Grammar is important. Let’s not forget the comma… the difference between “I want you to eat, my friend” and “I want you to eat my friend.” Let’s not forget training, and I received this note. “Rob, plenty of conferences offer continuing education. Do any organizations offer CE?” Yup. Lenders One members receive it as a free benefit for all their LOs. (Contact Tricia Migliazzo.) Let’s not forget community housing, and more than 100 community-based fair housing organizations facing potential funding losses received a reprieve after a federal judge in Massachusetts blocked a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding overhaul that advocates said threatened to close organizations or sharply reduce services nationwide. The U.S. District Judge granted relief sought by the National Fair Housing Alliance and Massachusetts Fair Housing Center, setting aside HUD’s fiscal year 2025 funding notices and directing the agency to distribute the money under the structure used the previous year. Let’s not forget to have some fun: They’re already talking about the annual mortgage ski trip in early March to Park City, some of the banter is social, and some is focused on business. (Today’s podcast can be found here. This week’s ‘casts are sponsored by Zillow Home Loans, Zillow’s in-house mortgage lender. With tools built for modern lending, Zillow Home Loan’s loan officers can focus on guiding buyers with care and confidence. Today’s has an interview with Two Dots’ Henson Orser on the wave of innovative tech products and vendors flooding the mortgage market.)

Broker and Lender Products, Software, and Services

Automating individual tasks isn't the same as transforming mortgage operations. Real efficiency comes from connecting people, policies, systems, and decisions across the entire loan lifecycle. JazzX AI creates a governed intelligence layer that orchestrates work from application through post-close… without replacing your LOS. See how leading lenders are reducing cost per loan and increasing throughput. Book a demo with our team to see JazzX in action.

Interested in originating renovation loans…until someone actually asks you for one? You’re not alone. Renovation lending can feel overwhelming when you don’t know how to explain the process, or what expectations to set with borrowers, real estate agents, and contractors. The renovatED for Lenders podcast breaks it down with short, practical episodes designed to make renovation lending easier to understand and easier to talk about. Learn how to explain the renovation loan process without overwhelming your borrower, set expectations before they become problems, and approach your next renovation opportunity with greater confidence. And it’s not just for MLOs. With topics spanning origination, operations, compliance, technology, fulfillment, draw administration, and program strategy, there’s something for nearly every member of a renovation lending team. Curious about reno but hesitant to take the leap? Start listening to renovatED for Lenders.

“Five Star starts tomorrow. Is your loan modification process ready? In today’s market, servicers need a faster, more adaptable way to evaluate and deliver borrower solutions. IntelliMods™ provides a web-based platform for automating loan modification decisioning, document generation, and delivery… helping teams increase capacity, reduce manual work, and move files forward more consistently. Users can utilize single loan entry or upload a batch file to decision, review, and generate, and ship documents in one environment. A powerful rules engine combines standardized guidelines and configurable logic for private investors and portfolio programs. IntelliMods also includes workout options for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA, and USDA, along with direct integration with Fannie Mae’s Servicing Management Default Underwriter™ (SMDU™). As the Five Star Conference begins, learn how IntelliMods can help your organization respond to changing conditions, improve the borrower experience, and make accurate, defensible decisions at scale. Reach out to our Five Star team to learn more.

“Six Ways Pennymac TPO Helps You Qualify Non-Traditional Clients. Qualifying non-traditional clients is simple with Pennymac TPO. Our non-QM suite offers six flexible documentation options to fit your client’s unique financial profile including DSCR, Bank Statements, Full Documentation, WVOE, 1099s, and Asset Based programs such as Asset Depletion and Asset Qualifier. Pennymac Partners also have direct access to their own Non-QM Account Executive and the Non-QM Underwriting Help Desk to help them with all their non-QM needs. Contact your Pennymac TPO Account Executive or become a partner today to get started! (Equal Housing Lender, NMLS #35953)”

When a loan changes hands, tracking where servicing rights and beneficial ownership sit can get complicated fast. Assignments pile up, recording costs climb, and the chain of title gets messy. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS®) was built to solve that by immobilizing the mortgage lien as the recorded mortgagee. Whether you've been familiar with the MERS System and the MERS eRegistry for eNotes or are just getting started, there's always more to know about what MERS can do for your organization. Read more.

In case you missed it: The free recording of the recent webinar, Originating in the Age of the Next-Gen Homebuyer, is now available on demand. Featuring Patrick O’Brien, CEO of LenderLogix, and Kristin Messerli, Executive Director & Co-Founder of FirstHomeIQ, the conversation explores how Gen Z and Millennial buyers are researching earlier, navigating misinformation around credit pulls and down payments, and looking for a mortgage experience that feels clear, modern, and trustworthy. Watch the on-demand webinar to learn how lenders can reduce borrower overwhelm, build trust earlier, and use technology without losing the human guidance buyers still need. Watch the free recording here!

Chrisman Demo Day is a free perk for all Chrisman Marketplace members. If you're a technology or service provider and haven't joined the Marketplace yet, reach out to Jake Perkins at info@chrismancommentary.com to learn more.

The Chrisman Marketplace is a centralized hub for vendors and service providers across the 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 on Borrower Recommendations

“Turning borrower satisfaction into real referrals” is something every lender strives for. Are your happy borrowers actually referring business… or simply saying they would? In his latest CX Tip, STRATMOR Group Director of Customer Experience Mike Seminari explores the important gap between a borrower’s “likelihood to recommend” and actual referral behavior. Mike shares how one lender saw its referral rate nearly double from 11.5 percent in 2022 to 22.6 percent year-to-date in 2026, even while NPS leveled off.

So, what changed? Mike challenges lenders to look beyond satisfaction scores and identify the behaviors that activate advocacy, from asking for referrals to staying connected after closing and creating memorable borrower experiences. The takeaway: Don’t just measure who would recommend you. Find out what makes borrowers actually do it and replicate those behaviors.

Read Mike’s latest CX Tip: “Turning Borrower Referral “Likelihood” into Real Referrals.”

Forget Institutional Investors…LDS Real Estate Has Plans

Housing statistics are all over the place, but in general, housing is slow. “Single-family housing starts keep falling, and July’s 808,000 annualized are at their second-lowest level since 4/2020! July new-home sales of 607,000 annualized are down 6.3 percent Y-o-Y and haven’t been consistently this low since 2017. Moreover, median prices are at a five-year low. As a percentage of GDP, residential fixed investment (home construction, renovation, repairs, etc. continues falling and is at a level associated with recessions,” per Dr. Elliot Eisenberg. “June housing starts blew the proverbial roof off. Headline starts surged 19 percent M-o-M to 1.427 million annualized units. Regrettably, single-family starts slid 0.2 percent, continuing their slow, steady 2.5-year deterioration, while the lumpy, noisy, and volatile multifamily sector saw starts soar 76.2 percent M-o-M to a three year high of 532k annualized units. This will add to the rental supply overhang, which will reinforce the downtrend in the shelter components in CPI.”

But there is still activity. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is expanding its role in U.S. real estate, putting longtime land holdings to work in housing, commercial development, and large master-planned communities. The church owns at least 2.4 million acres across the country with an assessed value of more than $20 billion.

Bloomberg sent out, “The Mormon Church is quietly expanding its real estate empire.” “Just 20 minutes from Denver International Airport in Colorado, plans are under way for an ambitious project on a stretch of empty land larger than Manhattan’s Central Park. A new community, dubbed ‘Tributary,’ is set to feature homes for more than 12,000 people, shops, parks, a school, and a fire station. A parkway connected to the area will offer direct access to the airport, providing a pivotal connection for Denver’s adjacent suburbs. Tributary’s developer, Property Reserve, is relatively unknown to many of the locals. But the name behind it is much more recognizable: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has owned the land for decades.

“The Colorado project is just a small slice of a sprawling real estate empire (including apartment complexes) that the LDS church, widely known as the Mormon Church, has assembled over the past century. Through a web of subsidiaries, it has accumulated billions of dollars of properties from farms and ranches to apartments and hotels, becoming one of America’s largest, and least transparent, landowners.”

Capital Markets

The Federal Reserve doesn’t set mortgage rates, but we still want to know what the group is thinking. Fed Chair Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech was overtly hawkish, emphasizing inflation and rate hikes as the remedy. Warsh explicitly said this summer’s encouraging inflation readings don’t indicate ‘meaningful’ improvement on inflation. A rate hike at the September policy meeting is now being priced in as slightly better than a coin toss, but you should recall that Warsh loves to screech like a hawk and vote like a dove, so his remarks should be viewed as more philosophical than forward guidance. The base case is still for the Fed to remain on hold this year amid continued disinflation, with Warsh hoping his comments get long bond yields to fall a little. The Treasury market is increasingly reflecting a combination of weaker demand and rising term-premium pressures, with mid-curve yields near multi-year highs and long-term rates pushing toward the upper end of their recent ranges. At the same time, deteriorating consumer fundamentals (real disposable income lagging spending for 25 straight months and income growth slowing to just 0.5 percent year-over-year) suggest that elevated borrowing and energy costs could increasingly constrain consumption.

The 30-year Treasury yield’s 37-day stretch above 5 percent, alongside rising 100- and 200-day moving averages, points to a shift toward a higher-rate regime that would be materially bearish for long-duration bonds. Softening home prices, rising rates, and increasing fraud are creating a growing risk-management challenge for lenders and the GSEs. Repurchase claims are creeping higher, with missing or ineffective private mortgage insurance reportedly accounting for the majority of claims, while occupancy and income fraud add further exposure; falling home values could push more loans into PMI-required territory and increase losses when loans default. Fraud is becoming more prevalent in DSCR and investor-property lending, including fabricated leases, inflated appraisals, altered financial documents, and borrowers misrepresenting investment properties as rentals while actually occupying them. Lenders should pay less attention to politically appealing “wins” and more attention to repurchase, underwriting, collateral, and fraud risks that could materially affect mortgage profitability. This week’s focus will be on the August U.S. employment report, where nonfarm payroll growth is expected to rebound to 80k. While job growth remains subdued, labor market conditions continue to look broadly balanced, with low layoffs and steady wage growth consistent with a gradual cooling, rather than a sharp deterioration.

With nothing of note on today’s economic calendar, things pick back up tomorrow with Manufacturing figures and July Construction Spending. Outside of payrolls, highlights from the rest of the week include August ADP Employment and the September Fed Beige Book. After the U.S. and Iran traded strikes for the first time in about a month, we begin the week with Agency MBS prices little changed from Friday’s close, the 2-year yielding 4.32, and the 10-year is unchanged and yielding 4.72 (down 2-basis points over the course of last week).