“Friction” has quickly become the mortgage industry’s favorite word, but like most buzzwords, it risks being overused and under examined. Everyone wants to remove it, from origination to capital markets to post-closing, but few stop to ask where it actually lives or why it persists. The reality is that friction is not a singular flaw; it’s the visible output of deeper design issues. It shows up in rising costs to originate, in employee frustration, and in the quiet inefficiencies that...