MARKETING TO BORROWERS

How small mortgage lenders stretch marketing dollars

These days, it’s harder than ever to break through to customers. While a company like Rocket can spend more than $800 million on stadium names and Super Bowl ads, smaller lenders have to be more creative to get noticed. From sports sponsorships and social media to blogs and buyer nights, here are some of the […]

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Fairway rebrands with focus on end-to-end lending

In July, Fairway Independent Mortgage refreshed its branding, including revising its name to Fairway Home Mortgage. The company was started as a mortgage broker by its CEO Steve Jacobson in 1996. It grew by adding regional branches throughout the country.  Fairway has been very successful in retaining staff long-term. David Lazowski, who in 2024 became

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Wholesaler AD Mortgage launches borrower portal

Wholesale lender AD Mortgage has launched a borrower-facing portal in order to improve the experience of their broker’s clients, the company said. AD Home gives consumers “a smoother, faster and more intuitive way to manage their loans,” the company’s announcement said. AD is known as a non-qualified mortgage lender, but it also offers conventional and

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Why AI search could cut off your leads

Not long ago, a storefront sign was the most important marketing channel a retailer had. If you didn’t have one, customers didn’t know you existed. Today, for mortgage companies, that sign has been replaced by something else entirely: search. But with borrowers now turning to ChatGPT and other AI tools instead of Google, even ranking

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Mortgage rates hit 10-month low as Powell hints at Fed cut

Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors. Federal Reserve Board chairman Jerome Powell’s apparent pivot, widely seen as telegraphing a short-term rate cut in September, helped drive mortgage rates. However, the decline on the 30-year fixed rate mortgage was a mere 2 basis points, to 6.56% as of Aug.

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Chase formally reenters HELOC business after five years

Chase Home Lending has resumed offering home equity lines of credit after a five-year absence from the product, the company announced. While parent JPMorgan Chase has participated in HELOC securitizations, it did not originate or service the loans. In April 2020, just as the pandemic entered full swing, Chase paused taking new applications for HELOCs

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Mortgage-Treasury spread at narrowest point in three years

Mortgage spreads reached their narrowest point in three years on Aug. 22, but were still wider than their historic average, Redfin reported. The normal spread, which in this case measures the difference between the 30-year fixed rate mortgage and the 10-year Treasury yield, is in a range between 150 basis points and 200 basis points.

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Mortgage rates remain flat as markets wait for Powell speech

Mortgage rates were unchanged as the markets await what Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will say on Friday. At the same time, a 10-basis point rise in the 10-year Treasury between Aug. 13 and Aug 18 was partially reversed by two days later in anticipation of a speech possibly hinting at September Fed Funds Rate

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Fannie Mae cuts outlook for 2025–26 home sales

Fannie Mae’s August mortgage origination forecast predicts lower volume in 2025 and 2026 compared with July as the government-sponsored enterprise moved its rate expectations higher. It now expects total home sales to decline year-over-year. Fannie Mae is still looking for existing home sales to rise, but not by as much previously expected. The drop off

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Half of largest housing markets record home price downturns

Among the nation’s 50 largest metro areas, half, primarily in the north and east, had annual home price increases in July, while the others are reporting downturns, Zillow found. Nationwide, year-over-year home price appreciation was a meager 0.2%. While this helped to marginally improve affordability, with average monthly mortgage costs down $19 over the past

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