Years ago, I commented that, “March 4 th is the only day that is a command.” It didn’t take long for someone to rejoin, “Every day in March can be a command.” It isn’t a topic that is mentioned often, versus… credit. Credit is certainly a topic as of late, both its process and its cost, but I received this note from an industry vet in the South. “Rob, I’m tired of lenders having ‘a come apart’ over FICO’s costs. No one talks about the fact that FICO held its prices steady fo

At the L1 Summit, technology is obviously a key segment of many sessions. Tech is helping larger companies in their moves in controlling the borrower funnel. Artificial intelligence (AI) with its pros and cons but hoped-for benefits to productivity and therefore cost reduction, is a common conversation topic. Third party provider offerings are also theme. especially when it comes to technology and marketing. “Rob, I know that you have job ads in your Commentary, but we’re loo

In what seems to be the blink of an eye we’re down two months of 2026, and by most accounts they were decent for lenders and vendors. Here in Ft. Lauderdale at the Lenders One Summit, the talk in the hallways, like that at several recent conferences, is centered around a handful of topics, M&A being one of them, and the desire for companies to control the “funnel.” STRATMOR’s Garth Graham , who resides nearby, last night told me that STRATMOR has a full complement of buyers a

Chairman Powell and the Fed, tame inflation! But can you? Since the pandemic began, grocery prices have gone up about 30 percent. You can blame a slew of factors, including supply chain disruptions and tariffs. Egg prices spiked last year due to bird flu but fortunately have come down. 90 percent of U.S. bananas come from out of the country, and prices are up 7 percent over the last year due to tariffs. Coffee prices are up nearly 20 percent due to droughts in Brazil and V

We do not have the right to criticize this industry if we are unwilling to invest in improving it. Not in private conversations. Not in conference hallways. Not in boardrooms. If we benefit from the infrastructure of mortgage banking, from its standards, its frameworks, its collective trust, then we carry a responsibility to help sustain it. I earned my Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB) designation in 2005. The CMB is not simply a credential. It is a professional standard recog

Can’t you feel the anticipation building? March 5 th … Trigger leads… Don’t tell me that you’ve forgotten all about it. When a borrower applies for a mortgage and their credit is pulled, that data has historically been sold as a “trigger lead” and dozens of calls are received. Starting March 5, according to the law, credit bureaus can no longer sell trigger leads, the borrower’s lender can still contact them, and the current servicer may also reach out. Originators are remind

Let’s check the ol’ mailbag. “Rob, I know that the May MBA’s National Secondary is in Manhattan, as it has been for years. Have you heard that it is moving for 2027?” It is best to ask the MBA, but I believe that this could be the last year of the contract with the Marriott for that site, and it wouldn’t surprise anyone if 2027’s was in a major city, in the Central Time Zone, with a couple baseball teams. “Rob, have you heard that during Trump II, we’ll see less regulation an

“A regulator, a lender, and an AI assistant walk into a bar…” “Rob, have you heard anything about a state regulator going after a lender on AI doing licensed LO activities?” No, I haven’t, but the industry is waiting. It is no secret that Congress and regulators have trouble keeping up with technology. But is an AI “conversation” with a borrower any different than a questionnaire given to that same borrower? Will the line be drawn at RESPA items? Can regulators audit transcri

Today happens to be rocker George Thorogood’s 76 th birthday, and mortgage bankers know that he re-did Amos Milburn’s 1953 classic tale of  rent collection, land ladies, and payment avoidance . Not having your rent money and having too much debt is not a recipe for success, but loan officers deal with that all the time while trying to help their clients. At the Optimal Blue Summit going on now, sessions range from AI to loan officer tools to market strategy, product unveilin

I came across a piece in National Mortgage Professional  last week about Zillow partnering with Google to integrate its home-buying content into NotebookLM. This move builds on Zillow’s upstream strategy after integrating with ChatGPT  at the end of 2025. If you have not played with NotebookLM yet, it is Google’s AI research tool. You give it sources and it becomes an expert on those sources. Zillow is now feeding it its home-buying content library. Guides on preapproval, aff

Anyone out there who believes that storms aren’t becoming more severe is in the minority. The latest examples are the blizzard that hit the mountains in the West and the one that is currently hitting the Northeast. (Those heading to the Hurt No Mor Ski Trip next week in Park City, Utah, are pleased with the snow dump.) The current storm, and news of Homeland Security suspending TSA PreCheck and Global Entry security programs, and then apparently not suspending the programs,

“I hate it when people subtly brag about where they went to college. I have this friend who went to Harvard, and he just won’t shut the hell up about it. He’s always been like this, even when we were in college together.” Nature abhors a vacuum, and if students don’t want to go to college in their own countries, where are they going to go? The environment for people around the world coming to the U.S. has changed, whether for college or to live, impacting to some degree the d

“I asked my pen why it never moves. It wrote, ‘Sorry, I'm stationary.’" (It’s cutting-edge humor like that which keeps readers coming back!) Pens? Mail-related check fraud never seems to go away, and the FBI reminds us that blue gel pens certainly help in reducing check fraud. “Rob, are you hearing that the increase in the popularity of artificial intelligence has led to an increase in mortgage fraud?” Yes, I have. It can be insidious… it may not show up until months or yea

Yes, eliminate their role in credit reporting The phrase “Abolish ___” has been a cornerstone of social and political movements for centuries, used to demand the total elimination of specific institutions rather than their reform. Of course, “Abolish Slavery” was the mic drop use, but that still resonated when I heard the slogan, “Abolish Apartheid” around 1986 when I was in law school. Since then, however, using the word “abolish” seems to have become an overused progressive

Here in New Orleans, the other night on the street, or was it on a capital markets conference call yesterday, I heard someone singing, “There's a party goin' on right here, a celebration to last throughout the years…” by Kool & the Gang. The years sail by, and it’s hard to believe that the COVID pandemic was six years ago with its increase in deaths . For our biz, we switched to “work from home,” among other changes. Along those lines, I received this note: “Rob, are you hea

Here in New Orleans, the average rainfall is about 5 feet a year, much of it in the summer. Out west, most snow and rain occur in the winter. I mention this because, although being hit by a storm now including a deadly avalanche, until recently the Western U.S. was in a dire snow drought. What comes next is even scarier. Does the climate, and its impact on weather, impact lenders and servicers? Of course it does. But then again, in my 40+ years in capital markets, I’ve seen

By Wes Costello, EVP of Sales Operations at AnnieMac Home Mortgage For decades, the mortgage industry has relied on traditional credit lines and W-2 income documentation as the primary gatekeepers to homeownership. That approach worked when most borrowers earned predictable income from a single employer and documentation followed a standard pattern. Today, this framework no longer reflects how many Americans are making a living. More borrowers are financially qualified to buy

Studying the mortgage industry for over 35 years, I’ve learned: the winners don’t just think better. They move faster. We talk a lot about rates, inventory, consolidation, and AI. All important. But none of it matters if you’re slow to act. Speed is no longer a tactic. It’s a discipline. Consumer direct channels figured this out years ago with one simple concept: speed to lead. The data is overwhelming. The faster you respond to an inquiry, the higher your conversion rate. Mi

Here in New Orleans, there’s a lot going on that is not mortgage related, namely parades and celebrating Carnival ahead of Lent. But we shouldn’t let appearances deceive us. John Kruk famously said, “I’m not an athlete. I’m a professional baseball player .” The average elevation of New Orleans is 1-2 feet below sea level, with some areas 8 feet below. Do you think mortgage servicers are concerned about doing business here? On Mortgage Law Today at noon PT Brian Levy, Lorett

Did someone say it’s Valentine’s Day ? Indeed. I don’t know the statistics, but my guess is that a sizeable chunk of couples met each other at work or at school. Hopefully they’re paying their tuition, but… New data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York indicated that about one million borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans last year , with 9.6 percent of balances at least 90 days past due. As of September 2025, 3.3 million borrowers were between 31 and 270 d