Remember the days before our favorite songs were available instantly through streaming services? It was a time when we painstakingly compiled our favorite songs using a cassette recorder to curate the perfect playlist. Making a mixtape was a labor of love, requiring patience, attention to detail, and a deep appreciation for music. Now I carry an entire DJ playlist on my phone, including the digital mixer to make it happen. While the process of compiling and mixing songs and other media is MUCH easier today thanks to advancements in technology, our collection of articles from the past year has the same intent. We wanted to distill key insights, trends and discussions that defined our industry this year into a format that is easy for you to go back to again and again when a new topic comes into focus for your business.
In “STRATMOR’s Greatest Hits: Volume 2024,” we recap highlights of the thought-provoking and impactful articles we published, showcasing the key insights, trends and discussions that defined our year. Whether you’re revisiting favorites or catching up on what you missed, this overview provides a curated look at the ideas that shaped our industry and set the stage for 2025.
Customer Experience Director Mike Seminari completed a similar exercise, pouring over the countless testimonial statements gathered through STRATMOR’s MortgageCX program in 2024 to compile examples of the comments that reveal the building blocks of loyalty and advocacy. In his most recent CX Tip, Mike has distilled wisdom from tens of thousands of borrower testimonials and shares secret ingredients that successful LOs employ to earn more referrals.
Thank you for joining us for the December Insights Report. STRATMOR provides a wide range of advisory services to facilitate, optimize and address the challenges lenders are facing today, including strategy design and implementation, process review and improvement, transferring servicing assets, optimizing your customer experience initiatives to get more business, technology procurement and implementation, M&A strategic options, and much more. STRATMOR’s advisory team is available now to discuss these services. Please ‘press play’ and enjoy, or contact us directly to learn more.
As we approach the end of 2024, we’re excited to share our “Greatest Hits” compilation. This recap highlights the thought-provoking and impactful articles we published, showcasing the key insights, trends and discussions that defined our year.
Now, as we wind down 2024, is a perfect time to take stock of our results for the year. This includes both our own scrappy efforts to “stay alive until ‘25” as well as the promises made by various tech vendors and marketing tools to fill our pipelines and build our referral networks. Our question this month: “What are the top loan officer behaviors that are proven to earn mortgage referrals?”
STRATMOR’s Technology Insight® Study gathers data on how lenders feel about their experiences with the systems and the vendor services and support available in the mortgage market today. This information is vital to lenders considering updating or changing automation capabilities to meet the needs of today’s borrowers.
Origination costs are at an all-time high. Given that sales costs will continue to be the largest component of retail origination costs, what can be done to manage this beast?
Understanding the key characteristics of the Expense Management Branch (EMB) and comparing the key performance metrics between it and the corporate branch model is essential to identifying which is best for your organization.
Secret shopping is the best way for lenders to remove the disconnection between perception and reality and pave the way for meaningful improvements in customer experience.
It may seem like a coincidence that eight-time Grammy award winner Gloria Estefan took the stage at Concert MBA during the 2024 Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Annual Convention in Denver this year. But her hit song “Get on Your Feet” resonated deeply, perfectly capturing the mortgage industry’s journey through one of its most challenging periods. After enduring more than two years of “nasty weather” — marked by high rates, low inventory and plummeting sales — the industry stands at a pivotal moment where Estefan’s lyrics strike a powerful chord.
Today’s mortgage business is dividing into two camps: those waiting passively for the next refi wave or rate decrease to bail them out and those taking bold, decisive action to reshape their future. The latter group is positioning themselves to thrive in 2025 and beyond.
Throughout 2024, STRATMOR’s experts have witnessed this firsthand while crisscrossing the country to participate, present at, and gain insights from industry events. While last year’s atmosphere was decidedly grim, 2024 brought encouraging signs of cautious optimism and renewed confidence in the industry’s future. This month, we share our key takeaways from recent industry gatherings, including the recent MBA Annual Convention and Expo held in Denver, and provide strategic guidance for capitalizing on the opportunities ahead in 2025.
If New York City is the finance hub and Paris is the fashion capital, then Los Angeles is undeniably the epicenter of storytelling. Whether in film or television, on TikTok or YouTube, LA is full of people eager to share their stories with the world. You can hardly step from one star to the next on the Hollywood Walk of Fame without bumping into someone with a fascinating and complex tale full of hope and despair, rejection and elation, love and heartache.
People from all corners of the globe flock to LA to test their mettle and pursue their creative dreams. Some, like me, came all the way from Minnesota.
When I moved to Los Angeles 15 years ago, I was bright-eyed and expectant, sure that my name and my music were on a rocket ship to stardom. And I had good reasons to be confident — record labels were clamoring for a chance to sign my band, I’d just entered a lucrative publishing deal with Sony Music, and I was constantly surrounded by other creative and talented people. The only skeptic at the time was my father, who warned that “less than 1% of people make it in the music business.” I just looked him in the eye and said, “That’s me … I’m the 1%.” And the rest is history. My band, Now The Rabbit Has The Gun, is world-famous and I’m a celebrity.
Wait a second (record scratch) … you haven’t heard of me? Or my band? Like so many aspiring creatives who come to LA with hopes and dreams, I never reached the heights of success that at one time seemed to be dangling at my fingertips.
But my story didn’t end there. It simply continued in another industry with an equally diverse and intriguing cast of characters. The mortgage industry, as many of us know, is made up of a very eclectic group of people, very few of whom dreamed their whole life of working in the mortgage industry. Rather, most of us sort of “fell into it.” We joke that once you’re in, there’s no way out, but the reality is, we kind of like being a quirky band of misfits, united in helping others achieve the dream of homeownership. Every time I meet someone new at a conference, I’m fascinated by the stories I hear. One person is a published author, another runs an Airbnb side hustle with campers in Big Sur, and another goes to every Bruce Springsteen concert within 500 miles. There’s even a “biker-chick” who spends weekends on biking adventures.
The point is: everyone and every business has a story. And we all love to hear stories. They help us connect with people, simplify complex ideas, and leave lasting emotional impressions. Most importantly, stories build relationships, retain leads, attract recruits, and even drive revenue.
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” American writer Anne Lamott’s quote underscores a truth often overlooked: taking time off from work is essential for long-term sustainability, especially in demanding industries like mortgage lending. Given the tough market lenders and servicers have experienced over the past two years, it’s a message that bears repeating.
Taking time off is something we prioritize at STRATMOR as we realize we’re more than just a consulting and advisory firm. We’re a community of individuals united by a shared commitment to excellence. Earning trust and building long-term relationships with our clients and our employees is key to our culture and our success.
To maintain our reputation as the most trusted consulting firm in the mortgage industry, we prioritize our greatest asset, our people. STRATMOR only recruits exceptional talent who share our dedication to quality. But building a winning team isn’t just about recruiting the best; it’s also about cultivating an environment where everyone feels valued, empowered and inspired.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or needs we might be able to help with.
