Garth’s InFocus article this month is candid, insightful, bold, and on point. He’s asking lenders to change how we view the cycles of our industry and prepare differently for upcoming trends. He refers to the common metaphor “Rising tides lift all boats” and describes why this may not apply to some lenders during this next refinance cycle. French explorer and author Andre Gide once said, “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” We are asking you to objectively and strategically look forward with an informed perspective of what you and your company need to change to navigate the next economic cycle and then to courageously make those changes. Losing sight of the shore will enable our industry to discover new opportunities to improve profitability and create sustainability.
Over the past year, Garth and several of our STRATMOR advisors have talked with many lenders who believe at the core of their beings that as soon as the next wave of refinances hits the business, all their problems will go away. Some of them are wrong, and in this month’s InFocus article, “Why a Refi Wave Won’t Save Every Lender and How to Prepare,” Garth explains why, and shares what smart lenders are doing now to ensure they survive now and thrive when the market improves.
While Garth encourages lenders to prepare for the future in his article, Customer Experience Director Mike Seminari asks that we also learn from the past. He suggests that it’s time to reevaluate some of our outdated perceptions and expectations and make sure we’re ready for the future of the industry and the new path to success that lies before us. In “Horses to Headsets: The Evolving Model of Mortgage Success,” Mike offers new ways of thinking related to lead generation, the loan process, and promotion and shares ideas for how to implement successful strategies for each.
Thank you for joining us for the June 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 for 2024. Please contact us directly to learn more.
Over the past year, I’ve talked with many lenders who believe at the core of their beings that as soon as the next wave of refinances hits the business, all of their problems will go away. But that isn’t guaranteed.
In this article, I’ll tell you why and share the strategies that smart lenders are using now to weather the current market and thrive when the market improves.
I sometimes wonder where I’d go first if I had a time machine. Maybe I’d go back to 1952 and fulfill my childhood dream of owning a stack of Mickey Mantle rookie cards. Or maybe I would take advantage of some early Apple stock pricing from 1980 (or better yet, some Bitcoin from 2009).
What makes these kinds of mental exercises fun is that we know the outcomes. But history is full of examples of people failing to see the signposts pointing toward a new and different future. Our question this month: “How will history judge our current thinking about the path to success in the mortgage industry?”
STRATMOR Group’s 2024 Lender Intelligence Technology Insight® Study (TIS) gathers data on how lenders feel about their experiences with the systems and the vendor services and support available in the mortgage market today.
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.
The current downturn in overall mortgage volume has many lenders searching for ways to boost their bottom line and revive profitability. Firms with extensive referral and customer relationships are having a better time navigating these difficult waters. Still, it is very challenging. There are some tactics, however, that banks can employ right now to improve their business and generate additional mortgage volume that are not available to the IMB. In this article, we’ll dive into the advantages financial institutions have in the mortgage market today, help them uncover the treasure trove of information that can lead to their success and provide recommendations for how to surface new leads.
There’s a lot of pain in the mortgage industry right now: Rising costs per loan, low inventory and high rates are resulting in fewer loans, and we’re all still hoping that rumored refinance boom is right around the corner. Lenders who take the time to delve deeper into the data available to them will have a clearer picture of the information that can help develop strategies to manage these and future obstacles.
This month, I sat down with fellow STRATMOR Principal Jennifer Fortier to wade into the murky waters of process improvement. In this exchange, Jennifer and I explore the benefits of regular process reviews and why the path to process improvement requires a combination of things to be effective. We also look at the pitfalls that can derail sustainment of new processes and how to overcome them.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or needs we might be able to help with.
