DENVER, Colo. – February 25, 2025 – As signs of renewed mortgage market activity emerge, STRATMOR Group cautions lenders against assuming that improving volume will solve their structural challenges.
In the firm’s February Insights Report, Senior Partner Nicole Yung’s article, “Running with Purpose: Mortgage Leadership in the Year of the Horse” argues that the next phase of the market cycle will reward operational discipline.
Drawing on the Chinese zodiac calendar, which designates 2026 as the Year of the Horse, Yung notes that the horse symbolizes energy, endurance and purposeful movement. She argues that the next market cycle will reward disciplined acceleration rather than reactive growth.
After several years of volatility, margin compression and operational strain, many lenders are preparing for potential expansion this year. Yung suggests that organizations best positioned for sustainable performance are planning ahead and taking deliberate action now to align strategy, operating models and technology investments.
“Abundance in 2026 will not come from adding tools to outdated workflows. It will come from intentional orchestration by aligning people, processes, and platforms to move loans forward smoothly and at scale,” Yung says.
Yung identifies four actions that separate high-performing lenders from those that simply react:
“History shows that volume alone does not correct structural weakness. In fact, growth often magnifies it,” Yung says. “Lenders that have not addressed fragmented workflows, misaligned operating models, and uneven technology integration may find that rising volume exposes rather than resolves those issues.”
In a second article, Director of Customer Experience Mike Seminari draws on behavioral psychology and MortgageCX data to demonstrate how borrowers tend to remember moments of strain more vividly than smooth interactions.
In “When the Mortgage Loan Process Strains, What Will Your Borrower Remember?” Seminari writes that even minor process breakdowns, such as a delayed timeline or a repeated document request, can significantly diminish Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and the likelihood of referrals.
STRATMOR’s MortgageCX data shows that process execution drives advocacy at a significantly higher rate than relationship alone. “The likeability of the LO cannot fully compensate for a process that feels unpredictable or reactive,” Seminari advises. “Borrowers won’t remember every smooth upload or automated email. They’ll remember whether the process felt steady when it mattered most.”
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