

Throughout this article, you will see some of their shared insights as Professional Tips.

While we cannot predict market changes, this article offers best practices and suggestions on how one should approach compliance in this post-COVID-19 environment.

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MANAGING POST-COVID COMPLIANCE RISK The outbreak of COVID-19 incited a barrage of legal activity across the country. As of the time this article was published, the federal government has enacted unprecedented economic stimulus and family medical leave legislation. Most, if not all, federal agencies have adopted COVID-19

SEPTEMBER 2020

guidelines. State legislatures across 26 states have 169 bills in various stages of the legislative process, covering COVID-19 topics from “fist bumps” for the duration of the pandemic to public works and budgets.

Hundreds of local ordinances and emergency orders govern the people and places under their respective jurisdictions.

Equally abundant are news articles, opinions and summaries of these laws that fail to consider how any of this activity may apply to your business model. Equally lacking is guidance for implementing these changes. And record-level workloads are overwhelming, making it difficult for compliance personnel to strike a balance between supporting business operations versus implementing legal changes. This leads real estate professionals to ask: How do we balance it all?

BALANCING COMPLIANCE RISK Prudent risk managers know to take a 360-degree approach to compliance by identifying – and implementing procedures designed to continually reassess – the most critical threats to their organizations. Focusing on human capital and staying connected, current and relevant will go a long way in managing the following risks facing the real estate industry in this ever-changing climate.

Safety and performance of employees in a post-COVID-19 world are critical to organizational success now more than ever. Procedures that successfully manage human resource risk will provide clarity on employee health, benefits and performance during the pandemic.

E mployee heal th and benefit information: Sick Leave – Revise handbook and/or communicate written policy on sick leave related to COVID-19 and whether your company provides federal leave benefits under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Insurance – Advise employees on COVID-19-related insurance benefits, which may include $0 copays for COVIDrelated illnesses, free COVID testing or $0

Connecting with end-delivery stakeholders, connecting with trade organizations, and leveraging existing partnerships will pay dividends.

PROFESSIONAL TIP #1 – WHEN MIGRATING BACK INTO THE OFFICE, CONSIDER HAVING PRACTICE DRILLS WITH VARYING LEVELS OF STAFF. ALSO CONSIDER A PHASED REOPENING TO SAFELY STAFF THE OFFICE AND GIVE FLEXIBILITY TO EMPLOYEES WHO MAY NOT BE ABLE TO IMMEDIATELY RETURN.

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trated support and execution. In reviewing investor, insurer and regulator COVID-19 guidelines, a compliance program should include the following industry-based reviews.

Conventional GSE and private purchasers of mortgage loans such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, bank and nonbank investors: • Match loan types to investor requirements and clearly communicate the difference internally.

• Understand and articulate COVID19 options and terminology.

• Follow black-letter requirements and engage partners such as trade organizations and leveraging partnerships below to determine industry response and best practices.

Government insurers and guarantors such as FHA and VA: • Reconcile pre- and post-COVID-19 changes to programs and delivery requirements.

• Do not assume insurers and guarantors have the same requirements as GSEs when they adopt some aspects of GSE program guidance.

• Sign up for governmental updates to COVID-19 communications.

Federal and state regulators: • Federal regulator websites have a wealth of information and should be regularly reviewed for updates.

• State regulator websites are a mixed review. Instead of visiting each one,

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copay employment assistance services such as pandemic counseling services.

Workplace – Put protocols in place for employee safety by consulting COVID guidance issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Contingency – Create a contingency plan based on differing health scenarios and implement cross training to cover critical operational functions.

Pandemic work-from-home plan – If applicable, create or update a written work from home policy that communicates company expectations, restrictions such as company travel and current projections for the location of work during the pandemic.

Company policy – Work closely with human resources to ensure that company policy is equally and consistently applied throughout the organization to avoid conflicts with employees.

Employee check-ins – Meet regularly with people managers to check the pulse of teams critical to the line of business.

Connecting with end-delivery stakeholders, connecting with trade organizations, and leveraging existing partnerships will pay dividends. To avert from making mistakes in the detection and implementation of legal and regulatory changes and to avoid departing from industry standards in execution, companies should consider the following: Failure to follow investor, insurer and regulator COVID-19 guidelines can hit your bottom line quickly and significantly.

This is a critical risk that demands concen-

PROFESSIONAL TIP #2 – BE AWARE THAT EMPLOYEES WORKING FROM HOME COULD HAVE PERFORMANCE ISSUES BALANCING CHILDCARE AND SICK RELATIVES WITH WORK REQUIREMENTS. IF POSSIBLE, BE PREPARED TO OFFER ALTERNATIVE WORK HOURS/SOLUTIONS TO ACHIEVE OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE.

focus on organizations that report on combined state efforts for the issues you are managing such as the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System, which has a state agency COVID-19 guide with hyperlinks to go directly to that portion of the state regulator’s website.

Real Estate Commissions – State licensing regulators have published COVID-19 guidance and other helpful information such as FAQs and best practices.

All of the major title insurance underwriters have issued COVID-19 guidance and online resources for closing practices, alternative locations and implementation of electronic solutions such as remote online notarization.

State licensing agencies that regulate title insurance have published COVID19 guidance and issued bulletins on changes such as the Texas Department of Insurance, which issued B-0013-20 on electronic signatures for escrow checks and directly issued policies, and B-001120 on escrow check signatures and audit reports.

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CONNECTING WITH TR ADE ORGANIZATIONS Now is a good time to connect with or increase participation in trade groups that address your business model.

Organizations such as the Mortgage Bankers Association, state Realtor associations, the National Association of Realtors and the American Land Title Association

are covering COVID-19 issues that impact daily operations. Specifically, these organizations provide general information and links to federal, state, and (in some cases) local legislation, rules and guidelines.

They also centralize industry feedback and experiences in almost real time along with maintaining established committees of professionals that meet regularly or online groups and communities that can field questions and provide answers.

These companies can provide education and webinars led by industry-specific experts while also advocating and lobbying for the industry using established channels

E X A MINE YOUR E XISTING PARTNERSHIPS Who do you already work with? Reaching out to your partnership network is a safe way to identify and manage risk. Partners are a part of an overall ecosystem that is critical to your survival in the industry, and are not direct competitors. Partners also have firsthand knowledge of key issues and players that impact the viability of your competitive space.

Connecting with end-delivery stakeholders, connecting with trade organizations and leveraging existing partnerships can impose checks and balances against internal operations and provide confidence that your organization is taking on an appropriate level of legal compliance risk.

Times of crisis inevitably shine a spotlight on areas of operational risk for employers. Consider whether you have the basic procedures and personnel in place to meet company objectives and make any necessary adjustments. Successful management of operations risk in high-impact, high-stress environments will require focus.

First things first: Keep business objectives top of mind and be ready to realign staff and redistribute tasks to meet production and financial goals. Leaders must avoid temptation to burden operations with unnecessary compliance requirements.

SEPTEMBER 2020

Now is a good time to connect with or increase participation in trade groups that address your business model.

TIP

– W HEN M A N AGING LEGAL COMPLIANCE RISK, THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CORE LEGAL REQUIREMENTS AND INDUSTRY PRACTICE SHOULD BE CAREFULLY EXAMINED. THE FORMER IS ABSOLUTE AND NOT SUBJECT TO CHANGE UNLESS THE LAW, REGULATION OR GUIDANCE CHANGES. THE LATTER MAY BE ADAPTED TO REFLECT YOUR INTERNAL OPERATIONS, AND A SLIGHT DIVERGENCE FROM IND UST RY PR A C TICE MAY BE DEFENDABLE WITH APPROPRIATE DOCUMENTATION.

Disruption to operations should only be for absolute requirements. Compliance staff must interpret and set clear guidelines for operations staff.

To reduce stress, you should meet challenges head-on. The COVID-19 environment will continue to evolve. Operations will continue to transact. Prepare to become a resource that may not have all of the answers but is willing to find them.

Consider creating an internal task force with elements from each core business unit to collaborate on COVID-19 risks and response. Operations personnel have direct insight into daily areas of potential risk. Operational risk is probably the most challenging to manage because every minute of every day informs it.

By the same token, operations management creates an opportunity for immediate feedback and correction of ineffective policies that could become large-scale problems if replicated. A strong alliance between compliance and operations personnel will result in a net gain of respect and confidence in the organization’s ability to solve complex problems.

There is no doubt COVID-19 is changing the game. Businesses must stay relevant to survive. Effective management of orga-

nizational risk in this environment would involve several initiatives including the development of a scenario-based business plan which will lead executives to weigh potential risks based on best to worst outcomes and position the organization for financial, legal and operational success regardless of the outcome.

Crisis management introduces a survival of the fittest competitive environment.

Businesses should focus on the responsible implementation of products and services that will allow them to maintain or exceed market share in a post-COVID-19 environment. In volatile environments, appropriate compliance advice is critical to managing organizational risk. If you don’t have in-house compliance staff to advise you on COVID-19 legal and regulatory changes, outsource or hire a law firm and/or compliance consulting firm to help establish policy and procedures and support business objectives.

Conducting business operations from different locations, especially employee residences, creates new areas of cyber and information security risk. Due to access to accounts such as email, funding and escrow, customer and sensitive company and vendor information will continue to be the target for cyber criminals who will take advantage of gaps in security protocols.

Now is a good time to review current policy in light of operational changes in response to COVID-19 to verify requirements, shore up equipment and test breach reporting and SLA agreements. Updated or refresher employee training on information security protocols will be helpful to keep these issues top of mind.

Implementing the foregoing procedures will either inform you on where to make adjustments or confirm that you are on the right track when it comes to managing compliance risk within your organization.

DIFFERENT POCKETS OF THE INDUSTRY, SAME FORMULA FOR SUCCESS If nothing else, this pandemic has already shown us that we can make incredible strides in challenging times. When it

SEPTEMBER 2020

comes to this ever-changing landscape, the nimble and capable will survive. If you find yourself struggling to meet requirements, please associate with someone today and expand your network. You will find an open community ready to assist you in your endeavors. So relax. Take a deep breath. And…get ready. Get set. GO!

PROFESSIONAL TIP #4 – YOUR PARTNERS ARE WAITING TO HEAR FROM YOU! TITLE PROFESSIONALS WOULD LOVE TO WORK CLOSELY WITH LENDER PARTNERS TO DISCUSS THE LENDER’S COVID PROTOCOLS PRIOR TO BORROWER ARRIVING TO CLOSING SUCH AS WHETHER THE LENDER WILL ACCEPT RON TECHNOLOGY.

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PROFESSION AL #3

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FINTECH

PRODUCT SHOWCASE

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Consumers are looking for a faster, more digital home-buying experience, with self-serve options where possible. Mortgage and real estate companies want to maintain business continuity amid COVID-19-related shifts while still working seamlessly and efficiently.

Leveraging tech solutions is the way to go, with automation, data and other capabilities helping streamline the experience while saving companies time and money.

In this section, we feature 15 companies providing solutions that span the entire home buying and mortgage loan life cycle, improving the process for everyone from lenders to appraisers, servicers to borrowers.

SEPTEMBER 2020

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Auction.com CoreLogic DocMagic FICS Global DMS Monster Lead Group Nationwide Title Clearing Optimal Blue Sagent Lending Technologies SimpleNexus Snapdocs SoftWorks AI Sutherland Qualia Xome

SEPTEMBER 2020

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Auction.comenables remote bidding on live foreclosure properties via its Remote Bid app feature AUCTION.COM PRODUCT: Ӻ Remote Bid

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SNAPSHOT: Ӻ A feature of the Auction. com mobile app, Remote Bid lets buyers bid on select foreclosure properties from anywhere, participate in multiple auctions simultaneously, and watch or join auctions while tracking bids in real time. Live remote bidding is expected to be in 1,000+ counties by fall 2020.

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y using their mobile device and the Remote Bid feature on the Auction. com app, buyers can bid on properties at select live foreclosure auctions from anywhere, even as social distancing guidelines remain in place.

Accessible only through the Auction.com mobile app, users can participate in multiple auctions at the same time, watching, joining and tracking bids concurrently.

The ability to bid on live foreclosure properties remotely instead of attending the venue in person allows buyers to expand their investment opportunities. Remote bidding can save time and money, giving buyers more time to invest in building their business.

Remote Bid gives sellers an advantage, in that they have access to a broader, nationwide buyer base. Sellers can receive bids not only from local buyers, but also from buyers located anywhere in the United States, increasing competition on every asset.

Auction.com began the rollout of Remote Bid prior to the pandemic as a way to alleviate the concerns of live auction buyers, such as severe weather and long travel distances.

Now, as municipalities are placing restrictions on in-person auctions and other high-density events to control the spread of COVID-19, it’s a particularly powerful tool to ensure competitive bidding. And no other distressed auction company offers remote bidding for live foreclosure auctions.

While Auction.com’s remote bidding technology is currently available in over

SEPTEMBER 2020

700 counties throughout the U.S., by fall 2020, it’s expected that more than 1,000 counties across the country will enable live remote bidding through the Auction. com app.

Remote Bid digitizes the courthouse as online foreclosure and REO sales are on the rise. In the first quarter of 2020, more than 89% of online REO auction properties sold had multiple competing bidders.

The technology is high on buyers’ lists of demands, too. Users signing up for Auction.com’s remote bidding capabilities increased sevenfold between June 2019 and February 2020. According to a recent Auction.com survey, two-thirds of the platform’s users said remote bidding technology increases their interest in foreclosure auctions.

Auction.com’s Remote Bid feature is positioned to help facilitate safer foreclosure auctions, providing options for buyers who choose not to attend live auctions in person as well as buying across a larger geographical footprint as buyers no longer need to attend in person.

Auction.com’s mission is to deliver solutions to sellers and buyers that make the buying and selling of distressed assets more accessible and convenient for both our buyers and sellers. As sellers and buyers react to the various foreclosure auction and eviction moratoriums related to COVID-19, Remote Bid meets their challenges by offering a new, innovative way to transact on distressed homes for better outcomes.

For more information about Remote Bid, visit Auction.com/remotebid.

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CoreLogic AutomatIQBorrower reimagines the underwriting process with automation and standardization er’s data and identifying potential new income sources” on its own. And by moving the borrower analysis earlier in the underwriting process, AutomatIQ Borrower helps increase loan officer, processor and underwriter productivity, as well as overall loan quality.

Unlike other digital underwriting solutions, AutomatIQ Borrower is designed to help lenders accelerate ALL of the loans in their pipelines – not just the “easy ones” that can be verified digitally.

“It turns out this capability is pretty important to our clients,” said Keri KramersDove, executive of Product Management for CoreLogic. “For example, like other providers, we offer instant employment verification. Unfortunately, 50% to 60% of a lender’s applicants cannot have their employment verified instantly – the borrowers are not in the system. As a result, many of our competitors stop here. But we don’t.

We offer an integrated manual verification of employment option that automatically cascades, allowing us to verify every borrower, every time. And it’s Day 1 Certainty approved.”

AutomatIQ Borrower complements another CoreLogic solution called AutomatIQ Collateral, which provides lenders with all the collateral data and analytics they need to determine property ownership, value, condition and hazards.

Both are part of CoreLogic’s expanding AutomatIQ Suite of Digital Mortgage Solutions, which draws on the depth and breadth of CoreLogic’s data assets and analytic resources to unite separate borrower and collateral verification point products into one integrated and automated solution.

With AutomatIQ Borrower, lenders can originate loans faster, with fewer steps and at a lower cost – all while improving quality and the user experience.

CORELOGIC PRODUCT: Ӻ AutomatIQ Borrower SNAPSHOT: Ӻ AutomatIQ Borrower helps lenders take time, touch and cost out of their underwriting workflows by streamlining the borrower validation steps from start to finish. Lenders are able to quickly and efficiently verify identity, credit, employment, income and assets via a digitized, automated and standardized workflow.

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E

ven as lenders make significant investments in new technology and digital infrastructure, they continue to struggle with increasing costs per loan and time-to-close metrics. With AutomatIQ Borrower, CoreLogic recognized an opportunity to reverse these trends while also helping lenders improve their user experience.

In creating its AutomatIQ Borrower solution, CoreLogic aimed to provide one consistent, objective and transparent workflow that lenders could leverage to validate applicants from pre-qualification to closing.

AutomatIQ Borrower takes the current underwriting process – characterized by the ordering of point products in a rigid, step-by-step workflow – and reimagines it with a holistic digitized, automated and streamlined process. Automation and standardization are key components. By reducing manual work and running standardized workflows, human error and compliance risk are minimized.

Users appreciate that the income, asset and employment verification processes are simple to use, easy to understand and intuitively designed. For example, the automated Income Analysis solution features simple inputs that automatically extract borrower income data and processes it using GSE, FHA and Ability-toRepay guidelines, as well as a lender’s own unique underwriting guidelines. Its intelligent interface allows users to easily update income calculations, note exceptions and document changes, and its AI functionality automatically flags new sources of potential income and identifies missing documents.

CoreLogic clients have praised the accuracy of AutomatIQ Borrower’s automated income analysis, with one user noting “how clever it is at analyzing the borrow-

SEPTEMBER 2020

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DocMagic’s Total eClose can e-enable any third-party documents for eSign, eDelivery, eNotary or eClosing DOCMAGIC PRODUCT: Ӻ Hybrid eClosings with DocMagic’s Total eClose Solution

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SNAPSHOT: Ӻ Total eClose is a comprehensive, end-to-end eClosing platform that provides all technology necessary for a 100% paperless eClosing.

The seamless digital workflow facilitates all hybrid types as well as a totally paperless eClosing and is comprised of DocMagic’s comprehensive suite of eSolutions; SMARTDoc eNote generation, embedded eNotary and Certified eVaul t func tionali ty and Investor eDelivery technology.

A

t a time when social distancing concerns play a large role in business decisions, many lenders are focused on implementing digital technology to update antiquated, paper-reliant lending processes. Total eClose offers a true eClosing solution that involves no paper whatsoever, dramatically speeding up the closing process, ensuring accuracy and delivering newfound efficiencies for borrowers, notaries and settlement providers.

Any lender can access DocMagic’s Total eClose eClosing platform, regardless of their current document provider. Because the technology can consume data and documents from any source, it has the ability to dynamically e-enable any third-party documents, even if they were not originally produced by DocMagic. This means that lenders who have documents that are not e-enabled for eSign, eDelivery, eNotary or eClosing can immediately enjoy the benefits of those technical capabilities.

Switching the majority of loan documents from paper to digital can reduce a 150-page loan package to just a few pages or less. Prior to closing, borrowers can use Total eClose to preview and electronically sign documents that don’t require notarization; however, if the platform’s eNotary functionality is utilized, all documents can be electronically signed and notarized in a single session.

Total eClose significantly reduces or eliminates the time the borrower, settlement agent and notary must spend in each other’s presence. What is typically an hour-long, in-person closing can be reduced to a matter of minutes – and, in many instances, in-person contact can be eliminated altogether.

Total eClose maximizes user adoption by featuring an intuitive design and elegant workflow. Even before integration begins, DocMagic partners with its customers to

SEPTEMBER 2020

develop a strategic implementation plan.

Its dedicated eClosing and onboarding teams are committed to the highest standards of service and support. DocMagic employs a consultative approach to reduce any issues associated with user adoption and to provide invaluable digital mortgage experience to clients to shape their go-tomarket strategy.

The intuitive technology fosters interoperability between disparate systems across the supply chain in order to originate, process, close and sell quality loans in the most efficient manner. Greater control and accountability during the mortgage loan cycle means that loans close faster, with fewer errors and omissions.

It also removes the potential for delays at the closing table.

With valuable tools for communication and collaboration, as well as its ability to integrate easily with other platforms, Total eClose allows users to close loans quickly, compliantly and at a lower cost.

As DocMagic works with its clients and partners every day through the COVID-19 crisis, the company knows there is no ordinary roadmap ahead: remote workforce adaptation and fundamental changes in consumer behavior are shifting industry focus. While some shifts may be temporary, other changes to the mortgage process will be more permanent.

DocMagic believes lenders need to embrace technology and accelerate the adoption of the digital process. To help organizations develop a strategy for agility, resiliency and growth, its eClosing team has developed a consultative approach to eClosing implementation. It’s involved every step of the way to help clients manage uncertainty and outperform those less prepared. The right actions today can position an organization to adapt and succeed in the future.

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FICS’ Mortgage Servicer software automates servicing operations, improving workflow efficiency provides the freedom to extract all data for any reason.

• Extraordinar y value: Mortgage Servicer is a full servicing system, from loan boarding to payoff and secondary marketing.

• Time-saving: One satisfied customer said, “By using the Mortgage Servicer API to process the end-ofday, it’s cut down from a process that usually took 1-1.5 hours to running in about 15-20 minutes.”

• Cloud hosting: Mortgage Servicer provides the flexibility to choose an in-house or cloud-hosting solution.

Either option is an open database with access to extract all the data.

• Security: Security levels can be controlled and customized by providing access rights as responsibilities dictate and users can easily monitor access to the system via built-in security reports.

The license fee for Mortgage Servicer isn’t volume-based. Customers don’t pay per loan or by asset size, so organizations can grow without the fear that their growth may come at a high cost. The functionality and value of the system remain at a stable cost as they grow.

Mortgage Servicer supports agency investor reporting, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae and Federal Home Loan Bank, as well as other industry standard and private reporting methods.

FICS has more than 35 years of experience with investor reporting to the GSEs. Used in conjunction with any third-party scheduling tool, the Mortgage Servicer API lets servicers schedule and automate virtually every program, report and interface in the system, such as end-of-day and endof-month reports, investor reporting and monthly loan statements. The API saves staff time and resources, eliminates after-hours and weekend work, and reduces mistakes caused by human error.

SEPTEMBER 2020

FICS

PRODUCT: Ӻ Morgage Servicer SNAPSHOT: Ӻ FICS’ Mortgage Servicer software automates servicing operations, including payment processing, escrow administration, investor reporting, custodial accounting, imaging, report writing, workflow and more. Mortgage Servicer customers can also offer their borrowers and investors consumer-facing web applications, allowing online access to loan information and documents.

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ost mortgage lenders are looking for ways to automate their mortgage servicing operations in order to cut costs, maintain profitability and effectively manage their compliance and reporting to various agencies (e.g., investors, credit reporting agencies and regulators). With Mortgage Servicer, FICS provides clients with the necessary software to accomplish these goals while simultaneously improving the borrower experience.

FICS’ Mortgage Servicer focuses on improving the user experience by building in more automation to make users’ work more efficient and to allow them to adapt a going-green effort appreciated by younger consumers and users. While some of the automation is driven by regulatory changes to help servicers, FICS’ primary objective is to facilitate day-to-day operations and workflow.

The features that make Mortgage Servicer stand out: • User-friendly: According to one user, “It’s not complicated, there aren’t eight screens for one action. It’s the ease of use for both managerial and the end user.”

• Flexible forbearance functionality: Mortgage Servicer provides servicers flexibility with forbearance, deferment and post-forbearance plans as well as the ability to report the necessary information to investors. The system also offers loss mitigation, modifications, short sales and repayment tracking functionality.

• Exceptional system support: When users call FICS, a receptionist directs them to the appropriate support person. They won’t lose valuable production time waiting for someone to return calls or answer emails.

• Open database: Mortgage Servicer

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Global DMStransforms appraisal management software, allowing lenders full control over their workflow GLOBAL DMS PRODUCT: Ӻ EVO

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SNAPSHOT: Ӻ EVO is cutting-edge appraisal technology featuring purposeful departures from outdated yesteryear processes of older platforms.

Designed for residential or commercial real estate with 100% configurability, the ability to add fields and forms on the fly that are immediately reportable, and a true cascading decisioning tool, EVO delivers optimal appraisal processes.

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inding an appraisal management software for real estate and commercial that works the way each individual lender does is difficult – usually resulting in time-consuming configurations, development work and training.

Global DMS knew there was a better way for lenders to have a workflow that truly worked for them. Drawing on 20 years of experience, the company set out to create something revolutionary.

Global DMS created EVO to give lenders a tailored-fit appraisal management solution allowing them full control over their workflow. Global DMS revolutionized the process by providing users the ability to configure every single field in the platform out of the box.

This model allows lenders to work the way they want to, whether they manage appraisals in-house, use an AMC or do a combination of both, without waiting for customizations or IT departments.

Furthermore, when needs change, clients do not have to spend time or money on custom configurations.

EVO is the only technology platform specifically designed for both commercial and residential appraisal business that allows lenders to be up and running in days, not months. The interface is so easy to navigate that lenders need almost no training.

Because clients can configure EVO precisely to their needs, implementation time is 75% faster than with other platforms. In fact, Global DMS has onboarded a lender that uses both commercial and residential in just under 30 days.

In addition, EVO leverages a role-based security model that defines each user’s unique workflow; lenders know that users are not performing unauthorized actions, and there is no cross-population of work.

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Users see what they need to see when they need to see it, ensuring each day’s activities are focused on exactly what needs to get done.

EVO’s differentiators include: • A true cascade assignment logic that gives users a 50% time savings in appraisal time and costs. The cascading workflow decisioning offers unlimited flexibility and allows users to create an unlimited number of rule sets filtering by geography, vendor category, performance statistics, distance and price.

• The ability to add fields and forms instantaneously. These fields are immediately usable and reportable.

This, in turn, speeds up many aspects of the appraisal management process, resulting in turn-time reductions of 25% of more as well as improved operational processes.

• Lower portfolio risk with the ability to analyze past appraisals in their database and mitigate compliance issues with a fully documented and auditable process, where every action is recorded with date, time and user stamp.

• A reporting engine that can automate scheduling and deliver reports to anyone at any time. The on-demand reporting of standard and customized fields means clients have up-to-date information at their fingertips and a single system of record-keeping, allowing them to make decisions quickly.

EVO brings complete configurability, automation, reporting, data analytics and integration to real estate and commercial valuations like no other on the market today.

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With Monster Lead Group’s intelligent response system, lenders can quickly launch direct mail campaigns lender’s unique campaign.

The Intelligent Response system features a secure client portal and dashboard to provide a real-time view of campaigns, calls and conversions – with full visibility down to the individual letter.

Its automated compliance module and engine allow multi-branch networks to centrally control their direct mail compliance needs, with customizable corporate controls. And no piece of mail goes out without approval by clients and their compliance department.

Lenders who use Intelligent Response benefit from exclusive campaign delivery: No two pieces of mail are ever sent to the same mailbox at the same time, which eliminates crossover data and reduces competition.

Once a lender’s mail campaign goes out, they can look forward to receiving quality calls within days that convert with a high ROI. The consistency and predictability of campaigns with Intelligent Response means they can scale accordingly to handle call volumes.

Intelligent Response is ideal for lenders looking for a trusted partner to help them grow their business. With Intelligent Response, lenders benefit from the same high-tech and data-driven marketing solutions as only the largest institutions can afford, with better targeting and higher response rates than those provided by a mail house.

Lenders appreciate that leveraging the expertise of Monster Lead Group’s team, leaders and account strategists via Intelligent Response saves them time and energy, provides transparency and visibility, and lets them know what to expect from each campaign without needing to be involved with every step.

MONSTER LEAD GROUP PRODUCT: Ӻ Intelligent Response from Monster Lead Group SNAPSHOT: Ӻ Intelligent Response is a turn-key direct mail marketing system that uses proprietary technology and custom data algorithms to deliver consistent, predictable inbound calls to mortgage lenders. Intelligent Response is for mortgage lenders who struggle with creating, delivering and measuring successful direct mail campaigns.

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elivering direct mail mortgage acquisition campaigns is a hassle.

From the unpredictability of marketing creative to the many moving pieces of working with mail houses, mortgage professionals struggle with the amount of time and energy involved just to get to the point where the envelopes are ready to be metered for postage.

Most small to mid-sized lenders are not able to fund internal analytics experts who perform optimization of campaign lists, source data enhancements and contribute to a more positive campaign result.

And after the mail is delivered, visibility into campaigns is hazy while tracking and handling the inbound calls is nearly impossible.

Intelligent Response allows lenders to leverage cutting-edge technology for direct mail marketing without having to do it themselves. This application of technology to direct mail enables Monster Lead Group to consistently generate better than average response rates with higher conversions to apps than a direct mail company.

Monster’s Intelligent Response service allows lenders to make a single phone call to their Account Manager and quickly launch a custom direct mail campaign that generates predictable, scalable call volumes every week, producing more return on investment from their marketing spend.

The Account Manager and their team handle all the details, from strategy, data and campaign creation to printing, mailing and reporting.

Monster’s team of data scientists uses the entire U.S. property database with five years of historical data to create algorithms and analyze results to find, score and rank the borrowers with the highest propensity to respond and transact to a

SEPTEMBER 2020

- SPECIAL REPORT -

Sponsored Content

Nationwide Title Clearing’s PerfectDocs enables virtually anyone to produce compliant documents NATIONWIDE TITLE CLEARING PRODUCT: Ӻ PerfectDocs

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SNAPSHOT: Ӻ P e r f e c t D o c s by Na t i o n w i d e T i t l e Clearing, Inc. (NTC) enables users to prepare, validate, execute, notarize and record their lien releases and assignment of mortgage documents, giving users 100% flexibility and control, which ultimately saves time and money.

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utsourcing or hiring in-house compliance experts are no longer the only options for servicers who need help handling lien releases and assignment of mortgage documents.

With the help of PerfectDocs technology, virtually anyone can prepare, validate, execute, notarize, and even record these documents easily and within minutes.

Drawing on Nationwide Title Clearing’s 30 years of experience, knowledge, and technology, the PerfectDocs platform allows users to produce a compliant document guaranteed by NTC, so long as the information is entered correctly.

PerfectDocs combines many complex processes into a single, streamlined workflow platform that anyone can use. Among the processes included are thousands of variations of county requirements, recording fees, agency and GSE guidelines, MERS requirements, and compliant forms.

Even users with minimal training or knowledge of lien releases and mortgage documents can produce compliant documents with PerfectDocs. The system drives the work, asking for information required in each jurisdiction and never requesting more information than is necessary to get the document recorded.

Users respond to on-screen prompts, as the PerfectDocs system will not allow users to move forward to the next step without providing the information required to complete the document.

The platform drives efficiency through its intuitive data entry options based on state and county requirements, managing key-

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strokes to only what is required. Automatic and accurate calculation of recording fees for every recording jurisdiction nationwide based on the entered data and document content facilitates seamless entry.

These calculations help reduce the potential for county rejects due to inaccurate or incomplete data or incorrect recording fees, which reduces risk and potential legal expenses downstream.

NTC’s forms stand up under scrutiny, giving users confidence that their documents will be sufficient once recorded and serve their intended purpose. By effectively and efficiently managing a complex and risk-conscious service, PerfectDocs makes compliance simpler.

In addition, PerfectDocs allows managers to control workflow with “share the work” capabilities. Users can choose which tasks are completed in-house and assign additional tasks to NTC for full-service document processing, an added benefit to disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

The PerfectDocs platform leverages NTC’s eRecord coverage, resulting in a nearly-paperless process, with 85% of the volume being electronically recorded. This saves time, money and provides a fast, precise turn time on recorded documents confirming completion of the process.

As a web-based platform, PerfectDocs enables all these benefits in a 100% remote environment, allowing users to be flexible. This eases the burden faced by businesses and professionals working from home due to COVID-19.

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Optimal Blue’s Product &Pricing Solution gives lenders the tools to maintain a competitive product offering a powerful concept called True BESTX, which ensures the best option — highest revenue or lowest cost — for any mortgage financing scenario.

Lenders who leverage Optimal Blue’s PPE benefit from lower costs, more efficient workflows, increased profitability and enhanced competitiveness. Clients appreciate its value in terms of stability, performance and functionality, as well as the use of automation to decrease workloads.

In an ongoing effort to take automation to the next level, Optimal Blue developed a Lights-out Lock Desk roughly two years ago. This advanced capability enables clients to automate most aspects of the lock desk, including lock requests, price concessions, profile changes, product changes, relocks and lock extensions. Its granular auto-accept functionality saves time and industrializes key workflows, while margin automation and itemized dynamic markups allow for maximum profitability.

Recently, the company also added a feature to automatically accept post-lock changes that do not affect product eligibility or pricing when attributes of a loan profile change. This enables lenders to systematically recognize when change requests have no impact on rate, price, lock period or product, and then automatically process the modification, eliminating the need for manual review. One lender reported a 60% reduction in staffing requirements during peak refinance levels.

Optimal Blue continues to enhance its technology to support its many clients and meet the mortgage industry’s ever-changing needs. By delivering the industry’s most comprehensive and sophisticated functionality, it’s no wonder more lenders rely upon Optimal Blue’s Product & Pricing solution to support their unique business strategies, no matter how complex.

OPTIMAL BLUE PRODUCT: Ӻ Optimal Blue Product & Pricing Solution SNAPSHOT: Ӻ Optimal Blue Product & Pricing Solution provides mortgage lenders with an enormous amount of comprehensive and highly granular functionality, enhances a variety of workflow efficiencies, and enables lenders to be more competitive and confidently execute profitable lending strategies.

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oday’s mortgage lenders need transparency and visibility into their business, their competition, and the mortgage market as a whole.

As the industry’s most widely used product eligibility and pricing engine (PPE) with the largest single source of rate lock data, Optimal Blue’s advanced Product & Pricing Solution is uniquely positioned to support mortgage lenders like no other solution.

In just the last 12 months, the company has managed more than 240 million rate quotes and exceeded $1.5 trillion in rate locks for its +1,000 lender clients.

Optimal Blue’s PPE is broad in reach and deep in functionality, managing many core functions in mortgage lending, including decisive product eligibility and sophisticated pricing strategies as well as propelling the rate lock process. Its technology provides lenders with the tools to create and maintain an extremely competitive product offering, giving them the ability to choose from thousands of leading conforming, non-conforming, jumbo and government products — even supporting their own in-house portfolio products.

The company has made significant investments to break down the silos between mortgage technology systems, paying detailed attention to how its own systems function together. As a result, more than 70 mortgage technology vendors have integrated their systems with Optimal Blue’s robust library of secondary marketing APIs, providing access to real-time pricing, lock functionality and more.

Optimal Blue also delivers real-time integrations between its industry leading Product & Pricing, Hedge Analytics and Loan Trading solutions. Its fully connected, end-to-end secondary marketing automation platform provides significant competitive benefits to its users, such as

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- SPECIAL REPORT -

Sponsored Content

Servicers can use Sagent’s Account Connect to deliver a personalized, streamlined experience to borrowers SAGENT LENDING TECHNOLOGIES PRODUCT: Ӻ Sagent Account Connect

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SNAPSHOT: Lending Ӻ S a g e n t Technologies, a fintech company modernizing mor tgage and consumer loan servicing for America’s top banks and lenders, powers ser vicers and consumers throughout the homeownership lifecycle. Sagent Account Connect is the bank/ lender-branded dashboard that homeowners use to manage their homes and loans from any device.

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ustomer retention is an ongoing challenge for servicers. Earning a customer for their borrowing and homeownership lifetime requires truly understanding borrowers and engaging each meaningfully. Additionally, as push-button digital mortgages have become mainstream, people have come to expect this same experience with the rest of their borrowing and home-owning lives.

Sagent’s Account Connect is a powerful consumer-facing dashboard that allows servicers to deliver a streamlined and personalized experience to borrowers.

Sagent Account Connect is branded as and deployed by the borrower’s servicer.

When a borrower uses their servicer’s branded version of Account Connect, they don’t see any generic calls to action.

Everything is hyper-relevant to their situation and current market conditions.

The Sagent Account Connect app begins with the basics, such as displaying loan balances, making payments and showing amortization schedules in real time. It becomes more engaging when servicers enable borrowers to model interest cost savings and faster payoff times by applying extra principal or refinancing.

Sagent’s consumer dashboard keeps borrowers informed about their largest asset – their home – and presents them with relevant options to optimize their finances or even buy a new home. Smart self-serve tools empower homeowners to learn about their loan options on their own time and request human advice at any moment so they don’t feel as though they must navigate complex processes and decisions on their own.

Account Connect is designed to be highly configurable, allowing servicers

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to “build” their experience any way they choose without needing to code or recode for every customization and market or regulatory change.

Servicers can educate and engage homeowners by enabling real-time updates from any device and sharing data, while maintaining compliance, with lenders and borrowers simultaneously.

On an ongoing basis, a borrower might see messages about managing their escrow balance or updating insurance.

Servicers might also allow a borrower to “Click for COVID-related mortgage assistance” to explore options based on their needs. All of these are custom to their profile so they can actively manage their mortgage.

The Account Connect vision is allowing borrowers to actively manage their homeownership experience, not just for a loan they have today, but for any lending needs they have over their life of borrowing and homeownership. Servicers can integrate rate data from their product and pricing engine to show rate-and-term or cash-out refinance scenarios to borrowers based on market, home improvement, debt consolidation or other opportunities—all of which help improve retention.

Servicers can use Account Connect to move quickly and deliver modern, omnichannel customer care to all homeowners, whether those borrowers are simply tracking monthly payments or deep into an economic hardship scenario. The ability for servicers to offer these tools will be a key indicator of those who emerge from the COVID economy stronger than they were before. Customers get what they need, and servicers deepen relationships while preserving the value of their MSRs.

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SimpleNexus eClose unites all closing participants in a single, secure platformwith native mobile efficiencies agent can use the portal to send the fully signed documents to the lender for review before automatically pushing them to their final repository.

SimpleNexus eClose’s single signon is a key advantage, as borrowers no longer need to create an additional account to complete their closing. Instead, SimpleNexus offers its eClose solution within a one-platform experience designed to help the borrower navigate each stage of the homeownership journey, from home search through closing. One password or biometric login gives them access to complete the entire process, guided and step-by-step.

Users of SimpleNexus eClose also benefit from its native mobile efficiencies. Using the lender-branded mobile app, borrowers receive push notifications to prompt completion of closing tasks. Push notifications via a native mobile app result in a 67% better response rate compared to email or phone call reminders of tasks to be completed, SimpleNexus has found.

Additionally, the app enables borrowers to respond to requests, upload documents and eSign forms from anywhere at any time. This increased efficiency leads to faster closing times for all involved.

And in terms of security for eClosings, mobile app logs are more secure than those from web browsers, biometric authentication available on smartphones is superior to passwords and mobile document uploads are never stored on the device itself.

SimpleNexus is dedicated to making the mortgage process easier to navigate and simplifying collaboration for every party involved. Its eClose solution builds on this focus to make closing tasks efficient for borrowers, lenders and all other stakeholders.

SIMPLENEXUS PRODUCT: Ӻ SimpleNexus eClose SNAPSHOT: Ӻ SimpleNexus eClose is a comprehensive solution offering lenders new digital efficiencies during closing. Lenders can leverage SimpleNexus eClose for enhanced collaboration among all closing participants, decreased data errors via a deep LOS integration, and faster funding via mobile eSign and a dedicated native app with single sign-on convenience for borrowers.

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he ability to continue closing loans while maintaining social distance is critical, and consumer demand for options that reduce the in-person aspects of the mortgage transaction is high. To help lenders meet that demand, SimpleNexus has developed SimpleNexus eClose, an integrated eClosing solution designed to make the process easier, more efficient, less expensive and more secure than traditional closings.

SimpleNexus eClose is a single platform for all closing participants: borrower, loan officer, loan officer assistant, real estate agent, processor, underwriter, settlement agent and closer. In developing the platform, the company focused on connecting stakeholders, uniting lender tech stack integrations and leveraging a mobile-first approach.

The platform will support everything lenders need in a digital closing solution, with enhancements coming later this year that include In-Person Electronic Notarization (IPEN), Remote Online Notarization (RON), Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA), audit logging, hybrid closings, tamper-sealed documents and notary capture.

SimpleNexus eClose leverages industry-leading loan operating system integrations. It can pull all necessary information from the system of record, eliminating the need for duplicate, manual data entry. Bidirectional data sync means data is automatically pushed to the final repository in the LOS, saving time and ensuring information integrity.

Settlement agents can use the platform’s dedicated Closing Portal to access packages, prepare documents with signature points and collaborate with lenders throughout the closing and title process.

Once a loan has closed, the settlement

SEPTEMBER 2020

- SPECIAL REPORT -

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Lenders can digitize 99%of their loan volume in as little as one month using Snapdocs Digital Closing Platform SNAPDOCS PRODUCT: Ӻ Snapdocs Digital Closing Platform

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SNAPSHOT: Ӻ Snapdocs is the only digital closing platform proven to scale.

Powering over 1 million closings a year, the industry-leading digital closing platform creates a single, scalable process for lenders, their settlement partners and every closing type — including wet, hybrid and fully eClose.

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ortgage closings are expensive, error-prone and inefficient for lenders. For borrowers, buying a home is often the largest purchase in their life, yet the closing feels like a painful means to an end. When low interest rates create a surge in demand, this inefficient manual process can increase the time to close from 30 days to 120 days or more.

Snapdocs Digital Closing Platform empowers lenders to close more loans at lower costs, while delivering the modern experience borrowers expect. It’s the only eClosing solution that enables lenders to successfully and quickly scale digital closings.

Instead of taking months or years to reach full adoption, lenders can digitize 99% of their loan volume with Snapdocs in as little as one month. Snapdocs offers the industry’s quickest implementation, due to its existing adoption among settlement, modern technology and proven approach.

Over 70% of the settlement industry already uses Snapdocs, enabling lenders to quickly roll out digital closings across their settlement partners. Lenders also gain access to Snapdocs’ network of 75,000+ signing agents for remote webcam closings and mobile in-person closings.

Snapdocs’ powerful AI makes digital closing adoption seamless. Its AI bots automatically annotate lender and title documents for eSigning in 11 minutes on average. This removes the burden of manually annotating documents or double checking whether annotations were correctly applied off of lenders, saving them time and making it possible to scale digital closings.

Because Snapdocs integrates with any LOS, POS and document preparation pro-

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vider, lenders can automatically keep information and documents in sync between multiple systems. “[T]he rollout is not actually that complicated. Snapdocs just made it really easy.

You don’t have to change the LOS you’re using,” said Kevin Strika, VP of operations at First Option Mortgage.

The success of Snapdocs’ clients are a result of its pragmatic, proven approach to digital closings. Lenders not only get tools for eSigning, eNotes and remote online notarization (RON), but they also standardize their closing process.

By managing all types of closings – wet, hybrid and eClosings – with their settlement partners on Snapdocs’ platform, lenders can shorten the closing process by two days on average, fund the same day and increase the loan capacity of their closers.

These efficiencies translate into a faster and smoother closing for borrowers, who can review their documents and eSign 75% of the loan package prior to the closing appointment. This reduces the number of errors surfaced at the closing table by 80% and shortens the closing appointment time to 15 minutes.

With Snapdocs Digital Closing Platform, lenders can rapidly experience the benefits of digital closings at scale.

“We were able to implement it [Snapdocs] with very little disruption to our normal daily processes, which really helps. We started out on a very small scale with one closer… Then, finding that that worked so much better than we had anticipated, we rolled it out pretty much on a grand scale within a couple of weeks,” said Sheri Nedley, SVP of capital markets and operations at The Mortgage Firm.

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SoftWorks AI’s Trapeze for Mortgage Automation can extract and auto-validate critical loan packet data The Trapeze solution can ingest a variety of file types and classify distinct documents into appropriate categories to create an organized, automated environment. In addition, Trapeze comes with machine learning capabilities, allowing the software to learn from user behavior and improve touchless automation over time.

As COVID-19 led to many businesses pivot to working from home, SoftWorks AI saw an immediate need to accelerate its development in touchless automation and straight-through processing.

Its most recent improvements drastically reduce the need for human correction, bringing the company closer to its goal of 100% straight-through processing.

The latest version of Trapeze for Mortgage Automation incorporates advanced data validation technology to drastically reduce the need for human review. By generating reliable data, lenders can move valuable resources away from “stare-and-compare” activities and focus them on higher-value tasks. In addition, by eliminating much of the need for humans to “double-check” the data, clients are able to process more information without increasing their labor costs or time.

Lenders who use Trapeze can provide borrowers near real-time feedback and confirmation at document submission. In addition, processing times for underwriting, loan onboarding and compliance are also significantly reduced.

SoftWorks AI’s Trapeze is the gold standard for mortgage document automation.

Companies that choose Trapeze realize dramatic improvements in data accuracy and operational efficiency. With SoftWorks AI, mortgage firms can achieve the highest levels of real-time, straight-through processing.

SOFTWORKS AI PRODUCT: Ӻ Trapeze for Mortgage Automation SNAPSHOT: Ӻ Trapeze for Mortgage Automation leverages 20 years of Advanced Computer Vision and AI research to transform documents into intelligent actionable data.

Trapeze allows firms to fully automate many of their mortgage document processes.

SoftWorks SEPTEMBER 2020

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utomation and machine learning have been big drivers in advancing operations in the mortgage industry. As lenders continue to transition more of their business from manual to digital, they’re looking for a solution that significantly minimizes human touch and reduces loan processing costs while continuing to deliver accurate results in the shortest time possible.

With Trapeze for Mortgage Automation, SoftWorks AI has combined artificial intelligence and computer vision to effectively streamline the loan approval process.

This data extraction and classification process takes humans out of the loop and achieves high rates of business process optimization.

Most document automation solutions are unable to reliably indicate when data is provably correct. This means operators must spend time manually reviewing data, therefore negating any efficiency gains promised by the technology.

Trapeze is drastically different from solutions that rely solely on off-the-shelf optical character recognition (OCR) and data extraction technology.

Instead, Trapeze uses a suite of advanced computer perception methods to ensure the highest data accuracy rates possible.

Trapeze extracts and auto-validates critical data from loan packets so that users can approve or deny loan applications with as little time and effort as possible, improving turnaround time and helping financial institutions acquire more profitable loans in an efficient manner. Clients have reported loan packet processing time being cut by as much as 96% as a result of automated classification and data extraction of loan documents.

- SPECIAL REPORT -

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Servicers can use Sutherland’s Chatbot Solutions to scale up customer support without adding staff SUTHERLAND PRODUCT: Ӻ Sutherland Chatbot Solutions

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SNAPSHOT: Ӻ Sutherland Chatbot Solutions is the conversational AI experience solution of fered by Sutherland. Combining user-centered design, AI and 30 years of customer experience leadership, Sutherland Chatbot Solutions are enterprise-grade conversational AI applications that help clients automate, scale and grow.

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oday’s consumers are increasingly drawn to self-service options for customer service and support. As the loan servicing sector searches for answers on increasing customer satisfaction and retention, conversational AI and chatbots are a great opportunity to provide borrowers with a self-service portal to improve their experience while reducing a servicer’s operating costs.

Sutherland’s Chatbot Solutions are enterprise-grade conversational AI applications designed to help clients reduce costs, scale and grow their businesses.

These chatbots, powered by conversational artificial intelligence and machine learning, use messaging and AI to converse with humans and automate repetitive tasks.

Sutherland’s Chatbot Solutions team combines the expertise of its mortgage executive and digital labs staff to work with servicers on a customized self-service and automation capability that aligns with their brand and integrates with their CRM and enterprise systems. The team’s chatbot design and implementation work is based in Sutherland’s San Francisco labs.

The Chatbot Solutions team offers its clients end-to-end solutions and service.

The development process begins with a deep dive into the customer experience, identifying pain points and other opportunities for automation and conversational AI to improve the process for everyone involved.

With a dedicated team of software and machine learning engineers, Sutherland builds out conversational flows for each use case. They develop scripts that align with brand tone and the chatbot goals, then layer this script and a client-branded user interface on top of the chatbot’s engine and integrations for deployment.

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A f ter deploy ment of a chatbot, Sutherland’s team continues to monitor the solution, operating, optimizing and iterating on the process.

Sutherland’s team can develop preliminary functioning prototypes in just a few weeks. Full system integrations, including CRM, authentication and backend integrations, tend to require one to three months.

For servicers, Sutherland’s Chatbot Solutions are an opportunity to enhance the customer experience while reducing operating costs. Chatbots can engage with customers via messaging or chat systems to handle simple, frequently asked questions, freeing up time for human customer service representatives to handle more nuanced, complex problems and tasks.

Borrowers looking for a fast, simple answer don’t want to wait on hold or go through multiple button prompts.

Chatbots are able to answer inquiries more efficiently, improving response speed and efficiency as well as customer satisfaction and retention.

In instances where the chatbot can’t answer an inquiry – for example, if the question is more complex or in cases where the borrower requests to speak with a human representative – Sutherland’s chatbot designs can include handoff to a live agent.

Servicers using Sutherland’s Chatbot Solutions also see an increase in their Net Promoter Score (NPS), as customers appreciate the quick, accurate responses and the ability to self-serve.

As the economic circumstances related to COVID-19 lead to an influx of borrower questions about forbearance, the use of chatbots allows servicers to scale up their customer service capabilities without increasing headcount. Clients allowing customers to self-serve via conversational AI see a dramatic reduction in call volume.

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Qualia Post automates the post-closing document collection process between lenders and title and escrow lender’s LOS. Qualia Post automatically sends trailing document requests to title and escrow companies, triggered by a milestone from within the lender’s system.

Title and escrow partners then receive an invitation to a secure portal they can use to seamlessly upload digital trailing documents. For title & escrow companies that use Qualia as their core software provider, electronic documents are automatically shared with mortgage lenders.

Once shared, the documents are automatically uploaded to the designated folder in their lender’s LOS, removing the need for lenders to manually upload and scan documents. The portal also protects the end customer by ensuring their sensitive information is secure.

Qualia Post can support the collection of physical documents, electronic documents or both depending on investor preference. The system includes a feature to enable filtering to determine which investors will accept electronic documents, resulting in a consistent, streamlined workflow for everyone involved in post-closing.

Qualia Post also automates additional document request follow-ups ahead of the post-closing. Lenders can set up custom reminders that prompt their title partners to upload their documents via the secure link. Qualia Post will continue to automate each document retrieval for the lender until the request has been fulfilled.

During the current low-interest environment brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, mortgage volumes have fluctuated dramatically. These uncertain conditions threaten already tight margins. Qualia Post helps lenders manage these spikes in loan volume without sacrificing cost or efficiency. Automating the document collection process between lenders and title and escrow businesses saves valuable time and allows skilled workers to focus on other tasks that deliver improved business outcomes.

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QUALIA PRODUCT: Ӻ Qualia Post SNAPSHOT: Ӻ Designed specifically for mortgage lenders, Qualia Post automates the collection of closing and post-closing documents from title and escrow companies.

Qualia Post integrates with Loan Origination Systems (LOS) in minutes and includes a live team of Qualia Fulfillment Specialists dedicated to working with title and escrow companies on your behalf.

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he partnership between lenders and title and escrow agents is complex, involving work that can be difficult to manage for both sides. Title companies receive an overwhelming amount of inbound communications from lenders requesting documents, and lenders rely on title and escrow to provide those crucial documents throughout closing. With little transparency, automation or streamlined reporting for these processes, mortgage lenders can lose valuable time, suffer efficiency losses and even incur financial penalties.

Qualia Post automates the closing and post-closing process, giving lenders and title companies a more efficient and less expensive experience on every mortgage.

Lenders using Qualia Post report a 25% reduction in time spent on post-closing operations, freeing them to work on more high-value tasks.

Qualia Post is an entirely web-based platform that fully integrates with title companies’ main workflow software, allowing lenders to automatically receive documents in a consistent manner from their title partners, even if they work with hundreds of different title companies. Setup time typically takes less than an hour, requiring no training for post-closers and minimal training for their title and escrow partners.

Traditionally, funding departments and post-closers spend hours tracking and managing document requests, often from multiple companies simultaneously.

Qualia Post’s real-time reporting and visibility allows lenders to see which requests are open, which have been completed and which are overdue.

The system also automatically notifies post-closing teams as soon as documents arrive, leading to fast reviews and immediate processing.

Workflows within Qualia Post are customizable and integrate directly into the

- SPECIAL REPORT -

Sponsored Content

Inspex by Xome allows lenders to offer borrowers an easy-to-use, contactless valuation option via app XOME PRODUCT: Ӻ Inspex by Xome

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SNAPSHOT: Ӻ Inspex is an easily accessible and useable app that can be downloaded from the borrower’s preferred app store. This DIY home inspection app is integrated into Xome’s valuation systems to make inspections easier for borrowers while still giving lenders the tools they need to manage risk.

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he realities of COVID-19 have forced appraisers and lenders to find new ways to conduct interior inspections. Inspex by Xome, a mobile inspection app, allows lenders to offer borrowers an easy, contactless valuation option that accelerates loan application approvals.

Inspex is the result of Xome collaborating with several lender lab partners to improve the real estate experience for appraisers, lenders and consumers. The app walks consumers through the process of taking and submitting exterior and interior photos and videos of their own property.

The information provided is independently verified and lenders are able to control how and when Inspex is used in the mortgage process.

The app was designed to be a patented process rather than a photo collection application. The first step of that process is an eligibility tool backed by a customizable set of rules to determine whether the property requires a traditional inspection or if Inspex is the right fit. Those rules can include AVM Value and Confidence Score, square footage, property type, and public record vs. MLS discrepancies.

Inspex was developed as part of an entire valuation system. The app can be used as the inspection component to an appraisal or for valuation products that do not require an appraiser or other inspection. This approach lends Inspex the flexibility to be used across a variety of channels, from home equity lending to servicing.

With Inspex, property owners have a safe and secure way to complete a property valuation without anyone needing to enter

SEPTEMBER 2020

their home. The app guides the borrower through an easy, step-by-step process that is complete in less than 20 minutes.

Because they can complete the inspection at their convenience, it reduces scheduling hassles.

The information gathered by the app is verified independently using public record data. It’s also fraud-proof, with time and date stamps on photos and built-in safeguards to ensure locational data integrity remains intact, providing peace of mind for lenders and appraisers.

Lenders will appreciate that Inspex allows them to offer customers easy-touse tools and resources to quickly help them achieve their homeownership goals.

Inspex also lowers costs and improves speed-to-close, with valuation results in days rather than weeks.

In cases where the homeowner is not comfortable with a vendor in-home inspection, Inspex can be coupled with an appraiser-completed exterior inspection, still allowing for a full-scope review of the property.

Appraisers are able to remain independent and can produce an independent valuation without needing to schedule appointments.

Throughout the Inspex development process, Xome and its partners gave careful consideration to how this process will affect the lender and the borrower. Not all borrowers will embrace the ability to perform their own inspection and not all properties are suited for it – Inspex is designed to offer lenders and servicers the flexibility to use it at the right time, for the right customer and for the right properties.

HousingWire 2020 Insider’s Award

Congratulations Ken Burke and Michele Espada Congratulations to Ken Burke, Vice President Servicing Operations, Single-Family, and Michele Espada, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition, Human Resources, and all the other recipients, on being honored with HousingWire’s 2020 Insider’s Award.

Ken, we salute you for being the architect behind master servicing operations for Freddie Mac’s Single-Family portfolio and being the driving force behind our Reimagine Servicing® program.

Michele, thank you for your leadership and forward-thinking approach to recruiting top talent, including by enabling a transition to one-hundred percent virtual hiring and never missing a beat.

Your collective achievements at Freddie Mac will help ensure our success as we look to embark on our next chapter and continue leading the housing industry forward.

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.

AIME......................................73 ALTA.......................................73 MBA......................................74 NAHB ....................................74 NAMB ....................................75 NAMMBA................................75

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NAR........................................76

SEPTEMBER 2020

TRADE DESK

Marc Summers

President Association of Independent Mortgage Experts

AIME members, The independent mortgage broker community has continued to be nimble in the face of policy changes that have shaken the housing industry in recent months and created a barrier for some homebuyers who are self-employed or work in industries that aren’t considered essential.

N ow, m o r e t h a n eve r, t he Association of Independent Mortgage Experts is committed to ensuring that our members have a seat at the decision making table. Through continued lobbying efforts and government relations our members’ voices

are being heard by decision makers on the Hill.

With an election on the horizon and economists working and reworking economic projections based on the pandemic, we don’t know what will happen in the future but we are confident that AIME members will be equipped to take on more volume or weather a market lull.

This month we will host our third annual AIME Fuse National Conference where our members will learn from their colleagues how to improve their businesses and be strong community leaders.

Association of Independent Mortgage Experts

the doors to their homes without fear that someone will take away what is likely the biggest investment of their lives.

More than 120,000 title professionals nationwide – 70% of whom are female – are committed to ensuring a homebuyer ’s proper t y ca nnot be claimed by someone else and work to keep consumers from becoming victims of wire fraud and closing scams. In their careers, title professionals are private detectives, bodyguards, problem eliminators and protectors. In their communities, they are parents, loved ones, coaches and volunteers. ALTA encourages all title professionals to show their communities that no matter where they are or what they do, their No. 1 title is protection.

American Land Title Association

SEPTEMBER 2020

Diane Tomb

CEO American Land Title Association

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ALTA members, Members of the land title insurance industry work diligently — typically behind the scenes — to ensure homebuyers’ property rights are protected. Consumers usually do not meet their title professional until they are sitting at the transaction table, possibly overwhelmed by the homebuying process, so they may not be aware of the lengths to which title professionals will go to make certain the home a consumer buys is indeed theirs.

However, the American Land Title Association encourages title professionals to put themselves in the spotlight.

It is incredibly important for title professionals in every community across the nation to “tell their story.”

As those of us in the real estate industry are aware, title insurance professionals are the Guardians of the American Dream. Title professionals need to use their collective voices and tell their communities they are dedicated to making sure families can safely open

Robert Broeksmit President & CEO Mortgage Bankers Association

Mortgage Bankers Association

TRADE DESK

MBA members, Recently, the conversation surrounding racial inequality and the unjust treatment of Black people and other minorities has dominated the national stage. During this time, I have been educating myself on systemic racism and evaluating its presence in housing.

Our industry plays a vital role in developing solutions to help close the racial equality gap. Among other things, this includes focusing heavily on the contours of affordable housing.

L a st June, MBA launched it s Affordable Housing Initiative with the goal to promote more sustainable, affordable homes for purchase and rental by underserved people and communities, especially minorities and low- to moderate-income Americans.

More recently, MBA launched CONVERGENCE Memphis, a multiyear partnership designed to address the minority homeownership gap in

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NAHB members, Record low mortgage rates, a renewed sense of the importance of home and a shortage of existing homes for sale have combined to fuel a rapid rebound in the home building industry – a huge sector of the overall American economy.

After housing posted a sharp decline at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, increased builder confidence and rising permits and sales point to renewed growth in the sector. The improving data are consistent with forecasts from economists at the National Association of Home Builders and suggest that housing is poised to lead a recovery.

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, which measures builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes, posted its largest monthly gain in its 35-year history in June and moved into positive territory. Its current level points toward an expansion of single-family construction.

This matches recent home construction data from the U.S. Census Bureau, showing single-family permits expanded by 12%. New single-family home contracts

Memphis. The objective is for nonprofits, public officials and industry stakeholders to work together to better understand the barriers to minority homeownership, chart potential solutions, and then collaborate on implementing them. MBA plans to use the lessons learned in Memphis to create scalable solutions it can bring to other communities.

MBA also boasts an active Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee, made up of our member companies and chaired by MBA Chairman-Elect and SWBC Mortgage CEO Susan Stewart. The committee meets regularly and works to create a real estate finance industry that reflects the diversity, inclusion and opportunity within the communities we serve.

The conversation surrounding racial inequality must continue. And it is our responsibility to offer solutions that will help create an equal society, where all citizens have the same opportunities to thrive and succeed.

posted a 13% year-over-year gain and inventory fell to below a six-month supply, supporting growth for new home building.

Hiring in the housing industry is following suit, with residential construction hiring up more than 300,000 in May and June, while the overall employment number also saw huge gains from recent COVID-related drops.

The total unemployment rate should see continued improvement before the end of 2020, according to NAHB economists.

We are not yet out of the woods, and risks remain. But demand is strong and builders are confident.

With the exception of the Great Recession, housing has led the economy out of virtually every major downturn over the last five decades. The industry is poised to again play that leading role as the nation seeks to rebound from COVID-19.

Chuck Fowke

National Association of Home Builders SEPTEMBER 2020

Chairman National Association of Home Builders

TRADE DESK

Rocke Andrews President National Association of Mortgage Brokers

NAMB members, Since NAMB was founded in the early 1970s it has had a code of ethics.

Brokers then had a checkered reputation as most dealt with private money loans and some did not disclose ethically. As a means to differentiate themselves as professionals and illustrate to regulators that they were not duping their customers a code of ethics was written and became a part of their membership requirements.

Early brokers decided to keep from being legislated out of business they better self-police and show the public brokers were to be trusted.

The code requires members have integrity and be honest; exhibit pro-

fessional behavior; be honest in advertising; do not share confidential information; comply with the law and disclose personal financial interest in any transaction. This all seems superfluous in this time of licensing and Dodd-Frank, but at the time it was instituted this was uncharted territory.

In fact, when NMLS required education on ethics for licensing, most schools used the NAMB code as an example of ethics. As it is always possible to be legal without being ethical, NAMB has maintained its code of ethics as a requirement for membership so the public knows what its members stand for and how they are different from any other originator.

National Association of Mortgage Brokers of NAMMBA is to continue to foster a diverse culture and inclusion in the financial industry, which can be attained through the recruitment and mentoring of more than 50,000 talented undergraduates and recent graduates. Through the Visionary Program, we ask for corporations, small businesses and others to help contribute to the growth of the industry. NAMMBA asks for CEOs and senior leaders to engage by becoming event speakers, mentors and facilitators for college students. Pay it forward and give back. Lastly, the Talent Hub is a digital platform that introduces and connects students and companies.

Join NAMMBA in shaping the financial industry of tomorrow by becoming a donor, contributor or partner to help provide college students the opportunity to be part of our exciting industry.

National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America

Tony Thompson

Founder/CEO National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America

SEPTEMBER 2020

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NAMMBA members, Through our platform to engage and connect college talent to the financial services industry, NAMMBA has created the MISSION 2025 initiative, which will provide college students the opportunity to contribute their creativity and ideas to advance our industry.

While MISSION 2025 is focused on introducing college students to our industry, the goal of this program is to also increase diversity so that students from different backgrounds and cultures can represent the communities that they live in. As part of MISSION 2025, we have launched several new campaigns: the #STUDENTCHALLENGE campaign, the Visionary Program, and the Talent Hub digital.

Because the market needs improvement and college students will be entering the workforce with scarce job opportunities, the #STUDENTCHALLENGE campaign seeks to provide students with resources and support to educate on financial literacy, job assistance, career development and mental wellness. The goal

TRADE DESK

NAR members, Recently, we released data indicating that the housing market is showing strong signs of recovery. After the devastating pandemic as local economies begin to reopen, Realtors are leading the way. While we still have a way to go, the preliminary data is very promising.

NAR’s 2020 Market Recovery Survey polled Realtors about residential and commercial real estate and found that 92% said that some of their buyers had either returned to or never left the market. In fact, many Realtors in smaller, rural areas across the U.S. reported that there was never any noticeable pause in buyer activity. While some in those same markets did say the coronavirus slowed buyer traffic, they’re now noting that buyers have begun to return and are expressing even stronger interest in property ownership than before the pandemic. This is great news!

Another interesting finding from NAR research indicates Realtors are bettered prepared should another wave of the coronavirus emerge. A poll of NAR’s membership showed that among those who believe there could be a second

wave, 30% said they are now more prepared. The best way to withstand a disaster is to prepare for the circumstances before the disaster hits. I’m pleased to know that that is exactly what our members are doing. This readiness and foresight will ultimately benefit Realtors and their clients as the housing market looks to continue leading in our nation’s economy recovery process.

This all goes to show that the housing industry is robust, resilient and prudent. I truly believe that the industry could serve as a guide for other sectors. The coronavirus outbreak affected all of us and it will take all of us – working together – to overcome it. I have no doubt the housing industry and the American people will prevail.

National Association of Realtors

Vince Malta

President National Association of Realtors

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RECO GNIZING THE MO ST IMPACTFUL AND INNO VATIVE TECHNO LO GY LEADERS SERVING THE HO USING ECO NO MY.

Nominations close September 25, 2020 SEPTEMBER 2020

housingwire.com/techtrendsetters

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MORTGAGE

SEPTEMBER 2020

MORTGAGE

Lenders, servicers zero in on recapture as refinances soar N E W R E Z M A K E S S T R AT E G IC IN V E S T M E N T S F O R S E C O N D H A LF O F 2020

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s interest rates fell in 2020, lenders recorded record business when it comes to new originations and refinances.

New Residential Investment Corp. is focusing on its mortgage business as it pulls the company toward recovery after first and secondquarter losses due to COVID-19 challenges.

Primarily known for its servicing activities, NRIC operates a diversified business with multiple business lines, including NewRez – formerly New Penn Financial, Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing, title and settlement services provider Avenue 365 and eStreet, an appraisal management company. New Residential also made strategic investments in Covius Holdings, a provider of technology-enabled services to the financial services industry, and

"While March and April presented a number of significant challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we made great progress on our road to recovery in Q2’20,”

SEPTEMBER 2020

Guardian Asset Management, a provider of field services and property management.

NRIC’s mortgage banking affiliate, NewRez, funded $8.3 billion of residential loans in the second quarter of 2020, a decrease of 27.2% from last year.

To put this in perspective, this represents one of the lowest showings so far among top 40 producers tracked by Inside Mortgage Finance.

Part of this annual decline can be attributed to the company being a mortgage REIT. NRIC saw an increase in margin calls from repo lenders during the height of the pandemic this spring.

But the company has shown substantial improvement from its first-quarter losses. The GAAP net loss of $8.9 million is a huge improvement from the first quarter’s loss of $1.6 billion. “ While March and April presented a number of significant challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we made great progress on our road to recovery in Q2’20,” said Michael Nierenberg, New Residential chairman, president and CEO. “During the second quarter, we delivered on a number of

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B Y K ELSE Y R A M ÍR E Z

8 0 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

MORTGAGE

key initiatives that we believe continue to position our company for success in the quarters ahead. With over $1 billion of cash on our balance sheet, our capitalization is as strong as ever.

“This capital provides us with additional financial flexibility and creates a pool of cash to deploy opportunistically,” Nierenberg continued. “We significantly reduced our mark to market exposure; today, approximately 95% of our investment portfolio is financed with non-daily mark to market financing.

“This was also an excellent quarter for our mortgage company, which generated over $200 million in pre-tax income, an increase of 127% quarter over quarter.

We expect our origination and servicing businesses to continue providing significant profitability as we execute on our recapture goals, expand our market share and realize further efficiencies from our investments in technology.”

During its earnings call for the second quarter, Nierenberg laid out the company’s path to recovery.

In July, NewRez announced the formation of a strategic relationship with Salesforce, a global CRM provider.

Leveraging Salesforce’s platform and CRM expertise, NewRez said it will transform its lending experience by deploying Salesforce Financial Services Cloud and Customer 360 to connect its loan origination, servicing and marketing efforts. With a single view of the borrower across every touchpoint, NewRez will be able to deliver highly differentiated, consistent and personalized experiences for its loan applicants and homeowners.

This new tech partnership will also allow the company to increase its efficiencies and employee productivity to drive sustainable growth, Nierenberg said, and this will help the company grow its direct-to-consumer channel and improve its recapture efforts, a key strategy for the company going forward.

“We have almost 4 million customers in our ecosystem on the servicing side,” Nierenberg said. “We need to keep as many of them as possible. We need to provide better service. And one of the thing and our main focus here in the direct-to-consumer channel will hopefully pay off as we retain more customers, we drive down our MSR amortization and we continue to create profits for our company as direct-toconsumer margins are very robust.”

"This was also an excellent quarter for our mortgage company, which generated over $200 million in pre-tax income, an increase of 127% quarter over quarter. We expect our origination and servicing businesses to continue providing significant profitability as we execute on our recapture goals, expand our market share and realize further efficiencies from our investments in technology.” -Michael Nierenberg

SEPTEMBER 2020

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As part of NewRez’ “road to recovery” initiatives, it set forth a goal to increase its recapture rate. In the second quarter, the company worked toward achieving its goal by growing its direct-to-consumer line by 44%.

NewRez is doubling down on its recapture goal, saying this is a good strategy for the company since its refinanceable population is much smaller than the industry average. At 33%, the company holds a much smaller refinance population than the industry’s 72% average. Currently the company’s recapture rate rests at 19%.

A report at the end of 2019 from Black Knight shows many lenders are struggling to keep repeat business as the recapture rate hit a 12-year low. The majority of this decline came over the past eight years, the report shows. Recapture rates hit rock bottom in the first quarter of 2019 at 18%.

And as lenders strive to stay ahead amid all-time lows in interest rates, even the largest mortgage lenders are looking to increase their recapture rate.

“Servicing activities are viewed as an extension of the client experience with the primary objective of establishing and maintaining positive, regular touchpoints with our clients, which positions us to recapture the clients’ next refinance or purchase mortgage transaction,” Quicken Loans said in its IPO filing.

“Consequently, we view servicing as an integral component of the direct-toconsumer segment.”

“A mortgage which is originated from our servicing book has lower client acquisition costs compared to a mortgage originated in the Direct to Consumer segment,” Quicken Loans stated. “This is why we see our servicing book and related recapture originations as a key strategy for continued growth and profitability.”

MORTGAGE

I

In its road to recovery coming out of the pandemic, New Residential set forth several objectives: Cas h pos ition: The company will look to strengthen its cash position to capitalize on opportunities amidst the ongoing volatility. With its current $1 billion in cash on its balance sheet, which is more than it has ever had before, the company will look to lower its risk profile.

Recapture: The company will look to protect its MSR through recapture. As previously mentioned, it will achieve this through its direct-to-consumer business, which is already up quarterly by 44%. The company said there is still much room for growth in this area, and the integration with Salesforce will play a large role.

Liquidit y: The company will create additional liquidit y for advanced financing. The company said it already estimated higher forbearance numbers due to COVID than what was really needed, ending the second quarter with $2.2 billion in unused capacity for advances.

F o r b e ar an c e : While loans in forbearance decreased from its peak of 8.4% to 7.8%, the company will continue to focus on its servicing and working with homeowners who are dealing with COVID-19 hardships.

“Origination and servicing business continue to be a primar y focus ,”

Nierenberg said. “The return on equity in that business has been very, very good.

As we sit in this robust housing market, robust refinancing market, we want to

“ Why would we invest the time and effort to develop a relationship, then abruptly transfer the loan and orphan the customer? This is our opportunity to step

“The return on equity in that business has been very, very good. As we sit in this robust housing market, robust refinancing market, we want to make sure that we continue to perform extremely well there.” -Michael Nierenberg

make sure that we continue to perform extremely well there.”

Indeed, the originations business has propelled the company forward in the past several years. When NRIC acquired NewRez in 2018, the company made $38 million in pre-tax income.

Along the way, it acquired the assets of Ditech, which are now fully integrated and are expected to make the company upwards of $800 million in 2020. The company today has more than 5,500 employees.

The origination volumes have increased from about $10 billion per year to $50 billion, and the company expects to hover near $45 to $50 billion in 2020, driving the servicing portfolio to about $300 billion by the end of the year.

Many lenders are heavily focused on originations during this time as mortgage lending is set to reach $3.14 trillion by the end of this year, the highest since 2003, as interest rates continue to hit new record lows.

A mi d t h e p an d e mi c , h owe ve r, an increasing number of housing experts called for using this time as an opportunity to begin retaining servicing rights and placing more of a focus on the post-closing side of the business.

“Retain the servicing!,” Finance of America Mortgage President Bill Dallas said in a recent op-ed for HousingWire.

SEPTEMBER 2020

up and help homeowners circumnavigate that arrangement.

“In the past quarter, Finance of America extended close to $10 billion of new loans to 20,000 customers and, for the first time, retained the relationship,” Dallas continued. “Simultaneously, we mobilized advisors in communities throughout America to reach out and help clients assess forbearance so they can take advantage of the lowest interest rates in history.”

As for New Residential, the company made major improvements in the second quarter, but still has many areas to focus on as it continues to recover from the pandemic.

“While we still have a lot of work to do, we are proud of the accomplishments and progress we made during Q2’20,” Nierenberg said. “Looking ahead, our focus remains on growing our operating businesses and prudently deploying capital in this low rate environment. We believe executing our strategy will help grow book value and create strong earnings for our shareholders in the near and long term.”

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Over the pas t dec ade, f intech companies that focussed on improving lenders’ digital mortgage experience transformed mortgage lending. Now, the focus has increasingly shifted to smart data.

And companies that can utilize their data to predict movements by borrowers to help lenders retain the relationship will become increasingly essential.

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REAL ESTATE

SEPTEMBER 2020

REAL ESTATE

News of $1.1 billion Tesla factory revs up already hot Austin housing market IN V E N TO R Y R E M A IN S LOW IN AU S T IN , W H ILE DE M A N D IS H IG H

E

lectric car giant Tesla unveiled plans in July to build a $1.1 billion factor y in Austin. Rumors had swirled for months prior that it might be happening, but in July, the news

became official.

In building the factory on some 2,100 acres, Tesla has said it could hire 5,000 people over time.

The news follows 2018 and 2019 announcements by tech giants Apple and Google that they too plan to hire thousands of people in the Austin area in coming years.

While the jobs created by Tesla will definitely only fuel the city’s economic boom (Austin has ranked on numerous lists in recent times, including coming in at No. 3 on the Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities 2020 report), they will come at a lower

To Austinites, the rapid pace of home appreciation over the past 10 years has been startling with dramatic hikes in property taxes presenting even more threats to home ownership.

SEPTEMBER 2020

salary than those created by the likes of Apple and Google. According to the Austin Business Journal, the factory could employ about 5,000 workers with an average annual salary of $47,147 and a median salary of $68,303.

Still, the new factory combined with a continued influx of people moving from both coasts – which has only reportedly increased in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic – will no doubt lead to an even tighter housing market. And while Austin’s median home price may be significantly lower than say, New York or San Francisco, it’s been on such a rise that many have questioned whether the city remains affordable by Texas standards.

To Austinites, the rapid pace of home appreciation over the past 10 years has been startling with dramatic hikes in property taxes presenting even more threats to home ownership.

But for outsiders moving in, especially from the Bay Area, home prices in Austin are a bargain.

Therein lies the friction – if transplants continue

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BY MARY ANN A ZEV EDO

REAL ESTATE

to relocate, it’s inevitable that housing prices will continue to climb. But to what degree remains uncertain.

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Despite an increase in pending sales, new listings dropped 5.4% to 4,170 listings, and active listings dropped 32.2% to 5,300 listings.

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Chrissy Hand, a Realtor who works with Coldwell Banker in Austin, told HousingWire she has not seen a slowdown in business due to the COVID19 pandemic. In fact, quite the opposite.

“I’m the busiest I’ve ever been,” she said.

“And I know a lot of people in my office are saying the same.”

Migration from both coasts continues, including people continuing to relocate from the Bay Area to work for companies such as Apple, and others tired of dense, expensive areas such as New York, Hand added.

Hand also said that in the weeks leading up to Tesla’s announcement, she had a couple of investor clients reach out to her to set up a search for pockets of the city that are near where the factory is being built.

“When the news hit the wire, I had a client text me right away,” she said. “It’s a pretty exciting piece of news for Austin.

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For an idea of how hot the city’s housing market is, let’s look at the most recent statistics from the Austin Board of Realtors’ June and Midyear 2020 Central Texas Housing Market report.

The number of home sales in the AustinRound Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area spiked by 9.3% in June 2020 compared to the same month last year, according to the report. However, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sales were down overall by 5.2% for the first half of 2020, according to ABOR’s report.

Sales dollar volume also increased 13.1% to $1.67 billion and pending sales

increased by 33.7% to 4,737. And housing inventory declined 0.9 months to hit 1.8 months of inventory, demonstrating an extremely competitive and tight market across the region.

Despite an increase in pending sales, new listings dropped 5.4% to 4,170 listings, and active listings dropped 32.2% to 5,300 listings.

In June 2020, the median home price in the five-county metropolitan area increased 4.6% to $340,000. To give you an idea of how much the market has grown, that marks a 62.9% increase over the area’s median home price of $208,750 in June 2010. (For context, this compares to a median price of $1.38 million in the Santa Clara County metropolitan area.)

Still, inventory remains low and the market remains a seller’s one.

SEPTEMBER 2020

REAL ESTATE

spur growth in those areas more rapidly, continuing the path of affordability in Austin being pushed outwards and

the cost of living makes it a very attractive destination,” Scanlan said.

“People are finding they can buy more house when the financing charges are low, and they are able to achieve a higher equity position in their home much sooner...”

especially eastward,” Tschirhart said.

“The reputation of Tesla, with its high socioeconomic customer base, is going to wake up many Austinites who have been stuck in the old ways of thinking that East Austin is not a place to live.”

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As mentioned above, part of the driver behind the increase in home prices is the number of people and companies moving to Austin or in the case of Tesla, building a factory here.

Over the past few years, an increasing number of tech companies in particular have relocated to the city. This includes Apple’s plans to spend $1 billion on building a massive new campus in the city as well as Google’s plans to hire more people have impacted the real estate market in Austin. “ My agents have talked for years about the fact that when people come to Austin from the East and West Coast, but especially from high tech areas in California, they have what we call ‘reverse sticker shock,’“ Kevin Scanlan, former president of the Austin Board of Realtors, told me last year in a piece for Forbes.

“They come here and can often get double the size for one half or one-third of the price. Plus, the quality of life versus

SEPTEMBER 2020

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Plus, it’s nice that it is a company with the sizzle and cache of Tesla. While these won’t be six-figure jobs, they will still be good jobs that will allow people to chase the American dream and buy a house.”

Homes with pools or that are movein ready are particularly desirable in the COVID-19 era, according to Hand. “ People are paying premiums for homes with pools or that don’t require any work,” she said, noting that one home she recently listed for $795,000 ended up selling for $850,000, largely because it was move-in ready in a desirable location.

“That’s always been the case but even more so, as people really don’t want to have contractors in and out.”

Karen Choate, also a Realtor with Coldwell Banker in Austin, said the biggest challenge for agents in the city is lack of inventory.

“Most homes for sale, if they are priced at fair market value, will have multiple offers in a matter of days, if not hours,” she said. “With both Tesla and Apple building here, I expect home prices and values are going to continue to go up for the next five to 10 years.”

As in other markets, Choate points to historically low interest rates being another driving force behind the speed of the growth in the Austin market.

“People are finding they can buy more house when the financing charges are low, and they are able to achieve a higher equity position in their home much sooner,” she added.

Lucy Tschirhart, an Austin-based real estate agent, said the new Tesla factory will speed up already rapid growth for gentrifying east Austin.

Specifically, Tesla is headed towards an area known as Del Valle, southeast Austin neighborhoods near the area “with still widespread hesitancy because those areas were not desirable because of historically socioeconomic status,” she said.

“The jobs and attention Tesla brings will

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FINTECH

SEPTEMBER 2020

FINTECH

There’s no shortage of real estate lead gen tools but ROI remains elusive Q UA LIT Y V E R S U S Q UA N T IT Y IN LE A D G E N E R AT IO N C O M PA N IE S

R

ecently, our own Diego Sanchez penned a piece on real estate lead generation overload.

T h e r e ’ s no question the space is crowded. The number of companies attempting to generate leads for real estate agents is growing by the day. Many agents have expressed feeling overwhelmed, skeptical and/or “frozen” as a result.

As a follow up to that piece, we talked to various industry players to get their thoughts on just why this space is so darn crowded, and how to wade through the plethora of choices and hype.

First off, we reached out to one of the bigger players in the space – realtor.com. Ben Rubenstein, the company’s chief revenue officer, was CEO and co-founder of startup Opcity before it got acquired

“The number of leads has skyrocketed, yet homes sold have remained constant at approximately 5.5 million homes per year.”

SEPTEMBER 2020

by Move, realtor.com’s parent company, for $210 million in August of 2018. Move also owns ListHub, Top Producer and Reesio.

Rubenstein agrees that the lead-gen space “has become incredibly crowded.” But in his view, while companies out there are providing a large number of leads, there are few “quality” leads.

“Companies have found new ways to convince consumers to fill out forms, capture consumer data, and resell this data multiple times from sites where consumers are not actively looking at real estate,” he said. “The number of leads has skyrocketed, yet homes sold have remained constant at approximately 5.5 million homes per year.”

This disconnect has been a big pain point for agents, brokers and consumers, Rubenstein contends.

Naturally, he believes realtor.com has an advantage over other lead-gen companies because its consumer base is actively searching for homes on its site. Because of that, Rubenstein says realtor.com is able to produce “higher intent and higher quality

8 7 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

BY MARY ANN A ZEV EDO

FINTECH

8 8 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

consumer leads” than many other sites.

“It’s not just about generating leads; it’s about building quality relationships; connecting people and professionals, and giving agents, brokers and lenders the support and resources they need to succeed, whether that ’s through traditional lead-gen products, pay-forsuccess services, or new innovations on the horizon,” Rubenstein said. “To dif ferentiate yourself in a crowded landscape, you need quality ROI-focused options for a diverse set of customers.”

“This is a space where new companies are popping up left and right, and there’s a lot of competition...”

M

Meanwhile, I also talked to RET Ventures, a Park City, Utah-based venture capital firm focused on investing in “the next generation of technology leaders.”

SEPTEMBER 2020

Alec Page, vice president of RET Ventures, told HousingWire that he believes some verticals and sub verticals that are tangentially related to the leadgen space are more crowded than others.

For example, his firm has seen a flurry of new startups focused on virtual touring, especially as people are more hesitant to do in-person tours out of fear of exposure to the coronavirus.

“This is a space where new companies are popping up left and right, and there’s a lot of competition,” Page said.

There’s also a lot of players in the CRM and analy tics and reputation management spaces, Page maintains.

But when it comes to finding companies building AI chatbots to help handle some of the low-hanging fruit, and pricing and revenue management startups, the choices narrow considerably, he added.

“In our opinion, when it comes to real estate agents, most of the success has

FINTECH

programs, but said that she prefers those lead gen tools that provide more “niche” leads for specific neighborhoods or listings.

“Your best resources are spent on establishing a strong network.”

most success with agents and operators adopting solutions that allow for flexibility.”

This is especially true in the COVID-19 era, he added.

RET Ventures’ portfolio includes Funnel, TurboTenant, Amenify and Checkpoint ID, among others. The firm’s group LPs includes a large group of apartment and single-family rental owners.

D

Donna Gola, managing broker of RE/MAX Elite in Everett, Wash., told HousingWire she gets contacted by lead source companies on a daily basis – via calls, texts and emails.

Some of those are lower costs, she said, but the rest have a range in cost from as little to $60 a month to as much as over $10,000 a month. Some companies, such as Facebook, charge by the lead.

“I attend introductory webinars and check out testimonials,” Gola said. “If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.”

But regardless of the source, Gola believes leads are only good if you follow up on them immediately and have a good lead conversion system.

“Find a good system that has a good ROI and stick with it,” she added.

In her 26 years as a Realtor, Gola admits to having tried numerous lead generation

Her tip for other agents? “ Don’ t keep chasing shiny objects. Find a good system that has a good ROI and stick with it,” Gola told HousingWire.

“Whatever the lead source you use, your enthusiasm and ability to communicate and listen to the needs of your customer will determine the level of trust that is built, and your success as a Realtor.”

Peter Murray, a Realtor with Re/Max Plus in Frederick, Md., agrees with Gola that you can have all the leads in the world, but that doesn’t mean anything if an agent or broker is not able to convert them.

To Murray, lead generation tools are “a necessary evil.”

“It’s very important for a Realtor to have an online presence,” he said. “That’s what drives the whole conversation about lead.

Some leads are valuable in that they at least get us to the conversation table.”

Like Gola, though, Murray is skeptical of “shiny objects.” “ Your best resources are spent on establishing a strong network,” he told HousingWire. “That’s where your true investment should be.”

But at the same time, Murray agrees lead gen tools are simply “something you can’t not do.”

“There are a million sources for leads out there,” he said. “But you have to focus on the conversion rate. I’m not against lead generation tools, but I don’t think they should be a main component of a

SEPTEMBER 2020

Realtor’s business. You shouldn’t rely on them.”

Be sure to check out FinLedger, HousingWire's new fintech-focused media brand designed for financial services professionals. FinLedger will cover the news impacting financial services from SaaS to big data, and cybersecurity to regtech, and more at finledger.com

8 9 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

been around software that gives the renter or buyer the most flexibility,” Page told HousingWire. “Each renter or buyer has their own preference and we’ve seen the

POLITICS & MONEY

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Politics & Money SEPTEMBER 2020

POLITICS & MONEY

Fair Housing Act comes under fire H U D A B O LIS H E S A F F H R U LE

T

he Trump administration announced in July that it would terminate the Obama- era rule regarding the implementation of the Af f irmatively Fur thering Fair Housing, or AFFH, provision of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, according to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

In a press release, Carson alleged the provision has proven “ to be complicated, costly and ineffective.”

“Af ter reviewing thousands of comments on the proposed changes to the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation, we found it to be unworkable and ultimately a waste of time for localities to comply with, too often resulting in funds being steered away from communities that

“…

Washington has no business dictating what is best to meet your local community’s unique needs.”

-Ben Carson

SEPTEMBER 2020

need them most,” Carson said in the release. “...

Washington has no business dictating what is best to meet your local community’s unique needs.”

The 2015 rule requires cities and towns that receive federal funding to examine local housing patterns for racial bias and design a plan to address any measurable bias.

In its place, HUD unveiled a new rule called Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice, which it says defines fair housing broadly to mean housing that, among other attributes, “is affordable, safe, decent, free of unlawful discrimination and accessible under civil rights laws.”

It then defines “affirmatively furthering fair housing” to mean any action rationally related to promoting any of the above attributes of fair housing.

“With the new rule, a grantee’s certification that it has affirmatively furthered fair housing would be deemed sufficient if it proposes to take any action above what is required by statute related to promoting any of the attributes of fair housing,” HUD added. “HUD remains able to terminate

9 1 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

BY MARY ANN A ZEV EDO AND B EN LANE

9 2 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

POLITICS & MONEY

funding if it discovers, after investigation made pursuant to complaint or by its own volition, that a jurisdiction has not adhered to its commitment to AFFH.” Carson took to Twitter on July 23 to reiterate his and Trump’s stance on the issue, writing: “President @ realDonaldTrump and I agree that the best-run communities are the ones run locally. Today, we are tearing down the Obama Administration’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, which was an overreach of unelected Washington bureaucrats into local communities.”

He went on to describe the AFFH rule as “a ruse for social engineering under the guise of desegregation.”

Carson then alleged that funding subject to the AFFH rule has “been misused and abused for decades as slush funds for pet projects and causes ranging from an entertainment venue to a splash park and Planned Parenthood funding.”

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors expressed disappointment after HUD unveiled its final rule. The organization said that, following the administration’s initial proposal in January, it had publicly commented that the changes threatened to strip away the rule’s original civil rights purpose, as mandated by the 1968 law.

In a statement, NAR President Vince Malta said HUD’s decision “significantly weakens the federal government ’s commitment to the goals of the Fair Housing Act.” “The viability of our 1.4 million members depends on the free, transparent and efficient transfer of property in this country, and NAR maintains that a strong, affirmative fair housing rule is vital to advancing our nation’s progress toward thriving and inclusive communities,” he added. “ With the pandemic ’s disproportionate impact on people of color reminding us of the costs of the failure to address barriers to housing

opportunity, NAR remains committed to ensuring no American is unfairly denied this fundamental right in the future.”

On July 29, Trump tweeted out a statement celebrating his actions: “I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood... Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!”

The tweet drew a firestorm from industry leaders and trade groups. Ashby & Graff Real Estate was one of the first companies to take a stand, issuing a press release that said: “A Tweet sent today by the president of the United States used language with thinly-veiled references to perpetuating housing discrimination. We need more real estate firms and brokers to rise up and speak out against this latest assault on fair housing. It is also urgent that the National Association of Realtors and all state and local Realtor associations come out against this type of racist and divisive language. This is exactly our wheelhouse and so if we do not stand

“At the end of the day, this rule not only increases Americans’ access to fair and affordable housing, but also permits businesses and local governments to make valid policy choices.” -Ben Carson

SEPTEMBER 2020

up against this, what exactly is it that we do stand for?”

I

In August of 2019, HUD proposed making changes to its interpretation of the Fair Housing Act’s disparate impact standard, a rule enacted by HUD during the Obama administration and used as a way to enforce the Fair Housing Act. At its most basic, the updated guidelines revise the current loose, three-step threshold for Fair Housing violations and impose a specific, five-step approach that would require regulators to prove intentional discrimination on the lender’s behalf.

On a call with reporters at the time, HUD General Counsel Paul Compton said the pending rule changes shift the burden of proof in Fair Housing cases from the defendant, who previously had to show that there was no other way to avoid disparate impact on protected classes, to the plaintiff being required to prove that the defendant’s actions had an “arbitrary, artificial and unnecessary impact” on a protected class.

According to HUD, the changes bring the agency’s interpretation of the rule in line with the 2015 Supreme Court ruling, and Carson said that the rule changes will increase access to affordable housing.

“There is a lack of affordable housing in America today,” Carson said in a statement. “ This proposed rule is intended to increase legal clarity and promote the production and availability of housing in all areas while making sure every person is treated fairly under the law.”

“As we have shown time and again, we will challenge any practice that discriminates against people that the law protects,” Carson continued. “At the

POLITICS & MONEY

I

In a well-publicized op-ed published in The Washington Times in 2015, Carson said that the Supreme Court ruling on disparate impact and the Obama administration’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule are “government-

engineered attempts to legislate racial equality create consequences that often make matters worse.”

“The HUD proposed disparate impact rule provides a framework for establishing legal liability for facially neutral practices that have unintended discriminatory effects on classes of persons protected under the Fair Housing Act,” HUD said in a statement. “The rule has no impact on determinations of intentional discrimination.”

When the changes were proposed, fair housing advocates were the ones objecting, but by the summer of 2020, when COVID-19 shutdowns had ravaged the U.S. economy for several months, mortgage and real estate leaders had joined the call for HUD to withdraw its proposed amendments.

Bill Emerson, vice chairman of Quicken Loans , expressed his

“However, legitimate concerns have been raised about how the proposed rule would make it difficult to address some of the more challenging systemic issues of discrimination that the Fair Housing Act should be used to address,” the letter continues.

“We are living in a pivotal moment of American history, with much of the nation looking more deeply at the systemic effects of discrimination throughout our society and economy. In the spirit of that moment, policymakers and industry participants alike should look beyond the surface forms of discrimination to those that lie beneath, because the effects are often no less destructive,” the letter states.

“We believe that HUD should continue to focus on the deeper forms of discrimination, and has an opportunity to work together with lenders, consumer advocates, and civil rights experts to find

“We are living in a pivotal moment of American history, with much of the nation looking more deeply at the systemic effects of discrimination throughout our society and economy. In the spirit of that moment, policymakers and industry participants alike should look beyond the surface forms of discrimination to those that lie beneath, because the effects are often no less destructive.” -Bill Emerson company’s concern about the impact the proposed rule changes could have during the pandemic in a letter which he sent to HUD Deputy Secretary Brian Montgomery on July 10. “ We recognize that the proposed changes are intended to clarify the use of disparate impact in housing discrimination cases," Emerson's letter states. "We agree that unclear rules in the housing and mortgage markets can, and often do, constrain lending and investment in the space, harming those the rules are intended to help.

SEPTEMBER 2020

a common ground proposal on disparate impact that is fair, clear, and remains a strong and effective tool for our nation in combatting all forms of housing discrimination.”

In its letter released on July 13, NAR said that HUD’s revisions place too heavy a burden on the ability of parties to bring legitimate initial disparate impact claims.

Malta went on to say there is broad consensus that “now is not the time to issue a regulation that could hinder further progress toward addressing ongoing systemic racism.”

9 3 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

end of the day, this rule not only increases Americans’ access to fair and affordable housing, but also permits businesses and local governments to make valid policy choices.”

Fair housing advocates, like the National Low Income Housing Coalition, argued that the rule changes “dismantle an impor tant enforcement tool for combat ting discrimination, fur ther restricting access to housing for people of color, seniors, people with disabilities, families with children, LGBTQ people, victims of domestic violence and others.”

Under HUD’s previous rule, lenders, landlords and other housing providers could be held liable for discrimination against protected classes even if it was not their intent to discriminate.

The use of disparate impact was challenged all the way up to the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2015 in favor of disparate impact.

The 2015 ruling by the Supreme Court upheld that the Fair Housing Act allows lawsuits based on disparate impact, establishing that a lender’s practices can be deemed as discriminatory in the eyes of the law (specifically the Fair Housing Act) even if the lender didn’t purposefully discriminate.

But over the last few years, HUD began signaling that changes could be coming to the disparate impact rule.

In 2017, the Trump administration, via the Department of the Treasury, called on HUD to reconsider how it used the disparate impact rule.

w it h Erica Galos Alioto Opendoor Chief People Officer

Leading through layoffs Women of Influence: Leadership in the midst of crisis Layoffs were widespread due to the spread of COVID-19, something Opendoor has experienced firsthand. More than 26 million Americans filed for unemployment in the first few weeks of the pandemic, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Opendoor, which has raised more than $1 billion in funding in the last few years, laid off over 600 of its employees in March, or 35%of its workforce, as the company dealt with the economic impact of the coronavirus.

The struggling economy forced many leaders to make difficult decisions, especially those who oversee company culture, such as Opendoor Chief People Officer Erica Galos Alioto. A 2019 HousingWire Woman of Influence, Galos Alioto said staying transparent with employees was key.

HousingWire sat down with Galos Alioto to discuss leadership in difficult times. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

9 4 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

HousingWire: How do you keep up company morale in the midst of layoffs?

Erica Galos Alioto: Communication and transparency are key.

It’s important to share as much information as possible about why the decision was made and what is changing as a result. We are also putting a lot of thought into keeping people engaged, through all-hands meetings, Slack channels, virtual events and more to make sure people continue to feel connected to the team and to our mission.

HW: What should leaders do to ensure their teams stay connected during this time in quarantine?

EGA: Now more than ever, it’s important that team members feel supported as they balance home and work life. We’re mindful that the circumstances of each of our employees is unique, from working parents and caregivers, to single parents, to people who are alone at home without any support system. I believe it’s important for leaders to be transparent about the challenges they’re facing so that others feel empowered to do so as well. This creates a more human and personal connection between team members.

We’re also continuing to think of new ways to help people adapt to this new style of working. For example, remote meetings can be just as energizing as in person if you put some creativity into them. At Opendoor, we’ve started incorporating themes into our virtual meetings, such as bring your pet, or wear a fun hat.

Additionally, we’re encouraging team members to take initiatives to stay connected by joining virtual gatherings and concerts, participating in a digital book club, sharing recipes and hosting Netflix watch parties. Opendoor parents have even started Slack channels broken down by age bracket so they can share ideas and tips that are relevant to their child’s specific age group.

HW: Do you think this time, when Opendoor and other companies were forced to move remote, will change how they operate in the future?

EGA: Companies are stepping up in big ways and working to adapt their businesses to evolving consumer demand and a volatile environment. Transitioning entire workforces to be able to operate remotely is a part of the effort, and I think we’re all in the front row seat as to whether it can be a sustainable approach.

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

EGA: If you asked me 20 years ago what my life would have looked like 20 years from then, it would have been completely different than it is now. I’ve learned not to plan my life out too far in advance because if you do, you may not be open to all the great opportunities that present themselves to you.

Early on in my career, I spent a lot of time doing what I thought was expected of me, or what I expected for myself based on what I believed success looked like. At some point I started focusing more on doing the things that energize me, and being less concerned about the level of prestige that was associated with the role. I’ve learned that for me at least, being able to have an impact on things I care about is a much better definition of success.I’ve also come to view failure as a learning experience, more than anything else.

SEPTEMBER 2020

w it h Kim Hoffman Envoy Mortgage Chief Operating Officer

Lenders: If it were easy, everyone would do it COVID-19 changed the way businesses function COVID-19 has changed the way businesses function over the past several months, but due to the cyclical nature of mortgage lending, lenders are conditioned to deal with change, according to Envoy Mortgage Chief Operating Officer KimHoffman.

“I’ve often said if you don’t like change, the mortgage industry might be the wrong career,” Hoffman said.

HousingWire: Many companies have had to shift their operations in recent weeks – what advice do you have for companies dealing with all these changes at once?

Kim Hoffman: The mortgage industry teaches us to be fast on our feet, think long term with a laser focus on today and always be prepared for the unforeseen. Just think, in one week, our entire industry pivoted to work from home; some of us did this with teams on and offshore and still originated hundreds of million dollars of loans. Not many other industries could accomplish this while keeping capital flowing to consumers. I’m beyond proud of our industry; we are strong beyond words.

My advice to others is to leverage your networks. Early in March, I began calling my friends and peers in the industry and sharing my concerns and listening to theirs; we started having group calls discussing problems and potential solutions. Our industry is highly collaborative, yes, in ways we are competitive, but we’re all focused on serving the housing needs of consumers. We are open and honest with one another, and this helps the greater good of the industry.

My other advice is to stay close to your teams. Working from home is new to many and can be isolating. I have three touch points a day with my leadership team, morning, lunch and sundown. We talk watercooler topics, important industry updates, tactical issues and resolutions.

The idea is to maintain our sense of team and community.

Also, one day a week, we change from phone calls to video chats to tighten our sense of relationship. I got this idea from our CEO, Ron Millard; I winced at the thought of hair and makeup prep, but as usual, he was right!

HW:How can technology better help lenders be successful through various lending environments?

KH: You’re either using people to move your business and technology to assist, or you’re using technology to move your business and people to assist – I prefer the latter.

You can’t be nimble and scaleable in our industry if you’re heavily reliant on scaling people up and down. We’re all recruiting the same resources at the same time and paying premiums only to reduce later. Technology is the only cost-effective and efficient way to ensure you can meet the ever-changing mortgage landscape without extreme cost and pain to your people.

This would include point-of-sale technology where the borrower can self-serve as much as they’re comfortable and engage with their loan officer on their terms. Implement GSE tools such as D1C and AIM for the customer experience, decision certainty, speed and friction-free fulfillment, not to mention the rep. and warrant relief, which is more critical today than perhaps any other time. Complement this with a modern LOS that combines intuitive workflow, automation, built-in QC supported by your core team.

HW: What advice are you giving women during this time to advance their career while helping the industry move forward?

KH: Keep focused, don’t let the distractions of the media and other sources consume you. Tough times shake out those who stay on their game and those who don’t. Yes it’s hard, but if it were easy, everyone would do it, this sets us apart.

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

KH: I’m not sure I have a secret. I’m a lifelong learner and enjoy sharing my knowledge and elevating others. I love nothing more than to see my employees flourish and hope I’ve imparted some nugget of wisdom that’s helped them along their journey.

SEPTEMBER 2020

9 5 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

HousingWire sat down with Hoffman to talk about lenders as they manage the shift to working from home and other changes required by the coronavirus pandemic. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

KUDOS

Better together: The united impact of the Veterans United Foundation

9 6 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

By Brena Nath

kud

In early March, as everyone started to prepare for a virus that they knew so little about, Erik Morse was working with other leaders in the community on what would eventually become the beginning strategy for Central Missouri on how to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

As board president for the Veterans United Foundation, the non-profit charitable organization created and driven by the employees of Veterans United Home Loans, Morse found himself in conversations with other local leaders on what they could do to help early on in the pandemic.

Between the phone calls on what they could do and asking each other what they were going to do, they had an idea – why don’t they just work together on the impact they can have in the community?

From there, CoMoHelps was born.

CoMo is the nickname for Columbia, Missouri, where Veterans United is headquartered.

C oMoHelps is a joint effort of Boone Count y, the Cit y of Columbia, Community Foundation of Central M i s s ou r i, He a r t of Missouri United Way and Veterans United Foundation. Together, the group works with local nonprofits, community partners and government agencies to meet the needs of the community during the pandemic.

“What we tried to do is create a centralized response to the immediate emergency needs in the community, so we could all work as individual funders who were working together to make sure there wasn’t redundancy of funding,” Morse said. “By working together to best respond to the emergency needs, we also were able to better forecast what the long-term recovery needs were going to be for our com-

SEPTEMBER 2020

munity, so we’re now in a much better position than we ever could have been if we all just worked individually.”

But this is only one of the most recent examples of how the Veterans United Foundation has come together to serve the growing needs of communities across the nation.

The history behind the Veterans United Foundation actually goes back to 2011.

Amanda Andrade, chief people officer at Veterans United, explained that giving back is such an integral part of the company, adding that it’s a direct reflection of their cofounders and CEO. “Our cofounders are brothers, and they are so focused on giving back to the community and looking for ways to help,” Andrade said.

“It’s been threaded through our value statements and through the way that we make decisions.”

The foundation is funded from employee contributions that are matched dollar-for-dollar by the company, with more than 90% of Veterans United employees donating at least 1% of their salary to fund Veterans United Foundation. And due to the pandemic, that percentage has even gone up.

Morse said that when the pandemic first started and everyone was still so uncertain, the employees not only cared about being informed and understanding what’s happening,

but they wanted to know what the company was going to do about it.

Thinking back to that day, Morse added, “This happened at a time when I really could use some extra wind in my sail because day in and day out you just hear of all the hard things that are going on.”

After sending an email to the company at the time that told employees what they were doing, Morse said emails started coming in from employees asking him to raise their contributions to 2% or 5%. He was even asked what the max donation allowed is, a question he’s never had to answer.

The foundation has grown into a $60 million foundation, and with that, comes the opportunity to get to know people and programs in a different way, Morse said.

When it comes to operations and how the foundation chooses to donate money, he said, “We look through to make sure that we’re actually being good stewards of all of our employees’ dollars, and that we’re responsibly funding these organizations. We also have a lot of follow up within the communities to make sure that the mission of those organizations is being carried out.”

The foundation also commonly supports individu-

als, with both Andrade and Morse recounting times that they’ve supported funerals or provided adaptive vehicles for employees who have children with special needs.

Since the start of the pa ndem ic though, the foundation has significantly ramped up its efforts on how it can support its local communities, people

serving on the frontlines of COVID-19 and military personnel.

Starting at the internal and local level, the company gave each employee $100 to support local businesses, adding up to more than $330,000. They’ve purchased 50,000 masks to be distributed amongst hospitals, first responders and nonprofit agencies.

They’re even assisting the local Columbia farmer’s market in providing food deliveries for elderly and disabled citizens.

Employees often take it a step beyond these initiatives too, with Andrade sharing how one girl on their team has been working with assisted living homes in their area to create movie packs that contain popcorn, candy and a movie to make sure they still feel loved since they

can’t have visitors.

It’s united and creative efforts like these that also build to a national impact.

Veterans United launched the #HereForOurHeroes in April, which encouraged people to submit messages of support to National Guardsmen, first responders, healthcare workers and other military personnel who are serving on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic response. In partnership with Operation Gratitude, the messages are printed on postcards and sent with care packages.

Since launching the campaign, they’ve received al-

most 17,000 messages, and the website is still live for people to keep submitting messages of support. The campaign also included a $250,000 contribution for delivering the care package to 50,000 military COVID19 frontline responders.

“At a time when there was so much uncertainty, there was something we could do to try and jump in there and help,” Andrade said.

And that’s exactly what the foundation continues to do.

Founded with the goal to intensify and expand the impact of giving initiatives by creating its own charitable arm, Veterans United Foundation is a united effort. “We own it together,” said Andrade. “And collectively, we can just do so much more than we could just on an individual level.”

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dos

KUDOS

SEPTEMBER 2020

parting shot

❱ SEE YOU NEXT YEAR

9 8 ❱ H O U S IN G W IR E

If 2020 had a catchphrase it would be “the year of the pivot.” Conferences that promised vital information and networking were met with the difficult decision of how to continue in the midst of a pandemic. But the housing industry remained resilient. Heavy hitters like the National Association of Realtors focused their efforts on filling virtual conference centers while others like the Mortgage Bankers Association began promoting a host of webinars and virtual networking opportunities. Mortgage software provider Ellie Mae even donated all of the masks and hand sanitizers originally intended for its events to frontline workers.

SEPTEMBER 2020

2020 CRISTY WARD Chief Strategy Officer

Mortgage Connect

C

risty Ward leads national revenue and business strategy for Mortgage Connect. She is responsible for all lines of revenue within the originations, title and closing services, loss mitigation, default, appraisal, private wealth and home equity divisions. Ward is instrumental in identifying client pain points, imagining solutions and then helping the team drive them from concept to market launch and implementation. In more than eight years with Mortgage Connect, Ward has cemented relationships with top lending institutions, including money center banks, independent mortgage bankers, servicers and special servicers. Over the course of 2019 Ward’s efforts helped grow Mortgage Connect to more than 1,100 employees. This included the launch of two new offerings: Critical communications services and drone appraisal technology which is highly effective for disaster appraisals when it is unsafe for appraisers to enter an area.

In September of 2019 Ward organized and hosted the inaugural Women Empowering Women Council event, sponsored by Mortgage Connect and other leading companies. The event, which included six HousingWire’s 2019 Women of Influence, brought together more than 50 women to set the council’s mission: “To elevate women in our industry through a network of collaboration and support.”

Helping mortgage industry professionals serve their customers

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every day.

docmagic.com SEPTEMBER 2020