February has always struck me as a hinge month. It’s when the year starts to feel real. Plans are no longer theoretical, pipelines are taking shape, and leaders are quickly finding out what’s conditioned and ready and what isn’t. It reminds me a bit of the Olympics. The performances we saw this month weren’t about what athletes decided in January; they reflect the discipline, preparation, and tradeoffs made long before the spotlight turned on. At the same time, the Lunar New Year brings a different but equally useful reminder: before momentum builds, clear the clutter, settle unfinished business, and be intentional about what comes next.
That’s the lens behind this month’s InFocus article, “Running with Purpose: Mortgage Leadership in the Year of the Horse.” As market activity begins to stir, the temptation is to focus on speed and capacity. But history tells us that volume doesn’t fix misalignment, it exposes it. This piece challenges leaders to pause before accelerating: to simplify where complexity has crept in, align operating models to real outcomes, and make sure renewed energy is being directed with purpose.
That same idea shows up in Mike Seminari’s latest Customer Experience Tip, “When the Mortgage Loan Process Strains, What Will Your Borrower Remember?” Moments of pressure are revealing — for teams and for customers. Mike reminds us that borrowers may not recall every detail of the process, but they never forget how it felt when things got hard. As lenders prepare for a busier year, this is a timely reminder that customer experience isn’t something to revisit after growth returns. It’s something that determines how well you handle it when it does.
Thank you for joining us for the February Insights Report. Your success remains our top priority, and we are here to support you every step of the way. STRATMOR provides a wide range of advisory services to facilitate, optimize and address the challenges lenders are facing today, including strategy design and implementation, financial benchmarking and performance, process review and improvement, maximizing servicing assets, optimizing your customer experience initiatives to get more business, technology procurement and implementation, M&A and strategic options, and much more. STRATMOR’s advisory team is available now to discuss these services. Please contact us to learn more.
In a market where borrower behavior, technology adoption, and competitive dynamics are all evolving rapidly, lenders must not only anticipate change but also engineer it. Using the symbolism of the Year of the Horse offers a useful lens for thinking about abundance in 2026. This is not abundance defined as unchecked growth or volume at any cost, but by sustainable profitability, operational strength, and long-term relevance.
Our question for this month: When the mortgage loan process strains, what will your borrower remember?
STRATMOR’s Technology Insight® Study — Digital Innovations module helps lenders step back and take an honest look at their digital maturity and explores key digital capabilities, the benefits lenders expect from digital mortgage investments, and how automation and AI are being used to drive efficiency and scale.
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.
Mortgage lending today increasingly looks like a busy airport without sufficient air traffic control.
Leads arrive through multiple channels: calls, websites, emails, texts, and referrals. Borrowers expect immediate responses and clear direction. Loan officers juggle dozens of conversations at once while systems struggle to stay synchronized. Follow-up depends on availability. Status updates lag. Inconsistency and uncertainty creeps in, not because people are careless, but because the system relies too heavily on individual effort to manage volume.
This is where artificial intelligence is establishing a beachhead in mortgage lending.
In STRATMOR’s secret shopping research, one phrase continually shows up in borrower feedback: “It felt too transactional.”
That’s the quiet killer of conversion, trust and long-term loyalty.
Lenders pour millions into marketing and technology, yet lose qualified borrowers because the experience feels mechanical and impersonal. LOS and CRM systems capture the what and how, such as credit scores, income, and milestones, but almost never capture the why.
That missing “Why” is exactly where trust breaks down. And right now, in a market where the cost to acquire each borrower has doubled or quadrupled from just a few years ago, ignoring their Why isn’t just poor service. It’s poor economics.
As 2026 inches closer, mortgage lenders and their technology partners are entering a season defined by both opportunity and pressure. Volume is poised to improve. Technology is advancing at a pace the industry has never experienced. And M&A conversations are shifting from crisis management to long-term strategy.
But like any farmer preparing for a new growing season, optimism alone won’t produce results. Success in 2026 will require deliberate cultivation.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or needs we might be able to help with.
