Products, Services, and Software for Brokers and Lenders

“Escrow is supposed to be predictable. But in default servicing, that predictability diminishes when a loan enters delinquency. Escrows stop being a background process and turns into a manual, high-risk exercise. As core systems fall back on rigid rules, middle operations step in, rebuilding balances in spreadsheets to keep loans moving. Clarifire’s latest blog, “Escrow Management in Default Servicing: A Middle Operations Opportunity,” explores the challenges servicers face with manual calculations, how that dependence fragments logic and increases risk, and why escrow has become an overlooked driver of early delinquency. Rather than framing escrow as a back-office headache, the blog positions it as a solvable problem, and a potential opportunity. See how CLARIFIRE® is helping servicers move escrow logic out of spreadsheets and into controlled, auditable processes, with fewer surprises for borrowers and less risk for the business. Visit Clarifire at the MBA’s Servicing Solutions Conference at booth #711 or contact us for an on-site meeting.”

The “renter-to-buyer” pipeline you're ignoring! Here's what most brokers miss: renters aren't "not qualified,” they're already mortgage-ready. Every month, they prove they can make the payment. They just need down payment assistance to unlock homeownership. National DPA makes it simple: 3.5 percent or 5 percent FHA down payment assistance, 600 credit score minimum with automated underwriting, forgivable option: wiped clean after 36 payments, repayable option (10-year term, 1 percent over first mortgage), and zero income caps: more buyers qualify than you think. Your untapped database: First-time buyers waiting to save. Renters spending $2,000+ monthly on rent. Leads you shelved 6-12 months ago as "not ready yet." They're ready now. 2026 game plan: Stop hunting for new prospects. Reactivate your existing pipeline with DPA. Turn "not yet" into "approved." This is how you scale without spending more on lead gen. Questions? Let's build your DPA conversion strategy. Contact your Kind AE today or join the Kind movement here!

U.S. Bank Correspondent and HFA Lending is pleased to offer government Ginnie Mae (FHA, VA, and RD) eNotes. This enhancement complements our existing Agency offering (Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac) and expands digital capabilities for both our partners and their customers, helping make the loan delivery process more efficient. For lenders already approved by U.S. Bank for the delivery of eMortgage, no additional items are required to deliver Ginnie Mae eNotes unless a warehouse line is being added that was not previously approved by U.S. Bank. To learn more about our continued digital expansion, we invite you to connect with us at national and regional industry conferences throughout the year. To see where we’ll be, visit U.S. Bank Correspondent and HFA Lending for a full list of upcoming events and conferences where you can meet with our team.

“Sweeten your 2026 HELOC lineup with new 2nds from the BETTER Wholesale Program! Self-employed borrowers? We offer 12- & 24-month Bank Statement programs. Price sensitive clients? Better offers low rates with no lender origination fees or application fees. If you’d like to make higher comp than most programs, earn up to 3 percent in BPC. What else? Up to 90 percent CLTV, 75% minimum draw, and up to a 10-year IO period on HELOC. Better Wholesale offers an easy digital pricing experience featuring an approval process that takes as little as 3-minutes, and its speed is backed up by a real underwriting process. Better’s program is open to brokers and lenders of all sizes: work with us and get lender-direct pricing! Visit Better Wholesale or contact Patrick Kandianis directly.

Struggling with affordability constraints and tight production? Click n’ Close’s proprietary SmartBuy™ Down Payment Assistance program is helping lenders qualify more borrowers, close more loans and stay competitive without income limits or first-time buyer restrictions. Join Click n’ Close for a live Correspondent Webinar on February 17 at 12:00 PM (ET) to learn how SmartBuy™ pairs FHA and USDA first liens with flexible second-lien structures to expand your borrower pool while protecting margins. Attendees will walk through real-world use cases, program mechanics and how SmartBuy™ can be deployed immediately to drive 2026 production. Reserve your seat today.

The Chrisman Marketplace is a centralized hub for vendors and service providers across the mortgage industry to be viewed by lenders in a very cost-effective manner. We’re adding new providers daily, so check back often to see what’s new. To reserve your place or learn more, contact us at info@chrismancommentary.com.

STRATMOR, the IMB, and Decisions to Ponder

STRATMOR was out in force at the recent MBA event. This year’s IMB conversations reinforced that the industry’s next phase is about selective growth, operational depth, vertical integration and smarter use of data and technology tools, not just broad expansion.

Small and mid-size lenders are considering the economics of retaining loan servicing as the most obvious vertical integration (and diversified revenue source) opportunity. Future recapture opportunities may be more difficult for these lenders, given deployment of next-gen tools by large lenders and the recent trigger lead changes. Sub-servicers are clearly leaning into value-added offerings to differentiate and compete for their business.

The convergence of real estate and mortgage continues, but with more realism. Not everyone can do what Rocket recently did, but everyone is thinking they should consider something, albeit on a smaller scale, to fit their needs and budgets. Several opportunities exist to help mortgage lenders gain access to relationships with real estate agencies/networks as well as title, whether preferred relationships, joint ventures, or even vertical integrations.

M&A remains active but disciplined. Buyers and sellers are choosing to prioritize model/cultural fit, leadership strength/fit, and post transaction synergies/execution over the typical sheer volume growth goals. Multiple discussions (with both buyers and sellers) surfaced a few of the same pressure points: compressed margins, thin leadership benches in key areas and retirement desires of key individuals and owners, all leading to an openness for solution opportunity discussions.

Small to mid-sized IMBs need to more clearly define their organizational structures and strategic plans to prepare and position them for the next phase. Many leaders have made it to a certain level of success from sheer boot-strap efforts over the last decades but are beginning to recognize they need help getting to the next level. This can include organizational design, leadership development, compensation planning, performance management, accountability/operational excellence frameworks, and/or succession planning.

Technology strategies remain top-of-mind. Lenders are trying to achieve the right balance of capital investment, with the right set of expectations around results: adoption, productivity rewards, timing, competitive leverage, customer and user experience and longevity. One lender referred to this challenge as the “Goldie Locks Tech Syndrome: not too little, not too much, just right.”

Contact David Hrobon or Amanda Gibson at STRATMOR if you would like to confidentially discuss any of these topics in further detail.

Understanding the Real Pressures in Mortgage Servicing

Yes, a servicing portfolio adds value to any company. But it isn’t a slam dunk. Mortgage performance data may appear reassuring at first glance, with delinquency rates settling near pre-pandemic norms and year-over-year increases remaining modest, but this surface-level stability masks deeper structural pressures that could shape outcomes in 2026. Negative equity is rising, particularly in FHA and VA loans originated in 2022 and later, affecting roughly 1.1 million borrowers, the highest level since early 2018. The pressure is concentrated in markets like Texas and Florida, where rapid development and localized price shifts erode thin equity cushions. While borrowers today are far less likely to walk away than during the Great Financial Crisis, negative equity still alters incentives, influencing borrower behavior, decision-making, and eventual outcomes over time.

Stress is most pronounced in FHA portfolios, where borrowers are particularly sensitive to economic friction from rising living costs, resumed student loan payments, and modest income disruptions. Many delinquent files no longer reflect curable situations but structural income problems that cannot be remedied by incremental loss mitigation tools. Modifications, partial claims, and relief programs have already been used, leaving originators and servicers to manage risk in scenarios where traditional “just modify it” assumptions no longer hold. Complicating the landscape, borrowers are increasingly sophisticated and technologically empowered, leveraging AI to contest servicing actions, generate legal filings, and pursue every available mitigation path, which increases operational friction and elevates compliance requirements across the board. Operational and regulatory constraints further limit flexibility in addressing these risks.

Loss mitigation must remain scalable, rule-based, and compliant, while non-QM portfolios and third-party vendor performance require heightened scrutiny to manage repurchase exposure and underwriting integrity. Meanwhile, AI (both internal and consumer-facing) introduces authentication, regulatory, and liability challenges that institutions must navigate carefully. Additional market frictions, such as restricted condominium financing, quietly constrain housing supply. Overall, the market is in a transitional phase where averages obscure concentration risk, and success will depend on disciplined risk management, proactive operational adaptation, and close attention to vintage data, regulatory shifts, and evolving borrower behavior.

Capital Markets

Bond yields moved lower yesterday ahead of the January employment report as flat December retail sales and moderating fourth quarter employment costs tempered inflation concerns and offset hawkish Fed commentary; while subdued import prices, modest inventory growth, and steady demand at the three year note auction reinforced cooling but not collapsing momentum. Headline strength in GDP, inflation, and manufacturing continues to mask uneven conditions across income levels and sectors, with consumer spending increasingly supported by lower savings and higher borrowing, leaving markets vulnerable to a reversal in optimistic assumptions around AI-driven productivity and exposing fragilities beneath strong aggregate data. It is becoming clear that the longer the Fed delays cutting rates, the higher the economic bar becomes to justify easing, particularly if surface level resilience persists even as underlying strains build.

January prepayment data showed aggregate Fannie Mae 30-year speeds slowing meaningfully, with CPRs down roughly 13 percent month over month due to seasonal effects and fewer calendar days, even as the broader refinance incentive continues to move up toward more historically normal levels, with about 16.5 percent of the conventional 30-year universe now in the money.

Servicer behavior continues to drive meaningful dispersion in speeds, with Rocket/Quicken again standing out as the fastest payer across both UMBS 30-year and 15-year cohorts, consistently ranking among the top servicers across most coupons and early aging buckets, while Freedom and loanDepot also skewed faster and Bank of America, Provident, and Mr. Cooper lagged on the slow end. Aging analysis shows the liveliest speeds concentrated in the 18–30 WALA range, and the pending migration of Mr. Cooper loans to Rocket/Quicken suggests faster prepayments ahead, as Rocket-serviced loans have historically paid roughly 2.5 CPR faster within comparable incentive ranges, reinforcing the importance of servicer selection as refinance incentives gradually re-emerge.

The highlight of today’s economic calendar is the previously delayed (from last Friday) January payrolls report, which will also include benchmark revisions. Headline payrolls were up 130k, twice what was expected, the unemployment rate (4.3 percent, about as expected), although there were some downward revisions. Payrolls growth was expected to have picked up in January after disappointing during last year’s holiday season. Downward revisions in the annual “benchmark revisions” will probably dominate this week’s economic headlines but are largely old news: the revisions are to job growth between March 2024 and March 2025, and provide no new information about more recent trends.

Mortgage applications edged down 0.3 percent for the week ending February 6, as purchase activity slipped on a seasonally adjusted basis while refinance applications posted a modest gain and remained sharply higher than a year ago. With the 30-year fixed rate holding at 6.21 percent, conventional demand softened while FHA applications increased, supported by slightly lower FHA rates that continued to run below conforming loan rates. Later today brings some Treasury activity that will be headlined by an auction of $42 billion 10-year notes, three Fed speakers (Kansas City’s Schmid, Vice Chair for Supervision Bowman, and Cleveland’s Hammack). We begin Wednesday with Agency MBS prices about .125 worse than Tuesday’s close, the 2-year yielding 3.54, and the 10-year yielding 4.20 after closing yesterday at 4.15 percent.