Oct. 11: WSJ's opinion on Freddie & Fannie & homebuilders; wide-ranging vendor news; Saturday Spotlight: Flyhomes

Tracking exactly which federal workers are being laid off may be difficult, although it is in the headlines and impacts those individuals and families and their finances. (A slowing economy, either as part of the natural business cycle or forced, means lower rates, although the Qatari air force facility being built in Idaho may help the job market there.) I do know, however, that the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the head of which’s nomination was pulled a few weeks ago, will recall some furloughed employees to publish the September Consumer Price Index despite a government shutdown. This ensures Social Security payments, which are tied to inflation data, can be calculated. The impact of the shutdown will certainly be a discussion topic at next week’s MBA Annual conference, in Las Vegas, and attendees are lining up interesting places to go. Fans of Las Vegas have told me about several “secret” places, including at the Mandalay Bay (1923 Prohibition Bar, look for the bookshelf, it’s behind the bookshelf), Resorts World (Here Kitty Kitty Vice Den, inside the Hello Kitty Store, behind the blue bookshelf), The Cosmopolitan (The Barbershop Cuts & Cocktails, walk through & the door is in the back), Beauty & Essex (door is on the wall by the guitars), and Ghost Donkey (walk through the food court & the door is under the exit sign). Have fun!

Saturday Spotlight: Flyhomes

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Power up homebuyers—bigger budgets, winning offers, only one move.

In 3–5 sentences, describe your company

Flyhomes is the industry leader in solving one of the biggest challenges in real estate: how to buy your next home without having to sell your current one first. Our solutions effectively solve common borrower challenges like high DTI, low down payment, asset liquidation, and sales contingencies. With Flyhomes, borrowers can move only once, and loan officers are empowered to close more deals that they could have lost otherwise.

We operate on a wholesale-only model, empowering loan officers and real estate agents with a variety of Buy Before You Sell products. More than 5,000 buyers have already used Flyhomes to move seamlessly. With $2.2B in funded loans and a growing partner network of 160+ lenders and 30,000+ MLOs, we’re expanding quickly and are proud to offer our solutions now nationwide.

Our products give borrowers real advantages: buy with $0 down, reduce their DTI by up to 50%, and make cash-equivalent offers that close in as little as 10 days. And because we’re wholesale-only, there’s no competition with loan officers or agents. We exist to help them win more deals and build stronger client relationships.

Another key difference? Low costs. We’re proud to offer the most affordable Buy Before You Sell solutions on the market. Our programs start with a tiered flat fee, and our loan product pricing is tied to the loan amount, not the departing home’s sale price. This structure keeps costs fair and transparent, giving borrowers access to the tools they need without creating an extra financial burden. It’s a true win-win for both families and the professionals who serve them.

Even better, now through October 31, Flyhomes is offering a special promotion: 50 bps off Buy Before You Sell interest rates on all new locks.

Join our live webinar on October 22. We’ll walk through how Flyhomes products empower you and your borrowers to buy their next home before selling the current one, access home equity upfront to cover down payment and closing costs, and skip traditional loan hurdles with no monthly payments and minimal documentation.

Don’t miss out: Save your spot now or book a call to learn how this could benefit your borrowers and help you close more deals today.

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

The Wall Street Journal has Thoughts on Residential Lending

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This week the editorial staff of the Wall Street Journal offered some possibly industry-leading thoughts on housing, affordability, and home builders. Those of us in residential lending wonder what FHFA Director Bill Pulte, from a homebuilding family, may ask Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae to do to boost homebuilding. We also know that builders have been offering treats and mortgage rates that are bought down in an effort to spur demand, which isn’t there. Freddie and Fannie have other issues to focus on, as well as charter restrictions, not the least of which is trying to be released from conservatorship or issuing more stock… a nearly impossible feat given the structure of the government’s arrangement with them.

The WSJ writes, “President Trump has heard that home builders are struggling amid his tariff blitz, immigration crackdown and weak sales. His solution? Get government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to subsidize them. Here we go again.

“Mr. Trump pitched this idea in a Truth Social post on Sunday. ‘Before I became President, ‘OPEC’ kept oil prices high. It wasn’t right for them to do that but, in a different form, is being done again, this time by the big homebuilders of our Nation,’ he wrote. So, he’s accusing the home builders of colluding to restrict housing supply? But wait.

“He added: ‘They’re my friends, and they’re very important to the success of our country, but now, they can get financing, and they have to start building Homes. They’re sitting on two million empty lots, A RECORD. I’m asking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to get Big Homebuilders going and, by so doing, help restore the American Dream!’

“Bill Pulte, the President’s political fixer who oversees Fannie and Freddie, saluted his boss: ‘We will do just that at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.’ What Mr. Pulte means by ‘just that’ is the trillion-dollar question. Fannie and Freddie guarantee mortgages, including some loans for people building their own homes. But the government-sponsored Godzillas currently don’t finance home builders.

“It’s unclear where Mr. Trump picked up the idea that home builders are sitting on ‘2 million empty lots.’ The Census Bureau shows that about 250,000 homes have received permits but not yet begun construction. Perhaps his confusion stems from the current housing market affordability paradox. State and local governments have suppressed construction over many years while the feds and Fannie and Freddie have goosed demand. This has resulted in a housing shortage and pushed up prices. Historically low mortgage rates during the pandemic drove up prices even more. Home prices have climbed 55 percent since January 2020.

“Many Americans now can’t afford to buy a home at today’s higher mortgage rates and home prices. Those who locked in low mortgage rates in 2020 or 2021 often can’t afford to move if they need a new mortgage for their next home, so demand for newly built homes is weak. Home builders are enticing buyers with discounts and offers to pay down their mortgage rates for a few years with the hope that rates will later fall and let borrowers refinance. Nearly four in 10 builders cut prices last month, and 65 percent said they dangled incentives, according to the National Association of Home Builders. They’ve also put the brakes on new projects. This will make it harder to expand supply to bring down prices over the long term.

“There’s little Fannie and Freddie can legally do under their existing federal charters to support home builders. Guaranteeing construction loans to big home builders is beyond their remit, and subsidizing borrowers to buy new homes would likely push up home prices. The two mortgage giants are also undercapitalized, even as Messrs. Pulte and Trump talk about letting them break free of government conservatorship and float IPOs.

“Expanding their role in housing even more is one of the worst ideas we’ve heard in an era too full of them. If Mr. Trump wants to help his homebuilder ‘friends,’ he could drop his tariffs, stop deporting their workers, and appoint a Federal Reserve Chair with market credibility to defeat inflation.”

Third-party provider/vendor morsels

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There are some snazzy programs and software for lenders in both the primary (dealing with borrowers) and secondary (dealing with investors) markets. Let’s take a random look at who’s doing what out there, in no particular order.

Sagent, a leading provider of mortgage servicing technology, announced the launch of Dara Invoice, a real-time solution to eliminate the error-prone manual process currently used by servicers to manage invoices related to mortgages in default. Dara Invoice simplifies the management of invoices between servicers and their partners for default counsel, title, property preservation, and other providers they rely on for default servicing. Within a unified platform, Dara Invoice offers intelligent capabilities that are unavailable when using today’s antiquated combination of email, spreadsheets, and PDFs. Within Dara’s open ecosystem and using real-time data, Dara Invoice enables anytime audits, flexible reporting, and rules-based actions that lead to unprecedented efficiency.

Keeping on, Sagent announced a new partnership to aid the housing-affordability mission of Idaho Housing and Finance Association (IHFA) by implementing Sagent's Dara Claims platform. This first-to-market implementation of Sagent's new Dara Claims product enables IHFA to deliver a seamless, data-driven claims process within its existing servicing system of record, connect with any of its investors. and handle any claim type. Dara enables servicers like IHFA, with unique investor and configuration requirements, to dramatically cut unreimbursed loan losses and streamline compliance, making it an essential component of Dara's end-to-end servicing capabilities.

Argyle has secured new funding from Mastercard (joining Bain Capital Ventures, Checkr, and others to expand its consumer-permissioned verification platform. Building on its recent launch of asset verification powered by Mastercard open finance technology, Argyle now offers a single platform for verifying income, employment and assets for 90% of the U.S. workforce using real-time, consumer-permissioned payroll and bank connections. Full details are available in press release.

Snapdocs, the leader in digital closing technology, has partnered with Vesta, a modern loan origination system (LOS), to create a fully integrated digital closing experience. The integration brings Snapdocs' closing infrastructure directly into Vesta's platform. Lenders can manage the entire closing process from sending documents and collecting signatures to tracking real-time status updates without leaving their LOS. By eliminating manual work and disconnected systems, the partnership helps lenders reduce risk, cut down on errors, and significantly accelerate closing timelines.

ActiveComply, the leading digital communication compliance management platform, announced a strategic investment from growth equity firm Level Equity. This partnership marks a major milestone in ActiveComply’s mission to help financial institutions protect their brands and navigate an increasingly complex regulatory environment. The growth investment comes at a critical time as the federal reserve’s recent rate cuts are expected to accelerate growth in ActiveComply’s core mortgage market.

FirstClose™, Inc., a leading fintech provider of data and workflow solutions for mortgage and home equity lenders nationwide, announced a certified integration with Optimal Blue that connects FirstClose’s point-of-sale (POS) platform to Optimal Blue’s product, pricing and eligibility (PPE) engine. The integration builds on FirstClose’s ability to reduce home equity closing times from 45 days to 10 or fewer, while also giving lenders access to Optimal Blue’s trusted pricing and eligibility data. Together, these capabilities position lenders to better serve growing demand for home equity lines and second mortgages in today’s purchase-slow market.

MISMO®, announced the release of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Glossary, a resource designed to establish a shared vocabulary for AI across mortgage finance. The glossary serves as a growing collection of key AI terms and definitions to foster a shared language and mutual understanding among all industry stakeholders. As AI technology continues to evolve, new concepts, methodologies, and terminologies emerge. This resource will be regularly updated to reflect the latest advancements and is available for the entire industry to use.

MISMO® also announced the release of its new Loan Boarding Dataset, a standard for boarding newly originated residential mortgage loans into servicing. The Loan Boarding Dataset establishes a consistent baseline of data at the time of loan boarding. This proactive approach helps prevent common issues that arise during loan setup and further down the line in servicing transfers due to missing or incomplete origination data.

nCino is stepping back into the spotlight in mortgage, announcing a major AI update that reshapes how borrowers and loan officers experience the loan process, A new wave of mortgage-focused AI innovations designed to accelerate loan origination, reduce underwriting touches and deliver more responsive borrower journeys. These advances build on the Company’s spring release of Mortgage Advisor and Document Validation, extending AI deeper into the nCino Mortgage Suite to raise loan quality and loan officer productivity.

LenderLogix, a leading provider of mortgage point-of-sale (POS) and automation software announced that Peak Residential Lending (Peak) has adopted LenderLogix’s LiteSpeed™ integration with Argyle to deliver verification of assets (VOA) directly at the point of sale (POS). LiteSpeed is the first POS to offer VOA through Argyle’s verification platform. Through the integration, Peak’s loan teams can access structured, verified data from the start of the application process, including transaction history, asset summaries, and rental history. Using income, employment or asset verifications from Argyle enables lenders to qualify for rep and warrant relief on validated components under Fannie Mae’s Day 1 Certainty® program and Freddie Mac’s Asset and Income Modeler (AIM) capability in Loan Product Advisor®.

Insellerate received the $10,000 LendingTree Innovation Award at this year’s Digital Mortgage Demo Challenge, hosted by National Mortgage News and LendingTree. The spotlight was on AIthena, Insellerate’s AI-powered voice assistant, which impressed judges with its real-time lead scoring (89.4% accuracy on first call), coaching capabilities, and autonomous workflow execution. CEO Josh Friend described AIthena not as a typical voice assistant, but as an “Aigentic™,” an intelligent, autonomous agent helping lenders close more loans, and reduce costs.

GALLUS is the business intelligence platform purpose-built for mortgage lenders and servicers. It pulls together your most important data from loan origination, capital markets, accounting, and servicing and turns it into clean, automated dashboards. No more waiting days for reports or stitching together data from a dozen systems. GALLUS gives you real-time visibility into your pipeline, gain-on-sale, warehouse usage, financials, and loan officer performance, all in one place. And it's easy to use: if you can Google, you can use Gallus. To learn more, reach out to hello@gallusinsights.com or visit www.gallusinsights.com.

Secure Insight is now providing financial strength ratings on all title underwriters to provide additional risk data for lenders, allowing them to meet current GSE and secondary market guidelines for appropriate third-party vendor management. Utilizing independent industry auditor data, Secure Insight's Closing Guard populates its risk profile reports with this stability assessment and adjusts the rating when and if it changes. This enhancement is the latest in a series of technology and process overhauls to provide greater depth of analysis and a better user experience for Closing Guard clients. For more information contact Amanda Padd, CRO.

Compassion, empathy, helpfulness, and understanding are things not associated with AI or the internet. For something different, here’s a site with an ad worth watching; there are subtitles. (Warning: tissues may be needed.) What kind of person or institution do you want to be known as being?

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, “No Lender Wants a Government Shutdown, but Just in Case…”. 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.)