Lending

Four Takeaways from HousingWire: The Gathering 2024

5 mins read
May 14, 2024

HousingWire hosted its biggest annual event, The Gathering, last week in Scottsdale, Arizona, and the timing couldn’t have been better. From the recent NAR settlement to what the Fed will do with rates, the event was a perfect opportunity for top executives and thought leaders from around the housing industry to discuss the topics and trends steering the real estate and mortgage sectors through the coming months.

Total Expert Chief Lending Officer Dan Catinella was on site all week and heard some interesting perspectives from several big names across the industry. Here are his four most important takeaways from the event:

Takeaway #1: Rates aren’t dropping—but plenty of opportunity remains

HousingWire’s Logan Mohtashami and Altos Research’s Mike Simonsen examined key housing data trends in one of my favorite sessions. Mohtashami explained why the Fed will likely not cut rates until we see the labor market weaken further, meaning we’re firmly on the “higher for longer” path on the interest rate front.  

But Simonsen pointed out a silver lining: Inventory data shows rising rates typically increase inventory levels. However, he also stated that home prices are likely to remain stable, giving homebuyers little relief from the combo of high rates and high prices.

So, what should lenders do? Across other sessions, there was a large focus on how to identify and seize all the purchase opportunities available. Moreover, lenders need to prepare for the next wave of refinances. Simonsen noted that the longer rates stay higher, the more future refinance opportunities (or inevitabilities) will be created.

Dan’s take: Engage borrowers now—not when rates drop

Lenders can’t wait until rates finally drop to engage borrowers about refi opportunities. To keep competitors from stealing your refis—and leaving you with both long-term revenue losses and potentially massive immediate early payoff (EPO) penalties—you need to start talking to your borrowers now. Help them understand how to navigate a falling-rate environment (it’s coming…eventually)—like how to figure out when to pull the trigger on refinancing. This is the kind of genuinely useful engagement that consumers want. And, building trust and loyalty today will make your borrowers more likely to resist the flood of low-rate competitor offers.

Takeaway #2: The NAR settlement will shake things up

After a month of headlines and heated discussions about the National Association of Realtors’ settlement, NAR President Kevin Sears took the stage to talk through his view on how the settlement will impact his organization and the broader housing industry. Sears was also clear in his disappointment about how the national media has portrayed the real estate community in the coverage of the settlement.  

In many other sessions at The Gathering, speakers discussed strategies for both realtors and lenders to get ahead of the key impacts of the NAR settlement. Chiefly, all parties need to work together to make sure that consumers can still protect their interests as empowered and informed homebuyers. That starts with education to ensure that all homebuyers—but especially first-time and less-experienced homebuyers—understand the value and benefits of having buyer representation to support the American dream of homeownership.

Dan’s take: Loan officers must become more central to homebuyer education

The changes brought about by the NAR settlement validate what I’ve been preaching for years: Loan officers (LOs) need to position themselves as the starting point of the homebuying journey. The settlement will shake up referral pipelines, so LOs will need to double down on finding new buyers. But they also have a huge opportunity to foster deeper relationships by being that trusted partner who guides homebuyers through the process. That’s not to say LOs are replacing the role played by the buyer’s agent. Rather, LOs can help borrowers understand why they should work with a buyer’s agent, how to choose an agent, how to understand the new landscape of agent fees, etc.

Takeaway #3: Everyone is investing in analytics & AI

AI is the deafening buzz in every industry right now—and housing is no different. Both Rocket Mortgage CEO Varun Krishna and Lower.com CEO Dan Snyder talked about how their companies are using the technology to get new value from data and uncover new intelligence. More specifically, they both discussed how they’re focusing AI investments on understanding their consumers at an extremely deep level so they can ultimately engage at a hyper-personalized level to serve them at every financial milestone.

Much of the discussion I heard from executives aligned with these sentiments. Everyone wants to be the first to the consumer, and they recognize that using data and intelligence is the way to get there. The great thing is this is no longer theoretical: Mortgage lenders that have invested in data and intelligence tools have proven to increase conversions and retention rates. That trend will continue to widen as this technology continues to evolve.

Dan’s take: Intelligence isn’t about knowing more—it’s about knowing what matters

One reason the promise of Big Data never materialized for so many organizations is that they just ended up bombarded by more and more noise but couldn’t find the signal. Analytics and AI are supposed to solve that signal problem. But plenty of companies are still falling into the “more is more” thinking. The point isn’t just to know more about your customers; it’s to know how to act on that information—to know the things that actually matter and deliver more personalized experiences, more relevant offers, more useful education, and deeper relationships. To bring that to life, at some point, knowing more about consumers’ personal habits and interests becomes less and less valuable. But seeing the signal that they’re approaching a life milestone like a wedding, starting a family, or starting a new career gives you powerful insights to make more personal connections.

Takeaway #4: Vendor partnerships are critical

One recurring theme of The Gathering 2024 was that the most successful lenders aren’t innovating in a silo. They’re leaning on their vendor partners to spark innovation and accelerate growth.  

It felt great to see Total Expert highlighted as one of these trusted partners. Managing Director of NFM Lending Greg Sher discussed why his organization chose to implement Total Expert as their CRM and customer engagement platform. But beyond the Total Expert platform, Greg talked about how having vendors that actively take on a partnership role is critical to the overall success of an IMB. Greg called out the importance of having trust not just in the technology but also in the people—why belief in the leadership and people within your vendor’s organization helps build collective momentum on moving you both in the right direction, continue to innovate, and grow at enterprise scale.

Dan’s take: We’re building out our own partner network to add more customer value

With rates and home prices staying high, the housing market is looking at a bumpy ride for a while longer. But lenders shouldn’t be trying to tackle those challenges on their own. The Gathering showed just how many impactful technologies are out there that can quickly and sizably help lenders with their biggest goals and pain points. You should be looking for smart ways to leverage technology to flip challenges into competitive advantages.

That’s why Total Expert is expanding our own partnerships. We recognize that one of the best ways the Total Expert platform delivers value to our customers is by seamlessly integrating with the other tools and systems they rely on every day. So, we’re continuously adding more partnerships and integrations to make the Total Expert ecosystem more valuable to our customers.

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AI

The Loan Officer’s New Co-Worker: Total Expert’s AI

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*This article was reposted from HousingWire.com*

In this exclusive interview, Joe Welu, Founder & CEO of Total Expert, shares the company’s latest advances in AI. He focuses on lessons learned from their pilot program and explores how AI is delivering a measurable lift in operational efficiency and lead conversions across lending teams.

Beyond internal improvements, Joe reveals Total Experts’ focus on the borrower experience and how their technology is designed to supercharge loan officers, not replace them. Joe shares with Allison LaForgia his forward-looking perspective on the innovations expected in the near future that will continue to drive Total Expert’s leadership in mortgage technology.

“We anticipated… it would probably take maybe nine months to a year to be able to get to parity with a human… and we’re blown away. It happened within two weeks,” Welu said. The voice AI agent, designed to qualify leads through inbound and outbound calls, is now handling more than 2 million calls a month, with multiple lenders, in various stages of scaling.

Welu attributes the rapid progress to the unprecedented pace of innovation in AI. “It’s like nothing anyone’s ever seen before… there’s hundreds of billions, if not soon trillions, being invested in infrastructure and large language models… we get the opportunity to build on top of those capabilities and reimagine what we can do in our industry.”

The pilot program, he said, was rooted in an iterative approach with tight feedback loops. “As we learn… it gives us information, and we make adjustments… A key thing we’ve learned with AI projects… get really super clear about what it is in the business that you are improving. Give them that target… so it’s not this ambiguous sort of black box.”

The results have been measurable: “We are seeing, in some cases, 10 to 20% better conversions,” Welu said. AI’s consistency is a major factor. “It always remembers to call people back… never calls in sick… works weekends… It allows you to take your great people and… have them doing the most highly productive work possible.”

Borrower experience is also improving. “One of the pleasant surprises… is the quality of the experience to the end consumer,” he said. Whether or not lenders disclose that a caller is AI, “the quality of the interaction is so high, they continue down the path.” The AI agent maintains “the right tone… the ability to match… the tempo of the conversation” while instantly tapping into contextual customer data.

Welu emphasized that Total Expert’s AI is designed to “supercharge,” not replace, loan officers. “There are still moments where consumers want high quality advice… Our goal is to take a loan officer and put them in a position where they are spending… the majority of their time having the highest quality conversations… and abstracting away things that don’t add value.”

Looking ahead, Total Expert’s roadmap focuses on intentional, scalable AI. “We think about getting super clear on… use cases, and partnering with people that are going to be as obsessive as you are, about making it great,” Welu said. Over the next year, customers can expect new capabilities in customer intelligence, lead management, and additional AI-driven use cases. “Seeing it all come together is what gets me up and excited every day.”

AI

AI Revolution: From “Discovering Fire” to Real Business Outcomes

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By: Joe Welu, Total Expert Founder & CEO

Best Practices for Executive Teams Deploying AI in Financial Services

The AI revolution feels like humanity just discovered fire—and everyone is racing to see what they can ignite.

That means a rush of AI pilots and proofs-of-concept across all industries, many of which launched without evaluating each use case against actual business value.

As I meet with CEOs and executive teams from leading mortgage lenders and financial institutions, the conversation has shifted from “What can AI do?” to “How do we deploy AI responsibly, at speed, and with measurable impact?”

The market leaders I work with are outpacing competitors by following a remarkably consistent playbook. They’re not just testing AI, they’re embedding it across their organizations with purpose, speed, and discipline.

Below, I’ve distilled the best practices I’ve observed from the institutions getting the most from AI today.

Anchor AI strategy to business outcomes

Tie every AI initiative to a clear business priority—whether it’s loan growth, customer retention, or operational efficiency.

Define KPIs, ROI targets, and adoption metrics before a project begins. No project should exist without a measurable path to value.

Start with high-impact, low-friction wins

Focus first on areas where a proof of concept or pilot is feasible within 30-60 days. Conversational and Voice AI solutions provide many options for pilot use cases. Other common use cases involve document classification, predictive churn modeling, or intelligent lead scoring. These early wins build momentum, prove ROI, and prepare teams for more complex deployments.

Invest in data quality and governance early

AI is only as good as the data feeding it.

Start by creating a single source of truth for customer and loan data. Then, anticipate obstacles to deploying AI with your data, such as consumer consent and preference management, and start addressing these things ASAP. Investing in tools like Customer Intelligence will help enrich your data and increase its value.  

Embed compliance and risk management from day one

Regulations such the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act), and UDAP (Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices) will be a few key areas where regulators dig in and look for companies cutting corners.

Create a cross-functional AI task force

Bring together leaders from product, compliance, data science, operations, and customer experience. Avoid siloed pilots—alignment ensures every initiative supports the broader business strategy. Include change management expertise to drive adoption, not just deployment.

Prioritize customer experience and trust

Every organization has gaps in their customer journey and can benefit from leveraging AI to provide human-like touch points throughout the experience. Use AI to remove friction, improve transparency, and deliver personalization at scale. Keep humans informed about high-stakes decisions and be transparent with customers about how AI is used and how their data is protected.

Build for integration, not isolation

Select AI solutions that integrate seamlessly with your CRM, LOS, core banking systems, and data lakes. Use APIs and modular architectures to avoid “AI silos” that slow scale and ROI.

Focus on talent and change management

Embracing AI with a growth mindset should be table stakes. Incentivize adoption so teams see AI as an enabler—not a threat to their roles. Upskill executives and frontline teams in AI literacy. When needed, recruit or partner for deep ML and data science expertise.

Measure, monitor, and iterate

AI is not a one-and-done project—it’s a living product. Track performance, user adoption, and ROI continuously, and refine models quarterly to maintain accuracy and relevance.

Choose the right tech partners: favor vertical specialists

Partner with vendors who understand financial services—especially your unique customer journeys or workflows. Deep domain understanding on core systems, database schemas, compliance, and other nuances will be a key factor in the results you achieve.

Benefits of vertical-focused partners:

  • Deep understand of unique data sets and customer profiles
  • Faster implementation with industry-specific models
  • Built-in regulatory and risk controls
  • Product roadmaps aligned to lending and banking trends

Horizontal AI tools have their place, but without deep domain expertise, they often require heavy internal customization and a slower time to value.

The future is here

AI today is not the same as the project in 2018 that failed to deliver those operational efficiencies in the back office everyone was promised. Its potential to transform nearly every part of our businesses is becoming increasingly clear. Every day you delay, competitors are building up their capabilities and you will struggle to catch up. As one of my investors put it bluntly, “Every day you fail to execute a comprehensive AI strategy, the value of your business goes down.”  

To learn more about how Total Expert is working with our customers on high-impact AI initiatives, please reach out to our team.  

Lending

From Lone Wolves to a Unified Pack: Why Lenders Need a Shared Platform

mins read
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The mortgage industry has always prized the hustle. The most successful loan officers (LOs) are those with the motivation and self-direction to relentlessly chase leads, manage relationships, and close deals—and the ingenuity to develop their own best practices. Those qualities remain essential. But in today’s market, mortgage lenders can’t afford to treat their LOs as lone-wolf salespeople. That conventional model doesn’t just limit growth—it actively undermines it.

Fragmentation is a real problem for lenders, and the lone wolf model isn’t making it any easier. Individual excellence isn’t enough when data is disconnected, messaging is inconsistent, and decisions get made in silos. Meanwhile, LOs can (understandably) over-rotate toward short-term wins, while the bigger opportunities—building long-term relationships and sustainable growth—get lost in the noise.

What lenders need now is alignment, visibility, and unification. They need a way to turn one-time borrowers into lifelong customers. And that starts by getting everyone on the same page—and the same platform.

Why lone-wolf lending fails

When LOs are left to figure things out on their own, the result is predictable: they optimize for what they can control. They chase leads. They close loans. And they do it all with whatever tools and processes they’re most comfortable with.

This approach is serviceable for the individual LO. But when you scale that to dozens or hundreds of LOs—each working in isolation—issues quickly emerge:

  • No shared customer insight. Everyone’s working from their own spreadsheets, contact lists, or partial CRM views.
  • No coordinated engagement. Borrowers get wildly different experiences depending on which LO they’re working with.
  • No long-term strategy. Because LOs are buried in day-to-day deals, there’s no time—or incentive—to nurture relationships that might pay off months or years down the road.

The result? Short-term gains that cause long-term stagnation. Without a coordinated strategy, you end up with isolated efforts that fail to make a lasting impact. And the moment the market shifts, lenders are left scrambling. Those once-shiny wins quickly become embarrassing monuments to short-sighted tactics.

A seamless platform provides limitless visibility

So, what’s the answer? The most important change is giving your team a common foundation to work from—and that comes down to choosing the right technology. Centralizing customer data and engagement on a single platform can change how your business functions at all levels:

It unifies the customer experience. Everyone’s drawing from the same source of truth, so your borrowers get a consistent message and a more personal, relevant journey—no matter which LO they’re working with.

  • It gives LOs insight they can actually use. A centralized view reveals not just who’s ready to do business today, but who’s showing long-term intent signals—credit checks, property listings, life events—and who’s worth nurturing over time.
  • It boosts efficiency and productivity. Automating outreach, follow-up, and lead prioritization frees LOs to focus on what they do best: building trust, closing deals, and deepening relationships.
  • It creates a real growth engine. With shared data and a scalable engagement strategy, you can stop scrambling and start building a system that can grow predictably and sustainably, even when the market gets choppy.

LO adoption: where most tech implementations go wrong

Of course, tech on its own won’t fix anything. If LOs don’t use the platform, you’re back to square one.  

This is a big hurdle in the lending world, where there’s very real inertia to change. Most LOs aren’t eager to change what’s already working for them. If a new tool or platform just feels like it will add extra work, they’ll ignore it—leaving your new solution to collect dust and your investment or time and money largely wasted.

This is why solving the adoption problem needs to be part of your strategy from the start. And while it’s a serious issue, there are three key steps to mitigate it:

  1. Keep it simple. Give your LOs tools and dashboards that surface what matters most—who to call, when to follow up, what’s driving intent—without forcing them to dig or overwhelming them with features and functions they won’t ever use.
  1. Show, don’t tell. Help them connect the dots between using the platform and hitting their numbers. If it helps them close faster, follow up smarter, or get more repeat business, they’ll at least be willing to try. As the saying goes: “You can lead a horse to water…”
  1. Support them like it matters. Training should be hands-on and tailored, not a one-time webinar. This is just as much your vendor’s responsibility as it is yours. Make sure you vet any vendor’s ability to commit to successful implementation.

The extent to which you follow these three steps will go a long way in determining whether you see ROI on your tech investment.  

You can’t scale in infinite directions

Every lending organization has LOs who go above and beyond; LOs who lag behind, and LOs who simply meet expectations. And lone wolves permeate all three groups; following their own roadmap, chasing any opportunity they find, and hindering the organization’s larger growth strategy. That’s why organizations structured this way find it impossible to scale.  

Now, imagine if you could have tech that elevates every LO to the same high-performing level. By aligning your entire sales organization on a single platform that helps them work more efficiently, your good LOs will continue to produce, but now your struggling and middle-of-the-road LOs can level up—allowing leaders and platform administrators to spend less time reigning in lone wolves and more time supporting the pack.  

Wolves hunt better in packs  

LOs will always be at the front line of your lending operation. But treating them like individual agents instead of coordinated players in a unified strategy is holding your business back.

By moving to a shared platform and getting serious about adoption, you set your organization up for something far more valuable than short-term wins. You build a system that gets smarter over time and nurtures every relationship—not just the ones that close quickly. You also strengthen the resilience of your business, setting it up for growth no matter how the market moves or how your organization evolves.

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