June 28: CHLA & LO comp; Redlining differences defined; Vendor news; What $295k buys in college towns; Saturday Spotlight: Restb.ai

Under the “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade” category… Like any asset in a free market economy, home and real estate prices are usually determined by supply and demand. Face it: People would rather live in Beverly Hills, CA, or Naples, FL, than Elko, NV or Tioga, ND. The pandemic and e-commerce-driven retail apocalypse hit, leaving vacant strip mall locations scattered across this great country in an extinction-level event. But a new entity evolved to fill the niche that those doomed Pier 1 Imports or Bed Bath & Beyonds once inhabited: medical facilities. The mini-mall outpatient facility is one of the most in-demand retail areas, with leasing up 15 percent nationally in the fourth quarter of last year, filling 19 million square feet of new leasing activity. Office space at hospitals and health systems is very expensive, so some of the less intensive procedures are now being situated off-campus. This is one reason why 80 percent of medical facilities under construction are not adjacent to a hospital. Just 15 years ago, the number of healthcare workers working in hospitals and at outpatient buildings was about even; today, 6.8 million work from outpatient buildings and just 5.5 million are at hospitals.

Saturday Spotlight: Restb.ai

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“Real estate's leading provider of visual insights.”

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).

Restb.ai was founded in 2015 with a mission to apply advanced computer vision and artificial intelligence to the real estate industry. Headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, the company is the global leader in AI-powered image analysis for real estate, appraisal, and mortgage lending. Its technology helps automate and enhance property valuation and collateral risk assessment by extracting actionable data from property photos.

In recent years, Restb.ai has expanded significantly in North America and is partnering with leading lenders, valuation firms, capital markets participants, and mortgage investors. The company is focused on continued innovation in compliance, property and mortgage analytics and appraisal modernization, and new expansion across capital markets, private lending, and insurance use cases.

What makes Restb.ai unique in the computer vision and artificial intelligence industry, especially within the real estate and mortgage sectors.

Unlike generic computer vision companies with models built on third-party resources, Restb.ai has proprietary AI models that are trained specifically on property images, which allows for a level of accuracy, nuance, and compliance that general-purpose AI providers can’t match. In short, Restb.ai controls all its models with laser-focus on real estate, appraisal, and lending workflows during the last 10 years.

Restb.ai helps power appraisal modernization and AVM enhancement by automating property condition scoring, feature extraction, comparable optimization, and fair lending risk checks (bias and PII detection) This directly supports GSE-driven and financial institution compliance and modernization initiatives.

What does your company do to help elevate your employees’ growth? Describe any mentoring programs, outside classes or training, in-house training. How does the company help people develop?

At Restb.ai, every employee is offered a quarterly self-improvement budget to apply towards classes, certifications, and other methods of professional development.

Restb.ai's CTO background included organizing the largest student-led hackathon in Europe, and that mentality has infiltrated the entire company. In addition to its frequent sponsorship of numerous hackathons across Spain, Restb.ai also supports eight annual internal hack days to encourage employees to develop new skills and think outside the box.

Things you are most proud of that don’t have to do with sales.

Everyone at Restb.ai takes great pride in being at the forefront of the valuation industry, providing technology solutions to further appraisal modernization and responsible AI development.

Although we are based in Barcelona, Restb.ai is also proud of the remarkable spectrum of knowledge and perspectives that shape our team. With individuals born in 21 different countries and five continents, our level of true global diversity is rare, which we genuinely value.

Fun fact about your company.

Restb.ai’s technology, which analyzes over 35 billion real estate images annually, can identify thousands of unique data points (features, styles, condition and quality, damages, compliance violations, and more) inside and outside of a home from photos provided in valuation products, more accurately and faster than a blink of a human eye!

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

We recently released a groundbreaking study on the effects of inappropriate condition assessments by appraisers, impacting over 70 percent of appraisals and translating into a potential risk of more than $33B in Agency repurchases. The comprehensive study is here.

For more information about Restb.ai and to connect with a product expert, contact us here.

(For more information on having your firm’s extracurricular activities, employee growth, and your charitable side featured, contact Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt.) 

What does $295k buy in some college towns?

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Summer is the season when high school seniors are preparing to move to college. What do 295 thousand bones buy you in some random places? Austin, Philadelphia, Boston, and Seattle.

The definition of redlining is a fine line

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I received this note recently, asking about redlining. “Rob, when an investor refuses to offer a program in a certain county or state, or a private mortgage insurance company prices themselves out of a state or region, or a servicing buyer refuses to bid on or buy mortgage servicing rights in a certain state, isn’t that redlining?” In turn, I asked attorney James Brody, Managing Partner of Brody Gapp LLP, who answered: “Sometimes a lender or investor decides to step back from a particular market, whether it’s not offering a program in a state, mortgage insurance becoming too expensive in a region, or passing on servicing rights for specific areas. While these calls are usually rooted in sound business judgment (credit risk, past losses, regulatory hurdles, or operational complexity) the risk of redlining grows as exclusions become more specific, especially when they line up with majority-minority or low-to-moderate income communities.”

Mr. Brody continued, “Intent isn’t the only thing that matters. Regulators focus on impact, and under the Fair Housing Act and ECOA, even neutral exclusions can bring redlining scrutiny if they result in disparate impact. That’s why it’s critical to document the ‘why’ behind every exclusion, run a multi-factor analysis, including licensing, product availability, legal limits, overlays, and actual risk data, and show you considered alternatives. Even well-intended decisions can carry regulatory and reputational risk if certain communities are left out. At the end of the day, consistent documentation and a clear, race-neutral process are your best defense as both regulators and the public look beyond geography to who’s truly being served.” Thank you, James.

The CHLA address LO compensation

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The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) released its White Paper on Reform of LO Comp. The report chronicles the legislative history of LO Comp, identifies areas where it harms consumers, and calls on Congress to dial back the LO Comp statutory remedy to the practices it was designed to address: yield spread premiums between firms.

"LO Comp restrictions on compensation to a lender's employee LOs harms consumers, is based on a flawed theory, ignores increased price shopping, sets a harmful precedent, and creates an unlevel playing field," the CHLA White Paper concluded.

Many groups have called on the CFPB to address problems LO Comp has caused by creating exceptions to the uniform compensation requirement for areas like competitive loan situations and State bond loans.

In the White Paper, CHLA is calling on the CFPB to act on these changes until Congress can act. But CHLA goes beyond these proposals to strike at the heart of the problem, which is that Congress should have just addressed pre-2008 Yield Spread Premium practices, but instead went way beyond that to severely restrict compensation practices to a lender's own employee loan originators - a somewhat unprecedented step.

The CHLA White paper explains how complex LO Comp rules are, cites how mortgage brokers flout their requirements, and names several areas where the overly broad LO Comp application harms consumers. The report ends by proposing draft legislation to end restrictions on compensation paid to a lender's own employee loan originators, leaving in place the prohibitions for compensation between different entities.

And the CHLA report identifies four interim actions the CFPB could take until Congress can act.

Third-party provider morsels

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What lenders don’t rely on outside parties for their business? Let’s take a random look at who’s up to what.

By the way, the Chrisman Marketplace is now “up and going,” a centralized hub for vendors and service providers across the mortgage industry to be viewed by lenders in a very cost-effective manner. We’re adding new providers daily, so check back often to see what’s new. To reserve your place or learn more, contact us at info@chrismancommentary.com.

The 2025 STRATMOR Technology Insight® Study is now underway. The first part of the study (the Lender Intelligence Survey) is live and focused on how lenders really feel about the tech they use every day. From LOS and CRM systems to underwriting automation and servicing platforms, this is the only independent study capturing lender experiences with mortgage tech systems and vendor support. Lenders who complete the survey will receive a summary report of 2025 Technology Insight® Study results at no cost. This is actionable intel to help guide tech decisions in today’s competitive environment. Take the survey and help shape the future of mortgage tech. The survey is open to lenders only. Questions? Reach out to STRATMOR’s Technology Insight team for details: technologyinsights@stratmorgroup.com.

RatePlug has launched its new “search by affordability” platform, Afordal. It's a new way to search and uses AI lead scoring to identify the best leads. Buyers, for the first time, can search based on real-time mortgage rates, monthly payment range, and special financing programs like low-down or zero-down VA, FHA, USDA, assumable loans, and first-time buyer incentive programs.

FICO, the global analytics software leader, announced MeridianLink, Inc., a leading provider of modern software platforms for financial institutions and consumer reporting agencies, as the first mortgage technology platform company to offer the FICO® Score Mortgage Simulator. Integrating the FICO Score Mortgage Simulator with MeridianLink Mortgage Credit Link helps to expand access to credit decisioning tools for resellers and lenders nationwide that provide valuable insights to support more informed decisions and better lending options for consumers. The product gives mortgage professionals the ability to simulate how changes in an applicant’s credit report data can impact their FICO® Score and empowers lenders and borrowers to make more informed credit decisions creating better customer experiences and increasing education around their FICO® Score. FICO® Score Mortgage Simulator is the only score simulator on the market today for mortgage professionals that use FICO® Score algorithms.

Dark Matter Technologies announced a significant leap forward in mortgage innovation: the NOVA loan origination system now features end-to-end eClosing capabilities, powered by the Wolters Kluwer eOriginal® ClosingCenter. Designed to improve the mortgage closing process, eClose in the NOVA LOS will help lenders reduce time-to-close, realize cost savings, and provide a better borrower experience while also enabling secondary market activities. As the mortgage industry pushes toward full digital transformation, this update enables lenders to execute hybrid, IPEN, and RON eClosings drastically reducing time-to-close, cutting costs, and enhancing borrower satisfaction. More importantly, it allows compliant digital loan sales to the secondary market via secure eVaulting, a significant advancement for institutions looking to scale digital mortgage operations.

Friday Harbor just launched a new condition engine that could meaningfully shift how lenders handle underwriting conditions. Instead of vague flags or static checklists, this AI reads the borrower’s documents, interprets guidelines, and generates plain-language, color-coded conditions, complete with a resolution path and supporting documentation. View the Press Release for details.

Class Valuation has launched Class Valuation Analysis (CVA), a USPAP-compliant appraisal review designed to help lenders validate collateral quality at critical points in the loan lifecycle, including MSR trades, internal audits, construction validation, and post-board GSE reviews. It’s built for speed, backed by licensed experts, Rating Agency Accepted, and can be ordered directly, with no need to go through a third-party vendor. CVA gives lenders a cost-effective alternative to full re-appraisals while delivering clarity and confidence in appraisal data when the stakes are highest.

Finastra, a global leader in financial services software, unveiled new generative AI (Gen AI) capabilities for its Filogix Expert Pro Canadian mortgage software. Part of Finastra’s continued commitment to embracing Gen AI to help customers deliver value faster, these latest enhancements drive efficiencies, saving brokers time and reducing risk of manual errors. New capabilities include Pro Chatbot, Auto Emails, Auto Email Summary, and Document Data Extraction.

Total Expert, the FinServ leader in customer engagement software, announced the debut of its AI Sales Assistant. The new AI-powered assistant is already in private beta with select customers, including several top 10 lenders. The AI Sales Assistant is not a chatbot retrofitted for financial services, it is an enterprise-grade, agentic AI system capable of scalable, intelligent, human-like conversations across voice and SMS. 

Xactus announced the successful completion of its integration with MSP, ICE’s comprehensive loan servicing system. This strategic integration enables mortgage servicers to receive automated flood zone determination updates directly into their servicing system without manual intervention. The key benefits for users include direct, automated delivery of flood zone updates without manual intervention, elimination of dual-system management and associated compliance risk, real-time portfolio monitoring for FEMA map changes, competitive pricing with no sacrifice in servicing efficiency, and seamless implementation into the servicing system.

White’s Only Laundry? Wait, it gets “worse”…

Visit www.ChrismanCommentary.com for more information on our industry partners, access archived commentaries, or subscribe to the Daily Mortgage News and Commentary. You can also explore the Chrisman Marketplace, a centralized hub connecting mortgage professionals with trusted vendors and solutions. If you’re interested, check out my periodic blog on the STRATMOR Group website. This month’s piece is titled, “Beyond the Primary Market: How MBS and ABS Impact Lending Strategy.” The Commentary’s podcast is available on all major platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

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(Market data provided in partnership with MBS Live. For free job postings and to view candidate resumes, visit the Chrisman Job Board. This newsletter is intended for sophisticated mortgage professionals only. There are no paid endorsements by me. For the latest mortgage news, visit Mortgage News Daily. For archived commentaries, or to subscribe, go to www.ChrismanCommentary.com. Copyright 2025 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. 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.)