Sep. 20: A tale about not scrimping on marketing dollars; selling a home is expensive; secondary deals; Saturday Spotlight: Flyhomes
Today is 20th of September, which means, of course, that tomorrow is the 21st of September, a day celebrated by any fan of 70s tunes or “get up and dance” wedding music… for 47 years! Hopefully the entertainers involved in the making of that song have made some decent ducats. People a) are usually curious about what other people earn, and b) generally watch some football every season. Along those lines, offensive linemen are enjoying a moment of prominence in the NFL. The average salary for the top 10 tackles has grown 75 percent since 2019, keeping pace with the salary growth of quarterbacks (78 percent over the same period) and nearly double that of the running backs. Just for those out of the know or who don’t care anymore, such as New York Jets or New Orleans Saints fans, an “offensive line” is the group of large gentlemen employed by a football team to protect the quarterback from the onslaught of the defense as well as create opportunities for running backs to advance down the field. The number of offensive linemen picked in the first three rounds of the draft is up to 20 from 2021 to 2025, up by a third compared to the period from 2007 to 2011. A high percentage of athletes call Florida and Texas or Nevada home, and the lack of state income tax plays a role.
Saturday Spotlight: Flyhomes
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Power up homebuyers—bigger budgets, winning offers, only one move.
In 3-5 sentences, tell us something about 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 remove sale contingencies and let families move only once.
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 140+ lenders and 30,000+ MLOs, we’re expanding quickly and are proud to offer our solutions now nationwide.
Things you are most proud of that don’t have to do with sales
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 in the market. Our programs start at just $2,500, 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 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 September 24. We’ll walk through how Flyhomes products empower you and your borrowers to buy their next home before selling the current one, reduce DTI and help them qualify for up to 50 percent more, and remove home sale contingencies and make stronger offers
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.)
Selling a home costs some doubloons
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Many homeowners are caught off guard by how expensive selling a home can be, with the average seller spending over $67,000. That is more than triple the $18,500 they expected (on costs like agent commissions, repairs, closing fees, and staging), according to a survey by Clever. This financial strain left 40 percent feeling stressed, 22 percent taking on debt, and 75 percent wishing they'd made different decisions, with many acknowledging that while repairs were the most worthwhile expense, unexpected closing costs and high agent fees were major sources of regret.
Don’t scrimp on marketing dollars
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James Surowiecki had some thoughts for companies thinking about reducing their marketing or advertising budgets when finances, or the market, become a little tight.
“In the late nineteen-twenties, two companies (Kellogg and Post) dominated the market for packaged cereal. It was still a relatively new market: ready-to-eat cereal had been around for decades, but Americans didn’t see it as a real alternative to oatmeal or cream of wheat until the twenties.
“So, when the Depression hit, no one knew what would happen to consumer demand. Post did the predictable thing: it reined in expenses and cut back on advertising. But Kellogg doubled its ad budget, moved aggressively into radio advertising, and heavily pushed its new cereal, Rice Krispies. (Snap, Crackle, and Pop first appeared in the thirties.) By 1933, even as the economy cratered, Kellogg’s profits had risen almost thirty per cent and it had become what it remains today: the industry’s dominant player.
“You’d think that everyone would want to emulate Kellogg’s success, but, when hard times hit, most companies end up behaving more like Post. They hunker down, cut spending, and wait for good times to return. They make fewer acquisitions, even though prices are cheaper. They cut advertising budgets. And often they invest less in research and development. They do all this to preserve what they have.
“But there’s a trade-off: numerous studies have shown that companies that keep spending on acquisition, advertising, and R. & D. during recessions do significantly better than those which make big cuts. In 1927, the economist Roland Vaile found that firms that kept ad spending stable or increased it during the recession of 1921-22 saw their sales hold up significantly better than those which didn’t. A study of advertising during the 1981-82 recession found that sales at firms that increased advertising or held steady grew precipitously in the next three years, compared with only slight increases at firms that had slashed their budgets. And a McKinsey study of the 1990-91 recession found that companies that remained market leaders or became serious challengers during the downturn had increased their acquisition, R & D, and ad budgets, while companies at the bottom of the pile had reduced them.
“One way to read these studies is simply that recessions make the strong stronger and the weak weaker, since the strong can afford to keep investing while the weak have to devote all their energies to staying afloat. But although deep pockets help in a downturn, recessions nonetheless create more opportunities for challengers, not less. When everyone is advertising, for instance, it’s hard to separate yourself from the pack; when ads are scarcer, the returns on investment seem to rise. That may be why during the 1990-91 recession, according to a Bain & Company study, twice as many companies leaped from the bottom of their industries to the top as did in the years before and after.
“Chrysler’s fortunes in the Great Depression are a classic instance of this. Chrysler had been the third player in the U.S. auto industry, behind G.M. and Ford. But early in the downturn it gave a big push to a new brand (Plymouth) targeted at the low end of the market, and by 1933 it had surpassed Ford to become North America’s second-biggest automaker. On a smaller scale, Hyundai has made huge gains in market share this year, thanks to a hefty advertising budget and a guarantee to take back cars from owners who have lost their jobs. Those gains may turn out to be temporary, but in fact the benefits from recession investment are often surprisingly long-lived, with companies maintaining their gains in market share and sales well into economic recovery.
“Why, then, are companies so quick to cut back when trouble hits? The answer has something to do with a famous distinction that the economist Frank Knight made between risk and uncertainty. Risk describes a situation where you have a sense of the range and likelihood of possible outcomes. Uncertainty describes a situation where it’s not even clear what might happen, let alone how likely the possible outcomes are. Uncertainty is always a part of business, but in a recession it dominates everything else: no one’s sure how long the downturn will last, how shoppers will react, whether we’ll go back to the way things were before or see permanent changes in consumer behavior.
“So, it’s natural to focus on what you can control: minimizing losses and improving short-term results. And cutting spending is a good way of doing this; a major study, by the Strategic Planning Institute, of corporate behavior during the past thirty years found that reducing ad spending during recessions did improve companies’ return on capital. It also meant, though, that they grew less quickly in the years following recessions than more free-spending competitors did. But for many companies recessions are a time when short-term considerations trump long-term potential.
“This is not irrational. It’s true that the uncertainty of recessions creates an opportunity for serious profits, and the historical record is full of companies that made successful gambles in hard times: Kraft introduced Miracle Whip in 1933 and saw it become America’s best-selling dressing in six months; Texas Instruments brought out the transistor radio in the 1954 recession; Apple launched the iPod in 2001. Then again, the record is also full of forgotten companies that gambled and failed. The academics Peter Dickson and Joseph Giglierano have argued that companies have to worry about two kinds of failure: ‘sinking the boat’ (wrecking the company by making a bad bet) or ‘missing the boat’ (letting a great opportunity pass). Today, most companies are far more worried about sinking the boat than about missing it. That’s why the opportunity to do what Kellogg did exists. That’s also why it’s so nerve-racking to try it. “
Deals in the secondary markets
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Say “capital markets” to some people and their eyes glaze over. Others recognize that supply and demand set mortgage rates, as well as the prices of most assets, and are interested to see who’s doing what in the capital markets.
On August 5, Fannie Mae announced the results of its twenty-seventh non-performing loan sale transaction. The deal, originally announced on July 8, included the sale of 1,304 deeply delinquent loans totaling $285 million in unpaid principal balance (UPB), offered in two pools. The winning bidder for Pool 1 was Residential Credit Opportunities Trust X-C, and for Pool 2 was RCF II Loan Acquisition, LP. The transaction is expected to close on September 19, 2025. The deal was marketed with BofA Securities, Inc. as advisor. The loan pools awarded in this most recent transaction include: (Pool 1) 332 loans with an aggregate UPB of $73,092,445, an average loan size of $220,158, weighted average note rate of 4.45 percent, and weighted average broker's price opinion (BPO) loan-to-value ratio of 49 percent, and (Pool 2) 972 loans with an aggregate UPB of $211,965,249, an average loan size of $218,071; weighted average note rate of 4.39 percent and weighted average BPO loan-to-value ratio of 50 percent. The cover bid, which is the second highest bid for the pool, was 99.66 percent of UPB (48.51 percent of BPO) for Pool 1 and 99.82 percent of UPB (50.16 percent of BPO) for Pool 2. All purchasers are required to honor any approved or in-process loss mitigation efforts at the time of sale, including loan modifications. Interested bidders can register for ongoing announcements, training, and other information here.
Companies like Redwood Trust issue prime jumbo securities quite often. For example, there was a $471.519 million prime jumbo RMBS issue: Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2025-4 (SEMT
2025-4). The sole bookrunner was Wells Fargo Securities.
Annaly Capital, the top non-QM RMBS issuer with $7.6 billion in YTD securitizations, just bounced back with $82 million in net income this quarter, up from an $8.8 million loss in Q2. They’re showing some serious resilience with 4.9% quarterly returns and a fresh servicing partnership with Rocket Mortgage to boost their MSR game. For originators, this means we’re looking at a stronger, more stable non-QM market, with Annaly’s liquidity giving us confidence in product availability and smoother servicing.
Fitch Ratings has assigned final ratings to the RCKT Mortgage Trust 2025-CES6, a $596 million residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) transaction backed by 6,921 closed-end second-lien (CES) loans originated by Rocket Mortgage and acquired by Woodward Capital Management. The pool primarily consists of prime-quality borrowers, with a weighted average FICO of 741 and sustainable loan-to-value ratio of 77 percent, though Fitch notes elevated home prices (11.3 percent above sustainable levels) and poor affordability as key risks. The transaction uses a standard sequential payment structure and includes a 180-day charge-off feature that may accelerate loss recognition but benefits from stronger excess cash flow protection. Despite the high credit quality, Fitch assumes 100 percent loss severity due to the second-lien nature of the loans, though no additional penalties were applied to default assumptions. A previously expected AAA-rated class A-1L note was withdrawn, as the associated loan was not funded at close.
Freddie Mac sold 1,458 deeply delinquent non-performing residential first lien loans (NPLs) with an unpaid principal balance of approximately $261 million through its Standard Pool Offerings (SPO), aiming to reduce less-liquid assets and stabilize communities. The loans, serviced by Select Portfolio Servicing Inc., NewRez LLC (Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing), and Nationstar Mortgage LLC (Rushmore Servicing), were divided into three pools and acquired by RCAF Loan Acquisition, LP and Residential Credit Opportunities X, LLC. The sale, expected to settle in May 2025, requires buyers to honor existing loss mitigation agreements and continue borrower assistance where applicable. Since 2011, Freddie Mac has sold $10.4 billion in NPLs and securitized over $80 billion in re-performing loans. Learn more: Freddie Mac Seasoned Loan Offerings.
Given the tale above of companies’ marketing spend, advertising was on my mind, and if you’d like some humorous ads, check out the trunk monkey videos.
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, “Servicing: What’s All the Fuss About?” 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.)