Feb. 22: Take care with FHA DPAs; Politics and lending; Vendor news; 1003 banter; Saturday Spotlight: HomeVision
“Sometimes I shock myself with the smart things I say and do. Then, there are times when I try to get out of the car with my seatbelt on.” There are plenty of smart and innovative people in lending who might learn a thing or two from the food business. The combination of innovation and marketing can be powerful. Somehow, Chili’s has “returned,” with foot traffic at the restaurant up 20 percent in the three months ending December 25. It is well above the level of traffic across all casual dining restaurants in the U.S., which was down 3.8 percent in 2024. Chili’s was sliding into irrelevance, seeing guest visits fall 30 percent in the two decades since 2002 as people realized that they did not have to do this to themselves, and other food was probably available. The chain started hacking up its menu and cutting off low-sellers and has stumbled upon two menu items that are driving pretty bonkers sales. One is a value meal for as low as $10.99 that gets a person a beverage, a starter and a main. The value meal was responsible for 19 percent of all Chili’s sales in the most recent quarter. The other, the Triple Dipper, which allows a patron to pick three appetizers, was singlehandedly responsible for 15 percent of sales. Innovation!
Saturday Spotlight: HomeVision
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“Comprehensive quality control, powered by machine intelligence.”
In 3-5 sentences, describe your company (when was it founded and why, what it does, where, recent growth, and plans for near-term future growth).
HomeVision was founded in 2019 with a simple mission: to bring advanced machine intelligence to the mortgage industry by automating document review and decision-making. We started with appraisals, recognizing how outdated manual processes slowed lenders, AMCs, and appraisers, creating inconsistencies and unnecessary risk. To address this, we built MIRA, our Machine Intelligent Review Assistant. By combining computer vision, natural language processing, and other advanced technology, MIRA doesn’t just read the appraisal and other loan documents. It understands them, delivering results like 50–75% faster reviews, 80–90% automation of manual tasks, and a significant reduction in revision rates and repurchases. Today, MIRA powers smarter, faster reviews for many of the nation’s top lenders and AMCs, processing volume for over 30% of Top 100 lenders. And we’re just getting started with a robust roadmap; we expect significant customer growth and product expansion in the year ahead.
Things you are most proud of that don’t have to do with sales.
We’re most proud of how we partner with our customers and ensure our product delivers on its promise. To date, we’ve never had a failed implementation, a testament to our focus on user experience and seamless change management. By creating a holistic platform that integrates directly into existing workflows, we’ve eliminated the inefficiencies of system-hopping common with point solutions. But our commitment goes beyond go-live: we’re in it for the long haul, continuously improving and evolving our product to meet our partners’ changing needs. As we like to say, “We like customers, but we love partners.” To us, every customer relationship is a long-term commitment, built on trust, growth, and continuous collaboration.
Tell us a little about your company culture.
First and foremost, we strive to create a culture that values humility, transparency, collaboration, taking ownership, continuous improvement and being committed to the truth. Knowing what’s true is actually pretty hard. And knowing what you don’t know is even harder. We try to start with questions before going to answers, and are always trying to learn from our customers, the market, and the latest advancements in technology.
Second, we try to keep things fun and creative whenever possible. This comes through in both big and small ways—whether it’s empowering small teams to tackle big problems (we love the paraphrased General Patton quote, “Point them to where you want to go, and you’ll be amazed how they get there”) or making space for personal connections in our all-hands meetings. Each week, a team member shares their “user guide,” a 15- to 20-minute personal overview of who they are, where they’re from, what they value, and what makes them unique. We love hearing the personal stories of our team members, customers, and partners… Learning them is what makes our work even more rewarding.
(For more information on having your firm’s extracurricular activities, employee growth, and your charitable side featured, contact Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt.)
Bring back yellow pads for applications!
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I received this note from a veteran broker in Illinois.
“If the CFPB is declawed, and has no money to pay enforcement personnel, I’d love to go back to the original 2, or even 4, page 1003. Every time I take a new app I scream. Where is the place to note the EMD? Also, on the RE section, the idiots that created the piece of ---- did not know/understand there are other types of RE besides residential. I am not able to note a piece of raw land or a commercial building.
“This application form is yet another CFPB data joke. All we hear is that the CFPB wants this data to ensure no one discriminates, yet by gaining the data up front in the fashion it is employed it entices discrimination. Frankly, the ethnicity and racial info should be taken at the closing table, after all the decisions have been made without knowing or seeing anything. Not that most of us could find any of it on the damn printed form. We must have solid information that clients can read and understand. The old forms were the best. Lenders were held accountable, as Wall Street firms should be.”
Secondary financing for FHA loans
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Lenders and brokers are going to do what they can to help borrowers. That said, be careful to follow the rules. I received this note from a recently retired underwriter specializing in government loan programs.
“I can’t help but notice the advertisements or promotions for lenders offering down payment assistance programs for FHA loans. Some of these programs hit 100 percent financing because the DPA can go towards the downpayment.
“This topic is clearly laid out in the Handbook, and it states the secondary financing may not be used to meet the borrower's minimum required investment (MRI) when the secondary financing is provided by a Private Individual or Organization. Any lender that uses this program with an FHA loan to provide 100% financing will end up indemnifying that loan for the life of the loan. Only Governmental Entities and Family Members can provide secondary financing where that 2nd lien is permitted to be used to meet the borrower's MRI.
“I worry about someone seeing these programs in the market and thinking it must be legitimate. Here is the Handbook citation for the section of the Handbook that outlines requirements for Secondary Financing for those who are interested: Handbook 4000.1 II.A.4.d.iii.(J)” Thank you very much.
Politicians can’t help but influence home ownership & lending
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“Rob, just my 5 cents, but your newsletter was better without politics. Again, that’s my opinion and probably 50% of your audience.”
I believe that the president should be honorable, and that things said matter. Elections have consequences, pros and cons. Some people don’t vote because they think it doesn’t matter, or vote based on what a candidate says. People write and say, “Oh, that’s just Trump. You don’t believe anything he says, do you?” Really?
“Rob, for some reason you’ve decided to start writing about politics. I didn’t see you mentioning the open borders, the murders and assaults as a result, or the people who died from fentanyl over the last four years. Rob, we get our politics elsewhere. You’re not going to change minds about politics, but you will alienate 50% of your audience. I think honest reporting and opinions on the CFPB makes sense for this newsletter, the rest of politics I’d leave for elsewhere.”
And this note. “Rob, I understand that government and lending will always be intertwined. But I felt inclined to share another opinion. Namely, our business is most certainly tied to the political tides. And since the election your Commentary has leaned left. The unfortunate part is that we live in a time where people want others to change, instead of trying to understand their position. So even as much as I disagree with your perceived lean, it is your commentary to do with as you wish, and anyone that does not like it can unsubscribe at any time. As for me, I’ll be here, drinking coffee and disagreeing along the way.” Thank you.
Vendor mania!
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What lender could originate home loans without third-party providers? Let’s see who’s doing what out there, in no particular order.
Mobility Market Intelligence (MMI), a leader in data intelligence and market insight tools for the mortgage and real estate industries, has acquired MonitorBase, a borrower monitoring and predictive analytics platform. This acquisition, following MMI’s recent addition of Bonzo, a CRM and conversation platform, unites data intelligence, borrower monitoring, and automated engagement into a seamless, end-to-end system for mortgage professionals. “By integrating these three platforms, MMI delivers The Ultimate Lead-to-Loan Growth System™, enabling lenders, loan officers, and mortgage professionals to identify high-intent borrowers and agents, engage them at the right time, and streamline client interactions with automation.”
RiskSpan, a leading provider of innovative trading, risk management and data analytics for loans, securities and private credit, has announced the release of its latest Non-QM Prepayment Model (Version 3.11), incorporating CoreLogic’s loan-level non-QM performance data. This update significantly enhances prepayment forecasting accuracy for non-QM loans and mortgage-backed securities by leveraging a robust, segmented modeling approach. RiskSpan’s new non-QM prepayment model introduces a two-component framework that improves the precision of prepayment predictions: A Unified Turnover Model, designed to capture base prepayment trends, and a Refinance Model Categorized by Documentation Type, is capable of distinguishing among and modeling behavioral characteristics specific to bank statement, debt service coverage ratio/investor, full documentation, and other documentation types.
Lender Toolkit solutions continue to redefine how lenders process and underwrite mortgage applications. products ensure consistency in decision-making while enhancing the overall borrower journey. Announcing a partnership with Ocrolus and the integration of Ocrolus' advanced document analysis technology into Lender Toolkit’s product line. This powerful enhancement addresses a critical need in the mortgage underwriting process, the ability to analyze a wide variety of unstructured data from electronic, scanned, or physical documents such as bank statements, pay stubs, and tax forms. AI Underwriter now bridges the gap with its Ocrolus integration, converting text from unstructured formats into machine-readable data, enabling seamless automation across all data sources.
Informative Research, delivering data-driven credit and verification solutions announced its integration with Thomas & Company, provider of employer services and innovative solutions to support employee relations programs. The integration adds Thomas & Company’s Wage and Employment Verification service to Informative Research’s verification platform, increasing its customers’ access to tens of millions of records necessary for verification of income and employment (VOI/E). The integration with Thomas & Company empowers consumers to control their data privacy while increasing lenders’ access to vital employment and income records.
(A long joke, but there must be some mortgage banking analogy somewhere...)
A toothpaste factory had a problem: they sometimes shipped empty boxes without the tube inside. This was due to the way the production line was set up, and people with experience in designing production lines will tell you how difficult it is to have everything happen with timings so precise that every single unit coming out of it is perfect 100% of the time.
Understanding how important that was, the CEO of the toothpaste factory got the top people in the company together and they decided to start a new project, in which they would hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem, as their engineering department was already too stretched to take on any extra effort.
The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP, third-parties selected, and six months (and $8 million) later they had a fantastic solution on time, on budget, high quality and everyone in the project had a great time. They solved the problem by using high-tech precision scales that would sound a bell and flashlights whenever a toothpaste box would weigh less than it should. The line would stop, and someone had to walk over and yank the defective box out of it, pressing another button when done to re-start the line.
A while later, the CEO decides to have a look at the ROI of the project: amazing results! No empty boxes ever shipped out of the factory after the scales were put in place. There were very few customer complaints, and they were gaining market share.
"That's some money well spent!" he says, before looking closely at the other statistics in the report.
But the number of defects picked up by the scales was 0 after three weeks of production use. It should've been picking up at least a dozen a day, so maybe there was something wrong with the report. After some investigation, the engineers came back saying the report was actually correct. The scales really weren't picking up any defects, because all boxes that got to that point in the conveyor belt were good.
Puzzled, the CEO travels down to the factory, and walks up to the part of the line where the precision scales were installed.
A few feet before the scale, there was a $20 desk fan, blowing the empty boxes out of the belt and into a bin.
"Oh, that!" says one of the workers. "Boudreaux the Cajun put it there because he was tired of walking over every time the bell rang."
Visit www.robchrisman.com for more information on our industry partners, access archived commentaries, or to subscribe to the Daily Mortgage News and Commentary. If you're interested, visit my periodic blog at the STRATMOR Group web site. This month’s piece is titled, “Natural Disasters and Economic Resilience.” The Commentary’s podcast is live and at any place you obtain your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify).
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(Market data provided in partnership with MBS Live. For free job postings and to view candidate resumes visit LenderNews. This newsletter is for sophisticated mortgage professionals only. There are no paid endorsements by me. For up-to-date mortgage news visit Mortgage News Daily. For archived commentaries, or to subscribe, go to www.robchrisman.com. Copyright 2025 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. Occasionally paid job & product listings do appear. This report or any portion hereof may not be reprinted, sold, or redistributed without the written consent of Rob Chrisman. The views and opinions in this newsletter are mine alone unless otherwise specifically stated herein.)