Mar. 16: Sales, mgt. jobs; Processing, bridge loan, non-QM products; news & oil prices point to a Fed hold; "tip to tail" wave

Whether facing yet another bad winter storm, unusual March heat, or some kind of atmospheric river, people around the nation are dealing with extreme weather to come to this ICE Experience in Las Vegas. Oh, and then there’s about 58,000 TSA employees who make, on average, about $40k per year not being paid. Underwriters, and common sense, tell me that many of them don’t have a lot of savings to fall back on when their pay is eliminated. Home builders appear to be scaling back production as inventories remain elevated relative to sales. Fresh fruit, vegetable, and oil inflation won’t help them in the slightest, nor will inflation help mortgage rates, and there’s nothing the Fed can do about it. Fresh inflation data from the consumer price index report last week, ongoing volatility in energy markets remained present with Brent crude topping $100 given the U.S.–Iran war. For lenders, “tip to tail” is the term for large companies seeking dominance in the real estate/lending/servicing ecosystem through growth or mergers and acquisitions. In addition to that, lenders and vendors of every size are trying to bring down costs while eking out every basis point in the secondary markets. Are we having fun yet? (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s ‘casts are sponsored by Ocrolus. Ocrolus is transforming the mortgage industry with AI-powered data and analytics, featuring cutting-edge tools for automated indexing, income analysis, and now automated conditioning. Ocrolus helps mortgage teams move at the speed of automation with the precision of human oversight. Hear an interview with Megastar Financial and Take3Tech’s Anita Padilla-Fitzgerald on how she maximizes client engagement to deliver one source of truth, an end-to-end mortgage solution, and certainty in one day.)

Employment

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“We are seeking a Western Divisional Sales Manager and Account Executives to establish and grow the region for a well-capitalized lender with no existing footprint across the Western U.S., offering truly open territories and significant market opportunity. As an approved seller with Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Ginnie Mae, the platform delivers consistently top five Loan Sifter pricing along with a comprehensive product suite including Prime and Non-QM solutions. Backed by intuitive technology, a highly responsive operations team, and industry-leading AE compensation, this is a rare opportunity to build market share with a platform designed for broker success. The company is currently approved in 40 states and rapidly expanding to 49, creating substantial growth potential for the right sales team.” If interested, please send your resume to Anjelica Nixt and specify this opportunity.

“More Deals. More Solutions. More Growth at SG Capital. The non-QM market continues to gain momentum as borrowers, brokers, and lenders look for smarter ways to serve today’s diverse borrower profiles. As traditional guidelines leave gaps for self-employed borrowers, real estate investors, and complex income scenarios, non-QM solutions are stepping in to fill a critical need and the growth across the sector reflects it. At SG Capital, we’re leaning into that momentum. Demand for flexible lending solutions continues to rise, and we’re committed to staying ahead of it. Over the next 45 - 60 days, we’ll be rolling out expanded underwriting guidelines and program enhancements designed to give our partners even more ways to close deals and serve borrowers who fall outside the agency box. Growth also means investing in people. As we scale, SG Capital is expanding the sales team and actively looking for a Junior Sales Associate with 2–5 years of experience in the mortgage lending space, ideally with exposure to correspondent lending. It’s an opportunity to step into a fast-growing segment of the industry and be part of a team focused on innovation and partnership. The non-QM space isn’t slowing down, and neither are we. If you want to be part of the momentum in Non-QM, either as a team member or as a client, reach out to us.”

The Chrisman Job Board is the go-to platform for employment opportunities across the mortgage industry. For employers, adding a job listing is easy. Simply create an account and drop in your existing application link, or forward the details to our team and we’ll take care of it for you. For job seekers, joining our Talent Community is completely free. Upload your resume to be visible to hiring companies across the industry and stay connected to new opportunities as they go live.

Products, services, and software for brokers and lenders

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“Great News! LendingPros has Pipeline Accelerator Specials for March, check them out. Plus, we're excited to celebrate joining the ARIVE platform and have combined our March and ARIVE specials for UP TO 100 BPS OFF NON-QM for loans locked from 3/10 – 3/20, 2026! Our Live on ARIVE Specials include: 25 BPS Price Improvement on all Non-QM, including Select, 12.5 BPS Price Improvement on ALL Conventional, Government and Jumbo, including Select (excludes Streamlines and IRRRLs). March Specials for loans locked 3/1 – 3/31, 2026 include: Up to 75 BPS on Non-QM with Select or 25 BPS without, Prime Specials include 37.5 BPS on Non-Select VA IRRRLs and FHA Streamlines, 12.5 BPS Special on Select VA IRRRLs and FHA Streamlines and Closed-End Second Specials with LLPA Improvements and 25 BPS Price Improvement. Contact your LendingPros AE for details!”

Solutions for High DTI. When DTI looks high on paper, experienced brokers look to Castor Financial. Castor specializes in simplifying non-QM by serving as the ultimate solution leader for DTI issues. Castor’s Income Stacking with its Prime PLUS program allows you to combine multiple streams—W2, Bank Statements or P&L, and Asset Depletion—to qualify borrowers. The Prime PLUS program’s asset depletion features are the most aggressive in the industry: divide eligible assets by only 36, with no minimum asset value required. Join Castor for a conversation with Danny Flucke, co-founder of US Tax Certs on March 18th. They'll be focusing on how to remove friction for self-employed borrowers. Bring your toughest questions: there’s a free giveaway for the most challenging scenario! Register today. On March 23rd, tune in to the Chrisman Podcast as Castor President Brooks Champagne joins Robbie for a deep dive into Castor’s unique income stacking qualification.

Wholesale lending company Flyhomes is hosting a live webinar on March 18 and March 20 to introduce its newly launched Cross Collateral Bridge Loan, designed to help your borrowers purchase their next home with $0 out of pocket. With this solution, borrowers can buy with $0 out of pocket (up to 105% LTV on the new home), close in as little as 10 days with an all-cash advantage, leverage both the existing home and the new home as collateral, delay payments until the departing home sells, and borrow up to $3M with no prepayment penalty.. Save your spot for the webinar now or book a call today to learn more.

Today is Now Next Later at 10AM PT, Sponsored by Relcu: Jeremy Potter and Sasha Stair are joined by Abhijat Thakur of Relcu to discuss the rapid evolution of consumer data management in mortgage. The conversation explores what AI is enabling for lenders and how data strategy is becoming central to efficiency, compliance, and competitive positioning.

The Chrisman Marketplace is 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.

Processing software continues to evolve

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Time-consuming manual tasks. Costly workarounds. Long origination cycles. Legacy tech can leave your mortgage operation feeling stuck in the Ice Age. MeridianLink® Mortgage brings lending into the modern era. With seamless core connectivity, hundreds of partner integrations, and data-driven workflows, MeridianLink Mortgage gives you the speed, control, and insights to break free from the past and grow your market share. Approve more qualified loans faster: Intelligent, rule-based automation, advanced decisioning, native and third-party PPE options, eDocs, and a TPO Portal, keep your pipeline moving. Simplify management: Scalable, cloud-based tech with automatic compliance updates and advanced integrations for fraud and data security reduce risk and save your team time. Enhance borrower journeys: POS and data intelligence tools make each experience smoother and more personal from application to funding. Move your mortgage lending into the future with MeridianLink. Learn more.

ICE® Data & Document Automation is an omnichannel mortgage automation solution that automates key business processes for lenders, investors, and servicers. From day one of deployment, ICE Data & Document Automation can deliver compelling ROI by providing lenders with the capabilities to originate loans faster and with greater consistency by applying mortgage automation to the loan manufacturing process and streamlining document collection, data validation, calculations, and risk analysis. For servicers, the solution ingests and splits critical documents, applies standardized naming, and seamlessly delivers files into MSP®, Servicing Vault, or other storage systems. Investors benefit from faster loan purchases, lower operational costs, and reduced buy‑back risk through automated purchase reviews and efficient data and document handling. Explore how ICE Data & Document Automation can accelerate accuracy, efficiency, and ROI across your loan process today!

With ICE Experience 2026 kicking off this week, many Encompass lenders are gathering to compare strategies for improving borrower experience while keeping operations efficient inside the LOS they already rely on. LenderLogix will be onsite at booth #626 demonstrating LiteSpeed, its Encompass-native point of sale built to streamline borrower applications, document collection, eSignatures, and communication directly within Encompass workflows. If you are attending ICE this week, stop by the booth to see what’s new and connect with the LenderLogix team. And if you stop by, keep an eye out… rumor has it a new lineup of our custom coasters might have made the trip to ICE.

Mortgage Automation Technologies, Inc. (MAT), creator of The BIG Point of Sale, today announced the launch of BIG AI, a comprehensive artificial intelligence product suite that brings enterprise-grade, Amazon Bedrock-powered business intelligence directly into the hands of mortgage professionals. The official debut takes place this week at Experience, where MAT will demonstrate the full platform live for lenders, loan officers, and industry leaders. For the first time, loan officers, operations teams, executives can interact with their loan data through a natural language interface, asking questions in plain English and receiving instant answers in the form of charts, tables, reports, and fully generated documents. No SQL. No spreadsheets. No waiting on analysts. It is a fully transparent, admin-controlled AI architecture where lenders own the intelligence layer… not the vendor.

“We looked at the market and saw an entire industry being asked to hand over the keys to their AI with zero visibility into what’s happening underneath,” said Matthew Van Fossen, CEO Mortgage Automation Technologies. “Lenders are regulated entities. They can’t afford a black box making decisions about what their loan officers see, what data gets exposed, or how the AI responds to sensitive topics. BIG AI breaks that model open.” With BIG AI, mortgage lenders get full, transparent control over every layer of AI behavior, from the foundation model powering the intelligence, to the exact prompts their users see, to the compliance guardrails that keep everything within regulatory boundaries. No other platform in the mortgage technology space offers this level of openness.

Capital markets: news points to a Fed hold

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Anyone interested in bonds or stocks digested fresh inflation data from the consumer price index report, ongoing volatility in energy markets remained present with Brent crude topping $100 amid given the U.S.–Iran war. Fed watchers took note that a federal judge blocked Justice Department subpoenas targeting Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

As the Iran war rages on, countries around the world are facing soaring energy prices that could dampen economic growth and boost inflation of necessities. The biggest threat is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway vital for the transit of roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquid natural gas supply. Some nations are more insulated than others, but each one of them has responded to the crisis.

The heavy slate of economic data released over the past week painted a mixed picture of the U.S. economy heading into the war with Iran, suggesting momentum was already moderating before the escalation in the Middle East. January data showed consumers still spending, with personal income and spending each rising 0.4 percent, supported by strong wage growth and cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security benefits that lifted real disposable income at the fastest pace in roughly three years. Housing data released last week also reflected uncertainty: existing home sales rose modestly but remain constrained by mortgage rates above 6 percent and tight inventory, while builders appear cautious amid elevated unsold supply.

Broader metrics are less reassuring: the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the core PCE index, ticked up to 3.1 percent year-over-year, Q4 GDP growth was sharply revised down to 0.7 percent even as the GDP price deflator moved higher, and consumer sentiment slipped to a three-month low. Meanwhile, durable goods data suggested business investment remained resilient, and job openings unexpectedly climbed. The big takeaway is that the U.S is facing a labor market that is still firm even as growth slows, an uncomfortable combination that suggests stagflation risks have increased since the Federal Reserve’s last meeting in January.

Policymakers are now presented with the difficult challenge of balancing higher inflation alongside that softening labor market…an outcome that directly strains the Fed’s dual mandate of price stability and maximum employment. Regardless, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is expected to leave interest rates unchanged at the conclusion of its meeting this week, preserving flexibility in the face of significant uncertainty, particularly surrounding the volatility in oil prices. Inflation progress toward the Fed’s 2 percent target has stalled, and underlying price pressures remain sticky, especially within core PCE.

Investors are increasingly worried that rising oil and natural gas prices could erode household purchasing power, weigh on consumer sentiment, and reinforce inflation pressures. Your takeaway? Where markets once anticipated several rate cuts this year, attention has now turned to whether the Fed can deliver even one, as policymakers prepare to emphasize data dependence while assessing the inflationary impact of higher energy prices.

This week will be highlighted by the latest FOMC events on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the statement and SEP released on Wednesday followed by Chair Powell’s press conference. Before the Fed, the Royal Bank of Australia is expected to increase rates again by 25-basis points to 4.10 percent tomorrow, the Bank of Canada is expected to keep rates steady at 2.25 percent Wednesday morning, with the Bank of Japan, Bank of England, Swiss National Bank, and European Central Bank expected to hold rates steady on Thursday at 0.75 percent, 3.75 percent, 0 percent, and 2.00 percent, respectively.

Today’s economic calendar kicked off with Empire manufacturing for March, of secondary importance to Iranian war news. Later today brings industrial production and capacity utilization for February, the NAHB Housing Market Index for March, and some short-duration Treasury auctions. We begin the week with Agency MBS prices better than Friday’s close by .125-.250, the 2-year yielding 3.69, and the 10-year yielding 4.25 after closing last week at 4.29 percent (up 16-basis points over the course of the week).

Liam opens the newspaper and is shocked to see his OWN obituary.

In a panic, he phones his friend and asks: “Did you see the paper?! They say I died!”

The friend replies: “Yes, I saw it! So… Where ya calling from?”

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, “Helping Borrowers in a Market Defined by Complexity and Change.” 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 2026 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.)