Products, Services, and Software for Brokers and Lenders

QC works as an early warning system, but it only creates value when findings are recognized, validated, and turned into action. As agency expectations continue to shift, lenders are being asked to show not just findings, but proof of a thoughtful response. Join Indecomm in March for a QC Fireside Chat with Alicia Gazotti, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at Genway Mortgage, as she shares how QC supports proactive risk management across the organization. The conversation will cover how to turn QC data into actionable remediation plans, align pre-fund and post-close findings, maintain consistent taxonomies, and use calibration, reporting, and trusted QC partnerships to drive accountability. Designed for QC, risk, and compliance leaders, this session focuses on strengthening what QC already does best and ensuring the right signals lead to the right decisions. Register to join today!

“’Mortgage Rates Today’ was searched 35.7 million times last month, driving 44,000+ clicks to one lender’s website. Others: <3,000. The good news? AI Search + SEO level the playing field, so you don’t need a massive budget to compete. RankWriters is the industry’s go-to team for AI Search + SEO, and we can share real client analytics to set clear expectations. Contact us for your click-gap snapshot, or DIY with our free eBook: The Great Equalizer: AI & SEO Playbook.”

Compliant loan servicing is within reach! The timing couldn’t be clearer. With Cenlar’s acquisition by PennyMac making headlines, servicers are re-evaluating how much control they truly have over their portfolios. One message is rising above the noise: bringing servicing in-house is no longer optional… it’s a strategic imperative. A unified, seven-systems-in-one platform makes that shift achievable. MortgageFlex delivers Enterprise Loan Servicing, a modern borrower portal, default and hardship management, FEMA assistance, construction management, real-time reporting, and full imaging, fully integrated in a secure, Azure-based, API-driven environment. By automating workflows across all loan types, lenders gain efficiency, transparency, compliance confidence, and control that fragmented legacy systems simply can’t provide. With margins tight and customer experience a competitive differentiator, the future belongs to servicers who take ownership of both their process and their borrowers. Bring it home. Visit MortgageFlex at Booth 504 in Dallas.

You ever notice how a “quick question” can derail a whole file? You just need to confirm one guideline detail. Suddenly you have five tabs open, two PDFs downloading, Slack messages flying, and you are still not totally sure you found the right version. That is why Lender Toolkit built Guideline Agent. This is not Silicon Valley AI built by people who have never touched a loan file. This is part of a Responsible Mortgage AI approach, guided by mortgage professionals who understand guidelines, compliance, and real world workflows. Guideline Agent helps your team ask guideline questions in plain language and get clear, structured answers fast. It is not trying to run your loans. It just helps with one very specific pain point. You can try it for free, and if you are heading to ICE Experience, book a meeting with Lender Toolkit to see how this fits into a full end to end Encompass optimization strategy. Start with Guideline Agent. Then see the bigger picture in person.

This Valentine’s Day, give processors, underwriters, and ops leaders something they’ll actually love. Processors and underwriters don’t need more chocolates. They need fewer workarounds. Elphi is the only LOS that lets lenders control their data, without code. Build and change workflows, manage and create data fields instantly, configure the UI around fulfillment, and control integrations based on how your operation actually runs. No vendor bottlenecks. No dev tickets. No waiting for permission. My LOS. My Rules. And because it is Valentine’s Day, we made a playful gift shop for the mortgage ops heroes who keep loans moving. Learn more.

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.

Thought Leadership: Credit Scoring Changes

Michele Bodda has some thoughts on how the real shift in mortgage credit is not about replacing one score with another. It is about expanding what counts. Michele Bodda argues that the industry has relied on decades old scoring mechanics while consumer financial behavior has fundamentally changed. Rent payments, utilities, cash flow data, and recurring obligations now offer a more precise picture of repayment capacity. For lenders, the decision is no longer whether alternative data exists. It is whether to use it to sharpen risk models and responsibly expand access. As affordability pressures intensify and renter demand builds, modernization becomes both a competitive strategy and obligation. Michele makes the case for why this inflection point cannot be ignored and how we measure creditworthiness.

FSBO.com, Nexa’s Mike Kortas, and Homepie

FSBO.com, one of the longest standing “For Sale by Owner” platforms in the United States, announced a new chapter in its evolution following its acquisition by a newly formed ownership group led by Mike Kortas, Founder and CEO of NEXA Lending, alongside strategic partners including entrepreneur Brad Rice, CEO of Homepie, Inc.

“The new ownership group plans a full modernization of the FSBO.com platform bringing it in line with standards for usability, transparency, and consumer empowerment, while preserving the spirit of independence that made FSBO.com a trusted name… The redesigned FSBO.com experience will focus on helping homeowners and buyers navigate transactions with confidence through what the team describes as a guided, agentic AI experience.

“The platform will simplify purchase contracts into plain-language steps, guide buyers and sellers through negotiations collaboratively, clarify timelines, responsibilities, and next steps, and reduce friction without removing autonomy. The result is a home-selling and buying experience that allows consumers to transact directly often saving thousands of dollars in commissions while still feeling supported throughout the process.”

Capital Markets

The private residential mortgage market is entering a new phase. MAXEX and Tradeweb have announced a strategic investment and commercial partnership to advance the institutional market for non-agency residential mortgage loans. For lenders, this means expanded access to institutional capital, deeper private credit liquidity, centralized clearing, and more efficient residential loan execution, all through one platform. Looking to access deeper institutional liquidity? Schedule a conversation with MAXEX today.

MIAC Analytics continues to lead the non-QM pricing solutions with a fully integrated rate sheet, bulk market and securitization execution expertise and proven experience. Originators can compare their pricing against the competitors and know at what levels they can transact at in the bulk market. To price accurately requires complex non-QM prepayment and credit models informed with real price executions in both rate sheet and bulk markets. And bulk market participants can compare bulk market executions against securitization executions with MIAC Analytics BondAgent™ waterfall and structuring software tools. Learn how to lead in the non-QM market with the industry non-QM analytical and pricing solutions leader, MIAC Analytics.

With respect to the bond market, mortgage rates slipped back down in this week’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey from Freddie Mac: For the week ending February 12, the 30- and 15-year mortgage rates declined 2-basis points and 6-basis points, respectively, to 6.09 percent and 5.44 percent, 78-basis points and 65-basis points lower from a year ago. It’s been a whipsaw week in the bond markets: after the market sold off in response to receiving a very robust jobs number on Wednesday, concerns over technology company profits and weakness in commodities yesterday caused a rally that retraced all of it and then some.

The rally sent yields on the 5-year note and longer tenors to fresh lows for the month with the 30-year yield finishing at its lowest level since early December. The strong showing on Thursday was aided by an impressive 30-year bond auction, which made for a great finish to this week's otherwise mixed auction slate after it came on the heels of a poor 10-year auction.

The NAR reported existing home sales in January dropped 8.4 percent to a 3.91 million annualized pace, likely pressured by poor weather from Winter Storm Fern, though the broader trend shows gradual improvement supported by mortgage rates that have declined about 80 basis points over the past year to 6.1 percent and by moderating price growth, with median prices up just 0.9 percent. Still, limited supply, with inventory at 1.22 million homes and well below pre-pandemic norms, continues to underpin modest price appreciation, suggesting that while affordability may improve at the margins and lift sales slightly in coming months, a meaningful rebound in housing activity remains distant.

Today’s lone data point ahead of the long weekend is the previously delayed January Consumer Price Index report. Inflation was expected to have slowed in January, but the government shutdown from last year interrupted collection of some price surveys, which economists say will make CPI look unrealistically low; CPI should move higher in April when the government’s statisticians fill the gaps in the data. Accordingly, headline (+.2 percent, +2.4 percent y-o-y) and core (+.3 percent, +2.5 percent y-o-y) both increased versus registering 0.3 percent month-over-month and 2.4 percent year-over-year previously. We begin Friday with Agency MBS prices better by about .125 from Thursday’s close and improved on the week, the 2-year yielding 3.41, and the 10-year yielding 4.07 after closing yesterday at 4.10 percent. (There will be no Commentary on Monday due to the President’s Day Holiday.)