For more than 25 years, I’ve heard loan officers complain that their rates aren’t competitive. One of the first questions rate shoppers ask is, “What’s your rate today?” For far too long, the industry’s focus has been on rate—not on what is truly the best financial decision for the borrower. Many salespeople sell rate because […]
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Terry Schmidt believes she surprised the mortgage industry. Schmidt, the director and CEO of Guild Mortgage Co., was referring to the June 2025 announcement that the company would be acquired by Bayview Asset Management. The transaction officially closed in November. “Many found that this was very surprising because we’ve been independent for so long,” Schmidt
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New York-based Atlas Real Estate Partners this week announced the launch of A4 Credit Partners, a small-balance mortgage lending platform targeting credit opportunities within the residential transition loan (RTL) market. As part of the launch, A4 Credit Partners is seeking to raise $150 million to originate a variety of first-lien mortgages. It will primarily focus
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Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) President and CEO Bob Broeksmit took the stage at the trade group’s IMB26 Conference in Florida to say that its members and he himself have “just been gaslit by the trade association that represents the credit bureaus.” The MBA has proposed that lenders submit a single-bureau credit pull for loans sold
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Austin Niemiec will take the helm of Rocket Pro following the departure of Dan Sogorka, according to people familiar with the transition who spoke to HousingWire. Niemiec will retain his title as chief revenue officer of Rocket Mortgage but will focus exclusively on the broker and correspondent channel through Rocket Pro. He will report to
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State regulators and consumer advocates are pushing back against two proposals from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) that would expand banks’ authority over escrow accounts and assert that federal law preempts state rules that govern these accounts. In a joint letter, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and the American
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Mortgage lenders are seeing loan defects stabilize after several volatile years, but shifts in interest rates and loan volumes continue to expose weaknesses in quality control (QC), according to ACES Quality Management CEO Trevor Gauthier and chief operating officer Phil McCall. In an interview with HousingWire, Gauthier and McCall highlighted staffing cuts, refinance surges and
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Foreclosure auction volume in the fourth quarter of 2025 rose 48% from a year ago, reaching the highest level since the second quarter of 2020, according to Auction.com‘s Q4 2025 Auction Market Dispatch report. Volume remained 39% below the level seen in Q1 2020, just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent
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Cardinal Financial‘s third-party origination division announced Wednesday the launch of its nondelegated correspondent program that targets independent mortgage lenders. The program allows approved nondelegated correspondents to originate loans in their own name while using Cardinal Financial’s loan technology platform, Octane, which provides underwriting, pricing and other operational functions. “In a competitive market, lenders need to
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The Federal Reserve held its benchmark interest rate steady Wednesday in a target range of 3.5% to 3.75%. The decision was widely expected as little has changed since December in the balance of risks tied to its dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability, economists said. “Available indicators suggest that economic activity has been
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